Letter to the Editor (12/05/06)
The City of Kennett lost a good man and faithful citizen with the passing of Dr. Milton Tate. Since he first arrived in this community over 60 years ago, Dr. Tate has been devoted to the betterment of our community. He served on our City Council and was a long-time member and later chairman of our Board of Public Works. In these positions, he served the people for almost two decades...

World class schools, part one (11/30/06)
Last week I discussed the assumption by the United States Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, that "We are losing some students in our high schools, which do not yet see preparing all pupils for postsecondary education and training as their responsibility." As you could tell, I did not agree with her. ...

"Pretend" shooting (11/09/06)
The Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney's decision last month not to file charges against a 17-year-old Central High School student after the student allegedly wrote a note regarding a "pretend" shooting at the school was based on the burden of proof. Missouri law requires, in such cases, proof that the student actually intended to carry out the plan. Prosecutor Morley Swingle doesn't believe the facts support such a proof...

Annual performance report; part two (11/09/06)
Last week I discussed the MAP portion of the Annual Performance Report (APR). This week I would like to look at the other areas that were evaluated. They include: ACT, Advanced Courses, Career Education Courses, College Placement, Career Education Placement, Graduation Rate, Attendance Rate, and Subgroup Achievement. We did not meet the standard in Graduation Rate, Attendance Rate, and Subgroup Achievement...

2006 bottom line: A "wave" broken by storm walls (11/09/06)
This looks to be a classic six-year-itch election -- bad for the party holding the White House -- tempered by some Republican structural advantages. Since 1946, the average net loss for the president's party in his sixth year in office is 31.5 House seats and six Senate seats -- double the 15 seats Democrats need to take the House and just what they'd need for control of the Senate...

Salvaging democracy, one vote at a time (11/08/06)
So vast and comprehensive are the failures of the Bush White House, it's admittedly hard to look away. Watching the president campaign in Indiana recently evoked the kind of dread fascination that makes people stare at highway accidents. Has Bushism degenerated into a cult? It's definitely starting to look like one...

Time for serious answers (11/08/06)
For a couple of days leading up to the most exciting midterm electoral season I have ever seen, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., gave his 2004 opponent President George W. Bush and his Republican allies a wonderful pre-election gift. Kerry, while speaking to students at Pasadena City College, made a major gaffe by insulting the intelligence and work ethic of military personnel. Soon, Kerry found himself in a major firestorm and conceded that he had no choice but to apologize. Good for him...

No child left behind (11/07/06)
With nearly five years of the federal No Child Left Behind Act under their belts, educators and politicians are beginning to think about reauthorizing the legislation that aims to make schools accountable and measure performance. The practical effect of NCLB, say many educators, is that any small problem areas tend to be magnified, reflecting on entire schools or entire school districts. ...

Scott Pelley: Journalist of the year (11/07/06)
Too many of my fellow reporters are running so fast on the treadmill of the 24-hour news cycle that they spend vast time and space on the Foleys and Madonnas, but they do not follow up on the increasing daily horrors inflicted on black Africans in Darfur. ...

Just plain stuck (11/07/06)
John Kerry's "joke" about losers getting stuck in Iraq added zilch, obviously, to any debate. But it triggered political adrenaline pundits say could boost GOP (Kerry-disgusted) turnout. This, in turn, could boost Democratic (Hate-Bush) turnout. Which makes the electorate sound like opposing flocks of geese, irritably voluble and confused...

A time to reflect (11/03/06)
House Speaker Tip O'Neill once observed that "all politics is local politics." Since then, a good many newspaper editors have paraphrased O'Neill's remark: "All news is local." That is never more true than when the news involves one of our own. How many of us have changed the way we regard someone else's problems, woes, misfortunes, sorrows when those same circumstances become a part of our own lives? There was a sense of personal loss last week when word arrived in the Southeast Missourian newsroom that another soldier from Southeast Missouri had died in Iraq. ...

Annual performance report (11/03/06)
The Annual Performance Report (APR) is the evaluative instrument used by the state to determine the accreditation status of school districts. The number of categories evaluated depends somewhat on the size of the school district. The Kennett School District is evaluated in 15 categories. ...

Cardinals provide first-class performance (11/03/06)
When team owners fail, the media lets everyone know about it. When they succeed, they often go unnoticed or, at least, underappreciated. The owners of the St. Louis Cardinals seem to fall into the latter group. Let's start with the obvious: In the seven seasons since 2000, the Cards have won their division outright five times, tied for the division title once and finished just three games out once. They played in postseason competition six out of seven years...

Vietnam-like defeat in Iraq will have far worse consequences (11/02/06)
The political cartoon on my office wall shows Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as a frazzled father trying to drive the car while kids in the front and back seats yell, "Is it Vietnam yet?" Daryl Cagle's cartoon was delightful back in March 2003, lampooning critics of the war in Afghanistan. Now it's a mordant commentary on Iraq...

The morning-after memo to Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi (11/02/06)
(President George W. Bush isn't the only optimist out here. I believe the Democrats are going to win on Tuesday, Nov. 7, and having known you for many years, I know you're not focused on the carpet or drapes.) RE: Agenda for the New Democratic House...

Rust on Talent (11/01/06)
About 46 years ago, with no previous immediate family or personal involvement in politics, I began to study our government and the elective and judicial processes. As a local Jaycee president and eventually vice president of the Missouri Jaycees, through Jaycee programs I became aware of Americanism and the threat by outside ideologies to our freedoms...

Professional woman (10/31/06)
Having spent a good bit of ink and space critiquing the president's war policy, I decided to do what many voters do at this point in the election cycle: pay close attention to what politicians say. Take House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, for instance. On "60 Minutes" recently, Pelosi offered her take on the so-called war on terror -- which does not, she explained, extend to Iraq...

Santorum speaks for America (10/31/06)
About 20 days before Election Day, the Associated Press wire ran an excerpt from Republican Sen. Rick Santorum's 2005 book, "It Takes a Family" (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2005). In it, Santorum had dared to write the following: "Children of two parents who are working don't need more things. ...

Will real conservatives please stand up? (10/25/06)
Almost from the first, President Bush has acted as if there would never be another election. That's the main thing adepts of the cult of personality surrounding this arrogant, befuddled little man love about him. "As his supporters saw him," Sidney Blumenthal writes in his bracing new book "How Bush Rules" (Princeton University Press), "his simplistic rhetoric was straight talk, his dogmatism fortitude, his swagger reassuring, his stubbornness made him seem a bulwark against danger, and his rough edges proof that he was a man of the people.". ...