What’s interesting in the news today?
1. First up today, two constitutional scholars, two very different interpretations.
First, Obama’s alleged abuse of executive orders will go before the Supreme Court today. You’d think he’d know better being the scholarly type, but no. Maybe this is why we can’t see his grades. 😯
From TheHill “Nothing less than the boundaries of executive power are at stake Monday as the Supreme Court considers whether President Obama violated the Constitution during his first term.
Oral arguments slated for Monday will center on a trio of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that were deemed unconstitutional by lower courts.
If they uphold the decision, experts say the justices could endanger hundreds of NLRB decisions.
Even more significant are the ramifications for future presidents, with the court poised either to bolster or blunt the chief executive’s appointment powers.”
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2. Here’s what Ted Cruz has to say about it. And he actually knows what he’s talking about, unlike the president, who only plays a scholar on TV.
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3. Not many people would be surprised to hear that some colleges provide things to student athletes that other students don’t receive. This piece gives you a look at just how much help these kids receive, as well as exposing allegations of cheating, and players with 4th grade reading levels. (and in some cases under) And in yet another example of fans behaving badly, the professor exposing it is already received death threats. 🙄
From TheHuffPost “An NCAA investigation into the football program in 2010 expanded into a probe of how the nation’s first public university provides academic help to athletes. It led to a discovery of fraud in a department with classes featuring significant athlete enrollments.”
“In a CNN story this week, Mary Willingham said her research of 183 football or basketball players at UNC from 2004-12 found 60 percent reading at fourth- to eighth-grade levels and roughly 10 percent below a third-grade level. She said she worked with one men’s basketball player early in her 10-year tenure who couldn’t read or write.”
“The topic of balancing academics and athletics isn’t unique to UNC, such as the AP reporting in 2011 that 39 schools had at least 50 percent of football players clustering in one, two or three majors. But the scope of problems here has often left officials sifting through what happened as much as looking ahead.
The NCAA academic violations involved a tutor providing improper help on research papers. UNC later reported fraud in the since-renamed African and Afro-American Studies department, including lecture classes that didn’t meet, possibly forged signatures on grade rolls, unauthorized grade changes and poor oversight.”
I bet a visit from the DoJ is in UNC’s future too.
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4. Like with most things from this administration, the more details you know, the less you like it.
From TheDailyCaller “Education experts decried a new memo from the Departments of Justice and Education that instructs public schools throughout the country to cease punishing disruptive students if they fall into certain racial categories, such as black or Hispanic.
The letter, released on Wednesday, states that it is a violation of federal law for schools to punish certain races more than others, even if those punishments stem from completely neutral rules. For example, equal numbers of black students and white students should be punished for tardiness, even if black students are more often tardy than white students.”
““Schools also violate Federal law when they evenhandedly implement facially neutral policies and practices that, although not adopted with the intent to discriminate, nonetheless have an unjustified effect of discriminating against students on the basis of race.”
“Pullmann also worried about the effect on classrooms. She said she has spoken to teachers who experienced a breakdown in the classroom learning environment when policies like this were implemented.”
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5. Judge Jeanine Pirro is blasting Obama for failing to act on Benghazi and the IRS scandal while immediately turning the FBI loose on Christie.
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Wandering Views 