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The Little Red State That Could

10/05/2014 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

What Other States Can Learn From Kentucky

Despite its deep red perception, common sense policies implemented in Kentucky are succeeding and helping improve the lives of people throughout the state.

COMMON CORE:

Today, the Kentucky Department of Education released data showing improvements in student performance and college/career readiness, after three years of implementing the Common Core standards. Despite the Tea Party-driven controversy over the standards, early adopters like Kentucky are showing their potential, and educators are saying the standards are going well.

College/career readiness has jumped to 62.3 percent, from 47.2 after 2012, the first year of implementation. Before the new standards were implemented, that number sat at just 34 percent.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT:

Kentucky has also found success with its implementation of the Affordable Care Act. As with Common Core, it was an early adopter of the program.

The total uninsured figure is down almost 50%, after 527,000 Kentuckians enrolled in new insurance.
The use of preventative services has increased.
Veterans, young people, and those with preexisting conditions are now getting coverage more easily thanks to the ACA.
The number of reimbursements received by health care providers, especially hospitals, increased by $200 million in fiscal year 2014.
In 2016, Medicaid expansion will support 14,7000 new jobs and a $1.7 billion increase of economic activity.

BOTTOM LINE: Kentucky shows that no matter if your state is red, blue, or purple, common sense policies like Common Core and the Affordable Care Act work when they are not obstructed by conservatives determined to make anything a failure for political purposes.

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Through the Google lens: search trends September 26 – October 2

10/05/2014 Nativegrl77

Posted: 03 Oct 2014 02:46 PM PDT

Diseases, protests and DUIs? Search wasn’t a pretty place this week.

Somebody call a doctor
This week, searchers went into a frenzy following news that someone had been diagnosed with Ebola on U.S soil—causing a surge in interest for the deadly disease. While this hopefully will remain an isolated case in the U.S., the virus is taking its toll on the people in West Africa. The region is experiencing its worst outbreak in history, with more than 3,000 people dying from the illness.

An indefinite break
It was a bad day at the office for several prominent figures this week as they were asked to step down from their positions. After a couple of bizarre security breaches like allowing the President to share an elevator with an armed man or when a person literally jumped the White House fence and walked inside the building (knife in tow), Secret Service director Julia Pierson handed in her resignation.

American Olympian and swimming icon Michael Phelps was arrested on charges of a DUI after he was pulled over for going 84 mph in a 45 mph zone. Amidst a firestorm of bad behavior from athletes, some are calling for USA Swimming to suspend Phelps, who had a previous DUI in 2004, for at least a year. Across the Pacific, students in Hong Kong staged massive demonstrations against the country’s Chief Executive, C.Y. Leung, seeking to oust him from office. The government has proposed talks with the students in order to calm the chaos, but so far Leung has refused to quit.

Crossovers
Searchers were saying “what the?” this week as we were hit with a couple of crossovers on TV and in music. First up, two classic American cartoons came together for one night to give viewers double the laughter. The famed Simpsons appeared in an episode of Family Guy. Unfortunately, the laugh track was off this time around and the show received negative reviews, perhaps thanks to an awkward seven-minute fight scene between Peter and Homer (d’oh!). And we heard a new take on a popular tune as “The Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin made a breathtaking cover of pop-soul star Adele’s song “Rolling in the Deep.” Listen to it and prepare to have your mind blown.

Who’s got game?
The MLB playoffs are in full, um, swing. The Kansas City Royals and their fans had something to cheer about as team made the playoffs for the first time in 29 years, ending the longest postseason drought in North American sports history—and then eliminating Oakland in an extra-inning thriller. And, after an 8-0 stomping of the Pittsburgh Pirates behind ace Madison Bumgarner, the San Francisco Giants are hoping to keep their every-other-year World Series streak alive.

Tip of the week
It’s beginning to look a lot like winter. Before you head out, make sure to check the weather by saying, “Ok Google, what’s the weather like outside?” and you’ll be ready to go—mittens or umbrella in hand.

Posted by Jenise Araujo, Communications Associate, who searched for [hypochondriac] and [one day you’re in, the next day you’re out].

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Amazon news …

10/05/2014 Nativegrl77 1 Comment

By Greg Bensinger

Amazon.com (AMZN) today begins collecting sales tax from purchasers in Minnesota and Maryland, marking the 22nd and 23rd states where the online retailer assesses the levy.

With the new states, about 69% of Americans—nearly 219 million people—will be subject to tax on their Amazon purchases.

That’s a big switch from a few years ago, when Amazon fought to protect customers from sales tax, viewing it as a competitive advantage over brick-and-mortar rivals.

Now, Amazon perceives itself as disadvantaged versus online rivals such as eBay (EBAY) and Overstock. That’s because a 1992 Supreme Court ruling allows states to apply sales tax to any retailer with operations in the state, which some states have interpreted to include partners.

With its vast and expanding network of warehouses, Amazon has a physical presence in more states than its competitors, meaning more of its customers have to pay sales tax. Amazon supports federal bill that would give states more leeway to charge sales tax, evening the playing field.

Generally, sales taxes in the states seen in the map above apply just to Amazon, except in those cases where another online retailer has a physical presence there.

The next state where Amazon is scheduled to collect sales tax is South Carolina in 2016, part of a deal the Seattle company reached to build warehouses in the Palmetto State.

Still, other states are likely to fall under sales-tax requirements for online purchases through Amazon. The company has been building warehouses near urban centers at a frenetic pace, as it seeks to speed shipping times.

At the moment, Amazon is seeking to build a data center for its growing Web services division in Ohio. That could one day trigger sales tax for another 11.6 million Americans.

Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com

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Honey Bees … in Seattle are dying

10/05/2014 Nativegrl77

City of Seattle: We Call on the City of Seattle to Ban Neonicotinoid Pesticide Usage

Central Co-op and Seattle Sierra Club

Sign the Petition

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Leaked! “scientific” whaling? Phil Kline Update

10/04/2014 Nativegrl77

Please Click on photo for the Update

a repost from July 15, 2014

BREAKING NEWS: Leaked proposal shows US plan to legitimize “scientific” whaling.

Tell President Obama to drop this whale-killing proposal.

I’m shocked. Greenpeace just received a leaked proposal that the US plans on submitting to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) next week, and the news is terrible. In July

Here’s what it says: “lethal sampling (also known as whaling)…is appropriate in relation to achieving the stated objectives.” Translation: You can kill as many whales as you want if you promise to run experiments on their dead bodies.

It’s killing whales disguised as science. And it’s something that the US government has long rejected. Until now.

Take action and tell the US government to drop this proposal to kill whales.

As unbelievable as it sounds, we’ve actually been here before. Four years ago, there was a proposal discussed that would have legalized commercial whaling for the first time in over 20 years!

Thanks to millions of people like you from around the country, we were able to stop those plans. We can do it again.

Just this March, the UN International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s whaling program does not have any scientific purposes — and the number of whales being killed was not justifiable. Japan even decided to end its Southern Ocean whale hunt due to the ruling.

We (and the whales) were celebrating then. Now we have to speak up. We only have until Thursday to convince the US government to change its proposal.

Tell the US government to drop this insane proposal to kill whales in the name of science by sending a message to President Obama, Secretary of Commerce Pritzker and the US IWC delegates today.

Despite the IWC moratorium on whaling, Japan has been killing minke whales and critically endangered fin whales for years, selling their meat and claiming to be conducting scientific research. Greenpeace has been working with governments from around the world to put an end to this practice. And we’ve made a lot of progress over the last few years. This plan threatens all of that.

Back in 1975, Greenpeace launched the world’s first-ever Save the Whales campaign. The images we brought back from our first voyage sparked an international outcry and moved a generation of environmentalists into action. After a decade of intense activism, the IWC agreed to ban commercial whaling.

It was one of our pivotal moments as an organization — it was also one of the greatest moments for activists like you.

We could lose it all by Thursday if we don’t take action and change the US government’s mind.

For the whales,

Phil Kline
Greenpeace USA Senior Oceans Campaigner

P.S. Greenpeace has received a leaked US proposal to legitimize “scientific” whaling. Take action to tell President Obama and the US government to drop this horrifying plan.