AUSTIN – The Senate’s chief budget writer says he’s relying heavily on federal stimulus money.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden says, though, that he’s not worried that Gov. Rick Perry will reject any more economic recovery aid from Washington.
Earlier this month, the governor said he’d reject about a half-billion for expanding unemployment benefits money because too many strings were attached. But Ogden, R-Bryan, unveiled plans Monday to spend about $14.2 billion, saying he has “no concern” Perry would reject any more of the funds.
Ogden made his comments as the Senate Finance Committee put finishing touches on a two-year budget he said would spend $177 billion, counting federal funds. He said that’s $5.4 billion more than proposed in the Senate’s “base budget,” filed in January.
The Finance Committee, pausing so the massive bill can be printed this week, is expected to approve it Monday, and the full Senate will probably take it up by the end of next week, Ogden said.
In last-minute skirmishes Monday over social issues, the committee adopted a ban on any use of state funds to support embryonic stem cell research. Ogden, who proposed the provision, said it’s necessary to avoid destruction of human embryos with state money.
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LAKELAND, Fla. – An eighth-grader was suspended from riding the school bus for three days after being accused of passing gas. The bus driver wrote on a misbehavior form that a 15-year-old teen passing gas on the bus Monday to make the other children laugh, creating a stench so bad that it was difficult to breathe. The bus driver handed the teen the suspension form the next day.
Polk County school officials said there’s no rule against flatulence, but there are rules against causing a disturbance on the bus.
The teen said he wasn’t the one passing gas.
Whether he did it or not, he might have gotten off easy. A 13-year-old student at a Stuart school was arrested in November after authorities said he broke wind in class.
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NEW CANAAN, Connecticut (Reuters) – Cocaine and martinis On Wall Street? Nothing new there. Masters of the Universe admitting they have an alcohol problem? Not so common.
Experts say more and more people in finance are seeking treatment for addiction as the global economic crisis sinks its teeth into a high-stakes industry where confidence is the name of the game and nobody wants to admit to a weakness.
“We absolutely do see more people coming in naming either a job loss or huge financial reversals or big investments with Bernie Madoff,” said Sigurd Ackerman, medical director at Silver Hill Hospital rehabilitation facility in New Canaan, Connecticut.
“They’re being admitted with depression or increases in substance abuse, or both.”
Ackerman said there was a high concentration of financial professionals in the town, 40 miles from New York, whose main streets are lined with high-end boutiques catering to the well-heeled wives of hedge fund managers and bankers.
“You’re supposed to be a master of the universe, you’re supposed to be on top of everything,” said one financial services executive who began alcohol rehab in August.
“There’s not a lot of sensitivity training or meetings where you sit around and ask how everyone is feeling,” said the Connecticut executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “No one walks around saying ‘I feel your pain.’”
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Posted on March 24th, 2009 in Featured
DENVER – A parrot that alerted his owner about a baby who was choking was recognized as a hero by the Red Cross. Willie the parrot was given the Animal Lifesaver Award during the “Breakfast of Champions” event attended by Gov. Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper.
Willie received the award Friday for his actions in November, when he and owner Megan Howard were baby-sitting a toddler. Willie repeatedly yelled “Mama, baby” when Howard went to the bathroom and the toddler started to choke on her breakfast.
Howard saved the baby by performing the Heimlich maneuver but she said Willie “is the real hero.”
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Posted on March 24th, 2009 in Tips and Trick
Editor’s Note: MediaShack has gotten a surge in new readers over the past week (thanks go out to Hamas and the IDF). So let me take this time to reintroduce Mr Egypt: He is an Egyptian scholar who brings an Egyptian perspective to the English language blogosphere.
On Sunday, I posted that I think that Hamas would come out stronger from the Israeli attack on Gaza. On January 7th, Muhammed Hassanein Heikal, in a long_interview on Al Jazeera, apparently agrees on that. For American readers Heikal (read an English bio here) is by far the most important, famous and respected journalist in the Arab world. He was the Editor- in- Chief of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram from 1957- 1974 which during his tenure was often refered to as the New York Times of the Arab world. As a sign of his popularity, Heikal has his own show on Al-Jazeera ( With_Heikal) where he gives lectures on recent Arab history, discussing the information he acquired during his working days, the things that brought him a new and unprecedented following in the Arab world.
For some context: Heikal was very close to Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was and still is a Nasserist and a believer in pan-Arabism as well as a strong critic of the change in direction towards the US that happened with Anwar Al-Sadat (see Autumn_of_Fury for more on that point). Many people in Egypt still believe in the pan-Arabism of Nasser so Heikal is expressing a point of view in this interview that has widespread support.
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4Marilyns is another entrant in the long line of tributes/exploitations to and of a certain screen goddess - it’s also a 2 column fixed-width, free WordPress theme, with righthand sidebar, enabled for widgets…
The theme is compatible with WordPress v2.2 upwards and has been tested on Firefox 2,3, Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and Opera 9.
User comments are separated from pingbacks/trackbacks, enabled for gravatars - and will work whether you’re using WP2.6, 2.5 or lower - you won’t need the WordPress gravatar plugin.
4Marilyns is another entrant in the long line of tributes/exploitations to and of a certain screen goddess - it’s also a 2 column fixed-width, free WordPress theme, with righthand sidebar, enabled for widgets…
The theme is compatible with WordPress v2.2 upwards and has been tested on Firefox 2,3, Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and Opera 9.
User comments are separated from pingbacks/trackbacks, enabled for gravatars - and will work whether you’re using WP2.6, 2.5 or lower - you won’t need the WordPress gravatar plugin.
Published by admin //
