Thursday, March 09, 2006

News for the day...

Posting will be light over the weekend with conference play beginning within the hour. Kentucky tips off around 3:15 this afternoon against Ole Miss.

Morehead State has an article on the rally yesterday. And the article from the C-J.
State Treasurer Jonathan Miller spoke at the rally and said that Kentucky risks falling behind not only Tennessee and North Carolina, but also India and China.

"We politicians have been failing you," he said.

In a related development, University of Kentucky trustee Steve Reed told the Frankfort Rotary Club yesterday that state universities, including UK, are too quick to raise tuition in the absence of funding increases.

UK risks being an "elitist institution for rich people" by becoming unaffordable to the poorest students, he said.

But Reed, who was absent from this week's vote to raise UK's tuition by 12 percent next year, also said state lawmakers have failed to sustain their financial commitment to higher education.

"The legislature has to show the will to push education in the state of Kentucky," Reed told reporters. "It has to demonstrate the will to make it happen -- not talk about it, not do it in bits in pieces."

Reed, who won't seek reappointment to the UK board when his term expires in June, also said university presidents need to speak up about getting more money so they can compete with institutions such as the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State.

And he said the public and lawmakers have a right to demand more accountability, particularly in improving graduation rates.
HRC does not have much NY support should she decide to run for president in 2008.

Former Senator John Edwards sent out an email today with the subject "A National Disgrace." What he refers to in the email is some video made by a few Kentuckians who call it "Lazy Tuesday." Click here

Ed Rendell, a great governor if you ask me, is getting some bad rep.
"I've never pretended to be a political boss," Rendell said. "I don't think being elected mayor or governor gives you the right to demand people get out."

Rendell said he urged Hoeffel to rethink the campaign after western Pennsylvania Democrats voiced concerns about geographic balance. Rendell and Hoeffel are from the southeastern part of the state. On the Republican side, Lynn Swann is from Pittsburgh and his running mate, Jim Matthews, is from the Philadelphia suburbs.[...]

Rendell angrily denied suggestions that his word can't be trusted and that he gives different answers to different people.

"It's all BS. You know it's BS. It's politics," Rendell said, shortly before grabbing a reporter's tape recorder and refusing to return it before ultimately doing so.

Several hours later, as he was riding an Amtrak train from Washington to Philadelphia, Rendell called and apologized for his remarks.

"It's just so frustrating," he said of the political system.

"I've always tried to do real things and advance the ball; the implication is I lie," he said.

Rendell said he has always been a straight shooter, but frequently "people hear what they want to hear."

Rendell's biggest problem might be that he doesn't like pushing candidates out of an election.

"We're all friends, and he likes to support his friends," said Hafer, who said she thinks Rendell gets "a bad rap."

"He's a friend of a lot of people, and I don't think he sees himself in the place of backing people out until he has to," she said.
I wonder if he can prevent HRC from running in 2008?

If it's Second City, anything goes.

The status of the New Hampshire primary is on the line.

Nice call, Evan.
"Not one penny from the United States of America or international organizations" should go to a Hamas-led government, said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) on Monday evening.
I will say this about UK. It is a shame that only five students made the 20 minute trip to Frankfort. They should have had more people there. Hey, my picture is on that page!
"Overall it's gone very well," said SG President Becky Ellingsworth. "I think we stayed positive and I think that's the key."

The rally came one day after the Board of Trustees approved a 12 percent tuition increase for next year, the fourth consecutive year with a double-digit increase.

SG Senator Brent Burchett said he was disappointed with the turnout as well especially in lieu of the tuition jump.

"I thought the timing would get everybody going," Burchett said. "I think everyone was busy with midterms, I think that played a big part in it.

"Still, there's no excuse when we've got a 12 percent tuition increase."

SG reserved busses to transport students to the capital but didn't use them since no one showed interest. The UK mascot arrived about an hour into the event, to which one student said, "Nice of them to show up."

Burchett, Hopkins and Ellingsworth all said they were surprised and upset that no candidates running for SG president or vice-president for next year came to the rally.

The other student there was UK's student representative to the Council on Post-Secondary Education, Ryan Quarles.

Hopkins said he thought students might be getting frustrated with fighting tuition increases because rallies and other efforts in the past haven't stopped tuition from climbing. He said rallies might not be effective.

"It's all about making the legislators care," Hopkins said. "For us to come and yell in their office building and distract them. I don't think that makes them care that much."

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