"Teaching to the Test" column featured on Huffington Post

My second column about the problems with today's education, in this case, the forsaking of learning in favor of teaching to poorly written standardized tests, can be found at this link.

Daily Caller: Documents connect Obama to McCaskill's plane

Matt Lewis at the Daily Caller broke the news about the connection between President Barack Obama and the private plane owned by Claire McCaskill and her husband:

According to disbursement reports, on June 16, 2008, Obama For America paid $3,938 to Sunset Cove Associates, LLC in West Lockwood, St. Louis, MO.

Sunset Cove Associates was incorporated by McCaskill’s husband in 2002, and is the same company McCaskill’s campaign paid for her chartered air travel. It is also the parent company of the Delaware-based Timesaver LLC. Sunset Cove has received taxpayer dollars, while Timesaver LLC is the actual owner of McCaskill’s plane (which is registered in Delaware).

Federal election rules allow presidential candidates to reimburse corporate plane owners for the price of first-class commercial tickets. Though it is not provable, it is likely this was a reimbursement for a trip Obama’s campaign may have taken on McCaskill’s plane.

GOP trumpeting possible Obama connection to McCaskill plane scandal

The Missouri Republican Party is rolling out new revelations in the ongoing Claire McCaskill plane scandal, including a possible connection to President Barack Obama. From the news release issued moments ago:

From embarrassing videos to new information about potential high-profile passengers on her plane, Claire McCaskill’s airplane scandal has continued to unfold this afternoon. See below for some of today’s developments:


MOGOP calls on McCaskill to release tax records related to the travel scandal: Roll Call reported on the MOGOP’s afternoon press conference in which the Party called upon McCaskill to release tax records that will once-and-for-all prove whether her company made a profit from her taxpayer-funded official use of her private plane. In addition, the MOGOP announced that it would be expanding the scope of the ethics complaint filed with the Senate Ethics Committee.

McCaskill’s pattern of tax problems: Politico’s Huddle reported that McCaskill has a history of troublpaying property taxes on her property—including her failure to pay more than $2,300 in property taxes on a condominium at the Lake of the Ozarks. The non-payment of taxes was so severe that Camden County published a notice that it was going to put the condo up for auction.

Obama connection to McCaskill’s plane? The Daily Caller is reporting on a $3,900 payment for travel by Obama for America to Sunset Cove Associates, the same company that McCaskill routed taxpayer money through to pay for her flights. The payment raises questions as to whether candidate Barack Obama himself enjoyed the luxury of McCaskill’s multimillion dollar Pilatus aircraft.

Old campaign commercials come back to haunt McCaskill: Politico’s Ben Smith posted video of a devastating 2006 campaign commercial in which McCaskill claims that she has “paid every dime of our taxes.” And Politico’s Dave Catanese reported that McCaskill blasted her 2004 primary opponent for abuse of the state plane.

McCaskill avoids questions on scandal: Townhall.com posted video of McCaskill leaving a high-dollar New York City fundraiser while dodging questions related to her ongoing travel scandal. The camera operated pointedly asked McCaskill if she considered herself a federal employee, alluding to earlier legislation co-sponsored by McCaskill to fire federal employees who were severely delinquent on their taxes.

Hitting McCaskill where it hurts: The National Journal’s Sean Sullivan and Josh Kraushaar opine that this scandal “could do lasting damage to both McCaskill and Senate Democrats in 2012.” The piece notes that this scandal “cuts against the grain of her good-government image” and cities her “ineffectual apology” for reasons that this narrative has “sticking power.” The New York Times’ Michael Shear called it “the kind of unforced error that could come back to haunt the national party.”

McCaskill doesn't answer questions after New York fundraiser

I don't know who Mr. More ZZ is or if he is the person who is asking the questions on the video which purports to be Sen. Claire McCaskill refusing to answer questions about her private plane difficulties following a New York fundraiser.

The feedback from the plane scandal continues to grow. The Missouri GOP held a news conference about it less than an hour ago. I will post more information about that later this afternoon.

2004 McCaskill ad rips politicians' use of perks, including plane travel

New complaint in Peggy Newton bankruptcy

An amended complaint in Diane Pine's challenge to Peggy Newton's bankruptcy asks that Ms. Newton not be rewarded for the alleged theft, fraud, and forgery that led to a debt of $291,041.78.

The complaint, filed last week in U. S. Bankruptcy Court, includes the federal indictment charging Mrs. Newton, Ms. Pine's former partner in Evergreen and Amber, a downtown Joplin business, with 25 counts of fraud and forgery.

In a response to the amended complaint, Mrs. Newton's lawyer, Norman Rouse, denied Ms. Pine's allegations and said she had filed her complaint too late.

Previous Turner Report posts on Peggy Newton can be found at this link.

Kanakuk asks for change of venue in sexual abuse lawsuit

In a motion filed March 18 in Taney County Circuit Court, Kanakuk officials asked for a change of venue in the lawsuit filed by one of the victims of sexual predator Pete Newman, a former camp director. Newman is serving two life sentences, plus 30 years, after pleading guilty last year to sex charges involving multiple underage boys. Newman is also a defendant in this action.

The motion will likely be taken up at the next hearing in the case, scheduled for 9 a.m. April 7. Another court filing indicates the lead attorney for Kanakuk will be Keith Alan Cary of the Kansas City law firm of Franke, Schultz & Mullen.

Kanakuk, Newman, and Kanakuk CEO Joe White are named in a second civil suit, filed earlier this month in U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. That action was filed by the parents of a child who was molested by Newman while attending the Kanakuk Christian sports camp.

Previous Turner Report posts on Kanakuk and Pete Newman can be found at this link.

McCaskill: I'm being held accountable, like I should be

Sen. Claire McCaskill's plane woes hit the Washington Post today:

McCaskill told reporters that after the political trip on the plane was reported, she conducted an extensive audit of all the times she had used it. That search turned up the fact that she had not paid personal property taxes on the aircraft, totaling $287,273.
The senator said it was an honest mistake. Not all states charge personal property taxes, and because planes are not registered with the state or the county, she was never billed.
“I’m being held accountable, like I should be,” she said. “I made this mistake.”

Billy Long: Anyone would be a better president than Obama

Though it is unlikely he will throw his hat in the ring for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, on this morning's KZRG Morning Newswatch, Seventh District Congressman Billy Long said, "Anyone would be a better president than Barack Obama."

Long also said Congress had not been contacted about the president's decision to launch military action in Libya.

Dieckhaus: We don't need school districts

Though Rep. Scott Dieckhaus, R-Washington, is supposedly revising his anti-teacher tenure bill, HB 628, this video, posted on YouTube several weeks ago by the Missouri's foremost supporters of educational vouchers, Rex Sinquefield's Show-Me Institute, is enough to give pause to anyone who supports public schools in Missouri.

Dieckhaus, quite simply, is not among that number, though Speaker of the House Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, has placed him as chairman of the House Education Committee.

In this video, Dieckhaus makes it clear he does not believe in public school districts, thinks Missouri would be better off with a system that gives vouchers to parents. "That is a publicly funded system. It's your taxpayer dollars going to the government and the government saying, 'Here's your money to provide an education. I think it is ludicrous that we have a district system."

Dieckhaus refers to school districts as a "backward thinking type of system."