Governor Palin 4 President

Governor Palin announced that the State of Alaska has chosen to carefully monitor but will not participate in the initiative to create nationwide common core state standards in reading & math. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers have announced they intend to work with states to formulate standards in English & math for kindergarten through grade 12 by December 2009.

“Alaska’s decision not to participate until after we monitor this is based on our desire to spend our time & public resources to improve instruction in the classroom & to form productive relationships between schools & the communities they serve,” Governor Palin said. “If this initiative produces useful results, Alaska will remain free to incorporate them in our own standards.”

Commissioner Larry LeDoux of the Department of Education & Early Development noted that Alaskans already have spent considerable time & money to develop detailed standards for the performance of students in grades 3 to 10 in reading, writing & math, including assessments to measure students in those core subjects. There also are numerous other standards for the content of curricula & the performance of younger students and of teachers.

Commissioner LeDoux noted that the Alaska Education Plan includes a commitment to review our standards. “Alaska’s assessments tell us useful information about our students,” LeDoux said. “Used correctly, the data helps guide instruction & leads to improved student achievement. If standards and assessments are changed, schools & parents will not be able to compare their students’ progress to recent years & once again we will be back to square one.”

“The standards are not the education problem we face,” The Governor said. “The major challenges are persistently low achievement among some students & a low graduation rate. Now is the time for the state and school districts to work together to improve instruction & student achievement.”

To that end, in this past legislative session the administration proposed & the legislature funded a pilot program to improve young children’s readiness for school & an initiative to help struggling school districts build a sustainable capacity to serve their students.

In addition to offering districts technical assistance in best practices that substantially influence school & student performance, the state will employ a director of rural education, who will build bridges between schools and communities, & draw on local resources.

“The State of Alaska fully believes that schools must have high expectations of students,” Governor Palin said. “But high expectations are not always created by new, mandated federal standards written on paper. They are created in the home, the community & the classroom.”

A Twit From The Governor: "AK’s unemplmnt level dropped in April. State added 3,600 seasonal, private-sector jobs in construction & tourism."

Alaska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell four-tenths of a percentage point in April to 8.0%, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. March’s rate was revised down one-tenth of a percentage point to 8.4%. Regular claims for unemployment insurance (excluding special programs in place to extend unemployment benefits) fell from 98,788 in March to 80,424 in April. The decline was a typical seasonal drop, although claims are well above recent years’ levels.

The U.S. unemployment rate rose four-tenths of a percentage point in April to 8.9% & payroll employment continued to fall. Since the recession began in December 2007, the nation’s total job count has fallen by 5.7 million jobs. The state added 3,600 jobs from March to April as seasonal hiring accelerated in construction & tourist-related industries. The April increase was smaller than in recent years & over-the-year growth in payroll jobs has slowed to 0.3 percent after averaging 1.4% in 2008.

Through March, the only other states besides Alaska still showing over-the-year job growth were Louisana & N Dakota. Alaska industries with signifi cant over-the-year growth in April were oil & gas, which was up 600 jobs, & health care, which was up 700. Jobs in construction were down 800 over the year. Seafood processing, retail trade, financial activities, & food services and drinking places were down by smaller margins.

http://labor.state.ak.us/news/2009/news09-31.pdf

Billionaire George Soros is an extreme leftist & naturally a huge supporter & financier of Øbama. Soros funds dozens of far-left front groups which advocate everything from open borders, to the legalization of most drugs, to abortion on demand. George Soros’ funded "programs" also promote the liberal agenda being taught in schools. Some of Mr. Soros' endeavors include: MoveOn.org, The Open Society Institute, USAction, Center For American Progress, Americans United For Change, money to ACORN & many more, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

CREW is the group who filed the clothes complaint against Governor Palin, and, in conjunction with Soros’ many activist organizations, as well as "friends" in the media, kept the story going well past its normal shelf life. CREW is a shadowy group. Depending on the source, you will find that CREW was either founded in 2001 by left-wing activists Norm Eisen (an attorney) and Louis Mayberg (a prominent Democrat donor, and co-founder of the Maryland-based mutual fund management firm ProFund Advisors LLC). Or...CREW was founded by Melanie Sloan, in 2003. Ms. Sloan is listed as the Executive Director on CREW's website. As you see, she references 2003. "CREW was founded in 2003 by Melanie Sloan, a former U.S. Attorney."

CREW receives funds from several George Soros groups such as the Democracy Alliance, the Tides Foundation, as well as the Open Society Institute – all Soros front groups. CREW seeks to construe itself as "non-partisan," however, all of their efforts target Republicans or conservatives. CREW's main purpose seems to be to file ethics complaints against a prominent, high profile target with the primary intention of seeking negative media exposure as opposed to pursuing real issues.

This has most certainly been the strategy used against Governor Palin. Numerous phony, and, sometimes, almost comical "ethics complaints" have been filed against Governor Palin since she has become a national figure and the front runner for the 2012 Republican nomination for President. The filing of these nonsensical complaints (13 of which have been thrown out), made huge headlines nationwide, and yet little, if any, news coverage has been devoted to their resolutions.

Full Article At:
http://thespeechatimeforchoosing.blogspot.com/2009/05/surprise-george-soros-behind-ethics.html
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/05/27/palin-campaign-clothes-complaint-dismissed-little-coverage-old-m

In response to May 27 editorial, let me explain why I vetoed $28.6 million of federal stimulus funds tied to adoption of universal energy building codes.

The feds required me to certify these codes "will be implemented" or pushed on local communities. My record is clear. I support conserving energy through weatherization & I'm an advocate for harnessing renewable sources of energy. But conditions here required more "big brother" government involvement than most Alaskans want & the new codes could cost Alaskans thousands of dollars per new home & renovation.

Alaskans have a strong history of independence and opposition to Washington, D.C., meddling in local issues. Our constitution ensures "maximum local self-government." Our communities have had the option to adopt building codes for decades. Most have not done so. I've served as a city councilman & city mayor/manager. I've participated firsthand in the mandated building code debate. Anyone serving in local office knows strong deference to local communities leads to the best policies. That policy holds true with building codes.

My community went through a battle over building codes when our booming city desired more growth opportunities to allow job creation. The last thing we needed was a bureaucrat from Washington, D.C., telling us what the best policy was to adopt. Strings were definitely attached to federal energy dollars. The stimulus law in section 410(a) (2), along with the Department of Energy's (DOE) official guidance, required certifying one of two options before Alaska could receive the energy conservation funds.

One option said the state "will implement" the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code for new homes & renovations; adopt a "building energy code [that meets or exceeds Standard 90.1-2007] for commercial buildings throughout the State"; & adopt & pay for a plan of "active" enforcement. I could not certify this. The Legislature did not pass a bill adopting a statewide energy building code. In addition, the federal residential building code does not allow exemptions, such as we use in Alaska. When Alaska Housing Finance Corporation funds are used, building & energy codes can be waived due to the "high cost of implementation" in different areas of Alaska. One size does not fit all in Alaska.

The second option for Alaska was to certify that all "applicable units of local government that have authority to adopt building codes, will implement" the necessary energy codes & enforce them. I could not certify this either. Alaska communities have the right to determine for themselves whether to adopt building codes.

I asked the feds to clarify their position. The Department of Energy finally admitted section 410 & their previous statements were "inappropriate" for some states but still wanted an agreement to push model codes on all Alaskan communities. I said no. Beware of Washington, D.C., trying to cajole local community leaders to eliminate the choices Alaskans have when building or renovating homes & businesses. These new codes are so detailed they would dictate the kinds of lights that can be installed in a home in Akutan, & how thick window panes must be in Chignik.

We have hundreds of millions of dollars already budgeted for conservation, weatherization & renewable energy development. My administration will remain vigilant for Alaskans & oppose mandates or pressure to conform from Washington, D.C., bureaucrats.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/compass/story/813086.html