The 51st State

The 51st State

Puerto Rico or D.C.?

The Democrats have temporary control of the Congress and the White House, and this is their chance to make major changes in the American way of life, by greatly expanding the federal government. Their goals all have one thing in common: In the long run, they are all designed to lead to a permanent Democrat majority, by getting as many people as possible dependent on the government (willingly or not). One way to do this is to add more States to the Union, and the three candidates for this position are the solidly-Democratic Puerto Rico, Guam, and the District of Columbia.

Guam is hardly ever discussed as a potential 51st state, so this page includes little or no discussion of that prospect. But the potential is there, many years from now.

Puerto Rico

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich Pressed on Puerto Rico Statehood in South Florida. Statehood is a controversial issue among Puerto Ricans and not all support the idea. Others believe it should become independent or remain a commonwealth. But many Puerto Rican voters in the United States back statehood, including many who live in Florida.

Puerto Rico and the Recurring Plebiscite. Congress quietly passed HR 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act. But why? And does anyone understand what's in it?

An invitation or a hostile takeover?
Puerto Rico, the 51st State? Puerto Rico, a self-governing commonwealth whose residents are U.S. citizens, has already voted three times (1967, 1993 and 1998) against becoming the 51st U.S. state. But Congressional Democrats, hoping to add to their numbers in Congress, keep pushing for statehood. Late last month, the House voted 223 to 169 to begin yet another attempt to have the island join the union.

Why Tea Partiers Say Throw the Bums Out: Demoting all major economic and corruption problems facing our country to the bottom of the agenda, the House devoted a long afternoon [4/29/2010] and 12 roll-call votes to passing a bill to force U.S. statehood on Puerto Rico. Of course this ploy had to be Nancy Pelosi's doing, but she made it bipartisan by getting 39 Republicans to vote with her. ... [T]he new vote prescribed in the mischievously named "Democracy" bill will set an all-time record for dishonest elections. ... The bill would allow persons who were born in Puerto Rico but now live and vote in the United States to vote in these Puerto Rican referenda. That means giving the vote to a group based on ethnicity rather than on residency, and should be held unconstitutional under the 15th Amendment.

Obama Open to Puerto Rico Statehood. President Obama is open to the idea of Puerto Rico becoming a state, Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli said at a meeting of a task force devoted to issues related to the U.S. commonwealth.

Puerto Rico deserves better. The Democratic House leadership has announced plans to ram through a bill to stack the deck in favor of statehood for Puerto Rico. Amazingly enough, several ordinarily sensible conservatives, including House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence, are poised to help them. The collaborators ought to reconsider. Arguments in favor of political self-determination may seem reasonable, but the bill in question actually tramples self-determination in favor of an underhanded political power grab.

Backdoor approach to statehood. When the Democratic majority was working to push through a government takeover of health care, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared, "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." Unfortunately, that same kind of backward logic is being used as Congress prepares to vote on the Puerto Rico Democracy Act (H.R. 2499), a bill to provide for a federally sanctioned vote in Puerto Rico on changing its political status. Although the House of Representatives is considering the bill this week, there are serious questions regarding the implications of the bill that have gone unanswered.

Puerto Rico — 51st State? Congress Scrambling to Make it So. Last night [4/27/2010] on his TV show, Glenn Beck dropped another bombshell — on Thursday, Congress will take up a bill to make Puerto Rico a state. Why is our Congress doing this now? Secretly? Quickly? If it hadn't been for one of Beck's "Refounders" (a Congressional insider), would we even know about this?

Playing The Puerto Rico Card. Faced with losing Congress, the Democrats want to make Puerto Rico a state whether the people want it or not. The Democrats would get two new senators, new congressmen and a campaign issue.

Do We Need a 51st State? No, and just in case someone thought there was even a slight stutter, let me repeat, NO. Puerto Rico has voted THREE times in the past, 1967, 1993 and again in 1998, "Do we want to be a state?" — Each time their answer was NO. So why is Washington,D.C. (District of Corruption) wasting time on a "non-binding" resolution to "give" Puerto Rico something it already has?

Puerto Rican Statehood Ahead? Understand: This is not about Hispanics. It's not about freedom. It's about power and control. Puerto Rico is a self-governing commonwealth, but is subject to U.S. jurisdiction and sovereignty. It's been a U.S. territory since after the Spanish-American War of 1898. They're not an independent country. It's similar to Guam, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa. Some people like it, others don't; they get to enjoy many of the benefits of America — like protection — and they don't have to pay any taxes. That's a pretty sweet deal.

Rigging an Election in Puerto Rico. I have to profoundly disagree with Alex Castellanos and agree with Ramesh Ponnuru on the Puerto Rico plebiscite bill. I have been working in elections for two decades, and there is no question in my mind that H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act scheduled for a vote tomorrow [4/29/2010] in the House, is rigged to foist an unwanted and unsolicited 51st state on Americans.

Puerto Rico a Potential 51st State? [Scroll down] The bill requires Puerto Rico to hold an election on a referendum that reads, "Do you want to maintain the status quo?" Now, if it seems strange that a bill related to potentially adding a 51st state to our union does not once mention the word "statehood," it should. The referendum is purposely written this way to bring about a desired result. Legislators know what the answer would be if Puerto Rican voters are asked to vote on statehood, since in the past 40 years, Puerto Ricans have eagerly voted against becoming a state three times.

FBI Launches Largest Cop Corruption Case Ever in Puerto Rico. The FBI launched what it calls the "largest police corruption case" in the history of the agency early this morning in Puerto Rico, arresting 129 people around the country — most of whom were public servants ranging from police officers to municipal workers to U.S. Army soldiers. The defendants face drug trafficking charges with possible sentences ranging from 10 years to life in prison.

Puerto Rican madness. Puerto Rican Gov. Luis Fortuño has proposed tax cuts that could be a huge boon to the island's stalled economy, but there is a dark side to his proposal involving a huge tax increase on major employers that could cost the island hundreds of thousands of jobs. Gov. Fortuño plans to cut personal income and corporate taxes for Puerto Rico-based companies, but he is paying for it with $5.8 billion in new taxes that target several dozen major U.S. companies operating on the island.

A secret $6 billion bailout for Puerto Rico? The Obama administration is eying a secretive tax deal critics charge is an indirect bailout for Puerto Rico to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars. The U.S. territory, desperate for revenues in the midst of the recession, surprised industry with a $6 billion tax on foreign firms — including a significant bloc of U.S. pharmaceutical firms — Oct. 22 in a rare weekend legislative session without any public debate in advance. But now U.S. taxpayers, not the firms, could end up footing at least a significant chunk of the bill.

IRS punts on secret $6 billion bailout for Puerto Rico. The Obama administration says it can't decide whether U.S. taxpayers should be on the hook for $6 billion in tax increases levied by Puerto Rico, but businesses are eligible for the disputed tax credits in the meantime. And, if the IRS eventually decides the credits were improper, those firms won't have to pay back the billions of dollars they already received.

The District of Columbia

First the District of Columbia got a non-voting representative. Now there's a plan to give the District full representation in the House; that is, a genuine Congressman. Full statehood can't be far behind, and that would mean two permanently Democratic votes in the Senate as well.

DC quarter

All fifty states were featured on U.S. 25-cent coins beginning in 1999, as the result of a law enacted in 1997. At the conclusion of that program, a section of the 2008 Appropriations Act authorized additional quarters to feature the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.* At a glance, the D.C. quarter looks just like the California quarter, or any other state's quarter. This could very well be a subliminal attempt to elevate the status of the District of Columbia in preparation for a push for statehood.

DC councilman wants to rename Pennsylvania Avenue. A D.C. Council member wants to highlight the city's lack of statehood and is asking residents to pick another name for Pennsylvania Avenue.

D.C. needs a crackdown. A Washington city leader wants to rename one of America's most famous streets to suit his personal political agenda. In an online poll, Councilman Michael A. Brown is asking participants to choose to rename Pennsylvania Ave. "Give DC Full Democracy & Statehood Way," "51st State Way" or "Give DC Full Democracy Way," among other obnoxious options.

DC optimistic about getting the vote. District of Columbia voting rights advocates say they are poised to win a crucial vote Tuesday in the Senate, following a day of last-minute lobbying for a bill that would provide the federal city with its first full seat in the House. "We're closer than we've ever been," Ilir Zherka, executive director of the advocacy group DC Vote, said ahead of a preliminary vote on legislation that would expand the 435-member House by two seats.

D.C. and the Constitution: The House of Representatives seems set to grow by two Members, to 437, after next year's election. Yesterday [2/24/2009] the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act passed a key procedural vote in the Senate, making passage of the legislation, which President Obama supports, all but certain. The only thing standing in the way may be the Constitution.

Misstating the Constitution. Legend has it that Abraham Lincoln once posed a riddle: How many legs does a dog have if you count his tail as a leg? Came the answer, "Five." Replied Lincoln, "No, four. Counting a tail as a leg doesn't make it a leg." Tell it to the sponsors of a bill to give the District of Columbia a full-fledged member of the House of Representatives. They resolutely dismiss the hurdle presented by the Constitution, which says, "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states." Not "states and any other entities under federal control," but states, period.

DC on Verge of Getting a Vote in the US House. They live in the shadow of the Capitol dome, but District of Columbia residents have never had what Americans in all 50 states do: A voting member of Congress. Resentment over their long exclusion could soon fade as Congress moves closer to giving D.C. its first full seat in the House.

The Editor interjects...
A question for D.C. residents: If you find the current situation so objectionable, why do you continue to live there?

Senate votes to give DC citizens vote in Congress. The people of District of Columbia would get the vote in Congress the Founding Fathers denied them under legislation the Senate has approved. The Senate legislation would give the district a vote in the House of Representatives.

Senate Panel O.K.'s Bill to Give Washington a Voting Representative. This could be the year that Washington gets a voting member of Congress. "There is finally a light at the end of what has been a really long tunnel," said the city's nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton. On Wednesday [2/11/2009], a Senate committee approved a bill to give the city a voting member of the House of Representatives, clearing the way for the full chamber to take up the matter in the coming weeks.

Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2006:
Plan would give D.C. a House vote. For decades, efforts to give the District of Columbia a voting representative in Congress have run into a brick wall. Constitutional amendments failed to win the states' support. Ad campaigns about "taxation without representation" did not help the cause. Now, unexpected political forces are aligning behind a plan to give the district a House vote — along with a new seat in Congress for Utah — when lawmakers return for their lame-duck session in early December.

Washington Post, February 11, 2007:
Statehood for D.C.? The District [of Columbia] was allotted a delegate in 1970 precisely because the Constitution doesn't permit it to be given a representative. In 1978, Congress passed a constitutional amendment to grant the District a representative and senators because a statute couldn't grant the representation. The amendment failed when only 16 states ratified it within seven years.

Holder Politicizes Legal Decisions. The campaign for District of Columbia voting rights took an unexpected twist yesterday when it was revealed that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. brushed aside the opinion of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which had concluded that defending the District's right to vote was unrealistic. The Washington Post reports that Holder instead turned to the office of the solicitor general, which told him the legislation would be defensible.

Plan would give D.C. a House vote. For decades, efforts to give the District of Columbia a voting representative in Congress have run into a brick wall. Constitutional amendments failed to win the states' support. Ad campaigns about "taxation without representation" did not help the cause. Now, unexpected political forces are aligning behind a plan to give the district a House vote — along with a new seat in Congress for Utah — when lawmakers return for their lame-duck session in early December.

Ex-Cons to Get Special Rights in DC? The proposal adopted by the District of Columbia City Council to give rehabilitated ex-cons a special protected status under the law in DC strangely seems to be staying under the radar of most of our nation's talk hosts, bloggers and reporters. Fortunately, some are beginning to take notice.

D.C. residents may get vote in Congress. After more than 200 years of paying taxes, fighting in the nation's wars and abiding by sometimes arbitrary acts of Congress, Washington residents are close to getting a full-fledged representative in the House.

Democrats' Unconstitutional Plot to Invent New Congressmen. Right now, in the guise of a civil rights issue, the new Congress is attempting one of the most brazenly unconstitutional power grabs in our nation's history. The move aims to create a new class of congressman and simply add the first of these to the 435 existing members of the United States House of Representatives.

Update:
No vote on a vote for the District. Legislation to give the District a vote in the U.S. House stalled short of passage today [3/22/2007] when Republicans unexpectedly added the issue of gun control into the debate.

The 51st State? If majorities in both houses of today's Congress want the fewer than 600,000 residents of D.C. to be fully represented, they can accomplish that with legislation shrinking D.C. to the core containing the major federal buildings and monuments, and giving the rest back to Maryland. Democrats are uninterested in that because it would not serve their primary objective of increasing their Senate seats.

Senate Panel O.K.'s Bill to Give Washington a Voting Representative. This could be the year that Washington gets a voting member of Congress. "There is finally a light at the end of what has been a really long tunnel," said the city's nonvoting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton. On Wednesday [2/11/2009], a Senate committee approved a bill to give the city a voting member of the House of Representatives, clearing the way for the full chamber to take up the matter in the coming weeks.

His Honor the Mayor. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty publicly took office yesterday and pledged to fight for D.C. statehood, to increase police presence in city neighborhoods and to fix the struggling public school system. "Together we pledge steadfastly that our goal is to become the 51st state," Mr. Fenty said. "None of us can or should rest easy until we all have the opportunity to participate fully in our great democracy."

The Editor says...
If either the District of Columbia or Puerto Rico becomes a state, the other will not be far behind. And you can rest assured that all of the Senators and Representatives from (either or both of) these two places will be liberal Democrats.

Democrats Pull D.C. Voting Rights Act. The patently unconstitutional bill to give the District of Columbia a voting representative in the House of Representatives was pulled off the House calendar because — according to one House Republican leadership source — they feared that the so-called Blue Dog Democrats would not support it.

Firearm Provision Blows Up D.C. Voting Rights Bill. For the second time in as many weeks, the House has had to postpone action on a major bill important to Democratic leaders. The House Democratic leadership Tuesday [3/3/2009] decided to delay a plan to grant a seat in the House to the District of Columbia. Since it is not a state, Washington, D.C., does not get a vote in Congress.

D.C. Voting Rights Bill: A Raw Deal for Republicans. The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 passed the Senate last Thursday [2/26/2009] by a vote of 61-37. The bill will add two seats to the House of Representatives. One will represent the District of Columbia and the other, at least initially, will represent a district in Utah. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican, co-sponsored the bill. The bill is a raw deal for the GOP.

No taxation without representation? I'll take no taxation. Last week the Senate passed legislation granting the District of Columbia full voting representation in the House of Representatives. As with several previous iterations of the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act, the bill also adds a second new House seat and awards it to Utah, which narrowly missed out on a fourth representative after the last census. Thus, we have the ultimate logroll — one guaranteed Democratic seat in exchange for a very safe Republican one.

Voting Rights Gone Wrong: Last week, two days after the 44th anniversary of the Selma march that helped pass the 1965 [Voting Rights] act, the Supreme Court took a timid step toward limiting the perverse use of that act to create political set-asides — elective offices to which certain preferred minorities are entitled. Last week's ruling revisits the strange career of racial gerrymandering — how that practice went from execrable to virtuous to mandatory, and became yet another manifestation of the entitlement mentality.

Why the D.C. Voting Rights Act Is Wrong. The D.C. Voting Rights Act, which passed by a 61-37 vote in the Senate and is now being considered in the House of Representatives, would grant Washington, D.C., voting representation in that body. The District's current delegate to Congress would be transformed into an actual voting member of the House. ... The Constitution, however, limits representation in Congress to the people of the states. This requirement applies both to the Senate and the House.

And So Begins Another Week Of Malfeasance. [Congress] is voting to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state. Hence it supposedly can have a Democratic member of the House and, down the descending road, two Democratic senators. Congress rationalizes this anti-constitutional willfulness by citing the Constitution's language that each house shall be the judge of the "qualifications" of its members and Congress can "exercise exclusive legislation" over the District. What, then, prevents Congress from giving House and Senate seats to Yellowstone National Park, over which Congress exercises exclusive legislation? Only Congress' capacity for embarrassment. So, not much.

D.C. Voting Measure Could Be Added to Defense Spending Bill. House Democratic leaders are considering floor action on a proposal to give the District of Columbia a full voting member in the House of Representatives. The provision would be attached to the conference report on the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill, which is expected on the floor within the next few weeks.

Washington DC is a liberal utopia.
Washington, D.C., Wins V.D. Triple Crown. Washington, D.C., had the dubious distinction of beating all 50 states to post the highest rates in the nation for the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

Why D.C. Representation in Congress Is Unconstitutional. The Constitution explicitly declares that representation in Congress can be granted only to states. Article 1, Section 2 states that "Representatives ... shall be apportioned among the several states..." Accordingly, the District of Columbia is currently represented in the House of Representatives not by a member of Congress, but instead by an elected delegate who can participate in debate and vote in committee but cannot vote on the House floor. The same goes for other American non-state territories that are comprised of American citizens, including Puerto Rico and Guam.

'Price too high' for D.C. voting rights. Democrats withdrew a bill on Tuesday to give the District the voting rights it has long sought in the House of Representatives, saying the "price was too high" after learning of Republican plans to introduce an amendment that would eviscerate the city's gun laws. Buoyed by the support last week of President Obama, House Democrats seemed prepared to vote this week for a bill similar to one passed in the Senate last year, even though that measure contained an unpalatable amendment weakening local gun restrictions.

Constitution, anyone? The House of Representatives takes up legislation this week to grant voting rights to the residents of the District of Columbia, and among all the contentious voices there's none to speak up for the Constitution. ... The 23d Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1961, grants the vote to qualified District residents in presidential elections, but there's nothing in XXIII about congressional elections. The right to representation in Congress is reserved for "States," and the District of Columbia is not a "State." What could be plainer than that?

D.C. Mayor Cites 'Emergency' To Raise Fees, Fines. The cost of living, working and doing business in the District rose a little more Tuesday, after Mayor Adrian M. Fenty again reneged on his no-tax-increase pledge and implemented "emergency" executive orders that increase scores of fees for business permits and traffic fines to pay for his 2010 and 2011 spending plans.

3rd D.C. lawmaker faces debt problems. A D.C. Council member who serves on a powerful finance committee is facing a federal lien seeking more than $50,000 in unpaid income taxes — the third city lawmaker to face scrutiny over personal or tax debts in recent months. The Internal Revenue Service filed the lien against Michael A. Brown, at-large independent, in April citing debts on four years of income taxes dating back to 2004.

What is the D.C. Council hiding? District of Columbia Council members voted unanimously Dec. 21 to replace one of the nation's most toothless open-meeting laws with another similarly weak measure that fails to provide an acceptable level of government transparency to local residents in the nation's capital.

Washington DC is a police state.
Walled-Off Washington. It's hard to remember, but Washington wasn't always a city of walls. Thomas Jefferson held a public reception at the White House after his second inaugural, and citizens were able to freely wander through the building to personally ask presidents like Abraham Lincoln for jobs and other favors. Harry Truman took long walks around Washington each morning protected by just a handful of Secret Service agents. Capitol Hill had no roadblocks or barricades, and cars and trucks passed directly in front of the White House as they drove down Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the city's busiest thoroughfares.

'Fully loaded' SUV puts D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown on the spot. Several weeks after Kwame R. Brown was elected D.C. Council chairman in November, city officials were asked to order for him a "fully loaded" Lincoln Navigator L with a DVD entertainment system, power moonroof and polished aluminum wheels. It had to be black — all black, inside and out — and it had to arrive in time for his inauguration Jan. 2, never mind the District's projected $400 million budget shortfall.

"SUVgate" Latest Of Many D.C. Scandals. With a budget shortfall of $400 million, the city once led by a crack head mayor (who still sits on the council) is being run by unscrupulous officials that go on reckless spending sprees with taxpayer money. As local governments go, the District of Columbia has mastered the art of making national headlines for the many transgressions of its elected leaders.

D.C.'s small-timers. This is just one more in a series of unflattering revelation about [Mayor Vince] Gray's early hires and the pricey automobiles leased for Gray and his political ally, Council Chairman Kwame Brown.

Funds for D.C.'s needy go elsewhere. A D.C. Council member who represents some of the city's poorest households has spent less than 5 percent of the money she has raised since 2007 to help constituents with urgent needs, such as funeral expenses, rent and utilities, a review of campaign finance records shows.

Another example of Democrat civility and professionalism:
D.C. Delegate Tells Congress to Go 'Straight to Hell' Over Budget Battle. Lawmakers' tempers are flaring on Capitol Hill over the possibility of a government shutdown, and D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is no exception. The Democratic non-voting representative for the District of Columbia told MyFoxDC.com that Congress should go "straight to hell" for trying to meddle in D.C. affairs.

D.C. City Scandals Evoke Fears of Return to Marion Barry Era. With Washington, D.C.'s local government staggering under the weight of one scandal after the next, fears are growing that the nation's capital has returned to the politically embarrassing Marion Barry era that was marked by the former mayor being sent to prison for six months after getting caught smoking crack in a hotel room. Washington's new mayor, Vincent Gray, has been fighting allegations of corruption since he took office in January, including charges of nepotism and political payoffs.

Mouse droppings, roaches, chemicals hiding in school cafeterias. School cafeterias typically don't list mouse droppings, cockroach infestations or sneezed-on snacks among their lunch specials. But health inspectors are finding these undesirable ingredients — as well as 60-degree yogurt and other critical health code violations — in the kitchens of Washington-area schools. D.C. Public Schools racked up 296 violations in its elementary schools alone, and 124 more in its upper grades, for everything from blown light bulbs to dead rodents, as detailed in the most recent routine inspection reports.

Obama and the Second American Revolution. Our federal district is the practical home of almost everyone who is anyone in the federal government. It is dramatically more liberal than any state. While conservatives outnumber liberals in every state of the union, according to Gallup, only 18% of those in Washington are conservatives while 41% of Washingtonians are liberals. Survey USA reveals that in New York City, perhaps the heart of non-governmental liberalism, liberals outnumber conservatives by the relatively modest 25% to 20%. Our national capital is wildly farther to the left than anywhere else in the nation. Why?

Average Teen Unemployment Rate in D.C. is 50.1%, Analysis Shows. An analysis based on U.S. Census Bureau data by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) shows that the average unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 in the District of Columbia was 50.1 percent as of June 2011. This corresponds with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showing that for D.C. the annual average unemployment rate for teens in 2010 was 49.8 percent.

D.C. Adults Top Alcohol Abusers in Country. A new report says that adults in Washington D.C. abuse alcohol more than anyone else in the country. According to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 8.1 percent of adults age 26 or older in D.C. are alcohol dependent. Looking at a long-term sampling, alcohol abuse rate is on the rise for the District, according to the survey.

Top 10 Scary Things About Living in Washington, D.C.. [#2] Crime threat: While the crime rate in Washington had fallen since it was dubbed the Murder Capital of America in the 1990s, there has always been something to worry about. There were the Martin Luther King riots that destroyed swaths of city commerce, then the destruction brought forth during the crack epidemic and its attendant gang wars. The "D.C. Sniper" terrorized the city for weeks, and now flash mobs of unruly youth are ransacking convenience stores.

The District's spy network. Washington's speed and red-light cameras, once ostensibly installed for safety, have a new purpose. They're watching you. ... While mobile photo-radar vans and intersection cameras are known for their blinding flash when issuing citations, the devices don't just take Polaroid-style snapshots. They're rolling digital video 24 hours a day.

At DC DMV: Driver's License, Tag Renewal, HIV Test. At one Department of Motor Vehicles' office in the nation's capital, motorists can get a driver's license, temporary tags and something wholly unrelated to the road: an HIV test for free.

D.C. may budge on gun ban. The spotlight on the District's effort to dissuade law-abiding residents from purchasing handguns is making some on the D.C. Council uncomfortable. Council member Phil Mendelson on Tuesday [12/6/2011] introduced legislation easing some of the most absurd hoops one must jump through in order to exercise the right to keep arms in the nation's capital.

Emily gets her gun, Part 2. Over the past couple months, I've been trying to get a legal gun in the District. I always knew this would be a challenge, but I had no idea how time-consuming it would be to complete all 17 steps the city requires. I'm not even halfway done.

Getting Rid of Rats in Washington! It seems Washington, D.C. has a rat problem. No, not that kind, the four-legged kind. Some of the rats are big as cats, so big that some homeowners are fearful of permitting their cats to confront the rats after dark. Traditionally, rats have always been fearful of cats, but not these super rats! Rats have infested some half-million-dollar homes and have been seen robbing bird feeders in daylight. Other homeowners have had rats come up in the commode from the sewer system. One family had that experience three times!

The Schools in the District of Columbia are notoriously bad.

Obamas Pick Sidwell Friends For Kids' School. "A number of great schools were considered. In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama. ... Lelyveld said that while public schools were considered, the Obamas felt that a private school was in the best interest of their children.

The Editor says...
No kidding. That's a polite way of saying that the kids would not get an education at a public school in Washington, DC.

Eventually he came right out and said it.
Obama: D.C. schools don't measure up to his daughters' private school. President Obama said Monday [9/27/2010] that his daughters could not get the same level of education from D.C. public schools that they receive at the elite private school they attend.

D.C. Being Made to Hire Back Fired Teachers. An independent arbitrator recently ruled that D.C. Public Schools will be required to hire back 75 teachers fired during Michelle Rhee's tenure. On top of this, D.C. will also be required to pay two years in back wages, costing the city approximately $7.5 million. Although the dismissed teachers were still in their probationary period, arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum claims that they were improperly let go because the district failed to comply with proper dismissal procedures.

'No Child' Data on Violence Skewed. At Anacostia Senior High School last school year, private security guards working under D.C. police recorded 61 violent offenses, including three sexual assaults and one assault with a deadly weapon. There were 21 other nonviolent cases in which students were caught bringing knives and guns to school. [And yet] Anacostia is not considered a persistently dangerous school.

Compulsory education for 2-year-olds? D.C. councilman proposes forcing toddlers into classrooms.

D.C. Graduation Rates Down. The on-time graduation rate for D.C. public schools has fallen below 50 percent, according to a new study, while the rates for Maryland and Virginia have not improved since the mid-1990s. The study, released today by researchers affiliated with the trade publication Education Week, examined data from 1996 to 2006, the latest available federal figures, to calculate the percentage of students who graduate from high school within four years of starting ninth grade. In 2006, the study found, the D.C. graduation rate fell to 48.8 percent, down 8.8 percentage points from the previous year. The figure did not include public charter schools.

Senator: Parents worrisome about D.C. schools system. "Parents tell us, they know in many cases, in D.C., if they're sending their kids off to the public schools the chances are very good they're going to end up in a gang rather than graduating high school," Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, said during a news conference Thursday [3/5/2009].

Special Speech. [Scroll down] Witness the District of Columbia, which spends more per public-school student than any other school system in the country. In terms of academic outcome, school discipline, and almost every other conceivable measure, the D.C. schools are a notorious disaster, and for children with special needs they are an absolute scandal. The idea that throwing more federal dollars into this sinkhole is a solution of some sort is laughable.

School Choice Is Change You Can Believe In. Just how rotten are the D.C. public schools? In a recent survey by Education Week, the D.C. public schools ranked fourth from the bottom in terms of graduation rates. Test scores for basics like math and reading are also near the bottom. It's not for lack of money: A recent U.S. Census Bureau report says the district school spending clocks in at more than $13,400 per child — third highest in the nation. It takes a lot of money to run a school system as lousy as D.C.'s.

The Union War on the No Child Left Behind Act: Spending per pupil has skyrocketed over the last three decades -- going from just over $3,000 a year to more than $8,194 a year. In our nation's biggest districts, such as Washington, D.C., that number has reached more than $16,000 a year. Yet, despite this increased spending, fewer than one-third of our fourth graders (and an equivalent proportion of our eighth graders) read proficiently. Reading performance has improved only slightly over the past fifteen years among fourth graders and has not improved at all among eighth graders.

Public School System, Not Vouchers, Is What's Unfair. The District of Columbia is widely cited as having one of the worst public school systems in the country, with reported graduation rates at a mere 57 percent and politicians crying foul over an alleged lack of funding. But as Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute noted in the Washington Post, public funding of DC schools is commonly claimed to be $8,322 per pupil, which is higher than the tuition for many private schools in the area. And when Coulson accounted for all education expenditures in the district, he found actual public school spending was about $24,600 per child! You could send your kids to the toniest of private schools for that kind of money, yet the DC schools are a disaster.

Congress putting D.C. kids in danger. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program saves lives. The fate of the nonprofit outfit, which takes poor children out of failing schools and gives them scholarships to private institutions, is currently up in the air — in the hands of Congress and, ultimately, the president. Supporters of the program cite its strong record of academic improvement, but its value goes beyond grades. It quite literally saves lives. Children enrolled in the DCOSP, now in its fifth year, are physically safer than they were in District public schools, some of the most violent in the nation.

Black Education. The education establishment and politicians tell us that we need to spend more for higher teacher pay and smaller class size. The fact of business is higher teacher salaries and smaller class sizes mean little or nothing in terms of academic achievement. Washington, D.C., for example spends over $15,000 per student, has class sizes smaller than the nation's average, and with an average annual salary of $61,195, its teachers are the most highly paid in the nation.

A Teaching Moment From the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia … is proving that spending more on public schools is a waste of money. That was the unintended lesson of the press conference District Mayor Adrian Fenty called this week to announce that half the District's public schools would not have proper textbooks for opening day and half the school buildings would not have air conditioning. This is not because the District has been frugal. Its public schools wallow in cash.

Higher Grades Contradict Test Scores. Forty-three percent of white students scored at or above proficient levels on the reading test, compared with 20 percent of Hispanic students and 16 percent of black students. On the math test, 29 percent of white students reached the proficient level, compared with 8 percent of Hispanics and 6 percent of blacks. The gap in reading scores between whites and minorities was relatively unchanged since 2002. One of the stated goals of the federal No Child Left Behind law is to reduce the gaps in achievement between whites and minorities.

Can D.C. Schools Be Fixed? The schools spent $25 million on a computer system to manage personnel that had to be discarded because there was no accurate list of employees to use as a starting point. The school system relies on paper records stacked in 200 cardboard boxes to keep track of its employees, and in some cases is five years behind in processing staff paperwork. It also lacks an accurate list of its 55,000-plus students, although it pays $900,000 to a consultant each year to keep count.

To Live and Take in D.C.: The Santa Clausiness of the D.C. government is almost beyond comprehension. It seems that all you have to do is work there and money just falls into your lap. For instance, The [Washington] Post reported just last week on how a former principal requested a grant to train teachers and the school system authorized $3 million in a single day. And when she went to pick up the first $1 million, the school system just handed over the money — no silly, fussy contract or anything like that.

This article includes a state-by-state chart of spending per student.
D.C.'s Distinction: $16,344 Per Student, But Only 12% Read Proficiently: The District of Columbia spends far more money per student in its public elementary and secondary schools each year than the tuition costs at many private elementary schools, or even college-preparatory secondary schools. Yet, District 8th-graders ranked dead last in 2005 in national reading and math tests.

Study finds one-third in D.C. are illiterate. About one-third of the people living in the national's capital are functionally illiterate, compared with about one-fifth nationally, according to a report on the District of Columbia. Adults are considered functionally illiterate if they have trouble doing such things as comprehending bus schedules, reading maps and filling out job applications.

The 65 percent solution: Nationally, 61.5 percent of education operational budgets reach the classrooms. Why make a fuss about 3.5 percent? Because it amounts to $13 billion. Only four states (Utah, Tennessee, New York, Maine) spend at least 65 percent of their budgets in classrooms. Fifteen states spend less than 60 percent. The worst jurisdiction — Washington, D.C., of course — spends less than 50 percent.

The Rise of a Judicial Dictatorship: [In Washington DC,] integration seems to have proven a false promise and a colossal failure. While per-pupil expenditures are among the highest in the nation, the test scores of children in these D.C. schools are among the lowest. In too many, the kids are learning at levels three and four grades below the national norm.

District fails to check students. D.C. school officials did not verify residency requirements for more than 200 students at schools and facilities receiving city funding during the past two years, violations that potentially cost the District nearly $3 million, according to a report by the D.C. inspector general.

Do Away With Public Schools. Consider Washington, home of the nation's most devoted government-lovers and, ironically, the city with arguably the worst public schools in the country. Out of the 100 largest school districts, according to the Washington Post, D.C. ranks third in spending for each pupil ($12,979) but last in spending on instruction. Fifty-six cents out of every dollar go to administrators who, it's no secret, do a miserable job administrating, even though D.C. schools have been in a state of "reform" for nearly 40 years.

End Them, Don't Mend Them. [Scroll down] The District of Columbia's per-pupil outlay is claimed to be $17,542. The real number is an astonishing $28,170 — 155 percent more than the average tuition at the famously pricey private academies of the capital region. ... And the extraordinary expense of the D.C. public school system produced a 2007 class of eighth graders in which, according to the NAEP, 12 percent of the students were at or above proficiency in reading and 8 percent were at or above proficiency in math. Many of these young people are now entering the work force. Count your change in D.C.

D.C. Council set to tighten school-truancy standards. The pending legislation, introduced by council member Tommy Wells, would replace rules made just last year by the Board of Education, which allow students to accrue as many as 25 unexcused absences before child welfare and judicial authorities intervene. Mr. Wells' legislation cuts the number of days to 10.

The Editor says...
When I was in the public schools, I think that number was two or three at the most — not ten, and certainly not 25. But you know, if the fools would prefer to flip burgers, join the Army, or go straight to prison instead of graduating from high school, why not let them make that decision for themselves?

Obama states the obvious: DC schools stink!
Obama: D.C. schools don't suit daughters. In a rare and blunt criticism of education in the nation's capital, President Obama on Monday [9/27/2010] called D.C. Public Schools a "struggling" system that doesn't measure up to the needs of first daughters Sasha and Malia.

The Urban Plantation. The blight in the District of Columbia infects higher education, too. The University of the District of Columbia is ever in danger of losing accreditation and has one of the worst graduation rates in the country. D.C. public options are so bad that residents receive subsidies to pursue degrees in other states. Again, the taxpayer pays twice: for a sub-par college, and for subsidies that take serious students elsewhere. If public school teachers and administrators could be sued for malpractice, the schoolhouse might improve overnight.

Violent crimes of all kinds are on the rise in D.C.. A violent weekend in Washington, D.C., in which five people were shot, one fatally, in one incident and another person was killed in a separate shooting capped off a 30-day period in which all categories of violent crime in the nation's capital increased over the past year. Internal department documents obtained by The Washington Times contain preliminary police statistics that say 11 homicides were recorded in the past 30 days compared with nine over the same period last year.

DC Schools 'Cheating' Scandal Heats Up. The story involves possible cheating on tests by "erasure corrections," bonuses handed out to those teachers and principals overseeing the testing, and [Michelle] Rhee's feigned innocence about the matter. ... If Rhee's "double-digit growth" numbers sound too good to be true they probably are. A March 2011 report in USA Today investigated an abnormal amount of erasures occurring on standardized tests in 103 public schools for the 3 years Rhee was at the helm.

It Strikes Me As Odd. One of the hardy perennials of American politics is an insatiable demand for more educational spending. Outlays for education have been steadily and massively growing year by year, while the academic achievements of American kids have been dropping. If it were only about money, schools in Washington, D.C. would be the best, not the last, in the nation.

School Reform In the Wrong Hands. There's more bad news coming out of the DC Public Schools this week. Already under investigation for a major cheating scandal beginning in 2008, the DC Comprehensive Assessment System reported a double-digit plunge in math and reading scores for the 2011 school year. Some of the same schools that were flagged for a high number of erasures on standardized tests from 2008-2010 showed the sharpest decreases.

In the District of Columbia, guns are under control, but crime is not.

Gun free in D.C.: This is life in "gun free" Washington, D.C. No one is safe. Marion Barry's a victim of a home invasion. Supreme Court Justice David Souter was assaulted while jogging last year. Teresa Heinz was mugged outside her Georgetown home. Wanda Alston, the head of the mayor's Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs was murdered in a home invasion robbery. You are not safe in Washington, D.C. No one is.

Fables, Myths & Other Tall Tales: Washington, D.C.'s ban on handgun sales took effect in 1977 and by the 1990s the city's murder rate had tripled. During the years following the ban, most murders — and all firearm murders — in the city were committed with handguns. Chicago imposed handgun registration in 1968, and murders with handguns continued to rise. Its registration system in place, Chicago imposed a D.C.-style handgun ban in 1982, and over the next decade the annual number of handgun-related murders doubled. [This list also goes on and on.]

More Gun Control, Please! Why does Washington, D.C., a district whose laws make it illegal to buy, possess, transport or acquire a handgun, experience the highest per capita murder rates in the nation?

"Gun Control" Failures: The federal Gun Control Act was imposed in 1968, yet violent crime increased until 1991. Washington, D.C., banned handguns in 1976 and by 1991 its homicide rate had tripled, while the U.S. rate had risen only 12%. Chicago, the only other city to ban handguns, has had more murders than any city for the last two years. Despite having some of the most restrictive gun laws, Maryland's robbery rate remains highest among the states, and Baltimore's murder rate has nearly overtaken D.C.'s.

D.C. cleans up its gun ban. The nation's capital is home to some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Washington city leaders intentionally crafted convoluted regulations to make it difficult for citizens to own firearms legally. Now that these obstructionist rules are in the spotlight, the D.C. Council realizes it needs to clean up its act.

Other candidates and schemes for statehood

The lawyers strike again.
Could Baja Arizona be 51st state in US? A political committee made up of attorneys, including the former chairman of the Pima County Democratic Party, has been formed to try to get Southern Arizona to secede from the rest of the state. Start Our State, which is asking other like-minded counties to join the effort, hopes to put the question before Pima County voters in 2012.

The Editor says...
If a single county can secede and form a new state, a large can of worms will have been opened. Texas, with 254 counties, is in a good position to win that game.

E Pluribus Tucson: Uprising in Arizona. Baja Arizona (the working title) will almost certainly remain a dream, but it suggests the growing chasm between the state's Republican leaders and its frustrated liberal minority. For decades, there has been friction between Pima County and its more conservative northern neighbor, Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. Residents of Pima County (pop. 1 million) have often joked about forming their own state.

Liberals in southern Arizona seek to form new state. A group of lawyers from the Democratic stronghold of Tucson and surrounding Pima County have launched a petition drive seeking support for a November 2012 ballot question on whether the 48th state should be divided in two.

County Supervisor Proposes 51st State Cut Out of Southern California. A Riverside County, Calif., official is reportedly proposing cutting out 13 counties in Southern California and seceding from the rest of the state. Supervisor Jeff Stone is presenting his proposal to the county's Board of Supervisors on July 12, the Press Enterprise newspaper reports. He is arguing that the recent budget passed by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown is basically a raid on local budgets to cover profligate spending.

Official Calls For Riverside, 12 Other Counties To Secede From California. Is the state of California about to go "South"? Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone apparently thinks so, after proposing that the county lead a campaign for as many as 13 Southern California counties to secede from the state. Stone said in a statement late Thursday that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties should form the new state of South California.

Small step forward for long-shot 'South California' plan. A Republican member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors wants his county and 12 others to secede from California and form the 51st state. His colleagues gave him an unenthusiastic go ahead Tuesday [7/12/2011] to explore the idea.

Victimhood has its privileges. The U.S. Justice Department is ever-vigilant against signs of "voter suppression" these days, most recently blocking — on the grounds that it would hurt blacks — a South Carolina law that would require voter identification. But the voting rights of some minorities, it appears, are more worth protecting than others. The territory of Guam, for instance, has called for a plebiscite on the territory's relationship with the United States that could provide momentum for an independence movement. But the only people allowed to vote will be citizens who were native inhabitants in the year 1950 and their descendants.

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