Free Republic

Here's a poser: Suppose a public official is accused of recommending his girlfriend for a promotion, though he was the one who first flagged the potential conflict of interest and officials had refused to let him recuse himself from decisions about the woman. Should he lose his job? That's precisely what happened in 2007 to Paul Wolfowitz, who was run out of the World Bank on the pretext that he had given his girlfriend a raise. In fact, Mr. Wolfowitz had made bank officials aware that his girlfriend already worked at the bank before he accepted the job as president,...

Now, schools like Boston College, DePaul University and Tufts University also want to measure prospective students' personalities. Using recently developed evaluation systems, these schools and others are aiming to quantify so-called noncognitive traits such as leadership, resilience and creativity. Colleges say such assessments are boosting the admissions chances for some students who might not have qualified based solely on grades and traditional test scores. The noncognitive assessments also are being used to screen out students believed to be at a higher risk of dropping out, and to identify newly admitted students who might need extra tutoring. Big nonprofits that administer...

Media Blackout "Equal and exact justice to all men..." --Thomas Jefferson Editor's Note: PG suggested -- this essay contains graphic descriptions of a brutal crime. In 1775, John Adams wrote, "There is in human nature a resentment of injury, and indignation against wrong, a love of truth and a veneration of virtue ... if the people are capable of understanding, seeing and feeling the differences between true and false, right and wrong, virtue and vice..." Adams understood that a shared penchant for justice and virtue is essential to liberty, and depends upon the ability of people to discern between right...

FORT WORTH — A former North Side High School teacher who recently resigned after being caught with a 16-year-old student in a park was arrested Friday night, accused of having sex with the boy. Emily Elizabeth Housley, who turns 29 today, was arrested at her mother’s Saginaw home shortly before 8:30 p.m., police said. Housley, who is married and has two children, was being booked into jail Friday night, police said. She faces a charge of sexual assault of a child.

WASHINGTON -- Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy. "I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses," the president said, standing alongside Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the White House.

Reed, Dodd call for stronger sunscreen standardsMay 26, 2009 PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Two New England senators are pushing for stronger testing and labeling standards for sunscreen. U.S. Sens. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, have introduced legislation that calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require manufacturers to test sunscreen products against ultraviolet A and ultraviolet B rays. Currently, officials say the FDA requires testing and labeling for sun protection factors, which mostly measures UVB rays that cause sunburns. But they add the FDA does not have standards for UVA rays, a major...

CAMP LIBERY, Iraq, Jan. 6, 2009 – An old Army ad campaign declared, “We do more by 9 a.m. then most people do all day.” A prime example of that striving-for-excellence attitude can be found in Army Sgt. Timmothy Boyd. Army Sgt. Timmothy Boyd used his free time in Iraq to earn a bachelor’s degree, create a Web site for his unit, help his comrades with their personal computer problems, and create a database to improve work flow. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Shana Henline  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Boyd, a Dallas native who’s serving a tour...

by Gina L. DiorioHigh school students in Grand Rapids, Michigan will soon have a new grade category on their report cards. Beginning this trimester, the school district is adding “H” to the traditional “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D.” If you’re thinking “F” is missing from this list, well, you’re right. But that’s only because it’s also missing from the report cards. Yes, in a purported effort to boost student achievement and lower dropout rates, school officials have decided to forego failing marks in favor of less dispiriting “helds.” As the Grand Rapids Press explains: Students will have the option of...

FOB DELTA — For Iraqi Polic (IP) in Wasit province, the transition to full provincial Iraqi control (PIC) Oct. 29 was not a dramatic change, as they had taken the lead in security operations several months prior to the event. “After the problems in March, Iraqi security forces (ISF) stepped up to take control of their destiny in [Wasit] province,” said Maj. Gen. Abd al-Hanen Hammood Faisal, provincial director of police, referring to an uprising by Shi’a militias in late March. “Since then, the primary role of Coalition forces (CF) has been advising, training and providing information to the ISF.”...

COP OLD MOD — For weeks Iraqi Soldiers from the 11th Iraqi Army Division were put through their paces in order to successfully graduate a newly established training academy. The 11th IA Div. non-commissioned officers trained to become instructors of various classes including reading and writing literacy, computer literacy and the warrior leadership. The training ended Oct. 30 with a formal graduation ceremony at the training academy at Combat Outpost Old Mod, but started with the hard work and dedication by many individuals and the leadership of the 11th IA Division almost eight months ago. The course is designed to...

An open standards row is brewing between the EC and a lobbying group for software multinationals over a proposed European framework on interoperability – a draft of which is due to be published on 15 July.The Interoperable Delivery of European e-government Services to Public Administrations, Businesses and Citizens (IDABC) arm of the European Commission presented an outline of version two of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) at a meeting in Brussels last week.The main crux of the new framework according to the presentation, which can be viewed here (pdf) (http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/servlets/Doc?id=31224), is that European governments, firms and users should “be prepared...

Standards Set For Energy-conserving LED LightingThese solid-state lights are powered by energy-efficient light emitting diodes and are among the first ones of a new generation expected to cut energy needed for lighting by 50 percent by 2027. (Credit: NIST) ScienceDaily (July 1, 2008) — Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in cooperation with national standards organizations, have taken the lead in developing the first two standards for solid-state lighting in the United States. This new generation lighting technology uses light-emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of incandescent filaments or fluorescent tubes to produce illumination that cuts energy consumption...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – Showing appreciation for the men and women that risk their lives to defend the United States is essential, and yet rumors and fears about ethical restrictions that limit the amount of gift giving is a concern for many philanthropic organizations. Lee Bradley, director of the Department of Defense Ethics, Standards and Conduct Office came on ASYLive BlogTalkRadio yesterday to clarify some of these concerns. "I recognize that a whole lot of people believe that gift rules are very restrictive, ... but federal employees really live by the creed of ‘public service is a public...

There is currently a pervasive feeling in this country that says, “We the People have no right to demand high standards from our political leaders.” I think we do! These are the people to whom we will entrust the welfare of our country, the future of our children and our freedom. I think that morals and integrity not only count but that they are everything. I don't think they are out of reach. These standards are the baseline from which we have a right to expect our leaders to make their decisions regarding the complex issues of our world. Our...

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2008 – The Defense Department maintains stringent standards for its recruits, despite an increase in felons the military services accept. A senior defense official said waivers sometimes are granted to people who commit “youthful pranks that went way too far,” but not to dangerous criminals. The military granted waivers to 903 felons in 2007, 511 of them for the Army and 350 for the Marine Corps, Bill Carr, acting deputy under secretary for military personnel policy, told American Forces Press Service. These numbers, up from 249 in the Army and 208 for the Marine Corps in 2006,...

<p>In the more than a century since 'perfect' platinum-iridium cylinders were first used as the world's kilogram standards, their weights have mysteriously fluctuated. Scientists are rethinking what the measure means.</p> <p>GAITHERSBURG, MD. -- Forty feet underground, secured in a temperature- and humidity-controlled vault here, lies Kilogram No. 20.</p>

SEATTLE (AP) — The format Microsoft Corp.'s Office 2007 programs use to save documents was approved as an international standard Tuesday, a step the company touted as proof it is willing to make once-proprietary technology work openly with competing programs. But the International Standards Organization vote didn't quiet some opponents, who argued that the Office Open XML standard still locks out competitors and gives Microsoft customers no choice but to keep buying its programs forever. The decision was made public on the Web site of a European standards organization, Ecma International, on Tuesday. ISO is expected to formally announce the...

I have been covering Microsoft for over 25 years - I've even written a few books about Windows. During that time, I've developed a certain respect for a company that just doesn't give up, and whose ability to spin surpasses even that of politicians. To be sure, Microsoft has crossed the line several times, but it has always worked within the system, however much it has attempted to use it for its own ends. No more: in the course of trying to force OOXML through the ISO fast-track process, it has finally gone further and attacked the system itself; in...

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2008 – The Iraqi security forces are days away from publishing their first uniform weapons-qualification standards, a senior U.S. official charged with helping the Iraqis build and train their troops said today. Iraqi forces, until now, have managed weapons qualification at the unit level with local commanders deeming how and when their troops are trained, said Navy Capt. John Andrews, chief of staff for the Joint Headquarters Advisory Team from Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq. The new uniform standards will help measure readiness across the force and also help commanders budget and request ammunition and other logistics...

This is almost too good. It’s the standard Big Media snobbishness about bloggers — coming in a quote from one of bloggers’ biggest punching bags, Helen Thomas: “What I really worry about is that I think the bloggers and everyone, everyone with a laptop thinks they’re journalists,” Thomas said. “And, they certainly don’t have our standards. They don’t have our ethics, and so forth. There’s a deterioration.” “[T]hey certainly don’t have our standards. They don’t have our ethics . . .” Well, she’s right about that.Here’s one example.On January 2, crab-grass blogger Dan Riehl wrote a post about a wide...