Media

It's time to stop ignoring poverty and the realities that disadvantaged students face. We must instead address the factors that can and do impede student achievement and well-being.
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It was a somewhat eclectic week in politics. The House -- in one of their rare moments when they actually meet and attempt to get something done -- passed a bunch of bills which have exactly zero chance of becoming law. Well, at least they had fun, right?
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ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Just as more restaurants, eateries and ordinary consumers embrace Meatless Mondays, Old Town food emporium Society Fair is going whole hog -- or at least cow -- in the other direction on the first day of the work week.

Society Fair’s chef, butcher and charcutier, Julien Shapiro, will be leading special 90-minute "Beast" artisan butchery sessions on Mondays once a month, where up to 10 people can sign up to watch him demonstrate his skills. Those who attend get to sample some of the meat along the way and have first dibs on specialty cuts.

This season's sessions, which kick off this Monday, will focus on the Randall Lineback heritage breed, but later iterations of Beast might feature other animals, like lamb.

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ROYAL NAVAL AIR STATION CULDROSE, England -- Even the wind cooperated at this normally blustery naval station, remaining calm as David Beckham lit a celebratory cauldron and signaled the start of the 2012 London Olympics torch relay.

There was a hushed "oooooh" as the former England national team captain and current star for the Los Angeles Galaxy took center stage as the flame arrived in the United Kingdom from Greece on the eve of a 70-day relay. Then, as the fire roared to life in the gold and white cauldron, there was an "ahhhh" of relief. Even the vagaries of British weather wouldn't interfere this time.

"This is a big acceleration of the heartbeat," London Mayor Boris Johnson said as he summed up the moment. "This is the final furlong for us."

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Many communities are proposing making microchipping all dogs mandatory. Besides finding your dog, there are two good reasons to make microchips mandatory.
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It's been a revelatory season for The CW's "Nikita." The show shed the last vestiges of its procedural beginnings and wholeheartedly embraced its compelling mythology, drawing fans deeper into Percival Rose's treacherous web of politics and deceit.
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A 33-year-old Knoxville, Tenn. man with 30 children appeared in court this week to ask the state for child-support help, Memphis news station WREG reported Wednesday.

Desmond Hatchett has fathered 30 children -- which is believed to be the record in Knox county, according to the Los Angeles Times -- with 11 different women. His youngest children are toddlers and his oldest is 14.

Hatchett reportedly asked the court to give him a break on his payments, claiming that he's struggling to make ends meet with his minimum-wage job. Currently, the state requires him to divide 50 percent of his earnings among the 11 women, some of whom receive as little as $1.49 a month, WREG reports.

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The spare, modern courtyard at LACMA transformed into a bass-thumping hip hop venue Thursday night.

Rap trio 3MG (Murs, Eligh and Scarub) performed together for the first time in five years, drawing about 1,000 underground hip hop fans to the fine arts bastion.

The event was the first in a series of hip hop concerts called "Through The Mic," a performance schedule focused on Los Angeles acts, curated by Murs. It's also LACMA's boldest attempt thus far to directly engage the local hip hop community.

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A part of my life I sometimes struggle with is my need of submission. I have had discussions more than once with people on this and have been told that it's a phase, it's OK, or as my mother sometimes puts it "be your own woman!" Submission, in my opinion, is sometimes a struggle but other times selfless and rewarding in ways that aren't always tangible. To that extent, I ponder an age-old question that is asked again and again: "What do you get out of it?"

Service submission, which is submission that is usually platonic and (for me) focused on benefiting my partner more than I, was how the lifestyle was introduced to me and now is a part of my life. I had begun experimenting with kink my second year of college, it sounded interesting, and was a foot in the door. After focusing my attention in other areas, and after a disastrous attempt the first time, I decided to try again.

The next partner, who started this search of self-identity, asked "why" during a work day near the end of the relationship. We had decided to pay someone for extra help, he was working on his house, and I was working for no compensation and really no tangible reward. I was unable to answer why I had the need, knowing that I really was not attracted to his form of control. Fortunately the relationship was already suffering and I wasn't getting anything intangible out of it either.

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Spare me the line about how your anti-gay views are unassailable because they're your firmly held religious beliefs. It's utterly hollow. Hate wrapped in the name of God is still hate.
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This article comes to us courtesy of California Watch.

By Shoshana Walter

Last year, California Attorney General Kamala Harris joined attorneys general across the country in declaring war against Backpage.com, a free classified website run by Village Voice Media. The officials threatened legal action if the site didn't stop running ads for adult services, some of which have been linked to underage sex trafficking.

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WASHINGTON -- CNN's Anderson Cooper, playing on behalf of an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services for LGBT youth, won Friday's "Jeopardy!" Power Players, beating New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and NBC's Kelly O'Donnell.

The Trevor Project, Cooper's sponsored charity, won $50,000.

The 2012 Power Players series was taped last month at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in the nation's capital.

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This podcast features writer Robert Faires, talking about his creative space. Faires is the Arts Editor for The Austin Chronicle and has been active in the city's theatre scene as a writer, actor, and director since 1980.

It's part of a series spun out of Fusebox Festival's The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour curated by Elizabeth Doss and Annie La Ganga.

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By: Denise Tejada

With just a ten millimeter wrench and a screwdriver, Brian Simmons has built and sold more than 100 motorized bicycles in Oakland, CA, under the label Rebelbikes. The company has been around for three years. The two-man shop based out of the comfort of his living room.

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The Republican leaders in Congress have mostly defined themselves by what they're against, but now they've announced what they're for -- the most popular parts of the Affordable Care Act. I can only imagine the political identity crisis this is causing within the GOP.
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The biggest question for me is to what extent an abject disregard for the welfare of sentient beings can ever be justified in the name of luxury.
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Food Network star Paula Deen opened up to ET's Nancy O'Dell at her Savannah, Georgia home about keeping her controversially-revealed diabetes under control.

"It's probably around 30 pounds," Deen says about the weight she's lost, by making small changes like eating extra servings of salad and veggies and smaller portions of carbs, she says. She's also been trying to walk 30 minutes a day.

Her sugar levels are good, ET reports, but her indulgent, comfort-food recipes aren't off limits. "I'm a Southern girl, and that's who I am, that's what I know," she says, although admits she can't eat them as often as she might like to. "I is what I is," she says.

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SAN DIEGO -- A man's implanted heart defibrillator may have saved his life in an unexpected way – by stopping a knife.

San Diego police say the 57-year-old got into an argument with an acquaintance early Thursday near some elevators at the trolley station for the Fashion Valley shopping mall.

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WASHINGTON -- The reelection campaign of President Barack Obama reported raising $25.7 million in April, down from $35 million raised in March.

While the campaign raised fewer dollars last month than the previous one, its support from small donors remained high with 43.7 percent, or $11.23 million, coming from donors giving less than $200 in total.

Big donors were still a source of support with donors giving $2,500 and above contributing $3.69 million in April.

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The Cannes Film Festival is known for its amazing and daring fashion moments -- and so far this year we haven't been disappointed.

In fact, Jada Pinkett Smith decided to don a bold design with an extremely low-cut neckline while dining with the co-stars of her children's animated film "Madagascar 3."

With a silhouette like that, we're sure the 40-year-old actress was on major wardrobe malfunction watch. But thankfully there was no nip slip..or even belly button slip to report.

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