education news

Princeton ISD crosses its t’s and dots its i’s

Make no mistake about this: The Princeton Independent School District is making a thorough effort to avoid “campaigning” on behalf of a bond issue it will ask its voters to approve in May.

The bond issue is a big’n: $797 million to build eight campuses over the next 10 years. Princeton ISD has compiled a thorough explanation of its request on its website:

Bond / Bond Information (princetonisd.net)

I was fortunate to be able to cover many of the meetings held by the citizens committee appointed to craft the proposal. They took deep dives into the cost of the project; the district’s growth projections; the impact on property owners; and even the names the district plans to attach to the new campuses.

Throughout the process, the committee was made aware of the restrictions the state places on local governments. They are empowered only to inform district residents of what they want to do; they are banned from campaigning for it using public money.

That doesn’t restrict board trustees or senior administrators from offering personal opinions on what voters should do when they go to the polls on May 6. It’s a sure-fire bet they will speak on behalf of the issue … which is OK with me.

The proposal laid out on the website is a thorough examination of the needs of a school system in the midst of a growth explosion.

It’s well done and I applaud Princeton ISD for the work it has done.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Mayor’s legacy lives on

PORTLAND, Ore. — At the risk of being hooted out of the blogging world, I feel the need to extol the legacy that a once-promising politician left behind in the city he led as its mayor.

Neil Goldschmidt took office at City Hall as a young whipper-snapper in 1972. I think he was 32 years of age, a young man elected to lead a city that at the time had about 375,000 residents.

He then proceeded to map out an agenda aimed at creating a vibrant downtown district and enhancing the city’s mass transit system.

Goldschmidt vetoed what was called the Mount Hood Freeway project, which was planned as a highway system from southeast Portland east to Mount Hood, about 50 miles away. The mayor said he didn’t want an endless series of strip malls developed along that corridor.

Instead, he persuaded the city council to focus its interests on downtown and on mass transit. He succeeded.

What has occurred in the 50 years since then is the city’s downtown district became a showpiece. The city’s bus and light-rail systems are the envy of other cities.

Oh, but wait. Goldschmidt then became transportation secretary in the Carter administration before being elected governor of Oregon. Then it hit the fan, as he was exposed as a pedophile after a newspaper investigation revealed he seduced a teenager while he was serving as mayor; reporting revealed he had sex multiple times with an underage girl.

His public service career ended on the spot. He resigned from every board on which he served. The State Capitol staff took down his governor’s portrait from the gallery of former governors and stashed it out of sight.

Goldschmidt went from municipal pioneer to pariah overnight.

He’s gone from public view, but the legacy he built remains. His reputation never will be restored. I don’t necessarily want, though, for the city treasure he discovered to be buried.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Mountains aren’t ‘out’

PORTLAND, Ore. — Those who live in this part of the world have a saying that seems to be unique to them.

When the sun is out and the clouds are gone, they will say, “The Mountain is out.” Meaning, of course, Mount Hood, the 11,245-foot sentinel that towers about 50 miles to the east of Portland along the Cascade Range.

I’ve been here for a couple of days and the Mountain isn’t out. It is hiding under a thick shroud of clouds that continues to douse the region with rainfall. Furthermore, there is no apparent window for when Mount Hood will present itself in all its snowy splendor.

Mount Hood isn’t the only such landmark to grace the horizon. Portlanders also get to gander at Mount St. Helens, the active volcano that, on May 18, 1980, blew about 1,300 feet off its summit in a spectacular explosion that killed 60 or so people, some of whom refused to heed warnings to vacate their property.

Mount St. Helens is shrouded, too.

These are the kinds of sights that those who visit this gorgeous part of the country come here to see. These days? They’re all, shall we say, “sh** outta luck.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Recalling stirring oration

A lot of Americans — too many of them, perhaps — are fixated on the upcoming charges awaiting the 45th POTUS, the moron who brought us the memorable boast that “I, alone can fix” what ails the country.

A dear friend reminded us today on a social media post about another speech delivered shortly before a gunman assassinated the man who delivered it.

He said, in part, in Memphis, Tenn. on April 4, 1968:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stirred a nation with such rhetoric. I prefer to honor this great man’s memory as I venture through my day.
science news

Ready for launch?

Americans of a certain age — which is a sort of code for “old folks” like me — recall a time when we waited with bated breath for space ships to launch from Florida en route to outer space.

It’s going to happen again, I believe. NASA has revealed the names of the crew to fly aboard the Artemis space ship in 2024. Its destination? The moon!

The Artemis II team will be made up of three Americans — Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch and Reid Wiseman — and one Canadian, Jeremy Hansen.

OK, it’s going to be a fly-by. A practice run preparing the space agency to land astronauts later on the moon’s surface as part of its preparation for eventually sending men and women to Mars.

I intend to await the launch when it occurs. I likely will awaken early that morning and watch on TV as NASA counts down prior to the ship firing and sailing away on its mission to the moon. For me, it’s going to be like the old days during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Mom and I would wait endlessly for the launches. It was the highest drama possible.

The last Apollo mission flew in 1975. It was an Earth-orbit flight that hooked up with a Soviet space ship. The most recent moon landing occurred in 1972. Then NASA canceled the moon-landing program, citing lack of money and a reported lack of interest among Americans.

I do hope the interest returns to the public that needs an event such as this to cheer. I intend to be one of the cheerleaders.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Complaints are outrageous!

When I hear the likes of the MAGA cult and other right-wing fanatics denigrate the criminal justice system because it delivers decisions they dislike … it fills me with rage.

The denigration is in full swing in the wake of Donald Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, which is about to level several criminal charges against the ex-president related to his paying an adult film star hush money to keep quiet about a fling the two of them allegedly had in 2006.

The DA in that case, Alvin Bragg, is a competent lawyer. He seated a duly constituted grand jury of ordinary folks to examine the evidence. The grand jury delivered its decision to indict Trump. Yet the former POTUS and his minions are claiming the DA and the grand jury are corrupt. They are politicizing this case.

I don’t believe any of that crap, any more than I believe the rubbish that the 2020 election was stolen, or that the Justice Department is “weaponizing” evidence just to get Trump.

I am a believer in the system. It is working as it should. Trump is likely to pay the price for misdeeds and possibly for criminal activity.

Is anyone on the take? I do not believe it … for an instant!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Predictable response

Politicians and other observers across the spectrum are reacting to Donald Trump’s indictment in totally predictable fashion.

The conservative media call the grand jury’s indictment of the 45th POTUS as a witch hunt, a “political persecution” and a case that won’t hold up. Other media suggest that Trump faces the prospect of actual prison time if a trial jury convicts him, presuming it goes to trial.

I don’t know what to think. I do believe that the hush money payment of 130 grand to Stormy Daniels is small potatoes compared to what is likely to come from other jurisdictions. The Fulton County grand jury might indict Trump on seeking to overturn an election result; the Justice Department is examining whether Trump sought to overthrow the government and obstructed justice by refusing to turn over classified documents he took on his way out of the White House.

The Manhattan indictment, though, is a big deal in this regard: It’s the first time in history that a former POTUS is accused of committing a crime.

This is going to be loads of fun to watch.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

It’s a secular document!

Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t know the Constitution she took an oath to defend and protect, as she exhibited tonight in a “60 Minutes” interview.

The fire-breathing Republican congresswoman from northwest Georgia said the United States needs to become a “Christian nation,” which prompted the interviewer, Lesley Stahl, to remind her that the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion.

Greene answered that the founders sought “spiritual guidance” when the drafted the nation’s governing document.

OK. Yes. They did. However …

The document they produced doesn’t make a single reference to Christianity, or to Jesus Christ or the New Testament. What’s more, Article VI in the Constitution says specifically that there shall be “no religious test” required of anyone seeking public office in the United States of America.

What part of “secular government” does this idiot not get?

I just had to weigh in against this moronic testimony from a second-term member of Congress who is earning her spurs by spouting dangerous demagoguery.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Live it to the fullest

PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the lessons I have gleaned from my journey out west in the wake of my bride’s passing from cancer has been something I’ve known all along.

However, it is being driven home to me as a stark reality. It is to live one’s life fully and to never, ever take for granted that you’ve got a lot of time left on this Earth.

Kathy Anne likely didn’t see the diagnosis coming when she received it on Dec. 26. We had hoped to buy her some time, that the treatment she was scheduled to receive could “control” the lesion sufficiently to give her a good quality of life.

It didn’t work out.

She was gone in six weeks. It was a stunning outcome to an event I didn’t believe was probable. Yes, it was possible and I suppose I knew it could end the way it did. I just didn’t expect it.

The journey through the Great American West will continue in due course after I finish visiting friends and family in and near the city of my birth. I believe, though, that I have reached one undeniable conclusion at the midway point of this journey.

It is that I am going to relish the sunrise every single morning I am able to do so. Every day will be an adventure. I might not verbalize it when I awake, but I will certainly realize it as each day unfolds.

That’s not a bad way to go as I keep taking these baby steps toward the light.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Mixed feelings about POTUS 45’s campaign

I remain fairly convinced that the 45th president of the U.S. isn’t going to stay in the race for the White House in 2024.

It doesn’t bother me in the least that he would drop out to concentrate on fighting the bucketloads of legal trouble standing before him.

Nor does it bother me were he to stay in. Why? Because the moron remains a highly beatable Republican nominee for POTUS if the GOP faithful is stupid enough to nominate him in 2024.

The first indictment from the Manhattan grand jury appears to be just the first of several such actions awaiting the ex-POTUS. The more serious charges — tampering with election results, inciting the insurrection on 1/6 and squirreling away classified documents — all are grounds for criminal prosecution … in my humble view.

Thus, it seems to me that it is unlikely that even this idiot can continue to campaign for the White House.

If he does, big fu***** deal!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Commentary on politics, current events and life experience