Published: Feb 23, 2012
Seattle LAST week, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that teachers’ individual performance assessments could be made public. I have no opinion on the ruling as a matter of law, but as a harbinger of education policy in the United States, it is a big mistake. I am a strong proponent of measuring teachers’ effectiveness, and my
Read original article Topics: Energy-Policy
Published: Feb 23, 2012
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, seeking to promote domestic manufacturing without increasing the federal deficit, proposed Wednesday to offset new tax breaks for manufacturers by raising taxes on a wide range of other companies. Some of the prospective losers are familiar targets, including oil and gas companies, private equity firms
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Published: Feb 23, 2012
WASHINGTON — President Obama asked Congress on Wednesday to scrub the corporate tax code of dozens of loopholes and subsidies to reduce the top rate to 28 percent, from 35 percent, while giving preferences to manufacturers that would set their maximum effective rate at 25 percent. Mr. Obama’s proposal , outlined by Treasury Secretary
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Published: Feb 23, 2012
BRUSSELS — During the past decade, the European Union blazed a green trail with a series of laws mandating a low-carbon economy and promises to set an example for other parts of the world. That now seems like another era. A succession of economic crises has pushed European governments to pare subsidies to clean-energy sectors like solar power
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Published: Feb 21, 2012
The Republican presidential candidates have not made immigration a focus of their campaigns. But, as they head toward a debate on Wednesday in Arizona, ground zero for anti-immigrant hostility, it is a good time to ask them hard questions about immigration. The odds are bad that they will have sensible answers. These candidates have abandoned
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Published: Feb 20, 2012
PARIS — Iran ’s government on Sunday ordered a halt to oil exports to Britain and France , in what may be only an initial response to the European Union ’s decision to cut off Iranian oil imports and freeze central bank assets beginning in July. Britain and France depend little on Iranian oil, however, so their targeting may be a
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Published: Feb 19, 2012
AS plans for the Keystone XL pipeline faltered over the last six months, its route through a pristine aquifer in Nebraska proved to be its fatal political flaw. Environmental groups had raised numerous other serious objections: Building the pipeline would lead to a rise in climate changing gases; its environmental review was tainted by conflicts of
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Published: Feb 19, 2012
WASHINGTON — Rising gasoline prices, trumpeted in foot-tall numbers on street corners across the country, are causing concern among advisers to President Obama that a budding sense of economic optimism could be undermined just as he heads into the general election. White House officials are preparing for Republicans to use consumer angst
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Published: Feb 19, 2012
Before humans conquered snowmaking, ski resorts relied on the vagaries of Old Man Winter. He was not always forthcoming. So in the dry Connecticut chill of 1949-1950, Walter Schoenknecht, the owner of the Mohawk Mountain ski resort, took matters into his own hands. “He trucked in 700 tons of ice,” recalled Arthur Hunt, a forefather of
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Published: Feb 18, 2012
To the Editor: Your Feb. 14 news article about corporate contributions to environmental organizations, “ Answering for Taking a Driller’s Cash ,” blurred two distinct issues: working with corporations to reduce environmental impacts, and accepting contributions from those corporations. As a result, the article, as originally
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