No Child left behind cartoon

Principal accused of fixing failing grades behind teachers’ backs

Santiago Taveras

The principal of DeWitt Clinton HS, a struggling Bronx school in Mayor de Blasio’s multimillion-dollar Renewal program, changed students’ failing grades to passing without teachers’ knowledge or consent, insiders told The Post.
In one case, Santiago Taveras gave a senior who received a “no show” in a global-history class a 75 and changed her failing 55 grade in gym to a minimum passing 65, records show. She then got a credit for each class, which she didn’t deserve, several staffers charged.

“He thinks he’s God and can do whatever he wants.”
- DeWitt Clinton staffer

“He thinks he’s God and can do whatever he wants,” one said.
The office of the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools is probing the allegations, said spokeswoman Regina Romain. Taveras did not return a call or email seeking comment.
Taveras, 50, a former deputy chancellor in the city Department of Education who closed failing schools, left a private job to lead DeWitt Clinton in 2013, vowing to revive the once-great Kingsbridge school. Its many VIP alumni include p

Fiorina: Obama 'delusional' about magnitude of climate change as security threat

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on Sunday called President Obama “delusional” to think climate change is the country’s biggest terror threat and criticized liberals and others trying to make a political statement about the recent Planned Parenthood shootings.
“That’s delusional for President Obama, Hillary Clinton or anyone else to say that climate change is the biggest security threat,” Fiorina told “Fox News Sunday.”
Obama has made several speeches in which he has said climate change is “an urgent and growing threat,” including his 2015 State of the Union address in which he said: "No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change."
Fiorina spoke one day before world leaders meet in France to try to reach a global pact to reduce carbon output and about two weeks after 130 people were killed in terror attacks in Paris.
“Terrorists don’t care that we’re going to Paris, other than it provides a target. President Obama is delusional on this,” continued Fiorina, with 3.5 percent of the popular vote and sixth in the GOP primary field of 13, according to the most recent averaging of polls by the nonpartisan website RealClearPolitics.com.
Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, also condemned the fatal attack Friday on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., saying the shooter is “deranged’ and should be tried for murder.
However, she said trying to link the killings to those who support the pro-life movement or oppose Planned Parenthood selling fetal tissue for research is “typical left-wing tactics.”
“The vast majority think what they’re doing is wrong,” Fiorina said.
She also addressed reports that the alleged shooter, Richard Lewis Dear, said “no more baby parts,” an apparent reference to the non-profit research sales.
Fiorina said Planned Parenthood stating recently that it would not long continue the practice “sounds like an indication they were.”

Supreme Court justice blocks Native Hawaiian vote count

HONOLULU –  A U.S. Supreme Court justice on Friday issued a temporary stay blocking the counting of votes in an election that would be a significant step toward Native Hawaiian self-governance.
Justice Anthony Kennedy's order also stops the certification of any winners pending further direction from him or the entire court.
Native Hawaiians are voting to elect delegates for a convention next year to come up with a self-governance document to be ratified by Native Hawaiians. Voting ends Monday.
A group of Native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians is challenging the election, arguing Hawaii residents who don't have Native Hawaiian ancestry are being excluded from the vote. It's unconstitutional for the state to be involved in a racially exclusive election, they say.
The ruling is a victory on many fronts, said Kelii Akina, one of the Native Hawaiian plaintiffs and president of public policy think-tank Grassroot Institute of Hawaii.
"First, it's a victory for Native Hawaiians who have been misrepresented by government leaders trying to turn us into a government-recognized tribe," he said in a statement. "Secondly, it is a victory for all people of Hawaii and the United States as it affirms racial equality."
Nai Aupuni, the nonprofit organization guiding the election process, is encouraging voters to continue casting votes, said Bill Meheula, an attorney representing the group.
"Reorganizing a government is not easy and it takes the courage and will of the candidates to take the first step to unify Hawaiians," he said in a statement. "Help them by voting now."
Attorneys representing the state have argued that the state isn't involved in the election.
"The state has consistently supported Native Hawaiian self-governance," state Attorney General Doug Chin said in a statement. "This is an independent election that may help chart the path toward a Native Hawaiian government. Today's order does not prevent people from voting in this election. It only places a hold on counting those votes until the Supreme Court determines how to proceed."
Former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka spent about a dozen years trying to get a bill passed that would give Native Hawaiians the same rights already extended to many Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
When it became clear that wouldn't happen, the state passed a law recognizing Hawaiians as the first people of Hawaii and laid the foundation for Native Hawaiians to establish their own government. The governor appointed a commission to produce a roll of qualified Native Hawaiians interested in participating in their own government.
Some of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit say their names appear on the roll without their consent. The non-Hawaiians in the lawsuit say they're being denied participation in an election that will have a big impact on the state.
The lawsuit points to nearly $2.6 million from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a public agency tasked with improving the wellbeing of Native Hawaiians, as evidence of the state's involvement.
Nai Aupuni is a private, nonprofit corporation whose grant agreement specifies the Office of Hawaiian Affairs won't have any control, Meheula said.
U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright in Honolulu ruled last month the purpose of the private election is to establish self-determination for the indigenous people of Hawaii. Those elected won't be able to alter state or local laws, he said.
The challengers appealed and also filed an emergency motion to block the votes from being counted. Last week, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the emergency motion, prompting the challengers to appeal to the high court.
The election is a divisive issue among Native Hawaiians. University of Hawaii law professor Williamson Chang is one of about 200 candidates vying for 40 delegate positions representing Native Hawaiians across the state and those living on the mainland. Chang doesn't agree with the process, but said he's running because it's an opportunity to fight federal recognition.
Those who support the election say it's an opportunity to create their own government for the first time since 1893, when American businessmen — backed by U.S. Marines — overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Clinton opened State Department office to dozens of corporate donors, Dem fundraisers

WASHINGTON –  As secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton opened her office to dozens of influential Democratic party fundraisers, former Clinton administration and campaign loyalists, and corporate donors to her family's global charity, according to State Department calendars obtained by The Associated Press.
The woman who would become a 2016 presidential candidate met or spoke by phone with nearly 100 corporate executives and long-time Clinton political and charity donors during her four years at the State Department between 2009 and 2013, records show.
Those formally scheduled meetings involved heads of companies and organizations that pursued business or private interests with the Obama administration, including with the State Department while Clinton was in charge.

The AP found no evidence of legal or ethical conflicts in Clinton's meetings in its examination of 1,294 pages from the calendars. Her sit-downs with business leaders were not unique among recent secretaries of state, who sometimes summoned corporate executives to aid in international affairs, documents show.

But the difference with Clinton's meetings was that she was a 2008 presidential contender who was widely expected to run again in 2016. Her availability to luminaries from politics, business and charity shows the extent to which her office became a sounding board for their interests. And her ties with so many familiar faces from those intersecting worlds were complicated by their lucrative financial largess and political support over the years -- even during her State Department tenure -- to her campaigns, her husband's and to her family's foundation.

In its response to detailed questions from the AP, the Clinton campaign did not address the issue of the candidate's frequent meetings with corporate and political supporters during her State Department tenure. Instead, campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said "Secretary Clinton turned over all of her work emails, 55,000 pages of them, and asked that they be released to the public.áSome of that will include her schedules.áWe look forward to the rest of her emails being released so people can have a greater window into her work at the department."

The State Department turned the Clinton calendars over to AP under the federal Freedom of Information Act earlier this month after censoring many meeting entries for privacy reasons or to protect internal deliberations. The State Department's release of Clinton emails has so far turned up at least 155 planning schedules, called "mini schedules," but they account for about only 7 percent of the 1,159 days covered by those email releases.
Merrill said Clinton was not sent the planning "mini-schedules" every day or when she traveled, "which would account for why you see some on some days and not on others."

The AP found at least a dozen differences between Clinton's planners and calendars involving visits. A June 2010 Clinton planning schedule that the State Department released uncensored shows a 3 p.m. meeting between Clinton and her private lawyer, David Kendall. But Clinton's formal calendar lists the 20-minute session only as "private meeting -- secretary's office," omitting Kendall's name.

The Clinton campaign could not explain those discrepancies but said the candidate had made a good-faith effort to be transparent by giving her work-related emails to the State Department for public release.

American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten met Clinton three times, in 2009, 2010 and 2012. She saw Clinton for a half hour in October 2009, the same year the union spent nearly $1 million lobbying the government. The union also spent at least $1 million on lobbying in 2010 and 2012.

Weingarten's union endorsed Clinton's 2016 presidential bid in July, and Weingarten is on the board of Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting Clinton in 2016. The union has also given $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.

PepsiCo Inc. CEO Indra Nooyi also had at least three scheduled contacts with Clinton. In February 2010, Nooyi and General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt met Clinton as part of the State Department's efforts to secure corporate money for an American pavilion in China's Shanghai Expo in May of that year. Nooyi talked twice with Clinton by phone in 2012, a year when PepsiCo spent $3.3 million on lobbying, including talks with State Department officials.

PepsiCo's foundation pledged in 2008 to provide $7.6 million in grants to two water firms as a commitment to the Clinton Global Initiative. The Clinton charity also listed a PepsiCo Foundation donation of more than $100,000 in 2014, the same year the soda company's foundation announced a partnership under the charity to spur economic and social development in emerging nations.

A PepsiCo spokesman declined to discuss conversations it said its senior leaders may have had.

obama climate change cartoon

Carson says Syrian refugees don't want to come to US

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson finished touring Syrian refugee camps in Jordan Saturday and suggested that camps should serve as a long-term solution for millions, while other refugees could be absorbed by Middle Eastern countries.
“I did not detect any great desire for them to come to the United States," Carson told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Jordan. "You've got these refugee camps that aren't completely full. And all you need is the resources to be able to run them. Why do you need to create something else?"
Carson toured the Azraq camp in northern Jordan under heavy Jordanian security. The tour was closed off to journalists. Carson’s campaign also limited access, not providing his itinerary.
Upon finishing his tour, Carson reiterated his opposition to allowing any Syrian refugees to come to the U.S., saying he didn’t learn anything that gives him confidence in authorities’ ability to screen potential terrorists.
"What I learned is that you're going to get a different answer from everybody depending on what their slant is," he said. "I always oppose doing unnecessary things, particularly dangerous and costly unnecessary things.”
Carson also urged Americans to launch a “humanitarian drive” to raise billions of dollars that officials say is needed to improve the conditions for refugees settled across several countries in the Middle East. Carson told the Associated Press said all the refugees needed is “adequate funding.”
“They were quite willing to stay there as long as it takes before they can get back home."
Carson has often taken a harsh tone when discussing the refugee crisis, including how the U.S. handle resettling the refugees on American soil, amid concerns about terrorists foiling the vetting process.
Last week, he likened blocking potential terrorists posing as Syrian refugees to handling a rabid dog.
He also suggested Saturday that it would be best to absorb Syrian refugees in Middle Eastern host countries, which have given temporary shelter to most of the more than 4 million Syrians who have fled civil war in their country since 2011.
In a separate statement, he described Syrians as "as very hard working, determined people, which should only enhance the overall economic health of the neighboring Arab countries that accept and integrate them into the general population."
And he broadened his call for financial support beyond Americans: "The humanitarian crisis presented by the fleeing Syrian refugees can be addressed if the nations of the world with resources would provide financial and material support to the aforementioned countries as well as encouragement."
More than 4 million Syrians fled their homeland since 2011, after a popular uprising erupted against President Bashar Assad and quickly turned into a devastating civil war. Most initially settled in neighboring countries, but conditions there have become increasingly difficult.
Carson and his GOP rivals have criticized the administration’s plan to welcome 10,000 Syrian refugees this budget year.
The retired neurosurgeon has repeatedly struggled to discuss international affairs as they become a greater focus in the 2016 presidential contest.
Those close to him concede his foreign policy fluency isn't yet where it needs to be. And they hope missions like this will help change that.
"I'd say he's 75 percent of the way there," Armstrong Williams, Carson's longtime business manager and closest confidant, said last week of the candidate's grasp of foreign policy. "The world is a complex place, and he wants to get it right."

Obama to Paris for climate summit amid global terror concerns, GOP vow to pull deal money

President Obama arrives Sunday in Paris to finalize a global climate-change pact that if completed would be a legacy-defining part of his presidency. But he awaits challenges at home and abroad, including questions about who will pay for the changes and whether terrorism is a more imminent concern.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans suggested last week that the GOP-led chamber must approve the Paris deal, or it will withhold billions that the U.S. has pledged, as part of the pact, to help poor countries reduces their carbon output.
“Congress will not be forthcoming with these funds in the future without a vote in the Senate on any final agreement as required in the U.S. Constitution,” Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and 36 other GOP senators said in a letter to Obama.
They also made clear that any deal including taxpayer money and a binding timetable on emissions must have Senate approval. And they argue that Obama has already pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund “without the consent of Congress.”
The United Nations talks will take place on the outskirts of Paris, where 130 people were killed roughly two weeks ago in terror attacks, which has also sparked concerns about whether world leaders should now be more focused on stopping terror groups.
Obama said Tuesday at a White House press conference with French President Francois Hollande that the summit will be a “powerful rebuke” to terrorists, including the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks.
“The world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children,” Obama also said.
Still, Paris and the surrounding area will essentially be locked down for the 12-day summit. And climate-change activists have reportedly agreed to cancel a march Sunday, after an appeal from French leaders.
“I have to salute the responsibility of the organizations who would have liked to demonstrate but who understand that if they demonstrate in a public place there is a security risk, or even a risk of panic,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told The Guardian.
About 150 heads of state are set to join Obama for talks on Monday and Tuesday as the deal nears the finish line. The goal is to secure worldwide cuts to emissions of heat-trapping gases to limit the rise of global temperatures to about another 2 degrees from now.
The concept behind a Paris pact is that the 170 or so nations already have filed their plans. They would then promise to fulfill their commitments in a separate arrangement to avoid the need for ratification by the U.S. Senate.
Such dual-level agreement could be considered part of a 1992 treaty already approved by the Senate, said Nigel Purvis, an environmental negotiator in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.
But it's not just about whether or not to ratify.
Latin America countries attending the negotiations reportedly will demand that the wealthiest countries and those that pollute the most pay for the reduction of carbon emissions.
In the United States, the talks are entangled in the debate about whether humans really are contributing to climate change, and what, if anything, policymakers should do about it. Almost all Republicans, along with some Democrats, oppose the steps Obama has taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions, arguing they will hurt the economy, shutter coal plants and eliminate jobs in power-producing states.
Half the states are suing the administration to try to block Obama's unprecedented regulations to cut power plant emissions by roughly one-third by 2030. The states say Obama has exceeded his authority and is misusing the decades-old Clean Air Act. If their lawsuit succeeds, Obama would be hard-pressed to deliver the 26 percent to 28 percent cut in overall U.S. emissions by 2030 that he has promised as America's contribution.
Opponents also are trying to gut the power plant rules through a rarely used legislative maneuver that already has passed the Senate. A House vote is expected while international negotiators are in Paris.
And Republicans running for president are unanimous in their opposition to Obama's power plant rules; many say that if elected, they immediately would rip up the rules.
The administration mostly has acted through executive power: proposing the carbon dioxide limits on power plants, which mostly affect coal-fired plants; putting limits on methane emissions; and ratcheting up fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks, which also cuts down on carbon pollution.