Peanut Butter News

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CNN) — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick urged a school district to revise its policy allowing students as young as in elementary schools to get condoms if they are believed to be sexually active.

“It is simply not age appropriate to have a program in place for such young children, not to mention not having parents of such young children involved,” Patrick said in a statement.

“Comprehensive reproductive health education needs to be done in an age appropriate manner.”

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There was a bit more pomp and considerably more circumstance than usual at the Falkville High School graduation ceremonies Monday night. Marching alongside the fresh-faced Alabama seniors ready to make their way in the world was 95-year-old Earlene Harvey-Morris, whose own dreams of a diploma were snatched away from her 77 years ago

Full Story at msnbc.com

School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June.

The districts have no choice, they say, because their usual sources of revenue — state money and local property taxes — have been hit hard by the recession. In addition, federal stimulus money earmarked for education has been mostly used up this year.

As a result, the 2010-11 school term is shaping up as one of the most austere in the last half century. In addition to teacher layoffs, districts are planning to close schools, cut programs, enlarge class sizes and shorten the school day, week or year to save money.

Full Story at msnbc.com

WASHINGTON – NASA and the National Academy of Sciences are joining the government’s effort to figure out what caused the sudden acceleration problems that led to Toyota’s massive recalls.

NASA scientists with expertise in electronics will help the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study potential electronic ties to unintended acceleration in Toyotas.

Full Story at msnbc.com

Kansas City, Mo., plans to close nearly half its public schools by fall. Illinois’ governor wants to raise state income taxes by 1 percent to continue funding schools and prevent the layoffs of thousands of teachers. Hawaii, President Barack Obama’s home state, has whacked 17 days from the school year and says it’s not done with educational cost-cutting.

From Maine to Wisconsin, Florida to California, school districts across the country are taking drastic measures to deal with school budget cuts made severe by the recession and its aftermath. Msnbc.com asked readers how their school district is coping, and one clear lesson emerged — cuts in education make no one happy.

Full Story at CNN.com

Denver, Colorado (CNN) — During emergency drills at Deer Creek Middle School, teacher David Benke used to tell his students that if anything ever happened, he wanted to be able to “do something about it.”

When he saw a man shooting at students as they were leaving the Littleton, Colorado, school on Tuesday, “What was going through my mind,” Benke said, “was that I promised.”

Full Story at ABC News.go.com

A suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly switching on laptop computer webcams inside students’ homes says it never used webcam images to monitor or discipline students and believes one of its administrators has been “unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked.”

The Lower Merion School District, in response to a suit filed by a student, has acknowledged that webcams were remotely activated 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing, lost or stolen laptops — which the district noted would include “a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus.”

Full Story at CNN.com

(CareerBuilder.com) — Higher education isn’t for everyone, and people have a variety of paths to choose from once they graduate from high school. They might know from the start that they want to go straight to the professional world.

Other new graduates often decide to try college for a semester to see how it goes and then realize it’s not for them.

While the decision to pursue a degree or to enter the work force is fraught with pros and cons, earning a lot of money isn’t. Not that money means everything, but wouldn’t we all like to see some bigger numbers on our next paycheck?

Full Story at msnbc.com

WASHINGTON – Universities and colleges are still waiting for tuition payments for thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who attended school last fall under the new GI Bill, leaving the veterans panicked that they’ll be unable to return to class in January.

Veterans Affairs Department officials promise to get them back into the classroom. The VA says the number of veterans with claims unprocessed is now fewer than 5,000 — down from tens of thousands — and the goal is to have them all processed by the end of the year

Full Story at CNN.com

Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) — Principal Sherrie Gahn said she was shocked when she first came to Whitney Elementary School seven years ago.

“The kids were eating ketchup packets,” Gahn said. “I said to one of my teachers, ‘What on Earth are they doing?’ and she said, ‘That’s their dinner.’ “

Whitney Elementary is in a dusty, rundown neighborhood of Las Vegas known as the Boulder Strip. The main drag, the Boulder Highway, is lined with pawn shops and low-rent motels.

Full Story at msnbc.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A prototype version of NASA’s newest rocket is ready for its planned Tuesday launch, mission managers said Friday.

NASA is set to test the design of its next-generation rocket, Ares I, during a demonstration liftoff called Ares I-X. The launch, slated for 8 a.m. ET on Oct. 27 from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center here, will be a suborbital flight of the new rocket’s first stage, with a dummy second stage and mock crew capsule on top.

NASA officially gave the go-ahead for Tuesday’s launch after a Flight Test Readiness Review meeting among mission managers.
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“The team is ready to go fly,” said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager, at a briefing following the meeting. “The vehicle is actually ready to go fly.”

Full Story at CNN.com

Now, actress Florence Henderson, otherwise known as Mrs. Brady, has a new mission: Helping older adults learn to use technology.

Her new business, Floh Club, is a “telephone-based technical support service” focusing on people who didn’t grow up with computers — especially grandparents who want to stay in touch with family but are intimidated by webcams, Facebook, instant messaging or even e-mail.

Henderson says Floh Club is “like roadside assistance for your computer.”

She spoke with CNN’s Josh Levs about her inspiration, her grandkids and “Brady Bunch” rumors as the show celebrates its 40th anniversary.