The James Logan Courier

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Community Relations Director

Another New Haven Unified School District elementary school has joined the “800 Club” of schools meeting or exceeding the state’s goal for student achievement.

Emanuele Elementary raised its Academic Performance Index by 19 points – from 781 in 2009-10 to 800 in 2010-11 – meeting the state’s target score and continuing a steady ascent over the past several years. As recently as 2007-08, Emanuele’s API was 738.

Courier Staff Report

The first day of the 2011-2012 school year went smoothly for most of the 4053 students currently enrolled at James Logan High School.

Rhonda Neagle, vice principal of operations, attributed much of the smooth opening to successful orientation meetings held with students during the summer. Attendance at the orientations was up over previous years, partly due to the district's relaxation of the requirement that students have their emergency contact forms in order to attend orientation. That requirement reduced attendance at previous orientations, Neagle said.

A casual sampling of student opinion conducted by Courier staffers during fourth lunch indicated that most students were happy to be back in school.

By Jim Puzzanghera
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. government's credit rating Friday for the first time in history, saying the recent plan worked out to raise the federal debt ceiling "falls short" of what's needed to stabilize the nation's longer-term finances.

The credit rating agency also said the partisan stalemate that put the U.S. on the brink of default this week did not bode well for efforts to reduce the nation's soaring debt.

"The political brinkmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed," said S&P, one of three leading credit rating agencies.

"The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy."

U.S. debt now will carry a AA-plus rating instead of the coveted AAA, dropping it into the same general category as countries such as Japan, China, Spain, Taiwan and Slovenia.

The downgrade could increase U.S. borrowing costs because its bonds could be considered more risky. The higher interest rates the U.S. Treasury might have to charge for its bonds could spill over into other areas, such as mortgages.

But the effect of S&P's move could be muted because U.S. Treasury bonds are still considered a safe haven, particularly in stressful financial conditions. In addition, the other two leading credit rating agencies — Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — decided this week to keep their AAA rating for U.S. debt for now.

By David Lightman and Lesley Clark
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Congress and President Barack Obama beat the deadline for raising the nation's debt ceiling by just a few hours Tuesday, but they hardly ended the clash over the size and reach of government. The next confrontation promises to be at least as contentious as the one they just finished.

Congressional leaders have two weeks to name members of a special 12-member legislative panel that's assigned under the debt-limit law Obama signed Tuesday to find ways to cut the government's budget deficit by as much as $1.5 trillion by Nov. 23. That number can be reached by reductions in spending and increases in revenues, and the brawl over how to do that already has begun.