The James Logan Courier

By Ellis Henican
Newsday (MCT)

So Rudy Giuliani's a gun lover after all.

How much you want to bet the ambitious ex-mayor also turns out to be an ardent right-to-lifer, a staunch gay-rights opponent and a real immigration hawk before the Republican primary season is done?

It's amazing, isn't it — how an election can magically align a candidate's deeply held views with those of the party base?

By Linda Steadman, Courier Staff Writer

Loud Music, unique decorations, and tons and tons of people; all factors that go into a perfect dance.

Unfortunately, James Logan High School has no sense when it comes to actually throwing a dance. The dances the school puts on seem to always have the decorations and the music, but few students seem to want to go.
Why is that? Is it because it never seems to be publicized well? Or is it because the students already know that no one will be attending? Maybe it is because James Logan is so enormous and cliquish that many students feel they’re to “cool” to attend these dances?

I went to Washington High Schools’s Back-to-School dance last Friday. Unlike our dances, it looked as if it was prom or something. Everyone was there.

By Trudy Rubin
The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)

In his address last week on "the way forward in Iraq," President Bush omitted the most important things you need to know.

Most Americans want a strategy that will stabilize Iraq and let us draw down troops without greater chaos. The Petraeus-Crocker testimony to Congress offered tactics that may keep Iraq from crumbling further. But it was up to the president to present a strategy to hold Iraq together and prevent greater radicalization of the entire region.

Instead, Bush punted. Far from offering a "way forward," his Iraq program will — at best — keep the status quo until the mess is dumped on the next president in 2009.

By Wayne Madsen
(MCT)

WASHINGTON — Democratic Senate-House conferees should stick to their guns in support of tough energy legislation aimed at pushing Americans out of their gas-guzzling SUV's in a last-gasp attempt to stop a global warming catastrophe.

Forging the strongest energy bill possible means retaining two House provisions that would increase the gas mileage of the average motor vehicle to 35 miles per gallon from the current 27.5 mpg by 2020 and require that 15 percent of the electricity generated by private utilities come from renewable sources such as solar and wind by the same date.

They also should keep another House provision that levies a $16 billion "windfall profits tax" on oil and natural gas companies in order to dramatically reduce America's unconscionable spewing of global warming gasses like carbon dioxide and methane.

By Musa Biawogi, Courier Staff Writer

Who ever heard of getting 100 years in jail for a school fight?

The situation in Jena, LA has recently got air time in media because even they believe the sentencing are not fair to the six African-American teens who were arrested for brawling with a white schoolmate. I think the D.A. and the authorities are blowing this way out of proportion.

By David Collins, Courier Opinion Editor

For years, James Logan High has assembled teams of students from each grade to form the student body, which we call Leadership. The process is a democratic voting system in which student can be voted into the Leadership program by gaining a larger number of votes than other candidates. The candidates can publicize through posters, pins and any other manner that doesn’t violate the school code.

Once the candidates are voted into a one of the numerous positions such as secretary, president, vice president and treasurer, they are the voice of they’re peers. They have control of the grade’s theme for that year, certain activities and the ever-popular school dances.

By Wendy Chamberlin
(MCT)

Words do count. When words are misconstrued, they can easily incite and inflame hatreds. When properly studied and appreciated for what they are — vessels of culture — language can lead to understanding other people.

Take the word "madrassa" as an example. All too many people in the West, when they hear the word, conjure up a sinister breeding ground for terrorists. Madrassa is simply the word for "school." It is for exactly this reason that the opening of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in New York City is so important.

By Michael Goodwin
New York Daily News (MCT)

If you're looking for a true sign of how far we've come since 9/11, skip the new video from Osama bin Laden and focus on the police bust of terror plotters in Germany last week. The basic facts of the case — the nature of the plot, who was behind it and the fact that the good guys won — tells you what you need to know about how we're doing.

My scorecard sees some good signs, but not nearly enough for us to win. And remember, there can be no ties in this war.

By David Collins, Courier Opinion Editor

Since the 2006-2007 term of James Logan High School, the time schedule has been modified to optimize the number of instructional minutes. As a result, our time for lunch has been reduced from our former 50 minutes to our current 43 minutes, which includes the 7-minute passing periods. If these passing periods are deducted from the lunch period, then the time allotted is a meager 29 minutes.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday, Aug. 27:

Why do we even have a "college-loan industry"?

In this country, where education is supposedly valued so highly and where almost every student is counseled to take courses beyond high school, why has usury become the vehicle that so many must endure to reach their desired academic goal?

Hear that? That's the sound of the "industry" crying foul. How dare anyone compare to usury the public service it claims it provides?


U.S. national average undergraduate college costs.
Source: U.S. Department of Education
For individual state averages, click here.