Sunday, May 22, 2011

Tasers and Teachers in New York

You get one and not the other:

"Prisoner stunned in his cell by Taser dies 

Then it's murder, ain't it? 

WEST BABYLON — A New York man in custody after a dispute with his neighbor was stunned twice with a Taser gun in a prison cell and died, police said. Suffolk County police said officers used the electrical weapon in an attempt to subdue 40-year-old Daniel McDonnell after he began “acting irrationally’’ Friday morning while being held in a police station cell."

"1 in 12 NYC teachers could lose jobs" May 07, 2011|Associated Press

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled a shrinking budget yesterday that would cut corners throughout New York City — including in classrooms, where public school children stand to lose one out of 12 teachers, and in jails, where officials are saving pennies by cutting items like bread, pepper, and ketchup from the menu.

The $65.72 billion budget also calls for a 12 percent cut to the city’s libraries, the closure of some swimming pools, and the loss of 20 fire companies, a step that the city’s fire commissioner said would slow firefighters’ response times.

Bloomberg placed the blame for the city’s financial woes on cutbacks handed down by state and federal legislators, and on what he said was a national movement against funding government efforts. Business tax revenues have surpassed the level they were at before the collapse of the financial sector, he said....

The loss of 6,166 public school teacher jobs would include an anticipated 4,100 layoffs. It would be the first time the city’s public school teachers would get pink slips since the 1970s. Some opponents had suggested the mayor was bluffing and that such layoffs are often threatened as a budgetary bargaining chip....

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