Downingtown’s Three High Schools Named To Washington Post’s 2015 America’s Most Challenging

EAST CALN TOWNSHIP, PA – The three high schools in the Downingtown Area School District were named to Washington Post’s 2015 America’s Most Challenging High School programs list.

The Downingtown STEM Academy, Downingtown West High School and Downingtown East High School all appear on the Washington Post’s newly released list. Only 38 Pennsylvania high schools achieved this honor with Downingtown being the only Pennsylvania school district to have all district high schools nationally ranked, according to the Washington Post.

“We are very proud of our students and staff,” said Lawrence Mussoline, superintendent of schools.

The report looked at public and private high schools nationwide and ranked them based on the academic rigor of the schools’ curriculum. The Post filtered the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year. That number was then divided by the number of graduation seniors. Fewer than seven percent of the approximately 27,000 high schools in America qualified for this list.

Read more:

http://www.dailylocal.com/general-news/20150422/downingtowns-three-high-schools-named-to-washington-posts-2015-americas-most-challenging

Washington Post Ranks McCaskey Among State’s “Most Challenging” Schools

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Student test scores are often used to evaluate schools, but The Washington Post thinks test participation is also worth measuring.

The national newspaper last month published its list, “America’s Most Challenging High Schools,” which scores schools based on the number of students who attempt college-level exams.

McCaskey High School in the School District of Lancaster ranked 20th on the listing of the most rigorous high schools in Pennsylvania.

No other Lancaster County schools made the list. The nearest school that did was Lower Dauphin High School in Hummelstown.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/washington-post-ranks-mccaskey-among-state-s-most-challenging-schools/article_098fc76a-d949-11e3-9a57-0017a43b2370.html

Snowden, In First TV Talk, Says Spying Worse Than Orwellian

LONDON – National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden invoked George Orwell and warned of the dangers of unchecked government surveillance Wednesday in a televised Christmas message to the British people that reflected his growing willingness to take a public role in the debate he ignited.

Speaking directly into the camera from Moscow, where he took refuge after leaking vast troves of information on NSA spying, Snowden said government surveillance methods far surpassed those described in Orwell’s novel 1984.

“The types of collection in the book – microphones and video cameras, TVs that watch us – are nothing compared to what we have available today,” he said. “We have sensors in our pockets that track us everywhere we go. Think about what this means for the privacy of the average person.”

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20131226_Snowden__in_first_TV_talk__says_spying_worse_than_Orwellian.html#3gVbhdh5Q74aqKM3.99

President Obama’s Dragnet

With his family by his side, Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr. in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2009. More than 5,000 men and women in uniform are providing military ceremonial support to the presidential inauguration, a tradition dating back to George Washington’s 1789 inauguration. VIRIN: 090120-F-3961R-919 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Within hours of the disclosure that federal authorities routinely collect data on phone calls Americans make, regardless of whether they have any bearing on a counterterrorism investigation, the Obama administration issued the same platitude it has offered every time President Obama has been caught overreaching in the use of his powers: Terrorists are a real menace and you should just trust us to deal with them because we have internal mechanisms (that we are not going to tell you about) to make sure we do not violate your rights.

Those reassurances have never been persuasive — whether on secret warrants to scoop up a news agency’s phone records or secret orders to kill an American suspected of terrorism — especially coming from a president who once promised transparency and accountability.

The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

Based on an article in The Guardian published Wednesday night, we now know that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency used the Patriot Act to obtain a secret warrant to compel Verizon’s business services division to turn over data on every single call that went through its system. We know that this particular order was a routine extension of surveillance that has been going on for years, and it seems very likely that it extends beyond Verizon’s business division. There is every reason to believe the federal government has been collecting every bit of information about every American’s phone calls except the words actually exchanged in those calls.

Read more:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?hp&_r=0

Snow: Lots In D.C., Less For Philly

The storm dubbed Saturn by the Weather Channel and Snowquester by the Washington Post is shaping up as a major event for D.C. and Baltimore, less so in the Philadelphia area.

West Virginia and western Virginia could see a foot-and-a-half of snow and areas closer to I-95 in Virginia and Maryland could see 10 inches of heavy wet snow that “will lead to power outages,” according to the National Weather Service.  Snow is expected there thoughout the day into the evening.  Federal offices in Washington closed this morning.

This morning’s revised forecast for most of the Philadelphia area, though, is calling for rain today that will start turning to snow in the early evening, producing an accumulation of perhaps two to four inches by Thursday morning.

Chester and Lancaster Counties, though, could see snow all day, with slushy conditions at first, as temperatures will be above freezing. But the snow could be heavy at times and accumulate more overnight, perhaps up to four inches.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/Snow_Lots_in_DC_less_for_Philly.html

York PA: Home Of The Factory Tour

If you enjoy seeing how things are made then you should take a trip to York.  A number of manufacturers offer guided tours of their facilities.  A Washington Post Reporter visited York as was amazed.

This year, five factories and businesses are opening their doors and giving guided tours of their production facilities.  They include:  Sunrise Soap Company, Sweet Willow Creamery, Modern Landfill and Recycling Center and York County Resource Recovery.  Later this spring a fifth tour will be available at the Turkey Hill Experience (ice cream).  Tours were already available at Martin’s Potato Chips, Bluett Brothers Violins and Harley-Davidson Motorcycles.

Read the entire Washington Post article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/made-in-york-pa/2011/03/31/AFYdeivC_story.html