Mari Ruti asks Why Fall in Love?

July 25th, 2011

Mari Ruti, author of The Summons of Love, also writes a blog for Psychology Today called The Juicy Bits: Love, lust, and the luster of life, recently wrote a post exploring the reasons why it is important to fall in love.

For Ruti, love ushers us to frequencies of human life that we might find difficult to access otherwise, and allows us a break from the pragmatic preoccupations that dominate our everyday life. Drawing on the ideas of Julia Kristeva and Alain Badiou, Ruti writes that love, adds a layer of luster to our mundane existence, making us feel empowered and self-connected even as it decenters us from our customary concerns.

In considering the potential for disappointment and disillusion that comes with love or loves failure, Ruti writes:

The problem, of course, is that we cant access the depths of love without opening ourselves to its risks that the price of allowing ourselves to experience loves mystery is utter vulnerability. This is why its easy to refuse loves summons, to decline its invitation to self-transformation.

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Tags: Love, Mari Ruti

Garcia upbeat on chances for R2T grant

July 24th, 2011

Colorado is preparing to enter a third round of competition for federal Race to the Top funds, and Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia is hopeful the state’s luck will change this time around.

“We think Colorado is well positioned” for the R2T early-childhood competition, said Garcia, the Hickenlooper administration’s point person on education issues, in a recent interview with Education News Colorado. The state came up short in two previous competitions for larger R2T programs.

The state is planning to apply for two R2T grants, the Early Childhood Challenge program whose rules were announced on July 1 and a separate “consolation” grant open to the nine states that lost out in round two of the main R2T competition last August. The total amount of federal money available is $700 million $500 million for ECE and $200 million for the other program. Colorado could receive $60 million from the early childhood program.

Garcia said the state is getting organized quickly on the ECE application, working first to consult with interest groups and early childhood leaders for advice on how the state should pitch its application. The federal

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Tags: Garcia, Garcia Chances

Local contingency plans in works as federal default looms

July 24th, 2011

Many area organizations and businesses dependent on federal support are developing contingency plans in the event that the government defaults on obligations after Tuesday.

They include doctors, hospitals and elderly patients who are dependent on Medicare payments, universities whose students are on federal grants and nonprofit organizations.

What could happen next week is that the country runs out of borrowed money and is forced to live on in-coming cash from tax revenues. The president will choose which obligations to pay, and which will have to wait.

As one independent analysis showed, the treasury would have to choose from among 80 million monthly payments so that 40-45 percent of the bills are not paid.

Failing that, a default could have a tremendous impact on investments, such as retirement accounts and stocks.

Here’s how some area organizations are preparing.

Seniors andnonprofits

Bob Kulinski, president of United Way of Summit County, expressed doubt that the government will allow a default, and his worst-case scenario is a delay of payments.

“Since they always pay nonprofits late, in terms of reimbursement for services, it really won’t make that much of a difference,” Kulinski said.

What worries him most is the emotional impact.

“What I think is unconscionable is the scary rhetoric that is making people on Social Security nervous. I don’t a

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Tags: Contingency Plans, Default

Dry Creek district offers pre-kindergarten classes

July 23rd, 2011

Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District is offering transitional kindergarten classes for children who turn 5 between July 1 and and Dec. 2 of this year.

The classes prepare students for kindergarten, but offer more than preschool, according to district officials.

Tags: Classes, Dry Creek

New Book Tuesday: Gertrude Stein & The Vichy Government

July 23rd, 2011

Unlikely Collaboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Faÿ, and the Vichy Dilemma Barbara Will

Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval Islam Shahzad Bashir

Sibling Relationships in Childhood and Adolescence: Predictors and Outcomes Avidan Milevsky

Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making Graham Harman

Tags: Gertrude Stein, Vichy

APS will put levy on November ballot and cut spending, too

July 22nd, 2011

Akron Public Schools treasurer Jack Pierson gave the board two extreme scenarios at tonights meeting for eliminating an $11.6 million deficit in the 2012-2013 school year, which balloons to more than $100 million two years later:

Extreme option A: Taxes only, no more cuts. That would require passing a 10.3 mill levy in November that would cost the owner of a $100,000 home an additional $315 a year. If the board puts it off another year, taxpayers would have to pass a 14.5 mill levy costing $444 more for the same homeowner.

Extreme option B: Cuts only, no new taxes. That would require slashing the budget by a total of $45 million by the 2014-2015 school year, with $32 million chopped in the 2013-14 year alone.

Instead, the board announced tonight that it will pursue a combination of taxes and cuts guaranteed to cause pain all around. Taxpayers will have to pass some kind of levy in November, balanced by cuts that could include school building closures, layoffs and reduction of employee health care benefits.

The board will meet Aug. 3 to choose a millage for the ballot, then submit that to the county auditor to get a precise fix on how much each mill would raise.

The board will meet again Aug. 8 to twe Read more…