Mcnorman's Weblog

Chelsea’s housing boss was rarely on the job.

Michael E. McLaughlin, who abruptly resigned as Chelsea housing director last month after his $360,000 salary was revealed, put in only 15 full workdays in Chelsea all year to earn his extraordinary paycheck, according to a Globe review of his work cellphone records.

15 days.   Whatever happened to work ethic?

Ariz schools’ ethnic studies program ruled illegal.

An administrative law judge ruled Tuesday that a Tucson school district‘s ethnic studies program violates state law, agreeing with the findings of Arizona‘s public schools chief.

Judge Lewis Kowal‘s ruling marked a defeat for the Tucson Unified School District, which appealed the findings issued in June by Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal.

Kowal’s ruling, first reported by The Arizona Daily Star, said the district’s Mexican-American Studies program violated state law by having one or more classes designed primarily for one ethnic group, promoting racial resentment and advocating ethnic solidarity instead of treating students as individuals.

The judge, who found grounds to withhold 10 percent of the district’s monthly state aid until it comes into compliance, said the law permits the objective instruction about the oppression of people that may result in racial resentment or ethnic solidarity.

“However, teaching oppression objectively is quite different than actively presenting material in a biased, political and emotionally charged manner, which is what occurred in (Mexican-American Studies) classes,” Kowal wrote.

The judge said such teaching promotes activism against white people, promotes racial resentment and advocates ethnic solidarity.

Mexico is not too far away for anyone wishing to join them.

The cairn terrier mix pup disappeared from his home on the far West Side at the end of November, was reported dead and had almost overstayed his welcome at Animal Care Services this week when his owner found him.

Sounds to me like someone let him go?

But Gutierrez said his friendly attitude won her over. He became a big part of her life, dragging her out of the house to get exercise that she needed as much as he did. So she was very upset when Stevie escaped Nov. 29 and days later, when her landlord told her he was dead.

“This is my Christmas miracle,” said Belinda Gutierrez, who thinks Stevie is about a year old. “I actually thought I was going to have a sad end of the year and a sad Christmas.”

Yes, this is a miracle.  Good luck to the little fellow.

But thanks to Craigslist, an animal-loving schoolteacher and efforts by ACS to find Stevie a place to spend the holidays, Gutierrez picked him up from the shelter Thursday.

And to make this heartwarming story of a puppy making it home in time for Christmas with his family even more so, Stevie’s not just any puppy. A veterinarian told Gutierrez her dog was born without eyes, she said, and he showed signs of abuse when her daughter found him wandering around a duck pond at Marbach Road and Ellison Drive early this year.

via A happy ending to the tale of blind pup.

Endangered and in high demand, now there is a shortage.

At the Top of Texas Catholic Superstore in Amarillo, owner Moneisa Thompson said she noticed one-ounce packages of frankincense disappearing from displays in her 3,800-square-foot store about four months ago. She has since moved the packages into a glass case.

A boswellia tree, which produces frankincense, in Yemen.”We’d go through the count and we’d come up one or two short,” Ms. Thompson said. “We had to put it under lock and key.”

For many Christians, frankincense is best known as one of the gifts—along with gold and myrrh—that the three wise men brought to Jesus and his parents shortly after he was born. The resin still is prized for its fragrance and used in some religious ceremonies.

The incense comes from the resin of the boswellia, a stout, gnarly-branched tree that mostly grows in the Horn of Africa. But encroaching agriculture and insects threaten to kill off most of the region’s boswellia within the next 50 years, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Applied Ecology by a team of Dutch and Ethiopian ecologists.

via A Shift for the Magi? Frankincense Shortage.

A high ranking Muslim leader is behind bars, arrested by Phoenix Police on suspicion of molesting a 10-year-old boy.

This guy is an imam, the highest ranking leader at a central Phoenix mosque.

Police say after his arrest he admitted to molesting a young boy. Still, members of the mosque are defending him.

“Everybody loves and respects him, I’m sure this must be some mistake,” says mosque member Jamil Aziz.

As news of the imam’s arrest spread through the Muslim Community Mosque, members refused to believe it.

“It’s unbelievable to even think that because he’s caring to all the children here. Many children come in here,” says Aziz. “I’m sure it must be some mistake because his character here is spotless.”

No, not a mistake.

Detectives say Shah admitted to the victim’s mom that he’d inappropriately touched the boy while the boy was sleeping. Then the imam confessed to detectives too.

Idiot told the mom that he was planning to leave the country.  Wonder why?

Drunken Santas Terrorized Lower Manhattan During SantaCon.  I think these guys deserve a few drinks, but I think they might have redefined the term, bad Santa.

Thousands of drunken Santas terrorized Lower Manhattan when they flooded into the neighborhood for SantaCon earlier this month, openly flouting public drinking and urination laws, locals say.

Angry residents attended Community Board 1′s Monday night meeting to complain about the latest incarnation of the annual pub crawl, whose participants have been allowed to grow more rowdy every year, they say.

“There was public urination, people vomiting all over the place, open containers and no police,” said John Fratta, chairman of the Seaport/Civic Center Committee which plans to send an angry missive to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and the 1st Precinct complaining about the lack of enforcement during SantaCon.

All in good cheer.  Guess I’m a bit sad that I wasn’t there.  LOL