Conservative Principles Now

Credit the Pittsburgh Tribune Review for being one of the nation’s first newspapers to editorialize about last month’s national Head Start evaluation, which found that the program provided children with zero lasting benefits.

They editors write: “That it took the feds more than 40 years for a proper analysis suggests it’s the spending that matters, not results. And yet Congress is moving ahead to increase early childhood education programs with $8 billion in new spending. Mr. Obama has said, repeatedly, that federal programs without benefit should be dumped. Well, Mr. President, here’s one.”

Yet most national media outlets continue to ignore this story. The evaluation—the most rigorous evaluation of one of the nation’s largest and long-standing “war on poverty” education programs which has received $167 billion since 1965—has still not been covered by the USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal.

Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez was indicted today on charges that he took a bribe in exchange for his help on a local real estate development issue.  Suarez, who has steadfastly refused to resign, was among the large group of public officials arrested last July as part of the federal government's Operation Bid Rig probe. Former Guttenberg Board of Education member Vincent Tabbachino, who allegedly funneled the bribe money into Suarez's legal defense fund, was also indicted. According to the indictment, Suarez conspired with Tabbachino to extort a cash payment from a cooperating witness - widely believed to be Solomon Dwek -- in exchange for helping with development approvals in Ridgefield. Suarez allegedly agreed to have a $10,000 cash payment provided to Tabbachino, from which Tabbachino wrote a $2,500 check from his business account in June 2009 for the benefit of Suarez, disguising the true origin of the payment.