Friday, Feb 15, 2013

1. CLASS WARFARE: OBAMA'S STATE-OF-THE-UNION ADDRESS.

"It is our unfinished task," the president said, "to restore the basic bargain that built this country, the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like or who you love." Equal opportunity was Obamas clear theme. "Tonight let's declare that, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty -- and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour." Obama and Romney agreed a year ago that the minimum wage should be linked to the cost of living so worker's income is not always left lagging behind the economy. Even liberal politicians usually stop there. However, with families to support, workers can't take an unpaid sabbatical to prepare for the next level. That option is open only to the wealthy. So Obama proposed an emphasis on making high-quality preschool programs available to middle-class parents. As Gail Collins points out in Thursday's New York Times, this goes back to Walter Mondales Comprehensive Child Development Act. Obama proposed working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every child in America.

2. ASTEROID 2012 DA14: A REMINDER THAT THE UNIVERSE IS VIOLENT.

Unnoticed unless it was being watched through a telescope, a 150-foot asteroid hurtled by today, missing Earth by only 17,150 miles; it was the closest known flyby of Earth for an object of its size. In a chilling coincidence, a much smaller meteor exploded above Russia's Ural Mountains just hours before the asteroid zoomed by.

Bob Park can be reached via email at whatsnew@bobpark.org
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
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