Do They Teach Poetic Justice in Betsy DeVos' Dream Schools?

Davis said that after the visit was announced, she received reports that parents and activists would attempt to block DeVos's entrance to the school. "Everyone will have a different way of demonstrating discontent with her policies. I understand why some parents are concerned. My message is that we have got to keep the pressure on the Department of Ed., on Betsy DeVos, to ensure that structures are in place that would safeguard our public schools and stay vigilant. We simply cannot be on the sidelines and let things happen to our public schools without voicing our concerns and resisting things that would be harmful to our kids." … At the end of the visit, DeVos told reporters: "It was really wonderful to visit this school, and I look forward to many visits of many great public schools both in D.C. and across the country."

Swearingen sued under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, a half-century-old law that prohibits deceptive and unfair practices in business. That law now faces a likely defanging at the hands of the Missouri Legislature. A Senate committee approved a bill with big changes, and it is now awaiting a vote of the Senate. "It's looking like it's going to sail right through," said Cara Spencer, executive director of the Consumers Council of Missouri and a St. Louis alderman. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Ron Richard, R-Joplin, the speaker pro tem of the Senate. The change would exempt auto dealers, payday and title lenders, finance companies, cable and phone companies and a host of other businesses from being sued for violating the act.

His great grandfather was a Boozer - "in name only," the treasurer said - and he married a Young. So they took their two surnames and came up with a family name. Young Boozer. And it probably comes with a mandatory sense of humor, too. As Young Boozer III, he fretted about a future grandson who would, of course, be Young Boozer V.

"Hugh is one of the most influential and intelligent conservatives in political media, simultaneously thoughtful and provocative," said Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt. "It's essential to us that we offer readers a range of views, and we're thrilled that Hugh has agreed to join our diverse team."

Pronounced az-dar-kid, these giant reptiles were named after the azhdar of Iranian mythology: huge lizards with wings that populated Persian epics. Real life azhdarchids were actually pterosaurs, the group of flying reptiles most commonly recognised in the form of the head-crested Pteranodon; much beloved of scientifically dubious film and television… It is among the ranks of the latter "arch-predators" that we place the most monstrous azhdarchids. These creatures are Giger-esque. You wouldn't bat an eyelid seeing them striding across the landscape of a far-flung planet in a science-fiction film, or scratched on a canvas, spewed from the fantastical mind of a troubled artist. As is so often the case in palaeontology, the reality is even greater than fiction. Azhdarchids were real animals that lived during the Cretaceous (108-66 million years ago). Recent examination of their fossils suggests some of them grew to become nightmarish giant land predators, roaming the prehistoric islands of Transylvania.

"These azhdarchids were giraffe-sized, quadrupedal Panzer-storks," Witton vividly described to me the animals he specialises in. "We have to look at the smaller, two to five metre wingspan azhdarchids, for clues to the life appearance of the big ones, but multiplying their well-known anatomy across to our giant remains creates some pretty awesome animals." Hatzegopteryx is so far known from only some bits of skull, partial limb bones, and a neck bone, but palaeontologists can often tell a lot from very little. The single huge neck vertebra is is evidence that it had a proportionally short and stocky neck, resistant to twisting. With no other giant predators known from Haţeg Island, Witton and Naish suggest that these animals were the apex predators of their ecosystem.