The Night Note: 05/10/2011

News you need to know

The following stories have been hand-selected by the Assignment Desk at News4:

Parents Object to "Liberal" Text Book

"Social Studies Alive!" is a thin and colorful third-grade textbook, but it is not as innocent as it looks to some Frederick County parents. The textbook has been a part of the county's social studies curriculum since 2004, and touches on geography, economics, history, citizenship and the environment. But some parents want it removed from classrooms because they say it does not teach facts objectively, and tends to favor and promote liberal beliefs and ideologies on issues such as health care, public education and government. (Gazette.net)

DC Schools to Cut Jobs

D.C. school officials told 660 teachers and school staffers that their jobs have been scrapped for the upcoming school year, blaming fluctuations in enrollment and school finances. "Given reductions in many local school budgets for 2011-12, approximately 660 employees across the school system received excess notices this week, effective at the end of the school year," said Fred Lewis, a spokesman for Acting Chancellor Kaya Henderson. (Washington Examiner)

Friends of Friendly High School in Allentown, Md. get quite a surprise when searching for the school through Bing.com. In a textbook example of the importance of proofreading, a slight anomaly in the listing for the school on Microsoft's search engine directs Web traffic to ******** instead of pgcps.org, the county's schools website. Unfortunately, the first link, beneath the school's name on the map search result, goes to a pornographic site. (WTOP)

White DC Residents: Tax Us

Local

Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information

GMU cricket stadium proposal scrapped

Nationals place Stephen Strasburg on 60-day injured list

White District residents are slightly more supportive of Mayor Vince Gray's tax-raising initiatives than black residents, according to the crosstabs on the recent poll commissioned by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. Those taking the poll were asked whether Gray's proposals to make multi-state corporations pay more taxes, increase income taxes of those making $200,000 or more, and raise taxes from 12 percent to 18 percent on parking garages were acceptable. In each case, a higher percentage of white voters than black voters said yes. The biggest break was over parking taxes, with 83 percent of white respondents saying they were okay with the tax increase, while only 61 percent black residents said so. (Washington City Paper)

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