AUGUSTA, Maine — Lawmakers return to the State House on Wednesday to begin their 2012 session.
The new year’s agenda concludes work begun by lawmakers last year and also will include some new items pushed by Gov. Paul LePage, including Medicaid restructuring to address a state budget gap of $221 million through mid-2013, as well as energy costs and education programs.
Among the other proposals to be taken up during the 3½-month, election-year session will be bills requiring prompt reporting of missing children, to better equip state police computer crime investigators to handle a mounting backlog of cases, to outlaw “tax zapper” computer programs that enable businesses to underreport their taxable sales, and to require Maine voters to provide photo identification.
House Speaker Robert Nutting said Tuesday that lawmakers face “tremendous challenges” in the weeks and months ahead, with Medicaid the most daunting of all.
“Having said that, legislators from both sides of the aisle demonstrated last session that they were able to work together on behalf of the people of Maine. I hope that same spirit of bipartisanship will prevail in the upcoming session,” said Nutting, R-Oakland.
Details of other major legislative proposals are expected to surface in the days ahead.
LePage’s education proposals are expected to touch on improving teacher effectiveness, strengthening and raising the profile of high school career and vocational training programs, and improving the charter school authorization law that was enacted last year. His proposal to lower energy costs calls for more cheap Canadian power and natural gas.
Introducing in the “Red” corner, the lightweight Chump from the Eastern Block of Maine, Rep. Emily Cain of Orono ..&..them Lousy Dems.. crowd responds with a LOUD WHINING noise :'<O :'<O :'<O
And proudly introducing in the Red,White and Blue corner, Elected by a Popular Majority Vote… THE Patriotic.. The Fabulous…, the Super HeavyWeight CHAMP of the great State of Maine….the Governator II …. Mr. Paul Le Page !!!!!
Crowd responds by Cheering & throwing to Him,,, Pieces of THE Mural,,,Lottery Tickets…,Bottles of Water,…whatever they can get their hands on…. LOL… HA !!! :<) :<) :<)
Now shake hands, go to your corners & when the bell rings…….come out Fighting like the Chump & CHAMP you are !!!
Keep up the Great work Governator II !!! We're with ya' all the way!!! Peace Out All ;<)
let us hope the hacks in Augusta can spell MIT
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12/21/2011
SEE LINK FOR FULL STORY
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2011/12/21/m-i-t-game-changer-free-online-education-for-all/
M.I.T. Game-Changer: Free Online Education For All
M.I.T.’s Simmons Hall
For Wall Street Occupiers or other decriers of the “social injustice” of college tuition,
here’s a curveball bound to scramble your worldview: a totally free
college education regardless of your academic performance or
background. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(M.I.T.) will announce on Monday that they intend to launch an online
learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching
of M.I.T. courses free of charge to anyone in the world.
The program will not allow students to earn an M.I.T. degree.
Instead, those who are able to exhibit a mastery of the subjects taught
on the platform will receive an official certificate of completion. The
certificate will obviously not carry the weight of a traditional M.I.T.
diploma, but it will provide an incentive to finish the online material.
According to the New York Times,
in order to prevent confusion, the certificate will be a credential
bearing the distinct name of a new not-for-profit body that will be
created within M.I.T.
The new online platform will look to build upon the decade-long success of the university’s original free online platform, OpenCourseWare (OCW),
which has been used by over 100 million students and contains course
material for roughly 2,100 classes. The new M.I.T.x online program will
not compete with OCW in the number of courses that it offers.