1. Says Earmarks Will Return In an interview with ABC's Jonathan Karl, Reid launched a vigorous defense of pork, the pet projects that members of Congress insert into bills to benefit their home states. moncler "I think it's taking power away from the legislative branch of government and giving it to the executive branch of government," Reid said of the president's plan. "The executive branch of government is powerful enough and I think that I know more about what Nevada needs than some bureaucrat down on K Street." coach storeState School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA), the standards provide a general In addition to blasting Obama's anti-earmark plan, the Nevada senator also sounded less than impressed with the president's proposed five-year spending freeze on discretionary spending. cursive is also not on the tests that rate schools under the No Child Left Behind MAC law, and increasingly schools gear their curricula to excel at those tests, says Kathleen Wright, a national project manager for Zaner-Bloser, a publisher of education writing materials. "It's just not being assessed. That's the biggie," she says. "If it's not assessed, it tends Moncler down jacketsto fall by a little because people are teaching to the test." So what's the big deal if your little John Hancock doesn't have a big loopy cursive signature of his own? nhl Antiquated or no, cursive is viewed by some parents and educators as essential to an education -- especially as text-happy teens become ever more thumb-centric. "I've been disappointed in general with the public school system here," says Lisa Faircloth, a stay-at-home mulberry handbagsmother of two in Atlanta. She says she is pleased that her 7 year-old son Joe learned cursive. "I feel like it has helped him with his fine motor skills and made him more graceful," she says. "He shows more of an interest in art because he is able to form things he hadn't before and has new muscle movements that he didn't know before." States are allowed the option of re-including cursive if p90xthey so choose, "I'm not enthusiastic about it because it's not broad enough," Reid said. "We have to make sure that defense is included in that because certainly defense spending is getting bigger and bigger and bigger." Editor:ximikoohye121