2005

Here's the right-leaning National Review's John J. Miller's assessment of the Talent/McCaskill Senate race:The Democrats didn’t recruit their best candidate to challenge GOP senator Jim Talent -- that probably would have been secretary of state…

PUB DEF Weekly is pleased to announce it is now hosting a blog for Peter Down's informative St. Louis Schools Watch.The URL is http://slswatch.pubdef.net and it will be updated often, so check it regularly.This continues…

Rest in peace, brother.

In case you missed it, below is an op-ed by Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Mel Martinez (R-FL) on comprehensive immigration reform. The op-ed ran in today’s (Dec-15) Wall Street Journal, Page A18.Like millions of…

By Peter DownsNovember 22, 2005 –– Last Friday, David Welch, director of gifted education programs for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, gave representatives from metropolitan area school districts the news they had…

October 31, 2005 -- State Senators Rita Days and Pat Dougherty and State Reps. Yaphett El-Amin and Margaret Donnelly will be at the St. John's Heart Institute in Springfield on Wednesday for the next in…

St. Louis School Board member Bill Purdy called the program "a national scandal" and "a travesty" and refused to vote for it at the school board meeting on October 11. Fellow school board member Ron…

October 24, 2005 -- The Washington Post reports that Phoenix-based New Times Media, the nation's largest publisher of alternative weekly newspapers (including the Riverfront Times), is buying the owner of the Village Voice and its…

Peter Downs, publisher of St. Louis Schools Watch and a parent of SLPS students, will be announcing his candidacy for a seat on the St. Louis School Board on Saturday, Dec. 10.Downs' supporters hope the…

December 1, 2005 -- Fifty years ago today, a 42-year-old Southern black woman made a decision to no longer be a party to her own disrespect. Rosa Parks said “no” to the question of her…