So what did protestors do to warrant tonight's police violence?

Ferguson Hires PR Firm That Appears To Be Staffed Only By White People

The city of Ferguson has retained the public relations firm Common Ground Public Relations to help its communications department in light of the ongoing turmoil in the St. Louis, Mo., suburb and the firm appears to be staffed entirely by white people, according to the photographs of staff members on its website.

Common Ground is "assisting the city of Ferguson's media relations department with the large volume of media queries," Common Ground's Nina Kult told TPM. "We're just assisting in handling the large volume of queries."

The "Meet The Team" page on Common Ground's website seemed to only display Caucasian employees. When asked how the apparent lack of diversity on their team might factor into Common Ground's work for Ferguson, given the heightened racial tensions there over the death of 18-year old Michael Brown, Kult declined to comment directly on that aspect of their work.

"We're just handling media relations as of very recently and that's really all we're doing. We're just handling media queries and that's all I can really say right now," Kult said.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/city-of-ferguson-public-relations-common-ground

It's come to this: Amnesty International is on the ground in MO.

Possibly the first time they've ever deployed into the United States.

SF teachers give huge majority to strike authorization vote

San Francisco teachers have overwhelmingly supported a preliminary strike vote, with 2,238 checking the yes box on the ballot and 16 voting no.
Union officials from the United Educators of San Francisco released the count Monday morning, the first day of the school year.

The vote is the first of two required before a strike can be called, but that won’t happen anytime soon.

The district and union are still in the mediation and fact-finding process, with the next bargaining session scheduled for Sept. 2. The teachers can’t strike until that process has played out, district officials said.

http://blog.sfgate.com/education/2014/08/18/sf-teachers-give-huge-majority-to-strike-authorization-vote/

TN voters renominate scumbag to Congress.

NASHVILLE—Two abortions. Maybe three, if you count the one he pressured a girlfriend—who happened to be his patient—to get. Pulling out a gun during an argument with his first wife. Prescribing pills to another patient while they dated. Getting reprimanded by the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners for dallying with patients, an ethics violation.

Voters in Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District had plenty of reasons not to vote for incumbent Scott DesJarlais last week. The Tea Party Republican might have snuck under the radar to win a first term in 2010 and held back an onslaught of negative publicity long enough to capture a second one in 2012, but a third time? When conservative voters in this district, which stretches from the edges of Chattanooga to Nashville, went to the polls, they were widely expected to run off a pro-life, family-values conservative who had shown in divorce court that he could bend those beliefs in his own life. If this was supposed to be a throw-the-bums-out kind of year in Congress, then DesJarlais was the ultimate bum, and he ought to have joined Ralph Hall, Kerry Bentivolio and Eric Cantor as the only incumbent members of Congress to lose thus far.

But clearly, the voters thought otherwise. If current results hold—and so far, there’s no reason to believe they won’t—DesJarlais appears to have captured the Republican nomination again by a mere 37 votes. All that would stand in his way to a third term is accountant Lenda Sherrell, the Democratic nominee in the heavily Republican district.

As a reporter who has followed DesJarlais these past 21 months, I have watched with a mixture of amazement and respect as he—running for re-election for the first time since it surfaced that his personal life could have been a storyline from “Nip/Tuck” and written off by political handicappers in both Tennessee and Washington—has managed to mount a comeback with little money or political support. In a year in which incumbents have beaten back challengers nationwide, a DesJarlais win could very well be the most extraordinary feat of them all, putting him alongside the likes of Ohio’s notorious James Traficant, who served nearly 20 years despite charges of tax-evasion, taking bribes from mobsters and forcing his aides to clean horse stalls on his farm, in the ranks of some the most improbable congressional hangers-on of all time.


http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/scott-desjarlais-reelection-110028.html#ixzz3AgUHWRYA

SF teachers union still counting strike authorization votes

San Francisco teacher union officials were still counting ballots Friday after teachers gathered the night before to take the first of two votes required to go on strike.

Results were expected to be announced on Sunday or, more likely, Monday morning as children head back for the first day of school.

If a majority of teachers vote in favor, it would allow the union to call an official strike vote. It would then be up to union leadership to actually schedule a strike.

But with the district and United Educators of San Francisco still at the table, a teacher strike won’t come for weeks if not months.


http://blog.sfgate.com/education/2014/08/15/sf-teachers-union-still-counting-strike-authorization-votes/

San Francisco School District: We don't care if middle-class families go private.

As more parents choose private schools or move away to suburban schools, only half of the kids born in San Francisco end up in public kindergarten. The school district projects most of its future enrollment growth will come from families in public housing.

Meanwhile, a dozen new private schools will have opened in San Francisco between 2009 and 2015.

Some school officials dismiss the flight of middle-class and wealthy families by saying attention is best focused on serving the needs of the poorer students who remain in public school.

Yet imagine if the school district viewed middle-class parents who can afford private tuition as valuable customers worth competing for.

Parents with resources donate their time and money to the classroom, which benefits all students. They will also have skin in the game when it comes to the politics of taxes and school funding.

If one-quarter of San Francisco's families opt out of public school, how much will they care about what happens to public schools? It doesn't bode well for the poor students left behind.


http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/san-franciscos-tale-of-two-school-systems/Content?oid=2875677

Whenever these brutality cases come up, I recall my mom's depiction of police in her hometown.

My elderly mom is, sadly to say, not the most progressive person when it comes to race. But whenever these police brutality cases comes up in the news, she always surpasses me and talks sympathetically for the victim. She surprises me that is, until I recall her account of local police in her childhood homes in rural and small-town Kentucky. She recounted the days when there were no professional standards for hiring police officers and sheriff's deputies. New recruits were topically bullies hired straight out of high school and spent their time on-duty beating up "old people and drunks" (she never admitted this, but I suspect they may have beaten up my grandfather a time or two). So, to this day, my typically prejudiced mom will turn and give victims the benefits of a doubt.

My God, Obama looked old today.

I know it's been six years since he was elected President, but today he looked like he's had the job for decades. I hope he can maintain his health in the remainder of his term.

Funny and sad: Chris Rock ~ How Not To Get Your Ass Kicked By The Police (VIDEO)

Funny and sad at the same time.