Wednesday, August 5, 2009

You Can Tame the 'TV Monster'

You Can Tame the 'TV Monster'
Many parents worry about the amount of time their teen spends
watching TV. Teens should use the time they spend in front of the television
doing more important things, such as reading, day dreaming or just going
outside to play.
Here's how you can tame the "TV Monster" at your house:

a.. Give everyone a TV budget. Determine a daily limit.
Younger children may need to use TV tickets, which they "spend" by dropping
them in a jar on top of the set.
b.. Plan ahead. At the beginning of the week, sit down with
your teen and the TV listings. Decide which programs she wants to watch.
c.. Make television a privilege, not a right. Post a chart for
your teen, and deduct TV time for failure to complete tasks you think are
important. A child who leaves shoes in the middle of the floor may lose 10
minutes of time, but one who doesn't finish homework may lose more.
d.. Keep the TV out of your teen's room. A TV set behind your
teen's door is harder for you to monitor.
e.. Give "home alone" teens jobs to do after school. If your
teen arrives home before you do, make sure she has things to do-with results
you can monitor. If she has to finish writing a story, weed the garden or
take out the trash, the results of her work will show she couldn't have
spent the whole afternoon watching the tube.

Back to Ideas for Parents

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Fw: bahati asked us to send you this post from Politics Daily

New Mexico Parent & Child Resources
Bahati Myhelatu Ansari, BA, CPS
Trainer/Receptionist
3500 Indian School Rd. NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
(505)268-4973
(505)268-5056 Fax

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail, including all attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited unless specifically provided for under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and destroy all copies of this message.

----- Original Message -----

From: bahatiansari@gmail.com

To: bansari@nmpcr.org

Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 10:22 AM

Subject: bahati asked us to send you this post from Politics Daily

From: Politics Daily
URL: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/05/the-coming-ban-on-texting-while-driving/
Sent from: bahati (bahatiansari@gmail.com)
Sent to: bansari@nmpcr.org
Comments:

The Coming Ban on 'Texting While Driving'?

08-05-2009

It seems fairly intuitive: Sending text messages while driving a car is extremely dangerous, and is a pr actice that should be outlawed. Several states have already limited the use of cellphones for those behind the wheel, requiring hands-free devices and issuing fines to those who do not comply.

As yet, however, there is no way to text without looking down at your phone's keypad or screen, which makes that practice much more dangerous than simply having a verbal conversation. Well, this logic has not been lost on Transportation Secretary Roy LaHood, who is convening a "distracted-driving summit" to explore ways to get drivers to stop multitasking so much:

"People in America got fed up with their children and loved ones being killed by drunk drivers. And people in America are very tired of the idea that people can text and drive and use cellphones and drive in some states."

Recently, it came to light that officials in the Bush a dministration had kept from public view a report that equated driving while talking on a cellphone to driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 percent. Though statistics are difficult to ascertain, the Department of Transportation blamed cellphone use for 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents back in 2003, when text messaging was not a common practice. A study undertaken at Virginia Tech put a number to the belief that truckers who text are endangering themselves and other drivers: While texting, they are 23 times more likely to crash than when they are not.

Surveys of American drivers show that texting while driving is a common practice on our roads, but should it be made a crime? Should we add TWD to the list of forbidden acronyms like DUI and DWI? We live in an era of the constant data stream, and for some, kicking their addiction to that information feed -- even while driving -- might not be as easy as it sounds, whatever the consequences.

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Black Officers' Discrimination Suit Against Capitol Police Back On

Sent to you by bahatiansari via Google Reader:

Black Officers' Discrimination Suit Against Capitol Police Back On

via Politics Daily by Ria Misra on 8/3/09

Filed under: Crime, Race

Just a day after President Barack Obama shared a pint with Professor Skip Gates and police Sgt. James Crowley in the White House's flourishing rose garden Thursday, another discussion on race and the police was going on in a much less cordial venue -- a Washington courtroom. Nearly eight years ago, more than 200 black officers of the U.S. Capitol Police in Washington, D.C., sued the department, claiming discrimination. A lower court had thrown out the case after deciding that no efforts at mediation had been made, but on Friday, the Associated Press reported that the federal appeals court overturned that ruling and sent the case back to trial.

Among the charges being brought are that black officers were routinely denied promotions. It's also alleged that one officer found a noose left on his locker and that some senior white officers referred to black officers as "gangsters." "The Capitol Police management identified the leading black officers in the ranks and nastily attacked them," the attorney for the suing officers, Joseph Gebhardt, told the AP. Of the officers who brought the suit back in 2001, only a little over half are still with the Capitol Police today.

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