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Archaeologists Discover High Priest’s Bell?

Archaeologists have discovered a rare gold bell with a small loop at its end. The finding was made during an archaeological excavation in the City of David National Park (near the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem)…

The directors of the excavation… archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, said after the finding, “The bell looked as if it was sewn on the garment worn by a man of high authority in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period.

The high priests who served in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem used to hang golden bells on the edges of their coats. The book of Exodus (Shemot), for example, contains a description of the coat of Aaron the high priest in which it is said that coat contains, “bells of gold.”

Ossuary Belonging to a Daughter of the Caiaphas Family of High Priests was Discovered

Three years ago the Israel Antiquities Authority Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery acquired a decorated ossuary bearing an engraved inscription. The ossuary was discovered by antiquities robbers who plundered an ancient Jewish tomb of the Second Temple period. During the course of the investigation it was determined that the ossuary came from a burial cave in the area of the Valley of ’Elah, in the Judean Shephelah.

Ossuaries are small stone chests that Jews used for secondary burial of bones; they were quite common in tombs in Israel from the late first century BCE until the beginning of the second century CE. The front of the ossuary that was found is decorated with a stylized floral motif above which is a long Aramaic inscription engraved in Jewish script:

‘Miriam Daughter of Yeshua Son of Caiaphas, Priests [of] Ma’aziah from Beth ’Imri’
(or, an alternative reading:

‘Miriam Daughter of Yeshua Son of Caiaphas, Priest of Ma’aziah from Beth ’Imri’)

In the conclusion of their study Dr. Boaz Zissu and Professor Yuval Goren write, “the prime importance of the inscription lies in the reference to the ancestry of the deceased – Miriam daughter of Yeshua – to the Caiaphas family, indicating the connection to the family of the Ma’aziah course of priests of Beth ’Imri”. Caiaphas is the name of Yeshua’s father, and Miriam‘s grandfather. From the wording of the inscription we learn that he belonged to a famous family of priests that was active in the first century CE. One family member, the high priest Yehosef Bar Caiaphas, is especially famous for his involvement in the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.

3,000-year-old altar uncovered at Philistine site suggests cultural links to Jews

A stone altar from the 9th century BCE was found in an archeological dig on Tel Tzafit, a site identified with the biblical Philistine city of Gat. The altar is reminiscent of Jewish altars from the same period and sheds light on the cultural links between the two peoples, who fought each other for centuries.

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Despite recent efforts to make the Connecticut tax system fairer, the wealthiest 1% of our residents will still pay only half as much of their income in state and local taxes as the poor and middle class, according to a new analysis by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy.

The state and local tax reforms approved in 2011 made Connecticut’s tax system more equitable by generally reducing taxes for lower-income residents, through the earned income tax credit, and raising them among higher-income residents.

These changes were essential to a balanced approach to our economic and fiscal problems that helped protect vital education, health, and other services for families and position Connecticut for long-term economic growth. But even after these changes, our tax system remains highly imbalanced. After accounting for federal deductions, estimates show that Connecticut’s low- and middle-income families will pay between 9.6% and 11.4% of their incomes in state and local taxes, while the top 1% of income earners will only pay about 5.5%.

Few would agree that those most able to pay should contribute less of their income than those least able to pay.

The decision by Connecticut policymakers to increase revenues as part of a balanced approach to the state’s deficit crisis has elicited fierce debate, so it is important to put these changes in proper context. In late 2009, the gap between what the wealthiest 1% paid in taxes as a percentage of income and what the poorest 20% paid was higher in Connecticut than in most other states.Connecticut ranked among the ten states with the highest taxes on the bottom 20%, and among the twenty states with the lowest taxes on the wealthiest 1%. Recent revenue reforms will decrease the proportion of income the bottom 20% of residents pay to 11.4%, from 12.0%, and increase the proportion that wealthier taxpayers pay (for amounts by income group, see table below). Even after these changes, the poorest residents are estimated to pay over twice as much of their income in state and local taxes as the top 1%.

As the table above shows, some taxes, such as sales and property taxes, are regressive, meaning that low income people must pay a greater share of their income on them than high income people. Other taxes, such as the income tax, are the opposite, progressive. Currently, regressive taxes in Connecticut outweigh progressive taxes, which places a higher overall tax burden on low- and middle-income households. The progressive state income tax changes recently passed have brought better balance to Connecticut’s tax system, though the very wealthiest residents still pay far lower proportions than anyone else.

Anti-tax advocates often claim, without strong evidence, that raising taxes on the very wealthy would hamper economic growth and cause a decrease in revenue because of wealth migration. The majority of the evidence in fact points to opposite conclusions. An upcoming review of the literature on so-called “tax flight” finds that the effects of tax increases on migration are, at most, small and lead to significant net increases in state revenue. Taxes, it finds, are simply not a significant factor in decisions about where to move compared to much more important factors like home prices, employment opportunities, and community networks.

Another recent report by the Political and Economy and Research Institute at UMASS Amherst explored tax migration in New England and came to similar conclusions, finding that by raising state revenue and using that revenue to create job opportunities states could actually draw new residents to their states. Finally, a study published in the Summer 2011 issue of Connecticut Economy magazine found that states with an income tax had similar long-term economic growth as states without an income tax.

In wealthy states like Connecticut, regressive taxes are especially troubling because they make the problem of rising income inequality worse. As we continue to reform our state and local tax systems to be more fair and effective, more should be done to equitably distribute state and local taxes.

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A Public Defender
I know it when I see it

Finally, my favorite subject: pornography. Everyone has to have heard of Justice Potter Stewart’s words which form the title of this post, written in a concurrence in Jacobellis v. Ohio, on the issue of “obscene” videos. And almost no one knows what it means. After a flurry of decisions in the 1960s and 70s (Stanley v. GA, Smith v. CA, Miller v. CA, Jenkins v. GA) attempting to define exactly what is obscene and what is protected and just who can be prosecuted with and ending up with a mess of a Constitutional doctrine, the Supreme Court – and the general American public – seem to have given up on pornography altogether. No one really cares anymore and there’s hardly ever a prosecution for the production, sale and possession of adult pornography.

A Connecticut Law Blog
Law School Poll by Ryan McKeen

If you could go back to the moment in time before you enrolled in law school, knowing what you know now, would you enroll?

Only In Bridgeport
Foster Wants To Run A BOE Slate – Another Election Storm? – Marilyn Moore Seeks City

UPDATE: Democratic mayoral candidate Mary-Jane Foster, who opposes the state mothballing the Bridgeport BOE, wants to run a slate of school board candidates on her ticket. She is asking local election officials to release petition papers to secure signatures from registered Dems for BOE candidates. Democratic Registrar of Voters Sandi Ayala is asking state elections officials for guidance in light of a state takeover of city schools.

Wait, What (Jon Pelto)
DEEP Commissioner Ends Popular Consumer Hotline for Utility Problems

In the end, it’s all a matter of priorities and it turns out that the Malloy Administration doesn’t consider a consumer hotline that received 45,000 calls last year from Connecticut consumers in search of help a high enough priority.

Worse, adding insult to injury, the funding for this key consumer service doesn’t even come from state’s taxpayers. The service is paid for by a surcharge on the utility companies.

Despite that, Dan Esty, Governor Malloy’s new commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, has decided to end the hotline and lay off the state workers who have been helping consumers deal with the problems that they are having with their utility companies.

The new DEEP was created through the merger of state’s Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Public Utilities Commission and the Energy Division of the Office of Policy and Management.

And now, thanks to a story by Jon Lender in today’s Hartford Courant, we learn that one of Commissioner Esty’s first decisions was to end the successful Consumer Utility Call-in Center. See Courant story http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-consumer-unit-laid-off-0728-20110727,0,4861075.story

CTNewsJunkie
OP-ED | Dear EMILY’s List . . . Really? by Sarah Darer Littman

Dear EMILY’s List,

I am a registered Democrat and a pro-choice woman, and I appreciate the goal of your organization. I’ve even given you money in the past.

But here’s the thing. When I decide who will get my vote, it’s based on a lot more than whether or not my candidate has a penis. My thought process is considerably more complex, because, as I’m sure you’ll appreciate, we women are thoughtful, intelligent and educated and we want the best possible candidate regardless of sex, sexual orientation, religion or any other discriminatory factor.

That’s why I was appalled to see that you’d endorsed a flawed candidate like Susan Bysiewicz in the U.S. Senate race. Perhaps you didn’t do your research or actually talk to people in Connecticut?

If you had, you might have learned of the candidate’s overweening ambition, well-known in these parts, which led her to make an ill-advised leap from running for governor (where she had a comfortable lead in the polls) to the attorney general’s race, without, apparently, checking to see if she met the legal requirements for the job (she didn’t)…

CT Blue by JCW
Santorum: Ignorant or Liar? We report, you decide.

ABC is asking the Republican candidates to explain the foreign made t-shirts and other doodads that their campaigns are distributed.. Rick Santorum:

Made in the Dominican Republic. It’s tragic that so many products in this country are made outside of this country. And what we have to do is create a different dynamic. I think my policies are very clear that we have to go out and make setting up a business in this country productive.

Unfortunately under this administration and frankly previous administrations we have had had a unfriendly environment, particularly to the textile business.

You probably can find a T-shirt occasionally made in the United States but it’s harder and harder to do. That’s the tragedy. It’s a case in point of the tragedy of those kinds of jobs that should be in the United States but are not.

Matter of fact, it takes about 3 seconds to find a t-shirt made in this country, as the Google demonstrates. These Republicans really should learn that it’s far easier these days to uncover a lie than it used to be. But then, since the media rarely calls them on their lies, maybe they just don’t care.

Soccer Safari by Mike Levitt
Bob Bradley Axed As U.S. Men’s Soccer Coach

So who will this new mystery manager be? Will it be Klinsmann, who famously turned down the job in 2007 because Gulati and U.S. Soccer wouldn’t give him complete control of the system from the ground-up? Will it be Jason Kreis, the former American player now coaching Real Salt Lake in MLS? Then again, it could it be another longtime MLS coach like Sigi Schmid, Dominc Kinnear, or Peter Nowak.

One long shot? Former U.S National Team captain and current U.S. Youth Soccer Technical Director Claudio Reyna. Reyna, who played in Germany, Scotland, and England, is making huge strides in changing the youth soccer curriculum in this country, but has no managerial experience. Considering the need to overhaul the system and Reyna’s involvement at the game’s elite levels, he could be the perfect middle ground for the decision makers.

As interesting a prospect as Reyna may be, given soccer’s relative popularity stateside these days, we will likely see an international name. If not Klinsmann, who must be the odd-on favorite for the job, it may be someone else in the European ranks of the caliber of Italian Marcelo Lippi or Dutchman Guus Hiddink.

Connecticut Bob

Save the FITP

Connecticut’s Film Industry Training Program (FITP) is currently being threatened by budget cuts. This program is essential to creating a workforce for the many feature films that are being produced here in Connecticut. Right now there are quite a few major features scheduled here during the next several months, with high profile stars such as Robert De Niro (above), Meryl Streep, Robin Williams…

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You have to go look at what the Washington Post has done about the debt ceiling crisis.

It’s absolutely great!

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Representatives Jim Himes (CT-4) and Rosa DeLauro (CT-4) this week called on Metro North to perform an official investigation into the events of Friday, July 22 when trains became inoperable during the afternoon commute and passengers were left stranded on sweltering trains with little information and no safe exit. The representatives are urging Metro North to establish a standard operating procedure for responding to train outages that includes specific protocol for communicating with passengers.

Click here to read the letter Himes and DeLauro sent to Metro North officials.

“While incidents like this illustrate the dire need to invest in our transportation infrastructure, especially trains in the Northeast, we absolutely must uphold the highest standards of passenger safety,” said Himes. “I appreciate that Metro North has apologized to passengers, but we need procedures in place to ensure future travelers remain safe and well-informed.”

“Until we complete the long overdue replacement of railcars and electrical systems on the Metro North line we need to ensure that we have policies and procedures in place for future problems,” DeLauro said. “These kinds of delays and miscommunication are not only inconvenient, they can be dangerous. I will keep working, along with my colleagues, to improve our rail infrastructure and ensure that commuters can reach their destination safely and on time.”

From the letter:

Reports from passengers aboard these trains are alarming. Commuters were stranded in train cars with no power as their surrounding temperatures reached over 100 degrees. Meanwhile, they received no information from train officials, leaving them confused, helpless, and, given the weather conditions, in potential physical danger… With no incoming information from MTA or Metro North officials, several individuals who were able to pry open train doors exited trains directly onto the tracks.

…the blame can only be placed on outdated rail infrastructure that has that has yet to be replaced. But the treatment of passengers and the lack of communication between Metro North employees and commuters cannot be tolerated.

… In addition to reinforcing and possibly reevaluating current practices, we strongly recommend that you, the leadership of the MTA and Metro North, consider codifying a set of standardized practices that commuters can come to expect should an unforeseen emergency arise.

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Hospice Care Research

From Healing to Hospice: The Shift Toward a Good and Compassionate Death

University at Buffalo School of Social Work Professor Deborah P. Waldrop has seen people die. Too often, their lives have ended in pain and despair, spending their final days in an alienating institutional environment, just another patient in an impersonal progression that leads to what she calls “reciprocal suffering” for families who also watch their loved ones die.

There is another way. In the decades and multiple settings Waldrop has worked with terminal patients, she has seen a growing emphasis on factors that contribute to a “good death.” People can make that life transition in a home that has sustained them for many years, surrounded by the people who have given their lives meaning. “Comfort” can be the defining goal of a death without pain and suffering.

Too often, Waldrop says, critically and chronically ill patients lack information about options for care that can lead to that “good death” scenario. Bridging that gap — identifying what factors or “trigger points” at which important conversations should happen — is what her latest end-of-life research is all about.

She discusses her research in a video interview:

Health News Report

Blueberries: a Cup a Day May Keep Cancer Away

Blueberries are among the nutrient-rich foods being studied by UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators exploring the link between disease and nutrition. Dieticians there say as little as a cup a day can help prevent cell damage linked to cancer.

Education Research Report

Teacher influence persists in early grades

Having consistently good teachers in elementary school appears to be as important for student achievement as small class sizes, according to new research by a Michigan State University education scholar.

The study by Spyros Konstantopoulos found that, starting in kindergarten, teachers can significantly affect students’ reading and math scores in later grades. The study, which appears in the research journal Teachers College Record, is one of the first scientific experiments to find that teachers can affect student achievement over time in the crucial early grades.

School Vouchers Have Little Effect on Student Achievement

A new report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) that reviews a decade of voucher research finds no clear positive impact on student academic achievement and mixed outcomes overall for students who attend private schools using vouchers.

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According to Review of 10 Years of Voucher Research and Action

A new report by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) that reviews a decade of voucher research finds no clear positive impact on student academic achievement and mixed outcomes overall for students who attend private schools using vouchers.

CEP, one of the nation’s leading sources of education research, also found that much of the recent voucher research has been carried out or sponsored by pro-voucher organizations and urges greater scrutiny to ensure future studies are not biased. CEP’s report comes amid a spike in interest in school vouchers – and disagreement about their merit – that has been fueled in part by Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives and a majority of statehouses.

Keeping Informed about School Vouchers: A Review of Major Developments and Research reviews and synthesizes major voucher studies of the past decade. It also summarizes current publicly funded voucher programs and reflects on voucher policies since 2000, when CEP last looked at voucher research. Over the past 10 years there have been significant court rulings, the defeat of voucher referenda in some states, and the creation of new voucher programs. Evidence has also accumulated about the effects of older voucher programs.

Overall, several of the most prominent voucher studies released since 2000 conclude that achievement gains for students receiving publicly funded vouchers are similar to those for comparable public school students. These studies include findings from voucher programs in Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Washington, D.C.

Studies of Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee included in CEP’s review also found higher high school graduation rates among voucher students. Some of this advantage becomes less significant when family characteristics are taken into consideration, such as income and education, and these studies could not determine whether higher graduation rates are a direct result of practices in voucher schools. Parents of voucher students are also generally more satisfied with their children’s education after using vouchers, multiple studies have found.

“We have a great body of research about the effects of vouchers that policymakers should draw on to inform current debates,” said Alexandra Usher, co-author of the CEP study. “Before state legislators and Congress move quickly to enact new voucher programs, they should consider the evidence from programs already in place for several years to ensure they understand the impacts their policies would have.”

Noting that many voucher studies of the past decade have been sponsored or conducted by organizations with clear positions or mission statements in favor of vouchers, the report also recommends steps to ensure that voucher studies are designed, conducted and reported in an objective and rigorous way.

“We were surprised to find so many studies done by pro-voucher groups,” said Nancy Kober, co-author of the CEP study. “While this doesn’t mean researchers with definite positions on vouchers can’t be objective, it speaks to the need for outside scrutiny of study methods and guidance from objective expert panels.”

The report also points out that rhetoric used by voucher advocates to support voucher programs has shifted in recent years. In past years, proponents often argued that vouchers would give low-income students trapped in under-performing schools a chance to attend a better school and achieve at higher levels. As evidence has accumulated that vouchers have had little effect on achievement, some proponents have chosen to highlight research showing higher graduation rates among voucher students and greater satisfaction among parents and to emphasize the inherent value of parental choice. Voucher opponents, meanwhile, have emphasized that voucher students do not come out ahead academically and continue to maintain that vouchers drain public schools of much-needed resources while affecting only a small number of children.

The scope of voucher programs and proposals has also broadened over the past decade beyond serving just low-income students in low-performing urban schools, the report finds. Some of the newer voucher programs, such as those in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Douglas County, Colo., are open to middle-income or suburban families.

Studies of voucher programs in Milwaukee, Florida, and Ohio, including research by groups with a clear pro-voucher mission, have found some evidence of achievement gains among students in public schools most affected by vouchers, which the authors of these studies attribute to competition from vouchers.

Part I of the CEP report outlines CEP’s own reflections on the changing voucher landscape and synthesizes findings that cut across multiple studies of vouchers over the past decade. Part II briefly describes the current voucher programs, as well as significant court cases and statewide ballot initiatives over the past ten years. Part III summarizes the major findings and methods of 27 studies of publicly-funded voucher programs conducted since 2000.

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Harold Meyerson explains in the Washington Post:

To elucidate the mysteries of Washington — in particular, why House Republicans, having compelled the Democrats to craft a Republican-in-all-but-name plan to get a deal on raising the debt ceiling, still don’t want a deal — we turn to the Fable of the Scorpion and the Frog.

A scorpion meets a frog on the bank of a stream and asks the frog to carry him across on his back. The frog asks, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” The scorpion answers, “Because if I do, I’ll drown along with you.” So the frog, bowing to the logic of the scorpion’s answer, sets out across the stream with the scorpion on his back. About midstream, the scorpion stings the frog, who is paralyzed and starts to sink — as does the scorpion. “Why?” the dying frog asks. “Because it’s my nature,” the scorpion replies…

Republicans apparently won’t be satisfied until Obama takes responsibility for all of the national debt, the Bush tax cuts and the Oklahoma heat wave, admits he’s not a citizen and goes back to Kenya.

They may harm themselves and the nation by holding out for that deal. Like the scorpion, though, it’s their nature.

But not all Republicans are scorpions, are they? Well, the ones who aren’t are too afraid of the ones who are to stand up for what’s right. Why are they so afraid?

Paul Krugman has the answer:

This would, however, probably be the end of these Republicans’ political careers. And the answer is, so?

If you believe that default will quite possibly be a catastrophe — and leading Republicans probably do believe that — their unwillingness to take the action I’ve just described means that they are risking America’s future rather than pay a price in their personal political careers. That’s cowardice on an epic scale, even if it’s the kind of behavior we take for granted nowadays.