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The local school district says it needs money to fix air conditioners, revamp athletic fields, replace school buses and expand digital access to every student in the district, and they are asking Lake Havasu City property owners to pay the way.

A panel of Lake Havasu Unified School District officials and teachers Saturday afternoon explained the $67.3 million bond on the November ballot and answered questions at a tea party sponsored forum at Abundant Grace Church.

While only a small number of people raised their hands when asked by the moderator if they were undecided on the school bond, the event drew a larger crowd than many of the election forums the group has hosted over the past months.

The questions ranged from why primary school students need computers to whether the district presents a clear picture of its finances to the community and how much the bond will cost with interest a little more than $100 million over 23 years if they sell all they bonds that would be approved.

Superintendent Gail Malay and the other district representatives argued funding cuts from the state, especially for building and equipment repairs, have left the district with rundown athletic fields, out-of-date air conditioning units and schools that need roofs repaired and carpets replaced.

They also said the district was only able to replace things as they broke with its current budget but a bond could help update the district infrastructure, creating efficiencies that would save money in the long run.

Do we as a community care about our buildings? Do we let our homes run down? I know I dont, Malay said.

More than $10 million of the bond is also earmarked for technology improvements such as a new phone system, faster and expanded Internet bandwidth and access to tablet-type devices for every student. Some of the audience members asked why it is necessary for educators to rely on computers, but the teachers on the panel pointed to a wide variety of programs and applications that can be used to facilitate teaching at all grade levels.

But not everyone in the crowd was buying what the district was selling, asking why the bond issuance needed to be so large and questioning whether education as a whole was headed in the right direction.

The money is a leverage for the people, and if they are not satisfied in the direction of the school district, they need to vote against (the bond) to keep that leverage, said David Beaumont from the crowd.

Read more from the original source:
Tea party forum dives into Havasu school bond specifics

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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) Independent Minnesota political groups are spending a fortune on television ads this campaign season.

Theyre branding GOP gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson as a tea party Republican.

The ads are relentless, and ominous.

Im a teacher, but Im also a mom, said Laura Livermore, who is featured in one of the ads. Thats why Im so worried about tea party Republican Jeff Johnson.

Only one problem: Johnson says hes not a tea party member.

Im not a member, but I dont know you have membership, nor do they endorse by the way, Ive been told that, Johnson said. Nor did I ask for their endorsement.

But the reality is Johnson appeared numerous times at tea party meetings, documented by the online political blog Politics.mn.

And a Democratic video at a tea party event shows that he calls himself a tea party member, and sought tea party endorsement.

View post:
Reality Check: Jeff Johnson And The Tea Party

U.S. military engagement on Islamic State may alter the political calculus for this years midterms, but the potential impacts may reach beyond the next few months and into 2016, thanks to a shift among tea party supporters.

In September 2013, 64% of tea party supporters said they believed taking military action against the Syrian government was not in the national interest. In this latest survey, 68% of tea party supporters said they believe talking military action against ISIS in Iraq and Syria is in the national interest.

That shift is much bigger than the change among the county as a whole. In 2013, 47% of Americans said they believed military action was not in the national interest in Syria. In the latest poll, 61% say they believe military action against Islamic State is in the national interest.

And among people who identify as Republican supporters of the tea party, the number saying military action against ISIS is in the national interest is even higher, at 75%.

Of course, those new poll numbers have a lot to do with how the situation has changed over the past year the target of U.S. military action has changed to a terrorist group ISIS, as opposed to Syria, headed by President Bashar al-Assad. But that difference in tea party attitudes is still noteworthy, for a few reasons.

First, looking ahead to 2016, the Republican Party is a factionalized political entity and the self-identified tea party supporters are a prominent group within it. In this latest poll, about one-third of Republicans, 35%, identified themselves as tea party supporters. They will play a big role in the GOP presidential nominating process.

Second, the shift in attitudes about U.S. involvement in using the military against Islamic State is a big one.

The tea party movement, while a very loose confederation without clearly defined positions on many issues, has generally been considered a libertarian group focused more on the homeland than the world aboard. But Islamic State, and the perceived threat to the U.S. associated with it, seems to sit differently with the tea party.

That may lead to a very different foreign policy debate within the GOPs hopefuls in 2016 with less room for the more non-interventionist views put forward by Rep. Ron Paul in the 2012 campaign.

In late August, Mr. Pauls son, Sen. Rand Paul, who many believe will be a presidential candidate in 2016, has said he would seek congressional authority to destroy ISIS if he were president.

See the rest here:
Most Hawkish on ISIS? Tea Party Wing of GOP

Conservative Republicans love free trade, but they dont much care for a federal agency that helps facilitate it.

House conservatives want to shut down the Export-Import Bank, which lends money to foreign companies to help them buy and import American products. The banks charter expires Sept. 30 and if Congress doesnt renew it, its lights out for an institution thats been operating for 80 years with nary a whisper of opposition.

The reason the tables have turned can be summed up in two words: Tea Party.

The bank is self-funded and doesnt cost taxpayers anything, but Tea Party conservatives hate it anyway. They say the banks role is better suited for the private sector and that it disproportionately benefits big corporations like Boeing Boeing and GE. They call that crony capitalism, and picking winners and losers in the economy.

The bank says that almost 90 percent of its transactions in fiscal 2013 were for small businesses, but thats completely dishonest, says Barney Keller of the conservative Club for Growth. The vast majority goes to big companies like Caterpillar Caterpillar. He and others say the 90 percent represents loan applications, not actual loans.

Continue reading here:
Tea Party Targets an Agency that Actually Reduces the Deficit

TERA Crazy Tea Party 1

By: TERA Crazy Tea Party

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TERA Crazy Tea Party 1 - Video