“Superior Court Judge S. Lark Ingram ordered an immediate halt to a groundbreaking laptop computer program Friday because school leaders did not tell Cobb County voters what they wanted to do with a voter-approved special sales tax,” Kristina Torres reports for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Ingram said the ruling had nothing to do with the merits of the program. But, she said, ‘fair notice of such use was not given to the public when the referendum for [the sales tax] was held.'”
The deal was originally structured to “eventually distribute 63,000 Apple iBook laptops to all teachers and all students in grades six through 12. About $25 million of the sales tax money was to be used for the program’s first phase, which the school board approved in April,” Torres reports. “Ingram agreed with Barnes’ argument. As a result of the ruling, the only way school officials could pay for the program would be to use their general fund. The school board will meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday to talk about the decision. It is likely any decision to appeal would be made then.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: FUBAR.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
One Cobb County Apple iBook audit expected to finish soon – July 27, 2005
Inquiry into Cobb County Apple iBook bids requested – July 14, 2005
Cobb County iBook saga: allegations that school leaders pressured employees to pick Apple – July 11, 2005
Lawsuit to halt Cobb County’s 63,000 Apple iBooks for education plan goes to court today – July 08, 2005
Cobb County’s Apple iBooks in schools saga continues with lawsuit – June 04, 2005
Lawsuit filed to stop Cobb County’s Apple iBook program – June 01, 2005
Cobb County school board approves Apple Mac plan; could eventually distribute 63,000 iBooks – April 29, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Cobb County school officials intend to move forward with Apple iBook program – April 21, 2005
Cobb Commission chief urges delay in Apple iBook program, says issue has become too emotional – April 20, 2005
No conflict of interest in ongoing Cobb County Apple iBook saga – April 19, 2005
More controversy in Atlanta-area school district’s plan to buy Apple iBooks – April 16, 2005
Cobb County Georgia approves first phase of plan that could equip schools with 63,000 Apple iBooks – April 15, 2005
Atlanta-area school district on verge of deal for 31,000 Apple iBooks – April 12, 2005
Cobb teachers voice concerns over using Macs for proposed laptop program – March 29, 2005
Cobb County Georgia meeting discusses plan to equip schools with 63,000 Apple iBooks – February 24, 2005
Report: 90 percent of emails opposed to Georgia’s Apple iBook program – February 10, 2005
65,000 Apple iBooks for Georgia schools one of the largest school laptop programs in the country – February 10, 2005
Georgia school district to propose 63,000 Macs for students and teachers – February 07, 2005
hey ron, how is this the kid’s fault?
“It’s not the kids fault (usually, unless he/she has a learning disability)”
So much angst in the land of the free…or is it the land of the angry. I think I’ll go back to watching that tap drip. Oh and we do have taps outside of the US of A.
Hey Carl, who said it was the kids’ fault? It’s the unions fault, and the parents.
Yet again Apple excels with vision, stumbles over execution…
“What makes for a fascist is that they believe in an all powerful State that controls all aspects of a person’s life and then wraps that in an elitist attitude that says that their control of our lives through government edict is really the best for the country.”
Beeblebrox, you have just described the Bush administration in one sentence. Think Patriot Act.
Beeblebrox,
(Now that this has turned into a political forum) Though your knowledge is good, the Bush administration blows traditional definitions of government simply because these leaders are not “right” or “left” or “fascist” or whatever. They’re crooks, and wolves in sheeps’ clothing. For them, less state control = more control by a single ruling (notice I did not say “governing”) body.
Their aganda illustrates your definition of “fascist” to the letter: Take unheard of contributions from the religious right and the defense industries, wage a moral war within the country to create confusion and division and to justify its activities, wage war abroad in the name of defense from terrorism, award without contest huge contracts to side-kick company Haliburton, promote consolidation ultimately eliminating the small player, creating a stigma that the left is “criminal” and labeling anyone who questions their motives a terrorist.
Go America!
God Bless America!
United We Stand!
These Colors Don’t Run!
These Colors Don’t Fade!
Made In China.
Justified said: “Think Patriot Act.”
a. The Patriot Act was a bipartisan response to the failures of intelligence that resulted in the 9/11 attacks. The Dems were the biggest critics of the Bush administration for not “connecting the dots”. The 9/11 hearings (demanded by the Dems) resulted in recommendations now embodied by the PA. Remember?
b. The idea for the PA was originally floated by the Dems under the leadership of Daschle. Remember?
c. The PA is largely a consolidation of various agencies, many of whom were out of control and under no particular guidance before the PA. The Dems heavily criticized the Bush administration for not allowing the FBI and CIA to share information (now corrected by the PA). Remember?
d. No abuses have yet occurred under the PA despite the hand-wringing from the Left. In fact, there were more abuses sans the PA because of the aforementioned lack of oversight over intelligence agencies. Today, anytime the FBI even fails to file the right paperwork the PA watchdogs are all over it for a “violation”. Of course, the Left doesn’t care at all that their truly Big Brother type laws like the Endangered Species Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act daily take away people’s rights, property, and livelihood. I guess you don’t remember how many homeowners have had their land taken as a result of the ESA or small businesses who have been penalized for running afoul of some silly ADA requirement.
Justified, when you have an actual law passed against the wishes of the Left that takes away the rights of the citizenry then come back and talk. Until then, you are simply demonstrating your ignorance.
-B
P.S. For the record, conservatives like me are very wary of laws like the PA and I am the first to point out that portions of the law that could be abused in the future by unscrupulous administrations (such as a Clinton White House which demonstrated time and time again it would use government agencies like the IRS against its enemies). We should all keep a watchful eye on undue government power.
Justified wrote: “They’re crooks, and wolves in sheeps’ clothing. For them, less state control = more control by a single ruling (notice I did not say “governing”) body.”
This is just vapid opining on your part.
Give me an example, a single hard fact to back up any of this. Did Bush lie to some grand jury? Did he unlawfully have the IRS audit his opponents? Did Bush fire career travel office employees and then have them taken away in a paddy wagon? Did Bush carpet bomb the Serbs from 10,000 feet killing thousands of innocent civillians just so he wouldn’t be accused of putting our pilots at risk? Did Bush promise to be out of Bosnia “by Christmas this year” (we are still there BTW)? Did Bush bomb Iraq just to divert attention from an impeachment vote? Did Bush bomb any Chinese Embassy?
This list could continue for pages and of course, it is rhetorical. Give me an example please of misbehavior on Bush’s part. You can call someone a crook all day long but if they are demonstrably NOT a crook then it is you that are the truly evil person. It is a slander to ascribe criminal behavior to someone who has not enganged in such behavior.
-B
Beeblebrox wrote:
“Until then, you are simply demonstrating your ignorance.”
” . . . then it is you that are the truly evil person.”
You have revealed yourself as an enflamed zealot and not fit for reasonable debate. You are typical of your tribe.
Cheers.
Justified.
So you don’t deny that you are both ignorant and a slanderer?
You made no effort to engage in a debate in the first place, you just repeated the standard Leftist hatemongering, so I fail to see why you are whining about the lack of debate now.
I provided concrete facts, none of which you could rebut.
I stand by my statement that a person who levels slander against another person is indeed evil. There is no other word for it.
-B
Remember way back when one of Bushes Grandpappies had a direct interest in Auschwitz and was severely reprimanded for it by the State Department and the then department of commerce. The rest of the family just took it from there. Of course you don’t because you, like all neo-cons have a very selective mind and memory when it comes to facts and events. I think THAT alone give’s me the right to call these thieves and thugs NAZIS, yes? Fact is these vipers are murderers of foreign nationals and of it’s own citizenry. Just because the monkey in office isn’t permitted to handle a gun and do the killing and theft himself by his handlers doesn’t mean he isn’t as guilty as his entourage and family. Many examples have been given to you but you choose to ignore them, typical of your sort. You know what go back to your hypocrite womanizing druggies like Rush Windbag and pundits for hire on the Foxup network. All you are in the end is a parrot repeating the swill spewed forth by the cesspool built and managed by your masters the Fascist Corporate Communists of the right wing media.
p.s. Beetlebrox, when do you ship out to put your money where your body-bag is ?? Don’t forget to fill the oath to your Furor, Herr Bush as you are being shot and bombed in Iraq or Afghanistan or Venezuela(believe me it’s just a matter of time with these thugs. Remember the contra deal).
That’s the damned dirty truth
After reading this blog it’s probably a good thing the Cobb County students won’t be getting computers because then they’d have ready access to this drivel.
Yeeees the freedom haters wiiiin !! And that’s not an eeexageration.
Why don’t the Cobb schools fire superientendent Redden? He seems like an idiot, wrapped in an excuse, slathered with slime…toss him overboard NOW!
Sly,
May I suggest you go back to dailykos where your hatred and bigotry will be more appreciated than it is here. I respect your right to spew that hatred and actually I am encouraged by the level of separation from reality you embody, especially if it is at all representative of the Left (and apparently, it is) in the country. It explains why the Democrats and other socialist organizations are on the decline in this country and will continue to do so until (hopefully) they disappear completely.
Cheers,
-B
MDN MW: “Dead”, as in, the Left is all but…
I don’t understand your definition of hatred. Since when is spreading the truth hatred. I do NOT hate the US but the crime organization that governs it called the Republican party and the cronies that support and run it. I strongly suspect you are one of them, too bad, so sad. Living in an ever present overpowering feeling of avarice and selfishness must be a terrible thing. Well I know it’s sociopathic and a sin if I remember. You know Jesus was the original socialist think about THAT. As for the death of things left and the Democratic party, yes indeed in the United States it is being murdered along with democracy and real liberty of all things. When it is dead the rest of the world will turn it’s back on the US so the Empire these thugs have built can finally implode all alone. Pity, it had such promise but in the end it’s sins so outweighed it’s virtues. Once this has happened I only hope a truly great centrist phenix will rise from the ashes of the present totalitarianism that gnaws at it’s tendons and will bring her down.
Don’t get too confused by the prose B-
That’s the dirty truth
P.S. Just to stay on subject, I hope ALL the Kids in america get a FREE computer paid by the booty taken away from the sociopatheticaly selfish. Because if they don’t the freedom haters win!!!
Sly,
If you don’t see your demagogic slander for the obvious hate speech that it is then we have no common frame of reference at all.
And BTW, stealing from one group of citizens to give free iBooks to another group is probably not something that Jesus Would Do ™.
Take care,
-B
P.S. Jesus was not a socialist but rather, the first Christian fundamentalist.
Ah you mean stealing from the thieves. Christian Fundamentalist ???
I never heard he was mentally defective, no you are very wrong he was ALL socialist, get rid of your earthly things, eye of a needle, and on and on and on, even in scripture CF’s are VERY selective so as to fulfill their agendas earthly greedy political agendas. You are a taker I rather give than to receive, If I may ? I believe Jesus WAS about giving, sharing, loving, not taking, hoarding, exclusion, that’s NOT Christian, Jewish, Muslim etc etc. Just stay isolated and ignorant of the word I guess ignorance IS bliss.
You sadden me greatly, take care and try to get out a little with open eyes and mind.
Granted Jesus wouldn’t have condoned stealing. He also – being a man of the people rather than of the elites – probably wouldn’t have been a Mac user either. Amen.
To understand the issues behind efforts to equip students with laptop computers we must understand how Steve Jobs views education, especially teachers. Check out: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs_pr.html
Is it possible for two heads to hold less than half a mind?
Anyway…
What is it they say about the universe abhoring a vacuum?
Well, atleast everything balances out in the end.
Is it irony or coincedence that ALL neocon right-wingers are self-identified Christians?
It is ironic however, that ALL neocons promote Christ whenever someone does to them what they were about to do to others.
[Granted Jesus wouldn’t have condoned stealing.]
No, He would never have robbed from the sociopatheticaly selfish to give to the interminally-lazy, ‘welfare-layabout’. But, He would have supported the sharing of the meager supper of the poor, with the rich. And the poor would have instinctively understood what made them ‘richer’ than the wealthy.
[He also – being a man of the people rather than of the elites – probably wouldn’t have been a Mac user either. Amen.]
Let the revisionism begin!
So, Jesus would stand with the WinOwners – who, by their own claim are the status quo – ‘the elites’, if you will – but not with the vilified MacUser?
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This is hilarious.
See story below…wonder how long it’ll take for heads to roll at Cobb County and Apple?
http://www.mdjonline.com/articles/2005/08/10/268/10191613.txt
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Board undecided on when to release probe findings
By Jon Gillooly, Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA – Results of an audit into the Cobb County School District’s procurement process for its now defunct $100.8 million laptop program are expected to be delivered to the school board Friday, but board members say it may be days to weeks before results are disclosed to the public.
The board is expected to discuss the findings in executive session during an unusual Sunday night retreat at the Atlanta Country Club in east Cobb.
Several high-level Cobb School District associates have told the Marietta Daily Journal that the New York-based probe into the closed-door events in which Apple Computer went from last among three bidders to winning the contract after Superintendent Joe Redden, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Don Beers and three of Redden’s key central office staff members formed a final evaluation committee “won’t be pretty.”
However, in an e-mail to the district’s 7,100 teachers July 25, Redden informed them that “I am confident that all these issues will be resolved favorably.”
On July 14, six days after damaging testimony during a lawsuit that eventually brought a halt to Redden’s controversial laptop program, the board announced it would hire the New York firm of Kessler International to do a forensic audit of the process that led to Apple winning the bid and would ask Cobb District Attorney Pat Head to conduct a separate criminal investigation into the process.
The school board estimated that the Kessler audit will cost between $30,000 and $50,000 and would be completed in two to three weeks.
In anticipation of Kessler concluding its audit by Friday, The Marietta Daily Journal filed an Open Records Request on Aug. 3 asking that any findings of the Kessler audit, preliminary or final, be made public immediately when received by the school board.
Those results now are eminent, but board members seem undecided on how to handle them or when to make them public. They do, according to school district attorney Glenn Brock, have 10 days after receiving the results before having to make them public.
“I don’t know exactly when we will receive a report,” school board Chairwoman Kathie Johnstone said. “I hope it will be soon. I think we should release it as soon as possible.”
Board Vice Chair Dr. Teresa Plenge said she expected Kesseler to provide board members with an “interim report” on the progress of the audit. Whether interim or final, she said the board will discuss the findings Sunday night.
See story below…wonder how long it’ll take for heads to roll at Cobb County and Apple?
http://www.mdjonline.com/articles/2005/08/10/268/10191613.txt
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Board undecided on when to release probe findings
By Jon Gillooly, Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA – Results of an audit into the Cobb County School District’s procurement process for its now defunct $100.8 million laptop program are expected to be delivered to the school board Friday, but board members say it may be days to weeks before results are disclosed to the public.
The board is expected to discuss the findings in executive session during an unusual Sunday night retreat at the Atlanta Country Club in east Cobb.
Several high-level Cobb School District associates have told the Marietta Daily Journal that the New York-based probe into the closed-door events in which Apple Computer went from last among three bidders to winning the contract after Superintendent Joe Redden, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Don Beers and three of Redden’s key central office staff members formed a final evaluation committee “won’t be pretty.”
However, in an e-mail to the district’s 7,100 teachers July 25, Redden informed them that “I am confident that all these issues will be resolved favorably.”
On July 14, six days after damaging testimony during a lawsuit that eventually brought a halt to Redden’s controversial laptop program, the board announced it would hire the New York firm of Kessler International to do a forensic audit of the process that led to Apple winning the bid and would ask Cobb District Attorney Pat Head to conduct a separate criminal investigation into the process.
The school board estimated that the Kessler audit will cost between $30,000 and $50,000 and would be completed in two to three weeks.
In anticipation of Kessler concluding its audit by Friday, The Marietta Daily Journal filed an Open Records Request on Aug. 3 asking that any findings of the Kessler audit, preliminary or final, be made public immediately when received by the school board.
Those results now are eminent, but board members seem undecided on how to handle them or when to make them public. They do, according to school district attorney Glenn Brock, have 10 days after receiving the results before having to make them public.
“I don’t know exactly when we will receive a report,” school board Chairwoman Kathie Johnstone said. “I hope it will be soon. I think we should release it as soon as possible.”
Board Vice Chair Dr. Teresa Plenge said she expected Kesseler to provide board members with an “interim report” on the progress of the audit. Whether interim or final, she said the board will discuss the findings Sunday night.
See story below…wonder how long it’ll take for heads to roll at Cobb County and Apple?
http://www.mdjonline.com/articles/2005/08/10/268/10191613.txt
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Board undecided on when to release probe findings
By Jon Gillooly, Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA – Results of an audit into the Cobb County School District’s procurement process for its now defunct $100.8 million laptop program are expected to be delivered to the school board Friday, but board members say it may be days to weeks before results are disclosed to the public.
The board is expected to discuss the findings in executive session during an unusual Sunday night retreat at the Atlanta Country Club in east Cobb.
Several high-level Cobb School District associates have told the Marietta Daily Journal that the New York-based probe into the closed-door events in which Apple Computer went from last among three bidders to winning the contract after Superintendent Joe Redden, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Don Beers and three of Redden’s key central office staff members formed a final evaluation committee “won’t be pretty.”
However, in an e-mail to the district’s 7,100 teachers July 25, Redden informed them that “I am confident that all these issues will be resolved favorably.”
On July 14, six days after damaging testimony during a lawsuit that eventually brought a halt to Redden’s controversial laptop program, the board announced it would hire the New York firm of Kessler International to do a forensic audit of the process that led to Apple winning the bid and would ask Cobb District Attorney Pat Head to conduct a separate criminal investigation into the process.
The school board estimated that the Kessler audit will cost between $30,000 and $50,000 and would be completed in two to three weeks.
In anticipation of Kessler concluding its audit by Friday, The Marietta Daily Journal filed an Open Records Request on Aug. 3 asking that any findings of the Kessler audit, preliminary or final, be made public immediately when received by the school board.
Those results now are eminent, but board members seem undecided on how to handle them or when to make them public. They do, according to school district attorney Glenn Brock, have 10 days after receiving the results before having to make them public.
“I don’t know exactly when we will receive a report,” school board Chairwoman Kathie Johnstone said. “I hope it will be soon. I think we should release it as soon as possible.”
Board Vice Chair Dr. Teresa Plenge said she expected Kesseler to provide board members with an “interim report” on the progress of the audit. Whether interim or final, she said the board will discuss the findings Sunday night.
I don’t see how anyone involved with this fine program have anything to worry about unless this thing is tampered with in an unscrupulous manner. The report isn’t even out yet and already the doctors are spinning white hot. Who are these “associates” Wallmart associates ? or Dell associates. Who is this firm Kesslar International ? Any association with anti-Apple elements ? This all looks to me like the same old tactics used by the enemies of free education. The contract is lost. The children don’t get the laptops.
The freedom haters win !!!
Sly