MDC Links of Interest

The 51-year-old Biggest Loser trainer and host was reportedly working out at a New York City gym two weeks ago when he collapsed. A doctor exercising at the gym performed CPR before Harper was moved to a nearby hospital, where he remained unconscious for two days, according to TMZ. He was released from the hospital after an eight day stay.

The personal trainer, who has a series of workout DVDs and online programs on Daily Burn, along with his work on The Biggest Loser, said that his heart attack was due to genetics, and his mom died early from a heart attack.

Unfortunately, Common Core undermines students’ intellectual growth (as I argue in my book The Education Invasion) and leaves many graduates unprepared for true college-level work, as opposed to career training. Here are the main reasons why.

Common Core requires high-school seniors—those about to enter college or adult life—to read  70 percent nonfiction and 30 percent fiction in school. Younger children start out with a higher proportion of fiction, which gradually declines.

An early study discussing these requirements from Sandra Stotsky and Mark Bauerlein, both respected scholars, found that “college readiness will likely decrease when the secondary English curriculum prioritizes literary nonfiction or informational reading and reduces the study of complex literary texts and literary traditions.” That’s because research shows the students who are best prepared for college have the most experience with complex texts, mainly classic works of literature. No research finds a tie between college readiness and “informational” reading.

Thus, Common Core means that students will read fewer pages of Dickens and Dostoyevsky and more pages devoted to such informational material as federal administrative orders.

That thing the left says doesn’t happen happened again.

Despite the persistent claim by those on the left that voter fraud doesn’t exist, a liberal activist from Ohio pleaded guilty to 14 counts of voter fraud on Monday. Rebecca A. Hammonds, who was originally charged with 35 counts, was sentenced to six months in prison.

Hammonds, a paid Ohio Organizing Collaborative canvasser, was charged with “falsely registering people to vote and forging signatures on voter registration forms” in Columbiana County, reportsThe American Mirror. 

Delivery drivers for Oakhurst Dairy won their suit against the Portland milk and cream company, after a U.S. court of appeals found that the wording of Maine’s overtime rules were written ambiguously. Per state law, the following activities are not eligible for overtime pay:

Oakhurst argued that “distribution of” was separate from “packing for shipment,” which would allow the company to claim exemption from paying its delivery drivers over time. In trying to prove lawmakers’ intent, Oakhurst even pointed to Maine’s legislative style guide, which advises against using the Oxford comma.

“For want of a comma, we have this case,” U.S. appeals judge David J. Barron wrote.

And it all makes sense. Why shouldn’t millennials job hop to increase skills, salary, and find the perfect cultural fit? In fact, why not hop all the way out of the 9-to-5 grind and into their own businesses?

Taking a risk for the ultimate career goal

While throwing caution to the wind plays into the stereotype that millennials are an entitled, trophy- and praise-seeking generation with crippled work ethics, maybe their willingness to take risks is the perfect groundwork for something even bigger than advancement: entrepreneurship. You need a little dash of narcissism to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors, after all. It’s self-defeating to go into a business venture thinking you’re going to fail, especially given that taking a risk could lead to a lucrative business of which you’re the boss.

But millennials face a big problem that other generations didn’t: ridiculously high student loan debt. And that just ups the risk of becoming an entrepreneur.