Jackson Free Press

Lost in some of the Rand/Medicare/Taxes discussion of Rep. Paul Ryan was a glib line that he's now offered a few times on the stump, taking President Obama's "You Didn't Build That" line out of context to suggest that Obama was saying that small businesses didn't build their businesses.

The irony is two-fold (a.) Ryan has spent his adult entire career working in government in Washington, aside from a year he listed as a "marketing consultant" for his family's company and (b.) his family business, Ryan Incorporated, began in the 1800s building railroads for the government, switched to roads and highways (for the) government in the 20th century, had a hand in building O'Hare in Chicago, and more recently has made a a fair bit of scratch on defense contracts. In other words, the family fortune has done just fine by way of the government and, particularly, the infrastructure that Obama was talking about when Ryan misquoted him.

A current search of Defense Department contracts suggests that “Ryan Incorporated Central” has had at least 22 defense contracts with the federal government since 1996, including one from 1996 worth $5.6 million. … Mr. Anti-Spending secured millions in earmarks for his home state of Wisconsin, including, among other things, $3.3 million for highway projects. And Ryan voted to preserve $40 billion in special subsidies for big oil, an industry in which, it so happens, Ryan and his wife hold ownership stakes.

Speaking of his wife, Janna Ryan was a D.C. lobbyist before she became the "stay at home mom" that she has been introduced as -- for big pharma, big oil, "nuclear waste issues," health insurance and the cigar lobby, as they fought to keep the same warnings off cigars that cigarettes have.

Vickie Stanford called me today. Her 15-year-old son Brennan needs a kidney, and there are no signs of match anywhere in sight.

The JFP featured Brennan as a Person of the Day in April. You can read the story here: POD: Brennan Stanford

Vickie said today that the Tulane University pediatric kidney transplant program shut down recently. Brennan, whose blood type is O positive, is now on the waiting lists for a kidney at University of Mississippi Medical Center, which just recently reopened its pediatric transplant unit, and at Ochsner Hospital in New Orleans.

There is no nationwide, or even statewide, kidney donation program. Each hospital that does transplants has its own waiting list and its own donor supplies. Vickie said that UMMC told her that they may receive one kidney a year that is a match for Brennan, who can only accept a kidney from someone with Type O blood.

Vickie hopes to get Brennan on the list at the University of Alabama-Birmingham soon.

Brennan is currently in good health, and doctors have told Vickie that now is the best time to give him a transplant, if she can find a donor. He currently takes 9 hours of dialysis every night, and Vickie said he cannot do that forever.

Brennan, whose father donated a kidney to him before his second birthday, has no other family with his O positive blood type. If Brennan is going to receive the kidney he needs to survive, he will most likely need a volunteer donor.

Further information about donating a kidney can be found in the JFP's Person of the Day story on Brennan. Brennan's health insurance will pay for all medical expenses related to a donation.

For more information on donating or to find out if you are a match, please call Silvia at UMMC at 601-984-5065, or Becky Guillera at Ochsner Hospital at 504-842-3925.

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Mississippi routinely lags the rest of the nation when it comes to educating or kids.

Apparently, Gov. Phil Bryant is under the impression that the federal government -- with everything it's dealing with related to the rollout of the health law -- now wants to try to fix Mississippi's public-education system.

He can probably relax. Mississippi officials haven't even seemed interested in educating Mississippi's kids, considering the chronic underfunding of the state's public-education formula in recent years. So it seems unlikely the feds are interested in taking on that task.

But this afternoon, Bryant issued an executive order "affirming Mississippi’s right and responsibility to define and implement its own public school standards and curricula" and making it clear that "under state law, this core function of state government cannot be ceded to the federal government."

According to a news release from Bryant's office, the order comes as on the heels of the state's implementation of Common Core State Standards, and affirms that:

-the state and its local public school districts, not the federal government, shall determine public school standards and curricula.

-the state and not the federal government shall select statewide assessments, and local school districts may implement additional assessments to monitor academic progress.

-no federal law or grant currently purports to mandate the adoption of any uniform, nationwide academic standards, curricula, or assessments.

-the state is under no obligation to comply with any future federal mandates for uniform academic standards, curricula or assessments.

-the collection of test data and other student information pertaining to academic performance shall comply with all laws that protect student and family privacy.

-the constitutional rights of Mississippi school children and their families will not be violated as result of federal education decisions.

-that, in accordance with applicable law, homeschool students are not bound by K-12 academic standards set by the Mississippi Department of Education.

Tonight, everyone should make their way out to Duling Hall for Todd Snider's show. It will be a feast for media types as he reads from his book, shows us film and even plays music. There's something for everybody.

Tomorrow, vinyl enthusiasts will celebrate Record Store Day. With the closing of MorningBell, most of the die hards will have to go out of town to try to grab exclusive vinyl releases. Be safe and happy hunting.For a complete list of participating stores and releases, go here.

If you're out of town this Easter weekend, here are few things going on north and south of us:

4/19 - Rob Thomas - Horseshoe Casino - Tunica

4/18 - 4/27 - Biloxi Crawfish Festival feat. Three Days Grace, Charlie Daniels Band, etc. - MS Coast Coliseum - Biloxi

4/20 - Rick Ross - Lakefront Arena - New Orleans

4/21 - Aziz Ansari - Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts - New Orleans

Also, here's this week's new releases:

The Afghan Whigs - Do to the Beast

The Both - The Both

Nas - Illmatic XX [20th Anniversary Edition]

Slint - Spiderland [LP]

Ray Bonneville - Easy Gone

Rodney Crowell - Tarpaper Sky

Thee Oh Sees - Drop

Woods - With Light and With Love

Duck Sauce - Quack

Chet Faker - Built on Glass

Ziggy Marley - Fly Rasta

Ingrid Michaelson - Lights Out

Dan Wilson - Love Without Fear

Nels Cline/Medeski, Martin & Wood - Woodstock Sessions, Vol. 2

Stanton Moore - Conversations

The Secret Sisters - Put Your Needle Down

Sonic Avenues - Mistakes

Bobby Bare, Jr. - Bobby Bare, Jr.'s Young Criminals' Starvation League

Chuck E. Weiss - Red Beans and Weiss

Amps for Christ - Canyons Cars and Crows

Dylan Shearer - Garagearray

Ryley Walker - All Kinds of You

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Looking for evidence that charter schools don't offer a panacea for education because they're "run-like-a-business" solutions for education?

The churning waters of economic reality are bubbling over in New Orleans this spring; two schools, Miller-McCoy and Lagniappe Academies are both facing failure of their management, resulting in a great deal of turmoil for parents and students.

Interesting in the Lagniappe Academies case, the problem seems to be so dire that they may have to close the school early this year to "save money."

“I’m going to suggest that the school closes post state testing to save…money,” Bishop said.

Bishop said he recently learned the board may not have been receiving truthful information about the school’s finances and other matters from leadership. McCormick assumed leadership after CEO Kendall Petri and Chief Operating Officer Ninh Tran left mid-March. He said ending the year early could save the organization money and give the leadership the time needed to shut down the campus.

It sounds like the plan now is for management to give up completely and hand the school over to teachers.

The room broke out in applause when the board voted to put teachers in charge. Many members of the audience also voted ‘aye’ when the board voted on a motion calling for McCormick to resign by Friday.

Now, clearly, New Orleans has even greater challenges than Jackson when it comes to its schools and the failed school district they're trying to piece back together. But it does seem to offer some interesting case-studies for what happens when charters implode.