What's Better In The News?

* What's Better With Government Testing Drugs?
What's better with the government testing drugs is that Massachusetts now supplies another example that the results are not always true. This is important to we the people who go against prosecutors with almost unlimited staff and money, especially compared to what we the people have. State drug chemist Anne Dookhan has been arrested for making up drug results. The reason why she may have been arrested has been her cozy relationship with prosecutors. It was obvious from her communications that she wanted to be one of the good ole boys with the prosecutors and to be considered one of their team instead of an independent professional. Her affiliation needs apparently doomed her.
This problem has been going on a long time with the most recent big story coming out of Texas. What is needed is closer checking of the credentials of these chemists plus more oversight. I'd humbly suggest having the supervisor also sign off on any written finding by a state chemist. People who cannot afford to pay for independent testing or have a judge who won't allow them to, should be able to depend upon the accuracy of testing done from government chemists. After all, we the people pay for their fine salaries, their offices, their benefits, and their over the top retirements.
* What's Better With Student Loans?
  What's better with student loans is that the government is now trying to find out people who go from college to college using government loans and repeatedly flunking out, leading to the conclusion that they don't want to be get a degree and don't want to get a job either.  The government is beginning by looking at students with multiple admissions to colleges, especially open admission ones like community colleges and Internet colleges. The number so far is small, only about 1 per cent of college borrowers are academically doomed and are just going from one college to another. The article didn't state what the enforcement criteria would be such as how many attempts the student would be given before he was denied federal aid. However, if there is a reasonable number set with an appeal process and a reinstatement process later where the student can demonstrate a better attitude or freedom from a personal problems like alcoholism, this would be a good boundary to set. Throwing good money after bad should be stopped for the student's sake as well as the sake of we the people who make that loan money available. Peter Nickerson, MS, MSW 352-359-0850