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Winter storm brings foot of snow to midwest over busiest US travel weekend

Winter storm brings foot of snow to midwest over busiest US travel weekend

Plane skidded off runway and 45 cars were piled up as 53 million were under winter weather alerts over Thanksgiving A Thanksgiving weekend storm system brought over a foot of snow and strong winds across the US midwest and thunderstorms across the south, as 53 million people from South Dakota to New York were under winter weather alerts . Over the weekend, ahead of one of the busiest travel days of the year on Sunday, a 45-car pile-up occurred on interstate 78 in Indiana and a Delta Air Lines plane skidded off the runway in Des Moines, Iowa, during landing. Continue reading...

The Guardian view on the Send crisis: Bridget Phillipson must be tough with the Treasury so children aren’t penalised | Editorial

The Guardian view on the Send crisis: Bridget Phillipson must be tough with the Treasury so children aren’t penalised | Editorial

Tory special needs reforms upended council finances, but Labour’s plan to rebuild public provision won’t come cheap if it’s done properly The crisis over special educational needs and disabilities in England is not just a question of cash. Children and parents spend months and years battling for support to which the law entitles them, schools lack the funding to meet needs, and specialist provision is inadequate. An adversarial system shunts families towards tribunals that councils almost invariably lose . Tory reforms created obligations for local authorities but did not adequately fund them – allowing ministers to duck responsibility. The result has been financial chaos, with the overall overspend on special educational needs and disabilities (Send) predicted to reach £6.6bn by next March , and keep rising. Taking responsibility for funding away from councils and handing it to the Department for Education is the right move. But the most important questions about Send go beyond accounting. A white paper on reform was postponed in October. Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told MPs that she would consult further before deciding on the future of education, health and care plans, which set out entitlements for individual children, and the tribunals where parents can challenge council decisions. Continue reading...