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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (24584)	4/2/2008 2:28:49 PM
From: TideGlider	Respond to of 224744

Another Day, Another Hooker Scandal By Liza Porteus Viana Apr 2nd 2008 1:32PM The news today is that Thomas Athens, the husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., paid $150 to a prostitute for sex at a Troy, Mich., hotel in February. Athans, co-founder of liberal talk radio network, Democracy Radio, has been married to Stabenow since 2003. The Detroit Free Press obtained a copy of the police report under the Freedom of Information Act. It says Athans, 46, was not arrested or charged, but agreed to fully cooperate with police in their investigation into Internet-based prostitution at city hotels. The Free Press reports that Athans was pulled over by police on I-75 minutes after leaving the Residence Inn on Livernois, Mich., the night of Feb. 26. He was driving a Cadillac DeVille registered jointly to him and Stabenow at their address in Lansing. He was ticketed for driving on a suspended license. During that stop, Athans admitted he had been at the hotel with a woman he met on the Internet and that he paid her $150 to do the deed. Police later went to the hotel and arrested the lady of the evening.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (24584)	4/2/2008 2:49:16 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 224744

Per-student costs ranked third highest in U.S. By Amy Fagan April 2, 2008 The District had one of the most expensive school systems in the country in 2006, paying more than $13,000 per student, Census Bureau figures show. On average, school districts nationwide spent $9,138 per student in fiscal 2006, which is about $437 more than in 2005, according to a report made public yesterday. The $13,446-per-pupil spending in 2006 ranked the District as the third highest in the country, exceeded only by New York, at $14,884, and New Jersey, at $14,630, the report said. Per-pupil spending was the lowest in Utah, at $5,437; Idaho, at $6,440; and Arizona, at $6,472. D.C. public school scores on math and reading were the lowest in the country last year, according to results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests released in September. The results showed that slightly more than half of fourth-graders and two-thirds of eighth-graders tested below the "basic" level in math. On the reading section, 61 percent of fourth-graders and 52 percent of eighth-graders scored below the basic level. Officials define the basic level as "partial mastery" of fundamental skills, and rank it below "proficient" and "advanced" benchmarks. Nationally, 30 percent of eighth-grade students scored below the basic level in math and 27 percent scored below the basic level in reading.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (24584)	4/2/2008 3:38:46 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 224744

Report: Stabenow's husband paid prostitute in sting By KORIE WILKINS AND TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 2, 2008 Thomas Athans, the husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and cofounder of a liberal talk radio network, told Troy police detectives that he paid a prostitute $150 for sex at a Troy hotel in late February, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by the Free Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Advertisement Athans, 46, was not arrested or charged, but agreed to fully cooperate with police in their investigation of Internet-based prostitution at hotels in the city, according to the report. Athans was pulled over by police on I-75 minutes after leaving the Residence Inn on Livernois, just east of I-75 and south of Big Beaver, the evening of Feb. 26. He was driving a Cadillac DeVille registered jointly to him and Stabenow at their address in Lansing. He was ticketed for driving on a suspended license. When questioned during the stop, he acknowledged he had been at the hotel with a woman he met on the Internet. On further questioning, he acknowledged he had paid the woman $150 for sex. “This is very disturbing and serious. Obviously it’s a deeply difficult and personal matter,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow said in an official statement issued late this morning, in response to the Free Press story. Athans and Stabenow, a U.S. senator since 2001, were married in 2003. Stabenow did not show up for a news conference this morning at the Capitol. "He was very cooperative. He didn’t tell officers who he was. He did not ask for any special treatment,” said Lt. Gerard Scherlinck, the information officer for the Troy Police. Police arrested, Alycia Martin, 20, of Westland in the hotel room. She was charged with prostitution. Police confiscated a cell phone, a laptop and $431. She told police she had only been working as a prostitute for about a week and didn’t know how many men had visited her the day she was arrested, according to the report. The room Martin was in was an 800-square-foot, two-story penthouse suite. Police went to the hotel after a detective working on Internet-based prostitution at hotels in the city came across a solicitation for sex on a Web site, backpage.com. Plainclothes detectives went to the hotel and set up a surveillance and watched Athans drive up, go inside and then leave about 15 minutes later. Athans is a radio producer who’s spent the past several years trying to launch liberal talk shows that could counter popular conservative radio programming. Before starting his current firm TalkUSA Radio in 2006, Athans was the head of syndicated programming at Air America, the liberal network that declared bankruptcy that year. TalkUSA launched one syndicated talk show last year. Athans has strong ties to Democratic Party officials and liberal activists; Sen. Hillary Clinton publicly acknowledged him during her speech in Detroit last month. According to the Washington Post, Clinton and other senators attended a fund-raiser in 2004 for Athans’ previous network, Democracy Radio, which raised $1.8 million to launch the talk show of Ed Schultz. Athans dissolved Democracy Radio in May 2006. He was also an Oxford Village council member. Stabenow, 57, has been a major figure in Michigan politics for several decades. She has served in the Legislature, in the U.S. House and in 2000 upset incumbent Republican Spencer Abraham. In 1994, she lost a race for governor. Staff writers Dawson Bell, Gina Damron and Justin Hyde contributed to this report.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (24584)	4/2/2008 3:38:47 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 224744

Report: Stabenow's husband paid prostitute in sting By KORIE WILKINS AND TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • April 2, 2008 Thomas Athans, the husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and cofounder of a liberal talk radio network, told Troy police detectives that he paid a prostitute $150 for sex at a Troy hotel in late February, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by the Free Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Advertisement Athans, 46, was not arrested or charged, but agreed to fully cooperate with police in their investigation of Internet-based prostitution at hotels in the city, according to the report. Athans was pulled over by police on I-75 minutes after leaving the Residence Inn on Livernois, just east of I-75 and south of Big Beaver, the evening of Feb. 26. He was driving a Cadillac DeVille registered jointly to him and Stabenow at their address in Lansing. He was ticketed for driving on a suspended license. When questioned during the stop, he acknowledged he had been at the hotel with a woman he met on the Internet. On further questioning, he acknowledged he had paid the woman $150 for sex. “This is very disturbing and serious. Obviously it’s a deeply difficult and personal matter,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow said in an official statement issued late this morning, in response to the Free Press story. Athans and Stabenow, a U.S. senator since 2001, were married in 2003. Stabenow did not show up for a news conference this morning at the Capitol. "He was very cooperative. He didn’t tell officers who he was. He did not ask for any special treatment,” said Lt. Gerard Scherlinck, the information officer for the Troy Police. Police arrested, Alycia Martin, 20, of Westland in the hotel room. She was charged with prostitution. Police confiscated a cell phone, a laptop and $431. She told police she had only been working as a prostitute for about a week and didn’t know how many men had visited her the day she was arrested, according to the report. The room Martin was in was an 800-square-foot, two-story penthouse suite. Police went to the hotel after a detective working on Internet-based prostitution at hotels in the city came across a solicitation for sex on a Web site, backpage.com. Plainclothes detectives went to the hotel and set up a surveillance and watched Athans drive up, go inside and then leave about 15 minutes later. Athans is a radio producer who’s spent the past several years trying to launch liberal talk shows that could counter popular conservative radio programming. Before starting his current firm TalkUSA Radio in 2006, Athans was the head of syndicated programming at Air America, the liberal network that declared bankruptcy that year. TalkUSA launched one syndicated talk show last year. Athans has strong ties to Democratic Party officials and liberal activists; Sen. Hillary Clinton publicly acknowledged him during her speech in Detroit last month. According to the Washington Post, Clinton and other senators attended a fund-raiser in 2004 for Athans’ previous network, Democracy Radio, which raised $1.8 million to launch the talk show of Ed Schultz. Athans dissolved Democracy Radio in May 2006. He was also an Oxford Village council member. Stabenow, 57, has been a major figure in Michigan politics for several decades. She has served in the Legislature, in the U.S. House and in 2000 upset incumbent Republican Spencer Abraham. In 1994, she lost a race for governor. Staff writers Dawson Bell, Gina Damron and Justin Hyde contributed to this report.