Some lawmakers in Tennessee think they have the answer to helping poor students who are struggling in school: Reduce welfare payments to their families. 

How would it work? If a poor kid fails a grade, that family's welfare benefits could be cut by up to 30%. The theory is that the threat of less money would prompt the parents to pay attention to their child's learning and education. 

"It’s really just something to try to get parents involved with their kids," Sen. Stacey Campfield, who sponsored the legislation, told the Tennessean newspaper. "We have to do something."

An amended version of the bill -- which added tweaks such as limiting maximum penalties to parents who don't attend parent-teacher conferences -- passed a state Senate committee earlier this week, according to the publication.

 

Supported by gun-rights advocates, the hunting industry is targeting Colorado for an economic boycott because of the state's new gun laws.

"Do not spend money here, and tell the state why you don't," Colorado resident Michael Bane told hunting enthusiasts on the nationally syndicated Gun Talk Radio program. "If you cancel a hunting trip here, send a note to the Colorado Division of Wildlife."

Bane is an independent producer and host of several programs on cable TV's Outdoor Channel (OUTD). He says he'll no longer film his programs in Colorado after last week's enactment of new state laws that, among other regulations, ban large-capacity ammunition magazines and expand background checks for gun purchases.

 

One of the two high-profile, same-sex marriage cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court this week highlights the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. This law defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman and denies married gay couples from receiving federal recognition and benefits.

But the actual case in question before the court focuses on estate tax.

 

Edie Windsor is contesting the estate taxes she had to pay after her partner, whom she married in 2007 after a 40-year engagement, died in 2009. "I brought my case against the government because I couldn't believe that our government would charge me $350,000 because I was married to a woman and not to a man," she recently said on CNN Radio.

 

Whether it's a company like Red Lobster owner Darden International (DRI) telling customers they don't spend enough, or the National Restaurant Association telling The Daily Beast that customers aren't worth the investment it would take to let them pay their bills faster, restaurant patrons in the U.S. are getting one clear message from eateries lately: The problem is you.
 

Red Medicine, a Beverly Hills Vietnamese restaurant that L.A. Weekly considers “essential,” has no issue voicing that not only to customers, but to everyone who follows those customers on Twitter as well. When would-be patrons started no-showing on their reservations in growing numbers, restaurant owner and operator Noah Ellis just started calling them out on his restaurant's Twitter feed in an attempt to shame them out of doing it again.

For regulars at Lardy McStuffOnTheWalls who may not understand why Red Medicine doesn't just give the table to someone else and move the night along, Ellis gave an explanation via Eater LA: “Either restaurants are forced to overbook and make the guests (that actually showed up) wait, or they do what we do, turn away guests for some prime-time slots because they're booked, and then have empty tables.”

 

Please tell us again how increasing taxes on the wealthy will completely bulldoze the economy and crush conspicuous spending. We couldn't hear you the first time over all the card swiping and receipt printing.

Before the New Year and the fiscal cliff debate, wealthy Americans not named Warren Buffett and their non-wealthy free-market advocates warned that taxing the rich would halt economic recovery and send the well-heeled packing their bags for greener pastures. On Wednesday, however, CNBC uncovered a survey that not only called that argument scatological, but found that taxes haven't affected spending by the majority of wealthy Americans in the slightest.

The Shullman Luxury and Affluence Monthly Pulse found that 55% of people making $500,000 or more said higher taxes have not impacted their spending plans. Lower that income bar to those making $250,000 a year -- the group President Barack Obama initially wanted to raise taxes on before Republican opponents haggled the new individual threshold for income tax hikes up to $400,000 -- and a full 61% said taxes have not dented their spending plans.

 

While the 1978 film "Animal House" made fraternities out to be full of pranks and mischief, the reality can be much more sobering, according to a new report.

Since 2005, 52 student deaths have been linked to fraternities, and five students were paralyzed, reports Bloomberg. But their families are finding that the national organizations often fight paying compensation for those injuries and deaths, the piece says. 

"As soon as there's an incident, national fraternities start distancing themselves,” Lee John Mynhardt, 28, told Bloomberg. He's confined to a wheelchair after breaking his neck at a keg party held by Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity Inc.

It's not as though national fraternities don't have money.

 

Americans can complain about China's wage advantage over the U.S. and its impact on manufacturing growth all they'd like. If American workers and employers pushed for the wage increases sought by Chinese workers, factory pay in the U.S. would be more than $50 an hour.

 

As Bloomberg discovered, pay for workers in China's manufacturing industry has nearly tripled in some cases as its labor pool thins and employees name their price at far-flung facilities. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, average hourly wages for China's manufacturing workers rose from 62 cents an hour in 2003 to $1.36 an hour in 2008.

Even that's a conservative estimate, as a more recent Japanese survey puts average monthly wages between $320 and $350. On the high end, that's roughly $2.20 an hour, or more than triple the average wage in 2003.

 

Who knew that going to the men's room could be so much fun?

When baseball season starts next month, fans of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs will be able to play video games as they pee into a urinal -- no joke. The AAA affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies has dubbed the system "the world's only truly hands-free urinal game controller." It was developed by U.K.-based Captive Media, and the IronPigs are the first team to use it.

The team will have a variety of "X-Stream games" throughout the season at its Coca-Cola Park stadium. One is alpine skiing, in which players try to hit as many cartoon penguins as possible as they speed along the mountain slopes in a snowmobile. That's quite a challenge, given that the games will last about 55 seconds.