Supply and demand: A church-affiliated school in north Louisiana has been approved to accept 315 students as part of the state’s scholarship program, but the school doesn’t currently have the facilities or teachers to accommodate that many students. New Living Word School in Ruston had 122 students last year. The Rev. Jerry Baldwin, the school’s principal and church pastor, tells The (Monroe) News-Star that students have been meeting in rooms that serve as the church’s Sunday School classrooms. He says the school will break ground this summer for a metal building that will contain 16 classrooms, and that the new students can meet in the church gym if the new building isn’t finished in time. If New Living Word meets its goal of 315 new students, it would receive almost $2.7 million in Minimum Foundation Program money for those new students. Read the full story here.
Something funny going on: Jokes made by female senior professionals in the office are often perceived as “contrived, defensive, or just mean,” says a new report by linguistics expert Judith Baxter, head of English at Aston University’s School of Language & Social Sciences in the United Kingdom. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Baxter conducted her research at seven large companies and examined 14 team meetings, of which half were led by senior-level men and half by senior-level women. Women often resort to self-deprecating humor, with 70% of female senior professionals joking about themselves in a somewhat negative light, Baxter’s research found. Still, this didn’t seem to earn chuckles: More than 80% of women’s jokes were met with silence. Meanwhile, 90% of jokes made by men were greeted with immediate laughter or approval. As a result, men were three times more likely to joke while leading a meeting. Read the full story for more report findings here.
That sinking feeling: Americans’ confidence in the economy in May had its biggest drop in eight months, as consumers fretted about slow hiring, a big stock market drop and the global economy, says a private research group. The Conference Board says its Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 64.9, down from a revised 68.7 in April. It was the biggest drop since October 2011. Economists were expecting a reading of 70, according to a FactSet poll of analysts. The current level is below February’s 71.6, which remains the highest level it has reached in a year. Consumer confidence is widely watched because consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity. The current measure is significantly below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy; however, it’s well above the 40 registered last October, not to mention the all-time low of 25.3 hit in February 2009.
Today’s poll question: Are you more confident about the U.S. economy today than you were at the start of the year?
