Articles labeled: new york city

Heath Ledger, star of numerous films and who just finished filming the highly anticipated role of the Joker in the new Batman movie, was found dead in his apartment this afternoon. The cause is unknown, but it’s being reported that he was found with numerous sleeping pills strewn about the bed.

According to the NYPD spokesman, Ledger, who was living in an apartment at Broome street, “had an appointment for a massage…The housekeeper who went to let Ledger know the masseuse was there, and found him dead at 3:26 p.m” with “pills strewn all around him.”

The housekeeper and masseuse tried to awake him and called the authorities when he did not respond. When the paramedics responded he was in full cardiac arrest and they attempted to perform CPR. It was unsuccessful, however, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.The police say foul play is not suspected.

Ledger is the father of a 2-year-old daughter, Matilda, who he had with actress Michelle Williams. The couple broke up last year.

New York’s Department of Education just recently started awarding schools a “letter grade” based on how well students do on standardized tests. This measure is largely influenced by No Child Left Behind’s accountability measures. Well some yuppie parents in Park Slope and elsewhere are getting their panties in a wad because their hoity-toity schools are getting Bs, Cs, and even — oh, the horror - Ds:

“It really saddens me that this is how the Department of Education thinks that parents are best served, by boiling everything that happens in an entire school to a letter grade,” said Lee Solomon, the mother of a first-grader at the Brooklyn New School, a sought-after school that accepts students only by lottery but got a C.

Jim Devor, the father of a fifth-grader at P.S. 58 in Brooklyn — which got a D on its report card_ said students there were “strongly invited” to attend Saturday test-prep sessions but have no time to discuss current events like the presidential campaign.

“I’m appalled at how little my child knows about social studies,” he said. “They’re all obsessed with test prep.”

For the record, we’re just having a little fun — we’re not exactly big fans of “teaching to the test”, either. But you just know some of these parents aren’t as concerned about teaching methods as much as an affront on their social status symbol…