For those of us who live in areas where charter schools flourish, we've seen some variation of this story over and over again - charter school CEOs who enrich themselves and their friends at the expense of the students and faculty. These schools are far too frequently vehicles for corruption:

A Monroe County charter school has violated the state charter school law by having "improper entanglements" with a church run by the school's founder, according to a preliminary report issued by the state auditor general's office.

The report, obtained by The Morning Call, says the Pocono Mountain Charter School in Tobyhanna also may have illegally diverted taxpayer money to adjacent Shawnee Tabernacle Church. It also may have improperly received $87,101 from the state in rental reimbursements for its building lease agreement with the church.

The report also says the charter school may have violated the state Ethics Act rule against conflict of interest in other dealings with the church, which is run by the Rev. Dennis Bloom.

[...] The attorney general's preliminary report comes as Pocono Mountain officials are assessing the Charter Appeals Board ruling.

Bethlehem attorney Ellen C. Schurdak, who represented the school district administration in the public revocation hearings, told The Morning Call: "My initial reaction to this preliminary report you've read from [shows it] vindicates the board's decision."

The school board's unanimous revocation vote was based on documents and testimony presented during public hearings that alleged:

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The Simpsons had a bit of fun Sunday night with Fox News and the interminable Republican presidential race.

Homer Simpson becomes America's newest favorite cable news pundit when network executives spy his talent, as an “an ill-informed gas bag that networks cannot get enough of." True, how true. And it's probably just a coincidence I'm sure that Homer's Gut Check! bears a striking resemblance to the Glenn Beck Show.

Later on in the episode, Homer dismisses the six white guys remaining in the Republican race and pines momentarily for Chris Christie, then considers voting for the Democrats because as he says, without a hint of irony: "Maybe I'll vote Democrat. The great thing is, when they get in they act like Republicans." Homer (slash, Glenn Beck) comes to his senses though and instead endorses Ted Nugent.

At a town hall in Bedford,New Hampshire on Monday, Mitt Romney encountered an uninsured voter who pressed him on his opposition to universal healthcare.

The uninsured voter, a woman who seemed desperate for some words of hope regarding her lack of healthcare insurance. Instead of any hint of compassion - or even an actual response to her need for healthcare - Romney brushed the woman off with a grin and what seemed to be a jab at Obamacare before he cast his gaze elsewhere.

"When you signed into law Romneycare, I was excited," the woman said. "You seemed proud to do that. And then when the country copied you, it just seemed like there was hope for people like me."

"How have you done since then?" Romney asked flippantly, talking over her.

"I don't have health care, sir, and I'm scared," she said.

“That tells you something doesn’t it?” Romney said. “Tells you something.”

Indeed.

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The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur speaks with Media Matters' Eric Boehlert about their recent report on our news networks all but ignoring the awful pending legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. Here's more from their report:

REPORT: News Networks Ignore Controversial SOPA Legislation:

Controversial legislation that the co-founder of Google has warned "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world" has received virtually no coverage from major American television news outlets during their evening newscasts and opinion programming. The parent companies of most of these networks, as well as two of the networks themselves, are listed as official "supporters" of this legislation on the U.S. House of Representatives' website.

As the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) makes its way through Congress, most major television news outlets -- MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, and NBC -- have ignored the bill during their evening broadcasts. One network, CNN, devoted a single evening segment to it. (The data on lack of coverage is based on a search of the Lexis-Nexis database since October 1, 2011. The Nexis database does not include comprehensive daytime coverage, and also does not include Shep Smith's 7pm nightly Fox News program, so both are excluded from the study.) [...]

The legislation also has powerful supporters. As Carr laid out in his article, "Virtually every traditional media company in the United States loudly and enthusiastically supports SOPA." This includes the parent companies of the TV news outlets now ignoring the fury over the bill during their primetime broadcasts, as well as two of the channels themselves.

ABC and CBS are listed as supporters of the bill on the House Judiciary Committee website, along with Comcast/NBCUniversal (which owns MSNBC and NBC News), Viacom (CBS), News Corporation (Fox News), and Time Warner (CNN). Disney Publishing Worldwide, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation, which owns ABC, is also listed as a supporter, as are other Disney properties such as ESPN and Hyperion publishing.

To their credit, the online arms of most of these news outlets have posted regular articles about the fight over the legislation, but their primetime TV broadcasts remain mostly silent. Read on...

Good for Current TV for not ignoring the story as well. Here's more on the action being considered to protest the legislation -- Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter considering “nuclear option” to protest SOPA.

And in an update, this legislation is so bad, it looks like even Paul Ryan is going to oppose it -- Paul Ryan Drops His Support Of SOPA.

Dave Johnson wrote a great piece back in May showing that appealing to the center actually drives away voters. Now he finds more evidence to support his position:

On NPR's Talk of the Nation today, Clarence Page talked with host Neal Conan about the role of independent voters, saying that we might be surprised to learn that candidates who try to appeal to "independents" tend to lose, because they turn off the voters who closely follow and care about the issues.

In fact, candidates who try to "appeal to the center" lose, because this idea of a "center" is a myth. From the transcript:

You know, there is a professor Alan Aramowitz of Emory University, who has been studying this using voting statistics, and he found that the - well, as he put it, in all three of the presidential elections since 1972 that were decided by a margin of less than five points, that the candidate backed by the independents lost. This was - this surprised me. You know, he's citing here Jimmy Carter in '76, Gerald Ford - sorry, Gerald Ford beat - excuse me, Gerald Ford won the independent vote but lost the election. Put it that way, OK.

Most independents voted for George W. Bush in 2000, but Al Gore got the overall popular vote. As you recall, he got the popular vote but not the state vote.

CONAN: Yeah, but that's fudging your statistics a little bit. The guy who got the independent vote got the big prize.

PAGE: Yeah, but still, though, most of the - the one backed by the independent voters, though, did not get the majority of the popular vote. And in 2004, John Kerry, most independents voted for John Kerry, but he lost the overall election.

What does that mean? What it means is that Karl Rove and others, who have often advocated firing up the base rather than reaching out for independents, they've got a point. In some elections, that works. If you fire up your base, get your vote out, it can be big enough that it will overwhelm the opposition and the independents, because independents also tend to have the least turnout, and they also tend to be the least committed, not just to a party but also to - well, less engaged with the whole campaign.

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State: New Hampshire

Type of election: Primary

How it works: Straight-ahead process where voters go to the polls and vote via traditional secret ballot. The primary is a modified open contest meaning that voters registered independent or 'decline to state' can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primaries. The state will award 12 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Official election results: New Hampshire Secretary of State

Republican candidates: Michele Bachmann (she suspended her campaign after the ballot was finalized), Herman Cain (he suspended his campaign after the ballot was finalized), Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

Democratic candidates: Barack Obama

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney finished second in the Republican primary to John McCain, receiving 31 percent of the vote. Paul finished fifth with 8 percent. Obama finished second in the Democratic primary with 36 percent, losing to Hillary Clinton by three percent.

Newspapers: Concord Monitor, Nashuah Telegraph, New Hampshire Union Leader, full list

Television stations: Full list

Other websites: 2012 New Hampshire Primary

Progressive blogs: Bank Slate, Blue Hampshire, Democracy for New Hampshire, Miscellany Blue, New Hampshire Labor News, Susan the Bruce

Progressives on Twitter: Dean Barker, Blue Hampshire, New Hampshire Labor News, William Tucker

Media blogs: NH Journal, James Pindell, Shira Schoenberg, Dean Spiliotes

Latest polling: Most recent from each polling organization:

With a crowd of Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered on the sidewalk, Newt Gingrich skipped an appearance at his campaign headquarters in New Hampshire, where about 100 volunteers and supporters waited for him on the eve of primary day.

His campaign’s security team pulled the plug on the event after determining that the front and back entrances to the office were unsafe for Mr. Gingrich and his wife to enter, said R.C. Hammond, the campaign spokesman. The disappointed volunteers were scheduled to join Mr. Gingrich later in the evening at The Draft sports bar in Concord, where he planned to watch the college football championship game.

Mr. Hammond, who piped in by speakerphone to a press bus, declined to say why the security team made the decision. The protesters waved signs and chanted, supporting two competing candidates in the Republican primary: Ron Paul and an individual named Vermin Supreme, who wore a rubber boot on his head and danced while speaking through a megaphone.

Later, Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "We decided that it wasn't worth risking some kind of big confrontation."

The Grey Matter: Jobs Progress Despite Republicans

Ramona's Voices: Another First for the Great State of New Hampshire: The Great Debate of the Lesser Knowns

Political Carnival: Why I'm Leaving the Republican Party... and Endorsing President Obama

Dirty Hippies: So, Who are the Welfare Junkies

Roundup by Suzette (twitter @miamiswimmer) Send tips to MBRU at Crooks and Liars dot com

Canada agrees to run for POTUS. h/t Scarce. Open thread below...

There's never been band like NRBQ, and there's never been a drummer like Tommy Ardolino, who died on Friday at the age of 56. As a friend said, 'dude was a shaman'. The man could certainly swing. R.I.P.