Conservative radio host, author and political commentator Laura Ingraham '85 appeared on "The Colbert Report" Tuesday evening to discuss her New York Times bestselling book, "The Obama Diaries." Ingraham defended her satirical piece while talk show host Stephen Colbert who has long claimed to be a Dartmouth alumnus despite never attending the College questioned her about the "terrible" writing quality and instances of racial insensitivity. "I've read a fair amount of this book and I know [Obama is] not supposed to be a dumb guy," Colbert said, adding that the vocabulary in the diaries suggests otherwise. Colbert also read a passage from the work discussing the daily consumption of endless ribs by the president's wife, Michelle Obama. "I thought it was supposed to be a post-racial America," Colbert said. "Obama is making the most hideous, hackneyed racial stereotypes in here."
The Tuttle family owners of perhaps the oldest continuously operated family farm in the country decided to sell their land in Dover, N.H. after 378 years and eleven generations of ownership, the Associated Press reported last weekend. Lucy Tuttle, who runs the farm with her brother Will, said that they "lovingly discouraged" their children from continuing the family business due to debt and competition from supermarket chains and larger farms. The Tuttle family's claim to the "oldest family operated farm" distinction has been subject to recent debate. The United States Department of Agriculture named it the nation's oldest farm in 1989 but failed to mention the Shirley Plantation in Charles City, Va., which was founded in 1613. The Tuttle land, now on the market for $3.35 million, has changed considerably since John Tuttle arrived from England in 1632 and established his 20-acre plot. Today, the 200-acre farm is designated as conservation land and cannot be developed even after it changes ownership.
College presidents, financial aid officers, companies, students and employees submitted almost 1,800 comments on the online forum Regulations.gov regarding the U.S. Department of Education's proposed legislation intended to strengthen the Title IV federal financial aid program, according to Inside Higher Ed. The suggestions focus largely on recruiters' incentive compensation, how to best define a credit hour, state authorization and the Education Department's employment regulations. Many of the comments, such as those relating to the ban on paying recruiters based on performance, split along nonprofit and for-profit lines. Officials will evaluate the comments gathered during the public comment period, which ended Tuesday night, over the next three months, the Chronicle reported. The government plans to publish the finalized rules by Nov. 1 so that they can go into effect July 1, 2011.
