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David Laws, the UK schools minister, will argue for changes to the system instituted by Michael Gove, the former education secretary. Photograph: Richard Gardner/Rex

Councils would regain powers to intervene in struggling academy schools, reversing the trend of increasing autonomy, under radical proposals from schools minister David Laws.

The Liberal Democrat minister will argue in a speech on Thursday that the system of school governance introduced by former education secretary Michael Gove has abandoned schools that converted from local authority control to standalone academy status and now find themselves without the resources or support they need to improve.

Laws wants responsibility for improvements to be handed from the Department for Education to a middle tier of local authorities and academy chains, backed by successful schools and headteachers who will be rewarded for helping local underperforming peers. This proposed middle tier would potentially assist all schools in need of improvement, not just academies.

No government is ever going to magic away every single weak school, that would be a delusion. But I think in a good and realistic scenario, where we had an effective middle tier, we would have 2,000 fewer schools in the [lowest] categories of requiring improvement or special measures, Laws said.

Potentially hundreds of thousands of pupils would be getting a much better education as a result.

More than 4,000 primary and secondary schools are currently rated requires improvement or inadequate out of 19,000 mainstream schools in England. Laws says if those schools were overseen by one of the best local authorities or academy chains, 1,900 would be rated inadequate or requires improvement.

The announcement,which follows Labours proposals to penalise private schools that fail to aid the state sector, is a sign that education is a hotly contested political issue ahead of the next general election.

Tristram Hunts plans to remove council tax breaks enjoyed by independent schools if they didnt partner with state schools were dismissed by Laws, though he admitted it was disappointing that some private schools didnt do more.

My main thought is that this is really a side issue in relation to all the big issues that are going to drive state school improvements, Laws said. When I look at it against teacher quality, funding, early years education, system leadership its going to make a tiny impact. I think this is another example of Tristram pursuing things which are side issues rather than having something to say about the really big debates in education.

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Schools minister seeks powers to intervene at struggling academies

Washington Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York says his party made a mistake by pushing to pass Obamacare in 2010.

Thats right: The third-ranking Democrat in the Senate says that expending legislative energy on President Obamas health-care bill was an unforced error. It used up too much time and distracted the White House and its legislative allies from continuing efforts to bolster the economy, which should have been their top priority, according to Senator Schumer.

Worse, the Affordable Care Act did not help that many people who actually vote, Schumer said. Only about a third of the uninsured at the time the bill passed were registered to vote, and only a fraction of that third actually voted, he said.

After passing the stimulus, Democrats should have continued to propose middle class-oriented programs and built on the partial success of the stimulus, said Schumer in an appearance Tuesday at the National Press Club. But unfortunately, Democrats blew the opportunity the American people gave them."

Wow, is Schumer right in this instance? Hes said in the past that he would have picked a different time to push the Affordable Care Act, but to repeat the argument now seems to be a conscious break with Obama administration orthodoxy.

If nothing else, hes making Republicans gleeful. Theyre holding up Schumers comments as yet more evidence that Obamacare shouldnt have passed in the first place.

So the Democrat Party got Schumered today, tweeted Joe Pounder, president of America Rising, a GOP opposition research political-action committee.

Mr. Pounder linked to a video of Schumers speech and said, well be using this a lot. Presumably, he meant that theyd be using it a lot in attack ads aimed at Democrats in 2016.

At its heart, Schumers view of how Democrats need to alter their image to win in 2016 is relatively widely held in Washington. The party thinks it needs to win over the broad swath of middle- and lower-income voters whose pay has stagnated for years.

Republicans want to be that party, too. They just have different ideas as to how to proceed. They would not agree with Schumer that an embrace of strong and active government is the answer.

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Is Chuck Schumer cutting Republicans' attack ads for them?

A judge asked Monroe County to provide him with the records of a reporter's license plate.(Photo: Christina Nellemann, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

An attorney for the Democrat and Chronicle argued Tuesday in state Supreme Court that Monroe County officials erred in refusing to release records that could show how extensively police use high-speed license-plate cameras to log where and when law-abiding citizens are driving.

The county maintains a database of license-plate records collected by these cameras, which often are mounted on police cruisers, and had amassed about 3.8 million records as of last summer. In July, reporter Steve Orr asked to see any records on his own license plate, those of six colleagues and two used on a pair of government vehicles assigned to Mayor Lovely Warren and Deputy County Executive Dan DeLaus.

County officials denied Orr's request. The Democrat and Chronicle asked a judge this fall to step in and order the records released.

Attorney Christopher Thomas of Nixon Peabody LLP told Justice John J. Ark on Tuesday morning that other law enforcement agencies including the Greece Police Department have readily handed over such information to people who asked for records on their own plates.

Deputy County Attorney Matt Brown said the decisions of other government agencies are "wholly irrelevant" because there have been no other court cases to settle how to deal with this issue.

The county has argued that releasing the records would be an invasion of personal privacy or interfere with a law enforcement investigation two reasons that government agencies can withhold records under the state's open records law.

Thomas criticized the county's argument that the records could somehow compromise an investigation.

"What the county is saying is that we're all suspects until we're not suspects, and we can't see our own data because we might some day be a suspect," he said.

Thomas also said the county simply could have requested proof that the reporters and editors involved in the request consented for their records to be released. All have since signed letters saying as much.

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Judge hears Democrat and Chronicle plate reader suit

"The state cannot discriminate, and if it does so, that is an abuse of power": Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm. Photo: Peter Rae

Same-sex marriage is vital for three reasons: liberty, conscience and state power.

That's the argument of Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm who on Wednesday introduced a private senator's bill to allow same-sex marriage.

The bill would allow any Australian to marry regardless of "sex, sexual orientation and gender identity".

However, it also gives non-government religious and civil celebrants the right to refuse to marry same-sex couples.

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The libertarian doesn't believe government should interfere in individual choices and freedoms, and also supports the medical use of marijuana and assisted suicide.

Banning same-sex marriage diminishes people's ability to make life plans and marriage equality keeps state power in check, he says.

"The state is a wonderful servant but a terrible master," he says.

"The state cannot discriminate, and if it does so, that is an abuse of power."

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Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm introduces same-sex marriage bill

Democrat Can #39;t Answer Question on How Is Illegal Amnesty Legal

By: Rick Wells

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Democrat Can't Answer Question on How Is Illegal Amnesty Legal - Video