The Sneaky Tactic Some States Are Using Now That Parents Are Standing Up Against Common Core

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Photo Credit: The BlazeAs fed-up parents across the nation voice their staunch opposition to federal Common Core standards, several states are trying a new approach to appease them… by just changing the name in a “rebranding” effort.

In Iowa, Common Core is now referred to as “The Iowa Core” and as “Next Generation Sunshine State Standards” in Florida. Further, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed an executive order recently to scrub the “Common Core” name from their math and reading standards. Louisiana is also reportedly considering a name change.

Glyn Wright, executive director of the Eagle Forum, told FoxNews.com that the name isn’t the problem.

“Even under a different name, the Common Core Standards are still mediocre, at best, and continue to put American students at a significant disadvantage to their international peers,” Wright said.

Read more this story HERE.

California Bill Seeks to Extend Subsidized Health Care to Illegal Immigrants

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Lucy NicholsonA California Democrat is looking to extend taxpayer-funded health-care benefits to illegal immigrants.

State Sen. Ricardo Lara of Long Beach introduced legislation late last week that would extend health-care coverage to all Californians “irrespective of immigration status.”

“The purpose of the Health For All Act is simple — provide health care coverage to California’s remaining uninsured by expanding Medi-Cal and creating a new health exchange where the undocumented can purchase coverage,” Lara said in a statement.

Read more this story HERE.

Police Beat, Stun Deaf Man After Confusing Sign Language With Threatening Gestures (+video)

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Photo Credit: Yohei Yamashita/flickrJonathan Meister was retrieving some stuff he was storing at an ex-roommate’s home when he looked up to find several members of the Hawthorne Police Department approaching.

The South Bay man claims officers didn’t give him a chance to explain what he was doing before placing him in handcuffs, beating him and using a stun gun to shock him into submission.

The problem began when police reportedly misunderstood Meister’s attempts to speak in sign language as threatening gestures.

Moreover, officers didn’t realize that when they handcuffed Meister, who is “profoundly deaf” and non-verbal, they took away his ability to communicate.

Now, the architect from Manhattan Beach is suing the city of Hawthorne, its police department and several of its officers for what happened that day.

Read more this story HERE.

Nun Gets Nearly 3 Years in Prison for Nuke Protest

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Photo Credit: YahooAn 84-year-old nun was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three years in prison for breaking into a nuclear weapons complex and defacing a bunker holding bomb-grade uranium, a demonstration that exposed serious security flaws at the Tennessee plant.

Two other peace activists who broke into the facility with Megan Rice were sentenced to more than five years in prison, in part because they had much longer criminal histories of mostly non-violent civil disobedience.

Although officials said there was never any danger of the protesters reaching materials that could be detonated or made into a dirty bomb, the break-in raised questions about safekeeping at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The facility holds the nation’s primary supply of bomb-grade uranium and was known as the “Fort Knox of uranium.”

After the break-in, the complex had to be shut down, security forces were re-trained and contractors were replaced.

In her closing statement, Rice asked the judge to sentence her to life in prison, even though sentencing guidelines called for about six years.

Read more this story HERE.

Obama: ‘Unchecked’ Carbon Pollution Had ‘Severe Impacts on Our Weather’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jacquelyn MartinWhile announcing new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said “unchecked” carbon pollution prior to his administration’s efforts to raise fuel economy standards “was having severe impacts on our weather.”

“Carbon pollution was going unchecked, which was having severe impacts on our weather,” Obama said in a speech at a Safeway distribution center in Upper Marlboro, MD.

For decades, fuel efficiency standards had been “stuck in neutral, even as other kinds of technology leapt forward,” the president said. The economy was “vulnerable to fluctuations in oil prices.”

“Every time oil prices shot up, the economy got hurt. Our automakers were in danger of being left in the dust by foreign automakers,” he said.

After taking office, the Obama administration “set in motion the first ever national policy aimed at both increasing gas mileage and decreasing gas pollution for all new cars and trucks sold” in the U.S.

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Obama Wants Tougher Fuel Standards For Big Trucks

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Photo Credit: Mike Blake/Reuters/LandovPresident Obama said Tuesday that he has told the Environmental Protection Agency to work with the Department of Transportation on a second round of regulations to improve the fuel efficiency of medium- and heavy-duty trucks. The goal: reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they contribute to the environment.

The tighter standards would affect vehicles built after the model year 2018 and would apply to trucks that weigh more than 8,500 pounds. That group can include some popular pickups built by Chrysler, Ford, GM and other automakers — as well as sanitation trucks, delivery vehicles and the trailer-tractors that haul cargo up and down the nation’s highways.

The White House says the rules already put into effect have saved truckers money: “By model year 2018, an operator of a new semi truck could pay for the technology upgrades in under a year and realize net savings of $73,000 through reduced fuel costs over the truck’s useful life,” it states in a report on the initiatives.

Tightening standards further will eventually save truckers even more, Obama said.

Read more this story HERE.

Kansas Bill Would Allow Spanking that Leaves Marks, Redness

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A Kansas lawmaker is raising eyebrows after she proposed a bill to allow parents, teachers and caregivers to spank children hard enough to leave redness or bruising.

Rep. Gail Finney, a Democrat from Wichita, says the bill is meant to restore parental rights and improve discipline among the state’s children. KCTV reports Finney was introduced to the idea by McPherson Deputy County Attorney Britt Colle, who told the station the bill makes it clear hitting a child with a fist, with a belt or in the head or body is still banned.

“This bill basically defines a spanking along with necessary reasonable physical restraint that goes with discipline, all of which has always been legal,” Colle said. “This bill clarifies what parents can and cannot do. By defining what is legal, it also defines what is not.”

Read more this story HERE.

Egyptian Militants Warn Tourists to Leave or Face Attack

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Photo Credit: YahooA militant Islamist group has warned tourists to leave Egypt and threatened to attack any who stay after February 20, raising the prospect of a new front in a fast-growing insurgency in the biggest Arab nation.

The Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed two South Korean tourists and an Egyptian on Sunday, made the statement on an affiliated Twitter account.

“We recommend tourists to get out safely before the expiry of the deadline,” read the tweet, written in English, which Egypt’s prime minister said on Tuesday aimed to undermine the political process begun after an army takeover in July.

Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis has said that it does not post statements on social media sites, but statements that appeared on the Twitter account in the past have afterwards surfaced on jihadist websites which the group says it does use.

Islamist militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the army deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi seven months ago, but Sunday’s attack on a tourist bus marks a tactical shift to soft targets that could devastate an economy already reeling from political turmoil.

Read more this story HERE.

Alaska Republican Party Meltdown Continues

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Anchorage, AK – Saturday’s meeting of the Alaska Republican Party Central Committee at the Millennium Hotel was marked by more unrest as an elected officer from District 10 was escorted off the premises by police.

Unbeknownst to Daniel Palmer, who was elected at his last District Convention as a member of the Central Committee, Chairman Peter Goldberg reportedly dissolved his district by fiat on Friday before the meeting convened on Saturday.

Apparently the Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary had vacated their positions.

In a subsequent email, Goldberg maintained that “the Rules give me the authority and mandate that the district should be declared unorganized.”

Palmer maintains he was never contacted, saying he only found out when he arrived. Party policy has always been that any registered Republican may attend as a guest if the requisite fee is paid.

The rub came in when Mr. Palmer decided to record the meeting. According to witnesses, the Central Committee subsequently voted through a temporary measure that would disallow the meeting to be taped.

One member compared the heavy-handed approach of the Central Committee Leadership to “Gestapo tactics.”

When Palmer refused to turn off his video camera, party officials called the APD and prevailed upon Hotel Security to trespass Mr. Palmer, who was subsequently escorted out by Anchorage Police.

Chairman Goldberg has warned Mr. Palmer, “If you come to another meeting with your recording equipment and the body of the membership does not want you to use it, and if you refuse to comply with that directive, you will again be removed.”

It’s hard to imagine what information is so sensitive as to warrant this level of secrecy. Palmer maintains that he is only trying to serve the people who elected him, and he feels recording the meetings is the most effective way to keep them informed.

The incident highlights the deep fissures within the party precipitated by the 2010 Write-In campaign of Senator Lisa Murkowski waged against the party nominee, and exacerbated by the Central Committee’s ouster of duly elected leadership after the Ron Paul contingent won the top leadership posts at the 2012 party convention.

Mr. Palmer says his district is mobilizing for an emergency meeting to redress the situation.

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Riot Police in Ukraine Move in Against Protest Camp

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Photo Credit: Fox News By Fox News.

Ukranian riot police armed with stun grenades and water cannons moved in against a protest camp in Kiev’s center Tuesday night as defiant crowds shouted “Glory to Ukraine” while their tents were engulfed in flames around them.

At least 18, including seven police officers and 11 protesters, were reported dead in the violence by early Wednesday morning, with hundreds more injured, the Associated Press reported.

Thousands of protesters had filled Independence Square just hours before, sensing that Ukraine’s political standoff was reaching a critical turning point after the deadliest violence yet in nearly three months of protests that have paralyzed the capital and the nation.

Opposition leader Vitali Klitschko urged the protesters to defend the camp.

“We will not go anywhere from here,” Klitschko told the crowd, speaking from a stage in the square as fires burned around him, releasing huge plumes of smoke into the night sky. “This is an island of freedom and we will defend it,” he said.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Reuters Ukraine crisis: Police storm main Kiev ‘Maidan’ protest camp

Police are storming the main protest camp in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, which has been occupied since November.

Explosions are taking place, fireworks are being thrown and large fires have broken out in Independence Square.

On Tuesday at least 18 people were killed, including seven policemen, in the worst violence seen in weeks.

President Viktor Yanukovych blamed the violence on opposition leaders, but said it was still “not too late to stop the conflict”.

He was speaking after a late-night meeting with opposition figures Vitaly Klitschko and Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

Read more this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: WNDReagan official: Obama should support Ukraine Protesters

By Greg Corombos.

Recent Ukrainian unrest reached its deadliest levels yet Tuesday, as protesters and police officers were killed, fires raged in Kiev and a nation divided moved closer to a national tipping point.

Ukraine is closely divided between Russian-speaking residents largely loyal to Moscow and native-speaking western Ukraine, which identified with Europe and largely despises Russia for its decades of control during the days of the USSR.

The latest volatility stems from Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych rejecting an opportunity to establish closer economic ties with the European Union and subsequently accepting bailout assistance from Russia. Protests that followed were met with new laws restricting protest rights and even a ban on citizens wearing helmets.

Former Reagan administration Pentagon official Frank Gaffney told Radio America the people have very good reasons to be in the streets.

“There’s obvious frustration on the part of the people of Ukraine with their government, with the policies it’s been pursuing, particularly to the degree to which it is acceding to what can only be described as domination by Russia. I think there’s also a growing restiveness about the growing repression at home and the corruption of their government,” Gaffney said.

Read more this story HERE.