Principal Fired Over ‘Speak English’…

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Photo Credit: Mark Stevens / Creative Commons The Hempstead school board won’t renew the contract of a principal who instructed her students not to speak Spanish, in a rapidly-evolving district where more than half of the students, like many Texas schools, are now Hispanic.

Hempstead Middle School Principal Amy Lacey was placed on paid administrative leave in December after reportedly announcing, via intercom, that students were not to speak Spanish on the school’s campus. The Hispanic population of the rural area, roughly 50 miles northwest of Houston, is growing quickly, and Latino advocates say that it’s important to allow Spanish in public schools.

“When you start banning aspects of ethnicity or cultural identity,” says Augustin Pinedo, director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Region 18, “it sends the message that the child is not wanted: ‘We don’t want your color. We don’t want your kind.’ They then tend to drop out early.”

Such fast growth is pervasive in Texas, says Steve Murdock, a professor at Rice University and director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas. Half of all Texas public-school students are now Hispanic, he notes. “When you look at issues related to education in Texas, to a great extent, you’re looking at the education of Hispanic children.”

Similar growth patterns, he says, hold true for the rest of the United States: “It’s not just Texas.”

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Watchdog Raises Concerns US Money Paying Afghan ‘Ghost Workers’

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Photo Credit: APA watchdog is raising concerns that some of the money the U.S. is spending to pay the salaries of police officers in Afghanistan may be going to non-existent “ghost workers.”

John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction, wrote in a letter last month to U.S. military officials in Afghanistan that the possibility of “ghost workers” was raised several times during his most recent trip to the country, and during discussions with European Union officials.

Sopko said he wants to get to the bottom of the rumors, and noted he has been encouraged by discussions with officials in Afghanistan to address the concerns.

However, Sopko said more action must be taken to determine how exactly American money is flowing through the Afghan banking system and into the salaries of their police force.

Read more from this story HERE.

Insufficient Pipelines Hiked Natural Gas Price

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesNew England’s electric grid operator says a lack of pipelines is driving the price up for natural gas, and hiked wholesale electricity prices in the region by 55 percent last year.

ISO-New England said Tuesday that the average price of wholesale electric energy rose to $56.06 per megawatt hour, up from a historic low of $36.09 in 2012.

Read more from this story HERE.

Disgusting: DC Abortion Fund Offering Coat-Hanger Necklace for Every $10 Donated

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Photo Credit: National Review The D.C. Abortion Fund (DCAF) is offering a coat hanger pendant to all who donate $10 or more a month to the non-profit organization that gives money to women of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia who cannot afford to pay for abortions on their own.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Man Arrested and Charged with Felony for Talking Too Much

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Photo Credit: Steve Rhodes / Creative Commons A man in Saginaw County is facing a felony charge after being arrested at a township board meeting March 4, for going over his allotted speaking time.

Mark Adams was charged Friday, March 14 with a felony resisting and obstructing police and a disturbing the peace misdemeanor.

The incident was caught on camera and has been viewed thousands of times.

FOX 17 spoke exclusively with the man arrested, traveling across the state to get answers.

Adams was pulled from the podium by several officers and arrested after exceeding the public comment time limit of three minutes, addressing several issues he has with his local government.

Read more from this story HERE.

On the Rise: Powerful Figures Sexually Abusing Young Boys Trained to Dance in Female Clothes

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Photo Credit: AP / Rahmat GulThe State Department in its 2013 human rights report on Afghanistan said the sexual abuse of boys, or bacha baazi, is on the rise in the region, with the practice becoming common in Kabul.

“The practice of ‘bacha baazi’ (dancing boys) – which involved powerful or wealthy local figures and businessmen sexually abusing young boys who were trained to dance in female clothes – was on the rise,” the State Department said in its human rights report.

The report noted an increase in rapes during the year, with most victims being children. In fact, sexual abuse of children reached an all-time high, according to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

“Although pornography is a crime, child pornography is not specifically prohibited by law. Exploiting a child for sexual purposes, as was done with bacha baazi, also was widespread but not specified as a crime under the law,” the State Department noted in its report.

“Although the practice was believed to be more widespread in conservative rural areas, at least one media report alleged that it had become common in Kabul. Media reports also alleged that local authorities, including the police, were involved in the practice, but the government took few steps to discourage the abuse of boys or to prosecute or punish those involved,” the human rights report said.

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Putin Vows to Bring Glory Back to Russia

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Photo Credit: firdaus omar / Creative Commons Putin says U.S. guided by ‘the rule of the gun’ in foreign policy

By Reuters.

…”Our Western partners headed by the United States prefer not to be guided by international law in their practical policies, but by the rule of the gun,” he told a joint session of parliament.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Reuters Putin Recognizes Crimea Independence, Claims Peninsula as Russian Territory

By Mary Chastain.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree that officially acknowledged Crimea’s independence and claimed the peninsula as Russia territory.

“Taking into consideration the will of Crimea’s people on the nationwide referendum, which took place on March 16, 2014, to recognize the Republic of Crimea, where Sevastopol city has a special status, as a sovereign and independent state,” reads the official decree.

“An absolute majority of both Crimeans and Russians support reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation. Today, based on results of the referendum conducted in Crimea (on March 16) and based on the will of people, I will introduce a law to the Federal Council of the Russian Federation on accepting two subjects to the Russian Federation, the Crimea and city of Sevastopol, and also to ratify the approved agreement to on joining by Crimea the Russian Federation. I have no doubt that you will support it.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to Hispanics: We Won’t Deport Relatives If You Enroll in ObamaCare

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Photo Credit: Geoff LivingstonPresident Obama on Tuesday sought to assure legal immigrants that they can sign up for ObamaCare without worrying that “the immigration people” will come for family members who are in the country illegally.

In an interview with Univision Deportes, a Spanish-language sports radio show, Obama said immigration officials won’t have access to the personal information that consumers provide when signing up for healthcare on the new exchanges.

“Well, the main thing for people to know is that any information you get, you know, asked with respect to buying insurance, does not have anything to do with … the rules governing immigration,” Obama said. “And you know, you can qualify if you’re a legal resident, if you are … legally present in the United States.

“You know, if you have a family where some people are citizens or legally here, and others are not documented, the immigration people will never get that information.”

Adolf Falcon, the senior vice president of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, told The Hill that Hispanic families are wary of Obama’s assurances because of his record on deportations.

Read more from this story HERE.

National Association for Gun Rights Endorses Joe Miller for U.S. Senate

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The National Association for Gun Rights PAC today announced its endorsement of Joe Miller for U.S. Senate. Miller has now secured the endorsement of two of the three most prominent groups advocating for Americans’ Second Amendment rights. The Gun Owners of America’s Political Victory Fund endorsed Miller last month. The NRA has not endorsed to date in the U.S. Senate race, but Miller received an “A” rating from the group as a candidate in 2010. Miller has also been endorsed by the Combat Veterans for Congress PAC. Following is NAGR’s endorsement in full:  

The National Association for Gun Rights PAC is pleased to announce their endorsement of Joe Miller for U.S.Senate.
 
While Miller is an avid outdoorsman and gun collector, he recognizes the purpose of the Second Amendment is not about hunting or sport, but is about our right to self-defense, individual liberty and protection against government tyranny.

Joe Miller stated, “Our Founders wrote the right to keep and bear arms into the Constitution as a guarantor of all our fundamental rights as Americans. I will not give one inch in defending against Washington’s assault on gun rights and will fight tirelessly against anti-Second Amendment forces in the Senate.”

“NAGR is doing great work in educating our fellow Americans about their natural and inalienable rights recognized in the Second Amendment. I am proud of their uncompromising stance on gun rights and am honored to receive the group’s endorsement,” said Miller.
  
Joe Miller’s opponent, Mark Begich has failed to protect this most fundamental right time-and-again during his tenure in office. He voted to confirm Eric Holder, the most anti-gun rights Attorney General in our nation’s history, as well as several anti-gun judges to the federal bench. Begich voted for the ObamaCare medical records provision which will be used to deny Americans their Second Amendment rights: a similar provision has already been used to keep over 100,000 veterans from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. In a Senate Committee last month, Begich used procedural tactics to prevent a vote on Senator Rand Paul’s guns in Post Offices amendment. While Mark Begich claims to fully support Alaskans’ Second Amendment rights, he has a clear record of undermining them. 

“Joe Miller understands the Second Amendment guarantees true freedom for all Americans,” stated Dudley Brown, Executive Vice President of the National Association for Gun Rights. “His views on gun rights don’t come as lip service to appease a particular single issue group, but from a deeply held belief in the Constitution.”

NAGR-PAC works to elect more pro-gun leaders in Congress, not more followers.

NSA Collection Systems are Recording ‘Every Single’ Conversation Nationwide (+video)

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Photo Credit: APNSA surveillance program reaches ‘into the past’ to retrieve, replay phone calls

By Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani.

The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording “100 percent” of a foreign country’s telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place, according to people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former contractor Edward Snowden.

A senior manager for the program compares it to a time machine — one that can replay the voices from any call without requiring that a person be identified in advance for surveillance.

The voice interception program, called MYSTIC, began in 2009. Its RETRO tool, short for “retrospective retrieval,” and related projects reached full capacity against the first target nation in 2011. Planning documents two years later anticipated similar operations elsewhere.

In the initial deployment, collection systems are recording “every single” conversation nationwide, storing billions of them in a 30-day rolling buffer that clears the oldest calls as new ones arrive, according to a classified summary.

The call buffer opens a door “into the past,” the summary says, enabling users to “retrieve audio of interest that was not tasked at the time of the original call.” Analysts listen to only a fraction of 1 percent of the calls, but the absolute numbers are high. Each month, they send millions of voice clippings, or “cuts,” for processing and long-term storage.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AFP Photo/Beto BarataRobot Snowden promises more US spying revelations

By Glenn Chapman.

Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden emerged from his Russian exile Tuesday in the form of a remotely-controlled robot to promise more sensational revelations about US spying programs.

The fugitive’s face appeared on a screen as he maneuvered the wheeled android around a stage at the TED gathering, addressing an audience in Vancouver without ever leaving his secret hideaway.

“There are absolutely more revelations to come,” he said. “Some of the most important reporting to be done is yet to come.”

Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who has been charged in the United States with espionage, dismissed the public debate about whether he is a heroic whistleblower or traitor.

Instead, he used the conference organized by educational non-profit organization TED (“Technology Entertainment Design”), to call for people worldwide to fight for privacy and Internet freedom.

Read more from this story HERE.