Washington Becomes First State to Lose its Waiver from No Child Left Behind

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Photo Credit: Rachel La Corte / AP

Photo Credit: Rachel La Corte / AP

Washington state lost its waiver from implementing certain parts of the No Child Left Behind education law, an action that could lead to layoffs and program cuts, Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement Thursday.

In a letter to the state superintendent, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that he would not renew the waiver because the state had failed to implement promised changes to how it evaluates teachers and principals. The state is the first to lose its waiver.

In February 2012, the state committed to making student learning growth a substantial factor in those reviews. Last August, it was placed on high-risk status for failing to implement that and other changes, giving the state until May 1 to produce a plan. Because that would require a legislative change and Washington’s legislature won’t reconvene until next January, Duncan said the state would be losing its waiver.

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When Government Looks More Like Foe than Friend

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

The Cliven Bundy case in Nevada provides many insights into the state of our nation with respect to the relationship between the people and the government.

The Bundys appear to be honorable American citizens without adequate legal counsel to help resolve a federal land issue about which they disagree with the Bureau of Land Management. Without question, they violated some of the innumerable laws and regulations that continue to entangle every aspect of American life.

Their violations certainly could have been handled through a multitude of less brutal means than those employed by our federal government, which through the mouthpiece of Sen. Harry Reid emphasizes how important it is for the government to enforce its laws.

It is quite interesting to see, though, that those same bureaucrats refuse to enforce some of our federal border-protection laws and other domestic policies with which they disagree. Perhaps Reid’s time could be better spent explaining why it is acceptable for the federal government to pick and choose which laws it wishes to enforce.

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Report: US Allowed Arming of al-Qaida Militants in Benghazi

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Photo Credit: Breitbart

Photo Credit: Breitbart

The U.S. government was complicit in arming al-Qaida militants in Libya, according to the Citizens Commission on Benghazi, The Daily Mail reported.

The group includes former top military officers and CIA officials who say the United States is partly to blame for the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi.

“Remember, these weapons that came into Benghazi were permitted to enter by our armed forces, who were blockading the approaches from air and sea,” Clare Lopez, a member of the commission and a former CIA officer, told the newspaper.

“The intelligence community was part of that, the Department of State was part of that, and certainly that means that the top leadership of the United States, our national security leadership, and potentially Congress – if they were briefed on this – also knew about this.”

The United States failed to stop a $500 million United Arab Emirates arms shipment from reaching al-Qaida militants in Libya, according to Lopez. The weapons, according to The Daily Mail, were bound for Moammar Gadhafi but allowed by the United States to go to his Islamist opposition.

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DOJ To Flood Streets With Felons

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Photo Credit: Western Journalism

Photo Credit: Western Journalism

Eric Holder’s Justice Department has come under fire multiple times in recent months for embracing policies that many feel provide undue leniency toward violent felons. Under Holder’s leadership, the agency has publicly supported giving felons the right to vote, rewarding them with free phone service and transportation, and even commuting the sentences of some prisoners.

According to a new initiative announced Wednesday, a huge number of criminals currently in prison are about to receive a get-out-of-jail pass from the DOJ based on the fact that they have already served at least 10 years of their sentence.

These criminals, all convicted of drug offenses, will be able to apply for release under the policy, provided they might have gotten a lighter sentence had they committed their crime more recently.

“Older, stringent punishments that are out of line with sentences imposed under today’s laws erode people’s confidence in our criminal justice system,” said Deputy Attorney General James Cole. “I am confident that this initiative will go far to promote the most fundamental of American ideals – equal justice under the law.”

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America: We Support Building Keystone

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Photo Credit: Townhall

Photo Credit: Townhall

Last week on Good Friday, the White House announced yet another delay for the Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2014 midterm elections. The White House cited the project needing “further review” before approval and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says the move was not political. The bright side is labor unions called the delay “gutless,” a “low blow to the working men and women of our country,” and a “cold, hard slap in the face for hard working Americans who are literally waiting for President Obama’s approval and the tens of thousands of jobs it will generate.”

A new poll from Rasmussen Reports shows 61 percent of Americans support the approval of Keystone, a new high.

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John Cornyn Calls for Broad Probe into Obamacare Spending, Fundraising

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is calling for a broad investigation into spending and fundraising to help promote Obamacare after a report released Monday raised new questions about the White House’s involvement in persuading private entities to donate to the effort.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, released a report Monday on Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ fundraising on behalf of Enroll America, a nonprofit founded by former Obama campaign and White House staffers, to help boost enrollment in the federal exchanges.

When looking into the fundraising issue, the GAO interviewed a representative from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who said a White House aide during a discussion in 2012 sought a “significant contribution” for Enroll America and said other similar enrollment nonprofits would likely need $30 million to finance a national Obamacare promotional effort.

The White House stresses that the aide, identified only as the deputy assistant to the president for health policy, did not ask for a specific dollar donation and denies the mention of the need for $30 million to finance a private national Obamacare public-relations campaign.

Jeanne Lambrew has been serving in that position since March 2011, according to a report in the Washington Post.

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Texas Second-Grader Says Teacher Took Away Bible During Reading Time

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Photo Credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images

Photo Credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images

The family of a second-grade student at a Texas elementary school says their daughter’s teacher took her Bible away during a “read to myself” session.

The Liberty Institute, a nonprofit legal group specializing in religious liberty cases, says the family reached out for assistance after a teacher at Hamilton Elementary in Cypress allegedly told the girl not to bring the Bible back to school again.

The teacher reportedly said the Bible is inappropriate reading material.

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Professor Goes on Ballistic Rant About Racist Republicans Who Want to Shut Down Colleges (+audio)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

Welcome to Intro to Creative Writing at Eastern Connecticut State University, where Professor Brent Terry will inform you of the horrors that will befall America if Republicans take control of Congress. A portion of his rant:

There are a lot of people out there that do not want black people to vote, do not want Latinos to vote. Do not want old people to vote, or young people to vote. Because generally, people like you are liberal.

Never ever in the history of the United States has it been so important to vote….

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Perry Rips ‘Out-of-Control’ Federal Government Over Texas Land Dispute

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Texas Gov. Rick Perry joined his state’s top attorney on Wednesday in blasting the federal Bureau of Land Management over concerns that it may be looking at laying claim to thousands of acres of property in northern Texas.

“The federal government already owns too much land,” Perry told Fox News.

At issue are thousands of acres of land on the Texas side of the Red River, along the border between Texas and Oklahoma. Officials recently have raised concern that the BLM might be looking at claiming 90,000 acres of land as part of the public domain.

On Tuesday, state Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is running to replace Perry, raised the issue in a letter to the BLM director. He also told Breitbart.com he’s ready to “go to the Red River and raise a ‘Come and Take It’ flag to tell the feds to stay out of Texas.”

Abbott reiterated his comments Wednesday night on “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.”

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RNC Chairman: ‘Harry Reid is So Dirty and So Unethical’

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

By Alex Pappas.

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on Wednesday accused Senate majority leader Harry Reid of being “so dirty and so unethical” for using his taxpayer-funded office to launch political attacks against Republicans.

During an appearance on Fox and Friends, Priebus discussed how the the GOP has filed an ethics complaint against the Nevada Democrat to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics over the issue.

“Harry Reid is so dirty and so unethical that some of these things have to happen,” Priebus said on Fox and Friends. “You have to put a marker down and say, wait a second. You are not going to use a taxpayer web site and a taxpayer Twitter account to attack Republicans”

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Photo Credit: Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

RNC Calls Harry Reid Hypocritical, Habitual Liar

By Drew MacKenzie.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been accused by the Republican National Committee in a no-holds-barred memo of being a repetitive bold-faced liar.

The memo, written by RNC press secretary Kirsten Kukowski and titled “Nothing’s Too Unethical for Harry Reid,” starts by saying that that the Nevada Democrat is having “a bad month,” according to The Weekly Standard.

Kukowski continued, “He was caught funneling campaign money to his relatives. His Senate Majority PAC was caught lying to voters. And he was caught hypocritically accepting money tied to people he calls ‘un-American.’

“As he desperately clings to power, is there anything Harry Reid won’t do to promote his own self-interests?”

The Standard’s conservative commentator Daniel Halper said that Reid’s untruths have become such much a major part of his culture that his mantra is, “If at first you don’t succeed, lie, lie again.”

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