School Won’t Let Fifth-Grader Start a Prayer Club — But Approves LGBTQ Group

A fifth-grade girl in Washington State was denied a request to start an interfaith prayer group at her elementary school after educators granted permission for an LGBTQ Pride club one week earlier.

11-year-old Laura, a Creekside Elementary student, told “Fox News @ Night” she had felt alone in her classroom and the larger school. After speaking with friends who felt the same way, Laura pitched the idea of bringing people together and doing good in the community.

Laura claimed the interfaith prayer group welcomed all students, regardless of religion.

“I think that this is something that I am very passionate about. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really want to make this happen, if I didn’t think that it would be a great opportunity for everyone,” Laura said.

First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit Christian legal organization representing Laura, another unidentified student and their parents, sent a letter to Issaquah School District officials about the incident. (Read more from “School Won’t Let Fifth-Grader Start a Prayer Club — But Approves LGBTQ Group” HERE)

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Teacher Arrested on Charge of Recruiting Students to Be Prostitutes

High school students undoubtedly get a lot of crazy assignments these days, what with “Black Lives Matter” and “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” agendas running many districts.

But a case in Texas has documented a new extremity – a teacher accused of soliciting students to be prostitutes for her pimp son.

It is the New York Post that reports the high school teacher was arrested “on child sex-trafficking charges,” for allegedly offering runaway students “a place to stay and then forcing them into prostitution.”

The report cited details from Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez in explaining cosmetology teacher Kedria Grigsby, 42, worked at Klein Cain High and was taken into custody on multiple charges.

“She was working with her 21-year-old son, Roger Magee, to build a ‘prostitution enterprise,’ according to prosecutors,” the report documented. (Read more from “Teacher Arrested on Charge of Recruiting Students to Be Prostitutes” HERE)

Man Strips Naked in Women’s Locker Room at Planet Fitness, Gets Arrested

Planet Fitness has become the object of scorn from many populations in America for its open showers policy, through which it promotes transgenderism by allowing men who say they are women to use the facilities for women.

But now a man has been arrested after stripping naked in a women’s locker room and “showing us his ….” . . .

The report comes from the Post Millennial, which explained the man, Christopher Allan Miller, 38, was arrested for the incident at a Planet Fitness in Gastonia, N.C. . .

“A female caller described the situation to the dispatcher, stating, ‘It’s a man but he says he identifies as a woman, and he won’t leave the restroom. But he is just walking around showing us his — and he won’t leave,'” the report said. . .

The club’s own policy includes total support for questionable activities, however, stating, “All members, including transgender members, may use Planet Fitness® locker room facilities, bathrooms, showers, and all other facilities/programs separated by sex based on their self-reported gender identity.” (Read more from “Man Strips Naked in Women’s Locker Room at Planet Fitness, Gets Arrested” HERE)

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Will School Choice Win Out in Tennessee? Lawmakers Have Two Weeks to Finalize ‘Education Freedom’ Act

Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee is determined to make his state the latest to overhaul its education system to embrace school choice, but with a deadline to get it done just a few weeks away, several hurdles remain.

With two weeks remaining before the legislative session of the Tennessee General Assembly comes to a close, lawmakers in the state House and Senate have put forward two very different versions of Lee’s proposed school choice measure, known as the “Education Freedom Scholarship Act.” Despite the differences, both legislative leaders and Lee tell The Daily Wire they are confident they will get a school choice measure passed, though precisely what it will look like won’t be known until the end of the session on April 25.

Lee’s school choice plan calls for scholarships worth $7,000 to be made available to 20,000 students in the 2024-2025 school year. Of the available scholarships, half would be reserved for poor people, with the remaining half allocated on a first come, first serve basis. The goal for the next school year would be for universal eligibility for all students in the state to use at private schools, charter schools, or for homeschool families.

“A parent ought to decide where their kid goes to school and what they learn, and not the government,” Lee told The Daily Wire in an interview. “That’s what choice is really about: the government not deciding everything about a kid’s education in a state, but the parents deciding that.”

The House and Senate versions of the Education Freedom Scholarship Act have been working their way through committees over the last several weeks. Both versions set aside around $144 million for the 20,000 scholarships and do not automatically expand the amount of scholarships, meaning the cap would need to be lifted by future General Assemblies. They both also reserve 10,000 for lower-income students and 10,000 more broadly open for anyone. However, who and where the scholarships can be eligible depends on which version gets passed. (Read more from “Will School Choice Win Out in Tennessee? Lawmakers Have Two Weeks to Finalize ‘Education Freedom’ Act” HERE)

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White House Expresses Condolences on OJ Simpson’s Death, With No Mention of Murder Victims (VIDEO)

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered condolences Thursday following the death of OJ Simpson — but made no mention of the two people he was accused, and sensationally acquitted, of killing nearly three decades ago.

“Our thoughts are with his families [sic] during this difficult time — obviously with his family and loved ones,” Jean-Pierre said at her regular briefing.

“And I’ll say this, I know that they have asked for some privacy. And so we’re going to respect that. And I’ll just leave it there.”

Simpson’s family announced his death from prostate cancer Thursday morning on social media. He was 76.

A star running back at the University of Southern California, Simpson won the Heisman Trophy as the nation’s outstanding college player in 1968 before playing 11 NFL seasons with the Buffalo Bills and his hometown San Francisco 49ers. (Read more from “White House Expresses Condolences on OJ Simpson’s Death, With No Mention of Murder Victims” HERE)

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NPR Editor Says Network ‘Turned a Blind Eye’ to Hunter Biden Laptop Story Because ‘It Could Help Trump’

A veteran National Public Radio journalist slammed the left-leaning broadcaster for ignoring the Hunter Biden laptop scandal because it could have helped Donald Trump get re-elected.

Uri Berliner, an award-winning business editor and reporter at NPR, penned a lengthy essay in Bari Weiss’ online news site The Free Press in which he called out his bosses for turning the public radio broadcaster into “an openly polemical news outlet serving a niche audience.”

“The laptop was newsworthy,” Berliner wrote. “But the timeless journalistic instinct of following a hot story lead was being squelched.”

Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, The Post was the first to reveal the existence of the laptop that Hunter Biden left at a Delaware computer shop.

The Post published the contents of emails taken from the laptop, which shed light on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father, Joe Biden, was vice president during the Obama administration. (Read more from “NPR Editor Says Network ‘Turned a Blind Eye’ to Hunter Biden Laptop Story Because ‘It Could Help Trump’” HERE)

Planet Fitness Has Been ‘Pretty Much Destroyed,’ Says Company Founder

This comes after weeks of calls for boycotts of the brand after the company canceled the membership of a Planet Fitness gym goer after speaking out about a biological male in the women’s locker room.

Planet Fitness’s policy allows gym members to use the locker room associated with their gender identity. But this policy has led to a few high-profile cases of women feeling uncomfortable in Planet Fitness women’s locker rooms, and some women and children have reported abuse and sexual harassment at the facilities. Many of these incidents resulted in the women losing their membership, but an arrest was made in at least one instance…

[Founder and CEO Mike Grondahl stated,] “Planet Fitness was like another child for me. And I put my heart and soul into building that company and it’s been pretty much destroyed in, ya know, it’s lost all respect within the country within the last couple weeks,” he said. “There’s no common sense standing behind this.”

Grondahl told Libs of TikTok he didn’t approve of the policies or the response to them in recent weeks. Grondahl sold the company to private equity in November 2012 and lost control. Following the sale, he remained CEO until he was ousted after he reported that the chief administrative officer (CAO) and general counsel hired by the private equity firm had been found guilty of multiple charges over several years and abused minors on several occasions. In two instances, he was a teacher and was found guilty of abusing his students. The CAO left Planet Fitness in 2017.

“When we went public, the majority of the board knew that this lead attorney was a pedophile. It’s in the culture.” Grondahl said during the TikTok interview.

(Read more from “Planet Fitness Has Been ‘Pretty Much Destroyed,’ Says Company Founder” HERE)

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Speaker Mike Johnson Claims Classified Briefing Made Him Flip-Flop on Spy Powers Reform (VIDEO)

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday explained his apparent flip-flop on a controversial surveillance law, saying that he now favors limited reforms after receiving a classified briefing.

Speaker Johnson was asked by reporters why he changed his opinion on reforming Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a controversial surveillance law that is meant to target foreign adversaries, but often surveils Americans’ communications without a warrant.

Johnson this week came out against a warrant requirement for Section 702 and moved not to allow an amendment that would have barred intelligence and law enforcement agencies from purchasing Americans’ private information through third-party data brokers. This is considered a run around the Fourth Amendment protection against warrantless searches.

This amounts to a dramatic reversal, since Johnson supported legislation to close the data broker loophole in July 2023, and the Louisiana congressman supported the USA RIGHTS act, which FreedomWorks described as one of the “strongest possible reforms” of FISA.

(Read more from “Speaker Mike Johnson Claims Classified Briefing Made Him Flip-Flop on Spy Powers Reform (VIDEO)” HERE)

A Nation Committing Suicide

Historian Arnold Toynbee observed “an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.”

It’s hard not to think about this reading the results of the latest Wall Street Journal-NORC poll, appearing under the headline “America Pulls Back From Values That Once Defined It.”

Only 38% of Americans now say patriotism is “very important,” compared to 70% in 1998. Thirty-nine percent say religion is “very important,” compared to 62% in 1998. And 30% say having children is “very important,” compared to 59% in 1998.

The results that follow from these attitudes are not surprising.

Marriage rates are way down. Birthrates are way down.

In 1990, 67% of American adults between the ages of 25-54 were married. This was down to 51% in 2021.

In 2020, there were 56 births in the U.S. for every 1,000 women ages 15-44. In 1990, there were 70.9.

And, among the births we do have, in 2021, 40% of our babies were born to unmarried mothers. (Read more from “A Nation Committing Suicide” HERE)

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FBI Concerned About Coordinated Terror Attack in U.S. Similar to Moscow Concert Hall Attack

Federal law enforcement officials are concerned that terrorists could launch a coordinated attack in the U.S. that is similar to the ISIS-K terrorist attack that was carried out in Russia last month.

Reuters reported that FBI Director Christopher Wray was set to relay this warning to the House of Representatives during a hearing on Thursday.

“Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once,” Christopher Wray says in prepared remarks. “But that is the case as I sit here today.”

Several ISIS-K terrorists stormed a concert hall in Moscow late last month and opened fire with automatic while simultaneously setting the sold out venue on fire, killing more than 140 people.

Wray will say that an increasing threat in the U.S. “is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall a couple weeks ago.” (Read more from “FBI Concerned About Coordinated Terror Attack in U.S. Similar to Moscow Concert Hall Attack” HERE)

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