Photo Credit: Mediaite
“If it had not been for Senator John McCain and President Obama being for what we knew at the time included Al Qaida anti-rebel forces, then we would still have a U.S. ambassador and three others alive today, because Benghazi would not have happened.”
View his statement here:
Read more from this story HERE.
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“I think there’s a major opportunity, given the scandal at the IRS, to really get at trying to abolish that agency,” Miller told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto on Thursday in an exclusive interview. “I think Americans are now more open to that than ever before”…
Cavuto also asked how the tea party-backed conservative felt about the administration strong-arming his constituency.
“It’s been a fundamental value of Americans to push back against that type of invasion,” Miller responded. “What the IRS has done is a confirmation of what the tea party has been saying for years. Now you even have the Left … basically singing our tune.”
Read more from this story HERE.
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The Big Apple proposal, though, could resonate with other municipalities, inspiring them to follow suit — and, if Congress approves an otherwise unrelated immigration overhaul, the number of newly eligible immigrant voters could swell into a potent voting bloc on the local level.
That’s because the national overhaul being considered in Washington creates a so-called pathway to legal status for millions of illegal immigrants. By itself, this does little in the near-term to give non-citizens the right to vote. But if New York City approves its plan to give its 800,000 legal immigrants a say in city politics, illegal immigrants could eventually join the voter rolls there as well. And they wouldn’t have to wait for citizenship to vote.
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: Sweet Cakes By Melissa
It was Jan. 17 when a mother and her daughter showed up at the shop and chatted with Aaron about purchasing a cake; their meeting was short-lived, though. Upon learning that the wedding was for two women, the baker purportedly politely declined service to the women, citing his Christian faith. Aaron apologized, but stayed true to his values.
As we previously reported, the mother and daughter became disgusted by the refusal and walked out. Ten minutes later, the baker told TheBlaze that the frustrated mom came back into Sweet Cakes by Melissa and challenged Aaron’s decision not to serve the couple. Again, he maintained his stance and cited the Bible; the mother allegedly disagreed again and stormed out — and a discrimination complaint was later filed against the shop….
While Aaron and Melissa told TheBlaze that the community initially rallied around them — a collective action that helped spark additional business — that support has since waned. In place of the extra business, the Kleins regularly receive (especially in light of renewed media coverage) virulent e-mails and phone calls.
Read more from this story HERE.
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Violent influences from Christianity also contribute, says a world history lesson plan offered by the Florida Virtual School.
The plan asks students to think of “what comes to mind” when talking about the concept of fundamentalism in a religious context. Then, they are told to think about how “this type of fundamentalism” has played out in Islam, according to Fox News.
“Common traits that psychologists have found in terrorists are that they are often risk-takers and many suffer from low self-esteem,” the lesson plan states. “Sometimes joining a terrorist group provides these individuals with a sense of belonging.”
It then implies that Christianity may have influenced the violent nature of Islamic fundamentalism saying that the transition from Christianity to Islam “softly could imply Christianity may be affecting (therefore causing) Muslim extremism.”
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: Anuradha Sengupta
Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, was quoted by the Tullahoma News this week suggesting that some inflammatory material on Islam might run afoul of federal civil rights laws.
“We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected,” Killian told the newspaper.
Killian, along with the FBI special agent that runs the Knoxville office, are set to speak next week to a special meeting with the local Muslim community, informing them about their rights under federal law.
“This is an educational effort with civil rights laws as they play into freedom of religion and exercising freedom of religion,” Killian said about the meeting. “This is also to inform the public what federal laws are in effect and what the consequences are.”
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: Washington Post
From the peak of the boom to the bottom of the bust, households watched a total of $16 trillion in wealth disappear amid sinking stock prices and the rubble of the real estate market. Since then, Americans have only been able to recapture 45 percent of that amount on average, after adjusting for inflation and population growth, according to the report from the St. Louis Fed released Thursday.
In addition, the report showed most of the improvement was due to gains in the stock market, which primarily benefit wealthy families. That means the recovery for other households has been even weaker.
“A conclusion that the financial damage of the crisis and recession largely has been repaired is not justified,” the report stated.
The study is part of a growing body of research on the role of household wealth — or lack thereof — in amplifying the impact of the recession and slowing the rate of recovery.
Read more from this story HERE.
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When critics, including Fox News’ own Greta Van Susteren, pounced, Erickson doubled down on his radio show and in a blog post on Red State.
Kelly was loaded for bear when Dobbs and Erickson joined her on her Friday show..:
Photo Credit: truth in american education
A reader emailed me to let me know that the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development recently announced that they have joined the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium after adopting new standards. Below is their press release from April 19, 2013:
Alaska Joins Multi-State Assessment Consortium
JUNEAU – Following a recent adoption of new student standards, Alaska has chosen to join the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), a state-led consortium developing assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Because Alaska’s new standards in English/language arts and mathematics have been vetted as college-ready and career-ready, and are sufficiently similar to the Common Core, the SBAC assessments will provide valid and reliable results for Alaska.
“The Smarter Balanced assessment will allow us to compare our students more closely with those around the country and confirm the rigor of Alaska’s standards compared to the Common Core,” said Alaska Education Commissioner Mike Hanley.
SBAC will produce assessments for implementation by the 2014-2015 school year for grades 3 through 8 and 11. These grades meet the current testing requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. SBAC also will provide formative assessments that may be used during the year to better prepare students and guide teachers in their instruction.
SBAC also will determine the assessment scores that indicate levels of achievement such as advanced, proficient, below proficient, and far below proficient. For the 11th grade assessment, SBAC will work with higher education to define benchmark scores that indicate whether a student is on track to be college-ready, meaning that students should not need remedial courses in English and math in postsecondary institutions.
Students in SBAC states will take year-end assessments on computers in the spring. The assessments will be adaptive, meaning they are individualized to each student by basing questions on the student’s response to previous questions. This method produces a more accurate understanding of each student’s achievement.
As with Alaska’s current standards and assessments, the use of SBAC assessments does not dictate curriculum or teaching methods. Standards and assessments present a goal. School districts retain their authority to decide how to reach this goal.
The Alaska State Board of Education announced they adopted new standards on June 11, 2012, but made no mention of alignment with the Common Core State Standards or how the standards were developed. The state board announced on December 19, 2011 a public comment period for the new standards that would go through May 12, 2012, but again no mention of the Common Core State Standards or how these standards were developed.
As with other states there was not a vote by the Alaska State Legislature.
If you look at Alaska’s math standards you can see they are aligned with the Common Core Math Standards. Now compare the Alaska ELA standards with the Common Core ELA Standards. Yet there is no recognition from the Common Core State Standards Initiative that Alaska has signed an MOU.
I’m curious who authorized them to do this? The larger question is after fighting centralization off why would they give in, and then do it under the radar?
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Originally published at Truth In American Education. Republished in full with permission.
Three days before the Boston Marathon bombings, suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were working out together at a Boston gym.
Security cameras captured footage of the brothers arriving at the Wai Kru mixed martial arts center with a friend just before 2:45 p.m. April 12.
The manager at Wai Kru, who wanted to be identified only as Michael, noticed a distinct change in the older brother’s appearance.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s full, bushy religious beard, which he had for about two years, was gone.
Read more from this story HERE.