Common Core-Aligned Writing Lesson on Gun Debate Fuels Claims of Political Agenda

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Common Core backers are sneaking a social and political agenda into nationalized curriculum, say critics, who now have new ammo in a writing lesson plan for teachers that they say gives a slanted perspective of the gun debate.

A study guide dubbed, “The Battle Over Gun Control,” authored by KQED, a northern Californian affiliate of National Public Radio, and the nonprofit, taxpayer-subsidized National Writing Project, states that “moderate gun control” measures introduced following the Sandy Hook school massacre were deep-sixed by the “powerful political influence” of the NRA. Second Amendment advocates say the wording, in supplemental material designed to help teachers plan instruction, frames the debate in a one-sided fashion aimed at influencing young minds.

“The issue took center stage in December, when a lone gunman entered an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children and six adults in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history,” reads an intro from the guide. “Yet, months down the line, the issue remains highly controversial: An attempt to enact moderate new gun control measures this spring was voted down in the Senate, due in part to the powerful political influence of gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association.”

Concerned parents and longtime critics of Common Core say that this is just another example of flaws associated with the federally-imposed standards. While Common Core itself is not technically a curriculum, it drives classroom lessons by imposing a standard, nationalized test. Both private and nonprofit curriculum providers tout their material for its alignment with the standards tested in the Common Core examinations.

“This guide shows that the common core philosophy of education is coming to all schools.” Alice Linahan, founder of Voices Empower, a grassroots organization that opposes Common Core, told FoxNews.com. “It’s a shift from teaching fact to teaching attitudes, belief and behavior.” (Read more from “Common Core-Aligned Writing Lesson on Gun Debate Fuels Claims of Political Agenda” HERE)

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Meet the Millennial Who Infiltrated the Guarded World of Abortion Providers

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The slim young man with the Clark Kent glasses mingled easily at the conference of abortion providers. By day, he sat quietly in his company’s booth, under a sign festooned with a burbling lab flask. By night, he schmoozed with presenters at the swanky hotel bar . . .

Daleiden, 26, is the anti­abortion activist who masterminded the recent undercover campaign aimed at proving that Planned Parenthood illegally sells what he calls aborted “baby body parts.” He captured intimate details of the famously guarded organization, hobnobbing at conferences so secretive that they require background checks and talking his way into a back laboratory at a Colorado clinic where he picked through the remains of aborted fetuses and displayed them luridly for the camera.

Daleiden’s videos landed like a bomb in Washington this summer, providing fodder for a crowded field of Republican presidential contenders and energizing social conservatives on Capitol Hill. They also shed harsh new light on the venerable women’s health organization, capturing officials sipping wine while joking about abortion and appearing to haggle over the price of fetal tissue . . .

Before emerging as the biggest star in the antiabortion firmament, Daleiden had long been a bit player. A Catholic and Southern California native who drives a Honda hybrid, Daleiden calls himself an investigative journalist and credits his California public school education with fomenting in him a passion for human rights . . .

At 15, he said, he Googled images of aborted fetuses — an exploration that cemented his antiabortion views. While studying at Claremont McKenna College, he began fixating on Planned Parenthood. He got a job with Live Action, an antiabortion nonprofit group led by a fellow millennial that made its name by mounting undercover “stings” against Planned Parenthood. In 2009, Daleiden was kicked off the neighboring Pomona College campus after aggressively questioning a Planned Parenthood official who had been invited to speak. (Read more from “Meet the Millennial Who Infiltrated the Guarded World of Abortion Providers” HERE)

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Obama Admin. Sues High School for Refusing to Do This for Transgender Teen

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The Obama administration is suing yet another school district for refusing to allow a biological teenage male to use the girls’ locker room, restroom, and shower facilities.

Yesterday, the federal government found a the school in violation of a new interpretation of Title IX, a 1972 law designed to prevent sex discrimination . . .

A male student who identifies as female sued Township High School District 211 in 2014 for access to the female locker room . . .

“At some point, we have to balance the privacy rights of 12,000 students with other particular, individual needs of another group of students,” said District 211 Superintendent Daniel Cates. “We believe this infringes on the privacy of all the students that we serve.”

This wasn’t good enough for the ACLU, however, which represented the male student in a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education (DoE)’s Office for Civil Rights. (Read more from “Obama Admin. Sues High School for Refusing to Do This for Transgender Teen” HERE)

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Sex Trafficking Sting Recovers 20 Children in These States

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Denver Field Office, which includes Wyoming, recently recovered more children in a nationwide trafficking sting than any other area in the U.S.

Officials from the FBI and 500 law enforcement partners announced today that 149 underage trafficking victims were recovered and 153 pimps were arrested in a nationwide human trafficking operation conducted throughout the United States last week.

The initiative, dubbed Operation Cross Country IX, is a national effort spearheaded by the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with state and local law enforcement partners across the country . . .

20 child victims were recovered by the Denver Field Office and seven pimps were arrested . . .

“Human trafficking is a monstrous and devastating crime that steals lives and degrades our nation,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “As a result of the FBI’s outstanding coordination and exemplary efforts alongside state and local partners during Operation Cross Country, more children will sleep safely tonight, and more wrongdoers will face the judgment of our criminal justice system. (Read more from “Sex Trafficking Sting Recovers 20 Children in These States” HERE)

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TN Bill Would Ban Teaching ‘Religious Doctrine’ Until High School

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No Tennessee public school course could include anything deemed “religious doctrine” unless the course is taught in 10th, 11th or 12th grade if a newly proposed bill becomes law.

The bill from Rep. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia, comes on the heels of complaints from some parents in several communities as to what their children are learning in middle school about Islam.

“I think that probably the teaching that is going on right now in seventh, eighth grade is not age appropriate,” Butt said Friday afternoon. “They are not able to discern a lot of times whether its indoctrination or whether they’re learning about what a religion teaches.”

Parents in Williamson County, Maury County and several other areas have complained about information contained in courses related to world history. Some, like U.S. Rep Diane Black, R-Tenn., argue the teachings border on indoctrination.

Tennessee education officials and teachers recently argued courses were appropriate and based on secular fact during a discussion of the curriculum with The Tennessean. They acknowledged students might learn the Five Pillars of Islam or read from religious texts, but that information is used to provide historical context about the influence the religion had on regions of the world. (Read more from “TN Bill Would Ban Teaching ‘Religious Doctrine’ Until High School” HERE)

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‘I Love You… But You Owe Me $127,000’: New York Aunt Sues 12-Year-Old Nephew Over This

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A New York woman is suing her 12-year-old nephew who accidentally broke her wrist while greeting her at his eighth birthday party.

Jennifer Connell is seeking $127,000 from Sean Tarala of Westport, Connecticut, after the youngster jumped into her arms whens she arrived at his party on March 18, 2011.

Connell – a 54-year-old human resources manager – described her nephew in court as ‘very loving’ and ‘sensitive’ towards her, but told Judge Edward Stodolink that the youngster should be held accountable for his behavior . . .

According to her testimony, Connell claimed that Sean got excited when he saw her and shouted: ‘”Auntie Jen, Auntie Jen”. All of a sudden he was there in the air, I had to catch him and we tumbled on to the ground, I remember him shouting, “Auntie Jen I love you,” and there he was flying at me’ . . .

According to court documents: ‘The injuries, losses and harms to the plaintiff were caused by the negligence and carelessness of the minor defendant in that a reasonable eight year old under those circumstances would know or should have known that a forceful greeting such as the one delivered by the defendant to the plaintiff could cause the harms and losses suffered by the plaintiff.’ (Read more from “‘I Love You… But You Owe Me $127,000’: New York Aunt Sues 12-Year-Old Nephew Over This” HERE)

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Woman’s Act of Kindness Touches Needy Couple

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A photo and an act of kindness quickly spread on social media, after one woman posted the details of her interaction with a couple who needed help.

On Friday, Ariane Nelson told her Instagram followers and Facebook friends about a man who asked her for a gallon of milk at a gas station . . .

Photo caption from Ariane Nelson:

“This young man approached me and asked me to buy him a gallon of milk. My first thought was to say no but as I was paying for my gas I grabbed the milk. Outside was his girlfriend holding a box of cereal. He thanked me and I started to walk to my car. Something in me made me turn around. I told them I was about to get a car wash but if he wanted to wash it for me I’d pay him $20. We went to the nearest car wash and he had tears in his eyes after I paid him! He told me that more than anything he appreciated me giving him the opportunity to be a man again in the eyes of his girlfriend and work for the money. The whole time his girlfriend helped him. It’s like she was proud of him. You could tell the love was so real. Real beyond material things and what he could do for her! She told him he did a great job and he couldn’t stop smiling! I had a long talk with him and her and he had a backpack full of paperwork from all of the places he’s been going to get help for them. I drove them to my apartment complex and gave him clothes for interviews and a few outfits and fitted caps! I don’t have much but life is about sharing what you do have. Be a blessing to someone today because you could be in that situation before you know it! I gave them my number and I plan to take them to any interviews or appointments they have. It’s a great day to be alive no matter what your situation is. Someone has it worse than you! #LoveIsReal #ItsTheBestThingYouHaveToOffer”

(Read more from “Woman’s Act of Kindness Touches Needy Couple” HERE)

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Twin Daughters of Air Force Vet Barred From Wearing Jackets With Logo to School

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By J.D. Miles. From the flag outside their Providence Village home to the photos inside, the Rolens are a proud military family.

Eleven-year-old twins Kaidence and Abigail were even born on an Air Force base.

So the new fall jackets they bought to wear to Aubrey Middle School shouldn’t be a surprise.

But the girls didn’t expect the reaction they got from teachers once they stepped into their classrooms.

“She yelled at me and said that’s out of the dress code and that she would get me in trouble if I wore something out of dress code,” says Kaidence. (Read more from “Twin Daughters of Air Force Vet Barred From Wearing Jackets With Logo to School” HERE)

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School Says Air Force Logo Violates Dress Code

By Todd Starnes. A Texas school district threatened to punish two patriotic sisters who refused to remove hoodie-style jackets emblazoned with the U.S. Air Force logo . . .

[These] twin daughters were told that the Air Force logo violated the dress code policy of the Aubrey Independent School District. The 11-year-old girls were told they could face disciplinary action if they wore the jackets on school property.

“These girls were born on an Air Force base so you can imagine my reaction,” Mr. Rolen told me. “It’s absurd” . . .

In a statement to the NBC television affiliate in Dallas the school district defended itself against accusations they were being unpatriotic.

“Aubrey ISD has a student dress code to follow, just as our military personnel are expected to wear uniforms,” Superintendent Debby Sanders said in the statement. “The dress code, which has been in place for over a decade, instills pride, discipline and levels the playing field for students to allow them to focus on learning.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Hillary Nightmare: Gennifer’s Back!

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For the first time since Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy for president, Bill Clinton’s notorious mistress for 12 years, Gennifer Flowers, is now speaking out, calling Hillary’s bid to run in part on women’s issues “a joke.”

In the wide-ranging interview on the popular Sunday night program “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” Flowers further accused Hillary of being “an enabler that has encouraged him (Bill) to go out and do whatever he does with women.”

“She always got things on the back of her husband. … I think it’s a joke that she would run on women’s issues” . . .

Flowers used the interview to drop a few new bombshells, including revealing for the first time she has something incriminating on Bill Clinton locked in a safety deposit box; mysterious contents she said the Clintons know she possesses and that she has used to ensure her “safety.”

Flowers said she believes the issue of Bill Clinton’s former lovers is a legitimate discussion that should return for Hillary’s 2016 campaign. (Read more from “Hillary Nightmare: Gennifer’s Back!” HERE)

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No, Scientists Have Not Found the Gay Gene

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This week, a team from the University of California, Los Angeles claimed to have found several epigenetic marks—chemical modifications of DNA that don’t change the underlying sequence—that are associated with homosexuality in men. Postdoc Tuck Ngun presented the results yesterday at the American Society of Human Genetics 2015 conference. Nature News were among the first to break the story based on a press release issued by the conference organisers. Others quickly followed suit. “Have They Found The Gay Gene?” said the front page of Metro, a London paper, on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, the mood at the conference has been decidedly less complimentary, with several geneticists criticizing the methods presented in the talk, the validity of the results, and the coverage in the press.

Ngun’s study was based on 37 pairs of identical male twins who were discordant—that is, one twin in each pair was gay, while the other was straight—and 10 pairs who were both gay. He analysed 140,000 regions in the genomes of the twins and looked for methylation marks—chemical Post-It notes that dictate when and where genes are activated. He whittled these down to around 6,000 regions of interest, and then built a computer model that would use data from these regions to classify people based on their sexual orientation. . .

The problems begin with the size of the study, which is tiny. The field of epigenetics is littered with the corpses of statistically underpowered studies like these, which simply lack the numbers to produce reliable, reproducible results. . .

There’s also another, larger issue . . . the team used their training set to build several models for classifying their twins, and eventually chose the one with the greatest accuracy when applied to the testing set. . . If you use this strategy, chances are you will find a positive result through random chance alone.
(Read more from “No, Scientists Have Not Found the Gay Gene” HERE)

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