Generals Defend Common Core

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kacper PempelAs another state debates whether to withdraw from the controversial Common Core multi-state education standards, input is coming from a surprising source: the military.

In North Carolina, where a bill potentially pulling the state out of Common Core is being hashed out between the state house and senate, a group called Mission: Readiness deployed several retired generals to make the case that Common Core isn’t merely sound educational policy, but also vital to the nation’s defense interests.

While serving military officers are generally expected to avoid politics, retired generals have no such limitations, and several were in Raleigh Thursday for a press conference urging the state to stay the course. The standards, they said, provided high standards as well as accountability and consistency for the state’s students, teachers, and parents.

One of the generals speaking was Lt. General Marvin Covault, a former chief of staff for NATO forces in Southern Europe who now lives in North Carolina. The standards, he said, would be invaluable for ensuring the U.S. military has the largest possible pool of qualified recruits.

“The education that this nation is providing to its youth is, in my opinion, a national disgrace,” Covault told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The military has a vested interest in this, because we need to have a continuous pool of talented young people to fill the ranks.”

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California Declares Whooping Cough Epidemic

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Photo Credit: CNNCalifornia is being hit hard with a whooping cough epidemic, according to the state’s public health department, with 800 cases reported in the past two weeks alone.

The agency says that there were 3,458 whooping cough cases reported between January 1 and June 10, well ahead of the number of cases reported for all of 2013.

This is a problem of “epidemic proportions,” the department said. And the number of actual cases may be even higher, because past studies have shown that for every case of whooping cough that is reported, there are 10 more that are not officially counted.

Whooping cough, known to doctors as pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory infection that is caused by a bacterium known as Bordetella pertussis.

The popular name for the disease comes from the whooping sound an infected person makes when gasping for breath after a coughing fit.

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Cafeteria Worker Reportedly Tosses Child’s Lunch When He’s 26 Cents Short

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Photo Credit: KOMO NewsA father is fuming after his son told him a cafeteria worker at Mill Creek Middle School took back a lunch when the boy didn’t have enough to pay for it, then threw it in the garbage.

Jimmie Keys said his son was humiliated when it happened two days in row last week in front of other students.

“My first instinct was to get a huge jar of pennies, and get it ready,” Keys said. “I was going to take it down to the school and throw it on ’em.”

Instead, he called the Problem Solvers and went to school district headquarters to speak with administrators about the incident.

“He gets up to the front and they say there’s not enough in his account, so they take his food, and in front of him, throw it away,” Keys said.

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Planned Parenthood Lies About Firing Staffer Who Told 15-Year-Old to Engage in S&M Sex

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Photo Credit: APA Planned Parenthood abortion business has lied about being forced to fire a staffer who told a 15-year-old in an undercover video that she should engage in sadomasochistic sexual relations.

As the abortion corporation told the Indianapolis Star newspaper, the employee in question is reportedly no longer working for the abortion giant. But officials with Live Action confirmed Thursday afternoon that the employee is still working at the Planned Parenthood facility. It’s undercover investigators called and confirmed an appointment with the staffer.

@IndyStar reports @PPact statement saying #sexed staffer “no longer employed,” but we just confirmed an appointment with her for tomorrow! — Live Action (@LiveActionFilms) June 12, 2014

Before catching Planned Parenthood lying, Lila Rose of Live Action told LifeNews:

You’re seeing step one of the Planned Parenthood damage control handbook: the token firing. It’s always a little strange, because Planned Parenthood tries to have it both ways: they announce terminating the employee for violating “professional standards” but never specify what those standards are. Meanwhile, their BDSM training video remains online, and they continue to list “resources” that tell kids that torture sex is totally fine. So what exactly did the staffer in our video do to bring the wrath of Planned Parenthood down on her?

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Washington Assisted Suicide Law Leads to Over 100 Deaths in 2013

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Photo Credit: Shutterstock.comA government report shows that 173 people asked for, and received, medication doses high enough to induce death in 2013. It estimated that 119 people died as a result of those medications, though 159 total patients died.

In 2008, voters in Washington supported the patient-assisted suicide law, which went into effect in 2009. The law allows terminally ill patients who are expected to die six months or sooner after the diagnosis to be prescribed medication to end their lives. Two witnesses, including a non-relative, must be present when the medication is used.

According to Margaret Dore of Choice is an Illusion, a group opposed to “death with dignity” laws, “the new report is important for what it doesn’t say.”

“When Washington’s law was passed, it was sold as a completely voluntary act in which ‘only’ the patient would be allowed to take the lethal dose,” Dore told LifeSiteNews. “The act doesn’t actually say that, but that’s how it was sold.”

The government’s report reveals that in only two percent of cases was the prescribing physician present as the patient took the deadly drugs. Dore says because of this there’s a grave risk of abuse by family members.

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Abortion in Cases of Rape or Incest? We are People, Not Arguments

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Photo Credit: LifeNews How would like to be labeled “a hard case?” What if your class of people were systematically targeted for extinction within legislation?

What if political candidates felt quite comfortable with stating their position that you and your kind aren’t worth protecting and better off dead? What if your child was regularly stigmatized by our society?

That’s exactly what it’s like for those of us who were conceived in rape, mothers from rape, and those given a poor in utero diagnosis. But being branded as a “hard case” becomes easier when we all begin to unite behind our unique kinship. And that’s what Save The 1 has been doing – drawing together perhaps the most stigmatized and marginalized members of today’s society.

May 2014 was a very big month for Save The 1. On Saturday, May 3rd, Mary Rathke and I both spoke at the 1st Annual International Pro-Life Leaders Conference in Rome, Italy – sponsored by Lifesitenews — sharing our stories of having been conceived in rape. Mary was a double-exception because her birthmother was raped after having been diagnosed as schizophrenic. Pro-Life leaders from around the world received our message well – vowing to fight abortion without exception and without compromise.

The next day, Mary and I were introduced on stage at the Marcio Per La Vita – the Italian March For Life, which had an estimated 60,000 by the time we reached St. Peter’s Square, where the Pope came out and addressed us. The theme of this year’s march was “Pro Vita Senza Compromesso,” which means “pro-life without compromise.” During the march, thousands were chanting this theme!

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Miss USA Hopeful: I’m the Product Of a Rape

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Photo Credit: Getty Images A stunning Miss USA hopeful revealed Thursday that she was conceived when her mother was attacked and raped at knifepoint when she was 19 years old…

At a very young age, her mother told her: “Something bad happened to me. A very bad man hurt me, but God gave me you,” she said on the “Today” show.

Gatto’s mom kept the pregnancy a secret and intended to give her baby up for adoption.

But Gatto’s great-grandmother encouraged the new mom to keep her bundle of joy. “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle,” her great-grandmother said, according to Gatto’s online bio.

Now the pageant contestant uses the traumatic experience to teach others about the reality of sexual violence.

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Florida Would Ban Abortion Post-Viability, Ohio Moves to Ban Abortion Insurance, and More

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Photo Credit: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi / LifeSiteNewsAs the Senate voted to confirm Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the new HHS Secretary to oversee the implementation of ObamaCare, states around the country were voting to protect the unborn, fighting for marriage, and wrestling with a wave of transgender “anti-discrimination” proposals that would allow biological men to use women’s restroom and shower facilities.

Florida

The state of Florida is poised to protect children from abortion if they have the capacity to survive outside the womb. H.B. 1047, which would bar abortions after viability, passed the Senate by a party line 24-15 vote. State Sen. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, told the Miami Herald if a woman wishes to abort, she should “make that choice before the baby is able to live on its own outside of the womb.” The bill previously passed the House 70-45 and is now on the desk of Gov. Rick Scott, a pro-life Republican. He is expected to sign the measure, which would penalize abortionists who abort a child after that point unless they certify, in writing, that an abortion is necessary to save the mother’s life or physical health. The move comes as the Florida Planned Parenthood PAC has launched a voter campaign designed, in the words of CEO Lillian Tamayo, to focus on “the wave of anti-women’s health legislation.”

State Attorney General Pam Bondi has asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging the state’s constitutional marriage protection amendment, saying redefining marriage would “impose significant public harm” on society. More than 61 percent of Florida voters approved Florida’s Amendment 2 in 2008, with surveys finding the state’s black population among those most likely to approve. The ACLU is suing to overturn the measure, which was intended to protect an ancient institution that fosters child-rearing. “Florida’s marriage laws, she said in her court brief, “have a close, direct, and rational relationship to society’s legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units.”

Ohio

An Ohio bill would bar all insurance companies statewide from covering abortion except in the case of ectopic or tubal pregnancies. The legislature had the first hearing on H.B. 351, introduced by Cincinnati Rep. John Becker, on Tuesday. It would also prevent taxpayers from subsidizing abortifacient contraception such as the IUD for state employees through their insurance plans. Democratic Rep. John Carney said it is “just a fact” that the IUD is not an abortifacient; however, health agencies and the device’s manufacturer agree the IUD may prevent the implantation of a newly conceived child. The insurance provision follows the lead of neighboring Michigan, which is traditionally more liberal on abortion. The Ohio bill does not allow anyone who receives state funds to purchase the separate “abortion rider.”

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Parent: Why I Can’t ‘In Good Conscience’ Leave My Kids in Public School

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Photo Credit: Washington Post(By Lynne Rigby) The letter is addressed to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, Seminole County Schools Superintendent Walt Griffin, state Sen. David Simmons, state Rep. Karen Castor Dentel, Bear Lake Elementary School Principal Alex Agosto, and Bear Lake Assistant Principal Virginia Brouillard.

There are some abbreviations in the letter that you may not recognize: VPK is voluntary prekindergarten; FCAT is the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests, the state-mandated exams that have been used for years for “accountability” purposes in school districts across the state but which are being replaced by a new test aligned to new Florida standards and being designed by the American Institutes for Research, or AIR. The new Florida Standards in math and Language Arts were approved earlier this year after the state pulled out of the Common Core State Standards initiative and devised their own, which actually look a great deal like the Core. EOCs are end-of-course exams. SCPS is Seminole County Public Schools.

Dear Governor Scott, Mr. Griffin, Mrs. Stewart, David Simmons, Karen Castor Dentel, Mr. Agosto and Mrs. Brouillard and Seminole County School Board Members,

I am a parent of five children in Seminole County Schools aged 4 (VPK) to 16. My husband and I are deeply embedded in this community. We are both successful products of Lake Brantley High School and the middle schools that fed into it. I graduated from the University of Georgia in 1995 and came back to Seminole to teach Kindergarten at Pinecrest and Wekiva; he is currently the pitching coach for the Lake Brantley varsity baseball team. Our ties run deep. We stayed here so our kids would be blessed with a similar educational experience and opportunities.

This year has been completely disheartening for us. You see, I’ve been okay with FCAT…show what you know, I get it….some sort of accountability. That was until this year. My third grade son, Jackson, the fourth of my four boys has had mostly As, a scattering of Bs through his Bear Lake career, much like his brothers. However, he has had the Discovery Education tests added to his school year. I saw his score on DE in first grade and it was scary low, in the 20s. But he had 1s and his teacher said that she knows him and he was doing fine with nothing to worry about. Same thing in 2nd grade, though, knowing that FCAT was looming, I began to panic a bit. We read out loud together each night through the summer, talked about the books as we read and I believed that that would pay off on the first DE test of 3rd grade because he was doing really well. I was wrong. His first DE test was similar to others but now his teachers start panicking because their pay depends on it. He is sent to remedial LEAP and ultimately a math pullout group. All the while, he has mostly As and a few Bs.

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Obama Admin Willing to Hand Over Terrorists But Has “No Time” for Christian Meriam Ibrahim

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Photo Credit: LifeNewsWhile the weekend headlines were dominated by one American’s release, the world still waits for news on Sudan’s Meriam Ibrahim and her two little children, still imprisoned in Sudan.

After conflicting reports, one of which implied that Meriam’s release was imminent, no one seems to know the status of the mother, whose American husband is desperate to free his family from the brutal conditions in the Khartoum prison. According to the Sudanese government, comments about the trio’s discharge were taken out of context. Hours after hopes were raised, officials backpedaled and insisted the family would have to await the court’s verdict.

Read more from this story HERE.