Court Stuns Educators With Approval Of Vouchers

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Photo Credit: WNDIn a landmark victory for school choice, the Colorado Court of Appeals surprised educators in the state by affirming the constitutionality of a Douglas County voucher program that allocates money for students who attend “private school partners” rather than government-run schools.

The voucher program came under attack when the organization Taxpayers for Public Education sued the Douglas County School District. The suit challenged the constitutionality of state funding for a program that gave money to parents for their children’s attendance at private religious schools.

In defense of school choice, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys and Colorado Springs attorney Stuart Lark filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Association of Christian Schools International, the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, Shepherd of the Hills Christian School, Southeast Christian School and Valor Christian High School.

“School districts should favor educational choices for parents and their children,” Lark said.

The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that the Choice Scholarship Program was “neutral toward religion.” The court decision also noted that the funds “make their way to private schools with religious affiliation by means of personal choices of students’ parents.”

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Poll: The Tea Party Lives

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Photo Credit: FacebookA plurality of Americans support “Tea Party principles,” according to a poll released today.

The poll, commissioned by TheTeaParty.net and conducted by NSON, Inc., found that 48 percent of Americans support the principles of “limited government,” “free markets,” and “personal responsibility.”

The poll also found that 21 percent of Americans support “progressive, liberal principles” of “big government,” “higher taxes,” and “more spending.” The poll explicitly tied the conservative principles to the Tea Party, said Niger Innis, chief strategist for TheTeaParty.net.

According to the poll, nearly half of people in the Midwest, South, and West expressed support for Tea Party principles, while just over 40 percent of people in the northeast—the country’s “liberal stronghold,” said Innis—expressed support.

“The mainstream media wrote our obituary after the November elections. Unfortunately for them, the tea party isn’t going anywhere,” Todd Cefaratti, founder of TheTeaParty.net, said in a statement.

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Holder: Drone Strikes Against Americans On U.S. Soil Legal

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Photo Credit: ryanjreillyAttorney General Eric Holder can imagine a scenario in which it would be constitutional to carry out a drone strike against an American on American soil, he wrote in a letter to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

“It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate under the Constitution and applicable laws of the United States for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States,” Holder replied in a letter yesterday to Paul’s question about whether Obama “has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, and without trial.”

Paul condemned the idea. “The U.S. Attorney General’s refusal to rule out the possibility of drone strikes on American citizens and on American soil is more than frightening – it is an affront the Constitutional due process rights of all Americans,” he said in a statement.

Holder noted that Paul’s question was “entirely hypothetical [and] unlikely to occur,” but cited the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as the type of incidents that might provoke such a response.

“Were such an emergency to arise, I would examine the particular facts and circumstances before advising the President on the scope of his authority,” he concluded.

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Public Citizen, Greenpeace Target Chevron

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Photo Credit: Free Beacon A consortium of environmental and consumer advocacy groups filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint Tuesday alleging that oil giant Chevron violated pay-to-play laws when it donated $2.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a “super” political action committee tied to House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio).

Consumer advocate Public Citizen, as well as environmentalist groups Greenpeace, Oil Change International, and Friends of the Earth, called on the FEC to “undertake an investigation into and enforcement action against Chevron USA, Inc., a federal government contractor, for making a $2.5 million contribution to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC, for the purpose of influencing the 2012 federal elections.”

“This is an obvious, coordinated intimidation tactic from the left masquerading as another baseless complaint,” Congressional Leadership Fund spokesman Dan Conston said.

The complaint comes two months after Greenpeace met with dozens of other liberal interest groups at the National Education Association to discuss, among other things, punishing Chevron for contributing to the GOP, according to Mother Jones.

Some D.C. insiders say the FEC complaint is the realization of that meeting. “You had an event in January where you had these liberal donors get together and say let’s go after our enemies … now they have an FEC complaint, a weak complaint at that,” one source said. “It’s a pretty blatant connection; it’s a scary thing.”

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Yale Hosts Workshop Teaching Sensitivity To Bestiality

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Photo Credit: Campus ReformOn Saturday afternoon, Yale hosted a “sensitivity training” in which students were asked to consider topics such as bestiality, incest, and accepting money for sex.

During the workshop, entitled, “Sex: Am I Normal,” students anonymously asked and answered questions about sex using their cell phones, and viewed the responses in real time in the form of bar charts.

The session was hosted by “sexologist” Dr. Jill McDevitt, who owns a sex store called Feminique in West Chester, Pa.

Survey responses revealed that nine percent of attendees had been paid for sex, 3 percent had engaged in bestiality, and 52 percent had participated in “consensual pain” during sex, according to an article published in the Yale Daily News on Monday.

Event director Giuliana Berry ’14 told Campus Reform in an interview on Monday that the workshop was brought to campus to teach students not to automatically judge people who may have engaged in these sorts of activities, but rather to respond with “understanding” and “compassion.”

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Obama Admin Wants to Deport Christian Homeschoolers

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Photo Credit: TownhallThe Romeike family fled their German homeland in 2008 seeking political asylum in the United States – where they hoped to home school their children. Instead, the Obama administration wants the evangelical Christian family deported.

The fate of Uwe and Hannelore Romeikie – along with their six children – now rests with the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – after the Dept. of Homeland Security said they don’t deserve asylum. Neither the Justice Dept. nor the Dept. of Homeland Security returned calls seeking comment.

“The Obama administration is basically saying there is no right to home school anywhere,” said Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association. “It’s an utter repudiation of parental liberty and religious liberty.” The Justice Dept. is arguing that German law banning home schooling does not violate the family’s human rights.

“They are trying to send a family back to Germany where they would certainly lose custody of their children,” Farris told Fox News. “Our government is siding with Germany.”

Farris said the Germans ban home schools because “they don’t want to have religious and philosophical minorities in their country.”

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DOJ Fighting To Deny Veteran Right To Own A Firearm Based On 40-Year Old Misdemeanor

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More prosecutorial indiscretion

Really, why does our government waste its resources on cases like the fight to prevent Jefferson Wayne Schrader from purchasing a firearm?

This case demonstrates what happens when a bureaucracy deprives someone of a right just because the bureaucracy can, and then the full force of the U.S. government goes to bat against the individual for no reason other than it can.

The case is Schrader v. Holder. In a January 11, 2013 decision, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the government’s position, but the question is why is the government exercising such a ridiculous discretion?

The short version is that Schrader got into a fistfight when he was in the Navy in 1968. Schrader was convicted of a misdemeanor and received no jail time.

That conviction prevented Schrader from clearing a background check for shotgun and handgun purchases in 2008 because federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime which carries a potential penalty of more than two years from owning a firearm. Maryland law at the time in 1968 carried no maximum penalty for a misdemeanor, but the feds construed the lack of a maximum penalty as being a potential penalty more than two years.

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Divisions Among Republicans Stalling Formation Of Benghazi Select Committee

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Photo Credit: BretbartTop Republicans with classified information about the terrorist assault on the U.S. mission in Benghazi last September may not want to see a House Select Committee formed to investigate the attack that left four Americans dead, including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, although a number of Senate and House Republicans remain unsatisfied with information they have received from the Obama administration about the deadly attack. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), a subcommittee chairman on the House Appropriations Committee, has re -filed a resolution to form such a select committee. Only Speaker John Boehner can allow the formation of a House Select Committee.

Other Republicans were unsure of their support for a select committee. “You know, I don’t think so. We’re still under the review of our committee right now, so we’re still conducting our investigation. We haven’t finished it yet. I’m not exactly sure where the foreign affairs committee is yet, but I know they are still doing their review,” said Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI), Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, when Breitbart News asked if he would support Wolf’s effort.

“And then there is a DoD review, so I’m not so sure we’ve exhausted all of our ability to get the information that we need for a select committee. They’re very expensive,” he added.

Wolf sent a “dear colleague letter” to Republican House members on Friday asking for their support for his resolution. Wolf expressed the necessity for the select committee so that Benghazi survivors could have a venue to put forth their accounts without risking their jobs or face prosecution from the Justice Department.

Boehner and Rogers are both part of Congress’ “super 8,” both parties’ top leadership in the upper and lower chambers. They, as well as chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate intelligence committees, are all privy to classified information about the Benghazi attack.

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Pilot Reports Mysterious Drone Near JFK Airport

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Photo Credit: Examiner On Monday, an Alitalia pilot reported seeing a mysterious black drone flying above New York near JFK International Airport, which is one of the busiest in the world. Minutes later, another unidentified pilot reported a similar sighting of a black unmanned aircraft. The incident was first reported by ABC News.

Government officials are currently launching a multi-agency preliminary investigation which includes the Federal Aviation Administration and the FBI. The Joint Terror Task Force is also looking into the matter to see whether there are any travel or homeland security threats and risks.

The Alitalia pilot said he spotted a black drone 1,500 feet above ground near JFK International. In a statement, the FAA said that the pilot saw a “small, unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft” on final approach heading towards the runway at JFK. The Alitalia plane was on final approach about 1:15 p.m. when its pilot spotted the mysterious black drone about four to five miles southeast of the airport.

In a radio communication with the tower controller, the pilot said:

“We saw a drone, an aircraft.”

See news report:

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Ex-DEA Chiefs, Czars Urge Action Against States Legalizing Pot

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Photo Credit: Ed AndrieskiThe Obama administration is facing rising national and international pressure to nullify efforts in Colorado and Washington state to implement new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use.

Nine former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs and four former drug czars are asking the Senate Judiciary Committee this week to “encourage Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to adhere to long-standing federal law and policy in this regard” at its Wednesday oversight hearing.

“Our nation urgently needs action from Attorney General Holder to ensure that federal marijuana laws are enforced, federal preemption is asserted, and our obligations under international drug treaties are honored,” said the officials in a letter dated Monday on stationery from S.O.S.: Save Our Society from Drugs.

The letter comes as a United Nations agency, the International Narcotics Control Board, called on U.S. officials in its annual report released Monday to “ensure full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its entire territory.”

Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, issued a statement Tuesday blasting the former anti-drug chiefs for “taking action to maintain the policies that kept them and their colleagues in business for so long.”

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