Eighth-Graders Have Never Scored So Low in American History and Civics

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Education Department data released on Wednesday showed that test scores in U.S. history and civics for eighth graders fell to the lowest levels on record last year. This is following data released last October that showed the lowest math test scores in history and a drop in reading skills that wiped out three decades of progress. . .

Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. history scores showed the lowest proportion of eighth-grade students reaching proficiency levels out of any subject assessed by the NAEP program, with civics being the second-lowest. Federal tests show scores in U.S. history and civics have consistently lagged behind those of reading and math.

Peggy Carr, National Center for Education Statistics commissioner, said in a briefing with reporters Tuesday that she was shocked by eighth-graders’ U.S. history and civics scores, which she called “woefully low in comparison to other subjects.”

Dr. Carr added: “These data are a national concern. The health of our democracy depends on informed and engaged citizens.”

(Read more from “Eighth-Graders Have Never Scored So Low in American History and Civics” HERE)

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Illegal Alien Who Allegedly Slaughtered Entire Texas Family Because They Made a Noise Complaint Captured by Elite Border Patrol Agents

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By Daily Caller. The elite tactical Border Patrol unit nabbed a man believed to be responsible for the killing of five people in Cleveland, Texas, a Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) agent confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation late Tuesday.

San Jacinto County District Attorney Todd Dillon said authorities arrested a man believed to be Francisco Oropesa, 38, in Cut and Shoot, Texas, according to NBC. Oropesa, who is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, allegedly conducted an “execution style” killing of his neighbors, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Daniel Enrique Laso Guzman, 8; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31 and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18, on Friday.

“The U.S. Border Patrol was requested for assistance in the manhunt for the killer responsible for the senseless murders in Cleveland, TX. Members from the U.S. Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) deployed to Cleveland, TX and quickly employed tactics learned from lessons learned from the recent manhunts in Pennsylvania and New York. Working with information provided by intelligence sources, the killer was surrounded and taken into custody without incident,” the BORTAC agent, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, told the DCNF.

“The professionalism of BORTAC and the unit’s motto of Erigere Rapidus stands true in every deployment. Our prayers go to the families and the community of Cleveland, TX,” the official added.

BORTAC agents also entered elementary school classrooms during the Uvalde, Texas, shooting that occurred in May 2022 when local law enforcement waited to take such action. (Read more from “Illegal Alien Who Allegedly Slaughtered Entire Texas Family Because They Made a Noise Complaint Captured by Elite Border Patrol Agents” HERE)

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Texas Shooting Suspect: Gov. Abbott, Lawmakers Respond After Four-Day Manhunt Ends With Arrest

By Fox News. Several lawmakers from Texas took to Twitter to praise the efforts of a massive law enforcement task force Tuesday evening after they apprehended 38-year-old Mexican national Francisco Oropesa, who is accused of killing five neighbors including a 9-year-old child in Cleveland, Texas last month.

U.S. Marshals, Texas Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Border Patrol’s BORTAC team apprehended Oropesa, 38, without incident Tuesday evening. He was found hiding in the closet of a home, under a pile of laundry before he was taken into custody.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted: “Great job by law enforcement.”

Sen. Ted Cruz called the suspect a “mass murdering illegal alien” and said he “deserves the death penalty.”

“Thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to apprehend this mass murdering illegal alien who killed 5 innocent people,” the U.S. senator wrote. (Read more from “Texas Shooting Suspect: Gov. Abbott, Lawmakers Respond After Four-Day Manhunt Ends With Arrest” HERE)

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‘Godfather of AI’ Leaves Position at Google Over Worries About the Technology

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Geoffrey Hinton, a cognitive psychologist and computer scientist known as the “Godfather of A.I.,” announced on Monday that he exited his position at Google and is no longer optimistic about the future of artificial intelligence.

The remarks come as other technology experts voice their concerns about the advent of ChatGPT, a mass-market AI tool based on a large language model developed by OpenAI, because of the possible effects on the flow of information and the specter of widespread unemployment. Hinton said in an interview with The New York Times that he spoke with Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, about his concerns.

“I console myself with the normal excuse: if I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton told the outlet. “It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it for bad things.”

Google recently revealed that Bard, an experimental conversational AI service, would soon be added to the company’s search engine, a move that came one day after Microsoft, which invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, announced that the firm’s advancements would be incorporated into search engine Bing and browser Edge. Hinton said that the rushed move from Google means that he no longer considers the firm a “proper steward” for the technology.

Elon Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI who has since resigned his seat on the company’s board of directors, and Steve Wozniak, a co-founder of Apple, made headlines after they signed an open letter for the Future of Life Institute with hundreds of other technology leaders which called for a six-month moratorium on developing AI solutions as the world considers possible ramifications of the technology. A similar letter from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence was signed by Eric Horvitz, the chief scientific officer of Microsoft, who has worked to implement OpenAI innovations into the company’s products. (Read more from “‘Godfather of AI’ Leaves Position at Google Over Worries About the Technology” HERE)

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Shock Poll: Bible Beliefs ‘Much Closer to Extinction in America’

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A new study by Christian pollster George Barna comparing Americans’ religious beliefs and practices before and after the COVID pandemic finds some stunning departures from biblically faithful Christianity — including a 14 point drop, from 58%-44%, in the percentage of “born-again” Christians who believe Jesus lived a sinless life on Earth.

In another finding of the report comparing beliefs in 2020, before the pandemic, to 2023, found a huge drop among born-again Christians — from 85% to just 50% — who say they are “deeply committed to practicing [their] faith.”

It’s not all bad news, though: the survey by the Cultural Research Center (CRC), headed by Barna and based at Arizona Christian University, in Glendale, Arizona, found a 14% uptick (from 32%-46%) in the percentage of people polled who agree that, “There are moral absolutes that apply to everyone, all the time.”

More Americans in 2023 (46%, up from 41% in 2020) believe the Bible is the “true and completely accurate word of God,” according to the poll. And born-again Christians registered a leap from 47% to 59% who accept the biblical teaching that sex “between two people who are not married to each other is morally unacceptable.”

The CRC study, “How the Faith of Americans Has Shifted Since the Start of the Pandemic,” released April 20, compares 2,000 U.S. adults in 2000 to the same number in 2023. Of those totals, 671 were considered born-again Christians in the 2020 survey and 650 were considered born-again in the 2023 survey. It is part of CRC’s ongoing to attempt to quantify Americans’ adherence to a biblical worldview since the COVID pandemic began. (Read more from “Shock Poll: Bible Beliefs ‘Much Closer to Extinction in America’” HERE)

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Poll: Trump Maintains Towering Lead Over Primary Field

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Former President Donald Trump maintains a substantial lead over Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in Morning Consult’s latest Republican presidential primary tracker poll.

The poll published on Tuesday shows that 56 percent of potential Republican primary voters back Trump for the nomination. He sits 34 points ahead of DeSantis, who has not announced a White House bid, at 22 percent. DeSantis has gained slightly compared to last week’s poll, which had him and the 45th president at 24 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

Beyond Trump and DeSantis, no other candidate commands double-digit support. Seven percent of respondents back former Vice President Mike Pence, followed by former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) in fourth place with four percent. Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswmy is backed by three percent of the respondents, followed by former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) at two percent.

Govs. Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Kristi Noem (R-SD) tie at two percent, while Gov. Glen Youngkin (R-VA), who has declared he will not run, and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) did not secure one percent of support. (Read more from “Poll: Trump Maintains Towering Lead Over Primary Field” HERE)

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Media Matters Tried to Destroy Tucker With Leaked Tapes, and It Blew up Spectacularly

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Left-wing Media Matters attempted to discredit Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson with leaked tapes of him at the Fox News studio, but it did not go as planned.

The footage, posted by senior fellow Matthew Gertz, showed Carlson jokingly calling a woman “yummy,” joking about sex with Piers Morgan and joking about his “postmenopausal fans” judging his on-screen appearance. As it turns out, the outlet failed to do Carlson much damage.

“Thank you for confirming that Tucker is a normal, down-to-earth, very funny person. Great work, as always, Media Matters, curating excellent conservative content,” City Journal writer Christopher Rufo commented.

[Warning: tweets contain explicit language.]

“Media Matters really thought they had something with these leaks of Tucker Carlson telling jokes while off the air. They really, really, thought they had something with it. Anyone with a sense of humor can assess that the things Tucker said, like MMFA itself, are in fact, jokes,” Ian Miles Cheong said.

(Read more from “Media Matters Tried to Destroy Tucker With Leaked Tapes, and It Blew up Spectacularly” HERE)

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Karine Jean-Pierre Stonewalls Questions on Biden’s Unacknowledged Grandchild

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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer questions about Hunter Biden and his four-year-old daughter Navy, President Joe Biden’s unacknowledged seventh grandchild, on Tuesday.

Navy lives with her mother, former stripper Lunden Roberts, in Arkansas. Roberts is currently battling with the president’s son in court over $20,000 monthly paternity payments, which Hunter is seeking to have decreased, according to CNN.

Asked about the paternity case and the White House’s failure to acknowledge Navy, Jean-Pierre refused to answer.

“I wanted to ask about the trial going on in Arkansas with Hunter Biden and the child support. Are the president and first lady monitoring that? And how come they haven’t acknowledged the seventh grandchild?” asked Emily Goodwin, U.S. politics reporter for the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

“I’m not going to speak to that from here,” answered Jean-Pierre.

(Read more from “Karine Jean-Pierre Stonewalls Questions on Biden’s Unacknowledged Grandchild” HERE)

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Transgender Montana Lawmaker’s Appeal to Return to State House Floor Denied by Judge

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Transgender Montana lawmaker Zooey Zephyr’s appeal to return to the state’s House floor was denied by a judge.

Judge Mike Menahan of the state’s First District Court, a Democrat and former representative, said in a five-page response letter that he did not have the authority to intervene in the legislative dispute, the New York Times reported. Zephyr had filed the lawsuit on Monday, protesting the lawmaker’s censure after a series of provocative comments and rowdy demonstrations by Zephyr’s supporters.

Zephyr’s lawsuit claimed that the lawmaker’s First Amendment right to free speech was being violated by the censure.

“The lawsuit alleges that recent actions undertaken by House leadership to silence Representative Zephyr are a violation of [the lawmaker’s] own First Amendment rights and the rights of [Zephyr’s] 11,000 constituents to representation in their state government,” a release by the ACLU, which is representing Zephyr, stated. The lawsuit demanded that Zephyr’s censure be immediately revoked. (Read more from “Transgender Montana Lawmaker’s Appeal to Return to State House Floor Denied by Judge” HERE)

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Transurrection: Another Left-Wing Capitol Takeover, This Time in Texas (VIDEO)

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Left-wing activists have mounted another “insurrection” in a state capitol, this time disrupting a session of the Texas state legislature in Austin, taking over the gallery Tuesday before being forcibly removed by police.

The liberal Texas Tribune reported:

Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan abruptly cleared the public from the chamber’s gallery Tuesday, after LGBTQ Texans and parents of transgender kids chanted in opposition of a bill that would ban transition-related care for children.

Phelan ordered state police to clear the gallery just as Senate Bill 14 came to the House floor and as opponents began their chants and unrolled banners in support of trans kids. As bill opponents started filing out of the gallery, they chanted, “Trans rights are human rights.”

(Read more from “Transurrection: Another Left-Wing Capitol Takeover, This Time in Texas” HERE)

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Biden to Send Active-Duty Marines, Soldiers to U.S.-Mexico Border

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The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it would deploy 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border to help deal with an expected wave of illegal immigrants starting next week.

The soldiers and Marines won’t be making arrests but will be assigned to support duties, including bringing more eyes to the border to keep tabs on illegal activity. The goal is to free up Customs and Border Protection personnel to perform their regular duties.

The Department of Homeland Security needs the help because the Biden administration will give up its Title 42 pandemic power to expel illegal immigrants on May 11, when the COVID-19 emergency expires. Title 42 has allowed CBP to immediately expel some illegal immigrants, and the tactic has helped keep the chaotic border from turning catastrophic.

The 90-day troop deployment marks an escalation of the country’s border defenses and is a retreat for President Biden. He had promised a more welcoming approach at the border but has been forced to use some of President Trump’s tactics to quell border chaos.

Past administrations have generally tapped the National Guard for border duty, but the Pentagon said it is sending active-duty troops this time — at least at first. Officials said they hope reservists can be rotated into duty and that Homeland Security eventually hires contractors to fill the troops’ jobs. (Read more from “Biden to Send Active-Duty Marines, Soldiers to U.S.-Mexico Border” HERE)

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