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Idaho law ends use of public funds for teachers’ union
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Just the News
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a measure prohibiting public schools from using taxpayer-funded resources to support teachers’ unions, a move supporters say restores government neutrality while critics argue it limits educators’ ability to organize. The legislation, House Bill 516, bars school districts from facilitating payroll deductions for union dues and restricts the use of public resources to assist union activities. The law is set to take effect July 1. Supporters of the measure, including the Freedom Foundation, which prompted the report, argue that allowing payroll deductions amounts to indirect taxpayer support. [Ed: this needs to happen in every state.]

Zelensky signs law criminalizing antisemitism
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Jerusalem Post
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a new law criminalizing antisemitism and making it punishable by up to eight years in prison. The new law – signed on Holocaust Remembrance Day – amends Article 161 of the Criminal Code on the violation of citizens’ equality based on their race, nationality, religious beliefs, or disability. This now features the words and “manifestations of antisemitism,” according to the draft law seen by The Jerusalem Post. Part one of the article relates to deliberate actions aimed at inciting hatred or manifestations of antisemitism and at humiliation of honor and dignity. [Ed: interesting, given Ukriane's deep involvement inthe Holocaust.]

Clarence Thomas SLAMS progressivism as threat to Americans' natural rights
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: The Post Millennial
Progressivism "requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights." Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke at the University of Texas in Austin on Wednesday night and he lashed out at the horrible political philosophy of progressivism, saying that it's anathema to the Declaration of Independence and the goals set forth in that document. He praised the ethos of the Founding Fathers and urged Americans to not be "passive spectators" in American liberty, but to uphold the Declaration of Independence. He spoke about his career, realizing early on in Washington, DC, that he had to define his principles and their worth. "What are your principles worth to you?" He said he asked himself.

Yale Panel Delivers Scathing Report on Higher Education
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Yale .pdf
High costs, opaque admissions, free speech issues have put colleges and universities in the dog house. Colleges aren't just caught in the higher-ed backlash; they helped create it, a new Yale report concludes. A faculty committee at the university says institutions like its own share major blame for collapsing public confidence in college, pointing to soaring sticker prices, confusing financial-aid schemes, opaque admissions, grade inflation, and battles over free speech. The 10-professor panel says universities have tried to be "all things to all people—selective but inclusive, affordable but luxurious, meritocratic but equitable," without clearly stating their core mission, making it harder for the public to judge whether they're delivering on their promises, reports the New York Times.

First Lady Lobbies House Panel to Overhaul Foster Care System
Topic: Children and Family
Source: USA Today
First lady Melania Trump returned to Capitol Hill this week to press lawmakers to move on a set of bills tied to her foster care initiative. At a roundtable with members of the House Ways and Means Committee, Trump framed the effort as an ethical obligation, saying that children in the US foster system are "our moral equals" and that updating federal policy is "a moral imperative." She urged Congress to act on legislation aimed at improving support for current and former foster youth, USA Today reports, particularly around education and the transition to adulthood.

California Provides Sex-Change Procedures to Homeless Illegal Aliens
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: City-Journal
In San Francisco, ideology rules. Last month, we received a report from a whistleblower who claimed that illegal aliens were staying in San Francisco’s homeless shelters. Following up on the tip, we visited numerous publicly funded shelters in San Francisco, and spoke to employees and residents about their policies, sometimes through a translator. We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it.

Elon Musk’s Grok Continues Generating Sexualized Deepfakes on X
Topic: Porn, Prostitution, and Sexual Freedom
Source: Let’s Data Science
Elon Musk's AI system Grok, developed by xAI and deployed via X, is still producing nonconsensual sexualized deepfake images and videos of real people. An NBC News review identified dozens of such images posted publicly to X in the past month, and advocacy researchers warn the tool enables large-scale, gendered abuse. Despite a January pledge to stop abusive deepfakes and the introduction of content restrictions, users have found prompt and workflow techniques that bypass protections and elicit sexualized edits from Grok and Grok Imagine. The ongoing generation and public posting of these images creates reputational, psychological, and legal harms and raises urgent questions about model safety, moderation engineering, and platform liability.

Trump Accounts for kids now total 5 million
Topic: Children and Family
Source: CNBC
...and 1.2 million can get $1,000 seed money, Bessent says. About 5 million children have been signed up for Trump Accounts, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Some 1.2 million of those children are eligible for a $1,000 pilot program contribution from the Treasury Department, Bessent said at CNBC’s Invest in America Forum. The $1,000 Treasury seed money is available to children born between 2025 and 2028. Parents or guardians can elect to open Trump accounts for their kids via IRS Form 4547 with their 2025 tax return or online through TrumpAccounts.gov.

Pro-Life Father Targeted By Biden’s FBI Wins $1M Settlement
Topic: Abortion
Source: Thomas More Society
Mark Houck, a devoted pro-life Catholic and father of seven, found himself caught in a legal battle against the United States of America after defending his young son from an aggressive Planned Parenthood escort. Known for his dedication as an author, speaker, and sidewalk counselor, Houck would often take his twelve-year-old son with him during his weekly trips to speak outside abortion clinics. However, when the escort confronted his son with ridicule and profanity, Houck stepped in to protect his child. The escort attempted to initiate a private prosecution against Houck, but the case was dismissed when he failed to appear at the hearing. Almost a year later, on September 23, 2022, the Houck family was shocked when nearly twenty-five FBI agents raided their home, arresting Mark without explanation and taking him to the FBI Headquarters in Philadelphia. The Department of Justice had decided to make an example of Mark, charging him with two felony counts and threatening him with prison time for defending his family and advocating for life. [Ed: definitely biased in favor of prolife but interesting info.]

Anti-Hate Poster Has No Home in Ohio Classroom, Says School District
Topic: Gay/Lesbian Issues
Source: Reason
The poster, which included a rainbow flag, counts as "instruction that includes sexuality content" and triggers an Ohio parents' rights law, the board said. "Hate Has No Home Here," read the classroom poster. The school board said it had to go. Now, the teacher who put up the poster is suing, saying his First Amendment rights were violated. How could such an anodyne message spark a constitutional controversy? The drama stems from the images under the words: five hands—of varying skin colors—holding five hearts, each decorated differently. The largest heart features an American flag pattern. One heart has a peace sign on it. The controversial hearts feature stripes, one in a rainbow of colors and one in pink, blue, and white.

How 30,000 LA School Employees Won a Landmark Contract
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Payday Report
Education About LAUSD Budget Manipulation. On Monday evening, I watched as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass paced nervously back and forth outside the conference room of SEIU Local 99. Bass had been called in by the LA United School District (LAUSD) to negotiate an agreement hours away from an imminent strike of more than 30,000 school employees, backed by as many as 50,000 teachers and administrators who were ready to strike in solidarity. ?Both the teachers' union and the school administrators’ union reached tentative agreements earlier in the week, but SEIU 99, which represents low-wage cafeteria workers, janitors, and other school employees, many of whom live in poverty, was holding out for better hours and protection from layoffs.

LA authorities dramatically raise stakes in investigation of alleged Swalwell rape
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: AOL
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office has already assigned a prosecuting attorney to aid in the criminal investigation of a bombshell rape claim against disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell. LA District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced the rare move after Lonna Drewes, 50, on Tuesday accused Swalwell of drugging, choking and raping her at a West Hollywood hotel in 2018.

Musk's Grok AI chatbot still making sexual deepfakes, despite X's promise to stop
Topic: Porn, Prostitution, and Sexual Freedom
Source: NBC News
An NBC News review found dozens of AI-generated sexualized images of real women posted to X over the past month. A review by NBC News found dozens of AI-generated sexual images and videos depicting real people posted publicly on Musk’s social media app, X, over the past month. The images show women whose likenesses were edited by the AI chatbot to put them in more revealing clothing, such as towels, sports bras, skintight Spider-Woman outfits or bunny costumes. Many of the women are female pop stars or actors. The Grok software, created by Musk’s company xAI, made the images at the request of users who tried to break through undressing restrictions the service put in place in January. Grok, via its X account, or the users then posted the images to X.

New video shows Oklahoma high school principal tackling gunman
Topic: Children and Family
Source: FOX News
...who opened fire inside the school. [Ed: a true hero.] Kirk Moore wrestled the gun away from suspected shooter Victor Hawkins, who allegedly studied the Columbine shooting beforehand. The footage shows Pauls Valley High School Principal Kirk Moore confronting the suspect — identified as 20-year-old former student Victor Hawkins — after he walked into the building on April 7. Moore was shot in the leg during the confrontation and was airlifted to a hospital in stable condition, authorities said.

British drama ‘The Teacher’ features ‘nonbinary’ student
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Human Events
who overdoses after being misgendered by teacher. The show features a character named Dee Rainford-Thomas, a student who identifies as nonbinary and clashes with drama teacher Helen Simpson, the newly promoted head of drama at Cheetham Hall. The character is depicted in the series as being misgendered and “deadnamed” by the teacher, as tensions between the two rise. The storyline escalates as the teacher also becomes involved in disputes with other students, including one who describes herself as an ally of “Dee.” At one point, after an exchange takes place where the teacher tells Dee she should “kill herself” if she cannot stand up for herself, the student proceeds to overdose on pills.

FTC's Probe of Media Matters for America Is Blatant Assault on Freedom of Speech
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Reason
In the guise of investigating "potentially unlawful advertiser boycotts," the commission is punishing the organization for its views. In November 2023, about a year after Elon Musk took over Twitter, Media Matters for America made a splash with a report claiming that the platform, by then rebranded as X, was "placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content." Musk responded by threatening a "thermonuclear lawsuit" against Media Matters, while Stephen Miller, now a White House deputy chief of staff, suggested that "conservative state Attorneys General" should investigate the organization for "fraud."

How many Swalwell-style creeps are Democrats protecting?
Topic: Violence Against Women
Source: FOX News
The op-ed argues Swalwell's misconduct was an open secret in DC for over a decade before his gubernatorial bid. The most amazing thing, though certainly not the most disgusting, about the revelations of sexual impropriety by Democrat California Rep. Eric Swalwall is that somehow this man thought he could run for governor despite the horrifying allegations hanging over his head. The most obvious answer as to why the TikTok video-producing congressman thought he could pull this off is that he believed the Democratic Party and its media allies would protect him. Frankly, he was correct about that, right up until he wasn’t.

“To Know Is Not Enough”
Topic: Political Correctness
Source: Jonathan Turley
Hampshire College Joins Growing List of Failed Academic Institutions. On Tuesday, Hampshire College became the latest academic institution to announce its closure. There was a time when such failures were rare occurrences. That trickle is turning into a torrent, but the media and academics are missing a critical part of the lesson. There is no greater example of how academics are killing higher education than the death of Hampshire College.

They Have You by the Ovaries
Topic: Children and Family
Source: Do Not Research
[Ed: I don't agree with the tone or message...but it is an interesting article.] Success: I emptied my savings and endured excruciating medical experiences to liberate myself from reproductive anxiety. I froze my eggs. Now I have a new, disembodied tension that’s completely out of my control. In the absence of robust social safety nets—paid parental leave, affordable childcare, universal healthcare—many have turned to egg freezing as a form of insurance. In 2021, I was hot off a break up, feeling stagnant in my career, and still deep in the COVID pandemic. My 35th birthday loomed, a notorious date for women who want a biological family since egg quality and quantity begin to rapidly decline thereafter. I received an onslaught of targeted ads to freeze my eggs. Every time I opened social media I drowned in egg freezing ads that made a daunting medical procedure seem simple and transparent, with a clear pricing structure and monthly payment plans.