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It was reported Monday that Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and incredibly wealthy guy, and with his wife, Melinda, have given $1 million to Initiative 594 in Washington state. The ballot initiative, if passed by voters on November 4 (and it currently enjoys overwhelming support), will require universal background checks for all firearm purchases in the state.

School’s back — and so is the liberal agenda! Across the country, parents and lawmakers are up in arms about an honors curriculum that gives new meaning to the phrase “history in the making.” The 95-page outline is so agenda-driven, educators complain, that basic U.S. facts are either distorted — or worse, omitted altogether. The College Board’s proposal is a study in liberal indoctrination — so much so that the Republican National Committee (RNC) formally opposed the idea in August. In a vote, the RNC concluded that the Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum is a “radical revisionist view” of America’s greatest...

. . . . . . I have written on various occasions (here and here) that I could not support the Common Core standards because they were developed and imposed without regard to democratic process. The writers of the standards included no early childhood educators, no educators of children with disabilities, no experienced classroom teachers; indeed, the largest contingent of the drafting committee were representatives of the testing industry. No attempt was made to have pilot testing of the standards in real classrooms with real teachers and students.. The standards do not permit any means to challenge, correct, or revise...

The Gates Foundation has been very busy trying to figure out ways for governors, state boards, and commissioners of education to pretend they are giving up Common Core’s standards or tests, while ensuring these states still have warmed-over versions in place to satisfy Bill Gates’ ambitions. We now have many examples of states that have gone through the motions to placate the still-growing army of parents, teachers, state legislators, and other citizens demanding a stronger, not weaker, public school system. But, instead of developing stronger alternative standards in place of Common Core’s misbegotten standards, some elected and appointed officials have deliberately...

Gregory Ferenstein, VentureBeat August 27, 2014Bill Gates is opening up his considerable piggy bank in Silicon Valley’s fight against the National Rifle Association. The Microsoft billionaire donated $1 million to Initiative 594, which will require criminal background checks for firearm sales. Gates joins a long line of high-profile activists in the fighting the powerful gun lobby. Michael Bloomberg’s plans post mayoral duties include large campaigns for gun control. Noted Facebook investor Ron Conway has made gun reform his signature political cause, championing hackathons to prevent gun violence and spearheading a venture project for innovative anti-violence technology. For Gates, this may...

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have donated $1 million to a Washington state campaign seeking to expand background checks on gun sales, bringing the total amount the campaign has brought in up to nearly $6 million. ... The large donation comes on the heels of fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $500,000 donation earlier this month. Also last week, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer donated an additional $1 million, bring his total donation to the campaign to nearly $1.4 million.

Bill Gates doesn’t slum it when it comes to his vacations. The world's richest man has been photographed enjoying quality family time aboard an extravagant $330 million yacht. The Microsoft founder has been pictured on “The Serene,” a stunning 450-foot boat he’s renting from Stolichnaya vodka magnate Yuri Scheffler for a cool $5 million per week. Moored off the coast of Sardinia, it reportedly has 12 state rooms, a seawater swimming pool, a cinema, a nightclub, a climbing wall, a gym and two hot tubs.

Recent reports announcing the era of remote-control contraception herald the very real but slightly horrifying prospects for the future for those who believe that man can literally transform himself into a machine. This phenomenon is known as the cult of transhumanism. One news report calls the remote dispensation of contraception “creepy.” Another explains how this may come to fruition: “A challenge from Bill Gates two years ago has put science on the cusp of a revolutionary, remote-controlled method of birth control.” Technology Review says the wireless implant, if approved for safety and efficacy, could make it possible for a woman to turn her birth control on and...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) criticized Microsoft founder Bill Gates for calling on Congress to increase STEM worker visas while the company plans to cut 18,000 jobs next year. “Super billionaires aren’t happy apparently. … They declare we need to import more foreign workers,” Sessions said on the Senate floor Thursday. “Mr. Gates says we need to let more and more people into our country to take those kinds of jobs.” Sessions was referring to an op-ed in which Gates called on the House to pass the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill. That legislation would increase the number of worker visas...

How many times do I have to write about the problems discovered in Common Core teaching? This time it deals with Pearson Education, one of the leading companies that helps develop and train Common Core teaching. According to their website: “As the leading education services company, Pearson is serious about evolving how the world learns. We apply our deep education experience and research, invest in innovative technologies, and promote collaboration throughout the education ecosystem. Real change is our commitment and its results are delivered through connecting capabilities to create actionable, scalable solutions that improve access, affordability, and achievement.” [Emphasis mine]...

Wow. Here’s a link to the Gates-subsidized NBCNews.com article. There is no indication that it’s an advertisement or advertorial. It appears to be a bona fide news story written by a bona fide reporter (Nona Willis Aronowitz). Here it is featured along with NBC News’ other articles on its education page:

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) responded today to a New York Times Op-Ed promoting amnesty by billionaires Sheldon Adelson, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Sessions said the billionaires' opinion piece shows they're clueless about the obligations of Congress to the American people: "It is clear that three of the richest billionaires in the world have no clue what Congress 'owe[s] to the 318 million who employ them'. "We owe them our loyalty, our compassion, our devotion. It is precisely because of our duty to the working people of this country that we must stop legislation that would import tens of millions...

Have you ever wondered how Common Core went from a twinkle in a liberalÂ’s eye to widespread destruction throughout AmericaÂ’s schools in only a few short years? Well, all it took was money, lots of it. In 2008 Gene Wilhoit and David Coleman were looking to bring national standards to American education, which until then had been fragmented between the states, but they knew it would cost millions. So they went to see the man whose name is synonymous with wealth, Bill Gates. Gates was known for his meddling with American education, and failing miserably at it. He had invested...

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 13, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- The claim by Melinda Gates, a Catholic, that the multi-billion dollar Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does not fund abortion is "an outright deception," says Father Shenan J. Boquet, president of Human Life International. Gates has made headlines in recent days after she wrote June 2 that the foundation "has decided not to fund abortion."

Philanthropist Melinda Gates revealed that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the most charitable private foundations in the world, does not fund abortion. "I understand why there is so much emotion, but conflating these issues will slow down progress for tens of millions of women. That is why when I get asked about my views on abortion, I say that, like everyone, I struggle with the issue, but I've decided not to engage on it publicly – and the Gates Foundation has decided not to fund abortion," Gates wrote earlier this week, reflecting on a recent overseas trip....

SPLC Launches Hysterical Attack on Common Core Critics The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a paranoid report released this week, hysterically attacks critics of Common Core.... Full Story:http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/education/item/18217-splc-launches-hysterical-attack-on-common-core-critics

For its fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31, Microsoft beat analysts’ expectations. The company posted earnings per share of 68 cents on revenue of $20.40 billion. It reported $5.66 billion in profit. Analysts had expected Microsoft to report third-quarter revenue this year of about $20.38 billion, and earnings per share of 63 cents, with profit of $5.26 billion, according to a Bloomberg consensus estimate.

The student data processing organization inBloom will shut down in the coming months, its chief executive officer said Monday following criticism that led to the recent loss of the startup's last active client — New York state....Launched in 2013 with $100 million in financing from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corp., the nonprofit's goal was to give educators a data-based tool to personalize instruction. InBloom, based in Atlanta, offered to store and synthesize student data, such as grades, disciplinary actions and disability records in cloud-based servers. Nine states initially signed on but backed out as parents, school...

Common Core-loving billionaire Bill Gates has suffered a stinging defeat in his ambitious quest to reform every cranny of the American K-12 public education system. The nonprofit educational-software company InBloom Inc., which the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corp. of New York financed to the tune of $100 million, announced on Monday that it will shut down permanently. The reason for the shutdown is a steady cascade of parental and legislative anxiety about student privacy, reports The Wall Street Journal. The strategy driving inBloom had been to create a huge database connecting local school districts and state education...

Pro-lifers and conservatives are cheering the news that Kathleen Sebelius has resigned her post as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Sebelius, whose reputation was sullied following the massive network problems which crippled the rollout of the Obamacare website, resigned April 11 after five years at HHS. But wait: Aren’t the celebrations perhaps a little premature? What do we really know about President Obama’s nominee to replace Sebelius in the post, Sylvia Mathews Burwell? She comes from a left-leaning organization. Before her current position as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Ms. Burwell was Chief...