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Bureaucrats from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will weigh and measure children in daycare as part of a study mandated by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The agency published a notice in the Federal Register on Friday proposing data collection on what meals are served in professional and home daycare facilities and how much physical activity children perform. Aside from assessing how healthy the food in daycare is, the USDA will also check the weight and height of roughly 3,000 children. “Children will be asked to cooperate with study staff who will weigh and measure them...

When my ex-husband and I divorced my economic situation took an abrupt downturn. My son and I moved from a luxurious home in an affluent suburb to a small apartment in a blue collar neighborhood. Our new home had none of the frills and extra amenities like the home we left behind. It was elbow-cracking small, the unreliable air conditioning made it heavy with heat in the Texas summers, and the neighbors were sometimes sketchy. But it was the best my budget could afford. My son and I went from being part of the upper class to living below the...

Fear not, citizens! The government is here to save you from yourselves. And in keeping with the Remember the Children theme, the Department of Agriculture is submitting new guidelines for food served at any day care facility (including some private homes) which qualify for federal funding. This should be a resoundingly popular move, I’m sure. Let’s see what you’ve got. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing strict new dietary guidelines for day cares that would prohibit them from frying food that is served to children. Child care providers would also be formally required to provide children with water...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is proposing strict new dietary guidelines for day cares that would prohibit them from frying food that is served to children.Child care providers would also be formally required to provide children with water upon request, though they would face restrictions on how much apple juice and orange juice they serve.The proposed nutrition standards are intended to promote the "health and wellness of children" at day cares that participate in government-funded meal programs, the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service said Wednesday.One of the more notable provisions would restrict day cares from frying food on site...

After President Obama in his 2013 State of the Union address called for a new federal entitlement for taxpayer-funded free preschool or pre-K for all 4-year-olds, we thought his idea would be quickly discredited, not only by its enormous cost, but even more importantly by the overwhelming weight of research proving the lack of any long-term benefit from such programs. Now we are dismayed to learn from Politico that a dozen Republican-governed states are expanding state-based pre-K programs or are planning to do so next year. And in Washington, some Republicans are offering bipartisan support to a pre-K bill drafted...

Vote tallies on whether Minnesota home care workers will create a large union should come next week after a federal judge ruled Wednesday that an ongoing union election can continue. In July, nine home care workers brought a challenge in federal court against Gov. Mark Dayton and other state officials, claiming that unionization efforts in the state are violating constitutional guarantees of free expression and association. Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which is trying to organize some 27,000 home care workers, also was named as a defendant in the case. Plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction to block a union election...

Milk—it does a body bad? Some Connecticut lawmakers seem to think so. The state legislature is considering a bill that would ban day care centers from serving whole milk or 2 percent milk to children. The move, according to the bill’s sponsors, is aimed at curbing childhood obesity—but opponents say the information is outdated. While the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a 2008 recommendation that children switch to low-fat milk after the age of 2 because they don’t need the fat content, others argue that the fat isn’t the dietary demon some claim. …

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban assailants apparently thought they were attacking an unprotected Christian-run day care center. But they mistakenly burst into the compound next door, where an American government contractor’s employees were heavily armed and ready, according to accounts that the contractor and the Afghan police gave on Friday of a wild four-hour shootout here.

“For millions of families in the United States, childcare is their single largest household expense at nearly $15,000 a year,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday in a speech on the Senate floor. “And in an economy where most families have two working parents, childcare isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity.” The Senate on Thursday is scheduled to vote on a bill that would amend and reauthorize through fiscal year 2020 the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990. The program provides funding to the states for child-care subsidies for low-income families, as well as money to improve...

Three day care centers in Charleston, W.Va., are citing costs related to Obamacare as part of the reason they are closing down. Fox affiliate WVAH-TV reports that 40 workers are employed by the centers and will find themselves out of a job. Kanawha County, which operates the centers, said they had lost $65,000 since the start of the school year as a result of expensive repairs and “concerns about added costs because of the Affordable Care Act.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A mom says her 5-year-old son was left in a locked daycare van for three hours. April Murphy’s son goes to The Academy of Spoiled Kids in Greensboro for after school care. On Wednesday Murphy was running late so she had a friend pick up her son from daycare. “The friend got to the daycare and the daycare told him that my child was absent or had already been picked up for the day,” explains April Murphy, who says her son was left in a daycare van.

WINNIPEG -- After sending her children to daycare with a lunch of roast beef, carrots and potatoes, Kristen Bartkiw was fed a $10 fine. The reason: An unbalanced meal. Despite the presence of a meat, vegetable, fruits and juice, the meal was missing a grain. The solution was to give the Rossburn, Man., school teacher a $10 fine and give her children Ritz Crackers as a supplement. "I don't blame the daycare," said Bartkiw, who was actually on the board of The Little Cub's Den when they decided to start fining parents. According to Manitoba Early Learning and Child Care...

When Michelle Hammack,a teacher at the Little Temples Childcare facility in Arlington, Fla., smelled smoke and the children were napping, she rushed out of her classroom to investigate. Seeing that chicken nuggets were burning in an oven, she was able to put out the fire before even the fire trucks arrived on the scene, according to a report by WTEV-TV in Jacksonville. Her boss, however, wasn't impressed. On that same day, the owner of the childcare facility Olga Rozhaov fired Hammack. Rozhakov defended her decision to the media. "I fired her only because she left her room," she told the...

Opponents of the new Minnesota law that could allow thousands of child care providers and personal care workers to unionize are suing to stop it. The opponents say the legislation allowing the groups to vote on whether to bargain collectively with the state is unconstitutional. "What the suit says is that the Legislature can't set up an election procedure in which employers are represented by unions. It's just not allowed under federal labor law," said Douglas Seaton, attorney for a group of child care providers opposing the union effort. But home-based child care providers are exempt from the National Labor...

A tax bill that would raise revenue $2.1 billion by boosting taxes on high-wage earners, smokers and corporations is headed for debate by the Senate. The bill, which also helps support a development plan pushed by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester officials say could bring thousands of jobs to Minnesota, is expected to be on the agenda once state Senators return to chambers at 11 a.m. The bill passed the state House by a 69-65 vote early Monday morning, May 20. It is one of the last major tax and spending bills the Legislature is taking up as it finalizes...

In an interview with the Detroit Metro Times, United Auto Workers President Bob King suggests that the forced unionization of home-based caregivers is more important than Michigan's becoming a right-to-work state. “[T]here was a whole series of legislation that [Snyder] said was not on his agenda that he signed,” King told the Metro Times. "There were [university] research assistants being denied collective bargaining rights. There were home health care workers, who were given some really strong assurances that collective bargaining rights would not be taken away from them. “And that’s much more serious, honestly, than right-to-work; denying them the right...

A rapid increase in nursery places has led to a generation of violent “little savages”, psychologist Oliver James has warned. James, the best-selling author of books on child-rearing, said ministerial proposals to allow child carers to look after more youngsters would fuel aggression in the under-threes, which would have lasting effects. Shoving youngsters in to nurseries was simply “warehousing” them so that the government could push mothers back to work to reap income for the Exchequer, he argued. … James pointed to a study in America, which tracked youngsters for 15 years. It showed a correlation between the hours placed...

As I discussed in my previous article "'Early Education or Early Indoctrination" our educational curricula could soon come under the control of the United Nations. The United States government supports their attempts at globalizing our American education system and indoctrinating our children in an early education program (0-5 years of age). But attempts to place our children in school from birth are being deterred small business: the daycare industry. Parents currently have the option of either putting their children in an "early education" school focus from birth until kindergarten or an in-home day care or center. But that too might...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- After a bit of confusion in the courtroom Tuesday morning, jurors returned the toughest verdict they could against day care owner Jessica Tata -- guilty of murder. But their work is not done. Now they must decide how long Tata should be in jail. "We, the jury, find the defendant, Jessica Tata, guilty of murder," the jury foreman read. Tata showed no emotion as the verdict was read. "She's never lost sight of the real victims, the real people who we have concern for are the families that lost their children," said defense attorney Mike DeGeurin. Tata...

Disturbing video from a Mississippi day care center shows a 9-year-old boy beating several much younger children, including an 11-month-old, whom he punches and bites. The frightening footage, taken at the Kiddie City Child Care Center in Vicksburg, shows the bully attacking the baby and then patting the boy on the back as it cries and adults come in to check on them. Throughout the video, the child can be seen waiting until day care workers aren’t looking to launch another attack. In another instance, the 9-year-old drop kicks a young girl to the floor while a day care worker...