Free Republic

The now 20-year-old told state lawmakers her story on Thursday, Feb. 28, urging them to support a bill that would strengthen Minnesota's anti-bullying law. The law, at just 37 words, is one of the shortest anti-bullying laws in the nation and only requires school districts to enact their own local bullying prevention policies. The bill's backers include educators, pediatricians, gay rights activists and advocates for the disabled. "I think it would send a message to students and help them feel like they're important and cared about," Schuette said. "And it gives teachers and parents the tools and resources to effectively...

Opponents of an insurance surcharge to fund police and fire pensions told state lawmakers Tuesday, March 5, that the proposal is particularly unfair to low-income Minnesotans and follows huge increases in homeowners insurance. The bill, authored by Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, calls for a $5 surcharge on each homeowners and auto insurance policy as a way to provide additional revenue to pension funds for police officers and full-time and volunteer firefighters. Lawmakers on the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement heard arguments for and against the bill during a hearing at the Capitol but delayed a vote until...

Don't just get your Kids out of Public Schools. Get the public schools out of Your State. The very Concept of public schools is Obsolete... (video)

On Tuesday, Feb. 26, Brian Camenker of MassResistance addressed the meeting of the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, including Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester. They wrote and approved this. As you can see in the video below, we did not mince words about their hideous directive.

One boy, accused of cutting a fellow student with an X-Acto knife, faces a felony assault charge. Another was charged with assault after kicking a schoolmate in the groin. Both incidents took place at St. Paul's Ramsey Junior High this school year. In both cases, parents alerted police. The school did not. Educators have long grappled with the messy task of deciding when student misbehavior calls for school discipline -- or for police action. In recent years, districts in Minnesota and beyond have retooled their approach. Schools have become increasingly loath to refer students to the juvenile justice system, which...

Iran has recently implemented public amputations as punishment for criminals, in accordance with a court ruling aimed at reducing the country’s theft rate, The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) revealed. The semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on one such public amputation, which took place on January 24 in the city of Shiraz, and displayed images of the apparatus used to carry out the amputation, according to MEMRI. According the report, a 29-year-old man, who was charged with robbery, selling stolen goods, and engaging in illicit sexual relations, had his hand publicly amputated. He was also sentenced to...

Beck speaks about public demonstrations of military strength... in America

A public university plans to offer a course this spring on “sibling incest in theory and literature,” Campus Reform learned on Tuesday. According to the University of Missouri’s official description, the class will “examine the deployment of erotic desire, love, and sympathy as political, economic, and textual strategies, and analyze the gender dynamics involved in such deployment.”

Do we need more arms in public schools - or perhaps LESS public schools? (video)

Last Thursday, the Minnesota Department of Education held public hearings to approve its new social studies education curriculum that leaves out "patriotism" as a civic virtue and teaches that America's rise as a global power from its agrarian roots led to "institutionalized racism." History Standard 20 for the period 1870–1920, in the new social studies/history standards, says: “The student will understand that as the United States shifted from its agrarian roots into an industrial and global power, the rise of big business, urbanization, and immigration led to institutionalized racism, ethnic and class conflict, and new efforts at reform.” John Fonte,...

My Cato Institute colleague, Chris Edwards, put together a remarkable (and depressing) chart showing that federal bureaucrats get almost twice the level of compensation as workers in the productive sector of the economy. Defenders of the bureaucracy (including a federal pay panel dominated by bureaucrats) claim that government employees actually are underpaid because…well…just because.My modest contribution to the debate was to put together a chart based on the Labor Department’s JOLTS data, which shows that bureaucrats are far less likely to voluntarily leave their jobs than folks in the private sector, which is very strong evidence that they are being...

Over the years, I’ve shared some outrageous examples of overpaid bureaucrats. The chief bureaucrat of a low-income California city getting almost $800,000 per year.Cops in Oakland getting average compensation of $188,000.A school superintendent in New York raking in more than $500 thousand of annual compensation.A Philadelphia bureaucrat, after working only 2-1/2 years, nailing down a guaranteed pension of $50,000 per year.A New York school bureaucrat simultaneously getting a $225,000 salary and $300,000 pension.California taxpayers being forced to pay a fired bureaucrat $550,000 for unused vacation time.An employee of the New Jersey Turnpike system raking in annual compensation of $320,000. Hopefully...

Just when you thought yesterday’s dismal jobs numbers couldn’t get any worse -- they did. According to CNSNews.com, nearly seventy-five percent of all civilian jobs created since the beginning of last summer are in the public sector: Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United States over the last five months are in government, according to official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In June, a total of 142,415,000 people were employed in the U.S, according to the BLS, including 19,938,000 who were employed by federal, state and local governments. By November, according to data...

Hey, I’ve got a neat idea — why don’t we just keep growing the government, until we all can have government jobs? That can work, right? Seventy-three percent of the new civilian jobs created in the United States over the last five months are in government, according to official data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. … In the same five-month period since June, the number of people employed by government increased by 621,000 to 20,559,000. These 621,000 new government jobs created in the last five months equal 73.3 percent of the 847,000 new jobs created overall.

A major public university hosted an event last Wednesday which was aimed at teaching students how to properly use sex toys. The University of California – Merced (UCM) sponsored the event, entitled “Is There a Buzz in Your Bed,” which had the stated goal of teach students about “various sex toys” and different ways “to play as a couple or alone.”

U.S. private-sector employers added 118,000 jobs in November shy of economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 125,000 jobs. October's private payrolls were revised slightly down to an increase of 157,000 f rom the previously reported 158,000.

The incomparable Walter Russell Mead, writing in the American Interest, offered a glimpse into the coming dystopia: "Things are getting worse in San Bernardino. The city filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, but its financial situation has continued to deteriorate. And now with what promises to be a heated court battle over payments to the state pension fund in the offing, further cuts are likely. "Things are getting so bad that at a recent city council meeting, the city attorney advised residents to 'lock their doors and load their guns' because the city could no longer afford to keep up...

In a (video) presentation to the Nevada Association of Counties, Representative Ken Ivory (American Lands Council) talks about the inequitable treatment of the States West of the Mississippi by federal failure to dispose of the public lands into private ownership as promised in State Enabling Acts. Ivory/ALC proposes legislation to return lands to the Western States for lease or disposal into private ownership. Sale could provide revenue to discharge the National Debt.

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Marxist Conference Packed with Chicago TeachersPosted By Anne Sorock On November 15, 2012 @ 12:15 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | No Comments Visit Legal Insurrection. Teachers filled the ranks at the 2012 Midwest Marxism Conference, which was held Saturday at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey, who spoke at one of the breakout sessions, was just one of the hundreds of attendees, many of them teachers, there to strategize about the next phases of the partnership between Chicago Socialists and the Chicago Teachers Union.Of course, all recording was strictly...

... The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which required public schools to follow new nutritional guidelines this academic year to receive extra federal lunch aid, has created a nationwide version of the age-old parental challenge: persuading children to eat what is good for them. Because the lunches must now include fruits and vegetables, those who clamor for more cheese-laden nachos may find string beans and a peach cup instead. Because of limits on fat and sodium, some of those who crave French fries get baked sweet-potato wedges. Because of calorie restrictions, meat and carbohydrate portions are smaller. Gone is...