Free Republic

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – New Braunfels ISD responded Friday to a complaint from parents of a student at Carl Schurz Elementary School being in a "FOCUS room." A website, called "The 'Focus Room' Horror" and dated May 13, shows photos of a visibly upset boy sitting on the floor of a room. The website writes that the boy is a 9-year-old student named Alex and states that he was confined to the room for more than an hour. According to the website, Alex was told to sit in a circle drawn on the floor for 90 minutes "to earn 90...

The Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s 2013 pension overhaul, unraveling an effort by lawmakers to rein in benefits for the consistently underfunded public-sector system. The current pension shortfall is estimated at $111 billion, one of the largest nationally. The high court affirmed a decision in November by a state circuit court that the legislative changes violated pension protections written into the state constitution. The decision is a victory for a consortium of public-sector unions while creating a huge challenge for new Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who already faces a yawning budget deficit for the coming fiscal year.

Just because you’re not interested in politics doesn’t mean politics isn’t interested in you. Americans seem to have forgotten this dictum. A brand-new poll, taken in the form of an online survey, was just issued by the Pew Research Center. It paints a melancholy picture about the abysmal state of knowledge the U.S. public possesses on public affairs – the more so when you reflect that self-selection was probably present. In other words, you probably are brighter than Joe Sixpack if you could be bothered to take the test in the first place. Most people knew who Martin Luther King...

Not always majority support, granted, but Ramesh Ponnuru reminds us there’s a sizable chunk of voters out there who are open to reducing legal as well as illegal immigration. Given widespread paranoia among top Republicans about losing Latinos forever over grassroots opposition to amnesty, Walker moving to Mitt Romney’s right by questioning legal immigration seems counterintuitive and politically dangerous. But is it? Per Ponnuru, hmmmm:Interesting, but maybe that 39 percent opposition is driven almost entirely by Republicans, people whom Walker can already count on to support him as nominee, in which case his legal immigration position isn’t winning him...

There was a Defense Department Briefing at The Pentagon today, where Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Gen. Martin Dempsey answered questions. Carter has a SERIOUS "Uhhhh-uhhh uhhhh-uhhhhh" speech disorder. What a moron. Did 0dungo appoint him because he is an embarrassment? Couldn't 0dungo find someone who could talk in the public arena without saying "uhhhh-uhhh uhhh-uhhhh" every other word? UHHH-UHHHHHHH UHH-UHHHHHH PATHETIC!!!!

The California teachers' pension fund still hasn't shaken off its investment in gun maker Bushmaster, more than two years after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. And now the teachers are mad. California teachers are planning a protest at the fund's annual meeting on April 2.

Until very recently, Minnesota law capped the salary for commissioners of state departments at 85 or 95 percent of the governor’s salary. A law passed in 2013 changed that cap to 133 percent, and now Gov. Mark Dayton has used that change to raise the salaries of most of his cabinet. Overall, the higher salaries will cost taxpayers an additional $802,990 per year for the 27 affected positions. Dayton’s 2015 salary is $123,912, meaning the new maximum is $164,803. None of Dayton’s commissioners are earning that maximum, even after this year’s raises. The previous highest salary earned by a commissioner...

This year, judges in California and Michigan approved the exit plans of two of the largest municipal bankruptcy filings in the country’s history. In California, Stockton upheld its obligations to the state’s pension system behemoth, Calpers, while paying its other creditors as little as pennies on the dollar. Detroit, meanwhile, was able to restructure its obligations to all of its creditors, including city pensioners. While the exit plans differed, both judges ruled similarly: public pension obligations could be shortchanged like any other debt. Stockton and Detroit aren't alone. Cities and states across America are facing catastrophic budget shortfalls. After decades...

Graphic from copblock.org The ubiquity of inexpensive and capable video and audio recording devises is changing the legal and political landscape for everyone, but especially for police, criminals, and armed Americans.  The open carry movement learned early on that recording of an incident removed the he said/she said ambiguity that is often found to be in a police officer's favor.  There have been many cases where the interaction was recorded and a settlement was paid to the person exercising their rights.  Many defensive actions by armed Americans have been caught on surveillance cameras and have gone viral on the...

In light of the KNOWN Jihadist in Australia taking hostages and using a gun (guns are banned there) causing innocent people to be killed and wounded, we need a list of known Jihadists to be immediately set up and accessible to the public (including gun owners) just like the list of sex offenders. The American people have a right to know who all of these evil people are and where they live just like the right we have to know all of the sex offenders are and where they live. It is time to out all of these bastards so...

A #HandsUpWalkOut Ferguson protest was targeted to students and workers, and mostly students are taking part so far:

The public is concerned and frightened because it´s a frightening world. A lot has happened," Vice President Joe Biden told CNN in an interview that aired on Sunday. Biden noted that in every crisis, "there´s all kinds of attention" from Twitter and the news media. But later, "when we put it under control," there´s not much follow-up, Biden complained. So the public shouldn´t be anxious about Ebola and ISIS? the reporter asked him. "I think the public should not be as anxious as they are, but it´s understandable why they are. There is no existential threat to the United States

"Django Unchained" actress Daniele Watts cried out as a victim of racism this week after she was caught having sex in public. The usual Liberal media bought her story attacking the police as racists. Daniele Watts claimed she had been profiled (by police) for "kissing" her white boyfriend.THERE'S ONLY ONE PROBLEM... The facts of Daniele Watts' story don't add up.The police didn't approach Daniele because she was "kissing" her boyfriend. The police were responding to multiple complaints from locals that Daniele was having lewd sex in broad daylight for everyone to see in a car — with the car door...

In the next decade, Florida’s biggest cities will add toll lanes to the state’s busiest highways. Nobody knows exactly how much it will cost. Maybe as little as $3 billion. Maybe double that. What’s clear is that when the toll lanes across the state are complete, they will become one of the largest infrastructure projects in state history. There’s little debate that the toll lanes, also called express lanes or managed lanes, make commutes quicker for those willing to pay as much as $10 to use them. But there has been little debate about the need for the projects —...

A D.C. public school gave a sixth grade class a homework assignment that required students to draw comparisons between former President George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler.

At the end of her seventh grade year a few months ago, my daughter was of the opinion that she had not received the education that she should have, so she determined to find courses online that she could take over the summer. What she found (completely on her own) turned out to be a full time public school- online! She starts tomorrow at Connections Academy Texas. With her mother and I both working, she'll be attending school at her Grandmother's house for the time being. I'm very excited about this- my child is *very* intelligent, and with self-paced courses...

The constant debate of how to fix public education is far from over. However, The Heritage Foundation came across new research for an improved education policy. heritage foundation index of cultury and opportunity Jennifer A. Marshall, Vice President of the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity, discussed new research to better the failing education system for children in low income areas. While the Center for American Progress argues that government needs to increase funding for better education, the Heritage Foundation suggests a different approach. “The charts on public school test scores [over time] are the most boring ones in the...

This one really takes the (urinal?) cake... I myself have spent a bit of time in Europe, and one thing that strikes you as disgusting is the taking-a-leak in public thing- particularly bad the farther East you go (Czech Republic comes to mind). And it's not just drunks at 3am -though there's never any shortage of that- but the carefree, utterly shameless roadside drainage -in broad daylight, as minivans full of families motor by- you even see on the side of the freeway (and not in any woods/weeds or anything, either). But from what I've heard, India is a whole...

HOUSTON - Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was a prisoner of war in Afghanistan for five years, has been allowed to venture off the Texas military base where he is receiving care as part of his "reintegration process" into society, a U.S. Army spokeswoman said Wednesday. Bergdahl has been allowed to go, with supervision, to a grocery store, restaurants, shopping centers and a library as part of the process of getting him comfortable with being out in public, Army spokeswoman Arwen Consaul said. **SNIP** He has not commented publicly on the circumstances of his disappearance, and the Army has made no...

On Monday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state of Illinois violated the First Amendment when it forced home-care workers who receive government stipends to pay union dues to the Service Employees International Union. Writing for the 5-4 majority in Harris v. Quinn, Justice Samuel Alito ruled that the state exceeded its lawful authority by treating such workers as government employees “solely for the purpose of unionization and the collection of an agency fee.” “If we accepted Illinois’ argument,” Alito explained, “we would approve an unprecedented violation of the bedrock principle that, except perhaps in the rarest of circumstances,...