Free Republic

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Federal prosecutors on Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging an environmental activist with teaching others how to start an arson fire during a 2003 lecture in San Diego, where the costliest act of ecoterrorism in U.S. history had just occurred. Prosecutors said Rodney A. Coronado gave the lecture 15 hours after a $50 million fire destroyed a massive apartment complex in a north San Diego neighborhood. The indictment, however, does not link Coronado to that fire. Coronado, 39, was arrested Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz., on a charge of distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and...

"The teachers united will never be defeated!" chanted thousands of public-school teachers at a union rally. They may be right -- unfortunately. Teachers unions in this country are very influential because they can assemble a crowd. Randi Weingarten, head of New York's teachers union, put out the word, and thousands of teachers filled Madison Square Garden to demand a new contract and more money. That clout brings timid politicians into line. The unions can pay for expensive rallies at "the world's most famous arena" because every teacher in a unionized district like New York must give up some of his...

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (Jan. 31, 2006) -- Iraq's security forces must be prepared to handle any situation as Iraq grows more independent. That's why a select group of Marines are chosen to train and mentor Iraqi Security Forces as Iraq moves forward. 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment’s Military Transition Team practiced its marksmanship skills at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms as part of their pre-deployment training to assist the Iraqi Security Forces. “Living with, training, and mentoring the Iraqi military is our mission,” said Maj. William F. Wahle, MTT...

Of San Antonio's 17 school districts, three little-noticed ones consistently deliver superior results. Schools in those districts continue to rack up national and state recognitions for excellence. And their students — who graduate and go to college at higher-than-average rates — are regularly among the city's top performers in state, federal and college entrance exams. The Lackland, Randolph Field and Fort Sam Houston independent school districts are three of only seven military school districts in the nation. The three are "coterminous," or contained entirely within the boundaries of their namesake military bases. . . . Though they are entirely on...

Thursday, December 08, 2005 01:24 IST JNW EDITORIAL Teaching babies to hate Jews By Stan Goodenough December 7th, 2005 It is a dangerous deception for which the world is poised to pay a terrible price. Perhaps because he believes he has little choice in the matter, US President George W. Bush has, since 9-11, persisted in differentiating in his public statements and addresses between most Muslims and those referred to as Islamists. The American leader has repeatedly described Islam as a religion of peace, and denounced only the “fundamentalists” and “extremists” in the Islamic world as aberrations of that “great...

Briefly, while driving to a parent teacher conference for my son this morning, I had the opportunity to listen to recently slandered, former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett discuss a great business idea; that someone should open a conservative coffee shop and call it “Warbucks”. A portion of the proceeds would go to help the US soldiers charged with defending freedom around the world. Many listeners called in to say they really liked this suggestion. Now I’m not really sure if he was serious or not because I didn’t get a chance to listen in long enough but it got...

<p>A letter-writing campaign by third-graders at Allis Elementary School encouraging an end to the war in Iraq was canceled because it violates School Board policy, district officials said Tuesday.</p> <p>Julie Fitzpatrick, a member of the 10-teacher team that developed the project for the school's 90 third-grade students in five classes, said the assignment was intended to demonstrate citizen action, one of the district's standards in social studies.</p>

The United States will become a second-rate economic power unless it can match the educational performance of its rivals abroad and get more of its students to achieve at the highest levels in math, science and literacy. Virtually every politician, business leader and educator understands this, yet the country has no national plan for reaching the goal. To make matters worse, Americans have remained openly hostile to the idea of importing strategies from the countries that are beating the pants off us in the educational arena. The No Child Left Behind Act, passed four years ago, was supposed to put...

The United States will become a second-rate economic power unless it can match the educational performance of its rivals abroad and get more of its students to achieve at the highest levels in math, science and literacy. Virtually every politician, business leader and educator understands this, yet the country has no national plan for reaching the goal. To make matters worse, Americans have remained openly hostile to the idea of importing strategies from the countries that are beating the pants off us in the educational arena... ...Lurking behind these test scores, however, are two profoundly important and closely intertwined topics...

CARROLLTON — A history teacher at Carrollton High School has been suspended for allegedly making racially insensitive comments during a civil rights lesson. Mark McCormick, 46, who is white, has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending a disciplinary tribunal hearing the week after Thanksgiving, Superintendent Tom Wilson said Thursday. One of McCormick's students said he made "racially harassing comments" during a lecture. "We've investigated the situation extensively, and we believe these statements were made," said Wilson, who would not comment on what the remarks were. "Whether they were made intentionally or not, or taken out of context, is...

CARSON CITY: "HE SAID/SHE SAID" School administrators in Carson City, Nevada, had a very...bad...day yesterday, thanks to y'all. By the time school administrators went home, over 6,500 online petitions in support of history teacher Joe Enge had been sent to the school superintendent, the Carson High principal and the 7 members of the school board. Alas, the volume of emailed petitions overwhelmed the district, and by lunchtime the petitions were being "bounced" by the school district's system. Then came the phone calls. At first, administration personnel tried fielding the flood of calls it was receiving, but by mid-afternoon most...

It is no longer a secret that many public and private universities are populated by professors who use their classrooms to recruit students to their political agendas. But while the politicization of the universities is now common knowledge, an even more distressing instance of this abuse is to be found in the nation’s K-12 schools. I have that on good authority. I have been a teacher in Los Angeles-area elementary and middle schools and have witnessed first hand how students who are younger and more impressionable are being regularly indoctrinated by leftwing teachers. Having worked in a number of different...

IS TEACHING TRADITIONAL “HISTORY” HISTORY IN CARSON CITY’S HIGH SCHOOL? Meet Joe Enge. Joe is an award-winning, 15-year veteran history teacher in Carson City who has, among other things, written two history textbooks and served on the 1997 task force which drew up Nevada’s history standards. But according to school district administrators, he’s a “bad” teacher. You see, Joe has this crazy idea that American history should include our colonial period, as well as the Revolutionary War period. You know, where the Founding Fathers fought for independence from England and wrote the greatest governing document the world has ever...

When and where on earth can you see the longest sunrise? And how long can you see it? Stumped? Well, then, sample another. What would you see from the moon more often: the sun or the earth? A five-member team of 14-to-17-year olds will hone their skills over the next 10 days to unravel a few more secrets that the skies hold. Their aim: to win as many medals as possible at the International Astronomy Olympiad that kicks off in Beijing on October 25. It will not be an easy task — they will be up against competition from over...

"The main problem that we have in this country is ignorance," said Irfan Malik, a member of the council board.

The most-qualified Los Angeles Unified teachers work predominantly in schools serving high-income, white students, creating a "massive maldistribution of funds" at the expense of Latino and African-American students in poorer neighborhoods, a report released today says. The Education Trust-West said teachers in high-poverty Los Angeles elementary schools earn $1,589 less per year _ and those in high-poverty middle schools earn $1,826 less per year _ than their counterparts in more affluent areas. Teachers in low-income high schools, however, earn $159 a year more than their counterparts in higher-income schools, the study found. Similar salary gaps were found in the rest...

This is a just a little story about something that happened today in my classroom. It wasn’t a big deal, actually, just something that happened to bring into focus the problem our nation is facing. You see, we are told that our children are the future. Well, I’m a teacher in an inner-city middle school in Los Angeles, and I have seen the future. It’s not pretty. Let me clarify a little: when I say inner-city, I should probably qualify it a little. My school gets students from the Armenian section, a few from the nicer areas of Los Feliz…...

Five critiques of Intelligent Design John Brockman's Edge.org site has published the following five critiques of Intelligent Design (the bracketed comments following each link are mine): Marcelo Gleiser, "Who Designed the Designer?"  [a brief op-ed piece] Jerry Coyne, "The Case Against Intelligent Design: The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name"  [a detailed critique of ID and its history, together with a summary defense of Darwinism] Richard Dawkins & Jerry Coyne, "One Side Can Be Wrong"  [why 'teaching both sides' is not reasonable when there's really only one side] Scott Atran, "Unintelligent Design"  [intentional causes were banished from science with...

The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has been busy for 10 years ... creating gay student groups at hundreds of high schools and passing laws or regulations that limit or eliminate harassment aimed at homosexuals....The organization has also used part of its $4.3 million budget to promote a reading list for students as young as those in kindergarten.... At the high school level, some of this indoctrination might be excused on the grounds that students are old enough to make personal choices and maybe some of them can define terms like "sexuality" and "gender." No such excuse can...

...In the suburbs... the armed forces are welcomed for more than just visits. They're teaching ... classes. Two high schools in Federal Way will debut Air Force courses this fall. Students as young as 14 will wear uniforms, march in drills with decommissioned guns and get schooled in military history, customs and technology. Course materials are mostly created by the Air Force, and the classes taught by retired officers. Costs will be split between the Air Force and the school district. Federal Way is the third King County school district to ask the military to set up shop as part...