Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Let’s Show Our Teachers Some Love! 🍎 | From Behind the Pen

Image Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko

“A good education can change anyone. A good teacher can change everything.” -Unknown

Today, we begin our national calendar celebration for educators who have inspired us and helped us to shape our future during Teacher Appreciation Week (May 6 – May 10, 2024). All of us can remember a teacher(s) who made a monumental and significant difference in our lives whether we liked them or not. I didn’t adore every teacher I had in elementary and high school, or some of my college professors for that matter, but there were teachable moments I learned from them that have lasted throughout my adult life and I think I have grown exponentially as a result of their influence.

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” – C.S. Lewis

Even though this celebration is marked on the calendar, in no way is this the only time we pay mad respect and homage to all of our teachers who helped us graduate with the gift of knowledge. To all of you teachers out there, past, present, and future, I am extending my roll call to all of you who have educated our minds, hearts, and spirits with the gift of teaching.

“One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai

Free Teacher teaching students about Geography using a Globe Stock Photo

Image Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko

Teachers spend most of their week with our children and I honestly don’t know how they maintain their sanity. Do you remember those teachers who actually cared about you, your life, and your welfare when you were in school? Do you remember those teachers who never seemed to give you a break (my H.S. Chemistry and Algebra teachers) but were able to recognize your hidden potential and continue to push you toward excellence anyway? For all of my teachers, I am eternally grateful, because they never ceased to show all of their students how much they cared.

“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

As you know, teachers everywhere have to purchase most of their classroom supplies, and most teacher salaries make out-of-pocket costs on school supplies each year a financial challenge. As we come to the close of this school year in many areas, if you are able to stockpile some school supplies to help ease the financial burden many teachers face, and to bless them with these items, I encourage you to Adopt-A-Teacher at your nearby school. You have no idea how much of a difference it will make.

A good teacher can awaken joy in their students and leave a positive impression that lasts a lifetime. -Unknown

While most of my elementary and high school teachers are no longer with us, their lessons remain with me. So now on to my roll call. I want every teacher reading this post to put in the comment section below what you taught and where you taught. We applaud you for your tireless work and thank you for your service to education and educating the hundreds of students who sat behind those desks in your classrooms. If you would like to give a shoutout to any teacher who made a monumental impact in your life you can do that too.

Free Students Raising their Hands in the Classroom Stock Photo

Image Credit: Max Fischer

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! 🏫

Source: Let’s Show Our Teachers Some Love! 🍎 | From Behind the Pen

Column: Trump warns political violence may follow if he loses election – Los Angeles Times

When Time magazine asked Trump whether the election would end in political violence if he loses, the former president replied: “If we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”

“If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results,” he later told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.”

When Trump says “it depends,” here’s the problem: He has never competed in an election that he acknowledged as fair.

Even when he won the presidential election of 2016, he claimed that Hillary Clinton and the Democrats rigged the count to deny him a popular-vote landslide, contending without evidence that millions of noncitizens had voted in California. The official inquiry he ordered up found no significant irregularities.

In 2020, when he lost to President Biden by 7 million votes, Trump not only claimed the result was illegitimate; he worked for months to overturn it, demanding that state officials “find” thousands of new votes in his favor. When his court challenges failed, he summoned supporters to Washington and urged them to march on the Capitol

Source: Column: Trump warns political violence may follow if he loses election – Los Angeles Times

Open Thread | Update on the Continued Threats on Body Autonomy | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Louisiana Republicans are moving to pass a law that will charge women with criminal felonies and throw them in prison if they are caught in possession of abortion pills.

https://t.co/f3bWasgwXn https://t.co/rrjzMnFSBi
(https://x.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1786081419061522805?s=02)

From Jessica Valenti:

In the States
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed legislation today that will repeal the state’s 1864 abortion ban. It was just yesterday that the state Senate voted to reverse the 160-year-old law, crafted in a time before women had the right to vote. At a ceremony today, Gov. Hobbs said she would “do everything in my power to protect our reproductive freedoms, because I trust women to make the decisions that are best for them.”

This means that Arizona’s 15-week abortion ban will go back into effect—at least until November, when voters could restore abortion rights by supporting a pro-choice ballot measure.

As Florida’s 6 week abortion ban goes into effect:

Florida Agency Releases Dangerous Abortion ‘Rules’
Guidelines mandate abortion reports, tell doctors how to end pregnancies
JESSICA VALENTI
MAY 02, 2024
With Florida’s 6-week abortion ban now in effect, a state agency has issued guidelines for doctors that they say will ensure women get the care they need. In truth, the rules are a political move that will further endanger women’s health and lives.

Guidelines from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) not only require doctors to send the state detailed abortion reports, a tactic Abortion, Every Day has been raising the alarm about, but also dictate how doctors should end pregnancies. The guideline’s language could even force physicians to give women c-sections rather than abortions—another nightmare tactic that AED has been tracking.

Consider one of the most common post-Roe horror stories we’ve seen: women who were denied treatment after their water broke too early for the fetus to survive. (Also called preterm premature rupture of membranes, or PPROM.) In a section about how doctors should treat patients with PPROM, the agency does not tell doctors that they can give women abortions. Instead, they say the patient should “be admitted for observation.”

Florida’s new ban is important because Florida was a state where women in the South could go . Now, those women have to travel to North Carolina or Virginia.

The increased numbers for those states:
Abortion providers in states like North Carolina are bracing for an onslaught of patients who otherwise would have traveled to Florida for care. The same is true for clinics in Virginia; HuffPost reports that Virginia League for Planned Parenthood has increased staff and hours, and ramped up tele-health services. In 2022, only 3% of the group’s patients were from out of state. As of April, that number jumped to 20%, and as of this week, more than 30% of patients making abortion appointments were from other states.

In case you missed it, Donald Trump did an interview with Time where he had no problems with the states criminally charging women or MONITORING THEIR PREGNANCIES.

Resolute Square (@ResoluteSquare) posted at 1:07 PM on Fri, May 03, 2024:
ABC News: Trump told TIME Magazine that he would let states monitor women’s pregnancies and punish those who violate abortion bans.

https://t.co/Bc1THoWuAV
(https://x.com/ResoluteSquare/status/1786457454881935758?t=rdLr1mt6fg72DqlbqtIzHA&s=03)

And, it’s not just about abortion. I don’t know how many times we have to tell you that the GOP is coming for IVF and Birth control. They always were.

VIDEO: Youngkin won’t add legal protection for birth control access
By Dogwood Staff

May 2, 2024
Access to birth control remains vulnerable to potential future attacks after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin effectively blocked a bill that would have made access to contraception a legal right in Virginia.

The fight to protect reproductive freedom continues as advocates gear up to fight for a constitutional amendment in Virginia that would guarantee the right to an abortion. Video: Jessica Craven

So, how do those folks feel about Governor Sweater Vest…he was always a right-winger.

Charles Gaba ✡️ (@charles_gaba) posted at 7:43 AM on Thu, May 02, 2024:
🚨 While Trump lies about his “position” on abortion and states like ID, TX, FL & AZ institute draconian laws, House Republicans are pushing a NATIONAL BAN…

Source: Open Thread | Update on the Continued Threats on Body Autonomy | 3CHICSPOLITICO