But, but, but…. it’s always for the children right ?

PENNSYLVANIA – Teachers who are upset with union contract negotiations in the Abington Heights School District are taking their frustrations out on students by refusing to write letters of recommendation.
The selfish move, which is a common pressure tactic among education labor unions, will undoubtedly impact the ability of students to apply to college or other post secondary programs, although district officials contend they’re working to address the issue, the Times-Tribune reports.
Union president James Maria told the new site teachers in the district aren’t required to write students recommendation letters, and they don’t plan to until the school board reconsiders its position on retroactive pay. School and union officials have been in negotiations for a new teachers union contract since the last one expired in 2011. (more…)

(Delaware)  A du Pont family heir who pleaded guilty nearly six years ago to raping his 3-year-old daughter was never put behind bars because a Delaware judge ruled he “would not fare well” in prison, court records show.
Robert H. Richards IV — scion of the family who built the chemical empire and kin to the co-founders of a prestigious law firm, Richards Layton & Finger — was given eight years probation and was ordered to seek treatment after being convicted of fourth-degree rape in 2008, the records show.
Officials managed to keep the case away from the public spotlight until this month — when his ex-wife, Tracy Richards, filed a lawsuit seeking compensatory and punitive damages for abusing their daughter and son, the News Journal reported.
Richards, 47 — whose great-grandfather is du Pont family patriarch Irenee du Pont — has never been criminally charged for crimes against his son.
The recently filed litigation claims that the father — who lives in a $1.8 million mansion near Winterthur Museum — raped his daughter, now 11, several times beginning in 2005, according to the newspaper.
(more…)

What’s that?…. Huh, wha?…. that’s not Marie Osmond ?….

…..and she’s crying because she adores ObamaCare and is filled with overwhelmed emotion? Seriously?
Is she Matt Damon’s wife?

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(Via NewsBusters) Georgia-based abortionist Tyrone Cecil Malloy is headed for prison.
A judge sentenced Malloy to four years in prison and six years probation on two counts of Medicaid fraud. The judge will hold a restitution hearing at a later date to determine the exact amount of restitution Dr. Malloy will be ordered to pay the Georgia Department of Community Health.
Steven Ertelt of Lifenews.com insists this conviction has a national-media angle: Malloy’s abortion clinic sits in a building owned by Dr. Sharon Malone, the obstetrician and wife of Attorney General Eric Holder, or “The First Lady of Justice,” as they call her at Essence magazine.
If John Ashcroft’s wife owned a building with say, a crisis pregnancy center in it, trying to urge women not to have abortions, would  that be evaded by the liberal media? After a criminal conviction? (more…)

The construction of new bleachers by the parents created a ‘disparate impact’ upon a federally protected class, “women” (gender).   The female softball players were discriminated against because the parents of the boy’s baseball team only purchased bleachers for their side.    

MICHIGAN – The U.S Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has forced a school in Michigan to tear down a brand-new set of bleachers for its boys’ varsity baseball team because the new seating is nicer than the girls’ softball bleachers.
The raised seating deck for the boys’ baseball team, which was paid for with money raised by parents, was put in place because fans who’d come to watch games at Plymouth High School in Canton, Mich., were having a hard time seeing the game through the chain-link fence WJBK-TV reported.
The parents installed the new bleachers themselves and even added a new scoreboard to the field, the station reported. (more…)

Within 36 hours of Malaysian Flight #370 “going poof” our in-house aviation military expert [still active] said “watch the Maldives“.

Our response resembled the typical Tree House intellectual eloquence we are known for:  “Huh“?
At the time everyone was looking at the China Sea and East, why the heck would this jackrabbit say “watch the Maldives”, and more importantly “where the heck are the Maldives”?   Have another beer, borrow another $250, lets see if we can buy a vowel and get a clue.
International pesky GMT’s always hamper communication when you need it.   It took several days of phone tag before we could interrupt the seemingly perpetual BBQ and ask the question: “why the Maldives“?
(more…)

Rather than provide the update in another post I’m bumping this thread from three  months ago – just so you can see the comments and review the outcome.
You’re not going to believe how this story ended.   The update is after the original outline (bottom) 

——————-  Original Story  —————

Mr. Mark Witaschek is first known prosecution for expended, inoperable, unregistered ammunition – “a misfired shotgun shell”.

WASHINGTON DC – A year ago this month, the attorney general for the District of  Columbia let NBC News anchor David  Gregory off scot-free for possession of a “high capacity” magazine because  doing so “would not promote public safety.”

Now, Irvin Nathan refuses to use that  same prosecutorial discretion for an average citizen who violated a bizarre  technicality that makes empty casings and shells a crime as serious as having an  illegal firearm.
Mr. Witaschek, a successful financial  adviser with no criminal history, is the first known case of a citizen being  prosecuted in D.C. for inoperable ammunition. Washington  police and prosecutors have spent a year and a half trying to nail him for  the possession of so-called unregistered ammunition.
A hunter and gun owner, Mr. Witaschek has  always kept his firearms at his sister’s house in Virginia. If convicted, he  faces a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for having a single, inoperable shotgun  shell in his home. The jury trial starts on Feb. 11. (more…)

CALIFORNIA – The Democratically controlled California Senate has voted to suspend three Democrats who face criminal charges, after the latest lawmaker to be hauled into court refused to step down.

Friday’s 28-1 vote in the 40-member chamber came amid one of the most severe ethical crises in modern times for the Legislature in the nation’s most populous state.
The resolution prevents Democratic Sens. Ron Calderon, Leland Yee and Rod Wright from exercising any power of their office until the pending criminal cases against them have been resolved. Even so, they will continue receiving their $95,000 annual salaries. (more…)

Before you watch this video I’d like to take you back to 2005 “Fields VS Palmdale School District“:

Parents and politicians alike were shocked when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on Nov. 2 that parents’ fundamental right to control the upbringing of their children “does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door,” and that a public school has the right to provide its students with “whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise.”

The court went on to clarify:

“Parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed.”  (link)

So now in MISSOURI – Kimball described different instances where she, and others, were warned about speaking out.

“In a professional development meeting, um, inservice in November, and at a faculty meeting in January, we were told in my building, and I quote, ‘Be careful about what you post on Facebook, or talk about in the public regarding Common Core. Don’t say anything negative. It could affect your job.’”

Despite others being intimidated into silence, Kimball continued to speak out. (more…)