Kansas school removes controversial bulletin board featuring Five Pillars of Islam

In the last year, the Freedom from Religion Foundation has pitched a fit about a preschool graduation ceremony begun with a Christian prayer, about a portrait of Jesus Christ hanging at a middle school and about a mother praying on the front steps of her kids’ high school.

Oddly enough, the Madison, Wisconsin-based outfit was apparently nowhere to be found to lead the charge against a bulletin board at a Wichita, Kansas elementary school illustrating the Five Pillars of Islam.

However, reports The Wichita Eagle, some parents who have their own concerns about religion in schools complained about the display in a hallway outside fourth-grade classrooms. It has now been removed.

The bulletin board at Minneha Core Knowledge Magnet Elementary included five columns made out of white construction paper. It also featured the words “The Five Pillars of Islam.” School officials said the point of the display was to help students in their study of the religions of the world.

Controversy concerning the bulletin board began brewing on the first day of school, last Wednesday. Things escalated rapidly. An unidentified person snapped a photo of the display and put it on a Facebook page called “Prepare to Take America Back.” The image then went viral, and has been shared over 3,500 times.

“Students at Minneha Core Knowledge Elementary School in Wichata (sic) Kansas Were met with this their first day of school. This is a school that banned all forms of Christian prayer,” the caption under the photo declares. “This can not stand.”

There are many Facebook pages called “Prepare to Take America Back” in one form or another. The pages say the group is “about We the People restoring and maintaining our Constitutional Rights.” The pages tend to be specific to state (e.g., Prepare to Take America Back — Kansas). Some also contain the word “militia” in the title. Most of the pages are closed groups.

The Wichita Public Schools issued a statement earlier this week by in response to the kerfuffle.

Via: Daily Caller

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Rosen: GOP Has Multiple Racist Governors...

... but has trouble naming names

Via: WFB

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AT&T Sued Over Refusal to Carry Al Jazeera Cable Network

AT&T Inc. (T), the largest U.S. phone company, was sued by Al Jazeera over its refusal to to carry the Qatar-based broadcaster’s new U.S. cable-news channel as part of its pay-television service.

The Dallas-based company is violating an agreement with Al Jazeera’s U.S. unit by refusing to broadcast the channel, which began airing in the U.S. yesterday, according to a filing inDelaware Chancery Court. The network, controlled by the Qatari royal family, paid $500 million for Al Gore’s money-losing Current TV in January and rebranded it.

AT&T’s U-verse pay-TV service said Aug. 19 it wouldn’t carry Al Jazeera America because of a contract dispute. U-verse began in 2006 and has 5 million video customers in states such as Texas and California.

AT&T officials’ decision amounts to a “wrongful termination of an affiliation agreement,” Al Jazeera said in the filing, which accompanied a sealed complaint. Details on the case came from a cover sheet that contained a brief description of the network’s claims.

Under the court’s rules, a public version of the complaint must be filed within five days unless a judge grants an extension to the sealing of the case.

‘Certain Breaches’

“As a result of our inability to come to terms on a new agreement and due to certain breaches of the existing agreement we have decided not to carry Current TV on U-verse,” Brad Burns, an AT&T spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

Al Jazeera officials contend the AT&T left them “no choice” other than to file a breach-of-contract suit over the decision to drop the channel, according to an e-mailed statement,

“AT&T’s decision to unilaterally delete Al Jazeera America presented us with circumstances that were untenable -- an affiliate that has willfully and knowingly breached its contractual obligations,” Stan Collender, a partner in Qorvis Communications in Washington, said on behalf of the broadcaster. The aim of the suit is to “compel AT&T to do the right thing,” he added.

Via: Bloomberg 

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Community in Turmoil after Teachers Support Convicted Child Molester

The small town of Rose City, Michigan is now in the national spotlight. The issue involves a middle school teacher who was convicted of having sexual encounters with a 13-year-old boy. During sentencing, a handful of teachers actually wrote letters supporting the convicted felon, and now members of the community want those teachers fired.

As reported in the Ogemaw County Herald, "Former Rose City Middle School teacher Neal Erickson was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison for first-degree criminal sexual conduct July 10."

Erickson, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor during a pretrial in 34th Circuit Court in West Branch May 8.

Erickson was charged with CSC in December 2012 after the findings of a Michigan State Police investigation linked him to the crime. The investigation was started in October of last year, and the findings alleged Erickson and a student who is a minor engaged in sexual conduct from August 2006 to August 2009.

When this case came to light, the town was shocked, but now the feelings have gotten even more intense. The Detroit News reports that members of the community are now demanding the ouster of several teachers who came forward at the sentencing of Erickson to say that he was an admired teacher and great with the kids.

Via: GOP USA

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Teachers get hours cut due to ObamaCare

Thanks to the delayed employer mandate in ObamaCare, we are now sixteen months away from enforcement of those statutes, even though they go into effect in four months.  Are employers taking a break from ObamaCare prep?  Not hardly.  Today we have three new stories about how the perverse incentives of the ACA will impact workers, starting with UPS, which has just announced that it will stop offering health-care coverage to spouses — and explicitly cites ObamaCare as the reason (via Jim Geraghty and Jeryl Bier):

United Parcel Service Inc. plans to remove thousands of spouses from its medical plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere. The Atlanta-based logistics company points to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, as a big reason for the decision, reports Kaiser Health News.

The decision comes as many analysts are downplaying the Affordable Care Act’s effect on companies such as UPS, noting that the move reflects a long-term trend of shrinking corporate medical benefits, Kaiser Health News reports. But UPS repeatedly cites Obamacare to explain the decision, adding fuel to the debate over whether it erodes traditional employer coverage, Kaiser says.

Rising medical costs, “combined with the costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, have made it increasingly difficult to continue providing the same level of health care benefits to our employees at an affordable cost,” UPS said in a memo to employees.

Via: Hot Air

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