Obama Expanding Gay Rights With Executive Order
President Barack Obama is praising an executive order he plans to sign soon that expands protections for federal lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers.
"In the United States of America, who you are and who you love shouldn't be a fireable offense," he said at the Democratic National Committee's annual LGBT gala in New York City Tuesday night.
The new order will bar federal contractors from discriminating against anyone based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
"You know sometimes you guys were a little impatient. Sometimes I had to say, 'Will you just settle down for a second? We've got this.' But because of your help, we've been able to do more to protect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community than any administration history," Obama said.
The executive order has been drafted and awaits his signature. It's still unclear when Obama will sign it and if there will be a religious exemption.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has asked the White House to include those exemptions. Religious leaders warn if there's no exemption, some Christian and Jewish charities may be forced to violate their faith or withdraw from federal contracts.
At the gala, the president also urged those in attendance to put pressure on Congress to pass legislation that would extend protections further to the LGBT community.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed in the Senate last month, but has stalled in the House. The ENDA is a broader measure than the president's order that includes religious exemptions. –CBN
President Barack Obama is praising an executive order he plans to sign soon that expands protections for federal lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers.
"In the United States of America, who you are and who you love shouldn't be a fireable offense," he said at the Democratic National Committee's annual LGBT gala in New York City Tuesday night.
The new order will bar federal contractors from discriminating against anyone based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
"You know sometimes you guys were a little impatient. Sometimes I had to say, 'Will you just settle down for a second? We've got this.' But because of your help, we've been able to do more to protect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community than any administration history," Obama said.
The executive order has been drafted and awaits his signature. It's still unclear when Obama will sign it and if there will be a religious exemption.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has asked the White House to include those exemptions. Religious leaders warn if there's no exemption, some Christian and Jewish charities may be forced to violate their faith or withdraw from federal contracts.
At the gala, the president also urged those in attendance to put pressure on Congress to pass legislation that would extend protections further to the LGBT community.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act passed in the Senate last month, but has stalled in the House. The ENDA is a broader measure than the president's order that includes religious exemptions. –CBN
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52% Think More Help for the Mentally Ill Will Help Deter Mass Killings
Most Americans seem to accept mass killings like the recent one in southern California as an unavoidable fact of modern life but also continue to feel more treatment of the mentally ill will reduce the number of incidents like this.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only nine percent (9%) of American Adults believe a free society like ours can ever be made completely safe from a mass murder like the one in southern California. Seventy-one percent (71%) disagree and say a society like ours cannot totally avoid such incidents. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure. –Rasmussen Report
Most Americans seem to accept mass killings like the recent one in southern California as an unavoidable fact of modern life but also continue to feel more treatment of the mentally ill will reduce the number of incidents like this.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only nine percent (9%) of American Adults believe a free society like ours can ever be made completely safe from a mass murder like the one in southern California. Seventy-one percent (71%) disagree and say a society like ours cannot totally avoid such incidents. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure. –Rasmussen Report
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Tennessee Brings Back The Electric Chair
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill approving the use of an electric chair for execution if drugs for lethal injection are unavailable. The state's current law allows inmates a choice between the electric chair or lethal injection if their crime was committed before 1999, but now Tennessee will be the only state to not give prisoners a choice in how they die. A recent poll shows that 56 percent of Tennesseans support using the electric chair for executions. A botched lethal injection that caused a death row inmate to die of a heart attack in Oklahoma last month and has sparked growing concern over the safety of the drugs used. –The Daily Beast
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill approving the use of an electric chair for execution if drugs for lethal injection are unavailable. The state's current law allows inmates a choice between the electric chair or lethal injection if their crime was committed before 1999, but now Tennessee will be the only state to not give prisoners a choice in how they die. A recent poll shows that 56 percent of Tennesseans support using the electric chair for executions. A botched lethal injection that caused a death row inmate to die of a heart attack in Oklahoma last month and has sparked growing concern over the safety of the drugs used. –The Daily Beast
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Home Depot Rolls Out The Carpet For Sharia Law
A Home Depot in Dearborn MI was the latest victim succumbing to the demands of an organization that shouldn’t be in existence in the United States of America. An American company the home depot gets over powered by the Muslim Brotherhood terror linked organization CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) has cast. The employees will be subjected to cultural awareness training. The CAIR states this will help them accommodate the religious sensitivities of the Muslim employees and customers. Corporate and Managers gain a better understanding of Muslims and are taught Islam.
Does Home Depot believe they need to “better serve their Muslim customers”? Here in America isn’t it a practice of retail corporations to better serve ALL of its customers? What exactly does this mean? Why do corporate managers need to understand their Muslim employees any better than their Jewish and Christian employees? -Vision To America
A Home Depot in Dearborn MI was the latest victim succumbing to the demands of an organization that shouldn’t be in existence in the United States of America. An American company the home depot gets over powered by the Muslim Brotherhood terror linked organization CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) has cast. The employees will be subjected to cultural awareness training. The CAIR states this will help them accommodate the religious sensitivities of the Muslim employees and customers. Corporate and Managers gain a better understanding of Muslims and are taught Islam.
Does Home Depot believe they need to “better serve their Muslim customers”? Here in America isn’t it a practice of retail corporations to better serve ALL of its customers? What exactly does this mean? Why do corporate managers need to understand their Muslim employees any better than their Jewish and Christian employees? -Vision To America
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60% Say U.S. Leaders Send Troops Into Danger Too Often
U.S. voters continue to believe the nation’s leaders are too eager to send American soldiers into action, with nearly half who say the United States is already too involved in the affairs of other nations.
Just 33% of Likely U.S. Voters think the current level of U.S. involvement around the globe is about right. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% believe the United States is too involved in the affairs of other countries, while 11% say America is not involved enough. –Rasmussen Reports
U.S. voters continue to believe the nation’s leaders are too eager to send American soldiers into action, with nearly half who say the United States is already too involved in the affairs of other nations.
Just 33% of Likely U.S. Voters think the current level of U.S. involvement around the globe is about right. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% believe the United States is too involved in the affairs of other countries, while 11% say America is not involved enough. –Rasmussen Reports
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Teacher Tenure Ruling In California Is Expected To Intensify Debate
The landmark court decision on Tuesday finding California’s teacher tenure laws unconstitutional is likely to lead to a flood of copycat lawsuits in other states, shifting the battleground on the issue from the legislatures to the courts.
“Almost nothing the plaintiffs raised is unique to California,” said Timothy Daly, the executive director of the New Teacher Project, which has for years pressed for revamping the way teachers are hired and fired, pushing away from tenure rules that give teachers a job for life after only a few years of proving themselves.
Those tenure rules — which teachers unions say represent important job security, and detractors say make it impossible to fire bad teachers — have been publicly debated for years and have often prevailed, particularly in states like California where unions hold sway in the legislature. But with the ruling by Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles County Superior Court that California’s tenure laws violate students’ constitutional right to an education and should be struck down, the pendulum has swung abruptly.
“Teachers feel under siege by this,” said Susan Moore Johnson, a Harvard education professor who testified for the defendants in the case. “But it’s all in the context of a lack of general support for unions and the caricature that the union has been protecting incompetent teachers. That notion is now more accepted than it ever has been, even though it is not deserved.”
Through two months of court testimony, educators and expert witnesses spent hours repeating the arguments that have roiled education politics for the last decade. The plaintiffs in the case, Vergara v. California, contended that teachers were the most important factor in a student’s education, and that poor and minority students were stuck with incompetent teachers who forced them to stay further behind their more affluent peers. The defense countered that teachers were merely one part of an education system riddled with inequities and that changing tenure laws would do nothing to improve student outcomes.
In his 16-page ruling, Judge Treu accepted nearly every argument made by the nine student plaintiffs, who were represented by an experienced legal team that was paid for by a Silicon Valley millionaire. His decision handed advocates on that side of the debate a vindication and their first legal victory.
Still, the unions have shown no sign of backing down, and on Wednesday dismissed any notion that they should concede to major changes to existing laws.
“We have to stop wasting time on these issues that don’t help teachers do their job of educating students,” said Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country. “It doesn’t change the fundamental problem, which is who in the world is hiring these people who are not qualified? You have to change the system that allows them there in the first place. If you don’t, then the elimination of those laws won’t make sense.”
The legal team behind the Vergara case, led by the lawyers who defeated California’s same-sex marriage ban, has said it may bring similar lawsuits in Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Connecticut, New York and Maryland. And other education advocates say they expect dozens more to be taken on by legal teams throughout the country.
“Teachers are more important than you think they are,” said Mr. Daly, whose group, based in Brooklyn, advocates overhauling the way teachers are hired and fired. “There has been a research base about that for some time, and there has been fierce back-and-forth about what it means. Now the court judged in a very lopsided way that it is research we should rely on.”
Many rank-and-file teachers voiced anger and dismay, fearing that their job protections would be all but eradicated. The court did not weigh in on what kinds of policy would be acceptable to replace the existing laws. Policy makers across the country have been wrestling with similar issues for several years.
Still, it remains unclear when, and if, the ruling will translate into practical change. In California, where the unions have vowed to appeal, much will rest on the higher court’s ruling, which may not come for years. Some advocates of overhauling the existing laws, including the Los Angeles school superintendent, John Deasy, have urged the State Legislature to act immediately.
It will be an uphill battle in the capitol, however, because Democratic lawmakers are widely seen as supportive of teachers unions. This month, the state Senate passed a bill that would make it easier to dismiss a teacher for “egregious misconduct,” such as student abuse, but it is unclear whether that would also apply for poor performance. –NY Times
The landmark court decision on Tuesday finding California’s teacher tenure laws unconstitutional is likely to lead to a flood of copycat lawsuits in other states, shifting the battleground on the issue from the legislatures to the courts.
“Almost nothing the plaintiffs raised is unique to California,” said Timothy Daly, the executive director of the New Teacher Project, which has for years pressed for revamping the way teachers are hired and fired, pushing away from tenure rules that give teachers a job for life after only a few years of proving themselves.
Those tenure rules — which teachers unions say represent important job security, and detractors say make it impossible to fire bad teachers — have been publicly debated for years and have often prevailed, particularly in states like California where unions hold sway in the legislature. But with the ruling by Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles County Superior Court that California’s tenure laws violate students’ constitutional right to an education and should be struck down, the pendulum has swung abruptly.
“Teachers feel under siege by this,” said Susan Moore Johnson, a Harvard education professor who testified for the defendants in the case. “But it’s all in the context of a lack of general support for unions and the caricature that the union has been protecting incompetent teachers. That notion is now more accepted than it ever has been, even though it is not deserved.”
Through two months of court testimony, educators and expert witnesses spent hours repeating the arguments that have roiled education politics for the last decade. The plaintiffs in the case, Vergara v. California, contended that teachers were the most important factor in a student’s education, and that poor and minority students were stuck with incompetent teachers who forced them to stay further behind their more affluent peers. The defense countered that teachers were merely one part of an education system riddled with inequities and that changing tenure laws would do nothing to improve student outcomes.
In his 16-page ruling, Judge Treu accepted nearly every argument made by the nine student plaintiffs, who were represented by an experienced legal team that was paid for by a Silicon Valley millionaire. His decision handed advocates on that side of the debate a vindication and their first legal victory.
Still, the unions have shown no sign of backing down, and on Wednesday dismissed any notion that they should concede to major changes to existing laws.
“We have to stop wasting time on these issues that don’t help teachers do their job of educating students,” said Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union in the country. “It doesn’t change the fundamental problem, which is who in the world is hiring these people who are not qualified? You have to change the system that allows them there in the first place. If you don’t, then the elimination of those laws won’t make sense.”
The legal team behind the Vergara case, led by the lawyers who defeated California’s same-sex marriage ban, has said it may bring similar lawsuits in Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Connecticut, New York and Maryland. And other education advocates say they expect dozens more to be taken on by legal teams throughout the country.
“Teachers are more important than you think they are,” said Mr. Daly, whose group, based in Brooklyn, advocates overhauling the way teachers are hired and fired. “There has been a research base about that for some time, and there has been fierce back-and-forth about what it means. Now the court judged in a very lopsided way that it is research we should rely on.”
Many rank-and-file teachers voiced anger and dismay, fearing that their job protections would be all but eradicated. The court did not weigh in on what kinds of policy would be acceptable to replace the existing laws. Policy makers across the country have been wrestling with similar issues for several years.
Still, it remains unclear when, and if, the ruling will translate into practical change. In California, where the unions have vowed to appeal, much will rest on the higher court’s ruling, which may not come for years. Some advocates of overhauling the existing laws, including the Los Angeles school superintendent, John Deasy, have urged the State Legislature to act immediately.
It will be an uphill battle in the capitol, however, because Democratic lawmakers are widely seen as supportive of teachers unions. This month, the state Senate passed a bill that would make it easier to dismiss a teacher for “egregious misconduct,” such as student abuse, but it is unclear whether that would also apply for poor performance. –NY Times
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