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, born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith on August 18, 1927, in Plains, Georgia, was a prominent American public figure and the lifelong companion of the 39th president of the United States, . From an early age, Rosalynn demonstrated a remarkable dedication to her family, especially after the death of her father when she was 13 years old, assuming significant responsibilities at home. He and Rosalynn began dating in 1945. Carter, who was 20 at the time, was attending the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and stole a kiss from Rosalynn on their first date. He later told his mother that he wanted to marry her. On July 7, 1946, she married Jimmy Carter, cementing a union that would last more than seven decades. The couple had four children - John Carter, James Carter III, Donnel Carter and Amy Carter - as well as 25 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They remained completely devoted to each other throughout their lives. The longest-serving presidential couple in the U.S. As First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981, Rosalynn Carter distinguished herself through her commitment to various social causes, most notably her advocacy for mental health. She was a staunch advocate for research in this area and worked tirelessly to eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness. She also represented the United States on diplomatic missions abroad, reflecting her deep commitment to public service. After her time in the White House, Rosalynn continued her humanitarian work alongside her husband through the Carter Center, an organization dedicated to promoting peace and human rights around the world. Her legacy endures as an example of dedication and service to the community, both nationally and internationally. Rosalynn died on November 19, 2023, in her hometown. In fact, former President Jimmy Carter, who died a year later on Sunday, December 29, 2024, made his last public appearance in November 2023 to mourn the loss of the love of his life at an intimate funeral in Plains, Georgia, that was limited to family and friends. "The best thing I ever did was marrying Rosa," Jimmy once said. "That's the pinnacle of my life, the best thing that happened to me."
Coal ash is currently a hot topic in United States politics. , the Supreme Court ruled to allow the Biden administration to move forward with a plan to address toxic coal ash, in the latest update in a drawn-out legal battle over monitoring and remediation of the toxic substance. But while coal ash is a noted hazard to public health and the environment, it could also be a key new resource for the clean energy transition. Millions of tons of coal ash, a byproduct of burning the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel, are currently sitting in ponds and landfills across the United States. The U.S. alone produces around 110 million tons of it each and every year, and then stores it in basins known as ponds. These ponds are vulnerable to leaks and spills, with for the communities that house them. “Coal ash contains significant concentrations of chemicals like arsenic, boron, lead, selenium and mercury, each of which poses serious dangers to human health and the environment,” a group of environmentalists stated in a for the aforementioned Supreme Court case. “Among other things, exposure increases rates of skin, liver, bladder and lung cancer as well as risks of neurological, psychiatric and cardiovascular harm.” But one man’s neurological, psychiatric and cardiovascular poison is another man’s treasure, apparently. The high concentrations of metals found in coal ash, while dangerous for human and planetary health if left to leach into groundwater and blow into the air, could be critical for the renewable revolution. Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin recently analyzed coal ash collected from power plants across the country and found that the country’s coal ash reserves could contain up to 11 million tons of rare earth elements. That’s nearly eight times the amount of rare earths that the United States already has in reserve, and could be worth approximately $8.4 billion. “Even though the level of rare earth elements in coal ash is relatively low when compared with those mined from geological deposits, the fact that the ash is readily available in large quantities makes it an attractive resource,” Texas Geosciences reports. The paper’s co-author Davin Bagdonas, a research scientist at the University of Wyoming, adds: “There’s huge volumes of this stuff all over the country,” Bagdonas said. “And the upfront process of extracting the (mineral host) is already taken care of for us.” Tapping into this resource could have major implications for the domestic clean energy revolution, and even for U.S. national security. Currently, the world relies on China for about 75% of its rare earth minerals, as Beijing has a veritable chokehold on supply chains and refining capacities. This is already shaping up to be a major geopolitical issue. Just last week, China on the export of certain rare earth minerals to the United States. The decision came as the latest development in an escalating tech trade was between the world’s two largest economies, and was announced just one day after the Biden administration placed increasing limitations on Beijing’s access to advanced U.S. technologies. “This is just the first step and a warning to the incoming administration in Washington,” says Zhiqun Zhu, a political scientist at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. This rare-earth trade war is certain to escalate under Trump’s upcoming second presidential term, which promises to usher in a new era of competing tariffs and geopolitical posturing between Washington and Beijing. “China’s quest for a larger share of critical minerals is significant because it is expected to use them as retaliatory tools against the U.S. if Washington decides to dramatically increase tariffs on Chinese goods, as President-elect Donald Trump has said he would do,” Voice of America this week. In light of this geopolitical minefield, the discovery of a veritable treasure trove of easily extractable rare earths here on U.S. soil couldn’t have come at a better time. By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.comChilean prosecutors probe harassment complaint against President Boric, who says he's a victimBrazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was fully aware of and actively participated in a coup plot to remain in office after his defeat in the 2022 election, according to a federal police report unsealed on Tuesday. Brazil’s federal police last Thursday formally accused Mr Bolsonaro and 36 other people of attempting a coup. They sent their 884-page report to the Supreme Court, which lifted the seal. “The evidence collected throughout the investigation shows unequivocally that then-president Jair Messias Bolsonaro planned, acted and was directly and effectively aware of the actions of the criminal organisation aiming to launch a coup d’etat and eliminate the democratic rule of law, which did not take place due to reasons unrelated to his desire,” the document said. At another point, it says: “Bolsonaro had full awareness and active participation.” Mr Bolsonaro, who had repeatedly alleged without evidence that the country’s electronic voting system was prone to fraud, called a meeting in December 2022, during which he presented a draft decree to the commanders of the three divisions of the armed forces, according to the police report, signed by four investigators. The decree would have launched an investigation into suspicions of fraud and crimes related to the October 2022 vote, and suspended the powers of the nation’s electoral court. The navy’s commander stood ready to comply, but those from the army and air force objected to any plan that prevented Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s inauguration, the report said. Those refusals are why the plan did not go ahead, according to witnesses who spoke to investigators. Mr Bolsonaro never signed the decree to set the final stage of the alleged plan into action. Mr Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or awareness of any plot to keep him in power or oust his leftist rival and successor. “No one is going to do a coup with a reserve general and half a dozen other officers. What is being said is absurd. For my part, there has never been any discussion of a coup,” Mr Bolsonaro told journalists in the capital Brasilia on Monday. “If someone came to discuss a coup with me, I’d say, that’s fine, but the day after, how does the world view us?” he added. “The word ‘coup’ has never been in my dictionary.” The top court has passed the report on to prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet. He will decide whether to formally charge Mr Bolsonaro. Rodrigo Rios, a law professor at the PUC university in the city of Curitiba, said Mr Bolsonaro could face up to a minimum of 11 years in prison if convicted on all charges. “A woman involved in the January 8 attack on the Supreme Court received a 17-year prison sentence,” Mr Rios told the Associated Press, noting that the former president is more likely to receive 15 years or more if convicted. “Bolsonaro’s future looks dark.” Ahead of the 2022 election, Mr Bolsonaro repeatedly alleged that the election system, which does not use paper ballots, could be tampered with. The top electoral court later ruled that he had abused his power to cast unfounded doubt on the voting system, and ruled him ineligible for office until 2030. Still, he has maintained that he will stand as a candidate in the 2026 race. Since Mr Bolsonaro left office, he has been targeted by several investigations, all of which he has chalked up to political persecution. Federal police have accused him of smuggling diamond jewellery into Brazil without properly declaring them and directing a subordinate to falsify his and others’ Covid-19 vaccination statuses. Authorities are also investigating whether he incited the riot on January 8 2022 in which his followers ransacked the Supreme Court and presidential palace in Brasilia, seeking to prompt intervention by the army that would oust Mr Lula from power. Mr Bolsonaro had left for the United States days before Mr Lula’s inauguration on January 1 2023 and stayed there for three months, keeping a low profile. The police report unsealed on Tuesday alleges he was seeking to avoid possible imprisonment related to the coup plot, and also await the uprising that took place a week later.
Smash That Replay Button: A 2024 Rewind of YouTube on TVA melee broke out at midfield of Ohio Stadium after Michigan upset No. 2 Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday. After the Wolverines' fourth straight win in the series, players converged at the block "O" to plant its flag. The Ohio State players were in the south end zone singing their alma mater in front of the student section. When the Buckeyes saw the Wolverines' flag, they rushed toward the 50-yard line. Social media posts showed Michigan offensive lineman Raheem Anderson carrying the flag on a long pole to midfield, where the Wolverines were met by dozens of Ohio State players and fights broke out. Buckeyes defensive end Jack Sawyer was seen ripping the flag off the pole and taking the flag as he scuffled with several people trying to recover the flag. A statement from the Ohio State Police Department read: "Following the game, officers from multiple law enforcement agencies assisted in breaking up an on-field altercation. During the scuffle, multiple officers representing Ohio and Michigan deployed pepper spray. OSUPD is the lead agency for games and will continue to investigate." Michigan running back Kalel Mullings on FOX said: "For such a great game, you hate to see stuff like that after the game. It's bad for the sport, bad for college football. At the end of the day, some people got to learn how to lose, man. "You can't be fighting and stuff just because you lost the game. We had 60 minutes and four quarters to do all that fighting. Now people want to talk and fight. That's wrong. It's bad for the game. Classless, in my opinion. People got to be better." Once order was restored, officers cordoned the 50-yard line, using bicycles as barriers. Ohio State coach Ryan Day in his postgame press conference said he wasn't sure what happened. "I don't know all the details of it. But I know that these guys are looking to put a flag on our field and our guys weren't going to let that happen," he said. "I'll find out exactly what happened, but this is our field and certainly we're embarrassed at the fact we lost the game, but there's some prideful guys on our team that weren't just going to let that happen." The Big Ten has not yet released a statement on the incident. --Field Level Media
Trump’s team reportedly wants to end NHTSA reporting requirement for car crashes involving automated systemsFARMVILLE, Va. (AP) — Keishon Porter had 20 points in North Carolina Central's 77-70 win against Longwood on Saturday. Porter also contributed three steals for the Eagles (5-8). Po'Boigh King scored 16 points while shooting 6 for 10, including 3 for 6 from beyond the arc. Kelechi Okworogwo finished 4 of 4 from the floor for eight points. Colby Garland led the Lancers (9-3) with 15 points, six assists and four steals. Michael Christmas added 14 points and six rebounds. Elijah Tucker scored 13. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
The biggest and most memorable moments from Jimmy Carter's 100 years of lifeBrazil’s Bolsonaro planned and participated in coup plot, police report alleges
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President Joe Biden's administration has faced mounting criticism for not clearly identifying origins of the objects seen hovering over parts of New York and New Jersey. The criticism has come even from Biden's own party, with top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer calling Sunday for action to make it easier for federal, state and local authorities to work together to detect and if need be "bring down" any drone seen to pose a threat. Video footage of mysterious airborne phenomena recently has clogged social media, with spottings also reported in Maryland and Virginia. "Some of those drone sightings are, in fact, drones. Some are manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program. "But there's no question that drones are being sighted," he said, noting there are more than one million registered across the United States. "I want to assure the American public that we are on it," he said. "If we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly. Right now, we are not aware of any." Even as Mayorkas sought to reassure the public, Boston police announced Sunday that two Massachusetts men had been arrested the previous night for allegedly conducting a "hazardous drone operation" near the city's Logan International Airport. State police were conducting a search for a third suspect, who authorities said fled the scene. Schumer, in a letter to Mayorkas Sunday, urged the Department of Homeland Security to immediately deploy special drone-detection technology across New York and New Jersey, since traditional radar struggles to detect such small objects. He also called for passage of legislation to explicitly authorize state and local law enforcement to work with federal agencies to detect and "bring down drones that threaten critical facilities or mass gatherings." Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, meanwhile expressed frustration at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over its communications around the issue. "The answer 'we don't know' is not a good enough answer," he told "Fox News Sunday." "When people are anxious... people will fill a vacuum with, you know, their fears and anxieties and conspiracy theories," he said, calling for the FAA to hold public briefings. White House national security spokesman John Kirby had previously said the aircraft could be lawfully operated planes or helicopters mistaken for drones. "While there is no known malicious activity occurring, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight a gap in authorities," he said Thursday, calling for Congress to pass new legislation to "extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities." New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Sunday that authorities had agreed to send a drone detection system to her state. "I am grateful for the support, but we need more. Congress must pass a law that will give us the power to deal directly with the drones," she said on X. On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump urged federal authorities to clearly identify the drones' origins. "Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!" he posted on social media. As the price of drones has fallen -- small quadcopter models with Wi-Fi camera capability can be purchased for as little as $40 -- their numbers and popularity have soared, making their presence in American skies a greater concern. acb/des/bbk/mlm
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Who are the 10 biggest UK lottery winners?“I’ve done all I possibly could as a human being” | Jimmy Carter on his own legacy
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State is going to the Big Ten championship game. The Nittany Lions secured their spot in the conference title game after beating Maryland, 44-7, and getting some help with Michigan upsetting Ohio State on a wild Saturday. Penn State, currently No. 4 in the College Football Playoff rankings, will play No. 1 Oregon next Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for the Big Ten championship. The game will kick off at 8 p.m. and air nationally on CBS. With a win, either Penn State or Oregon will secure a first-round bye into the CFP quarterfinals in the new 12-team bracket and, possibly, the No. 1 overall seed. With a loss, Penn State would still be expected to make the CFP. And unless the Nittany Lions get blown out by the Ducks, they would still likely host a first-round game at Beaver Stadium . Penn State entered Saturday with a slim chance of getting into the Big Ten championship. Ohio State just needed to beat Michigan as a three-touchdown favorite to secure a spot in Indy. But in embarrassing fashion, the Buckeyes lost, 13-10, at home to the Wolverines. Ohio State quarterback Will Howard threw two interceptions, kicker Jayden Fielding missed two field goals, and Michigan’s Dominic Zvada converted a go-ahead field goal with 45 seconds left. The Buckeyes failed to tie it up, and Ryan Day lost his fourth straight game to Michigan. That result gave Penn State clarity going into its 3:30 p.m. kick against Maryland. A win would put the Nittany Lions into Ohio State’s vacated slot thanks to the Big Ten’s tiebreakers. Even if Indiana, the other one-loss team in the Big Ten, beats Purdue on Saturday night, the Nittany Lions advance to the Big Ten title game on the conference’s fourth head-to-head tiebreaker: cumulative opponent conference record. Oregon will be the toughest test of the season so far for the Nittany Lions. The Ducks are the last undefeated team in college football with wins over Ohio State and Boise State. It will be a massive opportunity for James Franklin , Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions to prove themselves against the nation’s No. 1 team. We’ll see how they fare next Saturday. BETTING: Check out our guide to the best PA sportsbooks , where our team of sports betting experts has reviewed the experience, payout speed, parlay options and quality of odds for multiple sportsbooks. Sign up for the PennLive’s Penn State newsletters, the daily Penn State Today and the subscriber-exclusive Penn State Insider ©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Calgary Stampeders sign Paredes to extension, restructure Adams's contract CALGARY — The Calgary Stampeders re-signed veteran kicker Rene Paredes on Wednesday while also restructuring quarterback Vernon Adams Jr.'s deal. Calgary signed Paredes to a two-year contract extension. Canadian Press Dec 11, 2024 2:49 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Calgary Stampeders kicker Rene Paredessmiles at teammate as he passes the ball during opening day of training camp in Calgary on May 12, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh CALGARY — The Calgary Stampeders re-signed veteran kicker Rene Paredes on Wednesday while also restructuring quarterback Vernon Adams Jr.'s deal. Calgary signed Paredes to a two-year contract extension. The Canadian was scheduled to become a free agent in February. The Stampeders acquired Adams last month from the B.C. Lions. The club and player agreed to terms on a restructured contract for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. "The restructured contract will give us more salary-cap flexibility to sign free agents and retain our own players who will be eligible for free agency in February,” Dave Dickenson, Calgary's head coach and general manager, said in a statement. “Vernon remains under contract for the next two seasons and we’re excited to have him in Calgary.” Adams, an eight-year CFL veteran, posted a 6-3 record last season with B.C., completing 197-of-302 passes (65.2 per cent) for 2,929 yards with 16 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He recorded six 300-yard passing games while also rushing for 213 yards and three TDs in 40 attempts. He completed 20-of-33 passes for 317 yards with two TDs and three interceptions in B.C.'s 28-19 West Division semifinal loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Paredes, a six-time all-star, has played 13 seasons with Calgary — ranking him fourth all-time in franchise history in terms of longevity — and his 229 regular-season games place him second in the Stampeders record books. He made 41 of his 44 field-goal attempts (93.2-per-cent success rate) over 18 games in 2024. Paredes has played 248 career regular-season and post-season games for the Stampeders since signing as a free agent in 2011. His 2,286 career regular-season points place him eighth on the CFL’s all-time list and he was part of Grey Cup-winning teams in 2014 and 2018. “I’m very excited to be back with the organization,” Paredes said in a release. “My family and I love the city and it’s a blessing to have spent my entire career as a Stampeder. The last two seasons have been a challenge for us as a team but I’m looking forward to doing everything I can to help turn things around.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2024. The Canadian Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Football (CFL) Alouettes sign Canadian defensive end Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund to one-year extension Dec 10, 2024 1:46 PM Lions' Teuhema suspended for two games after positive drug test Dec 10, 2024 12:11 PM 'I still have a lot more to give to this game:' retired Als lineman Kristian Matte Dec 9, 2024 1:40 PM
( JTA ) Most of the time, as the senior rabbi of Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, Rabbi Mara Nathan’s focus is on Jewish families. But this week, she’s finding herself thinking about Christian ones, too. That’s because Texas is poised to adopt a public school curriculum that refers to Jesus as “the Messiah,” asks kindergartners to study the Sermon on the Mount and presents the Crusades in a positive light. The curriculum, Nathan said, “gives Christian children the sense that their family’s religion is the only true religion, which is not appropriate for public school education, at the very least.” Nathan is among the many Texans raising concerns about the proposed reading curriculum as it nears final approval. Earlier this week, the Texas State Board of Education narrowly voted to proceed with the curriculum, called Bluebonnet Learning. A final vote is set for Friday. The critics, who include Jewish parents and organizations as well as interfaith and education advocacy groups, say Bluebonnet — which will be optional but which schools would be paid to adopt — inappropriately centers on Christian theology and ideas. They have been lobbying for revisions since it was first proposed in May, offering detailed feedback. “The first round of the curriculum that we saw honestly had a lot of offensive content in it, and was proselytizing, and did not represent Jewish people well,” said Lisa Epstein, the director of San Antonio’s Jewish Community Relations Council. Now those critics say most of their specific suggestions have been accepted but they remain concerned. “Looking at the revision, we still feel that the curriculum is not balanced and it introduces a lot of Christian concepts at a very young age, like resurrection and the blood of Christ and the Messiah, when kids are just really too young to understand and they don’t really have a grasp yet completely of their own religion,” she added. Epstein, who testified at a hearing on the proposal in Austin on Monday, has a child in high school and two others who graduated from Texas public schools. The Texas vote comes as advocates of inserting Christianity into public education are ascendant across the country. Political conservatives are in power at the national level and the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority has demonstrated openness to blurring church-state separation. President-elect Donald Trump has signaled support for numerous initiatives to reintroduce Christian doctrine into public schools , from supporting school prayer to endorsing legislation that would require public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. (One such measure in Louisiana was recently blocked by a federal judge .) In Texas, Bluebonnet’s advocates say the curriculum would elevate students’ learning while also exposing them to essential elements of cultural literacy. They note that the curriculum includes references to a wide range of cultures, including ancient religions, and that the religious references make up only a small fraction of the material. “They’ll elevate the quality of education being offered to all Texas students by giving them a well-rounded understanding of important texts and their impact on the world,” Megan Benton, a strategic policy associate at Texas Values, which says its mission is “to stand for biblical, Judeo-Christian values,” said during the hearing on Monday, Education Week reported . Texas Values called criticism of the proposed curriculum an “ attack on the Bible .” The Texas Education Authority solicited the proposed curriculum, which would join a menu of approved options, as part of a pandemic-era effort that waived some transparency laws, meaning that its authors are not fully known. But The 74, an education news organization, reported this week that a publishing company co-founded by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee contributed content to the curriculum. Trump tapped Huckabee, a pastor and evangelical favorite, last week to become his ambassador to Israel . For some in Texas and beyond, Bluebonnet represents a concrete example of how the national climate could ripple out into local changes. “A lot of things, we think they’re outside of our community, or outside of our scope, like we hear these things, but are they really going to impact us?” said a Jewish assistant principal in the Richardson Independent School District north of Dallas who asked to remain anonymous. “But I think now that it’s becoming a potential reality, a friend was asking me, would Richardson adopt this? Is this something that is really going to happen in our community?” While the Supreme Court has ruled that public schools can teach about religion, they cannot prioritize one religion over another in that instruction. So Bluebonnet’s inclusion of Christian and Bible stories in lesson plans drew scrutiny from the start — which grew after the Texas Tribune reported that a panel required to vet all curriculum proposals included Christian proponents of incorporating religion in public education. In September, The Texas Education Authority’s curriculum review board published hundreds of pages of emails from members of the public along with whether the critiques had resulted in changes. Some did, the board noted, but many others were rejected. A coalition of Jewish groups submitted 37 requested changes to the initial curriculum proposal. Epstein said the San Antonio JCRC had specifically objected to language in some lessons that evoked “antisemitic tropes” and textual inaccuracies in referencing the story of Queen Esther, as well as offensive references to the Crusades and language that explained the birth of Jesus as the messiah. One passage had invited students to imagine “if you were a Crusader,” Epstein said, referring to the Christian knights of the Middle Ages who sought to conquer the Holy Land, massacred communities of Jews and are venerated by some on the Christian right . In the case of the Esther lesson, the original curriculum had recreated an aspect of the Purim story in which Haman drew lots to determine when to kill Jews in the Persian Empire — as a way to teach probability. Nathan called that particular lesson “subversively antisemitic.” “In ancient Persia [drawing lots] was a way of helping someone make a decision, and the game was called Purim,” the initial text read. “Ask students to choose a number from 1 to 6. Roll a die and ask the students to raise their hand if their number was rolled.” “This is shocking, offensive and just plain wrong,” Sharyn Vane, a Jewish parent of two Texas public school graduates, said at a September hearing, according to the New York Times . “Do we ask elementary students to pretend to be Hitler?” ( Historical simulations have widely been rejected by educators for all grades .) Both of the lessons were revised after feedback from Jewish groups and others, but Epstein and Nathan said the changes were not adequate. A new prompt asks students to describe “the journey of a Crusader” in the third-person, but it still sanitizes the murder of many Jews and Christians during the Christian quest to conquer Jerusalem, Epstein charged. And while the Purim lots activity was dropped, Epstein noted that a specific lesson plan about Esther — a beloved figure among evangelical Christians — also includes a reference to God, which the Megillah, the Jewish text telling the Purim story, famously does not do. She said that inaccuracy was not addressed in the revisions. In a statement, San Antonio’s Jewish federation, under which the JCRC operates, also acknowledged the changes that were made after its feedback but expressed concern over what it called “an almost solely Christian-based” perspective with “inaccuracies” and content that is inappropriate for elementary school students. “We are not against teaching a broad range of religious beliefs to children in an age-appropriate way that clearly distinguishes between ‘beliefs’ and ‘facts,’ and gives appropriate time and respect to acknowledging many different religions,” the federation said. “Public schools should be places where children of all religious backgrounds feel welcomed and accepted.” The newer version of the curriculum also did not address the federation’s concerns about language referring to Jesus as “the Messiah,” written with a capital “M,” and references to “the Bible,” rather than “the Christian Bible” specifically, as the federation had urged the curriculum’s creators to adopt. The Austin branch of the Anti-Defamation League, which was also involved in the efforts, also applauded the revisions that had been made thus far but said it still “reject[s] the current version of the proposed curriculum.” “We agree that students should learn the historical contributions of various religious traditions, but ADL’s analysis of the originally proposed curriculum found that a narrow view of Christianity was overwhelmingly emphasized, there were few mentions of other faiths and the curriculum baselessly credited Christianity with improved societal morality,” the group said in a statement. “Although improvements have been made, the materials still appear to cross the line into teaching religion instead of teaching about religion.” Criticism to the curriculum goes far beyond the Jewish community. Texas AFT, the state’s outpost of the American Federation of Teachers, a leading teachers’ union, also opposes the proposal. “Texas AFT believes that not only do these materials violate the separation of church and state and the academic freedom of our classroom, but also the sanctity of the teaching profession,” the union said in a statement . Some Republicans on the Texas Board of Education expressed reservations about the curriculum’s quality and age-appropriateness, separate from its religious content. And nonpartisan and interfaith groups like Texas Impact and Texas Freedom Network have also been involved in efforts to oppose the curriculum, as has the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Epstein said a Sikh parent also testified at one of the hearings, asking for her faith’s traditions to be incorporated into lesson plans to provide more religious perspectives. Nathan said that when she testified against the proposal at a September hearing, her allies were diverse. “Some of the people who were against it were not Jewish, and just were [against] the way that the curriculum was being put together pedagogically,” she said. “But there were both Jewish and non-Jewish people there, and also some Christian folks who were there who were opposed to such an overtly Christian curriculum.” Marian Neleson, who has a 14-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son in the Frisco Independent School District, said it has never been easy to be a Jewish family in her area. “There’s always concerns as a parent when there’s just a handful of other Jewish children in a majority Christian school,” said Neleson, who is active in her local interfaith alliance. “From how the school celebrates, how they do their calendars. Do they remember that there is a Jewish holiday, and then they schedule major school functions on High Holy Days?” Now, she’s worried that her own district could face pressure to adopt the new curriculum, if it is approved. “These kind of curriculums are promoting one interpretation, one religion’s view, and I feel like that’s not very respectful of people who come from different backgrounds and different faiths and different religions,” Neleson said. She added, “I do think that the Frisco school district particularly does try to be inclusive and try to recognize the diversity of the community, but I know that there’s always pressure from groups who are trying to promote one agenda in the schools.” The Richardson assistant principal said she saw in the financial incentive to adopt the curriculum — districts that do so will get up to $60 per student — an inappropriate assertion of support by the state. Many Texas districts are cash-strapped after legislators declined to substantially increase school funding last year. “There is such a push in education for high-quality instructional materials,” said the assistant principal, who has three elementary school-aged children. “They’re pushing this so hard, and even potentially putting up funding for it if you adopt it, but it’s not a truly high-quality curriculum.” In a Facebook post after Tuesday’s preliminary vote, Vane encouraged parents to reach out to members of the state’s education board to urge them to oppose the curriculum. “It’s not over yet,” she wrote. Nathan said she’s not sure how much opponents of the curriculum can do if it’s approved, but she stressed the importance of local advocacy — especially since the curriculum is not required. “I think reaching out to your local school board and communicating with local teachers in your community is going to be key,” she said. “If this occurs, what do I need to do in my local school district to make sure that there’s programming that balances the perspective?” But she signaled that the intensity of the proposed curriculum would undercut any counter-programming by representatives of other faiths. “It’s not presented as, ‘Here’s what Christians believe,’” Nathan said about Bluebonnet. “It’s presented as, ‘Here is the truth.’ There’s a difference.”CU Buffs seniors proud of legacy left behind and the standard set for future success
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