Daily Headlines | Wednesday April 13, 2022

Good Morning! 

Benjamin Franklin observed “A good example is the best sermon.” 

Florida’s legislators are proving to be strong role models: 

1. Florida’s Fatherhood Bill is a Model for Other States

Focus on the Family president Jim Daly writes: 

Dads matter – and more than most people realize. 

That’s the message I’ve been championing for years now, a reality born out of the social science and my own childhood growing up in a broken home. 

The Florida legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis agree – which is why the state has just approved a bill that will invest $70 million in programs designed to promote fatherhood. 

It’s called the “Responsible Fatherhood Bill,” and funds will be distributed to nonprofit groups committed to dads. The dollars will be focused on mentoring and numerous other father-related resources. This promises to be money well spent. 

“Incredibly, there are those who diminish the importance of fatherhood and the nuclear family — we will not let that happen in our state,” said Governor DeSantis. “I am proud to say we are doing everything we can to support involved fatherhood in Florida.” 

Every scientific measurement of child well-being around the globe consistently reveals that fatherlessness is profoundly harmful to children and society. 

• 25% of households in America are fatherless.
• 85% of all youth in prison come from fatherless homes.
• 90% of all homeless and runaway children come from fatherless homes.
• Children from fatherless homes are four times more likely to live in poverty. 

Dr. Brad Wilcox of the National Marriage Project says that the best research shows that for all races, kids who live with a married mother and father are less likely to live in poverty or spend time in jail. They are more likely to graduate from high school and successfully enter the workforce, and they are dramatically more likely to attend college.

And it’s not a surprise why – dads model character for their daughters, shaping what they will seek in a future husband. Men model for sons how to be a committed husband, a loving father, and a man of integrity who guides his family according to biblical values. 

Every man needs to be reminded from time to time that their wives and children deserve their best. 

Inexplicably, former football coach and NFL analyst Tony Dungy has been criticized for supporting the bill. Critics immediately pounced and politicized his endorsement, suggesting that Coach Dungy was a “racist apologist” who shouldn’t be partnering with anything coming from a Republican administration. 

They’re just wrong. Fatherlessness should be a bipartisan issue. Leftists need to stop their demagoguery. If they spent half as much time working to encourage men to be better dads as they do trying villainize good men like Coach Dungy, our children would be far better served. 

Well done to the state legislature and Governor Ron DeSantis. I hope other states will follow Florida’s lead. Dads supply a key ingredient in the development of children, and we must do everything we can to support them. 

2. Gov. Stitt signs law banning most abortions, seeks to make Oklahoma ‘most pro-life state’ 

From the Christian Post: 

The governor of Oklahoma has signed a bill into law banning nearly all abortions in the state except when a mother’s life is at risk in a medical emergency. Those who violate the law could face up to $100,000 in fines and 10 years in prison.

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 612 into law Tuesday, saying he aims to make the Sooner State “the most pro-life state in the country.”

Women who seek or obtain an illegal abortion wouldn’t need to fear prosecution, as the law doesn’t “authorize the charging or conviction of a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her unborn child.” It does not ban the use or sale of prescription contraceptives so long as the products are sold before a woman becomes pregnant.

The bill passed the state’s House of Representatives in a 70-14 vote last week, more than a year after it passed the state Senate in a 38-49 vote. In both chambers, one Republican joined Democrats in opposing the measure. 

RELATED:  

Idaho Supreme Court Puts ‘Heartbeat Bill’ on Hold for Now 

From The Daily Citizen: 

Recently the Idaho legislature passed a Texas-style heartbeat abortion ban which makes it unlawful to perform an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which typically occurs at approximately six weeks gestation. The law, scheduled to go into effect on April 22, was immediately challenged in court by Planned Parenthood, which utilized a rare legal procedure to bypass the state’s lower courts and asked Idaho’s highest court to block the law. 

The state Supreme Court granted that request, although it is only temporary for now. 

Senate Bill 1309 (SB 1309), also known as the Fetal Heartbeat Preborn Child Protection Act, was signed into law by Governor Brad Little on March 23. The lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood argues that the law is unconstitutional and that no lower court in Idaho ought to be able to entertain a lawsuit brought to enforce it against an abortionist who violates the law’s terms. 

The state Supreme Court gave the state 28 days to respond to Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit and stayed the implementation of SB 1309 pending further action by the high court. 

3. Instagram Removes Pro-Life Video Posted By Influencer LaBrant Family  

From The Daily Wire: 

Instagram has removed a pro-life video that a popular social media influencer couple posted over the weekend, a move that comes as the video has spurred a big reaction from their followers.  

The video, “Abortion. (documentary),” features the LaBrant family — husband Cole and wife Savannah, who together have over 10 million Instagram followers and 13 million YouTube subscribers — seeking the truth about abortion by interviewing pro-life doctors, including one who used to perform abortions and doesn’t anymore, and women who opted not to get abortions.  

In the video, the couple goes on a journey to better understand abortion by speaking with those who have experienced it firsthand. The LaBrants are careful to express that they’re not trying to vilify anyone who has had an abortion, but rather to provide hope for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies who feel alone. They include stories from real women in extreme situations who chose to have their babies, and one woman who had a child after taking an abortion pill that didn’t work.  

The LaBrants draw special attention to the non-profit Embrace Grace, which aids women in crisis pregnancies and after them. 

4. Yelp to cover travel expenses for workers seeking abortions 

From the Washington Times: 

The benefit announced Tuesday covers all 4,000 employees at the online review service, but seems most likely to have its biggest immediate impact on its 200 workers in Texas, which has passed a law banning abortions within the state after six weeks of pregnancy. 

“We’ve long been a strong advocate for equality in the workplace, and believe that gender equality cannot be achieved if women’s healthcare rights are restricted,” said Miriam Warren, Yelp‘s chief diversity officer. 

5. 5. NJ Gov. Murphy willing to ‘entertain’ changes to gender identity lessons for 2nd graders 

From Fox News: 

Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy defended state education plans teaching gender identity issues to young students Monday, but said parents deserve a say in the issue. 

“Can you comment on to concern parents who think that gender identity should not be taught in elementary school?” a reporter asked. 

“I’d say a couple of things,” Murphy began. “Number one, I think there’s some sort of sense that parents have no say, and I would just say emphatically that parents deserve absolutely to have a say in this sort of stuff – Along with all other interested parties, but probably none are more interested than parents.” 

Murphy went on to say that the education policy was not a “new development” as the standards had been passed in 2020. He acknowledged that the standards were going into effect for the first time this fall, however. He also said that if enough parents oppose the standards he would be willing to “entertain” an adjustment. 

6. A College Fights ‘Leftist Academics’ by Expanding Into Charter Schools 

From The New York Times: 

With only 1,500 students on a small-town campus in southern Michigan, Hillsdale College is far from the power corridors of government and top-ranked universities. 

But it has outsize influence in the conservative world, with strong ties to the Washington elite. Republican leaders frequently visit, and Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the 2016 commencement address, calling Hillsdale a “shining city on a hill” for its devotion to “liberty as an antecedent of government, not a benefit from government.” 

Now the college is making new efforts to reach beyond its campus, this time with an even younger audience. The college is fighting what it calls “progressive” and “leftist academics” by expanding its footprint in the charter school world, pushing the boundaries on the use of taxpayer money for politically tinged education. 

Hillsdale has ambitious plans to add to its network of classical public charter schools, which focus on “the centrality of the Western tradition.” And Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee recently invited the college to start 50 schools using public funds, including $32 million set aside for charter facilities. Hillsdale’s network currently includes 24 schools in 13 states. 

7. Conservative shareholders target ‘woke’ corporate boards 

From the Washington Times: 

Conservative investors are becoming shareholder activists to battle what they call the “woke” gender and race policies of America’s corporate boardrooms. 

The American Legislative Exchange Council, a network of conservative private investors and state legislators, recently introduced model legislation that would stop state pension fund managers from introducing “woke criteria” into the investment selection process. 

And the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a conservative tank in Washington, D.C., is telling moderate and conservative investors how to use shareholder proxies to challenge liberal policies in corporate board elections. 

The center’s Free Enterprise Project has purchased shares in corporations like the Walt Disney Co., which it claims has allowed conservative proxies to introduce proposals against “woke” ideology at more than 100 shareholder meetings over the past four years. 

“Conservative activism is finally beginning to counterbalance progressive activism on issues like identity politics and climate change goals,” said Richard Morrison, a senior fellow at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute. 

8. Florida Christian school appeals for pregame prayer 

From World Magazine: 

A Florida case over pregame prayer is not over yet, according to attorneys. They vowed to appeal again after a private school in Tampa, Fla., was denied the right to a short prayer over a publicly owned loudspeaker before football games. 

A federal judge on March 31 dismissed Cambridge Christian School’s claims that the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) violated its right to freely exercise its religion. The FHSAA, a state-sanctioned nonprofit organization that governs high school athletics in Florida, denied the school’s request to include a prayer over the public address system prior to the 2015 final playoffs at the city-owned Citrus Bowl (now known as Camping World Stadium) in Orlando. 

This will be the second time the school has appealed. In the first go-round, the trial court decided in favor of FHSAA, but an appeals court overturned the ruling in November 2019 and sent it back for consideration of further evidence. The unanimous three-judge appeals court panel concluded that a loudspeaker prayer did not necessarily communicate a state endorsement of religion and that the FHSAA denial put too much of a burden on the free exercise of religion. But the trial court ruled against the school again. 

“This case is not about whether two Christian schools may pray together at a football game,” wrote U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards-Honeywell in the latest ruling. The Obama appointee noted players and coaches met at the 50-yard line of the Citrus Bowl to pray together before the game and again on the sidelines afterward. But the court said that because the FHSAA approves the script for any messages, all speech over the PA system is government speech and not subject to the First Amendment. 

9. Inflation Rate Hits Four-Decade High of 8.5%, Harming Poor and Middle-Class Families the Most 

From The Daily Citizen: 

Inflation has hit another four-decade high of 8.5 percent in March, according to newly released numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS). 

“The all items index continued to accelerate, rising 8.5 percent for the 12 months ending March, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending December 1981,” BLS reported on Tuesday. 

Inflation increased by a stunning 1.2 percent in the month of March alone. 

If the 1.2 percent March inflation increase was annualized, the year-over-year inflation number would be a whopping 14.4 percent. 

10. Florida student accepted to 27 schools, offered $4M in scholarships 

From UPI: 

Jonathan Walker, 18, a senior at Rutherford Senior High in Panama City, said he narrowed his secondary education choices down to 27 schools, including Harvard University, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was surprised when he received acceptance letters from all 27. 

“It’s so crazy to think about that I applied to all these colleges, and I got in,” Walker told CBS Miami. “That’s such a rare thing to occur, but the fact that it did happen, I’m so excited about it.” 

Walker, who has already been earning college credits through the International Baccalaureate Program, credited his essays with helping him get acceptance letters from the schools. 

“Every campus has something special about it and so, I found something that I loved within all of them,” Walker told the Panama City News Herald. “And I really tried to write about that and show that in my applications.” 

Walker is currently in the process of obtaining a patent for a device he invented to help the deaf and blind. He said he hopes to pursue a career that would lead to further inventions.