Free Republic

The updated standards released by the United States Department of Agriculture, which most schools put in effect over the 2012-13 school year, meant larger, faster changes to lunches nearly across the board. With the changes came news media reports of student complaints and food waste. A USA Today article in September 2012 described protests and boycotts from Kansas to Massachusetts. Those objections to the phase-in of the new standards are supported by the findings of two recent studies. Researchers asked school administrators and food-service providers whether students complained “at first” about the new lunches. Many did (56 percent of elementary...

WASHINGTON — President Obama had to laugh. He had just been asked how he deals with criticism, and something about the question just struck him as funny. Maybe it is because criticism is one thing he sees no shortage of these days. Addressing an audience largely made up of African-American boys and young men, Mr. Obama turned serious and gave a long, thoughtful answer about how, over the years, he has learned to focus on what is important to him and keep fixed on “the north star that steers you” no matter what others may say. “And then I just...

President Obama is unpopular. In the 12 states that will decide control of the Senate this November, though, he's even more unpopular. A new poll from Democratic pollster Democracy Corps shows 60 percent of people in these states say they disapprove of Obama, compared to just 37 percent who approve. Perhaps more striking: 50 percent of voters in these states say they not only disapprove of Obama, but they "strongly" disapprove of him. To the extent the 2014 election is about Obama and his job performance -- as midterm elections are generally theorized to be -- half of voters in...

Rarely has a president been confronted with so many seemingly disparate foreign policy crises all at once — in Ukraine, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere — but making the current upheaval more complicated for Mr. Obama is the seemingly interlocking nature of them all. Developments in one area, like Ukraine, shape his views and choices in a crisis in another area, like the Middle East. “It’s a very tangled mess,” said Gary Samore, a former national security aide to Mr. Obama and now president of United Against Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group. “You name it, the world is aflame....

HARRISBURG — An influx of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. border is spilling over into Pennsylvania, as state officials received word Monday that more than 500 are being housed in the commonwealth. Those include 120 children staying at two temporary centers and 386 others who have been placed in the care of relatives or religious groups that have agreed to house them, said Kathaleen Gillis, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Welfare. The federal government manages the care of the unaccompanied immigrant children. State officials received information about the children in Pennsylvania from the federal Department of Health...

Mexico Foreign Minister José Antonio Meade Kuribreña on Tuesday challenged Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s characterization of the flow of Central American children into the U.S. as an “assault” on Americans and their security. “There’s a need to respond to the upsurge in minors, but I don’t see how the upsurge of minors threatens the security of the U.S. — and I certainly don’t see how it threatens the security of Texas,” Meade said in an appearance at The Chronicle’s editorial board. “There’s a need for a response. … That response should have a high level of humanitarian concerns within it....

Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg flew to Israel on Tuesday in protest of the Federation Aviation Administration's decision to halt American flights to and from the country. On his twitter account, Bloomberg wrote "This evening I will be flying on El Al to Tel Aviv to demonstrate that it is safe to fly in and out of Israel." In a statement on his website, Bloomberg also said that " The flight restrictions are a mistake that hands Hamas an undeserved victory and should be lifted immediately." It is unknown when Bloomberg is expected to land in Israel and...

Delta Air Lines said it's suspending flights to and from Tel Aviv, citing security reasons. The airline noted that Delta flight 468, a Boeing 747 from JFK with 273 passengers and 17 crew, diverted to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Tuesday after reports of a rocket or associated debris near the airport in Tel Aviv.

Earlier this month, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act was celebrated. During the act’s legislative debate, then-Sen. Hubert Humphrey, responding to predictions, promised, “I’ll eat my hat if this leads to racial quotas.” I don’t know whether Humphrey got around to keeping his promise, but here’s my question: Is it within the capacity of black Americans to make it in this society without the special favors variously called racial preferences, quotas, affirmative action and race-sensitive policies? What might a “yes” answer to that question assume and imply about blacks? Likewise, what would a “no” answer assume and imply?...

Tecum Uman, SAN MARCOS -.   Dressed in shorts and sandals seemed himself a migrant, but the man spoke as a businessman described how while sending tens of thousands of dollars in human cargo from the slums of Honduras and the mountains of Guatemala to cities around the United States."It's business," said the man with a mustache not very populated and some gray in his black hair, who spoke to a reporter on the condition of keeping their identity anonymous. "Sometimes it goes well."Given the dramatic increase in the number of juveniles detained in the U.S. in recent months, it appears that the...

The national government yesterday unveiled the results of collective wage bargaining for the first half of the year, stressing the fact that salaries have risen by up to 37 percent “amid a difficult context marred by economic troubles.” The Labour Ministry considered not only hikes in basic salaries but also extra sums agreed to between workers and employers. Meanwhile, private estimates say inflation for the last 12 months has clocked in at around 37 to39 percent.

Sacramento -- Schools in California that have football programs will be forced to limit the number of days and hours young athletes can practice tackling and other full-contact collisions as a way to prevent head injuries, according to a bill signed Monday by Gov. Jerry Brown. The new law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, restricts full-contact practices to two 90-minute sessions per week during the regular and pre- season, and prohibits tackling during the off-season. "Football is a great sport, but parents want to know if their kids are going to be safe," said Assemblyman Ken Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova),...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Sen. Rand Paul said Monday Fort Knox was being considered as a possible place to temporarily house some of the immigrant children pouring across the country's southern border. The senator's office was notified that the Army post in central Kentucky has been under review as a place to take in an undetermined number of unaccompanied Central America minors. The Kentucky Republican spoke out against transporting the children to Fort Knox. He says they should be treated humanely until being returned to their home countries. Late Monday afternoon, Congressman John Yarmuth's office confirmed the Department of Defense submitted...

A program designed to help Rhode Island's older adult population prepare for climate change threats is one of several projects that will receive federal money as part of the state's disaster recovery action plan. This program will receive $150,000 over the next two years. Julia Gold, the health department's climate change program manager, said the agency and its partners will develop these plans during a pilot project to kick off this fall in Washington County. The grant to support this program comes from federal money designed to help long-term recovery efforts related to Hurricane Sandy.

... In a study published earlier this month in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, Tasian and his collaborators reported that higher average daily temperatures increased the relative risk of forming kidney stones. The results indicate that the changing climate can directly affect human physiology. "We were looking at what is the risk of a patient presenting with stones after daily temperatures rose," he said. The researchers in this case looked at a database of insurance claims from 60,433 patients from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Philadelphia between 2005 and 2011. They assessed the relative risk of kidney stone formation...

The presence of John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and now counselor to President Obama, at the recent United States-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing was a surprise. He is not a China expert. But the Chinese like old hands, aides with proximity to the Oval Office, and Mr. Podesta fills that bill. In addition, Mr. Podesta is passionate about climate change. He returned to the White House this year to help Mr. Obama fulfill his ambitious agenda to reduce coal consumption in the United States, and to shape a new global climate treaty...

The Internal Revenue Service said it will monitor churches and other houses of worship for electioneering in a settlement reached with an atheist group. The settlement was reached Friday (July 18) in federal court in Madison, Wis., where the initial lawsuit was filed in 2012 by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based atheist advocacy group that claims 20,000 members nationwide. The suit alleged the IRS routinely ignored complaints by the FFRF and others about churches promoting political candidates, issues or proposed legislation. As part of their tax-exempt status, churches and other religious groups are prohibited from engaging in partisan...

I'm home from a week of lobbying in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the refugee children on our southern border. There were 13 of us, 11 from Loretto and two from our Guatemalan sister community, Sagrada Familia. We had appointments with 25 senators and representatives, plus other drop-in visits. We crossed the Capitol between the House and Senate office buildings three or four times each day.NETWORK, LCWR and the Guatemalan Human Rights Commission lent staff to help us refine our message. Maruca and Yolanda from Guatemala told and retold tough accounts of children leaving home to escape gangs, to buy medicine, to...

Gov. Rick Perry’s plan to activate 1,000 Texas National Guard troops for duty near the border with Mexico will do little to ease the crisis caused by the arrival of 57,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America. More significant to addressing the problem is enlisting the governments of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to better enforce their own borders and discourage adults and children from attempting the dangerous trip northward. No show of force can stop them from crossing. Once they’re here, U.S. law requires that they enter a legal process intended to ensure they’re protected from predators in their...

In recent weeks, FEMA representatives have sent mass emails to advocacy networks throughout the country soliciting potential detention facilities and offering guidelines for acceptable spaces. The guidelines include being “Within 50 miles of major city (Pop ~200K)/airport; available for lease; able to be fenced or have adequate security.” Showers and toilets are preferable, according to the guidelines, but not necessary—so long as there is outdoor space for “staging areas for shower/restroom/laundry/kitchen trailers, etc.” Also preferred but not necessary, according to the email, is a kitchen, a cafeteria, recreational space, and classroom space. Suggestions for potentially workable locations? “Office space, warehouse,...