NewsWatch

Justice Department Spent $100 Million Pushing DEI in Schools

TheCollegeFix.com, 2/12/25, “Justice Department spent $100 million pushing DEI in schools, watchdog finds” [Excerpts]: The Department of Justice poured more than $100 million into “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives at schools from K-12, including grants to Temple University, Bowling Green State, and Pennsylvania State Universities, a watchdog report found.

The universities received funding for “restorative justice, DEI, and social emotional learning,” according to Parents Defending Education, a nonprofit that advocates for parental rights.

“While SEL [Social and Emotional Learning] was originally intended to teach children skills like self-awareness, self-management, and goal setting, the definitional shift to ‘Transformative SEL’ prioritizes equity and ‘the collective’—it has become another avenue to bring DEI into the classroom,” the report states.

Vice President Caroline Moore told The College Fix via email that “the current Department of Education believes this politicization of public schools is more important than English, science, history, and math.”

https://bit.ly/3X6tqQs

Breaking News: Ancient Mollusks Were Complex

ICR.org, 2/6/25, “Breaking News: Ancient Mollusks Were Complex” [Excerpts]: Mollusks consist of a wide range of invertebrates that include the intelligent octopus, pulmonated snails (gastropods), and bivalves (clams). They appear suddenly in the early Cambrian about 514 million years ago according to evolution theory. In 2020, evolutionists said there is “no good record of molluscs before they had shells, and there can be some doubt that certain early fossil shells are really remains of molluscs.” Five years later, evolutionists writing in Nature said, “Mollusca is the second most species-rich animal phylum, but the pathways of early molluscan evolution have long been controversial.”

Indeed, the story of mollusk evolution has been rewritten again in light of the discovery of spiky fossils called Punk ferox and Emo vorticaudum. They belong to the molluscan group Aculifera (e.g., chitons). Evolutionists have long seen this group of mollusks as primitive and rudimentary. But science writer Sanjana Gajbhiye stated, “this discovery paints a different picture, revealing their complexity and evolutionary ingenuity.” Additionally, Sutton et al. reported in Nature that the two species had a mode of locomotion that was “novel” and “unusual.”

The intricacy of these creatures is no surprise to creationists, who expect these “primitive” aculiferan species to be very complex. But notice that credit is given not to the Creator but to evolution for being clever, resourceful, and imaginative. Is there anything this mindless, random process can’t do?

https://bit.ly/4h33M6t

Jewish Actor Wallace Shawn Calls Israel “Demonically Evil”

Algemeiner.com, 2/5/25, “Jewish Actor Wallace Shawn Calls Israel ‘Demonically Evil’” [Excerpts]:  Jewish actor Wallace Shawn, who is most famous for his roles in Clueless, the Toy Story franchise, and The Princess Bride, compared Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war to the war crimes committed by Nazis against Jews during World War II.

The New York-born actor and playwright, 81, said during an appearance on the podcast “The Katie Halper Show” on Monday that Israel is “doing evil just as great as what the Nazis did.”

“The Israelis invaded someone else’s territory. They took people’s homes and they did many of the things that the Nazis did to the Jews,” he claimed while speaking to Halper, a Jewish comedian and author. “And now they’re really doing it. You can’t be more evil than what they’re doing.”

“And in some ways it’s worse, because they kind of boast about it,” Shawn added. “Hitler had the decency to try to keep it secret. For some reason, Hitler didn’t want people to know he was doing these things to the Jews. The Israelis are almost proud of it, and it’s demonically evil. You can’t be more evil.”

The Young Sheldon star has been a longtime critic of Israel and its military actions in Gaza during the war against Hamas terrorists controlling the enclave who orchestrated the deadly terrorist attack across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

https://bit.ly/3CU6Bsq