Rallies are planned throughout the country on Saturday including at City Plaza adjacent to Baton Rouge City Hall to protest what organizers are calling a “war on women” in legislatures across the U.S. The protest/rally is being conducted by a group known as Unite Women and targets a laundry list of legislative initiatives that include defunding Planned Parenthood, obstacles to obtaining abortion services and assaults on contraceptive access.
“We will not suffer the burdens of those whose ambitions would be fulfilled by the destruction of the human worth of mothers, sisters and daughters of this nation,” Unite Women national founder Karen Teegarden says in a press release announcing the rallies. “This war on women must be resisted and won before the toxic effects of the current national conversation become irrevocable reality.”
Meanwhile, Unite Women Louisiana Chair Ashely Baggett will appear before the House Education Committee on Wednesday to testify on behalf of House Bill 820 by Rep. Patricia Smith, a Baton Rouge Democrat. HB 820 would compel public school districts in Louisiana to include sex education courses as part of their standard curricula and that the curriculum include information on contraceptive use; currently sex ed is authorized, not mandated.
Smith’s bill attempts to ameliorate the religious right by stipulating that parents can opt their children out of the sex education classes, and it includes a caveat requiring abstinence be taught as “the most reliable way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.”
The debate over HB 820 comes on the heels of a report finding that states that stress abstinence and “abstinence only” as their sex education curriculum have higher teen pregnancy rates than states that require comprehensive sex education that includes information on contraception.
Read more on that here: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/11/states-with-abstinence-only-sex-ed-programs-rank-highest-in-teen-pregnancies/
MAY 23 Here's a story in the Picayune about some statistics that must come as a blow to folks who believe that any private school can do a better job of educating kids than any public school: Danielle Dreilinger reports that only 30 percent of the voucher kids are passing. That's less than half of the state wide average, she says. It's an interesting statistic because most of the schools (if not all) taking voucher kids have never had their students' standardized test scores released to the public before.
MAY 23 Stephen Sabludowsky blogs on Bayou Buzz about auditor requests here. Recently the state GOP started crowing about a request from the Legislative Auditor, claiming they were being targeted because of their anti-tax stance. (Uh, your what?) Denial and hyperbole aside, the state Democratic party blew holes in that theory with an email announcing they'd received the same request, Sabludowsky writes here.
MAY 23 Jim Brown blogs about the senate race in this post. He says that, given Bobby Jindal's "lack of traction" on the national stage, it might make more sense for the governor to consider running against Mary Landrieu for the senate seat. Since Tim Teeple left the Cassidy team, it makes sense he might land on a Jindal for Senate team, Brown opines.
MAY 23 In this Louisiana Voice post, blogger Tom Aswell writes of rumors that his nemesis, state Superintendent of Education John White, may be soon departing Louisiana for a federal post. It's hard to believe, given his performance, Aswell says, but stranger things have happened. An anti-White BESE member says that, if true, White is quitting before he can be fired.
MAY 23 In this post on American Zombie, blogger Jason Berry writes about the Mother's Day shooting. Mayor Landrieu said that "this is not who we are," but the fact is, this is New Orleans, Berry writes. The violence infused in the city is the result of a culture created by "sins of omission or sins of commission," Berry writes. It's not a problem that can be solved by legislating, policing, praying or publicizing, he says: Someone's got to understand what's happening first.
MAY 23 This post in the Westside Journal tells us what Port Allen Mayor Deedy has been up to lately: vetoing ordinances, apparently. This story is most interesting, however, when it delves into a petition that has been circulating around the city lately. It accuses the former mayor of a lot of nasty things; the former mayor says it is full of lies and "broken syntax" which may be a larger offense in his eyes.
MAY 23 This editorial posted in The Advocate is a bit confusing. The writing is poor - definitely not up to the usual editorial writing standard there - and the point is hard to grasp. Apparently, the writer is saying that privatization of state efforts is OK, as long as there is oversight and transparency, but Jindal's not good at that, and the legislature shouldn't over-react. Okey Dokey. Can't they get one of them Pulitzer-winning people to write an editorial?
MAY 23 This post on The Lens gives you links to a new Google Earth tool that allows you to see any spot on earth transform over the past 30 years. Bob Marshall, who covers the coast for the paper, says that in the case of Louisiana's coastline, it's possibly something you don't want to see, because it's not a pretty picture. There are several clips here, showing critical areas erode away. For Marshall, it was vindication for all those times he was met with eye-rolling when he talked about erosion.
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