https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/29/politics/hegseth-ending-pentagon-trump-women-initiative?cid=ios_app

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

This is an old one I forgot to finish and post.  But it shows we do have hope.  Hugs

Federal judge orders Colorado district to return banned books to school libraries

Hi All.  I am very tired and nearly exhausted yet Ron wants me to cook supper tonight of a sauce that will take hours to make.  The judge basically says just because you don’t like these ideas that doesn’t make them illegal or harmful to kids.  See that is the entire movement of the right / fundamentalist Christians / tRump administration that anything they don’t like or agree with is therefor illegal, bad, and harmful.  Seriously everyone could apply that standard to someone else, but should it be then made a law?  Ron and I have been a same sex couple taking care of each other for 35 years now.  We are now legally married but we also did everything married couples should do for each other even before we got the right to legally get what even teenagers getting married for a few days to have sex then divorce get.  How that harms straight marriages no one knows because the promised no more straight couples will get married never happened.  The fundamentalist Christian Republicans seem to be terrified that young people will know and see themselves in media, books / movies / on social media so they realize they are not alone but normal … that they demand the entire erasure of the last 70 years.  They are desperate and we can not, must not let them move like the theocratic Muslim nations and removed protections and erase LGBTQ+ people from society.  This is their last and best hope, the golden feather they grabbed at in tRump to force the US into returning to both 1950 and in the case of women 1850.  Hugs

Preliminary injunction requires 19 banned books to be returned to Elizabeth School District libraries by next week

 

By Elizabeth Hernandez | ehernandez@denverpost.com | The Denver Post

UPDATED: March 19, 2025 at 10:10 PM MDT

 

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Elbert County’s Elizabeth School District to restore library books the district banned by next week, prohibiting the district from further restrictions on access to books that the school board objects to politically.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney issued a preliminary injunction stating the banned books must be returned to school libraries by Tuesday. The order also prohibits the school board from removing books “because the district disagrees with the views expressed therein or merely to further their preferred political or religious orthodoxy.”

The injunction comes after the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado sued the school district in December for removing books from school libraries — titles largely featuring people of color or LGBTQ individuals — in an act the organization alleged violated free speech protections.

Superintendent Dan Snowberger said the Elizabeth School District is reviewing the decision.

“We respect the judge’s order, but we are particularly disappointed with the decision to avoid a hearing so the district could explain the board’s decision and the careful and transparent process it followed before removing the books,” Snowberger said in a statement. “We will be appealing the decision, and the district stands by the board’s decision to remove sexually explicit and age-inappropriate content from our school libraries.”

Tim Macdonald, the ACLU of Colorado’s legal director, called the decision a major victory for the students of Elizabeth and all Coloradans.

“Having access to a diversity of viewpoints is integral to the well-being and education of all students, and this injunction gives them that opportunity,” Macdonald wrote in a statement.

In the lawsuit, the ACLU represented two students within the school district, the Rocky Mountain Regional NAACP and the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for published writers, The Authors Guild.

Last summer, the Elizabeth Board of Education created a committee to determine which books in the district’s school libraries contained “sensitive topics” including racism, discrimination, mental illness and sexual content. The committee identified 19 books it found to be “highly sensitive” that should be removed from the district’s school libraries.

The removed books primarily featured Black, brown and LGBTQ people, the ACLU said, including “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini and “#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights” by Rebecca Felix.

In September, the board announced the 19 books would be removed permanently from school libraries. The board also enacted a policy prohibiting students from sharing books with each other, the lawsuit said.

In the lawsuit, the ACLU requested the books be returned to the Elizabeth School District’s libraries and asked for an injunction prohibiting the board from removing books based on the ideas contained within them.

“School districts that ban books because the officials disagree with the content or viewpoints expressed in those books do a disservice to students, authors and the community,” Macdonald said. “Such book bans violate the Constitution — period. We’ll keep fighting to ensure a permanent end to this practice.”

Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.

Originally Published: March 19, 2025 at 5:08 PM MDT

Check out this article from USA TODAY:

I’m proud to be gay. Trump’s hate-filled first 100 days won’t take that from me. | Opinion

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2025/04/28/trump-anti-trans-lgbtq-executive-orders/83248377007/

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

Check out this article from USA TODAY:

2-year-old U.S. citizen apparently deported ‘with no meaningful process,’ judge says

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/26/judge-ice-deported-two-year-old/83293111007/

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

Trump signs executive actions on education, including efforts to rein in DEI
The directives include new efforts to curtail DEI programs at colleges, and discipline guidance for public schools.

Read in NPR: https://apple.news/A5M4LKrbSRVuRXE7zA7bGMw

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

Trump is jailing immigrant families again. A mother, father and teen tell of ‘anguish on a daily basis’
Family incarceration has been revived after Biden – and Jade, Jason and Gabriela are speaking out about their distressing treatment in Texas

Read in The Guardian: https://apple.news/ANp_49gJkTwOp2GJKoTODJA

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Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

US warns states they could lose transportation funding over immigration, DEI policies – https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-warns-states-they-could-lose-transportation-funding-over-immigration-dei-2025-04-24/

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

Wrong turn leads to hundreds of immigrant arrests at the Detroit-Canada border bridge
NPR has for months been receiving tips about detentions at the Ambassador Bridge in Michigan. An inquiry by Michigan Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib has revealed more that 200 detentions this year at the bridge, including American citizen children.

Read in NPR: https://apple.news/AW52yNUW-QG-RpYFX6GoAnQ

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie

hugs. randy

Info Pete Hegseth shared with wife, brother came from top general’s secure messages
Hegseth has denied the information he shared was classified, but it was given to him on a system for sensitive and classified information, sources told NBC News.

Read in NBC News: https://apple.news/AalNGGBhjSXy7HzNCvnqVyA

Shared from Apple News

Best Wishes and Hugs,Scottie