OXFORD, Mich. – Parents in the Oxford Community Schools district contacted me with concerns about what they describe as an inappropriate survey distributed to students as young as 11 years old.

According to parents, the survey was designed to gather information about bullying in the district. One parent said the survey was administered two weeks ago and again on Monday.

The survey asked students to provide information on their ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, whether they had been bullied in the past year, and whether they had bullied someone in the past year.

 

Parents said that during the first round of the survey, they were given the option to opt their children out. However, they claim the gender identity and sexual orientation questions were not included in the parent preview. This time, parents allege they were not given the opportunity to opt out at all and that students were forced to take the survey.

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Oxford Community Schools has not yet responded to a request for comment.

One mother, who asked not to be identified due to fear of retaliation, told me, “I don’t think it is appropriate for adults to be asking children their sexual orientation. These children are as young as 11 years old. Their sexuality is not the concern of the school district. We are also supposed to have the right to opt out, and the kids were told they had to take it or go to the office. If I showed up to a discussion forum and asked these same questions aloud to the school board, administrators, or teachers, they would be appalled.”

 

The parents I talked to said this survey was about bullying and was not the controversial Michigan Profile for Healthy Youth (MiPHY) that I have reported on in the past.

President Donald Trump has directed public schools to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and teachings related to gender identity, threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply. Under Executive Order 14190, titled "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K–12 Schooling," the administration prohibits the promotion of "gender ideology" and critical race theory, calling them "anti-American" and "subversive." The order also mandates legal action against educators who support transgender students’ social transitions, such as using preferred names or pronouns. Schools are required to certify compliance with federal civil rights laws as interpreted by the administration, or risk losing federal funds, including Title I funding designated for low-income schools.

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This daily newsletter brings you the stories the TV networks and big newspapers don’t want to touch. Every day, I dig deep to uncover the ignored news — so you’re informed, not manipulated.

 

 

MILWAUKEE, WI - A 17-year-old Wisconsin teen allegedly killed his parents in pursuit of the “financial means and autonomy” to assassinate President Trump, the FBI revealed.

Court documents show the 17-year-old was part of a “satanic cult” which has “strong anti-Judaism anti-Christian and anti-western ideologies,” WISN reported Friday.

Investigators also found a manifesto which “described a call to assassinate President Trump, make and detonate bombs and carry out other terrorist attacks.”

WISN reported that charges against the 17-year-old include two counts of first-degree murder and “two counts of hiding a corpse.” He also faces federal charges tied to the planned assassination.

In one entry in the manifesto, the 17-year-old addressed his plans for Trump, writing, “As to why, specifically Trump, I think it’s pretty obvious. By getting rid of the president and perhaps the vice president, that is guaranteed to bring in some chaos.”

The 17-year-old allegedly killed his mother and stepfather inside their home in February. The two victims were shot to death.

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WASHINGTON D.C. - Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) took a virtual beating on Saturday as The New York Times published a new photo of her in the Oval Office, literally trying to hide from cameras by holding a folder in front of her face.

Whitmer was at the White House to meet with President Donald Trump about relief funding for Michigan residents who had been devastated by recent ice storms and funding for a Detroit-area Air National Guard base — but instead of a private meeting with the president, she was ushered into an Oval Office full of reporters and cameras while the president was signing executive orders.

NYT photographer Eric Lee captured one shot of Whitmer as she literally hid her face from the cameras — and that photo top-lined a piece detailing the risks she runs as a Democratic governor who is seen daring to cooperate with President Trump. Click here to read more.

 

CHICAGO, IL - House Bill 2827 would extensively regulate both homeschools and private schools in ways that could seriously violate Illinoisans’ rights, including a primary right established a century ago.

One hundred years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized parents’ right “to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”

That right is currently under attack in Illinois because of the “Homeschool Act.”

House Bill 2827, filed by state Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Lombard, has generated historic opposition in the Illinois General Assembly, and for good reason. There are multiple legal pitfalls in the current version of the bill.

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides states cannot “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” That language routinely has been applied to the education context, including a parent’s right to direct the upbringing of their child.

But the provisions in HB 2827 threaten families’ due process rights in multiple ways. First, it allows truancy officers to interrogate children without “cause” and without parental presence. Second, it allows parents to be investigated – and again, their children to be interviewed – based on anonymous reports. Click here to read more.

 

OMAHA, NE - A spiritual awakening is stirring among young people in the West, according to a steady stream of survey data.

In February, the Pew Research Center released a report showing that the decade-long decline in Americans identifying as Christian has leveled off. But new studies show that the downward trend is now in full reverse, with the engine driving the change occurring among Generation Z and millennials.

On Monday, Barna Group released data showing that “66% of all U.S. adults say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today,” marking “a 12-percentage-point increase since 2021.” The report went on to note that the rise in faith is being particularly driven by those in their 20s and 30s—Gen Z and millennials. “Since the pandemic … Millennials and Gen Z have shown significant increases in commitment to Jesus, while Boomers and Gen X (especially women in these older cohorts) have remained mostly flat in their commitment levels to Jesus,” the group observed. Click here to read more.

 

LANSING, Mich. – In a 5-2 decision, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for 19 and 20-year olds convicted of first-degree murder are unconstitutional.

The court ruling said those sentences violate the Michigan Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel or unusual punishment.”

Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote in the majority decision that “Mandatorily condemning such offenders to die in prison, without first considering the attributes of youth that late adolescents and juveniles share, no longer comports with the ‘evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.” She continued by writing, “We do not foreclose the possibility that LWOP [life without the possibility of parole] could be an appropriate punishment under rare circumstances.”

In a separate opinion, Justice Richard Bernstein wrote he would draw the line at 25 years old, citing scientific students. Click here to read more.

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AUSTRALIA - Amid all the talk about tariffs with China, and how they steal America’s intellectual property and establish all kinds of trade barriers with this country, you might have missed this story. It’s not about economics, but at the same time, it tells you a lot about what authoritarian countries like China fear the most.

Beginning on May 1, China will accelerate its crackdown on religion, and Christianity in particular. Foreign missionaries will be banned from preaching unless they obtain formal approval from the government.

According to Chinese state media, the goal of the new regulation is to protect “national security” and “political stability” by forcing people to attend official, state-run religious services with pre-approved messaging. Additionally, Chinese state media has recently boasted about the fact that religious groups — which the government calls “cult organizations” — have been increasingly shut down in China. At this point, one of the fastest ways to disappear in China is to deliver a sermon that upsets the ruling party. Click here to read more.

 

A Florida teacher’s contract will not be renewed after she was accused of using a student’s preferred name in violation of the state’s law.

Brevard Public Schools (BPS) said the teacher who worked at Satellite High School had allegedly been calling the young person by their preferred name but did not have parental permission to do so, WESH reported on Thursday, noting the parent contacted school leadership over the issue.

“This directly violates state law and the district’s standardized process for written parental consent,” the district stated.

District leaders said they investigated the issue and “Based on the teacher’s own admission that she knowingly did not comply with state statute she received a letter of reprimand. Teachers, like all employees, are expected to follow the law.” Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a bold claim at a Cabinet meeting Thursday with President Donald Trump, promising that his department will uncover environmental causes of autism by September.

“We’ve launched a massive testing and research effort that’s going to involve hundreds of scientists from around the world,” Kennedy told Trump in front of reporters.

“By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we’ll be able to eliminate those exposures.”

Trump, who as early as his 2016 presidential campaign called autism an “epidemic” and asserted that its prevalence is linked to vaccines, hailed Kennedy’s work.

“Think of that: So, it was 1 in 10,000 children had autism, and now it’s 1 in 31. Not 31,000—31. That’s a horrible statistic, isn’t it? And there’s got to be something artificial out there that’s doing this,” said Trump. Click here to read more.

 

OPEKA, Kan. - A calf dying from tetanus has a second chance at life, thanks to a 9-year-old Kansas girl and her family.

When 9-year-old Ainsley Hastings got a call about getting an Angus bull calf, she saw potential, WIBW reports.

“I was like, ‘I want him. I want him,‘” Ainsley said. “He’s sassy, too. He’s kind, nice.”

However, her new calf named JB came with a challenge: he was dying after tetanus attacked his nervous system, a condition with a survival rate of only 20%.

“When we got him, he was not even able to move up off of his sides,” said Kylie Hastings, Ainsley’s mother. “He was very rigid. We had to hold his neck up manually to get him to eat.”

The Hastings family, with Ainsley in the lead, took the odds and the recovery process into their own hands.

“So, I actually took two old sawhorses and some ratchet straps and kind of built a sling out of it to keep the pressure off to help him build strength on his own feet,” said Caleb Hastings, Ainsley’s father. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - The core function of any sovereign state is to protect its people. This is not merely a matter of tradition or political sentiment. It is the cornerstone of legitimacy. No policy, program, or platitude that undermines national security can long endure in a system that values its own continuity. The United States today faces a dilemma of precisely this sort in the form of student visa issuance to nationals of the People’s Republic of China. It is not a question of prejudice. It is a question of prudence.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) subjects its citizens, wherever they reside, to the sweeping dictates of the 2017 National Intelligence Law. Most notably, Article 7 of that law mandates that all Chinese citizens and organizations must, upon request, support and cooperate with state intelligence work. There are no geographic exceptions. There are no due process requirements. And there is no meaningful ability for a citizen, once contacted by the state, to say "no." Click here to read more.