CHICAGO, IL - The “Homeschool Act” was amended in an effort to curb some of the historic opposition to it and the government overreach it would enable, but some of the changes make the bill even worse.
The changes quickly drew new opposition: 41,000 people in less than 24 hours used the Illinois General Assembly’s website to publicly oppose the changes. That followed 51,328 opponents on the bill’s first amendment and 42,393 on the original version of the bill – all records for any bill since the legislature implemented the witness system.
The following written testimony by Illinois Policy Senior Director of Labor Policy and Staff Attorney Mailee Smith was filed April 9 to the Illinois House Education Policy Committee on House Bill 2827, Amendment 2. Click here to read more.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida bill increasing penalties for aggravated animal cruelty involving intentional torture or torment that results in injury, mutilation, or death of an animal passed the House floor Wednesday. The legislation stems from a horrific case in May of 2024 where a Pinellas man decapitated a dog he had adopted days before.
What it does: HB 255, cited as “Dexter’s Law,” introduces a sentencing multiplier in Florida’s Criminal Punishment Code, increasing the sentence for aggravated animal cruelty involving torture or torment that results in injury, mutilation, or death.
The bill creates a 1.25 sentencing multiplier for aggravated animal cruelty offenses.
The bill specifies that “animal” for the multiplier’s application does not include animals used for agricultural purposes.
Why: The bill sponsor explained that the bill was brought to her by a woman in her community in the wake of a “horrific incident,” involving a dog named Dexter. Dexter, adopted from the Pinellas County Animal Shelter, was found shortly after beheaded in the Fort De Soto State Park. Click here to read more.
LOS ANGELES - A soccer coach in Los Angeles is in custody and facing murder charges after a 13-year-old player on his team went missing last month.
Authorities recovered the body of Oscar “Omar” Hernandez a few days after he disappeared.
Police arrested Hernandez’ coach, 43-year-old Mario Garcia Aquino, last Wednesday for a different crime, but prosecutors explained on Monday what led them to charge him with murder.
“The charges allege that Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino on that date of March 28, 2025, murdered Omar Hernandez in Lancaster,” Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said on Monday. “Mr. Garcia Aquino was his soccer coach and on that day, Omar Hernandez went up to Lancaster to see Mr. Garcia Aquino. Two days later, he was reported missing, and on April 2, 2025, last week, his body was found in Oxnard off a road near Leo Carrillo State Beach.”
It is unclear how the teen died. Click here to read more.
SCOTTSVILLE, Mich. — Emergency crews were called to a fire with people trapped inside an apartment building late Monday when Mason County law enforcement arrived and quickly jumped into action.
The Mason County Sheriff’s Department shared body cam video of the incident on its Facebook page Tuesday, April 8 . The call came at around 9:50 p.m. Monday, April 7, at Glendale Apartments in the city of Scottsville.
Police said two Mason County patrol deputies were the first to arrive at 9:51 p.m. and found individuals trapped on second-floor balconies. Several residents were ultimately treated at the scene by LIFE EMS and at Corewell Hospital , police said, and no fatalities were reported.
In the video shared on social media, an official identified as Sgt. Adam Claveau can be seen asking a resident to pass their child down from the second story before rushing back to his vehicle and backing up an agency pickup truck to reach them. Click here to read more.
Three and a half years ago I contracted Guillain Barre Syndrome after getting the Jansen-J&J viral vector vaccine for COVID-19. The neurological disorder has left me hobbled by numb hands and feet, staggering around imbalanced, and battling debilitating fatigue. It has also left me, and thousands of others, feeling ignored and unheard by the government and the public health establishment.
I wrote about the experience in 2021 in The Boston Globe, after the FDA attached a warning to the J&J shot, citing an unacceptable occurrence of this adverse effect. At the time, I bemoaned that it was so difficult to talk about vaccine side effects and argued that government and public health officials should just face up to them honestly. People could handle the truth, I said, and everyone would benefit because acknowledging those rare occasions when things go wrong would allow vaccine makers to design a better product.
Three years later, that still hasn’t happened. Public health officials, cowed by the anti-vax crowd, stuck to the line that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. And an existing system to address people injured by vaccines, established under President Ronald Reagan, has been all but abandoned.
