A federal judge ruled Monday against a California school district’s policy ordering teachers to hide kids’ transgender identities from their parents, in a ruling that a lawyer hails as the definitive end to gender secrecy policies in the Golden State. “The court has fully and permanently dismantled gender secrecy policies across the state of California,” Paul Jonna, a partner at LiMandri and Jonna LLP and special counsel to the Thomas More Society, told The Daily Signal on Tuesday. The office of Attorney General Rob Bonta, D-Calif., told The Daily Signal that it filed an application to stay the injunction. “We believe that the district court misapplied the law and that the decision will ultimately be reversed on appeal,” the AG’s office said. “We are committed to securing school environments that allow transgender students to safely participate as their authentic selves while recognizing the important role that parents play in students’ lives.” Jonna represents Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, two teachers who sued their Escondido Union School District over Administrative Regulation 5145.3. The policy mandates that teachers and school staff will immediately accept a student’s expressed gender identity and bars teachers from revealing the student’s claimed gender identity to parents or guardians unless the student consents to notifying them. The teachers sued, claiming the policy violates their First Amendment right of free exercise of religion by forcing them to lie or face punishment. Transgender advocates claim that revealing a student’s transgender identity to his or her parents might endanger the student, because parents might disagree, and such disagreement might lead the student to self-harm, even suicide. There is little evidence that “affirming” a transgender identity leads to lower suicide rates, though the Food and Drug Administration has documented a higher suicide risk for those undergoing sex-rejecting procedures. Judge Roger T. Benitez in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California ruled in favor of the teachers and issued a class-wide permanent injunction blocking the Escondido Union School District, the state superintendent, and other officials from enforcing the gender secrecy policy. Benitez ruled that the “parental exclusion” policy creates a “trifecta of harm:” harming the child who needs parental guidance; harming the parents by depriving them of their rights to care, guide, and make health care decisions for their children; and harming teachers by forcing them to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs and forcing them to conceal information. The judge cited nine Supreme Court rulings declaring that “parents have a right, grounded in the Constitution, to direct the education, health, and upbringing, and to maintain the well-being of, their children.” ?PERMANENT INJUNCTIONHere's the class-action order in Mirabelli v. Olson, a key parental rights case. The judge blocked the California Department of Education from enforcing policies hiding students' gender identity from parents. pic.twitter.com/plL69Ccm5S— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) December 23, 2025 Will the AG Appeal? Jonna, the teachers’ attorney, acknowledged that Bonta might appeal the ruling, and he expressed hope that Bonta would do so. “After the California attorney general appeals the ruling, it is bound to set national precedent—ending these dangerous and unconstitutional policies nationwide,” the lawyer told The Daily Signal. Benitez had previously ruled in favor of the teachers in September 2023, but Bonta directed school districts to adopt gender secrecy policies, citing a state court ruling in an entirely different case. In July 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, signed AB 1955, which bans the few school policies that required schools to notify parents about their minor children’s “gender identity” changes. The bill went into effect in January. The U.S. Department of Education under President Donald Trump launched an investigation into the California Department of Education in March, examining whether the gender secrecy policies violated the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act. FERPA gives parents the right to access their children’s educational data. Gender Secrecy Policies “California officials should have seen the writing on the wall years ago and abandoned these policies,” Jonna told The Daily Signal. “No reasonable person believes that a young child should be able to socially transition in secret. No reasonable person believes that teachers should be forced to participate in the deception of parents.” “This ruling restores sanity, common sense, and the rule of law to our school system,” the attorney added. “It will also help prevent future harm to vulnerable children experiencing gender confusion. As experts on both sides of the case acknowledged, leaving parents out of these critical decisions is harmful to children. The only people that benefit by these unlawful policies are political activists—and this ruling dismantles the dangerous system they sought to impose on us all.” “We are profoundly grateful for today’s ruling,” Mirabelli and West, the teachers in the case, said in a joint statement Monday. “We loved our jobs, our students, and the school communities we served,” they added. “But we were forced into an impossible position when school officials demanded that we lie to parents—violating not only our faith, but also the trust that must exist between teachers and families. No educator should ever be placed in that situation.” The California Department of Education declined to comment on “pending litigation,” suggesting it may be considering appealing the decision. Neither Newsom nor the Escondido Union School District responded to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment by publication time. Mirabelli v OlsonDownload The post Federal Judge ‘Fully and Permanently Dismantled Gender Secrecy Policies’ in California appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released the latest edition of his annual “Festivus” report Tuesday detailing over $1 trillion in alleged wasteful spending in the U.S. government throughout 2025. The newly released report found an estimated $1,639,135,969,608 total in government waste over the past year. Paul, a prominent fiscal hawk who serves as the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement that “no matter how much taxpayer money Washington burns through, politicians can’t help but demand more.” “Fiscal responsibility may not be the most crowded road, but it’s one I’ve walked year after year — and this holiday season will be no different,” Paul continued. “So, before we get to the Feats of Strength, it’s time for my Airing of (Spending) Grievances.” That’s why every year I compile a Festivus waste report. If you want to read it all, visit https://t.co/mMKrupLgf7. But I’ll tell you about some of my favorites here: pic.twitter.com/2X2TjErqjJ— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2025 The 2025 “Festivus” report highlighted a spate of instances of wasteful spending from the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent $1.5 million on an “innovative multilevel strategy” to reduce drug use in “Latinx” communities through celebrity influencer campaigns, and also dished out $1.9 million on a “hybrid mobile phone family intervention” aiming to reduce childhood obesity among Latino families living in Los Angeles County. The report also mentions that HHS spent more than $40 million on influencers to promote getting vaccinated against COVID-19 for racial and ethnic minority groups. The State Department doled out $244,252 to Stand for Peace in Islamabad to produce a television cartoon series that teaches children in Pakistan how to combat climate change and also spent $1.5 million to promote American films, television shows and video games abroad, according to the report. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) spent more than $1,079,360 teaching teenage ferrets to binge drink alcohol this year, according to Paul’s report.  The report found that the National Science Foundation (NSF) shelled out $497,200 on a “Video Game Challenge” for kids. The NSF and other federal agencies also paid $14,643,280 to make monkeys play a video game in the style of the “Price Is Right,” the report states. Paul’s 2024 “Festivus” report similarly featured several instances of wasteful federal government spending, such as a Las Vegas pickleball complex and a cabaret show on ice.  The Trump administration has been attempting to uproot wasteful government spending and reduce the federal workforce this year. The administration’s cuts have shrunk the federal workforce to the smallest level in more than a decade, according to recent economic data. Festivus is a humorous holiday observed annually on Dec. 23, dating back to a popular 1997 episode of the sitcom “Seinfeld.” Observance of the holiday notably includes an “airing of grievances,” per the “Seinfeld” episode of its origin. Originally published by the Daily Caller The post Here Are Some of the Wackiest Things Featured In Rand Paul’s New Report Alleging $1,639,135,969,608 In Gov’t Waste appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Canadian Judge Reduces Sentence for Multiple Rapist Because He Is a Black Immigrant

The walls are “caving in” on Democrat Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) announced Friday, updating his committee’s probe of the billion-dollar fraud scandal uncovered in the state. In an interview on Fox News Channel, Chairman Comer identified the state whistleblowers who exposed the fraud as “the most important people” he expects to testify before Congress. After Gov. Walz ignored their warnings “for years,” they’ve now stepped forward to alert the entire country of the fraud that was taking place, Comer said: "The most important people are the state whistleblowers, the state employees who put that tweet out that we all are familiar with, a few weeks ago, that alerted America to the massive fraud. “These state employees also alleged that they had warned both Governor Walz and attorney general Ellison for years that this fraud was occurring and yet nothing was taking place. “So, we are going to bring the state employees in. We are going to get their sworn testimony. We appreciate their bravery in coming forward.” “We’re also going to bring in state lawmakers and Minnesota mayors – because the walls are caving in on Tim Walz,” the Oversight chairman said, explaining the harm the fraud inflicted on Minnesota’s citizens: “This massive amount of fraud is affecting and impacting every citizen in Minnesota because they’re having to cut services because so much of the money for social programs was wasted and defrauded by this Somali population.” Comer detailed a plan to “follow the money,” then identify and hold accountable those responsible for the fraud: “We’re going to try to identify who was responsible for this. We’re going to try to identify banks that we can subpoena their bank records so we can follow the money to see how much was taken, who took it, and then who do we need to hold accountable and hopefully we’ll have some criminal referrals at the end of the investigation.” Because Walz ignored warnings, refused to hold the fraudsters accountable and won’t accept responsibility, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Kelly Loeffler said Friday that she is ending funding to his state. “Today, I informed Governor Tim Walz that SBA is halting $5.5 million in annual funding to Minnesota pending further review,” Loeffler announced in a social media post sharing her letter to Walz and describing millions of dollars of additional potential fraud: “This action follows alarming findings: individuals indicted in the $1 billion Somali fraud scheme also received at least $3 million in PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans, and SBA has since identified 13,600 additional PPP loans in Minnesota - totaling $430 million - suspected as fraudulent.” “With dozens of investigations underway, the conclusion is unavoidable: Minnesota cannot be trusted to administer federal tax dollars,” the SBA administrator concluded. “Its socialist welfare system has enabled fraud at industrial scale, at the expense of honest Americans - and these are the consequences.” Read more: pic.twitter.com/EBgSjmBq7q — Kelly Loeffler (@SBA_Kelly) December 23, 2025  

On Monday night, the now-infamous 60 Minutes segment pulled by editor-in-chief Bari Weiss seemed to have self-deported and aired up in Canada on Global TV, one of its broadcast networks. With it now available to the masses (thanks to social media), we can now give it a full viewing and not a she-said, she-said between Weiss and correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. Spoiler alert: the piece was biased as hell, lacking the balance and nuance Weiss asked for. Between the two sympathetic interview subjects, the use of a far-left so-called human rights group, lying about the administration’s lack of responses to comment requests, and chatting it up with Berkeley students, Alfonsi’s piece had it all. Alfonsi opened with snide commentaries and lamenting the two interviewed “described torture, sexual, and physical abuse inside CENCOT”: The Sharyn Alfonsi piece on CECOT was biased as hell and par for the course from the show @theMRC penned a special report on back in the Obama years called Syrupy Minutes. Alfonsi started with zero attempt at explaining the administration’s position, using a throwaway sentence… pic.twitter.com/rwj10lzajT — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 23, 2025   The person above was Luis Munoz Pinto, whom Alfonsi said is a Colombian national and “was a college student in repressive Venezuela and hoped to seek asylum in the United States in 2024,” and “waited in Mexico until his scheduled appointment with U.S. Customs and Border Protection in California,” which she said was merely CBP arresting Pinto and shipping him off to hell. Asked if he had a criminal record, Pinto insisted he had “nothing” and not “even...a traffic ticket,” which was enough for Alfonsi to declare him squeaky clean. “He says he spent six months locked up in the U.S. waiting for a decision on his asylum case when he was deported, one of 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT between March and April. Inside, he says their hands and feet were tied, forced to their knees, their heads were shaved,” she added. What followed were more soundbites from Pinto (who, of course, didn’t speak any English): PINTO [VOICE OF TRANSLATOR]: There was blood everywhere, screams, people crying, people who couldn’t take it and were urinating and vomiting on themselves. When you get there, you already know you’re in hell. You don’t need anyone else to tell you. ALFONSI: He says the guards began savagely beating them with their fists and batons. [TO PINTO] Tell me about what they did to you personally. PINTO [VOICE OF TRANSLATOR]: Four guards grabbed me and they beat me until I bled to the point of agony. They knocked our faces against the wall. That was when they broke one of my teeth. Having led with the shock value to degrade the administration, Alfonsi finally gave backstory to “CECOT...build in 2022 as a key part of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s sweeping anti-gang crackdown” and “designed to hold 40,000 inmates” with “cramped cells where metal bunks are stacked four high” plus “no mattresses or sheets” or “access to the outdoors.” Predictably holding up the Biden administration’s denunciations of CECOT and Bukele being granted an April visit to the White House, Alfonsi conceded the U.S. had sent illegal immigrants there as part of “a deal to pay El Salvador $4.7 million to house Venezuelan deportees[.]” In this portion of the story was what Alfonsi probably thought passed as presenting the other side as she ran sound of President Trump from Bukele’s April 14 visit as well as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defending the CECOT deal on April 17. Later in the story, she claimed “[t]he Department of Homeland Security declined our request for an interview and referred all questions about CECOT to El Salvador,” but Axios’s Sara Fischer reported Monday night that the “[White House], State Dept and DHS all provided on record comment in response to CBS News journalists’ request for comment ahead of the segment.” Seeing as how “[n]one of those comments made the air,” we can say Alfonsi and her team are guilty of a pants-on-fire lie. Instead, Alfonsi gave wide latitude to an Americas expert with the Soros-funded Human Rights Watch, which are the same people who want you to believe Gazans are the ones being slaughtered in a genocide by Israelis, not the other way around (click “expand”): ALFONSI [TO PAPPIER]: The U.S. government said these people are the worst of the worst. PAPPIER: These people are migrants, and the sad reality is that the U.S. government tried to make an example out of them. They sent them to a place where they were likely to be tortured, to send migrants across Latin America the message that they should not come to the United States. ALFONSI: Juan Pappier is a deputy director at the nonprofit Human Rights Watch. In an 81-page report released in November, the organization concluded there was systematic torture and other abuses at SCOTT, and that nearly half of the Venezuelans the U.S. sent there had no criminal history. Only eight of the men had been convicted of a violent or potentially violent offense. [TO PAPPIER] How do you know they weren’t gang members? PAPPIER: We cross referenced federal databases, databases in all 50 states in the United States, and also obtained criminal records in Venezuela and in the countries where these people lived. And the information we obtained in the United States is based on data provided by ICE. ALFONSI [TO PAPPIER]: So, ICE’s own records said? PAPPIER: ICE’s own records say that only three precent of them had been sentenced for a violent or potentially violent crime. ALFONSI: 60 Minutes reviewed the available ICE data. It confirms the findings of Human Rights Watch. It shows 70 men had pending criminal charges in the U.S., which could include immigration violations. We don’t know because the Department of Homeland Security has never released a complete list of the names or criminal histories of the men it sent to CECOT. Rapid deportations have been a key part of the Trump administration’s immigration overhaul. The administration considers anyone who crosses the border illegally to be a criminal. Illegal crossings are now at a historic low, but some immigration attorneys say the administration has used flawed criteria to justify deportations. Following some translator-aided sound from their second tailor-made case of injustice and disturbing allegations of having his genitals twisted, Alfonsi huffed about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s spring visit to CECOT with gang members behind her in prison cells. On this, Weiss called out there tiny snippet as incomplete: “We can report that she took pictures and video there with MS-13 gang members, not TdA members, with no comment from her or her staff about what her goal on that trip was, or what she saw there, or if she had or has concerns about the treatment of detainees like the ones in our piece.” The liberal media defenders out there think allowing such odious figures the chance to explain themselves isn’t journalism but open partisanship. Alfonsi further showed her cards in how this story was laundered through both this Soros group and students at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center and their lefty adviser Alexa Koenig. She teamed up with the second group to play amateur Sherlock Holmes (click “expand”): This is the portion of the CECOT ‘60 Minutes’ piece that Bari Weiss seems to have had the most issues with, specifically two things.... 1. She wrote Alfonsi and her team she was using months-old soundbites of President Trump and @KarolineLeavitt when they should have sought… pic.twitter.com/TBYnrdAHiS — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 23, 2025   ALFONSI [TO PAPPIER]: There were men standing behind her, heavily tattooed. Who are those men? Do we know? PAPPIER: We know that those men in her video are not Venezuelans. They are Salvadorans probably accused of being gang leaders, and probably people who have been in jail for many, many years in El Salvador. ALFONSI: Human Rights Watch was able to confirm that with the help of this intrepid team of students at UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center. UC BERKELEY STUDENT #1: All the visible men have either an MS on their chest or a 13 or an ES for El Salvador, and all those gangs are associated with El Salvador. ALFONSI [TO UC BERKELEY STUDENT #1]: Not the Venezuelans? UC BERKELEY STUDENT #1: Yeah ALFONSI: To help verify the deportees’ stories for Human Rights Watch, the team of students combed through open source data for weeks. Students are trained in advanced techniques and follow strict international standards for obtaining digital evidence that can be used in courts. Analyzing satellite imagery, they mapped the prison, and identified the building where the Venezuelans were held. And remember all those influencers who filmed inside CECOT? One toured an isolation cell. These are the rooms of solitary confinement that matched the description of the so-called island where the deportees described being tortured. SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: And they get absolutely nothing to use to sleep or to rest. Just pure concrete. ALFONSI: A show and tell the armory confirmed CECOT had the weapons the Venezuelans say guards used on them. UC BERKELEY STUDENT #2: What we did see in these videos was the use of the Ti batons on prisoners. Additionally, we also saw the use of painful body positions. ALFONSI [TO UC BERKELEY STUDENT #2]: They were showing that off in the videos? UC BERKELEY STUDENT #2: And they do that. It’s sort of a practice. ALFONSI: But it was this interview with the prison warden that proved to be most helpful. CECOT PRISON WARDEN [VOICE OF TRANSLATOR]: The light system is 24 hours a day. UC BERKELEY STUDENT #2: One of the questions that we had was, are the lights on 24/7? He said, yes, they are. So, he’s talking about how hot it can get in the prison. So, there’s this sort of Pride around the poor conditions and around the suffering. ALFONSI: Using extreme temperatures or light to disorient inmates is also prohibited under UN standards. HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER CO-FACULTY DIRECTOR ALEXA KOENIG: I think one of the things that the work of this team has really shown is that a lot of these stories can be believed. ALFONSI: Alexa Koenig is the director of Berkeley’s Investigations Lab, which trains students to research war crimes and human rights violations, KOENIG: And it’s those little details that I think then if you can bring that together with the physical evidence, I think you have the strongest possible case for accountability, whether it’s in court of public opinion or at some point in a court of law. Weiss tore into this field trip in her email: “I also think that the ensuing analysis form the Berkeley students is strange. The pictures are alarming; we should include them. But what does the analysis add?” Having wasted over 13 minutes of our time on a grim prison at least some Americans are unlikely to shed any tears over, Alfonsi offered the lie about DHS ignoring her and ended by revealing 252 Venezuelan men who spent time at CECOT were released and “sent back to Caracas in exchange for 10 Americans that had been imprisoned in Venezuela” while other illegal immigrants could be deported “to other so-called third countries” with “well-documented histories of torturing prisoners.” To see the relevant transcript from Global TV on December 22, click here.

Three males — ages 8, 11, 12 — were arrested Saturday after stealing a car, leading cops on a chase, and crashing into a home, police in Newburgh Heights, Ohio, told Blaze News. Newburgh Heights is about 12 minutes southeast of Cleveland.Police said officers received an alert just before 3 p.m. from its Flock Safety license plate readers about a stolen car driving westbound on Harvard Avenue around East 54th Street.The 11-year-old stated that 'something just came over his body, and he could not control it, he needed to take the car,' police said.A Newburgh Heights officer spotted the vehicle and attempted a traffic stop, but the driver fled from officers, police said.The vehicle crashed into a home where three juveniles fled on foot, police said.RELATED: After HS hallway bump, Florida 15-year-old to be tried as an adult for allegedly shooting 16-year-old dead Image source: Newburgh Heights (Ohio) PoliceOfficers quickly apprehended the occupants of the car and discovered that they were ages 8, 11, and 12, police said, adding that officers later determined the 11-year-old was the driver.Police bodycam video shows the arresting officer drawing his gun on the 8-year-old and the 11-year-old males, who were cowering against a fence, and ordering them on their stomachs. One can be heard whimpering.RELATED: 11-year-old arrested for alleged 'kill list' at Florida school — just 2 weeks after similar incident in same school Image source: Newburgh Heights (Ohio) Police bodycam video screenshotSoon the 12-year-old is seen approaching the officer, who orders him on the ground as well.RELATED: Males — ages 11, 13, and 15 — took video of themselves in car purposely hitting 63-year-old bike rider who was killed: Cops Image source: Newburgh Heights (Ohio) Police bodycam video screenshotOne of the males can be heard moaning that "I'm going to jail!" and "I'm sorry!"As other officers arrive, one can be heard saying, "You should've thought about that before you got in the car." He added, "And you suck at driving." All three were placed in handcuffs.The 12-year-old — who was wearing a gray hoodie adorned ironically with the words "Essentials: Fear of God" on the back — appeared to giggle and tell another male that "you gotta laugh."RELATED: Cops arrest 6 children — ages just 11 to 14 — after 3 armed robberies, 2 crashes on interstate highway Image source: Newburgh Heights (Ohio) Police bodycam video screenshotAn officer yanked him away from the fence and said, "Real funny, ain't it." He replied, "No, ma'am."Police said they were seeking the following charges against the 11-year-old driver: failure to comply with order or signal of police officer and receiving stolen property. Police said they were seeking the following charges against the 8-year-old and 12-year-old: obstructing official business and receiving stolen property.RELATED: 4 more girls — just 11 to 14 years old — arrested for beating woman in DC; all 6 suspects now charged with hate crimes: Cops According to police, the juveniles stated they went to a store and saw "this car sitting there." The 11-year-old stated that "something just came over his body, and he could not control it, he needed to take the car," police said.The 11-year-old said he and the 12-year-old "knew how to steal a car" from YouTube, police said.RELATED: Gut-wrenching video shows thugs beating up crying boy, 12, even pulling off his pants; 5 charged — all age 13 or younger Image source: Newburgh Heights (Ohio) Police"All three boys stated that they know right from wrong and admitted what they did was wrong," police said. "While in our custody, they were concerned about how this would affect Santa coming to bring them presents."Police added that at one point, one of the juveniles said "he knew because of what they did he was going to get coal for Christmas."The juveniles were released to their parents pending the filing of criminal charges in juvenile court, police said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A Pennsylvania woman says she was forced to get food assistance benefits after being fired from her job as a school bus driver over a "racially insensitive" sign.Diane Crawford, 66, told WHP-TV that she put up the sign because she thought it would help stop bullying on her bus.'I don't know what else to do. I'm on Medicare and Medicaid now and SNAP. ... I had to go on antidepressants because of this.'"Out of respect to English-only students, there will be no speaking Spanish on this bus," the note read.Crawford worked for the Juniata County School District as a bus driver for three decades, including the last 12 years when she became a self-employed owner and operator.She says her supervisor called her over the note and canceled the contract."I don't know what else to do. I'm on Medicare and Medicaid now and SNAP," Crawford said. "I had to go on antidepressants because of this."She also claims that she wasn't allowed to explain why she wrote the note. It was meant as a warning to a bilingual child who had been riling up students in Spanish, according to Crawford. She suggested the student was bullying her as well as the other students. "I didn't know if he was bullying somebody, telling them to do something that they shouldn't do," Crawford said. "I thought I heard him saying, 'Gordo,' and — I understand some of (the words) — I don't know who he was talking to, but I assume he is directing at me.""Gordo" in Spanish means "fat."She has filed a lawsuit asking for $30,000 for the bus and the route she purchased in 2024."I would like them to admit that they were wrong," she added. "I don't want to be in debt because what they did was wrong."On Sunday, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said her office was investigating the incident."This is deeply concerning. I have directed ⁦[the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ] to open an investigation into this situation implicating DEI wokeness," she posted on social media.RELATED: Activists rage over racist vandalism at a high school. The district says a black student was caught committing the hoax. The school district and Rohrer Bus Service released a statement to address the incident."Following the incident in question, the District and Rohrer jointly reviewed the situation in accordance with established procedures," the joint statement reads. "The investigation concluded after the subcontractor provided a written admission confirming that the signage had been installed on her bus. At that point, the relevant facts of the situation were fully known and discussed among District and Rohrer leadership."They said they determined Crawford had violated the "standards and expectations" for drivers and expressed a commitment to providing a "safe and inclusive transportation environment" for all students.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

SAMMArchaeologists first explored the Neolithic ruins found near Brittany in 2022. Marine archaeologists in France have discovered the underwater ruins of massive stone structures dating back to at least 5300 B.C.E. off the coast of Brittany. These ruins are among the oldest large stone structures ever found in France. The research team, which published its findings in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, furthermore thinks that the ruins may have come from a Stone Age civilization that inspired a local legend about an ancient sunken city known as Ys. The Discovery Of Massive Submerged Ruins Off The Coast Of Brittany The 7,000-year-old submerged granite ruins vary in size, the largest of which is a wall that’s 394 feet long and was likely used as a fish trap or a dyke to shield against rising sea levels, archaeologists said. On average, the wall is around 65 feet wide and protrudes about six feet upward from the seafloor. When it was constructed, however, it would have been on the shoreline of Sein Island – where the ruins were found, along Brittany’s western tip – between the low and high tide marks. As the island has shrunk over the centuries, the ruins now sit below 30 feet of water. The wall is also marked by stone monoliths at regular intervals, which could support the fish trap hypothesis, if the standing stones were meant to hold nets in place. Whatever their purpose, the existence of these structures raises intriguing questions about the people who built them. “It was built by a very structured society of hunter-gatherers, of a kind that became sedentary when resources permitted. That or it was made by one of the Neolithic populations that arrived here around 5,000 B.C.E.,” archaeologist Yvan Pailler told the BBC. Breton legends about sunken cities were fairly common in ancient times, but the ruins suggest that these legends may have had some basis in reality. “It is likely that the abandonment of a territory developed by a highly structured society has become deeply rooted in people’s memories,” the researchers wrote in their paper. As sea levels rose rapidly and people were forced to abandon their settlements, they may very well have spread the story. An ancient game of telephone could have then warped the truth of that story into something more fantastical over time. SAMMThe ruins may have partly inspired legends about the Lost City of Ys. “Legends about sunken cities, compared with recent data on rising sea levels, shows that the stories of ancient submergences, passed down by oral tradition, could date back as far as 5,000 to 15,000 years,” the researchers noted. “This suggests that oral traditions that may have preserved significant events in memory that could well be worthy of scientific examination. These settlements described in legend reveal the profound symbolic significance of maritime prehistory, which should not be overlooked.” Some of the most popular tales of sunken cities in Brittany involve the Lost City of Ys, which is thought to be located in the Bay of Douarnenez, roughly six miles east of Sein Island. The new findings could provide reason to re-evaluate those legends, however, with new insight into their origins. And it’s all thanks to a chance discovery made by one geologist. How LiDAR Data Offered The First Hints Of This Ancient Discovery Local geologist Yves Fouquet had been studying undersea depth charts created by the Litto3D program, which collected and compiled LiDAR data from the region, when he first noticed hints of the long-lost structures on the seafloor. SAMMThe purpose of the stones remains a mystery, with experts theorizing that they could be anything from border markers to dykes to fish traps. In 2022, Fouquet and colleagues made their first trip to the region, but an overgrowth of seaweed halted their progress. They returned the following winter, once the seaweed had died off, to examine the wall properly. After confirming the existence of the structure, they began to map out locations and carried out dozens of dives between 2022 and 2024. “The detailed analysis of these maps to redraw the underwater geological map of this area (faults, rock types) has made it possible to identify structures that did not appear natural to a geologist,” Fouquet told 404 Media. The team also noted that these megalithic structures could predate some of the other ancient megaliths found on the European continent by about 500 years. While more research is needed to fully explain the significance of this find, it is already opening new lines of inquiry for historians looking into ancient European life. In particular, researchers plan to explore any religious or symbolic meanings behind such structures as well as any possible connections to any fabled lost cities of the ancient past. After reading about this discovery off the coast of Brittany, learn all about the legend of the sunken city of Atlantis. Then, explore 13 other sunken cities from around the world. The post Scientists Believe They’ve Uncovered The 7,000-Year-Old Ruins Of What May Be A Lost City Off The Coast Of France appeared first on All That's Interesting.

The Color Derple: Tim Walz Laughably Plays the ‘White Supremacy’ Card on JD ‘Mixed Marriage’ Vance

Minneapolis Posts Downloadable Signs for Property Owners to Post Banning Immigration Enforcement