The U.S. Department of Education released a "Dear Colleague" letter last week that warns schools not to attempt retaliation against anyone who alleges the institution is committing a civil rights violation. The letter references both students or staff who might file a federal complaint that prompts an investigation by the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, as well as those who just bring potential violations to the school's attention. "Discriminatory practices are often only raised and remedied when students, parents, teachers, coaches, and others can report such practices to school administrators without the fear of retaliation," wrote Seth M. Galanter, acting assistant secretary for civil rights. "Individuals should be commended when they raise concerns about compliance with the federal civil rights laws, not punished for doing so." Violations for retaliation, the letter states, include withholding federal money from the institution or referring the case to the U.S. Department of Justice. The letter does not enact any new law, just clarifies existing federal rules. In recent months, students and faculty at several U.S. colleges have filed federal complaints with the OCR, alleging unlawful handling of sexual assault reports on campus. Landen Gambill, one of the student complainants against the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, said she was subject to retaliation when she was charged with an honor code violation for "intimidating" her alleged rapist, even though she had never revealed his name. UNC denied the proceeding was in retaliation for her involvement in a complaint against the school for its handling of her case, but the charges were subsequently withdrawn after Gambill filed an additional complaint. Part of a federal complaint from students, faculty and alumni at Occidental College alleges the administration retaliated against people who protested the school's sexual violence policies. Students were not given jobs at the college, for example, because of their protest against the college's policies, their complaint said. The Education Department has vowed to "vigorously enforce this prohibition against retaliation," and said it will determine "which remedies, including monetary relief, are appropriate based on the facts presented in each specific case." Kent D. Talbert, a former general counsel of the Education Department, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he questioned whether the agency has the authority to provide any "monetary relief." "It certainly sounds in the language of damages," Talbert told the Chronicle, "that they're going to sit as a judge somehow and assess some kind of fine or penalty ... I would certainly question their authority to do that."

David Catron, The American SpectatorIn the lore of the ancient Romans, Horatius was a soldier who single-handedly fought off an invading army. The Etruscans had attacked in order to impose a despot on Rome and, by holding them back while his comrades destroyed the bridge that was the only practical route to the city, this single warrior saved the free republic. Obamacare is certainly the bridge via which the forces of despotism plan to “fundamentally transform” the United States, and a decorated Iraq veteran named Matt Sissel may be the Horatius who prevents them from crossing.This 32-year-old artist,...

Roger Kimball, PJ MediaFear. Horror. Disgust. For me, that melancholy trinity defines the response to latest act of Islamic terrorism on U.S. soil, the hideous bombings at the Boston Marathon just over a week ago that left 3 dead and more than 260 injured (at least 15 were in critical condition).Let’s start with the horror.Martin Richard, age 8, was near the finish line watching the race with his family when one of the bombs detonated. He was killed by the blast, which riddled his body with shrapnel. His younger sister Jane lost a leg. That’s easy to say, isn’t it? “Lost a...

Jason Collins & Franz Lidz, Sports IllustratedI'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay.I didn't set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I'm happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, "I'm different." If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand.My journey of self-discovery and self-acknowledgement began in my hometown of Los Angeles and has taken me through two state high school championships, the...

Marc Rotenberg, CNN(CNN) -- Last week Germany levied a fine against Google for one of the biggest wiretapping violations in history. The fine? Less than $200,000. Google's net profits in 2012? More than $10 billion. Imagine a driver of a fancy car caught for speeding and then asked to pay a nickel. Google got off easier.Over several years and in countries around the world, Google drove cars with cameras mounted on the roof through communities and residential neighborhoods. Google said that it was gathering images to improve its "Street View" mapping program. But Google was also secretly...

Albert Hunt, BloombergThe 100-day mark is a measure for first-term presidents, not re-elected ones. Yet the end of April is a propitious moment for an early evaluation of how President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are meeting the aspirations set out in January. The answer: Both are falling short.

The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Kirsten Gillibrand says one in five military women, 3 percent of men, have unwanted sexual contact In an interview with MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand offered a striking statistic about sexual misconduct in the military. "We've had sexual assaults in the military forever," Gillibrand said on April 23, 2013, but "a new report the DOD published found is that one in five ... women are receiving unwanted sexual contact, but also 3.3 percent of men." We wondered if Gillibrand -- who is sponsoring legislation on the matter -- was reporting the numbers accurately. The report Gillibrand mentioned is the Health-Related Behaviors Survey of Active Duty Military Personnel ... >> More

Christopher Thompson, New Hampshire Union Leader

Joel Kotkin, New GeographyAs a Truman-style Democrat left politically homeless, I am often asked about the future of the Republican Party. Some Republicans want to push racial buttons on issues like immigration, or try to stop their political slide on gay marriage, which will steepen as younger people replace older people in the voting booth. Others think pure market-oriented principles will, somehow, win the day. Ron Paul did best among younger Republican voters in the primaries.Yes, ideas do matter, but a simple defense of free markets is not likely to have broad-enough appeal. What Republicans need is a...

States are drastically underfunding programs for their youngest learners now more than ever, according to a report released Monday, even as researchers and policymakers increasingly point to pre-school as a ladder to the middle class. Funding per student for state pre-school programs has reached its lowest point in a decade, according to "The State of Preschool 2012," the annual yearbook released by Rutgers University's National Institute for Early Education Research. "The 2011-2012 school year was the worst in a decade for progress in access to high-quality pre-K for America’s children," the authors wrote. After a decade of increasing enrollment, that growth stalled, according to the report. Though the 2011-2012 school year marks the first time pre-K enrollment didn't increase along with the rate of population change. "The state of preschool was a state of emergency" in 2012, said Steve Barnett, NIEER's director. Between the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years, pre-K spending on state programs dropped by more than $548 million overall, and $442 per student (to $3,841) when adjusted for inflation, according to the report. This means state pre-K funding per child has fallen more than $1,100 in real dollars from 2001-2002. "That's the lowest since we've been tracking pre-K," Barnett said. He called the cuts "severe" and "unprecedented." This is the first time NIEER has seen average, per-student spending slip below $4,000. The data shows a situation so dire that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and American Federation of Teachers union president Randi Weingarten are expected to discuss NIEER's findings at a Monday event. "Our youngest learners will not be college- and career-ready if we slash preschool dollars," Duncan has said of the cuts. Early childhood education has been tied to better life outcomes. In 2012, several police chiefs highlighted the need for more and better preschool as a tool for long-term crime reduction. University of Chicago professor James Heckman, a Nobel prize-winning economist, has demonstrated that every dollar spent on quality early childhood education yields a 7 to 10 percent return on investment as students graduate and begin contributing to the economy. And the NIEER report comes as President Barack Obama tries his hand at a dramatic expansion of preschool programs, as first reported by HuffPost in January. In Obama's 2014 budget, the administration proposed "Preschool for All," a plan that would incentivize state spending on "high-quality" pre-K slots for 4-year-olds living below 200 percent of the poverty line by providing matching federal funds, paid for in part by an increase in the tobacco tax. But insiders expect the proposal to have little political momentum: Already, the tobacco industry is rebelling against the proposed tax hike. And the program comes with a hefty price tag of $75 billion over 10 years -- without the tobacco money, it's unlikely that a snip-happy and polarized Congress would fund it. While some governors, both Democrats and Republicans, have expressed support for raising pre-school dollars, the NIEER numbers show that it will take a big boost to dig out of the current funding gap. "States need to right the balance in terms of the tradeoffs they make between enrollment and providing enough money to make a preschool experience really meaningful," Barnett said. In 2012, according to the report, state preschool programs served 1.1 million children at age 4, or just 28 percent of all 4-year-olds. Enrollment did not keep up with population growth, and 16 states reduced pre-K enrollment. Meanwhile, funding declined in 27 of the 40 states with pre-K programs; in 13 states, it fell by 10 percent or more. States that cut the most money per student between 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 include Rhode Island, which cut $2,419 per pupil; Connecticut, which cut $1,268; California, which cut $1,009; and Maryland and Georgia, which both cut around $945. In Florida, funding levels have "fallen so low as to bring into question the effectiveness of their programs by any reasonable standard," the report's authors wrote. "While much of the economy is now recovering from the Great Recession, the nation’s youngest learners are still bearing the brunt of budget cuts." Only 12 states and Washington, D.C. increased pre-K funding per child, and only 15 states and Washington, D.C. met NIEER's preschool quality standards. Low funding, Barnett said, affects quality since states have been shown to skimp on things like visits to monitor preschool programs. "Five states lost out in site visits, which is important," Barnett said. "That really puts quality in jeopardy."

E.J. Dionne, Washington PostWASHINGTON -- The policy mystery of our time is why politicians in the United States and across much of the democratic world are so obsessed with deficits when their primary mission ought to be bringing down high and debilitating rates of unemployment.And since last week saw a cross-party celebration of the opening of George W. Bush's presidential library, I'd add a second mystery: Why is it that conservative Republicans who freely cut taxes while backing two wars in the Bush years started preaching fire on deficits only after a Democrat entered the White House?Here is a clue that...

Michael Barone, Examiner"What difference, at this point, does it make?"That was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's angry response to a question about the State Department's account of the attack on the Benghazi consulate where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were murdered on Sept. 11, 2012.Her response was cheered by leftist commentators on MSNBC. Righteous indignation is so attractive.But of course it makes a difference. Hillary Clinton is leading in polls for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination and general election. It's always legitimate to...

It's been a very bad week for the merchants of austerity. In Europe, the just-released statistics on first quarter performance show EU nations sliding deeper into recession. In Spain and Greece, unemployment rates are approaching a staggering 30 percent. In Britain, the Tory government took as good news the fact that the UK managed to eke out 0.3 percent growth. Even Germany, the prime sponsor of these policies, is on the edge of recession. One nation after another is challenging German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Central Bank, the two lead purveyors of economic pain as the cure for fiscal sin. The governments of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal are pressing Merkel to relent, and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the ultimate weathervane, now says the EU needs to focus on growth instead of belt-tightening. The International Monetary Fund, usually one of the sponsors of fiscal masochism, says Europe is imposing too much pain. Here is the U.S., the first quarter numbers were lousy. The economy grew at a rate of just 2.5 percent, less than forecasters projected, and not enough to improve the unemployment rate or raise wages. Analysts across the spectrum correctly blamed the slowdown on the sequester, which cut the budget by $85 billion this year, on top of the January deal that raised taxes, mostly on workers, by another $200 billion. You don't promote growth by slashing demand. Supposedly, fiscal tightening improves business confidence. But if some entrepreneur somewhere decided to break ground for a new factory because the president and Congress at last cut the budget, nobody could find such a person. Even the Washington Post editorial page, which has long been promoting a budget bargain built on more cuts, warned in its lead Sunday editorial, that austerity is pinching too hard -- in Europe, that is. How about at home? And Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhardt had a really terrible week. Their now infamous 2010 claim that nations get into economic trouble when their debt ratios exceed 90 percent of GDP was blown to hell by a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts. For three years, critics have been pressing R&R to share their raw data. When Thomas Herndon and colleagues Michael Ash and Robert Pollin finally got hold of the research and reworked R&R's numbers, it turned out that they had selectively used data and made basic errors of arithmetic. Far from corroborating R&R's claim that countries with debt ratios above 90 percent have growth significantly lower than those with lower levels, the reworking revealed the opposite. Our finding is that when properly calculated, the average real GDP growth rate for countries carrying a public-debt-to-GDP ratio of over 90 percent is actually 2.2 percent, not 0:1 percent as published in Reinhart and Rogoff. That is, contrary to RR, average GDP growth at public debt/GDP ratios over 90 percent is not dramatically different from when debt/GDP ratios are lower. We also show how the relationship between public debt and GDP growth varies significantly by time period and country. Overall, the evidence we review contradicts Reinhart and Rogoff's claim to have identified an important stylized fact, that public debt loads greater than 90 percent of GDP consistently reduce GDP growth. It turned out that R&R had achieved their results by excluding the post WWII experience when all major Atlantic nations had huge debt ratios but experienced a record boom built on public investment. R&R then compounded the error with spreadsheet mistakes. In an op-ed piece in last Friday's New York Times, the unrepentant authors were stunningly disingenuous. Reinhart and Rogoff contended that the UMass researchers did not overturn their fundamental finding that high debt levels are associated with lower growth. In fact, this is exactly the contention that the reworking demolishes. And then, R&R blithely added the point that the cause and effect can run in either direction -- poor growth can cause a high debt ratio as well as vice versa. Now they tell us! This, of course, is exactly what austerity is producing in Europe, and risks doing in the United States. The more their budgets are cut, the worse the economies of Greece, Spain and Portugal do. If you clobber GDP, the existing debt looms larger and the ratio worsens. In their Times op-ed, R&R were also falsely modest in contending that they are just innocent academic researchers ("We find these attacks a sad commentary on the politicization of social science research") when in fact their work has been cited over and over again by deficit hawks warning of the horrific effects of high public debt with no demurrer from R&R. They did not disclaim the attention when they were invoked as scholarly validators of bad policies, and even in their ivory tower they are surely aware that austerity is a highly charged political debate. What a lame excuse to publish flawed conclusions used to justify flawed policies and then to bemoan the politicization of research. Despite the fact that the cold-bath cure has now been disproven both by events and by corrections of bogus research, the actions of Chancellor Merkel and the budget dance of President Obama and the Republicans are still following their own perverse momentum. Merkel shows no sign of relenting, and Obama keeps pitching a grand bargain that would result in a decade of budget cuts almost double the scale of the sequester -- and thus a decade of needless slow growth and high unemployment. The only good news lately is that President Obama stepped on a progressive hornets' next when he proposed to cut Social Security. Democrats in Congress seem pretty united on the proposition that Social insurance shall not be cut as long as there are tax giveaways for the rich to be reversed. But while it would be an important victory to spare Social Security from the budget axe, it is just as important to spare the larger economy from the even greater folly of austerity as the general cure for recession. Critics of austerity can win the argument based on the facts on the ground, and based on the findings of economic research. But until critics win on the politics, the austerity parade will march grimly on. Robert Kuttner's new book is Debtors' Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility. He is co-editor of The American Prospect and a senior Fellow at Demos. Like Robert Kuttner on Facebook.

With a week left in the legislative session and the outlook still uncertain for Gov. Rick Scott's top priorities, it was time for the governor to apply some pressure.

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - The Pentagon identified four U.S. victims in Saturday's crash of a surveillance aircraft in southern Afghanistan and said the incident appeared unrelated to Taliban violence. The police chief in Zabul province, Rogh Lewanai, told Reuters on Saturday that bad weather caused the plane to crash, in the district of Shahjoi. At the time, NATO did not identify the nationality of the victims but said they were part of NATO's International Security Assistance Force. The Pentagon said on Sunday the crash of the MC-12 was under investigation. Zabul, wedged between Kandahar and Ghazni, has seen much violence in recent weeks, including a suicide bomb attack in early April that killed a young U.S. diplomat, several U.S. soldiers and an unnamed U.S. civilian. Dozens of Afghan civilians also have been killed there this month. The Pentagon said all four victims were airmen: Captain Brandon Cyr, 28, of Woodbridge, Virginia; Captain Reid Nishizuka, 30, of Kailua, Hawaii; Staff Sergeant Daniel Fannin, 30, of Morehead, Kentucky; and Staff Sergeant Richard Dickson, 24, of Rancho Cordova, California. (Reporting by Phil Stewart, additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Amie Ferris-Rotman in Kabul; Editing by Bill Trott)

KABUL, Afghanistan — For more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) rapid ascent to prominence has not been entirely smooth, and Republicans and supporters alike warn that he’ll have to improve his message and the way he communicates it if he hopes to launch a credible campaign in 2016.

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- After struggling to sway both state and federal lawmakers, proponents of expanding background checks for gun sales are now exploring whether they will have more success by taking the issue directly to voters. While advocates generally prefer that new gun laws be passed through the legislative process, especially at the national level, they are also concerned about how much sway the National Rifle Association has with lawmakers. Washington Rep. Jamie Pedersen, a Democrat who had sponsored unsuccessful legislation on background checks at the state level, said a winning ballot initiative would make a statement with broad implications. "It's more powerful if the voters do it – as opposed to our doing it," Pedersen said. "And it would make it easier for the Legislature to do even more." On Monday, proponents of universal background checks in Washington will announce their plan to launch a statewide initiative campaign that would require the collection of some 300,000 signatures, according to a person involved in the initiative planning who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt the official announcement. The Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility has scheduled a fundraiser in Seattle at the end of next month and hopes to have a campaign budget in the millions of dollars. Ballot measures may be an option elsewhere, too. Hildy Saizow, president of Arizonans for Gun Safety, said an initiative is one of the things the group will be considering as it reconsiders strategies. An organizer in Oregon was focused on the Legislature for now but wouldn't rule out a ballot measure in the future if lawmakers fail to pass a proposed bill there. While advocates have had recent success on background checks in places like Connecticut and Colorado, they've been thwarted in some other states and in Congress. The U.S. Senate rejected a plan to expand background checks earlier this month, although lawmakers in the chamber are still working to gather additional votes. Brian Malte, director of mobilization at the national nonprofit lobbying group Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said passage through Congress is the ideal in order to have a national solution and so that states with strong gun laws aren't undermined by nearby states with weaker standards. He noted that initiative campaigns are costly endeavors that can drain important, limited resources. Still, Malte said, the ballot measures are an option to consider. "At some point, certainly decisions need to be made about what the right time is to say we take it to the people," Malte said. Brian Judy, a lobbyist who represents the NRA in Washington state, did not return calls seeking comment about the new initiative. He has previously said the NRA would likely oppose such an effort, arguing that the recently proposed laws on background checks would largely impact law-abiding citizens instead of the intended targets such as criminals and the mentally ill. Gun measures have had mixed results at the ballot. More than 70 percent of Washington state voters rejected a 1997 initiative campaign that would have required handgun owners to pass a safety course. After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, voters in Colorado and Oregon approved ballot measures the next year to require background checks for buying weapons at gun shows. Following another massacre in Colorado earlier this year, state lawmakers approved a bill to expand background checks to private transactions and online purchases. A similar expansion plan in Oregon is stalled in the state Senate. Some states don't see initiatives as a viable option right now. In Missouri, state Rep. Stacey Newman has been pushing for background checks with little success. While she spoke positively about the idea of a ballot initiative, she said there's no serious consideration of it because of the cost and coordination required just to get it on the ballot. Instead, the supporters of background checks in the state are simply working to prevent NRA-supported legislation from passing the state's General Assembly. "We're continually on defense," she said. Gun buyers currently must undergo a background check when they purchase a weapon from a federally licensed firearms dealer but can avoid checks in most states by using private purchases, such as at gun shows. Washington state advocates believe polls show the public is sufficiently on the side of expanding background checks further. An independent Elway Poll conducted two months ago found that 79 percent of registered voters in Washington state supported background checks on all gun sales, including private transactions. That wasn't enough to shepherd the bill through the Legislature. Even in the state House, which is controlled by Democrats, supporters fell short after an NRA campaign put pressure on some lawmakers. Pedersen had offered concessions through the process, including the option of sending the measure out for a public vote and exemptions for people who already have concealed pistol licenses or law enforcement credentials. Pedersen said he was working with the initiative organizers on language for the proposal, and he said the Legislature would first have another chance to adopt the measure early next year. If it fails among lawmakers again, the proposal would then automatically go to the ballot, where Pedersen said he welcomed a campaign competing against groups like the NRA. "I'm not afraid of it at all," Pedersen said. "The public is really with us. It's the right policy. I think it can be useful for further progress." ___ AP Writer Mike Baker can be reached on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/HiPpEV

Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times

Russ Smith, Splice Today