A prominent Republican senator is pressing Congress to take a fresh look at the National Education Association’s long-standing congressional charter.

Critics of the teachers’ union argue there is little left to debate, contending that the NEA has fallen short of the responsibilities tied to that charter and that lawmakers should move to revoke it without delay.

Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, is urging his colleagues to scrutinize the NEA’s status amid concerns over the union’s associations with several left-leaning nonprofit organizations, including the Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools, as well as allegations of serious financial mismanagement.

Opponents say some organizations connected to the NEA promote classroom materials and political messages that excuse violence tied to the Black Panther Party and advance what they describe as radical gender ideology for young students.

“Children are struggling to read and to do basic math. Instead of helping students succeed, teachers’ unions are injecting a dangerous, anti-American agenda into our classrooms,” Cassidy said.

“Parents deserve to send their children to school without worrying that they will be indoctrinated with DEI and taught that Americans have ‘misplaced faith’ in our institutions.”

A charter revocation wouldn’t stop the NEA from operating, but it would deliver a severe reputational blow to the group.

It’s one that’s long overdue —- and not only because the union has focused on hard-left politics instead of history, geography, math and science. 

In fact, the NEA, along with the American Federation of Teachers, has presided over a decades-long effort to completely wreck any meaningful standards in education in order to shield their millions of members from any accountability.

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At the same time, they fought for ever fatter paychecks and pensions, while spending millions in union dues on radical-left political causes. 

After the 2020 George Floyd riots, both the NEA and the AFT ratcheted up their leftist activism and fought to turn America’s classrooms into BLM-indoctrination factories. 

Never mind reading and math, kids were taught that America is evil, brainwashed with antisemitic tropes about Israel and shown pornography as part of their sex and “gender” education; some educators even sought to socially transition kids without parental knowledge or consent. 

The results are tragic: An increasingly illiterate and innumerate nation, with the damage concentrated among the most vulnerable kids.

In New York, almost 30% of fourth-graders score below basic on the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ mathematics test, while 41% are below on reading — about where the depressing national numbers are. 

The NEA’s charter, dating from 1906, requires union to “elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching; and to promote the cause of education in the United States.”

For decades, all evidence shows the unions have done precisely the opposite. 

Though the AFT has no congressional charter, in July, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce began probing allegations that its boss, Randi Weingarten, spent the union’s dues on to write and promote a controversial, lefty-slanted book.

Now Congress must now take on the NEA as well — at the very least, revoking its charter, a small first step toward making sure our kids are actually learning in school.

An Illinois mother is facing three murder charges in connection with the death of her 2-year-old son, in a case officials say has already sparked comparisons to the high-profile Lindsay Clancy trial.

Corie A. Walsh, 40, remained under medical care Friday after officers found her Tuesday at her home with injuries believed to be self-inflicted, though not life-threatening, according to a statement from the Frankfort Police Department.

Frankfort is located roughly 36 miles southwest of Chicago.

Once she’s released from treatment, she will be transferred to the Will County Adult Detention Facility to await a hearing.

Frankfort police officers responded to Walsh’s home Tuesday afternoon and found her son unresponsive. He was given CPR and taken to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, their loved ones, and everyone affected by this heartbreaking tragedy,” Frankfort police said in a statement shared with News Media. “We ask our community to keep them in their thoughts and prayers and to respect their privacy as they navigate this profoundly difficult time.”

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The boy was strangled, according to FOX 32.

Carolyn Pappas, who lives nearby, told NBC Chicago earlier this week that the boy’s death has left residents stunned. She told the station that the circumstances brought to mind the case of Clancy, a Massachusetts mother who admitted to killing her three children before attempting to take her own life.

“This is just absolutely devastating, that this could be another Lindsay Clancy situation in our neighborhood, in our community. You never think it’s going to hit so close to home,” she told the station. “And so yeah, that absolutely makes us think of that. And again, just more people I think are struggling than we realize and so we just need to be there for one another.”

Three other people who were unharmed were found inside the Walsh home on Tuesday, police said, according to FOX 32.

Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz faced heckling outside court after the Lindsay Clancy case ended in a mistrial.

Cruz spoke to reporters shortly after Judge William Sullivan declared the mistrial at the courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

While he was addressing the media, a woman standing behind him called out: “You only cared when the kids were dead — why didn’t you care about the mother?”

Cruz maintained a composed expression as others nearby appeared to support the woman’s remarks, responding with chants of: “Amen.”

As reporters continued asking questions, the woman kept interrupting, prompting Cruz at one point to ask a journalist to repeat what they had said.

She was also seen shaking her head as he spoke and kept on shouting over him before walking away. Others shouted that he was corrupt. Another woman stood behind Cruz was seen shaking her head every time he spoke.

When questioned over whether his prosecutor’s case was insensitive, he responded that killing three children was insensitive. 

‘Insensitive is ignoring those facts, we have an obligation to stand up for those people and seek justice’, he added.

Cruz maintained Clancy’s killing of her children was cold-blooded murder, but that he refused to be drawn on whether he would push for a retrial and said the decision was yet to be made. 

Prosecutors may also ask for the verdict to be decided by a judge, rather than a jury trial. 

The jury panel of nine women and three men spent over 37 hours deliberating the case after five weeks of evidence.

They sent four notes to the judge this week saying they had been unable to reach a verdict. 

Yesterday it emerged that 11 of the 12 jurors had come to the same verdict, but that a twelfth holdout was refusing to follow them. 

The final note sent by jurors on Friday morning read: ‘It is with a heavy heart that we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to.’ 

Clancy – who killed her three young children in January 2023 – now faces a grueling retrial. 

She strangled her children with exercise bands and then allegedly attempted to kill herself, but her efforts failed and left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life. 

The law requires the jury to come to a unanimous decision, and if they are unable to, the judge is forced to declare a mistrial.

A mistrial means the prosecution will have the opportunity to try Clancy again. The trial will have to start over from jury selection.

A second trial would not violate Clancy’s Fifth Amendment right against double jeopardy, which protects citizens from being punished for the same crime twice.

The Constitution of the United States prevents the government from trying a person again for the same crime after they have already been found innocent or guilty.

But because Clancy’s first trial has resulted in a deadlock, the prosecution is allowed to charge her a second time.

It is unclear whether the prosecution will move forward with a second trial.

Clancy is likely going to be kept institutionalized in the interim while a decision is made.

The Tunnel to Towers Steel Across America tour made a solemn stop in Boston on Wednesday, paying tribute to fallen heroes during a cross-country journey expected to conclude in New York City shortly after the Sept. 11 anniversary.

At the Massachusetts Fallen Heroes Memorial in Boston’s Seaport, organizers displayed a preserved 21-foot steel beam from the World Trade Center’s South Tower, a powerful 9/11 artifact that has been traveling across the country since May.

“For first responders and veterans, especially as we approach the 25th anniversary, this is deeply personal,” said Dan Magoon, executive director of Massachusetts Fallen Heroes. “It’s about teaching the next generation and making sure we never forget the sacrifices made on 9/11, as well as everything endured over the two decades that followed in combat zones around the world.”

Mike Eruzione, the captain of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team remembered for the legendary “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union, also took part in the tribute, remembering friends who were aboard one of the planes hijacked during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“It touched the heart of our country. It touched the souls of our country,” Eruzione said of Tunnel to Towers, which helps 9/11 families, first responders, and veterans rebuild in part from funds raised through nationwide charity runs.

The gathering brought together first responders from Massachusetts as well as law enforcement. Guests were allowed to approach the 16,900-pound beam and pay their respects.

“It’s just crazy to think about where it once stood, the people that worked inside the buildings, the people that rushed inside to save those people, and what happened when it all came down,” said Daniel McCarthy, a Bostonian whose parents are from New York.

The beam was brought to Fenway Park on Wednesday night after traveling to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on Monday.

On Sept. 8, the tour will stop at the White House in Washington, D.C.

Lindsay Clancy could face a second trial over the deaths of her three young children after a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether she should be convicted or acquitted.

Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, court shortly before 2:30pm ET on Friday, after an emergency appeal filed by Clancy’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, was unsuccessful.

Clancy, who killed her three young children in December 2023, now faces the prospect of a difficult retrial. She has acknowledged killing the children but argues she was overmedicated while suffering from postpartum psychosis and maintains that their deaths were not murder.

A hearing on the next steps in the case is scheduled for September 29. District Attorney Tim Cruz has continued to characterize the children’s deaths as cold-blooded murder, though he declined to say whether prosecutors will seek a retrial, stressing that no final decision has been made.

Prosecutors are now weighing several possible paths, including trying Clancy again on lesser charges or asking for the case to be decided by a judge instead of a jury.

The jury panel of nine women and three men spent over 37 hours deliberating the case after five weeks of evidence.

They sent four notes to the judge this week saying they had been unable to reach a verdict. Yesterday it emerged that 11 of the 12 jurors had come to the same verdict, but that a twelfth holdout was refusing to follow them.

Clancy’s lawyer Kevin Reddington filed an appeal claiming this unidentified juror was biased towards people with mental disabilities.

The final note sent by jurors on Friday morning read: ‘It is with a heavy heart that we are unable to come to a unanimous decision and will not be able to.’

Friday’s Hail Mary motion was put before Associate Justice Dalia Argaez Wendlandt around 2pm ET.

The brief hearing took place over Zoom shortly before 2pm ET, with Associate Justice Dalia Argaez Wendlandt issuing her ruling shortly afterwards.

Clancy was on trial for killing her three children, Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan, at her home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2023.

She admitted to killing her children but pleaded not guilty to murder by reason of insanity, citing postpartum psychosis as a result of overmedication.

A few moments before the mistrial was declared, Reddington suggested to Judge Sullivan that he still had the power to send the jury back out to deliberate again, one final time.

The panel could not agree on whether Clancy, 36, is guilty of murder, manslaughter, or not criminally responsible for her actions by Friday morning.

During the sensational five weeks of testimony, prosecutors argued the killings were intentional and well planned, not the work of someone who had lost control.

The mistrial was declared hours after tensions between Clancy’s defense attorney Kevin Reddington and Judge Sullivan boiled over. That came after Reddington accused Sullivan of giving a ‘soft’ instruction to jurors about how to interpret the concept of reasonable doubt.

In 2020, the US Supreme Court ruled that jurors must reach a unanimous verdict in serious criminal cases – like Clancy’s alleged murder of her three young children – or a mistrial will automatically be declared.

The first time the jury announced they were deadlocked on Tuesday, the judge ordered them to continue deliberations.

On Wednesday, the jury came back after lunch and told the judge they were still unable to come to a decision.

Judge Sullivan then read the panel the Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, also known as the ‘dynamite charge’ – which guides them that they are in the best position to reach a verdict and that a future jury would not be better equipped than them.

It is a final instruction read to a jury in Massachusetts before a mistrial can be declared. A judge can give the instruction a maximum of two times.

On Thursday around 3pm, the jury sent the judge a note, which prompted fierce discussion in the courtroom between the defense and prosecuting attorneys.

In a sensational move that has not happened in the trial so far, defense attorney Reddington unclasped Clancy’s wheelchair brakes and pushed her to the judge’s bench.

She spoke with the judge before being wheeled back to her bench.

The judge then brought each of the 12 jurors in to speak to him, one by one.

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It is unclear what formed their discussion, but the mood inside the courtroom was tense as each juror spoke briefly for a minute before leaving again.

The judge then brought the entire jury back inside and resumed, where he reiterated the jury’s job to find Clancy guilty or not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Then, for the third time during the blockbuster deliberations, he sent the jury out again.

Before the court adjourned, Reddington spoke to the judge and demanded that ‘one juror’ who is ‘refusing to listen to the law’ be removed from the panel.

The prosecutors argued against this – and the judge did not make a ruling.

The mid-afternoon saga inside the courtroom does not count as the judge inacting a second Tuey-Rodriguez instruction, because the break in deliberations was caused by the foreperson submitting a note.

The law requires the jury to come to a unanimous decision, and if they are unable to, the judge is forced to declare a mistrial.  

A mistrial means the prosecution will have the opportunity to try Clancy again. The trial will have to start over from jury selection. 

A second trial would not violate Clancy’s Fifth Amendment right against double jeopardy, which protects citizens from being punished for the same crime twice.

The Constitution of the United States prevents the government from trying a person again for the same crime after they have already been found innocent or guilty.

But because Clancy’s first trial has resulted in a deadlock, the prosecution is allowed to charge her a second time.

It is unclear whether the prosecution will move forward with a second trial.

Clancy is likely going to be kept institutionalized in the interim while a decision is made.

Brad Bailey, a Boston defense attorney and former prosecutor who is not involved in the case, said the prosecutors could also offer Clancy a plea deal instead of a new trial.

Bailey said: ‘Any time the threat of a retrial with murder one hanging over the client is re-interjected, defense lawyers will, at the very least, explore whether or not there’s any interest in a resolution.’

The district attorney’s office could also decide not to retry the case.

Bailey explained: ‘Sometimes they decide not to, because of the sense that there may be the same result each time they try it, and because of the expenditures involved in trying the case to begin with, particularly when you have expert witnesses.

‘Those are going to be expensive cases.’

These decisions will dictate what will happen to Clancy now that her first jury could not decide on her fate.

For the past three years, Clancy has been held at Tewksbury Hospital, where she has been on suicide watch as she awaited trial.

A retrial would also force her ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, to testify again, and would create the opportunity for both the defense and the prosecution to call new witnesses to the stand.

Clancy would also likely have to sit through the same evidence that caused her to frequently break down during her initial trial, as well as brace for new gruesome details. 

On the day of the killings, Clancy asked Patrick to leave their home to get takeout food and to pick up something at a pharmacy.

She strangled her children with exercise bands and then allegedly attempted to kill herself, but her efforts failed and left her paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life.

Patrick, who has since remarried, has publicly forgiven his ex-wife and come out in her defense, describing her as a good mother who became ill.

Both Patrick and Clancy have filed separate lawsuits against several of her medical providers, alleging that they overmedicated Clancy while treating her for postpartum mental health issues.

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At this pace, it can feel as though nearly everyone could be described as “on the spectrum” within the next two decades.

That was the striking takeaway after reviewing a recent report examining the sharp rise in autism diagnoses. Researchers in Europe found that between 2001 and 2020, the number of people identified as having some form of autism increased dramatically.

But the most important detail may be what did not change: the study found no corresponding increase in severe autism, defined as autism accompanied by intellectual disability.

Over the 20-year period, diagnoses of autism with intellectual disability remained essentially unchanged. By contrast, autism diagnoses among people without intellectual disability surged, climbing by 1,800% from 2001 to 2020.

Put simply, for every one person diagnosed with autism without intellectual disability in 2001, 18 people received that diagnosis in 2020.

Professor Uta Frith at University College London has been studying autism for 60 years. Commenting on this study, she expressed concern about “diagnostic inflation,” which has the effect of “pathologizing normal human variations.”

That’s a fancy way of saying that Professor Frith is skeptical about whether all these people with autism truly have autism. They may just be normal people who are being diagnosed with autism because they have issues with social interaction.

I have been a family physician for more than 30 years, and I think Professor Frith has a point.

Social media is part of the problem. One popular TikTok video, with more than 11 million views, presents a series of statements. If you agree with the statement, then you may be on the spectrum. One of the statements in that TikTok video is “You don’t like talking on the phone because phone conversations are stressful.”

OK, I’m a family doctor, and I can tell you with confidence that about half of the adults I see would agree with that statement.

American researchers recently studied 100 popular TikTok videos about autism and found those videos to be “unsatisfactory” and “often misleading.”

Researchers have also documented that it’s much easier to be diagnosed with autism today compared with 20 years ago: clinicians will make the diagnosis on the basis of many fewer symptoms.

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But it feels good!

Professor Frith notes that teenagers and adults newly diagnosed with autism “often report overwhelmingly positive effects. They state that the diagnosis explains their lifelong struggles and liberates them from self-blame. In this way, the label itself can be therapeutic without any formal treatment.”

So what’s not to like? Where’s the harm? Why is this a problem?

It’s a problem because it turns normal human variation into a diagnostic label.

“I’m on the spectrum” is so much cooler than “I have trouble making friends; I feel myself to be awkward socially.” It also shifts responsibility.

If I say “I have trouble making friends,” then maybe I should do something about that. Maybe I should make more of an effort. But if I say “I’m on the spectrum,” then it’s not a problem anymore. It’s just who I am. It’s not going to change. “Neurodivergent” is now part of my identity.

In the new edition of my book “Boys Adrift: The Six Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men,” I explore the rise in psychiatric diagnoses in the United States. I cite a report from the CDC showing that 23% of 17-year-old American boys have now been diagnosed with ADHD, and the great majority of these boys are on medication.

As recently as 1987, the official estimate of the American Psychiatric Association was that ADHD “may occur in as many as 3% of children.”

So we’ve gone from 3 out of 100, to nearly 1 in 4, in 40 years.

Resist the temptation to medicalize, to pathologize, to put a diagnostic label on who you are.

If you feel uncomfortable talking on the phone, if you have trouble making friends, don’t label yourself as being “on the spectrum.” Find the courage to try, to make an effort, to be more human. You can change. I’ve seen it happen.

Leonard Sax, MD, PhD, is the author of “Boys Adrift: The Six Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men.”

Federal immigration authorities are seeking custody of a Salvadoran national who is accused of killing a mother and her daughter in a suspected drunk-driving crash after allegedly traveling the wrong way on a Maryland freeway.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has filed a detainer request with Montgomery County officials for Jose Antonio Caballero-Nolasco, the Department of Homeland Security told News Media.

Caballero-Nolasco faces two counts of grossly negligent manslaughter, two counts of homicide by motor vehicle while impaired by alcohol, and one count of causing life-threatening injury by motor vehicle.

Authorities said Caballero-Nolasco was impaired when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 270 on Aug. 29, moments before his vehicle collided head-on with another car carrying four people.

Two of the occupants, Musammat Shamima Begum, 46, and her 23-year-old daughter Areebah Jahin, were killed. They were from Northern Virginia and were on their way home at the time of the crash, affiliate FOX 5 D.C. reported.

Two others, a 62-year-old man and an 8-year-old girl, survived and were taken to local hospitals.

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Investigators said they believe that alcohol impairment was a contributing factor in the crash.

“This tragedy was completely avoidable. Musammat Shamima Begum and Areebah Jahin should still be alive. ICE has lodged a detainer asking officials in Maryland to commit to not releasing this killer back onto our streets,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their family, and for a swift recovery for those who were injured.”

Responding officers at the scene of the crash said Caballero-Nolasco smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes, and slurred speech after the crash. He did not show any signs of braking before the crash, FOX 5 reported.

“There were some beer bottles that he admitted that he had been drinking,” said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy. “There were other bottles that were empty and full bottles were found within the vehicle.”

Caballero-Nolasco was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to the Montgomery County Detention Center.