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Tag: beef

  • DeSantis had beef with the College Board. Now Florida wants its own tests.

    DeSantis had beef with the College Board. Now Florida wants its own tests.

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    These moves indicate the state is attempting to distance itself from the College Board, which administers AP courses and the SAT, at the behest of Republican leaders and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who pushed for the changes after slamming the nonprofit for including courses on queer theory and intersectionality in an emerging course surrounding Black history.

    “This College Board, like, nobody elected them to anything,” DeSantis said in February. “They’re just kind of there.”

    “They’re providing service — and you can either utilize those services or not.”

    Over the last few years, DeSantis, who is expected to launch a 2024 presidential bid soon, has pushed a slate of policies and bills through the GOP legislature that take aim at how children are taught in Florida. Many of those policies, including laws restricting how educators teach gender identity and sexual orientation as well as race, have faced a severe backlash from Democrats and LGBTQ advocates across the country.

    The governor’s objections to the College Board’s African American AP studies course angered many Black leaders across the country, with some accusing DeSantis of stoking a cultural fight to boost his presidential aspirations. Hundreds of people, including Black lawmakers and clergy, demonstrated against the DeSantis administration last February and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump threatened a lawsuit over the governor’s rejection of the course.

    In wide-ranging education packages, lawmakers are now calling on the Florida Department of Education to develop new courses and exams alongside state colleges and universities that can gauge student learning in the same vein as the College Board’s Advanced Placement program. AP includes more than 38 high school courses and nationally standardized examinations in several subjects from art to statistics, according to an analysis of the legislation.

    The proposal is meant to “create more opportunities for high school students to earn postsecondary credit and reduce time to a degree,” the analysis says.

    Lawmakers on Tuesday agreed to give the Department of Education $1.8 million to cultivate the coursework attached to this idea. Then, there is an additional $1 million for the agency to find an “independent third-party testing or assessment organization” to craft assessments for those courses.

    The plan is to have this new testing system up and running sometime in next school year, state Sen. Keith Perry (R-Gainesville), the Senate’s education budget chief, told reporters Tuesday.

    “There are a lot of kids who are home schooled, there’s a lot of other kids in the state that their education is different than the regular public school education,” Perry said. “We want to make sure there’s a broad capacity for them to be tested, and for that to recognized by the universities.”

    In another change that could affect the College Board, the Legislature is considering the Classic Learning Test, or CLT, as an alternative to the SAT and ACT on multiple fronts.

    The CLT is a college entrance exam offering tests in English, grammar, and mathematical skills, emphasizing foundational critical thinking skills, according to the bill analysis, which notes that “classic” is a reference to the classic literature and historical texts for the reading selections on the exams.

    This fits in with the ideas advocated for by Republican policymakers and DeSantis, who endorsed “classical” education at many turns, including the overhaul being carried out at New College of Florida. As another connection, CLT in April added to its board of academic advisors Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who DeSantis appointed as a New College trustee.

    More than 200 schools accept CLT scores, according to the organization. That includes several colleges in Florida such as Reformation Bible college, Pensacola Christian college, Trinity Baptist College, Stetson University, Saint Leo University and Trinity College of Florida.

    The proposed legislation would allow students to take the CLT to qualify for the state’s widely popular Bright Futures Scholarship, which is funded primarily through lottery dollars. As such, Florida’s education department would be tasked with developing a way to measure the CLT test scores against concordant SAT and ACT grades.

    It also allows school districts to offer the CLT for free to grade 11 students, just like the SAT or ACT is currently.

    The education package containing these changes is slated to pass the House on Wednesday. A similar Senate bill advanced in its last committee hearing Tuesday and is now eligible to be considered by the full chamber.

    “We want to have multiple options for students,” House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast) told reporters last week.

    “This is a way for us to really closely align what we do so that high school students graduating can get immediate credit by our state universities,” Renner added.



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    #DeSantis #beef #College #Board #Florida #tests
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • ‘Chicken not beef..’: Jamshedpur police clarify meat was not hung on Hindu flag

    ‘Chicken not beef..’: Jamshedpur police clarify meat was not hung on Hindu flag

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    Following a communal clash between Hindus and Muslims after the alleged desecration of a religious flag set up during Ram Navami, a senior police official from east Singhbhum, Vijay Shankar, rubbished false claims that it was chicken not beef which was hung on a rope between an electricity and flag pole.

    Religious Hindus had protested and threatened the police to take action against the alleged perpetrators within 24 hours, visuals of which also surfaced.

    Following misinformation that was spread in Jamshedpur, communal clashes broke out between the two communities with reports of alleged stone pelting.

    MS Education Academy

    Visuals of the burning down of at least half a dozen of small shops and vehicles, all belonging to Muslims, by a mob shouting slogans of Jai Shree Ram also surfaced.

    In a statement released by the police, rubbishing the allegation, the official stressed that every piece of meat found cannot be of that prohibited.

    The police officer stated that was a practice for meat shops to hang at a safe distance from the ground waste chicken meat to ensure that dogs do not spread it across.

    Muslim organisations in the city have appealed to Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren for strict action against the perpetrators, failing which they will come to the streets to protest.

    The situation turned violent on Sunday evening when a shop was gutted leading to brick-batting from both sides injuring six people. A mob also set on fire an autorickshaw, forcing the police to fire tear gas shells. DIG (Kolhan) Ajay Linda said that the shops and the auto-rickshaw were set ablaze by local miscreants.

    So far, 59 people have been arrested in the case after an FIR was filed late on Monday.



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    #Chicken #beef. #Jamshedpur #police #clarify #meat #hung #Hindu #flag

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Montana beef: Bad blood intensifies between Tester and Daines

    Montana beef: Bad blood intensifies between Tester and Daines

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    “Really bad scenario. It’s just not a good situation,” said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Manchin is backing Tester and has tried to stop senator-vs.-senator campaign appearances, even previously endorsing two moderate Republicans.

    “I know it’s not a very close relationship,” Manchin added. “I think I’m accurate in that.”

    The next two years will be a stress test for the two Montana senators. Their state is one of only five with Senate delegations split between the parties, a modern low. And three of those states, West Virginia, Montana and Ohio, are the fulcrum for next year’s battle for the Senate majority.

    They’ve never run against one another, but the Tester-Daines relationship was already strained as they sided against each other in past Montana elections. Now, during a make-or-break race for Tester and Daines’ huge mandate to take back the majority, a palpable chill is setting in.

    Daines responded to Tester’s reelection announcement by likening the Democrat to Steve Bullock, the former governor who challenged Daines in 2020 — only to be trounced by double digits. Tester, who spoke to Bullock during his recruitment, deadpanned in an interview that his relationship with Daines “couldn’t be better.”

    Asked if Daines took the National Republican Senatorial Committee job specifically to defeat him, Tester replied wryly: “That’s your perspective. And I don’t necessarily think that perspective is wrong.”

    Their interplay will demonstrate just how much Washington’s perpetual campaign affects policymaking — and the interests of an entire state. The duo tussled over a Montana judicial pick in December, a potential sign of things to come.

    On a personal level, the two men represent the divergent profiles of their Western home: Tester the blunt-speaking, self-described “dirt farmer” versus Daines, a buttoned-up conservative with Trump ties. The tension between them is a reminder, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), that “none of this stuff’s easy. It’s not for sissies.”

    Outwardly, Tester and Daines maintain at least a veneer of civility. They still put out joint press releases, a sign that their offices work together. Yet it’s clear things are strained, judging from clues both past and present.

    This week, Montana Republicans are seeking to limit third-party bids with a bill that creates a “top two” jungle primary— albeit only for Tester’s 2024 race. In theory, it would help the GOP head off a spoiler effect that helped Tester win reelection in 2012, when a libertarian siphoned votes from the Republican candidate. But in 2018, Tester surpassed 50 percent against Republican Matt Rosendale, who’s now a House member; the libertarian candidate that year received just under 3 percent.

    The Montana bill’s chief sponsor, Rosendale backer and state Sen. Greg Hertz (R), first sought a constitutional amendment to make all races subject to a “top two” system but faced statewide resistance. Hertz said Chuck Denowh, a Montana lobbyist who lists finance work for both Daines and Rosendale on his LinkedIn page, then offered to help. They eventually settled on a bill specific to Tester’s race.

    “I mean, how much more obvious can you be?” asked GOP state Sen. Brad Molnar, who voted against the Tester-specific plan. He warned the bill could outrage Libertarians and guessed that the RNC, which has not “had a good idea in 20 years,” was probably behind it.

    Hertz, however, said he didn’t talk to Daines or the NRSC about the effort and was unaware if Denowh advocated for it on behalf of any particular client. Denowh did not respond to a request for comment.

    “I don’t know if it would help them or hurt [Republicans],” added Hertz. “My main goal is just to make sure that the person who wins the U.S. Senate race in Montana has more than a majority.”

    It’s the latest twist in a state where political mischief borders on sport. A mysterious left-leaning group in Montana boosted the Libertarian candidate in 2012 to 6 percent of support, more than Tester’s winning margin. Democrats then fought to remove the Green Party from the ballot in 2018 and 2020, while the GOP helped the Green Party gather signatures in 2020.

    Daines and Tester are no exception to the Montana trend. They nearly clashed directly a decade ago, when Daines briefly launched a campaign against Tester during the 2012 cycle. He ultimately decided to seek an open House seat instead, winning easily.

    They have now served together for a decade, including in the Senate since Daines’ 2014 win. But Daines grew close to Donald Trump during his presidency, and his son Donald Trump Jr. as well. So when Tester faced reelection in 2018, Daines teamed with the Trumps to stump for GOP challenger Matt Rosendale down the stretch — arguing that “we need to send a different senator” to Washington and urging Trump to come deliver a knockout blow for Rosendale.

    Tester won.

    Then, in 2020, Tester played at least some role in drafting Bullock, then a former presidential candidate, to take on Daines. Tester said that Bullock made “that decision on his own.” Still, Tester spoke of his hopes that Bullock would run and said his state “needs a senator in Washington that will stand up for Montana, not take a seat because leadership tells them to.”

    And Tester knows Senate races: He’s won three and chaired the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2016.

    “I’m sure Jon Tester has something to do with the race between Governor Bullock and Steve Daines,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.).

    Zinke is among the potential Republican recruits to take on Tester, whose reelection bid Daines greeted with a frosty statement that both he and Bullock “should have ended their political careers on their terms. Instead, they each will have their careers ended by Montana voters.”

    Perhaps understating things a bit, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), said “there’s some stuff in Montana politics that goes back a while.”

    Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a former NRSC chair, said he hopes the situation between Tester and Daines “doesn’t become terribly personal.” But “I don’t know how you avoid that.” Moran, who works closely with Tester, said he’s trying to stay out of it.

    Other potential Tester challengers include Rosendale, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and veteran Tim Sheehy. As of now though, Tester has no top-tier opponent.

    Yet Daines insisted he and Tester “are friends” despite it all.

    “He supports about everything the Biden administration has tried to do, and I fought against that: massive spending bills. tax increases, judges. Across the board. So there’s a real clear contrast,” the Republican added in an interview.

    Though Democrats have spent a dozen years reading media predictions that this election cycle will be Tester’s last, so far he’s withstood nearly every kind of GOP challenger. This cycle’s intense Republican focus on Montana, however, raises the question of whether Daines’ NRSC chairmanship gives Republicans an edge.

    “The people running the NRSC are McConnell and corporate America. We know that,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a fellow endangered incumbent who vowed Tester would prevail. “I don’t think it matters who the figurehead is.”

    Ally Mutnick contributed to this report.

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    #Montana #beef #Bad #blood #intensifies #Tester #Daines
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Jharkhand cops rescue Muslim man from mob after beef found in house; 6 injured

    Jharkhand cops rescue Muslim man from mob after beef found in house; 6 injured

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    Dhanbad: The police on Thursday rescued a youth, a resident of Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district, from a rampaging mob that claimed that beef was found in his house.

    Six people including three police personnel were injured and the force used batons to disperse the attackers who also ransacked police vehicles and set on fire some goods kept in front of the house of the accused.

    Slaughter of bovine animals and selling their meat are banned in Jharkhand.

    The situation is under control now, Nirsa Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Pitamber Singh Kherwar said.

    The incident occurred at Bhurkunda locality under Nirsa police station, around 190 km from the state capital Ranchi, where some villagers reportedly found a slaughtered cow and its meat in the house of a person identified as Nasruddin Ansari.

    Soon, a mob assembled there and started throwing stones at the house. Some household goods kept in front of it were torched.

    Ansari and his family members manage to flee but his son Sahabuddin was caught by the mob and he was tied to a tree, police said.

    The situation came under control after Superintendent of Police (rural) Reeshma Rameshan reached the spot and assured the villagers to take action against the culprit.

    Nirsa MLA Aparna Sengupta also reached the village and tried to pacify the villagers.

    Later, The MLA, administrative officials, and the police held a meeting with villagers to ensure peace in the village.

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    #Jharkhand #cops #rescue #Muslim #man #mob #beef #house #injured

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • Bihar: Muslim man lynched to death on suspicion of carrying beef

    Bihar: Muslim man lynched to death on suspicion of carrying beef

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    A 47-year-old Muslim man was lynched to death by a Hindu mob who accused him and his nephew of carrying beef. The incident happened in Rasulpur of Chhapra district, Bihar on March 7.

    In a press release, police said that three people have been arrested and the hunt is on for the remaining accused.

    According to Maktoob Media, the deceased Naseeb Qureshi and his nephew Firoz Qureshi were returning home when they were attacked by a mob of 10-15 people.

    “Arey yeh tho gaaye waale hai (Look! those are people who deal with cows),” Firoz told he heard one of them saying.

    Firoz managed to escape as he was sitting in the back of the vehicle. However, his uncle Naseeb came under the angry mob’s clutches and was attacked with sharp objects.

    “I saw a huge crowd from a distance. I got very scared about my uncle and ran to the police station for help. However, the officials just laughed at me and told me to go home,” Firoz narates.

    Later, he found out that his uncle was killed. Naseeb’s body was shifted to the Daroda Hospital, which was later referred to Siwan Sadar Hospital.

    “When I asked again, I was subjected to verbal abuse, including a threatening comment: “Those individuals did not harm you; you deserve to be harmed’,” Firoz Qureshi said as quoted by Maktoob Media.

    Three accused – Sushil Singh, Ravi Shah, and Ujjwal Sharma – all residents of Jogia of Rasulpur have been arrested. The police have registered a case under Section 302 (Punishment for murder), 379 (Punishment for theft) 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

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    #Bihar #Muslim #man #lynched #death #suspicion #carrying #beef

    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

  • McConnell vs. Scott: The Senate beef that won’t die

    McConnell vs. Scott: The Senate beef that won’t die

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    Most of Congress’ intraparty feuds are fleeting, especially when margins of control are as close as they are in the House and Senate these days. Any standoff that lasts longer than a few days risks ceding power to the other party.

    But Scott and McConnell’s split is going the distance.

    Over the past year, Scott has managed to dislodge Cruz as the biggest thorn in McConnell’s side, no small feat. The Florida senator’s performance as chair of the Senate GOP campaign arm and Scott’s own competing legislative agenda, which McConnell felt compelled to disavow — has sparked a nearly yearlong row between the two GOP senators.

    And it’s more than a mere personality conflict for Republicans. Scott’s challenge of McConnell for leader has factionalized the GOP in a manner not seen since Cruz set the table to run for president a decade ago by taking on McConnell every chance he had. McConnell may have easily dispatched Scott — the final tally was 37-10 — but the fact that McConnell now knows 10 Republican senators were ready to oust him has made his job more complicated.

    “Petty retribution can be a dangerous pattern in this place, particularly with a small body,” Cruz said in an interview, referring to the removal of Scott from the Commerce panel. “There’s an old proverb: when you look for revenge, you better dig two graves.”

    McConnell denies removing Scott and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) from the Commerce Committee over their opposition to him as leader, but he is still slamming the Floridian’s personal policy portfolio nearly a year after its release. In public remarks last week, McConnell lashed Scott for a proposal that he sees as fuel for Democratic campaigns next year: “Unfortunately, that was the Scott plan. That’s not a Republican plan.”

    It’s fair to say the animosity goes both ways.

    “Who does really well with what we’ve been doing, just spending money like it’s going out of style? The elites do, people who make money off of the government do. Wall Street makes money,” Scott said this week. “Who doesn’t like my plan? Those people.”

    While standing behind his plan, Scott also raised eyebrows last week when he introduced a new bill preventing cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

    And that’s not the end of the diss track.

    McConnell warned last week that Scott’s own agenda would become a “challenge” when the former Florida governor stands for reelection. Scott won narrowly in 2018, ousting former Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), though the state has moved to the right in the last four years.

    “He’s gonna win. He’s won three statewide races already,” said fellow Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio. “I don’t think he’s going to have a problem winning reelection.“

    Then Rubio acknowledged what’s abundantly clear: “Obviously, there’s some friction there“ between McConnell and Scott.

    Indeed, the GOP senators’ ongoing back-and-forth is creating plenty of intrigue — particularly given how taciturn McConnell usually is. As Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) put it: “He’s a pretty patient guy, but occasionally even Mitch McConnell has a right to stand up for himself. That’s what I think he’s doing.”

    Others see things differently.

    “The leader’s role is to support incumbent senators. He certainly did it up in Alaska,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who supported Scott in the leadership fight. “Certainly don’t denigrate them, don’t say anything negative about them. Financial support is one thing, but just verbal support is his responsibility. So, beyond disappointing.”

    Scott’s seat is a key cog in the Senate GOP’s plans to win back the majority, and McConnell’s political network is behind him there. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Scott’s successor at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is behind Scott. So is the chief McConnell-aligned super PAC — even after it publicly sparred with Scott just a few months ago over campaign strategy.

    “Senator Scott has never lost an election in the state of Florida, and 2024 will be no different,” said Torunn Sinclair, a spokesperson for the Senate Leadership Fund.

    The imbroglio goes back to McConnell’s decision not to release an agenda ahead of November’s midterms, and Scott’s subsequent move to put out his own while running the NRSC. McConnell smarted over the plan, as well as Biden’s concerted attacks linking it to the rest of the party, though on Tuesday he declined to utter Scott’s name.

    “This continues to come up. The president was talking about it in the State of the Union. He’s taken it out to various states. So let me say one more time. There is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security. Period,” McConnell said.

    In addition to policy disputes, the clash stems in part from the two Republicans’ divergent views of modern politics. Scott views the attention he gets from Democrats as valuable increased name recognition, and he’s raised money off of the loss of his committee assignment. He said in an interview that it’s “great” to see Biden distribute his proposal: “I put out a plan, Biden puts it out. What else could you ask for?”

    But McConnell sees things very differently, according to allies. He’s studiously avoided releasing any agenda that can be easily pilloried, instead trying to run as a check on Democrats — a strategy that’s had mixed results in his 16 years as Senate GOP leader.

    With the party gearing up for another bid to take back the White House and Senate, that means some Republicans are cringing every time Biden brings up Scott.

    “It’s a problem when you have the president of the United States in his State of the Union saying that Republicans want to get rid of Social Security,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Because of Scott, she added, Biden “has a kernel to hold onto. And I think that frustrates McConnell.”

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    #McConnell #Scott #Senate #beef #wont #die
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )