Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Denver School Accused Of Violating Title IX Over All-Gender Restrooms

The Education Department said on Thursday that Denver Public Schools violated Title IX, the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools, by converting sex-separated restrooms into “all-gender” facilities.

The department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) also found that the school district violated the law by allowing students to use intimate facilities matching their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The finding followed an OCR investigation into Denver’s East High School earlier this year after it converted a girls’ restroom into a multi-stall all-gender facility. The agency said the school had an exclusive restroom for males on its second floor but none for females.

The school district has said that the all-gender lavatory, which has 12-foot partitions between stalls, was created as the result of a student-led process.

The school district later created a second all-gender restroom on the same floor as the first.

However, OCR said the district’s actions did not resolve its Title IX violation “because males are still allowed to invade sensitive female-only facilities.” The agency cited a complaint from a female student who said that “boys kept staring at her, looking her up and down, kind of taunting her” when using the bathroom, which left her “very uncomfortable.”

Another complainant alleged that a male teacher frequently entered the restroom “to check on things,” which made female students uncomfortable and raised privacy concerns, according to the agency.

“Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor stated, noting that the district had created “a hostile environment” for its students by endangering their safety and privacy.

OCR offered the school district a 10-day window to voluntarily make changes or risk enforcement action, though it did not specify what actions could be taken in the event of noncompliance.

The school district is required within that timeframe to convert all gender-neutral restrooms back to sex-designated restrooms and rescind any policies that allowed access to facilities based on gender identity.

OCR also directed the school district to adopt biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” in all Title IX-related policies and practices, according to its statement.

Denver Public Schools officials said they had received the results of the OCR investigation and were determining their next steps.

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VICIOUS COMPLIANCE: Smith roasts schools for malicious over-enforcement of graphic book prohibition

Edmonton’s public school board is removing over 200 books, including “The Handmaid’s Tale,” from libraries due to a provincial directive on inappropriate sexual content. The leaked list was verified Friday.

Edmonton Public seems to be practicing “vicious compliance” with the directive, according to Premier Danielle Smith.

The province earlier requested school boards to use discretion in identifying age-inappropriate books for students. By October 1, 2025, all school boards must remove explicit sexual content from library materials under a July 10 ministerial order.

On Thursday, Public School Board chair Julie Kusiek announced that “several excellent books will be removed” this fall, advising those displeased to contact Alberta Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides. 

Edmonton Public’s book list includes “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” “Brave New World,” and works by Alice Munro and Ayn Rand. Many more books, such as “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “The Great Gatsby,” will be inaccessible to K-9 students.

Minister Nicolaides announced a review of the board’s book list, seeking clarification on book removals. Alberta Education will ensure policies are implemented to prevent young children’s exposure to sexually explicit books.

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Half Of American Schools Require ‘Equitable’ Grading And Most Teachers Are Opposed: Survey

Lackluster student performance has plagued the Schenectady, N.Y., city school district for years.

The school district, like many others, implemented a “grading for equity” policy in response to dismal test scores.

However, as Aaron Gifford reports below for The Epoch Times, a recent national survey indicates that most teachers feel grade equity actually hurts students long term, although more than half of the schools and districts across the nation engage in the practice.

Schenectady’s 2022-2023 academic report said 95 percent of its high school freshmen were behind in math by three or more grade levels.

A year later, the district reported that in the first quarter of the 2022-2023 school year, more than half of its middle school students (grades 6-8) were three or more grade levels behind in both reading and math, while the daily attendance rate for high schoolers had dipped below 79 percent.

In response to these disappointing results, district leaders implemented a “grading for equity” policy whereby students are not penalized for handing in assignments late, and are allowed to retake tests with continuous guidance from teachers until their scores reflect proficiency levels. Incomplete grades for the semester require authorization from school principals. The policy took effect last fall.

“It’s almost academic fraud,” Christopher Ognibene, Schenectady High School social studies teacher, told The Epoch Times. He recalled a student who was given B’s all year but failed the end-of-the-year New York State Regents assessment with a score of 43.

“Watered-down report cards and transcripts mean nothing if you are left unprepared academically for college. And there are due dates in the real world—it doesn’t matter where you go after high school,” he said.

Most teachers agree with Ognibene’s assessment of the widely used approach, according to the recent survey by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Rand Corporation education team members.

The Aug. 20 report, “Equitable Grading Through the Eyes of Teachers,” summarized responses from 967 teachers from K-12 districts across the country in late 2024.

“Turns out, teachers don’t like it when the powers that be take a sledgehammer to their few sources of leverage over student motivation and effort. Nor do they like giving students grades they don’t deserve,” the report says.

The report identifies five equitable grading practices—unlimited retakes, no late penalties, no zeroes, no homework, and no required participation.

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Big money and names power the campaign to influence California voters over a new congressional map

It’s either a plan to save democracy from President Donald Trump’s attempts to rig elections or a power grab by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.

The race to define Newsom’s push to redraw California’s congressional map before the 2026 midterms is underway with about five weeks until voters can begin casting early ballots on Proposition 50. The prevailing narrative could determine which party controls the U.S. House for the last two years of Trump’s second term.

Days into the campaign, supporters and opponents each brought in more than $10 million. That’s a fraction of the $100 million-plus expected to be spent to win over voters by Nov. 4. The contest also is drawing some high-profile state politicians, including actor and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Here’s a look at the campaigns and how they’re ramping up.

A national redistricting fight

The California ballot question is part of the unusual mid-decade redistricting that Texas Republicans kicked off last month at Trump’s direction. By pressing GOP-led states to redraw congressional district boundaries in the party’s favor, the president hopes to prevent Democrats from taking control of the U.S. House in the 2026 elections.

Democrats need a net gain of just three seats to regain the House majority, which would give them the power to subpoena Trump, investigate his administration and block his legislative agenda.

Republican state lawmakers in Texas passed a bill aiming to make five Democratic-held congressional seats more winnable for the GOP. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law Friday.

California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature responded in kind. Lawmakers last week approved a plan, which Newsom quickly signed, to ask voters to approve new House district boundaries that shore up shaky Democratic districts and pick up as many as five GOP-held seats.

Newsom and Democratic allies are mobilizing

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Houthis Confirm Prime Minister & Top Officials Killed In Massive Israeli Strike

Yemen’s Houthi government has belatedly confirmed that an Israeli attack launched days ago killed its prime minister, Ahmed al-Rahawi, who was the most senior Houthi official to have been slain in the ongoing conflict thus far.

The official Houthi statement further acknowledged that several al-Rahawi’s colleagues were also killed and wounded, but did not disclose their identities. 

Israel had intentionally targeted a significant gathering of top civilian and military leadership in the capital of Sanaa with huge daytime strikes Thursday afternoon. Israel’s military had soon after announced that it “precisely struck a Houthi terrorist regime military target in the area of Sanaa in Yemen.”

“Al-Rahawi, who served as prime minister to the Houthi-led government since August 2024, was targeted along with other members of his Houthi-controlled government during a routine workshop held by the government to evaluate its activities and performance over the past year, the rebels’ statement said,” according to reports.

And according to Israeli media citing anonymous security sources, intelligence indicated that ten senior Houthi officials, including the group’s defense minister, had gathered near Sanaa to attend a speech by Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi – although whether the defense minister has been killed has not been confirmed.

The IDF believes it killed the entire Houthi cabinet. Below is how the Houthi statement disclosed it, without revealing the full extent of the casualties or names or positions:

“We announce the martyrdom of the fighter Ahmed Ghaleb Nasser Al-Rahawi… along with several of his ministerial colleagues, as they were targeted by the treacherous Israeli criminal enemy.”

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Thomas Massie Introduces Repeal of Gun-Free School Zones Act

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is pushing a repeal of the Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990) in order to make it easier for law-abiding teachers, faculty, and others, to be armed to fend off would-be attackers on school campuses.

The Gun-Free School Zones Act was put in place by President George H.W. Bush (R), barring the possession of a firearm in a “school zone” and thereby creating myriad gun-free soft targets in places filled with defenseless children, teachers, and school staff.

Massie wants to see the Gun-Free School Zones Act repealed as a way of removing the soft target moniker from schools around the country.

Gun Owners of America praised Massie’s push, saying, “Congress needs to abandon the failed federal gun-free schools policy & arm willing teachers instead!”

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Russia Launches Mass Drone and Missile Strike on Southern Ukraine

Russia launched a mass attack on southern Ukraine, local officials said, two days after a rare airstrike on central Kyiv killed 23 and damaged European Union diplomatic offices as U.S.-led efforts to end Moscow’s three-year war on its neighbor staggered.

The assault overnight into Saturday killed at least one civilian and wounded 28 people, including children, in the Zaporizhzhia region, Gov. Ivan Fedorov reported, where a five-storey residential building was struck.

Russia launched 537 strike drones and decoys, as well as 45 missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force. Ukrainian forces shot down or neutralized 510 drones and decoys, and 38 missiles, the force reported.

The Kremlin on Thursday said Russia remained interested in continuing peace talks, despite the air attack on Kyiv that day that was one of the largest and deadliest since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

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America Has A “Transtifa” Problem 

At the start of the year, only eight days into President Trump’s second term, the FBI’s counterterrorism division held an unclassified briefing on an emerging domestic terrorism threat: “Nihilistic Accelerationism.”

Some of the most recent examples of nihilism and accelerationist beliefs can be found alarmingly emanating from the political far-left. Violence, chaos, and destruction are recurring themes found in their online posts, propaganda, manifestos, and civil disobedience (also known as “civil terrorism“). 

Take, for example, the transgender mass shooter last week that carried out a horrific attack against Christians at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, killing two children and injuring 17 others before taking his own life, wrote in a dark, troubling manifesto posted online that he was “tired of being trans.”

A literal monster.

Self-proclaimed investor and “CIA/NSA contractor/whistleblower” Tony Seruga wrote on X that the demonic transgender mass shooter had attended “at least five antifa protests” and “also appeared to have been present with several Zizians.” Seruga made this claim using GPS data. 

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IDF: Gaza City declared as ‘dangerous combat zone,’ bodies of 2 hostages recovered

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have announced that Gaza City has been declared a “dangerous combat zone.”

On Friday, the IDF said that the pauses in fighting, previously implemented in certain parts of Gaza to allow humanitarian aid distribution, would no longer apply inside Gaza City as the offensive there has moved up.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that the body of Ilan Weiss, one of the 251 people kidnapped during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, had been recovered within Gaza City.

Netanyahu added that the remains of a second hostage were also recovered from Gaza and are undergoing identification by forensic experts.

The IDF stressed that it will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance throughout most of the enclave, but not in Gaza City, while simultaneously pressing forward with “offensive operations against terror groups in Gaza to protect Israeli civilians.”

The IDF once again urged civilians in Gaza City to evacuate southward.

Also on Friday, the IDF reported that soldiers operating in the Zeitoun district of Gaza City spotted “a group of terrorists hiding in a military compound about 100 meters away.”

According to the statement, Israeli forces “called in an Air Force aircraft, which struck the building and killed the terrorists.” 

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Minneapolis Shooter’s Mother Not Speaking To Police

The mother of the man who killed two children at a Minneapolis church and school and left 18 other people wounded is not speaking to authorities, the city’s police chief said on Aug. 28.

“We have not been successful in talking to the shooter’s mother yet at this time,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told a briefing.

The shooter, who killed himself after firing more than 100 rounds during Mass into Annunciation Church and School on Aug. 27, has been identified as Robin Westman, a male who identified as female.

Westman previously attended the school and has attended Mass there, officials said.

Mary Grace Westman, the mother, worked at the parish in the past, O’Hara said.

The church, in a 2021 Facebook post that it has since deleted, posted a picture of Mary Westman and said that it had honored her as she was retiring after working there for five years.

“She has provided such wonderful hospitality, friendship and compassion to all who gathered,” the post stated.

Ryan Garry, a defense attorney, said he has been retained by Mary Westman.

“She is completely distraught about the situation and has no culpability but is seeking an attorney to deal with calls like this,” Garry told Fox News.

Garry did not respond to a request for more information by publication time.

O’Hara said that law enforcement has conducted dozens of interviews with others, including relatives, friends, and associates of Robin Westman.

Authorities have also carried out search warrants at three residences in or near Minneapolis that are connected to the shooter. They’re not sure yet at which residence he was staying immediately prior to the shooting.

There is no sign yet of an event that triggered the shooting, they said.

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