Pro-life grandmother Heather Idoni has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in a protest at a notorious abortion clinic in Washington, D.C.

Idoni — wearing a bright orange prison jumpsuit — was brought before radical, far-left U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Wednesday May 22, 2024. Judge Kotelly sentenced Idoni to 24 months in federal prison, with credit for the nine months she’s already served, The Epoch Times reports.

Idoni spoke to the court before her sentence was announced. “I have respect for this court, and I do submit to this court,” she said, adding,

“My body will be placed wherever you place it. My spirit and my heart belong to the Lord. That cannot be imprisoned and that brings me great joy.”

The Epoch Times notes that Idoni will go on trial again this summer in Michigan in another FACE case.

“Altogether, she is facing a maximum combined sentence of more than 50 years, possibly the longest-ever sentence for a civil rights activist.

“She told The Epoch Times that she expects to die in prison, and that it hurts her to miss time with her grandchildren.”

The publication notes that she has “been denied access to the Bible, which is the foundation of her life.” She and her husband have five biological children and have adopted 10 children from Ukraine.

A new report issued by the Institute for Family Studies revisits the critical question of how much the marital status of mothers and fathers matters for child well-being and young adult thriving.

Isabel Sawhill, a center-left Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Brookings Institution explains, “The short answer is that marriage still matters. And depending on what metric you examine, marriage can matter a lot.” She cites just some of the top social science summaries documenting this fact up to the present,

“There is a long literature demonstrating that, on average, growing up in a married-parent household is better for children’s later life outcomes.

“This is the conclusion reached by multiple well-respected researchers, including Isabel Sawhill in Generation Unbound (2014); David Ribar in ‘Why Marriage Matters for Child Wellbeing’ (2015); Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill in ‘The Decline of the American Family’ (2016); Melissa Kearney in The Two Parent Privilege (2023); and Brad Wilcox in Get Married (2024).”

But Sawhill adds that new, sophisticated research conducted jointly by the Brookings Institution, the Urban Institute, and Child Trends lends to the long finding that married parents matter for children.

This research utilizes the Social Genome Model — “a microsimulation model that tracks children’s progress through multiple life stages, using a set of age-appropriate standards of success measured at the end of each life stage to determine whether they are ‘on track’ or not.”

Former president George H.W. Bush hosted an unusual visitor on the last day of his life, November 30, 2018.

A double amputee, Irish tenor Ronan Tynan is perhaps best known in the United States for his stirring rendition of “God Bless America” at New York’s Yankee Stadium, a tradition that began following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

But as the 41st president lay dying, surrounded by family and friends, Ronan serenaded the elder Bush with an emotional performance of the beloved Christmas favorite, “Silent Night.”

“All is calm, all is bright … sleep in Heavenly peace,” sang Tynan.

President Bush, who would die a few hours later, mouthed the words.

This and other moving anecdotes, stories and tributes are included in a new book by New York Times bestselling author Jean Becker, who served as the former president’s chief of staff for nearly a quarter-century in his post-presidential years.

Character Matters: And Other Life Lessons from George H. W. Bush is a lovely project featuring tributes from Becker and a wide array of family, friends, colleagues, and even political rivals.

Many of us are drawn immediately to the title, the idea that integrity, decency and honestly are all too often missing in America. We know character does matter — a whole lot, in fact.

A federal law passed earlier this month will force tech companies — including social media platforms — to crack down on online child exploitation.

Background
The bipartisan “Revising Existing Procedures on Reporting via Technology” (REPORT) Act amends federal laws concerning the sexual exploitation and abuse of children, including expanding the kinds of content electronic communication and cloud computing companies must report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on May 7 after it passed the House of Representatives in April with a two-thirds favorable vote. The bill originated in the Senate, which passed it unanimously in December.

The Law
The REPORT Act:

• Adds two new categories of exploitation providers must report to the NCMEC’s CyberTipline: 1) Child sex trafficking and 2) “Coercion or enticement” of children to participate in illegal sexual activities. Previous laws only required providers report evidence of child pornography.
• Requires providers archive exploitative material they have reported for at least one year to assist in NCMEC investigations. Previous laws only required providers keep evidence for 90 days.
• Protects providers keeping evidence of child exploitation for investigation from being charged with a crime — provided they use appropriate digital security and there is no evidence of misconduct.