Millions of children and teens are back in school, and while many parents know of the inappropriate and sexualized books in some school libraries and classrooms, fewer may be aware of classroom lessons that expose students to inappropriate materials.

Take social studies classes. Here in Colorado, the state’s Department of Education is rolling out new materials for K-12 children that teach about the “history, culture and social contributions of minorities.” That’s fine. It’s good for students to learn about different ethnic groups and what they’ve contributed to our nation.

But what’s not fine is those social studies standards now include teaching about so-called sexual minorities. The Colorado DOE education resources include: “15 Annotated Resource Sets for Teaching About the Historic and Civic Contributions of the LGBTQ community”; “15 Inspiring Books on LGBTQ History for Kids of All Ages”; and GLSEN’s (formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) “A plethora of LGBTQ history resources from lesson plans to podcasts to support classrooms.”

The new material stems from the Colorado General Assembly’s 2019 law mandating the inclusion of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals” in the list of “American minorities” — as if LGBT-identified folks were somehow a separate ethnic group.

In an op-ed published in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Pam Benigno explains what’s happening in the state: “Teachers now have access to new state-provided sexually based education resources” to meet this state requirement.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg blames the government for pressuring his social media platform to censor and suppress unfavorable content in 2020 and 2021.

“In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree,” the social media czar wrote in a recent letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (Ohio), continuing:

“Ultimately, it was our decision to take content down, and we own our decisions … [but] I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it.”

Zuckerberg further addresses Meta’s suppression of the New York Post’s infamous story on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, claiming the FBI had warned them it could be “Russian disinformation.”

“We sent the story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply. It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.”

The embattled Zuckerberg’s letter finally acknowledges what many have known since 2022 — the federal government forced private companies to control and suppress information.

The lack of babies being born today is one of the world’s most pressing problems.

It’s been in the news that fully funding in vitro fertilization (IVF) by the federal government or private insurance companies for any citizen who desires it will boost our nation’s flagging population.

This is unwise public policy. Research shows this exorbitantly expensive procedure will not boost national fertility.

There are many concerns with this policy proposal.

Focus on the Family has long held serious ethical concerns about in vitro fertilization. We hold that “In vitro fertilization has implications for the sanctity of human life and the institution of marriage between one man and one woman.” We are also concerned it “presents identity concerns for the children conceived.”

There are measures that married couples can take to lessen these moral concerns, but most IVF practices violate essential values of human life and far too many violate the sanctity of marriage and family.

First, IVF as an industry, routinely destroys more human life than the abortion industry itself.

As the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet has pointed out, quoting Katy Faust with Them Before Us, “abortion and IVF are, as currently practiced, two sides of the same child-commodifying coin.”

“Operation Homecoming,” a joint law enforcement action in Akron, Ohio, has recovered 32 missing children.

The operation focused on safely recovering missing children in the Akron and Summit County areas, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a press release.

Operation Homecoming was a joint endeavor between the U.S. Marshals Service, the Akron Police Department and the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

The U.S. Marshals Service’s Missing Child Unit worked to find the children over the span of three weeks, from August 19 through September 6. They ranged in age from 13-18 years old.

According to the Marshals Service, some of the children were recovered in the Akron area, others in Cleveland, and one child was safely located in Washington state, after being reported missing by the Akron Police Department in April 2022.

After the operation concluded, U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott stated,

“Dedicated work by our Missing Child Unit along with Akron Police and the Sheriff’s Office have made an incredible impact in the safe recovery of these children. The U.S. Marshals Service will continue to dedicate its time and resources to the safe recovery of missing children in our communities throughout northern Ohio.”