May 2016 – Page 2 – Family Council

Family Council Signs Letter Urging Congress to Block Obama Admin. Overreach

May 25, 2016Jerry CoxTransgenderTransgender

We have written several times about the Obama Administration’s “guidelines” advising schools to let biological males who claim to be female use the girls’ restrooms, locker rooms, and similar facilities, and about the new Obamacare directive instructing doctors and hospitals to offer “gender transition” services (e.g. sex-reassignment surgery) despite the professional and conscientious objections many healthcare professionals have to such procedures.

This week Family Council joined pro-family organizations around the country in urging Congress to take decisive action against this federal overreach.

Family Council has signed a letter to Reps. Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, and Nancy Pelosi and Sens. Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid asking them to:

Introduce and pass legislation curtailing the Obama Administration’s actions; protecting students’ privacy and parents’ rights; and reassuring schools they will not lose federal funding if they ignore these federal “guidelines;”
Hold hearings to investigate the Obama Administration’s actions in promulgating these overreaching “guidelines;”
Withhold funding from any attempts by the federal Departments of Justice and Education to force these “guidelines” on schools.

You can read the letter–and the list of organization’s who have signed it with us–here.

Below is contact information you can use to encourage your congressman and Sens. Boozman and Cotton to take action on this issue as well.

U.S. SENATOR JOHN BOOZMAN (R – AR)

Little Rock Office:
1401 W. Capitol Ave., Plaza F
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 372-7153
Fax: (501) 372-7163

D.C. Office:
141 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4843
Fax: (202) 228-1371

Click Here to Email U.S. Senator Boozman

U.S. SENATOR TOM COTTON (R – AR)

Little Rock Office:
11809 Hinson Road
Suite 100
Little Rock, AR 72212

Mailing Address:
PO Box 25216
Little Rock, AR 72221
Phone: (501) 223-9081
Fax: (501) 223-9105

D.C. Office:
124 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353

Click Here to Email U.S. Senator Cotton

U.S. CONGRESSMAN RICK CRAWFORD (AR DISTRICT 1)

Jonesboro Office:
2400 Highland Drive, Suite 300
Jonesboro, AR 72401
Phone: (870) 203-0540
Fax: (870) 203-0542

D.C. Office:
1711 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4076
Fax: (202) 225-5602

Click Here to Email Congressman Crawford

U.S. CONGRESSMAN FRENCH HILL (AR DISTRICT 2)

Little Rock Office:
1501 N. University Ave.
Suite 150
Little Rock, AR 72207
Phone: (501) 324-5941
Fax: (501) 324-6029

D.C. Office:
1229 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2506
Fax: (202) 225-5903

Click Here to Email U.S. Congressman Hill

U.S. CONGRESSMAN STEVE WOMACK (AR DISTRICT 3)

Rogers Office:
3333 Pinnacle Hills, Suite 120
Rogers, Arkansas 72758
Phone: (479) 464-0446
Fax: (479) 464-0063

D.C. Office:
1119 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4301
Fax: (202) 225-5713

Click Here to Email U.S. Congressman Womack

U.S. CONGRESSMAN BRUCE WESTERMAN (AR DISTRICT 4)

Hot Springs Office:
101 Reserve St.
Suite 200
Hot Springs, AR 71901
Phone: (501) 609-9796
Fax: (501) 609-9887

D.C. Office:
130 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3772
Fax: (202) 225-1314

Click Here to Email U.S. Congressman Westerman

WA Man Sentenced for Giving Marijuana Cake to His Four-Year-Old Daughter

May 24, 2016Jerry CoxMarijuanaMarijuana

According to news sources, a Washington man has pleaded guilty to giving his 4-year-old daughter a piece of chocolate cake infused with marijuana.

The man reportedly went to his daughter’s daycare, where he gave her the cake. The girl later became “extremely lethargic,” and was taken to a local hospital, where she tested positive for THC–the main, active ingredient in marijuana.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Across the country, accidental exposure to marijuana has become a major problem–especially among children.

May, 2016: Hospitals in Colorado report a spike in the number of newborns born with marijuana in their systems.
April, 2016: A Georgia woman was arrested after her five year old said he ate a marijuana cake for breakfast. The child was taken to the hospital for treatment following the incident; according to officials, his pulse was measured at over 200 beats per minute. According to the child’s mother, the cake laced with marijuana was given to her by another person.
March, 2015: Four high school students were hospitalized after eating brownies laced with marijuana hash oil. One student was actually found unresponsive in a school bathroom after eating a marijuana-laced brownie.
February, 2015: A 20-month-old Canadian toddler overdosed after eating a marijuana-laced cookie authorities say his father baked. The child survived, but suffered seizures and had to be admitted to a hospital.
December, 2014: A high school teacher in Maryland was hospitalized after a student gave her a brownie containing marijuana.
December, 2014: Two middle school students in Oklahoma were rushed to the hospital after one of them reportedly passed out following marijuana-use at school.
November, 2014: A Connecticut teen was taken to the hospital from school after she started having difficulty breathing following ingestion of a marijuana-laced gummy bear.
June, 2014: According to The Aspen Times, a seven-year-old girl was taken to the hospital after eating marijuana-laced candy her mother brought home from work at an area hotel. The candy was left by a hotel guest–presumably as a tip.
December, 2013: A two-year-old in Colorado overdosed and was hospitalized after eating a cookie laced with marijuana.News outlet indicate the girl found the cookie in the yard of an apartment complex.

Ingestion of marijuana by children is a very serious problem. Earlier this year, WMGT ran a news story on the matter, saying,

Dr. Christy Peterson, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Medical Center, Navicent Health, said the effects of marijuana are greater and more unpredictable on children than adults.

“Teenagers or adults, it may feel like sleepiness, but in a kid it can look like lethargy and it can even, in severe cases, lead to coma. . . .

“It makes them sleepy, agitated and ataxia which means that they can’t walk very well. It makes them seem disoriented. It makes them not perform well at school or be able to control their body. Hand-eye coordination would be decreased,” said Dr. Peterson.

As some states have legalized marijuana, stories like these have become more common. All of this underscores what we keep saying: Marijuana may be many things, but “harmless” simply is not one of them.

Federal Officials Stumping for Transgender Agenda in Commencement Addresses

May 23, 2016Jerry CoxTransgenderHomosexuality, LGBTQ, Same-Sex Marriage, Transgender

We have written extensively about government overreach in the areas of education and public health; the Obama Administration is reinterpreting federal laws to force schools to let biological males who claim to be female use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms at school. The administration also is forcing hospitals and doctors to offer “gender transition” services–something that flies in the face of many doctors’ professional and conscientious convictions.

In between all of this, federal officials also have been stumping in favor of gay and transgender activists at school graduations.

The head of the federal Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, Vanita Gupta, told New York University School of Law graduates on May 19,

And we see this gap [between what laws guarantee and what people experience] in efforts to deny LGBTI individuals – especially transgender men and women – the respect they deserve and the protection our laws guarantee. And let me add this – efforts like House Bill 2 in North Carolina [requiring people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates] not only violate the laws that govern our nation, but also the values that define us as a people.

Earlier, on May 14, she told University of Minnesota Law School graduates,

Even after the Supreme Court’s landmark gay marriage decision last year in Obergefell v. Hodges that guaranteed all people ‘equal dignity in the eyes of the law,’ we see new efforts to deny LGBTI individuals the respect they deserve and the protection our laws guarantee. And let me add this – efforts like House Bill 2 in North Carolina [requiring people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificates] not only violate the laws that govern our nation, but also the values that define us as a people.

On Monday, May 16, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch gave the commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, in which she said,

[F]rom Bunker Hill to Appomattox and from Seneca Falls to Selma; from the Emancipation Proclamation to the 19^thAmendment and from the civil rights laws of the 1960s to Obergefell v. Hodges [which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide] – we have won these and so many other victories only because people of good will and moral conviction refused to stand aside when there was more to be done.

U.S. Attorney General Lynch’s words effectively equate the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to nullify state marriage laws nationwide with the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and Assistant Attorney General Gupta seems to think it is patently un-American to believe men should use the men’s room and women should use the women’s room.

In the eyes of this administration letting people use the restroom of their choice is not some minor issue; it is a civil right. That comes as a surprise to many people, considering the many other problems plaguing the world today, but these officials’ words and actions seem to be clear indicators of the federal government’s priorities.