Compiled by the El Reporter’s staff
Pete Hoekstra
U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, conducted a news conference March 31, announcing he will be introducing a bill with 70 congressional co-sponsors that would amend the Constitution to explicitly state that parents, not government or any other organization, have a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit.
“In the President’s first address to a joint session of Congress, he stated that there is ‘no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father,’” Hoekstra said. “I agree wholeheartedly.” The most effective means of protecting the parent-child relationship is by securing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The draft amendment places the text preserving parents’ rights into the text of the Constitution, ensuring that the child-parent relationship remains protected for generations to come.
“The right of parents to raise their children as they see fit is under direct attack by government and the courts,” Hoekstra said.
“The Parents’ Rights Amendment is about pre serving that right for parents as opposed to empowering policymakers either in Washington or any other organization.” Conducting Talk Show interviews on this topic are Congressman Pete Hoekstra and Michael Farris of ParentalRights.org.
West County School District workers rally to protect health and safety of kids
Endangered workers at the West County Unified School District here held a rally April 1, to protect the health and safety of school, and to preserve the jobs of frontline employees entrusted to care for them.
The rally precedes a school board meeting where the District plans to slash scores of jobs of frontline classified employees. The workers are asking the Board to postpone that decision to look for alternatives to layoffs, and they want to be part of the solution.
“Before the district makes these draconian cuts on the backs of employees who are entrusted to care for the health and safety of these school children, we ask the District sit down at a table with us and other stakeholders to fi nd a safe solution,” said Richard Leung of Public Employees Union Local 1.
“The employees who do the actual work have ideas on how the district’s operations can be streamlined to reduce redundancy, improve effi ciency and savings. This can help to make the pain of layoffs, if necessary, fair, equitable and minimal,” added Leung.
Assembly Republicans to introduce emergency measure to give gas stations relief from costly new mandate
SACRAMENTO- Assembly Republicans on Wednesday will introduce emergency legislation that will give gas stations relief from a costly new mandate that takes effect April 1st and could force many gas stations to shut down or face significant fines if they haven’t installed new fuel nozzles to capture more fuel vapor, a written statement announced.
The measure, authored by Assemblyman Martin Garrick (R-Carlsbad), said the release, will be introduced in the Legislature’s special session so that it can be acted upon immediately and would put in place a one-year enforcement holiday for the new mandate.
This will give gas stations greater time to comply with the rule, to prevent fi nes, closures, worker lay offs and higher gas prices. As of last week, just 35.9 percent of impacted gas stations across California had installed the new fuel nozzles, the document said.
