The Obama administration will free 10 states from the requirements of No Child Left Behind, responding to complaints from teachers and school administrators across the country that the nation’s main education law is outdated and punitive. Read full article > >

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Obama: 10 states to receive No Child Left Behind waivers

The death of Joe Paterno could weaken the state’s prosecution of two former university officials who have been charged in connection with the child sexual abuse case involving Jerry Sandusky.

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Paterno’s Testimony No Longer Admissible

A man raped and stabbed a teenager two weeks before she was due to give birth to her child, a murder trial is told.

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Man ‘murdered pregnant teenager’

In retrospect, the July 2002 news release announcing the opening of “ Bon Appetit! Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian ” wasn’t overly optimistic. The National Museum of American History scheduled the exhibit to run only through February 2004, a mere 18 months. Nearly a decade later, the Smithsonian will begin to dismantle Child’s kitchen after the last visitor leaves the museum on Sunday, Jan. 8. Not to worry, though: The kitchen — and its 1,200-plus objects — will return this summer as part of a larger exhibit that will put Child’s favorite room in its proper context. Read full article > >

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‘Julia Child’s Kitchen’ to close temporarily on Sunday

A study by the Center on Education Policy says that under the No Child Left Behind law, 48 percent of schools would be labeled as failing this year — not 82 percent.

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Education Secretary Overstated Failing Schools Under No Child Left Behind, Study Says

I once watched an apology rebuffed. A young child said something hurtful to a grown-up dinner guest. After prompting from her mother, the child apologized. “I’m sorry,” the 6-year-old said in a dutiful and not completely sincere tone. “Sorry,” replied the grown-up, “is not enough.”  I think of this frequently when I watch the renewed and refurbished Newt Gingrich, who is at the top of the 2012 Republican heap, spin his tale of sin and redemption — in hopes that primary voters will find him sorry enough. Read full article > >

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Will voters forgive Newt Gingrich?

PHILADELPHIA — Former FBI director Louis Freeh, tapped to lead Penn State’s investigation into the child sex-abuse allegations against a former assistant football coach, said his inquiry will go as far back as 1975, a much longer period than a grand jury report issued earlier this month. Freeh was named Monday to oversee the university board of trustees’ internal investigation into the abuse allegations that ultimately led to the ouster of longtime football coach Joe Paterno and university President Graham Spanier. Read full article > >

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Penn State taps former FBI director Louis Freeh in child sex-abuse investigation

A police officer tells the trial of a woman accused of murdering her toddler son that the child’s body was found in a “horrendous” state.

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Dead child in ‘horrendous’ state

Eleven states asked the Education Department for relief from some provisions of the No Child Left Behind law, in exchange for adopting higher standards.

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11 States Seek Relief From ‘No Child’ Provisions, in Return for Raising Standards

Around this time last year, we ran a series of polls on bad customer behavior, from inconsiderate grocery store patrons to folks practically making babies at their restaurant table. Today's debate comes courtesy of a 30 weeks pregnant mom arrested last week in Honolulu after she ate a sandwich in a Safeway store and forgot to pay. Nicole Leszczynski, a former Air Force staff sergeant, was charged with fourth-degree theft, a petty misdemeanor, as was her husband Marcin. The charges were later dropped by the store, but per standard procedure when both parents are arrested with a child present, Honolulu police called Child Welfare Services, and their 2 year old daughter was taken into custody overnight. Leszczynski's defense was that she didn't know it was taboo to eat while shopping , and in some cultures and communities, that's the case. Shoppers think nothing of nibbling on an apple to stave off hunger pangs, or ripping open a packet of cookies to keep a fussy toddler occupied until it's time to check out. In others – especially big chain stores and places where items are paid for by the pound – eating before buying is considered as shoplifting, even if the customer fully intended to pay. In Leszczynski's case, it was seemingly an honest mistake; she'd kept the sandwich wrapper to be scanned at the register and forgot. The family, when stopped by security, offered to pay once they realized what was going on. Though the managers involved during the incident argued to the contrary at the time, the Safeway chain has no official policy about in-store eating. They do, however maintain that shoppers should identify and pay for anything they consumed before checkout. So, is it wrong to sneak a snack while shopping, if you fully intend to pay upon checkout, or is that simply beyond the pale? Share your stories and opinions in the comments below and we'll highlight the best of the debate in an upcoming post. View This Poll Previously – Pay-per-pound nibbling

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Snacking and shopping – is that wrong?

In the opening pages of this powerful, assured first novel, a desperate mother throws her baby into a river. An act of madness? Quite the contrary. It is the only possible way to save the child’s life. Packed with violence and death, yet wonderfully serene in its tone, Andrew Krivak’s “The Sojourn” — shortlisted for this year’s National Book Award — reminds us that one never knows from where the blow will fall and that, always, in the midst of life we are in death: Read full article > >

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Andrew Krivak’s ‘The Sojourn,’ reviewed by Michael Dirda

One of the key ingredients in a good news story is dogged, original research. And that’s what lies behind The Post’s story about Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and his misleading narrative that he is the child of immigrants who left Fidel Castro’s Cuba. As we know now, and as Rubio himself has acknowledged, his parents left Cuba on May 27, 1956, some 2 1 / 2 years before Castro came to power and some five years before Castro declared a “socialist revolution” in April 1961. Read full article > >

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The story behind the Marco Rubio story

The Queen is to become a great-grandmother for a second time, as her grandson Peter Phillips and his wife Autumn announce they are expecting another child.

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Baby delight for Queen’s grandson

The jury in the Jennifer Cardy murder trial hears that the child’s watch was stopped four hours after her mother had set it on the day she went missing.

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Trial hears child watch evidence

Republican candidates who once supported the federal No Child Left Behind law now say the federal government has no place in state and local education decisions.

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News Analysis: G.O.P. Anti-Federalism Aims at Education