Why Did English Become the International Language?  This is why it is generally not important for English-speakers to learn a second language (outside of some academics who want to read works in original languages).  For almost any English-speaker, it is really an inefficient use of time when it is easy to communicate with most in English.  [Video clip]

Cultural-appropriation Outrage Shows People Are Desperate To Be Offended.  This column is written in English, a language that contains hundreds of thousands of words appropriated from other tongues.  Just under two-thirds of our language derives from Latin or French.  About a quarter is Germanic in origin.  And about a sixth comes from Greek, Arabic and other languages.

The most important time to make English the official language.  There was a time when the initiative to make English the official language of the country was a moot point.  Until recent decades, the culture, government, and education system never catered to the balkanization of America or accommodated different languages, and thus, the de facto language was always the American mother tongue.  Sure, those who immigrated as adults didn't always know English immediately, but their children immediately learned the language as proficiently as children from native-born families.  There were no other options.  The school system was pure red, white, and blue.

Immigration: How Trump Derangement Syndrome Dumbs Down the Press.  As of 2015, there were 54 sovereign states and 27 non-sovereign entities where English was an official language.  These include India (population: 1,247,540,000), Pakistan (199,085,847), Nigeria (182,202,000), the Philippines (102,885,100), Tanzania (51,820,000) and Kenya (45,010,056) among, obviously, many others.  In China (population 1.39 billion), almost all school children begin English in the third grade.  In Japan, South Korea and Singapore, it's also mandatory beginning about the same time.  Anyone who's been to Europe recently knows it's hard to find anyone under fifty in those countries now who doesn't speak some degree of English.

Do You Have To Speak English To Be Naturalized?  During a heated exchange at the Wednesday [8/2/2017] press briefing between a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, the question of English requirements for naturalization came up.  In an attempt to ridicule a proposal on immigration, Acosta cited a poem on the Statue of Liberty, stating that the poem "doesn't say anything about speaking English" in order to immigrate to the U.S.  Acosta continued, "Aren't you trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming into this country if you're telling them you have to speak English?  Can't people learn how to speak English when they get here?"  Miller rebutted, "Well, first of all, right now it's a requirement that to be naturalized you have to speak English."

'They' is Destroying the English Language.  Someone might object that singular "they" is only a word and hardly a great tragedy.  But every word that is destroyed in this manner impoverishes, not enriches, language.  Something precious has been taken from the people.  That is why it is important to fight back and refused to use the singular they in this context.

More than 350 languages spoken in U.S.; 54 percent of Los Angeles shuns English at home.  Those who speak Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese at home are less proficient in English than Spanish-speakers according to striking findings the Census Bureau released Tuesday [11/3/2015] that suggest some Asians may have a tougher time mastering English than Hispanics.  Overall, Americans speak more than 350 different tongues at home, including some 150 Native American languages, some of which have so few speakers that the bureau declined to release the totals for fear that it would identify actual individuals.

New American Century: Arabic Is Fastest-Growing Language In USA.  Data from the United States Census Bureau show that languages spoken in Muslim countries are surging into U.S. households due to rapid growth in immigration from Muslim nations.  The Census Bureau's 2014 American Community Survey (ACS) reveals that Arabic and Urdu — Pakistan's national language — are the fastest-growing foreign languages spoken at home, according to a new report by the Center for Immigration Studies.

Making English America's official language is fiscally conservative.  While we can say a great deal without ever speaking one word, the importance of language stands without parallel.  In today's America, many no longer see the value in having a national language.  For them, it is incomprehensible as to why English should be emphasized.  The reason for said mindset is multiculturalism.  It is spreading across the Western world like wildfire.  This has led not only to cultural barriers, but severe religious and ethnic conflicts.

Catering to Non-English Speaking Kids Sends Education Costs Skyrocketing.  The education budgets for America's small towns and states are skyrocketing as the huge wave of of the Biden-Harris administration's migrant children are diverted into American primary schools.  As these migrants flood into public schools, administrators are shifting more budget dollars towards dealing with children who speak a dozen different languages, and some who have had little or no education in their home countries before they came to the U.S., and this shift of budget dollars necessarily takes resources away from native students.  The surge began in 2021 when Biden's ill-fated border policies kicked into high gear and caused a continually growing influx of English Language Learners (ELL) who have to be taught English before being taught the rest of a school's curriculum.  Swing state Pennsylvania, for instance, saw a 40 percent rise in the number of EEL students, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Ohio Grandfather Says His Grandson Is The Only Child Who Speaks English In His Class.  Ohio grandfather says his grandson needs an interpreter for preschool because he is the only child who speaks English.  It's crazy how much a country can change in 4 years.  "My daughter enrolls my 4-year-old grandson into preschool last week.  And they have a little meet and greet."  "I live in a small town in Ohio.  So she goes, takes him down to the meet and greet.  They tell her that she has to hire a translator with her own money in order to send him to preschool because he's the only student who doesn't speak Spanish."  "Can you believe that?  Can't go to preschool because he doesn't speak Spanish."  [Video clip]

10% of Massachusetts workforce can't speak much English:  Report.  Anew report from two DEI-driven organizations claims that roughly 10% of the workforce in the commonwealth of Massachusetts has "limited-English proficiency."  On Monday, MassINC, a nonprofit that works to promote "inclusive" economic opportunities in Massachusetts, and the UMass Donahue Institute, which wants to "advance equity and social justice" as part of the public and economic outreach for the University of Massachusetts President's Office, published a report calling for better "English for Speakers of Other Languages," or ESOL, services.

Councils scrapping apostrophes is just another sorry sign of Britain's decline.  n 1969, Kingsley Amis wrote a letter of complaint to a magazine created to serve the teaching profession.  Its title?  Teachers World.  "Shouldn't that name have an apostrophe in it somewhere?" asked the author of Lucky Jim, acidly.  "But I suppose it is safer to drop it if you aren't too sure where it should go."  In response, the editor of "Teachers" World insisted that it wasn't a mistake.  On the contrary, he wrote, the apostrophe had been dropped "deliberately" — for "modern design reasons".  Somehow, that makes it seem even more annoying.  Still, if Amis thought that was bad, thank goodness he isn't around today.  He'd be utterly aghast — because the apostrophe, it seems, is now in greater peril than ever.  For proof, see this week's news from North Yorkshire, where a council has confirmed that it is no longer putting apostrophes on road signs.

In Florida, ignorance of the law is an excuse if you don't speak English.  An illegal alien in Florida escaped prosecution for resisting arrest because he speaks no English[,] and now he's suing the estate of the officer who collapsed while arresting him.  If you've ever wondered how lost America is, I think this story tells the tale.  I'll limit my comments because the facts really do speak for themselves.  Virgilio Aguilar Mendez is a Guatemalan citizen who came to America illegally, ending up in St.  Augustine, Florida.  Last year, Sgt. Michael Kunovich, an experienced police officer, believed that Mendez was behaving suspiciously and began to question him.  Mendez announced that he didn't speak English and tried to walk away.  Of course, walking away from a police officer isn't how it works in Guatemala or America, so Kunovich grabbed Mendez.  Mendez responded with violence.  Kunovich then collapsed from a deadly heart attack.

The legitimization of Ebonics, slang, and mumbling:
Denver public schools bring back the Tower of Babel, but call it 'language justice'.  What is "language justice" you might ask?  Well I'd never heard of the term until today, but since the English language is "oppressive" and "rooted in racism," the left has led a focused effort that has now been enacted into policy, and the idea is to permit foreign students to forgo learning English, and instead allowing them to retain their native languages in the classroom.  An excerpt from the "equity document" released by the school board defined "language justice" as this:  ["]The notion of respecting every individual's fundamental language rights — to be able to communicate, understand, and be understood in the language in which they prefer and feel most articulate and powerful.["]  As the report also notes, of the roughly 90,000 students, around 35,000 are "multilingual learners" with a non-English language home; in those non-English homes, there are "200" other languages spoken.  We tried telling them, all that "diversity is our strength" talk was really just a utopic pipe dream or a wishful sentiment, but nowhere is that more obvious than with language — when people can't understand each other nobody can communicate effectively — but again, they'd know this if they knew their history and literature.

Teacher refuses to teach grammar, claiming it is part of white supremacy.  A teacher in California who identifies as "cringey" is going viral after claiming she does not teach grammar usage and writing skills in an attempt to defeat white supremacy.  Marta Shaffer teaches English at Oroville High School and uses linguistics to fight "white supremacy in my classes" and be "inclusive of all kinds of ways we use the language," she said.  The expectation that students should use syntax and proper grammar is based in a deep-rooted white supremacy culture, she argues, according to a report.  "I try to undermine that [stuff] in my classroom as much as I can," she said.  "We study linguistics and the rules that we actually use to communicate instead of the made-up rules that white supremacy created for when we write papers and stuff, which is what scholars call the 'language of power.'"

The Editor says...
Ignoring the teacher's clumsy and pedestrian syntax, it is an error to rail against "made-up rules."  All rules are "made up," usually by experts, and most language usage rules were originated centuries ago.

An English teacher proudly hates the English language.  English is a glorious language that has developed over a thousand years, borrowing from every other tongue as it goes, and developing strict rules to maintain maximum coherence.  It is spoken around the world and is, therefore, the language of money and power.  But to a White, middle-aged leftist English teacher, the English language she's responsible for teaching to all students, regardless of race, color, creed, etc., is nothing more than an ugly White supremacist means of controlling people[.]  More than any language in the world, English is a portmanteau language — that is, it has cheerfully borrowed from every language with which English speakers have come into contact, creating a language of unusual richness and beauty.  Over the millennia, it has absorbed myriad tongues into its Germanic core:  Latin, Greek, the Romance languages, French, Hindu, Welsh, Gaelic, Dutch, Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, Swahili, and more.  In this, it differs greatly from other languages.  The French, for example, are proud that their language has calcified.  Over the same time, it has developed grammar rules that are intended to ensure the utmost clarity when communicating.

Quebec Sets Plan to Bar Most Immigrants Who Don't Speak French.  Quebec Premier Francois Legault, concerned about the decline of the French language in the Canadian province, has set a new goal for immigrants:  They should all speak French.  Legault's nationalist Coalition Avenir Quebec party was re-elected with a huge majority in October, partly on a platform of protecting French as the dominant language in the province of 8.7 million people.  His speech to the legislature Wednesday laid out his priorities for his second term, including a plan to bar almost all economic immigrants who don't speak French by 2026.

Spielberg's Politically Correct "West Side Story" Flops With Audiences.  Call it Woke Side Story.  Because there's woke, really woke, über woke, and then there's this:  not including subtitles for a movie's Spanish dialogue because you don't want to give "English the power over the Spanish."  That's exactly what director Steven Spielberg did, and why, in his recently released West Side Story, a "remake" of the iconic 1961 film of the same name.  Spielberg says, however, that it's not a remake but a "reimagining."  But no matter one's imagination, it's hard to conceive of the flick's debut this past weekend as anything but a flop — and expensive one, too.

Spielberg's 'Woke Side Story' Dives 68% at Box Office in Week Two.  All hope for Steven Spielberg's racially divisive West Side Story remake died in week two, plummeting 68 percent with a humiliating take of just $3.4 million.  After ten days in release, which includes two weekends, this historic box office bomb has grossed just $17.9 million. [...] Between production and marketing, this stinker probably cost close to $200 million.  As a result, Disney's going to lose a fortune.

St. Cloud schools add Somali, Ojibwe to world language program.  Move over, Spanish and French.  St.  Cloud public schools next year will be offering Somali and Ojibwe to all students as elective languages.  "It just makes sense for us to have it," said Lori Posch, executive director of learning and teaching for St. Cloud schools.  "We want to see our students represented in our courses."  The move comes after the St. Cloud school district this fall introduced what is thought to be the first native Somali language course in the state — and possibly the nation — for secondary students.  Some students who are immigrants or refugees have limited or interrupted formal education.  The native Somali course is meant to bolster writing skills in those students' native language and, at the same time, build school skills and other language skills.

Pennsylvania City Votes Against Removing English as Official Language.  The city of Allentown, Pennsylvania, voted not to remove English as its official language in a referendum ballot question on Tuesday [11/2/2021]. [...] The Morning Call reports that 6,695 voted against removing English as the city's official language, while over 3,000 voted in favor of the removal.  Some took issue with the question itself, suggesting that the wording of the question was unclear, according to the outlet.

Democracy doesn't work in tribal societies like Afghanistan — or America.  Most Americans traditionally are not tribal, except in the American nationalism sense.  They're products of a melting pot of British, Italians, Irish, Mexican, African, Indian and so on.  They've seen themselves as Americans.  Virtually all Americans in our history have spoken the common language.  They either immigrated from an English-speaking country or learned English shortly after arriving. [...] But American culture is changing. [...] Immigrants are encouraged not to learn the common language and not to assimilate into Americanism — despite their desire to do so.  Anyone who suggests they should, is shouted down and cancelled as racist.

This should have been done years ago:
Sweden proposes bill giving citizenship only to migrants who can speak the language.  Sweden's centre-left government has submitted a bill to parliament which will for the first time require those seeking permanent residency to prove they can speak the language.  "We think that a basic knowledge of Swedish and knowledge of society is a reasonable demand to make," said the country's Justice Minister Morgan Johansson, adding that incomers would have to prove they can support themselves.  He said that the new migration policy had been designed to be tougher than the loose regime which was in place before the migration crisis in 2015, when 160,000 people sought asylum in the country, more per head than any other country in Europe.

Super Woke Update:  University Votes to Stop Calling Its English Department the ENGLISH Department.  On today's episode of "This Just in From the No Longer Hallowed Halls of Academia," we learn that "faculty members of color" at Cornell University in Ithica, New York, recently introduced a proposal to change the name of the school's English Department, because "racism."  Earlier this month, as reported by The Cornell Daily Sun, a "significant majority of the department approved the change and is now awaiting approval from college administration."  I'll go out on a limb and bet — how should I put this? — there isn't a snowball's chance the name change won't be approved.  Unanimously.

No English, no visa:  Australia to block visa for partners if they don't speak English.  Australians who fall in love with non-English speaking foreigners will be barred from bringing their partners into the country to be married if they do not speak English.  In Tuesday's [10/6/2020] federal budget the government said it would introduce an English language test for both the person being sponsored for a visa to move to Australia to marry their partner and their sponsor if they are non-English speaking permanent residents.

Sen. Klobuchar says English should not be US national language; reverses 2007 stand.  Sen. Amy Klobuchar has reversed her position on English being the official language of the U.S. The Minnesota Democrat and Democratic presidential hopeful announced that she now holds a "strong position against" the English-language amendment which she voted in favor of back in 2007. [...] Her remarks come a week ahead of the nation's third nominating contest in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries set to take place in a state with a large Latino population.

English Is the International Language of Success — Except in California.  It's been two decades, but I still remember the excitement of helping to pass California's Proposition 227, which I thought would rescue Spanish-speaking kids from an education ghetto of frustration and failure.  It was an uphill battle.  We fought an education bureaucracy including California's powerful teachers' unions, book publishers who received lucrative government contracts, and even Jerry Perenchio, the late Republican billionaire CEO of Univision, who donated $1.5 million to the efforts to maintain California's "bilingual" education system.  We won.  Sixty-one percent of Californians were ready for a change.  Amid chants of racism and cultural insensitivity, Latino parents would tell me they knew that education and learning English in their adopted country were key to their kids' futures.  Unfortunately, the victory wouldn't last.

Which country are Democrats running to be president of?  A lot of Latino voters were kind of creeped out by three of the Democratic candidates' calculated use of Spanish in their debate statements.  Not only were Cory Booker, Julian Castro, and Beto O'Rourke observably poor Spanish speakers, their use of the Spanish language to appeal to the Latino voters was just a little too cute on the pandering front.  And that doesn't even get into the matter of their Hugo Chavez-style socialist promises for them.  For many Latino voters, been there, done that.  I would have loved to have seen the fluently Spanish-speaking moderator test Castro, who reputedly speaks very little Spanish with a Spanish-language question.  Meanwhile, the most fluent Spanish speaker on the floor, the Sandinista- and Cuban-trained Bill De Blasio, didn't join the panderfest.  Maybe he didn't want anyone to ask him how he got so good at it.

'Press 2 for Spanish' costs billions; Trump can save money by pressing pen to paper.  There's no telling how much money the government could save if it were to stop asking Americans to "Press 2 for Spanish."  What is clear, according to those pushing the change, is that President Trump could do it with the stroke of a pen.  Why he hasn't done so remains shrouded.  Since the dawn of the 21st century, the U.S. government has operated under mandatory translation rules for its documents and services, a pricey option that President Bill Clinton imposed via executive order near the end of his tenure in August 2000.  In essence, the order meant that if a person with limited or no English language skills had a problem with accessing federal services, then that was the government's problem.

Duke official steps down after telling students to speak English.  The director of graduate studies for a Duke University School of Medicine department stepped down Saturday after screenshots of an email reported to be from her circulated on social media, suggesting students refrain from speaking Chinese to "improve their English."  "I encourage you to commit to using English 100 percent of the time" on campus or in professional settings, the email states.  Medical school dean Mary E. Klotman apologized to her students for the email, sent out by Megan Neely, director of the Master of Biostatics Program.

School apologizes after students recite Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish.  Two days before Thanksgiving, the principal at Fairfax, Virginia's Westfield High School introduced a new program to encourage students to learn the Pledge of Allegiance in different languages.  A week later, the principal reportedly canceled the program and apologized to students for the "offensive" idea, according to Stephanie Somers, mother of a senior at the school.  Somers said her son was excited when asked to recite the pledge in Spanish on Monday, but by Tuesday afternoon the program was scrapped over complaints from the community.

College Writing Center Declares American Grammar A 'Racist,' 'Unjust Language Structure'.  An "antiracist" poster in a college writing center insists American grammar is "racist" and an "unjust language structure," promising to prioritize rhetoric over "grammatical 'correctness.'"  The poster, written by the director, staff, and tutors of the University of Washington, Tacoma's Writing Center, states "racism is the normal condition of things," declaring that it permeates rules, systems, expectations, in courses, school and society.  "Linguistic and writing research has shown clearly for many decades that there is no inherent 'standard' of English," proclaims the writing center's statement.

Education Dept.  Issues Guidance to Boost Academic Achievement of 'English Learners'.  In the last several decades, English learners have been among the fastest-growing populations in America's schools, now comprising nearly 10 percent of the student population nationwide, according the Education Department.  On Friday [9/23/2016], the Education Department released non-regulatory "guidance" to help states, districts and schools "provide effective services to improve the English language proficiency and academic achievement" of those 4.8 million English learners.  "In too many places across the country, English learners get less access to quality teachers, less access to advanced coursework, and less access to the resources they need to succeed," Education Secretary John King Jr. said in a news release.  "Together, we can change that reality."

Feds Consider Puerto Ricans Disabled Because They Speak Spanish.  The Social Security Administration (SSA) approved disability benefits for hundreds of Puerto Ricans because they do not speak English, despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a predominantly Spanish-speaking territory.  According to a new audit by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the agency is misapplying rules that are intended to provide financial assistance to individuals who are illiterate or cannot speak English in the United States.  Under the rules, Puerto Ricans are allowed to receive disability benefits for their inability to speak English as well.

Here ze comes.  Glenn Reynolds links to a Daily Mail article highlighting usage notes issued by a gay rights official at the University of Tennessee, where Glenn teaches.  The university official has advised staff and students to stop using "he" and "she" — and switch to "xe," "zir" and "xyr" instead.  The idea is to avoid any implication that mankind is divided into men and women.  This is discouraged as "binary" thinking.  In the brave new world, gender neutral pronouns are preferred to make the university "welcoming and inclusive" and to prevent feelings of marginalization.  I feel marginalized, however, when men can't recognize women and rules of grammar are destroyed.

Washington, D.C. Mayor Purposely Uses Bad Grammar.  Democratic Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser used grossly incorrect grammar in a recent tweet to her constituents.  [Illustration]  Note to the students of the Washington, D.C. public school system:  The way your mayor wrote that sentence was not grammatically correct.  When you write sentences, hopefully your teachers tell you to write them correctly so you can be among the 59 percent of D.C. students who graduate high school in four years, according to 2012 statistics, and you won't have to become a union card-carrying public school teacher who supports Muriel Bowser and her stilted faux-populist appeals.

Gov. Jerry Brown: Nearly 30% of CA Kids Illegal or 'Don't Speak English'.  A California Immigrant Policy Center report found that there are 2.6 million illegal immigrants in California (or 26% of all immigrants) while illegal immigrants make up nearly 10% of the state's workforce, including "38% of the agriculture industry and 14% of the construction industry."

Beware Manspreading, Enjoy Wine O'clock: New Oxford Words.  Manspreading is so widespread it's now a word.  The term, coined by commuters, refers to men on public transport who splay their legs wide apart and encroach on neighboring seats.  It's now been added to OxfordDictionaries.com.  The free online dictionary of current usage, created by the publishers of the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, issued its quarterly update Thursday [8/27/2015] of new words that have gained widespread currency in the English language.

American Babel.  Back in June, a belligerent New York City attorney briefly became a symbol of "xenophobia" for those who make it their business to deconstruct what's left of American identity.  Viral video of his tirade in a restaurant over staff speaking to customers in Spanish served as but the latest example of what the media portray as an epidemic of bigotry they are duty-bound to cure through incessant coverage and expressions of outrage.  Harmeet Kaur, for example, capitalized on the moment to remind the public from her perch at CNN that "the US has no official language," while simultaneously conceding that there is "no question that English is the de facto language of the United States."

New York's state English exams are a horrific waste.  Another year, another ridiculous effort to see how schools are faring by using state tests, then negating the usefulness of those tests by waiting months to release scores and ultimately disregarding the scores and passing kids on to the next grade anyway.  It's a system only a government bureaucrat could love.  The two statewide tests in English Language Arts and math begin in third grade.  The math test is fairly straightforward and so gets much less criticism, although the usefulness of the actual test is debatable.  But the ELA has come to represent everything that is wrong with New York's entire education system.  The ELA state test for third- graders consists of six short essays and one long essay.  That's essentially a full day of writing for an 8-year-old, something that adults would find difficult.  It's a test of endurance more than reading proficiency.

Trump Rule Rejects Migrants Who Cannot Speak English.  Federal officials will likely reject legal migrants' requests for visas or green cards if they cannot speak English, says a draft regulation from President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security.  "English language proficiency is a skill that also is relevant in determining whether an alien is likely to become a public charge in the future," says the draft "public charge" regulation.  The regulation is intended to help officials exclude migrants who will likely rely on American taxpayers for their health care, welfare, housing, and wages.

Taco Bell employee fired for refusing to serve English-speaking customer.  A Spanish-speaking Taco Bell employee in Florida was let go by the fast food chain after a video circulating on social media this week showed her refusing to serve an English-speaking customer.  The video shows the employee at the restaurant's Hialeah location appearing to become annoyed when customer Alexandria Montgomery tried placing her order in English, the Miami Herald reported.

Spanish-language sample ballots now required in 32 more Florida counties.  A federal judge has ordered 32 counties statewide to provide sample ballots in Spanish to accommodate thousands of Puerto Ricans who moved to Florida after Hurricane Maria.  Federal Judge Mark Walker issued an order Friday [9/7/2018], calling English-language ballots a detriment to voters who only speak Spanish.

Majority of Foreign Refugees Can't Speak English After Five Years Living in U.S..  The majority of foreign refugees arriving in the United States every year cannot speak English, even after they have lived in the U.S. for five years.  An annual report by the Office of Refugee Resettlement was analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies' Jason Richwine and reveals the extent to which assimilation to life in America has failed for the refugee population.  About 58 percent, or nearly 6-in-10 refugees have "below basic" English skills after living in the U.S. for five years.  These unassimilated refugees are sometimes described as "functionally illiterate."  The number of refugees who cannot speak English is far below the native-born population, where 85 percent of Americans are proficient in English.

22 percent of US citizens do not speak English as their first language at home.  Nearly a quarter of American households do not speak English as their first language, a new study published on Tuesday has found.  The Migration Policy Institute discovered that 22 percent of the US population prefers to speak another language at home, with the highest concentrations located in Nevada and Florida.  'Spanish was the top non-English language spoken at home in the country overall and in the 15 fastest-growing states with one exception:  Alaska, where Eskimo — Aleut and other Native American languages predominated,' the report found.

Latest Complaint About Illegal Kids In Custody:  They're Being Taught English & Pledge of Allegiance.  The media is now complaining that when children of illegals end up in U.S. custody, the kiddos are being taught English, to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and are fed American food.  Oh, the HORRORS!  Activists for illegals are attacking the U.S., now, because when parents from south of our border send their kids here unaccompanied, our government is feeding them American foods, putting them in temporary schools, and, *gasp*, teaching them English.  Worse, U.S. authorities are forcing them to say the Pledge of Allegiance IN ENGLISH, yet.  Of course, these illegals — who should not be here in the first place, mind you — have a friend in the anti-American Washington Post.

Dunkin' Donuts is under fire after a manager offered a reward for customers to report workers for shouting 'in a language other than ENGLISH'.  Dunkin' Donuts is under fire after a sign was spotted at a Baltimore location offering rewards to customers who reported employees for speaking languages other than English.  On Monday [6/18/2018], Gillian Morley, a news producer at WBAL-TV, posted a photo on Twitter of a sign in a Baltimore Dunkin' Donuts location.

Americans Strongly Favor English as Official Language.  Michigan recently introduced legislation to make English the official state language, making it one of 32 states to do so, while a bill to do the same on a national level was reintroduced in Congress last year.  As they have for more than a decade, most Americans support such legislation.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 81% of American Adults think English should be the official language of the United States.  Since 2006, this number has ranged from a high of 87% to a low of 83%.  Just 12% do not think English should be the country's official language.

Senate panel votes to obey contracts written in English only.  A Senate panel voted Wednesday [2/28/2018] to let insurers disavow foreign-language versions of the contracts they provide, a move one lawmaker said will result in companies giving people "the shaft."  HB 2083 would spell out that the English-language version of any policy governs any dispute between insurance companies and their customers, even if a version in another language prepared by the company says something else.

The Editor says...
[#1] If you live in America, learn the language.
[#2] If you can't read, you should know that you are at risk in any transaction.
[#3] If you don't know what you're signing, you will be cheated — no matter what language you understand.

Study: Nearly 25 Percent of DACA Illegal Aliens Are 'Functionally Illiterate' in English.  According to Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Steven Camarota, about 24 percent of illegal aliens who are eligible for DACA — which President Trump administration will officially end in March 2018 — overstate their English proficiency skills and are "below basic" or "functionally illiterate."  Additionally, the research found that about 46 percent of DACA illegal aliens only have "basic" English proficiency skills, despite narratives from corporate interests and the open borders lobby that recipients of the program are vastly highly-educated.

Texas Town Drops English as Official Language.  A North Texas city dropped English as its official language, a move dubbed by its mayor as heralding in a "new day" that was "welcoming" and "inclusive."  On Tuesday evening [11/28/2017], the city council of Farmers Branch voted unanimously to repeal a 2006 ordinance that declared English as the municipality's official language.  That policy stated all city business must be conducted in English, the "common language" of Texas and the United States and said "the use of a common language removes barriers of misunderstanding" and enables "civic participation of all citizens, regardless of national origin, creed, race."

Census Bureau: 44.6% in California Don't Speak English at Home; 35.6% in Texas.  In California — which with a July 2016 population of 39,250,017 is the nation's most populous state — 44.6 percent of the people five years of age and older do not speak English at home, according to data released this week by the Census Bureau.  At the same time, according to the Census Bureau, 18.6 percent of California residents 5 and older do not speak English "very well."  That ranks California No. 1 among the states for the percentage of people in both of these categories.  Nationwide, 21.6 percent speak a language other than English at home and 8.6 percent speak English less than very well.

NJ teacher reportedly tells class 'speak American'.  A video clip recorded on a cell phone inside a New Jersey classroom reportedly shows a teacher confronting her students and telling them to "speak American."  A teacher at Cliffside Park High School said, "men and women are fighting."  WPIX reported.  "They are not fighting for your right to speak Spanish.  They are fighting for you right to speak American."

The Editor says...
There's a lesson to be learned here:  Don't allow cell phones in classrooms!

With 220 languages spoken in California, courts face an interpreter shortage.  Federal law enforcement began investigating California's courts seven years ago after receiving complaints that two Korean-speaking women in Los Angeles had been denied court interpreters.  Courts in other states also were examined and faulted.  Along with California, they began working to comply with U.S civil rights law, which bars discrimination based on national origin.  Failure to act meant the possible loss of federal money.  But nowhere has the task been so challenging as in California, the most linguistically diverse state in the nation.

Why is it up to us to pay for this?
$10 Million to Fund English Classes, Legal Services for Foreigners Seeking Citizenship.  The U.S. government announced on July 27 that it will continue to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to fund English, history, and civics courses, as well as naturalization legal services to foreigners seeking legal American citizenship, according to Judicial Watch.  According to a Homeland Security grant obtained by Judicial Watch, the $10 million will be allocated to the Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program, operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  The program, which will distribute the money across 36 organizations, aims to provide hopeful immigrants with classes in U.S. history and government in preparation for the citizenship test, as well for activities that promote civic and linguistic assimilation.  "Naturalization requirements, such as knowledge of English and of U.S. history and civics, encourage civic learning and build a strong foundation upon which immigrants can fully assimilate into society," the Homeland Security grant states.

Donald Trump announces new immigration policy favouring financially stable English speakers.  President Donald Trump is touting new legislation to overhaul the US immigration system, drastically cutting the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country and implementing a "merit-based" visa scheme.  If passed, the RAISE Act would cut the number of immigrants allowed into the United States by 50 percent over the next 10 years.  It would eliminate diversity lottery visas and crack down on so-called "chain immigration" — visas provided based on family connections, rather than jobs skills.  Mr Trump promoted the act alongside Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue on Wednesday [8/2/2017], claiming it would "reduce poverty, increase wages, and save taxpayers billions and billions of dollars".

5 million immigrants granted US citizenship can't speak English.  In a stunning indictment of the system that tests immigrants on their eligibility to become "naturalized citizens," a new report finds that a third are functionally illiterate, unable to speak and understand enough English to get that status.  Some 32 percent of naturalized citizens, about 5 million, fall below "basic" skills in English, the equivalent of being functionally illiterate, according to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies.  The report is a follow on to one that found 67 percent of immigrants in the United States for 15 years or more can't speak much English.

This is America.  Speak English or leave.
New White House begins with English-only website as Team Trump breaks with Obama by nixing all Spanish-language content.  Donald Trump will not be 'El Presidente,' judging from the website his White House launched on Friday [1/20/2017].  The new whitehouse.gov, unlike the online home of the Obama administration, has no Spanish-language content.  Visiting the old White House website address for content 'en Español' brings Web surfers to an error page.

Spanish language content removed from White House website after Trump inauguration.  The site became an English-only site shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration as US president on Friday.  The Spanish version of the White House page was created in the months following President Barack Obama's swearing-in in 2009.

580 students speak 42 languages at Buffalo, NY high school.  A Somali student is turning heads at a Buffalo high school where students speak 42 different languages.  Sophomore Sahal Hussein swims on the varsity team for Lafayette High School, where the school's 580 students speak 42 different languages, just months after the Somali native entered the pool for the first time in September, ABC 6 reports.

Cabbies in Brampton won't have to pass English test, geographical training.  Taxi drivers will no longer have to pass English tests or go through geographical knowledge training after Brampton city council quietly removed all requirements for them to do so.  This is a decision that defies simple logic.  Think about it for a moment:  Can anyone with poor English and little knowledge of the city they work in be an effective taxi driver?  Of course not!

Obama Admin:  Requiring Employees in US Speak English Is Discriminatory.  Under new rules put forth by the Obama administration, it's now considered discriminatory for companies in the U.S. to require that employees speak English, but it's OK to require that workers speak a foreign language.  The new enforcement guideline is meant to crack down on "national origin discrimination" in the workplace, because according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the American workforce is "increasingly ethnically diverse."

U.S. Workplace English Rules Discriminatory, Foreign Language Demands Aren't.  Requiring employees in the United States to speak a foreign language is not discriminatory but forcing them to speak English violates federal law under a sweeping order issued by the Obama administration to crack down on "national origin discrimination" in the workplace.  The government's new enforcement guidelines state that bilingual requirements don't meet discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act but English-only rules do because they're restrictive language policies.  The administration asserts that the new rules, which cover a broad range of scenarios that could get employers in trouble, were created because the American workforce is "increasingly ethnically diverse."

A Posse for Your Thoughts.  If the English language had an equivalent of the endangered species list, it would be growing exponentially.  This year, for example, the use of gender identifying pronouns such as he, her, his, and him are strongly being discouraged by the censors and administrators on college campuses.  Now the speech police are playing a new game in which words that were previously considered perfectly acceptable for all to use are now only allowed to be spoken by certain races and ethnicities when used in certain contexts.

California Voters to Decide Whether Schools May Teach Students in Spanish.  Voters in California will weigh in Tuesday on a decades-old debate about bilingual education in the state's public school system.  The outcome ultimately could determine whether California schools will continue to be required to teach in English, or may use Spanish or another language.  Although largely overlooked in a crowded election season, the issue has split Californians into two camps, those who believe the country benefits from a multilingual society and those who believe such policies hurt students and serve only to further ethnic and racial divides.

The 7 Ugliest Propositions on the California Ballot.  [For example,] Prop. 58 — The "Kids Don't Need To Learn English" Act.  In 1998, when it was clear that many, many kids whose primary language was not English, were rising through public schools being taught in their native language, and not gaining English fluency, California voters passed Proposition 227, the English for the Children initative.  That measure requires that non-English speakers be taught English through English-language immersion.  After its first year in place, the numbers of those achieving English literacy shot up by over 20%.  This year's cynical measure was placed on the ballot by those who apparently do not want English fluency to be a goal in public education.

Tim Kaine: 'Spanish Was the Language of Our Country Before English'.  In an interview on the Spanish-language show "Noticias Telemundo," Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the Democrat nominee for vice president, said that Spanish was the language of America before English.  Kaine has often given speeches in Spanish, and on Sunday [10/16/2016] he gave a sermon entirely in Spanish at Pneuma Church in Miami, Fla.  "Latino culture is one of the most important things in our country right now because we have had Hispanic roots since the beginning. ... Spanish was the language of our country before English," Kaine told Telemundo host José D'az-Balart on Monday, according to a translated transcript.

The Editor says...
In what language was the Constitution written?  In what language was the Constitution debated before it was finalized?  In what language was the Declaration of Independence written?  Name one member of Congress in the 18th or 19th centuries whose primary language was something other than English.  When has the government of the United States conducted its official business in any language other than English?

Nearly 65 Million U.S. Residents Spoke a Foreign Language at Home in 2015.  In 2015, a record 64.7 million U.S. residents (native-born, legal immigrants, and illegal immigrants) age five and older spoke a language other than English at home.  The number has more than doubled since 1990, when 31.8 million spoke a language other than English.  Taking a longer view, the 64.7 million foreign-language speakers in 2015 is almost triple the number in 1980.  As a share of the population, 21.5 percent of U.S. residents speak a foreign language at home — nearly double the 11 percent in 1980.

HUD Decrees That Limited-English-Speakers Are Protected Under Fair Housing Act.  "People with limited English proficiency are not a protected class under the Fair Housing Act," said the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Thursday.  But they are now, by decree.  Under the heading of "national origin," HUD is making non-English-speakers a protected class.  In its announcement, HUD noted that the Fair Housing Act "prohibits discrimination on seven protected bases, including national origin, which is closely linked to the ability to communicate proficiently in English.  Housing providers are therefore prohibited from using limited English proficiency selectively or as an excuse for intentional housing discrimination," HUD said.

New York City scraps English test for taxi drivers.  According to the Taxi and Limousine Commission, just 4 percent of current drivers were born in the United States.

New York City cab drivers no longer have to speak English as new laws come into force.  New rules came into force on Friday scrapping the English proficiency exam faced by anyone wanting to drive one of New York's iconic yellow cabs.  There are about 13,600 taxis in New York and more than 40,000 drivers, of whom, at the last count, 82 percent were born outside the United States.  Leap into a cab in New York there is a fair chance the driver's first language could be Urdu, Sylheti or Spanish.

Arizona mayor refuses invitation to meeting because it was written in English and Spanish.  "I will NOT attend a function that is sent to me in Spanish/Mexican.  One nation means one language and I am insulted by the division caused by language," Huachuca City Mayor Ken Taylor said in an email Wednesday [8/10/2016] to John Cook, executive director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Mayors Association.

Pew Study:  Arabic is the Fastest Growing Language in U.S..  Arabic is the fastest growing language in the U.S., with the number of Arabic speakers growing by 29 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.  Over the longer period from 2000 to 2014, the number of Arabic speakers in the U.S. nearly doubled, rising from 615,000 in 2000 to 1.1 million by 2014, according to the study, which analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau.  As a result, census questionnaires will be available in Arabic for the first time in 2020, Pew reports.

Milwaukee frozen custard stand under fire over English-only policy.  Leon's Frozen Custard has an English-only policy — a policy some are questioning, and others are applauding.  The policy has one group calling for a federal investigation.  Ron Schneider, the owner of Leon's, says there's nothing wrong with his policy, and it doesn't appear that it is hurting his business.  Leon's is located near 27th and Oklahoma on Milwaukee's south side.  "Most people that live here are Latino," Jorge Maya said.

580 students speak 42 languages at Buffalo, NY high school.  A Somali student is turning heads at a Buffalo high school where students speak 42 different languages.  Sophomore Sahal Hussein swims on the varsity team for Lafayette High School, where the school's 580 students speak 42 different languages, just months after the Somali native entered the pool for the first time in September, ABC 6 reports.  "Most of them have never swam before," swim instructor Abigail Reinhardt told the news site.

The Editor says...
Have never swam?  That's a quote from a teacher?  Is Doofus one of the 42 languages?  How are the kids supposed to learn English if the teachers don't speak English?

Amarillo balks at more Mideast refugees.  As Texas officials spar with Obama administration lawyers over refugee resettlement, Amarillo is building Muslim "ghettos."  Under federal refugee programs, the North Texas town has become home to more than 1,000 Mideast migrants — giving Amarillo the highest refugee ratio in the country.  "Our education system is overloaded with kids who can't speak English.  We have something like 22 languages spoken in our schools," said William Sumerford, a local taxpayer activist.

New Report: 30% of Nashville School Children Not Native English Speakers.  Over the past year, Conservative Review has published numerous reports illustrating how the current protracted wave of immigration is unlike anything this country has ever experienced since our founding.  Today, I'd like to draw attention to the following article from the Tennessean demonstrating just how fundamentally transformed the city of Nashville has become in recent years and what it portends for the rest of the country.

USDA offers Thanksgiving cooking help in Spanish.  Thanksgiving is the most American of holidays, celebrating the first Pilgrim harvest in 1621, but that doesn't mean other cultures can't enjoy, especially neighbors from Latin America.  To help, the Agriculture Department is offering Thanksgiving dinner tips in Spanish, live on the telephone, and online through its Twitter account in Spanish[.]

Feds' 'Welcome' Guide for New Immigrants Advises on Public Benefits — in 14 Different Languages.  The Obama administration has released an updated welcome guide for new immigrants in the U.S. featuring detailed sections about obtaining public benefits including food stamps, welfare, and Obamacare.  "You or members of your family may be eligible for other federal benefits, depending on your immigration status, length of time in the United States, and income level," the guidebook reads.

Babel.  Most Americans live in traditional American societies, but this is rapidly going away, while places like New York and San Francisco are becoming mono-cultural.  When in the suburbs, I'm surprised by how quickly the old white English speaking world is being washed away.  Retail stores are all run by foreigners.  Labor is mostly Spanish.  The foreign youth adopt the habits of ghetto youth creating a weird blended youth culture that will be "American" culture in a generation.  It's comforting to think that the people will rise up and put an end to this, but that horse left the barn a generation ago.

Record 63.2 million non-English speaking residents, surge in Arabic, Chinese, Spanish.  More than one in five U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home, a record, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  In an analysis of the recent Census American Community Survey, a huge surge was recorded in those who speak Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and Urdu, Pakistan's national language.  The report from the Center for Immigration Studies documented the growth of immigrants in the United States and provided evidence of concerns new immigrants are slow to assimilate into American culture, namely by speaking English at home.

Obama wants 1 million Americans learning Chinese by 2020.  President Obama announced a new initiative Friday [9/25/2015] aimed at having 1 million American schoolchildren learn Mandarin Chinese over the next five years.  The commitment by Obama would see the number of American students learning Mandarin quintuple; 200,000 students across the country are studying Mandarin today.  Obama framed the initiative as a chance for the countries to learn more about each other.

The Editor says...
The President should instead insist that all school children learn English -- especially those who have just arrived in this country.

Warning: This Column Is In English.  Just wanted to make sure I didn't come across as a racist, nativist xenophobe.  That is, after all, the attack that awaits anyone suggesting primacy for the English language in a country founded and made great solely by people speaking that language.  How do we know?  Because Donald Trump, in another moment of resonant genius, suggested Jeb Bush should campaign in English for a job that is won by attracting voters, all of which speak English.  Of course we have populations struggling to learn English, and a proper bilingual bridge helps them on that journey to English proficiency.  But far too many people in our nation insulate themselves in a bubble of their native tongue, making little or no effort to assimilate linguistically.

With more students from China, U. of I. to broadcast football games in Chinese.  A surge in students from China has prompted the University of Illinois to add Chinese-language broadcasts of its football games this season.

Taxpayer-Funded Professors Censor Words 'Female,' 'Illegal Alien' And Make White Students 'Defer'.  It's back-to-school time, America.  And you know what that means:  Taxpayer-funded professors at public universities are flatly censoring politically-incorrect terms and requiring students with white skin to "defer" to minority students.  The site of the rank discrimination based on politics and skin color is Washington State University, reports Campus Reform.

At Washington State, They'll Dock Your Grades For Using Inappropriate Terms Like "Illegal Alien," "Male" And "Female".  If you've got some aptitude for a skilled trade, got get a job out of high school or save money on higher education and go to a community college.  Increasingly it makes zero sense to attend a four-year university — because the crazies who run all too many of those universities don't educate, they indoctrinate students into a suicide cult of politically-correct societal death.

At War with Reality.  No doubt inspired by Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem, the administrators of the University of Tennessee's Office for Diversity and Inclusion [...] appear determined to eradicate prejudicial pronouns from the English language.  Gender neutral pronouns are to replace traditional terminology.  No one is to be referred to as "he" or "she" lest the transgender community be offended.  A helpful chart indicates the new, gender free terminology designed to replace the offensive pronouns and all their variants.

California moves to provide interpreters in all court cases.  Legal advocates say throughout the state, litigants in divorce, child custody, eviction and other civil cases who have difficulty with English are going into court without qualified interpreters.

DoJ to Sheriff Joe: Speak Spanish in jails.  The Justice Department announced a deal Friday [7/17/2015] requiring Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to provide services in Spanish to his jail inmates, settling part of a two-year-old discrimination complaint the Obama administration filed against the man known as "America's Sheriff."  Federal authorities will also become permanent overseers for all worksite raids, with the power to demand information about any raids that deputies perform.  The Justice Department says it will scrutinize them to make sure they're following the Constitution.

U.S. has more Spanish speakers than Spain does, new report finds.  A new study by the Instituto Cervantes found that while Mexico still is far and away the country with the most Spanish speakers, with over 121 million people speaking the language, the U.S. sits second worldwide with close to 53 million Spanish speakers.  To put this in perspective, that is around 6.2 million more Spanish speakers than the entire population of Spain has altogether.  If Spain is upset about this, the country only has itself to blame as the highest concentrations of Spanish speakers in the U.S. are in states that were formerly Spain's possessions.

US has more Spanish speakers than Spain.  The United States now has more Spanish speakers than Spain — and the second most in the world, according to a new study.  A report published by the renowned Instituto Cervantes research center says there are now an estimated 52.6 million people in the US who can speak the worldwide romance language, which is second only to Mexico's 121 million.  In comparison, Colombia is made up of 48 million Spanish speakers and Spain only has 46 million.

Should police issue commands in Spanish when facing a suspect at gunpoint?  Three McMinnville police officers faced off with Juventino Bermudez-Arenas as he held the large blade he'd just used to kill a 20-year-old Linfield College student.  Officers pulled their guns.  One, who spoke Spanish, reached for her Taser but dropped it and grabbed her pistol as Bermudez-Arenas lowered his head and his hands and appeared to move forward.  Seconds before they fatally shot the 33-year-old Mexican man, police yelled, "Get on the ground," and, "Drop the knife," again and again.  They yelled their commands in English, the dominant language in the U.S.  But in the days after the Nov. 15 shooting of Bermudez-Arenas, his family and his employer told detectives he had understood few English words and couldn't speak the language.

The Editor says...
A reasonable and sober person could surmise that if the cops in any country are yelling at you in any language, and pointing their guns at you, that's a clear signal that you should get passive quickly.  So here's a tip for all knife-wielding homicidal immigrants:  Learn enough English to understand the cops, or you might get yourself killed.

Descriptive versus Prescriptive: Another Left-Wing Scam.  Teaching is typically prescriptive, and that's how it should be.  Schools should teach the right ways to do things.  (This approach has got to be far more efficient than what many public schools are now doing:  teach no ways at all, or teach all the ways as if none is preferable.)  Bottom line, what newspapers call Standard English should be taught first.  That seems to be what our left-wing professors are eager to stop.

White House Chief of Staff Delivers Weekly Message in Spanish.  Are we a bilingual country or what!! Usually it's some lower level functionary, but this morning the second most powerful person in the White House is speaking Spanish to America.  I feel so bad for my grandparents today.  How is it that Roosevelt never gave one of his fireside chats in Yiddish?  I mean, there were lots Jewish immigrants from the shtetls in the country at the time.  I guess they had to learn English.

Amnesty For Illegals Is Importing Poverty Into The U.S..  Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that the immigrants about to be amnestied have high illiteracy rates and may vote.  The left howled, but the reality is she understated it.  The hard data tell the story.  Commenting on President Obama's amnesty of 5 million illegals, the Minnesota Republican told reporters at the Capitol, "The social cost will be profound on the U.S. taxpayer — millions of unskilled, illiterate, foreign nationals coming to the United States who can't speak the English language."  She added that many will vote illegally, too. [...] As for the ability to speak English, Bachmann is particularly accurate:  Central Americans, despite the long exposure of their illegals to the U.S., have the lowest English proficiency in the entire hemisphere.

The Big Money Behind the Push for an Immigration Overhaul.  When President Obama announces major changes to the nation's immigration enforcement system as early as next week, his decision will partly be a result of a yearslong [sic] campaign of pressure by immigrant rights groups, which have grown from a cluster of lobbying organizations into a national force.  A vital part of that expansion has involved money:  major donations from some of the nation's wealthiest liberal foundations, [...]

The Editor says...
Yes, this article came from the New York Times, and was written by a professional.  Even so, I challenge you to show me the dictionary that omits the hyphen from "years-long."  And when I say dictionary, I mean a dusty old book that can't be changed on a whim by a committee, like the alleged dictionary your smart phone coughs up on demand.  Punctuation is an important part of any language.

U.S. Congressional Debate In California Hosted Entirely In Spanish.  A Saturday morning debate between Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) and his Democratic challenger, Amanda Renteria, was hosted in Spanish, the Fresno Bee reports.  The debate, hosted by Univision Fresno at Fresno State in Bakersfield, Calif., the Fresno Bee wrote, was "conducted entirely in Spanish."

Study: One in Ten Adults in U.S. Not Proficient in English.  The number of working-age adults in the United States with limited proficiency in English has more than doubled since 1980, according to a new Brookings Institution study.  Immigrants proficient in English, the study notes, tend to earn substantially higher incomes.  "English proficiency is a strong predictor of economic standing among immigrants, regardless of the amount of education they have attained, and it is associated with the greater academic and economic success of the workers' children," the study found.

Immigrants Need Official English.  America is inherently multilingual, but for the sake of unity and equal protection of the laws, we must make English the official language for all U.S. Government business.

CA Lawmakers Aim To Ban English Only Instruction in Public Schools.  On Tuesday [8/26/2014], a few hours after Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto said that Illegal Aliens deserve justice in the USA and Gov. Jerry Brown welcomed all illegal immigrants to California, lawmakers in Sacramento passed a proposed ballot measure seeking to dismantle the English-only mandate for public schools and increase multilingual education programs.

Mich. district to boost programs for immigrant students.  A Detroit-area school district with a growing Arab-American population has agreed to improve its programs for students with limited English skills and to potentially hire more educators of Arab descent.  In a 31-page agreement with the Department of Justice, the Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights says it "shall take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal and meaningful participation by" students with limited English skills.  The settlement also requires the district to provide school documents in both English and foreign languages such as Arabic and to promote a more diverse staff.  The agreement was released in both Arabic and English.

States where English is the official language.  Five states are considering legislation this year to make English their official language.  If passed, they would join the 31 states with existing official language laws.

Sacramento Taxi Drivers Say English Test Requirement Is Setting Them Up For Failure.  Taxi drivers required to pass an English test to renew their permits in Sacramento say they're being set up for failure.  Part of a newly passed ordinance that recently went into effect requires drivers to know a certain level of English.  The city says the requirement came from passenger complaints.

Texas principal fired for telling students to speak English.  The Texas principal who was placed on administrative leave and then fired for telling Hispanic students at her middle school that they should speak English in the classroom can now speak freely — the gag order has expired — and says that her request only mirrored what's written in state law.  Amy Lacey was placed on administrative leave in 2013 after she asked via an intercom announcement that Hempstead Middle School students should speak English in the classroom.  She shortly after learned that the school board declined to renew her contract and would be firing her.

USDA Pushing 'Free' Food: Call '1-877-8-HAMBRE (for Spanish Speakers)'.  The U.S. Agriculture Department has set a goal of serving 178 million free meals to children now that school is out.  That's 10 million more meals than were served last summer.  "Admittedly, this is an aggressive goal, and we can't do it alone," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a column posted on the USDA website.  "With strong support from individuals, communities, local governments and advocates, we can reach more kids with nutritious meals during their time out of school."

Federal Gov't Sues Wisconsin Company, Says English-Language Requirement is 'Discrimination'.  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a federal agency tasked with enforcing workplace discrimination laws, is suing a private American business for firing a group of Hispanic and Asian employees over their inability to speak English at work, claiming that the English-language requirement in a U.S. business constitutes "discrimination."  Judicial Watch reported Tuesday [7/1/2014] that the government is accusing Wisconsin Plastics, Inc. of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on "national origin."  The government argues this includes the "linguistic characteristics of a national origin group."  Irene Garcia, the blog editor and Spanish media liaison for Judicial Watch, called the EEOC's accusation "ludicrous."

Feds Suing Wisconsin Company For Requiring Employees To Speak and Understand English.  The United States government is actually suing a private American business for discriminating against Hispanic and Asian employees because they don't speak English on the job.  It involves a Green Bay Wisconsin metal and plastic manufacturer that fired a group of Hmong and Hispanic workers over their English skills, "even though those skills were not needed to perform their jobs," according to the feds.  More importantly, forcing employees to speak English in the U.S. violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, says the Obama administration.

No Translator For Defendant Brings Blistering Dissent From Texas' Highest Criminal Court.  Justice Elsa Alcala issued a condemning rebuke to her fellow jurists this week for summarily disregarding the constitutional right of non-English defendants to have a translator in a criminal trial. [...] The other jurists opined that Garcia had waived his right to a translator. [...] Garcia's legal counsel told the trial court judge that his client waived his right to an interpreter.  The defendant, Irving Magana Garcia, was convicted in Hidalgo County of murder.  He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for shooting a man almost 12 times at a shopping mall in McAllen, Texas.

The Editor says...
In my opinion, all public transactions should be conducted exclusively in English.  Potential imprisonment of the innocent would be a strong motivator in English classes.  In this case, the defendant was a murderer, and didn't need a whole lot of translation about anything other than legal technicalities and maneuvers.

Emergencia: FCC might require Spanish version of broadcast weather alerts.  The Obama administration is considering whether to require that television broadcasts of emergency announcements be provided in different languages. [...] The rule would require certain stations to air all presidential messages in both English and Spanish.  To a lesser extent, emergency broadcasts in certain areas may also be aired in other languages, such as French or Mandarin.  Spanish is the primary language for more than 38 million people living in America, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  But many Spanish speakers do not speak English, so the FCC wants to ensure that they can be reached by emergency broadcast.

The Editor says...
People whose television sets are tuned to an English-language program don't need to hear weather alerts in Spanish.  And if they do, that's what the SAP channel is for.  The only way "to ensure that they can be reached by emergency broadcast[s]" is to make it impossible to turn radio and television receivers off — like the telescreens in 1984.  Anybody with two eyes and a window can see a storm coming, and tornado sirens speak everybody's language.  If you think you might miss out on a tornado warning, learn some English.  But here's a tip:  Don't take English lessons from that synthesized voice on the NOAA weather radio.

Principal fired for Spanish language ban, Hispanic activists seek FBI Investigation.  A principal at a Texas middle school where about half the students are Hispanic in ethnic origin has been fired for reportedly getting on the school intercom and announcing a ban on the use of Spanish in all classrooms.  The incident occurred on Nov. 12 at Hempstead Middle School in Hempstead, a tiny town about 50 miles northwest of Houston.  The principal, Amy Lacey, had been on paid administrative leave since the incident.  School district officials announced at a school board meeting on Monday [3/17/2014] that her contract will not be renewed, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Middle school principal in mucho trouble for Spanish language ban.  Students at a Texas middle school say their principal got on the intercom last month and announced a ban on the use of Spanish in all classrooms.  The incident occurred on Nov. 12 at Hempstead Middle School in Hempstead, a tiny town about 50 miles mostly west of downtown Houston.  The principal who allegedly banned Spanish, Amy Lacey, has since been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by the school district, reports local CBS affiliate KHOU.

Principal who told kids not to speak Spanish will lose job.  The Hempstead school board won't renew the contract of a principal who instructed her students not to speak Spanish, in a rapidly-evolving district where more than half of the students, like many Texas schools, are now Hispanic.  Hempstead Middle School Principal Amy Lacey was placed on paid administrative leave in December after reportedly announcing, via intercom, that students were not to speak Spanish on the school's campus.

More on That Principal Fired For Requiring English In The Classroom.  [Scroll down]  According to another article on the topic, Principal Amy Lacey only prohibited the speaking of Spanish in class.  And, if you consult the comments section of this article, it appears that there was more going on.  According to "pepjrp", "It was only banned in classes as that was where the 4 girls reportedly disrupted classes by talking about other kids in Spanish during class and also called a teacher names in Spanish.  This was confirmed by other Spanish speaking students.  That is what started all of this.

Texas Principal Put On Leave For Banning Spanish In School.  A Texas middle school principal has been placed on paid leave after she banned the speaking of Spanish by students while in class.

Non-English speakers can be jurors, New Mexico court says.  The New Mexico Supreme Court is cautioning the state's trial courts that citizens who don't speak English have the right to serve on juries.  The court issued the admonition in a ruling that upholds an Albuquerque man's convictions for murder and other crimes in the bludgeoning death of his girlfriend and a subsequent armed robbery and stabbing.

41% in Bankrupt Stockton Don't Speak English at Home; 21% Can't Speak It Very Well.  In Stockton, Calif., which has just entered into Chapter 9 bankruptcy, 41 percent of the people do not speak English at home and 21 percent cannot speak it very well, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. [...] Looking at the subset of Stockton's population that was five years old or older (264,713), the Census Bureau estimated there were 119,991 people who did not speak English at home.

Arizona nursing student suspended as 'bigot' for requesting class in English.  A nursing student attending Pima Community College in Arizona was suspended from class and subjected to accusations of bigotry when she asked that the course she paid for be conducted in English.  The student, Terri Bennett, 50, initially complained in April to school officials because she said the Spanish-dominated discussions in her class room were preventing her from learning, Townhall reported.  The college nursing program director, David Kutzler, then allegedly called her "a bigot" and an expletive, and suspended her.

Arizona Student Suspended for Asking that Classes be Taught in English.  A 50-year-old community college student in Arizona has been suspended — her crime:  asking that class discussions be conducted in English. [...] It's a twisted day in America when a student has "ineffective communications skills" because she speaks English.  Foreign language skills are beneficial for workers in a variety of fields, but to punish a community college student for lacking Spanish proficiency is obviously absurd.

Govt failing to teach over 98% of people who can't speak English.  English-as-a-second-language (ESL) programs run by the Department of Education have overwhelmingly failed to help the estimated 23 million adults in America designated as having Limited English Proficiency (LEP) — including 2.9 million born in the U.S. — a study released by the Lexington Institute finds.  The report faulted the government for both the limited scope of the programs — which only reached 1.24 million, or 5 percent, of LEP adults — and for their lack of effectiveness:  Only 40 percent of those enrolled from 2007-2010 made "any progress" through the levels of the program.

HHS says it ditched 'exchanges' because word doesn't translate into Spanish.  The Obama administration has stopped using the term "exchanges" to describe part of the healthcare law because the word doesn't translate into Spanish, an official said Thursday [1/31/2013].  Anton Gunn, director of External Affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said the rebranding of the insurance exchanges as "marketplaces" was geared toward Spanish speakers who will use the system.

• Make English America's official language.
• Give every child the chance to learn English.
• Eliminate costly and ineffective multilingual policies.

"We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans."

— Theodore Roosevelt          

"A common language is the glue that holds a people and a nation together."

— S. I. Hayakawa