Fifteen Things That Caught My Eye Today: Good News in Georgia Foster Care & More (June 16, 2020)

1. ISIS is using coronavirus to rebuild its terrorism network in Iraq and Syria:

Recent violence shows the extent to which [ISIS] has used the COVID-19 distraction to seize attention and advantage. The Middle East Institute’s Charles Lister noted that ISIS had increased attacks in the area of Kirkuk by as much as 200 percent and was launching nearly daily attacks in Diyala. Lister wrote, “ISIS is now seen to be embracing more sophisticated nighttime tactics, suicide bombings, and multipronged coordinated assaults — a marked change from its previous drive-by shootings, kidnappings and stand-off mortar attacks.

In other words, without the constant opposition of local forces, the group will grow ever more capable of launching attacks, just as it was in 2013.

2. New York Times: Coronavirus Cases Rise Sharply in Prisons Even as They Plateau Nationwide:

A muddled, uneven response by corrections officials to testing and care for inmates and workers is complicating the spread of the coronavirus. In interviews, prison and jail officials acknowledged that their approach has largely been based on trial and error, and that an effective, consistent response for U.S. correctional facilities remains elusive.

3. ‘Fire Through Dry Grass’: Andrew Cuomo Saw COVID-19’s Threat to Nursing Homes. Then He Risked Adding to It.

4. Jillian Kay Melchior: Anarchy in the Streets of Philadelphia

5.

6. New York Times: In Iraq, a New Prime Minister Takes Stock of His Bloodied Land

7. Wesley J. Smith: Will Doctors Be Forced to Violate the Hippocratic Oath?

8. Commentary Magazine: We Must Stop the Great Unraveling

9. Noemie Emery: What the wind blew away

10. Archbishop José H. Gomez: Catholic schools and America’s future

The presence of diverse educational options — a thriving public school system along with a strong network of independent schools, including religious schools — has always been a source of American vitality. We need to act now to ensure that educational diversity survives this pandemic.

11. Institute for Family Studies: Facts About Custodial and Non-Custodial Fathers in the U.S.:

Given that children who live with custodial fathers seem better off, at least financially, why aren’t more fathers given joint custody of their children following a divorce or non-marital birth? Having responsibility for a child helps many men become more mature and spurs them on to work harder at their current job or seek more gainful employment. It seems reasonable to assume that it might have similar beneficial effects on unmarried or formerly married fathers.

12. Good Morning America: Quarantine’s silver-lining: A renewed bond between fathers and children

13. Providence Magazine: Why We Need Religious Freedom for All: An Appeal and Invitation to the Church

Religious freedom is often called the “first freedom” because its application in society is connected to a host of other rights: freedom to assemble, freedom of speech, freedom to own or rent property, freedom to raise one’s children in one’s faith (including parochial education), etc. Religious freedom helps to establish firm limits on government’s reach into the lives of its citizens and the organizations of civil society.

14.  Associated Press: Pen pal program forges connections beyond nursing homes

15. Graduation Rates Soar for Youth in Georgia Foster Care