Dangerously high levels of water have forced hundreds of people in the American Midwest to evacuate their homes.

According to NBC News, Mid-Western states including Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota were flooded after temperatures began to rise above the freezing mark, melting the record-breaking amount of snow on the ground and heavy rain began to fall over the states, overflowing rivers.

Reportedly, 300 rivers in the Midwest are currently at or above flood levels. According to the National Weather Service, the Missouri River at St. Joseph reached as high as 26 feet on Saturday, making it just a foot below “major flooding” level. The river is expected to reach 29.3 feet by Wednesday or Thursday, as more rain is expected in the area, USA Today reports.

The floods have left severe damage behind, NBC News reports. Reportedly, several river levees were breached on Saturday slowing evacuation efforts in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa and washing out bridges – including one straddling the Elkhorn River – and roads in the two states. Levees were also breached along the Platte River near Omaha, Nebraska and the Missouri River near Mills County, Iowa, leading to mandatory evacuations being issued in those areas.

According to NBC News, the flooding came after record-setting amounts of rain and snow began to wash over the land bringing the Missouri River and several…

JOS, Nigeria, March 18, 2019 (Morning Star News) – Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 10 Christians in southern Kaduna state, Nigeria on Saturday (March 16), bringing the lives lost in the past five weeks to 140 with 160 houses destroyed, sources said. 

“We were all asleep in our various homes when at about 4 a.m. [Saturday], we heard gunshots everywhere in my village,” Amos Samuel, 40, of Nandu Gbok village in Sanga County told Morning Star News. “Everyone ran out of their homes to escape from the Fulani herdsmen. Three hours after the herdsmen left, those of us who survived the attack returned to the village to find that our houses were destroyed and 10 of our villagers killed.”

About 30 houses were burned in the attack, Sanga chairman Charles Danladi told Morning Star News, who also said 10 people were killed.

“The attack occurred while the villagers were still sleeping,” he said. “Normalcy has now been restored in the village, and we are making efforts to assist victims.”

Shehu Nicholas Garba, a member of Nigeria’s parliament, the National Assembly, and a resident of the area, said in a press statement that “about 10” people were killed and “about 30” houses were burned.

“Our communities are helpless and are pleading that all persons of conscience should speak out,” Garba said.

The Kaduna governor’s…

The husband of a human rights attorney in Iran recently announced that his wife has been sentenced to 38 years in prison and 148 lashes. 

55-year-old Nasrin Sotoudeh faces spending most of the rest of her life in prison and an excruciating lashing simply because she defended seven women who had been arrested for protesting Iran’s hijab law by removing their head coverings in public. 

Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Kahndan, said that she faced charges of “assembly and collusion against national security,” “propaganda against the state,” “encouraging corruption and prostitution,” “appearing at the judiciary without Islamic hijab,” “disturbing public peace and order,” and “publishing falsehoods with the intent to disturb public opinion.” The Revolutionary Court in Tehran tried her in absentia when she refused to appear because she could not choose her own attorney. She told her husband that she has not received the length of her sentences in writing, but that she faces 5 years for one case and 33 for another.

This was not the first time Sotoudeh’s human rights work drew the ire of Iranian authorities. She was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to six years in prison for “activities against national security” and “propaganda against the regime.” She served some time before being released along with 10 other…

Concerned parents opposed to California’s new sex-ed curriculum and the use of drag queens in school functions were labeled “liars” and “fear-mongers” during a jam-packed school board meeting in Santa Ana last week.

“All these people were asking for was a say, a chance to be involved, to be heard and to be active participants in the education of their children,” wrote Townhall’s Kira Davis, who attended the meeting. 

Instead, they received “contempt and disrespect,” she wrote.

At issue is California’s new sex-ed curriculum, which covers gay, lesbian and transgender issues. The parents packed the main room and the overflow room. Most were Hispanic. 

“One mother said she only learned about the school’s ‘LGBT Fair’ after it had happened,” Davis wrote. “She was shocked to learn that a local drag performer had been offering make-up application lessons to the students during the fair and did not feel it was appropriate for any school-approved activity to include make-up lessons for 11-14-year-olds regardless of LGBT issues. 

“She had not even been given the opportunity to opt her child out of such a thing,” Davis added.

The proposed curriculum, parents said, had not been made available in Spanish as required by state law.

“Some parents complained that they were purposefully being left in the dark because the school…

Two bills allowing physician-assisted suicide failed in New Mexico and Arkansas last week. 

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Albuquerque) of New Mexico requested to table the HB 90 bill for the 2019 legislative session. “At the time, we are just a few votes shy to pass the bill,” she said. She and Sen. Elizabeth Stefanics (D-Cerrillos) sponsored the bill. 

HB 90 would allow patients to end their lives after authorization from two medical providers and a 48 hour waiting period once life-ending drugs had been prescribed, as reported by the Las Cruces Sun News. The Santa Fe New Mexican also included other stipulations of the bill: Patients who had six months or less to live would be required to get two witnesses’ signatures on the request; doctors must discuss alternatives, such as hospice care; and, a patient must acquire a second opinion. 

Opponents of this bill include Rep. Gregg Schmedes (R-Tijeras), who believed this bill could allow for abuse from predatory family heirs or others. “It allows for the perfect crime,” he said. 

Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, claimed the HB 90 bill was the most extreme assisted suicide bill she’d ever seen, according to Life News, because it allowed euthanasia.

Death with Dignity, an organization that promotes dignity laws for dying…

A federal judge Friday blocked a Kentucky law that would ban abortions when a heartbeat is detected, ruling that the plaintiffs in the case had “shown a strong likelihood of success.”

The injunction by U.S. District Judge David Hale blocks a law that bans such abortions unless they are required to save a woman’s life or to prevent “substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of the woman.

It passed the state Senate, 31-6, and the House, 71-19. Both are controlled by Republicans. GOP Gov. Matt Bevin signed it Friday. The ACLU sued on behalf of Louisville’s EMW Women’s Surgical Center, which performs abortions. 

“The fundamental right to privacy contained in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment includes the right to choose to have an abortion, subject to certain limitations,” wrote Hale, who was nominated by President Obama. 

“The Supreme Court,” Hale wrote, “has stated in no uncertain terms that ‘[r]egardless of whether exceptions are made for particular circumstances, a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.’”

The temporary injunction expires 14 days from the date it was issued, although Hale by then could release a permanent injunction. Other states, including Arkansas, North Dakota and Iowa, have passed heartbeat bills,…