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PHOTOS: The Most Perfect Picnic Baskets Ever

2013-05-25T13:01:54Z

We've got outdoor entertaining on our minds, which means we're searching for the perfect picnic basket. Naturally, we headed to Etsy and found seven adorable carriers that will make toting your favorite foods and beverages super convenient and stylish.

Scroll through our picks and be sure to let us know which ones are your favorites.

1. Jumbo Patriot Basket

Photo by: Whitney Ferrell/Etsy

2. Hand-Woven Lunch Basket

Photo by: Cathy Kobrick/Etsy

3. Vintage Yellow And Black Plaid Lined Picnic Basket

Photo by: Jodi Mills/Etsy

4. Patriotic Red, White And Blue Upscaled Picnic Basket

Photo by: Linda Holloway/Etsy

5. Colorful Funky Upscaled Heart Picnic Basket

Photo by: Linda Holloway/Etsy

6. Country Road Heart Shaped Picnic Basket Set

Photo by: Linda Mills/Etsy

7. Personalized Custom Made Picnic Basket

Photo by: Anita Norberg/Etsy

You can also put your pet in a basket, ya know.

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7 Ways To Get In Gear For Memorial Day

2013-05-25T12:56:11Z

Memorial Day weekend brings to mind long, lazy afternoons basking in the almost-summer heat with an ice cold beer in hand and of course the kick-off to BBQ season. But before we can kick back and enjoy, we know we should address a few fixer-uppers that'll make our experience this weekend all the more relaxing.

From setting up a rolling prep-table for the grill to installing a lofty backyard hammock, below are seven weekend DIY ideas that will surely help us start the festivities off with our best foot forward. It's all smooth sailing from there!

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Teens Build Car Fueled By Social Media (VIDEO)

2013-05-24T22:24:58Z

A group of high schoolers from Kansas City, Mo. are about to embark on a very special road trip, using a car fueled entirely by social media. (Yes, you heard that right.)

According to WKMG Local 6, teens involved in an after-school program called Minddrive -- a non-profit that inspires at-risk teens by focusing on electric car design -- took a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia from 1967 and made it into a car of the future.

After students restored the car and converted it to electric, Wired reports they used an Arduino -- a microcontroller device that makes it easier to program and automate interactive projects -- on the electric drivetrain of the car.

Learn more about their "social media car" in the the video above.

This allowed students to program the vehicle to their specific needs, and in this case, they engineered the car to be powered by social media interactions like hashtagging #MindDrive on Twitter and Instagram, liking their Facebook page and watching the video on YouTube. The car has essentially been programmed to move forward when this device recognizes any of these social media connections.

Now that they're done building the vehicle, the students are planning on testing out the car themselves by road tripping to Washington, D.C., and relying on social fuel to get there.

Once they arrive in D.C., students will meet with elected officials and hold a press conference to raise awareness about the benefits of this innovative kind of education.

"Now, I decided I want to be an engineer," one student explained in the video. "This opens a lot of doors for my future."

When it comes to cars and technology, teens have been making especially groundbreaking discoveries recently. Ionut Budisteanu, a 19-year-old student from Romania, won first place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair on May 17 for inventing a self-driving car that is much less expensive than other existing models. The teen used artificial intelligence as a way to decrease self-driving car's technology cost.

"This is the purpose of mankind," Ionut said. "To create some inventions and to create some projects in order to help the entire population and the entire world."

Eesha Khare, an 18-year-old student from California, was also a finalist at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for creating a device that can charge a cell phone between 20 and 30 seconds.

The teen explained that since her phone battery always dies, so she wanted to invent a supercapacitor that acts as a energy storage device and can hold a great amount energy in a small amount of space. Eesha is using her $50,000 prize from the science fair toward her education at Harvard in the fall.

“I will be setting the world on fire,” she told CBS San Francisco.

Do these teens inspire you? Tell us in the comments or tweet at @HuffPostTeen.

NOT A Perk Of Working For WMATA

2013-05-24T22:23:54Z

WASHINGTON -- There are many perks to working for WMATA: good salary, stable work and transportation around the city. But for one WMATA employee, another alleged perk was the ability to steal emergency medical equipment and resell it on the black market.

From DCist:

Authorities say that Derrick Davis, 40, stole 13 automatic external defibrillators from Metro facilities and then sold them on Internet auction sites such as eBay. Davis, who lives in Laurel, was arrested Wednesday by Metro Transit Police after a months-long investigation that ended when a detective posing as a buyer met Davis at a local convenience store.
Police say Davis, a maintenance worker on Metro's infrastructure, confessed to the theft following his arrest. He was formally charged yesterday in Prince George's County District Court on a count of theft over $1,000. Each of the defibrillators Davis allegedly stole is valued around $1,400.

Davis has been suspended by the WMATA, reports My Fox DC.

Rabbi Set To Open D.C.'s Second Medical Marijuana Dispensary

2013-05-24T22:05:37Z

WASHINGTON -- When you think of a rabbi, several words and phrases may come to mind, but "medical marijuana dispensary owner" is perhaps not one of them.

That, however, is exactly what former Rabbi Jeffrey Kahn is.

Kahn and his wife, Stephanie Reifkind Kahn, hope to open the Takoma Wellness Center after Memorial Day weekend. It would be the second licensed medical marijuana dispensary to open in the nation's capital since the D.C. Council voted to make pot legal for medicinal purposes in 2010.

The only thing they are waiting for, Jeffrey Kahn told The Huffington Post, is the go-ahead from the D.C. Department of Health. They've already passed a final inspection from the department.

Before he retired in 2007, Kahn spent time as a rabbi all over the United States, including New Jersey and Chicago, and as far away as Australia. He now attends synagogues around the Washington area and cites religious scripture to explain his new career.

"I think Scripture is very clear that when we have the opportunity to help people, we must do it," Kahn told the Washington City Paper in 2010, when he and his wife first set out to open a dispensary.

When the two decided to establish the Takoma Wellness Center, they were honoring Stephanie Kahn's late parents, who both had illnesses the side effects of which can be alleviated with cannabis.

Jules, her father, had multiple sclerosis and "sought physician after physician, always searching for some relief from the severe spasms caused by MS," Stephanie Kahn, who is a nurse, wrote on the dispensary website. But when his father-in-law finally tried marijuana, Jeffrey Kahn told City Paper, "he was amazed" by the relief it brought him.

Stephanie Kahn's mother, Libby, was diagnosed with cancer in 2005. "Chemo robbed her of her appetite, and she fought constant nausea. The physicians again recommended marijuana. She couldn't find it," Stephanie Kahn wrote.

The Kahns' dispensary will help some of those suffering from serious illnesses like Jules and Libby to find relief. Under the regulations the city adopted in 2010, only those with HIV/AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis can obtain medical marijuana; they will need a recommendation from a doctor.

"The people who are coming to this dispensary are people who are really sick," Jeffrey Kahn told WRC-TV/NBC4 in April.

The Kahns are hoping to offer a strain of marijuana that provides the medical benefits of THC without the "high" feeling, they told The Jewish Week in April.

"We know there are people who would like to be able to tap the medicinal benefits without the psychoactive elements. They view that as a nasty side effect," Jeffrey Kahn said.

But that doesn't mean they won't offer other marijuana products and accessories that are often sold in dispensaries in the 19 states where medical pot is legal. The shop will sell vaporizers and even a machine that makes marijuana butter, which can be used in baked goods, in addition to literature about the politics surrounding medical marijuana, according to NBC4.

Throughout the process of getting their dispensary up and running, the Kahns' message has remained steady: They want to help sick people.

"Our ward [Ward 4] has the highest cancer rate in D.C. ... There's a need for our dispensary here," Jeffrey Kahn told the City Paper.

And as for how a retired rabbi, who moved from New Jersey to Israel in 2007, ended up where he is today, Kahn notes that you can't always predict your future.

"When I retired from my [last] congregation, it was the furthest thing in my mind that I would end up in D.C. selling marijuana," he told New Jersey Jewish News in 2010. "You just never know."

Maryland County Declared A 'Second Amendment Sanctuary'

2013-05-24T21:20:52Z

The Board of Carroll County Commissioners voted unanimously earlier this week to pass a resolution stating that Carroll County is a "Second Amendment Sanctuary County".

The resolution (see attached document) is in response to the Maryland State Firearms Act of 2013 passed by legislators in Annapolis earlier this year.

Obama Gitmo Plan At Odds With Top Military Advisers

2013-05-24T20:54:15Z

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's suggestion Thursday that "history will cast a harsh judgment" if the nation fails to deal with the detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 10 to 20 years might come as a harsh surprise to some of his top military and civilian defense advisers.

That's because they told Congress just one week earlier that the United States could be saddled with the prisoners even longer.

Obama was calling on Congress Thursday to end the laws they have passed restricting the administration from moving the 166 captives who remain at the United States' jail for terrorism suspects in Cuba.

"I know the politics are hard, but history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it," Obama said in a speech to the National Defense University. "Imagine a future -- 10 years from now or 20 years from now -- when the United States of America is still holding people who have been charged with no crime on a piece of land that is not a part of our country."

"Look at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are being held on a hunger strike," Obama said. "Is that who we are? Is that something our founders foresaw? Is that the America we want to leave our children?"

The answer to his rhetorical question was certainly meant to be no, but when the Senate Armed Services Committee questioned a panel of defense officials exactly a week earlier, on May 16, the answer was more like yes.

The hearing was called "The Law of Armed Conflict, the Use of Military Force, and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force." It examined how the United States has been running the war on terror launched under that post-9/11 act of Congress, and whether the authorization was still relevant.

The officials argued that while it might be time to review the AUMF, as the authorization is known, it was currently being used appropriately and would be of use as long as there is a war on terror, or, as the administration describes it, a war on "Al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated forces."

And that war will not end any time soon, defense officials said. "I believe it's at least years in advance, based on my understanding of the organization, of resiliency of Al Qaeda and its affiliate forces. It's many years in advance," Michael Sheehan, the assistant defense secretary for special operations and low-intensity conflict, told Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

He was even more specific when pressed on the matter by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who himself sees no soon end to the conflict.

"Yes, sir, I think it's at least 10 to 20 years," Sheehan offered as an estimated timeline for when the war effort may end.

The duration of declared hostilities is a key element of Obama's hopes to close Guantanamo and deal with detainees -- wherever they are held -- because as long as there is a conflict, international law permits the holding of prisoners of that war. When the war ends, the prisoners eventually must be freed.

"There will come a point when our enemy in this armed conflict is defeated, or so defeated that there is no longer an ongoing armed conflict," Robert Taylor, the acting general counsel for the Department of Defense, told Levin. "At that point, we will face difficult questions about what to do with those still remaining in military detention without a criminal conviction and sentence," he said.

But he noted that even after the hostilities are ended, there is precedent for the nation taking even longer to release the prisoners.

"I do point out that, following World War II, we continued to hold some people for several years as part of a general mopping up authority," Taylor said, apparently surprising Levin, who asked if war crimes were involved.

"No, sir," Taylor said. "They were prisoners of war, but who were assessed that they would so disrupt the delicate situation in -- back in Germany and elsewhere, that we held them for a few years."

Before Congress barred the administration from relocating the prisoners held at Gitmo, it had run into exactly that problem, finding it difficult to find countries willing to accept former terrorism suspects.

In spite of those assessments just a week before he spoke, Obama struck a much more optimistic tone for a post-Gitmo world.

"Now, even after we take these steps, one issue will remain, which is how to deal with those Gitmo detainees who we know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks, but who cannot be prosecuted, for example, because the evidence against them has been compromised or is inadmissible in a court of law," he said. "But once we commit to a process of closing Gitmo, I am confident that this legacy problem can be resolved, consistent with our commitment to the rule of law."

WATCH the exchanges above.

Update: 6:33 p.m. -- In a statement to HuffPost, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said:

What the President said would bring harsh judgment is continuing to hold people who have been charged with no crime and holding them outside our borders. He was explicitly referencing the situation at Guantanamo, and the need to close it. What is true is that we can expect to still be facing a terrorist threat from Al Qaeda and other groups for years to come. But we will not deal with terrorists we capture by sending them to Guantanamo; it remains our strong preference to detain, interrogate and then prosecute in an Article III court or a reformed military commission. We have done it over and over again successfully, including, as the president noted, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up an airplane over Detroit; and Faisal Shahzad, who put a car bomb in Times Square. As he said, it is in a court of law that we will try Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of bombing the Boston Marathon. And Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, is as we speak serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison here, in the United States. The president acknowledged that even after we take these steps, we still need to resolve the issue of how to deal with those Guantanamo detainees who we know have participated in dangerous plots or attacks, but who cannot be prosecuted. But, as the president said, once we commit to a process of closing Guantanamo, he is confident that this legacy problem can be resolved, consistent with our commitment to the rule of law."

Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.

No Reprieve For Boy Scouts Despite Gay Youth Vote

2013-05-24T20:48:33Z

-- The Boy Scouts of America will get no reprieve from controversy after a contentious vote to accept openly gay boys as Scouts.

Dismayed conservatives are already looking at alternative youth groups as they predict a mass exodus from the BSA. Gay-rights supporters vowed Friday to maintain pressure on the Scouts to end the still-in-place ban on gay adults serving as leaders.

"They're not on our good list yet," said Paul Guequierre of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights group. He said the HRC, in its annual rankings of corporate policies on workplace fairness, would deduct points from companies that donate to the Boy Scouts until the ban on gay adults is lifted.

In California, gay-rights leaders said they would continue urging passage of a bill pending in the Legislature that would make the BSA ineligible for nonprofit tax breaks because of the remaining ban.

The Boy Scouts' chief executive, Wayne Brock, pleaded for the Scouting community to reunite after the divisive debate that led to Thursday's vote by the BSA's National Council. The proposal to lift the ban on openly gay youth – while keeping the ban on gay adults – was supported by about 60 percent of the council's 1,400 voting members.

However, Brock's plea failed to sway some conservative religious leaders whose denominations sponsor many Scout units and who consider same-sex relationships immoral.

"Frankly, I can't imagine a Southern Baptist pastor who would continue to allow his church to sponsor a Boy Scout troop under these new rules," Richard Land, a senior Southern Baptist Conference official, told the SBC's news agency, Baptist Press.

Land advised Southern Baptist churches to withdraw their support of Scout troops and consider affiliating instead with the Royal Ambassadors, an existing SBC youth program for boys that combines religious ministry with Scouting-style activities.

Baptist churches sponsor Scout units serving more than 100,000 of the BSA's 2.6 million youth members.

The Assemblies of God, which oversees units serving more than 2,000 Scouts, said it could no longer support such units and suggested its own Royal Rangers youth group as a "positive alternative."

John Stemberger, a conservative activist and former Scout from Florida who led a group opposing the policy change, said he and his allies would convene a meeting next month in Louisville, Ky., to discuss creation of a "new character development organization for boys."

"We grieve today, not because we are faced with leaving Scouting, but because the Boy Scouts of America has left us," Stemberger said. "Its leadership has turned its back on 103 years of abiding by a mission to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices."

There is a template for forming a conservative alternative to a major national youth organization. American Heritage Girls was formed in 1995 as a Christian-oriented option to the Girl Scouts of the USA, and it now claims more than 20,000 members.

From the left, gay-rights supporters – including President Barack Obama – generally welcomed the move to accept openly gay Scouts, but urged the BSA to take the further step of welcoming gay adults as leaders.

White House spokesman Shin Inouye said Obama "continues to believe that leadership positions in the Scouts should be open to all, regardless of sexual orientation."

Rich Ferraro of GLAAD, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said his group would continue a campaign to discourage corporate giving to the Boy Scouts until the ban on gay adults is lifted.

He also predicted that the presence of openly gay boys in Scout ranks would undermine the viability of the adult ban as those youth turn 18 and seek leadership posts.

"The BSA now will have to look gay teens in the eye, boys who've been involved in Scouting for years, and tell them they're not going to be able to grow into adult leaders," Ferraro said. "Those conversations will be difficult and shouldn't be had."

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls, a 21-year-old activist raised by lesbian mothers in Iowa, has been a leader of the campaign to end the BSA's no-gays policy. He said his group, Scouts for Equality, would continue to press for lifting the ban on gay adults, while also monitoring how the BSA implements its new policy for gay youth.

"We'll act as a watchdog," he said. "If any gay youth feel they're experiencing harassment or discrimination, we want to be there for them."

For some parents of Scouts, the entire membership debate has been emotionally draining, and the decision to accept openly gay youth left them disenchanted or confused.

Wes Comer, whose family attends an Apostolic Pentecostal church near Knoxville, Tenn., that considers homosexuality sinful, had been wrestling with whether to pull his eldest son out of the Scouts if the no-gays policy was abandoned.

"To be honest, I'm torn at this point," Comer said Friday in an email. "I'm not sure exactly what our decision will be."

"If I place this situation in the context of my religious beliefs, I'm forced to ask myself, `Would I turn a homosexual child away from Sunday school? From a church function? Would I forbid my children to be friends with a gay child?' I can't imagine a situation where I would answer `yes' to any of those questions. So how can I in this one?" he wrote.

Yet he said was "extremely disappointed" in the entire debate, and suggested that the BSA "has dealt itself a mortal blow."

Another Scouting father, Don Mack, of Waconia, Minn., said he and his 10-year-old son will be leaving Cub Scouts after the current year is done and his son gets his Arrow of Light Award.

Mack, a Scout himself as a boy and a self-described conservative Christian, has been a Cub Scout leader for about five years. Now, because of the vote to admit gay youth, he and his son both want out. And they'll be looking for an alternative program that offers similar character-building benefits as the Scouts.

"We home-school, and my wife and I teach our son you need to stand up for what's right, even if that means sacrifice or getting hurt in the process," Mack said. "It was not an easy choice for us to make because our family believed in the mission Scouting has to offer. I kind of feel like my best friend died."

___

Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Boy Scouts of America: http://www.scouting.org/

___

Follow David Crary on Twitter at . http://www.twitter.com/craryap

The Cicadas Are Here!

2013-05-24T20:40:01Z

By Megan Gannon, LiveScience News Editor:

The 17-year-old sex-crazed cicadas of Brood II have started to stir in Staten Island.

Historically, large numbers of these periodical cicadas have spent their short but dramatic adulthoods in the borough, but they might be harder to spot elsewhere in New York City.

The noisy creatures started emerging by the hundreds last week in certain parts of Staten Island, said Edward Johnson, director of science at the Staten Island Museum. But the insects are not likely to come out in droves in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, Johnson added.

"They don't fly very far as adults, and so are unlikely to colonize other boroughs from Staten Island," he said. [Ewww! 6 Crazy Facts About Cicadas]

Brood II is one of the distinct cicada populations that only matures every 13 or 17 years. Known as periodical cicadas, they belong to the genus Magicicada, and they can be found only in the eastern half of North America. Brood II's range extends from Georgia to Connecticut and it began its emergence earlier this month.

Their loud mating calls and carpet of corpses may come as a nuisance to some, but each emergence is exciting for entomologists studying the mysterious, long-lived insects — they spend most of their lives in an immature stage. The cicadas coming out of the ground now were born in 1996, meaning they're the first Brood II generation to be greeted by Twitter and Flickr, which make it possible for people to socially share their pictures of the insects. Radiolab's Cicada Tracker and Magicicada as well allow citizen scientists to report their sightings in real time.

Mapping where these 17-year cicadas emerge could offer new insights on land use, climate change and the bugs themselves. The cicadas' long subterranean youth, which may be the longest of any known insect, means it's difficult for scientists to study their life cycle.

Geographically, the 17-year brood populations fit together like puzzle pieces. Brood II is almost like the keystone, since its range borders that of many other broods, University of Connecticut cicada expert John Cooley said earlier this month. Scientists think they might be able to learn about why different broods evolved by studying their boundaries.

For Johnson, the emergence will give him a chance to show off the Staten Island Museum's collection of cicadas, the second largest in the world. He said he has dim memories of the Brood II emergences on Staten Island in 1962 and 1979, but better recollections from last time, in 1996.

From that year, Johnson recalls "lots of cicada song and activity in the woodlands, lots of media attention, and my youngest son was born three months before the emergence, so he is a 'cicada baby,' and gets to measure his life in cicada years."

To be fair to the creatures, they're not swarming or invading or coming out of hibernation. They've been sharing the environment with East Coasters this whole time — they've just been underground sucking roots. The insects might only seem like a plague because of their numbers. Some scientists estimated up to 30 billion Brood II adults would make their debut this year. [Ouch: Nature's 10 Biggest Pests]

Researchers think this is all part of a survival strategy known as "predator satiation," in which a huge percentage of the population is expected to be eaten, Popular Science reported. Cicadas are clumsy and they don't have defenses for stinging or biting their predators, but their numbers alone will be enough to ensure the brood survives. In other words, there will still be lots of six-legged lingerers after dogs, cats, birds and even some adventurous humans get their fill.

But even if they do dodge their enemies, the clock is ticking for emergent cicadas.

After a dark 17-year juvenile period underground, hormones and warm soil temperatures (64 degrees Fahrenheit to be precise) send the crunchy cicada nymphs above the surface. The insects then shed their brown exoskeletons and spend their few weeks of adulthood mating and laying eggs in tree branches. Then, they die, leaving their big bodies to litter the ground, while the newly hatched babies will make their way down to the dirt to continue the cycle. The Brood II generation born this year will go on hiatus until 2030.

Cicadas' short act above the surface is made more theatrical by their racket. Males make species-specific mating calls by vibrating a white, drumlike plate, or tymbal, on either side of their abdomens. These chirping and clicking noises can be heard by females up to a mile (1.6 kilometers) away. Standing near an especially loud chorus of cicadas can be like standing near a motorcycle, with a noise reaching up to 100 decibels.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

How To Get Rid Of The 6 Most Annoying Memorial Day Stains

2013-05-24T20:37:38Z

There are few things that go together better than Memorial Day and a barbecue, as long as you can survive the day without getting ketchup stains and other spots on your favorite patriotic outfit.

But if you do have an unfortunate accident with one of these stubborn messes, don't fret. We've got a how-to guide on removing the most common party stains. So, click through and don't worry about getting a little sloppy this weekend.

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First Lady Gets Down To James Brown

2013-05-24T20:24:13Z

First Lady Michelle Obama busted a move with some school kids during a stop at Savoy Elementary School in Washington, D.C. on Friday.

Obama danced to James Brown, who the kids called "the godfather of soul."

Obama -- along with Kerry Washington, star of ABC's "Scandal" -- encouraged students to "try new things and not be afraid to fail." The school, where the arts are being used to help boost student performance, is located in Anacostia, one of the Washington, D.C.'s poorest neighborhoods.

Watch a video of Obama dancing with the kids above. (Video via CBS News)

Check out a slideshow of her visit below:

LOOK: Michelle Obama Dances With D.C. School Kids!

2013-05-24T20:15:57Z

WASHINGTON -- Failure is OK, but continuing to work hard is more important, Michelle Obama said Friday.

That was the message the first lady delivered to students at an elementary school where the arts are being used to help boost student performance. The school is located in Anacostia, one of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

Mrs. Obama said failure was not an impediment for her and shouldn't be for them.

She also encouraged the students to "try new things and not be afraid to fail, because we have all failed."

"You're looking at the first ... I have failed at things. Things have been really hard for me at times," Mrs. Obama said at Savoy Elementary School. "But all I had to do was keep going and keep working hard."

To further illustrate her point, she pointed to Kerry Washington, star of ABC's "Scandal," as another example.

Mrs. Obama said the actress, who was sitting in the audience for the visit, is a big star these days because she chose to keep perfecting her craft instead of becoming discouraged by rejection during her career.

"She spent a lot of time practicing and working and trying out for things and having people tell her `no,' `no, thank you,' `you're not good enough, you're not pretty enough,'" the first lady said. "Could you imagine somebody telling Kerry that she wasn't pretty enough, she wasn't tall enough, she was too short? That's all performing is, is rejection."

Washington, who is the school's arts ambassador, later said she wasn't sure how that came to be.

"It might have something to do with playing Olivia Pope and having a principal Pope," she joked. Olivia Pope is her character on "Scandal" and Patrick Pope is the school's principal.

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Online:

Turnaround Arts: http://turnaroundarts.pcah.gov

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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

Dad Vows To Yank Sons Out Of Boy Scouts After Organization Drops Gay Ban

2013-05-24T20:07:42Z

An outspoken supporter of the Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) ban on gay participants has vowed to withdraw his own sons out of the scouting organization.

In an editorial for CNN, John Stemberger called the BSA's May 23 announcement that sexual orientation would be eliminated as youth membership criterion would eventually "lead to myriad bad consequences."

"First, the new BSA policy is logically incoherent and morally and ethically inconsistent. The BSA had never discriminated against homosexuals," Stemberger, who is an Eagle Scout, writes. "The BSA membership application did not ask about sexual orientation, and there has never been a witch hunt in the BSA to find or remove its gay members."

Before referring to the Boy Scouts as "one of the great jewels of American culture," Stemberger continues:

"Most important, the new policy robs parents of Boy Scouts, like me, of the sole authority to raise issues of sex and sexuality with their kids.
Parents should have the exclusive right to raise issues about sex and sexuality with their children in their own time and in their own way, in the privacy of their homes, not brought up by other older boys around a campfire. Allowing open homosexuality injects a sensitive and highly charged political issue into the heart of the BSA, against the wishes of the vast majority of parents."

You can read the rest of the editorial here.

Stemberger is also president of On My Honor, which is described as "a coalition of concerned parents, Scout Leaders, Scouting donors, Eagle Scouts and others" who are "united" in opposing "open homosexuality" in the Boy Scouts.

Likely to defend Stemberger's statements is the National Organization of Marriage's (NOM) Brian Brown, who said the Boy Scouts' decision to admit openly gay Scouts would end up "sexualizing the organization."

"All of this is happening not because of a true grassroots demand of gay youth to be part of the organization but by an orchestrated political effort by gay activists who want to punish any group or organization that does not embrace homosexuality," Brown wrote in a statement. "It's the beginning of the end for what once was one of America's noblest organizations."

WATCH: Rare Footage Of Jackie Kennedy At Home

2013-05-24T20:01:02Z

While browsing YouTube in search of vintage clips of "The Dick Cavett Show," I somehow came across this gem: A clip from a 1957 talk show called "Home," featuring a young Jackie Kennedy.

Watch above to see Jackie discuss married life with John F. Kennedy, then see her go about her "normal" every day routine. You'll also get a few glimpses of her Georgetown home. (Though our favorite moment has to be either when she drops John's shoes off at the shoemaker, or when she says that she occasionally presses his clothes, or when she lets her dog off the leash to knock over a few schoolchildren at the playground.)

But here's the best part: John comes out and joins her in the interview.

Check it out above -- and let's discuss.

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First Lady Lauds Effort To Preserve DC Slave House

2013-05-24T19:00:23Z

WASHINGTON -- Michelle Obama said Wednesday that stories of toil and sweat by slaves once held at a historic home within sight of the White House are an important part of U.S. history, including her own personal story, and are "as vital to our national memory as any other."

The first lady commented as American Express announced its donation of $1 million to the White House Historical Association to preserve Decatur House and pay for education programs for children. The nearly 200-year-old house is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and operated by the association.

Most of the money will be spent to preserve the building's former slave quarters, where about 20 men and women "spent their days serving those who came and went from this house" and their nights "jammed together on the second floor of the slave quarters, all the while holding onto a quiet hope, a quiet prayer that they, too, and perhaps their children, would someday be free," Mrs. Obama said.

The red-brick, three-story townhouse built in 1818 has been home to many, including several secretaries of state.

Mrs. Obama, briefly invoking her ancestry as a descendant of a South Carolina slave, said even more history came from the back of Decatur House, where the slave quarters were located, "the kind of stories that too often get lost, the kinds of stories that are a part of so many of our families' histories, including my own."

"These stories of toil, and sweat, and quiet, unrelenting dignity – these stories are as vital to our national memory as any other," she said. "And so it is our responsibility as a nation to ensure that these stories are told."

The slave quarters is one of the few such dwellings in an urban setting, and the only physical proof that slaves were held near the White House. Decatur House is located one block north of the White House, on Lafayette Square.

Afterward, Mrs. Obama toured several rooms, including one that researchers concluded had been a kitchen because of the dark splotches on a brick wall they believe were made by an oven, as well as splatters of animal fat on the wall that were made during cooking.

She also visited with a group of sixth-graders from a Fairfax, Va., elementary school that was participating in an educational program based on the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, including a 12-year-old dressed up as Abraham Lincoln. They weren't told about their special visitor and the jaws of several students dropped each time the first lady entered the different rooms they were in.

Decatur House was built for Navy Commodore Stephen Decatur. It was bequeathed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1956. The National Center for White House History was established there in 2010.

Decatur House also is a National Trust for Historic Preservation site.

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Online:

White House Historical Association: http://www.whha.org

National Trust for Historic Preservation: http://preservationnation.org

Decatur House: http://www.whitehousehistory.org/decatur-house/

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