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In a 12-minute-video, Cenk Uygur explains why he turned down a new, larger contract at MSNBC.

Said Uygur: "I stopped listening to their advice in April. Why?…I got pulled in, and they told me, it was actually one specific person, the head of MSNBC…I was just in Washington, and people in Washington tell me that they're concerned about your tone…"

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…

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I've posted several items over the past year about the suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin school district and its position that teachers take a "neutral" stance on sexual orientation which forces them to ignore anti-gay bullying.

There have been seven student suicides in the school district in less than two years and now the school district is part of a federal investigation and civil rights groups, The National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center, are threatening a lawsuit.

The groups plan a news conference today.

CNN reports:

The Justice Department together with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights are looking into "allegations of harassment and discrimination in the Anoka-Hennepin School District based on sex, including peer-on-peer harassment based on not conforming to gender stereotypes," according to a district memo provided exclusively to CNN.

Watch CNN's report, AFTER THE JUMP…

Previously…
Minnesota School District 'Investigation' Says Bullying Not Responsible for Suicides [tr]

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Elaine Donnelly (with her group 'Center for Military Readiness') has for years been one of the leading crusaders against repealing the military's ban on gays in the military. She has attended numerous hearings to speak out against it and placed herself on the news as a talking head, as well as gathered thousands of signatures of retired, anti-gay military officials to try to prove that opinion is against repeal of the ban.

Now, it appears, she's in a bit of hot water:

The leading opponent of repealing the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and a decades-long critic of expanded opportunities for military women runs a nonprofit organization that watchdog groups say has filed inaccurate and misleading reports to the IRS, lacks a credibly independent board and is operating uncomfortably close to the line that separates education from lobbying.

***

An examination of a decade's worth of CMR's 990 tax forms and interviews with several nonprofit experts reveal a mom-and-pop operation that has repeatedly failed to comply with standard rules required of 501(c)3 groups like CMR.

"It seems very loosey goosey, not best-practice," said Ken Berger, president of Charity Navigator, which rates nonprofits. "They need to tighten up the way they're operating."

Andrea Stone's HuffPost piece goes on to expose the flaws in the group's governance, oversight, and advocacy. Everyone should give it a read.

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Lawrence O'Donnell looks at yesterday's DOMA hearing and Al Franken's takedown of Tom Minnery at Focus on the Family, and asks Jennifer Chrisler of the Family Equality Council, "will any facts matter at all in this debate among the opponents of marriage equality?"

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…

In related news, EJ Graff at the Atlantic has a lengthy look at the DOMA hearings and how the atmosphere has changed in 15 years since DOMA was enacted:

Except for the fact that some of the witnesses were talking about lawfully recognized same-sex spouses, no one said anything very different from what was being said 15 years ago, when DOMA was passed.

And yet the hearing was completely different from anything imaginable in 1996. It's hard, now, to remember that foreign country, which was almost unrecognizably hostile to lesbians and gay men. No U.S. state or world nation had yet begun marrying same-sex couples. The threat against which DOMA was supposed to defend was a Hawaii lawsuit that, for a couple of years, looked as if it might open the door to same-sex marriages in that state — which might then infect other states, as mainland same-sex pairs got married in Maui and then asked to be recognized at home. The Hawaii lawsuit had hit the LGBT advocacy community, and the nation at large, by complete surprise: no gay organization supported it, and most of the leading LGBT advocates wished it didn't exist at all.

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The Space Shuttle program came to an end this morning as Atlantis made a successful landing at 5:58 am this morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida:

"Mission complete, Houston," said Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson of the Navy, commander of the shuttle Atlantis for the last flight. "Afterserving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned itsplace in history, and it’s come to a final stop."

Atlantis will now be retired to the museum at Kennedy's visitor center.

Watch the landing, AFTER THE JUMP…

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In a new video for the "It Gets Better" project, Stephen Colbert describes how his mind was blown in school when a bully was asked to prove the claims he was making that another kid was "queer".

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…

(via dan savage)

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ST. CROIX: U.S. Virgin Islands residents do "Born This Way" lip dub.

WATER DAMAGE: A thunderstorm in Montreal this week caused urban geysers.

AGAPE BIBLE FELLOWSHIP: Expelling demons through prayer.

FABIO: The new Old Spice spokesman. More here.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

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NY Presbyterian minister to defy church and marry same-sex couple.

Damon's dome.

Ashton Kutcher strips down with his Two and a Half Men co-stars.

South Africa: Great White Shark jumps from ocean into research boat.

Gay advocacy group GLAD sues town of Gilsum, NH for trying to take Cleve Jones HIV/AIDS Wellness House for not paying property taxes: "It’s an egregious violation of constitutional equal treatment."

Borders bookstores to liquidate: "The Ann Arbor-based bookseller had been trying to reorganize for five months, but was overwhelmed with debt, losses and changing consumer tastes."

 NY Episcopal bishops split on same-sex marriage: "…gay and lesbian Episcopalians will be allowed on Sunday to get married by priests in Brooklyn and Queens, but not in the Bronx or Manhattan or on Staten Island; in Syracuse but not in Albany. That is because the church has not taken a firm position nationally on same-sex marriage, leaving local bishops with wide latitude to decide what priests may do when the law takes effect in New York State."

Alexander Skarsgard got an honorary doctorate for being a hot vampire.

Rugby player Gareth Thomas pulls on your harp strings.

WH press secretary dodges question on "ex-gay" therapy.

Florida judge rules HIV notification laws apply only to straight people: "The loophole was noticed only recently. An HIV-positive woman was accused of having sex with another woman without informing her of her status. However, the judge ruled that because their actions were not technically 'sexual intercourse,' the law could not be applied. According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, that interpretation of the law must now be applied statewide."

Asheville, NC police investigating attack on man as anti-gay hate crime.

Christopher Gorham's chest is 'covert' no longer.

 Tim Cusack on Broadway's binary line between gay and straight: "I view 'Priscilla' and 'The Normal Heart' as twin theatrical poles between which is stretched the queer (male) body. On one end, gay men are fabulous, feminine and frivolous; on the other, tortured, dangerous, martyred."

TRAILER: Jersey Shore goes to Italy.

 Harry Potter and the Alternate Ending.

Leisure Dive: the summer plank?

Tim Pawlenty suspected of pushing Bachmann 'migraine' story.

Bachmann bodyguards rough up ABC's Brian Ross: "A couple of guys really just came at him. There were a few cops there and there were what looked to me like two bodyguards…and their hands were on him. They were…sort of manhandling and pushing him and you know at one point it looked like they were kind of holding him back, pulling him away from her as he was just trying to ask her this question. And she just ignored the question…And got in her car and drove away."

 City in China pirates entire Apple Store.

Ars Technica's definitive (20-page) review of Mac OSX Lion.

Mormon couple ends "fireside" sessions for gay LDS members: "Most of the attendees are male, and many deal with same-gender attraction. For the countless Latter-day Saints struggling with the challenges associated with same-gender attraction, there are questions without answers. Many suffer in silence, feeling ashamed and hopeless. For six years, the Matises gave hope to countless attendees at their firesides."

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BY NATHAN MANSKE

Nathan Manske and Marquise Lee embarked on a 4 month, 50 state tour of the United States collecting stories for their I'm From Driftwood site. We'll be sharing some of the stories they collected along with some of the insight into what they saw. They're still encouraging people to submit their written stories via IFD. You can follow IFD on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

We met Jason in Las Vegas back in October, when the media was in full swing of focusing on gay bullying and suicides. We noticed a shift in stories people wanted to share, many talking about their own bullying and near-suicide experiences. Jason's story brings up an interesting point, that bullying doesn't only affect one group but that we're all in this together. Vegas was also the same place we filmed Ace's story, the Deaf gay man who stood up to his bullies with great success.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP…

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Politico reports that Obama is planning to nominate a fourth openly gay judicial candidate:

The White House plans to announce the nomination of Michael Fitzgerald, a lawyer with Corbin, Fitzgerald and Athey, to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Fitzgerald, 51, a graduate of Harvard University and the University of California Berkley Law School, previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in California and has been a practicing trial lawyer for 20 years.

Another Obama nominee, J. Paul Oetken, was confirmed this week as U.S. District Judge for Southern New York and will be the first out gay man to serve on the federal judiciary.

Politico adds that confirmation for two others is still pending:

Alison Nathan, another openly gay nominee to the Southern District of New York, was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Edward DuMont, who was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, has not yet been reported out of the Judiciary Committee.

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