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Here's a look at documents from U.S. foundations
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George W. Bush Institute: President and Mrs. George W. Bush Meet With Ukrainian First Lady Mrs. Olena Zelenska
DALLAS, Texas, March 28 -- The George W. Bush Institute issued the following news release on March 26, 2026:
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President and Mrs. George W. Bush Meet with Ukrainian First Lady Mrs. Olena Zelenska
Today, President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush welcomed Ukrainian First Lady Mrs. Olena Zelenska to the Bush Institute.
"We admire your country's bravery and ingenuity," said President George W. Bush. "We want the people of Ukraine to know that we continue to stand with America's ally, Ukraine. You are fighting for freedom, and I believe you will prevail."
In February, the Bush Institute
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DALLAS, Texas, March 28 -- The George W. Bush Institute issued the following news release on March 26, 2026:
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President and Mrs. George W. Bush Meet with Ukrainian First Lady Mrs. Olena Zelenska
Today, President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush welcomed Ukrainian First Lady Mrs. Olena Zelenska to the Bush Institute.
"We admire your country's bravery and ingenuity," said President George W. Bush. "We want the people of Ukraine to know that we continue to stand with America's ally, Ukraine. You are fighting for freedom, and I believe you will prevail."
In February, the Bush Institutepublished policy recommendations on how the West can help Ukraine win following the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin's unjustified war. Putin is responsible for the gravest security crisis on the European continent since World War II. The Bush Institute believes that now is the time to stop him - and to do so, the U.S. must continue its support of Ukraine.
For more information about the Bush Institute's efforts to support Ukraine and freedom around the world, visit: https://www.bushcenter.org/topics/regions/ukraine
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About the George W. Bush Institute:
The George W. Bush Institute is a solution-oriented nonpartisan policy organization focused on ensuring opportunity for all, strengthening democracy, and advancing free societies. Housed within the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the Bush Institute is rooted in compassionate conservative values and committed to creating positive, meaningful, and lasting change at home and abroad. We utilize our unique platform and convening power to advance solutions to national and global issues of the day. Learn more at bushcenter.org.
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Original text here: https://www.bushcenter.org/newsroom/president-and-mrs-george-w-bush-meet-with-ukrainian-first-lady-mrs-olena-zelenska
OMRF scientist receives American Heart Association grant
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma, March 27 -- The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation posted the following news:
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OMRF scientist receives American Heart Association grant
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A three-year grant from the American Heart Association will fund an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist's study of an autoimmune disease that sometimes results in organ failure.
Charmain Johnson, Ph.D., received the American Heart Association's Career Development Award, which comes with a $240,000 research grant.
Johnson will study the role of a protein called RIPK3 in systemic sclerosis, a disease that affects
... Show Full Article
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma, March 27 -- The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation posted the following news:
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OMRF scientist receives American Heart Association grant
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A three-year grant from the American Heart Association will fund an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist's study of an autoimmune disease that sometimes results in organ failure.
Charmain Johnson, Ph.D., received the American Heart Association's Career Development Award, which comes with a $240,000 research grant.
Johnson will study the role of a protein called RIPK3 in systemic sclerosis, a disease that affectsabout 300,000 Americans.
In systemic sclerosis, white blood cells mistakenly attack the body, causing chronic inflammation, vascular damage and progressive tissue scarring in skin and other organs.
Johnson will investigate whether excessive production of RIPK3 causes blood vessels to become leaky, creating a pathway for white blood cells to escape and contribute to tissue scarring. She hopes to show that the protein's absence leads to fewer white blood cells traveling to the lungs.
"My study focuses on the lung, as it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in systemic sclerosis and currently lacks effective treatment," Johnson said. "I expect to find that without RIPK3 in the blood vessels, we can slow disease progression."
The findings ultimately could lead to a treatment aimed at preventing interstitial lung disease, a primary cause of death associated with systemic sclerosis.
Johnson is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of OMRF's vice president of research, Courtney Griffin, Ph.D., who called Johnson's research "extremely promising."
Separately, the American Heart Association recently awarded a two-year, $70,000 grant to Irma Gryniuk, a graduate student at OMRF who will investigate two eye diseases marked by the abnormal growth of retinal blood vessels.
Griffin, who received grants from the American Heart Association as a graduate student and a postdoctoral researcher, understands the role they can play in launching a researcher's career.
"An AHA award keeps young scientists invested and committed to cardiovascular biology because it makes them feel like they're part of the research community," Griffin said. "The awards I received as a trainee helped keep me in the field for 30 years."
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Original text here: https://omrf.org/omrf-scientist-receives-american-heart-association-grant-2/
Marisa Calderon at EGRPRA: Strengthening How the CRA System Works in Practice
WASHINGTON, March 27 [Category: Economics] -- Prosperity Now (formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development) posted the following news release:
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Marisa Calderon at EGRPRA: Strengthening How the CRA System Works in Practice
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Marisa Calderon, President and CEO of Prosperity Now, delivered remarks at the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) meeting on March 26, 2026. In her remarks, she draws on nearly five decades of Prosperity Now's work with financial institutions and community partners to highlight how fragmentation across data, reporting, and processes
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, March 27 [Category: Economics] -- Prosperity Now (formerly the Corporation for Enterprise Development) posted the following news release:
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Marisa Calderon at EGRPRA: Strengthening How the CRA System Works in Practice
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Marisa Calderon, President and CEO of Prosperity Now, delivered remarks at the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act (EGRPRA) meeting on March 26, 2026. In her remarks, she draws on nearly five decades of Prosperity Now's work with financial institutions and community partners to highlight how fragmentation across data, reporting, and processescreates unnecessary burden and limits the effective flow of capital. Below are her full remarks.
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to speak.
My name is Marisa Calderon. I am President and CEO of Prosperity Now. For nearly five decades, we have worked with financial institutions and community-based partners to understand how housing finance systems operate in practice. That perspective allows us to see how reporting requirements, application processes, and examination expectations function across institutions and geographies.
Many of the challenges that are often described as reporting burden or process inefficiency are, in our experience, a result of how fragmented the underlying system has become. Data is not consistently defined or shared across institutions ; partnership models vary widely, and there is limited standardization in how activities are structured and documented.
For example, mortgage lenders today report more than one hundred data fields per loan under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, while CRA reporting requires separate and differently structured data collection across small business, small farm, and community development activities. These systems are not interoperable, and even federal analysis of CRA performance requires combining multiple datasets to assess outcomes.
As a result, institutions and their partners absorb significant operational costs simply to align and report on activity that is otherwise aligned in intent, with banks experiencing this as a reporting burden, while community partners experience it as friction. More importantly, this fragmentation makes it harder to move capital efficiently and at scale through the very systems CRA relies on.
In turn, this contributes unintended variability into how CRA is applied and evaluated, limiting the ability to clearly measure and compare outcomes across institutions and markets. It also makes it more difficult for capital to reach communities in a consistent and scalable manner.
We believe there is an opportunity to reduce unnecessary burden while improving clarity and consistency by focusing on greater alignment in data, measurement, and process. This includes how activities are defined, how they are documented, and how information flows between institutions and their community partners.
Greater alignment and stronger supporting infrastructure would increase efficiency, strengthening the system's ability to deliver on its intended purpose.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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Original text here: https://www.prosperitynow.org/news-and-insights/marisa-calderon-at-egrpra-strengthening-how-the-cra-system-works-in-practice
The Sanders-AOC Data Center Moratorium Doesn't Add Up, Says Center for Data Innovation
WASHINGTON, March 26 [Category: Computer Technology]-- The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation posted the following news release:
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The Sanders-AOC Data Center Moratorium Doesn't Add Up, Says Center for Data Innovation
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In response to the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14), the Center for Data Innovation issued the following statement from Senior Policy Manager Hodan Omaar :
This bill justifies a moratorium based on several well-worn anxieties-that AI is an
... Show Full Article
WASHINGTON, March 26 [Category: Computer Technology]-- The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation posted the following news release:
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The Sanders-AOC Data Center Moratorium Doesn't Add Up, Says Center for Data Innovation
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In response to the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14), the Center for Data Innovation issued the following statement from Senior Policy Manager Hodan Omaar :
This bill justifies a moratorium based on several well-worn anxieties-that AI is anexistential threat, that data centers burden the pocketbooks of American families, and that they undermine jobs-but none of these, pursued in good faith, lead to halting data center construction. It is clear that the authors started with the moratorium and then cast a net of disparate fears wide enough to build support for it.
The AI safety reasoning illustrates this most clearly. In one breath, Senator Sanders describes tech billionaires as self-interested and inherently untrustworthy; in the next, his bill relies on their words of warning about civilizational collapse to justify shutting down data centers. It is unclear why the public should discount everything tech billionaires say except when their words can be recruited to fill gaps in a precarious argument.
If AI safety were a real animating concern, the policy would focus on model evaluations, red teaming, and transparency requirements. If rising utility bills were the true target, the bill would address the market design flaws and cost-allocation models that actually drive rates. And if jobs were the priority, Congress would be doing what it takes to ensure the tens of billions in investment these facilities bring in become high-capital anchors of local industrial bases, rather than legislating them out of existence.
Congress should not mistake a grab bag of loosely related fears for a legitimate case for a moratorium. If these challenges are real, they deserve solutions that actually address them-not a construction freeze that only undermines the American digital economy.
Contact: Nicole Hinojosa, press@datainnovation.org
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Original text here: https://itif.org/publications/publications/2026/03/26/the-sanders-aoc-data-center-moratorium-doesnt-add-up-says-center-for-data-innovation/
Students forced to remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts seek Supreme Court review
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, March 26 -- The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression posted the following news release:
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Students forced to remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts seek Supreme Court review
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At issue: Can schools ban sanitized political expression just because someone considers it profane?
SAND LAKE, Mich., March 26, 2026 - A pair of students who were forced to remove sweatshirts emblazoned with the anti-Biden slogan "Let's Go Brandon" are appealing their case to the Supreme Court in a test of free speech rights in public schools.
The Michigan students, who are
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PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, March 26 -- The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression posted the following news release:
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Students forced to remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts seek Supreme Court review
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At issue: Can schools ban sanitized political expression just because someone considers it profane?
SAND LAKE, Mich., March 26, 2026 - A pair of students who were forced to remove sweatshirts emblazoned with the anti-Biden slogan "Let's Go Brandon" are appealing their case to the Supreme Court in a test of free speech rights in public schools.
The Michigan students, who arerepresented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, are claiming that their school district violated their First Amendment rights.
"Our argument is simple: Students have the right to express their political views in school," said FIRE Supervising Senior Attorney Conor Fitzpatrick. "School administrators should encourage students to share their beliefs as engaged citizens, not censor them the moment someone finds their message offensive."
In February 2022, two Tri County Middle School students wore sweatshirts to school with the phrase "Let's Go Brandon," a political slogan critical of then-President Joe Biden with origins in a profane chant. Even though the political slogan is widely used -multiple members of Congress used it during floor speeches -an assistant principal and a teacher ordered the boys to remove the sweatshirts.
The school district relied on a policy that prohibits "profane" clothing -but the sweatshirts intentionally avoided using profane language, and asking the students to remove them was a violation of their First Amendment rights.
The Supreme Court has already made it clear that high school students have First Amendment rights. The students' challenge evokes the 1969 Supreme Court decision in Tinker v. Des Moines, in which the Court affirmed public school students' First Amendment right to wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War. The Court stressed that students disagreeing with each other is not only "an inevitable part of the process of attending school; it is also an important part of the educational process."
After FIRE's lawsuit, the district court and a divided (2-1) federal appeals court held that the phrase "Let's Go Brandon" was close enough to profanity that the school could ban it. But, as FIRE's petition to the Court explains, saying "Let's Go Brandon" is no different than using words "heck" or "shoot" in place of swear words. The lower courts' rulings leave the Supreme Court as the students' only recourse.
FIRE's petition explains that allowing individual teachers and administrators to decide what is "vulgar" is unworkable: "A political shirt could have First Amendment protection in second-period algebra but not third-period biology." And permitting each teacher to create and enforce their own test for "vulgarity" is a recipe for viewpoint discrimination.
"The school district's censorship assumes that students cannot handle seeing even sanitized expressions," said Fitzpatrick. "But America's next generation is not so fragile, and the First Amendment is not so brittle."
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought -the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE educates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.
CONTACT
Katie Stalcup, Communications Campaign Manager, FIRE: 215-717-3473; media@thefire.org
***
Original text here: https://www.thefire.org/news/students-forced-remove-lets-go-brandon-sweatshirts-seek-supreme-court-review
OMRF scientist receives American Heart Association grant
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma, March 26 -- The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation posted the following news:
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OMRF scientist receives American Heart Association grant
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A three-year grant from the American Heart Association will fund an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist's study of an autoimmune disease that sometimes results in organ failure.
Charmain Johnson, Ph.D., received the American Heart Association's Career Development Award, which comes with a $240,000 research grant.
Johnson will study the role of a protein called RIPK3 in systemic sclerosis, a disease that affects
... Show Full Article
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma, March 26 -- The Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation posted the following news:
* * *
OMRF scientist receives American Heart Association grant
*
A three-year grant from the American Heart Association will fund an Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist's study of an autoimmune disease that sometimes results in organ failure.
Charmain Johnson, Ph.D., received the American Heart Association's Career Development Award, which comes with a $240,000 research grant.
Johnson will study the role of a protein called RIPK3 in systemic sclerosis, a disease that affectsabout 300,000 Americans.
In systemic sclerosis, white blood cells mistakenly attack the body, causing chronic inflammation, vascular damage and progressive tissue scarring in skin and other organs.
Johnson will investigate whether excessive production of RIPK3 causes blood vessels to become leaky, creating a pathway for white blood cells to escape and contribute to tissue scarring. She hopes to show that the protein's absence leads to fewer white blood cells traveling to the lungs.
"My study focuses on the lung, as it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in systemic sclerosis and currently lacks effective treatment," Johnson said. "I expect to find that without RIPK3 in the blood vessels, we can slow disease progression."
The findings ultimately could lead to a treatment aimed at preventing interstitial lung disease, a primary cause of death associated with systemic sclerosis.
Johnson is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of OMRF's vice president of research, Courtney Griffin, Ph.D., who called Johnson's research "extremely promising."
Separately, the American Heart Association recently awarded a two-year, $70,000 grant to Irma Gryniuk, a graduate student at OMRF who will investigate two eye diseases marked by the abnormal growth of retinal blood vessels.
Griffin, who received grants from the American Heart Association as a graduate student and a postdoctoral researcher, understands the role they can play in launching a researcher's career.
"An AHA award keeps young scientists invested and committed to cardiovascular biology because it makes them feel like they're part of the research community," Griffin said. "The awards I received as a trainee helped keep me in the field for 30 years."
***
Original text here: https://omrf.org/omrf-scientist-receives-american-heart-association-grant-2/
Georgia Public Policy Foundation Issues Commentary: Major Education Bills Advance in Georgia Legislature as Session Nears End
ATLANTA, Georgia, March 26 -- The Georgia Public Policy Foundation posted the following commentary by policy analyst J. Thomas Perdue:
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Major Education Bills Advance in Georgia Legislature as Session Nears End
This year's Georgia legislative session is about to enter its final week, and as in every year, education policy has been a key issue.
The legislature continues to debate school choice and scholarship policy, building on the creation of the Promise Scholarship in 2024, and refining that program figures to be an annual endeavor for years to come. While much of this session's education
... Show Full Article
ATLANTA, Georgia, March 26 -- The Georgia Public Policy Foundation posted the following commentary by policy analyst J. Thomas Perdue:
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Major Education Bills Advance in Georgia Legislature as Session Nears End
This year's Georgia legislative session is about to enter its final week, and as in every year, education policy has been a key issue.
The legislature continues to debate school choice and scholarship policy, building on the creation of the Promise Scholarship in 2024, and refining that program figures to be an annual endeavor for years to come. While much of this session's educationagenda should be ideologically familiar, it was also broad, with other efforts including improving literacy, bolstering charter schools and adjusting curriculum.
This year's changes to the Promise Scholarship involved a cleanup bill: Senate Bill 445. It was sponsored by Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), who also sponsored the Promise Scholarship Act. The bill excludes public schools with statewide attendance zones (such as virtual schools) and certain charter schools from the list of public schools the Office of Student Achievement publishes each year for Promise Scholarship purposes. This matters because the Promise Scholarship program depends on which public schools count toward eligibility; a definitional problem like this can affect who is considered eligible.
SB 445 passed the Senate on March 6, and is currently in the House Education Committee.
Lawmakers are aiming for more equitable funding with the establishment of the Georgia Charter School Facilities Authority as a way to address one of charter schools' most persistent practical disadvantages: paying for buildings in which to operate. Charter schools are public schools, but they often lack the same access to local capital funding that traditional district schools do.
Senate Bill 498, sponsored by Sen. Clint Dixon (R-Gwinnett), would create a new financing vehicle designed to help charter schools obtain revolving loan funds and other public financing assistance for construction, renovation and repair projects. It also authorizes the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission to issue general obligation bonds for charter-school facilities, which is a sign that lawmakers are trying to treat facilities access as a structural barrier rather than a one-off budget problem.
SB 498 passed the Senate on March 6 and passed the House Appropriations Committee on March 24.
Another school choice issue is Georgia's effort to expand and refine its student scholarship organization (SSO) program. Sponsored by Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton), House Bill 328 would raise the annual aggregate cap on available tax credits for contributions to SSOs from $120 million to $225 million. House Bill 1220, sponsored by Rep. Bethany Ballard (R-Warner Robins), would broaden eligibility for certain students, including military families and students with disabilities. Together, the bills reflect an effort to make the program both larger and more accessible. HB 328 passed the House on March 6, and HB 1220 passed on March 4.
Lawmakers have also spent part of the session preparing Georgia to participate in a new federal scholarship tax-credit program set to begin in 2027. Under that program, individuals could receive a federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to approved scholarship-granting organizations, but only if a state opts in and designates eligible organizations. Georgia has already been listed by the IRS as a participating state for 2027, and Senate Bill 446 (also sponsored by Sen. Clint Dixon and carried by Rep. Scott Hilton) would codify and administer that participation. In practical terms, the measure would not replace Georgia's existing SSO program so much as add a new federal incentive on top of it, potentially expanding the role scholarship organizations play in the state's broader school-choice landscape.
While many of these bills are related to larger efforts to expand access to education, there's plenty going on within the classroom as well. Georgia lawmakers have begun to focus more heavily on literacy, especially in the early grades. Part of this push includes the Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026, designated House Bill 1193.
This effort, introduced by Rep. Chris Erwin (R-Homer), includes expanded use of literacy coaches, stronger state direction around early reading instruction and early identification of children struggling to read. In some respects, HB 1193 resembles the kind of state-led literacy strategy seen in other states that have improved their early literacy metrics, such as Mississippi's emphasis on literacy coaches and phonics-based language instruction. HB 1193 passed the House on February 24, and it had a hearing in the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday.
That isn't the only classroom-related bill. Lawmakers are also looking to expand last year's "Distraction-Free Education Act," which banned students' use of cell phones in class in K-8, into high school. This is House Bill 1009, sponsored by Rep. Scott Hilton (R-Peachtree Corners), and it was passed by the Senate March 23. Another classroom bill is Sen. Jason T. Dickerson's (R-Canton) Senate Bill 513, the "Every Day Counts Act." This would tighten Georgia's response to chronic absenteeism by defining when repeated unexcused absences trigger formal intervention plans and by attaching stronger consequences for students who continue to miss school.
Whether it be expanding access and choice for Georgia students or improving outcomes in the classroom, each legislative session brings challenges both new and familiar. As we approach the end of the session, we are gaining a clearer view of lawmakers' priorities and the future of education in the state.
***
Original text here: https://www.georgiapolicy.org/news/major-education-bills-advance-in-georgia-legislature-as-session-nears-end/
