In the News

Michigan Mother Arrested for Home Schooling

Hale, Mich. (EP) - A Michigan mother was arrested March 9
for home schooling her three children.  According to Dave
Melton, Mid-America regional coordinator for the Rutherford
Institute, Peggy Williams, of Hale, Michigan, was contacted
by Leonard Burdek, attendance officer for the Iosco
Intermediate School District, who informed her that he was
filling out a warrant for her arrest on truancy charges.

Williams was arrested a few hours later and sent to the
Iosco County Jail in Tawas City, Michigan, where she was
fingerprinted, placed in a cell, and released on $200 bail.
Melton said that school officials demand that in order to
home school in Michigan, one of the parents involved must
have a college degree.  Peggy Williams' husband is expected
to get his bachelor's degree in accounting next month.

"The very idea of the appearance of a police officer in the
dark of night to arrest a mom for the 'crime' of educating
her own children is repugnant and reminiscent of Nazi
intimidation tactics.  It is a knock on the door every home
schooler dreads," said Melton.  "Dragging a parent from the
safety of her home in a dead of night is coercion and
intimidation, plain and simple.  Mom was arrested.  Dad
wasn't."

Truancy is punishable in Michigan by a maximum penalty of
two days or a $50 fine or both.

The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit,
civil liberties organization specializing in the defense of
religious liberty.

Is Mendel Schneerson the Messiah?

New York, NY (EP) - Thousands of Lubavitch Jews gathered in
New York recently with the hope that their leader, Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, would announce that he is the
messiah.

But before Schneerson, 90, made an appearance on a balcony,
Rabbi Schmuel Butman told the faithful that Schneerson's
appearance was "not to be interpreted as a coronation" of
the messiah.

The Jan. 31 meeting marked the 43rd anniversary of
Schneerson's leadership of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect.
Schneerson hasn't spoken since suffering a stroke last year.