Visiting buttonbush flowers

Do you remember the buttonbush buds, Cephalanthus occidentalis, from June 12th? On July 12th I was wandering along Bull Creek and found some buttonbush flower globes, including this one with what appears to be a lichen moth, Lycomorpha pholus, busily working the blossoms. From what I see online, moths in this family do eat lichens, along with other encrusting algae and mosses.

 

❊

❊              ❊

❊

 

In my commentaries over the past year I’ve reported several instances in which the current American administration established blatantly illegal programs that judges soon put an end to. The other day I became aware of yet another illegal attempt to set up a program, this one involving education. Several groups have sued to stop it:

Today, America First Legal, Parents Defending Education, and Fight for Schools and Families filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of Education and Secretary Miguel Cardona for their unlawful creation of the National Parents and Families Engagement Council. The Council, formed in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), is a partisan, hand-selected committee designed to mask the Biden Administration’s devastatingly anti-child and anti-family actions, including the NSBA scandal and the CDC’s collusion with teachers’ unions to keep public schools closed.

 You can learn more from Parents Defending Education and from an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

 

© 2022 Steven Schwartzman