JOANNE JACOBS: ‘B-flation’ misleads parents: 89% say their child is at grade level. “Seventy-nine percent of parents say their child is receiving mostly B’s or better, and 89 percent believe their child is at or above grade level in reading and math, according to a new recent Gallup-Learning Heroes study, report Jennifer Dineen and Andrea Malek Ash. But standardized test scores show that’s not true for at least half of students. The gap between parents’ perceptions and test scores is very large for black and Hispanic students. ”

THANKS, FELLAS: How shooters lured historic Colorado wolves to their deaths in Wyoming.

On June 30, 2020, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer and two federal special agents visited all three wolf kill sites in Wyoming. They confirmed their positions, and the reported kill sites, by matching trees with trees they could see in the background of photos one of the wolf hunters posted on Facebook.

The investigation began on a Colorado biologist’s suspicion that one of the wolves reportedly killed in Wyoming had actually been killed south of the state line. When the biologist inquired with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the agency “refused to share” wolf harvest information.

Once the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got involved, Wyoming did turn over wolf harvest records for four animals killed near the state line. Although there are few rules and licenses aren’t necessary, wolves killed in the predator zone must be reported within 10 days. The outfitter and his son both reported their kills within three days or less.

Game and Fish also obtained DNA samples from the animals, according to large carnivore supervisor Dan Thompson. The samples, however, were not analyzed in a way that provides any insight as to where the short-lived wolf pack in northwest Colorado and southwest Wyoming originated, he said.

The outfitter told WyoFile that a special agent told him the investigation wasn’t going anywhere early on in 2020.

“He called me like a week later and said, ‘You’ve been cleared of everything,’” the man told WyoFile. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”

Seriously —- thanks, fellas.

And here’s some background on Colorado’s plan to reintroduce wolves to the Rockies, which — surprise! — is popular in Denver and Boulder but not so much in the rural areas that got outvoted.

NATO’S NEW NORTHERN FLANK: Russia warns of tension as Finland shuts last border crossing.

The northern crossing at Raja-Jooseppi closed for two weeks at 14:00 (12:00 GMT) on Wednesday, after Helsinki accused Russia of channelling asylum seekers towards Finland.

Finland says it has become the target of a Russian “hybrid operation”.
Some 900 asylum seekers have crossed the border this month.

The influx is dramatically higher than the previous number of barely one a day and Finland’s border guard says before August 2023 Russian authorities barred foreign citizens from travelling to the area without the necessary visas.

The takeaway here is that a nation of fewer than six million people was willing to close their border over 900 illegals and to get the job done in a matter of weeks.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Jack Smith Is Our ‘Fascist Thug of the Year.’ “Merrick Garland will never stop abusing his power to punish Republicans for keeping him off of the Supreme Court. The people running Joe Biden’s brain knew what they were doing when they nominated him to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. Of course, his minions like Jack Smith aren’t enforcing the law now, they’re just making it up to ruin the lives of anyone who disagrees with them politically.”

GET WOKE, GO BROKE: Washington Post Says “Involuntary Layoffs” Could Be Next.

One hundred and twenty Washington Post employees have accepted the buyouts the publication announced last month, interim CEO Patty Stonesifer told staffers in a memo Tuesday morning. Stonesifer contended that the Post needs 240 people to accept the “voluntary separation package” to “help restore The Post’s financial health.”

In a followup e-mail to staff, Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee told staff that only 36 newsroom employees had accepted offers, about “30 percent of our goal across the News department of 119 acceptances of the voluntary buyout package.”

Sad. You’d think a bunch of leftists would be more willing to make sacrifices for the greater good.

NOTICE WHAT IS NOT SAID: The Hill is widely read on Capitol Hill and often provides solid reporting on who is up and who is down in Congress. But check out this piece today that reports Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) must find a way to compromise with his holds on nearly 400 military promotions or face “getting rolled by GOP” colleagues. Note that nowhere in the story is there any suggestion that anybody other than Tuberville faces the necessity of compromising.

What about the Pentagon, which is paying for female service members’ abortion travel expenses — a violation of long-standing federal law against using tax dollars to support abortion? Why isn’t anybody pressuring President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to sit down and negotiate a compromise with Tuberville?

FULL SELF DRIVING WILL HAVE TO WAIT A BIT LONGER: GM to slash spending at Cruise by ‘hundreds of millions of dollars.’ “Barra and CFO Paul Jacobson said Wednesday there would be more specific information in the coming weeks about what this new Cruise will look like following the outcome of two independent safety and incident reviews that are already underway.”