BREAKING: Governor Josh Shapiro has just ensured that every Pennsylvania student receives free breakfast. This will help over 1.7 million students be less hungry and more ready to learn.

On this day in 1944, more than 8,000 US Marines stormed ashore on the beaches of Saipan, opening one of the most savage and consequential battles of the entire Pacific war. Saipan was not just another island. It sat in the Mariana Islands, and whoever held it controlled the gateway to Japan itself. From Saipan, the new American B-29 Superfortress bombers could finally reach Tokyo and the Japanese home islands directly. The Japanese understood this perfectly, which is why they had packed the island with around 30,000 defenders and orders to fight to the last man. They knew that if Saipan fell, the war would arrive on Japan's doorstep. The landing was brutal from the first minutes. Japanese artillery had pre-sighted the reefs and beaches, and as the Marines waded in, shells tore through the landing craft. Hundreds fell before they reached dry sand. The fighting that followed ground on for more than three weeks across ridges, caves, and sugarcane fields, in heat and chaos, with the Japanese contesting nearly every yard. The Americans lost around 3,000 dead and many thousands more wounded. The Japanese garrison was almost entirely annihilated, fighting to the end in massive suicidal banzai charges. But the most haunting images came at the very end. Japanese propaganda had told the island's civilians that the Americans were monsters who would torture and kill them. Terrified, and in some cases pressured by soldiers, hundreds of civilians, entire families, mothers with children in their arms, threw themselves from the cliffs at the northern end of the island onto the rocks and sea below, rather than surrender. American troops watched in horror, calling out through loudspeakers and interpreters, begging them to stop. Many would not. The cliffs are remembered to this day. The fall of Saipan sent a shockwave through Tokyo. It shattered the inner ring of Japan's defenses, brought the home islands within reach of relentless bombing, and triggered the collapse of the government of General Tojo, the man who had led Japan into the war. From the smoking ruins of this one small island, the path to the firebombing of Japan, and ultimately to 1945, ran straight ahead. It began on this day.

Imagine putting me in a commercial to label me a radical @ByronDonalds, then you and your wife @ErikaDonalds who are constantly talking crap about public education, are out here misspelling words on campaign signs for press conferences about EDUCATION! 🤦🏾‍♀️😒 EMBARRASSING!

I want to introduce you to Steve. He’s 83. His wife died a few months ago and he comes to this lodge in Spring Mill, Indiana and draws. He taught art in Terre Haute, IN his whole life. He also did courtroom sketches in court cases. In the comments I’ll share some pics from his sketchbook. He was excited when I said I was going to share his sketches with the world.