Bieber would have liked Anne Frank to be 'a belieber'

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  In this picture, made available Saturday April 6, 2013, Canadian singerJustin Bieber performs during a concert in Dortmund, western Germany, Friday April 5, 2013. (AP Photo/dpa,Caroline Seidel)AP2013

AMSTERDAM –  Justin Bieber wrote an entry into a guestbook at the Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam, saying he hoped the Jewish teenager who died in a Nazi concentration camp "would have been a Belieber" -- or fan of his -- if history were different.

The comment triggered a flood of criticism on the museum's Facebook page Sunday, with many criticizing the 19-year-old Canadian pop star for writing something they perceive to be insensitive.

Calls made and emails sent to Bieber's publicist and agent in Los Angeles weren't immediately returned.

Museum spokeswoman Maatje Mostart confirmed that Bieber visited Friday evening. She said the museum was happy to have received Bieber and didn't see anything offensive in his remarks.

Anne Frank was a Jewish teenager who hid with her family in a small apartment above a warehouse during the Nazi occupation of World War II. Her family was caught and deported, and Anne died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.

The diary she kept in hiding was recovered and published after the war, and has become the most widely read document to emerge from the Holocaust.

Bieber's whole note read: "Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a Belieber."

Mostart said Bieber called ahead and was given a guided tour.

Bieber's remarks led to criticism from some quarters, as a Facebook response insulting Bieber received more than a thousand "likes" -- slightly more than the museum's original post about the incident.

Meanwhile on Twitter, posts mocking Bieber and imagining that he had visited the museum and walked away thinking only of himself began circulating Sunday, though the message is open to interpretation.

Some of Bieber's 37 million followers also Tweeted messages of support. Others in his fan base -- which is heavily weighted toward young girls -- tweeted that they didn't know who Anne Frank was.

Frank was 13 years old when she began keeping her diary in 1942. Like many teenage girls, she made a collage of the celebrities of her day -- movie stars, dancers, and royalty -- and kept it on her bedroom wall.

"Our little room looked very bare at first with nothing on the walls; but thanks to Daddy who had brought my film-star collection and picture postcards ... with the aid of a paste pot and brush, I have transformed the walls into one gigantic picture," she wrote on July 11, 1942, just days after going into hiding. "This makes it look much more cheerful."

Many of those pictures can still be seen on the walls of the museum Bieber visited Friday.

Bieber has had a tough few weeks in Europe. He had to leave a monkey in quarantine after landing in Germany without the necessary papers for the animal. Before that, the 19-year-old singer had a trying stay in London. The star struggled with his breathing and fainted backstage at a show, was taken to a hospital and then was caught on camera clashing with a paparazzo. Days earlier, he was booed by his beloved fans when he showed up late to a concert.

He performed in Arnhem, Netherlands, on Saturday night, and will next perform three nights in Oslo, Norway.

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FIRST LAW OF ITS KIND:Indiana Bill Would Require Armed School Officials

Published April 04, 2013

FoxNews.com

Indiana lawmakers are pushing to make their state the first in the nation to require every school to have an armed employee on site, a proposal that aligns with recent recommendations from a National Rifle Association study. 

The proposal in Indiana advanced through a House committee Tuesday. It goes beyond a law signed last month in South Dakota that would allow -- but not require -- teachers to carry guns. 

The Indiana bill would mandate that one officer in every public and charter school have a loaded weapon during school hours. The officers could be police officers or other non-educators but also could be teachers or principals. 

The proposal is the latest precedent-setting bill being advanced in the wake of the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. Some states have tightened background checks and bans on assault-style rifles in a bid to reduce the supply of weapons, while others have pushed to make guns more available for purposes of self-defense. 

Supporters of the Indiana bill say it would prevent tragedies like the one in Newtown, Conn., where 20 students and six educators died. The NRA earlier this week recommended that schools try to train and arm at least one staff member.   

"I've been approached by several teachers that would love the ability to have their natural right to self-defense recognized and would gladly do this without being paid," Indiana bill sponsor Rep. Jim Lucas, a Republican, said. 

The House Education Committee voted 9-3 to approve the bill, advancing it to the Republican-dominated House for consideration. The Senate would also have to approve the measure. 

But opponents say they're concerned the proposal was rushed and is unnecessary. 

Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz said Wednesday she believes such decisions on school security should be made by local school districts without mandates from the Legislature. 

No states currently require armed employees in schools. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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MAKING IT HURT:Ranger: Bosses Pushed Cuts Visitors Would See

Another federal employee has come forward to claim the Obama administration resisted efforts to ease the impact of sequester.

A U.S. park ranger, who did not wish to be identified, told FoxNews.com that supervisors within the National Park Service overruled plans to deal with the budget cuts in a way that would have had minimal impact on the public. Instead, the source said, park staff were told to cancel special events and cut "interpretation services" -- the talks, tours and other education services provided by local park rangers.

"Apparently, they want the public to feel the pain," the ranger said.

The National Park Service is among many federal agencies warning of a major impact from the sequester cuts, which took effect last Friday. The agency has warned of delayed access to portions of Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks, closed campgrounds at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, reduced hours at the Grand Canyon visitor center and other ramifications.

The Obama administration says these cuts must be made in order to make the $85 billion in cuts from Congress' failure to avert the sequester. At the NPS, the agency was dealing with an across-the-board 5 percent cut.

Republicans have claimed the administration is making some cuts in order to exaggerate the impact. Lawmakers this past week revealed a leaked email from the Agriculture Department in which a field officer appeared to tell his team that he was instructed not to contradict the bosses' warnings about the cuts.

At the Park Service, the alleged incident occurred in one region and it's unclear whether other divisions were given similar guidance.

But a Park Service spokesman told FoxNews.com he's "never heard of guidance given like that."

The spokesman said that like other agencies, the Park Service was absorbing a 5 percent cut in just seven months. It was also being forced to cut seasonal employees, which make up a big part of the department's labor costs. Doing this, he explained, would impact "interpretive programs and public events."

But he denied the claim there was any directive to make those cuts more visible to the public.   

"There's not a ton of flexibility," he said, noting that most cuts will end up impacting visitors at some level. "Everything in parks is geared toward either the preservation of the resources or the needs of the visitors."

Joan Anzelmo, a former park superintendent in Colorado, also said that while it's possible one specific location was giving guidance to make sure the public sees the cuts, she doesn't think that was happening across the country. She also said any cuts to services and staffing would be made in large part because the parks budgets do not have much "wiggle room."

"I would be hard pressed to be able to make those cuts as a superintendent and not have an impact to the public," said Anzelmo, now a spokeswoman for The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

Nonetheless, memos have surfaced from National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis appearing to show the agency put a priority on telling the public how the cuts would affect them.

One Jan. 25 memo, which was obtained and published by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, showed Jarvis directing regional directors to carefully explain the "specific and tangible results" of the cuts as they submitted their cost-saving plans.

Jarvis wrote that agency officials expected the cuts to result in reduced visitor services, shortened seasons and other visible changes. "Parks must be specific in their description and include the number of visitors affected and an indication of the effect on nearby communities and businesses," he wrote. "All other organizations should describe impacts in terms of diminished performance and reduced administrative services and oversight."

Another memo, dated Feb. 26, railed against the "senseless, across-the-board budget cuts." Jarvis, in that memo, described "long-term and wide-ranging effects," while pledging to try to "mitigate" the impact.

The ranger who spoke to FoxNews.com, though, stressed that it was still just a 5 percent cut.

"It's obvious that they want the public to feel the pain in order to push this agenda that Washington wants," the ranger said. "A lot of these parks can absorb these cuts without the public's visit being affected."

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