- The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 23, 2013

First lady Michelle Obama — leader of the federal government’s healthy eating initiatives — has found a new cause: Next up, gun safety and gun control messages to youth.

Aides for the first lady say she’s not taking on guns as a new stand-alone issue, but rather folding it into her encouragement to youth to stay in school and get a thorough education, The Associated Press reported.

Still, she laid the groundwork for the gun talk in May, during separate fundraisers in Boston and New York when she visited some of what she described as the “best and brightest” students at one school, AP reported.

But those students couldn’t revel “in the joys of their youth,” she said then, AP reported, because they “were consumed with staying alive.”

Mrs. Obama is also embracing her husband’s push for comprehensive immigration reform. She’s the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, a nonprofit advocacy group for immigrants and Hispanics, on Tuesday.

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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