After testing it out in classrooms and other educational settings, modder Daniel Ratcliffe and the folks at TeacherGaming have released a mod for Minecraft, ComputerCraftEdu, that aims to teach players basic programming skills.

Given the remarkable sway Minecraft currently holds over the world’s youth, the release of this mod has an outsized impact on the state of basic programming education. Microsoft itself recently launched its own hub for educational uses of Minecraft, and TeacherGaming co-founder Joel Levin says the company has been working in conjunction with Microsoft.

ComputerCraftEdu is a streamlined version of Ratcliffe’s extant ComputerCraft mod that’s designed so that parents and educators can teach young players fundamental coding concepts like loops, conditions, and the nature of debugging.

Players start out by dragging and dropping single commands onto programmable turtle robots in-game, then gradually begin creating more complex sequences of commands and eventually move on to writing and editing actual (simple) code in an editor.

ComputerCraftEdu is free to download and works with any copy of Minecraft or the made-for-classrooms MinecraftEdu on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Former California State Senator Leland Yee (D), best known to gamers as the architect of a law that tried to prevent minors from buying violent video games, has pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering brought against him last year, the Department of Justice announced this week.

Yee admitted to accepting bribes in exchange for special consideration in his role State Senator, as well as conspiring to launder money and shepherd illegal weapon shipments into the United States from the Philippines. As part of the plea agreement, the DOJ whittled down a litany of charges against Yee to a single racketeering charge.

Yee will face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when a sentence is handed down in October. Three of Yee’s political associates pleaded guilty in the same conspiracy.

Yee was the author and main sponsor of California’s infamous 2005 law that sought to criminalize the sale of violent video games to children. The law was struck down by numerous courts before finally being overturned for good by the US Supreme Court in 2011 on First Amendment grounds. The failed legislative and legal effort ended up costing California taxpayers $1.8 million in attorney’s fees alone.

Through it all, Yee remained a staunch defender of the idea that the state should aid parents in making violent games harder for children to access. He has given numerous statements over the years to that effect. “Plain and simply, the current rating system is drastically flawed, and here is yet another reason why we need legislation to assist parents and protect children,” Yee told GameIndustry.biz in 2006.

“This is the same technology the armed forces use to help soldiers kill the enemy. All we’re saying is, ‘Don’t sell it to kids,'” he told The San Jose Mercury News in 2008.

“When you fight the good fight for a cause you know is right and just, and it’s about protecting kids, you don’t ever regret that,” Yee told The Sacramento Bee in 2012.