Day: May 3, 2021

Bill and Melinda Gates Announce Divorce

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Bill and Melinda Gates announced in a statement on Monday that they will be divorcing after more than a quarter century of marriage.

“After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage. Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives,” the former couple said in a statement. “We continue to share belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

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Commentary: Democrats’ False Middle East Mythology

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The Western Wall, Jerusalem, Israel

What a disaster! And it’s only just begun — if we cannot do something to stop it.

Iran is up off the floor, regaining confidence in the strength of its bargaining position, restored to it as a free gift by the Biden team. Rockets from Gaza are again falling by their scores on Israeli civilians. The northern border of Israel is on highest alert. The last remaining Jews in Yemen have left as Iran’s proxies, the Houthis, consolidate their control over large areas of the country. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is appealing to the Democrats in control to take it off the U.S. terror list even as its leadership publicly encourages the wave of violence against Jewish civilians sweeping through Jerusalem.

It was only a few months ago that we were marveling at how peace was swiftly gaining momentum, and Iran, choked by powerful and effective sanctions, was being held to account for its actions and as a consequence had ever fewer resources to support its terrorist proxies. Most amazing, many Arab states began at last to see that Israel is no threat to them or their people and that they had common cause with Israel against Iranian imperialism. As if in a dream, we saw this trend begin as rumors, then peek into the light with a few gestures, and then finally, incredibly, burst into the limelight with the Abraham Accords. One Muslim state after another stepped forward to sign a real peace treaty with Israel and immediately open doors closed ever since Israel’s founding.

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GOP Challenger Bouchard Raises More Than $400K to Fund His Cheney Takedown

Neil W. McCabe

  The Wyoming state senator challenging Rep. Elizabeth L. Cheney in the 2022 Republican primary told the Star News Network he raised more than $400,000 in his underdog drive to unseat the No. 3 in the GOP’s House leadership. “Well, we had set some goals early on and we surpassed them within, I want to say the first 30 days, and now we set another goal of 400,000 and we’ve reached that goal,” said state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, announced his campaign Jan. 20. “I’m just humbled by the support. We were at $344,000 at the end of first quarter, so with the $400,000, it is live, man,” he said. “We got the numbers up,” he said. “It’s just over 600 donors from Wyoming, which is still a big number, man. This is a small state. There’s only 580,000 people in our state.” There is also tremendous support from across the country, said the small business owner, who supports his family with a septic service company he runs with his wife. “We’ve got is we’re over 9,000 in individual contributions from all 50 states.” In addition to his fundraising success against such a senior party leader, and daughter of Vice President…

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Former Border Officials Say Biden’s Mass Amnesty Proposal Will Worsen Migrant Crisis

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Mark Morgan

Former Trump administration immigration officials criticized President Joe Biden on Thursday for proposing mass amnesty for illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

Biden told Congress to pass his American Dream and Promise Act if they believe in securing the southern border or a pathway to citizenship for around 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally. Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and Heritage Foundation experts said Biden’s proposal would worsen the migrant crisis at the southern border, according to a press release.

“This is a crisis of his own making,” former DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement. “Instead of returning to commonsense enforcement, the Biden administration is pushing forward with a massive amnesty proposal that will exacerbate the crisis and undermine the rule of law.”

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In Podcast Interview with ‘The Dispatch,’ Former President George W. Bush Calls ‘White Anglo-Saxon Protestantism’ Exclusionary

Julie Carr

In an interview with former aide Sarah Isgur and Steve Hayes of The Dispatch to promote his new book that features portraits of immigrants, former President George W. Bush called for ‘immigration reform’ that keeps ‘Dreamers’ in the US and provides a path to citizenship for illegal aliens currently in the U.S., criticized Republicans who support ‘laws based on Anglo-Saxon traditions,’ and claimed ‘White Anglo Saxon Protestantism’ is exclusionary.

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NBA Doing Business with Chinese Company Accused of Using Slave Labor

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Basketball with CCP logo

In the latest example of the National Basketball Association (NBA) undergoing scrutiny due to its close ties with China, the organization has been revealed to be doing business with a shady Chinese company that has been accused of producing goods with forced labor from Uyghur Muslims, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Chinese company in question is Anta Sports, the largest sportswear brand in all of China. Anta specifically relies on cotton from the Xinjiang region of China, which also happens to be one of the major hubs of systematic incarceration, indoctrination, and forced labor for Uyghur Muslims. Together, the NBA and Anta sell at least two different kinds of basketball shoes, with one of the shoes selling for up to $120 per pair in the United States.

The Xinjiang region, however, has seen more than one million Uyghurs removed from their homes and sent to concentration camps, known as “reeducation camps,” and are forced to do manual labor on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other Chinese entities. Through such labor, Xinjiang produces approximately 85 percent of all cotton in China, and around 20 percent of the world’s supply of cotton.

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Examiner Who Performed Andrew Brown Autopsy Previously Had License Suspended, Accused of Mishandling Prior Investigation

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The forensic pathologist hired to perform an autopsy on Andrew Brown Jr., a black man sheriff’s deputies killed in North Carolina earlier this month, resigned under scrutiny as a county medical examiner in 2013 and had his medical license temporarily suspended in 2018, according to filings with the North Carolina state medical board.

Brent Hall, who runs an autopsy-for-hire company called Autopsy PC, said in his autopsy report that Brown was shot five times, including once in the back of the head.

Brown’s family members and their legal team, led by Benjamin Crump, hired Hall to perform a private autopsy on Brown. They cited the autopsy results as evidence that Brown was executed by police.

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Battle Brews Between Conservative Authors and Mainstream Publishers in Era of Cancel Culture

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Simon and Schuster

It’s a contentious time for conservatives in the publishing industry, and it’s a contentious time for publishing houses working with those in the conservative industry.

“As the cancel culture has revved up, the pressure has heated up on all of these big New York publishers,” says Marji Ross, the former president of conservative Regnery Publishing.

In recent months, New York publishing house Simon & Schuster has canceled Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley’s forthcoming book about Big Tech, decided not to distribute a book written by the Louisville police officer who was shot while executing a no-knock warrant at the home of Breonna Taylor, signed a $3-4 million deal with former Vice President Mike Pence, and received a letter from more than 215 members of its staff demanding that the company not publish any books written by members of the Trump administration.

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Police Refuse to Enter George Floyd Zone, Make Battered Woman Come to Them

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Mural of George Floyd on the side of a building

The Minneapolis Police Department apparently will not enter the so-called “Free State of George Floyd” to respond to crimes.

In the early morning hours of April 29, a woman was pushed out of a window during a domestic dispute on the corner of East 38th Street and Elliot Avenue, sustaining multiple injuries, according to a police scanner watchdog. The woman dialed 911 to get help but was told that police would not come to her aid because she was inside George Floyd Square, an autonomous zone which has designated itself “cop-free.”

“Is it possible to have her move at least a block away, maybe [to] 38 and 10th?” a responding police officer can be heard asking dispatch in a recorded radio conversation.

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Alabama A&M Shutters Confucius Institute

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Alabama A&M Quad

Alabama A&M University in Huntsville is the latest school to close its Confucius Institute.

According to a press release from Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), the university’s board “voted to close their Confucius Institute and end their relationship with the Communist Chinese Party.”

“Confucius Institutes are nothing more than Communist Chinese Party propaganda and spying units,” said Rep. Brooks. “For nearly a year, I, and other patriotic Alabamians have called on Alabama A&M University and Troy University to close their Communist Chinese Party-controlled Confucius Institutes.” 

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Illegal Immigrants Fly American, Courtesy of Biden Border Policy

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Airplane aisle during flight

About 14 separate families or groups of illegal immigrants boarded a flight Thursday at McAllen International Airport in Texas, the man in charge of border security during the Trump administration told The Daily Signal.

Mark Morgan, former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he watched from a nearby seat as the illegal immigrants boarded the American Airlines flight just after 3 p.m. CDT at the airport of the border town.

“By the eighth or ninth family is when I decided to take pictures,” Morgan told The Daily Signal on Friday. “I decided to take a video when I saw a large family with an infant child.”

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Texas Counties Declare Disaster over Border Crisis, More to Follow

The Center Square
Greg Abbott

Four Texas counties have issued disaster declarations and called on the governor for help because of escalated crime in their communities resulting from a surge in illegal immigration.

In response, Gov. Greg Abbott has asked counties and state agencies to report the financial costs to his office in an attempt to be reimbursed by the federal government for the strain being placed on law enforcement. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star last month in an effort to divert Texas DPS, Ranger, and National Guard resources to the border to reduce cartel- and other-related crimes stemming from the surge of illegal immigrants crossing the border.

Atascosa, Goliad, Kinney, and La Salle have issued disaster declarations, saying the “health, life, and property” of their residents are “under imminent threat of disaster from the human trafficking occurring on our border with Mexico.”

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Commentary: Two Studies on Immigration and Race, with Surprising Details

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Group of people holding small American flags

Two mainstream think tanks have published new studies on immigration and race in America that come to the typical, safe conclusions. But a look at the data inside shows something more interesting.

A new Cato Institute report defending immigration begins by contending that immigrants are unlikely to negatively affect states’ fiscal health. But within the study’s findings, Cato may have inadvertently provided a new reason to oppose immigration.

Using state budgets as a proxy for the quality of economic institutions from 1970-2010, the authors of the Cato study assert that “a larger share of immigrants at the state level is correlated with slower state revenue and spending growth in the short-term, measured by total per capita government revenue and expenditure growth.” In other words, the more immigrants there are in a state, the less the state tends to take in in taxes and the less it spends on services. This is hardly groundbreaking; we have always known that immigration is linked to welfare chauvinism.

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Michigan Police Retirements, Recruitments Appear to Fare Better Than Minnesota’s

The Center Square
Michigan Police

Michigan police forces appear to be faring better than those in Minnesota’s largest metro areas after a year troubled by controversial and tragic police encounters ending in death.

In many metropolitan cities across the United States, violent crime increased in 2020. In Detroit, there were 327 murders, up 19% from 2019, and 1,173 non-fatal shootings, up 53%, Michigan Public Radio reported.

Michigan State Police (MSP) spokeswoman Shanon Banner said the state police tracks enlistment numbers by fiscal year, but it’s difficult to conclude whether retirements are “up” or “down” from year to year because retirements are largely based on when recruits become eligible for retirement.

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Commentary: Virginia Can’t Seem to Make up Its Mind About Its New Math Curriculum

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Classroom of students with teacher at blackboard

What the heck is going on with the Virginia Department of Education?

A little over a week ago reports surfaced that the state would be doing away with advanced math classes for all grades except 11 and 12.

But then reports came out noting the state’s education chief disputed those reports, saying “absolutely acceleration is not going away in mathematics courses.”

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Extends Deadline for Unemployment Benefits

Casey Owens
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

On April 25th, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), extended the deadline for work search and work registration waivers that made unemployment benefits more easily attainable to unemployed Floridians in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result of the pandemic causing unemployment to increase, these unemployment benefit waivers were originally issued in March 2020 as part of the state of emergency that was established in Florida by Governor DeSantis that was originally set to expire on April 24th, 2021.

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Florida’s First Black Supreme Court Justice, Joseph Hatchett, Dies at 88

Steve Stewart

The Florida Supreme Court announced on Saturday that former Florida Supreme Court Justice Joseph W. Hatchett died in Tallahassee on Friday, April 30, 2021 at age 88.

Hatchett became the first African American to serve on Florida’s highest court when he was appointed by Governor Reubin Askew in 1975. Hatchett was Florida’s 65th Justice since statehood was granted in 1845.

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University System of Georgia Board Freezes Tuition, Fees

The Center Square
Students walking on college campus

Students at Georgia’s public universities and colleges will pay the same amount in tuition and fees during the next academic year.

The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG) voted this month to freeze the rates for the second consecutive year. It is the fourth time in six years the USG board has not raised tuition rates.

“USG over the past several years has remained committed to making public higher education as affordable as possible for students and their families, while maintaining results that rank our campuses among some of the best in the nation,” USG Chancellor Steve Wrigley said. “We are grateful for the support of the board and state leaders toward this priority, and recognize students’ hard work, especially over the past year, to maintain success toward graduating and entering Georgia’s workforce with college degrees.”

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Ohio Lawmaker: Bill to Expunge Violations and Return Fines to Businesses Gains Momentum

Jack Windsor
Ohio Statehouse of Representatives

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A bill drafted in the Ohio House of Representatives that would remove penalties enforced on businesses for COVID violations  may have a rallying point after two separate videos were sent to The Ohio Star – in them tipsters allege Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Director Stephanie McCloud and her husband are both spotted on separate occasions inside a Columbus area establishment where there appear to be violations of statewide COVID regulations.

According to information obtained from the Ohio Investigative Unit (OIU)– the officials who go undercover in bars and restaurants – the establishment where both McClouds are seen had not received a citation for violating COVID orders between March 2020 and March 2021. 

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Florida Police Related Shooting Deaths Up 52 Percent in 2020

Steve Stewart
People rioting

In a year that saw a social justice movement, a pandemic, and an increase in violent crime, police relating shooting deaths in Florida in 2020 were up 51.5 % when compared to the previous five years. In contrast, police related shootings nationwide were up just 3.4%.

The numbers come from the Washington Post police related shooting database which began logging information in 2015. The data shows that from 2015 to 2019 Florida averaged approximately 61.4 police related shooting deaths per year. In 2020, there were 93 police related shooting deaths, a 51.5% increase.

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Updegrove Appeals to Fourth Circuit Court in Lawsuit Fight Against Virginia Values Act

Eric Burk
Bob Updegrove

Wedding photographer Bob Updegrove is appealing his case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Virginia after the Eastern District Court of Virginia dismissed his lawsuit. Updegrove is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The lawyers argue that the pro-LGBTQ Virginia Values Act threatens Updegrove’s freedom of religion by requiring him to participate in homosexual weddings or potentially face an initial fine of $50,000.

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Tennessee Democratic Legislator Pushes Special Recognition for Her Sorority Under Resolution; House Passes It

Corinne Murdock
Barbara Cooper

The House passed a Democratic legislator’s resolution to award special recognition for her African American sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA). The resolution sponsor, State Representative Barbara Cooper (D-Memphis), framed the resolution as a recognition honoring law enforcement prior to the House floor vote. However, the enacting clause doesn’t mention law enforcement at all. Instead, the enacting clause only recognizes a “virtual celebration” for AKA members.

“[W]e recognize Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Day at the Capitol, May 6, 2021, a virtual celebration for the AKA members from the South Eastern Region of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee,” stated the resolution.

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