A leaked, official document sent to all U.S. “Diplomatic and Consular posts” encourages officials to display signs of support for the Black Lives Matter agenda.
The document provides officials within the department “talking points” on how to handle and discuss the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota last year.
Read the full story
Three former Flying J officials want a change of venue in their pending retrial on federal charges of cheating truckers out of diesel fuel rebates. This, according to an article that the website Transport Topics published late last week. The website reported that “the high-decibel press coverage from the east Tennessee media has poisoned the jury pool to the point that a fair trial in east Tennessee is impossible.”
Read the full story
Democrats are positively terrified of election audits that aren’t completely controlled by the political establishment. If there’s a chance an audit might reveal meaningful information, you can bet Democrats (and certain weak Republicans) will stridently oppose it. The only audits Democrats and their allies support are the ones designed to rubber-stamp previous conclusions.
The increasingly desperate attacks on the ongoing audit in Maricopa County, Arizona—particularly those intended to undermine the credibility of the auditors—show just how much the Democratic Party establishment fears the whole process. Their entire argument is based on sarcasm, scorn, and scare quotes.
The auditors are inspecting the paper that ballots were printed on? They must believe in a far-fetched conspiracy theory!
Read the full story
In an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network, the former producer of Stephen K. Bannon’s War Room and the vice president of the New York Young Republicans Club gave a preview of his May 25 deep dive into corruption, sex and debauchery found on R. Hunter Biden’s laptop titled, “HUNTER BIDEN: A FULL FRONTAL EXPOSÉ,” at the NYYRC’s Manhattan clubhouse.
“When I was the producer for War Room Pandemic with Steve Bannon, it was Rudy and Steve who came to get, Rudy brought the drive to Steve and, or gave him a copy, basically,” said Viswanag B. “Vish” Burra, who is now a senior House staffer on Capitol Hill. It was former New York City mayor and personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, who brought Bannon and the War Room team a copy of the laptop’s hard drive.
“I became the master of that, right, Steve can’t navigate the hard drive, so, I did it for him and I was kind of like a master of the drive, and then, I learned how to make copies of it,” he said.
Read the full story
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings donated a staggering $3 million to defend California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) from the upcoming recall election, according to Fox News.
As per the report from the California Secretary of State’s office, the hefty donation was made on Thursday to the Stop the Republican Recall committee, marking the committee’s largest single donation thus far. In addition to the bulk donation to the committee, Hastings himself had donated over $60,000 directly to Newsom’s actual campaign in February, donating $32,400 and nearly $29,600 on two separate occasions.
Hastings has been active in California Democratic politics, and has made even larger donations in the past. In the 2018 gubernatorial primary, Hastings poured over $7 million to a pro-charter school PAC that supported former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Calif.), who lost the primary to then-Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom.
Read the full story
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Lubbock, Texas on Monday after the city declared itself a “sanctuary city for the unborn” ordinance that seeks to outlaw abortions.
The ordinance was passed by local voters earlier this month over the opposition of City Council members who warned it would cause a costly legal fight, the Texas Tribune reported.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the abortion ban which would reportedly take effect on June 1.
Read the full story
As President Joe Biden promotes his several trillion dollars in proposed federal spending, Republicans and small businesses are raising the alarm, arguing the taxes needed to pay for those spending plans are a threat to the economy.
The House Ways and Means Committee met Thursday to discuss infrastructure development and in particular the impact of proposed tax increases to pay for it. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the ranking member on the committee, argued that only 7% of Biden’s proposed infrastructure bill goes to infrastructure and that raising taxes would incentivize employers to take jobs overseas.
“As bad as the wasteful spending is, worse yet, it’s poisoned with crippling tax increases that sabotage America’s jobs recovery, hurts working families and Main Street businesses, and drives U.S. jobs overseas,” Brady said. “We cannot fund infrastructure on the backs of American workers.”
Read the full story
Billionaire philanthropist and left-wing megadonor George Soros is donating $500 million to Bard College a small liberal arts college in New York.
According to a Bard College press release, the grant — “which is among the largest ever made to higher education in the United States” — will facilitate “Bard’s exemplary educational and social initiatives, establish the College’s most substantial endowment ever, and set the stage for a $1 billion endowment drive.” The college announced that it raised $250 million for its endowment and is seeking to raise another $250 million going forward.
Bard College President Leon Botstein stated that the gift marks the “most historic moment since the college’s founding in 1860.” Based on Bard’s published number of 1,900 undergraduates, Soros’ donation amounts to $263,157 per current undergraduate student.
Read the full story
Congressional Republicans grabbed headlines this week after releasing an aggressive budget they say would cut taxes and spending, but key measures in the plan also would address one of the country’s most serious economic problems.
The House’s Republican Study Committee released a budget that lays out several measures to deal with inflation, a growing concern among economists after the latest federal data showed a spike in consumer prices. Notably, the index for used cars and trucks rose 10%, the largest one-month increase since BLS began recording the data in 1953. Food and energy costs rose 0.9% in the month of April, prescription drugs rose 0.5%, and gasoline rose 1.4% during the same month. The energy cost index rose 25% in the previous 12 months.
Republicans on the committee say their plan would address concerns over inflation by balancing the budget within five years, thereby eliminating the need to monetize debt, a process where the federal government prints money to make payments on what it owes. The national debt has soared to more than $28 trillion and is expected to continue climbing under President Joe Biden’s new spending plans.
Read the full story
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff has reached a settlement with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to gain access to data on the number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths in the state.
The health department agreed to release some of the public records LeDuff requested. The department also acknowledges it can’t determine if some patients killed by COVID-19 contracted the virus at a nursing home or other long-term care facility.
LeDuff sued March 9 after submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for data on COVID-19 deaths but the MDHHS failed to produce the requested records. The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation represented him.
“We stood up to Goliath and won,” LeDuff said in a statement. “While I’m pleased that some of the records were released, the state’s overall response is alarming and disappointing. Still, this is a win for the people of Michigan, and I’m glad this lawsuit was able to shed some light.”
Read the full story
The Biden administration invited the public to comment on its plan to place a priority on plications for a civics and history grant that incorporates Critical Race Theory in April. Americans had much to say about the polarizing proposal, which yielded more than 16,800 comments over a 30-day period.
In addition to comments made online, 22 parent and teacher groups signed on to a coalition letter to Secretary Cardona that says teaching Critical Race Theory may violate the rights of students to pursue an education without discrimination. The group, led by Parents Defending Education, writes that the proposal “creates the very real possibility that under the auspices of this grant program, discrimination will be introduced into classrooms across the country.”
Nicole Neily, founder and president of Parents Defending Education, told Campus Reform that the letter is a result of volunteers who are “the tip of the spear, out there, on the front lines, going to their school board meetings. These are all groups that have sprung up to address political indoctrination in schools.”
Read the full story
An upcoming docuseries hopes to burst the woke bubble billowing across Western culture.
“The Woke Reformation,” first teased on “The Rubin Report” May 14, tracks the rise of a woke culture that has infiltrated everything from academia to global corporations like Coke, Starbucks and Nike.
Dave Rubin, a self-described “classical liberal,” broke the news about the docuseries via his “Rubin Report” YouTube show and podcast.
“Woke Reformation” director Travis Brown also teamed with Rubin to share details about the project via Locals.com, Rubin’s social media platform. The author of 2020’s “Don’t Burn This Book” created the cyber network to allow artists to speak their minds without fear of cancellation.
Read the full story
A federal judge has denied a request from the College of the Ozarks to be exempted from a Biden administration directive that allows biological men who “identify” as female to live in women’s dormitories.
Federal Judge Roseann Ketchmark ruled against the Missouri college on Wednesday, saying that the court could not offer a remedy to the school because there was no specific injury. Ketchmark denied the school’s request for an injunction and temporary restraining order as its lawsuit against the Biden administration proceeds.
“While we’re disappointed by the court’s ruling today, we are confident that College of the Ozarks will obtain the relief that it seeks as this case moves forward,” Ryan Bangert, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization representing the Point Lookout, Missouri, college, said in a statement.
Read the full story
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced a bill to stop the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from conducting espionage on American college campuses.
According to a press release from his office, Sen. Cotton re-introduced the “SECURE CAMPUS Act” on April 22. The bill would “prohibit Chinese nationals from receiving visas to the United States for graduate or post-graduate studies in STEM fields and would ban participants in China’s foreign talent recruitment programs and Chinese nationals from taking part in federally-funded STEM research.”
Sen. Cotton remarked that “Allowing China unfettered access to American research institutions is akin to granting Soviet scientists access to our critical laboratories during the Cold War.”
Read the full story
Mexico’s child welfare agency is working to establish 17 shelters for Central American migrant minors, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Shelters will open along the southern and northern Mexican borders as an increasing number of minors are arriving from Central America, the AP reported. Mexico’s child welfare agency will likely convert existing daycares and other facilities to temporarily house migrant minors.
“We have decided to strengthen actions on the southern border, it is better to take precautionary measures on the southern border, to protect children,” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said, the AP reported.
Read the full story
The attempt of America’s ruling class to convict 455 persons of “armed insurrection”—i.e. of waging war against the United States, a species of treason—for protesting insufficient scrutiny of the 2020 election on January 6 in the Capitol, while at the same time it excuses and even cheers the burning and looting of courthouses, police stations, and downtowns all over America, is not the exercise of a “double standard.”
The people in and out of government who do this are not corrupt. Instead, acting as part of the regime—the oligarchy—they are replacing the American republic and waging war to crush its remains.
The sooner Americans realize that we are being governed by people at war with our Constitution and contemptuous of ourselves, the sooner those people may be treated as the enemies they are.
Read the full story
It’s no secret that US businesses are struggling to find workers. Recent surveys have shown that small businesses are reporting record job openings.
Many have described the phenomenon as a labor shortage.
“Walk outside: labor shortage is the pervasive phenomenon,” economist Lawrence Summers recently observed at a conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
Read the full story
A bill that would eliminate early voting in Ohio the day before an election and stop the mailing of absentee ballots 10 days before Election Day got its first hearing in the Ohio, and it came with controversy.
Democratic lawmakers walked out of the House Government Oversight Committee on Thursday after they say committee Chair Rep. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro, threatened to cut off debate.
“What we saw today was unsettling – Republicans unwilling to engage in civil discourse on their bill that would silence the voices of Ohioans by rolling back the right to vote,” said House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes, D-Akron. “If Republicans are unwilling to hear the people out, Democrats are going to take this issue to the people.”
Read the full story
The University System of Georgia is requiring for next school year’s round of admissions either ACT or SAT test scores from all applying students.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Get Schooled Blog reports that this is part of a larger push by the system to firmly return Georgia’s schools to the pre-COVID status quo.
The system said in a statement that it had “asked all campuses to plan for resuming normal operations for the Fall 2021 semester.”
Read the full story
Some Virginia universities have eased their mask mandates for those who have been fully vaccinated to follow more closely with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Universities that officially made mask changes for vaccinated people include the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University and Old Dominion University.
“Based on the advice of University medical experts, we are pleased to inform you that the University will follow the advice of the CDC and the Governor and update our policy so that UVA community members who are fully vaccinated can now safely forego masks both indoors and outdoors,” UVA President Jim Ryan said in a statement with other university leaders.
Read the full story
Republicans have dominated Florida Democrats for nearly 30 years, where currently only one statewide elected post is occupied by a Democrat: Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. With Fried all but officially running against Governor Ron DeSantis and U.S. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL-10) challenging Sen. Marco Rubio for his Senate seat in 2022, Florida Democrats are having to rearrange who is going to be running for open positions and the potential political losses those candidates could face.
If Fried continues on her current trajectory for a likely gubernatorial bid, Democrats might lose the only statewide post they have. Fried won in 2018, weeks after Hurricane Michael devastated the agriculture-rich areas of the Florida Panhandle, which saw diminished Republican Panhandle voter turnout compared to the rest of the state. Fried won the race narrowly by approximately 6,000 votes.
Read the full story
Surrounded by lawmakers at a Home Depot in Pensacola, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill (HB 7061) into law Friday that establishes three “sales-tax holidays” throughout the summer that aims to give tax relief to Floridians.
The sales-tax holidays include: the “Disaster Preparedness” holiday from May 28th, 2021, through June 3rd, 2021, the “Freedom Week” holiday from July 1st, 2021, through July 7th, 2021, and the “Back-to-School” holiday from August 6th, 2021, through August 12th, 2021.
Read the full story
COVID-19 hospitalizations fell below 400 in Minnesota for the first time since March, state health officials reported Friday.
About 396 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 statewide, Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) data reports. Of those, 116 are in an intensive care unit.
Hospitalizations peaked at 699 in early 2021, but have fallen following the first vaccine injection of 2.8 million Minnesotans, or 63% of state residents ages 16 and older. COVID-19 disproportionately killed older people. About 90% of Minnesotan’s COVID-19 deaths were seniors ages 65 and older.
Read the full story
An evaluation panel has selected its preferred casino operator and site to be approved by the Richmond City Council, before the proposal heads to the November ballot for approval by voters. The city received six potential proposals and selected the ONE Casino + Resort proposal that would be located at Commerce Road and Walmsley in Southside Richmond.
Read the full story
2020 was one of the deadliest years in Minneapolis history with 83 homicides, yet the city is on track to surpass that record number in 2021.
The Minneapolis City Council was told Thursday that homicides have more than doubled so far this year compared to the same timeframe last year. This year’s 27 murders (as of May 17) represent a 108% increase over the 13 reported at this point in time last year.
With 97 homicides, 1995 was the worst year on record, followed by 83 in 1996, meaning 2020 tied for the second-worst year.
Read the full story
Two of Florida’s Senate Democrats found themselves in a tiff this week during the legislature’s special session wherein an expanded gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe is expected to be approved.
The city of Davie, represented by Senate Democrat Leader Lauren Book, will benefit from extra gambling revenue fees from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Those revenue fees were diverted to Davie from the city of Hollywood, where the casino is located. Revenue sharing from the new compact is one of the many questions being ironed out during the special session.
Read the full story
Ohio State Representative Jenna Powell (R-Arcanum) is drafting legislation to introduce which would ban any type of “vaccine lottery” in the state.
Normal bills that pass the legislature have a 3-month period in which they are enacted. However, Powell is set to include an emergency clause to allow the law to go into effect immediately, if enacted.
Read the full story
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas ordered the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency to discontinue using its Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, but a congressman said it closed based on a lie. Mayorkas directed ICE to abandon the facility late last week.
Read the full story
Michigan budget officials Friday reached a consensus on revised economic and revenue figures for fiscal years 2021, 2022 and 2023.
The state general fund and school aid revenues will total $26.5 billion for the current budget year, exceeding January estimates by $2.2 billion. For the new budget cycle beginning Oct. 1, the agency projected revenues will total $26.6 billion, $1.3 billion more than January predictions.
A majority of that unexpected cash is a byproduct of billions of spending via stimulus checks and boosted unemployment benefits, which led to a spike in personal spending and increased state tax revenues by billions more than previously forecast.
Read the full story
On Tuesday, the Memphis City Council adopted a resolution opposing the state legislature’s ban on critical race theory.
The item was added last-minute to the council agenda. Council members Martavius Jones, Michalyn Easter-Thomas, JB Smiley, Cheyenne Johnson, Rhonda Logan, Jeff Warren, Ford Canale, Frank Colvett, Edmund Ford, and Chase Carlisle sponsored the resolution. The council voted unanimously in favor of the resolution without discussion.
Read the full story