Vanderbilt University Chair Says Supreme Court Ban on Race-Based College Admissions Would Hold Back Minorities from Leadership, ‘Influential’ Employment

Vanderbilt University

A Vanderbilt University chair said that race-based admissions would prevent minorities from attaining leadership positions and “influential” employment. Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair Professor of Law and Economic Joni Hersch made this assessment in a legal studies research paper, “Affirmative Action and the Leadership Pipeline.” The paper is expected to appear in Tulane Law Review soon.

Hersch wrote the article in response to the ongoing court case, Students for Fair Admissions (SSFA) v. Harvard. In the lawsuit, SSFA alleges that Harvard University discriminates against Asian applicants in its admissions process by engaging in racial balancing.

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Commentary: Federalism is Key to Surviving a Divided Nation

We live in a divided nation. Our politics have become not just polarized, but toxic. For a country founded on the principles of individual liberty, democratic choice in representative government, and republican protection of natural rights, America has seemingly lost its way. American politics have devolved into a zero-sum game power struggle between two wings of the same establishment—with the prize being the privilege of exploiting the American working class. We are a long way, both figuratively and literally, from the raging fires of liberty that opposed the crown’s Stamp Act in 1765. 

Like all empires, America’s decline, or “transformation” in the words of our 44th president, was the result of poor decisions by both elected leaders and the citizens who elected them. Corruption on the part of a rent-seeking elite and apathy on the part of the citizens have delivered us to our present situation. Although it is important to understand the mistakes that we made along the road to our failing empire, the real question we should be asking now is what are we to do about our current predicament. 

In David Reaboi’s essay in the Claremont Institute’s The American Mind, he discusses the importance of ending traditional America’s favorite pastime of arguing the same ground with the political opposition over and over again—as if minds are not already made up and just one more pithy tweet or witty meme would finally produce a tidal wave of political defections. Instead, he states, we should consider the work we must do in order to salvage some form of republican society that appreciates and protects the founding principles of America’s charter and our way of life. 

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Study Finds Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine 90 Percent Effective

Doctor preparing COVID-19 Vaccine

Novavax announced on Monday that its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, according to a press release on Novavax’s website.

The phase-3 trial enrolled 29,960 participants ages 18 and older in the U.S. and Mexico. The study found that 77 of the participants tested positive for COVID-19, with 63 testing positive in the placebo group and 14 in the vaccine group, according to the press release.

“Today, Novavax is one step closer to addressing the critical and persistent global public health need for additional COVID-19 vaccines. These clinical results reinforce that NVX-CoV2373 is extremely effective and offers complete protection against both moderate and severe COVID-19 infection,” Stanley C. Erck, President, and CEO of Novavax said in the press release.

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New Immigration Policy Will Expand Access to Work Permits and Provide Deportation Relief for Crime Victims

Some immigrants who were victims of crimes will be able to more easily apply for work permits and allowed relief from deportation, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Monday.

The new process will allow immigrants with U visas, granted to migrants who are victims of criminal activity, expedited access to work permits if their claims are found to be made in good faith and they aren’t trying to defraud the immigration system, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced.

For a petition to be considered bona fide, the applicant must have properly filed their forms and a personal statement describing their situation with the agency along with necessary biometric data.

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City of Memphis Gives Away Car in COVID Vaccine Sweepstakes

The City of Memphis, in partnership with a nonprofit, gave away a car as part of a COVID-19 vaccination sweepstakes. The winner was announced on Thursday.

According to the sweepstakes page, the maximum value of the car could’ve totaled $30,000. The winner had a choice between a Chevy Camaro, Chevy Colorado, Nissan Rogue, Nissan Altima, or any similar vehicle of equal or lesser value.

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Commentary: Anatomy of the Woke Madness

Black Lives Matter Protest in DC, 5/31/2020

Wokeism has become our most popular secular religion—at least for a moment dethroning climate change. It reduces all of the past and present into puerile binaries between “whites” and “non-whites.”

Its aim is for the present generation to rewrite our history—whether by The 1619 Project and cancel culture or iconoclastic statue-toppling and Trotskyization of names and places. Wokeism becomes a child’s morality tale of noble non-white victims versus villainous white victimizers. Erasing the past and its language supposedly fuels a recalibration of the future, all in the here and now, a holy Year Zero

In the process, wokeism has done a lot of damage to America, and will do even more if left unchecked. Here are its chief characteristics.

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Voter I.D. Constitutional Amendment Proposed in Pennsylvania

People in line, waiting to vote

A pair of Pennsylvania lawmakers said Friday that state residents themselves should decide the stringency of the state’s voter identification law.

The push comes after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said he’d never support strengthening existing voter I.D. law – one of the top priorities for Republicans in their election reform proposal unveiled Thursday. 

Sen. Judy Ward, R-Hollidaysburg, and Rep. Jeff Wheeland, R-Williamsport, both support their party’s proposal to require identification each and every time a resident casts a ballot in-person. Current law stipulates identification only for first time voters in a precinct. 

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U.S. Investigates Possible Leak at Chinese Nuclear Power Plant, Report

Nuclear power plant

The U.S. is reportedly investigating a possible leak at a China nuclear power plant in the city of Taishan.

The possible leak was reported to U.S. officials by the French company Framatome, which helps to operate the plant. Framatone has also accused the China of raising the acceptable limits of radiation detection to avoid shutting the plant down, as first reported Monday by CNN.

The company reportedly made a request June 3 for operational safety assistance, which would allow it to “address an urgent safety matter” because the Chinese plant was leaking fission gas.

The company said China has raised the detection limits to double what it had determined.

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Wisconsin Bill Targets Unequal Private Funding of Elections, A Major Concern in 2020

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers

Abill passed this week by the Wisconsin State Assembly would forbid local municipalities from accepting private funds for election management, directing those funds to pass through the state government and be equitably distributed throughout Wisconsin.

The measure is a response to ongoing concerns over the millions in private election funding poured into the state by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a Chicago-based nonprofit heavily funded by Facebook co-founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Passed largely on party-line votes in both the state House and Senate, the bill is likely to be nixed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

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Putin Flatly Denies That He’s Behind Recent U.S. Cyberattacks

Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied that he was behind the recent cyberattacks across the United States, calling the allegations against him “farcical.”

“We have been accused of all kinds of things,” Putin told NBC News Monday. “Election interference, cyberattacks and so on and so forth. And not once, not once, not one time, did they bother to produce any kind of evidence or proof. Just unfounded accusations.”

Russian intelligence and Russian-speaking groups have launched wide-ranging cyberattacks in recent months, affecting American consumer goods ranging from gasoline to meat. President Joe Biden imposed sweeping sanctions against Russia in April after U.S. intelligence determined that Putin personally ordered a massive SolarWinds hack on federal agencies and for his interference in the 2020 presidential election.

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Eighteen Months Later, Democrats’ First Trump Impeachment Tale in Tatters

In the first of their two drives to impeach Donald Trump, Democrats had a simple storyline: The then-president abused his power by requesting an investigation of Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine when Joe Biden’s son had done nothing wrong.

That mantra carried through the 2020 election, repeated by Democrats and sympathetic news anchors.

“President Trump has falsely accused your son of doing something wrong while serving on a company board in Ukraine,” CNN anchor Anderson Cooper claimed as he set up a question during an interview with Joe Biden last year. “I want to point out there is no evidence of wrongdoing by either one of you.”

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DeSantis Calls Out Biden, Big Tech on Fox News

Screen cap of live comments from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called out President Joe Biden and Silicon Valley Big Tech companies for caring more about China’s interests than “middle America” on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox News program.

Biden’s big event last week was meeting with world leaders at the G-7 summit. DeSantis said Biden’s “performance may have played well with European elites, but not sure there was much in it for Middle America.”

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Mediation Talks Between Florida, CDC Unsuccessful in Cruise Ship Battle

People boarding a cruise ship

Mediation talks between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the state of Florida have been unsuccessful, as the federal agency and the state duke it out in court over who controls the cruise ship industry’s return to business as usual. 

“Settlement talks have ended in the legal battle between Florida and the federal government about restrictions on the cruise-ship industry,” according to WKMG. “U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony Porcelli, who has served as a mediator, said in a court filing Friday that a settlement conference was unsuccessful.”

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One Dead After Car Hits Minneapolis Protestors

Minneapolis Police Department

One person is dead and three injured after a car ran over a group of protestors in Minneapolis Sunday night. 

“One person was taken into custody late Sunday night after driving a vehicle into a group of protesters gathered at West Lake Street and Girard Avenue South in Uptown,” according to WCCO. “Minneapolis Police said through a news release that police officers monitoring the protest on camera witnessed an eastbound vehicle drive into the a group of protesters at 11:39 p.m.”

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Price Jump for Used Cars Results in Boost in Michigan Sales Tax Collected

Close up of a line of cars

The microchip shortage responsible for bottlenecking the production of new cars has been a boon for the used car market.

However, the lack of available new vehicles also has created a greater demand and thus a scarcity of quality used vehicles.

This has driven up the cost of used cars and trucks, which has also increased the sales tax collected on used vehicle transactions. The national average increase in used car sales prices is 16.8% or $3,926 per vehicle sold.

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Youngkin Nearly Tied with McAuliffe in New Poll; DPVA and RPV Attack Each Other’s Candidates

The Virginia gubernatorial race is neck-and-neck, according to a new poll. 46 percent of respondents support former Governor Terry McAuliffe and 42 percent support GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin, with a 4.2 percent margin of error. The phone poll of 550 likely voters was conducted by JMC Analytics from June 9-12, and was commissioned by CNalysis with funds from 141 donors.

House of Delegates races are even closer. The poll found that 44 percent would support a Democratic candidate for House and 43 percent would support a Republican candidate. Democrats have stronger leads in the Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor elections.

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Missing Fulton County Chain of Custody Documents to be Investigated by Secretary of State Raffensperger

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday that a thorough investigation will be conducted of Fulton County’s inability to produce the critical chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes during the November 3, 2020 election.

Raffensperger made his announcement via Twitter, following the lead story Monday in The Georgia Star News that a Fulton County election official admitted that chain of custody documents are missing for absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes in the 2020 election.

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Ohio Republicans Move to Exempt Doctors from Providing Abortions on Religious Grounds

Image of a doctor's uniform

Ohio Republicans have added a provision to the state’s two year budget bill that would allow doctors and insurance providers to refuse to perform and pay for abortions if abortion violates their moral or religious beliefs. 

State Sen. Terry Johnson (R-McDermott) is responsible for the new language in the bill, according to The Columbus Dispatch. That language would also protect doctors and insurance companies from lawsuits by those to whom they  refuse service, the report said. 

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Shelby County Schools May Pay Up to $480K for Racial Justice and Equity Training

Shelby County Schools (SCS) may pay up to $480,000 for two racial justice and equity trainings offered by a social justice nonprofit. New Leaders, the nonprofit, offers trainings to develop equity-focused, anti-racist educational leaders, with an emphasis on teaching about race in the classroom and the end goal of achieving social justice.

The SCS Board of Education discussed the plan to contract this training during its Academic Performance Committee meeting on Monday.

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