Month: August 2021

Andrew Cuomo to Face No Criminal Charges from State Attorney General Despite Findings of Unlawful Sexual Harassment and Retaliation

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Andrew Cuomo

New York Attorney General Letitia James said there will be no criminal consequences for Gov. Andrew Cuomo despite her findings that he engaged in “unlawful” sexual harassment and retaliation against multiple women.

“Our work is concluded and the document is now public,” James said during a press conference Tuesday. “And the matter is civil in nature and does not have any criminal consequences.”

“We were tasked with the responsibility of engaging in an investigation. And we have concluded our investigation. And our work is done,” she added. “And so as it relates to next steps, that’s entirely up to the governor and or the assembly and the general public. But the work of the office of the Attorney General and these special deputies has concluded.”

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McDonald’s Will Require Workers and Customers to Wear Masks, Vaccinated or Not

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McDonald's at sunset

Fast food chain McDonald’s is requiring all its staff and customers, vaccinated and unvaccinated, to resume wearing masks in its restaurants in areas deemed high risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The company first announced its new rules in an internal memo to franchisees and workers, CNBC reported. The rules, which went into effect Monday, follow updated guidance last week from the CDC, which recommended fully-vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors to prevent the spread of the delta variant of coronavirus.

McDonald’s told the Daily Caller News Foundation the change in policy was due to the CDC’s updated guidance, and said the company was following the science in making its decision.

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Metro Nashville Schools Special Meeting on COVID-19 Masks Are a Waste of Time, Board Member Says

Chris Butler

Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) Board members will hold a special meeting later this week to discuss COVID-19 mask requirements, but one board member said Tuesday that it’s a waste of time. MNPS Board members have scheduled the meeting for 11 a.m. Thursday at the MNPS Central Administration Building on 2601 Bransford Avenue, said District Six Board Member Fran Bush.

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Commentary: Pennsylvania Is a Microcosm of America’s Housing Crisis

RealClearWire
A modern home with a light blue roof and matching siding

In recent years, an acute housing crisis has engulfed both America’s coastal metros and Rust Belt regions. California’s Bay Area, for example, confronts a crisis of affordability and limited supply that hastens a population exodus. Midwest cities like Detroit face low real-estate prices and low demand, intensifying urban decline.

Pennsylvania is a microcosm of such alarming housing trends, especially east of the Susquehanna River, which is seeing an influx of metro New Yorkers relocating to the area.

From the Keystone State’s middle-class suburbs to its post-industrial locales, the housing crisis is a major challenge. In the midstate, most notably in Harrisburg and Lancaster, housing has become significantly more expensive. In the northeast’s anthracite coal region, anchored by Scranton, rents are spiking. And in suburban Philadelphia’s Lansdale, a townhouse went for nearly $500,000.

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Associated Press and Reuters Team Up with Twitter to Patrol Political Dissent as ‘Misinformation’

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Person on phone with Twitter open

Two of the largest news publications in the country, the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters, have teamed up with one of the leading tech giants, Twitter, in a new partnership to crack down on “misinformation” and “elevate credible information,” the Daily Caller reports.

Twitter confirmed the new alliance in a blog post, saying that the two publications would be responsible for identifying “misleading” information, and to help Twitter expand its efforts to mediate trending stories, “especially where facts are in dispute.” The websites will also help Twitter staff whenever they lack “sufficient expertise or access to a high enough volume of reputable reporting.”

“This program is just part of our ongoing efforts to help people understand the conversation happening on our service,” the Twitter blog post continued. “People experience a range of public conversations on Twitter every day, and we’re committed to continuing our work to elevate credible information and context.”

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Mother and Son Indicted for Theft of over $83,000 from Meigs County, Tennessee Church

Bradley Vasoli

Carolyn Mullins and her son William “Larry” Mullins are charged with theft of $83,710.82 from Peakland Baptist Church in Decatur, Tennessee, state Comptroller Jason Mumpower announced Tuesday. 

The church’s sanctuary area was consumed by fire on February 18th, 2019, according to the Comptroller’s Office. When insurance proceeds totaling $189,000 became available, members of the congregation—four altogether—decided to rebuild. Disbursement of the reconstruction funds was entrusted solely to Larry and Carolyn Mullins, then the treasurer and assistant treasurer of the church, respectively. They were the only authorized signers on the church’s bank accounts. 

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Commentary: The Left Labels the Average American ‘Extremist’

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Donald Trump supporters

A shibboleth among some progressives is that in its imperialistic foray, the United States historically has backed “right-wing” and opposed “left-wing” leaders around the globe based on an anti-Communist ideological tendency.

But more than intellectual McCarthyism, our opposition to nationalist and populist movements and individuals abroad has been motivated by whether and to what degree a group has opposed United States political-corporate interests. Better to be sovereign in one’s own country than to live beholden to satraps.

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Ohio Gov. DeWine Won’t Reintroduce COVID-19 Mandates

Peter D'Abrosca

Joining a growing and bipartisan list of governors, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Sunday that he will not bring back lockdowns and mask mandates as cases of COVID-19 once again rise.

“We are seeing the virus go up,” DeWine told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We think the delta variant is certainly the dominant one in Ohio yet, but the whole game today is vaccinations, and we have room to grow. We think that we can get more people vaccinated.” 

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Second Push to Legalize Marijuana in Ohio Moves Ahead

The Center Square

The same week an Ohio group announced its plans to start the formal process to put marijuana legalization in front of the General Assembly, two lawmakers introduced legislation to legalize its recreational use.

“It’s time to lead Ohio forward,” Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, said. “This is a big step for criminal justice reform, for our veterans, for economic opportunity, and for our individual liberties.”

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June General Revenue in Florida Exceeds Economic Forecasts

Casey Owens
Florida’s Historic Capitol and Florida State Capitol

The Florida Legislature’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) reported just under $4.1 billion in general revenue (GR) for the month of June to cap off the 2020-2021 fiscal year (FY).

On Monday, the EDR released the report that shows $975.7 million (31.2%) more than the forecasted amount of $3.124 billion, which was updated on April 6th during the EDR’s last General Revenue Estimating Conference (GREC) for the 2020-2021 FY.  

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Arizona Republican Juan Ciscomani Launches Congressional Campaign

Cooper Moran

Juan Ciscomani, a native Arizonan and an advisor to Governor Doug Ducey, ignited a bid for Congress on Tuesday to represent Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. 

“Joe Biden & Nancy Pelosi are pushing failed policies that are hurting Southern AZ: An avoidable border crisis, efforts to force a federal takeover of our elections, crushing taxes & out-of-control spending that leave the American Dream out of reach for so many,” Ciscomani described as his reason for declaring his intent for the seat.

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American Center for Law Sues Virginia County for Unlawful Discrimination for Requiring Church to Obtain Liquor License

Cooper Moran
Alive Church

The American Center for Law and Justice filed a lawsuit on Tuesday on behalf of a local church against Prince William County, Virginia, due to the government requiring a church to obtain a liquor license in order to use its own property.

The group alleges the county is discriminating against Alive Church of the Nazarene because of the regulation and the church’s belief against obtaining the license.

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Kari Lake, Mark Brnovich Have Highest Favorability in Their Arizona Primary Races

Rachel Alexander
Kari Lake, Mark Brnovich

A new poll from OH Predictive Insights shows former news anchor Kari Lake with the highest approval rate of Republicans running for governor of Arizona and Attorney General Mark Brnovich with the highest approval rate of Republicans running for the U.S. Senate. Lake scored 60% with Republican voters, well ahead of former Congressman Matt Salmon with 51% and former State Treasurer Kimberly Yee at 49%. On the Senate side, Brnovich has 61% compared to veteran Michael McGuire next with 43% and businessman Jim Lamon’s 39%. Blake Masters, a protege of GOP tech billionaire Peter Thiel, entered the race after the poll was conducted.

According to a general election matchup, Hobbs’ approval rating is slightly higher than Lake’s, 40% to 39%. Hobbs has very high name recognition due to her high-profile fight against the Maricopa County ballot audit. Hobbs also has a fairly high disapproval rating relative to the other candidates in the poll, 27%. She once referred to Donald Trump supporters as “neo-Nazis.” She also tweeted “The President is on the side of the freaking Nazis. Don’t just say stuff – DO SOMETHING!!!” She has not deleted the tweets.

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Virginia House Democrats Defeat Republican Proposals to Alter American Rescue Plan Act Spending Bill

Eric Burk

RICHMOND, Virginia – The House of Delegates voted against several Republican attempts to change proposals to allocate $4.3 billion in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds on Tuesday afternoon. House Republicans led by Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) introduced an alternate bill, but it was defeated 53 to 43. House Democrats also defeated amendments from Delegate Glenn Davis (R-Virginia Beach) and attorney general candidate Delegate Jason Miyares (R-Virginia Beach).

“It is a shame that despite our concerns that this process was not opened up to the traditional committee vetting process, that members on this side of the aisle were told, and frankly on your side of the aisle were told, ‘Your input is not welcome.’ I would have hoped that in this process we would have at least been afforded the opportunity to explain our bill, but instead we are left with the inevitable two minutes,” Gilbert said.

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South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Endorses Jane Timken in Ohio Senate GOP Primary

Cooper Moran

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) on Tuesday endorsed former Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Timken in the crowded GOP primary for U.S. Senate. 

“I am proud to endorse Jane Timken for the United States Senate. I saw firsthand Jane’s leadership skills when she served as the first female Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) and delivered the State of Ohio for President Trump by substantial margins in 2020,” Noem told Fox News when announcing the endorsement.

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Detroit, Michigan Councilman Spivey Arraigned for Bribery

Bradley Vasoli

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford entered a not-guilty plea for a silent Detroit City Councilman André L. Spivey in U.S. District Court in Detroit Tuesday to accepting over $35,000 in exchange for council votes. 

Spivey was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Stafford reportedly agreed to the release under the conditions that Spivey to give up his enhanced driver’s license, his passport and his expired concealed-carry permit.

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Fulton County Chain of Custody Documents Purportedly Given to Georgia Public Broadcasting on June 17 Have Been Denied to The Georgia Star News

Laura Baigert
Georgia Public Broadcasting building

In a stunning development Wednesday, Fulton County has denied The Georgia Star News the same chain of custody documents for absentee ballots deposited into drop boxes during the November 2020 election, that they purportedly gave to Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News on or before June 17.

Fulton County’s Legal Assistant Shana Eatmon’s emailed response informed The Star News said that there are no documents that meet our open records request.

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Phoenix Housing Market Booms as Migration from California Continues

The Center Square

Phoenix was the most popular migration destination in the second quarter of 2021 for users of Redfin.com, a technology-powered real estate broker, who were looking to move to a different major city. 

In Phoenix, institutions or businesses that purchase residential real estate, known by Redfin as investors, purchased 24.5% of homes sold in the second quarter of 2021. Redfin said that out of the 41 U.S. metropolitan areas analyzed, Phoenix had the highest percentage of home purchases by investors. The Valley was followed closely by Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Las Vegas.

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GOP Report Points to Wuhan Lab as Source of COVID

The Center Square

As COVID cases surge around the nation, questions still remain around the origins of the virus, but one Republican study has put forth controversial answers.

Lead Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday released the newest edition of their investigation into the origins of COVID. The report points to problems with the Wuhan lab in question, including lax safety protocols and ignored maintenance requests on the disinfectant and hazardous waste systems.

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Virginia Senate GOP Criticizes Decision to Postpone Campaign Finance Reform Meeting on Same Day Democrats Hold Fundraiser

Eric Burk

The Virginia Senate GOP is questioning General Assembly Democrats’ commitment to campaign finance reform after the inaugural meeting of the Joint Subcommittee on Campaign Finance Reform was rescheduled from Monday morning while a Democratic fundraiser breakfast went forward.

“Evidently, Democrats are very enthusiastic about limiting campaign donations to politicians who aren’t Democrats,” Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment, Jr. (R-James City) said in a Monday press release. “Today’s cancellation is a reminder of their true priorities related to campaign funding: raising as much money as possible to elect Democrats.”

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Exclusive: Club for Growth Foundation Releases Tennessee General Assembly Missed Votes Scorecard

Laura Baigert

Club for Growth Foundation released exclusively to The Tennessee Star the Tennessee General Assembly Missed Votes Scorecard for the 2021 regular and special legislative sessions.

Club for Growth is the nation’s leading free-enterprise advocacy group focused on key economic policy and known for holding legislators accountable by publicizing their voting record.

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Commentary: Politically Correct Ideology Is Masking and Contributing to the Widespread Failure of Our Institutions

Admin
close up of green masks on a table

We know the nature of mass hysterias in history, and how they can overwhelm and paralyze what seem to be stable societies.  

We know the roots and origins of the cult of wokeness.  

And we know, too, how such insanity—from the Salem witch trials to Jacobinism to McCarthyism—can spread, despite alienating most of the population, through fear and the threat of personal ruin or worse. These are the dark sides of the tulip, hula-hoop, and pet-rock fads, the mass obsessions so suited to past affluent Western societies.  

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Australia Plans to Deploy the Army to Enforce COVID Lockdown Orders

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The Australian government will deploy several hundred soldiers to Sydney to begin enforcing COVID-19 lockdowns Monday following a rise in delta variant infections.

The troops were requested by New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller on Thursday to assist in enforcing COVID-19 lockdowns, Fuller announced in a statement. Since June, an outbreak of the delta variant has resulted in almost 3,000 infections, but only nine deaths, the BBC reported.

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Commentary: U.S. COVID Deaths Are at Lowest Level Since March 2020, Ivy League Professors Explain

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If you judged the US’s current COVID-19 situation only by the headlines, you’d come away thinking that we’re spiraling back into pandemic disaster. Localities like Los Angeles County and St. Louis have reimposed mask mandates on their citizens, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just revised its “guidance” to say that, actually, fully vaccinated individuals should still wear masks in certain situations. Meanwhile, mainstream media coverage of the rise of the “Delta variant” is soaked in alarmism.

Yet at the same time that all this alarm is mounting, the actual number of COVID-19 deaths is at a nadir. Harvard Medical School Professor Martin Kulldorff pointed this out on Twitter, writing that “In [the] USA, COVID mortality is now the lowest since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.”

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Gov. Abbott, Attorney General Merrick Face off over Feds Handling of COVID-Positive Migrants

The Center Square

A legal battle and war of words between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the federal government over COVID-positive migrants being released into Texas communities escalated over the weekend.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state of Texas Friday over an executive order Abbott issued restricting the transport of infected immigrants who entered the country illegally being released into the general population.

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Pelosi’s Office Silent Regarding Potential Vote on COVID Origin Bill

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office would not say whether the House planned to take up a bipartisan bill that would declassify any information regarding the origin of COVID-19.

The bill, titled the COVID-19 Origin Act of 2021, passed the Senate through unanimous consent in May. It would require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify within 90 days “any and all information relating to the potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the coronavirus disease.”

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Commentary: You Are (Probably) Going to Be Infected With the Coronavirus

RealClearWire
Crowded street market with people wearing masks

It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be next week. It may not be this month, when the rapid ascension of the Delta variant in the United States could send confirmed daily case counts spiking to 200,000 or more before settling down again. It may not even be next year. But someday, you will almost certainly be infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

This uncomfortable fact may come as a surprise to many Americans, particularly to those who have spent hours sanitizing surfaces and groceries, who have dutifully adorned a mask even when not required to do so, and who have made the simple, science-backed decision to get vaccinated. SARS-CoV-2 has already spread around the world, infecting hundreds of millions or more. The genie is out of the bottle, and it is not going back in.

“We will be dealing with this virus forever,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview one year ago.

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Evergreen State Professor Who Berated White Colleagues Resigns

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The Evergreen State College professor who was caught on camera screaming at her white colleagues has elected to resign, according to an internal announcement.

“I am writing to let you know that our faculty colleague Naima Lowe has elected to resign her position at the College,” Provost Jennifer Drake wrote Monday in an email to faculty and administrators, praising Lowe for her work teaching “feminist and queer theory, race, and decolonial studies.”

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Over 200 Afghan Allies Arrive on First of Many Expected Flights to Bring Thousands to the US

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Over 200 Afghan allies arrived at Fort Lee, in Virginia, on the first of many expected flights bringing thousands of people who assisted the U.S. military to America, Axios reported Friday.

President Joe Biden promised to help Afghan interpreters and other people who aided U.S. forces during the war, according to Axios. Over 700 people and their family members are expected to come to the U.S. on special immigrant visas as American forces withdraw from Afghanistan.

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Pelosi, House Democrats Ask Biden to Extend Eviction Moratorium in Violation of Supreme Court Ruling

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Nancy Pelosi

House Democratic leaders issued a joint statement calling on the White House to disregard a recent Supreme Court ruling and extend the national eviction moratorium.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the other top House Democratic leaders urged President Joe Biden’s administration to extend the eviction moratorium until Oct. 18, 2021 and said doing so is a “moral imperative,” according to the joint statement released Sunday. The moratorium — first introduced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last year to prevent landlords from evicting low-income tenants during the pandemic — expired over the weekend after Congress failed to pass legislation extending it.

“Action is needed, and it must come from the Administration,” the House Democrats said. “That is why House leadership is calling on the Administration to immediately extend the moratorium.”

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EU Regulator Hits Amazon with Record-Breaking Fine for How It Uses Customer Data

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An EU privacy regulator hit Amazon with an $887 million fine for violating laws related to the processing of personal data.

The Luxembourg agency National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD) issued the fine, imposed July 16 and revealed Friday, ruling that Amazon’s processing of personal data in relation to its advertising practices was in violation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to Amazon’s 10-Q SEC filing. The fine is the largest ever issued under the GDPR, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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D.C. Mayor Denies Breaking Her Own Mask Mandate Despite Photo Evidence

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Mayor Muriel Bowser

Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser denied breaking her own mask mandate at a wedding Saturday night, despite photo evidence showing her seated maskless at a table.

The Washington Examiner first reported late Saturday that the mayor had officiated a wedding attended by “hundreds of unmasked guests” at 5-star Adams Morgan hotel, The Line DC.

The Examiner included a photograph of the mayor seated at a table maskless, noting that she “did not wear a mask despite not actively eating or drinking.” Several other guests in the picture are also not wearing masks.

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St. Louis’ Top Prosecutor Accused of Incompetence as Violent Crime Rises

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As violent crime increases in St. Louis, residents’ outrage towards Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner appears to be growing as well.

Gardner, who assumed office at the beginning of 2017 on a progressive platform, is St. Louis’ top prosecutor. But she has taken an extremely lax approach to actually prosecuting violent criminals, angering residents and victims’ family members.

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Donors Bash University of North Carolina over ‘Marxism,’ BLM Affiliation During Nikole Hannah-Jones Tenure Debacle

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Donors to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) criticized the university for its perceived sympathy towards “Marxism” and Black Lives Matter during the debate over whether to offer New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones a tenured position, according to emails seen by Fox News.

The emails, sent to various UNC faculty, criticized the university for its perceived affiliation with the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as its tolerance of “Marxism”, its diversity and equity policies, and its promotion of Hannah-Jones, according to Fox News.

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