Day: September 26, 2021

House Budget Committee Advances $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan as One California Democrat Breaks Ranks to Oppose

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Rep. John Yarmuth

In a rare weekend session, the House Budget Committee approved a $3.5 trillion spending plan loaded with progressive policy changes, but one Democrat defected to join Republicans in opposition.

The 20-17 vote Saturday afternoon came as Democratic leaders aim to schedule a vote on the House floor this week, even as the package divides members of its caucus, especially moderates worried about its mammoth size.

Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., sought to gloss over GOP and moderate Democrat concerns, touting the potential help he said would come to working and poor families and liberal causes.

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Homeland Security Chief Admits More Than 12,000 Haitians Released into U.S.

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs regarding the Threats to the Homeland. Secretary Mayorkas was joined by Christopher Wray, FBI Director and Christine Abizaid, the Director of National Counterterrorism Center. (DHS Photo by Zachary Hupp)

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas disclosed Sunday that more than 12,000 Haitian illegal immigrants who had gathered in Texas near the southern border are being released into the United States.

“Approximately, I think it’s about ten thousand or so, twelve thousand,” Mayorkas told “Fox News Sunday” when asked how many have Haitians were already released.

He insisted those released were being monitored to ensure compliance with the law. When host Chris Wallace noted more than 40% of illegal aliens historically skip their immigration hearings, the secretary said there were plans in place to aggressively arrest those who don’t show up.

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In Close German Election, Angela Merkel’s Bloc Sees Worst Election Results Since 1949

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Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc is in a tight race with the Social Democrats, as projections showed her party endured its worst result in parliamentary elections since 1949.

ARD public television projected that according to early counting and exit polls, Social Democrats, whose candidate is outgoing Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, had 25.5% of voter support, The Associated Press reported. Merkel’s Union bloc was at 24.5% with her would-be successor Armin Laschet, governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany.

Projections from ZDF public television put Social Democrats at 25.7% to the Union bloc’s 24.6%. Both sets of projections had the environmentalist Greens at third place with about 14%.

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Almost 75 Percent of Tennesseans Will See a Monthly Increase in Flood Insurance Payments Starting October 1

Zachery Schmidt

Seventy-two percent of Tennesseans will end up paying more money in flood insurance prices starting October 1 when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s new flood insurance rules begin.

This summer, FEMA rolled out its new rating methodology called “Risk Rating 2.0.” FEMA said this new methodology will deliver rates that are “actuarily sound, equitable, easier to understand and better reflect a property’s flood risk.”

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Commentary: Bearing the Tax Burden of the Biden Administration

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Joe Biden

As congressional Democrats push a $3.5 trillion social spending package, everyone is wondering: “How are we going to pay for that?” To President Joe Biden, the answer is simple: raise taxes.

Included in Biden’s proposed tax plans — erroneously named the American Families Plan — are hikes in personal income tax and capital gains tax rates. The plan would raise the top marginal income tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent and reclassify long-term capital gains and qualified dividends as ordinary income for those with taxable income above $1 million, resulting in a top marginal tax rate of 43.4 percent, according to the Tax Foundation.

Despite the frustration (or excitement) that Americans have towards Biden’s income and wealth tax proposals in the midst of an economic recovery, Americans should be paying closer attention to his other proposals, the American Jobs Plan and the Made in America Tax Plan.

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Amazon.com Staff Say They Have Cleared Former Tennessee Health Official Michelle Fiscus of Wrongdoing

Chris Butler

Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) official Michelle Fiscus apparently did not purchase a dog muzzle through Amazon.com and send it to her state office so she could later frame someone else for the act. The Nashville-based WSMV reported this week that someone, whom the station did not identify, set up a fraudulent account in Fiscus’ name and then sent the muzzle to Fiscus’ office.

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Study: 94 Percent of Parents Say Child Tax Credit Payments Allow, Motivate Them to Work More

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The vast majority of parents receiving monthly child tax credit payments say that they plan to keep working or even increase their hours as a result of them, a study released Thursday shows.

Ninety-four percent of parents said that the payments, which began in July, allowed them to work the same amount or more, a joint study from the Washington University in St. Louis, UNC-Greensboro, Appalachian State, the Urban Institute and Humanity Forward shows. Just 6.4% receiving the payments said they would work less or change jobs, and of those a majority were parents with infants or toddlers.

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Biden’s Pick for Banking Regulator Once Praised Soviet Union for Having ‘No Gender Pay Gap’

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President Joe Biden’s pick to run a top Wall Street regulatory agency division once praised the former Soviet Union for its gender equality.

Cornell Law School Professor Saule Omarova, who was announced as Biden’s nominee to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Thursday, tweeted in March 2019 her support of the USSR’s gender equality in the workplace.

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Pennsylvania Attorney General Challenges Election Subpoena

The Center Square

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro challenged a Republican-led election subpoena on Thursday, saying that it “goes too far” and violates the constitutionally protected privacy of up to 9 million residents.

“By trying to pry into everyone’s drivers license numbers and social security numbers they have gone too far,” he said. “Today we say enough is enough. What they are doing is against the law and we intend to win.”

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Biden’s Border Disaster

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As President Joe Biden vacationed at Rehoboth Beach, the disaster at the U.S. southern border continued to metastasize.

Anyone who has seen pictures of thousands of people crossing the Rio Grande en masse knows the administration has achieved complete failure.

Anyone who has seen the overhead drone footage of more than 12,000 people gathered under one bridge in South Texas knows that massive, historic incompetence is being allowed to flourish.

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Oregon School Board Bans Educators from Displaying BLM and Gay Pride Symbols

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A school board in Oregon is receiving backlash following its recent ban on educators displaying Black Lives Matter signs and gay pride symbols.

Newberg, which is situated just outside of Portland, now finds itself the site of the latest skirmish in a pitched struggle between traditional and woke approaches to education being waged in school systems across the country.

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Less Than 17 Percent of Rental Aid Distributed by August, Treasury Says

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A living room in an apartment space with a blue couch and TV

State and local officials disbursed less than 17% of the funds allocated for pandemic rent assistance by the end of August, the Treasury Department announced Friday.

Officials have disbursed $7.7 billion of the $46.5 billion in funds allocated to the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program meant to aid those at risk of eviction, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The program was created eight months ago and has struggled to distribute its funds to tenants. A number of state officials have said the delays can be attributed to a lack of preparedness to facilitate the distribution of such large sums of money.

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Dems’ $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill ‘Existential Threat’ to Economy

The Center Square
Capitol building looking up, blue sky in background

One of the nation’s leading economic and business groups is warning that the $3.5 trillion spending bill before Congress is an “existential threat” to the nation’s economy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a six-figure television ad campaign targeting the proposed tax hikesin the measure that would be “taking more hard-earned money from small businesses and working families.”

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Commentary: Our Indispensable Man

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Angelo Codevilla

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men,” goes the old saying, and who could argue? The sun rose this morning as it did yesterday and will again tomorrow. Life goes on, as always, for better and often for worse. But now it is a life bereft of the remarkable intellect and insight of Angelo Codevilla, a patriot who despised what he saw his country becoming and who sought to rouse and educate his fellow Americans to resist.

Truly, he was our indispensable man.

He was remarkable, too, for his energy. It isn’t quite correct to say he was indefatigable. At 78, he couldn’t help but slow down a bit. But this was a man who survived two heart transplants and a number of recent health challenges. Even when he was sick, he kept writing and working.

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Vaccinating Kids as Young as Five Would Be a ‘Game Changer,’ Biden’s Education Secretary Says

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President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the approval of a COVID-19 vaccine for children would be a “game changer” for students in the U.S.’s public school system, U.S. News reported.

Pfizer announced Monday that a smaller dose of its vaccine has generated an immune response in 5 to 11-year-old children during the clinical trial. The company said it plans to submit data for approval in the next few weeks.

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Whitmer Kidnapping Informant Could Skip Prison Despite Gun Crime

The Center Square

A key FBI informant for the alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wouldn’t see prison time under a plea deal despite pleading guilty to a 10-year gun crime during the plot.

The plea agreement for Wisconsin resident Stephen Robeson says that on Sept. 26, 2020, Robeson bought an Armalite .50 caliber rifle from a man he met at church. Months later, Robeson sold the gun to someone he met on Facebook Messenger. A federal judge must approve the plea deal. 

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Chip Company Intel Begins Construction in Arizona on New Plants, New Jobs Created

The Center Square

Intel Corp. broke ground on two new semiconductor fabrication factories in Chandler, Arizona on Friday, as part of its plan to become a major chip manufacturer for outside customers. 

 The $20 billion plants, Fab 52 and Fab 62, are expected to bring more than 3,000 new high-tech, high-wage jobs and 3,000 construction jobs to Arizona, while supporting an estimated 15,000 additional indirect jobs in the community, according to a press release from the governor’s office. This marks a 25% increase in Intel employees. 

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Florida’s New Surgeon General Makes Waves

Grant Holcomb
Gov. Ron DeSantis stands behind newest appointed Surgeon General: Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the appointment of Dr. Joseph Ladapo as Florida’s new Surgeon General earlier this week and made waves in his first few days as Florida’s top doctor.

Ladapo announced Florida is “done with fear” and signed off on new health department COVID rules for students in Florida’s public schools. Among the new rules is allowing parents to decide of their child should stay home from school if exposed to COVID and show no symptoms.

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Wisconsin Office of Special Counsel Invites Clerks to Share Election Information, Concerns

Hayley Feland

The Wisconsin Office of Special Council, one of the state’s 2020 election auditors, is inviting county clerks to meet with them and share election information and concerns. “I would like to formally invite you to meet with me personally – in person or by phone or video call – to discuss these concerns, as well as any other thoughts of any nature that you might have about the State’s investigation,” the letter states.

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Georgia Agency Misused Millions in Seized Money for Fitness Devices, Furniture, Vehicles

The Center Square

A Georgia agency kept millions of dollars in seized funds, spending some of it on Fitbit devices, fitness equipment and vehicles, according to a recent Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report.

The OIG report revealed the former head of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), a division of the Georgia Department of Revenue (GDOR), held on to more than $5.3 million that was supposed to be returned to the state treasury. 

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DeSantis Taking Control of Jacksonville Subsidized Housing Complex over ‘Deplorable’ Conditions

Grant Holcomb

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he is no longer waiting on the federal government to move take action on a “deplorable” subsidized housing complex in Jacksonville. DeSantis slammed the “lack of interest” from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for allowing the living conditions to become so run down that rats have infested the complex.

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Fairfax County Mother Reveals Books in School Libraries Depicting Child Porn and Pedophilia

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Boy sitting in a library, reading a book

A mother of a student at Fairfax County Public Schools called out the school board for indirectly making accessible to students two books featuring child pornography and pedophilia in school libraries at Thursday night’s school board meeting.

Stacy Langton opened by explaining that she watched what had happened at a Texas school board meeting after parents discovered two books accessible to their children, Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison and Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe. Langton looked for and found the books at her own child’s school, Fairfax High School, as well as other places in the county, including Robinson Secondary School where students as young as 12 could access the books.

Parents Defending Education’s VP for Strategy & Investigations Asra Q. Nomani captured Langton’s comments to the school board on video and reported the exchange on her Substack, Asra Investigates.

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Lawsuit Challenges Ohio’s New State Legislative Maps

The Center Square

Calling Ohio’s new state legislative district maps a flagrant violation of the Ohio Constitution and extreme partisan gerrymandering, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit challenging maps it says give Republicans an unfair advantage.

The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Ohio, the ACLU and Burling LLP, was brought on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, the Ohio chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and several individuals.

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Federal Judge Blocks Governor Lee’s Executive Order to Opt-Out of Mask Mandates in Williamson County Schools and Franklin Special School District

Kaitlin Housler
Group of young students at table, reading and wearing masks

On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt their kids out of wearing face coverings at school. Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw ruled Williamson County Schools and the Franklin Special School District can enforce mask mandates in their school systems despite Governor Lee’s executive order.

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