Federal Judge Denies Motion to Block Governor DeSantis’ Ban on Mask Mandates in Schools

Judge K. Michael Moore of the First U.S. District Court of Florida, decided Wednesday to deny a motion requested by a group of south Florida parents with disabled children, to block Governor DeSantis’ ban on mandating masks in schools.

Filed in Miami, the lawsuit alleges that Executive Order 21-175 (EO 21-175) violates the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as other laws that are meant to assure the rights for students with disabilities.

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Commentary: Arizonans Experiencing ‘No New Taxes’ Pledge Déjà Vu

Over thirty years ago, then-presidential candidate George H.W. Bush stood onstage at the Republican National Convention and infamously promised, “Read my lips, no new taxes.” That promise may have won him the election, but it was also his undoing as he would later sign a budget reconciliation bill that included tax increases. Fast forward to today and President Joe Biden finds himself in a similar position having made a promise on the campaign trail that he is unable to keep now that he is in the Oval Office—and it is Arizonans who will pay the price.

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Georgia Elections Chief Expects to Be Subpoenaed by January 6 Commission, Vows Not to Comply

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger expects to be subpoenaed as early as Friday by the congressional commission investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and is vowing not to comply.

“I’m focused on secure and accessible elections — not re-litigating the past, whether January 6th, the 2018 election, or the 2020 election,” Raffensperger said in a statement provided to Just the News on Thursday evening.

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High-Profile Minnesota Democrats Silent After State Rep Expelled from Party

Two high-profile endorsers of now-expelled State Rep. John Thompson (D-District 67A) remained silent Thursday when asked whether they still support the embattled congressman. 

Thompson was expelled earlier this week from the Minnesota House Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) caucus after a string of incidents stemming back to August of 2020, and the resurfacing of allegations of domestic abuse in his past.

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Fried Criticizes DeSantis over Not Seeking Low-Income Program

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, among other Florida Democrats, criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the DeSantis administration opting to decline application into the federally run Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program.

The program was developed by the President Donald J. Trump administration to provide states with grocery benefits for low-income children during the COVID pandemic. President Joe Biden’s administration continued the program. So far, Florida is the only state to decline the extension.

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New Poll Shows Virginia Gubernatorial Race in a ‘Dead Heat’

A new poll announced Thursday has Virginia’s gubernatorial race in a statistical tie, with early voting beginning Friday. According to an Emerson College poll commissioned by WRIC, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe has the support of 49 percent of likely voters while GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin has 45 percent. That’s within the margin of error: plus or minus 3.4 percent.

“Statistically speaking, the poll isn’t telling you that McAuliffe is going to win or Youngkin is going to lose. It is really saying it is a dead heat,” Emerson College Polling Director Spencer Kimball told WRIC.

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DeSantis Administration Slams Biden over Reduced Monoclonal Treatments

The administration for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has blasted President Joe Biden for capping the amount of monoclonal antibody treatments states like Florida can receive. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken over the national distribution of the treatments.

The HHS says their leadership will provide “equitable distribution” and “with consistent, fairly distributed supply over the coming weeks.” However, DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, said the move by the Biden administration was “regrettable.”

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Gen. Milley Defiant Amid Increasing Pressure to Resign over China Calls

As the embattled Gen. Mark Milley took a defiant tone regarding reports that he surreptitiously tried to circumvent the authority of his then-commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump, critics increasingly demanded his resignation while the White House offered him full support.

Milley’s alleged actions include making secret calls to the top military officer in Beijing, and holding a clandestine gathering of military officers to demand that they only obey command orders that came through Milley, according to the authors of a forthcoming book.

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Democrat Michigan State Rep. Jailed After Third Bond Violation, Allegedly Caught with Handcuff Key Taped to Foot

A Democrat Michigan state representative who has been in constant conflict with the law since April was arrested this week and found to have a handcuff key taped to his foot.

State Rep. Jewell Jones (D) was arrested on a slew of charges last spring stemming from an allegation of drunk driving. Dashcam video allegedly showed him resisting arrest and defying police orders while in jail.

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Poll Shows Support for Charter School Expansion in Georgia

More than half of Georgia voters support an expansion charter schools in the state, according to a new poll.

The poll, which was conducted on behalf of the Georgia Charter Schools Association, showed 56% of registered voters in Georgia favor increasing the number of public charter schools in Georgia. Support for public charter schools also is strong with more than 6 out of 10 surveyed in favor of the schools.

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Former Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor Murder Conviction Overturned

The ruling for a former Minneapolis police officer, Mohamed Noor, who fatally shot a woman in 2017 was overturned, removing a third-degree murder conviction. Noor was initially convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and sentences to 12.5 years. As was reported by ABC News, Noor shot and killed “Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual U.S.-Australian citizen who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home.”

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Youngkin and McAuliffe Meet for First of Two Debates

One day before early voting begins, GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin and Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe faced off for the first time in a debate at the Appalachian School of Law in southwestern Virginia Thursday. Moderators asked candidates about policies including abortion, Critical Race Theory (CRT), right to work, qualified immunity, vaccine mandates, and Confederate monuments. Youngkin repeatedly tried to link policy issues to McAuliffe’s past record, while McAuliffe repeatedly tried to tie Youngkin to former President Trump. Both candidates also committed to accepting the result of the election if certified by the state.

Moderators asked McAuliffe he would sign laws that legalize third trimester abortions even without currently-required approval of three doctors in Virginia.

“If they came up with a solution, and the woman’s life has to be in danger, it has to be certified, and if you had a legitimate doctor that says, ‘This woman, her life’s in danger,’ of course I would support that,” McAuliffe said.

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Republican James Craig Drowned Out by Protesters While Announcing Run for Michigan Governor

Former Detroit police chief James Craig, 65, tried to hold a press conference in a state park Tuesday to announce his candidacy for the governor of Michigan, but had to cut it short when a mob of aggressive left-wing agitators prevented him from speaking.

As soon as he reached the podium at Belle Isle Park to make his announcement, the political newcomer was swarmed by dozens of leftists who blasted air horns, raised their fists, flipped the bird, and screamed “hey hey, ho ho, James Craig has got to go!”

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Ohio Mayor Tells Entire School Board to Resign or Face Child Pornography Charges

An Ohio mayor has issued an ultimatum to his city’s school board after an assignment given to students caused a major uproar.

“It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom,” Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert told the school board Monday night. “I’ve spoken to a judge this evening. She’s already confirmed that. So I’m going to give you a simple choice: You either choose to resign from this board of education or you will be charged.”

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Mayor Glenn Jacobs on Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Mandate: ‘Knox County Will Not Comply’

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs put U.S. President Joe Biden on notice Thursday regarding one of the president’s COVID-19 mandates and said his county will flatly refuse to obey. Specifically, Jacobs said Knox County will not honor Biden’s executive order mandating that all businesses with 100 or more employees require COVID-19 vaccines for workers or implement weekly testing.

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Tennessee Attorney General Slatery Joins Effort to Oppose Potential Federal Takeover of Elections

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery joined 22 attorney generals from other states and issued a letter to leaders in Congress, calling on Congress to end its push to pass legislation giving more election power to the federal government.

Specifically, the leaders expressed concerns over H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would amend the Voting Rights Act (VRA).

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Commentary: The ‘Foul Spirit’ of George W. Bush and America’s Ruling Class

As with so many other aspects of our time, we seem destined to suffer the most trite and underwhelming imitations of things that once were great or at least impressive. Exhibit A would be the great war advocate, George W. Bush. Can there be a more perfect synthesis of the last 20 years of disappointing American politics than this man? He exemplifies everything—unaware, unashamed, unapologetic—that the American ruling class has become. NeverTrumpers and neocons yearn for a return to the days of measured, steady Bush leadership. We are told constantly now that he is kind, polite, well-bred: a politician from a more dignified tradition of public servants than those of late. But of course, in reality he is none of these things.

The everlasting incompetence and mesmerizing self-delusion on display at his recent 9/11 remarks make that clear.

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Princeton Instructs Freshmen That Professor Who Criticized Black Student Group Is Part of ‘Systemic Racism’

Princeton University is allegedly teaching freshmen that a current faculty member is racist for criticizing a defunct black student organization. What’s not clear is how many freshmen are paying attention to the lesson.

The Ivy League school included classics professor Joshua Katz in a “virtual gallery” about its history of systemic racism that was featured in a 50-minute orientation video for the class of 2025.

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The Department of Justice Bans No-Knock Entries, Chokeholds, and Other Practices

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced a comprehensive ban on numerous practices in law enforcement, aimed at curbing tactics that some claim can lead to instances of so-called “police brutality,” according to Politico.

In a statement issued by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the department said it would be banning the use of chokeholds and carotid restraints by law enforcement officers, except in circumstances where “the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.” The department is also banning no-knock warrants, except in situations where an officer believes that announcing their identity could lead to physical harm.

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Newsom Sails Past Republican Recall, Will Remain California’s Governor

Gov. Gavin Newsom won California’s recall election Tuesday, capitalizing on late momentum and sailing past the field of Republicans looking to oust him in what was considered a neck-and-neck race just weeks ago.

Newsom, first elected in 2018, survived the GOP recall effort with just over two-thirds of voters opting to keep him in office, according to initial results when the Associated Press called the race. Of the approximately 33% voters who chose to recall him, nearly 43% selected conservative radio host Larry Elder as their preferred candidate when the race was declared.

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Report: 74 Percent of Professors Targeted for Unpopular Speech or Research End Up Punished by Administrators

Attempts to sanction scholars for their speech, research or teaching practices has skyrocketed since 2015, with about three in four campaigns leading to some form of professional sanction – including termination – according to a new report by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Such attacks are “on the rise and are increasingly coming from within academia itself—from other scholars and especially from undergraduate students,” FIRE research fellows Komi German and Sean Stevens state in their report.

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Report: E-Commerce Prices Have Skyrocketed Because of Inflation

Online shopping prices have rapidly increased since the start of the pandemic as consumers rely more on e-commerce, according to an industry report.

While e-commerce prices trended downward between 2015-2019 as online shopping grew in popularity, the sector has seen unprecedented increases over the last year, the report published by Adobe Digital Insights on Wednesday found. At the same time, consumers are spending more purchasing goods and food online than ever before.

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CDC Warns Afghan Refugees Pose Threat of ‘Larger Imminent Outbreaks’ of Measles in U.S.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a private warning to the chief of Afghan evacuation operations that measles is spreading among refugees and poses a “major public health threat” that includes the potential for “larger imminent outbreaks” in U.S. communities already reeling from the coronavirus.

CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky’s memo Tuesday night urged Operations Allies Welcome senior official Robert Fenton to take “urgent public health action” that includes mass vaccinations of refugees, revealing there are now six confirmed cases of measles in Afghan refugees, 17 suspect cases and hundreds of exposures in U.S. hospitals.

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Commentary: Conservatives Should Not Listen to the Eco-Right

If there’s one thing the Left knows cold, it’s deception. From Vladimir Lenin to Saul Alinsky, leftists are unparalleled masters of the art of victory through hoodwinking: Defeating opponents by fooling them into false agreement.

Owning the battlefield in this war starts with controlling the language. We’ve seen this play out in the debate over abortion access, with pro-choice activists redefining “pro-life” to mean anything but the conviction that life begins at conception—and swindling unwitting Christians into their ranks.

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At Pennsylvania Senate Meeting on Elections, Subpoenas Issued, Dem Calls GOPers McCarthyites, Another Has Remarks Curtailed for Breaking Senate Rules

At Wednesday’s meeting concerning the Pennsylvania’s Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee’s election investigation, which saw Republicans winning a vote to subpoena voter records, Democrats fumed.

One angrily compared GOP colleagues to Joe McCarthy, the notoriously zealous anti-communist U.S. senator from Wisconsin who served from 1947 to 1957.

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Phoenix Small Business Owners Say Light Rail Expansion Is Trying to Deliberately Shut Them Down

The construction of light rail began in Phoenix in 2005, and was fought by property owners located in the way who thought it was too late to set up mass transit in such a densely populated city. Not very many miles have been built since then, only 28, in one straight shot in an L-shape throughout the Valley, with businesses and residences still fighting weak expansion efforts. The South Phoenix expansion won’t be completed until 2024.

Celia Contreras, who owns Tony’s Window Tinting in South Phoenix, says the construction effort in South Phoenix is harassing her business in order to shut it down, tired of her complaints. She says large trucks deliberately block the entrance to her business so customers can’t stop by, and have flooded her building twice. She posted photos of drains stating that the construction company was blocking it with cement, unwise during the monsoon season. Officials refuse to help her, and she caught workers on video making fun of her for having to temporarily close her businesses due to the problems.

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Arizona Supreme Court Allows Release of State Senate’s Records of Contractors Conducting Election Audit

The Arizona Supreme Court has rejected an effort by the state’s GOP-led Senate to keep confidential records of its review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County now in possession of the contractors conducting the recount.

The court on Tuesday rejected the appeal filed after two lower courts ruled the documents are public records that must be released, according to the Associated Press.

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Democrats Expel Embattled Minnesota State Rep over Domestic Abuse, Other Allegations

A controversial State Representative, known for his multiple run-ins with law enforcement, domestic abuse allegations, and a recent residency controversy has been expelled from the Minnesota House Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) caucus.

Rep. John Thompson (DFL-MN-67A) was expelled by his own party Wednesday, following a string of outlandish behavior and resurfaced allegations of domestic abuse, according to multiple reports. 

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Campaign Finance Complaints Filed After Gretchen Whitmer Takes Several $100,000+ Donations

The Michigan Freedom Fund filed a campaign finance complaint against 10 donors to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) reelection campaign, alleging they violated state law when they broke donation limits.

Dubbing it Whitmer’s “$100,000 Club,” Michigan Freedom Fund said in a filing with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) the group “comprised of donors who each illegally gave over $100,000 to Whitmer’s campaign in violation of the $7,150 contribution limit in state law.”

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Virginia Redistricting Commission Spends a Week Providing Clarification to Map Drawers

After a strategy shift, the Virginia Redistricting Commission spent its two meetings this week discussing guidance from legal teams about how to ensure legal compliance with the Voting Rights Act (VRA), and how to consider political subdivisions, communities of interest, and partisan equity. Republican and Democratic legal teams shared different analyses of how to ensure compliance with section two of the VRA, which requires that districts not dilute the voting power of protected minorities. Democratic legal counsel argued that map drawers must create majority-minority districts where possible including through coalitions of minority groups. Republican counsel said that while creating those districts was permissible and even likely to happen, explicitly instructing the mapdrawers to consider race fell outside the legal criteria under which race can be considered, violating the Equal Protection Clause.

The commission debated the issue for hours across two meetings on Monday and Wednesday and defeated three proposals to say the mapdrawers “shall,” “may,” or “shall provide where practicable,” the majority-minority districts.

Senator Ryan McDougle (R-Hanover) summarized the debate over the “shall” language Monday: “This motion specifically means that we’re going to get sued one way or the other — one counsel is saying we specifically can’t do this, one counsel is saying we specifically have to do this.”

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Tennessee U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen Wants the Federal Government to Fix Childhood Obesity

U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) on Tuesday paired up with U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) to file companion bills that would, if enacted into law, create a government program to combat childhood obesity. “The Reducing Obesity in Youth Act would create a grant program to assist in the development of healthier early care and education environments to improve healthy eating and physical activity among children from birth through 5 years of age,” according to a press release that members of Cohen’s staff published on the congressman’s website this week.

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Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Wants to Join Redistricting Suit, Bypass Lawmakers

Tony Evers

Wisconsin’s governor is sending a clear signal that he can’t or doesn’t want to work with lawmakers in drawing the state’s new political map.

Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul on Monday asked a federal judge to allow them to join a lawsuit that would skip the constitutional process for drawing Wisconsin’s new map, and have the court draw it instead.

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U.S. Senator Marco Rubio Calls for the Termination of General Mark Milley

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to President Biden Tuesday calling for the termination of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, who Rubio claims “contemplated” leaking classified information to China, and undermined former President Trump.

Rubio’s allegations are in response to the reports made by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their upcoming book titled “Peril” that details the relationship between Milley and General Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army of China.

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Tennessee Sen. Blackburn Spearheading Bipartisan Probe with Connecticut Sen. Blumenthal of Facebook’s Impact on Youngsters

Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R) and her Connecticut colleague Richard Blumenthal (D) announced this week they’re launching an inquiry into revelations, reported that morning in The Wall Street Journal, about Facebook’s knowledge of harms its products may pose to their young users.

Blumenthal chairs the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, through which the investigation of the social network will proceed. Blackburn serves as the subcommittee’s ranking member.

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Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Jim Renacci Blasts Gov. DeWine for Supporting Mask Mandates

Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci on Wednesday blasted Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s support for mask mandates in schools

The statement from Renacci follows Governor Mike DeWine announcing on Tuesday that his administration will make a “direct appeal” to local school districts, encouraging them to implement mask mandates.

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