Commentary: Election Overseer Found Democratic National Committee, Chalupa Broke Rules over Ukraine, Then Reversed Its Finding After January 6

Though ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was never charged with conspiring with Russia, he did go to jail for, among other things, failing to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine. The Democratic National Committee operative who helped get him booted from the campaign should be investigated for the same violation, Republican Senators say.

Former DNC contractor and opposition researcher Alexandra “Ali” Chalupa not only worked closely with the Ukrainian Embassy and Clinton campaign, trading dirt on Manafort and Trump, but also Congress and the Obama White House, State Department and even the FBI. “At the center of the [Ukraine foreign influence] plan was Alexandra Chalupa,” GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asserted.

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Virginia General Assembly Session Adjourns but Will Come Back for Special Session to Finalize Budget, Other Legislation

RICHMOND, Virginia – The General Assembly adjourned its 2022 regular session on Saturday, but Governor Glenn Youngkin is expected to call a special session to complete compromises on a number of bills, including the budget. The budget is the only essential piece of legislation on the list, with a gap between more tax relief in the House proposal and more spending in the Senate proposal.

“I’m pleased by the progress that’s been made in the last couple of days on the budget. And actually I want to thank our legislators on both sides of the aisle for the really good work that they’ve done in the session to date,” Youngkin said in a brief press conference on Saturday afternoon.

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University of Wisconsin System Aims to Increase Protections for Minors Visiting Campuses

The University of Wisconsin System introduced new policies on Friday that are aimed to increase protection for minors visiting the various campuses across the state.

According to a release from leadership, the new rules “enhance their safety standards and protocols for protection of minors participating in university-sponsored events” and created a new registration and compliance database for youth activities.

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Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro Tests Positive for COVID-19 After Attending House Democratic Retreat

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) on Saturday announced she tested positive for COVID-19, after attending a retreat in Philadelphia for Democrats in the House of Representatives. According to DeLauro, she contracted the virus despite being fully vaccinated and boosted and has only experienced mild symptoms. “While I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection that comes from being vaccinated & boosted. I encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and get boosted,” she said in a tweet. While I was looking forward to marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade & had plans to celebrate our community projects & all that we accomplished in the federal spending package, I'll be isolating & working remotely from my home in New Haven. My office remains fully operational. — Rosa DeLauro (@rosadelauro) March 12, 2022 “While I was looking forward to marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade & had plans to celebrate our community projects & all that we accomplished in the federal spending package, I’ll be isolating & working remotely from my home in New Haven. My office remains fully operational.” Over the past…

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More Democrats Than Republicans Leave Their Party in Maricopa County, ‘Other’ Now Biggest Party Designation

People voting

The latest voter registration numbers in Maricopa County from February reveal that independents now outnumber both Republicans and Democrats, with 76 more registrations than Republicans. Also according to new data from the Maricopa County Recorder, significantly more Democrats than Republicans left their parties to become independents, 1,331 compared to 1,154 Republicans. The trend favoring Republicans continued with more independents becoming Republicans than Democrats, and more Democrats switching to Republicans than Republicans switching to Democrats.

Independents and Republicans now each make up 34% of voter registrations in the county, with Democrats lagging behind at 30% and Libertarians at .08%. While 806 independents became Republicans in January, only 544 became Democrats. There were 301 Democrats who became Republicans, while only 175 Republicans became Democrats.

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Georgia Senate Passes Bill to Teach Only Racial Equality in Schools

The Georgia Senate passed a bill Friday requiring that school curricula only teach kindergarten through high school students that all races are equal, banning the concepts of Critical Race Theory (CRT) that teach students that races in America are inherently unequal. 

SB 377 says schools cannot teach “divisive concepts” to school children. It mandates the same for government agencies. 

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Governor Ron DeSantis Blasts Biden over Conversations with Venezuelan Leaders

Governor Ron DeSantis blasted the Biden administration for conversations with leaders of Venezuela, as reports detail Biden is considering purchasing oil from the South American country.

The U.S. is looking to ease the impact of the decision to ban the purchase of Russian oil and has turned to countries like Venezuela and Iran—instead of producing energy in America. 

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State Senator Jake Corman Introduces Legislation to Lower Pennsylvania Gas Tax

Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) proposed lowering the state’s gas tax levels in order to ease the burden on consumers.

Corman’s legislation, known as the Consumer Gas Prices Relief Act, would reduce the state’s liquid fuels tax by one-third through the end of 2022, cutting roughly 20 cents per gallon off the price.

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Man Pleads Guilty to Two Columbus-Area Armed Robberies of Postal Workers

As postal crimes skyrocket and the United State Postal Service (USPS) conducts an audit on policies and procedures for keeping postal workers safe in Ohio, one man has pleaded guilty to two armed robberies against mail carriers. 

According to several reports, 20-year-old Brandon Campbell of Columbus “admitted to using violence and a weapon to endanger the mail carriers’ lives and steal property from them.”

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Full Video of Interviews with Wisconsin Nursing Home Patients Who Voted in 2020 Released

The Amistad Project released the full video on Friday of Wisconsin nursing home patients who had absentee ballots cast in their name for the 2020 presidential election.

The video shows Amistad Project attorney Erick Kaardal interviewing seven Wisconsin families of nursing home patients who had absentee ballots cast for them during the 2020 presidential election despite the fact that they are in poor health. The patients’ families attested that they are unable to vote.

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Commentary: The Lie That Americans Tell Themselves About Exercise

When asked in polls why they don’t exercise, roughly half of Americans invariably state that they are “too busy” or “don’t have the time”. Whether witting or unwitting, this is a lie.

How do we know that this is a lie? Because Americans have said so. According to the 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, the average American reported having 5.5 hours of leisure time per day. When researchers with the RAND Corporation further scrutinized the survey, breaking the data down based on age and race, they found that no group reported fewer than 4.5 hours of daily free time.

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Favorito Tells The Star News Network: Raffensperger Had Evidence of Election Fraud ‘Before He Ever Certified the Election’

The Star News Network National Political Editor Neil W. McCabe visited Fulton County, Georgia, to speak with Garland Favorito of VoterGa about the vote analysis he’s prepared to share with the Georgia legislature. TRANSCRIPT: McCabe: Almost from the moment the polls closed in the 2020 election there have been questions about the results in Fulton County, Georgia. Garland Favorito, the founder of VoterGa, told The Star News Network that his organization has found forensic evidence of manipulation and fraud. Favorito: I think the most shocking findings in the report is the fact is that the overall scope of the manipulation, and it was in a dozen different categories or more, was actually beyond my wildest expectations. McCabe: Favorito, a 40-year veteran of the information systems industry, said someone used a search-and-replace program to manipulate the Fulton County results. Favorito: The evidence that we saw showed that ballot images appear to have been replaced by other ballot images. McCabe: There is also evidence of ballot dumps. Favorito: So an example of electronic manipulation might be the duplicate timestamps. A scanner can only scan one mail-in ballot per second according to their own specs but yet we found half a dozen different ballots…

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Perdue Tells The Star News Network: I Am Running For Governor Because Kemp ‘Sold Us Out’

Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed former U.S. Senator David A. Perdue Jr. about his challenge to Gov. Brian P. Kemp in the May 24 GOP primary.

Perdue said with the backing of President Donald J. Trump, he is working to unite the Georgia Republican Party after Kemp triggered a schism over his refusal to address irregularities in the 2020 election.

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Ohio Senate Agrees with House Plan to Adjust Military Overseas Voting

Two days after unanimously approving a plan to change the timing of military overseas voting to keep the state’s May 3 primary on track, the Ohio Senate approved a new plan passed by the Ohio House.

The Senate passed, 26-2, amendments late Wednesday to Substitute Senate Bill 11, which designated congenital heart defect awareness month but now also eliminates 16 days of military overseas voting, allows for expedited mailing of military overseas ballots, allows those ballots to be received 20 days after the primary and gives $200,000 to county boards of elections.

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Russia Moves to Declare Facebook Parent Company an ‘Extremist Organization,’ Ban Instagram

Russian prosecutors asked a court to classify Facebook parent company Meta as “extremist” Friday, escalating tensions between Russia and the tech giant after Facebook was blocked in the country.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office asked a court to declare the tech giant an “extremist organization,” saying the company engaged in spreading “propaganda” and incited violence against the Russian people, Interfax reported. The move would effectively criminalize all of Meta’s operations in Russia, according to Reuters.

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Texas Judge Blocks State Investigations of Transgender Kids’ Treatments as Child Abuse

Texas District Judge Amy Clark Meachum blocked the state’s Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS) on Friday from investigating parents of transgender children for child abuse with regard to providing hormone therapy.

The decision is the most recent in a weeklong civil lawsuit filed by the parents of a transgender child and a psychologist from the Houston area who are challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order from last month calling for “prompt and thorough investigation” into reported instances of “gender-transitioning procedures” among minors.

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Commentary: A 30,000-Year-Old Venus Figurine Gives Up Its Secrets

Scientists working with the Natural History Museum of Vienna may have uncovered the origin of the Venus of Willendorf, a 30,000-year-old figurine originally unearthed 114 years ago in Lower Austria near the Danube River.

Professor Gerhard W. Weber, head of the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Vienna, and his colleagues detailed the discovery in a paper published Monday to the journal Scientific Reports.

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Biden Administration Announces End to Title 42 Expulsions of Illegal Immigrant Children

The White House will no longer expel unaccompanied immigrant children under a controversial pandemic-related health rule, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday, though adults and families can still be removed from the country under the provision.

The Biden administration said it would cease expelling children under the CDC policy known as Title 42, which allows the government to eject migrants from the country if they are believed to pose a public health risk connected to the pandemic.

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Tennessee Reps. David Kustoff and Diana Harshbarger Join Colleagues in Introducing the American Ammo in Defense of Ukraine Act

Tennessee Representatives David Kustoff (R-TN-08) and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) joined their colleagues in cosponsoring the American Ammo in Defense of Ukraine Act, (H.R.6981). The legislation, introduced Tuesday by Representatives Richard Hudson (R-NC-08) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN-05), will waive export criteria so donations from American ammunition manufacturers can reach Ukraine faster.

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