Month: June 2022

Commentary: Harvard Won’t Say If It Supports Diversity of Thought

RealClearWire

In the summer of 2020, after the sensationalized killing of George Floyd burned the words “Black Lives Matter” onto America’s streets and television screens, American institutions of higher learning turned to their offices of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to pledge loyalty to the African American community with cookie-cutter press releases and affirmations. Harvard University, known as the beacon of American higher education, led the way.

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Arizona State Senator Speaks Against Gun Control Bill: ‘Criminals Do Not Follow Gun Laws’

Neil Jones

Arizona State Sen. Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) spoke against a proposed suspension of Senate rules to revote on a previously failed gun control Senate Bill (SB) on Tuesday.

“The reason why this bill should not be supported is because it will stop law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves. Criminals do not follow gun laws. They will not abide by this law. Only law-abiding citizens will abide by this law, so you will simply restrict more opportunities to protect people,” said Petersen when explaining his vote.

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Miyares Adds Chesterfield County Supervisor Haley to Office of the Attorney General

Eric Burk

Attorney General Jason Miyares has appointed Chesterfield County Supervisor Leslie Haley as his Deputy Attorney General for Government Operations and Transactions. Haley is one of several candidates who lost the GOP nomination for attorney general to Miyares in 2021.

A Friday press release announced that Haley has left her Chesterfield role and will start in Miyares’ office Monday.

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Releases Endorsements for the 2022 State Election

Neil Jones

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) recently released endorsements for the 2022 Arizona State Election.

“It is critical that Arizona elects leaders and policymakers who are able to articulate and stand up for individual liberties, free-market policies, and conservative values. We believe that these candidates are up to the challenge,” said Scot Mussi, AFEC club president.

AFEC endorsed 24 candidates from multiple legislative districts (LD) across Arizona. Five are running for State Senate, and the rest for the Arizona House of Representatives. The Arizona election is on November 8.

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Georgia Gov. Kemp Appoints New State Election Board Chair

Addison Basurto

Governor Brian Kemp tapped William S. Duffey, Jr. to be the next Chair of the State Elections Board.

“I announced the appointment of Judge William Duffey as Chair of the State Elections Board. With vast experience & as someone who upholds the highest ethical standards, he will help to ensure our elections continue to be secure, accessible, & fair,” said Kemp in a tweet on Friday.

William S. Duffey Jr, was a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia before his retirement in 2018. Before he received a post on the federal bench, Duffey was the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

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Two Indicted on Dark Web Fentanyl Conspiracy Charges Face 10 years in Prison, $10 Million in Fines

Addison Basurto
fentanyl pills on the hood of a vehicle

The U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of Georgia has indicted two men on federal drug and money laundering charges for their participation in the facilitation of the importation and distribution of illegal narcotics, including fentanyl. 

“Pills in the underground drug market and on the Dark Web are often diluted with dangerous and deadly substances like fentanyl, as was the case in this investigation,” said Robert J. Murphy, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta Field Division.

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Average U.S. Gas Price Surges to $4.85 a Gallon

The Center Square

In what has become a seemingly every day occurrence, gas prices rose to a new record high Sunday as the national average approaches $5 a gallon.

Nine states already have surpassed the $5 threshold, and several others are just pennies away.

According to AAA, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline reached $4.85 Sunday, up an additional three cents from Saturday and 24 cents from last week.

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More than $100 Million in Assistance to Help ‘Hometown Heroes’ Purchase Homes

The Center Square

Eligible Floridians can now apply for mortgage and other assistance through the Florida Hometown Heroes Housing Program in celebration of National Homeownership Month in June.

The program was created to make home ownership affordable for eligible frontline community workers including law enforcement officers, firefighters, educators, health-care professionals, childcare employees, and active military or veterans.

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Biden’s Climate Office Is So Dysfunctional Even Leftists Want to Abolish It: Report

Admin

Democrats and far-left climate activists have privately complained in recent weeks that the White House climate office is increasingly blocking key priorities, Politico reported.

The White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy has prioritized politics ahead of actual progress on its own climate agenda, nine anonymous Democrats both inside and outside the White House told Politico. Some activists have even suggested that the office, headed by President Joe Biden’s climate czar Gina McCarthy, should be abolished altogether.

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Philadelphia DA Demands Lawmakers ‘Boycott NRA’ After Shootings on Crowded Street Leave Three Dead, 11 Wounded

Admin

Gun violence erupted in one of Philadelphia’s most celebrated neighborhoods for nightlife on Saturday night, just a day after nine separate shootings in the City of Brotherly Love reportedly injured at least eight people and killed a pregnant woman.

Three are dead and 11 injured in multiple shootings on South Street around 11:30 pm despite a heavy police presence on the perfect weather evening, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The dead were identified as Kristopher Minners, 22; Alexis Quinn, 27; and Gregory “Japan” Jackson, 34.

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California Court Declares Bees Are Actually Fish

Admin

A California appeals court ruled Tuesday that bees can be classified as fish under the state’s Endangered Species Act (CESA) in a blow to agriculture groups.

The Sacramento-based three-judge panel ruled that four species of bumble bees found across California are technically fish since they are invertebrates, according to the decision in a case concerning the species’ protected status that pitted the state government against agriculture groups. The court added that the term fish shouldn’t be confined to “aquatic” invertebrates under the CESA.

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Campus Speech Police Update: One Professor Investigated for Tweet Reclaims Job as Another Loses His

Admin

After more than four months in limbo, constitutional law professor Ilya Shapiro has been cleared to take the reins of Georgetown Law’s Center for the Constitution.

The university had placed the libertarian legal scholar on paid leave in January for his clumsily worded “lesser black woman” tweet about President Biden’s pledge to consider only black women in his search for a successor to retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

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Commentary: America’s Recycling Program Failed – and Scarred the Environment

Admin

In March 2019, The New York Times ran a shocking story exploring why many prominent US cities were abandoning their recycling programs.

“Philadelphia is now burning about half of its 1.5 million residents’ recycling material in an incinerator that converts waste to energy,” Times business writer Michael Corkery reported. “In Memphis, the international airport still has recycling bins around the terminals, but every collected can, bottle and newspaper is sent to a landfill.”

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Lamont: Taxpayers Will Help Aspiring Teachers Earn Certifications

The Center Square

Connecticut is spending taxpayers dollars to help defray testing costs for teachers, Gov. Ned Lamont said.

The governor announced that $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding will be used to help aspiring teachers defray the costs of certification-related testing in the state over the course of the next two years.

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As Food Prices Soar with No End in Sight, Americans Change Habits

The Center Square

Americans are changing their shopping habits because of soaring food prices. And disruptions in the international farming community have some worried about the food supply heading into 2023.

The BMO Real Financial Progress Index, a quarterly survey from BMO and Ipsos, shows that 42% of surveyed adults “are changing how they shop for groceries,” including “opting for cheaper items, avoiding brand names and buying only the essentials.”

The report found “46% are either dining out less or consciously spending less when dining out.”

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GOP to Go on Offensive, Portray Jan. 6 Probe as ‘Unconstitutional and Illegitimate’

Admin

As Democrats ramp up hearings and secure a second Trump advisor’s arrest for contempt, Republicans are finally launching a counteroffensive to the Jan. 6 committee designed to portray the investigation as “unconstitutional and illegitimate” and to put a focus on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s failures in protecting the Capitol.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the third ranking lead in the House gave a preview of the strategy during a radio interview with Breitbart News on Saturday.

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Report: As Overdose Deaths Rise in Pennsylvania, Fentanyl Displaces Heroin

The Center Square

Fentanyl dominates Pennsylvania and has surpassed heroin as the major opioid in the commonwealth, posing greater health risks to those who use it and creating a bigger problem for law enforcement.

That’s according to a new report from the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office warning the public of rising overdose deaths and the threat opioids pose to public health.

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Del. Dawn Adams: Budget Legalizes Marijuana Retail ‘Straight Up’

Eric Burk

Delegate Dawn Adams (D-Richmond) was among a bipartisan group of seven delegates who voted against the budget on Wednesday. Adams criticized the Youngkin administration’s policies for state employees, but focused on language in the budget proposal that fails to adequately regulate THC in retail marijuana.

“We are now legalizing retail marijuana straight up. That’s what we’re doing. It’s just we’re going to call it hemp. And you can call it hemp, but it’s marijuana, and specifically until you have regulations, that does of marijuana that is now legal in retail stores can be anything as long as they put it on the package,” Adams, a nurse practitioner, said in a speech to the House of Delegates.

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DeSantis Vetoes Bills He Says Waste Taxpayer Money

The Center Square

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed two bills and several lines of another as part of what he said is his ongoing commitment to fiscal stewardship.

The bills in question were passed by the legislature during the regular session earlier this year. As the bills are sent to the governor for his consideration, he said he’s been going through them to exercise his line-item veto authority.

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Michigan Railroads Get $30 Million Federal Grant

The Center Square

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced $368 million in rail infrastructure grants to 46 projects in 32 states, including about $30 million for two Michigan rail projects.

“Americans deserve a world-class rail system that allows people and goods to get where they need to go more quickly and affordably, while reducing traffic and pollution on our roads,” Buttigieg said at the Mackinac Policy Conference. “We’re proud to award these grants to improve passenger rail for riders and strengthen the freight rail that makes our supply chains and our economy work.”

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Ohio’s Capital Budget Riddled with Incentives, Pork Projects

The Center Square

Working late into the night this week, the Ohio General Assembly passed its traditional capital budget, spending billions on statewide initiatives, business and industry incentives and pet projects for lawmakers.

House Bill 687 included money for state parks and the incentives for Intel’s planned $20 billion investment in two chip-making plants in central Ohio. Gov. Mike DeWine called the bill an historic investment.

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California Reparations Report Demands Tree Planting in ‘Black Neighborhoods’ for ‘Shade Equity’

Admin

A report on alleged systemic racism released Wednesday and greenlit by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for the planting of trees statewide “to create shade equity” and reduce “heat islands in black neighborhoods.”

The 500-page report was released after Newsom signed legislation in 2020 forming a nine-member task force to “inform Californians about slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations.” It describes tree demolishing in black neighborhoods for highway construction and says climate change makes these areas hotter.

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Virginia Budget Deal Cuts School Choice Program by More than Half

The Center Square

The Virginia budget deal, which passed both chambers of the General Assembly, would cut funding for a school choice tax credit program by more than half of its current funding.

The Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credits Program provides a 65% tax credit for individuals or businesses who make donations for scholarships to students so they can attend certain private schools and nonpublic preschool programs. Current law caps the state funding for the program at $25 million per year, but a provision in the budget proposal would reduce that cap to only $12 million per year.

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Georgia Senate Committees to Study Growth of Electric Vehicles Statewide and HBCU Expansion

The Center Square

Several state Senate committees will explore topics ranging from the electrification of transportation to how the state can support growth at historically Black colleges and universities.

The Joint Study Committee on the Electrification of Transportation, established by Senate Resolution 463 and running until the end of the year, will, in part, explore how to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the state. Georgia officials have announced more than 20 EV-related projects since 2020.

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Biden Administration Department of Health and Human Services Announces New Environmental Justice Office

Admin

The Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is announcing the creation of a new “Office of Environmental Justice,” meant to focus on so-called “global warming’s” impact on minorities.

As reported by Just The News, the new office will determine ways to “better protect the health of disadvantaged communities and vulnerable populations on the frontlines of pollution and other environmental health issues.”

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New York GOP Rep. Chris Jacobs Will Not Seek Re-Election After Gun Control Support Backlash

Admin

New York GOP Rep. Chris Jacobs announced on Friday that he would not seek re-election after his support for an assault weapons ban generated backlash within his own party.

Jacobs announced last week, in the wake of a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., that he would back a federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, according to the New York Times. Jacobs represents the 27th Congressional District of New York, which includes some of the Buffalo suburbs.

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Government Report Admits Dominion Voting Machines Are Vulnerable in 16 States

Admin

A government agency has claimed that voting machines used in at least 16 states by an infamous vendor have software vulnerabilities that could compromise them in future elections.

According to ABC News, the report by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) admitted that the machines, provided by Dominion Voting Systems, are susceptible to hacking if the current vulnerabilities are not addressed. The report details at least nine specific weaknesses and suggests several measures to prevent further exploitation of these flaws.

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Universal Licensing Netted Arizona Several Thousand Jobs, Study Finds

The Center Square

Arizona took a nation-leading step into universal occupational licensing. A new study says it’s resulted in significant job growth. 

In 2019, Arizona became the first state in the country with universal license recognition; if someone has a work license in another state, they can use that license in Arizona. Since then, 4,723 new work licenses have been issued under the law, according to a study conducted by the Common Sense Institute and the Goldwater Institute.

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Professors in Viral Clip from Daily Wire’s ‘What is a Woman?’ Film Teaches at University of Tennessee

Peter D'Abrosca

A professor featured in a viral clip from Daily Wire’s film “What is a Woman?” is an Associate Professor and the Chairman of the Interdisciplinary Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville. 

In the clip, which has been viewed at least two million times on Twitter alone, Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh asks Dr. Patrick Grzanka to define the term “woman.” 

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Tennessee Republican Party Immediately Appealing Liberal Democrat Activist Judge’s Decision Reinstating Disqualified TN-5 Candidate

Aaron Gulbransen

Tennessee Republican Party (TRP) Chairman Scott Golden exclusively told The Tennessee Star on Saturday morning, that the TRP will be filing an appeal of Chancery Court Judge Russell Perkins’ ruling ordering Robby Starbuck on the ballot on Monday.

“We’re disappointed with the judge’s ruling, obviously, and we’ll be filing an appeal on Monday,” said Golden.

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Commentary: Yes, They’re Coming for Your Guns

Admin
handgun with ammo

Perhaps, like me, you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the un-American Left is ignorant of many things. But then they open their mouths and remove all doubt. 

The most recent example comes from the gaping maw of Elie Mystal on MSNBC, where he claimed that, like everything else in this country apparently, the Second Amendment is the creation of long-dead, racist white supremacists who supported it for the sole purpose of putting down slave revolts keeping the enslaved populations in bondage. Of course, there is as much “truth” to that as there is in the 1619 Project. Progressives use such revisionist history to discredit the founders so that they can dismantle the founders’ republic.

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Families Can Celebrate Tennessee’s Birthday This Saturday at the Tennessee State Museum and the State Library

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee State Museum and Tennessee State Library & Archives will host free events Saturday where families can celebrate Tennessee’s 226th birthday.

The Statehood Day Celebration hosted by the Tennessee State Library & Archives will have live music, a children’s scavenger hunt, games, crafts, a historic photography demonstration, historical reenactments, and an open house for the Early Literacy Center at the Library & Archives.

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