Day: August 7, 2022

Biden Admin Spend Up to $300K in Taxpayer Money to Boost LGBT ‘Social Acceptance’ in Botswana

Admin

The Biden administration is spending up to $300,000 in tax dollars to promote gay and transgender “social acceptance” in Botswana, according to a federal grant listing reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Department of State will award one U.S. organization or academic institution with the funds so they may “bolster LGBTQI+ community initiatives” and “build support networks and organizations” in the African country. The participants, which will travel to the country and spend up to 18 months there, will be tasked with promoting gay and transgender acceptance among “influential religious groups and traditional groups.”

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Commentary: The Stigmatization of the Ordinary

Admin

Over 60 years ago, we were introduced to the idea of “the two cultures” in higher education—that is, the growing rift in the academy between the humanities and the sciences, a rift wherein neither side understood the other, spoke to the other, or cared for the other. But this divide in the academy, real as it may be, is nothing compared to another great divide—the rift today between our common American culture and the culture of the academy itself.

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Commentary: Remembering Ruby Ridge

Admin

This month marks 30 years since Ruby Ridge, one of those events that, as Dan Gelernter explains, the FBI prefers Americans to ignore. That attitude invites a look at those events, as described by the victims of FBI violence. 

Army veteran Randy Weaver believed the world had become corrupt and dangerous, so he chose to be a survivalist. In 1983, Weaver built a cabin in the remote Ruby Ridge area of northern Idaho and lived there with his wife Vicky, daughters Sara and Elisheba, son Samuel, and family friend Kevin Harris. 

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Trump’s Triumphant Endorsements

Admin

The primary results from Arizona, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, and Missouri raise a fascinating question about the gap between the propaganda media analysis of President Donald Trump and the scale of his achievement as a national Republican leader.

To understand President Trump’s impact on the Republican Party, consider the most famous political purge attempt in modern times – President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s effort to topple three conservative senators from his own party in the 1938 elections.

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Analysis: Americans Will Pay for Biden’s Draining of Emergency Oil Reserves

Admin

President Joe Biden’s continuous sales of crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) could have severe consequences for taxpayers, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Biden administration announced plans last Tuesday for another wave of oil sales from the SPR, as well as a proposal to help restock the reserve, according to a White House press release. The Biden administration aims to strategically sell oil from the reserve to boost supplies and fight soaring gas prices, but the rapid draining of U.S. stockpiles could cause taxpayers to foot the bill when the department inevitably refills its reserves.

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Detroit Asks to Push Legacy Pension Payment Schedule by 10 Years

The Center Square

Facing a $131 million annual pension bill due in July 2023, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s administration filed a lawsuit to request city pension funds extend by 10 years its repayment schedule from 20 to 30 years.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court says a more extended payment plan would cost the city less over an additional decade as it approaches the “pension cliff” when it must resume payments.

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Virginia Colleges, Universities Eager to Establish K-12 Lab Schools

The Center Square

Higher education institutions from across Virginia have begun the initial planning stages to establish K-12 lab schools as they await guidance from the Virginia Department of Education.

More than 30 schools have expressed interest in creating lab schools, which would be public schools run by colleges, universities or other higher education institutions. One of the goals of the program, which was approved by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin earlier this year, is to connect students with university resources they would not otherwise have access.

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Connecticut Will Use Federal Funds to Get People Back to Work

The Center Square

Connecticut is focusing on a workforce investment designed to place state residents from underserved communities into high-demand jobs.

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday the state was awarded $23.9 million through the American Rescue Plan’s Good Jobs Challenge through the U.S. Department of Commerce. The funds will be invested into the Office of Workforce Strategy programs designed to place more than 2,000 residents into the workforce.

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Commentary: I Went to Church on Sunday

Admin

I attended church last Sunday. It was an Episcopal church in a large California coastal city—and it blew me away, even though (or because) I am a confirmed member of the Anglican Communion, and a confessing Christian.

Now, I have not been in an American Episcopal church for about a decade, due in part to COVID-19 and the fact that I was living abroad, in Tory England, for a very long spell.

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Arizona and Texas Continue to Bus Thousands of Willing Illegal Immigrants to Washington D.C., Add NYC as a Destination

Rachel Alexander

Arizona and Texas have bused over 6,100 illegal immigrants they apprehended crossing the border since May to Washington D.C.. The migrants volunteer for the trips, motivated partly by more generous laws towards the indigent in those cities.

NPR and other new outlets interviewed the migrants, confirming that they preferred to be bused out of Texas or Arizona. One reporter said, “Ronald told me that he felt welcomed in Washington in a way he just didn’t in Texas.” The city is finding resources to deal with the migrants. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser secured a FEMA grant for an international nonprofit called SAMU to offer emergency services to migrants. The Catholic Charities umbrella organization is also assisting.

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Mark Gonsalves Questions Lucy McBath on Atlanta Host City Flip-Flop

Addison Basurto

GA-07 Republican nominee Mark Gonsalves challenged his opponent, Lucy McBath, on her change in position with respect to the viability of Atlanta as a host city for large public events.

“Lucy McBath and her fellow DC Democrats don’t take the people they represent seriously. Atlanta wasn’t good enough to host the MLB All-Star game, but it’s suddenly good enough to host the DNC? Lucy advocates for her state only when it’s convenient to Democrat causes,” Gonsalves said.

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Two Studies Raise Concerns About Public School ‘Serious Violence Incidents’

The Center Square

At a time when school shootings are a concern for many Americans, serious violence incidents are also up in schools across the nation, reports two recent studies.

One study, from the National Center for Education Statistics, shows a 35% increase in serious violence incidents in K-12 public schools from the 2015-16 school year to 2019-20. Serious violence incidents include rape, attempted rape, sexual assault other than rape, threatened rape, physical attacks, fights with a weapon, threat of physical attack with a weapon, and robbery with or without a weapon.

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