Trump Says His Mar a Lago Compound Has Been Raided by FBI: ‘Under Siege’

Former President Donald Trump on Monday evening issued a statement saying that FBI agents had raided his Florida estate in Mar a Lago, describing his home as being “under siege.”

“The are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a statement. “Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”

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Olivia Newton-John Has Died

Singer and actress Olivia Newton-John died on Monday at her Southern California ranch at the age of 73, her family announced.

“Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer. Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made in her memory to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund,” her husband John Easterling wrote on Facebook.

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Booming Jobs Report Masks Uptick in Men Leaving the Labor Force

Women’s employment increased markedly from June to July, but the total number of employed working-aged men actually dropped in that same time span according to a July jobs report released Friday.

There were 170,000 fewer employed men in July than June, whereas 349,000 more women were employed in July, according to Yahoo Finance. Women’s unemployment dipped to 3.1% in July from 3.3% in June while the same figure for men remained steady at 3.2% from June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ July 2022 Employment Situation report found.

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Senators Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn Lambaste Passage of ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ Warn Higher Prices, Taxes are Coming

U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) criticized President Joe Biden and their Democrat colleagues on the passage of the $740 billion “Inflation Reduction Act” Sunday. As expected, no Republicans supported the measure, and so by a 51 to 50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote.

The Inflation Reduction Act, described by Forbes as “a slimmed-down version of the Build Back Better bill,” allows the government to control the price of prescription medications, contains funding for fighting climate change, would implement larger taxes for wealthy corporations, expand the IRS by some 87,000 agents, and more more.

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Robby Starbuck’s Write-In Campaign Finishes with Less Than 5 Percent of the TN-5 GOP Primary Vote

Robby Starbuck has achieved a maximum of 2,595 write-in votes, or roughly 4 percent of the total, putting him in fifth place for the August 4 Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat.

Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles handily won the primary with nearly 37 percent of the vote and 57,275 votes were cast in the primary for nine candidates who qualified for the ballot.

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U.S. Senate Passes Massive Tax and Spend Bill Targeting Carbon Emissions, Prescription Drug Costs, More

The U.S. Senate on Sunday passed a $740 billion new taxing and spending bill that seeks to combat climate change and allow the government to control the price of prescription medications, among other things.

No Republicans voted for the bill, named the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, in the divided 50-50 Senate, forcing Vice President Kamala Harris to break the tie. The measure must return to the House for a concurrence vote after senators passed several amendments Sunday. The House is expected to take the bill up again on Friday. If the House concurs, President Joe Biden has indicated he will sign it.

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Possible Rule Change Could Refund Airline Passengers Who Experience Flight Problems

The U.S. Department of Transportation proposed a new rule this week requiring airlines to offer customers refunds if their flight is canceled or significantly changed.

The change would require airlines to refund travelers if their flight’s arrival or departure time changed by three hours or more for domestic flights, or six or more hours for international flights.

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Commentary: The Evolving Style Sheets of Big Media Institutionalize Political Bias

Many publications provide their writers with “style sheets,” a list of dos and don’ts with respect to things like diction, punctuation, grammar, and linguistic etiquette. My personal list of “dos” includes the Oxford comma (apples, oranges, and pears: that last comma is requisite) and, in most cases, using the singular masculine pronoun after collective nouns like “everyone” and “someone” (e.g., “Everyone likes to have his [not ‘their’] own way”).

Style sheet prescriptions (and proscriptions) can be more elaborate, and can affect substantive as well as stylistic matters. Over the last year or so, I have noticed an innovation, at once stylistic and substantive, that has taken root throughout the regime media. It is this: whenever referring to Donald Trump and the 2020 presidential election, be sure to insert editorial comments to the effect that any concerns about the fairness of that election are “baseless” or the result of “lies.”

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Video Shows Children in Texas Taking Oath to be ‘Martyrs’ for Iran’s Supreme Leader

Avideo of kids at an Islamic center in Houston, Texas pledging their allegiance to the supreme leader of Iran is setting off alarm bells among experts, who are warning this has all the signs of the Iranian regime’s global indoctrination efforts to spread its revolutionary ideology and recruit operatives abroad.

The viral video was initially posted to YouTube and Facebook last week by the Islamic Education Center of Houston (IEC), which organized the event calling on parents to bring children aged 4-14, according to its social media pages. The original video posts were later removed, but clips remain online.

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Georgia Officials Want Federal Help with Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

The Georgia Department of Transportation hopes to secure federal funding to pay for a network of electric vehicle charging stations across The Peach State.

GDOT has submitted the state’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan required to tap into federal funding for developing the network. Georgia officials expect to secure $135 million from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.

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Pennsylvania House Democrat Introduces Bill to Create Gun Purchase Permits

Pennsylvania state Representative Emily Kinkead (D-Pittsburgh) announced on Friday that she will sponsor a bill to require residents to obtain permits to buy guns. 

Her legislation is a companion to a Senate measure authored by Art Haywood (D-Philadelphia). The senator began touting his legislation the day after the May school shooting in Uvalde, TX in which an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two teachers. 

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Democrats to Deny Free Lunches for Christian School That Won’t Support LGBT Mandates

The Biden Administration is preparing to engage in political persecution against a Christian school in Florida that will not accept the administration’s new pro-LGBTQ mandates, even though the school has already qualified for a religious exemption.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the school, Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa, is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The school is filing a lawsuit against the Biden Administration and Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is enforcing the federal mandate dictating that schools must accept pro-LGBT policies, or else lose lunch funding.

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Ohio Police to Get $5 Million for Body Cameras

Ohio police agencies will soon be eligible to receive $5 million in new funding for body cameras and related equipment, according to Gov. Mike DeWine (R).

Many law-enforcement organizations in the Buckeye State have wanted to equip their officers with video recorders but costs have reportedly proved prohibitive for many localities. This led DeWine to launch the Ohio Body-Worn Camera Grant Program which awarded its first $4.7 million in January. 

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Trump: ‘America Is on the Edge of an Abyss’

Donald Trump on Saturday delivered stinging rebukes of the Biden administration at the Dallas Conservative Political Action Conference, one of a continuing series of indications that the still-popular former president has set his sights on a return to the White House for 2024.

Trump during his speech declared that the U.S. “is being destroyed more from the inside than the out,” and that the country “is on the edge of an abyss, and our movement is the only force on earth that can save it.”

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Regional Foundation Awarded $9.2M in COVID Relief Funds from ARPA Competition

The Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber Foundation is one of 32 organization splitting $500 million in the Good Jobs Challenge.

The Ignite Initiative Regional Workforce Training System is receiving $9.6 million. It focuses on training underserved communities in the border region of North Dakota and Minnesota that include people of color, veterans, immigrants and formerly incarcerated individuals, according to a release from the foundation. The training is for positions in the agriculture, manufacturing and technology industries.

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The Phoenix Aviation Department Launches Airport Worker Child Care Scholarship Program

The Phoenix Aviation Department launched its City of Phoenix Airport Worker Child Care Scholarship Program Aug. 2.

The program supports workers in the aviation industry who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, according to a press release. A $4 million investment with funds from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act strategic plan will fund the child care program for workers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

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Commentary: Federal Reserve’s False Assumptions Push the Economy into Recession

Federal Reserve

Based on its assumptions, the Federal Reserve is doing everything right by raising interest rates rapidly after years of easy money. It will certainly succeed in its goal of “cooling down” the economy.

Unfortunately, the Fed’s basic assumptions are wrong, and it has already begun reducing Americans’ standard of living, as indicated by this week’s Commerce Department report showing the nation’s gross domestic product fell for the second quarter in a row, meeting the common definition of a recession.

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‘They’re Not Gatekeepers Anymore’: DeSantis Spokeswoman Pushaw Puts Media on the Defense

Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been putting Democrats and the corporate press on defense by refusing to play along with what she says are partisan narratives.

Pushaw has garnered national attention for her active and sometimes aggressive interactions with journalists. Her strategy may serve as a playbook for conservatives who are ready to reject the media’s framing and communicate with the public on their own terms.

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