Ohio’s COVID-19 Federal Funeral Expense Funds More than Doubles Since January 1

The federal government handed out more than twice as much money in COVID-19 funeral reimbursements to Ohioans over the past seven months than it did from the beginning of the program in 2020 until January.

As of Aug. 1, FEMA has given more than $2.7 billion to fulfill 420,000 applications for help with funeral costs for pandemic-related deaths since Jan. 20, 2020. In Ohio, 18,860 of those have shared more than $122.2 million.

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Biden Signs $740 Billion Climate, Tax and Health Care Bill into Law

President Joe Biden signed a $740 billion spending package into law Tuesday, the final step for the green energy, health care and tax hike bill after months of wrangling and controversy, in particular over the legislation’s hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents to audit Americans.

Democrats at the White House Tuesday touted the bill’s deficit reduction of $300 billion over the next decade. The bill includes several measures, including a $35 per month cap on insulin copays, an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, and authorization for Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices.

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New Government Spending Will Benefit Top Biden Adviser’s Consulting Clients

White House Senior adviser Anita Dunn has consulted for companies and trade groups that have benefited or stand to benefit from federal funding and is being forced to recuse herself from matters involving them, according to a financial disclosure.

Dunn has consulted through the public affairs firm SKDK during the past two years for the likes of Pfizer, AT&T, Micron and the American Clean Power Association, according to a filing reported on by CNBC Friday. Dunn, who founded the SKDK in 2004, is recused from working on issues related to past clients, a spokesman for the White House told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Commentary: Biden Misled Public on Afghanistan

Joe Biden

The frantic and deadly U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan was so disorganized that 1,450 children were evacuated without their parents, and senior leaders in Vice President Kamala Harris’ and first lady Jill Biden’s offices, as well as one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked private veteran groups for assistance evacuating certain people from the country.

In the waning days of the evacuation, more than 1,000 women and girls waited more than 24 hours on dozens of buses, desperately circling the Kabul airport and trying to avoid Taliban checkpoints. Many of them were told multiple times they were not allowed to enter the airport. Now, nearly a year since the Taliban took control of the country, fewer than one-third of them have managed to flee the country.

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Biden’s New Abortion Plan Focuses on Men

President Joe Biden’s new abortion messaging strategy will focus on the impact new restrictions could have on men, according to Reuters.

The plan is part of Biden’s three-pronged abortion strategy, which includes tailored messaging, litigation and research on state-level abortion restrictions, Reuters reported. The White House will target men with messaging about how they’ll be financially impacted by abortion restrictions, particularly if their female relatives are unable to get abortions.

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NIH-Funded Clinical Trials Failed to Comply with Federal Reporting Rule, Watchdog

The National Institutes of Health failed to insure that all clinical trials funded by the agency and required to be reported in 2019 and 2020 met federal requirements, according to an inspector general report released Tuesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General reviewed a total of 72 such trials from that period and found results were never submitted in 25, late in 12 and on time in 35.

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Tennessee Republicans React to the Total Arrests CBP Made at Southern Border in Fiscal Year 2022

In a statement released on Monday, the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced over 1.82 million arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border for Fiscal Year 2022 and several Tennessee Republican leaders were quick to voice their displeasure with the statistic.

In comparison, there were 1,662,167 arrests in Fiscal Year 2021 and 405,036 for Fiscal Year 2020, the last year of former President Trump’s term.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: It’s Inevitable, Trump Will Be Indicted

A few days after federal agents stormed Donald Trump’s castle in Palm Beach last week, Judge Beryl Howell berated a man from Georgia for his involvement in the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021.

“Listening without question to political rhetoric that leads to serious offenses, criminal conduct, is not an excuse when you’re standing in a court of law,” Howell told Glen Simon, a Trump supporter who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on restricted grounds. “You’ve got to use your common sense and your own sense of who you are and how you’d like to conduct yourself as an American citizen before just blindly doing what a political figure says.”

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14 New Officers Graduate from Chattanooga Police Academy

As some parts of the state and parts of the country see staffing shortages, the Chattanooga Police Department (CPD) announced that 14 new recruits passed through its police academy. 

14 new officers just completed their training and graduated from the Chattanooga Police Academy! Graduation was hosted by Silverdale Baptist Church,” CPD said. “These officers will now enter field training where they will ride with veteran officers. Welcome CPD Class 2022-1!”

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Senator Marco Rubio Denounces Roger Waters’ ‘Antisemitism’ in Op-Ed

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) decried what he described as Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters’ antisemitism.

“Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters describes himself as ‘pro dialogue, pro peace, [and] anti authoritarian.’…[But f]ar from standing ‘in defense of Mistress Liberty,’ Waters has become an advocate for antisemitism, Vladimir Putin’s imperialism, and the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide,” said Rubio on Tuesday, in an opinion piece published in The Floridian.

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Judge Declines Request to Block Georgia’s Fetal Heartbeat Law That Bans Some Abortions

A Fulton County Superior Court judge declined a request to block Georgia’s fetal heartbeat law that bans most abortions after six weeks.

Georgia lawmakers passed House Bill 481, the Living Infants Fairness Equality Act, in 2019. However, a federal judge initially blocked the law, commonly called the “Heartbeat Bill,” because the U.S. Supreme Court had previously upheld the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

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Gov. Whitmer Suggests School Sales Tax Holiday; GOP Calls It ‘Pandering’

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed suspending the Michigan sales tax on school supplies for the upcoming school year, drawing GOP criticism of “pandering.”

“As families gear up for the school year, they should be able to get what they need without spending too much money out of pocket,” Whitmer said in a statement. “That’s why I’m putting forward the MI Back to School Plan, which includes a proposal to temporarily suspend the sales tax on school supplies. Getting this done would lower costs for parents, teachers, and students right now, and ensure that they have the resources to succeed.”

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Minnesota Gov. Walz Declines Four Debate Invites, Jensen Says

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is declining to participate in additional debates, Republican challenger Dr. Scott Jensen said in a press release Monday.

Walz and Jensen have only debated once so far this campaign season, meeting for the first time at FarmFest in early August. Since then, the governor has declined to participate in four additional debates, one at the Minnesota State Fair, another at Game Fair, a third with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, and a fourth on TPT Almanac, according to Jensen.

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Article Shows Ellison Bashing Capitalism, Describing Fear of Crime as ‘White Hysteria’

In a brief Star Tribune commentary from nearly three decades ago, current Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison trashed capitalism for its “exploitation of labor” and accused the paper of contributing to “white hysteria.”

Alpha News obtained a photocopy of the Star Tribune edition printed on Saturday, Aug. 7, 1993. In the “counterpoint” section of commentary, the paper published a brief article by Ellison, a then-litigator who was identified as a participant in that year’s urban peace summit in St. Paul from July 14-18. One of the summit’s speakers appears to have been notorious anti-white racist and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

Ellison’s piece responded to what he perceive

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Lake Calls for Opponent Hobbs to Recuse Herself as Secretary of State During November Election

Arizona’s firebrand Republican gubernatorial candidate is calling on her Democrat opponent, who is also the Secretary of State and in charge of elections, to recuse herself from the race.

“…Over a year ago we said [Secretary of State Katie Hobbs] should recuse herself,” Lake said on The Charlie Kirk show alongside Republican U.S. Senate nominee Blake Masters. “I mean, she’s supposed to be helping to make sure we have fair elections, right? And she’s called half of Arizona – she called the Republicans – Nazis.”

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Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Funds Raised to $100 Million

During a visit to the Whitehall Police Department this week, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) indicated he will expand funding for the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program from $58 million to $100 million, citing a nationwide spike in violence.

According to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2011 and 2020 Uniform Crime Reports, homicides in the Buckeye State rose sharply in the decade between those years. Five hundred murders occurred in Ohio in 2011 and 820 took place in 2020. Regional figures also show violence worsening, with one poll of Franklin County police chiefs showing that aggravated assault increased by 36 percent in that jurisdiction between 2020 and 2021.

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Pennsylvania Legislator Proposes Abortion Insurance Mandate and Training Program

Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D-PA-Philadelphia) proposed two bills to promote abortion in the Keystone state: an abortion training program and a bill to require insurers to cover abortion without cost sharing. 

In a memorandum seeking cosponsors for her training measure, the democratic socialist representative from south Philadelphia indicated the legislation would bestow funding on the state Department of Health to provide medical professionals with up-to-date abortion instruction.

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AG Miyares Says Congressional Budget Proposal Would Eliminate Virginia Army National Guard Counter Drug Analysts Positions

Attorney General Jason Miyares is warning that the latest congressional budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023 will cut funding for the Virginia Army National Guard (VANG) Counter Drug unit program by about ten percent, eliminating several positions.

“The current proposed budget reductions would result in the loss of five VNG Counter Drug Unit analysts across the Commonwealth, one of which would be lost in Southwest Virginia. The loss of this analyst in SWVA would leave only two VANG Counter Drug analysts to provide support for the 52 counties in the Western District of Virginia. As you are both aware, this region is already underserved, underfunded, and has long been nearest the epicenter of the opioid crisis in our country,” Miyares said in a letter sent to Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA) as well as Representatives Ben Cline (R-VA-06) and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA-10).

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PolitiFact Fact-Checks Stacey Abrams’ ‘Gross Lie’ About Brian Kemp

Liberal “fact-checker” PolitiFact denounced a claim made in a Saturday statement by Stacey Abrams (D) that Governor Brian Kemp (R) and Georgia’s House Bill 481 stipulates a warrant for the arrest of women who suffer a miscarriage.

“Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has not said he wants women investigated or punished for pregnancies that end in miscarriage. A six-week abortion law he signed said miscarriages are legal,” PolitiFact said.

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Arizona Gun Owner Detains Murder Suspect

A good guy with a gun in Arizona last week detained a suspect who allegedly intentionally ran another man over with his car. 

“Mesa Police Officers arrested 61-year-old John Lagana after he used his vehicle to run over and kill a man in east Mesa,” the Mesa Police Department (MPD) said. “The victim was pronounced dead at the scene and was identified as 63-year-old Christopher Heimer.”

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Arizona Leaders Respond to CBP’s July Southern Border Encounter Statistics

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently shared the total number of encounters at the southern border in July, and several of Arizona’s leaders have spoken on the new numbers, including Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar (r-AZ-04).

“For the seventeenth straight month, more than 150,000 illegal aliens crossed the southern border including [nearly] 200,000 illegal aliens in July 2022. Since Biden and the open border democrats took over in January 2021, they have facilitated an invasion of our sovereign borders of more than 4.2 million illegal aliens. Included in this invasion are terrorists – over five dozen documented so far, drug traffickers, sex traffickers and common criminals,” Gosar said.

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Republicans in Arizona’s Largest Legislative District Censure Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, Call for His Removal from Office

Republicans in Arizona’s Legislative District 3, which is the largest legislative district in the state located in northern Maricopa County around north Scottsdale, issued two censures on August 12. The LD3 GOP censured the FBI for raiding former President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, and censured Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates for denying election fraud and opposing Republican candidates for office who believe there was. They called for him to resign and for the Maricopa County Republican Party to encourage Republicans to vote him out of office. 

The censure of Gates began, “Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates has made and continues to make disparaging public comments about Republican Arizona Representatives and Republican candidates during interviews, all while seeming to support Democrat candidates running against them.” 

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Vast Majority of Illinois School Districts Have Opted Out of Radical Sex Ed Standards

The grassroots website Awake-Illinois is reporting that only 23 of 860 school districts in the state have decided to adopt radical sex education standards, based on a national model, while 536 districts have thus far opted out.

Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) signed SB 818 into law in August 2021, with his office claiming the standards are “voluntary” and will “emphasize health, safety, and inclusivity with age-appropriate resources.”

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John Solomon’s Statement Regarding Access to Trump Records at National Archives

Statement of Just the News founder John Solomon regarding access to National Archives materials from the Trump presidency:

There has been wild and irresponsible speculation in the news media about my authorization to view documents from the Trump presidency at the National Archives. While I have addressed this issue previously on the record with reporters and on my own news site, I am offering the following statement to reporters who seem to have missed or ignored my earlier reporting.

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Trump Calls for Release of Full Affidavit Used for FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Raid

Former President Trump is calling for the full release of the affidavit submitted with the warrant allowing the FBI to raid his Mar-a-Lago estate – after the Justice Department asked the document to remain sealed.

“There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States … by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of ‘Justice’ but, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN,” Trump wrote late Monday evening on his platform Truth Social.

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Governor Bill Lee: Tennessee Has Not Approved Any School Education Savings Accounts for Families

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) said Friday the state has not yet approved any school Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) for families seeking to choose education options outside of public schools.

“There are about 250 families that have actually applied (but) those approvals have not been made yet,” Lee said according to an updated report Saturday from the Associated Press (AP). “The process is underway.”

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