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.
Read the full story
Veterans coming to Connecticut’s Rocky Hill campus will be seeing changes.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday the state will be performing $5.1 million in infrastructure upgrades to the Department of Veterans Affairs facility in Hartford. The funding was approved at last week’s State Bond Commission meeting.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
On Friday, Governor Glenn Youngkin participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony, signed new legislation, and participated in a roundtable discussion all based around supporting and improving education for the state of Virginia.
Read the full story
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.”
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.”
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
The Indiana legislature on Friday passed a ban on abortion in the state, allowing exceptions only for rape and incest.
The state House passed the measure on Friday after the Senate approved the legislation in late July, sending the ban to pro-life Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, CNN reported.
Read the full story
The Labor Department’s newly released jobs report for July appeared to be good news for the economy — at first glance.
A dig below the surface, however, reveals a different picture: Americans, strapped for cash by inflation, taking on second jobs as families have less money to spend.
Read the full story
New jobs data shows that a significant number of Americans saw their income shrink last month even as prices continue to rise.
Morning Consult released new economic data showing that the number of Americans reporting lost pay or income rose from 11 to 11.7% in July.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency recently announced that it is looking for landowners interested in leasing their fields for the upcoming 2022 dove season.
Read the full story
A Tennessee trial court ruled Friday that Tennessee’s Education Scholarship Program can move forward.
A three-judge panel heard arguments earlier in the day from the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center. The two groups had asked the court to deliver an injunction against the pilot program.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
Dollywood, the theme park located in Pigeon Forge and ranked #1 in the United States by Tripadvisor, announced it is debuting its largest and longest roller coaster in the park in Spring of 2023.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
City pension rules and details can make for dull reading, but a recent auditor general’s report shows the costs of a mistake.
A compliance audit of the Waynesburg Borough Police Pension Plan form, in southwest Pennsylvania, that covered 2017-21 noted that an error led to a $75,000 overpayment, which must be repaid to the state with interest.
Read the full story
Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) is planning to spend over $2 million on a new math curriculum that emphasizes “ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity.”
First reported by the Washington Free Beacon, a Minneapolis school board meeting in mid-June included a presentation on the new K-5 math curriculum for the upcoming 2022-23 school year.
Read the full story
The highest state official overseeing education in Louisiana is expressing overwhelming support for a parent-led movement in Florida.
Dr. Cade Brumley, Louisiana’s State Superintendent of Education, sent a letter this week to Florida-based Moms for Liberty, a national advocacy group created to empower parents.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
Doctors from across state lines have begun applying to work in Ohio, which entered the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact last year.
The state received 15 applications from doctors in seven states Tuesday, the first day applications were accepted.
Read the full story
NASHVILLE, Tennessee- Grace Leer is a country music singer from Danville, California. She is an American Idol alumnus who started singing at the young age of six. She recalls entering a talent show and singing Selena’s “Dreaming of You.” That was when she fell in love with being on stage.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
Army combat veteran Brian Mast (R-FL-18) endorsed GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker in a statement released on Wednesday.
“For many years, Herschel Walker has worked to support men and women in the military, and I have confidence he will continue to do so in the U.S. Senate. He has my full endorsement, “Army combat veteran Brian Mast (R-FL-18) said.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
In Iowa, a watchdog group focused on protecting parents’ rights in education filed a lawsuit against a school district that has been accused of deliberately hiding students’ “gender transitions” from their parents.
Read the full story
The Heritage Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Wednesday, seeking who the Biden administration consulted in its decisions to limit immigration enforcement, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Read the full story
The Hill was recently in a great huff because Twitter would not remove statements by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) referring disrespectfully to gender reassignment surgery and calling Admiral Rachel Levine by her former male name. Although I’m not recommending disrespectful language, I’m also not sure that I see the reason for this indignant outburst. The Hill supposedly supports the right of letting dissenting (non-leftist) voices into the public discussion. Why is Greene not allowed to oppose gender reassignment surgery, a critical position that millions of Americans openly and passionately hold? Have we reached the point where we can no longer criticize the woke agenda without running the risk of being canceled by Twitter, at the urging of The Hill and other supposedly non-leftist websites?
Read the full story
It was time for him to fly.
FBI Director Christopher Wray, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time since July 2021, insisted he had to leave the hearing by 1:30 p.m. sharp. (It began at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday morning.)
Read the full story
A California school district is using a Planned Parenthood lesson plan on “sexual health and education” to push gender identity concepts, according to public school documents.
San Diego Unified School District partnered with Planned Parenthood on a K-12 sexual health curriculum that focuses on sexual orientation and breaking down “gender norms,” according to public school documents. The teacher training talks about sexual anatomy and how to address different questions about sexuality with students.
Read the full story
The chairman of a top House education committee along with 64 Democrats are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to maintain “race-conscious admission policies” at Harvard University and University of North Carolina, according to a brief.
Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a non-profit that fights race-based policies, petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, a ruling that kept race-conscious admissions polices in place at higher education institutions. U.S. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott of Virginia filed an amicus brief asking SCOTUS to uphold affirmative action and dismiss the cases next term.
Read the full story
School districts in Tennessee can now apply for Innovative School Model Grants that focus on job training for students.
“Through reimagining the middle or high school experience, students will have a variety of opportunities to gain real-world experience, explore various industries and available jobs, and choose a pathway best suited to their skillset,” said Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Commissioner Penny Schwinn. “I thank Governor Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly who passed this historic opportunity, all districts interested in applying for this funding, and those who helped us celebrate throughout the month.”
Read the full story
Some Department of Justice (DOJ) workers want to be paid if they take leave and travel to more permissive states to have abortions, according to CNN.
The employee-run DOJ Gender Equality Network sent an Aug. 4 letter to Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland and other high-ranking officials calling for the Biden administration to provide paid time off and fully cover travel expenses for staff going across state lines for “abortion care,” the outlet reported.
Read the full story
First, a caveat: this Trump versus DeSantis debate that pops up here and there really isn’t as big a thing as the legacy media and some of the old-school political trolls want to make it, because there is no rivalry of any real note between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.
Read the full story
FBI Director Christopher Wray claims the agency has begun multiple investigations into terrorist threats against pro-life groups and clinics in a Thursday judiciary committee meeting.
Read the full story
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten said Wednesday at a union conference that conservatives are “working consistently” to undermine teachers.
“Conservatives are working consistently to undermine educators in this country,” Weingarten said at the New York State United Teachers conference this week. “They’re in the same race as we are between fear and hope, aspiration and despair, democracy and autocracy. And they’re doing this because our members worked so hard during COVID.”
Read the full story
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is finishing model policies for school districts to give parents notice about lessons featuring “sexually explicit content,” according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
VDOE policy requires schools to post all “sexually explicit content,” including all materials used for the lessons and curriculum, on the school’s website and also requires parents to be alerted at least 30 days before the lessons take place. The policy says it is designed to help parents make decisions for their children “in accordance with their customs, faith and values.”
Read the full story
Democratic Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Thursday announced that she would support the $740 billion budget reconciliation package negotiated between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
Read the full story
Union disputes in Pittsburgh over residency requirements for city workers have weakened requirements for police and firefighters to live in the city proper.
A policy brief from the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy detailed the shift away from residency requirements. Pittsburgh voters approved an amendment to the home rule charter in 2013 to require city residency for all municipal workers. However, a union grievance weakened that requirement for firefighters.
Read the full story
Wisconsin’s Democratic lieutenant governor, who is also running for U.S. Senate, spent hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars for a police security detail despite criticizing law enforcement in the past, Fox News reported.
Mandela Barnes, who is viewed as a heavy favorite to win his Senate primary, shelled out more than $587,000 for a state police detail between Jan. 7, 2019 and Nov. 6, 2021, according to records obtained by Fox News. The sum paid for roughly 8,800 hours of police protection, 4,900 hours for overtime protection and over 200 hours of holiday protection, the outlet reported.
Read the full story
A little more than two weeks from the first day of school for students, teachers in Ohio’s largest school district voted late Thursday night to authorize a 10-day strike notice.
With contract negotiations stalled, the Columbus Education Association voted to give its strike notice. This allows it to file that notice with the State Employment Relations Board at any time. Students are scheduled to start school Aug. 24.
Read the full story