Queen Elizabeth II Dead at 96

Queen Elizabeth II passed away on Thursday at the age of 96, surrounded by family at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace.

Officials announced Tuesday that the queen was under medical supervision, and her family traveled to her summer residence in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to be by her side.

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Bannon Surrenders to New York Authorities on Fraud, Money Laundering Charges Related to Wall Fundraising

Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon surrendered Thursday to New York authorities, on fraud and money laundering charges in connection to fundraising efforts to complete the southern U.S. border wall.

Bannon and unnamed others in the fundraising effort in New York and elsewhere from about Feb. 4, 2019, to roughly Oct. 10 of that year “knowing that the property involved in one and more financial transactions, to wit, money donated to WeBuildTheWall, Inc. through a crowdfunding website, represented the proceeds of a Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, conducted one and more such financial transactions,” according the an eight-page indictment obtained by CNN. 

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Washington’s Largest School District Goes on Strike, Delaying Start of School for Thousands

Teachers of the largest school district in Washington are on strike on what should have been the first day of classes after rejecting a deal that would have kept them working in classrooms.

The Seattle Education Association (SEA) could not come to an agreement with Seattle Public Schools (SPS), which has roughly 50,000 students, in Seattle, Washington, causing its members to strike Wednesday morning, SPS announced on its website. The SEA rejected the school district’s memorandum of understanding which would have kept teachers working under their current agreement and allowed students to return to school on time as contract negotiations continued.

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Commentary: Pennsylvania Democratic Senate Candidate John Fetterman Is Soft on Crime

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, maintains that he agrees with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a socialist, on “virtually every issue.” Sanders, in turn, has endorsed Fetterman and appeared at events with him. But if Fetterman is taking his economic advice from the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party, where is he getting counsel on dealing with violent crime? Sadly for Pennsylvania voters, Fetterman seems to be taking his lead from the City of Brotherly Love’s Larry Krasner, district attorney of Philadelphia.

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Commentary: The Two Most Destructive Frauds in History

It’s getting harder and harder not to abandon faith in the institutions we once regarded as respectable and relied on to keep the country moving. It is harder still to avoid rejecting unequivocally what has become their core governing premises, which seem to be entirely different from what we once believed them to be. 

So here goes: the entire “climate crisis” is an opportunistic hoax; the entire “equity” (along with “diversity” and “inclusion”) movement is a corrupt fraud. This hoax and this fraud have permeated and overwhelmed every formerly respectable sector of American life, with disastrous consequences we’ve only just begun to feel.

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Biden Admin Must Produce Docs About Alleged Collusion with Social Media Giants, Court Rules

A U.S. district court Tuesday ordered the Justice Department (DOJ) to produce communications between National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and social media companies.

Republican Attorneys General Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the administration in May for allegedly colluding with social media companies or coercing them to suppress disfavored content on platforms using “disinformation,” “misinformation” and “malinformation” labels in violation of the First Amendment. District Judge Terry Doughty mandated as part of the case Tuesday that communications between the companies and Fauci and Jean-Pierre be provided based on Schmitt and Landry’s requests.

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Former Trump U.N. Ambassador Announces Run in Kentucky Gubernatorial Race

Kelly Knight Craft, a former senior diplomat in the Trump administration, has announced on Twitter a campaign for Governor of Kentucky in the state’s 2023 gubernatorial race.

“I’m running for governor because I know our best days are ahead of us,” Craft said in her tweeted video announcement. “This movement is for all of us who still believe that we can lead in education, that the government doesn’t get a seat at our kitchen table and that our kids should grow up in safe neighborhoods.”

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The Border Crisis Is Overwhelming the U.S. Asylum System

Crowd of immigrants

The record number of illegal migrants that have entered the United States since President Joe Biden took office are burdening the country’s immigration system, The New York Times reported.

Since the start of the Biden administration, migrants have flowed into the U.S. in record numbers, with 3,463,430 migrants encountered at the southern border between January 2021 and August 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).  The high number of migrants entering the country are taxing the U.S. asylum system by increasing wait times and forcing cities and states to take on the burden of supporting them.

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The FBI Secretly Pressured Americans to Waive Away Their Gun Rights

The FBI secretly pressured Americans into signing forms that relinquish their rights to own, purchase or even use firearms, according to a trove of internal documents and communications obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The forms were presented by the FBI to people at their homes and in other undisclosed locations, according to bureau documents unearthed through the Freedom of Information Act by the firearm rights group Gun Owners of America (GOA) and shared with the DCNF. At least 15 people between 2016 and 2019 signed the secret forms, which ask signatories to declare themselves as either a “danger” to themselves or others or lacking “mental capacity adequately to contract or manage” their lives.

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Project Veritas Exposes New York City K-4 Assistant Principal: Candidates Who Don’t Answer ‘Diversity’ Question Right ‘Automatic Not Hire’

An assistant principal of Neighborhood Charter Schools in Harlem with the New York City Department of Education revealed in a Project Veritas (PV) undercover video that he asks a “very specific” question of prospective hires in the area of “Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI),” and “if people don’t answer that question right, they are an automatic Not Hire.”

In this third episode of PV’s education series titled “The Secret Curriculum,” Todd Soper is heard telling the undercover journalist that his teachers are expected to be fully indoctrinated in DEI concepts which, as parents have discovered, are central to Critical Race Theory (CRT).

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Commentary: Elite America’s Acceptance of Blatant Anti-White Racism

In a 2021 lecture at Yale University titled “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind,” psychiatrist Aruna Khilanani described her “fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step, like I did the world a favor.”

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Chicago Children’s Hospital Partners with Local School Districts to Push Radical Gender Ideology

Chicago’s largest children’s hospital is working with local government school districts to provide training materials that promote radical gender theory and LGBTQ activism.

Education researcher and author Christopher Rufo reported at the New York Post Monday he obtained documents from a whistleblower that show Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago has provided school administrators throughout the Chicago area with gender theory and LGBTQ activist materials to be distributed to teachers, administrators, and staff for ongoing employee training programs.

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Judge’s Order Exposes FBI Sloppiness, Excessive Evidence Collection at Trump Home

A criminal probe “requested by the incumbent president.” The seizure of clothing, medical records, tax records and 500 pages of attorney-client privileged documents not covered by a warrant. The sharing of privileged documents with investigators.

More than simply appointing a special master to referee an evidence dispute, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon exposed this week a Justice Department search of former President Donald Trump’s home that was initiated by his chief Democrat rival, that was carried out so sloppily that it violated the “least intrusive” mandate in the FBI agent’s manual, and that failed to keep legally-protected materials from falling into the hands of investigators.

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Lack of Affordable Housing Remains a Problem in Pennsylvania

Housing shortages and rising rents are a national problem, and the process for building more housing, especially affordable housing, is only one of many barriers.

In Pennsylvania, rents have increased mainly in the southeast and central parts of the state. As The Center Square previously reported, a report from pro-housing group Up for Growth estimated Pennsylvania has underproduced 98,000 units of housing. Statewide, rents increased by 14% from 2020 to 2021.

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Tenured Professors Strike at University in Michigan After Contract Negotiations Fail

More than 500 professors at Eastern Michigan University went on strike Wednesday after their contract concluded on Aug. 31, according to a statement by the professors’ union.

Nearly 91% of the tenured and tenured track faculty in the Eastern Michigan University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (EMU-AAUP) voted to strike Tuesday following the start of classes on Aug. 29, according to a statement by the union. Students have been advised to continue to go to class as normal and wait to see if their professor shows up, as the strike commences.

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Buckeye Institute Report Offers Solutions to Ohio Students’ Learning Loss

Responding to major learning loss suffered by Ohio students as a result of the school closures following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute recommended policy solutions this week to help students regain what the education system did not provide. 

On March 30, 2020, Republican Governor Mike DeWine ordered all in-person K-12 schooling closed throughout the state for the remainder of that school year. Students instead participated in “virtual classrooms” wherein they would watch their teachers’ instructions online. During the 2020-21 school year, many school districts continued to keep school buildings closed at least part-time. 

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TPUSA Will Not Host Event in Williamson County Schools

After backlash from far-left groups, Williamson County Schools has explained that it will not host a Turning Point USA [TPUSA] event at Nolensville High School later this month. 

“There is false information circulating about a Turning Point USA event that has been advertised to be held at Nolensville High on September 21. That event was never approved to be held at NHS and [TPUSA] has been asked to remove all references to Nolensville High,” Williamson County Schools said in a statement on Twitter. 

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Special Election to Replace Del. Keam Set for January 10

Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) called a special election in House District 35; the winner of the election will finish out former Delegate Mark Keam’s (D-Fairfax) term after he took a job with the Biden administration. In a Wednesday press release, Gilbert said he had signed the Writ of Election for January 10, which is the day before the 2023 General Assembly session convenes.

“This date not only gives the voters of the district an adequate opportunity to examine the candidates, but also ensures that the 35th District will have a voice in the 2023 Regular Session,” he said.

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Connecticut Task Force Begins Examining Early Childhood Workforce Concerns

Licensure requirements, professional development opportunities and employment compensation are among some of the weighty issues a new Connecticut task force will delve into in the coming months.

The state’s Early Childhood Workforce Development Task Force held its first monthly meeting recently and began laying the groundwork for its deep-dive conversations in the coming months.

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Georgia Officials Settle Case with Florida-Based Direct Mail Solicitation Firm

Georgia has settled allegations that a company sent deceptive direct mail solicitations to help small business owners in the state secure a Certificate of Existence.

The state attorney general’s office alleged that CA Certificate Service, which also operates as GA Certificate Service, misrepresented that the fee it charges for obtaining a Certificate of Existence was a government fee. However, state officials say the company has no affiliation with any Georgia government agency, including the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office.

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Virginia Gets $16.61 Million in Agreement with JUUL After Investigation into Marketing Targeted at Youth

Virginia will get $16.61 million over six to ten years as part of a $438.5 million agreement in principle with JUUL after an investigation into whether the e-cigarette manufacturer marketed its products to underage users.

“Youth vaping is an epidemic, and from the get-go JUUL has been a leader in the e-cigarette industry. But JUUL targeted young people with deceptive social media advertising campaigns and misled the public about the product’s dangers. My office will continue to go after and hold accountable companies that market addictive products like e-cigarettes to minors, with no concern for their health or well-being,” Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a press release announcing the agreement.

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General Assembly Leaves Vacancy on State Corporation Commission, Senate Republicans Object to Judge with Ties to Loudoun Prosecutor

RICHMOND, Virginia — The General Assembly reconvened for one day on Wednesday to elect four judges to circuit, district, and juvenile courts, but didn’t fill a vacancy on the three-member State Corporation Commission. Senate Republicans abstained on one vote to appoint current District Court Judge Matthew Parke Snow to the Twentieth Judicial Circuit Court. Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham) criticized Snow’s links to Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj.

Snow and Biberaj used to practice criminal defense and civil law together in Leesburg. Biberaj has come under fire from Republicans for embracing a progressive prosecutorial philosophy.

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Buttigieg Touts New Tucson Bridge in Video About Infrastructure

A former Democrat candidate for president and the current Secretary of Transportation posted a video touting a bridge in Tucson as a successful example of the Biden administration’s infrastructure spending package. 

“The 22nd Street Bridge project in Tucson, Arizona is an example of what infrastructure investment looks like in practice — helping people connect to the places and things they need to reach affordably, efficiently, and safely,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, attaching a video message on Twitter. 

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Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Announces Effort to Combat Animal Cruelty in Arizona

Attorney Rachel Michell recently announced the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) would continue to strengthen its efforts to combat animal cruelty, which researchers say is a gateway crime to more serious offenses.

“As you know, I am a believer in the ‘broken windows’ approach to reducing crime,” Mitchell said during a news conference. “If criminal elements get away with small offenses – and let me be very clear, I do not consider animal cruelty to be a small offense – they become emboldened though to pursue bigger crimes or crimes against human beings.”

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Arizona Attorney General Will Not Defend New Law Prohibiting People from Filming Police Up Close

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) recently submitted a legal filing, sharing that he will not be defending the legality of House Bill (HB) 2319, which is set to go into effect on September 24th.

“The Attorney General is not the proper party to defend the merits of A.R.S. § 13-3732. The Attorney General will provide notice to the President of the Arizona State Senate and the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives that local and county prosecutors are the proper entities to defend this statute,” wrote Brnovich.

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Progressive Groups’ Aggressive Targeting of New Naturalized Citizens Helped Break Turnout Records in 2022 Primary Election

Arizona continues to have increasingly large numbers of registered voters participating in recent elections, with a record turnout of 34.92 percent of all registered voters casting a ballot in August’s primary election. Part of the reason for the high turnout may be due to the increase in naturalized citizens, whose population climbed by 63,857 new Arizonans between 2016 and 2020 alone, with many of them registered to vote by progressive advocacy groups.

Almost half – 28,864 – were born in Mexico.

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Arizona Department Celebrates Decade Low in Children Entering the Foster Care System

Mike Faust, Director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS), recently announced that there were under 12,000 children between the age of zero and 17 in the foster care system, the lowest the department has seen since 2012.

“Although this was one of the goals from the start, little did the team know how challenging it would be to reach this milestone,” Faust said in a press release. “DCS was deeply challenged a decade ago, and had it not been for the commitment of all those involved to make DCS a standalone agency, the resolve and steadfastness of Director Greg McKay from 2015-2019; the commitment of the thousands of employees and partners who devote their lives to protecting children; the loving support of kinship families; and the dedication of biological families to reunifying with their children, this would not have been possible.”

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Conservative Group Asks IRS to Investigate the American Federation of Teachers

The conservative Landmark Legal Foundation (LLF) has asked the IRS to audit the second-largest teachers union in the United States for allegedly misreporting its political spending.

In a letter to the IRS, which the Washington Examiner obtained, the group alleges that the American Federation of Teachers inaccurately claimed that it did not “engage in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office” on their Form 990s from 2016-2019.

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Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness to Raise Tuition for Future Generations

Critics are taking Biden’s student loan forgiveness initiative to task because they believe it will only raise tuition in the future.

The Education Data Initiative reports that as of January 2022, in-state tuition and fees for a public 4-year university in Michigan climbed 3.31% in the last year. The cost for out-of-state tuition and fees climbed 2.76% during the same timeframe. The cost for room and board jumped a combined 10.59% in the last year.

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Independent Voters Say Biden’s Attacks on ‘MAGA Republicans’ Went Too Far

President Joe Biden has turned up the rhetoric against Trump supporters and what he calls the “ultra MAGA” wing of the Republican party, but new polling shows most Americans fear his comments are too divisive.

Biden’s rhetoric, and the concern that he has gone too far, ratcheted up when the president gave a primetime speech last week blasting the “ MAGA Republicans” as a “threat to Democracy” and “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

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