Month: September 2022

Counties in Ohio, Tennessee, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and More Flooded with Requests for 2020 Election Records as Mandatory Preservation Window Expires

Just the News

With the recent expiration of the federally mandated 2-year window for preservation of 2020 presidential election records, counties across the country have been inundated with public records requests from Americans concerned about election integrity.

During his “Moment of Truth Summit” last month spotlighting 2020 presidential election irregularities, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell exhorted “every single person in the country” to ask for cast vote records from the election from their local county clerk’s office. His website links to the Ordros Analytics, Inc., website, which provides templates of public records requests for cast vote records.

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Concerns Mount over John Podesta Appointment

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Joe Biden announced Friday that former Obama Administration adviser John Podesta would join the White House to oversee the spending of $370 billion for the purpose of addressing so-called “global warming.” His appointment, however, has led to criticism from China hawks who warn that Podesta is too close to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Podesta had previously called for more Chinese investment in American infrastructure as far back as 2013, claiming that there are “great opportunities for Chinese firms to directly invest in this nation, to build American infrastructure, to create American jobs, and generate steady and handsome returns.”

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Border Patrol Agents Seize Record Amounts of Deadly Fentanyl, Meth in Arizona, Texas

The Center Square

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are seizing record amounts of fentanyl and meth in Arizona and Texas brought in by Mexican cartel operatives and foreign nationals trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

In just five separate inspections ahead of Labor Day weekend, for example, officers seized 625,000 pills in Nogales, Arizona, which borders Sonora, Mexico, Michael Humphries, CBP Director of the Nogales Port of Entry, said.

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Commentary: An America First Family Policy

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A startling new study by the Pew Research Center reveals a staggering statistic. The United States is No. 1 globally . . . but in a shameful category. Of the 130 nations surveyed America, by more than a factor of three, had the greatest number of fatherless homes: “The U.S. has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households. Almost a quarter of U.S. children under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adults (23%), more than three times the share of children around the world who do so (7%).” 

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GAF Plans $146 Million Roofing Material Plant in Georgia, but Taxpayer Incentives Remain Unknown

The Center Square

A roofing and waterproofing manufacturer plans to invest $146 million over the next six years in a new manufacturing facility in Lowndes County.

GAF Materials intends to create 135 new jobs with the new facility, increasing the company’s thermoplastic polyolefin roofing manufacturing capacity. GAF employs more than 225 Georgians at its Savannah, Statesboro and Cumming manufacturing plants.

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Virginia Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Cluster Gets $52.9 Million in Grants from Build Back Better Regional Challenge

Eric Burk

Virginia’s advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing (APM) cluster will receive $52.9 million in grants as one of 21 winners in the federal Build Back Regional Challenge, according to the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA).

“After meeting with the Virginia Biotechnology Research Partnership and pushing the Department of Commerce to support this project, I am thrilled to see the Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Cluster Growth Hub named one of the American Rescue Plan Build Back Better Regional Challenge winners,” Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said in a September 2 press release. “This support will continue to strengthen the foundation and accelerate the growth of pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States. As a proud supporter of the American Rescue plan, I am glad to see that Virginia continues to reap the benefits through job creation and economic growth.”

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Poll: Most Americans Would Rather Live in Florida than California

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American voters prefer Florida to California by a three to two margin, a new poll from WPA Intelligence found.

When asked where they would prefer to live, 61% of registered voters said they would rather live in Florida and 39% chose California, the poll, conducted Aug. 22-25, found. Independents and Republicans showed an even stronger preference for Florida, while Democrats preferred California.

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New Columbus Police Chief Announces Major Changes for Issuing Warrants

Bradley Vasoli

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant on Thursday issued a policy change regarding the serving of warrants during nighttime. 

According to the chief’s message to sworn personnel, any pre-planned warrants to be served for misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. must have the prior authorization of an officer ranked as a lieutenant or higher. Bryant described as “pre-planned” any arrest warrant serving as the “sole reason” an officer travels to an address. She wrote that the new policy excepts SWAT teams and other tactical units. 

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Miami Doctor Uses TikTok, Hip-Hop Music to Promote Sex Change Surgeries to Teens

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Dr. Sidhbh Gallagher, a Miami-based plastic surgeon, advertises the “gender-affirming” surgeries she performs on adolescents on the youth-dominated social media app TikTok, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found.

Gallagher’s TikTok profile contains hundreds of videos about transgender-related surgeries she performs, some of which include photos or videos of her young patients showing off mastectomy scars. Her videos are part of the pro-medicalization, transgender-affirming trend encouraging young people on social media to pursue biomedical interventions.

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Flint Water Crisis Trial Could Cost Taxpayers $90 Million

The Center Square

The taxpayer cost of the 2014 Flint water crisis litigation might grow to as much as $90 million after the Michigan Supreme Court rejected Attorney General Dana Nessel’s appeal of a decision that she must use a “taint team” to separate legal documents.

The court said justices were “not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court.”

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Soft-on-Crime Shelby County DA Says Fletcher Murder ‘Isolated Attack’

Peter D'Abrosca

Despite reports that the suspect in the Eliza Fletcher’s kidnapping and murder has now been charged with a separate abduction and rape in 2021, Shelby County District Attorney, who ran his campaign on criminal justice reform, says the Fletcher incident was an “isolated attack.”

Cleotha Abston Thursday was charged separately with aggravated rape, especially aggravated kidnapping, and unlawful carrying of a weapon stemming from an event that allegedly occurred in 2021, though details were not immediately available.

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Minnesota U.S. Senator Klobuchar Tables ‘Media Cartel’ Bill after Cruz Adds Anti-Censorship Amendment

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Sen. Amy Klobuchar has temporarily tabled a bill allowing journalists to negotiate with Big Tech companies on the distribution of their content after Sen. Ted Cruz added an anti-censorship amendment.

The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2021 (JCPA), first introduced by Klobuchar in March of last year, “creates a four-year safe harbor from antitrust laws for print, broadcast, or digital news companies to collectively negotiate with online content distributors (e.g., social media companies) regarding the terms on which the news companies’ content may be distributed by online content distributors.”

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Moody, Others Training Floridians to Identify and Report Human Trafficking

The Center Square

Attorney General Ashley Moody, Truckers Against Trafficking, the Florida Department of Transportation and Busing on the Lookout are working together to train more than 100 Floridians in the gaming and passenger transportation industries to identify and report human trafficking.

Moody and TAT hosted a Florida Bus & Casino Coalition Build Out training program on Thursday about how to identify human trafficking and learn about ways state and local law enforcement are combating it.

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Pima County to Use Grant Money in Historic Location Preservation Projects

Neil Jones

Pima County shared Friday that after receiving various grants, county offices and divisions will use the money to fund projects which aim to restore historical locations across the county.

“On paper, a grant may not look like much more than a set of numbers. But when it makes the leap from the page to the world, a dry-sounding proposal can give new life to the most vivid sites in our community,” according to the county.

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First Lady Youngkin Presents Spirit of Virginia Award to An Achievable Dream

Eric Burk

First Lady Suzanne Youngkin presented the Spirit of Virginia Award to An Achievable Dream, an organization that partners with the Newport News, Virginia Beach, and Henrico school districts to operate six schools serving 2,000 students in total.

“Education is a critical component of opportunity for all and An Achievable Dream’s approach to caring for the whole student, supporting families, and setting high standards is unparalleled,” Youngkin said in a Wednesday press release. “When we honor Virginians who are changing lives for the better, we need look no further than the administrators and teachers in these schools.”

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Commentary: No Bump for Biden from His Dark ‘MAGA Republican’ Speech as Race for Congress Comes into Focus

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President Joe Biden received no bounce in polls from his dark Sept. 1 speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania outlining the supposed “threat” to “the very foundations of our republic” posed by former President Donald Trump and the so-called Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans.

58 percent disapproved of his handling of his job before the speech, and 57 percent afterward, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

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Biden in Ohio: ‘Bury’ the ‘Rust Belt’

Bradley Vasoli

Speaking on Friday at the groundbreaking of Intel’s new semiconductor factory in Licking County, Ohio, President Joe Biden said that “it’s time to bury the label ‘rust belt…’” when describing the region in which he stood.

The ‘rust belt’ is a term often used to denote an area extending from western New York through the midwest that saw heavy industrial activity from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, particularly concerning steel production and automobile manufacturing. The region suffered significant economic decline by the late 20th century and many communities therein have struggled since.

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Groups from the Left and Right Agree on Opposition to Biden’s Title IX Reform as Comment Period Ends

Just the News

From the feminist Women’s Liberation Front to the conservative Child & Parental Rights Campaign and Parents Defending Education, groups opposing the Biden administration’s proposal to redefine sex as “gender identity” are urging supporters to file comments in the Title IX regulatory proceeding before it closes Monday.

An 18-month-old nonprofit unexpectedly joined their ranks last week: the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), cofounded by black intellectuals including Columbia University’s John McWhorter and Brown University’s Glenn Loury, which fights identity politics in education and government and has focused mainly on race.

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A University of North Texas School Taught Four-Year-Olds Pronouns, Gender Identities in Class: Report

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Texas mom Jennifer Cains told Campus Reform that she unenrolled her daughter from the University of North Texas (UNT) College of Education’s Center for Young Children (CYC) after learning that teachers were allegedly pushing gender theory and pronouns in a classroom full of four-year-olds.

The CYC is an “early childhood program within the College of Education” at UNT. The center describes itself as a “research-based, high-quality preschool program” used to give UNT’s college trainees experience and provide “care and education” for its young students.

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Virginians Set to Get Student Loan Forgiveness, but Analysts Say the Policy Could Have Consequences

The Center Square

About 12.5% of Virginia residents owe some amount of student debt that could be reduced through President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, but some scholars are warning that the plan could have some negative consequences.

More than 1.08 million residents in the commonwealth owe money on their student loans and the average amount of debt per borrower is one of the highest in the country. According to the Education Data Initiative, the average borrower owes more than $39,000, which is the fourth highest rate in the country. In total, Virginians owe about $42.4 billion in student debt.

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New Georgia Poll Finds Republicans Walker, Kemp Widen Lead over Democratic Opponents

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Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker and incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp are both widening their leads over their Democratic opponents, according to a poll.

Former NFL star Walker is ahead of incumbent Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock by 47-44%, an InsiderAdvantage/FOX 5 Atlanta poll released Thursday shows. Libertarian nominee Chase Oliver is receiving 4% support with 5% of voters still undecided.

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Chipmakers Receiving Taxpayer Subsidies Under New Law Can Resume Business in China After 10 Years

The Center Square

Chipmaking companies that receive U.S. taxpayer funding under the $280 billion CHIPS Act of 2022 will be able to do business with foreign countries like China after a 10-year waiting period, according to guidelines released by the U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday.

The legislation that President Biden signed last month was designed to build a domestic supply chain for computer chips, used for electronic devices and vehicle technology, as a way to reduce reliance on other countries like China and Taiwan.

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Biden Department of Interior Renames 650 Historic Federal Lands

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The Biden Administration’s efforts to rewrite American history continued on Thursday, with the Department of the Interior (DOI) announcing that it would be renaming 650 various monuments, geographical features, and other historic landmarks owned by the federal government.

As reported by Fox News, the new Board on Geographic Names (BOGN) voted on final new names that would replace the names of any federal land featuring the word “Squaw.” The DOI, led by far-left radical Deb Haaland, has repeatedly and falsely claimed that the word is “an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women.”

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Merchant Banking Organization: Gun, Ammunition Purchases by Credit Card Will be Coded

The Center Square
An unloaded handgun sitting on the center console of a vehicle with the magazine clip next to it

The international organization responsible for creating merchant category codes for credit card purchases has given its approval to establish one for transactions made at gun stores.

The International Organization for Standardization’s Registration and Maintenance Management Group met on Wednesday to discuss a request made by Amalgamated Bank to set up such a code.

An ISO spokesperson told The Center Square that RMMG members could not decide whether to approve the application. That elevated the discussion to the ISO leadership that oversees standards for retail financial services.

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California Could Offer $1,000 Tax Incentives for Car-Free Life for Low-Income Residents

Admin

California could soon offer a tax incentive to certain households that do not own cars under a bill awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consideration.

Senate Bill 457, which passed the Legislature on the final day of session last week, would offer a $1,000 tax credit per household starting in January 2023 to certain low-income taxpayers who do not own a vehicle. The bill specifies that spouses jointly filing making $60,000 or less and individuals who make $40,000 or less would be qualified for the tax credit.

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Commentary: New Jersey Is Becoming a Hub of Education Entrepreneurship

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When Ben Ashfield and Tammy Tiranasar couldn’t find their preferred educational environment for their two younger children, they decided to build it. Ben works in advertising and Tammy is an artist, but first and foremost they are entrepreneurial parents who want the best for their children. Last fall, the couple took over a vacated classroom space in Mountainside, New Jersey, and created The Village Electric as a full-day, colearning center for local children ages two to twelve, open five days a week. They launched with 45 kids and several teachers.

This year, their program continues to thrive, but Ben and Tammy aren’t content with creating just one alternative learning model that satisfies their family’s needs. They want their space to become an incubator for many other entrepreneurial parents and teachers who wish to build microschools and colearning communities of their own. 

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Cincinnati Ranked in the Top Five Places to Retire in the United States: Report

The Center Square

One Ohio city ranks in the top five of best places to retire in the nation, and four others rank among the best of the nation’s largest cities, according to a new report from WalletHub, a personal finance website.

Cincinnati ranked third – behind only Charleston, South Carolina and Orlando – in the report that compared the retiree-friendliness of more than 180 cities using 46 metrics, such as cost of living to retired taxpayers to the state’s health infrastructure.

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Woke Funds in China and Europe Invest in Fossil Fuels and Slave Labor

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Investment groups in China and Europe intended to promote climate-friendly and social justice-related causes are funneling money into fossil fuel projects and companies associated with slave labor, a Bloomberg investigation found Tuesday.

China’s allegedly climate-sustaining investments have ballooned in the past couple of years since the Chinese government claimed they align with Beijing’s political agenda to revitalize rural labor, raise the nation’s prosperity and achieve carbon-neutral status, Bloomberg reported. However, ESG investors have stretched the definition of “Environmental, Social and Governance” investing to encompass investments in coal companies and firms tied to human rights violations in the Xinjiang province.

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Half of Americans ‘Quiet Quitting,’ Poll Finds

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At least half the U.S. workforce is psychologically detached from work and putting in the bare minimum at their jobs, a recent poll found.

Employee engagement has dropped steeply since 2020 and is the lowest it’s been in nearly a decade, with only 32% of employees reporting being engaged at their jobs and 18% actively disengaged, the Gallup poll found. The findings align with the online trend of “quiet quitting,” or putting in the bare minimum at work rather than going above and beyond.

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Brigham Young Says ‘No Evidence’ to Substantiate Claims of Racial Slurs at Women’s Volleyball Match

Just the News

Brigham Young University on Thursday announced that it had found no evidence to support claims that a visiting black volleyball player was heckled with racist taunts at a recent match at the Utah school’s campus.

The school said in a statement that an “extensive review” had produced “[no] evidence to corroborate the allegation that fans engaged in racial heckling or uttered racial slurs at the event.”

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Small Businesses Might Drop Obamacare as Premiums Skyrocket

Admin

Health insurance premiums offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially known as Obamacare, will rise next year, hitting small businesses particularly hard and potentially pressuring them to drop out of the program.

While recent provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act have provided additional subsidies for individual consumers that will likely offset the increased cost of premiums, no such support was granted to small business owners, according to the Wall Street Journal. Insurers are proposing median premium increases of 10%, but some are proposing increases as high as 20%.

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Commentary: Reflections on Calm Before Storm of 9/11 and Peace of Providence After

Admin

Sept. 11, 2001, dawned in Washington as the most beautiful day of that year and one of the most beautiful days I have ever experienced.

I left my home in Northern Virginia early that morning. The route to the White House was always inspiring because of its historic evocation along the way—driving around the Lincoln Memorial each day after having come across the Memorial Bridge from Arlington into Washington, with the Vietnam Memorial on the right-hand side.

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Pentagon Funded Former Chinese Government Employee, CCP Member’s Nuclear Warfare Research

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The Department of Defense (DOD) spent nearly $400,000 funding nuclear warfare research that was conducted by former Chinese government employees — one of whom the Daily Caller News Foundation previously identified as a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member.

Li Bin and Zhao Tong — two nuclear policy experts who previously served as Chinese government employees — were both fellows at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace when conducting the DOD-funded research, according to the think tank’s records. Li is also among at least 20 Carnegie staffers the DCNF previously identified as CCP members. These undisclosed CCP members worked at the think tank while current Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns served as Carnegie’s president.

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UK Announces Children Under 12 No Longer Will Receive COVID Vaccine

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Young girl with a blue shirt on getting a vaccine

Children under 12-years-old in the United Kingdom will no longer be offered COVID injections, except for those in clinical risk groups, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed this week. The agency said the offer of COVID shots to healthy 5 to 11-year-olds was always meant to be temporary.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said children who had not turned five by the end of last month would not be offered a vaccination, in line with advice published by the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) in February 2022. UKHSA said the offer of Covid jabs to healthy five to 11-year-olds was always meant to be temporary.

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Little Recourse, Little Consequence: Court Rulings Signal Impunity for Spygate Perpetrators

Admin

Over a one-week period, both Donald Trump and former Trump 2016 campaign aide Carter Page saw federal judges dismiss their separate lawsuits alleging improper conduct by the FBI, Hillary Clinton, and others during the Russia collusion investigation.

The dual dismissals on back-to-back Thursdays — one this week, one last week — shine a particularly harsh light on what critics say has become a pattern in the aftermath of the Trump-Russia probe: a lack of accountability.

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Inspector General: DHS Failed to Properly Vet Afghan ‘Refugees’ During Evacuation

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On Tuesday, an inspector general’s report was released regarding the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) handling of the vetting process for alleged “refugees” fleeing Afghanistan as the country collapsed last year.

The Daily Caller reports that the DHS Inspector General concluded that the agency failed to “properly” vet refugees who were determined later to be a “risk to national security,” bringing potential terrorists back to the United States while leaving behind many American citizens as the country fell into the hands of the Taliban.

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Juror In Whitmer Kidnapping Trial Wanted Defendants to ‘Hang’, Was ‘Far-Left’, Defense Says

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A juror who helped convict two men last month of plotting to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was allegedly “far-left leaning” and had said they would seek to “hang”, the defendants’ legal team alleged a witness said in a court filing this week.

A retrial jury found Adam Fox guilty Aug. 23 of conspiracy to kidnap and possession of a weapon of mass destruction, while Barry Croft Jr. was convicted of the same crimes in addition to unregistered destructive device possession. Fox and Croft’s lawyers asked Tuesday for a hearing on whether the juror committed misconduct, and a new trial because of the juror’s purported misconduct and an alleged appearance of judicial bias affecting the retrial proceedings.

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Georgia Municipalities Burden Home-Based Businesses with Regulations

The Center Square

Georgia touts its business-friendly climate, but some home-based businesses face another layer of bureaucracy: local government licensing requirements, a Center Square analysis found.

Nearly 30 years ago, Georgia lawmakers passed legislation giving cities the power to impose business and occupation requirements, including taxes and regulatory fees. While lawmakers have revised the law, local governments may levy and collect occupation taxes on any business or practitioner with an office in the jurisdiction.

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Minnesota Planned Parenthood Names Sitting DFL Legislator New CEO

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A sitting DFL legislator plans to continue serving in the Minnesota House despite just being named the new CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which provides abortions to women in the Upper Midwest.

Rep. Ruth Richardson defended her new position in a statement Wednesday, saying she won’t “oversee political work or lobbying for Planned Parenthood while I hold this legislative seat.”

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Pennsylvania Turnpike: More Debt than the State, with Toll Increases Likely

The Center Square

The auditor general noted “growing financial issues” with the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and the news is not good for drivers who pay tolls.

“Today, the Pennsylvania Turnpike has more debt than the entire state government of Pennsylvania, and the only way to pay it is to raise tolls,” Auditor General Timothy DeFoor said in a press release. “This is an unsustainable situation which highlights the need for innovative ideas and different solutions to rectify an issue that is decades in the making.”

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Connecticut Program Up for National Award

The Center Square

A Connecticut family-based program has been nominated for a national award.

Care 4 Kids Parent Portal has been named for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers as a finalist in the 2022 State IT Recognition Awards, Gov. Ned Lamont said. The program, run through the office of Early Childhood, was created in 2021 to give low- to -moderate-income families a subsidy to pay for child care.

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Virginia Beach Delays Vote on Plastic Bag Tax Until December

The Center Square

A proposal to impose a 5-cent plastic bag tax will not receive a vote in Virginia Beach until Dec. 6, which is a little less than one month after the midterm elections.

The Virginia Beach City Council voted 8-1 to delay the vote. The tax would apply to disposal bags provided to shoppers at grocery stores, convenience stores and pharmacies. It would not apply to plastic used for wrapping or used to prevent damage or contamination.

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