Apartment Demand Drops to 30-Year Low as Renters Lose Confidence in the Market

Apartment demand in the third quarter of 2022 dropped into the negative for the first time in 30 years as many renters have lost confidence in the market due to economic uncertainty, according to RealPage analytics.

Rental markets boomed at the start of 2022, but Q3 data shows a 1.0% increase in apartment vacancies despite a 0.2% month-over-month asking price decrease in September, RealPage reported. Weak rental numbers, despite the first month-over-month asking price drop since December 2020, point to a general economic uncertainty among renters who have adopted a “wait and see” mentality, the outlet reported.

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Wisconsin School District Requires Parental Consent for Name, Pronoun Changes Following Backlash

A Wisconsin school board approved a policy Monday that requires students to receive authorization from a parent for pronoun changes at school.

The Rice Lake School Board in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, passed a policy that requires parent permission for a student to change what pronouns and name they go by at school. Critics of the policy, including a former board member and students, said at the meeting that the policy threatens student’s mental health and safety if they are not ready to reveal their gender transition to their parents, according to WQOW News.

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Progressive Ohio College Town Continues Push to Let Noncitizens Vote

Democratic officials who run the village of Yellow Springs, a progressive college town near Dayton, are persisting in their effort to legalize noncitizen voting. 

Mayor Pam Conine (D) is pushing for the enactment of a state constitutional amendment that would actualize the policy. Yellow Springs voters approved a referendum in 2019 allowing dozens of noncitizen residents of the village to participate in local and state elections, but the measure never went into effect. 

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Virginia September Tax Revenues Down, Reflecting Tax Rebates

Virginia’s September General Fund tax revenues hit nearly $1.9 billion, less than last year’s September revenues of $2.6 billion, but the governor’s office emphasized that the decrease was expected as a result of tax policy changes. Adjusted for those changes, tax revenues were up 10.7 percent year over year.

“Adjusted for the impacts of planned policy actions, including the historic tax rebates of nearly $900 million recently delivered to Virginians, September revenue collection increased more than 10 percent compared to a year ago,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a Friday press release. “September is a typically strong month for revenues, and this year was consistent with that precedent. At the same time, economic data remains mixed, the job market shows stability but the persistent inflation from misguided efforts in Washington continues to be the silent thief stealing more and more from the paychecks of hardworking Virginians.”

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Commentary: Karl Marx’s Gravest Miscalculation

I recently had occasion to re-read Karl Marx’s seminal Communist Manifesto. It had been nearly twenty years since my first reading of the text in graduate school and I remembered little beyond class antagonisms, Marx’s materialism, and the exploitation of the proletariat. But the ongoing crisis in Venezuela led me to once again reflect on the Socialist and Communist Philosophy underneath the unfolding crisis.

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State Senator Proposes Repealing Pennsylvania Ballot Date Requirement

Pennsylvania Democrats remain opposed to discarding undated absentee ballots, despite a Supreme Court decision suggesting that the ballots should not count.

Shortly after Governor Tom Wolf (D) and acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman (D) indicated they will continue to instruct counties to count mail-in ballots that come in envelopes on which voters did not write a date, state Senator Jim Brewster (D) proposed legislation to end the date requirement entirely.

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Minnesota’s Hastings Public School Children Have Access to Sexually Graphic and Illustrated ‘Gender Queer’ Book

Children in the Hastings Public Schools district can easily get their hands on a book titled “Gender Queer” that includes illustrations of sexual acts, a school board member said.

In an interview conducted by Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Dippel, Hastings school board member Carrie Tate confirmed that the controversial graphic novel by Maia Kobabe is available to schoolchildren in the district. The book depicts oral sex and masturbation.

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Yuma County Former Democratic Official and Neighbor Sentenced in Ballot-Harvesting Scheme

The former Democratic mayor of San Luis, Arizona, and a neighbor were sentenced Thursday for their involvement in ballot harvesting. Guillermina Fuentes was sentenced to two years of probation and 30 days in jail. Alma Yadira Juarez, who was caught handling the ballots with the former mayor, was sentenced to a year of probation. 

Prosecutors said Fuentes “appears to have been caught on video running a modern-day political machine seeking to influence the outcome of the municipal election in San Luis.” The documentary 2,000 Mules from filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and the election integrity group True the Vote spotlighted ballot harvesting in Yuma County, featuring testimony from an anonymous whistleblower there. 

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Report: Pfizer Board Member Helped Convince Twitter to Ban Vaccine Critic Alex Berenson

Alex Berenson

Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb, M.D. played a major role in COVID “vaccine” critic Alex Berenson suspended from Twitter in the summer of 2021, according to emails obtained through discovery in Berenson’s lawsuit against the social media giant. Gottlieb worked with former Biden White House senior coronavirus adviser Andrew Slavitt to suppress Berenson’s influential voice as the administration was preparing to impose boosters and vaccine mandates on the American public.

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Additional Security Protocols Put into Place as Thousands of Ohioans Request Absentee Ballots

As early voting began on Wednesday for the 2022 General Election, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose enumerated an increase in absentee ballot applications to date from prior years and assured Ohioans that security checks are in place to make absentee voting secure against fraud.

According to LaRose, the applications for absentee ballots so far reflect a 4.4 percent increase over the gubernatorial statewide election in 2018. So far Ohioans have requested 812,200 absentee ballots, including 4,938 requests from military and overseas voters whose ballots began to be mailed last month.

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Tennessee State Comptroller Jason Mumpower Signs Off on $100 Million Development Plan Centered Around Chattanooga Lookouts Stadium: Report

Tennessee State Comptroller Jason Mumpower gave his conditional approval for the plan to build the new South Broad District in Chattanooga, which includes the Chattanooga Lookouts’ new stadium.

In a letter to Attorney Mamantov, Comptroller Mumpower stated that the final contract is in the best interest of the city if it includes a commitment to make annual lease payments of at least one million dollars for the next 30 years and if all excess tax revenues will be used for eligible purposes.

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Rutherford County School Board Says Schools Are at Full Capacity

The Rutherford County Board of Education expressed their concerns regarding the lack of space available for teachers, students, and storage at the board of education meeting on Wednesday.

Dr. Sullivan expressed his concern at the board of education meeting, saying, “We have an extra gym class on what used to be the stage. We have split our structured setting CDC classroom into four different classrooms, so they have different pods within that structured setting. Every teacher work room but one has been turned into a classroom.”

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Columbus City Schools Staff Removes Controversial Book from High School Library Collection

One of the most banned controversial books in the United States, according to the New York Times, has been removed from Columbus City Schools high school library shelves.

The autobiography, Gender Queer: A Memoir, was published in 2019 and is both written and illustrated by Maia Kobabe. The 240-page book tells Kobabe’s story from adolescence to adulthood covering sensitive topics such as gender identity, masturbation, menstruation, and navigating the world as someone who considers themself nonbinary.

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The Tennessee Department of Environment Announces over $34 Million for Infrastructure Grants

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) announced on Tuesday that 12 grants totaling $34,585,121 from Tennessee’s American Rescue Plan, will be administered in the form of water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure grants.

“These grants will address important water infrastructure needs across our state, especially in disadvantaged communities. We commend communities who have gone through the application process, and we look forward to the substantial improvements the grant will bring,” said Governor Bill Lee.

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Juror Dismissed in Gov. Whitmer Kidnapping Trial for Alleged Flirting with a Defendant

A female juror was dismissed during the trial of three defendants charged in an alleged plot to kidnap the Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. The juror was allegedly flirting with one of the defendants, Fox News reports.

Jackson County Judge Thomas Wilson made an announcement on Friday that the female juror was removed from the jury because attorneys raised concerns over too much “nonverbal communication” with defendant Paul Bellar, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot.

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Commentary: Voter Rolls Are Essential to Victory in the Election Integrity Fight

Voter rolls are the most important election integrity documents. They tell election officials who is eligible to vote. The voter rolls also tell election officials where to send mail ballots, so it is even more important that they are accurate in states that automatically send registered voters mail ballots.

It is essential that states have accurate and up to date voter rolls. This includes removing individuals who moved, have died, and duplicate registrants. Many states across the country are failing to do this essential voter list maintenance that is required by federal law.

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Virginia Delegate Guzman Abruptly Changes Course on Bill That Would Have Criminalized Parents Who Do Not ‘Affirm’ Their LGBT Child

Virginia Democrat State Delegate Elizabeth Guzman has backed down from introducing a bill that would have expanded the definition of child abuse to include parents inflicting “physical or mental injury” on children due to their gender identity or sexual orientation.

The Epoch Times reports that Guzman first began drafting such legislation in order to counter Virginia GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin’s transgender policies in which parents of transgender children had to be made aware if their child wanted to transition or go by a different name at school.

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More Bail Reform Could Come No Matter Outcome of Issue One

While Ohioans can vote on some bail reform issues on Election Day, lawmakers and other policy groups continue to work on other aspects in the General Assembly.

The ballot wording on Issue One gives the legislature room to pass bills that would add to the requirements judges must use to establish bail. That, according to the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute, provides an opportunity to continue to tackle issues it believes are key.

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Out of State Police Officers Keep Moving to Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Payment Program is continuing to pay off as more law enforcement officers relocate to Florida from other states.

On Friday, Gov. DeSantis delivered $5,000 bonuses to six new recruits in the Cape Coral Police Department in Lee County. Two relocated from New York; one relocated from Maryland, one relocated from Georgia, and two are new to the profession.

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‘Shocking’: EcoHealth Alliance Receives Another Round of Funding for Coronavirus Bat Research in Asia

Anthony Fauci

A coalition of leading House Republicans is raising the alarm and demanding answers after the Biden administration approved another round of grant funding for research on coronaviruses and bats in Asia.

The lawmakers sent a letter to Anthony Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and serves as the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden.

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Manchin Popularity Drops in West Virginia

Sen. Joe Manchin’s approval rating dropped by double digits in his home state of West Virginia, which makes him one of the most unpopular senators, according to a recent Morning Consult poll.

Only 42% of registered voters approve of Manchin and 51% disapprove after the senator lost a lot of support from Republicans and independents. In a poll during the first quarter of 2022, his approval rating was close to 60% and his disapproval rating was less than 40%. The change in his approval rating could be rooted in his recent support for some of President Joe Biden’s policy agendas.

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Border Authorities Discover New Version of Rainbow Fentanyl

Border authorities encountered a new form of rainbow fentanyl that smugglers attempted to bring into the U.S., Nogales Port Director Michael W. Humphries said in a tweet Tuesday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Sunday seized around 413,000 fentanyl pills, 44,000 of which “had the rainbow colors combined in each pill.” Humphries said the new version of the pills was “not encountered before” as the area continues to see seizures of the new type of candy-colored drug.

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Prosecutors: U.S. Election Firm Gave Chinese Workers ‘SuperAdministration’ Access to Election Data

A U.S. election technology company currently embroiled in scandal gave Chinese subcontractors high-level security access to American election data, according to a warrant filed by prosecutors this week in Los Angeles.

Authorities earlier this month arrested Eugene Yu, the CEO of the election software company Konnech, on charges of grand theft and embezzlement related to his work with that firm. Controversy has also swirled over Konnech’s alleged storage of poll worker data in servers located in the People’s Republic of China.

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Clinics Sees Surge in Reproductive Sterilization Procedures amid Tightening Abortion Laws

Planned Parenthoods and other clinics in some regions are seeing considerable surges in reproductive sterilization procedures for both men and women amid the tightening of abortion laws around the country following the repeal of Roe v. Wade earlier this year. 

The abortion clinic told the Associated Press that its clinics in Missouri have seen “a surge in demand” for vasectomies following the Roe repeal, while tubal litigations have also increased in frequency in the area.

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