Federal Lawsuit Calls FDA’s Approval of Abortion-Inducing Drugs ‘Politics Over Science’

Worldwide religious freedom legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit Friday that challenges the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of chemical abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, claiming they present significant health risks to a pregnant woman as they also starve her unborn child to death.

“[T]he FDA failed America’s women and girls when it chose politics over science and approved chemical abortion drugs for use in the United States,” the lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, asserts. “And it has continued to fail them by repeatedly removing even the most basic precautionary requirements associated with their use.”

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Republican Maricopa County Elected Officials Brush Off MAGA Election Integrity Concerns

Amid widespread reports of Election Day irregularities suppressing Republican votes in Maricopa County, Ariz., Republican elected officials in the county have been brushing off concerns of their fellow party members with a mixture of anger and condescension.

Marred by hundreds of complaints, including malfunctioning machines and prohibitively long lines to vote, the county’s handling of the 2022 midterm elections is now under investigation by the Arizona attorney general’s election integrity unit for possible “statutory violations” of state election law.

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Experts Expect Tennessee Tax Collections to Continue to Grow at a Slower Rate

Tennessee’s collection of taxes and fees are expected to continue to rise over the next two years, but the rate of increase won’t match its recent record-breaking pace, according to estimates from the University of Tennessee’s Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research.

The numbers were presented as part of a series of financial presentations given to Tennessee’s State Funding Board as it prepares to give its estimates for the state’s finances for next fiscal year. Those estimates are then used in the state’s budget-making process.

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Kelli Ward May Not Seek Reelection as Chairman of Arizona GOP

Following the apparent losses of major races to Democrats in the state, Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Chairwoman Dr. Kelli Ward has faced calls to resign from her position, with significant backlash coming from former Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson. However, Tyler Bowyer from Turning Point USA said this backlash is unnecessary because Ward will not be seeking reelection as party chair.

“Karrin has been a no-show, never helped GOP only herself, did zero after she lost & only helped Dems turnout for prop 308 to help illegals. If she was semi-involved she’d already know Ward isn’t even running,” tweeted Bowyer.

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Virginia Second in Nation in Leapfrog Hospital Safety Ranking

Virginia scored second in the Fall 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade rankings, after scoring second in the Spring 2022 ranking and first in the Fall 2021 ranking.

“Hospitals across Virginia are unique in many ways including where they are located, the communities and patients they serve, and the types of medical care they most commonly provide. But what each hospital has in common is an unparalleled commitment to giving each patient high-quality care in a safe environment,” Chair of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) Board of Directors Peter Mulkey said in a press release. “It is an honor to be part of a hospital community that prides itself on achieving exceptional patient care and safety.”

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Minnesota AG’s Office Objects to Pro-Life Group’s Attempt to Intervene in Abortion Case

A Minnesota-based advocacy group called Mothers Offering Maternal Support (MOMS) has taken action to restore common-sense abortion restrictions for young girls and women, against the wishes of Attorney General Keith Ellison.

The group, which has close to 50 members, filed a new motion on Monday, Nov. 14 in its effort to oppose a ruling made by Ramsey County Judge Thomas Gilligan on July 11.

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Georgia Judge Allows Saturday Vote in Senate Runoff, After Warnock, Washington Democrats’ Suit

A judge in Georgia has ruled that state law allows counties to offer early voting on the Saturday after Thanksgiving – the only possible Saturday before Election Day – in the Senate runoff between Democrat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and GOP challenger Herschel Walker.

The ruling Friday was in response to a suit earlier in the week by the Warnock campaign, the state’s Democrat Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to the Associated Press.

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Air Force Selects 179th Airlift Wing in Mansfield, Ohio for Air National Guard’s First Cybersecurity Wing

Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) this weekend welcomed an announcement by Air Force Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr. that the Air Force is formally designating the 179th Airlift Wing in Mansfield as the first wing of its cybersecurity mission.

The Air Force and the National Guard Bureau made the designation after analyzing the possibility for the past year. In August 2021, the Air Force publicized its assessment that the north-central Ohio wing was the frontrunner to become the initial cyberspace-mission site. The new mission will be oriented toward protecting aircraft and weaponry software systems from attacks and other risks. It will bring in 175 new high-technology staff positions which DeWine touted as an important step in making the Buckeye State a more high-profile venue for the science, mathematical, engineering and cybertechnology fields. 

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Pennsylvania Representative Bonner to Head District Attorney Krasner’s Impeachment Trial

Pennsylvania Representative Tim Bonner (R-Grove City) will serve as lead manager of the Senate impeachment trial of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) over the next few weeks. 

State House Speaker Bryan Cutler (R-Quarryville) appointed Bonner to head the three-person team of House managers on Friday. Representatives Craig Williams (R-Chadds Ford) and Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia) will round out the group. (State law requires at least one impeachment manager to come from the House minority party.)

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Tucson Ban on Landlords Considering Income Could Hobble Its City Budget

An Arizona lawmaker wants the state Attorney General’s office to investigate an action taken by the City of Tucson.

Arizona House Speaker-elect Ben Toma, R-Peoria, filed an SB 1487 complaint with the Arizona Attorney General on Wednesday, asking the office to investigate Tucson’s policy forbidding landlords from considering people’s sources of income on rental housing applications. Toma wants the Attorney General’s office to investigate whether this violates state law.

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Report: Pennsylvania Lags in Health Care Due to Restrictions on Nurse Authority

Pennsylvania is out of step with its neighbors and deregulating some health care services could give residents of the commonwealth better access to treatment, a new analysis argues.

The Commonwealth Foundation released a report arguing that Maryland’s effort to grant nurse practitioners full practice authority is a model for Pennsylvania. 

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Georgia Officials Tout Unemployment Rate That Is Lower than National Average

Georgia officials said Thursday the state’s October unemployment rate remained lower than the national rate, news that follows a new finding that nearly half a million Georgians have dropped out of the workforce.

While Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 2.9% was lower than the national unemployment rate of 3.7%, it was slightly higher than last month’s rate of 2.8% but down from last October’s 3.4% rate.

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Commentary: Don’t Be Fooled by October’s Decrease in the Rate of Inflation

October’s Consumer Price Index, the measure of the national rate of inflation, was at 7.7 percent in October, compared to a reading of 8.2 percent in September. The report propelled “U.S. stocks forward [at the open] and sent Treasury yields tumbling as Wall Street weighed the implication of softer prints on Federal Reserve policy.”

The decline in the rate of inflation was driven by declining annual prices of “necessities” such as smartphones (-22.9 percent), admission to sporting events (-17.7 percent), televisions (-16.5 percent), and women’s outerwear (-1.4 percent), all items that are discretionary purchases.

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California to Face Budget Shortfall Amid Mass Exodus of Business Owners

The state of California is facing a budget deficit of $25 billion going into 2023, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) reports.

According to the Daily Caller, the LAO’s Wednesday report claimed that the primary reason for the deficit will be the shortcomings in the state’s tax revenue, which will ultimately be about $41 billion less than originally projected. Corporate tax revenue in the state is expected to drop by about $6 billion from fiscal year 2021-2022 to 2023-2024, and personal income tax revenue has also declined, from $135.9 billion in the prior fiscal year to an estimated $122.6 billion in the coming fiscal year.

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Commentary: Third Time’s a Charm for Merrick Garland

What do you suppose the chances are that Merrick Garland, Joe Biden’s attorney general and chief enforcer, is a student of Søren Kierkegaard? Pretty slim, I’d wager. But his announcement yesterday that he was getting the old band back together and appointing yet another “special counsel” to investigate Donald Trump made me think that he should take a gander at Repetition, a book that Kierkegaard published in 1843 under the pseudonym Constantin Constantius.

The book is an arch, hothouse affair, full of Kierkegaard’s mocking and self-indulgent philosophical curlicues. But the MacGuffin of the book—whether one can really repeat the events of one’s life and, if so, what significance that repetition has—is something Garland might want to ponder for himself. I don’t think I will be spoiling things by revealing that Kierkegaard—or at least his pseudonymous narrator—concludes that, no, “there simply is no repetition” in life. 

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Farm Bureau Survey Finds Thanksgiving to Be the Most Expensive Yet as Cost Rises 20 Percent

Thanksgiving dinner will cost 20% more this year compared to last year, according to a Farm Bureau survey published Wednesday, with the market signaling record-high prices for the second year in a row.

The average cost to feed 10 people for Thanksgiving will be $64.05, or under $6.50 per person, the Farm Bureau said. This is a $10.74 or 20% cost increase from 2021’s average of $53.31, which was also a record high at the time, according to historical data.

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Majority of Hispanic Voters Want Government to Do More to Enforce Immigration Laws, Exit Poll Finds

Hispanic voters say the U.S. government should do more to enforce immigration laws, according to new polling data.  

An exit poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and NumbersUSA found that more than half of Hispanics who voted in the 2022 midterm elections agree that the government isn’t doing enough to reduce illegal immigration. 

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Commentary: Americans Should Pay Close Attention to the FBI and Zero-Click

During the Trump administration, the FBI paid $5 million to an Israeli software company for a license to use its “zero-click” surveillance software called Pegasus. Zero-click refers to software that can download the contents of a target’s computer or mobile device without the need for tricking the target into clicking on it. The FBI operated the software from a warehouse in New Jersey.

Before revealing any of this to the two congressional intelligence committees to which the FBI reports, it experimented with the software. The experiments apparently consisted of testing Pegasus by spying — illegally and unconstitutionally since no judicially issued search warrant had authorized the use of Pegasus — on unwitting Americans by downloading data from their devices.

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Top Epidemiologist Wants Pandemic Emergency Powers Ended, Insurer Death Data Released

One of the nation’s leading epidemiologists is declaring there is no basis for President Joe Biden to extend his emergency pandemic powers and that it is essential for insurers to release data showing deaths and injuries to those who have received COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Harvey Risch, professor emeritus at the Yale University School of Public Health, told Just the News on Friday evening that federal agencies have epically mishandled the pandemic strategy by substituting theories and politics for science.

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State Department Tells Staff Abroad to Promote Anti-Populist ‘Disinformation’ Game in Schools

The same State Department office that partnered with a Department of Homeland Security-backed private consortium that reported purported election misinformation to tech platforms for removal in the 2020 and 2022 cycles is also using internet games to affect elections abroad.

In an Oct. 31 memo reviewed by Just the News, Secretary of State Antony Blinken encourages diplomatic and consular posts worldwide to promote “Cat Park,” funded by State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) and U.S. Embassy The Hague and released to coincide with UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week.

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Democrat Poised to Succeed Pelosi Repeatedly Denied Legitimacy of Trump’s 2016 Election

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat poised to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as his party’s leader in the House, has repeatedly denied the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

But his claims of a stolen election and voter suppression have hardly gotten the same treatment as Trump and other Republicans who have raised ballot integrity issues and been endlessly branded as “election deniers.”

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Special Counsel Investigating Trump Was Key Figure in IRS Targeting Scandal

Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate former president Donald Trump’s possession of classified information, was a key figure in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s infamous targeting of conservative non-profits, according to a 2014 report by Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.

On Oct. 8, 2010, Smith, then-Chief of the DOJ Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section at the time, called a meeting with former IRS official Lois Lerner “to discuss how the IRS could assist in the criminal enforcement of campaign-finance laws against politically active nonprofits,” according to testimony from Richard Pilger, then director of the section’s Election Crimes Branch and subordinate of Smith’s, to the Oversight Committee. Lerner eventually resigned from the IRS in 2015 following criticism of her targeting of conservative groups when denying or delaying tax-exempt status.

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