Title 42 remains in place — at least for now.
The U.S. Supreme Court this week temporarily blocked the lifting of the Trump-era rule that provided at least some check on the Biden administration’s failure to secure the U.S. southern border. Put in place in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, the rule curtails general asylum for illegal immigrants, quickly expelling them to stop the spread of COVID-19.
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One Tennessee lawmaker wants to give taxpayers more transparency when it comes to public meeting agendas from governmental bodies.
Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, has proposed a bill for the upcoming session that will require governing bodies to post meeting agendas 48 hours before a meeting along with supplemental meeting documents.
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Students enrolled during the pandemic could earn up to $70,000 less in income throughout their lifetime compared to peers who graduated before schools were temporarily closed, according to a study by a Stanford University economist.
The study, conducted by Eric A. Hanushek, found that the hiccup in steady education could cause students to earn 5.6% less than they would have before the pandemic as these students are more likely to be less educated and more underprepared for adulthood. This results from time lost in the classroom during the pandemic as schools were forced to close and/or operate online.
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Pope Francis on Wednesday asked for prayers for his 95-year-old predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who the Vatican said is constantly receiving medical care.
At the end of his weekly general audience, Francis said in Italian: “I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church,” as translated by Reuters.
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Two hundred and thirty-one years ago this month, America’s founders enshrined free speech as the first protection in the ratified Bill of Rights with a declaration that the government could not infringe expression. A series of blockbuster revelations at the end of 2022 show just how imperiled those protections have become in the era of Big Tech.
From Elon Musk’s “Twitter files” to an FBI agent’s candid testimony, Americans have gotten a glimpse into a once-hidden enterprise where federal agencies pressured social media platforms – directly and through proxies – to censor content under their terms of service. The goal, it appears, was to preserve the ruling elite’s favored narratives on everything from the pandemic to election integrity.
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Metro Nashville Government, along with Shelby County Government, has filed a notice of appeal on a court ruling dismissing their lawsuit over education savings accounts (ESA) legislation. This is the latest round in a series of legal actions brought forth in response to legislation passed in 2019. The filing of an appeal indicates that Nashville Government plans to continue its fight against legislation narrowly passed in 2019.
On November 23rd, of this year, a three-judge panel – made up of Chancellor Anne Martin, Judge Tammy Harrington, and Judge Valerie Smith – released a ruling in response to the initial lawsuit denying standing to the plaintiffs. In the court’s opinion, adjustments made by the state to offset potential losses in school funding for impacted districts, make any article arguments for lost funding purely hypothetical. That ruling cleared the plate of all legislation filed in opposition to the go signature legislation.
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Most of Wisconsin’s new people moved into the state.
The U.S. Census Bureau last week released a population snapshot.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Wednesday that he is nominating Republican Anne Vogel to become the next director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA). If the Ohio Senate confirms the nomination, Vogel will replace current director Laurie Stevenson who announced her retirement at the end of this year.
The Ohio EPA protects the environment and public health by enforcing environmental laws. According to DeWine, Vogel has the right experience for the job, and due to their history working together, she understands his priorities for the state.
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A measure proposed in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives this week would require the administering of pain medication to an unborn child before an abortion is performed.
State Representative Tim Bonner (R-Grove City) circulated a memorandum asking other representatives to back his upcoming bill which would instruct abortion doctors to dispense pain relief to a fetus if the organism has gestated for longer than 15 weeks. Bonner suggested his bill would not affect the legality of ending a pregnancy and entreated lawmakers on both sides of the abortion issue to join him in sponsoring the legislation.
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Virginia will reduce its grocery sales tax rate starting Jan. 1, resulting in a 1% tax on groceries and certain essential personal hygiene products.
Virginia will eliminate the 1.5% state retail sales and use tax on food and certain hygiene products, leaving a 1% local option sales tax.
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Following a civil rights complaint, Roseville Area High School scrapped “priority” entry for non-white students and members of its Black Student Union (BSU) to a “know your rights” training event.
The high school’s media center initially sent an email Dec. 16 informing parents about a Dec. 20 student training event that discussed “navigating police encounters involving yourself — or others, in a way that protects your rights and helps keeps you safe.”
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The year 2022 brings an end to an era of illusions: a year that saw the end of the post–Cold War era and the return of geopolitics; the first energy crisis of the enforced energy transition to net zero; and the year that brought environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing down to earth with a thump—for the year to date, BlackRock’s ESG Screened S&P 500 ETF lost 22.2% of its value, and the S&P 500 Energy Sector Index rose 54.0%. The three are linked. By restricting investment in production of oil and gas by Western producers, ESG increases the market power of non-Western producers, thereby enabling Putin’s weaponization of energy supplies. Net zero—the holy grail of ESG—has turned out to be Russia’s most potent ally.
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On Tuesday, Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) announced that it would launch an investigation into a performing arts center that hosted a drag show targeted towards little children.
As reported by the Daily Caller, the investigation is focusing on the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, which hosted the “Drag Queen Christmas” event the day after Christmas; advertisements for the event have since been removed from the center’s website, but archived versions remain available on the Internet.
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Barry Croft Jr. was sentenced to 19 years and seven months in prison Wednesday after being convicted of planning to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
A jury found Croft guilty in August of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, possession of a weapon of mass destruction and possession of an unregistered destructive device, with his associate Adam Fox being convicted of the first two crimes. The men intended to kidnap Whitmer from her Michigan vacation cottage and hold back her security detail and any law enforcement responders with destructive devices, according to the Western Michigan U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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The Arizona District of the Department of Justice revealed Tuesday that a former border patrol agent, Ramon Monreal-Rodriguez, 36, of Vail, Arizona, will be placed behind bars for 152 months for his role in two federal criminal cases.
“The men and women of the United States Border Patrol safeguard our frontier with compassion and dignity,” said United States Attorney Gary Restaino. “Most Border Patrol Agents are excellent public servants who diligently interdict contraband like guns and drugs. For those who aren’t and don’t, the Bureau of Prisons has plenty of room.”
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Prospective attorneys in Ohio have to fill out a questionnaire, undergo a background check, and participate in an interview to ascertain if they meet the necessary ethical and moral standards to practice law in the state. After January 17th, 2023, Ohioans will no longer have to list a mental or psychological disorder on the questionnaire.
According to the changes to Rule I of the Rules for the Government of the Bar of Ohio, a person’s mental health would only be relevant as part of an application when there is conduct that could be detected during the investigation, such as a criminal offense, substance use issues, or financial irresponsibility.
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As the year ends, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is reviewing the legislation approved throughout the lame-duck session and deciding to either veto or sign it into law.
Before the holiday break, DeWine signed two bills into law Senate Bill (SB) 210 and House Bill (HB) 223.
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Arizona State Rep. David Cook (R-Globe) recently led a bipartisan team of lawmakers on a trade mission to Brazil to advance Arizona’s position in the global economy and is now sharing legislative goals following the trip.
“I was honored to be joined by such a great group of public servants in a bipartisan trade delegation to Brazil to expand our state’s trade opportunities,” said Cook. “I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues and the great leaders we met to bolster Arizona’s economy.”
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At least 815,786 people were apprehended or evaded law enforcement after illegally entering Arizona in fiscal 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by The Center Square from a Border Patrol agent.
This is out of a record 3.3 million illegal entries reported by Border Patrol for all nine southwest border sectors in the fiscal year.
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Kari Lake, the Arizona Republican nominee for governor, is appealing a Maricopa County judge’s dismissal of her lawsuit challenging her defeat to Democrat Katie Hobbs, who is currently serving as secretary of state.
In a notice of appeal filed Tuesday, Lake asked the Arizona Superior Court to reconsider all 10 counts that she brought up in her original lawsuit as well as the attorneys’ fees she was ordered to pay.
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A lot of us likely remember the glee we felt as children at the onset of summer vacation, followed by the anxious anticipation of back-to-school time. For some children and teenagers, the start of a new school year generates intolerable levels of anxiety and depression. For a desperate portion of these young people, suicide seems like the only exit.
A new study, published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), finds a striking correlation between attendance in school and incidences of youth suicides. Analyzing several pre- and post-pandemic data sets, the researchers conclude “that youth suicides are closely tied with in-person school attendance.” According to the paper’s authors, youth suicides fall during the summer months and rise again when school begins. Notably, they found that in areas of the US where school begins in August, youth suicide rates also increase in August, while in areas that begin school in September, the youth suicide rate doesn’t increase until then.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) admitted it has “no records” of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants released into the country with electronic tracking devices, the agency said in a Dec. 22 letter to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
ICE informed TRAC that it had “no records” of the 377,980 individuals monitored by the agency’s “Alternatives to Detention” (ATD) program used to electronically track illegal immigrants released into the country. TRAC had asked for data via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on those in ATD custody from the start of fiscal year 2019 to August 2022.
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