Civil Rights Commissioner Warns House Judiciary Committee of Biden’s ‘Trojan Horse’ Radical Equity Executive Order

A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has written to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan (R), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, warning that Joe Biden’s sweeping executive order embedding radical woke equity ideology in all agencies of the executive branch is a “Trojan Horse” that represents “a major step toward socialism.”

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Tennessee National Guard to Conduct International Exercise Less than 500 Miles from Ukraine, in Bulgaria

The Tennessee Department of Military announced that the state’s Army and Air National Guard will be conducting an international joint readiness exercise, named Thracian Sentry 2023, throughout the nation of Bulgaria in June.

From June 12th-30th, “more than 170 military personnel from the Bulgarian Armed Forces, the Hellenic Air Force in Greece, and the Tennessee Army and Air National Guard will focus on developing and improving skills which include combat medical care, aircraft fire rescue, joint operations, logistics and sustainment, aeromedical evacuation, and weapons training,” the Tennessee Department of Military said in a Thursday statement.

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Lawmakers Demand Biden Declassify COVID Origins Investigations

Lawmakers are demanding that President Joe Biden declassify documents related to the origins of COVID-19, in particular federal investigations into the matter.

The Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent that would require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify documents related to COVID’s origins. Republicans have a majority in the House, giving the legislation a chance, but whether Biden would sign it is in doubt.

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Nashville Public Education Foundation Recognizes Nashville ‘Teacherpreneurs’

Recognizing that some of the most innovative classroom ideas come from teachers, Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) created the Teacherpreneur program as a means to annually award seed money to implement, or scale, the best ideas from teachers. This year’s winner is Dr. Jennifer Love from East Nashville Magnet High School. Her concept beat out 11 other finalists to take home the top prize. 

Love’s idea is to incorporate a social-emotional learning curriculum for student athletics in an effort to provide increased access to mental health support for high school students. As a first prize winner, she earns a $10,000 cash prize and some additional funding to help her implement her concept as a pilot program. 

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Advocates Sound Alarm About ‘After-School Satan Club’ Chapters Sprouting Across the Country

The Satanic Temple (TST) made headlines in 2022 for fighting for the right to create after-school clubs for students and has recently been launching new groups across the country, raising concerns for religious advocates about the potential impact Satanism may have on students’ perception of faith.

A TST “After-School Satan Club” was approved in December 2022 at a Virginia elementary school, provoking many parents, who were disturbed by the push to indoctrinate children into Satanism, to protest the club, according to RealClearEducation. TST has announced the formation of multiple new clubs in New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado in just the past month and religious advocates have taken note of the trend, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that the normalization of Satanism could be detrimental to students later in life.

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Report Finds $860 Million Lost in Homes Seized by Government

Local governments or lienholders have taken more than 8,950 homes with more than $860 million in equity from 2014 to 2021 under laws that allow them to seize properties for unpaid property taxes, according to a new report. 

Pacific Legal Foundation, which is working to ban the practice, found that taking property to pay property tax debts can be ruinous for people with small tax debts.

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Ohio Think Tank Asks Court to Let States Deal with Water Pollution

On Friday, a Columbus, Ohio-based think tank submitted a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court asking justices to allow states to enforce against water pollution, pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act (CWA). 

The 1972 law set up a permitting system for corporate or infrastructural projects that result in the discharge of pollutant materials into rivers, streams or other bodies of water. Under the act, states may undertake their own permitting programs. But last July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling that South Carolina’s program is not strong enough to supersede the federal permit process and therefore citizen lawsuits can effectively nullify the state program. 

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Bill Sent to Gov. Youngkin Would Phase Out Subminimum Wage in Virginia

Among the stack of bills the Virginia General Assembly sent to Gov. Glenn Youngkin this session is a measure that would align the commonwealth with a small batch of states moving to phase out subminimum wage employment for people with disabilities – a bill supporters say would eventually eliminate an “archaic” model dating back to the 1930’s. 

The measure, which passed by the General Assembly last month, aims to phase-out the practice of paying people with disabilities less than the state’s minimum wage. House Bill 1924 by Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, sets increased wage rates starting this summer that employers who currently pay a subminimum wage to workers with disabilities would be required to pay. 

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Georgia State Senate Passes Bill to Close ‘Zuckbucks’ Loophole

The Georgia Senate has passed a bill to prohibit local election offices from using private funding to conduct elections, after election officials reportedly used a loophole to accept the money.

The bill stipulates “costs and expenses related to conducting primaries, elections, runoffs, or other undertakings authorized or required by [state law] shall be paid from lawfully appropriated public funds.”

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Minnesota Lawmakers Line Up to Support Ranked Choice Voting Bill

Despite the fact that few people attended a ranked choice voting press conference at the Minnesota Capitol on Thursday, DFL legislators and paid RCV advocates expressed enthusiasm about the prospect of passing a bill that would implement their favored system of determining representation in the legislature and for statewide office.

State Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, and State Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, have introduced a bill they’re calling the “Protect and Advance Democracy Act” that would make Minnesota a ranked choice voting state by 2026.

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Commentary: Mayor Derides Ranked-Choice Voting Pilot Program Failure as Know-it-All Legislators Seek to Expand the Program

A “guinea pig.” That is what Sandy, Utah Mayor Monica Zoltanski said that “ranked-choice voting” (RCV) made of her hometown. The town opted into Utah’s controversial RCV pilot program, but the experiment has not gone well. The cost-saving promised by proponents never materialized, but the real alarm bells should have sounded when the experiment produced voter confusion and voter disengagement.

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Florida Bills Filed to Expand Protection for Human Trafficking Victims

Two bills have been filed in the Florida Legislature in advance of the upcoming session that would extend protections for human trafficking victims in court proceedings, including for minors or victims of certain crimes.

The bills filed by state Sen. Danny Burgess, R-Tampa, and state Rep. Taylor Yarkosky, R-Clermont, Senate Bill 1208 and House Bill 1037, respectively, have the support of Attorney General Ashley Moody.

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Pro-Abortion State Representative Wants to Defund Pennsylvania Crisis Pregnancy Centers

A Pennsylvania state representative announced this weekend she plans to sponsor a bill to end state subsidization of pregnancy-resource centers, accusing these organizations of improperly trying to dissuade women and “birthing people” from getting abortions. 

“Crisis pregnancy centers are organizations that purport to provide medical services to pregnant women and birthing people but instead engage in deceptive practices to prevent them from having abortions,” Representative Melissa Shusterman (D-Paoli) wrote in a memorandum encouraging colleagues to cosponsor her measure. “The damage these organizations inflict upon people cannot be understated [and] amounts to a public health emergency.” 

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Ohio House Bill Aims to Preserve the Second Amendment

Two Republican state Representatives have introduced a bill that aims to reduce firearms regulations and expand Second Amendment rights in Ohio.

House Bill (HB) 51 known as the “Second Amendment Preservation Act” sponsored by state Representatives Mike Loychik (R-Bazetta) and Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) takes several steps to protect the Second Amendment by adding further protections to the right to bear arms, and removing federal firearms law references from the state firearms control law.

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Bank of America Worked with Feds to Target Gun Owners, Whistleblower Confirms

Bank of America (BOA) worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate customers who made purchases with BOA credit and debit cards on and around Jan. 6, and pushed those who had made gun purchases to the top of the list, according to whistleblower testimony obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The whistleblower, George Hill, a retired FBI supervisory intelligence analyst, testified to the House Judiciary Committee In February that BOA gave the FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) a list of individuals who made transactions in the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area between Jan. 5 and Jan. 7, saying the company did so of its own volition and without any known legal process, according to testimony made to the House Judiciary Committee in February. The list of individuals, later distributed to FBI field offices across the country, included BOA customers that purchased any product between those dates, while customers who had bought firearms were prioritized.

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More than Dozen Mayors Have Been Arrested for Child Sex Offenses over the Past Two Years

At least 13 mayors have been arrested for sexual crimes against children since 2021, according to a review of news articles and police reports.

College Park, Maryland, Mayor Patrick Wojahn is the most recent mayor to be charged with child sex crimes and has been arrested for 56 counts of possession and distribution of child pornography, according to NBC Washington; Wojahn submitted his letter of resignation Thursday.

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Donald Trump Tops National Primary Polls, But DeSantis Leads in Key States

While former President Donald Trump continues to lead national polls for the 2024 GOP primaries, state polling is more of a determining factor, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is topping several important states.

In states with the most recent primary polling, DeSantis leads in five– Alabama, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. There are several other states in which he leads, but with several caveats.

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