Day: March 18, 2023

Pence Tells Iowans U.S. Must Continue to be ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ in Ukraine

M.D. Kittle

Taking a different position than his old boss on a key foreign policy issue, former Vice President Mike Pence told a gathering of Iowans Saturday that the U.S. must continue to help provision Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression. 

While he repeatedly trumpeted “Trump-Pence” successes, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate definitely differs with potential top presidential race rivals, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, on U.S. involvement in the war-torn European country. 

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Calls Potential Indictment of Trump a Politically-Driven ‘Dark Moment’ in U.S. History

M.D. Kittle

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says an indictment against fellow candidate and former President Donald Trump would be a “national disaster.” 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office on Friday asked for a meeting with law enforcement ahead of a possible indictment of Trump next week, Fox News reported.

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Tennessee Senate Committee Could Extend Memphis Grizzlies’ Tax Captures to 2059

The Center Square

A Tennessee Senate committee will be looking at bills to extend tax deals for the Memphis Grizzlies’ FedExForum through 2059 on Tuesday.

The tax proposal comes up as Gov. Bill Lee has proposed sending $350 million to Memphis for renovations at the Grizzlies’ FedExForum and Memphis’ Liberty Stadium. That is part of $684 million in planned renovations to Memphis sports facilities.

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Republican Lawmakers Unveil New Plan to Spike Biden’s Student Loan Bailout

Admin

Several Republican lawmakers announced on Friday that they will introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) to reverse President Joe Biden’s attempt to cancel student loan debt, according to a press release sent to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, John Cornyn of Texas and Joni Ernst of Iowa made the announcement shortly after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) ruled that the CRA, a congressional oversight tool to reverse rules by federal agencies, can be used to counter the Biden administration’s student loan cancelation proposal, according to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions’ press release. The senators argue that the plan does not cancel debt, but shifts the burden to the taxpayers.

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Rachel Levine Promises Idea of Transgender Children Will Soon Be Normalized, Has ‘Highest Support’ of Biden Administration

Susan Berry, PhD

Transgender Assistant Secretary for Health for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Rachel Levine recently praised the work of children’s hospitals, such as Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) in Hartford, for their “gender-affirming care” clinics that provide children and teens with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries, such as elective double mastectomies.

Levine (born Richard Levine) told a very welcoming audience at CCMC’s Pediatric Grand Rounds in February that “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex Americans, especially our youth … need our attention because they’re being attacked and … are attempting suicide at an alarming rate.”

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FBI, DOJ Investigating TikTok Parent over Surveillance of Americans: Report

Admin

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are investigating Chinese company ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, for surveilling Americans, according to Forbes.

The DOJ Fraud Section and the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia subpoenaed information from the company about its employees’ efforts to access the location and other private information of American journalists through TikTok, Forbes reported, citing an anonymous source. The FBI is conducting interviews on the same subject.

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Dem-Linked Nonprofit Sues DeSantis Admin for Records on Decision to Reject AP History Class

Admin

A left-wing watchdog organization sued Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration on Thursday for allegedly withholding records relating to the decision to reject the AP African American Studies course.

American Oversight filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Education claiming the government agency is allegedly not responding to eight public records requests for the communications between state agencies, DeSantis’ office and outside parties discussing the decision to reject an AP African American Studies course because it lacked “educational value and historical accuracy.” The lawsuit comes after DeSantis rejected the college-level course because it violated state law against the teaching of CRT.

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Connecticut Lawmakers Weigh Tax Breaks to Expand Affordable Housing

The Center Square

Connecticut lawmakers are debating a plan that would offer property tax relief to senior citizens who agree to deed-restrict their homes as affordable housing.

The proposal, which cleared a key vote by the Legislature’s Housing Committee earlier this month, would allow seniors with household incomes of up to 80% of the area median income to “opt-in” to a program that deed-restricts their homes as affordable. In exchange, they wouldn’t be required to pay local property taxes. 

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Virginia Bill Would Expand Tax Credit for Farmers Donating Crops

The Center Square

As thousands of Virginia families grapple with food insecurity, the state could soon renew and expand tax credits for farmers who donate surplus crops to nonprofit food banks under a bill sent to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk this session. 

Before the close of this year’s legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that would allow farmers who donate food crops or “wholesome food” to a nonprofit food bank in the commonwealth to claim a tax credit equal to 50% of the fair market value of such donation. In total, each farmer could claim a maximum of $10,000 in tax credits for donations starting in the 2023 tax year. The bill has a sunset date of Jan. 1, 2028. 

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Arizona Senate Republicans Pass Bills to Keep Explicit Performances Away from Children

Neil Jones

The Arizona Senate Majority Caucus announced Thursday that two Senate Bills (SBs) from Sen. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) aimed at regulating sexually explicit performances, so minors are not exposed to them passed through the floor despite receiving no Democrat support.

“Senate Democrats don’t seem to have a problem with children being exposed to sexually explicit adult performances. If they did, they would have voted in support of these two bills. Instead, all Senate Democrats voted against protecting our Arizona kids,” the caucus tweeted.

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Orders States Not to Block Waste from East Palestine Derailment

Hannah Poling

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday ordered states to stop preventing the transportation of contaminated debris from an Ohio train disaster that resulted in a fire from reaching hazardous waste storage facilities around the country.

This announcement follows Ohio Governor Mike DeWine calling on both the EPA and Norfolk Southern Railway to authorize more sites to take East Palestine’s contaminated soil due to some states with sites that are certified to take in hazardous materials not accepting it.

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Pennsylvania Senate Holds Hearing About Challenges Persisting Veteran Suicide Prevention

The Center Square

Members of the Pennsylvania Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee met in Chambersburg Thursday, just as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued orders at the national level to increase access to mental health care in the military.

Committee Chairman Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Chambersburg, opened the meeting by optimistically noting the downward trend of suicides in recent years following a series of state initiatives meant to address mental health amongst veterans. But, he said, there’s much more work to be done.

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Commentary: Legacy Media Ignored Voting Irregularities in 2020 Election

RealClearWire

The lawsuit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Services, set to go to trial on April 17, may turn out to be a seminal case in First Amendment jurisprudence, with effects that reach well beyond Fox. In a nutshell, Dominion charges that Fox defamed them by putting on air people who claimed that Dominion’s voting machines yielded incorrect results, to the benefit of Joe Biden. More than this, the plaintiffs have secured, through depositions, evidence that Fox News hosts and news executives themselves disbelieved the claims their on-air guests were making.

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Governor Tony Evers Quickly Names Liberal Political Climber Godlewski Wisconsin Secretary of State after Long-Serving La Follette Retires

M.D. Kittle

In a surprise move Friday, Governor Tony Evers hastily appointed former Democrat State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski Secretary of State after Doug La Follette suddenly resigned the post he’s held for nearly half a century. 

Consider it a gift to the far left Godlewski, who ceded last year’s Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate to former Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes in his losing campaign against Wisconsin’s Republican senior U.S. Senator Ron Johnson. 

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Planned Parenthood Reports 40 Percent Increase in Second-Trimester Abortions at Minnesota Hearing

Admin

Dr. Sarah Traxler, the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood North Central States, said second-trimester abortions have increased substantially in the region during a hearing this week in the Minnesota Senate.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Traxler said PPNCS has seen a 13% increase in patients coming from out of the region for abortions and a 40% increase in second-trimester abortions. PPNCS includes Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

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Ohio Governor DeWine Visits East Palestine to Receive Remediation Updates After Train Derailment

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine visited East Palestine, Ohio to receive remediation updates on Friday, exactly six weeks since a Norfolk Southern train derailed wreaking havoc on the environment and negatively impacting the health of residents.

Although soil is being removed in the area more swiftly than before, according to DeWine, “it’s never fast enough.” Despite the fact that 1,620 tons of earth were removed last week as opposed to 910 tons the week before, there is still a substantial amount.

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Commentary: The Way Government Lost 15 Million Acres of Public Land in the United States

Admin

Leave it to the United States Government to lose track of almost three states worth of public land. Only an institution with so little incentive and ability to allocate resources for the betterment of human wellbeing could instantiate such a catastrophic waste of potential.

The following is a story of an engineer named Eric Siegfried, a Montana man who caught public officials in almost unimaginable levels of incompetence and waste. It is also a cautionary tale about the way extreme misallocations of resources are the predictable outcome of America’s current form of land use governance, which systematically severs control over certain resources from anyone equipped to use them rationally and effectively.

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Over Two Tons of ‘Missing’ Uranium Found in Libya

Admin

On Thursday, more than two tons of radioactive uranium that had previously thought to have been missing was discovered in a Libyan warehouse, easing concerns about the possible nuclear threat of the missing materials.

As the New York Post reports, Khaled Mahjoub, a spokesman for the Libyan National Army (LNA), released the statement revealing that the uranium was discovered in southern Libya, contained in at least 10 barrels; video taken from the recovery shows workers counting up to 18 barrels.

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