Month: March 2023

Taxpayers Foot $44,117 for Whitmer’s Davos Trip

The Center Square

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spent at least $44,117 of taxpayer money on her European trip to Davos to speak at the World Economic Forum, according to documents obtained by The Center Square in response to its Freedom of Information Act request.

That includes $26,222 for hotels, $13,779 for travel, $4,000 in miscellaneous expenses, and $116.15 in meals, says a document from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. A separate FOIA request for the governor’s security costs is still pending. 

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Governor Katie Hobbs Set to Veto Anti-Critical Race Theory Bill

Neil Jones

A bill from State Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R-Chandler) aimed at preventing Critical Race Theory from being taught in state classrooms made its way to Governor Katie Hobbs’s desk Monday. However, Josslyn Berry, a spokesperson for Hobbs, told The Arizona Sun Times that is as far as the bill would get.

“I can confirm we’ll be vetoing this one [Senate Bill (SB) 1305],” Berry said via email.

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Bill Sent to Virginia Gov. Youngkin Would Reward Oyster Shell Recycling

The Center Square

A bill sent to Gov. Glenn Youngkin this legislative session would reward individuals that recycle oyster shells – a measure supporters say could benefit several sectors across Virginia. 

In the final days of the legislative session, lawmakers in the General Assembly voted to advance a bill to the governor’s desk that would provide grants to anyone who donates oyster shells to nonprofits for use in restoration projects. The grants awarded would total $4 per bushel of oyster shells and be capped at $1,500 per person in a year. 

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Sues State over Early Ballot Signature Verification Process

Neil Jones

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club filed a lawsuit against the state Monday, alleging that the early ballot signature verification process outlined in the Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) violates state law.

“The signature presented on an early ballot affidavit is the fulcrum on which the integrity of that ballot pivots; it is the only means by which the county recorder can verify that a person casting an early ballot by mail is, in fact, a duly qualified elector,” according to the lawsuit. “And given the centrality of early ballots to elections in this state, signature verification is also foundational to the overall integrity of Arizona’s elections.”

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Bill Aims to Protect American Sovereignty Against World Health Organization’s Pandemic Plan

M.D. Kittle

As negations move forward on an international pandemic treaty, Republican House members are pushing a bill that would check the pandemic powers of the World Health Organization. 

U.S. Representatives Tom Tiffany (R-WI-07) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) joined a dozen of their Republican colleagues in introducing the No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act.

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Shapiro’s Planned Spending Increase Alarms Pennsylvania Budget Hawks

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro asked the state General Assembly members on Tuesday to support his requested $45.9 billion budget, which would increase spending by approximately 4 percent over current outlays. 

The governor insisted he based his plan for Fiscal Year 2023-24 on “conservative” revenue estimates. And he did include some provisions appealing to anti-taxers and free-marketers including nixing the state cell-phone tax, a move he estimates would save Pennsylvanians $124 million annually. 

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Secretary of State LaRose Says Ohio May Drop Out of Voter Registration Initiative

Hannah Poling

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has alerted the chairman and board of a national bipartisan voter registration initiative that the state may withdraw, as three Republican-led states announced Monday.

Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia announced on Monday that they will no longer participate in the multi-state Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which election officials created to enable states to share voter registration information.

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Arizona Waterways to Bank Heavy Snow Runoff

The Center Square

With a change of season all but here, officials at public utility Salt River Project have commenced low-level water releases from a nearby reservoir to make room for snowmelt runoff.

With SRP reservoirs along the Verde River nearing capacity after a busy winter storm season, a low-level release of water from the Bartlett Dam is set to kick in, with the primary goal being to create additional storage capacity and provide maximum flexibility for the upcoming and continued snowmelt and runoff season, the agency said.

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Commentary: The Border Crisis and Violent Crime

Admin

When Joe Biden chose to revoke the Trump Administration’s border rules, he sparked an unprecedented crisis at the southern border. The illegal immigrant population has already risen by 2 million since Biden’s inauguration, and the flow has not stopped. Some of the consequences of this crisis are indisputable—a strain on border communities, a fiscal burden for taxpayers, and a weakening of the rule of law.

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Commentary: The Dark Origins and History of International Women’s Day

Admin

March 8 is International Women’s Day, and over the past few years, this means our news and social media feeds are flooded with stories and advertisements centering on women (and sometimes men identifying as women). Some of these stories do shine a light on how women have contributed to the world we live in, but most seem to come from left-wing outlets propagating their ideas of women, gender politics, and equity.

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Ramaswamy Rebuffs Alleged Offer to Buy CPAC Straw Poll, Promises Transparency

RealClearWire

Vivek Ramaswamy wants to do something normal politicians work to avoid. A successful biotech entrepreneur turned “anti-woke” reformer, the Republican author and activist is running for president while actively trying to break the fourth wall of American campaign politics.  

Candidates don’t generally talk trash about the cadre of operatives and politicos who manipulate the political landscape behind the scenes. But Ramaswamy says his campaign received a call the day after he announced, and the consultant on the other end of the phone offered a prize that would intrigue any upstart presidential candidate: second place in the CPAC straw poll.

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Attorney General Skrmetti on TikTok’s Refusal to Provide Documents: If a Company’s Behavior Is Sufficiently Egregious, State Law ‘Allows Me to Ask a Court to Ban That Company from Ever Doing Business in Tennessee Again’

Julie Carr

Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to the newsmaker line to discuss the amicus brief filed against Chinese-owned TikTok and the possibility of litigation that could outlaw its platform in the state.

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Governor Lee Declares March 2023 Tennessee Literacy Month

TC Weber

Governor Lee is an avid advocate for literacy in Tennessee. In that spirit, he has proclaimed March 2023 as Tennessee Literacy Month, and throughout the month, the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) will be highlighting how reading is an essential skill for all students.

Commissioner Schwinn and the TDOE  invite all Tennesseans to celebrate Tennessee Literacy Month, by spotlighting the Reading 360 initiative and the focus Tennessee’s educators, families, elected officials, and community partners have placed on improving literacy rates for all learners in the state.

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Big Ag Set to Crush Family Farmers with ‘Climate-Smart’ Carbon Markets: Report

The Center Square

Family scale farmers in the Midwest may lose a lot to large agribusinesses through carbon markets, a new report says.

According to the report, “Agricultural Carbon Markets, Payments and Data: Big Ag’s Latest Power Grab” by Open Markets Institute and Friends of the Earth, carbon markets programs will entrench chemical-intensive farming practices and increase corporate control of agriculture rather than reduce greenhouse gas emissions like politicians assert.

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Tennessee AG Skrmetti Leads 46 States to Demand China-Based TikTok Comply with Multistate Investigation

Admin

Forty-six attorneys general joined Tennessee in requesting that a state court force TikTok to comply with an ongoing multistate investigation into the platform’s impact on children.

Following TikTok’s failure to comply with a Request for Information (RFI) last week, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a motion Monday to require the Chinese-owned social media company to preserve documents and internal messages, his office announced. Colorado and 45 other states also filed an amicus brief Monday in support of Skrmetti’s motion, arguing that TikTok’s failure to respond impedes “the State’s ability to protect their citizens.”

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Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions Hit Record High

Admin

Global carbon dioxide emissions hit a record high of more than 36 billion tons in 2022, although emissions grew more slowly than anticipated, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported Thursday.

Emissions from coal surged by 1.6%, to a record breaking 15.5 billion tons, as Europe turned to coal after Russia slashed exports of natural gas following its invasion of Ukraine, the IEA reported. Growth in renewable energy sources mitigated more than half a billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, helping keep emissions growth below expectations, and accounted for roughly 90% of all new power generation.

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‘Corrupt’: Ramaswamy Says Consultant Promised Second-Place Finish in CPAC Poll for ‘a Few Hundred Thousand Dollars’

Admin

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Monday he was offered second place in the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll if he paid a consultant.

“One of the things you see as an outsider is how corrupt the system is. You know something funny about this? I’ve attended CPAC before. I didn’t know it works this way,” Ramaswamy told Fox Business host Stuart Varney. “A consultant calls my campaign shortly after I declared, says ‘Hey, we can get you up to number two on there if you pay us a few hundred thousand dollars.’ I was shocked, you know … there’s a lot of people making money not only off of me, but every presidential campaign.”

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Atlanta Police Say 35 Detained, 23 Arrested after Mob Attacks Officers, Destroys Construction Equipment

Admin

The Atlanta Police Department said 35 people are in custody after a violent mob attacked police officers and destroyed construction equipment at the site of the proposed law enforcement training center.

Police said Sunday “a group of violent agitators used the cover of a peaceful protest of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to conduct a coordinated attack on construction equipment and police officers.”

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Commentary: ‘Geofence Warrants’ Threaten Every Phone User’s Privacy

Admin

The last time your phone asked you to allow this or that app access to your location data, you may have had some trepidation about how much Apple or Google know about you. You may have worried about what might come of that, or read about China’s use of the data to track anti-lockdown protesters. What you probably didn’t realize is Google has already searched your data on behalf of the federal government to see if you were involved with January 6th.

But last month, the federal district court in DC issued an opinion in the case of  one of the many defendants who stands accused of sacking the Capitol in the wake of the 2020 election.

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More Than 80 Percent of Fairfax County Parents Reject Gender-Inclusive Sex Ed for Middle School-Age Kids: Poll

Admin

In a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) poll, more than 84 percent of parents are not in favor of a gender-inclusive sexual education curriculum for children in grades four through eight, according to ABC 7 News.

Parents were asked about the proposed “Family Life Education Instructional Materials” (FLE), a sexual education curriculum which focuses on making lessons “gender inclusive,” stating that puberty is not gender-specific, according to ABC 7 News. FCPS, the school board and the FLE Curriculum Advisory Committee allegedly withheld the survey results from the community, drawing backlash from parents.

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University of Florida Reports Significant Increase in Trans-Identifying Students, Sex Change Treatments in Response to DeSantis Audit

Admin

University of Florida (UF) health centers reported an uptick in the number of transgender patients, fulfilling a request by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration in January, UF student newspaper the Independent Florida Alligator reported.

The Florida Office of Policy and Budget sent a memo to university leaders on Jan. 11 demanding reports about the number of patients treated for gender dysphoria at affiliated health centers. UF Health reported an increase in sex change treatments including puberty blocker prescription, hormone therapy, surgery and behavioral services at its various clinics since 2018, according to the reports obtained by the Alligator.

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Minneapolis Pro-Life Clinic Vandalized

Admin

“If abortions arnt safe neither r u [sic].”

That was just one of the phrases scrawled across a Christian pro-life pregnancy resource center in Minneapolis over the weekend where windows were also shattered by vandals.

Police were flagged down just after 1 a.m. Saturday by a Metro Transit bus driver who had witnessed suspects causing damage to property on a building at 2015 Chicago Avenue in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, according to dispatch audio.

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Report: Florida’s Tourism Industry Will Continue Post-COVID Recovery

The Center Square

With the exception of a dip during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Florida’s tourism industry has continued to grow since 2019 and predictions are that the good times will continue to roll for the Sunshine State.

A report from Visit Florida, showed that the Sunshine State had approximately 33.2 million visitors in total during the fourth quarter of 2022. This is 6% higher than the same time period in 2021, and 7.8% higher than October 2019 through December 2019.

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Michigan’s Largest Teachers Union Must Reimburse Taxpayers for Wrongfully Taking COVID Relief Aid

The Center Square

Michigan’s largest teachers union and its health insurance affiliate must repay the U.S. government more than $200,000 after taking $12.5 million in federal loans for which they were ineligible.

Lawmakers intended Paycheck Protection Program loans to help small businesses afford to pay their employees during the initial COVID-19 shutdowns.

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Reintroduced Bill Would Have Taxpayers Pay to Help Transgender Pennsylvanians Change Their Names

Bradley Vasoli

Several leftist members of the Pennsylvania state Senate announced on Monday they are reintroducing a series of bills to help transgender residents change their names — including one measure that would force taxpayers to assist those who are going through the process. 

Senators Tim Kearney (D-Springfield), Amanda Cappelletti (D-Norristown), Katie Muth (D-Royersford) and Lindsey Williams (D-Pittsburgh) complained that transgender constituents often tell them the process of changing their names is onerous. State Representatives Ben Sanchez (D-Abington) and Melissa Shusterman (D-Phoenixville) have reintroduced a House version of the legislation which would allot $2 million to a “Compassionate Name Change Assistance Grant Fund.” 

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Norfolk Southern Unveils New Safety Plan Following Second Ohio Train Derailment

Hannah Poling

After its second train derailment in Ohio within a matter of weeks, Norfolk Southern on Monday unveiled a “six-point strategy” to increase safety.

Although Norfolk Southern claimed there were no dangerous commodities on the train, around 20 of a 212-car train derailed on Saturday in Springfield, Ohio. The incident happened about a month after a derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which contained hazardous materials and required hundreds of nearby residents to evacuate for several days.

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Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell Announces Jail Time for Former Attorney Found Guilty of Abuse

Neil Jones

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell (R) announced Friday that former prosecutor and defense attorney Edward Maldonado, 48, will face six years of jail time for sexual abuse.

“Justice prevailed today for the victims of a lawyer who took advantage of his position and his stature to sexually abuse and take advantage of women in the legal profession,” said Mitchell. “I am very proud of this office for standing up for these victims and helping them find justice.”

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Gov Shapiro, Norfolk Southern Broker $7.4 Million Aid Deal

The Center Square

Norfolk Southern agreed this week to reimburse first responders, county relief funds and state agencies nearly $7.4 million in the wake of the February 3 train derailment near the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said Monday he secured a deal with Alan Shaw, the railroad’s chief executive officer, to cover all of the costs the state incurred responding to the accident, as well as establishing a $1 million community relief fund in Beaver and Lawrence counties for impacted residents and businesses.

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Ohio GOP Chairman Triantafilou Rallies Allen County Republicans with New Party Vision

Hannah Poling

Alex Triantafilou, the newly elected head of the Ohio Republican Party, stopped in Lima for the Allen County Republican Party’s monthly luncheon to discuss his vision of what the party can anticipate this year.

According to Triantafilou, they will strive to keep Ohio a “red” state and will concentrate on removing U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and President Joe Biden from office.

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Commentary: Your Tax Dollars at Work in Ukraine in Six Charts

Admin

According to a report by Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow, since Russia’s invasion in February of 2022, Ukraine has become far and away the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid. It’s the first time that a European country has held the top spot since the Harry S. Truman administration directed vast sums into rebuilding the continent through the Marshall Plan after World War II.

Since the war began, the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed about $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support. The number is documented in a report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute, analyzed by Masters and Merrow. 

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Arizona State Sen. Anthony Kern Calls for Resignation of Tamillia Valenzuela from Valley School Board Following Anti-Christian Comments

Neil Jones

Arizona State Sen. Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) released a statement Friday calling for Tamillia Valenzuela to resign from the Washington Elementary School District (WESD) Governing Board after making anti-Christian remarks during a recent meeting.

“While we’re facing a shortage of teachers, Valenzuela is impugning the motives of teachers with certain religious beliefs. This is NOT what our country was founded on,” said Kern.

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Georgia Leaders Plan to Review State’s Tax Credits

The Center Square

Georgia leaders plan to review the state’s various tax credits, saying they want to ensure any credits provide a “significant return on investment” for Georgia’s taxpayers.

The review, announced Thursday, will include the oft-lauded film tax credit. House and Senate members will work with various industry stakeholders and state offices, including the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the Governor’s Office of Planning & Budget and the Georgia Department of Revenue.

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Commentary: Class Divisions Versus Factions, and the Role They Play in a More Perfect Union

RealClearWire

We live in politically divided times. How we describe the sources of our divisions, though, varies. Some focus on principles such as equality, justice, liberty, and order. Some take up policy disputes related to those principles while others look to economic class, race, or even geography.

Does using these lenses to view our divisions violate our founding principles? Since humans will disagree about justice, especially its application, one can defend principled lines. Indeed, our Founders created mechanisms of elections and deliberative bodies to adjudicate those differences. Moreover, one can rightly conclude that race presents a troubling source of division in light of our commitment to human equality.

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

Susan Berry, PhD

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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