A suburban Virginia county near Washington, D.C. is retroactively hiding diversity, equity and inclusion-related materials from the public as a Republican elected official calls attention to its activities.
Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega, who lost a closely watched House race in November, posted the “creepy and intrusive” DEI survey sent to county employees after the Office of Equity and Inclusion removed the link she had shared with constituents Feb. 26.
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Former President Donald Trump’s run for the White House could run into trouble in Iowa from evangelicals unhappy about his criticisms of the pro-life movement following mostly disappointing midterms for Republicans.
Iowa’s Bob Vader Plaats, a leading voice among the Hawkeye State’s evangelical voters, certainly hasn’t forgotten what Trump said in early January.
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A new report shows Wisconsin schools are marking a significant amount for federal COVID relief on construction projects, outpacing planned pandemic aid for core educational and mental health programs.
The Institute for Reforming Government’s updated K-12 COVID relief Audit found some $265 million of the current $1.49 billion in taxpayer funds allocated is going to construction.
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The grassroots advocacy organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP) filed a lawsuit in the Arizona District Court Friday in opposition to Arizona’s newly enacted “dark money” law, alleging that it presents possible first amendment violations.
“The First Amendment safeguards the right of individuals to donate to private advocacy organizations without undue risk that they will be subjected to their identities being disclosed or other chilling by the government,” according to the complaint.
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Pennsylvania state Representatives Jordan Harris (D-Philadelphia) and Sheryl Delozier (R-Camp Hill) on Friday reintroduced “clean slate” legislation to subject low-level drug felonies to automatic record sealing.
The new bill boasts not only a bipartisan roster of legislative backers but also a philosophically broad range of supportive organizations including the pro-free-market Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, the Justice Action Network, Right on Crime and Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.
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Gov. Josh Shapiro’s first state budget proposal perpetuates unsustainable spending and fails to address the most promising ideas he put forward during his campaign. For starters, his budget calls for $45.9 billion in ongoing General Fund spending – but the state has only $43 billion in net revenues, so the governor is positioning us for a nearly $3 billion annual deficit.
Spending that exceeds revenue is unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible for individuals, businesses, and certainly for government.
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Ohio Republican politician and businessman Bernie Moreno says that an indictment against former President and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump would be a “disastrous idea.”
According to a Fox News report, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office requested a meeting with law enforcement on Friday in anticipation of a potential indictment of Trump this week.
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America’s teachers’ unions exploited the COVID-19 pandemic to maximum effect, leveraging school lockdowns for which they lobbied to pursue political demands stretching far beyond their salaries and benefits – and helping drive a $190 billion windfall in taxpayer dollars to K-12 schools.
The public bore that cost, in children’s learning loss and mental health struggles; in the burdens the closures placed on parents already struggling to make ends meet in an economy crippled by government decree; and on the literal costs that the teachers’ unions passed on to taxpayers.
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A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo asserts Wisconsinites spent nearly $40 million on Illinois taxes to Illinois through cannabis-related taxes last fiscal year,
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau Analyst Sydney Emmerich wrote in a March 10 memo to State Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, that an Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation report shows that 50.6 percent of marijuana sales, or $121.2 million, in counties bordering Wisconsin were to out-of-state residents. The sales amount to 7.8% of Illinois’ total cannabis-related tax revenue.
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The Board of Regents overseeing Iowa’s public universities has paused implementation of any new diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the state’s three major public universities as officials launch a review of them.
The March 14 announcement comes in the wake of a recently introduced bill in the Iowa House of Representatives that aims to halt spending on DEI initiatives in higher education.
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Arizona State Rep. Austin Smith (R-Suprise) announced Friday that he had sent a letter to the office of Attorney General Kris Mayes (D), asking for her commitment to further investigate the water situation for the Rio Verde Foothills (RVF) area residents.
“I sent a letter to Kris Mayes asking if she will be investigating the root cause of the water crisis in the Rio Verde Foothills. This affects every Arizonan and our water future,” Smith shared.
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Clare Cunningham gives a mesmerizing Opry performance at her debut during Music City Irish Fest 2023.
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Stanford was once one of the world’s great universities. It birthed Silicon Valley in its prime. And along with its nearby twin and rival, UC Berkeley, its brilliant researchers, and teachers helped fuel the mid-20th-century California miracle.
That was then. But like the descent of California, now something has gone terribly wrong with the university.
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Insurers are being forced to write off many electric vehicles with only minor damage to battery packs, sending the batteries to scrap yards and hindering the climate benefits of going electric, Reuters reported.
Battery packs typically represent roughly half the cost of an electric vehicle, sometimes costing tens of thousands of dollars, often making it more economical for insurers to consider a car as totalled than replace a battery pack, according to Reuters. While many carmakers, including Ford and GM, told Reuters that their battery packs were repairable, many are unwilling to share key data with third-party insurers to help assess damage.
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Former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann, who later became a leading figure in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, negatively impacted the FBI general counsel’s office’s culture during his tenure there, his immediate successor alleged, according to Politico.
During a trial this month for an unsuccessful gender discrimination lawsuit against the FBI, former bureau General Counsel Jim Baker described starting his tenure and discovering a fearful office atmosphere left by Weissmann, who was general counsel from 2011 to 2013, the outlet reported. Baker said the office’s personnel “didn’t tell each other what they were doing,” claiming the issue was “inherited from Andrew” and mentioning “negativity that flowed from” him.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the founder of Nashville Publicity Group and the Nashville Elvis Festival to the newsmaker line to describe the world’s best tribute to Elvis.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton to the newsmaker line to comment on federal education funding, charter schools, choice lanes, Randy McNally’s social media snafu, and the top priority before the session ends.
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Inflation has outpaced wages for nearly two years, recently released federal data shows.
A closer look at federal wage and pricing data shows workers are making less overall as the price for all kinds of goods and services rise faster than average hourly wages.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “real” average hourly earnings, which are wages of Americans with rising inflation taken into account.
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President Biden on Monday issued the first veto of his presidency, blocking a measure passed last week by Congress to overturn a Labor Department rule allowing retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance factors when making investment decisions.
The GOP-led effort received congressional passage last week in the Democrat-controlled Senate, with the White House saying it would likely get a presidential veto.
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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has remained silent on the potential indictment of former President Donald Trump, while several of her 2024 opponents – and potential opponents – have weighed in.
Conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence have spoken out against the Manhattan District Attorney’s political agenda they allege is behind the targeting of the former president. Their comments come after Trump announced on Truth Social that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday.
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The U.S. State Department and Texas Department of Public Safety have warned Americans not to travel to Mexico because of escalating cartel violence. While some news reports have suggested the warnings were for spring break, the warnings have been issued since at least last August and remain indefinite.
They’ve also been issued after more than 550 Americans have been reported and remain missing in Mexico.
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A bill that would ultimately take $54 million worth of annual sports gambling taxes and spend it on child care scholarships passed a Senate committee despite the objection of two Republican lawmakers who believe funding child care is beyond the scope of government.
The bill would create a Promising Futures Account with Tennessee’s treasury and begin by giving up to $4,500 in scholarships for approved early childhood learning programs.
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Walking near Temple University, I noticed a flyer advocating for “socialism in our lifetime.” The message from an outside group reads in full, “Socialist Revolution: Join the fight for socialism in our lifetime.” Having grown up in Soviet-era Ukraine and now a tenured professor at Temple, I feel strongly that most college-age Americans do not understand what they are saying when they advocate for socialism.
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Former Republican Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey has issued an attempt to withdraw his guilty plea regarding charges stemming from his federal campaign finance case, court documents show.
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HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee – Riley Gaines, a 12-time All-American swimmer for the University of Kentucky turned women’s sports advocate, told a group in her native Sumner County that the issue is not just a matter of fairness in sports but one of freedom of speech and denying objective truths.
Gaines spoke at the monthly meeting of the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans (SCCR), which moved across the road to the Beech Cumberland Church from its usual meeting location at the Shackle Island Fire Rescue building, due to the crowd size numbering well over 100.
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A group of workers at the Nissan North America – Smyrna plant recently voted against unionizing and being represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) in a 62-9 vote, according to a report by The Associated Press.
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The architect behind Tennessee’s revision of English Language Arts (ELA) instruction, Tennessee Department of Education(TDOE) Chief Academic Officer Dr. Lisa Coons, has been named a finalist for the top education job in Nebraska. The search for a new superintendent was prompted by Matt Blomstedt stepping down as commissioner in January, after 9 years of service, to join a Washington D.C. Education Advocacy Group.
An ad hoc search committee of the Nebraska State Board of Education (NDE) named four finalists for Nebraska’s next Commissioner of Education, and Coons’s name is among them.
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As recently as the mid-2000s, row offices were unwinnable for Democrats in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania — a GOP stronghold for over a century. By 2011, the Democrats would take over the Board of Commissioners. They now enjoy a three-to-two voter-registration advantage.
But now some Republicans sense voters are wearying of what the Democrats have overseen during their dozen-year ascendancy, including a “bail reform” measure that has unsettled local police. The commissioners also frequently increase property taxes, most recently by eight percent in 2022.
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The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry is asking a district court to stop a meat processing company from illegally employing minors.
The DLI said in its complaint that Tony Downs Food Company employs at least eight minors at its processing plant in Madelia. According to the department, the company has worked children past midnight, more than eight hours a day, and more than 40 hours in a week, in violation of the Minnesota Child Labor Standards Act. A 14-year-old employee began working for the company at age 13, and, based on injury records Tony Downs produced to DLI, one of the employees who’s a minor has also been injured on the job, the department said.
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The head of the Wisconsin Senate’s natural resources committee says lawmakers could find $100 million for PFAS testing in the new state budget, but he wants to make sure it’s spent wisely.
Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, focused on Gov. Evers’ clean water plans during Thursday’s confirmation hearing with Department of Natural Resources secretary-designee Adam Payne.
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There continue to be questions about more than $100 million in coronavirus stimulus money that Wisconsin spent on broadband internet expansion.
Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, on Wednesday questioned the state’s Public Service Commission about last September’s audit that stated there was almost no tracking of what was spent, what work was done, or if the new internet access even worked.
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A collection of seemingly random crises can spell out a sinister “conspiracy theory” when you consider their connections and where they are leading. An overplayed plot? Perhaps, but how many so-called conspiracy theories have proven to be reality recently?
First, the world economy shut down with the COVID lockdown. Manufacturing stopped and capital construction projects were put on hold. No one was making anything, and consumers were buying very little.
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A bill in the Ohio Senate aims to stop diversity and equity training for faculty and students at state colleges and universities.
Senate Bill (SB) 83 known as the Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act introduced by state Senator Jerry Cirino, (R-Kirtland) would eliminate the need for professor, staff, or student participation in diversity, equity, or inclusion training or courses. It would also create transparency for all tasks, as well as compulsory and suggested reading.
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The University of Miami in Florida recently launched the George P. Hanley Democracy Center with the aim of depolarizing Americans through civil discourse and exporting democracy abroad.
Leonidas Bachas, dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences stated that the university’s “proximity to Latin America also places us in an ideal spot to study democracy in the Americas and beyond.”
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An East Lansing ordinance compelling landlords to promote their tenants to vote has prompted a lawsuit from the Thomas More Society.
On Thursday, attorneys from the conservative Roman Catholic public-interest law firm filed litigation in federal court against East Lansing in response to the city’s ordinance requiring landlords provide voter application forms and voter-registration information to new tenants. Refusal to comply with the law would result in the landlord being charged with a civil infraction.
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A bill that would stop Ohio law enforcement officers from enforcing federal gun regulations that are more restrictive than state law is drawing opposition from country prosecutors, chiefs of police and mayors.
State Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, called the proposed legislation a response to federal regulations she said infringes on Second Amendment rights.
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As the Pennsylvania Department of Health winds down its health center near the East Palestine train derailment, officials continue to collect health data and vow to establish telehealth options.
The Health Resource Center, opened February 28 at the Darlington Township Building near the Ohio border, served more than 550 residents until officials wound down operations March 16. Officials from the Departments of Health, Environmental Protection, and Agriculture staffed the center along with doctors and local pastors.
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President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal requests billions of dollars to advance his gender and sexuality agenda around the world, allocating far more taxpayer dollars to that than dozens of other spending priorities, such as stopping fentanyl from being smuggled across the southern border.
Biden’s budget request for this issue in particular has more than doubled in the last two years. In the past, that focus would have been almost entirely on women and young girls. In recent years, though, advancing women’s rights across the globe is sharing the focus, and the funds, with the president’s gender agenda.
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Meta on Friday launched a paid verification service for Facebook and Instagram that offers a profile badge and identity monitoring services in exchange for subscription fee.
While the company will not charge fees to existing verified accounts, others seeking verification must pay $11.99 per month on the web or $14.99 per month on mobile device, according to The Hill.
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Pfizer recalled more than four million packages of Nurtec ODT Thursday due to the risk of child poisoning, according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Pfizer is recalling the migraine medicine because it is currently in a blister packet, which is not deemed “child resistant” and therefore poses a potential risk to children. For a package to be child resistant, it must be significantly challenging for a child under five to open it, according to CPSC.
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Mexico is running a “deception campaign” to deflect blame for America’s fentanyl epidemic as Republican lawmakers ramp up calls to target cartels, former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division chief Derek Maltz told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Top Mexican officials, including the country’s president Andres Manuel López Obrador, have in recent days attempted to shift the blame for fentanyl production in their country. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported seizing 11,000 pounds of fentanyl between October 2022 and February 2023 at the southern border.
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Former President Donald Trump on Saturday shocked the world with an announcement that he expects to be arrested Tuesday in connection with an ongoing investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a case legal scholars have suggested has a questionable legal basis.
The investigation involves Trump’s 2016 alleged payment of $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels via his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, whom he later reimbursed.
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Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano warned at a pro-Russian meeting that Democratic megadonor George Soros, World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab and Microsoft founder Bill Gates have “perpetrated a real world coup d’etat” for their actions during the COVID-19 pandemic followed by the war in Ukraine.
Speaking at the Founding Congress of the International Movement of Russophiles last week in Moscow, Vigano said, as translated: “We cannot be surprised that, after de-Christianizing the Western world, this elite considers Russia an enemy to be overthrown. The Russian Federation undeniably stands as the last bastion of civilization against barbarism.”
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NYX Linden LLC recently announced that the company will invest $10.4 million to expand its current manufacturing operations in Perry County, which is categorized as an “economically distressed” county by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD).
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The University of Notre Dame is hosting a “Queer Holiness” event next week to discuss “Experiential Christian Anthropology,” according to the event page.
On March 23, the university’s John J. Reilly Center is hosting a “Queer Holiness” event with Rev. Dr. Charlie Bell to address the church’s “hostile questions” regarding the LGBTQ community. Bell, a gay deacon in the Church of England and a Cambridge fellow, is also the author of the book “Queer Holiness,” which claims to “find a better way to do theology – not about, but with and of LGBTQI people.”
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The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) launched a federal investigation March 6 into St. Louis University (SLU) after a complaint was filed accusing the school of offering a racially discriminatory scholarship, medical watchdog group Do No Harm reported.
The complaint, filed by Do No Harm senior fellow Mark Perry in September, accused SLU School of Medicine’s Scholarship Program for Visiting Medical Students Underrepresented in Medicine violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits race-based discrimination, because it is only accessible to students that identify as a specific race, the OCR letter reads. The office “will investigate whether the University discriminates against students based on race, color, or national origin in connection” with the program.
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More than 1.6 million foreign nationals have been apprehended or reported evading law enforcement officers after illegally entering the U.S. in fiscal 2023 through February, according to Customs and Border Protection apprehension data and gotaway data obtained by The Center Square.
When reporting February enforcement data, CBP stated nationwide total encounters for fiscal 2023 through February totaled 1,285,056, excluding gotaways.
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As the Georgia General Assembly advances a bill to further restrict private money from bankrolling elections—as occurred with Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s grants in the 2020 elections—congressional Republicans are reintroducing a similar measure.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed a measure on March 8 to strengthen an existing ban on private dollars funding election administration in his state.
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated during her testimony at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on March 16 that she, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board, the Fed board, and President Joe Biden would only safeguard uninsured deposits at banks whose failures they determine would pose “systemic risks” to the economy, which will destroy small regional banks, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
On the other hand, it will enable big banks to be more reckless because their depositors will be made whole if they fail. In the case of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), this will include many Chinese companies that will be getting reimbursed by community banks, according to Reuters.
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