Month: May 2023

New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith Chairs Hearing on Biden’s Push to Cede U.S. Sovereignty to World Health Organization

Susan Berry, PhD

New Jersey Representative Chris Smith (R) announced Monday he will chair a congressional hearing on the Biden administration’s push to enter into an international pandemic treaty that could cede U.S. sovereignty to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Under absolutely no circumstances should the Biden Administration surrender American sovereignty to the World Health Organization and allow the voice of the American people and consent of the governed to be subjugated to dictates of an agenda-driven global administrative bureaucracy,” said Smith, chair of the House Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee.

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Maryland Rape Suspect Who Threatened Victim with Machete Identified as Illegal Immigrant

Admin

A man who allegedly raped a teen girl, and another woman after threatening her while displaying a machete in Maryland, was in the U.S. illegally, Fox 5 reported on Friday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that the suspect, Jose Roberto Hernandez-Espinal, 20, was an illegal immigrant from El Salvador that came to the U.S. in 2013, according to Fox 5, which is a DC-Maryland based outlet. Hernandez-Espinal is accused of raping a 15-year-old at a park in Silver Spring, Maryland, just days before he raped a woman while threatening the alleged victim and her friend with a machete at the same park.

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Massachusetts School District Hit with Lawsuit for Stopping Student from Wearing ‘Only Two Genders’ Shirt

Just the News

Lawyers for a 12-year-old Massachusetts student sent home for wearing a shirt that read “There Are Only Two Genders” has filed suit against the school district and its dress code.

Middleborough Public Schools acting Principal Heather Tucker forced the child, Liam Morrison, to go home March 21 after he “politely declined” to remove his “There Are Only Two Genders” shirt, and district lawyers said May 4 the same would happen if he did so again, the complaint says.

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Green Activists Pressure Renewables Industry to Reject Permitting Reform That Boosts ‘Dangerous’ Fossil Fuels

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Dozens of climate activist groups are pressuring the renewable energy industry to oppose permitting reform policies that would also support fossil fuel projects, in a letter obtained by Axios Friday.

The coalition of activists — primarily smaller, grassroots organizations —  targeted the American Clean Power Association (ACP), a major renewables trade group, over its support of what they called “dangerous” reform proposals that would also benefit fossil fuels, according to Axios. The ACP previously supported the permitting reforms proposed in House Republicans’ Lower Energy Costs Act, and in late March signed a letter alongside a coalition of groups — including oil and mining industry players — calling on lawmakers to “modernize” permitting by the end of the summer.

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‘These Numbers Are Staggering:’ Chinese Migrants Continue to Surge Across Southern Border

Admin
Chinese illegal immigrants

The influx of Chinese migrants crossing the southern border continued through April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data.

Border Patrol encountered 3,182 migrants from China at the U.S.-Mexico border in April alone, according to CBP data. Chinese migrants often pay hefty smuggling fees to reach the U.S., where they have been found with large sums of U.S. currency, according to Border Patrol agents who recently spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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U.S. Senator JD Vance Endorses Bernie Moreno for U.S. Senate

Hannah Poling

On Monday, U.S. Senator JD Vance announced his endorsement for Republican businessman Bernie Moreno in his run for U.S. Senate against Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in 2024.

Moreno previously filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for Senate in 2024 and to challenge Democratic incumbent Brown. He officially announced his campaign last month, saying that it’s time for a new generation of political outsiders to come in and get the job done to put America First.

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DFL-Controlled Legislature Hands $8 Billion Transportation Bill to Walz for Signature

Admin

A nearly $8 billion finalized transportation bill has cleared the House and Senate and is on its way to the desk of Gov. Tim Walz to be signed into law.

On Sunday, the DFL-controlled House and Senate voted along party lines to pass the conference committee report for HF2887. That omnibus transportation finance bill includes nearly $1 billion in new taxes and fees dedicated to transit and roads that will come from three sources: a new metropolitan area sales tax increase of 0.75 percent, a 50-cent fee for all deliveries of retail goods over $100 and a gas tax increase indexed to inflation. An increase in fees for automobile registrations and a sales tax increase for purchase of automobiles will also add more than $340 million in new revenues for transportation expenditures over the next two years.

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Michigan Facing Nearly a Billion Dollar Revenue Drop from Tax Changes

The Center Square

Michigan faces a nearly $900 million revenue loss this year thanks to recent tax changes as lawmakers plan a record $81 billion budget for fiscal year 2024.

At Michigan’s Revenue Estimating Conference, state Treasurer Rachael Eubanks, Senate Fiscal Agency Director Kathryn Summers, and House Fiscal Agency Director Mary Ann Cleary reached a consensus on revised revenue figures for fiscal years 2023, 2024, and 2025.

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Florida First State to Accept Classic Learning Test as Alternative to SAT, ACT

Admin

Florida has become the first state in the nation to officially accept the Classic Learning Test as an alternative to SAT and ACT, the latter of which are considered ideologically slanted to the left.

The legislation, signed earlier this month by Gov. Ron DeSantis, makes the exam eligible as an option for students seeking to qualify for state-funded scholarships to Florida colleges and universities. It also allows school districts to offer the CLT to 11th graders.

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Ohio Senate Passes ‘DATA Act’ to Modernize and Clarify Election Data

Hannah Poling

The Ohio Senate has passed legislation that aims to increase transparency and modernize and clarify data in Ohio’s elections.

Senate Bill (SB) 71 known as the Data Analysis Transparency Archive (DATA) Act, sponsored by state Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) in collaboration with Secretary of State Frank LaRose passed in the Ohio Senate along party lines 24-7.

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Possible Mastriano Senate Run Elicits Mixed Reactions Among Pennsylvania Conservatives

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania state Senator Doug Mastriano’s plans to soon announce whether he’ll run for U.S. Senate next year have Pennsylvania’s movement conservatives brimming with feelings — not all of them positive. 

The Republican who represents Gettysburg, Chambersburg and surrounding communities suffered an overwhelming defeat last year when he ran for governor against Democrat Josh Shapiro. After Mastriano indicated he would publicly decide on a bid against Democratic Senator Bob Casey in just days, state Representative Russ Diamond (R-Jonestown) wrote a tweetstorm Monday urging fellow Republicans to entreat Mastriano not to run.

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Augusta University Announces Plans to Open a Savannah Medical Campus

The Center Square

Augusta University plans to establish a four-year Medical College of Georgia campus at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah.

The school plans to use nearly $1.7 million in bond funding included in the fiscal 2024 state budget to renovate office, classroom and lab space. The campus will be established in the Armstrong Center and the Health Professions Academic Building, part of Georgia Southern’s Waters College of Health Professions.

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GOP Lawmakers Raise Concerns About WHO’s Pandemic Preparedness Treaty, US Involvement in Agency

Just the News

The World Health Organization, widely considered the most powerful health authority in the world, is pursuing a Pandemic Preparedness Treaty that critics say could make the organization even more powerful and jeopardize U.S. sovereignty.

The United Nations-affiliated WHO says the draft treaty – or “zero draft” – is designed to protect the world from future pandemics and last December announced that member states “agreed to develop the first draft of such as a legally binding agreement.”

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Ohio Ballot Board Adopts Ballot Language for Amendment to Increase Threshold for Initiative Petitions

Hannah Poling

The Ohio Ballot Board has adopted ballot language on a question that aims to alter the process of how initiative petitions can propose constitutional amendments for a special election this August.

In a 3-2 vote the ballot board has voted to adopt the summary language of Issue 1, the amendment to mandate a 60 percent approval percentage for any future constitutional amendments, call for signatures from all 88 counties, and do away with the opportunity to “cure” petitions by collecting additional signatures if necessary.

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Medical School Professor Exposed as Urging Parents to Adopt Gender Ideology ‘At Birth or Even Before’

Susan Berry, PhD

A video has surfaced in which Albert Einstein College of Medicine Assistant Professor Dr. Lauren Roth is heard telling an interviewer that parents must adopt gender ideology even before their baby is born because young children can be “gender expansive,” meaning they “may not necessarily follow the social norms of gender.”

The video, found by Fox News, actually aired in June 2021, during “pride month” of that year, and only garnered 209 views at the time. Roth appeared as a guest on OPEN Tuesday at BronxNet, which provides community access productions for residents of Bronx, New York.

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Gilbert Murderer Headed Behind Bars After Killing Wife in 2017

Neil Jones

The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) has announced the sentencing for Mark Eric Ponsati, 42, of Gilbert, Arizona, for murdering his wife in 2017 and attempting to pass the crime as an accident.

The sentencing given out Friday by Maricopa Superior Court Judge Michael Blair will see Ponsati put away in the Arizona Department of Corrections for the next 25 years, the maximum penalty for second-degree murder.

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Recreational Marijuana Legalization Proposed in Pennsylvania Senate

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania state senators announced Friday they will draft a bill to legalize adults’ recreational use of marijuana. 

In a memorandum asking colleagues to join their effort, Senators Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) and Sharif Street (D-Philadelphia) cited CBS News polling suggesting two-thirds of Keystone Staters from varied communities back legal cannabis intake. The senators suggested making pot licit could boost the commonwealth’s agriculture industry and generate scads of new tax revenue. They mentioned 2021 testimony by the state’s nonpartisan Independent Fiscal Office averring that legal adult consumption could bring between $400 million to $1 billion into the state Treasury annually.

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University of Minnesota Scrubs Information on Racially Segregated Event After Federal Complaint

Admin

The University of Minnesota recently held an event just for “BIPOC students” considering grad school, prompting a complaint to be filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alleging racial discrimination.

As the feds review the complaint’s merits, the university scrubbed the event page and wiped information about the gathering from its website.

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North Dakota’s Republican Governor Weighing Presidential Bid in 2024

Admin

Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is weighing a presidential bid in 2024, two sources familiar with the governor’s plans told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Burgum, who is the 33rd governor of North Dakota, will decide whether he’ll run for the GOP nomination within the next few weeks, the sources confirmed with the DCNF. The two-term governor is currently filming television advertisements in preparation for a presidential launch.

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Commentary: That Pennsylvania Congresswoman Madeleine Dean Calls Herself a Friend of Police and Crime Victims is Laughable

Admin

During a May 10 House Judiciary Committee hearing about crime, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA-4) laughably portrayed herself as a champion of the forces of law and order. She sought to position herself as the protector of the innocent victims of crime.

What a pathetic charade conducted by Madeleine Dean. She is the paradigm of the liberal academic from a homogeneous White upper middle-class Philadelphia suburb. Totally removed from the tragedies, destruction, and suffering caused by crime – especially in the inner city – she knows nothing about policing. When her workday is done she retreats to her suburban sanctuary away from the hoi polloi she purports to represent.

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Heritage Foundation Attorney Says Tennessee Man Wrongly Charged with Reckless Endangerment After Returning Fire on Assailants

Peter D'Abrosca

A lawyer from the conservative Heritage Foundation says that she is “floored” after a Tennessee man who returned fire on multiple assailants was charged with reckless endangerment. 

“I’m floored that the home owner here is being charged with ‘reckless endangerment.’ The arguments from police seem absurd on their face to me. The only people he endangered were…the ones shooting at him. And he’s 100% entitled to ‘endanger’ them,” said Heritage Senior Legal Fellow Amy Swearer. 

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Commentary: Any Debt ‘Default’ Will Be Biden’s Choice

Admin

There’s enough revenue to pay interest on the debt even if the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling is reached.

Meaning, if the U.S. defaults on the debt on June 1, it will be because President Joe Biden chose not to make principal and interest payments on U.S. Treasuries out of existing revenue, for which there is more than ample revenues to service and refinance up to the current debt ceiling limit, $31.4 trillion.

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Biden Hits Record Low Approval Rating for Handling of Immigration: Poll

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Americans largely disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of immigration policy, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Monday.

Only 31 percent of Americans approve on the president’s handling of immigration, according to the poll, which was conducted between May 11-15. Under Biden’s leadership, federal authorities have seen record surges in illegal immigration, recording more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022 and more than 1.4 million at the southern border so far in fiscal year 2023.

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California Gov. Newsom Demands Textbook Publishers’ Records to Determine If They Conformed to Florida Gov. DeSantis’ Education Laws

Admin

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is demanding records from textbook publishers to determine if they have changed any content used in California’s schools to comply with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education laws.

The DeSantis’ administration has enacted several laws in the past year prohibiting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and certain lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation from K-12 classrooms. In addition to the textbook companies records, Newsom’s office sent a public records request Saturday to DeSantis’ office and the Florida Department of Education (DOE) asking for all communications between the governor’s administration and the textbook publishers relating to revisions made to content to ensure compliance with the Florida education laws.

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U.S. Senator Tim Scott Launches Presidential Campaign as Living Example of the Land of Opportunity

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Tim Scott made it official Monday, launching his campaign for president in the North Charleston, SC, hometown that informed his core belief: That the United States of America is “the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.” 

Joined on stage by the single mother who raised him and the wife of the mentor who entered his adolescent life at a critical time, the Republican spoke of the opportunities that made him the man — and the presidential candidate — he is today.

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Biden to End Familial DNA Testing at Border, Key Deterrent to Fraud and Child Trafficking

Just the News
Illegal alien Processing center

The Biden administration is set to end familial DNA testing at the US-Mexico border, which has been key to preventing the fraudulent entry of many illegal immigrants and mitigating child trafficking, according to a memo obtained by Just The News.

The DNA testing was originally implemented in the Trump-era and utilized by Customs Border Protection – following a court order related to the separation of migrant children from their families and evidence drug cartels were using children to create fake family units to sneak illegal immigrants across the border.

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Oklahoma State Superintendent Cites Teachers’ Unions as ‘Marxist’ and ‘Terrorist’ Organizations

Susan Berry, PhD

Oklahoma state superintendent of schools Ryan Walters repeated Saturday that teachers’ unions are “Marxist” and “terrorist” organizations that are not advocating for students or teachers, but seeking power and financial gain for their leaders.

“Unions, including those in Oklahoma, have single-handedly destroyed the classroom,” Walters tweeted and linked to his interview with Fox News. “It is time to take our kids education back and put parents in charge.”

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TDOE Releases 3rd Grade TCAP Scores Late Friday, Leaves Parents Scrambling

TC Weber

As promised, the Tennessee Department of Education released results from this year’s TCAP test for third-graders to districts on Friday. However, it wasn’t until after 3;30 that the data was delivered.

Districts still have to sort through the data and identify exclusions – students who are English Learners or have a disability that affects their ability to read – before they can send notify families of student status, Students failing to score “proficient” are eligible for a retake. That exam window is scheduled to be open from May 22 -June 5.

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Thousands of Non-Citizens Are Listed on U.S. Voter Rolls, Watchdog Warns

Just the News

Tens of thousands of non-citizens have tried or made it onto voter rolls across the U.S. over recent years, according to an election watchdog’s analysis of data from several states.

Non-citizen voters have been found on voter rolls in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Maricopa County, Ariz. In Georgia, there were non-citizens who attempted to register to vote but were placed in a pending status because there wasn’t evidence of their citizenship, so they didn’t make it onto the voter rolls.

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Commentary: Abandon the Swamp and Let it Rot

Admin

Suppose a document drops in the wilderness and no one is around to hear it. Does it make a sound? I submit that John Durham just tested this Bishop Berkeleyesque query. The special counsel spent four years beavering away in the forests of the deep state and what did he produce? Three hundred pages telling us what, for the most part, we already knew and with the result that exactly nothing, apart from a little hand wringing, will happen. 

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