Trump’s Indictment in Miami Puts Him on Favorable Ground

Former President Donald Trump informed the public Thursday evening that he had been summoned to face arraignment next week at the Miami federal courthouse, in presumed connection with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into his handling of classified materials.

Though Trump, now the front-running 2024 GOP presidential candidate, has insisted the case is a political witch hunt and the product of a partisan and weaponized justice system, the venue of the case offers Trump some advantages in defending himself.

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FBI Informant: Biden Paid $5 Million by Burisma Executive as Vice President

The FD-1023 form finally handed over to the House Oversight Committee allegedly confirms that Joe Biden was paid at least $5 million by a Ukrainian business executive in exchange for the then-Vice President actively changing U.S. foreign policy.

As reported by Fox News, the official informant complaint was at last given to the committee on the request of Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) after he threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress. The form, filed after an interview with the informant on June 30th, 2020, reveals that the payment came from an executive with Burisma Holdings, the shady Ukrainian energy company that infamously hired Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, for a position on the board.

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Republicans See Ballot Harvesting as a Necessary Evil in Some States Ahead of 2024

The Republican National Committee (RNC) unveiled a new election strategy on Wednesday that includes ballot harvesting in states where it’s legal, which conservative activists say is necessary to win elections in 2024.

The RNC’s new strategy, named “Bank Your Vote,” involves helping Republican voters cast their votes “as early as possible, through in-person early voting, absentee voting, and ballot harvesting where legal,” according to an email the RNC sent the DCNF. “Ballot harvesting,” a practice where absentee ballots are collected from voters by political employees and deposited at an election office or ballot drop box, has been strongly criticized by some Republicans in the past, though GOP candidates and activists now say it will be important to winning in 2024.

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Biden Administration Launches New Policies to Keep LGBTQ Individuals ‘Safe’ and Ensure Children Are ‘Affirmed’ in Their Gender Identity

The Biden administration announced new “actions” Thursday centered on ensuring LGBTQ individuals are protected from perceived “attacks on their rights and safety,” including state laws that protect children and teens from a predatory transgender medical industry.

The announcement of the “new actions,” the Biden administration said, is made “in celebration of Pride Month.”

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Tennessee Drug Dealer Sentenced to Prison After Overdose Death

After employing an elaborate scheme to smuggle drugs into a Tennessee correctional facility, a man faces over seven years in prison after one of the recipients of his smuggled narcotics overdosed and died.

“On June 8, 2023, Michael Wayne Lee, 45 of Blaine, Tennessee, was sentenced to 87 months in prison by the Honorable Clifton Corker, United States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville,” according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee. “Following his imprisonment, Lee will be on supervised release for three years.”

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Virginia Hair Salon Fires Christian Stylist for ‘Homophobic’ Post Criticizing Disney Plus on Facebook

A Virginia hair salon fired a Christian stylist over a Facebook post criticizing the streaming movie service Disney+.

“My Facebook is my page,” Sidney York, the fired stylist, told The Daily Signal in an interview Wednesday. “I understand it’s a touchy subject and people may be offended over it, but it had nothing to do with my job.”

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Florida Lawmakers Avoid Large-Scale Reforms to State’s Pension System

Florida public retirees will get some improvements in their benefits, but larger, structural improvements to the state’s defined benefit pension system were not pursued by lawmakers this session.

The Florida Retirement System’s 629,073 members will receive a cost of living adjustment that they last received in 2011 and first responders will have their retirement age lowered.

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University in Pennsylvania’s Transgender Debate Response Called Unconstitutional

Free speech attorneys sent a letter this week to University of Pittsburgh officials defending the organizers of a transgender issues debate that ignited a campus protest earlier this year.

Philip Sechler, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom – a non-profit legal firm that litigates issues related to free speech, religious freedom, parental rights, and abortion – said the university demanded an unconstitutional security fee from College Republicans and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute for public unrest that officials themselves provoked.

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Commentary: The DOJ Just Opened Pandora’s Box

For the first time in American history, the leading candidate to defeat the incumbent president has been indicted by the incumbent’s Justice Department. Former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a federal grand jury for illegally retaining classified government documents and obstructing justice.

This is a momentous occasion, and not only for President Trump. This moment portends a massive change in the norms of this nation that all Americans who care about the neutral rule of law should pay close attention to, for it raises the specter of the partisan weaponization of the criminal justice system—not just by the Democrats targeting Trump but by Republicans who will certainly retaliate when they regain control of the criminal charging process.

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Report Probes the Questions Policymakers Might Not Be Asking About EVs

Whether it’s higher vehicle costs for consumers or pressure on the electric grid, a consumer group hopes its new report gives politicians and policymakers a few questions to ponder.

The thought starters are included in Consumer Energy Alliance’s “Freedom to Fuel: Embracing Consumer Choice in the Automotive Marketplace” report, which noted it is “increasingly clear that policymakers are not fully considering all the implications of aggressively mandating EVs.”

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Connecticut Lawmakers Approve $7.5 Billion Borrowing Plan

Connecticut’s General Assembly passed a $7.5 billion two-year bond package on Wednesday, sending the package to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk on the final day of the legislative session. 

The plan, approved by the Democratic-controlled Legislature on a bipartisan vote, includes borrowing authorization for up to $5 billion for transportation, housing, capital projects and public schools over the next two fiscal years. 

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School Choice in Wisconsin Wins in Day of Breakthrough Education Spending and Revenue Sharing Deals

School choice in Wisconsin would get a huge funding boost, and Milwaukee and Milwaukee County would stave off financial devastation in deals announced Wednesday.

Just when it appeared the Milwaukee portion of a massive state shared revenue plan was on the brink of collapse, the Republican-controlled Legislature reached an agreement with Democrat Governor Tony Evers that will allow pension debt-ridden Milwaukee County and the city to put in place a new sales tax — without having to ask their voters to do so. 

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Republican Challenging Arizona Rep. Stanton Has Another Restaurant Burglarized, Blames Stanton’s Policies That are ‘Worsening Crime’

Kelly Cooper, a Republican who ran for Congress against Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04) last fall, had one of his restaurants burglarized after an article came out about him announcing his intent to challenge Stanton again. Cooper is concerned the burglary may have been politically motivated, since the crime occurred just a few days after the article came out. 

Kelly told The Arizona Sun Times it could either be a regular smash and grab or a targeted political attack. He said his other two restaurants have been broken into before, but this was the most organized burglary he’d experienced. He pointed to the high percentage of felons involved with the BLM and Antifa riots, and noted that the burglars drove a white C-Class Mercedes. Additionally, the burglars only took the safe; they ignored a $1,500 iPad sitting on top of the safe and the big-screen TVs. Companies like Crowds on Demand brazenly supply paid workers to participate in protests. 

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Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher to Run For House Again, Ending Speculation About a Senate Campaign

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) will seek re-election to his House seat in 2024, ending speculation that he would make a Senate run against two-term Democrat Senator Tammy Baldwin. 

The four-term congressman is a rising star in Republican politics, playing a high profile role as chairman of the new Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

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Ohio U.S. Lawmakers Push to Relocate U.S. Space Command Headquarters to Ohio

A bipartisan group of Ohio U.S. lawmakers is pushing to relocate U.S. Space Command headquarters to Ohio.

In a letter sent this week to President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, and Chief of Space Operations General B. Chance Saltzman lawmakers from Ohio implored Biden to select Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as headquarters for the U.S. Space Command and to locate additional U.S. Space Force units in Ohio in partnership with the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky.

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John Fredericks Was Fired After Dissing Obama, But Now His Trump Bus Sits at the Republican Convention in Georgia

Its official name is the Trucking the Truth America First Bus Tour. It’s also known as the Mega MAGA Bus or simply the Trump Bus, although other buses have claimed that name. But whatever you call it, John Fredericks just wants you to see it — and hear his message. “We’re here to celebrate what’s going to be the first total takeover of a major state party by the MAGA movement from top to bottom,” Fredericks told the Ledger-Enquirer on Thursday. “Georgia is going to be a launching pad to take over the whole country. … You can’t get elected for president if you don’t win Georgia.”

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Commentary: Court Rules Government Can’t Strip Second Amendment Rights from Those Convicted of Minor, Nonviolent Offenses

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held this week in Range v. Garland that the government cannot disarm people convicted of minor, nonviolent offenses. In doing so, it handed down perhaps the most significant Second Amendment victory since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last year, where it held that Americans have a constitutional right to carry handguns in public for self-defense.

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Half of Americans Oppose Race-Based Admissions at Elite Colleges Ahead of SCOTUS Ruling: Poll

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of affirmative action in universities’ admissions process, 50% of Americans are opposed to the race-based method, according to a Thursday Pew Research poll.

Approximately 74% of Republicans disapprove of the use of affirmative action while 29% of Democrats also disapprove of the race-based admissions process, according to a Pew Research poll. In October, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for two lawsuits which will decide whether Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s use of race-based admission policies is constitutional.

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