Day: June 18, 2023

House Oversight Chair Comer Plans to Interview ‘Key Figures’ in ‘Biden Family Influence Peddling’ Investigation

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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says he plans on questioning “key figures” in his investigation into allegations that the Biden family was involved in bribery and influence peddling.

“We’re going to start bringing in key figures in the Biden family influence-peddling schemes for depositions, and I think we’re on the right track, even though we’re having to fight the FBI, fight the DOJ, fight the Democrats in Congress and fight the mainstream media,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said, Fox News reported Sunday.

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Alleged Crime Family Orchestrated Multi-State Illegal Immigrant Smuggling Ring, Feds Say

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Several members of a family allegedly coordinated a scheme to smuggle illegal immigrants across the southern border and into the U.S. interior, according to Border Report.

Authorities arrested six members of the Lopez family, while four others remain on the run, according to Border Report. The group allegedly operated in New Mexico, Arizona, California and Virginia, Jorge H. Uribarri, assistant special agent with Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso, said, according to Border Report.

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Nearly Half of U.S. States Now Have Measures Limiting Transgender Surgery for Minors, but Lawsuits Abound

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At least 20 states have either restricted or banned transgender procedures for minors, with many of them facing lawsuits and temporary blocks by courts as a result, while future litigation is possible in states considering adopting such laws. 

The states that have enacted legislation against such procedures are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia – essentially all conservative-leaning.

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Conservative CEO Will Give ‘Baby Bonus’ to Employees to Help Build Strong Families

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As a response to woke corporations incentivizing employee abortions, one conservative CEO says he will offer his employees a $5,000 “baby bonus” to help sustain their families.

PublicSq. Founder and CEO Michael Seifert believes “strong families make a strong nation.” But when the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, he began witnessing a lot of companies grandly making “impassioned petitions to pay for their employees’ abortions.”

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Meta Scraps Censorship Policies for COVID ‘Misinformation’

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Facebook parent company Meta is officially terminating its COVID-19 censorship policies in the U.S., the tech giant told The Washington Post.

Meta has repeatedly tamped down on COVID-19 “misinformation” in the U.S. and even faced pressure from the White House to engage in content suppression. Although the tech giant is done moderating this content in the U.S., it will continue restricting content “in countries that have a Covid-19 public health emergency declaration” due to “the risk of imminent physical harm,” Meta told the Post.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Releases Statement After Barack Obama Accuses Nikki Haley, Tim Scott of ‘Glossing over Effects of Racism’

Kaitlin Housler

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy released a statement defending two of his Republican competitors in the 2024 Republican presidential primary after former President Barack Obama accused the two of “glossing over effects of racism.”

Obama made the comments during a podcast interview, according to The Guardian, which quoted him saying of Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC), who is African-American, “There’s a long history of African American or other minority candidates within the Republican party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can make it.’”

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Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Reveals Number of Turkeys Harvested During Hunting Season

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) recently announced how many turkeys were reported harvested during this year’s spring wild turkey hunting season.

Compiled figures by the agency show that 31,802 turkeys were reported harvested during this year’s spring season, which ran from April 15 to May 28. This season’s total number of turkeys harvested is a 6 percent increase from 2022 (29,940) and a two percent decrease over the previous 5-year average (32,495), according to TWRA.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Signs ‘Historic’ Legislation to Improve Behavioral Health Care Access

The Center Square

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed 24 bills for improving behavioral health care access as part of the governor’s “historic” Right Help, Right Now plan.

The legislation is intended to improve insurance coverage for behavioral health in the commonwealth, while strengthening the behavioral health workforce and easing the strain on public safety.

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Kari Lake’s Attorney Continues to Point Out Flaws in Maricopa County’s Elections

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake’s appeal of the trial court judge’s ruling against her after two trials is pending at the Arizona Court of Appeals, and her attorney Bryan Blehm has taken to Twitter to continue providing updates as more information comes in about Maricopa County’s election problems. Blehm represented the Cyber Ninjas in cases related to its audit of Arizona’s problematic 2020 presidential election. He previously served as pro tem judge for Maricopa County.

On Wednesday, Blehm tweeted, “Did Maricopa County intentionally misrepresent user 134-speed clicker when they argued to the Court that he was reassigned from level-1 signature verification?” He included a tweet from We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), which has been helping the Lake team investigate the 2022 the election. “One of many lies told by County Attorney Liddy during the @KariLakeWarRoom @KariLake trial,” WPAA said. “Rey exercises great Kamala word salad.”

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Biden Sets Leftist Tone for 2024 Re-Election Effort at Philadelphia Event

Bradley Vasoli

President Joe Biden held his first presidential re-election campaign event on Saturday at the Philadelphia Convention Center, making strong appeals to his left-wing base. 

Biden appeared alongside organized-labor activists and mentioned in the first few seconds of his oration that when he thinks of working Americans, he especially values the ones who associate with causes he finds politically congenial.

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Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Improve Mother and Infant Health

Hannah Poling

A bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers introduced a bill to address the state’s infant and maternal mortality rates and improve mothers’ and infants’ health, learning, and development outcomes.

House Bill (HB) 7, known as the “Strong Foundations Act,” sponsored by State Representatives Andrea White (R-Kettering) and Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus), aims to expand access to food, housing, transportation, and healthcare for Ohio mothers and their children.

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Georgia Lawmakers Begin Review of State’s Tax Credits

The Center Square

Georgia lawmakers could consider overhauling the state’s tax credits when they reconvene in January, but the specific action they take could depend on what they hear from experts over the next few months.

“The economic reality of tax credits is that when we help to expand an industry that isn’t profitable without our help, that’s bad for the economy,” University of Georgia professor Jeffrey Dorfman, the state’s fiscal economist, told members of the Joint Tax Credit Review Panel, which held its first public meeting this week. “Generally, this is not what you want to do. Thus, tax credits only make sense for business attraction if attracting that plant or employer or industry to the state is going to bring you some spillover benefit, some long-term benefit or some non-economic benefit.”

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Florida’s DeSantis Signs State Record $117 Billion Budget

The Center Square

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the state’s record-setting budget on Thursday which will increase state employee salaries, spend $1.6 billion on restoring the Everglades ecosystem and speed up infrastructure projects across the Sunshine State.

House Bill 2500 is the General Appropriations Act and the state budget for fiscal year 2023-24. Dubbed the “Framework For Freedom Budget” by the DeSantis administration, the bill provides $117 billion in state funding for projects across the state, including increases in education funding, teacher salaries and recruitment bonuses to attract more law enforcement officers.

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Surging Child Labor Violations Prompt Legislative Action in Pennsylvania

The Center Square

Amid a worsening workforce shortage, more employers – both across the state and the country – may set aside child labor laws as a solution, officials say.

The alarming trend prompted lawmakers on the House Labor and Industry Committee to advance legislation that would double penalties for these violations: $1,000 for first-time offenders and up to $3,000 for repeated incidents.

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Commentary: As Great as a Mom May Be, Kids Still Need Their Dads

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“Smokin’ Joe,” a biography of late heavyweight boxing champion and 3-time Muhammad Ali foil Joe Frazier, was recently reviewed by Gordon Marion in The Wall Street Journal. Among the notable details is the fact that five different women gave birth to Frazier’s eleven kids.

This occurrence is not uncommon among celebrities. Muhammad Ali, actor and director Clint Eastwood, and comedian Eddie Murphy are just a few who have fathered children with multiple women. Politicians fall prey to this problem as well, with San Antonio mayoral candidate Greg Brockhouse – who has four children with four mothers – being one of the most recent examples.

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Ohio Governor DeWine Appoints Attorney Elizabeth Ellis to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the appointment of Republican attorney Elizabeth Ellis to the general division of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas serving the community of Montgomery County.

Judge-designee Ellis from Dayton, Ohio, is an assistant prosecutor at the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office. She has held this position since 2021. Ellis previously headed the civil section for the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for 19 years. She has also held positions with the Greene County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office as the juvenile division’s chief appellate counsel and director.

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UPS Unionized Workers Vote to Authorize a Strike

Just the News

As contract negotiations continue, UPS workers who are part of the Teamsters union voted overwhelmingly to organize a strike that could start as soon as the beginning of August. 

The union wants better pay, elimination of surveillance cameras in the trucks and more full time jobs, according to CBS News. To bolster their case, the Teamsters point to record profits for UPS in 2022, saying the company paid out more that $8 billion in shareholder dividends. 

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Commentary: Queering Jesus Is Going Mainstream at Progressive Churches and Top Divinity Schools

RealClearWire

Vignettes from progressive Christianity today:

A Presbyterian church goes viral online for marking the Transgender Day of Visibility with a public prayer to the “God of Pronouns.” The congregants of the church, First Presbyterian of Iowa City, pay obeisance to “the God of Trans Being,” giving due glory to “the Great They/Them.”   

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