Month: June 2023

FBI Harbored Biden Allegations Since 2017, Through Impeachment, Election, Lawmaker Says

Just the News

If House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s sleuthing turns out to be right, the FBI harbored a deep, dark secret through the first Trump impeachment, the Hunter Biden laptop saga and the 2020 election fury. The secret: that a validated and well-paid informant raised concerns all the way back in 2017 that Joe Biden was involved in a $5 million bribery scheme involving Ukraine.

The question emerging now is did America’s most famous crime-fighting agency deep-six the allegation or dismiss it as “Russian disinformation” without thoroughly probing it.

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Bud Light Sponsoring ‘All Ages’ Drag Queen Pride Party

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Bud Light is sponsoring an all-ages Pride event and after-party featuring drag queens in Flagstaff, Arizona, according to advertisements.

The June 17 after-party features several famous drag queens and will take place after Flagstaff’s 27th annual Pride in the Pines, and both events list Bud Light as a sponsor. The after-party is open to “all ages,” and participants under 16 years old require a guardian to attend, according to an online flyer.

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Female Athletes Ask to Make Their Case over Policy Allowing Biological Males to Compete in Women’s Sports

Susan Berry, PhD

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit heard arguments Tuesday in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools in which four female athletes assert that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) policy that allows males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions based on gender identity not only “create[s] an unfair playing field for female athletes,” but also “reverses nearly 50 years of athletic advances for women.”

Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Ashley Nicoletti – all dedicated elite athletes from Connecticut – have all trained hard “for the personal satisfaction of victory, an opportunity to participate in state and regional meets, and a chance to earn a college scholarship,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), their legal representatives.

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North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum Launches Bid for White House, Joining Crowded Field of GOP Contenders

M.D. Kittle

At a Fargo events center packed with family, friends and neighbors, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum stressed his small-town roots, his success in building a multi-billion dollar software business on the Great Plains,  governing a growing state, and his vision for an innovative America in announcing his bid for the White House. 

The newly minted presidential candidate joins a crowded field of declared Republican presidential candidates, launching his campaign on the same day former Vice President Mike Pence kicked off his in Iowa. 

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Feds Inform Trump He Is Target Likely to Be Indicted as DOJ Rebuffs Prosecutorial Misconduct Claim

Just the News

Federal prosecutors have notified Donald Trump that he is a criminal target and likely to be indicted imminently in a probe into alleged classified documents even as the Justice Department declined to delay charges to give time to investigate allegations of witness tampering submitted by the former president’s legal team, according to multiple people familiar with the case. The sources directly familiar with the case told Just the News that DOJ declined to delay the planned indictment of Trump to investigate allegations that a senior prosecutor working on the case tried to influence a key witness by discussing a federal judgeship with the witness’ lawyer.

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DeSantis to Visit Southern Border

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Republican Florida Gov. and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis will travel to the southern border Wednesday, his office said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

DeSantis will meet with border sheriffs in Cochise County, Arizona, during the trip amid a surge in illegal immigration, according to DeSantis’ office. The trip follows the governor sending two planes of migrants to Sacramento, California, in recent days, the DCNF first reported Tuesday.

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Tennessee Department of Education Continues to Lose Veteran Leadership

TC Weber

Two long-term Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) executives have announced they will be leaving the department in the coming months. This announcement comes on the heels of Commissioner Penny Schwinn’s June 1 resignation.

Eve Carney, TDOE deputy commissioner, and Meghan McLeroy, TDOE’s chief statewide support officer, have served the department for over a quarter of a century. Along the way, they have earned accolades and appreciation from the state’s educators.

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Tennessee Awards $18 Million in Agricultural Supply Chain Grants

The Center Square

Tennessee awarded more than $18 million to 20 business in the first round of its Tennessee Forestry, Agriculture and Rural Markets cost share program.

The program was designed to support Tennessee businesses in the agriculture and forestry supply chain. The grants are administered by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and were chosen from 259 applications that requested $107 million in funding.

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Big Tech-Backed Group Tries to Kill California Bill Because It Could Help Conservative Media

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The Chamber of Progress, a tech industry coalition backed by companies such as Google and Meta, released statements and a study arguing against the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), stating it would primarily benefit conservative media outlets.

The California Assembly passed the CJPA on Thursday, a bill that compels companies like Google and Meta to pay publications for news links they post on their platforms, which would disproportionately enrich “disinformation giants like Fox News and the New York Post,” according to the Chamber of Progress. The coalition lists Google and Meta as corporate partners on its website and the Chamber of Progress’s founder and CEO, Adam Kovacevich, formerly headed Google’s U.S. policy strategy and external affairs team, according to its website. 

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Report: Middle Tennessee Zoning Policies Contributing to Unaffordable Housing

The Center Square

After finding housing affordability is the most pressing issue for Tennesseans through its 2022 listening tour, Beacon Center has developed and released an atlas of Tennessee zoning requirements that highlight how the state has become unaffordable for the average person in Middle Tennessee.

Local and state policies have contributed to an environment where housing prices have outpaced the median income.

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Catholic Civil Rights Group Begins Radio Campaign Urging Boycott of Los Angeles Dodgers ‘Pride Night’ for Honoring Anti-Catholic Hate Group

Susan Berry, PhD

The Catholic League began its anticipated radio campaign Tuesday that urges listeners in the Los Angeles area not to attend the Dodgers’ June 16 “Pride Night” game, during which the club is scheduled to honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a self-described group of “queer and trans nuns” that puts on exhibitions that ridicule the Catholic faith and religious women, and desecrate Jesus Christ with sexual imagery.

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Commentary: Chris Christie Needs a Wide Lane to Run in 2024

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I must admit, when former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie removed himself from the 2016 Republican presidential primary race very early in the contest, I thought we’d seen the last of his oversized run as a major influencer in the Grand Old Party.

Like with other Republican comers and goers in recent memory, Christie had, at one point at least, been considered the future of the post-Bush GOP, a semi-common man who wasn’t the least bit afraid to stand on a stage, look liberals in the eye, and tell it like it is. To make the newcomer’s phenomenon even more enticing, Christie appeared to enjoy the resistance. Unlike most Republicans who were more than content to take a verbal beating from the much more aggressive Democrats, Christie punched back, and for a few political moments, appeared to be a great possible candidate for president. It seemed like a “when” not “if” proposition.

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Progressives Including Soros Funding Media in Arizona to Sway Elections

Rachel Alexander

A group of dark money, shadowy progressive organizations are funding media outlets in Arizona, including The Copper Courier and the Arizona Mirror. Many of these groups are interconnected and appear to be attempting to influence elections. They are not registered as political organizations, however, which would require them to disclose financial information such as how much they contribute to Democrats, and that may be because the founders said they believe voters are more influenced by media than political ads.

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Florida AG Moody Defeats Biden Administration in Court, Again

The Center Square

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody won another round against the Biden administration in federal court, this time in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Monday, the court ruled to keep in place an injunction against the Department of Homeland Security’s parole program. The injunction was issued by a federal district judge in Florida last month. DHS appealed the judge’s ruling and lost.

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Pennsylvania GOP Senate to Tackle Budget That Overspends Shapiro Proposal by $1.1 Billion

Bradley Vasoli

At first, Keystone State Republicans viewed Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro’s Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget proposal with mere skepticism. This week, state House Democrats larded it with an extra $1.1 billion and passed it, making a fray between their chamber and the Republican-run Senate even more probable. 

The nearly $47 billion spending plan, approved by representatives along party lines, hikes spending by $5.7 billion over the current fiscal year, a more than a 13-percent increase. Members of the Republican minority excoriated their Democratic colleagues for rushing the plan to passage within six hours of its completion, a move they said reflected poor transparency. Representative Doyle Heffley (R-Weissport) spoke for many in his party when he called the House-passed plan a “poison pill” for Pennsylvania’s economy. 

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Georgia Senate Committees to Explore Truck Driver Shortage

The Center Square

A series of Georgia Senate study committees will explore various issues, ranging from recruiting medical professionals in rural communities to exploring the shortage of truck drivers to potential changes to local option sales tax agreements.

“Each of these study committees will review current policies and practices within their specific topics,” Lt. Governor Burt Jones said in an announcement.

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Connecticut Moves to Ban Child Marriages

The Center Square

Connecticut could become the latest state to outlaw child marriage, a practice that child welfare advocates say usually involves coercing vulnerable youths into unwanted unions.

A proposal unanimously approved by the state Senate on Friday would set a minimum age for marriage at 18, with no exceptions, and require clerks or magistrates to get proof of age from people seeking marriage licenses. The bill was approved on a 98-45 bipartisan vote last month in the House of Representatives. Gov. Ned Lamont is expected to sign it. 

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Virginia to Receive over $2 Million in Suboxone Settlement

The Center Square

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced a $102.5 million settlement with the makers of Suboxone for alleged illegal monopoly tactics, for which the commonwealth will receive more than $2.3 million.

The settlement stems from a complaint filed against Indivior Inc., the maker of Suboxone, alleging the pharmaceutical company used “illegal means” to switch the Suboxone market from tablets to film. The suit says the company attempted to destroy the market for tablets in an effort to preserve its drug monopoly.

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University of Cincinnati Student Calls for Action After Failing Project for Use of the Term ‘Biological Women’

Hannah Poling

A student at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio is calling for action after a professor failed her on her final project proposal over her use of the term “biological women” in a paper about feminism.

Olivia Krolczyk claimed in a now-viral TikTok video that her Women’s Gender Studies in Pop Culture professor failed her on her project proposal even though it was “a solid proposal” because using the term biological women is “exclusionary.”

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Pennsylvania Freedom Caucus: No Penn State Funding Until Puberty Blockers Ditched

Bradley Vasoli

The Pennsylvania House Freedom Caucus (PAFC) this week issued an ultimatum to the Pennsylvania State University: Either your hospitals will stop providing puberty blockers to children or funding won’t be forthcoming. 

Penn State Health operates six hospitals in central Pennsylvania. The PAFC is castigating the university-run system for “prescribing experimental puberty blockers and providing “‘gender-affirming care’ to children as young as FIVE YEARS OLD.”

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Former Followers Launch $150 Million Class Action Lawsuit Against Dave Ramsey for Endorsing Timeshare Exit Company

Kaitlin Housler

Radio host and business coach Dave Ramsey is being sued by a group of his former followers who have launched a class action lawsuit against him and his company for promoting a timeshare exit company accused of wrongdoing.

The group of plaintiffs alleges that Ramsey, his Tennessee-based company, The Lampo Group, and marketing company Happy Hour Media Group “violated the Washington Consumer Protection Act, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and conspiracy, associated with unfair and deceptive conduct in the marketing, sale, and delivery of ‘timeshare-exit services’ offered to consumers across the United States and Canada.”

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Pennsylvania Clean Slate Expansion Passes House Overwhelmingly, Heads to Senate

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives this week approved a bipartisan expansion of the commonwealth’s “clean slate” policy affecting those with low-level, drug-related felony convictions.

The measure, which passed 189-14, builds on a 2019 policy that made the Keystone State the first in the nation to enact automatic record-sealing for summary offenses as well as certain nonviolent misdemeanors and arrests that didn’t lead to convictions. That reform benefited 1.2 million commonwealth residents. The bill that now awaits consideration by the state Senate would seal records of those who were convicted of minor drug felonies but thereafter stayed crime-free for 10 years.

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Ohio Hospital Doubles Down on ‘Diversity Quotas’ for Its Healthcare Leaders

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An Ohio hospital is setting diversity quotas for its employees in leadership positions, despite failing to reach a previous diversity threshold in 2022, according to documents obtained by medical watchdog Do No Harm and shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

As a part of its 2023 Objectives and Key Results (OKR), the  has set diversity quotas for several of its leadership roles, including in its finance and Clinical Transformation departments, according to documents obtained by Do No Harm and shared with the DCNF. The clinic recently partnered with OneTen, a group focused on getting black people hired, to focus “its skills-first [hiring] lens on racial equity” noting that the hospital “has experienced a significant gap in attracting, retaining and promoting Black talent.”

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Biden Moves to Shift Power over Defense Contracts to Climate Activist ‘Cabal’ Bent on Curtailing Economic Growth

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The Biden White House is pushing to give veto power over major Pentagon contracts to a group of climate activist groups that advocate for establishing “guardrails” on economic growth, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

The White House proposed a rule in November that requires major contractors for the Department of Defense (DOD), NASA, and Government Services Agency (GSA) to submit climate-related goals to a consortium of activist organizations, called the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), for validation. If the SBTi rejects the contractor’s plan to reduce emissions, the company would no longer be eligible to compete.

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Report: Colorado’s 32 Percent Increase in Crime Due to Changes in Prosecutions, Sentences

The Center Square

The crime rate in Colorado increased 32 percent from 2010 to 2022, a new report from a research group says.

The Common Sense Institute’s report, titled “The Fight Against Crime in Colorado: Policing, Legislation and Incarceration,” found the cost of crime in the state was nearly $30 billion in 2022. The cost of crime in Denver was $4 billion and $2.7 billion in Colorado Springs.

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Commentary: The Strange Pandemic of ‘White’ Disparagement

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One of the tenets of the early civil rights movement some 65 years ago was ending racial stereotyping.

When Martin Luther King, Jr. called for emphasizing the “content of our character” over “the color of our skin,” the subtext was “stop judging people as a faceless collective on the basis of their superficial appearance and instead look to them as individuals with unique characters.”

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Joe Biden Bribery Allegations Involve Ukraine, First Raised with FBI in 2017, Key Investigator Says

Just the News

Allegations that Joe Biden partook in a $5 million bribery scheme involve Ukraine where his son scored a lucrative energy job and were first presented to the FBI by a reliable and well-paid informant back in 2017, House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer told Just the News on Tuesday evening. Comer made the bombshell revelation just a day after reviewing an FBI FD-1023 form that memorialized the informant’s allegations, and two days before he plans to hold a vote in Congress to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt for failing to provide a copy to his committee as demanded by a subpoena. He said the version of the informant report he was allowed to review by Wray had about 10% of information redacted and made clear the allegations were first reported to the FBI back in 2017 as Donald Trump was beginning his term as president.

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1619 Project Releases New ‘Reparations Math’ Curriculum for High School Students

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High school students will learn about the causes of racial inequality and discuss reparations for slavery as part of a new “reparations math” curriculum developed by the creators of the controversial 1619 Project.

The 1619 Project Education Network, overseen by the Pulitzer Center, released the outline for “Reparations Math and Reparations History” on May 8.

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California Accuses Florida of Shipping Migrants as Plane with More Arrives in Sacramento

Just the News

Two privately chartered planes carrying Latin American migrants from New Mexico have arrived in Sacramento since Friday, and California officials are blaming Florida for flying migrants to the state’s capital. 

After the first plane arrived, California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, said Saturday that he met with the migrants and could confirm they possessed documents purporting to be from the Florida State government.

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Acting ICE leader to Vacate Post, Second Biden Immigration Leader to Leave in June

Just the News

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting leader Tae Johnson will leave his position at the end of June, marking the second high-profile exit by an immigration official in recent weeks as the Biden administration struggles to combat a surge in illegal migration at the southern border.

The agency confirmed Johnson’s upcoming departure in a Monday statement, saying “[a]fter more than 30 years of dedicated service to our nation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tae D. Johnson will retire from federal law enforcement at the end of the month,” according to the Washington Examiner.

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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to Launch 2024 Presidential Campaign at New Hampshire Town Hall

Just the News

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is launching his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination at a New Hampshire town hall Tuesday evening. Christie also ran in 2016, losing the nomination to former President Donald Trump. He went on to become an adviser to Trump before their relationship soured over their disagreement about the 2020 election results.

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Louisiana Senate Passes Bill Banning Transgender Drugs and Surgeries for Minors

Susan Berry, PhD

The Louisiana State Senate passed a bill Monday that would ban puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender transition surgeries, such as double mastectomies and castrations, for minors.

HB 648, which passed by a vote of 29-10, was resurrected in the state senate after State Senator Fred Mills (R-Acadiana), a former Democrat and a pharmacy owner backed by the pharmaceutical industry, killed the measure in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.

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State Medical Authorities Are Cracking Down on Therapists Who Don’t ‘Affirm’ Kids’ Trans Identities

Admin

by Laurel Duggan   State laws have made it effectively illegal for therapists to help children with gender identity issues come to terms with their natural bodies and biological sex in much of the country by labeling the practice an illegal form of “conversion therapy.” While conversion therapy is broadly understood to refer to clinical attempts to get patients to stop feeling same-sex attractions, and has historically included practices like shock therapy, the term has expanded since the mid-2010s to include efforts by health care professionals to help gender-confused patients accept their birth sex rather than putting them on the transgender medicalization track. As states pushed new conversion therapy bans under this new definition, therapists are facing intimidation, legal battles and threat of licensure loss for offering a critical or exploratory approach to children who struggle with their gender identity. “If someone tells you what their gender identity is you must affirm them; you must accept it at face value,” Joseph Burgo, a psychotherapist and vice director of Genspect, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It has a chilling effect on the whole profession. I know therapists who avoid gender altogether because they’re afraid of activists coming after them.” Many transgender activist groups advocate…

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‘It’s Just Unacceptable’: The Border Crisis Is Overwhelming Schools in Some of America’s Most Populated Cities

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The crisis at the southern border is overwhelming school systems in several metropolitan areas of the country, according to multiple reports.

New York City, Miami-Dade County, Denver and Chicago school systems have all had to adapt to the influx of migrants, according to reports. Border Patrol recorded more than 632,000 encounters of migrant families and unaccompanied children in fiscal year 2022 at the southern border and more than 365,000 in the first seven months of fiscal year 2023, according to federal data.

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