A federal judge Tuesday blocked a Biden administration rule that allowed migration officials to turn away asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border if the migrants did not apply online first or seek protection in a country that they traveled through.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in California’s northern district gave the Biden administration 14 days to appeal his order, which takes away a key migration enforcement tool, according to The Associated Press.
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Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio led the introduction of a bill Tuesday that would prohibit taxpayer funds from being spent on K-12 American History and civics classes that promote Critical Race Theory (CRT), according to a copy of the bill obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Under the Protect Equality and Civics Education (PEACE) Act, federal dollars cannot be used to fund curriculum, teaching or counseling in K-12 American History and civics courses that promote tenets of CRT, including that the U.S. is fundamentally racist. Rubio introduced the bill alongside two co-sponsors, Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer.
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Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) officially opened an investigation Monday into Harvard to determine whether or not the university’s use of legacy admissions violate the Civil Rights Act, according to a letter from the DOE.
The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) opened the investigation to determine whether or not Harvard discriminates on the basis of race by having donor and legacy admissions preferences after a complaint was filed on behalf of several activist organizations including The Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network, according to a letter from the DOE to Lawyers for Civil Rights. The complaint follows on the heels of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down race-based affirmative action admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
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An organization of physicians and others concerned about the politicization of healthcare is praising the “doctors around the world” who are “speaking up” about the “significant” risks associated with childhood medical gender transition and the lack of evidence supporting the claim that transgender hormone drugs reduce suicide risk.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm wrote Monday in an email to subscribers of the recent “game-changing” letter to the editors, published in the Wall Street Journal by 21 clinicians and researchers from South Africa, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and the United States, that challenges the Endocrine Society’s latest statements on what radical transgender activists call “gender-affirming care.”
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According to multiple reports, State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) will challenge Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) for her seat during the 2024 election cycle.
“I’m taking a serious look at the race and having conversations with folks that are hungry for better leadership in Washington,” Johnson told Politico. “Honestly, Tennesseans deserve someone who will stand up to corrupt special interests, fight for lower costs so that every family can build a good life and that’s not Marsha Blackburn.”
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Political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy is heading back to Iowa this week with a lot of momentum and a big target on his back in the Republican Party presidential nomination chase.
The Ohio biotech engineer is set to join the cattle call of candidates at Friday’s “pinnacle” event of the Hawkeye State’s long, hot summer of presidential politics — the Republican Party of Iowa’s sold-out Lincoln Dinner fundraiser in Des Moines.
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Several teachers unions are seeing a decrease in their revenue due to a Florida law that prohibits automatic paycheck deductions, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Florida teachers unions of both public schools and universities filed a revised lawsuit and injunction against the state’s dues-deduction ban that went into effect July 1, arguing that the law has caused the organizations to suffer major revenue loss, according to the Tampa Bay Times. In June, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker declined the unions’ May injunction, arguing that granting one would “offer no redress for plaintiffs’ injuries.”
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Arizona State University (ASU) theology professor Dr. Owen Anderson claimed the university now uses Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) questions to “screen” and exclude job applicants during the hiring process. Dr. Anderson revealed this information to The Arizona Sun Times when reached to discuss a recent hearing in the Arizona Legislature that examined freedom of expression at the taxpayer-funded institution.
Anderson, who is also a pastor at the Historic Christian Church of Phoenix, told The Sun Times ASU uses “DEI questions in hiring to screen candidates,” which Anderson said “means only candidates that agree with their left wing agenda are hired.”
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The Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office organized an initiative to provide law enforcement training for more than 40 police officers from school systems in the northern district of Georgia to prevent and reduce delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office partnered with the Georgia Alliance for School Resource Officers and Educators, the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, and the Georgia Gang Investigators Association to provide the officers with Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.).
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Tuition is increasing at Virginia community colleges for the first time in five years due to a unanimous decision from the State Board of Community Colleges.
Virginia’s 23 community colleges are increasing their tuition by $4.61 per credit hour, about 3% of the previous in-state tuition rate. For most of them, tuition will be $158.61 per credit hour for the 2023-24 school year or $2,379.15 for a 15-credit-hour semester. Other mandatory fees will vary, depending on the college.
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Newly declared candidate for the U.S. Senate, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, announced his official endorsement of former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump in his run for United States President in 2024.
On Monday, LaRose released a statement officially giving his endorsement of Trump.
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Pennsylvania hospitals may soon test urine samples for fentanyl and xylazine, two of the most common additives found in heroin.
The state government legalized fentanyl test strips for personal use last year, following a number of other states responding to more overdose deaths in the last decade. More than 5,200 Pennsylvanians have died from an overdose death in the last year, according to CDC data.
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A recent Fareed Zakaria Washington Post op-ed nicely summarized our new reality:
There is a debate within the Republican Party. Some senior figures, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and former vice president Mike Pence, are vigorously making the case for an active and engaged America. But the party’s base seems to be with the isolationists, as can be seen in the tilting stances of the weather-vane speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (Calif.). From Donald Trump to his copycat, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and the party’s most powerful media ideologist, Tucker Carlson, conservatives are increasingly contemptuous of America’s support for Ukraine and its strong alliance with Europe. Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) told the New York Times that although some Republicans remain staunchly interventionist, “That’s not where the voters are.”
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Dr. Scott Jensen, former GOP candidate for governor, wrote in an op-ed that following his 2022 election loss, he is re-examining his position on abortion.
“Because millions of Americans believed that the Supreme Court’s ruling had had a decisive impact on elections across the nation, I decided to re-examine the abortion issue from both a historical and present-day perspective,” Jensen wrote.
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The head of the Arizona Department of Education pushed back on a press release issued by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, who warned that students participating in the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program, Arizona’s growing school choice initiative, lose some rights and face unscrupulous vendors or scams after leaving the public school system.
A press release issued by Mayes’ office warned Arizonans that students entering the ESA program “give up rights,” especially from bills aimed at protecting children with disabilities and to access to their children’s educational records. Mayes lamented, “Families should not be denied admission or kicked out of private schools because of a child’s disabilities” and said she wants “families to know that if vendors or private schools” are abusing the program, “the Attorney General’s Office will investigate to the fullest extent of our authority.”
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced on Monday that Ohio is awarding over $26 million in grant funding to support accelerated learning for Ohio students.
Six high-quality tutoring vendors across the state will receive grant funding totaling over $26 million as part of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief to provide tutoring services across the state at no cost to schools and districts.
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Bradshaw Home, a designer and marketer of kitchen and cleaning products, will establish operations in Georgia by constructing a new distribution center in Effingham County.
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Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs came in as the second least popular governor in America, according to a new Morning Consult poll.
The poll detailed that among samples of registered voters in each state surveyed, Hobbs had the second-lowest favorable rating in the country at a mere 40 percent, barely avoiding last place by beating out Democratic Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, who garnered a 39 percent favorable rating.
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Politically motivated prosecutors have begun charging the slates of alternate electors from the 2020 presidential election with crimes, and are now investigating Arizona’s alternate electors. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes campaigned on a platform promising to investigate the alternate 22 Republican electors. No one has been ever charged with a crime for participating in an alternate electoral slate until now, even though there have been alternate electoral slates presented throughout history.
Mayes said during an interview in February, “There has to be a deterrent to this happening again. We can’t have this occurring again in Arizona — or in the country.”
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World Aquatics, the world swimming governing body, announced Tuesday that it will set up an “open category” that will include transgender athletes, according to The Associated Press.
The governing body banned most male athletes from competing in the female division in 2022 following uproar over Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who won a national title in women’s swimming after competing in the men’s collegiate division for three years. The president of World Aquatics, Husain Al-Musallam, said an “open category” swimming event will take place alongside other races, according to the AP.
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Lawmakers investigating reports that the IRS destroyed tens of millions of taxpayer records say the federal tax agency is not cooperating with the investigation.
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman David Schweikert, R-Ariz., sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel demanding he comply with the documentation request.
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The military’s entry into the culture wars remains an important development. Until recently, the military was officially apolitical, in keeping with the constitutional requirements for a civilian commander-in-chief. In the 1990s, the military became more aligned with the Republican Party, and many commentators expressed legitimate concerns about this development. The pendulum swung-back after George W. Bush’s disastrous performance in Iraq, and things mostly balanced out by the time Obama took the reins.
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Another detransitioner who attempted a gender transition at age 17 is suing the doctors who operated on her, accusing them of ignoring her plethora of mental health conditions and pushing her down a destructive path.
Soren Aldaco, who is now 21 years old, filed her lawsuit Friday in the Tarrant County District Court of Texas. She alleges that her doctors behaved more like “ideologues” than medical professionals and that they did not properly take her autism, depression, anxiety, and other comorbidities into account when they evaluated her for an attempted gender transition.
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In the tenth episode of his newest production, “Tucker on Twitter,” former Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson drove through South Central Los Angeles with actor O’Shea Jackson, commonly known as Ice Cube.
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Courthouse News Service A New York federal judge sentenced Colorado businessman Tim Shea to more than five years behind bars Tuesday on convictions for his role in the We Build the Wall fundraiser, a bogus charity that cheated $25 million from private donors who thought they were funding the construction of former President Donald Trump’s border wall. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres presided over the hearing, noting when she imposed the sentence that Shea had taken responsibility for his actions “to a certain degree.” The Obama-appointed judge said Shea’s efforts to deceive donors and then cover up the fraud hurts everyone “by eroding the public’s faith in the political process.” READ THE FULL STORY
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Although Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has dominated worldwide headlines for more than a year and refocused the attention of U.S. policymakers on NATO and Eastern Europe, Americans are much more worried about China’s emerging power.
In an open question asked by RealClear Opinion Research, 53% of registered voters named the People’s Republic of China as “the greatest threat to the United States.” Russia was cited by 29% of respondents, while 4% named North Korea – the same percentage who answered that America’s biggest threat was the United States itself.
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A new study reveals that nearly 75 percent of all U.S. hospitals were able to post positive operating income at the height of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic, primarily due to relief funds provided by the government.
As Axios reports, the analysis by JAMA Health Forum shows that the average hospital’s operating margins – the difference between revenue and expenses – hit an all-time high in 2020 and 2021, the first two years of the pandemic. Many hospitals continue to post improving operating margins even after 2022 despite the rising inflation, which some have attributed to the massive profits in the first two years of COVID.
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It’s time for the largest employer in the United States to rethink its 511 million square feet of office space, according to a congressional watchdog.
A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the federal government spends billions each year on underused office space. It recommended agency officials take another look at how much office space they need.
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Fox News Conservative activist Leonard Leo today told Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee he will “not be part” of their investigation into the travel habits of conservative Supreme Court justices and cited the Bill of Rights and liberal hypocrisy as reasons. “Your investigation of Mr. Leo infringes two provisions of the Bill of Rights,” lawyers for Leonard Leo wrote in a letter to Democratic senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Dick Durbin, which was obtained by Fox News Digital. “By selectively targeting Mr. Leo for investigation on a politically charged basis, while ignoring other potential sources of information on the asserted topic of interest who are similarly situated to Mr. Leo but have different political views that are more consistent with those of the Committee majority, your inquiry appears to be political retaliation against a private citizen in violation of the First Amendment,” they wrote. READ THE FULL STORY
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Official guest host of The Tennessee Star Report and executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition Tennessee Aaron Gulbransen joined Michael Patrick Leahy in-studio Tuesday to discuss the purported U.S. Senate candidacy of the far-left Democrat State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville).
Gulbransen took the opportunity to remind listeners of Johnson’s liberal bona fides and Marsha Blackburn’s ferocity on the campaign trail.
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The Associated Press A new lawsuit filed in Wisconsin by a national Democratic law firm seeks to once again allow voters to return absentee ballots in drop boxes, a practice that was barred by the state Supreme Court last year following criticism by former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit filed Thursday by the Elias Law Group comes less than two weeks before the Wisconsin Supreme Court flips from a conservative to liberal majority. Election law challenges like this one are among many issues the new liberal-controlled court is expected to rule on in the coming months. The rules for voting in Wisconsin are of heightened interest given its place as one of a handful of battleground presidential states. Four of the past six presidential elections in Wisconsin have been decided by less than a percentage point, including the past two. READ THE FULL STORY
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Recently, a feud has erupted in the country music community, with singer-songwriter Five Times August taking a stand against Sheryl Crow’s criticism of Jason Aldean’s song “Try That In A Small Town.” While Sheryl Crow accused Aldean of promoting violence in his lyrics, Five Times August, also known as Brad Skistimas, has fired back, calling out her woke hypocrisy.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was in a car crash Tuesday morning while on his way to a campaign event in Tennessee, but he is uninjured, his spokesperson said.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has partially cracked another cold case, this time identifying a woman whose remains were found in Cheatham County in 1985.
Michelle Lavone Inman of Nashville, born April 17, 1961, was identified by a private lab called Othram, Inc., according to a TBI release.
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The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced the availability of $185 million in grant funds to expand internet access in the state on Monday.
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A radical Massachusetts bill that would end nearly all restrictions on abortion in the state would also allow girls of any age to “consent” to an abortion without informing parents or requiring their consent.
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Billions of dollars in scheduled offshore wind developments in waters of the U.K. and U.S. have been paused or canceled in recent weeks, according to Bloomberg News.
Three major offshore wind-related contracts have fallen through as rising costs and economic concerns have saddled developments off the American and British coasts, according to Bloomberg. While offshore wind proponents remain confident in the long term viability of offshore wind, the recent cancellations may be a sign of more substantial troubles for offshore wind despite strong support from the Biden administration, according to Bloomberg.
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The IRS on Monday said it is ending its decades-long practice of agency revenue officers making unannounced visits to taxpayers, citing concerns over agent safety and an increase in scammers.
Unarmed agency employees would visit homes and businesses to collect unpaid taxes and unfiled tax returns. Except for a few unique circumstances, unannounced visits will immediately end and be replaced with mailed letters for taxpayers to schedule meetings, the IRS said.
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Christian book author and actor Kirk Cameron said he may be returning to a Tennessee library on August 5 for “See You at the Library,” a national “library takeover day” event sponsored by BRAVE Books that seeks to challenge left-wing censorship in public libraries.
Cameron told Human Events host Jack Posobiec last week that while the national event will be conducted in “hundreds and hundreds of libraries” across the country, he may be reading his books in the “same library” in Tennessee in which the librarian was fired for attempting to cancel his original event in February.
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On Monday, former State Representative from Defiance and current candidate for Ohio’s 9th Congressional district in 2024 Craig Riedel received endorsements from four Republican members of the U.S. House leadership.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA-01), Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN-06), and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) all vocalized their support for Riedel’s run for the House to unseat U.S. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09) who is currently serving her 21st term in Congress.
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A State Representative who was expelled from the General Assembly for his role in a gun control riot at the Capitol Building in Nashville will host town halls in Memphis to discuss the same topic with his constituents ahead of August’s special session of the General Assembly.
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) was expelled from the General Assembly in April alongside colleague State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville). Both men led a protest-turned-riot at the State Capitol in March, just after the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.
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With apologies to Cedar Rapids-based Janda Motor Services’ old TV commercial, make no mistake: this week is a big one for GOP presidential contenders in the Hawkeye State.
Almost all of the candidates seeking the GOP nomination — the long shots and the lions — are scheduled to attend the Republican Party of Iowa’s 2023 Lincoln Dinner Fundraiser on Friday evening in Des Moines.
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Two Arizona Republican Senators are calling on Attorney General Kris Mayes and Governor Katie Hobbs to protect the citizens of Arizona by immediately rescinding the release of a “seriously mentally-ill patient” who was housed at the Arizona State Hospital after being found incompetent to stand trial in the murder of his own mother and seven-year-old niece.
Last week, Arizona State Hospital released Rodney Aviles after they held him at their facility for over twenty years. However, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell wrote to Mayes back in February of this year to express her grave worries about community safety and her conviction that Aviles continues to pose a threat to his family and the larger community.
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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office is warning Georgians affected by the recent severe weather of scammers trying to exploit the disaster.
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An amended complaint was filed Friday by parents of transgender kids against the state of Florida over legislation it passed two months ago that bans sex change surgeries, trans hormones and puberty blockers for minors.
The amended complaint, filed by the Southern Legal Counsel and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation on behalf of the parents, alleges that Florida Senate Bill 254 prevents parents of transgender minors from making “necessary” medical decisions about their children’s health and violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, according to the complaint. The complaint follows several past instances of groups suing the state over the legislation and seeks to enhance a preliminary injunction that was issued on the bill in June.
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Vote Yes Ohio, the official campaign to protect the state constitution has launched a new digital advertisement supporting Ohio State Issue 1 and highlighting the need to protect the state constitution from special interest groups.
The ad, titled “We The People,” is the first 30-second advertisement released by Vote Yes Ohio aimed at informing voters of the need to raise the threshold of the state constitution by voting yes on Issue 1 during the August 8th special election.
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After Democrats threatened to censor him during last week’s House committee hearing on censorship, Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to hold a “Roundtable on Censorship” next month.
“We’re not waiting for the election to elevate free speech in the public mind,” the campaign for the Kennedy family scion said in a mass email message sent Monday.
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Minneapolis Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey has ordered the city police department to stop enforcing most laws against using hallucinogenic plants.
Frey in announcing the order Friday pointed to the potential benefits of taking hallucinogenic plants to treat mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
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Michigan voters are trying to recall eight freshman lawmakers over bill votes this year ranging from supporting hate crime bills to red flag laws.
Six House Democrats and two Republicans face recall threats according to petitions filed with the Michigan Secretary of State.
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Yale law library staff denied a reporter access to view the portraits hanging in its building in May and would not confirm whether a Clarence Thomas portrait donated to the library is among them, and this week deferred on numerous media requests asking about the whereabouts of the painting.
College Fix associate editor Maggie Kelly identified herself as a reporter and asked the interior gate attendant several times at the Lillian Goldman Law Library at Yale whether she could access the building to view its portraits. The attendant told her that only Yale law students and their guests are permitted to access the library. He also declined escorting the reporter around the building for a tour.
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