Month: August 2023

The Fed’s Favorite Inflation Measure Just Ticked Back Up

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The Federal Reserve’s preferred method of tracking inflation went up in July, following a similar move by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.2% for the month of July, culminating in a 3.3% rise for the year in the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, up from 3.0% year-over-year in June, according to BEA data. The CPI, which is another measure of inflation, rose 3.2% in July, up from 3.0% in June year-over-year.

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Newt Gingrich: House GOP Should Broaden Biden Investigation to Include Hillary Clinton and Obama

Just the News

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says that Republicans in the House should expand their Biden investigation to look into other Democrat politicians such as former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“There’s, I think, a second reason for dramatically broadening the investigation,” Gingrich said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. “I’m working now on a series of articles for the American Spectator – making the case that this is really about the weaponization of government, the collapse of the rule of law and its replacement by the rule of power. And that really involves three principles. It involves Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.”

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Report: Raffensperger Testimony Supports Trump Defense in Georgia Case

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Breitbart Testimony this week in federal court by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reportedly contradicted claims that former President Donald Trump insisted he violate his oath of office by fabricating enough votes to win the state. As Breitbart News has long noted, the media have misrepresented the January 2021 phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, quoting Trump as telling Raffensperger that he should “find” the votes necessary for him to win. In fact, Trump said “I just want to find” the votes, referring to his own state of mind. Moreover, the context was that Trump believed he actually had won the state of Georgia, and the votes simply had not been properly counted yet. Raffensperger took the stand in a federal court in the Northern District of Georgia as part of a hearing on a motion by former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who is one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the criminal case in Fulton County, Georgia. Meadows argued that the case should be removed to federal court, because he was just working for the president, and therefore cannot be tried in state court under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. READ THE FULL STORY         …

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Trump Can’t Be Barred from Arizona’s 2024 Ballot, Says Democratic Secretary of State

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The Hill Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) said he does not have the ability to bar former President Donald Trump from running for president in his state Wednesday. There have been calls to bar the former president from being able to run in 2024 related to language in the 14th amendment where it states those who “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the government cannot hold office. Fontes said despite those claims, he cannot do so by way of a previous Arizona Supreme Court case.   “Now, the Arizona Supreme Court said that because there’s no statutory process in federal law to enforce Section 3 of the 14th amendment, you can’t enforce it,” Fontes said on “The Gaggle” podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com.  READ THE FULL STORY                

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Tennessee AG Sends Letter to SEC Concerning the World’s Biggest Fashion Retailer’s Business Practices

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined a coalition of 15 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler regarding business practices reported by the China-founded, fast-fashion retailer SHEIN.

SHEIN was founded in Nanjing, China in 2008 has become the world’s largest fashion retailer with an estimated value of $64 billion. The company’s mobile app is currently the fourth most downloaded app in the United States. In addition, the company is one of TikTok’s largest advertisers and pays thousands of social media “influencers” to market its wares to consumers via videos on the platform.

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Researchers Warn About Synthetic Opioids More Powerful than Fentanyl

The Center Square

Synthetic opioids estimated to be 10 times more potent than fentanyl are creeping into the illicit drug market in the U.S., according to new research. 

“Synthetic opioids, such as the fentanyl analog and nitazene drug class, are among the fastest growing types of opioids being detected in patients in the emergency department with illicit opioid overdose,” researchers warned in a paper published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open.

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University of Tennessee Increases Eligibility for Major Scholarship Program

Peter D'Abrosca

The University of Tennessee (UT) Tuesday announced that it will expand eligibility for a major scholarship program called the UT Promise. 

“The University of Tennessee System announced plans to extend the qualifying income level for UT Promise scholarship recipients once again, this time from $60,000 to $75,000 (adjusted gross income),” the school said on its website. “The university increased the income level from $50,000 to $60,000 in 2021. The announcement was made as UT System President Randy Boyd prepares to tour high schools across the state for the fourth UT Promise tour.”

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Tennessee School Districts Celebrate TVAAS Results, But Supporting Data Remains Unavailable to Parents Until Mid-September

TC Weber

Tennessee school districts are touting their Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System(TVAAS) scores, even as the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) has yet to make those scores available for public inspection.

TVAAS measures student academic growth over the course of a school year. Since it focuses on growth over proficiency, TVAAS allows administrators to see what strategies truly impact student performance.

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Economy Grew Less than Previously Thought in Second Quarter

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Economic growth was revised downward for the second quarter of 2022, coming more in line with economists’ original expectations, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

Yearly real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was revised down from 2.4% to 2.1% growth in the second estimate for the second quarter of 2023, according to the BEA. The revision is more in line with original expectations from economists of around 2% growth for the second quarter, showing signs of a cooling economy.

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Michigan Gov. Whitmer to Pursue Paid Family Leave, 100 Percent Clean Energy Standard

The Center Square

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed enacting a paid family leave program, a 100% clean energy standard and codifying the Affordable Care Act in her “What’s Next” speech that outlined the fall agenda Wednesday morning.

The second-term Democratic governor outlined her priorities as state Democrats control the governor’s office, House and Senate in Michigan for the first time in 40 years.

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Giuliani Loses Georgia Election Workers’ Defamation Lawsuit by Default

Just the News

Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani lost by default Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit filed by two Georgia election workers and a judge imposed sanctions on him in the case. 

In a scathing 57-page ruling, federal Judge Beryl Howell criticized Giuliani for not producing evidence as required for the case filed by election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, resulting in the default loss.

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Pennsylvania Higher Ed System Hopes for Boost from Certificate Programs

The Center Square

In an effort to attract students and the general public alike, Pennsylvania’s higher education system will partner with Google to offer certificate programs that demonstrate their skills to potential employers.

Students can earn a certificate as they get college credit within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, and the public can earn a certificate through non-credit courses and workshops without enrolling in PASSHE.

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Wisconsin Assembly Republicans Roll Out Nearly $3 Billion Tax Cut Plan

M.D. Kittle

In the wake of Governor Tony Evers’ gutting of a historic tax cut proposal earlier this summer, Republicans are pushing another plan they said would deliver nearly $3 billion in tax relief for retirees and the middle class.

Conservative lawmakers said the plan to tap into the state’s projected $4 billion budget surplus is a “second chance” for the liberal governor to “do the right thing” and return overpaid tax dollars back to Wisconsin’s taxpayers.

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Commentary: Saving the Environment from Environmentalists

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The oceans director of Greenpeace told USA Today that groups attempting to link offshore wind to whale deaths are part of a “cynical disinformation campaign.”
–  Whale carcasses on Martha’s Vineyard fuel speculation about wind turbines, New Bedford Light, June 22, 2023

If you want to know just how far the environmentalist movement has fallen in recent years, the destruction of marine life off the coast of Massachusetts in 2023 provides a disgraceful example. Greenpeace, an organization that not only led the earliest vanguard of the modern environmental movement, but was specifically formed to save the world’s whales, is actively denying what is likely the most egregious massacre of whales by Americans in more than a century.

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Ohio Redistricting Commission Meeting in Flux After Attorney General Says Only Governor May Reconvene Them

Hannah Poling

The first 2023 scheduled meeting of the Ohio Redistricting Commission is in flux after Attorney General Dave Yost sent a letter on Monday to the commission stating that only Governor Mike DeWine has the authority to reconvene them.

This follows the two co-chairs of the commission, State Representative Jeff LaRe (R-Fairfield County) and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), announcing last week that the panel would meet on September 13th to start the process of drawing new state legislative maps.

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Yale University Seeks African American Studies Professor Versed in ‘Feminist and Queer Studies’

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Yale University is seeking a “Global Black and African Diaspora Studies“ tenured associate professor well-versed in topics such as ”African/diasporic queer and feminist activism” and “transnational feminist and queer studies” to begin July 1, 2024.

“The Program seeks candidates whose research and teaching focus on the formations and lived experiences of Blackness, with emphasis on global, comparative, indigenous, or transnational perspectives drawn from African, Indigenous, Asian, Middle Eastern, European, or Latin American and Caribbean contexts,” the job posting by the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Department states.

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Ramaswamy Fires Back at Haley on Her Israel Claims, as War of Words Intensifies

M.D. Kittle

Ohio biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is firing back against Republican presidential opponent Nikki Haley in a blistering war of words over his position on U.S.-Israel relations.

Ramaswamy took aim at the former United Nations ambassador after her appearance Tuesday on Fox News in which she claimed that Ramaswamy would “abandon Israel” as president.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Calls Special Session to Finalize Budget

The Center Square

Just days after the House and Senate budget committees reached a deal, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin called a General Assembly Special Session for Wednesday, Sept. 6, to pass amendments to the state’s biennial budget. 

Budget negotiations have been fraught with difficulty this year, with the Republican-led House and the Democrat-led Senate unable to compromise on the governor’s proposed tax cuts and other big-ticket items like K-12 education. 

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State Representative Promises New COVID-19 Mask Mandates ‘Won’t Be Happening in Arizona’ Thanks to GOP-Backed Laws

Tom Pappert

As national media outlets warn of a new wave of COVID-19 and suggest pandemic-era responses, State Representative Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale) highlighted two Arizona laws that will prohibit face mask mandates in businesses and schools.

In a press release from the Arizona House of Representatives, the legislator noted that CNN, CBS, and The Washington Times have published articles that either encourage or note “the return of mask mandates” across the country. Chaplik added, “The good news is that mandates won’t be happening here in Arizona.”

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DeSantis Turns Down Millions in Incentives from Biden’s Signature Climate Bill

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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has effectively rejected nearly $350 million dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) designated for use in Florida, according to Politico.

The IRA, President Joe Biden’s signature climate spending bill, sets aside money for rebates for consumers to buy more efficient appliances that the Biden administration is pushing and to help low-income individuals buy solar panels for their homes, according to Politico. DeSantis and the Florida legislature have effectively refused $3 million set aside for cleaning up pollution, $5 million in federal funds to set up the appliance rebates program and $341 million to actually fund that program.

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Commentary: ‘The Thales Way’ Is the Book That Can Save American Education

Admin

Would you be interested in a book on reforming education by a man who created flourishing grade, middle, and high school charter schools, all with waiting lists today, found them too mired in government bureaucracy and so started 13 even more successful purely private campuses in 2007 — and who is willing to share his secrets of success with you?

In hiring young people for his large private business, Bob Luddy of Raleigh, North Carolina, ran head-long into the problem shared by other employers — namely, that many potential employees with a public-school education did not have the elemental skills required to hold jobs, some unable to understand basic logic or even to read.

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Ohio Manufacturers Urge No Vote on Recreational Marijuana Measure on November Ballot

Hannah Poling

The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association urged Ohioans to vote “no” on a November ballot measure to legalize the possession, purchase, and sale of marijuana by Ohio residents aged 21 and older.

This follows the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association voting to oppose the ballot measure, now titled Issue 2 for the November general election, at a special meeting of its board of directors on Tuesday.

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Gives 17 Arizona State Politicians 100 Percent Ratings in Its 2023 Scorecard

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) issued its annual ratings of legislators this month, with four state senators and 13 state representatives receiving perfect scores. The scorecard analyzed 25 bills in the House and 30 in the Senate during the 2023 session that addressed priority issues for AFEC. Many legislators scored well since “[f]or most of the legislative session, the caucuses in the House and Senate were unified, and there was less bad policy that made it onto the floor for a vote in either chamber.”

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Arizona State Representative Wants Arizona Department of Transportation to Fix Third-Party Service Providers

Hannah Poling

Arizona State Representative and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman David Cook (R-Globe) urged the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) to take immediate corrective action to address critical public safety risks.

This follows a new Arizona Department of Transportation performance audit conducted by the Arizona Auditor General, finding alarming issues with Motor Vehicle Divisions’ (MVD) oversight of third-party service providers.

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Food Prices Expected to Continue Rising Through 2024

The Center Square

Recently released federal pricing analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that food prices will continue to rise through 2024.

The USDA pointed to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index released earlier this month, which showed consumer prices overall rose 3.2 percent in the previous twelve months. Food prices, though rose more quickly at 4.9 percent during the same time.

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Ramaswamy Unveils Plan to ‘Shut Down the FBI’

Just the News

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday unveiled a plan to “shut down the FBI,” an institution that has drawn considerable scrutiny from Republicans amid allegations of political bias at the bureau.

Posted to X, Ramaswamy’s plan outlines three “key problems” affecting the agency. The first, “redundancy & waste,” highlights the 20,000+ employees in either non-essential roles or investigating matters another agency already covers.

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Comer Accuses Biden of Abusing Power by Letting Son Travel on Foreign Trips, Demands Flight Records

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House Government and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer on Wednesday formally accused Joe Biden of abusing his power as vice president by allowing his son to travel aboard Air Force Two to help score foreign business deals, formally demanding the National Archives turn over all flight records from such trips.

“The Committee seeks unrestricted special access under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) to certain records related to then-Vice President Biden’s foreign travel with his family on Air Force Two and Marine Two,” Comer and fellow committee member Rep. Byron Donald, R-Fla., wrote in a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration.

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Illegal Migrants from Mexico Assault Northern Border Agent, Official Says

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Three illegal migrants from Mexico assaulted a Border Patrol agent along the northern border on Aug. 20, according to an Instagram post from Swanton sector Chief Robert Garcia.

The three illegal migrants crossed the northern border from Canada illegally before assaulting the agent near Churubusco, New York, according to Garcia’s post. Border Patrol agents in the Swanton sector, which includes areas of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire have made more than 4,900 arrests of illegal migrants from 68 countries between October 2022 and July, amounting to more apprehensions than the last eight years combined in the region.

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Trump Open to Vivek Ramaswamy as Vice President

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Axios Former President Trump showered Vivek Ramaswamy with praise when asked in an interview if he’d considered the 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur for vice president. It’s the most Trump has weighed in on Ramaswamy’s presidential candidacy, revealing his openness to a significantly younger and arguably more radical anti-Washington unknown. Trump called Ramaswamy “smart” and “young” and “full of talent” when asked by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck what he thinks of a “Vice President Ramaswamy.” READ THE FULL STORY              

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Democrat-Corporate Alliance: Big Banks, BlackRock, Pfizer Back Hochul Plan to Have Americans Bail Out New York for Illegal Immigration

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Breitbart News The nation’s biggest banks on Wall Street, investment firms, and pharmaceutical companies are among a number of multinational corporations throwing their support behind a plan from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) that would have American taxpayers bail out the sanctuary state for an illegal immigration influx. As Breitbart News reported, Hochul unveiled the bailout this week — promising to lobby President Joe Biden for millions, potentially billions, in American taxpayer money that would ensure border crossers and illegal aliens in New York secure jobs, healthcare services, housing vouchers, and free public transit. “It is past time for President Biden to take action and provide New York with the aid needed to continue managing this ongoing crisis,” Hochul said in an address. READ THE FULL STORY    

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State Senator: FBI Did Not Inform Local Authorities Before Killing Henderson, Tennessee Man in Raid

Peter D'Abrosca

According to a Tennessee state senator, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not inform relevant local authorities that it would be conducting a raid in Chester County that resulted in the death of a Henderson man.

“I’ve been making some inquiries since I learned of it,” State Senator Page Walley (R-Savannah) told The Tennessee Star Tuesday. “I’ve been on the phone with the Chester County Sheriff’s Department, and the Henderson police. “Neither the sheriff’s department or the Henderson Police Department were informed by the FBI until after the event.”

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More Than 1,600 Scientists, Nobel Laureates, Declare ‘Climate Emergency’ a Myth

Just the News

A coalition of 1,609 scientists from around the world have signed a declaration stating “there is no climate emergency” and that they “strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy” being pushed across the globe. The declaration does not deny the harmful effect of greenhouse gasses, but instead challenges the hysteria brought about by the narrative of imminent doom.

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Biden Admin Seeks Long-Term Ukraine Aid Plan to Prevent Next President from Scaling Back Funding

Admin

The Biden administration is seeking to hammer out a long-term Ukraine aid agreement with European allies in hopes of both preventing Russia from gaining an edge on the battlefield and hamstringing a future president’s ability to scale back U.S. commitments, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The scheme emerged during sideline talks among Group of Seven leaders at a NATO summit in July, and so far involves negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine, and between the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Ukraine, according to the WSJ. It’s an attempt, in part, to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin he can simply wait until a new American administration, as several top GOP political contenders have expressed intention to reduce or eliminate U.S. aid that makes up the brunt of Western support.

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Tennessee Titans Partner with Verizon to Use Facial Authentication Tech to Verify Identities at Nissan Stadium

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee Titans and Verizon have announced they are partnering to verify guest identities this NFL season at Nissan Stadium by using facial authentication technology.

The move comes after Verizon recently added dozens of 5G Ultra Wideband cell sites at Nissan Stadium, which the company said “will provide enhanced wireless performance to customers in the stands starting at regular season games and events this year.”

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Tennessee National Guard Troops Sent to Louisiana to Help Battle Its Largest Wildfire in History

Kaitlin Housler

A 12-person team from the Tennessee National Guard deployed to Louisiana to support state, county, and local emergency responders battling the Tiger Island wildfire burning in Beauregard Parish, the Tennessee Department of Military announced Monday.

Two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters from Knoxville’s 1-230th Assault Helicopter Battalion were sent to the Pelican State equipped with a specialized bucket system called Bambi Buckets to deliver hundreds of gallons of water from the air to fight the wildfires.

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Metro Nashville Police Release Helicopter Video of 16-Year Old Driving a Stolen Vehicle, Eluding Officers on Foot

Kaitlin Housler

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) released a video last week taken from a helicopter showing a 16-year-old boy leading officers on a high-speed chase in a stolen vehicle before fleeing on foot.

“For the 4TH TIME this year, a 16 yr old Nashvillian has been arrested for car theft. Tue night he was driving a Hyundai, stolen in Clarksville on 8/5. He refused to stop for officers. An MNPD helicopter followed him to Judd Dr., where he was arrested & a 2nd stolen vehicle found,” MNPD wrote in a tweet in addition to sharing the video taken from above the scene.

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Average American Workers Now Demand $80K Salary to Start New Jobs

Admin

On Monday, the Federal Reserve published research suggesting that the preferred starting wage for the average American worker is at an all-time high.

According to Fox Business, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York determined that the average “reservation wage” – that is, the lowest salary at which a prospective employee will accept a job – reached $78,645 in the second quarter of 2023. This is an 8% increase from the second quarter of 2022, when the average reservation wage was approximately $72,873.

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GOP Presidential Hopeful Doug Burgum Campaigns in New Hampshire, Hobbling on in Long-Shot Bid for the White House

M.D. Kittle

Republican presidential hopeful Doug Burgum is limping his way through New Hampshire this week after suffering a leg injury before last week’s first GOP presidential primary debate. It would seem the North Dakota governor’s campaign for the White House is hobbled, too, after he failed to gain much traction last week in Milwaukee. Burgum made campaign stops in Derry and Bedford on Tuesday afternoon. He’s expected to be at Los Primos Mexican Restaurant in Merrimack for a 1 p.m. meet and greet on Wednesday, followed by a stop at Novel Iron Works at 3:30 p.m. in Greenland. The long-shot candidate shouldered on, as he attempts to recover from a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered last Tuesday in a pick-up basketball game in Milwaukee — a day before the first Republican presidential primary debate. He took the debate stage in an ankle boot, a necessary accouterment Burgum continues to wear to his Granite State campaign stops. The governor said he hasn’t missed a campaign event, and he doesn’t intend to. “I came from this town of 300 people [his hometown in North Dakota] and everyone was wishing me well, you know, ‘Go to Milwaukee, break a leg. I took it a little…

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Jury Selection Begins in Backpage Prostitution Trial of Former Phoenix New Times Owner

Rachel Alexander

A victim who was 14 when she was sex trafficked through the now-defunct website backpage.com is helping bring the site operators to justice. Testimony from Eryka Brewster, now 24, helped lead to a conviction of the former site’s CEO, Carl Ferrer, her pimp, and the ongoing prosecution against one of the site’s co-owners, Michael Lacey. Co-owner Jim Larkin, who was also being prosecuted, killed himself on August 1. Lacey and Larkin owned the Phoenix New Times for years, known for its scathing attacks on conservative Republicans.

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Commentary: Left Seizes Election Worker Training Organization

Admin

A nonpartisan organization that trains election workers from across the country is now being run by two liberal voting activists—one who previously worked for the nonprofit that distributed hundreds of millions of dollars of Mark Zuckerberg’s election grants during the 2020 elections. The grants were supposedly to “help” local governments run elections, but most of the money went to election offices in Democrat-run localities.

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