Day: August 8, 2023

McCarthy Not Yet Convinced by GOP Push to Impeach Mayorkas

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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is not yet convinced by his own party’s push to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to Politico.

More conservative House Republicans are finding it more difficult to get McCarthy, along with the more moderate members of the party, to join their efforts, Politico reported. Several House Republicans, including Pat Fallon of Texas and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have already filed articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

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Texas DPS Marks over 900 Smuggled Children Rescued from Southern Border

The Center Square

Through Texas’ border security mission Operation Lone Star, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers have rescued more than 900 children being smuggled into and through Texas from Mexico by human traffickers, DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez announced. 

Among them was a recent rescue in Maverick County in Eagle Pass, Texas, where troopers found a five-year-old Honduran girl who’d been smuggled into Texas by three adult women who weren’t related to her. The women found the girl in Piedras Negras, Mexico, and then brought her with them as they crossed illegally into Texas between ports of entry. 

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Sources: Likely U.S. Senate Candidate Gloria Johnson to Use Special Session to Raise Campaign Profile

Peter D'Abrosca

State Rep. Gloria Johnson (R-Knoxville) formed an exploratory committee for her expected run for U.S. Senate, and a Nashville insider told The Tennessee Star that Johnson is expected to use the upcoming special session of the General Assembly as a bully pulpit to raise the profile of her campaign. 

“I’ve been told by people in the general assembly that say that she’s officially announcing the day before session, and then she’s going to roll right into session and grandstand and make the session about her campaign,” the source told The Star, adding that Johnson is expected to “ham it up with her two buddies,” referring to Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Knoxville). 

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DeSantis Donor Says He May Pull the Plug on Supporting Campaign

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The largest individual donor to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign effort has said he will stop donating to DeSantis unless changes are made to the campaign, according to a report by Reuters.

Robert Bigelow, a multimillionaire and owner of the Budget Suites of America, has donated over $20 million to the Never Back Down PAC, the principal super PAC supporting DeSantis’ campaign — accounting for two-thirds of the PAC’s fundraising in the first half of 2023. On Friday, Bigelow said that he would stop funding DeSantis’ campaign until it exhibited a more moderate policy platform, according to comments made to Reuters.

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Republican Lawmakers Urge Secretary Fontes to Extend Public Comment Period for 2023 Arizona Elections Procedures Manual

Hannah Poling

Arizona Republican lawmakers are urging Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to extend the deadline for public comment on the 2023 Election Procedure Manual.

State Representatives Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) and Michael Carbone (R-Buckeye) are calling on Fontes to extend the “extremely short” public comment period he set for the 2023 Elections Procedure Manual. Fontes released the manual draft on August 1st and set the deadline for August 15th, even though he is not required to produce it to Governor Katie Hobbs or Attorney General Kris Mayes until October 1st.

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Former Planned Parenthood Director Warns Ohio Parents What Could Happen to Their Daughters if Ballot Amendment Enshrines Abortion in State Constitution

Susan Berry, PhD

National pro-life leader and former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson spelled out Sunday what could await pregnant teens in Ohio should a proposed constitutional amendment allow them to obtain abortions without parental consent.

Johnson spoke to a large crowd at a Rosary Rally, organized by Catholics for Catholics, to encourage Ohioans to vote “yes” on Issue 1 on Tuesday.

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Gov. Hobbs Unsure About Canceling Saudi Company’s Arizona Alfalfa Farm Despite Ties to Campaign

Tom Pappert

Governor Katie Hobbs said canceling state leases to a Fondomonte, a foreign company that grows water-hungry alfalfa for export to Saudi Arabia to feed cattle, was complex, asserting that some have asked Arizona to “unilaterally yank one lease” while allowing other, similar leases to continue in a recent interview. The governor did not comment on her campaign’s connection to Fondomonte, but gave detailed reasons why terminating the lease would be a complicated issue.

Hobbs stressed that ending the lease to Fondomonte is complicated because, “It would be treating one leaseholder differently than others,” in an interview with The Arizona Republic. Hobbs continued, “We can’t just unilaterally yank one lease because we don’t like that alfalfa’s going to Saudi Arabia.”

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U.S. Authorities on Alert After Discovering New Chinese Migrant Smuggling Route in Florida

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by Jennie Taer   Federal authorities are growing increasingly concerned about a route Chinese migrants are utilizing to make their way to Florida illegally, according to an internal federal intelligence report obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The report states that law enforcement lacks information regarding who is coordinating the smuggling between the Bahamas and Florida, where the migrants are being staged in the Bahamas and why Chinese migrants are choosing the Caribbean island. It also references recent incidents of Chinese nationals entering Florida illegally via the Bahamas. There have been five such incidents of Chinese migrants attempting to “self-smuggle” from the Bahamas, according to the report. One incident took place on July 16 and involved a group of six Chinese migrants. “The Chinese purchased a Bahamian registered vessel in GBI [Grand Bahama Island] and tested the capabilities before leaving and being interdicted in Palm Beach. All 6 Chinese migrants were repatriated to the Bahamas,” the report stated of the latest interdiction. Border Patrol agents stationed in Florida have seen a spike in arrests of illegal migrants from China, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. Agents apprehended 27 illegal migrants from China in Florida between October 2022…

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Governors Highway Safety Association Suggests Improvements to Prevent Accidents on Pennsylvania’s Rural Roads

The Center Square

Rural America has 20 percent of the country’s population and 46 percent of the nation’s car crashes. A lack of resources, both in cash and workers, poses a challenge to avoiding wrecks and deaths.

Though rural traffic studies have been of questionable quality, a new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) suggests broader cooperation to pool local resources, more public outreach, and better road design to curb collisions.

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Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds Set to Hold ‘Fair-Side Chats’ with GOP Presidential Candidates; Trump Has His Own Plans

M.D. Kittle

It’s State Fair time in the Hawkeye State, and with a little more than five months before Iowa’s first-in-the- nation primary that means one thing: Presidential candidates galore.

While Thrill Ville still thrills and food on a stick remains cuisine du jour, the Iowa State Fair — as it does every four years — is a showplace for presidential aspirants.

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U.S. Reps. Grothman and Biggs to Hold Joint Committee Field Hearing on Humanitarian Crisis at Southern Border

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Representative Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06) will hear from real Americans impacted by President Joe Biden’s border policies at a congressional field hearing on Tuesday in Arizona.

Grothman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, is teaming up with U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, in holding the joint-committee hearing in Sierra Vista, AZ.

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Bernie Moreno and Kari Lake Rally Ohio Republicans to Vote in Support of Issue 1

Hannah Poling

On Monday, Republican businessman and candidate for U.S. Senate Bernie Moreno and Arizona Republican politician and former candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake rallied Republicans to vote in support of Ohio State Issue on August 8th.

Moreno and Lake attended a county Republican rally in Cleveland in support of Ohio State Issue 1 to raise the threshold to amend the state constitution. They spoke to hundreds of voters at the Get Out the Vote Rise and Shine Rally at the Strongsville GOP in Parma.

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Kari Lake Endorses Republican Businessman Bernie Moreno for U.S. Senate at Ohio GOP Rally

Hannah Poling

On Sunday, Arizona Republican politician and former candidate for Arizona Governor Kari Lake announced her endorsement for Republican businessman Bernie Moreno in his run for U.S. Senate against Ohio Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in 2024.

Lake made the announcement at a county Republican rally north of Columbus that she attended along with Moreno, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, and U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) in support of Ohio State Issue 1 to raise the threshold to amend the state constitution. Lake spoke to about 500 people at the Union County Republican Party Summer Farm Fest in Marysville.

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The Number of Illegal Immigrants in Colleges Soar to Nearly 2 Percent of United States’ Population, Study Finds

Just the News

At least 408,000 students without legal documentation to be in the country enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, yet another system impacted by the surge in illegal immigration, according to a new study.

The new report by the American Immigration Council and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education, found that undocumented migrants now account for nearly 2 percent of the higher education population.

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Commentary: Could the Baby Boomer Retirement Wave and Labor Shortages Absorb the Recession?

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The national unemployment rate dipped to 3.5 percent in July, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, once again hitting more than 50-year lows.

It’s still peak employment as far as the eye can see. Even with the past two years’ high inflation dropping dramatically and disinflation usually correlating with higher unemployment and a recession, that simply has not occurred yet, despite all the warning signs typically associated with an economic slowdown or downturn.

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Midwest Landowners Notch Big Win After Regulators Deny Permit for Green Pipeline Project

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North Dakota state regulators denied a permit for the route of a carbon capture pipeline project Friday amid local pushback, according to AgWeek.

The pipeline is a project of the Iowa-based company Summit Carbon Solutions, which told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it will resubmit the relevant paperwork and try to get the required permit again. The denial is a setback for the Biden administration’s green energy agenda, which relies in part on carbon capture and sequestration technology to bring down emissions in line with its goal of the U.S. reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, according to a White House fact sheet.

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