Day: August 25, 2023

Supporters Turn Out for Former President Trump’s Appearance at Fulton County Jail for Charges Related to Questioning the Integrity of the 2020 Election

Laura Baigert

As with his other indictments, supporters turned out for former President Donald Trump as he reported to face charges by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s grand jury for questioning the integrity of the 2020 election in Georgia, where just 11,779 votes separated Trump and Joe Biden.

Hours before Trump’s scheduled appearance at the Fulton County Jail at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, hundreds of his supporters could be found on the narrow, tree-lined streets in the couple of blocks surrounding the Fulton County government and jail facilities.

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Republican House Members Pledge Support to Fight Human Trafficking Despite Bill Amendment

Peter D'Abrosca

After the Tennessee House of Representatives introduced a new amendment to modify SB 7088, an anti-human trafficking bill, several Republican members pledged their support to fight the practice, which has been described as “modern-day slavery.”

The original text of the Senate bill requires the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) “to submit a report on child and human trafficking crimes and trends in this state, based upon data available to the bureau, as well as current programs and activities of the bureau’s human trafficking unit, to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, and the speaker of the senate by December 1, 2023, and by each December 1 thereafter.”

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Vivek Ramaswamy Breaks His Campaign’s Fundraising Record Day After First GOP Debate

Admin

Conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign said Friday that he set a new fundraising record in the day following the first GOP presidential debate, the Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed Friday.

Ramaswamy first launched his presidential campaign in February in an interview with DCNF co-founder Tucker Carlson, where he pledged to take on America’s “national identity crisis.” The conservative businessman’s campaign said he raised $600,000 Thursday after making his presidential debate debut alongside Republican heavyweights like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, where many argued he won the night.

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Major Auto Union Authorizes Strike for 150,000 Workers

Admin

The United Auto Workers (UAW) union authorized a strike on Friday in negotiations with major automakers, according to the union.

The union voted 97% in favor of a strike for its 150,000 autoworkers as negotiations continue with the Big Three automakers, which include Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, according to a union press release. The union is demanding wage increases to counter inflation, defined benefit pensions, retiree healthcare, the elimination of tiers for wages and benefits among other demands.

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After His Arrest in Georgia Indictment, Disbarment Hearing of Trump’s Attorney John Eastman Resumes

Rachel Alexander

The disbarment trial of former Donald Trump attorney and constitutional scholar John Eastman for his role advising the previous president about challenging the 2020 presidential election resumed on Thursday after almost a two-month break caused by conflicting schedules among the parties. It was scheduled to resume on Tuesday but was postponed for two days due to Eastman’s brief arrest in Georgia as one of the 18 people along with Trump who were indicted for their efforts investigating election fraud after the 2020 election.

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China Secretly Revived Its Elite Scientist Poaching Program to Gain Supremacy in Tech War

Admin

China quietly revived a program in 2020 that aimed to recruit foreign-trained scientists to help the country’s efforts in bolstering its semiconductor manufacturing industry, according to Reuters.

The program, originally named the Thousand Talents Plan, stopped work in 2018 after the U.S. launched investigations into the scientists that were a part of the program, and it was later revived under the name Qiming and overseen by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to Reuters. The U.S. and China are currently in a tech war, with both countries trying to gain an advantage in the strategic semiconductor industry, which is essential for technological research.

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U.S. Turns to Country Notorious for Child Labor and Unsafe Mines to Source Its Electric Vehicle Ambitions

Admin

In order to facilitate electric vehicle (EV) production, the U.S. is seeking to spend taxpayer dollars to develop cobalt supply chains from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country which is known for high prevalence of unsafe child labor in its mines, many of which are controlled by Chinese interests, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Labor (DOL) are jointly committing $23 million in taxpayer funds to U.S. firms and other mining companies to integrate local Congolese operations and “artisanal” mines into their supply chains, as well as to improve labor standards for miners in the DRC, which are essentially non-existent in most cases, according to the WSJ. Chinese-controlled interests dominate the DRC’s cobalt industry, refining about 75% of the global cobalt supply and manufacturing approximately 70% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries, which are cobalt-intensive products that power EVs.

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Masks, Social Distancing and More Are Creeping Back as Election Season Builds

Just the News

With little more than a year until the 2024 elections, the reappearance of some COVID-era protocols has sparked concerns that more widespread measures may be ordered in the months ahead. 

This week, Morris Brown College announced on Instagram that “effective immediately,” several COVID-19 protocols, including a campus-wide mask mandate, had been enacted for at least 14 days despit there having been no confirmed COVID-19 cases on campus recently. The measure, the college says, is instead “due to reports of positive cases among students” at other Atlanta-area schools.

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Electric and Hydrogen Vehicles May Share the Road Within Five Years After New Investments in Michigan

Admin

Michigan’s race to increase the state’s number of Electric Vehicles and other non-gasoline fuel vehicles may have caught its second wind after a new company is seeking to invest in hydrogen storage systems. 

A subsidiary of French automotive supplier, Compagnie Plastic Omnium, is planning to invest up to $171 million at two sites in the state. 

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Group Fights ‘Race-Neutral Proxy’ Admissions in Virginia, Maryland Schools

The Center Square

The Libertarian law group, the Pacific Legal Foundation, is deep into two court cases involving a Virginia high school and several Maryland middle schools and what it calls “race neutral proxies” in their admissions policies. 

In an effort to have more students of all backgrounds, the schools have developed policies that put Asian American students at a disadvantage, the foundation claims. 

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Commentary: The Biden Clan’s Con Is Coming to an End

Admin

Despite years of Biden family and media disinformation, we are finally learning that Joe Biden really did fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin for looking into state corruption involving the oil company Burisma and Hunter Biden—and ultimately Joe Biden himself.

As Vice President, Biden, in his own words, bragged that he had threatened to cancel the deliverance of American foreign aid to Ukraine unless Shokin was dismissed.

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Ohio Attorney General Rejects Petition to Create Citizen-Led Redistricting Commission

Hannah Poling

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost rejected a petition Wednesday that tries to amend the state Constitution by creating a 15-member citizen-appointed panel to draw state legislative and congressional maps, claiming that the language lacks clarity and accuracy.

The amendment, submitted by the Ohio coalition known as Citizens not Politicians, aiming for the November 2024 presidential election, looks to repeal Articles XI and XIX of the Ohio Constitution and introduce Article XX to create a citizen-led redistricting commission and remove that power from the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

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State Representative Announces Arizona Will Not Enforce Taxpayer-Funded Homeless Hotel Plan

Hannah Poling

Arizona State Representative Matt Gress (R-Scottsdale) announced Wednesday that the Arizona Department of Housing will not enforce a provision in its contract with the City of Scottsdale that allows the city to pay for hotels for homeless people.

Scottsdale tried to utilize state funds to pay a hotel along Pima and Indian Bend Roads to house homeless persons from “the zone” in downtown Phoenix and foreign nationals who would have otherwise been kicked out under Title 42, which President Joe Biden allowed to expire in May.

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DeSantis Admin Says Private Schools, Colleges Must Use Bathrooms on Basis of Biological Sex

Admin

The Florida Board of Education (BOE) voted Wednesday to require restrooms in private K-12 schools and state colleges to be used on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

The new rule requires all institutions within the Florida College System to alert the Florida BOE if their bathrooms and locker rooms within instructional spaces and dormitories are separated on the basis of biological sex rather than gender identity, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. If violations of the policy are reported, institutions must have an investigation process that determines disciplinary actions, such as termination, under the rule.

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UW-Milwaukee Tells Students Polyamory Has Many ‘Benefits’ Like Extra Pets, or ‘Petamours’

Admin

The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center recently posted an Instagram infographic regarding one of the “hidden gems” of polyamory: “petamours.”

The post defines “petamours” as “a pet you get to enjoy due to being part of a polyamorous relationship or polycule.” The term is a portmanteau of the words “metamour,” which the Polyamory Dictionary defines as “[someone] that your romantic partner is in such a relationship with, but you are not,” and pet.

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Snapchat Used by Human Smugglers to Ensnare Arizonans in Illegal Immigration Schemes: Justice Department

Tom Pappert

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged more than 20 individuals with using social media to entice Arizonans to participate in illegal human smuggling on Tuesday. The Justice Department highlighted an example of criminals using Snapchat, the multimedia instant messaging app, to promise to pay for Arizonans to help smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona filed 13 indictments containing 22 charges of Conspiracy to Transport Illegal Aliens for Profit against 22 individuals, alleging the smugglers “utilized social media, including Snapchat, to recruit” people in Arizona, before then generally switching to messaging applications like WhatsApp “to coordinate the logistics” of the crimes.

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Osseo Schools Plan to Fly LGBT Pride Flags ‘Indefinitely’

Admin

Osseo Area Schools appears to have approved a proposal to fly an LGBT “pride” flag at all district buildings “indefinitely,” according to an audio recording of a recent school board work session.

Under the district’s existing “LGBTQIA+ History and Culture Resolution,” the school board “invites the community to join in the celebration by raising the LGBTQIA+ Progress Pride flag on June 1st at all district buildings and in the school board room as a symbol of support.”

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Cleveland Browns Owners Endorse State Senator Matt Dolan for U.S. Senate

Hannah Poling

The Cleveland Browns owners on Monday endorsed State Senator Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) in his run for U.S. Senate against U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) in 2024.

The Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam announced their support for Dolan, who owns a stake in another professional sports team, the Cleveland Guardians, saying they have taken on the roles of his Senate campaign’s Statewide Finance Chairs.

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Cochise County Supervisor Sues Arizona Officials over 2022 Election, Requests Decertification or Other Major Remedies

Rachel Alexander

Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby, who attempted to conduct a hand count of ballots during the 2022 election and delayed the certification of election results, filed a lawsuit with another Arizonan, David Mast, against numerous Arizona officials challenging the results of the election. The lawsuit cited lawbreaking regarding signature verification on mail-in ballots, asserting that the violations resulted in “hundreds of thousands of illegal votes in all statewide results for the 2022 General Election.”

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Commentary: Climate Activists Have Exploited Our Children

Admin

A report published in the Washington Times last week, entitled “Young conservatives take climate activism to GOP presidential debate,” undoubtedly is of grave concern to conservatives and the Republican Party. A group of young Republicans called the American Conservation Coalition is warning GOP presidential candidates that they “need to engage on energy and climate or they’re going to lose young voters.”

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Biden Admin Reduces Oil Lease Area to Protect Whales

Admin

The Biden administration issued a final notice Wednesday for the lease of 67 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore energy activity, a figure which represents a 6.4 million acre reduction from the initial proposal, Bloomberg News reported.

The 6.4 million acre reduction amounts to 9% of the initially proposed lease area from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), according to Bloomberg. The reduction follows the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) July decision to settle with environmentalist groups and move to introduce protections for the Rice’s whale species in a nearly 11 million acre swath of the Gulf.

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CBP Data Shows Nationwide Illegal Migrant Encounters Skyrocket Almost 300 Percent Since 2020

Just the News

U.S. Customers and Border Protection’s “nationwide encounters” of illegal migrants have gone up almost 300% since 2020, which was former President Trump’s last fiscal year in office, according to a Just the News review of the latest CBP data.

Nationwide encounters of illegal migrants in FY2022 were 2.7 million, the highest total since FY2020, when nationwide encounters stood at 646,000. 

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Hunter Biden Traveled to at Least 13 Countries with Then-Vice President Father

Admin

New reports suggest that Hunter Biden traveled to as many as 13 different countries with his father Joe Biden while he was vice president during the Obama Administration.

As Fox News reports, video footage, messages, and Secret Service records obtained from Hunter’s abandoned laptop indicate that the two Bidens traveled together to such locations as Africa, Asia, Europe, and Mexico. At the time, Hunter was still leading the firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, which he used to broker many of his international business deals.

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Wall Street Firms That Sold Out to China Are Now Struggling

Admin

Major Wall Street firms that decided to expand their asset management operations into China are struggling to capitalize on the market, according to The Wall Street Journal.

BlackRock, a top U.S. investment company, is one of many American firms that are struggling to compete in the Chinese market, ranking only 145th out of almost 200 Chinese mutual funds, with other firms like Fidelity International and Neuberger Berman ranking even lower, according to the WSJ. Factors contributing to the firm’s woes are a lack of willingness from local companies to utilize American investment banks, a struggling Chinese economy and restrictions from both the U.S. and China.

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