Day: September 28, 2023

Biden Evokes McCain’s Memory as He Warns of Trump’s ‘Threat to Democracy’

Admin

Politico President Joe Biden on Thursday declared that America must overcome new tests to its democracy, delivering his clearest warnings yet about what he believes is at stake in his coming reelection campaign against the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Biden selected Arizona — a state where the former president attempted to challenge the 2020 election results and considered a major battleground again next year — as the setting for his fourth major speech on protecting democracy. It is also home to the late Sen. John McCain, who Biden has pointed to as an example of what the Republican Party used to stand for before Trump was elected. Biden centered his speech around McCain’s legacy to make the case that preserving American institutions should not be a partisan issue. The president is fond of saying that McCain, a vocal Trump critic who died in 2018, would put patriotism before party — and he expressed concern that too many members of the senator’s Republican Party would instead pledge their loyalty to Trump over the Constitution. READ THE FULL STORY    

Read the full story

Comer at First Impeachment Hearing: Biden’s Home Listed as ‘Beneficiary Address’ for Hunter Payment

Just the News

The first impeachment inquiry hearing of President Joe Biden is underway on Thursday in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

During the hearing, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said Biden “abused” his public office for his “family’s financial gain.” Comer said for years Biden has “lied” to the American people about not speaking to his family about foreign business dealings.

Read the full story

Second GOP Presidential Debate Turns Into a Rhetorical Brawl as Candidates Jockey for Position in Trump-Dominated Race

M.D. Kittle

In a second GOP presidential debate that often seemed more like a disorderly reality TV show, the Babylon Bee’s satirical news headline may have best captured the mood of viewers: ‘Mute Button’ Wins GOP Debate.

The seven Republican candidates on stage at Wednesday evening’s gladiator match in Simi Valley’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Library shouted and talked over each other and slung more mud than an Iowa hog farm.

Read the full story

Rep. Mark Green’s Hunting Education Bill Passes House with Bipartisan Support

Hannah Poling

Tennessee U.S. Congressman Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced on Tuesday that his Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act passed the House with bipartisan support to keep hunting and archery programs in U.S. schools.

This follows the Biden administration recently announced its plan to withhold funding from schools that provide these programs, claiming that under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) passed last year, school hunting and archery classes are precluded from receiving federal funding.

Read the full story

Senator Marsha Blackburn Pushes to Support U.S. Education Cooperation with Taiwan over China

Hannah Poling

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is leading a bipartisan effort to push U.S. colleges and universities to support the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative as an alternative to China’s Confucius Institutes.

Blackburn along with U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a Senate Resolution on Tuesday, to signal that the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative is supported on a bipartisan basis as a censorship-free alternative to Confucius Institutes.

Read the full story

Federal Emergency Relief Funds Made Available to Offset Repair Costs on Roads in Cherokee National Forest

Kaitlin Housler

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently announced the immediate availability of $4.65 million in emergency relief funds to offset the costs of repairing road damage in the Cherokee National Forest due to flooding last month.

“These emergency funds will help restore vital transportation links in the Cherokee National Forest that were damaged by last month’s floods,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Transportation is an essential part of disaster recovery, and these funds will help clear debris and reconstruct pavement so that emergency vehicles can access the area, and residents can access their homes.”

Read the full story

TikTok Employees Raise Concern over CCP Influence as China Execs Move In

Admin

Some employees at the popular social media platform TikTok are concerned about the influence the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has on the company as executives from its parent, ByteDance, take on new positions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A number of high-level executives from ByteDance in China have taken on new roles at TikTok’s U.S. operation, with employees complaining internally that there may be greater CCP influence than what is being publicly disclosed, according to the WSJ. The China-based ByteDance is subject to CCP regulation and can be pressured by the government to hand over information that the company has collected, which has in the past raised concerns over whether American users of the app are having their data collected by the foreign government.

Read the full story

Number of Illegal Migrants in Border Patrol Custody Surges to New High

Admin

The number of illegal migrants in Border Patrol custody nationwide surpassed 22,000 on Tuesday evening, according to internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Border Patrol across all sectors had almost 17,000 illegal migrants in custody on the evening of August 10 compared to 7,696 on the evening of June 8, according to internal CBP data previously obtained by the DCNF. Additionally, there were 8,923 migrant encounters by CBP on Monday and 7,730 illegal migrants released into the country, according to the new data.

Read the full story

Federal Government Bypasses Tennessee State Government, Will Give Millions in Title X Funding Directly to Planned Parenthood

Peter D'Abrosca

In a move that drew criticism from Tennessee’s governor, the federal government plans to bypass the state’s health department and directly fund Planned Parenthood.

After the Human Life Protection Act took effect in August of 2022, ending the practice of abortion in Tennessee, Tennessee was denied Title X funding from the federal government.  

Read the full story

Michigan Gives Ford Site Another $65 Million a Day After Pausing Construction

The Center Square

A day after Ford Motor Co. said it would pause construction on its $3.5 billion Marshall electric vehicle battery plant subsidized by $1.7 billion, the state of Michigan allocated the site another $65 million.

The Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $65 million Strategic Site Readiness Program Grant to the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance for land acquisition, site studies and water and wastewater upgrades.

Read the full story

Shuttered: Democratic Cam-Girl’s Poll Numbers Flatline

Neil W. McCabe

The Democratic House of Delegates candidate and former cam-girl running to represent the 57th District, which includes Henrico County outside of Richmond, facing Republican David Owen, saw her poll numbers collapse after voters learned she posted sex videos online.

“Susanna Gibson is now viewed very unfavorably by voters, 27 percent favorable and 45 percent unfavorable, and is upside down with most demographic groups,” according to the memorandum accompanying the poll of 325 likely general election voters conducted Sept. 19 through Sept. 21 by the polling and predictive analytics firm Cygnal. The poll carries a 5.41 percentage point margin of error.

Read the full story

Report: Jacksonville Uses Green Infrastructure to Combat Flooding

The Center Square

A recent report from Florida TaxWatch proposes new measures to help combat storm water runoff and reduce flooding through the use of green infrastructure.

Over the past few years, the Sunshine State has had its fair share of severe storms, as recently as August, when Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the Big Bend region of the state, causing widespread flooding to coastal towns.

Read the full story

Anti-Trump Lawyer Slams ‘Unnecessary’ and ‘Partisan’ Indictments from Fani Willis

Tom Pappert

A lawyer and author renowned for his critiques of former President Donald Trump publicly criticized Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her case against the former president, calling it “unnecessary” and “partisan” in a podcast appearance on Tuesday.

Elie Honig, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney for the Southern District of New York, questioned whether Willis’s charges serve “the greater good” or “promote public confidence in the fairness” of the cases against Trump on the “CAFE Insider” podcast.

Read the full story

Ohio Senate GOP Launches Podcast to Push Back Against Media ‘Left-Wing Bias’

Hannah Poling

The Ohio Senate GOP on Tuesday pushed back against the media’s “left-wing bias” by launching its own weekly podcast with State Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima).

According to Ohio Senate GOP director of communications John Fortney, Ohio’s main newspapers have an extreme left-wing bias, and their editorials attack Republicans in the General Assembly and read like Democratic Party press releases.

Read the full story

Arizona Secretary of State Blames ‘MAGA Fascist Types’ Who ‘Want Our Systems to Crumble’ for High Election Official Turnover

Tom Pappert

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) blamed “MAGA fascist types” for the high turnover rate of the state’s election officials since 2020, claiming those who support former President Donald Trump “want our systems to crumble” during an interview with KTAR News 92.3 on Wednesday.

Responding to a new report from nonpartisan nonprofit group Issue One, which revealed that 80 percent of Arizona counties have hired new chief election officials since 2020, Fontes blamed Republicans for the high turnover.

Read the full story

Arizona State Representative Opposes Mesa Hotel Purchase for Homeless

The Center Square

Arizona state Rep. Barbara Parker, R-Mesa, is opposing the city of Mesa’s plan to buy a hotel and use it for the homeless, a growing trend in the state.

Mesa is eyeing the purchase of the Grand Hotel on 6733 E. Main Street, in order to use the 70-room building for it’s “temporary housing program” known as Off the Streets, according to the city website.

Read the full story

America First Legal Asks Education Department to Investigate Alleged Georgia Tech Discrimination Against Men

Tom Pappert

Conservative litigation group America First Legal (AFL) asked for a federal investigation into the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech, over alleged discrimination against men in its new Rising Stars program that only accepts students who are biologically female, identify as female, or do not identify as any gender, in a letter sent Tuesday.

AFL alleges Georgia Tech is violating Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972, which prohibits gender-based exclusion in “any education program or activity receiving federal Federal financial assistance,” and sent a letter to the Department of Education asking it launch an investigation based on the legal group’s evidence.

Read the full story

AGs Ask Supreme Court to Overrule Restrictions on Enforcing Homeless Camping Bans

The Center Square

A group of 20 attorneys general want the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a lower court’s restrictions on local governments enforcing homeless camping bans.

In their petition regarding Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, the attorneys general wrote that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong to prohibit state and local governments from enforcing laws that bar public spaces from being used as homeless encampments.

Read the full story

DHS Stonewalls on Legal Basis for Policing ‘Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation’

Just the News

The Department of Homeland Security is not only hiding the purported legal basis for its authority to police misinformation, disinformation and malinformation – the latter sometimes jeered as “true but inconvenient” – but also any explanation for invoking an unexpected Freedom of Information Act exemption to hide them.

Hastily stitched together 22 years ago to prevent another Islamic terrorist attack but since turning its sights on domestic political disputes, the agency gave Just the News a lengthy defense of its work against disinformation but not an answer to how disclosure of its “MDM Space” legal authorities would imperil law enforcement work.

Read the full story

Report: Dr. Fauci ‘Played a Role’ in the CIA’s Cover-Up of COVID-19 Lab-Leak Origins

Admin

During the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci was secretly “escorted” to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., where he worked to “influence” the agency’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19, according to new information gathered by the Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the chairman of the Coronavirus Committee, revealed this “concerning information” in a letter to Inspector General Christi Grimm of the ​​Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday. According to Wenstrup,  Fauci’s off-the-books visit suggests he “played a role” in the CIA’s sham review into the origins of COVID-19. Fauci at the time was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the the White House chief medical adviser under then-President Donald Trump.

Read the full story

FBI Refuses to Release Documents in Probe into Possible Nationwide Voter Registration Fraud

Just the News

The FBI took over a 2020 probe into voter registration fraud that began in Michigan but has denied a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the investigation, citing an exemption in that law regarding ongoing investigations.

According to the dozens of pages of police reports from the Muskegon Police Department and Michigan State Police, a firm called GBI Strategies was under scrutiny as an organization central to alleged voter registration fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The matter was initially investigated by city and state authorities before the FBI took over. 

Read the full story