Pentagon Demands $114 Million in Funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives in 2024

The Department of Defense (DOD) formally demanded that it be given another $114 million to fund its next wave of “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) initiatives in the year 2024.

According to Fox News, the Pentagon declared in its Strategic Management Plan for fiscal years 2022 to 2026 that “the FY 2024 President’s Budget request demonstrates the DoD’s commitment to DEIA and includes $114.7 million for dedicated diversity and inclusion activities.”

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Nevada Judge Dismisses ‘Misleading’ Bid to Make Abortion a Constitutional Right

A Nevada judge ruled against a “misleading” petition to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution Wednesday, claiming that it violates the “single subject rule.”

In October, the Coalition for Parents and Children (CPC) PAC filed a lawsuit against a petition by Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom (NRF) to put an amendment on the ballot that protects access to abortion and birth control, and prenatal and postpartum care, according to The Hill. Carson City District Court Judge James Russell said that he was dismissing the petition because it did not focus on just abortion and, therefore, violated the “single subject rule,” according to the ruling.

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University of Tennessee Quietly Renaming its Division of Diversity and Engagement to Dodge State Law

The University of Tennessee (UT) System is reportedly rebranding its Division of Diversity and Engagement in order to “better reflect the division’s mission, as well as move away from some potentially divisive terminology,” according to The Daily Beacon.

The division’s mission, according to its website, is to “actively support, foster and enhance environments of inclusion where the diversity of all faculty, staff, and students are connected to fully engage in fair, respectful, and equitable campus experiences throughout the University of Tennessee community.”

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Commentary: Consumers Can’t Afford the Credit Card Competition Act

The Credit Card Competition Act is great for big-box retailers like Target, but it’s extremely harmful for consumers.

American families are struggling through a cost of living crisis. Many are not saving for the future, they are struggling to stay above the water. Currently, over 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up two percentage points from last year. Some families are struggling to afford basic necessities like gas and groceries.

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Illegal Immigrants Attacked Border Patrol Agents in Arizona While Transporting Children, Tucson Sector Chief Says

A group of illegal immigrants attacked United States Border Patrol agents as they attempted to force their way through a “breach of the border wall,” according to Tucson sector Border Patrol chief John Modlin, who explained that children were present during the attack.

In a post to social media written on Wednesday, the chief wrote that a “group of migrants assaulted Tucson Sector agents while endangering children as they pushed through a breach of the border wall west of Lukeville, AZ.” Modlin wrote the episode “shows how little smugglers care about anyone’s safety, including children’s.”

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Biden Energy Department Ill-Prepared to Combat Fraud as it Spends Billions on Infrastructure

The U.S. Energy Department faces major management challenges ranging from hacking vulnerabilities to foreign espionage and could create “massive new risks to the taxpayer” as it spends tens of billions of dollars in new spending from President Joe Biden’s signature infrastructure initiative, the agency’s internal watchdog warns.

The Office of Inspector General offered a stark assessment of the department under Secretary Jennifer Granholm, pointedly warning losses from fraud in the current infrastructure spending could mirror that seen during the COVID pandemic, where taxpayers now lost an estimated $200 billion government wide.

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Treasury Fines Binance $3.4 Billion for Failure to Report Suspicious Activity by Terrorists

The U.S. Department of Treasury on Tuesday levied a $3.4 billion fine against Binance Holdings, Ltd. in a settlement with the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange for failure to prevent and report suspicious transactions with terrorist organizations.

Binance was accused by the Treasury of failing to implement programs to prevent and report suspicious transactions involving terrorist groups such as Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

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Shelby County Sheriff to Increase Presence in ‘Shopping Areas’ Until Christmas amid Memphis Crime Surge

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office increased its presence in shopping areas on Friday in what the law enforcement body calls Operation Jingle Bells, an effort to deter crime in public spaces during the busy holiday shopping season.

A press release posted to social media explained a “high concentration” of law enforcement will focus on primary shopping areas to “deter car break-ins, shop lifting,” and to keep traffic flowing and parking lots safe for shoppers.

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Analysis: States Are Gearing Up for a School Choice Showdown in 2024

Teacher with classroom of students

School choice is going to be a hot-button issue next year as several states are set to propose legislation expanding education options, while others are gearing up to defend against lawsuits claiming voucher programs are unconstitutional and an “existential threat” to public schools.

School choice advocates passed legislation in Nebraska, Florida, Ohio and other states in 2023, with a major victory in Oklahoma as well after the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved an application for a Catholic online school in June, the first religious charter school in the country. Several states are looking to follow their lead in 2024 and expand education options for parents, while others have become the target of lawsuits by public education advocates, who argue that voucher programs are unconstitutional.

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28 States Didn’t Have Enough Money to Cover Their Bills in Fiscal 2022: Report

In fiscal 2022, 28 states didn’t have enough revenue to pay all of their bills, according to the 14th annual Financial State of the States report, published by the Chicago-based nonprofit Truth in Accounting.

The report provides a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of all 50 states based on the latest available data from states’ fiscal year 2022 annual comprehensive financial reports.

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Independent Audit by Arizona Election Integrity Group Says Hundreds of Provisional Ballots from Republicans Remain Uncounted: ‘Abe Hamadeh Won the Attorney General’s Race’

We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), a leading election integrity group in Arizona, has been looking into ballots that were not counted in Arizona’s 2022 election. Co-founder Shelby Busch issued a video last week revealing that the group found hundreds of instances involving people who said they voted for Abe Hamadeh but their ballots were not counted, more than the 280 votes he lost the attorney general’s race by. However, Busch told The Arizona Sun Times that the courts refuse to consider the new evidence.

Busch said in the video, “Abe Hamadeh won the attorney general’s race. I’m going to outline for you the evidence behind how Kris Mayes was installed as the illegitimate attorney general. … Our evidence in Abe’s case shows that thousands of Arizona voters were disenfranchised on Election Day in violation of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, and Katie Hobbs, the secretary of state and the counties know about these voters and have done nothing to correct it.”

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Commentary: The ‘Complexity’ of Idiocy

Often, yours truly has expounded (okay, ranted) upon the term “narrative,” which is just an artful euphemism for “lie.” A device drawn from fiction, as opposed to non-fiction, it facilitates lying by eliding the need for providing the facts and proving the truth of one’s assertions. Consequently, it is a boon to propagandists, who can harp on a “narrative” ad nauseum to provoke and persuade the public to do as the purveyor of the lie seeks.

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Ohio House Moves Closer to Pushing Aside Federal Gun Laws

Ohio gun owners moved a step closer to guarantees that federal laws could not be used to take away those guns.

The Ohio House Government Oversight Committee recently advanced the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which would stop Ohio law enforcement agencies from enforcing what the act calls unconstitutional federal gun control laws, executive orders or agency rule interpretations.

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Governor Hints GOP Will Revive Democrat-Thwarted Legislation, Target Fentanyl Dealers with Murder Charges

Governor Glenn Youngkin indicated to local media on Friday that Virginia Republicans will reintroduce a bill to charge fentanyl dealers and distributors with murder if their drugs result in a lethal overdose. Virginia Democrats successfully defeated the legislation in February.

Youngkin told 7 News on Friday, “if you’re a drug dealer and you do drugs and someone dies, you should be charged with felony homicide.” He stressed to the outlet, “[w]e cannot coddle drug dealers.”

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Personal Property Taxes Punctuate Virginians’ Holiday Celebrations

As the holidays approach, so does another, less joyful event for some Virginia localities: Personal property tax deadlines. 

All states impose real estate property taxes on their residents, but not all states levy taxes on other forms of property, like motor vehicles, boats, planes or mobile homes. WalletHub released a study in February showing that of the 26 states with vehicle property taxes, Virginia has the highest tax rate, hovering, on average, around 3.96 percent.

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Arizona U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs Demands Answers on Invasive Surveillance Program Said to Be Tapping Into Trillions of Private Communications

U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) wants answers from the Biden administration about a spying program targeting Americans’ domestic communications.

Biggs this week sent a letter to Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) after details emerged about the so-called Hemisphere Project.

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Blue State Residents Are Paying Much More for Energy than Red States, New Report Shows

Residents of blue states with aggressive climate policies are paying significantly more for electricity and fuel than red states, according to a new report by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York and New Jersey are seven of the top eight continental states in terms of highest average retail electricity prices in 2023, according to ALEC’s report. Each of these states have some sort of green energy mandate, which the ALEC report refers to as a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), or participates in a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program, or both.

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Dem Presidential Candidate Dean Phillips: ‘It’s Delusional’ to Think Biden Can Beat Trump

Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota said in a tweet Saturday that claims that President Joe Biden could defeat former President Donald Trump were “delusional.”

Phillips cited Biden’s declining poll numbers, sharing a report by Politico in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Saturday morning. Trump led Biden in polls by NBC News, Quinnipiac, Fox News and Morning Consult.

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Commentary: Mitt Romney and Joe Manchin Are Wrong About Ranked-Choice Voting

U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Mitt Romney recently praised Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV), lauding it respectively as “mesmerizing…we should do it” and “a superior way to proceed.” But the two lawmakers are wrong.

Their statements might ring true if they understood they are endorsing a system that encourages fringe candidates and skews election outcomes.

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Millions of Americans’ Phone Records Secretly Surveilled by Shadowy ‘Data Analytical Services’ Program: Report

Man using a cell phone

Millions of Americans who use AT&T’s phone network are having their phone calls monitored by a surveillance program called Data Analytical Services (DAS), which has had coordination with federal and local law enforcement agencies.

According to a document obtained by WIRED, DAS has been secretly collecting and analyzing over one trillion domestic phone records within the U.S. each year.

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