Month: November 2023

Arizona’s Largest School District Shows Kids How to Hide Gender Transition from Parents: Lawsuit

Just the News

Arizona’s largest school district is flouting state law and its own governing board by covertly instructing students how to assert a different gender identity at school without their parents knowing and hiding evidence of its misdeeds, according to an outspoken member of the board.

Former President Trump aide Stephen Miller’s America First Legal is representing Rachel Walden in her Maricopa County Superior Court lawsuit against Mesa Public Schools and Superintendent Andi Fourlis, which alleges they schemed to circumvent the Arizona Parents’ Bill of Rights after the community learned it was blocking parental notification.

Read the full story

Commentary: Making Climate Change a Republican Issue in 2024

Admin

Out of sheer perversity, I follow stories in the Washington Post related to weather. It matters not what the weather brings, the cause is global warming (or climate change depending on the temperature of the disaster). Having a flood? Global warming. Got a heavy snow or ice storm? Climate change. They haven’t yet figured out how to blame earthquakes on global warming, but the mainstream media will probably find a cause and effect relationship somehow.

Read the full story

Massachusetts Court Released Illegal Immigrant Charged with Assault, Rape

Admin

A court in Massachusetts released an illegal immigrant charged with assault, battery and rape, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Monday.

ICE nabbed the 35-year-old Guatemalan national in Lynn, Massachusetts, on Nov. 21 after local police had arrested him on Nov. 15 and the Lynn District Court defied a federal detainer on the accused by releasing him from custody, the agency said. Border Patrol had arrested the Guatemalan man twice in 2006 for illegally entering the country before he chose to be voluntarily removed to Mexico.

Read the full story

Illinois Sheriff Says Trans Woman Who Threatened to Shoot School Children Repeatedly Referenced Covenant Killer

M.D. Kittle

The 47-year-old transgender woman charged with multiple felony counts of threatening to shoot and rape school children seemed to draw inspiration from Nashville’s Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, according to the Illinois sheriff involved in the arrest.

An earlier report suggests the school shooting threats were a call to action to the transgender community.

Read the full story

Hunter Biden Agrees to Testify Before House Oversight Committee, His Attorneys Say

Just the News

Hunter Biden’s attorneys informed the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that the first son is willing to testify on December 13 as part of the Republican-led probe into his business dealings, according to a letter published Tuesday. 

“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public. We therefore propose opening the door,” his attorneys wrote in the letter, according to CNN.

Read the full story

State Senator Heidi Campbell’s Private School Past, Recent Support Unveiled After She Accused School Choice Activist Corey DeAngelis of ‘Dumbing Down’ Voters

Tom Pappert

Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) condemned school choice initiatives for “dumbing down” voters, but previously admitted to attending a private school, and was on the board of a private Montessori early childhood school that boasts a waiting list.

Campbell made the remarks on social media following an interaction with school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis, who questioned the lawmaker’s claim that the school choice legislation reportedly promoted by Governor Bill Lee “will destroy public [education] and raise your taxes.” Lee’s plan will reportedly allow some students whose families are 200 percent below the poverty line in Tennessee to attend a school of their choice, redirecting tax dollars in the process.

Read the full story

Memphis Judge Releases Suspect in Thanksgiving Murder of 15-Year-Old with Zero Bond

Tom Pappert

An 18-year-old man accused of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old on Thanksgiving was released from a Shelby County jail on his own recognizance Monday, forfeiting zero bond despite allegedly confessing to his role in the crime.

Police said Edio White admitted to driving his co-defendant Conner Tucker, 15, to the Binghampton home of Anthony Mason on November 23, under the guise of Tucker trading firearms with Mason, News Channel 3 reported. When the two teens arrived at Mason’s home, police said Tucker exited the vehicle and shot Mason once in the head, killing him.

Read the full story

Attorneys: Threats of School Shootings by Alleged Covenant Killer Wannabe Heighten Need for Release of Manifesto

M.D. Kittle
Dan Lennington, Deputy Counsel WILL

Recently filed charges against a transgender woman who threatened mass school shootings a la the Covenant Killer only heightens the urgency of releasing Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, according to attorneys in nationally watched public records battles.

“In school shootings in the past, an enormous amount of information has been released in order to help first responders and teachers and school officials protect themselves,” said Dan Lennington, deputy counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL)

Read the full story

Biden Administration Gave Loan of $3 Billion to Solar Company Facing Scamming Accusations

Admin

The Biden Administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a loan of $3 billion to a solar company that has been accused of scamming elderly customers, including customers with dementia.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the scam by the company Sunnova Energy involved forcing elderly and dementia-afflicted customers into signing five-figure, multi-decade solar panel leases on their deathbeds. One such account was given by Texas resident Terry Blythe, who said that her 86-year-old father had been convinced by a door-to-door salesman for the company to sign a 25-year solar panel lease back in 2020. Upon her father’s death earlier this year, Blythe was stuck with the $34,000 contract herself.

Read the full story

Lawmaker Demands Air Force Justify Threatening Troops’ Careers for Attending Conservative ‘Turning Point’ Rally

Admin

Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana is pressuring the Air Force to conduct an investigation of text messages warning against attending a conservative rally, according to a letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A master sergeant at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota urged leaders to caution their troops about the potential for violence aimed at military members at a conservative rally or participating in the featured political advocacy group in leaked text messages on November 17, Fox News first reported. Banks, who chairs the House Armed Services military personnel subcommittee and heads the chamber’s Anti-Woke Caucus, said the texts from an unidentified leader defamed a conservative organization and interfered in an Airman’s right to free assembly and the political process, the letter stated.

Read the full story

Democratic Fundraiser ActBlue Processing Donations for Illegal Immigrant Bail Fund

Just the News

The Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue is processing donations for a bail fund to bail out black illegal immigrants, according to the fund’s donation website.

The Black Immigrants Bail Fund is a project of the Haitian Bridge Alliance and the African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs, and donations are processed by ActBlue, per the donation page.

Read the full story

Election Officials Plan Ways to Count Votes Faster in 2024

Admin

Election officials throughout the country are allegedly planning methods for counting the votes faster in 2024 than they did in 2020, where many days of delay led to confusion, chaos, and credible widespread accusations of voter fraud.

According to Politico, several of the handful of key swing states have passed laws to implement methods for quicker counting and tabulation of the votes. Secretaries of state in those same states are also taking a more active role in overseeing the elections.

Read the full story

Tucson Border Patrol Chief Stops Social Media Posts: ‘Unprecedented Flow’ of Migrants Needs ‘All Available Personnel’

Tom Pappert
Chief Patrol Agent John Modlin

The U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector paused most of its social media presence on Sunday, with Chief Patrol Agent John R. Modlin posting the policy change to social media on Sunday.

In posts that have since been deleted from X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Modlin wrote that his agents would no longer be posting updates to social media. In one post that remains, Modlin wrote that “all Tucson Sector Border Patrol social media accounts will be temporarily reduced to maximize our available staffing,” attributing the change to “the ongoing migration surge.” He added, “[t]he social media team will return once the situation permits.”

Read the full story

Georgia Supreme Court Pauses Commission Created to Check Prosecutors, Stalling Senate Effort to Rein in Fani Willis

Tom Pappert
Georgia Supreme Court

The Georgia Supreme Court refused to accept the proposed rules for the state’s new Prosecuting Attorneys Qualification Commission (PAQC) in a ruling made Wednesday, effectively pausing the Republican effort to provide oversight for the state’s attorneys.

Georgia lawmakers passed SB 92 last year, creating the PAQC to provide oversight of elected district attorneys across the state. While independent, the legislation requires the Georgia Supreme Court to accept the PAQC’s draft standards and rules before the committee can enforce its decisions.

Read the full story

YoungkinWatch: Virginia Health Agency Cuts Deputy Commissioner in Push for Youngkin’s ‘Right Help, Right Now’ Program

Tom Pappert

Commissioner Nelson Smith, who was selected by Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) to oversee the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, announced in November that a deputy commissioner’s position is being eliminated from the agency in a bid for the agency to meet to the governor’s expectations.

Nelson told employees across the agency’s departments at some point in November that the position of deputy commissioner for administrative services was being eliminated as part of a broadcer reorganization effort, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The job cut will apparently help the agency enact Youngkin’s Right Help, Right Now reforms, which the governor stated will help those suffering from mental health crises in Virginia.

Read the full story

Georgia Report Suggests Steps Congress Should Take to SNAP ‘Benefits Cliffs’

The Center Square
Tennessee Star

Design flaws in the federal food stamp program hinder recipients’ upward economic mobility and effectively force them into governmental dependency.

That’s the upshot of a new Georgia Center for Opportunity report exploring possible solutions for addressing the benefits cliffs in safety-net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Read the full story

Analysis: Consumer Prices Up 6.1 Percent Since April 2021 a Personal Income Falls Behind

Admin

by Robert Romano   The U.S. economy has been on a rollercoaster ever since the COVID pandemic of 2020, first with high unemployment and near deflationary levels as the global economy was locked down, followed by a deluge of government spending, borrowing and printing almost $7 trillion, followed by inflation that has largely outstripped incomes. The last of the COVID transfer payments, which contributed substantially to the inflation — what Milton Friedman dubbed “helicopter money” — went out in March 2021, and so the question is how have the American people been faring since? Nominal personal income has increased at an average, annual rate of 4.4 percent, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the meantime, the Consumer Price Index has increased at an average annual rate of 6.1 percent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis defines personal income as “The income that persons receive in return for their provision of labor, land, and capital used in current production, plus current transfer receipts less contributions for government social insurance (domestic).” That’s slightly confusing, and so the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank defines personal income it as “the income that persons receive in return for their provision of labor,…

Read the full story

Northern Virginia’s Stafford County Public Schools Includes ‘Palestine’ While Excluding Israel in Multicultural Fair

The Center Square
'Palestine' poster at Stafford County Public School Multicultural Fair

A Northern Virginia middle school chose “Palestine” as their country to represent as part of a school district-wide multicultural fair, omitting any recognition of the State of Israel – including maps.

The fair was recently presented by the Stafford County Public Schools “to empower multicultural awareness” for students and the community. All 33 schools in the district participated, with nearly 1,000 in attendance. Schools “were able to choose the country they wanted to represent,” according to the school district.

Read the full story

Election Officials in Biden’s Delaware Rarely Investigate Campaign Finance Violations, Investigation Finds

Admin

Delaware election officials rarely utilize their basic investigative authorities, only releasing a handful of opinions over the past decade and a half, according to the Delaware News Journal.

The Delaware Department of Elections said it had “no records” of investigative probes carried out using the authority delegated to it to “investigate information coming to the attention of the [election] commissioner that, if true, would constitute a violation” of state campaign finance law, the Delaware News Journal reported. The Department of Elections has only released seven advisory opinions in the past 15 years.

Read the full story

Critics: Proposal Would Harm Small Farms, Drive Up Consumer Prices

The Center Square

North Carolina’s small farmers will be challenged, and may need to sell their land to larger corporations, congressmen say.

Attorneys general, nearly two dozen of them, also are against a proposed Department of Labor rule for farm workers in the H-2A program they say gives “unionization protections” and places “the interests of foreign nationals over the interests of United States citizens.” Julie Su, the interim secretary of the department, says empowering the workers and ensuring fair treatment are the goals of the initiative, the third in less than a year.

Read the full story

Commentary: The High Price of Gaslighting Americans on Bidenomics’ ‘Success’

Admin

Anyone still wondering why voters trust former President Trump more than President Biden on the economy should read what the White House posted on X about inflation last week: “Ahead of the holiday season, costs are down for everything from airline tickets and car rentals to toys and TVs.” Biden and his underlings continue to believe public disapproval of his disastrous economic performance can be improved with happy talk and cherry picked statistics. It assumes Americans can’t remember how much less the cost of living was when Biden was elected.

Read the full story

Retailers Brace for Slow Holiday Season as Inflation Bites

Admin

Consumers are expected to cut back on discretionary spending this holiday season, hurting retailers, amid persistent inflation and declining savings, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The National Retail Federation anticipates consumer spending to rise around 3% to 4% in November and December, not including inflation, compared to a 5.4% increase that was observed in 2022 and a 5.4% gain in 2021 during the same time frame, according to the WSJ. In an effort to increase sales, many retailers are giving deeper discounts to lure consumers who may be apprehensive about buying products they don’t need, looking to boost their sales on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the last two weeks of December, when holiday deals typically occur.

Read the full story

Businesses Ditch Diversity, Equity and Inclusion amid Economic Uncertainty

Admin

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives lost steam in 2023 compared to previous years as companies increasingly shift resources due to tightening economic conditions, according to Paradigm Consulting Group. Paradigm designs and helps firms implement DEI programs.

The total percentage of American organizations with a DEI budget dropped 4 percentage points, from 58 percent in 2022 to 54 percent in 2023, while the number of organizations with a DEI strategy fell 9 points in that same time frame, according to a report from consulting firm Paradigm. DEI initiatives in the workplace gained huge traction following the death of George Floyd, which encouraged companies to divert resources to the practice, but now “external forces,” including tightening economic conditions as well as public and judicial pressure, are pushing back on those efforts.

Read the full story

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

Admin

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.”

Read the full story

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

Admin

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.

Read the full story

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

Kaitlin Housler

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.”

Read the full story

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

Admin

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.

Read the full story

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

Tom Pappert

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.”

Read the full story

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

Just the News

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.

Read the full story

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

The Center Square

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).

Read the full story

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

Tom Pappert

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.

Read the full story

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

Admin
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.

Read the full story

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

The Center Square

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.

Read the full story

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

Rachel Alexander

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.”

Read the full story

Commentary: The ‘Complexity’ of Idiocy

Admin

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.

Read the full story

Ohio House Moves Closer to Pushing Aside Federal Gun Laws

The Center Square

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.

Read the full story

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

Tom Pappert

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.”

Read the full story

Personal Property Taxes Punctuate Virginians’ Holiday Celebrations

The Center Square

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.

Read the full story

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

M.D. Kittle

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.

Read the full story

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

Admin

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.

Read the full story

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

Admin

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.

Read the full story

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

Admin

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.

Read the full story