Biden Admin Spent $20 Billion for Refugee Resettlement in Just Two Years

Refugees

The Biden administration has poured billions of taxpayer dollars into the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) since October 2022, according to a new report from Open the Books.

The Biden administration spent $8.925 billion in fiscal year 2022 and $10.928 billion in fiscal year 2023 on the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at ORR to accommodate, transport, and provide migrants with various other services like medical care and loans, according to the report, which was released Tuesday. In recent months, HHS has faced scrutiny for ORR’s alleged mishandling of cases of unaccompanied migrant children, some of whom have been released to poorly vetted sponsors where they are used for child labor, according to The New York Times.

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Biden Admin Allowed More than 3 Million Migrants into U.S. in 2023

Illegal Immigrants

There were 3.3 million people who came to the U.S. illegally, were released into the country via parole or overstayed their permission to remain in the country in fiscal year 2023, according to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The number includes 1.1 million who were released by federal authorities after entering illegally, 900,000 who were released at ports of entry, 860,000 who are known to have evaded arrest and 430,000 who overstayed their temporary residency in the country, according to the report. Federal authorities at the southern border recorded more than 2.4 million encounters in fiscal year 2023, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

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Leahy and Brewer Discuss Gov. Bill Lee’s Absence from GOP Governors Letter Demanding Biden Drop EV Mandates

EVs charging

All-star panelist Clint Brewer joined Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy where he discussed the reasoning behind Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s exclusion from a letter sent by Republican governors to President Joe Biden in regards to his administration’s “mandates” electric vehicle (EVs) mandates.

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Tennessee U.S. Senate Candidate Gloria Johnson Was Only Lawmaker to Vote Against Giving Death Penalty to Child Rapists

Gloria Johnson

U.S. Senate Candidate Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) on Tuesday was the only member of the Tennessee State House Criminal Justice Subcommittee to vote against legislation that would allow prosecutors to pursue a death penalty sentence for convicted child rapists.

After an exchange with Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland) over his bill, HB 1663, which amends existing law to authorize “the death penalty as a punishment for rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, or especially aggravated rape of a child,” Johnson quietly voted against the legislation and was seen on video verifying her “no” vote would be recorded by making a thumbs down gesture.

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Fulton County Commissioner Demands Answers from Fani Willis over Alleged Affair as Georgia State Senator Files Legislation to Investigate

Willis Ellis

Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis, in his capacity as the chair of the Fulton County Audit Committee, sent a letter on Monday demanding answers from District Attorney Fani Willis over her alleged affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she appointed to prosecute her case against former President Donald Trump and has compensated more than $650,000 in taxpayer dollars.

Ellis wrote in his letter to Willis that he “must reasonably inquire” about the allegations she “misused county funds and accepted valuable gifts and personal benefits from a contractor/recipient of County funds.”

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Minnesota Supreme Court to Hear Challenge of New Felon Voting Law

Inmate

The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear a challenge to a new law that automatically restores voting rights to people convicted of a felony who are still on parole, probation, or supervised release in the state.

On March 3, 2023, Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed House File 28 into law. Previously in Minnesota, the state restored voting rights to people convicted of a felony after they completed all aspects of their sentence, including parole or probation. The new law restored voting rights to these individuals upon completion of incarceration, regardless of other conditions of their sentence.

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Virginia State Senate Unanimously Passes Bill to Ban Universities from Giving ‘Special Treatment’ to Legacy Admissions

College Students

The Virginia Senate unanimously passed on Tuesday a bill that would ban colleges and universities in the state from giving preferential treatment or consideration to legacy admissions, which are typically the family members of graduates.

Passed with 39 votes in favor and one senator not voting, the summary for SB 46 reveals the lawmakers voted to prohibit “any public institution of higher education from providing any manner of preferential treatment in the admissions decision to any student application on the basis of such student’s legacy status,” which the bill defines as those students with a familial connection to either an alumnus or a donor.

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Florida Bill Would Give Ex-Convicts Better Shot at Employment

Fork Lift

Ex-offenders in Florida could have an easier time gaining work licenses, permits and other certifications after a new bill passed through committee on Monday.

Senate Bill 1012 is sponsored by state Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami and would assist ex-offenders in getting a license, permit, or certification for employment. Calatayud stated during the bill’s introduction to the Senate Committee on Regulated Industries that the bill protects individuals who happen to have a criminal history from being “blanket denied” by agencies.

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Report: Wisconsin Choice Schools Score Better in Reading, Math

School Work

The latest report on school choice in Wisconsin again shows choice schools outperform public schools in Milwaukee’s biggest cities and rural areas.

The Apples to Apples report from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty compares proficiency rates in math and English language arts in public schools, charter schools and private schools part of Wisconsin’s voucher program.

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Audio Recording: AZGOP Chair Jeff DeWit Allegedly Attempted to Offer Money to Kari Lake to Stay Out of Politics

Dewit Lake

The Daily Mail released an audio recording of Arizona Republican Party Chair Jeff DeWit allegedly trying to convince Kari Lake to stay out of politics for two years by suggesting he could find her a well-paying nonpolitical job in the private sector. He said during the call, which was reportedly recorded at the beginning of March last year, “So the ask I got today from back East was, ‘Is there any companies out there or something that could just put her on the payroll to keep her out?’”

Lake responded and declined, ”’This is about defeating Trump and I think that’s a bad, bad thing for our country.” Later, he brought it up again, “Just say, is there a number at which….” he began. Lake cut in, “I can be bought? That’s what it’s about.” DeWit responded, “You can take a pause for a couple of years. You can go right back to what you’re doing.” She continued to object, “This is not about money, it’s about our country,” and said she wouldn’t even take a billion dollars. She said she would not be “bought,” calling it “immoral.” 

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Commentary: Ruling Class Disturbance

WEF

The last few months have been interesting. We have started to see some very public disagreements among the world’s ruling classes. The gathering of elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has long fascinated observers and become a lightning rod for criticism, becoming a bogeyman of the right, as well as the hardcore, anticapitalist left. It is a front-row seat to the thinking and priorities of the world’s most powerful people.

In Davos, the world’s media, academic, political, and financial elites spend a few days in luxurious surroundings, praising themselves and forming a consensus on solutions to what they deem to be the problems of the world. This includes everything from facilitating mass migration, tackling global warming by moving away from fossil fuel energy, and the need for economic redistribution to the poor and the third world, all through the corporatist idea of “stakeholder capitalism.”

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Chinese Man Illegally in the U.S. Indicted on 309 Felony Charges in Ohio for Role in Gift Card Counterfeiting Scheme

Gift Cards

A Chinese man who entered the U.S. illegally has been indicted by a Coshocton County grand jury on 309 felony charges related to a gift card counterfeiting scheme, according to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office.

Ming Xue, 32, of Hunan, Fujian – a province on the southeastern coast of China – faces 308 counts of counterfeiting and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, according to Yost’s office.

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Republicans Now Have Most Registered Voters in Arizona as Democrats Lose Nearly 60,000

Voter Registration

A plurality of Arizona voters are now registered Republican, becoming the dominant political structure in the state and reversing a previous trend that saw the majority of Arizona voters registered independent.

Data published by the Arizona Secretary of State for January shows 34.58 percent of the state’s voters are now registered Republican, followed by 34.38 percent who are registered “Other” or independent, and 29.55 percent who are registered Democrats.

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Concerns Arise over Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer Using Taxpayer Funds to Feature Himself in Election Year Ad Campaign

Stephen Richer

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer launched a taxpayer-funded ad campaign about voting featuring himself earlier this month.

The ads discuss the county’s voter dashboard, beballotready.vote, and assert that his office will clean up voter rolls. The ads were placed on broadcast TV, radio, and YouTube — including during conservative podcasts — Facebook, X, Instagram, and Reddit.

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal from Former Hunter Biden Business Partner Devon Archer

The Supreme Court rejected former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer’s appeal of his criminal conviction in connection to a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe. 

Archer was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to just over a year in prison in 2022 for defrauding a Native American tribe of $60 million in bonds. The Supreme Court refused to hear Archer’s appeal challenging his sentence on Monday.

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Obama, Bush and Clinton Have Started an NGO to Fly Migrants into America

Obama Bush Clinton

American Express Global Business Travel and Welcome.US have reportedly teamed up with former Presidents Obama, Clinton and George W. Bush’s nongovernmental organization (NGO) called Miles4Migrants to fly migrants to communities across the U.S.

Welcome.US is an NGO that was initially launched to work with President Joe Biden’s administration to facilitate some of the 85,000 Afghans who came into the U.S. in 2021 and 2022 after the debacle created when the U.S. evacuated from Afghanistan, according to Breitbart.

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Over 25 Percent of Gen Z Now Say They’re Queer: Poll

Gen Z

Over 25% of Americans born between 1997 and 2012 identify as LGBTQ, significantly higher than previous generations, according to a Tuesday poll from the Public Religion Research Institute.

The poll found that nearly 50% of Gen Z are more likely to identify as liberal and tend to be less religious than their millennial, Gen X or baby boomer counterparts. Meanwhile, 28% of Gen Z consider themselves LGBTQ, compared to only 16% of millennials, 7% of Gen X and a mere 4% of baby boomers.

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Commentary: Tennesseans Deserve Investment Transparency

For the first time in the United States, an investment firm is being sued for its misleading Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment strategies, and our state is leading the charge.

Tennessee State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti accused BlackRock, Inc. of deceiving Tennesseans by downplaying their ESG-related investment goals and pressuring corporate boards to do the same.

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Commentary: Public Education’s Alarming Reversal of Learning Trend

School Work

Call it the big reset – downward – in public education.

The alarming plunge in academic performance during the pandemic was met with a significant drop in grading and graduation standards to ease the pressure on students struggling with remote learning. The hope was that hundreds of billions of dollars of emergency federal aid would enable schools to reverse the learning loss and restore the standards.

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DHS Warned of Integrity of Mail-In Voting in 2020 Election but at the Same Time Censored Questions

Mail In Ballot

The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was aware of the issues with mail-in voting during the 2020 election cycle but censored social media narratives about the risks as alleged disinformation, according to agency documents.

CISA documents were released on Monday by America First Legal, showing the agency’s concerns about mail-in voting while it was also monitoring online opinions about such concerns.

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Stigma of ‘Dirty Fossil Fuels’ Drives Young People Away from Lucrative Careers in Oil and Gas Work

Petroleum Engineers

Petroleum engineering is the highest paying bachelor’s degree in the United States, according to a report by Payscale, but despite an average annual salary of $97,500, oil companies struggle to fill positions.

The industry faces a number of challenges. Employees often face cyclical layoffs whenever commodity prices collapse, and that makes the jobs appear unstable. Young people today are also concerned about working in an industry they’re taught is destroying the planet.

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United Airlines CEO Says They Are Making Plans Without Boeing After Manufacturing Issues

United Boeing

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said Tuesday that the company is making a plan to move forward without Boeing after the manufacturing company grounded its MAX 9 planes, according to CNBC.

Boeing has suffered a series of problems in the last several weeks after multiple planes had major mechanical and structural errors, forcing the company to ground all Max 9 aircraft with door plugs. Kirby told CNBC that the decision to ground the aircraft was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for United.

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Sanctuary States Beg Biden for Aid amid Immigration Crisis

Illegal Immigrants

Seven sanctuary state governors signed onto a letter Monday begging President Joe Biden and Democrat and Republican leaders in the House and Senate for help in dealing with the surge of migrants arriving in their areas of the country.

Governors from the sanctuary states of New York, California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Mexico joined with the governors of Arizona and Maryland in sending a letter to Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, citing their need for federal support in dealing with the crisis. Meanwhile, negotiations over permanent border security funding are continuing in Congress amid the ongoing surge of illegal immigration, and the governors are asking for more funding as part of the deal that is ultimately made. 

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Tennessee State Rep. Susan Lynn Awaits Final Version of Universal School Choice Bill, Notes Funding of Budget Is Issue This Year

Tennessee State Representative Susan Lynn (R-Mount Juliet) joined Monday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the General Assembly’s legislative session this year, specifically concerning its approach to Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act.

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Reported Death Toll from Winter Storms Up to 27

As of Sunday, 27 people are dead after Tennessee was pummeled with winter weather last week, as confirmed by the Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH). 

As part of a release from the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), TDOH said eight people in Shelby County, four in Knox County, two in Marshall County, two in Washington County, and two in Roane County had died as a result of the storms. 

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Top Trans Doctor Bemoans How ‘White’ the Sex Change Industry Is in Unearthed Video

Psychologist Dr. Wallace Wong claimed that transgender medical care is suffering from the influence of white people during a medical training course for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) in September 2022, according to a video obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

WPATH is an international organization founded in 1979 that seeks to train medical and mental health professionals on how to treat transgender patients, including minors, according to its website. During WPATH’s 27th annual training symposium, Wong gave a presentation on how medical professionals should handle minority clients and their families, saying transgender minorities “don’t trust the white culture,” according to the video obtained by the DCNF.

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SHOCK POLL: Nearly 90 Percent of Ivy League Grads Support ‘Strict’ Rationing of Gas, Meat, Electricity to ‘Fight Climate Change’

Nearly 90 percent of Ivy League graduates support the “strict” rationing of gas, meat and electricity to fight climate change, according to a new poll.

The conservative Committee to Unleash Prosperity, in a survey that sought to measure the beliefs of “elites,” stated the findings reveal climate change “is clearly an obsession of the very rich and highly educated.”

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Commentary: This National School Choice Week, Let’s Celebrate Return to Founding Principles

The school choice policies sweeping the nation may be among the most innovative—and promising—enacted in recent memory. Yet they also embody a return to principles first enshrined in American law nearly 400 years ago.

In 1642, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony crafted the nation’s first education law, its objective was clear: Parents must educate their children.

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Georgia Republican Party Leadership Challenge Rumors Unfounded: Party Officials

Three Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) officials confirmed to The Georgia Star News on Monday that rumors of a forthcoming leadership challenge against two of the party’s top officials were unfounded and no leadership challenge was mounted at the Saturday GAGOP State Committee meeting on St. Simons Island.

In an email reviewed by The Star, Cross cited an editorial from the owner of a Georgia radio station, which claimed a scheme to remove both 1st Vice Chairman Brian Pritchard and 2nd Vice Chairman David Cross from their party positions was scheduled to take place at the Saturday meeting.

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Ohio to Spend $20M to Study Depression, Suicide, Overdoses

Ohio plans to spend $20 million in taxpayer funds over the next 10 years to study the causes of depression, suicide and drug overdoses.

The research initiative, conducted with Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine, along with several stat universities, is expected to study the role of biological, psychological, and social factors that underlie what officials call an epidemic.

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Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes Frustrated Biden Justice Department Won’t Prosecute ‘Threats Against Election Administrators’

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) expressed “frustration” with the Biden administration during a Monday interview with Rolling Stone in which he claimed Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice should be targeting those who make “threats” to election workers and administrators.

Fontes called Garland a “cautious” person and asserted “he is being far too cautious here, when it comes to these investigations and prosecutions of threats against election administrators and election workers.”

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Tennessee Democrats Silent on Nashville Mayor’s Biden White House Trip During Snowstorm, but Upset Glenn Jacobs Campaigned with Trump

Democrats in Knox County issued a series of statements on social media last Tuesday which claimed Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs was “absent” during the recent winter weather because he traveled to Iowa to campaign for former President Donald Trump ahead of the state’s caucuses.

The Knox County Democrats posted to social media on Tuesday, “Why is Glenn spending more time this week with Trump, MTG, Matt Gaetz, Kari Lake, and Jim Jordan than with county employees clearing roads or at local churches hosting warming centers?”

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Fani Willis’ Divorce Case Unsealed in Cobb County at the Behest on Her Alleged Lover, Nathan Wade

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson unsealed the divorce case Monday for Fani Willis’ alleged lover, Nathan Wade, who she appointed as special prosecutor on the case against former President Donald Trump.

Thompson ruled that the case should be unsealed, but deferred on deciding whether Willis will be required to testify, temporarily blocking the deposition scheduled for Tuesday but leaving the possibility open for a later date. During the Monday hearing, Thompson stopped attorneys from discussing Willis’ claim that requiring her to testify would interfere with “an ongoing criminal prosecution,” which she raised in her bid to quash the subpoena issued by the attorney for Nathan Wade’s wife, Joycelyn Wade.

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REVIEW: ‘Guns, Girls, and Greed’ Offers a Ground-Level Look at Modern Warfare

History is written by the victors but rarely gives the view of the people who fought it. Politicians and military generals talk about war in platitudes, while the ones they send to combat rarely get their stories out. Guns, Girls, and Greed; I was a Blackwater Mercenary in Iraq flips this paradigm by giving the reader a ground-level perspective of the war in Iraq.

In the vein of Catch-22, the author is unrelenting in calling out the insanity of combat and diplomatic missions in Iraq in 2004–05. Lerette shows how military and political hubris collide to create a new way to wage combat—using private military contractors under the guise of diplomacy to wage war.

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Commentary: David Frum and the Axis of Errors

David Frum

Writing in The Atlantic, David Frum, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and cheerleader for endless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on Terror, warns us that if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election NATO will be wrecked, our allies around the world will suffer “potential disaster,” and “above all” Ukraine will be left to the mercy of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Given Frum’s track record of advice about wars, one wonders why anyone would take his advice. Frum takes credit for Bush’s phrase the “axis of evil” to describe Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Frum’s advice about war should be labeled the “axis of error.”

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Harvard Medical School Affiliate Looks to Retract Multiple Studies, Correct Papers

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

A Harvard Medical School affiliate is planning to retract six studies and correct 31 papers due to an ongoing investigation into several senior cancer researchers and administrators, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The investigation involves more than 50 papers, four of which are co-authored by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute CEO and President Dr. Laurie Glimcher, according to the WSJ. The institute has not determined whether research misconduct occurred, although several requests for retractions and corrections have been sent to journals.

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