Day: February 21, 2024

AG Sues NGO for Assisting Unlawful Migration

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Dallas Express Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Tuesday that he has filed a lawsuit against a nongovernmental organization to revoke its operations authorization for allegedly facilitating unlawful migration. The lawsuit was filed against Annunciation House, a Catholic organization in El Paso that “operates several houses of hospitality” for the “migrant, refugee, and economically vulnerable peoples of the border region.” A news release from the Office of the Attorney General claims that it requested documents from the organization pertaining to potential legal violations but was denied access to the records. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Israeli Rape-Crisis Group Report Finds ‘Systematic’ Sexual Violence on and After Oct. 7

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New York Times An Israeli organization that supports survivors of sexual abuse released a report on Wednesday concluding that acts of sexual violence against Israelis during and after the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 were “systematic and widespread.” “The report finds that the Hamas attack included brutal acts of violent rape, often involving threats with weapons, specifically directed towards injured women,” said the group, The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, an umbrella organization of nine such organizations in Israel. The report added that many incidents involved gang rape. “Often, the rape was perpetrated in front of an audience — partners, family or friends — in a manner intended to increase the pain and humiliation of all present,” the report said. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Catholics Demand Exorcism of St. Patrick’s Cathedral After Trans Activists Hold ‘Blasphemous and Sacrilegious’ Funeral

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Cecilia Gentili Funeral

A Mass of Reparation was quietly held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan over the weekend after a depraved funeral service for a renowned transgender activist scandalized parishioners. Some Catholics, however, say that’s not enough and are calling for an exorcism to be performed at the cathedral.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has condemned the heavily attended February 15 funeral of Cecilia Gentili, a biological male who identified as a female.

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Nashville-Based Beacon Center of Tennessee Sues the U.S. Department of Labor

Kaitlin Housler

The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee filed a lawsuit on behalf of two freelance journalists against the U.S. Department of Labor’s Independent Contractor Rule on Wednesday.

The think tank is representing Tennessee freelance journalists Margaret Littman and Jennifer Chesak in the suit, arguing that the department’s updated rule “threatens to destroy the livelihoods of freelancers” by “forcing freelancers into employment relationships that they neither want nor need.”

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Head of School at Rutherford Classical Academy Phillip Schwenk Announces New Charter School Will Be Located in La Vergne

Kaitlin Housler
Phillip Schwenk

Phillip Schwenk, the founding head of school at Rutherford Classical Academy, announced that the charter school will be located in La Vergne on Ingram Boulevard, close to I-24, and will accept 340 students the first school year.

The Rutherford County School Board voted last April to approve the building of the charter school by a vote of 5-2.

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Tennessee State Rep. William Lamberth Files Resolution Condemning Neo-Nazism

Kaitlin Housler
William Lamberth

Tennessee State Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland) filed a resolution on Tuesday condemning neo-Nazism and the National Socialist Movement in the Volunteer State.

“God is the creator of all humans and races,” the resolution reads. “Racism and hatred in any form are repugnant and sinful…There is an intentional effort by neo-Nazis to ignite racial animosity and divide neighbors, friends, and communities by promoting a message of hatred and ethnic cleansing…Neo-Nazis wish to further spread a dangerous ideology rooted in Holocaust Era fascist movements and socialism through their affiliation with the National Socialist Movement.”

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Tennessee Comptroller Claims Nashville Nonprofit Misspent over 10 Percent of State Grant, Including $29,000 to Executive Director

Tom Pappert
Curtis Bryant

The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office published a report on Tuesday asserting a Nashville nonprofit misspent over $40,000 from a state grant, with the majority of the diverted money allegedly going to the group’s executive director or the church where he is a pastor. The office referred the matter to Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk.

According to the investigators in a press release, the Successful Survivors nonprofit that claims to assist individuals with mental illness and substance abuse issues received $299,670 in grant funds from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS) to purchase and renovate a Nashville home for use as a “rehabilitation house.”

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Musk’s SpaceX Has Deep Ties with U.S. Intelligence Agencies

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Space X Building

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has forged a close relationship with the U.S. military and intelligence community and plans to expand contracts with the government, including a secretive project known as Starshield, The Wall Street Journal reported.

SpaceX has rocketed past the U.S. military and other commercial firms to become a leading entity in the space launch competition, and its success has attracted the attention of major U.S. military and intelligence agencies, according to the outlet. Starshield, just one example of the deepening ties between the commercial and government space, supplies government clients with satellites capable of secure communications and data collection with different kinds of observation units, the WSJ reported, citing a website made public in 2022.

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Boston Removes Residents from Community Center to Make Room for Illegal Aliens

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Melnea Cass Recreation Complex

Residents of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts are furious with local officials after the city forced residents out of the local community center in order to make room for more illegal aliens.

As Breitbart reports, the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Community Center was once a meeting place for various sports games and community events, including Little League games and volleyball players. But the center is now lined with cots for illegals to sleep on.

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Biden Admin Reportedly Set to Greenlight Rule Change That Could Spike Gas Prices — But Not Until After the Election

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Gas Station

The Biden administration is expected to ease seasonal restrictions on ethanol-gasoline blends but has delayed the change until after the 2024 election to avoid a price spike, according to Reuters.

The rule change stems from a 2022 request from the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin to allow the sale of gasoline with 15% ethanol year-round, known as E15 gasoline, lifting current seasonal restrictions that aim to reduce smog in the summer months, according to Reuters. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had originally set an effective date of April 28, 2024, for the changes when the agency sent the proposal to the White House in December, but that is now expected to be pushed back to 2025.

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Haley Won’t Drop Out If She Loses South Carolina, Plans to Spend Half a Million in Michigan

Peter D'Abrosca
Nikki Haley

The lone remaining Republican challenger to former President Donald J. Trump in the 2024 presidential primary says she will not drop out of the race even if she loses the Saturday primary in her home state of South Carolina. 

“Some of you — perhaps a few of you in the media — came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not. Far from it, and I’m here to tell you why,” Nimrata “Nikki” Haley said at a campaign stop in Greenville. “I’m running for President because we have a country to save. Since the star of my campaign, I’ve been focused on the real issues our country faces. The ones that determine whether America with thrive or spiral out.”

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Trump Campaign Has Outraised Biden Campaign in Pennsylvania

The Center Square
Donald Trump Joe Biden Pennsylvania Fundraising

Donald Trump (R) has raised the most money from Pennsylvania state of all presidential candidates, with $2.14 million raised since the start of the campaign cycle. Trump raised $502,595 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Joe Biden (D) has raised the next most from Pennsylvania, with $1.5 million since the start of the campaign and $943,704 in the fourth quarter.

Twenty-three notable presidential candidates, including those who have dropped out of the race, raised a total of $6 million from Pennsylvania donors between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2023. Thirty-five notable candidates raised $47.6 million in Pennsylvania during the 2020 election cycle, while 25 raised $25 million during the 2016 election cycle.

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Commentary: Voters Want China Out of American Farmland

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China Farmland

Americans firmly reject the Chinese agenda of acquiring U.S. assets, especially vital strategic ones like American farmland. Battleground polling reveals that this issue provides an opportunity for patriotic populist candidates to protect the heartland, provide a stark contrast vs. the leftist big business globalists, and reap substantial political benefits in November’s elections.

Of course, Chinese companies and nationals buy substantial real estate across the board in America, not just farmland. According to National Association of Realtors data, China remains by far the largest source of foreign purchases of U.S. homes. Last year, the Chinese bought $13.6 billion in American homes, more than double the $6.1 billion they spent the year before.

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Foreign-Owned Social Media Platforms Could Face New Florida Restrictions

The Center Square
People on Phones

Foreign-owned social media platforms such as TikTok could face a big change in the Sunshine State if a bill currently being advanced by the Florida Senate gets signed into law.

Senate Bill 1448 is sponsored by state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, and would add transparency for social media platforms operating in Florida that are owned by foreign adversaries.

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Arizona House Speaker Wants Voters to Approve Plan to Cut Welfare Benefits for Illegal Immigrants, Strengthen E-Verify

Tom Pappert
Ben Toma

Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) announced on Monday an effort to hold a public referendum for Arizona voters to decide whether to eliminate the possibility for illegal immigrants to receive welfare benefits from the state and to strength the E-Verify system used to prevent companies from employing those in the country unlawfully.

In a speech outside the Arizona State Capitol on Monday, Toma called his Protecting Arizona Against Illegal Immigration Act “one of the toughest anti-immigration laws ever written” and declared, “Our message to illegal immigrants is simple: If you want to take advantage of Americans, go somewhere else.”

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Teacher’s Assistant Sues Union, Ohio School District for Illegally Withholding Dues from Her Paycheck

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Perry High School

An Ohio teacher’s assistant who helps special needs students is suing her school district and former union because the district withheld union dues from her paycheck even after she left the union and formally asked it to cease taking her money.

“Using the coercion of government to take money from a government employee and give it to a union without the employee’s consent is not only egregious, but the Supreme Court has held that it’s unconstitutional,” Jeffrey Schwab, a senior counsel at Liberty Justice Center who represents the Ohio teacher’s assistant, told The Daily Signal in a written statement Monday.

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Virginia Bill Protecting Same-Sex Marriage Heads to Youngkin for Final Decision Before Becoming Law

Tom Pappert
Lesbian Couple

Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly narrowly passed a bill that would protect same-sex marriage in the commonwealth in the event the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Obergefell v. Hodges, which effectively legalized same-sex unions throughout the country in 2015.

HB 174 seeks to amend Virginia law to declare that “no person authorized” to “issue a marriage license shall deny the issuance of such license to two parties contemplating a lawful marriage on the basis of sex, gender, or race of such parties” with an exception for religious organizations and clergy members, who “shall have the right to refuse to perform any marriage.”

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Republican Businessman Challenges Vulnerable Democrat Senator in Wisconsin

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Wisconsin Senate Race

Republican businessman Eric Hovde launched his highly anticipated campaign against Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) recruited Hovde, who had been weighing a campaign for months, after other prominent Republicans like Reps. Mike Gallagher and Tom Tiffany declined to jump into the race. Hovde announced his campaign in a social media video posted on X, and called for the country to unite to “find common sense solutions to restore America.”

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DOJ Announces ‘Disruption’ of Hacking Group That Targeted Fulton County, Georgia

Tom Pappert
Merrick Garland

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced the “disruption” of a Russia-based hacking and ransomware group that targeted Fulton County last month as the result of a joint operation that involved both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and “international law enforcement partners in London” to seize the group’s infrastructure.

In its press release, the DOJ announced “the disruption of the LockBit ransomware group, one of the most active ransomware groups in the world,” which came as the result of “seizing numerous public-facing websites used by LockBit to connect to the organization’s infrastructure and seizing control of servers used by LockBit administrators.”

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Trump Dominates Nikki Haley in South Carolina Poll Just Days Ahead of Primary

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Haley Trump South Carolina

Former President Donald Trump holds a commanding 28-point lead over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley just days ahead of her home state’s primary, according to a Tuesday poll.

Trump is beating Haley 63% to 35% among those who are “very likely” to vote in Saturday’s Republican primary, a Suffolk University/USA Today survey found. The poll also indicated the former president held double-digit leads over Haley among each age group, both men and women, those with a college degree, high school graduates and voters in military families.

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Goldwater Institute Sues Department of Education over ‘Unprecedented’ $37 Million Fine Assessed Against Arizona’s Christian Grand Canyon University

Rachel Alexander
Grand Canyon University

The Goldwater Institute (GI) sued the U.S. Department of Education last week over fining Grand Canyon University (GCU) almost $40 million.

The fine was purportedly for “insufficiently inform[ing] PhD students that they may have to take continuing courses while completing their doctoral dissertations,” GI said in a press release. GI noted that the $37 million fine against the Christian university “is 10 times bigger than penalties the Education Department assessed against Penn State and Michigan State for covering up the sexual crimes of Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar.”

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Deer Valley Unified School District Board Member Paul Carver Offers Insights for Parents Concerned with K-12 Issues Today

Rachel Alexander

A couple of Arizona’s largest school districts have been rocked with scandals lately, mainly over administrations trying to implement woke agendas.

However, the Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD), located in northwest Phoenix and surrounding cities, has escaped much of the controversy. Paul Carver, who sits on the governing board, said he believes it is because his district stresses transparency and teamwork. He said the superintendent has regular interfaith meetings, which have been transferred to Zoom since COVID-19, and the superintendent and many board members try to include everyone regardless of demographics.

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Commentary: The Pandemic Treaty That Won’t Prevent a Pandemic

RealClearWire
World Health Organization

If a “pandemic treaty” fails to account for the dismal international response to COVID-19 and isn’t focused on preventing future pandemics, is it really a “pandemic treaty”? Yet that’s the current state of the draft “pandemic treaty” being negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The failures of the international health system’s response to COVID are well-established. The People’s Republic of China failed to inform the international community of the outbreak in a timely manner as required by the International Health Regulations – a provision established because of Beijing’s cover-up of the 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). China mischaracterized COVID-19 saying that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission—a deadly lie that the WHO parroted unquestioningly.

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Almost 200 Voter Registrations in Pima County Canceled for Lacking U.S. Citizenship, New Data Shows

Kaitlin Housler
Vote Sign

A new summary by the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) found that 186 voter registrants have been “involuntarily purged” for citizenship issues in Pima County, Arizona, since 2021.

The PILF summary, citing records released by Pima County election officials, found that seven individuals within the group of 186 canceled voter registrations had a history of casting ballots across two federal and local elections.

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Elon Musk Says His Brain Chip Allowed Patient to Move Object with His Mind

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Surgery

Billionaire Elon Musk says his company Neuralink’s first human brain chip patient is not experiencing any negative effects and is controlling a computer mouse using their mind.

Neuralink successfully implanted the patient in January, Musk announced on X, formerly known as Twitter. He provided an update on the patient during an X Spaces conversation Monday that the patient has recovered well and is able to control a computer mouse with his mind.

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Clint Black Announces 2024 World Tour Celebrating 35 Years of ‘Killin’ Time’

Bethany Bowman
Clint Black

Following three sold-out shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Clint Black is going on tour to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the award-winning album Killin’ Time. He and his electrifying band will play the album top to bottom, along with many other number-one hits.

Black moved to Nashville over 35 years ago with his bandleader and longtime songwriter colleague, Hayden Nicholas, where he readily signed a deal with RCA Records.

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