Month: April 2024

Music Spotlight Follow-Up: Donny Van Slee

Bethany Bowman
Donny Van Slee

Since I interviewed Donny Van Slee back in 2022, I’ve always been intrigued by the chiropractor/country music singer who unashamedly goes to the beat of his own drummer. He was the first person to bring artists like Zach Bryan and Jack Johnson to my attention as they are performers that Van Slee likes to emulate.

Because his life is spread in so many directions, you can imagine my surprise when Van Slee showed up on Reba’s team on NBC’s The Voice earlier this spring. When he sang Lanco’s “Greatest Love Story” he was so good that Reba blocked Dan & Shay so she could have him all to herself. He was confident, showing that he was having the time of his life.

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Commentary: Secret Service Scuffle Prompts DEI, Vetting Scrutiny

RealClearWire
Secret Service Agent standing in front of The White House

An incident involving a physical attack by a female Secret Service agent tasked with protecting Vice President Kamala Harris is raising questions about whether the agency had thoroughly vetted her during her hiring and whether an ongoing push to increase the numbers of women in the service and boost overall workforce staff played a role in her selection.

The Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris was removed from her duties Wednesday after physically attacking the commanding agent in charge and other agents trying to subdue her, according to an agency spokesman and knowledgeable Secret Service sources.

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Biden Campaign Says It Will Stay on TikTok Despite Foreign Aid Package That Could Ban It

Just the News
President Biden in front of TikTok logo (composite image)

Supporters of the legislation claim that the app poses a national security risk because it is owned by a Chinese company, and thereby could expose sensitive U.S. data to the Chinese government.

President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said on Wednesday that it still plans to stay on the controversial app TikTok, despite the president’s signing a foreign aid package that could eventually ban it in the United States.

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NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams Responds with Deceptive Distractions When Confronted Over His Journalistic Failures to Get Justin Jones on the Record Over 2020 Claim

Kaitlin Housler
Phil Williams Justin Jones

NewsChannel 5’s chief investigative reporter Phil Williams continues to be criticized for his “journalistic failures” as he dodged an opportunity to confront State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) on his alleged coverup of a 2020 assault of two protesters by a homeless man.

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Arizona A.G. Kris Mayes Secures Indictments of Alternate Electors for Donald Trump and Others Likely Soon to be Named Including John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani, with Trump Himself an Unindicted Co-Conspirator

Rachel Alexander
Arizona A.G. Kris Mayes

Attorney General Kris Mayes persuaded a grand jury to indict the 11 Arizonans who agreed to serve as a slate of alternate electors for Donald Trump had he won the 2020 election, along with others involved in the effort to resolve election illegalities in that election. They are charged with conspiracy, fraud and forgery.

According to multiple media sources, while only the 11 alternate electors are named, the other unindicted co-conspirators are considered likely to be Trump, his former attorneys Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Christina Bobb, and Jenna Ellis, his former chief of staff Mark Meadows, campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn and former campaign aide Mike Roman. Their names are redacted since they have not been served yet.

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Unsealed Docs Expose Early Collaboration Between Archives, Biden White House in Trump Prosecution

Just the News
President Joe Biden in front of the National Archives Museum (composite image)

Just weeks after learning Joe Biden had improperly retained government documents, his administration began working with federal bureaucrats in spring and fall 2021 to increase pressure on Donald Trump for similar issues and eventually prompt a criminal prosecution of the 45th president, according to government memos newly unsealed by a federal judge.

The correspondence, released this week by U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida, provide the the most extensive accounting so far of how the Biden White House worked with federal bureaucrats to escalate pressure on Trump to return documents to the National Archives even as it slow-walked similar issues involving its own boss.

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Biden Regulator Passes Rule with Massive Implications for Millions of Workers

Admin
FTC Chair Lina Khan

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule Tuesday banning noncompete agreements nationwide, affecting millions of Americans.

Regulators argue that banning noncompetes will promote competition by giving workers greater ability to switch jobs, increasing innovation and leading to more businesses being created, according to an announcement from the FTC. The FTC estimates that around 18 percent of U.S. workers, or 30 million people, are covered under a noncompete, with the new rule applying to anyone not in a senior executive role, which is defined as someone who is making more than $151,164 and in a policy-making position.

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Senators Blackburn and Hagerty Among Few to Vote Against Ukraine Funding Bill

Peter D'Abrosca
Marsha Blackburn Bill Hagerty

Tennessee’s two U.S. senators were among only a handful who voted against a bill that will send nearly $100 billion to foreign nations.

Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) both voted against the Senate’s version of H.R. 815, a bill that was initially meant to help veterans receive more healthcare reimbursements but quickly ballooned into a funding package mainly for the country of Ukraine.

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Biden Admin Used Border Wall Funds on ‘Environmental Planning,’ Government Watchdog Says

Admin
Joe Biden with CBP agents

The Biden administration spent taxpayer dollars meant to fund a border wall to pay for “environmental planning,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

At the request of Republican Reps. Jack Bergman of Michigan and Jodey Arrington of Texas, the GAO investigated whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broke the law when it effectively blocked the use of taxpayer dollars to build a wall along the southern border. While GAO’s final report clears the DHS of breaking the law, it confirmed that DHS used congressionally-appropriated funds meant for the wall to pay for “environmental planning” and efforts “to remediate or mitigate environmental damage from past border wall construction.”

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Tesla Reports One of Its Worst Quarters in Years in Latest Sign of Trouble for EV Market

Admin
Tesla Factory

Tesla disclosed a shaky earnings report to the public on Tuesday in the latest sign of weakness in the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) market.

The EV maker’s revenue for the first quarter of this year came in nearly 10 percent below its revenue for the first quarter of 2023, marking the largest decline the company has seen since 2012, according to its quarterly report and CNBC. Tesla’s net income also fell by about 55 percent relative to 2023, and the company warned investors that “volume growth rate may be notably lower than the growth rate achieved in 2023.”

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Biden to Commute Sentences of Tennessee Drug Dealers

Peter D'Abrosca
Joe Biden

The White House Wednesday announced commutations for five major drug dealers, three of whom are Tennessee residents.

Daequon Charles Davis of Johnson City was convicted of conspiracy to distribute or to possess with intent to distribute 280 grams or more of cocaine and was serving an almost 22-year sentence with a subsequent 10 years of supervised release, which began in 2017. Biden commuted for a period of 10 years, leaving intact 10 years of supervised release.

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Shelby County Sheriff Makes Plea to Parents as Youth Justice and Education Center Nears Capacity

Kaitlin Housler
Floyd Bonner

Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner Jr. is pleading with parents to provide their children with guidance and involvement as the Youth Justice and Education Center nears capacity.

The Youth Justice and Education Center is a 146-bed, single-occupancy secure detention center designed for youth “identified to be a danger to themselves, a danger to the community, or a flight risk.”

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Nashville Police Confirm: Suspect in Death of Rapper Chris King ‘Wore Ankle Monitor at the Time of the Fatal Shooting’

Tom Pappert
Adrian Cameron

Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) confirmed on Monday that suspected murderer Adrian Cameron Jr., the 19-year-old accused of killing rapper Chris King, wore an ankle monitor while out on a $100,000 bond at the time of the King’s death.

A Monday post to the social media platform X by MNPD confirmed Cameron Jr. “was out on bond for the 2021 murder of Josh Evans” and was “on an ankle monitor at the time of the fatal shooting” of the rapper, whose given name was Christopher Cheeks.

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Arizona Rancher Accused of Murdering Illegal Immigrant Unlikely to Accept Plea Deal Following Mistrial

Tom Pappert
George Alan Kelly

The Arizona rancher who was accused of murdering a Mexican national who illegally immigrated to the United States is unlikely to accept any plea deals offered by prosecutors after his case ended in a mistrial, according to Wednesday remarks by his attorney.

Kathy Lowthorp, one of the attorneys who represented rancher George Alan Key after prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder for allegedly killing a Mexican national who trespassed onto his property, said in a Wednesday interview with NewsNation’s Cuomo that her client would be unlikely to accept a plea deal if prosecutors move for a retrial.

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Activists Push Georgia Nikki Haley Supporters to Vote for Joe Biden in November

Tom Pappert
Nikki Haley Supporters

A super PAC that previously supported former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Republican primary cycle is now reportedly targeting her Republican supporters in Georgia on behalf of President Joe Biden.

The super PAC previously known as Primary Pivot formerly urged Democratic and unaffiliated voters to cast ballots for Haley in Republican primary contests, but rebranded after Haley dropped out of the race.

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Commentary: Biden’s Title IX Revisions Aren’t Good News for Women

Admin
Girls Sports

Locker rooms and bathrooms at schools that accept public funding are about to become dangerous places for women — even in states that have the kind of commonsense legislation intended to keep women’s private spaces private.

Last week, the Biden administration released a host of changes to Title IX, the federal legislation that is best known for dictating equal treatment of men and women in sports and for governing the way schools handle sexual assault charges. While the administration hasn’t yet decided whether biological men who identify as female should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, it redefined “sex” as “gender identity” in almost every other context while simultaneously allowing schools to violate the due process rights of students accused of sexual assault.

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Virginia County Jail Buys Devices to Fight Inmates’ Opioid Withdrawals with Electricity

Tom Pappert
Inmates

The Chesterfield County Jail is reportedly set become the first in the country to use a detox device to help inmates recover from opioid withdrawal symptoms by sending electrical impulses to the user’s brain.

According to its manufacturer, the Masimo Bridge device is “a small electrical nerve stimulator device that contains a battery-powered chip and wires that are applied around a patient’s ear in a short, non-surgical, in-office procedure, providing five days of continuous relief” from withdrawal symptoms by sending electrical impulses to parts of the brain associated with opioid withdrawal.

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Ex-DHS Disinformation Chief Starts ‘Bipartisan’ Watchdog, Accuses GOP of Sexist Investigations

Just the News
Nina Jankowicz

The Mary Poppins of misinformation has started a new band outside the Department of Homeland Security, and this  department of tortured poets is testing fresh material about the bad blood stemming from her brief leadership of the slightly longer-lived Disinformation Governance Board.

Nina Jankowicz, whose Hunter Biden laptop trutherism and chirpy songs about “information laundering” immediately made the DHS board a punch line, cofounded a nonprofit watchdog this month with former feds, D.C. think tankers and social media executives whose mission is “increasing the cost of lies that undermine our democracy.”

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New Poll Shows Trump Getting Bump in Five Crucial Battleground States

Admin
Donald Trump at a rally event

Former President Donald Trump received polling bumps against President Joe Biden in the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in a survey released Wednesday.

Trump’s advantage grew in Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina since March, while he is now leading in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to the latest Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll. The former president’s lead in Georgia remained the same, and his margin across all seven battleground states including Michigan also grew to six points in a head-to-head matchup with Biden.

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Commentary: The Case for an Inclusive Energy Strategy

Admin
Solar Farm

The justification for rapidly transitioning the global energy economy to renewables is to avert a catastrophic environmental crisis. It is based on the premise that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from the combustion of coal, natural gas, and oil, are altering our atmosphere, which in turn is leading to a host of negative consequences too numerous to mention.

It is possible nowadays to find almost anything, from crime and disease and mental health to species extinctions, deforestation and disappearing coral reefs, being attributed to climate change. And if you research almost anything involving the design of civilization, not just the production and consumption of energy but housing, mining, ranching, farming, shipping, transportation, waste management, water treatment, etc., the data most prominently reported are always carbon and CO2. The actual units of energy or water, or tonnage of product, or any other practical data necessary to inform management and logistics, has now become secondary. It’s all about carbon.

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Boeing Posts Massive Loss Following Slew of Safety Issues

Admin
Boeing Factory

Top jet manufacturer Boeing reported on Wednesday a net loss of $355 million in the first quarter after months of scrutiny over recent safety issues.

Operating revenue declined 8 percent year over year in the first quarter, from approximately $17.9 billion to $16.6 billion, with the company burning more than $3.9 billion in free cash flow in the time frame compared to $786 million a year ago, according to Boeing’s first quarter earnings report. Recent scrutiny of safety with Boeing products began in January after an Alaska Airlines flight had a door plug fly off mid-air, resulting in an emergency landing and an investigation into the company’s quality assurance.

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Roger Simon on Pro-Hamas, Anti-Israel Protests on College Campuses: ‘What Happened in Germany in 1937’ Is ‘What We’re Undergoing Now’

Kaitlin Housler

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, said the pro-Hamas protests unfolding on Ivy League college campuses across the nation are comparable to the scene in Germany in 1937.

Simon made the comments on Tuesday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show after listening to audio of a clip taken from Columbia University where pro-Palestine protesters formed a human chain to keep Jewish students out of an encampment on the university’s campus.

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Six Election Integrity Bills Signed Into Law or Awaiting Signature from Gov. Lee

Peter D'Abrosca
Tim Rudd

One member of the Tennessee General Assembly has been fighting for election integrity during the current legislative session, passing six bills that have either been signed into law or are ready for a signature from Gov. Bill Lee (R).

State Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) has successfully passed a half a dozen laws aimed at securing Tennessee’s election process. 

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Democratic Governors Veto GOP Election Integrity Bills Despite Provable Election Fraud Issues

Just the News
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs

Democratic governors are vetoing election integrity legislation passed by Republican-led state legislatures, despite allegations, investigations, and convictions of election fraud occurring across the U.S. Those convictions require proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the crime, in fact, occurred.

Over the last few months, Democratic governors in Arizona, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have vetoed legislation that Republican-led state legislatures passed to help secure elections, arguing that their concerns are unfounded or their solutions unnecessary. However, there has been recent election fraud investigations and convictions in those states that led to the passing of the legislation.

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Facebook Interfered with U.S. Elections Almost 40 Times Since 2008: Study

Just the News

Facebook has interfered with U.S. elections almost 40 times since 2008, according to a study conducted by the Media Research Center.

Among the group’s findings are Facebook censuring 2024 presidential candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 2022 Senate and House candidates on their platform. For example, the company removed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase’s account. The company also “shuttered political advertising one week before the election” in 2020, according to the MRC’s analysis.

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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee Joins Coalition of Governors in Demanding the Biden Administration Lift Pause on Liquified Natural Gas Exports

Kaitlin Housler
Bill Lee DC

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee joined a coalition of 24 other governors in issuing a joint statement demanding that the Biden administration lift its pause on new liquified natural gas (LNG) export approvals.

In January, the Biden administration temporarily paused pending decisions on LNG exports to “non-FTA countries until the Department of Energy can update the underlying analyses for authorizations” in the name of “climate change.”

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Empty Podium to Represent Fani Willis as Georgia Prosecutor Declines Televised Primary Debate

Tom Pappert
Christian Wise Smith

An empty podium will represent Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after her campaign declined to participate in a debate with her primary challenger, Christian Wise Smith, it was reported Monday.

The Atlanta Press Club will live stream more than nine hours for its Loudermilk-Young Debate Series on April 28, with the event originally scheduled to culminate with a debate between Willis and Wise Smith.

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Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney Drops Gubernatorial Bid, Runs for Lt. Governor as Virginia Democrats Rallying Around Aaron Rouse

Tom Pappert
Levar Stoney Aaron Rouse

Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney on Tuesday officially ended his gubernatorial campaign, instead declaring he will seek the Democratic Party’s nomination to become Virginia’s next lieutenant governor.

Stoney will no longer challenge Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA-07) to become Virginia’s next Democratic candidate for governor, and switched races on the same day State Senator Aaron Rouse (D-Virginia Beach) announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor.

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Commentary: ATF Rule Change Creates a Trap for the Unwary

Admin
A selection of modern firearms on a table

On Friday, the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the ATF issued new regulations that make it more difficult to comply with federal laws regulating gun dealing and background checks.

Since the 1930s, federal law has required gun dealers to be registered as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL). The requirements hinged on the meaning of “engaged in the business of” gun dealing. This language has always been ambiguous, and there has never been (even after the announcement of the new rules) a true “bright line” that distinguishes when one graduates from selling a few guns from one’s personal collection into full-fledged gun dealing.

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Attorney General Candidate Solomon Praises Philadelphia Mayor Parker, Lambasts District Attorney Krasner

The Center Square
Jared Solomon Larry Krasner Cherelle Parker

Local issues loom large in the attorney general race as candidate Jared Solomon praised Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and lambasted Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and the dysfunction within the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office.

Pennsylvania voters will decide competitive primaries for attorney general. Five Democrats are running. The Republican race is two.

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South Carolina Officials Plotting Next Steps for $1.8 Billion Balance

The Center Square
South Carolina Politics

South Carolina state officials are determining how to proceed with a $1.8 billion balance discovered in a state account and Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has given leaders a July 1 deadline to chart a course forward.

On Oct. 31, 2023, South Carolina Comptroller General Brian Gaines sent a letter to South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, directing Loftis to research the account’s origins. It marked the start of a months-long Senate investigation that exposed what a Senate Finance Committee Constitutional Subcommittee report dubbed “financial irregularities” in the state treasurer’s office.

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Taiwanese TSMC Workers Reportedly Aim to Have Children in Arizona so Kids Become U.S. Citizens

Tom Pappert

A Tuesday report which detailed alleged culture clashes between local workers and those from Taiwan at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) facilities in Arizona reveals some workers from Taiwan, who relocated to Arizona to build the plants, will seek to start or expand families so their children reap the benefits of U.S. citizenship.

The Rest of World report described TSMC’s ventures in Arizona as a “debacle,” with American engineers subjected to intense scrutiny, public humiliation and restricted communications while being trained by TSMC in Taiwan.

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Florida Congresswoman to Propose Bill Banning the Display of Foreign Flags in Congress

Admin
Rep. Kat Cammack

A Republican Congresswoman plans to introduce a bill that would forbid the waving of foreign flags inside Congress after a viral video circulated of dozens of members waving Ukrainian flags following a vote to pass another Ukrainian aid package.

As Breitbart reports, Congresswoman Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) announced the planned legislation following the unexpected display of a foreign nation’s flag on the floor of the House, which was widely mocked on social media.

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Candidate Running Against Rep. David Schweikert Drops Out After Four People Say They Never Signed Her Petition, Progressives Implicated

Rachel Alexander
David Schweikert

Michelle Martin, a Libertarian candidate running against Representative David Schweikert (R-AZ-01), has dropped out of the race after at least four voters said someone illegally signed her petition with their signatures. Martin’s paperwork revealed that a registered Democrat named Jeremy Garrett was one of the petition signature gatherers, along with four other registered Democrats. Someone named Jeremy Garrett works as an Electoral Campaign Manager at the progressive group Our Voice Our Vote (OVOV). 

Schweikert told The Arizona Sun Times that this is clearly fraud and needs to be prosecuted. He said it has been referred to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

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Commentary: Migrant Pain for the Heartland

Admin

Although the Badger State is 2000 miles away from Mexico, the fallout of Biden’s open border bleeds into the American heartland, literally so in many cases. In reality, the Biden-Harris open borders agenda transforms every jurisdiction in America into a border town, including small villages like Whitewater, Wisconsin. That previously tranquil small town of 15,000 in southern Wisconsin has been flooded with about 1,000 new migrants during Biden’s term, mostly from Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Such a mass influx places intense strain upon public resources, including schools ill-prepared to handle so many new students, many of whom do not speak English. Whitewater city council member Brienne Brown told Wisconsin PBS that “we are a poor town that has limited resources.”

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Music Spotlight: Nicolette and The Nobodies

Bethany Bowman
Nicolette and the Nobodies

I’ll confess. Sometimes I get so many emails I can’t read them all. The downside to that is I am sure I have missed several great artists. But thankfully, I did open Taran’s Smith email when she pitched Nicolette & the Nobodies to me.

When I heard the song “Better Days,” my audible response was, “What is this?” When I saw Nicolette Hoang, I wondered, “Where did she learn to sing like that?”

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Ukrainian Aid Costs Each American Household Almost $1,500, Economists Say

Admin
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with United States President Joe Biden

Even as Americans grow increasingly pessimistic and agitated about their personal finances, Congress is about to ask struggling families to cover the cost of more funding for Ukraine.

The $95 billion foreign aid package adopted Saturday by the House and facing near-certain passage in the Senate includes an additional $61 billion for Ukraine. Once added to the money already appropriated for Ukraine since 2022, the United States will have spent approximately $173 billion.

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