Month: June 2024

Covenant School Killer Audrey Hale Began ‘Going Through Testing’ for Mental Health in Summer of 2001, Parents Told Police

Tom Pappert
Audrey Elizabeth Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began receiving treatment from a speech pathologist in September 2001, which is when a mental health professional first indicated to the killer’s parents that Audrey Hale suffered from autism, according to a transcript of the July 12, 2023 police interview with Ronald and Norma Hale obtained by The Tennessee Star from a source close to the investigation.

The Star previously published police documents which established Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) prior to her March 27, 2023 attack on the Covenant School, when she claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members before she was heroically shot by two responding police officers.

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Biden’s Family Tells Him to Keep Fighting as They Huddle at Camp David

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The New York Times President Biden’s family is urging him to stay in the race and keep fighting despite last week’s disastrous debate performance, even as some members of his clan privately expressed exasperation at how he was prepared for the event by his staff, people close to the situation said on Sunday. Mr. Biden huddled with his wife, children and grandchildren at Camp David while he tried to figure out how to tamp down Democratic anxiety. While his relatives are acutely aware of how poorly he did against former President Donald J. Trump, they argued that he could still show the country that he is capable of serving for another four years. Mr. Biden has also been soliciting ideas from advisers about how to proceed, and his staff has been discussing whether he should hold a news conference or sit for interviews to defend himself to change the narrative, but nothing has been decided yet. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Jen Psaki Calls Steve Bannon ‘A Brain Bending Communicator’ Who Sounds ‘Almost Rational’ After Interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl

Michael Patrick Leahy
Steve Bannon

Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday that Steve Bannon is “a brain bending communicator” who sounds “almost rational” after the program played ABC’s Jonathan Karl’s exclusive interview with the former Trump White House advisor and current WarRoom host.

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FBI Gives Vague Response to The Tennessee Star’s FOIA Request over ‘Legacy Tokens’

Peter D'Abrosca

In response to The Tennessee Star’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the agency’s policy regarding “legacy tokens” left behind by mass killers, the FBI offered a vague response to an original comment request by The Star.

“While our standard practice is not to comment on specific products, which includes addressing their veracity, the FBI regularly shares information with our law enforcement partners to assist in protecting the communities they serve,” the FBI said by email. “The FBI always encourages members of the public to be vigilant and report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”

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Tennessee Students Show TCAP Math Score Improvement

The Center Square
Students Testing

Tennessee students showed math test scored improvements since hitting a pandemic low point in 2021, just as occurred in English language arts, according to new data released by the Tennessee Department of Education.

The Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program places results into four categories – exceed, met, approaching and below – compared to student comprehension expectations.

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TDOT will Halt Construction to Ease Traffic on July 4th

Peter D'Abrosca
Road construction

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will halt all construction on July 4th to ease traffic for travelers during Independence Day.

“With so many people traveling on and around the Fourth of July, we want to do all we can to ensure they reach their destinations safely and without necessary delays,” said Deputy Governor and TDOT Commissioner Butch Eley in a news release. “We are doing so by suspending lane closures during this busy holiday travel time. Be mindful that our HELP Trucks will be on patrol and drivers must obey the law by moving over and slowing down for all emergency vehicles on the side of the road.”

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Majority of Voters Want to Throw Biden Overboard Following Disastrous Debate, Poll Shows

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Joe Biden

The majority of voters want to see President Joe Biden replaced as the Democratic nominee following his debate performance on Thursday night, according to a Morning Consult poll released Friday.

After the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, Biden’s performance left many major Democrats scrambling to soften the blow. But even with the damage control, 60% of voters and even 47% of Democrats said Biden should be replaced as the Democratic candidate, according to the poll.

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Report Shows 61 Percent of Renters Can’t Afford Median Apartment Rate in U.S.

The Center Square
Los Angeles Apartment Building

Due to inflation eating away at earnings and less supply of affordable housing, the majority of Americans today cannot afford median rent prices, according to a new report by the real estate company Redfin.

The analysis comes as other reports indicate that both homeowners and renters are struggling with high housing costs due to inflationary pressures, an inflated housing market, low supply and demand for affordable housing.

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Interior Department Tells Employees to Stop Using Gendered Terms Such as ‘Husband’ and ‘Son’

Just the News
Business Meeting

The Interior Department has updated its “inclusive language guide” to include instructions for employees to stop using such gender-specific terms as “son” and “daughter,” and replace them with more generalized terms such as “kid” or “child.”

The 24-page guide said agency employees should also replace terms such as “husband” and “wife” with “spouse,” The Daily Wire reported Thursday.

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Biden Administration Strong-Armed FDA into Fast-Tracking COVID Vaccine

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COVID Vaccine

A new report from the House of Representatives claims that the Biden Administration repeatedly pressured the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into speeding up the approval of the Chinese Coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer.

According to the Daily Caller, the staff report from the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust alleges that the FDA did not follow the usual regulatory guidelines when it came to approving the Pfizer vaccine. As such, when the FDA gave its approval to the vaccine, it allowed the Biden Administration to more quickly issue a mandate forcing federal workers and active duty troops to take the Pfizer vaccine or else risk losing their jobs.

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Tennessee AG Sends Letter to Major Credit Card Companies Warning of Legal Action Upon Noncompliance with New State Law

Kaitlin Housler
AG Skrmetti Credit Cards

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sent a letter to the CEOs of American Express, Visa, and Mastercard inquiring about the companies’ plans to comply with a state law set to take effect in the Volunteer State on Monday, July 1 concerning financial transaction data associated with firearm and ammunition purchases.

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Trump Takes Post-Debate Victory Lap in Virginia in Bid to Flip the Commonwealth to ‘Red’

Just the News
Donald Trump at Rally

Former President Donald Trump on Friday seized on his post-debate momentum to bolster his efforts in Virginia, appearing alongside the Old Dominion’s GOP heavyweight Gov. Glenn Youngkin at a rally in Chesapeake.

Formerly regarded as a prospective presidential candidate himself, Youngkin opted against such a campaign and has instead been floated as a potential vice presidential candidate.

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Commentary: Media’s Lies About Biden’s ‘Mental Fitness’ Finally Caught Up to Them

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Joe Biden and Jake Tapper

For three and a half years, Joe Biden’s handlers have hidden him from public view and kept him locked deep inside the confines of the White House or at Rehoboth Beach—far away from “we the people.”

For three and a half years, Biden has barely averaged more than a 30-hour work week and has almost never said anything without the assistance of a teleprompter or a notecard. When he does speak, he gives terse remarks that rarely last more than 15 minutes and are almost never in prime time, meaning his audience is negligible.

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Opinion Issued Aims to Clear Up ‘Medical Emergency’ in Arizona Abortion Laws

The Center Square
Kris Mayes

Attorney General Kris Mayes issued an opinion as abortion policy in the state is likely to be on the ballot in November.

The 15-week law is still on the books in Arizona, and it was signed into law by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in 2022. The opinion, which was sent to four Democratic state lawmakers on Thursday, is meant to explain what can be considered a “medical emergency” under the law.

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Commentary: Single-Sex Education Is a Tradition to Reconsider

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All Boys School

The last time I was a member of an officially male group, I was 12 and in the Little League. After that, I shied away from them. There was a nearly all-male Catholic high school I earned a scholarship to, but I chose another school and another scholarship. There were still several prestigious all-male colleges to choose from, but I had no desire to go to those places. Princeton got me instead.

But as I look back and as I’ve grown more aware of what colleges used to be like, I wonder why we take for granted the superiority of having boys and girls, or young men and women, together everywhere and all the time. Shouldn’t there be at least some places that are otherwise? Here, one of the tenets of the progressive creed, that people’s sexual proclivities ought to be championed no matter what they are, is in flat contradiction with another one of the tenets, that all-male institutions are to be eliminated.

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Commentary: Four Reasons People Chose Not to Have Children

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Family Photo

North Carolina State University Professor (Emeritus) Mike Walden is known for explaining complex issues in ways understandable to the general reader. That is unusual among scholars. Three “economic thrillers” written by Professor Walden and his wife M.E. Whitman Walden, Micro Mayhem (2006), Macro Mayhem (2006) and Fiscal Fiasco (2014), show how they do it.

Professor Walden just posted a short, down-to-earth piece, “You Decide: Should We Worry About The Declining Birth Rate?” He is writing not as an advocate, but simply raises relevant points. In a few succinct sentences he distills the falling fertility conundrum to its essence, citing four reasons why Americans are having fewer children these days:

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Commentary: Honest Pros and Cons of Homeschooling

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Homeschool

It’s true. Sometimes homeschoolers do school in their pajamas.

But that wasn’t the norm in my home when I was growing up. Generally, my mother kept us to a set schedule. Piano practice was at 8:15 sharp. Math class started at 9:00. The other subjects fell into place around that. Often, we finished our work by lunchtime, after which my sister and I would go outside and play in the woods behind our house, read, draw, or work on some other personal hobby.

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Atlanta Journal Constitution in Battleground Georgia Second Major Newspaper to Call on Biden to Retire

Just the News
Joe Biden

Georgia’s largest newspaper on Saturday night published a front page editorial pleading with President Joe Biden to step aside and embrace “the shade of retirement.”

The Atlanta Constitution-Journal declared Biden’s debate performance in Atlanta on Thursday night was “excruciating” and failed to lay out a “competent and coherent vision for the future of America.”

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Churches in Holy Land Denounce ‘Coordinated Attack’ Against Christians by Israeli Authorities

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Catholic News Agency  In the midst of the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza, the patriarchs and leaders of ancient Christian churches in Jerusalem have signed a joint document in which they denounce that four Israeli municipalities have sought to levy municipal taxes on church properties in violation of “centuries” of historical agreements. The church leaders, including Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, and Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, custos of the Holy Land, accuse local authorities of launching a “coordinated attack” against the Christian presence in the Holy Land. “We believe these efforts represent a coordinated attack on the Christian presence in the Holy Land. At this time when the entire world, and in particular the Christian world, is constantly following the events in Israel, we find ourselves once again faced with an attempt by the authorities to expel the Christian presence from the Holy Land,” the leaders stated in a letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been quoted in various media such as The Times of Israel, Asia News, and UCA News. READ THE FULL STORY       

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Doctors Express Concern About Biden’s Apparent Cognitive Issues During Debate: ‘Troubling Indicators’

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Fox News The first presidential debate of 2024 left many Americans and even some traditional Democratic allies wondering about President Biden’s mental fitness for office based on what appeared to be his unclear train of thought at times and his raspy voice on Thursday night. The White House responded to these concerns, claiming that the president, who is 81, was fighting a cold, but some doctors said they perceive the health issues go beyond the sniffles — with one noting that “it is an issue of fitness, not of age.” Dr. Brett Osborn, a Florida neurosurgeon who specializes in cognitive function, told Fox News Digital on Friday about his concerns.  READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Biden Administration Freezes Student Loan Repayments Following Court Rulings

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Washington Examiner After federal judges in Kansas and Missouri sided in favor of Republican attorneys general by blocking parts of President Joe Biden’s student loan repayment program, the Department of Education announced it is freezing monthly student loan payments and interests of 3 million borrowers. The Saving on a Valuable Education plan, better known as SAVE, determines a borrowers’ monthly payment based on their earnings and family size. There are more than 8 million people signed up for the plan and 4.5 million of them qualify for $0 monthly payments because of their low earnings.   On July 1, the Department of Education was going to implement payment reductions, with many borrowers seeing their payments being cut in half. That measure was blocked by Kansas U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Crabtree. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Poll: Donald Trump Leads Joe Biden in Nevada

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Breitbart Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in Nevada, according to an American Impact Research/Fabrizio Lee/AARP poll. The overall survey shows Trump leading Biden in what has been a blue state in presidential elections since 2008. Trump leads Biden in the state with a three-point advantage, garnering 48 percent support to Biden’s 45 percent support. When third-party candidates are added to the mix, including independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s lead over Biden jumps another four points, giving him a seven-point advantage over the incumbent. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Chip Roy Says He Will File 25th Amendment Resolution to Yank Biden from Office After Debate Implosion

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Chip Roy

Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy said Friday that he plans to introduce a resolution geared toward removing President Joe Biden from office following Thursday night’s presidential debate.

Roy announced his intentions in a post to X on Friday morning, saying that his 25th amendment resolution would mobilize Biden’s cabinet officials to formally declare that the president is incapable of fulfilling his official duties. Biden’s performance during Thursday night’s debate against former President Donald Trump has been broadly characterized as a complete disaster, even by Democratic insiders and media outlets that have largely covered Biden’s presidency and campaign favorably.

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Economists: Housing Costs to Remain Elevated for Foreseeable Future

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Home Sales

Americans looking to buy a home may have to wait as housing costs are expected to remain elevated until 2026 or later, according to a note from Bank of America (BofA) economists published Monday.

Homebuyers are facing elevated interest rates due to sky-high inflation under President Joe Biden and a housing shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic that has led Americans to be hesitant to move, according to BofA. As a result, economists at the bank expect home prices to rise a total of 4.5% throughout the course of 2024 and another 5.0% throughout 2025, before easing slightly in 2026.

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Gov. Glenn Youngkin Declares ‘Virginia Is in Play’ After Poor Debate Performance by President Joe Biden

Tom Pappert
Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin declared in an interview that “Virginia is in play” for former President Donald Trump, following President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance on Thursday.

Youngkin said of the Thursday debate during his Friday morning “Fox & Friends” appearance, “America saw, it was on display, strength versus weakness.”

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Cleveland Browns One of Next NFL Teams in Line with Large Taxpayer Stadium Subsidy Request

The Center Square
Cleveland Browns Stadium

Cleveland is one of the next cities asking for public funding for a renovation or new NFL stadium after the city councils of Charlotte and Jacksonville each approved more than $600 million in public funding.

Browns’ ownership, the Haslam Sports Group, has reportedly pitched Cleveland and Ohio state leadership on funding half of a potential $1.2 billion renovation of Cleveland Browns stadium or having state and local governments each pay $600 million of taxpayer funds – a total of $1.2 billion – toward building a new stadium in Brook Park.

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Connecticut’s Vaccine Exemption Ban Survives Legal Challenge

The Center Square
COVID Vaccine

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case challenging Connecticut’s 2021 ban on religious exemption for school vaccination requirements.

A lawsuit filed by parents and conservative groups argued that the state violated their First Amendment rights by approving a bill that eliminated the option for Connecticut families to request a religious exemption to mandated immunizations when a student enrolls in public school. Several previous court rulings rejected the legal challenge. 

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China a Potential Issue in Michigan U.S. Senate Race

The Center Square
Mike Rodgers and Elissa Slotkin

Foreign policy is an infrequent subject in U.S. Senate campaigns. In Michigan’s Senate election, however, tough talk on the Chinese Communist Party is growing on the campaign trail.

Michigan, a key swing state in 2024’s general elections, will vote this year to elect a successor to retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Though the primary election is Aug. 6, the race has crystallized around Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin and former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers – the leading candidates for their parties’ nominations – who have both attacked the CCP with a frequency unusual among this year’s Senate campaigns.

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Minnesota City Council Votes in Favor of Moratorium on Mosque-Centric Development

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Lino Lakes Council Meeting

The Lino Lakes City Council has voted 4-1 to postpone development of a new residential community centered around a mosque, with a final vote to decide the moratorium coming on July 8.

The development, with the proposed name of “Madinah Lakes,” was slated to cover 156 acres in Lino Lakes’ northwest quadrant. 434 housing units, businesses, and a grocery store, along with the $15 million, 40,000 square foot mosque at its center, were to be built on an area formerly dedicated to sod farming. The community was specifically marketed as “Masjid-Centric” in reference to the mosque.

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Dave McCormick Argues White House Must Consider ‘Responsibility’ to Remove President Joe Biden with 25th Amendment

Tom Pappert
Dave McCormick

U.S. Pennsylvania Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Friday raised the possibility of White House officials using the 25th Amendment to remove President Joe Biden from office due to poor physical fitness due to his poor debate performance on Thursday.

McCormick suggested White House officials consider the 25th Amendment during an appearance on KDKA NewsRadio in Pittsburgh.

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Second Effort to Recall Wisconsin Speaker Fails

The Center Square
Robin Vos

Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos will not face a recall election after the Wisconsin Elections Commission threw out more than a hundred signatures on a petition.

The WEC voted 4-2 on Thursday afternoon to reject the Vos recall petition after it found the number of signatures submitted by the deadline insufficient. Commission staff had recommended Wednesday the commission accept the petition signatures.

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Jacksonville, Florida Will Pay $775 Million in Public Funds Toward $1.4 Billion Jaguars Renovation

The Center Square
J.C. Bradbury

The Jacksonville Jaguars became the second NFL team this week to get a large sum of public money for a stadium renovation when the City Council voted 14-1 to approve $775 million toward a $1.4 billion renovation of EverBank Stadium.

The Jaguars and NFL are expected to pay $625 million toward the project, using NFL G-4 loans along with funds from items such as naming rights through the new 30-year lease and non-relocation agreement.

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Atlanta Fed’s Bostic ‘Optimistic’ Economy Headed ‘In the Right Direction’

The Center Square
Raphael Bostic

The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta remains “quite optimistic that things are heading in the right direction.”

In a video message posted Thursday alongside a longer-form piece, Raphael Bostic, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said that after the inflation rate declined rapidly in the second half of 2023, it seemed to stall early this year.

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Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rejects Kari Lake’s and Mark Finchem’s Appeal Alleging Arizona Officials Lied to the Court, No Sanctions Granted

Rachel Alexander
Kari Lake and Mark Finchem

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from Kari Lake and Mark Finchem alleging that Arizona officials made false statements to the courts regarding their lawsuit to stop the use of electronic voting machine tabulators. The panel of three justices, two who were appointed to the bench by Democratic presidents, gave no reason for their dismissal on June 20, and also denied a motion for sanctions by defendant Maricopa County, which was filed three days prior. 

Lake’s and Finchem’s Motion to Recall Mandate, drafted by attorney Kurt Olsen, stated, “Maricopa’s violations of Arizona law mean its elections have not been shown to be any more reliable than a Ouija board.” The motion said the officials’ alleged lies and perjury, which involved lying about committing misdemeanors, were discovered after obtaining Maricopa County’s tabulator system log (SLOG) files, which the pair maintained contradicted the statements of officials. 

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Commentary: Supreme Court Overturns DOJ’s Use of Key January 6 Felony Court

Julie Kelly
January Six

In a devastating but well-deserved blow to the Department of Justice’s criminal prosecution of January 6 protesters, the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned the DOJ’s use of 18 USC 1512(c)(2), the most prevalent felony in J6 cases.

The statute, commonly referred to as “obstruction of an official proceeding,” has been applied in roughly 350 J6 cases; it also represents two of four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s J6-related criminal indictment of Donald Trump in Washington.

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FDA Vaccine Regulator Shunned COVID Booster, Warns the System Lets ‘Hierarchy Overrule Science’

Just the News
vaccine shot

A 30-year veteran of the Food and Drug Administration said at a congressional hearing this week he resigned in part because top brass sidelined his office to rush the full approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in August 2021, apparently to legally enable a vaccine mandate, then a booster under emergency use authorization over the objections of the agency’s outside advisers.

But former Office of Vaccines Research and Review Deputy Director Philip Krause perhaps saved his biggest embarrassment to the FDA for the end of Wednesday’s hearing on alleged Biden administration political interference in COVID vaccine review: He declined the booster.

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Biden Admin Preparing Deportation Protection for Hundreds of Thousands of Haitians in America

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Haitian Refugees

The Biden administration is planning on extending deportation protection for more than 300,000 Haitians living in the United States.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is rolling out new deportation protections for around 309,000 Haitian nationals, according to a Friday announcement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The maneuver involves giving Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to more recent Haitian arrivals, many of whom fled the island country amid government upheaval, and also extends TPS already designated to hundreds of thousands of other Haitian nationals.

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Bernie Sanders on Biden’s Performance: ‘Not Terribly Articulate to Say the Least’

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The Hill In his first public comments since President Biden took to the debate stage last night, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the president failed to clearly articulate his achievements or vision for the future. “I have to also be very honest with you and tell you that I think the president was not terribly articulate to say the least, and he was not focused,” Sanders said of Thursday’s debate, at a rally in Stevens Point, Wis. “He did not defend a very strong record.”    Sanders’s rally is part of a weeklong campaign swing in the Badger State. The Daily Cardinal, the University of Wisconsin’s student paper, provided audio of the Stevens Point event. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Haitian Migrant Accused of Raping Teen Girl in Boston Freed on $500 Bail

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New York Post A Haitian migrant accused of raping a 15-year-old at a Massachusetts shelter has been released on bail — despite a request from federal immigration officials to keep him in jail. Cory Alvarez, who had been held without bail since his March arrest, was freed on a measly $500 bail on Tuesday after the Plymouth County Superior Court ignored a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to keep the suspect in custody, the Boston Herald reported. Alvarez was released following a dangerousness hearing, a spokesperson with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office told The Post Friday. READ THE FULL STORY                  

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Half of Independents Want Democrats to Replace Biden as the Nominee After Debate

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Washington Examiner Fifty percent of independents think the Democratic Party should nominate someone other than President Joe Biden to have the best chance of winning in November, according to a Friday YouGov survey that was conducted after the first presidential debate. Just 21% of independents said Biden was the best option, while 29% said they were not sure.  By contrast, 39% of independents said the Republican Party should nominate former President Donald Trump to have the best chance of winning, with just 37% saying the party should nominate someone else and 24% being unsure. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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