Retailer Joann Fabrics Files for Bankruptcy as Americans Cut Back on Creature Comforts

Joann Fabrics store

Major fabric and craft retailer Joann announced Monday that it was filing for bankruptcy as consumers pull back on spending due to harsh economic conditions.

The retailer recently reached an agreement with a majority of its financial stakeholders as well as other financing parties, giving the company around $132 million in new financing while also reducing the debt on the company’s balance sheet by around $505 million, according to an announcement from Joann. Retail sales across the U.S. economy have continued to slump in recent months, growing just 0.6 percent month-to-month in February, not including inflation, and declining 1.1 percent in January as consumers pull back on non-essentials as prices rise.

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Trump Unable to Secure $454 Million Appeal Bond in New York Civil Fraud Case, his Attorneys Say

Donald Trump, courtroom

Former President Donald Trump has been unable to secure the $454 million bond, the full amount of the civil fraud judgment against him, which he must post in order to appeal, his attorneys said in a filing Monday.

Trump offered last month to post a $100 million appeal bond rather than the full amount as the process plays out in court, but the judge denied the proposal.

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Commentary: Crafting a New Image for Justice in America

American flag behind barbed wire and fence

Were I of a more entrepreneurial bent, I might go into the statuary business. I would specialize in those statues of “Justice” one sees, or used to see, decorating the façades of courthouses. The old-fashioned, now deprecated models featured a berobed and blindfolded female figure holding aloft a pair of scales. The symbology, now on its way to the graveyard of discarded ideas, was simple but noble.  Justice was blindfolded because she was no respecter of persons.  Neither rank nor party nor sex nor ethnic origin would figure into her calculation of guilt or innocence.  She held scales to emphasize her devotion to impartiality.

Since those ideals have long since been superseded, my thought was to go into business producing new statues of Justice.  The figure could still be female, or at least identify as female, but it should probably be obese and sport dreadlocks. She—or “she”—should not be wearing a robe but rather a T-shirt and dungarees. Instead of a blindfold, this new figure of justice would sport a pride-flag pin and a WinBlue membership card. She would still brandish scales, but one side would be loaded down with affidavits, subpoenas, and indictments.

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Mayes Issues Consumer Alert on Crisis Pregnancy Centers; Republicans Want Retraction

Arizona Republican lawmakers are asking Attorney General Kris Mayes to retract a consumer alert on crisis pregnancy centers.

A news release from Mayes’ office on Wednesday said that the centers, which are meant to assist pregnant women as an alternative to Planned Parenthood or other abortion facilities, are masked as “legitimate healthcare clinics” but have the intent of encouraging women not to have abortions. 

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Elon Musk Defends Trump and Slams Establishment Media for Taking Quote Out of Context

Donald Trump hold a rally in Ohio

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is defending former President Donald Trump on Sunday after multiple establishment media outlets ran headlines stating that the former president warned the U.S. would see a “bloodbath” if he is not reelected. 

Although Trump did use the word “bloodbath” during a speech in Ohio on Saturday, outlets such as NPR, Politico, The Hill, NBC News, The New York Times and others used the term in headlines without context. Musk said the headlines were “legacy media lies” and he made multiple posts Sunday criticizing their use of the term and stressing the need for context.  

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Hunter Biden’s Partners: A Rogues’ Gallery of Corruption, Indictments, and Charges of Treason

Hunter Biden and his associates, in their foray into the world of international deal-making, worked with a rogue’s gallery of foreign partners who were under investigation in their home countries or were convicted in the United States.

In certain cases, the Biden team appeared to use this to their advantage, extracting concessions in exchange for assistance in the United States.

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Trump Endorses Wyoming Senator for Next Senate GOP Whip

John Barrasso

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming to be the next Senate GOP whip Thursday.

Barrasso, who currently serves as the Senate Republican Conference chair, threw his hat in the race after current Minority Whip John Thune announced he’d vie to succeed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump threw his support behind Barrasso for the position in a Truth Social post after the chairman endorsed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in early January for 2024.

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Lawmakers Aim to Ban Colleagues from Market Trading While They Still Buy and Sell

Pete Sessions and Bill Keating

Four members of Congress recently reported buying and selling financial assets, despite co-sponsoring a bill that would ban such trades, disclosures show.

Democratic Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, Jeff Jackson of North Carolina, Bill Keating of Massachusetts and Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas all reported selling or purchasing assets after they signed on as co-sponsors of the TRUST In Congress Act, financial disclosures show. The TRUST In Congress Act would ban members of Congress from directly trading covered investments, which includes securities, commodities futures and similar assets by requiring them to place such assets in a blind trust.

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DNC Forms First-Ever Team to Combat Third-Party Candidates in 2024

RFK White House

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is forming a team to help combat third-party and independent candidates in 2024, which it views as a threat to President Joe Biden’s candidacy, NBC News reported on Thursday.

Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “Justice for All Party” candidate Cornel West, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and a No Labels “Unity Ticket” could all share a ballot with Biden and former President Donald Trump in November. The DNC’s coalition will focus on an aggressive communications strategy, as well as opposition research and legal challenges to counter candidates it views as potential spoilers, sources involved in the effort told NBC News.

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Commentary: Biden, Lenin, and Immigration Language

Migrant Caravan

As an historian, it has been fascinating to watch the left try to impose new language to describe people in the country illegally.

The left has gradually pushed accepted language away from “illegal aliens” (the term in law), to “illegal immigrants” (the most common term), to “undocumented immigrants” (the left’s current favorite term), and now to “newcomers” (the Joe Biden White House’s latest experiment in gaining language dominance).

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Democrat State Rep. Justin Jones Admitted He Walked ‘Across the Border’ with an Illegal Alien

Justin Jones

State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) admitted on the floor of the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday that he walked “across the border” with an illegal alien named Javier after visiting a migrant caravan camp in Mexico last week.

Jones made the admission while speaking in opposition to a bill, HB 2124, on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday.

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Trump Looking to Avoid VP Pick That Is Too Pro-Life: Report

VP Logo

Former President Donald Trump is still weighing his pick for vice president and is looking to avoid a candidate who is too strict about limiting abortion, according to NBC News.

During a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in February, Trump reportedly polled his guests to see where they thought his vice president should fall on the pro-life spectrum, according to individuals close to Trump who spoke to NBC News, one of whom was at the dinner. The former president allegedly asked the diners about the electability of Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

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Legacy of Deception: Democrat-Led, Taxpayer-Funded Machine Exposed Anew for Misleading Americans

Congress

FBI agents took allegations from Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the midst of the 2016 presidential election and provably misled a court by omitting key information, in one case even doctoring evidence.

Fifty-one intelligence experts who derived their credentials from American taxpayers signed a letter cheered on by Joe Biden’s campaign to falsely portray Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation when the FBI had already corroborated it as authentic.

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‘Constitutional Crisis:’ Maine Bill Nationalizes Transgender Hormones as the U.K. Halts Them for Kids

Child at doctor's visit

Conservative elected officials sometimes accuse California of making policy choices for all Americans by dint of its population size and concomitant regulatory power.

Now they are threatening legal action against a Golden State mini-me for legislation that would purportedly override other states’ laws restricting abortion as well as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgeries for gender confusion.

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Democrat Claims Youngkin Unwilling to Compromise on Legal Marijuana, Minimum Wage to Secure Potomac Yards Arena

Virginia Democrats, Youngkin

A Democrat in the Virginia General Assembly claims Governor Glenn Youngkin has refused efforts to bargain his Potomac Yards arena for the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals.

Youngkin’s office reportedly told State Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Charlottesville) that the governor has no interest in signing legislation that would create a legal market for marijuana in the commonwealth, even though Virginia legalized the drug in 2021.

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Border Crisis: Water Scarcity Forces Texas’ Last Sugar Mill to Close

Sugar Cane Farmer

The border crisis has taken on many forms in Texas, from crime to fentanyl poisonings to farmers and ranchers losing their livelihoods.

Another casualty of the border crisis is the U.S. State Department’s failure to hold accountable Mexican government authorities to a 1944 Treaty of Utilization of Waters, resulting in Texas’ last sugar mill shut down, the industry contends. The Rio Grande Valley is bracing for an expected initial $100 million in economic losses as a result.

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Report: Biden Staffers Allege Toxic Work Environment in Advance Office

Biden Cabinet Meeting

A new report claims that dozens of staffers in the Biden Administration have experienced an unhealthy and toxic work environment in the president’s Advance Office.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the article from Politico featured over a dozen individuals who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe what they have gone through. The focus is on former Associate Director Ian Mellul, who resigned on March 1st after the White House Counsel’s Office carried out an investigation into allegations of verbal harassment.

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RFK Jr. Considering Aaron Rodgers, Jesse Ventura for VP

Ventura Rodgers VP

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has confirmed he is considering New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura to serve as a running mate for his independent presidential bid.

Kennedy told the New York Times he is considering both to round out the ticket. Rodgers has previously expressed support for Kennedy, but has another year on his contract with the Jets, according to the New York Post.

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Court Upholds Rule Barring Gender Identity on Kansas Drivers Licenses

Kansas City road

A judge ruled Monday that barring Kansas drivers from identifying as transgender on their licenses did not violate their constitutional rights.

Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach filed a lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in July 2023 after the governor’s office said that the state would continue to issue driver’s licenses reflecting a person’s gender identity despite the Kansas Legislature passing a bill requiring only biological sex on government IDs, according to the Kansas Reflector. Judge Teresa Watson upheld her previous ruling from last year barring the Kansas Department of Revenue from adding options other than a person’s biological sex to driver’s licenses and further stated that the law did not violate transgender individuals’ rights under the state constitution, according to court documents.

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Watchdog: Biden’s 2025 Budget Would Drive National Debt to $45 Trillion in 10 Years, 106 Percent of GDP

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) a budget watchdog group, found that President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2025 budget would drive the national debt to $45.1 trillion or 106 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2034, from $27.4 trillion or about 97 percent of GDP at the present time.

The organization noted that those calculations are based on the Biden administration’s own internal figures. The current $27.4 trillion debt figure is the debt held by the public, not the total national debt including intragovernmental holdings.

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Gov. Youngkin Calls Virginia Budget ‘Completely Backward,’ Hints at Showdown with Democrats in General Assembly

Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin twice referred to the budget proposed by the Virginia General Assembly as “backward” in remarks made Monday, setting the stage for a showdown with Democratic lawmakers in April.

Youngkin first said the commonwealth’s lawmakers created a “backward budget” in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

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FBI Director: Smuggling Organizations Connected to ISIS Coming Through U.S. Border

FBI Director Christopher Wray

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday confirmed that a smuggling organization working with the terrorist organization ISIS is funneling criminals through the U.S. border. He also said the FBI is currently investigating its operations that ‘we’re very concerned about.’

In a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing held on Monday on worldwide threats to the United States, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, asked Wray about threats coming through the U.S. border.

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‘Clearheaded Most of the Time’: Corporate Media Defends Biden’s Lucidity as Interview Transcript Reveals Memory Lapses

Joe Biden and Jill Biden

Corporate media on Tuesday defended President Joe Biden’s lucidity after a transcript of his interview with special counsel Robert Hur was released, showing memory lapses.

Hur issued his report in February on Biden’s handling of classified documents, deciding not to pursue charges against the president and noting several memory lapses. The transcript released on Tuesday backed up the existence of these lapses, but several corporate media outlets attempted to make them seem less significant, reporting on the vast detail Biden went into on certain topics.

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Special Counsel Hur Squares Off with White House, Says Biden ‘Willfully Retained’ Classified Memos

Robert Hur

Special Counsel Robert Hur on Tuesday directly disputed the White House narrative on President Biden’s retention of classified documents after his vice presidency, confirming Biden “willfully” retained classified documents, indicated Biden lied to reporters when he said he did not share such information, and testified his report “did not exonerate” Biden of wrongdoing. 

He insisted in nationally televised testimony to Congress that Biden did “willfully” keep nationally secrets but that prosecutors did not believe they could prove it to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

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Commentary: The Anti-Democratic Democratic Left

BLM protesters

Joe Biden has claimed that his opponents are assaulting democracy on the basis of the January 6, 2020, buffoonish riot.

Aside from the fact that storming the Capitol Rotunda sometimes is apparently deemed permissible—as in the recent pro-Hamas takeover of it—or aside from the fact that disrupting a federal government proceeding is deemed exempt—as in the recent pro-Hamas throng that blocked the route of the presidential motorcade and thus delayed the State of the Union address to the nation by 26 minutes—who really is attacking democracy?

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Arizona U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs Sat Out State of the Union Address: ‘I Do Not Respect Joe Biden’

Rep Andy Biggs

U.S. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) confirmed in a Monday appearance on C-SPAN that he was not in attendance for the joint session of Congress to hear the State of the Union address delivered by President Joe Biden last week, citing his lack of respect for the 81-year-old president.

Asked about the State of the Union address Monday on The Washington Journal, Biggs characterized Biden’s remarks as “a campaign speech” before revealing he watched from his office and did not attend in person.

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Alan Dershowitz Commentary: Who Will Prosecute the Prosecutors?

Fani Willis

If Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis were prosecuting citizen Fani Willis and her former boyfriend Nathan Wade for perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, she would have an extremely strong case. The evidence of perjury is overwhelming; many individuals have been convicted on far less evidence.

Recall that Willis and Wade testified under oath to the material fact that Willis did not hire Wade as special prosecutor while they were having a romantic relationship. They both testified that the romantic relationship began after the hiring decision was made. If that was a deliberate lie, it satisfies all the elements of perjury.

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Study Finds California’s Semi Truck Electrification Comes with Enormous Costs That Hit Consumers

Tesla electric semi truck

In 2022, California adopted regulations that required all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero emissions by 2035. Immediately, 17 states eyed the electric vehicle mandates and started considering their own. That was on top of the Biden administration’s own tailpipe standards, which many say function as a federal EV mandate.

The vision of a forced electric vehicle transition hasn’t quite gone as California and the Biden administration have hoped. But in April 2023, California was still riding high on a wave of EV fever and set its ambitions on electrifying semi truck fleets.

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Trump Takes Victory Lap After Secret Service Driver Disputes Democrats’ J6 Narrative: ‘Fabricated!’

President Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump claimed vindication Monday after new evidence released by Congress undercut two sensational claims Democrats made about him during the Jan. 6 investigation, including that he tried to commandeer his Secret Service vehicle that day to go to the Capitol and never offered National Guard troops for extra protection ahead of the fateful event.

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Team Biden Rolls Out Massive $30 Million Ad Campaign to Capture Crucial Voting Blocs

Joe Biden

President Joe Biden’s campaign is rolling out a new $30 million six-week ad buy in several swing states in a bid to capture crucial voting blocs ahead of November.

The ad campaign will air in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, according to Politico, and aims to tout several Biden initiatives on “climate change” and abortion, as well as address concerns surrounding the president’s mental fitness. The ad campaign parallels a wider administration effort to gain support among African Americans and young people as the president continues to lag behind former President Donald Trump in the polls.

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Youngkin Signs 64 Bills, Vetoes Eight as Path for Potomac Yards Arena Approval Narrows

Gov. Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin on Friday acted on more than 80 bills approved by the Virginia General Assembly. In total, the governor signed 64 new bills into law, amended 12 and vetoed eight.

Youngkin called the 64 bills he signed into law “bipartisan” and “a clear demonstration of what can be achieved when we set politics aside and work together for Virginians” in a statement.

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Connecticut Lawmakers Urged to Shine Sunlight on Local Campaign Finances

CT Capitol Money

Political contributions to municipal elected officials in Connecticut would be more accessible to the public under a proposal being considered by state lawmakers.

The legislation, which is pending before the Legislature’s Committee on Government Administration and Elections, would require candidates running for local elected office to file their required campaign disclosures with the state’s Electronic Campaign Reporting Information System, known as eCRIS, which supporters say will increase transparency in local elections.

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