Florida Follow-Up Audit Finds Discrepancies with Economic Incentive Programs

The Florida Auditor General recently published a follow-up audit of the Sunshine State’s economic incentives programs and found some uncorrected issues remain.

The Florida Department of Commerce assists the governor in working with the Legislature, state agencies, business leaders, and economic development professionals. For fiscal 2023-24, state lawmakers appropriated approximately $1.8 billion.

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Commentary: The Crucial Importance of an Independent Judiciary

Supreme Court

The independent judiciary established by our Constitution has inspired the world. Even British law, which developed and preserved constitutional liberties, and whose firm sense of political rights inspired the American Founders, has only in the last two decades undertaken to separate its judiciary from Parliament’s supremacy.

The Framers of the Constitution were keenly aware of how Britain’s constitution had failed them. Britain’s judiciary had no power to keep Parliament in check when it passed the Intolerable Acts and the other outrages to which the Declaration of Independence objected. Previously, the courts proved unable to rein in the Stuart kings’ grabs for supremacy; war resulted.

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Navajo Nation, Energy Company at Odds over Uranium Ore Transportation

Navajo Nation

Navajo Nation leaders are unhappy with the transportation of uranium ore along the reservation on Tuesday.

President Buu Nygren said the transport from Energy Fuels was done without his permission and sent out law enforcement in hopes of stopping the transportation, which was unsuccessful. According to a news release, the nation is currently making guidelines for uranium ore movement.

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Rochester Public Schools Threatened with Lawsuit over District’s Transgender Policy

Classwork

A pair of non-profit public interest law firms have threatened to sue Rochester Public Schools (RPS) if the district utilizes its new pro-transgender policy to “transition a child without parental consent.”

Just weeks ago, the RPS school board gave final authorization to a new policy governing how the district will “address the needs and concerns of transgender and/or gender-expansive students” in its schools. According to that policy, if a child changes their name, or begins using a different bathroom, the school district will only alert the child’s parents if the parent specifically asks about such information.

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Connecticut’s Top Court Upholds Ban on Religious Exemptions

Kid Vaccine

Connecticut’s highest court has rejected another legal challenge to the state’s pandemic-era law repealing religious exemptions for school vaccine requirements.

Connecticut’s Supreme Court ruling rejected several claims by the plaintiffs in the case, who argued that the state’s 2021 move to eliminate religious exemptions violated the state and U.S. constitutions. However, justices agreed to sustain claims that the law violates Connecticut’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, sending the issue back to a lower court to decide.

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South Carolina Supreme Court Approves Firing Squad, Other Execution Methods for Death Penalty

South Carolina Supreme Court

The South Carolina Supreme Court granted approval for the state Wednesday to conduct executions by firing squad and electrocution.

The state passed a law in 2021 allowing the use firing squads and electrocution as execution methods, according to The Hill. However, the approval was temporarily halted due to death row inmates suing the state, despite death by electrocution becoming a default method when the state could not provide lethal injection drugs.

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Georgia Mayor Wants City to Reimburse over $40,000 in Expenses, Including $10,000 Spent on Jill Biden and $2,400 on Trip to White House

Garnett Johnson

Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson on Tuesday asked the Augusta City Council to reimburse more than $40,000 in expenses to his personal credit card he claims were necessary for the city to conduct its business, including $10,000 to facilitate a visit from First Lady Jill Biden and more than $2,000 for a trip to the White House.

Johnson claimed to the city council on Tuesday that the expenses were within the city’s budget, and suggested he used his personal credit card as a matter of efficiency.

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Arizona Supreme Court Unanimously Rules Against Unions in Labor Suit

Teamster Protest

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that allowing government employees to take paid time to take care of union-related activities is against the constitution’s gift clause.

In Gilmore v. Gallego determined that “release time” as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the city is an incorrect use of taxpayer dollars.

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Cincinnati Man Sentenced to over Seven Years in Jail for Robbing Postal Carrier at Gunpoint

Lamarion Gray

A 19-year-old Cincinnati man was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on Wednesday for robbing a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service at gunpoint last year, according to the Southern District of Ohio U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Lamarion Gray, according to court documents, approached the female carrier delivering mail on foot on the afternoon of July 12, 2023, where he brandished a firearm, pointed it at the victims, and demanded that she turn over her keys.

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First Two Prosecution Witnesses in Trial of Former Colorado Elections Clerk Referred Disparagingly to Conservative News Site

The trial against former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters over her efforts combating election fraud began this past week where two witnesses for the prosecution testified all day made disparaging remarks about The Gateway Pundit, a conservative news site.

The prosecution’s first witness, James Cannon, who identified himself as the chief investigator for the Mesa County District Attorney, said The Pundit was “a conspiracy site.” The prosecution’s second witness, Jesse Romero, who described himself as the voting systems manager for the Colorado Secretary of State’s (COSOS) Elections Division, said the news site posted an article with a “bombastic title.”

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ICE Confirms Man in Deadly Shootout with Texas Police Entered U.S. Illegally

Jorge Jose Chacon-Gutierrez

Federal immigration authorities confirmed that a man killed after getting into a Sunday shootout with San Antonio police had entered the United States unlawfully less than a year ago.

Jorge Jose Chacon-Gutierrez allegedly exchanged fire with three San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) officers early Sunday morning inside an apartment home after the officers arrived in response to a domestic violence call, according to KSAT, a local outlet. The shootout left Chacon-Gutierrez dead and one officer, Viviana Rodriguez, hospitalized.

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Star News Network, Michael Patrick Leahy Launch Appeal After Nashville Judge Blocks Covenant School Killer’s Journal from Public

Audrey Hale and I'Ashea Myles

Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Tennessee Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy launched an appeal on Wednesday to reverse Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles’s ruling blocking the release of even one page of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

Lawyers for SNDM, including America First Legal Foundation attorney Nicholas Barry and attorney Paul Krog, officially filed notice with the Court of Appeals of Tennessee at Nashville that it intends to appeal, making SNDM and Leahy the first plaintiffs to appeal Myles’ July 4 ruling.

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State Sen. Brent Taylor Responds to ‘Misinformation’ Claims over Push to Oust D.A. Steve Mulroy, Publishes Full Transcript of Interview

Steve Mulroy and Brent Taylor

Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) on Wednesday published his public response to the MLK50 article, which accused him of using misinformation about Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and Memphis crime in his effort to oust the district attorney from office.

In addition to rebutting or providing context to the five alleged points of misinformation MLK50 reporter Katherine Burgess included in the publication’s report, Taylor also provided the full transcript of the email interview he completed at Burgess’ request.

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Illegal Migrant Arrested for Ditching Baby in Dumpster Immediately After Giving Birth in Taco Truck

Everilda Cux Ajtzalam

A woman arrested for allegedly leaving her newborn baby in a dumpster is living in the United States unlawfully, federal immigration authorities confirmed on Wednesday.

The Houston Police Department charged Everilda Cux Ajtzalam with child abandonment after she allegedly left her baby in a dumpster in southwest Houston earlier this month, according to ABC13, a Houston-based outlet. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Ajtzalam is an illegal migrant who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor.

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Evidence Gathered Since January 6 Shows Select Committee Investigation Missed Key Security Failures

January 6 protesters

New evidence gathered by Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight’s investigation into Capitol security on Jan. 6, and the breach, shows that the Democrat-led Select Committee’s investigation missed some of the most important evidence of security failures and missteps that led to the events of that day.

Years of investigation and multiple reports later, the official January 6 probe from the Select Committee missed several key developments that have now come to forefront in the debate over how the U.S. government can learn from what happened on the day the U.S. Capitol was breached.

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Key House Investigator Vows to Pierce Coverup on Secret Service’s January 6 Failures with a Subpoena

As Congress turns its attention to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life, a key House investigator vowed Monday to issue a subpoena to force the disclosure of a long-delayed report on an earlier Secret Service failure to detect a bomb that could have jeopardized Kamala Harris’ life the morning of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general has completed a report on Secret Service missteps during the Capitol crisis 3 ½ years ago but is refusing to release it even though footage Just the News published a year ago shows Secret Service agents took then Vice President-elect Harris within 10 yards of an undetected explosive device planted at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., said.

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Possible Social Media Posts of Trump Shooter Have ‘Anti-Semitic’, ‘Anti-Immigrant’ Themes, FBI Says

Thomas Matthew Crooks

The FBI told two Senate committees in a hearing Tuesday that it has identified a possible social media account “believed to be associated with” the Trump rally shooter Thomas Crooks that reflects “anti-semitic” and “anti-immigrant” beliefs, suggesting for the first time a possible motive.

“Some of these comments, if ultimately attributable to the shooter, appear to reflect antisemitic and anti-immigration themes, to espouse political violence and are described as extreme in nature,” FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate told a combined hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees.

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Lawsuit Filed Against ‘Arrogant’ ‘Make Elections (Un)Fair Act’ That ‘Radically Alters Arizona’s Constitutional Structure’

People Voting

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) filed a lawsuit against the Make Elections Fair Act (MEFA) on Friday. The complaint alleged that the initiative violates the Arizona Constitution by illegally combining multiple constitutional amendments in one ballot initiative. It said the “Make Elections (Unfair) Act” will “radically alter Arizona’s constitutional structure in multiple ways.”

“In their rush to undermine the will of Arizona voters for future elections, the special interests that drafted this measure ignored our laws and our Constitution,” said Scot Mussi, president of AFEC in a statement. “This egregious disregard for law and order exudes arrogance from these parties and should disqualify their measure from the November ballot.”

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Acting Secret Service Chief Played Key Role in Limiting Resources for Trump

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was directly involved in denying additional security resources and personnel, including counter snipers, to former President Trump’s rallies and events – despite repeated requests by the agents assigned to Trump’s detail in the two years leading up to his July 13 attempted assassination, according to several sources familiar with the decision-making.

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Davidson County Chancery Court Rules Law Shrinking Size of Metro Nashville Council Is Unconstitutional

Metropolitan Council Office

he Davidson County Chancery Court ruled 2-1 on Monday that Tennessee’s law capping the number of elected officials in the Metro Nashville-Davidson County City Council to 20 is unconstitutional.

Governor Bill Lee signed SB87/HB48 into law on March 9, 2023, which requires that the governing body of a municipality or Metropolitan government must “dissolve, combine, or reapportion districts or wards, as necessary, so that the number of members elected to the governing body does not exceed 20 voting members.”

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Judge Previously Dropped Burglary, Theft Charges for Illegal Immigrant Accused of Killing Nashville Restaurant Owner

Ulises Martinez and Judge Jim Todd in a courtroom (composite image)

The illegal immigrant accused of killing Nashville restaurant owner Matthew Carney on June 19 previously saw unrelated charges for burglary and theft dropped by a Davidson County judge who was apparently unaware of the alleged criminal’s immigration status.

Ulises Raigoz-Martinez was charged by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Homicide Unit after the fatal hit-and-run crash of the Smokin Thighs restaurant owner, with MNPD stating Martinez “admitted that he and an associate” were attempting to steal tools from Carney’s truck when he discovered them.

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Commentary: Is Janet Napolitano Fit to Investigate the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump?

Janet Napolitano

Department of Homeland Security director Alejandro Mayorkas is assembling a 45-day  “independent security review” of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13. For this task Mayorkas selected: Chief David Mitchell, the former superintendent of Maryland State Police and former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware; Mark Filip, a former federal judge and Deputy Attorney General to President George W. Bush; Ms. Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush; and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Her stint in that job gives the people cause to wonder.

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Virginia Police Clear Anti-Israel Encampment Outside Antony Blinken’s House After Six Months

Anti-Israel protesters outside of Anthony Blinken's home

Virginia State Police cleared the anti-Israel encampment constructed near the home of Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday after it subsisted for over six months.

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) worked with the Virginia State Police to clear the encampment previously constructed on the shoulder of Chain Bridge Road near Blinken’s home on Saturday, with VDOT stating to WTOP the encampment was “unsafe for motorists, bikers and pedestrians and blocks access to emergency vehicles and personnel.”

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Historian Turned Lawyer Finds Second Career Suing ‘Ridiculous, Clearly Out of Control Universities’

Michael Thad Allen

“These universities are so arrogant and so disrespectful of their taxpayers’ wishes and, quite frankly, their money, that it’s infuriating.”

So says Michael Thad Allen, once a tenured history professor who found a second career as a lawyer defending college students and faculty against “hallucinatory” accusations from what he calls “Campus Cloudcuckooland.”

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FBI, Secret Service Silent After Nashville Woman Threatened to Assassinate President Trump

IreYanna Thomas

Neither the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nor the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) was willing to confirm whether they are investigating a Nashville woman who threatened to kill former President Trump at while he gave a keynote speech at Bitcoin 2024, the largest Bitcoin conference in the world. 

The conference was held over the weekend in Nashville. 

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ABC’s ‘This Week’ Interviews SWAT Sharpshooters: Group Had ‘No Communication’ with Secret Service Prior to Trump Assassination Attempt

Local SWAT Sharpshooters

The lead sharpshooter of the SWAT Team working alongside the U.S. Secret Service during the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the group had “no communication” with the agency until after the shooting.

In an interview with ABC News reporter Aaron Katersky, the local SWAT team from Beaver County, Pennsylvania, appeared on the outlet to discuss security concerns from the day around the assassination attempt against Trump. On the day of the rally, the SWAT group was positioned within the second floor of the building that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks later used throughout the day to shoot from, with the lead sharp shooter noting that the SWAT team was supposed to receive a “face-to-face briefing” with the Secret Service agents when they had arrived on site; however, it never happened.

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Biden Proposes Sweeping Changes to the Supreme Court, Constitutional Amendment

Joe Biden

An op-ed under President Joe Biden’s byline in the Washington Post on Monday outlined his proposal to make major changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, calling for a Constitutional amendment to “ensure no president is above the law.”

“[T]he Supreme Courts decision on July 1 to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution for crimes they commit in office means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,” Biden wrote. “The only limits will be those that are self-imposed by the person occupying the Oval Office.”

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Rate of Shoplifting Spikes Across U.S.

Shop Lifting

The rate of shoplifting saw a noticeable increase in the first half of 2024, even as the rates of other crimes fell to levels not seen since before the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Daily Caller, a study by the Council of Criminal Justice (CCJ) determined that shoplifting rose by 24% in 23 different cities across the country, compared to the first half of 2023. That rate is also about 10% higher than the first half of 2019. Meanwhile, the rates of homicide and robbery fell to lower than the levels seen in 2019.

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California Punished Female Inmates for Reporting Male Assault with Revoked Parole, Solitary: Suit

Woman Inmate

With leading Democrats lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the party’s presidential nomination and their telegenic party attack dog California Gov. Gavin Newsom seen as a potential second banana, Republicans are likely to warn voters what they can expect if the woke Californians reach the White House.

That includes taxpayer funding for prison inmates who identify as the opposite sex to get so-called gender-affirmation surgery, for which Harris took credit as California attorney general, and a law signed by Newsom (SB 132) that grants inmates placement based on their self-declared gender identity, setting off a wave of transfer requests to women’s prisons.

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Commentary: With Chevron Dead, It’s Time to Challenge the Feres Doctrine

Supreme Court

Last month the Supreme Court ended the 40-year precedent known as the Chevron Doctrine. When the Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council ruling was handed down in 1984 there was nil understanding that it would enable the burgeoning 20th Century administrative state to dig its foundation down to societal bedrock. This legal precedent tied the hands of lower courts over the next 40 years, forcing them to defer to administrative agencies on how to interpret the law in areas that congress did not offer crystal clarity.

Chevron opened the door for succeeding precedents like the 2005 ruling in the National Cable & Telecommunications Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Services case, which enabled governmental agencies to “override judicial constructions of ambiguous federal laws by promulgating their own conflicting, yet authoritative, interpretations.” In 2020, Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the Brand X opinion, lamented the ruling, rightly noting that it further ensconced judicial doctrine to the point of “administrative absolutism.” In essence, Chevron, and subsequent precedent under its umbrella, allowed presidential administrations to legislate around congress through cabinet agency directors.

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Arizona Judge Strikes Down Legislative Language on Voter Guide for Abortion Initiative

Abortion Supporters

Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition looking to put legal access to abortion in the Arizona constitution, won their lawsuit against the Arizona Legislative Council over the language in a voter guide that will accompany their ballot measure.

On July 3, Arizona for Abortion Access successfully submitted enough signatures, over 823,000, to put the abortion measure on the November ballot for voters to decide whether abortion access should be enshrined in the Arizona constitution.

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Environmentalists Grateful for Appellate Win over Chemical Industry Giant

Chemours

Health advisories issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about the risks of chemicals produced at a North Carolina plant on the Cape Fear River are lawful and not reviewable by a court.

In a ruling by three judges Tuesday at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Justice Arianna Freeman wrote, “The health advisory provides guidance, but it imposes no obligations, prohibitions, or restrictions. The health advisory also does not give rise to any ‘direct and appreciable legal consequences.’”

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NRA Files Lawsuit Against Biden ATF over New Gun Dealer Rule

Gun Owner

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), as well as Attorney General Merrick Garland, over a new federal rule pertaining to firearms dealers.

As the Daily Caller reports, the ATF first imposed a new rule in April redefining what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling firearms, so that the law would now include anyone who simply sells a smaller number of guns. The NRA filed its lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, seeking an injunction to block enforcement of the regulation.

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Whistleblower Report: Local LEOs Refuse to Share Information with FBI Due to ‘Disturbing Loss of Trust’

FBI logo outside of building

Police departments throughout the United States have stopped sharing information with the FBI due a “disturbing loss of trust” in the Bureau, an alarming new whistleblower report has found.

An alliance of retired and active duty FBI special agents and analysts examined the attitudes of the Bureau’s “local law enforcement partners,” drawing on the testimony of more than 30 “independent, highly credible law enforcement sources and sub-sources” across the country.

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ICE St. Paul Field Office Removes Illegal Immigrant Wanted for Rape of a Minor in Mexico

Andres Palacios Pizano

A federal immigration enforcement office based in St. Paul has removed an illegal immigrant who was wanted in Mexico for rape of a minor.

On July 18, Andres Palacios Pizano, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant, was transferred to Mexican authorities after being picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) St. Paul Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office. A “recidivist offender of U.S. immigration law,” Pizano has been removed from the United States by ICE six times since 2017.

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