Oklahoma Supreme Court Rules Against First Publicly-Funded Religious Charter School

Gentner Drummond

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the approval of what would have been the nation’s first publicly-funded religious school was unconstitutional, according to court records.

Oklahoma’s Virtual Charter School Board voted to approve an application for a virtual religious charter school in June 2023, prompting state Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond to file a lawsuit in October to block the funding, calling it “an irreparable violation of our individual religious liberty” and “an unthinkable waste of our tax dollars.” The Oklahoma Supreme Court ultimately sided with Drummond on Tuesday, finding that “under Oklahoma law, a charter school is a public school” and that “as such, a charter school must be nonsectarian,” per court filings.

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Immigration Takes Center Stage in Contested Montana U.S. Senate Race

Tim Sheehy and Jon Tester

Montana has one of the longest shares of the U.S. border with Canada of any state. However, it’s the other border – nearly 1,000 miles away – that is becoming a flashpoint in the state’s ongoing U.S. Senate race.

Montana’s U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is up for re-election this year, with Tester running against Republican nominee Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and aerial firefighter. Sheehy has consistently attacked Tester on immigration and border security – seeking to paint him as an enabler of President Joe Biden’s record on illegal immigration from Mexico – forcing Tester to defend his record.

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Criminal Referral Accuses DOJ’s Kristen Clarke of ‘Perjury,’ ‘False Statements’

assistant attorney general for civil rights Kristen Clarke

The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, will be hit with three ethics complaints and a criminal referral Monday, The Daily Signal has learned.

Article III Project is filing both the ethics complaints and criminal referral, which calls upon Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a criminal probe into Clarke on the grounds that she “knowingly and willfully” made “materially false statements” and that she committed “perjury.”

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Analysis: Americans Say 2024 Race is About the Issues Not Candidates Puts Biden at a Sharp Disadvantage

Joe Biden

The mainstream media is running with the headline that the latest Fox News poll shows Former President Trump two points behind President Joe Biden – a difference well within the margin of error – but the poll also reveals an edge for Trump on a majority of electoral issues. In addition, a majority of voters say the race in November will be about the issues, not about the candidates, a finding that could significantly favor Trump.

The poll does show Trump has lost a modest amount of ground since his conviction earlier this month, however, he remains up significantly with key groups of swing voters compared to 2020. The data continues to show Biden in a deep deficit with minorities and young voters but clawing his way back up with older voters and whites.

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Commentary: The Logic in All the Madness

Joe Biden

by Victor Davis Hanson   Most Americans believe it is unhinged to deliberately destroy the border and allow 10 million illegal aliens to enter the country without background audits, means of support, any claims to legal residency, and definable skills. And worse still, why would federal authorities be ordered to release repeat violent felons who have gone on to commit horrendous crimes against American citizens? Equally perplexing to most Americans is borrowing $1 trillion every 90 days and paying 5-5.5 percent interest on the near $36 trillion in ballooning national debt. Serving that debt at current interest exceeds the size of the annual defense budget and may soon top $1 trillion in interest costs, or more than 13% of the budget. Why would the United States suspend military aid to Israel as it tries to destroy the Hamas architects of the October 7 massacres? Why would it lift sanctions on a terrorist Iran? Why would it suppress Israel’s response to Iran’s missile attack on the Jewish homeland? Why would it prevent Israel from stockpiling key munitions as it prepares to deal with the existential threats posed by Hezbollah? Why would the Biden administration cancel key pipeline projects and put vast…

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Nearly a Third of ‘Pro-Palestine’ Campus Protesters Had a Job Offer Rescinded, Survey Finds

Pro-Palestine protesters

A recent survey found that 3 in 10 college students or recent graduates had job offers rescinded as a result of their “pro-Palestine” activism.

Intelligent surveyed 672 students or recent college graduates who have engaged in anti-Israel activism and found that 29% of them had a job offer rescinded in the past six months and 55% believe there was bias against them in the hiring process because of their activism.

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GOP Rep. Luna to Force Vote Requiring Detention of Attorney General Garland

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna

Florida GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on Monday informed lawmakers that she would bring a resolution to require the House sergeant at arms to detain Attorney General Merrick Garland and bring him before the lower chamber.

The House this month held Garland in contempt of Congress in a 216-207 vote over his refusal to turn over the audio tapes of special counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden. The Department of Justice has indicated it will not prosecute Garland.

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Trump Campaign Says Biden Lied after Snopes Debunks Charlottesville Rally ‘Fine People’ Claim

Joe Biden and Donald Trump (composite image)

Former President Trump’s 2024 campaign said that President Biden lied following Snopes debunking Biden and other Democrats’ claims about Trump’s 2017 press conference related to the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally.

“The Charlottesville lie was another hoax perpetuated by the corrupt Democrats and their mouthpieces in the fake news media, just like the Hunter Biden laptop, the Russian collusion scandal and so many others, all in an attempt to smear President Trump. Joe Biden’s campaign must end any advertising that pushes this lie because President Trump has, once again, been proven right,” said Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt, according Fox News.

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Trump, Censorship and Abortion: The Final Big Rulings SCOTUS Is Expected to Release This Week

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court is expected to release all of its remaining decisions by the end of the week.

Opinions coming down the line include decisions on former President Donald Trump’s presidential immunity appeal, an abortion case from Idaho and a consequential challenge to the Biden administration’s censorship efforts. The next opinion day is scheduled for Wednesday.

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Corn Growers Join Lawsuit Against EPA for Emissions Mandates

Corn Farmer

Several U.S. oil and corn industry lobby groups are suing the Biden Administration over its plans to slash planet-warming tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks. The coalition argues the regulations will cause economic harm.

The EPA finalized new rules for models of semi-trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles released from 2027 to 2032 in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

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Another Report Says CBP, ICE Not Detaining, Removing Inadmissibles Flying into Country

CBP officer

The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued another report identifying ongoing problems with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processes.

A regional CBP and ICE detention and removal processes were ineffective at one major international airport, the OIG audit found. The report redacts the name and location of the airport and CBP and ICE regional offices.

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Pentagon Sued for Records About Deletion of ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ from Mission Statement

West Point

Rather than the words “Duty, Honor, Country,” the new mission statement includes the words “To build, educate, train, and inspire.”

The U.S. Defense Department is facing a lawsuit to turn over emails and documents about how the agency came to delete the phrase “Duty, Honor, Country” from the mission statement of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

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Commentary: Missouri Set to Sue New York for Election Interference as Trump’s July 11 Sentencing Date Looms

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey

After almost a month following former President Donald Trump’s conviction by a New York City jury on May 30, Missouri Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced on June 20 that his state is suing New York for its “direct attack on our democratic process through unconstitutional lawfare against President Trump”.

That’s good — better late than never — as Bailey stands as the first Republican Attorney General to actually announce such a lawsuit, with not much time before Trump’s scheduled sentencing on July 11, which could imprison to presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

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Commentary: The Extraordinary Joys of Ordinary Family Life

Family Unit

Our world of hookup culture, abortion on demand, and fading traditional family structure is pushing a rising number of young people away from wanting to have children. Even married couples are choosing to remain childless, citing everything from financial freedom to environmental concerns.

This drastic decision is often made from a place of fear and blindness, out of worry about what young couples will have to give up if they have a family. But that’s just one side of the coin. These people are also depriving themselves of the extraordinary joys that having children brings to ordinary life. So let’s start shifting the narrative. We can voice the delights of parenthood and share why it’s so meaningful, showing the world how valuable and incredible children are. They change us and challenge us in so many ways. What miracles do little ones bring to our daily lives? Here are just a few:

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Wyoming Sues Biden Administration over Fossil Fuel Ban

Rep. Harriet Hageman

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been chipping away at the oil, gas and coal industries ever since President Joe Biden took office. Wyoming is an energy state that produces half the nation’s coal, as well as part of its oil and gas output. Since the federal government owns nearly half the state’s land, virtually all oil, gas and coal operations in the Cowboy State are heavily impacted by every rule the BLM throws at fossil fuels.

Although the Biden administration is waging war on fossil fuels, Wyoming is fighting back. The state, along with Utah, filed a lawsuit against the agency last Tuesday over its restoration lease program, and Rep. Harriett Hageman, R-Wyo., is rolling out legislation to fight back against the BLM’s proposed ban on federal coal leases.

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In First Five Years, 79,000 of DACA Recipients Admitted to U.S. Had Arrest Records

DACA Rally

Within five years of a new program created to prevent deportation of minors brought into the country illegally by their parents, nearly 80,000 were released into the U.S. with arrest records. The majority were between the ages of 19 and 22 when they were arrested, according to the latest available data published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced he was expanding deportation protections and job opportunities for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by executive order by former president Barack Obama in 2012.

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Commentary: America Doesn’t Need Federal Homeschooling Standards

Home Schooling

Some of you may remember that four years ago this week I debated Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Bartholet who called for a “presumptive ban” on homeschooling. The online event was hosted by the Cato Institute and drew thousands of participants, including many homeschooling families who were incensed by Bartholet’s proposal.

Now, Scientific American is joining the crowd of busybodies eager to constrain a family’s right to raise and educate their children how they choose. “The federal government must develop basic standards for safety and quality of education in home­school­ing across the country,” read a recent editorial in the magazine.

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Biden DOJ Hits Five Pro-Life Activists — Three Already Facing Prison for Blocking Abortion Clinic — with New Lawsuit

Cal Zastrow

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) hit five pro-life activists with a new lawsuit Thursday for allegedly blocking access to an abortion clinic.

Three activists named in the lawsuit — Calvin Zastrow, Eva Zastrow and Chester Gallagher — were previously convicted this year on Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act charges in Tennessee. The lawsuit alleges they, along with defendants Kenneth Scott and Katelyn Sims, “trespassed onto a reproductive health center’s property, blocked the entrances and temporarily stopped operations at the center,” according to the DOJ.

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Commentary: More Catholics Believe in the Eucharist than Previously Thought

Catholic Eucharist

A new study by Catholic market research company Vinea Research found that belief in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist is greater than a 2019 Pew Research study previously estimated.

Pew Research had found that 69 percent of U.S. Catholics personally believe that “the bread and wine used in Communion ‘are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.’” By contrast, only 31 percent of Catholics said that they believe that “the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.”

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Five Illegal Immigrants Charged with Kidnapping 14-Year-Old Girl in American Heartland

Illegal Immigrants

All five men charged with kidnapping a teenage girl are living in the United States illegally, according to local law enforcement officials.

Five men were arrested early Monday morning in northeast Missouri after a 14-year-old Indiana girl was reported missing from her home, according to Fox 4, a Missouri-based outlet. The men — all of them Honduran or Mexican nationals and living in the U.S. illegally — were taken into custody and charged with kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child.

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Biden DHS Board Painted Trump Supporters, Military and Religious People as Potential Terror Risk, Docs Show

People Praying

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory board characterized supporters of President Donald Trump, as well as those who are in the military and religious people, as posing potential domestic terrorism risks, according to internal documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL).

The board, called the “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” was created in September 2023 to provide DHS with “expert” analysis on subjects such as terrorism and fentanyl trafficking. The panel included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, all of whom signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy.

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Instagram Pushes Sexualized Content on 13-Year-Olds Within Minutes of Logging In, Studies Show

Teenager on Phone

Instagram recommends sexualized content to young teenagers within minutes of their first log in, according to studies from The Wall Street Journal and Northeastern computer-science professor Laura Edelson.

The studies, which consisted of scrolling through Instagram Reels using new test accounts with listed ages of 13, found that adult sex-content creators appeared in the test accounts’ feeds in as little as three minutes, according to The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, if a test account chose to skip other forms of content and watch sexually suggestive content to completion, its feed would be dominated by sexualized content in under 20 minutes.

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Over 500,000 Illegal Migrants Crossed Southern Border While Biden Claimed He Had No Power to Stop Them

Illegal Immigrants

Hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals descended on the U.S.-Mexico border between the time President Joe Biden declared there was nothing more he could do to stop illegal immigration and when he issued his executive order.

Border Patrol agents made nearly 525,000 illegal immigrant encounters across the southern border in February, March, April and May, according to the latest data by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Those were the four months between Biden claiming to the media on Jan. 30 that he’s done “all I can do” unilaterally to stop the immigration crisis and the executive order he issued on June 4 that seeks to cap southern border crossings.

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‘Incompetence’: Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Much Money It Sent to Chinese Entities for Risky Virus Research

Science Lab

The Department of Defense (DOD) does not know how much money it directly or indirectly sent to Chinese entities to conduct research on viruses with pandemic potential, according to a new report by the DOD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The OIG’s report found that DOD has supplied Chinese entities — whether directly or indirectly via subgrants — with taxpayer cash to research pathogens and the enhancement thereof, but the exact figure is unknown because of “limitations” in the DOD’s internal tracking system. Government funding for such research in China has come under scrutiny since the coronavirus pandemic, which multiple government entities believe started when an engineered virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory that was hosting U.S. government-backed gain-of-function research.

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Commentary: Geopolitics and Demand Growth Underpin Need for Commonsense Energy Policies

Oil rig

The U.S. energy sector finds itself in a precarious position. Increasing geopolitical volatility and strong energy demand forecasts could spell trouble domestically in the future. The U.S. needs to stop hamstringing American energy companies and invest in the nation’s infrastructure, such as pipelines, processing, and production.

If we have learned anything in the last two and a half years, it’s that the U.S.’ energy industry is not free from geopolitical chaos globally. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Houthi’s attacks in Yemen backed by Iran and turmoil in the Middle East have very real repercussions for the average American. We may not be as intensely intertwined with those realities as our European allies, but energy is a global market with implications for domestic prices, supply, and demand. While different events can affect prices at home, there are steps the administration can take to protect our energy sector.

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Congress Presses to See If U.S. Intel Warned Biden of Son’s Business Deals

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden

House Republicans have built a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Hunter Biden made millions while his father was vice president from business associates with unsavory backgrounds, including a Ukrainian energy firm deemed corrupt by the State Department, a Chinese executive convicted by DOJ of corruption, a Russian oligarch unable to get an American bank account because of red flags, a Romanian oligarch charged with bribery in his country, and two Americans convicted of securities fraud.

And now, an Associated Press/University of Chicago poll shows that two thirds of Americans believe Joe Biden did something illegal or unethical.

But the tangle of complex transactions and foreign names can often complicate the explanations of influence peddling.

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Powerful Union Suddenly Courting Republicans Spent Millions on Liberal Advocacy, New Report Reveals

Sean O'Brien

A massive union that’s suddenly rubbing shoulders with Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — ahead of November’s election has spent millions on left-wing advocacy, a new report shows.

Of the more than $9 million the International Brotherhood of Teamsters spent on political advocacy between 2019 and 2022, 99 percent went to groups linked to the Democratic Party, liberal economic think tanks and anti-Trump media operations, according to a new report from the Center for Union Facts given exclusively to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Despite the union’s strong leftward lean, the Teamsters have donated to the Republican National Committee (RNC), petitioned to speak at the party’s convention in July and even met with Trump as part of a broader effort to ingratiate themselves with conservatives.

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Huge Percentage of EV Owners Want to Go Back to Normal Cars, Study Finds

Tesla Charging

Nearly half of American electric vehicle (EV) owners want to buy an internal combustion engine model the next time they buy a car, according to a new study from McKinsey and Company, a leading consulting firm.

Approximately 46 percent of Americans who own an EV want to go back to a standard vehicle for their next purchase, citing issues like inadequate charging infrastructure and affordability, according to McKinsey’s study, which was obtained and reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The study’s findings further suggest that the Biden administration’s EV push is struggling to land with American consumers, after 46 percent of respondents indicated that they are unlikely or very unlikely to purchase an EV in a June poll conducted by The Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.

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Wikipedia Is Biased in Favor of Liberals, Study Finds

Wikipedia entries are more likely to paint public figures on the right in a negative light than the left, a Manhattan Institute study released Thursday found.

The study analyzed the sentiments of 1,628 words that were used in reference to political topics and found that Wikipedia generally uses more negative terms in reference to right-leaning public figures, and less when referencing left-leaning figures. The results would suggest that Wikipedia is contradicting its “neutral-point-of-view” policy, according to the study.

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Latino Voters in Key Swing-States Trust Trump More on Handling Immigration than Biden, Poll Shows

Donald Trump in front of border wall (composite image)

More Latino voters trust former President Donald Trump on immigration issues over President Joe Biden, according to a new poll in key swing states.

Forty-one percent of Hispanic voters trust Trump to handle immigration while only 38 percent said the same for Biden, according to a newly-released Equis poll. The survey reached out to 1,592 registered Latino voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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Commentary: Biden Gun Regulations Don’t Affect Mass Shootings

Shooting Range

President Biden is making gun control a central part of his reelection campaign. In a new ad, Biden says that Trump did “nothing” when children were “gunned down in classrooms,” innocent people “killed in church,” and others “massacred at a concert.”

The Biden campaign is referring to shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas; and an outdoor concert in Las Vegas. In four years, there were 18 mass shootings that occurred in public places and that did not transpire during another crime such as robbery or selling drugs. (A “mass killing” is defined by criminologists as involving four or more fatalities, not counting the shooter.)

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Biden Posts Worst Showing in 20 Years with Absolutely Crucial Voting Bloc, Analysis Finds

Biden voters

President Joe Biden’s lead with women voters is the lowest showing Democrats have seen in 20 years, according to a recent average of polls compiled by The New York Times.

Biden’s lead among women had dipped down to single digits, which is the weakest lead Democrats have had in two decades, according to polling averages compiled by the NYT. Former President Donald Trump is leading among men in the double digits, eclipsing Biden’s lead with women and potentially jeopardizing his reelection, according to the aggregate polls.

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Music Spotlight: Tae Lewis

Having lived in Nashville for more than 12 years, I have learned you never know who you will meet or see perform at a random writers’ round who may become the next big thing. And even though I only watch bits and pieces of the music competition shows, I was watching The Voice this year because Music Spotlight artist, Donny Van Slee, was on it.

But I got the shock of my life when I saw Tae Lewis in the Knockout Round. When he sang Cody Johnson’s “Nothing on You,” you could have picked me up off the floor. I remember sitting next to Lewis at the Listening Room a few years back. His friend introduced him as a new artist in town (of which there are literally hundreds).

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Feds Try to Delay Release of Non-Public COVID Vaccine Safety Data Until at Least 2026

Man receiving vaccine

The Biden administration is seeking to delay until at least 2026 the release of COVID-19 vaccine safety data that has been kept outside the government’s normal adverse events reporting system.

The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services asked U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton this week to issue an 18-month stay that keeps them from having to release the Food and Drug  Administration’s data to Just the News under the Freedom of Information Act.

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