A federal judge sentenced Georgia’s former state insurance commissioner to more than three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges that he participated in a health care fraud scheme.
U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones sentenced John W. Oxendine, 62, of Port St. Joe, Florida, to three years and six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The former elected official must also pay $760,175.34 in restitution and a fine of $25,000.
Read the full story
Virginia’s traffic fatalities decreased last year for the first time since the pandemic and after a significant increase from 2020-2021 — but they’re still up by 24 percent since 2013.
These trends generally mirror national traffic trends, with traffic fatalities up 25 percent nationally during that same period, according to TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit. The U.S. saw a dramatic rise in traffic fatalities in 2021 and a “modest decrease” in 2022 and 2023.
Read the full story
Tying Donald Trump to Project 2025 is the latest desperation tactic from Democrats. But it’s likely to backfire. It might actually create a new generation of Conservatives in the process.
Last year, the Heritage Foundation published the Mandate for Leadership as assembled by a consortium of people and think tanks called Project 2025. It is a compilation of long-standing recommended Conservative policies for the next Republican administration. The Project 2025 group claims the document is “the Conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next Conservative administration to govern at noon, January 20, 2025.”
Read the full story
A legal framework for carbon capture and sequestration, part of a plan to reduce emissions and advance hydrogen development, has made it through the General Assembly.
It now awaits the governor’s signature.
Read the full story
Inflation and increased migratory flow are causing the cost of housing migrantsat Mexico’s southern border to triple, according to a calculation by theTapachula branch of the National Chamber of Commerce for Services and Tourism (CANACO) and reported by the EFE Spanish language News Agency on Wednesday.
CANACO are local chambers of commerce in Mexico that are represented on a national level by the National Confederation of the Chambers of Commerce, which reports concerns to the Mexican federal government.
Read the full story
A campaign rally for former President Donald Trump faced a violent interruption due to an assassination attempt. The FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The attack, which occurred just as Trump began his speech, killed former fire chief Corey Comperatore and critically injured two others before U.S. Secret Service agents neutralized Crooks. Crooks had no social media presence, and very little is known about his life and possible motive.
According to state records, Crooks is a registered Republican but reportedly made a $15 donation to ActBlue as a 17-year-old after President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Despite this, the FBI has not identified any ideology that may have influenced his actions, as officials explained on a call with reporters.
Read the full story
An attendee who witnessed the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at his Saturday campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania told The Pennsylvania Daily Star that Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick was “definitely in the line of fire” as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire before being killed by Secret Service.
Brady Knox told The Star he was seated in the second row, “about as close as you could possibly get” to the former president at just 15 feet away, when Trump’s supporters in the front rows began to take cover after the former president reached for his ear and ducked below the podium.
Read the full story
How many men have faced the crucible of a near-death experience and came out triumphant? America just watched Donald Trump’s great moment of testing and saw him prove his mettle.
When we tell our children about the assassination attempt on Trump’s lifein Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, we will remember the moment when a man, wounded and bloodied, raised his fist in the air and shouted, “Fight! Fight!”
Read the full story
An attendee who witnessed the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at his Saturday campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania told The Pennsylvania Daily Star that Trump’s fist pumps toward the crowd created a sense of calm in an audience that was on the verge of panic.
Brady Knox told The Star he was seated in the second row, “about as close as you could possibly get” to the former president at just 15 feet away, when Trump’s supporters in the front rows began to take cover after the former president reached for his ear and ducked below the podium.
Read the full story
All 11 members of the Tennessee congressional delegation have publicly issued statements following Saturday’s assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Read the full story
Former President Donald Trump announced that he would be arriving in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention as scheduled on Sunday less than 24 hours after surviving an assassination attempt at a campaign rally.
Read the full story
Corey Comperatore, the man fatally shot at attempted assassination of President Trump, was a former fire chief from Butler, Pennsylvania. Comperatore was known for his dedication to his family, love of Jesus and service to the community. He was attending the rally with his family when the shooting occurred. Despite the immediate medical intervention by an emergency room physician, Dr. James Sweetland, Comperatore’s injuries were too severe. Comperatore was seated behind former President Trump at the rally.
Read the full story
Former First Lady Melania Trump issued a statement calling on the nation to unite following Saturday afternoon’s failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Read the full story
Multiple Democratic candidates and elected officials in Tennessee are being denounced on social media for their reactions to former President Donald Trump surviving what appeared to be an attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
Read the full story
Steve Bannon, former chief strategist to former President Donald Trump and host of the popular show War Room, made a statement from prison in response to the apparent assassination attempt of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Read the full story
Billionaire Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of the social media platform X, endorsed former President Donald Trump on Saturday after a gunman attempted to assassinate the former president during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Musk later called for Secret Service resignations in the wake of the shooting, which left one rally attendee dead and a second injured.
Musk posted a video of the attempted assassination in to X, where he received more than 55 million views at press time, and wrote, “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.”
Read the full story
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott and Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert issued a joint statement just hours after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in Pennsylvania:
“We were shocked and alarmed to learn of the violence that took place at the rally today. This is not a reflection of our shared values.
Read the full story
A top Republican lawmaker is ordering Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to provide key documents pertaining to illegal migrants encountered at the southern border who have potential ties to terrorism.
House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green issued the subpoena to Mayorkas on Friday, requiring him to hand over all “documents and communications” since Jan. 20, 2021, that could shed light on the matter. The chairman is accusing Mayorkas of slow-walking requests for information about the number of suspected terrorists illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a letter from Green.
Read the full story
Election-integrity policies are increasing gaining mainstream appeal and acceptance, despite Democrats opposing them under their repeated claim that they are only part of right-wing falsehoods.
From preventing non-citizen voting in U.S. elections to voter ID, Democrats have largely opposed a wide range of election integrity policies that a majority of Americans believe are necessary for the security of elections.
Read the full story
Tech giant Meta announced Friday it will be lifting former President Donald Trump’s “heightened suspension penalties” on Facebook and Instagram as the 2024 elections grow closer.
President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, released an updated statement on the company’s site, announcing the change to the protocols from January 2023, specifically for Trump’s restrictions, in order for users to “hear from political candidates.” The company stated the previous restrictions on Trump had been placed in “response to extreme and extraordinary circumstances” following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Read the full story
Billionaire Elon Musk reportedly made a “sizable” donation to a super political action committee (PAC) helping to elect former President Donald Trump for the 2024 race, according to sources speaking on anonymity to Bloomberg.
The alleged super PAC donation from Musk was to a low-profile group known as America PAC, sources familiar with the matter told the outlet. While it is not confirmed how much the reported donation was for, the PAC is expected to reveal its list of donors on July 15.
Read the full story
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled 2-1 to uphold a decades-long Tennessee policy that prohibits changes to a person’s sex on their birth certificate to reflect their gender identity instead of their biological sex at birth.
The policy treats the sex listed on a birth certificate as a historical fact unchangeable by an individual’s transition to a different gender identity.
Read the full story
Most countries allow only their own citizens to vote in national electionsand require voters to prove their eligibility to vote through photo identification when they register and before they cast their vote. Here in the U.S., verifying eligibility and registering voters is left to the states. You would hope that the federal government would want to assist the states, especially when it comes preventing foreign interference, and that election integrity would be a bipartisan issue.
You’d think that a bill requiring U.S. states to obtain proof of citizenship before registering voters would have wide support. Such a proposal, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act (H.R. 8281), passed the House of Representatives Wednesday—but with only five Democrat votes. And the Biden administration “strongly opposes” it.
Read the full story
Full-time workers in Ohio need to make nearly $21 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in the state, according to a new report highlighting the gap between rent and wages.
The 2024 Out of Reach Ohio report details what the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing and Ohio calls a significant gap between renters’ income and the cost of rent.
Read the full story
Active duty soldiers, veterans, and their families in southern Arizona are being told by pharmacies located on federal military bases that their prescriptions cannot be renewed due to lack of funding. The Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center pharmacy located at Ft. Huachuca, known as an installation pharmacy, is currently undergoing one of these shortages, telling customers there will be no funds available until July 17. The pharmacy is directing customers to commercial pharmacies where they must pay out of pocket for their medications.
Army veteran Jack Dona, who is part of CONELRAD, a think tank looking into election fraud, told The Arizona Sun Times he discovered the problem when attempting to refill prescriptions over a week ago there. He was forced to refill them out of pocket at a nearby Walgreens instead.
Read the full story
Dr. Robert Redfield, the former director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pushed a false “safe and effective” COVID vaccine narrative by underreporting adverse events. The mRNA shots “never should have been mandated,” Redfield told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday.
The Democrat-controlled Senate oversight hearing entitled “Risky Research: Oversight of U.S. Taxpayer Funded High-Risk Virus Research,” included witnesses Dr. Gerald Parker, Dr. Carrie Wolinetz, Dr. Kevin Esvelt, and Redfield.
Read the full story
“Three acres and a cow” became a slogan for those who promoted small landholdings in 1880s England. It was thought to represent an ideal setup for the average family. As it happens, I’ve somehow ended up with exactly that: three acres and a cow—specifically, a Jersey-Fleckvie mix gifted to us by my wife’s dairy-farming family.
The cow is an emblem of an age-old form of true civilization, where men tame the wild without destroying it. The grassland is fenced off, given a shape, form, and purpose, and the animal lives quite a comfortable life, except perhaps for its last day, in which it, too, serves a higher purpose.
Read the full story
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday night described the chaotic scene at his Pennsylvania rally, where a bullet pierced through his upper right ear.
Read the full story
Former President Donald Trump survived an attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, reportedly suffering only a grazing wound to his ear after apparent gunshots interrupted his campaign rally.
The violence claimed the life of one rally attendee, and the shooter was confirmed dead at the scene, according to The Associated Press, which obtained the information from Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger. A second attendee at the rally is reported to be in serious condition, according to The Washington Post reporter Meryl Kornfield.
Read the full story
Gunshots erupted and Donald Trump was pulled to the ground. About a minute later he stood up, raised his fists defiantly, and was removed by Secret Service into a car and taken from the scene.
Read the full story
Just hours after he was busy thanking fans on social media for their birthday wishes, legendary fitness instructor Richard Simmons died on Saturday at age 76, according to the New York Post.
Read the full story
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed three White House staffers on Wednesday alleging they are “running interference” for President Joe Biden over his perceived mental decline.
Biden left many Democrats concerned over his performance at the first presidential debate last month, after he stumbled his way through his responses, which raised questions about his ability to serve as commander-in-chief for another four years.
Read the full story
David Morens, a senior adviser to then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, once told an ally “our FOIA lady” showed him “how to make emails disappear after I am FOIA’d but before the search starts.” He’s now on administrative leave.
Fauci’s former chief of staff, Greg Folkers, appeared to intentionally misspell proper nouns and names likely to be sought in Freedom of Information Act requests related to COVID-19 origins.
Read the full story
Alexander Soros, son of George Soros and chairman of the Open Society Foundations, is engaged to veteran Democratic operative Huma Abedin, according to his Instagram account.
“This happened … we couldn’t be happier, more grateful or more in love,” Soros wrote on social media on Tuesday alongside a picture of him proposing to Abedin. Soros proposed to Abedin in New York City in late May, with the couple later absconding to Italy to celebrate and only making their engagement public more than a month later, Vogue reported.
Read the full story
A new report examines the possible outcomes of the Nov. 5 election and the prospect of President Joe Biden’s using government force to hold onto power.
“President Biden is very well-positioned to hold the White House by force in the case of an unfavorable electoral outcome,” says the report from the 2024 Transition Integrity Project, which is led by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
Read the full story
A transgender activist group is pressuring corporations to provide insurance coverage for child sex change drugs and genital surgeries.
The Humans Rights Campaign (HRC) is an LGBTQ+ activist group that champions pediatric sex change interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex change surgeries. Since 2002, the HRC has issued their Corporate Equality Index (CEI) survey, which scores corporations based on their commitment to LGBTQ+ activism and adherence to LGBTQ+ ideology; corporations can score up to 100 points if they fulfill all criteria outlined by the HRC.
Read the full story
The second quarter of 2024 saw the rate of office vacancy in the United States hit a record high total of 20.1 percent, according to Moody’s tracking.
As reported by Axios, the rise in office vacancy in the last several months has been unusual compared to past trends, as such rates usually only rise during economic downturns. Thus, the rate continuing to increase despite the economy remaining relatively stagnant is an indication of consumers’ and business owners’ ongoing negative sentiments about the current state of the economy.
Read the full story
Virginia has again ranked first in CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business index, its sixth time topping the chart since CNBC started the survey in 2007.
States are ranked on 128 metrics in 10 “broad categories of competitiveness” selected through consultation with business and policy specialists and the states.
Read the full story
We all come to a time when it is time to take stock. During my years at three major law firms, I barely remember any attorney there who was late into his or her sixties. The hours are demanding and grueling. If the attorney is not that good, he or she would not still have been there past the early forties anyway. The firms are not shy about handing out walking papers because long lines of applicants await a chance at those same high-paying jobs. Moreover, because those lines of vultures are so long, and those applicants are so hungry, the pressure on those with the jobs is intense because “One wrong move, and out you go.” But unlike the aphorism: “and do not turn the lights off, nor close the door behind you, because your replacement is sitting in the reception area ready to pounce in the moment you leave.”
So, if the weaker attorneys are gone by their forties or fifties, that would leave only the strong ones to be there into the sixties. But the strong ones make boatloads of money, in the many millions, and the cost-benefit analysis weighing the hours and pressure versus the opportunity to retire with millions and while still in reasonably good health leads the rest of them to retire by their early sixties. Among the few elders still hanging around at the mega firms, there are only three types of exceptions:
Read the full story
The U.S. Senate campaign of Republican Party nominee Dave McCormick on Thursday confirmed it is behind new billboards, displayed throughout Pennsylvania, which tie Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) to President Joe Biden amid calls for the president to step aside due to concerns about his fitness following the June 27 presidential debate.
McCormick’s billboards juxtapose a photo of Casey, wearing a face mask emblazoned with the Biden campaign logo, next to the an image of the 81-year-old president, alongside the words, “Same old, tired ideas.”
Read the full story
Large numbers of people entering or living in America illegally are exacerbating the housing crisis, including in areas like Ohio far from the border.
City Manager Bryan Heck of Springfield sent an urgent letter requesting federal aid to U.S. Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Despite the city’s ongoing advancements in housing projects, the sheer number of migrants arriving and residing in the area has strained resources to their limits.
Read the full story
The founder of Coalition for Liberty, the organization funding a lawsuit brought by a Georgia realtor who was fired after making a public speech about sexually explicit materials in public libraries, told The Georgia Star News that cancel culture will be defeated when activists learn “everyday Americans” have the support of groups like his.
Coalition for Liberty is funding the lawsuit filed by Julie Mauck against LGBT activists and an activist organization, which she states made false claims about her July 2023 speech in opposition to the reading materials.
Read the full story
A man accused of fatally stabbing his two children and injuring his wife in a Wisconsin town was living in the United States illegally, Just the News confirmed Thursday.
Victor Manuel Gomez Acosta has been charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and attempted homicide. His bond is set at $1 million and his first court date is scheduled for July 30.
Read the full story
Major fentanyl seizures are not exclusive to just border authorities, as $1.2 million worth of the deadly drug was confiscated by the Mesa Police Department on Independence Day.
The seizure of roughly 750,000 blue fentanyl pills weighed around 200 pounds and were put into nearly 60 “bundles” throughout a gold Cadillac. According to the news release, the police were flagged after a call of three people being in a car where ” the driver appeared to be unconscious.”
Read the full story
A Minnesota school district is finally giving its students back the freedom to fail.
Rochester Public Schools implemented a “no credit” grading policy in 2020, in hopes of helping failing students who were struggling with virtual learning. Now, four years later, the district has overturned their policy to increase student accountability.
Read the full story
The Florida Auditor General’s office has released two reports that detail significant issues and financial trends in the Sunshine State’s charter schools, charter technical career centers and district school boards.
There are 720 charter schools and charter technical career centers operating in Florida, with the majority in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. State law requires these schools to be annually audited by an independent certified public accountant.
Read the full story
Four weeks out from Michigan’s Primary Election Day, more than 1.5 million of the state’s voters have requested or received an absentee ballot, breaking records set in 2020.
More than 178,000 of those voters have already submitted a completed ballot.
Read the full story
The Country Music Hall of Fame® (CMHOF) and Museum on Wednesday celebrated the opening of its newest exhibition Luke Combs: The Man I Am. The exhibit traces Combs’ story from singing with his school choirs in North Carolina to headlining stadiums worldwide. The exhibit, which opened on Thursday, is included with museum admission. Combs’ exhibit will go til June 2025.
Besides the CMHOF staff and Sony executives, Luke Comb’s wife and parents, his high school choir teacher, and his pals from Town Tavern in Boone, North Carolina, where he first began performing, were in attendance for the unveiling.
Read the full story
The Montana Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in the state’s appeal of a case that is so far one of the only successful climate cases of dozens that activists, states, and local governments have filed against government agencies and oil companies.
The case, Held v. Montana, involves 16 young plaintiffs who were organized by the anti-fossil fuel nonprofit Our Children’s Trust to sue the state of Montana for allegedly violating the kids’ constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment by permitting oil, gas and coal projects in the state without regard to their impacts on global warming.
Read the full story
On June 27th, I hosted a Special Order speech on the House floor to raise awareness of veteran Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I chose this date for a reason: June was National PTSD awareness month, and June 27th was National PTSD Awareness Day.
According to the National Center for PTSD, ten percent of all Veterans suffer from PTSD. PTSD is the leading cause of the Veteran suicide epidemic, claiming between 17 and 44 Veteran lives each and every DAY – a cumulative loss of nearly 150,000 Veteran lives since 9/11. This figure is 21 times greater than the 7,000 servicemembers we lost in post-9/11 warzones, making PTSD exponentially more lethal than combat.
Read the full story