Commentary: Radical Green Groups Are Attacking American Energy Independence at the Source

by Daniel Turner   Although America’s energy producers are already under daily attack from the Biden administration, the eco-left is not content to limit their crusade to Washington DC. They are funding local groups in energy producing states to put in place endless hurdles to responsibly extracting energy. While the tactics may differ by the state, they all share the same goal: stopping domestic production and American energy independence at the source. In Louisiana, known as one of the nation’s worst “Judicial Hellholes,” environmentalists are achieving their goals through countless frivolous lawsuits. For example, last year, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Sierra Club, and Healthy Gulf filed a lawsuit challenging a permit for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility that exports American natural gas to reduce dependence on Russian energy abroad. Although this lawsuit was ultimately tossed out by a state judge, the costs and headaches of the legal system create delays that can kill vital projects. Activists in Pennsylvania are pursuing a similar strategy. The Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council seeks to “stop using fossil fuels”  by  suing plants across the Commonwealth  to tie them down in endless litigation. This extreme group is funded by the national Energy Foundation, which is the largest recipient of grants from the foreign-funded Sea Change Foundation – a…

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Voters Sour on Biden on Wide Range of Issues in New Poll showing ‘Buyers Remorse’

The latest Harvard/Harris survey has delivered a strong mix of bad news to President Joe Biden, with much of the public appearing to disagree with him on key policy issues, expressing concerns about his age and fitness and raising skepticism about the Justice Department’s handling of former President Donald Trump’s criminal indictment.

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson on Hunter Biden Plea Deals: ‘This Stinks to High Heaven’

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined a chorus of Republicans blasting plea deals that would keep the president’s ne’er-do-well son out of prison.  

“Well first of all, this stinks to high heaven. It certainly proves we do not have equal application of justice under the law,” Johnson said this week on Fox News’ Jesse Waters Prime Time. 

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Commentary: A Heated Argument in the House Portends Good Results for the Budget

“Don’t raise your voice, improve your argument.” Bishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa, 2004.

I must’ve used this quote a thousand times (primarily mitigating fights between contentious children of different ages) without even realizing its origin. I’ve often wondered why emotion-driven youths (and big people, too) simply amp up the volume when intellectually dueling with others rather than maintaining the discussion at an even keel and perhaps lulling their opponents into listening to what they’re saying – or screaming even louder.

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Ramaswamy: Plea Deal Keeping Hunter Biden out of Prison Is a ‘Joke,’ the ‘Perfect Fig Leaf’

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is blasting a plea deal announced Tuesday that will keep President Joe Biden’s troubled son out of prison on two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes and a separate felony charge of possession of a firearm by a known drug user.

Multiple news outlets are reporting that Hunter Biden and his attorneys have reached an agreement in which U.S. Attorney David Weiss would recommend probation on the tax violations. The younger Biden also would avoid prison time on the gun possession charge, “subject to a pretrial diversion agreement,” his attorney said in a statement.

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Commentary: California’s War Against Prosperity

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, generating 44 percent of all business activity. Take them out of the equation, and the economy collapses. But that is exactly what’s happening. The cards are stacked against small businesses in America today, and nowhere is it worse than in the state of California. 

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Florida’s DeSantis Signs State Record $117 Billion Budget

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the state’s record-setting budget on Thursday which will increase state employee salaries, spend $1.6 billion on restoring the Everglades ecosystem and speed up infrastructure projects across the Sunshine State.

House Bill 2500 is the General Appropriations Act and the state budget for fiscal year 2023-24. Dubbed the “Framework For Freedom Budget” by the DeSantis administration, the bill provides $117 billion in state funding for projects across the state, including increases in education funding, teacher salaries and recruitment bonuses to attract more law enforcement officers.

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Commentary: The Founders Wouldn’t Recognize This ‘Justice’ System

Our Founders envisioned a Nation where the rule of law ensures justice for everyone before our legal system. Equal enforcement of our country’s laws, regardless of a citizen’s political affiliation or social status, was the primary hallmark of this system, which, although imperfect, has set a shining example for the rest of the world to follow. Unfortunately, our legal system has been transformed into one in which politics does matter, and personal connections can be the difference between being given a free pass or receiving a guilty verdict.

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With DeSantis Opposition, State Funding Highly Unlikely for New Rays Stadium

While the owners of the Tampa Bay Rays want a new stadium and a plan could be approved as soon as this fall, state funding will likely not be forthcoming due to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policy against public funding of professional sports stadiums.

Team owner Stuart Sternberg has denied rumors that the team would leave St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field, but team officials want a replacement for the domed stadium built in 1990 and home to the team since their debut in 1998. The team’s lease at Tropicana Field expires in 2027.

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Biden Energy Official Under Scrutiny for Family Ties to Environmental Lobby

Republican lawmakers are raising concerns about a Biden administration official’s questionable family ties to far-left groups lobbying lawmakers.

U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., chair of the Committee on Natural Resources, sent a letter to U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland this week demanding records, communications, documents and more related to allegations that Haaland’s family members may be unethically connected to anti-fossil fuel groups.

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North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum Launches Bid for White House, Joining Crowded Field of GOP Contenders

At a Fargo events center packed with family, friends and neighbors, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum stressed his small-town roots, his success in building a multi-billion dollar software business on the Great Plains,  governing a growing state, and his vision for an innovative America in announcing his bid for the White House. 

The newly minted presidential candidate joins a crowded field of declared Republican presidential candidates, launching his campaign on the same day former Vice President Mike Pence kicked off his in Iowa. 

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Progressives Including Soros Funding Media in Arizona to Sway Elections

A group of dark money, shadowy progressive organizations are funding media outlets in Arizona, including The Copper Courier and the Arizona Mirror. Many of these groups are interconnected and appear to be attempting to influence elections. They are not registered as political organizations, however, which would require them to disclose financial information such as how much they contribute to Democrats, and that may be because the founders said they believe voters are more influenced by media than political ads.

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Biden Moves to Shift Power over Defense Contracts to Climate Activist ‘Cabal’ Bent on Curtailing Economic Growth

The Biden White House is pushing to give veto power over major Pentagon contracts to a group of climate activist groups that advocate for establishing “guardrails” on economic growth, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation.

The White House proposed a rule in November that requires major contractors for the Department of Defense (DOD), NASA, and Government Services Agency (GSA) to submit climate-related goals to a consortium of activist organizations, called the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), for validation. If the SBTi rejects the contractor’s plan to reduce emissions, the company would no longer be eligible to compete.

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Georgia Officials Say Electric Vehicle Battery Plant Was Planned Before Inflation Reduction Act

A U.S. senator for Georgia has tried to place credit for a new electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility on tax incentives included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The problem, Georgia officials say, is the investment was agreed to before Congress even passed the IRA, and President Joe Biden signed the measure in August 2022.

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Commentary: Green Energy Has a Dirty Secret

As with most things espoused in the name of social progress, the left’s aggressive push for EV technology conveniently forgets the lives of those affected by it the most.

“On my watch, the great American road trip is going to be fully electrified…you can get up to $7,500 on a new electric vehicle,” Biden exclaimed during a photo-op in a shiny electric Hummer. I bet that tax credit will come in handy when the average American is forced to buy a $60,000 EV after gas-powered cars are banned outright.

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Commentary: The Nonsensical ‘Holy Climate Panacea’ Triad of More Wind, Solar, and Electric Cars is Maddening

This list could be closer to 50 but let’s just stick to a handful of them. I literally live in this business every day, and I’m just so confused.

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Governor Katie Hobbs Vetoes Bipartisan ATV Bill that Would Have Paved the Way for More Electric Vehicle Use in Arizona

Amongst the latest batch of vetoes handed out by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) Friday was Senate Bill (SB) 1100, from Senator Frank Carroll (R-Sun City), which aimed to update the legal definition of recreational off-highway vehicles (OHV).

Specifically, this bill would have updated the maximum unladen weight of an OHV from 2,500 pounds to 3,500. Under Arizona law, a person cannot operate an OHV unless it is under the weight limit and they receive a user indicia from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) via an application and fee. Additionally, OHVs are subject to a vehicle license tax, in this case, three dollars.

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McCarthy-Biden Debt Deal Eliminates Unspent COVID Funds, Blocks IRS Expansion and Reforms Permitting

The debt limit deal struck late Saturday between House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden rolls back some of Washington’s massive spending while delivering other conservative priorities like blocking new taxes and requiring some welfare recipients to work, according to a summary obtained by Just the News.

McCarthy described the deal as an “agreement in principle,” and it rolls back domestic spending to fiscal year 2022 levels while limiting “top line federal spending to 1% growth for the next 6 years.”

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Commentary: The Mind Virus of the Affluent Woke Left

Those who belong to the woke Left are held together by overlapping interests and shared passions. Not all wokesters support the same causes and certainly not with equal intensity. Thus, warriors against climate change like Karl Schwab and Bill Gates don’t often speak up for the sexual transitioning of children or call for allowing biological males claiming to be women to compete in female sports events. One can likewise read the racialist diatribes of Corey Bush, Ibram X. Kendi, or Al Sharpton without likely running into attacks on fossil fuels or gas stoves. The point is not that these allies never agree on anything. It is that their alliance is looser than some might imagine.

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Michigan Lawmakers Call for Gotion’s Environmental Report

Michigan lawmakers are calling on the state’s environmental agency to release an impact report for the planned Gotion electric vehicle battery factory.

Eight Republican lawmakers signed a letter sent to Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Acting Director Aaron Keatley, saying the environmental impact of the factory was unclear.

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Commentary: The Long Road to Confronting China’s War on Religion Part Three

It’s morning in Istanbul, but Joseph is reliving his morning routine in the camp, before the 16-hour shift starts. After the prisoners had sung Communist songs for their breakfast, the Chinese guards played a video for them shot in cinema verité style. It began with Chinese plainclothes agents tackling Uyghurs, cramming them into unmarked cars, and pulling bags over their heads.

Then, the camera would pan away, revealing, not China, but a foreign street with signs in German, Arabic, or English. Joseph says the film was a tease: Run away. Please try it. We’re everywhere. Even Washington, D.C. 

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Key Takeaways from Trump’s CNN Town Hall in New Hampshire

Former President and 2024 White House candidate Donald Trump came out swinging during a CNN townhall Wednesday night, immediately saying the 2020 election was rigged and stolen through fraud and that he had an obligation to shine a spotlight on it. 

“We did fantastically we got 12 million more votes than we had in, as you know, in 2016 actually we did far better in that election,” he began. “Got the most that anybody’s ever gotten as the President of the United States. I think that when you look at that result, and when you look at what happened during that election, unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happens a lot of the people, out of thee people in this audience and maybe a couple that don’t — but most people understand what happened. That was a rigged election. And it’s a shame that we had to go through it.” 

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The War on Plastic Waste Could Massively Increase CO2 Emissions: Report

Efforts to increase the recycling of plastic waste could lead to a huge boost in greenhouse gas emissions, thanks to energy-hungry chemical processes, according to The Wall Street Journal Wednesday.

Chemical recycling, an emissions-heavy process where plastics are heated and pressurized to be broken down into oils and other components, is a growing method of plastics recycling in the U.S., the WSJ reported. Data from Chemical Market Analytics — an analytics firm owned by WSJ-parent Dow Jones that studies the plastics industry — indicates that efforts to boost recycling will invariably lead to a significant increase in the use of chemical recycling techniques, with a greater emissions surge accompanying higher rates of recycling.

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Norwegian Hydrogen Company Chooses Michigan, Says 500 Jobs Coming

Norwegian hydrogen company Nel Hydrogen says it will create a $400 million automated gigawatt electrolyzer manufacturing facility in Michigan expected to create 500 manufacturing jobs.

Nel hasn’t finalized a location for the new gigafactory, which will be the first in the United States to manufacture equipment for the production of liquid alkaline electrolysis.

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Flush with Cash, Big Oil Is Poised for a Huge Shopping Spree

While U.S. oil and gas deals slowed considerably in the first quarter of 2023, industry players are poised to make significant investments in shale over the next year, according to Axios.

Oil and gas mergers and acquisitions fell to $14.8 billion in the first quarter, down 47% from the fourth quarter of 2022, according to a report from accounting firm KPMG. However, after a record-breaking year left companies flush with cash, producers will be incentivized to “secure inventory, create operational efficiencies and put their capital to work,” Mike Harling, energy sector lead partner at KPMG, told Axios.

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Commentary: Bill Lee Attacks the Second Amendment with a Red Flag Proposal

Governor Bill Lee called on the Tennessee Legislature to pass a Red Flag law – one that he proposed – before the 2023 Legislative session ended. The Legislators did not consider his proposal but instead they wrapped up business – they thought – and adjourned until January 2024. Governor Lee, apparently thinking of himself as perhaps the “master” of the Legislature, has now stated that he will call a special session to force the Legislature to take up his call for a Red Flag law.

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Commentary: On Economy, Biden Re-Election Faces Challenges

As President Biden embarks on his reelection campaign, a majority of American voters are dissatisfied with his stewardship of the U.S. economy. Aware of the general angst among the electorate, Biden is threading the needle by saying he’s running on the strength of his overall record, while vowing to “finish the job” that he started when he stepped into the Oval Office. It’s a daunting task, with an overwhelming majority of registered voters expressing deep pessimism about the economy: 40.2% say the United States is currently in a recession, 17% call it a general state of stagnation, and 10.4% believe the country is in an outright depression.

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Ohio GOP Chairman Triantafilou Calls President Biden’s Re-Election Campaign ‘Ill-Advised’

Alex Triantafilou, the newly elected head of the Ohio Republican Party, responded to the announcement that President Joe Biden is running for reelection, calling it “ill-advised.”

“Plain and simple – Joe Biden is not fit for office,” Triantafilou said Tuesday evening.

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Democrats Re-Introduce Green New Deal

A group of liberal Democrats reintroduced the Green New Deal Thursday, the controversial environmental legislation that experts say would spike energy costs in the U.S. and cost taxpayers tens of trillions of dollars.

Advocates, though, argue the changes are needed to prevent worsening climate change and get ahead of an inevitable renewable energy transition.

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Minnesota House Passes ‘Green Shaming’ Bill

The DFL-controlled Minnesota House passed an expansive, 473-page environment and natural resources bill that would increase spending in this area by $670 million while raising fees on outdoor activities like fishing and boating.

With about a month remaining in the legislative session, omnibus policy and spending bills are making their way to the floor, including HF2310, which passed late Monday night.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence to Headline Ohio Christian Fundraiser

Republican former Vice President Mike Pence, who is reportedly considering a 2024 presidential bid, will deliver the keynote address at a gala fundraiser thrown by the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV) in Cincinnati, Ohio next month.

The Cincinnati Celebration Gala for the Center for Christian Virtue, Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization, will take place at the Duke Energy Convention Center on Tuesday, May 9th, 2023. According to the Center for Christian Virtue, it will be an evening of music, inspiration, and fellowship. They highlight that Pence will be speaking on the pro-life battle facing both Ohio and the nation.

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Commentary: What to Do About American’s Decline

Twenty-first-century America was on a trajectory of gradual decline — until it began to implode.

Was the accelerant the COVID-19 pandemic and unhinged lockdowns? Or was the catalyst the woke revolution fueled by the 2020 summer of exempted rioting, looting, arson, and violence? Or was it perhaps the deranged fixation on removing Donald Trump from the presidency and destroying the rule of law in the process? Or all that and more?

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Biden’s ‘Green Manufacturing’ Plan Is Running into Serious Real Estate Problem: Report

President Joe Biden’s push to boost “green” U.S. manufacturing is facing headwinds from a lack of available real estate, Reuters reported Thursday, citing development experts and local government officials.

Roughly half of all megasite projects — typically defined as large factories spanning more than 1,000 acres —  announced since 2004 were announced in the past five years, Reuters reported. While the U.S. has a significant amount of available land, most of it is not ready for the large multibillion dollar projects companies are looking to develop before tax credits under Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, begin to phase out at the end of the decade.

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National Nonprofit Ranks Pennsylvania 46th in Economic Performance

According to a new analysis by the nonprofit American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), Pennsylvania ranks 46th among states for economic performance and 35th for economic outlook.

Now in its 16th edition, ALEC’s Rich States, Poor States compares states’ economic posture based on 15 policy factors. Pennsylvania’s performance only ranked ahead of West Virginia, Connecticut, Alaska and — in dead last — Louisiana. 

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Pennsylvania Senate Proposal Would Spread Film Subsidy Beyond Cities

A lawmaker this week proposed reforming Pennsylvania’s $100 million film-production tax-credit program, a policy he said he believes doesn’t benefit enough independent, non-urban projects.

State Senator David Argall (R-Mahanoy City) sent a memorandum to colleagues in which he ascribed $5 billion in recent economic activity to the program. He said that the subsidy is falling overwhelmingly into the hands of filmmakers basing their projects in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 

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Commentary: Once Again, Wages Are Rising Slower than Inflation

This week’s jobs report reveals the labor market is finally starting to crack under the weight of two years of Bidenflation and the resulting rapid increase in interest rates.

The economy created the fewest jobs last month than in any month in Biden’s presidency. The average weekly hours for employees also fell again.

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Connecticut Lawmakers Resurrect Transportation Climate Plan

Connecticut lawmakers are advancing a climate change bill that critics say would give the state broad authority to raise gasoline taxes and take other aggressive steps to reduce tailpipe emissions. 

The proposal, which was recently approved by the Legislature’s Environmental Committee, would empower the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to implement climate change policies aimed at helping Connecticut reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gases to 80% of 2001 levels by 2050.

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Metro Nashville to Backstop $150 Million to $250 Million of Titans Stadium Bonds with General Fund

Metro Nashville plans to backstop between $150 million and $250 million of the $760 million in revenue bonds taken out by the Metro Nashville Sports Authority for a new estimated $2.2 billion Tennessee Titans stadium if the deal is approved in April by both the sports authority and the Metro Nashville Council.

Financial details of the deal were presented to the sports authority Tuesday after a similar meeting scheduled for Monday with the city’s finance committee was postponed following the Covenant School shooting that left seven dead.

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Commentary: The Energy Transition Is a Delusion Indeed

The “energy transition” continues to receive thunderous applause from all the usual Beltway suspects, an exercise in groupthink fantasy amazing to behold. For those with actual lives to live and thus uninterested in silliness: The “energy transition” is a massive shift, wholly artificial and politicized, from conventional energy inexpensive (Table 1b and here), reliable, and very clean given the proper policy environment, toward such unconventional energy technologies as wind and solar power. They are expensive, unreliable, and deeply problematic environmentally in terms of toxic metal pollution, wildlife destruction, land use massive and unsightly, emissions of conventional pollutants, and in a larger context large and inexorable reductions in aggregate wealth and thus the social willingness to invest in environmental protection.

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Commentary: It’s Time to End Mexican Cartels’ Reign of Terror

Walking down long, ornate hallways, across a grand central courtyard adorned with a Pegasus-topped fountain, and through yet more corridors, our bipartisan delegation was guided to the offices of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for what we hoped would be a timely and useful meeting for our nations. Since the enactment of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), ongoing trade issues continue to flare up, and since the beginning of the Biden Administration our southern border with Mexico has deteriorated into a chaotic, dangerous, and lawless morass.

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Pennsylvania GOP State Lawmaker Proposes Freight-Train Length Limit

A Republican Pennsylvania lawmaker is urging colleagues to cosponsor state-level legislation to limit a freight train’s length to no greater than 8,500 feet.

State Representative Louis Schmitt, Jr. (R-Altoona) reasoned in a memorandum describing his proposal that the February 3 derailment in East Palestine, less than half a mile from Pennsylvania’s western border, shows current rail-safety requirements are inadequate. 

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Parents Group Says Pornographic Books Available to Minnesota Students

Parents can’t assume schools have kids’ best interest in mind, said a Delano father after a parents group discovered “quite a few” books containing pornographic material in the high school library.

Parents said they found books containing sexually explicit content, including depictions of rape, in the Delano High School library, which services students in grades 7-12.

According to Jake Torola, advisor to Concerned Community of 879 (CC879) and father of six, the list is at 20 and counting.

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Minnesota Lawmakers Agree to $17.9 Billion Target

Minnesota lawmakers agreed to spend an additional $17.9 billion on top of the base budget of $52.4 billion, likely depleting the state’s current $17.2 billion surplus. 

The target includes $3 billion in tax breaks but doesn’t specify how relief will be delivered. 

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