Business groups are pushing back against a new Biden administration rule that would allow third-parties, including union representatives, to accompany federal inspectors of job sites.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued the final rule earlier this year, but critics say the rule goes beyond safety needs and panders to unions and their recruitment efforts. The rule would apply even to job sites where workers have not unionized.
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American federalism is alive and well after all. On April 19, the Biden Education Department announced its disastrous new Title IX rule that guts due process and imposes gender ideology in educational institutions. Within days, however, officials from eight states publicly instructed their schools to ignore it. Then, within a week, 16 states sued the administration alongside nonprofit groups such as Parents Defending Education and several Louisiana school districts. Since then, the number of states suing has climbed to 26—more than half the states in the nation. Their court filings say the rule violates not only the United States Constitution and the federal Administrative Procedures Act but also Title IX itself. Game on!
While feminists weaponized Title IX to their hearts’ content in the Obama years, alleging a phony campus rape crisis to rationalize their kangaroo courts and to silence those questioning their power, the world is a different place under Biden. Feminists have met their match in American parents and and in red states—especially their education officials.
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The Arizona secretary of state’s office and Maricopa County worked together to censor information about the state’s 2020 election audit of the county and reported elected officials’ posts to social media companies.
Maricopa County and the Arizona secretary of state’s office worked together with third parties to censor social media content that they believed was misinformation regarding the 2020 election audit of Maricopa County and election information posted by elected officials, according to public records obtained from both Maricopa County and the Arizona secretary of state by The Gavel Project.
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Hundreds of documents and records set to be included as exhibits in Hunter Biden’s California tax trial are designed to prove he violated U.S. tax law, but also include significant evidence previously reported by Just the News and others showing how the younger Biden received millions from foreign sources and which pointing to Joe Biden’s involvement in those deals.
The list, submitted in court by Special Counsel David Weiss, includes several tax documents to bolster the focus of his case, namely, that Hunter Biden’s wrongdoing is centered on tax violations.
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Illinois soon could give bonuses to universities for enrolling African American and Hispanic students under a proposal by a state government commission.
The recommendation by the Illinois Commission on Equitable Public University Funding aims to address “the historic inequities” in education “especially among students from low-income households, students of color, students from rural communities, and working adults,” according to a news release.
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In Tennessee, the battle to protect pharmacy benefits is not merely a matter of policy, but a battle to protect our country from unnecessary government overreach by the extreme Left. I am deeply troubled by recent attempts at the federal level that target pharmacy benefits and our free market – all in one swoop.
People across our state are already experiencing immense financial strain as they grapple with the soaring costs of inflation and prescriptions, and we need to advocate for policies that will effectively lower these prices through free market competition.
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California-based federal judge ruled that the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement executes “knock and talks” – by walking up to the door of a home to speak with an occupant and carry out civil immigration arrests – is unconstitutional.
California Central District Judge Otis D. Wright II, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled last week that the practice of entering the area around a home for the purpose of arresting an occupant without a specific warrant or express consent through “knock and talks” violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
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Three years after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available to adults – at which point the CDC already knew they couldn’t stop transmission – courts are finally starting to put their foot down on the most basic legal question: Are mandates at least applied fairly, if not scientifically?
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not only knocked down the University of Colorado medical school’s original and revised 2021 mandates for discriminating against employees seeking religious exemptions, but knocked the trial judge for “abuse of discretion” by reversing the burden of proof to moot the case.
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The Arizona Legislature is considering sending an election integrity measure to the ballot this fall.
HCR 2056 was debated in the Senate Elections Committee last week. The bill would require voters to show photo ID when dropping ballots off. All early ballots dropped off will be tabulated at the voting location where they were submitted. Seven counties already do that. The bill also prohibits election officials from accepting funds from foreign entities to help administer an election.
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Tennessee’s District Attorneys General Conference will collect and compile data on the costs related to illegal immigrants in the state who are charged or convicted of a criminal offense through at least 2032 after the immigration bill was signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee.
The report will be sent to the governor and both the House and Senate speaker.
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Lawmakers have threatened to revoke the appropriations for a federally-funded scholarship program that an audit found favors liberally leaning students over conservatives by a ratio of 10 to 1.
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation was established in the 1970s to award scholarships to students who “demonstrate outstanding potential for and who plan to pursue a career in public service.”
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Northwestern University may have violated a federal law by failing to report crimes on campus at least five times during recent anti-Israel protests.
Northwestern appears to have violated a U.S. law called the Clery Act by not taking and publishing police reports from students who say they were assaulted, battered, stolen from, or witnessed crimes committed by anti-Israel protesters on campus. Failure to do so would allow the university to report lower crime numbers and portray a false picture of campus safety.
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A new law that will take effect on July 1 could put school bullies behind bars.
HB 2590, which was sponsored by State Representative Lowell Russell (R-Vonore), “makes bullying and cyber-bullying offenses subject to the same penalties as harassment; requires an officer to make a report of bullying and notify a parent or guardian when victim is a minor,” according to its summary.
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An Ohio senator wants state lawmakers to send a message to the U.S. Department of Education to exclude sexual orientation and gender identity from Title IX.
U.S. Rep. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, recently introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 11 that calls on the Biden administration and Congress to remove all references from sexual orientation and gender identity from Title IX.
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The Michigan Department of Transportation will begin four new road repair projects this week in Dickinson, Jackson, Marquette and Ontonagon counties.
The projects are all expected to be completed by the end of the summer, and officials say will support an estimated 2,022 jobs across the state.
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Florida regulators denied a request for oral arguments on Tuesday in two petitions by utilities seeking electricity rate hikes.
On April 2, Tampa Electric Company and Duke Energy Florida filed petitions to the Public Service Commission requesting rate increases beginning in January 2025 if the commission approves.
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Two Democratic Minnesota congresswomen voted against federal legislation which seeks to deport illegal immigrants who assault law enforcement officers. Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Betty McCollum were the lone votes from Minnesota to oppose H.R. 7343.
The aptly named “Detain and Deport Illegal Aliens Who Assault Cops Act” was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives last week in a 265-148 vote. In total, 54 Democrats joined Republicans in supporting the bill; 148 Democrats voted against H.R. 7343. No Republican opposed the proposed law.
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A video purportedly from a virtual town hall event featuring Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) shows the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate claiming the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is “not as important” to Arizona voters.
Originally posted online by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Gallego stated in the video, “The border, people talk about, it’s not as important and salient as it is I think in other states. We do talk about it, we do worry about it, but it is not, I think, as heavy as it is in other states.”
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The budget in Maricopa County will presumably go down by 11% in fiscal year 2025.
A decrease in the budget compared with the current fiscal year is largely attributed to less “one-time spending” and a decrease of $32.7 million in retirement costs. In total, the difference between fiscal year 2024 and 2025 was over $493 million. The budget totals at roughly $3.87 billion, with 47.6% going toward public safety and 25,78% going toward health, welfare, and sanitation.
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An exhibit filed today by Donald Trump in a motion to suppress evidence seized during the FBI’s August 2022 raid of Mar-a-Lago revealed shocking new details about the bureau’s plans to use deadly force and even engage the former president and his security detail that day if necessary. The document is just one of many court filings recently ordered unsealed by Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the matter in southern Florida.
In an August 3, 2022 operations order for “Plasmic Echo,” the FBI’s code name for the government’s investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of national defense material, FBI officials furnished instructions on to proceed with the unprecedented raid. “FBI [Washington Field Office] and FBI [Miami] agents and [Evidence Response Team] will effect a search of designated locations within Mar-a-Lago (MAL) to locate and seize classified information, NDI, and US Government records as described in captioned search warrant,” the document read.
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Three days after a federal judge dismissed a challenge to a California law that lets inmates with intact male genitalia and hormone levels choose women’s prisons based on gender identity, prosecutors laid out their evidence for rape charges against an incarcerated male transferred under that law, whom the judge also allowed to intervene in defense of SB 132.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Thurston “clearly didn’t know about this rape case coming through the state court system” going back to March, Executive Director Sharon Byrne of the Women’s Liberation Front, which sponsored the lawsuit by female inmates Janine Chandler, Krystal Gonzalez, Tomiekia Johnson and Nadia Romero, told Just the News on Monday.
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A coalition of lawmakers is pushing forward the ongoing investigation into just how much taxpayer money Pentagon officials are taking away from national defense and putting toward diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives.
The Pentagon has been under increasing scrutiny for its focus on DEI, even as the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars continue.
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The GOP-led House is set to vote Wednesday on legislation to block non-citizens from voting in Washington, D.C. local elections.
The proposed bill would “prohibit individuals who are not citizens of the United States from voting in elections in the District of Columbia.”
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Voters in Multnomah County, Oregon, which encompasses Portland and its surrounding area, could boot left-wing District Attorney Mike Schmidt on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Nathan Vasquez, a Republican-turned-independent who worksunder Schmidt, could oust the district attorney in the head-to-head nonpartisan primary if he secures over 50% of the vote. Schmidt would be the latest left-wing prosecutor, funded by groups linked to George Soros, to not secure another term after critics argued they were soft-on-crime.
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At the conclusion of key prosecution witness Michael Cohen’s testimony Monday in Donald Trump’s so-called “hush money” trial, jurors were left to ponder a litany of damaging statements that have further cut into Cohen’s credibility and likely made the prosecution’s case harder to prove.
Both the defense and the prosecution wrapped up their cases on Monday, signaling the shift into the later stages of the trial.
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President Joe Biden’s new student loan forgiveness plan has legal experts divided, with some citing similar problems to his previous plan struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Biden administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education Plan is an income-based student loan repayment plan that provides full loan forgiveness in certain cases.
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A group of House Republicans is asking federal authorities for answers on a program meant to monitor illegal immigrants throughout the U.S., arguing it has failed to properly track enrollees and has essentially become a “social services scheme.”
Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, along with 15 other House Republicans, sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Executive Associate Director Daniel Bible a list of questions on how the agency is managing the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program in a Friday letter. The lawmakers asked for details on the number of available ICE detention beds, the rate of enrollees showing up to their removal proceedings and information on how these enrollees are supervised, among other questions.
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Homeowners across the U.S. are seeing skyrocketing insurance rates, increased deductibles, excluded protections, and canceled policies.
Insurers say that they’re having to adjust to changing conditions to remain profitable. Among the problems they blame is inflation, rising construction costs, and costs associated with regulatory compliance. But many insurers are also blaming climate change for driving extreme weather events and increasing losses, and much of the media coverage is zooming in on this narrative.
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An independent accounting of the costs associated with the transportation referendum put forward by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Thursday claims the true cost of the mayor’s goals will swell to $6.93 billion over the 15-year life of the project.
O’Connell originally announced the cost of building the transportation improvements in his referendum would amount to about $3.1 billion, with additional annual operating costs of about $111 million.
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Diverse Erie, formerly known as the Erie County Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Commission, on Friday distributed $300,000 in federal grant money.
The organization restricted the money to individuals that are part of the “BIPOC community,” which includes black, indigenous and all people of color, indicating only whites were precluded from applying for the funds.
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The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority re-opened its Airport Station on Monday following a six-week closure as part of a multi-million-dollar station update.
The $55 million upgrade to the station connected to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is part of a systemwide, roughly $1 billion multi-year Station Rehabilitation Program initiative to overhaul all 38 stations. The transit agency is paying for the upgrades using State of Good Repair Funds from its capital budget.
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The United States Department of Agriculture is awarding $30.8 million to the nation’s 19 historically Black land-grant universities, including the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Virginia State University, for agricultural and nutritional research and growing extension programs.
“1890 Land-grant Universities are a vital part of our nation’s fabric,” said Manjit Misra, director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, in a statement. “This investment will strengthen the ability of 1890 Land-grant Universities to deliver innovative solutions that address emerging agricultural challenges impacting diverse communities.”
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Lawmakers and consumer advocates are calling for a federal investigation into online Chinese retailers Temu and Shein.
The companies have spent billions of dollars in online American advertising with social media companies such as Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, and Google. The probe is warranted, critics say, because of anti-competitive practices skirting U.S. trade and public safety regulations; alleged use of slave laborers to make products sold at cut-rate prices; and advertising targeting children, low-income families and older Americans.
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A federal judge temporarily blocked a background check rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Sunday night.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the rule covering background checks for firearms purchases April 10, claiming it was based on bipartisan legislation passed in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. United States District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the rule until June 2.
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“It would require Big Tech and others to work with Congress over 18 months to evaluate and enact a new legal framework that will allow for free speech and innovation while also encouraging these companies to be good stewards of their platforms. Our bill gives Big Tech a choice: Work with Congress to ensure the internet is a safe, healthy place for good, or lose Section 230 protections entirely.”
That was House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) in a May 12 oped in the Wall Street Journal outlining their proposed draft legislation, the “Section 230 Sunset Act,” that would end Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protections on Dec. 31, 2025 for millions of interactive computer services, including websites, e-commerce stores and other small businesses.
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Six major American financial institutions struggled to accurately assess the extent of their exposure to climate change and related risks, according to the Federal Reserve.
The Fed ran a pilot program for six leading American banks to assess how ready they are to keep track of the risks that climate change poses to their businesses, a practice that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is attempting to mandate for large corporations across the country. The banks — JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup — generally struggled to assess their exposure to climate change because they lacked key data and because climate risk modeling is so new that even the country’s biggest banks could not identify reliable techniques, according to the Fed’s May report on the pilot program.
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Key prosecution witness Michael Cohen in the Trump hush money trial testified Monday under cross-examination that he stole from the Trump Organization, for whom he worked for over a decade.
Cohen, who was a Trump attorney and fixer before turning on his former boss, admitted he failed to fully reimburse a company that provided services to the Trump Organization and pocketing the difference.
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Democrats claim that non-citizen voting doesn’t occur while Republicans and most states are trying to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in elections.
As states are adopting constitutional amendments to prevent non-citizens from voting and Republicans are raising the alarm about the issue as more evidence has been presented, Democrats insist that it is not a concern because non-citizens are not voting in U.S. elections.
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Lawmakers will grill President Joe Biden’s Energy Secretary at a newly announced oversight hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected to face lawmakers for questions amid elevated gas prices, a depleted strategic petroleum reserve, and ongoing criticism of Biden’s energy policies.
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After pressure from lawmakers, the United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy agreed to pause changes to mail processing operations until after January 1, 2025.
The pause would put on hold USPS plans to change operations in multiple areas nationwide that are undergoing Mail Processing Facility Reviews (MPFR).
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President Joe Biden’s signature pieces of legislation are routing billions of dollars into swing states, but pundits are not convinced that the money will make much difference in November’s elections.
The bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021, the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have cumulatively routed billions of dollars to battleground states over the course of Biden’s first term. The Biden campaign is running swing state ads to promote the funding and projects that Biden’s legislative agenda has created, but state and national pundits told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the benefits are unlikely to be a decisive factor in states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
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California gas prices could rise by at least $1.11 per gallon by 2026 if the California Air Resources Board adopts amendments to its low carbon fuel standard program, CARB says. The LCFS amendments proposed at the end of 2023 would phase-out credits for turning manure into renewable natural gas, ending that business, and add jet fuel to LCFS purview, increasing flying costs for every flight that starts or ends in California even if the fuel was purchased elsewhere. Because so much of America’s imports come in through California, the LCFS amendments would raise the costs of goods for every American.
LCFS uses a system of credits and deficits to reward or punish producers that make fuel better or worse than the rising “clean” standard.” Current LCFS guidelines call for a 20% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030 compared to 2010, while the proposed amendments call for a 90% reduction by 2045, including significant step-downs starting in 2025 that would result in major fuel cost increases starting that year.
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President Clinton’s infamous parsing of the word “is” remains apt 26 years after his deposition in Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit.
National Institutes of Health Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabakfound himself in a Clintonian callback at a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing Thursday on NIH oversight of funding that may have helped unleash the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The northern border largely has been unmanned and understaffed for decades as federal reports issue conflicting conclusions about how much, or how little, operational control exists.
Some officials have suggested the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has just 1% operational control over the northern border after a 2019 General Accounting Office audit of U.S. Customs and Border northern border operations. But a December 2022 DHS report claimed, “The Border Patrol is better staffed today than at any time in its 87-year history,” noting no surveillance of extensive parts of the northern border existed prior to 9/11.
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A bill to combat street racing has passed the Tennessee General Assembly and is awaiting the signature of Gov. Bill Lee (R).
HB 2062 “creates a street racing task force to study and determine best practices for curbing illegal street racing in this state,” according to its summary.
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As Fulton County officials reportedly consider a sales tax to fund a $1.7 billion Fulton County Jail replacement, some groups have an idea to save taxpayers money: keeping people out of jail.
The Georgia Senate Public Safety Subcommittee on Fulton County Jail is preparing to file a report with recommendations that could guide legislative action when lawmakers return to Atlanta next year. WSB-TV reported county officials plan on asking state lawmakers to allow a new sales tax to pay for a jail replacement.
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Few things have escaped environmentalists’ scorn, and even cows have not been exempt from blame for climate change. Emissions from livestock production have become an increasing focus of efforts to fight climate change. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 11.1% of emissions worldwide come from livestock production, and the organization released a report last year urging Americans to eat less meat. If people aren’t eating meat, the argument goes, then fewer cows are produced. If there’s fewer cows, there’s less emissions.
However, research by pro-agribuisness outfits Alltech and Archbold suggests that the thinking on reducing emissions at the source is missing a bigger picture on cattles’ relationship with the land, and possibly, by removing grazing from pastures, emissions will actually go up.
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One month after announcing a transportation plan focused on more busses, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell reportedly requested a full safety review of the city’s public transportation service, WeGo, after a man was shot six times on the steps of the bus station located at Rep John Lewis Way & MLK Jr Blvd, according to WSMV.
On Thursday, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) announced that a 31-year-old convicted felon was arrested for the shooting of an 18-year-old at the bus stop earlier in the day.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed a measure that would bar foreign nationals from making political contributions.
While such contributions are already prohibited by federal law, Senate Bill 368 would have mandated that agents of “foreign principals” register with the Georgia State Ethics Commission.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 250 on Wednesday, requiring schools to implement official policy governing students’ use of cellphones during school hours.
The bill aims to “minimize student use of cellphones in K-12 schools” by requiring school districts to create a policy that reduces cellphone-related distractions in classroom settings.
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