Oklahoma Just Became the Latest State to Take Immigration Enforcement Into Its Own Hands

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt

Oklahoma’s Republican governor signed a sweeping immigration enforcement bill into law, making the Sooner State the latest to confront the border crisis through legislative action.

Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 4156 into law on Tuesday, one week after the Republican-controlled legislature sent it to his desk. The law, which is set to take effect on July 1, makes it illegal to reside in Oklahoma without legal authorization to be in the U.S.

Read the full story

Tennessee Firearms Association Sues ATF over Private Gun Sale Rule

Hunting

The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) is joining a lawsuit with several states and pro-Second Amendment groups against the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which says that the ATF far too broadly interpreting a new law passed by Congress regarding private gun sales.

The lawsuit stems from the definition of the term “‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms,” and claims that the ATF is angling to make citizens who sell even one firearm privately subject to licensure that large firearms sellers must obtain, according to a release from TFA.

Read the full story

Pennsylvania State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti Claims 80 Abortion Clinics Now Closed in ‘Short Period of Time’

Amanda Cappelletti

State Senator Amanda Cappelletti (D-Philadelphia) claimed as part of a Monday push to create a federal law to enshrine abortion access that 80 Pennsylvania abortion clinics have closed “in a relatively short period of time” since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Cappelletti made the remarks to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, and additionally claimed abortion access has fallen in the commonwealth since the landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Read the full story

Commentary: Republicans Should Stop Complaining About Their Opportunities and Take Advantage of Biden’s Failures

Joe Biden

After I offered a perfectly accurate negative summation of current market/industry conditions when speaking on a business venture I can’t yet discuss (but that will be quite relevant indeed to the interests of our readers), I received an admonishment from my business partner: “Stop complaining about your opportunities!” It’s an even more accurate response than mine.

All too often we spend our time grousing about the state of the world, and yet, the worse things get, the greater the opportunity grows to take control and make them better.

Read the full story

Commentary: Abortion Once Again at Forefront of Election

United States Supreme Court

The prevailing belief in the Democratic Party is that abortion will again be a potent issue against Republicans in this year’s election cycle just as it was in 2022 – and that this time it will not just cost the GOP gaining the majority in the U.S. Senate, but also give Democrats the upper hand in retaining the presidency and winning back the House.

Abortion rights put the brakes on the Republicans’ chances in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion after almost 50 years; a decision that transformed American politics that year, benefiting Democrats who were on their way to a bruising midterm election defeat.

Read the full story

‘Would Be Unacceptable’: Blinken and Netanyahu Meeting Hits Crossroads as Israeli Invasion of Rafah Looms

Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister met in Tel Aviv on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hamas war — and disagreements over the next phase of conflict.

The Biden administration is backing an effort to reach a deal between Israel and Hamas for a temporary ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages. During their meeting on Wednesday, Blinken discussed the ceasefire deal with Netanyahu and “the need to avoid further expansion of the conflict,” underscoring the Biden administration’s “clear position” on opposing an Israeli invasion of Rafah, the southernmost region of Gaza, according to a readout of the meeting.

Read the full story

House Probe into January 6 to Expand, Seek Interviews with Pentagon Officials and Democrat Staff

Rep. Barry Loudermilk

House Republicans are expanding their investigation into the January 6 Committee and the security failures that led to the Capitol breach, planning to add staff and pursue new lines of inquiry, the Chairman of the subcommittee leading the investigation told Just the News.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Chairman of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Tuesday that he aims to publish a final report by this summer after seeking interviews with top Pentagon officials and any former January 6 committee staff willing to come forward.

Read the full story

Congressional Probe Opened on ‘Mealy-Mouthed, Spineless College Leaders’

US Rep Virginia Foxx

For “mealy-mouthed, spineless college leaders,” actions will have consequences, the North Carolina congresswoman leading a key U.S. House of Representatives committee said Tuesday amid ongoing college campus disruptions.

The war between Israel and Hamas has led to significant demonstrations or encampments on at least four dozen campuses nationwide, a national observer of such activity reports. U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., with support of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the Committee on Education and the Workforce she chairs has opened a congressional probe and on May 23 will hear from presidents of Yale and Michigan and the chancellor of UCLA.

Read the full story

Top Democratic Leaders Say They Will Save Speaker Johnson from MTG-Led Ouster

Congressman Hakeem Jefferies with Speaker Mike Johnson (composite image)

Democratic leaders in the House indicated Tuesday that if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., attempted to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, they would work against such a move.

“We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said in a statement, according to CBS News. “If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”

Read the full story

Feds Warn Employers Can Be Punished for Failing to Use Preferred Transgender Pronouns, Restrooms

Gender Neutral Restroom

In landmark guidance, the federal commission created to fight racial and sexual discrimination declared Monday that employers that fail to use a worker’s preferred pronoun or refuse them the chance to use the restroom of their choice will be engaging in prohibited harassment.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published the new harassment guidelines Monday after voting along partisan lines on Friday to approve them, even in the face of opposition from nearly two dozen red states. Three Democratic appointees approved the rules while two Republicans opposed them.

Read the full story

Pentagon Says It Can’t Calculate Diversity Training Costs Because Congress Defunded DEI Offices

Soldiers

The Pentagon told Congress it could not provide a required accounting of diversity training to Congress because it didn’t have enough people working in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) positions, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Congress mandated the Pentagon compile a report detailing how much the entire military spent on diversity training, salaries for DEI administrators and any impacts on recruiting and retention across the force that was due March 1, according to last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which sets defense policy for the next fiscal year. But the Pentagon is nearly two months behind the due date for the report after the same defense authorization act for fiscal year 2024 slashed the salaries of DEI personnel, effectively gutting the departments, the DCNF learned.

Read the full story

Several GOP-Led States Ban DOJ Election Monitors From Polling Sites in 2024 Presidential Election

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft

Several Republican-led states said that they are banning U.S. Department of Justice election monitors from entering polling sites in the November general election after the agency sent observers to various states in the 2022 midterms.

When the DOJ announced that it was sending election monitors to polling sites in multiple states for the 2022 midterm elections, Florida and Missouri said that the department employees would not be permitted to observe the polls. Now, eight other states have said that they will also not allow DOJ election monitors to enter polling sites during the election this November, with some saying that banning them prevents federal interference in elections.

Read the full story

Kemp Signs Bill to Increase State Employees, Teachers’ Paid Parental Leave

Brian Kemp Teacher pay

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation doubling annual paid parental leave for state employees and school personnel, including teachers.

Previously, state employees could take three weeks or 120 hours of paid parental leave during a 12-month “rolling” period following a child’s birth, adoption or foster care placement. However, House Bill 1010 increases the paid leave to six weeks — or 240 hours.

Read the full story

DeSantis Touts More Spending for the Developmentally Disabled in Florida

Ron DeSantis

Floridians with developmental disabilities will benefit from a record level of funding for direct services after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a multi-billion dollar investment from the state.

DeSantis spoke at the Els Center in Jupiter on Monday and announced that as part of the Live Healthy legislation spearheaded by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and his Focus on Florida’s Bright Future Budget that $2.2 billion will be going to the Agency for Persons with Disabilities for services through the iBudget waiver.

Read the full story

Ohio Senate Gets Bill to Increase Penalties for Drug, Human Trafficking

Cindy Abrams

Stronger fentanyl-related drug trafficking penalties and a requirement to teach high school students the dangers of fentanyl now wait on the Ohio Senate to move closer to becoming law.

House Bill 322, which passed the House with an 80-13 vote but has yet to be introduced in the Senate, is a direct response to both drug and human trafficking, according to sponsor Rep. Cindy Abrams, R-Harrison.

Read the full story

Congress Seeks to Unmask Funding for Students for Justice in Palestine and Its Anti-Israel Protests

National Students for Justice in Palestine

The National Students for Justice in Palestine is a driving force in the anti-Israel protests sweeping across the country at college campuses. The national group says it supports 350 “Palestine solidarity organizations” throughout North America, primarily SJP chapters across America.

The funding of the student chapters largely come from U.S. universities, however, National SJP is funded through intermediaries and it is not required to disclose its own finances. This dark money arrangement has obscured funding sources and donations to the group and has spurred congressional interest.

Read the full story

‘Economic Suicide’: Biden Admin Justifies Tax Hike Based on Racial Criteria

President Joe Biden

The Biden administration’s analysis of its revenue proposals for fiscal year 2025 argues targeted tax hikes that disproportionately affect white people would ease racial wealth inequality.

Increasing taxes on capital gains and income-based wealth would reduce racial wealth inequality for black and Hispanic families, the Treasury Department outlined in the analysis published in mid-March. The Treasury points out that white families disproportionately hold assets subject to capital gains tax or are in a higher tax bracket, meaning a hike in those taxes would benefit black and Hispanic families.

Read the full story

Tennessee A.G. Jonathan Skrmetti Announces New Title IX Lawsuit Against Biden Administration in Press Conference with Riley Gaines

Jonathan Skrmetti

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced on Tuesday that Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky are leading a coalition of states in a new lawsuit seeking to stop the Biden administration’s revisions to Title IX that critics argue endanger women and girls.

“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Skrmetti stated. He charged, “Under this radical and illegal attempt to rewrite [Title IX], if a man enters a woman’s locker room and a woman complains that makes her uncomfortable, the woman will be subject to investigation and penalties for violating the man’s civil rights.”

Read the full story

Bipartisan Opposition: Governors from 48 States, 5 Territories Reject Biden’s Plan to Take Over National Guard

The governors of 48 U.S. states and five territories have sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin expressing a “strong opposition” to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) proposed legislation to the Senate Armed Services Committee that would permanently federalize portions of the state Air National Guard troops into the U.S. Space Force.

Read the full story

Tennessee Celebrates Small Business Appreciation Week

Gov. Bill Lee (R) has officially proclaimed April 28 to May 4 as Small Business Appreciation Week in Tennessee. 

Noting that small businesses are “the backbone of Tennessee’s economy, comprising a significant portion of the State’s employment including nearly half of private-sector workforce,” and that “supporting small business owners in Tennessee strengthens the State’s resilience against economic downturns and promotes sustainable economic development,” Lee released the official proclamation on the state’s website. 

Read the full story

Sen. Blackburn Demands Answers from Food Delivery Apps on Illegal Alien Delivery Drivers

Sen. Marsha Blackburn

A U.S. Senator from Tennessee is demanding answers from food delivery applications like DoorDash, UberEats and GrubHub, who have allegedly allowed illegal alien drivers to use their platforms. 

“The danger to Americans—and specifically consumers using your services—is real. These illegal immigrants are delivering food directly to consumers’ doors without ever having undergone a background check and often without even using their real names,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wrote in a letter to GrubHub CEO Howard Migdal last week. “Deliveries routinely occur late into the night, compounding the dangerous situation, and—if the unimaginable happened—there would be little to no way to track the immigrant or bring them to justice.”

Read the full story

Dem Rep Says Biden Admin Has No ‘Operational Control’ Over Border, Demands Reinstatement of Trump-Era Policies

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA-03)

Washington Democrat Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez said Monday that the federal government has lost “operational control” of the southern border and called for Trump-era enforcement policies to be brought back.

Gluesenkamp Perez, a centrist House Democrat, reiterated her calls for President Joe Biden to bring back Remain in Mexico and Title 42, two policies that were utilized widely under the Trump administration, but were both phased out after Biden assumed office. Illegal immigration has surged at the southern border under the Biden administration, with millions of migrant encounters at the southern border since Biden took office.

Read the full story

Tennessee Bill Enabling Adult Sentences for Teenage Criminals Awaits Signature from Gov. Bill Lee

Tennessee lawmakers on Thursday approved legislation that will allow for “blended sentences” of minors who were aged at least 16 when committing a crime, meaning some juvenile offenders will receive adult sentences for their crimes.

The Tennessee Senate on Thursday passed SB 624, sponsored by Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), after the Senate version of the bill was adopted in the Tennessee State House. It now awaits a signature from Governor Bill Lee.

Read the full story

Commentary: The Travesties of the Trump Trials

Do not believe the White House/mainstream media-concocted narrative that the four criminal court cases—prosecuted by Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis—were not in part coordinated, synchronized, and timed to reach their courtroom psychodramatic finales right during the 2024 campaign season.

These local, state, and federal Lilliputian agendas were designed to tie down, gag, confine, bankrupt, and destroy Trump psychologically and physically. They are the final lawfare denouement to years of extra-legal efforts to emasculate him.

Read the full story

Commentary: Voters Aren’t Buying What Shapiro Is Selling

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro

As inflation persists, Pennsylvania voters are rejecting increased government spending, according to new polling data released by the Commonwealth Foundation.

Inflation and the rising cost of living remain Pennsylvanians’ chief concerns. With more than two-thirds of voters saying that high prices are eating away at their standard of living, it’s no wonder that a plurality reports their family is worse off than two years ago.

Read the full story

Airlines Launch Effort Backing Green Jet Fuel Tax Credit that Could Raise Food Prices for Americans

Plane at gate

A coalition of major airlines has formed a group supporting a tax credit pushed by President Joe Biden that experts say could jack up food prices.

More than 40 companies, including Boeing, American Airlines, JetBlue and United as well as ethanol trade groups, are pushing the federal government to “expand” existing tax credits for “sustainable aviation fuel” (SAF) and to pass legislation to increase the fuel’s availability, Axios reported. Corn-based ethanol is a common component in SAF and experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that increasing the demand for corn by incentivizing its use in jet fuel could indirectly raise food costs for Americans.

Read the full story

Concealed Carry Now Allowed for Approved Tennessee School Staff

Tennessee school staff are now eligible to concealed carry firearms at school if they have met the criteria and gained proper approval.

The law went into effect after it was signed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. Several school districts have already said they will not take part in the concealed carry option, which requires the approval of the school principal, superintendent and local law enforcement department.

Read the full story

Georgia Governor Signs Bill to Crack Down on Squatting

Georgia Gov Brian Kemp

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a measure to create a new offense of unlawful squatting following widespread reports in Georgia and beyond of squatters taking over people’s properties

House Bill 1017, the “Georgia Squatter Reform Act,” defines the crime as entering and residing on a property without an owner’s consent. Anyone cited for squatting has three business days to provide proof of their authorization to be on a property, such as a “properly executed lease or rental agreement or proof of rental payments.”

Read the full story

Virginia Board of Education Progressing with ‘Accreditation and Accountability Redesign’

Virginia Board of Education

The Virginia Board of Education recently reviewed takeaways from 15 listening sessions it hosted as part of its “Accreditation and Accountability Redesign.”

“Virginia is one of the few states that continues to combine an accreditation and accountability system,” said Todd Reid, assistant superintendent of strategic communications for the state’s Department of Education. “Combining these systems into one measurement makes it virtually impossible to really determine how the students are academically performing at that school and how the school is shaping educational outcomes.”

Read the full story

New EPA Rules Will Require Carbon Capture Technology on All Existing Coal and New Gas Plants

Coal fired power plant

The administration’s announcement refers to carbon capture as “proven and cost-effective control technologies,” but critics have argued that the technology is expensive to scale up to a degree it can have any impact on carbon dioxide emissions and will drive up energy costs.

The Biden administration finalized four rules regarding power plants Thursday. One of the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules will require all existing coal plants and new natural gas-fired power plants to implement carbon capture technology.

Read the full story

Mounting Evidence Is Pointing to a Nightmare Scenario for the U.S. Economy

Evicted

U.S. annual economic growth measured just 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2024, following a report of persistently high inflation in March of 3.5 percent year-over-year. The combination of both low growth and high inflation, in conjunction with continuously high amounts of government spending and debt, has led to signs of stagflation in the U.S. economy, which wreaked havoc on U.S. consumers throughout the 1970’s, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.

Read the full story

Parents Question Why Virginia High School Staging Drag Musical, Brunch

West Potomac High School Principle Jessica Statz

A high school theater troupe is staging the risque musical “Kinky Boots” just outside the nation’s capital “in collaboration” with a leading Virginia school syste’’s “Pride” programs, prompting concern and questions from some parents.

The Beyond the Page Theatre Company at West Potomac High School in Alexandria, Virginia, will perform “Kinky Boots” eight times between Thursday and May 4, according to emails obtained by The Daily Signal.

Read the full story

Georgia Eliminating Atlanta’s Variable Speed Limit Signs

Variable Speed Limit Sign

Georgia officials are paying more than $400,000 to remove 167 variable speed limit signs in metro Atlanta.

Georgia transportation officials approved the plan for the signs on Interstate 285 in 2012 and subsequently started introducing them along the interstate’s northern portion, according to various media reports from the time. However, reports suggest that the system wasn’t activated until about October 2014.

Read the full story

Tennessee Bill Allows Lawsuits for Damages from Illegally Blocking Roadway

Seattle Traffic Shut-Down

A bill aimed at preventing people from blocking Tennessee roadways was amended and passed by both chambers of the Tennessee Legislature before it next heads to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee along with a glut of late-session bills.

Rather than creating an increased felony charge, Senate Bill 2570 was amended to allow for lawsuits to be filed if a person or company suffers a loss because a “defendant intentionally obstructed a highway, street, or other place used for the passage of vehicles or conveyances.”

Read the full story

Air Force Slapped with Lawsuit After Claiming It Has No Records on Officer Diversity Quotas

Gen. Charles Q Brown Jr.

A watchdog group filed a lawsuit against the Air Force on Wednesday for allegedly withholding records shedding light on the service’s efforts to set racial diversity quotas when taking on new officers, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., then Air Force’s top officer, updated demographic goals for applicants to become officers in the Air Force in an August 2022 memo, calling the effort “aspirational.” The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), a watchdog group focused on security and civil liberties, requested communications related to the memo using a federal transparency law the following year, and when the Air Force said it couldn’t find anything, CASA decided to sue, according to a copy of the filing obtained by the DCNF in advance.

Read the full story

Illegal Alien Sex Offender Released Despite Detainer Request, ICE Says

Illegal alien sex offender in police custody

Connecticut law enforcement officials released an illegal alien convicted of sex crimes against a minor while ignoring a detainer request, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

ICE agents apprehended a 27-year-old Ecuadorian national convicted of indecent assault and second degree assault of a Connecticut child earlier this month, the agency announced in a press release on Wednesday. The agency is faulting local officials for releasing the alien, despite an immigration detainer placed on him.

Read the full story

Biden Admin Wants to Force Companies to Hire Criminals in the Name of Equity

President Biden in front of a Sheetz store (composite image)

Federal regulators recently launched a lawsuit against popular convenience chain Sheetz that could have implications for whether businesses will be able to screen applicants for criminal convictions.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) suit, announced April 18, alleged that Sheetz discriminated against minority applicants by screening all job seekers for criminal convictions, arguing that doing so disproportionally targets black, Native American and multiracial applicants. Many businesses have already stopped screening employees based on earlier guidance and pressure from regulators, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Read the full story

SCOTUS Shocked by Biden Administration’s View of Federal Power over States in ER Abortion Challenge

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar

To convince the Supreme Court that the Biden administration could use federal Medicare funding to force hospitals to perform abortions in violation of Idaho law, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar conceived and gave birth to some unusual arguments Wednesday.

She reached for a 129-year-old precedent that crippled the labor movement for decades, neutered legal obligations to the “unborn child” in the federal law that allegedly requires abortions in certain situations, and didn’t deny a Republican administration could use her rationale to functionally ban abortion and even transgender care nationwide.

Read the full story

GOP Secretaries of State, Legislators Fight Against ‘Bidenbucks,’ Federalization of GOTV Efforts

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner with Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson (composite image)

Republican secretaries of state and state legislators are pushing back against “Bidenbucks,” what call the federalization of voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, claiming that the executive order is unlawful.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner and Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, along with Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature, are fighting President Biden’s Executive Order 14019 from March 2021, which turns federal agencies into “Get Out The Vote” (GOTV) centers across all states.

Read the full story

Bill to Fine Parents for Crimes of Delinquent Children Passes Tennessee General Assembly

HB 1930

Legislation that would fine the parents of delinquent children who commit additional crimes has the support of the Tennessee General Assembly after the State House passed it on Monday. The legislation will go to Governor Bill Lee for final approval before becoming law.

The bill, titled the Parental Accountability Act, will require juvenile courts to levy a $1,000 fine against children who are “found to be delinquent for a second or subsequent delinquent act” after already being found guilty of delinquency. Those unable to pay the fine may be granted community service.

Read the full story

Youngkin Travels to Europe for ‘International Trade Mission’ Ahead of May Special Session for Virginia Budget

Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin announced on Wednesday he will embark on a week-long “international trade mission” to Europe as lawmakers continue work on the biennial Virginia budget ahead of the May special legislative session.

The governor’s office confirmed Youngkin’s “third international trade mission” will include stops in Germany, Denmark, Finland and Swizterland between April 28 to May 3. He plans to meet with business leaders, public officials and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Read the full story