Tag: COVID-19

Ohio Commits More Federal COVID-19 Money to Law Enforcement

The Center Square

Ohio plans to use more federal COVID-19 money to help local law enforcement agencies reduce violent crime, Gov. Mike DeWine announced.

The state plans to add $50 million from American Recovery Plan Act funds to the Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program, which began this year with $8 million in the state budget.

“One of the most important things that we can do to support our law enforcement officers is to give them the tools they need to keep themselves and the public safe,” DeWine said. “By significantly increasing the amount of funding available, we can help more law enforcement agencies better combat crime and protect their communities.”

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Border Patrol: Biden Policy Will Increase Already ‘High Levels’ of Illegal Immigration

The Center Square

President Joe Biden’s latest immigration policy change has taken heavy fire from a range of critics, but now even his own administration is raising concerns.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a statement Monday saying that Biden’s latest immigration policy change will lead to illegal immigration “above the current high levels.”

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The Omicron Variant Was Created in a Lab, Scientists Say

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Many scientists who have studied the Omicron virus believe that the fast-spreading COVID variant was mistakenly or perhaps purposefully released from a lab.

Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson spoke with several such scientists who told her that Omicron is unlikely to be a product of a natural evolution of SARS-Cov-2 in infected people because of the vast number of mutations that had to occur in order to create the new virus.

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The U.S. Has Nearly Recovered All the Jobs Lost to COVID Lockdowns

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The U.S. economy recorded an increase of 431,000 jobs in March as COVID-19 concerns ease and more Americans seek work to combat the surging cost of living.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 431,000 in March while the unemployment rate dipped to 3.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Economists surveyed by Dow Jones predicted the U.S. economy would add 490,000 jobs.

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Arizona Ends COVID Emergency Declaration

The Center Square

With many of his executive orders enshrined into law, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has opted to end the state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration. 

The governor terminated the declaration as thresholds set by state agencies show the threat of the disease is nowhere near what it once was. 

“Thanks to the hard work of many – health care workers, businesses, public and private sector employees – COVID-19 is no longer an emergency in Arizona,” Ducey said. “This virus isn’t completely gone, but because of the vaccine and other life-saving measures, today, we are better positioned to manage and mitigate it.” 

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Georgia Doling Out More Than $11 Million in COVID Relief to Help Teachers

The Center Square

The Georgia Department of Education is dishing out more than $11 million in federal COVID-19 relief to help more than 14,600 Georgia teachers.

The State Board of Education approved $6.8 million in Expanding Opportunities for Teachers Grants for 19 school districts, higher education institutions and Regional Educational Service Agencies (RESAs). Recipients can use the money to pay for tuition, fees and exam costs for Georgia public school teachers enrolled in approved Teacher and Teacher Leader Endorsement programs.

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NJ-7 Democrat Malinowski Under Investigation for Murky Financial Dealings, Also Benefited from Well-Timed Stock Trades

Aaron Gulbransen

Incumbent U.S. Representative Tom Malinowski (D-NJ-07) appears to have financially benefited from exceptional timing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hill reported in 2021 that Malinowski previously faced two ethics complaints about his failure to report “trading roughly $1 million in stock in medical companies that were involved in responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Malinowski’s stock trades, when viewed in the context of the COVID-19 timeline in the United States, lead reporters at The Hill and The AP to more closely follow his financial activities. However, The Star News Network, using publicly available and verified information, found that Malinowski benefitted from an extraordinary navigation of technology, luxury, and medical market sectors.

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Georgia Gov. Kemp Signs Bill Barring Schools from Requiring Students to Wear Masks

The Center Square

Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Tuesday to bar schools and government agencies from mandating students to wear a mask while at school.

Senate Bill 514, the Unmask Georgia Students Act, prohibits boards of education, school superintendents and state charter schools from imposing mask mandates. However, it does not prohibit students from wearing a mask at school.

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Commentary: GOP Must Promise Inquisitions, Not Meaningless Task Forces

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Ginni Thomas and Mark Meadows

Using the pretext of the so-called insurrection on January 6, 2021, the long knives are out for Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Post-election text exchanges between Mrs. Thomas and Mark Meadows, President Trump’s chief-of-staff, recently were leaked by the January 6 select committee to none other than the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, who darkly described the communications as proof that “Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election result.”

The small cache of texts—29 total—shows Thomas expressing frustration at the election’s outcome. There is nothing sinister, and certainly nothing criminal, about the messages.

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21 States Join Lawsuit to End Federal Mask Mandate on Airplanes, Public Transportation

The Center Square

Twenty-one states have filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s continued mask mandate on public transportation, including on airplanes.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody are leading the effort. Moody filed the suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida along with 20 other attorneys general. DeSantis said the mask mandate was misguided and heavy-handed.

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Whistleblower Says ChiComs Launched COVID-19 at Wuhan’s October 2019 World Military Games

Neil W. McCabe

The top immunologist and Wuhan virus whistleblower, who escaped China after making her revelations public, told The Star News Network Chinese President Jin-Ping Xi and the Chinese Communist Party released COVID-19 at the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan held Oct. 22 through Oct. 27.

“The Xi Jinping team, I mean emergency reaction–those teams, they have prepared different military drills combined with the local doctors and citizens of China, especially in Wuhan,” said Dr. Li-Meng Yan, who was a researcher at the World Health Organization facility in Hong Kong, when she was tasked with figuring out the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Georgia Senate Signs Off on Fiscal 2023 Budget

The Center Square
Georgia State Capitol

The Georgia Senate has signed off on a fiscal year 2023 state budget that increases spending by 10.8% over last year.

The Senate voted 56-0 in favor of an amended House Bill 911, a more than $30 billion spending plan that includes pay raises for many state employees and largely returns spending to pre-COVID-19-pandemic spending levels.

The budget proposal includes pay raises for certified teachers and other school workers, including nutrition workers, bus drivers and school nurses. It also increases funding for law enforcement, including for the Georgia Department of Public Safety to hire state troopers and expand crisis intervention training for officers across the Peach State.

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Feds’ Pressure on Tech Platforms to Censor COVID ‘Misinformation’ Is Unconstitutional, Suit Says

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The government’s sustained pressure on social media platforms to censor and report purported COVID-19 misinformation amounts to “state action” that violates the First Amendment, according to a lawsuit filed Friday on behalf of three Twitter users.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a frequent litigant against COVID-related administrative action, is representing theoretical cognitive scientist Mark Changizi, lawyer Michael Senger and stay-at-home father Daniel Kotzin.

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Biden’s Next COVID Czar an Academic Who Considers Anthony Fauci to Be a Personal Role Model

Susan Berry, PhD
President Joe Biden participates in a Q&A townhall with Chief Medical Adviser to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday, May 17, 2021, in the Blue Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 response coordinator is an academic physician who has mocked early treatment of the virus and has said he considers Dr. Anthony Fauci to be a personal role model.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, is a familiar face to those who get their news about the coronavirus from CNN and other cable and network news shows.

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White House Belatedly Concedes COVID Spreads Primarily Through Aerosols

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COVID-19 spreads primarily through aerosols, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) said in a blog post Wednesday that puts it at odds with the CDC, according to a research center run by President Biden’s former COVID advisor Michael Osterholm.

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) said the White House was “years” behind some experts worldwide in recognizing the primacy of aerosol transmission. “It’s worth noting there is no mention of droplets in the blog post,” George Washington University public health epidemiologist David Michaels told CIDRAP.

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Supreme Court Rules Against Navy SEALs, Allows DOD to Restrict Deployment Based on Vax Status

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The Supreme Court on Friday blocked a lower court’s ruling that prevented the Navy from making deployment decisions for Navy SEALs based on their COVID-19 vaccination status.

The ruling clears the way for the Navy to keep SEALs from deployment if they aren’t vaccinated. The SEALs had sued challenging the Navy’s COVID-19 policies after being denied religious exemptions.

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Commentary: The ‘Trump Won’ Movement Will Be Vindicated

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Group of people at a Trump rally, man in a "Keep America Great" hat

Imagine if, following the disputed 2016 presidential election, the recently sworn-in President Donald Trump had sicced his Justice Department, hand-in-hand with allies in Congress and state governments throughout the country, after his Democratic political opponents who maintained that his election was the work of Russian interference.

Although the claim that Trump was a Russian asset was laughably false, and the subsequent investigation into those spurious claims damaged the federal government’s credibility in immense and perhaps irreparable ways domestically and internationally, applying criminal penalties to the promulgation of that theory would have been wrong, anti-American, and contrary to the First Amendment. In keeping with his stalwart defense of American values, President Trump made no directive to the Justice Department to pursue criminal charges against these Democrats.

Similarly, his Republican predecessor allowed Democrats to freely “challenge an election”: Democrats had previously contested the 2000 election by claiming that George W. Bush was “selected, not elected” as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore. A smaller minority contested Bush’s reelection in 2004, alleging irregularities in Ohio and elsewhere.

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Airline CEOs Demand End to Biden’s Mask Mandate

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People in an airplane with masks on

Chief executives of several major airlines told President Joe Biden to end COVID-19-related federal transportation restrictions in a Wednesday letter.

Leaders of American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, FedEx Express, UPS Airlines and more said pandemic restrictions, including the federal mask mandate and COVID-19 testing requirements for international flights, no longer made sense in the letter shared by The Washington Post.

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Commentary: Pharma Giant’s Mandate Makes Ex-Workers of Vaccine Objectors

RealClearWire
Eli Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Mandy Van Gorp was confident that her employer of 18 years, Eli Lilly and Company, would treat her fairly when she objected to its company-wide COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The pharmaceutical giant had promised to exempt employees with valid health or religious objections to the policy and she believed she had had both.

Despite presenting a doctor’s note in support of her exemption, citing an auto-immune disease, the company denied her request for a medical exemption. To add injury to the insult she felt, she tested positive for COVID-19 the day after receiving her rejection letter. She then appealed for a six-month deferral on grounds of the positive test. Lilly also denied that request. When she then raised her religious concerns, Lilly said she had missed the application deadline – a deadline that had lapsed several weeks before Lilly replied to her initial accommodation request.

The “toughest night was when we were sitting at the dinner table and my 12-year-old was sobbing, hysterically begging me to get the vaccine so I could keep my job,” recalled Van Gorp, a 42-year-old sales representative and mother of three. “I had to explain that my choice was not about money and that I felt God was leading me not to follow a mandate. It’s hard to explain that to a 12-year-old.”

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‘Predetermined’: Mainstream Scientists Blame Media, Big Tech for Squelching COVID Debate

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Challenging COVID-19 conventional wisdom has given some scientists their first meaningful interactions with journalists — and left them wary of the fourth estate, they told Hillsdale College’s Academy for Science and Freedom conference in D.C. last week.

Catherine Stein, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University, anonymously criticized the state’s COVID policy and personally contacted state lawmakers to share her skepticism, particularly on mask efficacy. “What blew my mind was the fear-mongering in the media,” she said.

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Alcohol-Related Deaths Skyrocketed During COVID-19 Pandemic, Study Finds

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The number of Americans who died due to alcohol-related causes skyrocketed in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a new study.

Alcohol-related deaths rose roughly 25% from 2019 to 2020, according to a March 18 study conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Commentary: Biden’s Handlers Are Preparing to Eject Him and Kamala

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I sense a disturbance in the force. In fact, I’ve been feeling the tremors for a while. Back in January, I wrote a column for American Greatness called “The Coming Dethronement of Joe Biden.” In it, I noted that Biden’s appalling performance as president would sooner or later—and probably sooner, given the ostentatious nature of his multifaceted failure—lead to his removal as president. 

I should have added that it wasn’t Biden’s performance per se that would lead to his downfall. The problem, rather, was the way his performance was undermining his—and therefore his minders’ and puppetmasters’—political power. As Saul Alinsky, community organizer to the stars, noted, the “issue is never the issue.” Accordingly, the people who put Joe Biden in power—I cannot name them, but I know they are the same people who keep him in power—do not care about inflation, rising gas and food prices, COVID lockdowns or mask mandates, the porousness of our Southern border, the threat of war with Russia, or the myriad other issues that worry ordinary voters. I am quite certain, in fact, that the word “voters” brings a vaguely contemptuous smile to their faces.

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Group Files Appeal in Ohio Municipal Income Tax Lawsuit

The Center Square

An Ohio policy group is continuing its fight against cities in the state collecting income taxes from people who do not work in those cities.

The Buckeye Institute filed an appeal with Ohio’s Sixth District Court of Appeals in a case challenging the authority of the cities of Toledo and Oregon to tax nonresidents who do not work within those cities because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency Didn’t Screen 5,508 Workers; Some Weren’t Trained Before Working

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The Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) failed to screen 5,508 workers before giving them access to software that disbursed $39 billion of taxpayer money since March 2020.

An audit released Friday from the Office of Auditor (OAG) General Doug Ringler marked four “material conditions” – the most severe rating – asserting the UIA failed to take multiple safeguards to prevent employees from looting taxpayer money.

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Commentary: All of Joe Biden’s Multitude of Failures Were Foreseeable in 2020

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Every single one of senile president Joe Biden’s struggles was easily foreseeable.

It’s a bold statement, since many if not most of the issues that confront a new president can’t always be seen from a distance. If it can be said that elections are always about the future, it’s just as true to claim that the future would almost certainly be shaped by yet unseen events and circumstances that no politician could forthrightly discuss in the lead-up to his victory.

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10 Republican-Controlled States Reach Record-Low Unemployment Rates

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As the peak of the coronavirus pandemic appears to have passed, ten Republican-led states have all recorded the lowest unemployment rate on record.

According to The Hill, the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows ten different states with unemployment rates as low as just over 2 percent. Nebraska and Utah are tied for the lowest percentages in the country, at 2.2 percent each. They are followed by Indiana with 2.4 percent, and Kansas with 2.6 percent. The remaining six states are: Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

All ten states’ unemployment rates are currently the lowest on record since BLS first began tracking state-by-state percentages in 1976. Of these ten states, only one has a Democratic governor, with Laura Kelly in Kansas. All ten states have Republican majorities in their respective state legislatures.

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Michigan Attorney General Nessel: Report Refutes Allegation State Undercounted Nursing Home COVID Deaths

The Center Square

A January 2022 Office of Auditor General’s (OAG) report alleging Michigan undercounted COVID nursing home deaths by 42%, or 2,386 is being refuted by an analysis shared by Attorney General Dana Nessel. 

Nessel released a further analysis tracked by the Health, Education, and Family Services Division within the Department of Attorney General.

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Pfizer CEO Calls for Another Booster Shot for All Americans

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On Sunday, the chief executive officer of Pfizer said that Americans should be prepared to receive a second booster shot of the Coronavirus vaccine, which would mark the fourth overall shot that has been forced on the American public.

As reported by Politico, Albert Bourla made his remarks in an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan, where he said that his company was preparing to submit “a significant package of data about the need for a fourth dose” to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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Whitmer Kidnapping Trial Delayed After COVID Contraction

The Center Square
Gretchen Whitmer

The trial of the four men accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 has been delayed after an “essential trial participant” tested positive for COVID-19.

A court document filed Sunday by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker says the court hopes to reconvene Thursday. The trial kicked off on March 8 in Grand Rapids.

“Assuming no other complications, the court hopes to re-convene trial Thursday,” Jonker wrote.

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Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro Tests Positive for COVID-19 After Attending House Democratic Retreat

Cooper Moran

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03) on Saturday announced she tested positive for COVID-19, after attending a retreat in Philadelphia for Democrats in the House of Representatives. According to DeLauro, she contracted the virus despite being fully vaccinated and boosted and has only experienced mild symptoms. “While I tested negative earlier this week, today I tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully, I am only experiencing mild symptoms & am grateful for the protection that comes from being vaccinated & boosted. I encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and get boosted,” she said in a tweet. While I was looking forward to marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade & had plans to celebrate our community projects & all that we accomplished in the federal spending package, I'll be isolating & working remotely from my home in New Haven. My office remains fully operational. — Rosa DeLauro (@rosadelauro) March 12, 2022 “While I was looking forward to marching in the St. Patrick’s Day parade & had plans to celebrate our community projects & all that we accomplished in the federal spending package, I’ll be isolating & working remotely from my home in New Haven. My office remains fully operational.” Over the past…

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Biden Administration Announces End to Title 42 Expulsions of Illegal Immigrant Children

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The White House will no longer expel unaccompanied immigrant children under a controversial pandemic-related health rule, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday, though adults and families can still be removed from the country under the provision.

The Biden administration said it would cease expelling children under the CDC policy known as Title 42, which allows the government to eject migrants from the country if they are believed to pose a public health risk connected to the pandemic.

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Report: Mother’s Death Chicago Teachers’ Union Claimed Was Due to COVID-19 Was from Alcoholism

Susan Berry, PhD

A Cook County Medical Examiner’s toxicology report states a parent the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) claimed died due to the spread of COVID-19 from the classroom to her home, actually died from chronic alcoholism.

Chicago City Wire said it obtained the report from the medical examiner that stated Denisha Henry, 32, died in September at Stroger Hospital in Chicago of “chronic ethanolism.”

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Delta Responds to Pilots Who Protested Long Work Hours, Fatigue

Peter D'Abrosca
Delta airlines plane taking off

Georgia-based Delta responded Friday after a Thursday protest by 200 of its pilots who say they are working too many hours and suffering from fatigue. 

“This informational exercise Thursday by some of our off-duty pilots did not disrupt our operation for our customers. All of our pilot schedules meet or exceed safety requirements set by FAA as well as those outlined in our pilot contract,” Delta spokesperson Morgan Durant told The Georgia Star News by email. 

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Freedom Foundation Facilitating Exit of Ohio Union Members

Peter D'Abrosca

A nonprofit is making progress in Ohio in facilitating the exit of public sector union employees from those unions. 

“For some reason, the First Amendment right for people to leave public sector is the best kept secret,” Freedom Foundation Ohio State Director Lauren Bowen told The Ohio Star. “Their hard earned money does not have to be directed to union coffers via union dues.”

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National Public Radio: Connecticut Moms Say Democrats’ Deceptive COVID Mandates Driving Them to Republican Party

Susan Berry, PhD

National Public Radio (NPR) reported Monday many suburban Connecticut parents say the Democrats’ deceptive COVID mandates that have only just recently been lifted amount to “too little, too late,” and have driven them to Republican candidates for public office.

While President Joe Biden attempted to tout his administration’s success during his State of the Union address last week, he left the window open for further mandates, noting, “because this virus mutates and spreads.”

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Tennessee State Rep. Wants to Criminalize COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates

Peter D'Abrosca
Bruce Griffey

A member of the Tennessee General Assembly Tuesday filed a bill that would criminalize COVID-19 mandates in the state, saying that he doesn’t think Tennessee has done enough to combat such mandates.

“I don’t feel that the legislature went far enough during October’s special legislative session on this issue. This is about protecting an individual’s freedom to make their own medical decisions and the freedom of parents to make healthcare decisions for their children,” State Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) in a press release. “Those individuals who want to get vaccinated should be able to do so.  However, those individuals, who have concerns about the vaccine, should not have to live in fear that they may lose their jobs or their children may not be able to attend school or they may not be able to enter a business to purchase groceries if they don’t get vaccinated.”

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DeSantis Holds Roundtable with Doctors Who Say Pandemic Is Over

Peter D'Abrosca

Led by Governor Ron DeSantis (R), a roundtable of doctors, scientists and academics gathered in-person and virtually Monday to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, and specifically the ramifications that lockdowns and other measures have had on American society. 

“There was time and again when the data would diverge from the [Dr. Anthony] Fauci pronouncements, or the corporate media, or the medical establishment – and whether that was having businesses open, whether that was having kids in school, whether that was about mandating cloth masks, whether that was about mandating vaccines – we always sided with the data and rejected the narrative,” DeSantis said during the proceedings, noting that the United States is close to the two-year anniversary of the “15 days to stop the spread” campaign by the federal government. 

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Russell Brand Tells His Growing Audience to Question What They’re Told

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Russell Brand London Revolution Protest

Russell Brand sounds like Joe Rogan these days, or even Tucker Carlson.

The British comic came to fame stateside as the scene-stealing rocker in 2008’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Brand embraced a quasi-pundit status in the process, extolling socialism and smiting the West in books, documentaries and podcasts.

These days, his booming YouTube channel finds him questioning COVID-19 narratives, eviscerating the mainstream media and warning his 5 million-plus flock to question what they’re told. Always.

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