Feds Announce $200 Million for Georgia Projects

Atlanta Money

The federal government is sending more than $210 million for projects across the state, from building a park over downtown Atlanta’s Connector to removing a flyover ramp in Savannah.

The largest project is a $157.6 million Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods Grant award to jumpstart the first phase of construction of the Stitch, a four-acre park over Interstates 75 and 85.

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Commentary: The Federal Government is Deciding Who Can Start a Small Business

Business Owner

Just when it seemed impossible for things to get tougher for small businesses, the federal government decided to make things worse.

Small businesses have had a tough run for the last few years. Record inflation, high interest rates, and workforce shortages have led to widespread pessimism among small businesses. The last thing they need is more government interference, but that is exactly what is happening.

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Commentary: Taxpayer U

College Students

The college horror stories are endless. A mandatory Title IX training session at Harvard instructs students that “fatphobia” and “cis-heterosexism” perpetuate violence and that using the wrong pronouns constitutes abuse. Yet, hatred against Jews is tolerated at the school.

In California, community colleges teach that if someone claims they are not a racist, they are in denial and that colorblindness “perpetuates existing racial inequities and denies systematic racism.” A Michigan college held a “queer” abortion stories event earlier this year. The once-venerable University of Chicago is planning to host a “kink and consent” workshop for students, in which the practice of sex play with ropes will be taught.

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Tennessee AG Leads Charge Against Biden Admin Plan to Have Government Cut Back on Single-Use Plastic

Plastic Straws

A coalition of Republican state attorneys general led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is fighting a federal agency’s proposal to massively reduce the amount of single-use plastics consumed by the government.

The General Services Administration (GSA) —  which provides centralized procurement for the federal government and offers office products and other services to federal agencies — proposed a rule in late December 2023 that would put the federal government on track to significantly reduce its use of single-use plastic packaging in an effort to be environmentally friendly. Skrmetti and 13 other state attorneys general argued in comments filed Monday that the policy exceeds the agency’s authority, and that it would decrease the efficiency of federal procurement and increase costs while failing to do much for the environment.

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Commentary: Combating the Federal Government’s Determination to Allow a Border Invasion

Illegal Immigration

The invasion of illegal aliens on our southern border is getting worse by the day. Texas is at the forefront of this problem, comprising almost half of the nation’s border with Mexico. After years of failure by the Obama and Biden administrations, our state has finally decided to act to protect our citizens.

A new law was signed by the governor, making illegal immigration a state crime and empowering local and state law enforcement to carry out this new law. This should have happened years ago. The border crisis is not new. Inaction by the governor has continued to allow illegal aliens, including documented terrorists, into our state.

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Arizona Sends Federal Government $512 Million Bill for Picking Up Border Slack

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is pushing the federal government to reassign National Guard troops and reimburse the state government for border-related expenses.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Hobbs is requesting that the 243 National Guard troops already on federal orders in the Tucson Sector be redirected to helping with the Lukeville Port of Entry’s reopening.

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Idaho Asks Supreme Court to Stop Federal Government from Using ERs as ‘Enclave’ for Abortions

Idaho is asking the Supreme Court to intervene and allow the state to enforce its pro-life law despite the Biden Administration’s efforts to block it by allowing abortions in emergency rooms, according to court documents.

The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act is meant to ensure that all patients who request emergency room treatment are examined, but Idaho argued in its court filing Monday that the law turns “protection for the uninsured into a federal super-statute on the issue of abortion, one that strips Idaho of its sovereign interest in protecting innocent human life and turns emergency rooms into a federal enclave where state standards of care do not apply.”

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Commentary: NewsGuard Is a Surrogate the Feds Pay to Keep Watch on the Internet and Be a Judge of the Truth

In May 2021, L. Gordon Crovitz, a media executive turned start-up investor, pitched Twitter executives on a powerful censorship tool. 

In an exchange that came to light in the “Twitter Files” revelations about media censorship, Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, touted his product, NewsGuard, as a “Vaccine Against Misinformation.” His written pitch highlighted a “separate product” – beyond an extension already on the Microsoft Edge browser – “for internal use by content-moderation teams.” Crovitz promised an out-of-the-box tool that would use artificial intelligence powered by NewsGuard algorithms to rapidly screen content based on hashtags and search terms the company associated with dangerous content.

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Federal Government Chooses Maryland over Virginia as New Headquarters for FBI

The federal government has finally selected Greenbelt, Maryland, as the location for its new FBI headquarters, concluding a search process that began more than 10 years ago.

Congress authorized the General Services Administration to start looking for a new site for the FBI headquarters in 2012 after a decade of complaints about the security, technological capabilities, “deteriorating infrastructure,” and other issues with the current facility in Washington, D.C. The GSA narrowed its search to Greenbelt and Landover, Maryland, and Springfield, Virginia, in 2014, and state lawmakers and officials from both states have actively pursued the selection of their state throughout. 

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Shipping Container Wall Lawsuit Dropped, Locals Justify Blocking Flood of Illegal Immigrants

As the shipping containers along the southern border in Yuma, Arizona, came down months ago, the two federal cases against the state have been dismissed.

The Ducey administration placed the containers at the gaps last year and agreed with the federal government to take them down under the condition that a replacement barrier was created, The Center Square reported in December. However, the federal government took months to make progress on its own barrier, KYMA reported. 

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Federal Government Handed over Billions in COVID Relief Money to Colleges with Massive Endowments

The federal government handed over nearly $76 billion to colleges and universities from COVID-19 federal funding packages, despite the colleges and universities having billions of dollars in their endowment funds, according to data compiled by OpenTheBooks.

The Cares Act, The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSSA) and The American Rescue Plan Act contained over $5 trillion in federal COVID-19 relief funds, of which nearly $76 billion was handed over to colleges and universities, according to data compiled by OpenTheBooks, a government transparency watchdog organization. Sixteen of the universities with the largest endowments received nearly $4 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds.

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Feds to Drop Shipping Container Border Wall Lawsuit After $2.1 Million Payment from Arizona Taxpayers

A lawsuit launched by the Department of Justice against Arizona over a makeshift border wall made of shipping containers is set to be dismissed following a final payment of $2.1 million from the state to the U.S. Forest Service, even after Governor Katie Hobbs (D) dismantled the barrier and put the containers up for sale.

The shipping container wall was constructed under former Governor Doug Ducey (R), whose administration argued the hastily constructed barrier was necessary until the Biden administration resumed construction on the southern border wall started by former President Donald Trump. A lawsuit was launched by the federal government just weeks before Hobbs took office.

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Feds Continue Borrowing over $5 Billion Per Day Despite Credit Downgrade

The federal government is borrowing an average of $5.3 billion per day this fiscal year, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday. The new estimate come just days after a top international creditor downgraded the U.S. credit rating.

“The federal budget deficit was $1.6 trillion in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2023, the Congressional Budget Office estimates – more than twice the shortfall recorded during the same period last year,” CBO said. “Revenues were 10 percent lower and outlays were 10 percent higher from October through July than they were during the same period in fiscal year 2022.”

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Commentary: Looking for the Deep State

Allegations that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been politicized and weaponized against Republicans are in the news. It is commonly acknowledged that most federal employees lean left and vote Democratic, but this is usually said to make little difference. Prior to the 2022 election, a survey by Government Executive magazine said federal workers preferred Democrats 47 percent to 35 percent in House races, and 37 percent to 33 percent for the Senate. 

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Commentary: A Deep Dive into the Century of Conservatives’ Failure to Contain the Administrative State

by Theo Wold   James Landis is widely credited with crafting the theoretical architecture supporting President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s radical reconstruction — and expansion — of the federal government. Landis shrewdly both established and legitimized the regulatory state, including Roosevelt’s creation of new federal administrative agencies, by offering the regulatory state as the solution to the problem of modern governance: the administrative state “is, in essence, our generation’s answer to the inadequacy of the judicial and legislative process.” The Landis premise took concrete shape through Roosevelt’s expansion of the regulatory state, and in doing so, it brought to fruition Woodrow Wilson’s progressive intellectual project: rule by experts, insulated from the popular will Landis (pictured above) believed the “the administrative process” for which he advocated would “spring from the inadequacy of a simply tripartite form of government to deal with modern problems” because modern problems were simply too large and complex to be entrusted to the system based on the separation of powers instituted by our nation’s founders. Landis framed this innovation as consistent with separation of powers principles because he believed the separation of powers called both for separation but also coordination among the branches, and he saw the administrative state as essential to creating that…

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Florida Sues Federal Government over School Accreditation Collaboration

The state of Florida filed a lawsuit this week to challenge federal collaboration with accreditation organizations to usurp recent reforms to the Sunshine State’s higher education system.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida on Thursday with Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.

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Watchdog: Feds Wasted $683 Million Per Day in Improper Payments in 2022

The federal government wasted over a half a trillion dollars in improper payments during the first two years of the Biden administration, a new analysis from a spending watchdog group found.

The analysis comes from Open The Books, which reports that 82 programs across 17 agencies made improper payments in fiscal year 2022 alone, averaging $20.5 billion per month, or $683 million per day.

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Improvised Explosive Device Found on Suspect Trying to Enter Arizona, State Legislature Emphasizes Need for Strong Border Security

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), an incident recently occurred at the Douglas Port of Entry where a suspect attempting to enter Arizona was found trying to smuggle in an improvised explosive device (IED).

A statement CBP emailed to The Arizona Sun Times revealed that the incident occurred on May 6th. Officials from the Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrived to confiscate the device after it was found in the suspect’s vehicle. There were no other items of interest found.

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Catholic College Fundraises to Cut Ties with ‘Intrusive,’ ‘Hostile’ Federal Government

A Catholic college is raising money to end its affiliation with the federal government and become financially independent, arguing the government has become “hostile to faith,” according to its website.

Belmont Abbey College (BAC), located in North Carolina, is operating a campaign called “Made True” that aims to raise $55 million to cut ties with the federal government and restore its purpose as a faith-based institution, its website reads. The money will “create innovative new financial structures and stewardship programs” with the intent of graduating students without debt as well as create public policy and health science programs that align with the college’s mission.

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Michael Flynn Sues Government over ‘Wrongful and Malicious’ Prosecution

Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn on Friday filed a suit against the federal government seeking damages over what he called Washington’s “wrongful and malicious” prosecution of him.

“As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’s actions, General Flynn suffered harm,” his attorneys wrote in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. “He was falsely branded as a traitor to his country, lost at least tens of millions of dollars of business opportunities and future lifetime earning potential, was maliciously prosecuted and spent substantial monies in his own defense.”

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Commentary: Tennessee’s Conversation About Rejecting Federal Money for Education

Historically, the Federal Government had limited involvement in Public Education. That changed in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) into law.

ESEA doubled federal expenditures for K-12 education and gave the federal government much more input into education. That has been the debate ever since, central control of education versus state/local control.

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‘Two FBIs’: Whistleblowers Accuse DC HQ of Trampling Constitution, Field Offices

House Republicans think federal agencies have become a weapon against their own apolitical employees and the constitutional rights of Americans. House Democrats think House Republicans have become a weapon against the prerogatives of federal agencies.

The parties traded laundry lists of grievances stemming from agency and congressional investigations, from the Benghazi attack to the Russia collusion hoax, at the first hearing Thursday of the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

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Arizona Mayor Says Federal Border Wall Replacing Ducey’s Wall Still Not Built

As the shipping containers serving as a makeshift wall in the Morelos Dam area of the Yuma sector of the border came down, the mayor of Yuma said that the federal government is off to a slow start replacing them.

“There’s some areas that the containers went down and there’s no current plan by the feds to put anything up, but the Morelos Dam area is the area that really was causing a lot of problems in the last couple years, and so that was kind of seen as a priority area,” Mayor Douglas Nicholls told The Center Square Thursday.

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Article III Project Founder Believes Jim Jordan Has No Intention of Holding Big Tech Accountable

Article III Project founder and President Mike Davis says he doubts House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan will hold Big Tech accountable for its abuse of power for colluding with the federal government.

“Jim Jordan has no intention of actually holding big tech accountable,” Davis said on the Wednesday edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “He pretends like he is fighting against Big Tech, but behind the scenes he’s making these key decisions like opposing bipartisan reforms last Congress and appointing someone who is pro Big Tech.”

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Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels Speaks in Washington on Southern Border Crisis Affect in Arizona

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels spoke at the US House Judiciary Committee’s Wednesday hearing on the southern border crisis, speaking on how his county has been affected by the ongoing issue.

“Our southern border, against all public comfort statements out of Washington D.C., is in the worst shape I have ever seen it,” Dannels said. “Communities have been neglected and abandoned, relying on our own local and state resources to address a border that is in crisis mode.”

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Commentary: The Government Wants Your Raincoat

Two recent proposals that the federal government are considering in the name of consumer safety have Uncle Sam coming after products millions of Americans use every day. While a potential gas stove ban has received several headlines in recent days, millions of Americans may not know that the government has also had a role in beginning the phasing out of a chemical that is a component in so many products that it will likely impact every American in the country.

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Federal Government Leaves Border Hospital with $20 Million Bill for ‘Free’ Health Care to Illegal Aliens

A hospital in Yuma, Arizona, is owed $20 million for medical services provided to illegal immigrants.  

“We’ve calculated that over a six-month period, from December 2021 to May 2022, we had $20 million in charges that we’re unable to bill anyone for, for services we provided to migrants alone,” Dr. Robert Trenschel, president and CEO of Yuma Regional Medical Center, told The Daily Signal during a phone interview Wednesday.  

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Ducey to Remove Arizona Border Wall Shortly Before Federal Replacement Is to Begin

The federal government will likely start filling in gaps of the border wall in the Yuma sector shortly after Arizona takes down its storage container barriers. 

In agreeing to remove the state-erected barrier as part of a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, federal government officials again confirmed to Gov. Doug Ducey’s office that they are moving forward with a plan to replace it.

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Americans Say the Government Is Their Biggest Problem for Seven Years in a Row: Poll

Americans listed the federal government as the top problem facing the country for the seventh year in a row, according to a new poll.

Of over 1,000 respondents, 19% mentioned the government as the top problem with the country, saying they are dissatisfied with “some aspect” of the government, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. The government was ranked as more of a problem than inflation and the economy in general, with 16% dissatisfied with inflation and 12% dissatisfied with the economy in general.

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House GOP Working on Bill to Ban TikTok Across Federal Government

The House Republican Conference is currently working on legislation that may ban the use of TikTok by federal government employees, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

“We’re working on something right now,” said a Republican aide familiar with the matter. The proposal is said to be proceeding through the Judiciary Committee, which is set to be led by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio in the next Congress when the GOP gains a majority.

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Federal Government Will Spend More on Debt Payments than the Entire Defense Budget

Interest on federal debt is set to skyrocket, potentially surpassing defense spending by as early as 2025, CNN reported Tuesday.

The federal government made $475 billion in net interest payments in the fiscal year 2022 — which ended in September  — up from $352 in fiscal year 2021, according to the Treasury Department. The number exceeds the $406 billion spent on transportation and veterans’ benefits, and is on track to eclipse the roughly $750 billion spent on defense this year between 2025 to 2026, according to CNN, citing financial analytics firm Moody’s Analytics.

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Colorado River Basin to Receive $4 Billion from Feds for Drought Mitigation

The federal government plans to pay farmers that draw water from the Colorado River to take less, one piece of a multi-pronged plan to reduce usage.

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced a new program that will draw on $4 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding approved for water management and drought mitigation in the Colorado River Basin. Called the Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program, it will be run by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Through the program’s three components, it will select conservation proposals from Colorado River water delivery contracts and entitlement holders, typically farmers using the water to grow crops.

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Doug Ducey Celebrates Results from Historic Multistate Law Enforcement to Disrupt Cartel Activity

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) celebrated the results of a first-of-its-kind law enforcement operation between 26 states to crack down on cartel activity by seizing deadly drugs and firearms.

“In Arizona, we’re taking action to stop the flow of dangerous drugs through the southern border, impede the cartels’ criminal activity and protect our communities,” said Ducey. “Earlier this year, we teamed up with Texas and 24 other states to share intelligence and strengthen security through the first-of-its-kind American Governors’ Border Strike Force. We’re already seeing results thanks to this coordinated effort — including thousands of pounds of drugs being seized all across the nation.”

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Gov. Doug Ducey Touts What Arizona Has Done Without the Federal Government’s Help

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) spoke at the Regan Foundation Tuesday about what he hopes to see for the Conservative movement as the county moves forward, giving state governments more power to enact policies that help the people.

“There is an exodus from the Golden State. Americans are voting with their feet. The conservative ideas applied outside of Washington, D.C. are winning and it’s not even close. Here is why I believe it’s happening: Conservative states have better policies, policies that are working for everyday Americans. There is far more freedom and opportunity in these states. And there is a sense of priority for personal safety in our states,” Ducey said.

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Federal Government Approves Tennessee’s $88 Million Electric Vehicle Charging Station Plan

Tennessee’s plan to distribute $88 million in federal funds to build electric vehicle charging stations in the state has been approved by the Biden Administration.

The plan calls for Tennessee to spend $13.7 million of federal funds this fiscal year and the remainder over the following four years as part of $7.5 billion federal plan.

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Federal Government Gives Wuhan-Linked Organization $1 Million to ‘Prevent Future Pandemics’

The federal government has awarded a controversial nonprofit a $1 million grant for research to help prevent future viral pandemics, an award that comes after more than two years of suspicions that the nonprofit in question may have been bankrolling certain types of highly dangerous coronavirus experiments in the city where the COVID-19 pandemic began.

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