A Pennsylvania judge on Thursday ruled in favor of the Trump campaign, ordering that state election officials cannot count ballots that were cast provisionally by voters who did not have proof of identification and then subsequently failed to provide ID by Nov. 9.
Existing Pennsylvania law states voters have until six days after the election – in this case Nov. 9 – to “cure” problems with a ballot, including a lack of identification.
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One week after Election Day, local officials in Pennsylvania continue canvassing ballots as lawmakers statewide express frustration and disappointment over the way the process unfolded.
As of 8 a.m. Tuesday, roughly 53,000 mail-in ballots, out of more than 2.5 million, remain uncounted. It’s unclear how many ballots arrived after 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 – a batch that Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar told counties to segregate from the rest. It appears another 4.2 million votes were cast on Election Day itself, of which the majority have been counted.
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True the Vote filed a federal lawsuit against Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of State Kathryn Boockvar to contest illegal ballots counted in the November 3 election.
The organization said the suit is part of its “Validate the Vote” initiative and is on behalf of four Pennsylvania voters.
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Beginning today, the Trump Campaign will start prosecuting its case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated. The Associated Press, CNN and FOX don’t pick U.S. Presidents. The voters do. Legitimate ones. Legal votes decide who is president, not the news media.
The bottom-line is that this election is far from over.
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Tens of thousands of Trump voters in Pennsylvania angry they were disenfranchised by voter fraud in Philadelphia and other parts of the state have an option for justice through what is called a “Private Criminal Complaint.”
Pennsylvania is one of the states that allows citizens to file criminal complaints. A Rule 506 complaint must be submitted to a PA District Attorney, who may reject it. Rejections of Private Criminal Complaints by PA District Attorneys may be appealed to a court, but rarely does an appeal succeed. Therefore, it is important Private Criminal Complaints be submitted correctly.
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Senator Lindsey Graham released a statement emphasizing the importance investigating credible claims of election misconduct.
The Saturday statement noted that Graham received a sworn affidavit from the Trump campaign from an Erie, Pennsylvania United States Postal Service worker named Richard Hopkins, who alleged knowing about a scheme to backdate postmarks on ballots.
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Mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania so far this year have been accepted at almost 30 times the rate predicted by historical rejection numbers, raising potential questions in a state in which Democratic challenger Joe Biden is maintaining a lead of just several thousand votes.
A county-by-county review by Just the News of accepted and rejected mail-in ballots throughout the state of Pennsylvania show that, when added up, the state only rejected 951 of 2,614,011 mail-in ballots this year, or a rate of 0.03%.
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Even as members of the mainstream media largely dismiss concerns about possible voter fraud, they are ignoring Philadelphia’s long history of endemic political corruption.
Less than six months ago, for example, a former Philadelphia Judge of Elections pled guilty and was convicted for his role in accepting bribes to cast fraudulent ballots and certify false voting results during the 2014, 2015, and 2016 primary elections.
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Pennsylvania House Speaker Bryan Cutler is calling for a “full audit” of the presidential election returns in the state before the results are certified.
In his letter to Gov. Tom Wolf requesting the audit on Friday, Cutler, a Republican, cited the Oct. 21 guidance from Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar about allowing individuals with rejected mail-in ballots to vote with a provisional ballot as a way to “cure” their ballot.
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Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. issued an Order on Friday evening requiring all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties to keep all ballots received after 8:00 p.m. on November 3 “in a secure, safe, sealed container separated from other voted ballots” and that “if counted, be counted separately.”
The Order was issued in a case already before the SCOTUS – Pennsylvania Republican Party v. Kathy Boockvar, Secretary of Pennsylvania, et.al.
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A legal group filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania alleging that the state has tens of thousands of deceased people on its voter rolls and that there is evidence of voting activity among the deceased.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), which is not associated with President Donald Trump’s campaign, filed the lawsuit Thursday arguing that Pennsylvania has failed to maintain voter registration records in violation of federal and state law, according to a press release. PILF alleged that in an October analysis it found at least 21,000 apparently deceased citizens on the state’s voter rolls, according to the complaint.
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As Joe Biden took narrow leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia Friday, President Trump’s campaign vowed to keep fighting, confident that once all the legal votes are counted, President Trump will be reelected.
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A Philadelphia election employee said Friday that “no matter how many times you ask questions” about the mail-in vote counting procedures in the county, the “orange guy still lost.”
Just the News has been contacting counties about a guidance issued by Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar on Oct. 21 about permitting individuals with rejected mail-in ballots to vote via a provisional ballot. When Just the News called the Philadelphia Board of Elections and asked for the director, we were connected to the Philadelphia City Commissioners office and advised to ask for the director there.
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In a guidance to her state’s counties dated Oct. 21, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar advised that a voter whose mail-in ballot was rejected would be eligible to vote in-person with a provisional ballot on Election Day as a way to “cure” their ballot.
Now, GOP Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly, state General Assembly candidate Joseph Hamm and four other plaintiffs are suing Boockvar over her guidance.
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Welcome to the Friday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).
We are in Election Day +2, and the nation is currently still awaiting results in several key battleground states.
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The Trump Campaign announced Thursday morning a “major victory” in a Pennsylvania appellate court in their suit challenging the lack of access of Republican poll watchers to the ballot processing and counting process.
Justin Clark, Trump 2020 Deputy Campaign Manger and Senior Counsel called the decision a “major victory for election integrity, election transparency, all Pennsylvania voters, and the rule of law.”
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Democrats in Philadelphia were denying Republicans the right to observe and validate the hand counting of mail-in ballots but a judge ruled Thursday in favor of the republican petitioners, saying that they could be in the room to observe and verify if they stayed six feet away. Democrats immediately demanded a conference with the judge to plea for reversal of the order. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany posted on Facebook “Democrats are arguing that at Philadelphia ballot counting locations they do not want Republicans watching what they’re doing. Why? Absolute INSANITY!!” The Federalist reported that Wisconsin and Michigan saw Biden vote surges in the wee hours of Wednesday morning similar to what happened in Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, President Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani went to Pennsylvania and the onslaught of lawsuits began there. Giuliani lambasted the Democratic-controlled city of Philadelphia for their history of corruption, signaling that it is illegal for observers to not be able to actually observe – to verify signatures, postmark and validity of a ballot. Giuliani also hinted there may be a national lawsuit filed to uncover what he claims is a concerted effort by the Democratic party to steal the election. This chaos was…
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The Trump campaign said it filed lawsuits Wednesday in Pennsylvania and Michigan, laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in undecided battleground states that could determine whether President Donald Trump gets another four years in the White House.
Suits in both states are demanding better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, the campaign said. The campaign also is seeking to intervene in a Pennsylvania case at the Supreme Court that deals with whether ballots received up to three days after the election can be counted, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said.
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Despite the greatest efforts of the fake news media and their phony pollster compatriots, Trump is now back on a steely pathway to win re-election.
President Trump currently has 214 Electoral votes awarded. The final count will be Trump 285. Here is the breakdown: North Carolina-15, Georgia-16, Pennsylvania-20, Arizona-11, Nevada-6, Alaska-3.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain to the show to discuss her plans for door knocking with the Mighty American Strikeforce in Pennsylvania this weekend.
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not grant a quick, pre-election review to a new Republican appeal to exclude absentee ballots received after Election Day in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, although it remained unclear whether those ballots will ultimately be counted.
The court’s order left open the possibility that the justices could take up and decide after the election whether a three-day extension to receive and count absentee ballots ordered by Pennsylvania’s high court was proper.
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Joe Biden upended the historic formula of a Democratic presidential nominee. Usually, the hopeful plays his liberal greatest hits to the primary crowd, before tacking to the center as the election dawns and ordinary Americans start listening.
Since his assisted capture of the nomination, Biden has veered leftward, crafting, with the help of the party’s progressive wing, the most progressive platform since the ill-fated George McGovern in 1972.
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As many as 100,000 Pennsylvania voters could have their ballots discarded in November due to a state law that requires absentee ballots to be returned inside a secrecy sleeve, according to a Democratic official on the Philadelphia city commission.
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ordered election officials to discard “naked ballots” in a decision issued last week, a move that could result in tens of thousands of ballots disqualified in a critical battleground state, City Commissioner Lisa Deeley wrote in a letter to Republican state legislators.
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A federal judge on Monday threw out portions of the Wolf administration’s orders that restricted activity during the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the governor had exceeded his authority.
The ruling by Judge William Stickman in the Western District of Pennsylvania court delivers to Gov. Tom Wolf’s political opponents what they had failed to achieve for months in the Legislature as bill after bill to curtail the governor’s power was passed, only to be vetoed.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump in six of the most competitive battleground states as both candidates amp up their fundraising efforts and place multimillion dollar ad buys just over seven weeks out from the election, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review.
In 2016, Trump pulled off an upset win after flipping Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Now, those three states, in addition to Arizona, Florida and North Carolina, are likely to decide the winner of November’s presidential election.
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Election officials in three battleground states wouldn’t say when the U.S. can expect the results from November’s presidential race, and an official in a fourth state said the timing is uncertain.
Numerous news reports have indicated that election results could take a week to return due to the coronavirus pandemic and an increased reliance on mail-in ballots. Accuracy and timing will be especially crucial in the battleground states that will likely determine whether President Donald Trump will serve another term or be ousted by former Vice President Joe Biden.
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Two Pennsylvania men were arrested Friday for traveling to Cleveland, Ohio on May 30 to participate in riots in response to the death of George Floyd, whose alleged murder by a Minneapolis police officer sparked unrest across the nation.
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Officials from several counties across central Pennsylvania said over the weekend they likely will lift pandemic restrictions against Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders.
The news follows the governor’s decision Friday to transition 13 counties in the southwestern region of the state – including the Pittsburgh metro area – to the yellow phase of his economic reopening plan after showing signs of slowing community spread and ramped up testing and contact tracing abilities.
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday morning that he feels “the worst is over” when it comes to the ongoing coronavirus crisis that has enveloped his state and the nation, and he suggested that a coalition of six Northeast states would be making a joint announcement at 2 p.m. on plans to reopen the economy in the weeks and months to come.
Speaking at his daily briefing on the pandemic, Cuomo said he had been in contact with the governors of Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Rhode Island about a regional approach to returning to normalcy.
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A new poll shows Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) with significant leads over his Democratic primary opponents in Michigan and Wisconsin.
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Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed a bill Thursday that would have protected unborn babies with down syndrome from abortion.
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A three-year trade school in Pennsylvania has become a shining example of how learning a trade can scoop people out of low-income situations and place them firmly in high-paying careers.
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A new poll released last week by the public affairs firm Firehouse Strategies shows President Donald Trump either statistically tied or behind three top Democratic candidates in key Midwest states.
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North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein joined a coalition of 32 attorneys general pushing for the lawsuit filed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania against student loan servicer Navient to go forward in the federal courts.
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A 27-year-old Uber driver was convicted Thursday of raping an intoxicated woman, and will likely be deported back to his home country of Egypt.
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by Matt Miller Former Rep. Joe Sestak announced his 2020 presidential bid Saturday on his campaign’s website, making him the 25th prominent Democrat to step into the race, NBC reported. Sestak, a former congressman and Navy admiral, said Saturday in the announcement that he wants “to be that president who serves the American people the way they deserve to be served.” Sestak, 67, explained the reason for his entry “later than others” into the race. “And while my announcement may be later than others for the honor of seeking the presidency, the decision to delay was so I would be there with Alex, our daughter, as the brain cancer she had courageously beaten at four years old returned this past year,” he said. “But with her same team of medical heroes, she has again overcome the single digit odds.” Former Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak has announced that he is running for president, becoming the 24th Democrat to join the race. https://t.co/TIkpJ7euSi — Axios (@axios) June 23, 2019 Sestak says that military health care saved his daughter during her struggle with brain cancer, and now he feels accountable to the American people who financed his daughter’s health care through tax dollars. “I had…
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by Steve Bittenbender A multistate organization in charge of improving the quality of one of the country’s most important rivers voted on Thursday to adopt a new plan on how to ensure states meet water pollution standards. By a 19-2 vote, with one abstention, the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) passed a measure at its meeting in Covington, Ky., that now gives states more flexibility in regulating water standards. It capped a more than more than four-year review process for the panel on how those standards are established. The states represented on the commission are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Richard Harrison, ORSANCO’s executive director and chief engineer, told The Center Square the review came about as the commission looked at the best way to utilize its resources. While the commission, which was established in 1948, had established mandatory requirements for the states, commissioners began to wonder if those regulations were duplicative of federal standards established in the Clean Water Act. Last October, the commission proposed a measure that would have essentially done away with the standards. However, after significant pushback from the public, the commissioners tabled that “and went back to…
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by Mary Margaret Olohan The United States Supreme Court declined to review a case Tuesday involving a Pennsylvania school district opening up bathrooms to students of the opposite sex without informing students or parents. The Supreme Court declined to take up Doe v. Boyertown Area School District, a lawsuit that alleges that the school violated students’ fundamental right to bodily privacy. The Alliance Defending Freedom and Independence Law Center attorneys who represent the students and their parents asked the Supreme Court to review the case in November after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled that the students’ privacy did not merit protection, according to a press release from ADF. The case originated in Boyertown Area School District near Philadelphia when school officials began allowing trans students to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with these students’ stated gender identity. The school officials did not announce the policy change and the policy change has not yet been put into writing. (RELATED: The Supreme Court May Soon Decide On Transgender Bathrooms In Public Schools) The petitioners include students who were dressing in the locker rooms or bathrooms and suddenly realized that a person of the opposite sex…
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by Todd DeFeo Legalizing sports wagering in Ohio could generate $7 million in tax revenue for the state in the first year, a number that could increase to $9 million in the second year. That is on top of $1.3 million in license fees in the first year of operations, and between $300,000 and $500,000 in license fees in subsequent years, according to an estimate from the Legislative Budget Office. House Bill 194 would grant the Ohio Lottery Commission the authority to allow sports gaming in Ohio and effectively bring into the open an existing industry. The move has attracted some of the biggest names in the industry – including Penn National Gaming and MGM Resorts International – to push legislators to proceed with the initiative. “Illegal sports wagering has continued to flourish across all mediums – in person, over the Internet, and most recently through sophisticated mobile applications,” Ayesha Molino, senior vice president of federal government affairs for MGM Resorts International, said in testimony to the House Finance Committee. “Ohio residents currently have convenient access to illegal, unregulated mobile sports wagering sites,” Molino said. “But they lack a legal, properly regulated alternative. And restricting a legal mobile market will not compel people…
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by Evie Fordham Republican state Rep. Fred Keller won Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District special election Tuesday night, ensuring the district would stay red after Republican Rep. Tom Marino stepped down in January. Keller took 70.3% of the vote with 64% of precincts reporting as of press time, while his Democratic opponent Marc Friedenberg took 29.9%, according to The New York Times. President Donald Trump held a rally for Keller in Montoursville, Pennsylvania, Monday to energize voters the night before the general election. “Fred Keller of the Great State of Pennsylvania has been an outstanding State Representative. Now he is running as the Republican Nominee for Congress, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement. He will do a fantastic job — I look forward to seeing everyone tonight!” Trump wrote on Twitter hours before the rally. Fred Keller of the Great State of Pennsylvania has been an outstanding State Representative. Now he is running as the Republican Nominee for Congress, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement. He will do a fantastic job – I look forward to seeing everyone tonight! #MAGA — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2019 Keller has represented voters from central Pennsylvania in the state…
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Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is taking on a new role as the honorary chairman of a nonpartisan group devoted to education about the Constitution, replacing former Vice President Joe Biden. The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia said Tuesday that Gorsuch, named to the high court by President Donald Trump, will serve as a spokesman for civics education and civility in politics. The 51-year-old Gorsuch is the first sitting Supreme Court Justice to be the center’s chairman. Vice President Biden stepped down when he launched his campaign for the presidency in April. Justice Gorsuch said he’s concerned by polls that show most Americans would flunk a citizenship test and many say incivility keeps them away from public affairs. “For a government of and by the people to work, everyone must have some idea how our Constitution works and we must be able to talk to each other about important ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect,” Gorsuch said in a comment provided by the Supreme Court. Jeffrey Rosen, the National Constitution Center’s president and CEO, said the organization was attracted by Gorsuch’s commitment to civics and civility. “We’re genuinely excited about this partnership because Justice Gorsuch is so passionate…
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Reuters Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden officially kicked off his White House campaign on Monday by hosting a union event in Pittsburgh just hours after securing his first labor endorsement. Biden told about 600 Teamsters members who attended his first event as a 2020 contender that restoring a vibrant middle class would be the theme of his campaign. “I make no apologies. I am a union man. Period,” Biden told the full union hall. “The country wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers, CEOs and hedge fund managers, it was built by you.” Among those who introduced Biden was Harold Schaitberger, the president of the International Association of Firefighters, a 300,000-member union that endorsed him ahead of the Pittsburgh event. In a Twitter fusillade, Trump said that while leaders of the firefighters and other unions would endorse Democrats in the 2020 race, “the members love Trump.” Biden soon fired back on Twitter. “I’m sick of this president badmouthing unions,” he said. Biden, who joined the 2020 Democratic race last week, has long styled himself as a champion of blue-collar workers. He is counting on organized labor to comprise a significant part of his support. In endorsing Biden, IAFF’s Schaitberger…
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by Nick Givas Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania listed special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings from the Russia probe on CNN Monday, and it’s not good news for Democrats. “My reaction is a couple of things. We ought to recognize something good. Number one, special counsel Mueller completed his investigation with a team of able investigators and prosecutors, and I’m thankful that that investigation has come to a close,” she said on “CNN Today.” “Number two, we should be glad that the preliminary finding that we know of the Mueller report is that there was no coordination, no conspiracy,” Dean said. “Notice the words that they used: no coordination, no conspiracy of the Trump campaign with Russia’s known interference with the 2016 election. Number three, there was known interference by Russia in a very serious and great way with the election of 2016. I hope this administration, and I’m certain Congress will take that very seriously, as we head into the next election.” Dean’s statement is a vast departure from the Democratic narrative of collusion and obstruction of justice. Congressional Democrats had expressed concern that President Donald Trump would fire Mueller, but he was allowed to finish his investigation. Trump was also…
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President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is preparing an early focus on Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, states that were instrumental to his improbable 2016 victory but where his support has softened, two campaign advisers said. The decision to accelerate campaign organizing and eventually get the Republican president to make trips to the three states is a recognition that Trump’s path to re-election in 2020 will need to repeat some of the successes he had in 2016. Advisers also see a need to bolster Trump’s support in Florida, a battleground state he considers his second home but where opinion polls show him struggling. They also see an opportunity for gains in Minnesota and Colorado, two states Trump narrowly lost. The Trump team views those states as competitive places where the president can go on offense, according to the advisers, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely about the campaign strategy. With 20 months to go until the November 2020 presidential election, Trump and his campaign team are still getting organized for what is expected to be a tough battle for a second four-year term. Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives in last November’s congressional elections widely…
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — In late January when Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine halted all executions statewide, Ohio inadvertently joined a growing list of states that are reexamining capital punishment. Currently, eight states have official holds on all executions. Half of these states, Arizona Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma were halted as the result of a court order. The other half, Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and now Ohio have had moratoriums on executions imposed by their respective governors. When these states are combined with the twenty states that have outlawed capital punishment, for the first time in decades, a majority of the states in the Union are not currently practicing the death penalty. While reasons vary as to why each of the eight states placed their respective holds on capital punishment, the overwhelming majority had one thing in common: complications with drugs used in lethal injections – most notably Midazolam. Most of the drugs that are commonly used in lethal injections are high doses of routinely prescribed drugs. Midazolam is used in countless medical procedures, mostly surgical. In 2013, states began using the anesthesia as the first part of a three-drug cocktail in lethal injections across the country. The drug has now been linked to numerous instances of botched or extremely…
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by Tim Pearce Pennsylvania Democrats are worried about the short-term future of their political machine after authorities charged a Philadelphia labor leader with numerous counts of embezzlement, bribery and theft, Politico reports. John Dougherty, the business manager of Philadelphia’s branch of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and six other labor officials were indicted on 116 charges related to lavish misuse if union funds and buying influence with corrupt politicians, Philadelphia’s The Inquirer and CBS Philly report. The 159-page indictment was released by the federal court in Pennsylvania Friday. It details more than two years of FBI and IRS operations and raids launched against IBEW Local 98 offices, union officials and their homes. Dougherty used union funds as his “personal bank account and as a means to obtain employment for himself, his family, and his friends,” the indictment says, according to The Inquirer. “I got a different world than most people ever exist in,” Dougherty says according to the transcript of a 2015 FBI wiretap put in the indictment. Dougherty has wielded significant influence across the battleground state, throwing the union’s power and purse behind politicians, largely democrats, running for local, state and national offices. “I would argue they’re the single-most effective political organization in the…
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Ohio sold $330,000 of medicinal marijuana in 12 days. According to the Marijuana Business Daily, that’s almost double the sales rate of, both, Hawaii and Massachusetts when they legalized the drug. These strong numbers are made all the more impressive by the fact that Ohio marijuana prices are almost five times more expensive than if bought illegally and that only four locations are currently open and selling in Ohio. While it’s too early to say what is driving these strong numbers, Ohio’s complicated relationship with other drugs might be a major motivating factor. Of Ohio, Hawaii, and Massachusetts, Ohio, by far, has the highest opioid prescription rate as well as the highest opioid overdose death rate. While many Ohioans may be concerned that marijuana legalization is simply victims of drug addiction switching from one drug to another, it actually has positive implications for the future of the Buckeye State. Marijuana use does carry side effects, however, these effects are far less severe than opioid abuse. Furthermore, a heroin user is 19 times more likely to have started out by abusing an opioid prescription. Marijuana is somewhat more complicated. While historically it has been considered a “gateway drug,” new reports and insights reveal that…
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Three states in the midwest that Hillary Clinton was counting on to carry her to victory in 2016 narrowly ended up in the Donald Trump column — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. If those three states had been won by Clinton, their 46 Electoral votes would have given her the presidency with slightly more than the necessary 270 needed to win. The total vote margin for Donald Trump in all three of those states was only 107,000! He carried Michigan by 11,837. Wisconsin by 27,257. Pennsylvania by 68,236. The big question as 2020 looms is whether he can retain or expand those margins regardless of whom the Democrats pick as their standard-bearer. Democrats won Senate races in all three states in 2018 and knocked off Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin as well, giving them hope that they can swing them back to blue in 2020. Christian voters were a key component in Trump’s victory in those and other battleground states, like Ohio, Florida and Iowa. George Barna detailed the impact of the Christian vote in 2016 in his book The Day Christians Changed America. Groups like Lift the Vote, a non-profit focused on energizing and mobilizing Evangelical voters in key…
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The Pennsylvania Office of Inspector General and the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that they are joining forces to tackle welfare fraud, specifically food-stamp fraud. Commonly referred to as the food-stamp program, the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has increasingly become a concern among law-enforcement officials. Due to the extent of the fraud and the ease with which it has been carried out, as well as the apparent lack of desire to tackle it until now, fraud had “ballooned” from 2012-2016 during President Barack Obama’s term in office. Most recently, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) released a stunning report linking the misuse of food-stamp dollars to international terrorism as the practice of “trafficking” raked in millions of dollars for fraudulent convenience stores nationwide. The findings from GAI’s groundbreaking report, titled “EBTerrorism: How Fraud Ridden SNAP Funds Terror, Fails at Enforcement and Wastes Taxpayer Money,” were reported by The Ohio Star last week. In short, the trafficking involved individuals selling their benefits to store owners and managers for less than what they were worth, while the recipients turned them in for full value. Such fraud will be the focus of Pennsylvania’s efforts to find and prosecute those running welfare…
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Pennsylvania state police will soon be required to report more fully the circumstances under which they notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents when they stop undocumented immigrants for traffic violations. The move comes amid mounting criticism by immigration lawyers and activists that state troopers have been overzealous in assisting with ICE’s stepped-up enforcement ordered by the Trump administration. It’s also part of a wider debate in several U.S. states about whether police and other state agencies should cooperate with ICE in the wake of the crackdown against illegal immigration over the past year and a half. In Pennsylvania, a recent investigation by ProPublica and The Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered cases in which state and local police helped ICE round up undocumented immigrants, especially Hispanics, using questionable traffic stops. According to the ProPublica/Inquirer investigation, there were more “at-large” arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal convictions by ICE’s Philadelphia field office, which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, than anywhere else in the country. Some 1,740 people without criminal records were arrested in the year after President Donald Trump took office, according to the investigation, many with the help of state and local police. This high arrest rate of non-criminals has raised accusations of racial profiling. Assertion…
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