Business Leaders Call on Whitmer to Reopen Bowling Alleys, Gyms, and Movie Theaters

Four business groups sent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a letter asking to reopen industries that have been closed for five months, although they’re open in certain parts of Michigan and surrounding states.

After five months with no revenue and continued fixed costs, some gyms, movie theaters and bowling alleys are on the brink of bankruptcy.

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Commentary: Kamala Harris Won’t Motivate Minority Voters

Now that the Democrats have finally finished inflicting their excruciating “virtual convention” on us, it’s useful to consider what they inadvertently revealed about their biggest worry as the November election looms. Nowhere was that angst more obvious than in Wednesday’s soporific speech by Kamala Harris accepting the party’s vice presidential nomination. She began by invoking 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, failing to mention that it was passed and shepherded through the ratification process by the Republican Party, then segued to a desperate plea: “It’s not about Joe or me.… It’s about you … and getting out the vote.” Translation: “The Biden presidential campaign suffers from a deadly enthusiasm deficit.”

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Commentary: The Practice of Schools Using Empty Classes for Expensive Day Care, and Charging Parents Twice Needs to End

Normally when a business shuts its doors, it doesn’t still get to charge its customers for a product they can no longer access. It certainly doesn’t get to charge its customers twice for the privilege.

Yet, that’s exactly what we’re seeing from some public school districts. They refuse to open their doors for in-person learning—citing safety risks—but they are able to open these same school buildings to charge overworked and tired parents for day care. 

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Police Officers Were Compared to Slave Owners and KKK Members in an Assignment Given at a Texas School

An assignment given to students at a Texas school included a political cartoon comparing police officers to slave owners and Klu Klux Klan members, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The cartoon reportedly depicted five scenes, allegedly starting with a slave ship officer who was kneeling on a black man’s neck and ended with a police officer kneeling on a black man’s neck with text saying “I can’t breathe,” the Star-tribune reported.

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Feds Charge Former Green Beret with Espionage with Russia

A former Army Green Beret living in northern Virginia was arrested on Friday, charged with divulging military secrets about his unit’s activities in former Soviet republics during more than a decade of contacts with Russian intelligence.

Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, told Russian intelligence he considered himself a “son of Russia,” according to an indictment made public after his arrest.

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The U.S. National Debt Has Exceeded the Total Value of the GDP

The U.S. national debt now exceeds the size of America’s total gross domestic product and the milestone may have been met as early as June, according to a Friday New York Times report.

America’s federal debt stands at around $26.6 trillion — an approximate $7 trillion increase since 2016, according to fiscal data from the Treasury Department. Total U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was just over $19.4 trillion at the end of June, according to a July 30 release from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

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California Wildfires Some of Largest in State History

Lightning-sparked wildfires in Northern California exploded in size Friday to become some of the largest in state history, forcing thousands to flee and destroying hundreds of homes and other structures as reinforcements began arriving to help weary firefighters.

More than 12,000 firefighters aided by helicopters and air tankers are battling wildfires throughout California. Three groups of fires, called complexes, burning north, east and south of San Francisco have together scorched 991 square miles (2,566 square kilometers), destroyed more than 500 structures and killed five people.

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Two Colleges Suspend Students for Gatherings That Broke Coronavirus Restrictions

Syracuse University and Purdue University have suspended dozens of students for attending gatherings that violated coronavirus restrictions before classes have begun, the schools announced this week.

Both universities had policies and pledges implemented in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19, including face mask wearing, social distancing guidelines and restrictions on event sizes, according to statements from the schools.

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Border Agents Arrest Two Illegal Immigrants Traveling with $16,000 Cash, Guns and Ammo

A makeshift wooden vessel carrying two men from the Dominican Republic was spotted and intercepted three miles off the coast of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents Thursday morning.

The men were traveling in a “yola” type vessel with a “significant amount of weapons and ammo,” a CBP spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Two men were arrested and the vessel was seized.

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Jack Dorsey Donates $10 Million to a Group Headed by an Activist Who Wants to Make Racism Unconstitutional

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced Thursday his decision to gave a no-strings-attached $10 million donation to an anti-racist group headed by an activist who once promoted the idea of amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit racism.

The tech billionaire gave the money to Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, a project launched by scholar Ibram X. Kendi, who expressed support in 2019 for a constitutional amendment that he claims would “fix the original sin of racism.” Dorsey said in a tweet Thursday that he is grateful for Kendi’s work.

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Advocates Sound Alarm Over Wayne County’s Absentee Ballot Signature Verifications, Other Election Issues

Election integrity advocates believe something fishy is going on in Wayne County with absentee ballots, and they say Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is undermining the security of the process there and across Michigan.

Glen Sitek of the Election Integrity Fund provided an exclusive statement to The Michigan Star.

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