Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it, is an old gag attributed to Mark Twain, but it turns out that if you do try to do anything about it you will get fired, at least if you work at NPR.
NPR affiliate KNKX in Tacoma, Washington fired on-air personality and University of Washington professor Cliff Mass for correctly reporting which way the wind is blowing in Seattle (and elsewhere) on his personal blog.
Read More
If you are queasy about entrusting the U.S. Postal Service with a vastly expanded role in our electoral system in the midst of a crucial election, the following news will exacerbate your nausea. Last Friday, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) followed the lead of the American Postal…
Read More
Michigan jails and prisons will now have to adopt testing protocols for inmates, according to an executive order signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Saturday.
The order says that Michigan Department of Corrections must conduct testing at entry, transfer and release of any prisoner, as well as suspend transfers from jails that do not have similar protocols.
Read More
President Donald Trump on Friday gave the Chinese company ByteDance 90 days to divest itself of any assets used to support the popular TikTok app in the United States.
Trump’s executive order said there is “credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance … might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.”
Read More
Even The Washington Post’s David Ignatius had to admit President Trump hit a home run with the deal he helped negotiate for Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize diplomatic relations.
“This was, as he tweeted, a ‘HUGE’ achievement,” Ignatius wrote. It is viewed as an “’icebreaker” that could open the door to other countries, such as Bahrain, Omar and Morocco, opening diplomatic relations with Israel.
Read More
A senior White House adviser said he agreed with an assessment by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence that China prefers that President Trump lose re-election in November.
“Well, there’s no question that’s true,” Peter Navarro, White House Trade and Manufacturing Policy advisor, told Just the News in an interview. “Donald J. Trump is the toughest – only president -he’s the toughest and only president to stand up to China since Nixon and Kissinger went to China back in the 70s. I mean, every president since then, has allowed in some way, to let the Chinese Communist Party have their way with the United States economy, and also our defense sector.”
Read More
Shortly after announcing that the fall semester would begin online, the board of education of the Durham, North Carolina public school department said it will charge families $140 per week to send their children to “learning centers” at various local schools.
The school board, which last month said it planned to activate its “Plan C” and start school in the fall with virtual learning, this week “authorized the opening of six learning centers to provide support for students who need supervision” while schools remain online, according to the school district’s website.
Read More
by Paul J. Weber AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Anyone can get a coronavirus test at the CentroMed clinic in San Antonio, but on a recent day, the drive-thru was empty. Finally two masked people in a maroon SUV pulled straight on through with no wait. With hundreds of deaths…
Read More
The leftwing Democrat running against Rep. Jefferson H. “Jeff” Van Drew (R.-N.J.) has put her money where her mouth is , and is raising money to bail out rapists and at least one defendant facing terror terrorism charges at the same time she is challenging the one-time Democrat, who switched parties after voting against impeaching President Donald Trump.
Read More
The phenomenon of “cancel culture” is a real and growing threat to free speech in America. This rapidly rising threat has caught many Americans off guard.
Since the rise of the nation-state, almost all the serious threats to freedom of speech have come from government or government sponsored agencies. However, this current threat is not from the government – at least not yet.
Read More
The Michigan Senate Saturday passed a three-bill package aiming to provide clarity to kids, educators, and parents for the fall school year.
House Bills 5911, 5912, and 5913, don’t require in-person learning for any grade and let local districts decide whether to hold classes in-person or online.
The package requires two student assessments; one within nine weeks of beginning the school year and another by the end of the year for districts to receive funding.
Read More
A Louisiana federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the all-male military draft is constitutional, according to the Associated Press.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned a Texas court’s 2019 decision, saying in the newest decision that “only the Supreme Court may revise its precedent,” the AP reported.
Read More
As a general rule, whatever comes cheap and easy isn’t highly valued. Yet some people these days want to take something once cherished—sacrificed for with oceans of blood and treasure—and reduce it to nothing more than a short walk to the mailbox.
I am referring to the act of voting.
Read More
Over 100 Republican members of Congress sent a letter Wednesday calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to end tax deductions for abortions.
In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, 23 senators and 80 representatives urged the Department of the Treasury “to take swift action to issue new regulations to protect innocent human life by ending tax breaks for abortion under the guise of medical care.”
Read More
This week, billionaire financier George Soros celebrates his 90th birthday. That’s a big number, but it’s dwarfed by another Soros number: 708 million.
That’s the cash his two principal foundations poured out just in 2018 (the latest year publicly known), and precious little went to any ballets, symphonies, or art museums.
Read More
Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan urged the state supreme court Wednesday to overturn a lower court decision that allows efforts to remove her from office to proceed.
King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts has permitted a recall effort that could effectively remove Durkan from office, according to the Seattle Times. A total of five Seattle residents submitted the petition due to the mayor’s handling of the police response to protests and a weeks-long encampment in the city formerly known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), the Times reported.
Read More
Roughly a third of TikTok’s 49 million daily users in the United States are 14 years old or younger, The New York Times reported Friday, citing internal documents.
The Chinese app’s workers noticed videos from children who appear much younger that remained on the video-streaming platform for weeks, a former employee told the Times. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), passed in 1998, requires internet companies to obtain parental permission before gathering data from adolescents under 13.
Read More
President Trump on Friday said that news of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s plea deal with Department of Justice prosecutors was “just the beginning,” signaling that U.S. Attorney John Durham is zeroing in on other targets in his investigation.
Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty in connection with his alteration of an exonerating email during the Crossfire Hurricane (CH) investigation, which targeted members of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
Read More
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign raised $48 million in the 48 hours after he selected California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, campaign officials told Reuters Thursday.
The haul is a sign of Biden’s growing fundraising strength ahead of his party’s convention which begins Monday, Reuters reported. Biden is set to formally accept his party’s nomination Aug. 20.
Read More
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Robert Gordon on Thursday said approving a Democrat-connected firm for contact tracing was a mistake, but not politically motivated.
Gordon said MDHHS first had local health departments attempt contact tracing but those agencies didn’t have enough resources, requiring MDHHS to seek a vendor.
Read More
The state of Michigan Thursday announced a plan to explore the viability of developing a 40-mile corridor for connected and autonomous vehicles between Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor.
The state selected Cavnue, a subsidiary of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) that partners with Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to develop the project.
Read More
On the identity politics that used to be known as “civil rights” Sleepy Joe is fully woke.
Just as he prioritized sex and race identity for his vice presidential pick, Joe Biden would racialize his monetary policy by remaking the Federal Reserve banking system. Biden is thereby the most identity-focused candidate in American history since the 19th century. And with the force of the Democratic Party behind him, he lacks any guard rails.
Read More
As of early August, 34 US states mandate the use of masks in public to limit the spread of COVID-19.
The efficacy of face masks has been a subject of debate in the health community during the pandemic. Because health experts disagree on their effectiveness, countries and health agencies around the world, including the World Health Organization and the CDC, have done a reversal on their mask recommendations during the pandemic.
Read More
Many public school districts across the country have shifted from offering some in-person learning options for students to offering only remote learning at the start of the school year.
The change in plans sent many working parents rushing to find either a place for their kids to go while they work or to find a caregiver they could pay to supervise remote learning at home. Either option could end up costing parents thousands of dollars.
Read More
A former FBI attorney will plead guilty to making false statements in documents used to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump aide Carter Page, his lawyer told the Associated Press Friday.
The guilty plea from Kevin Clinesmith is the first legal action taken in an investigation led by John Durham, a U.S. attorney looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe and other intelligence-gathering activities related to the Trump campaign.
Read More
Rapper Kanye West wants Tennessee officials to place him on the ballot for the 2020 presidential election.
An unidentified person representing West arrived at the Tennessee Division of Elections office Friday. That person picked up a petition that would allow West to run in the Volunteer State, said Tennessee Secretary of State spokeswoman Julia Bruck.
Read More
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won’t rule out serving in presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s administration if he wins the November election, Clinton revealed in an article published Thursday.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said that she will fundraise for the Biden-Harris campaign while advocating for organizations she thinks could enhance voter turnout and infrastructure, The 19th, a nonprofit news outlet, reported Thursday.
Read More
California Pastor Rob McCoy says the thousands of people who attend services at his church in violation of California coronavirus restrictions are not only coming to worship — they are coming to exercise their liberties.
The pastor discussed action that authorities have taken against him and Godspeak Calvary Chapel in a Thursday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The conversation came after the County of Ventura sought an additional restraining order after Godspeak Calvary Chapel continued to hold worship services despite an initial emergency restraining order issued August 7.
Read More
An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.
Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.
Read More
President Donald Trump said during a Thursday interview with the New York Post that he intends to accept the Republican presidential nomination on the White House lawn.
“I’ll probably be giving my speech at the White House because it is a great place. It’s a place that makes me feel good, it makes the country feel good,” Trump told the Post.
Read More
The state of Michigan, Ford Motor Company and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be partnering to provide four million free masks to Michigan residents who are vulnerable to COVID-19, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Friday.
Masks will be given to low-income residents, seniors, schools and homeless shelters through the MI Mask Aid program, which is part of the Mask Up Michigan campaign. The program aims to get masks to vulnerable populations, including minority residents who have been adversely impacted by the pandemic as a result of racism, the governor’s office said.
Read More
New unemployment claims in Michigan dropped last week by 5,380 from the prior week ending Aug. 1.
For the week ending Aug. 8, 14,462 new unemployment claims were registered, compared to 19,842 new claims the week ending Aug. 1.
Read More
Former Vice President Joe Biden has selected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate and presumptive Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in the 2020 election as the Biden campaign goes all in on the defund the police issue.
In June Sen. Harris supported cutting $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) budget and taking the police force below 10,000 for the first time in more than a decade.
Read More
The New York Times reports that national retailers and restaurant chains such as J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, Le Pain Quotidien, and Subway are permanently closing locations in New York City in response to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to a “mass exodus” of residents and businesses.
Business leaders warn that the city is facing a crisis of “historic proportions,” according to the Times.
Read More
Sen. Kamala Harris, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, reportedly prosecuted nearly 2,000 people on marijuana-related charges during her time as California attorney general.
A total of 1,974 people were sent to state prisons for marijuana-related offenses during Harris’s 2011-2016 tenure as the Golden State’s lead prosecutor, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Read More
At a forum held at the White House Wednesday, the Trump administration said it is calling on Congress to authorize another $105 billion in funding to help states reopen schools.
“We believe many school districts can now reopen safely, provided they implement mitigation measures and health protocols to protect families, protect teachers, and to protect students,” President Donald Trump said.
Read More
When it comes to social media influencers, many might recognize Michelle Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio, Roger Federer, and Billy Joel. But what about the superstar Islamist clerics — Mohamad Al Arefe, A’id Al Qarnee, Salman Al Odah, and Othman Al Khamis — whose track records range from incitement of jihad, country-entry bans, and displays of bigotry?
Not only do members of the latter group attract more Twitter followers, but their Twitter fan bases are so large that if they were to unite and form a country, it would become the world’s 27th most populous.
Read More
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), along with the Southeastern (SEC) and Big-12 conferences, is sticking with its plan to play football in the fall.
After the Big Ten and Pac 12 conferences postponed its football seasons on Tuesday, the ACC released a statement online that emphasized an established plan of listening to advice from authorities and medical experts as well as making adjustments in necessary.
Read More
The United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state, President Donald Trump said Thursday.
The announcement makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state to do so and only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties to Israel.
Read More
The Iranian navy boarded and briefly seized a Liberian-flagged oil tanker near the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S., the American military said Thursday.
The U.S. military’s Central Command published a black-and-white video showing what appeared to be special forces fast-roping down from a helicopter onto the MT Wila, whose last position appeared to be off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates near the city of Khorfakkan.
Read More
Three Michigan women have filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Treasury Department on Tuesday in order to stop taxation of feminine hygiene products like tampons, citing gender discrimination and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Emily Beggs, Claire Pfeiffer and Wei Ho filed the lawsuit on August 11 in the Court of Claims, according to MLive. The lawsuit says that collecting taxes on feminine hygiene products is discriminatory based on the 14th Amendment, which protects against “intentional inequalities.”
Read More
Joe Biden is calling for a nationwide protective mask mandate, citing health experts’ predictions that it could save 40,000 lives from coronavirus over the next three months.
”Wearing the mask is less about you contracting the virus,” Biden said. “It’s about preventing other people from getting sick.”
Read More
Around 963,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims last week, marking the first time the figure dropped below one million since March, according to the Department of Labor.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics figure released Thursday represented a decrease of 228,000 new jobless claims compared to week that ended August 1. That number also beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations, according to CNBC.
Read More
Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, gave Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a 28-minute notice before releasing an illegal immigrant charged with second-degree rape and sexual abuse back into the public, according to county data obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich had pledged to allow more cooperation with ICE on Nov. 4 when he rolled back a sanctuary policy he signed into law three months prior that prohibited county officials from working with ICE.
Read More
If you’re not convinced that Americans have been sold a distorted view of COVID-19 risk, consider Major League Baseball.
Most of the league’s players are among the 46 million Americans between ages 25 and 34. A total of 992 people in this age group have died with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a mortality rate of 2 per 100,000.
Read More
Sumner Redstone, who joined his family’s drive-in movie chain in the 1950s and used it to build a vast media empire that included CBS and Viacom, has died. He was 97.
Under his watch, Viacom became one of the nation’s media titans, home to pay TV channels MTV and Comedy Central and movie studio Paramount Pictures. ViacomCBS Inc., which he led for decades, remembered Redstone for his “unparalleled passion to win, his endless intellectual curiosity and his complete dedication to the company.”
Read More
The FBI is investigating the shooting of a military helicopter during a training mission this week in northern Virginia, injuring one crew member who was aboard, officials said Wednesday.
The Air Force helicopter was flying over Middleburg on Monday when it was shot from the ground nearby, according to authorities. The helicopter made an emergency landing at the Manassas Regional Airport, and federal agents were called to the scene to investigate, the FBI said in a statement.
Read More
People arrested in Portland since late May on non-violent misdemeanor charges during the protests that have racked Oregon’s largest city for more than two months won’t be prosecuted.
The new policy announced Tuesday recognizes the outrage and frustration over a history of racial injustice that has led to the city’s often violent protests and the practical realities of the court system, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said. It is running more than two months behind in processing cases because of COVID-19.
Read More
Those who have been following country music their whole lives know already who Jamie O’Neal is as an artist. Off her first album, Shiver, released in 2000, she had two number one hits, “There Is No Arizona,” and “When I Think About Angels.” Her next top ten hit came in 2005, “Somebody’s Hero.”
I wanted to find out more about this country star who was born in Australia. Having no Australian accent, O’Neal said, “I was born in Sydney, Australia, where my parents (Jimmy and Julie Murphy) were performers who moved to America when I was two. I always say that I am the opposite of Nicole Kidman who was born in Hawaii and was raised in Australia. It was the opposite for me, I was born there but raised in the U.S.”
Read More
A Georgia school district has ordered the quarantine of 925 students and staff following a local outbreak of the coronavirus in their school system, The New York Times reported.
The Cherokee County School District, located north of Atlanta, Georgia, opened for in-person learning on August 3 for over 30,000 students, but is now shuttering one high school in the school district and ordering the quarantine of hundreds of students and school officials.
Read More