April 8, 2021 - The Michigan Star

CBP Won’t Say How Many Illegal Migrants Are Released Without Scheduled Court Dates

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 Michigan Star Staff

Border officials won’t say how many illegal immigrants are caught and released without set court dates, though nearly 25,000 were issued Notices to Appear in immigration court in the first two months of 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection.

Border officials issued 24,726 Notices to Appear to migrants encountered in January and February, of those a10,028 migrants were released and 14,698 migrants were detained, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It’s unclear how many illegal migrants were encountered and released without court dates.

Commentary: A Presidential Wild Pitch?

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 RealClearWire

The president loves baseball, and has said the earliest memories he has are of the sport: a glove under his pillow the night before his first game and a too-big Little League jersey that hung past his knees. Given a chance to pick between an inning on the mound in the majors or the vice presidency, a much younger Joe Biden wouldn’t hesitate.

“I would have pitched!” the then-vice president told a crowd gathered for the final game of the 2009 Little League World Series, before following through with his trademark addendum, “By the way, I’m not kidding.”

Nation of Islam Says Follower Who Mowed Down Capitol Police Officer Had ‘Such Great Potential’

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 Michigan Star Staff

The Nation of Islam says it is “saddened” by the death of a follower who was fatally shot Friday after mowing down a police officer with his vehicle outside the U.S. Capitol.

“We are saddened by the loss of this brother with such great potential,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday regarding Noah Green.

Brad Raffensperger Says Three Georgia Counties ‘Failed to Do Their Absentee Ballot Transfer Forms’ in Compliance with Rules and Regulations

April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 Chris Butler

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Wednesday announced that he had referred three counties for investigation after they bucked state law and failed to do their absentee ballot transfer forms from last November’s presidential election. Raffensperger, in a press release, identified those three counties as Coffee, Grady, and Taylor. The three counties account for only 0.37 percent of all absentee ballots cast in last year’s election, he said.

Amazon, Which Routinely Avoids Taxes, Supports Biden’s Corporate Tax Rate Hike

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 Michigan Star Staff

Amazon endorsed President Joe Biden’s proposed higher corporate tax rate despite its history of routinely avoiding most or all of its federal tax obligations.

The massive online retailer supports President Joe Biden’s plan to pay for the $2 trillion infrastructure plan he unveiled last week, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement Tuesday. Biden announced that the plan would raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

New Utah Law Requires Biological Fathers to Pay 50 Percent of Mother’s Pregnancy Costs

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 Michigan Star Staff

A new Utah law will require the father of an unborn baby to pay half of the costs of the pregnancy.

HB 113 requires that the father of the unborn baby pay 50% of the mother’s insurance premiums during the pregnancy, as well as “pregnancy-related medical costs, including the hospital birth of the child, that are not paid by another person.”

Commentary: When Hate Crimes Don’t Matter

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 Michigan Star Staff

On a Saturday afternoon in late March, middle-aged Charles Edward Turner walked into a McDonald’s in downtown Pittsburgh, tackled a 12-year-old boy, and stabbed him in the neck with a box cutter.

It took three family members to free the boy of Turner, who resisted being held down by shoving and biting one of them on the bicep, spilling blood in the fast-food restaurant. The family had stopped by for a quick bite after the diabetic boy’s blood sugar fell low. As the family’s everyday outing turned into a chaotic scene of blood and violence, they found themselves fighting for his life.

Cuomo Repeals His Nursing Home Legal Immunity Measure Amid FBI Investigation And Impeachment Probe

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 Michigan Star Staff

Gov. Andrew Cuomo repealed a measure on Tuesday he had originally signed into law in April 2020 that shielded nursing homes from COVID-19 lawsuits.

The New York Democrat repealed the law as he faces an FBI investigation into his handling of nursing homes during the pandemic. FBI investigators are looking into how the nursing home legal immunity bill made it into the state’s budget legislation just before Cuomo signed it into law, according to THE CITY.

Five Months After 2020 Election, Georgia Still Has Not Produced Chain of Custody Records for 355,000 Absentee Vote by Mail Ballots Deposited in Drop Boxes

April 8, 2021April 8, 2021 Tiffany Morgan

Five months after the November 3, 2020 presidential election, officials at the state and county level in Georgia have failed to produce chain of custody records for more than 355,000 absentee vote by mail ballots deposited in drop boxes located around the state for that election.

Joe Biden was certified as the victor of Georgia and its 16 Electoral College votes by a margin of 11,599 votes, or less than 0.25 percent of the 5 million votes cast in the November 3, 2020 presidential election in Georgia. According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, 1.3 million of those votes were cast as absentee vote by mail ballots. Based on polling conducted by John McLaughlin & Associates, 700,000 of those absentee vote by mail ballots were sent via regular mail and 600,000 were deposited in the estimated 300 drop boxes located around the state and the manually picked up and transported by election workers to the local county registrar for subsequent counting.

Feds Deny Michigan’s Request to Waive Statewide Student Testing

April 8, 2021April 7, 2021 The Center Square

The U.S. Department of Education (USED) denied Michigan’s request to waive the federal requirement to administer state summative assessments.

In late January, the Michigan Department of Education cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason not to test Michigan’s 1.5 million students. MDE requested waivers to federal requirements for state summative tests,and waivers of associated high-stakes accountability requirements. The accountability waivers were approved on March 26.