March 21, 2022 - The Michigan Star

Fed Hikes, Higher Mortgage Rates Mark Consequences of Ongoing Inflation

March 21, 2022March 20, 2022 The Center Square

Mortgage rates surpassed 4% for the first time since 2019 and the Federal Reserve announced a series of new rate hikes this week, two major shifts that mark the economic response to months of elevated inflation.

The Federal Reserve announced a 0.25% interest rate hike and said six more increases are on the way. Last week’s increase is meant to rein in inflation, but can have negative effects on economic growth. Meanwhile, mortgage rates are expected to increase along with the Federal Reserve rate.

Commentary: Biden’s Handlers Are Preparing to Eject Him and Kamala

March 21, 2022 Admin

I sense a disturbance in the force. In fact, I’ve been feeling the tremors for a while. Back in January, I wrote a column for American Greatness called “The Coming Dethronement of Joe Biden.” In it, I noted that Biden’s appalling performance as president would sooner or later—and probably sooner, given the ostentatious nature of his multifaceted failure—lead to his removal as president.

I should have added that it wasn’t Biden’s performance per se that would lead to his downfall. The problem, rather, was the way his performance was undermining his—and therefore his minders’ and puppetmasters’—political power. As Saul Alinsky, community organizer to the stars, noted, the “issue is never the issue.” Accordingly, the people who put Joe Biden in power—I cannot name them, but I know they are the same people who keep him in power—do not care about inflation, rising gas and food prices, COVID lockdowns or mask mandates, the porousness of our Southern border, the threat of war with Russia, or the myriad other issues that worry ordinary voters. I am quite certain, in fact, that the word “voters” brings a vaguely contemptuous smile to their faces.

Commentary: A Huge Opportunity for America Arises as the Iron Curtain Falls Once Again

March 21, 2022 Admin

statue of Winston Churchill with British flags in front of him

Almost exactly 76 years ago, on March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill, the former prime minister of Great Britain, delivered one of the most important speeches of the century. Surveying the increasing despotic rule by the Soviet Russians over Central and Eastern Europe in the wake of World War Two, Churchill declared, “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.”

That phrase, “iron curtain,” stuck, helping to define the Cold War for the next five decades. In such a chilled environment, significant trade and normal exchange of any kind between the Free World and the Communist Bloc was unthinkable.

So now today, we can see that an iron curtain is once again descending; only time will tell if brave Ukraine will be held, once again, as a captive nation on the wrong side of this terrible barrier.

Jones: Make Trump House Speaker, Then Impeach Biden, Harris

March 21, 2022 JCarr

Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed former Georgia state representative Vernon Jones, who is running in the GOP primary to replace Rep. Jody B. Hice (R.-Ga.) for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District.

Jones, who is endorsed by President Donald J. Trump, said Americans cannot wait until 2024 for Trump to be returned to the White House, so he has another plan.

Alabama Man Wins Battle over His ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ License Plate

March 21, 2022 Admin

Alabama officials reversed a decision to revoke a license plate belonging to Nathan Kirk, referring to the slogan criticizing President Joe Biden — “Let’s go, Brandon” — according to The Washington Post.

The state previously demanded that Kirk surrender his license plate within 10 days in a Feb. 17 letter that called the plate an affront to the “peace and dignity of the State of Alabama,” according to the Post.

Hospital Admits Trans Patient May Have Raped Woman After Denying Any Men Were There, U.K. Parliament Member Says

March 21, 2022 Admin

A member of parliament in the U.K. said Wednesday that a hospital told police an alleged rape could not have really occurred because the attacker was transgender, according to The Telegraph.

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, a member of parliament, told the House of Lords that it took a year for the hospital to acknowledge there was a male in the ward where the rape allegedly occurred. The victim reported the alleged rape more than a year ago, but hospital staff told police officers “that there was no male in the hospital, therefore the rape could not have happened,” the Telegraph reported.

Her comments came during a debate on a policy called Annex B, which allows patients to be placed in single-sex hospital wards based on self-identification of gender, according to the Telegraph.

Scientists Reportedly Obtain Full Sequence of Dodo Genome; Extinct Bird May Make a Comeback

March 21, 2022 Admin

The dodo bird may make a comeback in the near future after recent confirmation from one scientist that the extinct animal’s genome has been fully sequenced.

The dodo was first noted by Dutch sailors on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in the late 1590s. By the middle of the next century it had vanished from the island, having been hunted to extinction by humans and dogs; it also suffered a loss of its natural habitat due to travelers coming to the island.

College Officials Can Be Personally Liable for Firing Professor in Free Speech Case, Judge Rules

March 21, 2022 Admin

Public university officials can be held personally liable for dumping an adjunct professor based on his anonymous criticism of the concept of microaggressions, a federal court has concluded.

University of North Texas officials should have known that math professor Nathaniel Hiers’ speech “touched on a matter of public concern and that discontinuing his employment because of his speech violated the First Amendment,” U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan wrote in a 69-page memorandum and order Friday.

Iowa U.S. Senators Propose Bill Mandating Disclosure of Total Interest on Student Loans

March 21, 2022 The Center Square

College students would learn the estimated total interest they would pay on a education loan before they take it out if a law proposed by Iowa’s U.S. senators becomes law.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, in proposing the measure to address student loan debt.

Walmart to Hire Tens of Thousands of Workers

March 21, 2022 Admin

The nation’s largest private employer announced plans to hire tens of thousands of workers before the end of the quarter to help expand its business amid a tightening labor market.

Walmart announced Wednesday a plan to hire more than 50,000 workers in the U.S. by the end of April, the time of year when many companies decrease hiring following the busy holiday shopping season, The Wall Street Journal first reported. The new hires will reportedly fill positions in stores but also add staff in areas such as health, wellness and advertising.

Elite Massachusetts Boarding School Separates Kids as Young as Five into Race-Based Identity Groups, Parents’ Rights Group Says

March 21, 2022 Admin

An elite K-12 day and boarding school in Massachusetts separated students into race-based “affinity groups,” according to a report from Parents Defending Education.

In October, Milton Academy (MA) in Milton, Massachusetts, asked parents to pick affinity groups for their children to separate them based on race, according to a report from Parents Defending Education (PDE). The groups are now being implemented among MA students as young as five, a parent told PDE.

New Hampshire House Passes Bill Allowing Pharmacists to Dispense Ivermectin Without a Prescription

March 21, 2022 Admin

New Hampshire may become the first state to allow the antiparasitic drug ivermectin to be obtained without a prescription. A Republican-sponsored ivermectin bill (HB 1022) passed in the N.H. State House Wednesday on a vote of 183-159 and has been sent to the State Senate for review.

“Ivermectin is available over the counter in 79 countries,” State Representative Jim Kofalt, R-Hillsborough noted during a legislative hearing in January. “And it has a good safety profile.”

Commentary: Stimulus Checks Are the Latest Immigration Scam

March 21, 2022 Admin

A great plague of our contemporary political landscape is that one bad policy begets even more bad policies. Such is the case with many of America’s existing immigration laws.

Federal law, for example, calls for specific enforcement protocols. But our elected representatives have decided that some of those protocols simply should be ignored. This mindset led to ideas like catching and then releasing illegal aliens into our communities, preventing local law enforcement from working with federal law enforcement, and “sanctuary” cities where those who have broken our laws can hide from accountability.

From this witches’ brew of bad ideas has come the latest product rollout, one suited for our time: stimulus checks for illegal aliens. Using the economic damage caused by COVID-19 as a pretext, anti-borders activists and their allied politicians have found a way to sustain those here illegally while creating further incentives for even more foreign nationals to move here.

RAV Journalists Detained at Gunpoint by Border Agents: ‘Never Had An Encounter Like This’

March 21, 2022 Admin

Journalists with the Real America’s Voice TV network were detained by border patrol agents at the southern U.S. border on Friday, with a reporter describing being “detained at gunpoint” amid the open crossing of illegal immigrants into the United States.

Ben Bergquam, a reporter with Real America’s Voice — with whom Just the News is partnered — posted a video depicting him in the back of a border patrol vehicle, showing what appeared to be a border patrol agent directing Bergquam’s colleagues with his gun drawn.

“And all of this is happening [with] 60 illegal [immigrants] just standing by the wall, no problem,” Bergquam said.

Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency Didn’t Screen 5,508 Workers; Some Weren’t Trained Before Working

March 21, 2022March 20, 2022 Admin

The Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) failed to screen 5,508 workers before giving them access to software that disbursed $39 billion of taxpayer money since March 2020.

An audit released Friday from the Office of Auditor (OAG) General Doug Ringler marked four “material conditions” – the most severe rating – asserting the UIA failed to take multiple safeguards to prevent employees from looting taxpayer money.