Griner Released in Prisoner Swap for Convicted Russian Arms Dealer

WNBA star Brittney Griner has been released from Russian prison in a prisoner exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to multiple media reports Thursday morning.

President Joe Biden said Griner is safe and on her way home during an address Thursday with Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, and Vice President Kamala Harris. He thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping facilitate Brittney Griner’s return home.

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Congress Won’t Reinstate Troops Discharged for Violating the COVID Vaccine Mandate

Thousands of troops already discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine won’t return to service after Congress’ last-minute defense bill sought to overturn the Pentagon’s mandate.

The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have separated at least 8,400 active duty and reserve troops for spurning the Department of Defense’s (DOD) August 2021 requirement that all servicemembers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to information the DOD provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. While the compromise legislation released late Tuesday directs the Pentagon to rescind the mandate, it stops short of requiring the military to restore discharged troops to their prior positions or provide reparations.

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Bishop Asserts Catholic Schools’ Embrace of Gender ideology ‘Tragic’ and ‘Sinful’

The chairman of the U.S. Bishops Catholic Education Committee said in a recent interview that policies created to align with gender ideology have “no place” in Catholic schools and institutions.

Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington, told the National Catholic Register in November during the bishops’ fall meeting that Catholic schools and institutions that have caved to gender ideology have embraced a “tragic” and “sinful” agenda under the guise of compassion.

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Businesses Fear Michigan Democrats Repealing Right-to-Work

Come January, Democratic majorities in Lansing will try to repeal right-to-work – Republicans’ flagship policy adopted when they controlled the Legislature and governor’s office.

Next week will mark the 10th anniversary of Michigan passing its right-to-work law. In short, the law says that nobody can be required to pay dues or fees to a union to hold a job.

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Virginia Restaurant Cancels Christian Group’s Reservation Due to Its Pro-Life and Traditional Marriage Views

A Virginia restaurant owner denied service to a Christian organization about 90 minutes prior to its private party because the group is pro-life and embraces one man-one woman marriage.

Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, which holds pro-life and traditional marriage values, told The Daily Signal that, following her group’s participation in activities outside the Supreme Court Monday morning, while the justices heard oral arguments in a case to decide if a public accommodation law compelling a creative person’s speech or silence violates the First Amendment, she was informed the Metzger Bar and Butchery was “unwilling to serve” the organization.

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Commentary: The Tyranny of the Minority

In the Federalist, James Madison famously warned against the “tyranny of the majority,” but it is unlikely he could have envisioned what we face today. Twenty-first-century America is dissolving before our eyes, as a tyrannical coalition of minorities steals our heritage and sovereignty. Not ethnic minorities—their American bequest is being stolen right alongside that of America’s shrinking white majority. Nobody is exempt, and everyone should unite to resist.

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Fauci Worried That COVID Lab Leak Theories Would Increase Tensions with China

During testimony last week, Anthony Fauci admitted that one of the reasons he repeatedly shot down any theories of the COVID-19 virus originating through a lab leak in Wuhan, China was because he did not want to risk escalating tensions between China and the United States.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), made his comments during a 7-hour deposition as part of a lawsuit filed against the Biden Administration by the Attorneys General of Missouri and Louisiana. Fauci described his concern over “wild speculation and allegations” that China deliberately created the coronavirus, and then either intentionally or accidentally leaked it from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

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Commentary: Solar’s Lofty Ambitions Are Consuming Ever-Larger Expanses of Land Down Below

Wedged in the southern flank of Virginia, Charlotte County is home to some 11,500 people who live amidst rolling hills and family farms, pastures and sawmills, a historic Civil War battlefield, and four townlets tinier than many suburban subdivisions.  

But this pastoral tableau will be swept up in the green revolution when construction begins here on the nation’s largest solar power facility east of the Mississippi River. The planned 800-megawatt Randolph Solar Project in Charlotte County will replace a commercial lumber farm of loblolly pines with 1.6 million photovoltaic panels covering an area equivalent to seven square miles. 

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Teachers Flee Unions as Membership Plummets by Almost 60,000

The nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), declined by at least 59,000 members during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) disclosure reports.

The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, lost 40,107 members while the AFT, the nation’s second largest teachers union, declined by 19,078, according to the DOL reports. The decline comes as public schools added 95,000 educators from September 2021 to 2022.

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