Month: January 2023

Pro-Life Leaders Push Back on Trump’s ‘No Exceptions’ Blame for Midterm Losses

Susan Berry, PhD

Former President Donald Trump accepted no blame for Republicans’ failure to achieve the anticipated “red wave” results in the midterm elections, but, instead, pointed a finger at pro-life candidates who insisted on “No Exceptions” to abortion as the reason for the party’s losses.

“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday. “I was 233-20! It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.”

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General Motors Funds Transgender Programs in Elementary Schools

Admin

General Motors (GM) gave a grant to an organization that supplies elementary schools with books promoting the transgender ideology.

The automotive manufacturing company donated money to the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) “Rainbow Library Program,” according to a 2021 Social Impact Report published by GM.

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The Number of Medicaid Recipients Will Soon Top 100 Million U.S Residents: Report

The Center Square

The United States will have 100 million residents on Medicaid in the next 72 days, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability, meaning that nearly one-third of all Americans will be on the program for health care.

Over the past three years, states have been prevented from removing recipients from the program through a federal COVID-19 emergency. Now, the date when states can begin to re-registering recipients when that emergency ends on April 1.

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Big Banks Predict Significant Economic Downturn in 2023: POLL

Admin

Of the 23 major financial institutions that work directly with the Federal Reserve, 16 anticipate a recession within the next 12 months, with two anticipating one the year after, according to a survey published by The Wall Street Journal Monday.

These institutions, which range from Bank of America to UBS, note that Americans are spending their savings, banks are heightening lending standards and the housing market is in a decline, all classic warning signs that a recession is impending, the WSJ reported. All of this is being exacerbated, the banks say, by the Fed’s historically aggressive pace of interest rate hikes, designed to blunt stubbornly persistent inflation.

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American Catholic Leaders Celebrate Life of Pope Benedict, ‘Defender of Truth’ Who Taught Above All Else ‘God Is Love’

Susan Berry, PhD

American Catholic leaders are acclaiming the life and work of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose scholarly writings emphasized the unity of faith and reason and, most fundamentally, the primary truth of the Catholic faith, which teaches God is Love.

Benedict, who was born Joseph Ratzinger, died Saturday at the age of 95. He became pope in April 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II, and served until his resignation in February 2013.

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Half of the US No Longer Requires a Permit for Concealed Carry

Admin

Half of the states in the U.S. no longer require residents to hold a concealed carry permit to carry firearms in public after Alabama, Indiana, Georgia and Ohio passed laws in 2022 removing permit requirements.

On Monday, Alabama began enforcing its permitless carry law, becoming the 25th state to do so, while Indiana, Georgia and Ohio also passed laws this year allowing residents to concealed carry firearms without a permit. Over the last two years 10 states have moved to permitless carry, including Utah, Montana, Iowa, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas.

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Governor Whitmer Teases Second Term Agenda

The Center Square

In her second inaugural address on Sunday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer indicated her administration’s priorities for her upcoming four-year term.

Although she said she would provide more details in her upcoming State of the State and budget addresses, Whitmer hinted Sunday she would work on “common sense” gun control measures, advocate for abortion rights and same-sex marriage, and promote climate change measures.

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Commentary: Teachers Don’t Want to Tell Parents What’s Going on in Classrooms

Admin

Do parents have the right to know what their children are being taught in public school?

Parents say yes; teachers say no.

Of course, it’s not quite that simple. The description of the latter party can be tweaked to “teachers unions” — although you don’t hear many individual teachers bucking the union line — but the dichotomy remains: parents want to know what’s going on in their kids’ classrooms, and teachers, administrators, and their union bosses would rather not tell them.

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Commentary: Republicans Struggle with Young Voters

RealClearWire

Now that the 2022 midterm elections are in the book, the post-election blame game for Republicans is underway. And there are plenty of explanations being suggested.

First is the group who say they never expected a “red wave.” Clearly their prognostication button had been on mute until now. Another group is blaming Republican opposition to early and mail-in voting. This may have had some effect, but a moderate one in comparison to 2020. For this, Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.

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Activists Push States for Free School Meals

Just the News

At least a dozen states are considering implementing or already have free student meal programs to continue the federal government’s COVID-19 giveaways, while some activists are demanding for more things to be made free.

Congress allowed a pandemic-era free student meal waiver to expire on Sept. 30, returning to the pre-COVID posture where only students at some schools or those whose families met specific income requirements were given free or reduced-price meals.

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Early Transgender Pioneer Rejects Today’s Gender Ideology: ‘The Truth is Transgenders Don’t Exist’

Admin

Walt Heyer, one of the first transgender women when he transitioned four decades ago, has long since transitioned back to male.

Today he rejects the notion that there can be a transgender person, arguing a person struggling with gender dysphoria almost always an underlying issue.

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McCarthy Agrees to Key Rule Change in Effort to Solidify Support for Speakership Bid

Admin

With the election for Speaker of the House of Representatives taking place on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has agreed to a major rule change in an effort to secure conservative support for his shaky bid for leadership.

The Daily Caller reports that McCarthy agreed on Sunday to make it easier for a vote of no-confidence to be brought up against a sitting Speaker, changing the procedure so that any rank-and-file member of the House can call for such a vote. Previously, a vote of no-confidence, also known as a motion to vacate the chair, could only be brought by a member of party leadership.

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Economists: Guaranteed Income Programs Should Replace, Not Supplement, Other Welfare Subsidies

The Center Square

In Hudson, New York, participants in the city’s guaranteed income program that started in 2020 were counseled on how the $500 a month they were set to receive over a 5-year-period would impact other government subsidies for which they are eligible.

“Will participants lose other public benefits that they might currently be receiving?” the program’s website asked on the Frequently Asked Question section. “This question can only be answered on a case-by-case basis. Prior to committing to participating, all recipients will be offered benefits’ counseling to decide if participation is best for their specific situation.”

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Biden Blamed by Own Ex-Border Chief for Soaring Asylum Cases, Record Immigration Court Backlog

Admin

The Biden administration is to blame for soaring asylum cases that have created a record years-long backlog in U.S. immigration courts, according to President Joe Biden’s own former Border Patrol chief.

“Several factors have contributed to this backlog, but the massive increase that we’re seeing today can be directly attributed to the Biden administration’s border and immigration policies,” said Rodney Scott, who headed the Border Patrol in both the Trump and Biden administrations.

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Feds Use Facebook to Study COVID Vaccine, Testing, and Mask Messaging

Just the News
healthcare worker giving vaccination

Legislation that would use federal agencies to “nudge” social media platforms to reduce the spread of “harmful content” isn’t going anywhere in the waning days of the 117th Congress. 

As evidenced by the ongoing release of the “Twitter Files,” however, that’s no impediment to the government — and the research universities that so heavily depend on federal funding — enlisting Big Tech to promote favored narratives and throttle competing arguments on contentious topics.

Federal agencies and U.S. universities together have funded or sponsored a dozen studies mentioning Facebook and COVID-19, according to the National Institutes of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov database.

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More than Two-Thirds of Voters Believe America is Heading in the Wrong Direction

The Center Square

More than two-thirds of voters now say the United States is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new poll from the State Policy Network. Voter satisfaction with the country’s direction has continued to plummet since July.

SPN’s State’s Voices opinion poll surveyed nearly 2,000 registered voters and was conducted in partnership with Morning Consult through online interviews.

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Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia Among 18 States Banning Social Media App TikTok from State Devices

Admin

Following South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem’s lead, nearly half of U.S. states have put restrictions on or banned the use of Chinese-based social media app TikTok.

At least 19 states have banned TikTok on government-issued devices – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utha, Virginia and West Virginia.

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Commentary: The Left Sacrifices Natural Gas at the Altar of Climate Nirvana Leaving Good Americans Freeze to Death

Admin

The just-departed polar vortex confirmed that when Mother Nature is enraged, it’s wise to have options. Maddeningly, today’s “pro-choice” Democrats want Americans to have one energy choice.

Neo-totalitarian, Left-wing eco-extremists are banning new natural-gas access in scores of locales. If not reversed, this cruel, stupid, needless policy will kill Americans.

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Commentary: The $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Prioritizes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education and STEM Spending

Admin

The national debt is growing, but Congress’ recent spending bill is a telltale sign that it has no intention of shrinking the deficit.

After receiving bipartisan support in the Senate, the House passed a 1.7 trillion spending bill on Dec 16, avoiding a government shutdown.

The bill allocates funding mostly to defense, including $45 billion to Ukraine, which will assist the country in its war effort against Russia.

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Report: 97 Percent of Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes in New York Were Committed by Other Minorities

Admin

Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA) released a report revealing that 97% of hate crimes against Jews in New York between 2018 and 2022 were committed by other minority groups.

AAA’s report was first posted on AAA founder Dov Hikind’s Twitter account Wednesday. The report documented 194 cases of assault against Jews from April 2018 to August 2022, and, in 99 of those assaults, official reports included the ethnicity of the perpetrator revealing 97% were committed by other minorities.

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Commentary: New IRS Requirement Raises Questions About Vow to Expand Audits Only on ‘Rich’

Admin

Next month, the U.S. Postal Service will be busier than usual. Not because of late Christmas cards or thank-you letters, but because of the extra Form 1099-Ks the IRS will be mailing out.

Under the American Rescue Plan, third-party payment facilitators like Venmo, eBay, Etsy, and Airbnb are now required to send Form 1099-Ks to individuals reporting 2022 gross annual income of as little as $600. That’s $50 a month.

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Students at Utah College Can Take a Course in ‘Dead White Women’ Next Semester

Admin

Westminster College, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, will offer a course titled “Dead White Women” during the spring 2023 semester which will analyze society’s “(unhealthy) obsession with the death of white women,” according to the course catalog.

The four-credit course is offered in both the film studies and gender studies departments, according to the catalog. The class will study why shows on the Investigation Discovery channel feature the deaths of white women more than the deaths of men.

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Boston May Bring Back Mask Mandates for Kids

Admin

Boston Public Schools is considering reinstating a mask mandate after the holiday break to minimize absenteeism from COVID-19, the mayor stated in a Wednesday announcement.

The decision is currently under consideration by city officials who fear a rise in COVID-19 cases once students return to the classroom in the new year, NBC Boston reported. Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu stated that a decision would be finalized by the end of the week.

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March for Life President Calls for Americans to ‘Fearlessly Continue Marching’

Michigan Star Staff

The annual March for Life is set to take place January in Washington, D.C., on the 50th anniversary of the monumental 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. And while some have suggested that pro-life activists should focus on state-level efforts, March for Life President Jeanne Mancini is calling on pro-life Americans to “fearlessly continue marching.”

This will be the first such march since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, saving the lives of over 10,000 babies, by some estimates—and prompting criminals across the nation to attack and vandalize scores of pro-life pregnancy resource centers. The attackers graffitied many of the pregnancy centers with phrases such as “If abortions aren’t safe, then neither are you.”

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Biden Economy Sent Retirement Funds Spiraling, Prompting Mass Bailouts for Union Pensions

Just the News

America’s pension plans are struggling to meet their financial targets amid ruinous inflation, compromising the retirement of countless Americans. The Biden administration has responded by doling out massive amounts of taxpayer money to bail out retirement funds mostly run by unions.

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More than Half of States Poised to Raise Minimum Wage in 2023 as $15 an Hour Gains Traction

Just the News

Four states will have a $15-an-hour minimum wage by New Year’s Day, while 27 states are poised to raise the minimum wage in 2023.

Some states are enacting the wage change after Jan. 1, so by the end of 2023 there will be six states that are set to have minimum wages at or above $15 an hour. They are California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington, according to a report last week from the National Employment Law Project.

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Michigan County to Launch $1 Million Small Business Assistance Program

The Center Square

Up to 100 small businesses in Washtenaw County, Michigan may benefit from $5,000 grants and free assistance programs when the county launches its Small Business Growth Activator in January.

Operated by the Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development, SBGA is designed to assist online, brick-and-mortar or mobile businesses with seven or fewer employees with a household income less than 80% of Washtenaw County’s median income. The intent is to help businesses that fell through the cracks of qualifying for assistance programs for small businesses, such as the Paycheck Protection Program.

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Commentary: An American Awakening

Michigan Star Staff

The seemingly novel developments of the last several years have not taken me by surprise. When I completed American Awakening in May 2020, the national election was still five months into the future, and the stringent measures ostensibly instituted to hold the Wuhan Flu at bay had just been implemented. I thought then that a Democratic Party victory in November 2020 would promise the American electorate a return to normal politics, but in fact would operate on the basis of what, in American Awakening, I called the politics of innocence and transgression; and that if Joe Biden became the Democratic Party nominee, in order to demonstrate that he was the-right-kind-of-white-man, he would champion this sort of politics. 

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Commentary: Remembering Pope Benedict XVI

Michigan Star Staff

A couple of months ago I was in a fascinating conversation with a Catholic colleague regarding the papacies of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, here in the ninth year of this curious era, 2013-22, when the world was living with, in effect, two popes of sorts, a reigning pope named Francis and a resigned pope — a “Pope Emeritus” — named Benedict XVI. We were wondering if the latter would, ironically, ultimately outlive the former, who few expected to have a papacy this long. When Francis’ papacy started in 2013, he was already known for poor health, which has progressively gotten worse.

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Anti-Christian Violence on the Rise in the U.S. — Five Alabama Churches Attacked Since 2018

Michigan Star Staff

A new report from the Family Research Council (FRC) indicates that acts of hostility toward Christian churches in the United States are on the rise. 

In an analysis issued this month, the FRC cited at least 420 acts of hostility against U.S. churches between January 2018 and September 2022. Acts of hostility include vandalism, arson, gun-related incidents, bomb threats and more.

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Venezuela, Cuba, and Argentina Have the Highest Inflation in Latin America

ADN America

Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina registered the highest inflation in 2022 compared to other Latin American countries, according to figures from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and BCC reports .

The report covers the period between October 2021 and October 2022, where the highest growth of the index is led by the Caribbean country, which accumulates an increase in inflation of 146%, exceeding that of Argentina by more than 50 percentage points (87 8%), the second on the list, and Cuba, which ranked third with 34.2%.

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Commentary: Seven Financial Tips from the Book of Proverbs

Michigan Star Staff

Ask someone from the millennial or Generation Z crowds about tech-related topics and you’ll likely get an encyclopedia of knowledge pouring forth. Ask those same cohorts about a financial decision or money-related matter and you just might get a deer-in-the-headlights look.

Over two-thirds of people ages 18-41 have “financial topics they want advice on,” a Harris Poll found earlier this year, “but aren’t sure how to get it.” And given that 70 percent of millennials and 65 percent of Generation Z live paycheck to paycheck, it’s not hard to imagine what types of financial advice might be needed.

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Commentary: Eisenhower Was a Conservative in Action, Not Ideology

Michigan Star Staff

When Dwight D. Eisenhower left the presidency at the age of 70, there was excitement in the air as the torch of power was passed to “a new generation” exemplified by 43-year-old John F. Kennedy. The national media fawned over the new president, while Eisenhower, the old soldier, faded away at his Gettysburg farm. The country was about to learn the importance of character in its leaders.

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Washington State Senators File Constitutional Amendment to Double-Down on Abortion Rights

The Center Square

Two Washington state senators have proposed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the rights to obtain an abortion and to use contraception in the state, both of which are already codified in state law. 

The proposed amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 8202, was filed Dec. 21 by Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, and Sen. Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, at the request of Gov. Jay Inslee according to a joint statement from the lawmakers.

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Blue States Worry They Can’t Pay Out Retirement Benefits

Michigan Star Staff

Three high-profile Democratic governors are struggling to stabilize their states’ retirement programs due to a falling stock market and may have difficulties paying out benefits in the coming years, according to Politico.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, all of whom are considered potential candidates for the 2024 presidential race, have poured billions of dollars into their states’ pension funds, according to Politico. They may struggle to maintain their public images if they’re forced to raise taxes or make budget cuts to keep pension payments flowing.

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California Saw Six-Figure Population Drop as Gov. Newsom Ran ‘Join Us’ Ads

Michigan Star Staff

California residents are still leaving the blue state in droves despite Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s summer ad campaign urging Florida residents to “join” the blue state.

California’s population decreased by six-figures as 343,230 people fled the state in 2022, according to data from the United States Census Bureau. The population decline follows a 30-second advertisement from July in which Newsom urged Floridians to move to the blue state where he claimed they “still believe in freedom.”

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