Month: April 2023

Appeals Court Guts Religious Accommodations for Teachers That SCOTUS May Soon Strengthen: Lawyers

Just the News

A week before the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could force employers to more freely grant religious accommodations, a federal appeals court determined that calling all students by their last names for the sake of religious conscience was a fireable offense.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this month that Indiana’s Brownsburg Community Schools Corp. had a “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” for firing music teacher John Kluge: He caused “emotional harm” and disrupted the learning environment by not addressing transgender students by preferred names and pronouns.

Read More

Pollster: Biden’s Re-Election Campaign Announcement ‘Like Christmas’ to Trump, Republicans

M.D. Kittle

President Joe Biden announced his re-election campaign Tuesday, insisting he’s running again to “stand up for fundamental freedoms.” 

Republicans in the nation’s presidential battleground states say the out-of-touch 80-year-old Democrat has cost Americans their freedoms — and their finances. 

Read More

Michigan School District Sued for Viewpoint Discrimination

The Center Square

Two Michigan students sued their school district for viewpoint discrimination after they were banned from wearing apparel implicitly critical of President Joe Biden.

In February 2022, two Tri County Middle School students wore sweatshirts to school with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” a political slogan critical of Biden with origins in a more profane chant.

Read More

Commentary: A Grand Alliance to Overcome the Elite Betrayal of America

Michigan Star Staff

For the first time in history, the ruling class of a powerful nation has abandoned its fellow citizens. What is happening in America today is more than a return to feudalism, although the new economic model into which we’re being herded is correctly compared to feudalism. The reality is actually much worse: America’s elites view ordinary citizens as no longer necessary. Because of globalism, they are replaceable. Because of automation, they are superfluous. Because of environmentalism, they are unsustainable.

Read More

Commentary: Academia’s Woke Groomers

Michigan Star Staff

Exposing woke academia is both infuriating and amusing. Stanley K. Ridgley, a professor of management at Drexel University, has a knack for unearthing the horror of leftist, racialist, feminist, transgenderist grooming of immature minds on university campuses, and for caricaturing the groomers. His sarcasm will leave you rocking with laughter just after you’ve gasped with horror. 

Read More

College Board Will Change AP African American Studies Curriculum Again

Michigan Star Staff

An Advanced Placement (AP) pilot course dedicated to African American studies will be revised again after state governors across the country argued whether or not the content was appropriate, the College Board, which oversees AP courses, announced on Monday.

AP African American Studies was rejected by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration for originally including topics such as queer theory, and was revised on Feb. 1 to eliminate those sections and readings from prominent critical race theorists. The new changes, which were not detailed but are expected to become public in the coming months, will be driven by the development committee and “experts,” according to the College Board.

Read More

Music Spotlight: Colleen Rae

Bethany Bowman

I’ve been Facebook friends with Colleen Rae for more than 12 years. I knew she sang country music but had not heard much from her until recently.

Rae is from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She grew up in a family that loved music, when they celebrated birthdays and the like, they would break out the guitars and start to jam.

Read More

Commentary: The Woke Revolution Is Erasing the Past

RealClearWire

Students of English and history are going the way of the dodo bird.

During just the last decade, their numbers at colleges and universities have dropped by a third – and humanities enrollment is down by 17%, Nathan Heller reports in his recent New Yorker article, “The End of the English Major.”

Read More

Biden Announces Run for Re-Election

The Center Square

President Joe Biden announced early Tuesday that he is running for reelection.

“Every generation has a moment where they have had to stand up for democracy. To stand up for their fundamental freedoms,” Biden wrote on Twitter in his announcement. “I believe this is ours. That’s why I’m running for reelection as President of the United States. Join us. Let’s finish the job.”

Read More

Seven Arrested in Protest That Disrupted Montana House Hearing on Youth Transgender Bill

Just the News
man in handcuffs

Seven people in Montana have been arrested in connection with a protest Monday at the state capital over the censure of a state Democrat lawmaker opposed to a GOP-led bill limiting youth transgender medical procedures. 

The incident took place in the capital’s House chambers. Those arrested faces charges of criminal trespass after refusing to leave the gallery, which overlooks the House floor, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton told local NBC affiliate KTVH-TV.

Read More

Survey: Faith Surged Among Young People amid COVID Pandemic

Susan Berry, PhD

A survey first reported Monday by the Wall Street Journal found that 30 percent of young people say their faith grew stronger during the COVID pandemic, and that the percentage of those who say they know a “higher power” exists surged to 28 percent in December 2022 from the 22 percent reported in the 2021 survey. Conducted by nonprofit Springtide Research Institute, the survey cites the context of the COVID pandemic lockdowns, when young people were largely isolated from others, and the subsequent mental health crisis among them had already begun to reach “epidemic proportions.”

Read More

Advocates Warn of ‘Desperate’ Movement to Undermine the Electoral College

Admin

An organization’s efforts to circumvent states’ rights are “getting desperate” as they try new ways to push their interstate compact through state legislatures, two pro-Electoral College advocacy groups told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The National Popular Vote (NPV) is a group initiative to reform the U.S.’ two-step, Electoral College system by ensuring that the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide becomes the president. Now that NPV has enacted its interstate compact in all of the “easy,” bluer states as a standalone bill, it is getting creative to force the law through in swing states like Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan and Maine, Trent England of Save Our States and Jasper Hendricks of Democrats for the Electoral College told the DCNF.

Read More

‘Gender Queer’ Tops List of Most Challenged Books for a Second Year

The Center Square

The graphic novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe was the most challenged book of 2022, according to an annual list of the most controversial books as assessed by the American Library Association.

The list was published Monday during the start of National Library Week. The American Library Association said 2022 was a record year for books “targeted for censorship.” There were 2,571 unique titles challenged, of which 58 percent were in school libraries, classroom libraries or school curricula.

Read More

Supreme Court Declines to Hear Energy Companies’ Appeals to Climate Damage Lawsuits

Admin

The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear local governments’ climate damage lawsuits against energy companies on Monday.

The companies, who localities want to hold financially accountable for burning fossil fuels they allege damaged the climate, appealed their cases to the Supreme Court, asking it to weigh in on whether the claims should be heard in state or federal courts. The Court’s decision benefits the environmental activists behind the lawsuits, who prefer the matter to play out in state courts, where judges may be more inclined to rule in their favor, experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Read More

Hundreds Protest Chinese-Owned Electric Vehicle Battery Plant in Michigan

Admin

Hundreds of people protested against a Chinese-owned electric vehicle battery plant being constructed in northern Michigan due to concerns about national security.

“How many abuses have we seen over the years from China? And to think that they will set up a battery factory in our state and they will just play by the rules? That makes no sense whatsoever,” Michigan Republican Chair Kristina Karamo said at the protest Saturday, NewsNation reported.

Read More

Thousands Stage Protest March Across Mexico, Head for U.S. Border

Admin

On Sunday, a group of over 3,000 illegal aliens began a protest march that started in southern Mexico and will march to the north to end at the border between Mexico and the United States.

According to Politico, the march is in protest against the use of illegal alien detention centers, one of which caught fire last month in an incident that led to the deaths of approximately 40 illegals. The mob of illegals, which started its march in Tapachula along the Guatemalan border, will head for Mexico City, to demand that the government put an end to the use of such facilities.

Read More

National Right to Work Foundation Files Amicus Brief in Michigan Union Lawsuit

The Center Square

The National Right to Work Foundation filed an amicus brief at the Michigan Supreme Court opposing a strategy used by a Michigan union.

The brief, filed Friday, says the union officials of the Technical, Professional, and Officeworkers Association of Michigan “weaponizes” the grievance process to force nonmember public employees to pay fees to the union.

Read More

Commentary: Biden’s Open Borders Are Bringing Diseases to Your Neighborhood

Admin

by Betsy McCaughey   Ready for another pandemic? New York City’s health commissioner announced last week that the influx of migrants from the southern border — more than 50,000 to New York City alone in the past year — is delivering contagious diseases, including tuberculosis and polio, to our neighborhoods.…

Read More

Biden Administration Inserts Racial, Gender Equity into Everything from Energy to Food

Just the News

When the Biden Energy Department recently unveiled $72 million in funding to help train the next generation of green energy workers it did more than just tout its latest solution for climate change. It argued a racially and gender diverse workforce was “crucial” to the project’s mission.

The Cabinet department tasked to “ensure America’s security and prosperity” through energy didn’t explain how a “diverse workforce” can mitigate or reverse Biden-era energy trends such as some of the highest gas prices in American history, some of the lowest oil reserve levels in nearly 40 years and “unprecedented” growth in utility bill debt.

Read More

Commentary: Insane Deficit Spending Is Immoral

RealClearWire

In Armageddon, Bruce Willis blows himself up on an asteroid to save his daughter and all of humanity. (Sorry for the spoiler, but the movie is 25 years old.) That theme—parents providing for, and sacrificing for, their children—is the deeply moral and moving story that Americans used to love. 

I say “used to,” because something troubling has happened. We now accept that young people should be worse off for a lifetime in order to benefit those who have already lived full, comfortable lives. We saw this during COVID-19, when an elderly leadership class locked children out of classrooms, playgrounds, friendships, and sports, and wiped out jobs, training, and mentorship for young workers.

Read More

Commentary: The ‘Limit, Save, Grow’ Plan’s Discretionary Spending Caps that Save More than $3 Trillion Might Not Be Enough

Admin

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the House Republican majority have unveiled their spending plan for the next decade, the Limit, Save, Grow Act, that will be tied to a $1.5 trillion increase in the $31.4 trillion national debt ceiling, the centerpiece of which imposes discretionary budget caps beginning in 2024, but which will be set at 2022 levels, which could save more than $3.2 trillion over the next decade, according to an estimate by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

While an official score still has not come in from the Congressional Budget Office, the proposal stands out as a promise kept on McCarthy’s part to use the must-pass debt ceiling to restore some semblance of fiscal sanity to the out-of-control federal budget and national debt, the latter of which the White House Office of Management and Budget projects will rise to a gargantuan $50.7 trillion by 2033.

Read More

Former Intel Officials Who Signed the Infamous ‘Hunter Biden Laptop Letter’ Landed Jobs in the Biden Administration

Admin

After Biden campaign officials coordinated a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officers casting doubt about the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 presidential election, several signatories ended up with roles in the president’s administration.

Former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morrell testified to the House Judiciary Committee that then-Biden senior adviser and current Secretary of State Tony Blinken contacted him and “triggered” the creation of the letter. Former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, who signed the letter, put Morrell in touch with Biden campaign Chairman Steve Richetti, who thanked him for orchestrating it; Biden later appointed Bash to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board in 2022.

Read More

Protesters Storm Montana Capitol over Censure of Transgender Lawmaker

Just the News

Protesters entered the Montana House of Representatives on Monday in support of a transgender lawmaker whom state Republicans censured over contentious remarks during a debate over a ban on certain gender-related treatments. Democrat State Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender individual, said that supporters of the bill would have “blood on their hands.”

Read More

CNN Fires Don Lemon After Liberal Host Attacks GOP Candidates on Age and Race

M.D. Kittle

CNN has fired Don Lemon in the wake of the controversial liberal talk show host’s disparaging remarks about the race and age of GOP presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. As the left-leaning cable news network reported, Monday’s announcement came without explanation and “astonished the media industry.” News of Lemon’s departure followed word that conservative host Tucker Carlson and Fox News had parted ways.

Read More

Report: Rupert Murdoch Made Decision to Fire Tucker Carlson

Peter D'Abrosca

According to a Monday afternoon report, the billionaire head of Fox Corp., Rupert Murdoch, was directly responsible for firing Tucker Carlson, after the cable news network abruptly announced that it had parted ways with its most popular host. Citing sources “familiar with the situation who were not authorized to comment publicly,” The Los Angeles Times said that Murdoch himself made the decision to fire Carlson, along with some input from the Fox Corp. board of directors.

Read More

Former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton Team Up with American Express and ‘Welcome.US’ to Fly Migrants into the U.S.

Just the News

American Express Global Business Travel and Welcome.US have reportedly teamed up with former Presidents Obama, Clinton, and George W. Bush’s nongovernmental organization (NGO) called Miles4Migrants to fly migrants to communities across the U.S.

Welcome.US is an NGO that was initially launched to work with President Joe Biden’s administration to facilitate some of the 85,000 Afghans who came into the U.S. in 2021 and 2022 after the debacle created when the U.S. evacuated from Afghanistan, according to Breitbart.

Read More

Hillsdale College Professor: Man’s Divine Nature Not Just a Christian Principle, But a ‘Rational’ One as Well

Susan Berry, PhD

Hillsdale College’s associate dean for its graduate school of government in Washington, DC, told attendees at an event Friday evening in Connecticut that while the enemies of religious liberty reject that which is divine in man, that concept is not “a Christian principle, per se,” but, in fact, “a rational principle.”

Read More

Federal Legislation Pays Farmers for Cattle Killed by Endangered Wolf

The Center Square

American agricultural workers could soon receive financial compensation when their livestock gets killed by a wolf that advocates are hoping to increase in population.

Lawmakers introduced the Wolf and Livestock Fairness Act to Congress on April 18. The bill would provide financial compensation to farmers whose livestock are harmed by the endangered Mexican Grey Wolf species. The one clause; don’t kill the wolf.

Read More

Medical Schools Are Ditching Standardized Tests in the Name Of ‘Diversity’

Admin

A developing medical school trend to ditch the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) requirement may not bode well for the future of the profession, medical watchdog group Do No Harm told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Approximately 40 medical schools across the country have dropped the MCAT, a multiple choice exam that determines an individual’s ability to problem solve, think critically, and understand concepts about medical study, as a requirement for some applying students, according to a list compiled by Inspira Advantage. Do No Harm alleged that dropping the requirement is another way schools aim to bolster diversity on campus but asserted that it is a “dangerous trend,” according to its analysis.

Read More

TikTok Lobbyists Visited Biden White House at Least 40 Times Last Year

Admin

White House visitor records show that lobbyists and executives for the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok have visited the Biden White House at least 40 times in the past year.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the plethora of visits is part of the tech company’s broader plan for a massive public relations campaign aimed at rehabilitating its image, amid numerous setbacks including government bans on the app in various states and other countries. TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have already spent over $13 million on federal lobbying since 2019, having hired lobbying firms such as SKDK, a major Democratic public relations firm.

Read More

CDC Director Rewrites History of COVID Vaccines as Uptake Plummets, Side Effect Research Mounts

Just the News

As the feds abandon a one-size-fits-all COVID-19 vaccine strategy in the face of plunging booster uptake, growing research on serious adverse events and the first government payments to victims of the novel therapeutics, the CDC’s director is trying to rewrite history.

In a hearing Wednesday, Rochelle Walensky told the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds her agency that COVID vaccines only stopped preventing transmission of the virus due to “an evolution of science,” contradicting her own agency’s uncertainty about the products during the early mass vaccination campaign and its contemporaneous data.

Read More

Commentary: America Doesn’t Have a Free Press

Admin

Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk kicked the hornet’s nest when he labeled National Public Radio “state affiliated media.” The howls of protest were amusing, and telling. While they like to pretend otherwise, the mass media in the United States operate much like the state-run media of autocratic regimes. 

And it isn’t just NPR. The New York Times and CNN are preoccupied with the generation of propaganda, narrative making, the enforcement of dogmas (“woke” agendas on race, climate, sex, etc.), and the censorship of dissenters. 

Read More

U.S. to Begin Abrams Tank Training for Ukrainian Troops

Admin

The U.S. has made plans to begin training Ukrainian troops on how to use and maintain the M1 Abrams battle tank within weeks as the U.S. seeks to shorten the timeline in which U.S.-made tanks become operational on the battlefield, The Associated Press reported, citing U.S. officials.

In March, the Pentagon scrapped plans to send brand-new M1A2 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, opting instead to deliver a refurbished older version in an attempt to get U.S. tanks on the battlefield in eight to 10 months. Training will take place in Germany on 31 tanks scheduled to arrive at the Grafenwoehr Training Area by the end of May, with training to start shortly afterward and last about 10 weeks, the officials told the AP.

Read More

Manhattan DA Has No Authority ‘To Enforce Federal Campaign Finance Crimes’: Ex-FEC Commissioner

Just the News

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump is legally “dubious” and motivated by political ambition, alleges legal expert Hans von Spakovsky. 

“It’s an extremely dubious prosecution, and I say that as a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission,” he told Just The News.

Read More

Commentary: Will the Sketchy Donor Scheme Uncovered by O’Keefe be Allowed to Stand?

Admin

The Federal Election Commission owes Americans an explanation.

In late March, muckraking journalist James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) knocked on the doors of a few older and unemployed Americans, to ask them about their campaign donations, which were nothing less than extraordinary: Some were donating thousands of times, adding up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Read More

State Abortion Laws May Sway Where Students Attend College: Poll

Michigan Star Staff

State abortion laws may be swaying students’ decisions about their college futures, according to study results first published by Gallup on Thursday.

Approximately 72% of currently enrolled college students admitted that state abortion laws play an important role in determining whether to stay enrolled, according to the poll, which was conducted in partnership with the Lumina Foundation. While smaller, a majority of respondents aged 18-59 who are not currently enrolled in higher education admitted that they would consider the abortion law of the state a college or university is located before enrolling.

Read More

New Wristband Monitors for Illegal Migrants Aim to ‘Destigmatize’ Enforcement with ‘Less Obtrusive’ Design

Michigan Star Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is introducing wristband monitors to lessen the stigma associated with tracking illegal migrants released into the U.S. interior, according to an internal document and two U.S. officials who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

ICE said in the unreleased statement that the program will be tested in a “limited” capacity in Denver as part of its Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, which uses ankle monitors, cellphones and phone applications to track illegal immigrants released into the country. The two officials told the DCNF that the new technology was introduced to appease organizations like the ACLU by destigmatizing GPS monitoring that’s usually conducted with ankle bracelets.

Read More

Job Creators Network to Sue Biden Admin over Emissions Regulations

Just the News

The Job Creators Network Foundation Legal Action Fund plans to sue the Biden administration over proposed vehicle emissions standards that the White House unveiled this month.

The administration asserts that the regulations would prevent the emission of roughly 10 billion tons of CO2, lower consumer costs, and accelerate a transition to clean energy-reliant vehicles.

Read More

Advocates Protest Michigan Gov. Whitmer’s $42 Million Budget Cuts for Online Education

The Center Square

More than 21,000 Michigan online charter public school students face a $42 million funding cut under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2024 proposed budget.

Each online charter public school student would lose at least $1,463 for a total cut of $42 million under the budget because Whitmer says online schools have less brick and mortar facilities.

Read More

Commentary: Let Parents Opt-Out of Low-Performing Schools

RealClearWire

Single mom Shinara Morrison discovered homeschooling by accident. When public schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, she found herself taking the lead on her child’s education to fill the gap.

Morrison never withdrew her son, who was 7, from the public school system. But she supplemented his online instruction with custom coursework that blended academics and life skills. Morrison had no formal training as an educator, but she had special insight as a mother.

“I had a little cheat sheet in my head,” she says. “I knew his learning style.”

Read More

Commentary: Saint John Paul II’s Enduring Legacy

Michigan Star Staff

In recent weeks, slanderous allegations have been made against Saint John Paul II.

On Divine Mercy Sunday, a day established by John Paul II, Pope Francis defended his predecessor saying, “Certain of interpreting the feelings of the faithful throughout the world, I direct a grateful thought to the memory of Saint John Paul II, the object of offensive and unfounded inferences these past few days.”

Read More

Commentary: Feds Still Fighting Release of January 6 Tapes Despite Mounting Legal Pressure

Michigan Star Staff

Matthew Graves just received a court summons.

As the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Graves is rarely on the receiving end of a legal inquiry. In fact, Graves’ hand must be tired from signing thousands of criminal indictments, sentencing memos, and plea offers related to his ongoing investigation into the events of January 6, 2021. Just this week, the FBI arrested two more individuals on minor offenses, giving Graves’ overstaffed office more fresh meat for the Justice Department’s vengeful retaliation against Americans who protested the certification of Joe Biden’s election that day.

Read More

CIA Employee Told Police Alleged Assailant ‘Admitted’ to Sexual Assault, But Agency Ignored

Michigan Star Staff

The House Intelligence Committee is investigating the CIA after three female employees, who were allegedly sexually assaulted by agency employees, say they were threatened to remain silent or face retaliation, a victim’s lawyer told the DCNF.

Kevin Carroll, an attorney for one of the victims, who has declined to speak publicly about the matter, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that his client was assaulted by a male CIA employee who had tried to kiss and accost her. The employee “wrapped a thick winter scarf around my neck, strangled me, manhandled me, attempted to kiss my mouth, and throughout this assault stated words to the effect of, ‘This is what I want to do to you’ and ‘There are many uses for this (the scarf),’” she said.

Read More

Ohio Senate Candidate Proposes Reparations for White Descendants of Union Civil War Soldiers

Just the News

Ohio GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno proposed at a campaign event this week that white descendants of Northern Civil War soldiers be eligible for reparations. “We stand at the shoulders of giants, don’t we? We stand on shoulders of people like John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington. That this group of people took on the largest empire in history. They said no, we will not stand for this. And won,” Moreno said earlier this week, according to the New York Post.

Read More

TikTok ‘Trans Lesbian’ Threatens Christian Conservatives with Violence; Urges ‘Allies’ to ‘Arm Up’

Michigan Star Staff

In a “call to arms” posted onto TikTok, a user who goes by the name “Tara” and who identifies as a “poly trans lesbian” threatened Christian conservatives and urged fellow travelers to “arm up” to fight them in a recent rant on the Chinese-owned platform.

Read More

U.S. Closes Bridge to Mexico After Migrants Attempt Mass Crossing

Michigan Star Staff

The U.S. government closed a bridge to Mexico Thursday after a group of roughly 1,000 migrants tried to make a mass entry, according to Border Report.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) closed the Gateway International Bridge that connects Matamoros, Mexico, with Brownsville, Texas, according to Border Report. Roughly 1,500 migrants are living in a large encampment a few blocks from the bridge on the Mexican side, Andrea Rudnik, a volunteer with Team Brownsville, told Border Report.

Read More