Month: September 2023

September 24, 2023 Just the News

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey will temporarily step down as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after he was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York on Friday, according to a statement issued by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office.

Menendez, the three-term senior senator from New Jersey, was indicted by a grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on federal corruption charges, being alleged to have accepted bribes in cash, gold bullion and a luxury car in exchange for shaping U.S. foreign policy towards Egypt and interfering in investigations on behalf of his affiliates. Schumer announced that Menendez’s decision to step down from his role as chairman was temporary, according to the announcement.

GOP Rep. Biggs Predicts 10 Million Illegal Aliens Will Have Entered U.S. by End of Biden Admin

Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs on Thursday backed former President Donald Trump’s calls to conduct a mass deportation of illegal immigrants over the age of 14.

Addressing supporters in Iowa at a recent rally, Trump vowed to invoke the Alien Enemies Act to enable the widespread deportation effort.

TSNN Featured: U.S. Senator JD Vance Addresses Ukrainian Plight for Aid as U.S. Government Shutdown Approaches

September 24, 2023 Admin

Survey: 80 Percent of Michigan Small Businesses Oppose 15-Week Mandatory Paid Family Leave

September 24, 2023September 23, 2023 The Center Square

A new survey says Michigan’s small businesses mostly oppose a mandated paid family leave program of up to 15 weeks per employee funded by a new tax.

A Small Business Association of Michigan survey found small businesses expect increased costs associated with the program Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed in August.

Commentary: Democratic-Run States Are Losing Population, Power, and Congressional Seats

For years, Americans who believe in limited government and putting the American people first have had to watch as states like California, New York, and Illinois have turned their cities into dystopian hellscapes and sent unhinged politicians to Washington DC to inflict their policies on the rest of the nation.

But something very interesting has been happening over the past decade and this trend is only accelerating – the most left-wing states are slowly losing power as their populations decrease and residents move elsewhere. California, New York, Illinois, and others are losing population as residents move to friendlier and freer states. What this translates into is a mathematical solution to leftism and centralized government control.

Commentary: The Continuing Cultural Revolution

Christopher F. Rufo’s America’s Cultural Revolution is a landmark study of America’s radicalization since the 1960s. It is a carefully constructed work full of insights, which confirmed for me the conclusions that I had reached while studying some of the same topics. Rufo shows convincingly that certain radical thinkers, most of whom were American born, affected deeply and perhaps irreversibly American institutions starting in the 1960s. This study clearly avoids an interpretive perspective that I have repeatedly mocked, exemplified by those who pretend that American culture and politics were generally sound up until quite recently, perhaps until the point when LGBT enthusiasts turned from gay marriage to gender transitioning.

California AG Sues Pregnancy Centers for Offering Abortion Reversal Pill

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against several pro-life pregnancy centers Thursday, alleging that they are “misleading patients” by advertising an abortion reversal pill, according to a press release.

Heartbeat International (HI) and its affiliate, RealOptions pregnancy centers, suggest on their website that the use of progesterone can, in some cases, reverse the effects of a chemical abortion pill if the mother has only taken the first dose. Bonta argued that the treatment has “no credible scientific backing” and poses a potential risk for pregnant women, according to the press release.

Commentary: The Importance of Making Mistakes

September 24, 2023 The Center Square

A couple of years ago, I received a post-semester email from a student’s father. He was upset about his child’s final grade in my class, which had landed somewhere between a high B and a low A.

The grade was clearly not very low, but the student’s father wanted me to reconsider. Apparently, a specific assignment’s less-than-perfect score had kept his son from making the honor roll.

Diesel Prices Continue to Climb

Diesel fuel prices continue to rise, hiking the cost of transporting goods to market as American consumers pay the price.

According to the latest data from AAA, the current national average price for a gallon of diesel is $4.56, up from $4.53 a week ago and $4.35 a month ago. As those prices rise, the costs are passed on to consumers.

Elon Musk’s Brain Chip Company Is Officially Recruiting Humans for Testing

September 23, 2023 Just the News

Billionaire Elon Musk’s brain chip company Neuralink is officially recruiting human beings for a clinical trial, the biotech firm announced on Tuesday.

The trial will be open to individuals with quadriplegia resulting from cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Neuralink announced on its website. It seeks to assess the brain implant’s safety, the performance of its “surgical robot” and gauge the chip’s effectiveness in allowing paralyzed people to influence external devices through their thoughts.

McCarthy Pledges to Remove Ukraine Funding from Pentagon Spending Package

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday vowed to remove funding for Ukraine from a Pentagon spending package amid a conservative rebellion.

McCarthy Pledges to Remove Ukraine Funding from Pentagon Spending Package

September 23, 2023 Just the News

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Friday vowed to remove funding for Ukraine from a Pentagon spending package amid a conservative rebellion.

The package, which has twice failed to clear a procedural vote due to internal Republican opposition, includes $300 million in funds for Kyiv to continue its fight against the Russian military.

Top Story: Congress to Release New Evidence, Testimony in Biden Case to Back Up IRS Whistleblowers

September 23, 2023 Zachery Schmidt

01: Biden’s Basement

September 23, 2023September 22, 2023 Admin

Congress to Release New Evidence, Testimony in Biden Case to Back Up IRS Whistleblowers

September 23, 2023September 22, 2023 Just the News

The chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee tells Just the News he plans to soon make public new testimony that corroborates IRS whistleblowers’ accounts of interference in the Hunter Biden probe and new evidence to support the nascent impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said Thursday his panel will hold a vote to make the new information available, including testimonies from two IRS agents who back the accounts of whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler about slow-walking and interference in the Hunter Biden tax case.

Top Commentary: Commentary: The Justice System Is Now a Weapon in Progressives’ Arsenal Against Political Enemies

September 23, 2023 Zachery Schmidt

TSNN Featured: We the People AZ’s Lawsuit Against Runbeck for Video Surveillance Compares Runbeck to Cyber Ninjas Being Held Subject to Public Records Requests

September 23, 2023 Zachery Schmidt

Teachers Fired for Challenging Gender Ideology Get Legal Support from Doctors, Lawyers, Feminists

September 23, 2023 Just the News

First Amendment experts, radical feminists and doctors are pushing back against a court ruling that held two educators responsible for their own firing because their opposition to a proposed gender identity policy sparked student protests and community complaints to Oregon’s Grants Pass School District.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Clarke botched Supreme Court precedents on the speech rights of public employees and qualified immunity from personal liability, upheld restrictions that disproportionately target women and adopted pseudoscientific language, according to ideologically diverse friend-of-the-court briefs filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Investigator at Fani Willis’s Office Accidentally Shot Herself in Fulton County Courthouse

September 23, 2023September 22, 2023 TPappert

An investigator working for the Fulton County District Attorney’s office shot herself on Friday while at the Fulton County Courthouse. The investigator, who works in the office of District Attorney Fani Willis, was not critically injured in the accidental discharge.

News first broke on Friday morning that a shooting incident occurred at the Fulton County Courthouse, with the sheriff’s office reporting there was “no active threat” at the time. Within an hour, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed “an accidental discharge” by an “investigator who wounded herself” but was not critically injured.

Virginia Representative Proposes Defunding Colleges with Vax Mandates

The COVID-19 pandemic is over, but vaccine mandates imposed by colleges and universities are not. Now a Virginia congressman has introduced a bill to withhold federal funds from institutions of higher education that require vaccinations against the disease.

President Joe Biden declared the pandemic over in ending the public health emergency May 11. Despite this, nearly 100 colleges and universities currently require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the 2023-2024 school year.

Commentary: The Justice System Is Now a Weapon in Progressives’ Arsenal Against Political Enemies

September 23, 2023September 22, 2023 The Center Square

Attorney General Merrick Garland gave his best Captain Renault impression on Capitol Hill in denying a double standard in how the Justice Department investigated (or didn’t) Hunter Biden (and his father) versus how they pursue his political rival. Shocked, shocked, indeed.

Those experiencing the less pleasant side of judicial double standards see rather clearly the woke hall pass.

Whitmer Signs Bill Package Protecting Against Child Marriages in Michigan

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law three bills that effectively bans marriage of those under 18.

Previously, Michigan residents could get married as young as 16 with parental consent, and someone under 16 could with court approval.

Commentary: Fact-Checking Merrick Garland’s ‘Fair’ DOJ

September 23, 2023September 22, 2023 Julie Kelly

It might go down as the whopper of the year.

During his opening statement to the House Judiciary committee on Wednesday morning, Attorney General Merrick Garland attempted to head off expected criticism from Republicans by insisting his Department of Justice is blind to politics. “[We] apply the same laws to everyone. There is not one set of laws for the powerful and one for the powerless. One for the rich and another for the poor. One for Democrats and another one for Republicans. The law will treat each of us alike.”

Commentary: American Pandemic ‘Samizdat’

September 23, 2023 RealClearWire

On May 15, 1970, the New York Times published an article by esteemed Russia scholar Albert Parry detailing how Soviet dissident intellectuals were covertly passing forbidden ideas around to each other on handcrafted, typewritten documents called samizdat.

Commentary: More Evidence That U.S. Intelligence Analysis Is Broken and Politicized

Last week, American Greatness reporter Debra Heine reported a bombshell story that a “highly credible” CIA whistleblower has told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the CIA “bribed” six of its analysts with significant financial incentives to change their initial conclusion that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a biolab leak in Wuhan, China and to instead conclude that the virus emerged naturally.

West Point Sued over Race-Based Admissions Process

On Tuesday, an anti-affirmative action group filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Military Academy at West Point over its race-based admissions process in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning such practices.

As reported by Axios, the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by Students for Fair Admissions (SFA), the same advocacy group that ultimately ended affirmative action through two cases it had filed before the Supreme Court, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. In both cases, SFA successfully argued that affirmative action unfairly benefits black and Hispanic students, while disproportionately discriminating against White and Asian students.

San Francisco Homeless Camps Hit Highest Number in Three Years

September 22, 2023September 22, 2023 Just the News

The number of homeless camps that have sprouted up all across San Francisco is now at the highest point since 2020.

The Daily Caller reports that more people moved into homeless shelters in just the first six months of 2023 than during any other six-month period since 2021, according to information compiled by the San Francisco Standard. There are 523 homeless camps in the city as of July of this year, the highest total since 530 camps in October of 2020. Across these 523 camps, there are over 4,000 homeless people in San Francisco.

Federal Prosecutors in Menendez Bribery Case Say Found Gold Bars, Hidden Cash in Senator’s Home

Prosecutors said Friday morning they have indicted New Jersey Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez and his wife on federal bribery charges.

They alleged in a press conference shortly after the charges were announced the Menendezs took bribes of cash, gold bars and a luxury car for corrupt acts, including having the senator, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, use his influence to benefit the authoritarian government of Egypt.

UAW Announces Massive Expansion of Strike Against Major Automakers

September 22, 2023 Michigan Star Staff

The United Auto Workers (UAW) announced on Friday that more workers will go on strike as the union and automakers continue to be unable to reach a deal.

The union announced that 38 new plants across the U.S. will join the partial strike at noon against the Big Three automakers as negotiations continue to fail to produce a new contract for the 146,000 workers, with strikes expanding against GM and Stellantis but not Ford, as the company has cooperated more than the others, according to the UAW announcement. The UAW first announced its partial strike on Sept. 14, striking at three plants: GM’s plant in Wentzville, Missouri; Ford’s plant in Wayne, Michigan; and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

House GOP Leadership Sends Lawmakers Home After Spending Vote Fails

September 22, 2023 Just the News

Republican leadership has told House lawmakers they can leave Washington, D.C., following a botched vote on a defense spending package that upended the legislative agenda that was set through Saturday.

The announcement follows a group of dissident House conservatives breaking ranks to stop a procedural vote on a Pentagon funding bill, preventing its consideration on the floor, The Hill reported. Conservatives did so on Tuesday as well in a bid to secure deeper spending cuts and to block additional aid to Ukraine.

Hunter Biden Has Entered the Bob Menendez Indictment

Townhall As Spencer reported Friday morning, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez has been indicted on a number of federal charges for bribery and selling out the United States of America to Egypt. Menendez is the current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The indictment alleges Menendez accepted bribes in return for his…

3 Cases of Tuberculosis Confirmed Among Illegal Aliens Recently Arrived in El Paso, TX

Daily Caller Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources confirmed Friday three migrants arrived at the border in El Paso with tuberculosis, according to Griff Jenkins of Fox News. “BREAKING: CBP sources confirm to FOX News that there are ** three confirmed cases of Tuberculosis ** among migrants in the El…

Top Story: Biden to Allow Nearly 500,000 Venezuelans to Work and Reside Legally in America

Top Commentary: Commentary: Our Self-Induced Catastrophe at the Border

September 22, 2023September 21, 2023 ADN America

Biden to Allow Nearly 500,000 Venezuelans to Work and Reside Legally in America

Joe Biden’s administration announced this Wednesday the renewal and expansion of an immigration permit called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which would allow some 472,000 Venezuelans to work and reside legally in the United States.

Officials explained that TPS will now be extended to all Venezuelans who have lived continuously in the United States since July 31, 2023. This significantly increases the number of beneficiaries, since previously it only applied to those who were in the country since March 2021.

Consequences of ‘Defund the Police’: Big City Police Departments Bleeding Staff, Unable to Recruit

September 22, 2023 Just the News

As crime rates climb across the nation, police departments in several major U.S. cities are facing a crisis, namely, the inability to recruit new police officers. As a result, staffing shortages have led to increased overtime, thinly spread patrols, and a rise in crime rates.

Violent crimes remained higher during the first half of 2023 compared to the first half of 2019, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. The International Association of Chiefs of Police published a paper called “A Crisis for Law Enforcement” that shows 78% of law enforcement agencies have had “difficulty in recruiting qualified candidates” and that 65% reported having “too few candidates applying to be law enforcement officers.”

ICE’s Plans to Give Illegal Immigrants Photo IDs Inches Closer to Reality

September 22, 2023 Michigan Star Staff

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is moving closer towards giving illegal immigrants identification cards, according to new images obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In 2022, the agency announced the ICE Secure Docket program as a “pilot to modernize various forms of documentation provided to provisionally released noncitizens through a consistent, verifiable, secure card,” an ICE spokesperson told the DCNF at the time. The program is intended to allow migrants to use IDs as their cases progress; the IDs contain QR codes allowing migrants to access their court documents to prove to authorities that they have pending immigration cases, allowing them to travel through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints with greater ease.

TSNN Featured Story: Nation’s Largest Liberal Donor Group Moves Against No Labels as Arizona Democrats Express New Fears