Month: April 2024

Ex-Trump Advisor Purged from Federal Elections Board After Left-Wing Pressure Campaign, Emails Show

Michigan Star Staff
Attorney Cleta Mitchell

A federal agency did not reappoint a former Trump advisor to an elections advisory board after a left-wing activist group threatened to launch a public criticism campaign, according to emails obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who is now the senior legal fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute, was appointed to the advisory board for the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in November 2021. After months of badgering United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) officials to oust Mitchell from the EAC board of advisors, Free Speech for People president John Bonifaz threatened to launch a “public campaign” criticizing the agency if it did not drop Mitchell at the end of her two-year term, emails obtained by the DCNF via public records request show.

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Report: States with Low Taxes, Fewer Restrictions Tops for Economic Outlook

The Center Square
Work Meeting

States with lower tax rates, lower debt and fewer government restrictions generally have stronger economic outlooks, according to the latest report that ranks states from best to worst based on how friendly their policies are to economic growth.

The American Legislative Exchange Council released its “Rich States Poor States” report Tuesday. The report ranks states based on “economic outlook” using 15 factors.

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Commentary: The Battle Begins as Trump’s Trial Tests American Justice

Michigan Star Staff
Donald Trump

Monday, April 15, 2024, is not only Tax Day in the United States.  It is also the day that this country will take another fateful step towards banana republic-like tyranny.  For it is the day that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg—or, to give him his full title, “Soros-funded District Attorney Alvin Bragg”—will begin his 34-count felony trial against Donald Trump.

Exactly what is the presumptive Republican nominee for president charged with by the Biden Department of Justice?  Paying Stormy Daniels—or to give her the invariable epithet, “porn star Stormy Daniels” (think “swift-footed Achilles,” “gray-eyed Athena”)—to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006 (which Trump has consistently denied).

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Commentary: North Carolina Could Be Ground Zero for the Gen Z Revolt Against Democrats

Michigan Star Staff
Gen Z Trump Voter

What began as imprecise theories among a handful of forward-looking political observers and youth organizers is materializing this election year, and poll after poll is now showing young voters deserting Democrats in droves.

Mainstream news outlets have little choice but to acknowledge the vast, double-digit declines in support for Biden among younger voters, a group which supported him by 25 percentage points in 2020. Now we are seeing tentative coverage of the youth shift and warnings to Democrats in Vox, NPR, CNN and other mainstream outlets.

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GOP Representative Blasts Squad Democrats for Trying to Block Sale of F-35s Israel Used to Defend Against Iran Attacks

Michigan Star Staff
Rep. Brian Mast

Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida blasted Democrats for trying to get the Biden administration to block the sale of advanced F-35 jets to Israel that defended on Saturday against Iran’s large-scale drone and ballistic missile attack in an exclusive statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi joined 39 Democratic colleagues, including members of the “Squad,” in an April 5 letter urging the president to reverse his decision authorizing a weapons sale to Israel after an Israeli airstrike killed seven humanitarian workers in Gaza. The transfer included U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets and other American-origin weapons needed “to ensure Israel can survive” amid threats and attacks from Iran, Mast, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement to the DCNF.

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Harvard-Affiliated Cancer Center Retracts Several Studies

Michigan Star Staff
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Building

The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute retracted seven studies and is investigating multiple researchers after allegations were made that images had been manipulated or duplicated, according to NBC News.

Dr. Sholto David, a molecular biologist, investigated in January multiple studies from top researchers within the institute, which is a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and concluded that several images had possibly been manipulated by software such as Adobe Photoshop, according to The Wall Street Journal. The institute originally said they were retracting six studies but have added a seventh, while also requesting corrections in an additional 31 papers, according to NBC News.

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Education Department to Open Civil Rights Probe into UC Berkeley Allegedly Banning White People from Farm

Just the News
University of California Berkeley Campus

“We envision a vibrant community farm, a model of shared governance and co-stewardship that helps restore community resilience,” the farm’s website reads.

The Department of Education is looking into an allegation that the University of California at Berkeley is prohibiting white residents from using a community farm on Saturdays.

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Americans Face Rising Gas Prices Again

The Center Square

Gas prices are steadily rising around the U.S. again, leaving many cash-strapped Americans struggling to keep up.

According to AAA, the current average price for a gallon of regular-grade gas nationally is $3.63. That is a sharp increase from $3.39 just one month ago. Crude oil prices have risen steadily over the last 30 days, from about $77 per barrel to $85 per barrel.

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Saving Whales Started as Left-Wing Cause, but Now Conservatives are Taking Up the Fight

Just the News
Whale breaching the surface

Saving the whales was once a leading cause of left-wing environmental groups like Greenpeace. But offshore wind development has created an ironic twist in which conservative groups are now the loudest voices raising concerns about the North Atlantic right whale’s extinction.

The Heartland Institute, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and the National Legal and Policy Center, want to draw attention to what they say is a connection between an increase in dead whales along the East Coast and industrialization of the U.S. Coast. A new study by an independent acoustician concludes that they may be right.

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Commentary: Making a Case for Cursive

Michigan Star Staff
Person Writing

Recently, I asked my fifth graders if they enjoyed writing in cursive. Students at the all-boys Catholic school where I work start training in cursive penmanship in third grade, so my students had been practicing it for the better part of three years. I expected them to say that it is boring, that they do not like it, but they all said that they preferred cursive to printing. One boy explained that it allows him to develop his ideas more easily. Another one liked the way the strokes of the pencil obey the natural movement of his hand and shoulder. Most surprising of all: They all find writing in cursive fun.

Cursive penmanship is a dying art. History professor and former president of Harvard Drew Gilpin Faust wrote an essay in 2022 lamenting that Generation Z never learned cursive. She acknowledges that “the decline in cursive seems inevitable. Writing is, after all, a technology, and most technologies are sooner or later surpassed and replaced.”

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Democrats, Media Starting to Admit Some Mail-In Voting Problems Ahead of 2024 Presidential Election

Just the News

Amid delivery delays by the United States Postal Service and mail-in ballot fraud, Democrats and the media are finally acknowledging there are some issues with mail-in voting ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

As mail-in voting has increased since the 2020 presidential election during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Democrats have advocated for it as an easier method of voting. However, as USPS has experienced delivery issues and ballot harvesting has led to at least one “redo” election, some Democrats and media are noting the issues with the voting method. 

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Black Men’s Support for Trump Doubles in Swing States: Poll

Michigan Star Staff
MAGA Hat

Former President Donald Trump’s support among black men has increased in battleground states ahead of the 2024 election by more than double his support among the same group in 2020’s election, according to a poll published on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has long sought to gain support among black voters, traditionally a Democratic-supporting demographic, by touting his record on the economy and criminal justice reform while in office, among other matters. A recent poll estimated that 30 percent of black men in seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — “definitely or probably” plan to vote for Trump in November’s election, an increase of 18 percent from his nationwide performance among that demographic in 2020, where he earned 12 percent of their votes, the Journal reported.

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Kansas Gov. Kelly Vetoes Ban on Gender Treatments for Minors

Just the News
Laura kelly

Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday vetoed legislation that would have banned certain gender-related treatments for minors.

The “Substitute Bill for Senate Bill 233” would have banned gender surgeries and hormone treatments for minors and establish a civil means of action against healthcare providers who perform them.

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Major Review Finds ‘Weak Evidence’ Supporting Puberty Blockers for Kids

Michigan Star Staff

There is “weak evidence” to support puberty blockers for children who identify as transgender, according to a four-year systematic review of transgender medical studies published on Tuesday.

Dr. Hilary Cass, a consultant in paediatric disability at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London, England, and formerly the president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, conducted the review in response to a request from the National Health Service (NHS). Cass’ report determined that the current studies on the subject of “puberty suppression” showed little improvement in gender dysphoria in minors and also may push kids toward getting more extreme treatments.

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Mayorkas to Testify at House Committee Hearing on Homeland Security Budget

The Center Square
Alejandro Mayorkas

The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security will be holding a hearing next Tuesday to examine the Department of Homeland Security’s fiscal 2025 budget request.

It will hear testimony from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is scheduled to testify for the first time since he was impeached in February. The committee’s chairman, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., led the charge to impeach Mayorkas on two counts, making him the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history.

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Newly Appointed 4th Circuit Judge Married to Pro-Abortion Christine Ford Lawyer

Michigan Star Staff
Nicole Berner

Recently appointed 4th Circuit Judge Nicole Berner is legally married to the pro-abortion lawyer who represented Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her.

The Washington Post describes Berner as “the first openly gay judge and the first labor lawyer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit,” which covers Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Berner, who is also pro-abortion, formerly served as a staff attorney for Planned Parenthood, where she focused on “protecting and expanding access” to chemical abortion drugs.

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Commentary: Faith’s Proven Role in Overcoming Mental Illness

Michigan Star Staff
Therapy Session

by Carrie Sheffield   “There is an important body of conservative thought that is now nearly or completely absent on the faculties of many eminent universities,” former Harvard University President Derek Bok wrote in Harvard Magazine following Hamas’ terrorist attacks Oct. 7 in Israel and the ensuing campus chaos. He recommends “some immediate progress by trying…

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Commentary: As Fentanyl Streams over Wide-Open Border, Students Lead Effort to Combat Campus Overdoses

Michigan Star Staff

Ten years ago, I had never heard the word “fentanyl.” Now, every sorority and fraternity on my college campus is equipped with Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, a lifesaving medication used to treat opioid overdoses.

The fentanyl crisis is acutely felt on college campuses. Oftentimes, college students will take a pill that they thought was Xanax or Ritalin and end up dead.

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Commentary: Female Liberation Can Be Found in Marriage

Michigan Star Staff
Marriage

What does a fulfilling, self-focused life look like, according to liberated feminism?

Spa nights alone in a fancy apartment, perhaps. A boss babe CEO who enjoys hooking up on the weekends. Plastic surgery and perhaps a cute pet to post on Instagram.

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Federal Investigators Want More Money to Go After Pandemic Fraud

The Center Square
Merrick Garland DOJ

The federal officials tasked with tracking down widespread fraud during and after the COVID-19 pandemic want more time and more money to finish the job.

The Justice Department’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, made up of nearly 30 federal agencies, released its 2024 report on Tuesday. The report details the efforts of the task force in response to fraud involving COVID-19 relief programs.

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UN Climate Official Warns Only ‘Two Years’ to Save World from Environmental Crisis

Just the News
Simon Stiell

A United Nations climate official issued a dire warning by claiming that only “two years” remain to save the world from an environmental crisis. 

“When I say we have two years to save the world, it begs the question – who exactly has two years to save the world? The answer is every person on this planet,” UN climate official Simon Stiell said Wednesday during a speech at the Chatham House think tank in London.

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Biden to Cancel Student Debt for over 277,000 Borrowers

Just the News

President Joe Biden announced Friday that he would be canceling student loan debt for over 277,000 borrowers.

In total, $7.4 million will be canceled from borrowers in over 40 states, which brings the total amount of student loan cancellation to $153 billion, according to The Hill.

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Dem Voter Registration Dips in Crucial Swing States Ahead of 2024

Michigan Star Staff
Voter Registration

Three crucial battleground states have experienced a drop in Democratic voter registration since late 2020 and ahead of a November rematch with former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, election data shows.

Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania — which saw some of the closest presidential elections last cycle — all currently have less registered Democratic voters overall than in late 2020, according to the most recent state records. While Democrats still lead Republicans in party registration, the margins in these states are much smaller than before.

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Chinese Military Companies Have Spent over $24 Million Lobbying the U.S. Government in Recent Years

Michigan Star Staff
Chinese Military

Entities the Pentagon classifies as “Chinese military companies” have spent more than $24 million lobbying the U.S. government since 2020, a Daily Caller News Foundation review of lobbying disclosures found.

Some of the biggest spenders on lobbying included corporations directly tied to human rights abuses and Chinese military research, like telecom giant Huawei, facial recognition software developer Megvii and genomics company BGI Shenzhen. Chinese military corporations cast a wide net across the American government, lobbying the House, Senate and various parts of the executive branch, including the office of the president, often setting their sights on proposed policies that would impact their U.S. operations, according to a DCNF review of congressional disclosures and legislative records.

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Commentary: House Should Plan to Drain the Swamp in January 2025

Michigan Star Staff
Drain the Swamp

The sad reality is that the Republicans in the House after a narrow victory in the 2022 Congressional midterms do not have enough of a majority to be able to accomplish many big things. 

This is not the fault of anyone in leadership, but instead is just the reality of what is at this time a one-vote majority with wildly divergent priorities amongst the GOP members in the House.

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Michigan Republicans Want Audit of Newcomer Program

The Center Square
Matthew Hall

House Republican Leader Matt Hall asked Michigan’s Office of the Auditor General to audit a Gov. Gretchen Whitmer administration program that offers up to $500 in monthly rent assistance to certain people for up to 12 months.

The letter from Hall, of Richland Township, urged Auditor General Doug Ringler to examine eligibility determination.

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Nonbinary Antifa Agitator Charged with Detonating IED Outside Alabama Attorney General’s Office

Michigan Star Staff
Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert

A“nonbinary” Antifa agitator was arrested in Alabama Wednesday for allegedly detonating an explosive device outside the Alabama Attorney General’s Office back in February.

Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, of Irondale, was charged with “malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device,” the Department of Justice announced in a press release. Calvert allegedly constructed an IED with screws and nails and detonated it outside the Republican AG’s Office on February 24.

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Electricity Prices have Risen Seven Times Faster Under Biden than Trump

Michigan Star Staff

Electricity prices have experienced a significant rise since the beginning of the Biden administration, rising more than seven times faster than under the entire Trump administration.

The average price of electricity has increased by 29.4% since January 2021 as of March, far greater than the preceding four years under the Trump administration, when electricity prices increased by only 4.0%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The jump in electricity prices accompanies a number of policies from the Biden administration that have curbed energy production, such as a regulation from the Environmental Protection Agency that requires that existing coal-fired power plants cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040.

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Amendment in GOP-House’s FISA Renewal Bill for Warrant Requirement Fails in Tie Vote, 212-212

Just the News

A bipartisan warrant requirement amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act section 702 renewal bill failed to pass in a tie vote of 212-212 on the House floor on Friday. The amendment would have prohibited “warrantless searches of U.S. person communications in the FISA 702 database, with exceptions for imminent threats to life or bodily harm, consent searches, or known cybersecurity threat signatures.”

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Feds Borrowed $6 Billion Per Day So Far This Fiscal Year

The Center Square
Maya Macguineas

The U.S. federal government has borrowed about $6 billion per day so far this fiscal year with little indication of slowing down.

The U.S. Treasury Department released its figures for the month of March showing it borrowed $236 billion in March alone, bringing the total to $1.1 trillion for this fiscal year, which runs from October to September.

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Investors Scramble to Adjust Their Portfolios After Inflation Surge

Michigan Star Staff
New York Stock Exchange trading floor

Many investors are diversifying their portfolios from standard stocks and bonds as March’s inflation surge casts doubt on economy-boosting rate cuts from the Federal Reserve happening this year, according to Reuters.

The consumer price index increased to 3.5 percent year-over-year in March, up from 3.2 percent in February and far from the Fed’s 2 percent target. Markets prior to March’s inflation report anticipated a few rate cuts this year, leading investors to buy up stock in anticipation that markets would rise when cuts materialize, but the increasing possibility that the Fed will not cut rates this year has led investors to switch up their market strategy, according to Reuters.

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Harvard Reverses Course, Brings Back Standardized Testing

Michigan Star Staff

Harvard announced Thursday that it will bring back standardized testing requirements for the admission process.

The Ivy League school first dropped the testing policy in June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and later announced in 2021 that it would extend the test-optional policy for four additional years, according to the Harvard Crimson. Hopi Hoekstra, Edgerley Family dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, announced that the requirement would return “starting with next year’s admissions cycle” and claimed that the reinstatement would bring “important information back into the admissions process.”

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Commentary: DEI Cronyism and Woke Grifters

Michigan Star Staff
Fani Willis

When ideology replaces meritocracy or provides immunity from the consequences of illegal behavior, systemic mediocrity follows.

Under toxic National Socialism, Stalinism, and Maoism, millions of cronies and grifters mouthed party lines in hopes that their approved ideology would allow them to advance their careers and excuse their lawbreaking.

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Music Spotlight: Cody Webb

Bethany Bowman

In September of 2023, my brother sent me a video of a country song called “If Daddy Didn’t Have a Truck” by Cody Webb. At the time, TikTok wouldn’t play it because of “sensitive religious content.” That naturally made me want to listen and find out what about the song was so offensive.

For inexplicable reasons, the lyrics I’da never known Jesus loves me/ Fell in love with kicking up dirt/ I’da never known how forgiveness or a carburetor works/ Only the good Lord knows how a good ol’ boy like me mighta wound up/ If Mama didn’t have a Bible/ And Daddy didn’t have a truck were not permissible to the general public.

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Chicago Facing 57 Cases of Measles in Illegal Alien Shelters

Michigan Star Staff
Chicago migrant Shelter

The city of Chicago has become overrun with third-world diseases such as measles and tuberculosis due to the surge of illegal aliens flooding into the city, with the number of measles cases in the city rivaling nationwide totals.

As reported by Breitbart, health officials in Chicago report 57 “confirmed cases” of measles, with the vast majority being found in the shelters that have been set up for illegals. Of those cases, 33 are children under the age of 4, while 7 cases are children between the ages of 5 and 17, 16 cases are among those between the ages of 18 and 24, and a single case was found in an adult over the age of 50.

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Majority of Colleges Tie Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to Graduation Requirements: Report

Michigan Star Staff
Graduation Ceremony

A majority of colleges and universities require students to take courses related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in order to graduate, according to a new report.

Speech First, a pro-free expression organization, examined the policies of 248 colleges across the country and found that 67 percent of them required DEI coursework to “satisfy general education requirements.” Students enrolled in these courses are “subjected to courses advocating far-left ideological perspectives and pushing far-left political advocacy,” the report notes.

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Commentary: Migrants Feel the Pain of Biden’s Virtue

RealClearWire
President Biden in front of a border gate (composite image)

For women and children, the road to hell is paved with Democrats’ good intentions.

The party’s beliefs about the right thing to do regarding the border are the main contributors to an explosion of rape, human trafficking, prostitution, and child labor.

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Biden Suggests It’s Risky for Him to Secure Border by Executive Orders

Michigan Star Staff

President Joe Biden indicated in a new interview that he is considering taking executive action to secure the southern border.

“Have you made a final decision on taking executive order in terms of what you want to do at the border? That includes the power to shut down the border, as it was suggested,” Univision’s Enrique Acevedo asked Biden in an interview that aired late Tuesday night.

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Prices Edge Even Higher as Fed Chair Speculates If Inflation Is Really Under Control

Michigan Star Staff
Woman shopping at supermarket

Inflation jumped year-over-year in March amid speculation over whether the rate of inflation is really decelerating, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics release on Wednesday.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of the price of everyday goods, increased 3.5 percent on an annual basis in March and 0.4 percent month-over-month, compared to 3.2 percent in February year-over-year, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, remained high, rising 3.8 percent year-over-year in March, compared to 3.8 percent in February.

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