Category: News

Biden Admin Cuts $85 Million Check to Boost Production of Green Appliance Despite Cratering Demand

Michigan Star Staff
Jennifer Granholm

The Biden administration is deploying roughly $85 million to boost production of a green appliance despite plummeting consumer demand, according to a Wednesday press release from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The White House on Wednesday announced nearly $85 million in grants for four producers of electric heat pumps, the DOE wrote in a statement. The announcement comes despite cratering demand for the electric appliance, with total U.S. shipments of the product falling 16 percent in 2023 despite the federal tax credit being raised from $300 to $2,000 in January 2023, according to a study from the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

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Romanian Businessman Hired Hunter Biden in Effort to ‘Influence’ U.S. Policy, DOJ Says

Michigan Star Staff
Hunter Biden in front of US Capitol building (composite image)

A Romanian businessman facing bribery charges paid Hunter Biden in an effort to “influence U.S. policy and public opinion,” according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

During the fall of 2015, Hunter Biden entered into an “oral agreement” with businessman Gabriel Popoviciu, identified as G.P., who wanted the U.S. government to “investigate” the criminal probe against him in Romania, prosecutors wrote in a Wednesday court filing in Hunter Biden’s upcoming tax case. Special counsel David Weiss’ team explained in the filing that Hunter Biden’s business associate would testify about the arrangement during his coming tax trial, slated to begin Sept. 5.

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Commentary: The Harris Flop Would Be Scarier than Her Flip

Michigan Star Staff
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at a rally

Joe Biden won in 2020 on the premise that until the November election, he would pose as good ol’ Joe from Scranton and not scare voters.

So Biden talked about “unity” and “competency.” He erased his prior wild primary pandering to left-wing voters about shutting down fracking and opening the border.

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Democrats Have Outspent Republicans on Ads in Almost Every Major Senate Race So Far

Michigan Star Staff
Sen. Sherrod Brown with Sen. Jon Tester in front of the U.S. Capitol (composite image)

Democrats had outspent Republicans on advertisements in every competitive Senate race except for Ohio as of Wednesday, Axios reported.

Republicans are losing the ad spending race in Pennsylvania, Montana, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan, though have spent slightly more in Ohio, leading their Democratic rivals by a margin of $158.4 million to $152 million, according to Axios. The Republican spending advantage in Ohio may be slightly misleading as their roughly $6 million spending advantage in Ohio is the product of considerable ad spending during the state’s competitive Republican primary, as reflected in Federal Election Commission records.

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Under Walz, Minnesota Bilked Hundreds of Millions Even After Warnings About ‘Pervasive’ Failures

Just the News
Gov. Tim Walz

As his administration ramped up its government giveaways in the midst of a pandemic and border crisis, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was warned his team did not have adequate protections for the taxpayer money it was sending out the door to nonprofit groups and workers.

In fact, auditors just last February reported they found “pervasive noncompliance” inside the Walz administration with grant management policies that were “signaling systemic issues regarding grants oversight.”

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Kamala Harris Sent Agents to Raid Pro-Life Journalist’s Home After She Met with Planned Parenthood, Emails Show

Michigan Star Staff
David Daleiden

In March 2016, top Planned Parenthood officials in California eagerly emailed one another about an upcoming meeting with the state’s then-attorney general, Kamala Harris. The meeting carried so much import that the Planned Parenthood officials met with Harris’ staff ahead of time “to discuss prep,” emails reviewed by The Daily Signal show.

About two weeks later, on April 5, 2016, California Department of Justice authorities raided the home of a pro-life journalist in his late 20s—David Daleiden, the head of the Center for Medical Progress, who had recently published videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials gruesomely describing how they extract aborted-baby body parts. Daleiden says the videos prove that Planned Parenthood was selling the aborted baby body parts for profit.

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Commentary: Left Lets Mask Slip on Plans to Demolish the Supreme Court

Michigan Star Staff
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at a rally

The Left has let the mask slip and made clear that it intends to pack or otherwise decimate the Supreme Court.

President Joe Biden announced last week in a Washington Post op-ed that he would promote a “reform” of the nation’s highest court that would include term limits and new “ethics” rules for justices.

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New Audio-Video From Trump Rally Shows Local Law Enforcement’s Frustration with Secret Service

Just the News

Newly acquired police body cam video includes audio in which a local police officer moments after the July 13 assassination attempt on former President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally complains about the Secret Service not having cover the rooftop from which the sniper shot.

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FBI Let Suspect in Plot to Kill Trump into U.S. on Parole Despite Terror Ties, Iran Trip, Memos Show

Just the News

The FBI allowed Asif Raza Merchant, the Pakistani man charged with plotting with Tehran to assassinate Donald Trump and others, to enter the U.S. in April with special permission known as “significant public benefit parole” even though he was flagged on a terrorism watchlist and recently traveled to Iran, according to government documents reviewed by Just the News.

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Judge Chutkan Faces Long Road to Get Trump Case Back on Track After Presidential Immunity Ruling

Michigan Star Staff
Judge Chutkan with Donald Trump in courtroom (composite image)

District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan will face challenges getting a Trump case that’s unlikely to proceed to trial before the election — or possibly ever — back on track.

After former President Donald Trump’s presidential immunity appeal brought on a months-long delay in the election interference case prosecuted by special counsel Jack Smith, the case finally returned to Chutkan on Friday. Though she wasted no time scheduling a hearing for August 16 and asking both parties to submit a schedule for pretrial proceedings by August 9, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that efforts to advance the case will meet continued challenges.

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Tim Walz Once Received ‘A’ Grade from NRA — Then He Shot Left

Michigan Star Staff
Tim Walz

Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was once a champion of Second Amendment rights during his time in the U.S. House, but he quickly abandoned his policy position during his campaign for governor.

Walz represented Minnesota’s 1st district in the House from 2007 to 2018, earning ‘A’ ratings and donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA), according to Forbes. During his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, he began shifting his policy on guns, and when he became governor in 2019, he passed several gun control measures in Minnesota, receiving an ‘F’ rating from the NRA during his campaign as a result, according to The New York Times.

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Commentary: Media Continues to Ignore Kamala Harris’ DNC Pipe Bomb Scare

Julie Kelly

Confirmation last week by the Department of Homeland Security that Vice President Kamala Harris came within several yards of an explosive device on the afternoon of January 6, 2021 should be one of the hottest stories right now.

The fact that the installed Democratic candidate for president barely escaped an attempt on her life by an alleged MAGA terrorist during what she compares to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor makes for ripe clickbait. Further, her stoicism in the face of such a grave threat—she has never discussed the matter publicly—not just to herself but to her staff and police officers protecting her that day at the DNC is the stuff heroes are made of.

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Bipartisan Bill Introduced to Better Monitor Terror Threats on Foreign Mobile Apps Like TikTok

Just the News
Rep. August Pfluger and Rep. Jimmy Panetta (composite image)

Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, and Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., introduced a bill to “conduct annual assessments on terrorism threats to the United States posed by terrorist organizations utilizing foreign cloud-based mobile or desktop messaging applications, and for other purposes.”

Pfluger said that cloud-based technology has given “terrorist groups even more tools to use in their pursuit of deadly chaos” more than 20 years since the 9/11 attacks.

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Commentary: Kamala’s Abuse of Staff Exemplifies Leftist Culture

The Center Square
Kamala Harris

Long before fate made Kamala Harris the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party for U.S. President, the Washington Post published an article critical of how she treats staff. The article, published in December of 2021, reported high staff turnover and claimed it “opens up questions about her management style.”

What were they thinking? Very recent top search results on the Washington Post’s coverage of Harris only pull up glowing tributes. In the past two weeks, here are just a few: “Kamala Harris is making politics fun again — for Democrats,” “Democrats make a change and find their hope,” “Kamala Harris and the coconut tree of hope,” “Kamala Harris’s life, career and firsts from AG to the vice presidency,” “Kamala Harris’s powerful laughter in the face of weirdness,” “Kamala Harris walks into the storm — and keeps her footing,” “How Kamala Harris’s early career prepared her for this moment.”

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Commentary: The Real President for the Middle Class

Admin
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

President Joe Biden talked incessantly about his “middle class out” economic strategy. Given his record, it would have been more accurate to call it the “middle class down and out” plan. Inflation has eroded away any income gains under Biden’s presidency.

Now Vice President Kamala Harris has her own riff on this theme. Her campaign motto is “Building up the middle class.” It isn’t exactly “Make America Great Again,” but Democrats don’t have a lot of time to come up with anything catchier, given that Harris was reluctantly chosen as the 8th-inning relief pitcher for Old Joe, who had long ago lost his fastball.

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‘Excessively Dangerous’: Federal Court Upholds Maryland’s ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

Michigan Star Staff
Person practicing marksmanship at shooting range with AR-15 style rifle

A U.S. appeals court upheld a Maryland law banning assault-style weapons on Tuesday, ruling that the law does not violate the Second Amendment.

The Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and several Maryland citizens brought up the case challenging the constitutionality of the state’s “military-style assault weapons” ban, prohibiting the sale and possessions of the AR-15, AK-47 and Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle, among others. The ban has been in place since 2013 following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 20 children and six adults in Connecticut.

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Illegal Migrant Deported for Rape Reentered U.S., Got Convicted of Another Sex Crime

Michigan Star Staff

A previously deported illegal migrant convicted of rape reentered the United States and committed another sexual crime, federal authorities say.

Rulaman Lopez-Nolasco, a 42-year-old Mexican national, was convicted in July of unlawful reentry into the U.S. following his apprehension by deportation officers in Massachusetts earlier this year, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Lopez has a criminal record with local and federal law enforcement spanning back decades.

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Harris’ VP Pick Said It Was ‘Completely Unacceptable’ for Trump to Bar Transgender People from Military

Michigan Star Staff

Presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris’ pick for vice president — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — once criticized the former Trump administration for barring transgender people from the military, according to a review of public reports.

Former President Donald Trump announced the ban in 2017, citing concerns that the military needed to be focused on achieving “a decisive and overwhelming victory” without being “burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” Walz was vocal about his disapproval of the ban during Trump’s tenure, initially decrying it as “completely unacceptable” and warning that prohibiting transgender individuals from joining the military undermines its readiness, according to multiple reports.

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‘That’s Shameful’: JD Vance Rips Tim Walz for Dipping from National Guard Before Iraq Deployment

Admin

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance knocked presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s “shameful” exit from the Army National Guard before his deployment to Iraq during a Wednesday press conference.

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Kamala Harris Calls for Reparations Commission Similar to California

Michigan Star Staff
Kamala Harris with supporters

Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the presumptive Democratic nominee for president in the 2024 election, has voiced her support for legislation that would create a commission to determine how to hand out reparations to black Americans.

As the Washington Free Beacon reports, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparations Proposal for African-Americans Act was introduced in April 2019 and co-sponsored by Harris, who at the time was still a senator from California. The bill would establish a 13-member commission to “study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans.”

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Electric Vehicle Owners Getting Hit with Negative Equity as Depreciation Crushes Used Electric Vehicle Values

Just the News
Tesla Showroom

Between safety and reliability issues, as well as a dearth of charging stations, electric vehicle owners have been having quite a bit of buyer’s remorse, and now they may have another reason to go back to gas cars — EVs are rapidly depreciating.

Rental company Hertz announced in 2021 it would buy 100,000 EVs from Tesla, only to find lackluster interest from renters. In January, the Hertz announced it was selling off 20,000 of the vehicles, with prices as low as $25,000. Vehicle depreciation cost the company $588 million in the first quarter of this year compared to the last quarter of 2023.

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New American Greatness Poll: Battlegrounds Are a Dead Heat

Michigan Star Staff
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in front of The White House (composite image)

Brand new polling across the battleground states shows that Biden’s exit has tightened the presidential race, with Kamala Harris at a narrow 47-46 percent advantage in a head-to-head matchup, with 7 percent undecided. Harris is also +1 percent in a multi-candidate ballot test across the battlegrounds.

The American Greatness poll was conducted by North Star Opinion Research and interviewed 1400 likely voters, 200 per state in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina.

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Commentary: The Reckoning Has Come for K-12 Sex Abuse, and You the Taxpayer Are on the Hook

RealClearWire
High School students in the classroom

The teenage female athletes at California’s Pomona High School said they felt special when a handful of coaches there took them under their wing, spending more time with them than others, providing extra encouragement, sharing personal stories and, sometimes, seemingly harmless flirtatious talk.

One track team member was amazed at a Nevada meet when she saw the coaches drinking, smoking marijuana, and sharing the party scene with teammates. But that attention turned to tragedy at a subsequent meet in Las Vegas when a coach brought the 16-year-old to his hotel room, plied her with alcohol, and, she says, raped her.

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Detroit Students Finished Online Credit Recovery Courses 20 Times Faster than Recommended

The Center Square
Online Class

Students at a Detroit combined virtual school took their online credit recovery courses 20 times faster than the courseware provider suggests in the 2023-24 school year.

According to a public records request filed with Detroit Public Community School District, students took their 11th and 12th-grade English language arts classes in about four hours, while the courseware provider Edgenuity recommends students spend 80 hours on such courses.

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Former Secret Service Chief Wanted to Destroy Cocaine Evidence

RealClearWire
Kimberly Cheatle

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and others in top agency leadership positions wanted to destroy the cocaine discovered in the White House last summer, but the Secret Service Forensics Services Division and the Uniformed Division stood firm and rejected the push to dispose of the evidence, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.

Multiple heated confrontations and disagreements over how best to handle the cocaine ensued after a Secret Services Uniformed Division officer found the bag on July 2, 2023, a quiet Sunday while President Biden and his family were at Camp David in Maryland, the sources said.

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Harris, New VP Face Criticism for Handling of Crime

The Center Square
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in front of a BLM riot (composite image)

Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has reportedly chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate. Both candidates have faced criticism for their handling of police issues.

After replacing President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket, Harris immediately took fire for resurfaced videos where she praised the “defund the police” movement.

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Commentary: U.S. Government Still Waffling on 9/11 Plotters

Michigan Star Staff
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

This week, we were reminded again of the 9/11 attacks. First, it was reported that U.S. government lawyers and defense counsel reached a plea deal giving life imprisonment to the high-level al Qaeda prisoners that plotted the attacks. While life imprisonment is undoubtedly a serious punishment, 9/11 was a mass murder that cries out for the death penalty. The lack of proportionality to the offense was striking.

Worse, the family members of 9/11 victims were not given any forewarning or a chance to provide input on this decision, even though the government had promised to do so. They instead received an antiseptic letter explaining what happened after the fact.

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Harris Released Illegal Immigrant Charged with Unlicensed Driving as San Francisco DA and He Killed Someone Shortly After

Michigan Star Staff
Robert Galo in a courtroom (composite image)

An illegal immigrant that then-San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris released from custody after police caught him driving without a license went on to kill a young law student months later with his car, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday.

Harris’ office dropped charges against Roberto Galo in June 2010 after he was stopped by police for driving the wrong way down a one-way road and arrested for operating a vehicle without a license, according to the Free Beacon. Months later, in November 2010, he slammed his car into 25-year-old law student Drew Rosenberg after making a left-hand turn at a yellow light, driving his car over his body multiple times in an apparent attempt to escape.

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Music Spotlight: Taylor Sanders

Bethany Bowman
Taylor Sanders

When I met singer/producer Terran “T-RAN” Gilbert of 22Visionz Entertainment last year, he mentioned a remarkable artist he worked with, Taylor Sanders. It took nearly a year, but I finally had the opportunity to interview this powerful artist.

Sanders has been performing most of her life. Since age five, she has been involved in singing, piano, dance, and gymnastics. She loves anything related to the performing arts.

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Venezuela’s Maduro Refuses to Leave Power as His Political Opponents Come Under Threat of Arrest

Admin

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has shown no signs of stepping down from power — even after likely losing in the country’s presidential elections last week — as his top political opposition faces potential arrest, according to several reports.

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Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin: Congress Will Have to Disqualify Trump if He Wins the Election; Civil War Could Ensue

Admin

An alarming video surfaced Monday appearing to show Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) declaring that Congress will have to disqualify former President Donald Trump on January 6, 2025 if he wins the November election, and predicting a civil war with “rampaging Trump mobs” could erupt as a result.

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Influential Media Groups are Encouraging Climate Reporters to Ignore Dissenting Voices, Experts Say

Just the News
Environmental Journalism

The Society for Environmental Journalists (SEJ) partnered up with the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education for a webinar Tuesday to provide data and information to journalists on the connection between gun violence and “extreme heat” in 100 of the largest cities in the U.S.

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Acquitted Former Student Sues Fifteen Groups for Defamation After They Called Him a Rapist

Michigan Star Staff
Saifullah Khan

A former Yale University student who defeated claims of rape is continuing his legal battle to seek justice.

Saifullah Khan is suing fifteen organizations including the National Women’s Law Center, the Fierberg National Law Group, and the National Crime Victim Law Institute, along with attorney Jennifer Becker, for “defamation, false light, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and abuse of process action.”

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Kamala Harris Makes Several About-Faces on Key Policies as She Maneuvers to Face Donald Trump

Michigan Star Staff
Kamala Harris

In the weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, the California politician has shifted her policies—sometimes quietly, even under the radar —on key issues to distance herself from her liberal past.

White House officials told Politico that these shifts are part of a strategy to undermine the argument that she is a leftist politician, a reputation they believe stems from the positions she took in the 2020 Democratic primary, but which they say do not truly represent Harris’ positions.

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Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: Trump Can Win (or Lose) the Election

Michigan Star Staff
President Donald Trump

The good news for the Trump campaign is that the sure Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is a lifelong California hard leftist at a time when the state is emblematic of progressive nihilism. Her extremist advocacies as a San Francisco county and city attorney, state Attorney General, and senator are on record. And they are consistent with what has virtually destroyed the state.

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Oddsmakers Move Walz Behind Shapiro as Kamala Harris’ Pick

The Center Square
Kamala Harris, Josh Shapiro, and Tim Walz in front of The White House (composite image)

As the final hours tick down to an expected announcement, the pick for vice president on the Democrats’ ticket remains shrouded in secrecy and angled toward the governor of Pennsylvania.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ reveal is expected before Tuesday’s launch of a battleground states tour in Philadelphia. While the campaign has cautioned the starting point where she is expected to be alongside her running mate is not an indicator of the choice, a leading candidate since July 21 has been Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Monday morning Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appeared to be a finalist.

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House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil Expands Probe of Donations Through ActBlue

Just the News
Bryan Steil

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., expanded his investigation into online political donations through ActBlue on Monday.

“Illegal and malicious conduct have no place in our elections. Ensuring all parties are complying with federal election law as we approach a presidential election is of utmost importance. By launching a new phase of our investigation into ActBlue, the Committee on House Administration has begun robust oversight of ActBlue’s lenient donor verification standards,” he said in a statement. “I’m committed to ensuring Americans can have confidence in our elections and to preventing foreign or malicious actors from influencing American elections.”

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‘Nonpartisan’ Climate Group Called ‘Science Moms’ Looks Like a Democrat Dark Money Operation

Michigan Star Staff
Science Moms video

by Robert Schmad   An organization spending millions on swing state ads ahead of November’s election brands itself as “non-partisan” despite extensive ties to a major Democrat-aligned dark money network, according to the Washington Examiner. Science Moms, which calls itself a “nonpartisan group of scientists” working to fight climate change,…

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Despite High Costs and Questionable Benefits, Proponents of EV Mandates Continue to Defend Policy

Just the News
Electric Vehicle plugged into charging station

Though the Biden administration’s emissions standards – often referred to as an electric vehicle mandate – don’t kick into 2032, the policy is already running into problems with charging station availability, declining consumer interest and automakers losing billions of dollars on their EV sales. 

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