Category: News

33 Percent of K-12 Students Behind Grade Level

American Greatness
Teacher and Student

A recent study shows that roughly one-third of American K-12 students in the 2023-2024 academic school year are behind their grade level in a variety of subjects.

As Axios reports, the data was compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) through their “School Pulse Panel,” a survey of almost 4,000 grade schools that are considered nationally representative. The data from June of 2024, taken from the responses of 1,651 schools, shows that there has been virtually no change from the 2021-2022 school year, when 33% of students were learning at a level that was below their actual grade.

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Migrants Reportedly Make Up Roughly 75 Percent of Arrests in Midtown Manhattan

Michigan Star Staff
NYPD

Migrants reportedly make up roughly 75% of arrests in Midtown Manhattan and a large bulk of other New York City (NYC) neighborhoods, according to the New York Post.

Illegal migrants and other foreign nationals living in shelters are flooding New York City’s criminal justice system, according to law enforcement sources that spoke anonymously with the Post. These migrants are being arrested for robbery, assault, domestic violence and other crimes across NYC.

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Michigan U.S. Senate Candidates Clash on Electric Vehicles in Labor Policy Visions

The Center Square
Electric Vehicle charging station

Michigan’s U.S. Senate candidates are running on their records regarding labor and economic policy, but they are opposed on the role of electric vehicles. 

Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s approach to labor policy focuses primarily on supporting domestic manufacturing. Her campaign page says she is focused on “creating jobs with dignity, bringing our supply chains back to America, and protecting the rights of workers.”

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Commentary: The Fading of Freedom in the Western World

American Greatness
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov

The recent arrest of Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, has been in the news. Anti-Russian westerners cheered these events on, even though Durov had fled Russia years ago in order to pursue his techno-libertarian dreams in peace. Adding to the intrigue, the arrest may have included an element of treachery, as some reports say he was invited to visit France by French President Emmanuel Macron, only to be arrested on the tarmac. Mon Dieu!

The ostensible basis for Durov’s arrest is criminal responsibility for various unsavory things that have happened on his Telegram platform. This kind of vicarious liability for hosting websites, particularly those involving user communications and forums, is not entirely new, but it is controversial and always applied very selectively.

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Support for Kamala Harris Declines After Democratic National Convention

American Greatness
Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) has seen her support go down after the Democratic National Convention (DNC), a rare occurrence in modern American politics where the party’s convention did not provide the nominee with a polling bump.

As reported by Breitbart, the poll from Redfield & Wilton Strategies, taken on August 29th and featuring a sample size of 2,500 likely voters, shows just 44% in favor of Kamala and 42% in support of former President Donald Trump. Another 8% of respondents remain undecided, while 4% would vote for one of the remaining third-party candidates.

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Professor Paid $2.4 Million to Settle First Amendment Retaliation Suit Goes After HR Chief’s New Contract

Just the News
Matthew Garrett

A month after Matthew Garrett secured a $2.4 million settlement from the Kern Community College District over termination proceedings for the “dishonesty” of disagreeing with colleagues on diversity issues and “unprofessional conduct” of questioning the data used to create a “racial climate task force,” the former Bakersfield College tenured history professor isn’t done yet. 

He has started a campaign to pressure the KCCD Board of Trustees to rescind a contract extension and pay boost for the human resources official who oversaw his proceedings, citing newly obtained sworn testimony of the colleague who he says sicced students on Garrett with racially charged complaints that were “ultimately found to be baseless” – and used class time to do it.

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Commentary: The Sad Reasons Americans Give for Not Having Kids

Michigan Star Staff
Parents teaching child how to ride a bike

The baby bust is here.

The reality is clear: Americans are having fewer kids. In 2023, America had 2 percent fewer births than in 2022, hitting a record low, according to newly released finalized data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Maduro Regime Requests Arrest Warrant Against Edmundo González Urrutia

ADN America

Venezuela ‘s Attorney General’s Office asked a court specializing in “terrorism” crimes at midday on Monday to issue an “arrest warrant” against the standard-bearer of the largest opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia, and the greatest rival of dictator Nicolás Maduro.

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‘Massive Financial Disparity’: Republican Leadership Laments Dire Fundraising Situation

Daily Caller News Foundation

Behind closed doors and in public appearances, GOP leaders are raising the alarm over the commanding monetary lead Democrats have built up as November’s election inches closer.

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The U.S. ‘Hates Women,’ Faces Future of Cannibalism, ‘Forced Breeding Camps,’ Arizona State University Professors Posit

The College Fix
ASU Professors Jenny Irish (r) and Angela Lober (l)

Two professors discussed dismantling capitalism and electing a female president to restore reproductive rights, and warned of a dystopian future with “cannibalism” and “forced breeding camps,” at an event held Wednesday at Arizona State University.

“Jenny Irish’s HATCH: A Speculative Future for Reproductive Rights” was held both in person and via Zoom.

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Teen Girl at Baseball Game Stabbed by Previously Deported Illegal Migrant, Police Allege

Daily Caller News Foundation

A teen girl at an Indiana baseball game was randomly stabbed over the weekend by a man local authorities say is a previously deported illegal immigrant. The 14-year-old girl was watching her brother’s baseball game in Lowell, Indiana, on Saturday when a man randomly stabbed her in the hand and fled the scene, according to NBC Chicago. Law enforcement arrested Dimas Gabriel Yanez, a 26-year-old Honduran national, following an extensive manhunt that ended on Sunday amid a foot pursuit in a Lake County cornfield.

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Government’s Entrenched ‘Disinformation’ Policing Infrastructure Will Take a Decade to Dismantle, Free Speech Expert Says

Just the News

As the 2024 election fast approaches, a former State Department official turned free speech advocate told Just the News that the entrenched censorship regime created to police disinformation and misinformation along ideological lines will take considerable work to reverse. 

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TikTok May Be Held Liable for Girl’s Death, Upending Three Decades of Tech Immunity

Just the News
Montana TikTok Ruling

The Twenty-Six Words That Created the Internet” may not be as powerful as believed by the bipartisan chorus demanding reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

TikTok’s biggest immediate problem now may be its own users, their parents, and state attorneys general, rather than the state and federal lawmakers seeking to ban the Chinese-owned company and force ByteDance to sell it to an American entity, following a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling Aug. 27 that denies TikTok legal immunity for an algorithm choice.

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Two-Time Failed Presidential Candidate Chris Christie to Teach Ivy League Course ‘How to Run a Political Campaign’

Daily Caller News Foundation
Chris Christie

Former Republican New Jersey Governor and failed presidential candidate Chris Christie will teach a course at Yale University on how to run for office, according the description.

Christie, who was governor from 2010 to 2018 and dropped out of the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections, will teach “How to Run a Political Campaign” during the fall 2024 semester, according to the catalog. The course offers one credit for students, is taught once a week and is offered as an elective.

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Big Tech Liable for Breaking Promises to Users that Led to Suicide, Death Threats: Appeals Court

Just the News
Smart Phone Filled with Apps

Days before the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent Big Tech lawyers scrambling by upending three decades of judicial precedents on Section 230 immunity from liability, its West Coast counterpart warned platforms their immunity had limits, too.

While far smaller in scope than the 3rd Circuit’s ruling that TikTok could be held liable for a little girl’s death by algorithmically recommending the video she fatally copied, likely to provoke Supreme Court intervention, the 9th Circuit ruling Aug. 22 against third-party Snapchat app developer Yolo also suggests judges are growing skeptical of maximalist views of the 1996 law.

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Harris Campaign Selectively Barring Reporters from Campaign Coverage

Daily Caller News Foundation
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor Brandon McGinley

The Harris-Walz campaign has continuously denied reporters and photographers from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette access to the campaign events, reportedly due to labor action within the company, according to an op-ed from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor Brandon McGinley (pictured above).

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‘Never Walz’ Booth Draws Crowds as State Fair Political Scene Turns Attention to Minnesota’s Governor

ANews
Minnesota State Fair "Never Walz" Booth

The sound of a gameshow-like spinning wheel was almost as constant as the smell of fried foods on a stick along a stretch of Underwood Street on a mostly sunny Wednesday afternoon. A line of about five dozen people snaked its way down the boulevard stretching southward to Ye Old Mill at Carnes Avenue.

“You landed on Covid snitch line!” a volunteer from behind the “NEVER WALZ” booth shouted to a throng of onlookers who either cheered, jeered or were indifferent.

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Commentary: Time and Again, Kamala Harris Demonstrates She is ‘The Committee’s’ Candidate

American Greatness
Kamala Harris, CNN interview

So on Thursday, Kamala Harris was finally allowed out to meet the press.

Well, she was allowed to sit for about 18 minutes for a carefully scripted interview on a Dem-friendly network — CNN — with a partisan media head — Dana Bash — who came with a satchel of softballs. Apparently, Harris has yet to be certified for solo flight, however, since she was chaperoned by her pick for VP, Minnesota governor and serial fantasist Tim Walz.

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Commentary: This Labor Day, Remember the True Value of the American Worker

Michigan Star Staff
Mechanic

The American worker lives by the motto “an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.” While the attitude behind that adage is celebrated this Labor Day, it is important to remember that Americans work for more than just money — we take pride and purpose in what we make and accomplish.

American workers are not some cog in a machine. They are craftsmen, perfectionists, innovators and, most of all, worthwhile investments. Ipsos polling in 2023 showed that a majority of Americans believe it is “extremely important” that their work “helps people and society.”

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Northern Border Sector Continues to Break Records in Apprehensions

Michigan Star Staff
Illegal Borger Crossers

The busiest U.S. Customs and Border Protection sector at the northern border continues to break records in apprehensions with foreign nationals coming from 85 countries to Canada to illegally enter the U.S.

In less than 10 months, Swanton Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 15,000 foreign nationals from 85 countries who all illegally entered the U.S. through Canada, the greatest volume reported in this time period in recorded history.

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U.S. Surgeon General Warns Parents’ Stress Levels Are an ‘Urgent Public Health Issue’

Just the News
Stressed Parent

United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Wednesday issued a public health advisory that emphasized the importance of mental health in parents.

Murthy claimed in a post by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that parents over the past decade have consistently been more likely to report high stress levels than in the past.

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Commentary: The Forgotten Meaning of Labor Day

Michigan Star Staff
Labor Day Celebration

Labor Day is a U.S. national holiday held the first Monday every September. Unlike most U.S. holidays, it is a strange celebration without rituals, except for shopping and barbecuing. For most people it simply marks the last weekend of summer and the start of the school year.

The holiday’s founders in the late 1800s envisioned something very different from what the day has become. The founders were looking for two things: a means of unifying union workers and a reduction in work time.

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Federal Appeals Court: Illegal Aliens Do Not Have Second Amendment Rights

American Greatness
Second Amendment

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled that illegal aliens do not have the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, due to the fact that they are not American citizens.

As reported by Fox News, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that federal law prohibiting illegal aliens from owning firearms is legal, as the Constitution does not apply to anyone who has entered the United States illegally.

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Pro-Vaccine Doctors Skeptical of New COVID-19 Boosters: ‘I’d Really Like to See the Data’

Just the News
Vaccine

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pushing new COVID-19 boosters, claiming that people who don’t stay “up to date” with shots – regardless of how many they’ve already taken – “are more likely to get very sick” while those who take them annually are “much less likely to get very ill, be hospitalized, or even die” from COVID.

The Democratic nominee for president is so committed to staying up to date on jabs that Vice President Kamala Harris made COVID boosting a requirement to work on her campaign, “unless otherwise prohibited by applicable law.” They can also ask the human resources department for a “reasonable accommodation … prior to reporting to an office location.”

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Tim Walz’s Political Origin Story Is Reportedly Full of Holes

Daily Caller News Foundation
Tim Walz

Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz’s story about why he first decided to get involved in political campaigns contradicts public records and statements reviewed by the Washington Examiner.

Walz, who previously had a career as a social studies teacher, has long repeated a story about how he and two of his students were refused entry to a reelection rally for former President George W. Bush in 2004, saying that the incident was ultimately what inspired him to get involved in politics, according to the Examiner. However, Walz himself was not refused entry, according to a source who spoke anonymously with the Examiner, and the two “students” Walz brought to the event were actually teenagers who went to different high schools than the one he taught at and who had a public altercation with Bush staffers days prior to the event, public records show.

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Biden Admin Looks to Open Up 31 Million Acres for Solar After Locking Up Oil, Gas in Huge Swath of Alaska

Daily Caller News Foundation

The Biden administration proposed to open up tens of millions of acres of public lands to solar development on Thursday after cementing restrictions on oil and gas activity across large swaths of Alaska.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rolled out its proposed “Western Solar Plan,” which would put approximately 31 million acres across 11 western states on the table for possible solar development. The agency’s solar plan comes on the heels of its Tuesday announcement that it had finalized protections for 28 million acres of public land in Alaska that will effectively prohibit oil and gas activity on that acreage.

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Commentary: In with Teacher Apprenticeships, Out with Colleges of Education

Michigan Star Staff
Teacher and student

Two persistent problems beset American schools.

First, teachers must leave the classroom and become administrators or counselors to earn above the standard teacher salary.

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Republican Lawmakers Push Defense Department to Blacklist Chinese EV Battery Company Tied to CCP

Daily Caller News Foundation
Moolenaar Rubio

Republican lawmakers are urging the Department of Defense (DOD) to bar a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer from receiving U.S. military contracts and deter the company’s U.S. clients from using its services.

Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan and Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio sent a letter to the Pentagon Wednesday requesting EV battery-maker CATL be added to its 1260H list that identifies company’s “involved in bolstering Beijing’s military ambitions” and prohibits them from being awarded defense contracts. The lawmakers accused CATL of being controlled by China due to “subsidies, tax incentives [and] favorable procurement deals” from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and of furthering the interests of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by supporting its battery infrastructure.

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Commentary: The Grueling and Expensive Journey to Treat Vaccine Injury

Michigan Star Staff
Moderna Vaccine

$40,000.

That’s how much Kate Zerby has spent trying to put herself back together after the Moderna COVID vaccine wreaked havoc on her body.

As Intellectual Takeout reported back in 2022, Kate Zerby of St. Paul, Minnesota, suffered a serious adverse reaction to her Moderna shot, beginning the night after she got it, February 16, 2021. At 3:30 a.m., she awoke, gripped by a pervading sense of gloom and foreboding and the unsettling sensation that something strange was slithering through her system. At the same time, an interior voice seemed to tell her, “If you get the vaccine again, you will die.”

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California City Bans Smoking at Many Homes

The Center Square
Smoking in Home

The City of Carlsbad near San Diego, banned smoking from multifamily buildings with three or more units to reduce risk of secondhand smoke. The one city councilmember to vote against the measure called it an overreach, saying landlords and property managers should be able to make their own choices about their properties.

The ordinance bans smoking and vaping of tobacco and cannabis products both inside and outside buildings, including common areas, with use only permissible in designated smoking zones. The bill does not generally apply to single-family homes, though it does apply to townhomes, which tend not to share air systems with neighboring units.

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Robert F. Kennedy’s Endorsement of Trump Had Little Effect on Voters: Poll

Daily Caller News Foundation
RFK and Trump

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s withdrawal and subsequent endorsement of former President Donald Trump doesn’t seem to have changed voter’s feelings about the Republican nominee, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

After the former independent candidate dropped out of the race and endorsed the Trump on Aug. 23, some experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that he could get a boost from Kennedy. However, 64% of voters say that Kennedy’s endorsement has had no effect on their view of Trump, while 19% it makes them think more favorably of the Republican frontrunner and 15% say it makes them think less favorably, according to the poll conducted from Aug. 23 to Aug. 27.

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Pushback on VP Kamala Harris’ Tax Proposal Plan Grows as Costs Are Counted

Just the News
Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris’s tax proposal plan is getting significant pushback from Congress members and others as the costs of tax hikes on the American people across the political spectrum are being examined.

Upon a closer look at Harris’s tax proposals, an economist, a New York Times reporter, a small business owner advocate, and members of Congress all voiced their concerns over what the plan entails. Most of them note how the economy will be negatively impacted by her plan and the real-world implications for everyday Americans.

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Cell Phone Bans, Restrictions Are on the Rise in School Districts as Mental Health Concerns Arise

Just the News
Kid on Cell Phone

Mental health has been widely discussed in the public sphere over the past few years, specifically how technology may play a role in it particularly for young people.

Recently, districts in different states have been implementing restrictions and bans on cell phones in schools in order to tackle the mental health crisis rising among teenagers and young adults. 

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Judge Declines to Dismiss Elon Musk’s Lawsuit Against Leftist Group Media Matters

Daily Caller News Foundation
Elon Musk

A federal judge declined Thursday to dismiss a defamation lawsuit against Media Matters by Elon Musk’s X.

District Court Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in an order that Musk’s X had “properly pled its claim,” rejecting Media Matter’s effort to have the case tossed. The platform filed its lawsuit in November, alleging that the left-wing watchdog group “knowingly and maliciously manufactured side-by-side images depicting advertisers’ posts” beside content made by white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

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Commentary: The Trump Revolution

Michigan Star Staff
Donald Trump

Call it “The Trump Revolution.”

The news that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — scion of America’s most famous, not to mention one of its most historic, Democrat political families — was endorsing the GOP’s former President Donald Trump spoke volumes about the current state of American politics.

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Grand Rapids, Other Cities Granted $275 Million for Development Projects

The Center Square
Workers laying concrete

As part of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “Make it in Michigan” plan, a state board has approved millions in subsidies for development projects in Grand Rapids, Northville and Greenville. 

The Michigan Strategic Fund board authorized a $252.3 million Transformational Brownfield Plan incentive package for mixed-use development projects in Grand Rapids that include construction of the 12,000-seat Acrisure Amphitheater, an 8,500-seat soccer stadium, a riverwalk, and a 21-story mixed-use building with 475 rental apartments, 3,660 square feet of retail and 475 parking garage spaces. 

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Commentary: Amid School Sex-Abuse Impunity, a Suspect Ensnared by an Alleged Victim

RealClearWire
Brent McGee

Brent and Donna McGee were the “First Couple” of Wetumka, Oklahoma. He was athletic director and football coach at the high school who had once served as mayor; she was superintendent of the school system. 

And as if all those levers of local power weren’t enough, they also owned the Dairy Queen, the prime hangout in this small rural town and a key source of high school jobs.

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Top Kamala Campaign Staffers Aided Biden-Harris Admin’s Social Media Censorship Efforts

Daily Caller News Foundation
Teenager on Computer

Two campaign staffers for Vice President Kamala Harris were previously involved in efforts to censor Americans for spreading purported “disinformation” about COVID-19 while working in the Biden-Harris White House.

Then-administration officials Rob Flaherty and Aisha Shah are named as having been involved in the government’s efforts to censor Americans in legal filings related to the Murthy v. Missouri lawsuit, which alleged that the federal government violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to censor content related to the pandemic and other hot-button topics. On the Harris campaign team, Flaherty is now a deputy campaign manager and Shah is the director of digital partnerships, according to their respective LinkedIn profiles.

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Trump, Harris in Close Race Across Battleground States: Poll

Daily Caller News Foundation
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in front of The White House (composite image)

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck in an increasingly tight race across seven battleground states just weeks away from the presidential election, according to an Emerson College/Hill poll released Thursday.

Trump has a slight edge over Harris with 50 percent in Arizona, 49 percent in North Carolina and 49 percent in Wisconsin while the Democratic nominee trails 47 percent, 48 percent and 48 percent respectively, according to the poll. However, Harris has a slight lead with 49 percent in Georgia, 50 percent in Michigan and 49 percent in Nevada, while Trump falls behind at 48 percent, 47 percent and 48 percent respectively.

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