Vice President Harris Swears in Ossoff, Warnock

Vice President Kamala Harris, sworn into office herself just hours prior, swore in two new Senators from Georgia Wednesday afternoon. 

Democat Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, who edged out former Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively, in a runoff election on January 5, became the newest members of the U.S. Senate, flipping control of the higher chamber of Congress the Democratic Party. 

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Commentary: Under Your Pillow, Inside Your Closet, We Trump Supporters Are and Will Be Everywhere

It is so appropriate that Mike Lindell, founder and CEO of MyPillow — ♪ for the best night’s sleep in the whole wide world, it’s my pillow dot com ♪ — is the latest prominent person to come out yet again, even post January 6, for Donald Trump. Although I disagree vehemently with the “martial law” stuff and although Donald Trump decidedly is not my hero — my late wife Ellen of blessed memory is my hero — I still publicly count myself as a strong supporter of the entire four-year Trump presidency. His presidency was enormously powerful and successful. It was en route to Mount Rushmore until a once-in-a-century pandemic set off inevitable setbacks. None were his fault, and his “Operation Warp Speed” will have saved more lives than the Mainstream Media ever will admit. Indeed, had the COVID impact come during an Obama-quality bleak economy, the plague’s disaster’s catastrophe would have been amplified.

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Biden to Extend Student Loan Payment Freeze Until September 2021

President-elect Joe Biden will order the Department of Education to extend the student loan payment moratorium through September in one of his first presidential moves.

Joe Biden is set to sign the executive order on Wednesday following his inauguration, extending the current pause on student loan payments, which has been in effect since March, according to CBS News. The order is a fulfillment of Biden’s campaign promise to prioritize the U.S. student loan debt crisis.

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Keystone XL Pipeline to be Scrapped Again

President-elect Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he would cancel a permit critical to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The move marks the second time that a Democratic administration has effectively killed the $8 billion project. While environmental and conservation groups praised the move, TC Energy, the company behind the pipeline’s construction, argued in an earlier Supreme Court brief that scrapping the project would strip 1,500 construction workers and 300 inspection and management workers of their jobs.

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Commentary: Five Ways Hospitals Can Help Fix Vaccine Rollout Debacle

Hospitals have come under sharp criticism for their part in the chaotic COVID-19 vaccine rollout. That’s because in the rush to get the vaccine out quickly, many hospitals were shipped more vaccine than anticipated and fewer staff took it than anticipated. As a result, hospitals accrued a vaccine surplus and offered it to their low-risk grad students and young administrative staff working from home and are now scrambling to figure out what to do with the rest. The answer should be simple: give it to older members of your community, but a recent letter from the American Hospital Association cited a number of important barriers to effective vaccine distribution including a lack of coordination and guidance from federal, state, and local governments. 

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Default Settings for Inauguration Flag Donations Sends Money to Planned Parenthood

The default settings to sponsor inauguration flags sends money to the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s partners — including the Planned Parenthood of America, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee installed an “extensive public art display” that includes 191,500 flags on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Americans may symbolically sponsor flags by donating through ActBlue Charities.

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Over 100 House Republicans Support Removing Liz Cheney from Leadership Role

Over half of all Republican members of the House of Representatives are prepared to support an effort to remove Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as Chair of the House GOP Conference, according to Breitbart.

It has been reported that approximately 115 House Republicans are committed to voting in favor of a “no confidence” motion on Cheney’s leadership, which could allow for Cheney to be removed and replaced. The position is the third highest-ranking role in House GOP leadership, only behind the House Minority Whip and House Minority Leader.

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State Economist: Georgia Business Owners Deserve Credit for Keeping State’s Economy Afloat

Georgia’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic should be strong and swift, the state’s fiscal economist said Tuesday.

Georgia’s economy has been supported by federal aid, a recovering job market and business owners’ improvisation, state economist Jeffrey Dorfman told the House and Senate appropriations committees during a joint meeting Tuesday.

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Georgia General Assembly Will Soon Examine Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws

Members of the Georgia General Assembly will soon consider two separate bills that pertain to civil asset forfeiture, one which would make it harder for government officials to seize private property. This bill, the Due Process in Civil Forfeiture Act, would increase the burden of proof for the government in civil forfeiture proceedings. The bill would alsoprovide people with public defenders during civil forfeiture proceedings in certain criminal cases.

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Gwinnett County Elections Chair Pushes for Election Law Changes; Civil Rights Groups Call for Her Resignation

Activists and legislators are calling for Gwinnett County Board of Registrations and Elections Chair Alice O’Lenick to resign for supporting election law changes. O’Lenick wanted to limit no-excuse absentee voting to the elderly and infirm, ban absentee ballot drop boxes, and expand early voting to last 21 days and be open on the weekends.

O’Lenick’s proposals incited negative responses from a variety of civil rights and activist groups, as well as a coalition of Democratic state legislators. Amongst the groups were The Lincoln Project, Fair Fight Action, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta, Georgia American Federation of Labor and Congress of Individual Organizations (AFL-CIO), Georgia Equality, and Voto Latino.

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