Month: September 2021

Georgia Opens Probe into Drop Box Ballots, Chain of Custody in DeKalb County

Admin

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has opened an investigation into the handling of drop box ballots last November in one of the state’s Democratic strongholds following a media report that there were problems with chain of custody documentation in DeKalb County.

The probe, confirmed in a statement to Just the News, comes at a tumultuous time for DeKalb County, whose elections director was placed on an extended leave of absence two weeks ago. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said the probe is ongoing and the county is cooperating.

Read More

Homeland Security Secretary Moves to Protect DACA after Texas Court Ruling Halted the Program

Admin
Alejandro Mayorkas

The Biden administration Monday announced a plan to create a rule to reestablish the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, following the decision by a Texas court that found the Obama-era program unlawful and halted the ability of “Dreamers” to apply for immigration protections.

The Homeland Security Department announced that the new rule aims to “preserve and fortify” DACA by addressing some of the court’s concerns over the way the policy was implemented.

In July, a federal district judge in Texas ruled that DACA violated the Administrative Procedures Act. The decision prevents future applications to the program, but leaves standing the program’s benefits that have already been afforded to close to 600,000 people.

Read More

‘Fauci’ Earnings Mystery: No Info on Box Office Take for Gushing Documentary About COVID Czar

Admin

Documentaries often earn a fraction of what their fictional counterparts generate, at least those without the names “Moore” or “D’Souza” attached.

“Fauci,” a film detailing the scientific life of the nation’s preeminent infectious disease expert, appeared to be an exception.

Dr. Anthony Fauci has his detractors, particularly on the political right, but he’s still the biggest name in medical science thanks to his leadership on the COVID-19 pandemic and near-constant media presence.

The timing of the film’s Sept. 10 limited release, in cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, D.C. and New Orleans, seemed fortuitous given the aggressive Delta variant.

Except we’re still waiting on the box office tally.

Read More

Law Enforcement Leaders Call for Mandatory Minimum Sentences in Georgia

The Center Square

Top law enforcement officials in Georgia are calling for mandatory minimum sentences for offenders to reduce rising crime in the state.

Georgia Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Terry Norris told the Senate Public Safety Committee that a solid justice system with harsher sentencing for violent crimes could deter criminals.

Read More

Commentary: Democrat Elites Can’t Have It Both Ways on the ‘Great Replacement’

Georgia Star News Staff
A rubber-banded newspaper with Joe Biden on the front

Tucker Carlson sent the Left into a predictable frenzy of self-righteous rage this week by making a true, but politically incorrect, observation. 

The invasion that is unfolding at the southern border, Carlson said, is purposeful. Joe Biden and his Democratic allies have embraced open borders because they want to change America’s racial demographics. They see their political destiny in replacing white conservatives with poor, non-white dependents from the Third World who will remain loyal to Democrats. By doing this, Democrats hope to secure permanent control of our political system. 

Carlson, of course, was immediately denounced by the usual media hall monitors for promoting the “Great Replacement Theory.” Except Carlson was not saying anything that prominent Democrats do not already discuss, very publicly, and with unabashed enthusiasm. His only sin was suggesting that the Great Replacement might not be a good thing.

Read More

Web Designer Forced to Publish Messages Countering Her Religious Faith Asks Supreme Court to Hear Case

Georgia Star News Staff
Person coding a website

A Colorado web designer asked the Supreme Court to take up her case challenging a state law forcing her to publish websites with messages counter to her religious beliefs.

Lorie Smith filed the petition with the Supreme Court on Friday, arguing a lower court ruling that upheld the Colorado law was wrongly decided, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the firm representing her, announced. The law compelled Smith’s speech in violation of her First Amendment rights by forcing her business 303 Creative to produce content against her beliefs, she said.

“The government shouldn’t weaponize the law to force a web designer to speak messages that violate her belief,” ADF General Counsel Kristen Waggoner said during a press call before filing the petition. “This case involves quintessential free speech and artistic freedom, which the 10th circuit astonishingly and dangerously cast aside here.”

Read More

Commentary: Three Proposed Solutions for Regaining Our Digital Liberty

Georgia Star News Staff

It is inarguable that by financially crippling, socially segregating, and digitally banishing politically irksome people and enterprises, the big tech cartel is flouting the spirit, if not the strict letter, of the Civil Rights Act.

For how do you make a living if your banking options increasingly are curtailed and constantly threatened, and your ability to electronically communicate with clients is likewise circumscribed?

Read More

Republican Lawmakers Say China’s Cryptocurrency Crackdown Is an Opportunity for America

Georgia Star News Staff
Person holding phone with cryptocurrency info on screen

Republican lawmakers say China’s recent crackdown on financial technologies could offer an opportunity for the U.S. to press its advantage in innovation.

China’s central bank issued a statement Friday morning declaring all cryptocurrency transactions and services illegal, banning coin mining operations and vowing to crack down on its citizens’ use of foreign crypto exchanges.

Several Republicans say China’s loss could be the United States’ gain.

Read More

Around 12,400 Migrants Are Waiting to See Whether They’ll Be Allowed to Remain in U.S.

Georgia Star News Staff
U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visits with a group of Border Patrol agents and CBP employees as he tours the Del Rio Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, September 20, 2021. DHS photo by Benjamin Applebaum

Around 12,400 migrants could be allowed to remain in the U.S., Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during a White House press conference on Friday.

Border officials relied on Title 42, a Trump-era public health order implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to expel most migrants from the U.S., according to Mayorkas. Migrants who needed immediate medical attention or who feared torture if they were returned to their home country weren’t subject to removal.

“Approximately 12,400 will have cases heard by an immigration judge to make a determination on whether they’ll be removed or permitted to remain in the United States,” Mayorkas said. If someone is not subject to title 42 expulsion for the three reasons that I explained, acute vulnerability, operational capacity limitations, or a convention against torture exception, then the individual is placed in immigration proceedings.

Read More

Over 3,000 Doctors and Scientists Sign Declaration Accusing COVID Policy-Makers of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Georgia Star News Staff

A “Physicians’ Declaration” produced by an international alliance of physicians and medical scientists strongly condemns the global strategy to treat COVID, accusing policy-makers of potential “crimes against humanity” for preventing physicians from providing life-saving treatments for their patients and suppressing open scientific discussion.

The document states that “one size fits all” treatment recommendations have resulted in needless illness and death.

Read More

Iowa State University Student Turns Himself In after Allegedly Assaulting Pro-Life Classmate as a ‘Form of Protest’

Georgia Star News Staff

The Iowa State University Police’s event report detailing a leftist’s documented attack on a Young America’s Foundation student member confirms that on September 3, the “suspect vandalized the [pro-life] sign and part of the sign hit the victim in the shoulder.” 

Campus Reformed obtained the report via a public records request following YAF’s report on the incident earlier this month, which ended with the suspect turning himself into police after “trying to break it before disposing of it into a waste bin.” 

Read More

Overwhelming Majority Of Voters ‘Very Nervous’ About Social Media’s Impact on Kids, Poll Shows

Georgia Star News Staff

Almost nine in ten voters are very concerned about the impact social media is having on children, according to a new poll.

When asked whether they were “very nervous about the effects social media is having on kids today,” 84% of registered voters said they at least somewhat agreed, according to the results of a poll conducted by Benenson Strategy Group and released Thursday by the Future of Tech Commission. Roughly 6 out of 10 parents polled agreed that they felt like they had no control over what their children see online, while 85% of voters overall supported special online privacy measures for children.

Read More

Botched Drone Strikes Will Continue Without a Ground Presence In Afghanistan, Former Defense Official Says

Georgia Star News Staff

Mistakes like the ones that led to the deaths of 10 civilians by a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan will continue without a ground presence, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Now that we don’t have an on-the-ground presence, it’s going to be harder to target people and know they’re the right people,” Mick Mulroy, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for the Middle East and veteran of Afghanistan, told the DCNF.

Mulroy said the diminished U.S. human intelligence network in the country would severely impact the ability of the military to monitor terrorism. “We had an intelligence service. We had bases all over the country. We had the ability to move about, to meet with people. Now, we don’t have any of that,” he said.

Read More

Defense Bill Sails Through the House with $24 Billion Increase

Georgia Star News Staff
Supreme Court and Capitol building

The House late Thursday passed the National Defense Authorization Act after a marathon day of voting on hundreds of amendments as Congress continues work toward a government funding bill with a potential shutdown one week away.

The $768 billion defense bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, with 316 lawmakers voting in favor. It now heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass and soon after become law as it has yearly for nearly six decades.

It provides an additional $24 billion for the defense department compared to last year’s legislation, an amount touted by both Washington Democratic Rep. Adam Smith and Alabama Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, the House Armed Services Committee’s chair and ranking member.

Read More

New Study Sounds the Alarm on Students’ ‘Self-Reported Cognitive Distortions,’ Support of ‘Trigger Warnings,’ and ‘Safetyism’

Georgia Star News Staff
College student studying

A recent study examined the association between college students’ “self-reported prevalence of cognitive distortions and their endorsement of safetyism-inspired beliefs, the belief that words can harm, and the broad use of trigger warnings.”

Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, the article utilizes the definition of “safetyism” found in the book The Coddling of the American Mind, intending the term to mean a “culture that treats safety – including emotional safety – as a sacred value, which results in adherents diminished willingness to sacrifice safety for other moral or practical considerations.”

The four-person research team included three members from the University of California, Irvine, including the lead author, and one investigator from St. Edward’s University in Texas. 

Read More

Businesses Push Back Against Biden Plan to Track All Bank Transactions over $600 Through the IRS

The Center Square
Joe Biden outside

A major component of President Joe Biden’s plan to raise revenue to pay for his trillions of dollars in new federal spending is now under fire from trade associations across the country.

The Biden administration has made clear its plan to beef up IRS auditing by expanding the agency’s funding and power. Biden’s latest proposal would require banks to turn over to the Internal Revenue Service bank account information for all accounts holding more than $600.

In a sharp pushback against the proposal, more than 40 trade associations, some of which represent entire industries or economic sectors, signed a letter to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., raising the alarm about the plan.

Read More

University of Pennsylvania Removes Suffragette’s Name from ‘Feminist’ Research Center to Prioritize ‘Inclusiveness’

Georgia Star News Staff

The University of Pennsylvania named its women’s studies center the “Center for Research in Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Studies” — removing a tribute to a prominent suffragette in the process.

According to Melissa Sanchez, an English and comparative literature professor who will lead the center, Penn decided to rename the Alice Paul Center — home to the Ivy League university’s gender studies department — in order to signal “commitment” to LGBTQ “intellectual and political movements.”

Read More

China Outlaws All Cryptocurrency Transactions, Mining Activities

Georgia Star News Staff

China’s central bank announced Friday that all cryptocurrency transactions and mining activities are illegal, banning financial institutions from providing digital asset services.

“Financial institutions and non-bank payment institutions cannot offer services to activities and operations related to virtual currencies,” the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement Friday, according to a translation by CNBC. These services include derivatives trading, order matching and token issuance.

Read More

Stacey Abrams Tried to Get Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger Disinvited from California Event

Chris Butler

Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight reportedly asked the chancellor of the University of California, Irvine to disinvite Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger from an event at the school late last week. But university officials did not comply with Abrams’ wishes. Organizers titled the event “Election Subversion.”

Read More

House Budget Committee Advances $3.5 Trillion Spending Plan as One California Democrat Breaks Ranks to Oppose

Georgia Star News Staff
Rep. John Yarmuth

In a rare weekend session, the House Budget Committee approved a $3.5 trillion spending plan loaded with progressive policy changes, but one Democrat defected to join Republicans in opposition.

The 20-17 vote Saturday afternoon came as Democratic leaders aim to schedule a vote on the House floor this week, even as the package divides members of its caucus, especially moderates worried about its mammoth size.

Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., sought to gloss over GOP and moderate Democrat concerns, touting the potential help he said would come to working and poor families and liberal causes.

Read More

Homeland Security Chief Admits More Than 12,000 Haitians Released into U.S.

Georgia Star News Staff
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs regarding the Threats to the Homeland. Secretary Mayorkas was joined by Christopher Wray, FBI Director and Christine Abizaid, the Director of National Counterterrorism Center. (DHS Photo by Zachary Hupp)

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas disclosed Sunday that more than 12,000 Haitian illegal immigrants who had gathered in Texas near the southern border are being released into the United States.

“Approximately, I think it’s about ten thousand or so, twelve thousand,” Mayorkas told “Fox News Sunday” when asked how many have Haitians were already released.

He insisted those released were being monitored to ensure compliance with the law. When host Chris Wallace noted more than 40% of illegal aliens historically skip their immigration hearings, the secretary said there were plans in place to aggressively arrest those who don’t show up.

Read More

In Close German Election, Angela Merkel’s Bloc Sees Worst Election Results Since 1949

Georgia Star News Staff
Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right bloc is in a tight race with the Social Democrats, as projections showed her party endured its worst result in parliamentary elections since 1949.

ARD public television projected that according to early counting and exit polls, Social Democrats, whose candidate is outgoing Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, had 25.5% of voter support, The Associated Press reported. Merkel’s Union bloc was at 24.5% with her would-be successor Armin Laschet, governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany.

Projections from ZDF public television put Social Democrats at 25.7% to the Union bloc’s 24.6%. Both sets of projections had the environmentalist Greens at third place with about 14%.

Read More

Georgia Agency Misused Millions in Seized Money for Fitness Devices, Furniture, Vehicles

The Center Square

A Georgia agency kept millions of dollars in seized funds, spending some of it on Fitbit devices, fitness equipment and vehicles, according to a recent Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report.

The OIG report revealed the former head of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), a division of the Georgia Department of Revenue (GDOR), held on to more than $5.3 million that was supposed to be returned to the state treasury. 

Read More

Commentary: Bearing the Tax Burden of the Biden Administration

Georgia Star News Staff
Joe Biden

As congressional Democrats push a $3.5 trillion social spending package, everyone is wondering: “How are we going to pay for that?” To President Joe Biden, the answer is simple: raise taxes.

Included in Biden’s proposed tax plans — erroneously named the American Families Plan — are hikes in personal income tax and capital gains tax rates. The plan would raise the top marginal income tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent and reclassify long-term capital gains and qualified dividends as ordinary income for those with taxable income above $1 million, resulting in a top marginal tax rate of 43.4 percent, according to the Tax Foundation.

Despite the frustration (or excitement) that Americans have towards Biden’s income and wealth tax proposals in the midst of an economic recovery, Americans should be paying closer attention to his other proposals, the American Jobs Plan and the Made in America Tax Plan.

Read More

Study: 94 Percent of Parents Say Child Tax Credit Payments Allow, Motivate Them to Work More

Georgia Star News Staff

The vast majority of parents receiving monthly child tax credit payments say that they plan to keep working or even increase their hours as a result of them, a study released Thursday shows.

Ninety-four percent of parents said that the payments, which began in July, allowed them to work the same amount or more, a joint study from the Washington University in St. Louis, UNC-Greensboro, Appalachian State, the Urban Institute and Humanity Forward shows. Just 6.4% receiving the payments said they would work less or change jobs, and of those a majority were parents with infants or toddlers.

Read More

Biden’s Pick for Banking Regulator Once Praised Soviet Union for Having ‘No Gender Pay Gap’

Georgia Star News Staff

President Joe Biden’s pick to run a top Wall Street regulatory agency division once praised the former Soviet Union for its gender equality.

Cornell Law School Professor Saule Omarova, who was announced as Biden’s nominee to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) on Thursday, tweeted in March 2019 her support of the USSR’s gender equality in the workplace.

Read More

Pennsylvania Attorney General Challenges Election Subpoena

The Center Square

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro challenged a Republican-led election subpoena on Thursday, saying that it “goes too far” and violates the constitutionally protected privacy of up to 9 million residents.

“By trying to pry into everyone’s drivers license numbers and social security numbers they have gone too far,” he said. “Today we say enough is enough. What they are doing is against the law and we intend to win.”

Read More

Newt Gingrich Commentary: Biden’s Border Disaster

Georgia Star News Staff

As President Joe Biden vacationed at Rehoboth Beach, the disaster at the U.S. southern border continued to metastasize.

Anyone who has seen pictures of thousands of people crossing the Rio Grande en masse knows the administration has achieved complete failure.

Anyone who has seen the overhead drone footage of more than 12,000 people gathered under one bridge in South Texas knows that massive, historic incompetence is being allowed to flourish.

Read More

Oregon School Board Bans Educators from Displaying BLM and Gay Pride Symbols

Georgia Star News Staff

A school board in Oregon is receiving backlash following its recent ban on educators displaying Black Lives Matter signs and gay pride symbols.

Newberg, which is situated just outside of Portland, now finds itself the site of the latest skirmish in a pitched struggle between traditional and woke approaches to education being waged in school systems across the country.

Read More

Less Than 17 Percent of Rental Aid Distributed by August, Treasury Says

Georgia Star News Staff
A living room in an apartment space with a blue couch and TV

State and local officials disbursed less than 17% of the funds allocated for pandemic rent assistance by the end of August, the Treasury Department announced Friday.

Officials have disbursed $7.7 billion of the $46.5 billion in funds allocated to the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program meant to aid those at risk of eviction, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The program was created eight months ago and has struggled to distribute its funds to tenants. A number of state officials have said the delays can be attributed to a lack of preparedness to facilitate the distribution of such large sums of money.

Read More

U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Dems’ $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill ‘Existential Threat’ to Economy

The Center Square
Capitol building looking up, blue sky in background

One of the nation’s leading economic and business groups is warning that the $3.5 trillion spending bill before Congress is an “existential threat” to the nation’s economy.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has launched a six-figure television ad campaign targeting the proposed tax hikesin the measure that would be “taking more hard-earned money from small businesses and working families.”

Read More

Commentary: Our Indispensable Man

Georgia Star News Staff
Angelo Codevilla

“The graveyards are full of indispensable men,” goes the old saying, and who could argue? The sun rose this morning as it did yesterday and will again tomorrow. Life goes on, as always, for better and often for worse. But now it is a life bereft of the remarkable intellect and insight of Angelo Codevilla, a patriot who despised what he saw his country becoming and who sought to rouse and educate his fellow Americans to resist.

Truly, he was our indispensable man.

He was remarkable, too, for his energy. It isn’t quite correct to say he was indefatigable. At 78, he couldn’t help but slow down a bit. But this was a man who survived two heart transplants and a number of recent health challenges. Even when he was sick, he kept writing and working.

Read More

Vaccinating Kids as Young as Five Would Be a ‘Game Changer,’ Biden’s Education Secretary Says

Georgia Star News Staff

President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the approval of a COVID-19 vaccine for children would be a “game changer” for students in the U.S.’s public school system, U.S. News reported.

Pfizer announced Monday that a smaller dose of its vaccine has generated an immune response in 5 to 11-year-old children during the clinical trial. The company said it plans to submit data for approval in the next few weeks.

Read More

Donald Trump Calls Georgia ‘a Central Battleground’ to Rescue Nation During Rally in Perry

Chris Butler

Former U.S. President Donald Trump held a rally Saturday in Perry, where he introduced the candidates he wants Georgia voters to help elect in the 2022 elections. “One year from now Georgia will be a central battleground in our fight to rescue our beloved nation,” Trump told the audience.

Read More

Locales Across Georgia See Good Employment News; Big-Government and Union-Friendly States Less Well-Off

Bradley Vasoli

Georgia has a lower percentage of unemployed residents now than it did immediately before COVID-19 arrived, with some locales, like Warner Robins, experiencing their lowest jobless rates ever.

In Sept. 2020, around six months after the pandemic hit, the small city just south of Macon had a 5.3-percent jobless rate. Two months ago, Warner Robins’s rate fell to 2.9 percent, the city never before having seen such a small fraction of its residents out of work.

Read More

Commentary: National Sabotage by Immigration

Georgia Star News Staff

As the first year of a Biden presidency that has felt like a decade nears its end, only the most ardent Democratic partisans still insist that the country is on the right track. The rest of us are left to debate whether the rancid fruit of this regime is a result of incompetence or design. By analysis of this administration’s immigration agenda alone, the inescapable conclusion is that it is indeed the latter. The macabre consequences of this fact threaten to take America into one of the darkest chapters in its history.

These kinds of conclusions run contrary to the traditional American ethos. Those who grew up with Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” imagery or John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier vision experienced leadership that sought the best for America and its citizenry. In those eras, politicians from both major parties seemed to prioritize the good of the country; they only disagreed on the means to get us there.

Such notions seem quaint given today’s realities. Beneath the surface of Biden’s genial Uncle Joe schtick is an executive branch controlled by some of the most dogmatic left-wing apparatchiks ever seen in American politics. Among their witch’s brew of radical ideas, they have seized upon immigration as one of the quickest and most effective ways to transform the country to their vision.

Read More

Report: Late Senator McCain’s Subcommittee Welcomed Russia Collusion Theory

Georgia Star News Staff

The efforts to disseminate a now-discredited theory that the Trump campaign had secret computer communications with the Kremlin extended beyond the FBI, CIA, and State Department to the U.S. Senate.

Under the late Sen. John McCain, the Armed Services Committee engaged a former FBI official and his progressive-funded nonprofit to produce a report on the matter, according to court records obtained by Just the News.

Read More

CDC Tells Medical Professionals to Be on Alert over Afghan Evacuees Potentially Spreading Infectious Diseases

The Center Square

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recommending that medical professionals and clinicians be on alert for infectious diseases among Afghan nationals recently brought into the country, including measles, mumps and rubella, diseases for which Americans have already been vaccinated.

After the CDC announcement, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said Afghan evacuees were required to get the MMR vaccine and then be quarantined for 21 days.

Read More

Border Patrol Requested Additional Aid in Del Rio Months Before Thousands of Migrants Arrived

Georgia Star News Staff
U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks with Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Raul Ortiz as he tours the Del Rio Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, September 20, 2021.

Border Patrol agents requested additional federal aid in Del Rio, Texas, months before thousands of migrants set up a temporary camp under an international bridge and overwhelmed immigration officials, CNN Politics reported Thursday.

Border officials reported an increase in migrants crossing the Rio Grande River earlier in the summer but didn’t know more than 14,000 migrants would end up setting up camp under the bridge, according to CNN Politics. On June 1, the union representing Del Rio Border Patrol agents asked for additional technology resources to help agents quickly process large groups of migrants in the field before sending them to a station.

“This way, we can at least get part of the process finished before they even get to the station instead of wasting that time,” said Jon Afinsen, president of the National Border Patrol Council in Del Rio, in an email exchange with regional Border Patrol management, CNN Politics reported.

Read More

Democrat Donors Had Second Thoughts About Paying Hunter Biden Millions to Help Unfreeze Libyan Assets Due to Chasing ‘Low Class Hookers,’ Drugs

Georgia Star News Staff

Two Democratic donors purportedly considered paying Hunter Biden $2 million to help unfreeze Libyan government assets in 2015 that had been targeted by the Obama administration, but had second thoughts due to his various personal struggles, according to emails obtained by Business Insider.

The donors were hopeful Biden’s influence could help unlock $15 billion in foreign assets that were frozen by former President Barack Obama during the Qaddafi regime, but had second thoughts because of his struggles with “drug addiction,” chasing of “low class hookers” and “money-liquidity problems,” according to emails obtained by Business Insider.

Read More

Commentary: An American Horror Story

Georgia Star News Staff
Close up of Capitol with Trump and America flag in the wind

Thomas Caldwell’s wife awakened him in a panic at 5:30 a.m. on January 19.

“The FBI is at the door and I’m not kidding,” Sharon Caldwell told her husband.

Caldwell, 66, clad only in his underwear, went to see what was happening outside his Virginia farm. “There was a full SWAT team, armored vehicles with a battering ram, and people screaming at me,” Caldwell told me during a lengthy phone interview on September 21. “People who looked like stormtroopers were pointing M4 weapons at me, covering me with red [laser] dots.”

Read More

FTC Memo Details Plans to Combat ‘Root Causes’ of Big Tech Dominance

Georgia Star News Staff

An internal memo published by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Thursday detailed Chairwoman Lina Khan’s vision for antitrust enforcement, including plans to target several of Big Tech’s business practices.

The memo, sent to FTC commissioners and staff, titled “Vision and Priorities for the FTC,” outlined several key antitrust enforcement areas Khan sought to prioritize, including addressing “root causes” of monopolies, considering the harm of anticompetitive conduct on workers and other businesses, and focusing on “next-generation technologies.” Although Khan did not identify any of the major tech companies by name, she highlighted several allegedly anti-competitive business practices that have been the subject of tech antitrust litigation.

Read More

Leaked Documents Show Military’s Plan to Grill Service Members over Religious Vaccine Exemption

Georgia Star News Staff

Guidance reportedly crafted by military attorneys urged Coast Guard chaplains to grill service members on their religious beliefs in attempts to discover whether a service member’s religious exemption is a “ruse,” draft documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation show.

“It is important to provide context in the memo discussing the member’s belief,” the draft documents said. “If they come to the meeting and begin by discussing concerns about safety, politics, etc., note that in the memo. Even if the member eventually states that it is a belief based on religion, note their first expression and how they moved from non-religious beliefs to religious ones.”

Read More

Maricopa County Audit Results Reveal Someone Was Caught on Video Illegally Deleting Hundreds of Thousands of Election Files the Day Before the Audit Started

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Senate Republicans issued the results of the independent ballot audit they conducted of the 2020 presidential and U.S. Senate election in Maricopa County on September 24 during a presentation, revealing findings that numerous election laws were broken and security measures breached. 

The most startling finding came from Ben Cotton, the founder of CyFIR. He said hundreds of thousands of election files — which the Maricopa County Supervisors refused to allow the auditors to examine — were deleted the day before the audit began, a violation of federal law which requires federal election records to be retained for 22 months. Although the name of the account that deleted them was not tied to a specific election worker, Cotton said there is video of the person who accessed those servers at that time. 

Read More

Top Georgia Officials Disregarded Professional Responsibilities, New Report Says

Chris Butler
Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta

Members of the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) abused their powers and violated ethical and regulatory policies, according to a report that the Office of the State Inspector General (OIG) published this week. Georgia officials are supposed to distribute civil asset forfeiture funds to the state treasury. Officials with the DOR’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) broke state law when they didn’t remit state asset forfeiture funds to the state general fund. Former OSI Director Joshua Waites failed to properly remit $5.3 million collected via state asset forfeiture between July 1, 2015 to March 11, 2020, the date of Waites’ termination from his position, the report said.

Read More

While DeKalb County Remains Silent, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Tells CNN the County’s Elections Director Leave of Absence Is Related to 2020 Election Job Performance

Laura Baigert

While DeKalb County officials have refused to indicate whether the extended leave of absence of Elections Director Erica Hamilton is job related, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said during a CNN interview that the leave was an outcome of an investigation related to the violation of absentee ballot chain of custody rules during the November 2020 election.

A joint statement issued by DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith and Vice-Chair Nancy Jester announced that effective September 9, Erica Hamilton was on an extended leave of absence from her role as director of DeKalb County Registration and Elections. 

Read More

Arizona Attorney General Signals Readiness to Investigate Election Irregularities Uncovered Audit

Georgia Star News Staff
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich declared Friday he would take “all necessary actions” to investigate any irregularities uncovered by a state Senate-order audit of the November 2020 election in his state.

His comments on Twitter came as leaked copies of the draft audit flagged tens of thousands of ballots cast in the last election as suspect and requiring more investigation.

The drafts recommended the Republican attorney general take the lead investigating many of the issues, including a possible canvas of voters flagged as having problems.

Read More