Commentary: It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (for the Washington, D.C. Establishment)

It is Christmas season.  The decorations are hung or need to be. Gifts are being purchased. The Advent Week of peace is being celebrated. Parties are being thrown. And Americans wind down from a long, stressful year.

Unfortunately, while most Americans refocus, the rest of the world doesn’t stop, but in many cases looks at this time as an opportunity to exploit.

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Florida State University Research Links Common Sweetener Aspartame with Anxiety

Scientists in Florida say they have established a link between the common artificial sweetener aspartame and anxiety-like behavior in mice test subjects.

A press release out of Florida State University revealed that the researchers “provid[ed] mice with drinking water containing aspartame at approximately 15% of the FDA-approved maximum daily human intake.”

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Men Are Winning Women’s Athletic Competitions Across the Nation

Dozens of athletic competitions for women and girls have been upended by the participation of males identifying as transgender women, who benefit from a host of biological advantages over female competitors, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

Transgender-identified males have competed in a variety of women’s athletic competitions, from school sports for young children to top college events and Olympic competitions. Differences in an average woman’s strength, stamina and physique compared to the average male are sustained even when a male undergoes testosterone suppression, according to the Sports Councils’ Equality Group.

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Biden’s EPA Prepares to Crack Down on Home Appliances

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new rules on Friday that would restrict the use of refrigerators, air conditioning equipment and heat pumps that utilize hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

The EPA’s proposed rule would crack down on the manufacturing and importing of goods containing HFCs, which would restrict the use of HFCs in refrigeration units, air conditioning systems and heat pump equipment starting in 2025, according to an agency press release. In accordance with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a global climate treaty that the Senate ratified in September, the agency intends to reduce the production and consumption of HFCs by 85% by 2036.

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‘Twitter Files Part 4’ Details How Platform Changed Policy Specifically to Ban ‘Trump Alone’

The fourth entry in the ongoing “Twitter Files” series of explosive revelations dropped on Saturday night, with part four in the series focusing on the removal of Donald Trump from the popular social media platform in early 2021. 

The latest thread, published by writer Michael Shellenberger, details the process that “Twitter executives” took as they were “build[ing] the case for a permanent ban” against the former Republican president. 

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Twitter’s Chief Censor Met Weekly with U.S. Intelligence Officials While Trump Was in Office, Internal Comms Reveal

Twitter’s former Head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, had weekly meetings with the FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) at least as far back as 2020, when former President Donald Trump was still in office, internal communications between Twitter staff obtained by journalist Matt Taibbi Friday reveal.

Yoel participated in one such weekly meeting shortly after the company’s moderation team was thrown into a crisis following its decision to suppress an October 2020 New York Post story concerning a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, according to Taibbi. Roth appeared to explicitly ask the government officials in the meeting to “share anything useful” concerning the laptop story, but they apparently declined to do so.

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Vermont Sees Almost 700 Percent Increase in Illegal Immigrant Apprehensions

While record numbers of foreign nationals continue to enter the U.S. through the southern border every month, one of the tiniest states by geography and population is also being impacted by the surge: Vermont.

Mexican cartels are now increasingly flying foreign nationals who arrive in Mexico from all over the world to Quebec from Mexico City, Border Patrol and law enforcement officers told The Center Square. Cartel scouts help them make their way from Canada into northern states illegally, they said. Vermont, which is seeing record-breaking illegal entries, has a population of roughly 645,545 people.

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Former Southwest Airlines Flight Attendant Reinstated by Court After Firing over Pro-Life Views

A federal judge has ordered Southwest Airlines to rehire a flight attendant and award her damages, back pay, and interest after she was fired in 2017 for stating her pro-life views on social media.

The ruling marks a victory for the religious freedom rights of Christians in the workplace at the same time that the U.S. Supreme Court wrestles with the issue in 303 Creative v. Elenis.

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George Soros Preps for 2024 Election with Massive Donations to Dem Super PAC

Billionaire and Democratic mega-donor George Soros poured $50 million into a Democratic super PAC this fall in preparation for the 2024 election cycle, according to Politico.

The massive cash influx went to the Democracy PAC, according to Politico. Soros spent another $50 million throughout the 2022 campaign cycle, with cash going to Democratic groups including the Senate Majority PAC, House Majority PAC and candidates including former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

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Georgia’s Tax Revenues Decreased by $2.4 Million in November

One day after Republican leaders called on returning more than $1 billion to Georgia taxpayers, the state revealed some bad news.

On Friday, state officials reported November’s total general fund receipts decreased by 0.1% — or nearly $2.4 million — compared to November 2021. Still, tax collections surpassed $2.2 billion for the month and net sales and use tax collections increased by 9.8%.

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Commentary: TikTok Needs to Be Destroyed

Twitter was a huge lie, but it was fun. Maybe it’s like television. Elon Musk is having a blast unveiling the conservative-hiding, progressive-promoting plot that was rising up in the complex engineering behind the little blue bird, which leads me to believe that the lovable little critter was actually a big monster. That liberals are outraged by the revelations only proves one thing: cancellation is their erotic dream and their nightmare is freedom. They already enjoyed the former too much. Now, it’s time for the latter.

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Huge Investment Firm Leaves Climate Alliance After Republican Officials Call for Government Inquiry

The world’s second-largest asset manager Vanguard announced Wednesday that it was leaving the Net-Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM), a collective of financial institutions that support investments aimed at reducing global carbon emissions. Vanguard’s move came after several Republican attorneys general called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to prevent the company from purchasing publicly traded utilities due to the firm’s previous climate commitments.

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New Zealand Court Gives Guardianship of Baby to Doctors After Parents Insist on Unvaccinated Blood for His Heart Surgery

New Zealand health officials took custody of a baby boy on Wednesday after his parents insisted that only unvaccinated blood be used during his upcoming heart surgery.

The infant, Will Savage-Reeves, needed heart surgery to repair a pulmonary valve stenosis. His parents Samantha and Cole Reeves wanted him to have the surgery but insisted that the hospital use blood from donors that had not received the COVID-19 jabs.

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Duke University Surgeons Deny 14-Year-Old Girl a Kidney Transplant Because of Her COVID Vaccine Status

Doctors at Duke University Hospital are refusing to perform a life-saving kidney transplant operation on a 14-year-old girl because she has not received a COVID injection, even though she has natural immunity from a previous bout with the virus.

Yulia Hicks was adopted by a Christian family in North Carolina in January of 2021 after she came to the United States from Ukraine, the National File reported. Her parents, Chrissy and Lee Hicks, are Army veterans who have eleven children in all, eight biological and three adopted.

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Kyrsten Sinema Refuses to Say Whether She’d Endorse Biden 2024 Bid

Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona refused to say whether she’d endorse a potential bid from President Joe Biden to run in 2024 during a Friday CNN interview.

“Folks know this about me, I don’t typically talk much about partisan politics and I don’t talk much about elections,” Sinema told CNN host Jake Tapper when asked if she would back Biden’s bid for a second term.

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Border Patrol Union Chief Open to Amnesty for ‘Dreamers’ as Senators Prep Immigration Bill

The Border Patrol union president said he will support an immigration bill that includes amnesty for “Dreamers” if it also addresses border security in a Friday statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Reports have been circulating that ahead of the release of a bipartisan immigration bill’s text, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd agreed to it as a “mass amnesty” plan. Sens. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, and Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, are discussing a proposal that would grant citizenship for illegal immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, according to Fox News, citing sources familiar.

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‘American Girl’ Doll Book Recommends Girls Take Puberty Blockers While Considering Their Gender Identity

Parents are ripping a recently published “American Girl” “body image” book that contains a section called “Gender Joy,” in which young girls are urged to ask their doctors for puberty blockers in order to gain more time to weigh their gender identity.

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Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer Criticizes McConnell, NRSC After Walker Loss

Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) after Herschel Walker lost the Georgia Senate runoff. Shafer said the NRSC didn’t provide enough support, according to an internal Republican National Committee (RNC) email chain obtained by Politico.

“Tuesday was a tough day in Georgia. Herschel was massively outspent, maybe 3 to 1 in a four week period of time and still held his own,” Shafer said in an email sent the day after the election.

“We used our RNC transfer dollars for the ground game and were forced to raise money from entirely within the state for our critically important mail program. Two weeks out, we were $2.5 million short when I sent what was for me an embarrassing email begging the other state parties for help,” he said.

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Commentary: Kevin McCarthy Is Not the Right Leader for the Moment

The administration is aiding and abetting an invasion of the Southern border. Our rights are being stripped away. We are at war and the enemy is within.

In response to this existential threat, we’re told that we need to entrust a congressman previously recognized as the “tech industry’s best friend” as our leader.

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Federal Trade Commission Sues Microsoft to Block Activision Blizzard Deal

The Federal Trade Commission filed suit Thursday against Microsoft Corp. to block it from acquiring Activision Blizzard Inc., publisher of the “Call of Duty” games.

The FTC alleges the largest acquisition in the video gaming industry would allow Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its subscription content and cloud-gaming business.

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University Stonewalling Release of Public Records on Federal Censorship Collusion: Lawsuits

The University of Washington is facing several public records requests in the wake of Just the News reporting on its Center for an Informed Public’s role in a Department of Homeland Security-backed private consortium intended to squelch purported election “misinformation.”

Nonprofit watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust filed two Washington Public Records Act lawsuits this week seeking to compel a faster UW turnaround for CIP Director Kate Starbird’s communications with other Election Integrity Partnership leaders and with outside participants, including government entities.

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Conservative Congressmen Release List of Demands for Kevin McCarthy

On Thursday, a group of seven conservative House Republicans released a list of demands for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to consider if he wants to earn their support in his bid for Speaker of the House.

Axios reports that the group, led by Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Penn.), sent a letter to McCarthy calling for the future Speaker to make it easier to force a vote on motions to vacate the chair, which would make it easier to remove the Speaker from their position of power. Another demand calls for House GOP leadership to avoid spending any money on House Republican primaries in order to prevent the favoring of one particular candidate over another.

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Commentary: The Fake, and Real, Domestic Terrorists

To hear the government tell it, a homeless guy who lived in the dilapidated basement of a vacuum repair shop with no running water is as much a danger to society as was Timothy McVeigh and the Tsarnaev brothers.

Adam Fox, according to the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, should spend the rest of his life in prison for conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. After a jury could not reach a verdict in Fox’s case last April, the Department of Justice retried Fox and his remaining co-defendant Barry Croft, Jr. in August; both men were found guilty the second time around.

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Biden’s Genderfluid Nuclear Waste Official Charged Again with Stealing Someone’s Luggage

An Energy Department (DOE) nuclear waste disposal official who was previously accused of stealing a woman’s luggage in Minneapolis has been charged with stealing another person’s luggage at an airport in Las Vegas, according to 8 News Now.

Sam Brinton, the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition for the DOE’s nuclear office, is wanted on felony charges of grand larceny after allegedly stealing baggage from an individual at Harry Reid International Airport, 8 News Now reported Thursday.  Brinton was hired in February as the first genderfluid person in federal leadership, and the grand larceny charge carries a value between $1,200 and $5,000.

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Key Inflation Metric Shows High Prices Aren’t Going Anywhere

Wholesale prices beat expectations in November, a sign that inflation might not fall as quickly or steeply as previously hoped, according to CNBC.

Producers and businesses saw prices rise 0.3% from October, with so-called “core prices” rising 0.4% when the more volatile food and energy sectors were discounted, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With both measures expected to rise by just 0.2%, as well as a 3.3% increase in food costs offsetting a 3.3% decline in energy costs, producers prices are still set to remain well above pre-pandemic levels, even though they have fallen from the 11.7% year-over-year surge seen in March, CNBC reported.

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Over 40 Percent of Small Business Owners Give Biden Failing Grade on Helping Main Street: Poll

Roughly 43% of small business owners gave President Joe Biden an “F” grade on his support for small business, according to the Job Creators Network’s monthly Small Business IQ poll, obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Small Business Intelligence Quotient — a measure of small business optimism where scores of 100 and 0 represent the best and worst possible conditions respectively — slid to 52.9 in November from 53.3 in September and October, returning to just above the yearly low of 52.7 set in June, according to the poll conducted by pollsters Scott Rasmussen and John McLaughlin. On a monthly basis, small business owner’s optimism about current conditions climbed 0.2 points to 55.9, but expectations about the future slipped 0.09 points to 50.6.

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Third Twitter Document Dump Details Decision to Ban Donald Trump

The third release of internal Twitter documents on Friday evening detailed the momentous decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the platform after the Jan. 6 riot, making clear that executives understood it was an unprecedented moment in the history of speech.

Alternative journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday released the third set of internal documents as part of an Elon Musk-sanctioned effort to expose the platform’s prior censorship practices.

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Doctors Allege Corruption and Mismanagement of COVID Pandemic Leaving Americans at High Risk for Vaccine Injury and Death

Doctors and scientists who participated in Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s (R) COVID-19 roundtable Wednesday shared their personal experiences of the federal government’s alleged corruption and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic that they say have likely caused many more examples of serious vaccine injury for which Americans have no recourse.

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Former Pickens County Official Pleads Guilty to over $170k Worth of Theft and Racketeering Charges

Former Pickens County School Superintendent Carlton Wilson and his wife pleaded guilty to racketeering and theft charges; Carlton Wilson also plead guilty to six additional theft charges, according to Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office prosecuted the case.

“Carlton and Cindy Wilson stole thousands of dollars from hardworking Georgians, and now they are facing the consequences of their illegal actions,” Carr said in a press release. “This is a complex case that spans several years and involves multiple acts of theft, including the unlawful collection of taxpayer funds. This conviction is a major victory for all those who fell victim to the couple’s fraudulent and deceptive tactics, and we are proud to have worked with our local partners to put a stop to their criminal schemes.”

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Wyoming Library Board Cuts Ties With American Library Association Over Support for Sexually Explicit Books for Children

A Wyoming library board has cut its ties with the American Library Association (ALA) and its state affiliate over support of sexually explicit books in the children’s sections of local libraries that include indoctrination in gender ideology and other aspects of radical LGBTQ activism.

The Campbell County Library Board in Gillette, Wyoming, voted 4-1 to break ties with the ALA after months of parental outcry about the books, promoted by the national organization, that have been viewed as pornographic and an attempt to normalize a transgender lifestyle, The Epoch Times reported last week.

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Georgia Lawmakers May Consider Election Law Changes Next Session

With Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff in the books and lawmakers gearing up for the next legislative session, the state’s voting law is expected to be among the hot-button issues lawmakers address.

On Wednesday, the day after U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a Democratic state lawmaker said she plans to file legislation to modify the timeline for voting during runoff elections.

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1.6 Million Ballots in Election Day Turnout Weren’t Enough for Herschel Walker to Catch Sen. Warnock

Georgians cast 3.5 million ballots in the Senate runoff, including 1.9 million early and absentee ballots and 1.6 million votes on Election Day. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said more election day votes were cast in the runoff than on election day in the general election.

That should have equaled a win for Herschel Walker, according to Republican estimates on Monday that suggested turnout of just one million election day votes would be enough for him to cancel Senator Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) early vote lead. Instead, Warnock won 1.8 million total votes and Walker 1.7 million — 51.37 percent to 48.63 percent, according to unofficial results.

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Commentary: RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel Must Go

Illustrating that they won’t take their own side in a dispute, Republicans typically choose as their party chieftains hacks who betray little evidence of having read the GOP platform and even less evidence of supporting it. Current Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel falls into that category. She appears as conversant with the party platform as the late Bob Dole, who famously said that he never bothered to read it.

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Spotlight on Miss Tennessee Lauren Dickson

NASHVILLE, Tennessee-Miss Tennessee 2022 is Lauren Dickson. The Parsons native and Miss Lexington 2021 was selected from a class of 36 candidates to become Miss Tennessee on June 25. Dickson is the 69th Miss Tennessee.

This year, Lauren Dickson represented Lexington, Tennessee (population 7915), right next to her hometown of Parsons, Tennessee (population 2,082). They are located midway between Nashville and Memphis, right off I-40.

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Gen-Z’s First Congressman-Elect Says He Was Denied a Lease in D.C. Due to ‘Really Bad’ Credit

Florida Democratic Rep.-elect Maxwell Alejandro Frost says he was denied a lease on a Washington, D.C., apartment after the landlord initially told him that his bad credit wouldn’t matter.

Frost is slated to become the first Gen-Z lawmaker in Washington when the next Congress is sworn in in January. He was previously a community organizer and will take over the seat of Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who unsuccessfully challenged Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio for his seat in the upper chamber in November.

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Preliminary Border Data: Record Number of Apprehensions, Gotaways in November

Preliminary U.S. Customs and Border Protection data obtained by The Center Square from a border agent shows record numbers of apprehensions and gotaways at the southern border in November.

Agents apprehended 212,608 illegal foreign nationals and recorded at least 93,461 who evaded law enforcement and are now living illegally somewhere in the U.S. Combined, they total at least 306,069.

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Commentary: New York and California in a Race to Hit Rock Bottom

Throughout much of the 20th century, America’s status as an economic superpower and the world’s standard-bearer for freedom and opportunity was due in no small measure to the successes of New York and California. Today, those states have become symbols of America’s decline, as the consequences of their incompetent, partisan leadership are now undeniable. Nowhere is this clearer than how these two formerly great states have addressed immigration.

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FBI Agent’s Testimony Implicates Headquarters Brass in Social Media Censorship

An FBI agent’s testimony in a freedom of speech case confirms that the bureau ran an operation during the 2020 election that requested social media companies remove content as disinformation, suggesting the government’s requests succeeded about half of the time and were conducted with a “headquarter stamp of approval.”

Elvis Chan, the FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Cyber Branch in San Francisco, told lawyers for the Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general in a lawsuit over social media censorship that he supervised a “command post” in his home city that helped the nationwide disinformation censorship operation function in fall 2020.

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Second Wave of Twitter Docs Reveal ‘Blacklists’ and ‘Shadow Bans’

Former New York Times editor Bari Weiss on Thursday released internal documents on Twitter’s censorship efforts and detailed the creation of blacklists and use of shadow ban technique to throttle “disfavored” tweets.

Last week, Musk released information on the company’s censoring of the Hunter Biden laptop story via alternative journalist Matt Taibbi. Thursday’s dump came through a team of reporters Weiss led and to whom Musk granted broad access to the company’s files to investigate on condition they first publish their findings on Twitter.

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Oregon Judge Refuses to Let Restrictive Gun Control Law Take Effect

A recently passed Oregon gun law will not take effect Thursday, following a high court ruling by Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters, who denied Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum’s request to remove a hold on the law, according to The Associated Press.

The law, Ballot Measure 114, was subject to multiple lawsuits following its passing in November, and Rosenblum’s request sought to overturn a lower court’s ruling by Harney County Judge Robert Raschio, which placed a hold on the law’s implementation Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. The ballot measure is considered one of the strictest gun regulations in the country, and if implemented, will require background checks, firearm training, fingerprint collection and a permit to purchase any firearm.

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Griner Released in Prisoner Swap for Convicted Russian Arms Dealer

WNBA star Brittney Griner has been released from Russian prison in a prisoner exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to multiple media reports Thursday morning.

President Joe Biden said Griner is safe and on her way home during an address Thursday with Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, and Vice President Kamala Harris. He thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping facilitate Brittney Griner’s return home.

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Congress Won’t Reinstate Troops Discharged for Violating the COVID Vaccine Mandate

Thousands of troops already discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine won’t return to service after Congress’ last-minute defense bill sought to overturn the Pentagon’s mandate.

The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have separated at least 8,400 active duty and reserve troops for spurning the Department of Defense’s (DOD) August 2021 requirement that all servicemembers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to information the DOD provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. While the compromise legislation released late Tuesday directs the Pentagon to rescind the mandate, it stops short of requiring the military to restore discharged troops to their prior positions or provide reparations.

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Teachers Flee Unions as Membership Plummets by Almost 60,000

The nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), declined by at least 59,000 members during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) disclosure reports.

The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, lost 40,107 members while the AFT, the nation’s second largest teachers union, declined by 19,078, according to the DOL reports. The decline comes as public schools added 95,000 educators from September 2021 to 2022.

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Bishop Asserts Catholic Schools’ Embrace of Gender ideology ‘Tragic’ and ‘Sinful’

The chairman of the U.S. Bishops Catholic Education Committee said in a recent interview that policies created to align with gender ideology have “no place” in Catholic schools and institutions.

Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington, told the National Catholic Register in November during the bishops’ fall meeting that Catholic schools and institutions that have caved to gender ideology have embraced a “tragic” and “sinful” agenda under the guise of compassion.

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