Music Spotlight: Anne Wilson

As I continued writing my Music Spotlight column, a new name kept popping up: Anne Wilson. In 2022, Wilson won a Dove Award for Pop/Contemporary Song of the Year, “My Jesus.” She won Songwriter of the Year and New Artist of the Year. She also sang a duet with Hillary Scott which won Bluegrass/Country Roots Song of the Year, “Mamas.”

The reason I had never heard of her before is because Anne Wilson, who is 22, has only been singing for a few years.

Read More

Federal Prosecutor in Trump Probe Reprimanded in Earlier Case for Secretly Recording Defense Lawyer

A Justice Department prosecutor who helped secure last week’s indictment of former President Donald Trump was publicly reprimanded by a judge in 2009 for “gross negligence” in connection with secretly taping a defense lawyer and an investigator, an agency source has confirmed to Just The News.

The prosecutor, Karen Gilbert, is now serving as a deputy to Special Counsel Jack Smith, who on Thursday issued the 37-count indictment of Trump. 

Read More

Glenn Jacobs Commentary: With the Uniparty’s Indictment of Donald Trump, the Die is Cast

When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army — an act Roman law strictly prohibited — he is reported to have said, “Alea iacta est,” Latin for “the die is cast.” Caesar, one of history’s most brilliant military and political minds, understood there was no turning back, even though the outcome was uncertain and quite possibly catastrophic.

History will question whether, during his occasional moments of lucidity, Joe Biden or his hubristic Justice Department experienced any such epiphany before crossing an American Rubicon, the indictment of a former President and Biden’s chief political rival, Donald Trump.

Read More

Illinois Finds 54 Percent Uptick in Abortions One Year After Dobbs Decision

Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) announced Monday that it had seen an increase in abortions by over 50% since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, according to a press release.

The Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022 that abortion was not a constitutional right and left the decision up to the states to enact their own laws on the issue. Nearly a year later, PPIL announced that clinics reported an increase in abortions by 54% with almost a quarter of the patients traveling out-of-state to get the procedure, according to the press release.

Read More

Commentary: The Odious Practice of ‘Taxation by Citation’

Poverty can be a jailable offense in Whitehall Village Court, a judicial outpost in upstate New York. Brandon Wood learned the hard way after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors in 2015.

His sentence included no incarceration, but he faced $555 in fines and fees. A wealthier defendant could have settled the tab on the spot and walked free, but Wood lacked the money. After failing to pay—for no reason other than insufficient funds—he found himself behind bars until his wife could appear in court and confirm his financial straits.

Read More

In Episode Three of ‘Tucker on Twitter,’ Carlson Pinpoints the Date the Deep State Began Targeting Trump

Former Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson released on Tuesday the third episode of his newest production, “Tucker on Twitter.” The episode, titled “America’s principles are at stake,” is a 13-minute video podcast where Carlson discusses the indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Read More

Kari Lake Speaks to Packed Georgia GOP Convention, Defends Trump

Kari Lake gave the keynote speech at the Georgia Republican Party’s annual convention last week after Mike Pence controversially withdrew. Multiple people complained after Pence was announced and after Lake was announced as the replacement, 900 purchased tickets, more than twice as many who bought them last year.

Read More

Details Emerge About Burisma Executive Who Secretly Recorded Conversations with Joe and Hunter Biden Regarding Bribery Scheme

Joe Biden with Hunter Biden

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced on Monday that the Burisma executive who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden kept 17 audio recordings of his conversations with them as an “insurance policy” in case he got “in a tight spot.”

Early last month, a whistleblower made legally protected disclosures to Grassley’s office regarding an FBI-generated FD-1023 form detailing an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions while Joe Biden was vice president.

Read More

Don’t Be a ‘Disciple of the Donor Class:’ Ramaswamy Calls on Fellow Presidential Candidates to Commit to Pardoning Trump on Classified Records Charges

Political outsider and GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is calling on all of his 2024 competitors — Republicans and Democrats — to commit to pardoning former President Donald Trump should he be convicted of the federal classified documents charges against him.

Read More

Johns Hopkins University Eliminates the Term ‘Women’ in Inclusive Language Guide

Elite Johns Hopkins University (JHU) eliminated the term “women” in its LGBTQ Glossary, in which a “lesbian” is now defined as a “non-man attracted to non-men,” even as a “gay man” is still defined as a “man who is emotionally, romantically, sexually, affectionately, or relationally attracted to other men.”

Read More

Biden Official Bankrolls Group Claiming Charter Schools Teaching ‘Classics’ Are ‘Far-Right’ Ideologues

A Biden administration official is a major donor to an organization that characterized Christian charter schools teaching a classical education as “far-right” ideologues attempting to advance “Christian nationalism.”

The Department of Labor’s Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Thea Lee and her partner Mark Simon gave at least $5,000 in 2022, the highest level of sponsorship, to the Network for Public Education, a left-wing activist group focused on promoting public schools, according to the organization’s sponsors page. The Network for Public Education released a June 2023 report which notes that “right-wing ideology” is growing in charter schools that teach a “classical” or “traditional” education.

Read More

Whistleblowers: Biden’s Veterans Affairs Nominee Failed to Address Data Breaches

President Joe Biden’s nominee for deputy secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department has been accused by at least one whistleblower of being involved in serious data security breaches, resulting in demands from watchdog groups for more information about the allegations before the Senate votes on whether to confirm her.

The nominee, Tanya Bradsher, currently serves as Veterans Affairs chief of staff. She was nominated to the position of deputy secretary by Biden in April.

Read More

Governor Brian Kemp Announces Overseas Trip to the Countries of Georgia and France

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, First Lady Marty Kemp, and other state officials will travel overseas this week to “focus on reinforcing strategic partnerships while promoting economic development opportunities with industries in Europe,” according to a press release by Kemp’s office.

Read More

Commentary: The Age of the Coot

It’s a good time to be a coot, especially an old one. Old coots rule the roost (or more accurately, the nest) in the world’s most powerful and populous countries.

The leaders of the nine most populous countries in the world are today all led by men in their seventies and eighties. U.S. President Joe Biden is 80 years old as is the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. President Lula of Brazil is 77. Pakistan’s president Arif Alvi is 73 and its prime minister is 71. Narendra Modi of India is 72.

Read More

Commentary: As Toxic as It Is Effective, Governments Wield Fear to Control and Manipulate People

by Kathleen Marquardt   People are excited thinking about being able to live in alternative universes. Unbeknownst to them, they already do – and have been for most of their lives. Especially those born after the era when we wore our Texas Instrument calculators on our belts (our slide rules were…

Read More

Commentary: Trump Again Widens Lead in GOP Nomination After Indictment

“I’ve put everything on the line and I will never yield. I never yield. I will never be deterred. I will never stop fighting for you.”

That was former President Donald Trump in Columbus, Georgia on June 10 in his first appearance after being indicted by the U.S. Justice Department on supposed violations of the Espionage Act over documents Trump says he declassified before leaving office, with Trump unsurprisingly using the prosecution to his political advantage in his 2024 election bid to oust President Joe Biden.

Read More

Commentary: What’s the Difference Between the Chinese Government and the Mob?

China’s regime is trafficking illegal drugs, protected wildlife, and humans. It is laundering cash and participating in ransomware attacks. It steals intellectual property. The ruling group, as a matter of state policy, murders people for their organs.

The Chinese state is not only a dangerous international actor, it is also a common criminal. Perhaps we should say it is an uncommon or state criminal, the most powerful and insidious kind.

Read More

FDA Kicks Off Crackdown on ‘Dangerous’ Flavored Vapes Imported from China

Flavored, nicotine-packed vape products manufactured in China are becoming increasingly common among teenagers and raising health concerns.

The problem took off in February of 2020 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration implemented a ban on the sale of many flavored vaping products, pushing compliant manufacturers out of the flavored market while some Chinese-based manufacturers continued to distribute and sell the now banned-products to American youth.

Read More

The Marine Corps Is Waging ‘Civil War’ with a Secretive Group of Retired Officers Over the Service’s Future

The U.S. Marine Corps is facing fire from high-ranking retired officers as the outgoing commandant passes on responsibility to implement his radical changes to new leadership, according to experts and a review of arguments by current and retired Marines.

A secretive group of retired Marine Corps generals, including two previous commandants, renewed a years-long assault against what they characterized in multiple articles as dangerous narrow-mindedness underlying Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger’s plan to revamp the force, of which the latest update was released on Monday. As Berger is slated to depart by the end of this year and be replaced with his second-in-command, the service will face new struggles amid new leadership and political pressures, where the stakes could mean failure in a conflict with China, according to an expert and the retired officers.

Read More

Legal Experts: Politically Motivated, Yes, But Trump Could Be in Trouble with Latest Indictment

While many Americans feel former President Donald Trump is the target of a political witch hunt by the Biden administration and its allies, the latest allegations against the Republican Party’s top presidential candidate are troubling, according to a leading constitutional law expert.

Read More

GOP Lawmaker Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Biden, Harris

A Tennessee Republican lawmaker on Monday introduced articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Rep. Andy Ogles accused the president of having used his position as both president and previously vice president to protect his family business and their alleged illicit activities from congressional oversight.

Read More

GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy Files FOIA Request Seeking Biden Communications with Special Prosecutor in Trump Indictment

Ohio entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says his campaign has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to uncover communications between the White House, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Jack Smith, special prosecutor behind the latest indictment of former President Donald Trump.

Read More

Election Integrity a Top-Tier Issue for Frontrunner GOP Candidates in 2024

The 2024 GOP presidential primary season in now in full swing with essentially all of the top, likely candidates having committed and key issues emerging such as the economy and the war in Ukraine – as well as election fraud and election integrity, which remain at the top on front-running former President Trump’s list.

Read More

New Documentary Exposes Ivy League Privilege and the Students it Shuts Out

“Exclusion U,” a feature documentary released this year, details how Ivy League universities accumulate billions of dollars as they restrict class sizes, turn away qualified students, and favor the children of the rich.

“Ivy League endowments are worth $193 billion dollars, but they only educate 0.3 percent of U.S. undergrads,” the film’s narrator stated. “That’s less than 63,000 students.”

Read More

China Has Operated Spy Facilities in Cuba Since at Least 2019, White House Says

The White House clarified Saturday that China has operated a spy base in Cuba since at least 2019, according to The Wall Street Journal, following reporting that Beijing reached a tentative agreement to set up a new operation somewhere on the island country.

The White House on Friday had characterized as “inaccurate” the WSJ’s first report of a planned Chinese surveillance outpost in Cuba focused on intercepting electronic communications, including emails and radio transmissions, in the southeast U.S. However, White House officials told the outlet Saturday that the Biden administration has worked to tamp down on China’s repeated attempts to spy on the U.S. since Biden took office, and said China has had a surveillance operation in Cuba since at least 2019.

Read More

America’s Biggest Public Pension Has No Plans to Pull Investments from China as Others Flee

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has no plans to divest from Chinese assets despite other large pensions pulling funds due to geopolitical risks, according to a statement given to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

CalPERS, which is the largest U.S. public pension and covers California’s public employees, has “no [sic] new initiatives to announce at this time,” a spokesperson told the DCNF when asked if CalPERS would divest from Chinese assets. The DCNF calculated over $3.6 billion in Chinese investments across numerous Chinese companies in the pension’s portfolio from its 2022 fiscal year report.

Read More

Georgia Uses $83.5 Million in COVID Relief Money for Public Safety Grants

Georgia is giving out more than $83.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief money as grants to fund 118 public safety projects across the Peach State.

Departments can use the funds to augment law enforcement staffing and support violent crime reduction initiatives or intervention programs. They can also use the money to invest in technology and equipment to address the uptick in violence and personnel shortages stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read More

Drug Manufacturers, CVS, Walgreens Settle Another Opioid Lawsuit with 22 States for $17.3 Billion

Thirteen attorneys general announced settlements with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan on Friday, while 18 states settled with CVS and Walgreens for a total of $17.3 billion.

The attorneys general said settlement funds will start flowing into state and local governments by the end of this year and will be used for prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.

Read More

Commentary: Unmasking the CDC’s In-House Intelligence Service

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is departing at the end of June and Joe Biden has tapped former North Carolina health boss Dr. Mandy Cohen to replace her. More important than the identity of the CDC director is what goes on behind the scenes, and hints have been emerging.

In April of 2021, the CDC reassigned Dr. Nancy Messonnier, longtime director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). In a May 7, 2021 White House briefing, Walensky suddenly announced that Messonnier was stepping down.

Read More

George Soros Gives His ‘More Political’ Son Control Of $25 Billion Empire

Billionaire George Soros has handed control of his $25 billion financial empire to his son Alexander, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The board of Open Society Foundations elected the younger Soros, who describes himself as “more political” than his father, as chairman in December, a position that George Soros said his younger son “earned,” according to the WSJ. Alexander is the only member of the family that serves on the committee overseeing Soros Fund Management, the chief engine of the $25 billion Soros financial empire.

Read More

Scandal-Plagued Civil Rights Group Launches Attack on Parental Rights Groups

The Alabama-based civil rights organization that made its name suing the Ku Klux Klan has put parental rights groups in its sights and for the first time has started tracking the “antigovernment movement” ideology in its annual “Year in Hate & Extremism” reports.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) added “reactionary anti-student inclusion groups” to a list of 702 “antigovernment extremism” groups it tracked in 2022, separate from 523 “hate” groups. The organization focused almost exclusively on just one in its annual report published this week: Florida-based Moms for Liberty, far and away the leader in chapters nationwide.

Read More

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Endorses Ron DeSantis for President

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday.

The two-term governor threw his support behind DeSantis during a speech in Tulsa, Oklahoma, following the endorsement from 20 of the state’s legislators and former Oklahoma Congressman and Trump-appointee Jim Bridenstine, according to a campaign press release. Stitt said he endorsed DeSantis because he’s a “strong conservative and principled leader.”

Read More

Commentary: Breaking Down the Biden Administration’s Political Weaponization Higher Education

The Media Research Center (MRC) has revealed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is using the “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program” to single out and vilify political opposition- effectively criminalizing freedom of thought and free association. This is the same DHS that has classified the American people’s personal “thoughts, ideas, and beliefs” as “critical infrastructure” and “cognitive assets.”

Read More

Children Exposed to Bizarre Nude Performance at ‘All Ages’ Oregon State University Drag Event

Underage children were exposed to adult nudity at a recent drag show at Oregon State University’s Lasells Stewart Center, hosted by the student-fee funded campus LGBTQ group Rainbow Continuum on June 2.

The drag performance—called “Illegal Drag Show”—openly encouraged LGBTQ members to “Be Gay. Do Crime.” An Instagram post advertised the event to “all ages,” alongside a note that it would contain “adult themes.”

Read More

Georgia Funds over 100 Projects Across the State to Address Public Safety and Law Enforcement Staffing

Governor Brian Kemp recently announced that 118 projects have been awarded grant funding totaling $83.5 million to “improve community-level public safety measures and address law enforcement staffing challenges that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Read More

Pollsters Shift Five House Seats Toward Dems After SCOTUS Ruling

The Cook Political Report updated the ratings of five House races across several states in 2024 on Thursday, shifting them towards Democrats after the Supreme Court ruled against Alabama’s redistricting plan.

The Court struck down Alabama’s GOP-drawn Congressional map for the 2022 midterm elections on Thursday, ruling in Allen v. Milligan that the was racially discriminatory and diluted African-American voting strength in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The decision’s implications mean that more House seats in Alabama are likely to be competitive in the 2024 election, with the Cook Political Report reflecting those changes in its ratings.

Read More

Biden Admin Taps New Border Chief

The Biden administration has tapped Jason Owens to lead Border Patrol next, according to an internal agency email sent by Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Troy Miller obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Owens has served in the agency for 25 years and is currently chief of the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector in Texas. Outgoing Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz announced his retirement on May 30 after overseeing the agency during a time of record migration at the southern border, where CBP recorded more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022 alone.

Read More

Former President Trump Speaks to Enthusiastic Crowd at Georgia Republican Party Convention, Makes Surprise Visit at Local Waffle House

Former President Donald Trump spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at the Georgia Republican Party 2023 State Convention in his first public speech since his indictment.

Before arriving at the Saturday convention, Trump met with police officers on the tarmac after landing and exiting ‘Trump Force One.”

Read More

U.S. Sees 1,000 Percent Surge in Migrants from Afghanistan, China

Border Patrol has seen 1,000% increases in migrants coming from Afghanistan, China and other countries far from U.S. borders between fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2023.

The surges include migrants from Algeria, Djibouti, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Paraguay and Vietnam, outgoing Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz wrote on Twitter Friday. It has been challenging to deport such migrants, Ortiz said.

Read More

GOP Presidential Candidates Hold Varying Positions on U.S. Involvement in Ukraine

Republican Party Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently laid out a plan that he says would end the war in Ukraine while breaking up Russia’s  growing alliance with China.

Newly minted presidential candidate North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum says, “Support for Ukraine is important to stop empowering countries like Russia in the first place by selling US energy to our allies.”

Read More

Commentary: Multiculturalism Toppled Rome

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Roman emperor Gaius assembled a massive invasion force and marched it across Europe to the English Channel. The elite of the greatest army in the world, along with a massive array of siege engines, drew up in battle formation along the shore, awaiting orders. Mounting a platform, Gaius commanded the trumpets to sound and then issued the orders: “Gather shells!” The soldiers frantically scrambled around the beach to fill their helmets with seashells. Gaius then erected a monument to celebrate this “victory against the sea” and transported the “booty” a thousand miles back to Rome for a triumphal march. 

Read More

Only One-Third of Generation Z Is ‘Very Proud’ to Live in America

A new survey confirms the ongoing decline in patriotism among younger Americans, with just over one-third of the youngest generation expressing great pride in the fact that they are Americans.

As the Daily Caller reports, the poll by Morning Consult asked Americans about whether or not they would prefer to buy American-made products, even if it meant spending more money than they would for foreign-made goods. Baby Boomers, the current oldest generation, were the most likely to buy “made in America” products.

Read More

New York Passes Bill That Considers Slavery Reparations

Kathy Hotchu

The New York State Assembly passed a bill this week that would create a commission to consider slavery reparations, The Associated Press reported.

The bill, initially introduced in January, was passed after a three-hour debate in the Democrat-controlled State Assembly on Thursday. The state Senate passed the bill hours later, and is now being sent to Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk, who has yet to comment on the proposed legislation.

Read More

Music Spotlight: Pat Boone

Many know I love the history of American music. My husband and I enjoy documentaries about the various singers/bands who create the soundtrack of our lives. We can’t even tell our stories without including the popular songs that we remember and love.

Pat Boone is one of the most beloved pop artists of the 20th century. At age 89, he was a favorite of my parents. His daughter, Debby Boone, was popular when I was growing up.

Read More