Month: June 2023

Republican governors are sending National Guard troops to the southern border.

Governors of Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia announced this week they will send troops and resources to Texas to support the work of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Operation Lone Star to secure the southern border.

Economy Added 339K Jobs in May, Nearly Double Wall Street Expectations

June 4, 2023 Just the News

U.S. employers have added roughly 339,000 jobs in May, and the monthly unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, from a five-decade low of 3.4% in April, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% for the month while on an annual basis, wages increased 4.3%, which was a 0.1 percentage point under the estimate.

Georgia Supreme Court Upholds Dismissal of Challenge to Campus Gun-Free Zones

June 4, 2023June 3, 2023 The Center Square

The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed a Fulton County judge’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit by five University System of Georgia professors filed challenging a change to campus gun-free zones.

The professors challenged a 2017 amendment to state law removing public colleges and universities from the designated “school safety zones” prohibiting weapons. Before the 2017 amendment, carrying a weapon on campus was a misdemeanor.

Commentary: Trump Still Has the Magic

The Republican primary is already in full swing. While a few second-tier candidates have joined the fray, including neoconservative Nikki Haley, Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and old school evangelical and former Vice President Mike Pence, the chief contest is between former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Things are already heated. Some former Trump supporters now support DeSantis. Indeed, they have completely turned against Trump. The firehose of criticism reminds one of the refrains of a jilted lover.

American Greatness Poll: Trump Leads DeSantis in Nevada

Former President Trump leads Governor Ron DeSantis in Nevada by 32 points (53%-21%) in a multi-candidate poll of likely Nevada Republican voters.

Other declared candidates register with 3% or less.

Catholic Org Launches Initiative Encouraging Parents to Revolt Against Sexually Explicit, Transgender Books

A Catholic organization is launching a campaign through the month of June that encourages parents to revolt against books containing sexually explicit and transgenderism content offered to children in public libraries as a part of Pride Month.

CatholicVote, a nonprofit conservative advocacy group, is promoting its second annual “Hide the Pride” campaign, which encourages parents to visit their local libraries and check out as many books as they can that “push eroticism, glorify LGBTQ identities, undermine parental rights and are 100% contrary to the Church’s teaching on love and sexuality” in an effort to prevent others from accessing them, the organization told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Parents joining the campaign are encouraged to participate in groups and request that librarians take their Pride Month display down, the campaign information stated.

Commentary: Don’t Believe The Jobs Day Hype — Americans Are Still Getting Poorer

Friday’s jobs report shows 339,000 jobs were created in May, beating expectations again. While Democrats and the media celebrate, the labor market condition is not as strong as this topline number suggests.

The report shows that real wages continue to decline. For the 26th consecutive month, average wages grew slower than inflation. The Biden presidency will forever be marked as one where Americans got poorer and saw their living standards decline.

Biden Signs Debt Limit Deal Two Days Before Default Deadline

June 3, 2023 Just the News

President Joe Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act into law Saturday, the White House announced. This legislation, H.R. 3746, raises the debt ceiling and avoids a potential catastrophic economic fallout two days before what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen referred to as the default deadline.

Democrat-Led January 6 Panel Added Audio to Silent Security Video for Primetime Hearings

June 3, 2023 Just the News

The Democrat-led House Select Committee to Investigate Jan. 6 doctored a key piece of its evidence, adding audio to silent U.S. Capitol Police security footage used to create a dramatic video montage for the opening of its primetime hearings last summer, according to a Just the News review of the original raw footage and interviews. In at least two instances identified by Just the News, the panel’s sizzle reel that aired live and on C-SPAN last June failed to identify that it had overdubbed audio from another, unidentified source onto the silent footage. Multiple current and former Capitol Police officials as well as key lawmakers and congressional aides confirmed that the closed-circuit cameras that captured the video do not record sound and that it was added afterwards.

GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Makes the Cut for the GOP Debates

June 3, 2023June 3, 2023 M.D. Kittle

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has risen in the polls to a top 5 candidate. Now the Ohio businessman and political outsider has secured a spot on the Republican National Committee debate stage.

Counties Switching to Hand Counting Ballots as Election Integrity Advocate Provides Model

June 3, 2023June 2, 2023 Just the News

Counties across the U.S. are switching to hand-counting election ballots instead of using electronic tabulation machines over concerns about the accuracy and security of the devices.

At the forefront of the transition is election integrity advocate Linda Rantz, who says her model, now being used in a Missouri county, is less expensive than critics continue to say it is.

Biden DOJ Won’t Charge Mike Pence over Classified Docs

The Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to charge former Vice President Mike Pence for classified documents found at his home, according to a DOJ letter obtained by the New York Times.

The DOJ sent Pence a letter Thursday night informing him that “no criminal charges will be sought” in connection with the department’s investigation into classified documents found at his Indiana home, per the NYT. One of Pence’s lawyers found the documents at Pence’s home in January, alerting the National Archives, CNN reported.

Biden Admin Closes Off More U.S. Lands to Oil and Gas Drilling

The Biden administration on Friday ordered a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling leases within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, according to multiple reports.

The moratorium — which the Department of Interior initially began considering in November 2021 — is a long-sought goal of several local politicians, conservation groups and Native American tribes that want to preserve the centuries-old Pueblo ruins located there, although some tribes have opposed the ban for limiting future economic opportunities, according to E&E News.

More than a Dozen GOP States Sue Biden Admin over Recent Border Policy, Claim It’s ‘Encouraging More Border Crossings’

Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and more than a dozen other GOP-led states are suing the Biden administration over a recent policy to address an expected surge of illegal migrants at the southern border, according to a statement from his office.

The Biden administration rule Miyares is contesting was implemented to mitigate an expected surge of migrants at the southern border when Title 42, a Trump-era expulsion order, ended on May 11 which made migrants ineligible for asylum if they pass through another safe country before coming to the U.S. Miyares, however, argues that the rule has many exceptions that allow migrants to enter the country, including using a phone app to book entry appointments, claiming they face imminent danger in their home country and having their asylum request denied in another country, the lawsuit argues.

Kirk Cameron’s Children’s Book ‘Pride Comes Before the Fall’ Released at Start of LGBTQ ‘Pride’ Month

June 3, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

Actor and children’s author Kirk Cameron released his book Pride Comes Before the Fall on June 1 as LGBTQ activists began their celebration of “pride” month.

“Thrilled to announce the release of my new children’s book, Pride Comes Before the Fall!” Cameron announced Thursday on Twitter.

Obama-Appointed Federal Judge Who Has Criticized DeSantis Recuses Himself from Disney Case

A federal judge known for ruling against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recused himself Thursday from Disney’s lawsuit against the governor, according to a court filing.

Chief U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Florida Mark Walker, an Obama appointee, recused himself after discovering “a relative within the third degree of relationship” owns 30 shares in The Walt Disney Company, per the a court filing. Walker blocked DeSantis’ “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” in November, calling it “positively dystopian,” and struck down parts of his election law as unconstitutional in March 2022, citing the state’s “horrendous history of racial discrimination in voting,” according to Politico.

Commentary: The Real Cost of the Debt-Ceiling Deal

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spent weeks of negotiating to authorize $4 trillion in new deficit spending over the next two years. This means that our national debt will be $35 trillion in 2025. The interest cost will be up to $1.4 trillion annually, only a small amount less than the current cost of national defense and Social Security combined. This staggering debt undermines the future prosperity of every American.

Federal spending contributes to a sense of entitlement, including for every person receiving federal largesse. Think of the adverse impact of federal student loans. President Barack Obama promised that government-granted student college loans would be more efficient, but these loans have, in fact, ballooned the cost of college. Concurrently, colleges have reduced quality outcomes and propagandized students, undermining our society because many students are hopelessly in debt. Now, progressives in Congress want to terminate the provision requiring repayment of student loans. For many of our young workforce, the burden of high student loans precludes marriage and buying a house.

Music Spotlight: Pryor Baird

June 3, 2023 Bethany Bowman

One of my favorite groups to interview is the music competition show’s finalists. To make it to the finales of any of the shows, artists normally have talent in spades. The actual winners are often untouchable, but those who rank in the top 10 are usually fabulous performers.

Pryor Baird is no exception. From Season 14 of NBC’s The Voice in 2018, Baird had all four judges vying for him to be their team. While he would ultimately go with Blake, it didn’t really matter because not only could he sing with a bluesy, Muddy Waters grit, he was different. And more importantly, he was memorable.

Commentary: An OB/GYN’s Perspective on the COVID-19 Vaccine

Dr. Kimberly Biss is an exception to the rule of self-interested medical professionals’ ignoring COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions. The Florida-based OB/GYN is one of very few doctors of her type across the nation who are speaking out against the COVID-19 vaccines. And in her professional experience, she’s seen how harmful these vaccines can be, especially on fertility rates.

Since the rollout of the vaccine, Dr. Biss has seen a dramatic increase in miscarriages in the pregnant women she interacts with in her practice.

Kari Lake Files Notice of Appeal in Election Challenge

June 2, 2023 Just the News

Former Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake announced this week that her legal team had filed a notice of appeal, beginning the first steps toward challenging her defeat in a suit against Maricopa County and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

RNC Sets Rules for August Debate in Milwaukee

June 2, 2023 Kaitlin Housler

The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced Friday that the first Republican presidential primary debate will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23. In order to participate in the August debate, candidates have to meet a list of criteria set by the RNC based on candidate status, polling, fundraising, and candidate pledging.

Court Rejects Massachusetts Middle-Schooler’s Free Speech Request to Wear ‘Two Genders’ Shirt at School

June 2, 2023June 2, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston denied 12-year-old Liam Morrison’s request this week for a temporary injunction or restraining order to block his school from prohibiting expression of his view that “there are only two genders” before the court issues its final decision. “MFI [Massachusetts Family Institute] recently filed suit to vindicate the rights of this brave Middleborough 7th-grader to wear a shirt to school that simply stated ‘There Are Only Two Genders,’” the pro-family organization said in a press statement sent to The Star News Network. “After being censored by his school, Liam’s case went viral. MFI has partnered with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to file a federal lawsuit against the school.”

Georgia GOP Convention Replaces Mike Pence with Kari Lake

June 2, 2023 Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake will be the keynote speaker at the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP)’s annual convention, replacing Mike Pence who was originally scheduled. Former President Donald Trump will also be speaking at the convention. The state party Chair David Shafer sent an email to delegates stating that Pence canceled “because of a televised national town hall at which he will be making an announcement regarding his future plans.”

Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Lays Out Peace Deal to End War In Ukraine, Sever Russia’s Partnership with China

June 2, 2023 M.D. Kittle

Speaking at a campaign event Friday in New Hampshire, Ohio businessman and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy laid out his plan for peace in Ukraine by opening up Russia. The 37-year-old political outsider, who has often said political leaders need to “think on the timescales of history, not on two-year election cycles,” believes a Nixon approach to Russia would curtail the looming threat of communist China.

Comer Wins: FBI Relents, Agrees to Deliver Subpoenaed Memo Alleging Biden Bribery to Capitol

June 2, 2023 Just the News

Facing a potential contempt of Congress vote, FBI Director Christopher Wray relented and has agreed to bring a subpoenaed document from the Biden family investigation to Capitol Hill for lawmakers to inspect on Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced Friday. The document in question, an FD-1023, contains uncorroborated allegations that an informant provided the FBI in June 2020 alleging that Joe Biden, when he was vice president, was engaged in a bribery scheme to change US policy in return for $5 million to his family’s businesses, lawmakers have said.

Senate Passes Compromise Debt Deal to Avert Default

June 2, 2023 Just the News

The U.S. Senate on Thursday evening passed a compromise deal to suspend the debt ceiling until after the presidential election while capping the rate of spending growth in subsequent years.

Biden Admin Will Admit Thousands More Migrants Each Month Through Phone App

June 2, 2023June 1, 2023 Georgia Star News Staff

The Biden administration will expand its program to legalize migrants to accept roughly 40,000 per month starting in June, according to CBS News.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to evaluate expanding the program, according to CBS News. Between January, when the program launched, and April, more than 79,000 migrants have scheduled appointments using CBP One, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

National Archives Refuses to Hand Over Emails Between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s Staff

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) refuses to hand over requested communications between Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden’s staff.

Just The News reports that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by America First Legal (AFL) has been rejected by NARA, which is claiming an exemption that allegedly includes communications between the president and his advisors, as well as communications between advisors.

University of Colorado Boulder Website Declares Misgendering an ‘Act of Violence’

June 2, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

In his report Wednesday that the University of Colorado (CU Boulder) is facing backlash for a statement on its “Pride Office” website that claims misgendering people can be considered an “act of violence,” legal scholar Jonathan Turley observed that when schools declare opposing views to be “violence,” they allow professors and students to “rationalize their own acts of violence or censorship.”

Biden’s ‘Equity’ Panel Pushes Woke Farm Policy

The Agriculture Department’s new Equity Commission is seeking the public’s comments after its interim report called for more diversity on related county boards as part of “closing the racial wealth gap and addressing longstanding inequities in agriculture.”

Members of USDA’s 15-member Equity Commission, which was established in February 2022, include NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who recently flagged the state’s policies in issuing a travel warning for Florida, where agriculture is a major industry.

Finnish Company Picks Ware County for First U.S. Manufacturing Facility

June 2, 2023June 1, 2023 The Center Square

A company specializing in industrialized manufacturing of buildings and homes plans to build its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Ware County.

ADMARES, which is from Turku, Finland, is relocating its headquarters to the U.S. and plans to create more than 1,400 jobs. According to a news release, the company intends to invest $750 million in its Waycross facility — a 2.5-million-square-foot build-to-suit facility — and has selected a greenfield site on Highway 23 in Waycross.

Commentary: The FDA Must Partner with State AGs to Crack Down on Illegal Vapes and Keep Kids Safe

June 2, 2023June 2, 2023 Admin

Millions of kids and teens in America are falling victim to an insidious campaign to get them hooked on illegal, disposable vapes that are made in China and intentionally marketed in youth-enticing flavors.

Commentary: Boycotts Aren’t Enough

Department store superchain Target has lost over $10 billion in value since conservatives across the U.S. started boycotting the woke corporation for pushing “pride” merchandise on children, including pro-trans “tucking” and binding” clothes designed for toddlers. This follows Anheuser-Busch’s reaching a six-month low after consumers started boycotting Bud Light, which the beer manufacturing giant decided to brand with the face of biological male Dylan Mulvaney, who now dresses and acts as a grotesque caricature of a woman. Although these are, from an authentic conservative perspective, positive results, boycotts aren’t enough.

Judge Orders Preliminary Injunction Against Biden’s ATF in Key Second Amendment Case

June 2, 2023 M.D. Kittle

A Milwaukee-based public interest law firm has won a key victory in a Second Amendment battle.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on Wednesday secured a preliminary injunction in federal court on behalf of three veterans challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ rule regulating up to 40 million pistols equipped with stabilizing braces.

‘Jews Against Soros’ Launched to Argue Criticizing Democrat Megadonor ‘Isn’t Antisemitic’

Two Jewish conservatives launched “Jews Against Soros,” a grassroots coalition of Jews who are against Democratic megadonor George Soros and argue that criticizing the billionaire is not antisemitic.

Senior Newsweek Editor Josh Hammer and Missouri Attorney General candidate Will Scharf launched the group Wednesday.

Commentary: The FBI Lost, Found, and Rewarded the Alleged Russian Spy Pivotal to Surveilling Trump

June 2, 2023 RealClearWire

Twelve years ago, FBI agents in Baltimore sought to wiretap former Brookings Institution analyst Igor Danchenko on suspicions he was spying for Russia. But the counterintelligence analyst they were assigned to work with Brian Auten told them he could not find their target and assumed the Russian national had fled back to Moscow.

Mother Sues After Trans Student Allegedly Assaults Daughter in School Bathroom

A mother is suing the Edmond School District in Oklahoma after a male student who identifies as transgender used the girls’ bathroom at school and allegedly attacked her daughter, according to the lawsuit.

A 17-year-old male allegedly entered the girls’ bathroom and “severely” attacked and beat the 15-year-old girl at approximately 7:15 a.m. on Oct. 26, according to the lawsuit filed on May 25. The school knew that the male student was biologically male, had made repeated threats of violence against the girl and routinely used the girls’ bathrooms in violation of a state law that requires students to use bathrooms aligned with their sex, the lawsuit alleges.

Liz Warren, JD Vance Join Forces to Punish Execs of Failed Banks

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance are uniting to introduce legislation announced Thursday to reduce the risks of large bank failures.

The Failed Bank Executives Clawback Act would propose harsher penalties for failed bank executives, which serves as a bipartisan response to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in early March, according to Warren’s office. The proposed legislation would require the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to recover some or all of executive payments from the three years prior to their bank’s failure, covering larger banks with more than $10 billion in assets.

FBI Chief Wray Rolls Dice with Congress over Contempt, then Jets to Las Vegas

June 1, 2023 Just the News

Just hours after informing Congress he wouldn’t comply with a subpoena and turn over an informant document on the Biden family investigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray hopped on the bureau’s Gulfstream jet and ferried off to the more friendly confines of Las Vegas.

The flight manifest for the FBI’s official jet shows Wray left the Washington suburb of Manassas, Va., at about 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday and landed about four hours later in Nevada’s most famous tourist city.

J6 Unmasked: Security Footage Shows Pelosi Evacuating Hollywood-Style from Capitol as Daughter Films

June 1, 2023 Just the News

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has described having to evacuate a riotous Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as traumatic. But Capitol Police security footage obtained by Just the News shows the long-time Democrat leader exited Hollywood-style from the home of Congress that fateful day with her daughter filming her as security officers tried to guide her through a secret safe passage corridor. The footage, made available by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and aired for the first time on the Just the News, No Noise television show on Real America’s Voice on Thursday night, provides three different angles of Pelosi’s evacuation the afternoon of Jan. 6. Each show her daughter Alexandra roving around her mother’s delegation with a camera as they moved briskly through corridors, led by members of the Capitol Police protective detail.

Analysis: The State School Choice in the U.S.

June 1, 2023May 31, 2023 Georgia Star News Staff

As the school year ends and legislative sessions adjourn, Chalkboard updated its review of which legislatures nationwide are implementing school choice measures that provide education options for students and their families and which states have removed them.

Several states across the country have recently adopted legislation that would allow students to attend any school of their choice using taxpayer dollars, something that advocates call universal school choice. Critics of the legislation say such measures will divert money away from public school systems that need the funds.

Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Blake Treinen Condemns Team’s Decision to Honor Anti-Catholic Hate Group

June 1, 2023May 31, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen released a statement Tuesday in which he expressed his “disappointment” that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that engages in obscene performances that are “blasphemous,” are being “honored as heroes at Dodger Stadium.”

The “sisters,” an organization that openly ridicules Christian beliefs and desecrates Jesus Christ, Treinen said, “display hate and mockery of Catholics and the Christian faith.”

Over 300 COVID-Era Medical Papers Retracted Due to Scientific Errors, Ethics Concerns

Over 330 different medical research papers have been retracted in the aftermath of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic, due to either research errors or ethical problems.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the watchdog group Retraction Watch documented the retractions in a recent report, which noted that most of the papers in question were published in smaller publications. A handful, however, were found in more well-known publications such as Lancet and Science. The retracted papers covered such topics as COVID side effects and the efficiency of alternative treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Suspected Chinese Spies Posing as Tourists Are Trying to Infiltrate U.S. Military Bases: Report

Chinese nationals attempted to gain access to U.S. military bases in Alaska, posing as tourists to carry out suspected spying operations, USA Today reported, citing officials and servicemembers.

In some cases, visitors from China seem to have mistakenly entered some of the numerous U.S. military installations in the northernmost state, officials told USA Today. However, other attempts by Chinese citizens to enter military bases appear to be targeted operations intended to collect sensitive information on American military capabilities, soldiers familiar with the events told the outlet on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Illegal Aliens Throwing Parties in NYC Hotels

In New York City, illegal aliens who are currently being housed in former hotels have been throwing wild parties during their stays, according to a former employee of one such facility.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the former Row NYC Hotel employee, Carlos Arellano, said that “every day, we find about 10 kids alone in their hotel rooms, either drinking or doing drugs, weapons will be in the room. It’s basically a free-for-all.”

Commentary: Combating the Censorship Industrial Complex

June 1, 2023 RealClearWire

It’s been nearly six months since the first installment of the Twitter Files — the journalistic effort by Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, and many others to expose the myriad channels by which the U.S government cooperated with Twitter on content moderation and censorship — was first published. Twitter Files One, perhaps the mildest of more than 20 unique reports, details the social media company’s internal deliberations in the days before the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was removed from the site. Later reports have exposed the tendrils of a governmental apparatus that influenced some of the most significant media distortions in recent American history, from the fraudulent Hamilton 68 misinformation tracking dashboard to the FBI’s intimate involvement with Twitter’s content-moderation practices.

Private Americans Patrol the Smuggler-Blighted Border Badlands of Arizona

June 1, 2023 RealClearWire

As blazing sunlight ebbs to a star-studded sky along the U.S.-Mexico border, members of the Arizona Border Recon group peer through field glasses at a trio of men on the southern side in camouflage fatigues and carrying pistols and AK-47s.

The men, almost certainly members of Sinaloa cartel factions, are using their own binoculars to scan random gaps in a roughly 30-foot-high wall of thick metal bars that stretches for miles along a flatland carved by arroyos and dotted with rocks, saguaro cactus and high grasses. At times, a solo gunshot echoes on the Mexican side, a sound the AZBR knows from experience is a signal to people to start moving north.

Bud Light Shells Out $200,000 to LGBT Business Organization amid Dylan Mulvaney Backlash, Cratering Sales