Day: December 15, 2023

Congress Votes to Extend FBI Warrantless Surveillance Tool Without Reforming It

Georgia Star News Staff

Congress voted Thursday to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) with no reforms as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

Section 702 of FISA is a tool that intelligence officials have allegedly abused as it enables them to surveil Americans without obtaining a warrant. After the Senate passed FISA through the NDAA on Wednesday and failed to get sufficient support to eliminate the four-month extension, the House of Representatives finalized it in a vote on Thursday.

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Trump Dominates in Swing States Against Biden for 2024: Poll

Georgia Star News Staff

Former President Donald Trump is dominating in seven crucial battleground states against President Joe Biden ahead of a potential 2024 head-to-head rematch, a Thursday poll found.

Trump is leading Biden 47% to 42% across Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina, according to a Morning Consult/Bloomberg survey. The former president held his largest leads against Biden in North Carolina and Georgia by 9 and 6 points, respectively, and Trump’s smallest margin of victory came in Pennsylvania by 2 points.

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Pro-Life Experts Warn Leftists Are Using Texas Woman’s Abortion Battle as ‘Highly Public Flashpoint’

Georgia Star News Staff

Kate Cox asked the Texas Supreme Court to give her permission to abort her unborn baby, a baby that has a condition known as trisomy 18. On Monday, her lawyers said that she will go to another state to end the baby’s life. That same day, the court said Texas law didn’t require her to ask its permission.

Trisomy 18 is a condition where a baby has an extra copy of chromosome 18, making it highly likely that the baby will die in the womb or shortly after birth—though some babies with trisomy 18 do survive, such as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s daughter. Cox’s lawyers have argued that by not aborting her baby, Cox is jeopardizing her health and future fertility.

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Chinese Drug Dealers Use Risqué Ads to Sell Narcotics, Fentanyl Ingredients on U.S. Social Media

Georgia Star News Staff

Accounts claiming to represent Chinese drug manufacturers are using provocative images of women to advertise narcotics and fentanyl precursors on U.S. social media, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of hundreds of English and Chinese-language social media posts.

The DCNF identified several dozen LinkedIn accounts claiming to be saleswomen representing China-based manufacturers primarily located near Beijing or Wuhan. The accounts often featured images of women and teenage girls in advertisements for a wide variety of controlled substances including 4-piperidone, which is used to manufacture fentanyl.

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Biden Impeachment Inquiry Approval Sets Stage for Likely Court Challenge, Contempt Charges

Just the News

The GOP-led House’s passage of the impeachment inquiry resolution against President Biden ramps up their investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and prepares them for a court challenge, according to top Republicans. 

Lawmakers voted 221-212 along party lines on Wednesday to approve the resolution authorizing the inquiry.

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Georgia U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson Will Not Seek Re-Election in 2024

Tom Pappert

Georgia U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) announced on Thursday that he will not seek another term in office, and will instead resign from Congress when his term ends in January 2025.

Ferguson announced his decision to retire from Congress in a Thursday post to X, formerly Twitter. He called his time in the U.S. House “the honor of a lifetime,” while complimenting his staff as “talented and dedicated” and constituents as “wonderful.”

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Music Spotlight: Amanda Stewart

Bethany Bowman

Growing up in the mountains of Montana, Amanda Stewart spent much of her time on her grandparents’ ranch, being exposed to the acoustic instrumentation and simple yet honest songwriting of Americana, folk, and country music styles.

She said, “My mom did a little bit of singing in school and was always singing in the car. And I sang with her. We actually did little karaoke contests and things like that. And my dad loved music, too. And my grandparents had a piano in their living room at their ranch. Whenever I would go, I would just be in there plugging away and singing. Nobody was professionally inclined, but it’s just always been a big part of the family life.”

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Ranchers Suing Colorado, Federal Agencies over Wolf Reintroduction

The Center Square

A pair of trade groups representing Colorado ranchers are suing state and federal wildlife agencies to delay reintroducing gray wolves to the Western Slope. 

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, comes before the state’s deadline to reintroduce gray wolves by the end of this year.  

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Commentary: As Inflation Cools, Fed Keeps Rates Steady, Slowdown Expected in 2024

Georgia Star News Staff

The Federal Reserve on Dec. 13 held the Federal Funds Rate—the rate at which banks lend to each other—steady at 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent, as the consumer inflation once again cooled to 12-month average level of 3.1 percent, according to the latest data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Leading the cooldown were drops in energy prices as gasoline dropped 6 percent in November, following a 5 percent drop in October.

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