Month: May 2024

Commentary: More Defensive Gun Uses Undermine Government Claims About Armed Civilians

Georgia Star News Staff
Hand Gun

It should be painfully obvious to anyone paying attention that the Biden administration distrusts an armed civilian population and is willing to fudge the truth time and again to defend its untenable positions. But for those living blissfully unaware of the Biden administration’s animosity toward gun owners, it once again demonstrated its animosity in clear terms.

Earlier this month, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security accidentally said the quiet part out loud: It thinks that only the government really can be trusted with firearms, even when the government at issue is notoriously corrupt.

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Commentary: The Disgrace and Fall of the American Elite Campus

Georgia Star News Staff
Police controlling anti-Israel campus protest

Anti-Israel/pro-Hamas campus protests have engulfed hundreds of college campuses. But the more coastal, blue-state, and supposedly elite the campus was, the more furious the violence that sometimes followed these demonstrations.

Even rowdier and more vicious street analogs shut down key bridges, freeways, and religious services. Protestors often defaced hallowed American monuments, national cemeteries, and iconic buildings. Visa-holders were among the worst perpetrators, adding ingratitude to their criminality.

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Rubio, Consumer Advocate Want Chinese Online Retailers Investigated

The Center Square
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio

Lawmakers and consumer advocates are calling for a federal investigation into online Chinese retailers Temu and Shein.

The companies have spent billions of dollars in online American advertising with social media companies such as Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, and Google. The probe is warranted, critics say, because of anti-competitive practices skirting U.S. trade and public safety regulations; alleged use of slave laborers to make products sold at cut-rate prices; and advertising targeting children, low-income families and older Americans.

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Federal Judge Blocks Biden ATF Rule Expanding Gun Background Checks

Georgia Star News Staff
ATF Agents

A federal judge temporarily blocked a background check rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Sunday night.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the rule covering background checks for firearms purchases April 10, claiming it was based on bipartisan legislation passed in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. United States District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the rule until June 2.

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Commentary: Congress Unveils Plan to Hold Entire Internet Hostage Annually to Extort Big Tech

Georgia Star News Staff
Cathy McMorris Roberts anf Frank Pallone Jr

“It would require Big Tech and others to work with Congress over 18 months to evaluate and enact a new legal framework that will allow for free speech and innovation while also encouraging these companies to be good stewards of their platforms. Our bill gives Big Tech a choice: Work with Congress to ensure the internet is a safe, healthy place for good, or lose Section 230 protections entirely.”

That was House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) in a May 12 oped in the Wall Street Journal outlining their proposed draft legislation, the “Section 230 Sunset Act,” that would end Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protections on Dec. 31, 2025 for millions of interactive computer services, including websites, e-commerce stores and other small businesses.

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Biden Wants Companies to Disclose Climate Risks, Pilot Program Unreliable

Admin

Six major American financial institutions struggled to accurately assess the extent of their exposure to climate change and related risks, according to the Federal Reserve.

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No Signs of Life After Helicopter Carrying Iranian President and Other Top Officials Crashes

Just the News

No signs of life were detected at the site of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter crash, according to state media. His helicopter, which was carrying other top Islamic Republic officials, crashed during rough weather.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: The Audacity of Merrick Garland

Julie Kelly

FBI agents last week arrested a man from Maine for his involvement in the events of January 6. According to a Department of Justice press release, Lincoln Deming spent about 30 minutes inside the building after entering through an open door with Capitol Police standing by. Deming faces numerous charges including civil disorder and the dreaded “parading” in the Capitol misdemeanor.

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Small Business Owners Lament Inflation

The Center Square
Overwhelmed businessman

As inflation continues to rise this year, small businesses are feeling the pain.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses released a survey of small business owners Tuesday that found the nation’s job creators cite inflation as their top concern more than any other issue.

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Democrats Deny Non-Citizens are Voting in Federal Elections While Republicans Seek to Prevent It

Just the News
Rep. Joe Morelle

Democrats claim that non-citizen voting doesn’t occur while Republicans and most states are trying to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in elections.

As states are adopting constitutional amendments to prevent non-citizens from voting and Republicans are raising the alarm about the issue as more evidence has been presented, Democrats insist that it is not a concern because non-citizens are not voting in U.S. elections.

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Lawmakers to Grill Biden’s Energy Secretary Over Energy Costs, Regulations

The Center Square
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm

Lawmakers will grill President Joe Biden’s Energy Secretary at a newly announced oversight hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected to face lawmakers for questions amid elevated gas prices, a depleted strategic petroleum reserve, and ongoing criticism of Biden’s energy policies.

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Expert Details How Biden Administration is ‘Ignoring’ Congressional Statutes in Attempt to Cover Up Illegal Immigration Crisis

Kaitlin Housler
Illegal Immigrants

Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the Biden Administration is desperately trying to escape the press coverage of migrants illegally crossing the southern border by ignoring congressional statutes to allow for the abuse of the parole authority to take place.

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Cobb County Schools Hit with Civil Rights Complaint Alleging ‘Wave of Censorship’ After Removing Explicit Books from School Libraries

Debra McClure

A Cobb County School District (CCSD) spokesperson told The Georgia Star News on Friday that a complaint from the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) repeats  “made-up narratives espoused and circulated by a small community group which includes candidates for local office.”

NWLC’s complaint accused the school district of violating students’ civil rights by removing inappropriate books from school libraries. The complaint was filed on Monday against CCSD for creating a “hostile environment” for students by allegedly “censoring” books written by or about LBGTQIA people and people of color (POC).

The spokesperson said, “Local political candidates, including those running for Board, repeating a made-up narrative doesn’t make it true and community groups who want to promote access to sexually explicit content for minors, doesn’t make it right.”

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Commentary: Billionaires Funding Protests Donate Millions to House Dems

RealClearWire
George Soros

For President Biden and congressional Democrats, the fierce party division over the campus protests and the war in Gaza is full of warning signs during the 2024 election year. The unrest is unlikely to stop when universities break for the summer; protesters are pledging to disrupt the August Democratic National Convention planned to be held in Chicago. 

Most House Democrats have been reticent on the antisemitic protests and encampments roiling college graduations this month, while a handful have vocally defended or even celebrated the student protests as displays of protected free speech. 

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Commentary: Threat of Illegal Votes in the 2024 Election Results

Admin

Washington Post columnist Philip Bump had a hissy fit the other day about immigration, writing an article in his column titled “The 2020-was-stolen crew is here to stoke fears of noncitizen voters”—by which he probably meant “The 2020-election-was-stolen crew.”

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DA Fani Willis Boasts Fulton County Safer than Four Years Ago Despite Increasing Crime Statistics

Debra McClure
Fani Willis

A new campaign ad for District Attorney Fani Willis says that Fulton County is safer now than it was four years ago. However, year-end data from the Atlanta Police Department shows that crime rates have increased in southwest Atlanta and that car theft continues to skyrocket. Willis released the campaign ad on Monday. 

In a post on the X platform, the campaign ad for Willis, currently running for re-election, states, “The last four years, we’ve made Fulton County safer for everyone — and we’re just getting started.”

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Postmaster General DeJoy Agrees to Pause Changes to USPS Mail Processing Operations Until 2025

Debra McClure
Louis Dejoy

After pressure from lawmakers, the United States Postal Service (USPS) Postmaster General and CEO Louis DeJoy agreed to pause changes to mail processing operations until after January 1, 2025.

The pause would put on hold USPS plans to change operations in multiple areas nationwide that are undergoing Mail Processing Facility Reviews (MPFR).

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Biden’s Signature Bills are Pumping Billions into Swing States as 2024 Elections Draw Near

Georgia Star News Staff
President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden’s signature pieces of legislation are routing billions of dollars into swing states, but pundits are not convinced that the money will make much difference in November’s elections.

The bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021, the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have cumulatively routed billions of dollars to battleground states over the course of Biden’s first term. The Biden campaign is running swing state ads to promote the funding and projects that Biden’s legislative agenda has created, but state and national pundits told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the benefits are unlikely to be a decisive factor in states like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

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Appeals Court: Parents Cannot Opt K-5 Children Out of Pro-LGBTQ Curriculum

Georgia Star News Staff
Teacher in Class

On Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled that parents in Maryland’s largest school district do not have the right to opt their children out of pro-LGBTQ curriculum in the K-5 grades.

As reported by Fox News, the 2-1 ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a previous decision by a lower court, which denied the parents a preliminary injunction based on their alleged failure to prove that the policy would constitute a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

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Commentary: The New York Times Has a History of Being Fake News

Georgia Star News Staff
NYT

The New York Times is widely regarded as the newspaper of record in the United States. Founded in 1851 to appeal to a cultured, intellectual readership rather than a mass audience, the Gray Lady has won a record-breaking 137 Pulitzer Prizes, including for its reporting on the infamous Pentagon Papers.

In times of sharp political polarization, however, the reputation of the Times, like many other outlets, has suffered significant damage. Arguably, much of this is self-inflicted, with the paper increasingly setting aside its iconic moniker “All the News That’s Fit to Print” in pursuit of activist journalism.

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California Considers Rules That Could Push Gas Prices up an Additional $1.11/Gallon by 2026

The Center Square
Gas Station

California gas prices could rise by at least $1.11 per gallon by 2026 if the California Air Resources Board adopts amendments to its low carbon fuel standard program, CARB says. The LCFS amendments proposed at the end of 2023 would phase-out credits for turning manure into renewable natural gas, ending that business, and add jet fuel to LCFS purview, increasing flying costs for every flight that starts or ends in California even if the fuel was purchased elsewhere. Because so much of America’s imports come in through California, the LCFS amendments would raise the costs of goods for every American. 

LCFS uses a system of credits and deficits to reward or punish producers that make fuel better or worse than the rising “clean” standard.” Current LCFS guidelines call for a 20% reduction in carbon intensity by 2030 compared to 2010, while the proposed amendments call for a 90% reduction by 2045, including significant step-downs starting in 2025 that would result in major fuel cost increases starting that year. 

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‘Yes, We Did’ Fund Wuhan Gain-of-Function Research, ‘Virtually Every Lab’ Does it Says NIH Official

Just the News
Francis Collins, Lawrence Tabak

President Clinton’s infamous parsing of the word “is” remains apt 26 years after his deposition in Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit.

National Institutes of Health Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabakfound himself in a Clintonian callback at a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing Thursday on NIH oversight of funding that may have helped unleash the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Americans are Getting Poorer While Prices Keep Going Up

Georgia Star News Staff
Shopping

Americans’ real weekly earnings dropped sharply in April and still remain well below their level when President Joe Biden first took office, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Real average weekly earnings fell to $1,191.93 in April, declining by 0.4% in the month and 4.8% compared to the start of Biden’s term in January 2021, according to data calculated by the Daily Caller News Foundation from the BLS. Prices have risen over 19% since Biden first took office and 3.4% in the last year, degrading the value of Americans’ wages.

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Border ‘Gotaways’ Increase by More than 340 Percent Under Biden

Just the News
CBP Officer chasing illegal border crossers

The number of known “gotaways” – or illegal migrants who evaded Border Patrol – exploded under the Biden administration by more than 340% from where it was at the highest point of the Trump administration, according to data published Wednesday.

In fiscal year 2023, more than 670,000 gotaways entered the United States, per Customs and Border Protection Data that Fox News obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

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Lack of Operational Control at Northern Border Poses National Security Threats

The Center Square
US Border Patrol

The northern border largely has been unmanned and understaffed for decades as federal reports issue conflicting conclusions about how much, or how little, operational control exists.

Some officials have suggested the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has just 1% operational control over the northern border after a 2019 General Accounting Office audit of U.S. Customs and Border northern border operations. But a December 2022 DHS report claimed, “The Border Patrol is better staffed today than at any time in its 87-year history,” noting no surveillance of extensive parts of the northern border existed prior to 9/11.

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Poll: Three in Four Fear Artificial Intelligence Abuse in Presidential Election

The Center Square
Election results on a mobile phone screen

More than 3 in 4 Americans fear abuses of artificial intelligence will affect the 2024 presidential election, and many are not confident they can detect faked photos, videos or audio.

AI & Politics ’24, led by Lee Rainie and Jason Husser at Elon University, found 78 percent believe it is likely artificial intelligence will be abused to impact the outcome between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. There are 39 percent who believe artificial intelligence will hurt the election process, and just 5 percent believe it will help.

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Biden Attempt to Hide Tapes to Collide with Precedent from Past Democratic Probes

Just the News

President Joe Biden’s attempt to assert executive privilege over the tapes of his interview with federal investigators in his own classified documents case could run into the history of Democratic tactics to obtain information from former President Trump.

For example, recent court decisions surrounding Trump’s efforts to invoke executive privilege over subpoenaed documents by the Jan. 6 Select Committee confirmed a legitimate congressional investigation is often a strong basis for requesting documents or information from the executive. Though, Biden’s current control of the executive branch may allow him to stonewall successfully.

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Georgia Committee Poised to Deliver Fulton Jail Recommendations

The Center Square

As Fulton County officials reportedly consider a sales tax to fund a $1.7 billion Fulton County Jail replacement, some groups have an idea to save taxpayers money: keeping people out of jail.

The Georgia Senate Public Safety Subcommittee on Fulton County Jail is preparing to file a report with recommendations that could guide legislative action when lawmakers return to Atlanta next year. WSB-TV reported county officials plan on asking state lawmakers to allow a new sales tax to pay for a jail replacement.

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Commentary: Solutions for America’s Unhealthy Economy

Georgia Star News Staff
Worker That Is Stressed

LinkedIn is the worst social media site in existence.

Engaging with literal pornbots on Twitter is less soul-sucking than reading the tone-deaf striver banalities and motivational tripe that festoon the place: “Here are five things I learned about peer-to-peer marketing after proposing to my girlfriend,” etc. 

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Commentary: The Hidden Benefits of Homeschool

Georgia Star News Staff

These days, it’s almost common knowledge that homeschooled students have a better academic education, do better in college and careers, and are regarded as “smarter” than students from public schools. Homeschooling families typically gravitate toward this educational lifestyle to avoid the public school environment, to prioritize their faith and family values, to adjust to a more flexible and forgiving lifestyle, and to offer their children a better childhood than that found in public schools. Yes to all! These are wonderful reasons to choose homeschooling and should be widely shared and celebrated.

When my parents chose to homeschool me and my siblings, though, they had no idea how deep the effects would be. Academics is only one aspect of homeschooling. The family-centric, homeschool lifestyle offered us benefits that continue to shape my adult life and the life of my own family. Everyone should know the often completely hidden perks that homeschooling provides children long after they finish their high school coursework.

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Report: Equity Rich Mortgaged Homes See Third Straight Quarterly Decline

The Center Square
Home

The number of mortgaged homes that are equity rich have declined for three consecutive quarters, and the portion of mortgaged homes considered “seriously underwater” increased, according to a new report by ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property and real estate data.

ATTOM’s first-quarter 2024 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report found that 45.8% of mortgaged residential properties in the United States “were considered equity-rich in the first quarter, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market values.”

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Demonized as Contributing to Climate Change, Cattle May Actually Decrease Emissions, Research Shows

Just the News
Cows

Few things have escaped environmentalists’ scorn, and even cows have not been exempt from blame for climate change. Emissions from livestock production have become an increasing focus of efforts to fight climate change. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 11.1% of emissions worldwide come from livestock production, and the organization released a report last year urging Americans to eat less meat. If people aren’t eating meat, the argument goes, then fewer cows are produced. If there’s fewer cows, there’s less emissions.

However, research by pro-agribuisness outfits Alltech and Archbold suggests that the thinking on reducing emissions at the source is missing a bigger picture on cattles’ relationship with the land, and possibly, by removing grazing from pastures, emissions will actually go up.

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Commentary: More Public Charter Schools are Needed Nationwide

Georgia Star News Staff
School in class

Parents, children, and supporters of school choice have cause to celebrate this National Charter Schools Week.

Charter schools earned the top two spots on a list of the best high schools in America, according to a recent report by U.S. News & World Report. And, of the top 100 public high schools, charter schools claimed 19 spots—10 in Arizona alone—despite accounting for only 8% of all public schools in the country.

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Government of Peru Categorizes Transgender People as ‘Mentally Ill’

Georgia Star News Staff
Dina Boluarte Peru

On Wednesday, the health ministry of Peru formally announced that all people who identify as “transgender” or “non-binary” will now be classified as “mentally ill.”

As reported by the Daily Caller, President Dina Boluarte signed the decree, which declares that “transsexualism, dual-role transvestism, gender identity disorder in childhood, other gender identity disorders and fetishistic transvestism” will all be considered mental illnesses by the government going forward. As such, Peruvians suffering from these conditions will now be “guaranteed full coverage of medical attention for mental health.”

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Washington State County Approves Unincorporated Minimum Wage Hike, Ties National High

The Center Square
Cashier working

The King County Council has approved an ordinance that will increase the minimum wage in unincorporated parts of King County.

The legislation increases minimum wage to a high of $20.29, which ties the cities of Tukwila and Renton for the highest minimum wage in the nation.

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Walmart Cuts Hundreds of Jobs, Requires Remote Workers to Come to the Office

Just the News

Walmart has announced layoffs impacting several hundred jobs at its campus offices and is requiring remote employees to come to the office. 

The retail giant said in a staff memo Tuesday most of the remote workers and personnel in its Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto offices will relocate to its primary offices in Bentonville, Arkansas; Hoboken, New Jersey; and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Student Workers Union to ‘Maximize Chaos’ at UC Campuses After Pro-Palestinian Protest Crackdown

Georgia Star News Staff
Pro-Palestine Protest

The University of California graduate students union plans to “maximize chaos and confusion” on campuses in opposition to administrators’ responses to pro-Palestinian protesters in recent weeks, a UAW 4811 leader said.

On Wednesday, the union voted to authorize a strike on UC campuses, it announced on X. UAW 4811 represents 48,000 graduate and undergraduate student workers and researchers.

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China’s Growing Threat to U.S. National Security in the Crosshairs of Congress

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

While the Chinese Communist Party’s possibly imminent invasion of Taiwan could spark a war in the region, experts and lawmakers in Congress on Thursday expressed that the Taiwan issue is just one part of a broader Chinese strategy countering the U.S.

U.S.House lawmakers raised the alarm about the Chinese communist government’s threat to the U.S. via cyber security and the border crisis at two separate hearings Thursday.

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Report: Medical Schools Secretly Defying Supreme Court’s Ruling on Affirmative Action

Georgia Star News Staff
Medical Students

A coalition of medical professionals revealed the methods by which medical schools across the country are circumventing the Supreme Court’s ruling outlawing the practice of affirmative action, and employing such race-based policies anyway.

According to Fox News, the group Do No Harm released new research this week revealing that “many in the healthcare establishment nevertheless remain ideologically committed to the principle of racial favoritism and reject the virtue of race blindness.” This comes despite the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last year in the case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which determined that affirmative action, the practice of admitting students or hiring staff based solely on their race, was unconstitutional.

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Missouri AG Claims Kansas City Doxxed Chiefs Kicker over Religious Views

Just the News
Harrison Butker

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey accused Kansas City on Thursday of doxxing one of its NFL players over religious comments he made at a college over the weekend, where he criticized President Joe Biden for being a pro-abortion Catholic.

The city of Kansas City, which is primarily in Missouri, posted a since-deleted “reminder” that Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker lives in Lee Summit on Wednesday, but replaced it with an apology for the “error.” The city account did not include a physical address in the original post.

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CNN’s Jake Tapper Trashed Trump for Years, Now He’s Moderating Presidential Debate

Just the News
Jake Tapper

CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The role is typically meant to be that of a neutral custodian of the conversation between the participants, though Tapper’s long history of harshly criticizing Trump while on the air raises questions about his ability to remain even-handed.

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