The monthly costs for the thrifty plan for a family of four participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is increasing by 31% over the last three years.
The United States Department of Agriculture stated the food stamp benefit amounts are based every year upon the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan.
Read More
The Biden administration’s choice for zero-emissions operations in America’s ports was boosted Wednesday with the opening of applications for $3 billion from taxpayers in the Clean Ports Program.
Equipment and infrastructure needs can be met that “reduce mobile source emissions at U.S. ports,” a release from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says. EPA Administrator Michael Regan was in Wilmington, N.C., alongside Gov. Roy Cooper, whose administration he previously worked in, to make the announcement.
Read More
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday said the border crisis is a “a Joe Biden invasion. This is a Biden invasion.”
He met with Gov. Greg Abbott in Eagle Pass, Texas, to tour a new military base established through Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star. “What they showed me is nothing less than incredible. This is a military operation. This is like a war,” he said.
Read More
Newly released federal data showed that inflation continues to rise in the U.S.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its Personal Consumption Expenditures marker Thursday, showed inflation rose 0.2% in January, more than many experts had previously expected.
Read More
A Montana think tank and special interest groups have filed an amicus brief in the state supreme court case known as Held v. Montana.
The coalition is asking the Montana Supreme Court to overrule a lower court’s decision that struck down recent changes to state environmental permitting laws and said 16 minors had standing to sue over Montana’s contribution to climate change.
Read More
An Alliance for American Manufacturing report called for tariffs to protect the U.S. electric vehicle market from an “extinction-level event” caused by Chinese competitors.
The report follows Chinese EV maker BYD, the world’s largest EV maker, releasing a $14,000 EV in February that could “demolish” domestic EVs, often $40,000 more expensive.
Read More
The Federal Communications Commission has reinstated a policy that mandates broadcasters file a document that lists the race and gender of its employees.
U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY-09) said the policy was not followed while Donald Trump was president of the United States.
Read More
Existing home sales increased 3.1% in January, but year-over-year sales fell.
Existing home sales were up 3.1% from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million in January. Year-over-year, sales declined 1.7% (down from 4.07 million in January 2023), according to the National Association of Realtors.
Read More
Americans are less satisfied in a range of areas since President Joe Biden took office, according to a new poll.
Gallup released the polling data Thursday, part of its annual “State of the Union” from American respondents.
Read More
With rumblings that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, plans to table and not even hold an impeachment hearing to try Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Republican senators are demanding that the U.S. Constitution be followed and a trial be held.
Mayorkas was the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history when the Republican-led House did so February 13. He was impeached on two counts: willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and breach of public trust.
Read More
Bills to ban ranked-choice voting are causing passionate debate over a method to cast ballots that some say is fairer and some say is confusing and could lower voter turnout.
Ranked-choice voting allows people to rank the candidates, with “one” being their favorite. The votes are tallied in rounds. After the first round, the candidate with the lowest votes is eliminated. The voter’s second preference is then added to the tally. The process continues until a winner is determined.
Read More
Denver’s public school system has been taking in as many as 250 new students a week since the new year, which it attributes to the increase in the number of migrants arriving in the city.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero called the situation an “unprecedented challenge” in a message to the community posted on the district’s website. The district said the influx of new students will cost an additional $837,000 “to support additional needs across the system.”
Read More
Detroit placed the U.S. on wheels but if Motor City wants to go electric it faces fierce global competition.
Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD outsold Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2023. The foreign automaker said it produced more than 3 million new energy vehicles in 2023 compared to Tesla’s 1.8 million.
Read More
A Congressional watchdog said Friday that it was again unable to determine if the federal government’s consolidated financial statements were reliable.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which is Congress’s research arm, said it was hampered by “serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense,” problems in accounting for transactions between federal agencies, weaknesses in the process for preparing the statements and inadequate support for the cost of loan programs from the Small Business Administration and Department of Education.
Read More
Transit ridership has seen a significant decline across the U.S. since the beginning of COVID-19. Although now rising slowly, transit agencies are still seeing a 22% drop from peak pre-COVID ridership.
Overall weekly ridership went from 196.3 million the week of Jan. 26-Feb. 1, 2020 to 152.7 million the week of Feb. 4-10, 2024. That’s according to reports from the American Public Transportation Association.
Read More
Domestic oil production in the U.S. reached a new record in November of 2023, hitting 13.31 million barrels per day, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The previous record was 13.25 million barrels per day. That was set in September 2023.
Read More
Immigration has become a toxic issue for President Joe Biden, with many voters citing it as their top problem with the president, according to newly released survey data.
Gallup released the poll, which was taken in January and found that only 41% of Americans approved of the job Biden is doing as president while 54% disapprove. Among those disapproving of Biden’s work, 19% cite immigration as the reason, far more than any other specific issue.
Read More
President Joe Biden is blaming corporations for high prices and “shrinkflation.” Business executives and many economists disagree, arguing the real problem is inflation created by federal deficit spending policies.
Ahead of the Super Bowl, Biden posted a video on X saying, “While you were Super Bowl shopping, did you notice smaller-than-usual products where the price stays the same? Folks are calling it Shrinkflation and it means companies are giving you less for every dollar you spend. I’m calling on the big consumer brands to put a stop to it.”
Read More
In the first quarter of fiscal 2024, more foreign nationals were apprehended illegally entering the northern border than at any time in U.S. history.
They totaled 60,602, according to new data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Read More
There were nearly 243,000 illegal border crossers reported in January nationwide, according to new data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
They include 176,205 illegal border crossers along the southwest border. The majority, 124,220, were apprehended between ports of entry.
Read More
Prices rose more than expected in January, according to newly released federal inflation data.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Tuesday released its Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation, which reported that prices rose 0.3% last month.
Read More
The U.S. Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after days of delay from Republicans who did not want to pass the funding without provisions to secure the southern border.
The legislation passed early Tuesday morning after a filibuster largely led by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., ended. Now the legislation goes to the House, where it remains unclear if they can get the votes.
Read More
Farms and families will pay significantly more under the Biden administration’s net-zero climate policies, a new report from an Ohio-based policy group says.
The Buckeye Institute’s Net-Zero Climate-Control Policies Will Fail the Farm shows farmers will see a 34% rise in operational costs under the policies and family grocery bills will increase 15% based on modeling.
Read More
The Texas legislature has allocated more than $11.6 billion to border security efforts over a four-year period, the most in state history.
It totals more than multiple state fiscal year budgets and more than what the Trump administration allocated to federal border security efforts in Texas.
Read More
New Jersey, California, New York, Texas and Illinois face a hundred billion plus deficit when it comes to paying for the benefits other than pensions promised to state retirees.
The State of New Jersey’s unfunded liability for post-retirement benefits other than pensions in state health care plans reached $174.9 billion in 2022. That was the highest in the country, according to a report by the American Legislative Exchange Council. The report stated the nationwide costs of state-sponsored post-retirement benefits reached $1.14 trillion in 2022.
Read More
The South Carolina House Republicans plan to introduce a clean “Constitutional Carry” measure after declining to proceed with an amended version the state Senate passed, exposing a rift within Republican ranks over one of the party’s top priorities.
Read More
The ACLU of Georgia said it would sue the state if Gov. Brian Kemp signs into law a measure that expands the number of offenses for which suspects must “post bail or surety.”
State Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, introduced Senate Bill 63 in January 2023, but lawmakers did not advance the measure before last year’s session ended. However, both the state House and Senate signed off on the measure this year.
Read More
A visibly upset President Joe Biden addressed the nation late Thursday to respond to news that the special counsel tasked with investigating his handling of classified documents had chosen not to charge him, but also detailed numerous examples of his memory loss.
The blockbuster special counsel report, while clearing Biden, sparked questions about Biden’s mental fitness when it called him an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Biden is 81 years old.
Read More
The Georgia Senate passed a bill that could create a Mulberry city in northeastern Gwinnett County should voters give the proposal a thumbs up.
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 333 last week, sending it to the state House for consideration. If passed and signed into law, it would put the issue on the spring primary ballot.
Read More
The percentage of hourly and salaried workers in a union decreased in 2023, continuing a trend of ongoing decline in the past few decades.
The decline in 2023 was small, from 10.1% of the workforce to 10% even, but the trend is significant. In 1983, about 20% of hourly and salaried workers were in a union, meaning U.S. union membership has halved in about four decades.
Read More
by Bethany Blankley One year in as Texas’ “border czar,” Mike Banks says the state has been so successful at blocking illegal entry that cartel activity has been pushed west into Democratic-led states that aren’t implementing similar tactics that Texas has. Banks spoke with The Center Square in an…
Read More
Although public colleges and universities operate under First Amendment guidelines and many private schools pledge to uphold the principles of free speech, a new report says most still enforce policies that restrict it in some way.
After reviewing the policies of 489 of America’s top colleges and universities, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, has released its Spotlight on Speech Codes 2024. The schools earned red, yellow, or green light ratings based on the extent to which their written regulations threaten free speech.
Read More
Many Republicans already are criticizing a border bill expected to be voted on in the U.S. Senate. Former President Donald Trump blasted the proposed legislation Monday, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called it “dead on arrival.”
Read More
Federal prosecutors have charged a New Jersey political operative with a mail-in voter fraud scheme that involved paying “messengers” to cast ballots in the names of people whom they never met.
Former Atlantic City council president Craig Callaway was arrested Thursday and charged with “procuring, casting and tabulating fraudulent mail-in ballots” in the November 2022 general election, according to U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger’s office.
Read More
Polling from the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, the leading trade association of fuel, shows seven states oppose gas car bans.
Polling from the presidential and senate battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, shows most registered and likely general election voters oppose government efforts to ban new gas cars and impose electric vehicle mandates.
Read More
A group of states filed a friend of the court brief supporting a transgender veterans group that filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs seeking gender-confirmation surgery for 163,000 transgender veterans.
The Transgender American Veterans Association lawsuit, filed last month, seeks an order that the Department of Veterans Affairs act on the group’s 2016 rule-making petition for gender-confirmation surgery.
Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court is considering a federal ban on bump stocks later in February, the latest opportunity for the high court to rule on gun violence and 2nd Amendment rights.
The case in question, Garland v. Cargill, came after the Trump administration banned bump stocks, attachments added to semiautomatic weapons to make them fire more quickly, classifying them as “machine guns,” which are banned by federal law.
Read More
by Bethany Blankley As the battle between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and President Joe Biden continues over state sovereignty and Texas’ constitutional right to defend its border, the leaders and residents of 25 states have come to Texas’ aid, as others did from 22 states nearly 190 years ago.…
Read More
Texas sheriffs and some residents have a message for a trucker convoy scheduled to come to the Texas border on Feb. 3: “Don’t come.” Organizer of the “Take Our Border Back Southern Border Convoy & 3-state Rally” are calling on “all active and retired law enforcement and military, veterans, mama bears, elected officials, business owners, ranchers, truckers, bikers, media and law abiding, freedom-loving Americans” to travel to rural, hard-to -reach areas near Eagle Pass, Texas, Yuma, Arizona, and San Ysirdo, California.
Read More
As part of making their case to impeach U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, House Committee on Homeland Security Republicans identified more than a dozen parole programs they argue Mayorkas illegally created to circumvent laws established by Congress.
Read More
Newly released federal inflation data shows prices rose in December.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis released its Producer Consumption Expenditure, a key marker of inflation, which showed a 0.2% increase last month. That is an increase of 2.9% in the last year.
Read More
Cities across the country are counting their homeless in an effort to get a handle on how big the problem is.
In the city of Detroit, 25 teams of volunteers will count the number of homeless throughout the city on Jan. 31.
Read More
A program partially-funded by the city of Denver that pays homeless people a regular stipend is eligible to migrants as long as they meet the criteria, according to the city.
The Denver Basic Income Program, which was started in 2021 with the aid of $2 million from the city of Denver, announced it will go at least six months more beginning in February 2024.
Read More
The Georgia Senate passed a measure Friday to bar ranked-choice voting in the state.
The chamber passed Senate Bill 355 by a 31-19 margin.
Read More
The natural gas industry plans to push for more support of a federal program to cover energy costs for low-income families in 2024 while talking up safety and reliability.
“We need to break the poverty cycle by working together,” Jerry Norcia, chairman of the board of the American Gas Association, said in a press call on Monday. “Government, nonprofits and corporations can remove the barriers that prevent access to a prosperous future.”
Read More
More chain stores closed in 2023 as a result of high inflationary costs, with the trend continuing in 2024 led by the iconic department store, Macy’s.
In 2023, retail stores, pharmaceutical and fast-food chains continued a trend of previous years: declaring bankruptcy and closing their doors or shutting down some locations to cut costs, citing inflation, higher costs, and profit losses.
Read More
A new poll shows that Democrats and Republicans are concerned more about inflation than other potential crises, but voters from the two parties don’t see eye to eye on other concerns, including the potential of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil or potential chaos after the 2024 election.
The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights found that Republicans (45%) were more concerned about inflation than Democrats (32%). Concerns that inflation could continue and further drive up prices were highest for voters with children under 18 (47%) and those 45 to 54 years old (47%).
Read More
Maine’s highest court has declined to take up an appeal of a ruling over a move to take former President Donald Trump’s name off the state’s GOP primary ballot.
In a decision issued Wednesday, the Supreme Judicial Court dismissed an appeal by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, asking justices to overturn a lower court ruling delaying a decision on the ballot challenge. The court said it would be improper to rule on a case that has yet to be decided.
Read More
A divided U.S. Supreme Court sided with President Joe Biden’s administration on Monday, clearing the way for federal authorities to remove razor wire installed in Eagle Pass along the U.S.-Mexico border by Texas law enforcement.
Read More
Georgia’s top election official wants more tax dollars to fund technology that could “audit the ballot text of every race” without using QR codes.
“Voters deserve comprehensive audits of all races and the reassurance that the ballots are being counted correctly,” Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement after he presented his proposed budget to the joint Appropriations Committee.
Read More