Month: October 2020

Feds Obtained FISA Warrant Against Hunter Biden’s Chinese Business Associate, Documents Show

Minnesota Sun Staff

Federal investigators obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against one of Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates, suggesting that the executive was suspected of acting as a covert agent of a foreign government.

Prosecutors revealed the existence of at least one FISA warrant against Chi Ping Patrick Ho, known as Patrick Ho, in a Feb. 8, 2018 court filing obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Ho was charged on Dec. 18, 2017 with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and money laundering related to CEFC China Energy contracts in Uganda and Chad. Ho had been an executive at the multi-billion dollar Chinese energy company prior to his arrest.

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Music Spotlight: Church of Roswell

Bethany Bowman

I was intrigued when Candi Carpenter, who has one of the strongest voices in country music, announced that she, along with British rocker, Josh Doyle, were forming a new conceptual collective duet called the Church of Roswell.

I interviewed Carpenter last year right before she performed for Dolly’s 50 Year Opry Celebration. Doyle and his pop/punk band, the Dum Dums, were a recognizable force in the early 2000s when they toured England extensively. They sat down with me recently and helped me connect the dots concerning their newest endeavor.

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Average California Home Expected to Cost $1 Million by 2030

The Center Square

The average home in California is expected to be valued at more than $1 million by 2030, according to research by RenoFi, an online company that specializes in home loans for renovation projects.

California has outpaced the national average for increasing home prices over the past decade, growing 78 percent and sending the average home value from $331,000 in 2010 to $598,000 today.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn and Other Republican Senators Have ‘Concern’ About the College Board’s Relationship with Chinese-Backed Confucius Institutes

Zachery Schmidt

  Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) along with six other Republican Senators sent a letter Tuesday to the College Board (CB) questioning the organization’s relationship with the Chinese-backed Confucius Institutes. In the letter, the senators expressed “concern” about CB’s relationship with the Confucius Institute. The CB is a non-profit organization that…

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‘Charges of a Rigged Election Could Explode’: Wisconsin Can’t Count Late Ballots, Supreme Court Rules

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling Monday night in a 5-3 vote, prohibiting the State of Wisconsin from counting mail-in ballots that arrive days after the election.

Voting rights groups, state and national Democratic parties and the League of Women voters sought to extend ballot counting in Wisconsin, according to NBC News. They argued that the coronavirus pandemic presents challenges to voters who wish to vote by mail, but the Supreme Court ruled that citizens have plenty of options if they wish to vote.

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Commentary: The Media’s Smear Job Campaigning for Joe Biden

Admin

As the national political media have conducted practically the entire Democratic presidential election campaign, the credibility of the media is entirely implicated in the election result. In the latest revelations about the financial activities of the Biden family while presidential candidate Joe Biden was the vice president, the national political media and the principal social media companies have sandbagged another large media company, News Corporation’s New York Post, and have tried to impose online silence on the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

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Omar Calls for Packing the Court After Barrett Confirmation

Minnesota Sun Staff

Rep. Ilhan Omar called for “expanding” the U.S. Supreme Court Monday night after the Senate voted to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Barrett was confirmed in a vote of 52-48 Monday evening and was sworn in shortly after by Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during a ceremony at the White House. Every Democratic senator, including both of Minnesota’s U.S. senators, voted against her confirmation. Sen. Susan Collins was the only Republican to vote against Barrett’s confirmation.

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Hunter Biden Group Touted Joe Biden in Investment Pitch to Chinese Firm

Admin

In 2017, Hunter Biden and a group of business partners seeking a $10 million investment deal with a Chinese energy firm touted Joe Biden’s friendly relations with Colombia’s president in their sales proposal, which suggested a series of oil investments in the South American country, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Hunter Biden and four other businessmen, including his uncle James Biden, highlighted the former vice president’s positive relationship with Juan Manuel Santos in a May 15, 2017 investment outline for CETC China Energy, a Chinese energy conglomerate.

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Politics, Competition With Religious Schools, Far Outweighed Science in School Shutdown Decisions, Analysis Found

Minnesota Sun Staff

In response to state and local government shutdowns reportedly designed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, schools districts and local governments implemented different reopening guidelines and timelines – but did so more because of politics or competition with private schools than because of science, a new report published by Brown University found.

The EdWorking Paper published by The Annenberg Institute at Brown University authored by Michael T. Hartney from Boston College and Leslie K. Finger from the University of North Texas found that “the most critical decision facing the nation’s school boards – whether or not to re-open in person and to what degree – appears to be closely related to the partisanship of a local school district.”

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Sorority Apologizes for Congratulating Amy Coney Barrett

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Kappa Delta sorority deleted and apologized for a congratulatory message for Amy Coney Barrett, who was a member of the sorority during her time at Rhodes College.

The sorority tweeted an image of a statement, saying “KD alumna Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to serve on the Supreme Court. While we do not take a stand on political appointments, we recognize Judge Coney Barrett’s significant accomplishment. We acknowledge our members have a variety of views and a right to their own beliefs.”

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Analysis: Jobs, Housing Show Recovery Continues

Minnesota Sun Staff

There were only two insightful reports on the economy this past week—for jobs and housing. Both show impressive gains.

Weekly initial unemployment claims fell by 56,000, to 787,000. They are down more than 100,000 from a month ago. There has also been a substantial decline in the insured unemployment rate to 5.7 percent from 8.7 percent a month ago. Also, the number of people receiving unemployment insurance payments fell to 8.4 million; it was 12.6 million a month ago.

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Commentary: Trump Hit on a Great Truth That Recalibrated Foreign and Domestic Policy and Shifted Republican Orthodoxy

Minnesota Sun Staff

What was, is, and will be the Trump agenda?

Against all odds, what elected Trump in 2016 was a recalibration of American foreign and domestic policy—and the art of politicking itself.

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Commentary: A Ban on Fracking Would Kill 6 Million Jobs Across Seven States by 2025

Minnesota Sun Staff

Joe Biden upended the historic formula of a Democratic presidential nominee. Usually, the hopeful plays his liberal greatest hits to the primary crowd, before tacking to the center as the election dawns and ordinary Americans start listening.

Since his assisted capture of the nomination, Biden has veered leftward, crafting, with the help of the party’s progressive wing, the most progressive platform since the ill-fated George McGovern in 1972.

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New Mexico Legislator Flees Home After Receiving Threats

The Associated Press

A New Mexico state senator said he fled his house after receiving anonymous threatening telephone messages following his criticism of a protest outside the state Capitol against coronavirus restrictions.

State Sen. Jacob Candelaria said Sunday that he received the series of profanity-laced telephone telephone messages after he issued the criticism Saturday night in a TV appearance.

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Analysis: Media Titans Subvert Reality About Biden-Ukraine Profiteering

Admin

After big tech companies suppressed a New York Post article exposing written evidence that Joe Biden “spent some time together” with a top executive of a corrupt Ukrainian energy firm that was enriching his son, media titans are misleading the public about the central facts of this explosive affair.

Twitter, for a prime example, pinned a post to the top of its home page claiming that Biden “played no role in pressuring Ukraine officials into firing the prosecutor” at the core of this case.

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Top Al-Qaida Leader on FBI Most Wanted List Killed in Afghanistan According to Report

Minnesota Sun Staff

Afghanistan on Sunday claimed to have killed a top al-Qaida terror leader and propagandist who is on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Husam Abd al-Rauf, who was wanted by the FBI for providing support to terrorist organizations and conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, was reportedly killed in firefight in a Taliban-controlled area, according to the Associated Press. A total of six other suspected Islamic militants were dispatched in the raid and one Afghan authority was killed, the AP reported.

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Police Unions File Complaint Against Ramsey County Officer Who Endorsed John Thompson

Admin

Three Ramsey County police unions filed a formal complaint with the county against an officer who publicly endorsed DFL House candidate John Thompson.

“John is wonderful. John is a leader. John is somebody that speaks truth to power,” Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Roy Magnuson said of Thompson, who threatened to burn down a neighborhood during a protest in August.

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Minnesota Launches COVID-19 Home Saliva Test Pilot Program

The Associated Press

Minnesota health officials announced a pilot program Thursday that will provide at-home COVID-19 saliva tests for residents in two dozen counties and tribal nations statewide in an effort to expand access to testing as the state experiences a surge in cases in recent weeks.

The program allows people to order a saliva test through the mail and perform the test in their own home with virtual help from a health care professional. The test will then be shipped to the state’s saliva lab in Oakdale, with results emailed within 24-48 hours.

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U.S. Senate Confirms Barrett to Supreme Court, Giving Conservatives a 6-3 Majority

The Center Square

The U.S. Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to be an associate justice on the nation’s highest court Monday. 

Barrett fills the vacancy of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September at the age of 87 from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. 

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No. 18 Michigan Tops No. 21 Minnesota 49-24 in Milton Debut

The Associated Press

After playing sparingly for Michigan as a backup his first two years and waiting for this virus-shortened season to start seven weeks late, Joe Milton’s time at quarterback had finally come.

The enormity of the moment hit him in the locker room, just before taking the field at Minnesota.

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Commentary: It’s Decision Time for the Costco Mom

Minnesota Sun Staff

Earlier this year, a strange spectacle kept recurring at one of the country’s most popular big box stores.

Costco shoppers across the land wrestled each other for industrial-sized packages of toilet paper; as panic set in about the looming coronavirus pandemic, well-heeled suburbanites quickly depleted the retailers’ nationwide supply of Charmin and Quilted Northern. Even the store’s discount Kirkland brand sold out fast.

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AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson Resuming U.S. Tests of COVID-19 Vaccines

The Associated Press

Two drugmakers announced Friday the resumption of U.S. testing of their COVID-19 vaccine candidates.

Testing of AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate had been halted since early September, while Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine study was paused at the beginning of last week. Each company had a study volunteer develop a serious health issue, requiring a review of safety data.

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Report: Some Public Schools Obstructing Parents’ Efforts to Withdraw Children for Home-Schooling

The Center Square

Some public schools are telling parents they can’t withdraw their children to home-school or aren’t following the TEA guidelines for withdrawal, according to a new report published by the Texas Home School Coalition Association (THSC).

The largest statewide advocacy organization for home educators in the state sent a written notice to 9,500 school administrations in August, clarifying the Texas Education Agency policy for student withdrawal.

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Commentary: Why Democrats Still Love to Spy on Americans

Minnesota Sun Staff

The very last op-ed progressive journalist Michael Hastings wrote for BuzzFeed was titled, “Why Democrats Love To Spy On Americans.” Ten days later, on June 17, 2013, Hastings emailed his BuzzFeed associates warning them, “The Feds are interviewing my ‘close friends and associates.’ ” He added that he was “onto a big story” and had to go “off the rada[r] for a bit … hope to see you all soon.”

Hastings did not get to see those associates soon or otherwise. In the early morning hours of June 18, his leased Mercedes crashed into a palm tree at high speeds in a residential Los Angeles neighborhood. The car burst into flames upon impact, and Hastings’s body was burned beyond recognition.

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Crews Vacuum ‘Murder Hornets’ Out of Washington Nest

The Associated Press

Heavily protected crews in Washington state worked Saturday to destroy the first nest of so-called murder hornets discovered in the United States.

The state Agriculture Department had spent weeks searching, trapping and using dental floss to tie tracking devices to Asian giant hornets, which can deliver painful stings to people and spit venom but are the biggest threat to honeybees that farmers depend on to pollinate crops.

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Senate Votes to Advance Barrett; Confirmation Expected Monday

The Associated Press

Senate Republicans voted overwhelmingly Sunday to advance Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett toward final confirmation despite Democratic objections, just over a week before the presidential election.

Barrett’s confirmation on Monday was hardly in doubt, with majority Republicans mostly united in support behind President Donald Trump’s pick. But Democrats were poised to keep the Senate in session into the night in attempts to stall, arguing that the Nov. 3 election winner should choose the nominee to fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

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Federal Agency Secretly Offered FBI Documents on Trump Officials, Senate Report Says

Minnesota Sun Staff

The federal agency that stores records for presidential transition teams volunteered to provide documents to the FBI regarding the Trump presidential transition team in early 2017, in possible violation of an agreement with the Trump campaign to destroy the records, according to a Senate report released on Friday.

The report from Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee says that officials at the General Services Administration (GSA) contacted the FBI on Feb. 15, 2017 to inquire whether they should preserve documents related to Michael Flynn.

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Republicans Want to Know Whether Amtrak Have Any Perks to Biden

Minnesota Sun Staff

Republicans on the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee want to know whether Amtrak gave Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden special treatment.

In a letter to Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer William Flynn, the lawmakers ask whether the former vice president’s use of a chartered Amtrak train for a recent campaign trip disrupted Amtrak service or interfered with freight train operations. They also want to know how many employees were “taken off their regular duties to staff the Biden campaign charter train, including any overtime hours worked.”

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Dems With Power Flex Their Muscles Ahead of Election Day to Push Agendas, Punish Trump Supporters

Minnesota Sun Staff

As Election Day draws near, Democrat business owners and politicians are increasingly flexing their muscles to push their politics into peoples’ faces and punish those who have opposing views. There have been multiple reports in the past year about Trump supporters being fired for expressing their support for the president.

In the past couple of weeks, two more Trump supporters have been fired and a CEO of a major software company has sent a mass email to millions of customers telling them to vote for Joe Biden.

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Constitutional Scholar Alan Dershowitz Spoke, Fielded Questions at the 2020 National Constitution Bee

Corinne Murdock

Leading constitutional law scholar Alan Dershowitz spoke during the 2020 National Constitution Bee on Saturday. All contestants had the opportunity to join the video call and ask questions afterwards.

Dershowitz touched on topics including Electoral College, impeachment, equal protection, and Supreme Court justice term limits.

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Facebook Demands Academics Disable Ad-Targeting Data Tool

The Associated Press

Academics, journalists and First Amendment lawyers are rallying behind New York University researchers in a showdown with Facebook over its demand that they halt the collection of data showing who is being micro-targeted by political ads on the world’s dominant social media platform.

The researchers say the disputed tool is vital to understanding how Facebook has been used as a conduit for disinformation and manipulation.

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College President Publicly Condemns Prof’s ‘Hateful,’ ‘Vile’ Tweets Exposed by Campus Reform

Minnesota Sun Staff

After Collin College received backlash from a story by Campus Reform regarding a professor calling Vice President Mike Pence “a demon” and to “shut his little demon mouth up,” the college president publicly came out and condemned the comments. 

President Neil Matkin wrote in a public statement on the school’s website that the professor’s comments were “hateful, vile, and ill-considered.”

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‘Brian’s Song,’ ‘Roots,’ ‘Purple Rain’ Screenwriter William Blinn Dies

The Associated Press

William Blinn, a screenwriter for the landmark TV projects “Brian’s Song” and “Roots” and the Prince film “Purple Rain,” has died. He was 83.

Blinn died Thursday of natural causes at an assisted living community in Burbank, California, his daughter, Anneliese Johnson, said Saturday.

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Gov. Walz Activates National Guard after Chauvin’s Third Degree Murder Charge Dropped

The Center Square

Gov. Tim Walz activated the Minnesota National Guard on Thursday to assist local law enforcement in protecting the greater Twin Cities.

“In light of developments in the George Floyd case, we’ve taken the precautionary step of asking the Minnesota National Guard to prepare to help ensure safety for Minnesotans,” Walz said in a statement. “I want to remind Minnesotans that today’s ruling marks a positive step in the path toward justice for George Floyd.”

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Top Trump Adviser Wants More Nations to Field Asylum Claims

The Associated Press

One of President Donald Trump’s top priorities on immigration if he wins a second term would be to use agreements with Central American governments as models to get countries around the world to field asylum claims from people seeking refuge in the United States, a top adviser said.

Stephen Miller, a key architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said Friday the agreements would help stop “asylum fraud, asylum shopping and asylum abuse on a global scale.”

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Commentary: Three Big Reasons Trump Will Be Reelected

Minnesota Sun Staff

There are lots of reasons President Trump is likely to be reelected – some are purely technical political campaign reasons and others are matters of policy preference for the majority of the electorate, but in our view the top three reasons Trump will be elected are centered on how Trump has branded the Democrats and how the Democrats have branded themselves.

And the third of those top three is that Democrats have branded themselves as opponents of American Exceptionalism and haters of the country they aspire to govern.

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The 2020 National Constitution Bee Grand Champion Declared

Corinne Murdock

BRENTWOOD, Tennessee – This year’s annual National Constitution Bee Grand Champion was senior high school student Jackson Carter. He received the $10,000 educational scholarship from the Star News Education Foundation. Carter plans on attending the University of Alabama, where he hopes to double major in communications studies and economics.
The event took place at the SpringHill Suites by Marriott in Brentwood, Tennessee. 23 students ranging from eighth to twelfth grade arrived to compete. The Tennessee Star Report host and Guide to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for Secondary Students co-author Michael Leahy served as the emcee.

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Trump Takes the Lead in Arizona in New Poll

Minnesota Sun Staff

Donald Trump took a small lead in Arizona according to a new survey by Susquehanna Polling and Research for the Center for American Greatness.

The phone survey of 500 likely voters conducted October 19-22 showed Trump with 46.6 percent and Biden with 46.2 percent support, with a 4.3 percent margin of error. The poll also showed that Biden’s negatives in the states popped up to 49 percent. In the same poll at the end of September they stood at 44 percent while his favorable rating declined to 39 percent.

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Student Sues After School Suspended Her for Wearing Pro-Trump Clothing

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Pennsylvania high school student who claims she was sent home for wearing pro-Trump clothing filed a lawsuit against her school district in Federal court on Tuesday, accusing the district of violating her free speech rights, PennLive reported.

On October 1, the school district issued a new policy on clothing which banned students from wearing anything that contained political messaging.

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Nigeria Says 51 Civilians, 18 Security Forces Dead in Unrest

The Associated Press

At least 51 civilians have been killed in Nigeria’s unrest following days of peaceful protests over police abuses, the president said Friday, blaming “hooliganism” for the violence while asserting that security forces have used “extreme restraint.”

President Muhammadu Buhari’s comments are expected to further inflame tensions in Africa’s most populous country after Amnesty International reported that soldiers shot and killed at least 12 demonstrators Tuesday night as a large crowd sang the national anthem. The deaths sparked international condemnation.

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Trio of Cities Take Trump to Court Over ‘Anarchist Jurisdictions’ Designation

The Center Square

Seattle, Portland, and New York City are suing President Donald Trump and his administration over legal actions that have put future federal funds on the line.

The joint lawsuit is in response to a memo issued by the Trump administration last month requesting U.S. Attorney General William Barr review a list of cities that could be considered hotbeds for civil unrest.

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California Utility May Cut Power to One Million People

The Associated Press

Pacific Gas & Electric may cut power to over 1 million people on Sunday to prevent the chance of sparking wildfires as extreme fire weather returns to the region, the utility announced Friday.

The nation’s largest utility said it could black out customers in 38 counties — including most of the San Francisco Bay Area — as weather forecasts called for a return of bone-dry, gusty weather that carries the threat of downing or fouling power lines or other equipment that in recent years have been blamed for igniting massive and deadly blazes in central and Northern California.

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Commentary: The Battle for California Is the Battle for America

Minnesota Sun Staff

By now, this is a familiar story. California is a failed state. Thanks to years of progressive mismanagement and neglect, the cities are lawless and the forests are burning. Residents pay the highest prices in America for unreliable electricity. Water is rationed. Homes are unaffordable. The public schools are a joke. Freeways are congested and crumbling. And if they’re not still on lockdown or otherwise already destroyed by it, business owners contend with the most hostile regulatory climate in American history.

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Court Ruling Reverses Trump Administration’s SNAP Changes

The Center Square

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday blocked a Trump administration change to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that could have removed eligibility for almost 700,000 unemployed, able-bodied Americans.

A lawsuit filed in January by a multistate coalition alleged a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rule wrongly reversed a decades-old policy that allowed states to waive SNAP work requirements. The previous rules granted waivers for larger geographic areas by lumping certain regions with lower unemployment with locations registering higher unemployment, as well as carryover unused exemptions.

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Commentary: Your Favorite TV Show Now Promotes Open Borders and Black Lives Matter

Minnesota Sun Staff

Millions of Americans continue to watch network TV shows—not exactly a favorite pastime of the chattering class. The primary audience for these programs is older Americans living out in flyover country, the kind of people who aren’t aware of the latest trendy show on Amazon Prime or Netflix. The audience generally prefers more conservative programming that doesn’t feature gratuitous violence, nudity, or overbearing political messages. They just want to be entertained as they relax at night. 

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Tanya Tucker Releases ‘Live From The Troubadour’

Bethany Bowman

In 2019, Tanya Tucker released her first full-length record with new songs in twenty years. Produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings, the album While I’m Livin’, would go on to win a Grammy for Country Album of the Year, and the song, “Bring My Flowers Now,” would win Country Song of the Year in January 2020.

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Omar, AOC Participated in Online Event with Vlogger Who Said ‘America Deserved 9/11’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Rep. Ilhan Omar participated in an online event Tuesday night with a vlogger who once said “America deserved 9/11.”

The event was hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and streamed live on Twitch, where the congresswomen played the video game “Among Us” with several other popular gamers. The event was intended to motivate young voters to get to the polls and was viewed more than five million times.

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Joe Biden Knew Family ‘Aggressively Leveraged’ His Name to Make Millions, Former Biden Business Partner Says

Minnesota Sun Staff

A former business partner of Hunter Biden confirmed in a statement Wednesday night that democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden was in on a lucrative business deal between the Biden family and a shady Chinese Communist energy firm.

Tony Bobulinski, a former Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and CEO of SinoHawk Holdings, said Hunter Biden frequently asked his dad to sign off on his foreign influence peddling schemes.

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