Minnesota Man Arrested in Cold Case Murder of Julie Ann Hanson

A 50 year old murder was recently solved when police arrested Barry Lee Whelpley of Mounds View, Minnesota for the murder of 15 year-old Julie Ann Hanson. The murder took place in Chicago, Illinois when Whelpley was 27, in 1972.

The girl was stabbed 36 times and was sexually assaulted. Her body was discovered in a field in Naperville, Illinois after she had been reported missing. At the time, no suspects were arrested in the case.

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Commentary: China’s Vaccine Propaganda Is Maligning the U.S., Bribing the World

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved China’s Sinovac vaccine for COVID-19, following its approval of China’s Sinopharm last month. The WHO can now distribute both vaccines through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) program, which distributes COVID-19 vaccine to the developing world. China is poised to export over one billion COVID-19 doses abroad in 2021 alone, according to Chinese state-run media outlet the Global Times.

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Record Number of Americans Find Abortion ‘Morally Acceptable,’ Poll Finds

A record number of Americans find abortion “morally acceptable” though American sentiment on the matter is sharply divided, a Gallup poll released Wednesday found.

Forty-seven percent of Americans find abortion acceptable, while 46% think abortion is wrong from a moral perspective, the poll found. The percentage of Americans who find abortion acceptable increased two points, the highest level of support Gallup has found since it began tracking the matter two decades ago.

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Nearly 200 Hospital Workers Will Be Fired in Houston If They Don’t Get Vaccinated

Nearly 200 Houston hospital workers will be fired after a two-week suspension if they don’t comply with a vaccine requirement.

Houston Methodist President and CEO Dr. Marc Boom sent an email in April to employees saying that they must receive at least the first dose of the vaccine by June 7, or they would face suspension and termination.

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Commentary: Rural Families Need Educational Choice Too

This school year started unlike any other for children across the country, many of whom began the year staring at a computer screen. Yet for the minority of students who were able to start the year at an independent school, their education was minimally impacted, with most continuing with in-person classes. It’s unfortunate that some students are being forced to go virtual for their education, with some public school districts refusing to reopen classrooms until the beginning of the next school year. What’s even more unfortunate is the reason for these decisions to keep classrooms closed may not be based on safety and science but sheer political influence. 

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Biden Repeals Trump’s Attempted TikTok Ban, Replaces It with Order to Review Foreign Apps

President Joe Biden revoked an executive order that sought to ban downloads of Chinese-owned apps like TikTok and WeChat in the United States, the White House announced Wednesday.

Instead, Biden directed the Commerce Department to evaluate software applications connected with foreign adversaries like China, and “take action, as appropriate,” according to the fact sheet the administration released. The previous slate of executive orders were signed by former President Donald Trump, one of which sought to ban TikTok completely in the U.S.

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Ohio Attorney General Sues to Make Google a Public Utility

A lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Ohio Attorney General David Yost aims to make Google a public utility, limiting the ways the search engine provides search results.

“Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.”

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Commentary: I Need an AR-15

I don’t need an AR-15 for hunting: It’s not even legal to take a deer with one in my state—the caliber is too small. I also don’t need an AR-15 for self-defense, though I’d want to have one if someone broke into my house. And I certainly don’t need one just because it’s a beautiful piece of engineering. I need an AR-15 because the government doesn’t want me to have one.

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Minneapolis DFL Accused of Discriminating in Online Caucus System

The Minneapolis Democrat Farmer Laborer (DFL) Party moved their caucus process online and are now being accused of discrimination. Three DFL leaders, DFL Party activist Ken Vreeland, and former Minneapolis Council members Tony Scallon and Lisa MacDonald, have come out in opposition to the online system, saying that it prohibits people who don’t have the resources to access the online system from participating.

They say that the online system has led to the “disenfranchisement of thousands of voters, fraudulent registrations, and preferential treatment of campaigns.” According to Vreeland, MacDonald, and Scallon it disproportionately affects minorities and the elderly, because of a lack of resources to access the online caucus. Scallon also said that “the party’s request for voters’ ages amounts to discrimination.” According to the Star Tribune, Scallon said that “They [caucus participants] thought they were done when they got done registering. We’ve never had a required verification before and so a lot of people have been denied and they did not get to be delegates. It’s just really a mess.”

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