Prolific urban-country singer/songwriter Julia Cole delivers something for everyone with her innate ability to relate to her audience via her original music.
Read MoreMusic Spotlight: Julia Cole
Month: January 2022
Iowa Launches Statewide Business Alliance to End Human Trafficking
Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate announced Thursday the creation of a statewide alliance of businesses to end human trafficking.
The Iowa Businesses Against Trafficking coalition is open to businesses and nonprofits that are promoting both awareness of human trafficking and the Iowa Safe at Home confidentiality program for survivors of human trafficking and other violent crimes, a news release from Pate’s office said. The office is administering the coalition and the Iowa Safe at Home program and inviting all businesses to join the mission, Pate said in the release.
Read MoreLas Vegas Says It Will Offer Teachers up to $2,000 to Stay in the Classroom Amid COVID Surge
The school district that oversees public education in Las Vegas said it will offer teachers and other employees up to $2,000 in bonuses if they stay on amid the current COVID-19 surge and concurrent employment crisis.
Clark County School District said in a statement this week that the CCSD Board of School Trustees had “approved an agreement with all five employee bargaining units to provide eligible regular and full-time employees employed as of January 1, 2022 with a $1,000 COVID retention bonus.”
“CCSD will also pay an additional $1,000 bonus to eligible regular and full-time employees who are employed on May 25, 2022, for a total of $2,000,” the statement added.
Read MoreReport: More than 50,000 Illegal Immigrants Released into U.S. Don’t Show for Court Hearings
More than 50,000 illegal immigrants released into the U.S. by Immigration and Customs Enforcement failed to report to their deportation proceedings during a five-month period analyzed last year, according to a report provided by the Department of Homeland Security to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin. The report also states that ICE doesn’t have court information on more than 40,000 individuals it’s supposed to prosecute.
“Between March and August 2021, as a result of the Biden Administration’s failed border policies, over 270,000 illegal aliens have been dispersed into the United States with little chance for removal,” Johnson said in an announcement accompanying the report, which didn’t include data from the other seven months of the year.
Over the same time period, “over 50,000 illegal aliens – more than half of the aliens released into the interior of the United States under a Notice to Report (NTR) – failed to appear to begin deportation proceedings,” the DHS report states.
Read MoreCommentary: Conspiracies as Realities, Realities as Conspiracies
American politics over the last half decade has become immersed in a series of conspiracy charges leveled by Democrats against their opponents that, in fact, are happening because of them and through them. The consequences of these conspiracies becoming reality and reality revealing itself as conspiracy have been costly to American prestige, honor, and security. As we move away from denouncing realists as conspiracists, and self-pronounced “realists” are revealed as the true conspirators, let’s review a few of the more damaging of these events.
Russians on the Brain
Consider that the Trump election of 2016, the transition, and the first two years of the Trump presidency were undermined by a media-progressive generated hoax of “Russian collusion.”
The “bombshell” and “walls are closing in” mythologies dominated the network news and cable outlets. It took five years to expose them as rank agit-prop.
Read MoreBiden Plans New Restraints on Law Enforcement, Even as Blacks Oppose Cutting Police Spending: Report
President Joe Biden plans to roll out executive actions on police reform in honor of Black History Month this February, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News, despite the fact that most black Americans polled support a police presence in their communities.
The executive legislation would come shortly after the fight by President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Democrats to pass voting rights legislation.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki during a briefing Thursday said: “We’re very supportive of the efforts to negotiate police reform on a bipartisan level. Obviously, that didn’t move forward as we would have hoped.”
Read MoreChinese Officials Call to End Overseas Deliveries Because of Omicron Variant
Officials in Beijing have urged for an end to overseas deliveries, saying that the Omicron coronavirus variant can spread by opening packages that originate in other countries, BBC News reported.
The officials calling to end overseas deliveries cited the case of a woman who contracted the Omicron variant after opening a parcel later found to have traces of the variant on it, BBC News reported. The officials noted that the woman had no prior travel history.
The virus was discovered on the surface of a letter the woman received from Canada as well as on the inside of an unopened letter, health official Pang Xinghuo told reporters on Monday, BBC News reported. Dozens of letters from the same batch were tested, with five reportedly containing traces of COVID-19.
Read MoreUniversity Fires 100 Professors Due to COVID
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues into its third year, William Paterson University is now laying off 100 full-time faculty over the next three years.
The university, located in Wayne, New Jersey, originally planned to let 150 professors go before union negotiations revised the number to 100, or 29% of the institution’s 340 faculty, reports Inside Higher Ed.
Thirteen tenured professors lost their job at the end of 2021, according to the outlet.
Read MoreCommentary: The ‘New Normal’ and the Assault on Reason
Our political situation is so chaotic and strange right now that we can’t take anything for granted—including what is normal. So it’s often necessary to explain what may seem obvious to readers of American Greatness, but is regarded as strange or almost incomprehensible to other people.
For example, it is obvious to me, and probably to you, that today’s “progressive” agenda is actually pushing our country back to a more primitive past.
Consider some of the most urgent priorities of woke ideology:
Read MoreThe University of Minnesota Admits the COVID-19 Vaccine Doesn’t Stop Transmission, Will ‘Probably’ Mandate Boosters Anyway
The University of Minnesota admitted in an email to its student body that the COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus — yet the school says it will “probably” require more boosters for its students.
Public Health Officer Jakub Tolar sent an email to the student body answering some frequently asked questions about the virus earlier this month.
“I’m vaccinated, does that mean I can’t get COVID-19?” one question reads. “No,” the school responds, stressing that omicron remains “easily transmissible” even among the university’s fully-vaccinated population.
Read MoreRecent Breakthroughs in 2020 Election Probes Undercut Narrative That Legal Avenues Are Exhausted
More than a year after the disputed 2020 presidential election, a series of legal breakthroughs in the investigation of the electoral process in decisive swing states — including official inquiries, court rulings, audits and finial disclosures — has unfolded in rapid succession recently, even as election integrity opponents continue to insist that all legal avenues for questioning the outcome have long since been exhausted.
Interviewing former Trump senior economic advisor Peter Navarro about the election earlier this month, MSNBC TV host Ari Melber argued that the “outcome was established by independent secretaries of state, by the voters of those states, and legal remedies had been exhausted with the Supreme Court never even taking, let alone siding with, any of the claims that you just referred to.”
Melber’s assertion echoed a mainstream political and media narrative firmly in place since Donald Trump’s large Election Day leads over Joe Biden in key swing states evaporated over the course of the ensuing week, when The New York Times reported, “Election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race.”
Read MoreMinnesota Launches $200 Vaccine Incentive Program
Families who get their child in the 5- to 11-year-old age group vaccinated for COVID-19 are eligible for a new round of $200 incentives, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday.
Families will receive one $200 VISA gift card per child who receives both doses between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, the news release said. Registration for the gift cards, which is possible following completion of the series, opens at 10 a.m. Jan. 24 and closes at 11:59 p.m. Feb. 28.
“In light of the Omicron variant, there is a new sense of urgency in our response, and we are doing whatever we can to encourage Minnesotans to get their vaccine and keep themselves and their communities safe,” Minnesota Department of Health Information Officer Doug Schultz told The Center Square in an emailed statement Thursday. “Getting as many eligible Minnesotans vaccinated as possible is critical to helping curb the spread of COVID-19 and keep Minnesota families safe.”
Read MoreCommentary: Joe Biden, the Deep State Puppet
I almost feel sorry for Joe Biden.
The emphasis, I hasten to add, is on the adverb. Perhaps, if he didn’t make me feel thoroughly sorry for the United States of America, my sympathy for him would be unalloyed. But even many in Biden’s own party are aghast at his performance as president.
It’s almost a matter of smell, of that sixth sense that alerts sensitive souls to impending disaster. Animals somehow know when an earthquake is coming, even before the ground begins to tremble. The far-left activist Stacey Abrams is well endowed with those antennae, which is why she invented “scheduling issues” and gave the president’s speech in Atlanta a miss last week. The aroma of events like that have a way of clinging to someone, and Abrams had the good sense to know that Joe Biden on “voting rights” and the run-up to Martin Luther King Day was likely to be a redolent affair.
Read MoreU.S. Energy Department Spent over $1 Billion on Failed Carbon-Cutting Projects
Over the last decade, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) spent $1.1 billion on various projects that attempted to reduce carbon emissions through the practice of carbon capture and storage (CCS), only for the vast majority of these projects to either fail or be cancelled.
According to the Daily Caller, the waste of taxpayer money was revealed in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that was released in December. The report revealed that the DOE had invested $684 million in eight different CCS projects that focused on coal, only for seven of them to be cancelled, while only a single facility remained in operation. The remaining $438 million was spent on three industrial CCS facilities; of these three, two were successful while one was cancelled.
Read MoreGOP Lawmakers Demand Ouster of Education Secretary over Reported Role in Targeting Parents
More than 40 House Republicans are calling for the ouster of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona after a report of his apparent role in a national schools group’s calling some concerned parents “domestic terrorists,” while 24 GOP senators are asking the nation’s top education official for answers.
The push comes after Fox News reported earlier this week on emails indicating that Cardona solicited a highly publicized letter to President Joe Biden from the National School Boards Association asking that officials apply the Patriot Act and other counterterror tools to dissenting parents.
An NSBA email said the letter to Biden was a “request from the secretary.” Cardona denied having anything to do with the group’s letter.
Read MoreCommentary: What Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Would Say About Biden’s New COVID-19 Policy
Given the Biden administration’s recent effort to prioritize COVID-19 treatments based on race, it is more important than ever that we remember – and practice – the teachings of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration released new guidance to medical professionals which listed “race or ethnicity” as high risk factors for doctors to consider when prescribing a new monoclonal antibody known as Sotrovimab. Other high-risk factors included obesity, pregnancy, and other health conditions which would make a person less able to fight the virus. The new guidance means a person’s race could qualify him or her for treatment ahead of others who need the drugs.
Biden administration officials have cited high rates of diabetes and other health issues which are prevalent in non-white and non-Hispanic communities as reasons to include the new criteria. Officials in New York and Minnesota have also prioritized treating non-white patients, but they have more overtly cited historic health care disparities as a justification.
Read MoreThousands of Students Plan School Walkouts Across the U.S. in Protest of in-Person Learning
Students across the U.S. are planning school walkouts in protest of in-person learning as COVID-19 cases spike amid the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant.
There are nearly 3,500 schools actively disrupted as of Friday, according to Burbio’s K-12 School Opening Tracker, which tracks school closures for 1,200 districts, including the 200 largest school districts in the nation.
On Tuesday, New York City students staged a walkout in protest of in-person learning over what they said were concerns about testing and safety mitigation measures. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said school was the “safest place” for children during a Friday news conference.
Read MoreDirecTV to Drop OAN in Blow to Conservative, Pro-Trump News Network
Satellite broadcaster DirecTV has announced plans to drop the One America News (OAN) channel in a blow to the conservative, unabashedly pro-Donald Trump news network.
“We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Read MoreCommentary: Pro-Government Zealots Remove Statues on Campus – Just Like China in Hong Kong
When students, faculty, and university administrations pull down statues on campus in an effort to censor history, they are engaging in the same authoritarian politics that characterize China’s control over Hong Kong.
Within 48 hours, Hong Kong University (HKU), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Lingan University witnessed the removal of artwork commemorating the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square.
At HKU, “the Pillar of Shame” was an apt name for the monument that memorialized the atrocity as an example of Chinese government oppression that the communist regime is now trying to whitewash.
Read MoreUnited Van Lines: Americans Continue Moving Out of Higher-Tax States
While Americans continued to move out of higher taxed blue states in 2021, migration patterns were different than they were in 2020, a report by United Van Lines indicates.
United Van Lines customers primarily moved for new jobs or to be near family, resulting in their destination states being more varied than they were in 2020 when they primarily moved to western and southern states from northern states, its 45th Annual National Migration Study found.
Read MoreCommentary: Climate Industrial Complex Left Clueless as Fossil Fuel Usage Increases
It has been a little more than a month since the United Nations climate meeting at Glasgow, yet global use of fossil fuels has increased rapidly.
For instance, U.S. President Joe Biden cancelled domestic oil projects and vowed to stop funding for international fossil fuel projects. But as fuel prices rose, Biden responded to his self-induced energy insecurity by releasing 50 million barrels of oil reserves and even called for an increase in domestic oil production.
Read MoreMike Lindell Says Heartland Financial Asked Him to Close Nine Bank Accounts
MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell said Heartland Financial and Minnesota Bank and Trust are asking him to take his accounts elsewhere because he is a “reputation risk.”
Lindell told Steve Bannon during a Friday episode of “War Room” that Heartland Financial wants him to close eight of his accounts within 30 days: Lindell Management, Lindell-TV, Lindell Outreach, Lindell Recovery Network, Lindell Foundation, Lindell Publishing, Michael Lindell Personal and MyStore.
Read MoreGOP Senator Seeks to Stop Purported Biden Plan to Let Anatomical Men into Women’s Prisons
State-level fights over housing anatomically male prisoners in women’s prisons based on their gender identity may soon be joined by a federal battle.
A purported draft executive order by President Biden directs the attorney general to identify “necessary changes” to the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) Transgender Offender Manual so that the agency can “designate individuals to [federal] facilities in accordance with their gender identity.”
The bracketed paragraph is found on the 15th of an 18-image series of grainy photographs of a computer screen obtained by The Federalist. The word processing document is marked “draft – deliberative and pre-decisional – privileged and confidential,” and it deals with criminal justice reform.
Read MoreZuckerberg, Pichai Signed Off On Backroom Facebook-Google Collusion, Lawsuit Alleges
Facebook and Google CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai signed off on a deal between the two companies to rig the digital advertising market, a recently unredacted lawsuit alleges.
The existence of the deal, dubbed Jedi Blue, was first revealed in a complaint filed by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in December 2020 which alleged that Google unlawfully abused its dominance in the digital ads market. The complaint alleged that Google struck a deal with Facebook in 2018 to give the social company secret advantages in its ad exchanges, known as Open Bidding auctions, to the detriment of competitors.
An unredacted version of the complaint filed Friday alleges that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally signed off on the deal. The complaint alleges Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg brokered the deal with top Google executive Philipp Schindler and pushed Zuckerberg to approve.
Read MoreFederal Agency to Begin Tracking Religious Exemptions to Biden’s Vaccine Mandate
An obscure agency of the U.S. government, whose stated mission is to reduce recidivism and work with criminal justice partners to enhance public safety, will begin tracking all federal employees who file for religious exemptions to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on federal workers and contractors.
Religious rights group question whether the tracking plan will be used to discriminate against federal employees and contractors of faith.
Read MoreLawyer in Historic Vaccine Mandate Challenge Warns Larger Constitutional Issues Remain Unresolved
One of the lawyers in the historic U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on private business is warning it is only a preliminary victory and the larger constitutional issues about government-compelled inoculations must still be litigated.
“In some ways, yesterday was a win of a major battle, but still leaves the war to be fought,” said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which filed one of the original challenges in Texas against the vaccine mandate that was eventually consolidated before the Supreme Court.
“While it got to the right outcome for declaring the private employer vax mandate unlawful, it kind of misses the forest for the trees because it leaves these broader questions of federal power unresolved,” he told the John Solomon Reports podcast.
Read MoreThieves Reportedly Targeting Trains, Delivery Trucks in Atlanta, Los Angeles
Criminals have reportedly opened up a new lucrative front in the ongoing package-theft epidemic throughout the U.S., targeting shipping infrastructure to steal goods before they even get to consumers’ porches.
UPS Chief Executive Carol Tome told CNBC this week that one of the company’s 18-wheeler shipping trucks was robbed several weeks ago in December. “[The driver] was stopped at gunpoint,” she said. “He was zip-tied, thrown into the back of his feeder car, and they took the packages.”
Read MoreUnvaccinated Tennis Star Djokovic Deported from Australia
Australia’s federal court on Sunday ordered to Novak Djokovic deported for failing to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine despite having natural immunity, a decision that deprives the world’s No. 1 tennis star of the chance to defend his Australian Open title.
After eight hours of deliberations, Chief Justice James Allsop said the decision came down to whether Immigration Minister Ethan Hawke’s decision was “irrational or legally unreasonable.”
Read MoreCommentary: Getting Back to Normal
People keep asking me how we get back to normal. How do we return to the days before vaccine mandates and closed schools to a fully functioning military, secure borders, and a time when inflation wasn’t through the roof? I’ll give you the short answer: pure, unadulterated political power.
You can only get back to normal when political power is in the hands of the right people making the right policies that actually advance the country in a positive, beneficial way. And then you beat the Left and others who have gotten us here into unconditional surrender.
Read MoreRochester Man Gets 10 Years for May 2020 Arson During the George Floyd Riots That Resulted in Man’s Death
A Rochester man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the May 2020 arson of a pawn shop that led to the death of a man. According to court documents, on May 28, 2020, in the riots that followed the death of George Floyd, Montez Terriel Lee, along with other unnamed individuals, broke into the Max It Pawn Shop on East Lake Street in Minneapolis.
Read MoreCitizens Begin Recall Effort for Hennepin County Sheriff Hutchinson
Citizens have begun a recall effort for Hennepin County Sheriff Dave Hutchinson following his refusal to resign over his recent DUI conviction. Details surrounding the petition are circulating online and it will need 132,451 signatures in order to succeed.
Read MoreRepublican Candidates Respond to St. Paul, Minneapolis Vaccine Mandate
Several Republican candidates responded to the recently announced COVID vaccine mandates in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The mandates will go into effect on Wednesday, requiring restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and any other place of “public accommodation” where food or drink is served to only allow vaccinated patrons inside.
Read MoreCommentary: The Best Path Forward for Omicron… Let It Rip
The recent arrival of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has, for far too many, reset the clock of our timeline for a return to societal normalcy.
Public health authorities in many countries reimposed loosened travel restrictions that had lapsed. Washington, D.C., under the mayorship of Muriel Bowser, passed a draconian private-sector vaccination mandate, the likes of which had previously only passed muster in iconic deep-blue metropolises such as New York City. The vacillating mandarins who constitute the “public health” apparatus in this country, such as Lord-Emperor Anthony Fauci, quickly began fearmongering about the need to avoid large gatherings for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Restaurants and bars across the country that had shelved mask mandates suddenly deemed it necessary to make customers mask up again.
The sober reality, as should be obvious as we approach the two-year anniversary of “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” is that COVID-19 is simply not going anywhere; much like influenza or the common cold, it is now something humanity is simply going to have to deal with. Furthermore, at this point in the “pandemic,” it should be equally obvious that the COVID-19 vaccines are completely ineffective at preventing viral transmission. There is simply no compelling evidence that the vaccines are generally effective at slowing the spread. The vaccines often appear to be an effective symptom mitigation prophylactic for those who catch COVID-19, but that makes vaccination a quintessential private health decision with little-to-no relevance for public health authorities.
Read MoreWokeness Is a Multi-Billion Dollar Business in America, and It Has Some Dems Scared
An outpouring of grants to activist groups promoting race-based ideology is causing problems for some Democrats by highlighting the most unpopular beliefs of party members, according to an op-ed published in The New York Times.
Charitable support for “racial equity” projects skyrocketed after the death of George Floyd in June 2020. These projects received $3.3 billion from 2011 to 2019, then $12.7 billion and $11.6 billion in 2020 and 2021, respectively, according to the NYT op-ed.
Read MoreLiberals Push for Court-Packing After SCOTUS Blocks Biden’s Vaccine Mandate
Liberal commentators took to social media to express their disappointment following the Supreme Court’s decision to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Thursday that Biden’s mandate, passed through the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was unconstitutional, invoking the “major questions” doctrine and ruling that Congress did not grant OSHA the authority to issue the mandate.
Read More‘No Interest in Fossil Gas’: Green Group Takes over Global Fracking Company
A prominent U.K. green energy group took over a firm dedicated to fracking for natural gas, vowing to halt all fossil fuel production and cancel further development, The Guardian reported.
The North Yorkshire-based firm Third Energy, which has been a major producer of natural gas in the U.K for decades, was acquired by Wolfland Group, a company that develops renewable energy solutions across the nation, The Guardian reported. Third Energy will now be led by Wolfland director Steve Mason, a prominent anti-fracking activist.
“The current energy crisis has shown that we must be energy independent as a nation and that fossil fuels need to be urgently replaced by clean renewable energy supplies, which will lead to cheaper energy and help us tackle climate change,” Mason said, according to The Guardian.
Read MoreSchool District Openly Promotes Implementation of CRT, High School Presentation Discusses ‘Pyramid of White Supremacy’
A high school in Oregon gave a presentation featuring a “Pyramid of White Supremacy” that discussed concepts like “white fragility” and “white saviorism,” according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education.
Grant High School in Portland, Oregon, taught students about equity and racial justice as part of its “Race Forward” project from December of 2021, according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE).
The presentation defined “whiteness” in connection with “the belief that white people are the standard in society” and said “white fragility” is demonstrated by white people showing discomfort and defensiveness “when confronted by information about racism,” such as “bringing up having family members or friends who are Black.”
Read MoreDemocrat Ex-Lawmakers Contracted to Lobby for North Korean Business Investment
Two former Democratic congressmen contracted with a lobbying firm to advocate on behalf of South Korean businesses operating factories in North Korea, according to recent filings.
Former Democratic Missouri Rep. Lacy Clay joined law firm and lobby shop Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman on Wednesday to lobby on behalf of the Corporate Association of the Gaesong Industrial Complex (CAGIC) at the direction of South Korean consultancy HC & Sons, according to a foreign agent filing with the Justice Department. Former Democratic Texas Rep. Greg Laughlin, who has been with Pillsbury since 2004 and served in Congress for 6 years before switching parties, began lobbying on behalf of CAGIC in December 2021, filings show.
Pillsbury began working with CAGIC in July 2021, filings show, signing a $675,000 contract to provide services including “general advocacy, including meetings with U.S. Executive and Legislative Branches.” The firm will also “provide information to CAGIC and advocate on its behalf,” filings show.
Read MoreSenators Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to End U.S. Reliance on Chinese Minerals
A Republican and Democratic senator introduced legislation Friday that aims to end U.S. reliance on rare-earth metals sourced from and produced in China.
The Restoring Essential Energy and Security Holdings Onshore for Rare Earths (REEShore) Act would prevent supply disruptions and bolster domestic production of the minerals, according to Sens. Tom Cotton and Mark Kelly, the bill’s sponsors. They said the legislation is important for American national security and development of advanced technologies.
“The Chinese Communist Party has a chokehold on global rare-earth element supplies, which are used in everything from batteries to fighter jets,” Cotton said in a statement. “Ending America’s dependence on the CCP for extraction and processing of these elements is critical to winning the strategic competition against China and protecting our national security.”
Read MoreJobless Claims Increase to 230,000
The number of Americans who filed for new unemployment claims increased to 230,000 in the week ending Jan. 8 as rising COVID-19 cases continue to put pressure on employers.
The Labor Department figure shows a 23,000 claim increase compared to the week ending Jan. 1, when jobless claims increased to 207,000. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected claims would decrease to 200,000.
Read MoreEnergy Department to Recruit Workers to ‘Fight Climate Change’ in Largest Expansion Since 1977
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Thursday that it would begin hiring 1,000 employees for its so-called Clean Energy Corps which will be tasked with fighting climate change.
The new climate unit will be composed of both current DOE employees and the 1,000 recruits, according to the announcement. The Clean Energy Corps was created by the recently-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill, which appropriated $62 billion to the DOE for accelerating the nation’s transition to renewables.
“This is an open call for all Americans who are passionate about taking a proactive role in tackling the climate crisis and want to join the team that is best positioned to lead this transformative work,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a message to applicants.
Read MoreNew Poll Shows South Dakota Sen. Thune in Deep Trouble with Republican Voters
A new survey of Republican primary voters in South Dakota suggests that Sen. John Thune’s (R-S.D.) reelection chances were severely damaged by his public spat with former President Trump after the 2020 election.
The poll, conducted by pollster Fabrizio, Lee & Associates for the political action committee American Potential Fund, found that Thune, who just announced his reelection campaign on Saturday, would probably lose a primary challenge by Gov. Kristi Noem, or Dusty Johnson, a popular South Dakota U.S. representative. The survey also found that former president Donald Trump remains very popular with GOP primary voters (RPV).
Read MoreFormer Obama White House Adviser Pleads Guilty in Scheme to Steal $218k From Schools He Founded
Former Obama White House adviser Seth Andrew this week pleaded guilty to participating in a wire fraud scheme in which he attempted to steal over $200,000 from a network of schools he helped found.
Andrew “admitted today to devising a scheme to steal from the very same schools he helped create,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on the Justice Department’s website.
“Andrew now faces time in federal prison for abusing his position and robbing those he promised to help,” Williams noted.
Read MoreCommentary: The Only Culture War That Truly Matters
The term “culture war” has been a staple of American politics and public debates for decades, the latest iterations framed by the likes of abortion, marriage equality, and climate change. However, such issues don’t motivate voters as much as people on the extremes tend to believe.
You saw it in Virginia’s recent election, with exit polls showing that 34% of voters say the economy/jobs is the most important issue facing the state. Education is the second-most important issue, and with it the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that closed schools — contrary to the wishes of many parents. Critical race theory was important insofar as it related to education and the say that parents should have regarding what’s taught in local schools.
Read MoreBiden’s Rough Week: Supreme Court Loss, Economic Woes, Pushback from Democrats
President Joe Biden saw a flurry of setbacks on a range of key issues this week, making it one of his toughest since taking office.
Biden addressed those difficulties in a speech Friday after losses in Congress, the Supreme Court, the court of public opinion and with the economy.
Read MoreGov. Lamont: Connecticut Worker’s Compensation Rates Decrease for Eighth Straight Year
For the eighth consecutive year, Connecticut’s worker’s compensation insurance rates are dropping, Gov. Ned Lamont said.
The governor announced in a news release that businesses will see a rate decrease in 2022 as the state’s Insurance Department has approved a filing featuring a 14.1% reduction to pure premium loss costs and an 8.2% reduction in risk rates.
“This further decline in workers’ compensation insurance premiums is good news for businesses, enabling employers to invest more money back into their companies and employees, and providing a boost to our economy,” Lamont said. “It’s even better news for workers, because the decrease reflects the fact that workplaces are getting safer and safer.”
Read MorePennsylvania Republican Lawmakers Planning Bill to Relocate Illegal Aliens from Covert DHS Flights to Delaware
In Pennsylvania, Republican members of the state legislature are drafting a bill that would forcibly relocate illegal aliens brought into the state by Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and instead move them to Biden’s home state of Delaware.
Fox News reports that the legislation was first mentioned in a memo by State Senator Mario Scavello (R-Penn.), who informed his colleagues of his intentions to introduce the bill.
“In the very near future, I intend to introduce legislation to address the influx of illegal immigrants being relocated into Pennsylvania,” Scavello stated. “How many illegal immigrants has the president relocated to his own home state of Delaware? If it is good enough for Pennsylvania, then why not redirect the relocation to Delaware?”
Read MoreGeneral Electric Says It Won’t Require Vaccine after Supreme Court Strikes Down White House Mandate
American corporation General Electric this week announced that it would no longer require its 56,000 employees to undergo either the COVID-19 vaccination or regular testing after the Supreme Court struck down the White House’s employer vaccine mandate.
The company suspended its enforcement of that policy on Friday, one day after the court said the Biden administration could not force large U.S. companies to require vaccinations for their employees.
President Joe Biden has urged companies to continue with their own personal mandates after his administration’s own efforts were stymied by the Supreme Court.
Read MoreCommentary: The ‘Blue’ Print for Zuckerberg’s Center for Technology and Civic Life’s Election Intervention in Wisconsin 2020
https://www.flickr.com/photos/timevanson/22568686460
Read MoreState Auditor: Whitmer Admin. Undercounted Michigan Nursing Home COVID Deaths by 30 Percent
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s administration drastically undercounted COVID-19 nursing home deaths in the state, according to a state auditor general report reviewed by Fox News.
The damning report, which is expected to be released on Monday, reveals suspicious similarities to how former Democrat governor Andrew Cuomo hid nursing home deaths in New York.
Republican State Rep. Steven Johnson, the chairman of the Michigan House Oversight Committee, spoke with Fox News Digital in a telephone interview on Thursday. Whitmer [like Cuomo] is “well known” for her executive order “to place COVID-positive patients into nursing homes,” Johnson said.
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