Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan released a new budget that considers a budget forecast projecting an increased surplus.
An analysis from the Minnesota Management and Budget office detailed that the state’s budget surplus has increased to roughly $9.3 billion.
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The Star News Network National Political Editor, Neil W. McCabe in Michigan spoke with former senior aide to Ben Carson under President Trump, John Gibbs, about why he went home to Michigan to defeat Meijer in the Republican primary, unlike Peter Meijer who has been changed since his time in Washington, D.C.
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Minnesota taxpayers will spend about $1.1 billion to keep individual insurance rates five more years if a bill the Senate passed Monday becomes law.
The legislators passed the bill, SF 3472, in a 42-24 vote.
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A new documentary exposes Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the “hidden agenda in America’s schools,” as it also emphasizes the “corrupting influence of teachers’ unions” and urges a return to the true education of American children.
Fathom Events, the film’s distributor, notes on its website Whose Children Are They? seeks to “pull back the curtain about what is truly happening in our public schools today.”
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Although it had been a feature of elections in some parts of the United States for years, the phenomenon of mail-ballot voting exploded in the 2020 election. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, jurisdictions around the country expanded use of mail voting, sometimes sending ballots to every registered voter. Steps were taken to facilitate ease of mail voting, such as establishing drop boxes for returned ballots, relaxing rules regarding signature verification, and easing restrictions on “ballot harvesting,” the practice whereby paid political activists collect a large number of completed ballots and return them for counting. As a result, by some estimates, the proportion of ballots cast by mail nearly doubled from 2016 to 2020.
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Traditionally, March 17 was a day to remember St Patrick, who ministered Christianity in Ireland during the 5th century. But over time, the day has evolved to represent a celebration of Irish culture more generally. Today, as with Halloween and Christmas, the true meaning of the celebration has been watered down even further. Now, it is just as likely to be marked by non-Irish people who use it as an excuse to consume large quantities of alcohol and dress as leprechauns.
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The Star News Network National Political Editor, Neil W. McCabe spoke to former Diversity Advisor to former President Trump about the remaining sentiment of conservative Black voters that feel the election was taken from them.
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Everyone knows how the 2016 election transformed the American electorate overnight. Many voters were shaken from their “tax cuts and gun rights” slumber and awakened to the decline and corruption of America’s culture, economy, and entire political system.
After that election, Republican voters watched many of their own representatives betray the MAGA movement rather than help their constituents change the status quo. Internet searches for the phrase “GOP establishment” increased by a hundredfold. The “deplorables”—also known as the people—laid siege to the elites with tremendous energy.
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The Star News Network’s National Political Editor, Neil W. McCabe, visited Dunwoody, Georgia, on Wednesday and spoke to former Diversity Advisor Bruce LeVell under President Trump about why the president appealed to black voters.
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As the peak of the coronavirus pandemic appears to have passed, ten Republican-led states have all recorded the lowest unemployment rate on record.
According to The Hill, the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows ten different states with unemployment rates as low as just over 2 percent. Nebraska and Utah are tied for the lowest percentages in the country, at 2.2 percent each. They are followed by Indiana with 2.4 percent, and Kansas with 2.6 percent. The remaining six states are: Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
All ten states’ unemployment rates are currently the lowest on record since BLS first began tracking state-by-state percentages in 1976. Of these ten states, only one has a Democratic governor, with Laura Kelly in Kansas. All ten states have Republican majorities in their respective state legislatures.
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The New Hampshire State Senate is set to vote on the House-approved redistricting plan on Thursday.
New Hampshire is one of four remaining states that have yet to complete their congressional redistricting process. The others are Louisiana, Florida, and Missouri.
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Border officials encountered 164,973 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in February, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announcement Tuesday.
The figure represents a 7% increase from January’s encounters, according to CBP.
CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement that February’s overall operational numbers result from “the continued economic rebound from the depths of the COVID pandemic, with CBP officers processing more than 2.8 million shipments in legitimate trade valued at more than $236 billion.”
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Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Joe Biden’s pick for a key Federal Reserve position, withdrew her nomination Tuesday after receiving bipartisan pushback.
Raskin’s nomination faced fierce opposition by Republican lawmakers and industry groups that argued her previous positions on a range of topics including climate policy disqualified her for the job. Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee led by Ranking Member Pat Toomey have boycotted a vote to pass her nomination and four other nominations to the Senate for a floor vote since February.
“Unfortunately, Senate Republicans are more focused on amplifying these false claims and protecting special interests than taking important steps toward addressing inflation and lowering costs for the American people,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday. “I am grateful for Sarah’s service to our country and for her willingness to serve again, and I look forward to her future contributions to our country.”
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U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson traveled to the Middle East to discuss increased oil production with leaders after they reportedly snubbed President Joe Biden’s requests.
Johnson met with United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nayhan on Wednesday and is traveling to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later in the day, according to The Wall Street Journal. Johnson is reportedly set to deliver a message on behalf of the West, urging the two oil-rich nations to boost production.
“The Prime Minister set out his deep concerns about the chaos unleashed by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and stressed the importance of working together to improve stability in the global energy market,” the British government said in a readout of Johnson’s meeting with the UAE leader earlier Wednesday.
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Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe released video footage from last November, showing armed FBI agents raiding and ransacking an employee’s home. The Feds raided two of O’Keefe’s employees’ homes on November 4, on the orders of federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. They raided O’Keefe’s apartment in Mamaroneck, N.Y., a couple of days later in connection with Ashley Biden’s allegedly stolen diary.
O’Keefe contends that he and his journalists were targeted because of their investigative journalism.
The footage begins with the FBI banging loudly on the door, and with the startled journalist responding shakily, “I’m sorry, what is this regarding?”
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After a massive rise in the number of drilling permits approved in 2021, the total number has plunged to some of the lowest levels ever in 2022, all on the watch of the Biden Administration.
Politico reports that after the previous high of 643 permits that were issued by the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in April of 2021, just 95 permits were approved in January of this year. The sudden shift reflects the wildly different approaches taken by the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration when it comes to domestic energy production.
While President Donald Trump supported unlimited domestic production in order to establish national energy independence, Biden pledged to reduce the production of fossil fuels in order to combat “global warming,” and instead has tried to promote so-called “green” energy alternatives. But the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including the impacts on the global energy market, has forced Biden to consider restarting domestic production in order to offset rising gas prices.
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U.S. Representative Tom Emmer (R-MN-06) sent a letter to Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to receive more information relating to the agency’s information seeking process relating to cryptocurrency and blockchain firms.
The letter, a bipartisan effort signed by multiple representatives, encouraged accountability and transparency, as the group outlined more than a dozen questions about the process.
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Minnesota school districts belonging to the Association of Metropolitan School Districts (AMSD), a lobbying organization, are facing a collective budget shortfall of $235.3 million for the upcoming 2022-23 school year.
That figure comes from the results of an AMSD survey taken by 45 school districts across the state.
For example, Minneapolis and Saint Paul Public Schools are facing respective shortfalls of $59.5 million and $42.8 million — approximately 43% of the combined shortfall. Only eight school districts that took the survey reported no projected shortfalls.
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Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced an amendment Monday that would eliminate Dr. Anthony Fauci’s position as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and decentralize it in an effort to ensure no one person can act as “dictator-in-chief” and make public health decisions for millions of Americans.
Paul’s office said in a press release the amendment seeks to replace the NIAID director’s position with three separate national research institutes.
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As school districts across the country grapple with declining enrollments induced by the pandemic, many are engaged in spending sprees like those of the past leading to widespread layoffs and budget cuts when federal money ran out.
Bolstered by $190 billion in pandemic relief funding from Washington, the nation’s public schools are hiring new teachers and staff, raising salaries, and sweetening benefit packages. Some are buying new vehicles. Others are building theaters and sports facilities.
Using such temporary support for new staff and projects with long-term costs is setting the table for perilous “fiscal cliffs” after COVID funding expires in 2024, some education budget analysts say. And that’s on top of doubts about whether money to battle the pandemic is being properly spent in the first place.
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USA Today named transgender Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services Dr. Rachel (born Richard) Levine as a “Woman of the Year” Sunday.
In October, the pediatrician and former Pennsylvania health secretary became the nation’s highest-ranking transgender official in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps when Levine was sworn in as an admiral.
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A bill to make daylight saving time permanent heads to the U.S. House after unanimously passing the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), introduced the Sunshine Protection Act with 17 bipartisan cosponsors.
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The Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures the prices suppliers charge businesses and other customers, surged 0.8% on a month-over-month basis as of February as consumer demand continues to spur inflation, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced Tuesday.
The PPI grew 10% on a year-over-year basis as of February, the BLS reported Tuesday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones estimated wholesale prices would increase 0.9% on a monthly basis in the latest report.
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At its founding, American K-12 public education was meant to prepare young people to be active participants in our democratic republic. That should still be its highest purpose, especially when it comes to teaching civics.
Historically, public schools held fast to the principle that effective education must be non-partisan. Knowing they had great power to influence young minds, teachers used to be careful to choose content and pedagogies that restricted their ability to impose their personal political views on schoolchildren.
Today, maintaining non-partisanship is more important than ever in classrooms. Sadly, it’s increasingly dishonored. Civics has become a hot-button issue of late, particularly after remote learning allowed more parents to see what their children were actually being taught. Many were not happy with what they saw, and the debate over civics education is symptomatic of the larger divide that has become such a looming threat to American society.
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What did Barack Obama and Joe Biden know about the Russiagate collusion hoax their fellow Democrats ginned up to kneecap Donald Trump – and when did they know it? How much did their chicanery contribute to Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade the Ukraine?
Those questions are coming into sharp relief following a definitive report by my RealClearInvestigations colleague Paul Sperry last week that places the worst political scandal in our nation’s history and Putin’s brutal war directly inside the White House.
Drawing on a wide range of documents, many never previously reported, Sperry details how the Obama administration worked closely with the Clinton campaign and a foreign government – Ukraine – in a “sweeping and systematic effort” to interfere in the 2016 election. It turns out Democrats were guilty of every false charge they lodged against Trump.
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With U.S. and world food prices set to soar due to inflation and supply shortages stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a key GOP lawmaker is asking the Pentagon to study the potential for conflict if the global food supply shrinks by 5%.
U.S. farmers will pay $300-$400 more per acre to grow crops this year due to inflation and costs associated with the war in Europe, Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott warned Monday on the Just the News TV show.
Shipping is another issue, as trade is throttled by war-related disruptions and tough economic sanctions against Russia.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and soaring energy prices are a bracing wake up call to the West to abandon our anemic energy policies, which have pretended to be green but in reality have only shifted the dirtiest parts of our energy supply chains to bad actors like Russia and China. Western energy dependence on hostile powers limits our ability to preserve peace, to reduce our supply vulnerability, and to find the most cost-effective climate change solutions.
President Biden has acknowledged some of these problems, conceding that gasoline prices are too high and promising to do “everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling at the gas pump.” But gas prices continue to rise, up by 10% in the last week.
One option President Biden has not yet explored is working with Congress to fix our incoherent domestic fuel policy to improve fuel efficiency across the board and reduce the amount Americans pay for gasoline. Currently, the EPA regulates fuels and automobiles separately, instead of as a single system. Automakers have the technological know-how to make much more efficient car engines, but regulatory barriers prevent them from doing so because they do not permit the use of cleaner fuels that would reduce carbon emissions and enhance performance.
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Part of a key pipeline transporting natural gas from Russia to Europe suddenly reversed its flow direction Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Flows in the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which sends natural gas to Germany via Poland, were recorded going eastward away from Europe on Tuesday morning, data from the European firm Gascade showed, Reuters reported, citing data from German network operator Gascade. Flows leaving Germany were moving at a whopping 4.3 million kilowatt-hours per hour at one section of the pipeline.
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Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner was convicted nearly four years ago of securities fraud and still he has not spent a day in prison. And now Devon Archer’s lawyers are trying to delay his punishment yet again with a new appeal that did not amuse federal prosecutors.
Archer faces one year and one day in prison and was ordered last month to pay financial penalties of $15 million and over $43 million in restitution.
His arguments to appeal and postpone serving prison time have no merit, the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan told the trial judge Monday.
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Former BlackRock Portfolio Manager and Investor Edward Dowd is accusing the United States government of democide after an analysis of Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data showed an 84 percent increase in excess mortality in millennials in the fall of 2021.
During a recent appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room Pandemic, Dowd said that an insurance industry expert analyzed the CDC’s aggregate data and broke down the number of mortalities by age and created baselines for each age group. All age groups experienced excess mortality, especially millennials, he said.
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Minnesota ranks among states with the highest income tax, a new report from the Tax Foundation shows.
The organization, a nonpartisan nonprofit that analyzes tax policies from each state, ranked the governments based on the impact of their individual income taxes, as Minnesota was placed at number 43 in the country.
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U.S. Representative Jim Hagedorn’s widow, Jennifer Carnahan, has announced her run for her husband’s former seat. Hagedorn passed away in February.
In a an announcement release provided to The Minnesota Sun, Carnahan said that her husband told her to run for the seat and to win.
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In celebration of Women’s History Month, colleges and universities are hosting events to celebrate womxn, not women.
In an effort to become more inclusive of those that deny biological reality, higher education is in fact erasing women’s opportunities to excel in academics, athletics, and career tracks.
I am proud to be a woman. Women have been pivotal to our society. But making women compete with men undermines females’ ability to achieve success.
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On Mar. 3, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed House Bill 2416, which bars men from competing against women in sports at “all school levels.”
“The bill also requires that only female students, based on their sex, may participate in any team, sport, or athletic event designated as being for females, women, or girls,” the new legislation reads.
“This is a victory for girls’ sports in Iowa,” Reynolds said on Mar. 3, surrounded by a room of female athletes as the bill was officially enacted. “No amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females. It’s simply a reality of human biology.”
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The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates after its meeting Wednesday to combat the country’s soaring inflation, Axios reported.
The central bank is believed to raise its target fed funds rate by a quarter percentage point from zero after the end of the two-day meeting ending Wednesday, Axios reported. The Fed’s decision will outline the bank’s monetary policy for the near future and determine whether the U.S. economy enters a recession or continues surging price hikes, according to Axios.
Inflation has soared to nearly 8% year-over-year as of February while unemployment stayed below 4%, indicating that the Fed has been behind the curve in its effort to address sustained inflation, Axios reported. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is now reportedly tasked with fixing a delicate economy without crashing it despite a war in Ukraine and renewed COVID-19 lockdowns in China.
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Americans are seeing the real costs of inflation in their daily lives as they pay record high gas prices, significantly increased grocery costs, and suffer sticker shock at restaurants, hair salons and other places.
Restaurants are charging more, with some posting notices on their doors. Increased prices, they say, are necessary to stay open simply to cover their increased costs for cooking oil and other goods. Some restaurants post signs accompanying empty containers to show that while they’re not increasing prices, their portion sizes are smaller.
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On Sunday, the chief executive officer of Pfizer said that Americans should be prepared to receive a second booster shot of the Coronavirus vaccine, which would mark the fourth overall shot that has been forced on the American public.
As reported by Politico, Albert Bourla made his remarks in an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan, where he said that his company was preparing to submit “a significant package of data about the need for a fourth dose” to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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No matter what political party you align with, we can all agree that 2022 is going to be a blockbuster term for the Supreme Court. Cases regarding abortion, gun control, and affirmative action are all poised to be decided this year.
In the past the Left has used the Court to impose its radical ideology on American society because it couldn’t use the electoral process to do it. Now they fear the Court is no longer hospitable to these efforts.
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After an historic year of illegal migrants entering the United States, the Biden administration has belatedly revealed the impact of another leg of its border strategy: a sharp reduction in arrests and deportations.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported Friday interior immigration arrests fell to 74,082 in fiscal 2021, down from 103,000 in 2020 and 143,000 two years ago.
Likewise, deportations fell a stunning 70% to 59,011 last year, the lowest number in 26 years. The lack of deportations marked a precipitous drop from the Obama and Trump years, when expulsions often topped 300,000 or more annually.
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Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin said Monday that he will not support the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin to become the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, placing a major obstacle in her path to Senate confirmation.
In February, Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee uniformly opposed Raskin’s nomination by refusing to attend a committee vote to advance her position. The no-show act also created a blockade to the nominations of several other Fed nominees, including Chairman Jerome Powell.
Raskin to be confirmed needs 51 yes votes – a simple majority – in a final Senate vote.
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A pundit who called the Constitution garbage is a leader of a dark money group funding a million dollar campaign to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Supreme Court, according to tax documents provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation by Americans for Public Trust.
Demand Justice seeks to nominate left-wing judges to American courts. Most recently, the group is pushing for the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
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A former Michigan county township clerk has been charged with ballot tampering and official misconduct in connection with an expected recount in her own August 2020 primary election.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the charges on Friday against ex-Flint Township Clerk Kathy Funk, a Democrat who will face trial in Genesee County District court.
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Dozens of TikTok “influencers” were given a White House briefing on the Russia-Ukraine war, Thursday, the Washington Post reported. In a Zoom call, National Security Council staffers and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reportedly provided to “30 top TikTok stars” the Biden administration’s talking points on “the United States’ strategic goals,” and answered a number of questions.
According to WaPo internet technology reporter Taylor Lorenz, “millions” of people are turning to the Chinese-owned social media app for information about what is going on in Ukraine.
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Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pressuring the Internal Revenue Service over ongoing problems and unaddressed issues from last year’s filing season even as this year’s season is in full swing.
A bipartisan group of more than 100 lawmakers from the U.S. House and Senate sent a letter to the IRS raising concerns about “continued confusion” and “numerous problems” with the agency.
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The Minnesota Senate, joining the House of Representative, unanimously voted on Monday to audit the Southwest Light Rail project.
The legislation would allow a legislative auditor to investigate the project, which has suffered delays and costs that have exploded past the original budget.
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Minneapolis was receiving five times the average number of 911 calls at the height of the George Floyd riots in May 2020. This call volume grew so intense that it “overwhelmed the system,” according to a city report released this week.
Many have interpreted the report as a rebuke of city leadership, as it offers a page-by-page analysis of the many mistakes that were made in the 10 days following Floyd’s death.
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President Biden and other White House officials dramatically changed their tune this week in defending their green agenda in the face of skyrocketing gas prices and Russia’s energy supply stranglehold over Europe.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden for months blamed increasing gas prices on supply-chain issues and pent-up post-pandemic demand for travel, deflecting questions on whether his push to move the country off fossil fuels was a factor.
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The campaigns for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District and New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District are two races that are important to the GOP’s chances at taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Representatives Chris Pappas of NH-1 and Teresa Leger-Fernández of NM-3 are two Democrat incumbents that could find themselves out of a job in November if their Republican challengers have their way.
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The Supreme Court of Texas recommended Friday a lawsuit challenging the state’s “heartbeat” abortion ban should be dismissed since it is enforced by “private civil action,” and not state officials.
Justice Jeffrey S. Boyd concluded in the decision regarding the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, that state officials, such as medical licensing boards, cannot enforce the law that bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected
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In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden promoted electric vehicles (EVs), trumpeting his plans to establish “a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.” In so doing, Biden is unwittingly supporting the worst humanitarian abuses in the world. This is because of the way in which the materials used in manufacturing the batteries that power today’s EVs are obtained.
To obtain a reasonable amount of power per pound of battery weight, EV manufacturers generally use various forms of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, so named because the battery’s positive electrode, called the cathode, is largely made up of the highly reactive metal lithium (Li). To keep the cathode stable when a battery is not in use, the lithium is combined in a metal oxide matrix, with different manufacturers using different combinations of metals.
Most EV manufacturers combine lithium with nickel, cobalt and manganese to create a Li-Ni-Mn-Co oxide matrix to form the cathode. Tesla substitutes aluminum (Al) for the manganese, yielding a Li-Ni-Co-Al oxide matrix for the cathode on their batteries. Tesla maintains that their formulae is more cost-effective as less cobalt is required.
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