Day: March 13, 2023

Biden Approves ConocoPhillips Oil Project Over Green Group Objections

Admin

The Biden administration formally approved Willow, an $8 billion oil drilling project located in Alaska, Monday morning over the objection of climate activists who lobbied heavily against it.

The massive project, operated by American energy firm ConocoPhillips, is projected to produce roughly 600 million barrels of oil over a 30-year lifespan, The New York Times reported. In a bid to placate environmentalists, the administration had considered limiting the project to just two drill sites, down from the five that ConocoPhillips initially proposed, but the company and Alaskan lawmakers warned that the project would need at least three to be economically viable, according to CNN.

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Commentary: Donald Trump Reemerges as the Republican Alpha at CPAC

Admin

At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Donald Trump demonstrated, once again, why he remains leader of the Republican Party. He made it clear that he should not be displaced until long after his 2024 presidential primary victory.

Trump showed the rhetorical brilliance that vaulted him from political outsider to the heir to Ronald Reagan in an instant. At a time when too many Republican politicians stumble over each other for positions just to lurch back toward the middle and lose their mettle, Trump gave the base the red meat they needed to hear.

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Catholic Civil Rights Group Condemns State Legislation to Force Priests to Break Seal of Confession

Susan Berry, PhD

Bills in the states of Vermont, Delaware, and Washington would include in mandatory reporting laws information about child sexual abuse a priest learns during the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a move the Catholic League states lacks sound reasoning.

Last week Catholic League President Bill Donohue warned the “seal of confession” is “under fire” in Vermont, noting the Catholic civil rights organization is once again “doing battle with lawmakers who want to violate” the priest-penitent privilege, mostly in legislation concerning the sexual abuse of minors.

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‘Corporate Bailouts Must End’: 2024 GOP Candidates Weigh In On Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse

Admin

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has sparked comments from 2024 GOP candidates and hopefuls about why the bank failed and what the government should do in its wake.

Declared candidates, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump, as well as contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have spoken out about what might have led to SVB’s collapse and against government bailouts. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of SVB after its Friday shut down when their stock plummeted following mass withdrawals.

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Professor Argues Cancer Research Needs More ‘Antiracism’

Admin

Christabel Cheung, a professor at the University of Maryland, recently gave a presentation arguing that principles of “antiracism” must be incorporated into cancer research.

The presentation came as part of a symposium hosted by the University of Michigan School of Social Work on “Achieving Health Equity in Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Psycho-Oncology Care.”

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African White House Reporter Says He’s Being ‘Censored and Punished’ For Asking ‘Incompetent’ Karine Jean-Pierre Tough Questions

Admin

The top White House reporter from Africa said Thursday that he is “censored and punished”  by the White House Correspondents Association  (WHCA) for asking “totally incompetent” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre too many tough questions.

Simon Ateba, the Chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa, is reportedly being kicked out of the WHCA, which controls the White House briefings. The Cameroonian journalist was one of several members of the press  barred from attending Joe Biden’s media briefing last month addressing the spate of unidentified aerial objects seen in United States airspace.

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Smugglers Are Using Drones to Spy on Agents, Border Patrol Says

ADN America

The U.S. Border Patrol said that smugglers are using drones to spy on its agents along the U.S.-Mexico Border between San Diego and Tijuana.

“They’re gathering intelligence, they’re doing counter-surveillance on our agents, they’re trying to see our work patterns, how many agents and what they’re doing,” said Border Patrol Agent Diana Ibarra in a recent bulletin published by the federal agency. “They’re working to try and find any possible vulnerability and exploit those.”

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Commentary: Please, No More America-Hating Diplomats

Admin

It would be illogical to put a Quaker, whose religion forbids violence, in charge of recruitment for the Marines. So why would we ask someone who despises the U.S. economic system in charge of recruiting American diplomats?

Yet, recently, at an Atlantic Council seminar, the deputy director of the Rangel International Affairs Fellowship called capitalism “a common enemy.”

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Three More States Dropping Voter Data-Sharing Collective as Trump Rips ‘Fools Game for Republicans’

Just the News

Three more red states — Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia — this week followed Louisiana and Alabama in withdrawing from a multistate data-sharing partnership that facilitates voter registration and maintenance of voter rolls, citing unmet concerns over protecting voter information and partisan influence at the nonprofit.

The latest withdrawals from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) came after the nonprofit’s board of directors rejected changes proposed by a bipartisan working group of several member states.

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Commentary: Student Debt Forgiveness Won’t Cure Higher Education’s Ills

RealClearWire

On February 28th, the Supreme Court heard arguments on President Biden’s plan to extinguish an estimated $400 billion in student debt. Biden deserves credit for highlighting a debilitating federal program in desperate need of reform. His proposal, however, would make the problem far worse, not better. Any serious reform would force academic institutions to take some responsibility for the education they provide—and to show some responsibility to the many young Americans they induce to go deeply into debt. 

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Commentary: Medicaid Expansion Fails to Deliver on Promises

RealClearWire

Medicaid expansion is failing states across the nation according to a recent Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) report. The report found states that have expanded Medicaid have faced more hospital closures than states that haven’t expanded the program. Of course, for years, advocates have claimed that expansion would be a necessary provision for financial health and job security for hospitals. Though, as suspected, data reveals the opposite. More accurately, non-expansion states have seen improved profitability, a larger bed capacity, and increased job growth. 

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Treasury Inspector General Audit: 42,000 Federal Employees ‘Repeatedly’ Don’t File Federal Returns

Just the News

Tens of thousands of federal employees have “repeatedly” failed to file their federal tax returns, according to a new federal watchdog report.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration flags 42,000 so-called “federal employee non-filers” and states the government is limited in its authority to punish them, according to the Washington Times.

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Study: Average American IQ Is Declining for the First Time in a Century

Admin

A new study asserts that the intelligence quotient (IQ) of the average American citizen is now on the decline for the first time in nearly 100 years.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the study was published in the psychology journal Intelligence. Analyzing the time period between 2006 and 2018, the study’s authors note that the biggest decline in IQ occurred among Americans between the ages of 18 and 22.

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Experts: A Large Proportion of Children Pursuing Gender Transitions Are Actually Autistic

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Children with autism make up an outsized proportion of the transgender-identified population, and autism spectrum traits make them particularly vulnerable to thought patterns that can lead youth to pursue gender transitions, according to research and medical professionals.

Transgender individuals are about three to six times more likely to be autistic than non-transgender people, research shows; the connection between transgenderism and autism has been a subject of interest for researchers since at least 2010, and the Gender Development Identity Service at Tavistock, the world’s largest pediatric gender clinic, came under fire in recent years over allegations that as many as 97.5% of its gender patients had autism. Dr. Susan Bradley, a Canadian psychiatrist and pioneer in treating gender dysphoria, told the DCNF that she now believes most pediatric gender patients are actually on the autism spectrum and are being exploited by medical professionals.

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