Zuckerberg Says Meta Has No Plans to Go Through with a Kids’ Version of Instagram

Mark Zuckerberg

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress on Wednesday said the tech firm has “no plans” to make a kids version of its Instagram platform. 

He acknowledge “discussions internally” on the idea but also said Meta has not “actually moved forward with that, and we currently have no plans to do so.”

Read More

TikTok is Still Sending American User Data to Chinese Parent Company: Report

TikTok continues to distribute data to its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance despite its purported efforts to protect American data, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

TikTok attempted to address concerns from lawmakers and public officials over its handling of Americans’ data by spending $1.5 billion on establishing an isolated unit to safeguard American data called Project Texas. However, managers within TikTok are telling employees to share data to ByteDance, bypassing authorized channels, according to current and previous employees as well as company records the WSJ saw.

Read More

‘Did Not Align with Our Mission’: Catholic University Fires Professor Who Brought in ‘Abortion Doula’

Rachel Carbonneau

Catholic University confirmed to The Daily Signal that it has terminated the contract of the professor who invited a self-declared “abortion doula” to speak to students about coaching women through abortions and “pregnant men” through a “seahorse birth.”

Catholic University President Peter Kilpatrick announced to students on Jan. 30 that the university “terminated our contract with the professor who invited the speaker” after obtaining “clear evidence that the content of the class did not align with our mission and identity.”

Read More

Pro-Life Activists Face 11 Years in Prison After Jury Hands Down Guilty Verdict

Six pro-life activists were found guilty of blocking access to an abortion clinic on Tuesday and could face a sentence of up to 11 years in prison, according to a press release from the Thomas More Society.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged 11 pro-life activists in October 2022 with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services,” for blocking the entrance of an abortion clinic in March 2021. A jury ruled that the six defendants were guilty after a six-day trial at the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the press release.

Read More

Top U.S. Automaker Reports $1.7 Billion Loss on Electric Vehicles in Fourth Quarter

Marry Barra

General Motors reported a $1.7 billion loss on Tuesday in its fourth quarter earnings call in the production and sale of its electric vehicle line, despite having positive net income growth in the quarter.

The automaker’s net income for the fourth quarter rose 5.2% year-over-year to $2.1 billion despite a reduction in revenue over that time frame of 0.3%, according to GM’s fourth quarter earnings report. The losses on EVs accompany a $1.1 billion total loss from a six-week-long strike by the United Auto Workers that partially halted operations, with the union gaining a new work contract that could raise labor costs in the coming year, according to the company’s investor earnings call.

Read More

Harvard’s ‘Diversity’ Chief Accused of over 40 Instances of Plagiarism

Sherri Charleston

Harvard University’s chief diversity and inclusion officer allegedly plagiarized some of her academic works, according to a complaint filed Monday with the university.

The complaint alleged that Sherri Charleston plagiarized 40 passages throughout her works, including in her 2009 dissertation and her single peer-reviewed paper, The Washington Free Beacon first reported. Charleston allegedly did not properly cite almost a dozen scholars when quoting or paraphrasing in her dissertation, and she is accused of re-using a portion of a 2012 study published by her husband, LaVar Charleston, in the peer-reviewed article, which was coauthored by LaVar, according to the complaint.

Read More

Commentary: The Deep State will Receive a Shellacking Come November

Trump White House

President Donald Trump heads into February’s South Carolina primary in a formidable position—the strongest ever in his political career. Following Iowa’s near-clean sweep, in which the 45th President picked up 98 of 99 counties in the Hawkeye State (and the one county he lost by just a single vote), he routed the New Hampshire primary with a double-digit victory, once again winning all but a single county in the Granite State.

The momentum he carried into New Hampshire was so resounding that it forced Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, once hyped as President Trump’s successor not so long ago, to drop out of the race days before the first official vote was even tallied. The New Hampshire result, which saw Trump thrash Haley with a 54% to 43% margin, would have been wider, but for all the former-Democrats-turned-undecideds in the state, who teamed up with left-leaning independents to artificially tilt the scales towards Haley.

Read More

Derek Chauvin Still Fighting Convictions Despite Stabbing, Solitary Confinement

Even though he is still recovering from a near-fatal stabbing, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is seeking legal help while confined to solitary medical confinement in a federal prison facility.

“There was no question he was trying to kill him. It was more serious than anyone knew,” Carolyn Pawlenty said of the violent attack on her son in the prison law library at the facility in Tucson, Ariz., on Nov. 24, 2023.

Read More

Commentary: The Beltway Judge Hearing Trump Cases and Her Anti-Trump, Anti-Kavanaugh Husband

Washington glitterati assembled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in October to celebrate federal employees making a difference in government. Hosted by CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, the black-tie affair featured in-person appearances by top Biden White House officials including Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack.

Midway through the evening’s festivities, Max Stier, president of the group sponsoring the event – the Partnership for Public Service, a $24 million nonprofit based in Washington that recruits individuals to work in the civil service – took the stage to thank his high-profile guests. “Great leaders are the heart and soul of effective organizations,” Stier said, “which is why I am so thankful to see so many of our government’s amazing leaders here tonight.”

Read More

George Soros Invests Millions in Flipping Texas Blue

Soros Texas

The far-left billionaire George Soros has donated millions of dollars to various campaigns and political organizations in an effort to flip the second-most populous state in the United States to Democratic control.

According to Fox News, Soros has already given more than $3 million to five left-wing groups in the state of Texas in the last year alone, in an effort to increase ground game for Democratic candidates in the traditionally Republican state.

Read More

DeSantis Calls to Expel Ilhan Omar from Congress over Somalia Video

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday called for the House to expel Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar over a footage of her speaking in Somali in which she allegedly promised to prioritize the interests of Mogadishu and backed the territorial aspirations of the Somali government.

“Expel from Congress, denaturalize and deport!” DeSantis posted on X, resharing the video footage. The original video was posted by the account of the Ambassador at Large of the Republic of Somaliland and included a translation of Omar’s remarks, the interpretation of which Omar has disputed.

Read More

Music Spotlight: Jake and Shelby

Jake and Shelby

A duo that kept showing up in my Instagram feed was a couple of kids, known as Jake & Shelby. Jake Lawson and Shelby Haim are teenagers from Hendersonville, Tennessee. Known for their smooth vocals and intricate guitar arrangements, their magical mix of melody and lyrics is enticing. The pop duo has nearly 900,000 followers on Instagram. Their TikTok videos have had over 70 mllion views.

At just 18 and 19 years of age, I knew if I had any chance of featuring them, I had better contact them as soon as possible.

Read More

Science Won’t Stop Rhode Island from Resuming Mask Mandate on Kids: Proposed Regulation

Covid School

Rhode Island convinced parents last month to drop their 2021 lawsuit against its gone-but-not-forgotten COVID-19 mask mandates in schools by pledging to hold public hearings should it seek to reimpose them.

Now the Ocean State is proposing a health regulation under which it could force kids to mask up again without justifying it through scientific evidence, allegedly violating the dismissal stipulation that ended the case Dec. 13.

Read More