Author: Minnesota Sun Staff

A former Yale University student who defeated claims of rape is continuing his legal battle to seek justice.

Saifullah Khan is suing fifteen organizations including the National Women’s Law Center, the Fierberg National Law Group, and the National Crime Victim Law Institute, along with attorney Jennifer Becker, for “defamation, false light, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and abuse of process action.”

Kamala Harris Makes Several About-Faces on Key Policies as She Maneuvers to Face Donald Trump

In the weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, the California politician has shifted her policies—sometimes quietly, even under the radar —on key issues to distance herself from her liberal past.

White House officials told Politico that these shifts are part of a strategy to undermine the argument that she is a leftist politician, a reputation they believe stems from the positions she took in the 2020 Democratic primary, but which they say do not truly represent Harris’ positions.

Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: Trump Can Win (or Lose) the Election

The good news for the Trump campaign is that the sure Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is a lifelong California hard leftist at a time when the state is emblematic of progressive nihilism. Her extremist advocacies as a San Francisco county and city attorney, state Attorney General, and senator are on record. And they are consistent with what has virtually destroyed the state.

‘Nonpartisan’ Climate Group Called ‘Science Moms’ Looks Like a Democrat Dark Money Operation

by Robert Schmad An organization spending millions on swing state ads ahead of November’s election brands itself as “non-partisan” despite extensive ties to a major Democrat-aligned dark money network, according to the Washington Examiner. Science Moms, which calls itself a “nonpartisan group of scientists” working to fight climate change,…

LGBT Nonprofit Director Reportedly Used Donor Money to Fund Lavish Lifestyle

The executive director of a large LGBT nonprofit allegedly spent the organization’s money on a lavish personal lifestyle, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Sarah Kate Ellis, chief executive of GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group, spent large sums of donor’s money on expenses such as remodeling her home office with a chandelier, renting a Cape Cod property, first class flights and luxury hotels, according to the NYT’s review of expense reports from January 2022 to June 2023. The expenses may be in violation of both the organization’s guidelines and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules, legal experts told the NYT.

Federal Judge Rules That New Jersey’s AR-15 Ban Is Unconstitutional

On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that the state of New Jersey’s ban on AR-15 rifles is unconstitutional.

ABC News reports that U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan’s ruling was directly influenced by the precedent set by the Supreme Court in its landmark ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen in 2022. In that case, the Supreme Court determined that Americans do not have to show “proper cause” when seeking to obtain a concealed-carry permit, overturning a 100-year-old state law in New York.

Half of Americans View Large-Scale Migration to Be a ‘Critical Threat,’ Majority Want More Wall: Poll

Half of Americans believe a large number of migrants entering the country poses a “critical threat” to the interests of the United States, and a majority favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall, a Chicago Council survey found.

Fifty percent of Americans view large numbers of migrants and refugees entering the U.S. to be a “critical threat” to the nation, a survey released Friday by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found. The poll additionally found wide support for a border wall and the use of U.S. troops to stem illegal immigration.

Commentary: Kamala Harris and the Masque of Magical Thinking

Although the last few weeks have had their alarming aspects — chief among which was the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13, the odds-on favorite candidate for president — they have also had their amusing moments.

In the latter category, I place the sudden queen-for-a-day-like coronation of Kamala Harris.

Trump Campaign Raked in Nearly $140 Million in July

Former President Donald Trump announced Thursday his campaign has raised nearly $140 million for July.

Within an fundraising update for the month of July, Trump’s campaign stated they’ve pulled in a total of $138.7 million, thus providing a cash on hand total of $327 million. The new numbers come after Trump was confirmed as the GOP’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Committee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and notably after the failed assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania.

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Suspends Groups After Saying Israel Supporters ‘Not Welcome’ and to ‘Stay Tuned’

Five pro-Palestinian groups at the University of Milwaukee are currently suspended and under investigation following an Instagram story.

The chancellor’s office wrote it was “alerted to an Instagram story on the uwm4palicoalition account that included intimidating language aimed at Jewish community members and organizations on campus that support Israel.”

Biden EPA Cuts Big Check for Pro-Defund the Police Activists to Pursue ‘Climate Justice’ for Convicts

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sending up to $3 million to an activist group that advocates for slashing police budgets and prison closures to pursue “climate justice” for convicts and “reentry communities.”

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (Baker Center) and the Insight Garden Program were selected for receipt of between $1 million and $3 million to pursue “Environmental and Climate Justice in Prison and Reentry Communities.” The Baker Center has previously endorsed or advocated for left-wing activist positions like defunding the police, effectively decriminalizing shoplifting, closing prisons and more.

Commentary: America’s Eroding Deterrent in the Face of China Aggression

In March 2015, the former Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Harry Harris, while giving a speech in Australia, dismissed the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) building of seven artificial islands in the South China Sea (SCS) as nothing more than a “Great Wall of Sand” that would not alter the U.S. Navy’s freedom of navigation operations or American deterrence capabilities in the region.

Study: After COVID Pandemic, Only 40 Percent of Americans Now Say They Trust Doctors

A stunning 50-state survey of U.S. adults has found that trust in physicians and hospitals collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic, going from from 71.5 percent in April 2020 to 40.1 percent in January 2024.

Roy H. Perlis, MD, MS, Katherine Ognyanova PhD, and Ata Uslu, MS, researchers from the Center for Quantitative Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Rutgers University, and Northeastern University, surveyed 443 455 individuals in every sociodemographic group aged 18 years or older residing in the US.

Catholic Group Urges DOJ to Investigate Pro-Abortion Attacks on Churches, Pregnancy Centers

A Catholic organization that tracks attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and churches is urging the Justice Department to investigate over 400 known attacks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The organization, CatholicVote, requested a meeting to discuss probes of pro-abortion violations of the FACE Act in a letter to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke that it shared with The Daily Signal.

National Debt Reaches $35 Trillion for First Time in U.S. History

The national debt surpassed $35 trillion on Monday for the first time in U.S. history as exorbitant federal spending continues under President Joe Biden.

Since Biden was inaugurated, the national debt has increased by over $7 trillion, from $27.7 trillion on January 20, 2021 to now over $35 trillion as of July 29, 2024. If the debt were to be divided among the roughly 258.3 million adults in the U.S., each adult would have roughly $135,500.

Commentary: Kamala Harris Is a Threat to Entry-Level Jobs

The American job market has significantly downshifted as consumers, who drive the economy, are tapped out from the ongoing cost-of-living crisis under the Biden-Harris administration.

According to Friday’s employment report, only 115,000 jobs were created in July (67,000 using the more accurate household survey).

Commentary: Bias Lurks in Study Linking Bronchitis in Children with Poor Air Quality

A new study by a team of University of Southern California researchers claims that children exposed to poor air quality are at greater risk of (self-reported) bronchitis symptoms than are adults. But this health claim is tenuous.

Published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the study uses data sets from a 30-year-old Southern California Children’s Health Study cohort—with a long length of time between exposure and presumed response of self-reported bronchitis.

U.S. Job Growth Slows to a Crawl as Unemployment Rises

August 3, 2024August 2, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

The U.S. added 114,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in July as the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.

Economists anticipated that the country would add 175,000 jobs in July compared to the 206,000 added in initial estimates for June, and that the unemployment rate would remain stable at 4.1%, according to U.S. News and World Report. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted in a press conference on Wednesday that a continued slowdown in the labor market could be a sign of further softening in the economy and contribute to a possible cut to the federal funds rate and an easing in harsh credit conditions that have weighed on Americans.

Radical Anti-Fracking Activists Endorse Kamala Harris’ Campaign

August 3, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

Vice President Kamala Harris has racked up endorsements from several hardline climate groups that oppose fracking, even after her campaign disavowed her previous support of a fracking ban.

The political arms of 350.org, Friends of the Earth, the Center for Biological Diversity, Food and Water Watch, Climate Hawks Vote, Clean Water Action and the Green New Deal Network have all endorsed Harris, even after her campaign told The Hill last Friday that she no longer would ban fracking. The groups — all of which oppose fracking — had not endorsed President Joe Biden before he quit the 2024 presidential race, and they join a growing list of major environmental groups backing Harris as Election Day approaches.

Commentary: The Crucial Importance of an Independent Judiciary

August 3, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

The independent judiciary established by our Constitution has inspired the world. Even British law, which developed and preserved constitutional liberties, and whose firm sense of political rights inspired the American Founders, has only in the last two decades undertaken to separate its judiciary from Parliament’s supremacy.

The Framers of the Constitution were keenly aware of how Britain’s constitution had failed them. Britain’s judiciary had no power to keep Parliament in check when it passed the Intolerable Acts and the other outrages to which the Declaration of Independence objected. Previously, the courts proved unable to rein in the Stuart kings’ grabs for supremacy; war resulted.

Rochester Public Schools Threatened with Lawsuit over District’s Transgender Policy

August 3, 2024August 2, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

A pair of non-profit public interest law firms have threatened to sue Rochester Public Schools (RPS) if the district utilizes its new pro-transgender policy to “transition a child without parental consent.”

Just weeks ago, the RPS school board gave final authorization to a new policy governing how the district will “address the needs and concerns of transgender and/or gender-expansive students” in its schools. According to that policy, if a child changes their name, or begins using a different bathroom, the school district will only alert the child’s parents if the parent specifically asks about such information.

Trump Suggests Congress Could ‘Shut Down’ Tech Giant over Alleged Censorship

Former President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that Congress could close down Google for its alleged bias and censorship.

Republican Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall demanded in a Wednesday letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai that the company provide answers relating to its apparent “censorship” of the Trump assassination attempt from the tech giant’s “autocomplete” feature. Trump on “Mornings With Maria Bartiromo” said the company could face additional congressional scrutiny and possibly closure for how its handled political issues.

Few Americans Trust the Secret Service to Protect Presidential Candidates After Trump Shooting: Poll

Few Americans trust the United States Secret Service to keep presidential candidates safe before the November election, according to a Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Friday.

Only about three out of ten Americans say they are “extremely” or “very confident” that “the Secret Service can keep presidential candidates safe from violence before the election,” according to the AP-NORC poll. U.S Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her position on July 23 following an evasive testimony before Congress about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Analysis: Federal Fiscal Burden Consumes 93 Percent of America’s Wealth

August 2, 2024August 1, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

Based on data from a U.S. Treasury report, the federal government has amassed $142 trillion in debts, liabilities, and unfunded obligations. This staggering figure equals 93% of all the wealth Americans have accumulated since the nation’s founding, estimated by the Federal Reserve to be $152 trillion.

Unlike other measures of federal red ink that cover an arbitrary period, extend into the infinite future, or ignore government resources, the figure of $142 trillion applies strictly to Americans who are alive right now and includes the government’s commercial assets. Thus, it quantifies the financial burden that today’s Americans are leaving to their children and future generations.

Harris’ VP Short-Lister Collaborated with Trans Lobby to Target Counselors Who Won’t Gender-Transition Kids

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is reportedly on Vice President Kamala Harris’ shortlist for running mate, collaborated with transgender activists to target professionals who help children resolve gender distress without life-altering medical treatments, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Shapiro administration and representatives of the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ activist group, worked behind the scenes in a systematic campaign to effectively impose bans on so-called “conversion therapy,” without needing to pass any legislation. The Trevor Project also investigated individual licensed therapists, some of whom were connected to Christian groups, and shared part of that information with Shapiro’s administration, emails obtained by the DCNF show.

These Fortune 500 Companies Remained Silent over Trump Assassination Attempt, but Condemned January 6

A number of Fortune 500 companies that publicly condemned the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have remained silent following the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

An analysis conducted by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project found that eight Fortune 500 companies issued statements condemning the January 2021 Capitol riot, but stayed silent over the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life.

Chuck Schumer Introduces Bill to Roll Back Supreme Court’s Presidential Immunity Ruling

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will introduce a bill on Thursday to effectively reverse the Supreme Court’s decision on presidential immunity, according to ABC News.

Schumer’s “No Kings Act” bill has over two dozen Democratic co-sponsors and comes as a direct response to the Supreme Court’s Trump v. United States ruling, which found that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts taken in office, according to ABC News. The bill would clarify that it is Congress’ responsibility to determine who federal criminal law applies to, not the Supreme Court, according NBC News.

Commentary: Trump Continues to Show Himself to Be America’s Warrior

The last two weeks are arguably unprecedented in American history. Fresh off a debate where he showed the sitting President to be the senile octogenarian we all knew he was, the presumptive Republican nominee was shot at a rally, only to stand up immediately, pump his fist, tell the crowd to “fight,” and, within a few days, formally accept the GOP nomination and continue to rally.

A few days later, Donald Trump’s Democrat opponent, Joe Biden, knowing he couldn’t possibly compete with that, dropped out of the race rather than face an expected landslide loss to the former President.

ICE Confirms Man in Deadly Shootout with Texas Police Entered U.S. Illegally

Federal immigration authorities confirmed that a man killed after getting into a Sunday shootout with San Antonio police had entered the United States unlawfully less than a year ago.

Jorge Jose Chacon-Gutierrez allegedly exchanged fire with three San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) officers early Sunday morning inside an apartment home after the officers arrived in response to a domestic violence call, according to KSAT, a local outlet. The shootout left Chacon-Gutierrez dead and one officer, Viviana Rodriguez, hospitalized.

Federal Court Rules Texas Can Keep Its Floating Border Barriers in Place

August 1, 2024July 31, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

The Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that Texas will be able to continue using its floating barriers in the Rio Grande river in order to deter illegal immigrant crossings.

Last June Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the installment of the floating line of buoys as he signed a series of border security bills, giving the state $5.1 billion in funding as it continues to be at the epicenter of the border crisis.

The Advertising Industry’s Deepening Role in Online Censorship

In the arsenal of the censorship-industrial complex, few weapons have been more effective than advertiser boycotts. Long before online censorship reached its peak in 2020 and 2021, advocates of online censorship had identified online advertisers as the most important source of pressure on social media companies to restrict free speech. When direct appeals to social media platforms fail, pro-censorship campaigners use the threat of advertiser boycotts to produce the desired result.

Parents Petition Denver Schools to Stop ‘Seal of Diversity’ Program

A Denver high school allows students to take classes such as Queer Literature and Gender Studies to earn a “Seal of Diversity” award.

Students can submit a short, five-minute application to be part of the program, then take “diversity, equity, and inclusion”-related classes and engage with a DEI-related club or organization on campus to receive the award, according to documents obtained by The Daily Signal through a Colorado Open Records Act request.

Commentary: Kamala Harris and the Californication of America

If you have ever confronted the astonishing hatred that San Francisco Bay Area Democrats have for anything Republican, much less MAGA Republican, then you understand why Kamala Harris may become the next president of the United States.

This isn’t a hate that is grounded in reality. It is nurtured by decades of propaganda, backed by trillions of dollars in big tech wealth, and, lately, the most powerful tools of mass hypnosis and Pavlovian conditioning the world has ever seen. If you question any of their pieties—climate, race, gender, Trump—you are instantly and permanently dehumanized. It is impossible to change their minds. There is no room for nuance. There is no tolerance for alternative perspectives. You are hated. You are garbage. Give up. Die.

Illegal Migrant Arrested for Ditching Baby in Dumpster Immediately After Giving Birth in Taco Truck

A woman arrested for allegedly leaving her newborn baby in a dumpster is living in the United States unlawfully, federal immigration authorities confirmed on Wednesday.

The Houston Police Department charged Everilda Cux Ajtzalam with child abandonment after she allegedly left her baby in a dumpster in southwest Houston earlier this month, according to ABC13, a Houston-based outlet. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that Ajtzalam is an illegal migrant who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor.

Minnesota Republicans Demand Walz Condemn, Fire DNR Staffer Who Cheered Trump Assassination Attempt

July 31, 2024July 30, 2024 Minnesota Sun Staff

Prominent Minnesota Republicans are demanding Democratic Gov. Tim Walz terminate the employment of a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) official who cheered the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, arguing that failure to do so would constitute an endorsement of political violence.

State Sens. Andrew Matthews, Steve Drazkowski, Cal Bahr, and State Reps. Pam Altendorf, Shane Mekeland, and Ben Davis issued a joint statement in which they pushed for Walz to act. The statement referred to the assassination attempt as “a disturbing example of political violence and Americans rightly were disturbed by the attack, regardless of political affiliation.”

Commentary: Biden’s Attempt to Control the Supreme Court Is Unconstitutional

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Ketanji Brown Jackson

President Joe Biden must like campaigning. He ended his own re-election bid but has joined the Left’s campaign to control the Supreme Court by any means necessary. He has endorsed old ideas like term limits and an “enforceable ethics code,” abandoning his past support for an independent judiciary. He now considers that independence an obstacle to be overcome rather than a principle to be defended.

Biden’s Washington Post piece on Monday misleads the American people in three ways. First, simply because the Constitution limits the terms of presidents does not mean the Supreme Court must follow suit. He makes no such proposal for the Senate, where he boasts that he served for 36 years.

Commentary: So Much for Democracy

It’s been a crazy few weeks. Joe Biden finally quit the presidential race. We heard it first through a tweet using a suspiciously unofficial letterhead, and then he disappeared for a week. It was weird.

I don’t know where they had him or what was going on, but when he appeared, his Oval Office speech was mediocre at best, full of sentimentality and short on explanations for why exactly he was quitting after saying just a few days earlier he would stay. Word is Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer threatened him with removal under the 25th Amendment, which is eminently plausible.

$2.1 Trillion ‘Hidden Tax’: Cost of Federal Regulations Hit Record High in 2023, Report Says

Federal regulations added record-breaking costs of $2.1 trillion for the average American in 2023, according to a study from the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released Tuesday.

The eye-popping sum, which incorporates the calculated impact of federal regulations as well as compliance costs, resulted in a “hidden tax” of $15,788 per U.S. household, and was equivalent to nearly 8 percent of GDP, the CEI’s annual “Ten Thousand Commandments” report found. The Biden administration helped drive the surge in regulatory costs, completing 97 rules with costs of $100 million or more.

Online Network Run by Chinese ‘Cyber Police’ Agent Promotes Prostitution, Sex Trafficking in the U.S.

A Telegram channel used by Chinese nationals to illegally immigrate to the U.S. also appears to be aiding and abetting prostitution and sex trafficking, a months-long Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered.

The “American Self-Guided Tour Channel” on Telegram is one of several that facilitates Chinese illegal immigration into the U.S., serving as a hub for documents detailing things like border wall gaps and scripts for obtaining asylum, the DCNF recently reported. The 8,000-member channel is controlled by a self-proclaimed Chinese “cyber police” agent, who regularly bans accounts critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Parents Outraged School District Forces Children to Room with Trans Students on Overnight Trips

Students in a Southern California school district could be forced to choose between rooming with a transgender-identifying student or missing out on an overnight school field trip.

If parents complain about their child rooming with a transgender-identifying student of the opposite biological sex, staff in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District listen to the parents’ concerns, then say that the child’s rooming assignment isn’t the parents’ choice, according to emails from 2021 and 2022 obtained by the Center for American Liberty and shared with The Daily Signal.

20 Universities Still Require Students Get COVID Vaccine

Twenty United States colleges continue to require their students to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the watchdog organization No College Mandates.

These mandates face increasingly heavy criticism from medical doctors and scholars who point to concerns regarding the vaccine’s safety, efficacy, and necessity.

Harris Campaign Admits to Misleading Voters on Trump, Project 2025

A campaign official for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris acknowledged Wednesday that the vice president is deliberately misleading voters about Project 2025.

Aspiring ‘Teachers of Color’ Program Gets $1.1 Million in Taxpayer Funds at Minnesota’s University of St. Thomas

The University of St. Thomas will “increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics…teachers, particularly teachers of color, who work in the community,” with the aid of $1.1 million in taxpayer dollars.

The Catholic university in St. Paul received the federal grant with the assistance of Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and Congresswoman Betty McCollum, according to a news release.

Commentary: Is Janet Napolitano Fit to Investigate the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump?

Department of Homeland Security director Alejandro Mayorkas is assembling a 45-day “independent security review” of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13. For this task Mayorkas selected: Chief David Mitchell, the former superintendent of Maryland State Police and former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of Delaware; Mark Filip, a former federal judge and Deputy Attorney General to President George W. Bush; Ms. Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush; and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Her stint in that job gives the people cause to wonder.

Commentary: J.D. Vance is Right, Plummeting Fertility is a ‘Civilizational Crisis’

“There aren’t enough babies being born in our country… This is a civilizational crisis, and if we’re not willing to spend resources to solve it, we’re not serious about the very real problems that we face.”

The UK’s High Court Upholds Ban on Puberty Blockers