Author: The Center Square

25 Governors Demand Answers on How Many Migrants Flown to States

The Center Square
Flights

Twenty-five Republican governors want to know how many illegal foreign nationals have been flown into their states by a Biden-Harris administration plan they argue is burdening their residents and creating an unsafe environment.

Those being flown in have arrived through more than a dozen parole programs created by U.S. Department of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The governors only inquired about one: the CHNV parole program, created to fast track previously inadmissible citizens of Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela moving into the country.

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‘Suspect:’ Lawmakers Ratchet up Investigation into Soros Radio Station Deal

The Center Square
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel

Republican lawmakers on Monday ratcheted up the investigation into billionaire George Soros’ purchase of a wide swath of U.S. radio stations.

Soros is a major donor to Democratic and liberal causes whose purchase of American radio stations just before the election raised eyebrows and drew Congressional inquiry.

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Stadium and Arena Subsidies Not Worth It for Taxpayers: Report

The Center Square
Jacksonville Everbank Stadium

Professional sports teams and government officials promise tax revenue benefits when taxpayer subsidies are used to build new or renovation stadiums and arenas.

But those benefits consistently do not come to fruition, according to a report from the Tax Foundation.

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Report: More Than 50 Jihadist Cases in 29 States Show ‘Persistent Terror Threat’

The Center Square

A new report published by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security states that “foreign jihadist networks and homegrown violent extremists” represent a “persistent terror threat to America.”

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Purdue Survey Finds More Farmers Worried About Economy

The Center Square
Farmer

Farmer pessimism about the economy is at its lowest in nearly a decade. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture.

The Purdue University-CME Ag Economy Barometer Index for September was at 88. That’s down 12 points from the August survey and 25 from July’s results. It’s also down 18 points from where the index was a year ago, with growers’ concerns for both the future and present leading to steep drops in both subcategories.

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At Least 1.5 Million Illegal Southwest Border Crossers Reported in Fiscal Year 2024

The Center Square
Migrants in Group

A minimum of 1,525,210 foreign nationals illegally crossed the Southwest U.S. border in fiscal 2024, according to preliminary data The Center Square exclusively obtained from a Border Patrol agent on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The data excludes Office of Field Operations data, gotaway data (those who illegally entered and evaded capture), and northern border apprehension data, meaning the overall number is likely much higher.

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Report: ‘High Risk Noncitizens’ Without IDs Flying Across U.S.

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

Twenty-three years after Islamic terrorists used airplanes to conduct the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the federal agency created to protect Americans from national security threats “cannot ensure they are keeping high-risk noncitizens without identification from entering the country.”

The potentially high-risk noncitizens are being flown on domestic flights without identification, creating a public safety risk, according to the latest Office of Inspector General report assessing several federal agencies within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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Swing States Hurting from Inflation, Want More from Trump, Harris on Energy Policies

The Center Square
Oil Rig

Swing state voters are feeling the pain of high prices and want to hear more from presidential candidates about their energy policies, newly released polling data shows.

A new Morning Consult/American Petroleum Institute poll obtained exclusively by The Center Square surveyed registered voters in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

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East Coast Port Strikes Could Bring Shortages, Rising Prices

The Center Square
Port Workers Strike

Some 50,000 International Longshoremen’s Association members went on strike Tuesday against the East and Gulf Coast ports, snarling the flow of goods in what some predict could be the most disruptive strike in decades.  

The strike, which extends from Maine to Texas, could affect everything from bananas to European beer and automobiles.

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Universities Secretly Take Billions in Foreign ‘Ghost Dollars’: Report

The Center Square
College Students

American colleges and universities are accepting billions of dollars in foreign money without reporting it, according to a new report.

The National Association of Scholars released the report, which says that taking money from foreign governments and organizations without reporting it has become commonplace among American universities.

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New Research Shows Students from Schools That Closed During COVID Are Not Returning

The Center Square
Empty Classroom

New research shows that school enrollment has declined in over 5,000 public schools in the U.S., suggesting families are rejecting traditional schools because of the pandemic.

The Fordham Institute’s new study, conducted by researcher Sofoklis Goulas from the Brookings Institution, released Wednesday, found that families were over twice as likely to leave low-performing public schools.

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Economic Growth, Consumer Spending Rises Three Percent in Second Quarter

The Center Square
People Shopping

Gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 3% in the second quarter of 2024, showing economic growth and increased consumer spending, according to a report.

The report, released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, shows gross domestic product over the last five years.

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Poll: Nevada a Virtual Tossup in Presidential Race

The Center Square
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are virtually tied in Nevada, according to a new poll.

According to the American Greatness/TIPP poll of 736 likely Nevada voters conducted from Sept. 23-25 in conjunction with TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics, Harris holds a slim 49.2% to 47.9% advantage over Trump in a head-to-head matchup, well within the poll’s 3.7% margin of error.

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Lawmakers Want Answers After Revision to Job Numbers

The Center Square
People Working

Lawmakers are launching an inquiry into the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics after it significantly overestimated the number of jobs created last year, creating a far rosier picture of the U.S. economy than was actually the case.

The federal government announced earlier this year that its previous jobs data had far overestimated how many jobs the U.S. economy created last year. In fact, the federal data was revised down by a third, or roughly 800,000 jobs, the largest revision since 2009.

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House Passes Bills to Protect Employee Benefit Plans from Politicization

The Center Square
Office Work

A package of bills to ensure employee benefits plans prioritize financial well-being over “woke” policies has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Outgoing Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Good sponsored the Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act and the No Discrimination in My Benefits Act, which cleared the House 217-206.

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Top Democrat Donation Processor Act Blue Faces U.S. House Investigation

The Center Square
Act Blue donation platform

A top Democratic donation processor, Act Blue, is facing an investigation over concerns that the donation processing service is being used to circumvent campaign finance laws.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee launched the investigation, citing “reports of potentially fraudulent and illicit financial activity” in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

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Existing Home Sales Slip 2.5 Percent in August as Prices Climb

The Center Square
Home for sale

Existing home sales fell in August, while sale prices continued to climb, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors.

Existing home sales fell 2.5% in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.86 million. That’s down 4.2% from one year ago.

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Commentary: Make America Healthy Again

The Center Square
Salad

Nearly 50 percent of American children and almost three-quarters of adult Americans are obese or overweight. Forty percent of 18-year-olds have a diagnosed mental health issue. Autism incidence has risen from 1 in 150 to 1 in 36 since 2000—in California it is 1 in 22. Americans aren’t just sick. They’re being destroyed.

That’s the conclusion that Calley and Casey Means draw in their #1 New York Times bestselling book, Good Energy. In the book—as well as in a fascinating interview with Tucker Carlson—the Means lay out a case against Big Pharma, Big Agriculture, and Big Government. And their work has caught the ear of both Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) and Donald Trump, who are now running on a unity ticket to make America healthy again.

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158 House Democrats Vote Against Deporting Illegal Immigrant Sex Offenders

The Center Square

The U.S. House passed a bill to deport illegal foreign nationals convicted of domestic violence and sex-related offenses, including sex crimes against children, but not without controversy.

Nearly all Democrats voted against the bill filed by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, on Thursday. They attacked the bill before they voted on it; Mace said their remarks were “shameful.”

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With August CBP Data, Illegal Border Crossers Top 2.75 Million This Year

The Center Square

More than 2.75 million foreign nationals have illegally crossed the U.S. border so far this fiscal year.

That total represents nationwide encounters and apprehensions at ports of entry and between ports of entry, including at the northern and southwest borders. Combined, they total 2,756,646 after U.S. Customs and Border Protection released August data. The federal government’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

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DeSantis Says He Wants Life in Prison for Routh

The Center Square

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday the state has the jurisdiction to prosecute Ryan Wesley Routh for attempted murder and will be more transparent in its investigation than the federal government.

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House Committee Demands Answers on Walz’s China Connections

The Center Square
Tim Walz

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is demanding answers about any ties Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has to the Communist Party of China. Walz has said he’s proud of his ties to China dating to 1989.

The committee has spent several years investigating CCP political warfare operations involving influencing “important figures in elite political circles to the benefit of the communist People’s Republic of China.”

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FBI Report Estimates $5.6 Billion in Cryptocurrency Fraud Losses

The Center Square
Currency, cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency scams and fraud in 2023 contributed to an estimated $5.6 billion in losses, a report from one of the federal government’s top law enforcement agencies says. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cryptocurrency Fraud Report for 2023 found that the vast majority of losses – about $3.9 million – were related to cryptocurrency investment scams. 

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Billions Gone and Little to Show for It Years After Rampant COVID Fraud

The Center Square
Capitol Money

Years after the passage of federal COVID-era relief and the subsequent loss of likely hundreds of billions of those taxpayer dollars, lawmakers are still unsure where that money went, how to get it back, and seemingly have done little to prevent it from happening again.

Federal watchdog and other reports estimate anywhere from $200 billion to half a trillion was lost to waste, fraud and abuse across various federal and state COVID-era programs.

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U.S. Borrowing Tops $1.9 Trillion So Far This Year

The Center Square

The federal government borrowed $1.9 trillion in the first eleven months of fiscal year 2024, including $380 billion in August, a startling amount as federal watchdogs sound the alarm on spending.

Those borrowing figures come from the latest Monthly Treasury Statement from the Treasury Department.

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FBI: Second Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump Thwarted, Gunman Arrested

The Center Square

U.S. Secret Service agents shot at and later arrested a man with an AK-47 rifle near Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf club Sunday afternoon while Trump was on the course. The FBI said it is investigating the incident as an attempted assassination of the former president, the second in two months.

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Twice the Number of ICE Detainers Issued Under Trump than Biden, Analysis Reveals

The Center Square
Suspected Illegal Border Crossers

Twice the number of detainers were issued for criminal illegal foreign nationals under the Trump administration than the Biden administration, according to a new analysis of federal data published by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). The nonprofit data research center is affiliated with the Newhouse School of Public Communications and Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.

Detainers are issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), otherwise known as “immigration holds,” to apprehend and detain often violent individuals wanted for a crime in another country, arrested or convicted of one in the U.S., or placed in removal proceedings by a federal immigration judge.

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Feds Call Vote Certification a ‘Special Security Event’ Ahead of 2025 Count

The Center Square
Alejandro Mayorkas

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday said the 2025 vote count would be designated a “National Special Security Event.” 

The first-time designation comes after supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.

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Since 2021, U.S. Has Seen Greatest Number of Canadian Illegal Border Crossers in History

The Center Square
People crossing the U.S. Northern border

by Bethany Blankley   The greatest number of Canadians who’ve illegally entered the U.S. or attempted to illegally enter in recorded U.S. history has been reported under the Biden-Harris administration and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s administration. Since fiscal 2021 through July 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 150,701 Canadians illegally…

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Federal Government Could Slash Oil Lease Opportunities in a Top Producing State

The Center Square
Oil Rig

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s updated Resource Management Plan for North Dakota could cost the state $34 million a year for the next 30 years, North Dakota officials said in a protest filed with the agency.

The plan announced in August bans oil and gas leased on 4 million acres, which is about 99% of federal lands in the state, according to Gov. Doug Burgum. Forty-four percent of federally-owned fluid mineral acreage would also not be available for leasing.

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Bipartisan Group of 42 Attorneys General Demand Health Warning on Social Media

The Center Square
Kid on phone

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general sent Congress a letter Monday, urging lawmakers to pass a bill that requires a U.S. surgeon general on every algorithm-driven social media platform.

Forty-two state attorneys general, led by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, signed onto the letter. Rosenblum serves as the President of the National Association of Attorneys General.

The move comes as United States Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy called for this to happen in June.

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House Votes to Ban Chinese-Based Company’s EV Batteries from Homeland Security

The Center Square

The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would prohibit electric-vehicle batteries from Gotion and several other foreign companies from being used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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ICE Incapable of Monitoring Unaccompanied Minors Released into U.S., Inspector General Says

The Center Square
Illegal migrants at border

The Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a management alert to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make it aware of an urgent issue: ICE is incapable of monitoring hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied children (UACs) released into the country by the Biden-Harris administration.

“We found ICE cannot always monitor the location and status of unaccompanied migrant children who are released from DHS and HHS custody,” HHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said in a memo to the deputy director of ICE.

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23 States Ask Supreme Court to Reverse Energy-Related Decision

The Center Square
LA AG

Twenty-three states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that the attorneys general say could be a threat to the energy industry.

A brief filed this week by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and 22 other attorneys general wants the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the decision, saying that it is as much about “federalism and state sovereignty as it is about environmental law.”

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Deadline to Replace Stolen Food Stamp or SNAP Benefits Looms

The Center Square

The deadline to replace Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for recipients whose benefits were electronically stolen or skimmed is fast approaching.

A September 30, 2024, deadline looms for those who had their benefits stolen between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2024, to replace their lost benefits. This comes after Congress passed a law in December 2022, hoping to reduce SNAP benefit theft; the law set this deadline to replace benefits. People must file their claims within 30 days of the theft occurring to ensure they receive payment.

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Walz Subpoenaed for Oversight of $250 Million Fraud Scheme

The Center Square
Tim Walz

Reputation associated with his military record already shattered, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz now faces a reckoning tied to a signature education accomplishment – feeding schoolchildren – from a congressional committee chaired by a North Carolina congresswoman.

Called the “largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the nation,” U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., on Wednesday sent a letter and subpoena to Walz and his state administration associated with the federal child nutrition programs and Feeding Our Future, and to the Biden administration’s U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Office of Inspector General.

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Florida Sues over Violent Foreign Nationals Being Released from Prison into U.S.

The Center Square
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody

The state of Florida is suing the Biden-Harris administration to obtain information on how many illegal foreign nationals convicted of violent crimes who served time in prison were released into the U.S. instead of being deported.

“Historically, when illegal aliens were brought to the U.S. to be prosecuted for their crimes, it was well understood that the aliens would be deported once they have served their sentence,” Florida’s lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Ashley Moody, states. “That was until the Biden-Harris Administration implemented their shockingly irresponsible immigration policy, pushing unknown numbers of dangerous criminals straight from federal prison into our communities and causing chaos, anarchy, and crime.”

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New Poll Finds 90 Percent Say Home Ownership is Out of Reach

The Center Square
Couple Looks for a Home

Only 10 percent of those surveyed in a new poll said the “American dream” of homeownership is affordable, with others citing 40-year high inflationary costs, 23-year-high interest rates, limited supply of affordable housing and earnings that have eroded because of inflation.

According to a Wall Street Journal/NORC poll of 1,502 U.S. adults, the sentiment was consistent across gender and party lines, with young Americans expressing the greatest despair, saying they’ve “been priced out of homeownership.”

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California City Bans Smoking at Many Homes

The Center Square
Smoking in Home

The City of Carlsbad near San Diego, banned smoking from multifamily buildings with three or more units to reduce risk of secondhand smoke. The one city councilmember to vote against the measure called it an overreach, saying landlords and property managers should be able to make their own choices about their properties.

The ordinance bans smoking and vaping of tobacco and cannabis products both inside and outside buildings, including common areas, with use only permissible in designated smoking zones. The bill does not generally apply to single-family homes, though it does apply to townhomes, which tend not to share air systems with neighboring units.

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