Category: National

J6 Unmasked: Security Footage Confirms Senate Door Opened, Allowing 300 to Enter Capitol Freely

Just the News

A door on the West side of the U.S. Capitol was left open and mostly unguarded for key moments during the Jan. 6 riot, allowing more than 300 people to enter the building unimpeded even as officers fought valiantly to keep protesters out of other sections of the official home of Congress, according to police security footage obtained by Just the News. The footage — which confirms concerns first raised by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., two years ago — shows an episode in a narrow hallway in the middle of the Capitol that began around 2:30p.m. on Jan. 6, 2021 right after the first breaches were reported elsewhere in the landmark building.

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NRA Exec, Trump Donor Says Daughter and Granddaughter Died in Plane Crash that Sparked DC Sonic Boom

Just the News

An NRA executive and major Republican donor said her daughter and granddaughter were killed alongside the 2-year-old girl’s nanny and the pilot of a private Cessna plane that crashed in Virginia and sparked a sonic boom from responding military jets.

“My family is gone, my daughter and granddaughter,” Barbara Rumpel posted on Facebook Sunday evening. 

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Teachers’ Union’s ‘Schools in Transition’ Guide Instructs How to Bolster Gender Ideology in Classrooms

Susan Berry, PhD

A lesser known document created in 2015 by the National Education Association (NEA), a group of LGBTQ activists, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) laid the “groundwork” for the gender ideology movement in schools years before the recent increase in the numbers of transgender young people, reports the Freedom Foundation.

NEA, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, provides a “toolkit” website page that features “NEA LGBTQ+ Resources,” the purpose of which appears to be to offer “support to transgender and non-binary students,” to indoctrinate all students with “LGBTQ+ history in their classrooms,” and to engage students in a political agenda that includes stopping “LGBTQ+ bias and intolerance in our public schools.”

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Haley Says She Doesn’t ‘Trust Government’ with ‘Red Flag Laws,’ Vows to End Gun-Free Zones

Admin

Former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Sunday that she doesn’t “trust government to deal with red flag laws” during a CNN Town Hall, and called for addressing mental health and abolishing gun-free zones.

“I don’t trust government to deal with red flag laws,” Haley said in response to an audience member’s question regarding mass shootings. “I don’t trust that they won’t take them away from people who rightfully deserve to have them, because you’ve got someone else judging whether someone should have a gun or not. It is a constitutional right that people can protect and defend themselves.”

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Congress Probing if FBI Used ‘Russian Disinformation’ Claim to Shut Down Biden Inquiries

Just the News

The FBI travels to Capitol Hill on Monday to show House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer a confidential informant memo from summer 2020 alleging that Joe Biden was involved in a foreign bribery scheme, but the contents won’t be a surprise to Republicans. Both Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley have already read the memo.

The larger question for Teams Comer and Grassley is whether the FBI sidelined the allegation of a $5 million bribery involving U.S. policy – which came from a confidential human source with a trusted track record – during the height of the 2020 election.

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Texas Governor Aims to Eliminate Property Taxes

The Center Square

Gov. Greg Abbott says his goal is to eliminate homeowners’ property taxes in the state of Texas. He says it’s possible to achieve over time because of the significant economic growth of the state.

All three Republican leaders, Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan, have pledged to reduce property taxes and made it a legislative priority.

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Comer Will Press for Contempt of Congress Against FBI Director Wray After Seeing Document Alleging Biden Bribery Scheme: Report

Just the News

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Monday he will start the process of bringing congressional contempt charges against FBI Director Christopher Wray (pictured above), despite viewing the subpoenaed document that day that alleged Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme.

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White House Says DOJ to Challenge State Laws That Block Transgender Treatments for Kids

Just the News

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says the Biden administration can and will use the Department of Justice to fight state laws that “target” transgender kids.

“This year alone, more than 600 anti-LGBTQI bills have been filed in statehouses across the country, and a significant portion of those bills target transgender youth,” she said Friday. “As President Biden says, these young people are some of the bravest people he knows, but no one should have to be brave to be themselves.”

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Vermont Agrees to Pay $125K to Father, Daughter Punished for Speaking Out Against Trans Student

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Vermont school district punished a father and his daughter for speaking out against a biological male in the girls’ locker room. Now, The Daily Signal has learned, the district has settled with the Allen family in what its legal team is hailing as a “resounding victory.”

That settlement requires that the Vermont School Boards Insurance Trust pay $125,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees and costs to Travis Allen and Jessica Allen, on behalf of their daughter, Blake Allen, and their attorneys with the Alliance Defending Freedom.

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Biden’s CIA Director Took Secret Trip To China: Report

Minnesota Sun Staff

CIA Director William Burns made a covert trip to China in May for meetings with officials in a bid to restore deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing, the Financial Times reported, citing five anonymous officials familiar with the situation.

The visit to China is Burns’ first and the most senior by any Biden administration official, underscoring how concerned the president is over deepening rifts in official communication between the competing countries, the FT reported. Yet, experts have raised concerns about the CIA director’s vulnerability to malign political influence from Beijing since the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed he formerly headed a Washington-based think tank employing undisclosed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members.

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California Senate Passes $25 Minimum Wage for Healthcare Workers

The Center Square

A $25 minimum wage bill for healthcare workers was passed on Wednesday in the California Senate. The partisan bill did not receive a single Republican vote in its 21-11 passage. Authored by Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), and championed by the Service Employees International Union, the bill proposes to increase the state’s minimum wage for healthcare workers.

Healthcare workers at general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, medical offices and clinics, behavioral health centers, dialysis clinics and residential care centers as well as as certified nursing assistants, patient aides, technicians, and food service workers, among many others can all expect a wage increase, if the bill becomes law. All paid work performed on the premises of any covered health care facility, regardless of the identity of the employer qualifies for the increase.

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Joe Biden’s Pick for CDC Director Pushed for COVID Lockdowns, Child Masking While N.C. Health Director

Minnesota Sun Staff

Joe Biden has tapped an avid COVID lockdown and child masking advocate to become the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Mandy Cohen, the former head of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, will reportedly replace current CDC director Rochelle Walensky, when she steps down  on June 30.

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YouTube Reverses Misinformation Policy, Allows Claims About 2020 Election on Platform

Minnesota Sun Staff

YouTube reversed its misinformation policy regarding content about elections on Friday and will now permit content that questions the veracity of the 2020 presidential election results, according to the company’s website.

YouTube’s parent company Google has a policy that prohibits content “advancing false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in certain past elections to determine heads of government,” and Youtube wrote in December 2020 that it would remove content that “misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.” The platform will now “stop removing” such content about the 2020 election, per its website.

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Small Businesses Struggle to Fill Job Openings, Report Finds

The Center Square

A newly released survey of small businesses shows that nearly half are having trouble filling job openings.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses released the survey, which found that 44% of small business owners report being unable to fill current job openings, a full 20 points higher than the average reading over the last 49 years.

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Economy Added 339K Jobs in May, Nearly Double Wall Street Expectations

Just the News

U.S. employers have added roughly 339,000 jobs in May, and the monthly unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, from a five-decade low of 3.4% in April, according to a Labor Department report released Friday.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% for the month while on an annual basis, wages increased 4.3%, which was a 0.1 percentage point under the estimate.

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14 GOP Governors Sending National Guard Troops and Resources to Texas to Secure Southern Border

Minnesota Sun Staff

Republican governors are sending National Guard troops to the southern border.  

Governors of Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia announced this week they will send troops and resources to Texas to support the work of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Operation Lone Star to secure the southern border.  

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Catholic Org Launches Initiative Encouraging Parents to Revolt Against Sexually Explicit, Transgender Books

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Catholic organization is launching a campaign through the month of June that encourages parents to revolt against books containing sexually explicit and transgenderism content offered to children in public libraries as a part of Pride Month.

CatholicVote, a nonprofit conservative advocacy group, is promoting its second annual “Hide the Pride” campaign, which encourages parents to visit their local libraries and check out as many books as they can that “push eroticism, glorify LGBTQ identities, undermine parental rights and are 100% contrary to the Church’s teaching on love and sexuality” in an effort to prevent others from accessing them, the organization told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Parents joining the campaign are encouraged to participate in groups and request that librarians take their Pride Month display down, the campaign information stated.

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Democrat-Led January 6 Panel Added Audio to Silent Security Video for Primetime Hearings

Just the News

The Democrat-led House Select Committee to Investigate Jan. 6 doctored a key piece of its evidence, adding audio to silent U.S. Capitol Police security footage used to create a dramatic video montage for the opening of its primetime hearings last summer, according to a Just the News review of the original raw footage and interviews. In at least two instances identified by Just the News, the panel’s sizzle reel that aired live and on C-SPAN last June failed to identify that it had overdubbed audio from another, unidentified source onto the silent footage. Multiple current and former Capitol Police officials as well as key lawmakers and congressional aides confirmed that the closed-circuit cameras that captured the video do not record sound and that it was added afterwards.

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Counties Switching to Hand Counting Ballots as Election Integrity Advocate Provides Model

Just the News

Counties across the U.S. are switching to hand-counting election ballots instead of using electronic tabulation machines over concerns about the accuracy and security of the devices.

At the forefront of the transition is election integrity advocate Linda Rantz, who says her model, now being used in a Missouri county, is less expensive than critics continue to say it is.

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Biden DOJ Won’t Charge Mike Pence over Classified Docs

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Department of Justice (DOJ) declined to charge former Vice President Mike Pence for classified documents found at his home, according to a DOJ letter obtained by the New York Times.

The DOJ sent Pence a letter Thursday night informing him that “no criminal charges will be sought” in connection with the department’s investigation into classified documents found at his Indiana home, per the NYT. One of Pence’s lawyers found the documents at Pence’s home in January, alerting the National Archives, CNN reported.

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Biden Admin Closes Off More U.S. Lands to Oil and Gas Drilling

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration on Friday ordered a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling leases within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, according to multiple reports.

The moratorium — which the Department of Interior initially began considering in November 2021 — is a long-sought goal of several local politicians, conservation groups and Native American tribes that want to preserve the centuries-old Pueblo ruins located there, although some tribes have opposed the ban for limiting future economic opportunities, according to E&E News.

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More than a Dozen GOP States Sue Biden Admin over Recent Border Policy, Claim It’s ‘Encouraging More Border Crossings’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and more than a dozen other GOP-led states are suing the Biden administration over a recent policy to address an expected surge of illegal migrants at the southern border, according to a statement from his office.

The Biden administration rule Miyares is contesting was implemented to mitigate an expected surge of migrants at the southern border when Title 42, a Trump-era expulsion order, ended on May 11 which made migrants ineligible for asylum if they pass through another safe country before coming to the U.S. Miyares, however, argues that the rule has many exceptions that allow migrants to enter the country, including using a phone app to book entry appointments, claiming they face imminent danger in their home country and having their asylum request denied in another country, the lawsuit argues.

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Kirk Cameron’s Children’s Book ‘Pride Comes Before the Fall’ Released at Start of LGBTQ ‘Pride’ Month

Susan Berry, PhD

Actor and children’s author Kirk Cameron released his book Pride Comes Before the Fall on June 1 as LGBTQ activists began their celebration of “pride” month.

“Thrilled to announce the release of my new children’s book, Pride Comes Before the Fall!” Cameron announced Thursday on Twitter.  

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Obama-Appointed Federal Judge Who Has Criticized DeSantis Recuses Himself from Disney Case

Minnesota Sun Staff
Ron DeSantis

A federal judge known for ruling against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recused himself Thursday from Disney’s lawsuit against the governor, according to a court filing.

Chief U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Florida Mark Walker, an Obama appointee, recused himself after discovering “a relative within the third degree of relationship” owns 30 shares in The Walt Disney Company, per the a court filing. Walker blocked DeSantis’ “Stop W.O.K.E. Act”  in November, calling it “positively dystopian,” and struck down parts of his election law as unconstitutional in March 2022, citing the state’s “horrendous history of racial discrimination in voting,” according to Politico.

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Music Spotlight: Pryor Baird

Bethany Bowman

One of my favorite groups to interview is the music competition show’s finalists. To make it to the finales of any of the shows, artists normally have talent in spades. The actual winners are often untouchable, but those who rank in the top 10 are usually fabulous performers.

Pryor Baird is no exception. From Season 14 of NBC’s The Voice in 2018, Baird had all four judges vying for him to be their team. While he would ultimately go with Blake, it didn’t really matter because not only could he sing with a bluesy, Muddy Waters grit, he was different. And more importantly, he was memorable.

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RNC Sets Rules for August Debate in Milwaukee

Kaitlin Housler

The Republican National Committee (RNC) announced Friday that the first Republican presidential primary debate will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23. In order to participate in the August debate, candidates have to meet a list of criteria set by the RNC based on candidate status, polling, fundraising, and candidate pledging.

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Court Rejects Massachusetts Middle-Schooler’s Free Speech Request to Wear ‘Two Genders’ Shirt at School

Susan Berry, PhD

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in Boston denied 12-year-old Liam Morrison’s request this week for a temporary injunction or restraining order to block his school from prohibiting expression of his view that “there are only two genders” before the court issues its final decision. “MFI [Massachusetts Family Institute] recently filed suit to vindicate the rights of this brave Middleborough 7th-grader to wear a shirt to school that simply stated ‘There Are Only Two Genders,’” the pro-family organization said in a press statement sent to The Star News Network. “After being censored by his school, Liam’s case went viral. MFI has partnered with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to file a federal lawsuit against the school.”

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Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Lays Out Peace Deal to End War In Ukraine, Sever Russia’s Partnership with China

M.D. Kittle

Speaking at a campaign event Friday in New Hampshire, Ohio businessman and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy laid out his plan for peace in Ukraine by opening up Russia. The 37-year-old political outsider, who has often said political leaders need to “think on the timescales of history, not on two-year election cycles,” believes a Nixon approach to Russia would curtail the looming threat of communist China.

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Comer Wins: FBI Relents, Agrees to Deliver Subpoenaed Memo Alleging Biden Bribery to Capitol

Just the News

Facing a potential contempt of Congress vote, FBI Director Christopher Wray relented and has agreed to bring a subpoenaed document from the Biden family investigation to Capitol Hill for lawmakers to inspect on Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced Friday. The document in question, an FD-1023, contains uncorroborated allegations that an informant provided the FBI in June 2020 alleging that Joe Biden, when he was vice president, was engaged in a bribery scheme to change US policy in return for $5 million to his family’s businesses, lawmakers have said.

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Biden Admin Will Admit Thousands More Migrants Each Month Through Phone App

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration will expand its program to legalize migrants to accept roughly 40,000 per month starting in June, according to CBS News.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to evaluate expanding the program, according to CBS News. Between January, when the program launched, and April, more than 79,000 migrants have scheduled appointments using CBP One, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

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National Archives Refuses to Hand Over Emails Between Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s Staff

Minnesota Sun Staff

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) refuses to hand over requested communications between Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden’s staff.

Just The News reports that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by America First Legal (AFL) has been rejected by NARA, which is claiming an exemption that allegedly includes communications between the president and his advisors, as well as communications between advisors.

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University of Colorado Boulder Website Declares Misgendering an ‘Act of Violence’

Susan Berry, PhD

In his report Wednesday that the University of Colorado (CU Boulder) is facing backlash for a statement on its “Pride Office” website that claims misgendering people can be considered an “act of violence,” legal scholar Jonathan Turley observed that when schools declare opposing views to be “violence,” they allow professors and students to “rationalize their own acts of violence or censorship.”

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Biden’s ‘Equity’ Panel Pushes Woke Farm Policy

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Agriculture Department’s new Equity Commission is seeking the public’s comments after its interim report called for more diversity on related county boards as part of “closing the racial wealth gap and addressing longstanding inequities in agriculture.”

Members of USDA’s 15-member Equity Commission, which was established in February 2022, include NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who recently flagged the state’s policies in issuing a travel warning for Florida, where agriculture is a major industry. 

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Judge Orders Preliminary Injunction Against Biden’s ATF in Key Second Amendment Case

M.D. Kittle

A Milwaukee-based public interest law firm has won a key victory in a Second Amendment battle. 

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty on Wednesday secured a preliminary injunction in federal court on behalf of three veterans challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ rule regulating up to 40 million pistols equipped with stabilizing braces. 

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‘Jews Against Soros’ Launched to Argue Criticizing Democrat Megadonor ‘Isn’t Antisemitic’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Two Jewish conservatives launched “Jews Against Soros,” a grassroots coalition of Jews who are against Democratic megadonor George Soros and argue that criticizing the billionaire is not antisemitic.

Senior Newsweek Editor Josh Hammer and Missouri Attorney General candidate Will Scharf launched the group Wednesday.

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Mother Sues After Trans Student Allegedly Assaults Daughter in School Bathroom

Minnesota Sun Staff

A mother is suing the Edmond School District in Oklahoma after a male student who identifies as transgender used the girls’ bathroom at school and allegedly attacked her daughter, according to the lawsuit.

A 17-year-old male allegedly entered the girls’ bathroom and “severely” attacked and beat the 15-year-old girl at approximately 7:15 a.m. on Oct. 26, according to the lawsuit filed on May 25. The school knew that the male student was biologically male, had made repeated threats of violence against the girl and routinely used the girls’ bathrooms in violation of a state law that requires students to use bathrooms aligned with their sex, the lawsuit alleges.

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Liz Warren, JD Vance Join Forces to Punish Execs of Failed Banks

Minnesota Sun Staff

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance are uniting to introduce legislation announced Thursday to reduce the risks of large bank failures.

The Failed Bank Executives Clawback Act would propose harsher penalties for failed bank executives, which serves as a bipartisan response to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in early March, according to Warren’s office. The proposed legislation would require the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to recover some or all of executive payments from the three years prior to their bank’s failure, covering larger banks with more than $10 billion in assets.

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FBI Chief Wray Rolls Dice with Congress over Contempt, then Jets to Las Vegas

Just the News

Just hours after informing Congress he wouldn’t comply with a subpoena and turn over an informant document on the Biden family investigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray hopped on the bureau’s Gulfstream jet and ferried off to the more friendly confines of Las Vegas.

The flight manifest for the FBI’s official jet shows Wray left the Washington suburb of Manassas, Va., at about 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday and landed about four hours later in Nevada’s most famous tourist city.

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J6 Unmasked: Security Footage Shows Pelosi Evacuating Hollywood-Style from Capitol as Daughter Films

Just the News

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has described having to evacuate a riotous Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as traumatic. But Capitol Police security footage obtained by Just the News shows the long-time Democrat leader exited Hollywood-style from the home of Congress that fateful day with her daughter filming her as security officers tried to guide her through a secret safe passage corridor. The footage, made available by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and aired for the first time on the Just the News, No Noise television show on Real America’s Voice on Thursday night, provides three different angles of Pelosi’s evacuation the afternoon of Jan. 6. Each show her daughter Alexandra roving around her mother’s delegation with a camera as they moved briskly through corridors, led by members of the Capitol Police protective detail.

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Analysis: The State School Choice in the U.S.

Minnesota Sun Staff

As the school year ends and legislative sessions adjourn, Chalkboard updated its review of which legislatures nationwide are implementing school choice measures that provide education options for students and their families and which states have removed them.

Several states across the country have recently adopted legislation that would allow students to attend any school of their choice using taxpayer dollars, something that advocates call universal school choice. Critics of the legislation say such measures will divert money away from public school systems that need the funds.

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Over 300 COVID-Era Medical Papers Retracted Due to Scientific Errors, Ethics Concerns

Minnesota Sun Staff

Over 330 different medical research papers have been retracted in the aftermath of the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic, due to either research errors or ethical problems.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the watchdog group Retraction Watch documented the retractions in a recent report, which noted that most of the papers in question were published in smaller publications. A handful, however, were found in more well-known publications such as Lancet and Science. The retracted papers covered such topics as COVID side effects and the efficiency of alternative treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher Blake Treinen Condemns Team’s Decision to Honor Anti-Catholic Hate Group

Susan Berry, PhD

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen released a statement Tuesday in which he expressed his “disappointment” that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group that engages in obscene performances that are “blasphemous,” are being “honored as heroes at Dodger Stadium.”

The “sisters,” an organization that openly ridicules Christian beliefs and desecrates Jesus Christ, Treinen said, “display hate and mockery of Catholics and the Christian faith.”

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Suspected Chinese Spies Posing as Tourists Are Trying to Infiltrate U.S. Military Bases: Report

Minnesota Sun Staff

Chinese nationals attempted to gain access to U.S. military bases in Alaska, posing as tourists to carry out suspected spying operations, USA Today reported, citing officials and servicemembers.

In some cases, visitors from China seem to have mistakenly entered some of the numerous U.S. military installations in the northernmost state, officials told USA Today. However, other attempts by Chinese citizens to enter military bases appear to be targeted operations intended to collect sensitive information on American military capabilities, soldiers familiar with the events told the outlet on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

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