Tag: Maryland

Commentary: The FBI HQ Relocation Proposal Is a Fraud

Minnesota Sun Staff

As of now, House Republicans have removed funds from the FY 2024 budget for the controversial $3.5 billion proposed relocation of the FBI’s Washington, D.C. headquarters to a new complex at one of three locations in the D.C. suburbs of Virginia or Maryland.

Some House Republicans want to keep the FBI headquarters at its current location and view the relocation proposal as unwise and wasteful. Others want to downsize, defund or eliminate the Bureau – and not to reward it with a sprawling new headquarters complex – because they believe it has been weaponized against conservatives.

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10 States to Sue EPA for Not Updating Wood Stove Emission Standards

Just the News

Ten states and a regional government clean air agency plan on suing the Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly failing to update emission standards for wood-burning stoves, allowing high-emission stoves to still be sold.

The mostly Democratic state attorneys general filed a notice of intent to sue the EPA last week.

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Drug Manufacturers, CVS, Walgreens Settle Another Opioid Lawsuit with 22 States for $17.3 Billion

The Center Square

Thirteen attorneys general announced settlements with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan on Friday, while 18 states settled with CVS and Walgreens for a total of $17.3 billion.

The attorneys general said settlement funds will start flowing into state and local governments by the end of this year and will be used for prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.

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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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Progressive Activists, Officials Work to Extend Voting to Prisoners, Noncitizens to Expand Base

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by Fred Lucas   Inmate voting, noncitizen voting, and even mandatory voting have been among the initiatives pushed in Democrat-led jurisdictions this year to expand their voting base. “The Left wants to normalize voter classes that nobody took seriously a generation ago—criminals, foreigners—to help them win elections,” J. Christian Adams, president of the…

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Maryland Democrat Governor Signs Bills Enshrining Abortion and Protecting Transgender Drug and Surgical Treatments for Minors

Susan Berry, PhD

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed bills Wednesday that would enshrine abortion rights in state law and protect transgender medical treatments for minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries.

Moore said in a statement the new laws have “further strengthened our leave no one behind vision by protecting individual freedoms,” especially “solidifying reproductive rights,” and “expanding access to healthcare.” 

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State Senate DFLers Vote to Abandon Electoral College for National Popular Vote

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DFLers in the Minnesota House and Senate voted this month to transform American presidential elections by abandoning the Electoral College.

The Senate voted along party lines, 34-33, on Wednesday to pass an elections omnibus policy bill that includes a provision that would have Minnesota award its presidential electors to the candidate with the most votes nationwide. Republicans unsuccessfully tried to remove that language from the bill.

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Advocates Warn of ‘Desperate’ Movement to Undermine the Electoral College

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An organization’s efforts to circumvent states’ rights are “getting desperate” as they try new ways to push their interstate compact through state legislatures, two pro-Electoral College advocacy groups told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The National Popular Vote (NPV) is a group initiative to reform the U.S.’ two-step, Electoral College system by ensuring that the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide becomes the president. Now that NPV has enacted its interstate compact in all of the “easy,” bluer states as a standalone bill, it is getting creative to force the law through in swing states like Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan and Maine, Trent England of Save Our States and Jasper Hendricks of Democrats for the Electoral College told the DCNF.

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Supreme Court Declines to Hear Energy Companies’ Appeals to Climate Damage Lawsuits

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The Supreme Court declined Monday to hear local governments’ climate damage lawsuits against energy companies on Monday.

The companies, who localities want to hold financially accountable for burning fossil fuels they allege damaged the climate, appealed their cases to the Supreme Court, asking it to weigh in on whether the claims should be heard in state or federal courts. The Court’s decision benefits the environmental activists behind the lawsuits, who prefer the matter to play out in state courts, where judges may be more inclined to rule in their favor, experts previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Walter Reed Military Hospital Reviewing Contract for Chaplain Services After Ordering Off Catholic Priests

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Pentagon’s health agency said Tuesday it is reviewing a contract for chaplaincy services at Walter Reed Military Medical Center after facing backlash for sending a “cease and desist” letter to the Franciscan Friars at Holy Name College Friary in Silver Spring, Maryland, according to the Washington Times.

The Defense Health Agency (DHA) terminated a 20-year relationship with the Friars on March 31, just before Easter Sunday, instead awarding a contract to a private firm that Catholic authorities say cannot provide chaplain services according to their religious tradition, because chaplains must work for a bishop, not a private company.  Congressional Republicans sent a letter Tuesday to DHA calling the decision “unconscionable,” prompting a promise from Walter Reed to reevaluate the contract, the Washington Times reported.

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Eighteen State AGs Voicing Support for New York Gun-Industry Liability Law

The Center Square

A coalition of 18 state attorneys general, all Democrats, on Wednesday submitted an amicus brief in support of New York’s firearms industry accountability law.

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The Country’s Biggest School Districts Are Explicitly Hiding Kids’ Gender Transitions from Parents

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The nation’s largest school districts are implementing policies that require educators to keep students’ gender transitions a secret from their parents.

Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools and New York Public Schools are promoting practices and policies that hide a student’s transgender status from their parents. The policies have become a cultural flashpoint amid a battle over the role parents should play in their child’s education, and the extent to which gender ideology has infiltrated K-12 classrooms.

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Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia Among 18 States Banning Social Media App TikTok from State Devices

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Following South Dakota GOP Gov. Kristi Noem’s lead, nearly half of U.S. states have put restrictions on or banned the use of Chinese-based social media app TikTok.

At least 19 states have banned TikTok on government-issued devices – Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utha, Virginia and West Virginia.

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Transgender Psychologist: ‘Serious Error in Judgment’ for Schools to Hide Gender Transitions from Parents

Susan Berry, PhD

A transgender psychologist from Berkeley, California, has filed an amicus brief against a Maryland school district that allegedly hid children’s gender transitions from parents.

“It’s well established that one of the most important factors in helping gender-questioning children is family support,” the psychologist, who now uses the name Erica Anderson, Ph.D., told Fox News Digital. “So to deliberately deprive a child of support at a time potentially when they most need it is, I think, a serious error in judgment.”

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Navy Veteran Founds Classical Catholic School to Counter Woke Education

Susan Berry, PhD

A Navy veteran who rejects the secularist and woke education agendas prevalent in public schools and some parochial schools launched a classical Catholic school in Maryland.

“We’re a military family,” Lt. Commander Ali Ghaffari, founder of Divine Mercy Academy in Pasadena, Maryland, explained to Fox & Friends Weekend Sunday. “We’ve traveled around the country seeing lots of schools, and we settled at the Naval Academy, that was my last tour.

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Minnesota Set to Receive Part of a Nearly $400 Million Settlement from Google over Location-Tracking Probe

Just the News

Google agreed to a $391.5 million settlement with 40 states after an investigation found that the tech giant participated in questionable location-tracking practices, state attorneys general announced Monday.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called it a “historic win for consumers.”

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Minnesota AG Ellison Among 20 State Attorneys General Supporting National Gun Control Rule

The Center Square

A coalition of 20 state attorneys general, all Democrats, are backing a federal gun rule in court.

The Final Rule, as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives named it, would enable law enforcement officials to trace any homemade guns used in crimes. In addition, the rule limits trafficking the weaponry.

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Maryland Considers Creating Constitutional Right to Abortion

Minnesota Sun Staff
Baby boy sleeping

Maryland state House Democrats proposed a constitutional amendment Monday enshrining abortion rights within the state, the Associated Press reported.

The proposal was introduced by state House Speaker Adrienne Jones, who said the Supreme Court “has allowed some of the most restricting abortion legislation we’ve seen in a generation,” according to the AP.

Jones appeared to refer to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the Texas Heartbeat Act, which bans most abortions after six weeks, to stay in effect while the court considers whether the law is constitutional.

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Analysis: The Top Governor’s Races to Watch This Year

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Democrats four years ago rode a blue wave to governors’ mansions across the country, flipping Republican-held seats in the Midwest, Northeast and West alike.

Now, however, many of those governors face Republican challengers amid a political environment that looks potentially promising for the GOP, meaning that contentious races may lie ahead in some of the nation’s most pivotal battleground states. Republicans have already had two strong showings in states that lean Democratic, flipping the governor’s seat in Virginia and coming surprisingly close in New Jersey, a state that voted for President Joe Biden by 16 points in 2020.

Governors in less competitive states are also facing primary challengers from the left and right, making for multiple bitter, closely-followed primaries between candidates from different wings of the same party.

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Over Half of U.S. States Will Increase Their Minimum Wage in 2022

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Over half of the states in the U.S. will institute a minimum wage increase in 2022, according to a report.

A total of 26 states will raise the minimum wage in 2022, with 22 of the states starting the pay hikes on Jan. 1, accordingto payroll experts at Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S.

“These minimum wage increases indicate moves toward ensuring a living wage for people across the country,” Deirdre Kennedy, senior payroll analyst at Wolters Kluwer, said in the report. “In addition to previously approved incremental increases, the change in presidential administration earlier this year and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic have also contributed to these changes.”

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Commentary: Spy Couple Follow in the Grand Tradition of Treasonous Leftist Couples

Minnesota Sun Staff

In the wake of the recent arrest of Maryland nuclear engineer, Jonathan Toebbe, and his wife, Diana Toebbe on charges they tried to sell classified nuclear warship information to a foreign country, the mainstream media has focused on the “mystery” of how this could happen. But very little media coverage has focused on their progressive political background—the most likely key to their misdeeds. 

In fact, strangely enough, husband and wife traitor teams are often linked to left-wing politics. Why hasn’t the establishment media focused on this tie?

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Data Shows Increased Homicides in Six Major Cities Across the Country

Minnesota Sun Staff
Police line do not cross tape

The number of homicides in six major cities across the country has increased compared to last year, disproportionately affecting black people, according to crime data.

Black people have represented a massive share of murder victims in six major cities through the first six months of 2021 compared to last year, which itself saw a large crime surge, according to data analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The DCNF analyzed both police department data and homicide reports compiled by local news outlets to determine how black people have been victimized in the wake of the 2020 crime spike.

“We are seeing an uptick in violent crime across the country, specifically gun violence,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told The New York Times earlier this month.

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Ex-Baltimore Mayoral Aide Gets Prison in Book Sales Scam

The Associated Press

A former aide who helped ex-Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh fraudulently sell her self-published children’s books to nonprofits was sentenced Friday to more than two years in federal prison.

Gary Brown Jr. apologized for his actions and expressed regret for bringing shame to his family and friends before U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow sentenced him to 27 months.

In February, Chasanow sentenced Pugh, a Democrat, to three years in prison for her role in the scheme to profit from sales of her “Healthy Holly” books.

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Judge Theodore Chuang Rules Women Can Get Abortion Pill Without Doctor Visit

Minnesota Sun Staff

A federal judge agreed Monday to suspend a rule that requires women during the COVID-19 pandemic to visit a hospital, clinic or medical office to obtain an abortion pill.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, an Obama appointee based in Maryland, concluded that the “in-person requirements” for patients seeking medication abortion care impose a “substantial obstacle” to abortion patients and are likely unconstitutional under the circumstances of the pandemic.

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Connecticut Relents, Orders All Labs to Report Negative Coronavirus Test Results, Leaving Ohio One of Two States to Fail to Comply With Federal Law

Jason M. Reynolds

The State of Connecticut has gotten on board with the CDC to report negative test results to help the agency better track the spread of the coronavirus, leaving Ohio and Maryland as the only holdouts in complying with federal law.

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Commentary: Traditional Values Shouldn’t Exempt Schools From State Voucher Programs

Minnesota Sun Staff

Officials in the state of Maryland have banned a school from their voucher program due to its faith-based views on gay marriage and transgenderism. The Baltimore Sun reported that Bethel Christian Academy responded to the ban with a lawsuit contending officials violated its religious freedom.

The case will now be heard in federal court.

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School Districts Push A Return To Busing, Despite Their Own Data Suggesting It Won’t Reduce The ‘Achievement Gap’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Multiple school districts across the country are considering busing-style programs to distribute impoverished students equally, but data suggest that such proposals would not reduce an achievement gap between poor students and their wealthier schoolmates, analyses by the Daily Caller News Foundation and others found.

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Sanctuary County Rolls Back Its Anti-ICE Policy Following String Of Illegal Aliens Charged With Rape

Minnesota Sun Staff

Following months of national media coverage over the handling of illegal aliens in his custody, Montgomery County, Maryland, Executive Marc Elrich has somewhat reversed a sanctuary policy he signed into law.

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American Inventor Series: Benjamin Banneker, a Black Tobacco Farmer Who Surveyed the Nation’s Capital

Anthony Gockowski

Benjamin Banneker was much more than just an inventor. As a mathematician, astronomer, landowning farmer, writer, and surveyor, Banneker was one of the most influential African Americans alive during America’s infancy.

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ICE Is Considering Opening a Detention Center in Maryland

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Matt M. Miller   U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is considering opening a detention facility capable of containing hundreds of illegal migrants in Maryland. ICE posted an advertisement on a federal contracts forum in April that it was surveying potential locations for the facility near Baltimore, the Baltimore…

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Joe Biden’s Troubling History on Racial Rhetoric Looms as He Weighs 2020 Presidential Bid

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Peter Hasson   Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is reportedly on the verge of launching his third presidential campaign, has a history of making racially charged remarks. Biden’s history of questionable remarks on race looms as he enters a crowded Democratic primary where racial issues have taken center stage. 1975: Biden Says…

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Trump Administration Urges Supreme Court To Protect Cross-Shaped War Memorial

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Kevin Daley   The Trump administration filed an amicus (or “friend of the court”) brief Wednesday urging the Supreme Court to protect a 93-year-old war memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, that is shaped like a Latin cross. The court will soon decide whether the cross-shaped World War I memorial violates…

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As Federal Prosecutor Acting AG Whitaker Went After Both Democrats and Republicans

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by Fred Lucas   Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker went after Democratic and Republican politicians alike while serving as a federal prosecutor and as the head of an ethics watchdog group. Now at the center of a political firestorm in Washington, Whitaker returns Wednesday to Iowa—the state where he made…

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The American Legion is Asking the Supreme Court to Protect a Cross-Shaped War Memorial

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by Kevin Daley   The American Legion and a Maryland planning commission are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to protect a cross-shaped World War I memorial, after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the monument violates the Constitution. Supporters of the petition say the 4th Circuit’s decision compromises war memorials…

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Ken McIntyre: ‘I Was a Crime Reporter in Maryland in the Early ’80s and I Never Heard of Teen ‘Gang-Rape’ Parties’

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by Ken McIntyre   “Oh, I think everyone in the county remembers these parties,” Julie Swetnick says with a smile during her nationally televised interview. Um, not me, Julie. I had my first job as a reporter in Montgomery County, Maryland, at the time Swetnick claims Brett Kavanaugh and other…

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Wisconsin and New Jersey are Among the States Looking To Copy Minnesota Model Of Using Federal Funds To Lower Insurance Premiums

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Minnesota capitol

by Evie Fordham   Several states including Wisconsin and New Jersey are seeking to copy Minnesota’s model of federal reinsurance program funding that contributed to a 13-percent drop in premium rates in the state from 2017 to 2018. The Minnesota legislature adopted the program, which uses mostly federal funds to…

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