Day: December 23, 2020

Statement of The Star News Network Editorial Policy on Stories About Calls for Martial Law in the United States of America

Virginia Star Staff

It is the policy of The Star News Network that we will publish no stories about calls for martial law in the United States by public figures or private individuals at any of our online news websites, which currently consist of The Tennessee Star, The Ohio Star, The Michigan Star, The Minnesota Sun, The Georgia Star News, and The Virginia Star.

At the federal level, the imposition of martial law is exceedingly rare. It has only ever been imposed once by a sitting President, by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, and even in that instance martial law was only applicable to Confederate soldiers. 

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Georgia Voters Sue Fulton County, Allege Illegal Ballot Scanning Corresponding with Vote Spike

Corinne Murdock

A group of Georgia voters filed a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court earlier this week against the individual members of the Fulton County Board of Elections and individually against Richard Barron, Fulton County Elections Director. The lawsuit focused on the security footage presented by Trump’s legal team during the Georgia Senate hearing, popularized as the “suitcase ballots” video.

The plaintiffs alleged that the group of workers seen on video illegally scanned thousands of mail-in ballots hidden underneath skirted tables. They also claimed that those ballots may be fraudulent. Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VOTERGA), a nonpartisan and non-profit election integrity coalition, organized the aggrieved voters into a group of plaintiffs.

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Emails Obtained by FBI Detail How Hunter Biden Landed Ukrainian Gas Gig in 2014

Admin

In the weeks before he landed a deal with a Ukrainian gas company in 2014, Hunter Biden strategized with his business partner on how to leverage an upcoming official trip to Kiev by his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to clinch the lucrative arrangement, according to emails obtained a year ago by the FBI.

The communications reviewed by Just the News show that the younger Biden referred to his father as “my guy” and took credit for “adding value” because the vice president made comments to Ukrainian leaders about natural gas production that might benefit his new client.

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New York Times Bungles Attempted Hit Piece on The Star News Network and The Georgia Star News

Peter D'Abrosca

The New York Times bungled an attempted hit piece on The Star News Network and the Georgia Star News, and was forced to make several corrections within hours of the story’s publication on Tuesday.

The Times, however, failed to make all the factual corrections requested by Star News Digital Media, which owns and operates the Georgia Star News, part of its Star News Network.

“Misinformation ‘Superspreaders’ Target Georgia Senate Races,” said a hyperbolic headline in the once-serious “paper of record.”

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Tech Billionaire Who Bankrolled Numerous Disinformation Projects Linked to $620,000 Donation to Fusion GPS’s Legal Fund

Virginia Star Staff

An anti-Trump group funded heavily by Reid Hoffman, a liberal billionaire tech titan who’s bankrolled political disinformation peddlers, contributed $620,000 to a legal fund for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the controversial Steele dossier, financial filings show.

According to IRS filings, The group Integrity First for America (IFA) made the contribution in 2018 for the legal defense fund of Bean LLC, the holding company for Fusion GPS.

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Trump Threatens to Veto COVID-19 Relief Bill, Calls It a ‘Disgrace,’ Loaded with Foreign Aid

Virginia Star Staff

President Trump on Tuesday night threatened to veto a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill adopted by the U.S. House and Senate, calling it an unfocused “disgrace,” loaded with foreign aid and unrelated expenses that go far beyond a narrow focus on relief for pandemic-related pain.

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BioNTech CEO ‘Confident’ That Coronavirus Vaccine Is Effective Against New European Strain

Virginia Star Staff

The CEO of BioNTech, the German drug maker who partnered with Pfizer in developing the world’s first approved coronavirus vaccine, said that he was “confident” it will be effective against a mutated strain of the virus found in the United Kingdom.

“The likelihood that our vaccine works… is relatively high,” Uğur Şahin told reporters during a Tuesday press conference, explaining that the mutated strain still shares approximately 99% of the original strain’s spike protein.

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Giuliani: Arizona GOP Will Attempt to Certify Trump the Winner of 2020 Election on Wednesday

Virginia Star Staff

President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday morning that the Arizona legislature will attempt to pass a resolution this week demanding a joint session to certify President Trump as the winner of the 2020 election.

During an interview on Steve Bannon’s “War Room: Pandemic” podcast, Giuliani noted that Arizona lawmakers did not have the votes to declare Trump the winner on Monday, but was hopeful that they would be able to do it on Wednesday.

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Stacey Abrams Staffer Helping Biden Pick Justice Department Team

Virginia Star Staff

After winning the vote in the Electoral College last week, former Vice President Joe Biden said the election process “should be celebrated, not attacked.” 

Biden derided what he called “baseless claims about the legitimacy of the results” of the presidential election and said, “Respecting the will of the people is at the heart of our democracy, even if we find those results hard to accept.”

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Joe Biden Expected to Name Current Connecticut Education Commissioner to Lead Education Department

Virginia Star Staff

President-elect Joe Biden is poised to select Miguel Cardona, the current Connecticut education commissioner, to lead the Department of Education in his administration, CNN reported.

Miguel Cardona, who has served as head of the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) since August 2019, will be President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to lead the federal government’s education department, multiple sources told CNN. Cardona would be the latest Latino to receive a high-ranking position in the incoming Biden administration.

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Harvard-Affiliated Researcher Admits He Tried to Smuggle U.S. Cancer Research to China

Virginia Star Staff

Zaosong Zheng, who worked in research at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, pleaded guilty to lying to customs officials about his attempt to take biomaterial to China.

According to a Department of Justice press release, Zheng was arrested in December 2019 at Boston’s Logan International Airport, where he had attempted to board a flight to China. Federal officers found 21 vials of biological research material stuffed into a sock in one of his bags.

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Fairfax, Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano Says His Office Will Not Seek Cash Bail

Eric Burk

  Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano (D) announced Monday that he would not be seeking cash bail for non-violent offenders, formalizing a policy he and his prosecutors have been practicing since Descano took office in January 2020. “I’ve long said that the laws on the books should match the values…

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Planned Parenthood Bid to Kill Hyde Amendment to Face Pro-Life Pushback

Virginia Star Staff

Planned Parenthood is preparing its wish list for former Vice President Joe Biden’s prospective administration, but pro-life forces are gearing up for a fight. 

In a Roll Call interview, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said her organization’s top goal in 2021 is abolishing the Hyde Amendment, which for 40 years has prohibited federal funding for most abortions.

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Virginia Senate Democrats’ Top Agendas for Upcoming Legislative Session

Jacob Taylor

The Virginia General Assembly 2021 regular session is right around the corner on January 13 and the Democrats will again be calling all the shots for the legislature thanks to their majority in both the Senate and the House of Delegates.

This means that the agendas and priorities of Democrats in the Senate – as well as their counterparts in the House – have quite a good chance of passing through each chamber if broadly supported. Yet, what exactly are Senate Democrats focusing on?

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Virginia Police Increasing Sobriety Checkpoints and Patrols During the Holidays

Eric Burk

Virginia is again ramping up its Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign, a program aimed at reducing drunk driving through increased police activity and sobriety checkpoints. Through December 8, 2020, there were 253 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in Virginia, up from 249 in the same period in 2019, according to a press release from Governor Ralph Northam’s office.

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Arlington, Virginia Students Receiving More Failing Grades During Pandemic Than Before

Jacob Taylor

Secondary students attending Arlington Public Schools (APS) are earning more failing grades during the coronavirus pandemic than in previous years, new data shows, further highlighting the negative impact virtual learning can have on certain students.

The data was presented in an internal report released online on Thursday that compared APS middle school and high school student’s quarter one grades from 2020-21 to quarter one grades from 2018-19 and 2019-20.

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