May 25, 2021 - The Virginia Star

Virginia Directs Nearly $136 Million for State and Local Criminal Justice Programs

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 The Center Square

Virginia awarded $135.8 million worth of grants to support state and local criminal justice programs, primarily to support those who have been the victims of a crime, Gov. Ralph Northam announced late Thursday afternoon.

Nearly 63% of the funding, $85.5 million, will be used to provide services for victims. Many organizations receiving money provide direct services for traditionally underserved populations and for victims of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault.

“Each of these grant recipients play an important role in keeping our communities safe and supporting victims and survivors of crime,” Northam said in a statement. “This funding will sustain the operations of a variety of critical programs and help expand the reach of services to underserved areas of the Commonwealth.”

Commentary: Military, Science, and the Law Are Losing the Trust of Middle America

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

two individuals holding an American flag on a bridge to honor Sun Prairie’s fallen firefighter as the procession passed underneath.

Americans mostly have given up on familiar institutions for entertainment, guidance, or reassurance. What now do Hollywood, network news, the media in general, Silicon Valley, the NBA, NFL, MLB, or higher education all have in common?

A propensity to lecture Americans on their moral inferiorities, a general ethical decline in their own disciplines, and a strange obsession to acquire great wealth while living in contrast to what they advocate for others. Add also incompetence. Movies are mostly bad now. The network news is blow-dried groupthink. There is no “paper of record” anywhere. Twitter and Facebook no longer even try to hide their politicized contortions of warped rules and twisted protocols.

Professional athletes are now reminders of why no one ever wants to be “enlightened” by multimillionaire quarter-educated narcissists. The public a half-century ago lost faith in academia. It wasn’t just that most new bad ideas could be traced to the campus or that hothouse professors increasingly seemed both ignorant and arrogant, but rather their product—educating students—was defective. No one believes anymore a BA is synonymous with knowledge. More likely, it is a euphemism for incurring $100,000 in debt.

Former President Trump Releases Statement on Primary Poll, Biden, and Future Social Media Platform

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Cooper Moran

President Donald Trump released a statement on Monday that underscored his popularity, President Biden’s bad ratings, and his future social media platform.

The statement comes in response to President Biden’s concerning policy decisions and multiple inaccurate media reports on Trump’s actions.

Top Economists Expect Inflation to ‘Accelerate Strongly’ in Coming Weeks

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Economists expect inflation to “accelerate strongly” in the coming weeks and months, but said consumer prices would eventually moderate.

The consumer price index (CPI), a common measure for inflation, is expected to rise 2.8% in 2021 and 2.3% in 2022 compared to the 1.2% increase that occurred in 2020, according to economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE).

The projection, released Monday, reflected the Federal Reserve consensus that inflation will heat up by the end of the year before cooling down as the economic recovery continues.

Senate Republicans Expand Investigation into ‘Woke Mission Creep’ of Federal Reserve

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Senate Banking Committee Republicans have expanded an investigation into regional Federal Reserve banks over their alleged “woke mission creep.”

Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee sent letters to regional Federal Reserve banks in Minneapolis, Boston and Atlanta demanding a briefing with leaders and documents related to a recent “Racism and the Economy” initiative, GOP staffers said during a press briefing Monday morning. Engaging in political advocacy is out of the Fed’s purview, the letters said.

“Of course, racism is abhorrent and has no place in our society…. I recognize the interest in studying economic disparities along demographic lines, such as race and gender,” Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey wrote in the letters sent Sunday.

‘I Still Felt Incomplete’: Detransitioned Men, Women Describe How Frighteningly Easy it Was to Get Trans Surgeries, Hormones

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Multiple men and women who have detransitioned described how easy it was for them to get transgender surgeries and hormones in a new CBS segment — and how the surgeries or treatment negatively impacted them.

As lawmakers across the country introduce and pass bills focused on gender transitions, Lesley Stahl interviewed multiple medical experts and former or current transgender people who expressed fear that transgender surgeries and hormone treatments, often irreversible, are too easily attainable.

The CBS host said that the program “interviewed more than 30 detransitioners, who say they also had experienced regret, including these four, who hadn’t met before now.”

Medical Experts Raise Alarm Over Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines in Children, Pregnant Women, and Those Who Already Have Antibodies

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Two prominent medical professionals are raising red flags over the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines in children, in pregnant women, and in those who have previously caught the coronavirus and now have antibodies. There are alarming reports in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) of healthy children dying shortly after being vaccinated, the doctors say.

Also, multiple studies are showing higher rates of adverse effects in people who have recovered from the virus, and the vaccine is not proven to be safe for pregnant women, especially those in their first trimester, according to the doctors.

Dr. Peter McCullough, an American professor of epidemiology at Baylor University, and Dr. Harvey Risch, professor at the Yale School of Public Health appeared on Fox News’ “Ingraham Angle” Thursday night to voice their concerns regarding these issues.

Students and Parents of Columbia Prep School Decry New ‘Porn Literacy’ Class

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in New York City is facing widespread backlash from both students and parents after it rolled out a bizarre new class on “porn literacy,” the New York Post reports.

Junior year students at the Manhattan-based school had to attend a “health and sexuality workshop,” expecting it to be a generic sexual education class. However, the class was revealed to be officially known as “Pornography Literacy: An intersectional focus on mainstream porn,” taught by the Director of Health and Wellness at the Dalton School, Justine Fonte. The class was made mandatory, and neither students nor parents were informed about the class’s contents ahead of time, or given the option to withdraw from the class.

Fonte’s presentation to the class of roughly 120 students included explicit photos in order to determine “what is porn and what is art,” as well as a list of the most-searched keywords in porn in 2019, and the most popular sub-genres of pornography.

Commentary: The Future We Are Leaving for Millions of Americans

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

It’s a joyous time of the year for millions of young Americans as they graduate high school and move on to another phase of their lives.

But as the crisis at our southern border intensifies—thousands of illegal immigrants are flowing into the country each and every day—we need to ask ourselves what this onslaught will mean to average U.S. citizens for generations to come.

Every year about 4 million American youngsters move on from high school. On average just over 80 percent of them graduate and the others, around 760,000 each and every year, just move on. Unfortunately, the economic futures of those who don’t obtain a high school diploma are rather bleak. They are made bleaker in that this cohort of individuals will, in all likelihood, be competing for jobs against millions of illegal immigrants who are willing to work for far below market wages.

Over 20 Million Hold Concealed Carry Permits as Supreme Court Test Case Looms

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Person shooting a hand gun in a shooting range

More than 20 million Americans currently hold a permit to carry a concealed weapon, a historically high number that comes ahead of what will likely be a landmark Supreme Court ruling regarding carry rights under the Second Amendment.

The court last month said it would take up an appeal by two U.S. gun owners on the question of whether or not the Second Amendment protects an American’s right to carry a concealed firearm. Previous court rulings have affirmed that the amendment protects the individual right of American citizens to own guns.

The concealed carry question has eluded constitutional scrutiny thus far, even as the number of Americans possessing concealed permits has soared to historic levels.

Biden Clears Way for Russian Gas Line After Nixing Keystone XL

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Following a Biden administration move to lift U.S. sanctions blocking completion of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, critics are charging that the new president — who canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office — is more concerned about Russian energy jobs and independence than he is about America’s own.

“President BIden, if [you] can’t put America First, can you at least not put Russia first?” form Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted.

Legal Group Intervenes After University Bars Christian Student from Classes over Refusal to Take Vaccines

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

A Christian nonprofit legal group has sent a letter to the University of Alabama-Birmingham after the public university blocked a student from registering for classes because she would not take vaccines.

The letter from First Liberty Institute asks university officials to follow the religious exemption it granted Jackie Gale for her first year at school. The university does not currently mandate the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Due to Ms. Gale’s religious beliefs, she cannot receive the childhood immunizations UAB requires under its immunization policy,” Christine Pratt, counsel for First Liberty, wrote in a May 13 demand letter.

Utah Legislature Passes Resolution to Ban Critical Race Theory from Schools

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Republicans in Utah’s state legislature passed a resolution on Wednesday to instruct the state’s schools to ban Critical Race Theory from their curriculum, as reported by Breitbart.

During the vote in the Utah House of Representatives, every single Democrat walked off the floor in protest of the bill, thus allowing the legislation to pass with only Republican votes. The “House Resolution on Critical Race Theory in Public Education” was subsequently passed by the Utah Senate. Because the measure is a resolution rather than a bill, it did not need the signature of Governor Spencer Cox (R-Utah) in order to pass.

House Speaker Brad Wilson (R-Utah) said that with the resolution, the state legislature was “calling on the state school board to look at the curriculum and determine what the right parameters for this discussion to happen.”

DeSantis Signs New School Choice Law, Could Make Florida First in Nation

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed an education bill that allows for greater school choice in his state.

The new law, which streamlines Florida school choice scholarship programs and expands eligibility, was touted by DeSantis at a May 11 news conference at Jacksonville Catholic School.

Children in families of four that earn less than $100,000 will be eligible for a fully funded K-12 education at the school of their choice.

Virginia Congressional Delegation Asks Navy to Keep Ships Homeported in Hampton Roads

May 25, 2021May 24, 2021 Eric Burk

Virginia’s congressional delegation, led by Congressman Rob Wittman (R-Virginia-01), is warning the Navy not to forget the East Coast and Norfolk Naval Shipyard as international military and commercial dynamics draw attention to China and Russia.

“As we pivot towards the Indo-Pacific in our global force posture, it comes as no surprise that we’ve bolstered our presence on our Western Seaboard through increases in homeported ships. This increased presence is of such magnitude that San Diego has eclipsed Norfolk in the sheer number of homeported ships,” the delegation wrote in a letter to Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday.