Month: June 2021

Campus ‘Diversity’ Training Challenged as Unconstitutional Compelled Speech

Virginia Star Staff
Last week, employees from BSEE and its sister agency the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) participated in training sessions offered by the Diversity Change Agent (DCA) team to increase cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Topics of the workshops included attitude, inclusion, change management, overcoming stereotypes, and conflict management.

Two public universities responded very differently to recent allegations of unconstitutional “compelled speech.”

Rutgers University’s law school apparently told its student government to ditch a requirement that student organizations host events on critical race theory to be eligible for funding.

The University of Oklahoma, on the other hand, refused to stop requiring faculty and staff, including some graduate students, to complete a diversity training that requires them to say things they don’t necessarily believe.

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Commentary: Paul Ryan Was an Ineffective Leader of the Republican Party

Virginia Star Staff
Paul Ryan

We aren’t actually governed by Paul Ryan, whose brief time as House Speaker ended in what can only be described as a surrender. Ryan bolted from the Speaker’s chair the minute the 2018 elections were over. He was happy to leave Congress to take a “cashing-in” job on the Fox Corporation board while his party took an electoral bath in those midterms he could blame on Donald Trump.

But as readers of The American Spectator know, in this space we’ve been exploring the premise that Americans are governed by people who suck. And Ryan put himself in that category even from outside the elective-office sphere this week when he offered up a tired and tiresome narrative about the future of the Republican Party.

What is it with these washed-up politicians, who are clearly the party’s past, demanding the GOP follow their instructions as to its future? Do we have to exhume the remains of Nelson Rockefeller and Thomas Dewey or conduct seances with them for guidance in how to defeat the 21st-century Left?

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Texas Democrats Walk out to Stop GOP Voting Reform Bill, Abbott to Call Special Session

Virginia Star Staff
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott speaking at FreePac, hosted by FreedomWorks, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Texas House Democrats on Sunday night staged a walkout to block their Republican counterparts’ sweeping voter-reform legislation.

The move blocked the passage of the bill by effectively ending the Texas legislature’s session. However, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott quickly announced that he would order a special session to finish the process, and achieve a top state GOP legislative priority.

The walkout is one of Democrats’ biggest protests to date against Republican efforts across the country to enact measures to tighter security on state election systems, according to the Associated Press.

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Newport News Moves Elections to November Under Duress

Eric Burk
Downtown Newport News

The City of Newport News has voted to move its municipal elections from May to November, but even as they passed the ordinance, the city council members made it clear that they don’t think the change is a good idea. The change is required by legislation passed in the 2021 General Assembly session that goes into effect January 1, 2022.

“I think it really puts us in a tenuous situation. We have always worked as a council without being concerned about party lines and it seems like something of this nature may cause us to begin to look at things based on  party and not based on what’s best for the City of Newport News,” Vice Mayor Saundra Cherry said.

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