August 15, 2021 - The Virginia Star

The Number of White People in America Has Declined for the First Time Since 1790

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Crowd of people walking in New York City near the subway

The number of white people in the United States has dropped for the first time since 1790, according to new data from the 2020 Census.

Data from the 2020 count of people living in America shows that the country has become substantially more ethnically diverse, particularly in the under-18 category. Additionally, the country’s population grew 7.4% in the last ten years, a slower rate than any decade since the 1930s.

The numbers indicate that growth in the American population for the last decade has been driven by minority populations. While whites still make up a little less than 58% of the American population, that figure dropped below 60% for the first time since the census-taking began.

Commentary: The Biden Inflation Tax, Made Clear in One Chart

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 RealClearWire

Joe Biden walking with "American Jobs Plan" sign

What is all this “Biden inflation tax” talk really about? What is the actual effect of inflation on the lives of real people?

Well, below is a chart that compares yearly wage and inflation rates for each month from 2017 through July of this year using Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Wage rates are in blue and inflation (as measured by the consumer price index) is in red. When blue is on top, as it was during the entire Trump administration, workers’ wages are beating inflation and their standards of living are improving. When red is on top, they’re not.

While President Biden claims that it is “indisputable” that his jobs plan “is working,” this chart unequivocally shows that it is not, at least not for American workers. Rather, inflation is surging, more than wiping out any wage gains those workers might have experienced.

Federal Court Sides with Biden’s Eviction Moratorium, for Now

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 The Center Square

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday against a challenge to President Joe Biden’s latest eviction moratorium.

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a request from the Alabama and Georgia association of Realtors to overturn an eviction moratorium from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 60-day order bans landlords from evicting tenants, even if they do not pay rent, citing concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

“About half of all housing providers are mom-and-pop operators, and without rental income, they cannot pay their own bills or maintain their properties,” National Association of Realtors President Charlie Oppler said. “NAR has always advocated the best solution for all parties was rental assistance paid directly to housing providers to cover the rent and utilities of any vulnerable tenants during the pandemic. No housing provider wants to evict a tenant and considers it only as a last resort.”

Senate Passes Amendment to Ban Federal Dollars from Funding Critical Race Theory in Schools

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The Senate has approved an amendment to the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that will ban the use of federal funds from being used to teach Critical Race Theory in schools.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., introduced the “Stop CRT Act” in an effort to prevent tax dollars from being used to teach the controversial set of ideas in public school classrooms.

Illegal immigration, Drug Seizures Spike in July

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 The Center Square

New federal reporting shows illegal immigration has continued to grow worse as the Biden administration increasingly takes heat for the crisis at the southern border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection released new immigration data that shows border agents encountered 212,672 undocumented migrants attempting to enter the country illegally in July, the highest number in more than two decades.

“The situation at the border is one of the toughest challenges we face,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “It is complicated, changing, and involves vulnerable people at a time of a global pandemic.”

Migrants Who Entered the U.S. Illegally Say Crossing Legally Is Only for ‘Privileged People’

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

MCALLEN, Texas — Migrants who illegally crossed the border into the U.S. said immigrating legally is only an option for privileged people.

“We all don’t have the same capacity or the same opportunity,” a Honduran man who had just crossed into the U.S. illegally with a group into La Joya, Texas, told the Daily Caller News Foundation Saturday night. “Only privileged people can cross legally.”

Migrants may pay smugglers between $7,000 and $14,000 to enter the U.S. illegally, and the fee includes multiple tries if the person is deported from the U.S., Reuters reported. Becoming a U.S. citizen, however, takes years and can cost between $4,000 and $12,000 according to the Economic Times.

GOP Senators Put the National Institutes of Health on Notice for ‘Complete Disregard for Congressional Oversight’ Surrounding Risky Virus Research in China

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The National Institutes of Health’s refusal to cooperate with congressional oversight on risky gain of function virus research in China is unacceptable, a group of seven Republican lawmakers wrote in a letter Thursday obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The lawmakers, led by Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, railed against the agency’s director, Francis Collins, for blowing off their previous May 20 letter demanding answers to 17 questions related to gain of function research, noting that the NIH’s response to that request was nearly identical to the response provided to Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who had asked a completely different set of questions about its funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Your refusal to provide detailed responses that fully address each oversight request is unacceptable,” the GOP lawmakers wrote to Collins on Thursday. “NIH’s lack of response to the May 20 letter shows a complete disregard for congressional oversight and transparency.”

Kerry’s Private Jet Emitted 30 Times More Carbon in 2021 Than Average Vehicle Does in a Year

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The family jet of climate czar John Kerry has emitted 30 times more carbon so far in 2021 than the average vehicle in a year, Fox News reported.

The private jet emitted 138 metric tons of carbon between Jan. 10 and Aug. 6. It took off 20 times, according to flight data Fox News obtained, updating a previous count of 16 flights.

Commentary: How Progressives Rewrote American History

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 RealClearWire

America’s Founders understood that political change is inevitable. They thought it must come about through constitutional mechanisms, with the consent of the governed, and must never infringe on the natural rights of citizens. Progressives – rejecting the idea that any rights, including the right of consent to government, are natural – accept no such limits. Progressivism insists that the principled American constitutionalism of fixed natural rights and limited and dispersed powers must be overturned and replaced by an organic, evolutionary model of the Constitution. Historical progress should be facilitated by experts dedicated to the expansion of the public sphere and political control – especially at the national level. As progressivism has grown into modern liberalism, the commitment to extra-constitutional “progress” is broadly shared across elite political, academic, legal, and religious circles. Politics is thus increasingly identified with a mix of activism, expertise, and the desire for “change.”

Portsmouth City Council Votes Against Collective Bargaining

August 15, 2021August 14, 2021 Eric Burk

The Portsmouth City Council voted 5-2 against allowing collective bargaining for city employees. In a Tuesday Council meeting, some members said that although they would like to support unionizing efforts, the high cost of implementing collective bargaining didn’t make sense.

“It was something we had all hoped would be good for the city last year when the city council passed a resolution to move forward,” Council Member Lisa Lucas-Burke said. “After hearing the information from our CFO regarding the financial cost that would be associated, I think that until we get more information and more funding to be able to carry this out it’s going to be pretty difficult for us to carry that through. My heart was there to get collective bargaining for our unions, for the departments that were interested in it, but with the information that was since provided we have to respond to that in that manner.”