Day: October 6, 2021

‘Totalitarian Tyranny’: Parents Groups Slam Attorney General Garland for Turning FBI on Their Activism

Virginia Star Staff

Parents who protest public school policies on race, gender and COVID-19 are crying foul after Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to “discourage” and prosecute “harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school boards, administrators, teachers and staff.

His “mobilization of [the] FBI against parents is consistent with the complete weaponization of the federal government against ideological opponents,” Rhode Island mother Nicole Solas, who is waging a public records battle with her school district over race-related curriculum, told Just the News.

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Trump Says January 6 Probe No Big Deal, Lawmakers Should Investigate the November 3 ‘Insurrection’

Virginia Star Staff

Former President Donald Trump says he’s not concerned by the prospect of his former advisers testifying before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

Lawmakers, Trump argued, should instead investigate the “insurrection” that changed last year’s election rules and committee chairman Bennie Thompson’s ties to a black separatist group whose members killed cops decades ago.

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Virginia DMV Reopens Part-Time Walk-in Service

Eric Burk
People at windows of DMV

The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is now open to walk-in service three days a week, 16 months after first opening for appointment-only service following COVID-19 closures in Spring 2020. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday remain appointment-only, but the DMV now provides walk-in service Tuesday, Thursday, and for half days on Saturdays. Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) has been pushing for the DMV to reopen to walk-in service, but he isn’t satisfied with the DMV’s hybrid approach.

“I saw that they’re reopening for in-person again, three days a week, which, to me, I personally don’t understand that. I mean, we’ve required all our schools to be open five days a week for in-person instruction,” he told The Virginia Star

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Commentary: To Save America, Durham Must Reveal the Whole Russiagate Story and Punish the Guilty

Virginia Star Staff

A bit more information has emerged from the John Durham investigation into Russiagate (or “Spygate,” as it is known hereabouts).

This is due to what is likely a leak from one or more of the targets to their loyal propagandists at CNN. (In the article, the reporters do their best to downgrade the scandal they fanned for years as no more than a trivial “dirty trick” that all campaigns do. There’s a well-known word for that adapted into the English language.)

The import of these leaks is usually to soften the impact on the target(s), but it also gives us another indication Durham is still active.

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Biden Reverses Trump Rule Blocking Federal Funds from Going to Abortion Businesses

Virginia Star Staff

President Joe Biden’s administration is revoking a rule that prevented federal family planning aid from going to health centers that performed or referred abortions.

The new rule, which goes into effect Nov. 8, allows Title X federal family planning funds to go to health centers which refer patients for abortions, according to The Washington Post. Title X, created in 1970 under the direction of former President Richard Nixon, has always forbidden the funds from directly paying for abortions, according to the Post.

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Taiwan ‘on Alert’ After Record Number of Chinese Planes Enter Airspace, Warns of ‘Catastrophic’ Consequences If It’s Democracy Falls

Virginia Star Staff

Taiwan needs to be “on alert” after a record number of Chinese aircraft flew into the country’s defense zone on Monday, Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporter, Reuters reported.

“Taiwan must be on alert. China is more and more over the top,” Su said Tuesday, Reuters reported. “The world has also seen China’s repeated violations of regional peace and pressure on Taiwan.”

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Commentary: Our Woke National Icons

Virginia Star Staff

As we watch events unfold in 2021, obvious questions about the fitness of our national leaders present themselves. Who are these new woke national icons and how did they come to lord it over the rest of us? Here are some observations by way of preliminary explanation.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley conceded to Congress last week that he has been an anonymous source to controversial “inside” progressive muckrakers detailing the supposed dysfunctions of the prior administration. He strangely characterizes such anonymous, self-serving, behind-the-scenes leaking as some sort of public-service transparency. Evidently, it is now a part of the chairman’s duties to serve the media.

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National Institutes of Health Director to Step Down by Year’s End

Virginia Star Staff

The longtime Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, announced on Tuesday that he will be stepping down from his position by the end of 2021, CNN reports.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Collins called it “an incredible privilege to lead this great agency for more than a decade.”

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Activists Confront Kyrsten Sinema in Airport, on Plane over Biden Agenda

Virginia Star Staff

Protesters and activists followed Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema through Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. and onto a plane Monday, pressing her on why she refuses to back parts of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.

“I’m just trying to get an explanation for the American people,” Kunoor Ojha, chief of staff of the Green New Deal Network, asked Sinema as she followed the senator through the airport, video of the encounter shows.

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Marine Who Publicly Criticized the U.S. Afghanistan Withdrawal will be Released from the Brig

Virginia Star Staff

The U.S. Marine who posted public criticism on social media of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will be released from the brig Tuesday pending a trial by court martial, Capt. Sam Stephenson, Training and Education Command spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. is being released from confinement today, Oct. 5, 2021, as a result of a mutual agreement between Lt. Col. Scheller, his Defense counsel, and the Commanding General, Training Command,” Stephenson said in a statement. “No additional details regarding the agreement may be released at this time.”

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Report Finds Members of the French Catholic Church Abused 330,000 Children

Virginia Star Staff
People sitting in church pews at a church

Members of France’s Catholic Church sexually abused 330,000 children over the past 70 years, according to a new report on abuses in the country’s Catholic Church.

The 2,500-page report is France’s first real documentation of the abuse, the Associated Press reported, and is based on research by France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

“The Catholic Church is the place where the prevalence of sexual violence is at its highest, other than in family and friend circles,” the report said, according to CNN.

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White House Refuses to Answer Questions About Hunter Biden’s Stake in Chinese Company

Virginia Star Staff

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to answer lingering questions about whether or not Joe Biden’s son Hunter has sold his stake in a suspicious Chinese private equity firm, as reported by the New York Post.

It was reported back in April that Hunter’s company, Skaneateles LLC owned a 10 percent share of BHR Partners, a Chinese company which is controlled by the government-run Bank of China. In Monday’s press briefing, Newsmax White House Correspondent Emerald Robinson asked if Hunter’s company had finally sold that stake, to which Psaki said that she would “point you to his representatives on that. He doesn’t work in the administration.”

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After Backlash over NBC Interview, Fauci Tells CNN He Encourages People to Spend Christmas with Family

Virginia Star Staff

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday said that he would be spending Christmas with his family, and encouraged others to do the same, after saying over the weekend that it was too soon to tell if Americans could spend the holiday together.

“I will be spending Christmas with my family. I encourage people — to have a good, normal Christmas with your family,” he told CNN host Kate Bolduan.

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Report: Democrats’ Stalled Budget Bill Includes $8 Billion a Year for Illegal Immigrant Parents

Virginia Star Staff

Democrats’ stalled budget bill includes $8 billion a year for 10 years for illegal immigrant parents, the Center for Immigration Studies announced on Tuesday.

The bill would replace a program that requires parents to work to receive welfare and increase the funds available to illegal immigrant parents because some who work “off the books” can’t verify their employment, according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Any illegal immigrant with a child born in the U.S. would be able to apply for aid through the program.

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Chinese Student Studying in Canada Targeted for Criticizing the Chinese Communist Party, Experts Say Students in America Face the Same Threat

Virginia Star Staff

A Chinese student attending a Canadian university is currently facing repercussions from the Chinese government for his criticism of the regime on Twitter.

Experts tell Campus Reform that the same thing has happened in the United States.

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‘White Allies/Accomplices’ Participate Separately from BIPOC Staff in University of Colorado at Boulder Diversity Program

Virginia Star Staff

The University of Colorado at Boulder is hosting monthly “BIPOC Identity” and “White Ally” meetups this semester that separate attendees based on race.

Specifically, The “monthly meetups,” which the Institute of Cognitive Science and the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences sponsors, comprise groups for “Black, Indigenous or other people of color” and another for “white allies/accomplices.”

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Bold Big Government Socialism vs. Timid Big Government Socialism

Virginia Star Staff
President Joe Biden and Personal Aide Stephen Goepfert walk through the Colonnade, Friday, August 6, 2021, on the way to the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

The power struggle we are watching in the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s spending (and taxing) bill is not between moderates and Big Government Socialists. It’s between timid Big Government Socialists and bolder ones.

There are no moderates left in the Democratic Party. In August, every single Democrat in the House and Senate voted to move forward with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ $3.5 trillion spending bill – which is really $5.5 trillion when scored honestly. And every one of them voted for the $3 trillion tax increase to help pay for it – every one of them.

After trillions of dollars in supposed emergency spending over the last two years, the current argument is not over whether we will spend $3.5 trillion or spend nothing. The fight is between $3.5 trillion and $1.2 trillion. The final bill, which could get the so-called moderates’ votes, will likely be $2 trillion.

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Trump Slams DOJ Plan to Monitor Parents Fighting ‘Radical Left School Boards’ over Critical Race Theory in Classrooms

Virginia Star Staff

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday denounced the Justice Department for asking the FBI to investigate parents who are pressuring school boards to stop teaching critical race theory, saying it was part of a larger leftist agenda to sideline moms and dads from having a say over their children’s future.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland Instructs FBI to Investigate Alleged ‘Threats’ by Parents Against School Officials

Cooper Moran
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) field office, Minneapolis Division, at 1501 Freeway Boulevard in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Monday that the Department of Justice and the FBI are launching an effort to address the alleged increase in “threats” made against school officials.

According to a statement from the Department of Justice, Garland has directed “the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to meet in the next 30 days with federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement leaders to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend.”

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Bipartisan Structure Threatens Success of Virginia Redistricting Commission

Eric Burk

The Virginia Redistricting Commission is hearing public comment on its final draft General Assembly maps, which are due on Sunday October 10. But the Commission is still presenting two sets of maps, one Republican-proposed, and one Democrat-proposed, with no clear path to a consensus on one set of maps that can win with the necessary three-fourths approval from the bipartisan commission. After the hearings this week, the commission is scheduled for a Friday meeting, with an optional Saturday meeting.

“I’m at a loss as to how to go forward,” said Co-Chair Greta Harris on October 2, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

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