Day: March 5, 2022

Virginia Rep. Beyer Cosponsors Legislation to Block Washington Commanders from Federal Tax Exemption on Bonds Used to Finance a Stadium

Eric Burk
Don Beyer

Representative Don Beyer (D-VA-08) is sponsoring legislation to eliminate the federal tax-exempt status of municipal bonds that are used to finance professional sports facilities. In an announcement, Beyer and cosponsors Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA-14) and Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-03) explicitly identified the Washington Commanders, who are looking for a new stadium site in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

“Super-rich sports team owners like Dan Snyder do not need federal support to build their stadiums, and taxpayers should not be forced to fund them,” Beyer said in a February 22 press release. “Billionaire owners who need cash can borrow from the market like any other business. Arguments that stadiums boost job creation have been repeatedly discredited. In a time when there is a debate over whether the country can ‘afford’ investments in health care, child care, education, or fighting climate change, it is ridiculous to even contemplate such a radical misuse of publicly subsidized bonds.”

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Commentary: A Country Without Pity

Virginia Star Staff

A country without pity has lost its soul.

Sadly, that is the state of America in 2022. On the eve of the two-year anniversary—which is too celebratory a word to describe its aftermath—of useless, destructive lockdowns sold as a way to stop the spread of COVID-19, our country has been exposed as a place overpopulated with pitiless citizens gratified by the suffering of others. The common bonds that tether friendships and fellowship are in tatters, shredded by the nihilism of the ruling class, egged on by a mendacious corporate media, and amplified on ill-named “social” media platforms.

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The Star News Network’s Neil W. McCabe Interviews Visibly Nervous Attendees at Morgan Ortagus Ash Wednesday Fundraiser

Julie Carr
Morgan Ortagus

Reporter Neil W. McCabe of The Star News Network visits Republican candidate for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District, Morgan Ortagus’s fundraiser on the evening of Ash Wednesday with a few questions for notable attendees.

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Commentary: The Russia-Ukraine Conflict Has the Potential to Turn into Another Forever War

Virginia Star Staff

According to the criteria for their respective medals, the Iraq War that began in 2003 lasted more than eight years; yet the U.S. war in Afghanistan, which commenced just weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has lasted more than 20 years. And despite the U.S. withdrawal, the destruction of the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, and the loss of so much equipment to the Taliban, that war still has, at this writing, no official end date. 

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Biden Administration Eases Immigration Status for Ukrainians amid Russian Conflict

Virginia Star Staff

The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday announced that Ukrainians will be granted temporary refuge in the United States.

“Russia’s premeditated and unprovoked attack on Ukraine has resulted in an ongoing war, senseless violence, and Ukrainians forced to seek refuge in other countries,” Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said.

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U.S. Senate Votes to Strike Down Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for Health Care Workers and COVID National Emergency

Virginia Star Staff
nurse with hairnet and mask on

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to strike down Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate targeting healthcare workers at federally funded facilities. The measure passed on a party-line vote of 49 to 44.

No Democrat senators voted with Republicans to repeal the mandate, but GOP senators were able to get the resolution through the Senate because six Democrats missed the vote, The Hill reported.

The bill was sponsored by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), who physician, and former military officer.  Before voting began, Marshall argued that the CMS vaccine mandate is “not about public health or science.”

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Federal Court Rules in Favor of Navy SEALs Who Refuse to Take Vaccine

Virginia Star Staff
PORTSMOUTH, Va. (Dec. 15, 2020) – Hospitalman Roman Silvestri administers one of the first COVID-19 vaccines given at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (NMCP) to Lt. Cmdr. Daphne Morrisonponce, an emergency medicine physician, Dec. 15. NMCP was one of the first military treatment facilities (MTF) selected to receive the vaccine in a phased, standardized and coordinated strategy for prioritizing and administering the vaccine. (U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Imani N. Daniels/Released)

On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a group of Navy SEALs who defied the U.S. Navy’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, dealing one of the biggest blows yet to the military mandate.

As reported by The Daily Caller, the court’s ruling was similar to a previous decision by a district judge in Fort Worth, Texas in January, who ordered a temporary halt to the Navy’s vaccine mandate while the case moved forward. The lawsuit was filed by a group of 35 Navy SEALs who all sought religious exemptions from being forced to take the vaccine.

The appeals court ruled that the Department of Defense failed to prove that the vaccine mandate served “‘paramount interests’ that justify vaccinating these 35 Plaintiffs against COVID-19 in violation of their religious beliefs.” The court noted that despite the Navy claiming to have a “compelling interest” in forcing all sailors to get vaccinated, it “undermined” its own mandate by preparing unvaccinated SEALs for deployment while the pandemic was still ongoing.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Reiterates His Budget Priorities in New Letter to Money Legislators

Eric Burk

As representatives from the General Assembly’s money committees begin work on a budget compromise, Governor Glenn Youngkin sent a letter to them reiterating his top priorities for the budget.

There’s a tension between the House of Delegates and the Senate proposals on how to spend revenue surplus and one-time resources. Both chambers’ proposals advance increased spending, but the House of Delegates prioritizes extensive tax cuts with more moderate new spending while the Senate includes more new spending but moderate cuts.

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