March 10, 2022 - The Virginia Star

Virginia Prohibition on School Mask Mandates to Be Determined by Courts

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 The Center Square

A new Virginia law prohibits school divisions from enforcing face mask mandates, but at least one school district and some parents are suing the commonwealth to overturn the legislation.

Senate Bill 739, which Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed into law in February, allows parents to opt their children out of any school-imposed mask rules. Under the legislation, which school districts were required to comply with beginning March 1, school officials are prohibited from using any disciplinary or academic punishments to enforce mask rules if a parent opted a student out.

The Star News Network Interviews Author Peter Schweizer About Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Ties to China

March 10, 2022 Julie Carr

McCabe: Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer in his new book ‘Red-Handed,’ reveals how California Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein and her husband Richard Blum are politically and financially committed to the success of the communist party in China.

Schweizer told The Star News Network that Feinstein literally danced with one of the men responsible for the crackdown at Tiananmen Square.

Schweizer: U.S. Institutions of Higher Learning Fail to Report Millions of Dollars from China

March 10, 2022 Julie Carr

TRANSCRIPT: McCabe: Investigative journalist Peter Schweizer, in his new book Red-Handed, reports how the Chinese Communist Party has targeted American institutions of higher learning. Schweizer told The Star News Network how these institutions, after receiving funds from communist China, have worked to suppress criticism of the communist regime there and…

Commentary: Sanctions Are an Act of War

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

The United States is at war with Russia. Without a vote in Congress, a specific announcement by the president, or even meaningful awareness on the part of the bulk of the populace, the United States has stumbled into conflict with another nuclear power.

True enough, American “boots on the ground” are not yet (openly) engaged in combat in Ukraine. But the devastating sanctions put in place unilaterally by Joe Biden on Russian property constitute an act of war nonetheless. On Tuesday morning, Biden announced he was unilaterally banning the importation of Russian fuel and oil products into the United States. This decision is a direct attack on the Russian economy. It is designed to dictate a certain political outcome to the Russian government.

Such a dramatic act, therefore, constitutes participation in armed conflict against the Russian regime. It is an act of war.

Prominent Critical Race Theory Activist Admits Anti-CRT Parents Winning the ‘Language War’

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Video has surfaced from late August of prominent Critical Race Theory (CRT) activist and Columbia University law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who said she fears the left is losing the “language war” against anti-CRT parents and their advocates, and that the radical left-wing ideology will ultimately go the way of ACORN.

“I think that when we’re caught in a ‘Is it CRT or not CRT [debate],’ they win,” Crenshaw said as she headlined an event at Oak Bluffs Union Chapel in Martha’s Vineyard, American Wire News reported. “That’s the whole point of throwing this in.”

Democrats Currently Lead in National Redistricting Efforts with Four States Still Completing Process

March 10, 2022 Aaron Gulbransen

Democrats currently have the lead in redistricting efforts with four states still working on new maps.

Forty states, 46 if the states that have one congressional district are included, have finished the process of drawing new maps for U.S. House of Representatives districts. Only Florida, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Hampshire have yet to finish their redistricting process.

Commentary: We Have to Be Strategic About Strategic Material Production

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

The most important duty of government is to provide for the security of its citizens. Providing that security is a complex enterprise. Its most obvious feature is military power: providing the surface naval, air, and space forces necessary to protect national interests. Of course, military power depends on economic power. In today’s security environment, that means maintaining the capability to provide for both the prosperity of American citizens as well the high tech weaponry necessary for modern warfare.

While the world’s attention is focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we need to keep in mind that the People’s Republic of China is America’s foremost adversary. While the United States dominated the “third industrial revolution” based on computation and communications, China seeks to lead the “fourth industrial revolution” based on metadata and artificial intelligence. China’s grand strategy is focused on achieving that goal. For example, Beijing has employed its Belt and Road Initiative in combination with digital technology in order to integrate billions of people into China’s economic sphere.

Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland Admits There Are U.S.-Funded Bio Research Labs in Ukraine

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland admitted during a Senate hearing on Tuesday that there are biological research facilities in Ukraine that are under the control of the United States government.

In response to a question from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Nuland said that any chemical or biological weapons release in Ukraine, would be the fault of the Russian invaders.

Congress Requests DOJ Investigate Amazon for Alleged ‘Criminal Conduct’

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

Bipartisan members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday requesting an investigation into Amazon for alleged criminal obstruction of the committee’s probe into the tech giant.

The letter, sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, alleged Amazon misled committee members and engaged in “potentially criminal conduct” during a 15-month investigation into competition in digital markets. The letter was signed by House Judiciary Committee Chair Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, Democratic Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline, Republican Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Job Openings Remain Near Record High

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

Job openings in the U.S. remained near their record high while the number of Americans who quit their jobs remained relatively unchanged.

The U.S saw 11.3 million job openings in January, down slightly from December’s revised 11.4 million, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Data provided by FactSet estimated job openings would dip to 10.9 million, according to CNBC.

Report: Biden Requests for Oil Negotiations Ignored by Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

The governments of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) allegedly refused to answer phone calls from Joe Biden when he attempted to start up negotiations on the purchase of oil from the two energy-rich nations.

According to the New York Post, an anonymous Biden Administration official said that Biden’s attempts to reach Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan were deliberately ignored by both leaders.

Hidden Video Reportedly Captures New York Times Reporter Calling January 6 Coverage an ‘Overreaction’

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Virginia Star Staff

A national security correspondent for The New York Times said the media’s coverage of the Capitol Riot was “overblown” and that the events of Jan. 6, 2021 were “no big deal,” according to undercover video released Tuesday by Project Veritas.

NYT correspondent Matthew Rosenberg and his colleagues have described the reported presence of FBI plants among the rioters outside of the U.S. Capitol a year earlier as a “reimagining” of the “attack.” But in the Project Veritas video, which appears to have been recorded without his knowledge, Rosenberg paints a different picture and claims that “there were a ton of FBI informants amongst the people who attacked the capitol.”

Commentary: Even with ‘Defund the Police’ Discredited, Some Schools May Still Shun the Police

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 RealClearWire

Des Moines Police standing at a crime scene

Des Moines this week suffered its first fatal school shooting – reigniting a controversy in the city after the district removed police officers from its schools last year.

Police say a group of teenagers in vehicles outside Des Moines’ East High School fired multiple rounds onto school property on Monday, killing a 15-year-old boy and critically wounding two female students who were bystanders. Six teenagers, some of them current Des Moines students, have been charged with first-degree murder.

The deadly drive-by shooting now hovers over the decision by Des Moines officials, along with about 30 districts across the country, to exile cops from schools. These moves were part of the “defund the police” movement that erupted after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It’s a movement now reeling in the face of violent crime surging nationwide, punctuated by President Biden’s State of the Union vow last week to “fund the police.”

Virginia Senate Passes Gutted Race-Blind Governor’s School Admissions Bill

March 10, 2022March 9, 2022 Eric Burk

RICHMOND, Virginia – In a bipartisan 26-13 vote, the Senate passed a stripped-down version of a House of Delegates bill to require race-blind admissions procedures in Virginia’s Governor’s schools; that version will have to go back to the House for approval.

Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) advocated for HB 127 on the Senate floor on Tuesday; he noted that about 90 percent of the House bill had been removed.

“We really are only left with two paragraphs,” Petersen said. “Everything else frankly we did away with. And the two paragraphs, one has to do with no discrimination based on race or ethnicity, which is the current Title IX standard, and the second would just simply say that all school divisions should make sure that each middle school has a program in place to prepare children to apply for Governor’s schools.”