Commentary: Biden Is Failing in the Courtroom, Too

Despite the eagerness of the corporate media to soft-pedal or outright ignore the toxic consequences of his policies, Joe Biden’s job approval numbers continue to be low. And even as the fourth estate tries desperately to spin the news, one story cannot be spun and is therefore largely omitted and ignored: immigration. That’s because on immigration, Biden, his agencies, and his policies have been getting clobbered in federal courts across the land.  

Read More

New Photos Allegedly Show Border Patrol Agents Releasing Illegal Aliens into Texas Towns

On Wednesday, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives shared photos that apparently depict the Border Patrol releasing hordes of illegal aliens into several towns in southern Texas.

The Daily Caller reports that Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) shared the photos on Twitter, showing Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents releasing illegals into the towns of Uvalde and Carrizo Springs. Gonzales said that the illegals were released because all of the detention facilities “in the area” run by the Border Patrol are “over capacity.”

Read More

Airline CEOs Demand End to Biden’s Mask Mandate

People in an airplane with masks on

Chief executives of several major airlines told President Joe Biden to end COVID-19-related federal transportation restrictions in a Wednesday letter.

Leaders of American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, FedEx Express, UPS Airlines and more said pandemic restrictions, including the federal mask mandate and COVID-19 testing requirements for international flights, no longer made sense in the letter shared by The Washington Post.

Read More

Biden Administration on Pace to Make More Than 200K Border Detentions in March

The Biden administration is likely to make more than 200,000 detentions at the U.S.-Mexico border in the month of March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) preliminary data obtained by The Washington Post.

The increase will mark the highest monthly total since August 2021, the Post reported. CBP detained nearly 7,500 migrants per day in custody in February.

Read More

Youngkin Calls for Special Session to Begin April 4, Pressures Budget Negotiators with $150,000 March Madness TV Ad

Governor Glenn Youngkin is calling the General Assembly to convene for a special session on April 4 to finish work on the budget and other bills that were carried over at the end of the recent session. “Today I am calling back lawmakers to Richmond to finish their work. Between…

Read More

Uranium, Oil and Technology: How Russia Got Stronger as Bidens and Clintons Got Richer

Sec State Hillary Clinton

In the early days of Russia’s war on Ukraine, President Joe Biden boldly declared he was ready to seize “ill-begotten gains” of the region’s oligarchs.

But in the years before Moscow twice invaded Ukraine, Democrats enriched themselves politically and personally from such oligarchs and businesses in the region while empowering Vladimir Putin with energy and technology deals that still haunt America today.

Read More

Former Virginia Delegates Carroll Foy, Ayala to Battle for Senate District 33

Former Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor Hala Ayala announced her campaign for the Democratic nomination for the new Senate District 33 in Prince William and Fairfax Counties. She will face former Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy, another Democratic heavy-hitter, who lost the nomination for governor to Terry McAuliffe in 2021.

“Right now, too many Virginia families are feeling squeezed,” Ayala said in a press release obtained by Blue Virginia.

Read More

Commentary: Ukraine and the RINO Delusion

“We have two parties… One is the Evil Party and the other is the Stupid Party… Occasionally the two parties get together to do something that’s both evil and stupid. That’s called bipartisanship.”
— M. Stanton Evans

The Stupid Party strikes again.

Just one short month ago, Republican leaders and strategists were salivating over the prospect of a GOP blowout in the approaching midterms, as Joe Biden lurched from disaster to disaster. The debacle of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, raging inflation, an uncontrolled invasion at the southern border, crushing vaccine and mask mandates, and the utter failure to control COVID as promised all contributed to an apparent death spiral in the polls for Biden. With even mainstream media outlets acknowledging that the president’s polling numbers had rapidly cratered to unprecedented lows (with no bottom in sight) only one year into a new administration, it appeared that all Republicans needed to do to win big in November was to stay out of the way while the Democrats self-destructed.

Read More

Biden SCOTUS Nominee Ridiculed for Refusing to Define ‘Woman’

Marsha Blackburn

As part of the hearings for her confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked by a Tennessee Senator to define the word “woman.” 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn pressed Jackson for a definition, which the judge said she could not provide. The following is the transcript of the dialogue between the pair: 

Read More

Citing Regulations, Company Plans to Move Natural Gas Plant Project Out of Virginia

A power company that intended to build a natural gas power plant in Southeast Virginia will move the project to either West Virginia or Ohio, citing regulatory issues and opposition from environmental groups in the commonwealth.

Chickahominy Power LLC, which planned to build the plant in Charles City County, had been working on the project for more than five years, according to a company statement. The company has officially terminated its project.

Read More

Commentary: Pharma Giant’s Mandate Makes Ex-Workers of Vaccine Objectors

Eli Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Mandy Van Gorp was confident that her employer of 18 years, Eli Lilly and Company, would treat her fairly when she objected to its company-wide COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The pharmaceutical giant had promised to exempt employees with valid health or religious objections to the policy and she believed she had had both.

Despite presenting a doctor’s note in support of her exemption, citing an auto-immune disease, the company denied her request for a medical exemption. To add injury to the insult she felt, she tested positive for COVID-19 the day after receiving her rejection letter. She then appealed for a six-month deferral on grounds of the positive test. Lilly also denied that request. When she then raised her religious concerns, Lilly said she had missed the application deadline – a deadline that had lapsed several weeks before Lilly replied to her initial accommodation request.

The “toughest night was when we were sitting at the dinner table and my 12-year-old was sobbing, hysterically begging me to get the vaccine so I could keep my job,” recalled Van Gorp, a 42-year-old sales representative and mother of three. “I had to explain that my choice was not about money and that I felt God was leading me not to follow a mandate. It’s hard to explain that to a 12-year-old.”

Read More

Republican Governor of Utah Vetoes Transgender Sports Ban Bill

On Tuesday, another Republican governor vetoed a popular bill passed by the state legislature that would have prohibited so-called “transgender” athletes from competing on sports teams of the opposite gender.

As reported by Axios, Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R-Utah) justified his veto by saying that “rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few.”

Read More

Oklahoma House Overwhelmingly Passes Ban on Nearly All Abortions

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill to ban almost all abortions in the state, a bill that would be even more restrictive than Texas’s six-week ban.

Axios reports that the Oklahoma House passed HB 4327 by a margin of 78-19. The bill would ban any and all abortions, with the sole exception of abortions that must be carried out in order to save the life of the mother. The bill would also provide incentives for private citizens to sue anyone who is suspected of providing abortions or helping people get abortions, with rewards of up to $10,000 for each abortion that a suspect has performed.

Read More

‘The Answer Is No’: Federal Judge Blocks Biden Administration’s Attempt to Halt Certain ICE Deportations

A federal judge ruled Tuesday against the Biden administration’s attempt to halt certain Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations.

The ruling comes in response to a joint lawsuit filed by Republican Attorneys General from multiple states, including Arizona’s Mark Brnovich, Ohio’s Dave Yost, and Montana’s Austin Knudsen, against the Biden administration over its rollbacks on some deportations of noncitizens.

Read More

Report: JPMorgan Chase CEO Told Biden He Needs a Plan to Increase Domestic Energy Production

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon told President Joe Biden he needs to produce a “Marshall Plan” to increase domestic energy production, Axios reported.

Dimon met with Biden on Monday, urging him to make plans for the government to increase domestic gas and other energy sources to offset soaring prices resulting from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Axios reported. Dimon reportedly informed the president and his top economic advisors that additional domestic energy production is necessary for securing both American and European energy security.

Read More

Former Del. Aird Announces Campaign for Senate District 13, Will Face Sen. Morrissey

Former Delegate Lashrecse Aird announced her candidacy for the 2023 Democratic nomination in the new Senate District 13, setting up a primary battle with State Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond), who intends to move into the district and run for the seat. “In just one month, I’ve watched our Commonwealth torn…

Read More

Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board Revokes COVID-19 Regulations for Employers

coffee shop with Edison lights hanging from ceiling

The Virginia Safety and Health Codes Board voted Monday to revoke standards regulating how businesses and employers must respond to COVID-19.

After the vote, recently-appointed Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) Gary Pan said, “At the beginning of this journey here through COVID, there was a lot of uncertainty and we didn’t really know what we were going to be facing, but we now have a lot of experience. And that’s important and we will be working vigilantly to make sure that we continue to protect our employees and employers in the workplace.”

“We are on the path to normalcy here in Virginia and throughout the United States,” Pan said.

Read More

40 Pro-Life Leaders Expose Biden Supreme Court Justice Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s ‘Pro-Abortion Extremism’

Ketanji Brown Jackson

A coalition of nearly 40 national pro-life leaders sent a letter to the chairs of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Monday specifying the radical pro-abortion record of Biden Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Led by the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), the coalition’s letter was addressed to the committee’s chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), and ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) as confirmation hearings began for Jackson, who was chosen by Biden following the announcement of his commitment to nominate a black woman to the nation’s highest court.

Read More

Commentary: Soros Mindset Invades Nashville

Sarah Beth Myers and George Soros

Obviously, a multitude of factors are at play, but if you had to pick one man most responsible for the massive increase in crime of all sorts in American cities over the past few years, from pervasive looting to assault (sexual or otherwise) to murder, it would be billionaire investor George Soros.

Through his Open Society Foundations—described as “the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights”—plus various other entities, sub-entities, and cutouts, Soros has financed the political campaigns of numerous district attorneys and attorneys general across the country.

All of them were leftists, working from a principle of minimal, if any, incarceration or bail in any but the most extreme situations—and often in what most of would assume was extreme. The perpetrator, most probably, they assume, is the product of a miserable childhood, and therefore worthy of more sympathy than the victim. That many who had equally miserable childhoods still are able to function as law-abiding adults is evidently of little consequence to these DAs and AGs.

Read More

U.S. Civil Rights Commissioners to AG Merrick Garland: U.S. Attorneys Must ‘Increase Prosecutions in Cities Where Local Prosecutors’ Are Soft on Crime

Attorney General Merrick Garland

In a letter obtained by The Star News Network, four commissioners of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights express their “urgent concerns” to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland about the radical increase in violent crime in America, and ask him to direct the Department of Justice to escalate prosecutions of violent criminals.

U.S. Civil Rights Commissioners Peter Kirsanow (R), Gail Heriot (I), J. Christian Adams (R), and Stephen Gilchrist (R), wrote to Garland Thursday, “not on behalf of the Commission as a whole,” of their concerns about the significant rise in crime “that has affected our nation over the past two years.”

Read More

Richmond Judge Approves Second Casino Referendum

A Richmond judge approved a second Richmond casino referendum, Mayor Levar Stoney announced Monday.

“Today is a good day in the City of Richmond because our residents have an opportunity to vote in November for 1500 good-paying jobs and tax relief with the One Casino + Resort referendum being back on the table thanks in part to the recent certification by the Virginia Lottery and the subsequent ruling by Richmond Circuit Court today,” Stoney said in a press release.

Read More

Newt Gingrich Commentary: Time to Defeat Putin in Ukraine

As President Joe Biden prepares to go to Europe, we must recognize that, unless things change, there are likely to be two outcomes to the Russian war on Ukraine – and both are bad for America and the rule of law. 

First, the terror campaign of destroying cities and killing women and children is having a devastating effect. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, out of compassion for his people, is talking more and more about a negotiated settlement. A negotiated settlement will clearly give Vladimir Putin most of what he wants. It will be a Russian victory – an expensive Russian victory, but a Russian victory.  

A negotiated settlement with Russia winning will be a disaster for the rule of law. It will be a signal to dictators everywhere that with a weak American President and timid democracies, despots can attack their neighbors with virtual impunity. 

Read More

Commentary: A Trump-Hating Backer of Biden’s Supreme Court Nominee Is Married to the Top January 6th Prosecutor

Confirmation hearings for D.C. Circuit Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s first U.S. Supreme Court nominee, began Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During an event in Washington, D.C. on Monday morning, activists gathered to rally on behalf of the nominee who could be the first black woman seated on the nation’s highest court.

“It’s also, for so many of us, a moment that is personal,” Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, told the crowd. “It is personal if you have ever been the only person sitting in a room. It is personal if you have ever wondered, ‘Is that for me?’” Over the past several weeks, Graves, a graduate of Yale Law school, has given dozens of interviews in support of Jackson’s nomination.

In a January column for CNN, Graves denounced “the current homogeneity of the legal profession and judicial system” and claimed “the perspective of White men has been treated as the default” in court proceedings.

Read More

Commentary: Ukraine Crisis Reveals New Bipartisan Energy Opportunities

city factory at night

In just the last three weeks, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has significantly altered our national energy policy landscape and dramatically shifted the political dynamics around legislative priorities and political possibilities in Congress. The roiling of global oil markets, underpinned by an already tight supply situation from the post-pandemic economic awakening, has been driven by perceived risks of supply disruption caused by the Russian invasion. Risk premiums and a formal American embargo of Russian energy have sent prices skyrocketing and revealed, once again, that we have few good short-term options when faced with energy supply challenges. While our tools are limited today, the current moment may present an important window of opportunity to develop a policy approach that reduces this vulnerability and limits our exposure next time. This renewed attention to energy security combined with a focus on fighting energy inflation has the potential to galvanize a bipartisan policy pathway that would have been unthinkable as the year began.

The broad support that materialized in Congress and the White House for a ban on Russian oil and natural gas imports earlier this month is a case in point. Remarkably, widespread congressional support for the ban occurred despite already high gasoline prices, with oil prices well over $100 a barrel and gasoline averaging more than $4.30 a gallon across the nation.

As President Biden said when announcing the ban, “Americans have rallied to support the Ukrainian people and have made it clear we will not be part of subsidizing Putin’s war… This is a step that we’re taking to inflict further pain on Putin, but there will be costs as well here in the United States.”

Read More

‘Predetermined’: Mainstream Scientists Blame Media, Big Tech for Squelching COVID Debate

Challenging COVID-19 conventional wisdom has given some scientists their first meaningful interactions with journalists — and left them wary of the fourth estate, they told Hillsdale College’s Academy for Science and Freedom conference in D.C. last week.

Catherine Stein, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University, anonymously criticized the state’s COVID policy and personally contacted state lawmakers to share her skepticism, particularly on mask efficacy. “What blew my mind was the fear-mongering in the media,” she said.

Read More

Economists Expect Elevated Inflation as Projected U.S. GDP Plummets

Economists across the U.S. expect ongoing inflation as the growth projections for the U.S. economy have plummeted, according to a newly released survey.

The National Association for Business Economics released a survey of 234 economic experts Monday that highlights major concerns about the U.S. economy. The report found inflation ranks as a top worry for economists.

Read More

Catholic Charity Can Remain Open After Court Found Michigan Violated First Amendment

Catholic Charities West Michigan will remain open after state officials agreed under court order to pay the nonprofit’s attorney’s fees and acknowledged that taking actions against the charity for its beliefs would violate the First Amendment.

Catholic Charities prioritizes placing children up for adoption or in foster care with a married mother and father. The group filed a lawsuit with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) after Michigan officials gave the nonprofit the ultimatum to either close its adoption and foster care ministry or change its policy prioritizing a married mother and father to receive a child.

Read More

Over 120,000 Students and Families Have Left NYC Public Schools in Last Five Years

The New York City Department of Education (DOE) is bracing for a potential massive loss in its budget after over 120,000 students and families have left the city’s public school system over the last five years.

The New York Post reports that the city’s Chancellor of Schools David Banks addressed the matter before the City Council’s Education Committee on Monday, warning that the decline in enrollment could negatively impact the system’s budget plans for the coming years.

Read More

Republican Governor of Indiana Vetoes Bill to Ban Transgenders from Competing in Women’s Sports

On Monday, the Republican governor of Indiana vetoed a bill that would ban so-called “transgenders” from competing in sports for the opposite gender.

As reported by ABC News, Governor Eric Holcomb (R-Ind.) vetoed the bill, HEA 1041, after it passed through both houses of the state legislature, despite previously voicing his support for the same bill last month. In his veto, Holcomb claimed that the bill “falls short” of implementing a policy that would be consistent at the statewide level, and thus would not be able to provide “fairness in K-12 sports.”

Read More

Alcohol-Related Deaths Skyrocketed During COVID-19 Pandemic, Study Finds

The number of Americans who died due to alcohol-related causes skyrocketed in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a new study.

Alcohol-related deaths rose roughly 25% from 2019 to 2020, according to a March 18 study conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Read More

Records Show Republican Esther Joy King Has Towering Financial Advantage in Open Seat for Illinois’ 17th Congressional District

FEC records show that Republican Esther Joy King has a towering financial advantage over the entire field for Illinois’ Seventeenth Congressional district.

Democrat incumbent U.S. Representative Cheri Bustos has announced her retirement, making IL-17 an open seat race.

Read More

Youngkin Says Virginia Will ‘Work Hard’ to Suspend Gas Tax

Virginia’s governor is once again proposing a suspension of the state’s gas tax as prices at the pump remain near record highs. 

“It’s time for us to give Virginians a break, and we’re going to work hard to suspend the gas tax,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said in a Tuesday interview with Fox News Radio. “I’ve got to send a bill down to our legislature, which I’ll call back into special session, and we’re going to get them working on this.” 

Read More

Virginia’s State Sen. Chase Criticizes Youngkin’s Appointment of Susan Beals for Commissioner of the Department of Elections

Susan Beal and Amanda Chase

Governor Glenn Youngkin selected Chesterfield Electoral Board member Susan Beals to serve as his commissioner of the Department of Elections. The Friday announcement led to initial alarm from some Democrats, since Beals worked as an aide for Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield), who has been outspoken in highlighting alleged irregularities in the 2020 presidential election in Virginia. However, Chase said she’s disappointed by the appointment, and Senate Privileges and Elections Chair Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) sounds open-minded about Beals.

“While I congratulate Susan on her appointment, it’s a huge disappointment to those of us who have spent countless hours investigating the irregularities that occurred in the 2020 presidential election,” Chase said in a statement sent to The Virginia Star.

Read More

Kerry McDonald: Parents’ Demand for More Education Options Has Been Met with Greater Innovation in Providing Alternatives to Public Schools

Kerry McDonald

Senior Education Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) Kerry McDonald told The Star News Network the time is ripe in America for greater innovation and entrepreneurship in providing new education models for parents exiting the government school system.

Many parents got an up-close look at what their children are learning in public schools for the first time during the pandemic school closures and subsequent remote learning, leading them to consider education alternatives.

Read More

Commentary: Expect Big Pivot from SEC to Require Climate, ESG Disclosures in Investor Filings

The biggest decision the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is likely to make this year will be on mandated disclosure of information related to climate change and corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. The Commission has been working on the issue since early last year, and a new proposed rule is now scheduled to be released on March 21st. The contents of that rule will likely determine the future direction of “responsible” investing in the United States.

In March of last year, then-Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee issued a request for information on the matter, consisting of 15 questions and described as a response to the “demand for climate change information and questions about whether current disclosures adequately inform investors.” The questions covered a wide range of topics, from how to measure greenhouse gas emissions to how climate disclosures “would complement a broader ESG disclosure standard.”

When the SEC first issued guidance on climate change-related disclosures for public companies in 2010, the standards were fairly general and advisory, but the questions from last year’s request-for-information suggests that the agency’s leadership is considering a more aggressive and prescriptive framework.

Read More

Youngkin Signs Carolina Squat Vehicle Modification Ban

Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin signed a ban on the Carolina Squat vehicle modification while visiting Lynchburg on Monday. State Senator Mark Peake (R-Lynchburg) pushed the bill through the General Assembly at the last minute after a driver in a truck with the modification hit and killed Jody ‘BJ’ Upton Jr. in February.

“I’m honored today to be here with BJ’s family, the public servants who acted quickly to move legislation to my desk to address the problem, and the law enforcement heroes who will enforce this new law and keep our roads and highways safer,” Youngkin said in a press release. “Nothing can bring BJ back, but with faith, time, and love, we can begin to heal from the pain of losing him. But the spirit of Virginia is strong, and when Virginians see a problem they come together and act.”

Read More

Commentary: Conspirators in Their Own Words

For the last five years, the Left—defined as the fusion of the mainstream media, Silicon Valley, the radical new Democratic Party, and the vestigial Hillary Clinton machine—has crafted all sorts of conspiracies to destroy their perceived conservative enemies.

Their method has focused on one major projection: alleging conspiracy on the part of others, which is a kind of confirmation of their own conspiracies to destroy their opponents in general, and Donald Trump in particular.

Read More

Deep-Blue Washington State Contains Possible GOP U.S. House Seat Pickup

Deep blue Washington State contains a U.S. House district that is being targeted for Republican pickup.

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has announced that it is targeting Washington’s 8th Congressional District, which is currently represented by Democrat incumbent U.S. Representative Kim Schrier.

Read More

Ohio Representative Jim Jordan: ‘The Laptop Was Real, the News Was Fake!’

Monday morning on ‘The Answer with Bob Frantz,’ host Frantz spoke with United States Congressman (R-OH) Jim Jordan about Hunter Biden’s laptop, Big Tech censorship, mainstream media, Ukraine, and Joe Biden’s continuing troubles.

Read More

Commentary: The Next Jan. 6 Trial Might Expose Another Justice Department Lie

empty courtroom

Federal prosecutors last week scored a big victory after a Washington, D.C., jury took less than three hours to find Guy Reffitt, the first January 6 defendant to stand trial, guilty on all counts.

The Justice Department’s winning streak might be short-lived, however. Prosecutors will have a tougher task with the trial starting Monday for Couy Griffin, the “Cowboys for Trump” leader arrested for his minor and nonviolent involvement in the Capitol protest on January 6.

Griffin was the subject of my very first article over a year ago on the Justice Department’s abusive prosecution of January 6 protesters in which, coincidentally, I asked the rhetorical question, “Where is the outrage over America’s political prisoners?” as official Washington was in a tizzy over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s imprisonment of his country’s star dissident.

Read More

Republicans Focus on Jackson’s Positions on Terrorists, Sex Offenders as Nomination Hearing Opens

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Republicans are stressing the need to closely review Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s record as the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin hearings on Monday for the first black woman nominated to the Supreme Court.

The GOP is already facing accusations of racism from outlets such as the Daily Kos, Slate and Vanity Fair for questioning whether Jackson should be confirmed.

Jackson has been criticized for her vehement defense of terrorism suspects as a public defender. She has also faced concerns over a paper she wrote in the 1990s criticizing “excessiveness” in punishments for sex offenders.

Read More