Data Show Public Sector Union Membership In Decline in the United States

Data available from state and local government payroll records – not readily available to the public – show “substantially steeper declines in public-sector union membership” in the United States.

“The best data available are state- and local-government payroll records,” Daniel DiSalvo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote at City Journal Wednesday.

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Radical Illinois School District Curriculum Will Teach Children as Young as 4 Years Old About Ending ‘Gender Binary’ System Created by White ‘Colonizers’

The Evanston-Skokie School District 65 will teach children as young as four years of age to celebrate the transgender flag, to try on different pronouns, and that the “gender binary” created by white “colonizers,” based on male and female sex, must be broken.

Education researcher Chris Rufo obtained the curriculum documents, which he published at City Journal last week.

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Americans for Limited Government Urges Congress to Defund Biden’s Plan for ‘Disinformation Governance Board’

Americans for Limited Government, an organization that supports reducing the size and scope of government, urged Congress to defund a portion of the federal code that allows President Biden to create a “Disinformation Governance Board.”

Biden created the new board under the Department of Homeland Security and claims it will focus on misinformation about the Southern border, while preparing for Russian disinformation threats.

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Commentary: Too Many Republicans Want Endless War in Ukraine

Former President Donald Trump issued a plea for peace last week. “It doesn’t make sense that Russia and Ukraine aren’t sitting down and working out some kind of an agreement,” Trump said in a statement on the war in Ukraine.

“If they don’t do it soon, there will be nothing left but death, destruction, and carnage,” he added. “This is a war that never should have happened, but it did. The solution can never be as good as it would have been before the shooting started, but there is a solution, and it should be figured out now—not later—when everyone will be DEAD!”

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Fifth Annual Tennessee Motorcycles and Music Revival Returns to Loretta Lynn’s Ranch

The Tennessee Motorcycles and Music Revival (TMMR) is a unique, four-day event held in central Tennessee that’s all about motorcycles, music, comradery, and the outdoors. It will be held at the majestic 3,500-acre Loretta Lynn’s ranch and campground just an hour west of Nashville on held May 19 – 22 and will be the first big event to take place at Loretta Lynn’s ranch since the catastrophic floods from last August. TMMR is presented by Harley-Davidson® and produced in partnership by the Loretta Lynn family and R&R Promotions, a specialty agency with decades of motorcycle event promotions and deep ties in the national motorcycle family.

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Law Enforcement: Border Patrol Agents Have Lost Operational Control, Awareness at Border

While Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims the southern border is secure and he has a plan in place for increased surges, those in law enforcement say the opposite is true. Not only have Border Patrol agents lost operational control of the border, they’ve also lost operational awareness and have no idea who is coming through, current and former Border Patrol agents told The Center Square.

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Ranking Oversight Republican Says GOPers Are ‘Having Discussions’ About Impeaching Joe Biden, Calls Hunter a ‘National Security Threat’

The ranking Republican on the House oversight Committee said Thursday that Hunter Biden is a “national security threat” amid mounting evidence that Joe Biden was complicit in his son’s corrupt foreign business dealings. Amid concerns that the president is dangerously compromised, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that Republicans are “having discussions” about impeaching him if they win the House majority in November.

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Biden Admin Looks to Gut Chinese Tariffs in Latest Attempt to Shift Inflation Blame

The Biden administration is mulling removing U.S. tariffs on Chinese “non-strategic” goods in an effort to ease inflation, a move critics said would do little to alleviate the current crisis.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with inflation,” Nick Iacovella, senior vice president of Public Affairs and Communications at the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “Janet Yellen is a very intelligent person and I am almost certain that she knows that removing China tariffs will have no impact on inflation.”

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Report: Over Half of Colleges Encourage Students to Snitch on Each Other

Over half of the U.S.’s private and public colleges encourage students to snitch on each other, according to a report released Monday by a free speech non-profit.

Of the 821 higher education institutions surveyed, 56% of them are reported to have some form of a “Bias Reporting System” (BRS), according to the report from Speech First (SF), a free speech member organization. The report surveyed 441 private schools, or 23% of all private four year colleges in the U.S. and 380 public schools, or 49% of the country’s four-year public universities.

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Federal Court Deals Another Crushing Blow to Biden Admin’s Immigration Order

A federal judge ordered the Biden administration Wednesday to fully implement Title 42 for the next 14 days, the latest setback in the administration’s efforts to end the public health policy.

Louisiana Judge Robert R. Summerhays issued the order in Arizona’s case against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) decision to end Title 42, which is used to quickly expel certain migrants during the pandemic. The order requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to continue enforcing the policy, and prevents the agency from implementing the CDC’s order to terminate the program.

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Commentary: America’s Future Depends on the Bioeconomy

If the coronavirus pandemic exposed the fragility of our supply chains, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has laid bare the precarious state of global food security. While inflation and sanctions on Russia have pushed up the price of food and fuel, the latest U.N. climate report provides a further urgent warning to change the status quo for the sake of our planet. It claims that global CO2 emissions must peak by 2025 to avoid catastrophic effects.

But there is an alternative to the uncomfortable choice between economic sacrifice, moral compromise, and ecological ruin. It’s called the bioeconomy, and it has the potential to address the existential challenges posed by climate change, global pandemics, and growing economic inequity. Imagine bio-based antiviral face masks, or carbon-neutral cement produced in facilities located in America’s former industrial hubs.

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Lt. Gov. Earle-Sears Kicks Off 2022 RPV Advance with Stories from Her First General Assembly Session

HERNDON, Virginia – Republican Party of Virginia faithful are gathered at a Hilton outside Washington, D.C., to build on the momentum of their 2021 wins and help their 2022 congressional candidates. Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears kicked off the Advance on Friday at a reception held by the Virginia Federation of Republican Women.

Earle-Sears regaled the crowd with stories from the recent General Assembly session. Governor Glenn Youngkin once confused Senator Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) with Senator Mamie Locke (D-Hampton,) leading Lucas to rib Youngkin about it on Twitter.

“And then a curious thing happened: I started mixing her up with Mamie,” Earle-Sears said to laughter. “I would call, ‘The Senator from Hampton, Senator Lucas.’ They got mad.”

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Virginia Senate Blocks Youngkin Effort to Force Whole Loudoun School Board to Run Again

The Virginia Senate defeated Governor Glenn Youngkin’s effort to require the entire Loudoun County School Board to run for re-election this year. Youngkin had amended Delegate David Reid’s (D-Loudoun) HB 1138, originally created to facilitate beginning a staggered election cycle for the various seats on the board. Earlier in April, Youngkin amended that bill, after broad Republican outrage over the district administration’s handling of sexual assaults and school equity initiatives.

In debate during Wednesday’s veto session, Reid warned about the precedent set by allowing the governor to shorten elected officials’ terms.

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Commentary: Tearing Down the Silicon Valley Wall

Elon Musk has finally managed to buy Twitter. And the moment he did, the enraged Left flipped out. 

Abruptly leftists began trashing their favorite electronic communications platform as the domain of the nation’s elite, professional classes. Had they just discovered that they had been racists and privileged users all this time? 

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LinkTree Cancels LibsOfTiktok After WaPo Doxxing

One of the most popular right-wing Twitter accounts Wednesday said that it has been banned from using an online link-sharing service.

“Linktree just deleted my account citing ‘inappropriate use of this service,'” said Twitter account LibsOfTikTok. “When I try to log in it says my account is no longer accessible. Why am I suddenly being censored?”

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Commentary: The Presidential Candidate Menu for Democrats in 2024 Churns the Stomach

“I’m not sure, I think I need a couple more minutes to decide.”

We’ve all been in a restaurant scenario where, once the party is seated, the server makes repeated visits to the table and one or more members of the group equivocates and stonewalls on what to order, sending the poor waiter or waitress schlepping back to obscurity due to someone’s indecision or just plain laziness. After a couple semi-desperate attempts to pin down the holdout(s), he or she then gives up asking and doesn’t return until beckoned to do so by an impatient leader of the hungry contingent. Essentially, everyone waits while one or two souls deliberate.

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Talk Radio’s ‘Godzilla of Truth’ John Fredericks on Attack

Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed radio talk show host John Fredericks ‘The Godzilla of Truth’ about how his show is different from other shows just after he hosted an April town meeting with Pennsylvania GOP hopeful, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

‘A lot of my competitors go in a studio, they bring them the paper, somebody brings them a hot chocolate with whipped cream on it. Then they have a coach there, they have a studio, it’s all comfortable, air-conditioned,’ Fredericks said.

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Commentary: They’re Paneling Paradise to Put Up Solar – A Lot

The pathway to a green future involves taking millions of acres of pristine wilderness and turning them into fields of windmills and hot expanses of glistening panels.

The Biden administration’s goal of supplying 40% of the nation’s energy from the sun by 2035 means covering millions of acres of forest and desert habitat with vast solar panel installations fenced off like prisons. It would require 8,800 square miles of land, or 5.6 million acres, to generate that power (leaving out small installations on buildings and the like) — about the size of Rhode Island and Massachusetts combined.

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Biden’s DHS Sets Up Orwellian ‘Disinformation Governance Board’

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced on Wednesday that the Department of Homeland Security has set up a new board designed to counter what it deems to be “misinformation and disinformation” threatening the homeland.

The “Disinformation Governance Board” that will be tasked with patrolling the speech of Americans, will reportedly be headed by “disinformation expert” Nina Jankowicz, a fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington who formerly worked as an advisor to the Ukrainian government.

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Virginia State Sen. Reeves Wants GOP Nomination to Restore Congress to Regular Order, Support Military, and Limit Spending

State Senator Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) is running for the GOP nomination for Virginia’s seventh congressional district. Reeves said his experience in the General Assembly gives him the skills needed to enact his priorities: bringing Congress back to following the traditional legislative process, limiting spending, and making sure the military has necessary resources.

“I’d like to see us get back to regular order. I think it’s important for the country that Congress get back to a regular budget, not just a continuing resolution, on funding. We’ve got to get to where we have what’s called a single object rule, which means we can’t have these three- and five-thousand page bills where everything’s stacked into one thing,” Reeves told The Virginia Star.

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Veto Day: Youngkin’s Vetoes Stand, but Senate Blocks Gas Tax Holiday and Some Amendments to Legislation

RICHMOND, Virginia – The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted to kill Governor Glenn Youngkin’s gas tax holiday proposal, launching the General Assembly’s veto session. Later in the day legislators spent hours voting on Youngkin’s various amendments and vetoes to their legislation.

Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) spoke against the gas tax holiday bill, and said that the phased gas tax increases in 2020 were part of a bipartisan effort to provide long term transportation funding solutions.

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Pro-Life Group Banned from TikTok After Viral Video Depicts Leader Confronting Woke Student with Her ‘Unscientific’ Pro-Abortion Logic

The nation’s largest organization of pro-life youth was censored by social media platform TikTok Monday after a video depicting Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins challenging a woke college student with the actual scientific facts about abortion went viral.

Hawkins called on TikTok to open the process for getting pro-life speech back on the app that contains significant abortion-related content.

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Bank of America Shareholders Band Together Against Company’s ‘Woke’ Practices

A group of shareholders in America’s largest bank has banded together to fight against the company’s “woke” policies.

Members of a group called The Boardroom Initiative issued a shareholder proposal that rebuked some of Bank of America’s “wokeness,” and though the proposal was shot down, members of the group remained upbeat.

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Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt Signs Bill Banning Nonbinary Gender Markers on Birth Certificates

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed a bill into law Tuesday that ensures only “male” and “female” gender options are offered on birth certificates issued in the state.

According to Fox 13 News, Oklahoma is the first state to write a ban on nonbinary gender markers on birth certificates into law.

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Commentary: Impeach Mayorkas

It is clear that the Biden Administration has no intention of doing anything to stop the 15-month invasion by millions of illegal migrants at the southern border. In March, border apprehensions reached 221,000—a 22-year high.  With the impending end of Title 42, the regulation that keeps people out under conditions of pandemic, the administration has figured out how to exacerbate the crisis. When Title 42 expires on May 23, we will have a surge of migrants (who can put together the $6,000 to $8,000 needed to pay cartels) overwhelming the southern border. 

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Wisconsin 2020 Election Investigation to Continue

Robin Vos

The investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 election won’t end until lawmakers are certain about the legal authority to issue subpoenas by the state’s special investigator.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Tuesday issued a statement explaining why he is extending former Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman’s special investigation once again.

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Citizens United Doc ‘Rigged’ Knocks Zuckerberg’s Election-Skewing Nonprofits Out of 2022 Midterms

Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed David Bossie, the president and founder of Citizens United, about his new documentary ‘Rigged.’

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Newly-Revealed Email Reveals That Joe Biden Paid Hunter’s Legal Bills over Chinese Firm Deal

On Tuesday, an old email resurfaced that directly implicated Joe Biden in his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings, with the elder Biden agreeing to pay over $800,000 in bills and legal fees as a result of Hunter shutting down most of his deals ahead of the 2020 election.

As reported by the New York Post, the email in question was sent on January 17th, 2019, by Hunter’s personal assistant at the time, Katie Dodge. The email, which included a detailed spreadsheet outlining the various debts, was sent to accountant Linda Shapero, founder of the Virginia-based firm Global DEEZ.

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Biden’s NIH May Have Colluded with University of Pittsburgh to Downplay Experiments on Babies

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) appears to have colluded with the University of Pittsburgh (UP) to dispel public outrage over its research on human fetal remains, including those obtained through abortions, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Dr. Jeremy Berg, associate senior vice chancellor for science strategy and planning in the health sciences at UP, asked then-director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Francis Collins for help in combatting negative media coverage in October 2021 after its experiments on human fetal remains were made public through a FOIA request. The NIH then arranged a meeting with UP to discuss the matter, emails revealed.

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Commentary: The Kansas-Missouri Border War Isn’t Over

Missouri and Kansas are no strangers to border conflict. No, we’re not talking about the chaos that inspired “The Outlaw Josey Wales.” The fear today is over cross-border job poachers. However, that doesn’t justify giving Fidelity Security Life Insurance $12.7 million just to stay inside Kansas City. No one gets a gold medal in a race to the bottom — but politicians will waste endless taxpayer dollars trying to tell you that they’re “winning.”

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Pro-Life Activists March with Youngkin

RICHMOND, Virginia – Pro-life advocates rallied outside the Virginia capitol on Wednesday, the same day legislators returned to the capitol to consider Governor Glenn Youngkin’s changes to their legislation. Several Republican General Assembly members joined the rally, and Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears spoke to the crowd.

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Progressive Wing of Virginia Democrat House Ousts Filler-Corn as Minority Leader

The highest-ranking member in the Democrat Party’s House of Delegates was ousted in an effort led by the progressive wing of her own party.

“I thank the people of Virginia and my colleagues in the House of Delegates for allowing me to serve as the first woman and first person of Jewish faith to serve as Speaker in the 403-year history of our Commonwealth — truly the honor of my life,” Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said. “I was proud of all that we accomplished after taking the majority in 2019 and was willing to step up as Minority Leader once more to regain that majority. Our caucus is made up of 48 talented and diverse individuals and I look forward to working with them to retake the majority.”

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Miyares Honors Victims’ Advocates, Commemorates National Crime Victims’ Rights Week

RICHMOND, Virginia – Attorney General Jason Miyares honored eight people for their service to crime victims in the fifth annual Unsung Heroes Award Ceremony on Tuesday. The ceremony was one of several stops Miyares is making this week in a tour commemorating National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.

Miyares said a business owner once told him, “It’s really easy to wash away graffiti. It’s really hard to wash away fear.”

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Private Christian Baylor University Launches ‘Official’ LGBTQ Students Group While Side Group Pushes Radical Agenda

Baylor University has established an “official” group for LGBTQ students who say they require “safety,” “support,” and “resources,” though a longstanding “unofficial” group will continue to push its radical agenda inconsistent with the private Christian school’s biblical values.

“I feel like the administration got a better idea of the queer experience on campus and I feel like the students were able to get a better idea of the administration’s intentions,” said Lor Duncan, co-president of the new group called Prism, reflecting on the university’s decision to conduct “listening sessions” with students throughout the last semester.

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Commentary: Reaction to Musk Offer Suggests Content Moderation More About Control Than Safety

The reaction among the press and tech communities to Elon Musk’s efforts to purchase Twitter has been nothing short of apocalyptic. A common theme has been that democracy itself would be under threat if unelected billionaire oligarchs controlled what was allowed online. Yet this is precisely how social media works today. The Musk controversy, like the Cambridge Analytica story before it, highlights the real issue: the fight over content moderation is less about online safety and more about who controls the digital public square.

Only a year ago, the media cheered the unilateral decisions by a handful of billionaires to effectively banish then-President Donald Trump from the digital public square. Lawmakers and media outlets alike proclaimed the societal benefits of private companies controlling the digital public square beyond the reach of government. In contrast, the possibility of a libertarian-leaning billionaire like Musk wielding that same power has been presented as nothing short of an attack on democracy itself.

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Youngkin Announces DCJS Funds to Reimburse Public Schools for Creating Detailed Digital Maps for First Responders

Governor Glenn Youngkin announced $6.5 million in funding to support a digital mapping project of public schools for used by administration and first responders in emergencies. In the Monday evening announcement, Youngkin also touted his recent approval of Delegate Rob Bell’s (R-Albemarle) HB 741, which requires detailed floor plans to be included in already-required public school safety audits.

“This legislation and the Digital Mapping Program for Virginia K–12 Schools will help ensure the safety of all students, staff, and visitors who enter our schools,” Youngkin said in a press release. “It will likewise promote the safety of the brave men and women who keep our children safe.”

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U.S. Supreme Court Hears Arguments in ‘Remain in Mexico’ Lawsuit

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a major immigration case, one of several key legal battles working their way through the federal judicial system as illegal immigration soars.

In Biden v. Texas, the attorneys general of Missouri and Texas sued after the Biden administration ended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

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Commentary: Our Spanish Civil War

From 1936 to 1939, the civil war in Spain became a European laboratory of new tactics, strategies, logistics, wartime morality, and weapons. Right-wing nationalists under General Francisco Franco finally defeated loyal supporters of an evolutionary socialist republic—but only after much of the Western world had variously weighed in.

The cost to the Spanish people of such brutal and vicious strife was horrific. Over 500,000 Spaniards would die in a little over two-and-a-half years. The country was left in shambles.

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Report: House Republicans to Impeach Mayorkas If They Retake the Majority

Reports have emerged that Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives is planning to impeach Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in the event that they retake the majority in November’s midterm elections.

According to Axios, plans to impeach Mayorkas are already being laid out by the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest conservative coalition in the House, with over 150 members. On Monday, an open letter was sent to Mayorkas that was signed by 133 members of the RSC, including Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Brian Babin (R-Texas.), co-chair of the Border Security Caucus; although the letter did not mention impeachment, it nevertheless made the case by listing a number of complaints that the group has about Mayorkas’ open-borders and mass amnesty approach to immigration.

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Harvard to Shell Out $100 Million to ‘Redress’ Its ‘Legacies with Slavery’

Harvard University will allocate $100 million to study and address its history with slavery, according to a Tuesday announcement from the university’s president.

The university released a report from the Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery and announced a $100 million fund to implement the report’s recommendations, according to an announcement from President Larry Bacow. The report listed numerous recommendations including how Harvard “can redress” its “legacies with slavery” through teaching, research and service.

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Analysis: Professors and Media Tout Powerful COVID-Killing Technology

Near the top of its home page, the New York Times has published an essay by three professors about a “highly effective” technology to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in “high-risk environments” like nursing homes and places prone to “superspreader events.” Based on more than 500 hours of research, the institute Just Facts identified the same technology in September 2021 and promoted it to scholars, public officials, journalists, and commentators. However, most of them ignored the research while big tech suppressed it, thus costing countless lives.

The technology, called ultraviolet air disinfection, has been proven to stop the spread of contagious respiratory diseases in settings like schools and hospitals for more than 80 years. It is so effective that when it was used in a wing of a California VA hospital during the Asian influenza epidemic of 1958—not a single patient caught the disease. In contrast, the epidemic struck the other wing of the same hospital “with explosive force,” producing a “severe, prostrating illness” among 19% of the patients.

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Music Spotlight: Dakota Poorman

From Maple Valley, Washington, 29-year-old singer/songwriter Dakota Poorman is a breath of fresh air in the stale pop-country atmosphere.

As a child he recalls, “I really loved music. I was bathed in a very eclectic taste in music. I listened to Bob Seger, John Fogerty, Pink Floyd, The Doors, the Eagles, and even Patsy Cline and Muddy Waters. I was exposed to a ton of great music back when music was music and had meaning.”

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U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Reverse Appellate Court Decision Allowing Thomas Jefferson High School to Use Controversial Admissions Policy

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition that would have reversed an appellate court’s decision that is allowing Thomas Jefferson (TJ) High School for Science and Technology to continue using its controversial admissions policy for the incoming freshman class.

After the court’s Monday anouncement, Fairfax County Public Schools praised the decision in a statement.

“We continue to believe our new plan for TJ admissions is merit-based and race-blind,” Fairfax County School Board Chair Stella Pekarsky said. “We are confident that after considering the facts and the law, the appeals court will decide that our plan meets all the legal requirements and guarantees every qualified student will have the chance of being admitted to the finest public science and technology high school in the country.”

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Running for Congress, PWC Supervisor Yesli Vega Wants to Focus on Border Security, Government Spending, and the Labor Shortage

Prince William County Supervisor Yesli Vega was inspired to be a law enforcement officer after a friend was killed and her brother was injured, victims of an MS-13 gang initiation, and she wants to bring an immigration-focused law-and-order approach if she’s elected to Congress. She’s seeking the GOP nomination in the seventh congressional district.

She shared her top priorities with The Virginia Star: “First and foremost, it’s immigration and border security.”

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Commentary: The 25th Amendment Won’t Fix Our Biden Problem

Joe Biden waving on a stage

Despite widespread concern about his cognitive health, President Biden won’t be removed from office pursuant to the 25th Amendment. It would require an unlikely display of integrity from his Vice President and Cabinet, plus an implausible level of bipartisanship in Congress. Moreover, the claims of politicians and pundits aside, the involuntary ouster of an unfit president isn’t the purpose of the amendment. Its principal function is to guarantee that the executive branch of the government is at all times led by an official who is conscious and able to communicate. Thus, the first 3 of its 4 sections focus on keeping the presidency continuously occupied.

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