Average U.S. Gas Price Surges to $4.85 a Gallon

In what has become a seemingly every day occurrence, gas prices rose to a new record high Sunday as the national average approaches $5 a gallon.

Nine states already have surpassed the $5 threshold, and several others are just pennies away.

According to AAA, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline reached $4.85 Sunday, up an additional three cents from Saturday and 24 cents from last week.

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Teachers Explain How They Push ‘Gender Lessons’ on Young Children

Teachers across the country revealed the strategies they use to teach young children about gender ideology in a Friday article published by The Washington Post.

Teachers discussed the various ways they are injecting gender-related discussions into their lessons, including comments about using hormones to stop menstrual periods and declining to state that sexual anatomy is gender-specific, according to The Washington Post. One transgender teacher makes a point of telling students about the process of gender transitions, including with personal testimony.

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Crowd-Funded, Family-Friendly Angel Studios Announces $100M in Original Content

Netflix may be tightening its belt following sour stock news, but Angel Studios is pouring plenty of cash into its content slate.

Angel Studios, the team behind hits like “Dry Bar Comedy” and “The Chosen,” just announced more than $100 million in new original content.

Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon shared details of the announcement with John Solomon on his “Just the News Not Noise” show. The upcoming slate includes the third season of “The Chosen,” a 10th for “Dry Bar Comedy,” and the animated film “David,” based on King David.

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Biden’s Climate Office Is So Dysfunctional Even Leftists Want to Abolish It: Report

Democrats and far-left climate activists have privately complained in recent weeks that the White House climate office is increasingly blocking key priorities, Politico reported.

The White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy has prioritized politics ahead of actual progress on its own climate agenda, nine anonymous Democrats both inside and outside the White House told Politico. Some activists have even suggested that the office, headed by President Joe Biden’s climate czar Gina McCarthy, should be abolished altogether.

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California Court Declares Bees Are Actually Fish

A California appeals court ruled Tuesday that bees can be classified as fish under the state’s Endangered Species Act (CESA) in a blow to agriculture groups.

The Sacramento-based three-judge panel ruled that four species of bumble bees found across California are technically fish since they are invertebrates, according to the decision in a case concerning the species’ protected status that pitted the state government against agriculture groups. The court added that the term fish shouldn’t be confined to “aquatic” invertebrates under the CESA.

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Campus Speech Police Update: One Professor Investigated for Tweet Reclaims Job as Another Loses His

After more than four months in limbo, constitutional law professor Ilya Shapiro has been cleared to take the reins of Georgetown Law’s Center for the Constitution.

The university had placed the libertarian legal scholar on paid leave in January for his clumsily worded “lesser black woman” tweet about President Biden’s pledge to consider only black women in his search for a successor to retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

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Commentary: America’s Recycling Program Failed – and Scarred the Environment

In March 2019, The New York Times ran a shocking story exploring why many prominent US cities were abandoning their recycling programs.

“Philadelphia is now burning about half of its 1.5 million residents’ recycling material in an incinerator that converts waste to energy,” Times business writer Michael Corkery reported. “In Memphis, the international airport still has recycling bins around the terminals, but every collected can, bottle and newspaper is sent to a landfill.”

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As Food Prices Soar with No End in Sight, Americans Change Habits

Americans are changing their shopping habits because of soaring food prices. And disruptions in the international farming community have some worried about the food supply heading into 2023.

The BMO Real Financial Progress Index, a quarterly survey from BMO and Ipsos, shows that 42% of surveyed adults “are changing how they shop for groceries,” including “opting for cheaper items, avoiding brand names and buying only the essentials.”

The report found “46% are either dining out less or consciously spending less when dining out.”

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GOP to Go on Offensive, Portray Jan. 6 Probe as ‘Unconstitutional and Illegitimate’

As Democrats ramp up hearings and secure a second Trump advisor’s arrest for contempt, Republicans are finally launching a counteroffensive to the Jan. 6 committee designed to portray the investigation as “unconstitutional and illegitimate” and to put a focus on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s failures in protecting the Capitol.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., the third ranking lead in the House gave a preview of the strategy during a radio interview with Breitbart News on Saturday.

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Youngkin, Emergency Management Officials Warn of Likely Above-Average Hurricane Season

Governor Glenn Youngkin and top emergency management officials launched hurricane season with a warning about preparedness for Virginians: forecasters expect an above-average season with likely a potential range of six to 10 hurricanes including three to six category three or larger hurricanes.

“I want to encourage Virginians to take the time and prepare now for this coming storm season,” Youngkin said in a press release. “This includes not only our coastal residents but inland Virginians as well. History has proven that our inland communities are just as susceptible to hurricane impacts like flooding, tornadoes, and high winds.”

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Virginia Budget Deal Cuts School Choice Program by More than Half

The Virginia budget deal, which passed both chambers of the General Assembly, would cut funding for a school choice tax credit program by more than half of its current funding.

The Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credits Program provides a 65% tax credit for individuals or businesses who make donations for scholarships to students so they can attend certain private schools and nonpublic preschool programs. Current law caps the state funding for the program at $25 million per year, but a provision in the budget proposal would reduce that cap to only $12 million per year.

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Commentary: The Climate Cult and Their Green Lethargy Future

When I was in Congress, I once went on a fact-finding trip to Pakistan. At the time, the country was being wracked by a terrorist bombing campaign intended, in large part, to destabilize the government of President Pervez Musharraf. What I found, however, was that President Musharraf was facing another threat to his rule.

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California Reparations Report Demands Tree Planting in ‘Black Neighborhoods’ for ‘Shade Equity’

A report on alleged systemic racism released Wednesday and greenlit by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling for the planting of trees statewide “to create shade equity” and reduce “heat islands in black neighborhoods.”

The 500-page report was released after Newsom signed legislation in 2020 forming a nine-member task force to “inform Californians about slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations.” It describes tree demolishing in black neighborhoods for highway construction and says climate change makes these areas hotter.

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Report: Republicans Jockey for Leadership Role as House Expected to Flip

A number of Republican members of Congress are gearing up to launch a bid for GOP whip, should the House flip in November, Politico reported Thursday.

Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks has allegedly called up fellow Republicans in the House to get a picture of the type of support he would have if he made the attempt, three GOP sources told Politico.

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Biden Administration Department of Health and Human Services Announces New Environmental Justice Office

The Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is announcing the creation of a new “Office of Environmental Justice,” meant to focus on so-called “global warming’s” impact on minorities.

As reported by Just The News, the new office will determine ways to “better protect the health of disadvantaged communities and vulnerable populations on the frontlines of pollution and other environmental health issues.”

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New York GOP Rep. Chris Jacobs Will Not Seek Re-Election After Gun Control Support Backlash

New York GOP Rep. Chris Jacobs announced on Friday that he would not seek re-election after his support for an assault weapons ban generated backlash within his own party.

Jacobs announced last week, in the wake of a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., that he would back a federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, according to the New York Times. Jacobs represents the 27th Congressional District of New York, which includes some of the Buffalo suburbs.

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Government Report Admits Dominion Voting Machines Are Vulnerable in 16 States

A government agency has claimed that voting machines used in at least 16 states by an infamous vendor have software vulnerabilities that could compromise them in future elections.

According to ABC News, the report by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) admitted that the machines, provided by Dominion Voting Systems, are susceptible to hacking if the current vulnerabilities are not addressed. The report details at least nine specific weaknesses and suggests several measures to prevent further exploitation of these flaws.

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Del. Dawn Adams: Budget Legalizes Marijuana Retail ‘Straight Up’

Delegate Dawn Adams (D-Richmond) was among a bipartisan group of seven delegates who voted against the budget on Wednesday. Adams criticized the Youngkin administration’s policies for state employees, but focused on language in the budget proposal that fails to adequately regulate THC in retail marijuana.

“We are now legalizing retail marijuana straight up. That’s what we’re doing. It’s just we’re going to call it hemp. And you can call it hemp, but it’s marijuana, and specifically until you have regulations, that does of marijuana that is now legal in retail stores can be anything as long as they put it on the package,” Adams, a nurse practitioner, said in a speech to the House of Delegates.

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‘A Source of Concern’: Jobs Growth Stalls, Unemployment Rises in May

The U.S. economy added 390,000 jobs in May while the unemployment rate was largely unchanged at 3.6%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.

The number of unemployed people ticked up slightly to about 6 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report. Economists projected 328,000 Americans would be added to payrolls prior to Friday’s report, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Commentary: Yes, They’re Coming for Your Guns

handgun with ammo

Perhaps, like me, you’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that the un-American Left is ignorant of many things. But then they open their mouths and remove all doubt. 

The most recent example comes from the gaping maw of Elie Mystal on MSNBC, where he claimed that, like everything else in this country apparently, the Second Amendment is the creation of long-dead, racist white supremacists who supported it for the sole purpose of putting down slave revolts keeping the enslaved populations in bondage. Of course, there is as much “truth” to that as there is in the 1619 Project. Progressives use such revisionist history to discredit the founders so that they can dismantle the founders’ republic.

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Congressman: Baby Formula Stocked at Border for Migrants ‘Like a Costco’

On a trip to visit the United States-Mexico border this week, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) said he saw well-stocked warehouses with a variety of supplies including baby formula.

The facility for unaccompanied minors and families in Donna, Texas is stocked high “like a Costco” with baby formula, Carter said in a Thursday interview with Fox News.

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COVID Restrictions Stunted Kids’ Immune Systems, Could Explain Surge of Other Illnesses: Scientists

For two years and counting, the scientific and medical establishments have urged Americans at all risk levels to limit their exposure to the microbial world to effectively reduce the spread of COVID-19, rather than focus on protecting the vulnerable.

The unexpected surge of other pathogens starting last summer, however, has challenged the wisdom of frequent sanitizing, social distancing, remote work and education, and routine mask-wearing, especially applied to children.

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White House Slowly Imploding over Biden’s Lackluster Messaging: Report

Staffers in President Joe Biden’s White House are struggling to control public messaging and gain ground in the media amid internal dysfunction, according to a CNN report.

Tensions have arisen between older staffers and younger aides over media strategies, and staff believe they are unable to improve Biden’s public image or change their strategy, according to CNN. Staffers described conflict and frustration within the White House over their inability to put forward an effective communications strategy, CNN reported, citing multiple anonymous staff members.

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Commentary: Onshoring Semiconductor Capacity Is Crucial to National Security

semiconductor

When you think about national security, you probably don’t immediately think about semiconductors. These tiny chips are the “brains” enabling all the computational capabilities and data storage that we take for granted today. Chips power virtually every sector of the economy – including data centers, automotive, healthcare, banking, and agriculture. As a consequence of their widespread use, semiconductors have grown to become a $555 billion global industry, and are the world’s fourth most traded product. Semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging have been cited frequently as one of the main critical supply chain priorities for the nation.

A steady source of uninterrupted, trusted chips is necessary for the security of the nation – supporting the readiness of the U.S. military and protecting critical infrastructure like the electric grid. The problem is that most chips are fabricated outside of the U.S., in the vulnerable region of Southeast Asia – hence the security issues. Around three quarters of global chip production capacity comes from Southeast Asia.

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Music Spotlight: Michael Shaw

NASHVILLE, Tennessee- After interviewing nearly 200 artists, you think I would learn not to be surprised when I delve into someone’s “How they got to Nashville” story, but hearing country-western singer/songwriter Michael Shaw’s story even stunned me.

Michael Shaw was born in Indiana but remembers growing up in Kentucky and Michigan, and later, Ohio.

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Polls: Youngkin Has Positive Job Approval, Biden Approval Declining

Governor Glenn Youngkin has net positive job approval in two polls released Friday. A Roanoke College poll has the governor at 53 percent approval and 35 percent disapproval while a Public Policy Polling survey has him at 43 percent approval, 34 percent disapproval.

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David McCormick Concedes Pennsylvania GOP Senate Primary to Dr. Oz

Pennsylvania GOP Senate candidate and hedge fund CEO David McCormick on Friday conceded the race to his Trump-backed opponent, reality star Dr. Mehmet Oz.

McCormick on Friday announced that he had called Oz to concede the race after it became clear he would lose the extremely tight race, per the Associated Press. The race is still going through an automatic recount.

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Justice: Trump Trade Adviser Navarro Indicted for Contempt After Denying January 6 Panel Subpoena

The Justice Department said Friday a grand jury has indicted former Trump administration trade adviser Peter Navarro on contempt charges in connection with his failure to comply with a subpoena from the Democrat-led House committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The federal grand jury has indicted Navarro on two counts of contempt, according to the department.

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‘I Was Wrong’: Biden’s Treasury Sec Admits She Bungled Inflation Prediction

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted she was wrong in the past about her inflation predictions during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” Yellen told Blitzer Thursday on “The Situation Room” in response to 2021 comments where she claimed inflation would be “a small risk.”

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Study Reveals Increased Health Risks for Women Who Keep Secret Their Drug-Induced Abortions, as Urged to Do by Abortion Activists

A new study reveals that women and girls who use drugs to induce abortions are exposed to increased health risks when they suffer complications, including admissions for surgeries and further hospital admissions, when they deceive doctors by saying they have suffered a “natural miscarriage” instead of having chosen a drug-induced abortion.

Last week, the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, released the study, titled “A Post Hoc Exploratory Analysis: Induced Abortion Complications Mistaken for Miscarriage in the Emergency Room Are a Risk Factor for Hospitalization.”

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Commentary: Trumpology

Donald Trump has signaled he will announce his presidential intentions after the November midterm elections. Yet his record of endorsements is quite mixed. By the sheer numbers of winning primary candidates his stamp of approval is impressive, but in a few of the most important races, not so much. 

The disaster that is the Biden Administration has been a godsend for Trump. Had Biden simply plagiarized the successful Trump agenda, there would have followed no border disaster, no energy crisis, no hyperinflation, and no disastrous flight from Afghanistan. 

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City of Richmond Officials, Casino Developers Threaten Legal Action After General Assembly Blocks 2022 Casino Referendum

The recently-passed Fiscal Year 2023-2024 budget includes language blocking the City of Richmond from holding another casino referendum until November 2023. Richmond officials have called for a 2022 referendum after voters rejected a casino in 2021, but Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) is instead pushing for Petersburg to be granted a casino license, and on Thursday afternoon, Richmond officials and the casino developers suggested they were considering legal action.

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New Election Integrity Fears: Georgia County Ballot Machines Off by Thousands When Hand Counted

The Democratic primary for a Georgia county has been called into question after a hand count revealed the voting machines were off by thousands of ballots.

Marshall Orson, a Democratic DeKalb County school board member running for the county commission, asked the local elections board on Thursday to not certify the results as scheduled on Friday due to “numerous issues” with the race.

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Border Enforcement Chief Celebrates Pride Month at DHS as Illegal Immigration Hits Record High

The Department of Homeland Security celebrated Pride Month on Wednesday with an LGBTQI+ flag-raising ceremony, while Border Patrol agents are encountering record numbers of illegal migrants.

“While initially a holiday to honor the 1969 Stonewall uprising in response to police harassment and persecution of LGBTQI+ citizens, today’s celebrations include pride parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts,” Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Christopher Magnus wrote in an email to Border Patrol agents, obtained by Just the News.

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Commentary: Biden Must Condemn Violence Threat to Supreme Court

Last week 19 children and their two teachers were slaughtered in a Texas classroom, one week after 10 grocery store shoppers were gunned down in New York because of the color of their skin. We are drowning in violence that comes unexpectedly, but with depressing regularity.

Before the U.S. Supreme Court completes its term this month, it is expected to release a decision that will eviscerate Roe v. Wade, and there is already evidence that the response is likely to turn violent. Government officials have warned us that extremists on both sides of the charged abortion debate are threatening harm to the nine justices, the building itself, staff, and protestors. The decision is coming, the violence is expected.

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VA-10 GOP Nominee Hung Cao: Focus on Economy and National Security

GOP nominee for Virginia’s tenth congressional district Hung Cao said his top priorities if he’s elected to Congress will be the economy and national security.

“We have to stabilize this economy. This is spiraling out of control,” Cao told The Virginia Star. “We have to cut spending. This is not just about my kids and your kids, but our grand kids and our great grand kids. This is going to resonate for years.”

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Report: Tennessee Statewide Testing Scores Will Not Be Counted into Students’ Final Grades

Tennessee Education Report noted in a report Tuesday that school districts apparently have been informed by the Tennessee Department of Education that TNReady statewide testing scores for third, fourth, and fifth grade were incorrect for several schools and had to be rescored – but not in time to be counted toward students’ final grades.

“Sure, the state pays in excess of $100 million for the test and yes, teachers are evaluated based on the results, but the test is a colossal waste of time year after year after year,” wrote Andy Spears as he provided announcements from several districts about the failure of TNReady testing to contribute to students’ final grades.

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Biden Proposal to Surrender U.S. Health Sovereignty to World Health Organization Dealt Stunning Defeat

The Biden administration was dealt a stunning blow at the World Health Assembly (WHA) last week in its attempt to push through 13 amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) that would hand over U.S. decision-making power over healthcare policies to the World Health Organization (WHO).

At the WHA in Geneva, Switzerland, Biden’s proposed amendments – which it quietly sent to the WHO in January – received hearty support from nations such as the United Kingdom and Australia, as well as from the European Union (EU) – all of which urged nation member-states of the WHO to surrender their healthcare sovereignty to the global health agency of the United Nations.

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Virginia House, Senate Pass Fiscal Year 2023 Budget Compromise

RICHMOND, Virginia — The Republican-controlled House of Delegates and the Democrat-controlled Senate finally sent a budget compromise for Fiscal Year 2023 beginning July 1 to Governor Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday, but while leaders from both parties praised the budget, individual Democrats and Republicans criticized the compromise for problems ranging from no gas tax holiday to cuts on mental health resources.

House Appropriations Chair Barry Knight (R-Virginia Beach) told delegates, “It’s been a long haul, but I believe the result is a fiscally sound, bipartisan budget we can all be proud of.”

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Punishing Pennsylvania, Liberating Virginia

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfe and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are moving their states in opposite directions.

Gov. Youngkin is focused on lowering the cost of living and improving Virginia’s appeal as a place to do business. Boeing’s recent announcement that it is moving from Illinois to Virginia is an example of his efforts. Youngkin’s aggressive pro-jobs push led CNBC to call Virginia the No. 1 state in the country for business.

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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre: Greater School Security Not Something Biden ‘Believes In’ Since ‘The Problem Is with Guns’

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday Joe Biden has no interest in Republican proposals that focus on “hardening schools,” i.e., installing greater security and safety measures, because “the problem is with guns.”

Asked if she could elaborate on Biden’s promise to meet with members of Congress on new gun laws, Jean-Pierre said  gun violence is an “epidemic” across the country.

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Commentary: Clinton’s Plot Came Closer to Succeeding Than January 6 Ever Did

Kevin Clinesmith must feel like an idiot for pleading guilty without a trial after a D.C.-area jury acquitted Clinton co-conspirator Michael Sussman for his role in the plot to frame Donald Trump for colluding with the Russians, supposedly to steal the 2016 election. Sussman’s D.C.-based jury which featured partisan Democrat donors rendered a quick “not-guilty” verdict. While the Left undoubtedly sees the acquittal as another “lawfare” victory against the bad orange man, that victory did not come without cost to its enabling allies. 

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Biden Admin Gives Big Handout to Solar, Wind Projects as Gas Prices Soar

The Biden administration unveiled a policy Tuesday evening making it cheaper for green energy developers to build and maintain projects on federal lands.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the federal government would reduce rents and fees charged for wind and solar projects on public lands during a roundtable Tuesday with U.S. and state officials in Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) expects the policy to reduce rents and fees by more than 50% when implemented.

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Top-Ranking Senate Republicans Demand Answers on Royalty Payments to NIH Employees

Five Republican senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are demanding answers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) about royalty payments made by third parties to NIH employees.

In a letter Wednesday to NIH Director Lawrence Tabak, the senators noted that “the agency has taken no action to disclose such payments to the public at large.”

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Quarter of Americans Will Delay Retirement Because of Inflation, Survey Says

Millions of Americans say the likely will have to push back their retirement because of rising inflation, newly released financial survey data found.

The BMO Real Financial Progress Index, a quarterly survey from BMO and Ipsos, showed that a quarter of Americans will likely need to delay their retirement because of higher prices.

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