Month: August 2022

Commentary: It’s Time to Take Down the Cult of Climate Change for Good

Admin

When you look at climate alarmists, there are really only two options: they either don’t know what they’re talking about, or they’re lying.

The “Little Boy Who Cried ‘Wolf’”-like cries of “existential threats” brought on by climate change would be hilarious, if it wasn’t for the disastrous impact from misguided actions to “fix” the problem. However, the fable about a youngster fabricating an emergency time and again isn’t that far off from today’s climate-change evangelists; they both need to recognize their stories are quickly losing credibility.

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Teachers’ Union Suggests Summer Reading About Kneeling for the National Anthem

Admin

The country’s largest teachers’ union suggested a book about kneeling for the national anthem as part of its August 2022 summer reading list, according to its website.

The National Education Association (NEA) listed the book “Why We Fly” by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal, which features marijuana use and tells of two girls on the cheerleading squad who take a knee for the national anthem after being inspired by a football star protesting in the media, according to the website. Discussion questions and related resources on athlete activism are also provided by the NEA to pair with the reading.

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Unclaimed Property Becomes Revenue for Some States

The Center Square

Some states are making money from unclaimed property that people may not know the states have. 

South Dakota is one of the few states that send profits from abandoned property to their general budget. About 3% of the state’s general fund revenues come from unclaimed property, according to state budget officials. Some states, including Wyoming and Wisconsin, hold on to the property indefinitely. 

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Al Franken Endorses Liz Cheney, Quips It Will ‘Carry a Lot of Weight’ with Wyoming GOP

Admin

Former Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken endorsed Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney for reelection ahead of the primary this week.

“I’ve decided to endorse @RepLizCheney for the Republican nomination for the House seat In Wyoming it’s my first time endorsing in a GOP primary. But I think Al Franken’s support will carry a lot of weight with WY Republicans,” the former senator wrote Saturday in a tweet that garnered more than 100,000 likes, 12,000 retweets and 14,000 comments.

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Commentary: China Is Infiltrating Kids’ Video Games with Propaganda and Spyware

Admin

While many are rightfully concerned about the growing influence of video-based social media platform TikTok and the Chinese government’s ability to harvest incredible amounts of user data from it, China’s largest social media and video game studio, Tencent, has quietly been acquiring a commanding stake in the most popular video game companies around the world, and no one has seemed to notice.

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Ashley Judd Found Mother Alive After She Shot Herself, Court Papers Say

Admin

Ashley Judd found her mother, Naomi Judd, alive after she shot herself, according to a court filing from the family as part of an effort to stop documents from being released about Naomi’s death.

Judd’s husband, Larry Strickland, and her daughters Ashley and Wynonna Judd filed a petition on Friday in Williamson County Chancery Court in Tennessee. The family argued that records from Judd’s death investigation would cause “significant trauma and irreparable harm” if they are released, according to The Tennessean.

The family asked for all video and audio evidence as well as personal medical information and police reports to be kept private.

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Four Alleged Cartel Members Charged with Sending Money to China for Fentanyl Production

Admin
Fentanyl

Four alleged cartel members were charged in connection with an international money laundering operation that involved sending funds to China to produce fentanyl.

The four New Jersey men, William Panzera, 49, Thomas Padovano, 48, Bartholomew Padovano, 71, and Sean Tighe, 46, were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of New Jersey Wednesday, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

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Anti-ESG Fund Rakes in Millions After Two Days on the Market

Admin

Strive Asset Management’s anti-activist, energy exchange-traded fund (ETF) raked in over $60 million in funds in its first two days of trading, according to the company’s website.

Strive’s U.S. energy index fund ($DRLL), which invests heavily in fossil fuels in an effort to combat environmentally focused investing, launched Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and was one of the exchange’s largest launches of its kind, according to a company letter to investors. Strive hopes that the early success of the fund will help “unlock” value in the domestic energy sector by mandating firms to focus on “profits over politics,” according to the company’s website.

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MSNBC Contributor, Ex-Spy Chief Hint Trump Deserves Execution over Classified Records Dispute

Admin

Amid published reports that former President Trump is improperly holding classified papers, including nuclear documents, at his Florida compound, MSNBC contributor Michael Beschloss and former CIA Director Michael Hayden are intimating via social media that Trump should be executed.

The Washington Post has reported that the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound on Monday in order to retrieve “nuclear documents” they believed were improperly stored there.

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Commentary: Non-College-Educated Taxpayers May Soon Be Responsible for Billions in College Debt

RealClearWire

Most Americans have been conditioned to accept some level of incompetence and inefficiency from government – but not to the extent that federal employees paid by our tax dollars simply admit that they are fundamentally incapable of doing their jobs. Yet shockingly, this is what we are now witnessing with the Department of Education’s failed and convoluted attempt to process claims for student loan cancellation. 

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Biden Admin Investigates College’s Doctoral Program Only for Black Students

Admin

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) plans to investigate the University of Utah for a doctoral program available only to black students, according to an OCR letter.

University of Michigan-Flint professor Mark Perry filed a complaint against the University of Utah regarding its African American Doctoral Scholars Initiative alleging the program, which only allows black students, violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national orientation, according to the July 26 OCR letter. The OCR confirmed they will investigate the university in a letter to Perry.

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Virginia Democrats Praise ‘Historic’ Inflation Reduction Act, Republicans Say the Bill Will Increase Costs for Americans

Eric Burk

Virginia Democrats trumpeted the Inflation Reduction Act after the House of Representatives passed the legislation on Friday, putting President Joe Biden on the path to a key win on his goals ahead of the 2022 congressional midterms. At the same time, Republicans mocked the bill’s title and criticized its policies.

In a speech on the House Floor, Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA-08) compared the bill to landmark legislation from the U.S.’ past.

“This is our generation’s signature contribution to American history. Our Social Security Act. Our Civil Rights Act, even the Bill of Rights,” Beyer said.

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Youngkin Recognizes August as Hidden Heroes Month

Eric Burk

Governor Glenn Youngkin signed a certificate Friday recognizing August as Hidden Heroes Month in Virginia to honor caregivers for wounded, ill, or injured military and veterans.

“Virginia is proud to partner with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation and their Hidden Heroes program to support and acknowledge caregivers that receive little support or acknowledgment for their selfless sacrifices,” Youngkin said in a press release. “In fact, most of these Hidden Heroes simply consider the challenging work they do as unconditional love or carrying out their civic and patriotic duty, without realizing they should be categorized as caregivers. I call on all my fellow Virginians to join me in thanking and supporting them. They deserve nothing less.”

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Commentary: When America Needs More Border Patrol, the Swamp Hires More IRS Agents

Virginia Star Staff

To know what our elected officials truly prioritize, it is important to ignore their teleprompter-fed rhetoric and focus on their actions. As Deep Throat once told Bob Woodward in a dark, underground parking garage, “Follow the money.”

At this point, it would take a certain kind of partisan dead-ender to deny our nation faces an immigration crisis. Too many years of our leaders refusing to enforce our immigration laws, combined with the current White House’s blatant contempt for those laws, have brought us to a point of critical mass where the country cannot withstand much more.

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Arizona Representatives React to House Passing the Inflation Reduction Act

Neil W. McCabe

Arizona Representatives, including Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08), Paul Gosar (R-AZ-04), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), all recently released statements slamming the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) as it passed the U.S. House Friday and will move on to President Joe Biden.

“President Biden and congressional Democrats are so out of touch with everyday Americans that they just pushed through a massive tax and spending bill that will increase taxes, gasoline prices, and utility rates all while making the lives of Americans worse,” Lesko said. “I won’t do that to the American people and that is why I voted no.”

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FBI Likely Briefed White House Before Mar-a-Lago Raid, Ex-FBI Agents Say

Virginia Star Staff

The top levels of the Biden administration, including the White House and officials leading the Department of Justice (DOJ), were likely aware of the Mar-a-Lago raid and may have even moved the warrant forward, two retired FBI agents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Former President Donald Trump announced Monday night that the FBI raided his Florida home, while the Department of Justice (DOJ) had an ongoing investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents after 15 boxes of White House documents ended up at Mar-a-Lago, according to The Washington Post.

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House Incumbents on Track for Highest Number of Primary Losses in Decades

Virginia Star Staff

The 2022 midterms have seen an unusually high number of incumbents lose their primaries, with several more primaries still left to go that could potentially raise the final number to a 30-year high.

Axios reports that thus far, 11 House incumbents – seven Republicans and four Democrats – have lost their primaries. The high number of primary losses is due to a number of factors, including the effects of redistricting after the 2020 census, as well as a major political realignment within both parties away from so-called moderates and in favor of more hardline, grassroots candidates.

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Major Teachers’ Union Supports Keeping Students Sexual Secrets from Parents

Virginia Star Staff

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the largest teachers’ union in the country, demonstrated its support for teachers maintaining a level of secrecy around students’ sexual behavior, such as their so-called “gender identity,” even if it includes going so far as keeping such information from their parents.

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Sen. Kaine Says Richmond Residents Owed an Explanation About the Alleged Mass Shooting

Eric Burk

Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that Richmond authorities need to provide an explanation after questions arose about the alleged July 4 mass shooting Richmond police said they prevented.

“If there are facts suggesting that this really was a potential mass tragedy, those need to be put on the table,” Kaine said Friday according to WTVR. “City officials didn’t have to put it on the table at the outset. They could have just said, ‘we’ve arrested some people.’ But they put it on the table that we’ve arrested them, and this was going to be a mass shooting incident.”

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Authorities Distributing Cold Case Playing Cards to Richmond Inmates

Eric Burk

Richmond law enforcement will distribute cold case decks of cards to inmates at the Richmond City Justice Center; the cards feature pictures and names of victims of unsolved homicides.

“The loss of a murdered loved one is devastating. Not receiving justice makes it even worse. I’m hopeful that this creative tool will help law enforcement provide answers and justice to these families,” Attorney General Jason Miyares said in an announcement.

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‘Make My Day,’ Abbott Says to Adams in Response to Threats

The Center Square

The war of words between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott escalated this week as buses of foreign nationals who’ve entered the U.S. illegally arrive in Adams’ city. The buses arriving at the Port Authority generally carry between 50 and 100 people. Abbott says that’s compared to the more than 5,000 apprehended a day in the five Border Patrol sectors in Texas at the southern border.

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North Dakota School Board Drops Pledge of Allegiance

Virginia Star Staff

On Tuesday, a school board in North Dakota voted overwhelmingly to abandon the sacred tradition of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, claiming that the Pledge doesn’t align with the district’s values.

As reported by the New York Post, the Fargo School Board voted 7-2 to cancel the Pledge at all of its future bi-weekly board meetings. Those who voted in favor of the ban claimed that the Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t inclusive enough, primarily due to the use of the phrase “under God.”

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Analysis: 10 Actions to Reduce Energy Prices That Won’t Cost Taxpayers $740 Billion

The Center Square

Rather than impose higher taxes and more restrictions on domestic production of oil and natural gas, as Senate Democrats voted to do by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, those in the industry proposed 10 actions policy makers can take right now to reduce costs. The industry says its solutions won’t cost taxpayers $740 billion, as the Inflation Reduction Act does, or increase the national debt or inflation, as 230 economists have warned the act will do.

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Commentary: Monkeypox Predominantly Affects Gay Men

Virginia Star Staff

Monkeypox has America’s public health establishment in a bit of an awkward spot. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra last Thursday labeled monkeypox a public health emergency. “We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility to help us tackle this virus,” he said. 

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Commentary: Teachers’ Unions Politicized U.S. Schools, Not Parents

Virginia Star Staff

When voters were asked by Pew Research, prior to the 2020 election, what issues were most important to them, education wasn’t even among the top dozen.

But things have changed dramatically since then. Outlets ranging from The Washington Post, to ABC News, have identified education as a potentially significant factor in the 2022 midterms. Additionally, after education emerged as a defining issue in Virginia’s gubernatorial election last year — ranking as a top two or three issue — school choice became a litmus test issue for Republicans.

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West Virginia’s Republican Senator Saves Its Coal Industry

Virginia Star Staff

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia may be saving her state’s coal industry after the Senate Democrats’ climate bill, backed by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, threatened to place new regulations on coal.

Manchin’s agreement included a provision that explicitly authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate coal production under a variety of legal provisions that could have rendered the recent Supreme Court rulings, which stated that Congress must clearly authorize the agency’s actions, irrelevant. However, Capito asserted that the authorization did not comply with budget reconciliation rules on the Senate floor on Sunday, leading the Senate parliamentarian to eliminate the provision, according to a press release.

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Music Spotlight: Donny Van Slee

Bethany Bowman

Donny Van Slee is a Florida boy from the rural town of Weeki Wachee Springs, home of the famous live mermaids. Growing up, Van Slee was shy and his dad bought him a guitar to help him. Later, influenced by the bands he loved – Led Zeppelin and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – he took lessons, but his main focus in school was soccer.

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Trump Describes Process of How He Declassified Documents Found at Mar-a-Lago

Virginia Star Staff

Donald Trump’s office told Just the News on Friday that the classified materials the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate were declassified under a “standing order” while he was president that allowed him to take sensitive materials to the White House residence at night to keep working.

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IRS Job Posting for Criminal Investigation Agent: ‘Be Willing to Use Deadly Force, If Necessary’

Virginia Star Staff

Amid spreading alarm about the Internal Revenue Service stockpiling ammunition and Senate Democrats’ passge on Sunday of a spending bill that would fund the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents, the tax collection agency is listing a job opening for a Criminal Investigation Special Agent who must must “be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.”

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VCU Falls Prey to Alleged Nigerian Email Scam

Eric Burk

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) had $469,819.49 stolen in an alleged Nigerian email scam, according to a Department of Justice court document and an FBI Richmond press release that announced the extradition to the U.S. of three Nigerian nationals alleged to have participated in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that also targeted a North Carolina university, a Texas college, local Texas governments, and Texas construction companies.

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Feds at Virginia Port Seize More Counterfeit Socks

Eric Burk

Federal law enforcement has seized another load of counterfeit diabetic socks at the Area Port of Norfolk-Newport News. The 165,707 pairs of socks in the seizure would be worth more than $2.6 million in manufacturer suggested retail price if they were legitimate.

“Norfolk, VA CBP Officers Seize Second Significant Sham Socks Shipment destined to Loudoun County, VA,” the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Baltimore field office announced Tuesday.

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Two House Democrats Ask Their Voters to Support Liz Cheney in Primary

Virginia Star Staff

Two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives are publicly asking Democratic voters in Wyoming to vote for Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in her upcoming primary, as she faces likely defeat at the hands of a pro-Trump challenger.

According to the Daily Wire, Congressmen Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) and Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) made their appeals to Wyoming Democrats in online campaign ads this week, voicing their support for Cheney’s re-election.

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Another Pro-Impeachment Republican Loses in Primary Race

Virginia Star Staff

After over a week of counting the votes, another of the ten pro-impeachment Republicans in the House of Representatives has lost their primary to a challenger backed by President Donald Trump.

Fox News reports that Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) conceded the race to former Green Beret Joe Kent on Tuesday, with a lengthy statement defending her record in office. Beutler was first elected to Washington’s 3rd congressional district in 2010.

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ACLU Demands That the U.N. Force America to Pay Reparations

Virginia Star Staff

The far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the United Nations to demand that the United States hand out reparations to African-Americans over past issues such as slavery.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the ACLU, along with several other left-wing groups such as Human Rights Watch, sent their demands to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, calling on the international organization to force Joe Biden to announce “immediate, tangible measures” to “dismantle structural racism” in the United States.

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COVID-Era High School Graduates Face Uncertain Futures in College

Virginia Star Staff

After nearly two years of unprecedented lockdowns, mandates, and other restrictions on daily life during the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of graduating high school students are preparing to head off to college without having learned nearly as much as they should have.

The Associated Press reports that such students are about to enter college significantly farther behind the academic standards of previous years, almost entirely due to the pandemic’s forced transition to “online learning,” a shortage of teachers, and mask and vaccine mandates that disrupted school life for millions of students across the country. Such students risk the possibility of being grossly underprepared for the level of work required by college, and could result in a massive spike in college dropouts in the coming years.

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Commentary: Washington’s Incurable Case of Trump Derangement Syndrome

Virginia Star Staff

Like Shakespeare’s King Lear, Donald Trump is a “man more sinned against than sinning.” Trump’s enemies invariably exceed him in excesses. They accuse him of dictatorial behavior even as they seek to turn America into a left-wing authoritarian regime. The wags who dubbed their feverish hatred of him “Trump Derangement Syndrome” were right. The condition is altogether real, spurring everything from the bogus Russia investigation to the equally outlandish FBI raid on his home.

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