December 19, 2022 - The Virginia Star

FBI Paid Twitter Millions, Had Close Relationship with Execs and Staff, Emails Show

December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 Admin

The FBI paid Twitter millions as a reimbursement for the time the company spent processing the FBI’s requests, according to internal documents published by author Michael Shellenberger Monday, in the most recent installment of Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s ongoing “Twitter Files.”

In an email with the subject line “Run the business – we made money!” an employee, whose name was redacted, reports to then-Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker, that the FBI paid Twitter nearly $3.5 million dollars between October 2019 and February 2021, Shellenberger reported. Baker, a former FBI agent, was the agency’s general counsel during Operation Crossfire Hurricane, and approved the surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page via improper use of the Steele dossier, according to a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general.

Supreme Court Delays End of Title 42 Immigration Rule

December 19, 2022 Just the News

The Supreme Court on Monday delayed the termination of the Title 42 immigration rule that was set to expire this week.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued the temporary hold in response to an appeal from Republican-led states seeking to keep the order in place, according to NBC News. Roberts gave the Department of Homeland Security, which had sought to end the order until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to respond to the Republican appeal, per the New York Post.

Biden Administration Reveals Plans for Post-Title 42 Immigration Policy

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

The Biden Administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a six-point plan for how to handle the immigration crisis after the end of the successful Trump-era policy of Title 42.

According to CNN, the seven-page outline repeats the false narrative used by the Biden White House that the administration inherited a “broken and dismantled immigration system,” blaming the crisis on the Trump Administration despite President Trump’s success in reducing immigration levels to the lowest points in modern history.

First-Ever Emmy Awards for Children Heavily Pushes LGBT Content

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

In the first Emmy Awards ceremony aimed at children, many of the speeches and award wins overwhelmingly promoted pro-LGBTQ content and other far-left concepts.

Fox News reports that the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, created by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and hosted over the course of two nights, is intended for children ranging from “infancy to age 15.” Of all the programs that received an award, one out of four featured characters or stories that involved sexual preference or gender identity.

Scholars Work at ‘Decolonizing Light’ to Combat ‘Colonialism in Contemporary Physics’

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

A group of scholars at Concordia University in Montreal have dedicated themselves to “Decolonizing Light.”

The effort is not about banning flashlights, but rather advancing other ways of knowing about light, science and physics.

The group’s tagline is “Tracing and countering colonialism in contemporary physics.”

Trump Leads GOP Primary with DeSantis as Runner-Up: Poll

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Just the News

Former President Donald Trump is the top choice for the 2024 Republican presidential primary, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in as the runner-up, according to a new poll.

The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll released Friday found that 48 percent of GOP voters said they would support Trump if the primary were held today, while 25 percent said they would vote for DeSantis. If Trump does not run in 2024, 48 percent of GOP voters said they would support DeSantis, with former Vice President Mike Pence as the runner-up with 15 percent support.

VA-04 Republicans Nominate Leon Benjamin for Special Election

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Eric Burk

Leon Benjamin is the Republican nominee for a special election in VA-04 after Benjamin won 57 percent of the votes in the first round of ranked choice voting in a Saturday canvass, Fourth District Republican Chairman Carey Allen told The Virginia Star.

“Thank you, VA-4, for your nomination to represent you in Washington! Together we will WIN this Special Election and ensure your voice is HEARD through the Halls of Congress. God bless you all,” Benjamin said in a social media statement.

Commentary: Let Cryptocurrency Implode with FTX

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest makes for a fitting final act to this chapter of cryptocurrency history. The internet prodigy-turned-supervillain had been at large for a whole month since the spectacular collapse of his crypto trading platform, FTX. But Sam is no Butch Cassidy. Rather than vanishing, he spent his time tweeting, giving interviews, and most stupefying of all, making appearances at high-powered New York Times business conferences alongside the likes of Mark Zuckerberg and Janet Yellen. Tucker Carlson speculated at the time that Bankman-Fried’s lavish donations to Democratic politicians had afforded him de facto immunity from prosecution. It seems that the goodwill has now run out.

Commentary: Republicans Can Thank the Federal Government’s Bungled 2020 Census for Their Razor-Thin House Majority

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

Republicans will soon take control of the House of Representatives, but with a margin so narrow it may prove difficult to achieve their legislative and oversight objectives. That margin might have been larger, were it not for egregious errors made by the U.S. Census Bureau in the 2020 census.

Come January, House membership will consist of 213 Democrats and 222 Republicans. A party must hold 218 of those seats to control the House. Thus, Republicans will have only a four-seat majority. That extremely narrow majority means that GOP leadership can lose any vote on any issue if only four Republicans defect and the Democrats stay united in opposition.

Florida U.S. Rep. Greg Steube Vows Justice for Troops Punished for COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Just the News

Florida Republican Rep. Greg Steube is vowing to introduce legislation to obtain justice for those punished for refusing to comply with the military’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

“I intend on filing my own bill,” Steube said on the John Solomon Reports podcast Wednesday. “I am … not naive” about prospects for passage of such a bill in a Democrat-controlled Senate, he said, “but thankfully, the House has the power of the purse, and … when we do the appropriations process over the next year, we can put riders on appropriations bills to tell the Department of Defense how they’re going to give relief to these individuals.”

Illegal Entries into Vermont Surge in November

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 The Center Square

Foreign nationals illegally entering the U.S. are increasingly entering through Vermont at an unprecedented rate.

In October, the Swanton Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes all of Vermont, saw a 676% increase in apprehensions of illegal foreign nationals compared to last year, according to Border Patrol data. Agents apprehended 334 people from 19 countries in October, and the “upward trend continues,” Swanton Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said.

Commentary: Ranked-Choice Voting Is Just Another Way of Letting Elites Tilt the System in Their Favor

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

Americans want honest, straightforward and fair elections that they can trust. Regardless of whether candidates win or lose, voters deserve far better than the incompetence, mismanagement and multi-week delays in counting votes that we’re seeing in so many states today. So, at a time when trust in elections is at an all-time low, why are some establishment Republicans teaming up with Democrats to push a complex, confusing and painfully slow method of voting in America?

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s Health Department Fires Transgender Group Ahead of ‘Gender Summit’

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, directed her state Department of Health to terminate a contract with The Transformation Project, a transgender activist group that is hosting a “Gender Identity Summit” next month, after The Daily Signal drew the governor’s attention to the summit and the group.

“Gov. Kristi Noem is reviewing all Department of Health contracts and immediately terminated a contract with The Transformation Project,” Ian Fury, Noem’s chief of communications, told The Daily Signal on Friday. “The contract was signed without Gov. Noem’s prior knowledge or approval.”

Auburn Bans TikTok from University Devices, WiFi

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

Days after Gov. Kay Ivey issued a memo banning TikTok from government devices, Auburn University announced its plans to prohibit the app as well.

On Wednesday, Auburn’s IT department sent out a notice saying the popular video-sharing app would be banned on campus WiFi and devices, according to AL.com. The IT department on Thursday tweeted a link to the new policy. However, that tweet has since been removed, and the school’s IT page posted an update Saturday saying, “Auburn is monitoring the developments related to accessing TikTok and will provide information as we receive it. Check back later for more information.”

Study: Vaccines ‘Barely’ Neutralize Newest COVID Variants

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Just the News

A scientific study is sounding an alarm bell regarding the latest COVID-19 variants, claiming that vaccines and boosters offer little protection against the newest mutations of the virus.

The study, published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Cell, claim that the BQ and XBB variants of COVID are “barely susceptible to neutralization by sera from vaccinated individuals.”

‘Take Aim:’ Adam Schiff Threatens Big Tech Unless They Censor More Content

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California said Sunday that Section 230 protections should be repealed if tech companies do not do more to combat “hate and loathing” on their platforms.

“I’m particularly concerned about the practice some of the large tech companies have of, whenever there is a budding, promising new entrant into the market, they buy them out because they don’t necessarily want to develop that product line themself, but they don’t want the competition,” Schiff told CNN host Jake Tapper on State of the Union. “We should absolutely take aim at that and other anti-competitive actions of Big Tech, and I think we’ve got a big problem right now with social media companies and their failure to moderate content and the explosion of hate on Twitter, the banning of journalists on Twitter.”

‘Laicized’ Pro-Life Priest Father Frank Pavone: Pope Francis ‘Definitely Signed Off on This’

December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

Prominent international pro-life leader Father Frank Pavone said Monday Pope Francis “definitely signed off” on a letter that reportedly states the Vatican has laicized Pavone, for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.”

“I have received nothing,” Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, told The Star News Network during a telephone interview Monday. “And what’s worse, that has been the pattern for the last 20 years of abuse by church authorities.”

New York Appeals Court Rules Yeshiva University Must Recognize LGBTQ Student Group

December 19, 2022December 18, 2022 Admin

A New York Appeals Court ruled on Thursday that Yeshiva University must recognize the LGBTQ student group, YU Pride Alliance.

The Supreme Court ruled in September that it did not have jurisdiction to issue a decision regarding the case without it first going through the state courts. The appeals court’s most recent decision upheld an earlier ruling in June that required the Jewish university to immediately recognize the YU Pride Alliance.