Black History Month has drawn to a close, and former NFL player and author Ben Watson acknowledged its end by highlighting that the greatest injustice in black history still continues in the hundreds of thousands of black babies aborted each year.
Read MoreDay: March 1, 2023
AG Merrick Garland Faces Republicans on Senate Judiciary Committee Over Weaponization of DOJ Against Parents, Catholics, and Pro-Life Activists
Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to face tough questions from Republican senators Wednesday regarding what many in the nation say has been the purposeful weaponization of the Department of Justice against parents of schoolchildren, Catholics who live their faith in the public square, and activists who fight for the vulnerable unborn.
Read MoreSupreme Court Justices Raise Concerns About Biden’s Ability to Forgive Student Debt
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt.
Biden announced in August of last year that his administration would “forgive” $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 per year or $250,000 for married couples. Debtors who borrowed money before July 1 can qualify.
Read MoreGOP Rep Introduces Legislation to Make China Pay for America’s COVID Costs
Republican Florida Rep. Brian Mast introduced legislation to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a copy of the bill obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The bill seeks to allow the U.S. government to withhold debt payments to China equal to the cost incurred by the U.S. in response to the pandemic. The bill’s introduction comes days after the Department of Energy (DOE) found that the virus likely originated from a lab leak in China.
Read MoreArmy Secretary Predicts China Will Attack U.S. Homeland If ‘Major War’ Breaks Out
U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth predicted that if China got into a “major war” with the U.S. the Communist-led country would attack the American homeland.
“The United States homeland would be at risk as well with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks – whether it’s cyberattacks on the power grid or on pipelines,” Wormuth said Monday at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Read More‘I Don’t Believe in Popes’: Nicaraguan President Reportedly Bans Easter Public Processions
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega reportedly banned public church processions for Easter after comparing the Catholic church to the “mafia,” according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Tensions between the government and the church have been rising due to Ortega orchestrating multiple investigations into church leaders and exiling others, according to CNA. Ortega has reportedly placed a ban on public religious demonstrations during Lent, Good Friday and Easter after he attacked the church during a speech memorializing the 89th anniversary of Nicaraguan national hero Augusto Sandino’s death, calling the Catholic church a “mafia organization” committing “grave crimes and horrors.”
Read MoreVirginia Lawmakers Pass Solitary Confinement Bills, Advocates’ Concerns Remain
In the final hours of the legislative session, Virginia lawmakers sent a pair of bills to Gov. Glenn Youngkin that would prohibit the use of solitary confinement in prisons without mandatory out-of-cell time, and stricter reporting requirements.
While the bills received bipartisan support as they advanced out of the General Assembly, the measures as-passed do not contain a key component advocates had pushed for – a 15-day limit on the use of solitary confinement. Without that provision, advocates fear the bill will allow the Virginia Department of Corrections to place people into isolated confinement for extended periods of time, so long as there is a review and daily out-of-cell time.
Read MoreCommentary: The World Bank Takes a Wrong Turn
President Biden’s nomination of Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, to succeed David Malpass as World Bank president suggests that the Biden administration is prioritizing climate change over the World Bank’s founding mission of poverty eradication and economic development. This was made clear in the president’s statement singling out climate change as the most urgent challenge of our time.
Read MoreU.S. Household Debt Rises Sharply
Household debt across the country is sharply on the rise, with U.S. households now collectively on the hook for about $17 trillion in total. The average family holds about $142,680 in debt, according to a new WalletHub report.
All told, the personal finance website concludes that 2022 ended with Americans roughly $320 billion more in total debt than they were at the start of the year. During the fourth quarter alone, consumers added at least $398 million in new debt, the fourth highest build-up for a fourth quarter over the past two decades and more than four times larger than Q4 2021.
Read MoreSupreme Court to Decide Fate of Controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The Supreme Court announced Monday it would take up a case challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding mechanism on constitutional grounds.
On Oct. 19, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that funding the CFPB through the Federal Reserve violates the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause, which gives Congress the “power of the purse” in appropriating government funds. The CFPB filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on Nov. 14, 2022, which the Supreme Court granted Monday morning.
Read MoreU.S. Weapons Aid for Ukraine Could Extend Years Beyond the War, Top Pentagon Official Says
The Biden administration plans to provide lethal assistance to Ukraine for years after the war to end Russia’s invasion reaches a conclusion, the Pentagon’s top official for policy and planning testified before Congress Tuesday.
The U.S. has provided more than $30 billion worth of weapons and equipment since the war in Ukraine began one year ago, including millions of artillery rounds and high-end equipment that requires years to produce and months during which to train Ukrainian troops. Regardless of how the war ends, the U.S. will need to continue providing Kyiv with weapons and military support for years to discourage Russia from making a subsequent attempt at conquering Kyiv, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee at a hearing Tuesday.
Read MoreCommentary: The Facade of Democracy
During Biden’s latest visit to Kyiv and Warsaw, the Oval Office occupant defended his administration’s escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war and pledged unlimited U.S. taxpayer support in the name of “defending democracy.”
But is Ukraine a democracy?
Read MoreKasey Tyndall Releases New Music
NASHVILLE, Tennessee- After seeing Kasey Tyndall at the Listening Room with the Song Suffragettes in 2019, I immediately set up an interview with the energetic songstress and featured her in my Music Spotlight column at the beginning of 2020.
When I ran into Tyndall again at the Next Women of Country event in January of 2023, I knew we were long overdue for a follow-up interview.
Read MoreCommentary: Making Fast Food Faster Is a Big Mistake
Just when it seemed things were returning to normal, some habits changed for the worse. The instability of COVID times took countless people out of contact with the outside world. Things became more informal, faster, and less social.
One area of change was the fast-food franchises. People embraced no-touch food service during COVID. Now, the instant-meal world is working hard to keep up the momentum by making fast food faster and less social. The idea is to minimize personal contact and maximize profits.
Read MoreFederal Agencies Must Ban Chinese-Owned TikTok, White House Memo Says
Government agencies have less than a month to ban the popular Chinese-owned app TikTok from federal devices, according to an Office of Management and Budget memorandum issued Monday.
OMB Director Shalanda Young issued the memorandum for executive departments and agency heads about implementation guidance for banning TikTok on government-issued devices, Reuters first reported.
Read MoreBiden Administration Reverses Course on Efforts to Regulate U.S. Investments in China
The Biden Administration is planning to scale back planned regulations that would have cracked down on American investments in China, even despite rising tensions between the two nations.
According to Politico, at least five anonymous sources “with knowledge of the White House discussions” said that Biden will not sign the executive order as originally planned; instead of outright restricting such investments, the new order will instead simply attempt to increase the transparency of such deals.
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