Virginia U.S. Rep. Wittman Introduces Legislation to Decrease Shark Depredation

Virginia U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA-01) is co-sponsoring legislation designed to decrease shark depredation to protect sharks from “unsafe conditions and food sources.”

Shark depredation occurs when sharks bite or consume marine animals that fishermen are trying to catch, which both recreational and commercial fishermen experience.

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Commentary: Trump Lawyers Targeted by Dark Money Group

Among the unusual features of last week’s arraignment of former President Trump in Miami involved the difficulty he had finding a qualified attorney to represent him in the classified documents case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The corporate media inevitably made much of this issue. The Washington Post, for example, quoted various anonymous sources who claimed that Trump’s reputation as a “challenging client” caused several prominent lawyers to turn him down. In reality, the problem resulted from an intimidation campaign by a radical pressure group called the 65 Project, whose explicit mission is to ruin any lawyer willing to represent Trump.

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Commentary: Energy Companies Are Finally Backtracking on Their Absurd Green Goals

Is the public finally waking up to the inherent absurdities taking place in the energy space in the U.S. and across the Western world in recent years? Recent votes taken on ESG and climate change-related shareholder initiatives at major oil company annual board meetings indicate that may well be the case.

Though it has received scant attention across the legacy news media in general, the Financial Times reported recently that such shareholder initiatives were overwhelmingly rejected by shareholders of both ExxonMobil and Chevron, with most receiving less than 10 percent support. Similar initiatives in the previous few years would typically generate support in the 30-40 percent range, with a handful even gaining majority support.

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The World’s Oldest Secret Society Is Being Torn Apart Over Transgenderism

The Freemasons, an all-male secret society whose history goes back to the Middle Ages, have been struggling to deal with the transgender movement infiltrating their ranks over the past several years, according to members who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In 2018, the United Grand Lodge of England, founded in 1717 and considered by Masons to be the most senior of all lodges, announced that it would allow transgender individuals to retain their membership at the lodge or be eligible for membership if they were transitioning to a man, according to the BBC. In the U.S., the issue is far from settled, with conservative Masons in states like Texas clashing with the more liberal fraternities on the coasts, and according to several Masons who spoke with the DCNF on the condition of anonymity, the issue is splitting the society with real consequences for those not falling in lockstep.

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Commentary: Recent Headlines Claiming Sucralose ‘Damages DNA’ Are Scary, But What Does the Study Really Say?

When I went back to the U.S. for the first time in several years last year, I made an incredible discovery. It’s called Sparkling Ice and is sold separately or in 12-packs of 17 ounces (curious size) and has a ton of flavors that mostly taste alike but taste very good. Sparkling ice contains the artificial sweetener sucralose and is also lightly carbonated (low carbon footprint!) so that I didn’t drink it like water; I essentially drank it instead of water.

But lo! Newsweek headline: “America’s Most Popular Artificial Sweetener Damages Our DNA, Scientists Say.” You know, like atomic bomb victims. The alleged result is a leaky gut, and you don’t have to know exactly what that means to know it’s probably not good. Except it may not even be real; but we’ll get to that.

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Asa Hutchinson: GOP Should ‘Back Off’ Accusations of DOJ ‘Weaponization’

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is running in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, said Republicans should “back off” of “accusations” of the “weaponization of the Justice Department.”

Hutchinson told ABC on Sunday that while he disagrees with some of the DOJ’s decisions, he believes Republicans are incorrect to label the department’s indictment of former president Donald Trump as “weaponization.”

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As Support for ‘Black Lives Matter’ Group Dives, Most Black Americans Pessimistic About Racism on Third Federal Juneteenth: Poll

As the government observes Juneteenth as a holiday Monday for the third straight year, support for the Black Lives Matter movement has plummeted significantly as black Americans grapple with rising urban crime and stubborn inflation and grow pessimistic about racism in the future.

Juneteenth, the day that all enslaved Americans found out they were free when news of the Civil War’s end reached Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, was celebrated by black Americans for years.

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Study Finding Facebook Does Not Censor Conservatives Is ‘Deeply Flawed,’ ‘Laughable,’ Experts Say

Media Matters for America published a study recently concluding that Facebook does not censor conservatives, but experts told the DCNF the study is not credible because it did not properly measure the suppression of right-leaning pages.

Right-leaning Facebook pages typically got more total interactions than politically nonaligned and left-leaning pages on Facebook, according to the study. However, experts say this does not mean that there was no censorship of right-leaning Facebook pages, as the only example of suppression the Media Matters study cites is Donald Trump’s Facebook ban.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy Calls for ‘Emancipation of the American Mind from Psychological Slavery Based on Race’

Ohio businessman and Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is marking this Juneteenth with a call for the “emancipation of the American mind from psychological slavery based on race.”

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Catholic Civil Rights Group Urges Major League Baseball to ‘Stay Out of Politics’ After Dodgers’ Move to Honor Anti-Catholic ‘Nuns’ Backfires

The president of the Catholic League is contacting all 30 owners of Major League Baseball (MLB), urging them to “just play baseball” and “stay out of politics” following a huge protest and significant drop in attendance at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ “pride night” event Friday during which the club honored a group of “queer and trans nuns” who promote anti-Catholic bigotry.

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Chinese Intelligence Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ in Seven U.S. Cities

by Philip Lenczycki   A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work…

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Lawmakers Demand Answers on Illegal Immigrant Child Labor as Universities Perpetuate Illegal Workforce System

The House Education and the Workforce Committee is demanding answers from the Biden administration on child labor among illegal immigrants.

In a letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) called on the Department to take action to stop migrants from being exploited for illegal child labor.

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Commentary: There’s a Four-Letter Word That Perfectly Describes the Modern Left

My friend Lawrence W. Reed is one of Earth’s biggest optimists. The legendary free-market scholar recalls flipping his vehicle at age 26 on an icy Michigan road in February 1980. As he rolled over inside his Ford Fairmont, he smiled: “Hey, I’ll get a new car out of this!”

Thus, his recent essay for the Foundation for Economic Education, of which he is president emeritus, is a surprise. Reed has gone from cheerful to chilly.

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Biden Picks Mandy Cohen to Serve as CDC Director

President Joe Biden on Friday announced that he had selected former North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen to serve as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Dr. Cohen is one of the nation’s top physicians and health leaders with experience leading large and complex organizations, and a proven track-record protecting Americans’ health and safety,” Biden said in a statement, pointing to her management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and her role in expanding Medicaid.

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Commentary: Only One Party Has Gone Completely Off the Rails

Sorry to sound like a dinosaur, but I recall when my colleagues and I in the House of Representatives believed we were on the cutting edge of America’s great philosophical divide.

It was a heady time. The Class of 1994 was labeled the “majority makers” – the first Republican majority in forty years. It was accordingly easy to assume our policy battles would define the direction of American politics for generations to come.

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House Oversight Chair Comer Plans to Interview ‘Key Figures’ in ‘Biden Family Influence Peddling’ Investigation

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says he plans on questioning “key figures” in his investigation into allegations that the Biden family was involved in bribery and influence peddling.

“We’re going to start bringing in key figures in the Biden family influence-peddling schemes for depositions, and I think we’re on the right track, even though we’re having to fight the FBI, fight the DOJ, fight the Democrats in Congress and fight the mainstream media,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said, Fox News reported Sunday.

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Commentary: California’s War Against Prosperity

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, generating 44 percent of all business activity. Take them out of the equation, and the economy collapses. But that is exactly what’s happening. The cards are stacked against small businesses in America today, and nowhere is it worse than in the state of California. 

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Alleged Crime Family Orchestrated Multi-State Illegal Immigrant Smuggling Ring, Feds Say

Several members of a family allegedly coordinated a scheme to smuggle illegal immigrants across the southern border and into the U.S. interior, according to Border Report.

Authorities arrested six members of the Lopez family, while four others remain on the run, according to Border Report. The group allegedly operated in New Mexico, Arizona, California and Virginia, Jorge H. Uribarri, assistant special agent with Homeland Security Investigations in El Paso, said, according to Border Report.

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Nearly Half of U.S. States Now Have Measures Limiting Transgender Surgery for Minors, but Lawsuits Abound

At least 20 states have either restricted or banned transgender procedures for minors, with many of them facing lawsuits and temporary blocks by courts as a result, while future litigation is possible in states considering adopting such laws. 

The states that have enacted legislation against such procedures are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia – essentially all conservative-leaning.

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Conservative CEO Will Give ‘Baby Bonus’ to Employees to Help Build Strong Families

As a response to woke corporations incentivizing employee abortions, one conservative CEO says he will offer his employees a $5,000 “baby bonus” to help sustain their families.

PublicSq. Founder and CEO Michael Seifert believes “strong families make a strong nation.” But when the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, he began witnessing a lot of companies grandly making “impassioned petitions to pay for their employees’ abortions.”

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Meta Scraps Censorship Policies for COVID ‘Misinformation’

Facebook parent company Meta is officially terminating its COVID-19 censorship policies in the U.S., the tech giant told The Washington Post.

Meta has repeatedly tamped down on COVID-19 “misinformation” in the U.S. and even faced pressure from the White House to engage in content suppression. Although the tech giant is done moderating this content in the U.S., it will continue restricting content “in countries that have a Covid-19 public health emergency declaration” due to “the risk of imminent physical harm,” Meta told the Post.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Releases Statement After Barack Obama Accuses Nikki Haley, Tim Scott of ‘Glossing over Effects of Racism’

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy released a statement defending two of his Republican competitors in the 2024 Republican presidential primary after former President Barack Obama accused the two of “glossing over effects of racism.”

Obama made the comments during a podcast interview, according to The Guardian, which quoted him saying of Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC), who is African-American, “There’s a long history of African American or other minority candidates within the Republican party who will validate America and say, ‘Everything’s great, and we can make it.’”

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Signs ‘Historic’ Legislation to Improve Behavioral Health Care Access

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed 24 bills for improving behavioral health care access as part of the governor’s “historic” Right Help, Right Now plan.

The legislation is intended to improve insurance coverage for behavioral health in the commonwealth, while strengthening the behavioral health workforce and easing the strain on public safety.

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Commentary: As Great as a Mom May Be, Kids Still Need Their Dads

“Smokin’ Joe,” a biography of late heavyweight boxing champion and 3-time Muhammad Ali foil Joe Frazier, was recently reviewed by Gordon Marion in The Wall Street Journal. Among the notable details is the fact that five different women gave birth to Frazier’s eleven kids.

This occurrence is not uncommon among celebrities. Muhammad Ali, actor and director Clint Eastwood, and comedian Eddie Murphy are just a few who have fathered children with multiple women. Politicians fall prey to this problem as well, with San Antonio mayoral candidate Greg Brockhouse – who has four children with four mothers – being one of the most recent examples.

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UPS Unionized Workers Vote to Authorize a Strike

As contract negotiations continue, UPS workers who are part of the Teamsters union voted overwhelmingly to organize a strike that could start as soon as the beginning of August. 

The union wants better pay, elimination of surveillance cameras in the trucks and more full time jobs, according to CBS News. To bolster their case, the Teamsters point to record profits for UPS in 2022, saying the company paid out more that $8 billion in shareholder dividends. 

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Commentary: Queering Jesus Is Going Mainstream at Progressive Churches and Top Divinity Schools

Vignettes from progressive Christianity today:

A Presbyterian church goes viral online for marking the Transgender Day of Visibility with a public prayer to the “God of Pronouns.” The congregants of the church, First Presbyterian of Iowa City, pay obeisance to “the God of Trans Being,” giving due glory to “the Great They/Them.”   

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American Medical Association Pledges to Work with Activists to Push Child Sex Changes

The American Medical Association (AMA) pledged to ramp up its support for cross-sex medical interventions for minors with gender identity issues in a resolution its House of Delegates approved this week.

The AMA already supported cross-sex medical interventions for children, but the new resolution makes this stance more proactive in response to state-level restrictions on such procedures; it passed Monday, according to the Endocrine Society, which sponsored the resolution. The organization pledged to work with special interest groups to fight state and federal limits on cross-sex medical procedures, which it euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care.”

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Concerns That Transgender Culture Has Gone Too Far Make for Unusual Pride Month

Pride Month in the U.S. and elsewhere has historically been, for many, a celebration of gay rights and equality. But this year’s annual festivities have been undercut by concerns from consumers and others who believe transgender culture is being pushed upon them and their children, which has resulted in some companies and governments pulling back their support.  

The recent backlash over heartland brands that appeared to alienate long-time core customers began in earnest earlier this year when Bud Light entered into a paid partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. 

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Women Who Start Birth Control Pill as Teens 130 Percent More Likely to Show Depression: Study

Women who started taking birth control pills as teenagers showed depression symptoms at a 130% higher rate than those who never used oral contraceptives (OC), according to a new study of more than a quarter of a million women.

Women who began taking oral contraceptives as adults had a 92% higher rate of depressive symptoms compared to those who never took the pill, while women who started taking the birth control pill “before or at the age of 20 had 130% higher rate of depressive symptoms,” according to a U.K. study published Monday by Cambridge University Press.

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Maine Democrats Kill Bill to Protect Fundamental Rights of Parents

Democrats in the Maine House voted down a bill Thursday that would have guaranteed the “fundamental right” of parents “to make decisions regarding the upbringing, education and well-being” of their children.

Maine Senate Democrats had also previously voted against the measure, LD 1800 (SP 725), titled “An Act Regarding Parental Rights in Education.”

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Virginia AG Leads Coalition on Recommendations for Artificial Intelligence Governance

A bipartisan coalition of 23 attorneys general, co-led by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, submitted a letter advising the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on governance policies on artificial intelligence. 

As part of creating policy recommendations on AI, the NTIA invited policymakers and subject matter experts for expertise and commentary.

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Commentary: DeSantis’ Plan to Tear Down the DOJ Is What All the Candidates Need

This is, on the surface and even a little below it, a column about Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis and the 2024 GOP primary. But it’s about more than that, and if you’ll leave the partisan preferences at the door for a bit, hopefully we can come to some sort of larger understanding that we’ll need as the next presidential race looms.

All we’re really talking about this week is the indictment of Trump down in Miami and its political ramifications — none of which are good. Is this a pristine example of weaponized government? Did Trump put himself in the position to get indicted? Is this actually a good thing for him? Does it force Republican voters to rally around Trump in a way they might otherwise not do, and is that the design of the Machine that controls our institutions of power? Is the Pump-and-Dump-Trump strategy real? Is it inevitable? 

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Commentary: Almost Two-Thirds of Federal Arrests Involve Noncitizens

Customs and Border Protection encountered over 275,000 illegal aliens crossing our borders nationwide in April alone, setting a distressing precedent for increased illegal entries under the Biden administration. While the majority of illegal aliens seek a better life, the undeniable link between increasing illegal immigration and crime poses a significant threat to American communities.

President Joe Biden’s decision to grant mass parole for millions of aliens, allowing them to remain illegally in the United States, only amplifies the devastating effects of increased illegal immigration on our society.

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NYC Teachers Union Gets Massive Pay Raise as Student Math Scores Plummet

The New York City teachers union struck a deal Monday guaranteeing a large pay raise in their new contract with the city while students’ math test scores continue to plummet, according to Reuters.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the United Federation of Teachers agreed to a $6.4 billion, five-year contract that includes a 15% pay raise for teachers over the period of the contract, according to Reuters. The new contract comes as just 38% of the city’s third through eighth graders met math grade-level expectations in 2022, an almost eight point decline from 2019, according to the Chalkbeat New York.

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Commentary: January 6 Pipe Bomber Story Goes Boom

It remains the greatest unsolved mystery related to the events of January 6: Who placed pipe bombs near the headquarters of both the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee the night before?

Shortly before the joint session of Congress convened at 1 p.m. to debate the results of the 2020 Electoral College vote, a woman on her way to do some laundry looked down and spotted a device in an alley adjacent to the RNC building. Karlin Younger ran to notify security guards, who then called police. Law enforcement conducted a search of the area and located another device outside the DNC building.

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Commentary: Nashville Forensic Files

On March 27, in the run-up to “Trans Day of Vengeance,” Audrey Hale murdered six people at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. Nearly three months later, Hale’s manifesto is still under wraps but autopsies enable the youngest victims to testify. 

The nine-year-old Hallie Scruggs, daughter of Covenant Presbyterian pastor Chad Scruggs, sustained an “indeterminate range gunshot wound of the head,” that caused injuries to the scalp, left temporal bone, and left temporal lobe of the brain. Hale also targeted Scruggs with an “indeterminate range gunshot wound of the pelvis,” entering at the left lower abdomen and causing injuries to the left femoral artery, vein and soft tissue. 

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Comer: New Bank Records Will Reveal $30 Million Foreign Payments to Biden Family

On Thursday, Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, claimed that recently-subpoenaed bank records will reveal that the Biden family accepted bribes from foreign nationals to the tune of at least $30 million.

As the New York Post reports, Comer said in an interview on Fox News that “we have more bank records coming in, we’re going to exceed $10 million this week. And I think we’ll get up to between $20 and 30 million.” Comer has said that at least nine members of the Biden family have received foreign income from bribes and shady business deals, including son Hunter, brother James, sister-in-law Sara, son Beau’s widow and Hunter’s ex-girlfriend Hallie, Hunter’s wife Melissa, and Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.

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Catholic Civil Rights Leader: Los Angeles Dodgers Violating Their Own Code of Conduct by Honoring Anti-Catholic Trans ‘Nuns’

As the Los Angeles Dodgers prepare to honor Friday night a group of “queer and trans nuns” who promote anti-Catholic bigotry, Catholic League President Bill Donohue observed the club is actually violating its own code of conduct imposed on fans.

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Pfizer COVID Vaccine Safety Report Identified Nearly 1.6 Million Adverse Events Early On

By June of  2022, Pfizer had identified over 10,000 categories of nearly 1.6 million adverse events, a recently-released safety update report shows. Pfizer’s pharmacovigilance documents were requested and released by the European Medicines Agency, the EU’s drug regulator, Conservative Review’s Daniel Horowitz reported on Wednesday.

The 396-page confidential Pfizer report, dated August 18, 2022, reveals that Pfizer was well aware its product was causing an unacceptable level of serious and debilitating injuries early on.

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Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ Administration Sued for Discrimination Against Catholic Schools

St. Dominic Academy in Auburn, Maine filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the administration of Gov. Janet Mills (D) and the Maine Human Rights Commission that alleges the state has continued to “outmaneuver” the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin by excluding religious schools from its longstanding program whereby students residing in districts without a public school are given the opportunity to attend the public or private school of their family’s choosing.

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Illegal Border Crossers So Far This Year Outnumber the Population of Eight States

At least 1.2 million people have been apprehended or reported evading capture at the southern border in the first five months of this year, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Center Square.

The estimate is based on official apprehension data reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as gotaway data. A Border Patrol agent provides this data exclusively to The Center Square on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Gotaways are those who illegally enter the U.S. and intentionally seek to evade capture. Border Patrol agents report those who have illegally entered and evaded capture based on several factors. CBP doesn’t publicly report gotaway data.

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Gov. Youngkin Announces Famed Fireworks Maker Pyrotechnique by Grucci Expansion in Virginia

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the commonwealth beat out New York in a bid for a new location of a sixth-generation pyrotechnic company that contracts with the Department of Defense to expand in Pulaski County.

The New York-based Fireworks by Grucci, has an existing presence in the commonwealth through its manufacturing arm, Pyrotechnique by Grucci. The former is an American company that has supplied thousands of celebrations with its pyrotechnic arts since 1850, notably eight presidential inaugurations and four Olympic Games.

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The Trans Lobby Wants to Make It Illegal in Michigan to Talk a Child Out of a Sex Change

Transgender activists, hospitals and medical associations are pressuring lawmakers in Michigan to pass a “conversion therapy” ban that critics say would effectively prohibit therapists from helping gender-confused children come to terms with their natural bodies and biological sex.

If enacted, the ban would be another win for activists and their medical industry allies who have helped push more than 20 states to ban clinical attempts to change a minor patient’s “gender identity.” Critics say these laws silence and intimidate therapists who don’t automatically affirm young patients’ transgender status and put them on the medicalization track.

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Commentary: Staying Sane in the Era of Rainbow Flag Totalitarianism

Many years ago, when I was just out of college, my friend George Hall introduced me to a punk rock song from the soundtrack of the 1984 film Repo Man. “Institutionalized,” by the group Suicidal Tendencies, is the darkly comic saga of a teenager named Mike who finds himself committed to a psychiatric facility merely because he asked his mother for a Pepsi. The chorus of the song contains this frantic refrain:

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Youth Homicide Rate Spikes to Highest Level in Two Decades

The homicide rate among individuals ages 10 through 24 in 2021 reached its highest level in 20 years, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In 2021, there were 10.7 homicides for every 100,000 people ages 10 through 24, up from 8.3 in 2016 and 7.3 in 2011, according to the CDC. Suicide and homicide are the second and third leading causes of death, respectively, for people ages 10 through 24, behind accidental deaths that involve motor vehicle crashes and falls, according to the CDC report.

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Commentary: The Supreme Court’s Ruling on Race-Based Redistricting Is a Real Head-Scratcher

Chief Justice John Roberts made a major error in judgment last week in rejecting the State of Alabama’s 2022 congressional redistricting plan in Allen v. Milligan, an error that, as dissenting Justice Samuel Alito says, puts the Voting Rights Act “on a perilous and unfortunate path.”

Joined by the three liberal justices and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Roberts, writing for the majority, approved race being the driving factor in drawing up the boundary lines of political districts, while glibly denying he was doing that. That violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.

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Poll: Trump Increases Lead over DeSantis in New Hampshire

Among likely New Hampshire primary voters, Former President Donald Trump leads Florida Governor Ron DeSantis 44% to 12% in a multi-candidate ballot. Trump has increased his lead by 5% since last month where he lead DeSantis 39% to 18%.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott are tied for third with 7% of the vote each. Sununu’s presence on the ballot is not siphoning votes away from DeSantis as some assumed. When Sununu is taken out of the equation in this months survey, DeSantis did not benefit. A majority of Sununu’s vote share went to Scott and Christie.

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