Day: August 12, 2023

Merrick Garland’s Special Counsel Appointment May Violate DOJ’s Own Rules, Legal Experts Say

Virginia Star Staff

U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ appointment Friday as special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation appears to violate a Department of Justice (DOJ) regulation requiring a special counsel to “be selected from outside the United States Government.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Weiss’ appointment as special counsel Friday, noting he would “continue to have the authority and the responsibility that he has previously exercised” and explaining Weiss had requested to be appointed on Tuesday. The Justice Department regulation, which governs the powers and qualifications of a special counsel, was also used to criticize the 2020 appointment of John Durham as special counsel to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe while he was serving as U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut.

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Comer Says He’s Ready to Subpoena Bidens’ Phone and Bank Records, Give Witnesses Immunity

Just the News

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Friday night pointedly dismissed the appointment of a special counsel in the Hunter Biden criminal probe as “another maneuver… to obstruct” Congress and vowed to escalate his investigation by subpoenaing Hunter and Joe Biden’s phone and bank records and offering witnesses immunity.

“We’re getting closer every day to showing that Joe Biden was the ringleader in this, not Hunter Biden,” Comer said in an exclusive interview with the “Just the News, No Noise” television show just hours after Attorney General Merrick Garland shocked Washington by announcing that he was upgrading Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to a special counsel after four years of investigating the Biden family finances.

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American College of Pediatricians Rejects Reaffirmation of Children’s Transgender Medical Treatments by American Academy of Pediatrics

Susan Berry, PhD

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) stated Thursday in a press release it opposes the decision by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to reaffirm transgender medical interventions for children and teens, but supports AAP’s claim it will be reviewing the latest evidence pertaining to the highly controversial treatments.

Last week, AAP reaffirmed its support for providing children and teens with transgender hormones and surgeries – called “gender-affirming care” by the transgender medical industry – while it simultaneously announced it would review medical research on the life-altering treatments.

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As Trials Near, Pro-Life Activists Demand Repeal of Unequally Enforced FACE Act

Virginia Star Staff

Jury selection began Wednesday in Washington, D.C., in the trials of the first five of 10 pro-life activists indicted under the FACE Act. 

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act “prohibits threats of force, obstruction and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services,” according to the Department of Justice. 

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Sens. Grassley and Johnson Say Defense Agency and Georgia Tech May have Targeted RNC, DNC Networks

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) said an email was uncovered recently that exposed a U.S. Defense agency project aimed at targeting Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee networks.

At the core of the concerning discovery are some serious questions, including whether the Pentagon’s research arm was involved in driving false claims that Russians working for then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hacked into the DNC email server in 2016.

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Proposed Virginia Toll Hikes May Have Been Avoidable

The Center Square

The application by Toll Road Investors Partnership II L.P. to raise tolls on Virginia’s Dulles Greenway is now open to public comment, and a date has been set for the hearing of January 24, 2024.

If the State Corporation Commission approves TRIP II’s application, the new “maximum tolls for most drivers” will be $6.40 during off-peak hours and $8.10 going eastbound during the peak hours of 6:30 a.m. to 9 a.m and driving westbound between 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The current rates are $5.25 and $5.80, respectively.

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Biden Wants Another $24 Billion for Ukraine, Just $4 Billion for the Border

Just the News

The White House on Thursday outlined a $40.1 billion funding request in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that includes $24 billion for Ukraine-related expenses but just $4 billion to bolster security at the southern border.

Specifically, the White House wants $13.1 billion for the Pentagon to send military aid directly to Kyiv and replenish its own stocks. It further seeks $8.5 billion for the State Department to provide humanitarian and economic support. Lastly, it seeks $2.3 billion for the Treasury to provide financial programs for the country in place of Chinese or other adversarial sources.

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Commentary: The Emerging ‘Cold Tech War’ Between the U.S and China

RealClearWire

The Sino-U.S. “cold tech war” is reaching new heights—or rather depths—as tensions are building under the sea. First it was semiconductors. Now it’s submarine cables.

Undersea cables, unseen and often ignored, are essential to daily life and critical to U.S. national security. Over 97 percent of global data traffic travels through a network of cables that sit atop the seabed of the world’s oceans. Those same cables transmit upwards of $10 trillion in financial transactions every day and are a central component of the American military’s network-centric warfare operations.

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