Commentary: Searching for Truth and Excellence in Youth Literature and Movies

A couple of months ago, a friend of my wife and of mine, a young Italian priest, was visiting with us. Our conversation veered toward youth books and movies. Our friend lamented what he perceived as a lack of substance in contemporary books and movies for young people. He said that the books kids read and the movies they watch should reflect the truth and impel them toward right living and virtue, instead of simply mirroring the symptoms of a wounded culture. Perhaps my friend was onto something.

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Crime-Ridden Liberal Cities Have a New Favorite Scapegoat: Automakers

Chicago is the latest major city to sue Hyundai and Kia for failing to equip their U.S. cars for more than a decade with anti-theft technology, which was exposed on social media last year and made the vehicles a target for criminals.

“Unlike the movies, hot-wiring vehicles is far harder than it appears—unless that vehicle was manufactured by Hyundai or Kia,” the lawsuit filed Thursday by the city of Chicago states.

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Report: Millions of Americans Struggling Due to Medical Debt

A new report suggests that middle-class Americans are struggling with greater medical debt than any other class of Americans, with one out of every four having unpaid medical bills.

As Axios reports, the data comes from the left-wing think tank Third Way, which calculates that as many as 17 million middle-class Americans – those making between $50,000 and $100,000 per year – are struggling to pay off medical debts. Middle-class Americans in particular are even less likely to qualify for Medicare than low-income Americans.

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Texas U.S. Rep McCaul Presses Biden Admin for Info on Unknown Number of American Inmates in Dominican Republic

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas demanded answers from the Biden administration regarding the status of American prisoners in the Dominican Republic – the number of which is currently unknown – in a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday, and obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A number of American citizens are currently imprisoned in the Dominican Republic, some of which are likely under the country’s “preventative detention” system, which requires no charges or evidence of crime for imprisonment, according to McCaul’s letter. McCaul expressed concern to Blinken that the Biden administration has failed to keep track of the number of these American prisoners and demanded action on behalf of the detainee’s families, who are unaware of the status or condition of their loved ones.

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National Archives Acknowledges 5,400 Biden Pseudonym Emails, Faces Lawsuit for Their Release

The National Archives and Records Administration acknowledged possessing potentially up to 5,400 emails connected to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s pseudonym accounts that he used to forward government information and discuss business with his son, Hunter Biden, and others, and on Monday the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit to compel the agency to turn over the emails.

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Dramatic Video Shows Law Enforcement Clearing Nevada Highway Blockade, Arresting Climate Activists

A dramatic video recording of law enforcement officers ramming through climate activists’ blockade as they attempted to stop traffic surfaced on Sunday.

Climate activists blocked a road leading into the Burning Man festival in Nevada on Sunday, causing a massive traffic jam, according to multiple reports and to video footage of the incident shared on Twitter. Video footage shared on Twitter appeared to show Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Police vehicles smashing through their barricade, and a law enforcement officer drawing his gun and arresting the protesters.

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Kari Lake Announces New Trial Date in Lawsuit to Obtain Mail-In Ballot Signatures

Former GOP Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake announced an upcoming trial date in a lawsuit to obtain mail-in ballot signatures.

“We are scheduled for a 2-day trial set for September 21 & 25th,” Lake wrote on X, the platform previously called Twitter. “I will never stop fighting for Honest & Transparent Elections.”

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Rides Debate Momentum to Second Place in New Poll

Ohio biotech entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has overtaken Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for second place in the Republican Party nomination chase, surging several points since last week’s debate, according to internal polling.

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DHS Hides Monthly Number of Illegal Migrants Released into U.S., Former Immigration Judge Says

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is deliberately not releasing the monthly totals of all illegal migrants who wind up getting released into the U.S. after they are encountered by U.S. authorities at the border, a former U.S. immigration judge says.

Andrew Arthur, who served for eight years as an immigration judge at the now-closed immigration court in York, Pennsylvania, told Just the News that DHS does track the total number of migrants released after an encounter with border agents, but making that data available to the public would paint the Biden Administration in a negative light.

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Florida Congressman Files Article of Impeachment Against U.S. Defense Secretary

U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Florida, made good on his promise earlier this year to file articles of impeachment against Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. On Friday, he filed one article of impeachment against Austin alleging high crimes and misdemeanors.

Mills appears to be the first to file an article of impeachment against a Defense secretary in U.S. history.

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Americans Overwhelmingly Back Cutting Regulations to Boost Energy Production, Poll Shows

An overwhelming majority of Americans support the idea of tearing up regulations to boost domestic energy production and independence, according to a new poll by Power the Future (PTF) obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Of those surveyed, 90% found at least somewhat convincing the argument that permitting reform would strengthen U.S. energy independence, enhance national security and allow the country to stand tall in the face of geopolitical challenges, with 64% of respondents saying that the idea was extremely or very convincing to them, the PTF poll found. Eighty-eight percent of the poll’s respondents support improvements to the federal permitting system for energy infrastructure projects in order to keep energy affordable and reliable.

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Poll: Nine in 10 Americans Worried About Fentanyl Overdose Deaths

Fentanyl

Nearly 90% of U.S. voters are concerned about fentanyl trafficking as drug overdose deaths continue to mount in the U.S. ahead of the 2024 election, according to a new poll. 

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, found that 57% of those surveyed are very concerned about fentanyl overdose deaths. An additional 32% are somewhat worried, or 89% overall indicating some level of concern.

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Commentary: The Mugshot Heard ‘Round the World

Donald Trump’s historic arrest in Georgia Thursday evening was a virtual declaration of war on America. A former president was dragged into a filthy county jail behind enemy lines and had his mugshot taken, adding insult to the injury of an indictment for the bogus crime of challenging his political opponent. The dramatic moment followed days of buildup, as the “co-conspirators” in his “criminal enterprise” were methodically paraded in front of the country. These nefarious plotters include lawyers like John Eastman, a decent man whose “crime” is giving legal advice on a contentious constitutional question.

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Kyle Rittenhouse Sued by Estate of Man He Shot in Self-Defense

Kyle Rittenhouse is being sued by the estate of Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the men whom Rittenhouse shot in self-defense. 

The estate filed the lawsuit on Friday, coinciding with the third anniversary of the death of Rosenbaum, 36, in Kenosha, Wisc., during protests sparked after police shot a black man, Jacob Blake.

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Commentary: House Freedom Caucus Wants To Do Something About Out of Control Spending

On Monday, the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) struck a blow in the fight for fiscal displume. In a 431-word statement, the conservative House Republicans put Official Washington on notice that when Congress returned in September and took up the seemingly annual short-term spending bill known as a “Continuing Resolution,” the HFC would not vote to fund business as usual. Instead, HFC members would only support a short-term spending bill to keep the government open if it also included several of their key policy priorities – policy priorities that would represent significant shifts in key areas of government policy.

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Small Businesses Feel the Pain of Inflation-Driven Interest Rates

Small business owners are feeling the pain of inflation-driven interest rate hikes, another difficulty for those owners to overcome as they continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic-era shutdowns.

A rash of federal spending and an increase in the money supply in recent years have fueled inflationary pressures. Prices soared during the beginning of the Biden administration, making it hard for Americans to make ends meet.

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GOP Presidential Candidates Attempt to Seize on Any Momentum They Garnered in First Debate

Every candidate declared victory after Wednesday night’s first Republican presidential debate — even some who didn’t take the stage.

But what’s next for these self-proclaimed winners on the road to the Republican Party nomination?

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California Church Sues Government over Alleged ‘Spying’ on Worshippers

On Tuesday, a California church that had previously been ordered to pay over $1.2 million in fines to the state government filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming that the local government spied on its worshippers.

Fox News reports that the Calvary Chapel San Jose, led by Pastor Mike McClure, alleges that officials in Santa Clara County utilized the Colorado-based company SafeGraph to engage in “an invasive and warrantless geofencing operation to track residents” without their knowledge. The lawsuit was filed on the church’s behalf by the advocacy group Advocates for Faith & Freedom.

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Over 40 Percent of Colleges Closed Since COVID-19 Are Christian

Over 40% of the colleges that have closed or consolidated since the start of the pandemic are Christian colleges, according to a report

Christian college closures noted in Higher Ed Dive’s public and private nonprofit college tracker include Cabrini University in Pennsylvania and Alliance University (AU) in New York, which will close Aug. 31.

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Commentary: The Monetary Mistakes Behind the Downfall of Cleopatra and the Last Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

When we think of ancient Egypt, most of us recall first its most famous and distinctive features: pyramids, pharaohs, and the Nile. As an economic historian, I hoped at the start of recent research that a sound currency might be another distinction of the Egyptians I would discover.

Alas, their story is pretty much the same one we find throughout history and all over the world: Money is monopolized by government officials, who then cheat the people by debasing it—which means diluting the precious metal content in it’s coinage, printing too much of it if it’s paper, or both. Egypt is no exception, though its experience is rich in colorful perpetrators, from fifteen pharaohs named Ptolemy to the Cleopatra of both Shakespeare and Hollywood fame.

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Proposed Federal Regulation Could Force Employers to Pay for Time Off for Abortions

A new proposal from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) could require paid time off for women to get abortions and may even require employers to pay for travel related to the procedure, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The EEOC proposed new guidelines in August to enforce the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that was signed into law in December 2022, with the new guidelines classifying abortion as a related medical condition, according to the proposal from the EEOC. While the rule can’t require employers to pay directly for an abortion, the classification could open the door for employers to be required to give paid time off for an abortion and possibly even for employers to pay for travel expenses if the woman’s state does not permit an abortion, experts told the DCNF.

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Montana AG Asks SCOTUS to Take Up Case Challenging State Agency That Encouraged Social Media Censorship

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen asked the Supreme Court Friday to hear a case that challenges a state agency’s efforts to police election-related “misinformation” on Twitter.

A group of nine attorneys general led by Knudsen filed an amicus brief Friday urging the Supreme Court to hear O’Handley v. Weber, a lawsuit challenging the California Secretary of State’s Office of Election Cybersecurity’s practice of flagging “false or misleading” election information for removal by Twitter. The states call the agency’s actions an “anathema” to the First Amendment and argue they reflect similar conduct occurring at the federal level.

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Commentary: The Economic Benefits of School Choice

It’s back to school for Florida students and many others across the country this week. The first days and weeks of a new school year are always filled with anticipation, adjustments, transitions and growth for parents and students. Yet, this school year’s “firsts” for an expanding pool of families also includes the first time that their children will have the resources and freedom to enroll in the school of their choice. The short and long-term consequences of these new opportunities aren’t just experienced within the four walls of a home or school building, or by the families now empowered to pursue them – the impact of education choice stretches across communities and economies, helping to unleash prosperity and growth that benefits everyone.

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Republican Candidates Need Not Apply: Media Tracker’s New Study Shows Just How Politically Biased Google’s Search Results Are

Google has long been accused of suppressing conservative speech, but a new study shows the internet search engine giant is playing favorites with Democrats in the 2024 presidential race.

By typing in just one query, “Presidential campaign websites,” Google returned only Democratic Party candidates — some of whom are not even running in 2024, according to Media Research Center, the media watchdog and parent of conservative news site NewsBusters, which is “committed to exposing and combating liberal media bias.”

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Virginia Natural Gas Pipeline Continues Construction Through Opposition

After a ruling in its favor from the Supreme Court at the end of July, it appeared that construction on the 303-mile natural gas Mountain Valley Pipeline could continue unhindered in Virginia. Not so.

The Supreme Court decision settled objections to a provision congressional Republicans had slipped into the debt ceiling bill passed in June. The provision directed government agencies to grant the needed permits for the pipeline’s completion. It moved jurisdiction over the pipeline from the Fourth Circuit Court – which had ruled against it in several cases – to the D.C. federal court.

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Student Pilot Suffers Cardiac Arrest While Flying, Other Pilots Have Become Incapacitated or Had Cardiac Arrests This Year

Since the rollout of the COVID-19 injections, hundreds of U.S. pilots have reported adverse side effects, most often chest pains, myocarditis, and pericarditis. Since the beginning of this year, dozens of pilots have reportedly become incapacitated and, in many cases died before, during or after their flights. In at least ten of the cases, the pilots reportedly suffered cardiac arrests.

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Commentary: With Fewer than 1,500 Catholics in Mongolia, Pope Francis’ Upcoming Visit Brings Attention to the Long and Complex History of the Minority Religious Group

Pope Francis is set to make the first-ever visit to Mongolia, a country with fewer than 1,500 Catholics, all of whom have come to the faith since 1992. But the pope’s visit is a reminder that the country has a long and complex history with Christianity, among many other faiths.

Mongolia has only 3.4 million people, and at least 87.4% are Buddhists. The small Catholic community came into existence after this landlocked country, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, began to abandon its communist ideology and embraced different religions. At that time, it also restored diplomatic relations with the Vatican and welcomed Catholic missionaries.

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Study: Transgender Surgeries Tripled over Three Years Due to Obama Policies

A new study shows that during the period between 2016 and 2019, the number of “transgender surgeries” in the United States nearly tripled, due in large part to policies enacted by the Obama Administration.

As reported by the New York Post, the number of Americans who pursued surgical operations to “transition” to the opposite gender was around 4,500 in 2016. In 2019, that number rose dramatically to over 13,000. The study revealing these statistics was published on Wednesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association’s (JAMA) Network Open.

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Christian Mother Fights for Right to Adopt After Refusing to Affirm Gender Transitions for Minors

Christian single mother Jessica Bates was “shocked” when Oregon denied her adoption application because she did not support medically transitioning children, she told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

Bates, a mother of five, was looking to adopt a “sibling pair” in 2022 six years after her husband died in a car accident, saying to the DCNF that she felt it was a “calling from God,” but after going through the application process, state officials with the Department of Human Services explained that she would need to agree to support any adopted child’s desire to have a gender transition. As a Christian, Bates told the DCNF that she knew this requirement was “denying reality” as well as her faith, and filed a lawsuit with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) against the state in April after they reportedly prevented her from moving forward in the process.

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Report from the Southern Border: Interview with Todd Bensman

Working as a reporter and now as a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, you have done a lot of “shoe leather” reporting at the U.S. southern border — covering the Mexican drug wars and, in the last years, immigration. Unlike so many immigration reporters who rely on second hand reports, you have personally interviewed at least 1,000 immigrants. Why do you do this and how does what you learn differ from the prevailing narrative?

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‘Choke Point 2.0’: Bank Regulators Cut Porn Industry off from Banks, States Pass Age Limits to Porn

As Republicans lead state efforts to prevent minors from accessing pornography, the porn industry is fighting a renewed legal battle against the federal government after the Biden administration halted a rule ensuring “fair access to banking services.”

The battle is starting what critics call “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” using its authority over the banking sector.

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Stanford Accused of Rebooting CIA Mind-Control Project with ‘News Source Trustworthiness Ratings’

A proposal in a Stanford University journal for “news source trustworthiness ratings” would, if it advances, be like a digital reboot of the CIA’s psychedelic mind-control experiments from the Cold War era, says a former State Department cyber official who now leads a online free speech watchdog group.

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Biden DOJ Sues SpaceX for Preferring American Citizens over Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Its Hiring Practices

On Thursday, the Biden Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against SpaceX, accusing the company of discrimination for preferring American citizens over asylum seekers and refugees in its hiring practices.

In its 13-page complaint, the Justice Dept. alleges that SpaceX “routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).”  The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division seeks to force SpaceX to give “fair compensation” to non-citizens that were not hired.

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