Day: December 12, 2023

Inflation Refuses to Go Away as Prices Stay Elevated

Virginia Star Staff

Inflation ticked slightly down year-over-year in November but continued to remain well above the Federal Reserve’s target, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) release on Tuesday.

The consumer price index (CPI), a broad measure of the prices of everyday goods, increased 3.1% on an annual basis in November, compared to 3.2% in October, according to the BLS. Core CPI, which excludes the volatile categories of energy and food, remained high, rising 4.0% year-over-year in October, compared to 4.0% in October.

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House GOP Leadership Pulls Both FISA Bills Following Backlash

Just the News

House Republican leadership pulled two bills reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act from the floor, as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., faced backlash for allowing two bills to be introduced on the surveillance law.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a member of the House Rules Committee, confirmed to the Washington Examiner late Monday evening that neither of the bills reforming Section 702 would come to the floor for a vote this week. 

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Harvard Covered Up a Secret Plagiarism Probe into President Claudine Gay During Antisemitism Storm — Threatened The New York Post

Admin

The New York Post  Harvard University covered up a high-level investigation into whether its controversial president was a plagiarist — and used an expensive law firm to threaten The Post over our own probe. The college announced Tuesday morning that it had investigated Claudine Gay over whether some of her…

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Harvard Board Says President Claudine Gay Will Remain Despite Calls for Her Ouster

Just the News

The Harvard board on Tuesday said Claudine Gay would remain as president of the university despite calls for her ousting following her answers about antisemitism before Congress last week as well as allegations she plagiarized parts of her Ph.D. thesis. “As members of the Harvard Corporation, we today reaffirm our support for President Gay’s continued leadership of Harvard University,” the board, known as the Harvard Corporation, said in a statement signed by all members except for Gay. “Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence that President Gay is the right leader to help our community heal and to address the very serious societal issues we are facing.”

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Virginia Lawmakers Urge Department of Defense to Address Chinese Seabed Mining

The Center Square

The U.S. Department of Defense is being urged by members of Congress to develop a national security plan to address China’s interest and investments in seabed mining.  

Virginia U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, led over two dozen legislators including fellow Rep. Jen Kiggans in sounding the alarm on China’s involvement in mining critical resources, such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, manganese and zinc from the seabed.

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Med Schools Redo ‘Diversity’ Programs After Federal Complaints

Virginia Star Staff

Several medical schools across the nation have recently amended or scaled back diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies after they were flagged by Do No Harm, a medical advocacy group that seeks to push back against declining meritocratic standards and DEI encroachments in med school curricula.

The watchdog organization has filed more than 140 complaints with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights within the last two years, and nearly 40 investigations have been opened so far, with 30 still active, according to a spokesperson.

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YoungkinWatch: Governor Denies Campaigning on Abortion Was Mistake, Acknowledges Americans ‘Living Paycheck to Paycheck’

Tom Pappert
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) denied that Virginia Republicans suffered from his political action committee’s heavy campaigning to restrict abortion during the November elections during a Monday interview. However, the governor also acknowledged the majority of Americans are “living paycheck to paycheck” in remarks that follow a leadership challenge against his allies in the House of Delegates, which was reportedly orchestrated due to frustrations over Republicans’ failure to campaign on the economy.

Responding to criticisms that Virginia Republicans may have suffered due to Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC spending heavily in favor of restricting abortion during the 2023 elections, the governor told Bloomberg that campaigning on abortion “was not a mistake.” He seemed to argue the issue gave Republicans something to run on, telling the outlet, “I firmly believe that one of the challenges that we have had as Republicans is we haven’t been clear on what we’re going to do.”

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Commentary: Farmers are Turning to an Ancient Practice to Improve Agriculture

RealClearWire

From ancient Egypt to medieval England, cultivating one or more crops in the same field was common practice among many farmers for thousands of years. However, in the last century, food producers largely stopped ‘intercropping’ and moved towards an industrial type of agriculture – a shift that contributed to 34% of the world’s farmland being degraded today. 

“Interest is growing in intercropping [again] because farmers increasingly understand it improves their soil health,” said Jerry Allford, an organic farmer and advisor from the Soil Association, a UK charity promoting sustainable agriculture. Jerry thinks this renewed focus can “open up a whole new way of farming” because it can bridge profitability with regenerative agriculture practices. 

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Commentary: Biden Administration Moves to Empower Government to Take Intellectual Property, Inventions, and Medicines

Virginia Star Staff

Inventors figure out how to create something that is better than what existed before, and then protect their rights to the idea/creation with a patent.  This is a fundamental principle of private property, one which our nation’s entire economic system is based.

The U.S. Constitution enshrines this basic idea into the DNA of our nation as Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 known as the Patent and Copyright Clause plainly states, “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

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