Month: June 2024

Vast Majority of Small Business Owners Worried Biden’s Economy Will Force Them to Close

Virginia Star Staff

A large portion of small business owners are concerned about their future amid wider financial stress under President Joe Biden, according to a new poll from the Job Creators Network Foundation (JCNF) obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Around 67 percent of small business owners were worried that current economic conditions could force them to close their doors, ten percentage points higher than just two years ago, according to the JCNF’s monthly small business poll. Respondents’ perceptions of economic conditions for their own businesses fell slightly in the month, from 70.2 to 68.1 points, with 100 points being the best possible business conditions, while perceptions of national conditions increased from 50.4 to 53.2 points.

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‘Give Us The Documents’: Tempers Flare as Matt Gaetz Grills Garland on Biden DOJ ‘Collusion’ with Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis

Virginia Star Staff
Attorney General Merrick Garland

Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz hammered Attorney General Merrick Garland Tuesday for calling claims that the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) directed former President Donald Trump’s conviction a “conspiracy theory,” but refusing to say whether he would turn over the department’s communications with prosecutors.

During his opening statement at the House Judiciary Committee hearing, Garland slammed “baseless” attacks on the DOJ’s work, specifically calling out “false claims” about the DOJ’s involvement in Trump’s Manhattan case, which ended last week with a jury convicting Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Gaetz pressed Garland on whether the DOJ would turn over communications with Bragg’s office, as well as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and New York Attorney General Letitia James, noting Garland was making the case for collusion appear stronger by not answering the question.

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s America Is a Gay Version of the Soviet Union

Virginia Star Staff
President Joe Biden at a pride event

“Show me the man and I will show you the crime,” so said Lavenitry Beria, the longtime head of Stalin’s secret police.

The Trump conviction shows that the same crooked principle of justice animates American courts today. Should we be surprised? The alliance between the United States and the USSR during the 1940s—the American taxpayer funded the Soviet takeover of half of Europe and Asia to the tune of 300 billion inflation-adjusted dollars—was the central event of the 20th century.

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Poll: Plurality of Americans Believe Trump Trial was Politically Motivated

Virginia Star Staff

A new poll shows that a sizable plurality of the American people believe that the New York trial of former President Donald Trump was a politically-motivated show trial.

As the Daily Caller reports, the ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that 47 percent of Americans believe the trial was indeed a political hit job, while 38 percent say that the trial was legitimate and fair. On the question of the “guilty” verdict, 50 percent of respondents believe the verdict was correct; by contrast, just 27 percent believe the verdict was wrong, while the remaining 23 percent said they “don’t know” what to believe with regards to the verdict.

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Trump Pledges to Find and Return Missing Migrant Children and Blasts Biden Over Many ‘Dead’ Kids

Virginia Star Staff
Border Surge

Former President Donald Trump committed to track down and return missing migrant children who have entered the country under President Joe Biden’s administration to their families.

Unaccompanied alien children (UACs) who cross into America typically get transferred to the Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), but a February 2023 New York Times reportfound that that the office lost more than 85,000 such children. “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Trump in an interview aired on “The Will Cain Show” Monday whether Trump would commit to finding and returning these children, with the former president saying he will if he is reelected.

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Vermont Blocked Christian Families From Fostering Over Gender Ideology, Lawsuit Alleges

Virginia Star Staff
Michael and Rebecca Gantt

A new lawsuit alleges that Vermont blocked two families from fostering children, despite the state’s foster care system crisis, because the families held traditional, religious views on gender and sexuality.

Brian and Kaitlyn Wuoti and Michael and Rebecca Gantt accused the Vermont Department for Children and Families of mandating an “ideological position at the expense of children” in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Both Brian Wuoti and Michael Gantt are pastors, and both families hold traditional, Christian religious views.

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Google Collected Children’s Voices, License Plate Numbers and Car Pool Routes, Privacy Breach Leak Reveals: Report

Admin

New York Post A trove of leaked internal documents shows that Google collected children’s voice data, and recorded license plate numbers and car pool routes including home addresses, according to a report. The privacy breaches included thousands of alarming incidents that were flagged by Google employees between 2013 and 2018, 404…

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House GOP Vows Consequences for Government Weaponization with Budget Cuts, Criminal Referrals

Just the News

Another powerful House chairman struck closer to President Joe Biden, vowing to send a criminal referral asking asking prosecutors to charges first son Hunter Biden with lying to Congress.

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Eyes On Panama as Incoming President Promises Illegal Immigration Crackdown in Move Helping U.S.

Just the News
Panama's president-elect, José Raúl Mulino

Panama’s president-elect, José Raúl Mulino, pledged to crack down on illegal immigration by closing the infamous “Darien Gap” migrant passageway to South America, in a move that is expected to benefit the U.S.

Mulino, who is set to be inaugurated as president and prime minister of Panama on July 1, previously served in high-ranking governmental positions, including as the Minister of Public Security and the Minister of Government and Justice.

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Reports: California Exodus Continues, Southeastern States as Primary Destinations

The Center Square
Austin, Texas

As the California exodus continues, a new migration trend is occurring, with southeastern and Appalachian states taking the top spots as inbound migration destinations, according to new reports.

According to a new Consumer Affairs 2024 Migration Trends report, “California’s mass exodus continues to ensue,” with the South and Southeast region of the country being the “hottest regions for people moving.”

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Virginia Capital’s Guaranteed Income Pilot Program Showing Signs of Success

The Center Square
Richmond, Virginia

A study has yielded mostly positive results on the initial phase of Richmond, Virginia’s guaranteed income program.

The University of Pennsylvania Center for Guaranteed Income Research recently released a report on the city’s first cohort of participants in its pilot guaranteed income program.

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Commentary: A Spark In the Minds of the People

Virginia Star Staff
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams

What really happened in New York this past week in the prosecution of Donald Trump?  The breathless paid script readers of the controlled “press” wanted to gloat and heap disdain on the former President. Their glee was only matched by the vapid analysis of how the verdict might impact the election this year. And a few of the quislings of the Republican In Name Only (RINO) persuasion began to daydream about a return to the Republican Party that played the role of shill to the state, supporting ever more wars of imperial design and furthering the “project” of globalization.

But of course all of these things are mere momentary delusions.  In the scheme of things, the Soviet show trail in New York will have little impact on any of these things. It will, however, leave a lasting mark.

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Commentary: The Consequences of Delaying Offshore Oil and Gas Lease Sales

RealClearWire
Offshore oil rig

Offshore drilling has been a cornerstone of global energy production since the 1800s, fueling the American way of life and powering the global economy. From the early days of “on-water-drilling” to the advancement of the fixed platform units of today, offshore drilling has consistently contributed around 30 percent of global oil production. In the U.S., supply on federal offshore lands in the Gulf of Mexico alone accounts for approximately 15 percent of total crude oil production.

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Dozens of Energy Orgs Ask Congress to Kill Bill They Say Would ‘Inevitably’ Lead to Carbon Taxes

Virginia Star Staff
Utah Rep. John Curtis

Dozens of energy policy and advocacy groups signed a Monday letter to Congress to express their opposition to a bill they say could be the first step toward carbon taxes or tariffs.

The letter urges House lawmakers to vote against the PROVE IT Act, a bill that has not yet been introduced in the lower chamber but is expected to be soon. The PROVE IT Act — which has already been introduced in the Senate — would have the Department of Energy (DOE) study the carbon intensity of goods, including aluminum, steel, plastic and crude oil, produced in the U.S. and the carbon intensity of products from other countries, according to E&E News.

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Commentary: The Destructive Generation Proves America’s Weakest Link

Virginia Star Staff
Burning American Flag draped over fence

Governor Ronald Reagan, in his 1967 inaugural address, famously remarked, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”

Reagan today might have expanded on his theme by declaring that civilization itself is both fragile and can lost by a generation that recklessly spends its inheritance while neither appreciating nor replenishing it—if not ridiculing those who sacrificed so much to provide it.

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‘Deeply Regressive’: Riley Gaines Slams Biden’s Title IX Rules at Pro-Women Sports Rally

Virginia Star Staff
Riley Gaines

The Biden administration’s changes to Title IX will reverse 50 years of progress for female athletes by allowing biological men to keep competing in women’s sports, pro-women’s sports leaders said Friday at an Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition rally.

The event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was one of the first stops on the coalition’s Take Back Title IX bus tour, which calls on America’s leaders to ensure equal protections for female athletes under the federal regulation.

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Commentary: Republicans Vow to Scorch the Earth After Trump Conviction

RealClearWire
Donald Trump

by Philip Wegmann   Spurred by the volcanic temper of their base, Republicans are now preparing to scorch the earth in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s conviction, potentially setting off a chain reaction that could fundamentally alter the American political system entirely. No one knows exactly how far…

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Former President Trump to Participate in Arizona Town Hall, Answer Questions Directly from Voters

Kaitlin Housler
Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump will appear at a town hall event in Arizona on Thursday to answer questions directly from voters one week after being convicted by a Manhattan jury on all 34 counts in the falsification of business records linked to the Stormy Daniels hush money scandal last week.

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Bill Gates’ Ex-Wife Promises $1 Billion to Pro-Abortion Groups, Left-Wing Organizations

Virginia Star Staff
Melinda Gates

The ex-wife of liberal megadonor Bill Gates has committed to spending $1 billion supporting abortion and other left-of-center priorities over the next two years.

Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ new charity, announced Tuesday it would be spending to combat “the rollback of women’s rights and headwinds to social progress in the U.S. and around the world.” The philanthropy earmarked $200 million specifically for American organizations focused on “advanc[ing] women’s power and protect[ing] their rights, including reproductive freedom.”

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Israel Ministers Threaten to Quit Over Ceasefire, Official Says Biden’s Description ‘Not Accurate’

Just the News

Top Israeli ministers are threatening to quit, which would cause the government coalition to collapse, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to President Joe Biden’s cease-fire proposal. A senior Israeli official said that Biden’s description of the cease-fire proposal, which he unveiled Friday, was “not accurate,” NBC News reported Monday.

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Rule of Lawfare: Jury Instructions from NY Judge to Manhattan Jurors in Trump ‘Hush Money’ Case Contained Made-up and Selectively Chosen Language

Rachel Alexander

A New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 criminal counts related to falsifying business records last week, prompting outcry that New York Judge Juan Merchan, who was handpicked to handle the case and who donated to Joe Biden, committed misconduct during the trial, including how he handled the jury instructions. A CNN senior legal analyst reported that the case was full of so many legal stretches that employees of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office referred to it as the “zombie case.” Daniel Street, an attorney in Louisiana who writes about lawfare, told The Tennessee Star the jury instructions were “terrible.”

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Free Speech Group Files Lawsuit Against Indiana University over ‘Bias Response Team’

Virginia Star Staff
Indiana University

Indiana University is violating students’ First and 14th Amendment rights through its “far-reaching” bias reporting policy, a civil rights organization alleges.

Speech First filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana University on Wednesday arguing that the school is violating the rights of students by enacting a speech policy that “is designed solely to deter, discourage, and otherwise ‘prevent’ students from expressing disfavored views about the political and social issues of the day.” Under the policy, students can report others for “any conduct, speech, or expression, motivated in whole or in part by bias or prejudice meant to intimidate, demean, mock, degrade, marginalize, or threaten individuals or groups” on some aspect of their identity, like race or gender identity, according to Indiana University’s website.

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Economist: ‘True’ Federal Debt Masked by Draining U.S. Treasury

The Center Square
Janet Yellen

The federal debt continues to climb to unprecedented levels, but the “actual, true” debt is higher if the Treasury weren’t being drained, a national economist says.

Citing Bureau of the Fiscal Service data, E. J. Antoni, Ph.D., an economist at the Heritage Foundation, argues that as the federal debt increases, the “true daily deficit” is being masked by the amount of cash being drained from the U.S. Treasury by Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen.

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Commentary: Trump’s Trial Is a Symptom of a Larger Crisis in American Justice

Virginia Star Staff
Donald Trump

Naturally, the cataract of commentary on Thursday’s Stalinist guilty, guilty, guilty verdict against Donald Trump has divided itself into two distinct pools. One is gleeful. The other is alarmed. Rather than anatomize the differences between the two, I’d like to start by simply noting the size and fervor of the response.  There are, I believe, two essential points to bear in mind.

The first is that the outpouring is only incidentally about Trump.  You might find this a surprising statement since the news has been full of little besides Trump.

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Commentary: Vaccine Mandates Likely Exacerbated Healthcare Worker Shortage, New Research Shows

Virginia Star Staff
tired medical staff

In his book Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt makes a famous distinction between good and bad economists:

The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

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Federal Lawmakers Push for Greater Restrictions on ‘Lab-Grown Meat’

Virginia Star Staff
Lab and Meat

With the rise of so-called “lab-grown meat” being promoted as a “green” alternative to actual meat, federal lawmakers are beginning to follow the example set by several states as they push for restrictions on this new concoction.

As reported by the Associated Press, lab-grown meat is not yet available in grocery stores or served in restaurants anywhere in the United States. Several states, including Florida and Arizona, have already passed laws to ban the sale of such products, while Iowa has forbidden the distribution of such food in schools.

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Analysis: 89 Percent of Independents Say Trump Conviction Makes Them Either More Likely to Support Trump or No Difference

Virginia Star Staff
Donald Trump

15 percent of independents said that the New York City of conviction would make them more likely to support former President Donald Trump in 2024 election against incumbent President Joe Biden, with only 11 percent saying it would make them less likely, an NPR-Marist poll taken May 21 to May 23 shows. 74 percent said it would make no difference.

In addition, the poll had 10 percent of Republicans saying the conviction would make them less likely to vote for Trump if convicted and 7 percent of Democrats saying more likely to vote for Trump, a +3 percent advantage for Biden.

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Commentary: Teachers Also Think American Public Schools Are in Decline

Virginia Star Staff
Teacher

Eighty-two percent of teachers say that the general state of public K-12 education has gotten worse over the past five years. This is according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted in October and November of 2023. That’s not the only shocking statistic from the survey, either, which overall offers a grim statistical map of the fault lines fracturing our education system. However, these trends may offer some insight into how to fix our schools.

First, the teachers. Most teachers (77 percent) find their job frequently stressful, and a large majority (70 percent) say their school is understaffed, which may contribute to the fact that over 80 percent of teachers say they do not have enough time in the work day to complete all necessary tasks.

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Trump Welcomed with Thunderous Applause at UFC

Just the News
Donald Trump at UFC

Former President Donald Trump received thunderous applause from the crowd of an Ultimate Fighting Championship competition in Newark, New Jersey, as fans waited for the main event, which was Dustin Poirier’s match against Islam Makhachev for the UFC Lightweight Championship.

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CNN to Run Commercials During June Presidential Debates, Breaking From Tradition

Just the News
Donald Trump and Joe Biden

Presidential debates have traditionally run commercial free, but CNN reportedly plans to break from that tradition during its scheduled June 27 live debate.

The cable news network plans to run commercial breaks during the scheduled June 27 debate, according to the entertainment magazine Variety, citing unnamed sources.

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s Dangerous Natural Gas Game

RealClearWire
Joe Biden

If the devil is in the details, bureaucracy is hell on earth. Though terrain familiar to the Biden administration, Republicans must prepare to navigate it.

Witness the debacle over liquefied natural gas exports, wherein the White House, by “pausing” most new approvals, has catapulted the energy security of key U.S. allies straight into the buzzsaw of its climate ambitions. (The category of exports that will continue to be authorized is tiny.) The Department of Energy claims that a multifactor impact study due in early 2025 is required to determine whether and how the moratorium will be lifted.

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China Lands on the Far Side of the Moon in Historic Mission

Just the News
China Moon Landing

by Madeleine Hubbard   China on Sunday landed an unmanned spacecraft on the far side of the moon in a landmark mission to retrieve what is expected to be the first ever rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere. The Chang’e-6 craft, which is equipped with its own launcher,…

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Companies Scale Back Pride Month After Last Year’s Public Response Cost Them Millions

Just the News
Starbucks

June 1 will mark the start of “Pride” month, in which advocates of LGBTQIA+ causes celebrate that movement. In recent years, June has seen major corporate chains feature an array of “Pride”-themed merchandise and decorations, though some offerings have prompted considerable backlash from a non-receptive — even hostile public — in recent years.

2023 saw major retailers such as Target become the subject of boycotts over more controversial products marketed for children. Other companies, such as Anheuser-Busch came under scrutiny over marketing campaigns that failed to resonate with their traditional clientele.

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Emails Suggest Fauci Aides Miswrote Names to Evade FOIA

Just the News
Dr. Anthony Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci became a punchline for reportedly claiming to “not recall” more than 100 times in his transcribed interview with the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic how he ran the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during COVID-19.

His former chief of staff, Greg Folkers, may have a tougher sell: convincing lawmakers he is just coincidentally bad at spelling proper nouns likely to be searched in Freedom of Information Act requests related to COVID origins and federal funding of a suspected outbreak source.

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AP Wire Service Partners with Outlets Funded by Liberals to Launch ‘Nonpartisan’ News Initiative

Just the News
Journalist

The Associated Press announced that it would partner with five other outlets to create a nonpartisan news initiative prior to the upcoming 2024 election. These outlets appear to be predominantly, if not exclusively backed by liberal donors.

The AP announced Tuesday that it would be partnering with five local outlets in order to “expand the reach of local news ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election and increasing access to AP’s nonpartisan journalism, especially in communities that may have limited access to fact-based news.”

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Europe Embraces Border Walls in What Critics Say Is a Stark Contrast to Biden’s Policies

Just the News
Poland Border wall

NATO nations are bolstering their borders, with Poland taking particularly robust measures, in response to threats posed by Russia and Belarus, which critics of the Biden administration say is markedly different from the current security at the U.S. border.

Poland, Ukraine, Finland, Norway and the Baltic States agreed to create a “drone wall” last week, but Poland stepped up support for its border officials after a Polish Army soldier was stabbed by a person attempting to enter from Belarus on Tuesday.

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