Month: June 2024

Biden DHS Board Painted Trump Supporters, Military and Religious People as Potential Terror Risk, Docs Show

Virginia Star Staff
People Praying

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory board characterized supporters of President Donald Trump, as well as those who are in the military and religious people, as posing potential domestic terrorism risks, according to internal documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL).

The board, called the “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” was created in September 2023 to provide DHS with “expert” analysis on subjects such as terrorism and fentanyl trafficking. The panel included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, all of whom signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy.

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Instagram Pushes Sexualized Content on 13-Year-Olds Within Minutes of Logging In, Studies Show

Virginia Star Staff
Teenager on Phone

Instagram recommends sexualized content to young teenagers within minutes of their first log in, according to studies from The Wall Street Journal and Northeastern computer-science professor Laura Edelson.

The studies, which consisted of scrolling through Instagram Reels using new test accounts with listed ages of 13, found that adult sex-content creators appeared in the test accounts’ feeds in as little as three minutes, according to The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, if a test account chose to skip other forms of content and watch sexually suggestive content to completion, its feed would be dominated by sexualized content in under 20 minutes.

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Over 500,000 Illegal Migrants Crossed Southern Border While Biden Claimed He Had No Power to Stop Them

Virginia Star Staff
Illegal Immigrants

Hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals descended on the U.S.-Mexico border between the time President Joe Biden declared there was nothing more he could do to stop illegal immigration and when he issued his executive order.

Border Patrol agents made nearly 525,000 illegal immigrant encounters across the southern border in February, March, April and May, according to the latest data by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Those were the four months between Biden claiming to the media on Jan. 30 that he’s done “all I can do” unilaterally to stop the immigration crisis and the executive order he issued on June 4 that seeks to cap southern border crossings.

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‘Incompetence’: Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Much Money It Sent to Chinese Entities for Risky Virus Research

Virginia Star Staff
Science Lab

The Department of Defense (DOD) does not know how much money it directly or indirectly sent to Chinese entities to conduct research on viruses with pandemic potential, according to a new report by the DOD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The OIG’s report found that DOD has supplied Chinese entities — whether directly or indirectly via subgrants — with taxpayer cash to research pathogens and the enhancement thereof, but the exact figure is unknown because of “limitations” in the DOD’s internal tracking system. Government funding for such research in China has come under scrutiny since the coronavirus pandemic, which multiple government entities believe started when an engineered virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory that was hosting U.S. government-backed gain-of-function research.

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Commentary: If Character Matters, Biden Flunks the Test

RealClearWire
Joe Biden

When a candidate runs on character, you know his record can’t be good.

Hence President Biden’s reported $50 million spend on an ad titled “Character Matters,” which features unflattering photos of Donald Trump while focusing on the Republican nominee’s legal troubles. Hey, we paid good taxpayer money engineering those court cases and we’re not going to waste it.

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Virginia Congressional Primary Race Could Take ‘Weeks’ to ‘Complete’

The Center Square
John McGuire and Bob Good

Tuesday’s Republican primary race for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District between state Sen. John McGuire and incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Good is still too close to call.

McGuire holds a razor-thin lead of 313 votes, according to the latest numbers from the Virginia Department of Elections. Good, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, is holding on to hope that lingering votes will save his seat.

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Commentary: Geopolitics and Demand Growth Underpin Need for Commonsense Energy Policies

RealClearWire
Oil rig

The U.S. energy sector finds itself in a precarious position. Increasing geopolitical volatility and strong energy demand forecasts could spell trouble domestically in the future. The U.S. needs to stop hamstringing American energy companies and invest in the nation’s infrastructure, such as pipelines, processing, and production.

If we have learned anything in the last two and a half years, it’s that the U.S.’ energy industry is not free from geopolitical chaos globally. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Houthi’s attacks in Yemen backed by Iran and turmoil in the Middle East have very real repercussions for the average American. We may not be as intensely intertwined with those realities as our European allies, but energy is a global market with implications for domestic prices, supply, and demand. While different events can affect prices at home, there are steps the administration can take to protect our energy sector.

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Congress Presses to See If U.S. Intel Warned Biden of Son’s Business Deals

Just the News
Hunter Biden and Joe Biden

House Republicans have built a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Hunter Biden made millions while his father was vice president from business associates with unsavory backgrounds, including a Ukrainian energy firm deemed corrupt by the State Department, a Chinese executive convicted by DOJ of corruption, a Russian oligarch unable to get an American bank account because of red flags, a Romanian oligarch charged with bribery in his country, and two Americans convicted of securities fraud.

And now, an Associated Press/University of Chicago poll shows that two thirds of Americans believe Joe Biden did something illegal or unethical.

But the tangle of complex transactions and foreign names can often complicate the explanations of influence peddling.

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Latino Voters in Key Swing-States Trust Trump More on Handling Immigration than Biden, Poll Shows

Virginia Star Staff
Donald Trump in front of border wall (composite image)

More Latino voters trust former President Donald Trump on immigration issues over President Joe Biden, according to a new poll in key swing states.

Forty-one percent of Hispanic voters trust Trump to handle immigration while only 38 percent said the same for Biden, according to a newly-released Equis poll. The survey reached out to 1,592 registered Latino voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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Powerful Union Suddenly Courting Republicans Spent Millions on Liberal Advocacy, New Report Reveals

Virginia Star Staff
Sean O'Brien

A massive union that’s suddenly rubbing shoulders with Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — ahead of November’s election has spent millions on left-wing advocacy, a new report shows.

Of the more than $9 million the International Brotherhood of Teamsters spent on political advocacy between 2019 and 2022, 99 percent went to groups linked to the Democratic Party, liberal economic think tanks and anti-Trump media operations, according to a new report from the Center for Union Facts given exclusively to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Despite the union’s strong leftward lean, the Teamsters have donated to the Republican National Committee (RNC), petitioned to speak at the party’s convention in July and even met with Trump as part of a broader effort to ingratiate themselves with conservatives.

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Huge Percentage of EV Owners Want to Go Back to Normal Cars, Study Finds

Virginia Star Staff
Tesla Charging

Nearly half of American electric vehicle (EV) owners want to buy an internal combustion engine model the next time they buy a car, according to a new study from McKinsey and Company, a leading consulting firm.

Approximately 46 percent of Americans who own an EV want to go back to a standard vehicle for their next purchase, citing issues like inadequate charging infrastructure and affordability, according to McKinsey’s study, which was obtained and reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The study’s findings further suggest that the Biden administration’s EV push is struggling to land with American consumers, after 46 percent of respondents indicated that they are unlikely or very unlikely to purchase an EV in a June poll conducted by The Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.

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Wikipedia Is Biased in Favor of Liberals, Study Finds

Virginia Star Staff

Wikipedia entries are more likely to paint public figures on the right in a negative light than the left, a Manhattan Institute study released Thursday found.

The study analyzed the sentiments of 1,628 words that were used in reference to political topics and found that Wikipedia generally uses more negative terms in reference to right-leaning public figures, and less when referencing left-leaning figures. The results would suggest that Wikipedia is contradicting its “neutral-point-of-view” policy, according to the study.

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Commentary: Biden Gun Regulations Don’t Affect Mass Shootings

RealClearWire
Shooting Range

President Biden is making gun control a central part of his reelection campaign. In a new ad, Biden says that Trump did “nothing” when children were “gunned down in classrooms,” innocent people “killed in church,” and others “massacred at a concert.”

The Biden campaign is referring to shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas; and an outdoor concert in Las Vegas. In four years, there were 18 mass shootings that occurred in public places and that did not transpire during another crime such as robbery or selling drugs. (A “mass killing” is defined by criminologists as involving four or more fatalities, not counting the shooter.)

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Biden Posts Worst Showing in 20 Years with Absolutely Crucial Voting Bloc, Analysis Finds

Virginia Star Staff
Biden voters

President Joe Biden’s lead with women voters is the lowest showing Democrats have seen in 20 years, according to a recent average of polls compiled by The New York Times.

Biden’s lead among women had dipped down to single digits, which is the weakest lead Democrats have had in two decades, according to polling averages compiled by the NYT. Former President Donald Trump is leading among men in the double digits, eclipsing Biden’s lead with women and potentially jeopardizing his reelection, according to the aggregate polls.

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Commentary: The Left’s Never-Ending War to Disqualify Justices

Virginia Star Staff
Supreme Court Justices

Clarence Thomas accepted vacations paid by a rich guy. Therefore he should be disqualified as a Supreme Court justice?

Samuel Alito’s wife hangs flags that may carry implied political messages. Therefore he should be disqualified as a Supreme Court justice?

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Music Spotlight: Tae Lewis

Bethany Bowman

Having lived in Nashville for more than 12 years, I have learned you never know who you will meet or see perform at a random writers’ round who may become the next big thing. And even though I only watch bits and pieces of the music competition shows, I was watching The Voice this year because Music Spotlight artist, Donny Van Slee, was on it.

But I got the shock of my life when I saw Tae Lewis in the Knockout Round. When he sang Cody Johnson’s “Nothing on You,” you could have picked me up off the floor. I remember sitting next to Lewis at the Listening Room a few years back. His friend introduced him as a new artist in town (of which there are literally hundreds).

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Feds Try to Delay Release of Non-Public COVID Vaccine Safety Data Until at Least 2026

Just the News
Man receiving vaccine

The Biden administration is seeking to delay until at least 2026 the release of COVID-19 vaccine safety data that has been kept outside the government’s normal adverse events reporting system.

The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services asked U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton this week to issue an 18-month stay that keeps them from having to release the Food and Drug  Administration’s data to Just the News under the Freedom of Information Act.

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Joe Biden Adviser Had Contact with Burisma During Height of Corruption Probe, Emails Show

Just the News
Former Energy Adviser Amos Hochstein

Hunter Biden’s team arranged for a senior Burisma Holdings executive to meet with one of his father Joe Biden’s advisers at the State Department a decade ago, just months after the Ukrainian energy firm’s owner was targeted in a high-profile and U.S.-backed corruption investigation, according to documents secretly gathered years ago by the FBI. The elder Biden was vice president at the time.

The documents, obtained by Just the News, chronicle a plan in summer and fall 2014 to connect Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi with then-State Department energy adviser Amos Hochstein, now a Middle East envoy for President Joe Biden. It was facilitated by the law firm that employed Hunter Biden at the time, Boies Schiller Flexner.

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Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Trump-Era Tax

Virginia Star Staff
United States Supreme Court

The Supreme Court rejected Thursday a challenge to a 2017 tax law passed by Congress.

The case, Moore v. United States, considers whether the 16th Amendment permits taxing unrealized gains. Kathleen and Charles Moore sued for a refund in 2019 after they were hit with a $14,729 tax bill for their investment in an overseas company, though they never received any payment in earnings from the company.

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Trump Fumes over Fox News Poll Showing Biden Ahead

Just the News
Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump is livid over a recent Fox News poll showing President Joe Biden with a narrow lead in the 2024 presidential election.

The survey showed Biden leading Trump 50% to 48% and marked a 3% shift from the May poll in which Trump led 49% to 48%. Conducted June 14-17, the survey questioned 1,095 registered voters and has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3%.

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Pennsylvania County Votes for ‘Non-Sanctuary’ Status to Protect Residents from Illegal Immigration

Admin

ABC 3340 A non-sanctuary city — that’s what one county in Pennsylvania discussed at a Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday night that disappointed some residents. East Hempfield Township supervisors said the resolution they proposed would “protect residents and businesses located within the township from illegal immigration.” However, some residents disagreed, arguing that…

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Swing State Election Boards Engaged in Legal Battles over Election Certification Ahead of November

Just the News

County election boards in swing states across the country are engaged in legal battles over election certification ahead of the November elections, while others were threatened with legal action if they didn’t certify election results.

With the presidential election less than five months away, county election board members are either initiating or find themselves the subject of legal actions over the certification of elections. That process occurs before the state can certify election results.

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Industry Groups Sue over Biden Regulation Requiring Electric School Buses, Trucks

The Center Square
Rich Moskowitz, AFPM General Counsel

A coalition of industry groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a Biden administration rule.

A dozen groups joined together to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for the Biden administration’s new rule, finalized earlier this year, which requires model 2027 trucks to meet strict emissions standards that critics say are meant to push out diesel and gas vehicles and to replace them with electric vehicles.

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Senate Passes Major Pro-Nuclear Bill, Sends to Biden’s Desk

Virginia Star Staff
Sen Shelley Moore Capito and Rep Jeff Duncan (composite image)

The Senate passed a major piece of pro-nuclear energy legislation on Tuesday, sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.

The legislature’s upper chamber passed the Fire Grants and Safety Act — a bill containing the text of the pro-nuclear ADVANCE Act — by a strong 88-2 bipartisan vote. The bill represents one of the most significant efforts undertaken in recent years by Congress to spur the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure and capacity, as well as a rare moment of consensus among both Democrats and Republicans on energy policy through Biden’s first term in office.

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Ecuador will Ask Chinese Citizens for Visas Due to an Increase in Illegal Migration

ADN America

The government of Ecuador will begin requiring visas from Chinese citizens as of July 1, 2024, in response to the significant increase in irregular migration flows of citizens of this country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility declared that large groups of Chinese citizens have been detected who have not left the country within the 90 days of entry allowed or who use Ecuador as a starting point to reach other destinations in the hemisphere, especially To united states.

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Commentary: The Way to Unite America’s Political Spectrum Is Economic

Virginia Star Staff
Middle Class Rally

An insightful, if pithy, tweet surfaced recently on my feed. It nicely summarized what happened to neutralize an awakening electorate in America over the past decade:

“They got you fighting a culture war to stop you from fighting a class war. It was designed that way in 2012 when the woke left & right were created. Occupy Wall Street/The Tea Party were making inroads uniting the political spectrum & the people against Wall Street following the 2008 crash. ‘We’ll get them to argue about women & their cocks instead'”

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Foreign Aid and Student Loan Forgiveness Behind Massive Increase in Deficit Estimate, Congressional Budget Office Says

Virginia Star Staff
Joe Biden

America’s debt is growing faster than previously expected, largely due to actions taken by the Biden administration and recent legislation, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The United States’ projected deficit is $1.9 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year, $400 billion higher than it was projected to be in February, the CBO announced Tuesday. CBO analysts increased their estimate due in large part to the foreign aid package signed by President Joe Biden in April and his administration’s efforts to reduce student loan balances.

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Chemical Pollution from East Palestine Train Wreck Blanketed Third of the Country, Study Reveals

Virginia Star Staff
East Palestine Train Derailment

Chemical pollution emitting from the East Palestine, Ohio, train crash in 2023 rained down on 16 different states, according to a study released on Wednesday.

A Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed and crashed in East Palestine in February 2023, sending plumes of black smoke rising over Ohio and Pennsylvania. The smoke carried the chemicals and polluted 16 states, spreading over roughly 540,000 square miles of land, according to a new study published in Environmental Research Letters.

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Judge Denies Motion by Planned Parenthood to Dismiss Trafficking Lawsuit from Missouri AG

Just the News
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey

Missouri GOP Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Tuesday evening that a judge has rejected a motion by Planned Parenthood to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state that alleges a clinic traffics minors out of state to obtain abortions.

“One step closer to eradicating Planned Parenthood from the State of Missouri,” Bailey wrote on the social media platform, X.

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