01: Passionately Catholic
Month: January 2025
Pro-Life Christian Detained for Preaching Gospel, Offering to Adopt Babies at Abortion Clinic
Police detained a pro-life father and husband outside an Ohio abortion clinic for sharing the Gospel and offering to adopt abortion-minded women’s babies. Still, he plans to return to the clinic this weekend.
Zack and Lindsay Knotts have spent the past three Saturdays outside Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, an hour drive from their home in Youngstown. The Christian couple takes turns using amplified sound to preach the Gospel, plead with mothers to choose life, and offer women free resources. They even volunteer to adopt the women’s babies themselves.
Read MoreBiden DOJ Poured over $100 Million into ‘Restorative Justice,’ DEI Efforts for K-12 Students, New Report Finds
The Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Joe Biden awarded K-12 schools $100,113,942 in grants aimed at increasing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts since 2021, a new report says.
The DOJ divvied up at least 30 grants that explicitly mentioned DEI or stated an intention to improve outcomes for a specific demographic group. Many more included topics of restorative justice and social emotional learning, according to Parents Defending Education (PDE). A total of 102 grants involving such topics were sent to 946 school districts in 36 states, representing about 3,235,414 students.
Read MoreVirginia Legislation Would Require Parents Provide Consent for Children to Use Social Media
Legislation filed last month in Virginia would require social media companies to obtain verifiable parental consent before allowing minors to create accounts on social media platforms, effectively raising the age for Virginia’s existing parental consent requirement from 13 to 18, while also prohibiting the sale of data collected about children.
Senate Bill 783 was submitted on December 27, 2024, by State Senator David Suetterlein (R-Roanoke), and the bill’s description explains it requires social media companies to obtain “verifiable parental consent” before any minor Virginian can create an account or at least “before collecting, using, or disclosing such child’s personal data,” specifically in a commercial transaction.
Read MoreJudge Rejects Trump Bid to Toss Hush Money Conviction, Sets Sentencing for January 10
Justice Juan Merchan on Friday rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to toss out his conviction in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money case.
Read MoreJohnson Wins Speakership After Two Holdouts Flip
Mike Johnson has won the first round of voting for Speaker after two holdouts flipped to back him.
Read MoreJohnson Appears to Come Up Short in First Round, but Voting Stalls
Mike Johnson appears to have come up short in his bid to remain Speaker of the House, with several Republicans voting for other candidates and no one securing a majority.
Read MoreTop Story: Mortgage Rates Near Six-Month Peak as Bidenomics Burns Through American Buying Power
01: Passionately Catholic
Top Commentary: Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes Bankrupt
TSNN Featured: New Orleans Police Chief Admits She ‘Didn’t Know’ City Had Barriers to Stop Vehicles Driving on Sidewalks Before Terrorist Attack
H-1B Visas Have an Undeniable Fraud Problem
Shortly before Americans celebrated Christmas, two federal criminal cases affirmed long-standing warnings that the government’s H-1B visa program was ripe for fraud, and slow to bring accountability.
The cases in California and Illinois brought some long-awaited justice to schemes that have tried to help companies rig a system designed for narrow high-tech skills to instead hire foreigners for jobs that should have gone to Americans.
Read MoreCommentary: Obama’s ‘Censorship’ Office Goes Bankrupt
The Global Engagement Center, an office housed within the State Department and aiming to thwart disinformation and misinformation, has been forced by Congress to close up shop. It’s no mystery why; the taxpayer-backed GEC violated its mandate to work only overseas and devolved into a partisan enabler of speech suppression in the United States.
Read MoreThree Major Financial Firms Join Exodus from Climate Group, Bringing Total to Five in Past Month
Citigroup and Bank of America announced Tuesday that they were leaving the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Reuters reported.
Then on Thursday, Morgan Stanley announced, it, too was terminating its membership with the group, according to Bloomberg.
Read MoreMortgage Rates Near Six-Month Peak as Bidenomics Burns Through American Buying Power
U.S. mortgage rates rose to an almost six-month high toward the end of 2024, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Read MoreMexico’s Tariff Move on Apparel Imports Disrupts Supply Chains, Pushes Firms Toward Reshoring in the US
Just before Christmas, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a significant increase in tariffs on textiles and apparel imports, along with the end of a “border-skipping” practice, which allowed U.S. e-commerce sellers to bypass tariffs on Chinese goods. The move – part of Mexico’s strategy to protect its own domestic textile industry and reduce reliance on Chinese imports – sent ripples through the global supply chain.
Read MoreThe United Football League Announces Its 2025 Season
The United Football League (UFL) announced its full 2025 game schedule on Thursday, adding that the league’s media partners – FOX, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, FOX Deportes, and ESPN Deportes – will broadcast all 43 games.
Read MoreAnti-Trump Republican Denver Riggleman Considers Campaign for Virginia Governor
Former U.S. Representative Denver Riggleman, the former Republican congressman who considered voting for President Joe Biden in 2020, and served under the House January 6 committee after he left Congress in 2021.
Read MoreTwo Indian Nationals Indicted for Elder Fraud Scheme Targeting Victims Nationwide
A federal grand jury in Tucson returned an indictment against two Indian nationals – Ahmed Maqbul Syed, 57, and Rupesh Chandra Chintakindi, 27 – over their alleged involvement in a conspiracy to commit money laundering. Syed, in addition to the money laundering charge, was also indicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Read MoreHomelessness Spiked 18 Percent in 2024; Migrants Caused Record Rise
The number of homeless people in the U.S. reached the highest level recorded in 2024, as more than 770,000 people lived without housing on a single night in January, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual report.
The number is an 18% increase from 2023, fueled in part by the surge of migrants illegally entering the U.S. and residing without housing in sanctuary cities, the report noted.
Read MoreViolent Venezuelan Gang Reportedly Attacked Border Crossings as Concerns Mount About More Possible Violence
Tren de Aragua gang members armed with weapons attacked crossings along the Texas-Mexico border, according to an internal memo obtained by the New York Post.
Earlier in December, 20 members of the notorious Venezuelan prison gang attempted to force their way into the country at a border checkpoint near El Paso, Texas, while armed with blades, broken liquor bottles and tire irons, according to a leaked Texas Department of Public Safety memo obtained by the Post. Another attempt to bust into the U.S. is expected on New Year’s Day.
Read MoreCommentary: Betting on Homeschooling and Microschooling
I have spent the past thirty-five years creating small, highly-personalized schools where students flourish. I have, if you will, bet my life on the value of these schools—microschools before they became a thing. Over the course of that time, I’ve seen hundreds of children who were anxious, depressed—sometimes even suicidal—become happy and well within weeks or months of switching from a large, impersonal public school to a small learning environment which offered a closely-connected community.
Based on that experience, for the past decade I’ve been looking at research showing the various ways in which small, high-touch learning environments may be more beneficial for student mental health than are large, impersonal public schools.
Read MoreTech Giants Secure Work Visas for Tens of Thousands of Foreigners While Kicking Existing Employees to the Curb
U.S. tech giants have been sacking employees in droves while simultaneously importing tens of thousands of foreign workers.
Amazon, Google and Microsoft have laid off at least 27,000, 12,000 and 16,000 employees, respectively, since 2022. However, in that same roughly three-year period, the companies have secured at least 61,000 H-1B visas combined for foreign workers, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Read MoreBiden Greenlights Billions More for Ukraine in Waning Days of Presidency
President Joe Biden announced Monday that the federal government is sending $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine in the final days of his presidency.
The funding will help the Ukrainians secure equipment for artillery and air defense systems, among other things, according to the White House. In his official statement, Biden said that he is “surging as much assistance to Ukraine as quickly as possible” in the final weeks of his presidency, even as President-elect Donald Trump has clearly stated he wants to end the bloody Russia-Ukraine war after years of fighting.
Read MoreTop Story: Venezuelan Prison Gang Crime, Arrests Confirmed in 22 U.S. States
Venezuelan Prison Gang Crime, Arrests Confirmed in 22 U.S. States
Of the more than 14 million illegal border crossers reported under the Biden administration, an unknown number of violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua prison gang members illegally entered the country.
Now, police records and official law enforcement statements confirm TdA-linked crime and arrests have occurred in 22 U.S. states.
Read MoreTop Commentary: A MAGA Wishlist
TSSN Featured: Virginia U.S. Rep. Spanberger Says Tulsi Gabbard ‘Dangerous’ as Trump’s Pick for Director of National Intelligence
Commentary: A MAGA Wishlist
We did it.
The greatest comeback in political history, President Donald Trump taking back the office he held four years ago, is historic and nothing short of remarkable. The message it sends is that “Make America Great Again,” the MAGA movement, is here to stay. Long gone are the days of the old GOP establishment, the controlled opposition that had no problem managing the decline of the nation along with the Democrats. Now, Americans are no longer the forgotten men and women. We are ascendant, and we must make sure that our party will continue this path for the foreseeable future.
Read MoreCommentary: Devin Nunes Reemerges
2024 proved to be the year of the reemergence of many once and unfairly pilloried public figures.
Elon Musk weathered nonstop attacks on his X social media platform. Furor escalated over his newfound 2024 Trump advocacy—even as he ended 2024 with his iconic Tesla brand still the best-selling car in six states and the most popular electric vehicle in the entire nation.
Read MoreCommentary: Trump Driving Foreign Policy Blob Crazy by Daring to Put America First
For the past 40 years, American politicians have argued how wars in far-flung third-world countries are in the United States’ vital strategic interests. From Iraq to Kosovo, American leaders of both parties squandered trillions of dollars and thousands of lives chasing phantom threats around the world.
The rationale behind these interventions has often been based on outright fabrications cloaked by high-falutin’ language to the American public. Take President Bill Clinton’s 78-day bombing of a European capital — the first since World War II. Clinton sold the intervention as a way to prevent World War III: “We act to prevent a wider war, to defuse a powder keg at the heart of Europe, that has exploded twice before in this century with catastrophic results.”
Read MoreVoters Balked on Natural Gas Bans, but Climate Advocates Are Hoping to Withstand Court Challenges
When a Consumer Project Safety commissioner suggested in 2023 that the federal government would consider banning gas stoves over safety concerns, it set off fierce nationwide backlash. While the Energy Department finalized stove efficiency standards, they were watered down from the original proposal and no outright ban ever materialized.
No federal ban on gas stoves materialized, but climate advocates seeking to stop consumers from accessing natural gas have tried a number of state and local efforts to achieve their goals – all with similar results as that on the federal level. Despite more recent losses, they’re looking at trying some other strategies.
Read More