Taxpayers Supply $1 Billion Annually, and AmeriCorps Is Seven Years Without Clean Audit

Americorps People

Taxpayers provide it $1 billion annually, and for seven years running, AmeriCorps has failed to get a clean audit. A North Carolina congresswoman says that’s enough.

Identifying fraud risks, assessing inherent fraud risks, setting risk tolerance and consideration of existing controls were all cited in a scathing report of the Corporation for National and Community Service – aka AmeriCorps – from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

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CDC Exaggerated Maternal Death Rates, Study Finds

A new study has found that maternal death rates in the United States have likely been strongly exaggerated due to misclassifications of maternal deaths.

The study, published Wednesday in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that the United States’ maternal death rates have been inflated for the past two decades due to data-classification errors.

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The Pentagon is Paying a Chinese Communist Party-Linked Venture Capital Firm for Tutoring Services

Chinese Students

The CEO of a Chinese venture capital firm that quietly bought up a U.S. education company holding a Pentagon contract has long-standing connections to multiple Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence units, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Primavera Capital, a Hong Kong-based venture capital firm, was an early investor in TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and owns Princeton Review and Tutor.com. However, a review of the firm’s Chinese-language website found that CEO and founder Fred Hu has extensive ties to the Chinese government and belonged to organizations that the U.S. government has identified as part of the CCP’s “United Front” system.

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Virginia Home to More than 650 New Afghan Refugees

Afghanistan People

Virginia has taken in more than 650 refugees from Afghanistan in the past five months as that nation continues to reel after President Joe Biden’s 2021 withdrawal of American troops.

According to a report on refugee resettlement from October 2023 through February, 655 Afghanis now call Virginia home. That is the most of any country of origin for the 1,295 refugees recently resettled in Virginia.

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Lawmakers Aim to Ban Colleagues from Market Trading While They Still Buy and Sell

Pete Sessions and Bill Keating

Four members of Congress recently reported buying and selling financial assets, despite co-sponsoring a bill that would ban such trades, disclosures show.

Democratic Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania, Jeff Jackson of North Carolina, Bill Keating of Massachusetts and Republican Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas all reported selling or purchasing assets after they signed on as co-sponsors of the TRUST In Congress Act, financial disclosures show. The TRUST In Congress Act would ban members of Congress from directly trading covered investments, which includes securities, commodities futures and similar assets by requiring them to place such assets in a blind trust.

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Proposed Virginia Budget Would Eliminate Audit of 2024 Presidential Election Results

People Voting

The biennial budget proposed by Virginia lawmakers contains a provision that would forbid the commonwealth from conducting an audit of the 2024 presidential results in November.

While Virginia law mandates a “risk-limiting audit” be administered after every presidential election, an amendment proposed by the General Assembly seeks to declare, “a risk-limiting audit of a presidential election or an election for the nomination of candidates for the office of President shall not be conducted.”

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Commentary: Biden, Lenin, and Immigration Language

Migrant Caravan

As an historian, it has been fascinating to watch the left try to impose new language to describe people in the country illegally.

The left has gradually pushed accepted language away from “illegal aliens” (the term in law), to “illegal immigrants” (the most common term), to “undocumented immigrants” (the left’s current favorite term), and now to “newcomers” (the Joe Biden White House’s latest experiment in gaining language dominance).

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Hunter Biden, Partners Aided Chinese Bid to Corner Nuclear Energy Market with U.S. Tech, Memos Show

While his father was still vice president, Hunter Biden and his business partners tried unsuccessfully to help a Chinese energy firm acquire one of the United States’ premier nuclear technology companies in a secret attempt to “control” the global market, according to new evidence turned over to Congress in President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry.

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Transparency Groups Asks Five States to Stop Blocking Out-Of-State Records Requests

File room

The Right on Transparency coalition is asking five states to stop restricting public records requests based on residency.

Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Tennessee and Virginia all are known to restrict records requests based upon residency. The coalition has published model policy to change those laws.

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CDC Silent After Measles Outbreak Linked to Chicago Migrant Shelter

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is tight-lipped after a Tuesday CNN report linked a measles outbreak to a migrant shelter in Chicago. 

“The [Chicago Department of Public Health] announced Sunday that there were two unrelated measles cases among children at a migrant shelter in a large warehouse in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood,” according to that report. “One child has recovered and is no longer infectious, the health department said. The second child is hospitalized but is in good condition.”

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‘Constitutional Crisis:’ Maine Bill Nationalizes Transgender Hormones as the U.K. Halts Them for Kids

Child at doctor's visit

Conservative elected officials sometimes accuse California of making policy choices for all Americans by dint of its population size and concomitant regulatory power.

Now they are threatening legal action against a Golden State mini-me for legislation that would purportedly override other states’ laws restricting abortion as well as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgeries for gender confusion.

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Democrat Claims Youngkin Unwilling to Compromise on Legal Marijuana, Minimum Wage to Secure Potomac Yards Arena

Virginia Democrats, Youngkin

A Democrat in the Virginia General Assembly claims Governor Glenn Youngkin has refused efforts to bargain his Potomac Yards arena for the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals.

Youngkin’s office reportedly told State Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Charlottesville) that the governor has no interest in signing legislation that would create a legal market for marijuana in the commonwealth, even though Virginia legalized the drug in 2021.

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Border Crisis: Water Scarcity Forces Texas’ Last Sugar Mill to Close

The border crisis has taken on many forms in Texas, from crime to fentanyl poisonings to farmers and ranchers losing their livelihoods.

Another casualty of the border crisis is the U.S. State Department’s failure to hold accountable Mexican government authorities to a 1944 Treaty of Utilization of Waters, resulting in Texas’ last sugar mill shut down, the industry contends. The Rio Grande Valley is bracing for an expected initial $100 million in economic losses as a result.

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England Bans the Use of Puberty Blockers at Nation’s Gender Identity Clinics

Doctor Patient

England’s National Health Service (NHS) has banned the use of puberty blockers to treat children with gender dysphoria at the nation’s gender identity clinics, Sky News reported.

Taking a position at odds with the Biden administration, Health Minister Maria Caulfield said: “We have always been clear that children’s safety and wellbeing is paramount, so we welcome this landmark decision by the NHS. Ending the routine prescription of puberty blockers will help ensure that care is based on evidence, expert clinical opinion and is in the best interests of the child.”

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GOP-Led House Passes Bipartisan Bill to Force China Company Bytedance to Divest Stake in TikTok

A bill to require the Chinese company Bytedance to divest its stake in TikTok within 165 days or face a ban on the popular smartphone application in the U.S. passed on the House floor in a bipartisan vote on Wednesday.

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Gov. Youngkin Calls Virginia Budget ‘Completely Backward,’ Hints at Showdown with Democrats in General Assembly

Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin twice referred to the budget proposed by the Virginia General Assembly as “backward” in remarks made Monday, setting the stage for a showdown with Democratic lawmakers in April.

Youngkin first said the commonwealth’s lawmakers created a “backward budget” in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

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FBI Director: Smuggling Organizations Connected to ISIS Coming Through U.S. Border

FBI Director Christopher Wray

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday confirmed that a smuggling organization working with the terrorist organization ISIS is funneling criminals through the U.S. border. He also said the FBI is currently investigating its operations that ‘we’re very concerned about.’

In a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing held on Monday on worldwide threats to the United States, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, asked Wray about threats coming through the U.S. border.

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Guaranteed Income Programs Face GOP Opposition

Counting Money

In December 2021, the Phoenix City Council approved a pilot guaranteed income program for 1,000 low-income families that would provide $1,000 a month from taxpayers.

Like many guaranteed income programs, it was funded by federal emergency money from the American Rescue Plan Act.

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Study Finds California’s Semi Truck Electrification Comes with Enormous Costs That Hit Consumers

Tesla electric semi truck

In 2022, California adopted regulations that required all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero emissions by 2035. Immediately, 17 states eyed the electric vehicle mandates and started considering their own. That was on top of the Biden administration’s own tailpipe standards, which many say function as a federal EV mandate.

The vision of a forced electric vehicle transition hasn’t quite gone as California and the Biden administration have hoped. But in April 2023, California was still riding high on a wave of EV fever and set its ambitions on electrifying semi truck fleets.

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Prosecutors Call Hunter Biden a Conspiracy Theorist who Cheated on Taxes After Sobriety

Hunter Biden courtroom

Federal prosecutors who charged Hunter Biden with tax evasion are mounting their strongest counterattack yet on the president’s son and his criticism of the case, suggesting that he has engaged in conspiracy theories in court and clearly cheated on taxes even after achieving sobriety.

The federal court filing that Special Counsel David Weiss and his deputy Leo Wise filed late Friday made clear they don’t intend to yield to Hunter Biden or his lawyers on the narrative in the court of public opinion or their version of facts in a case that threatens to send the first son to prison for as many as 17 years, if convicted.

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House Republicans Demand Answers Over 320,000 Illegal Immigrants Flown Into the U.S.

House Republicans are demanding answers from the Biden administration after newly surfaced documents show that about 320,000 illegal immigrants from Latin America were flown into cities across the United States amid already record-high numbers of migrant encounters at the southern Border.

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Government Report Could Lead to an Infestation of Federal Regulation into Youth Sports, Experts Say

Youth Sports

A key report recently released by a federal government commission could result in a slew of new regulations being pushed onto youth sports, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics & Paralympics, which was established by Congress in 2020 to address concerns about the U.S. Olympic Commission, including the handling of sexual abuse cases, outlines several key policy changes that it believes the government should pursue, including expanding the reach of government in youth sports at the grassroots level, according to the report. The injection of federal oversight and government into an already functioning youth sports system could create undue regulations on leagues and possibly force diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in local areas, hurting young athletes while also forcing Americans to pay into a sports league that they may not be interested in, experts warned.

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Commentary: Unemployment Up Another 760,000 Since December 2022 as Unemployment Rate Jumps to 3.9 Percent

Don’t look now, but U.S. labor markets appear to be churning in the wrong direction, as the unemployment rate jumped to 3.9 percent in February, and the unemployment level hit a new high for this cycle at almost 6.5 million, up 760,000 from its low this cycle of 5.7 million in Dec. 2022, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Youngkin Signs 64 Bills, Vetoes Eight as Path for Potomac Yards Arena Approval Narrows

Gov. Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin on Friday acted on more than 80 bills approved by the Virginia General Assembly. In total, the governor signed 64 new bills into law, amended 12 and vetoed eight.

Youngkin called the 64 bills he signed into law “bipartisan” and “a clear demonstration of what can be achieved when we set politics aside and work together for Virginians” in a statement.

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Pompeo Blames Biden ‘Appeasement’ for Iran’s Expanding Aggression in Speech to Tehran Opposition

Mike Pompeo

Rising levels of global violence are helping to highlight the rogue and destabilizing role that Iran plays on the world stage, supporters of the main Iranian opposition movement declared Saturday.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, retired Generals Wesley Clark and Jim Jones, and Robert Joseph, under-secretary of state for arms control and international security, spoke Saturday at a Washington hotel at an event hosted by the Organization of Iranian American Communities.

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Taxpayers to Pay $3 Million for Mayorkas Impeachment Defense

Alejandro Mayorkas

The Department of Homeland Security so far has spent $3 million of taxpayer money to defend embattled Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas against impeachment by the House of Representatives, according to documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.

The DHS contract with a law firm was to cover the cost of a failed attempt to stave off a House impeachment, as well as to defend President Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary in a possible Senate trial.

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Vance Measure Banning Federal Mask Mandates by U.S. Transportation Department Passes Congress, Heads to Biden

People in an airplane with masks on

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-Ohio) measure to ban the Department of Transportation from using federal funds to enforce mask mandates has passed both houses of Congress and now heads to the desk of President Joe Biden (D).

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Trump Pays Tribute to Laken Riley, Blasts Biden Border Policies as ‘Crime Against Humanity’

Donald Trump met with Laken Riley’s family and unleashed a blistering attack Saturday on President Joe Biden’s border policies as a “crime against humanity” as the two likely general candidates staged dueling events in the battleground state of Georgia. “Joe Biden has no remorse, no regret, no empathy, no compassion, and worst of all, he has no intention of stopping the deadly invasion that stole precious Laken’s beautiful American life,” Trump told a rally in Rome, Ga., the home district of close ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

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Irish Government Suffers Big Constitutional Referendum Defeats: ‘Walloped’

Irish voters went to the polls on Friday, where they rejected proposals backed by the prime minister to replace constitutional references to the makeup of a family and a mother’s “duties in the home,” in a major defeat for the government.

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Alabama Gov Signs Law Protecting IVF After Landmark Ruling Declared Frozen Embryos ‘Children’

Kay Ivey

Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill Wednesday evening that gives medical professionals who freeze embryos for fertility treatments immunity from criminal prosecution.

The bill was proposed by lawmakers in February after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created during the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF) were “children” and multiple IVF clinics shut down as a result due to concerns about being prosecuted. Ivey announced that she had signed the bill in a statement released on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Biden Administration Using ‘Secretive Flights’ to Import 320,000 Illegal Aliens into U.S.

A new report suggests that the Biden Administration has not only been letting illegal aliens into the country through a porous southern border, but that the administration has even been actively importing illegals with “secretive flights.”

As Breitbart reports, the claims were made by Todd Bensman, Senior National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), who obtained internal records from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

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Virginia Republicans Could Abandon Youngkin Unless Governor Vetoes Bill Providing Funds for Illegal Immigrant Healthcare

Glenn Youngkin

A poll of Virginia Republicans released Tuesday shows the majority would be less likely to support Governor Glenn Youngkin in the future if he does not veto a bill expanding a federal drug program which makes funding available for hospitals to provide care for illegal immigrants.

The Tyson Group poll asked Virginia Republicans if they would be more or less likely to support Youngkin in the future “if he strengthened a program that subsidizes healthcare for illegal immigrants?”

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Federal Lawmakers Call for Permanent Daylight Saving Time

Marco Rubio

Some lawmakers are once again calling on their colleagues to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

Ahead of the switch to Daylight Saving Time this weekend, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., highlighted the importance of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

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Commentary: Congress Should Support Site-Neutral Reforms

The recent Health Equity Report by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee offers a glimpse into the health challenges faced by Tennesseans. Among many concerning statistics, one stands out: 100 people are diagnosed with cancer in the state every day.

Sadly, the financial toll of chronic illnesses like cancer is staggering. It can saddle seniors, families and patients across Tennessee with decades of debt. Nationwide, 23 million Americans are confronting the burdensome reality of medical debt, which can wreck credit scores, send seniors to debt collections, and thwart patients from getting the timely, quality care they need.

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Commentary: Giving the FTC More Power Won’t Keep Kids Safe Online

We have seen a rise in parents concerned about social media’s impact on our children across Tennessee and America. As a proud parent and the chairman of Latinos for Tennessee, I firmly believe that parents must play a central role in ensuring the safety of our children online. I also firmly believe in states’ rights and that when it comes to enforcing legislation to protect our children, I trust Tennessee’s own Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti much more than the bureaucrat-heavy Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

I have previously written that the well-being of future generations depends on our federal representatives taking appropriate action to protect children by empowering parents. This issue has become even more pressing as children increase their daily screen time. As a leader in the Latino community, I worry because, “Latino adolescents have a higher rate of social media use” and “face greater risks of experiencing adverse mental health outcomes,” according to the Julian Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University.

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Liver Cancer in Teens, Reduced Sexual Function, Lack of Consent: Internal Docs Reveal Experimental Nature of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

Doctors at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health repeatedly struggled with various side effects of what they call “gender-affirming care,” including cancer in teens, reduced sexual function, and the lack of informed consent for procedures with lifelong impacts, newly unearthed documents reveal.

WPATH, a controversial organization that transgender advocates and health agencies use to justify “transgender” medical interventions, frames itself as the leading expert organization on medical care for people who identify as transgender. It has faced criticism for advocating experimental practices that ignore serious concerns about informed consent and long-term side effects.

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Virginia Democrat Wants Youngkin’s Support for Marijuana Bill in Exchange for Potomac Yards Arena

Surovell Youngkin

Another Virginia Democrat suggested Governor Glenn Youngkin will need to approve a partisan bill that would allow the commercial sale of marijuana in order to secure key support for a bill to fund the construction of an arena for the Washington Wizards and Washington Commanders in Potomac Yards.

Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) told Axios on Tuesday that he has “been very clear” with Youngkin, and explained, “if the governor would like the arena, that cannabis has to be part of the discussion.”

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8 Million Illegals to Continue Living Freely in U.S. Despite Awaiting Deportation: Report

Illegal Immigrants

A federal report projects that there will be over 8 million illegal aliens living in the United States, free to roam and do as they please, despite currently awaiting deportation proceedings by the end of 2024.

As reported by Breitbart, this will result in a tripling of the number of non-detained illegals who otherwise would be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they prepare for deportation. By the end of Fiscal Year 2023, there were at least 6.2 million illegals living in the U.S. who had not been detained by ICE despite facing deportation; 1.3 million of these illegals had already been given final deportation orders by federal judges.

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DHS Secretary Mayorkas Denies Illegal Immigration Led to Murder of Laken Riley: ‘One Individual Is Responsible’

Alejandro Mayorkas With Immigrants

In a Sunday interview, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas denied a link between the murder of nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia (UGA) campus and illegal immigration despite police charging a man who immigrated illegally from Venezuela with the killing.

Asked if there was a breakdown in the federal immigration system that allowed Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra to allegedly murder Riley, Mayorkas on Face the Nation cited his experience as a prosecutor and declared, “one individual is responsible for the murder and that is the murderer.”

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Government Admission: Biden Parole Flights Create Security ‘Vulnerabilities’ at U.S. Airports

Joe Biden Speaking

Thanks to an ongoing Center for Immigration Studies Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, the public now knows that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has approved secretive flights that last year alone ferried hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens from foreign airports into some 43 American ones over the past year, all pre-approved on a cell phone app.

But while large immigrant-receiving cities and media lay blame for the influx on Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing program, CBP has withheld from the Center – and apparently will not disclose – the names of the 43 U.S. airports that have received 320,000 inadmissible aliens from January through December 2023, nor the foreign airports from which they departed. The agency’s lawyers have cited a general “law enforcement exception” without elaborating – until recently – on how releasing airport locations would harm public safety beyond citing “the sensitivity of the information.”

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Youngkin to Receive Bill Legalizing Controversial ‘Skill Games’ in Virginia amid Call for Veto

Video Poker skill games

The Virginia General Assembly approved a unified bill that would legalize controversial skill games throughout the commonwealth on Friday. Critics, who argue the devices would institutionalize gambling throughout Virginia, have called for Governor Glenn Youngkin to veto the bill.

After the Virginia House of Delegates and State Senate passed wildly differing versions of legislation to legalize skill games, the General Assembly agreed on combined legislation that limits bars and other places that sell liquor to four machines and truck stops to 10 machines. Lawmakers also seek to impose a 25 percent tax rate on proceeds generated by the machines.

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More Inflationary Woes: In One Year, Car Insurance Rates Surge 26 Percent

Driver in car

Car insurance rates surged 26% nationwide in the past year and are expected to remain elevated until 2025.

That’s according to the “True Cost of Auto Insurance” report from Bankrate, an independent comparison service company.

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Virginia Democrat-Backed Bill Would Allow Noncitizens to Serve as Law Enforcement

Jeremy McPike

The right to serve as law enforcement shouldn’t belong solely to U.S. citizens, but also to individuals who have been granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, according to Senate Bill 69.

The legislation passed the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate.

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FDA Threatens Endangered Species with Shoddy Abortion-Drug Reviews: Lance Armstrong Investigator

Federal public health officials created strange bedfellows among animal-welfare advocates, scientists and vaccine skeptics for allegedly cutting corners in viral and COVID-19 vaccine research and oversight, possibly engineering a pathogen, then a cure that’s worse for some.

The Food and Drug Administration may be creating another odd couple in a case at the Supreme Court: environmental and pro-life activists.

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Commentary: Immigration Drove America’s Biggest Population Growth Ever Recorded

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Immigration is behind the biggest annual population increase in the history of the United States, according to an independent research firm.

“US population grew +3.8M in 2023 – the largest one-year increase in US history,” tweeted Eric Finnigan of John Burns Research and Consulting (JBREC) earlier this month.

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Poll: A Majority of Americans Support Building the Border Wall

Border Wall Construction

A new poll suggests that more Americans than ever before support the idea of building a wall along the southern border, as the mass migration crisis rages out of control and has cost more American lives.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the latest poll from Monmouth University shows that 53% of respondents support building the wall, while 46% oppose it, marking the first time ever that a Monmouth poll has shown majority support for the proposal. While more Republicans and independents support the wall than in past years, Democratic support for the idea has fallen.

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Commentary: Battleground States Reject Biden on the Border

Illegal Immigrants

Michigan is very much in play for November.

Our new poll shows a dead heat, with Trump and Biden tied at 43% each and 14% undecided for this key swing state. With Trump leading comfortably right now in Georgia and North Carolina, a win in Michigan could well tip the entire election to the 45th president.

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