Tag: New York

Dem Megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison

Virginia Star Staff
Sam Bankman-Fried in courtroom (composite image)

Convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried on Thursday received a prison sentence of 25 years.

A jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy-related charges in November and the New York probation department’s sentence recommendation was 100 years in prison, according to a February court filing pleading for a lighter sentence. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer had asked for a 60-78 month sentence, citing the convicted fraudster’s philanthropic ventures and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

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Three Sue National Park Service for Refusing to Accept Cash for Park Entrance Fees

The Center Square
Wildrose Peat at Death Valley National Park

Three people have filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service for refusing to take cash for park entrance fees alleging its NPS Cashless program violates federal law. 

The complaint, filed in federal court earlier this month, seeks to have a judge declare NPS Cashless unlawful. The suit alleges that three visitors were denied entrance to national parks in Arizona, New York and Georgia. The complaint further alleges that the “National Park Service no longer accepts American money at approximately twenty-nine national parks, national historic sites, national monuments, and national historic parks around the country.”

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A Nation Enriched by Legal Immigrants Now Buckles from Weight of Illegal Border Crossers and their Crimes

Just the News

A nursing student bludgeoned to death near a tranquil Georgia college campus. A developmentally disabled person raped in Boston. A mother and son killed in a head-on crash in Colorado. New York’s finest assaulted in the heralded Times Square.

The roll-call of victims violated by Joe Biden’s border policies is rising as fast as the hotel and welfare tabs for sanctuary cities, thrusting an American society that long revered its immigrant heritage into a crisis of epic proportions driven by more than 8 million illegal border crossers since the 46th president took office.

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Commentary: Endless Lawfare Against Trump is Driven by Marxism and Fear

Virginia Star Staff
Donald Trump

The latest in Democrat lawfare against President Trump is nothing more than a disgusting sham. The “ruling” in the New York civil trial, where a leftist judge, who has allegedly donated exclusively to Democrats, told Trump, at the behest of a state Attorney General whose sole purpose is to be a “real pain in the ass,” that he must pay $355 million and not do business in the state for three years as punishment for a made-up “crime,” is nothing short of totalitarian.

It has been argued by many as to why the case is meritless, namely because there was no crime committed and no damaged entity, as the banks who loaned Trump money did it happily on their own and were paid back. They assessed Trump’s net worth independently, which is apparently standard practice in the New York State real estate market.

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Arizona Prosecutor Refuses to Extradite Murder Suspect to New York over Bragg’s Crime Response

Just the News

An Arizona county prosecutor is refusing to allow the man accused of murdering a New York mom and getting away while wearing her leggings to be extradited to New York City to face charges over concerns about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s response to violent crime. 

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NY AG James Will Move to Seize Trump’s Assets If He Does Not Pay $355 Million Fraud Fine

Just the News

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday indicated that she would ask the court to seize former President Donald Trump’s assets, including his real estate properties, if he does not pay the roughly $355 million a judge fined him in her civil fraud case.

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Commentary: Big Labor State Politicians’ ‘Wall of Denial’ Is Starting to Crumble

RealClearWire
California Illinois

For decades, cold, hard data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have shown that states like New Jersey, Illinois and California are paying a high price for allowing dues-hungry union bosses to continue getting workers fired for refusal to bankroll their organizations.

Year after year, far more taxpayers have been leaving forced-unionism states than moving into them.  And the average tax filer moving out of a forced-unionism state has reported having an adjusted gross income (AGI) on his or her IRS form that is substantially higher than the average for a tax filer moving into a forced-unionism state.

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Southern States Are Growing While The Northeast Shrinks

Virginia Star Staff
New Home

Over the past few years, states in the American South have come to economically surpass the Northeast, owing to policies like lower taxes and better business environments spurring prosperity and population growth, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The gross domestic product of Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee surpassed the cumulative economy of the Northeast in 2020 for the first time since data has been tracked and has continued to exceed growth since, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis compiled by Bloomberg. The growth comes as businesses and people flock to the region seeking affordability, job opportunities, lighter tax and regulation laws and freedom from dense urban areas, according to experts who spoke to the DCNF.

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New York Manufacturing Sees Biggest Plunge Since Pandemic Lockdowns

Virginia Star Staff
Blue Collar

The index for New York state’s general business conditions fell by 29 points to -43.7 for January, with a negative number indicating a contraction, declining to the lowest point since May 2020 when the state was struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey from the Federal Reserve of New York.

Accompanying the decline and contraction in general business conditions, shipments fell 25 index points, the number of unfilled orders remained high at -24.2 index points and the amount of inventory held shrank to -7.4 index points, according to the Empire State Manufacturing Survey conducted between Jan. 3 and 10. Despite poor current conditions, optimism about future activity levels by businesses increased, with the index rising 7 points but still remaining relatively low at 18.8 points, indicating that businesses expect an economic expansion in the coming months.

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Commentary: Biden ‘Saves’ Democracy by Destroying It

Virginia Star Staff
Biden Smiling

When faced with the possible return of President Donald Trump, the current agenda of the Democratic Party is summed up simply as “We had to destroy democracy to save it.”

The effort shares a common theme: any means necessary are justified to prevent the people from choosing their own president, given the fear that a majority might vote to elect Donald Trump.

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America Is Undergoing a Massive Population Shift

Virginia Star Staff
Family Moving

Democrat-run states are still losing population, new Census Bureau data reveal, a development that could have electoral implications when the government reapportions congressional districts in 2030.

Oregon, California, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania, all states with Democratic governors and Democrat-controlled state legislatures, lost between 0.01% and 0.52% of their population between July 2022 and July 2023, according to the Census Bureau. Left-leaning states experienced similar declines in the lead-up to the 2020 Census, which led to them losing seats in the House of Representatives and votes in the Electoral College, an outcome that could occur again in 2030 if current trends persist.

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Federal Figures Show Surge in Homelessness

The Center Square

The number of homeless people in the U.S. jumped 12 percent to more than 653,000 people as pandemic spending expired, the highest level on record since the counts started in 2007.

Figures released Friday provide a snapshot of the number of people in shelters, temporary housing and in unsheltered settings. The report found 653,100 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2023, a 12 percent increase from 2022. That figure of 653,100 people is equivalent to about 20 of every 10,000 people in the U.S.

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Judge Expands Gag Order to Include Trump’s Attorneys in His New York Case

Virginia Star Staff

The New York judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial expanded his gag order Friday to include Trump’s attorneys.

Judge Arthur Engoron issued an order Friday barring Trump’s attorneys from making “any public comments about court staff” referring to “confidential communications” between him and his staff. Engoron said the attorneys on Trump’s legal team — Christopher Kise, Clifford Robert and Alina Habba — have made “on the record, repeated, inappropriate remarks” about his law clerk “falsely accusing her of bias against them and of improperly influencing the ongoing bench trial.”

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New York A.G. Flouts Court Orders by Pressuring Social Media to Censor ‘Hateful’ Speech, Lawyers Say

Just the News

Free speech battles over Hamas terrorism against Israeli civilians and the Jewish state’s military response aren’t just roiling college campuses such as New York University, which is investigating its law school’s student body president for using her office to blame Israel.

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New York, California, and Illinois See Incomes Decline for First Time Since 2009

The Center Square

America’s three largest Democratic states, along with Rhode Island, Mississippi, Louisiana and the District of Columbia experienced income declines in the last year while the nation as a whole saw incomes rise by 2%. New York incomes suffered the worst, declining 1.6%, while California incomes declined the least, at just 0.2%. 

These figures come from the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s revised numbers for 2022, which also reduced national growth from 2.1% to 1.9%, a cut in reported growth of roughly 10%.

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Legal Experts Say Summary Judgment of Fraud Against Trump by NY Judge Contains Legal Abuses

Rachel Alexander

New York Judge Arthur Engoron, a registered Democrat, granted summary judgment against Donald Trump last week in a case alleging real estate fraud by the former president. Not waiting for the trial to begin, where evidence would be produced, experts would testify, and discovery would conclude, Engoron revoked the licenses for Trump’s key properties, including Trump Tower and the Trump International Hotel, and set up a fast timeline to dissolve the Trump Organization and its connected entities. Engoron said Trump and his associates inflated the values of his properties, but several legal experts disagreed. 

Viva Frei, a lawyer who hosts a show with fellow lawyer Robert Barnes called Sidebar,  broke down his assessment of the case with Barnes in an 18-minute video on Monday. “It would seem that the REAL fraud is coming from the Court and from the corrupt Attorney General,” he said. “A breakdown of the absurdity coming out of New York from last night’s stream.”

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Justice Clarence Thomas to Hear Gun Rights Lawsuit from New York

Virginia Star Staff

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will hear a lawsuit that has been filed by pro-Second Amendment groups in New York, challenging the state’s strict laws on the concealed carrying of firearms.

As reported by Just The News, Justice Thomas has arranged for a conference with the entire court that will take place on October 6th, during which he will consider a challenge to the New York Concealed Carry Improvement Act’s provision on background checks for purchases of ammunition. The law went into effect just several weeks ago.

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Commentary: Democratic-Run States Are Losing Population, Power, and Congressional Seats

Virginia Star Staff

For years, Americans who believe in limited government and putting the American people first have had to watch as states like California, New York, and Illinois have turned their cities into dystopian hellscapes and sent unhinged politicians to Washington DC to inflict their policies on the rest of the nation.

But something very interesting has been happening over the past decade and this trend is only accelerating – the most left-wing states are slowly losing power as their populations decrease and residents move elsewhere. California, New York, Illinois, and others are losing population as residents move to friendlier and freer states. What this translates into is a mathematical solution to leftism and centralized government control.     

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Screaming Eco-Activists Blockade Doors to New York City Federal Reserve Building

Virginia Star Staff

A crowd of climate activists blocked the doors of the Federal Reserve building in New York City on Monday morning, footage posted to Twitter shows.

Scores of protesters locked arms in front of the building to deny employees and officials entry, and the activists chanted protest slogans while blocking the exits, footage posted to Twitter shows. Numerous groups, including Climate Defiance, were reportedly involved in the protest, which came ahead of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly meeting in NYC to discuss climate policy  set to occur this week.

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Commentary: The Migrant Surge is Coming to the Classroom

Virginia Star Staff

Democratic politicians and the liberal media made the first day of school all about welcoming migrant children. That’s sheer propaganda. Parents deserve the truth. The migrant surge is a disaster for their kids.

The surge will worsen our education system’s twin failures: plunging math and reading scores, and the failure to ensure newly arriving kids learn English so they can succeed, too.

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The Number of Illegal Immigrants in Colleges Soar to Nearly 2 Percent of United States’ Population, Study Finds

Just the News

At least 408,000 students without legal documentation to be in the country enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities, yet another system impacted by the surge in illegal immigration, according to a new study.

The new report by the American Immigration Council and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education, found that undocumented migrants now account for nearly 2 percent of the higher education population.

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10 States to Sue EPA for Not Updating Wood Stove Emission Standards

Just the News

Ten states and a regional government clean air agency plan on suing the Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly failing to update emission standards for wood-burning stoves, allowing high-emission stoves to still be sold.

The mostly Democratic state attorneys general filed a notice of intent to sue the EPA last week.

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Chinese Intelligence Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ in Seven U.S. Cities

Admin

by Philip Lenczycki   A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work…

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Commentary: The Odious Practice of ‘Taxation by Citation’

RealClearWire

Poverty can be a jailable offense in Whitehall Village Court, a judicial outpost in upstate New York. Brandon Wood learned the hard way after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors in 2015.

His sentence included no incarceration, but he faced $555 in fines and fees. A wealthier defendant could have settled the tab on the spot and walked free, but Wood lacked the money. After failing to pay—for no reason other than insufficient funds—he found himself behind bars until his wife could appear in court and confirm his financial straits.

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Drug Manufacturers, CVS, Walgreens Settle Another Opioid Lawsuit with 22 States for $17.3 Billion

The Center Square

Thirteen attorneys general announced settlements with opioid manufacturers Teva and Allergan on Friday, while 18 states settled with CVS and Walgreens for a total of $17.3 billion.

The attorneys general said settlement funds will start flowing into state and local governments by the end of this year and will be used for prevention and treatment of opioid addiction.

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New York Passes Bill That Considers Slavery Reparations

Virginia Star Staff
Kathy Hotchu

The New York State Assembly passed a bill this week that would create a commission to consider slavery reparations, The Associated Press reported.

The bill, initially introduced in January, was passed after a three-hour debate in the Democrat-controlled State Assembly on Thursday. The state Senate passed the bill hours later, and is now being sent to Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul’s desk, who has yet to comment on the proposed legislation.

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Progressive Activists, Officials Work to Extend Voting to Prisoners, Noncitizens to Expand Base

Admin

by Fred Lucas   Inmate voting, noncitizen voting, and even mandatory voting have been among the initiatives pushed in Democrat-led jurisdictions this year to expand their voting base. “The Left wants to normalize voter classes that nobody took seriously a generation ago—criminals, foreigners—to help them win elections,” J. Christian Adams, president of the…

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Blue States Suffer Largest Population and Tax Revenue Losses as Red States See Largest Gains, IRS Data Shows

Just the News
Gavin Newsom

Even as Democratic governors such as California’s Gavin Newsom and Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker slam red state policies, their residents are fleeing in droves for Republican-controlled states.

IRS migration data released late last week shows that California lost more residents than any other state, with a net loss of nearly 332,000 people and more than $29 billion in adjusted gross income in 2021. The state with the second largest population loss is New York, which saw a net loss of over 262,000 residents and $24.5 billion in income. Illinois, meanwhile, suffered a net loss of 105,000 people in 2021 and $10.8 billion in income.

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Advocates Warn of ‘Desperate’ Movement to Undermine the Electoral College

Admin

An organization’s efforts to circumvent states’ rights are “getting desperate” as they try new ways to push their interstate compact through state legislatures, two pro-Electoral College advocacy groups told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The National Popular Vote (NPV) is a group initiative to reform the U.S.’ two-step, Electoral College system by ensuring that the candidate with the most popular votes nationwide becomes the president. Now that NPV has enacted its interstate compact in all of the “easy,” bluer states as a standalone bill, it is getting creative to force the law through in swing states like Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan and Maine, Trent England of Save Our States and Jasper Hendricks of Democrats for the Electoral College told the DCNF.

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Commentary: Biden’s Open Borders Are Bringing Diseases to Your Neighborhood

Admin

by Betsy McCaughey   Ready for another pandemic? New York City’s health commissioner announced last week that the influx of migrants from the southern border — more than 50,000 to New York City alone in the past year — is delivering contagious diseases, including tuberculosis and polio, to our neighborhoods.…

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Manhattan DA Has No Authority ‘To Enforce Federal Campaign Finance Crimes’: Ex-FEC Commissioner

Just the News

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump is legally “dubious” and motivated by political ambition, alleges legal expert Hans von Spakovsky. 

“It’s an extremely dubious prosecution, and I say that as a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission,” he told Just The News.

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Manhattan DA Bragg Scorched by Victims of Violent Crime During House Field Hearing in New York City

Just the News

Victims of violent crime in Manhattan on Monday cast much of the blame on District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his policies, during a GOP-led House hearing in New York City on the matter.

“Repeat offenders are plaguing New York City,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan. “Our plan this Congress, has been to include field hearings in some of our greatest cities to analyze and highlight how soft on crime policies hurt families, hurt communities, hurt small business owners. … What better place to start than New York City where videos of violent, senseless attacks appear almost daily.”

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Justice Department Announces Criminal Charges on China for Alleged Espionage Activities from New York City Outpost

Just the News

The Justice Department on Monday announced three cases involving China’s threat to national security, based on operations in New York City.

Just two miles from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York’s office, the People’s Republic of China opened an undeclared station for the Chinese National Police, officials said.

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AOC Concealed Thousands in Campaign Spending, Ethics Complaint Alleges

Admin

Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concealed thousands of dollars in campaign spending, an ethics complaint exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation alleges. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint cites more than $9,600 in reported campaign credit card expenditures that lacked information on the purpose of the charges. Dan Backer filed the complaint on behalf of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a nonprofit organization that’s levied similar complaints.

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Commentary: Prosecute Alvin Bragg

Virginia Star Staff

It’s Jim Crow Alabama. In an old plantation town, a young black man—a sharecropper’s son—wants change. He walks up great steps of the county courthouse to dead silence. Proudly he marches under the glare of a puff-chested man chewing on a piece of straw. Stoically, that young man arrives at the counter of the county clerk, and there drops his petition to make it official: He’s to run for mayor.

The straw-chewing man, the town’s current mayor—with thumbs hooked into his silver-plated belt and a hard face shadowed by a cowboy hat—resolves to stop him. So he calls central casting for an evil Southern sheriff.

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Americans Continue to Flee Crime-Ridden Blue Cities for the Burbs and Red States, New Census Data Shows

Virginia Star Staff

Americans once again fled large cities for suburbs and Republican-led states in massive numbers from June 2021 to June 2022, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of U.S. Census data.

More than 800,000 people in total left the country’s large metropolitan areas, compared to 1.2 million the year before, in an ongoing trend sparked by the pandemic, according to the WSJ. Ten of the nation’s 25 largest metropolitan areas saw population loss, and most of the top cities that saw population gains were located in red states.

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The Progressive Movement to Ban New Homes from Having Any Natural Gas Gains Steam

Admin

by John Hugh DeMastri   A growing number of states and cities are considering or implementing bans for the future construction of not just gas stoves, but natural gas hookups themselves, a move that would raise costs for consumers and potentially have negative environmental consequences, natural gas advocates told the…

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New York Mandates City Employees to Participate in Critical Race Theory-Inspired Training, Report

Just the News

New York City employees must participate in racial equity training by March, according to a news report Monday that equates the curriculum to critical race theory, which essentially makes the argument America’s institutions are inherently racist. “The training provides all NYC employees with a framework to understand … the importance of racial equity… in the workplace,” reads an excerpt of an email to city employees obtained and posted by Fox News Digital.

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Investigation Launched Into 3-Alarm Blaze That Killed 100,000 Chickens at Hillandale Connecticut Egg Farm

Susan Berry, PhD

An investigation has been launched into a three-alarm fire Saturday that reportedly killed about 100,000 chickens at the Hillandale egg farm in Bozrah, Connecticut. At least 16 firehouses and more than 100 firefighters responded to the massive blaze, reported Fox61 News.

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During Visit to the Southern Border, New York City Mayor Says His City Has ‘No Room’ for Illegal Migrants

Admin

Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his city is at capacity and has “no room” for illegal migrants during a visit to El Paso, Texas, over the weekend.

Adams stressed that there’s misinformation going around that New York City is where illegal migrants can obtain housing and jobs, during a news conference Sunday in the border city. The Big Apple mayor has previously complained about the surges of illegal migrants coming to New York City on transports sent by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Democratic El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

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