Senate Intel Chair: ‘There May Need to be Certain Changes Made’ to House-Passed TikTok Bill

Senator Mark Warner

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, expects the House-passed bill that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the U.S. might need to be amended in the Senate

Warner told reporters last week the changes could involve the timeline that it requires Bytedance to divest in the popular smartphone app.

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Retailer Joann Fabrics Files for Bankruptcy as Americans Cut Back on Creature Comforts

Joann Fabrics store

Major fabric and craft retailer Joann announced Monday that it was filing for bankruptcy as consumers pull back on spending due to harsh economic conditions.

The retailer recently reached an agreement with a majority of its financial stakeholders as well as other financing parties, giving the company around $132 million in new financing while also reducing the debt on the company’s balance sheet by around $505 million, according to an announcement from Joann. Retail sales across the U.S. economy have continued to slump in recent months, growing just 0.6 percent month-to-month in February, not including inflation, and declining 1.1 percent in January as consumers pull back on non-essentials as prices rise.

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Trump Unable to Secure $454 Million Appeal Bond in New York Civil Fraud Case, his Attorneys Say

Former President Donald Trump has been unable to secure the $454 million bond, the full amount of the civil fraud judgment against him, which he must post in order to appeal, his attorneys said in a filing Monday.

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Swing State Democrats Receive Money from America’s Largest Lobbying Firms

Senate Democrats

Vulnerable Senate Democrats, who often try to distance themselves from Washington, D.C., have emerged as favorites among employees at the nation’s largest lobbying firms.

Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen of Nevada, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania and Sherrod Brown of Ohio were among the top recipients of donations from people working at the ten firms with the highest lobbying income, a Daily Caller News Foundation review of public records has found. Tester received the second most money of any candidate from America’s top lobbying firms, Rosen was third, Casey was fourth and Brown was fifth, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

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World-Renowned Epidemiologist Fired from Harvard After Refusing COVID Vaccine

Martin Kulldorff and Harvard Medical School

World-renowned infectious-disease epidemiologist and biostatistician Martin Kulldorff is no longer a professor at Harvard Medical School after refusing the COVID vaccine because he had infection-acquired immunity.

Refusing the vaccine is a decision that lost him his appointment at a Harvard-affiliated hospital at the time several years ago — and this month led to his termination from the Ivy League school.

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Biden Admin Sending Tribes $120 Million to Fight Climate Change

Native Americans

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it is giving Native American tribes across the country a total of $120 million to fight climate change.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) is disseminating the money, which will be split into 146 different awards to support projects that enhance “climate resilience” in tribal communities. The funding is inspired in part by the administration’s view that Native American populations are among the least able to prepare or recover from climate change’s impacts.

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Jeff Bezos’ Charity Spending Millions to Fund Development of Fake Meat

Lauren Sanchez

The charitable foundation of Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos is pouring tens of millions of dollars into efforts to advance synthetic meat.

The Bezos Earth Fund (BEF) will be spending an initial $60 million to fund research and development of “alternative proteins,” which the University of Melbourne defines as “plant-based and food-technology alternatives to animal protein,” the BEF announced Tuesday. The $60 million commitment is part of the BEF’s $1 billion campaign to transform food systems to fight climate change.

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Todd Bensman: The Biden Administration Contributed to the Current Chaos in Haiti by Scuttling Free and Fair Elections There in 2021

Todd Bensman

Todd Bensman, senior fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Stephen K. Bannon on Saturday’s edition of WarRoom that the Biden Administration helped cause the current chaos in Haiti by scuttling free and fair elections in that Caribbean nation back in 2021.

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Analysts: Policymakers Must Confront Weaponized Migration to Address Border Crisis

Illegal migrants at a border fence

Unless Congress and policymakers understand how weaponized migration is being used against the U.S., they won’t be able to solve the problem, foreign policy analysts warn.

More than 11 million foreign nationals, including gotaways, illegally entering the U.S. from all over the world is not an accident, military and foreign policy experts have warned. It’s called migrant warfare, The Center Square first reported. The European Commission, United Nations, NATO, and foreign policy institutes have identified hybrid warfare being used in Europe, including migrant warfare, to shape national and international policies.

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Commentary: Crafting a New Image for Justice in America

American flag behind barbed wire and fence

Were I of a more entrepreneurial bent, I might go into the statuary business. I would specialize in those statues of “Justice” one sees, or used to see, decorating the façades of courthouses. The old-fashioned, now deprecated models featured a berobed and blindfolded female figure holding aloft a pair of scales. The symbology, now on its way to the graveyard of discarded ideas, was simple but noble.  Justice was blindfolded because she was no respecter of persons.  Neither rank nor party nor sex nor ethnic origin would figure into her calculation of guilt or innocence.  She held scales to emphasize her devotion to impartiality.

Since those ideals have long since been superseded, my thought was to go into business producing new statues of Justice.  The figure could still be female, or at least identify as female, but it should probably be obese and sport dreadlocks. She—or “she”—should not be wearing a robe but rather a T-shirt and dungarees. Instead of a blindfold, this new figure of justice would sport a pride-flag pin and a WinBlue membership card. She would still brandish scales, but one side would be loaded down with affidavits, subpoenas, and indictments.

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Commentary: Electric Transmission Buildout Could Cost Americans Trillions of Dollars

Electric Grid

Though windmills and solar panels get the headlines, the big energy topic in Washington is electric transmission. Whether it is Congress’s newfound interest in permitting reform, the U.S. Department of Energy’s new Grid Deployment Office, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) upcoming final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, how to build and pay for long-range transmission to connect generators to customers is considered the final piece in the quest to meet net-zero goals.   

Like so many issues in Washington, the need for more transmission lines is accepted without question and the costs are not considered. But for American consumers, especially low-income and elderly, as well as small businesses and energy intense manufacturers, building new transmission lines could result in much higher monthly bills and leave them on the hook for stranded assets.

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Biden Admin Funding Theatrical Productions to Teach Africans About LGBTQ Rights

LGBTQ Africa

The Biden administration is spending taxpayer dollars to stage plays in an effort to teach Africans about “LGBTQ rights.”

A State Department grant allocates money to “improve communication at the level of the local community on the social issue of LGBTQ rights and domestic violence via participatory theater” in the African nation of Chad, according to a federal grant description. The Biden administration has paid out several grants to use theater to educate foreigners about environmentalism, racism, immigration and the war in Ukraine.

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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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Study: Most Partial Automation Driving Systems Need Work

Nissan Car

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says automakers should incorporate new rating programs into their partial driving automation systems to reduce traffic deaths.

The new IIHS ratings aim to encourage safeguards that can help reduce intentional misuse and prolonged attention lapses.

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Elon Musk Defends Trump and Slams Establishment Media for Taking Quote Out of Context

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is defending former President Donald Trump on Sunday after multiple establishment media outlets ran headlines stating that the former president warned the U.S. would see a “bloodbath” if he is not reelected.

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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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Inflation Woes: Home Buyers Need 80 Percent More Income to Buy than Four Years Ago

Home Buyers

The housing market is not immune from inflationary woes as buyer’s purchasing power has significantly diminished in four years. Home buyers in 2024 need 80% more income to purchase a home than they did in 2020, according to a new report by Zillow.

“The income needed to comfortably afford a home is up 80% since 2020, while median income has risen 23% in that time,” the report states. That equates to $47,000 more than four years ago.

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Study: Suicide Rate Doubles for ‘Trans’ People After Surgeries

Trans Kid

A new survey conducted in California not only shows that genital mutilation surgeries do not decrease suicide rates among so-called “transgender” people, but actually causes them to double.

As the Daily Caller reports, the study from AUA Journals found that twice as many men who identified as women attempted to commit suicide after receiving the surgery to permanently alter their genitals, a procedure erroneously referred to by proponents as “gender-affirmation” surgery.

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Commentary: 10 Things to Know About the Real St. Patrick

Saint Patrick

On March 17, people around the world will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by parading in green hats, sporting images of shamrocks and leprechauns – tiny, grinning, fairy men – pinned to their lapels. Patrick’s picture will adorn greeting cards: an aged, bearded bishop in flowing robes, grasping a bishop’s staff and glaring at a coil of snakes.

The icon refers to one of Patrick’s legendary miracles in which he is said to have prayed to banish all snakes from Ireland. However, as a historian of medieval Ireland, I can assure you that the real St. Patrick, who lived and worked in the fifth century, never saw a snake or wore a shamrock.

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Family Dollar and Dollar Tree to Close 1,000 Stores After $1.71 Billion Net Loss

Family Dollar Store

Dollar Tree and its subsidiary, Family Dollar, will close 1,000 stores following a net loss of $1.71 billion over three months, the discount retailer said Wednesday.

The company plans to close about 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of this year and allow about 370 Family Dollar stores and 30 Dollar Tree stores to close over the next few years at the end of their lease terms.

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Commentary: Cabrini Film Calls Audiences to Dedicated Service and Unwavering Faith

Cabrini Film

On International Women’s Day, March 8, Angel Studios’ latest film, Cabrini, was released in theaters across America. The movie tells the incredible true story of the first American saint, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and her mission to help vulnerable, impoverished, and destitute immigrants in the United States. 

In the late 19th and early 20th century, millions of Italian immigrants came to America, most through Ellis Island, in search of their American dream. But many who journeyed in search of opportunity were met with poverty, desperation, and difficulty. Italian immigrants were ostracized from society, perceived to be of inferior intelligence, and struggled to speak English.

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Supermajorities Oppose ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors, Against Biological Males Playing Female Sports, Poll Finds

Softball

A new poll finds that by a margin of nearly 3 to 1, respondents don’t think that it should be legal to provide minors with puberty blockers, drugs, and/or surgery to transition from one sex to the other. And by an even bigger margin, better than 7 to 1, respondents said that biological males who “identify” as female should not be permitted to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.

The Rasmussen Survey, conducted March 6 and 7 among 1,000 registered voters, also found that only 10% had ever introduced themselves using “preferred pronouns,” while fewer than half of those polled, 45%, had ever met someone who used their personal preferred pronouns to introduce themselves.

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Hunter Biden’s Partners: A Rogues’ Gallery of Corruption, Indictments, and Charges of Treason

Hunter Biden and his associates, in their foray into the world of international deal-making, worked with a rogue’s gallery of foreign partners who were under investigation in their home countries or were convicted in the United States.

In certain cases, the Biden team appeared to use this to their advantage, extracting concessions in exchange for assistance in the United States.

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Supreme Court Rules Gov Officials Can Block Constituents from Their Social Media Pages in Certain Situations

James Freed

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Friday that there are circumstances when government officials can permissibly block a constituent from their social media pages, provided they are not claiming to speak on the state’s behalf.

The case, Lindke v. Freed, stemmed from Port Huron, Michigan, resident Kevin Lindke’s First Amendment lawsuit against city manager James Freed, who blocked Lindke from his Facebook page over comments criticizing the city’s response to COVID-19. While officials may look like they are “always on the clock,” not every encounter is “part of the job,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the opinion of the court.

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Riley Gaines Announces Lawsuit Against NCAA over Transgender Policies

Riley Gaines

Former college swimmer Riley Gaines and 15 other college athletes on Thursday announced a lawsuit against the NCAA over its transgender policies. 

“I’m suing the NCAA along with 15 other collegiate athletes who have lost out on titles, records, & roster spots to men posing as women,” Gaines wrote on the social media platform, X. “The NCAA continues to explicitly violate the federal civil rights law of Title IX. About time someone did something about it.”

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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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Commentary: America’s Intelligence Community is Broken

CIA Logo

In the current discourse surrounding the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), a prevailing narrative has emerged, as highlighted in a recent Politico article, that mistakenly warns of a future Trump administration’s destruction of the IC as we know it. This perspective is biased and misguided. The real crisis in the Intelligence Community is not what Trump will do if reelected but how to resolve the total erosion of public trust in the IC due to the actions of the D.C. intelligence establishment over the past several decades.

The intelligence officials quoted by Politico, in decrying politicization, ironically contribute to it, exacerbating the broader loss of faith in our institutions. The Intelligence Community, a cornerstone of our national security, must operate insulated from politics — a necessity for its credibility and effectiveness in safeguarding national interests.

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Commentary: ADL’s Partisanship Harms the Fight Against Antisemitism

Jon Greenblatt

For over a century, the Anti-Defamation League has enjoyed a reputation as the preeminent Jewish organization combating antisemitism and all forms of hate. Its acronym, ADL, has “household name” status—and not just in Jewish homes. This makes its current penchant for partisanship extraordinarily dangerous for, and beyond, the Jewish community.

Last December, Senate Republicans learned that a Joe Biden nominee for a lifetime judicial appointment, Adeel Mangi, was previously a board member and generous supporter of the antisemitic Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University Law School.

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National Association of Realtors Agrees to Cut Commissions to Settle Lawsuits

Real Estate Agent

The National Association of Realtors announced Friday that it would be cut commissions to settle $418 million in lawsuits brought by home sellers. 

The settlement eliminates the standard 5-to-6% sales commission as part of a $418 million settlement with home sellers.

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Trump Endorses Wyoming Senator for Next Senate GOP Whip

John Barrasso

Former President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming to be the next Senate GOP whip Thursday.

Barrasso, who currently serves as the Senate Republican Conference chair, threw his hat in the race after current Minority Whip John Thune announced he’d vie to succeed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Trump threw his support behind Barrasso for the position in a Truth Social post after the chairman endorsed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in early January for 2024.

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Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade Steps Down from Trump Case After Judge’s Ruling

Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor whom Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hired to pursue her case against former President Donald Trump, officially resigned from the case on Friday after Judge Scott McAfee indicated that either he or Willis must do so.

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‘Make Voting Great Again’: GOP Warns Against Government Election Meddling

Joe Biden Merrick Garland

The Biden administration appears poised to put the government’s thumb on the scale in the 2024 election, House Republicans say.

The administration’s lack of transparency about implementing President Joe Biden’s executive order for federal agencies to help get out the vote—combined with a warning from Attorney General Merrick Garland—has sparked some concern among lawmakers.

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Semiconductor Giant Faces U.S. Delays While Racing Ahead in Japan amid Biden Chips Funding Uncertainty

A major Taiwanese chip manufacturer’s plan to build a key factory in the U.S. has been plagued with significant delays. Meanwhile, the chipmaker is on schedule to open a separate facility in Japan.

One of the plants Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is building in Arizona has delayed manufacturing until 2027 or 2028 instead of 2026 because of uncertainty regarding funding it will receive from President Joe Biden’s administration, according to The New York Times. TSMC’s factory in Japan is on track to operate on schedule as the country’s government has helped the factory by committing billions in funding and assisting with assembling thousands of employees to build it, the WSJ reported.

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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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Biden to Oppose Foreign Acquisition of U.S. Steel in Bid to Sway Blue Collar Voters

Biden U.S. Steel

President Joe Biden is expected to announce his opposition to the foreign acquisition of the iconic American company U.S. Steel on Thursday as he looks to win over blue collar voters, according to The Associated Press.

The Japanese Nippon Steel Corporation first announced that it would be acquiring U.S. Steel, the world’s fourth-largest steel producer, in December for around $14.9 billion after entertaining multiple offers, including from American steel company Cleveland Cliffs. The announcement is part of the president’s bid to sway blue-collar voters and union members by positioning himself as supporting American manufacturing, with the remarks to be delivered in the battleground state of Michigan, according to the AP.

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Feds Seize Massive Amounts of Cocaine in Marine Operations

U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations (CBP-AMO) agents and U.S. Coast Guard crews are seizing large quantities of cocaine attempting to be smuggled to the U.S. by boat.

In five recent operations, they seized nearly $290 million worth of cocaine totaling over 15,700 pounds. or nearly 8 tons – enough lethal doses to potentially kill more than 82 million people.

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DNC Forms First-Ever Team to Combat Third-Party Candidates in 2024

RFK White House

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is forming a team to help combat third-party and independent candidates in 2024, which it views as a threat to President Joe Biden’s candidacy, NBC News reported on Thursday.

Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “Justice for All Party” candidate Cornel West, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and a No Labels “Unity Ticket” could all share a ballot with Biden and former President Donald Trump in November. The DNC’s coalition will focus on an aggressive communications strategy, as well as opposition research and legal challenges to counter candidates it views as potential spoilers, sources involved in the effort told NBC News.

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Commentary: America’s Priorities Need to Change in Order to Protect Its Citizens

Illegal Immigrants

The horrific murder of Laken Riley by a repeated felony offender and illegal alien Jose Ibarra, 26, a Venezuelan citizen, was preventable—had federal immigration laws simply been enforced by the Biden administration.

When called out in his recent State of the Union address, President Biden referenced the deceased Ms. Riley. But Biden misidentified her as “Lincoln Riley”—the USC football coach!

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Movie Review: The Neon Highway

More than 30 years in the making, the movie The Neon Highway debuted on the silver screen this last week in Nashville. Originally written by Phillip Bellury and directed by William Wages for the likes of Johnny Cash, the deal never worked out. They say everything happens for a reason: Beau Bridges was meant to play Claude Allen, and Rob Mayes was meant to play Wayne Collins.

Here is a synopsis of the plot: 20 years ago, Collins, played by Mayes, an aspiring singer/songwriter, was a heartbeat away from making it in Nashville when a car accident derailed his ambitions. Now working a 9-5 job and struggling to support his family, Collins has a fateful encounter with waning country music great Allen, played by Bridges, who reignites Allen’s musical dreams. Together, they go to Nashville with one of Collins’ songs, believing they can make it big with Allen’s fame and contacts. The problem is the industry has changed and no one is interested in the song – or Allen. Devastated and out of options, Collins creates a way to get the song out to the public; not for himself, but for Allen.

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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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Music Spotlight: RaeLynn

RaeLynn

An artist I have been wanting to interview for years is RaeLynn. Born Racheal Lynn Woodward, the artist has a singular spunk and sass that is a huge asset in the sea of female country singers/songwriters. But her gift for storytelling through her honest lyrics endears her so fiercely to her fans.

RaeLynn grew up in a musical family and began singing in church at a young age.

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Inflation Spiked in February More than Expected

Grocery Shopping

Producer prices spiked last month, another sign of rising inflation in the U.S., according to new federal data.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released its monthly Producer Price Index, a leading marker of inflation, which showed an increase of 0.6% in February, more than expected.

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Commentary: Eliminating Standardized Testing Had Shockingly Bad Results

Test Taking

For years, liberals have scoffed at the idea that standardized testing is the best predictor of academic success. The National Education Association, for instance, claims standardized tests are “both inequitable and ineffective at gauging what students know.” Activists’ campaign against standardized testing — and their assertions that such tests discriminate against “underrepresented minority students” — culminated in the decisions by more than 1,000 colleges to drop their standardized testing requirements.

This week, cold, hard data showed just how foolish those decisions were. The University of Texas at Austin released the academic performance data for students who submitted standardized scores versus those who did not submit such scores. The result is unambiguous: Students who did not submit standardized tests performed drastically worse than students who did submit their scores. The students who did not submit ACT or SAT scores finished the fall 2023 semester with a grade point average 0.86 grade points lower than students who did. This demonstrates an average difference of almost an entire letter grade. Had the University of Texas utilized all applicants’ standardized scores, it very well might have decided against admitting many of those who did not provide their scores. Students who did not provide scores had a median SAT of 1160, markedly lower than that of the students who did provide their scores: 1420. The University of Texas would have been correct in deciding against admitting those students with lower scores given how much better students with a higher average SAT performed academically.

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Beijing’s Military Hacked U.S. Nuclear Firm Before Hunter Biden Aided Chinese Bid to Acquire It

U.S. officials were acutely aware that Beijing was trying to obtain America’s premiere nuclear reactor technology, including through illicit hacking, months before Hunter Biden and his business partners sought to arrange a quiet sale of an iconic U.S. reactor company to a Chinese firm, according to court records and national security experts.

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Outcomes of the 92 Election Cases from the 2020 Election Reveal That Judges Didn’t Review Evidence or Address Election Fraud, Part 2

The Arizona Sun Times examined the outcomes of the 92 election cases challenging illegalities in the 2020 election and determined that contrary to reports in the mainstream media, almost all of the judges did not consider evidence of election fraud.

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