by William Gallo Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to visit North Korea, stepping across the border during a meeting at the demilitarized zone with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. After shaking hands with Kim at the Panmunjom border village, Trump walked across the military demarcation line…
Read MoreMonth: June 2019
Youngstown’s Only Daily Newspaper Closing Its Doors After 150 Years
The Vindicator, the only daily newspaper for the community of Youngstown, announced Saturday that it will be closing its doors by the end of August after 150 years of publication. The news was first reported Friday night by 21-WFMJ-TV, and was confirmed Saturday in a letter from The Vindicator…
Read More‘Deadline’ May Pass As Ohio House and Senate Hit Impasse on HB 6
First Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of First Energy, told legislators that June 30 was their deadline for getting House Bill 6 passed. The company insists it will need time to purchase fuel rods and after June it will be too late. They are threatening to close the Davis-Besse nuclear…
Read MoreAFP-OH Joins Nationwide Campaign Against Ex-Im Bank, Tax Extenders – Targets 3 Congressmen
A national campaign called “Unrig the Economy” was just launched by Americans for Prosperity (AFP). The campaign seeks to inform voters about two issues: the Export-Import Bank and tax extenders. AFP-OH has joined the fight and is targeting three Ohio congressmen: Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH-15), Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH-02), and…
Read MoreCommentary: For Liberal CEOs, Abortion Is Good for Business
by Doreen Denny As more states pass restrictions on abortion, companies are coming out of the woodwork to oppose them. Recently, some 180 companies “employing more than 108,000 workers” purchased a full-page ad in The New York Times under the banner “Don’t Ban Equality: It’s time for companies to…
Read MoreUS, China Leaders Agree to Resume Trade Talks
by Steve Herman OSAKA, JAPAN – U.S. President Donald Trump says he will hold off on imposing additional tariffs on China after a meeting with President Xi Jinping that resulted in the stalled trade negotiations getting “right back on track.” Speaking Saturday at a wide-ranging news conference at the…
Read MoreAnalysis: Is the US Women’s Soccer Team Really Underpaid?
by John Phelan The US women’s soccer team is currently playing in the World Cup in France, defending the title they won in 2015. They’ve had an incredible start, scoring 18 goals in the group stage—a record for the tournament—and beating Spain to reach the quarterfinals. Some see this…
Read MoreFacebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Donates $1 Million to Planned Parenthood
by Chris White Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is donating $1 million to the political arm of Planned Parenthood as the company wrestles with claims of a conservative bias. “I think this is a very urgent moment where the rights and the choices and the basic health of…
Read MoreBiden Says Race ‘Shouldn’t Be About the Past,’ Defends His Civil Rights Record
by Shelby Talcott Former Vice President Joe Biden said the 2020 presidential race “shouldn’t be about the past” Friday before defending his civil rights record. “I want to be absolutely clear about my … position on racial justice, including busing. I never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing,” Biden…
Read MoreFederal Judge Blocks Billions of Dollars for Border Wall Funding
by Kevin Daley A federal judge in California barred the Trump administration Friday night from reallocating $2.5 billion to construct border barriers. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, an Obama appointee, expanded an earlier order and forbade the government from moving forward with specific border wall projects in Arizona, California,…
Read MoreJust Three Percent of 2019 Dartmouth Grads Support Trump
by Ethan Cai A Dartmouth newspaper found that only three percent of seniors at the school have a favorable view of President Donald Trump. Student-run publication The Dartmouth posted its Senior Survey in early June, detailing various opinions and trends for the graduating class. This annual survey includes the…
Read MoreNYT Op-Ed Calls for Public Shaming of Border Protection Agents
by Chuck Ross The New York Times published an op-ed Saturday that calls for border protection agents to face “serious social costs” and public shaming over their work at facilities housing migrant children. “The identities of the individual Customs and Border Protection agents who are physically separating children from…
Read MoreChick-fil-A Worker Hailed as Hero for Saving Young Boy’s Life
A Chick-fil-A employee is being celebrated as a hero for his actions to save a customer’s life. Logan Simmons, a worker at a Chick-fil-A in Flowery Branch, Georgia, jumped out of a drive-thru window to save the life of a six-year-old who was chocking. A young @ChickfilA worker jumped…
Read MoreConcerns Arise About Whether Ohio Will Pass Budget by June 30 Deadline: ‘We Are Stuck’
The Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate are still negotiating the biennium budget, House Bill 166. Conference Committee members continued meeting Friday and Saturday before the looming Sunday deadline. One state representative who wished to remain anonymous told The Ohio Star that the House is planning to meet…
Read MoreOhio’s Joyce Beatty Leads Protest to Get Harriet Tubman on $20 Bill
Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH-03) is leading the movement to replace President Andrew Jackson with abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. In May, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that the Trump administration wouldn’t be able to meet a 2020 deadline for unveiling the Tubman-themed bill, citing “counterfeiting issues” and…
Read MoreCommentary: Why Doesn’t the Supreme Court Want to Know How Many Illegal Aliens America Has?
by Robert Romano The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a citizenship question can be included in a Census under the U.S. Constitution, however a narrower 5 to 4 majority threw out the specific rationale used by the Trump administration for the 2020 Census, remanding the case to lower courts…
Read MoreWhat (Other) Economists Think About Democrats’ Education Plans
by Kerry McDonald A recent NPR article, titled “What Economists Think About Democrats’ New Education Proposals,” caught my eye. FEE, after all, is an economic education organization that looks at how free markets and individual liberty lead to more progress, greater prosperity, and better outcomes for all than any…
Read MoreDHS Expects Border Apprehensions to Decrease By 25%, Credits Trump’s Deal With Mexico
by Jason Hopkins The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects apprehensions of illegal aliens to decline by 25% along the U.S. southern border in June and directly credited President Donald Trump’s immigration deal with Mexico for the change. “It’s become clear that over the past three weeks, since the…
Read MoreMichigan Workers Prepare for Another Factory Close Next Month As Dems Set Sights on Key Voters
by Audrey Conklin Another auto plant in Warren, Michigan, that has been operating since 1958 is preparing to close in a little over a month, ending 261 jobs. The 261 hourly workers who will lose their jobs at the 2.1-million-square-foot General Motors factory build car transmissions. GM announced the…
Read MoreDHS Chief Adamantly Denies He Leaked ICE Raid Details to the Media
by Jason Hopkins Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan vehemently denied that he was the source of a leak that led to the White House canceling its plan for mass deportation raids. “Absolutely not,” McAleenan said Thursday night when Fox News’s Laura Ingraham asked if he was the leaker.…
Read MoreThe Supreme Court Will Determine the DACA Program’s Future Next Term
by Kevin Daley The Supreme Court will decide whether President Donald Trump can rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program during its next term, the justices announced Friday. DACA is an Obama-era amnesty initiative that extends temporary legal status to 700,000 foreign nationals who came to the…
Read More2020 Election Meddling by China, Iran, N. Korea Likely, Administration Officials Warn
by Fred Lucas Russia isn’t the only threat to election security going into 2020, as Trump administration officials say they are preparing for meddling from Iran, China, and North Korea. The federal government anticipates that Russia will again meddle in the U.S. election in 2020 through “Russian-controlled or influenced…
Read MoreTrump Deregulation Will Boost Household Income by $3,100, Report Finds
by Fred Lucas The Trump administration deregulation efforts will raise incomes by about $3,100 per household over the next five to 10 years, and sharply reduce prices for consumers, according to a report released Friday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “The deregulatory efforts of the Trump…
Read MoreOhio Farmers Looking for Options with ‘Unprecedented Lack of Planting’
Farmers throughout Ohio are struggling to plant their crops due to the excessively wet spring. Ty Higgins from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation posted notice on their Facebook page about an important meeting being held at Ohio Northern University to help Ohio farmers. “The unprecedented lack of corn…
Read MoreCommentary: How Romney and the Anti-Trump GOP Fueled the Border Crisis
by Julie Kelly The crisis at the southern U.S. border proves at least one thing to be true: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is more honest than Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and his fellow anti-Trump Republicans. Ocasio-Cortez, to her credit, has never tried to fool the American people or her…
Read MoreThe Battleground State Report: Democrats Say, ‘Come On In! We’ll Pay for Your Healthcare!’
The Battleground State Report, airing Fridays at 8 am CST with Steve Gill, Michael Patrick Leahy, and Doug Kellett is a one-hour radio show from Star News Digital Media in the early stages of a national weekend syndication roll out. The three men dissected the Democratic debates from the past Wednesday and Thursday night noting…
Read MoreJon Husted Wants Taxpayer-Funded Resources to Expand Internet, But Free-Market Solutions Could Be Coming
Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted wants to use taxpayer-funded resources to expand broadband access to rural parts of the state. But free-market forces will reportedly offer the service to rural areas in coming years, thanks to new technologies. According to the Kent-based WKSU, Husted is “tired of waiting for…
Read MoreCincinnati Church Celebrates Pride Month with Drag Queen Story Hour During Sunday Worship
A Cincinnati church celebrated LGBT Pride month by hosting one of their own, caretaker Dan Davidson, dressed in drag. Davidson, called Sparkle Leigh in costume, greeted church attendees and read to the children during the service. His story of choice? Pride: the Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow…
Read MoreJimmy Carter Says Donald Trump an Illegitimate President, ‘Didn’t Actually Win’ the 2016 Election
by Chuck Ross Former president Jimmy Carter asserted Friday that President Trump is an “illegitimate” president, and that a full investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election would show that he did not actually defeat Hillary Clinton. “I think that the interference, though not yet quantified, if fully…
Read MoreOhio Giving an Estimated $23.4 Million in Tax Credits to 10 Companies
by Todd DeFeo Ohio is giving tax credits that could reach an estimated $23.4 million to 10 companies planning to expand their businesses in the state. The companies plan to create a total of 1,559 new jobs and retain 1,788 jobs statewide, according to development officials. The projects are…
Read MoreCommentary: Reddit Bans Largest Trump Subreddit as Trump Announces Social media Summit to Address Censorship
by Robert Romano In the latest round of social media censorship, Reddit has quarantined the largest subreddit in favor of President Donald Trump, r/The_Donald, with over 750,000 followers, restricting access. The move comes amid a crackdown of conservative content on social media platforms, with users on Facebook, Twitter and…
Read MoreOhio Budget Currently Includes $550 Million for ‘Student Wellness and Success’
Ohio House and Senate members are up against a hard deadline – the biennial budget must be passed before July 1. One significant provision that has been written into every version of the budget so far includes hundreds of millions of dollars for “student wellness and success.” The current…
Read MoreSchool Choice Gets a Boost in Ohio State Budget
With a vote on House Bill 166, the state budget bill, occurring within days, school choice supporters may have something to cheer about. One big winner appears to be the EdChoice Scholarship program that provides state dollars to students who wish to attend private schools. The program is capped,…
Read MoreSupreme Court Justice Roberts Joins Open-Border Liberals to Block the Census Citizenship Question, For Now
by Kevin Daley The Supreme Court ordered further proceedings in the dispute over a citizenship question on the 2020 census form Thursday, saying the Trump administration apparently concealed its true reason for adding the query. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the Court’s opinion, portions of which were unanimous. “It…
Read MoreTrump Quietly Signs Executive Order to Launch New Council on Affordable Housing to Battle Homeless Crisis
by Audrey Conklin President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday to establish a new council for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that focuses on affordable housing. The White House Council on Eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing, chaired by HUD Secretary Ben Carson, will work with…
Read MoreCommentary: Last Night’s Fauxahontas Show
by George Rasley, CHQ Editor Even though Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Bill de Blasio, Tim Ryan, Julián Castro, and John Delaney were all on the stage last night, last night’s Democrat debate served one purpose and one purpose only and that was to…
Read MoreOhio House Approves Criteria to Ease College Transfers, Grant Associate Degrees
The Ohio House passed a bill to make transferring colleges easier, but not without first adding more details on the criteria for doing so. Substitute House Bill 9 also adds provisions for determining if students who have left school without a bachelor’s degree are eligible for an associate’s degree…
Read MoreRobert F. Kennedy Jr. Brings Anti-Vaccination Crusade to Ohio
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has been recognized by Time Magazine as a “hero for the planet” for his environmental activism, but he’s also become one of the most recognizable faces of the anti-vaccination movement. On Wednesday, Kennedy took his anti-vaxxer message to…
Read MoreIndependence Day Across America: Fun and Festivities to Join in Ohio
Check out these Ohio Independence Day events near you. Colombus Events: Dooh Dah Parade+ Party: Colombus is hosting its 36th annual Doo Dah Parade this Independence Day. “Dare to join irreverent self-styled satirists, partygoers, exhibitionists and overall lost souls in the 36th Annual Doo Dah Parade on the Fourth…
Read MoreReport: Trump Insiders Want DHS Chief to Step Down
by Jason Hopkins Several Trump administration officials and other immigration hawks outside the White House are pushing to remove Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan amid accusations of disloyalty, according to sources familiar with the matter. Immigration hardliners within President Donald Trump’s orbit want McAleenan ousted, according to several…
Read MoreSupreme Court Rules Judges Can’t Block Partisan Gerrymandering
by Tyler Arnold A narrowly divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that federal judges have no authority to block politically gerrymandered maps. The 5-4 decision fell along ideological lines with the five conservative judges signing onto the decision and the liberal judges dissenting. “We conclude that partisan gerrymandering claims present…
Read MoreOhio’s Tim Ryan Claims He Was ‘Interrupted’ During 9/11 Gaffe, Told Reporters After Debate: ‘I’m Right’
Rep. Tim Ryan’s (D-OH-13) presidential campaign is pushing back on claims that he didn’t know who was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks during Wednesday night’s first debate. As The Ohio Star reported, one of the most memorable exchanges of the evening came towards the end of the debate…
Read MoreJim Jordan Says Dems Are Targeting Kellyanne Conway Because ‘She’s Good at What She Does’
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) said Wednesday that White House counselor Kellyanne Conway is being targeted by Democrats because she’s “effective” as the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena her for testimony. The vote to subpoena Conway, which passed 25 to 16, comes amid a recommendation from the Office of…
Read MoreAs Ohio’s Constitutional Carry Bill Is Approved by the House Federalism Committee, Its Survival Remains Dubious
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Chairman of the House Federalism Committee, State Representative John Becker (R-Union Township), scheduled another “possible vote” on House Bill 178 this week. Last Wednesday, after hours of testimony and multiple amendments, Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) “pushed the pause button” and the vote was postponed. The concern was…
Read More9/11 Gaffe, Technical Difficulties, Spanish Responses: Highlights from ‘BORING’ First Debate
Ten Democratic presidential candidates took to the debate stage in Miami, Florida Wednesday night for the first of a two-night event. President Donald Trump weighed in on the debate with just one word: “BORING!” BORING! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 27, 2019 He later criticized NBC News after…
Read MoreCommentary: Give Tucker Carlson the Nobel Peace Prize
by Christopher Roach After months of escalating tensions, Iran shot down an unmanned American military drone last week. In response, a retaliatory American airstrike had been planned. At the last moment, President Trump called it off, explaining in a series of tweets that it was unnecessary and disproportionate. According…
Read MoreBill Passed to Ensure Students’ Rights to Exercise Freedom of Religion in Public Schools
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee passed a bill reaffirming the First Amendment right of children to the free exercise of religion in public schools Wednesday. It passed 9 to 4 on a party line vote. “House Bill 164 will simply codify into Ohio…
Read MoreWayfair Workers Protest at Company’s Headquarters Over Selling Furniture to Immigrant Detention Centers
Wayfair employees and their supporters gathered to protest outside the company’s Boston headquarters Wednesday after learning the online retailer sold bedroom furniture to detention centers housing migrant children. According to NBC News, people protesting shouted “this is what democracy looks like” and “Hey-Hey, Ho-Ho, ICE contracts have got to…
Read MoreMueller to Testify in Open Congressional Hearing
Special counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to provide open testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee next month. The chairmen of the two panels, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Rep. Adam Schiff, announced in a letter late Tuesday that Mueller would appear July 17, and…
Read MoreBoth Parties Seek to Delay Abortion Lawsuit in Ohio
by Tyler Arnold In a joint filing, both sides of the Ohio abortion lawsuit have requested that the U.S. district court delay information gathering until after a similar case in Kentucky is settled. Both Kentucky and Ohio passed legislation to prohibit abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected,…
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