Category: Politics

‘The Swamp is Getting Deeper’: EPA Awards Billions from Biden’s Landmark Climate Bill to Organizations Loaded with Democrat Insiders

Ohio Star Staff
President Biden signing a bill

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded nearly $14 billion Thursday to three organizations with deep ties to the Biden administration and the Democratic Party.

The EPA announced the winners of $20 billion of funding from the massive Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF), a program created by President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act. Among the selected awardees are Climate United, the Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, three groups that are taking home almost $14 billion combined to establish financing operations for a wide variety of green technology and energy projects under the GGRF’s National Clean Investment Fund.

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Trump Calls for Sanctions, Censure of Special Counsel Jack Smith

The Center Square
Jack Smith and Donald Trump (composite image)

Former President Donald Trump called for special counsel Jack Smith to be sanctioned or censured for “attacking” the judge in Trump’s classified documents case. 

Trump’s comments on Thursday come after Smith and his team of prosecutors made it clear they think Judge Aileen Cannon’s latest ruling was based on “an unstated and fundamentally flawed legal premise.” Prosecutors objected to Cannon’s order to produce proposed jury instructions under two different legal scenarios. Smith said both legal scenarios were flawed.

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Ohio Congressman Introduces Bill to Repeal 16th Amendment, Arguing Government Shouldn’t Tax Income

Just the News
Congressman Warren Davidson

Congressman Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, introduced legislation to repeal the 16th Amendment, stating that the government should not tax people’s income.

“Originally the country didn’t have an income tax,” Davidson said on the Wednesday edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “They passed the 16th amendment to make it legal to tax people’s income. It was originally just going to be for the really, really rich people. And of course, now it’s hitting everybody.”

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Commentary: The Unattainable American Dream

RealClearWire
American flag waving in front of house

Get married, have children, buy a house, and live comfortably on a single income. Not very long ago, that path was the reality, the norm, for the great American middle class.

But America has gone backward in this regard, and struggling citizens know it all too well. Experiencing the kinds of lives enjoyed by our parents and grandparents has become impossible for most Americans, leading to widespread disenchantment and a palpable loss of patriotism and confidence in America.

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Commentary: Senate Must Let House Make Its Case in Impeachment Trial of Mayorkas

Ohio Star Staff
Alejandro Mayorkas

A grave injustice may be about to take place in the Senate–and only public pressure can prevent it.

I write of the upcoming impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was impeached by the House on February 13 on two counts: that he failed to comply with the law and that he lied to Congress about the results of his failure to comply with the law.

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California’s Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Could Spell Trouble for Public Schools

Ohio Star Staff
Kids being served lunch at school

Two policies backed by Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom could place serious strain on California’s already fiscally unhealthy public schools.

California’s new minimum wage law, which took effect Monday, guarantees a wage of at least $20 an hour for workers at fast food chains with 60 or more locations across the country, The Associated Press reported. The new law, however, does not apply to food service workers in the state’s public schools, forcing them to compete in a more expensive labor market just as schools are preparing for an increase in demand for food workers due to the state’s new universal free lunch program.

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Left-Wing Group Pushed a Policy That Could Shape 2024 Election Outcome—Using Your Tax Dollars

Ohio Star Staff
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Documents reveal an organization backed by Obama White House alumni such as Valerie Jarrett and bankrolled by liberal dark money donors advocated using tax dollars to pay college students to get out the vote in the 2024 election, doing so before the Biden administration announced the same policy.

The Daily Signal obtained the documents through a public records request in which it sought documents from the Wisconsin Elections Commission related to President Joe Biden’s controversial executive order to promote voting.

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Chinese Nationals Illegally Entering U.S. in Record Numbers Since 2021

The Center Square

The number of Chinese nationals illegally entering the U.S. – primarily single, military age men – has skyrocketed under the Biden administration.

Of the more than 140,000 Chinese who’ve illegally entered the country since fiscal 2021, one recently was apprehended at a Marine Corps base at the southwest border.

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Yost Agrees Six-Week Abortion Ban Unconstitutional, Other Provisions Not

The Center Square
Attorney General Dave Yost

A Hamilton County judge now must decide on parts of Ohio’s heartbeat law after Attorney General Dave Yost agreed the law banning nearly all abortions is unconstitutional.

In court filings, Yost said Ohio’s 2019 law that banned most abortions in the state was unconstitutional after voters guaranteed the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution in November.

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Gas Prices Creeping Higher Again as Election Cycle Heats Up

Ohio Star Staff
Pumping Gas

The national average cost of a gallon of gas at the pump jumped by 20 cents over the past month, according to AAA.

Currently, Americans are paying about $3.55 per gallon on average, up from about $3.35 a month ago, according to AAA’s data. Goldman Sachs, one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., has recently cautioned that prices could surge above $4 per gallon by May, according to Yahoo Finance.

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Trump Leads Biden in Six of Seven Critical Swing States: WSJ Poll

Just the News
Donald Trump and Joe Biden in front of The White House (composite image)

Former President Donald Trump has staked out a significant lead against President Joe Biden in several of the most pivotal states that could decide the 2020 election, a recent survey has revealed.

The Wall Street Journal survey questioned voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and found Trump leading his likely opponent in all of them except Wisconsin, where the pair tied.

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Trump Campaign, RNC Announce $65.6 Million Fundraising Haul

Ohio Star Staff
Donald Trump and Michael Whatley

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign and affiliated groups announced on Wednesday they brought in over $65.6 million during the month of March.

The haul includes funds raised by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and their affiliated entities, according to a press release. Trump’s fundraising apparatus, which has been lagging behind President Joe Biden’s, also announced topping $93.1 million in cash on hand going into April.

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Congress Approves $380 Million for ‘Border Security’ Measures in Middle Eastern Countries

Ohio Star Staff
Marjorie Taylor Greene

One provision of the $1.2 trillion spending package passed by Congress and signed into law by Joe Biden last month will see at least $380 million spent on securing the borders of several Middle Eastern countries, while the American border remains wide open.

According to Fox News, the appropriation of $380 million will be available until September 2025, and will fund “enhanced border security” measures in the countries of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, and Tunisia. Jordan will be receiving the most out of the five, at $150 million.

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White House Blames ‘Misinformation’ for Transgender Day of Visibility Outrage

Just the News
Karine Jean-Pierre

“It is actually unsurprising that politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric,” the White House press secretary said.

The White House is blaming “misinformation” for the outrage that ensued after it observed Transgender Day of Visibility, which fell on the same day as Easter this year.

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Commentary: New Details Emerge of Afghanistan Chaos

RealClearWire
Afghanistan Evacuation

New testimony from those who witnessed firsthand the confusion and chaos of the Afghanistan withdrawal further contradicts President Biden’s assertion that the hurried and violent end to the longest war in American history was an “extraordinary success.”

In a transcribed interview before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, former Foreign Service officer Samuel Aronson said the very opposite in living, harrowing color. “Let me be clear,” he told lawmakers behind closed doors, “I cannot call this evacuation a success.”

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High Energy Costs Drive Revolt Against States’ Climate Policies but Commitments Hard to Dislodge

Just the News
Arizona Corporation Commissioners in front of power station

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) recently took the unusual step of voting to pull back on the state’s renewable energy targets, over concerns they are too costly and produce few benefits.

Most states are moving in the other direction, following California’s lead, but there are signs of some hesitation as the real costs of these policies are realized.

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California Considers Expanding Assisted Suicide Access Without Terminal Diagnosis

Just the News
Senator Catherine Blakespear

The new law would allow people with early to mid-stage dementia to end their life.

The California legislature is considering a law that would greatly expand the state’s assisted suicide policies to allow people to end their lives without being diagnosed with a terminal disease, including dementia patients.

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Commentary: Biden’s Big Bet on Military Abortions Falls Flat

Ohio Star Staff
Lloyd Austin

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, President Joe Biden has made it a top priority to use any and all administrative actions to promote and pay for abortions with taxpayer money.

No single related action garnered more attention than Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s announcement that the Defense Department would use taxpayer funds to pay for abortion travel. Now, a new Pentagon report finds that the Biden administration’s abortion travel policy for service members and dependents was used only 12 times from June through December.

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‘Almost Orwellian’: Feds Black Out Nearly All Emails about Trucker Surveillance Proposal

Just the News
Semi Truck at checkpoint

A Department of Transportation component slammed the brakes following semi-furious opposition to its proposal for “on demand” law enforcement surveillance of commercial vehicles a year and a half ago.

It took another six months to turn over the records after a FOIA lawsuit to compel their release, a day before they were due in court Thursday, with no indication yet from FMCSA when it would release a final rule.

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Florida Sheriff Touts Giving Squatters a ‘One-Way Ride’ to Jail

Ohio Star Staff
Sheriff Grady Judd

A Florida sheriff on Monday boasted during a Fox News appearance about giving squatters a “one-way ride” to the local jail as concerns about squatting have grown nationwide.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation to criminalize squatting on Wednesday after a high-profile incident in New York in which a woman who discovered squatters in her late mother’s luxury apartment was allegedly killed by them. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told “Fox and Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones that his deputies were already addressing the issue.

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Biden Admin Threw Billions at EV Charging Stations, But Only a Handful Have Been Built

Ohio Star Staff
Electric Vehicle charging station

The Biden administration’s well-funded push to build out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers has so far resulted in only a handful of installations, according to The Washington Post.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021 allotted $7.5 billion to subsidize thousands of EV chargers to help the administration’s goal of having EVs constitute 50 percent of all new cars sold in 2030, but only seven stations in total have been built in four states to date, according to the Post. The slow rollout of the EV charger funding is unfolding as the Biden administration has recently issued stringent emissions standards for light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles that will result in significant increases of EV sales for all three classes of vehicle.

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‘Entirely Unachievable:’ Biden EPA Locks In Stringent Emissions Rule for Heavy-Duty Vehicles to Fight Climate Change

Ohio Star Staff
Joe Biden

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized aggressive emissions standards Friday for heavy-duty vehicles that will effectively require huge increases in the numbers of electric or zero-emission buses and trucks sold over the next decade.

The agency is projecting that the heavy-duty vehicle emissions standards for model years 2027 to 2032 could result in zero-emission or electric vehicles (EVs) making up 25 percent of new long-haul trucks sold and 40 percent of all new medium-sized truck sales by 2032, according to The New York Times. The EPA’s final emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles complements the agency’s recent release of the final tailpipe emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles that has been characterized as an “EV mandate.”

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Harvard Sociologist Defended Against Plagiarism Accusations: ‘Bogus Claims’

Ohio Star Staff
Harvard Assistant Professor of Sociology Christina Cross

Colleagues are coming to the defense of a Harvard University sociologist who was recently accused of plagiarism, arguing the claims are bogus and part of a larger attack on black female scholars in higher education.

Award-winning Harvard University Professor Christina Cross is under fire over allegations of plagiarism in a complaint first reported in mid-March by conservative education activist Christopher Rufo in City Journal.

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Commentary: With ‘Friends’ Like Obrador, Enemies Like Putin, Xi, Kim Jong are Old News

Ohio Star Staff
President AMLO of Mexico

In a recent 60 Minutes interview, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador—who prefers to be known as AMLO for short—issued to the Biden administration blackmail demands that sounded more like existential threats.

AMLO warned the U.S. that the current influx of some 10 million illegal aliens through the southern border will most certainly continue—unless America agrees to his ultimatums.

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Commentary: Supreme Court Takes on California’s Uber-Disclosure Laws Aiming to Crack Down on ‘Dark Money’ Ads

Ohio Star Staff
San Francisco City Hall

When you watch a political ad, often you’ll see a disclaimer of who the ad was paid for by, usually a political action committee, but what about the donors to the committee? Or the donor’s donors?

That’s the bridge that a San Francisco campaign finance law seeks to cross — now being challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court in No on E v. Chiu — and to prohibit an incredibly common practice in campaign finance, which are donations from anonymous sources.

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Johnson Proposes Ukraine Aid ‘Innovations’ Including Loans, Using Seized Russian Oligarch Money

Just the News
House Speaker Mike Johnson

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he expects the House to move forward with an aid package that would provide support for Ukraine with “some important innovations,” which may include loans for the war-torn Eastern European nation and using seized assets from Russian oligarchs.

On Fox News’ “Sunday Night In America” Johnson appeared receptive to a plan that would offer Ukraine a loan rather than aid, as Congress has already approved $113 billion in response to Russia’s invasion since February 2022, per the Government Accountability Office.

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California Fast Food Workers Face Layoffs as State’s $20 Minimum Wage Goes into Effect

Just the News
Auntie Anne's employees

All fast-food employees, regardless of age, will see a $20 an hour minimum wage in California, while the federal minimum wage is between $4.25 and $7.25, depending on age and length of time working.

California fast-food chains are laying off workers, raising prices and deciding against opening new stores as the state implements a minimum wage that is more than 175 percent higher than that required by the federal government.

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TikTok Launches Ad Campaign in Battleground States in Which Vulnerable Dem Senators Seek Reelection

Just the News
Tiktok

TikTok launched a $2.1 million advertising campaign try to stop Congress from voting on a measure to effectively ban the social media app in the U.S. that will be run in states in which Senate Democrats are in tough reelection bids.

The bill, targeting the app, whose parent company is China based, overwhelmingly passed the GOP-controlled House and now awaits a vote in the Senate.

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Biden Shifts Positions on Gaza ‘Ceasefire’ as Activist Pressure Mounts, Election Nears

Ohio Star Staff

President Joe Biden is quietly shifting strategy on the Israel-Hamas war amid a looming threat from activist groups and his voters ahead of the 2024 election.

For the first time since the war began on Oct. 7, the U.S. failed to veto a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for a six-week “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, tied to the release of the hostages in Gaza. The Biden administration’s decision comes after pressure from his voting bloc, outcry from protestors and unrest in the White House.

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Trump Supporters Plan to Back Him Even If Convicted: Poll

The Center Square
President Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump’s supporters plan to back him even if he’s convicted of a felony before the November election.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights, found that 84 percent of Trump voters would vote for him in November even if he was convicted of a felony before the election.

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Political Experts: Biden’s Reelection Plan Hinges on Abortion Voters, Which May Be a Huge Mistake

Ohio Star Staff
Joe Biden

Democratic President Joe Biden has made abortion a cornerstone of his campaign going into November, but its effect on his re-election chances is less than certain, according to political experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Julie Chávez Rodríguez, Biden’s campaign manager, said in June that they were going to be putting abortion “front and center” leading up to the election, and Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have since been active on the campaign trail at rallies across the country focusing on the issue. The president also invited Kate Cox, the woman at the center of a contentious abortion case in Texas, to his State of the Union address in March, but the jury is still out as to whether the president will reap the rewards of his efforts, according to political experts who spoke to the DCNF.

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Commentary: Self-Servant Leadership

RealClearWire
Mark Milley

“With all due respect, guys, I’m here for the families of Abbey Gate.”

Said the man in the cool blue suit at a congressional hearing last week in Washington.

Back straight, eyes serious, spool of white hair parted to one side, he looked authoritative. Here was the Ivy League grad finally freed from the oversized camouflage utilities once draped like a battle tunic over his squarish frame.

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Obama Fears Trump Win in 2024, Making Frequent Calls to Biden’s Chief of Staff

Ohio Star Staff
Jeff Zients

Former President Barack Obama is reportedly becoming increasingly nervous over the likelihood of former President Donald Trump being re-elected in November, and has expressed his concerns to Joe Biden’s chief of staff on numerous occasions.

As reported by Fox News, Obama has made several calls to White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and other top aides on the Biden campaign, attempting to provide them with advice ahead of the election in just over 7 months. A senior aide for Obama said that the 44th president has “always” been concerned about the possibility of President Trump returning to power.

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Commentary: In 2024, Digital Is Everything in Politics

RealClearWire
Computer

As the 2024 election heats up, now is the time for campaigns to invest wisely. Questions abound: Do you invest in cable news advertising? Door-to-door canvassing? Social media? Something else?

For answers, I look back to the past. In 2000, I oversaw the South Carolina Republican Party’s history-making effort to post real-time presidential primary results online. The election night vote-counting for the epic Bush vs. McCain battle played out on screens across the world – not just in the South Carolina GOP’s vote tabulation center. On that night, the ground shifted beneath our feet.

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Border Crisis Completely Upends Census Bureau’s Population Stats, Report Says

Ohio Star Staff
Illegal Immigrants

Immigration into the U.S. has risen so rapidly that it beat out federal projections by decades, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released on Thursday.

The total number of immigrants in the U.S. rose to a record high of 51.4 million as of February 2024, representing 15.5 percent of the total population,according to CIS. The U.S. Census Bureau published projections in November which estimated that the share of foreign-born nationals in the U.S. would not reach 15.5 percent until at least 2039, making the projections “obsolete,” CIS authors Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler wrote.

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Judge Expresses Skepticism of Hunter Biden’s Move to Dismiss Tax Charges: Report

Just the News
Hunter Biden in courtroom (composite image)

Judge’s skepticism indicates trial could begin in June, coinciding with his father’s election campaign.

The judge handling the California tax case against the first son appeared skeptical of Hunter Biden’s attempt to have his tax charges tossed.

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Montana Supreme Court Overturns State Voting Reform Laws

Just the News
Voters casting ballots

Following the 2020 presidential election, which faced allegations of mass voter fraud from former President Donald Trump and his supporters, many states moved to restricting mail-in or absentee voting practices.

The Montana Supreme Court struck down multiple voting reform laws on Wednesday, declaring them unconstitutional.

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Commentary: Voters Be Beware That Google Interferes in U.S. Elections

Ohio Star Staff
Person searching Google on their laptop

A brand new investigation has found that Google interfered in American elections at least 41 times over the last 16 years.

Published on March 18, the Media Research Center Special Report traced election interference efforts by the world’s most popular search engine all the way back to the 2008 election of former President Barack Obama.

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Idaho Gov Signs Bill Prohibiting Taxpayer Funding for Sex-Change Surgeries

Ohio Star Staff
Gov. Brad Little in front of Idaho State Capitol building (composite image)

Republican Gov. Brad Little of Idaho signed a bill Wednesday banning the state from using public funding to cover sex-change procedures.

House Bill 668 was introduced in February by Republican Reps. Julianne Young and Bruce Skaug and bars the state from using Medicaid funds to pay for sex-change surgeries or cross-sex hormones, according to the text. The legislation passed the state House of Representatives 58 to 11 and the state Senate 26 to 8, with one abstaining, in March before Little signed the legislation into law, the state legislature website shows.

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States Focus on Squatting as TikToker Encourages Illegal Immigrants to ‘Invade’ Homes

Just the News
Illegal immigrant being arrested

State and local officials are working to prevent property owners from having their residences taken over by squatters as a social media influencer from Venezuela encouraged illegal immigrants to “invade” homes in the U.S.

The issue of squatting has arisen in both Florida and Georgia, states fighting against squatting, while a New York City resident was arrested for trying to prevent a squatter from reentering her home. Squatting has become a concern with the influx of illegal immigrants as a Venezuelan national encouraged others to squat in Americans’ homes.

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Commentary: The Ever-Continuous Villaining of Joe Biden and His Minions

Ohio Star Staff
Joe Biden speaking at podium

I’ve discussed the “hero’s journey of Donald Trump” here in this column multiple times — and it turns out I couldn’t get away from it even if I wanted to. Every day we hear a drumbeat of evidence that the Left — the media-governmental-intelligence Deep State complex that has declared war on the entire world, with the free American people its primary enemy — has gone absolutely off the deep end.

Villains gonna villain, y’all. And these villains are villaining like the clock is running out on them.

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From DACA to Deportation to Murder: Michigan the Latest State Hit by Immigration Enforcement Lapse

Just the News
Brandon Ortiz-Vite in front of other illegal immigrants (composite image)

An illegal immigrant, who once lived in the country as a DACA recipient before he was deported in 2020, was arrested over the weekend as a suspect in the slaying of a 25-year old Michigan woman. The incident is the second shocking murder of a young woman by an illegal immigrant this year, following the killing of Laken Riley in Georgia.

Michigan State Police began investigating the murder of Ruby Garcia, from Grand Rapids, after her body was found on a major highway that cuts through the city’s downtown. The body was discovered at 11:38 pm on Friday evening with apparent gunshot wounds, according to The Midwesterner.

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Commentary: The Plague That Besets Our Schools Is Extensive

Ohio Star Staff
Students in classroom

The year, now a quarter old, reveals that the country’s rapid slide into educational purgatory is moving apace. Leading off the grossness parade is a school in Oklahoma where students lick and suck the armpits and toes of their fellow students in the name of charity. (This may garner a shrug in San Francisco, but Oklahoma?!)

While no district personnel were directly involved, video footage from Deer Creek High School in Edmond, OK, showed mid-teens participating in and watching the disgusting events unfold.

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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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