Month: June 2021

Georgia Secretary of State Says He Wants Fulton County Elections Taken Over by State

Florida Capital Star Staff

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told Just the News on Wednesday that he wants Fulton County elections taken over by the state under a new law that addresses localities with habitual problems counting ballots, dramatically escalating his battle with the state’s largest urban center in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

“I think people are saying, enough is enough,” Raffensperger said in a podcast interview in which he discussed using the new election integrity law known as Senate Bill 202 to have the State Elections Board take over the Atlanta-area election counting in time for the 2022 elections.

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Trump Weighs in on New York Election Debacle

Cooper Moran

Former President Donald Trump weighed in on Wednesday on the difficulty and issues facing the New York City mayor Democratic primary.

“Just like in the 2020 Presidential Election, it was announced overnight in New York City that vast irregularities and mistakes were made and that Eric Adams, despite an almost insurmountable lead, may not win the race,” Trump said in a statement while highlighting the issues plaguing the race.

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Florida Law Banning Firearm Sales to People Under 21 Years Old Upheld

Grant Holcomb

Last week, a federal judge upheld Florida’s law banning firearm sales to under 21 years old. The law was passed as part of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act which raised the purchasing age to 21. Previously, Floridians 18 to 20 were permitted to purchase firearms.

The judge, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, reluctantly upheld the law based on the Eleventh Circuit’s Second Amendment precedent but warned about the potential damage to 18-to-20-year-olds’ Second Amendment rights.

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New York Mayor Race in Chaos, Thousands of Test Ballots Counted, Candidate Questions ‘Irregularities’

Florida Capital Star Staff

The election for the next mayor of New York City is in a state of confusion after the city’s board of elections released a new tally late Tuesday in the Democratic primary, then abruptly removed the tabulations citing a “discrepancy” due to counting thousands of test ballots.

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Commentary: A Tsunami of Crises About to Swamp Biden Administration

RealClearWire

The Biden–Harris administration is now in an extended levitation of credibility. Except for Donald Trump, who entered office in the midst of a public relations terror campaign against him and had no trace of a political honeymoon, all incoming presidents arrive with a favoring wind of bipartisan goodwill behind them.

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Federal Judge Dismisses Antitrust Lawsuits Against Facebook

Florida Capital Star Staff

On Monday, a massive blow was dealt to the effort to have Facebook labeled as a monopoly and possibly be broken up as a result, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

Judge James Boasberg, an Obama-appointed judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, dismissed two major antitrust lawsuits filed against the Big Tech giant, with one filed by the Federal Trade Commission and the other filed by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general.

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Data: Leaving Federal Jobless Benefits Program Lowered Unemployment

The Center Square

A new report shows states that decided to turn away federal unemployment benefits have seen a drop in unemployment.

The Biden administration pushed through a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill earlier this year that included extending $300 weekly unemployment benefits for Americans in addition to unemployment benefits already provided by the states.

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Tucker Carlson: A Whistleblower Warned Me That the NSA Has Been Spying on My Communications

Florida Capital Star Staff

Fox News host Tucker Carlson Monday night accused the Biden administration of spying on him in an attempt to find something scandalous to leak that could get him taken off the air.

Carlson told his audience that the “War on Terror” under the Biden Regime had pivoted, and was now “being waged against American citizens—opponents of the Regime.”

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Biden Admin to Close Dozens of Migrant Facilities, Including One Accused of ‘Warehousing’ Children

Florida Capital Star Staff
border surge

The Biden administration is expected to close dozens of emergency intake sites used to house unaccompanied migrant minors, including one accused of “warehousing” children, CNN reported Monday.

Several children shared testimonials about poor conditions while housed in the emergency intake facilities on June 21, according to court documents. Their experiences have drawn criticism from immigration attorneys and advocates, CNN reported.

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Biden’s Presidency Has Led to Lower Traffic for Media Outlets Across the Political Spectrum, Data Show

Florida Capital Star Staff

Media outlets across the political spectrum have suffered lower traffic since President Joe Biden took office, new data shows.

The data, compiled via Comscore and first reported by Axios, divides news outlets into “far left,” “left-leaning,” “mainstream,” “right-leaning” and “far right,” and shows all five declining from former President Donald Trump’s final months in office to the first months of Biden’s presidency. It shows that “far right” outlets like Newsmax and The Federalist suffered the most, with their aggregate traffic falling almost 44%.

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Judicial Watch Sues Biden Administration over Cover-Up of Illegal Aliens’ COVID Information

Florida Capital Star Staff

Last week, the watchdog group Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration over the administration’s refusal to disclose information regarding how it is handling the coronavirus among illegal aliens who are flooding the southern border, Breitbart reports.

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Commentary: Josh Hawley Takes on Critical Race Theory in a Fight for the Nation’s ‘Soul’

RealClearWire

Josh Hawley was just explaining how much he agreed with Barack Obama when Kamala Harris arrived. For weeks, the junior senator from Missouri had raised hell over who should head the federal agency that is the equivalent of the federal government’s human resources department. Hawley gave speeches and made procedural motions that deadlocked the Senate, ultimately resulting in the arrival of the vice president’s motorcade on Capitol Hill. That’s when Hawley lost the fight.

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Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani to Hire Nine New Staff Members for ‘People Power of Florida’

Casey Owens

A political committee focused on voting registration, established by Florida Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani, will add nine paid staff members for the upcoming 2022 election.

The goal of the committee, known as People Power of Florida, is to register 25,000 new voters before November 2022, in accordance to Eskamani’s voter registration training program she announced last week.

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Report Warned of ‘Major Structural Damage’ Three Years Before Florida Building Collapsed

Cooper Moran

Three years before the Surfside building in Miami-Dade County, Florida collapsed in the middle of the night, an engineer issued a report after inspecting the building and cited “major structural damage.”

However, after receiving the report, the chief building official for the town of Surfside told condo owners and residents that the building was “in very good shape.”

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Florida’s Senate Democrats Struggle with Infighting

Grant Holcomb

Former Florida Senate Democrat Caucus Leader Sen. Gary Farmer (D-34) is continuing to criticize his fellow Democratic lawmakers even after he was ousted as their leader and replaced with Sen. Lauren Book (D-32).

Farmer and Book are both Democrats from Broward County, and Farmer is accusing his colleagues of “throwing votes” to Republican lawmakers and is questioning their motives.

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Commentary: Is Trump the Future of the Republican Party?

Florida Capital Star Staff

People think of Trump Derangement Syndrome as mostly a phenomenon of the Left, and mostly unprecedented. It’s easy to get the impression that Donald Trump has taught the Left to hate as they have never hated, and that all previous Republican presidents were moderate by comparison and much more broadly acceptable to America.

But the Left was just as vicious about George W. Bush in his day, and they hated him just as much. He was called a threat to world peace, a devotedly evil man, a stupid man, or all of these: To quote a 2004 Slate article, “he chose stupidity. Bush may look like a well-meaning dolt. On consideration, he’s something far more dangerous: a dedicated fool.”

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America Ranks Last in Public Trust for Its News Media, Report Finds

Florida Capital Star Staff

A survey released Tuesday ranked the United States last among 46 countries in media trust, falling below democracies and autocracies across the world.

The survey, commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, was conducted among 92,000 people worldwide, and found that among those in the U.S., just 29% said they trusted their news media the majority of the time. Finland ranked the highest at 65%, while Slovakia, Hungary and France each ranked just above the U.S. at 30%.

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Biden’s Sister Appears to Capitalize on His Position with Book Deal

Florida Capital Star Staff
Valerie Biden Owens

President Joe Biden’s sister will publish a book in April titled “Growing Up Biden: A Memoir,” according to an Amazon pre-order page.

Valerie Biden Owens, a close confidant of the president appears to be capitalizing on his position as president in the new book that appears to go against White House policy, Fox News reported.

“It’s the White House’s policy that the President’s name should not be used in connection with any commercial activities to suggest or in any way — in any way they could reasonably be understood to imply his endorsement or support,” Psaki said at a press briefing in January. “He’s issued the farthest-reaching executive order with respect to the ethical commitments required of his appointees ever and is very proud of it. And, you know, that’s something that he is committed to conveying to anyone it applies to.”

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Supreme Court Hands Union Loss in California Trespass Case

The Center Square

The Supreme Court has ruled that a California regulation allowing union organizers to trespass on private property to recruit agricultural workers violated private property rights.

In Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid released Wednesday, California agriculture businesses Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company challenged a state law allowing labor unions a “right to take access” to an agricultural employer’s private property three hours per day, 120 days per year to recruit new union members. The court held that this constitutes a “per se” taking. They reversed and remanded prior rulings on California’s access regulation with a 6-3 vote, the dissenting votes belonging to the court’s three left-leaning justices. 

In 2015, union organizers entered Cedar Point Nursery at 5 a.m., disrupting work during harvest season with bullhorns to convince the farm employees to join the United Farm Workers (UFW) union. Mike Fahner, the owner of the strawberry farm, did not grant the union workers permission to enter his property, nor was he given notice of their arrival. He was not legally allowed to ask the union organizers to leave his property. 

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University to Teach How to Address Social Justice Using Math Modeling

Florida Capital Star Staff

Kettering University announced a new “Math for Social Justice” elective will address climate change, human trafficking, elections and racial justice causes through math modeling.

The course aims to teach students how to use statistics and data to address various social justice-related topics.

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Counting of Paper Ballots in Maricopa County Has Concluded, But There’s Still Work to Do Before Report is Released

Florida Capital Star Staff

The counting and examination of paper ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona concluded on Friday, but there is still more work to do before the full results are made public. According to one report, however, preliminary results could be released as early as this week.

The Maricopa County Audit Twitter account announced that they had finished counting paper ballots Friday evening.

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Facebook Becomes Fifth Tech Company Worth More Than $1 Trillion

Florida Capital Star Staff

Facebook’s market capitalization, or total dollar value, closed above $1 trillion for the first time ever Monday, making it the fifth U.S. company to reach such size.

Facebook exceeded the $1 trillion mark after a year in which the company experienced massive user and earnings growth, CNBC reported. Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon – all fellow Big Tech companies – are the only other U.S. companies that have also surpassed $1 trillion in market capitalization, according to Axios.

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Commentary: The Deprogramming of January 6 Defendants Is Underway

Florida Capital Star Staff
January 6 riot at the capitol with large crowd of people.

“My lawyer has given me names of books and movies to help me see what life is like for others in our country. I’ve learned that even though we live in a wonderful country things still need to improve. People of all colors should feel as safe as I do to walk down the street.”

That passage is part book report, part white privilege mea culpa submitted to a federal court this month by Anna Morgan-Lloyd, one of the more than 500 Americans arrested for her involvement in the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The 49-year-old grandmother of five from southern Indiana was charged with four counts of trespassing and disorderly conduct even though she walked through an open door and was inside the building for about five minutes. She was ratted out to the FBI by a county worker who saw her January 6 posts on Facebook.

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Commentary: CDC Reports 51 Percent Increase in Suicide Attempts Among Teenage Girls

Florida Capital Star Staff

Beth Palmer was 17 and dreaming of becoming a singer in March 2020 when the United Kingdom went into lockdown because of the coronavirus. One month later, she was dead.

“She was a wonderful, wonderful daughter. She was just funny, she lit up the room.,” said Mike Palmer, Beth’s father. “She was so affectionate and loving as well. She basically had the world at her feet. She had everything, everything to live for.”

Palmer didn’t die of the coronavirus. She took her own life.

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Viral Video Shows Customer Blasting LA Spa After She Says Biological Male Was Allowed to Parade Around Naked in Front of Women and Children

Florida Capital Star Staff

A Los Angeles luxury spa is facing intense criticism after a biological male was allegedly allowed to parade around in the nude in front of women and children. Video footage that went viral over the weekend, shows a woman angrily confronting a staff member of the Wi Spa about a naked man who had apparently exposed himself in an area reserved for females.

“It’s okay for a man to go into the women’s section [and] show his penis around other women—young little girls—underage?!” the incensed woman can be heard saying in the video. “Your spa—Wi Spa condones that?!”

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Mainstream Media Politicizes Florida Condo Collapse

Grant Holcomb

Washington Post reporter Hannah Dreier posted a series of tweets over the weekend pushing a politicized perspective on the Surfside, Fla. condo collapse.

Dreier’s claim is that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis did not give permission for FEMA provide on-the-ground aid for a full day. Dreier’s tweets have since been debunked.

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DraftKings and FanDuel Back Amendment to Allow Sports Betting in Florida

Steve Stewart

Two of the largest companies in the daily fantasy sports industry, DraftKings and FanDuel, are backing a political committee’s efforts to legalize sports betting. The political committee, Florida Education Champions, is proposing an amendment that will allow sports betting at professional sports venues, pari-mutual facilities and through online platforms. The amendment would also raise money for education.

The amendment, as detailed on the Division of Elections website, states that if betting revenues are taxed, the monies would be required to go to the state Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.

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Florida District Judge Halts Discriminatory Program by Biden Administration

Grant Holcomb

Earlier this week, Florida District Judge Marcia Morales Howard issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the Biden administration. The lawsuit was initiated by a farmer who said a debt relief program to “socially disadvantaged farmers” is discriminatory.

In the $1.9 billion stimulus packaged signed by Biden earlier this year, approximately $4 billion of the plan is designated to assist exclusively farmers of color for debt relief through direct payments up to 120 percent of the farmer’s outstanding debt.

The order by Howard prevents the USDA from distributing the payments directly to farmers enrolled in the program.

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Scenes in Wellington: Pictures from the First Rally of 45th President Donald Trump Since Leaving White House

Laura Baigert

With just over a week’s notice, an overflow crowd attended the first rally featuring former President Donald J. Trump since he left the White House in January 2020.

Enthusiastic supporters were lined up at least 8 hours in advance of the 2 p.m. gate opening time, where they waited in the summer heat under partly sunny to sunny skies with temperatures reaching in the mid-eighties.

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Rising Crime Forces Liberals to Reckon with Their Stance on the Police

Admin

by Ailan Evans   As rates of violent crime continue to rise across the country and once-safe neighborhoods face increased dangers, many liberal communities are having to confront their complicated relationship with the police. Following the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, the defund the police movement attracted attention and support…

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Republicans Question Motives of IRS in Ruling that Could Jeopardize Tax-Exempt Status of Churches

The Center Square

Several Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate sent a letter to the IRS Friday demanding the agency correct a ruling they say could have major implications for churches and faith-based organizations in the U.S.

Fifteen members signed the letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig about a Christian group in Texas called Christians Engaged. The group released a letter from the IRS stating that the federal tax agency denied the group 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, saying “Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates.”

That line of reasoning has sparked significant controversy.

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Business Owner Says She’ll Go Under If Border Restrictions Aren’t Lifted

Admin
inside of grocery store; close up of products in the aisle

The only grocery store in Point Roberts, Washington, will be forced to close if travel restrictions between the U.S. and Canada aren’t lifted by July 15, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Point Roberts Marketplace store owner Ali Hayton said the market relies on shoppers who haven’t been able to visit for more than 15 months and that government assistance did little to help the struggling shop, the AP reported. The store received two loans from federal pandemic relief programs, though the funds were used in a week.

“Now that I see that there is absolutely no end in sight, I can’t do it anymore,” Hayton said, according to the AP. “I cannot financially keep subsidizing all of this by myself.”

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Commentary: When the Olympics Stole the Great Americans’ Gold

Florida Capital Star Staff
Olympic gold medal

Despite his team’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, Kevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets is being hailed as the greatest basketball player in the world. The title of greatest player will always be a matter of debate, like the question of the greatest basketball play of all time. 

Candidates could include LeBron James’ block on Andre Iguodala in the 2015 NBA finals, Larry Bird’s steal and pass to Dennis Johnson in the 1987 playoffs, or any number of plays by Michael Jordan. When considering the greatest-play prospects, along with the greatest-ever sports rip-offs, however, Americans should not overlook the 1972 Olympics in Munich. 

Mike Bantam, Jim Brewer, Tom Burleson, Doug Collins, Kenny Davis, James Forbes, Tom Henderson, Bobby Jones, Dwight Jones, Kevin Joyce, Tom McMillen, and Ed Ratleff formed the youngest team the United States had ever fielded. This pickup squad of collegians faced a more experienced Soviet squad—for all practical purposes, a professional team. 

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Largest Health Care Union to Fight Mandatory Vaccine Requirements for Workers

The Center Square
Doctor giving vaccination to patient

The president of the largest union of health care workers in the U.S. says it will fight companies requiring its members to have mandatory COVID-19 shots as a condition of employment.

The announcement came one day after Houston Methodist announced that 153 employees had been fired or resigned for refusing to get the shots as a condition of employment. Those suing argue requiring employees to receive a vaccine approved only through Emergency Use Authorization violates federal law. After a recent court dismissal, their attorney vowed to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, is weighing the organization’s legal options.

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U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Student in Free Speech Case

The Center Square
Tennessee Star

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of free speech rights for students outside of the classroom in a decision Wednesday.

The court sided with former Mahanoy Area High School student and cheerleader Brandi Levy in the case, formally known as Mahanoy Area School District v B.L., with a 8-1 decision in her favor. Mahanoy Area High School is located in Pennsylvania.

Levy, upset that she had not made her school’s varsity cheer team, posted on the social media site Snapchat a simple message with explicit language expressing her frustration.

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More Lethal Fentanyl Found Along the Southern Border this Year Than Last

The Center Square

Federal authorities have seized significantly more fentanyl along the U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona and California since October than they did in the entire 2020 fiscal year.

Since October, authorities have seized 7.000 pounds of the drug, compared to just 4,500 pounds in the entire last fiscal year, according to data from Customs and Boarder Protection. The reasoning, according to authorities, is simply supply and demand.

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Maryland Announces over 500,000 New Potentially Fraudulent Unemployment Claims Since May

Admin
Larry Hogan

Maryland officials say they suspect over 508,000 new, potentially fraudulent unemployment claims have been filed since May.

The announcement Monday followed the state saying it has verified over 1.3 million fraudulent claims since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic.

The most common means of filing a fraudulent claim is identity theft, according to CNN.

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Michigan Professor Among Those Declaring Correct Grammar Is Racist

Admin

Speakers at Towson University’s virtual “Antiracist Pedagogy Symposium” criticized university writing curriculum and programs for being racist and perpetuating Whiteness. 

The event occurred on June 17.

April Baker-Bell (pictured above), associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education at Michigan State University, argued that idea of Standard English among teachers is used to maintain racist assumptions about “Black language.”

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Over a Thousand Former Military Members Sign Letter Warning About ‘Wokeness’ in the Military

Admin

by Debra Heine   Over 1,000 former members of the military have signed a scathing public letter warning that the increased priority placed on “wokeness” in the military is a threat to the Constitution and the nation’s military readiness. The letter comes after Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley…

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Commentary: Four Signs Parents Won’t Be Sending Their Kids Back to Public School This Fall

Florida Capital Star Staff
Student working on school work at home.

As disruptive as the 2020/2021 academic year was, it led to many positive educational changes that will be transformative and long-lasting. Most notably, parents have been re-empowered to take back the reins of their children’s education from government bureaucrats and teachers unions. Frustrated by school closures and district “Zoom schooling,” families fled public schools in droves over the past year, and there are several signs that these families won’t be returning this fall.

According to an analysis by Chalkbeat and the Associated Press, public school enrollment fell by an average of 2.6 percent across 41 states last fall, with states such as Michigan, Maine, Vermont, and Mississippi dropping by more than 4 percent. These enrollment declines far exceeded any anticipated demographic changes that might typically alter public school enrollment.

How many of these students will be back in a public school classroom next year? Not as many as public school officials hoped.

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Former FAMU President Frederick S. Humphries Passes Away at 85

Cooper Moran

Dr. Frederick S. Humphries, who served as the eighth president of Florida A&M University (FAMU), passed away at the age of 85.

“Dr. Humphries is one of FAMU’s favorite sons. He committed his life to the advancement of higher education, in particular within the HBCU community, and changed the trajectory of FAMU,” said the current FAMU president Larry Robinson in a statement.

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