August 9, 2021 - The Florida Capital Star

Georgia Ballots Rejected by Machines Were Later Altered by Election Workers to Count

August 9, 2021 Admin

A day after the November election, as Donald Trump and other Republican candidates clung to evaporating leads in Georgia, vote counters in Atlanta were confronted by a paper ballot known only by its anonymizing number 5150-232-18.

A Dominion Voting machine had rejected the ballot on election night because the voter had filled in boxes for both Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden, an error known as an “overvote.” The machine determined neither candidate should get a tally, and the ballot was referred for human review.

See Disputed Georgia Ballots Where Election Workers Decided a Vote Was for Biden, not Trump

August 9, 2021 Admin

As part of a review of hundreds of pages of election documents from Georgia’s Fulton County, Just the News reviewed dozens of disputed ballots in which election workers known as “adjudicators” determined that a voter intended to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden instead of Republican incumbent Donald Trump.

Just the News’s review of the Fulton documents revealed a system rife with subjective judgment of thousands of ballots on the part of a small number of election workers, all of it governed by a confusing patchwork of state laws that simultaneously seemed to sanction and proscribe the practice of ballot adjudication.

Florida Department of Education Data Shows Surge in Homeschool Students

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Casey Owens

Data from the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) for the 2020-2021 school year shows a significant increase in the number of students who were enrolled in home education, which the Department believes is “direct result” of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not counting public school students who opted to learn virtually, 143,431 students were homeschooled during the 2020-2021 school year, representing a 35.2% increase from the 106,115 students from the 2019-2020 school year.

Commentary: Does the Biden Administration Believe in Its Own Legitimacy?

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

What do you call a regime that lies constantly, and then admonishes the people when they question the integrity of the regime and its anointed figurehead?

If you ask Joe Biden and his propagandists on cable news, it’s called “democracy.” Anyone who doubts Biden’s legitimacy, they’ve been telling us, is part of the “big lie” and quite possibly a domestic terrorist.

Exclusive: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Put Governors on Notice Because They Are a ‘Point of Influence’ for the Chinese Communist Party

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Laura Baigert

FRANKLIN, Tennessee – Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he put the nation’s state governors on notice, in an exclusive interview with The Star News Network on Saturday, because they are a real point of influence for the Chinese Communist Party.

The reason, Pompeo explained, is because it is where so much of the commercial activity takes place.

Conor Lamb the Latest to Jump into Critical Pennsylvania Senate Race

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Conor Lamb launched a long-expected Senate bid in his state Friday morning, becoming the latest to join a crowded primary field in one of the country’s most competitive races.

Lamb, a 37-year-old Marine, first won a special election in a Pittsburgh-area swing district in 2018, months before Democrats took control of the House. He is vying to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey in a state that President Joe Biden narrowly won, as Democrats look to expand their slim 50-50 majority.

Atlanta, Dallas, Tampa, and St. Louis Among the Cities Experiencing the Highest Consumer Price Spikes

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 The Center Square

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve Bank and Congress have taken unprecedented steps to stabilize the economy after entire industries and sectors ground to a halt last year amidst the public health crisis. The Fed has kept interest rates near zero, created lending programs to pump trillions of dollars into the economy, and bought securities to support financial markets. Congress passed three major COVID-19 stimulus packages in response to the crisis: the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020, the $900 billion Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act in December 2020, and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March 2021.

Gov. Abbott Asks Department of Family Protective Services to Say Whether Trans Surgeries for Kids Are Child Abuse

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state’s Department of Family Protective Services (DFPS) Friday to say whether transgender surgeries for children constitutes child abuse.

The Texas Republican called on Jaime Masters, commissioner of the DFPS, to make a determination of whether “genital mutilation of a child for purposes of gender transitioning through reassignment surgery constitutes child abuse” in a Friday letter.

Over Half of New Yorkers Think Cuomo Should Be Criminally Charged, Poll Shows

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Over half of New York voters think Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo should be criminally charged after an investigation found he sexually harassed 11 women, a new poll shows.

The Quinnipiac University poll found that 55% of voters think Cuomo should be charged with a crime, while just 29% said the opposite. It also found that 70% believe Cuomo should resign from office and that he has lost his ability to govern, while 25% believe he should not.

Commentary: The 2020 Election is Harming the Legal Profession

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

The Hill reports that a Colorado federal magistrate judge, N. Reid Neureiter, “sanctioned lawyers who challenged the 2020 presidential election results, calling their election claims ‘fantastical.’” “Plaintiffs’ counsel shall jointly and severally pay the moving Defendants’ reasonable attorneys [fees]”—which is very likely to be many thousands of dollars. This ruling comes while a federal district judge in Michigan, Linda Parker, considers imposing sanctions on attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, both of whom raised questions about the propriety of the 2020 presidential election.

Majority of Independent Voters Says Federal Government Reporting on COVID Vaccines Is Biased

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Anew poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group in association with Convention of States Action, finds that Americans are losing confidence in the ability of the federal government to present unbiased information about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy.

Just over half of U.S. voters are, at this point, not confident that the federal government is reporting unbiased information related to the Covid-19 vaccines; 44.5% remain confident in the government’s ability to do so.

Those figures are further broken down by political affiliation to reveal that among Independents, the feds are underwater. Among the politically unaffiliated or affiliated with a non-mainstream party, 53.4% of voters said they are not confident in the unbiased nature of government vaccine information – 40% of those polled specified they were “not confident at all.”

Denver Spends More on Homeless Than Schools and Police

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Denver spent twice as much money on its homeless population than it did on its students and police, a Common Sense Institute August report showed.

The city spent between $41,679 and $104,201 per person on its homeless population, compared to $19,202 per student in K-12 public schools in 2020, according to the report. In total it spent $481 million on healthcare, housing and other services for homeless people, over $100 million more than the Department of Public Safety’s budget.

Universities Train Future Teachers to Push Critical Race Theory and Social Justice

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

School bus with "use your voice" on the windshield

As the controversy over Critical Race Theory rages across the country, several prominent teacher preparation programs are training future teachers to use Critical Race Theory in the classroom. Several of the nation’s largest teacher preparation programs are training future teachers to use Critical Race Theory in the classroom.

Campus Reform reviewed course descriptions for upcoming classes in college teacher training programs at several major universities. Many intentionally prepare students to use progressive ideology in their own classrooms. Several use Critical Race Theory and social justice as a starting point for learning how to teach.

Among those courses are the University of North Carolina education department’s class, “”Critical Race Theory: History, Research, and Practice.” The course will cover how Critical Race Theory connects to “LatCrit Theory, AsianCrit, QueerCrit, TribalCrit, and Critical Race Feminism,” those terms being more recent areas of study that draw heavily from Critical Race Theory.

Commentary: The Right’s New Class War

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Much has been made of the idea that the GOP and the American conservative movement in general are currently in the midst of an ideological “civil war” which began the moment Donald Trump left office. Supposedly, the Paul Ryan fusionist ideology of the GOP establishment is battling a new Trumpian populism, both intellectually and electorally. If such a civil war was ever really under way, it was over by 2016. Trump is overwhelmingly popular with the GOP base, and would capture the 2024 nomination effortlessly. Outside of National Review columns and CNN panels, NeverTrumpers are basically nonexistent, and even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) now feels the need to adopt the Trump brand to stay politically relevant. The civil war is over. The “populists” won.

Commentary: Officer Fanone’s Bodycam Video of Capitol 6 Riot Still Not Released

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

At least one federal judge handling several Capitol protest criminal cases is paying attention to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s show trial about the events of January 6.

Judge Thomas Hogan, 83, who has served on the D.C. District Court for nearly 40 years, referred to public testimony given last week by four law enforcement officers while he scolded a husband and wife over their involvement in the protest.

“[H]e begins by talking about the violence, and makes clear he listened to the police officers who testified before Congress last week about their experience, and notes the recent suicide of [a Metropolitan Police Department] officer,” Zoe Tillman, a reporter for BuzzFeed, live-tweeted during the couple’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Questions State Law in Norwegian Cruise Line Lawsuit

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Casey Owens

The lawsuit filed by Norwegian Cruise Line proposing an injunction against the law (SB 2006) that bans businesses from requiring vaccine passports in Florida, was seen in court Friday by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams.

After the cruise line argued to Judge Williams that lawmakers approved the law for “political points,” she did not make a ruling, but she did, however, question the state’s attorneys on the merits of the law.

Missouri Governor Pardons St. Louis Couple Who Defended Their Home from Rioters

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Florida Capital Star Staff

Missouri Governor Mike Parson (R-Mo.) issued a pardon for the St. Louis couple that successfully defended their home from far-left terrorists last year, after local prosecutors had sought to charge them with a crime, according to ABC News.

Governor Parson made the announcement on Tuesday, following up on a promise he had made previously to pardon Mark and Patricia McCloskey if they were charged. The couple, who are both lawyers, responded to a mob of rioters storming into their gated suburb by standing outside their house with firearms, with Mark wielding a rifle and Patricia holding a handgun. The incident took place in June of last year, at the height of the race riots that burned numerous cities across the country.

After the mob broke through a gate that led into the neighborhood and began shouting violent threats at the various homes in the area, the McCloskeys stood their ground and ordered the mob to leave. The incident was captured on video and went viral, with the McCloskeys being hailed as heroes for standing up to a mob that vastly outnumbered them.

Lawsuits Filed Against Governor DeSantis for Banning Mask Mandates in Schools

August 9, 2021August 8, 2021 Casey Owens

Governor DeSantis is facing two separate lawsuits following the executive order he signed on July 30th that banned school districts from issuing mask mandates in schools.

Both plaintiffs, a father of three from Broward County and a group of parents from multiple counties across the state, challenge the constitutionality of the order.