Day: October 7, 2021

Florida Community College Paying off Financial Accounts, Providing Food Credit

Grant Holcomb

Tallahassee Community College (TCC) announced it will be paying off students’ financial accounts up to $6 million stemming from federal funding. Students eligible have to have been enrolled in TCC from March 2020 through this fall.

The money will be coming out of a grant from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which was a part of the CARES Act legislation passed during 2020. The CARES Act was designed to provide economic relief during the slowed economy as a result of the COVID pandemic.

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Commentary: Biden’s Attack on Public School Parents Cannot Stand

Admin

President Joe Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland’s memo directing the FBI to investigate parents who speak out at school board meetings has shocked the nation.

The Biden administration has gone into full attack mode against the First Amendment right to petition the government as Attorney General Merrick Garland has declared that parents opposing Critical Race Theory before their local school boards should be treated as terrorists under the Patriot Act.

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Commentary: The Left Can Finally Admit What It Wants

Admin

I remember a staggering conversation with my high school lunch table in the early 2000s. Everyone agreed with one kid’s statement that there was nothing special about living in America: Life in Canada, or anywhere else, would be identical except for maybe the weather.

At the time, I wondered what was going to happen to America when all these kids grew up. What happens when America’s young adults, far from having any intellectual commitment to freedom, don’t even understand what life would be like without it?

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Zuckerberg Responds to Whistleblower, Says Claims ‘Don’t Make Any Sense’

Admin

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg broke his silence on Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen late Tuesday, rebutting several of her allegations in a Facebook post.

“At the most basic level, I think most of us just don’t recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted,” Zuckerberg wrote in a letter to Facebook employees posted to his account. “Many of the claims don’t make any sense.”

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Charges Dropped Against Illegal Migrants Who Said They Were Transported to Private Property and Arrested for Trespassing

Admin

Criminal charges were dropped against 11 illegal migrants who said they were transported to private property and then arrested for trespassing in Val Verde County, Texas, The Texas Tribune reported on Tuesday.

The migrants told Democratic Val Verde County Attorney David Martinez that they were apprehended, restrained with zip ties, walked around 20 minutes to a fenced-in ranch and arrested by border officials for trespassing, according to The Texas Tribune. The migrants said border officials cut the fence around the private ranch to allow a police dog onto the property after making the migrants scale the 10-foot fence.

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GOP Governors Ignored by Biden Offer Solutions to Border Crisis Anyway

Peter D'Abrosca

After a group of 26 Republican governors, spearheaded by Gov. Doug Ducey (R), sent a letter to the Biden Administration requesting to meet and discuss the ongoing crisis at the border, the group is pushing forward with solutions.

That letter, sent in late September, was ignored by the White House. 

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Commentary: Hyde Amendment Is New Obstacle to Biden Spending Plan

RealClearWire

The White House is once again at odds with the senior senator from West Virginia.

Joe Manchin has made clear for months that the administration’s sprawling $3.5 trillion social spending package is too large, and just as progressives seemed to agree that the top-line number could be whittled down somewhat, the moderate Democrat drew another line in the sand, this one underscoring the Hyde Amendment.

The amendment represents a decades-long agreement by both parties that prohibits federal dollars from funding abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. Manchin wants it included in the spending bill. The White House does not. Thus has emerged another obstacle to passing the president’s legislative agenda.

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Democrats Push to Make Child Tax Credit Permanent Despite a Lack of Taxpayer Support

Admin

Democrats are pushing to permanently expand monthly child tax credits in their spending package, but a new poll shows that just 35% of Americans support extending the payments beyond July 2022.

The expanded payments began in July as a part of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package signed in March. While the Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found that 50% of Americans supported the increase in payments, 12 points higher than those who opposed them, 52% of Americans said the payments should not be extended beyond their set expiration.

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Oil Prices Hit a Seven-Year High as Industry Feud with Biden Administration Continues

The Center Square

Oil prices hit a 7-year high this week as American oil and gas companies continue to fight the Biden administration over policies restricting production.

As the economy began to reopen this year and the demand for fuel increased, President Joe Biden, through executive order, halted and restricted oil and gas leases on federal lands, stopped construction of the Keystone Pipeline, and redirected U.S. policy to import more oil from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia (OPEC+) instead of bolstering American oil and gas exploration and production.

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Border Officials Arrested Around 9,000 Criminal Migrants in Fiscal Year 2021

Admin

Border Patrol officials made nearly 9,700 criminal arrests from October 2020 through August 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Of the nearly 9,728 arrests, 325 individuals were associated with gang organizations, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Over 100 of those arrested with connections to gangs were affiliated with MS-13, and border officials arrested at least nine individuals associated with the group in August, according to CBP.

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Report: Private Job Hirings Beat Expectations Amid COVID-19 Scares, Slow Economic Growth

Admin

Private companies added 568,000 jobs in September, exceeding expectations as the country faced growing numbers of delta variant cases and slow economic growth, according to a major payroll report.

The 568,000 jobs added is a sharp increase from the 340,000 jobs added in August, the ADP National Employment Report showed. Experts predicted private companies would add 425,000 jobs in September, CNBC reported.

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COVID Case Numbers Surge in New England, Despite Region Having Highest Vaccinate Rate in U.S.

Admin

Hospitals across New England are reporting full intensive care units and staff shortages as a result of COVID- related illnesses that are starting to impact care, despite the region having the highest vaccination rates in the country.

Public officials say the record case counts, hospitalizations and deaths that rival pre-vaccine peaks are largely among the unvaccinated and are pleading with the part of the population to get the shots, according to the Associated Press.

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Taiwan Defense Minister Says Tensions with China Have Hit 40-Year High

Admin

Chiu Kuo-cheng, the defense minister of Taiwan, said Wednesday that tensions between his country and China are at their worst point in four decades.

The minister was speaking to lawmakers as he promoted a new $8.6 billion military spending package, telling them that the current situation with China was “the most serious” he has seen throughout his more than 40-year military career.

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GOP Governors Gather in Texas to Address Border Crisis

The Center Square

Nine Republican governors are joining Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona in Mission, Texas, Wednesday to discuss the ongoing border crisis and President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

Ducey and Abbott will be joined by Govs. Brian Kemp of Georgia, Brad Little of Idaho, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Greg Gianforte of Montana, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.

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Surveillance on Campus: Universities Give Students Tools to Report on Each Other’s COVID Violations or ‘Bias Incidents’

Florida Capital Star Staff

Michigan State University provides students with reporting system to achieve what the school describes as a “safe and supportive environment” for its community members.

The school’s Culturally Inclusive College Sharing System (CIC) is an online submission form allows the university to “track and respond to behaviors and situations that work to support or detract from [its] goals of a safe and supportive environment.”

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Florida Supreme Court Hears Case Regarding Red-Light Cameras, Fees

Casey Owens

After hearing arguments in a potential class-action lawsuit regarding credit card fees and red-light cameras, Florida Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical in siding with the motorist who filed the suit.

The motorist, Steven Pincus, filed the lawsuit in Miami against American Traffic Solutions, Inc. (ATS), who Pincus says improperly charged him with a $7.90 credit card fee after paying a $158 fine for running a red light in 2018.

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Blasts Justice Department for Investigating Parents Like Domestic Terrorists

Grant Holcomb

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he will defend Floridians after Attorney General Merrick Garland began “weaponizing” the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate supposed threats against school board members.

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