January 12, 2023 - The Florida Capital Star

House Oversight Panel to Probe China Money to University Where Biden Worked, Classified Memos Found

January 12, 2023 Just the News

The chairman of the main House investigative committee announced Thursday he is expanding his probe of the Biden family to examine the University of Pennsylvania’s reliance on Chinese donations during the time it employed President Joe Biden and hosted his think tank where classified documents were recently found improperly stored.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James announced the decision after Just the News reported Wednesday night that the Ivy League university affectionately known as Penn collected $67.6 million in donations from Chinese sources between 2013 and 2019, two-thirds of it while it employed Joe Biden as a guest professor and hosted his Penn Biden Center.

Biden’s Classified Documents Scandal Raises Questions About Penn Biden Center’s Foreign Donations

January 12, 2023January 15, 2023 M.D. Kittle

As a second batch of classified government documents pops up in the garage of President Joe Biden’s Delaware home, Republican lawmakers want answers for the kind of records handling that got former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home raided.

Meanwhile, the Biden Center, a think tank funded by the University of Pennsylvania, is coming under increased scrutiny as a “dark-money, revolving-door nightmare” where foreign competitors like China are suspected of currying favor with high-ranking officials, according to a government watchdog.

Hunter Biden Accessed Garage Where Dad Kept His Corvette (And Classified Material)

January 12, 2023 RealClearWire

Shortly after the White House announced that a second set of classified documents from the Obama administration was discovered in the Delaware home of the president – and immediately before Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of a second special prosecutor into misplaced classified presidential papers – Joe Biden tried to reassure the country by telling reporters that the sensitive documents were behind locked doors.

New Twitter File Dump Shows Democratic Lawmakers Knowingly Pushed Fake Russia Narrative About Nunes Report

January 12, 2023 Just the News

Journalist Matt Taibbi on Thursday released part 14 of the “Twitter Files,” showing how congressional Democrats tried to discredit a report by then-California Rep. Devin Nunes regarding the federal government’s Trump-Russia investigation.

Emails show how the lawmakers crafted and pushed a narrative claiming Russian bots were responsible for bolstering claims in the report by Nunes, who at the time was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Garland Appoints Special Counsel to Investigate Classified Biden Documents

January 12, 2023 Just the News

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to investigate the classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president.

He said he initially appointed U.S. Attorney John Lausch, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, to conduct the initial investigation, but because Lausch is retiring, a different special counsel needed to be appointed.

White House Confirms Classified Documents Found at Biden’s Delaware Home

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023 Just the News

The White House on Thursday confirmed that a second set of classified documents Joe Biden was vice president had been discovered in the garage of his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

“During the review, the lawyers discovered among personal and political papers a small number of additional Obama-Biden administration records with classified markings,” special counsel Richard Sauber said, The New York Times reported.

Biden Touts Falling Food Prices When They Are Actually Rising

January 12, 2023January 12, 2023 The Center Square

President Joe Biden touted falling food prices Thursday, but the latest federal data shows the price of food is actually on the rise and has been for more than a year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new inflation data Thursday that showed the overall consumer price index dropped 0.1%, driven in part by a decrease in energy prices.

House Republicans Call for Ban on Big Tech Private Funding of Election Administration

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

Some House Republicans are urging federal action to bar private money from bankrolling election administration after a Big Tech-aligned group that made controversial grants in 2020 is issuing another round of grants aimed at the 2024 elections.

“Private money has no place in public election infrastructure,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told The Daily Signal in a statement.

Democrats Mischaracterize Bill Protecting Babies Born Alive After Botched Abortions

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

Democratic politicians are portraying the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires health care professionals to provide necessary care to infants born alive after failed abortions, as an attack on women’s rights.

Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark and Democratic California Reps. Judy Chu and Norma Torres characterized the legislation as an assault on women’s freedom and bodily autonomy. Certain tweets also appeared to refer to a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning violent attacks on pro-life groups.

Major Conservative Donor Bernie Marcus Ditches McDaniel, Endorses Harmeet Dhillon for RNC Boss

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Just the News

One of the country’s foremost conservative donors on Wednesday endorsed former Trump campaign adviser Harmeet Dhillon to lead the Republican National Committee.

“I am supporting Harmeet Dhillon to become the next chairwoman of the RNC because America’s path forward is at stake,” Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus wrote in a letter to RNC members obtained by Just the News.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Group Sues Mainstream Media Outlets over Alleged Antitrust, First Amendment Violations

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced Tuesday night that he and several other plaintiffs had filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against several major news organizations, accusing them of antitrust and constitutional violations.

During a live interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Kennedy, chairman and chief litigation counsel for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said the lawsuit targets the Trusted News Initiative (TNI), a self-described “industry partnership” launched by several of the world’s largest news outlets—including the BBC, The Associated Press (AP), Reuters, The Washington Post, Google Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter—in March of 2020. The lawsuit argues that the TNI was launched, in part, because the corporate media organizations believed that smaller independent news outlets were threatening their business models.

Pentagon Officially Overturns Military Vaccine Mandate

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

The Department of Defense (DOD) officially scrapped the requirement that all members of the armed forces be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin introduced the mandate in August 2021 as Food and Drug Administration-approved vaccines were expected to become available, citing the impact of rising case numbers on the military’s readiness. However, after more than a year of legal challenges to the mandate and at least 8,400 discharges for refusing the vaccine, Congress instructed Austin to reverse course in the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

DeSantis Wants to ‘Further Advance Protections for Innocent Life’

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who signed a 15-week abortion ban into law last year, wants more protections for Florida’s unborn babies.

“The upcoming 2023 Florida legislative session starts in March, and we look forward to working with the Florida Legislature to further advance protections for innocent life,” press secretary Bryan Griffin shared with The Daily Signal on Tuesday afternoon.

Catholic Leaders Mourn Death of Cardinal Pell, Victim of Anti-Catholic Hate

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Susan Berry, PhD

A fearless defender of the Catholic faith, Australian Cardinal George Pell is being mourned as a victim of “anti-Catholicism” that drove him to be convicted of sexual abuse in 2018 and sentenced to solitary confinement, until finally he was acquitted by the full bench of the Australian High Court in 2020.

Pell, who died Tuesday at the age of 81, had recently undergone successful hip surgery, but then suffered cardiac arrest.

Commentary: Individuals Can Realign America

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

We live in tumultuous and often troubling times, but that does not make them unique. The ordeals and challenges we face are as old as our species: war, famine, disease, poverty, hate, mass psychosis, greed, brutality, tyranny. Nature is often cruel, and the human capacity to inflict harm on other humans is bottomless.

Consumers Are Paying Record Credit Card Rates Due to Inflation

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

Average interest rates for bank-issued credit cards this past November surpassed a record set in 1985, Axios reported Wednesday, citing data from the Federal Reserve.

The previous record rate was 18.9%, set in the first quarter of 1985, with November’s rate of 19.1% comfortably eclipsing it, according to Axios. Credit card interest rates climbed alongside the Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate, which the Fed hiked a historically aggressive pace in 2022 to blunt economic demand and reduce the impact of inflation, NPR reported.

Commentary: Forgery Cases Give Supreme Court Opportunity to Hold Unions Accountable for Shady Tactics

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

In its landmark Janus v. AFSCME ruling four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a decades-old precedent that 22 left-leaning states used to justify forcing millions of public employees to join or fund a labor union against their wishes. Despite this decision, several unions have used legal action—and illegal actions—to try to prevent employees and their dues from leaving.

Since the Janus decision, several hundred thousand government workers have parted company with their unions—and kept hundreds of millions of dues dollars in their own pockets—after deciding the association no longer made sense for themselves and their families.

New Study Claims Trans Patients Unhappy with Their New Bodies Suffer from ‘Internalized Transphobia’

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

A new study out of the Netherlands claimed “internalized transphobia” caused transgender patients’ mental health issues and argued that their dissatisfaction with medical procedures was the result of outside pressure to conform to gender stereotypes.

The Dec. 28 study investigated an apparent contradiction in the transgender medical field: that despite the common assertion that cross-sex medical procedures improve patients’ mental health, many patients report continued mental struggles after these procedures. Researchers said stress, stigma and “internalized transphobia” caused the issues and examined patients’ different ways of coping.

U.S. to Bulk Up Pacific Military Presence as China Eyes Taiwan

January 12, 2023January 11, 2023 Florida Capital Star Staff

The U.S. and Japan are set to agree on restructuring the U.S. Marine force stationed in Okinawa, Japan, to give them more firepower and the ability to quickly respond if China attacks Taiwan, according to media reports.

A new strategy will arm the roughly 18,000 Marines deployed to Okinawa with missiles that can reach the Chinese mainland and increase their maneuverability if they are called upon to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, The Washington Post reported, citing two officials familiar with the matter. Japan and the U.S. agreed to the restructuring as China readies for a potential offensive, officials said.