Month: December 2023

Jury Determines Rudy Giuliani Owes Nearly $150 Million in Damages in Defamation Case

Florida Capital Star Staff

A jury determined that former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani owes nearly $150 million in damages to two Georgia election workers for making defamatory statements about them after the 2020 election, according to NBC.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell found Giuliani defamed Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss in August. After a four day trial and over 9 hours of deliberation, a Washington, D.C., jury reached a verdict awarding the two women $148 million in damages, according to NBC News.

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Rep. Jim Jordan Subpoenas Major Investment Firms for Evidence on ESG Collusion

Just the News
Jim Jordan

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Friday subpoenaed two major players in the investment world for evidence in his investigation into Wall Street efforts to impose the liberal climate doctrine known as Environmental Social Governance or ESG and force carbon out of corporate America.

The subpeonas to BlackRock and State Street Global Advisers come months after Jordan made written requests for documents detailing how BlackRock pushed ESG policies in the investment world. Jordan said while his committee got some responsive materials from the two firms, he believes more is warranted.

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Commentary: Is SCOTUS Poised to Overturn Key J6 Felony Count?

Julie Kelly

An order published by the Supreme Court on December 13 represented a moment hundreds of January 6 defendants and their loved ones had been waiting for: the highest court granted a writ of certiorari petition in the case of Fischer v. USA.

In a nutshell, after more than two years of litigation before federal judges in Washington, SCOTUS will review the Department of Justice’s use of 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding, in January 6 cases. A “splintered” 2-1 appellate court ruling issued in April just barely endorsed the DOJ’s unprecedented interpretation of the statute, passed in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the aftermath of the Enron/Arthur Anderson accounting scandal.

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Commentary: Seven Forgotten Christmas Traditions to Bring Back

Florida Capital Star Staff

Tradition is the cumulative experience of thousands of human lives. It is the conclusions reached by countless ancestors who tested what it meant to live well. Unfortunately, we are losing many of our traditions and their accompanying wisdom, abandoning the practices by which we speak to the past, and the past speaks to us.

One way our ancestors lived well was by engaging in certain yearly celebrations surrounding Christmas and the holiday season. They bequeathed many of these delightful and meaningful celebrations to us—if we care to receive them.

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Commentary: Americans Turn on Globalists Saying Government Spending, Greed, and Global Issues Drive Inflation

Florida Capital Star Staff

A new survey reveals inflation is still the primary concern for Americans by a wide margin, and the public is beginning to turn on big government and recognize government spending and globalism as the culprits behind a dwindling standard of living.

This comes at a time when the country is poised to choose between another four years of excessive spending and an evaporating middle-class or return to an America First philosophy that strengthens the middle-class and structures international policy in our favor.

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U.S. Retail Sales Rose in November Despite Expected Decline

Just the News

U.S. retail sales rose 0.3% in November compared to the previous month, the Commerce Department said Thursday, despite the Dow Jones estimate that sales would decline by 0.1%. 

The 0.3% estimated increase in U.S. retail and food service sales outpaced inflation from October to November, which was 0.1%. The retail sales are also up 4.1% when compared to the same time last year, the department said, which is still above the inflation rate of 3.1% from November 2022 to November 2023.

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Biden Admin Unveils New Green Subsidy Guidelines That Could Allow China to Cash In

Florida Capital Star Staff

The Biden administration released proposed rules for green manufacturing tax credits on Thursday, leaving the door open for Chinese firms to capture their value.

The proposed guidance, released by the Treasury Department, clarifies the eligibility requirements for Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) subsidies meant to incentivize domestic manufacturing of products like solar panels and electric vehicle (EV) parts, according to its text. The guidelines do not include restrictions on entities linked to adversarial foreign countries, and they would allow for China-tied companies to capture the value of tax credits if they establish operations in the U.S. that meet all other eligibility requirements.

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Harvard Sees Early Admission Applications Drop by 17 Percent, After College and Its president Claudine Gay Were Roiled by Anti-Semitism and Plagiarizing Scandals

Admin

The Daily Mail Harvard received its lowest number of early admission applications in years following a spew of controversies surrounding anti-Semitism and plagiarism. The Ivy League university saw a 17 percent drop in applications from students applying through early admission with 7,921 total candidates, compared to last year’s 9,553. The…

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Arizona Sends National Guard to the Border as Illegal Immigrants Pour In

Florida Capital Star Staff
Katie Hobbs Border

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Friday that troops would be deployed to the southern border after her requests for help from the White House fell on deaf ears.

The governor signed an executive order to allow the troops to assist state and local law enforcement interdict fentanyl and human trafficking attempts, Hobbs said in her statement. Hobbs asked President Joe Biden Dec. 8 to reassign National Guard members already in Arizona, provide additional reinforcements to help reopen the Lukeville Port of Entry and reimburse the $512,529,333 the state has spent on migrant transportation, drug interdiction and law enforcement.

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In the Name of ‘Fake News,’ NewsGuard Extorts Sites to Follow the Government Narrative

Admin

The New York Post  Half a century ago, George Orwell, writing on literary censorship, wrote that “unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban.” That dynamic now broadly extends to an opaque network of government agencies and self-proclaimed anti-misinformation groups that have repressed online…

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Pentagon Falls 41,000 Short of Reduced Military Recruitment Goals

The Center Square
Military Boot Camp

The Pentagon came up short on its recruitment goals.

The Defense Department’s senior officials testified Wednesday about shortfalls in Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting in the fiscal year that ended in September at a hearing of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. The Marine Corps and Space Force made their recruiting goals.

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Impeachment Inquiry Zeroes in on Origin of Hunter Biden’s China Deals While Joe Biden Was VP

Just the News

Congress has assembled a growing body of evidence that Hunter Biden’s dealings with a Chinese energy company that landed the family millions of dollars in 2017 actually began in 2015 and may have involved a meeting with his father before he left office as vice president, according to documents reviewed by Just the News.

The new evidence includes statements made to the FBI by a longtime Biden family friend who was involved in the deal with CEFC China Energy executives like its Chairman Ye Jianming, contemporaneous emails from Hunter Biden and testimony recently released from two IRS whistleblowers.

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Judge Declines to Block Race-Based Admissions at U.S. Naval Academy

Florida Capital Star Staff
Naval Academy

A federal judge ruled Thursday against an injunction that would have temporarily halted the Naval Academy’s race-based admissions policies, according to Reuters.

Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) filed a lawsuit against West Point in September and launched a second against the Naval Academy in October after winning two cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina on the same issue at the Supreme Court in June. U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett, however, ruled against SFFA’s request for an injunction, claiming that he felt the group had not proven the military’s use of race-based admissions for its academies was discriminatory, according to Reuters.

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Commentary: As Planned Parenthood’s Abortion Market Share Goes Up, So Does Its Taxpayer Funding

Florida Capital Star Staff

To borrow from an old saying, nothing can be certain except for death and taxpayer funding for the abortion industry. At the request of pro-life members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office released the latest round of data detailing how much taxpayer funding goes to Planned Parenthood and other international abortion organizations. From 2019 through 2021, Planned Parenthood in the U.S. received $1.7 billion in taxpayer subsidies.

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Florida Senate Committee Advances Deregulation Bills for School Districts

The Center Square
School Learning

Florida lawmakers advanced three new pieces of legislation this week designed to lessen regulatory burdens for school districts.

Senate Bill 7000, which is titled the Deregulation of Public Schools/Instructional, Administrative, and Support Personnel, is a bill sponsored by the Education PreK-12 Committee and was presented by Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami, to the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee on Tuesday.

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EU Member Blocks Billions in Foreign Aid to Ukraine

Florida Capital Star Staff
Viktor Orban

Kyiv took a blow on Friday after an EU member single handedly blocked billions in aid to Ukraine.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stonewalled all other 26 members of the EU and voted against a $50 billion aid package for Ukraine at the European Council conference in Belgium on Friday, according to Reuters. Orban also hinted he could block attempts to bring Ukraine into the EU fold as a member after the other members voted unanimously to start negotiation talks on Thursday.

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Senators Launch Bipartisan Effort to End Unemployment Payments for ‘Jobless Millionaires’

Just the News
Joni Ernst Mike Braun Jon Tester

A bipartisan effort is underway in the Senate to end what lawmakers are calling unemployment payments for “jobless millionaires.”

“Nearly 15,000 people who made $1 million or more last year were paid over $200 million in jobless assistance,” according to statement released Thursday on the effort by bill co-sponsor Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst.

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Commentary: Pelosi Gets Biden an Impeachment Inquiry

Florida Capital Star Staff
Biden Pelosi Handshake

Alan Dershowitz, the famed Harvard Law professor emeritus — a Democrat and non-Trump voter who, out of his support for the Constitution, served as Donald Trump’s lawyer in the then-president’s impeachment — had this warning for Democrats in that day of the Trump impeachments. 

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China’s Latest Economic Data Spells Even More Trouble for the Struggling Economy

Florida Capital Star Staff
Chinese Stock Market

New data from China shows the country’s economy is still failing to recover from the loss of growth it has seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The Wall Street Journal.

While China’s economy did grow in November in a number of key areas, it was lower than economists’ expectations and was bolstered by a comparison from last year, when the country still maintained strict COVID-19 restrictions, according to the WSJ. Retail sales, which supports the key growth factor of domestic consumption, only rose by 10.1% year-over-year compared to the 12.9% growth that was expected, and fixed-asset investment rose 2.9% from January to November, as opposed to expectations of 3%.

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Congress Votes to Extend FBI Warrantless Surveillance Tool Without Reforming It

Florida Capital Star Staff

Congress voted Thursday to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) with no reforms as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

Section 702 of FISA is a tool that intelligence officials have allegedly abused as it enables them to surveil Americans without obtaining a warrant. After the Senate passed FISA through the NDAA on Wednesday and failed to get sufficient support to eliminate the four-month extension, the House of Representatives finalized it in a vote on Thursday.

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Trump Dominates in Swing States Against Biden for 2024: Poll

Florida Capital Star Staff

Former President Donald Trump is dominating in seven crucial battleground states against President Joe Biden ahead of a potential 2024 head-to-head rematch, a Thursday poll found.

Trump is leading Biden 47% to 42% across Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina, according to a Morning Consult/Bloomberg survey. The former president held his largest leads against Biden in North Carolina and Georgia by 9 and 6 points, respectively, and Trump’s smallest margin of victory came in Pennsylvania by 2 points.

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Pro-Life Experts Warn Leftists Are Using Texas Woman’s Abortion Battle as ‘Highly Public Flashpoint’

Florida Capital Star Staff

Kate Cox asked the Texas Supreme Court to give her permission to abort her unborn baby, a baby that has a condition known as trisomy 18. On Monday, her lawyers said that she will go to another state to end the baby’s life. That same day, the court said Texas law didn’t require her to ask its permission.

Trisomy 18 is a condition where a baby has an extra copy of chromosome 18, making it highly likely that the baby will die in the womb or shortly after birth—though some babies with trisomy 18 do survive, such as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s daughter. Cox’s lawyers have argued that by not aborting her baby, Cox is jeopardizing her health and future fertility.

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Chinese Drug Dealers Use Risqué Ads to Sell Narcotics, Fentanyl Ingredients on U.S. Social Media

Florida Capital Star Staff

Accounts claiming to represent Chinese drug manufacturers are using provocative images of women to advertise narcotics and fentanyl precursors on U.S. social media, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of hundreds of English and Chinese-language social media posts.

The DCNF identified several dozen LinkedIn accounts claiming to be saleswomen representing China-based manufacturers primarily located near Beijing or Wuhan. The accounts often featured images of women and teenage girls in advertisements for a wide variety of controlled substances including 4-piperidone, which is used to manufacture fentanyl.

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Biden Impeachment Inquiry Approval Sets Stage for Likely Court Challenge, Contempt Charges

Just the News

The GOP-led House’s passage of the impeachment inquiry resolution against President Biden ramps up their investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and prepares them for a court challenge, according to top Republicans. 

Lawmakers voted 221-212 along party lines on Wednesday to approve the resolution authorizing the inquiry.

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Music Spotlight: Amanda Stewart

Bethany Bowman

Growing up in the mountains of Montana, Amanda Stewart spent much of her time on her grandparents’ ranch, being exposed to the acoustic instrumentation and simple yet honest songwriting of Americana, folk, and country music styles.

She said, “My mom did a little bit of singing in school and was always singing in the car. And I sang with her. We actually did little karaoke contests and things like that. And my dad loved music, too. And my grandparents had a piano in their living room at their ranch. Whenever I would go, I would just be in there plugging away and singing. Nobody was professionally inclined, but it’s just always been a big part of the family life.”

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Ranchers Suing Colorado, Federal Agencies over Wolf Reintroduction

The Center Square

A pair of trade groups representing Colorado ranchers are suing state and federal wildlife agencies to delay reintroducing gray wolves to the Western Slope. 

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, comes before the state’s deadline to reintroduce gray wolves by the end of this year.  

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Commentary: As Inflation Cools, Fed Keeps Rates Steady, Slowdown Expected in 2024

Florida Capital Star Staff

The Federal Reserve on Dec. 13 held the Federal Funds Rate—the rate at which banks lend to each other—steady at 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent, as the consumer inflation once again cooled to 12-month average level of 3.1 percent, according to the latest data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Leading the cooldown were drops in energy prices as gasoline dropped 6 percent in November, following a 5 percent drop in October.

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Court Rejects Trump Challenge to Gag Order

Florida Capital Star Staff

A New York appeals court rejected President Donald Trump’s bid Thursday to toss the gag order imposed on him in his New York civil fraud trial, along with the fines imposed for violations.

The court found that Trump had not used the right legal method to challenge the order imposed in October by Judge Arthur Engoron. Trump’s lawyers asked the court in November to vacate the gag order using a provision of the law to sue Engoron directly, which the court found was an “extraordinary remedy” not appropriate when the “potential harm is small,” according to ABC News.

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Jill Biden’s White House Christmas Dance Troupe Are Radical BLM-Loving activists Who Have Demanded Prison Abolition and Defunding the Police

Admin

The Daily Mail   The dancing troupe commissioned by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden for a Christmas video are Black Lives Matters activists who promote far-left policies, including defunding the police.  Dorrance Dance, a tap dancing troupe from New York City, performed a ‘playful’ interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite through the halls of the White House.  The group…

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Poll: One in Five Mail-In Voters Admit to Committing Voter Fraud in 2020 Election

Just the News

One in five voters who cast mail-in ballots during the November 2020 election admit to committing voter fraud, according to a new poll by The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports.

The poll of 1,085 likely voters released on Tuesday, which was conducted from November 30 to December 6, asked, “During the 2020 election, did you fill out a ballot, in part or in full, on behalf of a friend or family member, such as a spouse or child?” A total of 21% of respondents who said they had cast mail-in ballots answered ‘yes.’

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Supreme Court to Weigh Major Case on Abortion Pill Approval

Florida Capital Star Staff

The Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it is taking on a case regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the chemical abortion pill mifepristone.

Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations filed a lawsuit against the FDA in November 2022, claiming that the FDA had ignored safety protocols to approve the abortion pill mifepristone. The Supreme Court said this week that it would hear the case, one of the first major abortion cases taken up by the court since overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022, according to an order list.

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10 Revelations That Changed Americans’ Understanding of Events on January 6

Just the News

Videotape of a Capitol door being mistakenly unlocked. Photos of gallows being set up outside without any police interference. Officers exhorting protesters to storm the Capitol. Intelligence warnings of potential violence that went unheeded. Major changes to testimony.

A year after the Democrat-led House Select Committee on Jan. 6 ended it works, major new revelations have emerged from House Republicans led by Rep, Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga, about how the Capitol riot unfolded that fateful day and the security failures that occurred in the days and hours ahead of the violence.

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