Month: December 2023

Judge Hands Major Defeat to Transgender Lawmaker Suing Montana over ‘Unconstitutional’ Censure

Florida Capital Star Staff

A Montana judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday by Democratic state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who is transgender, against the state’s House of Representatives after Zephyr was censured in April, according to court documents.

Zephyr was disciplined by House officials on April 26 for breaking legislative protocol after Zephyr held up a microphone to support protesters, several of whom were arrested at the demonstration several days prior. Zephyr filed a lawsuit against Republican state House Speaker Matt Regier and the House’s Sergeant of Arms Bradley Murfitt for allegedly violating Zephyr’s right to freedom of speech, but District Judge Mike Menahan argued that the legislature does have the right to discipline members who violate the rules, according to court documents.

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Texas AG Ken Paxton Sues Pfizer for Misrepresenting Efficacy of the COVID-19 Jabs and Conspiring to Censor Public Discourse

Florida Capital Star Staff
AG Ken Paxton

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that he is suing Pfizer for “unlawfully misrepresenting” Covid-19 vaccine efficacy and conspiring to censor public discourse.

“Pfizer engaged in false, deceptive, and misleading acts and practices by making unsupported claims regarding the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act,” Paxton said in a press release.

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Investors Pull Out Record Funds from China as Economy Falters

Florida Capital Star Staff
China Money

International investors have pulled billions out of China as the country’s economy continues to stumble and relations with the U.S. fail to ease, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Since August, international investors trading in China’s top exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen have pulled out more than $24 billion through a trading link in Hong Kong, according to the WSJ, the largest net outflow of foreign funds since the link was created in 2014. The MSCI China Index, which serves as a tool for investors to gauge expected returns in the country, has fallen 10% this year as China’s economy reports lackluster growth amid a real estate crisis and relations with the U.S. fail to significantly improve.

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Pro-Life Nonprofits Sue Washington AG for ‘Unconstitutional’ Investigation over Abortion Reversal Pill

Florida Capital Star Staff
AG Bob Ferguson

Two pro-life nonprofits filed a lawsuit against Democratic Attorney General Bob Ferguson of Washington state Wednesday for conducting what they allege is an “unconstitutional” investigation over the group’s support of the abortion reversal pill, according to court documents.

Progesterone, also known as the abortion reversal pill, is a drug that is used to reverse the effects of a chemical abortion and is considered highly controversial, according to the American Pregnancy Association. The Obria Group and Obria Medical Groups PNW, Christian pregnancy organizations, filed the lawsuit with Alliance Defending Freedom after Ferguson began an investigation into the groups’ alleged deceptive marketing of progesterone, according to court documents.

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Federal Judge Blocks Montana’s TikTok Ban

Just the News
Montana TikTok Ruling

A federal judge in Montana has blocked an upcoming state-wide ban on using the social media app TikTok, calling it unconstitutional. 

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy said Thursday the ban on the app, whose ownership has ties to Communist-led China,  “oversteps state power and infringes on the Constitutional right of users and businesses.”

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Biden Admin Investigates Wisconsin School After Man Identifying as Trans Allegedly Exposed Genitalia to Four Freshmen Girls

Florida Capital Star Staff
Girls Sports

The Department of Education (ED) opened an investigation into a Wisconsin school Wednesday after an adult man identifying as transgender allegedly exposed himself to underaged girls, according to an ED letter.

After a swimming class in March at Sun Prairie Area High School (SPASD), four freshmen girls were exposed to the genitalia of an 18-year-old male student claiming to be transgender who allegedly undressed in front of them, and despite SPASD being informed of the incident, nothing was done. Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) demanded that the ED Office of Civil Rights (OCR) investigate SPASD after allegedly failing to address the incident.

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Commentary: The Biden Family Grift and Hunter’s Fake Offer to Testify

RealClearWire

Hunter Biden’s offer to testify before the House Oversight Committee is a clever evasion, nothing more. The president’s son says he will testify only if the hearing is publicly televised. Nice try. Subpoenaed witnesses don’t get to set the terms. The committee does.

Why make an offer that is bound to be rejected? For two reasons. The PR goal is for Hunter to appear willing to testify, when he actually wants desperately to avoid it. The legal goal is to prevent, or at least delay, the committee from enforcing its subpoena. Hunter and his hardball attorney, Abbe Lowell, probably figure the Biden administration’s Department of Justice won’t go to court and demand compliance. That’s not a bad bet. If the DOJ does refuse, the House will go to court itself, but that will take time and may not succeed.

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Florida Bill Would Override Prohibition on Local Bans for Plastic Bags

The Center Square
Linda Stewart

A Florida lawmaker is hoping a new bill recently filed will bring about an end to plastic bags and other single-use plastics if passed.

Senate Bill 498 is sponsored by state Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando. It would amend two Florida statutes and remove the preemption of local laws regarding the regulation of containers, wrappings, or plastic bags.

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Commentary: Forget the Media Doomsaying — the GOP Will Be Ok

Florida Capital Star Staff
Congress Building

If you follow politics and didn’t know that voters in Charleston, South Carolina, elected the city’s first Republican mayor in almost a century and a half, you can be forgiven. A lot of people missed it because, while it was covered, the legacy media failed, unsurprisingly, to recognize it for the landmark it is.

The scant attention paid to the outcome of that race compared to, say, the GOP’s failure to take over the Virginia Legislature is a discordant note that throws off an otherwise harmonious national narrative that has the Republican Party hopelessly divided and unable to win elections now that Bidenomics is working.

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House Passes Bill to Permanently Freeze $6 Billion in Iranian Funds from Hostage Deal

Just the News
Iran Money

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved legislation to permanently freeze $6 billion in Iranian funds that the Biden administration had agreed to release as part of a hostage exchange with Tehran earlier this year.

The measure passed in a 307-119 vote, with almost all Republicans supporting it, The Hill reported. Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie was the sole GOP dissident and sided with 118 Democrats.

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China is Running an Operation to Get Americans Hooked on Illegal Drugs, Former DEA Boss Warns

Just the News
Fentanyl

Police operations from California to Maine have busted Chinese nationals operating illegal marijuana growing sites. U.S. officials have clear evidence China is providing Mexican drug cartels the precursor chemicals to make the fentanyl flowing into America. The Drug Enforcement Administration has substantial evidence dating back a decade of Beijing’s role in flooding U.S. cities with a wide range of addictive and harmful drugs.

Experts say there is growing evidence that communist China has launched concerted operations to hook Americans on drugs as part of a larger effort to supplant the United States as the world’s No. 1 superpower. Adding to the problem, the insecure border of the Biden era has only accelerated operations that have killed tens of thousands of Americans from fentanyl poisoning alone. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl increased by 279% from 5.7 per 100,000 in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021.

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Consumer Spending Slows Down as Americans’ Savings Dry Up

Florida Capital Star Staff
Person Shopping

Growth in consumer spending fell to the lowest point since March as Americans’ savings fall from the all-time highs seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

Consumer spending, measured by the personal consumption expenditure (PCE), increased by $41.2 billion in the month of October, an increase of 0.2%, less than the 0.7% increase that was seen in September as Americans cut back, accordingto the BEA. The cooling in spending follows a huge decline in the amount of savings Americans collectively hold, falling from over $1 trillion in May to $768.6 billion in October, far from the all-time high of almost $6 trillion in April 2020, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

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Anthony Fauci to Testify Before Congress on U.S. Response to COVID-19

Florida Capital Star Staff
Fauci Hearing

Former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci is set to testify before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in early January, the subcommittee announced Thursday.

Fauci will take part in a two-day interview on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, making his first appearance before the 118th Congress, according to the subcommittee. Fauci also agreed to testify in a public hearing, though the date of that hearing has yet to be announced.

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Commentary: It’s Time to Unite Behind Trump If We Want to Win in 2024

Florida Capital Star Staff
Donald Trump Podium

The 2024 Presidential election is rapidly approaching. In many ways it can’t come soon enough. Americans have now spent nearly three painful years waking up every day astonished to learn that the Biden administration has outdone its previous act of insanity.

The shocking revelation, for example, that the Biden Administration is covertly flying illegals into the interior of the U.S. is quickly forgotten when new revelations emerge that the same Administration is sabotaging Texas’ efforts to secure the border—ordering federal agents to cut through the wire barriers erected by the state of Texas.

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Appeals Court Reinstates Trump Gag Order

Florida Capital Star Staff
Donald Trump Courtroom

A New York appeals court reinstated Thursday the gag order imposed on former President Donald Trump by the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial.

Trump asked the appeals court earlier this month to vacate Judge Arthur Engoron’s order, which blocks him from speaking publicly about members of Engoron’s staff, along with the $5,000 and $10,000 fines imposed on him for violations. Associate Justice David Friedman temporarily paused the order on Nov. 16.

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Biden Admin Pledges Millions to International ‘Climate Reparations’ Fund

Florida Capital Star Staff
Joe Biden UN

The Biden administration has pledged millions of dollars to a de facto international “climate reparations” fund at the United Nations (UN) climate summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The fund, referred to by its proponents as a “loss and damage fund,” is intended to have developed countries transfer money to the developing world as compensation for the impacts of climate change. The U.S. promised more than $17 million to the fund on Thursday, according to Axios.

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Commentary: One in Every 39 Americans Will Die of a Drug Overdose at Current Rate

The Center Square
Person Taking Pills

Despite the passage of state and federal laws that were supposed to reduce fatal drug overdoses, the annual U.S. drug overdose death rate has quintupled over recent decades:

Over the most current year of available data, more than 110,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses, a rate of 33 per 100,000 population.

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George Santos Announces Effort to Expel Jamaal Bowman from Congress

Florida Capital Star Staff
George Santos and Jamaal Bowman

Republican Rep. George Santos of New York announced on Thursday that he will file a resolution to expel Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, even as Santos faces the threat of expulsion from the House of Representatives.

Santos, who has been indicted on federal charges regarding alleged campaign finance felonies and faced numerous attempts of expulsion by Democrats and Republicans, is facing expulsion from the chamber following a report by the House Ethics Committee that found “substantial evidence” he committed the crimes alleged against him. On Thursday, Santos told reporters that he would introduce a resolution to expel Bowman, who recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for pulling the fire alarm at the Cannon House Office Building on Sept. 30, The Hill reported.

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