Group Re-Introduces Bill to Help Teachers, First Responders Buy Homes

A bipartisan group will try again to pass a bill to help teachers and first-responders buy homes in the communities they serve.

U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced the Homes for Every Local Protector Educator and Responder (HELPER) Act. The bill would create a first-time homebuyer loan program under the Federal Housing Administration for teachers and first responders who have served at least four years.

Read More

Gov. Ron DeSantis Announces Plan to Recruit and Retain Public School Teachers, Calls Florida ‘The State Where Woke Goes to Die’

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced a plan to recruit public school teachers from other sectors of the community and retain effective teachers who can apprentice new recruits.

In a press conference Tuesday, DeSantis discussed three proposals he is presenting for Florida’s 2023 legislative session, all of which seek to recruit “the best and brightest” teachers in the state’s public school classrooms.

Read More

DeSantis Signs Law Enforcement Bill into Law, Includes Signing Bonuses for Officers Who Move to Florida

Ron DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed into law a measure that incentivizes law enforcement officers to move to or stay in the state through monetary awards.

“While other parts of the country are mistreating, marginalizing and defunding law enforcement, in Florida we continue to prioritize and appreciate our law enforcement officers,” DeSantis said during a Friday news conference while accompanied by Attorney General Ashley Moody and House Speaker Chris Sprowls. “This legislation encourages Floridians to pursue careers in law enforcement and attracts high quality law enforcement officers from other states who are sick and tired of the mistreatment they experience to bring their skills to Florida. From $1,000 scholarships to $5,000 bonuses to $25,000 adoption incentives, we are putting our money where our mouth is, and we are backing the blue.”

HB 3 includes a wide range of law enforcement initiatives, including incentives to encourage both out-of-state residents and Floridians to join state and local law enforcement agencies. It includes signing bonuses for every new recruit, costs covered for training programs and relocation expenses, pay raises and $1,000 bonuses. The bill also created a Law Enforcement Academy Scholarship Program for children of law enforcement officers, and adoption benefits for officers.

Read More

‘Condition Omega!’ Once-Secret New York Police Department 9/11 Report Recounts Horror, Heroism 20 Years Later

Across the water from NYC, with a first responder statue

Now relegated to the history files of the New York’s police department, a September 2001 after-action report prepared by then-NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik for then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani provides a stunning account of what happened on the deadliest day in American history as four hijacked planes pierced the sunny, blue morning skies 20 years ago.

Nineteen terrorists — working under the command of Osama bin Laden (since executed by the U.S. military) and his chief planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (since captured and on trial now at Guantanamo Bay) — exacted unspeakable carnage on an unsuspecting country that was forever changed.

The report, provided by Kerik to Just the News as part of its “9/11: Never Forget” podcast special, details how the NYPD executed “Condition Omega,” an emergency plan that achieved an unprecedented sealing of the Big Apple, an historic evacuation of hundreds of thousands from the city’s financial district and a grim, gruesome recovery of more than 2,500 bodies, including hundreds of police officers and firefighters who rushed into the burning Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and its adjoining command center.

Read More

With Bells Tolling and Names Never Forgotten, America Commemorates 20th Anniversary of 9/11

Cityscape of NYC with lights shining where Twin Towers used to be.

Americans commemorated the 20th anniversary of the world’s deadliest terror attacks, ringing bells, singing hymns and solemnly reading the names of the nearly 3,000 who perished and are never to be forgotten.

With skies blue and sunny just like that fateful day two decades ago, presidents past and present joined the memorials at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., as Americans marked their first 9/11 anniversary without U.S. troops engaged in battle in Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden joined the crowd at the Ground Zero site where the former World Trade Center once stood.

Read More