GOP Sen. Cotton Vows to Stall Nominations Until Congress Gets Biden, Trump Classified Docs

Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton vowed that lawmakers would stall Biden government nominations until it handed over the materials the FBI recovered from both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. “Until the administration stops stonewalling Congress, there will be pain as a consequence for them,” Cotton said, according to The Hill. “Whether it’s blocking nominees or withholding budgetary funds, Congress will impose pain on the administration until they provide these documents.”

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Agriculture Economists See Several Concerns for Farmers in 2023

Farmers aren’t likely to enjoy a calm year this year, according to agricultural economists from Purdue University. After a year of dealing with historic inflation rates, farmers must now be prepared for an economic downturn that could spark a recession. However, there’s even more uncertainty across the horizon, said Roman Keeney, an associate professor of economics at Purdue’s College of Agriculture.

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Pfizer Executive Heard Claiming Company Considering Mutating COVID Virus Itself to Continue Profiting Off Vaccines, Later Seen Assaulting Project Veritas Founder James O’Keefe

A top-level Pfizer executive revealed to an undercover Project Veritas (PV) journalist that the pharmaceutical giant is considering the possibility of mutating the COVID virus itself via “directed evolution” in order to keep profiting off a continued stream of vaccines. Following the release of the first video, which was published Wednesday, Jordon Trishton Walker, Pfizer director of Research and Development, Strategic Operations – mRNA Scientific Planner, is seen in a second video assaulting PV founder James O’Keefe and his staff in a restaurant, and destroying the iPad showing the undercover video recordings.

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New Bill from Rep. Rachel Jones Would Bar an Arizona Secretary of State from Certifying Their Own Election

One of Arizona’s newest Republican State Representatives, Rachel Jones (R-Tucson), introduced a new bill that would prevent a Secretary of State from certifying an election in which they participated.

“So, I think it is pretty clear what the intent of this bill is. It is basically saying if a current Secretary of State is running for another office, such as happened in the 2022 election with Katie Hobbs running for governor, this is just getting rid of any potential conflicts of interests with that individual,” Jones said while introducing her bill to the House Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee.

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U.S. GDP Ticks Up, but Recession Fears Remain

The U.S. economy grew modestly in the fourth quarter of 2022, despite signs of weak domestic demand, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Thursday. In the fourth quarter, inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew by roughly 2.9%, down slightly from 3.2% in the third quarter, the BEA reported. Recession concerns among economists linger, however, amid fears that the Federal Reserve’s campaign of interest rate hikes — intended to reduce economic demand to slow inflation — will lead to reduced spending and layoffs, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Arizona Freedom Caucus Takes Stand on Lifting School Spending Limit: Only If it Comes with Reforms

The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) announced it would take a stand against lifting the highly contested aggregate expenditure limit (AEL), which puts a cap on public school spending unless it comes with systemic reform.

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Arizona State Legislators and Guests Address Southern Border Crisis and Plans to Alleviate It at State Capitol

PHOENIX, Arizona – Republican members of the state legislature gathered outside the state capitol to discuss the ongoing crisis caused by conditions at the southern border and how they plan to address it in the coming session. State Rep. Steve Montenegro (R-Avondale) began the meeting by addressing the fentanyl flowing into the country across the border.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is now a public health crisis, and we need to take swift action to deal with what is happening, to combat it,” Montenegro said. “The legislature is focused on empowering law enforcement to stop border crimes by directing resources, forming task forces, and applying pressure on those who are abetting this crisis and denying the disastrous effects it has on our communities.”

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Schiff Launches Campaign for Feinstein’s California Senate Seat, Setting Up Epic Democrat Primary

California Rep. Adam Schiff on Thursday launched his 2024 campaign for Senate, possibly setting up a Democratic primary challenge against incumbent Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “When a dangerous demagogue tried to undermine our democracy, I wasn’t about to let him,” Schiff says in a voice-over in his first campaign ad as videos of former President Donald Trump play.

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Government Report: Unemployment Fraud May Top $60 Billion During Pandemic

A U.S. government report released Monday estimates that there could have been more than $60 billion in unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic. The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office says that figure is an estimate spread over the entire unemployment system and should be “interpreted with caution.”

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Sens. Ron Johnson, Roger Wicker Introduce Senate ‘No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act’

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson (R) and Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker (R) led 45 of their Republican colleagues in introducing the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a measure that would permanently prohibit federal funding for abortion. Johnson and Wicker introduced the legislation Wednesday, a measure that would establish a “permanent prohibition on federal funding for abortion, replacing the current restrictions with a single, government-wide standard,” said a press release from Johnson’s office.

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Kari Lake Files Reply Brief with Arizona Court of Appeals in Election Contest Lawsuit

Kari Lake’s election lawsuit contesting her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the gubernatorial race is at the Arizona Court of Appeals after being dismissed by the trial court judge. Lake filed a reply on Tuesday to the responses from defendants Maricopa County and then-Secretary of State Hobbs.

The reply brief began, “Defendants ignore the trial court’s holdings, misstate the law, misstate material facts, and — unable to get their stories straight — contradict each other.” 

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Commentary: Nationwide Rent Control Is a Dangerous Proposition

Some of our nation’s politicians seem to know very little about basic economic principles despite constantly proposing legislative action on economic issues. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D–N.Y.) now want federal regulators to impose rent control on the entire nation. In their letter to the Biden administration, which was signed by 50 members of Congress, Warren and Bowman request that the administration “pursue all possible strategies” to control high rents. These politicians portray themselves as fighting for the average American, but, if they get their way, the results will be catastrophic.

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Cardinal Says Pope Francis Has No ‘Contact with the Holy Spirit’ in New Book

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is releasing a book that accuses Pope Francis of giving “privileged status” to his friends that are accused of sexual abuse in the church, according to Catholic news website LaCroix International. The Roman Catholic Church has suffered multiple sexual abuse scandals over the years after several reports from the Vatican found that the clergy, particularly in France, had abused thousands of victims. While Müller says that France’s Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church (CIASE) 2021 report was “inflated and exaggerated,” the cardinal claims in his new book, “In Good Faith: Religion in the 21st Century,” that Francis has helped protect those close to him by granting them a special “status,” citing the case of Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who was convicted in March 2022 of sexual abuse of two victims during seminary, as an example, according to LaCroix International.

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DeSantis Backs Harmeet Dhillon in RNC Race

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed former Trump campaign attorney Harmeet Dhillon in her challenge to Ronna McDaniel for Republican National Committee chair. “I think we need a change. I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC,” DeSantis told Charlie Kirk on Real America’s Voice in an interview aired Thursday, one day before the vote for RNC speaker.

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Feds Adapting AI Used to Silence ISIS to Combat American Dissent on Vaccines, Elections

The government’s campaign to fight “misinformation” has expanded to adapt military-grade artificial intelligence once used to silence the Islamic State (ISIS) to quickly identify and censor American dissent on issues like vaccine safety and election integrity, according to grant documents and cyber experts.

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State Representative Announces Hearing to Discuss Arizona Public School Spending Limitation

Newly Elected State Rep. Matt Gress (R-Maricopa), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Budgetary Funding Formulas, announced a hearing for Thursday to review the public school spending cap created by the aggregate expenditure limit (AEL).

“The purpose of this committee hearing is to ensure the record investments we’ve made in K-12 education over the last eight years are effectively and responsibly spent so that we can properly invest in our state’s future leaders,” said Gress.

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Abortion Pill Maker Sues Red States over Bans: ‘Impacts the Company’s Bottom Line’

A company behind the manufacturing of a pill used in chemical abortions filed a lawsuit on Wednesday morning challenging state bans on the abortions, The New York Times reported. GenBioPro, which makes the abortion pill mifepristone, filed the lawsuit in a West Virginia federal court to argue that Federal Food and Drug regulations (FDA) take priority over state laws regulating abortion, according to the NYT. The lawsuit argues that the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill trumps state laws and that abortion bans violate the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which protects interstate commerce.

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Pope Francis Says Homosexuality Is ‘A Sin’ but Should Not Be Criminalized

Pope Francis I said in an interview with the Associated Press that “homosexuality is not a crime” and encouraged bishops to stop practicing forms of conversion therapy. Francis has come under scrutiny in the past for his statements regarding the LGBTQ community, including his perceived endorsement of same-sex civil unions in 2020. The pope stated during the interview that while homosexuality is considered a sin, it should not be a “crime.”

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Conservative Senators Demand Spending Cuts, Fiscal Reform in Debt Ceiling Deal

Fiscal hawks in the Senate reiterated their demands for fiscal reforms and spending cuts Tuesday as they voiced their support for House Republicans to lead the heavy-lifting on addressing the nation’s debt ceiling crisis. “We have an opportunity to stop the madness, and it’s incumbent on the Republican majority in the House and Republicans in the Senate to use every lever point we have,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at a press conference on the debt ceiling and runaway spending.

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Phoenix Police Department Taking Steps to Limit Use of Force Policy

The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) proposed a new limit of force policy focusing on de-escalation, which it intends to adopt after seeking public comment. The public can comment on the proposed changes through January 31.

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College Board Announces Revision of AP African American Studies Course After DeSantis Rejects Pilot for Florida

The College Board announced Tuesday that it will be updating its framework for its Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies (APAAS) course following its rejection by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and his state’s Department of Education (FDOE). The College Board said in a statement its final framework for the course will be released on Feb. 1, reported WESH.

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Commentary: Frustrated by Police Inaction, the Pro-Life Movement Takes Up the Work of Law Enforcement

Last June a firebomb ripped through the CompassCare crisis pregnancy center in Buffalo, causing extensive damage but no deaths. Amid the rubble and soot, the words “Jane was here” were written on the wall, suggesting that the militant abortion rights group Jane’s Revenge was responsible. Almost immediately, authorities all the way up to the FBI assured the pro-life enterprise they would bring the perpetrators to justice.

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Commentary: The Environmentalist Assault on Civilization

No reasonable person would deny the importance of protecting the environment. The accomplishments of the environmental movement over the past 50 years are undeniable: cleaner air and water, protected wildernesses, and more efficient use of resources. The list is endless and illustrious. Environmentalist values are an integral part of any responsible public policy agenda. But the pendulum has swung too far.

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DOJ Official Overseeing Prosecution of Pregnancy Center Attacks Has a History of Disparaging Them

A top Department of Justice (DOJ) official who has criticized pregnancy resource centers, which she called “fake clinics,” is responsible for overseeing the prosecution of two individuals indicted for attacking pregnancy resource centers, according to the DOJ. The DOJ indicted Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart this week for various FACE Act violations after they allegedly spray-painted threats on pregnancy resource centers such as “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you” and “WE’RE COMING for U,” according to the DOJ. Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Attorney General heading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which will be prosecuting this case, condemned the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to strike down a California law requiring pregnancy resource centers to offer information about state-funded abortions, as previously reported by The Washington Free Beacon.

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Hawley’s ‘PELOSI Act’ Would Outlaw Insider Trading for Congress

Lawmakers and their spouses would be prohibited from using privileged information to trade stocks, under legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. Hawley’s bill follows news last year that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, traded between $1 million and $5 million worth of semiconductor stocks shortly before Congress allocated $52 million to the industry.

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Meta to Reinstate Trump’s Facebook, Instagram Accounts

Social media giant Meta announced Wednesday that it would reinstate former President Donald Trump’s accounts on both Facebook and Instagram. The former president was suspended from both platforms in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2022, Capitol Riot. Other social media platforms such as Twitter acted likewise, prompting Trump to create Truth Social, a digital platform similar to Twitter that practiced looser content moderation than its competitors.

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Hobbs Allegedly Withheld Evidence in Hamadeh Trial, AG Changes Election Unit

Amid allegations that Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs withheld evidence last year as secretary of state during an election trial regarding the state attorney general race, new Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes is shifting the focus of the AG’s election integrity unit to voter suppression.

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Arizona Senate Republicans Introduce Tax Cut Bills for Groceries and Rent Payments

State Senate Republicans have introduced two bills that target Arizona’s grocery and rental taxes to give local families a financial break. Kim Quintero, the spokeswoman for the Senate Republican Caucus, told The Arizona Sun Times that it would be unwise for Governor Katie Hobbs (D) to veto bills like these should they pass the legislature.

“It would not be wise of the Governor to veto the food tax bill, as this will provide immediate inflation relief to those living paycheck to paycheck, and it’s something that resonates with a large portion of her voter base,” Quintero said via email.

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Wall Street Journal Rips Vaccine Makers: ‘Designed Studies to Get the Results They Wanted’

Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial board member Allysia Finley took to task both the federal government and the pharmaceutical giants profiting from the sale of their COVID mRNA booster shots for a “deceptive advertising” push for Americans to continue taking boosters without proof of their safety or effectiveness. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its health and regulatory agencies are engaged in a “deceptive advertising” campaign, wrote Finley Sunday, suggesting the pressure tactics “shouldn’t come as a surprise,” since the federal government “took the unprecedented step of ordering vaccine makers to produce them and recommending them without data supporting their safety or efficacy.”

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Vermont Supreme Court Upholds Law Allowing Non-Citizens to Vote in Local Elections

The Vermont Supreme Court ruled in favor of a law permitting noncitizens to vote in local, municipal elections. In 2021, the state Legislature backed bills to change the local charters of Montpelier and Winooski to permit noncitizen voting in local elections. Though Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed those measures, the Democratic Legislature overrode his objections, the Associated Press reported.

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Planned Parenthood Sex Educator Teaching Minors on TikTok to Use ‘Spicy Toys’ or Vegetables for Sexual Pleasure Under Fire

The work of a Planned Parenthood sex educator whose viral TikTok videos instruct children and young teens to use “spicy toys” and fruits and vegetables for sexual pleasure has been condemned by a former sex educator also trained by the abortion industry giant. Monica Cline, who, prior to her conversion, educated children as young as middle schoolers to engage in sex acts “safely,” said in comments sent to The Star News Network that Planned Parenthood sex educator and digital creator Mariah Caudillo is engaged in a “crime against children” paid for by American taxpayers.

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Catholic Churches Have Suffered 118 Attacks Since SCOTUS Dobbs Leak

A recent report found that Catholic churches have suffered 118 attacks since the leak of the Supreme Court draft majority opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center in May 2022. Churches and pregnancy centers across the United States came under attack after the opinion was leaked to Politico, indicating that the Supreme Court intended to overturn Roe v. Wade. CatholicVote (CV) updated its tracker Sunday that keeps track of assaults on Catholic Churches and found that 118 churches had reported attacks since May 2022.

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Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Finds New Inmates Attempting to Sneak Suspected Fentanyl into Jail System

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) announced Friday that it had made multiple discoveries of suspected fentanyl pills being smuggled by newly booked inmates into the Intake, Transfer, and Release Facility (ITRF).

“This week alone MCSO detention officers have seized approximately 260 pills in the jail system, suspected to be fentanyl and pending lab analysis. The seizures were a compilation of three unique incidents,” according to the office.

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DOJ to File Lawsuit Against Google over Dominance of Digital Ad Market

The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company has an unfair dominance over the digital ad market. As reported by the New York Post, the federal lawsuit could be filed as soon as Tuesday against Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. The suit will target Google’s lucrative advertising business, which accounts for 80 percent of Google’s overall revenue; in 2023, Google is projected to make at least $73.8 billion from advertising alone.

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Testimony to Arizona Senate Election Committee Reveals Almost Half the Ballots Ran Through Maricopa County Tabulators Failed

The election committee of the Arizona Senate held a hearing on Monday featuring the results of an investigation into Maricopa County’s 2022 midterm election conducted by the election integrity group We the People AZ (WPAZ). Commissioned by outgoing Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott), the group submitted public records requests to Maricopa County Elections Department to obtain the data. The leader of WPAZ, Shelby Busch, testified to the committee chaired by State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) that 464,926 ballots fed into tabulators on Election Day in Maricopa County, 217,305 were rejected, which is nearly a 50 percent failure rate.

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Democratic Congressman: ‘No One Can Defend Having Classified Documents’ at Penn Biden Center

A Democratic California congressman this week weighed in on President Joe Biden’s classified-document scandal, characterizing the president’s housing of restricted records in his University of Pennsylvania office and his Delaware home as indefensible. A member of the House Oversight and Armed Services committees, U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA-17) told Fox News that Biden warrants scrutiny for keeping numerous records he obtained during his earlier service as a U.S. senator and later as vice president. Khanna noted that the law requires classified federal documents to be kept in “sensitive compartmented information facilities” (SCIFs). While presidents can sometimes temporarily designate rooms within their personal properties as SCIFs, Biden has never suggested any spaces in his home or office were deemed to be such areas.

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Commentary: Biden Document Discovery Doesn’t Add Up

Last week, CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman why President Biden would dispatch his personal attorney, who didn’t have proper security clearance, to his Delaware home to search for classified documents. Presumably, Brennan believed that when searching for classified documents, one should have the credentials to actually read them. Brennan’s focus on who was reviewing Biden’s papers touched on a potentially interesting line of inquiry. The question hanging in the air, however, relates to the discovery that started this whole process: Why would lawyers be “packing up” Biden’s office in the Penn Biden Center in the first place?

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Flow of U.S. Intelligence Analysts into Big Tech Jobs Raises Alarm

As Congress and the courts delve deeper into federally sanctioned censorship by Big Tech, a troubling revolving door has emerged between the U.S. intelligence community and the Big Tech giants on the front lines of one of the fiercest battles over free speech in modern American history. A Just the News review of LinkedIn employment histories of senior Big Tech executives found that at least 200 former workers of the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, National Security Council and Homeland Security Department have landed Silicon Valley jobs, many within content moderation units regulating supposed “disinformation” and disproportionately throttling news and opinion deviating from approved, left-tilting norms.

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Poll: Fewer than Three Percent of Hispanic Voters Support Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

Fewer than 3% of likely Hispanic voters support amnesty for illegal immigrants as they continue to overwhelm authorities stationed on the southern border, according to a poll conducted by Convention of States Action and The Trafalgar Group. Just 2.8% of Hispanic likely voters believe that both individuals with pending asylum cases and those who entered the country illegally should be granted amnesty and eventual citizenship, according to the Tuesday poll. The findings come amid a record surge in illegal migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded more than 250,000 migrant encounters in December alone and more than 2.3 million in fiscal year 2022.

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Filings: Major Left-Wing Nonprofits Funneled Tens of Millions to China in 2021

Two of the largest left-wing nonprofit organizations in the country collectively sent at least $39 million to China in 2021, according to IRS tax filings. According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sent a total of $30 million to various Chinese organizations and government entities, which included $2.5 million to China’s National Health Commission and $1.4 million to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The Ford Foundation sent another $9.3 million, which included donations to at least three universities that are under the direct supervision of the government’s defense industry agency.

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FBI Agent Who Investigated Trump-Russia Collusion Has Been Arrested for Colluding with Russia

A former senior FBI counterintelligence official involved in the Trump-Russia probe was arrested and charged over the weekend for money laundering and violating sanctions against Russia while secretly working with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch who the U.S. government sanctioned. Charles McGonigal was the special agent in charge of counterintelligence in the FBI’s New York Field Office until he retired in 2018. McGonigal was arrested Saturday afternoon at JFK Airport, following travels in Sri Lanka, according to Fox News sources.

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Ted Cruz Bills Aim to Advance School Choice Across the Country Through Tax Credits, 529 Expansion

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, commemorated National School Choice Week by filing two bills to advance school choice, one of which his staff said would be the most significant educational reform since the GI bill. “We need to provide students with a variety of educational options to fit their needs,” Cruz told The Daily Signal in an email statement Tuesday. “I have often said that school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, and I believe no differently today than I did when I began serving in the Senate a decade ago.

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Commentary: Overpopulation via Immigration Is Destroying America’s Environment

America is overpopulated. Unchecked population growth over the last 70 years, driven by immigration rather than a healthy birth rate, now poses a serious ecological threat in the American West and a monumental social and political challenge in the rest of the country. Since the passage of the Hart-Cellar Act in 1965, which radically overhauled American immigration policy to favor third-world migrants, tens of millions of additional human beings legally and illegally entered the country. Pew Research estimates that without the Hart-Cellar Act, the United States would have had 72 million fewer people as of 2015. That would have been a much better America.

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20 Republican States Sue Biden Admin over Migrant Parole Program

A group of 20 Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over its migrant program that allows a set monthly amount of migrants to enter the U.S. from select countries. Texas, supported by 19 other states and America First Legal, filed the suit asserting that the Department of Homeland Security had effectively created a visa program without congressional approval “by announcing that it will permit up to 360,000 aliens annually from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to be ‘paroled’ into the United States for two years or longer and with eligibility for employment authorization.”

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The Water Stays Off as Arizona Court Sides with the City of Scottsdale in Rio Verde Foothills Water Lawsuit

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joan Sinclair issued a ruling Friday in favor of the City of Scottsdale, blocking a stay request against the city cutting off water to the Rio Verde Foothills (RVF) area. “The city remains confident in its legal position and continues to encourage Maricopa County – the elected local government for the residents of Rio Verde Foothills – to implement a solution on behalf of their constituents,” according to the city.

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