Hawaii Governor Signs Bills Blocking Penalties for Abortion

Hawaii will not cooperate with other states’ civil or criminal investigations related to abortion under a new law signed by Gov. Josh Green.

Senate Bill 1, also known as Act 2, prohibits the issuance of a subpoena in connection with an out-of-state or interstate investigation related to abortion and bans any agency from providing information or spending time or resources to further such an investigation.

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New U.S. Border Data: 284 Suspected Terrorists Apprehended So Far in Fiscal 2023

Nearly 300 suspected terrorists have been apprehended attempting to enter the U.S. in the first few months of fiscal 2023 as 28 members of Congress formed a new caucus to address the crisis at the northern border, where record numbers of foreign nationals continue to illegally enter from Canada.

The Northern Border Security Caucus, formed by U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pennsylvania, and Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, is expressing concerns about “the increased human and drug trafficking, along with the decrease in Border Patrol agents and lack of security, along the U.S.-Canada border.”

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Poll: 73 Percent of Taxpayers Say Government Doesn’t Use Their Taxes Wisely

Ahead of Tax Day on April 18, 73% of taxpayers said the government doesn’t use their taxes wisely, a new survey found. A separate report found that red states have the better taxpayer return on investment.

Wallethub’s “Taxpayer Survey” found that 28% of respondents said charities would better spend their money; 26% said local governments would best spend their money, followed by state government (22%), the federal government (16%) and religious groups (13%).

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Majority Chairman: $36 Million Won’t Offset Costs of Legalizing Marijuana in Wisconsin

A Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo asserts Wisconsinites spent nearly $40 million on Illinois taxes to Illinois through cannabis-related taxes last fiscal year,

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau Analyst Sydney Emmerich wrote in a March 10 memo to State Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, that an Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation report shows that 50.6 percent of marijuana sales, or $121.2 million, in counties bordering Wisconsin were to out-of-state residents. The sales amount to 7.8% of Illinois’ total cannabis-related tax revenue.

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Inflation Continues to Outpace Wages, Data Shows

Inflation has outpaced wages for nearly two years, recently released federal data shows.

A closer look at federal wage and pricing data shows workers are making less overall as the price for all kinds of goods and services rise faster than average hourly wages.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “real” average hourly earnings, which are wages of Americans with rising inflation taken into account.

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Texas, U.S. Officials Warn Americans Not to Travel to Mexico as Cartel Violence Escalates

The U.S. State Department and Texas Department of Public Safety have warned Americans not to travel to Mexico because of escalating cartel violence. While some news reports have suggested the warnings were for spring break, the warnings have been issued since at least last August and remain indefinite.

They’ve also been issued after more than 550 Americans have been reported and remain missing in Mexico.

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Republicans Support Wisconsin PFAS Testing and Monitoring, Want More Specifics

The head of the Wisconsin Senate’s natural resources committee says lawmakers could find $100 million for PFAS testing in the new state budget, but he wants to make sure it’s spent wisely.

Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, focused on Gov. Evers’ clean water plans during Thursday’s confirmation hearing with Department of Natural Resources secretary-designee Adam Payne.

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Wisconsin Republicans Want Answers About State Broadband Spending

There continue to be questions about more than $100 million in coronavirus stimulus money that Wisconsin spent on broadband internet expansion.

Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, on Wednesday questioned the state’s Public Service Commission about last September’s audit that stated there was almost no tracking of what was spent, what work was done, or if the new internet access even worked.

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In New Record, Biden Requests Billions to Advance Gender Agenda Worldwide

President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget proposal requests billions of dollars to advance his gender and sexuality agenda around the world, allocating far more taxpayer dollars to that than dozens of other spending priorities, such as stopping fentanyl from being smuggled across the southern border.

Biden’s budget request for this issue in particular has more than doubled in the last two years. In the past, that focus would have been almost entirely on women and young girls. In recent years, though, advancing women’s rights across the globe is sharing the focus, and the funds, with the president’s gender agenda.

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Over 1.6 Million Border Apprehensions, Gotaways to Date This Fiscal Year

More than 1.6 million foreign nationals have been apprehended or reported evading law enforcement officers after illegally entering the U.S. in fiscal 2023 through February, according to Customs and Border Protection apprehension data and gotaway data obtained by The Center Square.

When reporting February enforcement data, CBP stated nationwide total encounters for fiscal 2023 through February totaled 1,285,056, excluding gotaways.

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Texas Announces State Takeover of Houston Independent School District

The state of Texas intends to take control of the Houston Independent School District, citing poor academic accountability, violations of the law and the expiration of an injunction that had previously prevented the state from acting, state officials said Wednesday.

The Texas Education Agency said it would name a new district superintendent and suspend the district’s board of trustees. This is the latest in a yearslong fight between the state and the district of about 200,000 students over poor academic performance and the behavior of trustees.

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Wisconsin Republicans Pitch Abortion Exemptions, Democrats Call Them Disingenuous

Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol are offering a plan that would allow for some abortions, but the state’s Democratic governor is already saying “No.”

A group of Republican lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation that would create exemptions for abortions in cases of rape or incest, which they assert would better define Wisconsin’s only exemption for the health of the mother.

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Treasury Department Agrees to Hand over Hunter Biden Files

The House Oversight Committee said Tuesday that the U.S. Treasury Department is providing the investigatory committee with access to Hunter Biden’s Suspicious Activity Reports after months of delay.

The revelation is the latest chapter in the committee’s ongoing investigation into the president’s son and his associates. The lawmakers concerned with the issue argue the president could be compromised if foreign sources have knowledge of his or his son’s alleged wrongdoing.

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Wisconsin Schools Allocate Millions in Stimulus Dollars After Report on Slow Progress

Wisconsin schools have double the amount of coronavirus stimulus money they plan to spend in just the past two months.

Quinton Klabon, senior research director for the Institute for Reforming Government, says schools across Wisconsin rushed to allocate millions of dollars in ESSER III money after IRG reported in late January that most of the state’s $1.5 billion in stimulus cash was just lying around.

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U.S. House Passes Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act

The GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that prohibits federal bureaucrats from using their influence to censor speech or pressure social media companies to censor speech.

The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act passed on a 219-206 vote. It broke along party lines according to The Hill and is seen as unlikely to advance in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.

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Wisconsin Meningitis Vaccine Mandate Scuttled, State Senator Says Parents Keep Power to Decide

As expected, Wisconsin lawmakers blocked a new meningitis vaccine requirement and ended the emergency power the state’s public health department had over the chickenpox.

The Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules Thursday voted to suspend the Department of Health Service’s new vaccine rules.

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Border: 205,000 Apprehensions, Gotaways in February as Gotaways Increase in West

More than 205,000 foreign nationals were apprehended or reported as gotaways after illegally entering the southwest border in February, according to preliminary data obtained by The Center Square from a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent. The agent provided the information on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation; it only includes Border Patrol data and excludes Office of Field Operations data.

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Wisconsin’s New Meningitis, Chickenpox Vaccine Rules in Legislative Crosshairs

Wisconsin lawmakers are looking to block the state’s new meningitis and chickenpox vaccine rules.

The legislature’s rules committee, the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules, on Tuesday took the first step toward overturning the new rules, established earlier this year by the state’s Department of Health Services.

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Poll: Inflation Has Americans Worried About Covering Expenses After Job Loss

A majority of Americans polled said they couldn’t afford to pay emergency expenses or cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income, according to Bankrate’s latest Annual Emergency Savings Report. The main reason cited is record-high inflation.

The majority surveyed, 68%, said they’re “worried they wouldn’t be able to cover their living expenses for just one month if they lost their primary source of income.”

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Big Ag Set to Crush Family Farmers with ‘Climate-Smart’ Carbon Markets: Report

Family scale farmers in the Midwest may lose a lot to large agribusinesses through carbon markets, a new report says.

According to the report, “Agricultural Carbon Markets, Payments and Data: Big Ag’s Latest Power Grab” by Open Markets Institute and Friends of the Earth, carbon markets programs will entrench chemical-intensive farming practices and increase corporate control of agriculture rather than reduce greenhouse gas emissions like politicians assert.

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Lawmakers Demand Biden Declassify COVID Origins Investigations

Lawmakers are demanding that President Joe Biden declassify documents related to the origins of COVID-19, in particular federal investigations into the matter.

The Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent that would require Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to declassify documents related to COVID’s origins. Republicans have a majority in the House, giving the legislation a chance, but whether Biden would sign it is in doubt.

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Report Finds $860 Million Lost in Homes Seized by Government

Local governments or lienholders have taken more than 8,950 homes with more than $860 million in equity from 2014 to 2021 under laws that allow them to seize properties for unpaid property taxes, according to a new report. 

Pacific Legal Foundation, which is working to ban the practice, found that taking property to pay property tax debts can be ruinous for people with small tax debts.

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FBI Confirms COVID-19 Likely Came from Wuhan Lab

The FBI has confirmed initial reports that the Biden administration is now saying the most likely source of COVID-19 is the virology lab in Wuhan, China.

The news comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Energy gave classified briefings to key lawmakers and the White House saying the most likely origin of the virus was the lab in China.

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Supreme Court Justices Raise Concerns About Biden’s Ability to Forgive Student Debt

 The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt.

Biden announced in August of last year that his administration would “forgive” $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 per year or $250,000 for married couples. Debtors who borrowed money before July 1 can qualify. 

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U.S. Household Debt Rises Sharply

Household debt across the country is sharply on the rise, with U.S. households now collectively on the hook for about $17 trillion in total. The average family holds about $142,680 in debt, according to a new WalletHub report.

All told, the personal finance website concludes that 2022 ended with Americans roughly $320 billion more in total debt than they were at the start of the year. During the fourth quarter alone, consumers added at least $398 million in new debt, the fourth highest build-up for a fourth quarter over the past two decades and more than four times larger than Q4 2021.

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Texas Sheriff: We’re Experiencing ‘Silent Invasion’ of Military Age Men

What’s happening at the southern U.S. border with Mexico is in fact an invasion, Kinney County Sheriff Brad Coe says.

“We’re experiencing a silent invasion of military age men,” Coe told The Center Square when describing what his deputies have been increasingly facing over the past two years.

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Recent IRS Controversies Raise Doubts About Auditing Army’s Potential Bias

President Joe Biden’s call for funding for 87,000 IRS agents to audit Americans has raised questions about whether the new rash of auditing will target poorer Americans or be politically motivated.

The Inflation Reduction Act included $80 billion to beef up IRS efforts, which Biden says will more than pay for itself in new audits.

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33 Attorneys General Urging Supreme Court to Uphold Whistleblower Law

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is leading 33 states attorneys general in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a pair of lower court rulings that could have broad implications for whistleblowers, and the government’s ability to go after public fraud.

In a 15-page legal brief, Tong and the other AGs are calling on justices to uphold a pair of federal whistleblower lawsuits accusing pharmacy operators of over billing government health insurance programs for prescription drugs. 

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Group Names Chicago, New Orleans as U.S. Murder Capitals

Chicago recorded 697 total homicides in 2022, far more than any other city in the United States, but New Orleans had the highest murder rate per capita, according to a new report from a nonprofit research group. 

Chicago had more total homicides in 2022 than Philadelphia (516), New York City (438), Houston (435) and Los Angeles (382), which rounded out the top five, according to a report from Wirepoints, an Illinois-based research and news organization that surveyed 2022 crime data from 75 of the largest U.S. cities.

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Researchers: City-Wide Vaccine Mandates Did Nothing to Stop the Spread of COVID-19

A slew of city-wide vaccine mandates announced in 2021 across parts of the U.S. made virtually no difference in stopping the spread of COVID-19, newly released research found.

“These mandates imposed severe restrictions on the lives of many citizens and business owners,” the study, conducted through George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, says. “Yet, we find no evidence that the mandates were effective in their intended goals of reducing COVID-19 cases and deaths.”

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Wisconsin Law Firm Wins Race-Based Discrimination Lawsuit Against Comcast’s ‘Woke Corporate Policies’

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has won another case based on the argument that you cannot discriminate against people based on their sex or the color of their skin.

WILL recently settled a case with Comcast over the company’s Comcast RISE program. That program offered grants to small businesses, but only if they are 51% owned by someone who is “Black, indigenous, a person of color, or female.”

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Legislation Would Block Hostile Actors from Land Purchase Near U.S. Military Bases

Legislation in Congress would block China and foreign adversaries from buying land around U.S. military installations, including six major bases in North Carolina.

U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-NC, is cosponsoring Protecting Military Installations and Ranges Act, which was reintroduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX. The legislation targets efforts by hostile actors from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea to acquire U.S. land close to U.S. military installations or areas.

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FDA Panel OKs Making Narcan Available for Over-the-Counter Use

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel unanimously voted to recommend the agency approve Narcan, a life-saving drug for opioid overdoses, be made available to purchase over the counter without a prescription.

Narcan is accessible for free and low cost online, through a range of community organizations, and through pharmacies with and without a prescription and with or without insurance.

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Two Dozen AGs Sue Biden’s ATF for Taxing, Registering Pistol Braces

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey joined 24 other attorneys general in suing President Biden’s administration for implementing a rule outlawing pistol braces.

The regulation will “result in the destruction or forfeiture of over 750,000 firearms and will cost the private sector somewhere between $2 and $5 billion,” according to the filing.

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IRS Leaked Thousands of Americans’ Tax Filings; Congress Demands Answers

The new head of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee blasted the Biden administration for giving few answers after thousands of taxpayer files were leaked to an outside group.

House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., sent a letter to Russel George, the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration, raising concerns about the leak of “confidential tax information” and the lack of accountability over that leak.

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U.S. Trade Deficit Grew Last Year

It is growing relentlessly. The U.S. trade deficit, the gap between what the nation imports and exports in goods and services, increased to $67.4 billion in December, an increase of $6.4 billion from $61.0 billion in November, revised, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The month-over-month figures on the deficit are part of a long-term trend in America.

For 2022, the deficit in goods and services hit $948.1 billion, rising $103.0 billion from 2021. “Exports were $3,009.7 billion, up $453.1 billion from 2021. Imports were $3,957.8 billion, up $556.1 billion from 2021,” the Census Bureau and BEA reported. 

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Nonprofits Urge More Controlled Burning to Prevent Wildfires in 11 Western States

A new report by two nonprofit organizations is advocating 11 western states change local and state policies to increase controlled burning on private lands to stem wildfires.

“Modern wildfires are not only burning larger areas but are also more harmful for people, forests, and the environment,” according to the publication “Burn Back Better,” produced by the Property and Environment Research Center and Tall Timbers. The 38-page report, subtitled “How Western States Can Encourage Prescribed Fire on Private Lands,” recommends immediate policy changes to address the wildfire crisis in the western U.S.

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Border Patrol: Record Number of Chinese Nationals Entering U.S. Illegally

The number of Chinese nationals illegally entering the U.S. has significantly increased under the Biden administration, beginning around the 2020 election, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. 

Nationwide, 18,395 Chinese nationals were apprehended in fiscal 2020; 23,471 in fiscal 2021; 27,756 in fiscal 2022; and 10,587 in the fiscal year to date. 

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Inflation Rebounds in January

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released fresh inflation figure Tuesday which show inflation picked back up in January.

The BLS Consumer Price Index rose 0.5% last month, part of a 6.4% increase over the last year. Overall, January’s rate is not as high as the peak inflation spikes seen in recent years, but it is still well above the increases considered advantageous by most economists.

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Nearly 216,000 Apprehended, Gotaways Reported of Illegal Entries at Southern Border in January

At least 156,274 people illegally entered the U.S. in January, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data published on Friday, down 40% from 251,978 in December 2022, it says. The data excludes gotaway numbers referring to those who are known and reported to illegally enter between ports of entry, evade capture by law enforcement, and don’t return to Mexico or Canada.

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Border Patrol Presentation Reveals Plan to Release Illegal Crossers En Masse into U.S. Communities

Roughly six weeks before testifying Tuesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Chief Border Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez held a meeting with local law enforcement in Weslaco, Texas, describing the administration’s plan to release en masse illegal foreign nationals into the U.S. when Title 42 ended. 

The Biden administration sought to end Title 42, the public health authority first implemented under the Trump administration during the height of the pandemic, but Texas sued and in December a federal court prevented the administration from ending it.

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Few Democrats Want Biden to Run Again in 2024: Poll

Heading into President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address Tuesday, his own party has little desire for a second Biden term, according to a new poll.

The poll, released Monday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, reports that only 37 percent of Democrats want Biden to run for a re-election.

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South Carolina Moves to Take the Top Spot in Democratic Presidential Politics

The Democratic National Committee has approved a calendar that makes South Carolina the party’s first primary for the 2024 election.

The move follows an endorsement from President Joe Biden, whose win in the state’s 2020 Democratic primary was integral to his securing the Democratic nomination.

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Senator Calls for Apple, Alphabet to Boot TikTok from App Stores

A U.S. Senator has called on the nation’s top tech companies to break up with the popular short-form video service TikTok.

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, asked Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to remove TikTok from the company app stores immediately over national security concerns.

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