Gov. Bill Lee to Propose Plan to Place Armed Guards in All Tenn. Schools

Molly Bruns
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Gov. Bill Lee to Propose Plan to Place Armed Guards in All Tenn. Schools

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee announced a plan that, if passed, would place an armed guard in every public and private school within the state.

Lee will make an official proposal to place armed school resource officers in every public school and earmark funding that would enable private schools to hire armed security, though they would not be obligated to do so.

Lee’s plan closely follows the shooting at Nashville Christian Elementary School where 3 students and 3 staff members lost their lives, the Daily Wire reported.

“I think we all understand when people are fearful, when people are angry, when people lash out. I have those same emotions myself, we all do,” Lee said. “We have an obligation, I have an obligation, to do what I can and work together with leaders across this community to address people’s concerns and to protect our kids in whatever way we can.”

Lee also mentioned that he worked through the weekend to ensure adequate funding for the project.

An early draft of the governor’s budget for 2023 included $20 million designated towards security upgrades for schools, but the addition of private schools would require extra funding.

Republican Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, who also hail from Tennessee, are seeking solutions on the national scale by introducing the SAFE School Act.

The bill would provide “a $900 million grant program that will allow both public and private schools to train and hire veterans and former law enforcement officers to serve as school safety officers, hire off duty law enforcement officers, and provide funding to harden schools and increase physical security.”

If passed, the bill would also allow for easier access to mental health professionals.

“There will be conversations across the board about mental health for students and mental health in general,” Lee explained. “And support for those who need help, and who do in fact become a threat to themselves or others.”

Lee also stated that he is committed to upholding people’s Constitutional rights as well as protecting the lives of Tennesseans.

Twitter Pulls Check Mark from Main New York Times Account

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Twitter Pulls Check Mark from Main New York Times Account

(Headline USA) Twitter has removed the verification check mark on the main account of The New York Times, one of CEO Elon Musk’s most despised news organizations.

The removal comes as many of Twitter’s high-profile users are bracing for the loss of the blue check marks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the social media platform.

Musk, who owns Twitter, set a deadline of Saturday for verified users to buy a premium Twitter subscription or lose the checks on their profiles. The Times said in a story Thursday that it would not pay Twitter for verification of its institutional accounts.

Early Sunday, Musk tweeted that the Times’ check mark would be removed. Later he posted several remarks about the newspaper, calling their Twitter feed “unreadable” and “the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea.”

Other Times accounts such as its business news and opinion pages still had either blue or gold check marks on Sunday, as did multiple reporters for the news organization.

“We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for check mark status for our institutional Twitter accounts,” the Times said in a statement responding to the situation. “We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes,” the newspaper said in a statement Sunday.

The costs of keeping the check marks ranges from $8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organization, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account.

Twitter does not verify the individual accounts to ensure they are who they say they are, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out to public figures and others during the platform’s pre-Musk administration.

Celebrity users from basketball star LeBron James to Star Trek’s William Shatner also refused to pay the additional fees. Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander pledged to leave the platform if Musk takes his blue check away.

The White House is also passing on enrolling in premium accounts, according to a memo sent to staff. While Twitter has granted a free gray mark for President Joe Biden and members of his Cabinet, lower-level staff won’t get Twitter Blue benefits unless they pay for it themselves.

“If you see impersonations that you believe violate Twitter’s stated impersonation policies, alert Twitter using Twitter’s public impersonation portal,” said the staff memo from White House official Rob Flaherty.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.

DeSantis Delivers Speech in N.Y. for His Book Event 2 days After Trump’s Indictment

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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DeSantis Delivers Speech in N.Y. for His Book Event 2 days After Trump’s Indictment

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Florida Governor Ron DeSantis delivered a speech at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, Long Island, on Saturday, two days after President Donald Trump was indicted.

According to the Post Millennial, DeSantis made the appearance as part of his “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival” book tour. The news source reports that the book tour is widely considered to be a soft launch for the governor’s expected 2024 White House run.

Jerelyn Zontini, a spokeswoman for the aerospace museum, said that the institution did not plan the event. Instead, And To The Republic organized it.

The Post Millennial reported that And To The Republic is a non-profit 501c4 group, a distinction that is broader than 501c3 that is also supposed to promote “social welfare.”

This type of nonprofit doesn’t have to disclose its donor information and, at the same time, can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on policies the nonprofit supports.

After its launch in February, the group hosted three events for DeSantis.

A person who is close to And To The Republic stated that the group was “proud to help host the events today featuring Governor Ron DeSantis that put a spotlight on those state policies that are working and those that are clearly not working.”

“Governor Ron DeSantis created a blueprint for freedom in Florida that serves as a model for the rest of the nation,” the event’s listing stated. “No leader has accomplished more for his state than Governor DeSantis, and he is now sharing this winning blueprint with the country.”

Ron DeSantis has not announced whether he will run for president in 2024 or not yet and he has lagged behind Trump in recent polls.

DeSantis’ visit to New York follows news that Trump was indicted and that he will travel to Manhattan next week for the trial. The indictment was announced on Thursday and came out of the office of one of George Soros‘s puppets, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. DeSantis said that the indictment is “un-American.”

Anthropology Prof: No Difference Between Male, Female Skeletons

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Anthropology Prof: No Difference Between Male, Female Skeletons

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) An anthropology professor at the University of Pittsburgh denied the difference between male and female skeletons at the speaking event of a college swimming champion Riley Gaines, causing students and the speaker to laugh at him.

The bio of Gabby Yearwood, the professor, stated that his research is focused on “the social constructions of race and racism, masculinity, gender, sex, Black Feminist and Black Queer theory, anthropology of sport and Black Diaspora.”

Gaines, who became an advocate to keep male athletes out of women’s sports after she and other female swimmers were forced to compete against University of Pennsylvania swimmer William Thomas, spoke at the school recently and asked the audience the question related to the difference between males and females, according to the Daily Mail.

“If you were to dig up a human — two humans — a hundred years from now, both a man and a woman, could you tell the difference strictly off of bones?”

Yearwood responded with “no,” which caused laughter from the students in the audience and Gaines. The professor doubled down by saying that he is the “expert in the room” on this issue.

“Have any of you been to anthropological sites? Have any of you studied biological anthropology? I’m just saying, I’ve got over 150 years of data, I’m just curious as to why I’m being laughed at,” Yearwood said. “I have a Ph.D.!”

The Independent Women’s Forum, which posted the clip, responded to the interaction.

“This is how far removed the Left is from reality that they must deny basic scientific facts,” the organization wrote.

“[Gaines] might not have a Ph.D. in anthropology like Professor Yearwood, but she and her teammates know the physical advantages of biological males over females in sport firsthand.”

“When the self-proclaimed ‘expert in the room’ is offended that his assertion that males & females don’t have distinct skeletal differences is laughable, one might wonder what students studying anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh are being taught by their professors?” the organization added.

Woke ‘Catholic’ Nuns Call for ‘Inclusion’ of ‘Trans’ People

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Woke ‘Catholic’ Nuns Call for ‘Inclusion’ of ‘Trans’ People

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A coalition of “Catholic” nuns released a statement on Friday in support of Transgender Visibility Day to “celebrate, acknowledge and uplift” the so-called “transgender” community.

On Friday, the Sisters of Saint Joseph U.S. Federation, Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary of-the-Woods and Indiana and Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth JPIC office released the statement with dozens of other Catholic and religious groups that represented 6,000 “vowed Catholic” partners in 18 states across the country, according to the Daily Caller. In the statement, “Catholics” said that the church’s commitment must go beyond one single day to celebrate “transgenderism.”

“The Gospel call of unifying love compels us to actively interrupt harmful interactions in daily life and dismantle the systems that reinforce this rhetoric and violence in society, particularly for black, indigenous and other folks of color,” the group wrote.

“We will remain oppressors until we — as vowed Catholic religious — acknowledge the existence of LGBTQ+ people in our own congregations. We seek to cultivate a faith community where all, especially our transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive siblings, experience a deep belonging.”

The group also blamed “anti-LGBTQ+ legislation” and “harmful rhetoric” from the church and American Christians for “discrimination and violence” against the “transgender” community.

“As members of the body of Christ, we cannot be whole without the full inclusion of transgender, nonbinary and gender-expansive individuals,” they wrote. “At this moment in the United States, transgender people are experiencing harm and erasure.”

Despite the statement from “Catholic” nuns, the overwhelming majority of actual Catholics follow the Catechism of the Church and the Bible and, therefore, oppose the “transgender” ideology.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB] released a statement on March 21, in which the bishops warned against the so-called “gender transition surgeries” and argued that modern technology must not interfere with the “true flourishing of the human person” and that “transgender” medical procedures are not “morally justified.”

Even Pope Francis, who became infamous for his leftist political takes, shared the same point of view with USCCB earlier this month by saying that “gender ideology” is one of the “most dangerous ideological colonizations” because it “blurs differences and the value” of men and women.

“The question of gender is diluting the differences and making the world the same, all dull, all alike, and that is contrary to the human vocation,” he said.

Antifa, Leftist Radicals Blocking Free Speech on College Campuses

Corine Gatti
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Antifa, Leftist Radicals Blocking Free Speech on College Campuses

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) Just three months into 2023, left-wing students and college professors are working hardcore in stifling free speech on campuses by pressuring administrators to disinvite conservative speakers.

In the wake of rising pressure among extreme left-wing intimidation, universities across the nation have become battlefields for freedom of speech and college administrators are increasingly kotowing in fear to give conservatives the microphone.

Conservative speakers Charlie Kirk, Ilya Shapiro, Riley Gaines, Kyle Duncan, Matt Walsh, Cabot Phillips and Glenn Youngkin all were cancelled to speak at college campuses just months into 2023 — the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression data base revealed. FIRE compiled a comprehensive database to monitor these attempted invasions of rights for both liberals and conservatives — listing the type of schools, secular, public and religious colleges.

The website features a “disinvitation incident” to describe the dissensions on campus that arise throughout the year whenever parts of the campus community demand that an invited speaker not be allowed to speak. FIRE’s Director of Faculty Outreach Komi Frey, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that, “We make a distinction between an attempt to censor a speaker and the actual end result of a speaker not speaking.”

The Daily Caller reported that there were 548 attempts to cancel speakers on college campuses since 1998. The annual reports spiked in the last few years in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

The highest number of attempts are in 2023 with 32 attempted disinvitations — an increase of 19 more compared to the year prior. Moreover, a majority of the attempts are coming from left-leaning students with 67% of all attempts having been initiated by leftists while only 28% have been from conservatives.

The latest College Free Speech Rankings in 2022 reflect the bias with Columbia University, which earned an abysmal Speech Climate rating, with the other four universities in the bottom five – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Georgetown University, University of Pennsylvania and Skidmore College – not faring much better. 

The University of Chicago was the top-ranked school in the College Free Speech Rankings for the second time in three years, according to the rankings.

REPORT: Astrazeneca Vax Results in 3.5 Times Higher Risk of Death in Women

Molly Bruns
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REPORT: Astrazeneca Vax Results in 3.5 Times Higher Risk of Death in Women

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Data from the United Kingdom revealed devastating truths about the AstraZeneca vaccine, showing that young women’s chances of death related to heart disease rose by 3.5 times after their first dose.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics researched hospitalizations, vaccination status and death records of females between ages 12 and 29 who received vaccinations. Researchers discovered that there is reason to believe young women are at higher risk for heart attacks and other life-threatening diseases after just one dose of the non-MRNA vaccines.

According to Breitbart, the increased risk of death was not apparent in the age group in the first three months following their initial dose. the U.K. only recorded 59 vaccine-related deaths for 144.7 million doses given.

However, deaths related to heart problems—including cardiac arrest, heart disease and myocarditis—are recorded at 3.5 times the rate in young women in the first three months post-initial vaccination.

The report indicated that men in the same age group are not privy to the same disease for either the non-MRNA, such as AstraZeneca, or MRNA vaccinations, including Pfizer and Moderna.

“We find no evidence that the risk of cardiac or all cause death is increased in the weeks following vaccination with mRNA vaccines,” said Vahé Nafilyan, a senior statistician at ONS. “However, receiving a first dose of a non-mRNA vaccine was associated with an increased risk of cardiac death in young women.”

Nafilyan continued, explaining that “vaccination carries some risks,” and the ONS will continue to research the effects of the non-MRNA vaccines in order to better gauge the extent of the possible side effects.

“These are interesting data which generate as many questions as answers,” said Adam Finn, Professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol. “The findings are somewhat unexpected, as concerns about rare cardiac side-effects – specifically myocarditis and pericarditis – have hitherto been particularly associated with mRNA vaccine second doses in males especially when the dose interval was short, whereas the signal reported here is primarily in non-mRNA first doses in females.”

Young people in the United Kingdom are hesitating to get vaccinated as questions about their efficacy and side effects continue to crop up, resulting an a vaccination rate of almost half of peak-pandemic numbers.

Build-A-Bear Unveils Drag Queen Teddy Bear

Molly Bruns
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Build-A-Bear Unveils Drag Queen Teddy Bear

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Popular toy franchise Build-A-Bear Workshop recently unveiled a “RuPaul’s Drag Race” themed teddy bear, and recruited the long-time drag queen to announce the collaboration via an Instagram video.

“I feel like a proud parent,” RuPaul said while unboxing the toy.

The bear is available on a portion of the Build-A-Bear website known as “The Bear Cave,” which hosts “unexpected collabs and unique plush gifts, intended for shoppers 18 and older.”

The collectable, featuring gold eyeshadow, a puffy blonde wig, high heels, red lipstick and copious amounts of eyeliner, is also on the company’s home page right next to their Easter line of products.

The adult portion of the website does not require age verification, and simply asks if the user would like to continue, the Daily Wire reported.

“She done already done had herses — and now you can have yourses with your very own RuPaul Bear! Two iconic pop culture institutions join forces for this one-of-a-kind collector’s item made in tribute to the world’s most famous drag queen,” the description reads.

This limited edition version of the bear can only be purchased online and cannot be built in stores. A Build-A-Bear birth certificate can be included should the buyer wish.

Twitter users called out the toy company for their blatant grooming.

“Remember: there’s absolutely no agenda to groom your kids. Don’t be ridiculous,” said conservative commentator Matt Walsh. “On an unrelated note, @buildabear is selling a drag queen stuffed bear for children.”

“It’s a children’s shop for children’s toys,” another user pointed out. “There shouldn’t be an 18+ section. I shouldn’t even have to say that.”

As adults become one of the largest markets for toys, the pervasiveness of gender ideology has also grown within the market.

Build-A-Bear is the latest in the lineup of woke companies attempting to groom children into their perverse gender ideology. In recent months, companies like Disney and Mattel also rushed to signal their virtues, introducing lines of “pride” themed merchandise and transgender dolls.

Bogus Bragg Indictment a Financial Boon for Trump

Corine Gatti
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Bogus Bragg Indictment a Financial Boon for Trump

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) It’s looking more like the political persecution of former President Donald Trump could end up being a disaster for the Left, after Thursday’s indictment was announced.

Just 24 hours following Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s announcement, Trump had raised more than $4 million from outraged supporters, his campaign announced Friday for the 2024 election. More than 25% of all donations to the Trump campaign came from first-time donors, with the average contribution amounting to $34.

The fundraising groundswell demonstrated the strength of Trump’s support among both veteran and new donors, political analysts said. The enthusiasm for his policies and potential for the future of the nation continued to fuel support for the 2024 reelection effort.

“Americans from across all 50 states donated to President Trump’s campaign within the first five hours of the sham indictment,” the campaign said.

The campaign sent a fundraising email shortly after the Manhattan grand jury’s decision to vote in favor of indicting the former president. 

“The left thought that they could break us with yet another witch hunt,” the email from Trump read. “They thought that by threatening my possible arrest and arraignment, it would force us to end our 2024 campaign. They were sorely mistaken, Friend…” 

The 45th president allegedly paid a hush-money to porn star Stormy Daniels through his former fixer Michael Cohen in 2016. The case has little chance of moving forward, with even the far-leftist Washington Post‘s editorial board conceding the case looks flimsy. 

“Public perception and political strategy shouldn’t dissuade a district attorney from bringing a solid case, but neither should they persuade him to bring a shaky one,” the editorial board wrote. “This prosecution needs to be airtight. Otherwise, it’s not worth continuing.”

U.S. $2B in Haitian Projects Over Budget, Behind Schedule

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U.S. $2B in Haitian Projects Over Budget, Behind Schedule

(Adam Andrzejewski, RealClearWire) From 2010 to 2020, the U.S. Agency for International Development gave $2 billion to Haiti to aid with reconstruction after the 2010 earthquake, but rampant mismanagement bungled the response, causing those funds to be largely ineffective, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office found.

After the devastating 2010 earthquake, the U.S. had ambitious plans to help Haiti rebuild homes, infrastructure, and cities, pledging $2 billion of aid over a 10-year period.

Unfortunately, poor planning and project management severely limited its impact, with the GAO finding, “most projects were delayed, cost more than planned, or had to be scaled back.”

Only half of its eight planned major infrastructure projects have been completed, with two still in progress, and two scrapped due to higher than anticipated costs.

In addition, USAID planned to build 4,000 homes, but after 10 years, only 906 houses have been built thanks to high costs.

The reason for these subpar results is a combination of unrealistic expectations, project mismanagement, and lack of planning and oversight.

The GAO noted, “gaps in strategic planning and tracking and assessing the results of these activities, affecting management and oversight.”

For future projects, it plainly recommends that USAID “use sound technical information and expertise, like accurate cost estimates, in future strategic infrastructure plans.”

While wasting tax dollars due to inefficiency and ineptitude is always disappointing, its even sadder when people in need suffer as a result because of poor planning and lack of basic oversight.

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.

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