Year: 2023

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session,” American lawyer, politician and newspaper editor Gideon T. Tucker wrote in 1866.

How could the Honorable Mr. Tucker have known about 21st-century Illinois way back then?

Most of that state’s SAFE-T Act went into effect on Sunday, putting new constraints on law enforcement and giving new freedom to criminals.

Thankfully, a last-minute ruling Saturday by the Illinois Supreme Court suspended one of the worst aspects of the new law: elimination of cash bail, similar to what has occurred in New York state.

But it’s still a bad law, described by one of its opponents as the “most dangerous” he’s ever seen.

And Democratic Illinois Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch has been aggressively pushing it, despite protests by Republicans of the 750-page bill crammed through both the state House and Senate in three days, …

After a resounding re-election victory in the November election, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is delving even further into America’s increasingly bitter cultural wars.

In his initial 2018 race, DeSantis won against Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum by just 0.4%. In his 2022 re-election campaign, the Republican governor carried the race on a landslide, beating Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points.

That victory came after four years of DeSantis’s nonstop political crusading throughout the state, much of it at the forefront of hot-button cultural issues that many Republicans often opt to avoid.

Most prominent among those subjects has been LGBTQ politics, which DeSantis’s office has continued to press.

DeSantis Press Secretary Bryan Griffin said on Twitter in late December the administration was “actively investigating” reports of “a sexually explicit performance marketed to children” in the state, which multiple media outlets said referred to a “drag queen” show where children …

As the House of Representatives plans to vote Tuesday for its next Speaker, current House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is desperately scrambling to secure enough support within his own party to claim the gavel.

A prospective speaker needs a minimum of 218 supportive lawmakers to hold the post. After the November midterm elections, Republicans claimed a total of 222 seats, leaving any Republican leader with little room to maneuver.

Five House Republicans have committed to opposing McCarthy’s leadership, including Reps. Matt Gaetza, Fla.; Andy Biggs, Ariz.; Bob Good, Va.; Ralph Norman, S.C., and Matt Rosendale, Mont.

Their stalwart opposition leaves McCarthy one vote shy of the gavel, assuming he could wrangle the support of every other House Republican, and could force him to turn to Democrats for support, a move his has remained reluctant to pursue.

Incoming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, moreover, has …

The FBI’s latest annual report shows a decline in violence against Jews, findings that are at odds with Jewish watchdog groups who say anti-Semitic hate crimes have hit their highest levels in history during the past two years.

The FBI’s 2021 findings, released at the end of last year, have sparked accusations the federal law enforcement agency is deflating these statistics at a time when the American Jewish community is facing an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism. At least one watchdog group is calling on Congress to investigate how and why the FBI underreported anti-Jewish hate crimes.

“At a time of record anti-Semitic hate crimes, it is appalling that the FBI’s data-gathering has been so badly botched,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a watchdog group that combats Jew hatred. “This massive failure has undermined the purposes of hate …

Do you feel hungry before meals and drowsy after meals? If this happens all the time, you may have insulin resistance in your body, which is considered prediabetes. Many people have pre-diabetes even if their blood sugar tests are normal. Be aware if you have the symptoms mentioned here.

Why Is There Insulin Resistance When Blood Sugar Level Is Normal?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one-third of American adults had prediabetes.

Pre-diabetic patients develop insulin resistance due to the decreased sensitivity of cells to insulin, so the body has to secrete a large amount of insulin to suppress blood sugar levels.

People with chronic insulin resistance are at high risk of developing diabetes later in life. Even if it does not develop into diabetes, when the insulin and blood sugar levels remain high for a long time, the continuous oxidative stress and inflammation in the …

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified hundreds of safety signals for the two most widely-administered COVID-19 vaccines, according to monitoring results obtained by The Epoch Times.

Bell’s palsy, blood clotting, and death were among the signals flagged through analysis of adverse event reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The CDC, which runs VAERS with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), describes it as “the nation’s early warning system” for vaccine issues.

The CDC’s primary analysis compared the reports made for specific events suffered after receipt of a Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the reports lodged following vaccination with any other vaccine, or all non-COVID-19 vaccines. The type of analysis is known as Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR).

Safety signals mean a condition may be linked to a vaccine. Signals require further analysis …

Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) will be sworn into office Tuesday while under investigation by federal and local-level officials related to false claims that he made while on the campaign trail.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that law enforcement officials in Brazil “intend to revive fraud charges” against Santos stemming from an incident in 2008 that involved a checkbook that was allegedly stolen.

The case was suspended because law enforcement was not able to find him, the report said. Brazilian prosecutors will now make a formal request to the Department of Justice to notify Santos of the charges.

The alleged incident happened when Santos, then 19, entered a small clothing store and spent $700 using a stolen checkbook and a false name, the report said. He allegedly admitted to the fraud on a Brazilian social media website the following year.

He and his mother allegedly …

In one of its final acts, the House January 6 Committee warned the White House it cannot ensure the confidentiality of certain witnesses.

Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) wrote to Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Joe Biden, saying they “fully share” a “concern for the safety, security, and reputations” of its witnesses as the panel dissolves and Republicans take control of the House this week.

Their letter, dated Dec. 30, says the committee entered into an agreement with Sauber’s office to make available “personnel” who then provided “important information” to the panel. Any other identifying information is redacted in the public version of the letter.

Under their agreement the committee “would do its utmost” to protect identities, but as of the first week of January 2023 the panel “will no longer exercise control of this material, and thus cannot ensure enforcement …

Good Tuesday morning.

Here is what’s on 46 agenda today:

10:15am: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing

News roundup:

House GOP promises to probe COVID-19 origins, ax proxy voting, magnetometers

House GOP zeroes in on Jan. 6 panel documents

Republicans should just say no to 87,000 new IRS agents

Joe Biden rejects South Korea nuclear exercises suggestion with firm ‘no’

DOJ hiding hundreds of Hunter Biden, James Biden records, lawyer claims

National Security Spooks Blamed Russia For Pipeline Explosion — Apparently With No Evidence

National park closes after hundreds of migrants land on islands

FDA decision on experimental Alzheimer’s drug expected this week

Texas installs additional layers of razor wire to stop illegal crossings

States are kicking off new legislative sessions. These are the top issues

Frontier Airlines giving free flights in exchange for adopting cats

Key battleground states are moving to change election laws ahead of ‘24

Elected Officials Forced To Resign As Florida Anti-Lobbying Law Takes …

For me, it’s a no-brainer that the Biden Administration is doing nothing to control the southern border, reopen closed pipelines, allow new drilling on government lands, to stop LGBT and critical race indoctrination in public education, in the military and civil service, or to cut back on inflationary spending. Biden, Inc. weathered the November elections magnificently with minimal losses and, in fact, picked up seats in the Senate and in state offices. An overrun southern border, an inflated economy, rampant urban violence, a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden’s family scandals—none of these apparent disasters seemed to matter as much as our president’s promise to remit college debts for young voters and the reaction of unmarried women to the Dobbs decision. Of course, an obvious reason for these developments was the way the Democrats sent out their mail-in ballot many weeks in advance to designated voters to react to events that …