Good Morning!
The United States officially enters a recession; Governor DeSantis makes a bipartisan push against woke ideology in FL and reports on the demise of religion may be premature.
Those stories and more below.
- U.S. Officially Enters Recession as Families Struggle to Make Ends Meet
From the Daily Citizen:
The United States has officially entered a recession, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported on Thursday.
Traditionally, a recession has been defined as two straight quarters of negative growth in the nation’s gross domestic product, or GDP.
In the first quarter (Q1) of 2022, the BEA found that GDP decreased by 1.6% on an annualized basis.
Now, the BEA has reported that the GDP “decreased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022.”
When he was running against former President Jimmy Carter for president in 1980, then-candidate Ronald Reagan quipped the following definition of a recession: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”
- Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin Wanted to Kill Two More Conservative Justices
From the Daily Citizen:
Fox News is reporting the startling revelation that the would-be assassin of Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Nicholas John Roske, allegedly intended to kill two more conservative justices, according to an FBI search warrant the news organization obtained.
Roske, as you may recall, was arrested in the early hours of June 8 near the home of Justice Kavanaugh. After flying from California and taking a cab to Kavanaugh’s house, he balked when he spotted law enforcement officers standing guard. After exchanging texts with his sister who urged him to turn himself in, he called police and was taken into custody a couple blocks from the Kavanaugh home.
He had a gun, a knife, and pepper spray in his possession when arrested, along with other tools he was going to use to break into the justice’s residence. He has been charged with violations of both state and federal law, and could, if convicted, serve a life sentence in prison.
More has come to light from the FBI investigation into Roske, according to Fox News.
- DeSantis Makes Unifying National Pitch To Republican, Democrat Governors To Fight Back Against Woke ESG
From the Daily Wire:
Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced new actions this week that his administration is taking to protect the state of Florida from environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) influence.
DeSantis told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that ESG was really a way for “these kind of masters of the universe” to achieve “through economic power what they cannot achieve at the ballot box,” and that he intends to put a stop to it.
“First, we’re going to do through Florida’s state pension system a flat ban on any type of ESG. And, as you say, they like to wiggle around. It’s basically a way for them to do politics,” DeSantis said. “So, we’re going to make sure that fiduciary duty is defined very clearly and that they stick to that.”
We “also want to provide protections for people in the financial marketplace from being discriminated against based on ideology. I mean, we have seen Wall Street banks discriminate against contractors who are involved in helping us against illegal immigration or against firearm manufacturers, things they don’t like,” DeSantis continued. “And it’s really an end-run around democracy, where they’re trying to impose these things. And, here in Florida, I want to be governed by the values of Destin [city in Florida], not the values of Davos.”
- Christian School Challenges Federal Lunch Program Gender and Sexual Orientation Mandate
From the Daily Citizen:
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the nation’s massive school lunch program for needy students, recently imposed a “nondiscrimination” requirement on the program that requires schools receiving taxpayer funds through the program to comply with sexual orientation and gender ideology rules in order to receive funding.
Gender idealogues in the federal government are saying “Believe what we tell you to believe or your kids will go hungry.” This is the very definition of shameless.
The federal mandate is no accident, as the administration is pushing a highly unpopular redefinition of “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity through all its federal agencies and the programs they administer, even though Congress has not passed any law with such a requirement.
Many of those schools are faith-based and cannot comply with the new requirement without violating their deeply held beliefs.
- Former NCAA swimmer forced to compete with Lia Thomas details ‘extreme discomfort’ in the locker room
From Fox News:
After speaking out against the NCAA’s decision allowing biological males to compete against women in her sport, former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines says she’s garnered more words of encouragement than hate mail.
“I have received so much support, like it’s insane,” Gaines told Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “which tells me who the majority is, what the general population thinks even if you’re not an athlete, if you’re not a female. It’s like we said – common sense.”
After discovering that Thomas competed in the men’s division the past three seasons before transitioning to a woman, Gaines claimed she and her teammates felt confident the NCAA wouldn’t permit Thomas to compete in the women’s national championships with unfair physical advantages like height, muscle mass and heart and lung size.
Gaines also pointed out that Thomas brought “extreme discomfort” to the locker room, and that organizers did not disclose that Thomas would be using the women’s facilities.
- FDA Considers Over-the-Counter Birth Control. Here’s Why It Matters.
From the Daily Signal:
For the first time in history, women may soon be allowed to purchase birth control over-the-counter.
The Food and Drug Administration first approved the pill in the 1960s, and since then, women have always needed a prescription for birth control pills. But that might be changing.
The FDA is considering approving over-the-counter birth control. The pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma has asked the FDA to allow its birth control pill Opill be sold without a prescription.
If the FDA approves, Opill will be the first daily birth control pill to be sold over-the-counter.
- House passes bill to boost U.S. chip production and China competition, sending it to Biden
From CNBC:
The House on Thursday passed bipartisan legislation to boost U.S. competitiveness with China by allocating billions of dollars toward domestic semiconductor manufacturing and science research.
The bill passed 243-187, with no Democrats voting against the bill. Twenty-four Republicans voted for the legislation, even after a last-minute push by GOP leaders to oppose it.
The bill, which passed the Senate on Wednesday, now heads to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.
The ultimate version, known as the Chips and Science Act, includes more than $52 billion for U.S. companies producing computer chips, as well as billions more in tax credits to encourage investment in chip manufacturing. It also provides tens of billions of dollars to fund scientific research, and to spur the innovation and development of other U.S. technologies.
- Religion Is Dying? Don’t Believe It
From WSJ Opinion:
Reports of religion’s decline in America have been exaggerated. You’ve heard the story: Churchgoers are dwindling in number while “Nones”—those who tell pollsters they have no religious affiliation—are multiplying as people abandon their faith and join the ranks of atheists and agnostics. Headlines declare that the U.S. is secularizing along the lines of Europe. From Britain’s Daily Mail in 2013: “Religion could disappear by 2041 because people will have replaced God with possessions, claims leading psychologist.”
These conclusions are based on analyses that are so flawed as to be close to worthless. In a new study with our colleagues Matt Bradshaw and Rodney Stark, we seek to set the record straight.
Data from five recent U.S. population surveys point to the vibrancy, ubiquity and growth of religion in the U.S. Americans are becoming more religious, and religious institutions are thriving. Consistent with some previous studies but contrary to widely held assumptions, many people who report no religious affiliation—and even many self-identified atheists and agnostics—exhibit substantial levels of religious practice and belief.
The religious landscape in the U.S. is changing but not in the ways that draw headlines. Hundreds of new denominations have quietly appeared, as have thousands of church plants (new congregations) and numerous non-Christian religious imports. These more than make up for losses from mainline Protestant denominations, which are indeed in free fall and have been for decades. But the decline of established institutions is easier to track than the formation and growth of new ones.
- Son Grows Out His Hair for Two Years to Make Wig for Mom Battling Cancer
From the Daily Citizen:
There’s not much, if anything, that most sons wouldn’t do for their mother. And one recently proved just as much.
When Melanie Shaha had her third recurrence of a benign brain tumor, she was prescribed radiation therapy, which can cause hair loss.
She was originally diagnosed with cancer in 2003, after she started having headaches, Today reports. The cancer came back in 2006, which required surgery to remove it. Then in 2017, the cancer came back again, requiring radiation treatment.
Doctors told Shaha that she wouldn’t lose her hair.
“Three months later, I had a big shed and started losing my hair,” Shaha told Today Parents. “I was surprised.”
“Not having hair, you stick out like a sore thumb and well-meaning people can say things that break your heart,” she added. “I don’t mind being sick but I mind looking sick. I’d rather blend in and not stand out at the store.”
One day, over a family dinner, Shaha’s 27-year-old son Matt joked, “Why don’t I grow out my hair to make a wig for you?”
But after making that comment, Matt decided to turn his joke into reality.
After two years, Matt had grown 12 inches of hair. Matt then had it chopped off and sent in his hair to Compassionate Creations, which delivered the wig to Melanie in June.
