Daily Headlines | Thursday August 4, 2022
Good Morning!
A Republican congresswoman is killed in a tragic car crash; we take an in-depth look at the upcoming midterm elections and new polling shows the Supreme Court gaining popularity after recent rulings.
Those stories and more below.
- The School Lunch Scandal
From Focus on the Family President Jim Daly:
Withholding food from children in order to force compliance is considered a form of child abuse, and yet that’s basically what the Biden administration is doing through its draconian new guidelines for schools.
At issue is funding for school breakfast and lunch programs for underprivileged kids. According to new rules from the USDA, schools that receive funding for these programs must “update their non-discrimination policies and signage to include prohibitions against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.”
In practical terms, this means that public, private, and religious schools nationwide must embrace the Biden administration’s radical gender ideology or risk losing funding for school lunches for the students entrusted to their care. The policy also forces Christian and religious schools to abandon their convictions about the value of male and female if they want to receive funds.
With these new guidelines, the USDA has basically adopted the stance of an abusive, domineering parent who says, “Obey me or you won’t get any lunch!”
- Republican Congresswoman Jackie Walorski Killed in Car Crash
From National Review:
Republican Representative Jackie Walorski of Indiana was killed in a car crash on Wednesday, along with a member of her county’s GOP and a member of her congressional team.
The accident happened at 12:32 P.M. in Elkhart County on roadway S.R. 19 south of S.R. 119 when a northbound passenger car traveled left of center and collided head on with a southbound vehicle, Erica Finke of WSBT News reported. Walorski, Zachary Potts with the St. Joseph County Republican Party, Walorski’s communications director Emma Thompson, and the driver of the other car all passed away.
A statement from Walorski’s office released after the incident was shared on twitter by House minority leader Kevin McCarthy. It read: “Dean Swihart, Jackie’s husband, was just informed by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s office that Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon. She has returned home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time.”
- The Abortion Lobby Won in Kansas’ Vote on Abortion — Here’s Why
From the Daily Citizen:
This week Kansas became the first state in the nation to vote on abortion policy since the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, the abortion lobby was successful in spinning a narrative that convinced a majority of voters in Kansas to keep the judicially invented right to an abortion in the state constitution.
The amendment, which would have returned the authority of abortion policy-making to the state legislature, failed by a vote of 58% to 41%.
The election results should be a wake-up call for the pro-life movement. Yes, Roe has been overturned, but nothing is guaranteed when it comes to abortion policy, even in a typically pro-life state.
Abortion activists won because they controlled the narrative in Kansas in two very important ways.
Related: President Biden Issues Executive Order to Provide for Out-of-State Abortions
- As Midterm Elections Near, Voters Head to the Polls to Choose Their Party’s Nominees
From the Daily Citizen:
Last night, numerous primary elections were held around the nation as candidates from both parties sought to earn their party’s nomination for the midterm elections this November.
Here’s a roundup of some of the highest profile elections that occurred last night.
In Arizona, Blake Masters, who was endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, earning the right to face incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly come November. Masters defeated businessman Jim Lamon and current state Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Also in the Grand Canyon State, the Republican primary for governor has yet to be called. Trump-backed Kari Lake, a former news anchor, is slightly ahead of Taylor Robson, whom former Vice President Mike Pence endorsed, 46.2% to 44.4%. Eighty percent of the vote is currently in.
- Georgia Grants $3,000 Tax Exemption for Preborn Babies
From the Daily Citizen:
Georgia has really stepped up as a pro-life state, not simply passing a heartbeat abortion ban in 2019, but one that also contained a “personhood” legal designation for preborn babies with a detectable heartbeat. “‘Natural person’ means any human being including an unborn child,” the law, known as the “Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act,” specifies.
The law was initially blocked by a federal court because of Roe v. Wade, but the case was then put on hold because of the then-pending resolution of the Dobbs case by the Supreme Court. After Roe was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June, Georgia petitioned the federal courts to release the injunction blocking enforcement of the law.
On July 20, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Georgia’s request.
So, what does “personhood” mean for preborn babies and their parents in Georgia?
- Sinema raises concerns about proposed tax in Democrats’ bill as lobbying intensifies for her vote
From CNN:
Republican senators and the business community are mounting a full-court press on Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to sink — or substantially change — the Democrats’ economic package, arguing in private conversations that the new tax increases would hurt companies in her home state of Arizona.
And in a private call with business groups on Tuesday, Sinema asked a question about the bill’s proposed 15% minimum tax on corporations that gave them some hope for optimism.
“Is this written in a way that’s bad?” Sinema asked, according to Danny Seiden, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, who relayed the call to CNN.
“It gave me hope that she’s willing to open this up and maybe make it better,” Seiden said.
- Senate votes 95-1 to add Sweden, Finland to NATO
From The Hill:
The Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution ratifying Sweden’s and Finland’s accession to the NATO, sending another signal that Congress remains unified in opposing Russian aggression toward Ukraine and Europe.
The Senate voted 95 to 1 to approve the resolution, with every member of the Democratic caucus and most Republicans voting in support. It ratifies protocols of accession that NATO allies signed on July 5.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who argued in a recent op-ed that the United States should focus on containing China instead of expanding NATO, was the only Republican to vote “no.” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted “present” on the resolution.
“We cannot strengthen our deterrent posture in the Pacific if we’re sending more forces and resources to Europe to defend new allies. That’s the bottom line,” Hawley said on the floor before the vote.
- Percent of Americans without health coverage hits new low
From Yahoo! News:
The proportion of the US population with no health insurance in the United States reached a new low in early 2022 at eight percent, President Joe Biden’s administration said Tuesday.
The rate of uninsured people began to fall sharply after the Affordable Care Act came into effect in 2014. The ambitious reform of medical insurance, better known as “Obamacare,” was the flagship law of former president Barack Obama, with whom Biden served as vice president.
Between 2018 and 2019, however, the number of uninsured rebounded before falling again.
The Department of Health said that, based on a household survey it carried out, 5.2 million people have gained medical insurance since early 2021, when Biden came to office, a figure that includes a million children.
- Gallup surprise: Supreme Court approval ticks *up* after end of Roe?
From Hot AIr:
Yes it did, and for precisely the reason you’d suspect, too. Gallup decided to feature that aspect in a curious reverse of the “Republicans pounce!®” media narrative. It headlines this poll result thusly:
Actually, the overall rating shows that overall approval of the Supreme Court rose three points — within the margin of error, but not a drop:
After several prominent rulings at the end of its term in June, most of which were decided in favor of conservatives’ positions on the issues, the U.S. Supreme Court’s overall job approval rating is 43%, statistically unchanged from last year’s 40% reading. However, the stability in the overall reading masks big swings among partisans, with Republicans’ approval rating rising 29 percentage points to 72% and Democrats’ falling 23 points to 13%.
The Gallup poll was conducted July 5-26, after the court handed down some of its most consequential rulings in decades on abortion and environmental policy. During this period, the court also ruled on a case concerning gun rights; while only impacting citizens in the state of New York, this case brought the court into public focus in the context of the national debate on gun ownership rights and safety. The current job approval ratings come on the heels of public confidence in the Supreme Court dropping to a record low in June.
- Eddie the tortoise, attacked by a wild animal, gets a set of wheels after a double amputation
From Fox News:
A shelled superstar named Eddie is garnering a lot of media attention after a strong comeback following a double amputation.
The pet tortoise named Eddie can be seen making his way around a tile floor in the video shown at the top of this article — adeptly maneuvering across the floor with the aid of his new “appendages.”
“It’s gotten a bit crazy,” Eddie’s owner, Emma McNicholas, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview about the media attention little Eddie has received so far.
In May, Eddie suffered what is thought to be an animal attack — possibly an attack by a rat — after he escaped into the yard at night.
So how is Eddie doing now?
He hasn’t lost a step. He’s cruising around the McNicholas home and yard with his new wheels.
“He’s amazing,” McNicholas said. “He was really alert straight away after surgery … and has not stopped ever since.”
What do her young kids — Alfie, 11, and Lola, 8 — think of Eddie now?
“They loved him before all this,” she said. “He is even more entertaining for the children now.”
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