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By Massive Margins, Voters in Eight States Say Only Citizens Can Vote in Their Elections

By: M.D. Kittle | November 08, 2024

Signs point to where voters may drop off their ballots in Columbus.

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M.D. Kittle

As divided as America may be, this election showed there’s one thing most Americans agree on: Only U.S. citizens should vote in U.S. elections.

Voters this week in eight states — Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wisconsin — overwhelmingly approved constitutional amendment ballot questions seeking to ensure noncitizens cannot vote in state and local elections. Foreign nationals are already barred from voting in federal elections.

“We’re so often told about how divided we are in the United States, but on Tuesday we had Republicans, Democrats and independents come together in overwhelming numbers declaring that only citizens would be able to vote” in elections, a jubilant Will Martin, Wisconsin state director of Americans for Citizen Voting, told The Federalist in a phone interview this week.

The Badger State’s Citizen-Only Voting Amendment (COVA) was endorsed by more than 70 percent of voters in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial tallies. Support topped 65 percent in each of the states with COVA questions on the ballot, according to unofficial results reported by state news organizations. In Iowa, the referendum passed with 76 percent support. In South Carolina, the ballot question earned the approval of a whopping 86 percent of voters.

In Missouri, the same ballot question amending the state constitution to make clear only citizens can vote in Show Me State elections also knocked out ranked-choice voting by a two-to-one margin.

Before Election Day, COVA advocates felt confident, but Wisconsin presented the biggest challenge. Jack Tomczak, vice president for Citizen Outreach for Americans for Citizen Voting, told The Federalist that the amendment faced “well-funded” opposition led by the leftist League of Women Voters. More than three dozen leftist groups lent their names and resources to an effort to defeat the referendum. Martin said opponents ran “shameful” ads falsely warning voters that military personnel wouldn’t be able to vote in Wisconsin elections if the amendment passed.

In Idaho, Democrat lawmakers claimed noncitizens could be barred from voting in private elections, including homeowner associations and parent-teacher associations elections. The amendment ballot questions had nothing to do with such races, just as they don’t involve federal election law.

‘Being Diminished’

Opponents, assisted by the accomplice media, pushed the left’s false talking point that foreign nationals voting in elections is nearly nonexistent and that the constitutions in Wisconsin and the other states already bar noncitizens from voting.

“Passage of the amendments marks the latest chapter of Republican’s [sic] ongoing efforts to put unfounded claims of noncitizen voting at the center of a broader political strategy,” Democratic Party mouthpiece NBC News reported this week.

In the words of outgoing acting President Joe Biden, malarky.

As The Federalist has reported, the vast majority of states’ constitutions include language that “every” citizen meeting age and residency requirements is eligible to vote. The amendments demand that “only” U.S. citizens meeting the requirements are electors.

Opponents of the COVA movement insist there’s no difference. The “every” phrasing opens the door to noncitizens being allowed to vote in state and local elections, as is the case in California, Maryland, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

In September, Frederick became the largest city in Maryland to allow noncitizens to vote in its elections. The Board of Aldermen voted 4-1 to give green card and illegal immigrants the right to cast ballots. Kelly Russell was the sole dissenting vote.

“I have talked to many people who worked to get their citizenship in order to vote who do not agree to that, who feel that their efforts and all the hard work that they did is being diminished by this,” she said, according to Fox45 News in Baltimore.

Takoma Park, Maryland, has allowed foreign nationals to vote in local elections for more than 30 years. All told, a dozen Maryland municipalities open the franchise to noncitizens. They can because there’s nothing in the state constitution that prevents them from doing so.

‘Common Sense’ Movement

Wisconsin legislative Democrats have voted en bloc against resolutions to take the citizen-only amendment to the voters. While they insist noncitizens illegally voting in elections isn’t an issue, it is. Noncitizens have voted in U.S. elections and thousands have shown up on state voter rolls this election cycle.

The problems are only magnified by an unprecedented 10 million U.S. Border Patrol encounters with illegal aliens in the nearly four years that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been in office. While it is a felony for foreign nationals to vote in U.S. elections, incidents are difficult to track and not a priority for many prosecutors.

“There are at least 25 million non-citizens in the country according to the Census Bureau and no federal enforcement mechanism to ensure their names don’t appear on the voters rolls,” Paige Terryberry, senior research fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability, told The Federalist in September. “Right now, the Biden-Harris administration is using welfare offices, DMVs, Public housing, healthercare.gov and more to register voters, and they aren’t verifying citizenship at these locations. States can act too, but the SAVE Act is the only thing that can fix this problem nationwide before the election.”

Each illegal vote diminishes those of eligible voters.

Since 2018, 14 states have added, or have voted to add, citizenship requirements to their constitutions, according to Ballotpedia.

Martin noted that swing state Wisconsin is a “50-50” state, as evident by former President Donald Trump’s victory in the so-called “blue wall” state by a little over 28,000 votes. Still, the ballot question scored majorities in 71 of 72 counties, Martin said.

The COVA advocate said the issue is part of a sea change in America, a return to basic guiding values.

“Theres a movement in this country toward common sense,” Martin said. “People are tired of people trying to interpret for them, people are tired of being told what to think.”

For more election news and updates, visit electionbriefing.com

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.

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Political

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Beware Civics Education’s ‘Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’v

By: Jason Bedrick / @JasonBedrick / February 09, 2024

A private grant for K-5 pilot programs in civics education in California, Georgia, Missouri, New York, and Wisconsin promotes a radical agenda, including ideological “action civics” as a substitute for the traditional approach. (Photo illustration: skynesher/Getty Images)

Everyone agrees that American students need better civics education.

Civic knowledge in America is abysmal. Fewer than half of American adults can name the three branches of government—and a quarter can’t name any branch at all.

Likewise, a quarter of Americans couldn’t name any of the five freedoms guaranteed under the First Amendment.

That’s why supporters of civics education might be inclined to celebrate the recent announcement that a private initiative called Educating for American Democracy would award $600,000 in grants for K-5 pilot implementation projects to applicants from California, Georgia, Missouri, New York, and Wisconsin.

But for supporters of true civics education, popping the champagne in this case would be a grave mistake.

“EAD is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” warns Mark Bauerlein, a professor emeritus at Emory University. In his telling, the seemingly innocuous goals of Educating for American Democracy, such as inculcating an “inquisitive mindset towards civics and history,” mask a more radical agenda. As Bauerlein explains:

Yes, [Educating for American Democracy] contains a few traditionalist elements that deflect the charge of anti-conservatism. Overall, however, the EAD Roadmap circumscribes those elements with identity politics that left-wing teachers can plunder all year long. Here is what EAD really means by ‘inquisitive mindset’: a takedown of heroes, emphasis on victims (women and racial minorities), denial of American exceptionalism, and a focus on the failings of the founding.

According to David Randall, director of research at the National Association of Scholars, Educating for American Democracy is among the worst civics education resources.

In a 2022 report by the Pioneer Institute and the National Association of Scholars, “Learning for Self-Government: A K-12 Civics Report Card,” Randall gave the EAD an “F+” on a scale of A through F. (See chart below.)

Why the poor grade? Randall said EAD is “the central political-administrative push to reshape American civics education into a radical mold,” with the goal “to get every state civics education standard aligned for action civics and abbreviating as much as possible traditional civics education.”

What is “action civics”? According to the Pedagogy Companion to the Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy, it is “a specialized form of project-based learning that emphasizes youth voice and expertise based on their own capabilities and experience, learning by direct engagement with a democratic system and institutions, and reflection on impact.”

If you’re still confused, that’s because, as Randall observes, the proponents of action civics and other radical pedagogies use “impenetrable, jargon-heavy terms” to mask their true agenda.

In his report, Randall explains what action civics really entails:

What this means is that in ‘action civics’ history and government classes, students spend class time and receive class credit for work with ‘nongovernmental community organizations.’ This substitution degrades teachers’ and students’ esteem for classroom instruction, which is deemed not to have sufficient civic purpose in itself. It reduces the scarce time available for students actually to learn about the history of their country and the nature of their republic.

Most importantly, it introduces a pedagogy that facilitates teachers’ ability to impose their personal predilections on their students, by influencing the process by which students choose ‘community partners’ with which to work. It also facilitates the ability of peer pressure to impose group predilections on individual, dissenting students. We may note that the advocates of ‘action civics’ explicitly distinguish this activity from volunteering: action civics is meant to change the political system, not to support civil society.

In other words, Randall explains, in place of real civics, action civics “substitutes radical progressive pedagogy as a vocational training for activism.”

In action civics courses, students get class credit for attending protests or supporting progressive organizations. The EAD website’s “Educator Resources” includes links to resources from left-wing organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose “Learning for Justice” curriculum provides lessons on the “concepts of intersectionality, privilege and oppression.”

Instead of inculcating students with a Madisonian appreciation for our constitutional order, EAD-backed action civics programs train Alinskyite activists.

It’s easy to see why the Democrat-controlled Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and public school districts in Los Angeles and New York are excited to accept EAD funds. What’s harder to understand is why the Georgia Department of Education would be.

Georgia’s superintendent of schools, Richard Woods, is a Republican who previously wrote that the “ideology of Critical Race Theory (CRT) has no place in our schools and classrooms” and cautioned that “[w]e must be vigilant against embracing polarizing practices that only seek to divide us.”

Vigilance against embracing radical and polarizing practices in education is certainly necessary. Georgia policymakers should start by exercising greater vigilance over the grants they accept to further civics education.

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Education

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Court Lets State Protect Kids From Transgender ‘Care,’ Making Key Point About Evidence

By: Tyler O’Neil / @Tyler2ONeil / August 25, 2023

A Missouri judge declines to block a law preventing transgender interventions for minors, citing “conflicting and unclear” medical evidence on the effectiveness of so-called puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Pictured: Pro-transgender protesters rally March 6, 2022, in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

A Missouri trial court declined Friday to block a law preventing transgender interventions for minors, citing “conflicting and unclear” medical evidence on the effectiveness of so-called puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

“The science and medical evidence is conflicting and unclear,” Judge Stephen R. Ohmer ruled. “Accordingly, the evidence raises more questions than answers.”

Three Missouri families who claim their children identify as the gender opposite their biological sex sued the state’s Republican governor, Michael Parson, challenging the constitutionality of a law he signed June 7. The families had asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction, blocking the law from going into effect during the course of litigation. However, Ohmer ruled that the families “have not clearly shown a sufficient threat of irreparable injury absent injunctive relief,” so he declined to grant the injunction.

“Today is a day that will go down in Missouri history,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who defended the law, told The Daily Signal in a written statement Friday. “We put their ‘evidence’ under a microscope, and it spoke for itself. Missouri’s children won today. I’m beyond proud to have led the fight.”

“Missouri is the first state in the nation to successfully defend at the trial court level a law barring child mutilation,” Bailey also said in a press release. “I’ve said from Day One as attorney general that I will fight to ensure that Missouri is the safest state in the nation for children. This is a huge step in that direction.”

Judges in Alabama and Tennessee granted injunctions blocking similar laws in those states, before higher courts restored the laws. District courts have blocked such laws temporarily in at least seven states, including Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, and Kentucky.

The Missouri law, SB 49, called the Missouri Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act, or SAFE Act, will go into effect Monday. It states: “A health care provider shall not knowingly perform a gender transition surgery on any individual under eighteen years of age,” nor “knowingly prescribe or administer cross-sex hormones or puberty-blocking drugs for the purpose of a gender transition for an individual under eighteen years of age.”

The law defines “biological sex” as “the biological indication of male or female in the context of reproductive potential or capacity, such as sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”

It defines “gender transition” as “the process in which an individual transitions from identifying with and living as a gender that corresponds to his or her biological sex to identifying with and living as a gender different from his or her biological sex, and may involve social, legal, or physical changes.”

The law states that if a physician administers cross-sex hormones or “puberty blockers” to a minor, such an act “shall be considered unprofessional conduct” and the physician “shall have his or her license to practice revoked by the appropriate licensing entity or disciplinary review board.”

It also creates a cause of action, enabling a minor who undergoes such a procedure to sue the physician or health care provider within 15 years. The ban doesn’t apply to patients suffering from a disorder of sex development. It also bars physicians from performing transgender surgeries on prisoners.

The law sunsets in 2027 as part of a compromise with Democrats in the Missouri Senate.

Transgender interventions, often referred to by the euphemistic term “gender-affirming care,” involve “puberty blockers”—drugs such as Lupron, which the Food and Drug Administration has not approved for gender dysphoria (the persistent condition of painfully identifying with the gender that is the opposite one’s biological sex); or “cross-sex hormones” (testosterone for girls, estrogen for boys) that introduce a hormone imbalance, a condition that endocrinologists otherwise would recognize as a disease. (Endocrinologists treat the endocrine system, which uses hormones to control metabolism, reproduction, growth, and more.)

Psychiatrists, endocrinologists, neurologists, and other doctors testified in support of a Florida health agency’s rule preventing Medicaid from funding various forms of “gender-affirming care,” such as “puberty-blockers,” cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries.

“Patients suffering from gender dysphoria or related issues have a right to be protected from experimental, potentially harmful treatments lacking reliable, valid, peer-reviewed, published, long-term scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness,” Dr. Paul Hruz, an endocrinology researcher and clinician at Washington University School of Medicine, wrote in a sworn affidavit.

Hruz noted that “there are no long-term, peer-reviewed published, reliable, and valid research studies” documenting the percentage of patients helped or harmed by transgender medical interventions. He also wrote that attempts to block puberty followed by cross-sex hormones not only affect fertility but also pose risks such as low bone density, “disfiguring acne, high blood pressure, weight gain, abnormal glucose tolerance, breast cancer, liver disease, thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease.”

Hruz and other doctors argue that the medical interventions often described as “gender-affirming care” are experimental and that the organizations that present standards of care supporting them—the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society—represent more a political and advocacy effort than an objective analysis supporting these alleged treatments.

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ABOUT THE REPORTER:

Tyler O’Neil

Tyler O’Neil is managing editor of The Daily Signal and the author of “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

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Family, Health, Law, LGBTQ+ AND TRANSGENDER

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‘Morally and medically appalling’: Transgender clinic whistleblower says medical system is ‘permanently harming’ children

By: CANDACE HATHAWAY | February 10, 2023

A former case manager for a pediatric gender clinic in Missouri recently blew the whistle on the American medical system for “permanently harming” gender-questioning vulnerable children, the New York Post reported.

Jamie Reed, a 42-year-old woman from St. Louis who describes herself as a “queer woman” and “politically to the left of Bernie Sanders,” published an article in the Free Press on Thursday explaining why she walked away from her job at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Reed, who is married to a transgender man, stated that she “could no longer participate in what was happening” and claimed the medical professionals at the clinic were “permanently harming the vulnerable patients in our care.”

Reed noted that when she started her position, there were approximately 10 calls a month from gender-questioning children, and when she left, there were 50. According to Reed, 70% of new patients were female adolescents who sometimes arrived at the center in groups.

“This concerned me, but didn’t feel I was in the position to sound some kind of alarm back then,” Reed said. “There was a team of about eight of us, and only one other person brought up the kinds of questions I had. Anyone who raised doubts ran the risk of being called a transphobe.”

Most girls arriving at the gender clinic had “many comorbidities,” including depression, anxiety, ADHD, eating disorders, or obesity.

“Frequently, our patients declared they had disorders that no one believed they had,” Reed explained. “We had patients who said they had Tourette syndrome (but they didn’t); that they had tic disorders (but they didn’t); that they had multiple personalities (but they didn’t).”

According to Reed, doctors at the St. Louis clinic believed that the children’s incorrect self-diagnoses resulted from social contagion. However, doctors rejected the idea that the children’s questioning of their gender identity might also be a manifestation of social contagion. Instead, they claimed it was “something innate.”

Adolescents who wished to medically transition commonly only needed to see a therapist once or twice, Reed explained. Therapists were even provided a template for writing a letter supporting the child’s transition.

Side effects from the gender transition medications are many, including sterility.

After years of working in patient intake, Reed concluded that “teenagers are simply not capable of fully grasping what it means to make the decision to become infertile while still a minor.”

“Being put on powerful doses of testosterone or estrogen—enough to try to trick your body into mimicking the opposite sex—-affects the rest of the body,” Reed wrote. “I doubt that any parent who’s ever consented to give their kid testosterone (a lifelong treatment) knows that they’re also possibly signing their kid up for blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication, and perhaps sleep apnea and diabetes.”

Reed said she recently brought her concerns to Missouri’s Republican attorney general.

“He is a Republican. I am a progressive. But the safety of children should not be a matter for our culture wars,” she stated.

Reed called for “a moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria” because of the “secrecy and lack of rigorous standards.” She added that referring to transgender treatment as a “national experiment” is incorrect.

“Experiments are supposed to be carefully designed. Hypotheses are supposed to be tested ethically. The doctors I worked alongside at the Transgender Center said frequently about the treatment of our patients: ‘We are building the plane while we are flying it.’ No one should be a passenger on that kind of aircraft,” Reed concluded.

A spokesperson for St. Louis Children’s Hospital told KMOV, “We are alarmed by the allegations reported in the article published by The Free Press describing practices and behaviors the author says she witnessed while employed at the university’s Transgender Center. We are taking this matter very seriously and have already begun the process of looking into the situation to ascertain the facts. As always, our highest priority is the health and well-being of our patients. We are committed to providing compassionate, family-centered care to all of our patients and we hold our medical practitioners to the highest professional and ethical standards.”

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Biden White House Hounded Facebook to Censor Tucker Carlson, New Emails Show

BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD | JANUARY 10, 2023

Tucker Carlson giving a speech at Turning Point USA event — **The Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor Fox News host Tucker Carlson for criticizing the Covid shots, according to newly released White House emails.**

SHAWN FLEETWOOD

VISIT ON TWITTER@SHAWNFLEETWOOD

President Joe Biden’s administration actively pressured Facebook to censor Fox News host Tucker Carlson for criticizing the Covid shots, according to internal White House communication records obtained by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana.

In an email dated April 14, 2021, then-senior adviser to the president’s Covid response team, Andrew Slavitt, voiced dissatisfaction to a Facebook official that a video of Carlson questioning the left’s universal demand that people get the Covid jab was “Number one” on the platform, to which said official responded that they’d look into the matter. Later that same day, the Facebook representative informed the White House that while the “Tucker Carlson video does not qualify for removal under [Facebook’s] policies,” the company would label the clip with “a pointer to more authoritative COVID information” and work to limit its reach on the platform.

Facebook’s efforts did not meet the administration’s demands for greater censorship, however. In response to the representative, White House Director of Digital Strategy Robert Flaherty questioned how Carlson’s video didn’t violate Facebook’s existing policies and pressured the company to turn over information on the efficacy of its censorship practices.

“How was this not violative? The second half of the segment is raising conspiracy theories about the government hiding that all vaccines aren’t effective,” Flaherty claimed. “Moreover, you say reduced and demoted. What does that mean? There’s 40,000 shares on the video. Who is seeing it now? How many? How effective is that?”

“Not for nothing but last time we did this dance, it ended in an insurrection,” Flaherty added in an apparent reference to the platform’s handling of claims pertaining to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and subsequent riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

But the Biden White House’s habit of using Big Tech to silence dissenting voices on Covid-related information didn’t just stop at Carlson. A separate batch of emails released by the Missouri and Louisiana attorneys general reveals a concentrated endeavor between the administration and Facebook to reduce the “virality of vaccine hesitancy content,” even if such posts contained factually accurate information.

“As you know, in addition to removing vaccine misinformation, we have been focused on reducing the virality of content discouraging vaccines that does not contain actionable misinformation,” a Facebook representative told Slavitt in a March 21, 2021, email. “This is often-true content, which we allow at the post level … but it can be framed as sensation, alarmist, or shocking. We’ll remove these Groups, Pages, and Accounts when they are disproportionately promoting this sensationalized content.”

In addition to Facebook, Twitter was also a major player in the collusion efforts between the federal government and Big Tech to further squash free speech online. In an email dated August 11, 2022, Flaherty admonished Twitter for allowing posts contradicting White House claims to circulate on the platform, writing that “if your product is appending misinformation to our tweets[,] that seems like a pretty fundamental issue.”

Flaherty separately accused Twitter in a December 2021 email of “Total Calvinball” and “bending over backwards” to tolerate disfavored speech after the company refused to comply with demands from the administration to censor a video.

“This case is about the Biden Administration’s blatant disregard for the First Amendment and its collusion with social media companies [to] suppress speech it disagrees with,” said Missouri AG Andrew Bailey in a statement. “I will always fight back against unelected bureaucrats who seek to indoctrinate the people of this state by violating our constitutional right to free and open debate.”

The bombshell emails come as a result of an investigation launched last year by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and then-Missouri AG and now-U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt to uncover collusion efforts between the federal government and Big Tech companies to censor Covid-related posts they deemed misinformation. In addition to obtaining communication records unveiling such corruption, the investigation has scored numerous legal wins allowing Louisiana and Missouri to depose high-ranking administration officials such as Anthony Fauci under oath about their role in these efforts.

According to a transcript of Fauci’s November testimony, the man claiming to “represent science” somehow couldn’t recall relevant information about his role in the federal government’s disastrous Covid response “at least 174 times.” The deposition ranged from topics such as Fauci’s bid to smear authors of “The Great Barrington Declaration,” to his role in attempting to “discredit any theory” that Covid resulted from a lab leak in Wuhan, China.

Shawn Fleetwood is a Staff Writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He also serves as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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26 state school board associations distance themselves from national group calling parents ‘terrorists’

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Monday, November 15, 2021

High school, classroom, California — IT Support Technician Michael Hakopian (R) distributes computer devices to students at Hollywood High School on August 13, 2020, in Hollywood, California. With over 734,000 enrolled students, the Los Angeles Unified School District is the largest public school system in California and the 2nd largest public school district in the United States. | Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

At least 26 state school board associations have distanced themselves from the National School Board Association after it urged the Biden administration to use federal law enforcement agencies against parents who oppose the teaching of controversial curriculum in public schools by labeling them as potential “domestic terrorists.”

The national grassroots organization Parents Defending Education says the states that have distanced themselves from the NSBA’s letter include: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Out of these, 12 states — Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin — have taken further action to withdraw membership, participation or dues from the NSBA.

PDE wrote to NSBA member states for their comment on the Sept. 29 letter sent to them by NSBA Interim Executive Director Chip Slaven, which critics believe likened activism of concerned parents to “domestic terrorism.”

The letter said the NSBA had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to mobilize law enforcement agencies to respond to “threats and acts of violence against public schoolchildren, public school board members, and other public school district officials and educators” as actions of “domestic terrorism.”

While some school board members across the nation have publicly shared incidents of threats they’ve purportedly received from angry residents, critics believe the request to get federal law enforcement involved is unwarranted and an attempt to silence parents. Specific examples of concerning actions included the disruption of school board meetings “because of local directives for mask coverings to protect students and educators from COVID-19,” the incitement of “chaos” at school board meetings by “anti-mask proponents,” and the confrontation of school boards by “angry mobs” that have led boards to “end meetings abruptly.”

John Halkias, the director of the NSBA’s Central Region, wrote to Slaven the same day, on Sept. 29, sharing his belief that “the Board of Directors should have been consulted before a letter like this was sent out publicly, and no less to the President of the United States and the National Press.”

“I also agree that the letter took a stance that went beyond what many of us would consider to be reasonable and used terms that were extreme, and asked for action by the Federal Government that many of us would not request,” he added. “In fact in a recent press conference, the White House Press Secretary stated that when these incidents occur, it is a matter for local law enforcement and local authorities, and NOT the federal government.”

In an Oct. 2 email, NSBA President Viola Garcia told the organization’s board of directors that “NSBA has been engaged with the White House and the Department of Education on these and other issues related to the pandemic for several weeks now.”

Five days later, the Department of Justice published a memorandum directing “the Federal Bureau of Investigations, working with each United States Attorney, to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders within 30 days” to “facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff.”

Republican members of Congress also criticized the memo.

“As someone who was born in the Soviet Union, I am … disturbed, very disturbed, by the use of the Department of Justice as a political tool, and its power as the police state to suppress lawful public discourse,” Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., said in a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. “The FBI is starting to resemble old KGB with secret warrantless … surveillance, wiretapping and intimidation of citizens.”

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Missouri’s last abortion provider is about to shut down, Planned Parenthood says

Reported By Andy Marso | May 28, 2019 11:24 AM, Updated May 28, 2019 02:32 PM

URL of the original posting site: https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/health-care/article230896539.html

Missouri could soon be the first state without a single place providing legal abortions. Planned Parenthood officials said Tuesday that the state is on the verge of pulling the license from its St. Louis location, which is the last one still providing abortion services following the passage of a series of restrictive laws.

But in a conference call Tuesday, Leana Wen, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said that clinic will likely end those services Friday because of a “weaponization of the licensing process.”

“This is not a drill. This is not a warning. This is a real public health crisis,” said Wen, a physician from Baltimore. “This week, Missouri would be the first state in the country to go dark — without a health center that provides safe, legal abortion care.”

Wen said Planned Parenthood will sue in an effort to continue providing abortions past this week. Wen said the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services plans to pull the St. Louis clinic’s license because of a refusal to submit employees to “interrogation” by regulators.

“The state is insisting that seven doctors, including residents and fellows who are obtaining medical training, be subject to interrogation that could result in them losing their medical license or even be subject to criminal prosecution,” Wen said.

Colleen McNicholas, a physician at the St. Louis clinic, said the state is attempting to strictly enforce a law requiring women seeking abortions to get a pelvic exam that she said is “invasive” and “medically unnecessary.”

A spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which regulates abortion licenses, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Planned Parenthood used to offer abortion services in Kansas City and Columbia, in addition to St. Louis.

But those clinics had to stop offering them due to a law requiring that doctors who perform the procedure have admitting privileges at a local hospital. The Columbia clinic was also damaged earlier this year by an arson fire that the FBI is investigating as a possible hate crime.

The path forward for the clinics is further complicated by a bill just signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson that prohibits all abortions past eight weeks of pregnancy. That law, which takes effect in August, would practically rule out all abortions except those done by taking pills that can be received through the mail and don’t require a brick-and-mortar clinic.

“By signing this bill today, we are sending a strong signal to the nation that, in Missouri, we stand for life, protect women’s health, and advocate for the unborn,” Parson said in a statement. “All life has value and is worth protecting.”

That law is expected to be challenged in court.

The ACLU also filed a petition drive Tuesday to get it reversed through voter referendum.

“This week, Missouri may become the first state without a health center that provides abortion, even without the courts having to say they are overturning Roe v. Wade,” said Jennifer Dalven, the director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “This is a direct result of a years-long effort by anti-abortion politicians to pass medically unnecessary restrictions that burden providers with the goal of forcing them to shut down. This has been their end game for years, but it’s contrary to what the overwhelming majority of people in this country want.”

According to a Gallup poll, about 80% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in some or all circumstances.

Legal abortions are available just across the state line from Missouri at a Planned Parenthood in Overland Park and the Hope Clinic for Women in Illinois.

According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, about half of the 7,048 legal abortions performed in the state in 2018 were done on women who came in from other states. The vast majority of those out-of-state women — 3,279 out of 3,498 — were from Missouri.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Marso

Kansas City Star health reporter Andy Marso was part of a Pulitzer Prize-finalist team at The Star and previously won state and regional awards at the Topeka Capital-Journal and Kansas Health Institute News Service. He has written two books, including one about his near-fatal bout with meningitis.

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Missouri Rolls Back Minimum Wage Hike In Effort To Bolster Business

Reported By Andrew West | July 6, 2017

URL of the original posting site: http://constitution.com/missouri-rolls-back-minimum-wage-hike-effort-bolster-business/

The massive liberal outcry for an increase to the minimum wage in America has backfired in St. Louis, Missouri, and now the state is taking action.

In many locales across the nation, particularly in the ultraliberal west, the minimum wage for American workers has been bumped from $7 and change to $15.00 – an enormous increase with dire consequences. Not only have massive corporations such as McDonald’s been forced to replace flesh and blood workers with kiosks, but small, family-run businesses are shedding employees faster than you can say “order up!”.

Now, after feeling the adverse effects of paying a minimum wage of just $10, Missouri is looking to roll back the destructive switch in order to preserve the state’s heritage as a business-friendly destination.

“And Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens agrees. Next month, the minimum wage will return to $7.70 an hour — ten bucks an hour was a mistake, he says.

“‘Despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people’s pockets,’ Greitens said.

“Cities all over the country have been boosting their minimum wage. It’s up to $15 an hour in Seattle, but it’s going in the opposite direction in St. Louis.

“But after nationwide protests, the minimum wage went up on July 1, or will go up soon — from Chicago to Flagstaff, Arizona, and Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. “

In St. Louis, several mom and pop restaurants were particularly hard hit by the change that just happened to coincide with an increase in product costs and taxes. This triple-whammy of expenditures had many fearing for the future of their businesses.

Liberals continue to push the boundaries of entitlement and welfare in our nation, and their constant push for an unreasonable $15/hr minimum wage is just another symptom of that sickness. To require any business to provide even the most inane of employees with a wage of such magnitude, especially given the sudden nature of these changes and the severity of the increase, is downright destructive. American businesses will surely need to pass these costs along to the consumer, inflating prices and decreasing bank accounts.

In reality, the minimum wage hike will be directly transferred right back to the consumer in the form of those inflated prices, negating the entire experiment altogether. If you make more money, but also have to spend more of it so that other employees can get their enhanced wage, you’ll find yourself at a net zero change. It becomes a farcical campaign promise from the left that, in reality, is nothing more than a ball and cup magic trick where you simply move the money around instead of creating it or spending it.

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Filibusted: Missouri Democrats Fail to Block Religious Liberty Bill Concerning Same-Sex Marriage

Reported by Roger Severino / March 09, 2016 / Roger Severino is the director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

URL of the original posting site: http://dailysignal.com/2016/03/09/filibusted-missouri-democrats-fail-to-block-religious-liberty-bill-concerning-same-sex-marriage

The cultural left still wants to crush dissent from its new sexual orthodoxy, no matter how small. (Photo: Whitney Curtis/REUTERS/Newscom)

A minority of Missouri legislators held a much needed religious liberty proposal hostage in Jefferson City over the last two days. Democrats there filibustered for over 36 hours against SJR 39, a commonsense bill that would let Missouri citizens vote to ban government discrimination against people of faith because of their beliefs about marriage.

This was the most misguided filibuster since Wendy Davis tried (and failed) to block Texas from adopting reasonable limits on late-term abortions and commonsense clinic safety standards.

As we have seen in Indiana, Georgia, and West Virginia, big business and the left have once again teamed up with government actors to form a triumvirate of cultural cronyism aiming to block popular religious freedom protections.

Missouri’s proposal is sound public policy and should be adopted. It ensures continued religious freedom, a freedom that is acutely threatened in the wake of the Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage last summer. Those who remain true to their religious beliefs about marriage need protection from government discrimination like never before, and the Missouri proposal provides just that.

Opponents of the Missouri proposal nevertheless claim that it will lead to widespread LGBT discrimination. This is false. Combined

The Missouri proposal does not take anything away from anyone. It specifically says that it shall not take away anyone’s right to a government marriage license, to receive government benefits (such as health insurance or tax deductions), or to visit a sick spouse in a hospital.

The proposal is an anti–discrimination measure that protects the rights of all Missourians to be free from government punishment and coercion when they live out their beliefs about marriage.

The Missouri proposal would protect this freedom by a constitutional amendment, which means that once the want_rel_liberty_r protections are in place, people of faith will be insulated from state judges or politicians that are (or may become) hostile to religious freedom. It means the people of Missouri get a direct say in their own governance. It means that religious freedom is protected for all, both now and in the future.

The protections in SJR 39 are precise, clear, and concrete—so much so that a filibustering senator was asked to point to a provision, any provision, in the proposal that was discriminatory but was unable to.

This is because the Missouri proposal would prevent discriminatory government action, not unleash it. Here are some examples:

The proposal prevents the state government from penalizing pastors and clergy who decline to perform marriage ceremonies contrary to their religious beliefs.
It protects houses of worship and Knights of Columbus halls from being forced to use their facilities to host weddings that run counter to their beliefs.
It prevents government from stripping religious adoption agencies of their licenses or contracts because they operate under the belief that every child deserves both a mother and father.
It ensures that schools, charities, elder care facilities, and crisis pregnancy centers will not lose equal access to government programs or be denied tax exemptions because of sincere beliefs about marriage.

In short, like the federal First Amendment Defense Act on which it is based, the Missouri proposal would guarantee that religious institutions can retain their religious identity in private life, in public life, and in service to the poor and the needy in the community.

The proposal also protects people like Barronelle Stutzman, a 70-year-old florist from Washington state who was happy to serve gays and lesbians but was sued, fined, and harassed because she declined, based on her Christian faith, to make custom floral arrangements to celebrate a same-sex wedding. It would likewise protect the Klein family of Oregon, who were fined $135,000 for declining to make a cake celebrating a same-sex wedding in violation of their faith. RadicalChristianExtremist

Contrary to the mischaracterizations of opponents, the Missouri proposal protects only “closely held” businesses, only when they provide goods or services “of expressional or artistic creation” and only in the context of wedding celebrations and marriages that they cannot in good conscience endorse. In practice, this means family-owned bakers, florists, and photographers would be protected when providing custom wedding services, but not Hilton hotels.

Big Gay Hate Machine But even these modest protections are still too much for some. Big Business still wants to crush its small competitors. The cultural left still wants to crush dissent from its new sexual orthodoxy, no matter how small. But perhaps worst of all, a few government actors still want to deny the people of Missouri the ability to even have a voice in determining their own future on these matters.

The people of Missouri should get to decide whether their state will be an inclusive place that protects reasonable and long-standing religious beliefs about marriage now and for the generations to come. This proposed constitutional amendment will give them that chance if only the obstructionists using extreme tactics get out of the way.

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Illegal Alien Released Due To Paperwork Mix-Up Allegedly Slaughters Five In Kansas City And Missouri

Reported by Chuck Ross, Reporter, 03/09/2016

URL of the original posting site: http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/09/illegal-alien-released-due-to-paperwork-mix-up-allegedly-slaughters-five-in-kansas-city-and-Missouri

Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino (Missouri State Highway Patrol)

An illegal alien from Mexico who was recently released from jail in Kansas despite having a deportation detainer placed against him, has been arrested and charged with murdering four people in Kansas City, Kan. and is the prime suspect in another slaying in Missouri. Pablo Antonio Serrano-Vitorino, 40, was apprehended shortly after midnight Wednesday in Montgomery County, Mo., the Missouri State Highway Patrol announced.

The Mexican national had been on the run since late Monday, when he allegedly shot four men with an AK-47 in a house in Kansas City, Kan. One of the men was Serrano-Vitorino’s neighbor while the other three were reportedly visiting the residence.

The Kansas City Star reported that Serrano-Vitorino lived in the neighborhood with his wife and two small children. Neighbors said they knew of no beef between Serrano-Vitorino and his neighbor.

“This was a random act,” an aunt to two of the men told the Star. “They were innocents.”

The owner of the house where the men were found said he was allowed into the residence early Tuesday morning.

“It looked like he just stepped in the door and blew them away,” the owner, Steve Manthe, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Serrano-Vitorino is also suspected in the murder of 49-year-old Randy J. Nordman. He was found dead in his home near New Florence, Mo., which is where Missouri state troopers found Serrano-Vitorino’s abandoned Dodge Ram truck. The Missouri State Highway Patrol said Serrano-Vitorino was arrested after a citizen called to report that a man had approached him with a gun. Troopers responded and found Serrano-Vitorino lying face down in a ditch near Interstate 70. He is being held on $2 million bond for the Kansas City murders.

Serrano-Vitorino on the radar of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as recently as September, when the federal immigration agency placed a detainer against him following an arrest in Overland Park, Kan. But a paperwork mix-up may have allowed him to remain free.

KSHB reported that ICE sent the detainer request to the Johnson County Sheriff’s office rather than to the Overland Park municipal court, where he was being held on a local charge.

“Further record checks indicate that ICE erroneously issued the detainer to Johnson County Sheriff’s office instead. ICE regrets the error,” ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro told KSHB.

Montenegro did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.

Serrano-Vitorino had been previously deported in April 2004 after being ordered removed by a federal immigration judge.

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BREAKING: Sharia Law on the March – in Missouri

Written by Michael Becker — November 30, 2015

URL of the original posting site: http://joeforamerica.com/2015/11/breaking-sharia-law-on-the-march-in-missouri

Looks like Sharia Law is rearing it’s ugly head again, this time in Columbia, Missouri.

Columbia police on Wednesday arrested a 53-year-old man who allegedly pulled a teenage family member out of Hickman High School by her hair and slapped her.

Police re-sponded at 3 p.m. Tuesday to the school, 1104 N. Providence Road, for a child abuse call, Officer Latisha Stroer said in an email. Youssif Z. Omar was at the school and noticed a 14-year-old female family member was not wearing a hijab, a traditional headscarf that some Muslim women wear. Omar became irate, Stroer said, grabbed the girl “very violently by the hair” and pulled her outside and down a flight of stairs.

“Not wearing a hijab.” A perfectly good reason to beat the hell out of your cousin.

Omar allegedly slapped the girl’s face and pulled her into his car by her hair, Stroer said. Police arrested Omar on suspicion of child abuse, a felony, at 5:10 p.m. Wednesday at his residence in the 1700 block of Timber Creek Drive. He was released from the Boone County Jail after posting a $4,500 bond.

I suspect when the girl gets home and has to face her parents they’ll finish the beating her uncle started. Disrespect like that can’t be tolerated. In a Muslim home.

Omar is not some “radical” Muslim that we should fear. No sir. Omar is a good, moderate Muslim who wants his family to be seen as “righteous” by Allah. Or Muhammed. Or whoever.

How do I know that?

A University of Missouri graduate teaching assistant is accused of grabbing a teenage family member by the hair and pulling her out of school because she wasn’t wearing a traditional headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

Certainly the University of Missouri wouldn’t hire a radical Muslim would they? He was released on a measly $4,500 bond so he can’t be on a terrorist watch list or anything like that, so he’s just a good, moderate, Muslim. Who wants Sharia Law imposed on his adopted home.

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Cops shoot and kill alleged gunman who murdered rookie Kentucky state trooper

Published September 14, 2015 / FoxNews.com

URL of the original posting site: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/14/kentucky-state-trooper-shot-and-killed-after-car-chase

A man suspected of killing a Kentucky trooper was shot and killed by state police early Monday morning, police confirmed to FoxNews.com.

Authorities said 25-year-old Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, of Missouri, was located in a remote rural area near I-24 around 7 a.m., following an all-night manhunt. Johnson-Shanks was armed with a handgun and did not comply with several commands to drop his weapon, according to Sgt. Mike Webb.

“That gave the trooper closest to him no choice but to fire his agency-issued weapon, striking him multiple times,” Webb said.

Johnson-Shanks was arrested while police waited for EMS at the scene and he died from his injuries at a local hospital at 8:23 a.m. Webb said he wasn’t aware of any statements Johnson-Shanks may have made prior to being shot.

A statement released early Monday said that Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder, 31, was pronounced dead at a Princeton, Ky., hospital after being shot multiple times late Sunday night. Ponder had been a state trooper since January of this year.

The statement said that Ponder was conducting a traffic stop Sunday on the westbound side of Interstate 24 in the western part of the state at about 10:20 p.m. local time. The statement said that the driver who was being stopped took off from the scene, with Ponder pursuing him for approximately nine miles.

At that point, according to the statement, the suspect’s car abruptly stopped, causing Ponder to crash his car into the vehicle. Police say the driver, Johnson-Shanks, got out of the car and started shooting at Ponder, hitting him multiple times. Bullets also struck the hood and windshield of the police cruiser, authorities said.

After the shooting, authorities said that Johnson-Shanks fled the scene on foot and was considered armed and dangerous. Interstate 24 was shut down in both directions early Monday to assist in the search.

“Pray for our guys that are out here,” Kentucky County Executive Wade White told reporters, according to KVFS.

Ponder, from Rineyville, was a U.S. Navy veteran who was stationed at the police post in Mayfield after graduating from the academy, KVFS reported. He reportedly had plans to move closer to home within the next year.

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Report: Suspect in Kentucky trooper’s shooting was active in #BlackLivesMatter protests

Posted at 10:26 pm on September 14, 2015 by Twitchy Staff

URL of the original posting site: http://twitchy.com/2015/09/14/report-suspect-in-kentucky-troopers-shooting-was-active-in-blacklivesmatter-protests/?utm_source=autotweet&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=twitter

It didn’t take long for Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action to blame the NRA’s agenda of “guns anywhere, anytime, for anyone” for the fatal shooting of Kentucky State Trooper Joseph Ponder. Suspect Joseph Thomas Johnson-Shanks, 25, was reportedly killed by police during a subsequent manhunt in a wooded area close to Interstate 24.

Rather than pointing fingers at the NRA, Watts and others might want to look into the #BlackLivesMatter movement. According to the New York Daily News, photos posted to Johnson-Shanks’ Facebook page show him not only at several protests over the death of Michael Brown, but at Brown’s funeral as well. Other photos show him with his arms raised along with the caption, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot.”

A war on cops?

The Daily News also reports that two women and two children were in the car with Johnson-Shanks when he shot Ponder. Johnson-Shanks’ 18-year-old niece was arrested and charged with first-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension.

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Judge blocks new federal rule on jurisdiction of waterways

Published August 28, 2015; FoxNews.com

URL of the original posting site: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/28/judge-blocks-new-federal-rule-on-jurisdiction-waterways/?intcmp=hpbt1

A federal judge in North Dakota on Thursday blocked a new Obama administration rule that would give the federal government jurisdiction over some state waterways. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson of North Dakota issued a temporary injunction against the rule, which gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers authority to protect some streams, tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The rule was scheduled to take effect Friday. “The risk of irreparable harm to the states is both imminent and likely,” Erickson said in blocking the rule from taking effect.

Thirteen states led by North Dakota asked Erickson to suspend guidelines that they say are unnecessary and infringe on state sovereignty. The federal government says the new rule clarifies ambiguity in the law and actually makes it easier for the states to manage some waterways. It wasn’t immediately clear if the injunction applied to states other than the 13 led by North Dakota.”

The other states involved in the lawsuit are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, South Dakota and Wyoming.

State officials in North Dakota said the new rule will cost the state millions of dollars and take away from more important programs. State Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said there’s “confusion and anxiety” among farmers and other landowners over the initiative.

North Dakota congressman Kevin Cramer called the judge’s ruling a “victory:” “North Dakota landowners and energy workers and their peers around the country will be temporarily spared the devastating consequences of an onerous rule. This is appropriate, given the judicial history of this issue and its impact on states and property rights. The injunction provides time for Congress to continue working toward a fix and for a complete judicial review of the legal merits of the rule.”

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At the very least, state officials argued, more time was needed to study the rule, which was finalized on May 27.

The government lawyers said during a hearing in Fargo last week that North Dakota’s objection wrongly assumes some bodies of water will be affected. They also argued the state is already going through some of the permitting procedures they’re complaining about.

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem — along with attorneys general and officials from 30 other states — sent a letter last month to the EPA and the Army Corps asking that the law be postponed at least nine months. Lawyers for the states say they heard nothing back from the government, so they filed a request for a preliminary injunction.

The federal government said the request for an injunction was better suited to be heard by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rather than a federal judge, but Erickson rejected that notion.

“The Waters of the United States rule is unlawful and an abuse of executive power,” said Julia Slingsby, press secretary of the Natural Resources committee in a statement to Fox News. “The judge’s decision to block the rule— which was challenged by 13 states – is encouraging, especially as EPA’s credibility has been questioned in the past month. The EPA needs to be stopped before it does more harm to our nation’s precious water resources.”

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Full, Unedited 8th Video Confirms Planned Parenthood Sells Fully Intact Aborted Babies

Published by Steven Ertelt Aug 28, 2015 | Washington, DC

Today, the Center for Medical Progress released the full, uncut video of the conversation between undercover investigators form CMP and top officials with StemExpress, which buys aborted babies and their body parts from Planned Parenthood. The full footage is of a shorter video that summarized the meetings earlier this week.

The release of the full, unedited video also comes one day after Planned Parenthood released a new report claiming the eight videos released exposing it were “altered.” The abortion giant says the videos were manipulated and therefore not eligible for serious inquiry by Congress, which has launched two joint investigations of the abortion corporation. Still, Planned Parenthood’s own paid for experts admitted that there was no evidence of any manipulation of the audio in any of the eight shocking videos.

The full two-hour-long video appears below:

While the videos have focused on the Planned Parenthood abortion business, the biotech firm StemExpress, which buys and resells aborted baby body parts from the abortion giant, has filed a lawsuit seeking to block some information the Center for Medical Progress obtained in its three year undercover operation. Just a short time after a judge issued a ruling that the biotech firm StemExpress can’t block the Center for Medical Progress from releasing videos, it put together a preview of its latest installment.

StemExpress is a for-profit biotech supply company that has been partnered with Planned Parenthood clinics across the country to purchase human fetal parts since its founding in 2010. StemExpress’ Medical Director, Dr. Ronald Berman, is an abortion doctor for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in California.

In the video, Cate Dyer, the CEO of StemExpress, is shown in a lunch meeting with undercover operatives posing as representatives of a biotech firm. Dyer is laughing about how StemExpress purchases fully intact aborted babies from Planned Parenthood. She laughs about how shippers of the aborted babies would give a warning to lab workers to expect such a baby.

“Oh yeah, if you have intact cases — which we’ve done a lot — we sometimes ship those back to our lab in its entirety,” she says.

“Tell the lab its coming,” she laughs about the intact unborn babies. “You know, open the box and go ‘Oh my God,’” Dyer adds.

The eighth video in the ongoing controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal body parts shows the CEO of StemExpress, a major buyer of fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, admitting the company gets “a lot” of intact fetuses, suggesting “another 50 livers a week” would not be enough, and agreeing abortion clinics should profit from the sale.

In the video, actors posing as another human biologics company meet with StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer, plus Vice President of Corporate Development and Legal Affairs Kevin Cooksy, and Procurement Manager Megan Barr. StemExpress and the actors are discussing a potential partnership to supply extra fetal body parts to each other.

“So many physicians are like, ‘Oh I can totally procure tissue,’ and they can’t,” expresses Dyer, seeming to indicate that abortion doctors must do the procedure in a special way to obtain useable fetal parts. Federal law requires that no alteration in the timing or method of abortion be done for the purposes of fetal tissue collection (42 U.S.C. 289g-1).

“What about intact specimens?” asks one of the actors. “Oh yeah, I mean if you have intact cases, which we’ve done a lot, we sometimes ship those back to our lab in its entirety,” replies Dyer. “Case” is the clinical term for an abortion procedure. An “intact case” refers to an intact abortion with a whole fetus. “The entire case?” asks an actor. “Yeah, yeah,” says Dyer. “The procurement for us, I mean it can go really sideways, depending on the facility, and then our samples are destroyed,” she explains past botched fetal dissections, “so we started bringing them back even to manage it from a procurement expert standpoint.”

Feticidal chemicals like digoxin cannot be used to kill the fetus in a tissue procurement case, so a fetus delivered intact for organ harvesting is likely to be a born-alive infant.

“What would make your lab happy?” asks one of the actors. “Another 50 livers a week,” says Dyer. “We’re working with almost like triple digit number clinics,” Dyer explains, “and we still need more.” She later notes, “Planned Parenthood has volume, because they are a volume institution.”

Dyer also agrees that payments to abortion clinics for fetal body parts should be financially beneficial to them.

“Do you feel like there are clinics out there that have been burned, that feel like they’re doing all this work for research and it hasn’t been profitable for them?” she asks. “I haven’t seen that.” StemExpress publishes a flyer for Planned Parenthood clinics that promises “Financial Profits” and “fiscal rewards” for clinics that supply aborted fetal tissue. It is endorsed by Planned Parenthood Mar Monte Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dorothy Furgerson.

The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). The Sacramento Business Journal reported in June that StemExpress has an annual revenue of $4.5 million.

David Daleiden, the head of CMP, commented on the newest video in a statement to LifeNews.

“StemExpress is the ‘weakest link’ that unravels Planned Parenthood’s baby parts chain–they readily admit the profit-motive that Planned Parenthood and their proxies have in supplying aborted baby parts,” he said. “Congress and law enforcement should immediately seize all fetal tissue files from StemExpress and all communications and contracts with Planned Parenthood. The evidence that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of aborted baby parts is now overwhelming, and not one more dime of taxpayer money should go to their corrupt and fraudulent criminal enterprise.”

After the swarm of negative publicity surrounding Planned Parenthood selling aborted babies and their body parts, StemExpress was forced to cut ties with the abortion company.

Meanwhile, two committees in the House of Representatives have already launched investigations of Planned Parenthood. One committee is looking into whether or not the abortion business is breaking federal law by altering abortion procedures to better obtain aborted baby body parts for sale. Another committee, among other things, is investigating the Obama administration and whether there is any connection between it and the abortion giant.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to know if the Obama administration, via the Department of Health and Human Services, provided any federal grants to Planned Parenthood that ultimately went to pay for the sales of aborted baby body parts and if they were used by Planned Parenthood to “support transactions involving fetal tissue.”

The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of all eight:

In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.
In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.
In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”
In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”
In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”
In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts

So far, 12 states have responded to the Planned Parenthood videos and launched investigations into their abortion and organ harvesting business including South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Texas and Louisiana. The district attorney in Houston Texas is also investigating after the Houston-based Planned Parenthood abortion facility was caught selling aborted babies.

Congress has expanded its investigation into the Planned Parenthood abortion business and five states have revoked taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood’s abortion business, including Utah, Arkansas, Alabama, New Hampshire and Louisiana and Iowa’s governor has ordered a review of Planned Parenthood funding.

The full, unedited videos have confirmed that revelations that some aborted baby remains sold by Planned Parenthood go to biotech companies for the purpose of creating “humanized” mice. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has been exposed as having sold body parts from aborted babies for as much as 15 years.

The federal law that technically prohibits the sale of aborted babies and their body parts was written by a pro-abortion Congressman decades ago and essentially spells out a process by which sellers of aborted baby body parts can meet certain criteria that allows the sales to be legal. That’s why a Colorado congressman has introduced legislation to totally ban the sales of aborted baby body parts.

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Peaceful rallies in Ferguson give way to violence, gunfire/ and / Listen to the Chant Ferguson Protesters Were Caught on Video Shouting Shortly Before Gunfire Erupted

Mon, Aug 10, 2015

URL of the original posting site: http://www.srnnews.com/peaceful-rallies-in-ferguson-give-way-to-violence-gunfire/?utm_source=headlines_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=August-10-2015

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — A man who opened fire on officers in Ferguson, Missouri, on the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death was critically wounded when the officers shot back, St. Louis County’s police chief said early Monday.

Chief Jon Belmar said at a news conference that officers had been tracking the man, who they believed was armed, during a protest marking the death of Brown, the black, 18-year-old whose killing by a white Ferguson police officer.

The man approached the officers, who were in an unmarked police van, and opened fire, Belmar said. The officers returned fire from inside the vehicle and then pursued the man on foot when he ran.

The man again fired on the officers, the chief said, and all four officers fired back. He was struck and fell.

The man was taken to a hospital, where Belmar said he was in “critical, unstable” condition. Authorities didn’t immediately release the identities of anyone involved, but Tyrone Harris told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the injured man was his son, 18-year-old Tyrone Harris Jr.

The elder Harris told the newspaper shortly after 3 a.m. that his son had just gotten out of surgery.

None of the officers was seriously injured. All four have been put on standard administrative leave. They were not wearing body cameras, Belmar said.

The shooting happened shortly after what the chief called “an exchange of gunfire between two groups” rang out around 11:15 p.m. Sunday while protesters were gathered on West Florissant Avenue, a business zone that saw rioting and looting last year after Brown’s killing. The shots sent protesters and reporters running for cover.

The chief said an estimated six shooters unleashed a “remarkable” amount of gunfire over about 45 seconds.

Belmar waved off any notion that the people with the weapons were part of the protest. “They were criminals. They weren’t protesters,” he said.

The man who fired on officers had a semi-automatic 9MM gun that was stolen last year from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, according to the chief.

“There is a small group of people out there that are intent on making sure that peace doesn’t prevail,” he said. “There are a lot of emotions. I get it. But we can’t sustain this as we move forward.”

Early Monday, another reported shooting drew officers to an apartment building in the area. Two men told police they were targeted in a drive-by shooting near the memorial to Brown outside Canfield Apartments. A 17-year old was shot in the chest and shoulder while a 19-year-old was shot in the chest, but their injuries were not life-threatening, the St. Louis County Police said in a news release.

The anniversary of Brown’s killing, which cast greater scrutiny on how police interact with black communities, has sparked days of renewed protests, though until Sunday they had been peaceful and without any arrests.

URL of the original posting site: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/10/listen-to-the-chant-ferguson-protesters-were-caught-on-video-shouting-shortly-before-gunfire-erupted

Shortly before gunfire erupted during protests marking the anniversary of officer-involved fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, demonstrators were caught on video chanting that they were “ready for war.”

“Ready for what?! We’re ready for war!” the protesters chanted. (CLICK ON PICTURE TO VIEW VIDEO)

The video was tweeted by St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Paul Hampel at 10:47 p.m. central time — and gunfire rang out just after 11 p.m., police said. Police shot and critically injured one suspect who allegedly opened fire on plainclothes detectives.

Separately, police said a 17-year-old male has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon and one count of resisting arrest after he fired shots near the protesters late Sunday. He is being held on $100,000 bond.

Before the gunfire, protesters were blocking traffic and confronting police. One person threw a glass bottle at officers but missed.

For the first time in three consecutive nights of demonstrations, some officers were dressed in riot gear, including bullet-proof vests and helmets with shields. Police at one point early Monday shot smoke to disperse the crowd that lingered on West Florissant, Belmar said.

One officer was treated for cuts after a rock was thrown at his face, and two officers were pepper-sprayed by protesters, county police spokesman Officer Shawn McGuire said in an email. Five people were arrested, according to records McGuire released.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Society

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States move to counter gay marriage ruling

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/246582-states-move-to-counter-gay-marriage-ruling

More than a dozen states that saw gay marriage bans struck down last week by the U.S. Supreme Court are vowing to protect religious liberty, even though they grudgingly accept that the ruling is now the law of the land.

In the wake of Friday’s decision, Texas’s attorney general told county clerks in the state that they have a statutory right to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples if they have religious objections to gay marriage.
In Alabama, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore — a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage — said a new state court order could temporarily delay the practice, only to walk back the remarks.
And in Louisiana, the attorney general contends there is nothing in the Supreme Court’s ruling that renders it effective immediately, raising questions about how soon the state would have to comply.

Many other states across the South and upper Midwest are criticizing the ruling as an encroachment on states’ rights and religious freedom, though most acknowledge they cannot ignore it. “Ultimately, my position is that the state should have been legally entitled to define marriage,” South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley told The Hill. “I feel the state has traditionally held that role, and certainly when it’s in the state’s constitution it should be respected.” “But we are a nation of laws and we must respect that,” he added.

Before the Supreme Court’s ruling last Friday, those states and 11 others — Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio and Tennessee — had laws prohibiting same-sex marriage. Though not outright defying the high court’s decision, states are now seeking to make clear the limits of its scope. “The ruling does not tell a minister or congregation what they must do, but it does make clear that the government cannot pick and choose when it comes to issuing marriage licenses and the benefits they confer,” said Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the state would issue exemptions to county clerks, judges and justices of the peace who express religious objections to issuing gay marriage licenses, promising to “defend their religious beliefs.” “The government cannot force them to conduct same-sex wedding ceremonies over their religious objections,” Paxton said, accusing the Supreme Court of “ignoring the text and spirit of the Constitution to manufacture a right that simply does not exist.”

In cases where there are objections, however, other public officials would issue the documents.

A federal judge ruled in May that Alabama’ s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional and stayed her opinion until the Supreme Court ruled on the issue. This week, Moore — the state Supreme Court’s chief justice — initially said a new motion in the earlier case would effectively table Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, a case known as Obergefell v. Hodges.
But same-sex marriage advocates argued that the order has no tangible effects thanks to a federal injunction, and Moore later backed away from the assertion. “In no way does the order instruct probate judges of this State as to whether or not they should comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell,” he said.

Still, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange accused the Supreme Court of “overturning centuries of tradition and the will of the citizens.” “I expect the focus will now turn to the exercise of one’s religious liberty,” Strange said.

A number of attorneys general also complained that the Supreme Court’s decision infringes on states’ right to define marriage how they see fit. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said the court’s ruling “overturns the will of the people of Louisiana, and it takes away a right that should have been left to the states.”

Caldwell is threatening to essentially disregard the Supreme Court’s ruling for the time being, saying there is “nothing in [the] decision that makes the court’s order effective immediately. Therefore, there is not yet a legal requirement for officials to issue marriage licenses or perform marriages for same-sex couples in Louisiana.”

Gay rights activists warn that any acts of perceived defiance would threaten to undermine the legal system. “It’s a dangerous message for southern governors to disobey an order from the Supreme Court,” said Marc Solomon, national campaign director at Freedom to Marry. “The notion that public employees get to pick and choose which laws they follow based on their religious beliefs is a really dangerous precedent and a terrible public policy,” he added. “If you’re a public official, you need to carry out those laws, and you don’t get to decide whether they’re right or wrong.”

The attorneys general in North Dakota and Mississippi both said they are waiting on other court cases to be resolved before they enforce the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. Other states like Ohio and Nebraska expressed disappointment that the Supreme Court was interfering with their marriage laws but also indicated they would respect the ruling.

And top officials in a handful of states that formerly banned gay marriage are now welcoming the Supreme Court’s ruling. Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said he would move swiftly to recognized same-sex marriage in the wake of the court’s ruling. “The history of our country has always been one of moving toward inclusion and equality,” Koster said in a statement. “I applaud the court for their courage and strong sense of fairness. Missourians should be seen as equals under the law; regardless of their gender, race, or whom they love.”

Austin Yack, Hanna Krueger, Kate Hardiman and Rachel Ravina contributed.

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Why We Stand for Life

By: Tasha Troy , Posted: Wednesday, May 13, 2015

“Their story underscores how precious and valuable each little life is. “

– Tasha Troy

Born at 26 Weeks Weighing Under 2 Pounds, This Happy Girl Shows Why We Stand for Life.

When David and Becky Sherwood of St. Louis, Missouri talk about the value of life, it is not theoretical. Their daughter, born at just 26 weeks gestation, has been a precious gift – yet it has not been an easy road. Becky is also my sister; in walking with her as she takes on each challenge, I have gained a deeper appreciation for the value of life. Becky Sherwood’s daughter Riley was born at 26 weeks gestation.

As Congress considers a bill today that (when enacted) will save thousands of pre-born lives, Becky recounts how her beautiful micro-preemie baby girl came into the world… and the struggles she’s overcome in her life so far.

Bound4LIFE: Becky, what was your journey to becoming a mother?

Becky Sherwood: David and I got married in November 1999. After trying for several months, we became pregnant with our first child in 2008. We were so excited to welcome this new little person into our family; she was due just in time to be our Christmas present!

We went through the preparations many expecting parents go through – choosing a name, selecting baby furniture, buying baby clothes, and setting up the nursery.

Bound4LIFE: When did you first find out something was wrong?

Becky Sherwood: From the beginning of my pregnancy, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure. Other than that, I was very healthy. However, as a precaution, my doctor was monitoring me closely.

As I approached the end of my second trimester, I was referred to a maternal-fetal specialist to be closely watched for possible signs of preeclampsia. Other than the elevated blood pressure, I had no other symptoms.

Bound4LIFE: Tell me about the day Riley was born.

Becky Sherwood: The afternoon of September 16, 2008, I was scheduled for a check-up and ultrasound. At that appointment, the specialist believed my blood pressure was high enough to put me on bedrest. At any other time of the year, this might not have been such an issue, but this happened two weeks before the biggest conference event for my employer (I work in the conference department).

I knew it was terrible timing, especially at that crucial time. I started to cry, knowing how much work still needed to be done.

By the time I got home from that appointment, I was in the worst pain I had ever been. It was late enough that I had to call the doctor’s exchange; it became so severe that my husband insisted on taking me to the emergency room. Upon arrival, we discovered that my blood pressure had spiked to 210/110. After some quick tests, it was confirmed that I had severe preeclampsia – necessitating an emergency C-section.

Within just one hour, our Riley was delivered at just 26 weeks gestation with a birth weight of only 1 lb. 15 oz. Riley’s arm was so small, she “wore” David’s wedding ring at first.

Bound4LIFE: What were you praying on that day – and do you believe God has answered?

Becky Sherwood: That day, my body was in shock and my mind was barely keeping up. I didn’t panic, and truly didn’t understand what was happening to me until weeks later, but my prayer that night was: God, please save me and my baby.

He truly answered. God placed me in the care of some of the top maternal-fetal doctors in the nation, at a hospital with one of the top neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), and they did an amazing job caring for me and Riley.

Bound4LIFE: What were some of the repercussions of such an early birth?

Becky Sherwood: We knew that there was a long road ahead. Though we were blessed that her lungs were fully formed and functioning, Riley still needed to be on a ventilator on-and-off for the next few months. She was born before her brain remembered to take breaths, so sometimes she had to be “reminded.”

From jaundice to feeding issues, the first few months were sometimes terrifying, nerve-wracking and heartbreaking. But there were beautiful moments too. We will be forever grateful for the support of family, as well as the nurses and doctors who supported us through nearly four months in the NICU. Riley has been through many rounds of physical therapy. At approximately 3 months, we discovered Riley had some microscopic cysts in the left side of her brain that caused her to neglect to use her right side.

The normal pathway the brain would use to send signals to the right side was disrupted, and it was going to take ongoing physical therapy in every stage of her development.

Just before Riley came home from the hospital we discovered she had a slight hearing loss and would need hearing aids.

Bound4LIFE: Without realizing it, moms may dream of having a “perfect” baby. As it became clear Riley wouldn’t fit society’s view of “perfect,” what was going on inside you?

Becky Sherwood: I can’t lie, I was devastated and had to go through a period of mourning – which really didn’t even begin until we brought Riley home and the reality of what it all meant started to set in.

I had to come to terms with the fact that what I “planned for” was not what was going to happen. But we would still have an amazing journey with Riley – even better than what we had planned – and that we could even let God use our pain and experience to help others.

Bound4LIFE: How is life different since she came home from the hospital?

Becky Sherwood: We are fortunate to live in the State of Missouri, which provides great support for families of babies with low birth weights including various therapies and educational opportunities.

Today, Riley is a smart, creative, thriving six year-old who loves to travel. She is a voracious reader in a mainstream kindergarten – and is at the top of her class.

Most people would never know it, but she still struggles with some of her physical challenges and continues to work hard at her physical therapy. I know there are more struggles ahead. Yet she is the most determined little girl, full of love and compassion. She truly is our miracle baby.

Through this six-year journey, I have developed a deep respect for Becky’s faith and strength of character, and I am so proud of Riley. Their story underscores how precious and valuable each little life is.

(Reprinted with permission from Bound4LIFE)

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Missouri to Change Food Stamp Policy: Welfare Leeches Won’t Like it One Bit

Posted by Baron Von Kowenhoven — April 6, 2015

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://joeforamerica.com/2015/04/missouri-to-change-food-stamp-policy-welfare-leeches-wont-like-it-one-bit/

Are you sick of seeing “welfare leeches” in the grocery checkout line with carts stuffed full of junk food snacks, soda and even porterhouse steaks and crab legs?

So is Missouri House Rep. Rick Brattin, who has begun pushing for legislation prohibiting welfare abusers from buying foods that most hard-working Americans can’t always afford. After Brattin heard a food stamp recipient say, “This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything changing,” he knew something needed to be addressed.

“The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original intent, which is nutrition assistance,” Brattin said. The program is called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, not the “buy junk food and fresh Maine lobster program.” The bill would ban the purchase with food stamps of “cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood or steak.”

“I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs with their EBT cards. When I can’t afford it on my pay, I don’t want people on the taxpayer’s dime to afford those kinds of foods either,” Brattin added.

Welfare recipients in the State are none too happy..

Progressives in Missouri are already trying to demonize Brattin and accuse him of starving the poor, but common-sense thinkers know that this is exactly the right kind of legislation to get behind. Welfare abuse has to be reined in quickly, as it’s already an incredible strain on a difficult economy.

Americans have grown tired of welfare recipients who can afford to have their nails done or tattoos inked or put worthless rims on their cars yet ask for “help” feeding their families. In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker has mandated that if you want taxpayer dollars, you are going to be drug tested.

Not only that but Walker is seeking a time limit of 4 to 5 years maximum, that a person could receive benefits.

“With this budget, we are addressing some of the barriers keeping people from achieving true freedom and prosperity and the independence that comes with having a good job and doing it well,” said Walker.

Wisconsin isn’t the only state looking at reforms of welfare. Eleven other states already require drug testing of applicants. The testing would apply to able-bodied individuals that have no children and are receiving benefits including Medicaid, unemployment, and food stamps.

Citizens who fail the drug tests will be offered drug-treatment and job training. Wisconsin hopes to save over $3 million over two years, thanks to the program.

Not everyone is pleased, though, especially Democrats who see it as somehow unfair or racist that taxpayer dollars can’t be wasted. Democratic minority leader, Rep. Peter Barca said that the program would only, “…hurt people striving to get to the middle class.”

Drug abuse is a prerequisite for joining the middle class? What are you, high?

Too bad we all know that liberal wheel goes round via entitlements like welfare – you vote blue, we’ll give you “free” money.

The thing is, doing so is what actually hurts the American people.

We should be enabling citizens to find a job and earn for themselves, rather than train them to sit by the mailbox on the first of the month.

However, as previously noted, there is a need for the welfare system here in America in order to provide for those, who can’t do so for themselves, the ability to survive. The problem lies with those who are able to work and are just too lazy to do so.

These are the parasites of society and would likely go find a job if they weren’t being given so much money. Those on welfare should not be able to afford the extras, like designer clothes, designer bags, and illegal drugs – period.

Walker turned down federal funds to expand Wisconsin’s Medicaid program for the 2013-15 budget. Instead, he extended coverage to all those at or below the poverty line and encouraged all those above that line to buy health plans offered through the federal health exchange marketplace.

The Department of Health and Human Services defines the poverty level for a family of four as making $23,850 annually.

About the Author; Baron Von Kowenhoven

Baron was just a shy kid with a dream, growing up in the 40’s with a knack for story-telling. After a brief career in film, Von Kowenhoven went to Europe in search of fringe-scientific discoveries and returned in the 90’s to unleash them on the entertainment and political landscape of America.

MY TWO CENTS…….

“Here’s an idea. Take the money each welfare recipient receives in a year. Divide that amount by the current minimum wage. That gives you the amount of working hours each welfare person owes the citizens of that State. They are instantly employed has part time workers, with all employment requirements of showing up on time, etc.. Have each city arrange for child care, and use some of these new State employees to staff those centers.’

“There is more work to be done than you will have people to perform. Here are some examples;

There are sewers needing cleaning.
Streams and river beds needing debris removal.
Sections of every city have alley ways, railroad tracks, etc.. that need trash picked up that has been dumped illegally.
Graffiti needed cleaned off all kinds of surfaces.
Lend them to farmers to pick their crops (good excuse to get rid of the illegal immigrant problem)
Use them to start tearing down homes and building that have been condemned (like all those rat and insect infested eye sores in Detroit)

“You get the idea. Every State can find more than enough work that needs to be done than they otherwise could not afford. Cities will get cleaned up and everyone will be the better for the efforts. Yes, there will be those that complain. Fine. “YOU’RE FIRED! Now you HAVE TO DO SOMETHING LIKE GET A REGULAR JOB BECAUSE YOUR BENEFITS ARE GONE.”‘

“Until we force the issue, the Socialist that got their start under the Wilson administration, will continue to fester and destroy what was once the country our founding fathers imagined, designed and set in motion.”

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Islamic Holy Day Is Celebrated In St. Louis, Missouri With Knives & Blood

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1f4_1421105280

ST.LOUIS, MISSOURI (U.S.A.) Day of Ashura (Arabic: عاشوراء‎ ʻĀshūrā’ , colloquially: /ʕa(ː)ˈʃuːra/; Urdu: عاشورا‎; Persian: عاشورا‎ /ʕɒːʃuːˈɾɒ/; Turkish: Aşure Günü) is on the tenth day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax of theRemembrance of Muharram. This day is commemorated by Sunni Muslims (who refer to it as The Day of Atonement) as the day on which the Israelites were freed from the Pharaoh (called ‘Firaun’ in Arabic) of Egypt. According to Sunni Muslim tradition, Ibn Abbas narrates that Muhammad came to Madina and saw the Jews fasting on the tenth day of Muharram.

By WhatDidYouSay.org

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Islamic News

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GREAT FEEL GOOD REPORT: Vandalized Ferguson Bakery Receives $230K in Donations to Fund Reopening

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/11/27/Vandalized-Ferguson-Bakery-Receives-Over-200K-in-Online-Donations-to-Fund-Reopening?utm_source=e_breitbart_com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+November+28%2C+2014&utm_campaign=20141128_m123320621_Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+November+28%2C+2014&utm_term=More

Natalie Dubose of Ferguson, Missouri, is a small business owner who was proud to have opened her local cake bakery just over a year ago, but rioters from her own neighborhood destroyed her hard-earned shop this week. Now, thousands of Americans across the country have generously donated over $200,000 to help her rebuild.

Celebrities like actress Patricia Heaton and reality show star Brandi Glanville helped bring awareness to Dubose’s plight, but thousands of regular Americans all across the nation donated Dubose on a website set up to help her reopen her shop, Natalie’s Cakes and More.

“Thank you to actresses Patricia Heaton and Brandi Glanville for supporting me!” Dubose wrote. “I must have missed thousands of other tweets, and I’m so sorry I can’t mention them all. The sweet lady who offered money from her social security check brought me to tears. … Thank you to EVERYONE for the kind words, prayers, and emotional support.”

Thus far, Natalie’s GoFundMe fundraising page has raised nearly $230,000 to help the young woman re-open her shop, far more than she’ll need to do the job.

Dubose has said she is totally floored by the outpouring of support she has received on the fundraising page, as well as on social media. “I would thank everyone for their warm wishes, empathy, and support during this crazy difficult time,” she wrote.

The donor account reached almost $100,000 in the first 20 hours it was posted.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.

By WhatDidYouSay.org

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Society

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Typical: Anti-Second Amendment Lawmaker Arrested With a Gun… While Drunk.

October 23, 2014 By Todd Cefaratti

The mindset of modern liberalism is one of “do as I say, not as I do.” Though we hear so much from the left about supposed tolerance, the left is remains a bastion of intolerance against those ideas they find unfavorable.

Similarly, many of the nation’s top anti-Second Amendment crusaders rely on the Second Amendment for their own protection while working diligently to deny other Americans the same protections.

Michael Bloomberg, for instance, travels the country while preaching about the evils of armed citizens while comfortably surrounded by an armed security detail.

In Missouri, one Democrat lawmaker has been revealed to be a hypocrite as she was recently arrested while reportedly drunk and armed with a 9mm handgun and a spare magazine despite having sponsored several anti-Second Amendment efforts.

Missouri State Senator Jamilah Nasheed is a Democrat who has sponsored several anti-Second Amendment pieces of legislation. This week, the gun-grabber was arrested

George Washington regarding 2nd Amandment

when she remained in the middle of the street and refused to leave or take a breathalyzer since she, according to police, “smelled strongly of intoxicants.”

When police searched Nasheed, they discovered that she was carrying a 9mm handgun and a spare magazine of ammunition.

Nasheed has claimed that she was not drunk, but that she got arrested to show solidarity with protesters who continue to rant about the shooting death of Michael Brown. Nasheed called the arrest a “message to the protesters that we can protest peacefully and that we must protest peacefully and that we want justice for Michael Brown.”

Nasheed claims that she is a concealed permit holder.

Of course, there is nothing inherently illegal about being drunk and legally carrying a concealed firearm. However, as Nasheed has pushed legislation that violates the rights of other Missouri citizens, including a bill that would have made it mandatory for parents to inform schools if their children are in a house with a firearm, her willingness to embrace her Second Amendment freedoms is certainly hypocritical.

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Military bars troops from attending Vacation Bible school honor

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/07/25/military-bars-troops-from-attending-vacation-bible-school/?intcmp=latestnews

By Todd Starnes

Published July 25, 2014

FoxNews.com

A Soldier on flag detail prepares to fold Old Glory. (U.S. Army/Sgt. John Carkeet IV)

Bible Baptist Church in Carthage, Missouri is a small country church bursting with American pride. Old Glory is posted in the sanctuary. And every morning at summer youth camp, the teenagers pledge allegiance and sing the national anthem.

Patriotic holidays are big doings at Bible Baptist. On Memorial Day, the church ladies put out quite a spread – fried chicken, potato salad. Veterans would wear their uniforms and the preacher would salute them during the morning worship service.

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“We are a very patriotic church,” Pastor Kent Hogan told me. “We love America. We love this country.”

So it was not that big of a surprise when the church decided to honor the military during their annual Vacation Bible School. The theme was “God’s Rescue Squad.” And each day of the week, the church invited local “rescue squads” to visit with the boys and girls.

The paramedics came on Monday and on Tuesday, the fire department showed up. The boys and girls were taught how to stop, drop and roll. On Wednesday, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Dept. brought their K-9 unit..

But our story picks up with what happened on Thursday. That was the day when the church was supposed to honor the National Guard. They had invited troops from the nearby armory to drop by with one of their Humvees.

“We were going to thank them for protecting our religious liberty,” said Pastor Hogan. “It was more of a promotion for the military – to show the kids what the military does.”

But the National Guard did not visit Bible Baptist Church on Thursday night, and the reason why has caused great anger and frustration among church members.

“We were told it was against military policy for National Guard troops to participate in Vacation Bible School,” Pastor Hogan said. “They said if the National Guard had assets on church property it would look like the National Guard is sponsoring the Baptist religion.”

Pastor Hogan said he was dumbfounded.

“We are right in the middle of the United States of America,” the pastor said. “We are part of the Bible Belt. You read about this stuff going on in big cities. But in Carthage?”

The pastor said the military was concerned about people getting offended by the sight of National Guard troops visiting a church.

“They said they didn’t want to offend anybody. Well, it’s offended our whole church.”

So Pastor Hogan reached out to his state representative – a Republican named Mike Kelley. Kelley then called the adjunct general of the Missouri National Guard.

“They told me that federal policy prohibits them from doing anything with any specific church,” Kelley said. “The guys on the state level did everything they could. I have great respect for our local Missouri National Guard. But we are dealing with an over-burdensome federal regulation.”

The Missouri National Guard did not return my calls for comment – but it doesn’t matter. Kelley sent me a copy of the Army regulation.

It states: “Army participation must not selectively benefit (or appear to benefit) any person, group, or corporation (whether profit or nonprofit); religion, sect, religious or sectarian group, or quasi-religious or ideological movement.”

The policy also states that troops are to avoid any activities that might involve or appear to involve the promotion, endorsement, or sponsorship of any religious or sectarian movement.

Rep. Kelley told me he is incredibly disappointed with the federal policy and feels especially bad for the church.

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“He (Pastor Hogan) basically got blown off by the federal government,” Kelley said.

Several members of the Missouri National Guard told me they were disgusted by what happened. They only agreed to be quoted provided I not disclose their identities.

“I can tell you I’m ashamed and embarrassed right now,” one Guardsman said. ‘This isn’t the military I signed up for.”

Other soldiers said it was extremely disappointing and embarrassing.

“We had a lot of disappointed kiddos because of the National Guard being unwilling to allow a Humvee and a few soldiers to spend an hour at a Baptist Church,” another Guardsman said. “It makes we wonder what I’m actually fighting for.”

But I believe this soldier’s observations and analysis truly sum up our nation’s current state of affairs.

“I will never understand why it’s okay for the military to march in a gay pride parade but not be allowed to spend an hour talking to children who look up to them (soldiers),” the Guardsman said. “I honestly never thought I’d see the day that this would happen in my hometown.”

In June, the Department of Defense gave permission for a military color guard to march in Washington, D.C.’s gay pride parade. It marked the first time in history the U.S. Army Military District of Washington participated in the parade.

Pastor Hogan said the entire incident is both appalling and ludicrous.

“I don’t think most Americans realize how much their religious liberty is in jeopardy,” he said. “If they did this to us – how bad is it somewhere else? This is not just a big city issue. This is a small town America issue. Americans need to wake up.”

Welcome to the age of enlightenment, Pastor Hogan – where the military can march in a gay pride parade but they can’t hang out with six-year-olds at Vacation Bible School.

Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. Sign up for his American Dispatch newsletter, be sure to join his Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter. His latest book is “God Less America.”

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Posts tagged ‘Missouri’

By: M.D. Kittle | November 08, 2024

‘Being Diminished’

‘Common Sense’ Movement

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.

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By: Jason Bedrick / @JasonBedrick / February 09, 2024

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By: Tyler O’Neil / @Tyler2ONeil / August 25, 2023

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Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Monday, November 15, 2021

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Reported By Andy Marso | May 28, 2019 11:24 AM, Updated May 28, 2019 02:32 PM

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Reported By Andrew West | July 6, 2017

The massive liberal outcry for an increase to the minimum wage in America has backfired in St. Louis, Missouri, and now the state is taking action.

“And Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens agrees. Next month, the minimum wage will return to $7.70 an hour — ten bucks an hour was a mistake, he says.

“‘Despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of people’s pockets,’ Greitens said.

“Cities all over the country have been boosting their minimum wage. It’s up to $15 an hour in Seattle, but it’s going in the opposite direction in St. Louis.

“But after nationwide protests, the minimum wage went up on July 1, or will go up soon — from Chicago to Flagstaff, Arizona, and Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. “

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Reported by Roger Severino / March 09, 2016 / Roger Severino is the director of the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

The protections in SJR 39 are precise, clear, and concrete—so much so that a filibustering senator was asked to point to a provision, any provision, in the proposal that was discriminatory but was unable to.

In short, like the federal First Amendment Defense Act on which it is based, the Missouri proposal would guarantee that religious institutions can retain their religious identity in private life, in public life, and in service to the poor and the needy in the community.

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Reported by Chuck Ross, Reporter, 03/09/2016

Serrano-Vitorino on the radar of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as recently as September, when the federal immigration agency placed a detainer against him following an arrest in Overland Park, Kan. But a paperwork mix-up may have allowed him to remain free.

“Further record checks indicate that ICE erroneously issued the detainer to Johnson County Sheriff’s office instead. ICE regrets the error,” ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro told KSHB.

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Written by Michael Becker — November 30, 2015

Columbia police on Wednesday arrested a 53-year-old man who allegedly pulled a teenage family member out of Hickman High School by her hair and slapped her.

A University of Missouri graduate teaching assistant is accused of grabbing a teenage family member by the hair and pulling her out of school because she wasn’t wearing a traditional headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

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Published September 14, 2015 / FoxNews.com

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Report: Suspect in Kentucky trooper’s shooting was active in #BlackLivesMatter protests

Posted at 10:26 pm on September 14, 2015 by Twitchy Staff

A war on cops?

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Published August 28, 2015; FoxNews.com

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Published by Steven Ertelt Aug 28, 2015 | Washington, DC

Dyer also agrees that payments to abortion clinics for fetal body parts should be financially beneficial to them.

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Mon, Aug 10, 2015

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By Tim Devaney – 06/30/15

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By: Tasha Troy , Posted: Wednesday, May 13, 2015

“Their story underscores how precious and valuable each little life is. “

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Posted by Baron Von Kowenhoven — April 6, 2015

URL of the Original Posting Site: http://joeforamerica.com/2015/04/missouri-to-change-food-stamp-policy-welfare-leeches-wont-like-it-one-bit/

About the Author; Baron Von Kowenhoven

MY TWO CENTS…….

“There is more work to be done than you will have people to perform. Here are some examples;

There are sewers needing cleaning.

Streams and river beds needing debris removal.

Sections of every city have alley ways, railroad tracks, etc.. that need trash picked up that has been dumped illegally.

Graffiti needed cleaned off all kinds of surfaces.

Lend them to farmers to pick their crops (good excuse to get rid of the illegal immigrant problem)

Use them to start tearing down homes and building that have been condemned (like all those rat and insect infested eye sores in Detroit)

“Until we force the issue, the Socialist that got their start under the Wilson administration, will continue to fester and destroy what was once the country our founding fathers imagined, designed and set in motion.”

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URL of the Original Posting Site: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1f4_1421105280

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Read More At: http://www.tpnn.com/2014/10/23/typical-anti-second-amendment-lawmaker-arrested-with-a-gun-while-drunk/

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By Todd Starnes

Published July 25, 2014

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In His Service