By Jarrett Stepman

Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good narrative.

But that’s what happened in the case of Jussie Smollett, a gay, black actor who stars in the show “Empire,” who claimed he was the victim of a vicious and brutal hate crime in Chicago. On Wednesday, Smollett was charged with filing a false police report and disorderly conduct.

Smollett initially blamed supporters of President Donald Trump for the attack, a narrative many in the mainstream media were eager to promote.

Before the story was even corroborated, Robin Roberts of “Good Morning America” had Smollett on for an interview.

But as facts rolled in, it became clear that Smollett’s story had a lot of holes. Now the Chicago Police Department is investigating him for hoaxing the whole incident.

Will those who jumped in to condemn Americans and the president for this incident be called on to apologize? Probably not.

Though many in the national media breathlessly covered Smollett’s initial version of events, at least some credit to local media is due. A CBS affiliate in Chicago did a fantastic job of covering this story from the beginning and remaining committed relaying the facts about the case. However, far too many rushed to promote this story as an indictment on the country.

This complete whiff by the media comes on the heels of the Covington Catholic fiasco. Remember when the media badly misconstrued a story involving a student wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat and a Native American?

That disaster led to student’s parents suing The Washington Post for libel to the tune of $250 million.

What makes this particularly interesting is that Justice Clarence Thomas, just a day after the story about that libel suit broke, said in a concurring opinion that he questions the precedent set in the 1964 Supreme …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By Fred Lucas

Vice President Mike Pence on Friday told a gathering of state governors that the Trump administration is working with Congress on what he called a “historic” infrastructure program that would both reduce red tape and provide more federal funding.

Addressing the governors at the vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, Pence did not specify a price tag for the infrastructure plan.

“I’ll make you a promise, and we’ll ask for your help, that in this Congress, we’re going to pass historic infrastructure legislation,” he said.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump called for an infrastructure plan of about $1 trillion that would include public and private funding.

Such a project should not be a heavy burden on taxpayers, said Paul Winfree, director of economic policy at The Heritage Foundation.

“If the Trump administration wants a legacy moment on infrastructure, it must include regulatory improvements that have long-lasting impacts on the way we build everything, from roads and bridges to pipelines and ports,” Winfree told The Daily Signal.

The Heritage Foundation earlier this month issued a report calling regulatory reform a key element of future infrastructure projects.

“Unleashing the private sector and focusing federal spending strictly on projects that are federal in nature will ensure better stewardship of taxpayer money and meet the infrastructure needs of Americans across the country,” Winfree added.

Governors from across the nation are in Washington this weekend for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. Republican and Democratic governors associations concurrently are holding their respective gatherings in the nation’s capital as well.

Pence said the Trump administration has already given states more control over land management and allowed states to open up more natural resources to development, which should streamline construction projects.

The vice president said the infrastructure bill …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By Grace Carr

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) officially gave the upcoming abortion film “Unplanned” an “R” rating Friday for “some disturbing/bloody images” of aborted babies.

Movies are rated R for profanity, nudity, sex or violence. “Unplanned” contains no profanity, nudity or sex. “Ironically, the MPAA seems to be indirectly endorsing the pro-life position: namely that abortion is an act of violence,” writers and directors Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman told Movieguide.

The film tells the true story of former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson who worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, until 2009 when she left the organization after assisting in an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old unborn baby. Johnson was Planned Parenthood’s youngest director of a clinic in the nation.

She helped over 22,000 women have abortions during her time at the clinic. Planned Parenthood named Johnson as the employee of the year in 2008. She worked at the abortion provider for eight years before leaving the group. Johnson also had a medication abortion before she became pro-life.

The R rating will mean that “many teenage women in this country who can legally obtain an actual abortion without parental permission will be prohibited from going to see our film containing simulated images of abortion, without obtaining parental permission,” Solomon and Konzelman also said, noting the double-edged sword of the rating.

A parent or guardian, however, can accompany a child younger than 17 to an R-rated film.

“We are pushing the boundaries of what has never been before on such a wide scale by showing America exactly what abortion is — and abortion is disturbing. It’s violent,” Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson is the founder of pro-life group And Then There Were None (ATTWN), which helps abortion workers leave the industry. It also helps women who’ve had …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By Joshua Nelson

West Virginia teachers are tasting victory after a two-day strike, putting to rest state legislation that would have allowed the opening of charter schools and 1,000 education savings accounts for special-needs or bullied students to use toward a private education option.

The teachers’ strike ended Wednesday with the adjournment of state lawmakers who failed to make a motion to reconsider the bill within 24 hours of the decision Tuesday to postpone it.

“They are striking over potentially giving 1,000 ESAs [education savings accounts] to kids with special needs and allowing for 7 charter schools. Let that sink in,” Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, tweeted in response to news of the strike.

West Virginia remains one of the few states with no charter schools as an alternative to failing public schools.

Lawmakers in the state House of Delegates put off the education reforms as teachers showed up at the Capitol to protest provisions they argued would reallocate funding from traditional public schools to charter schools, though the bill allowed no more than seven to be created.

The teachers union planned to confer with members daily until the end of the legislative session March 9. Republicans control both the state Senate and the House of Delegates.

“Senate Bill 451 is now dead,” Fred Albert, president of the American Federation of Teachers West Virginia, said Wednesday at the Capitol. “It’s gone and will not be resurrected.”

Some of the provisions of the bill that Albert and union members supported included a 5 percent boost in teacher pay, incentives for personal leave, and an additional $24 million for student support services.

But the teachers union said it was left no choice but to organize a strike Monday after the Senate returned the bill to the House with an amendment …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By Daniel Davis

Jussie Smollett, the now-disgraced actor from “Empire,” has turned himself in. Chicago police say he fabricated a hate crime against himself in order to get attention because he was dissatisfied with his salary. In this episode, we recount what happened, the media’s careless response, and what Smollett’s actions mean for the real victims of hate crimes. Plus: Daniel Davis, The Daily Signal’s commentary editor, sits down with Nick Adams, author of “Class Dismissed,” who argues that college isn’t for everyone—and that that’s OK.

We also cover the following stories:

• Chicago police chief excoriates Jussie Smollett.
• Award-winning reporter Lara Logan gets blowback for calling the media on their liberal bias.
• LGBT sports group cuts ties with lesbian tennis legend Martina Navratilova over disagreement on transgender athletes.
• Government report shows the Congressional Budget Office got it wrong on Obamacare—nine years after the fact.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backs a resolution to block President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration on the border.

The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at moc.l1550933212angis1550933212yliad1550933212@sret1550933212tel1550933212. Enjoy the show!

The post Podcast: Jussie Smollett’s Hate Crime Hoax Unravels appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By Sam Pohl

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, February 21, 2019

CONTACT:
Sam Pohl, gro.P1550933212OGsax1550933212eT@ss1550933212erp1550933212

AUSTIN, TX – Texas House Democrats have taken a page from the national Democrat playbook and offered a fantasy public education budget that promises the world and offers no details on how it would be paid for. Chairman James Dickey made the following statement:

“Just like the socialist Green New Deal embraced by their national counterparts, Texas House Democrats unveiled a public education funding proposal that offers the moon with no explanation for how it could be accomplished. In typical leftist fashion the Democrats are offering Texans a fantasy list of goodies that would absolutely blow up the state budget and wreak havoc on the economy. Texans are already suffering from crushing property taxes and this proposal from House Democrats would necessarily raise taxes on our state’s residents. It’s the height of irresponsibility, but unfortunately par for the course, for Democrats to suggest we can increase spending so tremendously and not put forth a sustainable plan on how to pay for it.”

###

The post Texas House Democrats Release Public Education Budget appeared first on Republican Party of Texas.

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From:: Texas GOP – Feed

By Courtney Joyner

Fed-up California parents participated in a “Sexxx Ed Sit Out” Tuesday morning to protest the state’s sex education curriculum, calling it “pornographic,” “age-inappropriate,” “highly biased and medically inaccurate instruction.”

In an open letter to principals, lawmakers, and state Department of Education officials, the grassroots effort organized by Informed Parents of California rebuked what’s being taught under the 2016 California Healthy Youth Act and the proposed California Health Education Framework.

“Children are taught negotiation skills for consent to sex,” the letter says, adding:

They are instructed in their rights to confidential reproductive health services and directed to local Planned Parenthood clinics for abortion, birth control and STI [sexualy transmitted infections] testing without parental notice. Some children have even been prescribed puberty blockers for gender transition, and sadly, parents have been so bullied by social workers they are afraid to speak publicly about it.

Under the California Healthy Youth Act, sex education would be expanded to include topics such as gender and sexual orientation, bullying and abuse, and birth control, including emergency contraception.

“The reason parents and teachers and school board members are protesting is the way this law is being implemented,” former California teacher Rebecca Friedrichs said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Children are being instructed at school against the parents’ will and behind their back to do things that are ethically risky and life-altering.”

Friedrichs, author of the book “Standing Up to Goliath,” has been featured by The Daily Signal in reports such as this and this for her Supreme Court battle against teachers unions.

Friedrichs said the new curriculum educates students in junior high and high school on how to use insertive condoms and dental dams for anal and oral sex. Friedrichs warns that schools may introduce the curriculum at any grade.

In coordinating the protest, …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By Ginny Montalbano

A bill to repeal the estate tax, often called the death tax, has the support of about 150 national business and trade associations that signed on to an open letter to the sponsors of the legislation.

“We appreciate your work to lead the country towards a commonsense tax code that does not impose a destructive double or triple tax at death,” reads the letter Wednesday from the Family Business Coalition addressed to Sen. John Thune, R- S.D., and Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo.

“The negative effects of the estate tax make permanent repeal the only solution for family businesses and farms,” the pro-business groups add.

The Family Business Coalition’s letter, which includes the logos of the dozens of involved associations, highlights four main reasons for ending the infamous death tax:

1. Repeal would stimulate the economy and help create jobs.

“In 2017, the Tax Foundation found that the U.S. could create over 150,000 jobs by repealing the estate tax. A 2012 study by the House Joint Economic Committee found that the death tax has destroyed over $1.1 trillion of capital in the US economy–loss of small business capital means fewer jobs and lower wages.”

2. Revenue from the estate tax represents only about half of 1 percent of all federal revenue.

“A 2016 Tax Foundation analysis found repeal of the death tax would increase federal income taxes by $145 billion over 10 years using a more realistic, ‘dynamic’ economic analysis. In addition, the death tax forces family businesses to waste money on expensive insurance policies and estate planning”

3. Polls show most voters support doing away with the tax.

“Typically, two-thirds of likely voters support full and permanent repeal of the death tax. People instinctively feel that the estate tax is not fair. A 2017 NPR/Ipsos Poll found that 65 percent of respondents favored …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By John Venable

The U.S. just
moved one step closer to creating a Space Force.

On Tuesday, President
Donald Trump directed the Department of Defense to draft legislation to establish
the Space Force as a new branch of the military under the secretary of the Air
Force.

This move is
an important step toward defending the space domain, which is home to critical
assets that deliver everything from precision targeting and missile launch
warning, to the communications and signals that allow banking, commerce, travel,
and almost every other aspect of our high-tech society to function.

Russia and
China are aware of our near-complete reliance on space systems, and they have positioned
themselves to move against them. It’s been over 11 years since China proved it
is capable of destroying satellites in space using ground-based missiles, and in
the years since, Russian satellites co-orbiting in close proximity with ours have
been equally provocative.

In 2018, an
independent report emerged from a bipartisan congressional directive that recommended
the U.S. establish an independent Space Force through a two-phased approach
that would reestablish our dominance in the space domain.

In the months
since, the Trump administration has used the president’s current authorities to
execute the first phase of that approach, and one its first priorities has been
acquisition of new technologies.

Acquisition
has been difficult in recent years. The fragmentation and overlap among the six organizations that
manage space requirements, and the eight others charged with acquisition, have
contributed to program delays, cost increases, and even cancellations.

To fix those
issues, the president directed the Pentagon to create the Space Development
Agency, a new organization that will streamline and accelerate the fielding of cutting-edge
military space assets.

For decades,
the U.S. has promoted and sustained a policy of peaceful use of, and access to
space. But giving operators a leg up in space systems will only be relevant if the
personnel operating those systems embrace a more aggressive mindset.

Last
December, the …read more

From:: Daily Signal – Feed

By Katrina Trinko

Why did he become a Christian after an early life of sexual hedonism? What’s his advice to parents trying to raise kids who stay Christian? And what does it mean to be a Christian in our current secular culture? Phil Robertson, author of “The Theft of America’s Soul: Blowing the Lid Off the Lies That Are Destroying Our Country,” joins us to discuss.

The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet,iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at moc.l1550933212angis1550933212yliad1550933212@sret1550933212tel1550933212. Enjoy the show!

The post Podcast: Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson on His Christian Faith appeared first on The Daily Signal.

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From:: Daily Signal – Feed