TWO SENATORS INTRODUCE BILL TO KEEP MEMBERS OF CONGRESS FROM CASHING IN AS LOBBYISTS

• Freshman Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Braun of Indiana are the cosponsors of the Banning Lobbying and Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act.
• Scott and Braun want to put an end to lawmakers stepping into the so-called “revolving door of K Street” — using their connections to become well-heeled lobbyists once they are out of office.
• Already, at least 15 members of the past Congress have made the move to lobbying firms.

Two Republican senators introduced legislation to ban members of Congress from lobbying Congress once they exit office, and although the lawmakers are “barking up the right tree,” their solution might not be realistic, a government transparency expert told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Braun of Indiana are the cosponsors of the Banning Lobbying and Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act.

“You generally do see more of a reform agenda from some of the newer members that come into the Senate or into the House. We’re hoping some of their policies actually gain traction and can be supported in a bipartisan way,” Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, told TheDCNF in a phone interview. “The public is tired of politics as usual.”

More 

Report: 54% of Aspiring Elementary Teachers Fail Licensure Exam on First Try

More than half of the nation’s prospective elementary school teachers fail their licensure exam on the first attempt, according to a report.

“[A]n alarming number of candidates fail their licensing tests, far surpassing the failure rate for other professions’ entry tests, bar exams, and boards,” says a new report released in February by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), which concerns itself primarily with “diversity goals.”

More

Buchanan: Can Trump Stop The Invasion?

In its lede editorial Wednesday, The New York Times called upon Congress to amend the National Emergency Act to “erect a wall against any President, not just Mr. Trump, who insists on creating emergencies where none exist.”

Trump “took advantage” of a “loophole” in the NEA, said The Times, to declare “a crisis at the border, contrary to all evidence.”

The Times news desk, however, apparently failed to alert the editorial page on what the top story would be that day.

“Record Numbers Crossing to U.S., Deluging Agents” was the page-one headline. The Times quoted Kevin K. McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection:

“The system is well beyond capacity, and remains at the breaking point. … This is … a border security and a humanitarian crisis.”

Reporter Caitlin Dickerson explained what is behind CPB’s alarm:

“The number of migrant families crossing the Southwest border has once again broken records, with unauthorized entries nearly double what they were a year ago.”

More 

ADAMS: Minnesota’s Finest Christian Hypocrites

The University of Northwest (UNW) in St. Paul claims to offer “the finest Christian education in Minnesota.” In keeping with their deep humility, the school can also boast that it offers the most blatant hypocrisy to be found among Christian universities in Minnesota. In fact, there are now good reasons to question whether UNW can be properly characterized as a university — much less a Christian university.

That indictment of UNW seems harsh. But it is well deserved considering their recent mistreatment of prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker.

Star, who truly is a star in the pro-life movement, was asked to come to UNW to give a speech defending the unborn. The group that invited them was Young Americans for Freedom (UNW YAF). The YAF kids worked for months to organize the event — only to receive a mendacious rebuke of their efforts on February 20th.

There were several disturbing elements of that rebuke I’ve highlighted below:

More

FORMER DNC CHAIR SAYS PARTY MADE ‘MISTAKE’ BY BANNING FOX FROM TELEVISING DEMOCRATS’ DEBATES

Former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Ed Rendell said the Democratic Party made a mistake by barring Fox News from televising 2020 debates.

“I think it was a mistake for the DNC to do what it did,” he said on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle” Thursday night. “I know they were taken off a little bit by the New Yorker article, but as you said: If I was DNC chair, I would, and I think Tom Perez is doing a good job — but if I was DNC chair, Laura, I would say give me Brett Baier, Chris Wallace, and Juan Williams and you can have that Fox debate anywhere, anytime, any number of times. I’d be confident that it’d be fair.”

Fox News host Chris Wallace accused some Democrats of having “Fox derangement syndrome.”

More 

GMO salmon headed to US grocery stores

Genetically modified salmon will soon hit dinner plates.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it would be allowing the genetically modified, known as AquAdvantage salmon, to be imported to the U.S., lifting a ban that has been in place since 2016.

Manufacturer AquaBounty Technologies raises the fish using a growth hormone, and it reportedly grows almost twice as fast as traditional salmon despite not needing to eat as much. All the fish it grows are female and therefore cannot breed with each other.

The FDA concluded in 2015 that the genetically modified salmon was "safe to eat," and that the genetic engineering methods were safe for the fish, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement.

Despite the approval, the fish weren't allowed to come to market for a few years because Congress asked the FDA to hold off until regulators set rules about how the food should be labeled. Last year, the Department of Agriculture stipulated that all bioengineered food has to be labeled as such, resolving the issue for salmon and allowing the FDA to approve it in the action announced Friday.

More

SNOPES GETS THE FACTS WRONG ON OCASIO-CORTEZ CAMPAIGN FINANCE SCANDALS

The left-leaning fact-checking website Snopes butchered facts about a PAC controlled by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her top aide in a story published Thursday.

Ocasio-Cortez and Saikat Chakrabarti, her former campaign chair and current chief of staff, obtained majority control of Justice Democrats in December 2017. The PAC, which had raised more than $1.8 million before her June 2018 primary, has been widely credited with manufacturing her upset victory over incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley.

Snopes writer Dan MacGuill falsely claimed in his story that Chakrabarti, who served as executive director of Justice Democrats, “was not an official agent or officer” of the PAC. He also failed to acknowledge the fact that Chakrabarti and Ocasio-Cortez are members of the PAC’s three-member board of directors, according to archived versions of the Justice Democrats website and corporate filings obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.

More

Fed-up Republican releases transcript of Bruce Ohr’s private testimony to House task force

The transcript from a private interview with Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official who acted as an unofficial back channel between the FBI and the author of the so-called Trump dossier, released in surprise fashion on Friday.

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, took to the House floor and asked that the unredacted transcript from August 2018 be put on the record.

"Mr. Speaker, last Congress, the Judiciary Committee interviewed multiple DOJ and FBI officials about their actions regarding the 2016 elections," Collins said.

"People anticipate the Mueller report soon. Will he find any so-called 'collusion'? Or was the only 'collusion' among agency personnel who hated the president and started this investigation?" he added. "Our interview transcripts were pertinent to a congressional investigation, but the 115th Congress ended, the investigation was closed, and copies were shared with certain members of Congress."

Excerpts of Ohr's testimony before a joint task force of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees have already been leaked to the media. After the roughly eight-hour interview, Republican lawmakers said Ohr's testimony conflicted with some of the past statements they've heard from others as they investigate how the government decided to investigate President Trump's 2016 campaign.

More

Greenpeace Founder: Global Warming Hoax Pushed by Corrupt Scientists ‘Hooked on Government Grants’

Greenpeace co-founder and former president of Greenpeace Canada Patrick Moore described the cynical and corrupt machinations fueling the narrative of anthropocentric global warming and “climate change” in a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

Moore explained how fear and guilt are leveraged by proponents of climate change:

Fear has been used all through history to gain control of people’s minds and wallets and all else, and the climate catastrophe is strictly a fear campaign — well, fear and guilt — you’re afraid you’re killing your children because you’re driving them in your SUV and emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and you feel guilty for doing that. There’s no stronger motivation than those two.

More

TRUMP HUD OFFICIAL PROVIDES ‘AUDIO PROOF’ SHOWING CNN IS ‘FAKE NEWS’

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development official Lynne Patton accused CNN of lying on Thursday night and posted audio tape on Friday she says proves it.

CNN posted a tweet Thursday saying Patton “has the president’s blessing to follow in his footsteps as a reality TV star, even as she serves as a high-ranking federal housing official.”

The tweet included a link to a story detailing Patton’s potential appearance on a “still-developing show about black Republicans.”

Patton herself, from her personal Twitter account, responded directly to CNN’s tweet within an hour of its posting.

More 

Rep.Kustoff: Jewish Democrats in the House ‘Are All Upset About’ Failure to Condemn Omar

Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN) told Breitbart News that Jewish Democrat representatives in Congress are “all upset” about their party’s refusal to condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) framing of congressional support for Israel as procured by Jewish interests.

Kustoff joined Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily to discuss Friday’s passage of a House resolution condemning “hateful expressions of intolerance” including “anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry.”

“I’m one of two Jewish Republicans(in the House of Representatives,” said Kustoff. “There are 20-something members of Congress who are Jewish. Between 20 and 30. They’re all upset about this, and they should be. And they wanted something stronger. You’re seeing deep divisions among the Democrats in terms of how this should be handled.”

Kustoff criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) refusal to characterize Omar’s statements as anti-Semitic. He said, “For the Speaker of the House — I think it was yesterday in her press conference — to say that [Ilhan Omar’s] remarks are not anti-Semitic, that’s just wrong.”

More

Seaside Christian Academy Announces Expansion to Include Instruction Pre-K3 through Grade 12

Seaside Christian Academy Announces Expansion to Include Instruction Pre-K3 through Grade 12

2019-2020 Enrollment Now Open

Seaside Christian Academy (SCA) is pleased to announce an expansion of their academic program to include high school in addition to its highly successful Pre-K3 through 8th grade classes. SCA has become known on the Eastern Shore for its high academic quality and Christ-centered, traditional approach to education where church, home and school work together.

Seaside’s small class sizes, dedicated staff and caring, Christian environment provide opportunities for students to grow and be challenged.

“We are excited to be implementing a long-term vision of partnering with Liberty University Online Academy to offer an exceptional blended learning experience,” says Julie DuChene, principal.

Ninth and tenth grade students will enjoy blended learning with a combination of classes taught in a traditional classroom and online courses in the school’s new tech lounge. In addition, eleventh and twelfth grade students will have the option of online dual enrollment courses from Liberty University. A variety of diploma options will be available including: an accelerated track that allows a student to earn a high school diploma and an associate degree from Liberty University simultaneously, an 18-credit hour certificate program in addition to high school diploma, a la carte dual enrollment courses and an advanced high school diploma.

“We are pleased at the strong interest in SCA’s high school program and encourage parents interested in exploring enrollment for the 2019-2020 school year to schedule a tour,” adds DuChene. Contact SCA for additional details at: 410-213-9595 or email info@seasidechristian.com.

Omar Trashes Obama: ‘Hope and Change’ Was a Mirage, He ‘Had Really Bad Policies’

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) trashed former President Barack Obama in a new profile of the freshman lawmaker, saying the "hope and change" he offered was a mirage and he was one of many predecessors to President Donald Trump to have "really bad policies."

Omar was the subject of a Politico story on her and fellow Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.), who represents a neighboring district. The two are framed as symbolizing the colliding forces in the new Democratic House majority, with Omar representing the far-left flank and Phillips the more center-left sensibilities that helped recapture suburban districts from Republicans in 2018.

Omar, a Somali-born refugee, was fed up with the Democratic establishment by the time she ran for office in 2016 for a seat in the Minnesota state house. She won and then easily captured a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, and she wasn't shy about telling Politico her objections to Obama-era policies, like detention centers for illegal immigrant children and the "droning of countries around the world:"

More

Majority of House Democrats Vote to Let 16-Year-Olds Vote for President

A majority of House Democrats on Wednesday voted to lower the federal voting age from 18 to 16.

A number of high-profile Democrats voted in favor of the legislation, including California Reps. Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Maxine Waters, and Ted Lieu; Democrat presidential candidate and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib; and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Democrat Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced the legislation Tuesday evening as an amendment to House Democrats’ For the People Act, (HR-1), which would 'overhaul' federal election laws.

Pressley’s amendment fell short at 126-305, but House Democrats voted 125-108 in favor of Pressley’s amendment, with two members voting present and three members not voting.

House Republicans voted against the amendment 197-1. Texas Rep. Michael Burgess was the only Republican to vote aye.

Pressley cited teen activists pushing for gun control as a reason to give 16-year-olds the right to vote, which she compared to having a driver’s license.

More

Block Play Builds Math Skills, Boosts Complex Thinking In Preschoolers, Study Finds

Preparing preschoolers for kindergarten can be a source of fear and excitement among young parents. Many find themselves wondering: “Is my child ready?” New research shows that one brain-boosting building block to school readiness is semi-structured block play.

Researchers at Purdue University say that preschool children who spend time in semi-structured block play experience improvement in two important skills for their jump to kindergarten: mathematics and executive functioning.

“As an early childhood expert, I feel like I’m constantly being asked by parents and teachers, ‘What can I do with my child to support their school readiness skills?’” says Sara Schmitt, an assistant professor in the university’s Department of Human Development and Family Studies, in a media release. “What I find myself saying a lot, among other things, is block play. But there’s actually not a lot of empirical evidence to support this statement, particularly with regard to mathematics and executive functioning development. That’s why I wanted to do this study: I wanted to understand if these suggestions I was making to parents and teachers were actually valid.”

More

Jenny Beth Martin: Democrats’ HR-1 Should Be Called ‘The Lois Lerner Tribute Act’

Democrats once again control the House, Nancy Pelosi is once again Speaker, and I, once again, feel as if I’m living in George Orwell’s 1984, where war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.

How else to explain my feelings over the “openness” and “transparency” that will be enhanced by passage of HR-1, the Democrats’ brazenly named “For the People Act,” which seeks to take legitimate, protected legislative speech and turn it into “political” speech subject to onerous and burdensome regulation?

Campaigns and PACs already must disclose every dollar raised and every dollar spent trying to influence the outcome of political campaigns. This “political” speech is already highly regulated. HR-1 is not going to make them disclose more, because they already disclose.

So, HR-1 is not going after “money in politics,” because we already disclose money in politics.

Instead, this bill is designed to intimidate, harass, and silence people for exercising their First Amendment rights on issues before the Congress. Exercising our First Amendment rights on issues is not – and should not be – considered political activity. That is free speech as defined in the First Amendment. It is speaking, assembling, and petitioning government for redress of grievances. That “legislative” speech, if you will, is protected and enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

I know firsthand why it must be protected, because of the IRS targeting of “tea party” and “patriots” groups that began in 2010.

More here

Pennsylvania official arrested in Detroit in hotel incident

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner has been arrested and detained in Detroit.

KDKA has learned that Wagner was arrested and detained following an altercation with police.

No charges have been filed yet.

Wagner was attending a night at the symphony with her husband, Khari Mosley, on Tuesday.

After the concert, Wagner was arrested at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel during an altercation with hotel security and police.

More


Chelsa Wagner: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Come Join The Fun Today At Caribbean Joe's

Chelsea Manning jailed for refusing to testify about WikiLeaks

Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who was convicted for leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, was thrown in jail Friday for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating the group.

Manning was taken into custody on contempt charges following a brief hearing in which she informed Virginia federal Judge Claude Hilton that she had no intention of testifying.

Saying she objected to the secrecy behind grand jury proceedings, Manning told the judge she “will accept whatever you bring upon me.” She also said she told everything she knows to her court-martial.

More

Clyburn Defends Omar: Her Pain ‘More Personal’ Than Descendants of Holocaust Victims

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn defended Rep. Ilhan Omar from charges of anti-Semitism Wednesday, arguing that critics ought to consider her personal experience as a refugee from Somalia.

In February, the Minnesota freshman Democrat was forced to apologize by House Democratic leadership after she tweeted that Republican support for Israel was "all about the Benjamins" from AIPAC. Omar apologized "unequivocally," writing that "Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes."

But Omar was back at it weeks later, saying she wanted "to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," and that she "should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee."

More