Teachers Union Spied on Parents Who Wanted Schools to Reopen During COVID: Emails

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A California teachers union is being accused of spying on parents after emails reveal the union was conducting opposition research on parent groups fighting for schools to reopen during the height of the COVID pandemic.

The California Teachers Association (CTA) employed a researcher who emailed a parent arm of the local union in April 2021, hoping to dig up information on the motives of San Diego County parents who had successfully sued the state to reopen schools a month earlier.

According to emails obtained through a public records request, the union was seeking to uncover “some of the ideological leaning of groups that are funding the reopen lawsuits.”

The researcher, Ann Swinburn, appeared to at least speculate that the parent groups suing for California schools to reopen were funded by right-wing political groups and big money interests, according to archived tweets she shared. (Read more from “Teachers Union Spied on Parents Who Wanted Schools to Reopen During COVID: Emails” HERE)

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More Democrats Than Republicans Planning to Vote in November

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Almost half of Democrats said they will be voting in the midterm elections on Nov. 8, compared to 45% of Republicans.

The new Yahoo News-YouGov poll also revealed that 45% of voters said they would select Democrats for Congress in their district if the election were held today. Only 40% said they would vote for a Republican candidate.

Democrats are more likely (81%) to vote against candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump than Republicans (73%) are to vote against those whom President Joe Biden has endorsed. (Read more from “More Democrats Than Republicans Planning to Vote in November” HERE)

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Court: State Cannot Compel Christian Doctors to Participate in Assisted Suicide

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Christian doctors and conscientious objectors in California secured yet another victory for religious freedom when a district court ruled that the state cannot compel medical professionals to participate in assisted suicide against their moral and religious beliefs.

On Tuesday, the district court in the Central District of California ruled that the state law legalizing physician-assisted suicide unlawfully compelled Christian doctors to participate in the assisted suicide process. As written, California Senate Bill 380, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2021, forces Christian doctors to “document the date of the individual’s request [for euthanasia] and the provider’s notice of their objection, and transfer their relevant medical record upon request.” The court determined that filling out the required documentation constituted “a violation of a constitutional right” which forces “non-participating providers” to participate in the process despite their religious objections.

Alliance Defending Freedom — which describes itself as “the world’s largest legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, the sanctity of life, parental rights, and God’s design for marriage and family” and which provided legal counsel for the plaintiffs — is proud of this legal victory.

“Our clients seek to live out their faith in their medical practice, and that includes valuing every human life entrusted to their care. Participating in physician-assisted suicide very clearly would violate their consciences,” said Kevin Theriot, senior counsel for ADF who argued on behalf of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations and one Christian doctor who objected to the law. (Read more from “Court: State Cannot Compel Christian Doctors to Participate in Assisted Suicide” HERE)

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Biden’s New Green Energy Adviser Has Ties to Chinese Communist Party Front Group

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President Joe Biden’s new senior adviser has maintained ties with a Chinese government influence operative for over 10 years, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.

Since at least 2009, Democratic powerbroker John Podesta, former chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, has cooperated with Tung Chee-hwa and his Chinese Communist Party-backed organization, the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), according to CUSEF’s annual reports. Podesta sits on CUSEF’s “U.S.-China 2022 Steering Committee” and has written at least three articles for its website since 2011 — the same year in which he appeared on the front cover of the group’s annual report.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz characterized CUSEF as a “pseudo-philanthropic foundation” in 2018, writing that “CUSEF’s ties to the CCP are an issue of grave concern.” CUSEF is registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as a Chinese foreign principal controlled by Tung, the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) — an organization which directs China’s influence operations, according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Including Tung, eight of CUSEF’s core leaders have served in the CPPCC, while Chinese military personnel, members of the CCP and former government officials are also listed among the group’s advisers, according to its website.

Tung is “clearly associated” with the CCP’s United Front Work Department (UFWD), according to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. The UFWD engages in propaganda, espionage and physical violence, according to the State Department. (Read more from “Biden’s New Green Energy Adviser Has Ties to Chinese Communist Party Front Group” HERE)

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Christian Family Adoption Agency Not Required to Offer Services to Unmarried or Same-Sex Couples: Judge

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A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a New York-based Christian family services agency won’t have to provide adoption services to unmarried or same-sex couples.

New Hope Family Services — a 60-year-old nonprofit adoption and temporary-foster-placement agency and pregnancy resource center in Syracuse — filed a federal lawsuit against the New York State Office of Children and Family Services in 2018 after officials told the faith-based agency to revise its “discriminatory and impermissible” policy or shut down the adoption program.

U.S. District Court Judge Mae A. D’Agostino in Albany wrote that New Hope succeeded on the merits of its First Amendment claim against the state.

New Hope Family Services Executive Director Kathy Jerman said every child deserves a home with a “loving mother and father who are committed to each other.”

“It’s regrettable that New York ever threatened to shut down our adoption services, through which we have placed more than 1,000 children with adoptive families since we began as an adoption agency in 1965,” Jerman said. “We live in a diverse state, and we need more adoption providers, not fewer.” (Read more from “Christian Family Adoption Agency Not Required to Offer Services to Unmarried or Same-Sex Couples: Judge” HERE)

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Democrat Official Arrested for Allegedly Murdering Investigative Reporter

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Las Vegas police have arrested Robert Telles, a local Democrat official, for allegedly murdering Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German.

Police executed a search warrant at Telles’ home earlier in the day and returned a few hours later to place him under arrest.

Review-Journal Executive Editor Glenn Cook said in a statement that Telles’ arrest was “an enormous relief,” but that the newspaper was “outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official.”

Telles lost his primary election in June after reporting by German cast a negative light on the county’s management. (Read more from “Democrat Official Arrested for Allegedly Murdering Investigative Reporter” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Michael Cohen: Trump Is Going to Be Indicted ‘Relatively Soon’

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Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that former President Donald Trump will be indicted for crimes related to the mishandling of classified documents soon.

Cohen said, “I do think there’s going to be an indictment and relatively soon. I believe there will also be congressional hearings with Donald in the hot seat where, you know, either he’ll come in willingly, which I don’t think he will or via subpoena. I mean, the real questions that they have to be asking right now is, you know, where are the documents that were in the empty top secret files that were found at Mar-a-Lago? I mean, that’s really the big question, and who did Donald give them to or show them to.” (Read more from “Michael Cohen: Trump Is Going to Be Indicted ‘Relatively Soon’” HERE)

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‘They Are Getting Ready for Trump’s Second Term’: Former Pentagon Brass Encourage Military to Disobey Orders

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In an ominous open letter published on wonky national security site War on the Rocks Tuesday, eight former secretaries of defense and five former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned of what they call an “exceptionally challenging civil-military environment” developing in the United States that apparently concerned them enough to publish their thoughts ahead of November’s consequential midterm elections. Never mind, apparently, that the signatories were at the helm of the U.S. military for the better part of the last two decades during which that “environment” was degraded.

Citing “extreme strain” to “[m]any of the factors that shape civil-military relations” in “recent years,” the letter points to “the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the ramping up of great power conflict” while alluding to the fact that last August’s withdrawal from Afghanistan — and fresh chaos in Iraq — mean that “the U.S. military must simultaneously come to terms with wars that ended without all the goals satisfactorily accomplished while preparing for more daunting competition with near-peer rivals.”

The letter also not-so-subtly refers to “the divisiveness of affective polarization that culminated in the first election in over a century when the peaceful transfer of political power was disrupted and in doubt” as a reason “military professionals confront an extremely adverse environment.”

“Looking ahead, all of these factors could well get worse before they get better,” the former Pentagon officials warn. “In such an environment, it is helpful to review the core principles and best practices by which civilian and military professionals have conducted healthy American civil-military relations in the past — and can continue to do so, if vigilant and mindful.” (Read more from “‘They Are Getting Ready for Trump’s Second Term’: Former Pentagon Brass Encourage Military to Disobey Orders” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

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Pro-Life Democrat Says Party Pressured Him to Suspend Campaign for Pro-Abortion Opponent

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A Democratic candidate for North Dakota’s only open House seat suspended his campaign on Sunday after pressure from his party to step aside for a pro-abortion candidate.

Mark Haugen, a pro-life Democrat, shared his resignation announcement on Twitter. He told local outlets that he “doesn’t see a viable path forward to winning the race” for North Dakota’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. A pro-abortion candidate, former Miss America Cara Mund, recently entered the race last month.

“When the Supreme Court decision came out, that further kind of solidified that there may be some issues here with my candidacy. I’ve been pro-life since the 1990s. I never hid it. I ran for the Legislature in 1996,” Haugen told local outlet KFYR. He added that he received several phone calls from Democrats asking him to consider pulling out of the race, especially after Mund announced her candidacy in recent weeks.

KFYR noted that Mund is running as a pro-abortion Independent and must submit 1,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office to qualify for the November ballot. (Read more from “Pro-Life Democrat Says Party Pressured Him to Suspend Campaign for Pro-Abortion Opponent” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Has the Trump Raid Made Bill Barr Forget All About Deep-State Deceit?

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On Friday and again on Tuesday, Barr appeared on Fox News to discuss the Mar-a-Lago raid and the Department of Justice’s investigation into former President Donald Trump. During both appearances, Barr repeated the storylines pushed by the D.C. media cartel since news first broke that the FBI had raided Trump’s Florida home.

In his appearance on “America Reports” on Friday, Barr told hosts Sandra Smith and John Roberts he personally thought that for the DOJ “to take things to the current point they probably have pretty good evidence.” Barr continued:

Now let me just say I think the driver on this from the beginning was loads of classified information sitting in Mar-a-Lago. People say this was also unprecedented but it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put it in a country club, OK. How long is the government going to try to get that? They jawbone for a year. They were deceived on the voluntary actions taken. They then went and got a subpoena. They were deceived on that, they feel. And the facts are starting to show they were being jerk around. And so how long do they wait?

While he caveated his comments as “speculation,” and noted that until we see the evidence, “it’s hard to say,” Barr’s conclusions flow from the assumption that the details made public by the DOJ and the leaks to the media represent the truth — and the whole truth.

But those very same leaks should make Barr leery. Special Counsel John Durham’s team is leak free. Similarly, the other men Barr trusted to handle the sensitive investigations into the Clinton Foundation, the inappropriate prosecution of Michael Flynn, and the evidence of the Biden family corruption coming from Ukraine, ensured their teams kept the investigations confidential. Conversely, the previous get-Trump plots all relied on media leaks to push falsehoods about the investigations, whether it was Crossfire Hurricane, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, or the impeachment efforts. (Read more from “Has the Trump Raid Made Bill Barr Forget All About Deep-State Deceit?” HERE)

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