Spotify to Flag COVID Content After Rogan Backlash

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Spotify will begin attaching a warning label to content that features discussions of COVID-19 following backlash over its relationship with podcast host Joe Rogan.

The company will direct listeners to its “COVID-19 Hub,” which provides information on the virus, in a COVID-19 “advisory” on every podcast episode that features discussions of COVID-19, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announced in a blog post Sunday. The audio streaming service also published its platform rules as part of the announcement.

“This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days,” Ek wrote. “To our knowledge, this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform.”

Spotify was the subject of criticism over the past few weeks because of its relationship with Joe Rogan, who has an exclusive deal with the company to distribute his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.” A coalition of medical professionals signed onto a letter demanding that Spotify crack down on COVID-19 “misinformation” on its platform, citing Rogan by name, and musician Neil Young withdrew his music catalog from the service over its relationship with Rogan.

“Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, it’s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time,” Ek wrote. (Read more from “Spotify to Flag COVID Content After Rogan Backlash” HERE)

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Chinese-Made COVID-19 Test Kits Are Coming to Millions of American Households via White House Initiative

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As the White House’s free at-home COVID-19 test kits are reaching millions of American households’ mailboxes, the “made in China” label on some of those kits are stirring concerns.

The distribution, which began earlier this month, is part of a Biden administration initiative to give away 1 billion self-test kits to Americans for free. A sizable portion of these kits will be sourced from iHealth Labs, a California subsidiary of Chinese medical gear manufacturer Andon Health.

Since December, the company has won contracts worth over $2.1 billion with the U.S. federal government and some states, according to Andon’s filings and federal contract records.

Roughly $1.8 billion of the amount came from the Department of Defense (DOD) for the White House rollout. The department awarded two contracts to the lab on Jan. 13 and Jan. 26 respectively, which would bring over 354 million Chinese-made kits—or about a third of the total—to American homes.

The White House said on Friday that 60 million U.S. households have ordered the free test kits through the government’s new website, covidtests.gov. The order typically ships within 7 to 12 days, according to the website. (Read more from “Chinese-Made COVID-19 Test Kits Are Coming to Millions of American Households via White House Initiative” HERE)

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Hunter Probed: Biden and Associates Received 2019 Subpoena Over Business Deals in China

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Hunter Biden and two business associates received a grand jury subpoena regarding their business dealings in China about 17 months before the 2020 presidential election, The Post has learned.

The order sent by the Department of Justice to JP Morgan Chase bank asked for the records of any international financial transactions for the past five years involving Hunter, his uncle James Biden and former business partners Devon Archer and Eric Schwerin, according to federal documents.

The anti-corruption nonprofit Marco Polo, founded by former Trump administration official Garrett Ziegler, obtained the filing, which targets the financial ties between the four men and the Bank of China.

The subpoena was issued by Delaware’s US Attorney David Weiss on May 15, 2019. At the time, Hunter’s father, Joe Biden, was a presidential candidate.

The subpoena was issued just five weeks after Hunter allegedly left his laptop in a Delaware repair shop. A total of 15 businesses owned by Hunter and his associates were listed on the legal document. (Read more from “Hunter Probed: Biden and Associates Received 2019 Subpoena Over Business Deals in China” HERE)

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Report: BLM Sent Millions to Canada Charity for Mansion Formerly Owned by Communist Party

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Black Lives Matter (BLM) apparently sent millions to a Canadian charity lead by the wife of its cofounder to buy a mansion that was formerly the headquarters of the Communist Party, the New York Post reported Saturday.

“M4BJ, a Toronto-based non-profit set up by Janaya Khan and other Canadian activists, snagged the 10,000 square foot historic property for the equivalent of $6.3 million in cash in July 2021, according to Toronto property records viewed by The Post,” the outlet stated.

The article continued:

Khan is the wife of Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network and a self-avowed Marxist. She resigned from the group last year, a month after The Post revealed that she had spent $3.2 million on homes in Georgia and Los Angeles. Khan-Cullors vigorously denied that BLM donations were used to buy the homes. The purchase of the Toronto property, named the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism, came to light amid mounting concerns over the US activist group’s lack of transparency in its finances.

(Read more from “Report: BLM Sent Millions to Canada Charity for Mansion Formerly Owned by Communist Party” HERE)

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Democrat ‘Dark Money’ Network Exposed

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Democrats have complained about so-called “dark money” for a decade, but they benefited from $1.5 billion in “dark money” spending in the 2020 election, compared to $900 million for Republicans, according to a recent New York Times analysis.

“Dark money” is money spent by groups outside campaigns and political parties that do not have to disclose their donors — either because they are organized as “social welfare” organizations under section 501(c)4 of the federal tax code, or as 501(c)3 charities receiving contributions from donor-advised funds that allow many donors to remain anonymous.

Democrats have claimed for years that Republicans are the primary beneficiaries of “dark money,” ever since the Supreme Court decided in the Citizens United case in 2011 that the Federal Elections Commission could not censor an anti-Hillary Clinton film before an election because people organized as corporations, no less than individuals, have free speech rights.

Clinton and almost every Democrat since has run on a pledge to revise the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to limit the ability of corporations to spend on elections. Meanwhile, however, they have built a dominant “dark money” machine. (Read more from “Democrat ‘Dark Money’ Network Exposed” HERE)

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Pension Agency Latest to Track Exemptions From COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

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The federal agency overseeing government pensions on Friday became the latest agency to create a rule for keeping records on employees who seek medical exemptions from the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. placed a proposed rule on the Federal Register about keeping records of staff who request medical exemptions to the vaccine mandate for federal workers. A public comment period will end March 29.

The agency has more than 1,000 employees. The submitted regulation says: “PBGC estimates that an average of two employees each year will submit Request for Exemption to COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement Forms.”

Earlier this week, the Commerce Department submitted a similar rule to the Office of Management and Budget for public comment. That Cabinet-level department has about 47,000 employees.

The developments follow President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring all federal employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.’s notice on the Federal Register was placed by Hilary Duke, the agency’s assistant general counsel for regulatory affairs.

Several Republican lawmakers already have criticized the Biden administration for what they characterized as its “tracking” of federal employees who seek religious or medical exemptions from getting one of the COVID-19 vaccines.

The notice for the latest rule says:

PBGC allows an exception from the vaccination requirement for employees who demonstrate medical reasons or disabilities that would make the COVID-19 vaccine unsafe for them. …

[E]mployees must complete the Request for Medical Exception to COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement form. The PBGC uses the information on this form to verify employees’ assertions that they are entitled to an exception to the COVID-19 vaccination requirement because of their medical or disability statuses.

A spokesman for the pension agency told The Daily Signal early Friday that it would attempt to comment by 4 p.m., but the agency had not responded as of publication time.

For the time being, the proposed rule would not be enforceable because a federal judge last week blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the president’s executive order that every federal worker must be vaccinated.

The matter hasn’t been fully adjudicated, however.

The Supreme Court struck down a separate Biden administration mandate that would have applied to private employers with 100 or more employees.

The pension agency’s proposal comes as the Biden administration considers keeping a list of those who apply for religious exemptions to the president’s vaccine mandate for federal employees.

The rule this week from the Commerce Department said the department would use the medical exemption request form “to make a recommendation to the supervisor based on the medical information provided in the form.”

The Office of Management and Budget oversees all federal regulations.

“To process an employee’s medical exception, agencies need to collect certain information, including, for example, the employee’s name, the request for an exception and, if they are provided one, that they have been granted an exception,” an OMB spokesperson told The Daily Signal when asked for comment earlier this week on the Commerce Department proposal.

The Daily Signal first reported Jan. 11 that the Biden administration was testing a policy at a small federal agency, the Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia, that likely would serve as a model for government-assembled lists of Americans who object to taking the COVID-19 vaccines on religious grounds. Four days later, The Daily Signal reported that 18 other federal agencies are considering doing so.

The Daily Signal also first reported that 41 House Republicans signed onto a letter criticizing the Biden administration for tracking religious exemptions. (For more from the author of “Pension Agency Latest to Track Exemptions From COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate” please click HERE)

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Lawmaker Pushing Ivermectin Bill Calls KU Doctor the ‘Kansas Dr. Fauci’

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On Wednesday, Kansas lawmakers continued their discussion on off-label drug use – specifically, the drugs ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

Two proposals are at the statehouse. Senate Bill 308 would mandate doctors give those prescriptions simply if a patient asks for them for use in COVID-therapy. Senate Bill 381 would require pharmacists to fill those prescriptions.

Also on Wednesday, the University of Kansas Health System sent a letter to lawmakers on the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee saying that they oppose the legislation.

Doctors with the University of Kansas Health System said the bills shift the doctor-patient relationship. They also called the bill unsafe.

Senate Bill 381 was brought by state Senator Mark Steffen, a Republican from Hutchinson, Kansas. He is also a doctor. He said during his testimony that he is currently under investigation by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts and has been for the last year and a half. (Read more from “Lawmaker Pushing Ivermectin Bill Calls KU Doctor the ‘Kansas Dr. Fauci’” HERE)

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The IRS Wants to Scan Your Face

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The next time you try to log in to the Internal Revenue Service’s website you’ll be urged to use facial-recognition software to verify you are who you say you are.

The verification process includes taking a picture of a photo ID, like a driver’s license or passport, and then taking a video selfie with a smartphone or computer so software can compare the two. It’s part of a partnership the IRS has with ID.me, a fast-growing company that uses facial recognition software as part of its identity-verification process.

For now, this process is optional if you already have an IRS username and password. But if you don’t, and you want to use online tools to request an online tax transcript or see information regarding your tax payments or economic impact payments, you’ll need to sign up with ID.me. And starting this summer, those old IRS usernames and passwords will no longer work.

As CNN reported last year, ID.me already verifies identities for more than half of all states’ unemployment agencies as well as a growing number of US federal agencies. In addition to the IRS, ID.me works the Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration and the US Patent and Trademark Office. The company says it has 70 million users and adds 145,000 new users each day. (Read more from “The IRS Wants to Scan Your Face” HERE)

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Shock: Judge *Reverses* Decision to Place Loudoun County Schoolboy Guilty of ‘Forcible Sodomy’ on Sex Offender List

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A Virginia judge has reversed her decision to place the skirt-wearing schoolboy who was found guilty of “forcible sodomy” in a girls’ bathroom in a Loudoun County school on the sex offender registry.

The 15-year-old boy who was convicted of sexually assaulting female classmates at two separate high schools — Stone Bridge High School and Broad Run High School — will no longer have to register as a sex offender, according to a report by WTOP News.

Judge Pamela Brooks had initially ordered the teen be placed on probation, placed in a juvenile rehabilitation center until he turned 18, as well as added to the adult sex offender registry.

Now, the boy will instead remain on supervised probation in a locked juvenile treatment facility until his 18th birthday.

Defense attorneys reportedly argued that prosecutors failed to provide a written motion that they would seek to have the Loudoun County boy placed on the sex offender registry before the judge made her initial ruling. (Read more from “Shock: Judge *Reverses* Decision to Place Loudoun County Schoolboy Guilty of ‘Forcible Sodomy’ on Sex Offender List” HERE)

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Swing State Courts Strengthen Election Integrity in Major Rulings Ahead of 2022 Midterms

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Several state courts issued major election integrity rulings this week that could have a profound effect on elections in swing states ahead of the 2022 midterms.

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled on Friday that the state’s “no-excuse” mail-in voting law, also known as Act 77, violates the state’s Constitution which requires in-person voting for most people who don’t fit the state’s list of exceptions.

In a 3-2 decision, the court’s conservative majority determined that the expansion of mail-in voting put ballots in the hands of constitutionally ineligible people. While the court acknowledged that the law made voting “more convenient,” the judges noted that legislators can’t just ignore the Pennsylvania Constitution to get what they want.

“No-excuse mail-in voting makes the exercise of the franchise more convenient and has been used four times in the history of Pennsylvania,” the court’s opinion states. “Approximately 1.38 million voters have expressed their interest in voting by mail permanently. If presented to the people, a constitutional amendment … is likely to be adopted. But a constitutional amendment must be presented to the people.”

The law, known as Act 77, was passed by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, in 2019. It permitted no-excuse absentee voting, created a permanent mail-in voter list, reduced the voter registration deadline from 30 days to 15, and provided for $90 million in election infrastructure upgrades. It also eliminated straight ticket voting. (Read more from “Swing State Courts Strengthen Election Integrity in Major Rulings Ahead of 2022 Midterms” HERE)

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