Iraqi National Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempting to smuggle Islamic State allies into the U.S. and form a team to assassinate former President George W. Bush. In light of President Biden’s current Executive orders that have created a de facto open border with Mexico, the news is causing some to wonder just what else has been left in under Biden’s watch.
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The organization No College Mandates has conducted a national survey of colleges and discovered that 48 American colleges and universities are still requiring students to take a Covid-19 vaccine in order to attend their college. The organization is against mandates, stating on its website “the coercive nature of college vaccine mandates completely disregards students’ individual freedom and right to bodily autonomy.”
BlackRock has just lost $8.5 billion after the Permanent School Fund, run by the Texas State Board of Education, announced plans to divest itself of all involvement with the alleged Marxist-spreading investment firm BlackRock, costing the social activist corporation billions in investment dollars from the organization.
Excerpt from townhall.com
… Led by Chairman Aaron Kinsey, the Texas State Board of Education found that BlackRock was not in compliance with a provision in Texas state code that prohibits state investment in companies that boycott energy companies, a practice that Kinsey found BlackRock’s emphasis on ESG has created.
As a result, the Permanent School Fund (PSF) took action on Tuesday, notifying BlackRock that it was divesting a whopping $8.5 billion from the firm — the largest single divestment from BlackRock since state leaders began rejecting asset management firms with values that run opposite their states’ priorities.
A release from the State Board of Education explains the legal basis for the divestment and how BlackRock ran afoul of Texas code:
Today, PSF leadership delivered an official notice to global asset manager BlackRock terminating its financial management of approximately $8.5 billion in Texas’ assets. Terminating BlackRock’s contract ensures PSF’s full compliance with Texas law.
The PSF’s relationship with BlackRock was not in compliance with Texas Government Code Section 809, commonly referred to as Senate Bill 13, which prohibits state investment in companies like Blackrock that boycott energy companies.
BlackRock’s dominant and persistent leadership in the ESG movement immeasurably damages our state’s oil & gas economy and the very companies that generate revenues for our PSF. Texas and the PSF have worked hard to grow this fund to build Texas’ schools. BlackRock’s destructive approach toward the energy companies that this state and our world depend on is incompatible with our fiduciary duty to Texans.
Today represents a major step forward for the Texas PSF and our state as a whole. The PSF will not stand idle as our financial future is attacked by Wall Street. This bold action helps ensure our PSF remains in fact permanent and will continue to support bright futures and opportunities for generations of Texas students.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs envoy, Wang Kejian, joined Hamas’ political head, Ismail Haniyeh to praise the organization and reiterate China’s shared vision with Hamas. He called Hamas “part of the Palestinian national fabric” while echoing Hamas’ talking points, stating their support for “the Palestinian people’s just demands for freedom, independence, and the establishment of the Palestinian state.”
Excerpt from freebeacon.com
A top Chinese diplomat emphasized China’s relationship with Hamas during the first meeting between a Chinese official and a Hamas leader since the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel…
“The two parties discussed political and field developments related to the situation in the Gaza Strip and ways to stop the war and deliver urgent aid, especially in light of the killing, starvation, massacres, and attempts to create chaos,” Hamas added in the statement.
Haniyeh, meanwhile, expressed his “pride in the close relationship between the friendly Palestinian and Chinese peoples,” while praising the Chinese government for trying to broker a ceasefire and sending humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The Hamas leader also stressed “the need to quickly stop the aggression and massacres” and “achieve the political goals and aspirations of establishing an independent Palestinian state.”
Washington State’s Supreme Court has ruled that the state bar exam is no longer a requirement for people seeking to practice law in their state. The reason given for the ruling is the exam “disproportionately and unnecessarily blocks” people in leftist preferred groups from becoming lawyers.
Excerpt from resistthemainstream.com
Washington State’s Supreme Court has declared that the bar exam is no longer a requirement for becoming a lawyer within the state, according to a pair of orders released on Friday.
This landmark ruling approves alternative methods for demonstrating competency and acquiring a law license, following a 2020 initiative where a task force was established to explore this matter.
The Bar Licensure Task Force discovered that the conventional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” individuals from marginalized groups from entering the legal profession and deemed it “at best minimally effective” in ensuring competency, as per a news announcement from the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.
Washington thus becomes the second state, after Oregon, to eliminate the bar exam requirement, with Oregon having made the change at the beginning of this year. Other states like Minnesota, Nevada, South Dakota, and Utah are also considering alternative licensure pathways.
“These recommendations come from a diverse body of lawyers in private and public practice, academics, and researchers who contributed immense insight, counterpoints and research to get us where we are today,” Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, who chaired the task force, said.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Texas can enforce its law that grants law officers the power to arrest illegal aliens since the Biden administration refuses to enforce national law. The vote was 6-3, with the 3 dissenting votes coming from the far-left Judges. But just hours after the ruling, a U.S. 5th Circuit panel seemed to somehow reverse the SCOTUS ruling 2-1 to lift the administrative state.
Excerpt from www.nbcnews.com
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Texas to enforce a contentious new law that gives local police the power to arrest migrants.
The conservative-majority court, with three liberal justices dissenting, rejected an emergency request made by the Biden administration, which said states have no authority to legislate on immigration, an issue the federal government has sole authority over.
That means the law can go into effect while litigation continues in lower courts.
The law in question, known as SB4, allows police to arrest migrants who illegally cross the border from Mexico and imposes criminal penalties. It would also empower state judges to order people to be deported to Mexico.
Researchers from the National University of Singapore claim to have created the world’s most efficient solar cell, which registered a power conversion efficiency of 27.1%, a new world record. The researchers created what is called a triple-junction perovskite/Si tandem solar cell.
“Remarkably, after 15 years of ongoing research in the field of perovskite-based solar cells, this work constitutes the first experimental evidence for the inclusion of cyanate into perovskites to boost the stability of its structure and improve power conversion efficiency,” says Assistant Professor Hou Yi, a lead researcher on the team.
Judge Roger T. Benitez of the US District Court for the Southern District of California declined an appeal of a newly-passed California law that makes it more difficult for companies to designate employees as being eligible for independent contractor status.
The lawsuit appealing the constitutionality of the law was brought by the California Trucking Association and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association. The ruling by the Judge means the trucking industry as a whole in California could potentially become much more expensive to utilize and develop in the loss of employment of thousands of California truckers.
Excerpt from news.bloomberglaw.com
A federal judge declined to block a California law that makes it harder to classify freight hauling drivers as independent contractors instead of employees.
Judge Roger T. Benitez of the US District Court for the Southern District of California rejected the California Trucking Association and Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association motions for a new injunction to block the state law known as AB 5. The law, which codified a 2018 California Supreme Court ruling, was enacted to address the widespread problem of classifying certain workers as independent contractors who usually lack benefits such as workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, etc…
Dr. Johnson Varkey has won back his job that was lost after St. Philip’s College fired him for teaching students men are men and women are women, both in keeping with scientific fact and his own Christian beliefs. First Liberty Institute filed the case for Varkey after his firing.
Varkey said of the victory, “I was so excited. And thank the Lord for that outcome. I am excited to go back and teach.” He added, in response to a question from CBN about what he hopes others take from this story, “I would say, don’t quit, because there are people very supportive just like First Liberty. Stand for the truth.”
Excerpt from www.cbn.com
As CBN News previously reported, a biology professor for the past 20 years, Varkey consistently taught the same facts about the human reproductive system without any problems. But that changed last year, when he received a notice of dismissal.
“I was surprised and I was shocked, because, you know, never expected for such a letter from, or such an email from, the school because I’ve been teaching that for that school for the last 20 years and without any complaints,” he said.
Varkey believes his lessons on human biology and sex being determined by chromosomes X and Y sparked complaints leading to his dismissal.
“On the 12th of January [of 2023], I received an email from the vice president of the department of the school that they are doing an ethic violation investigation on me, so I responded to his email and asked him, ‘What are the complaints?’” Varkey said. “So, what he said was the human resources will contact me.”
The professor said, although he asked about complaints, he received no response from HR and didn’t get a chance to defend himself before his firing.
“When I got the letter of termination, what the VP mentioned was that some of the complaints were offensive to the homosexuals and transgender,” he said. “So, I presume … that, very possibly, it is based on a human reproductive system, which I taught, which was in November [2022].”
Republicans in Arizona are hoping to pass legislation that will give the voters a chance to decide if they’d like to protect firearms companies from being de-banked, from having their bank accounts cancelled by banks that disapprove of Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.
Banks have threatened the public with higher bond rates if the measure passes because banks will simply leave the state rather than allow gun companies to do legal, constitutionally-protected business providing a constitutionally-protected service for American citizens.
