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MIDLAND, Mich - Michigan’s record $23.4 billion education budget will widen the per-pupil funding gap between poor and wealthier districts while costing taxpayers more to pay down pension debt.

For the first time in over a decade, the school aid budget for fiscal year 2025 neglects to include an increase to the per-pupil foundation allowance. This is the state’s minimum funding guarantee for each student enrolled in conventional districts and charter schools. It’s the primary source of revenue for the districts’ operating expenses.

Since the adoption of Proposal A in 1994, the foundation allowance has helped reduce funding disparities between poor and wealthy districts. Proposal A ensures the value of local property has no impact on this base funding amount. The foundation allowance gap has narrowed significantly thanks to the gradual increase to this portion of school funding each year. Click here to read more.

 

LOS ANGELES, CALIF - Americans love to celebrate the Fourth of July by firing up the grill, but this year’s barbeque grocery bill could be higher than ever.

The average cookout for 10 people is expected to cost $71.22 this year, up 5% from 2023 and almost 30% from five years ago, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

At $7.12 per person, this year’s feast is the most expensive since AFBF began the survey in 2013.

Economists for the group said inflationary pressures and ongoing supply challenges like low cattle inventory are two of the main drivers pushing prices higher.

The analysis looked at the cost of ground beef, chicken breasts, pork chops, potato chips, pork and beans, fresh strawberries, homemade potato salad, fresh-squeezed lemonade, chocolate chip cookies and ice cream. 

Nearly everything on the table is more expensive than a year ago. Two pounds of ground beef will cost an average of $12.77, up more than 11% from last year. Pork chops are also up 8% nationally. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) are sounding the alarm over poor vetting procedures for President Joe Biden’s mass resettlement of Afghans, some deemed a “national security concern,” across the United States.

Grassley, in letters to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray, asked the agencies to make public the number of Afghans — brought to the U.S. by the Biden administration in 2021 — who were not properly vetted and who may pose a national security threat. Click here to read more.

 

ST. LOUIS, MO - Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the state of New York, alleging that the state is engaged in election interference through its prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

The suit alleges three specific violations against New York, including interference with the presidential election in other states, interference with voters’ First Amendment rights in other states, and violation of a federal case that prohibits courts from sowing voter confusion or changing election rules. Bailey is calling on the Supreme Court to step in and rule that New York’s restrictions on Trump’s ability to campaign interfered with the election.

The suit specifically alleges that “New York’s actions impose a sovereign harm to the ability of Missouri’s 10 electors to exercise their federal authority,” with Bailey telling The Daily Wire that it is “intended to protect Missourians’ sovereign interest in participating in a national presidential election on equal footing with other states.” Click here to read more.

 

NEW YORK — The accused drunken driver who killed NYPD Officer Emilia Rennhack and three others at a Long Island nail salon should “rot in hell,” the officer’s mother-in-law told the Daily News.

“He was drunk midafternoon, 64 years old, drunk and I hope he rots in hell,” said Holly Rennhack, whose NYPD detective son was married to Rennhack. “He took four people’s lives away. He’s destroyed four families, and there’s many people injured. He’s just ruined so many lives.”

Rennhack, who was off-duty, was getting her nails done for an upcoming wedding when Steven Schwally plowed his 2020 Chevy Traverse through the front window of the salon about 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Suffolk County police said.

Two other women, Yan Xu, 41, and Meizi Zhang, 50, both from Flushing, Queens, and a man, Jiancai Chen, 37, of Bayside, Queens, died in the crash. Nine more people, including a 12-year-old girl, also suffered injuries. Click here to read more.

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LANSING, Mich - Michigan has sanctioned a speech-language pathologist for not completing implicit bias training, as required by a 2020 directive from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Michiganders licensed by the state across 26 occupations must complete implicit bias training to renew a professional license.

New applicants must complete two hours of implicit bias training within the previous five years. Renewing licensees or registrants must complete one hour of implicit bias training for each year of their license cycle.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs fined a speech-language pathologist $1,500 for not completing the continuing education requirement or the implicit bias training, according to an internal document Do No Harm, an organization that opposes diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, sent CapCon. Do No Harm obtained the Oct. 19, 2023, affidavit of a state compliance officer, as well as other documents, through a Freedom of Information Act request. The therapist was placed on probation on the condition of completing the required number of hours as well as implicit bias training. Failure to pay the fine and comply with the training requirement will result in the state terminating the person’s professional license. Click here to read more.

 

LANSING, MICH - Dozens of legal Michigan voters last week filed a state Supreme Court lawsuit against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, and state election officials, aiming to overturn recent election law changes.

The lawsuit centers on “unlawful guidance for elections” issued by Benson since she took office, and Proposal 2 approved by voters in 2022 that Michigan Supreme Court justices ordered to appear on the ballot.

“Petitioners have reason to believe (Proposal 2) resulted in a number of unconstitutional revisions to the Michigan Constitution, and subsequent new election laws, making it impossible for the State of Michigan to guarantee all legally eligible Michigan voters a free, fair, lawful, secure, and transparent election process in the 2024 elections,” the lawsuit reads.

The group of 130 voters points to seven separate court rulings that have found Benson’s election guidance unlawful. Those court rulings, however, resulted in zero consequences for Benson’s failures. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - Nearly half of student loan borrowers have not made repayments since billing resumed last year, according to The New York Times.

Student loan repayments were put on a three-year pause during the pandemic, allowing borrowers to put their payments on hold until billing resumed in 2023, according to the Federal Student Aid website. There were nearly 19 million borrowers who were not making monthly payments at the end of March, six months after the end of the pause, according to the NYT. Some borrowers say they cannot afford to make payments and others stated they are caught up in “bureaucratic snafus,” while others are benefiting from an “on-ramp” transition period that extends through September, the NYT reported. During this time, borrowers who make late payments will not be reported on as delinquent. Click here to read more.

 

BARRON COUNTY, MN - The Barron County sheriff reports a 71-year-old grandfather drowned over the weekend in Mikana, Wisconsin, after helping a grandchild who was struggling in the water.

Family has identified the victim as Larry Quillen of Mikana.

“He was always very giving,” said sister-in-law Mary Tuttle. “Absolutely a hero.”

Larry Quillen was fishing and swimming with the grandkids Saturday afternoon near the dam; both kids were wearing life jackets on the river, according to the family.

“Unfortunately, one of them slipped and started to drown, and Larry went right in to get him. He got them out,” Tuttle said. The family is trying to understand what happened to Larry Quillen next.

The Barron County Sheriff’s Office said for an unknown reason, the grandfather went under and drowned.

Family was very important to Larry Quillen, according to his loved ones. They called him their “Papa Bear.”

“He was my rock. He took such good care of me. I loved him so much, I don’t know what I’m going to do without him,” said Carol Quillen, Larry’s wife. “He was always thoughtful; he was always helping someone.” Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - On the menu today: Now it can be told that plenty of people close to President Joe Biden have seen “a marked incidence of cognitive decline” in the past six months, that “an awful lot of major Democrats” have seen it but have publicly insisted that Biden is fine, and that Biden’s senior officials “curate the information being presented [to Biden] in an effort to avoid provoking a negative reaction.” Last week, I wrote that Joe Biden is overdue to move to a retirement home. Now we learn that the White House is effectively operating like a retirement home — “Don’t tell Grandpa the bad news, it will only get him agitated.” It is more than fair to ask who’s really running the country if Biden has become so mentally, emotionally, and physically fragile that he can’t handle being told bad news. And yet for Democrats, the objective between now and Election Day is to figure out how to get you to forget what you’ve seen and heard over the past four days or so. Click here to read more.

Newly unsealed documents have revealed that two teenage girls, allegedly subjected to sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, were separately branded as prostitutes and drug addicts by a prosecutor. Approximately 175 pages of transcripts from a 2006 grand jury investigation into allegations against Epstein were released to the public on Monday afternoon. This unsealing follows Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signing a bill in February, enabling Circuit Judge Luis Delgado to execute the order.

Delgado emphasized that the details documented will be “outrageous to decent people.”

Click here to read all of the documents for yourself.

The jury heard evidence that Epstein, who took his own life while incarcerated in 2019, had raped girls as young as 14 years old at his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, according to the transcripts.

Palm Beach County prosecutors now face widespread condemnation for their treatment of two of Epstein’s alleged young female victims, who were belittled and treated like criminals during the investigation.

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“It was just atrocious the way they handled it,” Spencer Kuvin, an attorney representing one of the alleged underage girls who testified, told CBS as he read the transcripts.

A search of Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion on El Brillo Way led to his 2008 indictment. During the grand jury proceedings, prosecutors called upon an alleged Epstein victim, who was 14 years old at the time her stepmother reported that the teenager had received $300 to massage an older man on Palm Beach Island.

The girl recounted that Epstein’s assistant asked her to strip to her underwear before entering the room and massaging Epstein. She then agreed to allow him to use a vibrator on her for an additional $100, as per the documents.

 

Prosecutors continued to interrogate the girl, who had turned 15 by the time of her testimony, suggesting she “had a problem with drugs.” They also questioned her about a body piercing and a social media post where she lied about her age, income, and bragged about shoplifting. The teen testified that the post was “a joke.”

“You aware that you committed a crime?” one of the prosecutors, Lanna Belohlavek, asked the witness.

The girl responded: “Now I am. I didn’t know it was a crime when I was doing it. Now, I guess it’s prostitution or something like that.”

Another witness, an investigator, was asked whether the 14-year-old’s social media account included pictures of “her in skimpy attire, drinking alcohol and sexually provocative photos.”

“Yes, ma’am,” they responded.

 

The second girl to testify before the grand jury stated she was just 16 years old when she first went to Epstein’s mansion. “He was well aware of my age from the very beginning,” she said. Her 10th and final encounter occurred the day before her 18th birthday when Epstein initiated intercourse. She testified that she didn’t want to engage in the act but did not ask him to stop.

“You understand that you, in effect, were committing prostitution yourself,” a prosecutor asked. “Yes,” the witness replied.

Epstein was arrested, booked, and released on bond following the grand jury’s indictment on one charge of solicitation of prostitution.

The official report is that Epstein killed himself, many dought that official cause of death.