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WASHINGTON D.C. - The Environmental Protection Agency canceled two $20 million environmental justice grants that the Biden administration awarded to its own advisers, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.
On Monday, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency's latest round of grant cancellations and cost-cutting measures. Included among the more than 400 canceled grants are 2 that the Biden administration awarded in December to Tennessee-based nonprofit Young, Gifted & Green and North Carolina-based nonprofit Democracy Green, a source familiar told the Free Beacon. Both groups had connections to the Biden White House and EPA—and neither had handled such a substantial amount of money before securing the taxpayer funds.
Young, Gifted & Green received its $20 million environmental justice grant after its CEO—LaTricea Adams—personally applied for the funding while simultaneously serving as a member of a top White House environmental justice council, the Free Beacon reported last month. The group has reported just $2.7 million in revenue—about 14 percent the size of the grant—since it registered as a nonprofit in 2020, tax filings show. Click here to read more.
NEW YORK, NY- On Tuesday, we saw a massive stock market dump. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged almost 900 points.
The stock market has been in a bit of a freefall over the course of the last couple of weeks, and I have been predicting this for a while.
It turns out that when you mess with the market mechanisms, people don’t like it. Investors tend to take the money out of the market and wait for things to be a little calmer, a little steadier. If you think of the free markets essentially as an ocean, sometimes it’s pretty choppy out there. Right now, it’s choppy.
If this administration is blamed for the choppy waters, that will be quite bad — not just for this administration, but also for everything it represents in the public mind.
Today, Emerson released a new poll showing President Trump’s handling of the economy underwater by 11 points. His job approval rating remains at 47-45, which is largely due to the widespread and correct perception that he totally changed the game on immigration. Click here to read more.
HENRICO, Va. - A registered nurse in Virginia who was arrested after several NICU babies were found with mysterious injuries is facing more charges, according to authorities.
Erin Strotman was initially charged with malicious wounding, child abuse, and neglect causing serious injury after an incident showing her mishandling a NICU baby on hospital surveillance video in November 2024.
However, on March 10, Strotman was charged with two more counts of malicious wounding and four other counts of child abuse and neglect.
“Not just video but also other evidence,” Taylor said. “Without going into details of this case, however, one of the things we can look at is to see if there is a pattern of behavior.”
A bond status hearing was held Monday to determine that these new charges do not impact her current bond.
These six new charges include two new babies who were allegedly harmed by Strotman, meaning she is now charged with abusing three of the seven injured children who are being investigated. Click here to read more.
LANSING, Mich - While homeowners in Michigan’s largest city are free to raise chickens, ducks and honeybees on their land, residents of the far-less populated Midland Township in the Mid-Michigan area face a legal ban.
Some township residents want to change that, and they say township officials stand in the way.
Residents of Detroit are free to raise up to eight chickens, or ducks, or a combination of the two, as of Jan. 31, thanks to a Detroit City Council 5-3 vote taken Nov. 12, 2024. James Tate, council pro tem, sponsored the legislation that lets residents have honeybees on site. Residents must pay an annual permit fee of $50 and comply with various regulations.
Midland Township, by contrast, forbids many residents to raise chickens on their land. The ban applies to anyone whose plot is less than five acres. Several residents used a Feb. 12 township board meeting to ask trustees to reverse the ban. Click here to read more.
CHICAGO, IL - The parental right “to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control” was recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court 100 years ago.
But Illinois lawmakers are considering a bill attacking that right. If passed, the bill would require private schools to report the personal information of all enrolled students and their parents to state and local authorities.
House Bill 2827 was filed by state Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Lombard, and has been co-sponsored by 15 other Democratic members of the House as of March 5. Teachers unions – ardent opponents of parents’ ability to choose alternatives to public school – have invested over $3 million in the 16 sponsors’ campaign committees, according to records with the Illinois State Board of Elections.
Restricting parents’ rights and limiting educational choice is nothing new in Illinois. Despite voter support for Illinois’ private school choice program, Illinois lawmakers listened to teachers unions and ended the Invest in Kids tax-credit scholarship program in 2023, taking away scholarships from more than 15,000 low-income students benefiting from the privately-funded program. Lawmakers let the program expire after teachers unions dropped nearly $1.5 million into their campaign coffers in the months ahead of the decision. Click here to read more.
