Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) has signed into law legislation that designates gun stores as essential businesses allowed to remain open during an emergency—a move that will further protect gun stores, manufacturers, and trade associations from lawsuits. The new law, Senate Bill 1382, introduced by Republican Sen. Wendy Rogers, applies to any store selling guns or ammunition, or their components, and mirrors federal law that was passed on a bipartisan basis. Ducey’s office said in a release that the measure will protect the Second Amendment rights of Arizonans by “safeguarding against frivolous lawsuits that have no connection to unlawful use of firearms.” “With efforts currently underway in Washington to erode Second Amendment rights, Arizona is taking action to protect those rights,” Ducey said in a statement. . .

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is asking Biden administration officials to reveal more information about national security risks posed by the border crisis.

In a recent letter to immigration and border officials, Sen. Grassley recounted what he says happened at a classified briefing. According to Grassley, Biden border officials “provided less information” to members of Congress than they had to staff. Additionally, says Grassley, the briefers promised to provide material responsive to questions asked at the session, but they have filed to do so.

“When the committee asks for a full member-level briefing, we expect your agencies to be open and transparent with as much detail as possible. On April 19, 2021, that standard wasn’t met,” says Grassley in the letter. . .

The populists who’ve been battling to shut down immigration into Europe may be heading for a significant breakthrough in Sweden.

The far-right Sweden Democrat party may well have the votes to help the conservative opposition secure a majority after next year’s elections, and the evidence is mounting that traditional right-wing politicians will be tempted to cut a deal to give the anti-immigrant group a say in government.

The populist party’s emergence has tracked the Nordic country’s influx of immigrants and difficulties integrating them. A worsening in gang-related violence in recent years has also pushed more voters to the right, and parties across the political spectrum have taken a tougher stand on migrants in the wake of Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015.

“The old arguments for not talking to us no longer exist,” Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Akesson said in an interview, adding the conservatives agree with him “at least on the direction.” “It’s difficult to call us ugly names and at the same time copy our politics.”

by Thomas Catenacci

The senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission criticized the Democratic Baltimore City State Attorney’s recent request for an investigation into a local Fox affiliate as an attack on free speech.

Brendan Carr, the top Republican on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), condemned Baltimore City State Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s request, saying it was part of a broader effort by Democrats to censor news coverage and political speech they don’t like. Carr demanded that the commission dismiss Mosby’s complaint by the end of the day “with prejudice.”

“The State’s Attorney’s Office, led by Democrat Marilyn Mosby, has launched a chilling and direct attack on free speech and journalistic freedom,” Carr said in a statement on Monday. “The complaint her office filed with the FCC asks the Commission to censor a newsroom simply because journalists are doing their constitutionally protected jobs and shining a light on the work of the State’s Attorney.”

“Invoking the power of the state to silence journalists for unfavorable coverage strikes at the very heart of the First Amendment,” he continued.

Last week, Mosby asked the FCC to investigate local Fox affiliate WBFF-TV over their alleged distortion of the news and bias against her in a letter to Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Mosby alleged that the outlet’s coverage of her was more negative than other outlets’ coverage and that it presented a physical threat to her, making it a violation of FCC rules.

“The coverage by the WBFF represents acts that are not merely against the public interest; they also represent acts that are inflammatory against the safety of an elected official,” Mosby’s Communications Director Zy Richardson wrote in the letter.

Richardson said that WBFF’s ties to Fox News – the two are owned by the same parent company, but don’t share editorial staff – is another reason the FCC should open an investigation. She specifically mentioned Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show, which she said consistently presents “white supremacy views.”

But, Carr noted that Mosby’s request was particularly disturbing given that much of WBFF’s coverage, which Mosby alleged was biased, was about an ongoing federal grand jury investigation into her office’s potentially illegal financial dealings.

He added that WBFF has recently won four Regional Edward R. Murrow awards for journalism excellence. One of the stories to receive an award was about Mosby.

“The State’s Attorney’s Office complaint alleges that there is ‘troubling, abhorrent, and outright dangerous’ conduct going on here,” Carr said. “They are correct in this respect—it is the conduct of the State’s Attorney’s Office that is troubling, abhorrent, and outright dangerous.”

The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) echoed Carr’s statement Monday. The organization sent a letter to the FCC, asking it to reject Mosby’s request.

“Local journalists across the country have a Constitutionally guaranteed obligation to serve their communities by seeking and reporting the truth, often by reporting on the public activities of public officials,” RTDNA Executive Director Dan Shelley said in a statement.

The FCC and Mosby’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

– – –

Thomas Catenacci is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo ” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr” by Gage Skidmore CC 2.0.

The post FCC Commissioner Slams Top Baltimore Prosecutor’s ‘Chilling’ Request for Investigation Into Fox-Affiliate Over Bias, Tucker Carlson Show appeared first on The Georgia Star News.

The Pentagon’s point man for quashing extremism in the ranks has drawn scrutiny from critics who charge that the newly appointed official himself has expressed extremist views on American social issues.

The official, Bishop Garrison, recently became a senior advisor to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, heading up the Pentagon’s “diversity and inclusion” efforts. Garrison last month also was placed in charge of Austin’s freshly formed Countering Extremism Working Group [CEWG].

The effort as described in an April 9 memo skews heavily toward bureaucratic staples such as a steering committee, subcommittees, weekly meetings, studies, and monthly progress reviews. The group will report up a chain of command, through the Defense Department’s Workforce Management Group to the Deputy Workforce Council. But, while the project on paper seems mired in the typical trappings of officialdom, observers have raised questions about what the group will do under Garrison.

In a collection of posts dating from 2019, a Twitter account under Garrison’s name vilified Donald Trump and his supporters as racist, and championed the discredited 1619 Project. When former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the 1619 Project — which aims to reframe American history within a racist construct — Garrison tweeted that Pompeo’s views were “dangerous.”

“Armed protesters in Portland blocked traffic, smashed car windows, slashed tires, and attacked a man, leaving him hospitalized on May 6. The attacks happened in the riot-plagued city in broad daylight.”

The post Veteran Attacked in Portland, Hospitalized appeared first on NTD.

There is division among the bishops, with some pressing for President Joe Biden and other Catholic public figures to be excluded from Communion over their abortion stance, and other bishops warning that such a move would be politically polarizing.

The head of the Vatican’s doctrine office is warning U.S. bishops to deliberate carefully and minimize divisions before proceeding with a possible plan to rebuke Roman Catholic politicians such as President Joe Biden for receiving Communion even though they support abortion rights.

The strong words of caution came in a letter from Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, addressed to Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The USCCB will convene for a national meeting June 16, with plans to vote on drafting a document on the Communion issue

There is division among the bishops, with some pressing for Biden and other Catholic public figures to be excluded from Communion over their abortion stance, and other bishops warning that such a move would be politically polarizing.

Ladaria, in his letter, said any new policy “requires that dialogue occurs in two stages: first among the bishops themselves, and then between bishops and Catholic pro-choice politicians within their jurisdictions.”

Even then, Ladaria advised, the bishops should seek unanimous support within their ranks for any national policy, lest it become “a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church in the United States.”

The Biden administration adopted a new rule Monday that could force Catholic hospitals, religious doctors, and other objectors to perform sex changes.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced it will expand its definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation, citing the Supreme Court’s controversial 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which protected employees from discrimination on the basis of being gay or transgender.

“The Supreme Court has made clear that people have a right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sex and receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation,” Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “That’s why today HHS announced it will act on related reports of discrimination.”

The new guidance from the Biden administration rolls back Trump administration guidelines that used biology to determine sex discrimination in an effort to protect the conscience rights of medical providers. Religious liberty groups took aim at the Biden administration’s new policy, saying it would coerce religious practitioners to violate their consciences.

“Coercing doctors to carry out highly controversial and unproven ‘treatments’ like administering puberty-blocking hormones to children and performing irreversible sex changes—against their best medical judgment and conscience—is the latest effort by the Biden administration to force anyone who dissents from its radical ideology into compliance,” said Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie, policy adviser for the Catholic Association.