Contributing Writers

Fewer Americans now see Russia’s military power as a “critical threat” to the United States as its ongoing war with Ukraine passed the one-year mark late last month. According to a new Gallup poll released this week, just 51% of Americans viewed the Russian military as a “critical threat” compared to 59% who said the same in the weeks leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. GEN.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Wednesday that he has vetoed two bills dealing with insurance because he thinks they would increase the cost of health care. “One is a bad idea, and I can’t see myself supporting it. One is a good idea that just includes some correctable mistakes,” the Republican governor said in a statement.

President Biden participated in a second reception this week for the Democratic National Committee in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he urged those in attendance to take climate change more seriously. Just one day after a fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California, where Biden accidentally revealed a previously unknown detail about former President Jimmy Carter’s health, he made a number of off-the-cuff comments about climate change including one about the Colorado River drying up.

The U.S. Air Force this month launched an effort to hire a handful of senior-level diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) managers and is hoping to place these officials in posts across the country, from Washington, D.C., to Alaska. Each post pays at least $82,000 per year, and the top position at the Pentagon could pay more than $180,000 per year.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the Biden administration’s decision to bail out Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), but he failed to mention his ties to the now-defunct institution, which holds at least three of his wine companies and reportedly has other financial connections to his family.

Schools that experience a high number of crimes would have to hire police officers and station them in their buildings under a Republican-authored bill the state Assembly passed Tuesday. Under the bill, if a school has more than 100 incidents in a semester, and at least 25 of those result in an arrest, the school must hire an armed school resource officer to work at the school. The cost of hiring the officer would be partially reimbursed by the state using federal COVID-19 relief money.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Tuesday that he’s planning a hearing on this week’s collapse of two multi-billion dollar banks. Silicon Valley Bank, the sixteenth-largest bank in the U.S., was shut down by regulators following a rush of investors withdrawing funds, driven by concerns over the bank’s solvency.

Sen. Ted Cruz took to social media to ask if the Chinese government influenced a speech former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave Sunday at the South by Southwest conference, where she urged the audience not to “go after China.” The comment came as the Democratic lawmaker was urging global cooperation to stop climate change during a series on the “Future of Democracy.” “Here’s the thing, you can’t just go after China with a cudgel.

Former Rep. Pat Schroeder, who was a pioneer for women’s and family rights in Congress, died Monday night, her former press secretary said. She was 82. She represented Colorado’s 1st Congressional district from 1973-1997. Andrea Camp, Schroeder’s former press secretary, said the former lawmaker suffered a stroke recently and died at a hospital in Celebration, Florida, where she has been living in recent years. “Pat Schroeder blazed the trail.

Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee are reportedly bailing from attending a field hearing in Texas about the border crisis. Committee chairman Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., told Fox News about Democratic members pulling out of the hearing, in which U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz was set to testify at.

The first chief of staff to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is siding against her former boss following his decision to cut ties between his state and nationwide pharmacy chain Walgreens after it decided to stop distributing an abortion pill in a number of Republican-leaning states. Attorney Ann O’Leary, who also served as a senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton and is well-known in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. government may have made duplicate payments for projects at labs in Wuhan, China, through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), according to records reviewed by CBS News. “What I’ve found so far is evidence that points to double billing, potential theft of government funds.

Reports the Biden administration is considering reinstating migrant family detention at the southern border sparked outrage from immigration activists, but former Trump administration officials are skeptical about how useful such policy initiatives from the Biden administration would be if implemented. “It’s just 180 degrees from what their strategy has been.

Oregon lawmakers are aiming to make the state the second in the nation to mandate climate change lessons for K-12 public school students, further fueling U.S. culture wars in education. Dozens of Oregon high schoolers submitted support of the bill, saying they care about climate change deeply.

The Biden administration is reportedly poised to approve a massive northern Alaska oil drilling project that is forecast to create thousands of jobs and 600 million barrels of oil over its 30-year lifespan, sending eco-warriors into a frenzy about the “existential threat” the project poses to the climate.

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday spoke to Iranian anti-regime activists in Washington, D.C., and warned that the Biden administration’s efforts to re-enter the embattled 2015 nuclear deal would pave a path “in gold” to a nuclear weapon.

Two of the United States’ top health agencies have sent a letter to the surgeon general of Florida, accusing him of misleading the public on COVID-19 vaccine side effects.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the joint letter to Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Friday. DR.

The United States and the United Kingdom are taking sweeping efforts to crack down on asylum claims by migrants who have entered their country illegally – as their leaders face political pressure over ongoing migrant crises. “If you enter Britain illegally, you will be detained and swiftly removed,” U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman said in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is hospitalized in Washington, D.C., after he fell Wednesday night. McConnell was attending a private dinner at a hotel in the nation’s capital when he tripped, Spokesman David Popp confirmed to Fox News Digital. The 81-year-old politician was taken to an area hospital to be treated. The extent of his injuries, if any, were not immediately known.

An effort to effectively reinstate Arkansas’ blocked ban on gender-affirming care for minors by making it easier to sue doctors who provide such treatments was approved Wednesday by lawmakers. The bill approved by the House allows someone who received gender-affirming care as a minor to file a malpractice lawsuit against their doctor for up to 15 years after they turn 18.

A Chesapeake, Virginia city council member was indicted on Tuesday for alleged financial exploitation of two elderly relatives, one of whom had Alzheimer’s disease, according to reports. WAVY-TV in Norfolk reported that a grand jury indicted Amanda Newins, an attorney practicing in the Commonwealth, with a felony financial crime.

The world bought 928 billion face masks at a cost of $389 billion during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to recently compiled data. With a global population of 8 billion, that means about 116 masks were purchased for every person alive from 2020 to 2022. News of the massive investment comes amid new research indicating that face masks may have not been effective in combating COVID.