Team Trump Should Do More Vetting Before Jumping On The Burgum Bandwagon
There are far more questions that need to be answered.There are far more questions that need to be answered.EPA Emission Rules Threaten To Shut Down Power Grid For Millions
President Joe Biden's climate agenda is likely to deliver blackouts for millions, according to a North Dakota state assessment of EPA rules.The Ruling Class Screwed Over Manufacturing Towns Like East Palestine Long Before A Train Derailed
Even with all the attention it has recently received, East Palestine is easy to miss.
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Poll: Less than 1/4 of Ohioans support the unlimited abortion outlined in issue 1
Bud Light’s Brand Is So Trashed It Can’t Even Give Beer Away For Free
Beer drinkers want nothing to do with Anheuser-Busch's product after it used Dylan Mulvaney to push radical gender ideology.Ohio's Republican governor will sign a bill allowing school employees to carry guns
Public schools in the state of Ohio will be able to begin arming employees as soon as this upcoming fall under legislation recently passed by the state legislature that will soon be signed by the state’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine.
The Associated Press reported that Ohio Democrats opposed the legislation despite it being optional for schools. Ohio Democrats argued that passing and signing the bill into law sends the wrong message in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas massacre in which a lone gunman killed 19 school children and two teachers.
Despite Democratic opposition, the Republican majority in the state’s legislature insisted that the measure could prevent future tragedies like the one in Uvalde. State lawmakers subsequently fast-tracked the legislation to counter the impact of a court ruling that said, under current state law, armed school workers would need hundreds of hours of training to be permitted to carry a firearm while on the clock.
The Statehouse News Bureau, a regional Ohio-based media outlet, reported that the new legislation reduces the amount of training for school personnel to 24 hours from 700.
Gov. DeWine insisted that the bill will, in fact, protect children by ensuring that the firearm training that school employees will now receive will be specific to respective schools and school systems and will include “significant” scenario-based training.
DeWine said, “Ultimately, each school will make its own decision. So we’re not telling any school district – we have over 600 school districts in the state – the school board of that school will decide whether they want to arm teachers or not.”
He continued, “We will also be giving schools the choice of providing additional training, that we will stake out [and] provide for if they decide that they want more than 24 hours for a teacher.”
Reportedly, major law enforcement groups, gun control advocates, and the state’s teachers’ unions oppose the legislation and requested that DeWine veto it. It is not clear whether they provided alternative policy proposals.
Notably, local police departments and certain school districts within the state expressed support for the legislation.
In the latest version of the legislation, school employees who carry guns will need eight hours of requalification training annually in order to recertify their ability to carry while on school grounds.
DeWine is expected to sign the bill into law later this month. He also recently announced that the state’s construction budget will provide $100 million for school security upgrades and $5 million for security upgrades at colleges across the state.
St. Louis hopes to boost its population by importing Afghan refugees
The city of St. Louis, Missouri hopes to grow its population by luring Afghan refugees to settle in the city so that it can offset its 70 years of population loss.
The Associated Press reported that there is an “aggressive effort” within the city to attract large swaths of the more than 76,000 Afghans who fled their country after its capital city of Kabul was ceded to the Taliban.
Currently, the city is home to about 600 Afghan refugees and another 750 are expected to arrive later this year.
The Associated Press reported various city and community leaders are “hopeful that over the next few years, thousands more will decide to relocate” to St. Louis and “offset seven decades of population loss.”
Reportedly, city officials see courting Afghan refugees as crucial to beginning a process of urban rejuvenation similar to how the arrival of Bosnian refugees spurred along a similar process in the 1990s.
In the 1990s, St. Louis was the most popular destination for Bosnians who were displaced by the war in the former Balkan nation of Yugoslavia. Of the estimated 300,000 Bosnian refugees who sought entry into the U.S., roughly 40,000 now call the greater-St. Louis region their home.
The St. Louis Afghan Resettlement Initiative is backed by more than $1 million in donations and has more than 800 volunteers at its disposal. The initiative has support from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, the International Institute of St. Louis, and other nonprofit groups throughout the city.
Reportedly, advocates for the refugee resettlement initiative haven’t encountered any opposition.
Jerry Schlichter, an attorney who is an organizer and major funder of the program, said that the initiative will help Afghan refugees find housing and jobs, connect newly arrived refugees with professional development resources such as classes on computer coding, and will provide them with grants for business startups.
Schlichter said, “There’s a mutual need. We have been stagnant. With this one-time opportunity with Afghan refugees ending up somewhere in this country, we should take advantage of it.”
Arrey Obenson, the president and CEO of the International Institute of St. Louis, said that he is confident the new refugees will revitalize the city’s neighborhoods.
“The reality of the circumstance we face is that if we look at St. Louis city and the rate the population is declining, we have to find a way to bring people into the community to turn that around,” Obenson said.
Ohio Senate candidate Mike Gibbons says middle-class Americans don't pay 'any kind of fair share' of income taxes
Mike Gibbons, who is currently the leading Republican Senate candidate from Ohio, finds himself in hot water for previously saying that the American middle-class doesn't pay "any kind of fair share" of the country's income taxes.
Gibbons, a millionaire investment banker turned politician, made the comments in a September episode of "The Landscape" podcast at a media event in 2021.
Gibbons said, "The top 20% of earners in the United States pay 82% of federal income tax — and, if you do the math, and 45% to 50% don't pay any income tax, you can see the middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share, depending on how you want to define it."
The Associated Press reported that Gibbons's comments could "take on new resonance" after United States Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) — who leads the Senate Republicans' campaign apparatus — debuted a policy strategy that called to raise taxes on Americans who currently don't earn enough money to pay federal income taxes. The tax hike would increase taxes on millions of Americans.
In the video where Gibbons makes this comment, the candidate is sitting in front of a campaign backdrop and condemns Democrats for spreading an "absolutely false" narrative suggesting that "the middle class is getting screwed and the wealthy, the elite, are cheating everybody."
Ohio GOP Senate candidate Mike Gibbons on a Crain\u2019s Cleveland Business podcast: \n\n\u201cThe top 20% of earners in the U.S. pay 82% of federal income tax \u2014 and, you do the math, and 45% to 50% don\u2019t pay any income tax\u2026 The middle class is not really paying any kind of a fair share.\u201dpic.twitter.com/VUYzPTlqmX— Heartland Signal (@Heartland Signal) 1649459301
Gibbons suggested that the Democrats use this rhetoric because they "need the middle class to win an election."
He also went on to say that he doesn't mind the utilization of a "progressive tax system structure" but went on to say that wealthy Americans already pay a lot in taxes.
Gibbons's comments garnered considerable ire online.
Steve Cortes — a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump and Newsmax host — lambasted Gibbons as a "gazillionaire who made a fortune doing business with the Chinese Communists."
Nan Whaley — the former Democratic Mayor of Dayton who is currently running in Ohio's Democratic gubernatorial primary — said, "This is exactly why we need to elect more leaders from the middle-class."
Riley Moore — the State Treasurer of West Virginia — said, "Ohio, please don't elect this man. He will continue failed policies that have been destroying the middle class of this great country."
A spokesperson for Gibbons's campaign told TheBlaze that "Mike Gibbons does not support tax increases on any Americans – and never has."
"Mike is a businessman, not a career politician and he understands economics and how to implement smart ideas and strategies that will benefit all Americans," the spokesperson continued. "As a conservative Mike has pledged that he will not raise taxes and will put forth pro-growth, America First policies."
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