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 Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee labeled the border a “crisis” and demanded Thursday that the panel hold a hearing to explore the Biden administration’s troubled handling of the situation. Led by Rep. James Comer, the ranking Republican, all GOP lawmakers on the oversight committee said Democrats themselves should want to hold the hearing to get to the bottom of the Biden team’s use of unlicensed facilities to hold illegal immigrant children — something Democrats complained about when the Trump administration did it. “This Committee must schedule a hearing to conduct oversight of the welfare of migrant children being held in these container facilities,” the lawmakers wrote to Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, New York Democrat and chair of the panel. “The Committee should also examine the Biden Administration’s plan for reducing the overall numbers of unaccompanied children arriving illegally at the southern border, as well as its plans for handling the current surge.” The Republicans last month also requested a hearing to examine school closures in the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic. In the new letter, they said “both American children and migrant children are in crisis.” Biden's border wall halt creates smugglers' highway, sheriff says President Biden’s decision to stop border wall construction forced crews to put down tools and walk away in the middle of work — and left the border less secure than ever in some places, according to an Arizona sheriff whose county covers 83 miles of the boundary. There are locations where contractors had built the high-speed roads that are part of the border wall system, and which Border Patrol agents are able to use to patrol the new barrier. But when the stop-work order came down, they had not built the actual wall yet. Pentagon's 'anti-extremism' cull risks converting U.S. military 'into a left-wing Praetorian Guard'  The Pentagon is trying to root out political “extremism” in the ranks, but its definition is so broad and blurry that some retired officers and military analysts fear it could inadvertently sweep up traditional Catholics, Republicans and others who aren’t racist or violent but simply embrace conservative, pro-life politics. The potential unintended consequences of the Defense Department’s anti-extremism push, critics say, could be far-reaching and in a worst-case scenario could hurt military recruiting in the long run if religious Americans or those on the political right feel unwelcome in the ranks. The Biden administration has been doing a full court press to root out extremists in the security forces, spurred largely by the number of active-service members, veteran soldiers and members of law enforcement in the clashes at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. House Passes Radical HR1 Election Bill  House Democrats passed sweeping voting and ethics legislation over unanimous Republican opposition, advancing to the Senate what would be the largest overhaul of the U.S. election law in at least a generation. House Resolution 1, which touches on virtually every aspect of the electoral process, was approved Wednesday night on a near party-line 220-210 vote. The bill aims to counter voting rights safeguards advancing in Republican-controlled statehouses across the country in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen 2020 election. It faces an uncertain fate in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it has little chance of passing without changes to procedural rules that currently allow Republicans to block it. Joe Biden Promises Unity; The Equality Act Swings A Culture War Sword The Equality Act would enshrine into law the left’s ideological extremism on three of the most divisive issues of the day: sex, abortion, and religious liberty. Joe Biden ran on the promise of uniting America. Yet last week his fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives passed the so-called Equality Act—a bill that if enacted into law promises to irrevocably divide this country. While sold as civil rights legislation necessary to protect LGBTQ people from unjust discrimination, the statutory language of the Equality Act would instead enshrine into law the left’s ideological extremism on three of the most divisive issues of the day: sex, abortion, and religious liberty. By redefining “sex” to include sex stereotypes and gender identity—defined broadly to mean an individual’s gender appearance, mannerisms, characteristics, or self-defined gender identity—the Equality Act demands American businesses, non-profit organizations, schools, employers, and state and local municipalities ignore reality and consider biological men as women, and vice versa. An individual need only declare an opposite-sex “gender identity” to “change” his sex under the law. Canceled: Conservative comic strip 'Mallard Fillmore' dropped in 'unprecedented' move The conservative comic strip “Mallard Fillmore” has been plucked. Bruce Tinsley, creator of the 27-year-old cartoon, said he was told this week by his syndication company that Gannett newspapers across the country simultaneously dropped the comic over two strips critical of President Biden and transgender participation in women’s sports. “It was a big shock,” Mr. Tinsley told The Washington Times. “From what I’m hearing, it was unprecedented. My syndicate had never seen anything like it.” Catholics urged by U.S. church leadership to avoid Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine  Catholic leaders are urging the faithful to avoid the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine if they can because it is produced using cell lines derived from abortions decades ago. But the vaccines themselves do not contain fetal tissue and the manufacturing lines use lab-grown cells — not the initial tissue. The Vatican in December said it is “morally acceptable” to get COVID-19 vaccines, citing the harm from the pandemic and the fact that recipients did not play a role in the long-ago abortions that sparked the cell lines. But the Archdiocese of New Orleans kicked off a debate this week by dubbing the J&J vaccine “morally compromised,” as the Catholic Church opposes abortion. Great apes at San Diego Zoo first non-humans to receive shot...
'Masks required' signs coming down after TX, MS lift restrictions... Schools and stores divided... NEW VARIANT SPREADS IN NYC... Spring Break Mayhem Coming for Florida... Some Experience Delayed Rashes After Shots... WHO says cases rising in Europe after six weeks of decline... Biden relents, agrees to curtail stimulus checks in COVID-19 relief package President Biden bowed to pressure from moderate Democrats on Wednesday and agreed to tighten the eligibility for the $1,400 stimulus checks handed out as part of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Mr. Biden hoped to deliver a bipartisan “American Rescue Plan,” but the negotiations boiled down to settling differences among congressional Democrats while Republican opposition solidified over concerns that the spending was excessive and scattershot. Mr. Biden and Democrats on Capitol Hill also agreed to keep $400-per-week enhanced unemployment benefits in the deal. Biden's crumbling Cabinet: Becerra in peril for HHS slot after Tanden bailed from OMB California attorney general's lack of health-care experience, religious-freedom stances cited Another Biden Cabinet pick found himself in trouble Wednesday as Republicans set their sights on health secretary nominee Xavier Becerra, calling into question his qualifications and “radical” political record a day after the withdrawal of Neera Tanden. The Senate Finance Committee split 14-14 along party lines on Mr. Becerra’s bid to head the Health and Human Services Department. The nomination was sent to the full Senate for debate and two floor votes, as conservative groups put pressure on swing Democrats to oppose the selection. The signs of trouble came a day after President Biden pulled at her request the nomination of Ms. Tanden to head the Office of Management Budget once it became clear that years of pointed social-media jabs against lawmakers in both parties had poisoned her chances. Video of Joe Biden's Live Feed Cut Off After Asking for Questions Viewed One Million Times The sudden cutting off of a virtual discussion live feed held by President Joe Biden and House Democrats after he opened the floor to questions has been widely viewed on social media. During the session from the White House briefing room on Wednesday, Biden had urged fellow Democrats to make the case for the COVID relief package to their constituents. At the end of the speech, Biden said: "I'm happy to take questions, if that's what I'm supposed to do Nance," referring to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had introduced him at the start of his address. GOP State Lawmakers Look to Nullify Federal Gun Limits With Democrats controlling the presidency and Congress, Republican state lawmakers concerned about the possibility of new federal gun control laws aren't waiting to react. Legislation in at least a dozen states seeks to nullify any new restrictions, such as ammunition limits or a ban on certain types of weapons. Some bills would make it a crime for local police officers to enforce federal gun laws. That can create confusion for officers who often work with federal law enforcement, said Daniel Isom, a former chief of the St. Louis Police Department who is now a senior adviser for Everytown for Gun Safety. Federal law plays a big role in some areas, such as keeping guns away from domestic violence offenders. Affordable Care Act: The bad idea that will not die Democrats' scheme in COVID plan would move U.S. one step closer to government-rationed health care Like many things tried by the federal government, the Affordable Care Act has been a failure. The good news for advocates of government-run health care is that in Washington, failing upwards is a tradition. In this case, the failure has only emboldened them to try to spend even more money and do more damage to the health care system. The ACA — which, to be clear, was health insurance restructuring, not health care reform — was supposed to have about 25 million people enrolled in its exchanges by now. Enrollment has been stuck at about 10 million people since 2015. Woke capitalism's upcoming backlash Republicans' reflexive support of big business is at an end In the last month, Disney slapped an offensive content warning on “The Muppet Show,” Coca-Cola urged its workers to “be less white” as part of its diversity training, Hasbro rebranded Mr. Potato Head as gender neutral, Dr. Seuss Enterprises stopped publishing of six his books for “racist and insensitive imagry,” and Amazon halted online sales of a conservative book on transgender issues it had marketed for about three years. So-called woke capitalism isn’t slowing down — it’s accelerating at a pace few could have predicted after last summer’s Black Lives Matter movement, when many corporations dove head-first into marketing and posturing for the progressive cause. Yet, there are signs of an upcoming backlash — that those sitting in the C-suite of Fortune 500 firms should pay attention to.
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