Battleground States

Massachusetts middle school student Liam Morrison was reportedly told again to remove his shirt Friday, one that said, “There Are Censored Genders,” which he wore to protest his school’s alleged decision to censor his right to free speech. Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI) said it is now preparing to take legal action on behalf of Liam and his parents “to vindicate Liam’s right to speak truth in a culture inundated by lies.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken wasn’t straight with congress about his communications with President Joe Biden’s ne’er-do-well son Hunter, according to emails and a transcript of a 2022 interview first reported by The Star News Network.  Now, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), whose committees have long investigated allegations of Biden family corruption, are demanding the Secretary of State “produce and preserve” all records related to his correspondence with Hunter Biden.

There’s a lot of chatter on social media about recalling Katie Hobbs from the Arizona Governor’s Office since many believe she won due to election fraud. Some groups are raising money to fund an organized recall effort. 

A recall has been started to remove the president of the Washington Elementary School District (WESD) Governing Board, Nikkie Gomez-Whaley. Gomez-Whaley presided over the board’s unanimous decision to terminate the district’s contract with Arizona Christian University (ACU) for student teachers due to the university’s religious viewpoints. A second recall effort is being planned to oust board member Tamilia Valenzuela, who led the move to terminate the contract, but state law provides that it cannot begin until she has been in office for six months.  Susan Bidell, who has a son and grandchildren in the district and who volunteers in the schools, told The Arizona Sun Times, “We don’t need social justice warriors on the board. We need people who want to serve the teachers, the parents, the students, and the staff of the district. Instead they point their finger and lecture us about things at the board meetings.” 

Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation wants answers from federal health agencies following recent revelations of a biosafety lab incident at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The so-called gain-of-function experiments at Wisconsin’s flagship public university shine a brighter light on the same scientific practices used in a lab in Wuhan, China that are suspected of unleashing the COVID-19 pandemic on the world. 

On Monday, a legislative committee passed a bill a cosponsor admits would force Pennsylvania physicians to provide treatments meant to mask a gender-dysphoric person’s biological sex. A measure supporters call the “Fairness Act” and tout as an anti-discrimination bill passed the Democrat-controlled Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee on a 12-9 party-line vote. In a speech defending the bill, cosponsoring Representative Emily Kinkead (D-Bellevue) confirmed assertions by the legislation’s opponents that it would compel doctors to deliver “gender-affirming” medicine. 

Campaigning in Des Moines’ Beaverdale neighborhood Sunday, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told The Iowa Star that Secretary of State Antony Blinken should face serious consequences if it turns out he was the point man for a disinformation campaign on Hunter Biden’s notorious laptop.  “It’s prosecution worthy,” the Ohio businessman told The Iowa Star after speaking to veterans at the Beaverdale VFW Post 9127. 

The Sun Prairie Area School District failed to protect four freshman girls from being exposed to the genitals of an 18-year-old biological male — identifying as a transgender woman — who was showering in the girls’ locker room, according to a Milwaukee-based public service law firm.   In a letter to the woke Madison-area school district, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) alleges the “alarming incident” in early March not only violated the girls’ privacy rights, but district administrators’ “completely inadequate” response continues to put Sun Prairie students in further danger. 

Coconino County Judge Amy Kriddle has issued an injunction against harassment barring a journalist from approaching State Sen. Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff). The order said that Arizona Capitol Times reporter Camryn Sanchez shall have no contact with Rogers except through attorneys, the legal process, and hearings, and may not go near Rogers’ residences.  Rogers tweeted on Thursday, “Creepy @azcapitoltimes reporter @CamrynSanchezAZ has been stalking me and my neighbors at my private residences with no explanation. A judge just issued a restraining order against her for her bizarre behavior. See photos.” Rogers attached three photos of Sanchez outside her door, along with the restraining order. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced his bid for the 2024 Democrat presidential nomination Wednesday by promising to end the “toxic” polarization in America that has grown so “dangerous,” he said, “than at any time since the Civil War.” The lifelong Democrat, whose family was portrayed for decades, by an infatuated media, as American royalty, now appears to be an outlier in his party’s current far-left worldview, and is even attracting some conservatives.

The Moore County School Board in North Carolina voted Monday night to approve a “parents’ bill of rights” policy that requires school personnel to notify parents if their children desire pronoun and name changes in keeping with a new gender identification. The policy, which passed by a vote of 6-1, requires that teachers in the district’s schools notify parents of a child’s claim of a desire for pronoun or name change before making the changes in school, reported WRAL.

Well over two months have passed since a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, less than a mile from Pennsylvania’s border, and President Joe Biden hasn’t visited affected communities in either state. Pennsylvania lawmakers are urging him to do so.  Six weeks ago Biden said he would “be out there at some point.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether he has yet scheduled a visit. (Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg first went to the site more than two weeks after the derailment.)

A Republican Ohio House Representative introduced legislation to make homeschooling approval easier for Ohio families. House Bill (HB) 127, sponsored by State Representative Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula), aims to only require the superintendent of a school to acknowledge a parent or caretaker’s intent to home school.

Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy said he would shut down a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives  (ATF) that is “beyond repair” and expand Second Amendment rights if he is elected president.  The political outsider vying for the Republican Party’s nomination laid out his gun rights agenda in a speech Friday to the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Indianapolis. 

An LGBTQ activist group’s video series features Biden’s top Health and Human Services (HHS) official Rachel [Richard] Levine, M.D. celebrating an influx of LGBTQ individuals into the medical field and the idea that gender ideology is now expanding in medical school training. In a video from the series called “Authentic Voices of Pride,” produced by LGBTQ Nation, Levine, the assistant secretary for health at HHS, says it is important for healthcare providers to offer “culturally competent care,” a narrative of the Biden administration that uses the Marxist strategy of labeling a campaign that intends to be divisive with a seemingly innocuous name to make it easy to condemn those who disagree with it.