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Monday, February 27, 2023

Don't miss The Daybreak Daily — scroll to the bottom of these top news stories

Supreme Court to Hear Student Loan Forgiveness Case on Tuesday

Wall Street Journal: The Supreme Court will consider sharp curbs to the power of the executive branch in a case beginning Tuesday, potentially diluting the influence of future presidents for years to come. The conflict between the executive and the judiciary that has been growing in recent years will be on view when the court hears arguments over the Biden administration’s roughly $400 billion plan to forgive federal student debt for tens of millions of borrowers. Two cases before the court give the justices an opportunity to set strict limits over the president’s ability to implement policies without explicit authorization from Congress. The move would limit President Biden’s ambitions at a moment when he faces few prospects for legislative breakthroughs (Wall Street Journal). Fox News: Biden this month announced he would stop classifying COVID as a national emergency May 11. These federal declarations have been in place since early 2020 in the Trump administration, waiving, pausing or modifying a range of areas, including Medicaid, Medicare, private health insurance, vaccines, telework and immigration (Fox News).

US Energy Dept. Backs Covid Lab Leak Theory

Wall Street Journal: The U.S. Energy Department has concluded that the Covid pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak, according to a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress. The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided (Wall Street Journal). Michael Shellenberger: Now that the U.S. Department of Energy has joined FBI in concluding that the coronavirus likely leaked from a lab, it’s worth remembering that the media, en masse, condemned the lab leak theory as a “debunked conspiracy theory,” and Facebook censored people who dared suggest it (Twitter).

President Biden Has No Plans to Visit East Palestine, OH

Daily Wire: President Joe Biden defended his decision to not visit East Palestine, Ohio, this month after a massive train derailment led to a toxic spill that is impacting the local community. The catastrophic February 3 train derailment in the small Ohio community was caused by an overheated wheel bearing on the 23rd of 149 rail cars. Local officials subsequently evacuated all residents within one mile of the accident and started a controlled burn of the vinyl chloride that the train was transporting in an effort to prevent a massive explosion from occurring (Daily Wire). RNC Research: Biden smirks and immediately gets very defensive when a journalist tells him the mayor of East Palestine, Ohio, “says he saw you in Ukraine, and he says, ‘It tells you he doesn’t care about us'” (Twitter).

University of North Carolina Bars Mandatory DEI Statements for Staff, Students

Daily Mail: The University of North Carolina (UNC) has voted to ban students and staff from being forced to make diversity, equity and inclusion statements. It comes just days after another North Carolina school – N.C. State University – reversed a requirement asking applicants to answer an essay question affirming the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda (Daily Mail). Fox News: Kenny Xu, President of Color Us United, which advocates for a race blind society told Fox News Digital that his organization has been leading a campaign to remove DEI from medical education practice, but he believes the move by UNC will have implications for higher education across the country. Color Us United wrote a petition to get the Dean of the UNC Medical School to denounce DEI, which required diversity statements in the hiring and promotion process (Fox News).

South Carolina Considers New Taxes Targeting Those Moving to the State

Daily Wire: A “Yankee tax” advanced in the South Carolina state Senate this week which would tack on extra fees to those moving to the Palmetto State when they register their cars. The tax, proposed by Republican State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, would add on an additional $250 fee to the $250 already paid by new transplants to register their vehicles. The money would go toward infrastructure in the state. Goldfinch, who represents coastal counties near Charleston, said the intent of the measure was not to slow down the influx of new residents but to generate more revenue for the state to improve infrastructure (Daily Wire). New York Post: His proposal comes after droves of people from the northeast have moved down to South Carolina in recent years. According to the U.S. Census, nearly half a million people moved to the Palmetto state in the past decade. People flocked to the southeast during the pandemic and stayed due to a host of reason including work flexibility, lower taxes, and warmer weather (New York Post).

China Ponders Providing Russia with Deadly Arms, Drones for Ukraine War

Wall Street Journal: U.S. officials say China is considering delivering artillery and drones to Russian forces that could prolong the war, even as Beijing called for peace talks to end the fighting on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The officials said no weapons deliveries have yet taken place. But, if China were to go ahead and deliver lethal aid to Russia, the resulting tensions could shape Western relations with Beijing for years and potentially have profound consequences on the battlefield in Ukraine, at a point when both sides are gearing up for a spring offensive (Wall Street Journal). CBS: From a Chinese perspective it is important that Russia is not defeated, according to Michael A. Horowitz, a geopolitical and security analyst, and head of intelligence at Le Beck consultancy. Beijing, he said, had “already been providing Russia with significant support, be it in the form of increased oil imports, dual-use components, micro-chips imported from Western countries and satellite imagery” (CBS).

Mexico Undergoes Mass Protests as Government Seeks to Change Electoral Authority

Reuters: Huge crowds gathered in Mexico on Sunday to condemn government moves to shrink the electoral authority as a threat to democracy, in what appeared to be the largest protest so far against President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration. Organizers said over 500,000 people turned out in Mexico City, with video footage on social media showing the central Zocalo square filled with protesters, who also spilled out into adjoining streets. One police officer nearby said he had heard the half a million figure, while others gave lower estimates. Mexico’s Congress on Wednesday approved a major overhaul of the National Electoral Institute (INE), an independent body which Lopez Obrador has attacked as corrupt and inefficient (Reuters). Anne Applebaum: View from above (Twitter).

30 Years Have Passed Since World Trade Center Bombing

Townhall: On a snowy February day thirty years ago, Manhattan was rocked by an explosion in the public parking garage under the World Trade Center. A cell of Islamic extremist terrorists had parked a rented Ford Econoline van packed full of some 1,200 pounds of explosives there, hoping to topple the Twin Towers and kill Americans with the goal of pressuring the United States to rescind its support for Israel. At 12:18 p.m. on February 26, 1993, the explosives were detonated via a fuse that gave the terrorist bombers time to make an escape. Even though the terrorists were unsuccessful in bringing down either of the Twin Towers that day, the explosion left a stories-deep crater beneath the World Trade Center, sent smoke pouring upward into the Twin Towers, and officially claimed six lives while injuring more than 1,000 as tens of thousands of people fought through smoke-filled stairwells to evacuate the World Trade Center (Townhall). FDNY: 30 years ago, FDNY members battled fire in the unstable collapse area of the parking garage below 2 World Trade Center, while others climbed the tower, searching for and evacuating civilians. Six people were killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and over 1,000 injured (Twitter).

Kamala Harris Calls Pro-Life Citizens “Extremists” in Defense of Abortion

Life News: Kamala Harris trashed pro-life Americans on Friday, calling them “extremists” and defending abortion as a “fundamental freedom.” Harris met with leaders from the nation’s most aggressively pro-abortion groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL, to promote killing more babies with the dangerous abortion pill. During the meeting, Harris claims pro-life Americans who want to protect babies from abortions are “extremists” who oppose health care even though killing a baby and injuring women in abortions is the opposite of health care. “This is not just an attack on women’s fundamental freedoms. It is an attack on the very foundation of our public health system,” Harris said (Life News).

10.

New Mexico to Hunt Cows from Helicopters

Spencer Brown: This weekend, cows roaming in southwest New Mexico’s Gila National Forest are being hunted from helicopters after the United States Forest Service (USFS) decided to move forward with plans to use “lethal methods” to “remove…approximately 150 head of cattle” in Gila National Forest’s second chopper hunt in as many years. Despite the federal reserve covering more than three million acres, apparently these 150 cows need to be gunned down from above “to protect public safety, threatened and endangered species habitats, water quality, and the natural character of the Gila Wilderness.” The Forest Service says the cattle set to be shot from helicopters are “feral” and “have been aggressive towards wilderness visitors, graze year-round, and trample stream banks and springs, causing erosion and sedimentation.” So, your tax dollars at work: funding chopper cow hunters that will leave some 65 tons of otherwise good beef to decompose in a national forest because otherwise 150 cows might trample some grass in the three million acre reserve (Townhall).

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