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‘Not forgotten’: 150 missing Tennessee children recovered in Operation Volunteer Strong (video)

USA Today reports:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A coordinated effort led to the recovery of 150 missing children across Tennessee, the state’s Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday. 

Operation Volunteer Strong launched Jan. 4 after 240 missing children were identified in the state. A series of “two-week blitzes” led to the recovery of 150 of those children, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release. 

At least five of the children were potential victims of human trafficking, according to the release. Cases are still open for each of them. One child was rescued during a kidnapping investigation, resulting in the arrest of a suspect. 

Members of the operation spoke during a news briefing Wednesday at the TBI headquarters in Nashville.

“I hope this operation changes the course for 150 young lives and leads them to the path of opportunities every child deserves,” said Tyreece Miller, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Tennessee. “Our efforts should also serve notice to those who prey on society’s most vulnerable that these children are not forgotten. Investigations will continue and the next knock at the door could be for you.”

Operation Lost Angels:Investigation finds 33 missing children in Southern California, FBI says

The operation was a joint effort with the TBI, U.S. Marshals Service and Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided research and analytical support during the operation.

“Operation Volunteer Strong is a great example of how working together, we can find missing children and get them the help they need to move forward,” said John Clark, NCMEC’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We’re thrilled to see so many missing children recovered in Tennessee, and we thank all the agencies involved for their dedication to child protection.”

Similar operations in Ohio, Georgia, Indiana and other states succeeded in taking more than 440 children “out of harm’s way” in 2020, Virginia’s Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said in a news release following the recovery of 27 children in November.

The U.S. Marshals in October announced the recovery of 45 missing children, resulting in 179 arrests, during Operation Autumn Hope across Ohio. It was the second such mission in the Buckeye State, after Operation Safety Net, which in August led to the discovery of 25 missing children in less than three weeks.

“Rescued from this evil”:179 arrested, 45 missing children recovered in Ohio’s Operation Autumn Hope

Also in 2020, Operation Not Forgotten in Georgia led to the recovery of 39 children in August and Operation Homecoming in September found eight missing children in Indiana.

While the formal Tennessee operation has concluded, efforts to find the remaining 90 missing children identified continue, TBI spokesperson Josh DeVine said.

Most of the children recovered will receive support from the state’s DCS, including possible placement into foster homes, group homes or other specialized care, the release said. 

Hundreds of children go missing every month in Tennessee, whether as the result of runaway situations, custody battles, kidnappings or other circumstances, said TBI Director David Rausch. 

‘Out of harm’s way’:US Marshals Service leads recovery of 27 missing children in Virginia’s ‘Operation Find Our Children’

“Every single one of them deserves a fighting chance, and that’s why they also deserve our best work to help them,” Rausch said. 

Middle District Tennessee U.S. Marshal Denny King echoed that sentiment. 

“We can’t give up. We need the public, the media and all law enforcement to not give up,” King said. “If you see something, or know something, say something. We cannot give up and stop searching for our most vulnerable and those who cannot help themselves.”

Follow Rachel Wegner on Twitter @rachelannwegner.

Contributing: Steve Kiggins and Jordan Culver, USA TODAY

Michael Brown’s Dad Demands $20M From BLM

The father of a Black man killed in Ferguson, Missouri, by police is now demanding money from Black Lives Matter after the organization disclosed it had raised over $90 million last year.

Michael Brown was fatally shot in Aug. 2014 after reportedly getting into an altercation with a cop after the officer stopped him and another man as they were walking along a street. Race had been a focal point in the incident involving the unarmed Brown and the white police officer. 

Piaget Crenshaw said she was sitting in her home when she witnessed the shooting. She captured video of the aftermath, including images of Brown’s body lying in the middle of the street.

Crenshaw said Brown was running away from police and then turned around. She said that was when Brown was shot.

Police provided a different narrative, saying Brown struggled with the officer and reached for his weapon.  ​

The shooting sparked riots in the following days in the St. Louis suburb.

Other activists from Ferguson are joining Brown’s dad, Michael Brown Sr., in his demands, according to the New York Post.

“Where is all that money going?” Brown Sr. asked in a statement from the International Black Freedom Alliance.

Brown and the others want $20 million from the group to help their community, the Post said.

They claim the shooting helped propel the BLM movement.

“We’re not asking for a handout, but for the funding to keep the movement strong where it began,” said Tory Russell, a Ferguson activist and co-founder of the International Black Freedom Alliance.

The demand came after the BLM foundation revealed that it had raised $90 million last year, much of it after the May 2020 death of George Floyd.

The New York Post reports:

The father of Michael Brown and other activists from Ferguson, Missouri, are demanding financial support from Black Lives Matter after the organization revealed it raised over $90 million last year.

Michael Brown Sr., whose son was fatally shot by a white police officer in August 2014, along with the other activists who helped propel the movement, want $20 million from the group to help their community.

“Where is all that money going?” Brown Sr. asked in a Tuesday press release from the International Black Freedom Alliance.

“How could you leave the families who are helping the community without any funding?”

The police shooting of Michael Brown sparked months of unrest in Ferguson and helped solidify the national Black Lives Matter movement.

“We’re not asking for a handout, but for the funding to keep the movement strong where it began,” said Tory Russell, a Ferguson activist and co-founder of the International Black Freedom Alliance.

The funds in Ferguson would be used in part to build a community center in honor of Michael Brown, the press release said.

Last month the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation shared its funding numbers in an impact report first provided to the Associated Press.

Alan Dershowitz: All Americans Need to Fight Cancel Culture

Harvard Law professor emeritus said that cancel culture needs to be fought by all Americans, after a House subcommittee last week held a hearing to discuss disinformation and extremism in the media.

Dershowitz, who notably defended former President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial last year, said that Americans who subscribe to all political viewpoints—including liberals—should be pushing back. The House subcommittee specifically aimed at cable and satellite carriers that give a voice to conservative-leaning networks.

“I hope all Americans wake up to this,” Dershowitz told Newsmax on Thursday. “I hope it’s not just the ‘shoe is on the other foot’ test. Now, the conservatives are the victims of cancel culture so they’re big supporters of the Constitution and constitutional rights. During McCarthyism, it was the left that were the victims, and the right were the oppressors.”

Going further, he stated that “we need both the right, the left, and also the center to stand united against censorship, against cancel culture, and in favor of the marketplace of ideas.”

“We have the right to flip the channel if we don’t like what’s on Newsmax. Change the channel, but don’t tell the carriers, the satellite carriers, and the cable carriers, to deny us the right to watch Newsmax. That is wrong,” he remarked.

Last month, Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Jerry McEnerney (D-Calif.) sent letters in which they asked whether cable providers should carry Newsmax, Fox News, or One America News Network. The letter was panned by Republicans, who argued that the question suggested that some Democratic lawmakers are seeking to impose authoritarian means on what can and cannot be published. This comes on the heels of a rash of censorship and deplatforming of prominent conservatives by Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Amazon.

A recent poll from Harvard CAPS-Harris found that about 64 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of cancel culture, which is a form of ostracism in which someone is removed from social circles or their job. The concept has also increasingly been applied to books and movies.

This week, the organization that oversees children’s book author Dr. Seuss’s legacy moved to stop publishing six of his books due to allegedly racist or offensive imagery and depictions. The move drew widespread backlash online.

“Americans are showing increased and substantial concern about the growth of cancel culture,” said Mark Penn, the director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey, reported The Hill. “Tech companies beware that the public sees them of acting out of bias tilted towards the Democrats and voters are calling for new regulations to ensure fairness and openness. Amazon, in particular, still has a strong image compared to Facebook and Twitter, but that image may start to erode if they expand the banning of books on their platform.”

YouTube Blacklists Donald Trump’s CPAC Speech, Suspends RSBN Channel

The Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), a conservative news broadcaster, received a two-week suspension from YouTube because it covered President Donald Trump’s speech at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

The video nearly accumulated 4 million views before being censored by the Google-owned platform.

The official Twitter account of RSBN reported the news.

“RSBN has been suspended from YouTube for two weeks because of the Trump #CPAC2021 speech, which violated their guidelines on election misinformation. The video was approaching 4 million views. They have also removed it from their platform.”

RSBN said that it could have avoided a two-week suspension had it added “countervailing viewspoints” to President Trump’s claims about election irregularities. In other words, it was only permissible to upload Trump’s speech if RSBN also criticized it.

“It’s worth noting that according to YouTube’s terms, our video of Trump’s CPAC speech would have been allowed to stay up had we provided “countervailing viewpoints”‘, said RSBN in a statement. “Essentially we would have had to go on air and say everything Trump just said about election fraud is not true.”

“We won’t censor President Trump or push back against things he says that, quite frankly, we agree with.”

YouTube admitted that it censored RSBN over the video of Trump in a comment to Breitbart News.

“We enforce our Community Guidelines consistently, regardless of speaker or political leaning. In accordance with our established presidential election integrity policy, which prohibits content uploaded after the safe harbor deadline claiming widespread fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we removed this video from Right Side Broadcasting Network,” said a YouTube spokeswoman.

Read the full article here.

Explosive New York Times report claims that top Cuomo aides rewrote a report to change nursing home death total months before federal investigation began

An explosive report released by the New York Times on Thursday night alleges that top aides to embattled New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) rewrote a report that was prepared by New York Department of Health Officials in June of 2020 to omit many of the nursing home deaths that had occurred in the state.

The report, which was based on interviews with unnamed officials in Cuomo’s administration, alleges that the numbers were changed out of a desire to protect Cuomo from political fallout relating to his decision to order nursing homes to readmit patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. The changes were made months before the federal investigation into nursing home deaths in New York began — a significant development because aides to Cuomo have claimed that the administration withheld nursing home death data from the legislature because of the pending federal investigation.

According to the report, the controversy in the report centered over whether to include “out of facility” deaths — deaths that occurred when nursing home residents were transferred back to acute care facilities before their death — in the count of nursing home residents who died due to COVID-19. Department of Health officials wanted to include those deaths in the report, consistent with the practice being followed in most states.

However, Cuomo’s aides, none of whom had any public health background or expertise, pushed back on the Department of Health in an exchange that the Times described as having gone “well beyond the usual process of the governor’s office suggesting edits to an agency report,” and led Department of Health officials to worry that the report that was going to be released was “no longer a true scientific report.” The Times reports that health officials “feared for their jobs if they did not go along.”

The Times report also notes that the controversial decision, which was allegedly carried out by top Cuomo aides Melissa DeRosa and Linda Lacewell, was finalized just days before Cuomo sought approval from a state ethics agency to earn money from book sales — ultimately, Cuomo was paid an advance of $783,000 by Harper Collins to write a book about how he handled the pandemic, due in large part to the fact that he had successfully convinced many people that his office had handled the pandemic well.

The report would ultimately declare that Cuomo’s policies with respect to nursing homes were broadly consistent with federal guidance, but “may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities.”

In a response to a request for comment from the Times, Cuomo’s special counsel Beth Garvey said that “the out-of-facility data was omitted after D.O.H. could not confirm it had been adequately verified,” and that the additional death tolls would not have changed the conclusions of the report, if they had been included.

The report is sure to damage Cuomo’s already-fragile standing in the state, after he has been dogged with repeated scandals regarding both his administration’s truthfulness in the handling of nursing home death statistics, and numerous women who have accused the governor of inappropriate behavior and comments. The Cuomo administration’s handling of the nursing home scandal, in particular, is under investigation by both the New York State Attorney General’s office, as well as federal prosecutors.

As the scandal widens, even members of his own party have begun to suggest that he should resign, or that the emergency powers granted to him at the start of the pandemic should be removed.

Read the full article here.

Christians Are Gaining Hope and Confidence During the Pandemic Through Reading the Bible, a Survey Finds

Increased reading of the Bible during the pandemic is leading to Christians feeling hope in God and a sense of confidence in the future, despite what’s happening around them.

Christian News Now reports:

The findings come in a survey for Bible Society, carried out by Christian Research. 

The survey found that reading the Bible was making a big difference to how Christians felt. Forty-two per cent reported that it led to an increased sense of hope in God during the crisis, rising to nearly half (49 per cent) among 45 to 54-year-olds. Some 28 per cent said that reading the Bible had increased their confidence in the future, whilst 63 per cent said that it had enabled their confidence to remain the same, rather than dipping.

‘It’s encouraging to see that the Bible is giving people hope and confidence,’ said Dr Andrew Ollerton, author of The Bible Course. ‘The Bible has the ability to stand over our circumstances as something solid, a reference point in uncertain times. It’s like having felt all at sea, and then having a rock to stand on.’

Twenty-three percent of those surveyed said that the Bible had increased their mental wellbeing, including 47 percent of 24 to 34-year-olds.

Thirty-three per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds reported that reading the Bible had helped them feel less lonely. 

‘Mental health is so important,’ said Dr Ollerton, ‘and the Scriptures are a source of endurance and wellbeing.’

Naomi Campbell with her children Harry and Eben.

Naomi Campbell is a mother-of-two from Jersey who has been shielding throughout the pandemic due to health issues. She said: ‘The verse that has meant a lot to me in all of this is Isaiah 61.3, ‘You have given me a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.’ My life has had a lot of challenges, but all the way along, God has given us the opportunity to see his goodness, his creativity in our lives.

‘That verse has stayed with me during lockdown. This verse has been amazing, actually.

I haven’t been able to be in control of anything during lockdown, and I like to be in control. I like things neat and organised. But this verse tells me that I need to embrace the messiness of life.’

The survey found that people are reading the Bible more during the pandemic. Some 35 per cent of those asked were reading the Bible more during the pandemic. The biggest rise was among 25 to 34-year-olds, where more than half (53 per cent) were reading the Bible more often.

Though many are still reading print editions of the Bible, others are turning to new technology. Twenty-three per cent are now using a Bible-reading app; 30 per cent are now listening to the Bible, and 25 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds questioned said that they had begun reading the Bible during Covid.

As well as reading more, people are also turning to the Bible more frequently than before the pandemic. A quarter of those asked, said that they were reading the Bible ‘multiple times a day’ and half said that they were reading the Bible on a daily basis.

Again, the Bible is proving popular with younger age groups, as 27 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds and 32 per cent of 35 to 44-year-olds reported turning to the Bible several times a day.

Fifty-nine per cent per cent of people surveyed said that they now watched more Bible-related videos or had started watching them.

Bible Society’s resources aimed at helping people make sense of the Bible story have become increasingly popular during the pandemic, with many more people using The Bible Course online. Zoom courses are happening across the country.

Course author Dr Andrew Ollerton said, ‘The Bible is a big story that makes sense of life and a resource, like The Bible Course on Zoom, seems vital now. It’s so easy to run and take part and people are just loving it.’

Read the original article here.

Visit the Bible Society here.

New York Public Library Will Not Pull ‘Canceled’ Dr. Seuss Titles, Says It ‘Does Not Censor Books’

The Daily Wire reports:

The New York Public Library says that it will not pull six “controversial” Dr. Seuss books from shelves and, instead, will keep the books in circulation until the existing copies are worn out.

“The New York Public Library will keep six controversial Dr. Seuss books on the shelves despite this week’s decision to cease their publication due to racist imagery,” the New York Post reported Thursday. “The library, which serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, said it does not censor books and will keep the controversial titles in circulation until they are no longer in suitable shape to lend out, a spokeswoman said.”

“As with all public libraries the New York Public Library does not censor books,” library spokeswoman Angela Montefinise told the Post.

“In this case, the six titles in question are being pulled out of print by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, so the very few copies we have of these titles will continue to circulate until they are no longer in acceptable condition,” she added.

The library, however, will not go out of its way to promote the six titles.

“In the meantime, librarians, who care deeply about serving their communities and ensuring accurate and diverse representation in our collections — especially children’s books — will certainly strongly consider this information when planning storytimes, displays, and recommendations,” Mintefinise said.

The six books — “If I Ran the Zoo,” “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer” — were yanked from publication earlier this week amid allegations that the books contain “racist” and “insensitive” imagery.

“Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprises’ catalog represents and supports all communities and families,” Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the company that owns the rights to publish Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel’s works told the Associated Press.

“Dr. Seuss Enterprises listened and took feedback from our audiences including teachers, academics, and specialists in the field as part of our review process,” the company noted to the AP. “We then worked with a panel of experts, including educators, to review our catalog of titles.”

Read the full article here.

Mississippi Passes Bill To Ban Biological Males From Competing Against Women

The Daily Wire reports:

The Mississippi House and Senate have voted overwhelmingly to ban biological males from being able to compete against women.

In an 81-28 vote, the state House passed the Mississippi Fairness Act on Wednesday. The bill passed in the Senate by a similarly overwhelming vote, 34-9, and now moves to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

“If we do not move to protect female sports from biological males who have an unfair physiological advantage, we will eventually no longer have female sports,” Republican state Sen. Angela Hill told ABC News after the bill passed.

ABC notes that more and more states are considering similar legislation, with “25 states considering such bills this year, compared to 18 last year.”

The Fairness Act reads in part (formatting adjusted):

Interscholastic or intramural athletic teams or sports that are sponsored by a public primary or secondary school or any school that is a member of the Mississippi High School Activities Association or public institution of higher education or any higher education institution that is a member of the NCAA, NAIA or NJCCA shall be expressly designated as one of the following based on biological sex: (a)  “Males,” “men” or “boys”; (b)  “Females,” “women” or “girls”; or (c)  “Coed” or “mixed.” Athletic teams or sports designated for “females,” “women” or “girls” shall not be open to students of the male sex.

If disputed, a student may establish his or her sex by presenting a signed physician’s statement which shall indicate the student’s sex based solely upon: (a) The student’s internal and external reproductive anatomy; (b)  The student’s normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone; and (c)  An analysis of the student’s genetic makeup.

One of the most controversial Executive Orders that Democrat President Joe Biden signed in his first days in office mandated allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports. The order states in part:

Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love. Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports. Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes. People should be able to access healthcare and secure a roof over their heads without being subjected to sex discrimination.  All persons should receive equal treatment under the law, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.

The order “unilaterally eviscerate[d] women’s sports,” author and women’s rights activist Abigail Shrier wrote on Twitter. “Any educational institution that receives federal funding must admit biologically-male athletes to women’s teams, women’s scholarships, etc. A new glass ceiling was just placed over girls.”

Former President Donald Trump slammed Biden and the Democrats during his CPAC speech for not protecting women’s sports.

“Joe Biden and the Democrats are even pushing policies that would destroy women’s sports,” Trump said. “Now, young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males,” Trump added. “It’s not good for women. It’s not good for women’s sports, which worked so long and so hard to get to where they are. The records that stood for years, even decades, are now being smashed with ease, smashed. If this is not changed, women’s sports, as we know it, will die, they’ll end, it’ll end.”

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member. 

Read the full article here.

Yes, There Is A Crisis At The Border

The Federalist reports:

On this episode of “The Federalist Radio Hour,” Federalist Political Editor John Daniel Davidson joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss why, despite the Biden administration’s firm denial, there is indeed a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and how it can be stopped.

“It’s a really sophisticated operation that’s going on at the border,” Davidson explained. “These people aren’t coming by accident. There’s massive amounts of money that are changing hands. There’s incentives involved, and the Democrats and the Biden administration are juicing those incentives. They’re the ones who are creating the incentives through their policies, and then the smugglers run with that.”

While many on the left see the border as a place for “performative moral outrage and virtue signaling,” Davidson said that corruption and cartels run amok, causing danger to migrants and U.S. citizens, and will continue to threaten the nation if left unresolved.

“The United States cannot just allow the Central American countries and Mexico to just implode because it creates irresistible incentives for those people to come north and to get into the United States to be able to provide for their families,” Davidson said. “We can’t have failed states on our southern border and in Central America. It is not a long-term sustainable solution. We are going to have and continue to have border crises forever until we can figure out a way to help those places stabilize and reduce some of those incentives for people to come north.”

Read more of Davidson’s reporting on the border here.

Read the full article here.

Nation’s Largest ESG Fund Has No Direct Renewable Holdings

ZeroHedge reports:

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) – often referred to as ‘Socially Responsible Investing’ (SRI) or ‘Sustainable Investing’ (SI) – account for roughly 33% of total US assets under management, largely due to institutional investors which can then advertise their virtuous holdings.

Except, America’s largest ESG fund – the Parnassus Core Equity Fund – has no direct investments in renewable energy companies, according to Bloomberg, which notes that “Instead, the $25 billion Parnassus Core Equity Fund holds stocks like Linde Plc, an industrial gas company, Deere & Co., the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery, and Xylem Inc., which makes water and wastewater pumps for municipal customers. It also owns big stakes in technology behemoths Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc.”

Managers of many environmental, social and governance funds were slammed in 2020 for running what amounted to index-trackers that relied on tech stocks to beat their market benchmarks—albeit with shiny green labels.

While Ben Allen, co-manager of the Parnassus fund, doesn’t dispute this critique of the ESG industry, he said his fund is different. Its assets are concentrated in 40 large-cap stocks that are measured against ESG metrics. He said publicly traded renewable energy companies aren’t big enough or mature enough to meet Parnassus’s investment criteria. –Bloomberg

That said, Parnassus has divested from fossil-fuels, selling its last such holding in September 2018, while they also claim to avoid direct investments in any energy-focused company unless there is a comprehensive plan in place to address their ‘carbon-insensitive’ business.

And as we know all too well – that typically means purchasing carbon ‘offsets’ to atone for their climate sins.

Microsoft, another large Parnassus holding, has pledged to remove all of its historical carbon emissions by 2050, Allen said. “In effect, Microsoft is winding back the clock to the 1970s,” Allen said. “It’s as if the company never existed.”

Until recently, Amazon was considered a pariah of the ESG industry, Allen said, having waited until 2019 to publish its first sustainability report. Amazon subsequently pledged that it will zero out its carbon footprint by 2040, or eliminate the greenhouse-gas emissions caused by its activities. –Bloomberg

“It’s true that we don’t own any pure-play solar manufacturers, but the portfolio is full of companies that are committed to the transition away from carbon,” said Parnassus’ Allen, who also serves as CEO of San Francisco-based Parnassus Investments which has around $41 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Still, the Parnassus fund has outperformed the S&P 500 over the last three years, and does hold stakes in companies involved in green-ish technologies.

The Parnassus fund has risen at an annual rate of 17.2% during the past three years as of Feb. 26, outperforming the 13.2% advance of the S&P 500 Index, including reinvested dividends.

Linde is a company in which the Parnassus fund held a $704 million stake as recently as Jan. 31. Its products are designed for “industrial applications to be as clean as possible,” Allen said. Linde is a leader in the hydrogen market and looking to triple its clean-hydrogen production, and has earmarked more than one-third of its annual research and development budget over the next decade to decarbonization, Allen said. –Bloomberg

Parnassus’ $956 million stake in Deere – “best known for its distinctive green-colored tractors (which tend to run on fossil fuels)” – was ‘greenlit’ because the company is investing in so-caled precision agriculture which uses information technology to optimize crop production, and utilizes less water and fewer pesticides “so it’s better for the environment and Deere’s bottom line,” according to Allen.

So – nevermind that Deere’s entire fleet of machinery are gross polluters. The company qualifies for ESG treatment because they’re investing in a technology to maximize crop yields.

“We hesitate to overplay the ESG hand,” said Allen – who some might argue is seriously stretching to fit the profile of a ‘green’ fund. “We have a responsible large-cap investment approach. We use the ‘E’ to help us discover what we want to avoid, and also to help us find stocks that we want to own.”

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