Noem has angered those in her own base who are accusing her of caving to the left
South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristie Noem issued two executive orders meant to take the place of a transgender sports bill that the state’s House of Representatives passed while rejecting her “style and form” revisions.
Noem made the announcement on Monday after being criticized by many on the right for trying to revise the Women’s Fairness in Sports bill in order to avoid costly litigation in the future from transgender activists. Her critics said the revisions would effectively gut the protections intended for biologically female athletes.
“Only girls should play girls’ sports. Given the legislature’s failure to accept my proposed revisions to HB 1217, I am immediately signing two executive orders to address this issue: one to protect fairness in K-12 athletics, and another to do so in college athletics,” said Noem.
Only girls should play girls’ sports. Given the legislature’s failure to accept my proposed revisions to HB 1217, I am immediately signing two executive orders to address this issue: one to protect fairness in K-12 athletics, and another to do so in college athletics. (1/3)
Iran has rejected the Biden administration’s offer to relaunch negotiations over a new nuclear deal in exchange for lifting some sanctions before it was even proposed.
“A senior Iranian official tells Press TV that Tehran will stop its 20% uranium enrichment only if the US lifts ALL its sanctions on Iran first,” Iranian state-run Press TV said on its website, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“The official said Tehran will further reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal if the US does not lift all sanctions, warning that Washington is rapidly running out of time.”
This is the third time the Islamic Republic has turned down the United States’ offer to resume talks about a new nuclear deal.
Politico reported Monday that the Biden administration had planned to put forward a new proposal as soon as this week.
Cigna — the 13th largest corporation in the U.S. measured by revenue — has recently started teaching employees critical race theory. Those lessons, however, have been “quietly” protested by some workers who leaked lesson screenshots to the Washington Examiner.
On “The Glenn Beck Radio Program,” Glenn and co-host Stu Burguiere discussed a lesson on “inclusive language” — and you won’t believe which phrases Cigna classifies as offensive. Do you use any of these phrases in your daily life?
The announcement last week by Rutgers University that it would require all students to get the COVID vaccine prompted CHD Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to remind university officials that federal law prohibits mandating Emergency Use Authorization vaccines.
Rutgers University last week announced it will require all students enrolled for the 2021 fall semester to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
The announcement prompted Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to remind university officials that federal law prohibits mandating products approved under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).
In a letter to Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, Kennedy, who also serves as chief legal counsel for CHD, wrote:
“Federal law 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb-3(e)(1)(A)(ii)(III) requires that the person to whom an EUA vaccine is administered be advised, ‘of the option to accept or refuse administration of the product, of the consequences, if any, of refusing administration of the product, and of the alternatives to the product that are available and of their benefits and risks.’”
Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, who also spoke out against Rutgers’ policy, agreed. Specifically, he said, students should be pre-screened for COVID infection before vaccination.
“While I fully agree with your policy of maximal immunity for all students and faculty attending in-person on the Rutgers campuses, you must also remain 100% cognizant of a potential danger of indiscriminate vaccination to some of your students. This potential danger is not only a safety risk, it would also pose a risk of liability to your university.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced Monday the state will never allow the government or private sector to force citizens to show vaccine passports to “participate in normal society.”
After signing a bill protecting businesses, schools and other institutions from being sued over COVID-19 pandemic safety measures, DeSantis revealed he’ll soon be issuing an executive order to address the COVID passports.
“We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” the governor said. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.”
He continued, “You want to go to a movie theater, should you have to show that? No. You want to go to a game, no. You want to go to a theme park, no. We are not supportive of that. I think it’s something that people have certain freedoms and individual liberties to make decisions for themselves.”
Addressing concerns about which companies would hypothetically have access to vaccine passport data, DeSantis asked, “I also wonder it’s like you’re going to do this & what give all this information to some big corporation? You want the fox to guard the henhouse? I mean give me a break. I think this is something that has huge privacy implications.”
Truman National Security Project Has Close Affiliations With Biden Admin Figures
Vice president Kamala Harris and other Biden administration figures are affiliated with the Truman National Security Project, a neoliberal Washington, D.C. foreign policy organization.
The Truman National Security Project is accused of failing to disclose its former board member Hunter Biden’s Ukraine business relationship with another board member to the IRS and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), according to a complaint filed against the Truman National Security Project to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The National Legal and Policy Center made the complaint to the DOJ against the Truman National Security Project, Hunter Biden, and also the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center, which was managed by Joe Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken and received anonymous Chinese funding.
Teaching music at Oxford may soon be less about writing notation and conducting orchestras, and more about which artists hated Donald Trump’s use of their works without permission, proposed reform reportedly suggests.
One of the most prestigious universities in the UK plans to overhaul its music courses for undergraduates to steer them away from elements of ‘colonialism’ and ‘white supremacy’, the Telegraph reported, citing internal documents. The supposedly problematic parts of the curriculum include the study of musical notation, described as a “colonialist representational system.”
Is this satire?
“Professors stated that the classical repertoire taught at Oxford, which includes works by Mozart and Beethoven, focuses too much on ‘white European music from the slave period.’”https://t.co/EJmqtrTY8c
Many ways of writing down music have been invented throughout history, but the system developed in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries laid the foundation for the most used form today. It’s not set in stone, of course, and is constantly developed. Alternatives specific to certain instruments and genres exist as well.
Reformists at Oxford believe that teaching notation rooted in the colonial past is a “slap in the face” for some students, according to the newspaper.
(Crux) LEICESTER, United Kingdom – So-called “vaccine passports” could lead to an “unethical coercion” of citizens, according to the head of the UK’s leading Catholic bioethics center.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has floated the idea of a “COVID-status certification” to help reopen the British economy and reduce restrictions on social contact.
Nicknamed “vaccine passports,” the policy would require people prove they have received a vaccine in order to enter certain places of public accommodation, such as pubs and restaurants.
Over 30 million people in the UK have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, with everyone over 50 being invited to be vaccinated. The government says everyone over 18 will be offered their first dose of the vaccine by mid-July. Only around 3 million people have received the second dose, since the UK is giving a 11–12-week gap between the two doses, as recommended for the vaccines approved in the country.
England has taken a cautious approach to lifting lockdown restrictions imposed in January. Stay-at-home instructions were only lifted on Monday, allowing for up to 6 people or 2 households to meet outdoors. Shops and outdoor eateries will be allowed to reopen on April 12. The government says all legal limits on social contact will be lifted on June 21, if things go according to plan.
After brief panic at the hands of a forced multibillion-dollar margin call, markets on Tuesday are back to focusing on rising Treasury yields that are unraveling the past year’s meteoric gains, with tech stocks once again underperforming, while buzzy meme stock GameStop continues its unlikely surge.
KEY FACTS
Shortly after the market open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed at a record high Monday, is ticking down 47 points, or 0.1%, while the S&P 500 slips 0.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq falls 0.8%.
Fueling the weakness in tech stocks, yields on the 10-year Treasury are back on the rise, climbing four basis points Tuesday morning ahead of President Joe Biden’s Thursday infrastructure announcement, which is sure to shore up the economic recovery—and hike up government spending.
Big banks Credit Suisse and Nomura, which both warned of “significant” losses as a result of Friday’s block-trading mayhem, are dropping another 3% and 2%, bringing their total losses since Friday to a staggering 15% and 16%, respectively.
Oil prices, on the other hand, are continuing to fall on renewed demand concerns, with the price of U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate falling 1.4% and pushing oil stocks Occidental Petroleum and Schlumberger NV down about 2% each.
Meanwhile, recently booming GameStop announced another executive hire, appointing Amazon director Elliott Wilke to the newly created role of chief growth officer as the company bulks up its top ranks with tech veterans; shares are up 4% Tuesday and nearly 900% this year.
On the earnings front, McCormick & Co. shares are heading up gains in the S&P, climbing 4% after the food manufacturer posted better-than-expected first-quarter sales of nearly $1.5 billion, 22% more than one year earlier thanks to consumers cooking more at home during the pandemic.
Nike is suing MSCHF, a small Brooklyn-based company, over its sale of 666 pairs of altered Nike Air Max 97s as “Satan Shoes” in collaboration with the rapper Lil Nas X.
Some workplaces encourage employees to donate blood as an act of charity. But six workers at MSCHF, a quirky company based in Brooklyn that’s known for products like toaster-shaped bath bombs and rubber-chicken bongs, offered their blood for a new line of shoes.
“‘Sacrificed’ is just a cool word — it was just the MSCHF team that gave the blood,” one of MSCHF’s founders, Daniel Greenberg, said in an email on Sunday. (Asked who collected the blood, Mr. Greenberg replied, “Uhhhhhh yeah hahah not medical professionals we did it ourselves lol.”)
A drop of blood is mixed in with ink that fills an air bubble in the sneaker, a Nike Air Max 97, Mr. Greenberg said.
“Not much blood, actually” was collected, he said, adding, “About six of us on the team gave.”
MSCHF started selling 666 pairs of the shoes — each pair cost $1,018 — on Monday as a follow-up to a line of Jesus Shoes, which contained holy water. They sold out in less than a minute.
Mr. Greenberg noted that Nike was not involved in the process “in any capacity.”
In a statement on Sunday, Nike said: “We do not have a relationship with Little Nas X or MSCHF. Nike did not design or release these shoes, and we do not endorse them.”
And on Monday, Nike sued MSCHF in U.S. District Court over the shoes, alleging that MSCHF’s “unauthorized Satan Shoes are likely to cause confusion and dilution and create an erroneous association between MSCHF’s products and Nike.”
