Midwest

Biden admin turning this federal agency into a Dem get-out-the-vote machine

Published

2 years ago

June 12, 2024

Biden admin turning this federal agency into a Dem get-out-the-vote machine

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The Founding Fathers feared a system of government where the executive branch is able to wield the power of the federal bureaucracy to interfere with elections. Unfortunately, President Biden has directed every federal agency to do just that.

As chairman of the Committee on Small Business, we have been investigating the electioneering efforts undertaken by the Small Business Administration (SBA), and what we have uncovered is already very troubling.

On March 19, 2024, the SBA announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Michigan Department of State (MDOS) to facilitate voter registration efforts ahead of the 2024 election cycle.

President Biden has directed every federal agency to wield the power of the federal bureaucracy to interfere with elections. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Given that small businesses continue to struggle under the weight of crippling inflation, high interest rates, and an acute labor shortage, the SBA diverting resources to assist a get-out-the-vote effort is extremely troubling. This alarming shift in focus raises serious questions about the agency’s priorities and its commitment to its core constituency: America’s small businesses.

WATCHDOG GROUP SUES BIDEN AGENCY FOR RECORDS AS LAWMAKER CALLS ITS VOTER WORK ‘A SLAP IN THE FACE’

The SBA’s press release bragging about this first of its kind partnership with Michigan to register voters immediately raised red flags and led the committee to request the signed agreement. Since the agency was so proud to announce this MOU, we assumed that this request wouldn’t be met with much resistance.

However, the SBA stonewalled turning over the document for months, dating back to the committee’s oversight hearing with Administrator Isabel Guzman on March 20, 2024. But as we were waiting to see what this new partnership entailed, the committee started to dig deeper into what the SBA has already been doing in Michigan.

As a critical battleground state where Biden is facing challenges, the selection of Michigan for this effort already insinuated that this was politically motivated decision. If the agency was truly only interested in registering voters, Michigan is a very unusual choice.

GOP STATE LAWMAKERS APPEAL TO SCOTUS TO CHALLENGE BIDEN’S ‘USURPATIONS’ OF THEIR POWER TO RUN ELECTIONS

With three-quarters of their state’s population already registered to vote, the third-highest percentage of registered voters in the entire country, there must be another reason for this first of its kind partnership.

Curiously, the committee noticed that this agreement with MDOS was announced four days after the Biden re-election campaign reiterated its interest in Michigan and noted its “not taking a single voter for granted,” especially among key demographics of young and minority voters.

As the committee continued to wait to receive the MOU from the SBA, we decided to look into the background of some of Biden’s political appointees who will be carrying out these orders. Within the SBA, Jennifer Kim, the associate administrator of the SBA Office of Field Operations is tasked with carrying out these voter registration efforts.

WE NEED TO SAVE OUR ELECTIONS FROM ABUSE AND HERE’S HOW

In going to the SBA website to see Kim’s background, the agency fails to highlight any experience in helping small businesses. Instead, her biography on sba.gov says she has years of experience in “increasing voter registration in communities of color as well as promoting youth civic engagement.” Coincidentally, she also attended the University of Michigan.

The diversion of taxpayer dollars and agency resources toward partisan activities like electioneering raises serious legal and ethical concerns. Just last week we held a hearing to discuss some of these conflicts of interest.

One of the witnesses was Stewart Whitson, the senior director of federal affairs at the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA). The FGA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that seeks to enhance the lives of all Americans by improving welfare, workforce, health care, and election integrity policy at the state and federal levels. In his testimony, he summed up the concerns very eloquently:

“The worry is that this isn’t about registering small business owners across the state of Michigan, but rather, this is about using generous business startup and other grants to lure targeted groups of voters, those the Left believes are more likely to vote for the current president, to SBA’s website and to in-person outreach events hosted in Democratic strongholds, all to help register and mobilize these voters ahead of the 2024 election.

“In other words, this appears to be a get-out-the-vote effort aimed at directly benefiting the Biden campaign, at the expense of the American taxpayer and the small businesses the SBA is supposed to serve.”

The SBA’s actions set a dangerous precedent for executive overreach. The founding principles of federalism and separation of powers are under threat as the Biden administration seeks to consolidate control over elections.

The SBA should not be transformed into a campaign arm of the Biden administration while abandoning the needs of small businesses. This devastating deviation from their core purpose is not only a breach of their duty, but also a disservice to Main Street America, as they continue to struggle to survive in the face of economic turmoil.

As chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, I will continue to demand answers throughout this investigation until the needs of Main Street are met and the agency intended to help them returns to carrying out their core mission.

ROGER WILLIAMS

Republican Roger Williams represents the 25th Congressional District of Texas, which includes Fort Hood, in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Read the full article from Here

Illinois

How a clump of moss helped convict grave robbers in Illinois

Published

1 hour ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

How a clump of moss helped convict grave robbers in Illinois

It was a particularly heinous crime. Four workers at a cemetery near Chicago dug up more than 100 bodies and dumped the remains elsewhere in the grounds, in order to resell the burial plots for profit.

Now, nearly two decades after the scandal broke at Burr Oak cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, scientists have released details of how a tiny clump of moss became crucial forensic evidence that helped convict the grave robbers.

Dr Matt von Konrat, head of botanical collections at the Field Museum in Chicago, was drawn into the case in 2009 when he received a phone call from the FBI. “They asked if I knew about moss and brought the evidence to the museum,” he said.

An investigation by local police had found human remains buried under inches of earth at the cemetery, a site of enormous historical importance. Several prominent African Americans are buried at the cemetery, including Emmett Till, whose murder in 1955 became a catalyst for the civil rights movement, and the blues singer Dinah Washington.

Alongside the re-buried remains, forensic specialists spotted various plants, including a piece of moss about the size of a fingertip. Hoping that it would help them crack the case, the FBI asked von Konrat to work out where the moss came from and how long it had been there.

After examining the moss under a microscope and comparing it with dried specimens in the museum’s collection, the scientists identified it as common pocket moss, or Fissidens taxifolius. A survey at the cemetery found that the species did not grow where the corpses were discovered, but was abundant in a lightly shaded area beneath some trees where police suspected the bodies had been dug up. The moss had evidently been moved with the bodies.

But when was the crime committed? The answer lay in a quirk of moss biology. “This is the cool thing about moss,” von Konrat said. “When we’re dead, we’re dead, but with mosses, it’s bizarre. Even when we might think they’re dead, they can still have an active metabolism.” The metabolism drops slowly over time as cells gradually die off.

Emmett Till is among those whose remains are buried in the cemetery. Photograph: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

One way to measure moss metabolism is to bathe it in light and see how much is absorbed by the chlorophyll used to make food through photosynthesis, and how much light is re-emitted. The scientists ran tests on the moss found with the bodies, on a fresh clump from the cemetery, and other specimens from the museum’s collection.

“We concluded that the moss had been buried for less than 12 months and that was important because the accused’s whole line of defence was that the crime took place before their employment. They were arguing that it happened years and years earlier,” said von Konrat. Details are published in Forensic Sciences Research.

Doug Seccombe, a former FBI agent who worked on the case and a co-author of the study, said the plant material from the cemetery was “key” to securing the convictions when the case went to trial.

Von Konrat, who is a fan of the BBC forensic science drama Silent Witness, never expected to be working on a criminal case, but now wants to highlight how important mosses might be for forensic investigations. “I had no idea we’d be using our science, our collections, in this manner,” he said. “It underscores how important natural history collections are. We never know how we might apply them in the future.”

Source link

Indiana

Watch Indiana basketball’s Lamar Wilkerson give his mom a Cadillac

Published

1 hour ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Watch Indiana basketball’s Lamar Wilkerson give his mom a Cadillac

Indiana basketball sharpshooter Lamar Wilkerson is known for his generosity.

Upon joining the Hoosiers, he gave a tidy sum of his NIL earnings to his previous program, Sam Houston State.

“I was blessed to be able go from that, from not having a lot, to being here, having a lot more than I even knew what to do with,” Wilkerson said at the time. “I just thought, I can give them this.”

He upped the ante on IU’s Senior Night, giving his mother a Cadillac after the Hoosiers throttled Minnesota.

You could imagine her reaction.

Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar’s Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.

Source link

Iowa

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Iowa House OKs ‘3 strikes’ bill with 20-year prison terms. What to know

Iowans who commit multiple serious crimes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a “three strikes” bill passed by House lawmakers.
Republicans said the bill would keep Iowans safe and “prioritize victims and public safety over criminals.”
A nonpartisan state agency says the bill would disproportionately impact Black Iowans and could require the state to spend millions to build a new prison.

Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.

House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.

Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.

“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”

Here’s what to know about the bill.

What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?

Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.

That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.

All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.

Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.

Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.

And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.

If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.

Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.

Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.

“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”

Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.

“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”

Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says

A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.

FY 2027: $33 million
FY 2028: $66 million
FY 2029: $99 million
FY 2030: $132 million
FY 2031: $164.9 million

The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.

“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”

The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.

As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.

The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.

But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.

“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”

Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”

“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”

Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law

The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”

Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.

Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.

It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.

“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”

Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”

“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.

Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”

And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”

“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”

House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.

That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.

Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings

Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.

The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:

The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket

The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.

The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.

And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.

Source link