Liberal groups aligned with the Washington consulting firm Arabella Advisors have spent over $1 million to support attacks on school choice in Pennsylvania, joining public employee unions that have pumped tens of thousands of dollars into targeting charter schools. An organization called Education Voters of Pennsylvania has published a series of articles and reports critical […]
A Texas law blocking construction of a Chinese-owned wind farm close to an Air Force base could ripple across state lines to inspire new laws deterring China from burrowing into American infrastructure. The Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act—which became law in June 2021—prohibits companies and other entities from entering into agreements in Texas involving critical […]
Climate activists are working in coordination with the Biden White House and Democrat-dominated congressional committees to silence political opponents under the guise of “disinformation,” legal and energy policy analysts say. Under President Joe Biden, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has kept a tight lid on how the administration advances its climate […]
House Republicans will reactivate investigations into the relationship between hostile foreign governments and activists who oppose American energy production if their party regains a congressional majority in November, congressional sources and policy analysts say. As rising gas prices and inflation bedevil consumers, Congress should devote more time and attention to “anti-energy campaigns” that undercut America’s […]
President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services is creating a “strategic plan” to advance goals for “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” in the federal workforce, according to an internal document obtained by The Daily Signal.
The strategic plan at HHS, implemented in response to Biden’s executive order in June 2021, will build on existing diversity initiatives already in line with administration policy.
Because HHS is the largest grant-making agency in the federal government, awarding more dollars than all other agencies combined, its final strategic plan to increase diversity likely will influence who or what entities will be awarded grants in the future.
“We are a very multiethnic country. You cannot make decisions to apply the law differently because of skin color,” Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal when asked to comment on the HHS project. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)
The HHS diversity plan, like those of other agencies, is supposed to be finalized by March 23. From that point forward, the Department of Health and Human Services must “establish quarterly goals and report annually on goal progress,” the document says.
In late November, the Biden administration followed up on the …read more
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is pursuing a multipronged strategy to dismantle climate change regulations and hold down energy costs, his press secretary told The Daily Signal.
Government records indicate that Youngkin will rely on a mix of executive action, budget changes, and legislation to withdraw from the 11-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Some environmental activists and lawyers question the new Republican governor’s authority to exit the pact exclusively through executive action.
But Youngkin press secretary Macaulay Porter said the governor is committed to ending Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a “cap and trade” agreement to limit carbon dioxide emissions that is widely known as RGGI.
“The governor pledged to withdraw Virginia from RGGI because of the unfair burden it places on Virginia ratepayers,” Porter said in an interview. “On Day One, he issued an executive order to do just that.”
“The executive action initiated the regulatory process to withdraw,” Porter added, “but he’s also supporting legislative action to make sure future governors cannot unilaterally put Virginia back into this failed and expensive program.”
Youngkin’s executive order set in motion a series of actions that will result in what it calls “a full report reevaluating the costs and benefits of …read more
Salvation Army chapters across the country saw a significant drop in donations in the weeks before Christmas because of fallout over a racially charged training curriculum, according to a nonprofit group that advocates “colorblind” policies.
Chapters in California, Massachusetts, and Michigan are among Salvation Army locations cited by Color Us United as affected by its campaign against training materials, called “Let’s Talk About Racism,” that include tenets of critical race theory and anti-racism teachings.
The church’s national headquarters has yet to announce fundraising figures for 2021, but it is evident that financial contributions to The Salvation Army have been “tanking,” Color Us United spokesman Christian Watson told reporters.
“It’s very clear their numbers have been hit hard,” Watson said of The Salvation Army during a virtual press conference Jan. 19. “You can either chalk it up to COVID or economic turmoil, or you can do what we claim is the probable cause—and that is Color Us United’s particular efforts against The Salvation Army’s woke curriculum.”
As previously reported by The Daily Signal, one session includes definitions of individual, structural, and institutional racism that claim whites are the beneficiaries of discriminatory policies. Another session makes the case that the larger Christian church, …read more
Between now and Christmas, The Salvation Army has an opportunity to restore faith with members and donors who feel betrayed by an internal curriculum drawing on critical race theory and “anti-racism” teachings that they view as divisive and historically inaccurate, a leading critic of the training material says.
Called “Let’s Talk About Racism,” the document has become a source of controversy, sparking a nationwide petition drive demanding that the faith-based charity rescind it. The petition, organized by Color Us United, a nonprofit devoted to “colorblind” principles on race, has pulled in more than 16,000 signatures to date.
Kenny Xu, president of Color Us United, told The Daily Signal in an interview that he thinks The Salvation Army has until Christmas to restore the organization’s reputation and reestablish faith with outside donors and supporters as well as its own rank-and-file members.
“One of the key rules of an apology I’ve learned in all my communications and public relations classes is that you have to do it fast,” Xu said. “They’ve already said they are withdrawing the curriculum for appropriate review. This means they are coming out with a replacement.”
“We want The Salvation Army to make a statement that recognizes and honors …read more
Rather than rescind racially divisive training material in response to objections from members and donors, The Salvation Army is concealing the internal curriculum during its annual Christmas fundraising campaign while continuing to pursue “politically charged racial ideologies,” an outside group alleges.
A nationwide petition organized by the fledgling nonprofit Color Us United targets The Salvation Army’s little-known “Let’s Talk About Racism” curriculum, first publicized by The Daily Signal.
The petition argues that the curriculum, advanced through The Salvation Army’s New York-based International Social Justice Commission, shows that the faith-based charity has veered off into a “woke ideology” that jeopardizes its mission.
“The Salvation Army is the antithesis of a racist organization,” Kenny Xu, president of Color Us United and a contributor to The Daily Signal, said in an email. “In fact, it is a shining example of how charitable and colorblind America is. That’s why we launched this campaign. We want to save The Salvation Army from succumbing to divisive race-based policies.”
On Thanksgiving Day, six days after The Daily Signal began making inquiries about the “Let’s Talk About Racism” training materials, The Salvation Army released a statement challenging what it described as “false claims” about the materials.
The curriculum …read more
Rather than relying on climate change models that could be the basis of expansive and costly regulations, policymakers should instead question those models, focusing on the legitimacy of their underlying assumptions.
So says The Heritage Foundation’s chief statistician said at a recent climate change conference in Las Vegas that preceded the international summit in Glasgow, Scotland, that concludes today.
While the Biden administration continues to pursue regulatory policies based on a concept known as the “social cost of carbon,” increased carbon dioxide emissions have led to a “greening of the planet,” Kevin Dayaratna, principal statistician and data scientist for The Heritage Foundation, said in his presentation at the Heartland Institute’s 14th international climate change conference. The nonprofit, Illinois-based free market think tank attracted dozens of scientists, economists, and academics from across the globe to the conference, which ran from Oct. 15 to 17.
The Heartland Institute also hosted a Climate Reality Forum in Glasgow on Nov. 2 and 3 during the two-week United Nations climate change conference.
The Heartland Institute is a co-sponsor of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, which has brought together scientists, researchers, and scholars from across the globe who dispute U.N. …read more