News From Around the Web
#10 Does Washing Produce Really Remove Pesticides? - Ed Cara for Gizmodo
A recent analysis from advocacy organization Consumer Reports is the latest to highlight the potential threat of pesticides in our produce. It suggests that around 20% of commonly sold fruits and vegetables in the U.S. could contain unsafe levels of pesticides. Given that concerning news, you might be wondering how to lessen your risk of exposure. Rinsing produce under the tap is a common practice, but does it actually remove significant amounts of pesticide residue? Here’s what the research suggests. To start, it’s important to note that the information analyzed by Consumer Reports comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Data Program, which has been monitoring levels of pesticide residue across dozens of produce products over the past 30 years. These measurements are taken after the produce is washed with water and sometimes peeled, depending on the item. So there is a baseline assumption that people will wash their produce at home...
#9 Arizona House Lawmakers Pass Bill to Repeal 1864 Abortion Ban - Brie Stimson for Fox News
Arizona House lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to repeal a near-total abortion ban from 1864 on the books in the state. The bill will now go to the state Senate after all 29 House Democrats and three Republicans voted in favor of the repeal. The ban was held up by the Arizona Supreme Court earlier this month. "MAGA Republicans have spent the last week lying about their stance on abortion because they know that when abortion is on the ballot, Democrats win, every time," said Arizona Democratic Chairwoman Yolanda Bejarano after the bill was passed. Republican Rep. Rachel Jones, who voted against repealing the ban, said Wednesday, "I am disgusted today. Life is one of the tenets of our Republican platform. To see people go back on that value is egregious to me." Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, a Republican, said he was "deeply disappointed" by the bill's passing...
#8 Foreign Students Could Face Harsher Penalties Than Suspension for Anti-Israel Rioting: DHS - Adam Shaw , Bill Melugin and Mario Nawfal and Citizen Free Press for X
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday confirmed that foreign students could potentially face deportation if they are suspended from their courses while on a student visa — just as anti-Israel protests have engulfed Columbia University and other American colleges. With anti-Israel protests taking place at Columbia and college campuses across the country, which have included antisemitic rhetoric and threats to Jewish students, classes have gone hybrid at Columbia due to safety concerns. It has raised questions about whether some students, who may be on student visas, could have them revoked or be deported. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., posted on X calling for the removal of foreign nationals backing Hamas...
#7 How Republican-Led States Far From the Us-Mexico Border Are Rushing to Pass Tough Immigration Laws - Sean Murphy for AP
Republican-led states are rushing to give broader immigration enforcement powers to local police and impose criminal penalties for those living in the country illegally as the issue of migrants crossing the U.S. border remains central to the 2024 elections. The Oklahoma Legislature this week fast-tracked a bill to the governor that creates the new crime of “impermissible occupation,” which imposes penalties of as much as two years in prison for being in the state illegally. Oklahoma is among several GOP-led states jockeying to push deeper into immigration enforcement as both Republicans and Democrats seize on the issue. That was illustrated in February when President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both visited the U.S.-Mexico border the same day and tussled from a distance over blame for the nation’s broken immigration system and how to fix it...
#6 Supreme Court Seems Sympathetic to Idaho’s Claim Its Strict Abortion Ban Is Valid - Matthew Vadum the Epoch Times and Reuters and World News Tonight on X
Most Supreme Court justices seemed inclined to accept Idaho’s argument on April 24 that the state’s strict abortion law does not conflict with a federal law that prevents hospitals from refusing to treat indigent emergency room patients. At the same time, liberal justices vigorously questioned whether the Idaho law is putting women in danger. The court heard oral arguments in Moyle v. United States, which has been consolidated with Idaho v. United States. Lead applicant-petitioner Mike Moyle is the Republican speaker of Idaho’s House of Representatives. The conservative Alliance Defending Freedom is on Idaho’s legal team. President Joe Biden has repeatedly said he won’t hike taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000, but then this week he promised on X to hike taxes on just about everyone. Now, to be fair, Biden may not have understood that’s what he’s saying. Letting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire and “stay expired” would be a massive middle-class tax hike because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a massive middle-class tax cut. Yes, wealthy people also saw their taxes reduced by the TCJA, but the law actually shifted a greater portion of the tax burden onto the wealthy. The TCJA doubled the child tax credit and the standard deduction while lowering everyone’s tax rates. Letting this law expire would cut the standard deduction in half, cut the child tax credit in half, and increase everyone’s marginal rates. Keep in mind that rich people don’t use the standard deduction, and the child tax credit phases out for the wealthy, and so these tax hikes would really only hit the non-rich.A family of five earning $90,000 (slightly below the median in Biden’s home state of Delaware) would see its marginal tax rate jump from 12% to 15%, and would see its $6,000 in tax credits fall to $3,000 under the Biden plan... A pack of illegal aliens viciously fought each other with sticks, belts, and whatever they could get their hands on outside a migrant hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Footage of the fight was uploaded on X on Sunday. The scenes show parts of Manhattan transformed into what appears to be third-world-esque as law and order lapses under a city controlled by rogue Democrats. The Row is one of many hotels and shelters converted to house illegal aliens in NYC from the open southern border. About 200,000 migrants have flooded the city since early 2022. There are as many as 64,000 in these shelters. "Must be such joy to live in that NYC cesspool. Between the crime, looting, murders, sucker punching - and now the feral illegal aliens…..just lovely," one X user said, referring to the video... Dr. Anthony Fauci will testify publicly for the first time since he retired on June 3 in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, the subcommittee said in a Wednesday tweet. “On November 30. 2023. the Select Subcommittee sent you a letter memorializing the agreement for your testimony. This agreement included two days of transcribed interviews and a public hearing,” the committee’s ranking member, Republican Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup, wrote in a letter to Fauci... Soaring gas prices have skyrocketed to a whopping $7.29 per gallon in some parts of California - which is above the current the national hourly minimum wage. While the average price for a gallon of gas varies from state to state - drivers in a certain Silicon Valley town are facing particularly extortionate rates that set them back almost $150 for a full tank. The Chevron gas station in Menlo Park was exposed on Sunday by a bewildered customer who posted on X that the price per gallon was four cents 'above the federal hourly minimum wage.' The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25, while in California it was set to $16 at the beginning of the year. Fast food workers were given a bump to $20 in April. The average price of a gallon of regular gas in California is $5.423 - making it by far the most expensive state for filling up your car with fuel, with the highest reaching at least $7.29... New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein ’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.“We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,” the court’s 4-3 decision said. “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial.” The state Court of Appeals ruling reopens a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures — an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. His accusers could again be forced to retell their stories on the witness stand... While these fossils may not look like much, they are part of the jawbone of what is now believed to be the largest marine reptile ever to swim in the seas.The beast could have measured 82 feet long—as big as a humpback whale—but with a long narrow mouth bristling with teeth used to hunt prey much larger than krill. Discovered in a bed of rocks near the River Severn in England, they were found in 2020 by an 11-year-old fossil-hunting enthusiast named Ruby Reynolds who frequented the area with her father, Justin...
#5 Biden Calls for Middle-Class Tax Hike - Timothy P. Carney for Washington Examiner and Matt Gaetz and Wesley Hunt on X
#4 Migrants Gone Wild On Streets Of Midtown Manhattan - Tyler Durden Zero Hedge and C.N.O Team on X
#3 Dr. Fauci To Testify Publicly For First Time Since Retirement - Robert McGreevy for The Daily Caller and COVIDSelect and Kim Wexler MA JD on X
#2 Soaring Gas Prices Hit $7.29 a Gallon in Parts of California - How Does Your State Compare? - Martha Williams for Daily Mail and Paul A. Szypula, Target Reporter, Hogan Mikee on X
#1 New York Appeals Court Overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 Rape Conviction From Landmark #Metoo Trial - Michael R. Sisak AND Dave Collins for AP and Kyle Becker and Mario Newfal on X
And Now for Something Special
11-Year-old Uncovers Giant Ichthyosaur Fossil – The Largest Marine Reptile Ever Found - Andy Corbley for Good News
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