California's hefty tobacco taxes and bans
have reduced funding for children's programs
Posted By: mc squared, 9/24/2023 1:28:11 PM
Twenty-five years ago, California enacted Proposition 10, one of the most aggressive anti-smoking campaigns in the country, referring to tobacco, not marijuana. Called the First Five program, it sharply increased taxes on cigarettes and directed much of the proceeds to a variety of programs and new agencies aimed at helping young families who are raising children. These included things such as preschools, pediatric healthcare, and literacy projects. It has been widely considered a success. But there is a growing problem with this project. It’s apparently been too successful.
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At least 30 people were shot, three of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s (D) Chicago.
Breitbart News reported that one of the three weekend shooting fatalities was an 86-year-old man, who was shot and fatally wounded Saturday morning around 10:00 a.m. after getting out to his truck to retrieve something.
The elderly man, Charles Hobson Sr., was transported to a hospital in critical condition, where he died.
CBS News noted that the next fatal shooting of the weekend occurred at 12:40 a.m. Sunday. A 40-year-old man was shot in the chest by an unknown assailant “in the 9000 block of South Emerald Avenue.” He died at the hospital.
Twenty-five years ago, California enacted Proposition 10, one of the most aggressive anti-smoking campaigns in the country, referring to tobacco, not marijuana. Called the First Five program, it sharply increased taxes on cigarettes and directed much of the proceeds to a variety of programs and new agencies aimed at helping young families who are raising children. These included things such as preschools, pediatric healthcare, and literacy projects. It has been widely considered a success. But there is a growing problem with this project. It’s apparently been too successful.
President Joe Biden boasted about spending “tens of millions” of dollars on clean water for Ukraine, while still not having visited the disaster zone in East Palestine, where residents are still suffering from water contamination.
Biden, after welcoming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Oval Office, touted U.S. aid to Ukraine in remarks to the press./snip/
that’s why, together with our partners in Ukraine, we have provided humanitarian aid as well as tens of millions of people with food, clean water, and so much more,” he said.
It was horrible enough that retired police chief Andreas Probst, 64, was hit and killed while riding his bike in Las Vegas.
But it got so much worse when a video came out about how he was killed, that he was run down intentionally by teens in a car, who giggled with one even saying "Hit his ass." You can see that graphic video here. After allegedly hitting Probst, they fled and left him lying there to die. The video was shocking and it went viral on social media because of the laughter, the seemingly deliberate nature of the act, and the filming of it.
The White House will announce this week that it is creating an office of gun violence prevention to focus on efforts to curb gun violence, two sources familiar confirmed to The Hill.
Gun violence prevention advocates and Democratic lawmakers have been pushing the White House to establish a designated office solely focused on gun violence.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who is known for his focus on gun violence prevention, applauded the White House on Wednesday after reports of the first-of-its-kind office.
“This is an idea I have been pushing relentlessly for some time, and I’m thrilled President Biden is making the Office of Gun Violence Prevention a reality,” Murphy said in a statement,
Remember all those fights about removing historical statues?
Of course you do, since the battles continue to this day. The issue flares up every once in a while, particularly when Democrats want to get their voters fired up against the evil American system of government, which is almost always.
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One big battle took place during the Trump administration, and Trump dismissed the (largely successful) movement to remove statues and building names that glorified members of the Confederacy.
Trump had a simple argument: wiping away these statues and references to the Confederacy had nothing to do with confronting America’s racist past, and everything to do with wiping away American history as a whole.
The war on girls continues unabated.
A biological male was crowned homecoming queen at Oak Park High School in Kansas City, Missouri on Friday.
Tristan Young took the crown away from four biological females who were in the running.
“thank you so much oak park. i am so overwhelmed with love and gratitude, and it is all your doing. i am forever thankful that you have chosen me to be your homecoming queen,” Tristan wrote on Instagram.
“i have had a very difficult high school journey, but having the support of my friends, family and oak park has helped tremendously, i truly don’t know where i would be without it.”
The U.S. Navy confirmed on Tuesday it has discontinued an online recruiting initiative featuring an enlisted drag queen that was aimed at bringing new sailors into the service.
In May, The Daily Caller revealed that the Navy brought on Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley — an active-duty drag queen who goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels and identifies as non-binary — to be a “Navy Digital Ambassador.” The Digital Ambassador Pilot Program, which ran from October 2022 to March 2023, was reportedly “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates” for military recruitment.
A Chicago teachers’ union boss stepped in it Tuesday during a CNN interview where she was grilled on hypocritically putting her son in a private school after calling school choice racist.
You’ve likened in the past private schools of today to quote ‘segregation academies’ of the Jim Crow South,” CNN host Abby Phillip surprisingly told Chicago Teachers’ Union President Stacy Davis Gates. “Why then send your child to a private school after speaking out so publicly against them?” /snip/
she attempted to parse her words, asserting that she criticized school choice, not private schools. Which is a distinction without a difference.
Radical climate activist Greta Thunberg has reportedly been arrested and charged with disobeying the police for the second time in less than two months.
Thunberg, 20, originally participated in a climate protest in the southern city of Malmo on June 19th.
“The climate crisis is a matter of life and death for countless people. We choose to physically stop fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future,” she reportedly said at the time.
A month later, she was “fined 1,500 Swedish crowns ($134) by a Swedish court on July 24 for failing to leave [the] protest when ordered by police,” according to Reuters.
On Thursday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Sound On,” White House Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security Amos Hochstein stated that one reason why oil prices have surged and gas prices “is that Bidenomics works.” Because President Joe Biden’s policies have led to a strong economy, which has boosted demand.
Bloomberg Washington Correspondent and host Annmarie Hordern asked, [relevant exchange begins around 44:00] “So, we have crude prices, WTI above 90 today. So, that’s a significant development. The IEA says we’re going to see a significant shortfall.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) is looking into opening taxpayer-funded, city-owned grocery stores in areas in which businesses have pulled out due to rampant crime.
Johnson announced a partnership with the Economic Security Project to look into the possibility of opening city-owned grocery stores. The first step in the partnership will be to perform a feasibility study, but the city did not provide a timeline, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Johnson claimed his administration is “committed to advancing innovative, whole-of-government approaches to address these inequities.”
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Former First Lady Michelle Obama will be paid more than $700,000 for a one-hour lecture on “diversity and inclusion” in Munich.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
According to reports, Michelle Obama traveled from Mallorca to Munich to deliver a one-hour speech on “diversity and inclusion” at the “Britz & Pretzels” conference.
Michelle Obama will be paid 700,000 euros for her appearance. Sounds legit. (X) Excerpt from German newspaper Bild:
Now she’s swapping paella for pretzels! After arriving in a private jet, Michelle checked into a luxury hotel in Munich.
Failed former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has warned that Russia could allegedly interfere with the U.S. elections in 2024.
Speaking with former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Hillary Clinton said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could indeed interfere again.
“He has indeed interfered in our elections in the past,” Psaki began on her MSNBC show Inside With Jen Psaki. “It’s not something, as you experienced firsthand, is not something we talk about a lot. Do you fear that that is something that could be happening for 2024, do you think we should be talking about it more?”
Menendez Defiant in Face of Corruption
Charges, Claims He Withdrew Wads of Cash
for Emergencies 26 replies
Charges, Claims He Withdrew Wads of Cash
for Emergencies 26 replies
Senator Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) maintained his innocence during a Monday morning press conference, insisting that the extensive corruption allegations laid out in a federal indictment unsealed Friday are false.
Federal investigators found nearly half-a-million dollars in cash and roughly $100,000 in gold bars when they searched his New Jersey home in June of last year. The New Jersey lawmaker insisted during the press conference that the cash was withdrawn from his personal savings account in case of emergencies.
“For 30 years I have withdrawn thousands of dollars in cash from my personal savings account which I have kept for emergencies, and because of the history
Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he guaranteed President Joe Biden was “not in any trouble with African-Americans in this country.”
Anchor Kristen Welker said, “As you know, in a close election, every single vote counts and as we laid out, his support among African-Americans, latinos, young voters has dropped. How do you make sure they don’t stay at home, congressman?”
Clyburn said, “They will not stay at home. We understand what’s at stake here.”
He continued, “The problem with me is I spend too much time studying history, and I see what’s going on here. I know where the playbook
The U.S. Senate, once known as the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” will now permit its members to grace its chamber floor wearing whatever clothes—no matter how casual or unprofessional—they happen to fancy on any given day.
Following Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N.Y., decision earlier this week to have the sergeant-at-arms cease enforcing the Senate’s long-standing dress code, senators might be forgiven for trading in their traditional Brooks Brothers wares for that most chic of modern haberdashers: the local homeless shelter.
There is one reason and one reason only for Schumer’s distasteful change in policy: The brain-damaged and cartoon-villain-resembling junior Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman,
David McCallum, 'NCIS' Star, Dead at 90
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David McCallum has died. The actor, best known for his role as Ducky on NCIS, died on Monday of natural causes while surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital. [snip] "After returning from the hospital to their apartment, I asked my mother if she was OK before she went to sleep. Her answer was simply, 'Yes. But I do wish we had had a chance to grow old together.' She is 79, and dad just turned 90."
The Biden Administration has ordered a German homeschool family, who came to America legally, to leave the country. The move comes as the White House has turned a blind eye to millions of illegals invading the southern border. The Romeike family was forced to flee Germany in 2008 after they were persecuted by the government for homeschooling their children. The Germans levied fines against the family and threatened to take away their children. I documented the plight of the family for years when I was working at Fox News.
Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their five children eventually settled in eastern Tennessee and were granted indefinite deferred action status.
Hollywood heaves a sigh of relief. The WGA and major studios and streamers have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract that promises to end the 146-day strike that has taken a heavy toll across the content industry.
Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached the finish line Sunday after five consecutive days of negotiations. Day 4 on Saturday mostly involved lawyers for the guild and AMPTP hashing out the fine print of language around complicated and groundbreaking additions to the WGA’s Minimum Basic Agreement. The nitty-gritty details of language around the use of generative AI in content production
Donald Trump considered buying a glock with his face on the grip during a visit to South Carolina on Monday, stopping at the Palmetto State Armory with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to examine the weapons available for purchase.
The former president also posed with a special 'Trump edition' gun that features the Trump's photo on the handle and the words 'Trump 45' on the chamber.
'I'm going to buy one. I want to buy one,' Trump said after examining the weapon. 'Isn't glock a great gun?'One of the salespeople told the former president that Trump glock was a top seller.
Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who was indicted days ago on federal bribery charges, is expected to announce on Monday that he intends to seek reelection, according to a report from the New Jersey Globe.
Menendez has been defiant in the wake of the indictment, claiming that he’s being targeted for being Latino. “It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat,” he said in a statement. “I am not going anywhere.”
The embattled senator’s forthcoming announcement comes as several high-profile Democrats have called on him to resign from the U.S. Senate.
Independence, Mo.—It’s a Monday in September, but with schools closed, the three children in the Pruente household have nowhere to be. Callahan, 13, contorts herself into a backbend as 7-year-old Hudson fiddles with a balloon and 10-year-old Keegan plays the piano.
Like a growing number of students around the U.S, the Pruente children are on a four-day school schedule, a change instituted this fall by their district in Independence, Missouri.
To the kids, it’s terrific. “I have a three-day break of school!” exclaimed Hudson. But their mom, Brandi Pruente, who teaches French in a neighboring district in suburban Kansas City, is frustrated to find herself hunting for
Fox News Channel announced Monday that Sean Hannity will moderate a “red state vs. blue state” debate between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Hannity asked the two governors about debating each other and both agreed earlier this year. The debate will take place on November 30 in Georgia, with the venue to be announced. It will air in Hannity’s time slot that night. The debate will be 90 minutes.
The two governors have a contentious relationship, to understate the relationship. Newsom began attacking DeSantis even before DeSantis entered the Republican presidential primary. So, Hannity challenged the two to a debate.
Comments:
Who didn't see this coming when the taxes 'for the children' were instituted?