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On Thursday, which marks the 13th annual Transgender Day of Visibility, the Transportation Security Agency announced new screening standards for transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming airline passengers. The TSA will update Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) units in airport checkpoints with an algorithm update that reportedly increases accuracy and efficiency, and replaced the current gender-based AIT system, according to a press release.

vergreen Marine, the owner of the stuck Ever Forward, has declared General Average following two unsuccessful attempts to refloat the ship in Chesapeake Bay. The latest attempt took place Wednesday hoping to take advantage of a weather system that helped to raise tides about a foot higher than normal. Unfortunately, the refloating attempt was unsuccessful and there did not seem to be any movement of the ship. In a statement, Evergreen said GA has been declared “in light of the increasing costs arising from the continued attempts to refloat the vessel.” General Average is a maritime law principle requiring that...

National Institutes of Health (NIH) documents obtained by a nonprofit watchdog in a federal court suit reveal that the agency deleted CCP virus genetic sequencing information from the Wuhan Institute of Virology at the Chinese lab’s request. (Snip) “On June 5, 2020, a Wuhan University researcher requested that NIH retract the researcher’s submission of BioProject ID PRJNA637497 because of error. The Wuhan researcher explained ‘I’m sorry for my wrong submitting,'” EO said in a statement on March 29. “BioProject ID PRJNA637497 is also referred to as Submission ID SUB7554642. Three days later, on June 8th, the NIH declined the researcher’s...

Russia's ruble and banking system are showing continued signs of recovery from the initial punch of sanctions, as Moscow relies on energy exports and currency controls to partly protect the nation's economy. After initially plummeting, the ruble has rebounded and is edging closer to the value it held before the war began, according to the official exchange rate. And the banking system is gradually stabilizing as panicked customer withdrawals subside, economists say. "I think the key signal is that, for now, it appears the Bank of Russia managed to avoid a deep financial crisis," said Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist...

Instead of promoting gender ideology, the company would be better served by addressing a longstanding history among its employees.The Walt Disney Company has long presented itself as the voice for America’s children. According to company lore, the animation studio was founded by a wise and kindly father figure, and its theme parks are “the happiest place on Earth” for kids. In recent weeks, the company has entered the political debate about Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation and sought to establish itself as a moral arbiter on children’s education and sexuality. But behind its meticulously curated self-image, Disney has had...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Marx: ‘The Catechism is not set in stone. One is also allowed to doubt what it says’Cardinal Reinhard Marx marks ‘20 years of queer worship and pastoral care’ at St. Paul parish church, Munich, southern Germany, March 13, 2022.Hamburg, Germany, Mar 31, 2022 / 08:10 am (CNA).German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said in an interview published on Thursday that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is “not set in stone” and “one is also allowed to doubt what it says.”The cardinal made the comments in a seven-page spread in the March 31 edition of the weekly current affairs...

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was mocked Thursday for celebrating the Biden administration taking an unprecedented amount of oil out from the federal emergency reserve. Klain tweeted out a Yahoo News article reporting on the president’s attempt to lower gas prices, with an all-caps caption, "HISTORIC."However, critics had a different take on the administration further depleting the nation's emergency oil reserves. "You guys are actually bragging about having to release record amounts of oil from the strategic reserves," Stephen Miller, contributing editor at The Spectator, tweeted. [cut]Conservative commentator RB Pundit expressed frustration in his tweet that read, "This....

Today, there was a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the matter of the United States v. Michael Sussmann, the former DNC/Clinton/Perkins Coie lawyer accused of providing false statements relating to the Alfa Bank/Trump Organization hoax to then-FBI general counsel James Baker in the fall of 2016. Here is more background on his indictment and how Sussmann and his allies passed Trump transition data to the CIA. About the hearing - we have the transcript (link at the bottom). The hearing related to Sussmann’s efforts to dismiss the indictment, with the defense alleging that...

Joe Biden's approval rating by race in latest Quinnipiac poll:Hispanics: 32% Whites: 33% Blacks: 63%

Today, there was a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in the matter of the United States v. Michael Sussmann, the former DNC/Clinton/Perkins Coie lawyer accused of providing false statements relating to the Alfa Bank/Trump Organization hoax to then-FBI general counsel James Baker in the fall of 2016. Here is more background on his indictment and how Sussmann and his allies passed Trump transition data to the CIA. About the hearing – we have the transcript (link at the bottom). The hearing related to Sussmann’s efforts to dismiss the indictment, with the defense alleging that...

There are a lot of videos coming out of Ukraine, leading to a lot of opinions.Not to be a wet blanket, but I caution that these are merely small data points, and normally will only permit conclusions supported by that one snippet, not larger trends. [Edit. Dear God, people, this is a video about critical thinking. It's not about who I think is going to win or who I hope is going to win (Ukraine, for the record).Listen carefully to my words: saying "Not everything unpleasant is a war crime" is NOT the same as "Russia is committing no war...

Homebuyers have faced a tough proposition during the pandemic: Swallow rapid price increases and forgo typical steps like house inspections, or risk getting left out of the real estate market. Those dynamics have caused some observers to question whether the U.S. is repeating the housing bubble of the early 2000s, which led to a painful housing crash in 2006 and the Great Recession the following year. The answer, warns the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, is that the market is showing "signs of a brewing U.S. housing bubble."

CNN)Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney said Thursday that Republicans have struck an "agreement in principle" with Democrats on a $10 billion package to help US efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, a breakthrough that could pave the way for new funds to help the United States' response efforts amid growing fears that critical resources are being depleted. Romney, the lead GOP negotiator, told reporters the plan is "entirely balanced by offsets." He said the bill text still needs to be drafted and there needs to be a cost estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office before the Senate can vote...

He told Fox News Digital it was important for America's right-leaning party to 'rally around a bold, optimistic agenda' to 'stop the radical left.' 'Elections are about the future, and frankly the opposition would love nothing more for conservatives to talk about the past or to talk of the mess they've made of the present, but I think it's of equal importance we focus on where conservatives at every level, whether it's the active citizen or whether it be people in public life, can carry the country,' Pence added.

With COVID-19 cases decreasing and pandemic restrictions lifting all over the U.S., many churches and other houses of worship have returned to their pre-pandemic services. But that return to normal has not corresponded with worshipers returning for in-person services, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. The survey asked U.S. adults who say they attend religious services whether their house of worship is currently open and holding services the same way it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. A new high of 43% of respondents say their congregation has returned to normal services, which is an increase of 14 percentage...

Fairview, OR — An 84-year-old couple was attacked on a walking trail in Fairview on Sunday, with law enforcement saying a homeless man hit the husband with a rock when he was defending his wife. 911 records show that “the caller found a subject, was just beat up on the trail." According to court documents, the couple was walking along the Salish Pond Trail when Philip Bradley, a transient living in the park, hit the woman. Her husband stepped in to protect her. Bradley is then accused of hitting the man in the head with a rock and putting "his...

North Carolina Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn is capturing flak from his own party this week after claiming Washington D.C. is a sexually obsessed swamp run on cocaine. [CUT] The controversial comments set off members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and provoked a meeting between the congressional newcomer and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is weighing further action. “There’s a lot of different things that can happen,” McCarthy told Axios Wednesday. “I just told him he’s lost my trust, he’s gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And, you can’t just say...

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released guidance Thursday endorsing gender reassignment procedures for children. The documents, “Gender Affirming Care and Young People” released by the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) and “Gender-Affirming Care Is Trauma-Informed Care” released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), support a wide range of procedures including surgeries performed on adolescents. The guidance goes beyond social affirmation and the use of puberty blockers, which the OPA document describes as “reversible” treatments, and extends to treatments that cannot be completely reversed, including hormone therapy and “gender-affirming...

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that many hoped “we would be focusing solely on clean energy solutions, renewable, making that transition,” but the war in Ukraine has thrown a wrench into that and said that “we have got to use this reason to become energy independent with clean energy.” Host Chris Hayes said that while he would probably take a similar approach to President Joe Biden because people need gas to get around and gas price increases harm people, but “At the same time, it just seems so depressingly insane that we are...

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “All In,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that the benchmark for success on energy for the Biden administration is “really a stable oil market, but really, a move to clean energy.” Host Chris Hayes asked, “What’s the benchmark for success here? I mean, again, I think that — to go back to the sort of SPR release — the Strategic Petroleum Reserve…there’s always this worry about firing that bullet in the gun and it not working. So, what is your benchmark over these next six months?”