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Less than one month before the emergency health authority Title 42 expired, the U.S. State Department awarded Ukraine’s Border Patrol with a robust, seven-figure grant.The grant, which is readily accessible on the federal government’s online spending database, started on April 18th, 2023, and is set to expire on October 16th. The agreement, which has currently allocated $1,011,625 in taxpayer funds, could potentially be increased to a total of $1,980,750 and extended until March of next year.The State Department awarded the grant to Bizzell Corp, a logistics firm based out of Wyoming, to “manufacture and delivery of dugout shelters for the...

Why would DeSantis cosponsor this bill?What was HR 6246?What the bill doesThe Puerto Rico Admission Act [H.R. 6246] would officially make the territory the 51st U.S. state, no later than 2021.The bill was introduced by the territory’s nonvoting member of Congress, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón (R-PR0).The state would gain two U.S. senators, plus five House representativesaccording to their population, as well as presidential voting rights.How would the state likely vote? Unlike a potential Washington DC statehood, Puerto Rico is more up in the air. Their one nonvoting member of Congress is a Republican, though their governor is a member of...

Myles Sanderson died Wednesday after experiencing "medical distress" following his arrest... His brother Damien Sanderson was found dead the day after the attacks, police said previously. ... The day after the stabbings, Damien Sanderson was found dead in a heavily grassed area near a house on the James Smith Cree Nation, Blackmore has previously said. His injuries did not appear to be self-inflicted, she said. Investigators have said they are working to determine if Myles Sanderson may have been involved with his brother's death. After Damien's death, Myles Sanderson was on the run for two more days...the truck was spotted...

This is what passes for a logical argument in Washington today:In case you ever need an example of failed reductive thinkingThe argument is so flawed it can’t even be classified as a logical fallacy. In fact I’m not even sure if it can be called an argument anywhere outside of politics. Beyond the stupidity of Robert Reich’s (Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary) claim, the founding fathers already established the reason the seat of the Federal Government should not be placed under the power of a state legislature, but rather under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. Of course the Constitution...

House Democrats are poised to approve Washington, D.C., becoming the nation's 51st state in a historic vote scheduled for Friday. Washington the 'District of Columbia' would be no longer, the bill's language says, as the new state would be referred to as 'Washington, Douglass Commonwealth' - swapping out Italian explorer Christopher Columbus for Maryland-born abolitionist Frederick Douglass. 'And what an appropriate name: George Washington and Frederick Douglass, joined together in support of citizenship, what an appropriate name it seems to me for the capital of America,' remarked Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House's No. 2 Democrat who represents nearby Maryland. 'To...

A key House committee approved a bill to make the nation's capital the 51st state, sending it to the House floor for full approval. This is the first time since 1993 that a bill to make Washington, D.C., a state has been considered and approved in a committee. The House Oversight Committee passed the bill over the objections of the Republican minority, which introduced amendments to impose restrictions on abortion and gun control on the proposed state. The bill has 220 co-sponsors, giving it the momentum to pass the majority-Democratic House. "For such a historic achievement for the District of...

In New York state government news, the topic of splitting the state into separate upstate and downstate entities has popped up again at the Capitol. A lawmaker representing a suburban-rural district in eastern New York this week proposed legislation that would authorize a study into the up-front and long-term costs of separating the upstate and downstate regions into two states, along with the legal implications and economic impact. Meanwhile, lawmakers will return to Albany on Tuesday for a three-day workweek, their first since the Legislature convened Jan. 9 for its 2019 session. Here’s a look at stories making news and...

ILLINOIS. (WAND) - A state representative has filed a bill that would urge the United States Congress to make Chicago its own state and not a part of Illinois. The bill, filed by Brad Halbrook of Shelbyville, Ill. was filed on Feb. 7th. It currently has two co-sponsors, Rep. Chris Miller of Robinson, Ill., and Darren Bailey of Louisville, Ill.. The bill has not been assigned to a committee yet. The bill is a house resolution meaning it does not need approval from the senate or the governor.

The NAACP on Thursday rescinded its support for Puerto Rican statehood. The civil rights group emphasized Puerto Rican "self-determination" in a statement walking back its endorsement of a bill that would make Puerto Rico the 51st state, which it voted to support on Tuesday. "Puerto Rico should be free to decide its preferred option in a fair and inclusive manner," the NAACP said, adding that it has a "long history of supporting the democratic value of self-determination." In a statement on Tuesday, the NAACP threw its weight behind the Puerto Rican Admission Act after an appeal from Gov. Ricardo Rosselló,...

June 28 (UPI) -- A bipartisan bill introduced in Congress on Wednesday calls to make Puerto Rico a state by 2021. The Puerto Rico Admission Act of 2018 was introduced by Republican Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, a nonvoting members of Congress representing Puerto Rico and co-sponsored by 36 members of Congress, including 22 Republicans and 14 Democrats.

Ernesto Davila Marin was in elementary school when rebellion interrupted class. As he left the schoolhouse that October day, black smoke rose from the town center where nationalists had set Jayuya ablaze, shooting police officers and declaring the independent republic of Puerto Rico from a rooftop. In the struggle for sovereignty from American colonial rule, Puerto Rican independence fighters staged uprisings in nearly a dozen cities that day in 1950 and later attempted to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. They held the central mountain city for three days until U.S. Air Force bombers buzzed over the emerald peaks packed with...

By a narrow margin, more voters think Puerto Rico should become a state than think it should stay a territory. According to the latest Fox News Poll, 41 percent say Puerto Rico should become the 51st star on the flag. That’s an 11-point increase since the last time the question was asked in June 2007, when 30 percent opted for statehood.

Weeks after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the island remains in crisis. Eighty three percent of people in Puerto Rico don’t have power and thirty five percent don’t have access to clean water. The death toll currently stands at 48 but is likely to keep rising in the coming weeks. Washington has responded to this crisis with billions in immediate disaster assistance, helping the cash-strapped island afford its basic expenses after tax revenue has all but dried up. This financial commitment isn’t going to end anytime soon: Experts suggest the final cost could exceed $100 billion.

Representatives of two counties in far Northern California petitioned state officials Thursday for the right to form a 51st state called Jefferson, formally asking state lawmakers to vote on their proposal. Modoc and Siskiyou counties, which share a border with Oregon and have a combined population of about 53,000, submitted petitions from their county governments to the secretaries of the state Assembly and Senate after filing a petition complaining about a lack of representation to the secretary of state. "

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Colorado secede? Counties weigh exit plan to form state of 'North Colorado' Colorado secede? It sounds implausible, but the idea of counties withdrawing from one state to form a new one isn’t impossible. But some big hurdles – like the US Constitution – make it very difficult. It’s an uphill climb that looks Rocky Mountain high, but a collection of independent-thinking counties may mount an effort to secede from the rest of Colorado and form their own new state. The idea is rooted in the political rift that many Coloradans – especially rural ones – feel with a Denver-based state...

Last night Porta Rico voted to become the 51st state. It won't matter too much financially as we have been supporting them for ever. But it will add a complete state to the " Takers" list. These people well be entitled to two new Senators, and the usual number of Representatives, and they will be allowed to vote in our Federal elections.

Newt Gingrich’s moon base idea takes center stage at the GOP debate in Florida If aliens were watching from outer space, even they might have been shocked by the amount of time devoted to space travel in Thursday’s presidential debate. Newt Gingrich excited Florida’s struggling space coast this week when he pledged to industry executives that he would colonize the moon by the end of his second presidential term. The big promise drew flak from his GOP rivals, and a question at the debate from a Twitter user who wanted to know how the former speaker planned to pay for...

'United States Plus One – The Prospect of Puerto Rico as the 51st State'. When HR.2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2010 passed the House 223 - 169, it barely gathered a whimper of press. The prospect of America gaining a new state would normally be newsworthy, yet H.R.2499 missed out. Meanwhile, decade old perceptions of Democratic gerrymandering, and opinions based on the 93 and 98 failed plebiscites re-surfaced. Is Puerto Rican Statehood gerrymandering for the Democratic Party? Can America afford another State? Why did Puerto Rico rejected Statehood twice?

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