OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN—Ben Shapiro traveled to Wisconsin to support Republican Senate candidate Eric Hovde, telling voters that Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin “needs to go.” Shapiro joined Hovde, a Wisconsin native and businessman, on the campaign trail in Oshkosh and Elkhart Lake to discuss key issues informing voters’ decisions in the lead-up to the election. The pair emphasized the importance of the upcoming Senate race at an event at an Oshkosh brewery, where Hovde told supporters that the country was becoming unrecognizable under the Biden-Harris administration. “Waking up in America the last three and a half four years has been waking up in a bad episode of The Twilight Zone where what is right has become wrong and what is wrong has become right,” Hovde told the crowd. “We have literally flipped the moral compass upside down.” Shapiro spoke alongside Hovde, telling attendees that Baldwin is “far too radical” for Wisconsin. Baldwin has been “masquerading as a moderate for far too long … she’s a rubber stamp for the Biden-Harris administration,” Shapiro asserted, arguing that “the most important thing in this campaign is Republicans taking the Senate.” He also warned that a Democratic victory could doom future chances for Republicans to win elected office. “If Republicans somehow failed to take the Senate, and if somehow, God forbid, Democrats were to take the presidency, the Senate and the Congress of the United States, they would then rejigger virtually every rule that allows for the possibility of the Republicans, of conservatives, of traditional people, winning office and winning power any time in the near future,” Shapiro said. Hovde went on to explain why he decided to run for Senate, spotlighting some of the largest issues facing the country. “I have four primary reasons why I got into this race. First, economically, we’re sacrificing our economic future. We’ve racked up more debt in the last three and a half years than in our country’s first 230-year history. The interest cost on our debt now is a trillion dollars a year,” Hovde explained. “I hate to tell you folks, but that’s how the great societies of history have always failed.” Hovde turned his attention to domestic security, tearing into the “defund the police” movement, which the Republican called “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard in my life.” “Milwaukee, a city in Wisconsin, is now one of the murder capitals in the country. It’s right up there with Baltimore today … You talk to the officers, their staffing is down 40%. They can’t even recruit officers.” He also cited the border crisis as one of the reasons why he decided to challenge Baldwin, blasting mass illegal immigration as a danger to Americans. “Venezuela has dumped their criminal cells, their jail cells, into America,” Hovde warned. “The sheriffs at the southern border will tell you they can see the prison tattoos and the gang tattoos on these guys.” The Republican went on to address foreign policy, highlighting the “incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan” as “the most embarrassing moment of my life as an American” and detailing the conflicts raging across the globe. “They’ve made us less secure internationally,” Hovde said of the Biden-Harris administration, arguing that the administration’s performance on the Afghanistan withdrawal prompted America’s adversaries to become more aggressive. “I think our adversaries moved, obviously Putin on Ukraine, the Ayatollah through Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel, and that conflict is widening, and then obviously China is getting more aggressive against the Philippines, against Vietnam, and clearly Taiwan.” The event came after Shapiro and the Republican nominee stopped at a Baptist church in Oshkosh for a discussion with Moms for Liberty, where local community members explained how left-wing gender ideology had been forced on their school districts and what they were doing to stop it. POLITICO reported last month that Shapiro was preparing to travel to swing states and campaign alongside Senate candidates like Ohio’s Bernie Moreno and Tom Sheehy of Montana. Lindsay Clark, a member of Wisconsin’s Neenah School Board, explained in a roundtable conversation with Hovde and Shapiro that the far-left curriculum in her children’s school drove her to run for office. “I saw that even in my own community, in my own district, there was curriculum right in the kindergarten that was showing that our children, ‘you can do what you want. You can choose to be a boy, you can choose to be a girl.’ It was right in the curriculum in kindergarten.” Shapiro addressed policies allowing men to access women’s locker rooms and play against women in sports, pointing out that the measures stem from the false claim that it is possible for people to change their sex. “There is a fundamental untruth that’s being perpetrated against the American people, and girls are the victims of this untruth. And that untruth is that men can be girls, girls can be boys,” Shapiro explained. “Everyone’s daughters are going to be victimized by this, but it’s part and parcel of the broader attack on the truth.” Hovde blasted schools for pushing a political agenda at the expense of children’s education, placing much of the blame on the Department of Education’s agenda. “The farther we remove decision making from where people are taxed, the worse outcomes you are going to get,” with schools “pushing social agendas” despite not adequately teaching children the basics of math and reading, Hovde told The Daily Wire at the event. “In the state of Wisconsin … 27 percent of our kids read at grade level, less are proficient at math.” Hovde and Shapiro ended the day with a fireside chat by Elkhart Lake, where they were greeted by an estimated 300 attendees, some of whom told The Daily Wire about the issues they care about most as the elections draw near. “It’s absolutely the economy, especially inflation,” Wisconsin voter Cameron Clark said when asked what the top issue on his mind is. “We have to get inflation under control.” Clark told The Daily Wire that the industrial manufacturing business where he works has been strained by inflation. “Payments are starting to be delayed. The understanding of where that next revenue stream is going to come from, it’s a little bit more uncertain,” he said. “We’re to the point where we are actually looking at, ‘can we even pursue hiring more people because of that uncertainty?’” Sherry Gulke, a Wisconsin teacher who teaches classes on the Constitution, told The Daily Wire that the right to life, the border, and the economy were the issues she’s most concerned with. Gulke said that “the sanctity of life” is her top issue, and that she hopes America’s leaders will protect “the most defenseless, being the preborn children who have no way of protecting themselves.” The state of the economy also concerns Gulke. “I’m worried. I have 17 grandchildren. I’m concerned for what we’re leaving for them. My husband and I are on social security right now. I would like to believe that there’s going to be some left for my six kids and their families when the time comes,” Gulke said about the economy before adding, “Taxes are destroying us.” On the border, she says that even midwestern states like hers are harmed by illegal immigration. “It’s coming to Wisconsin, it’s coming to every state,” she said of the crisis of illegal immigration. “I don’t want to see my grandkids live in a world where they can’t just go out and ride their bikes in town anymore, where they can’t be in the neighborhood playing because of the possibility of trafficking or just other crimes.”

Members of a New Hampshire high school girls’ soccer team refused to play against a team whose star player is a biological male, following a similar move by some universities when it comes to teams with trans-identifying athletes. On Tuesday, at least five of the girls on the Hillsboro-Deering High School Girls Varsity Soccer team skipped their game against Kearsarge Regional High School where the team’s star player is a male named Maelle Jacques, NHJournal reported. “This isn’t about transgenderism,” Heather Thyng, the mother of a Hillsboro-Deering player who refused to play, told the outlet. “This is about biology for us and the increased physical risk when playing a full contact sport against the opposing sex.” BREAKING: Members of the Hillsboro-Deering High School Girls Soccer team in New Hampshire refused to play against the Kearsarge team because of their star athlete, Maelle Jacques, who is a male. Parent of the Hillsboro-Deering player says, “This is about biology for us and the… pic.twitter.com/vZ5ekWBThs — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 2, 2024 “No one ever got near [Maelle,] so I guess they’ll never be in any danger if there’s enough girls to always have a weak team,” Betsy Harrington, another parent said. “If every game has a few girls refusing to play, we will never know the ability of the Kearsarge team. They have an advantage I hadn’t thought about. It’s that they get to always play a crippled team without all of their players.” “We believe, my daughter included, that refusing to compete is the best way to push back on this issue, and we are hoping parents will be more willing to put themselves out there knowing they don’t have to be the first or the only family within our community to do so,” Thyng said. “The coaches reassured me they told the girls there would be no negative repercussions for anyone who refuses to compete,” she added. “They said they understood the increased risk and would be paying attention to the aggressiveness of the game, and if anyone was getting hurt or play was too rough, they were prepared to end the game.” Jacques is not only dominating in soccer but also in high school track and field, taking away the opportunity for a female to be named the girls’ high jump champion when the biological male won first place at the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 state championship in February, the outlet noted. On Monday, the women’s volleyball team at the University of Wyoming became the third school to refuse to play against San Jose State University because the California school has allowed a trans-identifying male to play on the women’s team, as previously reported. In a statement posted on X from the Wyoming Cowgirl Volleyball, the team stated, “After a lengthy discussion, the University of Wyoming will not play its scheduled conference match against San José State University in the UniWyo Sports Complex on Saturday, Oct. 5.” “Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Wyoming,” the statement added. “The Cowgirls will host Fresno State on Thursday, Oct. 3 at 6:30 p.m. in the UniWyo Sports Complex.” SJSU’s star volleyball player is a trans-identifying male who goes by the name of Blaire Fleming, OutKick’s David Hookstead previously reported. Related: University Women’s Team Becomes Latest To Refuse To Play Against Trans-Identifying Male

One of the oldest cliches in Hollywood is that, if you want a story involving insane levels of corruption and over-the-top mob tactics, you should probably have a lot of dockworkers in your film. Some of the most famous movies ever made, like “On the Waterfront” starring Marlon Brando, made use of this conceit involving longshoremen. For generations, everyone’s understood that this industry functions a bit like a fiefdom, independent of the rest of the country. It promotes from within. It protects its own. And when it wants something, it’s not afraid to shut down the U.S. economy in order to get it. Over the years, various presidents have had to tangle with the dockworkers and their unions. Some of these presidents, like FDR and Obama, have granted dockworkers massive concessions. Other presidents, like George W. Bush, went to court and used the Taft-Hartley Act to end strikes that were costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars a day. But no administration in the history of this country has adopted the approach that the Biden-Harris administration is now taking. Right now, without any objection from the White House whatsoever, a 78-year-old union boss named Harold Daggett is proudly shaking down the entire country. He’s going on television wearing gold medallions and flaunting his $700,000 salary as his union, the 50,000-member International Longshoremen’s Association, shuts down 36 ports — including the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. These ports, taken together, handle more than 50% of the imports and exports to this country. The cost to the U.S. economy is more than $4 billion a day, and very soon, this shutdown could lead to shortages and mass layoffs. And Harold Daggett has made it very clear that he doesn’t care about any of these effects. He doesn’t care what happens to millions of Americans as a result of this strike. Watch: Longshoremen pres. boasts about a strike hurting everyday Americans: “People never gave a shit about us until now, when they finally realize that the chain is being broke now. Cars won’t come in, food won’t come in, clothing won’t come in.” pic.twitter.com/rHJf1e96YU — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 1, 2024   Notice that there’s no rational argument here. He’s not arguing that dockworkers deserve higher salaries because they can’t make ends meet, or because they’re doing such a great job, or because they’re efficient, or any of that. He’s saying they should receive higher salaries because they’re holding America hostage. They have the power, so we need to pay the ransom. When you look at the specific demands this union is making, the absurdity becomes even more apparent. Daggett wants the ports to give dockworkers a 77% pay raise to $69.00 an hour, after turning down a 50% pay raise. That’s far more than dockworkers make on the West Coast. Daggett also wants more “container royalties,” which gives money to longshoremen even if they’re not working. And he wants a complete ban on any forms of automation at ports. WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show Previously I’ve talked about the rise of automation, and how it’s a threat to many Americans’ jobs. There are obviously a lot of important concerns as far as how automation is used, and how many jobs it’s allowed to replace. But in this context, this blanket demand — that no automation is used at all — is a dead giveaway. It’s evidence that these dockworkers don’t care about the economy at all, or remaining competitive with what other countries are doing. Here’s a look at what they’re doing in ports in China, to give you some idea. Longshoremen in China: The Chinese port in Guangzhou. Virtual Longshoremen unload ships remotely with 5G, and help supervise AI vehicles that automatically drive the containers to trucks and load them, all remotely. pic.twitter.com/Tt5J0oP1yr — Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) October 1, 2024 They still have people working there, as you can see. But they’re using cellular connections and computers to remotely unload and offload the cargo. In many cases, that’s safer, faster, and cheaper than having humans do it. We don’t have any of this, and it’s because of unions. These unions are a big part of why U.S. ports are so inefficient compared to ports all over the world. As recently as 2020, the World Bank found that there wasn’t a single U.S. port that ranked in the top 50 global ports in terms of “getting a ship in and out of port,” quickly and affordably. Not a single one. Overall, our ports are about half as efficient as global ports on average. And now, the unions representing the workers at these ports are demanding a massive raise — along with a ban on any form of technology that could make the ports more efficient. If the Biden administration wanted to put an end to this, they could. They could do what Bush did, and take this union to court. They could apply public pressure. They could also threaten to repeal other laws on the books that already benefit the dockworkers’ unions. There’s something called the Jones Act, for example. It requires that all goods transported between U.S. ports by water are carried on ships that are built in the U.S. and crewed by Americans. This leads to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs, but unions love the law because it means more union jobs are created. Of course, that law won’t change, and no one in the Biden administration wants it to change. They don’t want to upset Harold Daggett — someone the DOJ once accused of being an “associate” of a mafia family. He has quite a life story, by the way. The New York Post reports: Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him with racketeering. … During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged major mob figure – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner. Ricci’s death remained unsolved, though speculation circulated that he was killed after refusing to plead guilty to avoid news reports of the trial. … Daggett was acquitted. So Harold Daggett beat that racketeering rap. And now he’s holding the U.S. economy hostage. Ships are having to re-route to the West Coast in order to prevent economic calamity, all because of him. It’s quite a recovery for Harold Daggett’s career. For the rest of us, it’s a crisis that has no real precedent in the past several decades. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! And this is just one of the several disasters that are unfolding in the final days of the Biden-Harris administration. Yesterday, Iran launched a volley of more than 180 ballistic missiles into Israel. This is the second direct attack by Iran against Israel in just the last few months. It’s put us much closer to World War III than we’ve been in recent history. And it comes just a year after the Biden administration’s national security adviser bragged that the Middle East was “quieter” than it’s been in two decades.  Watch: Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan (last week): "The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades" pic.twitter.com/59MYUXhmHf — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 7, 2023 A week after Jake Sullivan made that claim, Hamas terrorists backed by Iran committed a massacre in Israel. And now rockets are flying back and forth. And despite all of this, Jake Sullivan still has his job. He wasn’t fired. He wasn’t run out of Washington after making it abundantly clear that he has no idea what’s happening in the Middle East — which you’d think would be disqualifying for a national security adviser. They forced Mike Flynn out of the job of national security adviser after, what, three weeks? And then you have someone like Jake Sullivan, who’s obviously incompetent to the point of being dangerous, and he suffers no consequences whatsoever. Again, nothing like this happened during the four years of the Trump administration. This level of international chaos, and complete ineptitude, simply was not present. Iran was not launching rockets directly into Israel, just like Russia wasn’t sending tanks directly into Ukraine. Are Iran and Russia taking advantage of the fact that the brain of the current U.S. president is basically applesauce at this point? That seems like a valid theory, especially since the Biden administration has no alternative hypothesis for what’s going on. If you ask them, everything’s fine — until suddenly it isn’t. That’s the same story we’re seeing in North Carolina, as I discussed yesterday. Gut wrenching scenes from Western NC today. This is Chimney Rock — just downriver from Asheville. It’s one of the countless communities completely devastated by Helene that still need help. Give if you can, and please keep them all in your thoughts @ABC11_WTVD pic.twitter.com/N7JDk0ygfz — Sean Coffey (@seancoffeytv) October 2, 2024 After failing to evacuate residents from the western portion of the state, the federal government is now failing to help many of the survivors. Yesterday I shared an email that came from someone named Jason, who’s from the rural area of Ashe County. He reported that FEMA was nowhere in sight. Here’s an update he sent me last night: I just got home from volunteering with a search and rescue team in Lansing which is one of the flooded rural towns. … Funny thing is the FEMA people showed up today but they are worthless. We ran into a bunch while we were delivering water and generators and they were just walking around making sure that people were still in the house. So the federal government is still failing to help people in the most devastated rural areas. And communications are still spotty, in part because the government didn’t want to spend any money on Elon Musk’s Starlink system because they have a vendetta against Elon Musk. As a result, private citizens are now installing Starlink systems in the area. Journalist Nick Sortor just reported that “first responders still do not have reliable communications” in North Carolina after four days. He uploaded this footage of three North Carolina State Police units giving him a police escort so that he can deploy Starlink systems for others to use, and he added that the police are, “literally using MY Window Starlink to communicate with each other!” Watch: ? First responders *STILL* do not have reliable comms here in Western North Carolina After FOUR DAYS. The three NC State Police units giving us a police escort so that we can quickly deploy Starlinks across the region are literally using MY Window Starlink to communicate with… pic.twitter.com/uLceenFYbL — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 1, 2024 The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars to prepare for disasters like this, ostensibly so that vital communications equipment and supplies are available within hours. But they haven’t been doing that. For the past several days, random people — citizen journalists and volunteers — have been doing a better job than the government agency that supposedly specializes in disaster relief. WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI So wherever you look — whether it’s the Middle East, or North Carolina, or the nation’s ports — you’ll find an ongoing, once-in-a-lifetime disaster that’s threatening to spiral even further out of control. This is what the country — and the world — look like at the end of the Biden-Harris term. There are multiple catastrophes happening all at once. It’s impossible for anyone to deny that the world is a measurably worse and more dangerous place today than it was when they took office. Everyone knows it. Even Kamala Harris knows it. It’s why she had to duck the first question of the presidential debate, when she was asked whether Americans are better off now than they were four years ago. This is the Biden-Harris “legacy.” It’ll either end in January, or inevitably, these people will lead us into a major catastrophe that we can’t come back from.

A Border Patrol sector on the United State’s northern border with Canada recorded more illegal alien apprehensions in the 2024 fiscal year than in the last 17 years combined. Agents in the Swanton Border Patrol sector, which covers Vermont, New Hampshire, and part of New York, recorded 19,222 illegal immigrant apprehensions in fiscal year 2024, marking a drastic uptick from previous years. The illegal migrants came from 97 different countries around the world. Border Patrol Agents in Swanton Sector have apprehended more than 19,222 subjects from 97 different countries since October 1, 2023, which is more than its last 17 fiscal years combined. Report suspicious border activity in Swanton Sector: 1-800-689-3362 @USBPChief@CBP@DHSgov pic.twitter.com/BhUaYYi15B — Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia (@USBPChiefSWB) October 2, 2024 Border Patrol recorded 6,925 apprehensions in the Swanton sector during fiscal year 2023, which was a drastic increase from the 1,065 in fiscal year 2022. Apprehensions in the northern border sector experienced a surge after the Biden-Harris administration entered the White House. While 1,065 apprehensions were recorded in fiscal year 2019, the highest of any year under the Trump presidency, the figure for fiscal year 2024 under the Biden-Harris administration marks more than 18 times as many apprehensions. The apprehension totals from the Swanton Sector come as the Biden-Harris administration has presided over an historic surge of illegal immigration. More than 10 million people have crossed the border under the Biden-Harris administration, with an estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrant gotaways recorded since President Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021. ​​The figures pose a stark contrast to the total 415,000 reported gotaways for 2018, 2019, and 2020 during the Trump administration. Illegal immigration has now become one of the top issues facing voters as they decide who to support in the November election. Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here! The surge in illegal immigration has been so drastic under the Biden-Harris administration that the foreign-born population residing in the United States spiked to an all time high of 51.6 million people as of March 2024. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analyzed the data, estimating that almost 58 percent of the increase in the foreign born population under the Biden-Harris administration was due to illegal immigration. CIS also found that “only 46 percent of the foreign-born who arrived in 2022 or later were employed in the first part of 2024” and that only eight percent of those who are not currently working say they are looking for work. Vice President Kamala Harris has attempted to pivot on the critical election year issue and present herself as a proponent of border enforcement, even resorting to running an advertisement that features an image of President Donald Trump’s border wall. The Harris campaign, meanwhile, refuses to provide the Democrat’s stance on a controversial program that’s allowed roughly half a million migrants to be flown into the interior of the United States.

'Judge Chutkan actually said well that's unusual'

'Forever and always, your wife'

Americans' free speech rights will be infringed, not by accident but as a policy decision

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he opposes a potential Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites in retaliation for Tuesday’s missile strike. Iran launched a missile barrage against Israel on Tuesday, which was conducted as payback for Israel’s assassination of key Iran-backed officials, according to The Associated Press (AP). The president emphasized Israel’s right to […]

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Seven Arizona school districts have policies mandating staff hide students’ “transgender” identity from their parents, according to documents newly obtained by Parents Defending Education and shared with The Daily Signal. Parents Defending Education, a parental rights organization, keeps a list of school districts across the country that openly instruct school districts to conceal a student’s transgender status from parents. “As a parent, I find it deeply appalling and offensive that school administrators are pushing policies specifically designed to hide sensitive information from families,” senior adviser at Parents Defending Education Michele Exner told The Daily Signal. “Parents have a right to direct the upbringing of their children, and schools should not be in the business of arbitrarily deciding what student information to not share with parents.” “Not only are these school districts knowingly abusing the parents’ trust, but their radical gender policies also violate the fairness and safety of their female students,” Exner continued. Almost three-fourths of registered voters “believe schools should not help students change their gender identity without parental consent,” according to a CRC Research poll conducted in March for the organization. Plus, 71% of voters “oppose letting schools withhold information about a child’s gender identity from their parents.” Amphitheatre Public Schools in Tucson Trains Staff to Hide Gender Identity From Parents In a presentation titled “Title IX and Transgender Students: Bathrooms, Athletics, and More” obtained by Parents Defending Education, staff learned that while they can’t encourage children to keep information from their parents, they are under no obligation to proactively disclose information to parents. The presentation says that “any attempt to encourage or coerce a minor child to withhold information from the child’s parent is grounds for discipline of an employee of this state, any political subdivision of this state, any other governmental entity or any other institution, except for law enforcement personnel.”  The slide goes on to say that there is “no obligation to disclose information to parents, no right to withhold it.” The training says staff are mandated to use students’ preferred pronouns, then says, “Parent preference outweighs student preference, but schools have no obligation to seek it out.” Amphitheatre Public Schools did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. Law-on-Transgender-Students-ASBA-2023Download Amphitheatre Public Schools’ presentation on “Title IX and Transgender Students.” (Amphitheatre Public Schools) Tempe Union High School District’s Policy Seems to Bring in Legal Counsel if Parents Don’t Support Their Child’s Gender Identity “The school is not to usurp the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, health care, and mental health of their children,” the presentation states. It was last revised in July 2023. “Therefore, in situations where a parent may not be supportive of a student’s transgender status, it is imperative that the school coordinate with the assistant superintendent for district safety and student support and Tri-District legal counsel to work through issues that will arise.” The district in Tempe also uses “gender support plans” to facilitate students’ “social” transitions at school. Social transitioning involves treating the student as if he or she were a different gender, using different names, pronouns, and even clothing. The plans, obtained by Parents Defending Education, ask: “Guardians are aware of student’s gender status?” The next question then asks: “If yes; what is the level of support?” Tempe Union High School District did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. TUHSD-Gender-Support-Plan_March-2022Download The Gender Support Plan in Tempe Union High School District. (Tempe Union High School District) Kyrene Elementary School District in Tempe Also May Involve Legal Counsel if Parents Don’t Support Their Child Identifying as the Opposite Sex “Therefore, in situations where a parent may not be supportive of a student’s transgender status, it is imperative that the school coordinate with the executive director of school effectiveness, the executive director of inclusive student services, and Tri-District legal counsel to work through issues that will arise,” the guidance obtained by Parents Defending Education reads. The guidance says a student should be consulted for permission before the school shares a child’s gender identity with his or her parents. “The principal should discuss with the minor student whether the parent/guardian may be contacted regarding the request before initiating contact,” the Kyrene guidance states. Kyrene Elementary School District was unavailable to respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by time of publication. Kyrene-Transgender-Guidance-Revised-July-2023Download Kyrene Elementary School District’s “Guidelines for Support of Transgender Students.” (Kyrene Elementary School District) Cartwright School District in Phoenix Trains Staff to ’Protect a Student’s Privacy’ When Involving Parents Who Are ’Unsupportive’ of Their Child’s LGBTQ Identification Parents Defending Education obtained a Cartwright staff training presentation titled “Supporting Our Gender Variant Scholars.” “Protect a student’s privacy, especially when they have unsupportive families,” the presentation for teachers of kindergarten through eighth grade states, followed by: “Any decision to raise the topic with parents must be made very carefully and in consultation with the student.” Staff learn to “support transitioning students by recognizing the urgency and timing of their transition.” The presentation further instructs staff to implement gender ideology into the curriculum and to avoid referring to students as “boys and girls.” This presentation argues that “they” is an acceptable pronoun for a singular person and that “descriptive language is the cornerstone of the democratic spirit.” The presentation by a staff member with “they/them/their pronouns” who goes by the honorific “Mx” features the “Genderbread Person,” which teaches that when it comes to sexuality and gender, people have five different characteristics, each of them falling along a spectrum. A slide promotes pronouns including “ze/hir,” “phe/per,” “zie, ne,” “yo, co,” and “hu, ta.”  Victor Hugo Rodriguez, executive director of public relations in the district, said Cartwright encourages parental involvement in education. “Each campus provides parents with the opportunity to engage directly with the principal to discuss any concerns or issues,” he told The Daily Signal. “Our mission is to educate and empower our scholars to achieve success,” Rodriguez continued. “To this end, we equip both parents and staff with the necessary tools to effectively navigate challenges. Additionally, we offer a variety of services to parents, ensuring that all activities, including field trips, are conducted with their consent.” Gender-Equity-All-Certified-Final_RedactedDownload Cartwright School District’s presentation on “Supporting Our Gender Variant Scholars.” (Cartwright School District) Washington Elementary School District in Maricopa County Uses a ’Gender Support Plan’ That Instructs Staff to Conceal Student Gender Identity “Therefore, given the sensitive nature of the information when speaking with parents, guardians, other staff members, or third parties, school staff should not disclose a student’s preferred name, pronoun, or other confidential information pertaining to the student’s transgender or gender identity status without the student’s consent, unless authorized to do so by state law or unless specifically authorized to do so by WESD [Washington Elementary School District] legal services,” a document Parents Defending Education obtained says. The plan asks: “Which name and gender pronouns will be used in guardian communications?” The options are “Preferred Name and Gender Pronouns” or “Legal Name and Gender Pronouns.”  WESD-Support-Plan-for-Transgender-and-Gender-Nonconforming-Students-12Download The Washington Elementary School District “Gender Support Plan.” (Washington Elementary School District) The elementary district also passed a resolution in July 2022 “Recognizing and Affirming LGBTQ+ Students and Staff.” “WESD believes it is our duty to honor, value, and affirm our transgender, nonbinary, and all LGBTQ+ students, staff, and families through our policies, practices, and curriculum,” the resolution says. The district “will review all WESD policies that currently include language about sex, which includes sexual orientations and transgender status (U.S. Supreme Court, Bostock v. Clayton) and amend them to include gender identity and expression,” the resolution continues. Washington Elementary School District did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. WESD-LGBTQ-Board-Resolution_wSignaturesDownload The Washington Elementary School District resolution on LGBTQ students and staff. (Washington Elementary School District) Paradise Valley Unified School District in a Suburb of Phoenix Allows Males Who Identify as Transgender to Room With Girls on Overnight Trips The Paradise Valley District allows students to participate in sports and overnight field trips in accordance with their gender identity. In a document titled “Administrative Guidelines Addressing the Rights of Students Regarding Gender Identity and Expression” obtained by Parents Defending Education, Paradise Valley clarifies that parents “shall” be involved in changes to the student’s gender designation in the student’s record. But the school district also mandates that staff use the preferred pronouns of students, and parental notification for such does not appear to be required. Paradise Valley communications specialist Sarah Hackett responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment with a referral to the district’s Title IX protocols.  0255_001Download Paradise Valley School District’s guidelines on gender identity. (Paradise Valley School District) Mesa Public Schools Does Not Require Parental Consent for a Student to Identify as the Opposite Gender Parents Defending Education submitted a public records request to Mesa Public Schools in Mesa seeking any guidance from the district regarding transgender issues. The district directed the organization to a document titled “Guidelines for Support of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students.” The guidance, most recently updated on July 15, explicitly states that parental “consent is not required” to allow students to identify as another gender. Students are also allowed to use facilities in accordance with their preferred gender. “Student mental health is an issue of perpetual concern to families and educators alike—which it is truly inexplicable that through the use of ‘parental exclusion policies,’ bureaucrats are now encouraging students to lead a double life and telling them that their parents might not love and support them,” Parents Defending Education founder Nicole Neily told The Daily Signal. “These are immoral policies that are actively destroying parent-child relationships from coast-to-coast.” Mesa Public Schools did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. Guidelines-for-Support-of-Transgender-and-Gender-Nonconforming-Students-August-2015Download Mesa Public Schools’ guidelines on transgender students. (Mesa Public Schools) The post EXCLUSIVE: 7 Arizona School Districts Exposed for ‘Transitioning’ Kids Without Parental Consent appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent millions on unused bed space while hundreds of thousands of criminal migrants are not being detained by the agency. There are more than 425,000 convicted criminal noncitizens on ICE’s non-detained docket living in the United States as of July 21, according to data released Thursday by ICE acting Director Patrick Lechleitner and provided to Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas. This newly released information came shortly after an inspector general report determined that the agency has spent roughly $160 million on unused ICE beds. There were an additional 222,141 migrants with pending criminal charges also on the non-detained docket list, according to ICE’s letter. OIG-24-59-Sep24Download ICEs-Signed-Response-to-Representative-Tony-GonzalesDownload Among those on the non-detained docket include noncitizens convicted of homicide, kidnapping, sexual assault, and other heinous crimes. Illegal migrants and other noncitizens on ICE’s non-detained docket could be incarcerated in local or state facilities, or they could be loose in the country. “[Vice President] Kamala Harris isn’t just [President Joe] Biden’s border czar, she’s also his ‘Abolish ICE Director‘—directing the agency in charge of enforcing our immigration laws to allow convicted murderers and rapists to roam free,” R.J. Hauman, president of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in response to the data. “This is an act of treason.” While many criminal illegal migrants remain out of ICE custody, eight prison facilities across the U.S. were paid approximately $160 million for unused ICE bed space between fiscal years 2020 and 2023, according to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General. Costs varied between prison facilities, and some were given tens of millions of taxpayer dollars for bed space that went unused, according to the report. The Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, for example, was paid $40 million for unused bed space. The inspector general’s report also noted that, while ICE must leave room for unexpected fluctuations in detained migrant populations and adhere to other regulations, the agency must also be good stewards of taxpayer money. “Although ICE must acquire and maintain enough bed space to satisfy demand for population surges and must adjust for health and safety requirements, it must also strive for balance to avoid wasting funds on empty beds,” the report stated. Lechleitner’s letter to Gonzales also revealed the extent to which so-called sanctuary cities—jurisdictions that largely refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities—make it harder for deportation officers to apprehend criminal migrants. From Oct. 1, 2020, through July 22, 2024, a total of 23,591 ICE detainers were declined by state and local law enforcement authorities, according to the letter. A vast majority of the detainers ICE lifted through these years were either denied or given “insufficient notice” by responding localities. “The truth is clear: Illegal immigrants with a criminal record are coming into our country,” Gonzales said Friday about the ICE data. “The data released by ICE is beyond disturbing, and it should be a wake-up call for the Biden-Harris administration and cities across the country that hide behind sanctuary policies.” Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Millions Are Being Spent on Unused ICE Beds, Even as Hundreds of Thousands of Criminal Migrants Aren’t Being Detained appeared first on The Daily Signal.