Author: Washington Free Beacon

Buried on page 95 of Joe Biden’s COVID plan is an odd reference.

The plan outlines a special task force, consisting of “health equity” experts with “lived experience,” that will develop recommendations to address data challenges associated with the pandemic—”including data intersectionality.”

“Data intersectionality” sounds radical, but its definition is prosaic: establishing links between data sets or analyzing “data that cuts across race, gender, and other identities“—two things the government has been doing since the pandemic began.

Top Republicans on three House investigative committees are demanding that the University of Pennsylvania release funding records on the school’s Penn Biden Center, a policy institute launched by President Joe Biden in 2017.

In a letter sent Thursday to University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, the lawmakers also asked for records related to the recent surge in donations to the university from China as well as information on any contracts and agreements between Penn and the Chinese government.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced an end to federal use of private prisons, a move he heralded as a blow to mass incarceration but which would affect just 2 percent of all prisoners.

Biden’s executive order, which requires the Department of Justice to begin phasing out private detention contracts, is specifically targeted at “decreas[ing] incarceration levels” by reducing “profit-based incentives to incarcerate.” Speaking to the press Tuesday, Biden called the order “just the beginning of my administration’s plan to address systemic problems in our criminal justice system.”

Teachers’ unions across the country have consistently opposed efforts to reopen schools, citing safety concerns. In some instances, teachers have fought to be included among the first wave of people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, only to continue their resistance to in-person education.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that, according to scientific research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is little evidence of COVID-19 transmission in schools that take standard precautionary measures.

Several Florida teachers who received special permission to work from home due to coronavirus-related health concerns were found traveling and attending mass gatherings.

At an arbitration hearing this weekend, Broward County Public Schools brought forward evidence—including pictures posted to public social media accounts—that teachers who were granted permission to work from home because of the coronavirus pandemic had attended parties and other crowded events last fall. One teacher flew to a wedding in Jamaica, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and another took a selfie at an October rally for then-candidate Joe Biden.

A dark money group aligned with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) ramped up its anonymous election cash by 825 percent in the 2020 cycle, filings show.

Majority Forward, a nonprofit with ties to Schumer’s Senate Majority PAC, pushed $57.4 million into super PACs that helped Democrats regain the majority in Congress’s upper chamber. The vast sum far eclipses the $6.2 million it funneled into election activity in the 2016 and 2018 cycles combined. The nonprofit does not disclose its donors, making it difficult to identify who provided the funding to back Schumer’s efforts.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) is following President Joe Biden’s unilateral lead, pushing forward with plans to enact a host of progressive policy goals without GOP votes.

Days after Biden issued a historic 17 executive orders on his first day in office, Schumer urged the president to declare a national climate emergency, saying the move would authorize Biden to do “many, many things under the emergency powers of the president … that he could do without legislation.” Schumer also joined Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) to encourage Biden to cancel up to $50,000 in student debt via executive

President Joe Biden’s pick for U.N. ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was unwilling to say during her Wednesday confirmation hearing that China was carrying out “genocide” against its Uighur population, stating that the genocide declaration was under review by the new administration’s State Department.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) asked Thomas-Greenfield if she believed the Chinese government is “guilty of genocide” during her Wednesday-morning confirmation hearing. In response, Thomas-Greenfield said, “What they are doing there has been referred to as genocide. And I know that the State Department is reviewing that as we speak. What they are doing is horrific, and I

The Chicago Teachers Union is planning to strike following failed negotiations over in-person learning.

On Monday, elementary and middle-school teachers across the Chicago Public School district refused to return to the classroom for in-person work after the Chicago Teachers Union voted to defy the district’s plan to reopen schools. The district subsequently pushed back the start date to Wednesday in hopes of reaching an agreement with the union, though negotiations ultimately failed. The Chicago Teachers Union said that if the district “retaliates,” teachers should strike.

The United States Navy launched an expansive buildup under the Trump administration to counter China. But veteran national security officials say the more immediate challenge may come from President Joe Biden.

The battle for control of the seas could play a decisive role in future American-Chinese relations and global stability. China touts the largest naval fleet in the world, with several aircraft carriers under construction over the next decade. Strategy documents from China indicate that it sees the expansion and projection of its naval strength as critical to challenging the United States. A former Trump administration official urged Biden to