National School Board President Tapped To Biden Admin After Comparing Parent Protests To ‘Domestic Terrorism’

The Department of Education tapped National School Board Association (NSBA) President Viola Garcia to serve on a federal education board a few weeks after she wrote a letter comparing parent protests to “domestic terrorism.”

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona appointed NSBA President Viola Garcia to the National Assessment Governing Board, which creates a “report card” on student performance nationwide. Garcia joined the board Oct. 13, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Garcia and NSBA CEO Chip Slaven sent a letter Sept. 29 addressed to the Biden administration requesting the assistance of the federal government in dealing with allegedly unruly parents at school board meetings. The letter claimed that teachers and school administrators had been threatened with violence and harassment. The letter said these actions were “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

According to emails obtained by Parents Defending Education, a concerned parent group, Slaven and Garcia sent the letter without permission of the NSBA board. The organization’s board has since issued an apology for the letter.

“On behalf of the NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter. To be clear, the safety of school board members, other public school officials and educators, and students is our top priority, and there remains important work to be done on this issue,” the letter reads. “We apologize also for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations.”

The White House was in communication with the NSBA for “several weeks” before the letter dropped. According to emails, the White House requested additional information on “specific threats” taking place nationwide.

Days after the NSBA’s letter was published, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the Department of Justice to create a task force to determine how “federal enforcement tools can be used.”

House Republicans are now calling on Garland to withdraw his memo, according to the Washington Examiner. Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan asked Garland whether it was a coincidence that he issued a directive five days after the NSBA letter was sent.

Garland claimed it was a “relevant factor.”

https://dailycaller.com/2021/10/25/national-school-board-president-tapped-biden-admin/

Alabama governor issues order combating federal vaccine mandate

Order argues best ways to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations is through ‘education, transparency, communication, and persuasion.’

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued Executive Order No. 724 on Monday calling for the state to oppose the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 mandate that businesses that employ more than 100 people require their workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly.

In the order, Ivey said the best ways to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations is through “education, transparency, communication, and persuasion," and not “government coercion.”

“The federal government’s overreach has given us no other option, but to begin taking action, which is why I am issuing this EO to fight these covid-19 vaccine mandates. As long as I’m governor, AL will not force anyone to take the vaccine,” Ivey tweeted.

State Sen. Greg Reed, R-5, who serves as President Pro Tem of the Alabama Senate, said on Twitter the executive order “is a positive step toward protecting Alabamians from the vaccine mandates imposed by the federal government. This overreach by the Biden Administration puts individual freedom at risk & will cause significant economic challenges across our state.”

“@GovernorKayIvey's E.O. is a positive step toward protecting Alabamians from the vaccine mandates imposed by the federal government. This overreach by the Biden Administration puts individual freedom at risk & will cause significant economic challenges across our state,” Reed tweeted.

In the order, Ivey said it was the “policy” of her administration “to encourage COVID-19 vaccination as safe and effective but to oppose overreaching COVID-19 mandates imposed by government.”

The Biden Administration issued a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses that employ more than 100 people to ensure the employees are either fully vaccinated against the coronavirus or are tested weekly.

Ivey said in the order that the “new federal mandates threaten to increase vaccine skepticism” and would “severely disrupt the state’s economy.”

The governor called the mandate a “significant overreach” by the president.

Ivey said the president’s vaccine mandate “rests of dubious legal grounds” and through the state’s Attorney General an “immediate legal challenge to stop the egregious and illegal federal overreach” is imminent.

Meanwhile, Ivey said in the order that “state government should set example by encouraging but not requiring COVID-19 vaccinations to employees and contractors.”

Through the order, Ivey said she is asking for cooperation from individuals and businesses with the state’s Attorney General; asking for non-enforcement of the federal mandate and no agency, department, or board within state government utilize a penalty on a business or individual who is not in compliance with the mandate.

The governor also said in the order the state government is to enforce to the “maximum extent protections afforded to public employees regarding vaccination records” and that executive branch agreements with contractors can’t “include any agreement or provision” for getting vaccinated.

https://justthenews.com/nation/states/alabama-governor-issues-order-combating-federal-vaccine-mandate

Sexual, financial impropriety claims loom over reelection bid of New Mexico Democratic gov

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's political action committee recently made its final payment in a $150,000 sexual harassment settlement with 2018 campaign staffer James Hallinan.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has settled a sexual harassment complaint filed by a male 2018 campaign staffer, another example of hypocrisy, GOP critics argue, by a governor facing a tough reelection bid.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's political action committee paid former campaign staffer James Hallinan $150,000 in a sexual harassment settlement, recent campaign filings show.

The final payment in an installment plan was paid Sept. 29.

The governor's campaign unequivocally denies Hallinan's claims, arguing it chose to settle the case in order to save on legal expenses and avoid distraction from state business.

Campaign spokesperson Kendall Witmer said in a statement earlier this month: "The Governor, Dominic Gabello, and New Mexicans for Michelle unequivocally deny the false, dubious, and meritless claims made by Mr. Hallinan and feel certain the claims would have been disproved in court. The settlement resolved suspect and varied claims made by Mr. Hallinan, including his search for employment and clients following his tumultuous tenure on the 2018 campaign. The campaign reached this settlement in 2020 due to the expense of litigating business disputes and to prevent any distraction during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic."

The Albuquerque Journal reported that Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver's office found that the "settlement payments are an allowable expenditure under the state's campaign finance laws since they relate to an employment dispute with a former campaign staffer."

Hallinan accused Grisham in late 2019, roughly one year after he left the campaign. His complaint states that the governor poured a bottle of water on his crotch and "then grabb[ed] his crotch through his clothes as she laughed." Hallinan said this occurred in front of other campaign staffers during a meeting in 2018 and that he was talked out of reporting the incident by Grisham's former campaign manager.

Grisham's pandemic lockdown policies shuttered more than a third of the state's small businesses, and New Mexico continues to have one of the highest unemployment rates, along with the 14th-highest electricity costs, her Republican challengers argue.

The mayor of small-town Grants, N.M., Martin "Modey" Hicks, went so far as to order the town's police force not to issue lockdown violation citations to its roughly 9,000 residents.

"The governor is killing us," Hicks said last spring when all "nonessential businesses" were ordered to remain closed. "She's totally killing us."

Likewise, "millions of dollars have vanished from public agencies and her administration has seen some of the highest turnover in state history, with over 24 cabinet members jumping ship," argues John Block, founder and editor of the conservative Piñon Post.

"She claims to be innocent, but most innocent people do not pay off their sexual accusers in hush money, especially to the tune of hundreds of thousands of donors' money," Block adds.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/tsexual-harassment-financial-impropriety-claims-shadow-reelection-bid-new

Looks like the Jew lady lied and got caught

Gladys Berejiklian told top staffer about secret relationship before ICAC bombshell, corruption inquiry told

Gladys Berejiklian's former chief of staff has told the state's corruption watchdog of a "difficult conversation" during which the "inherently private" premier revealed her secret relationship with Daryl Maguire.

Key points:

Gladys Berejiklian will now be called to give evidence on October 29 and November 1

Two of Ms Berejiklian's former chiefs of staff and an advisor are giving evidence to ICAC today

Previous witnesses have said the former premier should have declared her relationship with Daryl Maguire

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is examining whether Ms Berejiklian breached public trust or turned a blind eye to alleged corruption in connection to grants handed out in Mr Maguire's Wagga Wagga electorate.

Neil Harley, who was her chief of staff from February 2020 until her resignation this month, today told the ICAC he first learned of the relationship when Ms Berejiklian received a summons to appear before the watchdog last year.

"It was, as you can imagine, a very difficult discussion to have," Mr Harley said.

"It was a private matter for the former premier, who is inherently a very private person.

"So we didn't go into detail about when it commenced or when it finished, I didn't believe that that was appropriate to do so at that stage."

Mr Harley said while his initial impression was the relationship was "historical" and had concluded, he learned in subsequent weeks it was "more recent" than he thought.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-26/icac-hears-evidence-from-gladys-berejiklian-staffer/100568226