American First Legal sues private groups for allegedly conspiring with government to censor speech

America First Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft and Health Freedom Louisiana co-director Jill Hines.

By Madeleine Hubbard

May 2, 2023 - 1:31pm

The America First Legal Foundation on Tuesday filed afederal class action lawsuit against people and entitiesthat allegedly conspired with the government to target millions of conservative Americans in a mass censorship and surveillance operation.

The lawsuit targets those associated with theElection Integrity Partnership, which partnered with government agencies to censor online posts they considered misinformation during the 2020 election, and theVirality Project, a coalition of groups focused on responding to purported COVID-19 misinformation.

America First Legal, a nonprofit led by former top-ranking Trump administration officials, filed the lawsuit on behalf of Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft and Health Freedom Louisiana Co-Director Jill Hines.

The lawsuit states that both Hoft and Hines are experiencing "extensive censorship," including on issues related to COVID-19 and elections.

America First Legal President Stephen Miller said thedefendants "created a regime of surveillance, censorship, and control fit for communist China" by allegedly "flagging content and creators for government entities so that those entities, in turn, would pressure platforms to remove that content or those creators."

The lawsuit demands for the defendants to stop their "ongoing unlawful conduct" and calls for compensatory and punitive damages to be awarded.

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/american-first-legal-sues-private-groups-allegedly-conspiring-government

=GOP wants answers from Consumer Report about suspected 'hidden pressure campaign' to end gas stoves==

“Such lack of transparency with Congress and the American public is unacceptable."

Updated: May 2, 2023 - 12:35pm

Two Capitol Hill Republicans wantanswers from the venerable "Consumer Reports" publication and others about a suspected "hidden pressure campaign" to get the Biden administration to advance green-energy groups' efforts to limit or end the use of gas appliances.

The effort is being led by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and House Oversight committee Chairman James Comer.

On Monday, the pair wrote toRewiring America, theClimate Imperative Foundation and Consumer Reportsdemanding details on the product-review publication's possible role in getting the Consumer Product Safety Commission to impose a "de facto ban on gas stoves."

The lawmakers cited what they think is their authority to investigate "any matter" at "any time" under House Rule X and jurisdiction over the commission.

The letter also states that Cruz on March 16 "wrote to you requesting information and documents about this matter.Your organization has, however, refused== to substantively answer most of those requests."

The letter continues: "As you know, CPSC has already taken the necessary first step toward a gas stove ban, having recently issued a Request for Information ‘on chronic hazards associated with gas ranges and proposed solutions."

Comer and Cruz also told the groups their lack of transparency is "unacceptable" and gave them a deadline of no later than May 10 to submit requested documents and other information for the investigation.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/republicans-probing-whether-green-groups-are-pulling-bidens-strings-gas

Administration denies suspected link between whale deaths, wind turbines despite internal warning

Employing a characteristic evasive tactic,administration dismisses potenital link as "misinformation."

Updated: May 1, 2023 - 11:14pm

The Department of Energy (DOE) released a statement Friday denying that offshore wind projects are linked to whale deaths, labeling it "misinformation" — despite an internal warning by a key federal scientist of the risks that offshore wind turbines pose to right whale populations.

Team Biden has an extensive history of dodging accountability by labeling ultimately vindicated challenges to its preferred narratives — from the reporting of the Hunter Biden laptop to the lab leak theory of COVID origins — as "misinformation."

In a recent statement on its website, the DOE claimed there is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from offshore wind farm site surveys could potentially kill whales and denied links "between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys."

In rejecting possible links, the DOE cites several sources, including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

However, concerns over the potential connection between windmill production and whale deaths are shared by at least one key NOAA scientist, who confided those fears in a letter to a senior BOEM biologist.

Sean Hayes, chief of NOAA's Protected Species Branch, penned an internal memo last year warning that the "development of offshore wind poses risks" to right whale species.

"Additional noise, vessel traffic, and habitat modifications due to offshore wind development will likely cause added stress that could result in additional population consequences to a species that is already experiencing rapid decline (30% in the last 10 years)," Hayes wrote to Brian Hooker, lead biologist in BOEM's Office of Renewable Energy Programs.

While acknowledging "increased risks due to increased vessel traffic and noise," Hayes warned that "unlike vessel traffic and noise, which can be mitigated to some extent, oceanographic impacts from installed and operating turbines cannot be mitigated for the 30-year lifespan of the project, unless they are decommissioned."

House Republicans are expected to ask the Government Accountability Office to investigate the potential link between offshore wind turbines and whale deaths.

First & second paragraph of memo, the memo has about 40 references science studies, memo attached

Right whales are one of the most endangered marine mammals withfewer than 350 animals remaining in the population(Pettis et al. 2022), down from a high of 478 in 2011 and over 400 as recently as 2017 (Hayes et

al. 2021). In 2010, right whale foraging distribution began to shift considerably (Record et al. 2019), with a continually increasing number of animals occupying southern New England waters, where almost 50% of

reproductive female right whale population has been sighted (Quintana-Rizzo et al. 2021). The most recent right whale habitat modeling shows a considerable increase in right whale habitat use of southern New

England waters during recent years (Roberts et al. 2016, Roberts 2022).

These risks occur at varying stages, including construction and development, and include increased noise, vessel traffic, habitat modifications, water withdrawals associated with certain sub-stations and resultant impingement/entrainment of zooplankton, changes in fishing effort and related potential increased entanglement risk, and oceanographic changes that may disrupt the distribution, abundance, and availability of typical right whale food (e.g. Dorrell et al 2022). The focus of this memo is on operational effects, and as such, focuses on potential oceanographic impacts driving right whale prey distribution, but also acknowledges increased risks due to increased vessel traffic and noise. However, unlike

vessel traffic and noise, which can be mitigated to some extent,oceanographic impacts from installed and operating turbines cannot be mitigated for the 30-year lifespan of the project, unless they are decommissioned…

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/ff-misinformation-doe-denies-link-between-coastal-windmill-farms-and-rise