Top of the Fold

• CMS drops ObamaCare rule on “transgender” care: Conservatives and religious liberty advocates breathed a slight sigh of relief after the Biden administration elected to drop its attempt to include a “transgender” care provision in its updated ObamaCare nondiscrimination rules. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released its updated rule that did not change Section 1557 to include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” as officially recognized designations for protected nondiscrimination status. Rachel Morrison, a policy analyst at the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center, observed that the decision was a win for conservatives: “CMS’s decision to drop its plans to mandate insurance coverage of irreversible and sterilizing medical and surgical gender transition procedures, including for children, is huge. For an agency to completely abandon a proposal at the final stage, especially one that aligns so closely with the administration’s priorities, is practically unheard of.” However, the changes aren’t dead, as CMS says they will be considered “at a later time … to ensure that they are consistent with the policies and requirements that will be included in the section 1557 rule making.”

• Samantha Power: “Never let a crisis go to waste”: A former Barack Obama official who is Joe Biden’s current chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) actually referenced Rahm Emanuel’s infamous statement. Referring to the current supply chain issues and growing concerns over the global food supplies, Power stated: “Fertilizer shortages are real now because Russia is a big exporter of fertilizer. Even though fertilizer is not sanctioned, less fertilizer is coming out of Russia. As a result we’re working with countries to think about natural solutions like manure and compost and this may hasten transitions that would have been in the interest of farmers to make eventually anyway.” She then seemingly said the silent part out loud, “So, never let a crisis go to waste.” Power then called for Congress to act to “meet emergency food needs, so we don’t see the cascading deadly effects of Russia’s war extend into Africa and beyond.” This is classic leftist playbook stuff — leverage a crisis in order to gain political power. Raising fears over food shortages appears to be one of the latest tools the Biden administration will seek to use in its efforts to grab more power. As Joe Biden told NATO, “Yes, we did talk about food shortages, and it’s gonna be real.”

• Putin to undergo cancer surgery: Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon go under the knife. The 69-year-old dictator is supposedly scheduled for cancer surgery and will temporarily transfer power for a “short time” during the procedure. The report promulgated by Telegram channel General SVR, a media outfit run by a former Russian Foreign Intelligence Service lieutenant, claims that Putin has been struggling with a number of health issues and alleges that the Russian strongman has been visited by a cancer doctor some 35 times in the last few years. The report raises new questions about the state of Putin’s health. Video footage from last month appeared to show him tightly gripping the edge of a desk while seated, causing speculation that he may be suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The Pentagon stated that it could not confirm the report.

• Unions lose at Amazon again … in New York! Workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York’s Staten Island voted against unionization on Monday, and did so by a significant margin. “The organizing will continue at this facility and beyond,” the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) responded after 62% of the workers voted against joining. “The fight has just begun.” But the question is, just who is the ALU fighting against? As Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel stated: “We’re glad that our team ad LDJ5 were able to have their voices heard. We look forward to continuing to work directly together as we strive to make every day better for our employees.” The ALU, which had successfully unionized another Staten Island Amazon warehouse, was expecting a similar result here. Indeed, many Democrats have been pushing for greater unionization to win more voters. As Senator Elizabeth Warren stated prior to the vote: “The good news is, in 2022, there are going to be more union voters. Democrats are the ones who are … trying to give workers a chance to unionize, something that Republicans fight every inch of the way.” Recall that last month, even as the ALU unionized its first-ever Amazon warehouse, it also failed to do so in a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama. It’s now looking like unionization is the outlier and not the rule, which serves as a big blow to the Democrats’ drive to expand Big Labor.

Headlines

• Supreme Court set to overturn Roe v. Wade, leaked draft opinion shows (Fox News)

• The 26 states where abortion will likely become illegal if SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade (Daily Mail)

• “Subsidizing the abortion industry”: Amazon to fund abortion tourism for its employees (Daily Wire)

• Supreme Court says Boston was wrong to refuse Christian flag (NBC News)

• Rep. Andy Biggs debuts “America First Contract” with aggressive conservative agenda for GOP majority (Washington Times)

• California’s population declines for the second year in a row (Daily Wire)

• Housing affordability near worst on record as Fed battles inflation (Washington Examiner)

• YouTube hosts channel that teaches kids about porn and abortion (The Federalist)

• Policy: One China, One Taiwan (National Review)

• Satire: Disinformation Board confirms Rachel Levine is a woman (Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.

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