Cross-Examination

• Dem governor targets toy guns: Evidently for those on the Left, perception is reality and feelings are facts. At least that’s what appears to be the rationale behind New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s recent signing of a bill targeting toy guns. In signing the new legislation, Hochul touted it as a crime-fighting measure because “restricting these realistic-looking devices will ensure misleading and potentially dangerous devices are off our streets, keeping kids, law enforcement and all New Yorkers safe.” Evidently, Hochul believes that looks can kill. The new law requires that all toy guns be brightly colored, and it bans any toy gun from being black, blue, silver, or aluminum in color. The governor’s office attempted to justify the need for this law by pointing to eight fatal shootings since 1994 wherein a toy gun was mistaken for a genuine firearm. The bigger issue at play here is the effort by New York to further demonize firearms, as if firearms themselves were the cause of crime. This law entirely ignores each individual situation in which an apparent accidental shooting took place, instead blaming them all entirely on the appearance of a toy. Furthermore, this law does absolutely nothing to address the state’s actual problem with spiking violent crime.

• Former New York governor wins $5.1M lawsuit: Speaking of bad governors of New York, ousted ex-governor Andrew Cuomo won a lawsuit on Tuesday when the state Supreme Court ruled against an effort to force him to repay $5.1 million he made in profits from his book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From The COVID-19 Pandemic, which falsely touted his pandemic response. The Joint Commission on Public Ethics raised the lawsuit against Cuomo, accusing the ex-governor of misusing staff and state resources to write his book. While Cuomo never denied that he used his staff to help with the book, he insisted their help was completely on a voluntary basis. The court found that “JCOPE was seeking to impose sanctions for Cuomo’s alleged noncompliance with JCOPE’s outside actives rules,” however, “JCOPE issued the approval for the outside activity, then unilaterally determined wrongdoing, then withdrew the approval, and finally imposed the disgorgement penalty.” While this ruling is a win for Cuomo, he’s not out of the woods yet, as state Attorney General Letitia James is also investigating those allegations.

• White House climate aide sanctioned by science body: A senior White House climate aide just received a five-year ban from the prestigious National Academy of Sciences. Jane Lubchenco received the significant rebuke from NAS for having violated the science body’s code of conduct policy, which requires members to “avoid those detrimental research practices that are clear violations of the fundamental tenets of research.” The NAS’s decision stems from two discoveries: Lubchenco had edited a now-retracted paper in which the underlying data was not the latest available, and she had a familial relationship with one of the authors of the study. The irony here is that the White House has tapped Lubchenco to lead its development of scientific integrity policies for the federal government. American Accountability Foundation founder Tom Jones responded to the news by stating: “The American people deserve leaders in the White House who don’t use their positions of influence to put their thumb on the scales for friends and family. Dr. Jane Lubchenco does not meet that standard and does not deserve to be an Assistant to the President.”

• On this date last year — Biden’s surrender and retreat from Afghanistan: We are reposting, in chronological order, analysis of events a year ago related to the most disgraceful military exfil in American history — Biden’s deadly surrender and retreat from Afghanistan. On this day last year, Mark Alexander wrote “Biden’s Blowup: Back to the Future of Islamic Terrorism.” On the eve of the 20th observance of the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation, Biden has reseeded al-Qa'ida’s terrorist turf and let the world’s tyrants know they have nothing to fear from him.

Headlines

• CDC director orders reorganization, saying COVID-19 response “did not reliably meet expectations” (Fox News)

• 1A infringement: White House asked Twitter why Alex Berenson wasn’t banned from the platform, lawsuit reveals (Fox News)

• Not getting the message: Liz Cheney “thinking about” White House run after primary loss, vows to do “whatever it takes” to defeat Trump (NBC News)

• MSNBC, ABC, CNN realize Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t reduce inflation after bill is passed (Fox News) | Even 52% of Democrats don’t believe the IRA will actually reduce inflation (Based Politics)

• Short-term win as Biden reinstates largest oil and gas lease sale in American history (RedState)

• Federal sanctuary: Marshals Service to stop holding illegal immigrants for ICE (Washington Times)

• Former Trump adviser Bolton says Biden’s concessions to Iran would border on treason (Washington Times)

• China to send troops to Russia for joint military exercise (NBC News)

• Stacey Abrams says she opposes defunding the police. She led a group that wants to defund the police. (Free Beacon)

• Government struggles to prosecute billions of dollars’ worth of COVID fraud (Daily Caller)

• Why is the Justice Department investigating the Southern Baptist Convention? (Daily Signal)

• Humor: Ten telltale signs you’re about to get raided by the FBI (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.