Cross-Examination

• Biden declassifies COVID origins info: After Congress unanimously passed legislation ordering the declassification of information related to the origin of COVID, Joe Biden on Monday signed it. The COVID Origin Act, introduced by Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), gained traction following the Energy Department’s assessment that a Wuhan lab leak was the likely cause of the global pandemic. Biden, who has never shown much urgency in investigating COVID’s origin, promised to “declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security.” Hawley celebrated the signing by stating: “Let the people see for themselves! Huge victory for transparency. Now time for accountability.”

• CNN reporters covering crime get mugged: How bad is crime in San Francisco? Well, for CNN reporter Kyung Lah, it’s “ridiculous.” Lah and her news crew were recently in San Francisco reporting on the city’s high crime rate when, ironically, they were robbed. On social media, Lah posted: “Got robbed. Again. We had security to watch our rental car + crew car. Thieves did this in under 4 seconds. Security stopped the jerks from stealing other bags.” Crime has gotten so bad in San Francisco that residents have a one in 16 chance of being the victim of a violent or property crime. Meanwhile, city leaders are preoccupied with implementing a reparations scheme to pay black residents millions. With crime spiking and talk of effectively bankrupting the city, is this in reality a plot for depopulating the city?

• FBI focused on J6, not BLM: The Democrats’ one-sided January 6 sham committee and subsequent video footage of the Capitol riot have gone a long way toward exposing the reality of a two-tiered justice system at work in Washington. Conservatives have repeatedly observed the blatantly discordant treatment of January 6 rioters versus Black Lives Matters rioters. Well, there is more evidence proving the two-tiered justice at play, as records reveal that the FBI devoted 16,000 more hours investigating J6 than it has investigating BLM and antifa riots. Making matters worse, there was only one J6 riot, while over the summer of 2020 there were numerous BLM riots across the nation. BLM riots resulted in over $2 billion in property damage and 19 deaths. Yet the FBI put more investigative man hours into J6. This smacks of bowing to support a political agenda rather than applying the rule of law consistently and without prejudice.

• Illegal immigration costs: The Heritage Foundation issued a recent report on how much Joe Biden’s policy of de facto open borders is costing the American taxpayer. While Biden has reduced the amount of funding for border security, he has increased spending in other departments such as Health and Human Services and the Department of State Migration and Refugee Assistance to the tune of some $88 billion from 2022 through 2030. Another aspect of Biden’s border malfeasance is his use of Non Governmental Organizations that receive taxpayer money to effectively run a massive human smuggling operation. Nearly six million illegal aliens have entered the U.S. since Biden took office, and the vast majority of them face no fear of deportation.

• More Big Tech layoffs: On the heels of Facebook laying off 10,000 employees last week, Big Tech giant Amazon on Monday followed suit, announcing that it will let go of 9,000 workers. Also like Facebook, this represents a second round of layoffs that began last year. With this latest announcement, Amazon’s layoffs will total 27,000, or 9% of its 300,000 employees. U.S. News reports, “The latest cuts focus on Amazon’s highly-profitable cloud and advertising divisions, once seen as untouchable until economic concerns led business customers to scrutinize their spending.” As Americans are having to buckle down on their spending thanks to sky-high inflation, the ripple effect is now impacting those industries that heavily rely on ad revenue.

Headlines

• Biden issues first veto of presidency, blocks anti-ESG resolution passed by Congress (National Review)

• House Judiciary Committee demands Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg testify about possible Trump indictment (Fox News)

• Trump attacks DeSantis after governor slammed Soros-funded DA, cited “hush money” (Daily Wire)

• White House, Democrats unload on GOP spending cuts scenarios (Roll Call)

• Why there hasn’t been a full Senate vote in seven months — and the problems it causes both parties (Washington Examiner)

• Philadelphia reaches $9.25M settlement with demonstrators over police tactics in 2020 protests (Fox News)

• White Fragility author champions segregation; “Dilbert” creator lost career for saying the same thing (Daily Wire)

• We have another racism hoax in California (Townhall)

• NCAA wrestler comes under fire for suggesting Muhammad is a false prophet while professing belief in Christ (Fox News)

• Federal judge strikes down controversial California handgun roster law on Second Amendment grounds (RedState)

• FBI data on good guys with guns called “garbage” as critic finds many more cases (Washington Times)

• NYS changes minimum scores for student proficiency in math, English (Times Union)

• Putin flaunts alliance with Xi as “dear friends” meet in Kremlin (Reuters)

• Policy: In healthcare, freedom is the biggest shortage (The Federalist)

• Satire: “Conservatives can’t define woke!” shouts leftist who can’t define “man” or “woman” (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.