Cross-Examination

• Biden’s not done with student loans: Fresh off a deserved spanking from the U.S. Supreme Court over his unconstitutional college loan debt cancellation scheme, Joe Biden has stubbornly decided to double down. The Department of Education has concocted a new rule for school loan repayments dubbed Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE). It revises the current Revised Pay-As-You-Earn (REPAYE) income-based loan repayment program. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona explained, “It will cut monthly payments to zero dollars for millions of low-income borrowers, save all other borrowers at least $1,000 per year, and stop runaway interest that leaves borrowers owing more than their initial loan.” The Biden administration cites the Higher Education Act of 1965, claiming it effectively gives the DOE secretary the power to forgive student loans. Inconvenient fact: The DOE as currently configured didn’t exist in 1965. This latest gambit will likely be headed back to the Court. In the meantime, Democrats see it as a favorable campaign issue.

• Biden to hide new regulations from public review: Back in April, Joe Biden signed a little-noticed executive order that doubled the cost threshold requirement for triggering an economic impact review for a new regulation. Ironically, citing high inflation (which he caused) as the reason, Biden upped the required regulation review threshold from $100 million to $200 million. Ryan Young of the Competitive Enterprise Institute now observes that Biden is effectively working to ensure “fewer challenges to rules, less transparency and a freer hand for the executive branch to act without the legislature and the judiciary checking them.” Biden is working to hide the number of burdensome and controlling regulations his administration is foisting onto the American people.

• NIH grants $3M to mutilate kids: Republican Senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio recently slammed the National Institutes of Health over its funding of a program titled “TRANS-NIH RESEARCH SUPPORT.” The program began in September 2021 and NIH has funneled over $3 million in taxpayer money to it. The aim is to create a “Trans Health Guide” and “expand the local workforce of gender-affirming care providers” and “advance equity and reduce mental health disparities for TGD youth through … systemic changes that increase access to gender-affirming care.” Paul charged the NIH with using “taxpayer money to fund dangerous and controversial youth transgender research.” Rubio added, “The NIH should not use U.S. taxpayer dollars to encourage or promote transgenderism in children, especially when that means subjecting kids to damaging and irreversible surgeries and hormones.” In a sane world, that would go without saying.

• Are hiking paths racist? Evidently they are in Oregon — at least that’s the claim of a hiker and black Shakespearean actor, Tyrone Wilson, one of the founders of what amount to segregationist hiking groups named “Unlikely Hikers,” “OutGrown,” and “People of Color Outdoors.” Wilson ironically advertises his “anti-racist” hiking groups as recreational communities for “people who are more afraid of encountering a person with a prejudice than a mountain lion.” In other words, he perpetuates the leftist myth that even the hiking trails are a vestige of “white supremacy.”

• San Francisco’s lawlessness breeds child hoodlums: A group of baseball bat-wielding kids have been attacking and robbing mothers and nannies with young children in one of San Francisco’s wealthier neighborhoods. The gangs of kids who assault and threaten these young moms are just the latest element of San Francisco’s growing crime problem. Youths are increasingly involved in violent crime because the city has effectively permitted it. Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow and former prosecutor Charles Stimson explains why these kids are getting away with these crimes: “People do not report these crimes because when you have a DA who’s pro criminal and not going to enforce the law, the cops aren’t going to go out and arrest somebody when they know the case is going to be no papered.” Failure to hold people accountable for their bad actions will only ensure more bad behavior.

• American Spirit: Woman retires after 74 years at same store: Ninety-year-old Melba Mebane recently retired from a Dillard’s department store in Tyler, Texas, where she had worked for the past 74 years. Store manager James Saenz praised her work ethic and character. “Melba sets the tone for everything, every expectation, every customer service quality that we look for in a luxury experience,” he said. “She provides all of it to the team. Can you imagine how many people she coached and taught and trained to aspire to be more?” Astoundingly, Mebane never missed a day of work during her 74 years at the store. She was “not just a salesperson,” Saenz added. “She’s a mother. She guides you. She gives you advice on life. She’s amazing.” Ginger Wimbs, who worked with Mebane for the past 33 of those 74 years and called her “my dear friend,” said, “She loves people and she loves to work.” Dillard’s honored Mebane with a “Beyond Excellence” award, and a plaque featuring her photo hangs on the wall of the store. We hope Mebane’s story and work ethic inspire many more young people today to see work as not merely a means to a paycheck but as an opportunity to serve others.

Headlines

• Biden DOJ appeals ruling barring officials from communicating with social media companies (National Review)

• White House shuts down multiple questions related to cocaine incident (Daily Wire)

• The cruelty is the point: Biden orders White House staff to deny granddaughter’s existence (Free Beacon)

• Democrats ramp up pressure on Biden to pack the Supreme Court after latest rulings (Fox News)

• Biden personally met with SPLC staff six times, foreshadowing renewed attacks on parent groups (Daily Signal)

• AP celebrates Independence Day by explaining why the word “patriot” is problematic (Daily Wire)

• “Sound of Freedom” takes top spot at box office on Fourth of July (Daily Wire)

• Soros charity to slash workforce by 40% (Free Beacon)

• CDC gives guidance for trans people “chestfeeding” kids, accused of failing to consider possible health risks (Fox News)

• North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper vetoes bipartisan bill protecting women's sports (Daily Wire)

• Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro backs off $100 million in private school vouchers (National Review)

• Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declares ban on recording without consent unconstitutional (FM News 101 KXL)

• U.S. Navy says Iran tried to seize two oil tankers, fired on one (NBC News)

• Mercenary warlord Prigozhin breaks silence following Belarus exile in message to Russian people (Fox News)

• Bill de Blasio and wife Chirlane McCray are separating to date other people — without moving out or divorcing (NY Post)

• Policy: CBO report illustrates the cause of our debt problem: It’s the spending, stupid! (The Federalist)

• Satire: Democrats confused by parades where everyone wears clothes and doesn’t swing sex toys around (Babylon Bee)

• Humor: New White House janitor Günter Hiden arrives to clean up leftover cocaine (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.