Bans Off Our Bodies Highlights: Over a Million Rally!

This weekend, over a million people joined Bans Off Our Bodies marches across the nation. And we should feel hope. Hope for a world where everyone has bodily autonomy. A world where everyone is respected, valued, and has fully protected civil and human rights. After countless attacks on abortion and reproductive rights, people came together to declare that abortion is healthcare and to demand that our elected officials take action before it’s too late. Coast to coast, we declared “Bans off our bodies!” Watch and share this video from marches and…

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For 2023, federal retirees will see largest COLA increase in over 40 years

Federal retirees and Social Security recipients are about to get the largest increase in their cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in over four decades. The COLA will increase 8.7% for 2023, the Social Security Administration announced on Oct. 13. But not all federal retirees will see that amount added to their checks. Those in the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) will receive a 7.7% COLA starting in January. The large COLA announcement for 2023 is no surprise, given high rates of inflation and climbing consumer prices this year, said Ken Thomas, national…

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Public School Fires Substitute Teacher for Raising Concerns Over Book Depicting Same-Sex Couples

Lindsey Barr was fired from her substitute teaching job after expressing concern over the content of a book in the school library.   Barr is a mother of three boys. All her children attend public school in Bryan County, Georgia, about 30 miles southwest of Savannah, where she also works as a substitute teacher.   In August, Barr learned that McAllister Elementary School, where her first- and third-grade sons attend and where she sometimes works, planned to have the book “All Are Welcome” read during a “read aloud” story time in the…

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Al Qaeda leader’s death renews debate over hasty U.S. Afghanistan withdrawal

The successful U.S. intelligence drone strike that killed longtime al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri at his Kabul safe house has also reignited the debates over President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last year and whether the country’s new Taliban leaders are honoring a pledge to rein in terror groups operating on Afghan soil. The Washington Times stories: White House

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House panel flexing its oversight muscles over JADC2 and CIO office

One subcommittee focused on cyber issues is flexing its oversight muscles in its proposals for the 2023 defense authorization bill, trying to get to the bottom of slow IT and investigating the Defense Department’s overhaul of its command and control system. The House Armed Services Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems Subcommittee is asking the government’s watchdog to take a look at the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) program. JADC2 is a huge undertaking that will change the way the military delivers its power by using shared data…

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3 States Sue Biden Administration Over Ending COVID-19 Restrictions at Border

Attorneys general for Arizona, Missouri, and Louisiana announced Monday they were suing the Biden administration over the decision to end Title 42, urging that the order be reinstated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that Title 42, the Trump-era policy that allows border authorities to quickly return migrants and has resulted in over 1.7 million migrant expulsions, will end May 23. The group of Republican attorneys general argued that the decision to end the policy violates the Administrative Procedures Act “as it is arbitrary and capricious, and the Biden Administration did not…

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