Just the News Sues Biden Administration to Force Disclosure of COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Data

COVID Vaccines

Just the News on Thursday sued the Biden administration in federal court seeking to force the disclosure of COVID-19 safety data that is being kept outside the government’s normal adverse events reporting system

In the lawsuit filed in partnership with the America First Legal public interest law firm, Just the News asked the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to order the Department of Health and Human Services to comply with two Freedom of Information Act requests to the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seeking COVID-19 reactions data kept in a back-end, nonpublic system to the nation’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

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Biden Admin to Investigate Chinese-Made ‘Smart Cars’ Posing Potential National Security Risks

Gina Raimondo

The Biden administration announced Thursday it will investigate Chinese-made “smart cars,” citing national security risks and surveillance concerns.

The investigation will center around concerns that Beijing could use Chinese smart cars inside the U.S. to collect information on the driver and the area surrounding the vehicle, according to the White House. U.S. intelligence agencies have warned that China has capabilities allowing it access to a score of key infrastructure systems, which could potentially be exploited in the event of a global emergency.

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New Drug Prices Spiked in 2023 as Biden Admin Seeks to Keep Costs Down

Joe Biden Drug Costs

Pharmaceutical companies set median starting list prices 35% higher in 2023 than the previous year, despite the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to tamp down on surging costs, Reuters reported Friday.

The median list price for a drug being placed on the market, many of which were for rare diseases, was $300,000 in 2023, which is up from a median price of $222,000 in 2022, according to an analysis by Reuters of 47 drugs. The Biden administration has made it a goal to tame drug prices, announcing steps like imposing automatic rebates to Medicare for drugmakers that raise their prices faster than the rate of inflation, which does not cover the starting list price.

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Biden Rule Would Deprive Pregnancy Resource Centers of Funds and Favor Abortion Groups, Conservatives Warn

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s organization, Advancing American Freedom, is leading conservative groups in calling on Republicans in Congress to defund a pro-abortion rule backed by President Joe Biden’s administration that would punish pro-life centers.

“We, as leaders of the pro-life movement, request that you defund the rulemaking process for the Biden administration’s proposed rule, ‘Strengthening [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)] as a Safety Net and Work Program,’” the conservative groups told House Republicans in a Friday letter first obtained by The Daily Signal.

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Mercedes-Benz Walks Back on Huge Electric Vehicle Commitment amid Slowing Demand

MB Evs

Mercedes-Benz on Thursday walked back plans to have an all-electric line-up by 2030 as consumers decline to adopt electric vehicles (EV) at the rate automakers expected.

The company has changed its expectations to have only 50% of its sales be EVs by 2030, announcing that it will be updating its current line-up featuring the internal combustion engine into the next decade, according to Mercedes-Benz in its fourth quarter report. EV sales grew 21% year-over-year in 2023, but total car sales remained relatively the same, bucking hopes that EVs would fuel growth as the automaker pushes electric models.

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Biden Cancels Another $1.2 Billion in Student Loan Debt

In yet another move circumventing the Supreme Court on the question of student loan debt, Joe Biden announced the cancellation of approximately $1.2 billion in student loan debt for about 153,000 borrowers.

As reported by ABC News, the Biden Administration made the cancellation official on Wednesday, including a draft email that will be sent to all of the borrowers in question. The email will read, in part: “Congratulations — all or a portion of your federal student loans will be forgiven because you qualify for early loan forgiveness under my Administration’s SAVE Plan.”

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Appellate Court Eliminates Obama Moratorium on Coal Leasing

Coal Mining

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday to essentially axe an Obama-era rule that prohibited new leasing for coal mining on federal lands.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned a previous 2022 court decision that allowed for the reinstatement of an Obama-era regulation that banned new coal mining leases on federally-controlled lands. The 2022 decision overturned Wednesday found that the Trump administration did not conduct an adequate environmental review when it decided to axe the Obama regulation, but the appellate court determined that the case is now moot because the Biden administration revoked the Trump-era reversal at the heart of the case anyways.

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Biden Studies Reducing Asylum Applications by Executive Order to Stop the Migratory Flow

Illegal Immigrants

The Biden Administration is studying the possibility of invoking broad presidential authority to make it more difficult for migrants to pass the initial asylum test at the southern US border, three officials with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

The actions, which are still weeks away from completion, would be an effort to reduce the number of migrants illegally crossing the border, in what has become an issue of utmost importance in the country ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.

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Biden Admin Reportedly Set to Greenlight Rule Change That Could Spike Gas Prices — But Not Until After the Election

Gas Station

The Biden administration is expected to ease seasonal restrictions on ethanol-gasoline blends but has delayed the change until after the 2024 election to avoid a price spike, according to Reuters.

The rule change stems from a 2022 request from the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin to allow the sale of gasoline with 15% ethanol year-round, known as E15 gasoline, lifting current seasonal restrictions that aim to reduce smog in the summer months, according to Reuters. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had originally set an effective date of April 28, 2024, for the changes when the agency sent the proposal to the White House in December, but that is now expected to be pushed back to 2025.

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Commentary: The Pandemic Treaty That Won’t Prevent a Pandemic

World Health Organization

If a “pandemic treaty” fails to account for the dismal international response to COVID-19 and isn’t focused on preventing future pandemics, is it really a “pandemic treaty”? Yet that’s the current state of the draft “pandemic treaty” being negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The failures of the international health system’s response to COVID are well-established. The People’s Republic of China failed to inform the international community of the outbreak in a timely manner as required by the International Health Regulations – a provision established because of Beijing’s cover-up of the 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). China mischaracterized COVID-19 saying that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission—a deadly lie that the WHO parroted unquestioningly.

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