A new report ranks all 50 states from best to worst for economic conditions, showing which states have improved, and worsened, in creating an economic climate where businesses want to invest. The American Legislative Exchange Council released the state analysis, which ranks Utah as the number one state, North Carolina as second, and Arizona as third. Idaho and Oklahoma fill out the top five spots, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively.

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Lawmakers are outraged after reports that federal COVID-relief tax dollars may have gone to wealthy hospitals while avoiding helping out poor hospitals in recovering from the pandemic. Republican members of Congress have raised this very question, asking why $17 billion of COVID-19 relief funds was used by hospitals with profits topping more than $53 billion, “while $35 billion went to hospitals that reported a loss of almost $130 billion.”

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Gas prices continue to rise this week in the U.S., hitting the highest level in months. Now, the concerns and political ramifications for the Biden administration are starting to rise as well. "Gas prices are rising," said economist Stephen Moore. "Joe Biden is doing nothing except push a crazy green agenda that will make prices even higher. "If America went back to Trump's energy policies, we'd be producing 2 million barrels more a day."

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal and science technology office, has made race and gender speech codes for its scientists a top priority. The guidance, for example, tells federal employees not to use the words "blacklist" or "whitelist" because of the racial connotations and also cautions against "using terms that assign a gender to inanimate objects, such as male/female connectors."

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President Donald Trump called the charges against him unprecedented election interference in a speech Tuesday night from his Mar-a-Lago home, just hours after pleading not guilty to nearly three dozen felony charges during his arraignment in New York City.

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The Biden administration's collusion with social media companies and others to censor speech related to COVID-19, election integrity and other issues "was far more pervasive and destructive" than initially thought, a key witness and sitting U.S. senator testified at a Thursday Congressional hearing. Republicans on the subcommittee called it "the largest speech censorship operation in recent history." “Their censorship has extended to critical topics like how best to respond to COVID-19 and even to elections themselves,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who leads the relevant subcommittee.

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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio blasted the Pentagon’s increasingly leftward bent as it struggles to keep up with national security interests. “The United States military is the greatest fighting force in the world, but woke activists in the Biden Administration are undermining military readiness, cohesion, and purpose,” Rubio, R-Fla., told The Center Square. “We cannot allow these left-wing crazies to hollow out our military. The world is an increasingly dangerous place and America’s security requires a strong military capable of deterring – and if need be, defending – our nation.”

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Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a grand jury in New York Thursday, potentially kicking off one of the most controversial court cases in decades and the first criminal charges against a former or sitting president. The specific charges and details of the indictment have not yet been released, but prosecutors presented evidence that Trump allegedly paid hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels through a lawyer seven years ago and illegally covered it up as a legal expense before being elected president.

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Inflation has outpaced wages for nearly two years, federal data shows. A closer look at federal wage and pricing data shows workers are making less overall as the price for all kinds of goods and services rise faster than average hourly wages. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks “real” average hourly earnings, which are wages of Americans with rising inflation taken into account. “From February 2022 to February 2023, real average hourly earnings decreased 0.3 percent, seasonally adjusted,” BLS said. “The change in real average hourly earnings combined with a decrease of 0.9 percent in the average workweek resulted in a 1.2-percent decrease in real average weekly earnings over this period.”

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The liberal crime bill pushed by local Washington, D.C. leaders and killed by President Joe Biden has backfired, inviting fresh oversight and the clamping down of federal authority on the capital city at a time when local leaders are pushing for autonomy. The crime bill would have lessened penalties for a range of crimes even as D.C. has experienced a spike in homicides, arson, and other crimes. House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., announced an oversight hearing of Washington, D.C.’s local government, an unwelcome intrusion in the eyes of local leaders who are pushing for D.C. statehood.

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