The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | New York Bans Gas Stoves, Heritage Expert Confronts Sen. Whitehouse, U.S. Navy’s Drag Queen Hire, Texas Shooter Arrested | May 3

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: New York has officially banned gas stoves in some new buildings, making it the first ban of its kind in the U.S.  A Heritage Foundation economist called out Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island for his membership in a white-only club in response to the senator’s attack on the conservative think tank, our colleague Fred Lucas is reporting.  Fred Lucas’ article: https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/05/03/heritage-scholar-gives-masterclass-responding-sheldon-whitehouses-attacks/ Senate Republicans denounced Democratic senators’ attempt to leverage the Supreme Court budget in exchange for an enforceable ethics code, our colleague Mary Margaret Olohan reports.  The U.S. Navy hired an active-duty drag queen as a “Digital Ambassador.” Russia is accusing Ukraine of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin during a drone attack overnight.  The illegal alien accused of killing five people has been arrested. So has a woman who claims to be his wife. Relevant Links Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Samantha Sherris. I'm Virginia Allen. And this is the Daily Signal Top News for Wednesday, May 3rd. Here are today's headlines. New York has officially banned gas stoves in some new buildings, making it the first ban of its kind in the U.S. The New York Times reports that on Tuesday evening, the state legislature approved a $229 billion state budget that will prohibit natural gas hookups and other fossil fuel. in most new homes and other construction. State Senate Republican leader Rob Orte released a statement on the ban saying, a first-in-the-nation unconstitutional ban on national gas hookups in new construction will drive up utility bills and increase housing costs. Former New York Governor-Candid Lee Zeldin also weighed in, tweeting, the Democrats enthusiastically

pummeling New York into the ground are about to pass a statewide ban of gas hookups. on new construction. Such a terrible idea. Kathy Hokel and her cohorts are fast-tracking the downward spiral of a once-greatest state. According to CNN, the state's budget doesn't ban gas in all new buildings. There are exceptions for large commercial and industrial buildings like stores, hospitals, laundromats, and restaurants, for instance. Earlier today, a Heritage Foundation economist called out Democrat Senator Sheldon White House over. Rhode Island for his membership in a whites-only club. This was in response to the Senator's attack on the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Diana Furch got Roth is the director

of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment here at the Heritage Foundation. During her testimony before the Senate today, she also made clear fossil fuels played a large role in White House's personal wealth and the budget of heritage. White House is a a liberal firebrand known for conjuring conspiracy theories in his Senate floor speeches and in committee hearings. He talked about the funding from fossil fuel companies to heritage and other think tanks where Furch got Roth has worked. Furch got Roth has previously held senior level economist positions in the Treasury Department, the Labor Department, and the White House Council of Economic Advisors. During her remarks today, Furch got Roth made only a subtle reference to White House.

membership in the Bailey's Beach in Newport, Rhode Island. She also made direct reference to White House's own financial ties to the fossil fuel industry. Let's take a listen to some of the exchange via the Heritage Foundation's Twitter. And now the Heritage Foundation? Yes, yes. And every single one of those groups is funded by the fossil fuel industry. Is that not true? Well, unfortunately, I don't have the benefit of being able to rely on a family fortune made in the Minnesota gas business or having my spouses for family fortune come from United Gas. And the Heritage Foundation is a club that anyone can join, not just white people. During 2021, it had hundreds of thousands of individual foundation and corporate supporters representing every state in the United States. Do you know how much funding

it received from the oil and gas barren Coke Industries' political operation? The top five corporate givers provided the Heritage Foundation with only 1% of its 2021 income. Individuals contributed 82%, foundations 12%, corporations 1%, program revenue, and other income, 5%. We'll include a link to our colleague Fred Lucas's full reporting on this story in today's show notes. Senate Democrats denounced Democratic senators attempt to leverage the Supreme Court budget in exchange for an enforceable ethics code, our colleague Mary Margaret O'Lahan reports. During a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Supreme Court Ethics Reform, Republican senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Holly of Missouri tore into their Democratic colleagues for threatening to cut off the funding

for the security at the Supreme Court, as Cruz said. Holly similarly accused Democrats of threatening the justices. Let's take a listen to some of the Missouri Senator's comments via his Twitter. The threat is, we will deny you security unless you do what we do. want. Let me say it again. We will deny you security unless you do what we want. We had an assassin come to the home of Justice Kavanaugh and try to murder him. We have had credible threats on the lives of other justices. And now members of this body say we will deny you security for you, your families, your children, unless you do what we want. Extraordinary. Judge Mukasey,

Can I just ask you, long-time distinguished jurist, former Attorney General of this country, do you think it's appropriate to threaten the security of justices of the United States and their families in order to get them to comply with the wishes of this body? No. Have you heard of something like this being done before? I have not. I haven't either. And I have to say, at a time when we have had,

three different credible assassination attempts or threats against justices. We still have people illegally going to the justices' homes to attempt to influence their decisions in cases. No one has been prosecuted for those violations. We have constant threats and danger to their children. We had radicals tell, post-publicly the school location of one of the justices' children. and in that context to say that we will deny them millions of dollars in security funding, unless they do what this body wants, I think is the height of irresponsibility. The Supreme Court had just asked Congress to increase funding to help protect the justices. Nearly $6 million for the expansion of protective activities and a separate increase

of a little over half a million dollars for new IT. security positions in cybersecurity, software development, and network engineering. Also, during the hearing, as our colleague Fred Lucas reports, Senate Democrats took aim at the Supreme Court broadly and Justice Clarence Thomas in particular. Democrats on the Senate Dusha Committee seeking to impose new ethics rules on the Supreme Court raised recent news reports about Thomas accepting vacations from wealthy real estate developer and Republican donor Harlan Crow. Thomas, who wasn't required to report the trips under ethics rules at the time, has said he consulted his colleagues on the court. And just as a reminder, Tuesday marked the one-year

anniversary of the League of the High Court's draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. The U.S. Navy hired an active-duty drag queen as a digital ambassador. The New York Post reports the hiring decision was part of a recent drive to attract the most talented and diverse workforce and combat plummeting recruitment. Yeoman's second class Joshua Kelly identifies as non-binary. Kelly wrote in an Instagram post, from joining to 2016 and being able to share my drag experience on my off time with my fellow sailors has been a blessing. This experience has brought me so much strength, courage, and ambitious.

to continue being an advocate and representation of queer sailors. Fox News reports that the Digital Ambassador Initiative that Kelly participated in ran from October 22 to March 2023, and according to a Navy spokesman was designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates. The spokesman also said the Navy did not compensate Yeoman second class Kelly or any others for being Navy Digital Ambassadors. The pilot has concluded, and we are now evaluating the program and how it will exist in the future. Russia is accusing Ukraine of trying to assassinate President Vladimir Putin during a drone attack overnight.

NBC News reports that the Kremlin did not provide any evidence for its accusation while Ukraine denies any involvement with the alleged incident. According to a statement from the Kremlin's website, two on-demand aerial vehicles targeted the Kremlin. Timely action by the military and special services involving radar systems enable them to disable the devices. They crashed in the Kremlin grounds, scattering fragments without causing any casualties or damage.

The statement continued, we view these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt targeting the president, carried out ahead of Victory Day and the May 9th parade, where foreign guests are expected to be present, among others. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the allegations on Wednesday. Let's take a listen to his remarks via the Associated Press's Twitter. I can repeat this message, and I think it will at least will be understandable for everybody. We don't attack Putin or Moscow.

We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities. We don't have enough weapons for this. That's why we don't use it anywhere. For us, that is the deficit. We can't spend it. And we didn't attack Putin. We leave it to...

to tribunal. And for our final news story today, the illegal alien accused of killing five people has been arrested. So has a woman who claims to be his wife. The shooter led law enforcement on a multi-day manhunt that concluded on Tuesday evening. The Montgomery County Texas Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook saying the shooter was taken into custody in Montgomery County without incident. The Associated Press reports that the woman was arrested today for allegedly helping the man elude capture for four days,

while a third person might face similar charges. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thank you for listening to The Daily Signal's Top News. If you haven't had the chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed where we bring you interviews with lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices. Join us tomorrow morning. I'm going to be sitting down with Adam Kissel. He's a visiting fellow in higher education reform at the Heritage Foundation. And we're talking about America's failing history and civic scores in classrooms across the country. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcasts and help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read and appreciate all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great evening. We'll see you're right back here tomorrow morning.

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