Virginia’s governing Democrats played let’s make a deal to pass a two-year budget that will take effect next week. The state lawmakers opted to maintain a tax break that encourages companies to build data centers in the commonwealth. They offset that by imposing a new tax on the energy that those centers will use. Gov. Abigail Spanberger is taking credit for the idea. “Importantly, this budget positions the commonwealth to be a national leader on data centers,” she announced. “Virginia will institute a statewide energy consumption tax on data centers—an idea I first proposed this spring—to ensure this industry pays its fair share and does not drive up costs for Virginia families.” Lawmakers hope the new policy can raise $1.2 trillion over the next two years. They promised to cap it at $600 million per year and refund any amount over that to companies at the end of the fiscal year. “This compromise will bring hundreds of millions of dollars into our budget and at the same time make sure that they are paying their fair share,” Democrat Del. Sam Rasoul told WSLS after the proposal passed. However, there is no guarantee that the agreement will raise that much. “What happens when the Virginia spenders ‘only’ collect three-quarters of a billion dollars?” Joe Thomas wrote in the Daily Signal. No matter how much revenue it brings in, the proposal comes with real costs. “The conference report creates a web of new regulations for data centers, many on an expedited timeline. They will dictate water use and create a new state noise regulation, one targeted only at data centers but not other noisy industrial neighbors,” Steve Haner, an energy policy analyst at the Thomas Jefferson Institute, told the Daily Signal. “The Assembly wants information on all utility agreements with data centers. The consumption tax adds to state revenue but will not end the push to eliminate the sales and use tax exemption that previous assemblies approved. The political battles over the industry are going to intensify,” he added. As if to prove the point, the state’s leading Democrat took to the Senate floor to critique her own agreement. “I still believe that expiring the data center sales and use tax exemption would be the best plan forward,” President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas said. “However, this conference report provides an alternative path where data centers pay their fair share to support services for Virginia and ensure structural balance.” Lucas vowed to resume her “listening tour,” which passed through the Richmond area last week to hear from opponents of data centers. Top Republicans have also opposed maintaining the tax break. “I am somebody who thinks we need to get rid of the data center tax break, because I don’t think we need to be giving $2 billion a year to huge AI big tech firms,” state Sen. Glen Sturtevant told The Daily Signal. The process itself was troubling to the GOP. “The budget has finally passed, but not in a manner that should make any Virginian proud,” House Minority Leader Terry Killgore told WSLS. “More than 100 days after the General Assembly adjourned, lawmakers were forced to consider a budget that was substantially rewritten at the last minute and loaded with policy provisions that should have been debated openly during the regular legislative session.” The budget deal also includes $20 million to fund construction of an “inland port” in Washington County. A similar project near Front Royal takes in railroad shipments from the Port of Virginia and moves the freight out by truck. Lawmakers also approved studying improvements to Interstate 81 and appropriated $7 million to upgrade U.S. 460 in Buchanan County. The lawmakers decided to spend some taxpayer money to beautify the neighborhood near their workplace. The budget ponies up $15 million to tear down the Richmond Coliseum, which closed in 2019 and has been wasting away ever since, just blocks from the capital.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has issued a subpoena compelling former top federal health official Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify before Congress, escalating a yearslong clash over the origins of COVID-19 and the government’s pandemic response. Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said the subpoena became necessary after Fauci declined to appear voluntarily—despite previously agreeing to testify. “Last week, Anthony Fauci notified us that he will not voluntarily testify,” Paul said on X. “Therefore, today I have issued a subpoena requiring him to testify before the Committee.” Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is expected to appear before the panel in July. Showdown Over Pandemic Accountability The subpoena marks a major escalation in the ongoing battle between Fauci and Republican lawmakers, who have pressed for answers about federal funding for virus research and early handling of COVID-19. Paul said he reached his “breaking point” after months of negotiations and delays. “He agreed, then he said he wouldn’t,” Paul said, adding that the committee had been seeking information for months. The Kentucky senator has indicated he plans to question Fauci on a range of issues, including: federal funding connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, whether gain-of-function research was supported with U.S. taxpayer dollars, and Fauci’s prior testimony to Congress. “There are 120 secret U.S.-funded biolabs in 30 countries,” Paul wrote on X. “Anyone who tried to expose these foreign gain-of-function labs was threatened and silenced by the Biden administration and Fauci. This level of secrecy and intimidation should concern every American.” New Documents Fuel Controversy The subpoena follows the recent release of declassified materials by former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, which she said raise serious questions about Fauci’s role in shaping the government’s understanding of the virus. During the pandemic, suspicion about the origin of the virus, as well as the government’s involvement in it, arose among lawmakers, the scientific community, critics, and political figures in the United States. However, those same critics claimed their voices were suppressed through intimidation, legal repercussions, or censorship. While those claims were long denied by Fauci, the administration of former President Joe Biden, and other public figures, the new documents released by Gabbard accuse Fauci of directing “millions in US taxpayer dollars to fund dangerous gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, worked with politicized elements within the Intelligence Community to suppress the truth about his actions and hide the virus’ lab-leak origins.” Paul also accused Fauci of lying to Congress while under oath in 2024.Now, the documents have led to intensified calls from Republican lawmakers for further investigation and public testimony. Broader Debate Over COVID Origin The question of how COVID-19 began remains unresolved, with U.S. intelligence agencies divided between competing theories, including a natural origin and a possible lab-related incident. According to Paul, under Fauci’s discretion, the National Institutes of Health directed millions of taxpayer dollars and colluded with the Chinese Communist Party to develop artificial labs to manufacture an epidemic virus. Fauci has contradicted the claims numerous times, consistently saying early evidence pointed toward a natural origin of COVID-19, while critics have argued that alternative theories were downplayed during the pandemic. He also sparred with Paul over whether what he was funding qualified as “gain-of-function” research. The upcoming testimony could bring those competing narratives into direct confrontation under oath. Pardon Adds Legal Layer Complicating matters is a preemptive pardon issued by former President Joe Biden in January 2025 to Fauci, along with several other public officials. Biden said at the time the pardons were intended to protect public servants from politically motivated prosecutions and “should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment” of wrongdoing. However, Paul has verbally challenged the pardon, claiming that “Biden’s pardon of Fauci is unconstitutionally vague, covers 10 years of potential crimes, and was signed by autopen without Biden’s direct authorization.” “You can’t pardon someone for crimes never specified. This should be challenged in court.”

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Pro-life doctors are urging the Food and Drug Administration to reinstate abortion pill guardrails stripped during the Biden administration. Four years after Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion rates are higher than ever because these safeguards are no longer in place. It’s not just babies dying from abortions; mothers’ lives are at risk from the FDA-approved abortion pill mifepristone. In a letter obtained by The Daily Signal, four doctors, representing tens of thousands of pro-life medical professionals from across the country, urge Acting Commissioner of the FDA Kyle Diamantas to reinstate the in-person dispensing requirement once needed to get a prescription for the abortion pill. During COVID, the Biden administration stripped this requirement, leading to a “public health crisis.” 2026.06 FDA medical organizations letterDownload New data shows that serious complication rates are far higher than previously disclosed on FDA labeling. Life-threatening complications include hemorrhage, sepsis, and incomplete abortions requiring surgical intervention. “We are grateful to see a full safety review has been launched, and simultaneously with this review being conducted, ask that the in-person dispensing requirement be immediately reinstated,” reads the letter. “With your ascendence into the role of Acting Commissioner of the FDA, we urge you to protect American women and undo the FDA’s previous devastating actions.” Diamantas has received support from pro-life groups. Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins told The Daily Signal that Diamantas promised he will be the “most pro-life FDA commissioner that the FDA has ever had.” Within hours of his recent FDA appointment, he called Live Action President Lila Rose and told her “reviewing the abortion pill is a top priority for him and the administration,” Rose said on X. He was appointed over a month ago but has made little news on the promise. The letter continues, asking Diamantas to require doctors report all “adverse events” of mifepristone, include a comprehensive evaluation of real-world safety data in the safety review of the drug, ensure the safety review is unbiased, and require ultrasounds to confirm gestational age. BREAKING: OB/GYN and CEO of AAPLOG Dr. Christina Francis goes undercover for the first time to see all the medical risks associated with ordering abortion pills. The results shocked even us. No oversight. No verification. No medical professionals seemingly involved.… pic.twitter.com/gxT3ac3ZeA— AAPLOG (@aaplog) March 11, 2026 Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), recently released an exposé video revealing the medical risks of ordering abortion pills online and the medical risks that follow. She says that they “found no medical oversight whatsoever.” According to the letter, signed by Francis; Dr. Greg Burke, the vice president of the Catholic Medical Association; Dr. Mike Chupp, CEO of the Christian Medical and Dental Association; and Dr. Mike Artigues, president of the American College of Pediatricians, mifepristone is a life-threatening drug that often causes serious complications. Did you know the abortion pill can be reversed?Catherine's husband poisoned her using mail-order abortion pills, but abortion pill reversal saved her baby's life.@aaplog's @DrFrancis4Life explains how."Progesterone has been used by obstetricians for over five decades…… pic.twitter.com/zfg6oOHl7H— Family Research Council (@FRCdc) June 23, 2026 Between 2017 and 2023, more than 860,000 adverse events came after 45 days of using mifepristone. Of the adverse events, more than 10% experienced severe complications, including infection, hemorrhage, surgical intervention, or undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy. Based on their research, and the lack of safety reviews conducted on mifepristone, the risks surrounding the “safer than Tylenol” drug are 22 times higher than previously disclosed. “Such blatant disregard for the health and safety of women and willful ignorance of what is occurring in emergency departments across the country undermines informed consent and public trust,” reads the letter. “Claims that mifepristone is ‘safer than Tylenol’ are not only scientifically unfounded but also violate FDA guidelines on comparative safety claims.”

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided on two religious freedom cases, in a pair of 6-3 rulings. In a victory for tech giant Cisco, the Supreme Court held Tuesday that a company or entity cannot be held liable for aiding and abetting a violation of an anti-torture law. Members of China’s Falun Gong movement claimed that Cisco cooperated with the Chinese communist government’s persecution of the movement. The court ruled in the case of Cisco Systems, Inc. v. Doe that courts can’t create a new cause of action under the Alien Tort Statute. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority. “Courts may not create new causes of action for violations of international norms,” Barrett wrote for the majority. She later added, “The power to create causes of action belongs to Congress.”  The Falun Gong spiritual movement spread in China in the 1990s, but the Chinese Communist Party banned its practices in 1999. Members of the movement brought the lawsuit against Cisco in 2011. Justices considered whether two statutes, the 18th-century Alien Tort Statute and the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act, provide a cause of action to sue. However, several conservatives asked why Congress didn’t specify the right to sue in the law. In another case, the high court held that a Louisiana prisoner could not sue a government official in his individual capacity for a violation of a religious freedom law, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the 6-3 majority opinion for the court.In Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety, the court considered whether a prisoner can sue a prison official in his personal capacity for damages. The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 forbids the government from imposing a “substantial burden” on incarcerated people’s religious free exercise rights. The plaintiff, Damon Landor, had grown long dreadlocks as part of his practice of Rastafarianism. Officials honored his practices when he was incarcerated in 2020 on a drug offense, but after he was transferred with three weeks left in his sentence in 2022, a prison guard required him to have his head shaved. Landor petitioned for the right to sue the guard for monetary damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The trial court and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals both determined that Landor wasn’t entitled to financial damages. “Individuals may not be held liable in their personal capacities under a Spending Clause statute unless those individuals have voluntarily and knowingly consented to answer lawsuits under the statute; because the individual defendants in this case did not voluntarily and knowingly consent to face RLUIPA liability in an agreement with the federal government, Mr. Landor’s case cannot proceed against them,” Gorsuch wrote for the majority. Interestingly, the conservative-leaning Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which litigates in favor of religious expression, and the left-leaning Americans United for Separation of Church and State both filed briefs to the high court in favor of the plaintiff.

Students in the U.S. take for granted that every child has the chance to get an education. Around the world, however, millions never get this opportunity, especially young girls. While poverty and regional conflicts account for many of the reasons, a simple solution could determine whether a girl stays in or drops out of school: Hygiene. Specifically, menstrual hygiene products. While serving in Uganda, one of us worked alongside The Dignity Project, a Christian nonprofit organization that provides reusable pads and feminine health education for women and girls living in the slums of Kampala. These pads were more than just a product. After talking with girls from the slums, one pad could be the difference between attending school and dropping out. In poor African homes with girls, menstruation can come with shame, isolation, and absence in the classroom. Many families simply cannot afford hygiene products each month. In one household, a father forced the daughters to sit over dirt holes dug behind their home for the length of their cycles. This brutal act reinforces the shame that menstruation can cause, making girls feel as though they should be excluded because of a normal, female process. This is a disheartening reality for impoverished girls in Uganda and many other parts of Africa.   When girls are consistently absent from school during menstruation, the consequences go beyond just missed content. These girls who miss school are likely to fall behind, eventually leading them to drop out of school entirely. Being forced into marriage due to poverty, family pressure, bride price arrangements, or tradition, teen girls are left voiceless. According to the World Bank, “Uganda has one of the highest rates of adolescent pregnancy in the world, which is the result of both consensual and forced sex.” Child marriage resulting in teen pregnancy remains a huge challenge. For some girls, marriage seems like an escape from the struggles and stigma surrounding menstruation. Once young girls leave school, they are exposed to a higher amount of exploitation than before. Organizations such as The Dignity Project are changing the lives of thousands of young women. The Project is targeting the barrier that keeps girls out of school through delivering pads and providing health education. Lillian Kirui, project coordinator of The Dignity Project in Uganda, explained in an interview, “My hopes for the future of this project is that we will continue to impact school-going girls so that they will be able to achieve their dreams and the aspirations they have for life without any restrictions.” Motivated by the Christian call to provide human dignity to all, Lillian and her team are just one example of an organization fighting for girls to stay in school and pursue their goals without unfair restrictions. Charitable organizations across the world recognize this problem, as well. For example, The Pad Project, founded in the U.S., has provided thousands of pads and pad-making machines to countries like Afghanistan, India, Kenya, and many others with one simple belief: “a period should end a sentence, not an education.” No girl should lose her education because she lacks the basic hygiene products that she needs. There are many Christian organizations providing simple acts of service that are life-changing for so many. By helping girls remain in schools, these organizations are doing more than just offering a physical need. They are restoring dignity, broadening opportunities, and offering hope that ensures a girl’s future is not dictated by her ability to access basic hygiene products.