House Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday that would prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from banning gas stoves, after the agency indicated an interest in aggressively regulating or even banning the common kitchen cooking appliance used in millions of homes.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and 43 House Republicans introduced the GAS Act, which is aimed at making sure the possibility of a ban is taken off the kitchen table.

‘The Biden Administration’s clear consideration to ban an appliance used by more than 40 million homes and 76 percent of restaurants is worse than Green New Deal-style regulation run amok,’ Issa said. ‘It is a preposterous overreach of federal power that would deny Americans a necessary product they use every day.’

The American Public Gas Association said the bill is needed to stop ‘bad policy.’

‘Any federal regulations impacting the appliances consumers use and the energy source they choose to power them should be based on sound scientific evidence, not what generates headlines,’ said Dave Schryver, president and CEO of the association.

The fight over gas stoves began when 22 congressional Democrats wrote a letter urging the CPSC to take a closer look at regulating gas stoves, which they said post risk to consumers by causing ‘indoor air pollution.’

‘As you know, the CPSC has broad authority under the Consumer Product Safety Act to regulate consumer products that pose an unreasonable risk of injury,’ Democrats wrote. ‘We urge the Commission to protect consumers from these harmful emissions.’

Among other things, Democrats suggested the CPSC consider a requirement that gas stoves be sold with range hoods, create performance standards related to gas leakage and hazardous emissions, and requiring labels that warn consumers about the risk of using gas stoves.

This week, CPSC Chairman Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg that a ban on gas stoves was possible, and said ‘any option is on the table’ related to the regulation of gas stoves.

However, after a furious backlash at the possibility of a ban, Trumka backed down.

‘Over the past several days, there has been a lot of attention paid to gas stove emissions and to the Consumer Product Safety Commission,’ he said. ‘Research indicates that emissions from gas stoves can be hazardous, and the CPSC is looking for ways to reduce related indoor air quality hazards. But to be clear, I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so.’

However, Trumka said the CPSC is still researching gas emissions in stoves and is ‘exploring new ways to address health risks.’ The agency is also working to strengthen ‘voluntary safety standards for gas stoves,’ and will be seeking public input this year on how to reduce environmental risks.

A federal agency will provide more than $2.3 million to two Kentucky organizations to support school safety and mental health, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell said.

The Department of Health and Human Services is awarding more than $2 million to the Kentucky Educational Development Finance Corporation in Ashland and $250,000 to Seven Counties Services Inc., based in Louisville, the senator announced Thursday. Both grants will fund mental health support and early intervention programs in Kentucky schools.

Funding for the grants comes from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which McConnell — as the Senate’s top-ranking Republican — helped lead to Senate passage last year.

McConnell said the funding will provide ‘much-needed mental health infrastructure in our schools.’

‘The American people do not have to choose between safer schools and the Constitution, and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act proves it,’ McConnell said. ‘This bill increases school safety, helps troubled kids and protects Kentucky’s teachers and students.’

The Department of the Interior announced on Thursday that a board had voted to rename five places in states across the country that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman. 

In a release, the department noted that the Board on Geographic Names had voted on final replacement names for nearly 650 geographic features but said an additional review was completed for seven locations that ‘are considered unincorporated populated places.’

Of those seven, the five renamed sites are located in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.

The changes came after a year-long process to remove the historically offensive word ‘squaw’ from the names of geographic sites across the country.

‘Words matter, particularly in our work to ensure our nation’s public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming to people of all backgrounds,’ Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. ‘I am grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force and the Board on Geographic Names for their efforts to finalize the removal of this harmful word. Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America.’

Two places in Alaska and Wyoming were removed from consideration. 

The list of all new names will be updated on the U.S. Geological Survey website.

In North Dakota, the new name Homesteaders Gap was selected as a nod to the community’s local history, although area residents were reportedly divided. 

Two other newly named places are the California Central Valley communities of Loybas Hill, which translates to ‘Young Lady,’ and Yokuts Valley.

The others are Partridgeberry, Tennessee, and Lynn Creek, Texas.

The decision has long precedent and the department had ordered the renaming of places with derogatory terms for Black and Japanese people in 1962 and 1974, respectively.

Notably, Haaland is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly plans to return Friday to the Statehouse after learning that a COVID-19 test earlier in the week gave her a false positive result, her office said.

Kelly has been working in self-isolation at the governor’s residence since the false positive Tuesday. Her office announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19 and she postponed the annual State of the State address from Wednesday to Jan. 24.

Kelly’s office said Thursday that she took the test after experiencing ‘cold-like symptoms.’ She continued testing and after several negative results, her doctor and state health department experts determined that the first test was a false positive.

The State of the State address is still scheduled for Jan. 24.

Two-term Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is ‘seriously considering running for U.S. Senate’ in 2024, when former Democratic governor and current Sen. Joe Manchin is up for re-election.

‘I want continued goodness for our state. I’ll continue helping West Virginia no matter if I’m at home or in Washington, DC,’ Justice said in a tweet Thursday evening.

Manchin, a moderate Democrat who is often at loggerheads with his party’s progressive wing and at times with the party’s Senate leadership and the White House, has yet to announce whether he will see another six-year term in the Senate in 2024. 

Once a reliably Democratic state, West Virginia has shifted overwhelmingly red in recent cycles, and then-President Trump carried the state by a whopping 39 points in the 2020 election. 

As they aim to regain the Senate majority in 2024, Senate Republicans are beginning to target Manchin. As Fox News first reported, the National Republican Senatorial Committee launched a digital ad on Thursday taking aim at Manchin and linking him to President Biden, urging that the senator ‘retire or get fired.’

Justice, a registered Republican, ran for West Virginia governor as a Democrat in 2016, winning by single digits. He re-registered as a Republican the next year after holding a rally with Trump, and he overwhelmingly won re-election in 2020. Justice is term-limited and cannot seek gubernatorial re-election in 2024.

‘I’m seriously considering running for Senate… I want continued goodness for our state. I’ll try to help in any way, whether it be the Senate or the House or the next governor to be, whatever it may be,’ Justice said in a video he posted on Twitter. ‘And I may very well be doing it from home. Or I may very well be doing it from Washington. That’s just my thought.’

Republican Rep. Alex Mooney is already in the race for West Virginia’s 2024 GOP Senate nomination, after launching a campaign in November. Additionally, GOP State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is also considering a Senate run. Morrisey won the 2018 Republican Senate nomination before narrowly losing to Manchin by three-points in the general election.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has issued more than twice the amount of pardons granted by any of his predecessors, with at least a quarter of them targeting non-violent marijuana offenses, his administration announced Thursday.

Wolf, a Democrat, signed his final 369 pardons this week, for a total of 2,540 since he took office in 2015. He surpassed Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s record of 1,122 granted pardons.

Of the pardons, 395 were part of the expedited review process for nonviolent marijuana-related offenses. Another 232 were part of the PA Marijuana Pardon Project, which accepted applications through the month of September.

‘I have taken this process very seriously — reviewing and giving careful thought to each and every one of these 2,540 pardons and the lives they will impact,’ Wolf said in a statement. ‘Every single one of the Pennsylvanians who made it through the process truly deserves their second chance, and it’s been my honor to grant it.’

A pardon grants total forgiveness of the related criminal conviction and allows for expungement.

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft is vowing a ‘full court press’ to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s contributions to the fentanyl crisis plaguing the United States should she be elected as the next governor of Kentucky in the state’s gubernatorial election this year.

‘We can do better,’ Craft, who served as U.N. Ambassador and as Ambassador to Canada under former President Donald Trump, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview about her run to unseat vulnerable Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.

‘I have called out China, the Chinese Communist Party. I have stood very, very firm with them on their human trafficking, their modern slavery, their human abuses and their fentanyl. I’ve called them out and stood up to them to the point now that I am sanctioned for the rest of my life by the Chinese Communist Party,’ Craft said.

‘If I can stand up to the Chinese Communist Party, I can stand up to special interest groups in Kentucky and stand firm and strong for what Kentuckians deserve. And that’s the promise,’ she added.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, China continues to be the primary source of fentanyl being imported into the United States, killing more than 100 Americans every day. It also continues to be the primary source of fentanyl for the rest of the world.

Kentucky has been one of the most hard-hit states when it comes to the fentanyl crisis. In 2021, the drug accounted for 70% of the 2,250 overdoes deaths in the state, according to state figures.

The state surpassed the 2,000 death milestone again in 2022, reaching that figure with four months still remaining in the year, and with 73% of the deaths involving fentanyl. The state’s final report on overdoes deaths for 2022 has not yet been released.

Craft criticized Beshear for avoiding the subject of overdoses and the fentanyl crisis in his State of the Commonwealth address earlier this month.

‘Not one time did he mention fentanyl. And we have a crisis in this state. We have a terrible drug crisis,’ she said. ‘And that is one area that I am going to stand very firm. And, you know, I’m going to have a full court press when it comes to drugs in Kentucky.’

Craft is one of twelve candidates hoping to win the Republican nomination and take on Beshear, a crowded field that includes Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, and state Auditor Mike Harmon.

She argued, however, that being a non-career politician and having never run for office separated her from the pack and showed she was looking to get a job done for the benefit of the state, rather than advancing a political career.

‘I’m seeing there’s great grit and resilience and determination in this state,’ Craft said. ‘Understanding the grit and determination of Kentuckians, we deserve better, we can do better.’

‘I’ve had results driven leadership. I have served this country not once, but twice,’ she added, touting her role in negotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement alongside Trump, as well as the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

When asked why she decided to throw her hat into the ring last September, months after many of the other candidates, Craft cited her love for Kentucky, as well as her desire to the state rise from being at ‘the bottom’ of many categories compared to other states.

‘We can do better. And I have had results-driven leadership. And I’m the type of person that when I see a need, I want to meet the moment,’ Craft said. 

‘I’m not a career politician. I’m not looking for a job in order to get the next job. I want to do the job and I want to have jobs for Kentuckians. And that’s why I’m running. Because we can do better. Because we are better,’ she added.

The Republican primary will be held on Tuesday, May 16. The winner is expected to face Beshear in the November general election.

A former top aide to President Biden — who reportedly was questioned by federal investigators as part of the probe into the president’s handling of classified documents — exchanged emails with Hunter Biden on numerous occasions, according to a Fox News Digital review.

Kathy Chung, Biden’s executive assistant when he was vice president and the Pentagon’s current deputy director of protocol, is among several former aides to the president to be interviewed by law enforcement, NBC News reported Thursday. Chung and the others questioned reportedly helped move materials and belongings from Biden’s office at the end of the Obama administration in early 2017.

Throughout much of her five-year tenure working for Biden during the Obama administration, Chung regularly communicated with Biden’s son Hunter Biden, transmitting information about his father’s schedule and passing messages directly from the then-vice president, according to emails obtained from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and verified by Fox News Digital.

Chung’s relationship with Hunter Biden also appears to date back before she worked for his father. The emails showed that Hunter Biden recommended Chung for the executive assistant role when the previous holder of the job, Michele Smith, departed the White House in the spring of 2012.

‘Thanks for calling and thinking of me,’ Chung wrote to Hunter Biden on May 14, 2012. ‘After the initial shock of taking in what you said…how could I pass up an opportunity to work for the Vice President of the United State!!!! I do have a few questions. What is Michelle’s primary job? I think I know what the job would entail, minus the scheduling part, which is a huge part of what I do now. But what would be my top 3 – 5 responsibilities be in the office? Do you know the salary? Again, thanks for thinking of me.’

At the time, Chung worked in former Sen. Mark Udall’s, D-Colo., office as his scheduling director.

In response to her message, Hunter Biden responded later that day saying that the job would make her the primary gatekeeper of Biden’s and would be ‘involved in everything that goes on outside of policy.’

‘Call if/when you want me to tell Dad you are interested and I’m sure Michele would also want to talk to you at some point,’ he added. ‘I don’t know who else they were considering but I thought you would be great.’

One month later, on June, 13, 2012, Chung emailed Hunter Biden informing him that she had been offered the job.

‘I cannot thank you enough for thinking about me and walking me thru this,’ she said. ‘What an incredible opportunity! Thanks, Hunter!!’

Dozens of additional emails between Chung and Biden’s son showed various levels of correspondence between the two.

In one instance from October 2015, Hunter Biden and Chung communicated to schedule a meeting with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. Fox News Digital previously reported that Hunter arranged a video conference with his father and Slim, with whom Hunter was seeking to do business with at the time, on Oct. 30, 2015.

In another instance from earlier that year, Chung sent Hunter and other members of the Biden family an invitation to attend a State Department luncheon hosted by his father honoring Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Hunter Biden and Chung even communicated at times about birthday gifts for relatives and assisting friends’ children with college admittance. 

In February 2017, after Biden had left the White House, Hunter Biden suggested that Chung, who appears to have continued working for the former vice president after the Obama administration, should come work with him and his business partners Eric Schwerin and Joan Mayer.

‘Actually work ‘for’ me and ‘with’ Eric…Actually do actual ‘work’ with Eric and Joan and so that I can make everyone money…actually just make all of you and Kathleen money and none for me,’ he wrote to Chung, referring to his ex-wife Kathleen Buhle. ‘Sounds fun right!’

And on multiple occasions, the pair coordinated schedules for meetings with former University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann. Shortly after taking office, the president selected Gutmann to be the U.S. ambassador to Germany.

‘VP will be meeting with President Guttman on Friday, Jan. 8, 11:00 am, at the Lake house in DE,’ Chung wrote in an email to Hunter Biden, other family members and several White House officials in January 2016. ‘VP hopes that you will be able to join him for this meeting. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!!’

After Chung invited Hunter Biden to another meeting with Gutmann in April 2016, he suggested in a follow-up message to his business partner that he may need to reschedule a previously-scheduled meeting with the prime minister of the Ivory Coast. He added that ‘the Guttman mtg is a must attend for me per Dad.’

Gutmann, meanwhile, participated at the ceremony marking the grand opening of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, the president’s think tank in Washington, D.C., in 2018. 

‘President Gutmann, when you came to me before the [Obama] administration was up and asked me whether I [would] consider to be a professor at Penn, the first thought I had was that it sounded like an intriguing idea, but it became even more intriguing after the outcome of the [2016] election when you said I could bring along with me some serious, serious people,’ Biden said during the opening ceremony in February 2018.

‘Serious staff people and much more than staff and they start with Tony Blinken and Steve Ricchetti and others, so thank you for allowing me to bring along some really, really bright people,’ he added.

On Monday, the White House revealed that a series of classified documents dating back to Biden’s time as vice president had been discovered at the Penn Biden Center. Some of the documents were classified as top-secret.

Then, on Thursday, the White House acknowledged a second batch of classified documents were found in the garage of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden’s lawyer, Richard Sauber, responded to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Robert Hur as special counsel Thursday, saying, ‘As the President said, he takes classified information and materials seriously, and as we have said, we have cooperated from the moment we informed the [National] Archives that a small number of documents were found, and we will continue to cooperate.’

‘We have cooperated closely with the Justice Department throughout its review, and we will continue that cooperation with the Special Counsel,’ Sauber said.

‘We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the President and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake,’ he added.

‘I’m going to get the chance to speak on all of this, God willing it’ll be soon, but I said earlier this week — and by the way my Corvette is in a locked garage. It’s not like it’s sitting out in the street,’ Biden told Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Thursday.

‘So the documents were in a locked garage,’ Doocy noted. 

‘Yes, as well as my Corvette. But as I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously,’ Biden responded. ‘I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review.’

Biden’s aides have been searching additional locations where Biden could have possibly brought more classified documents from his time as vice president in the Obama administration, The New York Times reported. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday that the search for documents is complete. 

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder referred all questions about Chung’s interview with investigators to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Hunter Biden’s attorney and Chung did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital media inquiry.

The White House wouldn’t weigh in on how many people could have had access to the classified Obama-era documents found in President Biden’s garage and the Penn Biden Center. 

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to answer a number of questions during Thursday’s press briefing, including whether the White House had an estimate on the number of people who could have accessed the classified documents. 

Jean-Pierre cited the ‘ongoing review’ of the matter and deferred to the Department of Justice. 

The press secretary also declined to answer whether ‘there was a third stop between a secure location and the garage’ where the documents ended up. 

Hunter Biden is among the people who appear to have had access to the president’s Wilmington home where the documents were found. Exactly how many other people also had access remains unclear. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed as special counsel Robert Hur, a former U.S. attorney, to handle the investigation into the handling of Biden’s classified documents. 

‘Earlier today, I signed an order appointing Robert Hur a special counsel for the matter I have just described,’ Garland said Thursday. 

‘The document authorizes him to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with this matter,’ Garland continued. ‘The special counsel will not be subject to the day-to-day supervision of any official of the department, but he must comply with the regulations, procedures and policies of the department.’

President Biden, meanwhile, was defensive about the documents’ location when pressed by Fox News’ Peter Doocy on Thursday. 

‘Classified documents next to your Corvette? What were you thinking?’ Doocy asked. 

‘I’m going to get the chance to speak on all of this, God willing it’ll be soon, but I said earlier this week — and by the way my Corvette is in a locked garage. It’s not like it’s sitting out in the street,’ Biden responded.

‘So the documents were in a locked garage,’ Doocy noted.

‘Yes, as well as my Corvette. But as I said earlier this week, people know I take classified documents and classified material seriously,’ Biden said. ‘I also said we’re cooperating fully and completely with the Justice Department’s review.’

Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

More than a dozen House Democrats this week proposed an amendment to the Constitution to allow 16-year-olds to vote in an apparent attempt to make it easier to enact left-leaning policies like gun control and pro-environmental measures.

Democratic Rep. Grace Meng of New York introduced a resolution that would do away with the 26th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows U.S. citizens to vote if they are at least 18 years of age. The resolution would replace that with new language that says: ‘The right of citizens of the United States, who are sixteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.’

Meng hadn’t released a statement on her proposal by early Thursday afternoon. But she released a statement in the last Congress, indicating a belief that lowering the voting age by amending the Constitution would let younger people have a say on many of the positions supported by Democrats.

‘Our young people, including 16- and 17-year-olds, continue to fight and advocate for so many issues that they are passionate about from gun safety to the climate crisis,’ she said. ‘They have been tremendously engaged on policies affecting their lives and their futures.’

When Democrats were in charge of the last Congress, they did nothing to advance Meng’s proposal. But groups that supported the idea of a lower voting age also indicated they like the idea because it will help advance left-leaning causes.

For example, Vote16USA, which backed Meng’s idea in the last Congress, this week had a message up on its site that said, ‘Lower the voting age, the planet depends on it.’

Another supporter, the Next Up Action Fund, argued that ’16- and 17-year-olds are engaged, smart, and capable of casting informed votes…’

In March 2022, 125 Democrats voted in favor of an amendment to lower the voting age to 16, which wasn’t enough to approve the amendment. All but one Republican voted against it.

Also last year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga., introduced the Youth Voting Rights Act, which also went nowhere in the Democrat-led House and Senate. That bill didn’t change the voting age but would have allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to start registering to vote to make sure they are able to vote as soon as they turn 18.

Democrats who backed that bill also cited the importance of getting younger voters to the polls to support issues backed by Democrats.

‘It’s our younger generation that will face the long-term consequences of our political challenges – like stymied action on climate change, gun violence, and reproductive rights,’ said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. ‘We need to defend their right to vote.’

Meng’s latest proposal to amend the Constitution was cosponsored by 11 House Democrats, including Squad members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Amending the Constitution requires passage of the resolution by a two-thirds vote in the House and Senate and then ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.

The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and was ratified in 1971, in part due to pressure from the Vietnam War that saw a large number of teenagers drafted to fight overseas even though they could not vote.