Hearkening back to his days with former President Obama, Joe Biden summoned up the czar…

Charles Negy, a University of Central Florida (UCF) professor at the center of a years-long saga, is fighting back after he was fired for speaking out against the notion of systemic racism and White privilege. Negy was eventually given his job back when an arbitrator ruled he did nothing wrong, and he filed a lawsuit last week accusing the university’s board of trustees of violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments, along with negligence, abuse of process, and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress.”In terms of the pure mistreatment of a faculty member by a university, this is one of the worst cases I have seen. And, you know, not only because he was punished in retaliation for his protected tweets, but also because when they decided to punish him, they decided to treat him like less than human,” Negy’s attorney Samantha Harris told Fox News Digital. “Their treatment of him, I think, really speaks to this broader trend of how we dehumanize people we disagree with. We don’t only say, ‘Oh, I think they’re wrong, or even, ‘Wow, I really don’t like what they have to say,” Harris continued. “We say, ‘You know what? They’re no longer a person to me and what happens to them doesn’t matter.’ And I think that’s really evident in the University of Central Florida’s treatment of Charles Nagy.” University of Central Florida psychology professor Charles Negy filed a lawsuit last week accusing university’s board of trustees of violating the First and Fourteenth Amendments, along with negligence, abuse of process, and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress. (George Skene/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)ANTI-CRT FIGURE FIGHTS BACK AGAINST EQUITY DISCRIMINATION: ‘IT’S THE CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE OF OUR TIME’Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson, who founded both the Legal Insurrection Foundation and CriticalRace.org, has been an outspoken opponent of critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion training– commonly referred to as DEI. “Charles Negy, in many ways, is the poster child for what goes wrong when DEI takes over a campus, what goes wrong for free speech and for academic freedom,” Jacobson told Fox News Digital.Earlier this month, Jacobson started the Equal Protection Project (EPP), a new initiative to battle racial discrimination in the workplace. He has been chronicling Negy’s ordeal since the professor sent a pair of tweets in the summer of 2020 – at the height of racial tensions in America following the death of George Floyd in police custody – that questioned the belief of systemic racism and White privilege.Nagy – who is White — asked in a tweet that is no-longer available, “If Afr. Americans as a group, had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans (on average, performing the best academically, having the highest income, committing the lowest crime, etc.), would we still be proclaiming ‘systematic racism’ exists?”CRITICAL RACE THEORY-RELATED IDEAS FOUND IN MANDATORY PROGRAMS AT 58 OF TOP 100 US MEDICAL SCHOOLS: REPORTThe professor also tweeted, “Black privilege is real: Besides affirm. action, special scholarships and other set asides, being shielded from legitimate criticism is a privilege. But as a group, they’re missing out on much needed feedback.”What happened next was a tumultuous three years in which calls for his termination led to a month-long investigation that resulted in his firing. There were petitions, protests and even a hashtag dedicated to the university dismissing Negy over his tweets. “This is really one of the worst examples I’ve seen where a university, to placate the mob and also because they don’t like his opinions, really used the entire machinery of a major public university and taxpayer funding to go get this professor,” Jacobson said. “He filed a union grievance and went to arbitration. And lo and behold, the arbitrator cleared him, found he did nothing wrong, found the university was in the wrong, had no good cause to fire him, no legal cause to fire him and ordered him reinstated.”UCF maintained that Negy’s firing was not because of his tweet, instead claiming he was fired because of student complaints and creating a hostile working environment.On Thursday, Negy took steps to hold the school accountable when he filed a lawsuit in federal court in the Middle District of Florida.CRITICAL RACE THEORY TAUGHT TO FUTURE MILITARY LEADERS AT U.S. MILITARY ACADEMIES, ACCORDING TO NEW STUDY”In the name of a crusade ‘to be actively anti-racist,’ as Defendant Alexander Cartwright announced on June 2, 2020, the University of Central Florida (UCF) harassed and retaliated against Professor Charles Negy because he dared to publicly express viewpoints out of step with the prevailing campus orthodoxy on anti-racism,” Harris wrote in the 41-page complaint. “After Charles Negy posted several tweets to his personal Twitter account expressing his view that, contrary to the ascendant orthodoxy on campus, Blacks are not systematically oppressed in the United States, he became the target of a Twitter mob that demanded he be fired. Protests erupted at UCF and even at Negy’s home, leading him to require police protection,” the complaint continued. “Forbidden by the First Amendment to explicitly fire him for his tweets, UCF administrators publicly solicited people to come forward with complaints of discrimination and harassment against Professor Negy and then launched a malicious, pretextual investigation into every aspect of his 22-year career at the university.” The complaint stated that Negy was interrogated for nine hours as part of the school’s probe, and the professor was “barraged” with hundreds of allegations by a senior university administrator. “The interrogation — which included wide-ranging allegations, many of which bordered on the absurd — made clear that UCF was not merely investigating Negy for alleged harassment and discrimination, but rather was looking for any information it could use to get rid of a faculty member who had become politically inconvenient to the university administration,” Harris wrote. The complaint said Negy, who was fired in Jan. 2021, did not receive six months’ notice of termination after an “inapplicable exception” to the collective bargaining agreement was triggered. “As a result of this sudden loss of income, Negy — who is the sole caretaker of his mentally and physically disabled brother — was forced to sell his home and move in with a relative,” Harris wrote. CRITICAL RACE THEORY TAUGHT AT MANY OF AMERICA’S 50 MOST ELITE PRIVATE K-12 SCHOOLS, ACCORDING TO NEW STUDYIn May 2022, an arbitrator ordered the university to reinstate Negy with back pay and benefits, finding he was terminated without just cause.”However, the award cannot compensate Negy for the massive loss he incurred on the sale of his home; for the out-of-pocket medical expenses he faced after UCF’s destruction of his life led him to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression; or for the severe emotional distress he suffered for nearly two years at the hands of UCF administrators who, because they disliked his political views, treated him as less than human,” Harris wrote.  Cornell Law School professor and Legal Insurrection Foundation president William A. Jacobson. (FOX)Jacobson believes Negy has a legitimate case that the university unfairly retaliated against him. “He’s alleging that he went through almost two years of extreme pain and suffering, extreme hardship that cannot be restored merely by giving him his job back with back pay,” he said. “Of course, the facts are going to have to come out. But based on what’s been revealed so far, it does look like he has a very strong claim that he was subject to retaliation.” Harris feels that Negy’s lawsuit is particularly important because it “isn’t just about him,” and being awarded his job back through arbitration doesn’t change the university’s actions. “I think that since 2020, it has been very much focused around these issues of racial tension and people who say anything that diverges from what has kind of become the official orthodoxy on campus, which is not only that racism is a terrible thing that we should all be concerned with, with which I think all good and moral people can agree on, but that America is a systemically racist country. And if you don’t believe that, then you are a racist,” Harris said. “Part of what he’s asking the court to do is to issue injunctive relief, declaring that this was a violation of his First Amendment rights… these types of lawsuits have a nationwide effect.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPFox News Digital reached out to the University of Central Florida for comment.Fox News’ Jon Brown contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden blasted the Biden administration for targeting his state’s lobster industry with eco regulations while ignoring the environmental impacts of offshore wind projects.In an interview with Fox News Digital, Golden said the federal government has held Maine lobstermen to an unfair standard over their impacts on the endangered North Atlantic right whale species compared to how it has treated offshore wind developers and other ocean-based industries. He added the administration’s actions were aimed at appeasing environmental groups that have similarly targeted lobstermen.”The hypocrisy part is what pisses me off because we know that right whales, other whales, get struck by freight vessels all the time. Cruise ships that are out there carting people around hit them,” he told Fox News Digital. “You see very little effort by the federal government to do anything.””And yet they see a small business lobster fishery up in Maine that’s not politically important to them and they try to crush it just to try to prove to the environmental groups that they’re actively trying to protect the right whales,” he continued.DOZENS OF NJ MAYORS CALL FOR IMMEDIATE OFFSHORE WIND MORATORIUM AFTER LATEST WHALE DEATHS Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is pictured during a congressional hearing on March 6, 2019. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)In recent years, federal agencies have attempted to crack down on Maine’s lobster fishery despite scant evidence of whale impacts. Lobster industry groups, though, have pointed to federal data which shows that there has never been a recorded right whale death caused by lobster fishing equipment in Maine and the last recorded whale entanglement in fishing gear came more than two decades ago. Industry groups and lawmakers including Golden have also said the rules, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) first rolled out in May 2022 with more set for 2024 and 2030, would threaten thousands of blue-collar jobs. Maine’s lobster industry — which by state law is made up entirely of small business operators — provides the U.S. with about 90% of the nation’s lobster supply, making the industry a top economic driver in the state, and boosting other related industries as well.At the same time, the government in recent months has repeatedly defended offshore wind projects in the face of an unprecedented uptick in whale deaths and widespread calls for a moratorium on offshore wind development until the deaths are further studied. More than 20 whale deaths have been recorded along the East Coast since December with most coming in New Jersey, New York and Virginia where large wind projects are under development.NJ CONGRESSMAN AIMS TO FORCE BIDEN ADMIN TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER WIND PROJECTS ARE KILLING WHALES”Am I concerned about hypocrisy in how the federal government deals with like the Maine lobster fishery, as opposed to big energy projects?” Golden continued. “The answer is 100% yes, because for four years now, I have been constantly harassing the federal government to show us one piece of evidence that Maine’s lobster fishery is at all responsible for any kind of entanglement of whales let alone a death of a right whale.” “They can’t show any field-gathered data,” he said. “All they have are these computer-driven formulas that show risk even though it’s been almost 20 years since there was a whale entanglement associated with the Maine lobster fishery. Despite the complete lack of any data they’ve tried to regulate that fishery nearly out of business.” Maine lobstermen haul in their latest catch off the state’s coast. (Maine Lobstermen’s Association/Marketing Collaborative)Last week, Golden joined Reps. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Andy Harris, R-Md., in writing a letter to federal officials demanding more information about the risks offshore wind projects pose to marine wildlife. They noted that wind leases occupy more than 1.7 million acres of waters along the Atlantic coastline, a vast area that will become a large wind turbine construction zone over the next decade.The letter also highlighted a 2022 internal memo from Sean Hayes, NOAA’s chief of protected species, who stated that “oceanographic impacts from installed and operating turbines cannot be mitigated” and would particularly impact the dwindling right whale population.GREEN GROUPS TARGETING BLUE-COLLAR LOBSTERMEN ARE LARGELY FUNDED BY DARK MONEY”Offshore wind development and deployment stands to be a consequential national undertaking, which is why our approach should be done correctly the first time, with full consideration taken in order to mitigate negative impacts on marine species such as the North Atlantic right whale,” the letter concluded.In addition, Golden directed his ire at environmental groups that have maintained attacks on Maine’s lobster industry. Last year, California-based Monterey Bay Aquarium — which has commitments from companies like Blue Apron, Cheesecake Factory, Hello Fresh and Whole Foods — downgraded Maine lobster from “good alternative” to “avoid,” citing risks the state’s fishery poses to endangered North Atlantic right whales. A dead endangered North Atlantic right whale is pictured beached last month in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It was the third dead whale found miles from an operational offshore wind farm in less than a week (WAVY-TV/Video screenshot)”I put a bill in last year to try and take away all their federal funding because their designation that the Maine lobster fishery is not sustainable because of right whales is not based on science,” the Maine Democrat told Fox News Digital.”If they’re going to be a scientific organization that’s going to receive federal research dollars, then they should have to actually put out real science,” he added. “It’s just more bulls— coming out of these groups who I think — it has more to do with their fundraising circles and it’s a real insular group of people.””They go in and out of administrations, they work in NOAA, they leave NOAA, they go work at these aquariums, etc.,” Golden said.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPWhile the Monterey Bay Aquarium has maintained its “avoid” red-listing of Maine’s lobster fishery, after pressure from Golden, his fellow Maine congressional delegation members, state leaders and industry groups, a bill prohibiting the government from implementing additional regulations targeting the lobster industry for six years was included in the appropriations package President Biden signed into law late last year.

Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a new bill into law allowing a pro-life monument to be installed near the state Capitol to remember the lives lost to abortion.The privately-funded “monument to the unborn” would mark the number of abortions performed in Arkansas before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, a decision that allowed states to make their own abortion laws.The bill was passed by the state House last week after being approved by the state Senate earlier in the month. The new law requires the Arkansas secretary of state to permit and arrange the placement of the monument. The law also requires the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission to oversee the selection of the artist and the design of the monument, which will include input from pro-life groups.ARKANSAS ABORTION MONUMENT APPROVED BY STATE HOUSE, MUST BE APPROVED BY GOV. SANDERS Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a new bill into law allowing an anti-abortion monument to be installed near the state Capitol. (Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)An abortion ban approved in Arkansas in 2019 went into effect last year after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade. Under the ban, abortions are only allowed in cases where the procedure is necessary to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency.In 2018, Tennessee lawmakers approved a bill allowing a similar privately funded monument on its Capitol grounds, but that monument has still not been installed.ARKANSAS HOUSE PANEL TABLES PROPOSAL TO END AFFIRMATIVE ACTION A demonstrator holds a sign outside the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark. on June 24, 2022, protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo/Andrew DeMillo, File)The Arkansas measure drew opposition from Democrats, who said it was politicized and divisive, and some anti-abortion Republicans, who argued that the proposal was counterproductive and that efforts would be better served focusing on other initiatives such as supporting pregnant women and foster children.”This monument will do nothing for the pro-life cause as we move forward together,” Republican state Rep. Jeremiah Moore said last week in voting against the bill. “It will only be used as a weapon to rally against pro-life values through fundraising and stirring up anger and vitriol.” The privately-funded “monument to the unborn” would mark the number of abortions performed in Arkansas before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. ( DAVID MCNEW / AFP) (Photo by DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images)CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPOther monuments on Arkansas’ state Capitol grounds include a sculpture of the nine black students who integrated Little Rock Central High School in the 1950s and a Ten Commandments monument that was installed in 2018.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comedy icon Adam Sandler was presented with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor during a ceremony at Washington’s Kennedy Center late Sunday night.Several of Sandler’s co-stars and other comedic and entertainment stars attended including Jennifer Aniston, Judd Apatow, Drew Barrymore, Steve Buscemi, Dana Carvey, Luis Guzmán, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade and Ben Stiller.Sandler, 56, first rose to national prominence during his five years serving as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live.” He then went on to launch a wildly successful movie career.”Who has lasted this long and stayed this beloved?” Carvey said on the Kennedy Center red carpet, according to the Associated Press. “Nobody keeps this up for this long.”AT $900 PER TICKET, THERE’S NO CANCELING JOE ROGAN’S COMEDY MOTHERSHIP SHOWS FILE – Adam Sandler arrives at the Governors Awards on Oct. 27, 2019, at the Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles.  (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)Known for top hits including “Happy Gilmore,” “The Wedding Singer” and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” Sandlers’ movie career spans more than 30 films that have grossed over $3 billion worldwide.He has also excelled in multiple dramas including films like “Punch Drunk Love” and “Uncut Gems.”AS DAVE CHAPPELLE FIGHTS CANCEL CULTURE, 3 COMEDIANS SAY FREE SPEECH WILL PREVAIL OVER CENSORSHIP Drew Barrimore and Adam Sandler arrive for the world premiere of the movie ‘Blended’ at Cinestar in Berlin, Germany, 19 May 2014.  (Joerg Carstensen/picture alliance via Getty Images) Adam Sandler as Joey Tarentina, Dana Carvey Glenn Macera, Chris Rock as Kevin Stubbs during ‘The Bensonhurst Dating Game’ skit on October 10, 1992.   (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)Guzman, another co-star, also praised Sandler’s “total commitment to something that was so far out of his element.”COMEDIAN SARAH SILVERMAN WARNS ‘COMEDY IS NOT EVERGREEN,’ CRINGES AT OLD JOKES”He takes his comedy very seriously. I laugh hard at everything I do with him,” said Buscemi, who has starred alongside Sandler in several flicks. Co-stars Adam Sandler and Luis Guzman at the “Punch-Drunk Love” screening during the 40th Annual New York Film Festival sponsored by Grand Marnier at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in New York City. Oct. 5, 2002. (Evan Agostini/Getty Images) Steve Buscemi jokes around with Adam Sandler at the “Mr. Deeds” world premiere at Loews Lincoln Center in New York City. June 18, 2002.  (Evan Agostini/ImageDirect)Buscemi also praised Sandler’s musical comedy, including “The Chanukah Song,” which became a multi-platinum hit.”His comedy songs alone deserve this reward,” he said. Adam Sandler accepts the award for best male lead for “Uncut Gems” at the 35th Film Independent Spirit Awards on Feb. 8, 2020, in Santa Monica, Calif.  (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPSandler is the seventh former SNL cast member to receive the Mark Twain Prize, joining Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Will Farrell, Billy Crystal, Eddie Murphy, and Julia Louise-Dreyfus. Other producers and writers have won the award. FILE – The cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” pose on the show’s set in New York, Sept. 22, 1992. From left, front row; Chris Farley, Al Franken and Melanie Hutsell. In middle row, from left: Chris Rock, Julia Sweeney, Dana Carvey and Rob Schneider. In back row, from left: Adam Sandler, David Spade, Ellen Cleghorne, Kevin Nealon, Phil Hartman and Tim Meadows. (AP Photo/Justin Sutcliffe)Recipients are each honored with a night of testimonials and video tributes. Sandler’s ceremony will be broadcast nationally on March 26.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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This week, the Biden administration issued a long overdue approval of the Willow Project in Alaska’s North Slope, an oil production site within the National Petroleum Reserve. While the announcement signals the administration is waking up to the reality that fossil fuels are critical to our nation’s energy security, there is still more the administration must do – and quickly. It has been more than two years since energy prices began skyrocketing and inflation crippled the economic outlook of millions of Americans. During this time, the Biden administration tried to downplay the importance of oil supplies in restoring economic stability. Instead, President Joe Biden preferred to fan the flames of insecurity, spending trillions of dollars on increasing America’s dependence on intermittent renewable energy sourced from China and draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for political price-fixing purposes. All the while, the administration has been deaf to the efforts of a broad and bipartisan coalition of state and local officials, labor organizations like the AFL-CIO, industry and the American people. They all recognize that if America does not step up to fill the void left by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s belligerence in Ukraine, then Iran, Venezuela, OPEC, or any other nation will gladly take our place at the table of energy superpowers. BIDEN ADMIN’S WAR ON HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES WILL CAUSE HIGHER PRICES, DIRTIER CLOTHES AND DISHES, EXPERTS WARN Alaska’s Willow Project has been years in the making, and it is representative of the hindered potential of the thousands of outstanding or rejected leases under an administration at war with fossil fuels. The project has the potential to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day and generate between $8 billion and $17 billion in new tax revenue, much of which will dampen the blow of rampant federal spending, and create 2,800 jobs, 300 of which will be permanent.  Climate activists hold a demonstration to urge President Joe Biden to reject the Willow Project at the Department of the Interior headquarters on Nov. 17 in Washington, D.C. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Sunrise AU)The federal government created the National Petroleum Reserve for precisely this moment, and it’s high time the administration got on board. Sadly, Biden seems only to be doing the bare minimum. Biden’s approval of only three out of five leases in the North Slope demonstrates this, but that’s not all.  Just as soon as his administration reluctantly gave a partial green light to the Willow Project, Biden turned around and indefinitely removed 16 million acres of Alaskan territory from ever being developed in the future. For a state that relies on its energy resources, this places the economic future of Alaska and our nation at risk. CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTERAlaska is not alone in being the victim of an administration so detached from the reality facing millions of Americans. In 2021, the Biden administration halted all onshore oil and gas leasing – a move that sent shockwaves through a vital industry already reeling from the impact of COVID-19. The Biden administration is full of inconsistencies. First, the president canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on Day One, then boldly asserted at the State of the Union we will only need fossil fuels for “at least another 10 years,” and now his administration approves a project that will become fully operational at the twilight of Biden’s 10-year countdown for oil. The project has the potential to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day and generate between $8 billion and $17 billion in new tax revenue, much of which will dampen the blow of rampant federal spending, and create 2,800 jobs, 300 of which will be permanent.