This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, January 19th, 2024.    Samaritan Ministries January 2024 Tired of someone else telling you where to go when you have a medical need? Are you ready to take control of your health care? Then it’s time to take a look at Samaritan Ministries. It’s Biblical, affordable health care sharing, with no restrictive networks. Here’s how it works. When a medical need arises, you choose the health care provider that’s right for you and have a say in the treatment you receive. Send your medical bills to Samaritan Ministries, and they’ll notify fellow members to pray for you and send money directly to you to help you pay those bills. Join 80,000 Christian households across the nation who have already taken control of their health care. Go to samaritan ministries dot org slash cross politic.   https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/01/18/gop-led-house-approves-bill-to-avoid-shutdown-without-border-spending-deals/   GOP-Led House Approves Bill to Avoid Shutdown Without Border, Spending Deals   The U.S. House of Representatives voted late Thursday afternoon to extend government funding into early March and avoid a temporary partial government shutdown, sending the continuing resolution to President Biden to sign into law.    The measure, which passed by a vote of 314 to 108, angered conservative Republicans who opposed any continuing resolution to fund the government without concessions by the Democrats on border security and spending. The House Freedom Caucus made an eleventh-hour plea to House Speaker Mike Johnson to permit an amendment to the House’s border security package, which Johnson rejected.   Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good slammed his fellow Republicans who supported the continuing resolution ahead of the vote. “The more things change, the more things stay the same,” he said in a floor speech. “We’re not even willing to risk a temporary pause in the 15 percent of the non-essential part of the government in order to force change in Washington,” he said. “No, we’re going to continue the status quo.” Good’s statements echoed an official position on the measure released by the Freedom Caucus hours before the vote. “Americans did not give Republicans a majority in the House to continue Nancy Pelosi’s inflationary spending and Joe Biden’s failed policies,” the group wrote in a statement. “This is not what we promised the American people.”    The vote is also likely to be unpopular with the Republican base, which consistently ranks immigration as one of the top issues facing the country. Over 80 percent of Republican voters agree with President Donald Trump that the ongoing border crisis is “poisoning the blood” of America. https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/17/blue-state-officials-pay-thousands-barring-church-preschool-lunch-program-beliefs-gender/   Blue State Officials Agree To Pay Thousands After Barring Church From Preschool Lunch Program For Beliefs On Gender   California state officials agreed to settle with the Church of Compassion and Dayspring Christian Learning Center Tuesday for nearly $200,000 after trying to exclude the church from the state’s preschool lunch program.   The church and the center, alongside Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), filed a lawsuit in June last year alleging that officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Social Services barred them from participating in the “Child and Adult Food Care Program” because of their religious beliefs on gender and sex. ADF and state officials filed a settlement agreement this week requiring the defendants to pay $30,000 for meals paid out of pocket in the absence of state funding and $160,000 for attorney’s fees.   “In the name of combatting discrimination, government officials excluded the church and preschool from serving the El Cajon community based solely on their r