Teacher Shortages Nationwide Causing Public Education Crisis

Schools throughout the country are experiencing teacher shortages due to several factors. In some states, legislatures have responded by lowering substitute teaching standards. In others, schools are calling on parents to fill the gap or are simply closing schools because they don’t have enough staff.

School choice advocates say it’s time to start funding students instead of government-run public school systems.

Nationwide, according to Burbio.com’s school closure tracker, 7,164 schools were “actively disrupted (not offering in-person learning) on one or more days during the week beginning January 10th.” Accompanying the tracker is a map, which shows which schools nationwide are closed or are providing no in-person instruction by day and week. The site, an industry leader in aggregating school, government, library and community information, tracks school closures and mask policies.

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Commentary: ‘America First’ Has Answers for U.S. Crisis of Confidence

Joe Biden

A majority Americans begin 2022 full of worry and dread. During President Biden’s first year in the White House, societal anxiety surged, including among voters who identify as independents and Democrats. In the newest Axios/Momentive year-end survey, 2021 saw a 50% increase in fear about what 2022 will bring among independents. Democrats weren’t much more sanguine. They began last year with refreshing optimism as their party took control of the White House and Congress, with only 19% of Democratic voters declaring themselves fearful about 2021. By year’s end, that number had surged to 45%.

Reflecting this dour assessment, the RealClearPolitics polling average of Joe Biden’s approve/disapprove ratio also receded sharply for the last year, from a stellar 20-percentage-point surplus in his favor on Inauguration Day, to a minus- 10-point rating.

Given this environment, Republicans naturally grow more confident about the midterm elections. But taking nominal control of Capitol Hill won’t be enough. Will Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy and their lieutenants be content with stopping the woke and socialist-inspired agenda of progressives? Or will they boldly implement a full-throttle populist nationalist “America First” agenda?  

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Lumber Demand Drives Georgia Home Prices Higher

A beige house in a suburban community during the day

A spike in lumber prices has compounded the state’s housing crisis, Georgia housing advocates said.

The price of lumber increased by 300% this spring compared with the same time last year, reports show. The building material reached an all-time high of $1,515 per thousand board feet on May 28.

The price of oriented strand board, which is most often used for sheathing, has increased by 400% since last spring.

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Commentary: Demoralization, Destabilization, Crisis, and Normalization Are the Four Stages of a Marxist Takeover

by Scott McKay   It’s important to understand that this is a revolutionary moment in American history, and it isn’t a bad idea to act in ways that would fall under the traditional description of “accordingly.” But it’s also important to understand that the revolution taking place in America is not yet a “kinetic” one. That may come soon, or it may not. The battle taking place presently is a war of information — or disinformation, as the case may be. And the revolution is a Marxist revolution. You should make no mistake about that. The groups fomenting it, the intellectuals promoting it, and the money financing it are all quite open about who they are. The object of this information revolution? To begin with, defeating Donald Trump and installing Joe Biden as the Hard Left’s puppet president. Biden is, for now, palatable to the American people in ways that actual communist Bernie Sanders, spawn of a communist Pete Buttigieg, Sandinista sympathizer Bill de Blasio, and other far-left revolutionary (remember: Sanders has spent years traipsing around the country calling for a revolution) figures were not. But despite his lack of bona fides, Biden offers something quite beneficial to the Left…

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Washington Journalist Neil McCabe Praises Trump’s Easter Economy Timeline and Speculates Republican Unity Will Trend Into 2020 Election

During the third hour of The Tennessee Star Report Wednesday, special guest Neil McCabe praised President Trump’s proposed Easter timeline to open up America for business again. He added that it was great to see a renewed enthusiasm in the Republican party that was getting behind Trump how going forward will play favorably into the 2020 election.

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Ohio Federal Judge Clears Way for Massive Opioid Lawsuit

A massive lawsuit by 1,500 counties, cities, townships, and other communities nationwide, against the opioid industry has been permitted to move forward by a federal judge in Ohio. Over the past two years, local and state governments in Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Nevada, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois, New York, Washington, and California have all filed separate suits against the various manufacturers, distributors, and sellers comprising the opioid industry. These local governments allege that the “defendants have contributed to the addiction of millions of Americans to these prescription opioids and to the foreseeable result that many of those addicted would turn to street drugs.” In the past year, the majority of these cases were folded into one giant multidistrict litigation that has been consolidated in the Ohio federal courts. The defendants in this case include the three largest drug wholesalers in America: AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Cardinal Health. These three entities are commonly referred to as the “Big Three,” accounting for “about 85 percent to 90 percent of all revenues from drug distribution in the United States.” United States District Judge Dan A. Polster of the Northern District of Ohio rejected Wednesday a Motion to Dismiss by the…

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Governor Haslam to Unveil ‘Opioid Plan’ Early Next Week

Bill Haslam

The Haslam Administration announced it will unveil its Opioid Plan Monday, January 22 at the Old Supreme Court Chamber. Administration officials characterize it as an aggressive and comprehensive plan to confront the escalating drug crisis. “Some of that will be for an actual bill,” Haslam told reporters from The Chattanooga Times Free Press on Friday. “Others will be things that won’t take legislative action but will be part of a comprehensive plan to address the opioid issue.” Along with Governor Haslam, Lt. Governor Randy McNally, State House Speaker Beth Harwell, and Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Bivins will be on hand to unveil what the Times Free Press calls a “multi-strategy plan involving prevention, treatment and law enforcement.” The plan couldn’t come soon enough, as the Volunteer State has one of the nation’s fastest-growing opiod-associated death rates. According to a statement from the Tennessee Department of Health, 6,605 people have died from overdosing on opiates over the past five years (2012-2016), and from 2015 to 2016 alone, the number of deaths jumped a shocking 12.4 percent to 1,651. (2017 information is not yet available.) Monday’s announcements is scheduled as an open event that begins at 2:00 pm.  

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Commentary: To Solve the U.S. Opioid Crisis, Start by Treating Cultural Disease First

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Sometimes the solution to a crisis is so obvious that we feel foolish when failing to immediately recognize it. And sometimes it’s not so plain. Such is the case for the opioid epidemic in America. For those in need of explanation, “opioid” means “naturally occurring opium-containing substance” – any opium-containing substance that is produced naturally in the brain. It can also mean “similar to opium” – similar in effect or properties to opium but not derived from opium. A good many of us first learned about opioid dependency during the 2016 campaign when the issue was raised time and again with questions posed to candidates of both parties at virtually every stop – especially in New Hampshire. Drug addiction is hardly obscure but it’s not necessarily something you expect to concentrate on alongside tax proposals and foreign policy visions from stumping politicians. Both Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz relayed stories about losing someone close to them because of addiction so they spoke from the heart as well as experience when discussing the necessity to help those who need it the most — but how to do it? The federal role in the so-called “War on…

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