Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the state will increase state-owned facility renewable energy by 85% by 2025, up from the current 15%, but didn’t explain how.
The governor announced the goal on April 22 to coincide with Earth Day.
Whitmer cited a partnership between the state and energy providers DTE, Consumers Energy, and Lansing Board of Water and Light. Energy purchased from the utilities will expand those companies’ renewable energy portfolio in Michigan.
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Chincoteague-Island-based Lighthouse Fellowship Church (LFC) has filed a second opening brief in a lawsuit against Governor Ralph Northam over 10-person capacity limits instituted in Spring 2020. Although Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled that the church couldn’t sue the governor and that the case was moot since Northam had ended the capacity restriction, Liberty Counsel argues on behalf of the church that Wright was mistaken.
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Today, President Joe Biden signed an executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. The White House announcement and the members chosen for this commission raise serious questions about its real purpose and concerns about its impact on the independence of the judiciary.
The most obvious question is why the Supreme Court needs to be examined at all. The simple answer is that the left wants a judiciary in general, and a Supreme Court in particular, that is likely to decide cases that will further a leftist political agenda.
Results that are politically correct—not judicially correct—are what matter to the left, and the left is not satisfied with the current Supreme Court’s decisions of late. Therefore, it wants to create one in its own image.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed John Harris of the Tennessee Firearms Association to the newsmakers line to weigh in on Joe Biden’s gun control executive order and whether or not Tennessee legislators will respond.
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Disney has announced that the beloved “National Treasure” film franchise will be rebooted into a TV series that will feature a young female DREAMer as its main character, as reported by Breitbart.
The new series will premiere on Disney’s exclusive streaming platform Disney+, with the show’s description declaring that the story will be told “from the point of view of Jess Morales, a twenty-year-old DREAMer who, with her diverse group of friends, sets off on the adventure of a lifetime to uncover her mysterious family history and recover lost treasure.”
“DREAMer” refers to the failed amnesty bill known as the DREAM Act, which Barack Obama tried to get passed through Congress while he was in office. When the bill could not garner bipartisan support to pass, he took the highly unconstitutional action of implementing most of the DREAM Act via executive order, which came to be known as the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” or DACA order. This order pledged to give blanket amnesty to illegal aliens who arrived in the United States as minors, and since the signing of the executive order, has become a legal and political football that has bounced from one court to another trying to determine its legality.
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A coalition of 13 states sued President Joe Biden’s administration Wednesday over its January ban of new oil and gas leasing on federal lands.
The 13-state coalition argued that President Joe Biden’s Jan. 27 executive order banning new oil and gas leases on federal lands was unlawful, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced the lawsuit alongside state lawmakers and energy officials.
“By executive fiat, Joe Biden and his administration have single-handedly driven the price of energy up — costing the American people where it hurts most, in their pocketbooks,” Landry said during a press conference Wednesday. “Biden’s Executive Orders abandon middle-class jobs at a time when America needs them most and put our energy security in the hands of foreign countries, many of whom despise America’s greatness.”
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Ohio State Representative Larry Householder (R-2-Glenford) introduced two bills on Thursday that would allow the state and individual counties to overturn executive and health order.
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A group of Republican governors sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Monday asking him to rescind an executive order that halts new leases for oil and gas development on federal land, arguing that it will have a negative impact on their economies and will cost consumers.
Biden signed the lease moratorium Jan. 27 as part of a broader series of executive actions seeking to curb climate change. The executive order, which applies to offshore leases, does not apply to existing leases for development on federal lands or leases on tribal land.
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Months after we celebrated the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, one of President Biden’s first actions marks a drastic setback for women across this country. The President’s Executive Order instructs the Department of Education to allow transgender women – biological men who identify as women – to compete in women’s sports. Federally funded institutions are now being forced to allow biological men access to women’s sports and scholarships meant for women in sports. This move erodes the foundations of Title IX, is unfair to women, and is a massive overreach by the Federal government.
Congress passed Title IX in 1972 to help break the glass ceiling for women, but President Biden’s Executive Order reinstates that very glass ceiling. Title IX was predicated on the fact that the biological makeup of males and females differ dramatically. That’s the reason Congress passed this important legislation – to grant women fair access to federal funding for sports and academics. Prior to Title IX, only 1 in 27 women played varsity sports, but today nearly half of girls participate in varsity sports. Before Title IX only 32,000 women competed in college sports, now 150,000 women do. Prior to Title IX athletic scholarships were virtually non-existent, now there are nearly 10,000 athletic scholarships for women.
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Virginia’s public gathering limits, daily curfews, face mask requirements and other COVID-19 restrictions will stay in place until the end of February, drawing concern from some members of the business community.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday he issued Executive Order 72, which extends and slightly modifies the state restrictions. Under the new restrictions, face masks will be required in not only indoor settings but also in any outdoor setting when a person cannot remain 6 feet away from other people.
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Delegate Kirk Cox’s House bill limiting the length of executive orders will likely die in committee after a Public Safety subcommittee recommended tabling the bill. HB 2087, if passed, would limit the length of Governor Ralph Northam’s executive orders to just 45 days unless the General Assembly passes an extension. Delegate Les Adams (R-Chatham) filed a similar bill, HB 2149, that would have limited the length of executive orders to 60 days, but the subcommittee also recommended that it be tabled. “House Bill 2087 will curb the governor’s authority to declare long-lasting states of emergency without proper legislative oversight,” a Cox press release states. In the subcommittee on Thursday, Cox said, “The governor’s probably issued around 21 or 22 executive orders even with COVID-19. Several of his were of an indefinite nature and several have obviously been amended. And I think regardless of party, you’ve got to be concerned about that. We’re an equal branch of government and I think there are rare circumstances where a governor should have unchecked power for months.” Adams first filed his bill during the 2020 special session, where it was also killed in committee. In the Thursday subcommittee meeting, he argued that executive…
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A bill filed Monday will give Tennessee school boards the ultimate decision-making authority about whether their schools should be open or closed during a public emergency.
The filing of the legislation was accompanied by an announcement from the bill’s sponsors, Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) and Representative Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville).
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President Trump issued an executive order on Monday allowing states to use COVID-19 funds to be provided as emergency learning scholarships for students who don’t have access to in-person learning. The funds are directed at families, not schools, and can also be used by homeschooling students. Gubernatorial candidate Delegate Kirk Cox’s staff (R-Colonial Heights) said the program is similar to one that he introduced in the General Assembly.
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Marc Lobliner announced that he would run in 2022 against Governor Bill Lee – if not for the state’s residency requirement. According to the law, an individual must reside in the state for at least seven years prior to the gubernatorial election. Lobliner moved to Tennessee at the end of last summer.
The massive fitness influencer issued the statement in response Governor Bill Lee’s latest executive order. Since Sunday, in-person gatherings have been limited to 10 or less people. The order didn’t indicate what the punishments were if not followed. The order also “strongly urged” employers to implement remote working, and for individuals to maintain social distancing and practice health department guidelines for weddings, funerals, and worship services. The order ends in about a month, on January 19th.
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Hundreds of restaurants banded together to push back against Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recent coronavirus mandates, Fox Business reported Monday.
Joe Vicari, president of the Joe Vicari Restaurant Group in a Monday appearance said a total of 400 eateries in the state have joined the push against Whitmer’s lockdowns, Fox reported. Michigan is nearing the end of a three-week pause that shuttered indoor dining and bar service, but the governor has indicated a willingness to re-extend the restrictions that end on Tuesday, according to Bridge Michigan.
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Monday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host John Fredricks welcomed General Thomas McInerney to the show who gave his advice to the president to exercise his executive power by declaring a state of emergency against acts of treasonous cyberwar.
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President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to block investment in Chinese businesses that the administration says benefit China’s military.
The order prohibits such investments beginning Jan. 11, 2021, but allows divestment from investments that include the Chinese securities through Nov. 11, 2021.
“Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to protect American investors from funding Communist Chinese military companies, including those designated by the Department of Defense in June and August of 2020,” National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said in a statement.
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Ahead of the election, Attorney General Mark Herring asked President Donald Trump to rescind his executive order on diversity training.
Herring co-signed a letter complaining about the potential limitations imposed on “implicit bias trainings for federal contractors and federal grantees.” Implicit bias refers to the idea that individuals aren’t aware of their attitudes or stereotypes about others.
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President Trump signed an executive order on Monday that seeks to promote “patriotic education” about the nation’s history.
The order calls for the creation of the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission which will be tasked with producing a report pertaining to the key principles of the country’s “founding and how these principles may be understood to further enjoyment of ‘the blessings of liberty’ and to promote our striving ‘to form a more perfect Union.'”
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The Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) revoked a cultural awareness training on Tuesday for violating President Trump’s Executive Order. DCS is reviewing the program, Cultural Awareness for Foster Parents, currently.
DCS sent the memo to agency provider trainers on the same day the curriculum was pulled.
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Saturday aimed at “saving lives” of those suffering from mental and behavioral health needs, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.
Through the executive order issued Monday morning, Trump called for more crisis-intervention services to those in “immediate life-threatening situations,” and encouraged increased availability of continuing care after crises, nurture mentorship programs, expanded availability of telehealth, and more.
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at protecting Americans with preexisting health conditions, after delivering remarks on his administration’s health care vision in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain to weigh in on President Trump’s recent executive order regarding racial and sexual identities.
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University of Tennesse at Knoxville (UTK) Law Professor Glenn Reynolds on Thursday spoke to members of the Tennessee General Assembly about various topics, including a governor’s use of executive orders and the reasoning behind him having such power.
His appearance was before the Legislature’s Ad Hoc Committee to Study Emergency Powers.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has once again extended the state of emergency until the end of September.
Lee, a Republican, initially imposed the state of emergency on March 12 in order to free up funding and relax rules regarding the treatment and containment of COVID-19. He extended the order on Friday, the day before it was set to expire.
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Monday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host John Fredericks welcomed Virginia State Senator (R) Dr. Siobhan Dunnavant to discuss limiting Governor Northam’s executive powers and re-opening schools.
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President Donald Trump on Saturday signed executive orders to supplement unemployment benefits for workers who lose their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic by $400 a week and suspend payroll taxes for those earning less than $100,000 a year.
He also signed orders freezing evictions in federal housing and deferring student loan payments through the end of 2020.
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Governor Whitmer has ordered that her recent and controversial mask mandate be enforced like any other law.
The new executive directive, ED 2020-8 states the “Department of State Police must enforce violations of COVID-19 executive orders and epidemic orders in the same manner as it would enforce any other violation of law, using enforcement discretion as appropriate.”
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Mayors in multiple counties across Tennessee have extended their mask mandates. Many of these mandates, which were set to expire on August 3, will continue through most of August.
Governor Bill Lee signed Executive Order 54 on July 3, which grants local leaders the authority to order masks and other face coverings when out in public.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed an executive order that permits contact and noncontact sports in the state, extends the authority of local governments to mandate face coverings, and extends liability protections for health care providers.
No sports are now prohibited in Tennessee, as long as participants follow safety guidelines from their governing bodies or Tennessee Pledge COVID-19 safety guidelines.
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State Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) sent a letter to Governor Bill Lee on Friday questioning why Tennessee was not sharing data with the U.S. Census Bureau that would help estimate the number of illegal aliens living in Tennessee.
The issue arises out of President Trump’s memorandum this week to the Secretary of Commerce that excludes illegal aliens from the apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives that follows the decennial census.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the former state Senator and President of FACT, David Fowler to discuss the legal implications of Governor Lee’s mask executive order.
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When Governor Lee’s COVID-19 Executive Order first ordered certain businesses to close, I looked up the law on which he relied and saw it passed while I was still in the state Senate. My heart sank on the assumption I probably voted for it. However, this week’s Executive Order delegating authority to county mayors to require county residents to wear facemasks or face state criminal sanctions sent me to the Tennessee Code to see if I’d really voted for a law that would allow that. I did not, and it is time we tell our state legislators to put an end to law by executive branch fiat.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden floated the idea Thursday of issuing an executive order requiring all Americans to wear masks to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Wearing a mask can make the difference between life and death in some circumstances, Biden told a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee suggested that making masks a requirement could help reduce cases and deaths.
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President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’ll issue an executive order to protect monuments that are coming under new scrutiny as America wrestles with racism during the unrest sparked by the police killing of George Floyd.
Trump has been clear that he opposes the removal of monuments of leaders of the Confederacy or other distasteful aspects of American history.
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Following weeks of national protests since the death of George Floyd, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on policing Tuesday that he said would encourage better police practices and establish a database to keep track of officers with a history of excessive use-of-force complaints.
In Rose Garden remarks, Trump stressed the need for higher standards and commiserated with mourning families, even as he hailed the vast majority of officers as selfless public servants and held his law-and-order line.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lifted Michigan’s stay-at-home order on Wednesday, moving the entire state to phase four of the MI Safe Start Plan.
Under the new phase, retail will be allowed to open on June 4 and restaurants will be allowed to reopen on June 8, both with capacity limits. Day camps, office work, outdoor pools and in-home services such as housecleaning will also reopen.
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After years of warning, President Donald Trump took action Thursday in the form of an Executive Order to remove a key protection companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google enjoy that shields the tech giants from lawsuits by individuals and other entities with claiming bias, censorship, and otherwise unfair treatment.
The Order, titled “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship” comes two days after Twitter added a controversial “fact-check” of two of his tweets about fraud and absentee ballots, NPR reported.
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A bill that would prohibit a governor of Tennessee from using law enforcement to enforce executive orders that violate constitutional rights advanced in the House State Committee Wednesday. While the bill will serve to address elements of fascism that could be used in conjunction with executive orders such as those issued for the sake of containing the spread of COVID-19, the eloquent and passionate presentation of the bill by its sponsor Bud Hulsey (R-Kingsport) also serves as a straightforward explanation of what happened over the past two months as well as a lesson in constitutional principles. Prior to the legislature’s adjournment on March 19 until June, Hulsey’s HB2291 would have amended a portion of the Tennessee Code dealing with the investigations of police officers. Returning to committee meetings the week of May 25 in preparation for session the week of June 1, Hulsey offered a different amendment to deal with the more contemporary issues related to the handling of COVID-19. Before explaining the specifics of the amendment that makes the bill, Hulsey said he would have to preface it with some remarks about his perspective on what we’ve been through the last two and a half months in the…
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The #FreeTN movement is expanding its messaging for a rally scheduled for Sunday from a focus on reopening the economy to protecting constitutional liberties against government overreach. This rally will be held at the Tennessee State Health Department building on 710 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
To start this movement, Nashville resident Kim Edwards organized rallies while the state was on a shut down to “flatten the curve” of the COVID-19 spread.
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo partially reversed a March executive order Sunday that prevented nursing homes from denying admission of patients who tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Patients must now test negative for the virus before hospitals can admit them to assisted living facilities, Cuomo said during an Albany press briefing Sunday.
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A panel of federal judges ruled 2-1 that Tennessee must allow the “Constitutional right” to abortion during the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic. The decision came Friday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, available online here. Ruling in favor of abortion were Judges Karen Nelson Moore (pictured left) and Helene N. White. The dissenting opinion came from Judge Amul R. Thapar (pictured right), appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017. Moore was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and White was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2008. Moore and White ruled that the so-called right to an abortion applies even during the state’s ban on elective medical procedures during the COVID-19 crisis. And, here, although we have great respect for the challenges Tennessee faces as it responds to this novel public health crisis, we agree with the district court that the State’s response, in this one respect, unduly curtailed constitutional liberty, and that judicial intervention was thus warranted. By the same token, however, we also conclude that, when it comes to the precise scope of the district court’s injunction, the district court went too far in asserting its authority. The case was an…
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Ohio’s prolonged lockdown is literally a life-and-death matter for an Akron barber battling a rare form of cancer as she cannot reach world-renowned Johns Hopkins Medicine for treatment.
Peggy Reed is a barber with Stage 4 Squamous Cell cancer of the nasal cavity. Much of her medical story is told on her GoFundMe page here.
Reed missed her appointment at Johns Hopkins on March 26 to see a specialist. Ohio’s stay at home order means no out of state travel is allowed. Maryland also has a stay at home order.
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In the wake of Governor Bill Lee’s extension of his stay-at-home order to the end of the month, long-time and respected grassroots leader Ben Cunningham wrote a hard-hitting letter to the governor asking for an immediate plan to quickly restore economic and personal freedom.
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The extension of the statewide stay-at-home order until the end of April by Governor Bill Lee Monday, a #ReopenTennessee movement has started in the state.
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With all we are facing today, with all the fear and outright transformation of our entire society, it might seem odd that a group of medical organizations would sign a letter opposing American independence in the production of medicines and medical equipment. You would think that in the crisis these groups would want to see America move toward a strong, independent position. But you would be wrong.
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In an email and website campaign Thursday, Tennessee Right To Life called on Governor Bill Lee to halt elective abortions in Tennessee.
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On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy was joined on the line by a caller and Nashville Dentist named Billy.
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A high-ranking Minnesota lawmaker is threatening to withhold state aid from Beltrami County after it became the first county in the state to opt out of refugee resettlement.
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On December 18, 2019, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced Tennessee would accept more refugees under President Trump’s executive order. As anyone paying attention might guess, that decision did not go over well with conservatives in Tennessee.
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