Month: March 2020

Number of Confirmed Coronavirus Cases in Tennessee Surpasses 200

Chris Butler

Tennessee had 228 confirmed cases of the coronavirus as of Friday evening, according to the Tennessee Department of Health’s website, although Friday’s news brought cause for some optimism, at least in Davidson County.

Davidson County continued to have the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, 101, according to the TDH website. This, even though Alex Jahangir, who chairs that county’s Metro Coronavirus Task Force, said the number was higher at a press conference Friday morning.

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New American Populist Founder Jeff Webb Proposes the ‘Temporary Income Replacement Act’ as a Bold Solution to Help Bolster American Families and the Economy

Julie Carr

Live from Nashville, Tennessee Friday morning on The 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. Jeff Webb, founder, and chairman of The New American Populist (TNAP) joined Leahy on the newsmakers line.

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Ohio Department of Health Defies CDC, Refuses to Require Labs to Report Both Positive and Negative Results from Coronavirus Tests

Zachery Schmidt

  Ohio is one of only two states in the union that are refusing to cooperate with requests from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to provide accurate data on the total number of positive and negative tests of coronavirus tests conducted in the state. (Maryland is the other state, as reported in the COVID Tracking Project.) “Having data on negatives, as well as positives, helps us understand the burden of disease. Having that data also gives us insight on the amount of testing being done overall,” a spokesman for the CDC told The Ohio Star on Friday. Earlier this week the CDC, through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, told states they need to send it aggregated data of coronavirus testing. Section 1702 of that law makes it absolutely clear that states are required to provide “aggregated data on testing and results from State and local public health departments.” Aggregated data means complete and comprehensive test results, including both positive and negative results: States and local governments receiving funds or assistance pursuant to this division shall ensure the respective State Emergency Operations Center receives regular and real-time reporting on  aggregated data on testing and results from State and local…

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ACLU, Other Activist Groups Demand Voter Registration Deadline in Ohio Be Moved with New Primary Election Date

Jordyn Pair
early voting

A collective of activist groups submitted a letter to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose demanding that the changes to the primary election also follow the National Voter Registration Act and the Ohio Constitution.

The letter from League of Women Voters of Ohio, A. Philip Randolph Institute Ohio, ACLU of Ohio, Lawyers Committee on Civil Rights, and Demos reminded La Rose that the deadline for voter registration must be no more than 30 days before a federal election.

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DeWine to Business Owners: ‘The Reckless Behavior Must Stop’

Zachery Schmidt

Gov. Mike DeWine, during Friday’s press conference on the coronavirus, told business owners that if they don’t follow social distance rules and keep their employees safe there could be consequences.

“Let me make it very clear: I will err on the side of protecting people,” DeWine said at the press conference. “The bad behavior, the reckless behavior, must stop. The protection of life is the most important obligation that I have.”

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22 Percent of New York State Residents Tested for Coronavirus are Positive, Ohio Refuses to Release Negative Test Data So No One Knows Rate in State

Jason M. Reynolds

How many people have tested negative for the coronavirus in Ohio? That’s on a need to know basis, and Gov. Mike DeWine has decided you don’t need to know.

Meanwhile, in New York State, 22 percent of people who took the test were positive, according to The COVID Tracking Project, so residents there at least know what they’re facing.

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Gov. Lee Says Churches Are ‘Risking People’s Lives’ By Continuing to Hold Services

Anthony Gockowski

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said during a Friday press conference that churches that continue to hold services are putting people’s lives at risk.

“Churches that continue to meet and gather with elderly and putting groups of people in the same setting, quite frankly, they’re risking people’s lives,” Lee said during an update on the COVID-19 outbreak in Tennessee. “There are ways to worship and there are ways to serve without congregating people, and I’m urging and challenging churches to do just that.”

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Governor of California Orders All 40 Million Residents of State to Stay at Home

Tennessee Star Staff

  California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order late Thursday night direct all of the state’s 40 million residents to stay at home in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. You can read the executive order here: The governor acted based on new information from Johns Hopkins University that as many as 50 percent of the state’s residents will within the next eight weeks have the Coronavirus. Politico provided these details: Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered California’s nearly 40 million residents to stay home, making it the first state to impose that strict mandate on all residents to counteract a looming surge of new infections. The order takes effect immediately and remains in place “until further notice.” Californians are not allowed to leave home except for essential purposes. They are allowed to purchase groceries, prescriptions and health care, as well as commute to jobs deemed essential. The governor’s order comes with misdemeanor penalties for anyone who violates the restrictions, though he said he believes social pressure will keep people home rather than law enforcement. Breitbart News added these details: We need to bend the curve in the state of California,” Newsom said in an announcement. “There’s a social contract…

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Commentary: China’s Post-Virus Plan to Destroy America’s Economy

Admin

The virus that originated in Wuhan, China poses a double threat to America.

The first is to our health as the virus spreads through the U.S. population. The second is to our economy as more businesses, schools, and events shut down to slow the spread of the contagion.

We must not underestimate the economic threat because the Chinese Communist Party is using the pandemic to achieve its goal of supplanting the United States as the world’s leading economic, diplomatic, and military power.

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Commentary: Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Consumer Protection’ Scam

Admin

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) may no longer be running for president, but her agency lives on.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) doesn’t want to be controlled by the Trump Administration. The Supreme Court might end the agency’s streak of independence later this year. Ostensibly, the CFPB aims to protect ordinary Americans from untoward business practices. Instead, it only advances left-wing causes and identity politics.

Warren proposed the CFPB in 2007 when she was a Harvard law professor. President Barack Obama established it in 2010. It is supposed to protect Americans from malpractice in the financial industry, yet the CFPB’s main task during the Obama Administration was fighting “disparate impact.” Disparate impact is a legal concept that considers racially disproportionate outcomes as evidence of discriminatory policies, even if the policies had no discriminatory intent and were administered objectively.

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State Department Suspends Visa Services Across the World

Admin

The State Department is suspending visa services in most countries across the world, the Trump administration’s latest response to mitigating the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement released late Wednesday, the State Department announced it’s cancelling all routine immigrant and nonimmigrant appoints at embassies and consulates in numerous countries. The suspensions became effective immediately, and no specific date was provided on when services would begin again.

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Tennessee Applies for Economic Injury Disaster Loan Assistance

Jordyn Pair

Tennessee has submitted a request for Economic Injury Disaster Loan assistance to the U.S. Small Business Administration, Gov. Bill Lee announced Wednesday.

The assistance allows small businesses and nonprofit organizations negatively impacted by the coronavirus to apply for loans of up to $2 million.

“For most of my life, I’ve been a small business owner and understand the unique challenges each of you face,” Lee said in a statement. “While I am pleased with our progress on targeted relief for small businesses, we know this is just a first step from our federal partners to provide liquidity to our businesses. We are in constant dialogue with our delegation members to ensure that federal aid is responsive to our concerns and needs.”

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Is the Ohio Department of Health Refusing to Release Coronavirus Test Data to Conceal Lower Than National Average Percentage of Positive Tests?

Zachery Schmidt

  During the coronavirus pandemic, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Director Amy Acton have taken a number of actions, some controversial, designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Just in the last ten days, DeWine has closed bars and schools, postponed primaries and banned mass gatherings. Even more controversially, on Monday Acton defied the order of an Ohio court and ordered the cancellation of the Ohio primary election, a usurpation of the Ohio General Assembly’s constitutional authority to set election dates. Gov. DeWine clearly orchestrated this controversial decision. Despite these dramatic and controversial actions by DeWine and Acton, Ohio has lagged behind every other state in the country in reporting the number of negative coronavirus tests in the state. It stopped releasing that data on Monday. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) said Thursday that every state must report aggregated data of coronavirus testing to it. Currently, ODH only shows the number of confirmed cases, number of counties in Ohio with a case and the number of hospitalizations. This causes concern because last week, Acton and DeWine said they were operating as if 100,000 Ohioans had the virus. “Just the fact of community spread says at…

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LaRose Draws Heat for Moving Primary Election Date, a Move Called ‘Anarchy’ and ‘Executive Fiat’

Jason M. Reynolds

Skeptics are calling Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s June 2 primary election date theoretical, saying the Legislature, not he, has the power to move the date.

Adjectives that are being thrown around include “anarchy” and “executive fiat.”

LaRose is already dictating the rules 88 county boards of elections should follow, the Ohio Capital Journal said. These LaRose rules include the dictate that county boards of election should not accept any new voter registrations ahead of the not-yet-official June 2 election.

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Whitmer Suspends Parts of Open Meeting Act, Faces Pushback

Admin

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order temporarily suspending parts of the Open Meetings Act (OMA), so public groups can meet electronically through April 15.

“We are taking every measure we can to mitigate the spread of coronavirus and protect Michigan families, but recognize that public bodies still have an obligation to conduct business as usual,” Whitmer said in a news release.

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Gov. DeWine Deploys Ohio National Guard to Help Food Banks

Zachery Schmidt

Gov. Mike DeWine called in the Ohio National Guard Wednesday to help food banks distribute food during the state’s coronavirus relief efforts.

Three hundred personnel members will deploy to 12 food bank warehouses, which helps provide food to all 88 counties in the state. The National Guard members will help pack and sort food into boxes, distribute food through “no touch” methods, and assist with logistical needs to help protect the public, according to the Ohio Association of Food Banks (OAFB)’s press release.

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Bill Hagerty Says We Must Hold China Accountable for Coronavirus

Chris Butler

Republican senatorial candidate Bill Hagerty said this week that China should be held accountable for the Wuhan Coronavirus.

“The Wuhan coronavirus is officially a pandemic, and yet China continues to work overtime to conceal the origins and deflect any and all blame for this deadly illness — at the expense of the world’s health and our economy. While China withheld valuable, lifesaving information, President Trump endured partisan criticism as he took decisive action that helped slow the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus to the United States,” Hagerty said in a new column on Breitbart.com.

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President Trump Says FDA Has Approved Testing of Anti-Malaria Drug Chloroquine for Treating Coronavirus

Anthony Gockowski

President Donald Trump announced during a Thursday press briefing that the anti-malarial drug chloroquine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for the coronavirus.

The announcement comes the day after Breitbart News reported that the medical establishment has known about chloroquine’s effectiveness in treating the virus since at least the 2005 SARS coronavirus outbreak.

“Clinical trials are already underway for many new therapies and we’re working on scaling these to allow many more Americans to access different drugs that have shown really good promise,” President Trump said.

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Commentary: After the Coronavirus Outbreak, We Don’t Need Universal Income, We Need a Rehiring Tax Credit to Get Back to Work

Admin

Congress is passing plans to provide for long-term paid sick leave and family medical leave to tens of millions of Americans, actively encouraging people to stay home, and essentially telling employers to lay off employees while brick and mortar businesses, schools and government offices are all closed, all in a bid to slow down the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

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Crom Carmichael Expresses His Concern for Small Business Owners and How the Federally Proposed Stimulus Will Still Keep Things Tight for Families

Julie Carr

Live from Nashville, Tennessee Wednesday morning on The 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.– Leahy and Carmichael discussed the economy and its effects caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

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COVID-19: Rep. Mark Green Sends Letter to Department of Education Asking for Recognition of Schools’ Ability to Administer Statewide Assessments

Julie Carr

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 am to 8:00 am – Michael Patrick Leahy spoke to U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-7) regarding his recent letter to the United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

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