The six-week surge in new unemployment claims continued last week as businesses deemed nonessential by state and local governments reduce staffing in response to COVID-19.
More than 3.8 million Americans filed unemployment claims for the week ending April 25, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday. The 3.839 million claims is down 603,000 from the week prior, when 4.42 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits.
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Members of the Metro Nashville School Board this week shot down the idea of having five more charter schools.
Members offered a variety of reasons.
Board members said, among other things, that charter school staff didn’t meet the county school district’s curriculum standards. Board members also said that charter schools relied on too many volunteers and turned in too many generic applications.
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Many academic disciplines have gotten “woke” in recent years, especially in the humanities and social sciences. For the most part, this transformation has occurred in plain view as colleges created departments for (and offered degrees in) “Women’s and Gender Studies,” “Black Studies,” “LGBTQ Studies,” “Latino Studies,” and the rest of the intersectionality parade.
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U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty has weighed in on Hillary Clinton endorsing Joe Biden for president.
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Live from Music Row 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. – host Leahy welcomed guest Metro Councilman-at-Large Steve Glover to the newsmakers line.
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Republican Senate candidate Manny Sethi this week called for a halt of all immigration as the American economy begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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About half of the millions of U.S. workers laid off by the coronavirus pandemic could end up earning more out of work than when they had a job, new analyses of jobless benefits show.
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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 Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with special guest Neil McCabe who is a former Breitbart colleague and Washington journalist.
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Two emergency room doctors in California argue the data about the novel coronavirus does not warrant a stay-at-home order. A new report gives evidence that “lockdowns don’t work.” Still others argue that quarantining the sick, not the healthy, is the best course of action.
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The unalienable rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment have never been exercised more vigorously than they have during the Wuhan virus epidemic when record numbers of firearms have been sold. But at the same time, those rights have rarely been more vigorously attacked by anti-gun Democrats.
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A majority of Americans supports a temporary ban on immigration into the United States as a means to stop the spread of coronavirus, according to a poll released Tuesday.
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On Tuesday’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 and all-star panelist Crom Carmichael discussed the latest on Joe Biden’s alleged sexual assault accusations.
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President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that he may withhold federal bailout funds from states with cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
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U.S. Gross Domestic Product shrank by 4.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, a result of stay-at-home orders that shuttered businesses in response to COVID-19.
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U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Wednesday unsealed eleven pages of FBI emails and handwritten notes that provide further evidence that retired general Michael Flynn was set up for a perjury trap by the senior members of the Bureau.
The new documents are “even more appalling than the Friday production,” said Flynn’s lead attorney Sidney Powell.
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The NCAA took a significant step Wednesday toward allowing college athletes to begin earning money for endorsements and promotions.
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Vice President Mike Pence visited the world-renowned Mayo Clinic Tuesday to discuss its fight against the coronavirus, but the media obsessed over the fact that he wasn’t wearing a mask.
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Alice DeWine, the daughter of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, was defeated Tuesday in the Republican primary for Greene County prosecutor.
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The coronavirus pandemic has taken out another Minnesota business, this time the famous Izzy’s Ice Cream in St. Paul.
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A group of small business owners announced Wednesday that they are suing the state of Minnesota over the “unconstitutional” restrictions imposed on them during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Gov. Mike DeWine said he will no longer require people to have face coverings on who enter businesses set to open under the Responsible RestartOhio plan, according a statement statement released Tuesday.
When the governor announced details about reopening Ohio’s economy on Monday, face coverings were required by the public to enter businesses. However, he changed the rule due to the fact some Ohioans found this rule “offensive.”
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a proposal on Wednesday for a program aimed at providing free college and technical certifications to frontline workers.
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State Rep. Nino Vitale (R-Urbana) told Ohio Future Foundation (OFF) Chairman Jim Renacci that Ohio needs to end its lockdown. “I don’t think the government should be locking us down at all,” he said during OFF’s Facebook live forum Wednesday night. Vitale has been one of the most vocal House Republicans who has criticized Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton for shutting down almost all of Ohio’s economy. He, along with 32 other House Republicans, created a plan the “Open Ohio Responsibly Framework” that recommended business start opening on Friday, which DeWine announced will happen. “Many businesses have already modified their operating protocols to safely function in this current environment. Businesses/organizations recognize if they do not make it safe for their employees and customers, they will not come back,” the plan states. We believe it is time to trust Ohioans. They have respectfully followed the guidelines and NOW is the time to responsibly open all businesses. Two weeks ago, Vitale also called on DeWine and Acton to ease restrictions to allow hospitals and doctors to perform elective surgeries. A major concern Vitale expressed to Renacci was what was going to happen to the healthcare…
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Black Nashvillians make up 13 percent of the confirmed COVID-19 cases in Nashville, but they comprise nearly 40 percent of the deaths in that area, said the chair of the Davidson County Metro Coronavirus Task Force.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn joined Fox Business’s Morning with Maria Tuesday to discuss her new legislation that wants to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responsible for the way it has handled the coronavirus.
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The Democrats are taking their stand on the coronavirus crisis in an untenable position. It is like building a defensive redoubt in a valley surrounded by hills in the hands of the enemy (like the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1955, as President Eisenhower warned them). Whether this is tactical stupidity by the president’s enemies or strategic genius by the president or—more likely—a bit of both, is not clear except to insiders.
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Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) sent a letter to Chairman Adam Smith and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry of the House Armed Services Committee asking them to fund Fort Campbell’s hospital after the base saw soldiers go to New York, New Jersey and Boston to help fight the coronavirus.
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Restaurants throughout 89 Tennessee counties reopened their doors to dine-in customers Monday with some regulations to increase sanitation and promote social distancing in accordance with Gov. Bill Lee’s Tennessee Pledge.
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Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple colleges are still committed to hiring administrators for diversity initiatives on campus. This comes as thousands of universities around the country collect billions of dollars in bailout money from American taxpayers.
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On Tuesday’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. – Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed his weekly regular guest and all-star panelist Tennessee state Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) to the newsmakers line.
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Nothing, not even a pandemic, will dissuade the people who brought us globalization to modify, halt, or roll back the decisions they have made for us. As I was scrolling through Twitter, I came across these gems. First, there was this tweet from the George W. Bush Presidential Center. It links to an article which tells us that calling for Americans to start to “Make it here at home” has a nice ring to it, but we must have no illusions: “Restricting trade and using taxes, tariffs and subsidies to manipulate the market can only be done by dramatically reducing freedom. That path leads to poverty.”
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Former national security adviser Michael Flynn could be “completely exonerated” as early as this week, sources are telling FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “It was a fraud. A Set up,” she tweeted Sunday afternoon.
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An Indian national apprehended by a Border Patrol agent on Thursday was soon discovered to be the first individual in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody to carry the novel coronavirus.
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The Los Angeles Lakers received and then returned a forgivable loan of roughly $4.6 million under a federal program designed to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
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The southeastern end of Davidson County has the largest cluster of Nashville’s COVID-19 cases, but the rest of the county remains closed for business because of the virus.
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday said his administration has been in touch with airline companies about testing international travelers arriving in the United States.
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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is asking the Justice Department to turn over records related to a key source for Christopher Steele who undercut allegations made in the salacious Trump dossier.
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Sen. Josh Hawley wants a criminal antitrust investigation into Amazon after a recent report suggested the company’s employees are taking competitors’ data to develop similar products.
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A new poll released Sunday has President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden statistically tied in Ohio, a critical state for the Trump campaign’s path to victory.
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Vice President Mike Pence praised the innovation and leadership of Mayo Clinic during a Tuesday visit to the distinguished institution’s headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota.
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State Rep. Ben Frederick, R-Owosso, today asked Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to allow Michigan hospitals and other medical providers to perform elective surgeries.
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Gov. Mike DeWine released details on what Ohio’s economy will look like when it opens up on Friday.
“We put this plan together based on all the information we have about how dangerous COVID-19 still is right now, balanced with the fact that it’s also dangerous to have people not working,” DeWine said. “COVID-19 is still out there. It’s still killing people. We’re asking Ohioans to be reasonable and rational. Please don’t take huge chances, and please use common sense when you go out and where you go out.”
The goal of DeWine’s Responsible RestartOhio plan is to “protect the health of employees, customers, and their families, supporting community efforts to control the spread of COVID-19,” according to the governor’s press release.
Set to open on May 1 is the healthcare industry. Ohio will allow doctor visits, well-care checks, out-patient surgeries, imaging procedures, diagnostic tests, and dental and veterinary services.
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Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) expressed sharp criticism on Monday for Governor Mike DeWine’s plans to reopen the economy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic over what he called an “unwillingness to recognize” the needs of small business.
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Despite Minnesota’s wide reaching economic shutdowns and its long lasting shelter in place order, it has reported more deaths per million citizens resulting from coronavirus than Iowa and South Dakota which have not responded so harshly.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said on Monday she would send a letter to the Michigan legislature asking it to extend the state of emergency by 28 days, adding that “it really should be longer.”
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper wants to raise property taxes by as much as 32 percent, and he said the recent tornadoes and the COVID-19 pandemic give him no other choice.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Hundreds of people from all parts of the state gathered again at the state capitol Monday in support of the #FreeTN movement, following a rally of the same name last Sunday. In addition to those standing on either side of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard with a wide variety of messaging on their hand-held signs, numerous others slowly drove in between sporting signs and flags while honking their horns. The #FreeTN movement continues, even as the state is set to start a phased reopening under the guidelines of the Tennessee Pledge launched last week by Governor Bill Lee and Tennessee’s Economic Recovery Group. #FreeTN organizer, Kimberley Edwards scheduled the rally as a follow-up to those held in seven cities across the state last Sunday, The Tennessee Star reported. The bipartisan effort is focused on the immediate lifting of the state and local government’s safer-at-home executive orders, allowing the opening of all businesses without social distancing mandates. After saying that the event should exhibit gentleness, togetherness and kindness, Edwards’ wedding DJ and musician husband led the group in a prayer. The prayer was followed by an acapella rendition of the national anthem by Bridget Cheek, who…
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WASHINGTON – Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday in his bid against President Donald Trump in the November national election.
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Tyson Foods has four locations in Tennessee, and if the one in Union City ever closed then it would dent Obion County’s tax revenue in a big way, said County Mayor Benny McGuire.
Tyson officials took out dire newspaper ads this past weekend. Those ads warned that America’s food supply chain might nearly collapse because of the way the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted some of their facilities.
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by George Rasley In his 1904 masterwork, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. German social researcher Max Weber argued that Western capitalism and the Protestant Reformation were inextricably linked. Weber made the case that the Protestant theology of John Calvin and the idea of work and economic activity as a God-given “calling,” inspired Protestant societies to develop a strong work ethic, leading to the development of Western capitalism. Today, only about 49 percent of Americans identify as Protestants, but the Pilgrims and Puritans continue to exercise a powerful influence on the American psyche whether one is Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or adheres to no religion at all. And, Weber’s monumental work, and the century of research and thought it spawned, tells us much about the psychological and philosophical underpinnings of the protests against the government-imposed lockdowns of the economy that have sprung-up in the past week. In 2013 André van Hoorn and Robbert Maseland of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands published research demonstrating that the psychic harm from unemployment is about 40% worse for Protestants than for the general population. Moreover, people living in Protestant societies are hurt more by being unemployed than people living in other societies,…
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