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, joined Leahy to discuss the need for masks on a national scale.
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U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) said he felt disgusted consenting to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) when she demanded certain pork barrel projects on the coronavirus relief bill.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast live from Music Row on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined on the newsmakers line by the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael.
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President Donald Trump warned 3M on Twitter Thursday night that it will “have a big price to pay” after the company was accused of various wrongdoings surrounding its production of N95 respirator masks.
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Michigan residents failing to comply with the state’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order could be fined up to $1,000 and see criminal penalties, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) announced on Thursday.
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The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) continues to lack transparency on who is helping the health department with its controversial coronavirus projection.
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Michigan saw its largest daily increase of confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday with nearly 2,000 new cases confirmed, according to analysis from MLive.
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Thales Academy, a college preparatory network of Pre-K-12 independent schools, announced Friday that it is offering a significant tuition reduction for its new campus in Franklin, Tennessee.
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Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday he will extended – both in duration and scope – Ohio’s “Stay-at-Home” Order until May 1. The original order was set to expire on Monday, April 6.. Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton signed the updated order on Thursday. The new stay-at-home measure will take effect midnight on Monday. “We understand that this is tough – it is very difficult. But, I would not be making these decisions if it wasn’t a matter of life and death,” said Governor DeWine. “We have to keep this monster down. It’s not dead – it’s very much alive.” Ohio is one of 38 states that are currently on a stay-at-home order, according to The Hill. DeWine has been one of the most aggressive governors in combating the Chinese virus. In March, the governor closed down schools, banned mass gatherings, shut down restaurants and delayed Ohio’s presidential primary. With the stay-at-home order extension, unemployment numbers will likely increase during April. In the last two weeks, 468,414 Ohioans have filed for unemployment benefits, which is more than all of the 364,603 jobless claims that happened in 2019. To help Ohioans through the coronavirus pandemic, DeWine created an economic…
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This week Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said China should waive some of the United States’ $1.08 trillion debt for inflicting COVID-19 upon this country and other parts of the world.
Blackburn said this while appearing on The Jeff Poor Show out of Huntsville, Alabama.
“One of the things is my Senate resolution 553 which expresses the sense of the Senate that we know this came from Wuhan, China, and that they hid the information and were not transparent, that they blocked the World Health Organization and the CDC from coming in to help. They tried to blame it on the U.S. military. We hold them accountable, and I will tell you I think that we need to look at the fact that China owns over $1 trillion of our debt,” Blackburn said.
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This writer and others who for decades railed against outsourcing industries to the People’s Republic of China were long dismissed as crackpots and Luddites. Now many of those who were doing the dismissing have been forced to admit the true cost of cheap goods is very high.
The Chinese Communist Party virus has exposed many of our nation’s infirmities.
The most glaring is our dependence on Communist China for medicine, medical equipment, and so many other essential goods.
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A group of House Democrats is asking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) not to penalize green card applicants for seeking medical care for coronavirus, but the government already made clear it wouldn’t.
Thirty-eight House Democrats signed a letter delivered to acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf on Tuesday, asking him to remove any assistance for COVID-19 care as part of the recently-enacted public charge rule. The rule takes into account a migrant’s past use of government-funded assistance when they apply for permanent status.
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University of Tennessee System President Randy Boyd has announced that school officials will deliver all summer session classes at all campuses online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Live from Music Row Thursday 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 was joined by new all-star panelist and Thales Academy of Franklin’s principal Rachael Bradley.
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she will form a bipartisan select committee on the coronavirus crisis to oversee the spending of $2.3 trillion that Congress has approved to respond to the pandemic.
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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Democratic Party postponed its national presidential nominating convention from July to August on Thursday because of the uncertainty created by the ravaging coronavirus pandemic.
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Mike Rowe took a swipe at the rising cost of college tuition during an interview Tuesday with Fox News, asking, “what are we paying for?”
Calling what students are paying to attend college courses “somewhere between egregious and obscene,” the host of “Dirty Jobs” said that he predicts “one of the silver linings” from the coronavirus pandemic will be Americans’ commitments “truly to learning” and that the crisis could “completely redefine” how people learn moving forward.
Rowe told viewers that just the week before, he watched an online lecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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What does education look like in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic?
At the K-12 level, you’ve got problems. At the collegiate level, you’ve got existential problems.
School is out for the year in most locales. More innovative districts are retooling like crazy and trying to do online classes. Parents are looking for cheap or free resources to do the job and keep their kids occupied during our enforced isolation.
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Live from Music Row Thursday 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 was joined on the newsmakers line by all-star panelist Dr. Carol Swain.
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Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai announced Wednesday a plan to dramatically increase the United States’ wireless internet speeds to help pave the road to the kind of technology Americans can rely on to better cope with another coronavirus outbreak.
Pai proposed a plan to make 1,200 MHz of spectrum available for unlicensed use across the country as Americans become reliant on remote connectivity to slow the spread of COVID-19, which originated in China before traveling to the United States. Such a move could allow the so-called Internet of Things to pick up speed, connecting all devices to wireless internet.
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Metro Nashville departments have submitted requests for the upcoming fiscal year 2021 budget totaling 861 new full-time equivalent (FTE) positions and increases funding by staggering $144 million.
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A group of Nashville nurses went to the roof of the hospital during their break to pray for hospital staff and patients suffering from coronavirus.
Nurses Angela Gleaves, Sarah Franklin Kremer, Beth Hofflin Tiesler and McKenzie Gibson went to the roof of Vanderbilt University Medical Center to pray over the patients and staff in their hospital. Photographs show the nurses praying with hands folded on the rooftop of the building before posing for selfies with one another.
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Unemployment claims in Tennessee and nationwide continue to skyrocket because of the Chinese COVID-19 shutdown of businesses.
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Former Ambassador to Japan and TN Senate Candidate Bill Hagerty joined 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. – Thursday morning on the newsmakers line.
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A Georgia man who told an undercover FBI agent that he planned to wage “jihad” by attacking the White House with explosives pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a charge of attempting to destroy a building owned by the United States.
Hasher Jallal Taheb, 23, had also planned to target the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and a synagogue prior to his arrest in January 2019, according to the Department of Justice.
“Taheb planned to conduct a terrorist attack on the White House as part of what he claimed was his obligation to engage in jihad,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said Wednesday. “And that was just one of the iconic American landmarks he wanted to target.”
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The number of Tennesseans who filed unemployment claims has doubled in just one week, according to numbers the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) revealed Thursday.
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Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said his office is exploring a number of “pandemic election options,” including conducting the entire presidential election by mail-in ballots.
“The current public health crisis has been a serious test for all Minnesotans. It has also been a test for our democracy. I’ve heard from many Minnesotans who wonder how, or even if, we will vote in this high-stakes election year,” Simon said in a statement released last week.
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Unemployment numbers in Ohio continue to surge as the coronavirus pandemic causes another 272,117 people to claim unemployment benefits, according to Fox19. Last week, 196,297 people filed for unemployment benefits. This means that in the last two weeks 468,414 Ohioans have filed for government assistance, which is more than all of the 364,603 jobless claims that happened in 2019. Last week, 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the week of March 25. This beat the previous record of 3.3 million people that was set the prior week, according to the Bureau of Labor statistics. Previously, the two highest weeks for unemployment claims came in 1982 with 695,000 and in March 2009 at 665,000, CNBC reports. Of these almost 10 million jobless claims, Ohioans make up almost five percent. To put this into perspective, Ohio had a total of 13,951 unemployment claims from March 1 to March 14. Yet these last two weeks, the Buckeye State saw the third biggest jump in total number of these claims, according to PBS. This was a 3,347 percent increase. The number of Ohioans who will be laid off because of COVID-19 is likely to increase as Gov. Mike DeWine said this…
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State Senator Karin Housley (R-St. Mary’s Point) said the Minnesota Department of Health’s decision to withhold information about the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on nursing homes “only brings unnecessary grief and frustration to many Minnesota families.”
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Ohio State Representative Richard D. Brown (D-Canal Winchester) called on the State Senate Thursday to pass House Bill 10 (HB 10). The legislation was passed unanimously in June, 2019 with the help of the bill’s co-sponsor Rep. Reggie Stoltzfus (R-Paris Twp.).
“The all-encompassing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic exemplifies exactly why we need a dedicated office to focus on drug addiction in our state. We cannot afford to take our eye off the ball even in the face of another crisis,” said Rep. Brown in a statement.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared of a state of disaster for Michigan as well as extended the state of emergency, she announced on Wednesday.
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Michigan schools will be closed for the rest of the school year or until coronavirus restrictions are lifted, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Thursday. Distance learning will take place instead, she said.
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MyPillow, Inc. CEO Mike Lindell has apparently triggered U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09).
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Gov. Bill Lee announced Thursday that he will sign an executive order requiring Tennesseans to stay home unless they are engaging in essential activities.
Lee issued an executive order Monday that urged, but didn’t require, residents to stay at home to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. Under his new order, staying at home isn’t “an option – it’s a requirement for the swift defeat of COVID-19,” said Lee.
The governor said data from the Tennessee Department of Transportation indicated that travel started trending upwards again on March 30 after traffic patterns showed a steep drop-off in vehicle movement between March 13 and 29.
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Due in large part to government edicts, religious, social, and political gatherings, have been cancelled or drastically altered to meet government requirements. Schools and colleges have closed so there will be no proms or graduations to attend this spring. Restaurant dining rooms are closed, as are community centers, fitness centers, salons, barbershops, theaters, retail stores, and malls. Theme parks, beaches, and even some public parks are closed. Air travel and the use of public transportation has declined precipitously. Traffic on the roads is eerily light, and parking lots are nearly empty.
Of the businesses that have remained open, many have reduced their operating hours. While one can reasonably expect that stay-at-home orders will reduce Chinese coronavirus cases, it remains to be seen what the human and economic toll of these orders will be; but we do know that they are devastating to small businesses and their employees.
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The Chinese virus is a clarifying agent. Among other things, one can see the choice between republican and progressive government—the rule of the people on the one hand and the rule of experts on the other. President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden perfectly embody this choice in response to the crisis.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the way the two men approach the expert advice of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and member of Trump’s COVID-19 Task Force.
Trump is adamant that he will listen to and consider what Fauci has to say, but in the end he, as the elected president, will determine the right course of action. For Trump, politics is the overarching art: immunology and epidemiology are subordinate sciences. Biden promises the opposite, saying “If I’m elected president, I will always lead the way with science. I will listen to the experts and heed their advice. I will do the opposite of what we’re seeing Donald Trump do every day.”
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As of March 31, 30 of the 50 states have issued stay-at-home orders to residents. Although the names of the orders – shelter-in-place, stay-at-home, stay home, stay safe – vary from state to state, they include at least two common elements: the closure of nonessential businesses and requesting all residents to stay home except for essential trips.
California was the first state to issue a stay-at-home order. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) did so on March 19. In total, 19 Democratic governors and 11 Republican governors have issued stay-at-home orders. Across all 50 states, there are 24 Democratic and 26 Republican governors.
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Broadcasting 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. – Leahy was joined on the phone by all-star panelist Crom Carmichael.
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Back in 2014, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 207, which banned grocery stores from offering customers “single-use” carryout bags. Permanent implementation was delayed by a November 2016 voter referendum, Proposition 67, which unsuccessfully attempted to repeal the measure. Today it is well-established law.
The only way SB 207 was sold to the grocery industry was through an incentive that permitted them to keep the 10 cents per “reusable” bag that they would be required to charge customers.
California’s pioneering ban is touted by environmentalists as an example for the nation, and progressive cities and states have enacted similar laws. But in reality, it is a misguided policy that does more harm than good.
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All-star panelist and public strategist Clint Brewer joined 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. – Wednesday morning on the newsmakers line.
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Tennessee small businesses are eligible for up to $10 million each in forgivable loans as part of the $2 trillion federal COVID-19 relief package, but some business owners are struggling to understand how to comply with the rules.
Like in many states, restrictions enacted by Gov. Bill Lee have caused many businesses to scale back services or temporarily shut down. Restaurants cannot provide dine-in services and nonessential businesses have been forced to close.
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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic candidate in November’s national presidential election, says the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the country is likely to force significant alterations or postponement of the party’s national nominating convention scheduled for July.
The Democratic and Republican national conventions are a quadrennial showpiece of American democracy, but Biden told MSNBC late Tuesday that it is “hard to envision” the Democratic convention set for mid-July in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, occurring as scheduled.
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A world-renowned epidemiologist credited with predicting the coronavirus pandemic blasted the World Health Organization in an interview for creating a false sense of security that the virus could be easily contained.
“Many of us were incredibly disappointed for lack of a better word in the WHO and its response,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in a podcast interview published Tuesday.
“When you look at what WHO did I think they set us back a great deal because they made countries believe if just a few countries that were going to get this would just do the containment work, we could stop it.”
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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. – Leahy was joined on the line by the Census Bureau’s Regional Director Michelle Archer.
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by Chris White Two left-leaning large super pac groups that kickstarted a digital ad campaign targeting President Donald Trump’s coronavirus response have ties to a wealthy, shadowy dark money network. American Bridge 21st Century and Pacronym are reportedly cutting ads thrashing Trump’s handling of the virus and becoming two of the first super pacs to go after the president on the health crisis. Both groups also have ties to two large nonprofit groups — New Venture Fund and Sixteen Thirty Fund — connected to a massive left-leaning consulting group. NVF gave one of Pacronym’s nonprofit — ACRONYM — $250,000 while providing American Bridge $40,000 in 2018, according to NVF’s 2018 IRS documents. IRS records also indicate American Bridge pulled in $200,000 in 2018 from nonprofit Sixteen Thirty Fund, which reportedly spent $141 million on various left-leaning causes during the midterm election year. Sixteen Thirty Fund and nonprofit NVF are tied into the same sprawling network, according to an analysis by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Arabella Advisors, a philanthropic consulting company based in Washington, D.C., manages four nonprofits, including the NVF, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Hopewell Fund and the Windward Fund. Sixteen Thirty Fund has not responded to the DCNF’s request for comment, while NVF…
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The federal government has granted more flexibility to TennCare – Tennessee’s state Medicaid program – to help the state handle the COVID-19 outbreak.
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U.S. Rep. Mark Green, (R-TN-07) has scheduled a second coronavirus tele-town hall for later this week.
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The Trump administration, citing continuing complications brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, is extending a delay of Migrant Protection Protocol hearings for asylum seekers in Mexico.
Foreign nationals under Migrant Protection Protocols, a program that holds asylum seekers in Mexico for the duration of their court proceedings, will have to wait longer before they can make their case before an immigration judge. All hearings scheduled through May 1 will be postponed, according to a statement by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) on Wednesday.
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Given the spread of misinformation about Covid-19, Just Facts is providing a trove of rigorously documented facts about this disease and its impacts. These include some vital facts that have been absent or misreported in much of the media’s coverage of this issue. This research also includes a groundbreaking study to determine the lethality of Covid-19 based on the most comprehensive available measure: the total years of life that it will rob from people.
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A new Fox News poll predicts that voters would support a Joe Biden/Amy Klobuchar ticket over reelecting President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The poll was conducted between March 21 and 24 and shows Biden beating President Trump by nine percentage points in November. Since Biden promised to pick a female running mate, the poll examined his odds with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as vice president.
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