National Security Expert Nadia Schadlow Discusses Her Recent Article on China

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. – host Michael Patrick Leahy was joined on the line by Nadia Schadlow who is an American academic and defense-related government officer who briefly served in 2018 as an assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy in the Trump administration.

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Majority White Executive Committee Ousts Respected Black Christian State Legislator from Tennessee Democrat Party

  The State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party, which is majority white, voted Wednesday to oust respected State Representative John DeBerry, Jr. (formerly D-Memphis, now I-Memphis), who is a strong Christian and black, from the Party. DeBerry has served in the Tennessee General Assembly as the Representative for House District 90 for 26 years, since he was first elected in 1994. Of the 66-member State Executive Committee (SEC), 41 voted for the removal of DeBerry, while 18 voted against and 2 abstained, WREG reported. There are currently five vacancies on the committee. More than two-thirds of the current Tennessee Democratic Party SEC membership is white. While the SEC is designed to have one committeewoman and one committeeman for each of the state’s senatorial districts, the current makeup of the SEC is skewed toward women because four of the five vacancies are committeeman seats. The vote on DeBerry’s status within the TNDP was apparently triggered by a 29-page complaint dated April 1 submitted by a Janeita “Jan” Lentz, an attorney according to her Avvo profile. Ms. Lentz, who appears to be white, also identifies herself as the Co-Chair of Memphis-Midsouth DSA, which is the Democratic Socialists of America. In…

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Zoom Recruits Former Facebook Security Chief as Critics Bash the Tech Firm for Privacy Lapses

An upshot tech company recruited Facebook’s former security chief to help fix glitches in the firm’s video chat app that reports say are leaving customers vulnerable to hackers and spammers.

Former Facebook executive Alex Stamos announced Thursday that he is joining an effort to help Zoom right the ship after reports revealed problems in its security system. Stamos made the decision to help after CEO Eric Yuan contacted him after he tweeted out some advice on the topic.

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Arizona Lawmakers Duke It Out Over Transgender Athlete Bill

The Arizona House Republicans approved a bill to ban transgender women, those born as biological males, from competing in women’s sports.

Rep. Nancy Barto, a Phoenix Republican, is the sponsor of the Save Women’s Sports Act which prevents transgender women from participating in women’s sports because of the inherent biology of  “chromosomal” and “hormonal” differences between males and females.

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Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs Questions Bill Lee’s Stay-at-Home Order

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said in a video response on Twitter that although he appreciated Gov. Lee living up to the courage of his convictions, he “cannot applaud government monitoring the movements of its people” and that with this economic crisis as a result of Tennessee’s statewide shutdown, a mental health crisis will follow.

As The Tennessee Star reported, Gov. Bill Lee signed Executive Order 23, which requires Tennesseans to stay home through April 14th unless they engage in essential activities to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

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‘Stay Home, Stay Safe’ Order Extended Until May 1

Michigan’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order has been extended through the end of April, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Thursday.

In addition to continuing the banning of non-essential businesses and travel, the new order also prohibits gathering of people of more than one household and imposes new restrictions on stores to help customers maintain social distancing.

“Michigan has the third highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country, and we’re still on the upswing. We must continue to do everything we can to slow the spread and protect our families,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Data shows that most Michiganders are doing their part by staying home and staying safe. That’s good, but we must keep it up.”

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People Protest at Ohio’s Capitol the State’s Handling of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Call on Acton to Resign

People gathered in front of the Ohio state capitol to protest the way the state has handled the coronavirus pandemic.

Currently, Ohio is under a “Shelter-at-Home” order until May 1, which it has been under since March 23.

Around 100 people came to Ohio’s capital Columbus Thursday to protest, according to Tom Bosco, an ABC6 journalist. On their way to the building, Bosco said people were chanting “Open Ohio.”

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More Than 380,000 Michigan Residents Filed for Unemployment Last Week

A record 384,844 Michigan residents filed for unemployment benefits between March 29 and April 4, according to data released by the Department of Labor on Thursday.

The number passes up data from the previous two weeks, which saw 128,006 people file between March 15 and March 21 and 304,335 people file between March 22 and March 28. That brings the three-week total to 817,185 for those filing for unemployment benefits in the state.

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Ohio Plain Dealer Lays Off More Staff Due to Ongoing Financial Challenges

Cleveland’s Plain Dealer announced the layoff of 22 more journalists Friday, and said more could be gone in the weeks to come due to the “ongoing financial challenges in the newspaper business.”

Additionally, the paper said it will no longer be covering Cleveland or the state of Ohio generally, but instead it will become a bureau of Cleveland.com covering five counties: Geauga, Lake, Lorain, Medina and Portage.

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Tennessee Dem House Chair Wants ‘Statewide System to Trace the Steps’ of COVID-19 Patients

Tennessee House Democratic Caucus Chair Mike Stewart (D-Nashville) called on Gov. Bill Lee to create a “statewide system to trace the steps of those testing positive for COVID-19.”

“I call on Gov. Lee to use state resources to create a statewide contact tracing system including testing where necessary,” Stewart said in an interview with WKRN.

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6.6 Million More US Workers Claim Jobless Benefits

Another 6.6 million U.S. workers filed for unemployment compensation last week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the American economy, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

The new figure pushed the three-week total to more than 16 million workers looking for financial assistance, with millions more laid-off employees expected to file claims in the coming weeks as businesses large and small shut their operations or severely limit them.

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Coronavirus in Tennesse Shows Sign of Slowing Down, According to New IHME Model

  Tennessee has brighter days coming in the future as the coronavirus model used by the White House has lowered its projections for the state’s COVID-19 peak. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) model has pushed up Tennessee’s projected coronavirus peak for hospital resources by one day from April 18 to April 17. Last week, the IHME model said the Volunteer State would see its peak for hospital resources on April 26. Based on the previous April 26 projection, Tennessee was expected to need 3,494 beds for its hospitals, including 525 beds for the intensive care unit (ICU). However, the updated IHME projection displays Tennessee needing 1,244, which is a decrease of 2,250 beds. In terms of death, the older IHME model had Tennessee experiencing 1,067 fatalities. But one week later, the new model sees Tennessee having 617 deaths. It must be noted, the projection on Monday anticipated Tennessee having 584 deaths. Between April 17 to April 20, the updated projection shows an average of 25 Tennesseans dying. Previously, the IHME projection had April 26 through April 28 as the stretch were the highest daily death rates. IHME predicts Tenneesse’s fatality rate will flatline around…

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Federal Court Cites Emergency Powers, Backs Texas Abortion Ban

by Mary Margaret Olohan   A federal appeals court backed Texas’s right to ban abortions during the coronavirus crisis. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the state’s right to temporarily prohibit abortions until April 21 during the coronavirus pandemic in a Tuesday ruling, Politico reported. The court threw out a previous ruling from a lower court blocking Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order that all non-essential medical procedures temporarily cease — including abortions. “I thank the Fifth Circuit for their attention to the health and safety needs of Texans suffering from this medical crisis,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “Governor Abbott’s order ensures that hospital beds remain available for Coronavirus patients and personal protective equipment reaches the hardworking medical professionals who need it the most during this crisis.” He added: “Texans must continue to work together to stop the spread of COVID-19, and we must support the health professionals on the frontlines of this battle.” But acting Planned Parenthood president Alexis McGill Johnson called the decision “unconscionable” in a Tuesday statement. “Patients are already being forced to put their lives in harm’s way during a pandemic, and now will be forced to continue doing so…

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Sen. Graham: ‘No More Money For WHO’ Until They Have New Leadership

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday vowed to strip funding for the World Health Organization from the next appropriations bill because of its pro-China virus.

During an appearance on Fox News’ “The Story,” Graham agreed with President Trump’s view that W.H.O. under the current leadership has become “very China-centric” and unworthy of the United States’ funding.

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Commentary: How Extreme Is Too Extreme for Dems and Mail-In Voting Schemes?

Lay the groundwork. According to the Wiktionary, the phrase is a verb which means, “To create a foundation; to provide the basics or fundamentals… (Example) The introductory mathematics courses will lay the groundwork for all your subsequent engineering studies.”

We all do it — lay the groundwork, that is. It’s what planning people do, prepare for the future. With all the recent establishment news media fixation on the Chinese Communist Party (or Wuhan, whichever you prefer) virus, there’s been a heck of a lot of chatter about organization and speed and whether the Trump administration acted quickly enough in the beginning to stem the spread of the twenty-first century plague in the United States. Liberal talkers and Democrats have made much hay over purported delays in the federal government’s efforts to deal with the budding outbreak in February and March.

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Moments After Sanders Suspends His Campaign, Biden Appeals Supporters: ‘You’re Needed’ To Beat Trump

Former Vice President Joe Biden appealed to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s supporters Wednesday to get behind his presidential campaign ahead of the November election.

The movement Sanders helped create will become an indispensable tool to help change in the future, Biden wrote in a Medium post, which was published after the senator dropped his White House bid. The olive branch represents a departure from what Biden was saying earlier in the primary.

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ICE Officers Arrest Illegal Alien Gang Member Wanted for Murder

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested a gang member living in the United States unlawfully shortly after an arrest warrant was issued on him for capital murder.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers on Thursday apprehended Jonathan Alexander Gonzalez-Rosales, a 25-year-old Salvadoran national and illegal alien, according to a press release from the agency. A member of the 18th Street Gang — a transnational criminal organization — Gonzalez-Rosales had been on the run from U.S. authorities for nearly two years.

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