Left-Wing Activist, Already Banned from Tennessee Capitol, Said Lawmakers Invited Him Inside

 

Left-wing activist Justin Jones walked into the Tennessee State Capitol Tuesday, more than a year after state officials banned him from the facility for allegedly assaulting then-Speaker of the House Glen Casada.

Various Republican and Democratic officials, as well as those from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, provided no information about how Jones entered the building.

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Commentary: The Silent Majority Will Support Trump Like It Did Nixon in 1972

“THE SILENT MAJORITY IS STRONGER THAN EVER!!!”

That was President Donald Trump’s analysis on Twitter of the current political climate in the U.S., likening it to the late 1960s and early 1970s — with radical antiwar and race riots — that helped propel Richard Nixon into the White House in 1968 and later helped engineer his 49-state sweep in his 1972 reelection bid.

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Leahy and Roberts Discuss Nashville Mayor Cooper’s Continued Hold on Nashville Small Businesses

Live from Music Row Tuesday 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 in studio by state Senator Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield).

During the second hour, Leahy and Roberts questioned the motives of Mayor John Cooper who continues to hold Nashville small businesses hostage.

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Stocks Rally Worldwide on Hopes for Coming Economic Recovery

Stocks rose again Tuesday, part of a strong and worldwide rally for markets, after a big rebound in buying at U.S. stores and online raised hopes that the economy can escape its recession relatively quickly.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.9% for its third straight gain, bringing it back within 8% of its record set in February. Gains have built in recent weeks as reports bolster investor expectations that the worst of the downturn may have already passed.

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Nearly Half a Million Dollars of COVID-19 Relief Money to Fund the Arts in Tennessee

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded The Tennessee Arts Commission with $474,000 in COVID-19 relief money to, according to a press release, to “save jobs in the nonprofit arts sector.”

The COVID-19 relief money comes courtesy of the federal CARES Act. The Arts Commission will also receive another $60,000 in federal CARES Act funds from South Arts, the regional arts agency for Southern states, the press release said.

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Used for Decades to Treat Cushing’s Syndrome, Dexamethasone Shows Promise Preventing Deadly COVID-19 Symptoms

Researchers in England say they have the first evidence that a drug can improve COVID-19 survival: A cheap, widely available steroid reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients.

The results were announced Tuesday and the British government immediately authorized the drug’s use across the United Kingdom for coronavirus patients like those who did well in the study. Researchers said they would publish results soon in a medical journal, and several independent experts said it’s important to see details to know how much of a difference the drug, dexamethasone, might make and for whom.

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State Senator Kerry Roberts: ‘We’re Not Going to Fix This World Until People Come to Know Jesus Christ’

Live from Music Row Tuesday 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 in studio by Tennessee state Senator Kerry Roberts.

During the third hour, Leahy and Roberts talked about how Mayor Cooper made it difficult for the Republican National Convention to come to Nashville even though it would have helped many suffering businesses. Roberts added that in order to fix this world people need to know Jesus.

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Black and Hispanic Pastors Form Conservative Clergy of Color Group, Highlight Racism of Democratic Party

A new group called Conservative Clergy of Color believes the only “systemic racism” that exists in America today is found in the Democratic Party itself.

“Democrats and their foot soldiers on the left insist there is a rot in our country, but the only rot I see is the rot that has festered in the very foundations of the Democratic Party, a party that was built from the ground up on the backs of oppressed blacks,” said Bishop Aubrey Shines, one of four founding members of the group.

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State Lawmakers Will Have to Reconcile the House Budget Proposal That Gives Tax Dollars Back to Citizens and Makes Deeper Cuts Than the Senate Version

As the second session of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly winds down, the House and Senate will need to reconcile their two different budget proposals to close out the current fiscal year and for the upcoming fiscal year 2021.

The Senate version passed with a vote of 27 Ayes, 1 No and 2 Present and Not Voting during the June 11 floor session.

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American Greatness Poll: President Trump Holds Commanding Enthusiasm Lead Over Joe Biden

A recent poll conducted by American Greatness in conjunction with TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence (TIPP), shows that President Donald Trump still holds a sizable lead over former Vice President Joe Biden in terms of voter enthusiasm, even as Biden appears to hold the edge in the overall poll.

In Michigan, when asked if voters either “Support strongly” or “support moderately” the candidate of their choice, 62 percent of Trump voters say “strongly,” while 36 percent say “moderately.” By contrast, 55 percent of Biden voters support him strongly, while 42 percent support him moderately.

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Oil Demand to Spike in 2021 by 5.7 Million Barrels Daily as Oil Companies Slash Production: IEA

Cuts in oil supply and a record rebound in demand in 2021 will help put the fossil fuel industry on better footing even as the pandemic hammers oil demand, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.

Demand for oil will rebound by a record 5.7 million barrels per day even as world demand for crude drops by 8.1 million barrels daily in 2020, the IEA reported. The report comes as city officials ease up on economic lockdowns, which is spurring a recovery in crude demand.

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Grassroots Groups Pledge to Recall Nashville Mayor and Council Members Who Vote for a Property Tax Increase

The Nashville grassroots group NoTax4Nash announced that it and other like-minded groups pledge to recall Mayor John Cooper and any members of the Metro Nashville Council who vote for a property tax increase without an audit to determine if there is need for one.

The NoTax4Nash pledge comes as the Metro Council is scheduled to vote on Mayor John Cooper’s proposed budget Tuesday, June 16.

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Democratic Michigan Congresswoman Says She Doesn’t Believe Polls Showing Biden’s Major Lead

Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell told Democratic voters not to become complacent with recent polls that have shown Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden with double-digit leads over President Donald Trump.

Dingell warned against voters taking anything for granted, especially with the election still nearly five months away, The Detroit News reported, citing her response at an online event. The event, which took place Monday, included prominent female elected officials from around the state.

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May Retail Sales Jumped 17.7 Percent, Double the Forecast As States Came Out of a Lockdown-Induced Hibernation

Retail sales rebounded in May as states eased coronavirus-induced lockdown measures, allowing retail stores to regain more ground than analysts expected, according to Department of Commerce data.

Retail sales jumped 17.7% in May, effectively doubling expectations and marking the biggest single-month gain in records going back more than 20 years, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. A Bloomberg News survey of economists had anticipated 8.4% increase in retail sales in May as COVID-19-related measures melted away following a 14% decline in April.

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Google Bans Ads on the Federalist After NBC News Raises Concerns About George Floyd Protest Articles

Google is planning to ban The Federalist and Zero Hedge from its ad platform, Google Ads, after NBC News raised concerns to the tech giant about articles that the conservative websites published regarding rioting and looting that occurred alongside the protests over the death of George Floyd.

According to the NBC report, Google notified The Federalist that it will block the site from using Google Ads because of concerns raised over an article related to the protests over Floyd’s death.

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Tennessee Getting $11 Million for Interstate 40 Project

Tennessee’s Department of Transportation is receiving $11.2 million for installation of closed-circuit cameras and other devices along Interstate 40, U.S. Rep. David Kustoff’s office said.

The West Tennessee Republican said in a statement Monday that the federal transportation grant will fund a project to install 143 miles (230 kilometers) of fiber optic communications in 10 counties that sit along a heavily traveled stretch of I-40 between Memphis and Nashville.

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Illegal Alien Sentenced to Five Years for Cocaine Trafficking in Memphis

An illegal alien who evaded capture for nearly three years was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison last week for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

According to a Monday statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee, a federal jury in February found Carlos Landeros-Salcedo guilty after a three-day trial and just 40 minutes of deliberation among the jurors. U.S. District Court Judge Sheryl H. Lipman sentenced him to 60 months in federal prison on June 10.

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President Trump Signs Executive Order on Police Reform

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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Commentary: Unmasking Marble and Bronze

Protests and looting were supplanted last week by an orgy of more symbolic destruction. Statues of various figures from our civilization’s past—Christopher Columbus, a Texas Ranger, numerous confederate Civil War memorials, and even Philadelphia’s Frank Rizzo—have been toppled, defaced, or scheduled for removal by compliant officials.

In the same spirit, a Senate GOP committee recently voted to rename military bases named after confederate generals. Those names—Fort Bragg and Fort Hood, among them—have acquired their own connotations as centers of excellence, but must be renamed because their long-forgotten namesakes fought on the losing side of the Civil War.

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911 Dispatcher Watching Floyd Death Alerted Police Supervisor of Incident

A 911 dispatcher who was apparently watching in real time as a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into the neck of George Floyd called a supervisor to tell him what she saw, not caring if it made her look like a “snitch,” according to a recording of the call made public Monday.

In the call, the dispatcher calls a police sergeant and says what she was seeing on live video looked “different” and that she wanted to let him know about it. The dispatcher was in a 911 call center at the time and was watching video from a surveillance camera posted at the intersection where police apprehended Floyd, according to city spokesman Casper Hill.

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Columbus State Community College Says It Will Remove Its Christopher Columbus Statue

  Columbus State Community College (CSCC) announced Tuesday it will remove its Christopher Columbus statue that has been on its Columbus downtown campus since 1988. “In taking this action, we are being mindful of societal change and forward movement,” Columbus State Board of Trustees President Anthony Joseph said. “We do not seek to erase history, but to make an intentional shift in what we visibly honor and celebrate as an institution. This is the first of many steps in what will be a lengthy journey as the College seeks to build on and improve our ongoing efforts toward broadened diversity and inclusion.” Columbus State President David Harrison said the statue removal is a commitment to its college and college community that it will continue to fight against “systemic racism.” “Recent events, including the senseless deaths of African-Americans and the resulting anguish across the nation, compelled us to act on a years-long internal dialogue about the statue and the message it sends in our community. This inflection point will inform College policy and action both now and for years to come.” The school said the statue will be removed within the next two weeks and it will begin looking for a…

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Trump Calls School Choice ‘The Civil Rights Statement of the Year’

by Mary Margaret Olohan   President Donald Trump said Tuesday that school choice is the “civil rights statement of the year.” “School choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade and probably beyond,” he said at a White House press conference. “Because all children have to have access to a quality education. A child’s ZIP code in America should never determine their future.” Parental choice, or school choice, allows parents to choose the public school their child will attend, rather than having their child assigned to a school based on where the family lives. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has focused many of her efforts on expanding school choice since she took her position in 2017. President Trump: “School choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond. Because all children have to have access to a quality education. A child's ZIP code in America should never determine their future."pic.twitter.com/BE5d8Vccq0 — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 16, 2020 The president’s comments came after Vice President Mike Pence accused 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday of preventing black parents from obtaining the American dream by blocking them from choosing where their kids…

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St. Paul Saints to Play Season in Sioux Falls for Now Because of ‘Capacity Restrictions’

The St. Paul Saints announced Friday that the team will be participating in a 60-game season beginning July 3, but all games will be played in Sioux Falls, South Dakota until “capacity restrictions for outdoor events have relaxed.”

The American Association of Independent Professional Baseball said the shortened season will run from July 3 to September 10, concluding with a championship series between the top two teams. The league will consist of six teams based in three separate hubs.

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Eden Prairie School Board Member Criticizes ‘Unacceptable’ Lack of Direction from Walz Admin on Upcoming School Year

An Eden Prairie School Board member broke his silence Monday after learning that the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) won’t be releasing state guidance on the upcoming academic year until July 27.

Three scenarios are possible for the 2020-21 school year, including continued distance learning, the resumption of in-person instruction, or a mix of the two.

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