Commentary: USMCA Begins New Trump-Led Era of America First on Trade in July

President Donald Trump was elected in 2016 on the very important promise of implementing an America first posture on trade, promising to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, and to begin to restore hundreds of billions of trade balances with China using pressure and tariffs China after more than a decade of being treated unfairly.

President Trump succeeded on both counts, winning adoption of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) earlier this year and achieving the first ever U.S.-China trade deal that was completed right before the COVID-19 pandemic became public knowledge.

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Conservatives Praise Supreme Court for Ruling States Can’t Discriminate Against Religious Schools

The U.S. Supreme Court said Tuesday that states can’t cut religious schools out of programs that send public money to private education in a 5-4 ruling. 

Hailed as a victory for religious freedom, the justices upheld a Montana scholarship program that allows state tax credits for private schooling in which almost all the recipients attend religious schools.

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Video Appears to Show Mob Attacking Catholics Praying at St. Louis Statue

Multiple videos recorded after a Saturday prayer vigil in St. Louis appear to show Black Lives Matter agitators assaulting Catholics who participated in the event.

“Yesterday, while praying for peace and unity in our city and the protection of the St. Louis statue, Black Lives Matter protesters started to harass, berate, and assault the Catholics that were peacefully praying. We did nothing in retaliation,” Conor Martin, a candidate for Bedford Township Republican committeeman, claimed on Twitter.

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Exclusive: ‘Truth Conductor’ Tells Why He Protected Journalist Jack Posobiec from Antifa, BLM Mob

  The black Washington resident and tour guide calling himself “Truth Conductor” told the Star Newspaper Group he stepped forward to protect One America News reporter Jack Posobeic  at Friday night’s Antifa and Black Lives Matter rally in Washington’s Lincoln Park, because it was the right thing to do. “They was going to attack Jack,” said Don Folden, who runs DCBlackTours.com and is a regular fixture wherever there is a swarm of reporters, such as the court appearances of retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn. “My thing was: ‘Hey, what a minute, man,’ I mean the guy—I saw they were purposely targeting him and when I saw them pushing him around that is when I said: ‘Look, man, c’mon, let’s get out of here. Let’s leave’” said Folden. As Posobeic stood by the crowd protesting the statue of Abraham Lincoln and a freed slave,a number of young men in all black clothing, helmets and goggles formed a circle around him. The Navy veteran was shoved and pushed and at one point doused with water. “I was hoping to be able to catch the scene on camera when Antifa closed in on me, and tried to push me down the…

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McGrath Wins Kentucky Dem Primary; McConnell Showdown Awaits

Former Marine pilot Amy McGrath overcame a bumpier-than-expected Kentucky primary to win the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Tuesday, fending off progressive Charles Booker to set up a bruising, big-spending showdown with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Voting ended June 23, but it took a week until McGrath could be declared the winner due to the race’s tight margins and a deluge of mail-in ballots. The outcome seemed a certainty early in the campaign but became tenuous as Booker’s profile surged as the Black state lawmaker highlighted protests against the deaths of African Americans in encounters with police.

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Carl Reiner, Beloved Creator of ‘Dick Van Dyke Show,’ Dies

Carl Reiner, the ingenious and versatile writer, actor and director who broke through as a “second banana” to Sid Caesar and rose to comedy’s front ranks as creator of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and straight man to Mel Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man,” has died. He was 98.

Reiner’s assistant Judy Nagy said he died Monday night of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

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Music Spotlight: Tyler Rich

Tyler Rich grew up in Northern California in the small town of Yuba City. He grew up listening to country music with his mom and rock n roll with his dad.

“My Uncle [Tim] always had his guitar at every family function. He was always playing. He didn’t know genres, he just knew good music,” he said. “He would play, Tom Petty, Credence Clearwater, George Strait, Brooks, and Dunn or Garth Brooks. He even played Michael Jackson and the Beatles as long as it was good music.”

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Ken Paulson, Director of MTSU’s The First Amendment Center Exercises His First Amendment Right Not to Speak on the Show

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. –  host Leahy welcomed public affairs strategist Clint Brewer in the studio.

At the top of the third hour, Leahy and Brewer discuss Middle Tennesse State University’s First Amendment Center and the dynamics of the First Amendment and Paulson’s focus on peaceful assembly. Leahy added that Paulson declined an invitation to come on The Tennessee Star Report and talk about the Center.

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Hong Kong Security Law Takes Aim at Protester Actions

China on Tuesday approved a contentious national security law for Hong Kong that takes direct aim at some of the actions of anti-government protesters last year, in a move many see as Beijing’s boldest yet to erase the legal firewall between the semi-autonomous territory and the mainland’s authoritarian Communist Party system.

Details of the law remained under wraps until 11 p.m. (1500 GMT, 11:00 a.m. EDT), when it was published and took effect immediately.

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Commentary: High School Runner Who Lost to Transgender Athletes Will Compete in College

By now, millions know the story of Selina Soule, the high school track star from Connecticut who missed qualifying for the New England track and field regionals by two spots in her top event. Those two spots were taken by biological boys who identify as girls.

Soule, who is wise beyond her years, was well aware that she could face consequences for speaking out about being forced to compete against biological males. But she recognized a greater need.

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Armstrong Williams Commentary: It’s Time to Talk About Recession

Is America in a recession? It’s an unpopular question to ask, but it has now been over 3 months since COVID-19 restrictions were initiated and it is time for us to get realistic about where we are economically so that we can take the proper steps to minimize further damage to our economy. At this point, the unfortunate reality is that regardless of what we do, it is likely that it will take at least several years to see a partial recovery of economic loss and the time that it will take for a complete recovery remains unknown at this point. 

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‘Enough Is Enough’: Seattle Police Chief Rips CHAZ, Gets Heckled at Press Conference

Seattle’s police chief was heckled while she ripped the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) following fourth shooting in the area at a press conference Monday.

Chief Carmen Best demanded that people still in the area, also known as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), leave immediately for the sake of everyone’s safety. A 16-year-old died and a 14-year-old is still being treated following a drive-by shooting that took place early Monday morning in the zone, Seattle police said in a press release Monday.

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Judge Threatens to Move Trial Out of Minneapolis If Public Officials Don’t Stop Speaking Out About Floyd Case

A Minnesota judge on Monday warned that he’s likely to move the trials of four former police officers charged in George Floyd’s death out of Minneapolis if public officials, attorneys and family members don’t stop speaking out about the case.

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill stopped short of issuing a gag order against attorneys on both sides, but he said he likely will if public statements continue that make it hard to find an impartial jury. Cahill said that would also make him likely to grant a change-of-venue motion if one is filed, as he anticipates.

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Four Democratic Toledo City Council Members Arrested for Allegedly Accepting Bribe Payments for Official Acts

  The FBI has arrested Democratic Toledo City Council members Tyrone Riley, Yvonne Harper, Larry Sykes and Gary Johnson Tuesday for allegedly “accepting bribe payments for official acts.” Two years ago, the FBI began its investigation into the Toledo City Council for “soliciting/and or accepting cash, checks, money orders, or other things of value from local business owners in exchange for their vote on City Council, the affidavit says. According to the affidavit, FBI found evidence of Riley having solicited bribes going as far back as 2013. Furthermore, Harper is accused of using local attorney Kevin Mitchell to “solicit and funnel” her bribe payments. Each elected official who was arrested used cell-phones to arrange these alleged transactions, according to the affidavit. To gather evidence, the FBI recorded phone conversations, conducted in-person meetings, collected text messages, and looked through government, business, and financial records. In reaction to the news, Democratic Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz issued this statement in reaction Tuesday, according to WTOL. “I am shocked and heartbroken by today’s arrests. This is a terrible day for Toledo — and for everyone who believes in the good that can be accomplished through public service. “I was inspired to run for public…

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Commentary: Diversity in the Party of Lincoln

In his famous Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln reminded us that we live in a country founded on the proposition that we are all created equal. Although our nation has made remarkable strides since that 1863 speech and we remain the envy of the world, the party of Lincoln still remains less diverse than it did during reconstruction – the period immediately following the Civil War when we sought to redress the inequities of slavery.

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Michigan Publishes Reopening Guidance for Schools, Allocates $256M

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a set of health and safety guidelines on Tuesday for schools returning to in-person classrooms among the pandemic.

The “MI Safe Schools Return to School Roadmap” outlines safety protocols for schools in each stage or reopening and includes information on the proper use of personal protection equipment, disinfecting, spacing in classrooms and identifying symptoms, among other things. Guidance is distinguished by phases and includes both required and recommended protocols.

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Tennessean Editor Formally Apologizes for Publishing Carol Swain Column on Islam Five Years After the Fact

The Tennessean’s Director of Opinion and Engagement David Plazas formally apologized late last week for publishing a column that former Nashville mayoral candidate Carol Swain submitted and wrote five years ago that criticized Islam. 

Swain, when The Tennessee Star contacted her Tuesday, said Plazas smeared her and “had lost all sense of journalistic integrity.” 

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