One or more people vandalized and beheaded an outdoor statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary this past weekend at the St. Stephen Catholic Church of Chattanooga, according to church officials.
Bishop Rick Stika of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Knoxville tweeted that incidents such as these are nationwide.
Read the full story
Our late friend Phyllis Schlafly, the First Lady of the Conservative Movement, was fond of saying that the most important election wasn’t President, it was Republican Precinct Committeeman, because that was the gateway to the Republican Party organization, and through it the ability to endorse candidates and set the GOP Platform.
Read the full story
Bari Weiss was not the first victim of “cancel culture,” and certainly she will not be the last, but her exit from the opinion pages of the New York Times has finally focused national attention on the steadily increasing toll of intellectual intolerance among the soi-disant progressive elite. Ms. Weiss’s public resignation letter, which described “constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views,” with her superiors at the newspaper evidently condoning this harassment, exposed a cult-like climate of ideological conformity at the Times. Because she is rather young — she was born in 1984, the year Ronald Reagan was reelected — Ms. Weiss is not old enough to remember when liberals posed as champions of free speech and open debate. Some of us are old enough to remember, however, and have a duty to teach young people how it was that liberalism slowly succumbed to totalitarianism.
Read the full story
U.S. Senate candidate Manny Sethi released a statewide ad Thursday criticizing his opponent in the Republican primary, Bill Hagerty, for past connections to Mitt Romney and Al Gore.
This, according to a press release that Sethi’s campaign emailed Thursday.
Read the full story
Health professionals nationwide released statements in a Tea Party Patriots Action Second Opinion Project email on Thursday that they believe schools should reopen and that it is the safest option for kids.
The consensus among the physicians, that kids would benefit academically, socially, and health-wise from schools reopening this fall, echoes a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released on July 10 addressing the issue of schools reopening in the fall.
Read the full story
Target, CVS Health and Publix Super Markets on Thursday joined the growing list of national chains that will require customers to wear face masks regardless of where cities or states stand on the issue.
Target’s mandatory face mask policy will go into effect Aug. 1, and all CVS stores will begin requiring them on Monday. Publix Super Markets Inc., based in Lakeland, Florida, said that its rule will kick in on Tuesday at all 1,200 stores.
Read the full story
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain to the studio who took listener calls regarding her endorsement of Bill Hagerty. She explained her choice by citing the importance of the candidate’s history and record of service.
Read the full story
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Thursday urged Attorney General William Barr to launch a federal civil rights investigation of St. Louis’ elected prosecutor, accusing her of abuse of power in her investigation of a white couple who wielded guns while defending their home during a protest.
Mark and Patricia McCloskey are under Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s scrutiny for the June 28 confrontation when several hundred protesters marched by their $1.15 million mansion. The couple accused protesters of knocking down an iron gate marked with “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” signs.
Read the full story
Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order Wednesday prohibiting local municipalities from establishing mask mandates for people who go out in public.
His order prevents any municipality from enforcing a mask order that is more restrictive than the one at the state level, The Hill reported.
Read the full story
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s total campaign payments to her husband’s consulting firm now exceed seven figures after reporting additional funds paid to the company in the second quarter of 2020.
Omar’s campaign reported payments totaling $228,000 to E Street Group, the consulting firm run by her husband, Tim Mynett, in a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) released Tuesday, bringing her total payments to the company to more than $1.1 million since August 2018.
Read the full story
Democrats hoping to unseat Republicans in 10 key U.S. Senate races outraised their opponents by $34 million over the three month quarter ending June 30, Federal Election Commission filings show.
The 10 Democrats raised a total of $86 million compared to the $52 million that Republicans raised, Reuters reported. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky were outraised by approximately $5.6 million and $5.2 million respectively, FEC filings show.
Read the full story
The Republican National Committee announced Thursday morning that it would restrict attendance for the party’s convention next month in Jacksonville, Florida.
The announcement comes a day after the RNC announced that they would move the convention outdoors due to growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, The Hill reported. The decision comes as positive cases are skyrocketing across the state, according to a Johns Hopkins University database.
Read the full story
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Carol Swain in studio to address critics on her support of Tennessee Senate candidate Bill Hagerty.
Read the full story
One suspected MS-13 member has been charged with terrorism, another faces the death penalty and other reported gang leaders face charges of kidnapping, murder and racketeering, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
The investigation and indictments targeted leaders of the MS-13, and represent the first time a member of the organization has been charged with terrorism, according to a DOJ press release.
Read the full story
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 welcomed Dr. Carol Swain to the studio. At the top of the third hour, Swain responded to comments on her endorsement of Bill Hagerty and addressed his past affiliation as a finance manager for Mitt Romney in 2012. Leahy: We are joined now in the studio by the brave and always ready to articulate. Swain: I was born this way. I can’t help it. (Chuckles) Leahy: I know. Carol Swain has a point of view and she’s going to express it. (Laughs) Swain: I was thinking about when I came out of my mother’s womb. (Chuckles) Leahy: There you go. The controversial and well-read and well-circulated commentary by Carol Swain endorsing Bill Hagerty for the United States Senate. We already got a lot of calls. I want to point out Carol that you are in demand these days at a national level. You were on the Laura Ingraham show a couple of weeks ago and Raymond Arroyo was the substitute host. Today at one o’clock you are…
Read the full story
The State of Michigan is investigating whether new employees of the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) are stealing funds from jobless residents, multiple media outlets report.
The workers are accused of stealing and charging clients to receive their benefits more quickly, WDIV reported. This is happening even as Michigan is among several states experiencing fraudulent claims being submitted, and they temporarily stopped payments.
Read the full story
Ohio business owners who are fed up with Gov. Mike DeWine’s ever-lasting shutdown regulations are joining their lawsuits together into a class action against the state.
Three lawyers are working together to help combine existing lawsuits and are looking for other owners whose livelihoods are being threatened by what they say are unconstitutional orders. The suit against the DeWine administration and other government agencies was filed in the Ohio Court of Common Pleas in Lake County.
Read the full story
Minnesota unemployment rose by 3,006 new claims last week, bringing the state’s total number of unemployment claims to 345,575.
The week-over-week unemployment tally in Minnesota rose from 19,362 new claims in the week ending July 4 to 22,368 new claims in the week ending July 11, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.
Read the full story
Michigan unemployment climbed by 24,000 new claims last week, bringing the state’s total number of unemployment claims to 555,162.
However, the week-over-week tally fell by 9,705 new claims from 34,602 new claims in the week ending July 4 to 24,897 new claims in the week ending July 11, according to U.S. Department of Labor data. Those numbers are still above unemployment levels recorded at the height of the Great Recession of 2009.
Read the full story
In a special primetime address Wednesday night, Gov. Mike DeWine urged Ohioans to take the appropriate actions needed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Since the beginning of July, the number of coronavirus cases in Ohio has increased by almost 20,000. Furthermore, since June 1 the state’s COVID-19 cases have doubled, according to covidtracking.com data. “Today, more Ohioans are getting sick than at any previous point in this pandemic. We are sliding down a very dangerous path, with our once flattened-curve starting to sharpen and spike,” said Governor DeWine. “This is a worrisome, disturbing reversal of our progress – a jarring reminder of just how quickly our fate can change.” The governor said if immediate action is not taken to stop the spread of the Chinese virus then Ohio could be headed towards what is happening in Florida and Arizona in terms of increased coronavirus cases. DeWine said during his press conference the new cases are not just a result of new testing. The governor said testing has increased 87 percent. According to covidtracking.com data, the percentage of Ohioans testing positive for the coronavirus as of July 16 is below 7 percent. When the coronavirus first came to…
Read the full story
Ohio unemployment climbed by more than 35,000 new claims last week, bringing the state’s total number of unemployment claims to 410,784.
The week-over-week unemployment tally in Ohio rose by 1,024 new claims in the week ending July 4 to 35,854 new claims in the week ending July 11, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.
Read the full story
A Serbian Orthodox priest in Nashville is trying to stop the deportation of himself and his family that is happening because his lawyer allegedly failed to update his green card application on time. Father Aleksandar Vujkovic is the parish priest of the St. Petka Serbian Orthodox Church in the Germantown-Salemtown community of Nashville. He and his wife and their three young children — born in America — are facing deportation by Aug. 16. The family will leave for Serbia unless President Donald Trump intervenes, Robert Blagojevich, president of the church’s board of directors, told The Tennessee Star. The priest’s supporters from around the United States are engaging in a campaign to draw the president’s attention. Vujkovic is a law-abiding person and will not hide illegally, Blagojevich said. In Serbia, he will reapply to return to America. Following the law is important to the St. Petka congregation, Blagojevich said. The church was formed in the early 2000s by members of the Serbian Orthodox Church, mainly Serbian and Bosnian refugees from that nation’s war. They also have Russian members who are here legally, as well as Greeks and American converts. Many also are second-generation Americans whose parents emigrated to the United…
Read the full story