Exclusive: Why Nicholas Sandman’s Lawyer Joined Carter Page’s Lawsuit Team

The Atlanta-based attorney, who represents Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandman, told the Star Newspaper Group he will get justice for his new client, Dr. Carter W. Page in Page’s lawsuit against Yahoo! and the Huffington Post.

“They accused him of being a traitor to the United States of America,” said L. Lincoln “Lin” Wood, who joined Page’s legal team just before the defamation lawsuit was filed in Delaware Superior Court July 27. “I can’t think of a more heinous accusation to make against a man based on zero evidence.”

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Massive Beirut Blast Kills More Than 60, Injures Thousands

A massive explosion rocked Beirut on Tuesday, flattening much of the port, damaging buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. More than 60 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured, with bodies buried in the rubble, officials said.

Hours later, ambulances still carried away the wounded as army helicopters helped battle fires raging at the port.

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Commentary: President Trump Is Right to Question Why Important Parts of the F-35 Are Built Outside of America

The fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighter jet by Lockheed Martin has been in development since the 1990s, one of the most expensive military systems ever at a cost of about $80 million per plane, after all these years is still dependent on global supply chains including certain Chinese-made components and rare earth minerals.

From the beginning of the program the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Turkey, and Australia have all participated in financing and producing the plane.

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Cuban Restaurant Owner in Louisville Says BLM Is Using ‘Mafia Tactics’ to Extort Local Businesses

A Cuban business owner in Louisville has accused local Black Lives Matter activists of threatening him and using “mafia tactics” after they presented him and other business owners with a list of “demands.”

Fernando Martinez, a partner of the Olé Restaurant Group, was one of dozens of business owners in the downtown “NuLu” district who  received a letter from “local organizers and activists” in recent days that made a number of demands, including a requirement that they make “a recurring monthly donation of 1.5% of net sales” to local black organizations, and that they display a sign that shows support for “the reparations movement” or face “repercussions of noncompliance.”

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Commentary: The Quality of Life for Citizens in the Democratic-Run City of Minneapolis Is Diminishing

If you want a look at the dystopian Hell that Democrats will create in your city or town should they win the 2020 election look no further than what has happened in Minneapolis since the city council and Mayor gave the city over to the Far Left BLM revolutionaries.

After the city leaders allowed days of violent insurrection, that burned over three miles of city storefronts, the Minneapolis City Council voted 12-0 to abolish the city police department.

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Karen Bass Pictured at Nation of Islam Events, Wouldn’t Disavow Radical Group

Rep. Karen Bass, a top contender to become presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, appeared at Nation of Islam events, posed for a picture with a top Nation of Islam official, and attended a forum in 2013 hosted by the organization’s official mouthpiece.

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has referred to Jewish people as “satanic,” blamed them for the Holocaust and the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks, and once praised Adolf Hitler as a “very great man.” Farrakhan has also denounced interracial marriage, which he said has “mongrelized” the black race.

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Amy Acton Steps Down as Ohio Governor’s Health Advisor, Will Return to Work for the Columbus Foundation

Dr. Amy Acton stepped down from her role as Governor Mike DeWine’s Chief Health Advisor, the Ohio Department of Health announced Wednesday. 

DeWine called Acton a “friend and advisor” on Twitter, saying that “she has assured [him] that she is just a phone call away and will be available to continuing advising [his administration] as [they] move through this pandemic.”

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University of Michigan Students Required to Observe ‘Enhanced Social Distancing’ Prior to Arrival on Campus

University of Michigan is requiring its students to participate in “enhanced social distancing” for two weeks before arriving on campus, according to a letter published for students earlier this week.

The school is offering both in-person and online classes and said that it estimates roughly 70 percent of undergraduate credits can be taken online during the upcoming semester.

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In Absence of Pension Forfeiture Laws, ex-Minneapolis Officer’s Benefits May Leave State with Hefty Bill

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin stands accused of causing the death of George Floyd, sparking riots that cost the Twin Cities up to $500 million worth of property damage. But even if he’s ultimately convicted, taxpayers may still pay part of his pension.

Minnesota is one of 19 states that don’t have pension forfeiture or garnishment laws, according to research from the libertarian Reason Foundation.

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Virginia State Rep. Introduces Bill to Limit Governor’s Executive Order Powers in Times of Emergency

State Sen. David Suetterlein (R-Cave Spring) introduced a bill last week to check the Virginia governor’s executive order powers under the Emergency Services and Disaster Law (ESDL).

The ESDL allows the Virginia governor “to direct and compel evacuation of all or part of the populace from any stricken or threatened area if this action is deemed necessary for the preservation of life, implement emergency mitigation, preparedness, response or recovery actions; prescribe routes, modes of transportation and destination in connection with evacuation.”

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Ohio Parents Rally to Reopen Schools and Sports

Parents across Ohio are rallying for on-campus learning and extracurricular activities to resume as the school year starts.

More than 100 people rallied in the rain in front of Brecksville-Broadview Heights City Schools offices on Monday, according to cleveland.com. While some were there to show their support for online-only programs the vast majority called for the immediate re-opening of campus learning.

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Tennessee Will Host The National Constitution Bee, Grand Champion Set to Win $25,000 Education Scholarship

The Star News Education Foundation announced Wednesday the first ever National Constitution Bee competition will take place on Saturday, October 24 in Brentwood, Tennessee, where the Grand Champion will be awarded an unprecedented education scholarship of $25,000.

In addition to the announcement, organizers have launched a new website, GuidetotheConstitution.org, where Bee contestants may review the new podcast series of the groundbreaking book, The Guide to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for Secondary Students.

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Commentary: Thanks to Leftist Mob Violence, Gun Control is Dead

This summer has answered the question, “why would somebody ever need an AR-15 or a high-capacity magazine?” As the Left continues to advocate for ending private ownership of military-style rifles, Americans can also see that powerful rifles are turning up in the possession of violent rioters and looters. In this video, one can clearly see Raz Simone, then a noted leader within Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone”, handing out an expensive, tricked-out AR-15 to a complete stranger. Simone somehow went from an Airbnb host to a Tesla-driving, arsenal-distributing mogul in the space of a few weeks.

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President Trump Fires Tennessee Valley Authority Chair Over Hiring of Foreign Workers, Caps TVA CEO Pay at $500k

President Donald Trump said Monday that he had fired the chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority, criticizing the federal-owned corporation for hiring foreign workers.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he was formally removing chair Skip Thompson and another member of the board, and he threatened to remove other board members if they continued to hire foreign labor. Thompson was appointed to the post by Trump.

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Manny Sethi Says Trump Should Fire Dr. Anthony Fauci; Bill Hagerty Says President Can Manage His Own Staff, Chinese Communist Party Responsible for COVID-19

U.S. Senate candidate Manny Sethi on Monday called on U.S. President Donald Trump to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, and he also blasted Facebook and Twitter for censoring information about the use of hydroxychloroquine.

This, according to a press release that Seth sent via email.

“I’ve had about enough of this guy Fauci. If I’m President Trump, I call Dr. Fauci into the Board room and tell him, ‘You’re fired,” Sethi said.

“Instead of having a plan to protect the most vulnerable among us and allowing us to get to herd immunity, he called for total lockdown. His plan did incredible damage to our economy. Fauci failed, and now he wants us to double down on failure again by completely destroying what’s left of our economy.”

U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty, Sethi’s opponent, told The Tennessee Star in an email Monday that he does not believe Fauci has done a good job advising Trump.

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Commentary: TikTok is Just the First Chinese App the Trump Admin is Eyeing for Crackdown Over Spying

TikTok Social Media

Two days after President Trump told reporters that he plans to ban TikTok from the United States, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in an interview with Fox News that executive action may soon be taken against many other apps owned by Chinese firms.

Trump remarked to journalists aboard Air Force One on Friday that he could ban TikTok “with an executive order,” suggesting that the president has made up his mind about the popular short video platform. TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech conglomerate ByteDance, has been at the center of a months-long debate over whether the data that it collects from American users could be exploited by China’s government.

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Sen. Rand Paul Says Sen. Marsha Blackburn ‘Must be Confused’ About Ad He Cut for Manny Sethi

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Monday that U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) misunderstood him when he faulted Republicans who represent Tennessee in one or both houses of Congress and said they vote like Democrats.

Paul suggested to The Tennessee Star Monday that he had criticized another prominent Tennessee Republican —not Blackburn.

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Trump’s Campaign Manager Says Debates Should Happen Before Early Voting Begins: ‘We Want Them Sooner’

President Donald Trump’s campaign manager called Monday for more presidential debates, saying that they should begin earlier than planned.

During an interview with “Fox & Friends” Monday morning, Bill Stepien said that the current debate schedule, which is set to begin Sept. 29, will prevent voters in early-voting states from seeing the two candidates go head-to-head before casting their ballots.

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Virginia Judge Bars Lee Statue Removal for 90 Days

A judge on Monday dissolved one injunction preventing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration from removing an enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Richmond but immediately instituted a new one in a different lawsuit.

The new 90-day injunction issued by Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant bars the statue’s removal while the claims in a lawsuit filed by a group of Richmond property owners are litigated.

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Ohio Elections Chief Frank LaRose Seeks Openness for ‘Dark Money’ Groups

The source of money contributed to so-called “dark money” groups operating in Ohio and trying to influence the political process should be disclosed, with possible penalties for violating this requirement including a low-level felony and a substantial fine, Ohio’s Republican elections chief said Monday.

The Secretary of State should also have subpoena power for campaign-finance related records and groups trying to block the gathering of ballot initiative signatures should be required to register with the state, said Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

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Governor Lee Signs Executive Order Allowing Contact Sports, Extending Local Authority to Mandate Masks

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed an executive order that permits contact and noncontact sports in the state, extends the authority of local governments to mandate face coverings, and extends liability protections for health care providers.

No sports are now prohibited in Tennessee, as long as participants follow safety guidelines from their governing bodies or Tennessee Pledge COVID-19 safety guidelines.

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U.S. House Passes ‘Minibus’ Appropriations Bill that Includes Billions for Ohio and the Great Lakes Region

A massive appropriations bill the U.S. House passed includes billions in federal spending proponents say will benefit Ohio and the Great Lakes region.

H.R. 7617, a $1.3 trillion “minibus” package, contains six appropriations measures for various federal agencies — including the defense, justice, transportation and energy departments — for the 2021 fiscal year. The House passed the bill by a vote of 217-197.

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Police Tell Minnesota Citizens to ‘Be Prepared’ as Two Prisons Close

Citing financial woes The Minnesota Department of Corrections (MNDOC) will be closing two prisons.

Prisoners from the Togo and Willow River prisons will be transferred to other facilities and  100 employees will be laid off as a result of the move. These cuts come only a few weeks after 48 Department of Corrections Employees were let go in response to budget concerns resulting from the coronavirus. 

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Whitmer Closes Bars Statewide, Restricts Indoor Gatherings to 10 People

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday suspended indoor bar services statewide and limited indoor gatherings to 10 people, citing “super-spreading” events in Lansing, Saline and the Torch Lake area.

“After seeing a resurgence in cases connected to social gatherings across the state, we must further limit gatherings for the health of our community and economy,” Whitmer said in a statement. “By taking these strong actions, we will be better positioned to get our children back into classrooms and avoid a potentially devastating second wave.”

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Commentary: Your Family Won’t Be Safe in Joe Biden’s America

America stands at a great crossroads, resting between two divulging paths in its journey. One of these pathways leads toward lawlessness, the path’s air filled with the smell of fire and sight of ash –  the guaranteed end of this path is the destruction of not only America’s heritage, but also her prosperous future. There is a second path, a road which has always guided America: the pathway of law and order.

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Minneapolis City Planning Commission Votes to Add Commemorative Sign for George Floyd

The Minneapolis City Planning Commission voted unanimously Monday evening to add a commemorative sign reading “George Perry Floyd Jr. Place”, dedicating two blocks of Chicago Avenue to memorialize the May 25th killing. If fully approved by the city council, the sign will be placed between 37th Street East and 39th Street East. Along with the recent grant to preserve current George Floyd memorials throughout metro, many other memorial measures are occurring throughout the nation.
Guest speaker Matt Hanan with Minneapolis Public Works Transportation Engineering and Design introduced the proposal, along with its original applicant: Public Works’ Director Robin Hutcheson. Despite some news coverage that the two blocks along Chicago Avenue would be renamed “George Perry Floyd Jr. Place”, the application only proposes to add a secondary, distinctive sign for Floyd alongside the current street signage.

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Law Criminalizing Use of False Language in Campaign Literature Ruled Unconstitutional by Davidson County Judge

A group that called a political candidate “literally Hitler” in a flyer won its case challenging a law that criminalizes the use of “false language” in campaign literature. The judge presiding over the case, which was heard Thursday, called the law “incompatible with the First Amendment.”

Tennesseans for Sensible Elections Laws (TSEL), an organization that describes itself as “a nonpartisan group of concerned citizens who care about protecting Tennessee’s democratic process,” was subject to criminal penalties for a political flier claiming that Representative Bruce Griffey was “literally Hitler.”

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Judge Denies Allowing Some Felons to Vote in Tennessee’s Primary Election

An attempt to allow certain felons with out-of-state convictions permission to participate in Tennessee’s upcoming August 6 primary election came to a halt Friday.

Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle denied a temporary injunction request that would have allowed out-of-state felons to vote in the primary as long as they had their voting rights restored in the state of their convictions.

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Commentary: New Evidence Shows Key Fans Unhappy with Sports Leagues Kowtowing to Black Lives Matter

If anyone was hoping that the return of the long-awaited Major League season would lift our spirits and bring us together, they had to be disappointed to learn that we are more divided than ever over the National Anthem kneeling debate. And although President Trump has not chosen to join the burgeoning #BoycottMLB movement on Twitter, the president has joined a growing number of disheartened baseball fans who are unhappy that their favorite teams are taking the knee. Even before the start of the season, President Trump tweeted that he was “looking forward to live sports, but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me!”

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‘DISGRACEFUL:’ Marsha Blackburn Scorches Manny Sethi Supporter Zach Wamp for Now-Deleted Tweet About Female Volunteers in Bill Hagerty’s Campaign

Former Tennessee congressman Zach Wamp, who recently endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Manny Sethi, on Saturday posted — and deleted — a tweet accusing Sethi’s opponent, Bill Hagerty, of using young female volunteers “in short shorts” to attract votes.

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), upon reading Wamp’s tweet, reprimanded the former congressman and suggested he doesn’t respect women.

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Study: 68 Percent of Workers Earned More on Unemployment with $600 Weekly Enhancement

Some unemployed workers received nearly twice as much money through unemployment insurance (UI) payments authorized through the CARES Act than they earned when they were employed, a new study from the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) found.

In response to states shutting down economies over coronavirus fears, Congress passed several relief bills, including the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. These two bills expanded the UI benefit period, suspended work search requirements, included newly eligible individuals, and added a $600-per-week unemployment benefit enhancement through July 31.

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Academics’ Campaign to Remove Harvard Professor for Tweets Backfires

by Maria Copeland   Hundreds of academics signed a letter written by members of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), calling for a Harvard professor’s removal from the LSA list of “distinguished fellows,” as well as their list of media experts. The LSA did not accept their demands; and the the target of the demands says he has received hundreds of letters of support. The letter accused Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard Steven Pinker of behavior that does not live up to the society’s standards and does not merit the “honor, credibility, and visibility” its fellows receive. Specifically, the academics accused Pinker of acting in a way contrary to the society’s stance on racial justice, saying he has “a history of speaking over genuine grievances and downplaying injustices.” “We aim to show here Dr. Pinker as a public figure has a pattern of drowning out the voices of people suffering from racist and sexist violence, in particular in the immediate aftermath of violent acts and/or protests against the systems that created them,” the letter states. Their evidence was in the form of six messages the professor posted on Twitter, which they say indicate that “Dr. Pinker is untenable as an LSA fellow and…

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The Status of the Coronavirus Vaccine Continues to Advance Rapidly

Researchers, governments and pharmaceutical companies worldwide have been working rapidly to develop an effective vaccine against coronavirus, which has infected over 4.5 million and killed over 150,000 people in the United States alone.

Testing has advanced quickly and there’s optimism that a vaccine will be developed before 2021. But there are also concerns that a vaccine won’t be sufficiently stockpiled or efficiently distributed. There’s additional worry that the growing distrust in vaccines will result in large numbers refusing the injection, making it less beneficial.

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