The Richmond City Council chose to delay a vote on an amendment to its firearms ordinance. The council heard over an hour of public comments and discussion in the virtual meeting on Thursday afternoon. Eventually, the council members concluded they needed more time to clarify questions about vague wording in the amendment.
Read the full story
The latest report from the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) reveals that all schools are safe to reopen for in-person learning models, according to county case numbers. The MDH released this information as part of an updated report published every Thursday.
Many elementary and high schools are scheduled to begin their fall semesters in several weeks’ time. Schools are required to submit their learning model plans to families the week before their start date. Models reflect one of three options: in-person learning, distance learning, or a hybrid of the two. All models are subject to change throughout the semester, depending on county case levels.
Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks talked to Richmond mayoral candidate Kim Gray about Mayor Levar Stoney’s recent $1.8 million bid to remove statutes and how that money could have been better allocated to students in need.
Read the full story
Ohio will be allowing all sports this fall.
Governor Mike Dewine said in a press conference Tuesday that sports instill “discipline, brings order, structure in the lives of student-athletes, and certainly brings joy to those athletes and certainly to their families as well.” Other concerns mentioned were the mental health of students not allowed to play sports, and the importance of a final season for many student-athletes graduating next year.
Read the full story
Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax to discuss special session reform priorities.
Read the full story
If Joe Biden and his new running mate Kamala Harris get their way, millions of high-paying American energy jobs will be eliminated and entire industries will be cut to the bone.
Ohio, like a number of other states across the country, has enjoyed tremendous benefits from the shale energy revolution. The shale boom was a crucial lifeline following the 2008 financial crisis, which cost Ohio more than 2 million jobs.
Read the full story
Against the pleas of numerous citizens who spoke publicly at the meeting, the Sumner County Board of Commissioners voted Monday to advance The Meadows 1,115 mixed-used housing development in north Gallatin and to spend $500,000 on the Comer Barn.
The backdrop for the meeting was a mandatory mask order extended to August 29 by County Mayor Anthony Holt and forced social distancing through benches where every other one was taped off and the remainder were marked for six-foot spacing.
Read the full story
President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon was arrested Thursday on charges that he and three others “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars” from donors to an online fundraising effort to build a southern border wall, making him the latest in a long list of Trump associates to be indicted or charged.
The “We Build The Wall” fundraiser was headed by men who pushed their close ties to President Trump and raised more than $25 million. They touted their effort to help the president realize his vision of a physical border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, especially after Trump’s effort to redirect millions in government funds, was held up through lawsuits by open-border activists.
Read the full story
More than 1.1 million American workers filed new unemployment claims last week, a week after the number of claims dropped below the million mark for the first time since pandemic-related shutdowns were put in place in March.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 1,106,000 workers filed new claims on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ending Aug. 15.
Read the full story
U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) assembled a special project for the Smithsonian Institution to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment’s ratification giving women the right to vote.
They recruited 22 of their female colleagues to write essays about what the centennial means to them and the challenges they faced on their path to the U.S. Senate, Blackburn said in a press release. The exhibit is titled “Senators on Suffrage” and is available online here. It is part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History’s “Creating Icons: How We Remember Woman Suffrage” exhibit.
Read the full story
The first-night Democratic National Convention ratings were down almost 28 percent from their levels in 2016 in what can only be called a massive disappointment for former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in their bid to oust the incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.
The ratings for CBS, NBC and ABC were down a combined 42 percent to 6.7 million from the 11.6 million who watched four years ago, according to the Hollywood Reporter. On cable news channels MSNBC, CNN and Fox News, the numbers were similarly down 16 percent to about 11.98 million viewers from the 14 million viewers of four years ago.
Read the full story
The University of Minnesota Medical School application includes an optional question that asks students to share their “lessons learned” about “systemic racism” in the wake of George Floyd and Rayshard Brooks’s deaths.
“Right now is a watershed moment in American history and this country’s reckoning with race, racism, racial injustice, and especially anti-black hatred,” the question on the application, obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, read.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed The Ohio Star Managing Editor Jack Windsor to the show to discuss his recent reporting on the arrest of Millicent “Millie” Weaver in Diamond, Ohio.
Read the full story
President Donald Trump criticized presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s plans to allow 125,000 refugees admittance to the U.S. on an annual basis during a speech in Minnesota on Monday, the Associated Press reported.
“He [Biden] would overwhelm Minnesota with refugees, from terror hotspots, depleting public services, burdening schools, and straining city budgets,” Trump said during a speech on a tarmac in Minnesota, the AP reported.
Read the full story
U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) this week introduced the Protecting Jobs and Wages from Regulations Act of 2020, which he said would, if enacted into law, reform the federal regulatory process.
This, according to a press release that Burchett’s staff published on his website about the bill.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed national correspondent for the Tennessee Star Neil W. McCabe to the newsmakers line to talk about his exclusive interview with Roger Stone and the upcoming Republican National Convention.
Read the full story
Prosecutors say that a woman who pleaded guilty to providing financial support to the Islamic State should face the maximum penalty under law, according to a new report.
Samantha Elhassani of Lake County, Indiana, faces up to 10 years in prison as she was reportedly aware of her actions, court documents say, Fox 59 reported. She is scheduled to be sentenced on August 27.
Read the full story
Over 20 percent of college students may defer the upcoming academic year, according to a recent Axios poll.
The deferment data comes as prominent universities across the country move from in-person to online classes in response to campus-wide outbreaks of the coronavirus. Of the 21% of students who may not return, most are working full-time in the interim, Axios reported. The statistic comes as 27% of students lost their summer internship, according to the poll.
Read the full story
Although they operate under the banner of social justice, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and its allies are a pernicious force. The false narratives, the toleration of lawlessness, and the punishment of dissenters have left our society in disarray. Americans of all races and political stripes should reject these tactics.
Read the full story
On many regulatory issues, the Trump administration moved as fast as bureaucratically possible to overturn excesses of the Obama administration. On issues from labor rules to land use to consumer protection, Trump’s team did what they could to make regulations more fair and less far-reaching.
Read the full story
The Tennessee General Assembly Joint Ad Hoc Committee studying emergency powers of the executive branch will include presentations from by retired U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and retired Tennessee Supreme Court Justice William C. Koch, Jr.
The meeting to be held at the legislature’s home of the Cordell Hull Building is scheduled for Thursday.
Read the full story
To showcase the plight of Black citizens living in Democratic-run Baltimore, Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik took a simple approach: a walk through Baltimore’s downtown.
In a two-and-a-half minute video, Klacik (pronounced “CLAY-sick”) showcased Baltimore’s run-down buildings, asked citizens their thoughts on defunding police, and explained many of the issues facing the city.
Read the full story
Apple is the first U.S. company to boast a market value of $2 trillion, just two years after it became the first to reach $1 trillion.
Apple shares have gained nearly 60% this year as the company overcame the shutdown of factories in China that produce the iPhone and the closure of its retail sales amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss mail-out voting.
Read the full story
We had #MeToo…#ICan’tBreath…#BLM.
In Portsmouth, Virginia we could have a new social media acronym: #ProtestPrison
Read the full story
Michigan has announced the 13 citizens who will be in charge of redrawing Michigan’s congressional and legislative boundaries for the next decade, drawing their names in a random selection process on Monday.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission is made of four Democrats, four Republicans and four people not associated with either party.
Read the full story
Eight Minneapolis residents filed a lawsuit Monday against the City of Minneapolis and Mayor Jacob Frey for the negative repercussions of defunding the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). The plaintiffs allege that city officials’ words and actions concerning law enforcement caused a severe uptick in Metro’s crime rates.
The plaintiffs are represented by the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMWLC), who issued a press release the day after the suit was filed.
Read the full story
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is well underway, and while Republicans are busy in Virginia, Democrat delegates seem to be taking a break from political action this week.
That’s according to Ben Tribbett and Danny Barefoot, two political consultants who work with the Democratic Party in Virginia.
Read the full story
In a boisterous video Wednesday, Virginia’s Republican delegates gathered to formally announce their nomination of Donald J. Trump to a second term in 2020.
All 46 of the delegation’s votes went to President Trump.
Read the full story
Violent crime in Akron, Ohio has increased, which is mirroring an alarming trend across the country.
Just this week an 8-year girl was murdered and a 14-year-old was wounded in a shooting at a birthday party, according to Fox 8. Furthermore, two men were killed in separate incidents, Fox 8 reported.
Read the full story
Michigan has joined a coalition of states that will be filing a lawsuit Tuesday against the federal government over recent changes to the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) operations.
The lawsuit argues that the changes proposed and already implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are illegal and threaten the timely mail delivery.
Read the full story
With a $2.7 billion budget shortfall and continued economic uncertainty, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam wants the General Assembly to postpone considerations of higher education spending, teacher pay raises and other spending initiatives he had hoped to include in the budget before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
The General Assembly passed a biennial budget in April that gutted about $2.3 billion from the governor’s pre-pandemic budget proposal. The General Assembly was expected to reconsider some of these proposals based on new revenue projections in a special session that convened Tuesday, but Northam proposed a budget that maintained all of the cuts and urged the General Assembly to reconsider the spending initiatives when they reconvene in January.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Nick Freitas, Chris Saxman, and Mark Cole to discuss how House Democrats are abusing their power during Virginia’s special session.
Read the full story
It was relatively quiet during day two of the Virginia General Assembly special session as the House adjourned after less than an hour of meeting, while the Senate was more lively during member’s points of personal privilege.
Wednesday marked the first day the House held session electronically, with Speaker Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax County) and the House Clerk in the actual chamber of the Capitol building. The Senate, just like on Tuesday, held its session at the Science Museum of Virginia.
Read the full story
Dominion Energy earned $502.7 million in revenues above authorized profit from 2017-2019, and customers’ residential energy bills have increased by 28.81 percent since 2007, the State Corporation Commission (SCC) said.
The Virginia State Corporation Commission released its annual report on the status of implementation of the Virginia Electric Utility Regulation Act, highlighting detailed business figures of Dominion Energy and other electric companies operating in Virginia.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Virginia state Senator Bill Stanley to the show to discuss the Virginia General Assembly’s special session and the destruction of downtown Richmond.
Read the full story
Tenth Judicial District Attorney General Stephen Crump allegedly had an extramarital affair that prompted him to commit prosecutorial misconduct in a murder trial, according to a motion that a Chattanooga attorney filed this month.
Bradley, McMinn, Monroe, and Polk counties make up the 10th Judicial District, according to the Office of the District Attorney General’s website.
Read the full story
Tennessee native and former Vice President Al Gore went on CNN this week and compared U.S. President Donald Trump to Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police officer accused of killing George Floyd.
Gore made the analogy while talking to CNN host Anderson Cooper about Trump not funding the U.S. Postal Service with additional money ahead of this year’s presidential election.
Read the full story
To hear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tell it, President Donald Trump’s efforts to reform the Postal Service — which began with an April 2018 executive order appointing a task force to bring USPS into solvency almost two years before there was any COVID-19 pandemic — were intended to undermine increased requests for mail-in and absentee ballots in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
In an Aug. 16 dear colleague letter, Pelosi alleged, “Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the President’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, one of the top Trump mega-donors, has proven a complicit crony as he continues to push forward sweeping new operational changes that degrade postal service, delay the mail, and… threaten to deny the ability of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail in the upcoming elections in a timely fashion.”
Read the full story
Victim after victim lined up on Tuesday to describe Joseph DeAngelo as a “sick monster,” “horrible man” and “subhuman” who stole their innocence and changed their lives during a more than decade-long reign of rape and murder that earned him the nickname Golden State Killer.
Read the full story
Peter Vlaming has two great passions—teaching and French.
But a Virginia school district stripped the French teacher of the ability to impart these passions in high school classrooms when it fired him for not using pronouns preferred by a transgender student.
Read the full story
Preliminary estimates show that viewership for the first night of the Democrats’ virtual convention was down compared with the opening of Hillary Clinton’s nominating party four years ago.
An estimated 18.7 million people watched coverage between 10 and 11 p.m. on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, the Nielsen company said. Four years ago, opening night drew just under 26 million viewers.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Dr. K to discuss the delayed college football and National Football League seasons and the financial repercussions of COVID.
Read the full story
A judge heard arguments Tuesday but did not immediately rule on whether to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s plans to remove an enormous statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee along Richmond’s famed Monument Avenue.
An injunction issued in the lawsuit currently prevents Northam’s administration from moving forward with plans announced after the death of George Floyd to take down the bronze equestrian statue of Lee. The figure erected in 1890 is now one of the country’s most prominent tributes to the Confederacy.
Read the full story
U.S. District Judge David Nye of Idaho ordered a preliminary injunction on Monday temporarily halting a state law that prohibits transgender girls and women from competing in female athletics, The Idaho Statesman reported.
Nye’s ruling will allow transgender girls and women to participate in women’s sports this upcoming fall at colleges and in secondary schools as the lawsuit proceeds, the Statesman reported.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed recovering journalist Clint Brewer who observed that the American people have become disenchanted with political conventions.
Read the full story
Amazon plans to create 3,500 new tech and corporate jobs in six cities nationwide, the company announced Tuesday.
Most of the company’s new hires will be located in Amazon’s New York office with the rest being added in Dallas, Detroit, Denver, Phoenix and San Diego, according to a press release. Amazon also announced plans to expand the six offices to accommodate the new hires.
Read the full story
Election season is in full swing, and with the Democratic National Convention (DNC) underway, the Trump campaign and Republican National Convention (RNC) are busy with counterprogramming this week.
Samantha Cotten, the Regional Communications Director for the Trump campaign, said that Republicans are focusing on 17 battleground states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Read the full story
Each week in the inexorable march to Election Day, it becomes more challenging to believe how the campaign is unfolding and to rationalize it as a serious process for choosing the leader of the world’s greatest nation. After some reflection, it becomes clear that the extreme improbability of this process is the result of it not really being a race between two pairs of candidates for national office. It is surely the last round in the great battle between Donald Trump and the national political media.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed public affairs strategist Clint Brewer to discuss a recent poll showing Black and Hispanic voters moving away from Biden to Trump.
Read the full story