Over the weekend, Democratic candidate John Thompson spoke at a Black Lives Matter protest by the home of police union leader Lt. Bob Kroll. Thompson recently won the Democratic primary for District 62A in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Multiple video coverages of Thompson’s seven-minute speech show him calling for violence against the “racists” of Hugo, Minnesota.
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Gun-rights activist group the Virginia Citizens Defense League is lobbying 193 local jurisdictions to declare they will not ban guns. The proposed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions vary, but contain language stating that a jurisdiction “shall not exercise any authority granted to it … to regulate or prohibit the otherwise legal purchase, possession, or transfer of firearms or ammunition.”
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Even as rioting damages large sections of Richmond and the Virginia General Assembly convenes in a special session, Mayor Levar Stoney wants lawmakers to take action — not on fighting lawlessness, but to help people get stoned.
Stoney used his bully pulpit to call for the Assembly to legalize marijuana.
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Virginia parents are increasingly interested in homeschooling due to fear of COVID-19 and frustration over new public school models. Organizations ranging from the state-level Home Educators Association of Virginia to local Facebook groups are providing advice, resources and counseling.
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While many public schools across Virginia will keep their doors closed in lieu of virtual classrooms this fall, a private school may be the in-person educational option parents and students are looking for.
Fork Union Military Academy (FUMA) (7-12, male-only) is one such option. The boarding military school is known for its “One Subject Plan.” Students are enrolled in one subject at a time, allowing them to focus on one specific area of study for 7 weeks at a time. FUMA will offer in-person classes and athletics programs during the fall while taking necessary precautions for the health of its students and staff.
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If Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam opts to expand unemployment benefits by $100 a week per person, it would cost the state an additional $45 million a week, but the unemployment insurance fund already is set to run out of money in September, state officials said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to extend federal unemployment benefits by $300 a week, but states would have to supply an additional $100 a week, increasing the benefit to $400 a week.
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The Michigan Senate Saturday passed a three-bill package aiming to provide clarity to kids, educators, and parents for the fall school year.
House Bills 5911, 5912, and 5913, don’t require in-person learning for any grade and let local districts decide whether to hold classes in-person or online.
The package requires two student assessments; one within nine weeks of beginning the school year and another by the end of the year for districts to receive funding.
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Welcome to The Virginia Star!
Thank you for taking the time today to read our inaugural edition of The Virginia Star! We hope you will find us to be a valuable resource for news and information in Commonwealth!
We are very excited about this new venture: real news in real time.
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The Dayton Daily News in January 2014 reported on allegations of pay-to-play in Attorney General DeWine’s office concerning an advisory panel.
His calendar shows he met frequently with (now deceased) Alex Arshinkoff, a lobbyist and the chairman of Summit County Republican Party who represented four companies doing business with DeWine’s office.
DeWine was not the only Ohio Republican engaging in pay-to-play. Indeed, previous news reports and public records show the Ohio Republican Party funneled money to DeWine and now disgraced former House Speaker Larry Householder from such donors as FirstEnergy.
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Live from Virginia Friday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream – host Fredericks was dumbfounded by the recent letter written to the Governor of Virginia by Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney which revealed his top priority was marijuana legalization in the wake of Richmond’s violence.
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Mobile sports betting will be launching in Virginia by January 2021 at the earliest.
Since legislation was passed by the Virginia General Assembly and became effective July 1st, the Virginia lottery, who has been tasked with regulation and oversight, has been working to turn mobile sports betting for Virginians into a reality.
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Rich Anderson is the new chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. On Saturday, August 15, delegates from around Virginia voted in an unassembled election using a drive-through format. The ranked-choice results saw Anderson win round one with 48.80 percent of the votes, where incumbent Jack Wilson was eliminated. In round two, Anderson took 62.28 percent of the votes, defeating Mike Schoelwer.
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The phenomenon of “cancel culture” is a real and growing threat to free speech in America. This rapidly rising threat has caught many Americans off guard.
Since the rise of the nation-state, almost all the serious threats to freedom of speech have come from government or government sponsored agencies. However, this current threat is not from the government – at least not yet.
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The Memphis Police Department this weekend reported shootings that injured six people as well as additional shootings that killed four people.
On top of that, Memphis Police also reported that one person in the city used his vehicle to intentionally run over and kill another person.
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State Rep. John DeBerry’s Democrat opponent in the November election condemned the long-time legislator’s vote for a bill that increased penalties for committing assault against a first responder or damaging public and private property.
DeBerry is running as an Independent in the November 3 general election for House District 90, having been ousted by the majority White Executive Committee from the Tennessee Democrat Party after serving in the Tennessee House of Representatives as an elected Democrat for nearly 26 years.
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As a general rule, whatever comes cheap and easy isn’t highly valued. Yet some people these days want to take something once cherished—sacrificed for with oceans of blood and treasure—and reduce it to nothing more than a short walk to the mailbox.
I am referring to the act of voting.
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A judge in Nashville just made left-wing activist Justin Jones a happy man.
Jones has led demonstrations against the police at Legislative Plaza for the past few months. As reported last year, authorities banned Jones from inside the Tennessee capitol building after he threw a cup at then-Speaker of the House Glen Casada.
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Over 100 Republican members of Congress sent a letter Wednesday calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to end tax deductions for abortions.
In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, 23 senators and 80 representatives urged the Department of the Treasury “to take swift action to issue new regulations to protect innocent human life by ending tax breaks for abortion under the guise of medical care.”
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This week, billionaire financier George Soros celebrates his 90th birthday. That’s a big number, but it’s dwarfed by another Soros number: 708 million.
That’s the cash his two principal foundations poured out just in 2018 (the latest year publicly known), and precious little went to any ballets, symphonies, or art museums.
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Democratic Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan urged the state supreme court Wednesday to overturn a lower court decision that allows efforts to remove her from office to proceed.
King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts has permitted a recall effort that could effectively remove Durkan from office, according to the Seattle Times. A total of five Seattle residents submitted the petition due to the mayor’s handling of the police response to protests and a weeks-long encampment in the city formerly known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), the Times reported.
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A Louisiana federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the all-male military draft is constitutional, according to the Associated Press.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned a Texas court’s 2019 decision, saying in the newest decision that “only the Supreme Court may revise its precedent,” the AP reported.
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Roughly a third of TikTok’s 49 million daily users in the United States are 14 years old or younger, The New York Times reported Friday, citing internal documents.
The Chinese app’s workers noticed videos from children who appear much younger that remained on the video-streaming platform for weeks, a former employee told the Times. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), passed in 1998, requires internet companies to obtain parental permission before gathering data from adolescents under 13.
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President Trump on Friday said that news of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith’s plea deal with Department of Justice prosecutors was “just the beginning,” signaling that U.S. Attorney John Durham is zeroing in on other targets in his investigation.
Clinesmith is expected to plead guilty in connection with his alteration of an exonerating email during the Crossfire Hurricane (CH) investigation, which targeted members of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, including foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
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The Tennessee Department of Education has withdrawn a $1 million initiative to conduct well-being checks for all children in Tennessee from birth to age 18 after the program sparked uproar this week, with critics calling it a big-brother government overreach.
Gov. Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Dr. Penny Schwinn released the Child Wellbeing Check Toolkit during a news conference Tuesday. As originally published, the initiative recommended well-being checks for all children in the state to verify well-being as school closures have left gaps for nutrition, health, and abuse reporting services amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaign raised $48 million in the 48 hours after he selected California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, campaign officials told Reuters Thursday.
The haul is a sign of Biden’s growing fundraising strength ahead of his party’s convention which begins Monday, Reuters reported. Biden is set to formally accept his party’s nomination Aug. 20.
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Mike DeWine, as former Ohio attorney general, often awarded no-bid contracts to lawyers and collections agencies to do state work. Many of those chosen vendors also happened to be his campaign donors.
The Dayton Daily News in July 2014 reported on the connections between Attorney General DeWine’s awarding of collections contracts to vendors who also just happened to be campaign donors.
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Schools in Ohio are planning to employ a mix of in-person, at-home and hybrid options when schools reopen, according to the Ohio Department of Education.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has left the decision on how to start the new school year to individual school districts.
Schools in Ohio are planning to employ a mix of in-person, at-home and hybrid options when schools reopen, according to the Ohio Department of Education.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the state has left the decision on how to start the new school year to individual school districts.
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Minnesota Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn fired his chief of staff, Peter Su, his office confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Su was fired as a result of concerns about alleged “irregular spending” out of Hagedorn’s office, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told the DCNF.
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Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Robert Gordon on Thursday said approving a Democrat-connected firm for contact tracing was a mistake, but not politically motivated.
Gordon said MDHHS first had local health departments attempt contact tracing but those agencies didn’t have enough resources, requiring MDHHS to seek a vendor.
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Nashville residents are making an effort to paint “Black Lives Matter” on a city street.
This, according to the Nashville-based FOX 17, which reported that social justice advocates and certain Metro Council members are pushing for this idea.
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Rapper Kanye West wants Tennessee officials to place him on the ballot for the 2020 presidential election.
An unidentified person representing West arrived at the Tennessee Division of Elections office Friday. That person picked up a petition that would allow West to run in the Volunteer State, said Tennessee Secretary of State spokeswoman Julia Bruck.
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On the identity politics that used to be known as “civil rights” Sleepy Joe is fully woke.
Just as he prioritized sex and race identity for his vice presidential pick, Joe Biden would racialize his monetary policy by remaking the Federal Reserve banking system. Biden is thereby the most identity-focused candidate in American history since the 19th century. And with the force of the Democratic Party behind him, he lacks any guard rails.
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As of early August, 34 US states mandate the use of masks in public to limit the spread of COVID-19.
The efficacy of face masks has been a subject of debate in the health community during the pandemic. Because health experts disagree on their effectiveness, countries and health agencies around the world, including the World Health Organization and the CDC, have done a reversal on their mask recommendations during the pandemic.
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Many public school districts across the country have shifted from offering some in-person learning options for students to offering only remote learning at the start of the school year.
The change in plans sent many working parents rushing to find either a place for their kids to go while they work or to find a caregiver they could pay to supervise remote learning at home. Either option could end up costing parents thousands of dollars.
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A former FBI attorney will plead guilty to making false statements in documents used to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump aide Carter Page, his lawyer told the Associated Press Friday.
The guilty plea from Kevin Clinesmith is the first legal action taken in an investigation led by John Durham, a U.S. attorney looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe and other intelligence-gathering activities related to the Trump campaign.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles to the show to discuss the Tennessee Department of Education’s new “wellness liaisons” that can check up on children at schools and at their homes.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Nashville Attorney Jim Roberts to give an update on the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act.
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President Donald Trump will nominate Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to the Council of Governors.
The president announced a number of key nominations for positions in his administration this week. The Council of Governors consists of 10 governors, five from each major political party, appointed by the president.
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won’t rule out serving in presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s administration if he wins the November election, Clinton revealed in an article published Thursday.
Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said that she will fundraise for the Biden-Harris campaign while advocating for organizations she thinks could enhance voter turnout and infrastructure, The 19th, a nonprofit news outlet, reported Thursday.
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California Pastor Rob McCoy says the thousands of people who attend services at his church in violation of California coronavirus restrictions are not only coming to worship — they are coming to exercise their liberties.
The pastor discussed action that authorities have taken against him and Godspeak Calvary Chapel in a Thursday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The conversation came after the County of Ventura sought an additional restraining order after Godspeak Calvary Chapel continued to hold worship services despite an initial emergency restraining order issued August 7.
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The Comer Barn was a “gift” to Sumner County from Rogers Group Inc. by way of a deed that had no funds involved, County Executive Anthony Holt announced to Sumner County Board of Commission members at several committee meetings in April 2016.
The old and picturesque stone horse barn, considered by many as a historic structure, is located on Highway 31 between Gallatin and Hendersonville on the property of one of Rogers Group’s quarries. Rogers Group is a road paver and builder, asphalt supplier and the largest privately-owned crushed stone, sand and gravel mix company in the U.S.
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An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.
Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss Joe Biden’s wrong choices with public health policy and foreign relations.
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President Donald Trump said during a Thursday interview with the New York Post that he intends to accept the Republican presidential nomination on the White House lawn.
“I’ll probably be giving my speech at the White House because it is a great place. It’s a place that makes me feel good, it makes the country feel good,” Trump told the Post.
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President Trump is scheduled to visit Minnesota on Monday, the first stop in a three-part campaigning tour including Wisconsin and Arizona. Each speech will address “Joe Biden’s failures on jobs and the economy.”
Ken Farnaso, the deputy press secretary for the Trump campaign, confirmed Trump’s visits in a tweet Friday morning.
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The state of Michigan Thursday announced a plan to explore the viability of developing a 40-mile corridor for connected and autonomous vehicles between Downtown Detroit and Ann Arbor.
The state selected Cavnue, a subsidiary of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) that partners with Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to develop the project.
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The state of Michigan, Ford Motor Company and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be partnering to provide four million free masks to Michigan residents who are vulnerable to COVID-19, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Friday.
Masks will be given to low-income residents, seniors, schools and homeless shelters through the MI Mask Aid program, which is part of the Mask Up Michigan campaign. The program aims to get masks to vulnerable populations, including minority residents who have been adversely impacted by the pandemic as a result of racism, the governor’s office said.
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The state is increasing funding to programs to address infant mortality as well as improve mothers’ and children’s health across Ohio.
But there is no clear solution to eliminating infant mortality.
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Parents of students who attend Rutherford County Schools (RCS) must agree not to monitor their child’s online classroom sessions.
Officials at all county schools are asking parents to sign forms agreeing not to watch these virtual classes.
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Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles says, “NO!!!” to Gov. Bill Lee’s Big Brother-style child wellbeing program that plans to send government officials to families’ homes to do welfare checks of children.
The Tennessee Department of Education says it released a toolkit on child wellbeing checks to ensure the needs of children are being met during and after extended periods away from school. It is promoted as protecting children.
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