Former Vice President Joe Biden has selected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate and presumptive Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in the 2020 election as the Biden campaign goes all in on the defund the police issue.
In June Sen. Harris supported cutting $150 million from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) budget and taking the police force below 10,000 for the first time in more than a decade.
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The New York Times reports that national retailers and restaurant chains such as J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, Le Pain Quotidien, and Subway are permanently closing locations in New York City in response to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s management of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to a “mass exodus” of residents and businesses.
Business leaders warn that the city is facing a crisis of “historic proportions,” according to the Times.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Dr. Carol M. Swain to weigh in on Joe Biden’s vice presidential pick of Kamala Harris.
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Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday defended Tennessee’s response to the coronavirus pandemic after receiving criticism from a top Democratic congressional leader, arguing that his decisions have been “data driven” despite not adhering entirely to White House recommendations.
“Our response has focused on reducing bureaucratic barriers, strengthening private sector partnerships, and finding every opportunity to protect the lives and livelihoods of Tennessee,” Lee, a Republican, said in a three-page letter to South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn.
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A Justice Department investigation has found Yale University is illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants, in violation of federal civil rights law, officials said Thursday.
Yale denied the allegation, calling it “meritless” and “hasty.”
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Sen. Kamala Harris, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, reportedly prosecuted nearly 2,000 people on marijuana-related charges during her time as California attorney general.
A total of 1,974 people were sent to state prisons for marijuana-related offenses during Harris’s 2011-2016 tenure as the Golden State’s lead prosecutor, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
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At a forum held at the White House Wednesday, the Trump administration said it is calling on Congress to authorize another $105 billion in funding to help states reopen schools.
“We believe many school districts can now reopen safely, provided they implement mitigation measures and health protocols to protect families, protect teachers, and to protect students,” President Donald Trump said.
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When it comes to social media influencers, many might recognize Michelle Obama, Leonardo DiCaprio, Roger Federer, and Billy Joel. But what about the superstar Islamist clerics — Mohamad Al Arefe, A’id Al Qarnee, Salman Al Odah, and Othman Al Khamis — whose track records range from incitement of jihad, country-entry bans, and displays of bigotry?
Not only do members of the latter group attract more Twitter followers, but their Twitter fan bases are so large that if they were to unite and form a country, it would become the world’s 27th most populous.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed administrator for Centers of Medicaid Services and a member of the Coronavirus White House Task Force Seema Verma to discuss the recent uptick of COVID cases in Tennessee.
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The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), along with the Southeastern (SEC) and Big-12 conferences, is sticking with its plan to play football in the fall.
After the Big Ten and Pac 12 conferences postponed its football seasons on Tuesday, the ACC released a statement online that emphasized an established plan of listening to advice from authorities and medical experts as well as making adjustments in necessary.
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The United Arab Emirates and Israel have agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state, President Donald Trump said Thursday.
The announcement makes the UAE the first Gulf Arab state to do so and only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties to Israel.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Secretary of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Wilbur Ross to discuss the importance of completing the 2020 Census.
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The Iranian navy boarded and briefly seized a Liberian-flagged oil tanker near the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S., the American military said Thursday.
The U.S. military’s Central Command published a black-and-white video showing what appeared to be special forces fast-roping down from a helicopter onto the MT Wila, whose last position appeared to be off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates near the city of Khorfakkan.
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There was a smattering of boos when players from FC Dallas and Nashville SC collectively took a knee during the national anthem before their MLS game Wednesday night in Frisco, Texas.
Dallas defender Reggie Cannon said he was disgusted by the boos at Toyota Stadium when players and officials knelt to call attention to racial injustice. He said teammate Ryan Hollingshead turned to him afterward and said he was sorry.
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Former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen’s Nashville-based Silicon Ranch will help power Facebook’s operations in the state.
Company officials will partner with the Tennessee Valley Authority to develop carbon-free energy for a 70-megawatt solar facility in Madison County. This, according to a press release that TVA officials published on their website Thursday.
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New unemployment claims last week in Minnesota dropped by 2,978 from the prior week. For the week ending Aug. 8, 9,337 new unemployment claims were registered, compared to 12,315 new claims the week ending Aug. 1.
More Minnesota workers are dropping off the unemployment rolls overall as well. Ongoing unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 8 stood at 264,267, which is a drop of 23,948 claims from the prior week’s 288,215 claims.
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Virginia’s legislature will meet in a Special Session on August 18, and House Democrats are eyeing new laws and regulations that will place tighter regulations on Virginia police departments and officers.
In a statement released today, the House Democrats listed a myriad of points (detailed at the end of the article) they hope to address by introducing new legislation during the Special Session.
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The Minnesota Senate rejected Governor Walz’s appointee for the Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) Commissioner Nancy Leppink in a close vote 34 to 32.
Following the four hour session on Wednesday, the governor’s office issued a news release sharing Leppink’s lengthy career and its successes, as well as statements from various councils and organizations who support her.
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New unemployment claims in Ohio dropped last week by 5,963 from the prior week. For the week ending Aug. 8, 20,090 new unemployment claims were registered, compared to 26,053 new claims the week ending Aug. 1.
More Ohio workers also are dropping off the unemployment rolls overall. Advance unemployment claims for the week ending Aug. 8 stood at 350,702, which is a drop of 58,621 claims from the prior week’s 409,323 claims.
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New unemployment claims in Michigan dropped last week by 5,380 from the prior week ending Aug. 1.
For the week ending Aug. 8, 14,462 new unemployment claims were registered, compared to 19,842 new claims the week ending Aug. 1.
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This is the first story in an eight-part series on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System
On July 2, Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine introduced the Ohio Public Health Advisory System (OPHAS). The color-coded map assigns a color to each of Ohio’s 88 counties that is supposed to be indicative of each county’s COVID spread.
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Protests in the City of Richmond took a turn for the worse late Tuesday night as vandalism and violence broke out, damaging multiple city buildings.
The James Center, Sun Trust building, John Marshall Courts Building, and other city buildings in Richmond had their windows smashed in by a group of roughly 50 people, the Washington Post reports
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Three Michigan women have filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Treasury Department on Tuesday in order to stop taxation of feminine hygiene products like tampons, citing gender discrimination and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Emily Beggs, Claire Pfeiffer and Wei Ho filed the lawsuit on August 11 in the Court of Claims, according to MLive. The lawsuit says that collecting taxes on feminine hygiene products is discriminatory based on the 14th Amendment, which protects against “intentional inequalities.”
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U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green wants the governing board of the Federal Reserve to resume meeting in public to comply with the Sunshine Act.
The CARES Act has allowed the board of governors to meet in secret for the most part, Green said. So, he and U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI-02) this week introduced the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, HR 8007, to make the board transparent once again.
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Joe Biden is calling for a nationwide protective mask mandate, citing health experts’ predictions that it could save 40,000 lives from coronavirus over the next three months.
”Wearing the mask is less about you contracting the virus,” Biden said. “It’s about preventing other people from getting sick.”
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Around 963,000 Americans filed new unemployment claims last week, marking the first time the figure dropped below one million since March, according to the Department of Labor.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics figure released Thursday represented a decrease of 228,000 new jobless claims compared to week that ended August 1. That number also beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations, according to CNBC.
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The second session of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly wrapped up Wednesday evening after passing the legislation called for in Governor Bill Lee’s proclamation.
Over the course of three legislative days, the state Senate and House passed measures related to COVID-related liability protection, expansion of telemedicine and criminal laws related to protests.
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If you’re not convinced that Americans have been sold a distorted view of COVID-19 risk, consider Major League Baseball.
Most of the league’s players are among the 46 million Americans between ages 25 and 34. A total of 992 people in this age group have died with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a mortality rate of 2 per 100,000.
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Many public schools in Virginia won’t start until the end of August, but Thales Academy in Glen Allen is already off to a strong start for the 2020-2021 school year.
Thales, which is a private school with campuses in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, started their school year on July 20.
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Sumner Redstone, who joined his family’s drive-in movie chain in the 1950s and used it to build a vast media empire that included CBS and Viacom, has died. He was 97.
Under his watch, Viacom became one of the nation’s media titans, home to pay TV channels MTV and Comedy Central and movie studio Paramount Pictures. ViacomCBS Inc., which he led for decades, remembered Redstone for his “unparalleled passion to win, his endless intellectual curiosity and his complete dedication to the company.”
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Wednesday 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 history of tax issues and double standards.
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Despite COVID-19, Nashville Metro At-Large Council Member Steve Glover wants to gather with other people in public to watch U.S. President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention later this month.
But, as Glover said this week on Facebook, some people have a problem with that.
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The FBI is investigating the shooting of a military helicopter during a training mission this week in northern Virginia, injuring one crew member who was aboard, officials said Wednesday.
The Air Force helicopter was flying over Middleburg on Monday when it was shot from the ground nearby, according to authorities. The helicopter made an emergency landing at the Manassas Regional Airport, and federal agents were called to the scene to investigate, the FBI said in a statement.
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People arrested in Portland since late May on non-violent misdemeanor charges during the protests that have racked Oregon’s largest city for more than two months won’t be prosecuted.
The new policy announced Tuesday recognizes the outrage and frustration over a history of racial injustice that has led to the city’s often violent protests and the practical realities of the court system, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said. It is running more than two months behind in processing cases because of COVID-19.
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Those who have been following country music their whole lives know already who Jamie O’Neal is as an artist. Off her first album, Shiver, released in 2000, she had two number one hits, “There Is No Arizona,” and “When I Think About Angels.” Her next top ten hit came in 2005, “Somebody’s Hero.”
I wanted to find out more about this country star who was born in Australia. Having no Australian accent, O’Neal said, “I was born in Sydney, Australia, where my parents (Jimmy and Julie Murphy) were performers who moved to America when I was two. I always say that I am the opposite of Nicole Kidman who was born in Hawaii and was raised in Australia. It was the opposite for me, I was born there but raised in the U.S.”
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A Georgia school district has ordered the quarantine of 925 students and staff following a local outbreak of the coronavirus in their school system, The New York Times reported.
The Cherokee County School District, located north of Atlanta, Georgia, opened for in-person learning on August 3 for over 30,000 students, but is now shuttering one high school in the school district and ordering the quarantine of hundreds of students and school officials.
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Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks was joined by Trump Campaign Press Secretary Hogan Gidley to talk about the Biden-Harris ticket and their support system of the mainstream media.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee Star National Correspondent Neil W. McCabe to weigh in on traditional polling and Biden’s VP pick.
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James Harris was born in Senatobia, Mississippi, in 1950, to parents who owned a furniture store.
But when James was four, his father was shot dead in an altercation involving a dice game. The comfort of his early youth thus being stripped away, he turned to sharecropping and burglary to help make his family’s ends meet, and then, following the advice of the local police chief that it would be best if he left the small town of Coldwater, Mississippi, where he was living at age 17, Harris moved to Florida to work as a truck driver and fruit picker.
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Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, gave Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a 28-minute notice before releasing an illegal immigrant charged with second-degree rape and sexual abuse back into the public, according to county data obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich had pledged to allow more cooperation with ICE on Nov. 4 when he rolled back a sanctuary policy he signed into law three months prior that prohibited county officials from working with ICE.
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Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, Fredericks welcomed Virginia Democratic state Senator Joe Morrissey to discuss the violence and looting happening in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
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School districts seeking additional funding to help offset the coronavirus pandemic can now apply for a grant from the Education Equity Fund.
The fund, created by the Michigan Department of Education, is aimed at helping to close the technology gap and provide mental health services for students and staff.
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Richmond police arrested and charged four individuals with rioting Tuesday night after buildings in downtown Richmond were damaged and defaced.
“On Tuesday night a group of individuals broke windows and damaged and defaced property in several neighborhoods in the city of Richmond,” Richmond police said in a statement obtained by The Virginia Star. “At approximately 11:50 p.m., officers detained several individuals. The Department consulted with the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney on possible charges and charged four.”
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In the current unpredictable and health-driven world, safety is primary for Colonial Downs Racetrack and Rosie’s Gaming Emporium.
“Safety over revenues,” said Executive Vice President of Operations John Marshall in an interview with The Virginia Star. “That is the attitude of our team and that’s how we’re operating.”
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Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has won the 2020 Democratic primary, beating her foremost challenger Antone Melton-Meaux. Omar will now face off with Republican candidate Lacy Johnson on Election Day.
Although the votes are still trickling in, Omar has secured the win with 58 percent of the vote compared to Melton-Meaux’s 40 percent.
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An Ohio man is one of five being indicted in a $4 million Payroll Protection Program (PPP) fraud case.
The accused allegedly submitted, or assisted in the submission of a fraudulent PPP loan for five businesses according to the indictment. Khalil Gibran Green Sr. of Cleveland claimed to be the sole owner of Impact Creations LLC, a company that claimed to have 67 employees and an average monthly payroll of $332,000 on a PPP application.
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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose stated that Ohio will not require masks to be worn at Ohio polls.
In a press conference Wednesday, LaRose went through the state’s guidelines and detailed some of the precautions Ohio would take in light of the recent pandemic. The secretary of state encouraged voters to take advantage of absentee voting, a system that’s caused some controversy recently, stating that the system “is completely safe.”
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Although Governor Mike DeWine chose to accept the $300 per week per out-of-work Ohioan offered by President Donald Trump in enhanced unemployment benefits, the Ohio Republican has decided to decline to add an additional $100 per week suggested by the White House.
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Facebook will invest $800 million to build a new state-of-the-art data center in Gallatin to create approximately 100 jobs, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced Wednesday.
Gallatin officials told The Tennessee Star that Facebook will hire locally.
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Several bills addressing the issues outlined in Governor Bill Lee’s proclamation for an extraordinary session of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly were taken up in Senate and House committee meetings Tuesday.
The call for the special session limited the legislation that could be taken up to COVID-related liability protection for persons and entities, electronic delivery of health-related services, protection of private and public property and personnel as well as the appropriations related to the legislation passed during the special session.
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