New Unemployment Claims Fall Below 1 Million for Second Straight Week

About 884,000 U.S. workers filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, the second consecutive week that new claims fell below the million mark and the third time in about a month.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday that the number of new claims filed in the week ending Sept. 5 was about the same as those who filed the week ending Aug. 29 – 884,000. The numbers from the week ending Aug. 29 were adjusted about by 3,000 from 881,000.

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Aitken Bibles Will Connect Students to History in Secular Ways, Says Man Who Wants Them in Tennessee Schools

Aitken Bibles tie into the lessons of the American Revolution in historical and even secular ways, said one of the men who wants to bring them to Tennessee’s elementary, middle, and high schools.

As reported, organizers of The American Bible Project want to donate these Aitken Bibles to the state’s school libraries.

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Commentary: Polls Tighten in Battleground States After President Trump Gets Big Post-Convention Bump

President Donald Trump has received a definite bump in polls following the presidential nominating conventions, including his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination at the White House on Aug. 27.

The latest NBC-Marist poll conducted Aug. 31 to Sept. 6 shows President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden tied in Florida, 48 percent to 48 percent.

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Biden Flip-Flops on Proposed National Mask Mandate, Says It Would Be Unconstitutional

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sunday walked back his pledge to impose a national mask mandate, admitting he wouldn’t be able to use the powers of the presidency to make face-coverings compulsory because that would actually be unconstitutional.

Biden was asked to respond to President Trump’s policy of giving more authority to the states during an interview with AZFamily’s “Politics Unplugged.”

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Trump Promises Navy, DOD Will ‘Not be Cancelling’ Contract with Catholic Priests

President Donald Trump promised Wednesday that neither the Navy nor the Department of Defense will cancel contracts with Catholic priests allowing serving military members.

“The United States Navy, or the Department of Defense, will NOT be cancelling its contract with Catholic Priests who serve our men and women in the Armed Forces so well, and with such great compassion & skill,” the president tweeted Wednesday morning, tagging the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. “This will no longer be even a point of discussion!”

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Commentary: If Biden Wins, China Wins—and America Loses

The New York Times on Monday published a 3,100-word story headlined “Joe Biden’s China Journey.” The three reporters whose bylines appear on the article engage in a painfully obvious effort to explain away the former vice president’s long and cozy relationship with communist China. Now, at long last, they suggest, Biden is ready to get really tough on China. Tougher even than Trump.

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Tennessee Launches School District-Level COVID-19 Data Dashboard

The Tennessee Department of Education launched a new dashboard Wednesday to report COVID-19 case data on a school district level.

A majority of school districts have submitted information for the dashboard, but it does not reflect full reporting across all districts. The department said it expects data from every school district to be reported and included on the dashboard by Sept. 22. Data will be updated on a weekly basis.

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Over Half of Double Voters in Georgia Primary Were Democrats, Secretary of State Announces

The Georgia Secretary of State announced Tuesday that about 1,000 Georgians face investigation for voting twice in the state’s June 9 primary, and 58 percent of them were cast for Democrats. A Georgia voter must request a specific party ballot in the primary election.

“While the investigation is still ongoing, initial results show that of the partisan ballots at issue, approximately 58% were Democratic ballots,” a spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told Breitbart News.

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‘Unbearable Screams’: Uighurs Accuse China of Crimes Against Humanity, File International Court Complaint

Two Uighur organizations filed a complaint against China in the International Criminal Court alleging crimes against humanity and repression of minorities.

The International Criminal Court complaint represents the first time members of the minority group have attempted to hold the Chinese government accountable for alleged repression policies, according to NBC News. Uighurs are a minority group of Muslim Turkic ethnicity numbering 11 million who mainly live in China’s Xinjiang region, according to BBC News.

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Data Shows Pandemic Contributing to Opioid Crisis, Local Health Experts Report ‘More Relapses’

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has contributed to rising drug-related deaths and the ever-worsening opioid crisis in the United States, according to health officials said local data.

Individuals battling opioid addiction have experienced increased stress due to isolation during the pandemic, according to health experts and data collected by the Wall Street Journal reported. Roughly 13% of American adults surveyed in June said they had started or increased drug use, according to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

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NIH: Halted Vaccine Study Shows ‘No Compromises’ on Safety

The suspension of a huge COVID-19 vaccine study over an illness in a single participant shows there will be “no compromises” on safety in the race to develop the shot, the chief of the National Institutes of Health told Congress on Wednesday.
AstraZeneca has put on hold studies of its vaccine candidate in the U.S. and other countries while it investigates whether a British volunteer’s illness is a side effect or a coincidence.

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Music Spotlight: Highway Women

The Highway Women is an all-female country blend (country, rock, pop) music band like no other bringing a musical movement to support other women in country music and beyond. They are comprised of singers Kristen Kae, Drew Haley, Bailey James, and Heather Harper.

The group started in 2016 and has had various members since then, but the current group has been together for about a year. They don’t have a lead singer as they try to equally share the singing responsibilities.

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Coffee Shop Owners Expose Reality of Forced Closures Under Minnesota’s Gov Walz’s Executive Orders

A viral post from The Coffee Nest shared it was forced to close after the state threatened the local business with imprisonment, fines, and more. They have since deleted the post, citing an influx of private hate messages.
Most commenters expressed frustration over the negative impacts of Governor Walz’s executive orders.

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Thousands of Ohioans Must Return Unemployment Overpayments

Around 48,000 Ohioans were notified they received an overpayment of unemployment benefits during the pandemic and must repay the state, The Associated Press reported.

That’s about 6% of the nearly 800,000 Ohioans who have been paid regular unemployment benefits since the start of the pandemic in March, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

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State Watchdog Seeks Probe of Utility Tied to Bribery Scheme

Ohio’s consumer watchdog has asked a regulatory agency to conduct an independent investigation of the state’s largest electric utility, FirstEnergy Corp., that federal authorities have tied to a $60 million bribery scheme involving one of Ohio’s most powerful politicians.

The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel in a motion filed late Tuesday with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has asked that outside investigators examine whether money collected from consumers “was improperly used for any activities in connection with HB6 instead of for electric utility service.”

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Virtual Learning Outages Hit Many Virginia School Districts on First Day

School districts across Virginia struggled to cope with increased demand Tuesday, as thousands of virtual learning students logged on for their first day of classes. Districts including Chesterfield County Public Schools(CCPS), Virginia Beach City Public Schools(VBCPS), and Arlington Public Schools (APS) all suffered major system outages. Other districts reported a high volume of callers.

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Senate Passes Two Parole Board Bills, Advances More Policing Reforms

The Senate on Wednesday passed two bills relating to the parole board and continued to advance more policing legislation. 

The first bill on the Virginia Parole Board, introduced by Sen. Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham County), aims to provide the public with more transparency on the decisions made by requiring monthly reports on the inmates released and providing the felonies the prisoner was serving time for, among others.  

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UVA Workers Union Launches Fund to Provide Employees with PPE and Help Potential Furloughs

A campus workers union at the University of Virginia (UVA) has launched a mutual fund in order to provide university staff with personal protective equipment (PPE) and raise money in the form of an emergency fund for potential furloughs as in-person instruction began Tuesday.

The union, United Campus Workers of Virginia at UVA (UCWVA-UVA), announced the formation of the fund via press release.

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Michigan Bill Allowing Early Vote Counting Still Not Passed

A bill that would allow Michigan polling clerks to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day is still in legislative limbo, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey said, adding that the Senate continues to “finesse” the proposal.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Ruth Johnson (R-14-Holly), who is a former secretary of state and chair of the Michigan Senate Elections Committee. It calls for allowing clerks to begin processing, but not counting, ballots before the election, according to The Associated Press.

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Republicans: Democrats Using Special Session to Pass Leftist Bills Without Bi-Partisan Support

The General Assembly has been in Special Session since August 18. Governor Ralph Northam’s announcement said the session was meant to pass a new budget in light of of COVID-19 and consider criminal and social reform laws. In the past three weeks, the Assembly has considered bills ending qualified immunity, eliminating minimum sentences for assaults on police officers, and allowing early release of violent offenders.

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Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles Formally Asks Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to Fire Penny Schwinn

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner (TDEC) Penny Schwinn must leave, said Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles on Wednesday.

Ogles posted on his Facebook page that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee must remove Schwinn. Ogles said he formally called on Lee to do this only hours after he read Wednesday’s Tennessee Star article that quoted three former TDEC higher-ups. Those former employees, speaking anonymously, denounced Schwinn and her alleged on-the-job behavior. They said she falsified government records, ridiculed Lee at TDEC staff meetings, and lied to avoid appearing in public alongside U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

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