Federal Judge Blocks Tennessee Law That Limits Some Mail-in Balloting Without ID

A federal judge has blocked a Tennessee law that bars first-time voters from casting November mail-in ballots unless they first show ID at an election office.
U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson in Nashville ordered the preliminary injunction on Wednesday, as states across the country address the issue of voting-by-mail instead of at polling stations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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Commentary: Environmentalists Destroyed California’s Forests

Millions of acres of California forest have been blackened by wildfires this summer, leading to the usual angry denunciations from the usual quarters about climate change. But in 1999, the Associated Press reported that forestry experts had long agreed that “clearing undergrowth would save trees,” and that “years of aggressive firefighting have allowed brush to flourish that would have been cleared away by wildfires.” But very little was done. And now fires of unprecedented size are raging across the Western United States.

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AG Barr Says There ‘Could Be’ More Charges in Durham Probe

Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that more charges are possible in the investigation led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.

Barr was asked about the status of the probe during an interview with NBC News. He declined to say whether Durham, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, is nearing the end of the probe, which began in April 2018.

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Positive COVID-19 Cases Drop in No-Lockdown Sweden, Marking the Lowest Rate Since the Pandemic Began

Sweden’s positive coronavirus cases dropped after the country carried out a record number of COVID-19 tests recently, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing Swedish health officials.
The country saw only 1,300 positive cases out of 120,000 tests last week, representing a 1.2% positive rate, Sweden’s health agency said Tuesday, according to the Reuters report. The low number of cases is the lowest Sweden has seen since the pandemic, which originated in China, first emerged in Europe, the report noted.

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GOP’s Slimmed-Down Virus Bill Scuttled by Senate Democrats

Senate Democrats scuttled a scaled-back GOP coronavirus rescue package on Thursday, saying the measure shortchanged too many pressing needs as the pandemic continues its assault on the country.

The mostly party-line vote capped weeks of wrangling over a fifth relief bill that all sides say they want but are unable to deliver. The bipartisan spirit that powered earlier aid measures has given way to election-season political combat and name-calling. The 52-47 vote fell well short of what was needed to overcome a filibuster and seems likely to end hopes for coronavirus relief before the November election.

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John Fredericks Commentary: Fauci Debunks Woodward Hit on Trump

Here we go again. Another tell-all book trashing President Trump. What else is new?

The newest snooze-rag comes from longtime lefty WAPO-Bezos lackey Bob Woodward, of Watergate deep-throat fame. In what the mainstream legacy fake news media gushed over, Woodward says the President characterized the coronavirus as “deadly” and “dangerous” — while telling Americans it was nothing to be concerned about. Woodward writes that President Trump told him the Covid-19 virus was “more deadly than even your strenuous flus,” and that he repeatedly played it down publicly.

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Joe Biden Claims 6,000 Military Members Dead From COVID, but the Real Number Is Seven

Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden said Wednesday that more than 6,000 military members have died from coronavirus, Department of Defense (DOD) statistics show the real number is just seven deaths.

While speaking in Michigan on Wednesday, Biden significantly overstated both the number of COVID infections in the military, as well as the number of COVID deaths.

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Memphis Announces Results from First Month of Federal Crime Fighting Initiative Operation Legend

Local and federal law enforcement officers in Memphis have arrested 302 people as a part of Operation Legend, according to U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant.

“Between August 6 and September 8, 2020, federal and local law enforcement agencies in the Operation Legend Task Force have worked cooperatively to arrest 106 people on new state and federal charges,” Dunavant said in a press release.

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United States Has Revoked Over 1,000 Visas for ‘Security Risks’ from China

Since June, over 1,000 Chinese nationals located in the United States have had their visas revoked after being labeled national security risks, as reported by CNN.
The State Department released a statement on Wednesday addressing the matter, revealing that the initiative had specifically targeted “graduate students and research scholars” at various American universities who had been determined to be “high-risk,” and were thus removed from the country.

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California Fire That Killed Three Threatens Thousands of Homes

A Northern California wildfire threatened thousands of homes Thursday after winds whipped it into a monster that incinerated houses in a small mountain community and killed at least three people.

Several other people have been critically burned and hundreds, if not thousands, of homes and other buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the fire in the foothills of the northern Sierra Nevada, authorities said.

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Mainstream Media Declares Ohio Star Reports Rumors, Gov. Office Says Not So Fast

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s Press Secretary Dan Tierney clarified the governor’s remarks made on September 8 regarding internet rumors about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) camps and kids being pulled from home to stay overnight at school being “garbage.”

Tierney said in an interview with The Ohio Star that messages the governor received over the weekend preceding the Tuesday press briefing came from concerned Ohioans who were commenting on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) infographic that showed up on social media over the weekend.

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Meshawn Maddock Commentary: Don’t Let Joe Biden Give the Whole Country a Taste of Whitmer’s Bitter Authoritarian Medicine

Workers and business owners across the state are still waiting to learn what fate Governor Gretchen Whitmer has in store for them.

Of course, businesses that wield political clout and make significant contributions to Whitmer’s budget — say, a crowded Detroit casino — have no such uncertainty to worry about. They’re allowed to open.

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Virginia Senate Dems to House on Stripping Qualified Immunity: Not So Fast

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to pass by indefinitely and create a joint House-Senate sub-Committee to further discuss a bill to end the qualified immunity defense for law enforcement. 

The motion to pass by indefinitely was agreed to by a vote of 12-Y 3-N with six Democratic Senators voting alongside their Republican peers on the prevailing side. 

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Dave Yost Says Ohio State University Should Sue Big 10 If Conference Refuses to Play Football

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in an interview with Fox Radio that if the Big 10 refuses to change its stance on college football, Ohio State University (OSU) should sue.

Yost said that “it seems crazy,” that with so many other sports, including high school and amateur football being played that OSU will not be able to have a season.

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Target Pledges to Make Black Employees 20 Percent of Its Workforce

Target is pledging to ensure that Black employees make up at least 20 percent of its workforce. The Minneapolis-based corporation based their goal on a diversity report of 2019.

Target stated that the data indicated a need for more “equitable outcomes for Black team members.” For this ethnicity only, the corporation promises to broaden leadership pathways, develop hiring and retention programs, increase mentorship and sponsorship programs, tailor benefits.

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Minnesotan Public University Grants $92K to ‘Decolonize Educators’

Bemidji State University will grant $92,000 for a “Decolonizing Educators” program. The university announced its decision to fund these scholarships in a press release last week.

The funds come from a Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) initiative called “Minnesota Indian Teaching Training Program” (MITTP). The state program administers scholarships to enrolled members of federally-recognized tribes, or first- or second-degree descendants. MITTP is currently available through six universities and colleges.

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University of Michigan Resident Advisers, Cafeteria Workers Join Strike

The resident assistants at University of Michigan have joined protests over the school’s coronavirus regulations, announcing earlier this week that they would be striking.

More than 100 residential advisers voted to strike in demand of increased coronavirus protections, hazard pay and additional communication about coronavirus statistics at the school, according to reporting by The Michigan Daily, the student newspaper for the University of Michigan. The strike began Wednesday morning and mostly impacts mailroom operations and lock-out services. Participating resident assistants will also not perform duty shifts, although they will informally enforce COVID-19 safety regulations.

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Letter to the Editor: Athletics and Masks

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of watching my 2 children compete in a cross-country meet. They were thrilled to be able to compete! It was an absolutely beautiful weekend!  The place of attendance provided a tremendous amount of open, green space for spectators to easily socially distance. There were acres upon acres of a wide open, lush countryside; a magnificent landscape from which I could view my children as they participated.  Thank you for allowing these students to have a season. However, I feel that our school, as well as many other schools, are over-reaching and over-extending a couple of the Health Order recommendations; to the extent I feel such strict requirements may not be in the best overall health interest for athletes.

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Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn Has Created ‘a Fairly Abysmal’ Work Environment, Former Employees Allege

Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Commissioner Penny Schwinn and her leadership skills have created a toxic work environment and driven too many talented state workers away and into the private sector, said three former TDOE employees.

These are the same three sources who criticized Schwinn in an article that The Tennessee Star published Wednesday. Those sources spoke on condition of anonymity. They said the problems within the department started when Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee appointed Schwinn. And the sources also said the difficulties began not despite Schwinn — but because of her.

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