Former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul posted a picture of himself in a hospital Friday but said he was OK after video circulated online of him struggling to speak during an interview.
The 85-year-old former Texas congressman, who ran for president three times, posted a picture on Facebook showing him smiling in a hospital gown and giving a thumbs-up. “I am doing fine. Thank you for your concern,” he said.
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Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Cameron Sexton and other members of the Republican leadership of the Tennessee House have written a letter to Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson and asked him to investigate the spending of federal and state COVID funds by Metro Nashville government. “We worked with him [Comptroller Wilson] over the last couple of days,” Sexton told host Michael Patrick Leahy on The Tennessee Star Report, broadcast on TalkRadio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC, Friday morning. “We expect to receive the results of the review in about two weeks,” Sexton added. “We went with a review because it can be conducted more quickly than a complete audit,” he noted. If the review suggests further investigation is necessary, Speaker Sexton said a full and complete audit could follow. Here’s the letter:
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Reading proficiency among Tennessee third-graders is projected to drop by 50%, and math proficiency is projected to drop by 65% because of COVID-19-related school closures, according to preliminary projections released by the Department of Education.
Gov. Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn announced the projected learning loss during a news conference at the state Capitol on Wednesday.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is under enormous pressure from his Democratic colleagues not to confirm whoever President Donald Trump may nominate to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court before the election.
But in truth, there is simply no reason, neither constitutional nor political, for Trump and McConnell to wait at all.
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First off and very quickly, if you’re into podcasts? Check out Joe Rogen’s interview with the UK Spectator’s Douglas Murray regarding how social justice warriors will undoubtedly double down during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
Worth the 20 minutes on background as you go about your day.
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A Virginia health official is warning of a “severe public health threat” if a planned campaign rally for President Donald Trump goes forward Friday evening.
Dr. Natasha Dwamena, a Department of Public Health district director, said in a letter Thursday that the 4,000 people expected to attend Trump’s rally at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport would be breaking Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order generally banning gatherings of more than 250 people. She said the rally should be canceled, rescheduled or scaled down to comply with the governor’s order.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain to the show to discuss civics in today’s schools with special guest Paul Summers.
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Talk in Washington has turned to the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and what President Trump will do to replace her—and Democrats aren’t happy about it.
First, they know Republicans probably have the votes to approve a qualified nominee if the president appoints one. Second, they don’t like that it takes the focus off what they see as a winning campaign issue—President Trump’s response to covid-19.
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she rejected calls from fellow Democrats outside of the chamber who wanted her to shut down the federal government over the Senate GOP’s handling of the Supreme Court vacancy.
“I have the privilege of being a leader in the most diverse party in every possible way including opinion. A large number of people outside, not in the House, but outside wanted me to shut down government because of what they’re doing on Justice Ginsburg. Shut down government? I’m not a big believer in shutting down government,” she
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain to weigh in on President Trump’s recent executive order regarding racial and sexual identities.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed former Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers to the show to talk about his keepnine.org project.
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper said Thursday that he and members of his administration have shown total transparency providing information to the public about COVID-19.
Cooper said this at a press conference Thursday.
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Over 120 people were arrested during riots in Louisville, Kentucky following a grand jury decision to charge one of three officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor, who was killed during the execution of a narcotics warrant in March.
A total of 127 people were apprehended between Wednesday and Thursday for damaging businesses, jumping on city vehicles and violating curfew, according to the Associated Press. Garbage crews have since begun to clear the damage reportedly caused by rioters, AP reported.
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Hundreds of thousands of Americans have already voted in states around the country, including tens of thousands who had cast their ballots before the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the possible impact it may have on the election.
Multiple states, including some critical battlegrounds, have seen massive turnout in early voting compared to 2016 as hundreds of thousands of voters have lined up outside early-voting locations or have sent in their mail-in ballots for either President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee former Vice President Joe Biden.
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Republicans in the state of Minnesota filed a lawsuit after the state government announced that late mail-in ballots could be counted up to 8 days after Election Day, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
The plaintiffs in the suit are state representative Eric Lucero (R-Minn.) and elector James Carson (R-Minn.), who sued Secretary of State Steve Simon, the man who ultimately made the decision to extend the ballot-counting deadline by just over a week. The lawsuit points out that such a decision being made by one statewide official violates the U.S. Constitution because it failed to consult the state legislature, and also allows for the counting of ballots that have “no post mark and no evidence of having been cast on November 3rd.”
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The latest data from health experts seems to be proving that reopening schools is not nearly as dangerous as some fearmongers warned, and that newly-reopened schools are not nearly as likely to experience surges in the coronavirus, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
The data comes from the National COVID-19 School Response Data Dashboard, which is run by researchers at Brown University. Their research showed that in the period from August 31st to September 13th, there were only about 230 new coronavirus cases for every 100,000 students, and about 490 new cases for every 100,000 staff members. The study sample consisted of over 550 schools, with 300 of them featuring in-person classes.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain to talk about her upcoming national tribute to law enforcement on October 17.
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A new poll shows Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump by only 5 points, nearly at the margin of error of 3.9 percent, but the president’s delegation chairman says that does not factor in Trump’s grassroots effort.
The Judy Ford Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University released the poll, which is available here.
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Nine military mail-in ballots cast for President Donald Trump were discarded at a local Pennsylvania board of elections office, a federal investigation concluded.
The FBI and Pennsylvania State Police began an investigation Monday at the request of Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, U.S. Attorney David Freed said in a statement. Salavantis requested federal assistance following reports of issues with a small number of ballots at the Luzerne County Board of Elections.
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A new survey of 2,000 demographically representative adults who were asked 51 worldview questions found Millennials are the least tolerant Americans and the most likely to seek revenge.
Most congressional staffers are members of the Millennial and Baby Buster generation, with the Millennials tending to be in higher-level positions such as legislative directors.
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Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan to the show to discuss how the coronavirus came from the Chinese Communist Party.
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Ohio’s top election official acted reasonably when he barred counties from accepting absentee ballot applications electronically in the face of potential cyberthreats and a loosely worded law, lawyers for the state and Republicans argued in a court filing Wednesday.
Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s directive was also “consistent with more than a decade of bipartisan precedent,” according to groups including the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the state GOP.
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Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Scott Taylor to the show to discuss how Virginia is in play and the binary choice exists between Biden and Trump.
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Democrats in the state Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced numerous House bills relating to policing and justice reform and COVID-19.
All together the Committee considered 20 bills during the meeting and hastily reported 19 to be considered on the Senate Floor on Friday or sometime next week.
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The Michigan House of Representatives Education Committee approved legislation that increases accessibility to apprenticeship programs in high schools on Thursday.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Ben Frederick (R-85-Owosso), brings Michigan apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs in line with federal workforce mandates so federal funding can be used.
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Three people were arrested after a large protest gathered outside Richmond Police headquarters in downtown Richmond Wednesday night.
The protest, which hundreds of people took part in, was in response to the decision by a grand jury in Louisville, Kentucky to not charge the police officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death.
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Jill Biden spent Thursday in Virginia, starting her day meeting with educators and military leaders in Hampton Roads, then heading to Richmond where she met Mayor Levar Stoney in front of the Voter Registrar’s Office, and then going to Henrico with Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D- Fairfax) for a round-table with working mothers.
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Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) paid critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi $20,000 to give an hour-long virtual presentation. Kendi is the bestselling author of “How to Be Antiracist,” a book of circular definitions used to explain critical race theory.
The average teaching assistant earns $23,000 a year; the staff spent nearly that much for a 45-minute lecture and 15-minute Q&A.
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In a video statement posted on Twitter Wednesday, Ohio State University President Kristina Johnson ignited controversy with a statement about Breonna Taylor.
In the 45 second clip Johnson said:
“Breonna Taylor deserves justice, and this does not feel like justice. We cannot accept what has happened in Louisville, we grieve the tragic and senseless loss of Breonna Taylor, a daughter, a friend, a niece, a loved one, who was unarmed and asleep. The breakdown in the justice system and the killings of unarmed Black and Brown people in our country has become all too familiar, tragically. This isn’t going to stop until we create an anti-racist world. We must come together to draw strength from each other and advance our collective vision for a better world where we’ll one day have justice for all. There is much work to be done.”
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Michigan leaders sealed a $62.8 billion fiscal 2021 budget agreement, increasing spending by billions from last year’s initial budget even after state revenue plummeted from COVID-19 and policies placed to curb its spread.
Experts previously estimated Michigan’s revenue would drop by $6.3 billion over the next two fiscal years.
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Welcome to the Thursday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).
It’s officially 39 days until the election on November 3 – and four days until President Trump and Joe Biden square off in the first presidential debate.
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Five candidates for mayor faced off in Coburn Hall at Virginia Union University on Thursday evening. The two-hour event was live-streamed and Facebook reported over 28 thousand views late Thursday. Former Governor and Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder co-moderated the event, lending an air of political weightiness to the debate. The evening’s questions focused largely on government efficiency and the current crises facing the city, showcasing a variety of experience and ideology in the candidates.
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper and his senior advisor allegedly misled the public and never intended to reveal the actual number of confirmed COVID-19 cases that Davidson County officials traced back to bars on Nashville’s lower Broadway.
As reported, Cooper ordered those bars and restaurants closed after he said they posed a health threat because of allegedly too many COVID-19 cases.
But Cooper and his senior advisor, Ben Eagles, closed those establishments because the two men allegedly had a vendetta against Steve Smith. Smith owns Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk and Steakhouse.
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