New York City Has Worst Unemployment Rate as One in Three Workers Worry About Job Security

As Americans approach Labor Day, with roughly 10.2 percent unemployed, a new survey conducted by WalletHub found that one in three Americans worry about job security.

In its nationally representative Coronavirus & Labor Day Survey, WalletHub found that Americans want extended COVID-19 relief. Of those surveyed, 74 percent said Congress should continue to extend additional federal unemployment benefits until their respective states fully reopen.

Read the full story

Lee Says Tennessee Legislature Should Not Limit Executive Emergency Powers

Gov. Bill Lee believes the Tennessee Legislature should not limit the existing executive emergency powers of the governor, Lee’s staff told a committee reviewing executive emergency powers.

The ad hoc study committee, co-chaired by Sen. Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin, and Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, met for a second time Thursday to hear testimony from Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, members of the governor’s executive staff and others.

Read the full story

Representative Denver Riggleman Announces Exploratory Committee for 2021 Virginia Gubernatorial Election

Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA-05) announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to run for governor of Virginia in the 2021 gubernatorial election. 

The first-term congressman and former intelligence officer made the announcement during an appearance on Virginia Free radio hosted by Chris Saxman on the John Fredericks Radio Network. 

Read the full story

Governor DeWine Requires Schools to Report K-12 Student COVID Cases to Government

Governor Mike DeWine announced Thursday his order requiring all K-12 schools to report COVID-19 cases to their local health department. Schools must do so within 24 hours of notification of a positive test result from a student, teacher, staff member or coach.

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Interim Director Lance Himes issued the order under DeWine. The order requires each school to appoint a coordinator to report positive cases, and to create a “reopening or pandemic operating plan.” It also requires schools to notify all parents and guardians of case reports. The order did not mention a requirement to tell the staff.

Read the full story

Minnesota State Auditor Calls for End to Criminal Asset Forfeiture Under $1,500

Democratic State Auditor Julie Blaha called for an end to criminal asset forfeiture under $1,500 because she said it unfairly affects low-income individuals. 

Blaha based her assessment on the newly-released 2019 Asset Forfeitures report, which found 94 percent of the crimes resulting in forfeitures were DUIs and controlled substances. For the past five years, DUI-related forfeitures increased by 21 percent while controlled substance-related forfeitures grew by 13 percent.

Read the full story

DeVos Tells Michigan Schools Not to Expect Federal Testing Waivers

Michigan schools should not anticipate waivers to allow schools to skip statewide testing for the upcoming school year, according to a letter sent by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to State Superintendent Michael Rice.

Rice and State Board of Education President Casandra Ulbrich had, in light of the continuing coronavirus pandemic, requested waivers from DeVos that would allow Michigan schools to skip student assessments typically required federally.

Read the full story

Facebook to Ohio Conservative: You Can’t Do That Here

Ohioan Vanessa Treft is a political grassroots consultant who has worked in multiple states – Treft is a Trump supporter.

Treft has been outspoken about Ohio’s COVID response – from her grandmother’s inability to receive hydroxychloroquine immediately following a COVID diagnosis, to her calling out Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s refusal to adequately address senior living situations.

Read the full story

House Passes Eight Police Reform Bills, Republicans Feel Unheard

House Democrats passed eight different policing reform bills during its Friday session, leaving Republicans lawmakers feeling ignored and unheard by the majority. 

The policing bills spanned from banning no-knock search warrants and the use of neck restraints by law enforcement to requiring that officers report any wrongdoings by their colleagues or be subject to discipline.

Read the full story

Herring Quits Governor’s Race, Says He’ll Run for Attorney General Again

Attorney General Mark Herring (D) will run for a third term, and is canceling his bid for the 2020 gubernatorial race, according to the Associated Press.

In December 2018, Herring told the Washington Post that he planned to run for the governor’s seat, but in February 2019, four days after censuring Governor Ralph Northam for his blackface scandal, Herring admitted to having worn blackface as an undergraduate, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Read the full story

Constitutional Experts to Joint Ad Hoc Committee on Emergency Powers: The Legislature is the Check on Executive Powers

In Thursday’s meeting of the Joint Ad Hoc Committee to Study Emergency Powers, two experts on constitutional law said, that with the deference the courts afford the executive branch, it is up to the Tennessee General Assembly to put checks on the broad powers of the governor during an emergency.

In the second of three meetings, committee members heard testimony from seven individuals:  Glenn Reynolds, Professor of Law, University of Tennessee; Larry L. Crain, Crain Law Group; Herbert H. Slatery III, Attorney General of the State of Tennessee; Patrick Sheehan, Director TEMA; Dr. Lisa Piercey, Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Health; Clark Milner, Deputy Counsel to Governor Bill Lee; Brent Easley, Legislative Director to Governor Bill Lee.

Read the full story

Commentary: Antifa Aren’t Revolutionaries -They Serve the Powers That Be

Antifa rules the streets of Portland and sows chaos in many other American cities. Millions of Americans don’t like Antifa, but many struggle to figure out who these black-masked radicals really are.

Conservatives like to call Antifa “fascist” or the modern-day successor to the Ku Klux Klan. Liberals will insist either that Antifa is a nonexistent, right-wing fantasy or that they’re secret white supremacists out to discredit the “peaceful” protesters. 

Read the full story

Oregon Coronavirus Fund May Violate Constitution by Excluding Non-Black Applicants, Experts Say

A COVID-19 relief fund for African-Americans operated out of Portland, Ore., with federal tax dollars may run afoul of both the Constitution and 1964 Civil Rights Act if it excludes non-black applicants, legal experts warn.

The Oregon Cares Fund for Black Relief + Resiliency said it seeks to offer “economic relief for the Black community, who are among Oregon’s most vulnerable groups due to systemic divestment and disparities widened and exacerbated by COVID-19.” The program is administered by two local nonprofits, the Contingent and the Black United Fund of Oregon.

Read the full story

Operation Legend Made 2,000 Arrests, Seized Around 182 Pounds of Drugs Since July, DOJ Says

Operation Legend, a federal initiative to combat murder and violent crime in major U.S. cities, has recorded over 2,000 arrests and seized large quantities of narcotics since the program’s July inception, according to the Department of Justice.

A total of 147 people have been arrested for homicide, 544 firearms have been seized and around 182 lbs (83 kilograms) of narcotics, including heroin, cocaine, meth and fentanyl, have been removed from the streets during the operation, according to a Thursday Department of Justice press release.

Read the full story

Majority of Voters Prefer Pandemic Decisions be Made at the Local and State Levels

A majority of registered voters in America favor pandemic-related policy decisions be made at the state and local levels, according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.

Just over 50% of voters would prefer “letting state and local officials determine the appropriate policies for their communities,”  while 37% favor “a national shutdown of the economy that closed all but essential businesses.”

Read the full story

Facebook Will Ban New Political Ads One Week Before the Election to Curb Misinformation

Facebook announced Thursday that it would bar any new political ads from its platform in the final week before the election.

The social network also said that it would remove any measures attempting to dissuade people from voting and would block any candidate’s attempts to claim false victories before official results have been reported, The New York Times reported.

Read the full story

House Committee Advances Bill Allowing for Early Release of Violent Offenders Through Earned Sentence Credits

The House Committee on Courts of Justice advanced a bill Wednesday that would allow for the early release of violent offenders by implementing a new earned sentence credit program.

The bill bars prisoners convicted of capital murder and most acts of violence involving minors from earning credits, but, conversely, includes first-time offenders convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, carjacking, rape and child pornography, among others.

Read the full story

Ohio FEMA Camps – Still More Questions Than Answers

The Ohio Star reported on September 3 that Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Interim Director Lance Himes released an order on August 31 – an order creating Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) shelters and legalizing their use for people who “are unable to safely self-quarantine in their place of residence and to isolate those diagnosed with or showing symptoms of COVID-19.”

The non-congregate FEMA sheltering will be utilized throughout the state for people, according to the examples given by Himes, who “test positive for COVID-19 who do not require hospitalization but need isolation (including those exiting from hospitals); those who have been exposed to COVID-19 who do not require hospitalization; and asymptomatic high-risk individuals needing social distancing as a precautionary measure.”

Read the full story

Michigan Conservative Coalition to Host ‘Back the Blue’ Event in Frankenmuth

The Michigan Conservative Coalition (MCC) will be holding a MAGA Back the Blue event on September 13 that will feature a classic car and biker cruise and a flyover in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

The event, which will run from noon to 4 p.m., will be raising money for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund and local law enforcement K-9 Units. The Trump Unity Bridge, a touring support team for President Trump, will also be in attendance.

Read the full story

Del. Rob Bloxom Commentary: Virginia Democrats’ Bill Proposals Are ‘Nothing Short of Shocking’

The Virginia House of Delegates was under Republican control for more than twenty years. This year, the Democratic party is in control of the House of Delegates, along with the Senate, and the Governor’s Mansion. This is the first time in three decades in which one party has had complete control.

The Republicans left the present Democrat controlled house with the title of being the number one rated state to do business, according to CNBC. We were also rated the third safest state in which to live and first in recidivism in the United States.

Read the full story

COVID-19 Precautions Might Help Prevent the Flu, Experts Say

Winter is ending in the Southern Hemisphere and country after country — South Africa, Australia, Argentina — had a surprise: Their steps against COVID-19 also apparently blocked the flu.

“Both seasonal flu and COVID-19 are spread by droplets and both have a respiratory impact,” explained Julie Grimes, Public Information Officer for the Virginia Department of Health.

Read the full story

State Rep. London Lamar Says She Knows Who Really Vandalized Graceland, but She Refuses to Say More

State Rep. London Lamar (D-Memphis) said this week that Black Lives Matter and groups wanting to defund the police did not vandalize property in Memphis — presumably referring to Graceland — and she knows who really did it.

The Tennessee Star contacted Lamar’s office by phone and email Thursday and asked who she thinks really vandalized Graceland and what evidence she had to back that up.

Read the full story

Biden Meets Jacob Blake’s Family to Start Wisconsin Trip

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden began a visit to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Thursday by meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, the Black man whose shooting by a white police officer sparked days of sometimes violent and destructive protests.

Biden’s trip to Kenosha, the first of his general election campaign against President Donald Trump, is testing his pitch that he’s a unifying figure, able to lead the country through a national reckoning with systemic racism along with the pandemic and its economic fallout.

Read the full story

New Jobless Claims Fall Below One Million, Beat Wall Street Expectations

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims decreased to 881,000 last week as the economy continues to suffer the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Department of Labor figure released Thursday represented a decrease of new jobless claims compared to the week ending on Aug. 22, in which there were 1,006,000 new jobless claims reported.

Read the full story

Nancy Pelosi Ignores COVID-19 Rules, Gets Hair Done

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was filmed breaking San Francisco Covid-19 rules by getting her hair done indoors and without a mask, Fox News reported.

In security footage shared with the channel, the California Democrat can be seen walking through eSalon in the city’s Pacific Heights neighborhood at around 3:10 p.m. Monday, with wet hair and no mask on her face. Pelosi is followed by the stylist, who is wearing a mask.

Read the full story

Commentary: Bannon Case May Rest with Stockman Petition

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon was recently indicted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for his role in the highly successful “We Build the Wall” online fundraising program started by Purple Heart recipient, triple-amputee Iraq war veteran Brian Kolfage. Kolfage was also indicted.

Bannon, Kolfage, and two other defendants who were indicted in this matter pleaded not guilty on Monday, and their trial is set for May 24 next year.

Read the full story

State Department Monitored 13 Americans’ Social Media in Possible Legal Violation

Officials at the U.S. embassy in Kiev ordered the monitoring of 13 prominent Americans’ social media accounts during the early days of the Ukraine scandal in spring 2019 and later were informed their activities potentially violated the Privacy Act, according to State Department memos made public on Tuesday.

The memos, released under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, show those targeted for monitoring included President Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., the president’s personal lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Fox News personalities Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Lou Dobbs. This reporter was one of the 13 individuals on the list targeted.

Read the full story

133 Illegal Immigrants and Nearly $48 Million Worth of Drugs Seized at Texas Border in 5 Days, CBP Reports Show

Migrants detained by CBP

Customs and Border Protection arrested 133 illegal immigrants and seized roughly 7,630 pounds of narcotics were seized at the border between Texas and Mexico over five days, according to the agency.

Authorities intervened in drug smuggling, human smuggling and trafficking and illegal crossing attempts, and recovered around $47,863,472 worth of narcotics, according to 15 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports between Aug. 25 and Aug. 28.

Read the full story