Month: September 2020

Ohio, GOP Defend Limit on Ballot Drop Boxes to One per County

The Associated Press

Ohio and Republican groups including the Trump campaign are fighting to uphold a GOP election chief’s directive limiting ballot drop boxes in the presidential battleground to one per county.

They told a state appellate court in filings Monday that a county judge overstepped his authority when he blocked it. The Ohio Republican Party said Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Richard Frye “relied on anecdotal evidence and ‘sound public policy,’” when the case “presents a pure question of law.”

Read the full story

Restaurant Owner Refuses to Back Down in Calling Out Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s ‘Manipulation and Suppression’ of Low Coronavirus Numbers

Jason M. Reynolds

One barbecue restaurant says Nashville Mayor John Cooper does not have a leg to stand on when it comes to his cover-up of low COVID-19 case numbers in bars and restaurants and his 34-37 percent tax increase.

Carey Bringle of Peg Leg Porker, located in the Gulch, posted on Facebook Saturday that he would not retract a public letter to Nashvillians he had written which referenced a story by Dennis Ferrier. Peg Leg Porker’s Facebook page, with both letters, is here.

Read the full story

A Year After Impeachment, Hunter Biden’s Ukraine Activities Come Home to Roost

Admin

A year ago this month, Democrats began their impeachment crusade against President Trump because he had sought an investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine. And the rallying cry then was that any concerns about the Bidens were pure, discredited conspiracy theories.

What a difference a year makes.

The GOP-led Senate Finance and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees plan to release a joint report as early as this week disclosing the results of a year-long probe into Joe Biden’s stewardship of Ukraine anti-corruption policy while his son earned big money as a board member at the corruption-plagued Burisma Holdings gas firm.

Read the full story

Lamar Alexander Weighs in on Replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Chris Butler

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) on Sunday shared his thoughts on U.S. President Donald Trump’s intent to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ginsburg died Friday.

Alexander also weighed in on U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) announcement that the Senate will vote on that nomination.

This, according to a press release that Alexander shared on his Facebook page.

Read the full story

Commentary: The Ivory Tower’s ‘Anti-Racist’ Olympics

Admin

Are the lofty lords of higher education beginning to realize that the dictates of social justice would require a “largely peaceful” defenestration of these “educators” along with their cushy, taxpayer-subsidized sinecures?

Academia’s elites are engaged in a heated competition at the Anti-Racist Olympics. The no-fun and games are a decided public spectacle, one demanded by the contestants’ leftist ideology and fellow-traveling peers to prove one’s fealty to the hideous myth of America’s systemic racism.

Read the full story

Democrats Say They Will Pack the Court if Republicans Vote to Replace Ginsburg in 2020

Admin

Prominent Democrats are threatening to expand the size of the Supreme Court to cancel out President Donald Trump’s court picks if Republicans vote on late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement this year.

Left-wing activists have been pushing Democratic politicians to endorse court-packing since Justice Anthony Kennedy’s 2018 retirement cleared the way for Justice Brett Kavanaugh to join the high court. Some congressional Democrats embraced the idea following Ginsburg’s death Friday night.

Read the full story

Judge Blocks Trump’s WeChat Ban, Says the Move ‘Targets the Chinese American Community’

Admin
TikTok Social Media

A judge blocked the Department of Commerce’s ban on Chinese social messaging app WeChat over First Amendment concerns early Sunday morning before it could go into effect.

Judge Laurel Beeler of San Francisco issued the decision more than a month after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning both WeChat and social media app TikTok over national security concerns, The Associated Press reported. The executive order signed on Aug. 6 was set to go into effect Sunday.

Read the full story

Minnesota Freedom Fund Bailed Out 37-Year-Old Man Accused of Raping 8-Year-Old Girl

Admin

The Minnesota Freedom Fund (MFF), a charity promoted by Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, helped free a 37-year-old man accused of raping an 8-year-old girl from jail.

The fund also bailed out a man who allegedly broke into the home of a 71-year-old woman and tortured her, and a man accused of curb stomping and robbing another man who walked with a cane the same day that George Floyd died. Records of the fund assisting these individuals and others were obtained by Alpha News in collaboration with the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).

Read the full story

Joe Biden Endorses Michigan Candidate Who Once Called Women ‘Breeders’

Admin

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden endorsed Michigan congressional nominee Jon Hoadley Wednesday despite remarks Hoadley made in 2004 and 2005, calling women “breeders.”

Hoadley, who is hoping to unseat GOP Rep. Fred Upton in Michigan’s 6th Congressional District, also previously published a conversation on his blog which referenced four-year-old girls wearing thongs, The New York Post reported. The blog, “Rambling Politics,” was deleted in early August.

Read the full story

Democrats on Filling a SCOTUS Vacancy in 2016: ‘A Responsibility to Vote’

Admin

Several Democratic leaders favored a Senate confirmation vote for President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland in 2016.

Following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, Obama nominated Garland, who had been the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to block a confirmation vote for Garland until after the 2016 presidential election, The Washington Post reported.

Read the full story

Commentary: Reviving The Conservative Heart of Organized Labor

Admin

It is no coincidence that what finally broke the Soviet Union was a Catholic trade union — a group of shipyard workers, led by an electrician and motivated by a faith that their oppressors deemed an opiate.

Christianity and its sweeping social vision enlivened the workers in Gdansk and their entire nation and, a decade later, a totalitarian superpower claiming to speak on behalf of all workers around the world had vanished. The forbidden revolution of workers bound together in solidarity around a shared vision of dignity, work, and the common good did what tanks and armed divisions had failed to do: it ended communism and gained freedom for millions.

Read the full story

Tennessee Comptrollers: Memphis-Area Nonprofits Wrongfully Obtained More Than $37,000 in Taxpayer Money

Chris Butler

Tennessee Comptrollers have released two investigations revealing what they describe as fraudulent actions by two Memphis-area nonprofits.

Red Robins Academy of Learning, Inc. (RRAL), and Giving Youth a Chance (GYAC) both participated in the Summer Food Service Program in 2018. The Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) administers this federal program and provides free meals to children during summer months when school is not in session.

Read the full story

Indianapolis Racial Justice Activist Admits She is White, ‘Used Blackness’ for Own Gain

Admin

A leading activist for racial equality in Indianapolis, Indiana apologized for misleading people about her race for years in order to grow in prominence.

Satchuel Cole has been highly a visible racial justice activist in Indianapolis, has worked with the local Black Lives Matter chapter and was even the spokesperson for the family of Aaron Bailey who was killed by police during a June 2017 traffic stop, according to The Indy Star. Her apology, which she posted Wednesday on Facebook, came after Black Indy LIVE published an article detailing Cole’s family history.

Read the full story

Census Data Boosts Trump, Showing Record Income Gains and Historic Low Poverty

Admin

As he heads into the final stretch of the election, President Trump is getting a boost from new census data showing historic, broad-based economic gains for U.S. households in 2019.

The U.S. Census Bureau on Monday released data showing median household income surging to a record high of more than $68,700 last year. The increase of 6.8% in household income was the largest one-year increase on record.

Read the full story

Nashville Mayor John Cooper on July 2: ‘Our Public Health Investigators Have Found a Record Number of Clusters Originating from Bars within the Past Week’

Julie Carr

Here are Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s exact words, delivered at his July 2, 2020 press conference, beginning at 3:01 mark in the video of that press conference.

It’s worth noting the Nashville rate of confirmed cases did decline while bars and restaurants operated at 50 percent capacity in May. The Metro Parks facilities opened in phase three will remain open including dog parks, skate parks, basketball courts, and playgrounds. And recreational leagues and pools will still be permitted as outbreaks have not been traced back to these venues or activities.

Now, of course, we urge you to practice safe social distancing around swimming pools this weekend. Additionally, all bars in Davidson County known as limited-service restaurants that derive the majority of their revenue from alcohol sales will close for a minimum of 14 days beginning tomorrow which is equal to one incubation cycle of the coronavirus.

Read the full story

Students Call Out Tuition Theft as Gettysburg College Tells Most to Go Home

Admin

After quarantining students in their dorms for days, Gettysburg College decided to send most of its resident students home in early September.

On September 4, Gettysburg College President Bob Iuliano sent a message announcing that the Pennsylvania institution would implement a “de-densification” plan, citing high rates of COVID-19 transmission. More than 1,000 students were required to move off-campus, according to Gettysburg’s administration.

Read the full story

Virginia 2021 Gubernatorial Election: Amanda Chase Hopes to Bring Strong Leadership and Restore Virginia

Jacob Taylor

State Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) believes she is the right person for the Virginia governorship who will bring the necessary changes for the people of the Commonwealth. 

The Virginia 2021 gubernatorial election will not take place until November, 2021, but that does not stop Chase from working in the intermediary to achieve her goal. 

Read the full story

Mixed, Mostly Quiet Response to Supreme Court Vacancy by Ohio Legislators

Ben Kolodny

After the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, most of Ohio’s congressional representatives expressed condolences, almost none weighing in on whether or not Ginsburg’s replacement should be chosen before the election.

Of Ohio’s 16 congressional representatives, it appears only Representative Maria Fudge of Ohio’s 11th district has taken a stand on the issue, and then only by retweeting Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy’s statement on the subject.

Read the full story

Mayoral Candidate Kim Gray: RVA is My Home, not a Stepping Stone

Eric Burk

In a virtual town hall, candidate Kim Gray said her experience as a council member and commitment to connected, honest government make her the best choice to be Richmond’s next mayor. The Youtube livestream had been watched by around 175 people by Sunday evening.

“I’ve spent the last 12 years of my life as a public servant, as an elected official, and the past four years have been very challenging. I want to overcome the corruption and cronyism and lack of common sense approaches,” Gray said.

Read the full story

Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar: Trump Shouldn’t Pick the New SCOTUS Justice

Corinne Murdock

Senators Tina Smith (DFL-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) stated that President Trump shouldn’t pick the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) nominee. Instead, Smith and Klobuchar say that the newly-elected president should, and the Senate should wait to vote until then.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday from cancer complications. The SCOTUS vacancy is now the epicenter of political leaders’ attention.

Read the full story

TRUMPDATE: Latest from the Team Trump Virginia Campaign for September 21

Jordan Bondurant

Welcome to another Monday 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 43 days until the election on November 3 – and 8 days until President Trump and Joe Biden square off in the first presidential debate.

Read the full story

No Credible Evidence to Support Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s July Shutdown of Bars and Reduction of Restaurant Capacity, Despite Bullying Tactics by His Administration

Jason M. Reynolds

When Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced at a July 2 press conference that he was shutting down all the city’s bars for 14 days, reducing restaurant capacity from 75 percent to 50 percent, and temporarily closing event venues and entertainment venues, all due to “record” cases of COVID-19 traceable to restaurants and bars, he apparently knew that his own Metro Health Department said less than two dozen cases of COVID-19 could be traced to those establishments. But he failed to disclose that the “record” of bar and restaurant traceable cases to which he referred to was about one tenth of one percent of Davidson County’s 20,000 cases of COVID-19.

Read the full story

Biden in 2016: SCOTUS Confirmation Can Happen ‘a Few Months Before a Presidential Election’ If Senate Is Involved in Pick

Admin

Former vice president Joe Biden said in 2016 that he would have considered a Supreme Court justice nominee in an election year if the president had consulted the senate on the nominee.

“I would go forward with the confirmation process as chairman even a few months before a presidential election. If the nominee were chosen with the advice and not merely the consent of the Senate just as the constitution requires,” Biden said during a 2016 speech at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Read the full story

Commentary: For the Sake of the Constitution, and the Country, Fill Ginsburg’s Seat Quickly

Admin

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday at the age of 87. Her passing was not unexpected. On the contrary, her steadily worsening condition over the past several years left her increasingly incapacitated. After Donald Trump’s election in 2016, many on the Left expressed dismay that she chose to stay on the court rather than resign and let President Obama nominate her replacement. 

Read the full story

Feds Explored Possibly Charging Portland Officials in Unrest

The Associated Press

The Justice Department explored whether it could pursue either criminal or civil rights charges against city officials in Portland, Oregon, after clashes erupted there night after night between law enforcement and demonstrators, a department spokesperson said Thursday.

The revelation that federal officials researched whether they could levy criminal or civil charges against the officials — exploring whether their rhetoric and actions may have helped spur the violence in Portland — underscores the larger Trump administration’s effort to spotlight and crack down on protest-related violence. The majority of the mass police reform demonstrations nationwide have been peaceful.

Read the full story

Trump Promises to Nominate a New Justice ‘Without Delay’

Admin

President Donald Trump promised Saturday to nominate a new Supreme Court justice “without delay.”

“We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,” the president tweeted Saturday morning, tagging the Republican Party in his tweet.

Read the full story

Almost 20 Percent of New York Millennials Blame Jews for the Holocaust

Admin

Nearly 20% of New York’s Millennials and Gen Z believe the Jewish people are to blame for The Holocaust, a nationwide survey released Wednesday found.

While The Holocaust resulted in over 11 million deaths, 36% of respondents under age 39 believed the total death count of Jews was “two million or fewer,” according to a nationwide survey of young people by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also known as the Claims Conference.

Read the full story

Homes Burned as Winds Push California Fire into Desert Floor

The Associated Press

Strong winds pushed a wildfire burning for nearly two weeks in mountains northeast of Los Angeles onto the desert floor and spread it rapidly in several directions, causing it to explode in size and destroy homes, officials said Saturday.

Meanwhile, officials were investigating the death of a firefighter on the lines of another Southern California wildfire that erupted earlier this month from a smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used by a couple to reveal their baby’s gender.

Read the full story

Commentary: NYU Prof Says More Than 20 Percent of Universities Could Fail Because of the Lockdowns

Admin

As bad as the COVID-19 lockdown has been in any number of sectors of the US economy, colleges and universities have been hit particularly hard. Restaurants and movie theaters have physical plants that continue to cost them money regardless of whether they are serving food or showing movies. Hotels have it even worse, because they are far more expensive to maintain. But colleges and universities have it worse still. Their physical plants include not only housing and dining facilities, but also recreation areas, classrooms, and expansive grounds. In addition, colleges and universities have staff that often number hundreds of times that of hotels.

Read the full story

Hispanics in Virginia Significantly More Likely to Have COVID-19 Antibodies than Other Adults, VDH Study Says

Jacob Taylor

Hispanic adults are four times more likely to have prior traces of a COVID-19 infection when compared to the average Virginian, according to a Virginia Department of Health (VDH) study published Friday.

The Coronavirus Serology Project was conducted this summer from June 1 to August 14 by adult patients in Virginia presenting non-COVID related symptoms agreeing to complete a questionnaire and provide a blood sample for antibody testing. 

Read the full story

Large Numbers of Early Voters Might Not Change Final Election Results

Eric Burk

It looked like the release of a new iPhone. Across Virginia, hundreds of people lined up outside polling places on the first day of early voting on Friday. The Virginia Public Access Project is reporting that already, over 600,000 more Virginians have requested mail-in ballots than in 2016. However, political pundits warn that large increases in early voting might not affect final results that much.

Read the full story

Virginia Election Ballots to Feature Proposed Constitutional Amendment on a New Redistricting Commission

Jacob Taylor

When Virginians submit their ballots for the November elections they will not just be voting for the president or members of Congress, they will also be deciding how the state’s redistricting system will work going forward.

Redistricting is constitutionally mandated to occur every ten years after the completion of the most recent U.S. Census. 

Read the full story

Gov. DeWine Did a Number of Things to Address COVID-19 This Week

Ben Kolodny

Governor Mike DeWine’s office released a review of the state’s COVID-19 status and response as well as a list of actions taken by the state.

The governor updated this week’s coronavirus numbers, which saw 69 counties remain at their current level of exposure, and Preble County being downgraded from a level 3 to a level 2. In other COVID-19 news, the state has it’s own dashboard for COVID tracking of children and schools in conjunction with the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association and local health departments.

Read the full story

Michigan Judge Rules Absentee Ballots That Arrive up to Two Weeks After Election Day Still Valid

Jordyn Pair

A Michigan state judge ruled on Friday that absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day can still be counted.

Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens ruled that absentee ballots that are postmarked for November 2 can still be counted even if they arrive up to two weeks after polls close on Election Day, according to reporting from CNN and ABC News. Absentee ballots were previously only allowed to be counted if they arrived before 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Read the full story

Ohio Schools Report Low Cases of COVID-19 During Beginning of School Year

Admin

With the majority of Ohio school students back in the classroom, at least on a hybrid learning model, new data show COVID-19 cases related to school districts is relatively low.

Ohio’s new school dashboard and children’s dashboard launched this week, reporting 197 students and 122 staff members across Ohio have tested positive for the virus. That number is less than 1 percent of Ohio’s total cases so far.

Read the full story

Minnesota Secretary of State Sends Letters Telling Those Who Haven’t Requested Absentee Ballots to Vote from Home

Corinne Murdock

Minnesota’s Secretary of State Steve Simon is sending letters telling those who haven’t requested an absentee ballot to vote from home. An estimated 2.3 million voters will receive the letter and an absentee ballot application.
The letter asserts that staying safe and keeping other citizens healthy “means voting from home.” 

Read the full story

Attorney Warns That Mayor John Cooper and Others are Privately Seeking Ways to Sabotage the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act

Chris Butler

Members of the Metro Nashville Election Commission met privately Friday, and at least one of the five commission members refused to say what they discussed, even though it was government business.

Nashville attorney Jim Roberts told The Tennessee Star Saturday that he suspects commission members met to discuss ways to undermine the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act. As reported last month, this referendum, if approved, would roll back Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s 34-37 percent tax increase. The referendum would also limit property tax rate increases to 2 percent every year without voters approving it. Voters are scheduled to decide during a December 5 referendum.

Read the full story

DeWine on Bill to Strike Down State of Emergency: ‘No! I Certainly Do Not Support That – We Have an Emergency’

Jack Windsor

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said during a press conference on September 17 he would not support a bill drafted by Ohio state Representative Diane Grendell (R-Chesterland). The legislation, “Restore Ohio Now”, seeks to cancel the state of emergency declared  on March 9 – consequently making impotent COVID orders made enforceable because of the emergency.

Read the full story

Commentary: Another One Million Leave Unemployment in a Week as Trump’s Predicted Rapid Recovery Continues

Admin

Another 1 million Americans left continued unemployment claims the week of Sept. 5 on an unadjusted basis, the latest data from the Department of Labor shows.

That brings the number collecting unemployment from its 13.8 million Aug. 29 level, and from its 22.8 million May 9 level, down to its current 12.3 million, an overall decrease of 10.5 million from its peak.

Read the full story