Month: September 2020

Freight Railway Companies Petition for Modernization of Standards for the Industry’s Financial Health

Laura Baigert

A joint petition has been submitted to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on behalf of the Canadian National Railway Company (CN), Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NS) and Union Pacific Rail Road Company (UP) freight-hauling railroad companies for the purpose of modernizing annual revenue adequacy determinations of the industry’s overall financial health.

CN, NS and UP are three of the seven railroads remaining in the U.S. from the 41 that operated in 1979 designated as Class I by the STB, based primarily on the annual operating revenue of the railroad company.

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Harvard Poll Shows Voters Overwhelmingly United on Many Issues, But View Many Rights as Under Threat

Admin

Americans largely agree on rights and values that they deem fundamental to the United States, a Harvard University Carr Center poll shows, despite all-time high political polarization.

The survey shows that over 70% of Americans “have more in common with each other than people think” and that they favor an expansive view of rights beyond those in the Constitution. The poll also shows that most Americans believe those rights are under threat.

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Sen. Hawley Wants TikTok Deal with Oracle Rejected, Says Move Allows for China’s Control Over the App

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Sen. Josh Hawley called on the Trump administration Monday to reject the partnership proposal Oracle reached with TikTok.

The Missouri Republican argued in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that the partnership won’t prohibit the Chinese Communist Party from controlling the app. Hawley said the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is responsible for approving or rejecting the deal, should reject anything other than a complete break from China.

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Commentary: The Billionaire Backers of the ‘Insurrection’

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The mostly behind-the-scenes attempt between Election Day and Inauguration Day to prevent Donald Trump from taking office the first time will go public in 2020.

As I reported last week, a cabal of Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans are plotting a post-election civil war of sorts to make sure Joe Biden assumes the presidency even if Donald Trump legitimately wins. “It’s insurrection,” President Trump said on Fox News last week when asked about the widely-circulated plan. “We’ll put them down very quickly if they do that.”

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TRUMPDATE: Latest From the Team Trump Virginia Campaign for September 16

Jordan Bondurant

Welcome to the Wednesday 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 49 days until the election on November 3, and 13 days until President Trump and Joe Biden square off in the first presidential debate.

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Virginia Loan Authority has Millions of Unused Funds Available for Small Businesses, Report says

Jacob Taylor

The Virginia Small Business Financing Authority (VSBFA) is doing a poor job issuing loans for small businesses with millions in unused funds available, according to a new report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) released Monday. 

The VSBFA is a part of the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity, but operates separately from the rest of the agency. 

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Mayor John Cooper Warns the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act Will Doom the City, but Taxpayer Advocates Fight Back

Chris Butler

Nashville Mayor John Cooper warned this week that the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act, if enacted, will disable the city, but the group that fought for it said Cooper’s time and energies are best spent helping taxpayers.

As The Tennessee Star reported last month, the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act would roll back Cooper’s 34-37 percent tax increase and limit property tax rate increases to 2 percent every year without voters approving it.

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HHS Secretary Alex Azar on President Trump’s Ban on Critical Race Theory Training: ‘The CDC Will be Complying with the Executive Order’ to Cease and Desist

Julie Carr

Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to the newsmakers line.

At the end of the second hour, Azar discussed the developments in the coronavirus vaccine trials and Operation Warp Speed. He added that all the proper gold standard requirements are being met to develop a safe vaccine in the shortest amount of time.

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Controversy Erupts in Paris, Tennessee After Former Resident, Now in Los Angeles, Wants to Remove Confederate Statue

Chris Butler

A group of Paris, Tennessee residents said they had reason to believe that members of ANTIFA or Black Lives Matter wanted to tear down a statue of a Confederate soldier perched at their local courthouse square.

According to the U.S. Census numbers, Paris has slightly more than 10,000 people.

Local residents said a woman who grew up there, Rachel Allison, who now resides in Los Angeles, encourages people to remove the statue from a distance of 2,000 miles away.

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Commentary: The ‘Great and Powerful’ Biden

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Media bias is not new.

In addition to the Russian collusion hoax and the phone-call impeachment farce, who can forget the marquee media toadies of JournoList and the release of John Podesta’s email trove?
Or the moderator Donna Brazile’s primary debate questions, leaked through CNN, or Candy Crowley’s hijacking of a debate as moderator-turned-real-time-hack “fact-checker”?
Nothing then is new to the media’s fusion and collusion with the “progressive party.”

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Federal Judge Tosses Wolf Administration’s Limits on Gatherings, Orders Closing Businesses

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A federal judge on Monday threw out portions of the Wolf administration’s orders that restricted activity during the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the governor had exceeded his authority.
The ruling by Judge William Stickman in the Western District of Pennsylvania court delivers to Gov. Tom Wolf’s political opponents what they had failed to achieve for months in the Legislature as bill after bill to curtail the governor’s power was passed, only to be vetoed.

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California Mothers Sue California Gov. Newsom, Saying His Partial Reopening of Schools Hurts Special Needs Students, Causes Anxiety Over Grades

Jason M. Reynolds

Four mothers have filed a lawsuit against California Gov. Gavin Newsom over his coronavirus education plan, claiming adverse effects including anxiety over poor grades and lack of special education access.

The lawsuit was filed Sept. 10 in Shasta County Superior Court by the Freedom Foundation on behalf of the northern California families. The complaint is available here.

The plaintiffs allege the plan that requires students to be in classes part-time denies them their constitutional right to a quality education as enshrined in the California Constitution.

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State Revenues $115.1 Million More than Budgeted for First Month of Fiscal Year 2021-2022

Laura Baigert

Tennessee revenues exceeded budgeted estimates for the first month of the state’s 2021-2022 fiscal year by $115.1 million, Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Butch Eley reported Monday.

Total state revenues for August, the first month of the fiscal year on an accrual basis, were $1.16 billion, which is $22 million more than August 2019 and 11 percent more than the budgeted estimate for the month.

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Armed Oregon Residents Set Up Roadblocks After Fire Was Ignited Intentionally, Police Say

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Bands of armed Oregonians blocked roads and demanded identification from motorists after a small fire was ignited intentionally on Saturday, police said.

Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese said the blaze was started by an illegal firework and was put out quickly, according to a Saturday tweet from the department. Oregon has been plagued by wildfires in recent days, as 22 people on the West Coast have lost their lives and large portions of the state were covered by an orange hue.

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Commentary: The Chinese Cultural Revolution’s Lessons for America’s Cancel Culture

Admin

On September 13, 1971, Lin Biao, China’s defense minister, died in an airplane crash. What made his last flight memorable was that he was fleeing to the Soviet Union after he was discovered plotting a coup against party General Secretary Mao Zedong. Lin’s plane ran out of fuel. Or so goes the official story advanced by the Chinese Communist Party.

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Ohio Legislation Seeks to Change Local Income Tax Structure

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Legislation in the Ohio General Assembly seeks to change the state’s 60-year-old income tax structure that allows municipalities to tax workers even if they don’t physically work in the city taxing them.

The bill, HB 754 and its companion SB 352, would modify income tax withholding rules for COVID-19-related work-from-home employees, taxing those Ohio workers where they live, rather than where they work.

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Healthcare Activist Says Patients Aren’t Being Allowed Crucial Visitors

Ben Kolodny

A nurse turned medical activist is accusing an Ohio Healthcare Provider of refusing to help her husband after she complained about the Hospital’s visitor policies.

Michelle Estel, says that she received a letter from Fairfield Medical Center (FMC), where her husband was receiving chemotherapy for his lymphoma stating that the hospital could no longer provide care to him since the relationship between he and the hospital was “no longer effective.” 

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Letter to the Editor: Colonel George Mason’s Key Contribution to Our Constitution

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On 15 September 1787, the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia was just two days from adjourning after nearly four months of painstaking negotiations.

Yet Col. George Mason of Virginia remained fearful the proposed federal government could one day go rogue. In the waning hours of deliberation, he set out to persuade fellow delegates they were on the verge of codifying a fatal flaw.

On that day, with extraordinary foresight, Mason championed a ‘Break In Case of Emergency’ tool which 233 years later is being used to stop out-of-control federal bureaucrats and career politicians.

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Zoom Wars: Loudoun, Fairfax County Public Schools Battling Internet Security Attacks, Including Porn

Eric Burk

Two northern Virginia school districts struggled with internet security problems in their first week.

Loudoun County Public Schools’  LCPS) virtual learning was interrupted by ten cases of people logging into classes and using racial slurs or displaying pornographic and racist imagery, according to reporting by WUSA 9.  Also last week, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) announced that they are the victims of a ransomware attack.

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Virginia Trump Campaign Boasts Unprecedented Ground Game as Race Tightens

Eric Burk

Both presidential campaigns have shifted their strategy in Virginia, with few ad buys and no appearances from Trump or Biden. Danny Barefoot, a partner with Democratic ad agency Anvil Strategies, said this is because both sides think Biden will win the commonwealth. However, chairman of the Trump Virginia Delegation John Fredericks disagrees. “I think this is a very competitive race, and so no, we haven’t given up [on Virginia] at all. We’re going to continue to put resources into Virginia.”

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Commission Still Undecided on Capitol Building Gun Ban

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Two motions aiming to restrict guns inside the state Capitol failed at the Michigan Capitol Commission meeting Monday.

But the group agreed to meet with leading lawmakers to further discuss the idea.

The Commission voted to schedule a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey of Clarklake and Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield of Levering, both Republicans, either this or next week.

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