Tennessee Man Arrested After Feared Copycat Vehicle Attack

Police in Rutherford County arrested a man Sunday afternoon when they feared he was about to perpetrate a copycat attack similar to the Christmas day bombing in downtown Nashville.

“Sheriff’s deputies in Rutherford and Wilson Counties are investigating a box truck parked at a store playing audio similar to the Christmas explosion in Nashville. The driver was stopped by deputies and detained. Residents evacuated. Investigation active,” the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) said on Twitter.

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Commentary: What’s Next in the Liberal Lockdown Playbook?

by Tom Rabbe   Count me among the Pollyannas who was sure that when the election was done the pandemic would be “done,” too. November 4 would dawn bright and clear, the thunderheads of contagion looming on the horizon dissipated by a dry air mass of political reality. And I was not alone. None other than President Trump was with me, as were pols and pundits across the conservative landscape who speculated that the draconian restrictions on liberty were as much a political tactic employed by the Left as they were a public prophylactic against viral pestilence. If Biden won, the Democrats would stumble into sanity and downplay the potency of the virus — we need only protect vulnerable populations, those with comorbidities, they would say; everybody else can return to normal. Or they would adopt more amenable metrics for analyzing the crisis — the number of cases doesn’t matter, because practically everybody recovers; it’s deaths caused by COVID alone that are important. They would urge a return to normalcy, and a few months later claim credit for a booming economy. If Trump won, the Dems would see the futility of their political gambit and back off — I told…

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Berkeley Cheating Allegations Spike Nearly 400 Percent with Online Classes

According to the University of California-Berkeley student newspaper, The Daily Cal, the university’s Center for Student Conduct has seen a 400 percent increase of alleged academic misconduct compared with last year, amounting to more than 300 reports of misconduct as of early November.

The Berkeley Campus Code of Student Contact manual states that academic misconduct includes “cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, or facilitating academic dishonesty.”

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US-Backed Forces Raiding ISIS Cells in Syria

The Syrian Democratic Forces are executing a new series of raids against active ISIS-affiliated militants in eastern Syria with the support of the U.S., VOA News reported Sunday.

The new campaign targets ISIS remnants in the Deir al-Zour province near Iraq, VOA News reported. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military alliance is focusing on ISIS cells in the northern part of the province.

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Commentary: Biden’s Immigration Agenda

A lasting legacy of President Trump’s immigration policies will be his administration’s willingness to acknowledge and address the broad scope and wide spectrum of how immigration—both legal and illegal—impacts American life.

Our political debates tend to regress into entrenched and cyclical discussions of border security and amnesty for illegal populations, a polarized framing that ignores how significantly our labor policies, law enforcement practices, and even the shape of our congressional representation, are affected by the choices we make concerning immigration.

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Commentary: Zoom School Gets an ‘F,’ But Some Online Learning Providers Excel

Students in 40 percent of school districts across the country haven’t been inside a classroom since last spring, and others are now returning to virtual “Zoom school” as coronavirus cases rise. Remote public schooling as a response to school shutdowns has been a disaster for many children, with a record number of F grades issued this academic year. Both parents and kids are fed up with Zoom school, and teachers are frustrated with it as well. The Washington Post ran a headline this month saying we must finally admit that “remote education is a failure.”

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Family Files Civil Rights Lawsuit Against Charter School for Mandating Anti-White ‘Critical Race Theory’ Class

A Nevada mother has followed through on her threat to file a civil rights lawsuit against her son’s charter school for refusing to let him opt out of a mandatory class that promotes hostility toward whites as a race.

Democracy Prep at the Agassi Campus (DPAC) forced William Clark “to make professions about his racial, sexual, gender and religious identities in verbal class exercises and in graded, written homework assignments,” creating a hostile environment, the biracial high school student and Gabrielle Clark allege in their federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

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Issue of Paid Sick Leave Returning to Virginia General Assembly in 2021

The debate over whether or not businesses should be required to provide eligible employees with paid sick leave will again be taken up by the Virginia General Assembly when it convenes for its regular session on January 13th.

After multiple bills calling for paid sick leave were killed by a Senate committee during this past summer’s special session, those same lawmakers are once again intending to offer legislation on the issue.

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President Trump to Stump for Loeffler and Perdue in Georgia the Eve of Election Runoff

President Donald Trump will host another Georgia rally in a show of support to incumbent Senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA). The “Victory Rally” will occur January 4th, one day before the runoff election date for the two senate seats.

Others joining Trump at the rally are incumbent Georgia Public Service Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, Jr., and a coalition of unnamed Republicans. McDonald will also appear on the January 5th election runoff ballot, defending his District 4 position for the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC). The incumbent will face Democratic challenger Daniel Blackman. Prior to serving as commissioner, McDonald served two decades as a state representative. 

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No Alternatives Announced if Gov. Whitmer Succeeds in Closing Line 5

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration hasn’t revealed alternatives to transport more than half a million barrels of natural gas liquids if it succeeds in its legal efforts to close the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline in May 2021.

Enbridge spokesperson Ryan Duffy told The Center Square there are no pipelines or other alternatives that can readily substitute for Line 5 in transporting the crude oil and natural gas liquids to the refineries and other facilities served by Line 5. 

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More Than 40,000 Virginians Have Received COVID-19 Vaccines So Far

Roughly 41,709 Virginians have received first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines so far, according to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), as the state continues its efforts to reach herd immunity and put an end to the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, the VDH launched the COVID-19 vaccine data dashboard, which will be updated daily to keep the public informed about the number of vaccines distributed and administered as well as the demographics of recipients.

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Judge Denies Lin Wood’s Restraining Order to Prevent Potential Senate Runoff Fraud

A federal judge on Monday morning tossed a temporary restraining order filed the evening before by attorney and Fulton County, Georgia voter Lin Wood seeking to block fraudulent activities in the U.S. Senate runoff elections.

Atlanta Federal Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia’s Atlanta Division made the decision, calling Wood’s claim “speculative.”

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Senators Loeffler, Perdue Send Letter to Acting U.S. Consul General on Behalf of Georgia Teen Jailed for Breaking Cayman Island Quarantine

Senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA) submitted a letter to the U.S. Embassy’s Acting Consul General requesting the release of Skylar Mack. The senators expressed concern for the welfare of Mack, an 18-year-old college student jailed for breaking the Cayman Islands’ quarantine rules. 

In their letter, Loeffler and Perdue acknowledged the impact of COVID-19 and the Cayman Islands’ authority to impose its pandemic-related regulations and sentencing. However, according to the two senators, Mack has reportedly received a substantial amount of death threats for the incident.

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Education Funding Reform Key to Curbing Ohio’s Inequality, Survey Says

by J.D. Davidson   A comprehensive educational funding reform effort pushed by the Ohio General Assembly into the next legislative session would substantially reduce what economists called inequality throughout the state. Scioto Analysis, a Central Ohio-based economic and public policy analysis firm specializing in tax and budget policy at the state and local level, surveyed 30 economists from Ohio colleges and universities. All but four agreed the plan would reduce inequality in the coming decades, but many also agreed it needed to be teamed with broader investments and smarter uses of money. “While access to quality education is necessary for reducing in equality, it is unfortunately not sufficient,” Fadhel Kaboub, a Denison University professor, said. “Education must be coupled with investments in health, infrastructure, direct job creation and other public safety nets.” The bill, which calls for a six-year complete phase it, could mean $2 billion more for education in Ohio. However, according to State Sen. Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, actual costs remain unknown. While the plan passed the Ohio House, Dolan and Senate Republicans resisted calls for passage by the end of the year. Instead, opting to offer funding for studies called for…

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Social Justice Favorites Including LGBT+, Climate Change Take a Prominent Role in the New Draft of Social Studies Standards in Minnesota

Minnesota’s newly proposed social studies standards for public schools place significant emphasis on race, gender, climate change and LGBT issues.

Under the first draft of the proposed standards, students will be asked to “develop a respectful awareness about how ideas and norms about gender have changed over time,” accept that “some forms of slavery continued even after emancipation” and learn how the “fight for social justice” continues today.

Students will also be asked to “analyze how resistance movements in the U.S. have organized and responded to oppression,” and “imagine and work toward an equitable and caring future” in keeping with the social justice model.

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Tennessee’s Hall Tax Ends This Week, Promises New Economic Opportunities for the Volunteer State

Tennessee’s Hall Tax, as of this coming Friday, will cease to exist.

Experts say that will bring new opportunities to Tennessee and make the state’s economy more competitive.

The Hall Tax, instituted in 1929, applies a 6 percent tax to Tennesseans’ interest and dividend income. In 2016 members of the Tennessee General Assembly phased out the Hall Income Tax over years of scheduled reductions.

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