Tennessee Senators Criticize President Biden’s First Round of Executive Orders

Both Tennessee Senators oppose President Joe Biden’s first wave of executive orders. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) quickly criticized Biden’s decisions to end the Keystone XL pipeline, overhaul the immigration system, and rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement.

In a series of tweets, Blackburn issued her criticisms of Biden’s orders.

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New Jobless Claims Decrease to 900,000, Economists Expected 925,000

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims decreased to 900,000 last week as the economy continued to suffer the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) figure released Thursday represented a decrease in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Jan. 16, in which there were 965,000 new jobless claims reported. Roughly 16 million Americans continue to collect unemployment benefits, according to the BLS report Thursday.

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University of Memphis to Raise Minimum Wage to $15 by June

The University of Memphis (UofM) will raise its minimum wage from $13 to $15 an hour, starting June 5. 

In a copy of the email obtained by The Tennessee Star, university faculty and staff were informed by President Dr. David Rudd on Tuesday that the raise was a culmination of adjustments done over the past year. Rudd shared that some of they’d implemented a hiring freeze, reduction in operational costs, and forms of attrition.

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Top House Democrat Calls on FBI to Investigate Parler’s Financing, Possible Ties to Russia

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Thursday called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate financing for Parler, including whether the social media site has any ties to Russia.

Part of Maloney’s rationale for investigating Parler’s links to Russia is that the social media site’s CEO, John Matze, founded the company shortly after traveling to Russia with his wife, who is Russian.

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Biden Halts Work on Border Wall, Thousands of Migrants Are Sent Home to Honduras from Guatemala

As newly installed President Joe Biden halted construction of the wall along the U.S. southern border, thousands of Central American migrants encountered another type of barrier that halted their march toward what they believe are newly reopened doors to America. The barrier came in the form of Guatemalan officials who lobbed tear gas and wielded batons, and who ensured that by Wednesday, some 3,500 migrants were aboard buses whisking them home to Honduras.

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Commentary: Conservatives Need to Stand Up for Their Own Civil Rights

For those making their arguments about whether Section 230 should be repealed or reformed to protect conservatives on social media, it’s time to declare that this ship sailed long ago. Most of the world has now come to accept that these monolithic platforms can remove people or their content at will. The banning of President Trump and a host of other conservatives from all major platforms has proven this point beyond dispute. 

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Two Wyoming Republicans Announce 2022 Primary Challenges Against Liz Cheney After Impeachment Vote

Two Wyoming Republicans have filed papers to challenge House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) in the 2022 primaries following her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump.

Wyoming State Sen. Anthony Bouchard and Rep. and business owner Marissa Selvig both filed statements of candidacy in the 2022 primary election on Wednesday.

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Amazon Offers to Help Biden Administration with Vaccine Distribution, After Ignoring Trump Administration

The Big Tech giant Amazon has publicly offered to assist the new Biden Administration with efforts to distribute the coronavirus vaccine, after previously not making any such offers to the Trump Administration, as reported by the Daily Caller.

The offer was made in a letter to Joe Biden by Amazon vice president Dave Clark, who wrote that “Amazon stands ready to assist you in reaching your goal of vaccinating 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of your administration.” The letter continued, adding that “we are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts.”

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Rioters Vandalize Oregon Democratic Headquarters, Descend on Seattle

Riots broke out in Seattle and Portland, Oregon on Wednesday night after demonstrators clashed with police and vandalized a Democratic Party office.

People dressed in all black shattered windows and the glass door to the Oregon Democratic Party’s office in Portland, according to The New York Times, vandalizing it with spray paint and posting a video to social media, saying that their actions were in response to the inauguration of President Joe Biden. In Seattle, police said that several buildings were vandalized.

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Tennessee Group Calls New COVID-19 Education Bill ‘Huge Waste in Spending’

Members of the Williamson County-based Tennessee Stands said this week that a new education bill in the Tennessee General Assembly will waste a lot of money and the state does not need it. State Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) is sponsoring the bill, the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act. The COVID-19 pandemic, and its effects on public schools, prompted the legislation.

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Virginia Senate to Vote on Legislation Giving Certain Health Insurance Plans Abortion Coverage Option

The Senate of Virginia on Friday will vote to pass legislation out of the body that would allow for private health insurance companies offering plans through the state exchange to have the option for abortion coverage.

Senate Bill 1276 was introduced by Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond City), who is also a gubernatorial candidate seeking the Democratic nomination, and co-sponsored by three other Democratic legislators.

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Minnesota Democrat Leader: You’re Either with Us, or You’re a ‘Nazi’

A day before President Joe Biden was sworn into office with the stated goal of unifying the United States, the head of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) made sure to take one last jab at Republicans.

“I think the Republican Party has a choice to make because there’s two sides,” DFL Chairman Ken Martin said in an online press conference. “You’re either on the side of Nazis and White supremacists and far-right groups, or you’re on the side of Democracy and liberty and freedom and our Constitution.”

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One of Biden’s First Orders Challenged by Ohio Senator

One of President Joe Biden’s first executive orders drew concerns from U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who said it will cost jobs and hurt the economy.

On Wednesday, Biden signed an order rescinding the presidential permit that allowed for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Before the order, Canadian company TC Energy Corp. announced it had suspended work on the 1,700-mile pipeline.

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Virginia’s ‘Green New Deal’ Seeks to Accelerate Northam’s Climate Initiatives

A Democratic lawmaker has introduced legislation to speed up Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s climate initiatives.

The Green New Deal Act, which was introduced by Del. Sam Rasoul, D- Roanoke, takes inspiration from New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s federal Green New Deal legislation. The bill drastically would speed up Northam’s initiative to make Virginia’s electric utilities carbon free.

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Virginia Senators Push Bill to Help Speed Up State Vaccination Effort

A bill to help Virginia speed up its mass vaccination effort by expanding who is allowed to inoculate citizens and where those injections can occur is being pushed by a bipartisan group of state Senators.

Flanked by various medical professionals, Senators Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City), Todd Pillion (R-Washington), Jennifer Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach), George Barker (D-Fairfax) and Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico) held a news conference to discuss Senate Bill 1445 in Richmond on Thursday.

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Ohio Gov. DeWine Rejects Utility Commission Candidates

  COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Governor Michael DeWine wrote a letter to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) Nominating Commission Wednesday telling them to offer new candidates for the vacancy left by the resignation of former PUCO Chairman Samuel Randazzo. DeWine rejected the slate of four finalists screened by the 12-member Nominating Council. “The list contained candidates who could be an appropriate addition to the PUCO,” wrote DeWine. “I reject the first list and request you reconvene the PUCO Nominating Council to provide me with a second list. The second list may include candidates that have previously applied, along with new applicants.” The four applicants submitted to the governor on December 21 were: Angela Amos – policy advisor at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Anne Vogel – governor DeWine’s energy policy Director and former Director of Federal Government Affairs at American Electric Power (AEP); Greg Poulos – Director of Consumer Advocates of the PJM States, Inc.; Judith French – jurist and former Ohio Supreme Court Justice. French was just appointed by DeWine to head the Ohio Department of Insurance. Vogel recently fell under scrutiny and criticism from the Energy and Policy institute for alleged ties to AEP dark money.…

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Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce PAC Evaluates Endorsement Criteria After Capitol Protest

The Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce PAC released a statement Thursday condemning the mostly peaceful protests at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on January 6, promising to re-evaluate the involvement of its current endorsees, along with potential future endorsees.

“Members of the business community in Michigan and nationally are carefully evaluating their political engagement in light of the Jan. 6 events at the U.S. Capitol,” the Chamber said. “Entities ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to Fortune 500 firms based in Michigan have expressed dismay not just at what happened inside the Capitol, but also the actions of many that enabled this unprecedented act of sedition.”

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Rep. Cooper Celebrates Re-Entry to China-Friendly World Health Organization

A U.S. House member from Tennessee Thursday celebrated the United States’ re-entry in to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is notoriously tied to the Communist Chinese. 

“Thank you [President Biden] for halting the United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization. A global pandemic needs a global response & I’m thankful we had representation at the [World Health Organization]meeting today,” Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) said. “We will continue working together to combat #COVID19.”

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