Month: January 2021

Tennessee Health Officials Warn of COVID-19 Vaccine Scams

Corinne Murdock

The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) warned individuals about scammers attempting to sell COVID-19 vaccines or spots on the vaccine wait list. The messaging was addressed to all Tennesseans, but heavily emphasized relaying the warning to the elderly.

TDH listed several common tactics they’d learned were being solicited by door-to-door scammers. These scams encouraged individuals to issue a payment in order to obtain the vaccine, placement on a vaccine priority list, and early access to the vaccine.

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Multiple Agencies Will Participate in Inauguration Security Including the FBI and CBP

Admin

Several agencies are participating in the U.S. Secret Service’s security protections around the inauguration in Washington, D.C., including the FBI and Customs and Border Protection.

The Metropolitan Police Department and the National Guard will join the FBI and Customs and Border Protection to participate in security efforts surrounding President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20. FBI officials are investigating a substantial number of “concerning” comments online about potential events on and leading up to inauguration day, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a briefing on Thursday.

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Woman Charged with Operating Massive Ballot Harvesting Scheme in Texas

Admin

A Texas woman was arrested and charged for allegedly operating a massive ballot harvesting scheme after undercover video footage showed her committing election fraud.

Rachel Rodriguez was arrested and charged with election fraud, illegal voting, unlawfully assisting people voting by mail, and unlawfully possessing an official ballot, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday. Each charge constitutes a felony under the Texas Election Code.

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Steve Bannon Presents ‘War Room: Pandemic’

Admin

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

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Commentary: Big Tech’s Conservative Purge Changes the Free Speech Debate

RealClearWire

Big Tech’s coordinated silencing of conservative voices, including President Trump’s, signals a crossing of the Rubicon in the debate over government involvement to protect free speech.

Even conservatives like me, who have long argued that small-business competition is the best way to moderate the tech oligarchs’ power, recognize that government may now have an interest in making some large companies, such as basic web-hosting platforms, utilities akin to AT&T.

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Minnesota Law School Students Aim to ‘Cancel’ Alumna Rep. Fischbach

Admin

Some students at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, are asking the school’s administration to ban an alumna and newly elected congresswoman because of her stance on voter fraud and support for President Donald Trump. 

“Rep. Michelle Fischbach (MN-8), an alumna of one of Mitchell Hamline’s predecessor institutions, directly contributed to the fomentation that led to the siege of the Capitol. First and foremost, by claiming on Fox News, without evidence, that the Democratic Party manufactured votes,” reads the petition, addressed to the school’s president and dean, Anthony Niedwiecki.

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Republican Party of Virginia Reconsidering Choice of Nominating Convention: UPDATED

Eric Burk

After a month of backlash to the vote to hold a nominating convention instead of a primary, the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) State Central Committee (SCC) will revisit the decision on Saturday. If the convention is re-confirmed, the SCC will also vote on whether or not to hold an unassembled convention. An unassembled convention was promised during the vote for a convention, but formalizing the unassembled feature requires a separate vote.

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Ohio Congressman Anthony Gonzalez Discusses Why He Voted to Impeach President Trump

Jack Windsor

A Buckeye football legend known for “The Catch” against rival Michigan, dropped the ball according to Trump Republicans when he and nine other GOP representatives voted with 222 Democrats in the U.S. House to approve a second impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH-16) released a statement on Wednesday explaining his support of a Democrat initiated impeachment – a single article alleging incitement of insurrection.

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Famous Virginia High School Changing Name, George Floyd Among List of Contenders

Peter D'Abrosca

A famous Virginia high school is changing its name, and among the list of contenders is a prominent figure of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

“Students at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., have submitted more than 50 options as the school seeks a new name, among them naming it after notable individuals such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, George Floyd and even Brian Sicknick, the Capitol Police officer who died following last week’s riots in Washington,” according to The Hill.

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Former Michigan Gov. Snyder, Eight Others, Indicted in Flint Water Investigation

The Center Square

Nine members of the Rick Snyder administration, including the former Republican governor and a current Michigan Department of Health and Human Services manager, were indicted on 42 total counts for their respective roles in the Flint water crisis.

The indictments were announced Thursday morning by Michigan Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy, both appointed by Attorney General Dana Nessel. The charges came after a year-long investigation by lone grand juror Judge David Newblatt.

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Georgia Democrat State Lawmaker Rejects Gov. Kemp’s Call for Unity

Peter D'Abrosca

After Thursday’s annual State of the State speech by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), which heavily focused on unity and Georgia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peach State’s top Democrat lawmaker rejected Kemp outrightly.

“Do I think the governor is going to be more conciliatory? No. No I do not,” state House Minority Leader James Beverly (D-GA-143) told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “His policies have shown who he is.”

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Henrico Public Schools Delays In-person Learning for All Grades Due to COVID-19 Numbers

Jacob Taylor

Henrico County Public Schools (HCPS) on Tuesday announced that it is delaying in-person learning for all grade levels indefinitely because of local coronavirus numbers, just a week after pushing back the return to classrooms for elementary school students.

In an online message to families, Superintendent Amy Cashwell initially said the delay had to do with the school division’s nurses being pulled away from their regular duties to assist in administering vaccinations for teachers and other Virginians included within Phase 1b of the state’s plan.

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Virginia Governor Expands Eligibility for Phase 1b COVID-19 Vaccinations

Jacob Taylor

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) has expanded the eligibility for Phase 1b of the state’s vaccination effort to include people 65 and up as well as those between the ages of 16 to 64 who have high-risk medical conditions, he announced during a COVID-19 press briefing on Thursday. 

“This means about half of Virginia is now eligible to receive the vaccine,” the governor said. “That’s a major logistical effort and it is not going to happen overnight. Everyone will need to be patient; it’s going to happen as fast as it can be done.” 

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Tennessee Legislature Approves Modified Block Grant for State’s Medicaid Program

Corinne Murdock

Tennessee’s General Assembly approved the Medicaid waiver, granting the state to apply federal healthcare funding to an aggregate gap model of spending. The legislature filed the bill when it first convened on Tuesday. Just three days after the bill’s introduction, legislators took their final votes on Thursday and Friday. The six subcommittees who reviewed the waiver all recommended its passage over the course of a few days.

The waiver allows the state to establish a self-imposed, fixed budget to last over a ten-year period, known as TennCareIII. It also allows the state to reserve a portion of the unused funds and apply them to other government programs, with potential for those savings to be matched with additional federal funds for healthcare programs.

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Tennessee Principal on Administrative Leave for Warning Students About Social Media Censorship

Corinne Murdock

A Tennessee principal was placed on paid administrative leave after warning students about the dangers of social media censorship. Principal Barton Thorne recorded a homeroom video on Monday, reportedly sharing his thoughts via the Shelby County Schools (SCS) virtual learning platform to address several Big Tech companies’ recent decisions to censor various individuals and platforms.

In a recording of the video since deleted from YouTube, Thorne emphasized the need to allow for free speech and a “marketplace of ideas.” He condemned the Capitol Hill riot and stated that his statements had nothing to do with President Donald Trump.

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Commentary: Impeachment Is Not Just About Removing President Trump – It’s About Canceling You

Admin

The House has voted to once again impeach President Donald Trump, charging him with incitement of insurrection. The single article of impeachment states the President “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol.”

President Trump did nothing of the sort, but the facts do not matter to the House.

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Cotton, Senators Demand SBA Stop Planned Parenthood’s ‘Naked Attempts to Defraud’ Government Through PPP Loans

Admin

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is leading lawmakers in calling on the Small Business Administration (SBA) to investigate alleged illegal loans distributed to Planned Parenthood affiliates, according to a letter exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Planned Parenthood affiliates are well aware that they are ineligible to receive PPP loans, on the basis of SBA’s letters and the frank admission of their political action committee” the senators wrote in a Thursday letter to SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza. “Their attempts to apply for PPP loans are naked attempts to defraud the United States government.”

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MIT Professor Who Received $19 Million in Federal Grants Is Charged Over Undisclosed Ties to China

Admin

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has received nearly $20 million in grants from the Department of Energy was arrested Thursday on charges that he failed to disclose ties to the People’s Republic of China.

According to prosecutors, Gang Chen, a mechanical engineering professor at MIT, has held various positions on behalf of the PRC aimed at promoting China’s technological and scientific capabilities.

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Commentary: Her Vote to Impeach Imperils Liz Cheney’s GOP Leadership Role

Admin

Among the 232 votes in the House of Representatives to impeach Donald Trump a second time were 10 cast by Republicans — and now the GOP has a messy church fight on its hands. That’s  because one of the 10 breaking ranks was Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who chairs the GOP conference. The immediate question for House Republicans is whether Cheney should remain in that post after voting to impeach Trump. But this is a proxy fight. The broader question is whether Trump populism ought to remain Republican Party orthodoxy.

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New Jobless Claims Spike to 965,000, Economists Expected 800,000

Admin

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased to 965,000 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 increase in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Jan. 9, in which there were 787,000 new jobless claims reported. Roughly 18.4 million Americans continue to collect unemployment benefits, according to the BLS report Thursday.

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Young Americans for Liberty Fires President Amid Allegations of Sexual Misconduct

Admin

The Young Americans for Liberty announced Wednesday that the organization has terminated its former President Cliff Maloney “effective immediately” following allegations of sexual misconduct.

“Losing the confidence of the board, YAL staff, and key stakeholders makes the ability to lead impossible and this action necessary,” the organization said in a statement.

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Woman Charged for Plans to Smuggle Chinese Nationals into U.S. for Financial Gain

Admin

A Nevada woman was arrested and charged in connection with a scheme spanning several years to commit fraud and launder money to smuggle Chinese nationals into the U.S, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Haiyan Liao, 43, was charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, money laundering conspiracy and to illegally smuggle Chinese nationals into the U.S. for financial gain, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

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Martha Boneta Commentary: Beginning to Look Like Time to Invent Another Internet

Admin

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the Internet, says he is fed up with what it has become and he’s taking action to fix it.  

He has expressed frustration for years with how major corporations have taken what was supposed to a free environment and restricted in a variety of ways. He doesn’t like the way Facebook, Google and Amazon have centralized it and he especially doesn’t like how they control the data of almost all Americans.  

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Virginia Democratic Senators File Resolution to Censure Amanda Chase

Jacob Taylor

Virginia Senate Democrats filed a resolution on Wednesday to censure GOP gubernatorial candidate and Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) for addressing a crowd and urging action to overturn the 2020 presidential election hours before the Capitol riots in Washington D.C.

The resolution, introduced by Sen. John Bell (D-Loudoun) and co-sponsored by nine other Senate Democrats, formally accuses Chase of “fomenting insurrection against the United States.”

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Brian Kemp Tells Georgia Legislators to Move Past 2020 and Focus on COVID-19 During State of State Address

Chris Butler

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp delivered an optimistic State of the State address Thursday and proposed what he said were new ways for state officials to invest taxpayer money to counteract the effects of COVID-19. At one point in his speech, the governor apparently referred to the November 2020 elections and alleged voter fraud and other voter irregularities.

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Tim Anderson Sues Virginia Governor Over Senate District Special Election

Jacob Taylor

Prominent Virginia Beach attorney and House of Delegates candidate Tim Anderson filed a lawsuit against Governor Ralph Northam (D) on Wednesday over the 38th Senatorial District special election set for later this year. 

The 38th District was previously occupied by the late Senator Ben Chafin, who died of COVID-19 complications at the beginning of the year, and on Tuesday Northam issued a March 23rd, 2021, date for the election to determine a replacement.

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Exclusive: Republican Peter Meijer Draws Primary Opponent Day After Voting to Impeach Trump

Peter D'Abrosca

Republican Tom Norton told The Michigan Star exclusively Thursday that he intends to run against Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI-03) in the state’s 2022 primary elections, just hours after Meijer cast his vote to impeach President Donald J. Trump. 

“I have decided to re-launch our campaign for U.S Congress in Michigan’s Third District,” Norton said. “This campaign is not about Trump. This is about the establishment thinking that America is beaten and lost. We need to fight, we need to group together, and never surrender.”

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Two Michigan House Republicans Vote to Impeach President Trump

Peter D'Abrosca

Two members of the U.S. House from Michigan voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald J. Trump over allegations that he “incited an insurrection” at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. last week.

“I was in the House chamber when it was being attacked a week ago today. That was a moment that called for leadership. I was hoping to see the President rapidly try to de-escalate, try to denounce, try to stop the violence from occurring, and he abandoned his post,” freshman Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI-03) told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, explaining his vote in favor of impeachment. 

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Democrats Pressure Virginia Delegate LaRock to Resign for Questioning Election Results

Eric Burk

Delegate Dave LaRock (R-Hamilton) is under fire from Democrats after he called for Vice President Pence to nullify the 2020 General Election and attended the January 6 pro-Trump rally that turned violent. Loudoun County Chair Phyllis Randall, the Loudoun chapter of the NAACP, and three northern Virginia Democratic chapters are among those demanding LaRock’s resignation. LaRock is one of the last Republican delegates in Northern Virginia.

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Georgia State Representative Kendrick Introduces Bills to ‘Promote Black Wealth’

Corinne Murdock

State Representative Dar’shun Kendrick (D-Lithonia) introduced five bills that are aimed at increasing “Black wealth.” The bills propose racial compositions on Georgia corporations receiving state tax credits; reinstatement of the “Angel Investor” tax credit and qualifying historically Black colleges and universities (HCBU) as eligible; tax credits for HBCU entrepreneurship programs; racially diversify all boards, commissions, councils, or committees to reflect the state’s demographics; and annual reports on wealth within certain demographics.

In a press release, Kendrick claimed that Black communities are systemically marginalized within the economy. She added that the pandemic has only compounded the matter.

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Commentary: Virginia Governor Flouts Law, Leaves GOP Senate Seat Vacant to Ensure Unchecked Progressive Dominance

Admin

Virginia’s state senate had a narrow Democratic majority, with 21 Democrats and 19 Republicans. Then, on Jan. 1, Republican State Senator Ben Chafin died. Virginia’s Democratic governor deliberately delayed filling the seat, so that progressive bills will be able to pass the state legislature more easily, and without being moderated by the amendment process.

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Ohio Gov. DeWine Says the Capitol Will be Closed for Four Days Next Week for the Inauguration

Jack Windsor

Gov. Mike DeWine held a briefing Thursday morning where he announced the Ohio Statehouse and government buildings in Columbus will be closed between January 17 and January 20. Next Wednesday, Joe Biden will be inaugurated as president.

Also, the governor signed a proclamation mobilizing hundreds of Ohio National Guard members to be utilized as needed in Columbus and around Ohio. To assist federal authorities in D.C. DeWine, ordered 580 ONG members active earlier in the week.

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