Middle Tennessee State University Free Speech Center Releases First Amendment Report for Students

There are nine practices that could significantly improve the climate of free speech on American college campuses nationwide. This, according to a report released by Middle Tennessee State University’s (MTSU) Free Speech Center last week, aimed at offering best practices for First Amendment advocacy, activism, and engagement amongst college students.

The nine practices proposed were: physical environments incorporating the First Amendment, social media engagement, cultural boundary bridging, writing exercises, case studies, targeted campus events, hands-on engagement, building bridges, and a combination of assessment and iteration. Examples of these practices included establishing monuments enumerating the First Amendment rights, or offering exercises where students experience loss of these rights momentarily by exchanging their First Amendment freedoms for a free lunch.

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Mark Green Commentary: Biden’s Radically Divisive Executive Order Will Destroy Women’s Sports

Months after we celebrated the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, one of President Biden’s first actions marks a drastic setback for women across this country. The President’s Executive Order instructs the Department of Education to allow transgender women – biological men who identify as women – to compete in women’s sports. Federally funded institutions are now being forced to allow biological men access to women’s sports and scholarships meant for women in sports. This move erodes the foundations of Title IX, is unfair to women, and is a massive overreach by the Federal government. 

Congress passed Title IX in 1972 to help break the glass ceiling for women, but President Biden’s Executive Order reinstates that very glass ceiling. Title IX was predicated on the fact that the biological makeup of males and females differ dramatically. That’s the reason Congress passed this important legislation – to grant women fair access to federal funding for sports and academics. Prior to Title IX, only 1 in 27 women played varsity sports, but today nearly half of girls participate in varsity sports. Before Title IX only 32,000 women competed in college sports, now 150,000 women do. Prior to Title IX athletic scholarships were virtually non-existent, now there are nearly 10,000 athletic scholarships for women.

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State Legislators Propose Bill to Expand Criteria for Removing Child Custody, Visitation, and Inheritance Rights from Rapists

Companion bills State Representative Debra Moody (R-Covington) and State Senator Paul Rose (R-Covington) introduced the companion bills. These bills propose to remove custody, visitation, and inheritance rights for a parent convicted of statutory rape, aggravated statutory rape, or lesser included offenses of rape from which crime the child was conceived.

Current Tennessee Code prohibits custody, visitation, and inheritance rights for these types of rape: § 39-13-502, § 39-13-503, and § 39-13-522. If the companion bills are passed, the Code would also prohibit those rights for a parent who is convicted of aggravated statutory rape as outlined in § 39-13-506 or statutory rape by an authority figure as outlined in § 39-13-532. The legislation would also apply those same restrictions on a parent who is convicted of or pleads guilty or no contest to a lesser included offense.

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State Representative Proposes State Oversight Committee for African American History in Public Schools

State Representative Jesse Chism’s (D-Memphis) latest bill would create a committee overseeing African American history in public education. House Bill 0429 aims to ensure that the curriculum would become more “accurate and consistently applied.”

Currently, Tennessee’s social studies standards outline that curriculums specifically pertaining to African American history are reserved for high school grades 9-12. Eighth grade students also engage briefly in African American history through the 19th century, such how African Americans were involved in the Civil War and impacted by certain domestic policies.

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Oversight Board Reverses Facebook Removal of Post Touting Hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 Treatment

Facebook’s independent Oversight Board has reversed the social media platform’s decision to remove an October 2020 post pertaining to the drug hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of COVID-19.

“In October 2020, a user posted a video and accompanying text in French in a public Facebook group related to COVID-19,” the board explained on its website. “The post alleged a scandal at the Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament (the French agency responsible for regulating health products), which refused to authorize hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin for use against COVID-19, but authorized and promoted remdesivir. The user criticized the lack of a health strategy in France and stated that “[Didier] Raoult’s cure” is being used elsewhere to save lives. The user’s post also questioned what society had to lose by allowing doctors to prescribe in an emergency a “harmless drug” when the first symptoms of COVID-19 appear.”

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Washington County Reopens Schools as the Tennessee General Assembly Mulls School Funding Incentives

After Washington County District of Education (WCDE) announced plans to bring back all students to in-person classes five days a week starting Monday, February 1, hazardous road conditions led the district to announce school closures for both Monday and Tuesday.

The move comes as lawmakers consider a potential bill HB 7021 that would curtail school funding for schools that did not open up for a minimum of 70 days before June 30, the district voted last week to bring students back.

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Tennessee Restaurant Saved by Barstool Sports Mogul’s COVID-19 Relief Fund

A restaurant in Tennessee is rejoicing after a sports mogul stepped in to help it stay in business its time of need. 

Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports has raised more than $33 million for small businesses impacted by COVID-19 restrictions through “The Barstool Fund.” He is using that money keep small businesses afloat. Small businesses of all kinds have been encouraged to submit videos explaining why they need relief, and if selected, Barstool has promised to give the support to remain open until after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. 

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27,000 Children Stranded in Refugee Camps ‘at Risk of Radicalization’ by ISIS, UN Official Says

Around 27,000 children, many with parents who are affiliated with ISIS, remain in a refugee camp in northeastern Syria, the United Nations counterterrorism chief said, the Associated Press reported Saturday.

The thousands of children “remain stranded, abandoned to their fate” where they are exposed to ISIS and are “at risk of radicalization within the camp,” said Vladimir Voronkov, the undersecretary general for counter terrorism at the U.N., during an informal meeting on Friday, the AP reported. He added that there are children from 60 countries at the camps who need to be repatriated.

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GameStop Revolt Redditors File Class Action Lawsuit Against Robinhood for Cutting off Access to the Market as Hedge Fund Losses Mount

by Andrew Kerr   A class-action lawsuit filed against the investing app Robinhood on Thursday just hours after it prohibited its users from purchasing GameStop stock is unlikely to be successful in court, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation. And federal regulators with the Securities and Exchange Commission are going to have a hard time proving that the millions of retail investors from the Reddit forum WallStreetBets who forced a monumental short squeeze on GameStop, causing the company’s price to skyrocket nearly 1,500% in January, violated any securities laws, the experts said. “They may be ganging up, but it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of material misrepresentations being made. And the SEC’s standard modus operandi is to go after people who are making material misrepresentations,” University of Michigan Law professor Adam Pritchard told the DCNF. “These people may just be stupid. But there are a bunch of them and they’re encouraging each other. It’s not a crime to be stupid.” GameStop’s price explosion in January was made possible because hedge funds and other institutional investors had shorted 140% of the company’s existing shares. When an investor shorts a stock, they’re betting that the security will decrease…

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Commentary: Biden, Teachers’ Unions, and the $630 Billion Shakedown

For all their devastating, long-term side effects, the various failed remedies to COVID-19 have been clarifying.

The “expert” class, in case it was still unclear to anyone, is overrun not with critical thinkers devoted to scientific inquiry but hyperpartisan hacks with a hive mind no better than that of a typical seventh-grade cheer squad. The scientific method is dead; in its place is a multitiered campaign to bully, silence, and cancel anyone who dares to challenge their unchallengeable expertise.

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Sen. Rand Paul, 24 Senators Introduce REIN Act to Curtail Federal Spending

Rand Paul

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, introduced a bill that would require any new regulation proposed by an executive branch department or agency to be approved by Congress if it is projected to cost $100 million or more to implement.

The bill, “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2021” (REIN), with 24 Republican cosponsors, was introduced after President Joe Biden on his first day in office signed an executive order to repeal deregulation efforts implemented by the previous administration.

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Commentary: America’s Fake European Friends

Sometimes the people you help the most are the most ungrateful.

During World War II Americans left the security of their own continent and helped save Western Europe from both Adolf Hitler’s Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union. In doing so Americans also rescued Germans from Nazism. During the Cold War Americans spent decades on duty confronting Moscow while the Europeans freeloaded on defense. Ultimately the continent exulted as the Berlin Wall fell, the Warsaw Pact dissolved, and the Soviet Union collapsed — all courtesy decades of U.S. involvement.

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Richmond Electoral Board Removes City’s General Registrar, J. Kirk Showalter

The Richmond Electoral Board on Monday night voted 2-1 to remove J. Kirk Showalter from her position as the city’s general registrar.

Of the three-member board, which has the power to remove a general registrar from office under state law, chairman James M. Nachman and vice-chairman Joyce K. Smith voted in favor of the move, while secretary C. Starlet Stevens opposed.

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Judge Throws Out Cincinnati Teachers Union Lawsuit to Halt In-Person Learning in Cincinnati Public Schools

The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT) filed an injunction in Hamilton County Municipal Court last Friday to stop Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) from conducting in-person learning.

The union, which represents 3,000 teachers, claims classroom learning is unsafe until all teachers have received both rounds of the COVID vaccine.  

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‘Stop Stacey’ Initiative Launched to Fight Stacey Abrams in Georgia

A group of Republicans launched a committee to fight former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a Democrat, who is likely to challenge Republican Gov. Brian Kemp again in 2022.

“Leaders of the new independent committee, known as ‘Stop Stacey,’ say they will build a ‘robust state and national fundraising operation’ in order to target Abrams with opposition research, digital ads and other paid media,” a Fox News report said.

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Georgia Film Industry Faring Better than California’s Due to State’s COVID-19 Policies, Deputy Commissioner Says

The people who work for Georgia’s film and television studios are not only working again but working more frequently than their counterparts at competing studios in California and the United Kingdom. That’s because officials in Georgia’s state government have a more lenient COVID-19 policy. Those studios opened back up not long after the start of the pandemic.

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Two Bills Seeking Increased Transparency From State Parole Board Pass Virginia Senate

The Virginia state Senate on Monday passed two bills relating to the Virginia Parole Board that aim to bring more transparency to individual votes and give warnings to victims of crimes or their families when a decision to release an offender has been made.

Senate Bill 1125, introduced by Sen. Mark Obenshain (R-Rockingham), specifically requires the board to notify a victim of a crime through either written or electronic means that a decision has been made to grant parole to the inmate who committed the related offense.

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Of the Nearly 1,200 Racial Incident Reports from 2015-2020 at Michigan State University, Only Eight Violated Policies

Over the past five years, nearly 1,200 Michigan State University students and staff members reported racial discrimination incidents. Only eight instances, however, truly violated the school’s bias and discrimination policies.

According to data provided to the Lansing State Journal by Michigan State’s Office of Institutional Equity, affiliates reported 1,187 instances of race-based bias and discrimination between 2015 and September 2020. Of those instances, 76 revealed issues with conduct, and of those 76 issues, eight instances — less than 1 percent of all reported — constituted violations of the school’s policies.

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Minneapolis Leaders Propose New Department to ‘Supervise’ Police Officers

Minneapolis City Council members officially introduced a draft amendment to the city charter that would create a new Department of Public Safety and eliminate the Minneapolis police force as its own department.

After giving a notice of intent to change the charter’s current mandate — which requires funds for the MPD as a sole entity — to fund more general “public safety services,” City Council Members Phillipe Cunningham, Steve Fletcher, and Jeremy Schroeder introduced the draft of the amendment Friday. Their objective is to put the amendment up for a public vote during the next municipal election.

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Study: Education Savings Account Program in Georgia Could Result in Nearly $16B in Long-Term Benefits

students in class

Giving parents the ability to choose what school their children attend could save Georgia taxpayers money and generate billions of dollars in economic benefits, according to a new study.

Released this week by conservative think tank the Georgia Public Policy Foundation (GPPF) in conjunction with National School Choice Week, the study said establishing a statewide education savings account program that serves 5% of the student population would provide at least $15.7 billion in long-term economic benefits.

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Ohio Guidance Counselor Sues to Stop Union Representation

A Northeast Ohio school guidance counselor filed a lawsuit to stop union representation, saying she’s not a member of the union and should not be forced to accept it.

Barbara Kolkowski, a counselor in the Ashtabula Area City School District, filed the complaint in Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas and wants a preliminary and permanent injunction that stops the union from requiring her to accept its representation.

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