The Minneapolis FBI office helped uncover and bring to justice a scheme by which China illegally acquired U.S. technology.
An indictment was unsealed this week which charged 45-year-old Chinese national Cheng Bo (AKA Joe Cheng) with violating U.S. export laws to illegally ship controlled power amplifiers to China. The power amplifiers in question have potential military applications, according to Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the National Security Division.
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The House of Delegates passed a bill meant to protect employees from losing unemployment benefits for some employees who can’t work due to COVID-19. It includes a key provision that provides unemployment benefits for people who don’t go to work because they believe their employer is not following COVID-19 safety standards.
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Memphis City Council devoted the first portion of its Tuesday meeting to hearing the demands of activists. The proposals were a part of a plan called “From Protest to Progress,” organized and sponsored by the Greater Memphis Chamber (GMC). GMC President and CEO Beverly Robertson presented the proposals to the council during Tuesday’s meeting.
A total of five activist groups, eleven faith-based organizations, around two dozen companies, and one school system are involved. The activist groups are the Peace & Justice Center, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Coalition of Concerned Citizens (C3), Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH), and Up the Vote. Shelby County Schools is represented in the initiative through their Minority and Women Business Enterprises (MWBE) Manager, Joyce Douglas.
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Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced Monday that phased in-person learning would begin this week. The news was presented at a press conference on Monday. MNPS Board Chair Christiane Buggs, MNPS Director Dr. Adrienne Battle, Meharry Medical College President and CEO Dr. James Hildreth, Meharry Medical College Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement Patrick Johnson, and Nashville Mayor John Cooper were present.
According to the reopening plan, special needs students at Genesis Academy and High Roads School of Nashville will return to classrooms on Thursday. Then, preschoolers, K-4 students, and those with exceptional needs may return starting February 9. Grades 5 and 9 may return on February 18, followed by grades 6, 7, and 8 on February 25. The last to return will be the remainder of high schoolers – grades 10-12 – on March 3.
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As a long-time financial services executive, every so often I am called upon by friends and family from other walks of life to comment on a story related to the stock market. Such is the case with the GameStop saga.
Given that few of them are well-versed in the ways of Wall Street, that I hail from an investment banking pedigree and not a securities trading — particularly stock trading — background seems to them a distinction without a difference, and I offer my insights as best as I am able. As such, I’ve given more thought to GameStop than I may have otherwise.
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The anti-Trump group Lincoln Project claims to be “shocked and sickened” by allegations that co-founder John Weaver sexually harassed young men, but specific accusations have reportedly been known to them since last summer, and rumors about Weaver’s alleged predatory behavior have been simmering for decades. Among the political elite, Weaver’s perverted predilections may well have been an open secret.
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Freshman State Representative Todd Warner’s (R-Chapel Hill) bill would limit government interference with the sale of firearms and ammunition. Under the “Tennessee Firearm Protection Act,” neither state or local governments may use funds, property, or personnel to implement, regulate, or enforce federal laws or executive orders regulating the sale of firearms, ammunition, or firearm accessories.
The legislation also clarified that the prohibition would only apply to resource usage if it violates a state law or the state constitution. Warner introduced the bill on Monday.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the Heartland Institutes State Gov. Relations Manager Samantha Fillmore to the newsmakers line to discuss their position on Big Tech and censorship of its users.
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Planned Parenthood plans to push “bold agenda items” under the Biden administration, Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson said in an interview.
“We should be pushing bold agenda items in the name of building back better,” McGill Johnson told Business Insider, borrowing President Joe Biden’s campaign slogan.
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The Trump era has spawned an abundance of show clowns clowning either for or against the president. One can’t help but wonder what the country did to deserve the likes of Anthony Scaramucci, Michael Avenatti, and Ana Navarro all foisted upon us at the same time.
Not since the days of James Carville and Mary Matalin has a power couple like the Conways and, unfortunately at least one of their children, epitomized the political war tearing families, friendships, businesses, and the overall country apart.
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A PolitiFact article written by Bill McCarthy declares “there’s no proof that” a left-wing anti-Trump activist named John Sullivan incited rioting at the U.S. Capitol. As a result of this claim, Facebook flagged and reduced distribution of a post which accused Sullivan of doing so.
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America is changing in bewildering ways since Donald Trump left office. For the first time in our nation’s history, the president of the United States, out in the open and for all to see, is a demented, senile figurehead. With the support of a media class, ostensibly charged with keeping him in check but instead behaving like the old Soviet Pravda, Biden is able to cover up his otherwise obvious physical, mental, and moral infirmities.
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A study from New York University released on Monday that dismisses conservative allegations of Big Tech bias and calls for President Joe Biden to establish a Digital Regulatory Agency was funded by Craig Newmark, a billionaire tech titan who donated $100,000 to Biden’s campaign victory fund.
The study, entitled “False Accusation: The Unfounded Claim that Social Media Companies Censor Conservatives,” also defends decisions by Facebook and Twitter to both ban President Donald Trump from their platforms last month, and to limit circulation of a story from The New York Post weeks before the election about emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop.
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One of President Joe Biden’s new executive actions is in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to a coalition of legal foundations and lawyers, which is planning to take legal action to stop it.
On his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order reversing former President Donald Trump’s ban on critical race theory training programs within the federal government.
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President Joe Biden’s administration appointed a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s criminal defense attorney to serve as acting chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division, which is reportedly investigating the younger Biden over allegations of money laundering.
The Justice Department official, Nicholas McQuaid, was a close associate with Chris Clark, a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins who is assisting Hunter Biden with the federal criminal investigation into his foreign business dealings. McQuaid worked closely with Clark at the law firm up until Jan. 20 when he was appointed to lead the Justice Department’s criminal division.
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Tennessee’s government employees may be entitled to opt out of certain trainings, seminars, or educational courses if it violates their morals, ethics, values, or religious beliefs. According to a set of companion bills introduced last month, the exemption would be enforced across all levels of government throughout the state.
Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) issued the first version of the bill, followed less than a week later by Representative Glen Casada (R-Franklin) issuing a companion bill.
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The official Black Lives Matter organization has announced its support for a radical effort to expel over 100 Republicans from Congress, as reported by Fox News.
The far-left group, which was responsible for burning cities all across America last summer, causing over $2 billion in damages and leading to at least 25 deaths, wrote on its website that it supported the effort led by Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.) to expel every Republican member of Congress who voted against the certification of the 2020 electoral results.
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Officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation are scheduled to unveil a plan Wednesday to develop and fund more charging networks across the state to power electric vehicles. The Tennessee Star on Tuesday asked officials with both agencies if enough Tennessee residents are driving electric vehicles to justify investing public resources into this infrastructure.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Retired Brigadier Gen. Robert Spalding to the newsmakers line to discuss his role in the Trump administration, China, and the reality of 5G.
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After the Senate of Virginia voted to censure Sen. Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) last week, the lawmaker filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday seeking to have the public rebuke expunged.
Chase filed the suit against the Senate, naming Clerk Susan Schaar as a defendant, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia over alleged violations of the First and 14th Amendments as well as the legislative body’s own rules.
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Rob Portman’s U.S. Senate seat is up for grabs after the establishment Republican announced he would not run for re-election in 2022. Portman cited gridlock and more time with family as primary reasons driving his decision to step away from federal politics – ending his 33 year career since his first political job as a legal aid to President George H.W. Bush in 1989.
Following the announcement, the Ohio rumor mill swirled with talk about many prospective Republican replacements.
Jim Jordan (R-OH-4) is a strong Trump advocate and member of the House Freedom Caucus who has represented Ohio in D.C. since 2007. His spokesperson said the congressman was honored by the overwhelming support to run for U.S. Senate but is solely focused on representing Ohio’s Fourth District and would not be running.
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Michigan’s Democrat governor is once again tip-toeing towards authoritarianism, this time seeking the disbarment of attorneys who happen to be political opponents.
“Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, three Democrats who are lawyers themselves, filed complaints Monday with the Attorney Grievance Commission in Michigan and the State Bar of Texas,” according to The Detroit News. “Their filings ask that Michigan attorneys Greg Rohl, Scott Hagerstrom and Stefanie Junttila and Texas attorney Sidney Powell be disbarred and lose the ability to practice law in their states.”
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Gov. Tim Walz announced a plan Monday to get more COVID-19 vaccine doses into the arms of senior citizens, but some Republican senators think the proposal comes up short.
State Sen. Karin Housley, R-Stillwater, chair of the Senate’s Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care, called a press conference Monday to unveil her “seniors first” vaccine plan.
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A Democrat member of Congress from Ohio admitted in an interview published Tuesday that her party is out of touch with working class Americans.
“They just can’t understand,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09) told The Hill. “They can’t understand a family that sticks together because that’s what they have. Their loved ones are what they have, their little town, their home, as humble as it is — that’s what they have. Respect it. It was so insensitive.”
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Gubernatorial candidate Pete Snyder announced Tuesday his Open Our Schools tour, where he will visit local Open Our Schools activists across the Commonwealth. Snyder said opening schools in November would be too late, and called for immediate action.
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At the end of January, Cleveland.com praised Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) for a “record fundraising haul,” but buried an important part of the story in the process.
“As of Friday, DeWine’s campaign reported having more than $3.6 million in the bank after receiving more than $1.6 million since July 9, 2020, according to a filing with the Ohio secretary of state’s office,” the site said in a January 29 report, which was updated on January 31.
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The Virginia House passed Delegate Dan Helmer’s (D-Fairfax) HB 2020 on Monday. The bill bans political parties from nominating statewide candidates using methods that would exclude active-duty military, students, and people sick with contagious diseases.
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Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine and First Lady Fran DeWine received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday as eligibility continues to open up to various groups in the state.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday proposed a plan that he said will “recruit, prepare, mentor, and retain the best educators” and give teachers more power to influence the state board of education. Kemp unveiled his proposal at the Georgia State Capitol. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-Cumming) and Speaker Pro-Tempore Jan Jones (R-Milton) stood alongside Kemp to show their support.
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Legislation prohibiting the possession and transportation of firearms and other weapons within Richmond’s Capitol Square as well as inside any buildings owned or leased by the state passed the Virginia Senate Tuesday afternoon.
The legislation, Senate Bill 1381, advanced out of the Senate by a 21-18 straight party-line vote with every Democrat in support and all Republicans opposing.
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Tennessee ranks 33rd of the 50 states for the percentage of COVID-19 vaccines it has distributed versus the number of doses it received, data show.
The ranking was revealed by Becker’s Hospital Review, and is available here. Becker’s updated the data on Tuesday.
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Amazon announced Tuesday that CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down later this year and will become executive chair of the company.
Andy Jassy, who is the CEO of Amazon Web Services, will become Amazon’s new CEO when Bezos departs in the third quarter of this year from the CEO post.
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Former President Donald J. Trump Tuesday, through is attorneys Bruce L. Castor, Jr., and David Schoen, responded to the article of impeachment against him, for which he faces a trial in the U.S. Senate.
The 45th president was accused of “inciting an insurrection” over the mostly peaceful protests at the Capitol Building on January 6.
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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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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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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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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to weigh in on how the Sedition Act of 1798 compares to the censorship in the mainstream media today against the so-called right.
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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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By a decisive margin, voters want their local schools open for in-person learning, according to a new Just the News Daily Poll with Scott Rasmussen.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed former NYU professor and author Dr. Michael Rectenwald to the newsmakers line to discuss his new thriller Thought Criminal and social justice in academia.
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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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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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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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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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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Dan Gainor Vice President of Business and Culture for the Media Research Center to the newsmakers line to discuss America’s international battle for its civil rights.
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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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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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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee (R) State Senator Janice Bowling to the newsmakers line to talk about her proposed bills addressing vaccine mandates and medical cannabis.
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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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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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