Day: March 7, 2021

Governor Lee Grants Nearly $15 Million to Expand Broadband Access

Corinne Murdock

Tens of thousands more Tennesseans will be getting expanded broadband access soon, thanks to nearly $15 million in grants. Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Bob Rolfe announced this latest funding through the Broadband Accessibility Grant program in a joint press release on Friday. 

The press release indicated that the grants would cover over 7,000 homes and businesses, which would impact just under 18,000 citizens. 13 providers were issued the grants in total. Counties impacted by the grants are Grainger, Coffee, Bledsoe, Roane, Obion, Lawrence, Benton, Hancock, Lauderdale, Bedford, Marshall, Meigs, Cumberland, and Weakley. TNECD has allocated nearly $60 million in broadband expansion grants to date. 

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Commentary: The Narrative, the Coup, and the Bourgeoisie

Admin

The purges began shortly after the revolution. For all its haste and ill-preparedness, the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, led by the perpetually temperamental Vladimir Lenin and fueled by a fierce devotion to Marxism, quickly gave rise to the vast and unimaginably harsh Soviet labor camp system that would come to be known as the “gulag.” As the leader of the newly established Russian Soviet Republic, Lenin wasted no time in ordering the establishment of decrees calling for the severe punishment of anyone deemed a “class enemy” to the new Soviet Republic. 

From the perspective of Lenin and the Bolsheviks, class enemies were those who had opposed the Marxist Bolshevik Revolution and often consisted of individuals the Bolsheviks contemptuously regarded as privileged in their social class. These so-called class enemies, a term which eventually became synonymous with the “bourgeoisie,” ostensibly posed a threat to the proletariat-ruled, Marxist utopia Lenin was promising to the masses. 

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Fauci: Daily New Cases Should Be Below 10,000 Before U.S. Lifts Pandemic Restrictions

Admin

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that the U.S. should not relax restrictions that have been put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus until new infections are under 10,000 per day, a number that is about 85% lower than current case levels.

Fauci said that the case levels may have to be “considerably less” than 10,000 per day for him to support rolling back mask and social distancing mandates in place in many U.S. cities and states.

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Psaki Says Biden Will Have Press Conference by the End of the Month

Admin

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that President Joe Biden will have a press conference by the end of March.

“As all of you know, the president takes questions several times a week,” Psaki said during the White House press briefing. “He took questions actually twice yesterday, which is an opportunity for the people covering the White House to ask him about whatever news is happening on any given day.”

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New York County Lawmaker Compares Cuomo to Central Park Five, Says Alleged Victims Have Political Motive

Admin

A Democratic county lawmaker in Buffalo said Thursday the three women who have accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual misconduct are motivated by politics, according to video footage obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The lawmaker, Jeanne Vinal, said during a legislature meeting she was going to vote against two county resolutions calling for independent investigations of allegations against Cuomo, saying to do so would be akin to jumping “on a bandwagon of the way they did in the Central Park Five.”

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Lt. Governor McNally Issues Revised Protocols for Accessing Tennessee’s Senate

Laura Baigert

Lt. Governor Randy McNally has decided that effective Monday new protocols will go into effect that will allow greater access to the Senate areas within the Cordell Hull Building.

The revised protocols are due to the increased availability of the vaccine and the overall decline in the spread of COVID-19, according to a late-day email Friday from McNally’s chief of staff addressed to Senate members and staff.

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Trump Blasts Biden for ‘Spiraling Tsunami’ at the Border in Blistering Statement

Admin

In a blistering statement Friday, former President Donald Trump blasted Joe Biden for the “spiraling tsunami” at the border, placing the blame for the dramatic surge in illegal immigration squarely on Biden’s “disastrous leadership.”

“Our border is now totally out of control thanks to the disastrous leadership of Joe Biden,” Trump said in his statement. “Our great Border Patrol and ICE agents have been disrespected, demeaned, and mocked by the Biden Administration. A mass incursion into the country by people who should not be here is happening on an hourly basis, getting worse by the minute.”

The former president warned that the new administration’s lax policies at the border—allowing criminals and Covid-positive migrants into the country— will have dangerous consequences for the nation.

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Commentary: It’s Time to Reopen America Now

Admin

On Tuesday, governors Greg Abbott (R-Texas) and Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) announced they would be lifting their statewide mask-wearing mandates, business capacity limitations, and various other COVID-19-related restrictions. “COVID still exists,” Abbott said, “but it is clear from the recoveries, from the vaccinations, from the reduced hospitalizations, and from the safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.”

Texans and Mississippians might be forgiven for wondering why their governors did not earlier follow the courageous path of Governor Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who has garnered national headlines for her stubborn refusal to enact various mask-wearing mandates and other lockdown orders. But still: Better late than never.

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Feds Quietly Dismiss Dozens of Cases Against Antifa Extremists Who Terrorized Downtown Portland Last Summer

Admin

Federal prosecutors have “quietly dismissed” 34 of 90 cases stemming from the violent riots in downtown Portland last summer, and many more federal charges are expected to be dismissed soon, KGW8 reported this week. Cases being dismissed include felony charges such as assaults on federal officers, court records show.

According to KGW, more than half of the dropped charges were “dismissed with prejudice,”  which means the case can’t be brought back to court. And at least 11 of the dismissed cases were reportedly dropped on or after the inauguration of Mr. Biden.

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Mississippi Judge Orders New Election After Finding 79 Percent of Absentee Ballots Invalid

Admin

A Mississippi judge has ordered a new election in an alderman race after finding 79% of absentee ballots were invalid and evidence of fraud and criminal activity.

Judge Jeff Weill on Monday said that 66 of 84 absentee ballots cast in the June runoff for a city of Aberdeen alderman seat were invalid and should never have been counted. He also said he found evidence of fraud and criminal activity in how absentee ballots were handled, how votes were counted and the actions by some at the polling place, according to WCBI-TV, a CBS affiliate.

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Georgia House Passes State Budget with Five Percent Spending Increase

The Center Square

The Georgia House approved a $27.2 billion state budget for fiscal year 2022 on Friday, representing a 5.2% increase in spending over the current fiscal year’s original budget.

The proposal restores funding for education and other reductions lawmakers made to protect state coffers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The House plan also increases spending on health care and behavioral health and adds funding for new state positions and raises.

The House approved the measure, 136-31.

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50 Michigan Lawmakers Ask Feds to Investigate Gov. Whitmer’s COVID-19 Nursing Home Policies

The Center Square

State Rep. Michele Hoitenga, R-Manton, and 50 Republican lawmakers on Wednesday formally asked for a federal investigation into Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s controversial policy that placed COVID-19 positive patients into Michigan nursing homes.

The letter follows the exposure of a $155,506 secret taxpayer-funded payment for state health Director Robert Gordon that included a confidentiality agreement for the person responsible for crafting the state’s COVID-19 nursing home policies.

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Virginia Directing $2.6 Million to Prevent Evictions

The Center Square

Virginia will award $2.6 million in grants to help prevent evictions in highly needed areas, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Friday.

Funding will help build capacity and implement eviction prevention and diversion programs created to address underlying causes of eviction. Money will go to the 14 localities the state identified as having the highest eviction rates. The grants will be awarded through a new pilot program called the Virginia Eviction Reduction Pilot (VERP) Program.

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Lawmaker Says Biofuel Tax Credit Will Benefit Ohio Drivers, Farmers

The Center Square

From Lake Erie to the Ohio River, acres upon acres of vast cornfields blanket Ohio’s countryside, and an Ohio lawmaker wants state drivers to take advantage of the crop when they fill up their tanks.

Rep. Riordan McClain, R-Upper Sandusky, has introduced a bill in the Ohio House that would create a temporary, nonrefundable tax credit on the sale of E15 and higher blended biofuels of 5 cents a gallon.

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Minnesota Appeals Court Rules Trial Judge Erred in Not Reinstating Chauvin’s Third-Degree Murder Charge

The Center Square
Derek Chauvin

On Friday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Judge Peter Cahill erred when he didn’t reinstate the third-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin.

The former Minneapolis police officer stands accused of killing George Floyd in May.

The Appeals court remanded the argument back to Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill.

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Georgia Senate Passes Business and Religious Institution Protection Act

Chris Butler

Members of the Georgia State Senate Friday passed SB 200, which would, if enacted into law, protect businesses and churches against government shutdowns during a COVID-19-like pandemic or other health emergency. Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R-Cumming) emailed a press release Friday and said this bill “provides businesses and churches with common-sense protections against government shutdowns.”

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