Day: March 24, 2021

Bill Proposes Mandating Stricter Guidance with State Curriculum Standards, Limits to LGBT Material

Corinne Murdock

The General Assembly is considering a bill to enforce stricter adherence to state curriculum standards, effectively limiting LGBT instructional materials. The bill was introduced by State Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) last month. State Senator Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) submitted the companion bill shortly after.

Although the House Education Instruction Subcommittee was scheduled to review the bill on Tuesday, it was rolled back to next week. Griffey told The Tennessee Star that changes will be made to the bill to refocus it on stricter adherence to enforcing current state standards – not just LGBT material in classrooms. 

Read the full story

Commentary: Today’s Real Systemic Injustice with COVID and Our Kids

Admin

Black Lives Matter. Believe All Women. Everybody wants to be on the right side of contentious civil rights issues — that’s why the debate over what that “right side” is becomes so intense. But the most quantifiable systemic injustice in our nation today is not black versus white, or male versus female. It’s old against young.

During the coronavirus pandemic, abandonment of adult responsibility in respected institutions — medical, educational, and parental — is indicative of sweeping moral collapse. Making sacrifices for future generations used to make sense in a grown-up world. But baby boomers, those children of the ’60s who have controlled the country for 30 years, have desensitized our culture with their apathy and entitlement. Why should healthy children be held to the same medical standard as a 70-year-old “boomer” with multiple comorbidities? Why have young people, who beat COVID-19 quicker than the annual flu, been forced to surrender a year of their lives to satisfy the anxieties of a paranoid gerontocracy? The calculated hysteria of our politicians has accelerated institutional fragility, a condition of paralysis in which medical and educational leaders refuse to acknowledge prejudicial restrictions on the young and the healthy.

Read the full story

More Than $4 Billion to Go to Illegal Immigrants Through Biden Stimulus Checks

The Center Square

The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 2.65 million illegal immigrants have Social Security numbers and, because of their income threshold and number of children they have, are eligible to receive federal stimulus checks.

In a new report, CIS estimates that illegal immigrants could receive an estimated $4.38 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 passed by Democrats along party lines.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that illegal immigrants would be receiving $1,400 checks through the legislation and introduced an amendment to stop it. Democrats rejected the amendment.

Read the full story

Founder of the Free Range Kid Movement Lenore Skenazy Talks About the Importance of Unstructured Playtime for Children

Julie Carr

  Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed Lenore Skenazy, founder of the Free Range Kids movement to the newsmakers line to talk about her background and what prompted her movement. Leahy: We are delighted to have on our newsmaker line right now. Lenore Skenazy really the founder of the Free Range Kid movement. Welcome to The Tennessee Star Report Lenore. Skenazy: Well, thanks. I guess I am a newsmaker now? That’s great! Leahy: You are on our newsmaker line because this is actually pretty important what you’re doing. What you have in common with a lot of folks here is that you don’t like the way our kids are being treated. You made some news. You’re a Yale graduate. Did you get a journalism degree from Columbia after? Skenazy: I did. Leahy: And then you went to work for the New York Daily News. Skenazy: Forever. Leahy: Very different at the New York Daily News than The Tennessee Star. And the Daily News is kind of left-wing. The Tennessee Star is an…

Read the full story

Biden Admin Customs and Border Protection Admits to Releasing Illegal Alien Families Without Setting Court Dates

Admin

Under the administration of Joe Biden, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun releasing entire families of illegal aliens back into the U.S. from their custody without setting a date for them to appear before an immigration court, as reported by Breitbart.

Breitbart’s Randy Clark, himself a veteran of the Border Patrol, said that CBP has sent notices to border patrol agents and other immigration enforcement authorities that families are to be released without a formal “Notice to Appear.” Two anonymous officials seemed to confirm Clark’s account.

“This is insane,” one official said. “It is another pull factor that will overwhelm us. We are creating an entirely different class of aliens we will have to deal with years from now. We will never find most of these aliens once they are released.”

Read the full story

Leaked Photos from Texas Border Facility Show Illegal Immigrants Packed Like Sardines into ‘Pods’

Admin

Thousands of illegal immigrants are living in overcrowded conditions in a Texas border facility, and leaked photos of the shockingly squalid situation have emerged online.

Monday morning, both Axios, and Project Veritas released photographs from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary overflow facility in Donna, Texas, where an average of 3,000 men, women, and children have been packed like sardines into nightmarish “pods” until the government’s longer-term child shelters and family detention facilities are available.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) provided photos to Axios of the crowded conditions “to raise awareness about the situation.” According to Cueller, “one pod held more than 400 unaccompanied male minors.”

Read the full story

Marty Walsh Confirmed as Department of Labor Secretary in Bipartisan Vote

Admin

The Senate confirmed Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to lead the Department of Labor in a bipartisan vote Monday evening.

The Senate voted 68-29 in favor of confirming Marty Walsh, the current mayor of Boston and former union member and leader. Several Republicans including Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Richard Burr voted alongside Democrats in favor of confirming Walsh on Monday.

“I am committed to making sure that everyone — including veterans, LGBTQ Americans, immigrants, and people with disabilities — gets full access to economic opportunity and fair treatment in the workplace,” Walsh said during his Senate confirmation hearing last month.

Read the full story

Free Range Kids Founder Lenore Skenazy Talks About Her Two New Inititiaves, Let Grow Play Club and Let Grow Project

Julie Carr

  Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. –  host Leahy welcomed President of Let Grow and founder of Free Range Kids Lenore Skenazy to the newsmakers line to talk about her two new initiatives. Leahy: On our newsmaker line, our new friend, Lenore Skenazy, the President of Letgrow.org. And really the founder of the Free Range Kids Movement. So, Lenore, I have a question for you. Are you open to it? Skenazy: I thought you had a great idea for me. Leahy: I do. I have a question for you. So first, before we get to our idea, why don’t you describe some of the K8 projects that Let Grow has currently? Skenazy: Oh, thank you so much. Sure. So we just have two school initiatives. They’re both free. So it’s not like I’m selling something. One is like I was telling you before the Let Grow Play Club. We encourage schools to open before after school for kid-led, no adult. There’s an adult in the corner with an EpiPen. But otherwise, it’s just kids playing.…

Read the full story

FBI Had Doubts About Russia Informant’s Allegation That Helped Prompt Mike Flynn Probe

Admin

Five days before the FBI formally opened the Michael Flynn probe in summer 2016, a confidential informant alleged to agents that Donald Trump’s national security adviser had left a 2014 foreign meeting alone with a Russian woman. Agents ultimately deemed the account “not plausible” and “not accurate” but proceeded to investigate Flynn anyway, newly declassified documents show.

Read the full story

House Subcommittee Approves COVID Vaccine Exemption Bill for Students

Corinne Murdock

On Tuesday, the House Education Subcommittee recommended passage of a bill prohibiting mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for students.

House Bill 1421, introduced by State Senator Rusty Grills (R-Newbern), would prevent schools from mandating that students or their parents receive the COVID-19 vaccine. It would also prohibit schools from requiring the vaccine for attendance, or retaliating against the student in any manner. Schools who violate this proposed law would be subject to civil action, as determined by a court.

Read the full story

Commentary: The Left’s Hypocrisy on Election Results Denial

Admin

Ever since November 2020, the political Left has been pounding on the political Right for failing to respect the outcomes of elections. This charge they add to a whole litany of criticisms of conservatives as breakers of the norms of democracy and nascent authoritarians.

Former President Donald Trump fed this narrative by, well, denying that he lost, and doing so with flourish and hamfistedness. His supporters did him no favors by feeding him thinly sourced tales about Venezuelan software, German servers, late-night ballot dumps, and mischievous postal workers.

But it is profoundly mistaken to call election results denialism solely a habit of the Right or the hobby horse of Trump. The Left has done it multiple times in the past 15 years.

Read the full story

Americans Are Starting to Reemerge from Their ‘COVID Bunkers’ as Vaccinations Accelerate

Admin

As coronavirus vaccinations accelerate across the country, more and more Americans are seeing their friends in public, eating at restaurants and shopping in retail stores, according to a Tuesday Axios/Ipsos poll.

Almost 50% of Americans said that they had visited family or friends in the past month, according to the poll, up from just 39% in February. And 45% said that they had gone out to eat, up 12 points from the past month as well.

Additionally, 90% of respondents said they knew someone who had already been vaccinated, and 36% said that they had been vaccinated themselves.

Read the full story

Travis Hackworth Wins Senate District 38 Special Election

Eric Burk

Republican Travis Hackworth won the 38th Senate District seat in a special election held Tuesday. Hackworth will fill a seat left vacant when Senator Ben Chafin (R-Russell) died of COVID-19 early in 2021.

“We were hoping for a 70-30 victory and to hit 75 percent, it’s just amazing. It just shows how the people in the 38th District are still conservative Republicans that want to elect a senator like Senator Chafin, who will go up there and fight Richmond and just be conservative,” Hackworth told The Virginia Star.

Read the full story

Using Boulder Tragedy, Klobuchar Promises Action on Gun Control

Peter D'Abrosca

The morning after a mass shooting that left 10 dead in Colorado, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is using the tragedy to push a left-wing gun control agenda. 

“Since we announced a hearing on gun safety, there have been two mass shootings. That doesn’t include the hundreds affected by gun violence every day. Thoughts & prayers aren’t enough. We need to act & it starts with a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing I’m heading to right now,” Klobuchar said Tuesday morning on Twitter

Read the full story

Virginia Parole Board Investigator Jennifer Moschetti Fired

Eric Burk

The Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) fired senior investigator Jennifer Moschetti on Monday. Moschetti had investigated and helped write a report detailing violations committed by the Virginia Parole Board. Moschetti had sought formal recognition as a whistleblower from the General Assembly, but when she was placed on leave from her OSIG job, she sued to keep herself from being fired.

Read the full story

Minnesota Democrats Respond to ‘Incredibly Harmful’ Voter ID Bill, Call for Permanent Mail-in Voting

Admin

Minnesota Senate Democrats announced a sweeping elections platform Monday and attacked their Republican colleagues for introducing “incredibly harmful” voter ID legislation.

“Over the past year, we watched as Republican leaders across the country and here in Minnesota helped spread the big lie that our elections are not fair,” Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury, said at a Monday press conference, accusing Republicans of participating in a “voter suppression” campaign.

Read the full story

Ohio Lawmakers Want Easier Access to Ballot Drop Boxes

The Center Square

Two Democratic Ohio lawmakers want state voters to have more access to voter drop boxes throughout the state, and they say Secretary of State Frank LaRose can make voting more convenient for Ohioans.

Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, and Michele Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, want the state to require multiple ballot drop boxes per county based on geography and population. They say current law allows multiple boxes, despite LaRose’s decision to restrict them to one per county.

Read the full story

Georgia Legislators Want to Require Law Enforcement and 911 to Speak Languages Other Than English

Chris Butler

Members of the Georgia General Assembly filed various bills this week that would, if enacted into law, require law enforcement agencies to speak in languages other than English when working with members of the public. The first bill, SB 308, calls on the Georgia Emergency Communications Authority (GECA) and the state’s 911 systems to have a statewide system of language translation services. The Georgia General Assembly’s website identifies State Sen. Sheikh Rahman (D-Lawrenceville) as the bill’s primary sponsor. Nineteen other state senators, all Democrats, are co-sponsoring the bill.

Read the full story

Bomb Threats Called into Hampton Courthouses for Second Time This Month

Peter D'Abrosca

For the second time this month, Hampton’s courthouses have been subject to a bomb threat, forcing occupants to evacuate. 

“Hampton Police and [the Hampton Fire Department] are investigating a bomb threat at Hampton General District Court. All three court houses have been evacuated as a precaution and surrounding streets are closed. Call received at 8:29 a.m. Nothing further at this time,” according to a Tweet from the Hampton Police Department (HPD). 

Read the full story

Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn Gave $8 Million Contract to Company That Employs Her Husband

Corinne Murdock

Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn’s husband works for the company that benefited from an $8.06 million reading initiative contract.

Apparently, Commissioner Schwinn keeps it all in the family. As The Tennessee Star reported last fall, sources claimed that Schwinn imported former colleagues from Texas when she assumed her role within TDOE. They also claimed that they were subjected to hiring freezes and pressure to slash budgets, though Schwinn had no problem with maintaining the six-figure salaries for her imports.

Read the full story