Month: March 2021

Judge Allows ‘Spark of Life’ Evidence in Chauvin Trial

Peter D'Abrosca

Hennepin County District Court Judge Peter Cahill Wednesday morning decided to allow “spark of life” evidence on behalf of the prosecution in the highly-anticipated trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, but warned prosecutors not to go too far. 

“We’re all familiar with the ‘spark of life’ doctrine – that essentially, like you say, this is not just a person who we label ‘victim’ and we depersonalize him – that Mr. Floyd in this case isn’t entitled to have the jury realize that he was a human being, he was loved, he had a family,” Cahill said. “I think if it’s basically evidence that will not call for cross examination, I think that’s generally well within the bounds.”

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Appalachian Power Seeks 11 Percent Rate Increase for Virginia Customers

The Center Square

Appalachian Power, the second largest electric utility in Virginia, is seeking an 11% increase in rates paid by consumers residing in the commonwealth to pay for electric transmission costs.

If approved, Appalachian Power would increase the Transmission Rate Adjustment Clause from $225.1 million to $337.7 million, which is a $112.6 million increase. It would increase the monthly bill for a customer by $11.52 for every 1,000 kilowatt hours. It would go into effect in July 2021.

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Company Hired to Oversee Vaccine Operations Staffed with Former Minnesota DFL Operatives, Congressman Alleges

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An out-of-state company tasked with overseeing Minnesota’s vaccine and testing operations received millions of dollars in CARES Act funds from the state while hiring former DFL operatives and candidates, a congressman has alleged.

U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn has drawn attention to his former opponent’s alleged involvement in “possible corruption” and “special favors” in a series of statements.

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One-Fourth of Bills Passed in 2021 Virginia General Assembly Sessions Passed Along Party Lines

Eric Burk

In 2020 and 2021, the Democrat-led General Assembly passed nearly 20 percent more bills through strict party-line votes than in the three previous years when Republicans controlled both chambers. According to a data visualization from the Virginia Public Access Project, in 2020, 24 percent of bills passed were passed along party lines with Democrats voting for and Republicans voting against. In 2021, that number grew to 25 percent. In the Republican controlled sessions of 2017, 2018, and 2019, the percentage of bills passed along party lines was respectively 7.7 percent, 4.7 percent, and 5.7 percent.

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Vice Mayor Shulman Says Metro Council Will Revisit Verification Process for Community Oversight Board Members

Corinne Murdock

Metro Nashville’s Community Oversight Board (COB) members aren’t vetted prior to appointment – officials say they’re taken at their word. However, the shakiness of this method was exposed/ proved unreliable after The Tennessee Star discovered that recently-resigned member Ovid Timothy Hughes isn’t a registered voter, as he’d claimed and as was required of him by law. Hughes is a convicted felon, tried and charged in 2008 for mail fraud. He racked up over $78,000 of fraudulent charges against a previous employer using stolen credit card and account information. 

Nashville Vice Mayor Jim Shulman spoke with The Star about this revelation. He assured us that they would be taking extra steps in the future to verify all COB applicants’ voting eligibility.

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Conservatives Scold Tennessee AG Herb Slatery for ‘Cheerleading’ Controversial Joe Biden Cabinet Nominee

Chris Butler

  Three well-known Tennessee conservatives on Tuesday found fault with Republican Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery for supporting Xavier Becerra, U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as Health and Human Services secretary. Becerra, a Democrat, serves as California’s attorney general. FOX News published an article Friday that described Becerra as a controversial nominee who lacks medical experience and supports abortion access. Slatery spokeswoman Samantha Fisher said by email Tuesday that the FOX News account of Slatery’s words were accurate. “It characterized their positive working relationship as fellow attorneys general and nothing more,” Fisher said. Former Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain told The Tennessee Star in an email that Slatery has allowed “a personal relationship to supersede valid concerns about Becerra’s record on religious liberty and human life.” “Slatery’s decision highlights the fact that it is more important than ever before for Tennessee to change the process for selecting its attorney general,” Swain wrote. “Accountability is crucial if we are to have decisions reflecting the will of the people.” Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt, meanwhile, said “Slatery’s endorsement of Becerra for HHS is tantamount to enthusiastic cheerleading for the far-left liberal agenda of the Biden administration.” “Biden is taking…

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Commentary: PolitiFact Says 90 Percent of Biden Stimulus Spending Not Directly Related to COVID-19

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President Biden’s $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” could soon become law.

The budget-busting legislation, sold as emergency COVID response and “stimulus,” passed the Senate over the weekend. But even the liberal-leaning fact-checking website PolitiFact is pointing out that almost all of the bill’s spending is unrelated to the health effects of COVID-19.

“Total spending directly on COVID-19’s health impacts ranges from $100 billion to $160 billion,” fact-checker Jon Greenberg writes. “At the high end, direct COVID-19 spending represents about 8.5% of the bill’s $1.9 trillion cost.”

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Tennessee Senate Approves Right-to-Work Resolution to Amend State Constitution

Corinne Murdock

Tennesseans may receive explicit protections from union membership or affiliation as a condition of employment. If added to the Tennessee Constitution, the “Right to Work Amendment” would afford individuals the right to refuse membership within a union without facing repercussions concerning their employment. 

In order for an amendment to be made to the Tennessee Constitution, it must be approved twice. A simple majority is all that’s needed for the first approval. Then, the second approval must occur after an election via a two-thirds majority. State Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) first introduced this proposed amendment last January. The Senate passed it quickly, and was approved by the House in June. for the required second time in November. 

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Republican National Committee Won’t Comply with Trump Order to Stop Using His Name, Likeness

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The Republican National Committee will not comply with a cease-and-desist order by Donald Trump’s lawyers to stop using the former president’s name and likeness in fundraising materials.

Tump’s legal team sent a letter Friday to the RNC demanding the group stop using the “unauthorized use of President Donald J. Trump’s name, image, and/or likeness in all fundraising, persuasion, and/or issue speech,” according to Politico.

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Pfizer Vaccine Is Effective Against Fast-Spreading Brazilian Coronavirus Variant, Study Shows

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Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine was able to neutralize the highly transmissible Brazilian virus variant, a new lab study showed.

The effectiveness of the vaccine against the variant was “roughly equivalent” to the original strain, researchers told the New England Journal of Medicine. Its ability to combat the variant, known as P.1, is especially encouraging in Brazil, where it has spread throughout the country.

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Chauvin Trial Will Continue with Jury Selection Despite Active Appeal

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The jury selection process in the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd will continue despite an active appeal to reinstate previous charges, the Associated Press reported.

Judge Peter Cahill said he will continue with the trial unless the appeals court rules that a third-degree murder charge can be reinstated against former officer Derek Chauvin, the AP reported. Prosecutors have asked the court to pause the trial as the charges are considered.

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Supreme Court Sides with Student Whose Christian Beliefs Were Suppressed by Georgia College Campus

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Supreme Court of the United States

In a rare nearly-unanimous decision, the Supreme Court sided with a Christian college student whose right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion were initially silenced by his college campus in Georgia, as reported by ABC News.

The 8-1 decision was led by Justice Clarence Thomas, with Chief Justice John Roberts being the sole dissenting vote. Writing for the majority, Justice Thomas said that Chike Uzuegbunam, an African-American Evangelical Christian, can seek nominal damages from Georgia Gwinnett College, after officials at the school told him he was not allowed to hand out Christian literature on the campus’s “free speech zone.” This comes even after the school reversed course from its initial restrictions, and after Uzuegbunam ultimately graduated.

“It is undisputed that he experienced a complete violation of his constitutional rights when respondents enforced their speech policies against him,” Thomas wrote. “Because ‘every violation [of a right] imports damage,’ nominal damages can redress Uzuegbunam’s injury even if he cannot or chooses not to qualify that harm in economic terms.”

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12 States Sue Biden Administration over Climate Policies, ‘Massive Expansion’ of Regulations

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A group of Republican state attorneys general alleged in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that President Joe Biden’s climate policies are a major overreach and could damage their states’ economies.

The 12-state coalition said Biden overstepped his constitutional authority by declaring there were “social costs” of continued greenhouse gas emissions in a Jan. 20 executive order. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District Court of Missouri, argued that assigning such costs is a “quintessentially legislative action” that falls within Congress’ authority.

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Arizona and Montana Sue Biden Administration for Limiting Illegal Immigrant Arrests and Deportations

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Arizona and Montana filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s administration Monday in an effort to block the limits on deportations, Fox News reported.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich of Arizona, joined by Attorney General Austin Knudsen of Montana, filed a lawsuit in response to the 100-day deportation moratorium arguing that it will negatively impact their states. Brnovich said the immigration rules will cause a “humanitarian crisis,” Fox News reported.

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Convicted Felon Ovid Timothy Hughes Told Metro Council Members He Was a Registered Voter

Julie Carr

Prior to his acceptance by Metro City Council members to serve on the Community Oversight Board (COB), Ovid Timothy Hughes asserted he was, in fact, a registered voter.

But records show that as a convicted felon, Tennessee law would have prevented Hughes from legally voting in any election without either obtaining an outright pardon from the sitting governor or successfully petitioning a court to expunge his criminal record.

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New York Republicans Seek to Impeach Cuomo as AG’s Office Ramps up Investigation

The Center Square

As New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday announced the attorneys who will conduct the independent review on the sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republicans in the state Legislature said they intend to seek the embattled leader’s impeachment.

James appointed Joon H. Kim and Anne L. Clark to look into the sexual harassment allegations. Kim is a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Clark focuses on employment law.

James said the state is committed to a thorough review and heralded Kim and Clark as experts. Kim and Clark will be able to issue subpoenas, depose people and review records. They will give James’ office a weekly update throughout the investigatio

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Pepe Le Pew Fired from Space Jam Movie After Being Accused of Perpetuating ‘Rape Culture’

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The Looney Toons skunk Pepe Le Pew is the latest fictional character to fall victim to cancel culture warriors. The comically lecherous Le Pew was axed from Warner Brothers’ new “Space Jam” movie after being called out in the media for perpetuating “rape culture.”

The popular toon has reportedly had his scene cut from “Space Jam: A New Legacy,”  the sequel to the film he was a part of in 1997.

The hybrid live-action animation scene was shot in June 2019 and featured both Le Pew and actress Greice Santo, according to Deadline.

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Commentary: ‘Follow the Science’ with Dr. Fauci

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No matter what we are told by the “experts,” science is constantly evolving and is rarely ever as settled as those in power want us to believe. Doctors are often forced to make consequential decisions and recommendations based on partial or incomplete sets of data and information. Perhaps no one knows this better than Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

According to Fauci, it is now safe for schools to reopen. All it took was the passing of President Biden’s “COVID relief bill,” which will likely be signed into law this week. “As we now have the relief bill signed at $1.9 trillion — a lot of that is going into addressing COVID-19 including help to the schools to allow them to more safely bring the kids back,” Fauci said on Monday. Considering that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 95 percent of the money appropriated from the bill to fund schools will not be spent this year, there was no reason for Fauci to present its passing as a prerequisite for reopening schools — unless of course we fool ourselves into believing that he is motivated by science, and not by whatever the Biden administration tells him to say.

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Free Speech Bills Making Their Way Through the Tennessee General Assembly

Corinne Murdock

The General Assembly is considering several bills to further expand upon the protected rights of free speech. These bills address free speech in areas of public life such as college campuses, social media, state governments, and elections.

Several legislators proposed a bill to create accountability for social media companies and the government entities that use them. State Senator Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) and State Representative Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station) introduced legislation that would prohibit state agencies from utilizing any social media platforms that censor the free speech of others on the basis of political ideology, viewpoint discrimination, or personal animus. The language of the bill claimed that using those platforms was a “tacit acceptance” of the practice to limit or censor free speech and therefore a violation of the state constitution. That legislation is in committee currently in both the House and Senate.

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Prosecutor Says Whitmer Could Face Criminal Charges over Nursing Home Deaths

Peter D'Abrosca

Facing a situation similar to New York’s embattled Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is now under scrutiny from prosecutors about COVID-19 deaths in Michigan’s nursing homes. 

“If we find there’s been willful neglect of office if we find there’s been reckless endangerment of a person’s life by bringing them in then we would move forward with charges against the Governor,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido told WXZY. “Of course, we would. Nobody’s above the law in this state.”

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Virginia Parole Board Whistleblower Sues over Alleged Retaliation; Northam Stands by Parole Board

Eric Burk

An Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) employee who helped investigate the Virginia Parole Board (VPB) is suing Inspector General Michael Westfall. Jennifer Moschetti’s lawsuit, filed on Monday, states that she was placed on pre-disciplinary leave on March 5, days after she approached the General Assembly as an anonymous whistleblower. On Tuesday, Governor Ralph Northam’s Chief of Staff Clark Mercer said the lawsuit was motivated by politics and criticized the OSIG report.

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Georgia House Democrats Want to Expand TANF Benefits, Repeal Drug Felony Ban for Recipients

Chris Butler

Six Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly filed a bill this week that calls on state officials to expand access to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. According to that bill, HB 741, those Democrats also want to make eligible people convicted of felony drug charges. The bill also would, if enacted into law, increase the lifetime maximum for TANF benefits and stipulate that the government could disregard a person’s assets when determining eligibility.

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Lawmakers Say Legislation Would Curb Ohio Unemployment Fraud

The Center Square
Unemployment line

As legitimate and fraudulent unemployment claims rose over the past year, and with additional federal jobless assistance most likely on the way, Ohio lawmakers have introduced legislation they hope cracks down on system abuse.

If the bill passes and is signed into law, Ohioans would be required to provide proof of identification at a local employment office before state or pandemic unemployment assistances would be paid.

Senate Bill 116 outlines proof as either a driver’s license or any of the two documents required to obtain an Ohio driver’s license that contain the applicants name and address, including a birth certificate, Social Security card and proof of Ohio residency, legal presence or name change.

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House Approves Georgia Adoption Tax Credit Increase

The Center Square

The Georgia House approved a bill Monday that would increase foster care adoption tax credits in the state.

House Bill 114 increases the annual tax incentive for adopting a foster child from $2,000 to $6,000. Proponents of the bill, including Gov. Brian Kemp, hope the legislation encourages more Georgians to adopt foster children. 

The bill cleared the House, 158-0, without debate.

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Tennessee Historical Commission Finalizes Vote to Move Busts of Nathan Bedford Forrest, David Glasgow Farragut and Albert Gleaves

Corinne Murdock

The Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) voted overwhelmingly in favor of removing the busts of Nathan Bedford Forrest, David Glasgow Farragut and Albert Gleaves. The only member to vote against the measure was Commissioner Joanne Cullom Moore. The commission convened on Tuesday for a final hearing on the three busts. The final hearing was scheduled to take place last month originally, but was delayed due to the winter storm. Judge Kim Summers presided over the hearing. The meeting convened around 10 a.m. CST. Public comment lasted around three hours.

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Executive Director of Community Oversight Board Not Responding to Questions About Vetting Board Members

Corinne Murdock

Not all members of the Nashville Community Oversight Board (COB) have been entirely truthful with the public they serve – or the police they’re entrusted to hold accountable. Over the weekend, The Tennessee Star uncovered information that a recently-resigned member of the COB, Ovid Timothy Hughes, may have misled officials about his voting status in order to be appointed. COB Executive Director Jill Fitcheard hasn’t responded to The Star about why he wasn’t vetted prior to his appointment.

The COB is tasked with investigating police misconduct allegations, as well as issuing reports and recommendations based on research of misconduct, public safety, and the administration of justice. Those responsibilities necessitate a series of requirements for membership. Individuals must be registered voters in Davidson County; residents of the county for at least one year; and be nominated by a community organization, a petition of at least 50 county residents, or at least one Metro City Council member. Members can’t be current law enforcement members or have been one in the last five years, elected officials, or the spouse of any of the former. Members must also agree to continuous trainings in areas such as civil rights, equity, criminal justice, policing practices, cultural diversity, sexual harassment awareness. However, it is unclear if members are vetted prior to their appointment.

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Commentary: Critical Race Theory as a Leftist Hammer

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You have to hand it to the Left: they are relentless and always at war on a thousand fronts. As my father once told me when he was in Congress, “The shame is our people come and go, while evil never sleeps.” As I have pointed out, leftists are on the level of religious zealots; politics and government are their religion, the vehicle by which perfection and utopia will be achieved in this world. 

The worst that can be said about many on the Right, however, is that they are just careerists. Most are nine to five types on weekdays and politics is not a religion for them. They consider politics a necessary evil. So if it seems like the Left is always on the move, it’s because politics is a lifestyle for them and they fully intend to reshape this country into their vision for it, everything else be damned.

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University of Buffalo Med School’s Surgery Department Kicks off Anti-Racism Initiative with Cornel West Lecture

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The Department of Surgery in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo has launched an Anti-Racism and Health Care Equity initiative.

The initiative includes a lecture series, with Harvard University Professor Cornel West as the inaugural speaker, presenting a speech via Zoom called “Beyond the Knife” on February 18. At the event, West discussed systemic racism, recent social movements and their relation to healthcare.

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Missouri House Sends Bill Clipping Health Officials’ Emergency Powers to Senate

The Center Square

A bill that would require local governments to approve extensions of public health emergency orders after 15 days is ready for adoption by the Missouri House.

House Bill 75, sponsored by Rep. Jim Murphy, was perfected Wednesday in a floor debate and awaits only a floor vote to be transferred to the Senate, where a raft of similar bills are matriculating in committees.

HB 75, which has already passed through the House Special Committee on Small Business and Rules – Legislative Oversight committees, would allow local public health officials to order a closure for no more than 15 days.

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Biden Orders Examination of Trump Era Due Process Rights on College Campuses

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President Joe Biden called for an examination of collegiate due process protections enacted under former President Donald Trump’s administration in a Monday executive order.

The president announced his “Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation” on International Women’s Day, calling on the Education Department to evaluate a Title IX regulation issued under the Trump administration that encouraged due process for those accused of campus sexual misconduct.

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House Passes Bills Allowing County Mayors to Have Exclusive Authority in Health Emergencies and Teachers to Remove Problematic Students

Corinne Murdock

The Tennessee House passed two bills expanding the authority of county mayors and teachers in exigent situations. Both were approved on Monday and are awaiting passage in the Senate.

Under HB0007, county-wide policy-making powers related to public health emergencies would be reserved solely for the county mayor in counties with particular population counts. The bill would only apply to Shelby, Davidson, Knox, Hamilton, Sullivan, and Madison counties. Those six counties would also see their county boards of health or county health committees demoted to advisory roles. State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) introduced the bill last November. It passed 67-26.

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Ex-FBI Boss Has ‘Grave Concern’ FISA Court Was ‘Defrauded Intentionally’ in Russia Probe

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“I have grave concern that the court was defrauded intentionally … There was some type of agenda, an inappropriate agenda beyond an objective intelligence or criminal investigation,” said Kevin Brock, a retired FBI assistant director for Intelligence who helped implement most of the intelligence and informant rules the FBI uses today.

“I struggle to find any other explanation,” Brock told the John Solomon Reports podcast. “Any other explanation just doesn’t pass the smell test. I mean, the glaring — the Steele dossier, for an experienced counterintelligence agent in the field, was blinking red lights Russian disinformation campaign, and yet you’re going to have the highest levels of the FBI executives use that to create an investigation?”

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Commentary: Progressive Educators Dumb Down Education in the Name of Antiracism

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Some progressive educators are calling on their peers to go easy on students when grading their essays or math homework, all in the name of antiracism.

Don’t mark them down too much, you might hurt their feelings, the argument goes.

Or, it’s white supremacy to actually grade students using traditional, objective standards. Who are you to tell them they’re wrong? As long as they try, let’s not break their hearts or bruise their egos!

I wish I were kidding. I’m not.

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Three More Universities Close China-Funded Confucius Institutes

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Confucius Institutes across the country are closing, the most recent being at Michigan State University, the University of South Carolina, and Colorado State University.

MSU began its Confucius Institute in 2006 and USC followed in 2008, according to The State newspaper. Both schools will discontinue their programs by the end of 2021. Colorado State University also recently announced that its Confucius Institute will close by the end of June.

While national intelligence officials, including President Joe Biden’s pick to lead the CIA, have warned that Confucius Institutes serve as a propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party, these schools are not closing their institutes for this reason. Rather, each of the three schools cited former President Donald Trump moving to restrict the amount of funding for universities with Confucius Institutes.

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Middle School Lesson Separates Students into ‘Privileged’ and ‘Targeted’ Groups

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A sixth-grade teacher in Minnesota recently offered her charges a lesson in “oppression” when she separated them into groups dubbed “privileged” and “targeted.”

According to documents obtained by The Blaze.com, Sunrise Park Middle School teacher Odelis Anderson prefaced the lesson by reminding students it is easier for the privileged to talk about race, while “much harder” for those who are not.

Students then were asked to consider what group they belonged to based on five types of oppression: racism, sexism, religious oppression, heterosexism, and xenophobia. Among the “privileged”: whites, men, Christians and heterosexuals.

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Leaders In Newsom Recall Effort Believe They Have Enough Signatures To Trigger Special Election

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Organizers of the effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday they had gathered over 1.95 million signatures supporting the effort, enough to trigger a special election.

The signatures were announced during a press conference, with the effort’s organizers saying that they were on track to obtain 2 million signatures before the state’s Mar. 17 deadline.

“That is more than enough to be able to have this initiative qualified for a special election later this year to let the people decide,” said senior advisor Randy Economy during the conference. “Californians are consistently becoming more disgruntled with how their state’s run.”

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Analysis: Senator Elizabeth Warren Appears to be Distorting Reality in Order to ‘Sell’ Her Wealth Tax Proposal

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Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently revived her campaign proposal for a wealth tax on taxpayers with a net worth exceeding $50 million. Unfortunately, the plan retains the same defects as her previous proposals to tax wealth, along with the same distortions she used to defend it last time.

Warren’s proposal, introduced along with companion legislation in the House sponsored by Rep. Jayapal (D-WA) and Rep. Boyle (D-PA), would tax wealth above $50 million at a rate of 2 percent, and wealth above $1 billion at a rate of 3 percent.

Senator Warren has routinely presented her wealth tax proposal as a minor, moderate tax on the ultra-wealthy. Just as she did on the presidential campaign trail, Warren is describing her plan as a “two cent” tax. This dishonest framing allows Warren to pretend that the tax is small.

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Bill Expanding Charges for Out-of-State or Paid Rioters Heads to Senate Floor for Vote

Corinne Murdock

The General Assembly may increase charges for rioters that came from out of state, were paid to riot, or committed multiple riot-related offenses. Under the proposed bill, rioters would face a minimum of 60 days’ incarceration if they engage in two or more of those riot-related offenses. Current Tennessee Code doesn’t factor in details of residency or compensation for punishing rioters.

State Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville) introduced the bill in the beginning of February. Its companion bill in the House was introduced by State Representative Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesboro) a day later. The bill is expected to be placed on the Senate’s calendar soon, and may soon emerge from committee in the House.

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Adam Smith’s Grave Targeted by Pro-BLM Investigation

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In Scotland, the gravesite and memorial of Adam Smith, the Enlightenment philosopher who is widely considered the father of modern capitalism, is now being targeted by local officials’ in an investigation over possible ties to “slavery and colonialism,” as reported by Breitbart.

The Edinburgh City Council launched a formal review of various statues, memorials, monuments, and other historical locations throughout the city in the aftermath of the far-left race riots last summer. The investigation is seeking any potential candidates for “removal or re-interpretation” if any of them are found to allegedly have ties to “racism and oppression.” The council consists almost entirely of members of left-wing parties, including the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party.

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Stimulus Package Includes $86 Billion Bailout for Union Pensions

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An $86 billion bailout for nearly 200 union pensions was included in the Democrats’ massive stimulus package, which President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law soon.

More than a million unionized truck drivers, retail clerks, construction workers and others would likely miss out on retirement income without the bailout, according to The New York Times. The union bailout, among the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package’s provisions unrelated to the pandemic, rescues 185 pension plans across several states.

“There’s more money in this to bailout [sic] union pension funds, than all the money combined for vaccine distribution and testing,” Republican Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty tweeted last week.

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