Nashville Chancellor Patricia Moskal Rules Tennessee Education Lottery Can’t Hold Hearing Against Action 24/7 on Previously Addressed Matter

Nashville Chancellor Patricia Moskal ruled Monday that members of the Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL)  do “not have the unilateral right” to take punitive measures against the Tennessee-based Action 24/7 concerning a matter she’s already ruled upon. Action 24/7 officials operate an online sports-betting site based out of the Volunteer State.

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Commentary: Left is Using Supreme Court Commission to Change Court’s Decisions, Not to Improve It

U.S. Supreme Court

Today, President Joe Biden signed an executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. The White House announcement and the members chosen for this commission raise serious questions about its real purpose and concerns about its impact on the independence of the judiciary.

The most obvious question is why the Supreme Court needs to be examined at all. The simple answer is that the left wants a judiciary in general, and a Supreme Court in particular, that is likely to decide cases that will further a leftist political agenda.

Results that are politically correct—not judicially correct—are what matter to the left, and the left is not satisfied with the current Supreme Court’s decisions of late. Therefore, it wants to create one in its own image.

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Senate Passes Bill Prohibiting Government from Classifying Businesses, Workers as ‘Essential’ or ‘Nonessential’

The Senate determined during its Monday floor session that governments shouldn’t classify workers as “essential” or “nonessential.”

In its entirety, the bill would prohibit the governor and all state or local government entities and leadership from classifying or categorizing businesses, trades, professions, or industries as “essential” or “nonessential.”

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Exclusive: Alliance Defending Freedom Files Motion to Intervene in ‘Radical’ Lawsuit Attacking Religious Schools

Football player kneeling, praying on bench seat

Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a motion to intervene in a “radical” lawsuit attacking the religious freedom of both religious colleges and students attending these schools, ADF senior counsel David Cortman told the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday.

Former and current students of evangelical colleges filed a lawsuit last week against the Department of Education asking that a Title IX law that gives exemptions to religious educational institutions be declared unconstitutional.

The law currently forbids educational institutions receiving federal funds to discriminate on the basis of sex but exempts religious groups if the law “would not be consistent with the religious tenets of such organization.”

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Multiple Shooting Victims Reported at Knoxville, Tennessee High School, Police Say

Austin-Magnet High School

by Andrew Trunsky   Multiple shooting victims were reported at a Knoxville, Tennessee, high school Monday, the city’s police department said. One person was confirmed dead at the scene, and a police officer was sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the Knoxville Police Department (KPD) said in a statement. The shooting occurred at Austin-East Magnet School, where one person was detained for further investigation. – Officer Involved Shooting at Austin East High School – @TBInvestigation will be the lead investigating agency and provide further information as it becomes available. pic.twitter.com/Hjetzf1vNT — Knoxville Police TN (@Knoxville_PD) April 12, 2021 Multiple agencies are on the scene of a shooting at Austin-East Magnet High School. Multiple gunshot victims reported, including a KPD officer. The investigation remains active at this time. Please avoid the area. pic.twitter.com/ViQirnQSpx — Knoxville Police TN (@Knoxville_PD) April 12, 2021 “Based on the preliminary investigation, Knoxville Police Department officers responded to Austin East Magnet high school on the report of a male subject who was possibly armed in the school. Upon approach of the subject, shots were fired,” the statement said. Knox County Schools Superintendent Bob Thomas confirmed the shooting in a tweet Monday afternoon, but added that the building was secure.…

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Commentary: Biden’s $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan is Loaded with Corporate Welfare

President Biden has just unveiled a new $2.3 trillion “infrastructure” plan, but a shockingly large portion of this bill is actually unrelated to infrastructure.

The plan includes massive subsidies for corporations as well as state and local governments, and comes right after the administration’s proposed increase in the corporate tax rate, which would raise the rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.

There’s $300 billion for manufacturing, $100 billion for electric utilities, $100 billion for broadband, $174 billion for electric vehicles, and a whole lot more. A significant portion of this spending is directed at subsidizing big corporations.

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Poll: Support for School Choice Increases After COVID Shutdowns

Classroom full of kids, that are being read a book

After states shut down schools and forced families into virtual learning, parents and families found new ways to provide K-12 education to their children. While doing so, support for school choice options soared, a new poll from Real Clear Opinion Research found.

Among those surveyed, 71% said they support school choice, which is defined as giving parents the option to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school that best serves their needs. Across all racial and ethnic demographics, an overwhelming majority expressed support for school choice: Blacks (66%), Hispanic (68%), and Asian (66 percent).

These results “were the highest level of support ever recorded from major AFC national polling with a sample size above 800 voters,” the survey states.

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More Riots Erupt After Police Shooting of Driver in Minnesota

Group of police controlling riot

More violent riots have broken out in a city in Minnesota just outside Minneapolis, following a police-involved shooting of a driver during a traffic stop, according to ABC News.

Although the full details of the incident have not yet been revealed, police pulled a car over in the early afternoon on Sunday after a traffic violation in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Shortly after pulling the car over, it was determined that the driver had an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

According to Police Chief Tim Gannon’s official statement, “at one point, as officers were attempting to take the driver into custody, the driver re-entered the vehicle. One officer discharged their firearm, striking the driver.” The car then sped off for several blocks before crashing into another car. Officers and emergency personnel at the scene then “attempted life-saving measures…but the person died at the scene.”

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Biden Picks Top Immigration Officials as Migrants Continue to Arrive at Southern Border

Group of immigrants at border

President Joe Biden announced two key immigration official nominations Monday as migrants continue to arrive at the southern border in record numbers.

Police Chief Chris Magnus of Tucson, Arizona, will be nominated to head Customs and Border Protection and immigrant rights advocate Ur Jaddou will be tapped to lead U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), according to a statement.

“They are highly-regarded and accomplished professionals with deep experience in their respective fields,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement, Bloomberg reported. “Together they will help advance the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to ensure the safety and security of the American people.”

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Commentary: The Rise of Antifa in an Increasingly Toxic University Environment

Antifa flag

Editor’s note: The views in this opinion editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Campus Reform or of its parent organization, the Leadership Institute.

Despite the many contributions of the academic community to developing the intellectual capital of the most prosperous nation in the world, fostering a culture of national unity, public security, and the rule of law–and educating students committed to these ideals–is not one of them. As the tumultuous decade of the 1960s came to a roaring end in the 1969-1970 school year, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called attention to this problem of radical professors propagandizing,  organizing, and operationalizing college students—a problem remaining to the present with the rise of Antifa on college campuses and its activities across the country.

In 1970, the famed Director testified college campuses across the United States had witnessed “an unprecedented number of disturbances and incidents of student-centered violence,” including 1,785 demonstrations, 313 building seizures by violent students, 246 arson or attempted arson attacks, and 14 bombings (Hoover, Statement Before President’s Commission on Campus Unrest, July 1970, p.1).  Issue-based grievances centering on civil rights and Vietnam War protests had putrefied in the toxic political climate of the 1960s and became revolutionary anti-Americanism as radicalized, organized, and professionalized agitators exploited opportunities and circumstances for their own benefit and for misguided visions of a better world.  Communist and radical Left ideology provided the specious framework needed to channel the rage and rebellion on the strategic targets of America’s future leaders.

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Biden Admin Won’t Say How Much ‘Emergency’ Funding for Colleges Remains Unspent, Proposes Another $12 Billion Anyway

College student studying

Disclosure: The writer of this piece served as the U.S. Department of Education’s Press Secretary from summer 2019 through the end of the Trump administration and was involved in the announcement of the creation of the Education Stabilization Fund transparency portal. 

Congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden enacted $40 billion in additional higher education relief funding without any public information on if, or how, the $21.2 billion allocated in December 2020 had been spent.

Even though colleges and universities were required to report their spending on January 28 and then again on February 8, the Department of Education’s Education Stabilization Fund transparency portal is still showing spending data as of Nov. 30 of last year.

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Conservative Clergy of Color ‘Correct Lies’ Biden, Abrams Telling About Georgia’s New Election Law

The Conservative Clergy of Color — a group of black pastors, priests and ministers — is running a full-page ad in the Atlanta Constitution Journal newspaper saying it’s “correcting the lies” President Biden and Georgia Democratic politician Stacey Abrams have told about the state’s new voting law.

“There’s nothing ‘racist’ about the Election Integrity Act, and it’s certainly not ‘Jim Crow 2.0.’ Your lies are now devastating minority small businesses in Atlanta following the MLB’s decision to move its All-Star Game to Denver, resulting in the loss of $100 million in business,” reads the ad. “Enough is enough.”

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Virginia State Police to Investigate Windsor Traffic Stop Use-of Force

The Virginia State Police (VSP) are investigating the December traffic stop of Army officer Lieutenant Caron Nazario, who was pepper sprayed by officers from the Town of Windsor, according to press releases from Town Manager William Saunders. In a Sunday evening press release, Saunders announced that Officer Joe Gutierrez, one of the officers from the stop, had been fired. The incident has become a subject of statements by candidates for public office. It has also drawn the attention of Governor Ralph Northam, who said he was ordering a VSP investigation, and Attorney General Mark Herring.

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Local Control, Business-Energy Efforts at Odds with Proposed Ohio Legislation

Field of wind turbines

The decision over whether to build solar and wind turbine farms in Ohio could soon fall to local voters.

Two separate bills – one in the House and one in the Senate – would allow local townships to decide for themselves whether approved renewable energy projects will actually be built.

Under current law, solar farms or wind turbines can be built by developers once their project is approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board. According to the new bills, the application would instead be sent to the local board of trustees, who would then have 30 days to decide whether to allow the project, ask for public opinion, or put the matter to a vote of the people in the next election.

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Top BLM Activist Demands Investigation Following Co-Founder’s Multimillion Dollar Real Estate Buying Spree

BLM protest signs

A top Black Lives Matter activist called for an “independent investigation” into the group’s finances following a report that the group’s co-founder is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar real estate buying spree.

BLM Global Network Foundation co-founder and executive director Patrisse Khan-Cullors, a self-proclaimed “trained Marxist,” has purchased four homes across the U.S. since 2016 for a total of $3.2 million, according to the New York Post.

Khan-Cullors latest acquisition came on March 30 when she purchased a $1.4 million home in Los Angeles in the majority-white Topanga Canyon neighborhood. She purchased the home through a corporate entity under her control, according to Dirt, a celebrity real estate blog.

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Michigan Lawmaker Aims to Ban ‘Vaccine Passports’

Phone with a QR code on it

One Republican aims to ban “vaccine passports” in a package expected to be introduced Wednesday.

The governors of Florida, Texas, Utah, and Idaho have passed legislation or executive orders prohibiting the use of vaccine passports, while a Minnesota bill aims to do the same.

Rep. Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain, announced a plan to prohibit a possible vaccine passport plan that would provide proof whether someone is vaccinated for COVID-19.

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Virginia Awards $6.3 Million in Workforce Development, Other Grants

Arlington, Virginia

Virginia has awarded $6.3 million worth of grants designed to spur economic growth, which includes workforce development grants, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Friday.

The money will be dispersed among 15 projects, which include workforce development, site development and infrastructure, entrepreneurial ecosystems and COVID-19 recovery efforts. This includes eight regional GO Virginia projects and seven funded through the GO Virginia’s Economic Resilience and Recovery Program.

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After Threats of Unrest and a High Price Tag, Ann Coulter’s Appearance Sold Out at MTSU

For hosting a conservative speaker on their campus, a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter paid the price – three times, to be exact. Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) TPUSA hosted Ann Coulter on Monday, at three times the cost of liberal or leftist organizations according TPUSA’s report of an anonymous call from the school’s administration. 

The chapter was charged nearly 1600 percent the normal rental fee for the venue – nearly $2,400 compared to $150. MTSU claimed on its invoice that a bulk of the additional expenses were to cover the costs of “Event Production Services.” This, though the event itself appeared to be a bare bones display – no music was played, no fog or flashing lights were emitted, and the projector screen displayed only one slide the entirety of the event.

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