Day: April 14, 2021

Governor Lee Invests Additional $580 Million into Budget for Tax Cuts, Education, Economic Development, and More

Corinne Murdock
Bill Lee on the State House floor

Tuesday, Governor Bill Lee announced that Tennessee will have an additional $580 million invested into various budget initiatives. The amended budget will cover investments in K-12 and higher education, rural communities, safety initiatives, economic development, transportation, and additional tax cuts.

In a press release, the governor’s office shared that this was made possible through “fiscal prudence.” The Tennessee Star inquired with Lee’s office as to what those measures were that allowed these available funds to accrue. Their spokespersons didn’t respond to request for comment by press time.

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Commentary: The GOP’s Trump Solution

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Former President Donald Trump

The Wall Street Journal on Friday published an editorial headlined “The GOP’s Trump Problem.” It gets things terribly wrong. The GOP is Trump’s party and it is the Wall Street Journal that has the Trump problem.

Having been commendably supportive of the former president through most of his term, the Journal joined in the general embarkation of NeverTrumpers over the ostensible election results. The theory that inspired this headline is Trump had his chance but lost the election in a manner practically indistinguishable from defeated incumbents Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H. W. Bush in 1992 (when there were no suggestions of questionable results). The editors suggest further that Trump had exhausted any grounds he had for contesting the fairness of the counting of ballots, and that it was his duty to go quietly into that good night and do everything that he could to elect Republican senators in Georgia to preserve the Republican majority in the Senate and to enhance the likelihood of the reelection next year of Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia and his secretary of state Brad Raffensperger.

These state officials were to be embraced even though they had capitulated to the leader of the Georgia Democrats, Stacey Abrams, permitting the critical electoral votes of their state to be wrongfully cast for Joe Biden. They assumed Trump had to do all he could to keep those in his own party who had betrayed him in place. That is not normally how the system, or human nature, works.

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NCAA Signals That It May Pull Championships from States That Protect Women’s Sports

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Women playing basketball

The NCAA signaled that it may pull championship games from places that stop biological males from competing in women’s sports.

The collegiate sports league released a statement on Monday reaffirming that it supports “the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports,” which is grounded in the value of “fair competition.”

“The NCAA has a long-standing policy that provides a more inclusive path for transgender participation in college sports,” continues the statement. “Our approach — which requires testosterone suppression treatment for transgender women to compete in women’s sports — embraces the evolving science on this issue and is anchored in participation policies of both the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.”

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CNN Tech Director Caught on Video Admitting Network Engaged in Propaganda to Get Trump Voted Out

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CNN Exposed video cover

CNN’s technical director was caught on video admitting that the cable “news” network traffics in propaganda under the guise of journalism in order achieve a desired political outcome.

The director, Charlie Chester, described in Part One of Project Veritas’ “CNN Exposed” series how the network used propaganda to benefit Joe Biden and get former President Trump voted out of office.

During a conversation with an undercover Project Veritas reporter, Chester also divulged that CNN plans to start hyping the climate change agenda as soon as the Covid-19 hysteria dies down, per CEO Jeff Zucker’s orders.

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U.S. Supreme Court Overturns California’s Restrictions on In-Home Religious Activities

The Center Square
Group of people singing at a worship service

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled late Friday that California’s COVID-19 restrictions on in-home religious gatherings, limiting worship to families from a maximum of three households, could not continue.

In the 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court reversed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling allowing California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s limits on people exercising their First Amendment rights to freely practice religion at home.

In its written order, the court noted that it was the fifth time it has “rejected the Ninth Circuit’s analysis of California’s COVID restrictions on religious exercise.”

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BLM Co-Founder’s Consulting Firm Goes Offline as Reports Expose Her Multimillion Dollar Real Estate Buying Spree

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Patrisse Cullors

The website for a consulting firm owned and operated by Black Lives Matter Global Network co-founder and executive director Patrisse Khan-Cullors went offline recently amid reports that she’s in the midst of a multimillion-dollar real estate buying spree.

The firm, Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, LLC, is named after Khan-Cullors and her spouse, Janaya Khan. The firm stated on its website, which the Daily Caller News Foundation reviewed on Friday, that it specialized in “Transforming Organizations One Strategic Planning Session at a Time.”

Khan-Cullors, a self-described “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. Her latest acquirement came on March 30 with the purchase of a $1.4 million home in the Topanga Canyon neighborhood in Los Angeles through a corporate entity under her control, according to a celebrity real estate news site.

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Two White Translators Forced to Step Away from Translating Black-Authored Inauguration Poem

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Several controversies have broken out in the past two months surrounding the foreign language translations of the poem read by Amanda Gorman at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Since February, two translators have been forced to step away from their position to translate the poem into Dutch and Catalan because of backlashes to the fact that they are both white.

Gorman, the poet who wrote “The Hill We Climb” for the inauguration, received immense fame for her work. The poem was planned to be translated into 16 languages and distributed internationally.

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Commentary: ‘Dirty Jobs’ Star Mike Rowe Just Totally Debunked the Argument for a $15 Minimum Wage

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Mike Rowe

Mike Rowe knows the value of hard work. The former star of “Dirty Jobs” gained notoriety for the Discovery Channel program, which featured him going undercover at some of the toughest and grossest jobs imaginable. From cleaning bat poop to testing shark suits by jumping into a shark feeding frenzy, Rowe has more appreciation than most for the dignity of labor.

So, it’s worth taking the actor’s recent warning on the perils of minimum wage hikes seriously.

Advocates for a federal $15 minimum wage argue that it’s the bare minimum that workers deserve and that more than doubling the mandated wage nationwide would uplift workers who are struggling to get by. Critics often point out that minimum wage hikes cause unemployment.

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Senator Josh Hawley Introduces Antitrust Legislation Aimed at Big Tech

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Joh Hawley

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced a new bill on Monday that would break up several large companies in the United States, with a particular focus on the Big Tech companies, as reported by the Daily Caller.

The bill is called the “Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act,” and aims to combat “anti-competitive big business” such as “Big Banks, Big Telecom, and Big Pharma.” In his press release announcing the new legislation, Hawley said that “a small group of woke mega-corporations control the products Americans can buy, the information Americans can receive, and the speech Americans can engage in.”

“These monopoly powers control our speech, our economy, our country,” Hawley continued, “and their control has only grown because Washington has aided and abetted their quest for endless power.”

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William County Schools Sets ‘Listen and Learn’ Sessions with Diversity Firm

Chris Butler

Members of the Williamson County School System have already held three of nine sessions as part of a program they say will stamp out what they call a pattern of racism within the school district. As The Tennessee Star reported in February, Williamson County School Board members voted unanimously that month to hire a firm, Fostering Healthy Solutions, to help carry out their objectives.

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Biden’s Cyber Nominee Is on Board of Think Tank Founded by Spygate Professor Stefan Halper

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Joe Biden and John Inglis

President Joe Biden’s pick for national cyber director is on the advisory board of an intelligence think tank co-founded by Stefan Halper, the longtime political operative who worked as a confidential human source for the FBI during its investigation into the Trump campaign.

Chris Inglis, the former deputy director of the National Security Agency, was nominated for the cyber role on Monday, the Associated Press reported.

“We are determined to protect America’s networks and to meet the growing challenge posed by our adversaries in cyberspace — and this is the team to do it,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in an announcement of the nomination.

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16 States That Want to Ban Trans Surgeries for Minors

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Surgical tools in doctors room

At least 16 states have taken action to ban doctors from performing transgender surgeries and procedures on minors.

Arkansas became the first state to ban the surgeries and procedures for minors when the legislature over rode Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the “Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act.”

Polling conducted by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation found that 57% of Americans oppose allowing minors with gender dysphoria to receive gender transition surgery, puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

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EXCLUSIVE: Mike Gibbons Tells The Ohio Star Why He’s the Best Candidate for the U.S. Senate Job

Jack Windsor

Mike Gibbons announced Tuesday that he will run for the Ohio seat in the U.S. Senate up for grabs in 2022. A Cleveland Republican, Gibbons is an investment banker, entrepreneur and real estate investor who made his first bid for U.S Senate in 2018 when he competed in the Republican primary.
The Ohio Star talked with Gibbons Tuesday morning shortly after he announced his candidacy. His full press release can be viewed below.
“I’ve got five kids and five grandkids. I’ve never been more frightened for their future in my life,” Gibbons responded when asked why he’s running. “When I started, I didn’t know I’d do as well as I have. We were able to send our kids through college and grad school without loans – I started with nothing.”

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Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Follows Through on Threat to Only Grant Small Budget Increase to Commonwealth’s Attorney

Eric Burk
Buta Biberaj

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has followed through on plans to grant Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj a smaller funding increase than requested. On April 6, the supervisors finalized the budget that only approves adding four positions for the office. Biberaj had asked for up to 12 new positions, but supervisors worried about high turnover within the office and said their constituents were complaining about Biberaj not taking enough domestic violence cases to trial, leaving women victim’s in danger.

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Stand Up Virginia Launches Petition to Recall Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Descano

Eric Burk

Stand Up Virginia held a rally outside the Fairfax County Government Center on Tuesday evening announcing the launch of an effort to recall Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano. About 75 people attended the event, according to Stand Up Virginia President Brenda Tillett, who said she had also heard from supporters who couldn’t attend due to government jobs.

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U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter Says Mexican Border Catastrophe Will Reach Georgia

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) this month visited the U.S.-Mexico border and described what he saw as “a complete and total disaster” that threatens national security. Carter, in an emailed newsletter to his constituents, said he joined other members of Congress and toured U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services facilities in Brownsville, Donna, and McAllen, Texas.

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Officer Identified, Looting Met with Heavy National Guard Presence in Brooklyn Center

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Riot with police officers

The Brooklyn Center police officer responsible for shooting 20-year-old Daunte Wright was identified Monday evening as agitators surrounded the local police station for a second straight night.

According to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, officer Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the force, fired the fatal shot in Sunday’s incident. She is currently on administrative leave and a decision regarding her future with the Brooklyn Center Police Department is expected Tuesday.

Potter mistakenly drew her handgun instead of her Taser when Wright resisted arrest, according to partial body camera video released Monday.

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Ohio Businessman Mike Gibbons Joins U.S. Senate Race

Corinne Murdock
Mike Gibbons

Cleveland businessman and 2018 U.S. Senate candidate Mike Gibbons has officially entered the 2022 Senate race.

In his announcement, Gibbons stated that he can help others achieve their American Dream, because he did that for himself. He added that he’s never been a career politician. Instead, he described his journey as a self-made businessman who spent over 30 years helping local Ohio companies grow.

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Surprises Guests with Appearance at Liberty Univerity’s Equity for Africa Summit

Joshua Pratt

Former U.S. Congressman (R-VA-07) and Dean of the Liberty University School of Business, Dr. David Brat, PhD., welcomed honored guests with a reception and dinner for Equity for Africa, a global business and faith summit. Dr. Brat was joined on stage by surprise special guest, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“Greater development improves security for all of us. It is a collective set of security issues that are threatening not only Africa, but the northern part of Africa through the Middle East,” Pompeo said.

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General Assembly Considering ‘Tennessee Election Integrity Act’ to Regulate Outside Funding for Election Officials, Require Official Watermarking for Absentee Ballots

Corinne Murdock

Big Tech and Corporate America may face more difficulty funding the elections process under the “Tennessee Election Integrity Act.” In part, the act would require funding from nongovernmental entities to be approved by the Tennessee General Assembly if in session, or the Governor, House and Senate Speaker, Secretary of State, Comptroller of Treasury, and the General Assembly Treasurer. Additionally, an amendment to the act announced on Tuesday would make it more difficult to produce fraudulent absentee ballots.

In short, the amendment to the bill would require non-electronic absentee ballots to be watermarked by local election commissions. That way, county election officials could verify the validity of the ballots upon receipt. Ballots without the watermark would be discarded.

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