Day: April 29, 2021

Tennessee House Passes Bill Requiring Educational Boards to Approve Contraception Information, Allowing Parents to Access and Opt Child Out of Information

Corinne Murdock

The Tennessee House passed a bill enacting stricter oversight on contraceptive information for school-aged children. As amended, the legislation would require that any contraceptive information is consistent with public policy, approved by the local board of education or charter school governing body, and available upon request to the parent.

The educational boards must verify that the contraceptive information is both medically accurate and age-appropriate, and that it aligns with present state law and academic standards. If parents find the material objectionable, they can opt their student out without any penalty.

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Department of Education Is Stalling Complaints Against Race, Sex Segregation, Critics Say

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University of Denver

When the University of Denver hosted race-based gatherings for students, faculty and staff “to process the outcome” of the November election, a student filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Christi Collins got a quick response from an enforcement attorney in OCR’s Denver office, and they scheduled a phone call. Then the attorney asked to postpone, and disappeared for two months. Their last contact was Feb. 22.

“At this time, OCR is evaluating your complaint, and I apologize for the delay and inconvenience,” Lori Welker wrote in the email, one of several communications Collins shared with Just the News. “I will be in touch when we have completed the evaluation.”

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Former Trump Aide Stephen Miller Sues Biden Administration for Discriminating Against White Farmers

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Stephen Miller, the former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Biden Administration over its reparations to non-White farmers, pointing out that this constitutes discrimination against White farmers, as reported by The Hill.

The class-action suit was filed by the legal group founded by Miller, America First Legal (AFL), on behalf of the Agricultural Commissioner of Texas Sid Miller, and other plaintiffs. The suit targets a particular provision of Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill which is set to distribute funds to “socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers,” ostensibly to make up for “systemic racism” and past oppression.

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Catholic Bishops May Call on Biden to Stop Receiving Communion

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Catholic bishops may ask President Joe Biden to stop receiving communion if he continues to support and expand access to abortion in the United States, according to a leading bishop.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will hold a national meeting in June where the bishops will decide whether to tell the president, and other high profile Catholic politicians, not to receive Communion at mass if they continue to publicly advocate for abortion, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

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Tennessee Senate Says Colleges, Universities Can Still Mandate COVID-19 Vaccine in Bill Amendment

Corinne Murdock

The Tennessee Senate amended a bill prohibiting mandatory COVID-19 vaccines so that colleges and universities can still mandate it. The amendment came out of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. 

The Senate was scheduled to take their final vote on the bill Wednesday, but they opted to conform to the House version of the bill and issue the amendment instead. The decision to temporarily postpone the final vote came from State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) after lengthy, heated debate occurred over the bill on the Senate floor.

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Hunter Biden to Lecture About ‘Fake News’ at Tulane University

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Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden will be a guest lecturer at Tulane University for a course titled “Media Polarization and Public Policy Impacts” that focuses, in part, on “fake news.”

The son of President Joe Biden is one of nine guest speakers for the class, which focuses on “the current state of the media landscape in the United States and how media polarization, fake news, and the economics of the new business impact public policymaking in Washington, D.C.,” said Fox News, which first reported the story.

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Survey: ‘Troubling’ Freedom of Association, Speech Concerns on U.S. College Campuses

The Center Square

A newly released survey of students at over 500 colleges and universities who belong to Greek-letter fraternities and sororities found that the majority of students don’t feel comfortable publicly disagreeing with their professors on a controversial topic.

“Students who aren’t able to freely express ideas among professors or peers are unlikely to realize the full measure of what higher education has to offer,” Nathan Harden, editor of RealClearEducation, said. “Students are equally underserved by campuses where they don’t feel that their student organizations are treated equally or welcomed on campus. Fostering an environment where students are free to explore a diversity of ideas is one of the chief goals of the university – and this includes the right to form voluntary associations based on shared interests or beliefs.”

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Target CEO Made Nearly $20 Million, 805 Times More Than Median Employee in 2020 Amid Pandemic

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Brian Cornell

Target CEO Brian Cornell received a pay raise amid the pandemic last year, boosting his total compensation to 805 times the salary of a median Target employee, Axios reported.

Target paid Cornell $19.75 million in 2020, an increase of nearly $800,000 from the year before, regulatory filings showed, Axios reported. The average Target employee’s salary, meanwhile, was $24,535.

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Star News Network Washington Correspondent Neil McCabe on Trump Move to New Jersey and Next House Freedom Caucus Speaker

Julie Carr

Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Washington Correspondent for the Star News Network Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line to weigh in on his recent story about the House Freedom Caucus’s Speaker choice and the possible motivation behind Donald Trump’s move to New Jersey.

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Tennessee General Assembly Passes Criminal Justice Reform Bills Allowing Community-Based Incarceration Alternatives, Increasing Parole Eligibility

Corinne Murdock

Two of Governor Bill Lee’s criminal justice reform initiatives were passed unanimously by the Tennessee Senate on Wednesday. Once approved by the governor, the bills will expand community-based incarceration alternatives and parole eligibility, respectively.

The sponsors on the legislation were State Senators John Stevens (R-Huntington) for the former bill and Ken Yager (R-Kingston) for the latter. State Representative Michael Curcio (R-Dickson) was the House sponsor for both.

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: President Joe Biden’s First 100 Days

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President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris

With the exception of the breakout of the Civil War at the onset of Lincoln’s presidency, the Biden administration’s first 100 days have been the most radical in American history.

The elite media would have Americans believe that President Biden is doing really well with a slight majority approval rating of 52 percent, according to a poll by ABC News and the Washington Post. But compare President Biden and his 52 percent with President Kennedy, who received 83 percent approval at this stage, or President Obama’s 69 percent approval.

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Biden’s Pick to Lead ICE Didn’t Like Reporting Illegal Immigrants to Feds

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Sheriff Ed Gonzalez

The Texas sheriff picked to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement pushed back on the agency’s request to screen inmates through their database and detain them for possible deportation, Courthouse News reported.

President Joe Biden nominated Texas Sheriff Ed Gonzalez to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Tuesday. Gonzalez opposed training deputies to use ICE’s database to screen inmates for their immigration status in February 2017, Courthouse News reported.

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Music Spotlight: Presley and Taylor

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennessee-  Even though they are only 23 and 22, the sister duo known as Presley and Taylor have been a part of the music business for over eight years. And even with the pair being reared in the town of Middlefield, Connecticut, they grew up in a household where Tammy Wynette, Alan Jackson, and Randy Travis played on a constant loop, and weekend trips to their grandparents meant family singalongs of Loretta Lynn standards.

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Ohio Senate Moves Toward Making Professional Licensing Easier

The Center Square
Ohio State Senate Chamber

The Ohio Senate took another step toward reducing regulations surrounding medical licenses when it agreed to allow the state to join 29 others in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact.

The move follows similar compacts the Senate passed this session for physical therapy, nursing and occupational therapy.

Senate Bill 6, if passed by the House and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, provides an expedited path for licensure for qualified physicians who want to practice in multiple states and provides incentive for professionals to come to Ohio, said bill sponsor Rep. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson.

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Georgia Secretary of State Official, Despite Flaws with His Own State’s Procedures, Criticizes Arizona Audit

Chris Butler

Georgia Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling this week publicly denigrated an audit of votes collected during last year’s presidential election in Arizona. This, even though officials within the Georgia Secretary of States’ Office have failed to provide chain-of-custody documents from their respective state.

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Commentary: Joe Biden Cost Georgia

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Joe Biden’s visit to Georgia ostensibly celebrates the first one hundred days of his presidency. However, in reality, it marks Biden and his Democratic Party’s repeated lies about our election integrity law and the damage those lies have done to Georgia’s small businesses and their workers.

Last month, Joe Biden falsely claimed that our new election integrity law ends voting hours early. This claim was quickly debunked by The Washington Post who gave Biden “five Pinocchios” for lying.

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Albemarle County Schools to Offer Optional Virtual Learning Alongside In-Person Learning in 2021-2022

Eric Burk

Alongside five-days-a-week in-person instruction, Albemarle County is planning to offer an optional all-virtual school for elementary, middle, and high school students for the 2021-2022 school year. The virtual school will have its own principal and teachers, according to an Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) press release.

“My recommendation will be that our school board approve this plan as the default unless, of course, circumstances materially change,” ACPS Superintendent Matthew Haas said in the press release.

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Florida Bill Allows Colleges, Universities to Sponsor Charter Schools

Grant Holcomb

On Monday, the Florida Senate passed SB 1028 which would allow Florida’s colleges and universities to sponsor an unlimited number of charter schools. Under current law, colleges and universities can, through the Florida Department of Education’s approval, sponsor one school.

A state university is permitted to work with a school district to develop a charter school but can only sponsor one. Now, there is no limit to the amount of charter schools an institution can sponsor.

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2020 Was Record Year for Fatal Drug Overdoses in Virginia

Eric Burk

Virginia had another record year for fatal drug overdoses in 2020. In 2019, Virginia had a record 1,627 fatal drug overdoses, but in 2020 that number spiked by 41.2 percent to 2,297, fueled by fentanyl overdoses, according to a fourth-quarter report from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).

“The pandemic exacerbated drug deaths and last I checked, something like 40-plus states reported big increases in overdose deaths since the pandemic began,” VDH Statewide Forensic Epidemiologist Kathrin Hobron told The Virginia Star.

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Greater Georgia Group Chair Kelly Loeffler Asks AG Chris Carr to Investigate Brad Raffensperger

Chris Butler

Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler on Wednesday wrote a letter to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and asked that Carr investigate Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and whether Raffensperger abused his office during recent elections. Loeffler, in her letter, also said Raffensperger violated the state constitution to further his own political self-interests.

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CEO Fired for Criticizing Male Teen in Prom Dress Tells The Tennessee Star He Approached Teens over Obscene Language, Behavior – Not Dress

Corinne Murdock

A telehealth company fired their CEO for criticizing a male teen in a prom dress on video – but he says the teens asked for his opinion. Previous VisuWell CEO Sam Johnson explained to The Tennessee Star the whole context of the viral interaction, posted originally on the popular social media platform, TikTok, by the dress-wearing teen’s boyfriend, Jacob Geittmann. According to Johnson, he’d approached the group teens initially because they were yelling, being “obnoxious” and “vulgar” in a public area where children and some of his family were present – not because the male teen, Dalton Stevens, was wearing a dress.

In an interview with The Star, Johnson explained that he’d politely requested that the teens, as a group, could “tone it down.” According to Johnson, there were around five chaperones present that didn’t corral the group of just over one dozen teenaged prom-goers.

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