Month: April 2021

Gubernatorial Candidate Peter Doran Floats Hyper Loop Project for Southwest Virginia Without Explaining How to Pay for It

Matthew Hall
Peter Doran

As Governor Northam and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced expansion of rail services in the Commonwealth of Virginia, gubernatorial candidate Peter Doran floated an expensive – and expansive – transportation policy position. Doran, a former foreign policy think tank CEO whose campaign has gained little traction outside of Northern Virginia, introduced a proposal for Virginia to build a “hyperloop” system and place the hub in Southwest Virginia.

Doran stated, “New technologies like HyperLoop will provide opportunities for people in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It will create jobs as well as new options for Virginians to have more choices in where to live and work. Providing realistic, current-gen (not last-gen) solutions that can tie Virginia’s far-flung regions together? That will make us the best.”

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DeWine Signs $8.3B, Two-Year Ohio Transportation Budget

The Center Square
Highway with cars

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised the $8.3 billion state transportation budget he signed into law despite it missing the increased vehicle fees and massive cuts for public transportation he proposed.

The two-year budget, House Bill 74, provides money for road and bridge construction and maintenance, as well as other transportation priorities established by the committees in the House and Senate, along with DeWine.

“The budget ensures that we can continue to maintain and invest in Ohio’s roadways,” DeWine said Wednesday. “Ohio’s transportation system continues to be a critical part of our economy, moving materials and people safely across our state. This budget advances our commitment to invest in state and locally-maintained roadways.”

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Great Lakes Governors Call on Biden to Support Critical Water Infrastructure

The Center Square

Four Great Lakes governors on Tuesday urged President Joe Biden to prioritize federal investments in water infrastructure.

In a letter sent to Biden, the governors lauded the American Rescue Plan Act’s $360 billion in direct aid to state and local governments that can be spent on water and sewer infrastructure.

“As your administration continues to develop and pursue its policy agenda, we respectfully encourage you to continue your emphasis on modernizing America’s water infrastructure,” readsthe letter.

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General Assembly OKs Paid Parental Leave for Georgia State Workers

The Center Square

A follow-up attempt by lawmakers to implement paid parental leave for Georgia state employees is on its way to Gov. Brian Kemp.

The measure allows state employees in Georgia to take three weeks of paid parental leave. The House agreed Monday, 153-8, to the Senate’s changes to House Bill 146 after it unanimously passed the Senate last week. A similar measure cleared the House in 2020.

Under HB 146, state or local school board employees who worked at least 700 hours over the six months preceding the requested paid leave date can qualify for the paid time off after the birth of a child, adoption of a child or taking in of a foster child. Paid parental leave would be granted only once a calendar year. State agencies and school boards are able to dictate the policy rules.

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Tennessee General Assembly Passes Bill Effectively Blocking Nashville Metro Council’s Construction Regulation Efforts

Corinne Murdock
State Senator Jeff Yarbro and Jack Johnson.

An amended bill would effectively block Metro Nashville City Council’s ongoing efforts to impose stricter regulations on the construction industry. The legislation limited local government from enforcing oversight measures like obtaining employee data, enforcing safety and health standards beyond federal and state requirements, gaining entry to worksites, and obtaining the information of suppliers for labor or materials.

The Senate last passed an amended version of the bill, 27 to 6. The amendments widened the bill’s scope to include remote in addition to prime contractors, and to include bids, proposals, and agreements within what governments couldn’t enforce as oversight tactics.

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S.C. Representative Moves to Strip MLB of Antitrust Exemption After Stance on Georgia Voting Law

Admin

South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan announced on Friday his intent to propose legislation that would strip the Major League Baseball association of its antitrust exemption, claiming the league’s aggressive stance against Georgia’s recent election reform bill has rendered it open to more federal oversight.

The MLB announced on Friday its intent to move the 2021 All-Star game out of Georgia over that state’s recent package of election reforms that included voter I.D. requirements and other security measures.

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Trump Blasts Major League Baseball for Pulling All-Star Game from Georgia, Calls for Boycott

Admin

Former President Donald Trump has released a statement Friday night about the latest action of Major League Baseball through his Save America PAC, which he formed shortly after leaving office in January.

“Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans, and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the Radical Left Democrats who do not want voter I.D., which is desperately needed, to have anything to do with our elections,” the statement reads. “Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!”

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Tennessee Communities Join Up in Grassroots GOP Coalition to Hold Elected Officials Accountable

Corinne Murdock

A grassroots GOP coalition of 14 counties and various community members formed recently to hold state lawmakers accountable. Humphreys County GOP Republican Party convened on Thursday evening to sign letters addressed to state and national-level Tennessee leaders. 

During the meeting, Humphreys County GOP Chair Wayne Miller explained that this coalition was also a means of keeping the people informed, something he says that the lawmakers have neglected.

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Commentary: Put the Woke Corporations to Sleep

Admin

Georgia finally enacted some laws to protect ethical voting. My American Spectator colleague, David Catron, refers to these laws as “election integrity laws” — and that is what they are.

“Jim Crow”? What on G-d’s Earth are the leftist Crazies talking about? What are the Leftists saying?

… that Blacks and Hispanics do not want election integrity?

… that Blacks and Hispanics, 158 years after slavery ended, do not have access to a photo ID?

… that Blacks and Hispanics, 158 years after slavery ended, cannot figure out how to vote honestly and need vote harvesters?

… that Blacks and Hispanics, 158 years after slavery ended, do not want integrity at the voting booth? 

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Around 1,000 Illegal Migrants Evading Overwhelmed Border Officials Daily

Admin
Border Patrol sign.

Around 1,000 illegal migrants are entering the interior of the U.S. daily without overwhelmed border officials able to gather identifying information or take them into custody, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials are occupied processing unaccompanied migrant minors and family units while attempting to control the number of male adults who enter the U.S., leading to some illegal migrants entering the U.S. unknowingly, according to three CBP officials who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter, the Post reported. The number of migrants who are able to evade officials, known as “got aways,” has increased substantially in recent weeks, two of the officials told the Post.

A “got away” is someone who crosses the border illegally, is not apprehended and has not been turned back, according to CBP. The agency spent over $1 billion in the last 20 years on surveillance technology to monitor for illegal crossings, though officials haven’t always able to apprehend illegal migrants.

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Arizona House Passes Bill Banning Abortions Based on Genetic Abnormality

Admin
Susan B. Anthony List State Policy Director Sue Liebel

The Arizona House passed a bill Thursday that bans abortions based on diagnosis of genetic abnormality, such as Down syndrome.

S.B. 1457 states that the rights of “an unborn child at every stage of development” must be acknowledged and prohibits abortions based on the sex, race, or genetic abnormality of the child. The bill makes exceptions for medical emergencies.

“A person who knowingly” performs such an abortion “is guilty of a class 3 felony,” according to the legislation.

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Hunter Biden Addresses Laptop Saga for the First Time

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Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden said in an interview that a laptop of his purported emails released before the election “could be” his, but that it may have been stolen or released with the help of Russian intelligence.

“There could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me. It could be that I was hacked. It could be that it was Russian intelligence,” he said in an interview with CBS, which will air in full Sunday.

Biden at first said that he was unsure whether the laptop is his.

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Commentary: Holding Big Tech Accountable for January 6

Admin

Nearly 300 Americans face a slew of charges related to the melee on Capitol Hill last January. As I’ve reported over the past few months, offenses range from assaulting a police officer to destroying government property to trespassing.

More than 70 protestors stand accused of “aiding and abetting” various crimes; even people who didn’t vandalize the Capitol or even enter the building have been charged with helping others do damage and interrupt Congress’ certification of the Electoral College results.

Nonviolent offenders languish behind bars for months, denied bail, and transported to Washington, D.C. to await delayed trials. Federal prosecutors suggest President Trump could be indicted for fueling the chaos that day. Democratic congressmen want their Republican colleagues held accountable for their alleged role, too.

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Steve Bannon Presents ‘War Room: Pandemic’

Admin

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

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Music Spotlight: Cristina Vane

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennessee-  Since I live in Nashville, in my Music Spotlight column I often tell how people ended up here. Americana/Blues/Folk musician Cristina Vane may have the most unique story of anyone I have interviewed.

Born in Italy to a Sicilian-American father and a Guatemalan mother, Vane has always had a tenuous relationship with identity and place. Even though her parents met in America while attending college, she grew up between England, France, and Italy, and was fluent in four languages by the time she moved to her father’s native United States for university at 18.

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U.S. Added 916,000 Jobs in March as Economy Roars Back to Life

Admin
Blue Collar Worker

The U.S. economy reported an increase of 916,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate fell to 6%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.

Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 916,000 in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report, and the number of unemployed persons fell to 9.7 million. Economists projected 675,000 Americans would be added to payrolls prior to Friday’s report, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“There’s a seismic shift going on in the U.S. economy,” Beth Ann Bovino, an economist at S&P Global, told the WSJ.

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Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act: Attorney Jim Roberts Talks Metro Legal’s Creation of Suppression and Fear as Referendum Seeks Ballot

Julie Carr

Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act Attorney Jim Roberts to the newsmakers line to give updates on where he stands in the fight against Metro Legal to get the proper number or petitions solidified to move forward with his referendum.

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Planned Parenthood Sues Ohio over Telehealth Abortion Law

Peter D'Abrosca

A pro-abortion group is taking the state of Ohio to court over a law that limits telehealth abortions, according to Thursday reports. 

“Planned Parenthood Federation of America and two of its Ohio affiliates on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Department of Health and prosecutors in Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton counties to stop enforcement of a state ban on telemedicine abortion that was signed into law earlier this year,” The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. 

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VPAP Provides Infographic Explaining Complex Process of Becoming a Delegate to Virginia GOP Convention

Matthew Hall

The Virginia Public Access Project has provided additional information about the delegate registration and vote counting processes for the 2021 Republican Party of Virginia unassembled convention. The May 8th convention will determine the Republican nominees for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General.  The Virginia Star has previously covered the process, and VPAP provided additional detail about changes made to the delegate selection and counting process.

The process is very different from a traditional primary with a polling location in each neighborhood. For one to become a delegate to the convention, one must file a pre-file form with your local Republican committee. Then, one must show up to one of the 30+ voting locations across the Commonwealth as assigned per voting locality.

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Gov. Brian Kemp Blasts Major League Baseball ‘Cancel Culture’ Decision to Pull All-Star Game Out of Georgia

Chris Butler

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday evening said Major League Baseball officials caved “to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies.” This, after MLB officials announced earlier in the day that they will relocate the 2021 All-Star Game and MLB Draft, originally scheduled for Atlanta, to another location. They specifically cited Georgia’s new voter integrity law, Senate Bill 202.

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Survey: Michiganders Support Metric-Driven Plan to Ease COVID-19 Restrictions on Restaurants

The Center Square
Justin Winslow

A restaurant survey indicates 74% of respondents supported a required metric-driven plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions.

On Tuesday, the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association (MRLA) released a statewide survey indicating public support to resume indoor dining and travel.

The survey also indicated wide support for hospitality workers receiving prioritized vaccination as well as for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to produce a metric-driven plan to retain control over COVID-19 restrictions.

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Minnesota Senate OKs COVID-19 Learning Loss Recovery Bills

The Center Square
Roger Chamberlain and Chuck Wige

The GOP-led Minnesota Senate recently approved several bills that aim to support families and teachers in recovering from learning loss suffered during COVID-19-related school closures.

Senate File 628 seeks to require the Department of Education to administer in-person statewide Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments during the spring of 2021, regardless of the current learning format. MCAs measure student progress in core academic subjects and were canceled last year.

“At this point, we are all familiar with the pain and hardship that school closures have caused students,” Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, said in a statement. “The Senate is taking the smart steps necessary to help students catch their breath and recover from some of the worst side effects of COVID.”

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Georgia House Votes to Strip Delta of $35 Million in Tax Incentives

Peter D'Abrosca
delta

After the CEO of Georgia-based Delta Airlines caved to pressure from left wing activist groups and criticized a bill signed into law requiring voter identification for absentee ballots, Georgia’s House Republicans responded by voting to strip Delta of a major tax credit. 

Delta has long-enjoyed a $35 million tax credit on jet fuel in the Peach State, but Thursday night, that tax credit was jeopardized, as House Republicans voted along party lines to end it, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 

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Redistricting Will Not Be Complete in Time for 2021 House of Delegates Elections

Eric Burk

Redistricting for Virginia’s legislative districts will not be complete in time for the 2021 House of Delegates elections, according to a draft timeline presented at a Virginia Redistricting Commission (VRC) meeting Tuesday. Census data is not expected until mid-August, which starts a 45-day timeline for the commission to send completed House and Senate maps to the General Assembly. As a result, Virginia may have House of Delegates races three years in a row: 2021, 2022 based on new districts, and the regularly scheduled 2023 election.

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Group Says Amendment Passed by State Senate Committee to Afford Religious Exemptions to Vaccines in Pandemic Has Been Watered Down

Corinne Murdock

Tennessee lawmakers are keeping their options open when it comes to mandatory vaccinations during a current or imminent pandemic. Although community members and advocacy groups have been fighting for their right to choose when it comes to their medical decisions during government-declared emergencies, most lawmakers haven’t been responsive. 

At the time of press, the amendment hasn’t been uploaded to the General Assembly website. However, The Tennessee Star obtained a copy of the amendment, included below:

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MLB Says It’s Pulling 2021 All-Star Game Out of Georgia over Voting Law

Admin

Major League Baseball on Friday announced that it would be pulling its 2021 All-Star game out of Georgia due to concerns over the state’s new voting law passed and signed last month.

“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” Commissioner Robert Manfred said in a statement on Friday. “Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.”

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New Social Media Platform Rescues Donald Trump Interview after Facebook Removes It

Admin
Trump Interview

When Facebook and Instagram threatened to impose “additional limitations” on Lara Trump for posting her interview with her father-in-law, the former president, she didn’t back down.

The Fox News contributor and former producer for Inside Edition jumped ship for an alternative platform that only left beta testing in November.

Lara Trump’s podcast “The Right View” debuted on Clouthub soon after Facebook and Instagram removed her Donald Trump interview, Clouthub CEO Jeff Brain told Just the News.

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‘You Are on Our List’: Professors Put Up Campus Fliers Threatening Professor and Students over Accused Racism, Hate Group Activity for Turning Point USA Affiliation

Corinne Murdock

Tennessee Tech (TTU) is investigating after two professors targeted and threatened another professor and students over their Turning Point USA (TPUSA) involvement.

The professor featured on the flier, navy veteran A.J. Donadio, is a nursing professor that advises the TPUSA chapter at TTU. The incident occurred back in early February; the two suspects are associate professor Julia Gruber and English instructor Andrew Smith. The contents of the poster are reproduced below:

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Commentary: Radical New Rules for Post-America

Admin
Crowd with woman covered by the American Flag

There are 10 new ideas that are changing America, maybe permanently.  

1) Money is a construct. It can be created from thin air. Annual deficits and aggregate national debt no longer matter much. 

Prior presidents ran up huge annual deficits. But at least there were some concessions that the money was real and had to be paid back. 

Not now. As we near $30 trillion in national debt and 110 percent of annual GDP, our elites either believe permanent zero interest rates make the cascading obligation irrelevant, or the larger the debt, the more likely we will be forced to address needed income redistribution. 

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Analysis: Progressive Myths About Mass Shootings and Weapons of War

Admin

Within a week of blaming “white supremacy” for the murder of six Asian and two white women by a white man in Georgia, progressives are now blaming “assault weapons” for a mass shooting in which a Trump-hating Muslim immigrant with a history of violence, mental illness, and racial animus gunned down 10 white people in a Boulder, Colorado supermarket.

Beyond the duplicity of highlighting race only when the killer is white and the victims are not, progressive lawmakers, activists, and journalists are using a litany of falsehoods in an attempt to ban common semi-automatic guns used for home defense and hunting.

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Chauvin Attorney Destroys Narrative That Floyd Called for Mother Before His Death, Media Ignores

Peter D'Abrosca

Towards the end of his questioning of George Floyd’s girlfriend Courteney Ross, Eric Nelson, the attorney for former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin, uncovered a bombshell that has been left out of mainstream media coverage. 

“You and Floyd – Mr. Floyd, excuse me – I’m assuming, like most couples, had pet names for each other?” Nelson asked Ross. 

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Commentary: Conflict with China Could Mean Nuclear War

Admin
Radioactive Caution Signs on fence

China is not our friend. Since the Clinton Administration, and through the Bush and Obama years, American policy proceeded as if trade and cultural ties would work automatically to liberalize the Chinese. Instead, these ties have enriched and strengthened China, allowing it to build first-class infrastructure, a robust economy, and a substantially more capable military in a mere 30 years’ time. 

Simultaneously, these policies have hollowed out our own industrial base, rendering most of our industries, including the tech sector, dependent on Chinese inputs. In the name of efficiency, we have lost resilience, jobs, and independence. 

The prospect of a military confrontation with China is now closer than it was at the beginning of this process. Along with its rising confidence and capability, China has advanced a self-serving and novel view of its authority, asserting sovereignty and rights of exclusion deep into the South China Sea. 

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Jobless Claims Increase to 719,000 as Recovery Continues

Admin
Unemployment sign

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased to 719,000 last week, even as the economy continues to slowly recover from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics figure released Thursday represented an increase in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending March 20, when 658,000 new jobless claims were reported. That number was revised down from the 684,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.

Roughly 18.2 million Americans continue to collect unemployment benefits, according to the report.

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GOP Senators Demand Intelligence Records on Hunter Biden’s Dealings with Chinese Energy Conglomerate

Admin
Hunter Biden

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson called on the Biden administration Wednesday to turn over intelligence records regarding Hunter Biden’s work with a Chinese energy company with suspected ties to the Chinese military.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, Grassley and Johnson said that it is “imperative” for Congress to understand the relationship between the Biden family and CEFC China Energy, the now-defunct energy conglomerate.

CEFC China Energy paid Biden approximately $6 million from August 2017 to September 2018 for consulting and legal services, according to a report that Grassley and Johnson released last year.

The Republicans said in the report that banking regulators flagged some of the wire payments from CEFC to Biden for “potential criminal financial activity.” Grassley and Johnson also noted that CEFC’s founder, Ye Jianming, was an official in the mid-2000s for a front group of the Chinese Communist Party.

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Landlords Struggle Under Extended CDC Eviction Ban, Class-Action Lawsuit Argues

The Center Square
John Vecchione

Landlords are struggling after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended a national ban on certain evictions apparently to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The CDC extended the moratorium, first enacted in Sept. 2020, through June 30.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa on behalf of Asa Mossman of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and other housing providers. 

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Factory Mixup Ruins 15 Million Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccines

Admin
COVID-19 Vaccinations

Workers at a Baltimore plant responsible for producing two separate coronavirus vaccines mistakenly mixed up their respective ingredients, ruining approximately 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and pausing all production at the plant, the company confirmed Wednesday.

The facility, run by Emergent BioSolutions, had partnered with both Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca to produce vaccines. Federal officials said that the mistake was a result of human error, according to The New York Times, which first reported the mix up that reportedly occurred several weeks ago.

A quality control review “identified one batch of drug substance that did not meet quality standards at Emergent BioSolutions, a site not yet authorized to manufacture drug substance for our COVID-19 vaccine,” Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. “This batch was never advanced to the filling and finishing stages of our manufacturing process.”

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Chase Says Convention Rigged, Will Run as Independent if Snyder Wins Nomination

Eric Burk

Senator Amanda Chase, candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, says she will run as an independent if Pete Snyder is nominated. Chase appeared on The Jeff Katz Show on Tuesday, where she said that the convention process selected by the Republican Party of Virginia is rigged.

“After all the conventions that I participated in for over a decade, I can tell you, that these conventions are rigged. It’s voter suppression,” Chase said.

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Hollywood Goes to Bat Against Ohio Constitutional Carry Bill

Peter D'Abrosca
george takei sulu

A Hollywood actor and internet activist has vowed to fight against Ohio’s HB 227, a constitutional carry bill that would allow residents of the state to exercise their Second Amendment rights more freely. 

“House Bill 227 in Ohio would ‘allow a licensee to carry concealed all deadly weapons that would otherwise be legal to possess, remove the requirement of a licensed gun owner to ‘promptly’ notify police of a gun in their car and allow anyone 21 and older to carry a concealed deadly weapon without a license,’” Goerge Takei said on his Facebook page. 

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Georgia Legislature Approves $27B Budget for New Fiscal Year

The Center Square
Blake Tillery

The Georgia General Assembly has approved a $27.2 billion spending plan for the 2022 fiscal year, which starts July 1.

The Senate and House agreed to spend more money on health care, education, transportation, state positions, internet access and economic initiatives.

The House approved the measure, 148-21, late Wednesday night after it cleared the Senate unanimously, 52-0. Lawmakers now must send the proposal for state spending through June 30, 2022, to Gov. Brian Kemp for consideration.

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