Research Showed One in Five Tennessee Public School Students in Six Districts Chronically Absent During Pandemic

Woman sitting alone with a mask on.

One in five Tennessee public school students from across six districts were chronically absent last year during the pandemic. Vanderbilt University’s Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) discovered this during a study of around 150,000 students across about 250 schools. They also discovered that the majority of chronic absenteeism cases occurred among English Learners, minority students, and economically disadvantaged students. The state classifies 10 percent or more of classes missed as chronic absence.

Nowhere did the report mention which six districts were studied. The Tennessee Star asked TERA spokespersons which districts they’d researched. They didn’t respond by press time. TERA noted that these districts’ chronic absenteeism rates have been climbing since 2018, but they’d jumped significantly last year with virtual learning.

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National Guard Scheduled to Leave Capitol Five Months After January 6 Riot

National Guard troops are slated to decamp from Capitol Hill this week, nearly five months after thousands were deployed to safeguard Congress amid fears of further unrest after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection.

Personnel will fully depart the U.S. Capitol grounds this week, military officials and congressional aides said Monday, nearly five months after thousands were deployed to safeguard Congress allegedly over fears of unrest after the Jan. 6 reported “attempted insurrection” by former President Trump supporters, Politico reported.

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Major Media Outlets Continue to Receive Millions from Chinese Propaganda Front

Los Angeles Times Building

A Chinese Communist Party-controlled news outlet paid major newspapers and magazines over $1.95 million between November and April to run advertisements stylized as news stories, according to a Justice Department disclosure filed Monday.

Time Magazine received $700,000 from the outlet, China Daily, for “advertisement expenses” during the six-month time period, the filing revealed. The Chinese propaganda outlet also paid a combined $1.26 million for advertisements in The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, The Globe and Mail and the Financial Times during the timeframe, according to the filing.

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Marsha Blackburn Commentary: The Migrant Crisis in Chattanooga

In the 4 months since the Democrats took control in Washington, never once have they indicated they understand the severity of the crisis on our southern border—a feat that requires a thick set of blinders.

In April, Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 178,000 people trying to illegally cross our border. Almost 14,000 of them were unaccompanied children or single minors. Drug seizures were up 6% from March, and we’ve already seized more fentanyl this year than we did all last year. On top of all that, law enforcement officials are still catching smugglers trying to pass off counterfeit face masks, prohibited COVID test kits, and banned pharmaceuticals. 

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Border Agent Arrested for Allegedly Smuggling Illegal Migrants

A Border Patrol agent was arrested in Laredo, Texas, Friday after allegedly smuggling illegal migrants into the U.S., Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday.

Border Patrol Agent Rodney Tolson, Jr. was routinely assigned to lane inspections at an interior checkpoint where he allegedly conspired to transport and smuggle illegal migrants into the U.S. for payment from around Feb. 9, 2020, through March 26, 2019, according to an indictment.

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Lifest Is Coming to Music City

NASHVILLE, Tennessee-  Life Promotions, organizers of the nation’s largest, family-friendly, music festival, Lifest, is thrilled to bring a new event to the Nashville area, Lifest Music City. This inaugural festival will be hosted July 29-31, 2021 at Hideaway Farm, the former home of country music legend Johnny Cash in Bon Aqua, Tennessee. This scenic farm was the center of Johnny’s universe for over 30 years and is just a short drive from Nashville.

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Commentary: The ‘Woke’ Are Sleeping on China

Every day I read online about systemic racism, transgender issues, President Joe Biden’s latest faux pas, and other American social ills.

All well and good. I’ve written about some of these same issues as well. But are we elevating the trivial at the expense of the significant? Many of our citizens are focused on the ongoing cultural battle over subjects such as racism and transgender athletes.

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Biden’s Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Far Outspends Obama

President Joe Biden has funneled nearly 20 times as much taxpayer money to the abortion industry as Barack Obama had at this point in his presidency, according to an analysis by a leading pro-life organization. 

In office for only four months, Biden has directed almost $500 billion in federal funding to the abortion industry through legislation and executive action, in some cases bypassing longstanding restrictions that prevented taxpayer dollars from directly paying for abortion. 

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U.S. Senate Confirms Controversial DOJ Nominee Who Once Wrote Black Supremacist Essay

Kristen Clarke

On Tuesday, the United States Senate confirmed one of Joe Biden’s most controversial federal nominees, Kristen Clarke, to a key leadership post in the Department of Justice, as reported by the Daily Caller.

Clarke was confirmed as head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division with 51 votes, when Republican Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) sided with the chamber’s 50 Democrats to confirm her nomination. As previously reported, her nomination originally stalled in the Judiciary Committee after the committee vote to advance her nomination ended in a tie, before Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) brought the motion to a full floor vote to advance it out of the committee.

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Mike Lindell Reportedly Kicked Out of Republican Governors Association Event in Nashville After He Promised to Confront Georgia, Arizona Governors About Election

On Tuesday, the Republican Governors Association (RGA) reportedly ejected MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell from their spring conference in Nashville.

Lindell claimed that he’d been invited to the event; his spokespersons didn’t respond to The Star about these claims. Earlier that same day, Lindell announced publicly on Steve Bannon’s show, War Room Pandemic, that he would confront Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp over the election.

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New Method Allows Loudoun County, Virginia Students to Make False Hate Reports, Parents Warn

Administrators within the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) are calling on students to report — anonymously — any acts of bias, discrimination, harassment, or intimidation motivated by prejudice. LCPS spokesman Wayde Byard told The Virginia Star Wednesday that students may use what they call the Share, Speak Up, Speak Out: Bias Reporting Form to report instances of prejudice or bias.

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Certain Details Emerge About Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s Book with Simon and Schuster

Booksellers are scheduled to release a book later this year that Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan wrote about reforming the Republican Party, but details about how much money Duncan will make were unavailable Wednesday. Members of Duncan’s staff as well as publishers at the New York-based Simon and Schuster did not return The Georgia Star News’ emailed requests for comment before Wednesday’s stated deadline.

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Virginia Community College State Board Wants Patrick Henry Community College to Change Its Name

Virginia’s State Board for Community Colleges (VCCS) wants officials at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College (DSLCC) and Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) to revisit decisions to not change their names, according to a press release. According to PHCC Board Chair Janet Copenhaver, the VCCS board will change the name if the PHCC board does not.

“They sent us a letter back last week saying that they voted unanimously not to accept that name and that we had ‘x’ amount of time to come up with a new name or they would rename it.

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Florida Groups Urge Rubio, Scott to Take Up Immigration Reform

Business, political, and religious leaders are urging Florida Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott to take up immigration reform legislation which would add security to around 490,000 immigrants in Florida.

Democratic Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said at a panel hosted by the American Business Immigration Coalition he is urging Florida’s senators to take up bipartisan legislation offering a pathway to citizenship for children, brought here by illegal aliens, classified under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. Dyer noted almost 20 percent of Orlando population was born in another country and their status as workers drives Central Florida’s economy.

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FSU Settles Discrimination Lawsuit with Former Student Senate President Jack Denton

The Florida State University

Florida State University has settled a lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) on behalf of Jack Denton, the former Student Senate President who was removed from his role for criticizing Black Lives Matter. 

After the death of George Floyd, Denton advised fellow students in a Catholic group chat not to donate to Black Lives Matter, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) or Reclaim the Block, leftist organizations who support anti-Catholic teachings. 

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Biden to Speak in Cleveland on Thursday

President Joe Biden is traveling to Cleveland, Ohio to deliver a speech on his economic efforts since taking office earlier this year. 

At his address at Cuyahoga Community College, Biden is expected to claim the solution to the country’s economic setback is his massive “infrastructure” plan — dubbed the “American Jobs Plan” — and the coronavirus “relief” bill passed earlier this year. 

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Gas Prices in Florida Expected to Decrease Heading into Memorial Day Weekend

Person pumping gas into vehicle

Heading into Memorial Day weekend, Floridians can expect for gas prices to decrease for the first time in over three weeks after the attack on the Colonial Pipeline.

While the majority of the state receives gas from the multiple ports on Florida’s coast, the disruption of the pipeline caused widespread panic-buying among the parts of the state that do use it, which in turn caused gas prices to increase as demand was high and there was limited supply.

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Biden Administration Finally Offers Response to Migrant Children Being Flown into Tennessee

The Biden Administration responded through White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki last Friday concerning reports of migrant children being flown into Tennessee. Psaki offered some remarks – though she refused to answer whether the Biden Administration purposefully ignored Tennessee leaders’ wishes when it came to housing migrant children.

During Friday’s White House Daily Briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed Psaki about how the Biden Administration appeared to ignore Governor Bill Lee’s decision to decline housing unaccompanied migrant children in Tennessee. 

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