A homeless encampment in Minneapolis is a growing problem and is causing concerns among residents. The encampment has been near Sheridan Memorial Park since the summer of 2020, on property belonging to the city. City Council Member Steve Fletcher called removing the encampment “not a good strategy.”
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Toward the end of the month, a state-imposed mask mandate at Virginia schools will no longer be enforced, but the state’s Department of Health is encouraging school divisions to create mask policies.
On July 25, the public health order forcing schools to require face coverings will expire and will not be renewed. However, the VDH issued guidelines that strongly recommend school divisions impose mask mandates for students, staff and teachers.
“Virginia has followed the science throughout this pandemic, and that’s what we continue to do,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement. “This guidance takes into consideration recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and will provide necessary flexibility for school divisions while ensuring a safe, healthy, and world-class learning environment for Virginia’s students. Again, I strongly urge every eligible Virginian to get vaccinated. Getting your shot will protect you, your family, and your community—and it is the only way we can beat this pandemic once and for all.”
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Ohio churches, businesses, schools or any nongovernment group no longer can partner with local boards of election to help educate or register voters or for anything related to voting or an election.
An Ohio state representative wants that changed.
The election reforms passed as part of the state budget after failing to make it out of the House when they were introduced with other election changes as a standalone bill. The new law prohibits any public official from collaborating with nongovernmental groups or individuals on any election-related activity.
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This week’s witnesses in the federal corruption trial of J.T. Burnette, a Tallahassee businessman standing trial for federal extortion and racketeering, described the “dirty politics of getting things done” in Tallahassee.
The testimony exposed some of the true “power behind the throne” like that wielded by Burnette and his wife, Kim Rivers, CEO of the mega medical marijuana company, Trulieve, and by a former “rising star” in Florida Democratic politics, Scott Maddox.
Burnette is facing federal charges of racketeering, and extortion stemming from a multi-year FBI investigation into political corruption in Tallahassee. Government prosecutors are trying to prove Burnette arranged bribes for Maddox, through Governance Services, LLC, a lobbying firm owned by Maddox’s close friend and business partner Paige Carter-Smith.
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Florida state Representative Anthony Sabatini announced this week that he has filed a bill that will mandate the use of E-Verify by all public and private employers.
Sabatini tweeted, “JUST FILED my first Bill for the 2022 FL Legislative Session. HB 6001 will mandate the use of E-Verify in FL, requiring ALL workers prove that they are legal BEFORE they can work in our State. With 70% of all new illegals coming straight to Florida, we MUST pass this Bill!”
This is his fourth time that Sabatini has filed a bill related to E-Verify since he was elected to the Florida House in 2018.
E-Verify is a web-based system that allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States. E-Verify employers verify the identity and employment eligibility of newly hired employees by electronically matching information provided by employees on the Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, against records available to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
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The Town of Mineral voted three to two to launch the process of dissolving the town at its monthly meeting on July 12, according to The Central Virginian. In a special meeting Thursday, town residents turned out to protest the decision in a public hearing, and three of the six members said they didn’t support disbanding the town.
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The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit on Friday vacated its recent decision that allowed the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention to enforce its COVID-19 safety rules related to the Florida cruise ship industry.
Just before the decision, Florida asked the United States Supreme Court to intervene and reverse the appeals court’s decision.
“I’m glad to see the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reverse its prior decision and free the cruise lines from unlawful CDC mandates, which effectively mothballed the industry for more than a year,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “The importance of this case extends beyond the cruise industry. From here on out a federal bureau will be on thin legal and constitutional ice if and when it attempts to exercise such sweeping authority that is not explicitly delineated by law.”
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U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reportedly disapproves of a field hearing that U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) held in Georgia last week to undermine that state’s new voter integrity law, Senate Bill 202. This, as Klobuchar and four other Democratic U.S. senators who attended refused to answer The Georgia Star News’ questions about other states whose voting requirements are stricter than Georgia’s.
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The lead investigator in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) case against more than a dozen men who allegedly plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has legal troubles of his own, as reported by The Detroit News.
“An FBI agent at the center of the investigation into the plot to kidnap and kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is accused of smashing his wife’s head against a nightstand and choking her after a dispute stemming from their attendance at a swingers’ party, according to court records,” that news outlet reported this week.
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A Franklin County judge may reimplement Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefits in Ohio after they were ended by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) in June.
The extra $300 per week in unemployment benefits, part of a federal government program to help Americans survive the COVID-19 pandemic, officially ended in Ohio on June 26. DeWine cited a labor shortage in the state, as most businesses reopened as normal after pandemic restrictions were lifted.
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After an investigation by the Arizona Auditor General into alleged financial mismanagement at Higley Unified School District in Gilbert, a grand jury indicted four people for fraud. Dr. Denise Birdwell, a former superintendent of both Higley and Scottsdale Unified School Districts, was indicted on 18 felony counts related to reportedly misusing $6 million of public monies, including conspiring to get around school district rules in order to make sure Higley’s $2,557,125 contract went to a certain vendor. Birdwell’s domestic partner, Hartwell Hunnicutt, and two men from the vendor, Gary Aller and Steven Nielsen, were indicted on related felonies.
State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who served on the Higley school board from 2013-2015 while much of this took place under Birdwell, said he was attacked and stonewalled by district administrators as he and another board member fought to get to the bottom of serious concerns and suspicions that many people had at the time.
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Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey announced on Friday that more than 1,000 individuals throughout the safe have tested positive for the coronavirus after being fully vaccinated.
Of the fully vaccinated individuals who have suffered these numerous “breakthrough” cases, 195 have been hospitalized, with 27 patients passing away.
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Speaking to iHeartRadio host Sara Carter on Thursday, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn condemned the Biden administration’s professed “flagging” of what it terms “disinformation” regarding COVID-19 for social-media companies.
“What they’ve set up is basically a premise that if your message is not government-approved, then what you’re going to experience is state-sponsored censorship….” Blackburn said.
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PHOENIX, Arizona – Dozens of good-spirited attendees were already lining up Friday evening outside the Arizona Federal Theatre in anticipation of the “Protect Our Elections” rally Saturday with former President Donald Trump hosted by Turning Point Action.
Most were planning to spend the night, despite the weather forecast that includes thunderstorms during the overnight after a day that started that way and continued with rain showers throughout most of the day.
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Bye, Liz.
The abject implosion of a politician once thought to possess national prospects — though not due to her talent but rather her name and connections — might have been overshadowed by the alarming performance just a few hours later by our near-invalid president. But Liz Cheney’s bizarre performance on the U.S. Capitol steps Wednesday was nonetheless notable.
If you haven’t followed the lead-up to Wednesday’s meltdown, it involved the sham 9/11 Commission–style inquiry being built to examine the Capitol riot of Jan. 6. That inquiry, to be chaired by partisan hack Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson on behalf of Nancy Pelosi, is obviously not built to fully examine what happened that day; it’s built to assign blame to the Republican Party for what Pelosi and the rest of the Democrat Party is determined to present as a casus belli against half of the American people.
Pelosi’s Jan. 6 commission is a big deal, because she has turned the Capitol into an armed camp behind razor wire for most of the past six months and change over the dubious assertion that the protesters who descended on the building and briefly disrupted the vote to certify a presidential election that still reeks of irregularity and worse presented an “insurrection” and a “grave threat to democracy” to trump (pun not intended, but whatever) anything else since the Civil War.
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Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy discussed the firing of vaccine chief, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, and Governor Lee’s statement, which exposed his unfamiliarity with the Tennessee Department of Health’s mature minor doctrine. Michel Patrick Leahy: Well, we’ve been talking about Governor Billy’s statement yesterday about the termination of Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the state’s former vaccine chief. And there’s something wrong with the way he’s explained it, it seems to me. By the way, you can call in if you want to disagree or if you have any additional insight into this number. So here’s the story. Actually, I’m reading the story from Newsweek about this and will elaborate a little bit on some of the headlines that you heard on the radio during the break. Here’s how Newsweek reported it. Remember, Newsweek is part of The Daily Beast. It’s more of a far-left outfit. So take this with a grain of salt. But they have done the most comprehensive reporting that I’ve seen on this so far. Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee…
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On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris met with several illegal aliens at the White House, promising them that the Biden Administration would fight against a judge’s ruling that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty program was unconstitutional, as reported by Breitbart.
The illegals, referred to as “Dreamers” because they would have qualified for amnesty under Barack Obama’s failed Dream Act amnesty plan, met with the vice president both in-person and virtually over Zoom. Addressing the recent ruling that struck a major blow to DACA, an executive order signed by Obama as the successor to the Dream Act after the latter failed to pass through Congress, Harris told the illegals that “this is your home, this is your home, and we see you, and you are not alone.”
Harris went on to claim, with no evidence, that some illegals have gone on to work for Fortune 500 companies, have worked in health care, or have served in the military. “Many have been living recently, these years, a life of uncertainty,” she said, “even though this is the only country they have ever known. They deserve a pathway to citizenship.”
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As President Joe Biden faces concerns over the economy and the crisis at the southern border, his polling numbers have dipped to the lowest point since he took office.
Polling data released by Gallup found that Biden’s approval rating has dropped to 50%, down six points from the previous month.
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The California Secretary of State’s Office has certified 46 candidates running for governor against Gov. Gavin Newsom during September’s recall election. The list includes five more candidates from the preliminary list released on Saturday, including conservative radio commentator and Republican candidate Larry Elder, who had been left off the list and successfully sued to be added back on.
“Victory!” Elder tweeted after the court ordered he be added to the list. “My next one will be on Sept. 14 at the ballot box.”
The recall election is scheduled for Sept. 14.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Sports with Dr. K. to the newsmakers line to talk about the change in college athletics as players reach professional levels and endorsements.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to weigh in on the Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case regarding the constitutionality of the Mississippi abortion law of 2018.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to weigh in on Antony Blinken’s weak response to Cuba and the many questions surrounding the Capitol Hill riots on January sixth.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Wall Street expert and Fox Business contributor Liz Peek to the newsmakers line to discuss the consequences of reckless budget spending, raise increases, and inflation.
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A day after Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced “a commitment to transparency” regarding White House COVID-19 disclosures, she told reporters that the White House will not be releasing the number of “breakthrough cases” that occur on its campus.
The term “breakthrough cases” refers to fully vaccinated individuals who have come down with the coronavirus. Transparency advocates argue that the American people can be given that information without invading the privacy of COVID-stricken White House employees.
On Wednesday, after admitting that there had been multiple COVID cases at the White House that had not been previously revealed, Psaki said that the White House would only announce positive tests among officials if they had come into contact with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris or their spouses.
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Texas authorities announced on Thursday that state law enforcement has begun the process of arresting and jailing illegal aliens who cross the border on state trespassing charges, in a new effort to crack down on illegal immigration where the federal government is failing to do so, ABC News reports.
This latest step follows up on the promises of Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas), who first vowed in June to step up enforcement of immigration laws in the state in direct response to the Biden Administration’s open-borders approach. Abbott also declared that the state would continue building the border wall that was started by President Donald Trump, on which Biden had halted construction after taking power.
The arrested illegals are being detained at a state prison in the city of Dilley, roughly 100 miles north of the border. All of the illegals who have been arrested thus far are single adult men, who are the most likely to be a threat to society. The prison in question is capable of holding up to 950 illegals, but Abbott said in a visit to the border on Saturday that “the state jail commission has worked out a way to jail far more people than are currently being jailed.”
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) worked with Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) to introduce legislation with the goal of expanding access to quality health care for rural Americans across the country.
The Rural Health Innovation Act would incentivize communities to prioritize urgent care needs by providing numerous grant programs to these areas.
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The Biden administration is spending around $3 million daily to not finish construction on the southern border wall, Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said Wednesday.
Around $2 billion in taxpayer dollars have been wasted on paying Department of Defense (DOD) contractors to not build the border wall since Jan. 20, increasing by at least $3 million daily, according to Lankford. Former President Donald Trump allocated $10 billion to the DOD for border wall construction and the Biden administration had spent about $2 billion on suspension and termination costs paid to contractors.
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Senate Democrats introduced legislation Thursday removing liability protections from online platforms that promote content deemed health misinformation.
The bill, proposed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ray Lujan on Thursday, seeks to carve out an exception from Section 230 liability shields enjoyed by online platforms, such as Facebook or YouTube, if those platforms boost content classified as health misinformation, Vox first reported.
The legislation, known as the Health Misinformation Act, directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a definition of health misinformation, and strips liability protections from platforms “if the provider promotes that health misinformation through an algorithm used by the provider.” HHS defined health misinformation in an advisory last week as “information that is false, inaccurate, or misleading according to the best available evidence.”
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President Biden so desperately wants the vaccine-hesitant part of the country to get their shots that he may have spread a little misinformation. “You are not going to get COVID,” he promised during a CNN town-event Wednesday night, “if you have these vaccines.”
Of course, this is not true. Biden knows it. He said as much later during the forum, explaining that, while vaccinated individuals enjoy significant protections, they can still test positive for the virus. But even if that happens, the president pointed out, the vaccine largely mitigates the most serious dangers. “You are not going to be hospitalized,” he said, reciting the latest scientific consensus. “You are not going to be in the IC unit, and you are not going to die.”
The fact that fully vaccinated individuals can still contract the coronavirus is a medical reality. It has also led to more uncomfortable questions about transparency for the Biden administration.
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Knoxville City Council will appoint its first members to the African American Equity Restoration Task Force during its meeting next Tuesday. The task force will consist of the following members: George Underwood, Enkeshi El-Amin, Brandon Hardin, Regina Olum, Anderson Olds, Dave Miller, Deborah Porter, Matthew Best, Tanisha Fitzgerald Baker, Bill Lyons, Stanley Taylor, and Gwen McKenzie.
These members were selected from applicants that qualified as business, community, financial, educational, faith, health care, youth, and city leaders. According to the council documents, the task force will determine its organizational and leadership structure during its first meeting.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – FirstEnergy Corp.’s agreement this week to pay a $230 million fine in the ongoing federal investigation into an Ohio Statehouse bribery scheme has generated more criticism from GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci who is seeking to take the 2022 Republican nomination from incumbent Governor Mike DeWine. The Akron-based electric utility on Thursday agreed to the massive fine after admitting it paid an energy consultant – who DeWine later selected to be chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio – $4.3 million to help formulate House Bill 6, a 2019 piece of legislation supporting a $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout of two nuclear power plants a FirstEnergy spinoff owns. That legislation passed after an alleged $60 million bribery scheme that funneled cash to the election campaigns of various state legislators through a so-called “dark money” political action committee, or PAC. FirstEnergy has now claimed it paid consultant Sam Randazzo the money for helping craft the legislation and in anticipation of further assistance when he took over as PUCO chair in February 2019. Former Congressman Jim Renacci, one of two announced opponents for the GOP nomination, on Friday said the unwinding scandal implicates DeWine for “helping create a…
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On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called on the State Board of Administration (SBA) to place Ben & Jerry’s on the Continued Examination Companies that Boycott Israel List as well as the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List.
DeSantis called on the SBA by way of letter to show the historic relationship between Florida and the nation of Israel, and the “commitment to a swift response to those who discriminate against the Israeli people.”
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A Minnesota senator is cosponsoring a bill that would punish social media companies for allowing the spread of “medical misinformation.”
“These are some of the biggest, richest companies in the world and they must do more to prevent the spread of deadly vaccine misinformation,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said. “The coronavirus pandemic has shown us how lethal misinformation can be and it is our responsibility to take action.”
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ARLINGTON, Virginia – President Joe Biden joined Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at Lubber Run Community Center on Friday evening. Biden, McAuliffe, and leading Virginia Democrats hyped progress made under their administrations and repeatedly linked GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin to former President Donald Trump.
“Terry and I, we share a lot in common. I ran against Donald Trump, so is Terry,” Biden said to laughter and applause. “And I beat Donald Trump in Virginia and so will Terry.”
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Washington, D.C. police officers will be hosting a food pantry at the corner of Martin Luther King Avenue and Melon Street, Southeast next Wednesday at 11 a.m. Local residents can walk up and ask the officers for items.
“It’s not just about groceries, it’s how you make people feel. And that goes for the officers as well as citizens from the community,” Code 3 Association Executive Director Joseph Abdalla said.
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Just days after Secretary of State’s office chief operation officer Gabriel Sterling brushed off concrete proof of illegal voting in the 2020 election, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) was met with protests in Bibb County.
GOP protestors in Bibb County held up signs and demanded a full forensic audit of the vote tallies in the Peach State as Raffensperger spoke to the Bibb County GOP, according to WMAZ.
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Florida businesses and business groups have thrown their weight behind the passage of the Equality Act, a bill in Congress which would extend protected civil rights status to sexual orientation and gender identity.
Among the groups joining the chorus is the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association.
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U.S. Representative for Florida’s 5th Congressional District, Al Lawson Jr., announced his endorsement of 2022 Gubernatorial candidate and current U.S. Representative, Charlie Crist on Thursday.
Lawson, a Democrat, was re-elected to his third term in 2020 and has represented the 5th Congressional District in North Florida since 2017. Before Congress, Lawson represented North Florida for 28 years in the state legislature.
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Representative John Thompson allegedly apologized to the St. Paul police officer that he accused of “racial profiling” who pulled him over on July 4 for driving without a front license plate. St. Paul Police spokesman Steve Linders said in an interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that, “John Thompson did show up unannounced at our Western District offices…so he could apologize to the sergeant who pulled him over on July 4th.”
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Despite fears that COVID-19 cases are surging in Arizona due to the state’s low vaccination rate and the emergence of the delta variant, new cases barely exceed 1,000 per day. The most recent data from Worldometer, which is cited by reputable organizations and governments around the world, shows the number of new daily cases was 1,043 on July 21. The number of new cases has stayed generally between 500 and 1,000 since the beginning of March.
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Calling the move a “disgrace,” former President Donald Trump blasted the decision by the Cleveland Indians to change their name to the “Guardians.”
“Can anybody believe that the Cleveland Indians, a storied and cherished baseball franchise since taking the name in 1915, are changing their name to the Guardians? Such a disgrace, and I guarantee that the people who are most angry about it are the many Indians of our Country,” Trump said in a statement on Friday.
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The U.S. Department of Justice won’t investigate Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s nursing home policies.
The initial inquiry was opened under former President Donald Trump’s administration, which requested data from Michigan.
Now, 11 months later under Joe Biden’s administration, the probe won’t happen. Democrat Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel refused to investigate as well.
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The Tucson City Clerk approved the signatures for a petition to adopt a $15 minimum wage citywide, meaning it will be placed on this November’s ballot. If approved by voters, the minimum wage would increase incrementally for the next four years, starting in April of next year. The minimum wage would first increase to $13 next year, $13.50 by January 2023, and $14.25 by January 2024. That means the $15 minimum wage would be established in January 2025.
The city clerk’s office verified with The Arizona Sun Times that they certified the petition on Thursday, called “The Tucson Minimum Wage Act.” The petition needed over 14,800 signatures; the campaign reportedly gathered over 25,000 signatures. The campaign, Tucson Fight for $15, submitted the signatures at the beginning of this month.
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Blake Masters, a Peter Thiel confidant and candidate for U.S. Senate, will speak on Saturday at the Phoenix rally featuring former President Donald Trump.
The “Rally to Protect Our Elections” is meant to highlight the ongoing efforts by Arizona state senators to conduct a forensic audit of ballots to ensure their integrity.
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The Minneapolis City Council is frustrated over the slow review of the city’s response to the unrest in 2020. Minneapolis was plagued by riots as well as peaceful protests after the death of Goerge Floyd on May 25, 2020. Due to the massive amounts of damage and the repercussions of the violence, the city contracted a third party consulting group to assess the city’s response to the situation. As reported on FOX 9, “A final report and its recommendations aren’t due until January of next year but some city council members say that’s too long to wait.”
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State Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) on Friday accused the media of trying to drive a wedge between him and Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) Commissioner Lisa Piercey when it comes to giving the COVID-19 vaccine to children. Roberts co-chairs the legislature’s Joint Government Operations Committee. He voiced concerns this week about state officials administering the vaccine to children without parental consent. Roberts said Thursday that he and Piercey agreed that administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children — without parental consent — violates TDOH policy.
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After years of haranguing by left-wing protestors, the Cleveland Indians have finally caved, and will change their team’s nickname.
The name change was announced in a two minute video narrated by Tom Hanks. The team will be called the Cleveland Guardians.
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Tennessee’s State Building Commission voted Thursday to remove Confederate Army General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s bust from the State Capitol building.
The statue will be relocated to the Tennessee State Museum, along with the busts of Admirals David Farragut and Albert Gleaves.
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In the old days, Democrats had predictable agendas, supposedly focused on individual rights, the “little guy,” and distrust of the military-industrial-intelligence complex.
The Left, often on spec, blasted the wealthy, whether the “lucre” was self-made or inherited. The old-money rich were lampooned as idle drones.
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Three Senate Republicans introduced a bill Wednesday requiring the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to consider collecting revenue from major tech companies to fund broadband internet.
The Funding Affordable Internet with Reliable Contributions Act, introduced by Sens. Roger Wicker, Todd Young, and Shelley Moore Capito, directs the FCC to consider collecting Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions from Big Tech companies “such as YouTube, Netflix, and Google,” the lawmakers announced in a statement Wednesday. USF is a subsidy fund of the FCC that dispenses around $10 billion a year for broadband internet infrastructure in rural areas, according to the FCC website.
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