Day: August 24, 2021

Bipartisan Group of Tennessee Lawmakers Call on President Biden to Approve Emergency Declaration for Flooded Areas

Cooper Moran

U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) joined Representatives Mark Green (R-TN-07) and Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) and urged President Joe Biden to approve Governor Bill Lee’s request for a Major Disaster Declaration due to flooding throughout in Middle Tennessee.

In the attempt to bridge the gap between the federal and state government, the group of lawmakers pledged to provide the Biden administration with any assistance needed to expeditiously approve the Governor’s request.

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Commentary: Reject Federal Takeover of Elections – Again

Admin

Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

That is exactly how Americans must feel as they learn that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is trying to ram through another bill orchestrating a federal takeover of elections, despite the previous failed attempt in the Senate.

The bill, H.R. 4, is expected to come up in the House of Representatives this week, and it is stunning in its breadth. In short, Pelosi would give broad, sweeping powers to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to rewrite every state and local election law in the country.

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Ohio US Senate Hopeful Mandel Twitter Post from Brewery Causes Social Media Stir

Peter D'Abrosca

U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel caused a stir on social media over the weekend after he posted a photo Friday evening at a local brewery. 

“PERRYSBURG, OH — [Inside the Five] is a cool brewery started by two NFL vets. Great food and spirited waitresses! Even though Brianne was sick today, she came to work because she knew they were short servers. These are the type of American workers that make our country strong,” he said in a tweet. 

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While Taliban Flourish on Twitter, Social Media Giants Restrict U.S. Conservative Voices

Admin
Person holding smartphone

While the Taliban and Iranian mullahs still enjoy Twitter privileges, a growing number of Americans, mostly of conservative persuasion, face a range of restrictions imposed on their accounts by U.S. social media platforms.

The list of Americans who have seen their social media reach limited is topped by former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been banned indefinitely on Twitter and for two years on Facebook. More recently, Georgia GOP Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene was temporarily silenced by Twitter.

The firebrand freshman congresswoman was suspended earlier this month for seven days for what Twitter called “misinformation” for arguing COVID-19 masks and vaccines are “failing,” as more fully vaccinated Americans are contracting the virus’s highly contagious delta strain.

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Biden’s Green Energy Plan and Botched Afghan Withdrawal Boost China’s Rare Metals Monopoly

Admin

At first blush, it may not seem that the Democrats’ $4.5 trillion infrastructure and spending plans and President Joe Biden’s bungled exit from Afghanistan have a nexus. But they do in China’s rare metals monopoly.

Beijing already dominates the rare metals market needed for electronics, electric car batteries and computers, a reality made more painfully obvious with the current computer chip shortage that is slowing production of new U.S. cars.

And now with the haphazard U.S. withdrawal from Kabul, one of the world’s largest untapped deposits of lithium — estimated by some at $1 trillion in Afghanistan — is poised to fall into China’s hands just as Biden has ordered that half all U.S. cars be electric by 2030 and congressional Democrats prepare to vote to invest tens of billions of dollars more to push that goal further.

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FDA Fully Approves Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine

The Center Square

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave full approval Monday to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, a major step that will likely have significant implications for vaccination mandates nationwide. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have not yet received full FDA authorization.

The Pfizer vaccine previously received FDA authorization, which allowed its emergency use but did not give the full approval. Pfizer is the first company to receive full approval in the U.S.

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Officer Who Shot Ashli Babbitt Will Not Face Any Disciplinary Action, Conduct Was ‘Lawful’ U.S. Capitol Police Announce

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The U.S. Capitol Police said Monday that it would not take any action against the officer who shot and killed rioter Ashli Babbitt on Jan 6.

“USCP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) determined the officer’s conduct was lawful and within Department policy, which says an officer may use deadly force only when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury,” the department said in a statement. The officer’s identity was not disclosed due to safety concerns.

“This officer and the officer’s family have been the subject of numerous credible and specific threats for actions that were taken as part of the job of all our officers: defending the Congress, Members, staff and the democratic process,” the department said.

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University of Georgia Professor Bettina Love Tasks ‘Co-Conspirators’ to Not to ‘Spirit Murder’ Minority Students

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Bettina Love

Bettina L. Love may not have the same public profile of Ibram X. Kendi or Robin DiAngelo, but she is still an active and influential voice among Critical Race Theory and anti-racism scholars.

A professor at the University of Georgia and founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network, Love promotes Critical Race Theory across the country in children’s schools.

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Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton Names Sammie Arnold New Chief of Staff

Cooper Moran
Sammie Arnold and Cameron Sexton

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) announced on Monday that he will name Sammie Arnold his new chief of staff.

Most recently, Arnold served as Assistant Commissioner of Community & Rural Development for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD). In his position, he was appointed by Governor Bill Lee to serve on an economic recovery group aimed at getting Tennessee’s economy going after the coronavirus pandemic.

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Missouri US Representatives, Hawley Push Probes, Bills Targeting Meatpacking Industry

The Center Square

There are more than 95,000 farms in Missouri with the Show Me State placing among the nation’s top 10 in terms of beef, chicken and pork production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But consolidation within the meatpacking industry – four firms (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, National Beef) control more than 80% of all the beef slaughtered in the United States – has long frustrated Missouri producers.

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Indiana Attorney General Investigates University’s Ties to Chinese Communist Party

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Xi Jinping

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita announced that his office will investigate the  and the Chinese Communist Party’s Confucius Institute at Valparaiso University. 

“The investigation is aimed at identifying and getting to the bottom of the true intent of any relationships between Valparaiso University’s programming and the Chinese Communist Party,” a statement from Rokita’s office reads. 

Valparaiso, a private Lutheran institution, received $1.1 million from the Chinese government between 2010-2019 and acknowledges the Rokita’s investigation on its Confucius Institute website. 

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Commentary: The Deep State Comes for the Big Guy

Admin

Throughout his candidacy, presidency, and reelection campaign, Donald Trump was targeted by the deep state, which undertook to subvert, defeat, and destroy him. In the 2020 election specifically, we saw leaks, lies, and letters from “experts” and “leaders” attacking Trump with sundry false accusations, all intended to boost the chances of his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Unlike so many of Biden’s open supporters, such as the National Education Association or the Service Employees International Union or even his billionaire supporters’ dark money, it is impossible to quantify how much the deep state contributed to him. But it is indisputable the deep state is part of Biden’s core constituency.

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State Senator from Wisconsin: Governor Evers Has Failed to Raise Refugee Concerns

The Center Square

The Wisconsin state senator who represents the towns around Fort McCoy has issued the strongest objection yet to the still murky plan to bring thousands of Afghan refugees to central Wisconsin.

Sen. Patrick Testin, R-Stevens Point, on Friday sent a strongly worded letter to Gov. Evers asking for answers about who the refugees are and where they will go once they arrive.

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University of California Freezes Safety Officer Hiring until Campuses Submit ‘Holistic, Inclusive’ Plan

Admin
University of California Berkeley Campus

University of California’s new Community Safety Plan shifts major responsibilities and funding away from UC Police Departments.

The plan, based on an 80-page report released this summer by the Department of Public Safety Community Advisory Board, was announced by UC President Michael Drake last week and will be implemented across all 10 campuses. It reflects UC’s “commitment to equity and social justice.”

“Under this new model, a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals, campus police, social service providers, police accountability boards and other personnel will work together to prioritize the well-being of the entire UC community,” Drake said in a message to the university. “This reimagined structure will ensure that the m,ost appropriate responders are deployed to meet our community’s specific needs with tailored care resources and services.”

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Virginia Redistricting Commission Votes to Start with Blank Maps

Eric Burk

The Virginia Redistricting Commission voted Monday to start with blank, new maps. Some legislators proposed an alternate proposal to draw two sets of maps, one based off current maps, and one from a blank slate, but that motion was defeated.

Citizen Commissioner Sean Kumar (D) introduced the initial motion for blank maps, noting that in public comment, most of the public has expressed a desire for new maps, and that both parties have an interest in protecting the incumbents.

Barker introduced the substitute plan to draw the two sets of maps, and Senator Steve Newman (R-Bedford) seconded it.

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Michigan Could Get $800 Million from Opioid Settlement

The Center Square

Michigan could receive up to nearly $800 million from a proposed multibillion-dollar national opioid settlement with Johnson & Johnson and the three largest pharmaceutical distributors in the country: Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel officially signed the agreement announced last month for the companies role in the opioid epidemic.

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Georgia House Democratic Caucus Members Urge COVID-19 Mask Mandates in Schools

Chris Butler

Georgia State House Minority Leader James Beverly (D-Macon) and other members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus on Monday demanded that Governor Brian Kemp and other state officials mandate COVID-19 masks at public schools. Beverly did not return The Georgia Star News’ request for comment Monday. We contacted the eight other caucus members who said in an emailed press release that public school students must wear masks. Seven of those eight state representatives did not respond before Monday’s stated deadline.

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‘It’s Not Even Catholic Anymore:’ Parents Confront a Florida Christian School for Allegedly Embracing ‘Woke’ Ideology

Admin

Parents raised millions for their beloved local Catholic school, but then the administration allegedly became so woke it ultimately violated its own mission, according to a lawsuit filed in June.

Anthony and Barbara Scarpo charged the Academy of the Holy Names in Tampa, Florida, with “distancing itself from mainstream Catholicism, and embracing the new, politically correct, divisive and ‘woke’ culture.” Gender identity and openness to LGBTQ lifestyles, pro-abortion stances, white guilt and other “hot-button issues” replaced Catholic teaching, and students were allegedly taught to feel “guilt for not having been ‘woke’ sooner,” according to the lawsuit.

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Rep. Bob Good and Freedom Caucus Blast Infrastructure Bills and Democrats, Republicans, who Pass the Bills

Eric Burk

Congressman Bob Good (R-Virginia-05) and other members of the House Freedom Caucus blasted infrastructure legislation in a press conference Monday afternoon. The representatives said the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in the Senate has only $100-$200 billion in real infrastructure, warning that other provisions in that bill and a larger $3.5 trillion package are ‘woke’, part of the Green New Deal, and would weaken the U.S.’ position against China.

“No matter how good some parts of the $1.2 trillion might be, a little sliver of it, we don’t have the money. The latest combined $5 trillion in spending will put us on a path to increase our national debt from the current $28 trillion to $45 trillion in ten years, all to fund, as others have said, amnesty for some 10-20 million illegal aliens in our country, to greatly expand and further bankrupt Medicare more quickly, to pass extreme environmental energy climate policies, a Green New Deal, all to transform us into a Marxist, socialist country,” Good said.

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Leon County School Board Latest to Defy Gov. DeSantis by Demanding Children 5 years old and Up Wear Masks in School

Grant Holcomb
Young girl wearing a mask and reading a book in school

The Leon County School District is the latest public school district to announce they are imposing K-8 mask mandate without a parent permission opt-out form. The district operated the first couple weeks of school without the opt-out form, but Superintendent Rocky Hanna made the announcement Sunday night.

“I do have an obligation to uphold the laws of the state of Florida,” said Hanna. “But, I have a greater obligation however to protect, the health, safety and welfare of the children of Tallahassee and Leon County.”

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Responds to the Associated Press Over ‘Smear’ Tactic

Grant Holcomb

After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary was suspended from Twitter and the Associated Press (AP) sent a letter criticizing DeSantis, DeSantis responded with his own letter to the AP saying they deserved a little pushback against the AP’s “smear” tactic.

“I assumed your letter was to notify me that you were issuing a retraction of the partisan smear piece you published last week,” DeSantis wrote. “Instead, you had the temerity to complain about the deserved blowback that your botched and discredited attempt to concoct a political narrative has received. The ploy will not work to divert attention from the fact that the Associated Press published a false narrative that will lead some to decline effective treatment for COVID infections.”

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Ohio Health Care Group Fears Vaccine Mandate Could Be Devastating

The Center Square

President Joe Biden’s plan to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for nursing home employees could damage further an industry struggling in Ohio, the executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association said.

Pete Van Runkle said the group is pro-vaccine but a federal mandate negatively could affect services to some of the most needy people in the state and be damaging to skilled nursing facilities.

“We believe the Biden Administration’s plan, at least articulated in the press conference, would be devastating to Ohio SNFs and to their staff and residents,” Van Runkle said. “While we support vaccination and recognize that it is the most effective defense against COVID-19, the proposed mandate does not account for staffing that is already stretched beyond the breaking point.”

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Republicans Demand Update on Long-Awaited Durham Report

The Center Square

After two years of waiting for a federal report on allegations of Democratic spying on the Trump campaign, Republicans are demanding answers.

More than 40 Republican U.S. senators sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Thursday requesting the release of the Durham report, the long-awaited results of an investigation into the controversial origins of the FBI investigation into Russian collusion.

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