Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed MNPS School Board Member for District Six, Fran Bush in studio to discuss Tuesday evening’s school board-parent debate on mask mandates for students.
Read the full story
In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, Anthony Fauci said that defeating the coronavirus is more important than Americans’ personal freedoms, and that every American should be forced to get a vaccine, the Daily Caller reports.
When asked by host Willie Geist, Fauci said that he supports vaccine mandates for teachers and all levels of schools, including colleges and universities, referring to the India Variant, also known as the “Delta Variant,” as a “major surge” that has led to a “critical” situation.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed MNPS District Six school board member Fran Bush in studio who expressed the priority of getting kids back on academic track instead of focusing on mask mandates.
Read the full story
Inflation increased at a rapid 5.4% clip compared to August 2020, the Department of Labor said Wednesday.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI), a common tool used to measure inflation, increased 0.5% between June and July, according to the Labor Department report.
Read the full story
by Newt Gingrich Now that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have concluded, it would be easy for the casual viewer to think that American patriotism and love of country is at an all time low. Throughout the games, the woke liberal media continuously highlighted American athletes who refused to hold American flags, snubbed the National Anthem, and denigrated the country they were sent to represent. But despite who the anti-American media chose to cover, there were many proud athletes who were thrilled to go to Tokyo and represent our country and our people on the world stage. When Naomi Graham stepped into the boxing ring in Tokyo, she was representing both her country and the U.S. Army. She’s the first female U.S. active-duty service member to compete as an Olympian. Graham, who was raised in North Carolina, joined the military as a young woman to take control of and improve her life. Before then, she was homeless. Graham said joining the American military was “the best decision she ever made.” And the message she had for young people was patriotic, clear, and quintessentially American: “You can be anything you want to be. You can come from nothing and be…
Read the full story
The Texas House of Representatives voted 89-12 on Tuesday evening to authorize state law enforcement to corral and potentially arrest AWOL Democratic members who fled Austin to stop passage of election integrity legislation.
The vote allowed the House sergeant-at-arms to send law enforcement officers to force the attendance of missing Democrats “under warrant of arrest, if necessary.”
Read the full story
The Biden administration is reportedly flying migrants to Abilene, Texas, before releasing them to board other flights with destinations around the U.S., KTAB News reported Thursday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has reportedly flown migrants to the Abilene Regional Airport in unmarked planes before loading them onto buses on at least two occasions this month, according to KTAB. Migrants were later recorded disembarking the same buses and boarding flights to several U.S. cities.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed The Star News Network’s Washington Correspondent Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line to detail the passing of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill.
Read the full story
Henry County Schools on Tuesday followed a trend of Tennessee schools that will require students and staff to wear a mask during the upcoming school year.
Metro Nashville Public Schools, Shelby County Schools, Hancock County, and Williamson County Schools have implemented similar measures.
Read the full story
Fulton County, Pennsylvania election officials are defending their decision to conduct an audit of the 2020 election in their jurisdiction and their right to continue use of their voting machines.
Attorneys from Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham LLP who are affiliated with an election-integrity nonprofit known as the Amistad Project, will be handling the case for the small county of about 14,500 residents, situated about 90 miles southwest of Harrisburg.
Read the full story
Maury County Mayor Andrew Ogles on Wednesday called upon members of the Tennessee General Assembly to convene a special session to address Gov. Bill Lee and what Ogles said was the governor’s “continued abuses of power.” Ogles, in this proclamation, said Lee’s “indecisiveness and half measures” have “subjugated parents and their children to out of control school boards and superintendents, liberal mayors and a complicit commissioner of education.”
Read the full story
Dr. Gary Maynard, the California professor allegedly behind a number of wildfires raging in Northern California, who is accused of intentionally trying to trap fire crews with his fires, is an anti-Trumper who said in an interview last November that President Trump suffered from Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and could become violent and destructive in response to defeat.
“Donald Trump’s lack of or unwillingness to self-reflect in order to self-improve, and his lack of empathy while being threatened with his first major, public, political and personal defeat, might activate a sense of the need for the use of violence, violent protests by his supporters or outright sabotage of the nation by locking down the economy or some other major act to damage the nation before he is forced to leave office, if he loses,” Maynard told left-wing journalist Charles Krause, who writes for The Globalist.
Read the full story
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has pulled in over $4 million during July, expanding on his already large war chest.
The July financial report shows over 18,000 contributions during July, which is over 63 percent of total contributions Friends of Ron DeSantis has collected since January 2018.
Read the full story
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Tuesday she will not challenge Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in 2022, but she had some sharp words for the incumbent.
DeVos accused Whitmer of using her name as a fundraising tool in a series of emails attempting to solicit funds from supporters.
Read the full story
A Loudoun County teacher resigned in protest Tuesday night after telling the School Board that its rules promoting transgender ideologies did not comport with her Christian faith.
“School Board, I quit. I quit your policies, I quit your trainings, and I quit being a cog in a machine that tells me to push highly-politicized agendas on our most vulnerable constituents – the children,” a teacher who identified herself as Laura Morris said, fighting back tears. “I will find employment elsewhere. I encourage all parents and staff in this county to flood the private schools.”
Read the full story
New quarterly voter registration numbers from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office reveal that independents now tie Democrats with 32 percent of voters each, behind Republicans who make up almost 35 percent. Democrats only gained 539 new voters this past quarter, whereas Republicans gained 3,093 and independents gained almost 90 percent of the 28,042 new voters.
The 2020 presidential election in Arizona may be what caused the recent defection from Democrats according to one longtime Arizona political consultant. Paul Bentz, senior vice president of research and strategy for HighGround Consultants, theorized, “While you can vote in other races, you can’t vote for the president without being of the party. We saw a pretty significant shift to Republicans, a significant uptick in Republican registration, for people who either wanted to vote for Trump or vote against Trump.” Arizona is one of 31 states where residents must choose a party in order to vote in the primary.
Read the full story
Governor DeSantis held three ceremonies in the state of Florida Tuesday, awarding first responders and educators with $1,000 bonuses from the for their hard work and dedication through the pandemic.
In addition to first responders’ work through the pandemic, DeSantis’ first ceremony was held in Surfside for search-and-rescue task force members who helped in the aftermath of the Champlain Tower collapse. The last two ceremonies were in Jacksonville and Pensacola respectively.
Read the full story
The Biden administration has squelched a fledgling Ohio program requiring those in their prime working years receiving Medicaid health coverage to get a job to remain covered. Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMMS), on Wednesday withdrew approval of a pilot program the Trump administration had approved in March 2019 that would have required able-bodied Medicaid health insurance ages 19-50 to work unless they were attending school, getting job-training, taking care of family members, or doing other “community engagement” for least 80 hours per month in order to receive the medical benefits. Implementation of the program, set to begin in January had been put on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Brooks-LaSure’s 23-page letter to the Ohio Department of Medicaid cited a litany of potential lingering effects of the pandemic as the reason for withdrawing the waiver granted 17 months ago altogether. “Uncertainty regarding the current crisis and the pandemic’s aftermath, and the potential impact on economic opportunities (including job skills training, work and other activities used to satisfy the community engagement requirement), and access to transportation and affordable child care, have greatly increased the risk that implementation…
Read the full story
President Joe Biden has announced his nominees for United States Attorney for the Western and Eastern Districts of Virginia. Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA) Jessica Aber and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia (WDVA) Christopher Kavanaugh were on a list of two candidates for each seat recommended by Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
“We are pleased that the President has nominated Ms. Aber and Mr. Kavanaugh to fill these vacancies,” the senators said in a joint press release. “After a thorough review of their distinguished records, we believe they will serve Virginia and the country with distinction. We hope our colleagues will join us to support these well-qualified nominees to be U.S. Attorneys in the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia.
Read the full story
The Lansing City Council approved Mayor Andy Schor’s proposal to spend $180,000 from Fiscal Year 2020-2021 on youth activities to suppress an uptick in gun violence.
“We are ready to distribute these carryforward dollars to our partners who have proven success in providing structured activities and mentorship programs that provide options and opportunities for our youth,” Schor said in a statement. “Providing additional dollars to further support these important programs is an immediate step that we can take to help keep our young people safe.”
Read the full story
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger wants members of the Georgia General Assembly to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to clarify that the state constitution permits only American citizens to vote. Raffensperger, at a press conference Wednesday, said seeing this through was one of his top priorities when he ran for his seat in 2018.
Read the full story
Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) has indicated he plans to skip the Mackinac Policy Conference, which is hosted annually by the Detroit Regional Chamber, citing the conference’s COVID vaccine requirement.
The Republican leader reportedly said he is already immune, having gotten COVID-19, and therefore chooses not to get vaccinated.
Read the full story
The Loudoun County School Board voted 7-2 to approve a transgender policy on Wednesday evening, in the second day of a two-part meeting. A public hearing was held Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, many board members emphasized the significant amount of time at the state and local level dedicated to developing the policy in response to Virginia law. Board member Jeff Morse spoke at length in opposition to the policy. He and member John Beatty voted against the policy and tried to pass a motion to send the policy back to committee for more consideration.
Read the full story
Ohio could pocket more than $11 billion if Congress moves forward with passage of an infrastructure compromise bill spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed the Senate on Tuesday, 69-30. The bill still must pass the House.
Read the full story
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers on Saturday apprehended a convicted sex offender in Yuma, after he illegally entered the United States from Mexico.
The 45-year-old from El Salvador, Jorge Ramirez-Rivera, was traveling with a group of seven other migrants.
Read the full story
With gasoline prices up more than $1 a gallon over the past year, the Biden administration took heat Wednesday over a statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan pressuring OPEC nations to increase oil production.
“Higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the ongoing global recovery. The price of crude oil has been higher than it was at the end of 2019, before the onset of the pandemic,” Sullivan said. “While OPEC+ recently agreed to production increases, these increases will not fully offset previous production cuts that OPEC+ imposed during the pandemic until well into 2022. At a critical moment in the global recovery, this is simply not enough.”
Read the full story
A chase between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and a suspected smuggler who had nine passengers in his car came to an end after a fiery crash Saturday, according to a press release.
After a Jeep Liberty blew past a Border Patrol checkpoint near Three Points, Arizona, CBP agents in vehicles, as well as a CBP Air and Marine Operations (AMO) helicopter, chased the suspects eastbound.
Read the full story
Arizona State Senator Tony Navarrete (D-Phoenix) resigned from his position Tuesday, after he was arrested and charged with seven felony counts related to allegations of child sexual abuse.
Since his arrest, the vast majority of elected officials throughout the state, including his Democratic colleagues, have called on him to resign.
Read the full story
The Minnesota Supreme Court denied an appeal that was seeking to overturn the ruling requiring Minneapolis to hire more police officers. As reported by The Minnesota Sun, some city attorneys asked “the state Supreme Court to step in and offer an ‘accelerated review’ of the case ruling that ordered the city to hire more police officers. The attorneys are planning to challenge the order requiring Minneapolis to hire at least 730 police officers by next summer, saying it is ‘necessary to clarify the meaning of the provision’ before elections are held in November.”
Read the full story
Michigan’s Board of Education passed a resolution Tuesday evening allowing individual school districts to either adopt or reject masking for students and staff to prevent COVID-19’s spread.
The Democrat-run board adopted the resolution instead of another offered by the panel’s two Republican members, Tom McMillin (Oakland Township) and Nikki Snyder (Dexter), who wanted a statewide policy against district mask mandates.
Read the full story
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is giving defiant school boards and school officials why are not following his executive order banning mask mandates until Friday to comply with the order.
Specifically, Broward County Schools received a letter from the Florida Board of Education saying Broward must backtrack on their district-wide mask mandate by 5:00 p.m. Friday. DeSantis’ executive order threatened the possibility of salaries being withheld for officials or school boards who act against the order.
Read the full story
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and others filed a lawsuit against the state fair because of their gun restrictions. They argue that the Minnesota State Agricultural Society does not have the authority to bar people from carrying guns at the state fair. According to Minnesota Public Radio, “Ramsey County, whose sheriff is directing fair security this year, is also named as a defendant.”
Read the full story
Real estate terminology is not immune to America’s social justice craze, and certain “discriminatory” terms like “master suite,” “man-cave,” and others are on their way out.
“There’s a hidden discriminatory piece that falls when you say ‘master’ bedroom,’” Jackie Berry, a realtor, who is also described as an “educator in racism and real estate continuing education” told The Minnesota Star-Tribune. “I’m a person of color and every time the term ‘master bedroom’ was used, I kept saying to myself, ‘I don’t like how it sounds.’ Now as I’m walking through a property, I’ll just say it’s the owners’ or primary suite.”
Read the full story
The Sartell-St. Stephens school district equity survey allegedly violated district policy. The consulting group hired by the district, Equity Alliance Minnesota, released the questions to parents and a concerned citizens group, Kids Over Politics 748, after they obtained legal counsel. As was reported by The Minnesota Sun, “Sartell-St. Stephens parents and Kids Over Politics 748 have retained lawyers with the Upper Midwest Law Center after the consulting group hired by the school district failed to release the contents of the equity audit.”
Read the full story
Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) and more than 70 other Republican state representatives on Wednesday formally requested that Gov. Bill Lee call a special session of the General Assembly. Sexton said last week he and other legislators want to restrain public school officials who might mandate or have already mandated that students wear COVID-19 masks.
Read the full story
A famous Tennessee music festival is set to require its patrons to be vaccinated, or submit to compulsory testing.
“The safety of our patrons and staff is our number one priority. As such a full COVID-19 vaccination or negative COVID-19 test will be required to attend Bonnaroo 2021,” Bonnaroo said on Twitter. “Bonnaroo strongly encourages vaccination. The last day to receive the second shot of Moderna or Pfizer, or a single dose of Johnson and Johnson is Thursday, August 19th.”
Read the full story
Acontagion is ravaging the Democratic Party, destroying the credibility of its leaders and scaring away its supporters. It is the deadly Hypocrisy Variant. The most prominent Democratic carriers of this infectious strain of duplicity are former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Less significant Democrats who have tested positive for the Hypocrisy Variant are Rep. Cory Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the Texas Democrats who fled their state in order to hobble the democratic process.
Read the full story
Parents in Williamson County who insist they — and only they — have the right to force a COVID-19 mask on their children faced off Tuesday night against members of the Williamson County School Board. Board members considered whether to implement a mask mandate to combat the Delta variant of COVID-19. They had not reached a solution before The Tennessee Star went to press late Tuesday night.
Read the full story
Joe Biden, emulating trendsetting blue state governors like California’s Gavin Newsom and New York’s Andrew Cuomo, recently has declared that by 2030, new car sales must be 50 percent zero-emission electric vehicles.
The problem with this decree is that it violates the proverbial rule against the government picking winners and losers. It’s one thing for the government to subsidize energy research, or, for that matter, any pure research. Libertarian purists might object to that, but sometimes these public-private research partnerships can accelerate innovation and help keep American manufacturers competitive. It’s quite another thing, however, for the government to restrict what sort of technology powers our vehicles, because there’s no way we can predict how technology will evolve between now and 2030.
Read the full story
Judge David D. Wolfe of Tennessee’s 23rd Judicial District, presiding over sentencing of convicted murderer Steven Wiggins, advised witnesses on Tuesday that they may not testify to their own philosophical opinion against the use of the death penalty in all cases.
The judge thus struck a portion of the testimony Peter Schaffer gave Monday during sentencing proceedings to determine what punishment Wiggins will receive for the shooting death of Dickson County Sergeant Daniel Baker: life imprisonment or death.
Read the full story
The Senate on Tuesday passed its bipartisan infrastructure bill, moving what would be the largest public works package in decades one step closer to becoming law months after negotiations first began.
The bill, which advocates praised as the largest investment in America’s infrastructure since the construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s, passed 69-30. Nineteen Republicans joined every Democrat in voting for the package.
Read the full story
The Democrats’ massive budget reconciliation package, finally revealed on Monday, includes a plan to give mass amnesty to “millions of” illegal aliens in the United States, according to The Hill.
The $3.5 trillion spending package will provide $107 billion for the Senate Judiciary Committee to determine the fastest route for providing blanket amnesty, with a deadline of September 15th to come up with such a solution. The bill itself does not single out any particular group of illegals or preferred methods, but instead orders the committee to provide “lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants,” as well as handing out green cards to “millions of immigrant workers and families.”
Read the full story
In a stunning but well-deserved rebuke, the D.C. Court of Appeals on Monday ordered that the pre-trial detention of George Tanios, one of two men accused of spraying Officer Sicknick and others on January 6, be reversed.
The brief ruling, which did not include the usual opinion explaining the court’s decision, bluntly stated:
“ORDERED and ADJUDGED that the district court’s May 12, 2021 order be reversed and the case remanded for the district court to order appellant’s pretrial release subject to appropriate conditions, including home detention and electronic monitoring. On this record, we conclude that the district court clearly erred in determining that no condition or combination of conditions of release would reasonably assure the safety of the community.”
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Cuban refugee and founder of ADNCuba.com, Gelet Martínez Fragela to the newsmakers line to discuss her escape from Communism and the mission of her news site.
Read the full story
Aliberal nonprofit that accused President Donald Trump of unleashing a “surge in white supremacy and hate” donated $85,000 last fall to election administrators in Georgia’s largest county as part of a campaign to turn out black votes in the 2020 election. Auditors now want some of that money returned.
Read the full story
Firerose is an Australian singer and songwriter who moved from Sydney to Los Angeles at age 19. Even though her music has a dance-pop vibe, with her fiercely personal lyrics, she is as good a songwriter as any country lyricist out there.
Firerose states she grew up in a musical family. She was writing songs as soon as she could speak. She was born with a gift and she knew it was hers to cultivate.
Read the full story
By a vote of 69 to 30, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a $1.2 billion infrastructure bill that Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) warns is an endeavor to “fundamentally move America toward Western-Europe-style socialism.”
“Investing in infrastructure the right way is a wise investment in America’s future and in our long-term competitiveness, but that’s not what we’re being asked to vote on here,” Hagerty told fellow senators in the run-up to Tuesday’s vote.
Read the full story
U.S. Representative Ron Kind (D-WI-03) will retire from Congress at the end of his term, deciding not to run for re-election in the Wisconsin swing district.
Kind’s southwestern Wisconsin district has gradually evolved over his approximately 25-year career in the House of Representatives, with former President Trump winning the district in the November 2020 election.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Fox Nation’s host of ‘No Interruption’, Tomi Lahren to the newsmakers line to weigh in on returning COVID mandates, the far left, RINOs, and the need for real officials to stand up for we the people.
Read the full story
A new requirement from the U.S. armed forces has sparked controversy and furthered the debate over mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote a memo to Department of Defense employees Monday announcing that the COVID-19 vaccine will be added to the list of required vaccines for all service members.
Read the full story