West Point, Naval Academy Dodge Questions on Biden Directive to Unlawfully Fire Trump Appointees from Advisory Boards

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point passed the buck back to the White House when asked Thursday whether it would follow President Joe Biden’s directive to fire appointees of former President Donald J. Trump from its advisory boards. 

“Members of the U.S. Military Academy’s Board of Visitors (BOV) are appointed by the President and members of Congress to provide independent advice and recommendations to the Academy’s leaders,” Lt. Col. Beth R. Smith, West Point’s Director of Public Affairs and Communications, told The Tennessee Star by email. 

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Biden White House Stonewalls Two Key Senators in Inquiry into President’s Use of Private Email

The White House failed to meet a deadline last month to provide information to two key Republican senators concerning Joe Biden’s use of a private email account as vice president to send government information to his son Hunter Biden.

Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republicans on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the Senate Judiciary Committee respectively, asked White House Counsel Dana Ann Remus in a July 30 letter to answer whether Biden used one or more private email accounts as vice president, whether he is using any today as president and whether government-related emails in the private accounts were preserved as required by the Federal Records Act.

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White House to Withdraw Nomination of David Chipman to Head up ATF

The White House will withdraw its nomination of David Chipman to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The nominee, a former special agent at ATF and current gun control lobbyist, was scrutinized immediately upon his nomination for his publicly anti-firearm positions. Moderate Democrat Senators in the evenly-split chamber signaled to the Biden administration that they were not fans of the choice and it was unclear whether Chipman would have made it through a confirmation vote.

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Commentary: Voter Fraud Is a Supreme Court Problem

As a few American Greatness writers, and many of its readers, have pointed out: If our votes don’t count, nothing else matters. Election fraud should be the top subject in our minds every single day.

Last week, a brilliant piece by Ted McCartney suggested we march on Washington, D.C.—peacefully, but in huge numbers—with just a single demand: A constitutional amendment that requires all voting to take place in-person, on Election Day, with voter ID, on paper ballots, and that the ballots be counted that same evening on live-streamed television under the watchful eyes of as many in-person observers as want to be there.

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Trump Reportedly Set to Endorse Liz Cheney Challenger In Effort to Oust His Highest-Profile GOP Critic

Former President Donald Trump has reportedly chosen his preferred candidate to oust Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.

Trump is set to back attorney Harriet Hageman, three people with knowledge of his plans told Politico. Cheney, who was the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress before being ousted from her position in May, is one of Trump’s most vocal GOP critics.

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State Dept. Won’t ‘Provide an Approval’ for Private Evacuation Flights from Afghanistan

The U.S. State Department will not give official approval to any private evacuation flight from Afghanistan seeking to land in third countries, leaked emails obtained by Fox News show.

“No independent charters are allowed to land at [Al Udeid Air Base], the military airbase you mentioned in your communication with Samantha Power,” a State Department official said in a Sept. 1 email to Eric Montalvo, who organized a number of charter flights out of Afghanistan, Fox News reported.

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Confidence That Biden is Presenting a Clear Plan for COVID-19 Tumbles, Poll Shows

Confidence that President Joe Biden has communicated a clear COVID-19 plan has tumbled, according to a new Gallup poll published Tuesday.

The Gallup poll found that 42% of Americans do not believe Biden communicated a clear plan to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, up from 35% in July. Exactly 40% of Americans think Biden presented a clear strategy to combat COVID-19, making this the first time citizens have been more negative than positive on his communications.

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Number of Detained Illegal Immigrants Declines as ICE Arrests Hardly Any

The number of detained illegal immigrants slightly declined as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have hardly arrested anyone, federal data processed by the Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse shows.

Around 25,000 people are currently detained at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities, though Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials apprehended most of the immigrants held in the detention centers, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) Assistant Professor Austin Kocher.

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Yellen: U.S. Will Be out of Money in October If Congress Doesn’t Raise Debt Ceiling

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned congressional leaders Wednesday that the U.S. is on track to default on its debt sometime in October if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.

Yellen said the Treasury would likely run out of cash in the coming weeks and exhaust its “extraordinary” spending measures to keep the country within its legal borrowing limit.

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TikTok Promotes Sexual Content, Drugs and Alcohol to Children, Investigation Finds

Video sharing platform TikTok promotes sexual content to underage users through its suggestion algorithm, according to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.

Investigators for The Wall Street Journal set up 31 fake TikTok accounts registered to users between the ages of 13 and 15 and studied their “For You” feeds, which consist of videos recommended to users by TikTok’s suggestion algorithm.

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Commentary: Lack of Liberty Leads to Death

It’s been 20 years since my son was old enough for his first MMR vaccine. At that time, the CDC was insisting on two things: 1) there had been a huge increase in children with autism, and 2) there was no connection between the MMR vaccine and that increase in autism. I could see very clearly that if you believed the first it would be extremely easy to not believe the second. Once you unleash hysteria, it’s hard to call it back. That is what I call the 2020 Fallacy.

Thanks to Thomas Sowell, I knew that the CDC’s first claim was not true. There was no dramatic increase in the occurrence of autism. There was a dramatic increase in what we diagnosed as autism. Neurologists invented the autism spectrum disorder to explain a long-existing phenomenon. And with that invention, the so-called “dramatic increase in autism” was born.

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Ben Carson, Youngkin, and Sears Criticize Virginia Education Policy at Loudoun County Rally

Secretary Ben Carson

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson spoke against mask mandates, Critical Race Theory, and COVID-19 vaccines for children in a Loudoun County appearance alongside GOP candidates Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Sears on Wednesday night. A large, energetic crowd filled a conference room; the event was hosted by Fight for Schools and 1776 Action.

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End of Federal Unemployment Benefits Raises Questions About Fraud, Joblessness

Jobless Claims Surge

Federal unemployment benefits ended over the holiday weekend, raising questions about how the payments’ expiration will affect the job market and whether Congress will renew the benefits.

Congress passed the $300 weekly unemployment payments as a remedy to joblessness during the COVID pandemic when government restrictions forced the layoffs of millions of Americans, but critics have since said the federal benefits are contributing to an economic quandary: elevated unemployment alongside widespread job availability.

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Ohio Senate Candidate Jane Timken Pledges Support of Constitutional Amendment Against ‘Court-Packing’ in Wake of SCOTUS Abortion Ruling

U.S. Senate contender Jane Timken has formally signed onto efforts in support of  a constitutional amendment to keep the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court at nine  as the political left again attempt to expand the court’s membership.

Timken’s statement follows the recent U.S. Supreme Court “shadow docket” ruling not to immediately block a Texas law restricting abortion to the first six weeks has revived calls from political progressives to put more justices on the court beyond the nine set by tradition since 1869. The so-called “court packing” tactic first threatened in the 1930s New Deal era gained favor among the political left a few years ago as former President Donald Trump place three conservative/libertarian justices on the court.

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Governor DeSantis Proposes New Initiatives to Recruit and Retain Florida Law Enforcement Officers

Surrounded by law enforcement officials and other members of the Legislature on Tuesday, Governor DeSantis announced the proposal of three new initiatives designed to recruit and retain law enforcement officers in Florida.

The three proposed initiatives include, new officer signing bonuses of $5,000, the Academy Scholarship Program for the Florida Law Enforcement Academy, and out-of-state relocation support.

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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson Returns a Legally Questionable Contribution While Gretchen Whitmer Keeps Hers

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) returned a campaign contribution that violated donation limits, while Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has refused to do the same.

Benson and Whitmer collected contributions in excess of the $7,150 limit by arguing they were facing a recall election, which a previous Secretary of State arbitrarily ruled would exempt an elected official from limits if subjected to a recall. But Benson and Whitmer’s recall concerns were never serious as no organized effort to collect the sufficient amount of signatures — over 1 million — was ever launched.

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Arizona Attorney General Brnovich Issues Legal Opinion Declaring the City of Tucson’s Vaccine Mandate for Employees Illegal

Mark Brnovich

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich issued a legal opinion on Tuesday stating that the City of Tucson’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city employees violates S.B. 1824 (soon to be A.R.S. 36-681) and Gov. Doug Ducey’s Executive Order 2021-18 prohibiting local and state governments from implementing them. Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa) submitted a SB 1487 request for the investigation.

“Tucson’s vaccine mandate is illegal, and the city could be held liable for attempting to force employees to take it against their beliefs,” Brnovich said. “COVID-19 vaccinations should be a choice, not a government mandate.” His spokeswoman, Katie Conner, told reporters during a phone call, “Adhering to the rule of law in Arizona is not optional.”

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Arizona Attorney General Says Tucson Vaccine Mandate Violates State Law

A law mandating the COVID-19 vaccine among Tucson city employees is illegal, according to Arizona’s Attorney General. 

“Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced that his office (AGO) determined the City of Tucson’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public employees does violate state law for purposes of S.B. 1487, and also is in direct conflict with the Governor’s Executive Order 2021-18,” a press release from Brnovich’s office said.

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Michigan Group Calls for Resignation of ‘Independent’ Redistricting Commission Members Who Publicly Support Democratic Causes

In 2018, Michigan voters were fed up with in-power politicians drawing their own districts to protect incumbents. As a result, 61% of voters in the state approved a ballot proposal that established an independent citizen’s redistricting committee (MICRC).

But as new problems emerge, critics want answers.

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Three Florida School Districts Challenge Mask Mandate Ban

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is appealing a ruling over the state’s mask mandate ban, three school districts are directly challenging the state’s rule by filing a challenge in the Florida Department of Administrative Hearings (DOAH).

Attorneys for the Alachua, Broward, and Orange counties filed the challenge targeting the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) rule to block mask mandate bans. The ban keeps school districts from imposing a mask mandate so long as there is a parent permission opt-out.

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Fulton County Election Officials Did Not Properly Handle Finances, Grant Requirements, New Audit Says

Fulton County Response

Fulton County election officials mismanaged money, mismanaged documents, and failed to comply with various grant requirements, according to a recent audit. The Georgia Star News requested a copy of the audit straight from county officials. The communications staff for the Fulton County Government, though, did not respond before Wednesday’s stated deadline. Staff at the Atlanta-based WSB-TV posted the audit on their website this week.

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Shuts Down 2024 Rumors

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dispelled speculation and rumors around his prospects of being a 2024 Republican presidential candidate. DeSantis was asked about if he and former President Donald J. Trump would run for president while visiting a monoclonal treatment site in St. Cloud, Fla.

“All the speculation about me is purely manufactured,” DeSantis said. “I just do my job. We work hard. Obviously, our state has led on a lot of things, including on this (monoclonal antibody treatment) now. Other states are copying us. But that’s what it’s really all about, just helping folks here. I hear all this stuff and, honestly, it’s nonsense.”

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Georgia Attorney General and 14 Other State Attorneys General Files Amicus Brief in Support of Virginia Church

New Life in Christ Church

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr along with 14 other state attorneys general filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in support of allowing a Virginia church to determine who is a minister “under its own doctrine.”

“This is another example of the threat to religious liberty and we will continue to defend the First Amendment,” said Carr. “We joined this coalition to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to protect the rights of religious organizations.”

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Richmond’s Lee Monument Comes Down After Towering over Richmond for 131 Years

The Robert E. Lee statue that towered over Richmond for more than a century is on its way to storage. A crowd of a few hundred people peered through tree branches trying to watch from the public viewing site, and cheered as the monument was lifted off its pedestal. Crews cut along an original seam and removed Lee’s torso from the rest of the statue to allow transport by flatbed truck. The mood among the public was largely upbeat.

“It’s powerful for one day to dig in and celebrate, but you have to remember it’s just symbolic and it really doesn’t change anything about our lives. So we have to make real change,” Richmond resident Emily Gaidowski told The Virginia Star.

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Documents from FBI Investigation Include Name of Dayton Mayor; She Was Cleared

Mayor Nan Whaley

The Democrat Mayor of Dayton, also a gubernatorial candidate, was implicated in a bribery scheme for which four people went to jail, all stemming from an FBI investigation in 2013-2014. 

“In the documents, the agents told the judge that a controller for demolition company Steve Rauch Inc. — which pleaded guilty last year to a charge of conspiracy to engage in mail fraud regarding subcontracting work — said in recorded phone calls with another company official that Whaley accepted cash bribes from Rauch on multiple occasions,” according to a report in The Ohio Capital Journal. 

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Davidson County Council Endorses Indoor Mask Mandate

The Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee voted on Tuesday evening to urge the Metropolitan Public Health Department’s (MPHD) Chief Medical Director Gill Wright to reinstate a citywide mask mandate for public indoor spaces.

Councilpersons Joy Styles (District 32), Burkley Allen (At-Large), Jennifer Gamble (District 3), Sharon Hurt (At-Large) and Sandra Sepulveda (District 30) sponsored the resolution, which passed with 21 councilpersons in favor, nine opposed and five abstaining.

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