Day: September 24, 2021

Arizona Attorney General Signals Readiness to Investigate Election Irregularities Uncovered Audit

Admin
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich declared Friday he would take “all necessary actions” to investigate any irregularities uncovered by a state Senate-order audit of the November 2020 election in his state.

His comments on Twitter came as leaked copies of the draft audit flagged tens of thousands of ballots cast in the last election as suspect and requiring more investigation.

The drafts recommended the Republican attorney general take the lead investigating many of the issues, including a possible canvas of voters flagged as having problems.

Read the full story

Gov. Lee Announces ‘Promising Results’ from K-8 Summer School Because of Law Passed in January 2021 Education Special Session

Cooper Moran
Students in class, listening to the teacher at the front of the room

Governor Bill Lee announced on Wednesday that results from policies passed during the January 2021 special legislative session have provided “encouraging data.”

According to Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, the Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act allowed students across the state to attend summer programs with the goal of mitigating the setbacks produced during remote learning.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Council Member Allegedly Trying to Change Zoning of a Property Against Owners’ Wishes

Chris Butler

Metro Nashville Council Member Dave Rosenberg is allegedly trying to change the zoning of a property to hurt the property owners, with whom he allegedly has stark political differences. One of the property owners, Nashville businessman Crom Carmichael, said the property involves an abandoned rock quarry on McCrory Lane. Carmichael said he and Nashville investor Townes Duncan have owned the property for roughly 15 years.

Read the full story

Commentary: Little Outcry over Antifa’s Equal-Opportunity Beatdowns of Journalists Left and Right

RealClearWire

From covering displaced refugees around the globe to the obstacles faced by protesters seeking change in America, freelance photojournalist Maranie Staab believes her camera can be a force for truth and social justice. The work of a “conflict photographer” often requires physical courage in places she has reported from, such as Africa and the Middle East. It certainly did so on Aug. 22, while Staab was covering demonstrations in Portland, Ore.

Members of the left-wing group antifa called her a “slut” and then demanded that journalists assembled to cover the protests “get the f— out.” Staab, a 2020 reporting fellow for the liberal Pulitzer Center, tried to calm the situation. She was assaulted. She told the Willamette Week that they grabbed her phone and smashed it. Then they threw her to the pavement and sprayed her with mace. The ugly assault on Staab (below) was filmed and distributed quickly online, resulting in widespread condemnation.  “If we’re on a public street and a newsworthy event is occurring, you’re not going to tell me what I can and cannot film,” Staab told the weekly newspaper.

Read the full story

Rep. Scott DesJarlais Leads Republican Letter Questioning Biden Restriction of Coronavirus Antibody Treatments

Cooper Moran

Representative Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) led an effort by 55 Republican lawmakers to demand answers on why the Biden administration moved to limit potentially life-saving coronavirus antibody treatments.

The letter, also signed by Reps. Mark Green (R-TN-07) and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01), specifically asks why the action by the Department of Health and Human Services targets Republican-led states.

Read the full story

Cost of College Textbooks in Tennessee Nearly Equal to One Additional Semester in School, Study Finds

Chris Butler

Tennessee Comptrollers released a report Thursday that addressed what they said was the rising costs of college textbooks in the state. “Although the cost of course materials is only one component of the cost of a postsecondary education, by the time a student obtains a degree, the total spent on course materials can equal the cost of an additional semester of tuition at some four-year institutions. The report discusses initiatives among the state’s higher education institutions to make college course materials more affordable,” according to a press release that the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability emailed Thursday.

Read the full story

Jobless Claims Increase to 351,000 as Economic Recovery Slows

Admin
Unemployment sign

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased to 351,000 last week as the economy continues to slowly recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics figure released Thursday represents an increase in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Sept. 11, when 335,000 new jobless claims were reported. That figure was revised up from the 332,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.

Read the full story

Catholic Vote President: Government Has ‘No Authority’ to Tell Americans ‘What They Can or Cannot Believe’

Admin

The federal government has “no authority” to tell Americans “what they can or cannot believe” when it comes to religious exemptions to vaccinations, the president of non-profit political advocacy group CatholicVote.org told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Thousands of Americans are seeking religious exemptions to vaccine mandates, citing reports that some of the vaccines were developed using aborted fetal cell lines, but pressure from activists, commentators and mandate-minded lawmakers suggests that the religious objections may face more serious inquisition in the coming weeks.

Read the full story

‘Overdose Crisis’: Methamphetamine-Related Deaths Nearly Tripled from 2015 to 2019

Admin

U.S. methamphetamine-related deaths in adults between the ages of 18 to 64 nearly tripled from 2015 to 2019, according to a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

The study found that the number of psychostimulant-related overdoses increased from 5,526 to 15,489, a roughly 180% jump, between 2015 and 2019. The number of people who said they used methamphetamine increased 43% over the same years.

Read the full story

Construction Industry Experiences Slowdown as Labor, Supply Shortages Wreak Havoc

Admin
Contractor

The construction industry is struggling to recover from the pandemic due to difficulties hiring workers and severe supply chain shortfalls, a report found.

Construction contractors project revenue to remain stagnant and below pre-pandemic levels over the next 12 months even as the economy-wide recovery continues, according to the report published Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. While the Commerce Commercial Construction Index (CCI), which the Chamber measures on a quarterly basis, ticked up one point, it remained eight points below its early 2020 figure.

Read the full story

Republicans Press White House for Public Account of Military Equipment Lost to the Taliban

Admin

Twenty House Republicans signed a letter to President Joe Biden Thursday demanding a public account of the military equipment lost in Afghanistan and the risks that it poses to the U.S., its allies and its interests.

The letter, led by North Carolina Rep. Ted Budd and obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation, also laments the lack of public reports detailing how tax dollars were spent in the country throughout the two-decade war. Other signees included Reps. Brian Mast of Florida, Jody Hice of Georgia and Michelle Steel and Young Kim of California.

Read the full story

Soros-Funded Group Sends Letter to FCC Calling for Murder of Republicans

Admin

A far-left group funded by radical billionaire George Soros submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling for Republicans to be murdered, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The group in question is Free Press, which is funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundation, as well as the Center for American Progress, the Tides Foundation, and other far-left organizations. Free Press, whose stated goal is to “reshape media” in the United States, submitted a letter signed by almost 5,000 of its members baselessly accusing the FCC of systemic racism.

Read the full story

Report: 1 in 5 Americans Say They Drank Heavily During Pandemic

Admin

A new study found that one in five Americans drank “heavily” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The online survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of biopharmaceutical company Alkermes found that 17% of respondents reported “heavy drinking” in the last 30 days. The survey also showed that at least 13% of respondents underwent treatment for their drinking patterns.

Read the full story

Facebook Reveals How It Decides What Content to Suppress

Admin
Person looking on Facebook with trending topics

Facebook released its updated Content Distribution Guidelines on Thursday, shedding more light on how the tech giant decides what content it suppresses.

While Facebook has previously provided some details on the types of content that receive reduced distribution in Facebook’s News Feed, the updated guidelines are designed to provide clarity and accessibility, Director of Product Management Anna Stepanov announced in a blog post Thursday.

Read the full story

Arizona Charter Schools Add Thousands of New Students Amid COVID-19 Closures

The Center Square

Arizona’s charter schools experienced a rush of new applications amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a compilation of state-by-state data on charter school enrollment compared with enrollment in the 2019-2020 school year. It found nearly 240,000 new students enrolled in charter schools nationally, a 7% increase from the prior year.

Read the full story

Fifty Georgia Professors to Mandate Masks in Classrooms, Bucking University System

Peter D'Abrosca

Fifty University of Georgia science professors have banded together and said they will mandate masks in their classrooms, despite the fact that the University System of Georgia (USG) says students do not have to wear masks. 

“We are deeply devoted to the education and well-being of all members of the University community and feel obligated to protect our students and fellow employees from the unnecessary dangers associated with inappropriate public health planning and messages,” the professors reportedly wrote in a letter to administrators. 

Read the full story

Two Afghan Refugees at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin Face Sexual Assault and Abuse Charges

Hayley Feland

Two Afghan refugees staying at Fort McCoy have been charged in separate incidents involving sexual assault of a minor and abuse. A grand jury charged Afghan refugees Bahrullah Noori and Mohammad Haroon Imaad on Thursday. Noori, 20, was charged with three counts of sexual assault of a minor, with one count of use of force. According to the indictment, the girls he assaulted at Fort McCoy “had not attained the age of 16 years and were at least four years younger than the defendant.”

Read the full story

Georgia’s Pension Shortfall Ranks 19th in the Country

The Center Square

In much of the country, public pension funding has been one of the most persistent public policy problems. For years, many state governments have failed to make necessary investments in their retirement system, resulting in funding gaps that increasingly present a looming reckoning for taxpayers.

According to a recent report published by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a public policy think tank, many states are now taking earnest measures to reduce their pension funding gap. These measures include increased contributions, cost reduction strategies, and more sophisticated pension management tools. States have also benefited from once-in-a-generation investment returns following the COVID-19 market crash in March 2020.

Read the full story

Virginia Redistricting Commission Running Out of Time to Complete General Assembly Maps

Eric Burk
Capitol of the Commonwealth of Virginia

The Virginia Redistricting Commission is scrambling to find more time to finalize General Assembly draft maps ahead of a series of public hearings on October 4-7. On Monday, the commission saw separate sets of draft maps proposed by the two partisan map-drawing teams. On Thursday, they saw a consensus of four Senate district maps from southwest Virginia where both teams’ proposed districts had more than 90 percent of the population in common. But Thursday’s meeting was largely occupied by debates over when to provide political data to map drawers, and about creating additional instructions about creating districts where minorities can control the vote.

As a result, with just three meetings currently scheduled before public hearings, the commission has only considered how to blend the two partisan proposals in the four easiest districts from the Senate, and has not considered how to handle the partisan House proposals.

“We need more time,” Co-chair Mackenzie Babichenko (R) said. “I think we’re going to want more time if we’re going to go through and look at all these decisions.”

Read the full story

Florida Governor DeSantis Bypasses Biden Administration, Acquires Monoclonal Antibodies Directly from GlaxoSmithKline

Cooper Moran

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday that the state of Florida purchased thousands of monoclonal antibody treatments directly from GlaxoSmithKline, a producer of the treatment.

The move by DeSantis bypasses a restriction placed by President Joe Biden’s administration, allowing the federal government to dictate allocations to each state and leave it to state leaders to ration it out among locations.

Read the full story

Phoenix Hospital Worker Says Adverse Effects of COVID-19 Vaccine Aren’t Being Reported

Rachel Alexander

The investigative media organization Project Veritas released video secretly recorded by a Phoenix hospital worker of her co-workers discussing how there is a cover-up going on hiding the adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccine. Jodi O’Malley, who works as an RN at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, was so horrified at what she saw that she felt an obligation to go public, risking her job.

O’Malley told James O’Keefe, the head of Project Veritas, “This is evil at the highest level. You have the FDA, you have the CDC, that are both supposed to be protecting us, but they are under the government, and everything that we’ve done so far is unscientific.”

Read the full story

The Virginia Citizens Defense League is Pressuring the Petersburg City Council over a New Gun Ban on City Property

Eric Burk

The Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) is calling for a pressure campaign on the members of the Petersburg City Council after the council approved a gun ban on city property similar to bans enacted in other localities.

“Petersburg slipped through local gun-control a few days ago and we (and almost everyone else, including the Petersburg police) just learned about it yesterday,” a VCDL alert said.

Read the full story

Florida to Appeal Federal Judge’s Ruling Declaring ‘Sanctuary City’ Ban Unconstitutional

Admin

Florida will appeal a federal judge’s injunction prohibiting the state from enforcing its two-year-old “sanctuary cities” ban.

U.S. Southern District of Florida Judge Beth Bloom Tuesday released a 110-page ruling declaring portions 2019’s Senate Bill 168 are unconstitutional and that the measure was adopted by the state’s Republican-dominated Legislative with “discriminatory motives.”

Read the full story

Ohio Gov. DeWine Primary Challenger Jim Renacci Slams New ‘Vax-to-School’ Initiative

Cooper Moran

Former GOP congressman Jim Renacci, who is challenging Governor Mike DeWine in 2022, on Thursday slammed a new vaccine initiative announced by DeWine, dubbed “Ohio Vax-to-School.”

The new program will award dozens of scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 in a lottery-style giveaway to individuals aged 12-25 who receive the coronavirus vaccine.

Read the full story

Sumner County School Board Passes Resolution to Ask State for Flexibility Concerning COVID-19

Kaitlin Housler

On Tuesday, the Sumner County School Board passed resolutions regarding COVID-19 in their district. The resolution will now go to state lawmakers asking them not to require a waiver to have 180 school days if they have to shut down over coronavirus cases and dip into snow days. The school board is also asking the state for more flexibility when it comes to remote and hybrid learning.

Read the full story

Florida Lawmaker Files Abortion Bill Titled the ‘Florida Heartbeat Act’

Casey Owens

Florida House Representative, Webster Barnaby of Deltona, filed an abortion bill (HB 167) Wednesday, titled the “Florida Heartbeat Act” that, like Texas, would ban most abortions in the state, and allow lawsuits against doctors that violate the law.

The bill would require a physician to conduct tests for, and inform a woman seeking an abortion of, the presence of a detectable fetal heartbeat. If a heartbeat is present, the bill “prohibits a physician from knowingly performing or inducing an abortion, if the physician detects a fetal heartbeat for an unborn child, or fails to conduct a test to detect a fetal heartbeat.”

Read the full story

Brother of Minneapolis City Council Member in ‘Critical Condition’ Following Stabbing Incident

Hayley Feland

The brother of Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman is in critical condition following a stabbing incident in Minneapolis. In a Facebook post, Osman said that his brother is currently in the ICU. Osman said, “Yesterday afternoon my brother Liban was brutally attacked. He was stabbed in the head multiple times. After hours of surgery yesterday he is in the ICU currently and in critical condition.”

Read the full story

Florida Judge Issues Temporary Injunction Against Gainesville Vaccine Mandate

Grant Holcomb

Judge Monica Brasington of the 8th Judicial Circuit Court has issued a temporary injunction against the City of Gainesville’s COVID vaccine mandate. The decision indicates a slight, early victory for employees who are seeking to not receive the vaccine.

Brasington said in her ruling that the city did not provide ample evidence showing a vaccine mandate serves “a compelling interest through the least restrictive means.” She also said the city bears the burden of proof to determine that the mandate is in the best interest of the public.

Read the full story

Michigan’s $70B 2022 Budget Stuffed with $146 Million in ‘Pork’

The Center Square

Michigan’s $70 billion budget for fiscal year 2022 increases government spending by 11.5% from last year’s $62.8 billion budget. The increased spending includes one-time funds from federal stimulus packages, raising concerns Michigan can’t sustain current spending without hiking taxes or slashing services.

Once government federal stimulus money runs dry, the government must either raise taxes or reduce services to continue paying for programs that were once considered not essential.

Read the full story

Virginia State Corporation Commission Staff Report: Dominion Energy Should Pay Customers $312.4 Million Refund

Eric Burk

As testimony in an ongoing review of Dominion Energy, a State Corporation Commission (SCC) staff report recommends a $312.4 million refund to the utility’s Virginia customers after finding that the utility’s earnings exceeded a regulatory threshold by $1.143 billion in 2017 through 2020.

“Staff’s analysis indicates the Company earned a 13.61 percent ROE [Return on Equity] during the 2017 through 2020 earnings test period. This is 441 basis points of earnings, or $1.143 billion of revenues, above the applicable fair combined ROE of 9.2 percent,” SCC Division of Utility Accounting and Finance Deputy Director Patrick Carr wrote in the report.

Read the full story

Critical Race Theory Debate Heating Up in Ohio General Assembly

The Center Square
Ohio State House

School districts, teachers unions, student groups and parents lined up at the Ohio House to testify against two bills that would stop schools from teaching what sponsors called “divisive concepts” in the classroom.

The House State and Local Government Committee heard more than three hours of testimony Wednesday during the third hearing for both House Bill 322 and House Bill 327. Each prohibits teaching concepts that are part of the nationwide critical race theory movement critics say purports the U.S. is a fundamentally racist country.

Read the full story

Shawn Parker Commentary: Capitalism Gives People More Options Than Socialism

Admin

The Columbus Dispatch published a number of Letters to the Editor Thursday that were referencing the cost of crackers at the local grocery store in response to the question of the week “is capitalism or socialism responsible for a box of crackers costing $4.29 at the shelf? Every letter the paper published was from a writer (as far away as Cleveland- which in itself is surprising) lauding the merit of socialism as being able to offer everyone a box of crackers at the rate of $1.29.

Read the full story

Pennsylvania County Commissioners’ Group Opposes Live-Streaming of Mail-In Vote Counting

Bradley Vasoli

Bipartisan enthusiasm for election-reform legislation appeared solid at a Pennsylvania Senate State Government Committee hearing on Thursday, save for one part: video live-streaming of mail-in-ballot counting.

Elements of the bill, sponsored by Sen. David Argall (R-PA-Pottsville) and Sen. Sharif Street (D-PA-Philadelphia), have arisen largely from recommendations in a June 2021 report by the Senate Special Committee on Election Integrity and Reform. Argall and Street’s proposal excludes some of the ad hoc panel’s more contentious ideas, particularly enhanced voter-identification rules, which Rep. Seth Grove (R-PA-York) is spearheading in separate legislation. (While Gov. Tom Wolf [D] vetoed Grove’s bill in June, the representative has reintroduced it in light of the governor’s subsequent remarks in favor of a strengthened voter-ID requirement.)

Read the full story