Month: September 2021

Former Arizona Sheriff Arpaio ‘Strongly Considering’ Running for Mayor of Fountain Hills

Rachel Alexander

Nationally renowned former Sheriff Joe Arpaio told The Arizona Sun Times that he is “strongly considering” running for mayor in his town of Fountain Hills, located in the greater Phoenix Valley. He was defeated for reelection as Maricopa County Sheriff in 2016, when billionaire George Soros poured $2 million into the race. Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, contributed a quarter of a million dollars.

Arpaio said he wants to elevate the profile of mayors in society, just like he elevated the profile of sheriffs by becoming the most well-known sheriff in the country in the modern era. He has lived in Fountain Hills for 21 years, and has ties to the town going back 30 years due to serving as Maricopa County Sheriff and head of the Drug Enforcement Agency for Arizona. One of his goals is to attract a significant business to move to the town. The town of about 25,000 is an affluent, Republican-leaning community.

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Thousands of Public Workers Seek Vaccine Exemptions in Washington

The Center Square
Doctor with mask on holding COVID-19 Vaccine

Some 4,800 state employees in Washington have already requested medical or religious exemptions from Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

According to information released this week by the state, those requests amount to nearly 8% of the 60,000 state workers who fall under Inslee’s 24 cabinet departments. As of Sept. 6, less than 50% of all employees in those agencies were verified as being fully vaccinated.

Inslee last month issued an executive order that all state employees, as well as K-12 and state university staff, must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or face dismissal.

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Study: Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Spending Bill with Tax Increases Would Cause Economic Decline

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House Democrats have unveiled a litany of new tax proposals to fund President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion federal spending bill, but a new report suggests the spending plan would shrink the economy.

The University of Pennsylvania’s business school, Penn Wharton, released a new budget model based on the Democrats’ plan that projects a major decrease in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the coming years if the plan were to pass.

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Facebook Will Fund Fact-Checkers Fighting ‘Climate Misinformation’

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Facebook announced a grant program Thursday to fund fact-checking groups combating the spread of “climate misinformation.”

The program is designed to provide Facebook users with accurate and reliable information on topics related to climate change, such as sea levels and global warming, Facebook announced. The company said it launched the initiative partly in response to an August report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that highlighted the negative impact humans have on the environment.

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Florida Sen. Brandes Files Civics Education Bill

Grant Holcomb
Jeff Brandes

Florida State Sen. Jeff Brandes (R-FL-24) filed a bill this week for the 2022 legislative session similar to a bill he previously filed during 2021’s session. The bill will seek to expand civics-education which would instruct high school students on how to engage as an educated citizen.

Students will be able to seek internships with governmental agencies or entities and would establish a “Citizen Scholar Program” at the University of South Florida’s St. Petersburg campus.

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Georgia Attorney General Warns Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Mandates Could Unleash ‘Severe Consequences’

Chris Butler

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and 23 other attorneys general said this week that federal agencies shouldn’t force private sector employees to choose between either a COVID-19 shot or a weekly COVID-19 test. Carr and the other attorneys general voiced their concerns in a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden. Biden wants officials with the U.S. Department of Labor and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to force private sector employees to guard themselves against COVID-19 — or else lose they will lose their jobs.

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Wisconsin Senator Johnson Asks for Answers Regarding Natural Immunity from COVID

Hayley Feland

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), wrote a letter to Dr. Anthony Fauci demanding answers regarding natural immunity from COVID. The letter was also addressed to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Dr. Janet Woodcock, Acting Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Johnson wrote, “As President Biden revealingly declared, the vaccine mandate ‘is not about freedom or personal choice.’ This administration’s decision to disregard the effectiveness of natural immunity and demand vaccination ignores current data and is an assault on all Americans’ civil liberties.”

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Georgia Doctor Recommends COVID Vaccine, But Not Boosters

Peter D'Abrosca

One Georgia doctor is taking a common sense approach to COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, which could be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a matter of days. 

Dr. Cecil Bennett of Newnan Family Medicine in Newnan, Georgia, says he recommends that all of his patients take the COVID-19 vaccine. He will not, however, recommend booster shots for patients who have taken the vaccine and still have immunity from the virus, unless they are immunocompromised. 

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Michigan Leaders Announce Budget Deal with Few Details

The Center Square
Gov. Grethcen Whitmer announces that Michigan received a $10 million grant to support the state’s registered apprenticeship expansion efforts and increase employment opportunities for Michiganders.

The GOP-led Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer struck a budget deal to avoid a government shutdown before the next fiscal year.

Budget officials welcomed the deal.

“The last year and a half has been hard on all of our families and communities. Addressing their needs – from jobs to education to government accountability – is at the center of today’s budget deal,” Senate Appropriations Chair Jim Stamas, R-Midland, said in a statement. “By working together our divided Michigan government has shown what can be accomplished when Michigan families are put first. Michigan families are counting on us to invest in them. This budget does that by laying the groundwork for a healthy economy for Michigan’s future. I thank House Appropriations Chair Thomas Albert, Budget Director David Massaron, and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their collaboration.”

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Cincinnati Border Patrol Confiscates Fake COVID Vaccination Cards

Peter D'Abrosca
Vaccination card

Just a month after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Memphis, Tennessee announced that it had confiscated thousands of counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards, CBP officials in Cincinnati made a similar bust. 

“Since August 16, Cincinnati officers have seized five shipments containing a total of 1,683 counterfeit COVID-19 vaccination cards and 2,034 fake Pfizer inoculation stickers,” a CBP press release said. 

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Ohio Redistricting Commission Fails to Produce 10-Year Map

The Center Square
Vernon Sykes

Republicans blamed the federal government and Democrats blamed Republicans after the Ohio Redistricting Commission failed to pass a new state legislative boundary map that would last for a decade.

Instead, the commission passed a four-year map with the group’s two Democrats voting “no” after long hours of negotiations and recesses Wednesday, the constitutional deadline to pass new maps.

The 5-2 party line vote came early Thursday morning shortly after the 11:59 p.m. Wednesday deadline. The approved map likely preserves the Republicans’ veto-proof majority in the Senate and House.

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Florida Gov. DeSantis Sends Fundraising Email in Response to Biden Administration Handling of Monoclonal Antibody Treatments

Casey Owens
Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at a conference on the COVID-19 antibody treatments

After his administration bashed President Biden for cutting the supply of monoclonal antibody treatments (mAB’s) being sent to Florida, DeSantis sent a mass email to his supporters Thursday night to encourage them to help “fight back” by way of donation.

The email comes hours after data analyst for the Governor’s Office, Kyle Lamb, tweeted a statement from DeSantis that said, “‘We’re going to work like hell to overcome the restrictions and obstacles the HHS and Biden administration have put on us (with mABs distribution).'”

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Florida Cabinet Considering Land Deals

Grant Holcomb

The Florida Cabinet, comprised of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, are considering selling a tract of land in Miami-Dade County while buying and preserving land in Northeast Florida.

The South Florida land considering being sold is 82 acres located north of Hialeah to a private developer. The land is listed for over $12 million and the stipulations for the transaction would be the requirement of the land to provide at least 5,000 jobs over the next 10 years.

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Virginia Beach Couple Sentenced in $31.8 Million Counterfeit Coupon Fraud Scheme

Eric Burk

A Virginia Beach couple has been sentenced to years in prison for their $31.8 million counterfeit coupon fraud scheme, the U.S. Eastern District of Virginia Attorney’s Office (USAO-EDVA) announced Tuesday.

“These two defendants have been sentenced and held accountable for operating one of the largest coupon fraud schemes ever discovered in the United States, resulting in over $31 million in losses to victims across the country,” USAO-EDVA Acting U.S. Attorney Raj Parekh said.

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Tennessee Attorney General Blasts Biden Administration over COVID Vaccine Mandate

Peter D'Abrosca

Tennessee’s Attorney General this week sent a letter to the Biden Administration challenging the legality of the the forty-sixth President’s recent COVID-19 vaccine mandate. 

“I would encourage everyone eligible, in consultation with a doctor, to get a COVID vaccination,” Attorney General Herbert Slatery III said in a statement. “It is one effective way out of this pandemic. However, this vaccine-or-test mandate appears to be an unprecedented expansion of federal power and fails to consider the steps individuals, employers, and our state have already made.”

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Former President Trump Sends Letter to Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger Asking to Investigate Report of DeKalb County Chain of Custody Violations; ‘If True Start the Process of Decertifying’

Cooper Moran

Former President Donald Trump sent a letter on Friday to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, asking the top election official to investigate potential threats to the state’s election integrity.

In the letter to Raffensperger, Trump cited a report from The Georgia Star News, which detailed that 43,000 absentee ballot votes counted in DeKalb County, Georgia 2020 election potentially violated chain of custody rule.

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U.S. Military Admits Killing 10 Civilians, Targeting Wrong Vehicle in Kabul Drone Strike, Reports

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AU.S. military investigation into a deadly drone strike last month in Kabul found the attack killed 10 civilians and that the targeted driver and vehicle were likely not a threat associated with the ISIS-K terror group, according to several news reports Friday.

The Pentagon had previously said at least one ISIS-K facilitator and three civilians were killed in what Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley had previously called a “righteous strike” on the compound on Aug 29, according to CNN.

The investigation released Friday found everybody killed in the residential compound were civilians, following weeks of speculation about a possible failed drone strike.

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Angry Tennessee Residents, Burdened by COVID-19 Policies, Rally for Special Legislative Session, Without Delay

Chris Butler

NASHVILLE — Hundreds of Tennesseans said their displeasure with COVID-19 mandates has intensified and it’s time for Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) to relent and allow a special legislative session so the state can fight back. Those angry residents, along with several state legislators, rallied at Beth Harwell Plaza, near the state capitol, on Thursday.

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Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty Joins Bill to Keep Children and Families Safe from Lead Hazards

Kaitlin Housler

On Wednesday, Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) joined Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in introducing the Keep Children and Families Safe From Lead Hazards Act. The bill which would direct the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to identify and remediate risk exposure to lead hazards, including lead wall paint and lead drinking water service lines, in Section 8 housing programs.

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Jobless Claims Tick Up to 332,000, Remain Near Pandemic Low

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Photo “Unemployment Insurance Claims Office” by Bytemarks. CC BY 2.0.

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased to 332,000 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. 4, when 312,000 new jobless claims were reported. That figure was revised slightly up from the 310,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.

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Sen. Josh Hawley Accuses Google of ‘Targeting Pregnancy Resources,’ Pro-Life Orgs ‘for Disfavor’

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Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called on Google Wednesday to explain its recent censorship of pro-life ads.

In a letter addressed to Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, Hawley called on Google to explain why ads placed by the pro-life organizations Live Action and Choose Life Marketing had been “seemingly censored.”

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Commentary: Nobody Is Coming to Save California

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In the end, it wasn’t really even close.

California Governor Gavin Newsom easily survived his recall election on Tuesday, with voters rejecting his ouster by nearly two-to-one. The results won’t be official until next month, but as of now, the “no recall” vote leads by a resounding 27 percentage points. By any account, it was a big win for the third-rate politician who is utterly incapable of making a public statement without resorting to platitudes and clichés.

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Columbia University Promotes ‘Students Exploring Whiteness’ Program to ‘Critically Engage with Whiteness’

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Columbia University’s official Instagram account promoted a post on its story calling on students to get involved in a school program where they can “critically engage with whiteness.”

The university’s Office of Multicultural Affairs first posted the photo and caption on Instagram to promote its Students Exploring Whiteness program.

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National Constitution Bee Executive Director Claudia Henneberry Talks Bee Experience and Surprises

Julie Carr

  Live from Music Row Thursday 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 welcomed Executive Director of The National Constitution Bee Claudia Henneberry in studio to highlight the experience participants can look forward to at this year’s Bee on October 23rd.  Leahy: This is one of my favorite segments of the radio ever, because finally, we have a full-time executive director of the National Constitution Bee. This will be our fifth year and it’s just such a great event. And Claudia, you’ve been doing this as a labor of love for the four previous years. And the amount of time you spend on this is just incredible. Tell people what this will be like. By the way, the winner gets $10,000 the educational scholarship they can use for college or for private school if they’re still in high school. Henneberry: It’s such a significant amount of money. Leahy: $10,000 will be awarded to the winner via a check that day. We give these checks away from the Star News Education Foundation that day. Second place, $5,000, 3rd place $2,500. Last year,…

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One Day After Resounding Recall Win, Newsom Says Leaders ’Shouldn’t Be Timid’ on COVID Prevention Measures

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that Democrats should take an even more aggressive approach in fighting the coronavirus pandemic, pointing to his recent recall election win as evidence that such a strategy was popular.

“We need to stiffen our spines and lean in to keeping people safe and healthy,” Newsom told CBS News in an interview. “We shouldn’t be timid in trying to protect people’s lives and mitigate the spread and transmission of this disease.”

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Some Companies and Business Groups Are Pushing Back Against Biden’s Vaccine Mandate

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Employers and business organizations are voicing their opposition to the vaccine mandate announced last week by President Joe Biden.

Biden ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to requite companies with more than 100 employees to make sure their workers are either vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested weekly for the virus. The mandates received a mixed reaction from companies and business groups, with some welcoming the new rules and others expressing their opposition.

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House Panel Rejects Drug Price Control Bill in Stunning Blow to Pelosi

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The House Committee on Energy and Commerce rejected a key drug pricing control bill in a stunning rebuke of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadership.

Democratic Reps. Kurt Schrader, Scott Peters and Kathleen Rice voted alongside their Republican colleagues on the panel, creating a 29-29 tie on the vote to pass the legislation during a committee hearing Wednesday. The hearing was held to mark up parts of Democrats’ sweeping $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package, the Build Back Better Act.

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Arizona Supreme Court to Hear Brnovich’s Lawsuit Against Arizona State University over Its Sweet Deal to Hotel Developers

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Supreme Court has agreed to accept an appeal from Arizona Attorney Mark Brnovich in his lawsuit against Arizona State University and the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) challenging a deal they made with hotel developers letting them use school property, which allows them to avoid property taxes.

Brnovich said shortly after filing the lawsuit, “ABOR shouldn’t be subsidizing out-of-state billionaires. Worst of all, ABOR is depriving K-12 schools and community colleges millions of dollars in property tax revenue that must be made up by other taxpayers by placing the hotel on property tax exempt land.”

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Youngkin Campaign Reacts to McAuliffe’s Massive Northam Flip-Flop

Peter D'Abrosca

Republican Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial campaign has responded to his Democrat opponent’s apparent change of heart about current Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D). 

Terry McAuliffe, the former head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who is running for his second non-consecutive term as governor of Virginia, once called on Northam to resign when a yearbook image of the Commonwealth’s governor wearing blackface or a Ku Klux Klan hood reemerged. 

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Oil Supply Losses from Hurricane Ida Reach 30 Million Barrels, Impacting Gas Prices

The Center Square

Hurricane Ida has already caused oil supply losses of 30 million barrels, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports, resulting in the first decline in global oil supply in five months.

Hurricane Ida shut in 1.7 million barrels per day of oil production in the Gulf at the end of August, “with potential supply losses from the storm approaching 30 mb. An uptrend in supply should resume in October as OPEC+ continues to unwind cuts, outages are resolved and as other producers increase,” the agency stated in its September Oil Market report.

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Ohio Gov. DeWine Says He Would Mandate Masks in Schools, Lawmakers Won’t Let Him

The Center Square

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he wants to impose a new mask mandate but feared a fight with the General Assembly after legislation that limited his authority to enact public health orders became law.

DeWine spoke Tuesday about the growing number of COVID-19 cases throughout the state at the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association. That group, made up of the six children’s hospitals, has spent the past two weeks pleading for vaccines and masks in schools.

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Wisconsin Representative Gallagher Introduces Bill Limiting Gain-of-Function Research

Hayley Feland

Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) introduced a bill that would limit gain-of-function research for five years by pausing taxpayer funding. Rep. Mike Gallagher, Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX-28) introduced bipartisan legislation that would “put a five-year freeze on taxpayer funding for gain-of-function research.”

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