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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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On Wednesday, Rev. Dr. Donna Whitney, Pastoral Assistant at Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville and retired Physician, spoke out against the Tennessee state’s decision to prioritize monoclonal antibody treatment for those most likely to be hospitalized rather than for whoever is in need of the treatment.
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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.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Editor and Publisher of the New England Review Press, Rebecca Bynam in studio to talk about the world of publishing, controversy, and new book The Quran Speaks.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to weigh in on the distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments and free-market pharmaceutical companies.
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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.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who earned a reputation for imposing extremely strict COVID-19 restrictions, will now sign a bill that bans mask mandates and vaccine passports.
The measures are part of the state’s $70 billion budget bill, which clocks in at 1,000 pages.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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On Wednesday, some Middle Tennessee students gathered together and began their morning in prayer. Wednesday marked 2021’s “See You At The Pole” (SYATP) Day in which students unite in prayer near the flagpoles at their schools around the United States and the world.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) affirmed their support for teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Florida’s public K-12 schools. The conference adopted Resolution 68 entitled “In Support of Critical Race Theory in Public K-12 Education.”
The resolution included language supporting the “basic tenents of CRT.”
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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.
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Staff for U.S. Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) said Thursday he will not run for the United States Senate to replace incumbent U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA). Carter will instead support Herschel Walker, a Republican, to run against and then replace Warnock.
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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.)
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A new poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group shows Republican James Craig leading Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer in a potential general election contest.
The survey, released on Tuesday, demonstrated the former Detroit police chief leading Whitmer 50 percent to 44 percent, a six point advantage.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson to the newsmakers line to weigh in on the confusion regarding monoclonal antibody treatment in Tennessee.
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On Thursday, 13 people were injured and 1 killed after a shooting broke out at a Memphis, Tennessee suburb grocery store. The shooting took place in the Kroger grocery store at 240 New Byhalia Road in Collierville, Tennessee.
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Despite opposition from progressive lawmakers, the Democratic-led House passed $1 billion of funding for Israel’s Iron Dome on Thursday with the help of Republican votes.
Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenhaur, the presiding officer, deemed the bill passed with a simple voice vote but a request was made for a recorded yes or no vote.
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Demand for a key COVID-19 treatment has led to a nationwide shortage, and as President Joe Biden’s administration rations how much each state receives, some governors are pushing back over having to decide how to use their limited supplies.
Many states are warning their residents that the treatment may not be available, and some are discussing offering it only to unvaccinated individuals. On Tuesday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, warned his states’ residents that there is “not going to be enough” of the treatment.
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According to data from the Tennessee Department of Education, the number of Tennessee school-aged children testing positive for COVID-19 the last 14 days has seen a significant drop in just 4 days.
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In January, 2001, America had a balanced budget, low debt, and was at peace. Here, briefly, is what lay ahead: war, financial crisis, civil unrest, massive growth of the federal government, and now severe inflation.
Never in the history of America has our government in its ineptitude created such a false economy, risking hundreds of years of hard work on unsound and unworkable economic policies. The Founders wisely relied on dispersion of power. They knew there would be dishonest and incompetent politicians but, in this case, the entire government is infected with deceptive leaders.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Tennessee State Representative Scott Cepicky to the newsmakers line to discuss monoclonal antibody guidelines, calling a special session, and circumventing the federal government.
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Gilead Sciences announced in a press release Wednesday that its COVID-19 drug remdesivir reduces hospitalizations by 87% in high-risk patients.
The study consisted of 562 patients who were randomly given either remdesivir to a placebo. The company said that it saw an 87% reduction in hospitalizations after day 28, according to the press release. The trial was supposed to have over 1,000 subjects but the Gilead halted enrollment after other COVID-19 drugs became readily available.
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During a Senate hearing Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed the Biden Administration’s border policies are “working,” and have led to a drop of encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mayorkas was responding to Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who was grilling the DHS chief about the ongoing surge of illegal immigrants at the border during a Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on “Threats to the Homeland.”
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While Americans know that guns take many innocent lives every year, many don’t know that firearms also save them.
On May 15, an attacker at an apartment complex in Fort Smith, Ark., fatally shot a woman and then fired 93 rounds at other people before a man killed him with a bolt-action rifle. Police said he “likely saved a number of lives in the process.”
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Federal law enforcement agencies are purchasing surveillance drones from a Chinese company the Pentagon has said could pose a threat to national security, Axios reported.
The U.S. Secret Service purchased eight surveillance drones from Da Jiang Innovations (DJI), a company based in Shenzhen, China, in July, according to procurement records obtained by the industry publication IPVM and shared with Axios. The FBI had already bought 19 DJI drones days prior to the Secret Service’s purchase.
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On Monday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R-TN) invited Tennesseans to “Rate the Plates” and help choose the state’s next standard license plate by selecting their favorite design at tn.gov/ratetheplates.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to weigh in on the Biden administration’s attempt at controlling the origins of the monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19.
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Amazon, Facebook, Pfizer and 30 other major U.S. corporations have joined a coalition seeking to provide jobs and opportunities to Afghan refugees.
The companies announced that they would partner with the non-profit organization Tent Partnership for Refugees, a network of nearly 200 global businesses working to provide refugees with jobs worldwide, according to the announcement Tuesday. The coalition plans to help the refugees, who are fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, permanently resettle in the U.S. through economic integration.
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Scientists believe they have found physical evidence that an exploding space rock could have inspired one of the most infamous stories in the Bible, archaeologist Christopher R. Moore wrote, Yahoo News reported.
Scientists may have found proof of an icy space rock hurtling through the atmosphere at about 38,000 mph toward the ancient Biblical city Sodom, now called Tall el-Hammam, roughly 3,600 years ago, Moore wrote. The Bible describes the destruction of an urban center near the Dead Sea, with stones and fire falling from the sky.
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When the heads of the DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections announced that effective September 9, 2021, Erica Hamilton is on an extended leave of absence from her role as Director of DeKalb County Registration and Elections, noticeably missing from the statement was whether Hamilton’s leave was related to her job performance and whether the leave was paid or unpaid.
The joint statement, issued by DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith and Vice-Chair Nancy Jester, came just 6 business days after The Georgia Star News reported that 43,000 absentee ballots deposited into DeKalb County drop boxes were counted during the November 2020 election, despite violating a chain of custody rule.
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On Tuesday during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) questioned Big Tech’s invasive practices.
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