Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs on Tuesday called out a Washington D.C.-based litigation non-profit, which is aligned with the Clinton family, for its involvement in a lawsuit to implement a mask mandate in Knox County Schools.
Democracy Forward, which has filed briefs in multiple lawsuits in Tennessee, has advocated against Governor Bill Lee’s mask mandate opt-out.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) met Monday morning to discuss the dangers of drug addiction and counterfeit medication. Director David Rausch said in the meeting, “let me be clear, if you’re buying pills on the street, in our state, you’re gambling.” Rausch gave a presentation showing examples of drugs like oxycodone, and compared them to the fake pills that people have been dying from. Most fake prescription pills contain fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. In 2017, fentanyl had attributed to 59 percent of drug overdose deaths. In 2019, Tennessee lost over two thousand people to drug overdoses, and of those over a thousand were fentanyl related.
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Commissioner Marie Williams said, “Our state doesn’t just have a counterfeit pill problem, or an opioid problem, or a methamphetamine problem, we have an addiction problem. Just like every other state in this country.”
Read the full story
Some will remember that comedy classic from 1961, “Divorce, Italian Style,” starring Marcello Mastroianni. Unfortunately, 60 years later, we seem to be moving toward, even living through, a far less funny, real-life “Communism, American Style.”
What is “Communism, American Style”? As yet one would think it bears little resemblance to the Soviet kind with its gulags and so forth.
Or does it?
On Oct. 6, the Los Angeles City Council proclaimed, nearly unanimously (11–2), COVID-19 mandates that require proof of vaccination to enter indoor restaurants, movie theaters, salons, shopping centers, and just about every other public indoor space you could think of in the entertainment capital.
Read the full story
Social media platform Parler on Tuesday announced that the company will move its headquarters from Nevada to Nashville, Tennessee.
The website, which is popular among conservatives, will follow a growing trend of businesses and conservative personalities moving to the Volunteer State.
Read the full story
Federal grand jurors in Knoxville this month returned a multi-count indictment against two Sevier County deputy clerks and charged them with accepting bribes. Those jurors charged Brandy M. Thornton, 44, and Roberta Lynne Webb Allen, 55, with two counts of taking cash payments in exchange for an official act.
Read the full story
NASHVILLE — A packed crowd turned out Tuesday night for The Daily Wire’s‘Backstage Live’ event at the Ryman Auditorium. The Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro joined Candace Owens, Jeremy Boreing, Michael Knowles, Matt Walsh, and Andrew Klavan as they discussed U.S. President Joe Biden and an assortment of other current news topics.
Read the full story
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Tuesday joined Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) and sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, expressing concern over Garland’s close connection to Critical Race Theory (CRT).
In the letter, the trio of lawmakers questioned Garland’s proximity to Panorama Education, a company that was co-founded by Garland’s son-in-law and works with schools to advance Critical Race Theory.
Read the full story
About 25% of critical infrastructure in the U.S., or 36,000 facilities, is at serious risk of being rendered inoperable as a result of flooding over the next three decades, according to an industry report released Monday.
American infrastructure such as police stations, airports, hospitals, wastewater treatment facilities, churches and schools were all considered in the analysis, according to First Street Foundation, the group that published the first-of-its-kind report. The U.S. is “ill-prepared” for a scenario where major flooding events become more commonplace, the report concluded.
Read the full story
Author and Senior Editor at The Federalist Mollie Hemingway held nothing back in her forthcoming book “RIGGED,” detailing the irregularities in the 2020 election.
One chapter of that book is titled “Zuckerberg Should Be in Jail,” referencing Facebook’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg.
Read the full story
The House on Tuesday voted to lift the debt ceiling by $480 billion, temporarily averting widespread economic calamity after weeks of partisan gridlock and sending the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk.
The House briefly interrupted its weeklong recess to pass a rule governing debate for three separate bills to which the ceiling raise was attached. It passed on a party-line vote given Republicans continuing opposition to lifting the ceiling.
Read the full story
The latest version of the iconic comic book hero Superman will be coming out as bisexual in an upcoming issue, according to CNN.
The Superman in question is actually not the original “Man of Steel,” Clark Kent, who has held the title for over 80 years, but is instead the son of Kent and his longtime love interest, reporter Lois Lane. In the upcoming fifth issue of the series “Superman: Son of Kal-El,” Jon Kent will start a relationship with a purple-haired male reporter named Jay Nakamura, thus revealing himself to be bisexual.
DC Comics, the creator of Superman, has marketed the upcoming issue with a rainbow logo reading “DC Pride.” Tom Taylor, a current writer for the series, released a statement saying that “Superman’s symbol has always stood for hope, for truth and for justice. Today, that symbol represents something more. Today, more people can see themselves in the most powerful superhero in comics.”
Read the full story
A new book by The Federalist editor and Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway details how 2020 Pennsylvania-election litigation by former President Donald Trump lost its focus on equal protection and got dismissed.
In Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, Hemingway credits Philadelphia attorney Linda Kerns with attempting to keep Trump’s lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania’s election results focused on Fourteenth-Amendment concerns. The author significantly blames Rudy Giuliani for causing the case to unravel by making superfluous arguments.
Read the full story
A Monroe County Sheriff’s officer found 32 migrants suspected of traveling to the U.S. from Cuba hiding in a boat after pulling a truck over for driving too slow in Marathon, Florida, law enforcement officials announced on Monday.
Sgt. Joel Slough conducted a routine traffic stop of a rental truck hauling a large boat and found four suspected migrants in the vehicle including three young children, according to the sheriff’s department. Law enforcement officials discovered two pregnant women and a 17-year-old along with dozens of other migrants hiding in the boat.
Read the full story
A government watchdog group demanded that the Department of the Interior Inspector General launch an investigation into whether President Joe Biden’s Senate-confirmed Bureau of Land Management director nominee violated the False Statement Act with statements she made to Congress about her involvement in a 1989 eco-terrorism case during her confirmation process.
Tracy Stone-Manning was confirmed to lead the agency along a party-line vote on Sept. 30 amid strong opposition from Republicans who accused her of lying to the Senate Energy Committee about her involvement in an eco-terrorism case. Stone-Manning testified in federal court in 1993 that she sent an anonymous, threatening letter to the Forest Service in 1989 on behalf of her former roommate and friend which warned that a local forest in Idaho had been sabotaged with tree spikes to make the trees unsafe to log.
Read the full story
Radical far-left activists publicly announced their plans to continue harassing Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) over her opposition to the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, this time with plans to follow her around at the Boston Marathon, Fox News reports.
The Green New Deal Network, an alliance of 15 far-left groups, issued a press release declaring their intent to follow and harass Sinema at the annual event on Monday, in an act known in politics as “bird-dogging.” The pressure from radical activists stems from Sinema’s refusal to support the “Build Back Better Bill,” an effort to shove through many far-left agenda items through the legislative process known as reconciliation; reconciliation, which is often reserved exclusively for budgetary matters, cannot be filibustered and thus only requires a narrow majority of 51 votes in order to pass.
Sinema, along with Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), has repeatedly refused to support a bill that costs as much as $3.5 trillion, instead advocating for a reduction in the overall cost.
Read the full story
NASHVILLE, Tennessee – While citizens spoke about issues related to election integrity before the State Election Commission at their regularly scheduled meeting Monday at the William R. Snodgrass Tower, commission members were defensive and dismissive of the citizens’ concerns and said that the issue of hand-marked paper ballots should be taken up with members of the Tennessee General Assembly.
There were about three dozen people in attendance at the meeting, not just from counties adjacent to Nashville such as Williamson and Rutherford, but as far as away as Cannon, Hamilton, Hardin and Putnam counties as well.
Read the full story
Every now and again, an otherwise arcane legal topic suddenly becomes relevant to contemporary political debate. At that point, general commentary suddenly becomes filled with newly minted experts with strong positions on what is typically a nuanced issue. Thus, at various points during the past decade, Twitter saw a flood of hitherto undisclosed connoisseurs on the intricacies of the Logan Act, a constitutionally problematic piece of legislation that emerged from the same 18th century administration that brought us the infamous Alien and Sedition Acts. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, some observers suddenly expressed deep-seated opinions on the Jones Act, a complex piece of maritime law most people had probably never heard of prior to 2017.
So it seems to be with Jacobson v. Massachusetts, the previously obscure 116-year-old precedent – it barely warrants a footnote in most constitutional law treatises – that people have taken to citing whenever anyone questions the legality or constitutionality of vaccine mandates in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But Jacobson is not some sort of argumentative checkmate. If the decision were actually taken to the lengths that some of its proponents suggest, it would be a truly terrifying ruling.
Although I drafted most of this article before encountering Josh Blackman’s excellent law review article on Jacobson (available here), I did rely on it for some of the procedural history of the case, as well as some of the cases from the pandemic that relied upon Jacobson. It is well worth a read for anyone else interested in learning more about the case.
Read the full story
In the past year, Congress has rushed more than $204 billion in federal emergency funds to states to support K-12 schools.
But 23 states had fewer incoming students this fall. This declining enrollment is likely in part due to pandemic-related trends but is also a symptom of changing birth rates and families geographically relocating.
Read the full story
The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecast for 2021 on Tuesday, citing supply chain disruptions and pandemic-related health concerns.
In the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook report, released Tuesday, the IMF’s economists share anticipations for global economic growth measuring 5.9% in 2021, a downgrade from their 6% projection in July.
Read the full story
The Department of Homeland Security issued a memorandum that will stop “mass” Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids of undocumented workers at job sites and instead target employers, the agency announced Tuesday.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to prosecute “employers who exploit the vulnerability of undocumented workers,” DHS Secretay Alejandro Mayorkas said in the memorandum. He added that the raids negatively impact workers who may already be subjected to low wages and unsafe working conditions.
Read the full story
Some of the world’s top emitters of methane haven’t signed a global effort to curb how much of the greenhouse gas is emitted by 2030.
The three countries – China, Russia and India – that produce the most methane emissions in the world haven’t signed onto the pact, which has been spearheaded by the U.S. and European Union ahead of a major United Nations climate conference. The nations that have signed the agreement represent nearly 30% of global methane emissions, the State Department said Monday.
The U.S. and EU unveiled the Global Methane Pledge on Sept. 18, which they said would be key in the global fight against climate change. The U.K., Italy, Mexico and Argentina were among the seven other countries that immediately signed the agreement last month.
Read the full story
After a battle over masks at Laramie High School in Wyoming ended with a 16-year-old student being arrested for trespassing at her own school, Harriet Hageman, a pro-Trump challenger to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY-01) issued a statement condemning mask mandates in schools.
Grace Smith was first suspended for two days from Laramie High School for refusing to wear a mask. After serving her suspension, she returned to school, again maskless. She then politely refused to leave school grounds, and was arrested by officers from the Laramie Police Department. The arrest even triggered a brief lockdown at the school.
Read the full story
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order late Monday prohibiting all COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the state of Texas.
“The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, and our best defense against the virus, but should always remain voluntary and never forced,” Abbott said in a tweet announcing the executive order.
Read the full story
It is probably an understatement to say that when one group designates another as a terrorist organization, diplomatic relations between the two become strained.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.”
Truths. Equal. Creator. Rights. Concerned parents want schools to teach truths, not ideologies; operate under equality, not equity; and respect faith in our Creator and our parental rights. These are the fundamental principles from our Declaration that are at stake in American education today.
Read the full story
Another former Facebook employee says she is willing to testify before Congress on the tech giant’s business practices.
Sophie Zhang is a former Facebook data scientist and whistleblower who, in September 2020, revealed “influence” operations perpetrated by “authoritarian regimes” that took place on Facebook. Zhang told CNN in an interview Sunday that she provided information regarding “potential criminal violations” by Facebook to a U.S. law enforcement agency at the time. Zhang also said that she is willing to testify before Congress about her allegations of criminal conduct by Facebook.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Grant Henry for another edition of Grant’s Rants calling for an equal balance of church and state, government and humanities.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Mayor Andy Ogles of Maury County in studio to discuss Texa’s vaccine executive order suggesting Tennessee should follow the template.
Read the full story
Georgia taxpayers spent more than $1.1 million so that state Department of Labor (DOL) employees could eat meals — free of charge to them — during a 15-month period. This, according to a new report from the Office of the State Inspector General (OIG).
Read the full story
Wisconsin’s Democrat Attorney General Josh Kaul said that the “fake election investigation” needs to be shut down. Kaul called the investigation by the Office of Special Counsel and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman a “partisan political effort” that lacks any credibility.
Read the full story
The e-commerce division of Amazon.com Inc. has committed to building a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in northeast Canton that will employ 1,000 full- and part-time workers when it opens in next year.
In choosing Canton, the company cited an exisiting trained workforce and a welcoming community.
Read the full story
What was the purpose for the insane opposition of the Left between 2017 and 2021? To usher in a planned nihilism, an incompetent chaos, a honed anarchy to wreck the country in less than a year?
No sooner had Donald Trump entered office than scores of House Democrats filed motions for impeachment, apparently for thought crimes that he might, some day, in theory, could possibly commit.
Read the full story
Charges will not be issued against the officers involved in the shooting of Winston Smith, county attorneys say. The incident that killed Smith was ruled a justified use of deadly force, calling the conduct of the U.S. Marshals involved in attempting to apprehend Smith “reasonable and justified.”
Read the full story
GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci on Tuesday slammed Governor Mike DeWine for his lack of action against COVID-19 mandates imposed by the federal government.
In the statement, Renacci argued that DeWine, a Republican, has governed the state in a manner that is close to prominent Democratic leaders.
Read the full story
Conservative columnist Mollie Hemingway has written a book exposing how President Joe Biden won the presidential election, entitled Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections. Hemingway goes over all the suspicious behavior and possible fraud that occurred, including Fox News — the allegedly conservative news station — calling the race in Arizona early for Biden, before any other network did.
“[T]he rush to call a critical battleground such as Arizona less than ninety minutes after the polls closed [was] very odd,” Hemingway wrote. Acknowledging that she is a contributor to Fox News, she explained how it was Fox News’ Decision Desk that made the call, “Fox News … is unique among cable networks in retaining a distinction between its opinion and news programming. The news side handles Election Night and other big coverage. Its Decision Desk, a group of pollsters, statisticians, and political analysts, is independent from both the opinion and news programming.”
Read the full story
A lawsuit that could force House of Delegates candidates to run multiple years in a row had a win Tuesday. Paul Goldman’s lawsuit lists multiple Virginia officials and agencies as defendants, but the Office of the Attorney General argued that they were protected by sovereign immunity. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Judge David Novak ruled that while defendants including Governor Ralph Northam are protected, the lawsuit can proceed against the State Board of Elections and Virginia Department of Elections Commissioner Christopher Piper.
“That’s fine with me because I’ve still got four defendants left, you only need one,” Goldman told The Virginia Star.
Read the full story
Florida Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist (D-FL-13), earlier this week, announced his new campaign initiative entitled “Justice for All,” but Crist has had a back-and-forth history regarding criminal justice reform issues.
Prior to becoming a Democrat, Crist was an Independent, and before that was Florida’s one-term Republican governor from 2007-2011. He also served in the Florida Legislature as a Republican and in different executive positions during Jeb Bush’s tenure as governor.
Read the full story
A Greensville County Circuit Court judge declined to dismiss NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler’s lawsuit over Virginia’s recent skill games ban. In a hearing Tuesday, the court denied a demurrer from the Office of the Attorney General and ordered an expedited discovery process so that a hearing on an emergency injunction can be held in early December.
“We are grateful the Court was able to see through the Attorney General’s latest and last-ditch attempt to avoid a trial in this case,” said Senator Bill Stanley (R-Franklin), attorney for Sadler and Sadler Brothers Oil Company. “Mr. Sadler’s lawsuit seeks to protect his constitutional rights and the rights of hundreds of Virginia’s small and family-owned businesses. We’re looking forward to December 6, when we hope the injustice and inequity of the skill games ban will be seen by the Court for what it is.”
Read the full story
Everyone has a right to their opinion. The question is: does everyone have a right to voice their opinion? Increasingly, in these strange times, it seems that we physicians have the right to voice only certain opinions, when it comes to discussing Covid-19.
Wanting to hit the mute button on physicians who choose to challenge the public health narrative, especially in regard to vaccination for Covid-19, is understandably tempting. We carry a bit more authority than lawyers or statisticians when we share our thoughts about medical matters; and quite a few physicians seem to have little interest in toeing the party line. However, appealing as it might be to silence these voices, succumbing to the temptation of censorship might end up costing our society more than it gains.
Read the full story
Monday was the federally recognized Christopher Columbus Day, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a declaration commemorating the historical event of Columbus’ landing in the New World. “Christopher Columbus displayed courage, determination, and perseverance when he sailed the ocean blue more than 500 years ago,” DeSantis tweeted. “Happy Columbus Day!” Christopher Columbus displayed courage, determination, and perseverance when he sailed the ocean blue more than 500 years ago. Happy Columbus Day! pic.twitter.com/6N0MlOkrvZ — Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) October 11, 2021 In the proclamation, DeSantis said the day was a time of commemoration for Americans of Italian ancestry and defended Columbus’ legacy from those who exclusively highlight the impact of the historical events of war and disease the Genoan and the colonists had on the natives of the Western Hemisphere. “WHEREAS, Columbus continues to be a historical figure who engenders the pride of nearly 17 million Italian Americans, a community whose warmth, generosity, patriotism, and love of family have made those characteristics even greater components of the broader American culture and way of life; and WHEREAS, we must learn from history and continue to discuss Columbus’ contributions, discoveries, and experiences rather than revise history, and acknowledge that individuals who seek to…
Read the full story
Economic indicators continue to reveal the damaging impacts of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Internet gaming platform Spider-Solitaire Challenge found 54 percent of study respondents in Michigan reported suffering from “pandemic brain,” which it described as “a decline in your cognitive abilities” during the time in-person learning was banned, businesses were ordered closed, and religious services were restricted, according to the Daily Mining Gazette.
Read the full story
A bill that would allow loved ones and legal guardians to put cameras in nursing home rooms, allowing them to monitor the treatment of the resident, is making significant progress in the Ohio legislature.
SB 58 provides that as long as the resident’s guardian or attorney fills out a form notifying the nursing facility they will be placing a camera in the resident’s room, and as long as the resident’s guardian or attorney installs and pays for the camera out-of-pocket, they may proceed with monitoring the resident’s room.
Read the full story
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged three women with crimes related to attempted voter fraud in the 2020 general election.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Nessel argued the charges show that when “rare” election fraud happens, the current safeguards stop it.
“These cases highlight the scrutiny applications and ballots undergo throughout the election process, as well as the thorough investigative process that ensues when instances of attempted fraud are suspected,” Nessel said in a statement.
Read the full story
In a new book entitled Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, senior editor at The Federalist Mollie Hemmingway details repeated efforts by Democrats to weaken the electoral process in Michigan before the 2020 election.
According to Hemmingway, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and election attorney Marc Elias worked to “water down” requirements for absentee ballots.
Read the full story
Mollie Hemingway’s new book, Rigged, tells the story of Wisconsin election officials and their use of the COVID pandemic to manipulate the 2020 election results. Hemingway draws from many special elections held over the course of COVID, explaining that Democrats learned that their voters were much more likely to vote by mail than Republicans.
Read the full story
This week, the Williamson County Commission voted to appoint Josh Brown to fill a vacancy on the Williamson County School Board. Brown is a National Vice President for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer – sparking major backlash from parents in Williamson County.
Read the full story