Day: October 22, 2021

Nashville Party Buses Facing New Legislation

Morgan Nicole Veysey

Downtown Nashville’s popular party bus services are set to face new rules issued by the Metro Council and Mayor John Cooper. One of the main effects of the new lawsuit, signed October 19th, is that alcohol will no longer be allowed on the busses, starting December 1st. Another change for the ‘transportainment ‘ is that starting April of 2022, the party busses will be regulated by Metro’s Transportation Licensing Commission. 

In the Substitute Ordinance that Metro released after the meeting, it states that the reason behind the new regulation is that, “the Metropolitan Council is concerned that a continued failure to regulate entertainment transportation vehicles will permanently erode the cultural character of Nashville’s neighborhoods that has made the city a vibrant and enjoyable place to live, work, and visit.”

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Tennessee Representative Scott DesJarlais Sends Letter to President Biden Warning Him of Result of Vaccine Mandates for Tennessee Valley Authority Employees

Kaitlin Housler

On Thursday in a press release, Tennessee Representative Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) announced that he sent a letter to President Joe Biden regarding his executive order mandating COVID-19 vaccines for federal workers and the effects it will have on Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) employees.

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Tennessee’s GOP Congressional Delegation React, Discuss Next Steps After Learning Anthony Fauci Lied to Congress

Chris Butler

News that the Bethesda, Maryland-based National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded Gain-of-Function research in Wuhan, China has prompted certain members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation to condemn Anthony Fauci as a liar and to demand drastic changes. Representative Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) tweeted about the matter on Thursday.

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Williamson County Parent Calls School System’s COVID-19 Policies ‘Evil and Wrong’

Chris Butler

Williamson County School System Superintendent Jason Golden acknowledged this week that WCS students who will not wear COVID-19 masks or haven’t received medical or religious exemptions attend classes in separate rooms. This, according to the Nashville-based FOX 17. The station reported that a federal order prevents students from opting out of the mask mandate.

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Biden Ditches Alaska Oil Drilling Project That Would’ve Created Thousands of Jobs

Admin

The Biden administration abandoned an oil and gas drilling project in Alaska approved by former President Donald Trump, which it had previously defended.

The Department of the Interior failed to file an appeal to a federal judge’s August decision blocking the multi-billion dollar Willow Project being developed by the Texas-based oil and gas firm ConocoPhillips. Judge Sharon Gleason of the U.S. District Court of the District of Alaska ruled that the federal government hadn’t adequately reviewed the emissions profile of the project, which she said would ultimately harm the environment and wildlife.

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DOJ Ends Case Quota for Immigration Judges Set by Trump Admin

Admin

The Department of Justice ended a Trump-era case quota for immigration judges, CNN Politics reported on Wednesday.

Judges said the Trump administration’s quota policy prioritized moving through cases quickly rather than due process for all immigrants and wasn’t fair, according to documents obtained by CNN. Immigration judges are tasked with moving through a 1.5 million case backlog, and case quotas didn’t necessarily make a difference in how quickly cases were processed, CNN reported.

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‘Not Acceptable’: Facebook’s Oversight Board Says Company Hid Details on How It Privileges Popular Accounts

Admin

Facebook’s Oversight Board issued a transparency report Thursday scolding the tech giant for concealing details of its content review process and demanding more transparency.

The report criticized Facebook for failing to disclose the existence of its “cross-check” content review system, the details of which were leaked to The Wall Street Journal by Frances Haugen and published in September. The cross-check system applies different moderation standards to accounts belonging to celebrities or other popular accounts, which Facebook did not disclose when asked.

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GETTR CEO Jason Miller Welcomes Trump to Social Media World

Peter D'Abrosca

Despite former President Donald J. Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) announcing plans to become a rival of newly-launched social media site GETTR, the CEO of the latter firm welcomed Trump into the social media space.

“Congratulations to President Trump for re-entering the social media fray! Now Facebook and Twitter will lose even more market share. President Trump has always been a great deal-maker, but we just couldn’t come to terms on a deal,” Miller said in a Wednesday statement. “And get ready for the new platform features GETTR has on the way: live-streaming, GVision short videos and our GETTR Pay payments system capabilities. Exciting new additions that will provide our global customer base an even better user experience. Let the downloads begin!”

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Weekly Jobless Claims Drop to 290,000

Admin

The number of Americans who filed new unemployment claims decreased to 290,000 last week as employers attempt to hold onto workers amid struggles with inflation, supply chain disruptions and labor shortages.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics figure released Thursday shows a 6,000 claim decrease in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending on Oct. 9, when jobless claims dipped below 300,000 for the first time since March 2020.

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: The Afghanistan Withdrawal Disaster Would Not Have Happened Under President Trump

Admin

On Feb. 29, 2020, the U.S. and the Taliban signed the Doha Agreement, which set conditions for an American military withdrawal from Afghanistan. A few days later, then-President Donald Trump picked up the phone to call Taliban leader Abdul Ghani Baradar. On that call, Trump explained to Baradar in no uncertain terms that, if he and his men didn’t fulfill the agreement, which included a pledge not to attack U.S. forces, the Taliban would suffer dearly. Not a single U.S. soldier was killed in combat in Afghanistan for the rest of Trump’s presidency.

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CDC Says Five-Year-Olds Will Still Need to Wear Masks After Vaccine Is Approved for Kids

Admin
Blonde child wearing hair up, holding journal and wearing a mask

Students as young as five years old may still need to wear masks in school after the COVID-19 vaccine is approved for children ages 5-11, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky said in a White House briefing Wednesday. Walensky did not discuss if or when children would not be required to wear masks in school.

“After we have authorization from (the Food and Drug Administration) and recommendations from the CDC, we will be working to scale up pediatric vaccination. That said, it will take some time … as we head into these winter months, we know we cannot be complacent,” Walensky stated.

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Commentary: Biden Moving Refugees Under Cover of Darkness Shows His True Character

Admin

When Joe Biden conducted his campaign for president largely in absentia last year, his value proposition to voters went something like this:

I’m Lunch Bucket Joe from Scranton and I’m for the little guy. I’m gonna fix all the mistakes of the last four years and bring transparency, competence, and compassion back to government.

Almost a year into the Biden presidency, that proposition has been exposed as snake oil. If “the little guy” refers to working-class American citizens, Biden has treated them with utter disdain, if not contempt. He clearly prioritizes foreign nationals from impoverished countries, as he is bringing them here in record numbers.

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Amazon Warehouse Workers in New York Set to File for Union Vote

Admin

Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York City, announced plans Thursday to file for a union election before the National Labor Relations Board next week.

Amazon Labor Union, which represents 2,000 Amazon workers, signed union authorization cards and announced plans to petition for an election, according to Vice. If the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) approves this request and the unionization vote succeeds, the workers would be the first Amazon employees to successfully unionize.

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Virginia Supreme Court Dismisses Petition to Appeal in McAuliffe Signature Lawsuit

Eric Burk

The Virginia Supreme Court refused a petition to appeal the dismissal of a lawsuit over the missing signature on Terry McAuliffe’s election paperwork. On Wednesday, attorney Peter Hansen argued in a writ panel that the Court should take up the appeal, saying that McAuliffe failed to file a valid declaration of candidacy, and that when the City of Richmond Circuit Court dismissed the case, it did so based on speculation.

“Unfortunately, the trial court effectually made up facts. There’s nothing in the evidence, nothing in the record that suggested that Mr. McAuliffe was present when he didn’t sign the declaration. There’s nothing in evidence that suggests he raised his hand as if taking an oath, and that’s what ‘sworn to under my hand’ means,” Hansen told the panel.

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Richmond Public Schools Taking Whole Week Off for Teachers’ Mental Health

Peter D'Abrosca

Citing teacher burnout, Richmond Public Schools (RPS) has decided to take an entire week off at the beginning of November. 

During that week, students were already set to have three days off: Nov. 2 for Election Day, Nov. 4 for Diwali, a Hindu holiday and Nov. 5 for parent/teacher conferences, according to a letter sent to the RPS community by Superintendent Jason Kamras. 

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J.D. Vance Super PAC Poll of Ohio GOP Voters Has Candidate Narrowing Gap with Josh Mandel

Brian Ball

A super PAC supporting the GOP nomination of venture capitalist and author J.D. Vance for U.S. Senator  has released a poll showing the rookie candidate narrowing the gap with the rival campaign of former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel.

The crowded 2022 nomination race to replace retiring U.S. Senator Rob Portman, R-OH, remains fluid with more than 40 percent of those polled earlier this week still undecided with a little more than six months to go before the Republican  primary election.

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Ohio Democrats Continue to Challenge Republican-Dominated Redistricting Commission

The Center Square

The new Ohio Redistricting Commission, facing an Oct. 31 deadline to redraw the state’s congressional district maps, is receiving the same criticism from Democratic lawmakers as it did during the state legislative map-drawing process.

House Democratic leaders have called on Republican members of the commission to release draft maps so the commission can work toward an agreement before the Oct. 31 deadline. The commission, made up of five Republicans and two Democrats, must reach a unanimous decision for maps to last 10 years.

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Wisconsin Republicans Release New Political Map, Look to Retain Majorities

The Center Square

Wisconsin’s new political map doesn’t look much different from the current map.

Republicans released their iteration of the Wisconsin districting map Wednesday. The new map maintains Republican majorities in both the State Assembly and the State Senate. It would also give Republicans an advantage in most of the state’s congressional districts.

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Arizona State University Police Recommend Charges Against Individuals Who Followed Sinema into Campus Bathroom

Cooper Moran

The Arizona State University Police Department on Wednesday announced that they will recommend charges against four individuals who harassed Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in a public restroom.

The agitators, who aligned themselves with the progressive group Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), confronted the lawmaker at the university and followed her into a public restroom while filming the incident.

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Michigan Parents Sue Attorney General Garland over Plan to Target Anti-School Board Protests

Admin

On Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed against Attorney General Merrick Garland by a group of parents in Michigan, with the intention of blocking his plans to use the Department of Justice (DOJ) to target them for protesting school board meetings, as reported by the New York Post.

The parents are from Saline, Michigan, and are represented by the American Freedom Law Center. The civil suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and seeks to protect the parents’ “fundamental right to freedom of speech, to direct the education of their children, and to be free from unlawful discrimination based upon their political and religious beliefs and views.”

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Three Workers at Cincinnati Nursing Home Claim Poll Workers Prompted Ballot Responses

Brian Ball

Two nurses and an activity aide at a Cincinnati nursing home claim Hamilton County poll workers prompted choices on absentee ballots for patients, including those in a dementia/Alzheimer’s/memory care unit.

The claims bring into sharp focus whether Ohio election law makes it too difficult to have voters disqualified for lack of mental competency to choose candidates and chime in on tax levies.

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Education Group Launches Million Dollar Ad Campaign Against Virginia Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate McAuliffe

Peter D'Abrosca

Free to Learn Action, an advocacy group intent on removing politics from the classroom in America’s public schools, launched a one million dollar ad campaign against Virginia’s Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe Thursday.

“The ad highlights the devastating consequences of allowing partisan political agendas to seep into schools while also undermining parents’ roles in their child’s education,” the organization said in an email. 

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Goldwater Institute Issues Report Showing Arizona School Boards Are Being Forced to Fund Critical Race Theory at Taxpayer Expense

Rachel Alexander

The watchdog Goldwater Institute has discovered that the Arizona School Boards Association is controlling much of the teaching within Arizona’s K-12 public schools, which includes Critical Race Theory. Schools are locked into the agenda, because if they try to opt out, the ASBA will accuse them of copyright infringement for using their own previously adopted policies or replicating those of other public bodies.

According to a new report the Goldwater Institute put out about the problem, the ASBA uses the messaging of “equity,” asserting that it is not CRT. But “retreating to the less revolutionary sounding term ‘equity’ reflects a distinction without a difference.” The purpose is still the same, “replacing the principle of legal equality with practices and government mandates forcing people to treat their fellow Americans differently based on race — inflicting racist policies on people today in order to balance out the racism of centuries past.”

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Governor DeSantis Backs Orange County Fire Chief Who Was Terminated Due to Vaccine Mandates

Casey Owens

After COVID-19 vaccination requirements caused the termination of an Orange County Fire Rescue (OCFR) battalion chief on Tuesday, Governor DeSantis released a statement slamming the county and backing Chief Stephen Davis.

DeSantis talked of Davis and first responders in general, then questioned why Orange County would turn their backs on people that have given so much in the past year during the pandemic.

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Virginia’s Educational Policy Debates Rattle Isle of Wight County Public Schools

Eric Burk

The Isle of Wight County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jim Thornton has received multiple death threats, and two members of the school board have announced their departure within the past month. The board and district leaders have come under fire from some parents for decisions about masks, transgender policy, and library books — issues that are being debated in school board public comment periods across Virginia. Thornton told Wavy.com the district is introducing cultural awareness training for teachers this year as part of several equity initiatives.

“We’re not telling them what to believe. We’re sharing information for them to process,” Thornton said.

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Parkland Shooter Pleads Guilty to All Counts

Grant Holcomb

The assailant in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. in 2018 plead guilty to all charges related to the tragedy at the school. He plead guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.

The assailant is facing life in prison and a jury will determine if he will face the death penalty. The selection for that jury will be begin on Jan. 4, 2022.

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