Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery announced this week that he and 20 other state attorneys general have formally called on President Joe Biden to withdraw his administration’s COVID 19 vaccine mandate on federal contractors. The state attorneys general mailed the letter Wednesday.
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On October 30, 2008, five days before Barack Obama won that year’s presidential election, he promised to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” He nearly lived up to that promise.
Obama doubled the federal debt. He oversaw the worst economic growth of any president since Herbert Hoover. Under Obama, Americans experienced a stagnant median household income, a decline in homeownership, an increase in health insurance rates, and an increase in the number of Americans on food stamps, to mention just a few lowlights.
By every metric that should have mattered to Americans, Obama had failed. But from Obama’s point of view, he had succeeded. American prosperity is anathema to Obama and the modern-day Democratic Party. The Democratic Party’s power doesn’t come from happy, successful, and independent Americans; but rather from miserable, forlorn, desperate, and impoverished Americans who are dependent upon the government for their salvation.
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On Thursday, two of the biggest tech companies in the world posted earnings that fell below market expectations, attributed to the ongoing supply chain crisis that is paralyzing the American economy, according to CNN.
For the third quarter of 2021, Amazon’s net sales amounted to around $110.8 billion, which was a 15 percent increase from the previous year; however, this ultimately fell below market analyst predictions of about $111.6 billion. Amazon’s overall net income for the same period decreased from the same period in 2020 to about $3.2 billion, when predictions estimated around $4.6 billion.
Apple’s sales during the same quarter were $83.4 billion, with iPhone sales at $38.9 billion; both were lower than original projections.
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U.S. consumer spending growth slowed in September, and income dropped due to high COVID-19 cases, supply shortages, rising inflation, and ending unemployment benefits.
Consumer spending increased 0.6% in September, down from a 1% jump in August, the Commerce Department announced Friday. Personal income fell 1% in September, driven by a 72% drop in unemployment insurance benefits that offset a 0.7% spike in wages and benefits, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Economists polled by Reuters projected a 0.5% in consumer spending. Delta variant cases peaked in the middle of September, and the continued supply chain backups have caused shortages and rising prices, making it harder for consumers to purchase their desired goods, the WSJ reported.
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Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger announced Friday that he will not be seeking reelection next year.
The congressman will leave Capitol Hill after 12 years in office and a final term that was dominated by his vocal criticism of former President Donald Trump.
In a video announcing the end of his House career, Kinzinger spoke about his first race, in which he unseated the Democratic incumbent in 2010. He was told then by supporters to “be my own man and to never do what they tell you to do,” he recalled.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Gary Humble of Tennessee Stands to the newsmakers line to deliver breaking news surrounding the Tennessee General Assembly’s special session.
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The U.S. State Department joined an initiative to welcome Afghan refugees into the country that is sponsored by organizations supporting groups with possible ties to Palestinian terrorist organizations, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found.
Welcome.US is part of the Office of American Possibilities initiative, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, according to its website. The initiative’s main co-chairs include former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The initiative also formed a coalition composed of nonprofit leaders and organizations, former government officials, corporate leaders and public figures. Businesses, including Starbucks, Uber, Facebook, Microsoft, Walmart and Airbnb, also support the effort.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio for another addition of Crom’s Commentary.
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Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday the tech giant was changing its name to “Meta.”
Zuckerberg announced the name change at the Facebook Connect 2021 conference. The new name reflects Zuckerberg’s goal to reorient his social media company to a technology conglomerate with several different products beyond the Facebook social network, focusing on “metaverse” technology.
The “metaverse” is a virtual environment in which individuals can interact with one another through avatars and across multiple platforms and devices. Facebook called it a “new phase of interconnected virtual experiences using technologies like virtual and augmented reality” in which people interacting online can become much closer to the experience of interacting in person.”
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Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said China’s new hypersonic weapon is “very concerning” and comes close to being a “Sputnik moment,” Bloomberg TV reported.
The top military officer of the U.S. confirmed to Bloomberg that China had recently tested an advanced hypersonic weapon. “What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system. And it is very concerning,” Milley said in an interview for “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.”
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U.S. intelligence agencies failed to predict how quickly Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, would fall to the Taliban, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Four agencies tracked the Taliban’s gains around Afghanistan starting in the spring of 2020 up until Taliban insurgents overthrew the U.S.-supported government in the capital city of Kabul, according to classified materials reviewed by the WSJ.
Around two dozen of the reports the WSJ reviewed predicted the Afghan government would collapse after U.S. forces withdrew, though none of them thought the government would fall as quickly as it did or with American troops still deployed in the region.
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Market Research Foundation recently pointed out President Biden’s polling numbers are in jeopardy, but a new poll shows Americans have huge hesitations about Vice President Kamala Harris taking over as well.
As a refresher, President Biden referred to himself as “a bridge” to “a new generation of leaders” in the Democratic party when campaigning with Harris in 2020, and Harris is next in line if anything should prevent Biden from continuing to serve as president. At the time, it appeared Biden was implying Harris would replace him soon.
Unfortunately for Democrats, while Biden’s polling numbers are in serious jeopardy, Americans do not appear at all confident Harris is qualified to lead the country.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Fox Business Contributor Liz Peek to the newsmakers line to give hard truths on the economic climate of America.
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The Biden administration is considering paying illegal immigrant families who were separated at the border under former President Donald Trump’s policies up to $450,000 per person, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The illegal immigrants filed a lawsuit claiming the federal government detention resulted in major psychological trauma, according to the WSJ. Most of the families were made up of one parent and child who could receive around $1 million in payouts, though the amount could vary by family depending on the circumstances.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) represents some of the families involved in the lawsuit against the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services, the WSJ reported. Around 940 families filed claims and the number of those who might qualify for the settlement is expected to be lower.
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Cognitively impaired nursing home residents in Wisconsin and Michigan cynically exploited for votes. Election mismanagement in Atlanta. Unlawful election instructions in Wisconsin. And 50,000 questionable ballots in Arizona, plus several criminal cases for illegal ballot harvesting and inmate voting.
Eleven months after Donald Trump was ousted from office, the narrative that the 2020 election was clean and secure has frayed like a well-worn shoelace. The challenges of the COVID pandemic, the aggressive new tactics of voting activists and the desire of Democrats to make the collection and delivery of ballots by third parties legal in states where harvesting is expressly forbidden has muddied the establishment portrait and awakened the nation to the painful reality its election system — particularly in big urban areas — is far from perfection.
Nowhere has that story become more clear than the battleground state of Wisconsin, where a local sheriff on Thursday dramatically held a nationally televised news conference alleging he had found evidence of felony crimes involving ballots sent to nursing home residents.
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The president of the Flint City Council is asking a court to help her recoup the legal fees she incurred in a lawsuit she won against the city earlier this week. She is also challenging the city to disclose how much money it will spend defending itself from legal actions she initiated after the council imposed a gag order on her.
The Flint City Council voted 5-2 to censure President Kate Fields on Sept. 28. The resolution banned her from leading council meetings and openly speaking for 30 days, but still allowed her to vote. Fields is campaigning for reelection for Flint’s 4th Ward in next Tuesday’s election.
The resolution stemmed from an incident earlier this year, when Fields ordered the removal of 1st Ward Council member Eric Mays from a virtual meeting for disruptive behavior and denied him an opportunity to appeal her decision. Mays has a reputation for behavior deemed inappropriate, including a March 2020 incident during which he was removed from a City Council meeting in handcuffs and subsequently banned from council meetings for 30 days.
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After months of wondering whether Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody would face any challengers in the 2022 general election, criminal defense lawyer and Democrat, Jim Lewis of Ft. Lauderdale, has emerged to try and take down Moody.
Lewis released a statement slamming Moody for her opposition towards public health mandates amid the pandemic, as well as her position on challenging the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
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In what has become a nationwide trend, food and staffing shortages have reached two of the largest school districts in Georgia.
Both Fulton County Schools and Gwinnett County Schools are facing inventory and food service issues, according to reports.
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GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin crept past Democrat Terry McAuliffe in polling averages on Friday, thanks to a Fox poll that showed the Republican ahead by eight points, well outside the three point margin of error. A Washington Post poll released Friday showed a tighter race, with Youngkin trailing McAuliffe by one point. Youngkin now leads the Real Clear Politics polling average by a hair — 0.9 percentage points. That’s setting Virginians up for a nail-biter on Tuesday evening, but depending on how close the results are, the winner might not be clear for days, since mail-in-ballots can be counted if they’re received by noon on Friday.
“Youngkin has as good a shot as we’ve seen in a decade. Also, attorney general tends to run two-to-three points ahead of governor for us,” Prince William County GOP Vice-Chair Willie Deutsch said. “I’m confident we have a legit shot but I wouldn’t put much money on anyone.”
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Pro-abortion activists in Minnesota want the state to defund its program that provides medical care, housing assistance, education, nutrition assistance, adoption services and more to underserved mothers.
The “Positive Alternatives” program, created in 2005, presently operates on a $3.3 million annual budget and provides grants to nonprofits that mainly assist pregnant women “at what could otherwise be a challenging time.”
For perspective, the state has spent over $7 million on a rest stop, $12 million on an “elevated walking trail” at the Minnesota Zoo, $6.9 million on an unused morgue, and $367,883 on a gay men’s choir.
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Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci on Friday called on several members of the state school board, appointed by Governor Mike DeWine, to resign.
In his statement, Renacci argued that DeWine and the members of the board are advancing Critical Race Theory (CRT), a controversial topic that has appeared in education curriculum.
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Attorney General Mark Herring asked Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) to produce evidence supporting her claims of cheating in the current election.
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Georgia Governor Brian Kemp may have another Republican opponent as he vies for reelection next year. The Intelligencer reported this week that former U.S. Senator David Perdue is mulling whether to compete against Kemp.
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After a Wednesday meeting with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Tucson Sector, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) explained to KTAR what he learned.
“One real eye-opening thing that we learned yesterday is that the cartels are using social media to pick up folks that have been trafficked over the border,” Ducey reportedly said. “They’re actually offering American citizens cash on the spot if they’ll deliver people from border drop-off points, like an illegal Uber into the state.”
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Recently-unearthed documents revealed a disagreement between the superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), after the former requested increased security measures from the latter in order to combat protesting parents at school board meetings, the Daily Caller reports.
The correspondence was revealed by a public records request from the Fight for School PAC. Documents show that superintendent Scott Ziegler’s requests included an increased presence of officers, a K-9 sweep of the meeting venue, and undercover officers in the crowd, among other measures, all of which were rejected by LCSO as excessive.
The LCSO even went so far as to disagree with Ziegler changing the rules for the school board meeting, including the decision to shut down the public comment section of a meeting that took place on June 22nd; LCSO told Ziegler that measures such as this amounted to silencing political opposition.
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There’s no shortage of Republicans who say the head of Wisconsin’s Elections Commission must resign.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos led the chorus of Republicans who said WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe must resign following claims from the Racine County sheriff that the commission broke state law last year.
“People’s trust in Wisconsin’s elections has been tested. Many Wisconsinites feel elections are not safe and secure, and now the Racine County Sheriff’s investigation found clear violations and law-breaking within the Wisconsin Elections Commission,” Vos said. “Clearly there is a severe mismanagement of WEC, and a new administrator is needed. I am calling for the resignation of Meagan Wolfe as Elections Commission Administrator.”
Vos said there are a series of “red flags” that cannot be ignored.
Sheriff Christopher Schmaling said Thursday that the WEC broke four state laws, first by suspending what are called special voting deputies for nursing homes across the state, then by advising workers in those same nursing homes to assist voters by filling out ballots for people who cannot vote themselves.
Schmalling says one woman, referred to in the investigation as Judy, complained that staffers at the Ridgewood Care Center in Racine took advantage of her elderly mother by filling out an absentee ballot in her mom’s name. Judy says her mother had diminished mental capacity and could not have communicated anything about voting to anyone.
State Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin, said not only does Wolfe need to go, but any and all staffers involved in the Racine case need to be fired as well.
“I am calling for the immediate dismissal of Meagan Wolfe as the Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator as well as the WEC staff who gave advice to break the law and members of the Elections Commission who voted to break the law. Those actions are the very definition of malfeasance in office,” Sanfelippo said. “And if the Wisconsin Attorney General continues to refuse to uphold the law then he should resign, too.”
Wolfe has not responded to the calls, or to the claims from Racine County’s sheriff.
The chairwoman of the WEC, Ann Jacobs, did respond on Thursday.
“To put it simply, we did not break the law,” said Commission Chair Ann Jacobs, an attorney from Milwaukee. “In fact, without action from the Commission, many residents in Wisconsin care facilities could have and would have been disenfranchised and not able to vote in the 2020 elections.”
Gov. Tony Evers rebuked Vos and the Republicans over their criticism of Wolfe.
“Elected officials can – and often do – disagree on plenty. But what is beneath the offices we hold and the responsibility entrusted to us is using our platforms to publicly and baselessly disparage and singularly belittle public servants,” the governor said. “Speaker Vos’ comments are unbecoming of his office and the people we serve. It’s my expectation – and one Wisconsinites share – that elected officials in this state treat others with civility and respect. The speaker’s behavior today fell woefully short of those expectations.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced this week he is suing the President Joe Biden administration over a vaccine mandate for federal contractors. The lawsuit says the president does not have the authority to impose such a mandate.
The mandate from Biden says that federal contract workers will have to be fully vaccinated by December 8, 2021, in order to keep their jobs. DeSantis said his administration’s decision to sue the federal government is a kept promise to rein in “federal overreach.”
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The Michigan Freedom Fund, a group that has expressed repeated concerns over Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s actions, launched a new ad on Thursday, calling for action on the growing Benton Harbor Water crisis.
The ad, entitled “Demanding Answers”, requests Whitmer take action and questions when her administration knew about the issue.
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MSNBC host Joy Reid, steadily losing viewership since former President Donald J. Trump exited the White House, has found a new boogeyman in Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin.
The homophobic former blogger set her sights on Younkin during Thursday night’s episode of “The ReidOut.”
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A high-ranking official with the Tennessee Department of Education — who is new to the job and previously worked in California — has a resume that includes pushing for math equity. This, according to Breitbart.com.
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