Senate Republicans blocked the voting rights legislation, likely triggering Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to move forward with changing Senate filibuster rules.
The motion to move forward with ending debate and taking a vote on the bill, Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, failed in the Senate by 51-49. Sen. Schumer joined Republicans “in order to enter a motion to reconsider the vote,” according to the Senate Press Gallery.
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Metro Nashville Council had their January 18 meeting where they passed a resolution urging the General Assembly to reject the proposed congressional maps that split Nashville amongst three congressional districts. It also considered issues like license plate readers, redistricting, board appointments, settlements for property damages, approval of grant applications, zoning, and other expenditures totaling millions of dollars.
Councilmembers Zulfat Suara and Ginny Welsch late filed a resolution “urging the Tennessee General Assembly to reject the redistricting plan splitting Davidson County into three congressional districts.” The Rules Committee had no objection to the inclusion of the resolution. The resolution passed by voice vote, with one no, and three abstentions. There was no major discussion on the resolution.
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The Star News Network has identified a “woke” fifth grade teacher, whose classroom is centered around left-wing propaganda.
Allyson L. Ryoppy teaches 10 and 11-year-olds at Halle Hewetson Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada, part of the Clarke County School District.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee— Senator Bill Hagerty toured the Lipman warehouse Tuesday morning. Haggerty and his team walked with CEO Robert Lipman and COO Lowell Goldman through a small tour, where Lipman and Hagerty discussed the problems the Lipman company had been facing with supply chain shortages.
“This is another great example of wonderful Tennessee entrepreneurs that have thrived in an environment that’s very challenging,” Hagerty said. “But Robert Lipman, the proprietor here, told me how hard it is to get the workforce that he needs, the difficulties that he’s had with the supply chain; the fact that glass from China is a major bottleneck now, for what he’s trying to do right here.
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Joe Biden has claimed “democracy is under attack” and that to save “democracy” we must annihilate Senate norms such as the legislative filibuster. If you don’t believe that this crisis exists and act immediately, his argument goes, the sun won’t rise ever again; the oceans will dry up, and you’re an evil racist like Jefferson Davis, Bull Connor, and George Wallace (Democrats every last one—and Biden actually sought Wallace’s support back when Biden wanted to be liked by the Wallaces and Byrds of the Democratic Party.) But why let facts get in the way of a good Grandpa Dementia bedtime story?
Of course the real reason for the shrieking hysteria from Biden and the Left is that they’re confronting what is likely to be an electoral tsunami in the fall. Most Americans with half a brain have realized after a year under the Biden presidency that the Left’s policies and politicians are absolute failures. That’s why Biden has a 33 percent approval rating. And it’s why moderate Democrats like Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) want nothing to do with Biden, his policies, or his efforts at rewriting Senate rules.
Progressives of course had a premonition that their policies would wreak havoc upon the American people. To protect themselves from electoral accountability they immediately introduced a bill to federalize election law for the Left’s partisan advantage. This comes as no surprise from the Democratic Party of Tammany Hall, which has a long, sordid history of rigging election laws to hang onto power through the intimidation of voters.
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On Tuesday, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reacted to a viral video making its rounds on social media showing the owner of an NBA team saying “nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs” in China.
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The proposed new congressional redistricting plans have been voted out of their respective committees and are heading to the Senate and House floors.
Ultimate passage is considered likely.
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Melissa Goodwin, a Nashville woman who was a top executive at the T.J. Martell Foundation for Cancer Research, allegedly embezzled almost $4 million, according to a release from the Department of Justice.
The Foundation receives in-kind donations from celebrities in the music industry. The organization auctions these items or experiences in order to fund cancer research.
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Wesley Somers, aged 26, of Hendersonville was supposed to be sentenced today in federal court for his role in the Nashville courthouse fire but the sentencing has been delayed for a second time.
Somers was originally supposed to be sentenced on December 1st, 2021 and it had been postponed to January 18th, 2022. The Clerk’s Office of the Middle District of Tennessee told The Tennessee Star that Mr. Somers’ counsel made a motion to postpone, yet again. The new sentencing hearing is scheduled for February 22nd at 1pm.
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A recent report claims that the world’s top 10 richest men all saw their wealth double over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, while 99 percent of global income dropped dramatically during the same period.
As reported by ABC News, a study published on Monday by the group Oxfam showed that the collective wealth of the top 10 doubled from approximately $700 billion to over $1.5 trillion between March of 2020 and November of 2021. During that same time, over 160 million people fell into poverty as incomes plummeted. The increase for the top 10 in less than two years represented a greater increase for their wealth than their growth over the previous 14 years combined.
The 10 men who were the focus of Oxfam’s study were: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer and Warren Buffett. The data for the study was gathered from the World Bank.
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Federal authorities are investigating Chinese investment in a California-based plane maker after shareholders alleged that the firm’s technology was being transferred to China, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The FBI and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) have launched separate reviews of Chinese investment in small plane manufacturer Icon Aircraft Inc., according to the WSJ, which cited company documents and people familiar with the matter. The authorities are investigating allegations that technology from the company with military applications was transferred to China.
The investigation follows a lawsuit filed in June 2021 by a group of minority shareholders, including former Boeing CEO and chairman Phil Condit, who alleged that Pudong Science and Technology Investment Co. (PDSTI), a Chinese firm which owns 47% of Icon’s shares, was exploiting the company for its technology’s military applications to the detriment of the firm’s bottom line.
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As more Americans move to lower-taxed Republican-led states, a new report by the Tax Foundation indicates that taxation levels play a direct and indirect role as factors contributing to migration patterns.
Taxes often “play an indirect role by contributing to a broadly favorable economic environment. And sometimes, of course, they play little or no role,” Jared Walczak, a vice president at the Tax Foundation, writes in an analysis of 2021 U.S. Census Bureau data and inbound and outbound migration data published by U-Haul and United Van Lines.
“The Census data and these industry studies cannot tell us exactly why each person moved, but there is no denying a very strong correlation between low-tax, low-cost states and population growth,” he wrote. “With many states responding to robust revenues and heightened state competition by cutting taxes, moreover, these trends may only get larger.”
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ExxonMobil, the largest American producer of crude oil, outlined its plan Tuesday to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, improving upon previous goals.
The major oil producer identified more than 150 “potential steps” that will help it achieve net zero emissions on its operations within 30 years, the company announced. ExxonMobil will increase investments in carbon capture and storage technology, hydrogen and biofuels, and bio-based plastic waste streams.
“ExxonMobil is committed to playing a leading role in the energy transition, and Advancing Climate Solutions articulates our deliberate approach to helping society reach a lower-emissions future,” ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a statement.
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Microsoft agreed to purchase video game giant Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion, its largest acquisition in company history, multiple sources reported.
Microsoft announced Tuesday that it agreed to purchase Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal, further broadening the tech giant’s video game portfolio. Upon completion, the deal w0uld make Microsoft the world’s third-largest gaming company, behind Tencent and Sony.
“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive Satya Nadella said in a press release. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”
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The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance (TDCI) announced Tuesday that a total of $1 million in grants will be made available to the over 500 volunteer fire departments across the state for the purchase of firefighting equipment. The TDCI and Tennessee State Fire Marshall’s Office (SFMO) partnered to make the grants available through the Volunteer Firefighter Equipment and Training Grant Program.
“We are grateful for the leadership of Governor Bill Lee and the General Assembly who increased the amount of funding to $1 million in order to help provide more support to Tennessee volunteer departments and their communities,” said Tennessee State Fire Marshal and TDCI Commissioner Carter Lawrence. “This program supports Governor Lee’s vision of strengthening Tennessee’s rural communities by providing more resources for our volunteer fire departments so that can help save lives and protect property.”
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The media went wild last week after Joe Biden’s Justice Department finally produced a criminal indictment to support the claim that January 6 was an “insurrection” planned by militiamen loyal to Donald Trump: Eleven members of the Oath Keepers, including its founder, Stewart Rhodes, face the rarely used charge of seditious conspiracy for their brief and nonviolent involvement at the Capitol protest that day.
Journalists luxuriated in the news, jeering those of us who had correctly noted that the Justice Department had failed to charge anyone with insurrection or sedition for more than a year.
But the press does not share the same zeal in covering another politically charged investigation: the imploding criminal case against five men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. The kidnapping narrative shares many similarities with their preferred telling of January 6, not the least of which is that alleged militias incited by Trump attempted to carry out a domestic terror attack.
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Democrats were more than twice as likely as other voters to favor harsh government restrictions being placed on unvaccinated people’s lives, ranging from fines to loss of child custody, according to a recent poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute.
Forty-eight percent of Democratic voters said the government should be able to fine or imprison those who publicly question the COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy, while only 27% of all voters supported the proposal, according to the poll results.
Fines against those who refuse to take the vaccine were viewed favorably by 55% of Democratic voters and just 19% of Republicans, and 59% of Democrats favored a policy requiring unvaccinated people to stay inside their homes at all times, except for emergencies, the poll found. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans opposed a house arrest policy for unvaccinated people.
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The retired Ernst & Young partner and Ohio Republican Party (ORP) central committee member, leading a lawsuit against the Ohio Republican Party and its Chairman Robert A. Paduchik and the party’s Treasurer David W. Johnson over questions in the party’s governance and books, responded to the December 30 “Open Letter to Ohio Republican Leaders” written by Johnson. “The accuracy of the financial statements of the Ohio Republican Party is very germane to the integrity and strength of the party,” said Mark A. Bainbridge, who filed his November 29 lawsuit with four other members of the ORP’s central committee. “I take great exception to many statements published by ORP Treasurer David Whipple Johnson in his ‘Open Letter to Ohio Republican Leaders,’” he said. Bainbridge said Johnson was misleading people when he claimed that the Ohio Republican Party’s financial statements were in any way audited or given a clean bill of health by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose. The two men had breakfast together before Bainbridge made his response, and then and there, the secretary of state made it very clear. “He confirmed to me that his office does not audit any campaign information submitted to them by political parties.…
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It’s no secret that the Democratic Party has arrayed itself on the side of crime and criminals. But the GOP, for all its chest-thumping about law and order, has done little to help and, in some instances, actually sided with the forces of anarchy. Consider the cases of two prosecutors, Jackie Johnson and Frederick Franklin, both of whom served under Republican governors.
Franklin has been praised for railroading a white man, Jake Gardner, who shot dead a black criminal, James Scurlock, in Nebraska. Johnson has been charged on specious grounds for her role in the investigation into the killing of a black man, Ahmaud Arbery, by a white man, Travis McMichael, in Georgia. Franklin has long supported left-wing causes, while Johnson is a Republican. Both incidents involving them occurred in 2020, but their fortunes couldn’t be more different.
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Wealthy individuals in America often provide scholarships for college students. However, some of these scholarships are only for members of specified races.
Campus Reform has compiled a list of the colleges that have received funding for college scholarships based on race.
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Despite continued panic from some of America’s COVID-19 officials, and even though the Omicron variant has cause cases to skyrocket, Ohio’s seven day average for deaths is not much higher than it has been throughout the entire pandemic.
As of Jan. 17, Ohio’s seven-day average for COVID-19 was 121 deaths, or 17.2 deaths per day. For context, Ohio’s population is nearly 12 million.
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Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis sent an email blast out to campaign followers blasting Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried’s (D) recent comments comparing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to infamous National Socialist dictator Adolf Hitler.
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The Republican Governors Association on Monday blasted Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, after a new analysis detailed thousands of additional deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
The Michigan Auditor General explained in a report that roughly 2,400 more individuals died from the virus than previously reported by state agencies.
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A local group called The Exodus Minnesota is hosting an alternative education expo. The Exodus is run by five black moms who want to show other families in the Twin Cities the benefits to alternative education. The website explains that they believe that public schools have become “centers of racist indoctrination.”
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The owner of Albert Lea’s now-closed Interchange Coffee and Wine Bistro told The Minnesota Sun she has learned the value of family and true friendship as she serves her 90-day sentence for violating Democrat Gov. Timothy J. “Tim” Walz’s ban on indoor service.
“Probably the biggest thing I miss about running the bistro is the guests,” said Melissa “Lisa” Hanson, who, December 9, began her sentence at the Freeborn County Adult Detention Center.
“To be able to provide a great product coupled with a unique atmosphere and thoughtful joy was to sit and observe,” she said.
“Whether it was a busy summer lunch with guests enjoying the patio under the pergolas or a ‘Live Music Friday Night’ watching the guests relax and enjoy themselves while all their worries melted away to the tunes the musicians were strumming or plunking out,” she said. “Seeing family and friends laugh and relax together was so special – these are some of the things I miss.”
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State Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Apache Junction) announced she is running for Arizona’s newly redrawn 6th District Congressional seat, which is an open seat due to Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick declining to run for reelection. The sprawling southeast Arizona rural district runs from the U.S.-Mexico border to the Mogollon Rim and the New Mexico border to Casa Grande. Townsend lives in Apache Junction, in the newly drawn CD 5, about 60 miles from CD 6, but there is no requirement for her to live in the district she runs in, only that she live within the state.
Townsend told Capitol Media Services, “Anybody who knows me knows that my heart has been down in the southern part of the state anyway. That’s where I go for leisure, and that’s where I go to work.” Townsend filed a complaint last year with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich about Tucson’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. After Brnovich issued an opinion declaring that the mandate was illegal, the city paused it.
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Newly inaugurated Gov. Glenn Yougkin (R) spoke about the future of Virginia Monday afternoon in his first address to the Virginia General Assembly.
In his speech, Youngkin said the sate is ready to be finished with the pandemic, noting that he was elected to “turn the page” on COVID-19.
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RICHMOND, Virginia — The Virginia Senate Privileges and Elections killed several Republican- sponsored elections integrity bills on Tuesday afternoon, including photo voter identification bills and a bill to repeal same-day voter registration. The committee also killed campaign finance reform bills from Senators Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond) and Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax.)
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Outrage at Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s (D) leniency toward criminals has driven Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) to call for the prosecutor’s impeachment.
Corman sent a letter to leaders of the GOP-run state House of Representatives asking them to seek Krasner’s removal. In his missive, the lawmaker deplored the city’s sharp present rise in violent crime and said the district attorney has played a major role in that spike by allowing many offenders to escape punishment.
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A national spice retail company sent out an email to its customers calling Republicans “racist” before the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.
The Wisconsin-based Penzeys Spices company sent out an email to all its customers the morning of Jan. 14 with the subject line “Republicans Are Racists Weekend,” Fox 6 Milwaukee reported.
“If you are a Republican voter you are now cheesed off. You were promised that there would never be any accountability for your support of the party of open ‘textbook’ racism,” Penzey CEO Bill Penzey reportedly said in the email.
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Several career-focused educational grants and funding opportunities were announced last week for Iowa institutions.
Gov. Kim Reynolds announced funding initiatives in her 2022 Condition of the State Address, including the first-in-the nation Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Grant Program.
Through the program, current high school students can earn paraeducator certificates and associates degrees, and paraeducators can earn their bachelor’s degree while learning and working in the classroom. The program starts in the 2022-2023 school year.
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If criticism of two Republican members of the Missouri House of Representatives is any indication, a bill to ban critical race theory (CRT) will face challenges.
More than a thousand people filed digital testimony forms on the bill and the Elementary and Secondary Education Committee’s hearing lasted more than four hours.
State Rep. Nick Schroer, R-O’Fallon and a candidate for the term-limited Senate seat of Bob Onder, R-St. Charles, testified on HB1474 on Tuesday. State Rep. Doug Richey, R-Excelsior Springs, joined Schroer as they teamed to combine the banning of critical race theory with Richey’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” HB1995.
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Clothing brand Carhartt, which primarily makes outdoor work clothes, caused a firestorm when a leaked email from its CEO saying that the company’s vaccine mandate would remain in place was circulated online.
Carhartt CEO Matt Valade’s email, sent Friday, said
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Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11), during a speech late last week about Democrats’ attempts to pass a federal takeover of elections, said that the party wants to create “a homogenous society that is easily controlled.” Loudermilk said this on the floor of the House of Representatives.
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State Representative Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna), who serves as the Majority Leader of the Wisconsin Assembly, will not run for re-election when his current term expires.
According to a release from his office, the lawmaker cited a desire to “pass the torch” to new state leaders as influence for his decision to step down from elected office.
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Thirteen parents from the Chesapeake school district are suing Governor Glenn Youngkin over his Executive Order Two which requires districts to allow parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates, no reason required. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, says Youngkin’s order violates of separation of powers, since it violates SB 1303, which requires schools to comply with CDC mitigation strategies.
“Executive Order Number Two purports to sweep aside masking mandates and other protections with little or no consideration of or respect for CDC guidance, actions taken by the Virginia General Assembly, or the powers vested in school boards,” the lawsuit states, according to a copy obtained by ABC7.
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The Florida Department of Health (FDOH) announced they will be opening additional monoclonal treatment sites after the federal government delivered its most recent shipment of treatment kits. Approximately 15,000 doses will become available in Duval, Seminole, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade County sites.
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Senator Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) has proposed amending the Georgia Constitution to give each resident of a school district the right to claim an ad valorem tax exemption for school district taxes under certain circumstances. This, assuming the State Board of Education declares that the school district in question “has substantially deviated from the board’s approved course curriculum.”
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Wisconsin Republican legislators introduced the Stronger Workforce Initiative to fight the growing labor shortage. According to a joint press release from the Wisconsin Senate Republicans and Wisconsin Assembly Republicans, the initiative would be a “multipronged approach to address the employment crisis facing small businesses throughout Wisconsin.”
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Members of The Tennessee Trucking Association are scheduled to deliver a presentation before the State Senate Transportation and Safety Committee on Wednesday morning. Staff for various members of the committee, including Chair Becky Duncan Massey (R-Knoxville) told The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that even they didn’t know what, specifically, members of The Tennessee Trucking Association plan to discuss. Members of the Tennessee Trucking Association did not return our requests for comment on Tuesday.
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