Day: January 26, 2022

Conservatives Stunned: Trump Endorses Ruth Bader Ginsburg Fan Ortagus for TN-5 Seat

Neil W. McCabe

At 8:11 p.m. East Coast time, Tuesday, President Donald J. Trump sent out an email to the millions of his supporters on his list announcing that if she decides to run he will endorse Morgan Ortagus for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District – and the conservative backlash was quick and negative.

“Ortagus and Bill Gates” by Morgan Ortagus/Instagram

“I am told that very strong and impressive Morgan Ortagus is exploring a run from Congress in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District. I couldn’t be happier because she’s an absolute warrior for America First and MAGA!” said the president, who went on to mention her work as a press secretary for then-Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and her service as a Navy Reserve officer.

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Justice Breyer to Retire From Supreme Court: Report

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Justice Stephen Breyer

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from his post at the end of the court’s current term, according to a report from NBC News.

Breyer is one of the three remaining Democrat-appointed justices on the high court. Should he retire, it will present President Biden with an opportunity to appoint a liberal-leaning justice who could sit on the court for many years to come, and for the moment, preserve the 6-3 split between conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning justices.

Breyer, who is 83, is the oldest member of the court. He had faced consistent pressure from liberal groups to retire, especially following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose passing allowed then-President Donald Trump to appoint Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

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Tennessee Officials Release New Project School Performance Data Predating COVID-19

Chris Butler

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and staff at the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) this week released projected data that predates COVID-19 and compared it to student’s actual TCAP scores. They said in a press release that they did this to measure the pandemic’s impact on student achievement via the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) public site. State officials use the site annually to measure students’ overall growth.

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Legislation Targeting Organized Street Racing Gets Additional Co-Sponsors

Aaron Gulbransen
John Gillespie and John Stevens of Tennessee

A Tennessee General Assembly bill targeting organized street racing continues through the legislative process.

It was previously reported that State Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis-HD97) and State Senator John Stevens (R-Huntingdon-SD24) have teamed up to introduce identical bills, HB1661 and SB1673. There are now fourteen co-sponsors in the state House, including two Democrats.

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Nashville Among Bottom Ten Large Cities for Its Financial Health

The Center Square

Nashville ranked 68th out of the 75 largest cities in the U.S. in total debt per taxpayer, according to Truth in Accounting’s new Financial State of the Cities report.

TIA’s analysis examined the financial health of America’s 75 most-populous cities and calculated how much each resident would have to pay to cover all of their city’s bills. The calculations were based on fiscal year 2020 audited financial reports.

The analysis found debt increased during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic despite federal funding being available. The total debt in the 75 cities increased $23 billion in 2020 to $357 billion total.

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Tennessee Man Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for Child Sexual Exploitation Crimes

Morgan Nicole Veysey

The Tennessee Department of Justice announced this week a Minor Hill, Tennessee man was sentenced to 35 years in prison for “crimes related to the production of child pornography.” Joshua Marc Hendon and his wife Lori Hendon were indicted on “charges of conspiracy to produce child pornography, nine counts of production of child pornography, and possession of child pornography” in October 2017.

“Protecting innocent children from sexual predators remains one of our highest priorities,” said U.S. Attorney Wildasin. “I commend our law enforcement partners and prosecutors who work diligently to identify these predators and bring them to justice so that they no longer have the opportunity to exploit any child again.”

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Congressman Mark Green Travels to Ukraine Amid Rising Tensions with Russia

Cooper Moran

U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) joined a bipartisan delegation to travel to parts of Europe and Ukraine amid the country’s growing tensions with Russia.

The group, led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-NY-05), will “meet with senior Ukrainian officials to discuss the security situation and reinforce U.S. support for Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

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Two Tennessee Democrats File Bills Lowering the State Sales Tax and Exempting Fruits and Vegetables from Retail Tax

Aaron Gulbransen

A Nashville State Representative and a Nashville State Senator have filed two bills which would lower Tennessee’s sales tax rate and outright exempt fresh, frozen, or canned fruits and vegetables from a sales tax.

Representative John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville-HD55) filed HB1743 and HB1745 on January 13, 2022. State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville-SD20) signed on officially on January 25, 2022, sponsoring companion bills SB1898 and SB1899.

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Commentary: Biden’s Ukraine Scramble

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President Joe Biden talks on the phone with Senator Rob Portman, R-Ohio, following the Senate vote to pass the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, Tuesday, August 10, 2021, in the Oval Office Dining Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

As usual, the media coverage on the Ukraine crisis is largely inadequate. Perversely, most of the aggressive left-wing media want to escalate the feud with Russian President Vladimir Putin to the point of driving Russia into the arms of China. This is the only way Russia (whose GDP is smaller than Canada’s) could seriously damage the West. 

At the same time, some conservative commentators, including some of the stars at Fox News, are unreasonably accusing those who favor resisting Russian aggression in Ukraine of being warmongers and trying to propel America into endless, useless war. Again. 

There is a legitimate American and Western interest in not allowing Russia to trample an independent nation of 40 million underfoot in the middle of Europe to the embarrassment of the Western alliance, and it is not a difficult scenario to avoid.

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Commentary: America’s Phony Debts Problem

RealClearWire

The email from “Norton Protection” said I owed $999.99, which was “charged successfully and it will appear on your bank statement in 24 to 48 hours.” Although I have an account with a leading cybersecurity company, I’ve never paid that much for its products. To “cancel” the charge, I was instructed to call a number, conveniently highlighted in yellow.

All it took to bird-dog my fake debt email was a simple search-engine query of the invoice’s telephone number. It was based in Hawaii. Unfortunately, perhaps, for the real employees of Norton’s help desk, they are likely not stationed in the Aloha State.

In a nation swimming in real debt – with the average American owing an estimated $90,000 – it’s not surprising that “phantom debts” are one of the hottest scams.

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Capitol Police Is Surveilling Americans’ Social Media Feeds: Report

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The U.S. Capitol Police is running background checks and examining the social media histories of people meeting with lawmakers, Politico reported Monday.

Following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, the Capitol Police adopted a new policy to dig into the social media feeds of individuals meeting members of Congress, Politico reported, citing three people familiar with the matter as well as internal Capitol Police documents and communications. Targets of the surveillance included congressional staffers as well as lawmakers’ constituents, donors and associates.

Julie Farnam, acting director of intelligence for the Capitol Police and former Department of Homeland Security official, directed analysts to run “background checks” on donors and associates of lawmakers, including instructions to “list and search all political opponents to see if they or their followers intend to attend or disrupt the event,” according to documents reviewed by Politico.

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Lawyer Thomas Renz: Miscarriages and Cancers Up 300 Percent, Neurological Problems Up 1000 Percent in Past Year

Admin

During a panel discussion in the United States Senate Monday, attorney Thomas Renz, a member of America’s Frontline Doctors’ legal team, revealed several alarming vaccine safety signals that the U.S. government has ignored. The information was provided by three military doctors who have access to vaccination data that has been withheld from the general public.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) convened a panel of world renowned doctors and experts to provide their perspectives on the global pandemic response, including their perspectives on “early and hospital treatment, vaccine efficacy and safety, what went right, what went wrong, what should be done now, and what needs to be addressed long term.”

The panel discussion was titled, “COVID 19: A Second Opinion.”

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Politically Incorrect Professor Faces Firing After Lawmakers Show Up on Law School’s Doorstep

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University of Pennsylvania professor Amy Wax

University of Toronto psychologist Jordan Peterson, who famously opposed Canadian gender pronoun mandates, disclosed Wednesday that he had resigned as a tenured professor years earlier than planned.

In a lengthy and impassioned account of his decision for the National Post, the bestselling author argued that the “radical leftist Trinity” of diversity, inclusion and equity (DIE) is reducing his students to their race and ignoring their merit. He faulted colleagues for “going along with the DIE activists.”

Meanwhile, an Ivy League law professor who is even more politically incorrect than Peterson may not have a choice in whether she keeps her job of two decades.

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FDA Pulls Authorization for Antibody Treatment, Refuses to Answer Questions

Peter D'Abrosca
SAN DIEGO (Jan 26, 2020) Lt. Cmdr. Raben Talvo, Naval Medical Center San Diego's (NMCSD) Office of Clinical Quality department head, administers the hospital’s first monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment to a COVID-19-positive patient Jan. 26. Bamlanivimab, the mAb treatment, is administered under emergency use authorization (EUA) guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms in some adult and pediatric patients who are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 symptoms. NMCSD's mission is to prepare service members to deploy in support of operational forces, deliver high quality healthcare services, and shape the future of military medicine through education, training, and research. NMCSD employs more than 6,000 active duty military personnel, civilians, and contractors in Southern California to provide patients withworld-class care anytime, anywhere. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Harley K. Sarmiento)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Monday unexpectedly pulled its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19, dealing a blow to states like Florida which have been using the treatment effectively for months. 

“Without a shred of clinical data to support this action, Biden has forced trained medical professionals to choose between treating their patients or breaking the law,” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said in response to the FDA’s decree. “This indefensible edict takes treatment out of the hands of medical professionals and will cost some Americans their lives. There are real-world implications to Biden’s medical authoritarianism – Americans’ access to treatments is now subject to the whims of a failing president.”

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Border Agents Encountered More Than 2 Million Migrants in 2021

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ended 2021 with more than 2 million migrant encounters.

December 2021 numbers released Monday showed that border patrol encountered 178,840 migrants at the southern border, a 2% increase from the previous month. The number of encounters in December 2021 was greater than the total number of encounters at the border in the previous three Decembers combined.

Of the migrants encountered in December, 23% of them were previously encountered by border agents in the last year. Single adults made up 64% of the encounters, a 4% increase from November.

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Governor Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Announce $28.5 Million in Grants for 62 Counties

Kaitlin Housler

On Monday in a press release, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe announced that they recently approved $28.5 million in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which will assist communities with infrastructure improvements, housing rehabilitations and health and safety initiatives.

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The Online SAT Will Be Shorter and Easier

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Woman on laptop

A common college admissions test, the SAT, will roll out its online version in the U.S. starting in March 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new test is reportedly expected to be easier, shorter and simpler.

The test will be reduced from three hours to two with shorter reading passages followed by single questions, while math problems will be less wordy with calculators permitted for every question, according to Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of college readiness assessments at the College Board, the test’s operator and regulator, the WSJ reported.

“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give and more relevant,” Rodriguez told the WSJ.

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Majority of Democrats Say the Unvaccinated Should Be Confined to Home: Poll

The Center Square

One-third of Americans say they haven’t gotten the COVID-19 shots, majority of Democrats say they should be confined at all times, and or fined.

A majority of Democrats say they’d support the unvaxxed being confined to their homes at all times, with 45% saying they should be confined to designated facilities and 55% support for fines.

Roughly one-third of Americans surveyed in a recent poll say they haven’t received the COVID-19 shots and the majority of them said they don’t plan on getting them. The unvaccinated would be targeted by a majority of Democrats in another poll who say they favor a government policy that would require them to “remain confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies.”

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Shock Poll: 73 Percent of Renacci’s GOP Supporters Think 2020 Election Stolen From Trump, Only 39 Percent of DeWine’s GOP Supporters

Neil W. McCabe

President Donald J. Trump’s one-time campaign manager, now advising James B. “Jim” Renacci’s gubernatorial campaign, touted a new internal poll in an exclusive interview with The Ohio Star that found the former congressman is leading Gov. R. Michael “Mike” DeWine in the race for the Republican nomination to be decided in the May 3 primary.

Trump is playing a major role in Republican voter preferences for the 2022 campaign, said Brad Parscale, who tracks Renacci’s messaging and other facets of the campaign, in an exclusive interview about the poll.

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Missouri Attorney General Sues Nine More School Districts over Mask Requirements

The Center Square
young girl getting face mask put on her face

Missouri Republican Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Monday filed lawsuits against nine public school districts with mask requirements.

Schmitt, a candidate for the seat of retiring U.S. Republican Senator Roy Blunt, filed suit against 36 school districts on Friday. Today’s districts being sued include the Kirkwood School District and the Special School District of St. Louis, both serving where Schmitt resides in Glendale, Mo.

“As we’ve made clear from the beginning, the power to make health decisions for their children should be in the hands of parents, not bureaucrats,” Schmitt said in a statement. “Today I’m filing nine more lawsuits against school districts that are illegally enforcing mask mandates on schoolchildren. Masking children all day in school is ineffective and these endless pandemic restrictions lead to lasting, negative psychological impacts on children and teens. This is a fight worth fighting, and I’m not going to back down.”

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Iowa Senators Consider Increasing Governor’s Role on District Court Judge Selection

The Center Square

Iowa senators advanced a bill Monday that would change the makeup and leadership of district judicial nominating commissions.

Iowa’s 14 judicial election subdistricts each has a nominating commission that screens applicants and selects two nominees for district court judicial vacancies. The governor chooses one of the two to appoint for a district court vacancy.

Currently, the judge of the longest service in the district is the chair of the nominating commission, according to Iowa state statute. If there are two longest-serving judges, the elder is the chair. The commissions have 11 members: five elected by lawyers; five nonlawyers appointed by the governor; and the chair. Each commissioner, apart from the chair, serves a six-year term.

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Despite November Referendum Defeat, Richmond City Council Votes to Try Again to Bring Casino to Richmond

Eric Burk

The Richmond City Council voted eight to one to again pursue bringing an Urban One casino to the city, despite voters rejecting the casino in a November referendum. Pro-casino spending hit about $2 million, but local grassroots activism and $200,000 defeated the proposal. Shortly afterwards a survey about the casino proposal began circulating, and Councilmember Reva Trammell began collecting signatures for a petition to hold another referendum, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Trammell’s district includes the proposed site of the casino. Before the Monday evening vote, she said that misinformation and difficulty voting were part of the reason the referendum failed.

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Appeals Court Rules Ballot Drop Boxes Allowed in Wisconsin February Primary

The Center Square
Man putting in mail-in vote in drop box with mask on

Voters in Wisconsin will be able to use ballot drop boxes in the next election after all.

An appeals court in Madison on Monday unanimously ruled against a Waukesha County judge who said the drop boxes are not permitted under the state’s election laws.

The appeals court says there’s not enough time to let voters know that ballot drop boxes aren’t allowed. Some ballots for the February 15th primary election have already been mailed, and some of them say voters can return their ballots to drop boxes.

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Miyares Fires University of Virginia Counsel Who Is Working for January 6 Select Committee

Eric Burk

Attorney General Jason Miyares fired University of Virginia counsel Tim Heaphy, who was on leave to work as chief investigative counsel for the congressional Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Attack on the United States Capitol.

Senator Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) told The New York Times, “This is purely payback for Jan. 6 — there is no other reason that makes any sense.”

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Virginia Scraps Critical Race Theory Program Critics Said Would Have Destroyed Math Education

Admin
Students in class, listening to the teacher at the front of the room

A state plan to abolish teaching advanced math in public schools that was seen as a means of implementing Critical Race Theory (CRT) was canceled Monday, according to a parents group.

The Virginia Department of Education (VDoE) has shut down the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI), according to a message that flashed briefly on the website before taking people to the main mathematics instruction page on the VDoE site, Parents Defending Education said.

“The Virginia Department of Education has ended the Virginia Math Pathways Initiative (VMPI) project. Please see the Mathematics Instruction page, if your browser does not refresh,” the message on the site reads.

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Governor Ron DeSantis Shreds Biden over Decision to Revoke Emergency Use Authorization for Monoclonal Antibody Treatments

Cooper Moran

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shredded President Joe Biden’s administration over the decision to revoke the emergency use authorization for Regeneron and Eli Lilly monoclonal antibody treatments.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, the treatments are not effective against the Omicron variant. Because the variant accounts for most cases of the coronavirus across the country, leaders of the agency limited its use.

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House of Delegates Subcommittee Advances Three Republican Elections Reforms

Eric Burk

The General Assembly started out Tuesday with a 7 a.m. House of Delegates subcommittee meeting where Republicans passed some election reforms bills, and ended the day in a lengthy Senate committee meeting where Democrats killed seven of Senator Amanda Chase’s (R-Chesterfield) election reform bills. The House Privileges and Elections Subcommittee One heard three bills focused on absentee voting, voter photo identification and voter registration.

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Minneapolis Suburb of Lexington City Becomes First ‘Health Freedom Sanctuary City’

Admin

As many cities across the state return to mandatory masking and impose vaccine requirements on their residents, the city of Lexington, Minnesota, has unanimously declared itself a “Health Freedom Sanctuary City.”

“The Lexington City Council opposes any government mandated requirements or restrictions on citizens to show proof of vaccination status in order to access local businesses, houses of worship, or cultural events,” states a resolution passed by the Lexington City Council last week.

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Far-Left Group Launches Campaign to Remove Arizona Sen. Sinema from Office

Peter D'Abrosca
Krysten Sinema

A far-left group that supports open borders has launched an all-out attack on moderate Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. 

“Voto Latino is investing six figures to hold Senator Sinema accountable during the 2024 primary for her obstruction of critical voting reforms, minimum wage increases, pandemic relief for undocumented Latinos, and other reforms that would protect and uplift millions of Latinos,” that organization said on a website called Adios Sinema.

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Senate Bill Would Reform Pennsylvania Mail-In Voting

Bradley Vasoli

A Pennsylvania Senate committee passed legislation Tuesday to make absentee-ballot canvassing more transparent, clarify ballot-submission deadlines and allow signature “curing” on mail-in-ballot envelopes.

Sen. Judy Ward (R-Hollidaysburg) said her reforms address concerns raised especially by the 2020 presidential election. The Senate State Government Committee advanced the bill in a party-line vote, with Republicans approving and Democrats opposed.

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Signatures Continue to Climb on Petition to Reverse Arizona State University Policy Mandating Vaccination Boosters for Student-Athletes at Away Games

Rachel Alexander

Arizona State University instituted a COVID-19 vaccine booster mandate on Jan. 11 for student-athletes participating in away games. Outraged student-athletes launched a petition to demand that ASU reverse the mandate, which has over 1,700 signatures so far. 

The petition, which was started anonymously probably due to fear of retaliation, states in part, “In a collective and respectful agreement amongst the athletes of various sports teams at Arizona State, we are voicing our stance to fight for the right to dictate what we decide goes into our bodies regarding the COVID-19 vaccination booster shot. … We want to express that there should NOT be a forced decision to be made by us athletes that causes us to sacrifice the season and competition we come to Arizona State for.”

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