Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary where he addresses human nature and the Constitution.
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Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and Israel are backing away from COVID vaccine mandates amid increasing evidence that the leaky vaccines are making the pandemic worse.
It is becoming harder to deny the glaringly obvious facts that COVID infection rates are increasing worldwide in proportion with the rate of vaccination, and that the injections have dreadful adverse side effects which may be contributing to a marked increase in all cause deaths.
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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) disclosed to a congressional office that migrants flying without proper identification can use an arrest warrant as an alternate form of identification when presenting to airport security, according to a letter the Daily Caller News Foundation exclusively obtained.
Responding to Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden’s Dec. 15 inquiry about migrants flying across the country, TSA Administrator David Pekoske explained that certain Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents may be considered acceptable forms of alternate identification for non-citizens, including a “Warrant for Arrest of Alien” and a “Warrant of Removal/Deportation.”
“TSA’s response confirms the Biden Administration is knowingly putting our national security at risk,” Gooden told the DCNF. “Unknown and unvetted immigrants shouldn’t even be in the country, much less flying without proper identification.”
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Voters have swung in favor of Congressional Republicans’ handling of key issues by a significant margin as the midterm elections draw closer, newly released polling shows.
The Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday reports that surveyed voters prefer Republicans work on the economy, jobs, immigration and national security. These figures, the latest in several polls showing poor numbers for Democrats, come alongside more than two dozen Congressional Democrats opting not to run for reelection.
The poll found voters prefer Republicans’ handling of the economy to Democrats 47% to 34%, Republicans’ work on jobs 45% to 35%, immigration 45% to 37% and national security 49% to 32%.
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Jordan Peterson, a long time professor at the University of Toronto, announced on Wednesday that he will surrender his full time status, largely due to social justice initiatives of the university and higher education in general.
However, Peterson will remain at the school. He will receive the title of professor emeritus, a title normally awarded to a retired professor who wishes to remain involved in academia.
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For all the attention paid to wondrous technologies, lifesaving new treatments and drugs, medicine remains by, for and about people.
This is both a blessing and a curse.
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It’s time for Dr. Fauci to go.
That’s a tough sentence to write considering the important role he’s played in advancing crucial public health issues from advancing HIV/AIDS therapies to our battle against COVID-19. His Bobble Head was well-deserved. Please, don’t shoot the messenger.
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A bagel shop in Minneapolis made the decision to close indoor dining on Wednesday due to the COVID vaccine mandate taking effect. Rise Bagel Co., an organic artisan bagelry located in the North Loop of Minneapolis, announced in social media posts on Tuesday that they made the “tough decision” to close their indoor dining, saying that “All are welcome here.”
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RICHMOND, Virginia – The Senate General Laws and Technology Committee killed two of Senator Amanda Chase’s (R-Chesterfield) bills seeking to outlaw discrimination against those who refuse to wear masks or get COVID-19 vaccines.
“While we have many opinions about whether to wear masks or not, it should be an individual right. It should be an individual choice. I remember a period of time whenever that was not necessarily an option, and it impeded people who had disabilities from actually getting healthcare services because they could not wear a mask, not being able to go to the grocery store, shop. We cannot deny people a basic human right of being provided healthcare and basic human services,” Chase told the committee on Wednesday afternoon, arguing for her bill SB 582.
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The University of Michigan has agreed to pay $490 million to more than 1,000 athletes who were sexually assaulted by a former football team doctor.
The school will pay the victims of the late Dr. Robert Anderson, according to several reports. The agreement was reached Tuesday.
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RICHMOND, Virginia – The General Assembly continues to debate Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order One banning Critical Race Theory and “inherently divisive concepts.” On Wednesday, legislators debated the policy in the House Education Committee, on the House floor, and on the Senate floor. The newly-Republican-controlled House of Delegates has been slow to hear bills in committee, which generated another House floor back-and-forth, but although key anti-CRT bills haven’t been heard in the Education Committee yet, delegates got a jump-start on debating the topic when interviewing Youngkin nominee for Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow.
Balow previously served as Wyoming’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, where she supported anti-CRT legislation.
“I share Governor Youngkin’s priorities for education,” Balow said.
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Emergency legislation enacted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that changed the way municipal income taxes were handed out to cities is now in front of the Ohio Supreme Court.
The Buckeye Institute, a Columbus-based policy group, originally filed suit in July 2020, challenging the state law that requires an employee to pay income taxes in the city where an employee works instead of where they live.
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Seattle-based Starbucks announced this week that is dropping its policy requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The coffee giant’s move comes in response to last week’s United State Supreme Court ruling to block the Biden Administration from requiring businesses in the private sector to put vaccine mandates in place.
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On Wednesday in a press release, Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci said students need a brick-and-mortar school, and that remote learning has devastating consequences. The Republican is urging all Cincinnati area educators to fight for in-person learning.
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Yesterday, numerous mainstream media outlets published articles claiming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is prioritizing legislation that protects white Floridians from feeling “discomfort” when learning or discussing discrimination in the workplace or at school.
However, the bill they reference is SB 148 where individual races of people are not named.
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Wednesday, the city of Akron provided The Ohio Star with an update on the conditions of its streets after some residents found themselves unable to leave their homes three days after Sunday’s winter storm.
“We have completed all of the first, second and third priority streets as of noon today (48 hours after the snow stopped with the most event accumulation Akron’s had in the past 25 years),” Stephanie Marsh, Communications and Media Supervisor for Akron Mayor Daniel Horrigan told The Star. “All streets are open and passable.”
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Sunday submitted his own proposals for Florida’s congressional redistricting maps to Florida lawmakers. The Florida legislature is tasked with approving the congressional maps before this legislative session ends in March.
The proposed maps that DeSantis submitted includes 18 seats that Donald Trump would have won in 2020. The existing Florida Senate maps only have 16 Trump-leaning seats.
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Two Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), have racked up nearly $150,000 in combined fines for refusing to wear masks in the House chamber.
According to The Hill, Congresswoman Greene has been fined a total of $88,000 for 36 different violations. Congressman Clyde has been fined at least $60,500 for 25 violations since September. The combined total is $148,500.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) implemented the mask mandate in the House chambers in July of 2020, with Pelosi ordering fines for members who refused to wear masks starting in January of 2021. Lawmakers who refuse to comply are fined $500 the first time, and $2,500 for each subsequent offense. Members who refuse to pay the fines will have the amounts deducted from their salaries, which is roughly $174,000 for each member, although members in leadership positions earn even more.
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Two popular school-choice programs for Pennsylvania students would get regular annual funding increases – expanding access to thousands of families – under legislation a state Senate committee approved yesterday.
Sen. Mike Regan’s (R-Dillsburg) bill would automatically raise allocations to the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) by 25 percent each year, provided at least 90 percent of obtainable scholarships have been utilized the year before. Regan estimated his funding rise would amount to $100 million more annually—about 0.3 percent of what the commonwealth spends on public education. His measure passed the Senate Education Committee by a party-line vote of seven to four and awaits a vote of the full chamber.
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Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) is co-sponsoring the Open Schools Act with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL-13), “to support students and allow parents to make the best decision for their family.” According to a press release from Davis, the Open Schools Act would provide families with up to $10,000 per student “to seek alternative forms of in-person education” if the public school that the students attend has switched to distance or online learning due to COVID.
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Fulton County commissioners on Wednesday voted four to three to extend the contract with Happy Faces, a staffing firm said to have ties to Stacey Abrams. Commissioners voted this way, despite several people turning out to protest Happy Faces and any possible contract extension. To express their displeasure with Happy Faces, those audience members held up with signs and buttons with a crossed-out smiley face.
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Multiple Michigan lawmakers are demanding answers to a report from the Michigan Office of the Auditor General that detailed thousands of additional COVID-related deaths in long-term care facilities across the state.
The analysis discovered more than 2,000 additional deaths than reported by Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Department of Health and Human Services.
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Ohio Value Voters, a large statewide conservative organization, on Tuesday endorsed GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Renacci.
The organization selected the former congressman over incumbent Governor Mike DeWine and Joe Blystone, who is also waging a GOP primary attempt against DeWine.
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Parents trying to recall members of a northern Virginia school board were accused of racism for these actions by a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on Tuesday.
Michelle Thomas, a pastor and president of the Loudoun, Virginia, branch of the NAACP called the recall effort “a Jim Crow-esque effort of 2022 to suppress votes, and to silence the will of the people,” according to the Loudoun Times-Mirror. Thomas was announcing an effort to join the legal battle seeking to remove school board members Brenda Sheridan and Atoosa Reaser when she made the comment.
Thomas took aim at Fight for Schools, the parents group behind the recall effort, which began after a secret Facebook group targeting parents who opposed Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) came to light.
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Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) announced on Wednesday that he will support a change to eliminate the Senate filibuster, despite his campaign pledge to work as an “independent.”
In a statement, Kelly detailed his openness to give one party unilateral power in an effort to protect “the vote-by-mail system.”
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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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