Bill Allowing Religious Institutions to Stay Open During States of Emergency Gets Bipartisan Support

After passing through two different committees in the Florida Senate, a bill (SB 254) giving religious institutions the right to stay open during a state of emergency has been put on the calendar to be considered by the entire Senate.

Introduced by Republican Senators, Keith Perry of Gainesville and Jason Brodeur of Lake Mary, SB 254 was approved by the Senate Rules Committee Thursday who voted 14 to 2, and was unanimously approved by the Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security Committee in November.

Read the full story

Ohio’s Jobless Claims Higher than Most of Nation

A recent report shows Ohio continues to struggle to recover economically from the COVID-19 pandemic when compared with the rest of the nation.

A state-by-state comparison from the personal-finance website WalletHub showed the among the biggest increases in unemployment claims compared with a week ago. Ohio had the ninth-largest increase week-over-over.

“Ohio’s unemployment claims experienced the ninth-biggest increase in the past week. Compared to the same week in 2019, there are almost 75% more claims registered, and over 62% more compared to the first week of 2020, some of the highest increases in the country,” WalletHub Analyst Jill Gonzalez said. “Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, Ohio has had an over 120% rise in unemployment claims, the 13th-largest nationwide.”

Read the full story

Gov. Youngkin Tells General Assembly, ‘The State of the Commonwealth Is Not What it Should Be,’ ‘We Have the Ability to Course-Correct’

Governor Glenn Youngkin used his first State of the Commonwealth address to describe a Virginia in need of reform, with underfunded schools whose leaders are out of touch with parents, rising crime rates, rising cost of living, and a stalled economy. The Monday message contrasted with former Governor Ralph Northam’s State of the Commonwealth delivered last Wednesday, where Northam highlighted economic success, education that reckons with Virginia’s past, and progress on equity.

“From the perspective of everyday Virginia families, times are tough and the State of the Commonwealth is not what it should be,” Youngkin said. “The good news is that we have the ability to course-correct before this poor performance becomes permanent.”

Read the full story

Georgia District Attorney Disparages Conservative Oconee County Constituents as White Supremacists

The district attorney for Georgia’s Western Judicial Circuit last month compared her constituents in Oconee County to white supremacists, and she said they wish to do her harm. That woman, Deborah Gonzalez, represents a district that includes not only Oconee but Athens-Clarke counties. Athens-Clarke County’s political climate is strongly liberal. Oconee County’s political climate, meanwhile, is very conservative, according to BestPlaces.net

Read the full story

University of Michigan Fires President Mark Schlissel

The University of Michigan fired President Mark Schlissel for an improper relationship with a subordinate – a mistake that cost him his job and part of a contract initially valued up to $10 million over the next 10 years.

A Detroit News report previously estimated the contract payout total.

Last month, an anonymous complaint alerted University of Michigan officials of alleged misconduct. It hired Jenner & Block to investigate, which found “over the years” Schlissel used his work email to “communicate with that subordinate in a manner inconsistent with the dignity and reputation of the university.”

Read the full story

No Fine for Travelers Who Brought Deadly Bushmeat to Minnesota

Customs officials at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport seized more than 100 pounds of deadly “bushmeat” from travelers during the last week of December alone. Despite its potential for “deadly effects” and outbreaks of disease, there will be no consequences for the culprits.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bushmeat refers to “raw or minimally processed meat that comes from wild animals in certain regions of the world including Africa” and may pose a risk of communicable disease.

“Bushmeat comes from a variety of wild animals, including bats, nonhuman primates (monkeys), cane rats (grasscutters), and duiker (antelope),” the CDC says.

Read the full story

The University of Minnesota Admits the COVID-19 Vaccine Doesn’t Stop Transmission, Will ‘Probably’ Mandate Boosters Anyway

The University of Minnesota admitted in an email to its student body that the COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus — yet the school says it will “probably” require more boosters for its students.

Public Health Officer Jakub Tolar sent an email to the student body answering some frequently asked questions about the virus earlier this month.

“I’m vaccinated, does that mean I can’t get COVID-19?” one question reads. “No,” the school responds, stressing that omicron remains “easily transmissible” even among the university’s fully-vaccinated population.

Read the full story

Candidates Must Have ‘Bona Fide Republican’ Status to Qualify for Tennessee GOP Ballot

Tennessee State Capitol at night in winter

Election season is heating up in Tennessee. The midterm congressional elections occur this year and the release of the proposed new maps has led to even more discussion about potential candidates and district races in Tennessee.

In addition to satisfying the federal and state requirements to run for public office, candidates seeking the Republican nomination in Tennessee must satisfy the Tennessee GOP’s governing criteria in order to qualify for the nomination contest.

Read the full story

Recent Breakthroughs in 2020 Election Probes Undercut Narrative That Legal Avenues Are Exhausted

Mail in voting envelopes with masks on top

More than a year after the disputed 2020 presidential election, a series of legal breakthroughs in the investigation of the electoral process in decisive swing states — including official inquiries, court rulings, audits and finial disclosures — has unfolded in rapid succession recently, even as election integrity opponents continue to insist that all legal avenues for questioning the outcome have long since been exhausted.

Interviewing former Trump senior economic advisor Peter Navarro about the election earlier this month, MSNBC TV host Ari Melber argued that the “outcome was established by independent secretaries of state, by the voters of those states, and legal remedies had been exhausted with the Supreme Court never even taking, let alone siding with, any of the claims that you just referred to.”

Melber’s assertion echoed a mainstream political and media narrative firmly in place since Donald Trump’s large Election Day leads over Joe Biden in key swing states evaporated over the course of the ensuing week, when The New York Times reported, “Election officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race.”

Read the full story

Commentary: Joe Biden, the Deep State Puppet

I almost feel sorry for Joe Biden.

The emphasis, I hasten to add, is on the adverb. Perhaps, if he didn’t make me feel thoroughly sorry for the United States of America, my sympathy for him would be unalloyed. But even many in Biden’s own party are aghast at his performance as president.

It’s almost a matter of smell, of that sixth sense that alerts sensitive souls to impending disaster. Animals somehow know when an earthquake is coming, even before the ground begins to tremble. The far-left activist Stacey Abrams is well endowed with those antennae, which is why she invented “scheduling issues” and gave the president’s speech in Atlanta a miss last week. The aroma of events like that have a way of clinging to someone, and Abrams had the good sense to know that Joe Biden on “voting rights” and the run-up to Martin Luther King Day was likely to be a redolent affair.

Read the full story

U.S. Energy Department Spent over $1 Billion on Failed Carbon-Cutting Projects

Over the last decade, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) spent $1.1 billion on various projects that attempted to reduce carbon emissions through the practice of carbon capture and storage (CCS), only for the vast majority of these projects to either fail or be cancelled.

According to the Daily Caller, the waste of taxpayer money was revealed in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that was released in December. The report revealed that the DOE had invested $684 million in eight different CCS projects that focused on coal, only for seven of them to be cancelled, while only a single facility remained in operation. The remaining $438 million was spent on three industrial CCS facilities; of these three, two were successful while one was cancelled.

Read the full story

Twelve Tennessee Counties Qualify for Federal Recovery Assistance from December Tornadoes

pieces of crushed metal in front of someone's house after tornado

Governor Bill Lee’s office announced Friday that the Biden administration has qualified twelve counties to receive Major Disaster Declaration relief after a tornado-producing storm front tore through the state in early December. 

“I appreciate the hard recovery work we’ve already accomplished with our local, state, and federal partners,” Governor Lee said. “We will continue working to make sure Tennesseans have every resource necessary for a full, swift recovery.”

Read the full story

GOP Lawmakers Demand Ouster of Education Secretary over Reported Role in Targeting Parents

More than 40 House Republicans are calling for the ouster of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona after a report of his apparent role in a national schools group’s calling some concerned parents “domestic terrorists,” while 24 GOP senators are asking the nation’s top education official for answers.

The push comes after Fox News reported earlier this week on emails indicating that Cardona solicited a highly publicized letter to President Joe Biden from the National School Boards Association asking that officials apply the Patriot Act and other counterterror tools to dissenting parents.

An NSBA email said the letter to Biden was a “request from the secretary.” Cardona denied having anything to do with the group’s letter.

Read the full story

Commentary: What Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Would Say About Biden’s New COVID-19 Policy

Given the Biden administration’s recent effort to prioritize COVID-19 treatments based on race, it is more important than ever that we remember – and practice – the teachings of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration released new guidance to medical professionals which listed “race or ethnicity” as high risk factors for doctors to consider when prescribing a new monoclonal antibody known as Sotrovimab. Other high-risk factors included obesity, pregnancy, and other health conditions which would make a person less able to fight the virus. The new guidance means a person’s race could qualify him or her for treatment ahead of others who need the drugs.

Biden administration officials have cited high rates of diabetes and other health issues which are prevalent in non-white and non-Hispanic communities as reasons to include the new criteria. Officials in New York and Minnesota have also prioritized treating non-white patients, but they have more overtly cited historic health care disparities as a justification.

Read the full story

Commentary: Tennessee Republicans Will Work to Keep Communities and Schools Safe in 2022

School bus

Tennessee voters spoke loud and clear last November when they overwhelmingly elected Republicans to represent them at every level. I’m extremely proud that Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly have delivered on the promise to uphold conservative values, increase economic opportunities, improve public safety and strengthen education. We still have much work to do and we will continue to work to address these priorities during this upcoming legislative session. 

Our state budget is probably the most significant component of public policy our governor and General Assembly tackle each year. Unlike the federal government, Tennessee’s constitution requires us to balance our budget. The federal government’s debt has amassed to almost $30 trillion, something we should all be concerned about for future generations to come.

Our primary goal each year is always the same: to pass a balanced budget. From top to bottom, Tennessee’s $42.6 billion zero-debt budget is a spending plan that addresses the priorities and needs of all Tennesseans. 

Read the full story

Thousands of Students Plan School Walkouts Across the U.S. in Protest of in-Person Learning

Boy walking down a school hallway

Students across the U.S. are planning school walkouts in protest of in-person learning as COVID-19 cases spike amid the rise of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

There are nearly 3,500 schools actively disrupted as of Friday, according to Burbio’s K-12 School Opening Tracker, which tracks school closures for 1,200 districts, including the 200 largest school districts in the nation.

On Tuesday, New York City students staged a walkout in protest of in-person learning over what they said were concerns about testing and safety mitigation measures. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said school was the “safest place” for children during a Friday news conference.

Read the full story

DirecTV to Drop OAN in Blow to Conservative, Pro-Trump News Network

Satellite broadcaster DirecTV has announced plans to drop the One America News (OAN) channel in a blow to the conservative, unabashedly pro-Donald Trump news network.

“We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

Read the full story

Commentary: Pro-Government Zealots Remove Statues on Campus – Just Like China in Hong Kong

When students, faculty, and university administrations pull down statues on campus in an effort to censor history, they are engaging in the same authoritarian politics that characterize China’s control over Hong Kong.

Within 48 hours, Hong Kong University (HKU), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Lingan University witnessed the removal of artwork commemorating the 1989 massacre in Tiananmen Square.

At HKU, “the Pillar of Shame” was an apt name for the monument that memorialized the atrocity as an example of Chinese government oppression that the communist regime is now trying to whitewash.

Read the full story

United Van Lines: Americans Continue Moving Out of Higher-Tax States

While Americans continued to move out of higher taxed blue states in 2021, migration patterns were different than they were in 2020, a report by United Van Lines indicates.

United Van Lines customers primarily moved for new jobs or to be near family, resulting in their destination states being more varied than they were in 2020 when they primarily moved to western and southern states from northern states, its 45th Annual National Migration Study found.

Read the full story

Commentary: Climate Industrial Complex Left Clueless as Fossil Fuel Usage Increases

It has been a little more than a month since the United Nations climate meeting at Glasgow, yet global use of fossil fuels has increased rapidly.

For instance, U.S. President Joe Biden cancelled domestic oil projects and vowed to stop funding for international fossil fuel projects. But as fuel prices rose, Biden responded to his self-induced energy insecurity by releasing 50 million barrels of oil reserves and even called for an increase in domestic oil production.

Read the full story

Mike Lindell Says Heartland Financial Asked Him to Close Nine Bank Accounts

MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell said Heartland Financial and Minnesota Bank and Trust are asking him to take his accounts elsewhere because he is a “reputation risk.”

Lindell told Steve Bannon during a Friday episode of “War Room” that Heartland Financial wants him to close eight of his accounts within 30 days: Lindell Management, Lindell-TV, Lindell Outreach, Lindell Recovery Network, Lindell Foundation, Lindell Publishing, Michael Lindell Personal and MyStore.

Read the full story

GOP Senator Seeks to Stop Purported Biden Plan to Let Anatomical Men into Women’s Prisons

Tom Cotton

State-level fights over housing anatomically male prisoners in women’s prisons based on their gender identity may soon be joined by a federal battle.

A purported draft executive order by President Biden directs the attorney general to identify “necessary changes” to the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) Transgender Offender Manual so that the agency can “designate individuals to [federal] facilities in accordance with their gender identity.”

The bracketed paragraph is found on the 15th of an 18-image series of grainy photographs of a computer screen obtained by The Federalist. The word processing document is marked “draft – deliberative and pre-decisional – privileged and confidential,” and it deals with criminal justice reform.

Read the full story

Zuckerberg, Pichai Signed Off On Backroom Facebook-Google Collusion, Lawsuit Alleges

Facebook and Google CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai signed off on a deal between the two companies to rig the digital advertising market, a recently unredacted lawsuit alleges.

The existence of the deal, dubbed Jedi Blue, was first revealed in a complaint filed by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in December 2020 which alleged that Google unlawfully abused its dominance in the digital ads market. The complaint alleged that Google struck a deal with Facebook in 2018 to give the social company secret advantages in its ad exchanges, known as Open Bidding auctions, to the detriment of competitors.

An unredacted version of the complaint filed Friday alleges that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally signed off on the deal. The complaint alleges Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg brokered the deal with top Google executive Philipp Schindler and pushed Zuckerberg to approve.

Read the full story

Federal Agency to Begin Tracking Religious Exemptions to Biden’s Vaccine Mandate

An obscure agency of the U.S. government, whose stated mission is to reduce recidivism and work with criminal justice partners to enhance public safety, will begin tracking all federal employees who file for religious exemptions to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on federal workers and contractors.

Religious rights group question whether the tracking plan will be used to discriminate against federal employees and contractors of faith.

Read the full story

Lawyer in Historic Vaccine Mandate Challenge Warns Larger Constitutional Issues Remain Unresolved

One of the lawyers in the historic U.S. Supreme Court case that blocked the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on private business is warning it is only a preliminary victory and the larger constitutional issues about government-compelled inoculations must still be litigated.

“In some ways, yesterday was a win of a major battle, but still leaves the war to be fought,” said Robert Henneke, executive director and general counsel at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which filed one of the original challenges in Texas against the vaccine mandate that was eventually consolidated before the Supreme Court.

“While it got to the right outcome for declaring the private employer vax mandate unlawful, it kind of misses the forest for the trees because it leaves these broader questions of federal power unresolved,” he told the John Solomon Reports podcast.

Read the full story

Thieves Reportedly Targeting Trains, Delivery Trucks in Atlanta, Los Angeles

Criminals have reportedly opened up a new lucrative front in the ongoing package-theft epidemic throughout the U.S., targeting shipping infrastructure to steal goods before they even get to consumers’ porches.

UPS Chief Executive Carol Tome told CNBC this week that one of the company’s 18-wheeler shipping trucks was robbed several weeks ago in December. “[The driver] was stopped at gunpoint,” she said. “He was zip-tied, thrown into the back of his feeder car, and they took the packages.”

Read the full story

Unvaccinated Tennis Star Djokovic Deported from Australia

Australia’s federal court on Sunday ordered to Novak Djokovic deported for failing to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine despite having natural immunity, a decision that deprives the world’s No. 1 tennis star of the chance to defend his Australian Open title.

After eight hours of deliberations, Chief Justice James Allsop said the decision came down to whether Immigration Minister Ethan Hawke’s decision was “irrational or legally unreasonable.”

Read the full story

Attorney General’s Office Indicts Four Fulton County Individuals for Human Trafficking

Sign that says "Human trafficking happens here"

The Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, a division within the Georgia Attorney General’s office, indicted four Fulton County individuals on multiple trafficking and cruelty to children charges.

Two individuals, Raphel Olivia Sewer and Jody Netter, were charged with human trafficking and cruelty to children in the first degree. Netter also faces charges of rape and statutory rape.

Read the full story

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Pauses Examination of Fulton County Voting Machines

Pennsylvania Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee contractor Envoy Sage cannot yet gather data from Fulton County’s election devices according to a Friday order of the state Supreme Court.

That directive stays part of a recent Commonwealth-Court ruling that allows the investigation to proceed. Fulton County’s commissioners have voted to comply with the Senate probe, which is part of a broader examination of the 2020 and 2021 Pennsylvania elections and has been spearheaded by the committee’s Republican Chairman Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro). The Democrat-run Pennsylvania Department of State and the voting machines’ manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems are litigating to stop it.

Read the full story

Commentary: Getting Back to Normal

People keep asking me how we get back to normal. How do we return to the days before vaccine mandates and closed schools to a fully functioning military, secure borders, and a time when inflation wasn’t through the roof? I’ll give you the short answer: pure, unadulterated political power.

You can only get back to normal when political power is in the hands of the right people making the right policies that actually advance the country in a positive, beneficial way. And then you beat the Left and others who have gotten us here into unconditional surrender. 

Read the full story

Florida House Panel to Hear Abortion Bill

This week, the Florida House Professions & Public Health Subcommittee will take up a piece of legislation that could ban abortions in Florida after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The bill, HB 5, is sponsored by Florida State. Rep. Erin Grall (R-FL-54).

The bill is similar to a Mississippi abortion law that is currently being heard by the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS). Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has said that he would likely support the legislation.

Read the full story

State Sen. Reeves Introduced Youngkin Legislation to Cut Virginia Veterans’ Income Tax, Expand Child Care Subsidy Eligibility

Governor Glenn Youngkin is enacting some of his policies by executive order, but he’ll have to work with legislators to get other initiatives passed. Senator Bryce Reeves has introduced two bills focused on the governor’s goal to make Virginia more veteran friendly.

“The bills, carried by Senator Reeves on behalf of Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin, signal that Governor-elect Youngkin’s administration values military and veteran families across the commonwealth and recognizes that Virginia must compete to retain its recognition as one of the most military and veteran-friendly states,” a Friday Reeves press release said.

Read the full story

Minnesota Launches $200 Vaccine Incentive Program

Families who get their child in the 5- to 11-year-old age group vaccinated for COVID-19 are eligible for a new round of $200 incentives, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday.

Families will receive one $200 VISA gift card per child who receives both doses between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28, the news release said. Registration for the gift cards, which is possible following completion of the series, opens at 10 a.m. Jan. 24 and closes at 11:59 p.m. Feb. 28.

“In light of the Omicron variant, there is a new sense of urgency in our response, and we are doing whatever we can to encourage Minnesotans to get their vaccine and keep themselves and their communities safe,” Minnesota Department of Health Information Officer Doug Schultz told The Center Square in an emailed statement Thursday. “Getting as many eligible Minnesotans vaccinated as possible is critical to helping curb the spread of COVID-19 and keep Minnesota families safe.”

Read the full story

Patrick Witt Commentary: Election Integrity Will Save Our Nation, and It Starts in Georgia

Election integrity lies at the very foundation of what it means to be a citizen of the American republic. The 2020 presidential election was badly marred by fraud, constitutional violations (both state and federal), and abuses of authority under the guise of public health. These problems were especially acute in our State of Georgia, which is why it is critical that we elect the right individuals in 2022 who will be bold champions for election reform and accuracy.

In recent weeks, our feckless and weak Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, has even been forced to belatedly acknowledge the enormous abuses of drop-boxes in Georgia in 2020. Thanks to the investigative efforts of True the Vote, evidence continues to accumulate of shadowy agents engaged in illegal ballot harvesting—the practice of collecting ballots on behalf of other voters—which is expressly prohibited by Georgia law. New video evidence, mobile phone records, plus the account of a whistleblower all point to a highly unlawful, coordinated operation to deposit thousands of absentee ballots in harvested bunches, often in the dark of night. In fact, according to True the Vote, 40% of these ballot drops occurred between midnight and 5am and involved thousands of ballot deposits.

Read the full story

Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Anti-Corruption Bill Aimed at State Vendors

Vendors wanting to do business with the state of Ohio would be banned if they are caught committing fraud under proposed legislation in the General Assembly.

What sponsoring lawmakers are calling anti-corruption legislation also is aimed at stopping influence and collusion. Ohio is one of a few states that does not have a law modeled after similar federal legislation.

“Ohio is potentially letting criminals get away with millions of dollars of ill-gotten taxpayer dollars by failing to adopt these long-needed and commonsense reforms,” Rep. Jeffrey Crossman, D-Parma, said. “There is no reason why we shouldn’t pass these bills to catch and punish fraud.”

Read the full story

Head of Atlanta’s Transit System Kills Self by Stepping in Front of Commuter Train

aerial shot of MARTA

The top executive of Atlanta’s MARTA transit system has died by suicide after stepping in front of a commuter train, officials said.

Jeffery Parker, 55, the CEO and general manager of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority since 2018, was hailed by MARTA Board Chairwoman Rita Scott as a dedicated civil servant and leader in a statement Saturday announcing his death.

Read the full story

Rochester Man Gets 10 Years for May 2020 Arson During the George Floyd Riots That Resulted in Man’s Death

A Rochester man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the May 2020 arson of a pawn shop that led to the death of a man. According to court documents, on May 28, 2020, in the riots that followed the death of George Floyd, Montez Terriel Lee, along with other unnamed individuals, broke into the Max It Pawn Shop on East Lake Street in Minneapolis.

Read the full story