The Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration announced Friday that overall January state tax revenues exceeded budgeted estimates. On an accrual basis, January is the sixth month in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
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Bedford County Mayor Chad Graham officially announced his re-election campaign on Friday in a press release.
“For many years, our county lagged behind surrounding counties in benefiting from regional economic growth,” Mayor Graham said in a statement. “While we certainly want an improved economic environment, we also don’t want to sacrifice our quality of life to unbridled growth, traffic congestion and crime. I believe we have the right approach and now is the time to continue building on our recent successes for the sake of future generations and make Bedford County even better.”
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The Metro Nashville Beer Permit Board has granted permits to two pedal tavern companies.
The Beer Permit Board met on Thursday, February 10, 2022 and granted Nashville Pedal Tavern and Sprocket Rocket Party Bike permits to sell beer. Customers are also permitted to bring their own beer onto the pedal taverns.
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For months, the lawyer representing Kaleb Franks—one of six men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020—has produced some of the most detailed and damning reports to make a case for FBI entrapment. Defense attorneys last year discovered that at least a dozen FBI agents and informants were intimately involved in the abduction plot, brought to a dramatic conclusion in October 2020 when the men were arrested after an FBI informant drove them to meet an undercover FBI agent to buy materials for explosives.
With the trial date just weeks away, the Justice Department’s case is imploding amid numerous scandals.
The timing could not be worse for the government, especially the FBI, which is now under scrutiny for its suspected role in fomenting the Capitol breach on January 6, 2021. After all, the two events share many similarities, including plans to “storm” Michigan’s state Capitol building, the use of militia groups reportedly loyal to Donald Trump, and official designations that both represent “domestic terror” attacks.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned U.S. law enforcement and public safety officials that a trucker convoy protest similar to the one taking place in Ottawa, Canada, could begin on American soil on Feb. 13, the day of the Super Bowl, Yahoo News reported.
The warning, which was distributed nationwide on Tuesday, told authorities the DHS “has received reports of a convoy of truckers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers,” according to senior law enforcement officials and documents obtained by Yahoo News.
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Two years after COVID burst on the American scene, leading to lockdowns, school closures, mask and vaccine mandates, and trillions of dollars in emergency government spending, the question on many minds is: When will the emergency end?
The answer to that question is not an easy one. An examination of past emergencies does not resolve it. Rather, it is clear that emergency situations, including this one, may be understood through various lenses, yielding different perspectives on what the endpoint will be.
Take, by way of comparison, World War II, an emergency that had at least four distinct endings because it had at least four distinct faces:
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A D.C. District Court judge overseeing numerous Capitol protest cases today accused the Justice Department of repeatedly falsifying the location of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris during the afternoon of January 6, 2021.
Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, openly doubted the validity of trespassing charges against Nicholas Rodean, indicted last March on several counts for his participation in the protest on Capitol Hill.
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A health class assignment to eighth-grade students in Enfield, Connecticut asked them to list their sexual likes and dislikes, using pizza toppings as a metaphor.
Parents of eighth grade students in a sex ed class at the John F. Kennedy Middle School in the Enfield Public Schools (EPS) district reported their children received an assignment that asked them to list their sexual likes and dislikes – and likened that to ordering toppings on a pizza.
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U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and John Kennedy, R-La., introduced new legislation Thursday that would block American Rescue Plan taxpayer dollars from being used to purchase and distribute crack pipes.
The Cutting Rampant Access to Crack Kits (CRACK) Act of 2022 comes after the Washington Free Beacon reported federal taxpayer dollars had gone to a program that provides syringes and pipes to drug users as a form of “harm reduction.”
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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Joe Biden has tapped an LGBTQ+ activist, drag queen “pup” fetishist to be the deputy assistant secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy.
The Politico reported the news on Thursday:
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Connecticut children cannot be certain they can finally be free of wearing masks in school since, although Gov. Ned Lamont (D) said he would end the state school mask mandate by February 28, that plan may depend on the legislature voting to extend his pandemic emergency powers, and then on individual school districts.
In his State of the State address Wednesday, Lamont told residents he will roll back some coronavirus restrictions, including the school mask mandate, adding, “You have earned this freedom.”
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed a bonafide Republican candidate for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional district, Natisha Brooks to talk about her background and campaign goals.
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In an interview on Thursday, Joe Biden outright rejected an official investigative report by the United States Army that highlighted many of the failures that led to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
As reported by the Daily Caller, the 2,000-page report was released by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request this week. The report included the sworn testimony of multiple commanders who were on the ground in Afghanistan and witnessed the failed withdrawal firsthand.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Dr. K. to the newsmakers line to give his take on the Super Bowl winner.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver to the newsmaker line to talk about her priorities for 2022 and a Yes vote to refuse federal education money.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in-studio to discuss the recently proposed legislation by Senator Frank Nicely reestablishing candidacy requirements for public office.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration again Thursday, this time for requiring federal contractors to pay a $15 an hour minimum wage. It’s the 21st lawsuit the attorney general has filed against the administration. Joining him are the attorneys general from Louisiana and Mississippi.
“The president has no authority to overrule Congress, which has sole authority to set the minimum wage and which already rejected a minimum wage increase,” Paxton argues.
Their lawsuit follows one filed last December by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of outdoor adventure guides, Arkansas Valley Adventures (AVA), a licensed river outfitter regulated by the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, and the Colorado River Outfitters Association (CROA). The CROA, a nonprofit trade association, represents more than 150 independent operators who primarily conduct business on federal lands using special use permits through Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management.
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Two surveys, conducted by the Harris Poll and commissioned by the Committee for a Better Ohio, showed Republican Jim Renacci leading incumbent Mike DeWine and potential Democratic opponent John Cranley.
The first poll analyzed each Republican candidate’s odds against John Cranley, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the position against Nan Whaley. Renacci has the largest lead of any GOP contender, leading the Democrat by 10 points. DeWine’s lead was only 2 points.
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The Ingham County Health Department will repeal its mask mandate on Feb. 19 at midnight for thousands of students.
“We are at a point in this pandemic in which public health strategies will begin to shift more towards personal responsibility as we learn to live with COVID-19 long-term,” Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said in a statement. “As a public health agency, we will continue to support local school districts by recommending evidence-based public health measures, educating on current guidance and practices, and making recommendations for staying safe and healthy.”
The emergency orders issued on Sept. 2, 2021, require masks in schools and details quarantine and isolation rules.
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After two years of imposing heavy-handed COVID-19 restrictions resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs for Michiganders and nearly 30 percent of small businesses in the state expecting not to survive the pandemic, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is concerned about the economic ramifications of the Canadian Freedom Convoy.
“[The right-wing media is] inciting and encouraging people to break the law and to do so in a way that devastates so many hard-working people…This is five days, and it’s already taken a toll of tens of billions of dollars — that number compounds over time,” Whitmer said on CNN Friday morning.
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Republican lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers are, perhaps surprisingly, on the same page when it comes to spending more money on childcare in Wisconsin.
The state’s budget-writing panel, the Joint Finance Committee, on Wednesday unanimously approved a plan to spend $194 million in federal funds to support childcare across the state.
“$194 million is a lot of money,” Rep Amy Loudenbeck, R-Clinton, told lawmakers. “This is our job as a committee and members of the legislature to have a voice in how these programs are supported or created or expanded. Or in some cases not created and not expanded.”
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The Arizona House Government and Elections Committee advanced a bill that will prohibit any public or charter school mask mandate for children under 18 without parental consent.
The legislation, sponsored by Representative Joseph Chaplik (R-Scottsdale), moved out of the committee on a partisan vote, with all Democrats opposing the measure.
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Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D), running for Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination, raised a combined total of $313,000 in January. Fried’s campaign raised a total of $171,502 and her political action committee, Florida Consumers First, raised $141,854.
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An effort to unionize by Starbucks employees in Buffalo, New York, is moving west, having worked its way into Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois, and now to the Twin Cities.
“Early Friday morning, the hourly workers at two Twin Cities Starbucks locations, demanded union recognition from CEO Kevin Johnson and local management,” letter said.
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It has been over a year since Raphael Warnock was sworn in as one of Georgia’s senators. In that period, Warnock has proven to be more beneficial and useful to Joe Biden than to Georgians.
Since Warnock’s swearing-in, Georgians have experienced record-breaking inflation, empty shelves due to an unmanaged supply chain crisis, a resurgence in record-setting COVID-19 cases, and a botched withdrawal in Afghanistan at the hands of Joe Biden.
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Details emerged throughout the day Friday of an incident that led to five Phoenix police officers being shot, four injured by bullet shrapnel, one suspect dead and a woman injured.
The deadly incident unfolded just after 2 a.m. on Friday morning, when police responded to a shooting at a Phoenix home, according to Phoenix Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Andy Williams.
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The Florida House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that will enact term limits on elected public school board members. CS/BS 1467 by Florida Representative Sam Garrison (R-District 18) originally included a provision that would have eliminated salaries for school board members. However, that provision was axed after an late-arriving amendment.
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House Republicans took over six hours on Friday to pass several bills confirming low-level appointments made by former Governor Ralph Northam, a reaction to the Senate’s vote earlier this week to block Governor Glenn Youngkin’s appointment of former Trump EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler as Secretary of Natural and Historic Resources.
Republican leaders in the House and the Senate have been hinting at potential trouble over potential blocked nominees for weeks, but on Thursday, Senator Emmett Hanger (R-Augusta) told The AP that Youngkin seemed ready to move on from Wheeler’s confirmation.
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Arizona doesn’t have an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which mostly gives straight cash to those who don’t earn enough money to obtain a state tax refund, but Gov. Doug Ducey wants to change that. He is supporting SB 1018, sponsored by Senator Sean Bowie (D-Phoenix), which would create one, joining 30 other states which have adopted one patterned after the federal EITC.
A state EITC would take $74 million from the state’s coffers annually and give it to low earners. In order to qualify, income levels would face the same ceilings as the federal credit. Both families and singles are eligible, with a family of four children earning $20,000 maxing out the most with $325.
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RICHMOND, Virginia – The House Education Committee voted to advance school mask-optional language in a special meeting Friday; Senator Siobhan Dunnavant’s (R-Henrico) SB 739 was the only bill on the agenda.
As introduced in the Senate, Dunnavant’s original bill focused on in-person learning, but earlier this week Senator Chap Peterson (D-Fairfax City) moved to amend the bill to include the masking clause; that vote got broad support from both sides of the aisle. A later vote to pass the amended bill only had two Democrats supporting it, but that was enough to pass out of the Democrat-controlled Senate. On Wednesday, Delegate Amanda Batten (R-York) said that the sudden change surprised Republicans.
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Georgia retailers say that the public’s demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs) grows more and more with every passing year and, with that, so does the public’s demand for EV chargers. Those same Georgia retailers want to capitalize on that trend — but they said this week that officials at Georgia Power stand in their way.
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Former President Donald Trump on Friday raised concerns over election integrity in Wisconsin, citing potential irregularities that have been proposed over the past year.
In the statement, Trump called on lawmakers within the state to put forth a resolution to “decertify” the state’s election results.
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court temporarily has suspended the primary election calendar while it reviews a lawsuit over congressional redistricting.
Candidates for the May 17 primary were to start gathering signatures for petitions on Feb. 15 to get on the primary ballot, but the high court suspended the process “pending further order” as justices prepare for a Feb. 18 hearing on a new congressional district map.
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Alpha News has learned that a private liberal arts college in southern Minnesota is planning an appreciation lunch for just non-white staff and faculty later this month, which potentially violates federal civil rights law.
The equity and inclusion office at Gustavus Adolphus College, located in the town of St. Peter and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, recently announced the “People of Color & International Faculty and Staff Appreciation Lunch” that will take place on Friday, Feb. 25.
An email sent out to faculty and staff from the college’s office of marketing and communication mentioned that “Faculty and Staff who are People of Color and/or international … are invited to an appreciation lunch on Friday, February 25 from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the Three Crowns Room.”
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Ohio’s issues with mail theft and violence against postal workers do not appear to be slowing, as postal workers in Cleveland are taking extraordinary measures to keep thieves from stealing mail.
Just a week after The Ohio Star reported on a string of robberies of postal workers in the Columbus area, Cleveland’s United State Postal Service (USPS) employees have been forced to tape shut their ubiquitous blue mailboxes to prevent thieves from breaking in and stealing mail, according to reports.
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A newly-released poll from candidate Mike Gibbons showed the Republican businessman comfortably ahead of his opponents in the Ohio U.S. Senate race.
According to the survey, Gibbons holds roughly 23 percent of the support in the crowded primary. The closest competitors, Josh Mandel and J.D. Vance, hold 10.8 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively.
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Thursday morning on War Room Pandemic, host Bannon welcomed The Michigan Star Report Pete D’Abrasco discuss his recent article which addresses how the Canadian freedom convoy of truckers has spread to Windsor creating standstill traffic on heavily traveled Ambassador Bridge dispelling falsehoods by left-wing media outlets.
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The Washington Post published an article this week that focused on Tennessee and said liberal mothers will attend more public-school board meetings to speak out against and attempt to defeat conservative groups like Moms for Liberty. The newspaper said these ‘Blue suburban moms’ are mobilizing. The report also said those mothers are about to go on offense against anyone who attends public school board meetings to speak out against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and COVID-19 masks.
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