New Tennessee Program Seeks to Create Jobs in Entertainment Industry

A new franchise and excise tax credit program in Tennessee is aiming to help create jobs and economic development throughout the state’s entertainment industry.

According to a release from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD), the initiative will allow certain companies to apply for a tax credit based on “resident and non-resident Tennessee payroll expenses” and “apply for a point of purchase sales tax exemption.”

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Commentary: Obama Wants the ‘Contest of Ideas’ Rigged

Barack Obama holds court these days as a great authority on the preservation of a civilized democracy. He says that nothing worries him more than “disinformation.” Never mind that he rose to power as a manipulative acolyte of Saul Alinsky, the famously amoral Chicago activist who endorsed disinformation as a tool of “community organizing.” Much of Alinsky’s activism consisted of duping ordinary Americans. Were Alinsky alive today, he would no doubt enjoy the spectacle of a former president steeped in his duplicitous methods lecturing Americans on the dangers of disinformation.

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Tennessee Joins Coalition of 21 States Led by Arizona AG Brnovich in Lawsuit to Prevent Termination of Title 42

The State of Georgia, led by Attorney General Chris Carr joined a 21-state coalition, which filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to block the federal government from ending Title 42.

Title 42 is a public health order from the Trump administration that allowed border officials to turn away individuals due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

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Connecticut Fiscal Conservatives Warn Against SEBAC Contracts

The Yankee Institute (YI), Connecticut’s premier economically conservative think tank, is exhorting state lawmakers to reject contracts that the Lamont administration negotiated with the State Employee Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC).

YI began warning against the eventual fiscal consequences of the agreements after the public-employee labor coalition started publicizing their major features in mid-March. Later that month, the SEBAC’s 15 unions approved the agreements and, on April 1, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) requested that the Democrat-controlled General Assembly ratify the deals, characterizing them as “responsible and fair.”

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Democrats Lead Fundraising in 2nd, 7th, and 10th Virginia Congressional Districts; Kiggans, Lawson, and Anderson Lead in Fundraising for GOP Nominations

In new fundraising results, Democrats are leading in congressional midterm races in Virginia’s second, seventh, and tenth congressional districts. The GOP hasn’t yet picked nominees for those races, but state Senator Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach), Derrick Anderson, and Prince William County Supervisor Jeanine Lawson are leading in funds raised for races in CD two, seven, and ten respectively, according to data compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project.

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Tax Rallies to Return to Minnesota Capitol Saturday

The Center of the American Experiment is hosting a tax rally outside the Minnesota Capitol to call for the return of the state’s enormous budget surplus to taxpayers.

The event, the “Give It Back Rally,” will take place on Saturday, April 23, at 11 a.m.

“We’re hosting a Tax Rally in St. Paul to pressure Gov. Tim Walz and the legislature to return the record-breaking $9.3 billion budget surplus to the hardworking taxpayers of Minnesota,” according to a press release.

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Arizona Creates Task Force to Address Infrastructure, Utilize Federal Funding

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey on Thursday launched a new task force to address the state’s infrastructure needs and appropriate federal funding administered to the state through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The legislation, which was approved on a bipartisan basis, will allocate $1.2 trillion to states to repair and upgrade critical infrastructure needs, like roads and bridges.

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Federal Judge Rules Stacey Abrams Cannot Yet Collect Unlimited Donations in Georgia Governor Race

A federal judge has ruled that Stacey Abrams cannot yet collect unlimited donations in the Georgia governor’s race.

U.S District Court Judge Mark Cohen from the Northern District of Georgia ruled that Abrams cannot collect unlimited donations as allowed under Georgia law because she is not yet the official Democrat nominee for governor.

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Latest Polling Shows Oz Slightly Ahead of McCormick for Pennsylvania GOP Senate Nomination

New polling shows Mehmet Oz pulling slightly ahead of David McCormick in the Republican Pennsylvania Senate primary for the first time since the latter announced his run in January.

The latest Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) Poll, conducted from March 30 to April 10, showed Oz with 16 percent of support among 317 registered Republicans compared with McCormick’s 15 percent, a statistical tie. Yet another survey by the Republican-aligned Trafalgar Group conducted between April 10 and 13 found Oz leading 22.7 percent to 19.7 percent among 1,074 polled Republicans, just slightly outside the 2.99-percent margin of error. The latter polling took place after former President Donald Trump endorsed the celebrity surgeon two Saturdays ago.

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Florida Rejects 41 Percent of Submitted Math Books over CRT, Other Issues

The Florida Department of Education is rejecting more than 40% of the mathematics textbooks submitted to be used in the upcoming school year, citing critical race theory, Common Core and other language included in them that violate the state’s new standards.

“Reasons for rejecting textbooks included references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,” the department said in a news release.

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Commentary: Democrats Can’t Hide from Their Record on Defund the Police

In January, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mocked those concerned about crime, laughing and flippantly asking “soft on crime consequences…what does that even mean?”

For Tennesseans, it means 346 homicides in Memphis last year alone, the deadliest year on record for drug overdoses in Nashville at 712 reported overdoses, and more lives at risk from senseless violence.

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Commentary: The Other Phony Kidnapping Plot

In the spring of 2020, President Donald Trump posted three tweets in a row aimed at Democratic governors continuing to impose draconian lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” Trump tweeted on the morning of April 17, 2020. A few moments later, he tweeted “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA!”

His tweets coincided with anti-lockdown rallies in several states, including a blockade around the Michigan Capitol building in Lansing a few days prior. As usual, the media expressed shock and horror at the innocuous tweets, insisting the president was encouraging violence against his political rivals. 

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Court Ruling Sends Ohio Redistricting Commission Back to Drawing Maps

Justice Michael Donnelly was stronger in a concurring opinion.

“The independent map drawers’ efforts were apparently little more than a sideshow – yet more fodder in this political sport,” Donnelly wrote. “What appeared to be the start of a transparent redistricting process when the two independent map drawers were engaged by the commission became transparent only in the sense that it exposed the falsehood that some of the commission members had fulfilled their obligations under the Ohio Constitution. As to that, Ohioans are still watching and waiting.”

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Pennsylvania University Looks to Sell Dorms to Lessen ‘Financial Strain’

As the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education adjusts to the merging of some of its colleges, selling dorms could be on the table.

At the latest PASSHE Board of Governors meeting, officials discussed the selling off of two Edinboro University dorm buildings built in 2011. The university only had a 57.8 percent occupancy rate during the fall semester.

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GOP Reps Demand DHS Provide ICE Data Biden Is ‘Hiding’

Republican members of Congress are asking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for key immigration enforcement data they argue the Biden administration is hiding from the public, according to a letter exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The letter, sent Thursday, is led by Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy and co-signed by 19 other Republican lawmakers who argued that delayed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fiscal year 2021 Enforcement and Removal statistics that showed significant decreases in arrests only provided a “limited” look into the agency’s enforcement and removals.

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Hispanic Voters Deserting Biden in Major Warning Sign for Democrats

President Biden’s approval rating among Hispanics has plummeted as the historically Democratic bloc’s support for Republicans continues to increase, presenting an electoral problem for Democrats, whose immigration policies have fueled much of this shift.

Only 26% of Hispanic voters approve of Biden’s job performance, compared to 54% who disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday.

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Commentary: Soros’ ‘Open Society’ Vision Is Leaving a Dark Permanent Legacy

The Right’s attitude toward the ultrarich has evolved since 2012, when the Republican Party’s presidential nominee was Mitt Romney, a man who campaigned for policies like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Many on the Right now recognize that there is no obvious connection between a person possessing fabulous wealth and favoring a free market economy, as evidenced by the politics of such robber barons as Jeff Bezos, Larry Fink, and Pierre Omidyar. 

Yet even prior to that transformation, one name on the list of billionaires has always induced heated reactions on the Right: George Soros. There have been many books authored by and about Soros, and he has been prolific in publishing his opinions on market economies, democracies, and globalism.

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19 Attorneys General Urge Supreme Court to Uphold Ruling Ordering Full Reinstatement of ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy

Nineteen attorneys general, led by Indiana, have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas and Missouri against the Biden administration.

They’re asking the Supreme Court to uphold a lower court’s order instructing the Biden administration to follow the law to fully reinstate the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), otherwise known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

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Secret Service Agents Outraged by White House Downplaying of Bites by ‘First Dog’

Newly-released documents reveal widespread discontent among the United States Secret Service after the Biden Administration repeatedly tried to suppress and downplay multiple instances of agents being bitten by Joe Biden’s dog, Major.

The New York Post reports that federal documents, released via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the watchdog group Judicial Watch, reveal that attacks against agents by the dog took place on eight consecutive days, both earlier and later than originally reported by the press. Despite numerous complaints from agents, Secret Service leadership actively covered up most of the details of each incident, including outright rejecting one agent’s “excessively detailed” report, in order to avoid upsetting the Biden family.

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