Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland and JW Roth, Chairman of Notes Live, INC, recently unveiled plans to open a 4,500-seat state of the art open-air amphitheater in the Murfreesboro Gateway called The Sunset Music Colosseum on the River.
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The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) announced its Accelerating TN 2022 Tour, which is a statewide bus tour that will cover 50 school districts over the course of three weeks to highlight summer learning opportunities for students.
TDOE said department members, elected officials, and other education partners will have the opportunity to join the various events to learn more about how schools are “accelerating student achievement.”
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Tuition at Tennessee’s public colleges and universities will not increase for the next school year after a vote from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission froze those tuition rates for the first time.
The board sets annual tuition and fee ranges that must be followed by the state’s public universities, colleges and Tennessee College of Applied Technology campuses.
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The University of Tennessee System (UT) announced recently that it has ended its test-optional admissions policy.
The new policy requires first-year applicants to submit an ACT or SAT score in order to be considered for the Fall 2023 semester.
Melissa Tindell, executive director of communications at the UT system, told Campus Reform that standardized test scores are part of a “holistic” admissions process.
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A few weeks ago, Exxon announced that it was banning the display of Pride and BLM flags at its headquarters in Houston. There was a ripple of unhappiness, but nothing was burned down, the media attention was muted, and the world went about its business as before.
Across the country, school board elections are tossing out woke ideologues and partisans of critical race theory and replacing what amounts to gay pornography in the curriculum with more wholesome fare. The Biden Administration keeps running into roadblocks, most recently a judicial order halting its efforts to rescind Title 42, a Trump-era emergency order that turned away would-be immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. A few days ago, Biden’s absurd Disinformation Governance Board was shuttered and its pathetic director, Nina Jankowicz, sucked back into the memory hole whence she came.
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Tennessee State University (TSU) and the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) have announced a new partnership in which the university will offer 100 MNPS students full scholarships beginning the fall 2023 academic year.
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Minnesota farmers have been unable to plant nearly any wheat and have only planted a small amount of corn so far this year.
Last year, nearly all of Minnesota’s wheat (99%) was in the ground by mid-May, but per the most recent figures from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), only 5% has been planted so far this year. Corn producers are having a similarly rough year thus far. Only 35% of Minnesota’s corn has been put in the ground so far. Normally by this time, almost double as much would have been planted according to the USDA.
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Three Florida residents were sentenced to federal prison for their role in a fraud scheme involving baby formula and other items, according to a release from the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Johnny Grobman, Raoul Doekhie, and Sherida Nabi were given an 18-month prison sentence for cheating manufacturers out of at least $100 million.
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In a debate hosted by Arizona Horizons on Wednesday, former State Senator Kristen Engel (D), running for Congress in Congressional District (CD) 6, said Arizona does not have an immigration crisis.
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The determination of Pennsylvania’s unsettled Republican Senate nomination battle between Mehmet Oz and Dave McCormick could depend on a federal court decision regarding undated mail-in ballots.
As of Sunday afternoon, Oz held 418,535 votes to McCormick’s 417,465, putting the former ahead by far less than the 0.5 percent maximum gap that triggers an automatic recount. While over 99 percent of all ballots cast in the election have been counted, an ongoing dispute about whether undated absentee ballots should be deemed valid has the potential to erase Oz’s lead.
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Fifteen Michigan communities will receive $7.3 million in clean water grants.
“Every Michigander in every community deserves access to safe drinking water,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “Today’s grants will help 15 communities upgrade their water infrastructure, replace lead service lines, and tackle PFAS and other toxic contaminants. Since I took office, Michigan has invested more in our water infrastructure than the previous eight years. Thanks to bipartisan investments in water infrastructure through the MI Clean Water Plan, we have created jobs, protected public health, and lowered costs for Michigan families.”
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Nearly two dozen shot outside an NBA playoff game. A notorious murderer almost released on parole. A Christmas massacre carried out by a repeat felon released on low bail. Record car thefts and drug overdoses.
While most of the country braces for a pocketbook election driven by runaway inflation, record gas prices and baby formula shortages, the key battleground state of Wisconsin is seething over a crime wave driven by policies that are shaping up to be an Achilles heel for Democrats running the state, like incumbent Gov. Tony Evers and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.
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Connecticut’s two U.S. senators, both Democrats, are urging passage of a bill that they say will help prevent incidents similar to the recent Buffalo mass shooting, though it actually narrows rather than expands federal anti-terrorism concerns.
At a press conference on Friday, senior Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 a “chance to take a stand and an opportunity to send a message to the hate mongers that enough is enough.”
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Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), the Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, called on President Biden to work for a bipartisan solution to the border crisis.
The lawmaker pointed to new April numbers released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), showing an increase in encounters from the previous month.
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Republicans in Virginia’s fifth, eighth, and tenth congressional districts met Saturday, nominating Representative Bob Good (R-VA-05) for re-election and nominating Karina Lipsman to challenge Representative Don Beyer (D-VA-08). In VA-10, Republicans held a firehouse primary, not a convention, and voting locations didn’t close until 4 p.m., so votes are still being counted as of press time. 10th District GOP Chairman Geary Higgins said they would probably post results from each round of ranked-choice voting on Facebook first, but didn’t expect results until Saturday night or Sunday.
“It’s ranked choice voting, and it’s going to all be hand-counted, that’s why it might take a little time,” Higgins told The Virginia Star shortly after voting closed.
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Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams made waves with her statement on Saturday at the Gwinnett County Democratic dinner when she stated, “I am tired of being told that we are the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live.”
Abrams is running unopposed for Georgia’s Democratic primary for governor. She will face the eventual winner of the Republican primary election which will be decided on Tuesday. Abrams’ statement received criticism from Republicans.
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An abortion rights group filed a long-shot initiative for the Arizona November ballot.
“Women in Arizona, they don’t have two years to wait,” said Shasta McManus, treasurer of Arizonans for Reproductive Freedom, the group that wants to add an amendment to the Arizona Constitution to protect reproductive rights and prohibit any state or political restriction on those seeking abortions or physicians performing abortions.
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Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, interviewed the former president of Thiel Capital and Arizona GOP Senate hopeful Blake Masters about what voters are telling him and why he is running to replace Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called Ohio State University’s decision to raise tuition unwise as inflation continues to rise around the country.
OSU’s board voted earlier this week to impose a 4.6% increase for incoming in-state freshmen and to guarantee that rate for the next four years. It amounts to a $549 annual jump from the current tuition rate.
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The Georgia Ports Authority plans to spend roughly $430 million on infrastructure improvements at the Port of Savannah.
Of the $430 million, GPA is covering $395.4 million, funded through the authority’s proceeds. The federal government is chipping in a $34.6 million grant.
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Millions of Americans across the Midwest, Southwest and West are expected to face blackouts throughout the summer months, an industry analysis concluded.
A variety of factors, including drought conditions and low wind conditions, are expected to put Americans in roughly 28 states at risk of experiencing blackouts this summer, according to a report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a U.S. regulatory authority, published Wednesday. The region managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) across 15 Midwest states is at the highest risk of “energy emergencies” during the summer due to capacity shortfalls, the analysis showed.
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Dave Chappelle’s 2021 Netflix stand-up special “The Closer” sparked protests from the streamer’s own employees over allegedly anti-trans jokes.
Now, the platform is drawing an unmistakable line in the sand, proclaiming a corporate culture that prizes individual creative freedom above the collective ideological discipline enforced by cancel culture.
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China’s most powerful bombers circled U.S. military bases in Okinawa, Japan, on Wednesday, according to Chinese state-run media Thursday.
A pair of China’s H-6J bombers crossed between two of the largest islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, where the U.S has multiple military installations, before circling in the region, Global Times reported. The bombers likely coordinated with the Liaoning aircraft carrier group, which has been conducting drills in the region since May 2, according to the report.
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At a recent hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, the CEO of Colonial Pipeline made an admission which illustrates quite well our negligence and improvidence. The company paid out nearly $5 million in blackmail money to an unknown hacker when the pipeline was shut down for several days. That, of course, was bad enough, and most of the man’s testimony had to do with the technicalities of which government agency was notified and when, and what the company’s computer experts did to remedy the situation.
But there was another piece of his testimony, one that you had to look hard to find in the news reports. He testified that most of the men who could operate the controls on the pipeline have died or retired, so that the 5,500-mile line must rely almost wholly upon computerized systems for its operation. That means, of course, that we are vulnerable to attacks by people who do not have to take a guard at gunpoint, or dig a big hole somewhere that no one will notice.
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Ohio’s record run of business startups ended in April, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose blamed rising inflation for discouraging entrepreneurs from creating new business.
LaRose on Thursday also called on leaders in Washington to put politics aside and work to bring rising costs under control.
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Job quit rates have been up since the pandemic, but Pennsylvania lags behind the national average. While that may look like stability and satisfaction with one’s job, it’s a sign of a lack of opportunity for workers in the commonwealth.
An analysis by WalletHub found that Pennsylvania had one of the lowest quit rates in the nation – it ranked 47th. In the last month, Pennsylvania’s resignation rate was 2.1%, with an average rate of 2.24% in the last year.
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The American Petroleum Institute (API), a leading industry group, said the next offshore oil and gas lease sale likely wouldn’t come until early 2024 following the latest Biden administration update.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced Thursday that it would issue an updated proposed program plan for offshore lease sales by June 30. The API, though, said the announcement confirms the administration is “significantly behind” in the multi-year process required for approving a new five-year offshore plan, likely delaying lease sales until early 2024.
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A transgender surfer in Western Australia has become the first person in history to win both the men’s and women’s divisions of the sport.
This month, 43-year-old Sasha Jane Lowerson crushed the competition in the Open Women’s and Open Logger divisions at the West Coast Suspensions Longboard and Logger State Championships, as well as a number of state titles.
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Lawmakers continued to raise concerns about the Internal Revenue Service at a Congressional hearing this week as the agency deals with billions in misspent dollars, hefty processing backlogs, and complaints over poor customer service.
Lawmakers lobbed questions at the tax-collecting agency during the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing.
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In less than five months, at least 135 teachers, teachers’ aides, and other school employees across the country have been arrested and charged with various child sex crimes.
As reported by Fox News, the total of 135 does not account for arrests that haven’t been publicized, meaning the final total for the year 2022 thus far may be even higher. The 135 arrests have taken place across 41 states between January 1st and May 13th, averaging to about one arrest per day. Most of the suspects are men.
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Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz instructed agency leadership on how the agency plans to release migrants amid a border surge, according to a memo sent Thursday exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
In the memo, which was sent to chief patrol agents and directorate chiefs, Ortiz recognized that Border Patrol faces a “current migrant surge and is preparing for the anticipated increase in encounters of undocumented noncitizens following the anticipated lifting of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s [CDC] Title 42 public health order.”
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Unvaccinated people develop much broader antibody immunity after being infected with COVID than people who have received the mRNA shots do, according to an NIH study. And the gap was large whether subjects had mild, moderate, or severe COVID infections.
The results of the study, which were highlighted by Alex Berenson on his Unreported Truths Substack, Daniel Horowitz at the Blaze, and Igor Chudov on his Substack newsletter, completely destroy the regime narrative that the shots provide stronger immunity than a natural infection, and may help explain why so many vaccinated Americans are now suffering from multiple COVID infections.
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The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the buildup of forces in the nation’s Western Military District as a response to the mounting NATO forces near its borders.
“Twelve military units and subunits will be formed in the Western Military District by the end of the year,” said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who highlighted the Swedish and Finnish bids to join NATO as factors in the buildup, according to Russian state media outlet Tass.
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