Month: July 2022

Sheriff Lamb and True the Vote Launch ‘ProtectAmerica.Vote’ for Sheriffs to Combat Election Fraud

Rachel Alexander

Arizona’s Sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County has been outspoken about taking action on the local level when the Biden administration will not, recently starting Protect America Now (PAN) to bring sheriffs together with patriotic Americans on important issues like border security. This past month, he formed a coalition with the election integrity organization True the Vote to ensure secure elections, ProtectAmerica.Vote.

“Sheriffs’ primary duty is to protect the rights of their constituents, which includes their rights as voters,” he said on the website. “ProtectAmerica.vote aims to solve this problem and bridge the gap between voters and local law enforcement. Our work will ensure we have secure elections in this country.”

Read the full story

$500 Million Heading to Ohio’s Appalachian Region

The Center Square

Ohioans in the state’s Appalachian region can expect a half billion-dollar investment after Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill that dedicates federal funds to infrastructure, health care and work force development.

The $500 million, which is on top of more than $645 million sent to the region since 2019, is twice as much as this year’s entire Appalachian Regional Commission budget. The commission covers 13 states.

Read the full story

Commentary: States Can Help Conservatives Secure Even More Legal Victories

Admin

America is currently in the midst of a broader political realignment. The political Left, which once upon a time purported to stand for the forgotten “little guy” against the titans of Big Business, has in recent years decided that Big Business is actually an ally of convenience in its long Gramsci-an “march” through the institutions. Chris Rufo has perhaps demonstrated this trend better than anyone else.

And the political Right, whose once-instinctive neoliberal proclivities made it a convenient ally for Big Business, is currently rethinking its approach to political economy in general, as well as its specific relationship to culturally leftist multinational corporations. The most tangible recent expression of this rethinking has been Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ crippling punishment of The Walt Disney Company for its coming out on behalf of sexually grooming innocent children in the Sunshine State.

Read the full story

Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association Launches Dashboard Showing Psychiatric Admissions

Eric Burk

The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association has launched a new dashboard showing inpatient psychiatric admissions at both state-run and private hospitals in Virginia.

“As we work to strengthen and enhance the behavioral health care system, while also confronting workforce shortages and strong demand for psychiatric treatment services being experienced by public and private Virginia hospitals, having verified and reliable data is critical to the process of evaluating potential policy solutions and next steps,” VHHA CEO Sean Connaughton said in a press release.

Read the full story

Price of Independence Day Cookout Substantially More Than Last Year

The Center Square

If you plan on holding a July 4 cookout this weekend, expect to pay a lot more than what you paid for last year’s meal.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation marketbasket survey, the overall cost for the Independence Day cookout is up 17%, or about $10 from last year. Ongoing supply chain disruptions, inflation tied in part to increased government spending, and the war in Ukraine are being blamed for the price hikes.

Read the full story

OPEC to Finally Boost Oil Production Ahead of Biden’s Saudi Arabia Trip

Admin

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its partners agreed to boost oil production on Thursday, backing a plan released earlier this month, ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-July.

In their fifth meeting since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which sent oil prices skyrocketing to above $100 a barrel for the first time in eight years, OPEC and a group of Russian-led non-OPEC members agreed to raise their collective production by 648,000 barrels a day.

Read the full story

Cornell University Removes Lincoln Bust and Gettysburg Address from Display After Student Complaint

Admin

Cornell University recently admitted to removing both a bust of President Abraham Lincoln and a plaque of the Gettysburg Address from its library after a student anonymously complained about the display, presumably due to so-called “racism.”

Fox News reports that biology professor Randy Wayne gave a very brief statement on the matter, simply saying “someone complained, and it was gone.” Wayne said that he first noticed the missing display several weeks earlier and asked the librarians what had happened, to which he was told that the school had received some kind of complaint; the librarians refused to provide any specific details on the nature of the complaint.

Read the full story

Israel, Middle East Countries Crafting Deal to Build Regional Defense Network: Report

Admin

Israel is in consultations with Middle Eastern countries to install Israeli-made defense systems on their territory, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

Several countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have reportedly negotiated with Israel to obtain a network of sensors that will combat the potential missile threat from Iran, according to Breaking Defense. A shared communications network would theoretically allow participating states to alert others when incoming missiles trigger the sensors, Breaking Defense reported, citing Israeli officials.

Read the full story

Guatemalan President Says Biden‘s ‘Confusing’ Border Messaging Is Encouraging Smugglers to Exploit Children

Admin

The Biden administration’s messaging on immigration has created “confusion” that human smugglers and traffickers have exploited, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.

Giammattei said smugglers know it’s easier to get people into the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration as a family, and that smugglers have used children, whether biological or not, in order to get their clients across the border. He mentioned the Biden administration’s effort to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which prevents migrants brought to the U.S. as children from being immediately deported, as exacerbating the problem.

Read the full story

Commentary: Keys to GOP’s Hispanic Outreach in Pennsylvania and Nationwide

RealClearWire

After this month’s historic special election win in South Texas, Republican strategists nationwide are asking themselves: how can we replicate now-Congresswoman Mayra Flores’s success in flipping an 84% Hispanic district to the GOP? Meantime, Democrats are burying their heads in the South Texas sand as Hispanic voters flee their party.

It’s not rocket science to appeal to Hispanic voters and persuade them to vote Republican. My firm’s work with the Hispanic Republican Coalition of Pennsylvania shows how to do it.

Read the full story

Green Activists Are Using Business, Bypassing Congress to End Fossil Fuels

Admin

Without sufficient support in Congress and state legislatures to pass sweeping green energy measures, environmentalists are now targeting the oil and gas industry through a financial movement that pressures companies to support liberal policies, according to critics.

“ESG promotes and implements policies through private businesses that could be adopted through a legislative process,” said Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks. “The Green New Deal didn’t make it through Congress, so its proponents shifted the battlefield to the capital markets.”

Read the full story

California ‘Equitable Math’ Program Postponed as New National Civics Curriculum Launched

The Center Square

Many California parents are celebrating wins this week after a controversial school district superintendent was fired for making comments about Asian students and the state’s proposed equitable math program has been postponed from being implemented.

At the same time, a new framework for civics was launched nationally. Advocates are praising the education reform initiatives that have already begun in Florida and Louisiana.

Read the full story

Five City of Hendersonville Aldermen Halt Residents’ Vote on Term Limits for Aldermen and Mayor

Laura Baigert

The vote of five members of the City of Hendersonville Board of Mayor and Alderman (BOMA) halted a ballot initiative that would allow residents to vote on term limits for the city alderman and mayor.

The vote on Ordinance 2202-09 relative to term limits for members of the board of mayor and alderman, which was up for a second reading on Tuesday, June 28 and required a two-thirds majority to pass, failed for receiving just eight of the necessary nine positive votes.

Read the full story

Commentary: Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger’s Vendetta Politics

Admin

Recently, Wyoming “Republican” Rep. Liz Cheney published a piece in the Wall Street Journal with this amusing headline:

The Jan. 6 Committee Won’t Be Intimidated

We are focused on facts, not rhetoric, and will present them no matter what our critics say.

Facts are stubborn things, as President John Adams famously said. He went on: “Whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

Read the full story

Iranians Caught Trying to Cross the Southern Border as Part of Migrant Caravan

Admin

Four Iranians were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday as part of a wave of 675 migrants encountered in a single day in just one sector.

The Iranians crossed among a group of 299 illegal migrants near Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Friday. They are currently detained and will be transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE ERO) “pending immigration proceedings,” CBP Del Rio sector spokesperson Dennis Smith told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Read the full story

Veterans For America First Endorses Andy Ogles for TN-5 Seat

Aaron Gulbransen

Formerly known as Veterans for Trump, the group Veterans For America First endorsed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat, announced the Ogles campaign in a statement.

The statement notes that, “The organization has already endorsed conservative candidates Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO), Sarah Palin (AK), Herschel Walker (GA), and Kari Lake (AZ), among others.”

Read the full story

Florida’s Revenue Collections 21 Percent over Projections, Consumer Confidence Rebounds

Steve Stewart

Florida’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) reported that general revenue collections for May 2022 were $741.8 million (21.0 percent) over the estimates made in January 2022. In addition, consumer confidence among Floridians rebounded in June while national consumer sentiment fell sharply.

Revenues generated from the sales of automobiles was the highest above the projections among the six sales tax categories coming in $148.75 million (31.1 percent) over the May estimate.

Also contributing to the higher than projected sales tax revenue were the Tourism and Business categories, both surpassing estimates by over 26%.

Read the full story

Mailchimp Suspends Account of Arizona Attorney General Candidate Andrew Gould

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Attorney General candidate Andrew Gould, a Republican and former Arizona Supreme Court Justice, said he has been suspended from Mailchimp for violating its terms of service. He believes it may have been due to a press release he issued on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down a New York gun control law, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. 

Gould stated in a message to his supporters, “After a year of using this service, they have suspended our account without the opportunity to appeal it. Mailchimp claims that we have violated their Standard Terms of Use and Acceptable Use Policy. They will not specify the violation. I find it highly suspicious that, immediately after the release of my statement supporting the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the 2nd Amendment in New York, Mailchimp shut down my account.” 

Read the full story

Ten Michigan Churches to Share in $1.24M Energy Efficiency Grant

The Center Square

Ten Michigan church congregations, each of low-income nature, will share in a $1.24 million grant award for energy-efficiency upgrades.

Federal money will be appropriated through the Sacred Spaces Clean Energy program to “advance environmental justice and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said in making the announcement Wednesday.

Read the full story

Newtown-Based Firearms Trade Association Spends More Lobbying Congress than NRA

The Center Square

One Connecticut-based firearms industry trade group has spent more on lobbying than the National Rifle Association.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade association based in Newtown, has spent 40% more than the NRA lobbying Congress since 2019. For 2021 alone, OpenSecrets – a nonpartisan nonprofit tracking money into politics – reports an estimated $5 million spent by NSSF on lobbying; the NRA spent $4.92 million.

Read the full story

Commentary: Arizona’s New School Choice Bill Moves Us Closer to Milton Friedman’s Vision

Admin

“Our goal is to have a system in which every family in the U.S. will be able to choose for itself the school to which its children go,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman stated in 2003. “We are far from that ultimate result. If we had that, a system of free choice, we would also have a system of competition, innovation, which would change the character of education.”

Read the full story

Commentary: Non-Binary Pronouns Are Conquering the West

Admin

For a long time now, Sweden has had a history of being impressively ahead of the rest of the West in a number of areas: appeasing Nazis, remaining neutral during the Cold War, exporting porn, legalizing euthanasia, serving meatballs at furniture emporia, capitulating to Islam, putting legitimate Ukrainian refugees into asylum centers where they’re raped by bogus Muslim refugees, etc.

It should not come as a surprise, then, that Sweden was also ahead of the curve on the pronoun front. Way ahead.

Read the full story

Additional Tennessee National Guardsmen Express Frustration with Governor Lee and Kurt Winstead’s ‘Coordinated Message’ on Firings

Aaron Gulbransen

More Tennessee National Guardsmen reached out to The Tennessee Star on Friday in order to rebut the coordinated messaging between TN-5 candidate and former National Guard General Kurt Winstead and Governor Bill Lee on the issue of soldier firings due to a COVID-19 mandate and the role that the governor can play.

The deadline for soldiers to comply with the mandate has now passed.

Read the full story

Law Enforcement Officials to Investigate Attack on Nashville Pro-Life Center

Cooper Moran

Federal and local law enforcement officials are investigating an attempted arson and vandalism attack on a pro-life resource clinic in Nashville, based on a release from the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).

The Hope Clinic for Women is “a faith-based safe and confidential place for anyone dealing with life choices regarding past, present, and future pregnancies,” according to their website.

Read the full story

SEAL PAC Endorses Jeff Beierlein for U.S. House in TN-5 Race

Aaron Gulbransen

SEAL PAC released a statement this week announcing the PAC endorsed Jeff Beierlein in the race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District seat.

“Jeff Beierlein is a soldier’s soldier. As a helicopter pilot in Iraq and a graduate of West Point, Jeff has the leadership and experience needed to help lead our nation in these difficult times. I could not be more excited about his candidacy and look forward to serving with him in the United States House,” said Chairman Ryan Zinke, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Secretary of the Interior under former President Donald Trump.

Read the full story

Latest Information on Tennessee National Guard Soldiers Who Refused COVID Vaccines

Aaron Gulbransen

Misinformation continued to spread as the deadline for Tennessee National Guard soldiers, as well as soldiers across the United States, to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate by June 30, drew near and now has passed.

In an effort to better inform the public, The Tennessee Star has compiled the facts of what is now happening to soldiers in Tennessee and around the country.

Read the full story

Chattanooga Department of Public Works Announces 90 Percent of Potholes Have Been Filled Through Mayor Kelly’s ‘One Chattanooga’ Initiative

Kaitlin Housler

Chattanooga’s Department of Public Works has inspected more than 95 percent of all streets and filled in 90 percent of all potholes, according to a report delivered to the Chattanooga City Council.  

Along with filling potholes, Public Works has created work orders for issues that require more than a patch, such as utility trench settlement, base failure, lack of base, and slope failure, according to the report.

Read the full story

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron Asks State Court of Appeals to Reinstate Pro-Life Laws

Susan Berry, PhD

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron quickly asked the state’s Court of Appeals to stay a circuit court’s ruling that temporarily blocked the enforcement of two state pro-life laws. Cameron filed a Writ of Mandamus and Prohibition Thursday, requesting the Kentucky Court of Appeals lift a temporary restraining order against both the Human Life Protection Act, which bans nearly all abortions, and the Heartbeat Law, which prohibits the procedure once a fetal heartbeat is detected, generally at six weeks’ gestation. We've asked the Court of Appeals to Reinstate Kentucky's Human Life Protection Act and Heartbeat Law. Read more: https://t.co/lUqoQOj4pS pic.twitter.com/iFY4R3vSCE — Attorney General Daniel Cameron (@kyoag51) June 30, 2022 The restraining order allows abortions to resume while the constitutionality of the law is litigated. “Every day that goes by that the Human Life Protection Act and Heartbeat Law are prevented from taking effect, more unborn lives will be lost,” Cameron said in a statement. “These laws represent Kentucky’s values and its support for life. We’re moving quickly to defend this important law and to have it restored.” In his request for emergency relief, Cameron emphasized to the Court of Appeals the urgency of reinstating the pro-life laws: Once an abortion has been performed,…

Read the full story

Gallatin City Councilman Defends His Proposed De-Annexation of Individual Property Owner

Laura Baigert

GALLATIN, Tennessee – The Gallatin City Councilman who proposed de-annexation of an individual property owner for complaining about the city defended his proposal, even as he agreed to “put it to bed” at the council’s work session Tuesday, June 28.

“I was just trying to do this to help,” claimed Shawn Fennell, Councilman at Large, to the standing room only crowd in the Dr. Deotha Malone Chambers at Gallatin City Hall.

Read the full story

Commentary: Attacks on Pregnancy Centers Are More than Mere Protests

Admin

There is great irony in the violence directed against pregnancy centers since the leak and then official release of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision. Reports of vandalism and destruction include graffiti such as “if abortions aren’t safe neither are you” and firebombing.

Pregnancy centers across America offer many services to women and men, their unborn children, and children post-birth—including pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease testing, ultrasounds, counseling, diapers, clothing, medical referrals for healthcare or community resources, and parenting classes. These services are provided free and funded by donations. 

Read the full story

New Laws Go Into Effect in Virginia, Including Online Service Opt-Out, Penalty for Non-Consensual Sexting, Repeal of Switchblade Ban, and Anti-Hazing Bill

Eric Burk

New laws took effect in Virginia on Friday, including high-profile legislation like the FY 2023-2024 budget, bills aimed at preventing animal cruelty, a bill requiring schools to notify parents about sexually explicit instructional material, and a bill requiring school principals to report misdemeanors to law enforcement.

Read the full story

Pennsylvania Poised to Join EMS Grouping, Lessening Barriers for Workers

The Center Square

Pending the signature of Gov. Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania will be the 22nd state to join an EMS compact making it easier for emergency workers to practice across state lines.

The agreement standardizes privilege to practice rules, validates licenses in a national registry, and grants emergency medical workers the ability to work across state lines on a short-term basis. By aligning rules and standards, Pennsylvania poses fewer barriers to out-of-state workers who may relocate to the commonwealth.

Read the full story

Ohio Supreme Court Allows Heartbeat Law to Remain in Effect, Denies Abortion Providers’ Request to Allow Procedure to Continue

Susan Berry, PhD

The Ohio law that bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, generally at six weeks’ gestation, will remain in effect while a lawsuit filed by abortion providers continues against it.

The law took effect after the state Supreme Court denied a request by abortion providers for an emergency stay on the legislation to allow abortions to continue while the lawsuit proceeds.

Read the full story