Vaccine Promotion and American Rescue Plan Spending Highlight Metro Council’s Meeting Agenda

Metro Nashville Council posted the meeting agenda for its Tuesday, August 16 meeting, highlighted by a resolution accepting a grant to promote vaccines and resolutions spending over $50 million in American Rescue Plan funds.

RS2022-1708, sponsored by councilmembers Burkley Allen, Erin Evans, Ginny Welsch, Zulfat Suara, and Joy Styles, is a “resolution accepting a grant from the State of Tennessee, Department of Health, to the Metropolitan Government, acting by and through the Metropolitan Board of Health, to promote the proper use of all recommended vaccines and respond to vaccine preventable diseases in collaboration with the CDC and other partners.”

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Youngkin Announces New Fellows to Join Virginia Management Fellows Program

Ten new fellows will join the Virginia Management Fellows program, a joint project between Virginia Tech and the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management aimed at preparing fellows for permanent roles in Virginia agencies.The 10 fellows will be part of the 2022-2024 cohort, the fifth cohort since the program was approved by the General Assembly in 2017.

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Ohio Congressional Hopeful Used City Council Office to Coordinate with Wife’s Company

Ohio’s 1st Congressional District Democrat nominee Greg Landsman used his official office to coordinate and introduce a partnership with a company where his wife works as an executive.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Landsman coordinated and introduced a partnership with 84.51 to retrieve data and identify areas of need in the area.

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Commentary: Democrats’ IRS Expansion Would Empower Ruling Elites to Target Americans

“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”

Those were the words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, referring to the depredation of King George III. The sentence was part of a long list of grievances that bolstered the argument that England’s king and Parliament were becoming tyrannical.

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Biden Signs Funding Bill for Veterans Exposed to Toxins

President Joe Biden signed the veterans health care bill known as the PACT Act Wednesday, expanding health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxins.

After a short struggle between Senate Democrats and Republicans, the PACT Act has been signed into law and will offer benefits and services to more than five million veterans exposed to toxins during their time of service.

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Commentary: Senator Josh Hawley Is a True National Conservative

In a vote of 95-1, the United States Senate approved the expansion of NATO (North American Treaty Organization) by allowing membership to two new nations Sweden and Finland. The only Senator to vote “no” was Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO). Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) voted “present.” In his floor speech before the vote Sen. Hawley made a powerful argument that expanding NATO is not in America’s national interest. Whether in foreign policy, trade policy and trying to resurrect manufacturing, fighting against the radical woke social agenda, defending our borders, or defending the Constitution, Sen. Josh Hawley is demonstrating that he is not only a conservative leader, but is truly fighting to place America First and protect our nation’s sovereignty.

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Harvard University Denied Tax Cut After Lobbying to Senate Democrats

Harvard University’s request for an endowment tax cut was denied despite frequent lobbying to Senate Democrats for its inclusion in the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 with tax increases on corporations and energy firms but did not include plans to lower the endowment tax, which is tax paid on income from individual donors to colleges, according to the bill.  Senior Executive Director of Federal Relations at Harvard University Suzanne Day sent an email in July urging Democratic Senators to eliminate the tax in the upcoming bill.

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Three Tennessee Cities Ranked Among 25 Cheapest to Live in America

Three cities in Tennessee are among the cheapest to live in the United States, according to a recently-published Kiplinger report. 

To measure the cheapest cities in the United States, Kiplinger calculated the cost of living in 267 cities using a standard Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER). It then narrowed its results to cities with populations of more than 50,000 people. 

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Survey: 80 Percent of Americans Believe U.S. Has Two-Tiered Justice System

A new poll by a highly respected and accurate pollster indicates that nearly 80 percent of Americans believe there is a two-tiered system of justice in the United States.

According to The Daily Wire, the poll, formally titled the “National Issues Survey,” was conducted by the Trafalgar Group, one of the few pollsters to accurately predict President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. Featuring over 1,000 likely voters and carried out between July 24th and July 28th, the survey asked the question “What is your opinion of the current state of the American justice system?”

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Georgia Expert Says Slight Drop in Rise of Consumer Prices Isn’t a ‘Sustainable Trend’

The slight drop in the rise of consumer prices may only be a momentary bit of relief as federal policy could make matters worse, a Georgia nonprofit said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers Increased 8.5% over the past 12 months. That is down from a 9.1% year-over-year increase in June.

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Republicans Condemn FBI Seizure of Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry’s Phone

One day after the Federal Bureau of Investigation searched former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home on Monday, agents seized the cell phone belonging to U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA-10), eliciting outrage on his side of the political aisle.

The FBI has refused to comment on the investigation, leaving it presently uncertain what messages or other data the bureau seeks to obtain from the lawmaker’s device. Perry, who represents Harrisburg, York and surrounding communities, has been at odds with Congress’s Democratic majority and Joe Biden’s White House over investigations related to the January 6, 2021 riot and Capitol Building breach. The U.S. House select committee probing the event issued a subpoena to the congressman with which he declined to comply.

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Jim Schultz Defeats Doug Wardlow, Will Face Keith Ellison in November

Political newcomer Jim Schultz defeated Doug Wardlow in the Republican primary for Minnesota attorney general Tuesday night.

Schultz was endorsed by the state party and has the backing of police, but Wardlow’s name recognition from his 2018 bid for the position and support from national figures like Steve Bannon and Mike Lindell had some insiders concerned the base would rally to his side.

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Michigan Democrat Candidate Claims Assisted Suicide Could Be ‘Proper and Ethical’ for Terminally Ill Children

Democratic Michigan congressional nominee Robert Lorinser claimed it could be “proper and ethical” for children suffering from a “terminal illness” to receive a medically assisted suicide, according to a Facebook post obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“[S]uch a difficult issue -DYING,” Lorinser, who is running to unseat Republican Rep. Jack Bergman in November and is also a doctor, wrote on Facebook on Oct. 20, 2018. “Children are harder than dying after a long life. Calling it medical assisting dying –I like. When, who, how–devil is in the details.”

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Goldwater Institute Files Lawsuit to Remove ‘Misleading’ Healthcare Debt Initiative from Ballot

Eight ballot initiatives are on the Arizona ballot this fall, with three still waiting for approval after submitting petition signatures. One of those three is the Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act (PPDCA) which is being challenged by the Goldwater Institute over its description that will appear on the ballot, which the think tank alleges is “inaccurate and misleading.”

Filed on Aug. 8, the lawsuit states, “The Arizona Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act would institute sweeping changes to debt collection in Arizona that extend far beyond the measure’s purported purpose of limiting the interest rate on medical debt.”

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Ohio Republican Party Condemns FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Search

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Paduchik this week condemned the search of former President Donald Trump’s residence at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, FL that the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed on Monday.

Many in the ex-president’s party have expressed outrage that Biden Administration Attorney General Merrick Garland secured a warrant for federal agents to surprise Trump with a search of his home. No Justice Department has ever taken similar action to investigate a former commander-in-chief.

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Virginia Poison Control Center Director Reports Rise in Delta-8 THC Calls, Including Among Children

The Blue Ridge Poison Control Center is seeing a rise in calls related to THC, including Delta-8 THC exposures among children, Director Christopher Holstege told a taskforce on Tuesday, echoing concerns nationally from the CDC issued in 2021.

“Certainly my colleagues and I have been talking about this extensively and seeing these as they were doing surveillance, with some of the first reports, we also started to see these in the fall of 2020, especially Delta-8, but more edibles, which is why we’re seeing the toddlers get to these products,” Holstege said.

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California Teacher with Antifa Ties Paid Thousands to Resign

A California teacher connected to Antifa is receiving a massive payout from the school district for resigning, according to the Sacramento Bee.

Project Veritas posted a video of Natomas Unified School District school teacher Gabriel Gipe saying he was working to push his students “further and further left” which sparked a district investigation. The school district in Sacramento, California, is paying Gipe $190,000 for resigning and not fighting the investigation into his activity, according to the Sacramento Bee.

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Tennessee’s State Republican Leaders Praise Jonathan Skrmetti’s Appointment as New Attorney General

Top Tennessee state Republicans celebrated the decision of the Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday to appoint Jonathan Skrmetti as Tennessee’s next attorney general. 

Lt. Governor Randy McNally said in a tweet, “Congratulations AG @JSkrmetti! Jonathan’s legal acumen and conservative principles are unquestioned. Having worked with him in his role as @GovBillLee’s counsel as well as when he served as Deputy Attorney General, I am confident he will be an outstanding Attorney General.”

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