Aaron Gulbransen Discusses Questionable Poll Favoring Heidi Campbell over Andy Ogles in TN-5 Race

Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed official guest host and lead political reporter for The Tennessee Star Aaron Gulbransen in-studio to examine the recent polling done by The Tennessee Journal On the Hill showing Democrat Heidi Campbell leading Republican Andy Ogles by three points in the open Fifth Congressional District race.

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Former Tennessee Speaker of the House Glen Casada and Aide Indicted in Alleged Bribery and Kickback Conspiracy

In a statement released early Tuesday, the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of ‘Tennessee announced that former Speaker of the Tennessee House Glen Casada and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren were indicted by a federal grand jury on Monday and arrested early Tuesday morning by the FBI.

According to the statement they were charged with conspiracy to commit the following offenses: “theft from programs receiving federal funds; bribery and kickbacks concerning programs receiving federal funds; honest services wire fraud; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.”

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Tennessee Abortion Trigger Law to Take Effect Thursday

A major abortion law is set to take effect in Tennessee following the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade. 

“Pursuant to the Human Life Protection Act, 2019 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 351, $ 3, this letter serves to notify the Tennessee Code Commission that the U.S. Supreme Court issued the judgment today in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022). Dobbs overruled, in whole or in part, Roe v. Wade … thereby restoring to the states their authority to prohibit abortion,” says a letter to the Tennessee Codes Commission written by Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III. 

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Governor Lee Reissues Executive Order Granting Special Leave to Executive Branch State Employees Who Serve in the Military

On Monday, Governor Bill Lee issued an executive order granting special leave with partial pay for Executive Branch state employees who are called to active duty as members the National Guard or the Reserve.

Executive Order 98, signed on August 22, 2022, updates Executive Order 86, which was issued on August 25, 2021.

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Chattanooga Group Will Spend $9.2M on Electric Vehicle Charging Pilot Program

Chattanooga is planning to spend $9.2 million, including $4.5 million from a federal grant, to create what it calls a testbed for electric vehicle charging.

The remaining $4.7 million will be paid for by a combination of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, the city of Chattanooga, private industry and the EPB energy company.

The pilot program is intended to create a “networked system that will enable electric vehicle drivers to more readily locate charging stations.”

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‘Unprecedented’: Judge Ruling Moves Trump Raid Affidavit One Step Closer to Release

Judge Bruce Reinhart on Monday released an order rejecting the Department of Justice’s argument that the affidavit used to justify a raid of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence should remain entirely sealed, moving the document one step closer to potentially being released.

The federal government now has until Thursday to propose redactions and make any other arguments as to why the document should not be made public.

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FBI Raid of Mar-a-Lago Was ‘Improper’: Dershowitz

Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said that the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Florida estate was incorrectly conducted.

Earlier in August, FBI agents with the Washington Field Office raided the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home seeking classified documents he may have removed from the White House. Reports subsequently emerged that Trump had already been served with a subpoena seeking classified records related to the investigation and had cooperated extensively with federal authorities.

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30 Months into the COVID-19 Pandemic, at Least a Dozen States Are Under ‘Emergency’ Orders

In October 2020, the Michigan Supreme Court stripped Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of the unilateral powers she was using when she declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whitmer had been using a 1945 law – which was prompted by a three-day race riot in Detroit three years earlier – that had no sunset provision in it and didn’t require approval by the state legislature.

In May 2021, Whitmer told a news agency that if she still had that 1945 state-of-emergency law, she would use those powers, but not for anything related to a pandemic.

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Biden Education Department Investigating Allegations of Discrimination Against LGBTQ Students in Connecticut Middle School

The Biden Department of Education is investigating a complaint made by the parent of a Farmington, Connecticut middle school student who claims school administrators failed to protect her “nonbinary” child from bullying.

According to a report Sunday at the Hartford Courant, Melissa Combs, mother of Miles (fictitious name), an eighth grade student at Irving A. Robbins Middle School (IAR), who identifies as ‘nonbinary,’” filed a “19,000-word, 54-page complaint” with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

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Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: American Academy of Pediatrics Continues Defense of Youth Transgender Treatments While Other Nations Reject Them

Pediatrician Dr. Julia Mason and Manhattan Institute fellow Leor Sapir warned in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the leftwing media has championed a “deeply flawed” study published in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) flagship journal, one that argues the surge in young people claiming to identify as transgender is not due to “social contagion,” a concept, therefore, that should not be cited by state legislatures to regulate puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries for youth.

The study, published in Pediatrics, was penned by child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Jack Turban, a controversial clinician-activist, who completed a fellowship at Stanford Medical Center and went on to specialize in helping gender dysphoric youth obtain puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and transgender surgeries.

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Tennessee Comptroller’s Office Says Former Church Hill Court Clerk Stole Cash from the City

According to a press statement released on Monday from the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury’s office, a former Church Hill court clerk stole money from the city.

The statement detailed how Stacy Mayes, the former court clerk for the City of Church Hill in Hawkins County, was indicted after an investigation by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office.

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‘Psychologically Abusive’: Some Back-to-School Programs Dividing Students by ‘Gender, Culture, and Identity’

A back-to-school curriculum focused on social-emotional learning (SEL) lays the foundation for Critical Race Theory (CRT) by dividing children through the creation of identity charts, “getting to know you” questionnaires and classroom contracts, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A curriculum created by Facing History and Ourselves, a group that partners with more than 100,000 teachers to provide education resources to combat “racism, antisemitism and prejudice at pivotal moments in history,” has a five day back-to-school lesson plan that teaches kids about gender, culture and identity. The curriculum is based in SEL, which focuses on teaching students social skills for their emotional well-being but has been criticized for laying the groundwork for CRT in the classroom, as similar lesson plans based in SEL are growing in popularity across the country, experts told the DCNF.

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Homeland Security Cracks Down on Weapons Smuggling from Miami to Haiti, Caribbean

Homeland Security Investigations’ Miami Division has been cracking down on weapons and ammunition smuggling from Miami to Haiti and other Caribbean nations.

It also arrested a wanted Venezuelan involved in an alleged $1.2 billion international money laundering scheme.

HSI-Miami Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury held a press conference with members of law enforcement from several agencies last week after they’d concluded a successful operation thwarting an illegal arms trafficking scheme.

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Citing Technical Errors, Virginia Department of Education Delays Review of History Standards

The Youngkin administration asked the Virginia Board of Education to delay reviewing new history and social science standards, a necessary first step that includes public hearings. On Wednesday, in the first meeting with a majority of Youngkin-appointed members, the board agreed to delay accepting the standards for first review until September, although board President Daniel Gecker expressed concern about falling behind on a timeline to approve the standards.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow asked for the delay, saying that would allow the five new Youngkin-appointed members more time to get up to speed and to address technical errors like the accidental omission of language that referred to George Washington as the “Father of Our Country.”

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Biggs Slams Fauci as ‘Coward’ for Resigning Before Republicans Can ‘Hold Him Accountable’

After Dr. Anthony Fauci announced that he will resign from his positions as Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden and head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease (NIAID), one U.S. Congressman from Arizona says Fauci will still be held accountable by a potential Republican Congress.

“Dr. Fauci is conveniently resigning from his position in December before House Republicans have an opportunity to hold him accountable for destroying our country over these past three years,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05). “This guy is a coward.”

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Report: Pennsylvania Job Openings Continue to Fall

A report released Monday by Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) shows that new Keystone-State employment opportunities fell in June, marking a three-month overall decline.

Examining numbers from the federal Department of Labor, the IFO found that around 393,000 new jobs opened in June. Although that number exceeds the 281,000-per-month average for job openings that preceded COVID-19 in 2020, it continues a downward slope that began after new employment offerings reached 514,000 in March.

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Commentary: With a Lack of Empathy, Disregard for Social Norms and Rules, and Aggressive Tendencies, Is the Democratic Party Sociopathic?

Parties from principle, especially abstract speculative principle, are known only to modern times . . . what madness, what fury can beget such unhappy and such fatal divisions? . . . This principle, however frivolous it may appear, seems to have been the origin of all religious wars and divisions. As no party, in the present age, can well support itself without a philosophical or speculative system of principles annexed to its political or practical one, we accordingly find, that each of the factions into which this nation is divided has reared up a fabric of the former kind, in order to protect and cover that scheme of actions which it pursues.

That profound sentiment comes right from the lips of the father of the Scottish Enlightenment himself, David Hume, circa 1742. It is chock full of insight for our own times. And the practical reason of that era formed the background context for the American founding, much as Scotland itself was the origin of the modern era by inventing, law, economics, science, technology, medicine and unleashing the power of the market.  

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$20 Million in Federal Funds for Pennsylvania Preservation of Streams, Farmland

A grant program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will send $20 million to Pennsylvania to restore streams in central Pennsylvania and preserve farmland.

The funding is part of a $200 million initiative, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, “to address on-farm, watershed, and regional natural resource concerns.” The RCPP was created by the 2014 Farm Bill and has sent out almost 600 awards.

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Federal Judge Refuses to Issue Injunction in Georgia’s Ban on ‘Line Relief’ at Polling Places

Opponents of a state voting law say they plan to continue their fight after a federal judge declined to issue a preliminary injunction against Georgia’s “line relief” ban at polling places.

Senate Bill 202, the Election Integrity Act, which lawmakers passed in 2021, included several changes to Georgia’s election laws. Under one of the provisions, volunteers cannot engage in so-called “line relief,” which bans people from giving food and water to anyone waiting to vote.

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Mark Brnovich Works to Protect the Best Interests of Native American Children

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) recently joined an effort to support the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), which helps a Native child’s ability to stay within their tribe.

“The greatest treasure of the Tribal Nations is their children,” Brnovich said in a press release. “The Indian Child Welfare Act works to protect the unique interests of these youngsters while promoting the stability and security of their tribes.”

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FBI Detroit Chief During Bungled Whitmer ‘Plot’ Sting Now Runs D.C. Office That Raided Mar-a-Lago

Whitmer FBI Building

The Washington, D.C., FBI field office that raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and is investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol breach is led by Steven D’Antuono, who ran the bureau’s Detroit field office when, trial testimony alleges, it instigated, encouraged and facilitated what the government charges was a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The retrial of two men charged in the alleged plot, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, Jr., finished its first full week on Thursday, as the prosecution rested its case.

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Report: 78 Percent of Georgia Hospitals Are Not Following Federal Accurate Pricing Law

A year-and-a-half after a law requiring hospitals to post accurate prices online went into effect, roughly three-quarters of Georgia hospitals continue to hide the cost of care from consumers.

That’s according to a new report from PatientRightsAdvocate.org. The organization reviewed 2,000 of the 6,000 accredited hospitals nationwide and found that a mere 16% complied with a federal hospital price transparency rule that took effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

In Georgia, 78% of hospitals are non-compliant.

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Commentary: Enormous Amounts of Money Flow into the Bottomless Education Pit

Spurred by COVID panic, schools have been the recipient of ungodly sums of money. And it’s not as if the beast was starving before. To put things into perspective, the United States spends about $800 billion on national defense, more than China, Russia, India, the UK, France, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Japan combined, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. America now spends even more on K-12 education, with an outlay of about $900 billion dollars a year, which includes an additional $122 billion from the COVID-related American Rescue Plan. 

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Endorses Proposition 132 So Arizonans Can ‘Protect Their Wallets’

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) shared its full support for prop 132, which is set to appear on the November ballot and would require a 60 percent majority vote of the people on any ballot measure that seeks to raise taxes.

“Today’s tax increase may not affect you, but tomorrow’s most certainly will. Allowing 51% of the population (who probably don’t have to pay the tax increase) to vote to tax the other 49% that do have to pay it, is wrong. And eventually, you will be in the minority,” said AFEC President Scot Mussi.

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VA-07, VA-10 Candidates Discuss Policy Problems Faced by People with Disabilities, All Support Increasing SSI Asset Limit

The congressional candidates for Virginia’s seventh and tenth districts met in a virtual forum on Monday evening where they discussed policy problems faced by people with disabilities. At the beginning, moderator Connor Cummings said that the event was a sensory-friendly forum, not a debate, and instructed candidates to speak about themselves, not their opponents. As a result, the forum’s tone was professional and policy-focused, lacking the fireworks of traditional forums and debates driven by attacks and personality.

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Democrat U.S. Senate Candidate John Fetterman Calls for ‘Prosecuting’ Oil, Grocery CEOs

Democratic Pennsylvania senatorial candidate and lieutenant governor John Fetterman called for prosecuting executives of oil and food companies in a Sunday guest column for local media outlet Times Leader.

Fetterman blamed executives of large oil and food companies for the high prices that Americans are experiencing at gas stations and grocery stores across the country, stating that he would “crack down” on CEOs to bring down costs, according to the opinion column. The senatorial candidate juxtaposed the record profits of companies like Chevron, Exxon and Tyson, a large food company, with the high prices of gas and basic necessities.

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Biden White House Facilitated DOJ’s Criminal Probe Against Trump, Scuttled Privilege Claims: Memos

Long before it professed no prior knowledge of the raid on Donald Trump’s estate, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents, allowing the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Mar-o-Lago this spring and eliminating the 45th president’s claims to executive privilege, according to contemporaneous government documents reviewed by Just the News.

The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives as early as April, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the federal historical agency from Trump’s Florida home.

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Dem-Appointed Judge Opens the Door to More Men Being Housed in Women’s Prisons

A Democrat-appointed federal judge opened the door to allowing more males to be housed in women’s prisons Tuesday by ruling that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers people with gender dysphoria.

Kesha Williams, a biologically male former inmate who identifies as a transgender woman, sued several people associated with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center in Virginia for allegedly violating the ADA in their decision to house Williams with men, according to court documents. Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, a Clinton appointee, sided with Williams and rejected a lower court’s dismissal of the initial lawsuit.

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Commentary: After Taking Two Days to Count 20 Percent of Primary Election Votes, Arizona Should Look to Florida’s Voting Reforms

Until this month, Pennsylvania owned the dubious distinction among states of most embarrassing election management. But given its own lethargy in counting votes in its primary, Arizona has now edged out the Keystone State. While Pennsylvania had problems counting the last portion of votes the evening after its primary, it took Arizona two days to count the last 20% of the vote.

As RealClearPolitics has noted before, Pennsylvania could solve its voting-administration issues by adopting Florida’s voting reforms – but Pennsylvania is hamstrung by a divided government. Arizona does not face this problem, however. For at least the next four months, Arizona will have a Republican state legislature and governor. Arizona’s governor and state legislature should enact Florida-like voting reforms before the November elections to avoid further embarrassment.

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