Star News Network Chief Meteorologist Daphne DeLoren shares her Middle Tennessee Fresh Forecast for Wednesday night and Thursday.
Catch Daphne’s Fresh Forecast weekdays at 5pm, during The Tennessee Star Evening News Update, and on demand.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed David Williams, head of Taxpayer Protection Alliance to the newsmaker line to discuss the ramifications of the cancellation of federal student loan debt in a desperate attempt for Democrats to buy votes while lower-income folks suffer.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed investigative reporter for One America News, Neil W. McCabe to the newsmaker line to discuss Florida’s election victories and the true leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis.
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Live from Music Row, Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary. CROM CARMICHAEL: Michael, the new phrase in the media – and we’re going to hear it through the election – is a four-word phrase that we’re going to hear (affects dramatic, fearful tone): “threat to our democracy.” “Threat to our democracy.” That’s what you’re going to hear. Chuck Todd was (emulates fearmongering tone) breathless, absolutely breathless; “the new poll showed that for the first time a threat to our democracy ranked as the number one issue.” Chuck Todd doesn’t mention is that it’s the first time that that was polled. Think about that for a second. He breathlessly tells you that the threat to our democracy is now the number one concern of voters, and it’s the first time that’s ever been that way. But they’ve never had the threat to our democracy on any previous poll. So that’s a completely air-headed thing to say. But then it’s Chuck Todd, and he’s paid millions…
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Around the country, the number of crisis pregnancy centers is on the rise. The number of abortion clinics, on the decline. And after the repeal of Roe v. Wade, according to some analysis, more than half of American women of reproductive age now live closer to a crisis pregnancy center than they do to an abortion clinic.
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More than two dozen Baltimore voters received their 2020 election ballots earlier this month after the U.S. Postal Service discovered a tray of undelivered mail nearly two years too late.
The Baltimore City Board of Elections is working to figure out why the ballots were delivered late. President Biden won the heavily-Democrat city by a landslide – about eight votes to every ballot cast for then-President Trump.
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On Monday, Republican members of the powerful House Oversight Committee announced their intentions to pursue investigations of Dr. Anthony Fauci when they reclaim the majority, even after Fauci announced his plans to step down in December.
As reported by The Daily Caller, Fauci will be leaving his positions at the White House, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in December, after spending 38 years in government. The 81-year-old Fauci said that he will remain active in public health to some degree, and that after leaving government he will enter the “next chapter” of his career.
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Three residents of Bloomington are suing the city over its rejection of a ballot measure looking to repeal ranked-choice voting (RCV).
The lawsuit was filed last Thursday, according to a press release from the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC), the legal group representing the three residents. The lawsuit challenges the Bloomington City Council’s unanimous rejection of a charter amendment on the November ballot to overturn the 2020 implementation of RCV.
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The price of U.S. natural gas futures reached its highest point since 2008 as gas demand continues to spike amid the worldwide energy crisis and the passage of the Democrats’ climate bill, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Natural gas futures for November, December and January each surpassed $10 per million British Thermal Units (BTUs) on Monday, reaching highs that have not been seen since 2008, according to the WSJ. High prices are largely due to the strong demand for gas in Europe amid uncertainty surrounding Russian natural gas flows, the WSJ reported; furthermore, the Democrats’ new climate bill includes regulations that will hike expenses for natural gas producers.
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Political consultant Ward Baker of Baker Group Strategies issued a memo calling Tennessee 5th Congressional District Democrat nominee Heidi Campbell’s internal poll “bogus.”
Campbell’s campaign released on Monday what it called internal poll results that showed the Democrat TN-5 candidate with a 3 percent lead over Republican nominee Andy Ogles.
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The unprecedented raid at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month has energized the Democratic Party’s embrace of authoritarianism. The real outrage, they say, is not that the raid happened but that people are disturbed by it. The messaging from top Democrats, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and FBI Director Christopher Wray is of a piece: Republican lawmakers risk inciting violence by questioning the raid and the bureaucrats who orchestrated it. Won’t someone please think of the unaccountable shadow government?
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Tennessee State House of Representatives Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland), and House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) all reacted to the news 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 by issuing public statements.
Sexton said on Tuesday that Tennessee will not “tolerate public corruption, defrauding our state, or bribery at any level.”
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Enrollment in Catholic schools in the United States has risen for the first time in two decades after teachers’ unions worked with the Biden administration to keep government schools locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The enrollment rise since last year by 3.8 percent, or 62,000 students, in Catholic elementary and secondary schools, is also the largest surge recorded in at least 50 years by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA), the Associated Press reported in February.
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A private Christian school in Valrico, Florida, has restated a policy that says students will be referred to only according to their biological sex, and that students who participate in LGBTQ lifestyles will be asked to leave the school.
NBC News reported last week it obtained an email, sent out from Administrator Barry McKeen at the Grace Christian School prior to the start of the school year, related to an “Important School Policy Point of Emphasis.”
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A new report by the Beacon Center of Tennessee says that $4 billion worth of federal COVID-19 relief funding allocated to Tennessee’s school systems was largely spent on items unrelated to COVID-19.
“The data suggests that Tennessee public schools have budgeted or spent millions of dollars on areas that had little to nothing to do with COVID or student performance,” said Beacon Research Associate and report author Jason Edmonds. “School districts across the state budgeted tens of millions of dollars for ‘indirect costs’ without any further explanation and also funded pet projects such as walk-in coolers and retractable bleachers.”
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Adam Fox and Barry Croft on Tuesday were found guilty of conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
After eight hours of deliberation, the jury also found Fox and Croft guilty of conspiring to obtain and use weapons of mass destruction. Croft was also declared guilty on another explosives charge. Another pair of defendants, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, had already pleaded guilty to charges brought against them. Garbin and Franks cooperated as witnesses in the Fox and Croft trial.
It was the second trial for Fox and Croft after a mistrial was declared last April. In the first trial, a jury found two other defendants, Brandon Caserta, 33, and Daniel Harris, 24, not guilty of all charges them, but could not reach a unanimous verdict for Fox and Croft.
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American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten defended a contract between Minneapolis Public Schools and the union which will fire white teachers over minority teachers, according to a Monday tweet.
The March contract between Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) includes a deal that fires teachers who are not a part of underrepresented populations first, instead of basing termination on seniority. Weingarten tweeted an article by Associated Press with a quote from Greta Callahan, the president of the teachers chapter of Minneapolis Federation of Teachers.
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As unionized public-school staffers protest the School District of Philadelphia’s failure to assent to the union’s salary and training terms, threatening to strike at the beginning of the school year, school-choice advocates are reminding parents of alternatives.
Bus drivers, custodians, maintenance staff and other workers represented by the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ have authorized a strike that could compromise the resumption of schooling that is scheduled for next Monday. Pro-strike workers insist they are underpaid, noting that cleaners make roughly $16,000 per year at the low end. At the high end, construction inspectors make approximately $70,000.
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Georgia could soon implement a program that proponents say will lead to more coverage for Georgians who are otherwise ineligible for Medicaid.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made an “arbitrary and capricious” decision when it rescinded a Medicaid waiver for Georgia Pathways to Coverage program, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood ruled last week.
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Some of Tennessee’s abortion clinics plan to close shop as the state’s trigger law banning the practice takes effect Thursday.
“Starting August 25th, Choices will no longer provide abortion services due to a new law banning abortions entirely in Tennessee,” says a pop-up message on Choice’s Memphis Center for Reproductive Health’s website.
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As a teacher strike keeps Columbus students out of the classroom in the first week of the school year, advocates for Christian education are advertising private school choice on five billboards around the city.
The signs read, “COLUMBUS CITY SCHOOLS LOCKS KIDS OUT… AGAIN,” referencing long periods during which schools were closed in response to COVID-19. The ads, placed by the Columbus-based Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), let passers by know that various Ohio school-choice programs are available to families, particularly low-income ones. CCV is encouraging interested parents to visit BackpackBill.com/Columbus to learn about these opportunities.
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There’s now a threat of a lawsuit over La Crosse’s recent ban on conversion therapy.
The city council approved an ordinance in June that banned churches, ministers, or counselors from talking to young people about their sexual identity and gender.
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RICHMOND, Virginia – The Virginia Board of Education postponed certifying Greene County Administrator Mark Taylor for Spotsylvania County supervisor in its August 17 meeting after parents and school board members offered public comments criticizing Taylor’s qualifications and his ties to school board chair Kirk Twigg. School board member and former chair Dawn Shelley said Taylor hadn’t received a recommendation from the school board, which hadn’t voted in public meeting to select Taylor out of the two finalists.
“Whatever the Department of Education received from the chairman of the Spotsylvania school board was fraudulent. The application was incomplete,” Shelley told the BOE.
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Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee (R) recently shared that she notified Morningstar Inc. that they have 30 days to prove they are not actively boycotting Israel and breaking Arizona law.
“As Treasurer, it is my duty to ensure that Arizona does not do business with companies that are attempting to undermine Israel’s economy and violate Arizona’s anti-BDS law,” Yee said. “I will not allow companies to promote policies that are antisemitic and discriminatory efforts against Israel, which is America’s longtime friend and ally, and a significant trade partner with Arizona.”
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A U.S. Congressman from Arizona is wading into the fray on what is becoming a contentious gubernatorial race in the state.
“2 days later and [Katie Hobbs] still refuses to debate [Kari Lake],” said Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-04). “Maybe we should start a clock on this.”
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Kari Lake, the Trump-endorsed former news anchor running for governor in Arizona, expressed frustration about the mainstream media’s failure to cover her comprehensive plan to combat homelessness.
A news search reveals that other than one story in February from KTAR, the mainstream media has ignored her plan. KTAR, a radio station which politically leans right, is not considered a mainstream news outlet.
Lake issued her plan earlier this year.
“You choose to cover bogus stories to try and stir the pot,” Lake told reporters during a press conference about her homelessness policy on Aug. 12, directly addressing Brahm Resnik, a partisan local reporter for Channel 12. “And the people of Arizona are on to it, Brahm, that’s why they’re not watching you. That’s why you have just 2,000 viewers for your 10 o’clock newscast. “We have had this policy out for a number of months now, almost a year as a matter of fact. And none of you, not a single one of you, have tried to cover this story. You get caught up in a bunch of b.s. stories that the public doesn’t care about.”
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) recently pressed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and demanded answers regarding the department allowing illegal immigrants to fly on commercial airplanes without presenting acceptable identification.
“President Biden’s DHS is failing to adhere to its mission of ‘safeguard[ing] the American people, our homeland, and our values,'” Biggs said in a press release. “Transporting potentially tens of thousands of lawbreakers throughout the country—with virtually unknown backgrounds—is a national security risk and defies the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission. It also incentivizes more illegal immigration to our country at a time when the border has already passed its breaking point.”
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Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) took his opponent, Stacey Abrams(D), to task, when he called her out for her inability to stick to a stance on political issues in a statement released on Tuesday.
“Stacey Abrams opposed suspending the gas tax and returning $1 billion to taxpayers, but now she’s on my record. She can’t have it both ways. Abrams has embraced the policies of Joe Biden that have led to disaster at the border, high gas prices, and empty grocery shelves,” Governor Kemp said.
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Tom Wopat first entered the national consciousness as “Luke” in the iconic TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. He has been performing in stage musicals since the age of 12. Raised on a Wisconsin dairy farm and educated at UW-Madison, Wopat has enjoyed a multi-faceted career in film, television, on the Broadway stage, and singing in venues as varied as Carnegie Hall, The Grand Ole Opry, and the Hollywood Bowl. He has also recorded 12 albums in the last 35 years, the most recent being his 2017 release, the eponymous singer/songwriter-styled Wopat.
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Spending on food stamps has increased by $53.5 billion – an 89% increase – in the two pandemic years. By comparison, that’s how much the entire program cost in 2009 during the Great Recession.
Spending on the U.S. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program grew 88.5% from $60.3 billion in 2019 to $113.8 billion in 2021. Spending on the SNAP program had previously peaked at $79.8 billion in 2013 before declining for the next six years.
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The U.S. financial system is not working for too many Americans. We see it every day at the gas pump and grocery store with record-high inflation. We see it with empty store shelves and higher rents. We see it with high fees and slow transactions at the big banks – the same ones we taxpayers bailed out a little more than a decade ago.
There’s an alternative that can help these systemic problems: cryptocurrency.
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The federal Office of Personnel Management is actively helping public unions recruit more members, and critics are calling it a major conflict of interest.
OPM recently released updates to FedScope, a public database of federal employees, that will allow union leaders to recruit those employees to grow their member rolls, and as a result, their coffers.
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