Tennessee collected $4.6 billion more than budgeted in taxes and fees for the fiscal year that ended in July on an accrual basis.
The number was $4.3 billion after June.
Read the full story
The top levels of the Biden administration, including the White House and officials leading the Department of Justice (DOJ), were likely aware of the Mar-a-Lago raid and may have even moved the warrant forward, two retired FBI agents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Former President Donald Trump announced Monday night that the FBI raided his Florida home, while the Department of Justice (DOJ) had an ongoing investigation into the possible mishandling of classified documents after 15 boxes of White House documents ended up at Mar-a-Lago, according to The Washington Post.
Read the full story
In a major reversal, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D–WV) struck a deal with Senator Chuck Schumer (D–NY) to enact a major climate, entitlement, and tax bill. This legislation has been praised by President Biden, Al Gore, and other proponents of highly progressive policies.
Read the full story
The real crisis in the U.S. labor market is not, as we keep hearing, that there are not enough people who can work. The real crisis is all the working-age people on the sidelines, not even looking for a job. Yes, the unemployment rate is low, but that statistic covers only those who have looked for a job in the last four weeks. The labor-force participation rate, which measures the share of working-age people working or at least looking for work, shows a long-term decline, especially for men without a college degree, and practically in states like Michigan. When able-bodied men are not even looking for work, a host of social problems ensue — from crime, to drug addiction, to family breakdown.
Read the full story
The real crisis in the U.S. labor market is not, as we keep hearing, that there are not enough people who can work. The real crisis is all the working-age people on the sidelines, not even looking for a job. Yes, the unemployment rate is low, but that statistic covers only people who have looked for a job in the last four weeks. The labor force participation rate, which measures the share of working age people working or at least looking for work, shows a long-term decline, particularly for men without a college degree, and especially in states like Wisconsin. When able-bodied men are not even looking for work, a host of social problems ensue — from crime, to drug addiction, to family breakdown.
Read the full story
The real crisis in the U.S. labor market is not, as we keep hearing, that there are not enough people who can work. The real crisis is all of the working-age people on the sidelines, not even looking for a job. Yes, the unemployment rate is low, but that statistic covers only people who have looked for a job in the last four weeks. The labor force participation rate, which measures the share of working-age people working or at least looking for work, shows a long-term decline, especially for men without a college degree. This is especially true in states like Connecticut. When able-bodied men are not even looking for work, a host of social problems ensue — from crime, to drug addiction, to family breakdown.
Read the full story
Ohio plans to spend $1.2 million to try to stop youngsters from escaping the Department of Youth Services parole supervision and quickly find them if they do, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Friday afternoon as part of another $5.7 million in law enforcement funding.
The money, coming from the state general fund and the federal American Rescue Plan Act, is expected to be used by DYS to develop the new Community Intervention and Intelligence Unit. It will work with local law enforcement to find and reengage with youth who have active warrants not abiding by terms of parole.
Read the full story
The real crisis in the U.S. labor market is not, as we keep hearing, that there are not enough people who can work. The real crisis is all the working-age people on the sidelines, not even looking for a job. Yes, the unemployment rate is low, but that statistic covers only people who have looked for a job in the last four weeks. The labor force participation rate, which measures the share of working-age people working or at least looking for work, shows a long-term decline, especially for men without a college degree. This is especially true in states like Florida. When able-bodied men are not even looking for work, a host of social problems ensue — from crime, to drug addiction, to family breakdown.
Read the full story
A Robertson County teacher on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges that he exposed himself to students, among other sexual activities inside the school.
John Keathley, 53, is charged with indecent exposure, solicitation of sexual exploitation of a minor, and public indecency for allegedly engaging in sexual behavior with a student at Greenbrier Middle School between March and May.
Read the full story
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Thursday that he approved the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and several Tennessee Republican leaders voiced their displeasure with both the raid and the attorney general’s role in it.
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was one of strongest and most prolific voices in reacting to Garland’s statement.
Read the full story
The war of words between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott escalated this week as buses of foreign nationals who’ve entered the U.S. illegally arrive in Adams’ city. The buses arriving at the Port Authority generally carry between 50 and 100 people. Abbott says that’s compared to the more than 5,000 apprehended a day in the five Border Patrol sectors in Texas at the southern border.
Read the full story
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) had $469,819.49 stolen in an alleged Nigerian email scam, according to a Department of Justice court document and an FBI Richmond press release that announced the extradition to the U.S. of three Nigerian nationals alleged to have participated in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that also targeted a North Carolina university, a Texas college, local Texas governments, and Texas construction companies.
Read the full story
Richmond law enforcement will distribute cold case decks of cards to inmates at the Richmond City Justice Center; the cards feature pictures and names of victims of unsolved homicides.
“The loss of a murdered loved one is devastating. Not receiving justice makes it even worse. I’m hopeful that this creative tool will help law enforcement provide answers and justice to these families,” Attorney General Jason Miyares said in an announcement.
Read the full story
On Tuesday, a school board in North Dakota voted overwhelmingly to abandon the sacred tradition of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, claiming that the Pledge doesn’t align with the district’s values.
As reported by the New York Post, the Fargo School Board voted 7-2 to cancel the Pledge at all of its future bi-weekly board meetings. Those who voted in favor of the ban claimed that the Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t inclusive enough, primarily due to the use of the phrase “under God.”
Read the full story
Rather than impose higher taxes and more restrictions on domestic production of oil and natural gas, as Senate Democrats voted to do by passing the Inflation Reduction Act, those in the industry proposed 10 actions policy makers can take right now to reduce costs. The industry says its solutions won’t cost taxpayers $740 billion, as the Inflation Reduction Act does, or increase the national debt or inflation, as 230 economists have warned the act will do.
Read the full story
Monkeypox has America’s public health establishment in a bit of an awkward spot. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra last Thursday labeled monkeypox a public health emergency. “We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously and to take responsibility to help us tackle this virus,” he said.
Read the full story
In May, state Sen. Doug Mastriano won the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania – much to the consternation of his party. Many Republicans felt that Mastriano had no chance of winning because of the far-right positions he took in the primary and during his brief career as a state senator. They pointed out that Democrats had even spent money to help make Mastriano the nominee because he was such a weak candidate.
Read the full story
Per capita murder rates in major U.S. cities such as Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis are outpacing Ukraine’s recorded civilian death rate from Russia’s invasion.
Read the full story
When voters were asked by Pew Research, prior to the 2020 election, what issues were most important to them, education wasn’t even among the top dozen.
But things have changed dramatically since then. Outlets ranging from The Washington Post, to ABC News, have identified education as a potentially significant factor in the 2022 midterms. Additionally, after education emerged as a defining issue in Virginia’s gubernatorial election last year — ranking as a top two or three issue — school choice became a litmus test issue for Republicans.
Read the full story
Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia may be saving her state’s coal industry after the Senate Democrats’ climate bill, backed by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, threatened to place new regulations on coal.
Manchin’s agreement included a provision that explicitly authorized the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to further regulate coal production under a variety of legal provisions that could have rendered the recent Supreme Court rulings, which stated that Congress must clearly authorize the agency’s actions, irrelevant. However, Capito asserted that the authorization did not comply with budget reconciliation rules on the Senate floor on Sunday, leading the Senate parliamentarian to eliminate the provision, according to a press release.
Read the full story
Donny Van Slee is a Florida boy from the rural town of Weeki Wachee Springs, home of the famous live mermaids. Growing up, Van Slee was shy and his dad bought him a guitar to help him. Later, influenced by the bands he loved – Led Zeppelin and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – he took lessons, but his main focus in school was soccer.
Read the full story
The “right to try” has been expanded in Arizona.
Gov. Doug Ducey held a signing ceremony for five bills that passed with bipartisan support in this year’s legislative session. It included Senate Bill 1163, the Right to Try for Individualized Treatments.
Read the full story
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said this week that raising taxes during a recession was a “special kind of stupid.” He’s not wrong, of course, but don’t be fooled. The high-fiving and devilish cackling over the Democrats’ latest spending bonanza isn’t just in the Democratic Cloakroom.
Read the full story
The Democrat-led House passed a climate and healthcare spending bill on Friday without a full Congressional Budget Office score of the legislation’s cost.
Read the full story
Amid spreading alarm about the Internal Revenue Service stockpiling ammunition and Senate Democrats’ passge on Sunday of a spending bill that would fund the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents, the tax collection agency is listing a job opening for a Criminal Investigation Special Agent who must must “be willing to use deadly force, if necessary.”
Read the full story
A Georgia lawmaker will support additional funding for the Georgia Composite Medical Board to hire additional investigators if the agency asks for the money.
“I don’t think they have enough investigators and when they ask for appropriations for that I will support it,” state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, an orthopedic hand surgeon for more than 30 years, told The Center Square.
Read the full story
Ohio’s largest school district continues to move forward with plans to open the school year for students Aug. 24, despite the system’s teachers union getting closer to a strike.
Jennifer Adair, president of the Columbus City Schools Board of Education, said in a statement the board was troubled to learn the Columbus Education Association filed a notice of intent to strike a day after a 20th negotiating session.
Read the full story
A Freedom of Information Act request submitted to Kalamazoo Public Schools to learn how the district spent more than $63 million in federal taxpayer money was met with a $263.66 price tag.
The Center Square submitted the FOIA to KPS in late July.
Read the full story
Mayors of Pennsylvania’s small towns and large cities have fallen afoul of the law with varying reasons.
Meadville Mayor Jaime Kinder is the latest added to the list.
Read the full story
Arizona’s Republican nominee for governor earlier this week said that America’s federal government has turned on its people.
“All I will say is that [the raid on former President Donald Trump’s home] shows that our federal government is corrupt to the core,” Lake said in an interview on Newsmax. “This is the kind of stuff you see in a banana republic. I mean, I think the El Salvador president had a great quote … when he said ‘What would the United States have done if we did this in El Salvador? They probably would have invaded.'”
Read the full story
Republicans in Wisconsin are offering a glimpse at their strategy for this fall’s campaign against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Wednesday said Evers will be tough to beat in November because he hasn’t screwed-up in years.
Read the full story
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, had some harsh words for Rep. Ilhan Omar after she narrowly escaped defeat in a Tuesday primary against Frey’s preferred candidate.
Frey said the “massive” 20-point shift should send a message to Omar, who defeated Don Samuels by just two points. In 2020, Omar won the Fifth District’s Democratic primary by 20 points.
Read the full story
Jim Renacci, a Republican former Ohio gubernatorial candidate who now chairs the pro-Trump American Greatness PAC, announced Friday he will host a series of forums across the Buckeye State this fall to foster conservative unity on political strategy.
The first of these events will occur on the evening of September 15 at the Thirsty Cowboy in Medina. Subsequent forums will be announced at a later time. The events will also feature vendor tables for aligned political organizations.
Read the full story
Christina Pushaw stepped down from her role as press secretary for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to serve on his re-election campaign, she told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Election laws restrict the ability of individuals to endorse political candidates or parties and make certain election-related statements in their capacity as government employees; now that Pushaw works for DeSantis’ campaign and not the Florida government, she is free from those restrictions. She appeared to warn her opponents about the next phase of her career in a Friday tweet.
Read the full story
Republican members of Arizona’s congressional delegation are calling for accountability after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home Monday.
“There are good, hardworking people at the Department of Justice and FBI who keep our nation safe and uphold our nation’s laws. Unfortunately, bad actors in these agencies have weaponized the Department of Justice to attack political opponents on the right and have declined to investigate political allies such as Hunter Biden,” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) told The Arizona Sun Times. “If Republicans win back the Majority in the U.S. House, we will be investigating those who have abused our system of justice for political purposes, and we will hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
Read the full story
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) issued an executive order Friday to fill a 1,000-foot gap in the Yuma sector of the southern border wall.
“Arizona has had enough,” Ducey said. “We can’t wait any longer. The Biden administration’s lack of urgency on border security is a dereliction of duty. For the last two years, Arizona has made every attempt to work with Washington to address the crisis on our border. Time and time again we’ve stepped in to clean up their mess. Arizonans can’t wait any longer for the federal government to deliver on their delayed promises.”
Read the full story
Democrat Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser asked the Pentagon Thursday for a second time to deploy the National Guard to support illegal migrants arriving from the southern border.
Read the full story
One Democratic lawmaker, Virginia Rep. Don Beyer, cast 10 proxy votes on the House floor on Friday in favor of the Democrats’ $740 billion climate and healthcare spending bill, the Inflation Reduction Act.
Read the full story
Donald Trump’s office told Just the News on Friday that the classified materials the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate were declassified under a “standing order” while he was president that allowed him to take sensitive materials to the White House residence at night to keep working.
Read the full story
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) earlier this week announced that it has selected a Nashville attorney to be its next executive director.
Kathy Sinback will now lead the organization, replacing Hedy Weinberg who stepped down in July.
Read the full story
Star News Network Chief Meteorologist Daphne DeLoren shares her Middle Tennessee Fresh Forecast for Friday Night and the weekend.
Catch Daphne’s Fresh Forecast weekdays at 5pm, during The Tennessee Star Evening News Update, and on demand.
Read the full story
Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, official guest host Aaron Gulbransen welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
Read the full story
Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Laurie Cardoza-Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations to the newsmaker line to talk about her upcoming event, Taking Back America’s Children for parents to get involved in their local school boards next Friday and Saturday in Franklin.
Read the full story
Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Southeastern Legal Foundation Director of Litigation Braden Boucek to the newsmaker line to discuss the recent Tennessee state attorney general appointment of conservative Jonathan Skrmetti.
Read the full story
When President Biden signed the CHIPS Act into law Tuesday, it most likely meant a third round of government incentives for Intel and it’s planned $20 billion semiconductor plant in central Ohio, leaving some concerned with the amount of taxpayer money being funneled to the company.
The signing opened $52 billion to companies producing semiconductor chips and another $10 billion to create regional technology hubs across the country. That’s on top of at least $2 billion in initial state incentives for Intel, and an unknown second round of state money.
Read the full story
Two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives are publicly asking Democratic voters in Wyoming to vote for Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) in her upcoming primary, as she faces likely defeat at the hands of a pro-Trump challenger.
According to the Daily Wire, Congressmen Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) and Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) made their appeals to Wyoming Democrats in online campaign ads this week, voicing their support for Cheney’s re-election.
Read the full story
The FBI is dissolving before our eyes into a rogue security service akin to those in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
Take the FBI’s deliberately asymmetrical application of the law. This week the bureau surprise-raided the home of former President Donald Trump—an historical first.
Read the full story
After over a week of counting the votes, another of the ten pro-impeachment Republicans in the House of Representatives has lost their primary to a challenger backed by President Donald Trump.
Fox News reports that Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) conceded the race to former Green Beret Joe Kent on Tuesday, with a lengthy statement defending her record in office. Beutler was first elected to Washington’s 3rd congressional district in 2010.
Read the full story
Illegal migrants bused from the southern border to Washington, D.C, denied that they’re being “tricked” into boarding the buses, several of them told the Daily Caller News Foundation, contradicting claims made by the mayors of D.C. and New York City.
Read the full story
The far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the United Nations to demand that the United States hand out reparations to African-Americans over past issues such as slavery.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the ACLU, along with several other left-wing groups such as Human Rights Watch, sent their demands to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, calling on the international organization to force Joe Biden to announce “immediate, tangible measures” to “dismantle structural racism” in the United States.
Read the full story