Star News Network Chief Meteorologist Daphne DeLoren shares her Middle Tennessee Fresh Forecast for Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Catch Daphne’s Fresh Forecast weekdays at 5pm and on demand.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed State Senator Joey Hensley (R-TN-28) to the newsmaker line to explain the Age Appropriate Materials Act and his stance on whether or not the state of Tennessee should continue to receive monies from the federal Department of Education.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed libertarian, professor, and author Dr. Murray Sabrin to the newsmaker line to discuss his new book The Finance of Health Care and his thoughts on how to fix the American economy.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Aaron Gulbransen in studio to comment upon recent public statements made by newly elected Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti regarding Title XI and redefining the word “sex.”
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist, official guest host, and Faith and Freedom Coalition’s State of Tennessee Director, Aaron Gulbransen in-studio to describe the group’s origins and relation to Roe v Wade.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist, official guest host, and Faith and Freedom Coalition’s State of Tennessee Director, Aaron Gulbransen in-studio to discuss the Biden administration’s executive order in an effort to federalize elections.
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Former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr died on Tuesday at the age of 76.
Starr died at a hospital in Houston, Texas, according to the New York Post.
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As life expectancy declines in the United States, life expectancy in China has continued its steady climb, potentially surpassing the U.S., according to certain recent data sets.
The U.S.’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently estimated that life expectancy at birth had fallen nearly a year to 76.1 years in 2021, while the Chinese National Health Commission estimated that life expectancy in China had risen to 78.3 in 2021, according to The State Council Of The People’s Republic of China. However, this data is disputed, with Chinese state estimates of life expectancy in 2020 nearly a year higher than estimates by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), or by the World Bank.
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New details have emerged about more alleged crimes committed by the suspect in Eliza Fletcher’s brutal kidnapping and murder.
Cleotha Abston has been charged separately in an aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping case stemming from September of 2021. He is also charged in that case with unlawful carrying or possession of a weapon.
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Republican senators claimed in a Monday letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra that he has returned the federal agency to its “lawless and unaccountable” Obama-era “roots.”
Led by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, the 12 senators are taking aim at Chopra’s alleged “abuses of power” that are a “serious concern.” Chopra should “reverse course” and ensure the CFPB “stay[s] within the boundaries of law,” the senators wrote.
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Small businesses are increasingly unwilling to hire because they can’t afford to take on new costs, according to a newly released survey.
The small business network company Alignable released the survey Wednesday. It found that 63% report putting hiring on hold “because they can’t afford to add staff, and 10% of that group is laying off workers.”
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The Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) confirmed that its Deputy Superintendent for Strategic Operations and Finance, Dr. John Barker, was placed on paid administrative leave due to an “employee complaint.”
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President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan will be costly for American taxpayers, a coalition of GOP governors said in a letter sent Monday to the White House.
The letter, signed by 22 GOP governors, tells Biden to “withdraw” the plan, citing cost estimates of up to $600 billion, or $2,000 per American taxpayer.
“As governors, we support making higher education more affordable and accessible for students in our states, but we fundamentally oppose your plan to force American taxpayers to pay off the student loan debt of an elite few,” the coalition wrote.
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A New York City middle school English teacher told a Project Veritas (PV) undercover journalist she encourages her students to engage in political violence by teaching them “to throw bricks,” not to “black and brown communities,” but at “the people that are actually doing the things that [need to] change.”
In the fourth video of its education series titled “The Secret Curriculum,” New York City Department of Education middle school teacher Ariane Franco is heard telling the PV journalist she teaches her students “there’s strategic ways” to engage in violent protests against the people who oppose her political agenda.
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Not only is Drake Milligan a finalist on American’s Got Talent, his full-length debut album Dallas/Fort Worth’ is coming out September 15th.
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The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is trying to probe former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, reportedly finding he was involved in efforts to overturn 2020 election results, according to The Hill.
A committee member said Gingrich seems to have participated in an effort by various allies of former President Donald Trump to establish fake electors in states Trump claimed to have won, the outlet reported. Committee chair Bennie Thompson’s recent letter requesting Gingrich’s “voluntary cooperation” indicated he communicated with Trump advisors like Jared Kushner, Mark Meadows and Jason Miller about election outcome reversal tactics.
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A Madison County commissioner was found to have collected more than $115,000 in fees from 1,970 marriages unlawfully, according to an investigation from the state of Tennessee’s Comptroller office.
The commissioner would charge a $60 fee for marriages even though commissioners “may not charge a fee or demand any other form of compensation.”
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Accreditation pervades American education from kindergarten through graduate school. It has become a means through which the government enforces subpar educational outcomes and increases its power.
Of course, it didn’t start out that way.
Primary and secondary accreditation began in the 1880s as a voluntary method to improve quality among schools and establish standards for students preparing for college.
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Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Commissioner Penny Schwinn met First Lady Jill Biden and U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to the University of Tennessee (UT) on Monday as the pair kicked off the Road to Success Back to School Bus Tour.
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A Tennessee science museum is hosting its first ever “family friendly” drag show as a part of its “Summer of Pride” program, according to the museum website.
The Museum of Science and History in Memphis, Tennessee, which is a “place to explore, discover and experience history, science, culture and nature” is promoting its “Memphis Proud Drag Show And Dance Party” on Sept. 23 to be “family friendly” and open to all ages, according to the museum website. The event will feature seven performers including “drag clown” Barbie Wyre, who is hosting the event, Angel Fartz and Siren Moss, who will “manifest the art of drag.”
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Michigan taxpayers are footing $27 million for a Hemlock Semiconductor Operations project that the company says will create 170 jobs at its Saginaw County headquarters.
The company says it is spending $375 million on a new project to meet the increasing global demand for hyper-pure polysilicon in the semiconductor and solar industries.
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Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, running for Arizona’s highest office, released an education plan that bashes school vouchers and calls for tighter restrictions on charter schools.
“Katie continues to oppose the universal expansion of school vouchers. As governor, she will work to roll back universal vouchers, which the legislature enacted against the will of voters this year,” according to the plan. “Vouchers should not have been expanded to provide an unaccountable means of enriching private schools and defunding our local public schools.”
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A Southington High School English teacher’s student worksheet that defined terms often associated with the concepts of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and radical gender theory drew anger from parents, students, board of education officials, and members of the community.
School board members said they were unaware of the three-page worksheet packet until they read about it on social media.
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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s announcement last week that Fitch Ratings upgraded the state’s credit rating from AA+ to AAA elicited both praise and caution from the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute.
Greg Lawson, research fellow at the center-right think tank, called the budgetary management to which state officials ascribed Fitch’s decision on Ohio’s long-term issuer default rating (IDR) “a mixed bag.” (The state has also seen its general-obligation bond rating rise from AA+ to AAA, its appropriation-backed bonds move to AA+ from AA, the Ohio School District Credit Enhancement Program Rating go to AA+ from AA and the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Portsmouth Bypass project obligations rating move to A+ from AA-.)
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A trio of bills are working their way through the Legislature to enhance the security of election ballots and remove deceased residents from the voter rolls.
The House State Government Committee met on Monday to vote on House Bill 34, House Bill 143, and House Bill 2484, advancing all three of them past first consideration. The bills will need to get through three considerations before a final vote can be held.
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There is, apparently, a limit to what Milwaukee County considers coronavirus-related relief.
Milwaukee County’s American Rescue Plan Act Task Force last week unanimously rejected a proposal to spend $19 million of ARPA dollars to rehabilitate the Mitchell Park Domes.
“This Task Force has spent millions of dollars on initiatives to ensure that houses in suburban Milwaukee aren’t falling into disrepair, potentially rushing foreclosures.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis activated the Florida National Guard in an effort to provide ongoing assistance to the state’s corrections officers.
Activating the guard will help reduce overtime for corrections officers and provide temporary staffing relief as the state continues to fill vacancies. They were activated immediately as of Sept. 9 for a period of nine months or until they are no longer needed.
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Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge James Plowman recused Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj from prosecuting a criminal case against Scott Smith, a parent who faces a disorderly conduct charge after being arrested at a June 2021 Loudoun County School Board meeting. While Plowman disagreed with Smith’s defense’s argument that there was a conflict of interest mandating removal of Biberaj, he granted the motion to recuse her and wrote in an order, “The concerns about the public confidence in the integrity of the prosecution as well as the Defendant’s concerns regarding the impartiality of the Commonwealth’s Attorney are sufficiently grounded.” In May 2021, one of Smith’s children was allegedly assaulted on school property; the school board’s handling of that situation has generated frustration among Republicans and a grand jury investigation. A month later, Smith was arrested at a rowdy school board meeting where officials seemed to deny the existence of assaults in district bathrooms and locker rooms. He faced an obstruction of justice charge and a disorderly conduct charge. In May 2022, Smith and his attorney State Senator Bill Stanley (R-Franklin) announced that a court had dropped the obstruction charge. In May, Stanley also argued that Biberaj should be recused; Plowman’s September…
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Two professors and one graduate researcher at the University of Minnesota have called the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson — which overturned the constitutional right to an abortion — a “direct assault on efforts to improve racial equity in health care.”
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, the article, titled “Abortion Access as a Racial Justice Issue,” argues that lawmakers and health care workers ought to treat restrictions on legal abortion as “fundamentally a racial justice issue,” the Star Tribune first reported.
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After the Arizona Clean Elections Commission rejected Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’s proposal for dueling town halls with Republican gubernatorial opponent Kari Lake, Hobbs has officially declined a formal debate.
“We must respectfully decline the invitation,” said a statement from Hobbs’s campaign.
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Arizona Latinos are most concerned about inflation, jobs and rising crime, according to a new poll published by UNIDOS US, a research and policy analysis organization that has focused on Hispanic American issues since 1968.
The poll, taken between July 20 and August 1 ranked 14 issues in terms of priorities for Arizona based Latinos, finding that of those categories 49% considered inflation the most pressing concern. Thirty four percent focused on jobs and 27% on crime.
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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Monday that all flags at state buildings would fly at half-mast on Tuesday following the passing of former State Mine Inspector and Representative Joe Hart Sunday.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of former Arizona Representative and State Mine Inspector Joe Hart,” said Ducey. “A pillar of state government, he was a dedicated advocate for the mining industry and played a critical role in overseeing the safety at Arizona’s mines. A lifelong Kingman resident, Inspector Hart proudly served the people of Arizona for decades. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones during this time.”
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Yuma County District Two Supervisor Jonathan Lines spoke with Trump-endorsed Arizona Attorney General nominee Abe Hamadeh at the Yuma border Monday morning, saying that recent comments from Vice-President Kamala Harris about America having a secure border are not true.
“Absolutely and emphatically, there is no way that that is a true statement,” Lines said in reference to Harris’s comment.
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Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio blasted the Biden administration for what he viewed as prioritizing aid to Ukraine during a Monday appearance on Fox Business Network.
“I’m all for helping Ukraine, I just don’t think it should be the American taxpayer continuing to give and give and give,” Jordan said. “So you know, again, let’s hope he moves in the right direction as it seems to be doing and we want Ukraine to prevail in this — in this war, but let’s be supportive but I don’t know that we need to be sending a bunch of more American tax dollars there.”
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The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Action Fund announced on Monday the formation of two PACs to promote diversity in local government candidates across the South.
The New Southern Leaders federal Political Action Committee (PAC) and the New Southern Majority federal Independent Expenditure Committee (Super PAC) will “help recruit, support and drive greater diversity among political candidates running for local offices throughout the South,” according to an emailed press release.
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The total number of homeless people in Los Angeles County has skyrocketed over the last few years, reaching a staggering new total of over 69,000.
Fox News reports that the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), which released its updated report on Thursday, found an increase of 4.1 percent since 2020. In the entirety of the county, approximately 69,144 people are now homeless; in just the city of Los Angeles alone, there are 41,980 homeless people.
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Project Veritas, the investigative journalism group, was put on notice by the state of Connecticut with a records hold request and an indication of potential subpoenas coming their way as part of an investigation into discriminatory hiring practices at Greenwich Public Schools.
Veritas in late August published a secretly recorded interview with Cos Cob Elementary School Assistant Principal Jeremy Boland in which he appeared to admit to discriminatory hiring practices against Catholics and conservatives.
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