Far-Left Congresswomen Rally Behind Tennessee Congressional Candidate Odessa Kelly

Odessa Kelly, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-7) for reelection, is touting the backing of three of Congress’s most left-wing members. 

Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7) and Cori Bush (D-MO-1) issued the endorsements on Monday. The congresswomen are members of what many observers call “The Squad,” a six-member coalition of far-left U.S. House members who advocate for such causes as police defunding, Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

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Gov. Lee Touts Violent Crime Intervention Fund on Fox News

As part of a wave of new crime prevention and response strategies in Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee (R) joined Fox News to tout his new Violent Crime Intervention Fund.

“We have a crime problem in this country, there’s no doubt about it, and Tennessee hasn’t escaped that problem,” Lee told former host and former U.S. Congressman Trey Gowdy on the channel’s “Sunday Night in America.”

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Sen. Ted Cruz, Radio Host Clay Travis to Stump for Andy Ogles in Franklin as Part of PAC Bus Tour

As Election Day nears, a Political Action Committee (PAC) is hosting a bus tour that will stop in Franklin, Tennessee, to rally for former Maury County mayor and U.S. congressional candidate Andy Ogles, bringing with it some notable names in the world of politics.

“Truth and Courage PAC #TakeBackAmericaBusTour is hitting the road to educate and equip conservatives all across the country,” according to a media advisory from that group. “Join us to hear directly from national and local leaders who are taking the charge to save our great nation. Midterm elections are around the corner and so is the TAKE BACK AMERICA Bus Tour, bringing the red wave to you! The opportunity to win back America is now.”

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TEMA Director Elected to Lead National Emergency Management Association

The head of Tennessee’s Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) has been tapped to lead the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), according to the Tennessee Department of Military, TEMA’s parent agency. 

“Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) Director Patrick Sheehan was named president of the National Emergency Management Association (NEMA), for a one-year term leading the professional organization of emergency managers,” according to a press release. 

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Parent Leaders Rebuke ‘Teachers’ Unions’ and ‘Fear Mongering Influencers’ for National Assessment Results Exposing Unprecedented Losses During Pandemic

The director of outreach for Parents Defending Education says results published Monday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that revealed significant declines in math and reading scores nationwide were “predictable because people in positions of power allowed teachers unions and other fear mongering influencers to put children last.”

“We knew prolonged school closures and masking would have catastrophic effects on children,” Erika Sanzi said. “And now we have more evidence that they did.”  

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Mandatory Dyslexia Screenings to Begin in Ohio Schools

Starting with the 2023-2024 school year, Ohio students in kindergarten must participate in annual dyslexia screenings aimed at identifying student learning disabilities at an early age.

House Bill (HB) 583, sponsored by State Representatives Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) and Don Jones (R-Freeport), became law on September 23, making changes to the prior dyslexia support law, HB 436.

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Connecticut GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Bob Stefanowski Vows to Reject COVID Shot Mandate for School Children

Connecticut GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski said Thursday in a press statement that if he is elected Connecticut governor that the state would never mandate the COVID vaccine for “schoolchildren, public or private employees, or anyone else.”

“It’s time that we start allowing actual science — not political science — to inform how we approach public health decisions,” Stefanowski added. “I challenge Governor Lamont to make this same pledge to the people of our state.”

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Michigan’s Democratic Governor Is Rapidly Losing Ground to Her GOP Opponent: Poll

Republican candidate Tudor Dixon is now polling within one percentage point of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in the state’s gubernatorial race, per a new poll.

Dixon received 47.9% support while Whitmer received 48.4%, a difference of 0.5%, according to a poll from The Trafalgar Group. The small margin between them is a marked difference from earlier in the year when, in August, Whitmer was ahead by up to 15%, according to RealClearPolitics.

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Judge Won’t Stop Milwaukee’s Get-Out-the-Vote Effort

Milwaukee’s get-out-the-vote partnership with a liberal/progressive firm is not technically against the law, so a judge is not going to stop it.

Milwaukee County Judge Gwendolyn Connolly on Friday refused to grant the Republican Party of Wisconsin a temporary restraining order against Milwaukee Votes 2022, the city-backed privately funded get-out-the-vote effort with GPS Impact.

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Commentary: Tennessee’s National Assessment of Educational Progress Results Don’t Tell the Whole Story

Like any other test, I am careful about reading too much into the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results. With NAEP, representative samples of students rather than the entire national, state, or district populations take the test every two years and only in 4, 8, and 12th grades.

National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner Peggy Carr said “specific pandemic-era local decisions, like how long to keep a school or district shuttered, aren’t solely the cause of these results. Exploring that deserves more research.” My response: “Why?”

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Abrams’ Voting Rights Group Paid Millions in Legal Fees to Campaign’s Chair: Report

The voting rights group founded by Georgia Senate nominee Stacey Abrams reportedly spent over $25 million in legal fees over two years, with most of the money going to one case and the largest amount toward the law firm of Abrams’ close friend and chairwoman of her campaign, raising questions about such a large sum and possible conflicts of interest.

Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Abrams’ friend who chaired the Georgia Democrat gubernatorial nominee’s 2018 campaign and her current bid, is partner in the law firm Lawrence & Bundy, Politico reported Monday.

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Kari Lake Participates in Clean Elections Commission’s Gubernatorial Debate; Katie Hobbs Dodged

Following controversy caused by Arizona PBS, the Arizona Clean Elections Commission (CEC) held its 2022 gubernatorial debate on Sunday. However, the only nominee in attendance was Republican Kari Lake as her Democrat opponent, Katie Hobbs, declined to attend.

“Thank you to the clean elections folks. I know they had to kind of move things around as we tried to make a debate happen with myself and my opponent, but unfortunately, she was not courageous enough to show up for the debate,” Lake said to start the evening.

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Arizona School Gets Rid of Homecoming Tradition; Concerned Parents Want It Back

A group of Arizona parents called Concerned Viking Families (CVF) told The Arizona Sun Times that the homecoming king and queen were stripped away from the Sunnyslope High School (SHS) of the Glendale Union High School District (GUHSD). Leah Clark, a teacher at SHS, allegedly made the student council she oversees vote to remove the longstanding tradition to avoid hurting feelings.

“The student council teachers/advisors at Sunnyslope High School (part of Glendale Unified) took it upon herself to demand that her student council class vote on terminating the long standing tradition of Homecoming King/Queen court because it’s not diverse or inclusive and hurts students feelings. And also because it’s hard to have to tell people they’ve lost,” said leaders of the CVF to the Sun Times.

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Gov. Glenn Youngkin and U.S Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Disagree on Reason for Low Student Test Scores

RICHMOND, Virginia — Virginia’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are “catastrophic,” Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a press conference Monday morning, hours after the NAEP scores were released. Nationally, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a press release the scores are “appalling.” Virginia’s Republican education administration blamed the Commonwealth’s scores on Democratic policy under previous administrations predating COVID-19, while Cardona said the national results are “a reminder of the impact that this pandemic has had on our learners.”

“Today’s data release is a clear and heart-wrenching statement that Virginia is failing her students,” Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera said at the conference, and said the results are not a surprise. “Recent date from the ACT, SOLs [Standards of Learning], from the PALS data, and today’s catastrophic decline in Virginia’s NAEP scores are a predictable outcome of the decade-long systemic dismantling of a foundational commitment to excellence in education.”

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Report: Georgia Has One of the Nation’s Best Improvements in Its Unemployment Rate

Georgia reported one of the best changes in its unemployment rate of any state in the union, a new analysis found.

According to the report from WalletHub, Georgia has the 15th best change in unemployment. That trailed neighboring Florida (No. 6) and Alabama (12) but was better than South Carolina (28), Tennessee (32) and North Carolina (35).

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DeSantis Suspends Deadlines for Property Tax Payments

Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking several actions to help Floridians impacted by Hurricane Ian, including planning on calling a special session in December to address property taxes and property insurance reform.

He first issued an executive order to suspend property tax deadlines for residents in 26 counties impacted by Hurricane Ian. The order covers personal homes and commercial property that were either destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.

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VP Kamala Harris Falsely Calls Her Support of Minnesota Freedom Fund ‘Misinformation’

Vice President Kamala Harris falsely described her support of the Minnesota Freedom Fund as “misinformation” in an interview Friday.

The vice president was in town for a pro-abortion event with Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and a fundraiser for Gov. Tim Walz. She also appeared in a video with Attorney General Keith Ellison and endorsed his reelection bid.

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Doctor Who Gave Fetterman a Clean Bill of Health Is Campaign Donor, Democrat Funder

A doctor who issued a clean bill-of-health letter for John Fetterman is a donor to the Pennsylvania Democrat Senate nominee’s campaign and a frequent giver to other Democratic politicians, federal records show. 

Speculations have swirled around Fetterman’s health after he experienced a stroke in May. At times he has struggled with speech and has also needed technological assistance during media interviews, such as closed captioning to ensure he comprehends questions to him. Auditory processing issues are common symptoms of strokes.

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Arizona Sues Biden over Border Wall Standoff

 Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is taking President Joe Biden to court over their spat about securing the nation’s southern border.

The Biden administration ordered Arizona to remove its temporary border barrier made out of shipping containers, but Arizona refused. Instead, it filed a lawsuit on Friday, hoping the state would defend its right to defend itself.

“Our border communities are over

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Ohio Religious Schools, Nonprofits to Share $6 Million for Security

Safety and security at religious institutions, chartered nonpublic schools, licensed preschools and nonprofit organizations throughout Ohio will share $6 million in grant funding, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced.

The money, included in the state’s operating budget signed into law in July and administered by the Ohio Safety and Security Grant Program, is part of more than $12 million given to state schools and institutions since 2019 to help with safety and security.

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Study Shows Marijuana Use Reaching Record Levels Among Young Adults

According to a new study, use of the drug marijuana has reached record highs for young adults in the United States, to the point that it may become a common practice for a majority of this demographic.

Breitbart reports that the study, conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, on behalf of the organization Monitoring the Future, shows a significant increase in the use of marijuana and other hallucinogens among adults between the ages of 19 and 30, compared to the same rates just 10 years earlier.

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Investors Show Concern over Defaulting Mortgages as Possible Recession Looms

Investors are reportedly concerned about mortgage defaults and are unloading Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities, amid record-high interest rates and a rapidly cooling housing market. 

Mortgage rates last week hit a two-decade high of 6.92%, a trend that has slowed the booming, often over-priced real estate market during the height of the pandemic.  

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Home Sales Plummet in Ominous Sign for Economy

Sales of existing homes fell in September for the eighth month in a row, as historically high mortgage rates pummel demand for homes, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced Thursday.

The 1.5% decline from August contributed to a 23.8% slide compared to September 2021, as the median existing-home sales price rose 8.4% from last September, from $355,100 to $384,800, the NAR reported. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said that high mortgage rates were contributing to reduced demand, particularly in “expensive regions of the country.”

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Judge Rules in Favor of California Baker Who Refused to Bake Same-Sex Wedding Cake

In California, a judge ruled in favor of a baker who was sued by the state for refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian couple’s wedding.

The New York Post reports that Cathy Miller, the owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, was sued by the state’s Department of Fair Housing and Employment after she refused to bake a cake for Eileen and Mireya Rodridguez-Del Rio. The state accused Miller of violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act, a state anti-discrimination law.

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RNC Launches 73 Election Integrity Lawsuits Across 20 States

In the year 2022 alone, the Republican National Committee (RNC) has filed 73 different lawsuits in 20 different states, alleging various violations of election procedure and resulting in several key victories, with two weeks to go before the midterms.

As reported by Fox News, the lawsuits focus on such matters as the counting of ballots that are either undated or mismarked, as well as the rights of poll watchers to directly observe the counting of ballots. The large-scale legal action by the RNC comes after widespread accusations of voter fraud in the 2020 election cycle, which many believe was enough to swing the results away from President Donald J. Trump and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

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England Moves to Restrict Transgender Procedures for Kids as Biden Doubles Down

England’s National Health Service (NHS) banned puberty blockers for minors outside strict clinical trials and advised against social transitions for kids, arguing that most children who think they’re transgender are going through a phase they will outgrow, according to The Telegraph.

The NHS is developing plans to restrict cross-sex medical treatments for children due to “scarce and inconclusive evidence to support clinical decision-making,” according to The Telegraph. As England moves to limit transgender medical interventions for children, the Biden administration has been championing child sex changes and publicly criticizing state level efforts to restrict those procedures as harmful to transgender people.

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