Month: October 2022

European Union Announces Ban on Gas Cars in the Middle of Energy Crisis

Admin

The European Union (EU) announced Thursday that it will be outlawing the sale of gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035 even though EU countries are already struggling to fight soaring electricity costs.

EU member states and the European Commission agreed to force all new cars and vans registered in the EU to be electric by 2035, according to an EU press release. Europe is currently embroiled in an energy crisis and is preparing for blackouts as electricity prices remain more than seven times higher than they were in 2020, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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Cities Tap $222 Million in Federal COVID-19 Relief for ‘Guaranteed Income’ Programs

Admin

Democrats’ American Rescue Plan, sold as helping the nation recover from the economic crisis sparked by COVID-19, provided funds to begin “guaranteed basic income” programs in at least two dozen cities across the country. 

More than $222 million from the legislation has gone to some of America’s largest cities—including Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Seattle, New Orleans, and Chicago—for pilot programs that would dole out money to low-income residents, in most cases for one or two years. 

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Knoxville Community Empowerment Director Lomax Resigns to Run Local Urban League Chapter

Kaitlyn Osteen

Knoxville’s Community Empowerment Department Director Charles F. Lomax Jr. has announced today that he will step down from the position of director on December 9 to become the president and CEO of the Knoxville Area Urban League.

“I will always be grateful for Mayor Kincannon’s faith in me and the opportunity to serve as part of her administration. While I will miss my team at the city, I am excited to embark upon this journey and to serve our community in this new capacity. I look forward to working alongside the staff and board of the Knoxville Area Urban League as we empower communities to change lives,” Lomax said.

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Suspect Arrested in Katie Hobbs Burglary Scandal is a Repeat Offender from Angola

Neil Jones

Phoenix Police announced on Friday that Daniel Mota Dos Reis, 36, was arrested Wednesday in connection with the burglary of Democrat gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs’s campaign headquarters.

“On October 25, 2022, Phoenix Police officers were dispatched to a commercial burglary call in the area of Central Avenue and Virginia Avenue. When officers arrived, they learned from the reporting party that an unknown man broke into their building the night before and stole multiple items,” according to the police report shared with the Arizona Sun Times.

The crime occurred on Monday when surveillance video captured Dos Reis leaving the commercial building in the evening. He reportedly stole an Apple keyboard, an Apple computer mouse, and a black Nikon camera worth $1180 in total. On Wednesday night, a patrol officer saw images of the footage showing Dos Reis, who the officer recognized as a suspect arrested earlier that day for a separate commercial burglary. He was still in jail for that separate crime and was about to be released before the officer contacted the jail, and Dos Reis was re-arrested. The stolen items were then returned.

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Democratic Secretaries of State Warn ‘Independent State Legislature Theory’ Would Upend Elections

The Center Square

Thirteen Secretaries of State led by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in Moore v. Harper, a case that will have the court considering the “independent state legislature” theory.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Moore v. Harper in December, a case brought forth after the Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature adopted a new congressional voting map based on 2020 Census results. A group of Democratic voters and nonprofit organizations alleged the map was a partisan gerrymander that violated the state constitution and challenged it in court, according to Ballotpedia.

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Owner and CEO of Auto Masters Indicted for Multi-Million-Dollar Bank Fraud

Kaitlyn Osteen

Brentwood area businessman Mahan Janbakhsh and Steven L. Piper of Joelton were arrested by FBI agents on Thursday for their role in an alleged conspiracy to commit multi-million-dollar bank fraud.

According to the Department of Justice, the indictment charges Janbakhsh and Piper with conspiring to defraud Capital One and First Tennessee Bank (now First Horizon); five counts of defrauding these financial institutions; five counts of making false statements and over-valuing property and securities to influence these financial institutions; and three counts of making false representations during official proceedings.

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Democrats Dish Out Millions to Defend House District Strongholds

Admin

House Democrats are spending millions more on ads and sending top surrogates to areas of the country where they have traditionally won elections, as Republicans expect to benefit from a “red wave” in November’s midterms, the Washington Post reported Thursday.

House Majority PAC, a Super PAC allied with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, purchased ads in three districts surrounding New York City – New York’s 3rd and 18th Congressional Districts and New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District – which have Cook Partisan Voting Index scores of D+3, D+1 and D+5, respectively. In total, spending on these districts was $6.3 million, per the Washington Post’s examination of Federal Election Commission filings.

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The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Published an Audit Revealing that Tennessee State University Mishandled Five Years of Funding

Kaitlyn Osteen

The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury published an audit on Thursday revealing that Tennessee State University (TSU) management mishandled over five years of funding.

According to the audit, “Management’s failure to adequately implement a system of internal control increases the risk of TSU not achieving key objectives related to financial reporting. When management and staff do not take adequate care when preparing financial statements and the accompanying notes to the financial statements, the risk of errors in the financial statements increases. Providing inaccurate financial information can negatively impact the decision-making ability of users of the financial statements.”

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Commentary: Let’s Talk Dropouts and Student Attendance

Admin

We have seen the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grab headlines in recent days. Pundits are quick to proclaim that the sky is falling, but the truth is the scores have been consistent and relatively flat since 1970, particularly in reading. Not every student in a state takes NAEP, only a random sample of students – every two years. There is no individual data. I agree with historian Diane Ravitch, a big takeaway on NAEP is “that virtual learning is a fourth-rate substitute for a real teacher and interaction with peers.”

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Judge Rejects Progressive Groups Request for Restraining Order to Shut Down Ballot Drop Box Observers

Rachel Alexander

Voters concerned about ballot harvesting are organizing volunteer shifts observing ballot drop boxes, but some progressive organizations have filed lawsuits attempting to stop them. An organization called Protecting Democracy Project filed a lawsuit this week against the organizers as well as some of the volunteer observers on behalf of the League of Women Voters (LWV). The Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans (AARA) and Voto Latino (VL) also filed a lawsuit.

The LWV lawsuit names Lions of Liberty, which is organizing ballot drop box watching in Yavapai County, its affiliate Yavapai Preparedness Team, Clean Elections USA, which is organizing nationwide efforts, and several individuals and John Does. The AARA and VL lawsuit named similar defendants. The latter lawsuit included a photo of some “Doe Defendants,” revealing three people dressed in normal clothing sitting on lawn chairs. 

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Opioid Epidemic in 2020 Cost Virginia Nearly $3.5 Billion

Eric Burk

The opioid epidemic in Virginia cost almost $3.5 billion in 2020, according to a new cost calculator from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and the Virginia Commonwealth University. On average, over four Virginians died of an opioid overdose each day in 2020, according to a VDH announcement of the cost calculator.

“This burden is carried by Virginia’s workers, employers, and governments, and includes both future losses and current direct spending that could have been avoided,” the calculator’s site explains. “Virginia families and businesses take on a large amount of these costs, mostly due to lost future worker productivity. Federal, state, and local governments also see increased healthcare and government costs and lost future tax revenues. The cost burden of the opioid epidemic is split among several sectors.”

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Ohio’s Democratic U.S. Senate Hopeful Projects Police Advocacy While Voting to Defund Them

Hannah Poling

Ohio Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) is projecting a pro-police stance as part of his platform while simultaneously voting to defund them.

On March 3, 2021, Ryan voted against a motion to condemn calls to defund, disband, or abolish the police while at the same time also voting to allow for the federal government to micromanage local police and potentially defund them.

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Liz Cheney Drops $500,000 on Ads Targeting Kari Lake and Mark Finchem

Rachel Alexander

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), who was defeated for reelection in the 2022 Republican primary after opposing and voting to impeach President Donald Trump, is buying ad time in Arizona opposing two popular Trump-endorsed candidates. Her PAC, The Great Task, purchased $500,000 in air time to run an ad critical of Trump-endorsed Kari Lake, who is running for governor, and Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for secretary of state.

During the ad, which features a clip from a speech Cheney gave at ASU sponsored by the McCain Institute earlier this month, Cheney stated, “I don’t know that I have ever voted for a Democrat. But if I lived in Arizona, I absolutely would.” She claimed that Lake and Finchem “will only honor the results of an election if they agree with it.”

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Fox10 Kerfuffle with ‘Test Graphic’ of Democrat Election Victory Spurs Arizona Lawmaker to Propose Measure to Curb Media Interference in Elections

Rachel Alexander

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s former TV news station, Fox10, ran a graphic during Thursday’s evening newscast showing her opponent Katie Hobbs winning the election 53 percent to 47 percent. Although the broadcaster insists the graphic was never intended for air, the incident prompted a sharp response from many – including State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who said he will propose new legislation to hold the media accountable.

“While I understand the need for internal planning by news stations, errors like this that are broadcast live to the public pose a legitimate threat to our Republic and serve only to undermine the confidence that Arizonans have in the integrity of their vote,” Hoffman said in a statement, which Lake tweeted. “What if this had happened on election night or the day before the election? The impact to our democratic process would be devastating.”

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Suspended Vermont Student and Coach Father Sue School District for Retaliating After Complaint About Biological Male in Girls’ Locker Room

Susan Berry, PhD

A Vermont high school volleyball player who was suspended from school and her father, the team’s coach, who was suspended from his job, are suing the school district for retaliating against them following their complaint about the policy that allows biological males in the girls’ team locker room.

Blake Allen, 14, a student at Randolph Union Middle School, and her father, Travis Allen, who coaches his daughter’s volleyball team, spoke out against a biological male, claiming to be female, being allowed in the girls’ team locker room while they were changing. Now, the family is suing the school district after Blake was suspended and Travis was fired from his job, asserting the district retaliated against them, the Daily Signal reported Thursday.

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Commentary: Violent Crime Is Driving a Red Wave

RealClearWire
Crime scene

Two weeks before the 2022 midterms, fear of crime is second only to worries over inflation and recession. Both issues – personal security and economic security – affect voters directly. They arise every time voters ride the subway, walk down a dark street, pay the cashier at the grocery, or fill up their truck. That’s why survey after survey says they are the top issues motivating voters this November. That’s bad news for Democrats. Pollsters say Republicans hold huge advantages on the economy, inflation, and crime, the issues that matter most to voters.

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Office of State Inspector General Investigating $268,000 Virginia Tourism Contract with Youngkin-Favored Ad Agency

Eric Burk

The Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) is investigating a contract for a $268,000 Virginia Tourism Authority (VTA) ad featuring Governor Glenn Youngkin made by Poolhouse, a firm used heavily by Youngkin. Democratic leaders in the General Assembly requested the investigation in a letter earlier in October, hinting that through the contract, Youngkin may have used tax funds to buy the equivalent of a campaign ad.

“The chosen vendor has no history of working with the state or the VTA,” Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax) and House Minority Leader Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) wrote in the letter obtained by The Richmond Times-Dispatch. “The Authority has never featured a Governor in advertising of this type in prior campaigns. It is well-known that the Governor is conducting a preliminary campaign for the Republican Nomination for President and has opened two federal campaign accounts – ‘Spirit of Virginia’ and ‘America’s Spirit’ – to support his activities and federal candidates in anticipation of his Presidential run and such an ad would confer taxpayer benefits on him while he builds his name identification and familiarity with persons outside of Virginia in anticipation of his run.”

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Michigan Supreme Court Could Decide Warrantless Government Drone Spying Lawsuit

The Center Square

An appeal filed with the Michigan Supreme Court says the government must get a warrant before it can surveil private property for evidence.

The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, says the government violated the Fourth Amendment when it used warrantless drone surveillance to snap pictures of Todd Maxon’s 5-acre property in Long Lake Township where he repairs cars, as proof of zoning violations.

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Former Minnesota AG Ellison Staffers Say His Office Could Have Done More to Stop ‘Feeding Our Future’ Fraud

Admin

Attorney General Keith Ellison scrambled to defend his oversight of Feeding Our Future after two of his former staff members spoke out in a Star Tribune article published Thursday night.

The article highlights the state’s shortcomings in preventing the fraud and culminates with the analysis of two former senior members of Ellison’s team, both of whom asked to remain anonymous “for fear of retribution.”

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Florida Law Enforcement Officers Seize Enough Fentanyl to Kill State’s Entire Population

The Center Square
Fentanyl

 In the past few months, Florida law enforcement officers have seized enough fentanyl to kill the state’s entire 22 million population.

Attorney General Ashley Moody announced massive seizures of illicit fentanyl pouring into Florida after being smuggled across the southern border as her office continues to fight the Biden administration in court over its immigration policies.

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Poll: Walker Now Has a 5-Point Lead over Warnock in Georgia U.S. Senate Race

The Center Square

A new poll by Rasmussen Reports gives Republican challenger Herschel Walker a 5-point lead over Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Rafael Warnock in their race, one of several pivotal to control of the U.S. Senate.

The key demographic for Walker is independent voters, which he leads Warnock by a 14-point margin, 49% to 35%. And this despite Warnock’s three dollars to every dollar the former Heisman Trophy winner’s campaign has raised.

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Election 2022 Report: Ohio Voters Carry Little Power

Admin

Ohio voters carry less weight than voters around the country, according to a new WalletHub report released earlier this week.

The report calculated the number of elected officials in the federal government per the adult population in each state for the most recent election years. For example, the report ranks California’s votes weak based on the number of people each of its senators must represent, while Wyoming’s votes are strong based on the same reasoning.

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Commentary: Democrats Race to Save a Blue State Gone Purple

RealClearWire

With Election Day less than a month away, Democrats and Republicans are duking it out to secure majorities in Congress. While both parties funnel record-breaking millions of dollars into several traditional battleground states like Pennsylvania and Nevada, Democrats could lose a state they’ve won since the late 1980s – Oregon.

Though the state is all but guaranteed to re-elect longtime Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, there’s a real possibility Oregonians might just elect their first Republican governor in nearly 35 years. Thanks to a well-funded independent spoiler candidate and an unpopular outgoing governor, Democrats are facing a tight race with serious implications as major issues like abortion are tossed to the states.

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Articles of Impeachment Filed Against Philadelphia DA by Republican Officials

Just the News

Republicans in the Pennsylvania House have introduced articles of impeachment against Philadelphia’s district attorney Larry Krasner. 

The lawmakers introduced the measure Wednesday to impeach Kranser and said they might add days to the legislative session to complete the effort before the two-year legislative term expires next month, according to local TV station ABC6 News. 

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On Musk’s First Day, Twitter Flags Just the News On-the-Record Story on Election Ballots as ‘Unsafe’

Just the News

On the day Elon Musk took over Twitter, the social media platform flagged a post by Just the News Editor-in-Chief John Solomon aboutt Florida Gov. GOP Ron DeSantis’ administration asking for a police probe into a Democrat politician’s whistleblower complaint about voting irregularities.

Solomon argues Twitter action Thursday night unfairly flagged the post – with the note “Warning: this link may be unsafe” – and is asking Musk, who has vowed to stop the platform from unjustly censuring content, to intervene.

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Commentary: The War over ‘Transgender’ Kids

RealClearWire
Transgender boy

America is in the throes of a cultural and political war over gender ideology, featuring high-profile conflicts over everything from school curricula to athletics to pronouns.  

But among the most explosive battles unfolding within the broader war is that over transgender children. In an inhospitable election year for the left, Democrats, far from being on the back foot, have pushed ahead on this front, including this fall in California, New York, and Virginia with moves to curb parental rights. 

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Majority of House Seats Now Lean Republican, Election Forecaster Says

Admin

A majority of seats in the House of Representatives now lean Republican, according to a new election forecast from Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia.

Competitive races are breaking heavily in favor of Republicans, and analysts moved four House races in New York, Oregon, California and New Mexico from “toss up” to “leans Republican” from last week’s predictions. The GOP is now slated to win 218 House seats by Sabato’s forecast, taking control of the chamber.

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Americans for Prosperity Calls Out Oracle for Reported Layoffs While Receiving Taxpayer Money

Kaitlin Housler

Following a report that tech company Oracle has begun laying off workers from its Nashville location, the libertarian conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity is calling on state and local leaders to scrutinize the company especially after it received “nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money.”

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Tennessee Representatives Join Letter Demanding Answers from Pentagon over Veterans’ Lack of Access to TRICARE Pharmacies

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee Representatives Mark Green (R-TN-07), David Kustoff (R-TN-08), and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN-01) joined 25 of their colleagues on Wednesday in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “regarding the impact of the Department of Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) decision to proceed with Cigna/Express Script’s reduced reimbursement plan.”

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Tennessee’s Blackburn and Green Take Biden to Task for 20-Year Mortgage-Rate High

Bradley Vasoli

Republican federal legislators from Tennessee blasted the Biden administration yesterday in light of the news that mortgage-interest rates have reached a two-decade high. 

Government-sponsored mortgage corporation Freddie Mac reported this week that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage — the option most homebuyers choose — hit 7.08 percent, exceeding seven percent for the first time since Spring 2002. The rate was 6.94 percent last week.

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State Senator Brian Kelsey Files Motion to Change Not Guilty Plea in Federal Investigation

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown)  issued an attempt to change his original not-guilty plea regarding charges stemming from his federal campaign finance case.

As previously reported by The Tennessee Star, in October 2021, a federal grand jury in Nashville indicted Kelsey on a five-count indictment charging him and another man with violating multiple campaign finance laws. Prosecutors said Kelsey and Nashville social club owner Joshua Smith allegedly violated multiple campaign finance laws as part of a conspiracy to benefit Kelsey’s 2016 campaign for Congress.

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Arizona Corporation Commissioner Warns Officials That Using Electronic Voting Machine Tabulators Violates the Law; Cochise County Agrees to Hand Count Ballots

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor and a group of concerned Arizonans have made some progress in their efforts to convince Arizona’s counties to refrain from using electronic voting machine tabulators in the Nov. 8 election. The Cochise County Supervisors (CCBOS) voted two to one during a meeting on Monday to conduct a hand count in addition to using the machines, although due to a threat from Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ State Elections Director Kori Lorick, it may only be a partial hand count.

“It’s about the people. It’s about our right to vote and have our votes counted and feel confident in the election process,” Republican board member Peggy Judd said, explaining why the hand count is needed. She said immediately before the vote, “I’d like to take this chance. My heart and my work has been in it and I don’t want to back down. I might go to jail.”

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Wisconsin Judge Refuses to Allow Mail-In Ballots with Partial Addresses to Be Counted in Win for GOP

Just the News

A Wisconsin judge has rejected a request from the state’s League of Women Voters to allow election officials to count absentee ballots with incomplete witness addresses. 

Dane County Circuit Judge Nia Trammell on Wednesday said the group’s request for a temporary injunction “would upend the status quo and not preserve it” and “frustrate the electoral process by causing confusion” less than two weeks before Election Day, CBS News reported.

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