Day: November 13, 2022

Memphis Mayor Laments ‘Revolving Door’ of Crime

Peter D'Abrosca

In his weekly update, Memphis’ mayor lamented the city’s “revolving door” of crime, and said he supports new tough-on-crime legislature recently enacted by the Tennessee legislature. 

“Last week, I told you about a man who, while driving a car, struck a Memphis police officer on foot, causing him to roll over the hood and be thrown to the ground. He led officers on a high-speed vehicle pursuit and crashed into a citizen’s car. He fled on foot. Officers apprehended him and found him in possession of a handgun. He was given a $15,000 bond,” said Mayor Jim Strickland. “Guess what has happened? He has posted his bond, was released, and is out and about in the Memphis community.”

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Two Republican Senators Call for GOP Senate Leadership Vote to Be Postponed

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Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Friday urged Republicans to postpone next week’s Senate leadership elections to give the party time to regroup after its disappointing midterm performance.

According to reports, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) had been considering a long-shot bid to replace Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), but he changed his mind on Wednesday when it became clear that there would be no “red wave” and that Republicans may not even take control of the chamber.

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Mayorkas Told Border Chief to Resign or Face Biden Firing

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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas instructed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Chris Magnus to resign or face firing directly from President Joe Biden, Magnus told the Los Angeles Times.

Magnus has long faced scrutiny from Republican lawmakers, who demanded his resignation in November following complaints from colleagues about his job performance, including that he fell asleep during meetings, as previously reported by Politico. He said Friday he’s refusing to back down from his post, according to the LA Times.

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Inside GOP, Calls Grow for Party Chair to Resign in Wake of Midterms

Just the News

A growing number of Republican Party officials are frustrated with GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel following Tuesday’s midterm elections and want her to resign, according to Republican sources familiar with the situation.

“People are upset and want to replace Ronna,” said one veteran Republican National Committee official. “They’re calling for her resignation but not publicly. [RNC] members are calling for accountability as they should.”

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The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office Issues Report Providing Optimism, While Raising Questions Around K-3 Student Reading

TC Weber

A recently released report from the Tennessee Comptroller’s office shows that Tennessee K-3 students are making positive, albeit slight, growth in acquiring reading skills. Those conclusions were drawn from state-mandated K-3 universal reading screeners (URS), which all school districts are required to administer as part of legislation passed in 2021 during a Special Session of the General Assembly on education.

Legislators passed the Tennessee Literacy Success Act (TLSA), with the intent to ensure that students were on track to become proficient readers by the end of grade 3. The URS requirement was embedded in the bill as a means to safeguard taxpayer investment while delivering on promises made to Tennessee students.

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Ohio Republican Party Chair Bob Paduchik Won’t Seek Re-Election

Hannah Poling

Ohio Republican Party (ORP) Chairman Bob Paduchik announced that he won’t seek reelection as state party chairman following a GOP sweep of statewide offices.

“I will not run for reelection for the chairmanship of the Ohio Republican Party. It is time for a new leader to take leadership of the party and I look forward to the January election of ORP officers,” Paduchik wrote in a letter to members of the Ohio Republican Party’s governing body.

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Arizona Likely Sends Two New GOP Congressmen to Washington, Democrats Could Unseat Another

The Center Square

Despite hundreds of thousands of votes yet to be tabulated, poll watchers had seen enough to predict two new Republican U.S. House members, but another GOP incumbent is on the ropes.

On Friday morning, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran conceded to challenger Eli Crane for Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District. The three-term Democrat faced a tough reelection bid after being shuffled into a new district that favored Republicans. 

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Minnesota Republican Helped Democrats Take Control of State Government

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by Anthony Gockowski   State Rep. Tony Jurgens, a Republican, endorsed a Democrat in a crucial race that helped the Minnesota DFL reclaim the majority in the Senate for the first time in six years. With Democrats already controlling the governor’s mansion and the House before the election, the Senate was the last line of defense for state Republicans. Come January, Democrats will control that chamber (and the whole of state government) with a narrow 34-33 majority. A key race that helped flip the Senate was in District 41, covering the Cottage Grove and Hastings areas. Democrat Judy Seeberger pulled off an upset victory over Republican Tom Dippel, winning by just 321 votes. Jurgens, who has represented the area in the House since 2016, endorsed Seeberger over Dippel just days before the election. “I won’t agree with Judy on all political issues, but the job is much more than partisan politics,” Jurgens said in his endorsement before taking shots at “extreme right-wing organizations.” Importantly, Jurgens lost to Dippel in the Republican primary for this seat by more than 20 points. He also lost the party’s endorsement to Dippel but still went to the primary. According to Hastings Progressives, a group backing Dippel’s opponent, Jurgens also placed a Seeberger…

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Youngkin Responds to Trump Dig: ‘That’s Not the Way I Roll’

Just the News

Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday brushed off former President Trump’s criticism of him – which followed his lieutenant governor, Winsome Sears, saying Trump should remove himself from GOP electoral politics. 

“Listen, you all know me,” Youngkin told reporters. “I do not call people names. I really work hard to bring people together … . That’s not the way I roll and not the way I behave.”

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Commentary: The Rise of Intersectionality in Medicine Will Have Serious Consequences

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In early October, my alma mater made headlines after it decided to fire chemistry professor Dr. Maitland Jones Jr. after 82 of his students signed a petition noting that his organic chemistry class was “too hard.” The students accused Jones of purposely making the class difficult, citing that their low scores negatively impacted their “well-being,” and their chances of getting into medical school. Instead of evaluating the rigor and substance of Jones’ curriculum, NYU justified its hasty action by noting the class’s unfavorable student reviews. This type of judgment would never pass in the fields of architecture, aerial engineering, or even the food service industry; why is it permissible here?

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Ammo Manufacturer Plans New Facility in Georgia, but Officials Silent on Incentives

The Center Square

An ammunition manufacturer plans to spend $60 million to build a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Bryan County, Ga.

Georgia officials would not say whether the state offered any tax incentives to encourage Norma Precision to build its new facility in Georgia. A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Economic Development told The Center Square that the project is “still active,” a designation that allows state officials to decline to release details about tax incentives the state offered.

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Virginia Passenger Rail Ridership Exceeded Pre-Pandemic Levels in September

Eric Burk

Virginia’s Amtrak service ridership hit 105,689 in September, up from the pre-pandemic 76,793 riders in September 2019, for 37.6 percent growth. That’s also an improvement from September 2021 ridership at 50,776.

In a Thursday press release, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority said “the numbers show the strong rebound in post-pandemic travel with every route seeing an increase.”

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Pacific Legal Foundation Argues Against Thomas Jefferson High School’s Admissions Policy in Video

Eric Burk

The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) released a new video supporting its legal efforts to fight new admissions policies at Thomas Jefferson (TJ) High School for Science and Technology; the video argues that efforts to change the policy amount to a racist effort to reduce the number of Asian students at the school.

School officials instituted a merit lottery in 2020 to expand the student base to under-represented groups. In response, the Coalition protested the decision, and the PLF began representing the coalition in a drawn-out legal battle aimed at blocking the new policy. A district court agreed with the PLF and said the process was discriminatory, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit stayed the lower court’s order, allowing the school to use its new admissions policy for the 2022-2023 school year.

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Economics Professor: Interest Rates Likely Will Continue to Rise into 2023, Lead to Job Losses

The Center Square

While high rates of inflation have hit the entire nation hard, some regions have experienced it more intensely.

WalletHub reported Thursday that the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, metropolitan statistical area has experienced the 16th highest rise in inflation, based on two Consumer Price Index metrics: latest month versus two months prior and latest month versus one year ago. The metrics received equal weight in the report.

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Prominent Pollster Says Time for America to Mandate All Ballots Be Counted on Election Day5

Just the News

With states like Arizona, Nevada and Alaska taking days to determine midterm election results, influential pollster Scott Rasmussen says there is overwhelming support for America to mandate ballots be in and counted by Election Day.

“One of the 80% issues, and there aren’t a whole lot of 80% issues in America-one of them is that all ballots should be in by Election Day,” Scott Rasmussen said Wednesday night on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “We should know the results on Election Day.”

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Commentary: America Needs to Take Immigration 101

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If there’s one thing our corporate media loves as much as hyping an upcoming election, it is conducting a days-long postmortem on that election: identifying the winners and losers, who dropped the ball and who is “The Next Big Thing.” Yet, beneath the surface of personality-driven analysis, one can find data that reveals much about what Americans see as the nation’s biggest problems. 

An NBC News exit poll found that the biggest issues to voters, in order of importance, were: inflation, abortion, crime, gun policy, and immigration. After the last two years of Biden-fueled destruction of our border, the idea that immigration barely registers as the fifth-most important issue to voters should be disturbing. 

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