Gov. Lee Proposes Toll Lanes, Electric Vehicle Registration Fee Increase

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and the Department of Transportation are looking to raise the annual vehicle registration fees for electric vehicles up to three times to $300 along with adding potential toll commuter lanes.

The proposals come as Lee and the department claim that the state needs $26 billion in funding toward road congestion, with $14 billion for the state’s four major metro areas and $12 billion for rural interstates.

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Meta’s ‘Unequal’ Moderation Policy Protects Elites on Facebook and Instagram: Report

Meta’s Oversight Board criticized the social media giant for unfairly favoring certain elite users of Facebook and Instagram, granting them amnesty from certain rules, and failing to publicly disclose the program’s extent.

Meta’s “cross-check” program is supposed to minimize the number of posts Facebook and Instagram incorrectly take down, by having a human review posts by certain “powerful” users when they are found to be violating the rules, according to the Oversight Board. The Board found that, in practice, cross-check protected these accounts, allowing their content to remain up even when it was in violation of the sites’ rules and helping favored accounts receive reduced punishments for infractions, all the while repeatedly failing to detail to the public and the Board which accounts and posts were subject to this policy.

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House Democrats Block Religious Liberty Amendment to Same-Sex Marriage Bill to Assure Passage Before Republicans Take Over

House Democrats have blocked an amendment that would have strengthened religious liberty protections to their legislation to codify same-sex marriage to ensure swift passage of the bill before Republicans take over leadership of the House in the new year.

“If we were to amend this, and it goes back to the Senate, for all intents and purposes it’s dead for the year,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), who rejected Representative Chip Roy’s (R-TX) amendment for advancement to the House floor.

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Controversy Continues After Ohio School Board Finds Superintendent Engaged in No Wrongdoing in Allegations He Admitted to Sexual Fantasies with Children

Some parents in Ohio’s Lakota Local Schools reportedly remain concerned after the school board determined Superintendent Matt Miller engaged in no wrongdoing following an investigation into documents alleging he admitted to having sexual fantasies involving children, Libs of TikTok reported Wednesday.

According to the report, Lakota parent Vanessa Wells filed a police report with the sheriff’s office on August 8 against Miller, who oversees the second-largest school district in the state in Butler County, with approximately 17,200 students.

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Youngkin’s Commission to Combat Antisemitism Warns of Rising Incidents, Proposes Beefed-Up Law Enforcement, Education

A commission to combat antisemitism ordered by Governor Glenn Youngkin published its report Monday, describing a rising amount of antisemitic incidents nationally and in Virginia, and recommending 21 steps the governor and the General Assembly could take.

“In recent years, Virginia has had fewer incidents than neighbors in Maryland and DC, but the national trend of increasing antisemitic incidents has not spared Virginia, and some of the most high-profile antisemitic incidents in recent history have occurred in the Commonwealth. Generally, while the Commonwealth has not seen antisemitic assaults take place since 2018, there has been an increased frequency of antisemitic harassment and antisemitic vandalism at levels which have remained constant from 2018 to 2021,” the report states.

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Wisconsin Republican Members of Congress Ask Evers to Pull Government TikTok

Republican members of Congress from Wisconsin this week called on Democratic Governor Tony Evers to end all state-government usage of the video-sharing application known as TikTok. 

The app, which has garnered about 80 million monthly active users since its release in 2016, is run by the Chinese technology corporation ByteDance. Recent reporting indicates the communist Chinese government is using the program to mine data from TikTok users aggressively and track some Americans’ whereabouts. 

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Sen. Warnock Projected to Defeat Herschel Walker

Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is projected to win by multiple media outlets; at press time, Warnock led Herschel Walker 50.81 percent to 49.19 percent with 95.6 percent of counties and precincts reporting. However, that margin is expected to widen with many of the Atlanta-area counties only partially reporting results and rural counties having largely complete their reporting.

In Georgia, a candidate can request a recount if the race margin is less than or equal to 0.5 percent, according to a state website. In a short speech after the race was called, Walker acknowledged the results and thanked his supporters, telling them to never stop dreaming and believing in America.

“There’s no excuses in life, and I’m not going to make any excuses now, because we put up one heck of a fight. And that’s what we got to do, because this is much bigger than Herschel Walker,” he said.

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Lee County Milestone: Over 4 Million Cubic Yards of Hurricane Debris Collected

Hurricane season may be over, but recovery efforts continue in Florida and in Lee County, which was hard hit by Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that made landfall on Sept. 28.

On Monday, Lee County announced recovery personnel had “reached another milestone with 4 million cubic yards of debris collected, roughly enough material to fill Hertz Arena to the ceiling 10½ times.” The 30-acre 171,000 square-foot entertainment venue, which seats 7,181 people, is southwest Florida’s premier arena that also hosts NHL, NBA, USBL and other sporting events.

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Data Analysts Question How 14 Percent of Arizona Voters Flipped to Oppose Trump Candidates Despite GOP Voter Registration Advantage

Investigations are continuing into the election anomalies in Arizona, where Republicans performed fairly well except for in the top four Trump-endorsed races. Since there are 4 percent more Republicans than Democrats in the state (as well as in Maricopa County), and most of the Republicans were easily beating their Democratic opponents in mainstream polls, data analysts are looking closely at the numbers. Analytics 805 examined the numbers of who voted in most of the races, and discovered that Republican candidates outside of the four races performed incredibly well in contrast, as much as 30 percent better.

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Coalition Backs Universal License Recognition in Ohio

A coalition of free-market associations sent an open letter on Tuesday to Ohio’s state lawmakers encouraging them to enact universal occupational license recognition, meaning the Buckeye State would honor professional certifications issued in other states. 

Message signers included leaders of Americans for Prosperity-Ohio, the Buckeye Institute, the Goldwater Institute, the National Taxpayers Union and Americans for Tax Reform. The organizations observed that the state’s population is declining and that it will continue to do so if pro-market reforms aren’t made to attract new workers, including universal license recognition. Numerous states, including Arizona and North Carolina, generally accept credentials obtained elsewhere by people moving into those states. 

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Ninth Circuit Court Rules in Favor of the Gateway Pundit in Injunction Against Maricopa County

News outlet the Gateway Pundit (TGP) and one of its reporters, Jordan Conradson, filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County in November for being denied a press pass. On Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled in favor of Conradson and TGP’s emergency motion for an injunction.

“HUGE WIN! The 9th circuit court of appeals has ruled on the side of our First Amendment in [TGP]’s lawsuit against [Maricopa County]’s totalitarian attempts to control the narrative,” tweeted Conradson.

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Ohio Nurses Can Begin Applying for Multi-State Licenses on January 1st

With the unanimous passage of Senator Kristina Roegner’s (R-Hudson) Senate Bill (SB) 3 last year, nurses in Ohio will soon be able to choose a multistate license (MSL) through the Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC).

Beginning on January 1st, 2023 registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and nursing students will be able to apply for an MSL which will permit them to practice in any of the 37 other states that have joined under the NLC.

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Ohio House Approves $615 Million for Nursing Homes

Lawmakers in the Ohio House attached an amendment to a bill that would send $615 million to skilled nursing facilities to assist with staffing shortages and keep establishments open.

The amendment was attached to Senate Bill (SB) 110 sponsored by State Senators Sandra O’Brien (R-Ashtabula) and Steve Wilson (R-Maineville) which already appropriates $465 million for rental assistance programs.

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Arizona Republican Party Calls for Mark Brnovich to Investigate Katie Hobbs over Twitter Suppression

The Republican Party of Arizona (AZGOP) called upon Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) to conduct a full investigation into Governor-elect Katie Hobbs (D) for requesting tweets relating to election information be deleted.

“The First Amendment protects citizens’ speech from the government – not the other way around,” according to the letter by AZGOP President Dr. Kelli Ward. “As Americans, we have the right to be critical of our government and vocalize those concerns.”

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Commentary: Obama-Biden Government in Exile Ran Hunter Laptop Suppression Operation

They got the band back together—to the extent the original members ever broke up in the first place.

Recent disclosures by independent journalist Matt Taibbi confirmed what other reporters have been covering for the better part of two years: According to files obtained by Elon Musk, the new owner and CEO of Twitter, the social media platform protected Joe Biden and his family from a major and potentially election-altering scandal as millions of Americans were voting early for president in October 2020. Years of denials and dismissals related to Hunter Biden’s lucrative shakedown of hostile nations, including Russia and China, were set to explode just a few weeks before Election Day.

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Western Media Bought Iranian ‘Propaganda’ on Disbanding of Morality Police, Experts Say

Western media’s celebration of Iran’s alleged disbanding of the morality police plays into the regime’s “propaganda” efforts to convince the West it is open to reform, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

After Iran’s top judiciary official remarked that the Guidance Patrol, a police squad charged with enforcing the regime’s head covering laws for women, had “been put to a standstill,” Western media quickly seized the event as a victory for feminists in Iran demonstrating against restrictive modesty rules. However, the morality police remains active, suggesting many in the West fell for the regime’s ploy to restore legitimacy and deflect international pressure, experts told the DCNF.

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Commentary: The ‘Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter’ Myth

If you only read the New York Times editorials, you’d believe that political violence in America is a “right-wing” problem. The Times has been warning of violence from the right for years, but on Nov. 19 and 26, they wrote two long editorials making these claims. The violence stems from the lies “enthusiastically spread” by Republican politicians. Democrats’ only complicity was their $53 million in spending on “far-right fringe candidates in the primaries.” The fringe candidates, it was hoped, would be easier to beat in the general election. 

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ICE Is Massively Misreporting How Many Illegal Immigrants Are Being Released with GPS Trackers

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is massively misreporting the number of illegal immigrants released into the country with GPS tracking technology by nearly 600%, according to an internal document exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

ICE disclosed privately to participants of a closed-door event about the agency’s “Alternatives to Detention” Thursday, attended by ICE Director Tae Johnson along with several agency officials and non-profits, that 8,118 illegal immigrants are monitored with GPS tracking through the program as of Nov. 14. Publicly, however, ICE says on its website that 56,805 illegal immigrants are monitored by GPS as of Nov. 19.

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Biden Administration Extends Temporary Protected Status for Haiti

The Biden Administration announced on Monday that it would be extending special protections granted to Haitians, allowing them to live and work in the United States. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that Haitians who currently have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and whose status was close to expiring will have an additional 18 months to live and work in the country. 

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Senators Draft Bipartisan Framework to Legalize DACA Recipients and Extend Title 42

Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have drafted a framework that seeks to grant DACA recipients citizenship and bolster security at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The two senators are seeking to take advantage of the lame-duck session—the period between the midterm elections and the new Congress—to pass legislation, including several immigration reforms. 

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