U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Talks Common Sense Victory Protecting Servicemembers From COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates and Activist Judges

Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee’s Senior United States Senator, Marsha Blackburn to the newsmaker line to discuss her added provision to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would protect servicemembers from the COVID-19 vaccine mandates and how working in the US Senate will change in 2023.

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Griner Released in Prisoner Swap for Convicted Russian Arms Dealer

WNBA star Brittney Griner has been released from Russian prison in a prisoner exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to multiple media reports Thursday morning.

President Joe Biden said Griner is safe and on her way home during an address Thursday with Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, and Vice President Kamala Harris. He thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping facilitate Brittney Griner’s return home.

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Maricopa County Recorder Sought DHS Support in War on Purported Election Misinformation in Media

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who started a PAC to support anti-Trump Republican candidates, sought support from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — including funding, intelligence, and collaboration with social media — in election officials’ often controversial efforts to combat purported election misinformation, according to a newly released internal agency report.

On Wednesday, Christina Bobb, attorney for Donald Trump for President 2024, posted a CISA report on Twitter recapping Richer’s March appearance before the DHS agency’s Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation Subcommittee to brief the members on combating election misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.

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Virginia Restaurant Cancels Christian Group’s Reservation Due to Its Pro-Life and Traditional Marriage Views

A Virginia restaurant owner denied service to a Christian organization about 90 minutes prior to its private party because the group is pro-life and embraces one man-one woman marriage.

Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, which holds pro-life and traditional marriage values, told The Daily Signal that, following her group’s participation in activities outside the Supreme Court Monday morning, while the justices heard oral arguments in a case to decide if a public accommodation law compelling a creative person’s speech or silence violates the First Amendment, she was informed the Metzger Bar and Butchery was “unwilling to serve” the organization.

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National Park Service Names Oak Ridge as American World War II Heritage City

The National Park Service (NPS)announced Monday the designation of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as an American World War II Heritage City.

NPS’ American World War II Heritage Cities Program ”honors the contributions of local towns, cities, counties and their citizens who stepped into the workforce to support America’s war effort during World War II.”

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Bishop Asserts Catholic Schools’ Embrace of Gender ideology ‘Tragic’ and ‘Sinful’

The chairman of the U.S. Bishops Catholic Education Committee said in a recent interview that policies created to align with gender ideology have “no place” in Catholic schools and institutions.

Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, Washington, told the National Catholic Register in November during the bishops’ fall meeting that Catholic schools and institutions that have caved to gender ideology have embraced a “tragic” and “sinful” agenda under the guise of compassion.

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Lawmakers Amend the ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ to Accept Birth Certificates

Ohio lawmakers amended a bill Tuesday that stops biological men and boys from high school and middle school from participating in women and girls’ sports. The amendment removed a provision that could have required students to undergo “internal and external” exams to verify their sex.

Instead, House Bill (HB) 151, The Save Women’s Sports Act, sponsored by State Representative Jena Powell (R-Arcanum) (pictured above), now would require an athlete whose biological gender is disputed to present a birth certificate under the amendment adopted by the Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee.

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Arizona Faced a Similar Contentious Gubernatorial Race in 1916 That Dragged Out with Accusations of Voter Fraud

As the protests and litigation continue in Arizona, challenging the results of the 2022 midterm election where four Trump-endorsed candidates lost, some are looking at history to understand how the litigation may end. In 1916, a contentious gubernatorial race in Arizona, also fraught with accusations of voter fraud, resulted in a clear winner not being established until the next year, when the Arizona Supreme Court declared the Democrat, the winner.

Arizona historian and writer Donna Reiner relayed the story of that election for Arizona Agenda this fall, revealing how due to the feuding over who won, there were two governors both claiming to hold office for several months. It was Arizona’s third statewide election, after becoming a state in 1912, and incumbent Gov. George Wiley Paul Hunt, a Democrat and Arizona’s first governor, faced Republican challenger Thomas E. Campbell of Yavapai County.

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DeSantis’ Office: No ‘U-Turns’ on Decision to Strip Disney of Special Status

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has no plans to back down against corporate behemoth Walt Disney Co. after speculation that laws put in place in April to dissolve the company’s self-governing power were going to be scaled back.

In March, then Disney CEO Bob Chapek publicly opposed House Bill (HB) 1557, the “Parental Rights in Education Act,” which was designed to restrict the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools from kindergarten through to third grade. The bill quickly became known in the media as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

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Arizona State Senate President-Elect Reveals Plan to Help Arizonans Struggling with Rising Prices

State Senate President-elect Warren Petersen announced Tuesday his plan for helping Arizonans struggling with raising prices catch a break.

“Government has done extremely well over the last few years by adding a record amount of revenue. Unfortunately, hardworking taxpayers are reeling during this period of runaway inflation and are having a tough time paying for the most basic necessities,” said Petersen.

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Critics Say Georgia’s Gas Tax Moratorium Helps, but Isn’t Good Long-Term Policy

Gas Station

Georgia hasn’t collected its gas tax since March, as Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a series of legislation and executive orders to place a moratorium on collections.

“Those prices have a huge impact on the economy as a whole,” National Federation of Independent Business Region Director Nathan Humphrey told The Center Square. “On top of all the other issues that small businesses were particularly struggling with from supply chain, inflation and [the] overall cost of doing business, the margins were just super tight, so when that hit, it really provided necessary relief.”

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Minnesota Projects $17.6 Billion Surplus

Minnesota’s Management and Budget estimate a general fund budget surplus of $17.6 billion for the fiscal year 2024-25 biennium.

“Strong collections and lower-than-projected spending add to the FY22-23 surplus,” the agency said. “Economic headwinds lower expected growth but large leftover surplus and healthy net revenues in FY24-25 create estimated $17.6B available for budget.”

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Pennsylvania Natural Gas Price up 95 Percent, New Wells up 42 Percent

Natural gas prices are climbing, but overall production in Pennsylvania has lagged year-over-year.

The latest report from the Independent Fiscal Office says prices in the third quarter of 2022 jumped almost 95% compared to the same period last year. Nor will prices drop soon, either. The Pennsylvania average price was $6.89 per million BTU, compared to $3.54 in 2021.

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Commentary: The Tyranny of the Minority

In the Federalist, James Madison famously warned against the “tyranny of the majority,” but it is unlikely he could have envisioned what we face today. Twenty-first-century America is dissolving before our eyes, as a tyrannical coalition of minorities steals our heritage and sovereignty. Not ethnic minorities—their American bequest is being stolen right alongside that of America’s shrinking white majority. Nobody is exempt, and everyone should unite to resist.

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Wisconsin Congressman Calls on LinkedIn to Remove Job Listings for Companies That Pose Security Threats

U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-8) this week urged the head of the career-networking website LinkedIn to prohibit the platform from posting job openings at companies posing security threats to America. 

Gallagher, who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Armed Services Committee, penned a letter to LinkedIn Chief Executive Officer Ryan Roslansky, drawing particular attention to companies with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The congressman stated that the site presently welcomes thousands of employment-opportunity notices from China-based corporations the U.S. government flags as national-security and privacy risks. 

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Home Labs in Northeast Ohio Found to be Making Fentanyl-Laced Fake Prescription Pills

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Northeast Ohio found that individuals are setting up labs with pill presses to produce fentanyl pills inside their homes.

According to the DEA, generally in a lot of cases, cartels produced the pills  in Mexico and then distributed them in the United States but now say they are finding a concerning trend where individuals are producing these dangerous drugs from local home laboratories.

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Fauci Worried That COVID Lab Leak Theories Would Increase Tensions with China

During testimony last week, Anthony Fauci admitted that one of the reasons he repeatedly shot down any theories of the COVID-19 virus originating through a lab leak in Wuhan, China was because he did not want to risk escalating tensions between China and the United States.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), made his comments during a 7-hour deposition as part of a lawsuit filed against the Biden Administration by the Attorneys General of Missouri and Louisiana. Fauci described his concern over “wild speculation and allegations” that China deliberately created the coronavirus, and then either intentionally or accidentally leaked it from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

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Commentary: Solar’s Lofty Ambitions Are Consuming Ever-Larger Expanses of Land Down Below

Wedged in the southern flank of Virginia, Charlotte County is home to some 11,500 people who live amidst rolling hills and family farms, pastures and sawmills, a historic Civil War battlefield, and four townlets tinier than many suburban subdivisions.  

But this pastoral tableau will be swept up in the green revolution when construction begins here on the nation’s largest solar power facility east of the Mississippi River. The planned 800-megawatt Randolph Solar Project in Charlotte County will replace a commercial lumber farm of loblolly pines with 1.6 million photovoltaic panels covering an area equivalent to seven square miles. 

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Congress Won’t Reinstate Troops Discharged for Violating the COVID Vaccine Mandate

Thousands of troops already discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine won’t return to service after Congress’ last-minute defense bill sought to overturn the Pentagon’s mandate.

The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have separated at least 8,400 active duty and reserve troops for spurning the Department of Defense’s (DOD) August 2021 requirement that all servicemembers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to information the DOD provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. While the compromise legislation released late Tuesday directs the Pentagon to rescind the mandate, it stops short of requiring the military to restore discharged troops to their prior positions or provide reparations.

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Teachers Flee Unions as Membership Plummets by Almost 60,000

The nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), declined by at least 59,000 members during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) disclosure reports.

The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, lost 40,107 members while the AFT, the nation’s second largest teachers union, declined by 19,078, according to the DOL reports. The decline comes as public schools added 95,000 educators from September 2021 to 2022.

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