Tennessee Gives Additional $18 Million Incentive to Ultium Cells in Spring Hill

Tennessee has agreed to give Ultium Cells an additional $18 million incentive for expanding its yet-to-be opened electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Spring Hill.

The $275 million additional promise at the facility is in addition to the previously promised $2.3 billion initial project that was awarded a $60 million FastTrack grant in April 2021.

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Border Patrol Union Chief Open to Amnesty for ‘Dreamers’ as Senators Prep Immigration Bill

The Border Patrol union president said he will support an immigration bill that includes amnesty for “Dreamers” if it also addresses border security in a Friday statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Reports have been circulating that ahead of the release of a bipartisan immigration bill’s text, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd agreed to it as a “mass amnesty” plan. Sens. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, and Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona, are discussing a proposal that would grant citizenship for illegal immigrants enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, according to Fox News, citing sources familiar.

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Analysis: Tennessee State Report Card Scores for Cannon, Williamson, and Nashville Metro School Districts

The recently released Tennessee State Report Card for schools and districts offers a means for parents to gather information about their children’s schools and compare and contrast neighboring school districts. The report focuses on performance, but also provides data on student demographics, student funding, staffing levels, and other pertinent information required by parents to make informed judgments about their children’s education opportunities.

“With the release of the State Report Card, Tennessee continues our firm commitment to providing families with clear, actionable information on how our districts and schools are serving students,” said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. “The Report Card allows stakeholders to access years’ worth of meaningful data through an interactive, easy-to-navigate online platform, and now the latest data is available to help Tennesseans to explore and learn about their local schools and districts.”

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Air Pollution Board Advances Repeal of Virginia Participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

The Virginia Air Pollution Control Board voted four to one with two abstentions on Wednesday to advance a regulatory repeal of the Commonwealth’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), with completion targeted for the end of 2023.

The program requires utilities in participating states to bid on carbon allowances, and withdrawal from the program has been a top goal of Governor Glenn Youngkin since before he took office. Republicans argue that utilities will pass the costs on to consumers, and Democrats highlight funds raised through the program for flood protection and coastal resilience.

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Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against Minnesota School District over Grant Excluding White Students

Faribault’s public school district is facing a federal civil rights complaint over a drug abuse prevention grant that appears to exclude white students.

Alpha News has learned that a Title VI complaint was filed against Faribault Public Schools less than 48 hours after the school board approved a $1.1 million grant to fund anti-drug abuse programs specifically aimed at “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color” (BIPOC).

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Michigan Residents Win Injunction Against Mayor, Free to Speak as They Wish

Residents shouted down by a Michigan mayor during public comment in a Sept. 6 meeting have won a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit allowing them to speak freely.

Eastpointe Mayor Monique Owens had claimed that residents’ criticism of her was akin to “assaulting” her. Video from the meeting shows Owens repeatedly interrupting and silencing constituents at the podium expressing support for Councilman Harvey Curley, who has been involved in an ongoing dispute with Owens.

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Arizona Republican Party Calls for Ronna McDaniel to Resign as RNC Chairwoman

Following a unanimous vote, the Republican Party of Arizona’s (AZGOP) Executive Committee passed a resolution calling for Ronna McDaniel to resign as the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC).

“We challenge every state committee to meet and tell their RNC Members how they expect them to vote in January at the RNC reorganizational meeting,” according to a statement from the AZGOP.

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Kari Lake Files Lawsuit Loaded with Evidence Contesting Election Results

Two weeks after filing a complaint requesting data from the 2022 midterm election in Maricopa County, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed another lawsuit against election officials contesting the election results, alleging voter disenfranchisement and suppression. Lake called for a forensic audit of the printer-tabulator problems, an inspection of ballots and voter registration records, including signatures, disqualification of illegal votes, and redoing the election as well as other relief.

Kurt Olsen, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, told The Arizona Sun Times he believes the election anomalies were “intentional since they didn’t test all of their equipment and follow the appropriate processes when problems arose.” He asked, “Why haven’t they done their own forensic audit 30 days later?” He said Maricopa County officials’ cavalier attitude about the problems and their lack of trying to find out what happened is telling. “Does anybody believe this widespread failure, oh shucks, just happened?” he wondered.

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Georgia GOP Chair David Shafer Criticizes McConnell, NRSC After Walker Loss

Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) after Herschel Walker lost the Georgia Senate runoff. Shafer said the NRSC didn’t provide enough support, according to an internal Republican National Committee (RNC) email chain obtained by Politico.

“Tuesday was a tough day in Georgia. Herschel was massively outspent, maybe 3 to 1 in a four week period of time and still held his own,” Shafer said in an email sent the day after the election.

“We used our RNC transfer dollars for the ground game and were forced to raise money from entirely within the state for our critically important mail program. Two weeks out, we were $2.5 million short when I sent what was for me an embarrassing email begging the other state parties for help,” he said.

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GOP’s Hamadeh Files Suit Challenging Arizona AG Race Results

Arizona Republican Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh on Friday that he, in conjunction with the Republican National Committee, had filed a suit to contest the results of his race in Arizona.

“Today my campaign along with the Republican National Committee… has filed an election contest lawsuit,” Hamadeh tweeted. With all the votes tabulated, Hamadeh stands 511 votes behind his Democratic opponent Kris Mayes, making the race the closest statewide contest in Arizona history. A recount is currently in progress.

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Arizona House Committee Approves Recommendations for Addressing Teen Mental Health in the State

The Arizona State House’s Teen Mental Health Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by Rep. Joanne Osborne (R-Goodyear), met Thursday to approve recommendations and actions that should be taken to address this issue.

“Today’s meeting was the culmination of months of focus and effort by our members and subcommittees to develop recommendations to address gaps in access to care, raise awareness about bullying and the dangers of social media, and to support those with substance use disorders, as well as their family members who are forced to watch their loved ones suffer,” said Osborne.

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Federal Trade Commission Sues Microsoft to Block Activision Blizzard Deal

The Federal Trade Commission filed suit Thursday against Microsoft Corp. to block it from acquiring Activision Blizzard Inc., publisher of the “Call of Duty” games.

The FTC alleges the largest acquisition in the video gaming industry would allow Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its subscription content and cloud-gaming business.

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University Stonewalling Release of Public Records on Federal Censorship Collusion: Lawsuits

The University of Washington is facing several public records requests in the wake of Just the News reporting on its Center for an Informed Public’s role in a Department of Homeland Security-backed private consortium intended to squelch purported election “misinformation.”

Nonprofit watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust filed two Washington Public Records Act lawsuits this week seeking to compel a faster UW turnaround for CIP Director Kate Starbird’s communications with other Election Integrity Partnership leaders and with outside participants, including government entities.

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Conservative Congressmen Release List of Demands for Kevin McCarthy

On Thursday, a group of seven conservative House Republicans released a list of demands for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to consider if he wants to earn their support in his bid for Speaker of the House.

Axios reports that the group, led by Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Penn.), sent a letter to McCarthy calling for the future Speaker to make it easier to force a vote on motions to vacate the chair, which would make it easier to remove the Speaker from their position of power. Another demand calls for House GOP leadership to avoid spending any money on House Republican primaries in order to prevent the favoring of one particular candidate over another.

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Commentary: The Fake, and Real, Domestic Terrorists

To hear the government tell it, a homeless guy who lived in the dilapidated basement of a vacuum repair shop with no running water is as much a danger to society as was Timothy McVeigh and the Tsarnaev brothers.

Adam Fox, according to the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, should spend the rest of his life in prison for conspiring to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. After a jury could not reach a verdict in Fox’s case last April, the Department of Justice retried Fox and his remaining co-defendant Barry Croft, Jr. in August; both men were found guilty the second time around.

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Biden’s Genderfluid Nuclear Waste Official Charged Again with Stealing Someone’s Luggage

An Energy Department (DOE) nuclear waste disposal official who was previously accused of stealing a woman’s luggage in Minneapolis has been charged with stealing another person’s luggage at an airport in Las Vegas, according to 8 News Now.

Sam Brinton, the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition for the DOE’s nuclear office, is wanted on felony charges of grand larceny after allegedly stealing baggage from an individual at Harry Reid International Airport, 8 News Now reported Thursday.  Brinton was hired in February as the first genderfluid person in federal leadership, and the grand larceny charge carries a value between $1,200 and $5,000.

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Key Inflation Metric Shows High Prices Aren’t Going Anywhere

Wholesale prices beat expectations in November, a sign that inflation might not fall as quickly or steeply as previously hoped, according to CNBC.

Producers and businesses saw prices rise 0.3% from October, with so-called “core prices” rising 0.4% when the more volatile food and energy sectors were discounted, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With both measures expected to rise by just 0.2%, as well as a 3.3% increase in food costs offsetting a 3.3% decline in energy costs, producers prices are still set to remain well above pre-pandemic levels, even though they have fallen from the 11.7% year-over-year surge seen in March, CNBC reported.

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Over 40 Percent of Small Business Owners Give Biden Failing Grade on Helping Main Street: Poll

Roughly 43% of small business owners gave President Joe Biden an “F” grade on his support for small business, according to the Job Creators Network’s monthly Small Business IQ poll, obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Small Business Intelligence Quotient — a measure of small business optimism where scores of 100 and 0 represent the best and worst possible conditions respectively — slid to 52.9 in November from 53.3 in September and October, returning to just above the yearly low of 52.7 set in June, according to the poll conducted by pollsters Scott Rasmussen and John McLaughlin. On a monthly basis, small business owner’s optimism about current conditions climbed 0.2 points to 55.9, but expectations about the future slipped 0.09 points to 50.6.

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