Newest ‘Twitter Files’ Release Reveals Platform’s ‘Constant and Pervasive’ Dealings with FBI

The latest “Twitter Files” release, on Friday evening, details the social media platform’s relationship with the FBI and outlined communications between the federal agency seeking takedowns of select posts.

The most recent release is from independent journalist Matt Taibbi, one of several individuals to whom new Twitter CEO Elon Musk has granted access to the company’s internal communications in a bid to highlight the prior management’s efforts to stifle posts that didn’t agree with their world view.

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Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti Issues New Statement After Ticketmaster Offers Taylor Swift Fans Second Chance to Score Tickets

Following outrage and legal action, Ticketmaster announced it would offer a second chance for a select number of fans to acquire tickets to Taylor Swift’s upcoming “Eras Tour”.

In November, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star, Ticketmaster announced that it suspended ticket sales for Swift’s tour after the site experienced an array of problems during its previous ticket presale event.

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Pete Buttigieg Vacationed in Europe amid Rail Strike Crisis

While the country was facing a possible supply chain crisis due to the looming threat of a massive rail strike earlier this year, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg was vacationing in Portugal.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, Buttigieg was in Porto, Portugal in September, a tourist destination over 3,500 miles away from Washington, D.C., that is best known for its wineries. He began his vacation on August 29th, just one week before Amtrak started canceling long-distance trips ahead of a likely strike due to failed attempts to negotiate a deal that satisfied the rail workers’ unions.

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House Republicans Launch Investigation into COVID-19 Origins, Demand Answers from 40 Officials

The soon-to-be chairmen of the House Oversight and Reform and Judiciary committees announced on Wednesday that they are launching an investigation into the origins of  COVID-19, and will be requesting transcribed interviews with 40 individuals.

Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said they will be pressing senior Biden administration officials; Dr. Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance; and several virologists for information pertinent to their investigation.

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Beacon Center’s 2022 Pork Report Addresses Vehicle Registration Fee Increase, Homeless Pods, and Planned Parenthood Funding in Middle Tennessee

In its annual Pork Report, the Beacon Center of Tennessee highlighted three areas of waste, fraud, and abuse of Tennessee taxpayer money in Middle Tennessee. The report specifically identified the issues of unused homeless pods in Nashville, raised vehicle registration fees in place of emissions testing, and the funding of a grant for Planned Parenthood.

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Arizona Mom Says She Wore Cat Costume to School Board Meeting to Protest Woke Agenda Forced on ‘Vulnerable’ Children

A Phoenix mother whose attendance at her local school board meeting in a cat costume went viral says she used that opportunity to protest the confusing message a transgender board member was sending to elementary school children.

“This was a local school in my neighborhood where there was a member of the school board whose name is Paul Bixler,” said Lindsey Graham during an appearance Tuesday on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime. 

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Protesters Block Construction of Border Wall with Shipping Containers as Biden Administration Sues Arizona

Outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey ordered gaps in the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border patched using shipping containers earlier this year, but protesters are blocking workers from finishing the project. At the same time, the Biden administration hit Arizona with a lawsuit also attempting to stop the construction. 

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who has taken on the Biden administration numerous times over its inaction on the border, vowed to defend the state in court, hinting that he would not be cowed into a settlement. “President Biden says there are more important things to talk about than the border, yet his DOJ is suing to immediately tear down our crowd control structure,” he tweeted. “Once again, we’ll see you in court.”

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Incoming Minnesota Republican Says Vaccine Mandates Are ‘Like’ Slavery

Rep.-elect Walter Hudson is doubling down on comments he made comparing COVID-19 vaccine mandates to slavery at a Mask Off Minnesota event in Bloomington earlier this week.

“I’m not saying that vaccine mandates are like slavery. I’m saying they are slavery because it is a claim of ownership over the life and body of another human being,” Hudson told Alpha News over the phone this week.

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Three Men Sentenced to Prison for Gov. Whitmer Kidnapping Plot

Three people, including a man and his son-in-law, were sentenced to prison Thursday for assisting the leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020. 

Pete Musico received a minimum sentence of 12 years in prison while his son-in-law Joe Morrison was sentenced to 10 years, The Associated Press reported. A third person, Paul Bellar, received seven years behind bars during the sentencing hearing for all three men in Jackson County, Michigan.

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Commentary: Changing the Language of Immigration Matters

In the last few years, federal, state, and local governments have labored to remove the term “illegal alien” from official documents and replace it with “undocumented noncitizen.” At a time of great instability in our nation, this may seem to rational people like fiddling while Rome burns. It is actually a strategic move to further diminish our border security and bring even more chaos to America.

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Ohio Senate Passes Bipartisan Bill to Create a Temporary Tax Amnesty Program

A bipartisan Ohio bill to establish a temporary tax amnesty program that would forgive interest and penalties on delinquent taxes and fees passed in the State Senate on Wednesday.

House Bill (HB) 45, sponsored by State Representatives Bill Roemer (R-Richfield) and Thomas West (D-Canton), aims to “create a temporary amnesty program for delinquent state taxes, forgiving taxpayers of penalties and interest accrued if they pay the full amount of their taxes owed during an established time period. Any person who pays that amount due during the amnesty period would also be immune from criminal prosecution or civil actions related to their taxes or fees paid.”

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Kemp Bans TikTok on State Devices

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp banned TikTok, WeChat, and Telegram on state-issued devices in a memo sent to state agency heads on Thursday.

“The TikTok software platform has the capability to track and store its users’ highly detailed public and non-public personal information, and the Chinese government is able to access this information under national security laws that require Chinese companies to assist in intelligence work through data sharing and other means. This requirement has already resulted in the CCP [Communist Party of China] influencing TikTok’s content and censorship algorithms to further its own political interests and poses an ongoing threat to the data of all users,” Kemp explained in the memo obtained by 11AliveNews reporter Nick Wooten.

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State Senators Propose Pennsylvania Law Against Social Media Censorship

Pennsylvania State Senators Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) and Scott Hutchinson (R-Oil City) Thursday announced they would reintroduce a bill proposed in the last legislative session designed to prevent social media platforms from censoring Pennsylvanians. 

Mastriano and Hutchinson introduced the original measure in May 2021. They secured the cosponsorship of four other senators, all Republicans, but the bill did not receive a vote in the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee. The two lawmakers said new developments impelled them to try again in the new session. They cited the recently released “Twitter files,” internal documents pertaining largely to the social-media company’s decision in late 2020 to deny users access to a New York Post story concerning Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s personal computer.

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Youngkin’s $3.6 Billion Budget Amendment Proposal Includes $1 Billion in Tax Relief

RICHMOND, Virginia — Governor Glenn Youngkin is highlighting $1 billion in tax relief in his budget amendment proposal, including lowering Virginia’s business tax rate from six to five percent, and slightly lowering the income tax for payers above $17,000 from 5.75 percent to 5.5 percent. In Thursday’s joint meeting of the General Assembly money committees, Youngkin and members of his administration told legislators that lowering tax rates will actually increase Virginia’s tax revenue in the long run by attracting more growth.

“This first step will mean our business tax rate will be lower than Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. But more importantly, by setting ourselves on a committed path to an even lower rate – like Democrat-led North Carolina was able to do – we will send a clear signal to businesses that we want your jobs and we are going to drive the Commonwealth’s economic engine even faster,” Youngkin said. “Starting down this path is to reject false choices presented in the past. Yes, Virginia, we can choose competitive taxes, we can choose economic growth, and we can choose critical investment priorities all at the same time.”

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Federal Government Sues Arizona over Temporary Border Barrier, Ducey’s Office Says Claims Are Inaccurate and Redundant

The Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the state of Arizona Wednesday, demanding it removes shipping containers placed under Gov. Doug Ducey (R) as a temporary patch in border wall holes. In a response shared with The Arizona Sun Times, Ducey’s Office stated the claims made are either inaccurate or redundant.

“Arizona’s border barrier was always intended to be a temporary solution until the federal government erects a permanent solution,” wrote Anni Foster, General Council for the Governor’s Office. “Arizona agencies and contractors stand ready to assist in the removal of the barriers, but the federal government owes it to Arizonans and all Americans to release a timeline on when construction will begin and details about how it will secure the border while construction is underway.”

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Wisconsin Attorney General: Agreements with CVS and Walgreens Over Opioid Crisis Finalized

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) announced on Thursday that his and numerous other states have finalized an agreement whereby the CVS and Walgreens pharmacy companies will pay $10.7 billion to those jurisdictions over opioid-epidemic concerns. 

The deal comes as a result of litigation by prosecutors across the nation alleging that the corporations failed to ensure that their pharmacies properly dispense painkillers, resulting in illegal trafficking and use of the drugs that has contributed to widespread deadly addiction. 

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Florida Leads Nation in Parent-Led Education

Florida ranked first in the United States for parental involvement in education, according to the Center for Education Reform’s Parent Power Index.

The index is released annually and measures the policies that exist in each state. Those policies are ranked by whether they allowed parental choice in what their child’s education would be, and if the needs of the student and their families were considered first.

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Tennessee Star Entertainment Writer Bethany Bowman Named Academy of Country Music Member

The Tennessee Star’s entertainment reporter Bethany Bowman was named a member of the Academy of Country Music this week. 

“The Academy’s membership is made up of so many essential voices in our Country community, and with our growing membership, the Academy is even better able to serve as a powerhouse advocate for fans, artists, and our industry as a whole,” Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside.

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Pennsylvania GOP House Leader Cutler Asserts Right to Schedule Special Elections for May

Pennsylvania House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Quarryville) on Thursday insisted he has the right to schedule special elections for three legislative vacancies. He wants two elections to take place during next May’s primaries. 

Cutler’s party has tussled with Democrats over control of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in the wake of November’s elections. Democrats won a majority of House seats that month, but Republican members nonetheless outnumber Democrats by two insofar as three seats to which the latter party won elections are vacant. 

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Philadelphia School District Orders Kids to Mask Up for Two Weeks After Holidays

Philadelphia schools will again require students and staff to wear masks during the school day after the holidays, according to Fox 29 News.

The School District of Philadelphia, the eighth-largest school system in the county, is implementing a mask mandate for two weeks once classes resume from the holiday break, according to Fox 29 News. Superintendent Tony Watlington announced the mandate for all educators and students on Wednesday as a “proactive measure” because many will be “involved in quite a few social gatherings over the next few weeks.”

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Ohio’s Bid to Keep Transgender Athletes Out of Women’s Sports Fails

The Ohio state House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would have banned transgender athletes from competing in sports outside of their biological gender, despite passing the Ohio state Senate only hours before.

The bill was first introduced in the House in June by Rep. Jena Powell and originally included a line requiring athletes to undergo a physical exam to determine their biological gender, according to FOX 8. During a 2 a.m. vote, the House failed to pass the bill after the state Senate included it in Senate bill 178, which stripped the State Board of Education of significant powers and gave control of educational policy enforcement to the governor Wednesday, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

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Arizona Autism Charter Schools Receives Million-Dollar Yass Prize

Arizona Autism Charter Schools (AZACS), the only public school for students with autism in Arizona and the first in the west specifically designed to serve neuro-divergent learners, won the $1 million Yass Prize, education’s largest and most prestigious award.

Yass Prize honored the recipients of its awards Wednesday night at the New York Hilton in midtown Manhattan, a press statement said.

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Sports Betting Company May Face $250,000 Fine After Being Accused of Promoting Sports Gaming to College Students in Ohio

Penn Sports Interactive (Penn) could face a $250,000 fine over promoting sports betting in Ohio to underage bettors on a college campus.

Penn Sports Interactive is the parent company of Barstool Sportsbook, an online sports betting site. The Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) claims that Barstool violated the rules at the University of Toledo when the company promoted a pre-registration deal on its app during a show.

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Ohio Senate Passes Bill Prohibiting Cities from Banning Flavored Tobacco Sales

The Columbus City Council unanimously voted on Monday to ban the sale of flavored tobacco and vaping products within city limits. Under 48 hours later, the Ohio Senate approved a bill that would make Columbus City Council’s ban illegal.

House Bill (HB) 513, sponsored by state Representatives Jon Cross (R-Kenton ) and Bill Roemer (R-Richfield), passed in the Ohio Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 23-8. The legislation includes an amendment known as a “preemption law, prohibiting local governments in Ohio from enacting any laws regarding tobacco or vaping products that are more strict than state law.”

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Commentary: All State GOPs Should Call for Ronna McDaniel to Withdraw

The accounts I have read about the race for Republican National Committee chair make it sound as if Ronna McDaniel is sure to win another term as leader of the GOP. These articles imply that her flunkies at the RNC will round up the votes necessary to guarantee her victory. I have no reason to question that assumption. But I wonder if state GOPs across the country, following the lead of their brethren in Arizona and Texas, could force McDaniel out of the race before that vote. After all, can she really lead the party if Republicans across the country have repudiated her leadership?

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Twitter Changes Rule on Location Sharing After Musk Says Car Carrying His Child Was Followed

Twitter CEO Elon Musk changed the social media platform’s rules on live location tracking after what he described as a “crazy stalker” followed a car carrying his child and “climbed” onto the vehicle.

In making the change, Musk also said Wednesday that “legal action is being taken” against Jack Sweeney, the man behind the account using publicly available data to track the location of the Tesla CEO’s private jet, following the attack on his 2-year-old child, X Æ A-Xii Musk.

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Commentary: ESG and the Clash of Values

New York Stock Exchange

In the third of his four part review of Terrence Keeley’s Sustainable, Rupert Darwall writes that ESG rests on a vision of the free-market economy that says capitalism needs to be led by people with the right values, which raises the question: Whose values? This makes ESG inherently divisive, explaining the pushback ESG is now generating in red states. Keeley proposes a solution in keeping with the pluralism and diversity of modern America.

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Commentary: ESG and the Perpetually Just-Over the Horizon Climate Apocalypse

Concern about catastrophic climate change has been the biggest factor driving ESG, yet the likelihood of climate change being catastrophic and the attainment of net zero are not open to debate or challenge by participants in financial markets. In the last of his four part review of Terrence Keeley’s Sustainable, Rupert Darwall argues that this undermines the function of financial markets as efficient, unsentimental allocators of people’s savings in a way that maximizes growth and economic well-being.

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CDC Quietly Scrubbed Key Firearm Stats After Pressure from Gun Control Activists, Emails Show

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quietly removed a range of gun statistics from its website after gun control advocates complained that the statistics made gun control laws harder to pass, according to emails between CDC officials and gun control activists.

Over a three-month period, gun control advocates met with CDC officials about its estimate of defensive gun uses per year, which ranged from 60,000 to 2.5 million based on a review of various studies, according to the emails. The advocates argued that the 2.5 million statistic, found in a study by criminologist Gary Kleck, was misleading, incorrect and made it harder to pass gun control laws, spurring the CDC’s decision to remove the statistics from its website.

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