Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who shaped Catholic doctrine for decades before surprising the church by resigning as pontiff, died Saturday at age 95, the Vatican announced.
“With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” Vatican press secretary Matteo Bruni told media.
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A list of new laws will take effect in Tennessee on January 1, 2023. The list of laws will go into effect in the new year, from relation to medical records, security-guard training, abortion-inducing drugs, and medication aide certification qualifications.
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Despite a historically tight labor market, small business owners reported that hiring difficulties had eased in December, markedly improving compared to November, according to a poll conducted by Vistage Worldwide for the Wall Street Journal published Friday.
Of the roughly 650 small business owners polled, almost 25% reported that hiring was easier in December than at the start of the year, while just 20% said it was harder, according to the WSJ. In November, those numbers were 18% and 25% respectively, and some small business owners reported success thanks to pay raises and hiring freezes or layoffs at larger firms.
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The House Ways and Means Committee that is controlled by Democrats released six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns on Friday.
The New York Post reported the returns cover the years 2015 to 2020. The Trumps reported positive income of $24.3 million in 2018 and $4.4 million in 2019 and had negative income in four of the six years in which tax returns were released.
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Colleges offered students the opportunity to enroll in unique courses during the 2022 semesters, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.
These courses tackled a variety of topics including “whiteness” and queerness, while others focused on subjects such as pornography and pop culture. Some of the courses sparked national backlash, forcing the schools to either defend or reconsider what they teach students in the classroom.
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A Tennessee bill would allow every public school teacher in the state to have $500 to spend on classroom supplies.
The bill would be an adjustment on the $200 initially stipulated for each teacher’s use in the new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula, set to begin in the 2023-24 school year.
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Augusta University Health System (AUHS) announced Tuesday the signing of a letter of intent to join Wellstar Health System. The potential deal would join the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), the state’s only public medical school, with one of the largest safety net hospital operators in Georgia.
“This is good news for the Augusta region and for health care across our state. It means more doctors and medical service providers, more options for health care, and greater innovation in this field are coming to Georgia communities,” Governor Brian Kemp tweeted after the AUHS announcement.
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During his final week in office, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) filled several court position vacancies across Arizona, including the Arizona Court of Appeals and the Yuma County Superior Court.
“I am very pleased to announce the appointment of six new judges to the Arizona Court of Appeals,” said Ducey. “These new judges will provide the much needed resources for the Court of Appeals to handle its growing caseload as more and more people choose Arizona as a place to live, work, and start a business.”
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Michigan lost 3,391 residents between July 2021 and July 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 population estimates.
More people moved into the state than out, but deaths outpaced births by 12,482. Michigan experienced 117,639 deaths and only 105,157 births, which, along with the state’s dropping birth rate, could threaten Michigan’s status as the 10th most populated state if the trend continues.
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Georgia saw its population increase by 1.7% between 2020 and 2022, new numbers from the Census Bureau show.
As of July 1, Georgia’s population stood at more than 10.9 million, up from about 10.7 million at the same time in 2020.
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Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s invitation to Floridians to move to California ahead of the November election, California businesses continue to leave, and increasingly to Florida.
While their top relocation destination is overwhelmingly Texas, several major companies have relocated to Florida since Newsom’s been in office.
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After many allegations of campus violence, Akron Public School teachers declared they would strike mere days after kids are expected to return from winter break. According to a Thursday news release, safety was one of their primary concerns.
The union scheduled the strike to begin on January 9th, 2023, while students return to classrooms on January 6th, 2023. Following incidents of aggressive behavior by kids, Akron Educational Association (AEA) union members asserted that school safety was one of their main concerns. The AEA represents around 2,800 licensed teachers and staff members, with about 20,000 students in the district.
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The new head of the Wisconsin Republican Party is talking like a Democrat.
Brian Schimming has said in a number of interviews over the past week that he wants to focus on early voting and raising money ahead of the spring election.
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Philadelphia has again failed to stop murders in the city, as it repeats a homicide toll that surpasses 500 deaths. While murders are down compared to a year ago, the level of violence dwarfs recent years, when as few as 277 murders happened in 2016.
As of December 28, 514 people have been victims of homicide in Philadelphia. That number is down 7% from 2021, when a record 562 people died, but higher than the 499 deaths in 2020 and 356 in 2019.
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Senator Bryce Reeves (R-Spotsylvania) and Delegate Paul Krizek (D-Mount Vernon) have prefiled legislation for the upcoming General Assembly session to create a problem gambling committee composed of gambling industry representatives and problem gambling prevention advocates.
“As Virginia moves forward with the expansion of gaming, it’s important that we understand the ills that come with it,” Reeves said in a Tuesday press release. “We must focus our attention on Virginians who struggle with gambling addiction. Delegate Krizek and myself are excited to announce our bipartisan effort to ensure that our Commonwealth’s gaming regulations properly reflect the much-needed funds for problem identification, gambling addiction education, and treatment.”
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A Hamline University art instructor was removed from her position after sharing two Renaissance depictions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in class, according to reports.
The professor has not been named in any reports on the incident but was identified as a female in the Pioneer Press.
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The election challenge in the race for Arizona Attorney General is not over yet, and may go on longer than expected due to new ballots showing up favoring Republican Abe Hamadeh. After the recount, which was ordered automatically due to the close race, Democrat Kris Mayes’ lead dropped from 511 to 280 votes. Throughout U.S. history in extremely close races, ballots are closely scrutinized and often some are thrown out, or others that weren’t counted were added in, often flipping the race.
Hamadeh tweeted on Thursday, “Katie Hobbs and SOS Office abused our courts and made a mockery of the justice system. They knew the results of the recount was going to show a LARGE discrepancy due to tabulation errors and fought against our election contest knowing this. They deceived the courts.”
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Beginning on January 1st, 2023, sports betting will be legal in Ohio. Betting will be legal to take place through smartphone applications, at casinos, racinos, sports stadiums, and other retail sportsbook facilities. However, Ohio will also be the first state in the nation to offer over 1,000 self-service betting machines in bars, restaurants, grocery, and convenience stores around the state.
Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 29, which legalized sports betting in Ohio, authorizing the move and giving oversight to the Casino Control Commission.
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As Ohio prepares for the legalization of sports betting in January, the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas is launching its first-of-its-kind gambling addiction counseling for individuals who are convicted of a crime related to gambling. This is one of the first such court programs in the state and the largest in the country.
According to Judge Brendan Sheehan, the court moved quickly to get its Problem Gambling Addiction Program operative prior to the state’s new sports betting laws going into effect on January 1st.
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Hudson City Councilwoman Nicole Kowalski filed a civil suit against the city council’s recent decision to censure her over her expenditure of money that required legislative approval without the council’s knowledge or consent.
According to Hudson City Council President Chris Foster, Kowalski launched an investigation of a citizen’s complaint about an alleged campaign finance violation without the knowledge or consent of the council. Foster said that Kowalski also spent money that required legislative approval without informing the rest of the council.
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Dr. Rachel Levine, a man who identifies as a woman, urged doctors at state medical boards to pressure Big Tech to stifle “medical misinformation” right after he declared that there is no “scientific or medical dispute” about the benefits of using experimental drugs and surgeries to force male bodies to resemble female bodies or vice versa.
Levine, the assistant secretary of health at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, presented an extremely dubious worldview as the established position of science, and acted as though no rational person would dare dissent.
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Buckeye Elementary School District (BESD) and Superintendent Kristi Wilson for alleged “additional compensation.”
“Transparency and accountability are not electives in our public school districts,” said Brnovich in a press release. “Hardworking taxpayers expect these public funds to be expended in accordance with the law and the best interest of students.”
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After falling 27-13 to the Dallas Cowboys at home on Thursday night football, and extending their unprecedented end of season losing streak to six games, you’d think the Titans would be crying in their 7-9 beer.
So why the happy face?
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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added 18 new LGBTQ+ entries in 2022, including words like gender-affirming, multisexual, top and bottom.
The OED added nearly 2,000 words in the past year, according to announcements from March, June and September, with 18 of those words updated or added to specifically define ever-evolving LGBTQ+ terms. In March, OED added anti-gay and anti-homosexual, with the former receiving a specific definition while anti-homosexual was listed only as a subcategory.
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In 2022, conservatives flipped dozens of school boards across the county, enacting conservative priorities and amending school policies to increase transparency in the classroom.
Moms for Liberty, an organization of conservative parents and school board candidates working towards parental rights in education, and the 1776 Project PAC, a political group that helps school board members against Critical Race Theory (CRT) get elected, endorsed candidates that won many of their races to flip school boards in 2022. School boards throughout the country also banned CRT, adopted new gender identity policies to involve parents and ousted administration in favor of mask mandates.
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Like a slow-motion train wreck that wasn’t thwarted, the Christmas holiday travel disaster was forewarned to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg a month ago by members of his own party who pleaded he take more aggressive action to force airlines to address wary consumer concerns about growing flight cancelations, delays and ticket refunds.
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