John Bolton Confirms He Will Run for President in 2024

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton this week confirmed that he will be mounting a 2024 presidential bid, one meant in part to prevent former President Donald Trump himself from once again claiming the White House. 

Bolton told Good Morning Britain that he was planning on entering the race as a legitimate candidate and not merely a spoiler for Trump. “I wouldn’t run as a vanity candidate,” he told the show. “If I didn’t think I could run seriously, then I wouldn’t get in the race.”

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Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee Proposes Four Public Policy Changes in Its 2023 Legislative Agenda

The conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee (AFP-TN) published its 2023 Legislative Agenda, suggesting four major policy changes in the state.

During Tennees’s General Assembly legislative session this year, AFP-TN will advocate for legislation that moves to tackle and overall improve: economic opportunity, educational freedom, transparency, and criminal justice reform.

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‘THE CHOSEN’ Star to Keynote First ‘Post-Roe’ March for Life in Nation’s Capital

Jonathan Roumie, who plays the role of “Jesus” in the groundbreaking series THE CHOSEN, will keynote the 50th annual March for Life – the first since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – in Washington, DC, the pro-life organization announced Thursday.

In a press release, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund announced actor, director, producer and voice-over artist Jonathan Roumie, who portrays “Jesus” in the fan-supported free streaming series THE CHOSEN, a drama about the life of Jesus and the calling of his first disciples, will keynote the pro-life organization’s Rose Dinner Gala on January 20.

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Texas Sues Biden Admin over Policy Loosening Restrictions on Illegal Immigrants Seeking Welfare Benefits

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing the Biden administration over its changes to a policy that will allow illegal immigrants to more easily obtain welfare benefits.

President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented changes to the rule Dec. 23 to no longer consider certain nutrition, health and housing benefits when deciding whether a noncitizen can legally stay in the country, according to DHS. Paxton is requesting not just action in a Texas court, but is also asking that the Supreme Court intervene, he announced Thursday.

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Idaho Supreme Court Finds No ‘Explicit Right’ to Abortion, Upholds Ban

The Idaho Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a state abortion law that bans the procedure except in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother, rejecting the claim that the state’s constitution provides a right to abortion.

Idaho’s abortion law went into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, but has been challenged in the courts multiple times by pro-abortion advocates.  The court ruled 3-2 to uphold the ban, stating that Idaho’s law that bans abortion under most circumstances does not violate due process or the right to privacy.

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‘Significant’ Court Victory for Transparency Advocates in Tennessee Public Records Case

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government is calling a public records victory for the Nashville Post “significant” after the news outlet succeeded in its lawsuit to force Gov. Bill Lee’s office to release a report on how his administration responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Davidson County Chancellor Pat Moskal ruled this week in favor of the Nashville outlet after Lee’s office had denied a records request to Scene for the $3.8-million report from McKinsey & Co. The governor’s office claimed “deliberative process” privilege in which a public entity claims that a record is being used in deliberations and thus cannot be released to the public.

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Connecticut Probation Officials Failed to Investigate Fake Address of Illegal Alien Felon Now Suspected of Murdering 2-Year-Old Son

Connecticut probation officials never investigated what ultimately was found to be a fake Stamford address for a Guatemalan native and illegal alien who is suspected of killing his 2-year-old son, according to court documents.

Edgar Ismalej-Gomez, 26, who had already been convicted and served time for abusing his son when the child was just eight months old, is now suspected of killing the toddler identified by Stamford police as Liam Rivera, Hearst media reported Wednesday.

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Evers Finally Bans TikTok, ‘CCP Trojan Horse’, on State Devices

After more than a month of warnings from Wisconsin’s congressional Republicans and the cybersecurity community), Gov. Tony Evers says he will ban TikTok on state devices. 

Wisconsin joins federal agencies, Congress and at least 16 states in prohibiting the popular video-sharing app that has drawn widespread concerns that its being used as a spying tool for the Chinese Communist Party. 

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Fines Totaling $1.3 Million for the Pennsylvania Oil Industry, Environmental Costs of $1.8 Billion for State Taxpayers

Across Pennsylvania, thousands of violations have been issued in recent years over the “improper abandonment” of oil and gas wells. 

While the Department of Environmental Protection has collected more than $1.3 million in fines, reporting requirements are routinely flouted and improperly abandoned wells present environmental hazards to the public – as well as new burdens on taxpayers, who could be on the hook to pay for environmental remediation.

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Commentary: An Agenda for the GOP House

Hopefully, it will prove easier for House Republicans to govern than it has been for them to elect a speaker. There is good reason for such hope because the enemy no longer will be Kevin McCarthy and the Ghosts of Republican Speakers Past but instead Joe Biden, the Ghost of Nancy Pelosi, and the specter of a Diversity-Equity-Inclusionary BIPOC-LGBTQIA+ Kamala-Buttigieg ticket. That should end the GOP divisions and even restore amicable relations between Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

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DeSantis Admin Orders Florida Universities to Provide Information on How They’re Pushing Woke Programming

Florida colleges and universities are required to submit information detailing how they use state resources to support diversity, equity and inclusion programming, according to a memo from the state’s Office of Budget and Policy obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

All colleges and universities within the Florida College System and the State University System must submit a report explaining how they use state-given resources to provide diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory (CRT) programs, according to the memo, which was sent by Office of Budget and Policy Director Chris Spencer to Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz and State University System of Florida Chancellor Raymond Rodrigues. Florida state law requires oversight over higher education curricula, requiring officials to “identify the degree programs offered by public postsecondary educational institutions.”

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Incentives Unknown for Window Replacement Company Building Georgia Plant

A full-service window replacement company plans to build its first manufacturing facility in Georgia. However, it’s unclear whether Georgia taxpayers will be on the hook for any part of it.

Renewal by Andersen, a division of Bayport, Minnesota-based Andersen Corporation, said it would spend more than $420 million on the manufacturing facility. Economic development officials said the company would create 900 new jobs as part of the project at The Cubes at Locust Grove in Henry County.

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Youngkin at 52 Percent Approval in VCU Poll

Governor Glenn Youngkin is at 52 percent approval, 32 percent disapproval in a Virginia Commonwealth University Poll that comes as he makes a pitch for tax cuts and business incentives ahead of a General Assembly session beginning January 11.

“Poll respondents feel that inflation needs to be dealt with and democracy ensured for our future,” former governor L. Douglas Wilder said in an announcement of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs poll.

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Ohio Republican Party Censures GOP Lawmakers Who Backed New House Speaker

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio Republicans censured 22 lawmakers on Friday for voting with Democrats to choose the new Speaker of the Ohio House, saying they had disregarded their obligations to the party and the public.

Earlier this week, a number of Republican lawmakers joined forces with Democrats to choose State Representative Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) as speaker. The choice comes despite the Republican Caucus‘ previous selection in November of State Representative Derek Merrin (R-Moncolva) as the new speaker.

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Former Arizona Chief Justice to Lead Investigation into Maricopa County Election Day Printer Issues

Former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor will lead an investigation into printer issues that plagued Maricopa County on Election Day, according to a joint statement from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS) Chairman Bill Gates and Vice Chairman Clink Hickman.

“Justice McGregor will hire a team of independent experts to find out why the printers that read ballots well in the August Primary had trouble reading some ballots while using the same settings in the November General. Our voters deserve nothing less,” said the officials. “Maricopa County appreciates Justice McGregor’s willingness to serve in this role. We look forward to her findings.”

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Audit: Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency Couldn’t Support $10.2 Billion of Payments

An audit released Friday from the Office of Auditor General Doug Ringler marked 11 “material conditions” – the most severe rating – for how the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency operated during the pandemic, which resulted in losing billions of taxpayer dollars.

The audit found the UIA couldn’t support the appropriateness of $10.2 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments, mostly because it added invalid eligibility criteria in the PUA application and didn’t require some PUA claimants to certify they met federal eligibility criteria. 

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Ohio Sports Betting Companies Fined $150K After ‘Repeated Violations’

Mere days after Governor Mike DeWine cited concerns with Ohio’s new sports betting setup, the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) issued three more warnings for infractions on Thursday.

According to the OCCC, BetMGM, LLC (BetMGM); American Wagering, Inc. (Caesars), and Crown OH Gaming, LLC (DraftKings) violated state law and administrative rules regarding advertising.

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Youngkin Says Tax Cuts Can Give Virginia a Win Against Other States

 Heading into the second year of his term, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin says he wants to “compete to win” with other states when it comes to attracting business and people to the Commonwealth. 

That was the main takeaway from a speech given by the governor Thursday, when he touted proposed budget amendments to cut $1 billion in taxes and outlined his strategy to “win” in the Commonwealth. 

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Arizona State Senate Majority Caucus Promises to Keep Republican Values at the Center of Legislation Going into New Session

The Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus (Caucus) released its 2023 Majority Plan on Thursday, outlining priorities and approaches to strengthening the state and tackling important issues. Kim Quintero, director of communications for the Caucus, told The Arizona Sun Times that the elected officials would do their best to honor the Republican values they ran on while working under newly sworn-in Gov. Katie Hobbs (D).

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TFA’s John Harris Commentary: What the Congressional Speaker Selection Delay Means to Gun Owners in Tennessee

As of January 3, 2023, the Republicans were supposed to control the United States House of Representatives by a slim majority. On that date, many expected that the task of electing a new Speaker and moving forward with the business of “the people” in the House would start under Republican party control. But as of January 6, 2023, those elected to serve in the House have not selected a Speaker and so the House has not been organized nor undertaken regular operations. National news reports indicate that the presumptive Republican Speaker so far has fallen short in getting the required number of votes in part because approximately 20 Republicans who were elected in November have refused to vote for McCarty and no other individual has demonstrated enough votes to get the position.

One of the issues that is being discussed is whether any of those who have refused to support McCarthy in the 11 votes taken as of January 5th have broken a promise, perhaps a campaign promise, to do so. It is an active discussion over what was promised and whether there are any valid justifications for withholding support if a promise was made. Indeed, at least in Nashville, the talk radio shows are expending a great amount of time reviewing this issue because there is a Congressman-elect from Tennessee who is part of the story.

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Commentary: President Trump, the Pro-Life Movement Doesn’t Need Pro-Abortion Politicians

President Donald J. Trump started 2023 with a post on Truth Social which drew the ire of many in the pro-life community. Trump wrote, “It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations . . . It was the “abortion issue,” poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.” Trump went on to say, “Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again.”

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Commentary: Some Invasions Don’t Require Armies

Amid the growing fears of many Americans that their country is slowly disintegrating, a debate about whether or not the United States is being invaded is bubbling to the surface. At stake is something far more than semantics: the future of the country as we know it may hang in the balance. 

Ducey v. Moore, currently being litigated in an Arizona federal district court, is a case that is testing states’ rights to defend themselves from invasion by Mexican drug- and human-smuggling cartels. In response to the well-documented influx of foreign nationals entering the country illegally, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey placed shipping containers along the state’s southern border to stem the flow. The federal government now claims that the shipping containers violate various federal regulations that it says apply to the Roosevelt Reservation area near the border, and seeks removal of the containers.

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New Oklahoma Legislation Seeks to Ban Health Care Providers from Administering Sex Change Procedures to Patients Under 26

A Republican senator introduced a bill Wednesday aimed at blocking health care providers from administering or recommending medical transitions to patients under age 26.

The legislation, pre-filed ahead of Oklahoma’s 59 legislature, would ban gender transition procedures including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries, while also imposing felony conviction and revocation of medical license, should the law be broken, according to the legislation. The legislation would also ban public funding from being used to fund any services related to gender transitions for people under 26.

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