Tennessee Spent $81 Million on Site Development Grants Since 2016

Tennessee has spent more than $81 million on its Site Development Grant program to help pay to get rural industrial sites prepared for businesses since the program began in 2016.

While the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development recently lauded the spending in promotional materials on the impact of that spending, experts don’t agree that the funding was well-spent.

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Texas, Michigan Officials Say They Weren’t Warned Before Receiving Contaminated Ohio Soil, Water

Officials in Texas and Michigan said they were not informed before their states received shipments of contaminated water and soil from East Palestine, Ohio, where a train derailed with toxic chemicals and caused a public health and environmental crisis earlier this month.

Norfolk Southern, the rail company leading cleanup efforts after its train carrying vinyl chloride derailed Feb. 3, had contracted with licensed waste disposal facilities in Texas and Michigan to dispose of hazardous waste from the Ohio derailment, Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) said Saturday.

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Suspects Released on ‘Zero Dollar’ Bail Were Much More Likely to Be Rearrested, Study Finds

An updated study by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office released earlier this month found that those released on $0 bail were 70% more likely to be rearrested than their cohorts who posted bail.

Last year, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office conducted a study of 595 individuals released without bail in Yolo County. finding that 70% of those released without bail were rearrested. An update to that study found that not only did the majority of those released without bail get rearrested, but those released without bail were actually more likely to be rearrested than those who did post bail.

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Researchers: City-Wide Vaccine Mandates Did Nothing to Stop the Spread of COVID-19

A slew of city-wide vaccine mandates announced in 2021 across parts of the U.S. made virtually no difference in stopping the spread of COVID-19, newly released research found.

“These mandates imposed severe restrictions on the lives of many citizens and business owners,” the study, conducted through George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, says. “Yet, we find no evidence that the mandates were effective in their intended goals of reducing COVID-19 cases and deaths.”

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Tennessee House Education Committee Holds Hearings on Third Grade Retention Law

Even as Tennessee’s third-grade retention law moves closer to implementation, talks on improving the law continue.

The State House Education Administration Committee held a hearing this week on the third-grade retention law. The committee provided a variety of literacy experts an opportunity to share their knowledge and experience in teaching kids to read.

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Commentary: Biden’s White House Is Infested with Foreigner Supremacists

To hear Joe Biden tell it, America is a dystopian hellscape uniquely cursed with unacceptable levels of injustice and bigotry. He routinely labels the purportedly cruel majority carrying out this supposed bigotry as “supremacists” who prioritize themselves over any minority group by virtue of their race, ethnicity, or gender identity. It’s a dark, cynical strategy that Biden has somehow parlayed into considerable political mileage.

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Maricopa County Leadership Furious That Brnovich Didn’t Agree with Two Employees Who Denied There Was Voter Fraud, Eight Bar Complaints Filed

Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes issued a press release Thursday criticizing her predecessor Mark Brnovich for not agreeing with two of his employees that there was no election fraud. Now, Maricopa County officials and others skeptical of election fraud are chiming in and agreeing with her.

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Minnesota Secretary of State’s Election Reform ‘Wish List’ Moves Through Legislature Despite GOP Criticism

A major election reform bill that DFL members in the House and Senate are carrying for Secretary of State Steve Simon continues to progress through the legislature despite criticism its several sweeping provisions have received from Republicans in recent committee hearings.

HF3/SF3, coined the “Democracy for the People Act” by its sponsors, aims to implement automatic voter registration, pre-registration for 16- and 17-year olds, add new voter intimidation laws and related penalties, and require more disclosures of who is funding campaign ads, among several other provisions.

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Hospital Costs for Foreign Nationals Illegally in Florida Total $340 Million in Fiscal ’21

Taxpayers spent nearly $340 million for foreign nationals illegally in the U.S. who were admitted to Florida hospitals during fiscal 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office says. This is after taxpayers spent $312 million on illegal foreign nationals admitted to Florida hospitals in fiscal 2020.

According to the findings, donations from charities were used to help pay for illegal foreign nationals’ hospital bills.

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Wisconsin Law Firm Wins Race-Based Discrimination Lawsuit Against Comcast’s ‘Woke Corporate Policies’

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty has won another case based on the argument that you cannot discriminate against people based on their sex or the color of their skin.

WILL recently settled a case with Comcast over the company’s Comcast RISE program. That program offered grants to small businesses, but only if they are 51% owned by someone who is “Black, indigenous, a person of color, or female.”

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Bill to Classify Fentanyl as ‘Weapon of Terrorism’ Approved in Virginia House and Senate

With drug overdose deaths on the rise in Virginia in recent years, lawmakers in both the House and Senate Friday agreed to a measure designating fentanyl as a “weapon of terrorism” and increasing penalties on those who knowingly and intentionally distribute or manufacture it. 

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate voted in favor of advancing Senate Bill 1188 Friday – a measure that defines any mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl as a “weapon of terrorism.” 

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Detroit City Council President: Reparations ‘Long Overdue’

The Detroit City Council on Friday announced the members of the city’s new Reparations Task Force.

The Task Force was established after 80% of Detroit voters approved a 2021 ballot proposal to explore the feasibility of a reparation initiative. According to the Detroit News, the proposal from the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus came in part from the national response to the 2021 death of George Floyd.

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Ohio Republican State Senator Reynolds Introduces Bill to Preserve Student’s Religious Expression

Even though public schools in Ohio cannot close for all religious holidays, a Republican state senator says that students don’t deserve penalization for observing them and that schools should treat them as legitimate absences.

Senate Bill (SB) 49 known as the “Religious Expression Days” Act sponsored by State Senator Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester) aims to require local boards of education to draft “non-exhaustive” lists of religious holidays and excuse students for up to three days each academic year.

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Local Arizona Leaders Detail Reality of Border Crisis at Hearing Democrats Boycotted

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing at the southern border Thursday focused on the effects of the border crisis on a local Arizona community. “The Biden Border Crisis,” marked the second hearing the committee held on the situation at the southern border this Congress. 

“It’s about time we told the truth. It’s about time we fix this problem,” Rep. Jefferson Van Drew, R-N.J., said of the border crisis during an interview with The Daily Signal shortly before the hearing began.  

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Pope Francis Criticizes ‘Conservative’ and ‘Progressive’ Wings for Politicizing Church

Pope Francis criticized attempts on both the left and the right to politicize the church in his weekly address at the Vatican Wednesday, according to remarks released by the Vatican.

Francis has been known for taking a more liberal approach to the papacy on issues of same-sex marriage, divorce and capitalism compared to his predecessor Benedict. The Pope said during his General Audience on Ash Wednesday that the church should not be run by any ideology and instead should focus on the Holy Spirit’s guidance, according to the Vatican.

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Commentary: The Ukrainian War’s Bleak Future

The Ukraine mess is daily looking more like the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939, a meat grinder that took 500,000 lives. That three-year conflict became a savage proxy war and prelude for the belligerents of World War II.

The Ukraine battlefield is proving a similar laboratory of death. New lethal weaponry and tactics are introduced, modified—and always improved—from drones to guided missiles to internet-fed artillery.

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Gun Ownership on the Rise for Asian-Americans

Following several mass shootings in predominantly Asian-American communities, Asian-Americans are buying more guns than ever before.

CNN reports that the surge follows two mass shootings that received widespread media coverage, in the California communities of Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, where Asian perpetrators carried out two separate shootings during Lunar New Year celebrations. Prior to these incidents, Asian-Americans began seeing an increase in violence against them during the 2020 race riots, with numerous viral videos of Asians being viciously attacked in the streets or on public transportation, most often by African-American culprits.

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Commentary: Yellowstone Showcases Leftist Propaganda

At the end of a long day, many of us unwind by kicking back to an entertaining television show or movie. However, because much of this media today is overt propaganda, choosing a show or movie to watch has become quite the challenge. Anything that isn’t obnoxiously propagandistic has become a welcome alternative. But this type of media can put our guard down and make it easier to accidentally uncritically accept the narrative being pushed, simply because it’s presented in a more palatable package.

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Legislation Would Block Hostile Actors from Land Purchase Near U.S. Military Bases

Legislation in Congress would block China and foreign adversaries from buying land around U.S. military installations, including six major bases in North Carolina.

U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-NC, is cosponsoring Protecting Military Installations and Ranges Act, which was reintroduced by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX. The legislation targets efforts by hostile actors from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea to acquire U.S. land close to U.S. military installations or areas.

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