A Tennessee bill barring sex change procedures for minors passed in the state Senate Thursday and is headed to Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s desk, a spokesman for the state’s Senate Republican Caucus told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to discuss the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race.
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The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) announced last week the release of its 21st annual report on the public infrastructure needs across the state during the five-year period of July 2021 to June 2026.
The latest report, “Building Tennessee’s Tomorrow: Anticipating the State’s Infrastructure Needs,” indicates there is $1.2 billion or 2 percent increase over the year before. And while the costs have increased for the seven straight reporting period, they decreased when adjusted for inflation and population.
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At last week’s quarterly meeting, the State Board of Education (SBE) released its latest evaluation of Tennessee’s charter school authorizers. The State Board evaluates Tennessee’s six charter school authorizers at least every two years. In 2021 evaluations were delivered for Hamilton County Schools, Knox County Schools, and Shelby County Schools. That left the Achievement School District, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and the TN Public Charter School Commission for this year.
In 2019, Tennessee became the 4th state in the U.S. to implement authorizer evaluations when the State General Assembly passed legislation charging the SBE with conducting periodic evaluations of authorizers to determine authorizer compliance and evaluate quality. To bring this charge to fruition, the State Board partnered with SchoolWorks, an education consulting group with experience in authorizer evaluations.
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Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a resolution to force the House to vote on directing President Joe Biden to remove the U.S. military from Syria, where they have been involved since 2014, the Florida Republican congressman’s office announced Wednesday.
Gaetz, a House Armed Services Committee member, filed the one-page War Powers Resolution on Tuesday after four U.S. servicemembers and a working dog were wounded in a raid that resulted in the death of a senior Islamic State leader.
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Christian actor, writer and producer Kirk Cameron will headline a story hour event in Hendersonville this Saturday, February 25th. Cameron will read his children’s book on the Fruit of the Spirit, “As You Grow,” during the storytime event.
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Despite Joe Biden’s campaign rhetoric frequently attacking President Donald Trump for his strict immigration policies, the Biden Administration is set to implement asylum rules that echo Trump-era policies.
As reported by Politico, Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a proposal that would forbid illegal aliens from applying for asylum if they crossed the border illegally, or if they failed to apply for safe harbor in the first safe country in which they arrived. The rule is set to be implemented on May 11th after a 30-day period for public comment, and would remain in place for at least two years.
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President Joe Biden has yet to make a decision about running for a second term in 2024, and potential Democratic hopefuls and party donors are bracing for an open primary, according to Politico.
Biden aides noted that the president’s decision will likely come in April, despite being previously slated for February, Politico reported. Those close to the president still believe he will run, and that his decision has been prolonged due to current events, but others in the party aren’t so sure.
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Two bills in the Tennessee Legislature would change the places and way some Tennesseans are able to carry firearms.
A bill that does several things, including changing the term “handgun” to “firearm” in concealed carry code, made its way through the House Civil Justice Committee. The bill was amended and also now includes language to lower the age for concealed carry permits from 21 to 18, in line with an agreement from Tennessee’s Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and the Firearms Policy Coalition to settle the lawsuit.
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New York Democrat State Senator James Skoufis (D-Woodbury) became the lead sponsor of a bill that would restore the name of the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge back to its original Tappan Zee Bridge.
“Everyone in the Hudson Valley still calls the bridge the Tappan Zee for a reason,” Skoufis told The New York Post Monday of the span that was newly completed in 2018 and renamed by disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his father, Mario, who also served as governor.
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Democratic lawmakers are seeking further restrictions on ammunition sales after submitting the “Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act of 2023” in late January, which would block online sales of ammunition and issue new guidance for brick-and-mortar stores.
The bill, H.R. 584, would require ammunition dealers to receive updated licenses and confirm the identity of any customer who attempts to purchase ammunition, further saying that online sales will be blocked and bulk purchases must be reported. Democratic New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a lawmaker backed by Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety, introduced the bill alongside 23 House Democrats who co-signed the legislation.
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Emergency response personnel responded to the Y‑12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge on Wednesday after a fire broke out in “a hood” inside production building 9212. Y-12 is one of six production facilities in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Nuclear Security Enterprise.
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The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) will offer an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program beginning this year’s fall semester.
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Two anti-life organizations submitted language for a new ballot initiative Tuesday that would enshrine abortion in the Ohio Constitution despite existing pro-life laws.
Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights (OPRR) filed the language for their ballot initiative titled The Right to Reproductive Freedom with Protections for Health and Safety amendment with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R), according to a press release.
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The Tennessee Historical Commission (THC) recently voted to preserve a monument in Nashville’s Centennial Park that features a bronze sculpture of a young Confederate private holding a rifle seated on a stone.
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House Republicans want to prioritize the reform of regulatory issues in Pennsylvania, from concerns about taxes and health care to housing and infrastructure.
A Tuesday hearing for the House Republican Policy Committee for “common sense state regulatory reform” highlighted the challenges Pennsylvania faces.
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As promised, the Wisconsin State Senate has filed a lawsuit against the city of Green Bay and its mayor alleging the installation of secret recording devices installed at city hall is a violation of the Wisconsin Electronic Surveillance Control Law.
The complaint, filed in Brown County Circuit Court, seeks an emergency temporary injunction and a court order requiring the defendants immediately disable the recording devices.
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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in collaboration with state Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) introduced legislation on Wednesday to increase transparency in Ohio’s elections.
Senate Bill (SB) 71 known as the Data Analysis Transparency Archive (DATA) Act aims to codify standard definitions of key election data, create within the Secretary of State’s Office an office of data analytics and archives which will serve as a clearing house for retention and review, publish standardized data and results online, and codifies a process for county Board of Elections to transfer election data to the Secretary of State’s Office.
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The Virginia General Assembly advanced two bills Tuesday lawmakers say could help lower electric costs for commonwealth residents and restore the ability of the state’s utility regulation agency to adjust rates when utilities bring in revenues above their authorized profit.
Two identical measures dubbed the “Affordable Energy Act” – Senate Bill 1321 and House Bill 1604 – gives the State Corporation Commission the ability to order reductions of base rates when it determines utilities are earning above their authorized rate of return. The bill also specifies the SCC can increase base rates if they produce revenues below the utility’s authorized rate of return, ensuring the resulting base rates are “just and responsible,” and give the utility the ability to recover costs and earn a “fair rate of return.”
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Registered Republicans in Arizona increased their lead over Democrats from about three percent to over four percent over the past year. This is the biggest gap since 2018.
Similarly, in Maricopa County, Republicans increased their lead from about four percent more than Democrats to almost 4.5 percent more, according to the latest numbers from the Arizona Secretary of State.
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The question of whether health care providers should be allowed to administer gender transition-related medical care to children — such as puberty blockers, mastectomies or hormone replacement therapy — became a flashpoint for debate in the Minnesota House of Representatives on Monday.
So much so that one DFL legislator, who appeared to defend such medical care being administered to minors, attempted to analogize it to infants and toddlers getting their ears pierced.
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Connecticut’s top law-enforcement officer wants to be able to sue nursing homes to recoup taxpayer dollars when facilities are accused of harming patients.
A proposal being considered by the state’s General Assembly would, if approved, authorize the Attorney General’s office to conduct investigations and file civil lawsuits in cases where state health officials have issued orders that state or federal laws or regulations have been violated.
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The Florida House Subcommittee on Children, Families and Seniors met in Tallahassee Wednesday and discussed the phenomena of benefit cliffs with several programs and how they can provide a disincentive for work.
The subcommittee was given a presentation on the barriers that are present for Florida families, with the main focus being benefit cliffs — which refers to the sudden and often unexpected decrease in public benefits due to a small increase in earnings.
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In his latest offensive to rid Florida’s educational system of revolutionary Marxism, Governor Ron DeSantis announced what amounts to a new direction for one of the most liberal educational institutions in the state: the New College of Florida. DeSantis appointed a slew of new trustees to the college, including the anti-Marxist journalist Christopher Rufo, Claremont Review of Books Editor and political scientist Charles R. Kesler, and Matthew Spalding of Hillsdale College. The president of the New College, Patricia Okker, appeared before the board and said that she could not cooperate with the board or with DeSantis’ plan for the institution, and she was promptly terminated.
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Inflation will likely stick around for the foreseeable future, and the elevated inflation continues to worry Georgia businesses, groups said.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased by 6.4% over the past 12 months, higher than anticipated. Additionally, the Producer Price Index increased by 6% over the same period.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed $79 billion budget aims to allocate $10 million to transition the state’s automotive fleet to electric vehicles.
The governor budgeted $318 million on EV incentives: $150 million to help school districts buy 500 electric school buses; $65 million for EV charging stations; $48 million over two years for an EV sales and use tax exemption; and $45 million for local governments and businesses to transition their fleets to EVs.
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Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne (R) released a statement Tuesday encouraging schools to adopt a character-focused curriculum created by Character Counts (CC) as new matching grant applications will open soon.
“When I was last Superintendent, from 2003 to 2011, we successfully implemented The Six Pillars of Character [Six Pillars]: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and good citizenship,” said Horne. “Unlike social and emotional learning [SEL], which has become a distraction from academics, this program was integrated into education such as students writing essays on each of the pillars. As we renew the focus on academics, it could provide an important balance to our students’ education.”
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Two Ohio congressmen are spearheading legislation to boost U.S. fossil-fuel-refining capacity which has declined since 2020.
Representatives Bob Latta (R-OH-5) and Troy Balderson (R-OH-12) are sponsoring the Researching Efficient Federal Improvements for Necessary Energy Refining (REFINER) Act alongside Congressmen Greg Pence (R-IN-6), and Randy Weber (R-TX-29). The measure would commence a federal effort to study factors that have led to lessened refinery capacity and recommend policies to increase fuel refining.
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Norfolk Southern Corp. CEO Alan Shaw failed to answer five key questions posed to him by The Star News Network on Monday about the February 6 controlled burn of vinyl chloride conducted at the East Palestine, Ohio site of his company’s February 3 trail derailment:
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Sun Prairie Area School District’s use of American Family Insurance grant funds to promote programs that appear to be exclusively for black students is an attempt to launder race discrimination, a public interest law firm attorney told The Wisconsin Daily Star.
Documents obtained by The Star News Network show Madison-based American Family Insurance cut a check for $35,000 to fund a cross-country field trip in October for Sun Prairie East High School students to visit Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).
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Twitter users reacted to a Tuesday evening confrontation between a Daily Caller News Foundation reporter and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, with some calling Buttigieg out for taking a photo of the reporter.
DCNF investigative reporter Jennie Taer posted a 45-second video on social media of her asking Buttigieg if he had a message for residents of East Palestine, Ohio, the location of a train derailment that resulted in the spilling of toxic chemicals. Buttigieg referred her to comments he made in press interviews, said he was taking “some personal time” and took a photo of Taer at the end of the interaction.
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As President Biden boarded a European train destined for Kyiv, back in Washington, Rep. James Comer and his team drafted a long-expected letter.
Standing next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden pledged Monday that the lifeline of economic and military aid to that nation, support already well in excess of $100 billion, would not slack, and that the United States would stand with Ukraine “as long as it takes.”
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Dominion Voting Systems employees have acknowledged serious problems with the company’s technology, saying, for example, that a bug led to “INCORRECT results,” according to discovery cited in the defense brief in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Dominion is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion for defamation after becoming a target of alleged conspiracy theories regarding its voting machines being hacked and flipping election results.
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A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel unanimously voted to recommend the agency approve Narcan, a life-saving drug for opioid overdoses, be made available to purchase over the counter without a prescription.
Narcan is accessible for free and low cost online, through a range of community organizations, and through pharmacies with and without a prescription and with or without insurance.
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Former President Donald Trump traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, on Wednesday to the scene of a catastrophic train derailment, where locals and leaders have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the federal government’s reaction to their safety concerns.
The excursion occurs at the same time that Trump, who is running for president in 2024, and other Republicans have intensified their criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the derailment on February 3, which prompted evacuations and raised concerns about the community’s air and water quality after a controlled burning of the toxic chemicals aboard the rail cars.
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Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro traveled to East Palestine, Ohio on Tuesday to participate in a joint news conference with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and EPA Administrator Michael Regan regarding ongoing concerns surrounding the recent derailment of a Norfolk Southern train.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed independent mayoral candidate for Nashville, Fran Bush in studio to talk about affordable housing and campaign financing.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed independent mayoral candidate for Nashville, former Metro School Board member Fran Bush in studio to discuss her top priority for the city.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed top gov tracker and One America News national political correspondent, Neil W. McCabe to the newsmaker line to comment on James O’Keefe’s departure from Project Veritas and newly announced GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s chanc
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael in studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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EPA Administrator Michael Regan tweeted late Monday that he will visit East Palestine, Ohio on Tuesday. The news represents a change of plans for Regan, who was scheduled to leave on Saturday, February 18 for a seven day climate tour of Africa.
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A spokesperson for Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office told The Ohio Star that he is scheduled to visit East Palestine on Tuesday to provide an update on the cleanup following the catastrophic February 3rd train derailment that resulted in the controlled release and burn of noxious gasses creating an ecological disaster in the region.
His office also told The Star that DeWine will also talk about Tuesday’s Ohio Department of Health East Palestine clinic launch, which state authorities have indicated is open to locals with medical queries or concerns.
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A spokesperson with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 told The Ohio Star on Monday that the Fire Chief of the East Palestine Fire Department was the individual who ordered the controlled burn following the catastrophic train derailment on February 3rd.
“EPA did not order the controlled burn. The local fire chief was the incident commander who made the decision in consultation with Norfolk Southern, local law enforcement, and response officials from Ohio,” the EPA spokesperson told The Star.
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The forewoman of the Atlanta-area special grand jury that investigated alleged election interference by former President Donald Trump and his allies in Georgia said Tuesday that multiple indictments were recommended and “you’re not going to be shocked” about whether Trump was indicted.
Forewoman Emily Kohrs said would not specifically say who the Fulton County grand jury recommended to be indicted, but stated, “It is not a short list,” The New York Times reported.
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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a landmark case that could see every major social media platform become liable for harmful content on their websites, changing the game forever when it comes to legal protections for such companies.
As reported by Politico, the case Gonzalez v. Google is centered around the family of a woman who was killed in the Paris terrorist attacks in November of 2015. Her family claims that the video-sharing platform YouTube, which is owned by Google, should be held liable for allowing pro-ISIS propaganda videos to be hosted on the site, which the family claims helped radicalize one of the attackers.
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Tens of thousands of clergy members will soon receive a copy of Cardinal Raymond Burke’s firm but clear instructions to Catholic priests and bishops on when to deny someone Holy Communion.
“The Church cannot remain silent and indifferent to a public offense against the Body and Blood of Christ,” a book with the instructions says.
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America’s southern border is not the only one experiencing a dramatic increase in the number of illegal migrants attempting to cross into the country.
Customs and Border Protection reports record numbers of encounters with illegal migrants at America’s northern border with Canada.
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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Working Group on the International Health Regulations (WGIHR) is meeting this week to consider amendments to the regulations that will ultimately serve to increase the power of the global health agency, WHO watchdog James Roguski has been observing.
The International Health Regulations (IHR) are separate from the “pandemic treaty,” which some lawmakers are attempting to address through legislation.
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Nashville’s top prosecutor now finds himself under investigation, according to reports.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has launched a criminal probe into Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk’s office in the wake of revelations of listening devices being installed around the building in downtown Nashville.
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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs shared Tuesday that she is committing $500k to a fund aimed at securing a Democrat legislative majority when 2024 comes and alleged this was because Republicans are not cooperating in getting necessary policy changes enacted in the state.
“The current GOP legislative majority can play their political games – AZ Democrats are ready to get to work moving our state forward,” Hobbs tweeted. “Help us build on this exciting momentum by pitching in a couple bucks to our Flip the Leg Fund!”
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