Wednesday morning host Leahy welcomed top gov tracker Neil W. McCabe to the newsmaker line to discuss Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee creating a woke National Guard and Ron DeSantis’s legislative agenda and presidential aspirations.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee attorney John Harris in studio to explain how the Bruen decision applies to the state of Tennessee’s gun laws.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the founder and president of the Tennessee Firearms Association, John Harris in studio to discuss what first prompted his interest in the Second Amendment.
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Black History Month has drawn to a close, and former NFL player and author Ben Watson acknowledged its end by highlighting that the greatest injustice in black history still continues in the hundreds of thousands of black babies aborted each year.
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Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to face tough questions from Republican senators Wednesday regarding what many in the nation say has been the purposeful weaponization of the Department of Justice against parents of schoolchildren, Catholics who live their faith in the public square, and activists who fight for the vulnerable unborn.
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Tennessee’s Senate approved a bill Monday night that would expand eligibility for the state’s educational savings account program to any student who attended a public school in any of the three previous years.
Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, said the bill is aimed at students who would have fit the requirements when ESA’s were originally passed in 2019 but decided to attend a private or charter school after that while the original ESA law was blocked in the court system.
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Republican Florida Rep. Brian Mast introduced legislation to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a copy of the bill obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The bill seeks to allow the U.S. government to withhold debt payments to China equal to the cost incurred by the U.S. in response to the pandemic. The bill’s introduction comes days after the Department of Energy (DOE) found that the virus likely originated from a lab leak in China.
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The Webstaurant Store, LLC announced Tuesday that the company will invest $103.9 million to locate new distribution operations in Lebanon’s Speedway Industrial Park.
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The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt.
Biden announced in August of last year that his administration would “forgive” $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 per year or $250,000 for married couples. Debtors who borrowed money before July 1 can qualify.
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U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth predicted that if China got into a “major war” with the U.S. the Communist-led country would attack the American homeland.
“The United States homeland would be at risk as well with both kinetic attacks and non-kinetic attacks – whether it’s cyberattacks on the power grid or on pipelines,” Wormuth said Monday at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
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Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega reportedly banned public church processions for Easter after comparing the Catholic church to the “mafia,” according to the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
Tensions between the government and the church have been rising due to Ortega orchestrating multiple investigations into church leaders and exiling others, according to CNA. Ortega has reportedly placed a ban on public religious demonstrations during Lent, Good Friday and Easter after he attacked the church during a speech memorializing the 89th anniversary of Nicaraguan national hero Augusto Sandino’s death, calling the Catholic church a “mafia organization” committing “grave crimes and horrors.”
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To learn more about the problems residents have encountered regarding the negative effects of social media on kids, the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office announced that it will host three town hall meetings across the state this month.
The town hall meetings come as Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading a 50-state coalition in putting together a case investigating certain Big Tech companies. Skremtti told The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy that these town hall meetings will focus on “the effects of social media on kids and the mental health impact of social media on teenagers.”
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A bill making its way through the Minnesota Legislature with broad Democratic support would require all public school graduates to complete an ethnic studies course.
Authored by Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, DFL-Minneapolis, the bill defines ethnic studies as “the critical and interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with a focus on the experiences and perspectives of people of color within and beyond the United States.”
“Ethnic studies analyzes the ways in which race and racism have been and continue to be powerful social, cultural, and political forces, and the connection of race to other groups of stratification, including gender, class, sexuality, religion, and legal status,” it says.
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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — It’s been a busy start to what Gov. Kim Reynolds is calling a “big and bold” legislative session. The first bill the Republican signed into law was the Students First Act, a historic universal school choice bill allowing parents and guardians to tap into publicly funded education savings accounts to help cover the cost of private school tuition. Reynolds then signed a major medical malpractice tort reform bill capping noneconomic damages, a bill hated by personal injury lawyers but heralded by health care providers, hospitals, insurers and others who say costly litigation has helped push up health care costs. Now, Reynolds has her eye on big government. “We’re fighting hard every day to make government smaller,” the governor said at a recent Iowa campaign stop for Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley. Reynolds’ mission: Trim Iowa’s 37 executive branch cabinet-level departments from 37 to 16. The plan calls for reducing state government office space footprint to “align with industry standards and generate cost savings” and consolidating technology systems and services. Reynolds also wants to align regionally operated community-based corrections programs within the Iowa Department of Corrections. The aim, the governor says, is to strengthen the corrections…
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President Biden’s nomination of Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, to succeed David Malpass as World Bank president suggests that the Biden administration is prioritizing climate change over the World Bank’s founding mission of poverty eradication and economic development. This was made clear in the president’s statement singling out climate change as the most urgent challenge of our time.
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A planned electric vehicle battery plant has been paused after locals asked questions about Chinese ownership of the company.
The Big Rapids Township board voted for a federal review of national security risks with the Chinese company Gotion Inc., a subsidiary of China-based Gotion High-Tech Co., Ltd., a global manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries.
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A record number of foreign nationals attempting to enter Florida illegally by sea continue to be apprehended by federal, state and local law enforcement agents who are breaking up violent altercations, rescuing people from overloaded and sinking boats, and arresting MS-13 gang members and child sex offenders – the majority of whom are single military age men.
U.S. Coast Guard crews have apprehended a record number of Cubans attempting to enter Florida illegally. Since Oct. 1, 2022, they’ve apprehended 5,740 Cubans. That’s nearly as many as they did in all of fiscal 2022 – 6,182.
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A group of 30 New Jersey mayors are seeking a temporary moratorium on new wind power projects, citing a recent spike in whale deaths.
In a letter to President Joe Biden and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, the mayors called for a suspension of wind power projects off the coast until federal and state governments conduct investigations to determine if activities are a “contributing factor in the recent whale deaths.”
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The attorney representing the Wisconsin State Senate in a civil rights lawsuit against Green Bay — alleging the city bugged its citizens — is asking the local district attorney to open a criminal investigation into the audio-surveillance practices. “To our knowledge, those practices are unprecedented,” wrote attorney Ryan Walsh in a letter to Brown County District Attorney David Lasee. “We know of no other municipality in Wisconsin that has installed bugs in the hallways of the seat of government.” Walsh earlier this month filed the lawsuit against the city and Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich. The attorney represents the Senate, State Senator Andre Jacque (R-De Pere), Anthony Theisen, a former City Council member, and an unidentified female. The lawsuit alleges the installation of the audio recording devices 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. It also would prohibit the defendants from accessing or disseminating any audio recordings obtained from devices installed in the building. As The Wisconsin Daily Star first reported, Green Bay city officials installed at least three audio recording devices in City…
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Pennsylvania State Representative Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) on Tuesday was sworn in as State House Speaker, replacing State Representative Mark Rozzi (D-Temple) in that role shortly after he stepped down from it.
Rozzi’s two months at the helm of the House of Representatives have been fraught with contention. Immediate past speaker and House Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R-Quarryville), who corralled support within his caucus for Rozzi when his party enjoyed a momentary slim majority, recalled that the Berks County Democrat promised to drop his Democratic affiliation. Rozzi never did so and clashed with the House GOP on procedural and organizational issues.
Don Hauenstein is a Purple Heart Vietnam Veteran who spent a dozen years in the U.S. Marine Corps. He told The Ohio Star he’s never seen anything like the cloud of hazardous materials that hit his hometown nearly a month ago after a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed.
Worse, the retired East Palestine, Ohio, resident said he and many of his fellow community members believe their government isn’t telling the truth about the dangers that exist.
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The judge overseeing the case alleging former President Trump and his allies pushed to overturn the 2020 election results in the state says members of the grand jury involved in the matter “can talk about the final report” – following the jury forewoman’s eyebrow-raising media tour.
However, Judge Robert C. McBurney acknowledge that if jurors start to “synthesize the testimony” and the group’s thoughts on on their deliberations the matter can get “problematic.”
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In the final hours of the legislative session, Virginia lawmakers sent a pair of bills to Gov. Glenn Youngkin that would prohibit the use of solitary confinement in prisons without mandatory out-of-cell time, and stricter reporting requirements.
While the bills received bipartisan support as they advanced out of the General Assembly, the measures as-passed do not contain a key component advocates had pushed for – a 15-day limit on the use of solitary confinement. Without that provision, advocates fear the bill will allow the Virginia Department of Corrections to place people into isolated confinement for extended periods of time, so long as there is a review and daily out-of-cell time.
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A new poll from OH Predictive Insights (OHPI) focusing on the potential Republican candidates for Arizona’s 2024 primary election found that voters favor former President Donald Trump or Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by a wide margin as their choice for president.
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The Columbus City Council approved legislation on Monday giving owners of gun magazines with 30 rounds or more until July 1st to move them out of the city, sell them to a licensed arms dealer outside of Columbus, or turn them over to the city Division of Police.
Although new legislation, Monday’s ordinance amends the gun control legislation passed by City Council on December 5th despite a judge’s order to cease any such action.
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A new virtual healthcare system that embraces both medical freedom and affordable services has announced its pledge to provide free medical care for the victims of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment.
“It is clear at this point that the government is absolutely unwilling or unable to assist the men, women, and children of East Palestine, Ohio” said Foster Coulson, founder and chairman of The Wellness Company (TWC), in a press statement Monday.
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A group of Pennsylvania Republicans are demanding that Democratic Sen. John Fetterman either appear on camera and demonstrate he is still capable of doing his job or, failing that, that he resign from his federal office.
Fetterman has been hospitalized for nearly two weeks due to reported clinical depression; little is known about his status as an inpatient at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, though his staff said on Monday that he is “on a path to recovery.”
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Household debt across the country is sharply on the rise, with U.S. households now collectively on the hook for about $17 trillion in total. The average family holds about $142,680 in debt, according to a new WalletHub report.
All told, the personal finance website concludes that 2022 ended with Americans roughly $320 billion more in total debt than they were at the start of the year. During the fourth quarter alone, consumers added at least $398 million in new debt, the fourth highest build-up for a fourth quarter over the past two decades and more than four times larger than Q4 2021.
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A man is appealing a nearly $300,000 federal judgment for starting a series of forest fires in northern Arizona.
Philip Alejandro Powers filed for a court appeal on Feb. 21 after being found guilty in the United States Court’s Arizona District earlier in the month for starting three forest fires in May 2018. Fronteras reports Powers is a Tempe resident.
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U.S. Senators J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) this week sent a letter to heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urging long-term health monitoring of East Palestine, Ohio residents.
Vance and Brown asked EPA Administrator Michael Regan and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to guarantee baseline medical testing for those living near the site of the February 3 train derailment. The rail company Norfolk Southern followed the incident with what the company termed a “controlled burn” of five cars containing vinyl chloride.
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The Supreme Court announced Monday it would take up a case challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding mechanism on constitutional grounds.
On Oct. 19, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that funding the CFPB through the Federal Reserve violates the Constitution’s Appropriations Clause, which gives Congress the “power of the purse” in appropriating government funds. The CFPB filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on Nov. 14, 2022, which the Supreme Court granted Monday morning.
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Ohio House Democrats are requesting an independent audit of the recent update to the state’s voter registration database, which they claim initially disqualified 16,000 individuals from casting ballots.
State Representatives Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland) and Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Westlake) criticized the state’s voter “purges” in a letter to Secretary of State Frank LaRose and demanded transparency.
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A group of Ohioans wants to try again to change the state’s Constitution to permit lawsuits against government employees.
By placing the proposed amendment on the general election ballot for 2024, the Ohio Coalition to Eliminate Qualified Immunity (OCEQI) aims to close what it refers to as a legal loophole – qualified immunity. Similar measures have been rejected twice before for various reasons.
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Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) released a statement Monday from President Cathi Herrod, who praised the work of State Sen. Janae Shamp (R-Surprise) for sponsoring the “born alive” bill, which protects all babies born alive in the state.
“The Senate’s passage of SB 1600 along party lines tells you everything you need to know about which lawmakers refuse to draw the line before infanticide. The bill ends the inhumane practice known as “slow code,” in which healthcare professionals withhold medical care to babies not expected to live long in order to hasten their death,” Herrod said. “I am grateful for Senator Shamp’s courage in sponsoring this important bill.”
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Rumors have been swirling that Kari Lake is seriously considering running for the U.S. Senate, challenging Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, and during an interview with Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk she finally confirmed the suspicion as accurate. However, she emphasized that she will fully litigate the results of the gubernatorial election first.
During the interview earlier this month, Lake responded when asked if she was going to run for the seat, “Yes, I am entertaining it. I mean my number one priority is our court case, and I have full confidence in our court case and I hope we will get a judge to do the right thing.”
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The Biden administration plans to provide lethal assistance to Ukraine for years after the war to end Russia’s invasion reaches a conclusion, the Pentagon’s top official for policy and planning testified before Congress Tuesday.
The U.S. has provided more than $30 billion worth of weapons and equipment since the war in Ukraine began one year ago, including millions of artillery rounds and high-end equipment that requires years to produce and months during which to train Ukrainian troops. Regardless of how the war ends, the U.S. will need to continue providing Kyiv with weapons and military support for years to discourage Russia from making a subsequent attempt at conquering Kyiv, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl told the House Armed Services Committee at a hearing Tuesday.
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During Biden’s latest visit to Kyiv and Warsaw, the Oval Office occupant defended his administration’s escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war and pledged unlimited U.S. taxpayer support in the name of “defending democracy.”
But is Ukraine a democracy?
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee- After seeing Kasey Tyndall at the Listening Room with the Song Suffragettes in 2019, I immediately set up an interview with the energetic songstress and featured her in my Music Spotlight column at the beginning of 2020.
When I ran into Tyndall again at the Next Women of Country event in January of 2023, I knew we were long overdue for a follow-up interview.
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Just when it seemed things were returning to normal, some habits changed for the worse. The instability of COVID times took countless people out of contact with the outside world. Things became more informal, faster, and less social.
One area of change was the fast-food franchises. People embraced no-touch food service during COVID. Now, the instant-meal world is working hard to keep up the momentum by making fast food faster and less social. The idea is to minimize personal contact and maximize profits.
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Government agencies have less than a month to ban the popular Chinese-owned app TikTok from federal devices, according to an Office of Management and Budget memorandum issued Monday.
OMB Director Shalanda Young issued the memorandum for executive departments and agency heads about implementation guidance for banning TikTok on government-issued devices, Reuters first reported.
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The Biden Administration is planning to scale back planned regulations that would have cracked down on American investments in China, even despite rising tensions between the two nations.
According to Politico, at least five anonymous sources “with knowledge of the White House discussions” said that Biden will not sign the executive order as originally planned; instead of outright restricting such investments, the new order will instead simply attempt to increase the transparency of such deals.
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