Day: March 13, 2023

As Lawmakers Mull Major School Policy Changes, Tennessee Education Commissioner Schwinn Keeps a Busy Travel Schedule

TC Weber

While Tennessee state lawmakers debate third-grade reading retention policies, and local school superintendents implement Tennessee’s new school funding formula, Tennessee’s Commissioner of Education continues to travel the country promoting Tennessee’s education initiatives.

Last quarter’s travel expenses filed with the state, reveal trips to Austin, Arlington, Boston, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C. In February she was in D.C. to help the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) launch the Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI), a bipartisan initiative co-led with Lewis-Burke Associates, LLC, to increase education research and development investments across the federal government.

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Catholic Civil Rights Group Condemns State Legislation to Force Priests to Break Seal of Confession

Susan Berry, PhD

Bills in the states of Vermont, Delaware, and Washington would include in mandatory reporting laws information about child sexual abuse a priest learns during the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a move the Catholic League states lacks sound reasoning.

Last week Catholic League President Bill Donohue warned the “seal of confession” is “under fire” in Vermont, noting the Catholic civil rights organization is once again “doing battle with lawmakers who want to violate” the priest-penitent privilege, mostly in legislation concerning the sexual abuse of minors.

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Biden Approves ConocoPhillips Oil Project Over Green Group Objections

Admin

The Biden administration formally approved Willow, an $8 billion oil drilling project located in Alaska, Monday morning over the objection of climate activists who lobbied heavily against it.

The massive project, operated by American energy firm ConocoPhillips, is projected to produce roughly 600 million barrels of oil over a 30-year lifespan, The New York Times reported. In a bid to placate environmentalists, the administration had considered limiting the project to just two drill sites, down from the five that ConocoPhillips initially proposed, but the company and Alaskan lawmakers warned that the project would need at least three to be economically viable, according to CNN.

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Commentary: Donald Trump Reemerges as the Republican Alpha at CPAC

Admin

At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Donald Trump demonstrated, once again, why he remains leader of the Republican Party. He made it clear that he should not be displaced until long after his 2024 presidential primary victory.

Trump showed the rhetorical brilliance that vaulted him from political outsider to the heir to Ronald Reagan in an instant. At a time when too many Republican politicians stumble over each other for positions just to lurch back toward the middle and lose their mettle, Trump gave the base the red meat they needed to hear.

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‘Corporate Bailouts Must End’: 2024 GOP Candidates Weigh In On Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse

Admin

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has sparked comments from 2024 GOP candidates and hopefuls about why the bank failed and what the government should do in its wake.

Declared candidates, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump, as well as contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have spoken out about what might have led to SVB’s collapse and against government bailouts. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of SVB after its Friday shut down when their stock plummeted following mass withdrawals.

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African White House Reporter Says He’s Being ‘Censored and Punished’ For Asking ‘Incompetent’ Karine Jean-Pierre Tough Questions

Admin

The top White House reporter from Africa said Thursday that he is “censored and punished”  by the White House Correspondents Association  (WHCA) for asking “totally incompetent” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre too many tough questions.

Simon Ateba, the Chief White House correspondent for Today News Africa, is reportedly being kicked out of the WHCA, which controls the White House briefings. The Cameroonian journalist was one of several members of the press  barred from attending Joe Biden’s media briefing last month addressing the spate of unidentified aerial objects seen in United States airspace.

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Proposed Legislation Restores Tennessee’s Sovereignty Through Nullification

Laura Baigert

A bill making its way through the Tennessee General Assembly seeks to restore the state’s sovereignty by establishing a process for the nullification of unconstitutional federal actions.

HB0726 and companion SB1092 sponsored by Rep. Bud Hulsey (R-Kingsport) and Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma), respectively, is officially titled “Restoring State Sovereignty Through Nullification Act.”

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Smugglers Are Using Drones to Spy on Agents, Border Patrol Says

ADN America

The U.S. Border Patrol said that smugglers are using drones to spy on its agents along the U.S.-Mexico Border between San Diego and Tijuana.

“They’re gathering intelligence, they’re doing counter-surveillance on our agents, they’re trying to see our work patterns, how many agents and what they’re doing,” said Border Patrol Agent Diana Ibarra in a recent bulletin published by the federal agency. “They’re working to try and find any possible vulnerability and exploit those.”

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Tennessee Star Editorial: Lt. Governor McNally Must Resign from Leadership Now

Michael Patrick Leahy

It is painfully obvious to anyone who has watched the confused public responses of 79-year-old Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) to the controversy surrounding his inexplicable social media postings that he has lost a step mentally.

McNally also faces health and physical challenges not unusual for a man of his age. In February he underwent a medical procedure to install a heart pacemaker.

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Mastriano Bill for Train-Wreck Emergency Grants Passes Pennsylvania Senate Committee

Bradley Vasoli

Legislation to aid Pennsylvanians affected by the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical incineration passed a state Senate panel unanimously last week. 

Senator Doug Mastriano (R-PA-Chambersburg) authored the bill and chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee which approved it. His measure would establish the Train Derailment Emergency Grant Program to cover impacted individuals’ medical bills, income losses, small-business expenses, property-value depletions, decontamination costs and relocation expenses. The policy now awaits consideration by the full Senate. 

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Three More States Dropping Voter Data-Sharing Collective as Trump Rips ‘Fools Game for Republicans’

Just the News

Three more red states — Florida, Missouri, and West Virginia — this week followed Louisiana and Alabama in withdrawing from a multistate data-sharing partnership that facilitates voter registration and maintenance of voter rolls, citing unmet concerns over protecting voter information and partisan influence at the nonprofit.

The latest withdrawals from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) came after the nonprofit’s board of directors rejected changes proposed by a bipartisan working group of several member states.

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Ohio Republicans Reintroduce Bill Prohibiting Cross-Sex Hormones for Minors

Hannah Poling

Ohio Republican lawmakers have reintroduced legislation that would ban providing minors puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones for “gender transitioning” which it’s sponsors postponed last November rather than rushing it through lame duck.

House Bill (HB) 68 known as the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act sponsored by State Representative Gary Click (R-Vickery) aims to prohibit certain procedures from altering a minor child’s sex.

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Ohio’s Yearly Gas Price Increase Among Nation’s Highest

The Center Square

A new report shows Ohioans have some of the highest gas price increases in the nation from 2022 to 2023.

Zutobi, an online drivers ed organization, analyzed fuel prices in every state and more than 170 countries to create its “Global Gas Prices Report” for 2023. The report shows the states with the cheapest and most expensive gas prices, along states that showed the most significant changes.

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Commentary: Student Debt Forgiveness Won’t Cure Higher Education’s Ills

RealClearWire

On February 28th, the Supreme Court heard arguments on President Biden’s plan to extinguish an estimated $400 billion in student debt. Biden deserves credit for highlighting a debilitating federal program in desperate need of reform. His proposal, however, would make the problem far worse, not better. Any serious reform would force academic institutions to take some responsibility for the education they provide—and to show some responsibility to the many young Americans they induce to go deeply into debt. 

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Pennsylvania Public Defenders Hopeful as Momentum for Funding Increases Grow

The Center Square

The governor’s proposed budget may provide a boost to a bill working its way through the Senate that would fund public defender offices and bring the state into compliance with constitutional mandates.

The current version of Senate Bill 371 – sponsored by Sens. Lisa Baker, R-Dallas, and Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia – would establish an Indigent Defense Advisory Committee to determine county standards and a grant program to fund services. Both would fall under the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

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Arizona High School’s Policy Tells Girls to Leave Their Locker Room If Uncomfortable with Trans Students

Admin
Girls Sports

An Arizona high school has a policy allowing transgender students to change in their preferred locker rooms and telling female students to use alternative facilities if they are uncomfortable, according to emails obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Students and parents at Catalina Foothills High School (CFHS) in Tucson, Arizona, found out about the new policy after Bart Pemberton, a parent of a female student from CFHS, spoke with radio host Garrett Lewis about an “unwritten policy” that his daughter had told him about. The policy not only allows transgender students in the bathroom or locker room of their choice but also tells students who are uncomfortable with the policy to request an accommodation to use different changing facilities, according to emails obtained by the DCNF.

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Commentary: Medicaid Expansion Fails to Deliver on Promises

RealClearWire

Medicaid expansion is failing states across the nation according to a recent Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) report. The report found states that have expanded Medicaid have faced more hospital closures than states that haven’t expanded the program. Of course, for years, advocates have claimed that expansion would be a necessary provision for financial health and job security for hospitals. Though, as suspected, data reveals the opposite. More accurately, non-expansion states have seen improved profitability, a larger bed capacity, and increased job growth. 

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Treasury Inspector General Audit: 42,000 Federal Employees ‘Repeatedly’ Don’t File Federal Returns

Just the News

Tens of thousands of federal employees have “repeatedly” failed to file their federal tax returns, according to a new federal watchdog report.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration flags 42,000 so-called “federal employee non-filers” and states the government is limited in its authority to punish them, according to the Washington Times.

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Study: Average American IQ Is Declining for the First Time in a Century

Admin

A new study asserts that the intelligence quotient (IQ) of the average American citizen is now on the decline for the first time in nearly 100 years.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the study was published in the psychology journal Intelligence. Analyzing the time period between 2006 and 2018, the study’s authors note that the biggest decline in IQ occurred among Americans between the ages of 18 and 22.

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Experts: A Large Proportion of Children Pursuing Gender Transitions Are Actually Autistic

Admin

Children with autism make up an outsized proportion of the transgender-identified population, and autism spectrum traits make them particularly vulnerable to thought patterns that can lead youth to pursue gender transitions, according to research and medical professionals.

Transgender individuals are about three to six times more likely to be autistic than non-transgender people, research shows; the connection between transgenderism and autism has been a subject of interest for researchers since at least 2010, and the Gender Development Identity Service at Tavistock, the world’s largest pediatric gender clinic, came under fire in recent years over allegations that as many as 97.5% of its gender patients had autism. Dr. Susan Bradley, a Canadian psychiatrist and pioneer in treating gender dysphoria, told the DCNF that she now believes most pediatric gender patients are actually on the autism spectrum and are being exploited by medical professionals.

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