Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Micahel Patrick Leahy welcomed Senator Bill Hagerty to the newsmaker line to discuss the series of failures leading up to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
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News Channel 5 published an article at 1:23 pm on Wednesday written by long time investigative reporter Phil Williams which stated that Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) “kept the money” raised eight years ago in a GoFundMe campaign meant for a memorial garden in honor of his infant son Hugh Lincoln Ogles, who died in 2014. A total of $23,565 was raised.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to comment on the Silicon Valley Bank crisis and how it could invoke nationwide digital currency.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to weigh in on Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s efforts to reject funding from Department of Education in the state.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed recovering journalist Clint Brewer in studio to comment on Speaker McCarthy’s new House caucus as the Biden family’s financial reports come under scrutiny.
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Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana accused the Biden administration of lying about its commitment to working with Congress to protect seniors’ social security benefits at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee Thursday.
Cassidy asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who was testifying about President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2024, if the president was aware that “when [Social Security] goes broke in nine years” there would be a 24% cut in benefits for current recipients.
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CEO Larry Fink of investing titan BlackRock put reduced emphasis on climate and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals in an annual letter to the company’s investors and stakeholders Wednesday, amid Republican criticism of his firm’s investing strategy.
BlackRock has faced significant criticism from Republicans, who allege that the company has focused too much on “woke” investing to the detriment of its clients, and more recently Democrats who argue the company hasn’t gone far enough with its ESG efforts. Fink’s reduced emphasis on his firm’s role in the energy transition stands in stark contrast to his 2020 letter to investors, in which he argued the company had a “significant responsibility … to play a constructive role” in the transition to low-carbon sources of energy, Axios reported.
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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky) on Thursday released a summary of the first bank records showing how a $3 million payment from a Chinese company came into the United States, was broken up and eventually infused $1.3 million into the accounts of President Joe Biden’s family members.
“Pursuant to a subpoena, the Committee recently obtained financial records related to Mr. John Robinson Walker, a Biden family associate, and his company Robinson Walker, LLC,” Comer’s committee reported in a new memo summarizing its investigative findings.
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Following Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally’s bizarre social media postings on his official government Instagram account, State Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) called on him to resign immediately, saying the 79-year-old lieutenant governor was a “predator.”
“Not only have Tennessee Republicans now become the laughingstock of the nation, the bottom line is this: Randy McNally is a predator,” Warner began in a statement released on Thursday.
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Late Wednesday Tennessee U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) blasted long time News Channel 5 reporter Phil Williams over claims Williams made about the death of Ogle’s son in 2014 in a story published earlier in the day by News Channel 5.
Hugh Lincoln Ogles, the son of future Congressman Ogles and his wife Monica Ogles, died on February 19, 2014, the day of his birth, and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Franklin, Tennessee.
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Congressional investigators have identified a labyrinth of at least a dozen bank accounts that were used to funnel money from foreign sources to Joe Biden’s family and uncovered the first evidence that some funds went to benefit the future president, the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has disclosed.
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The Tennessee State House K-12 Education Subcommittee considered several proposals before agreeing to accept House Education Chairman Mark White’s (R-Memphis) proposed legislation that would expand opportunities for students to avoid retention while offering K-2 students more resources to stay on track.
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A federal judge heard oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that could end availability of abortion-inducing drug mifepristone throughout the nation.
The case was brought against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November by Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a coalition of pro-life OB/GYNS, pediatricians, and other Christian healthcare providers, who are seeking a preliminary injunction to require the FDA to either withdraw or suspend its approval of the drug while the lawsuit continues.
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Data from the Tennesse Secretary of State’s Office shows that new business filings in Tennessee for the fourth quarter of 2022 were the second highest in the state’s history.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, 16,780 new entities were filed in the state, bringing the total number of business entities operating in the Volunteer State to 485,995, according to the Tennessee Quarterly Business and Economic Indicators report.
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Dr. Tabia Lee, faculty director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education at De Anza College, alleges that she is being terminated for not adhering to anti-racist “orthodoxy.”
Lee, a Black woman who grew up in central California, was fired last week from her position as a tenure track Faculty Director for the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education at the community college in Cupertino, California, according to Inside Higher Ed.
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At the same time that Department of Justice officials were using spying and corruption statutes to aggressively pursue Donald Trump’s allies based on what turned out to be rumor and innuendo, they declined to use those same laws to investigate evidence of wrongdoing involving Biden family members and one of their corrupt Chinese business partners, DOJ documents and federal court records reveal.
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Big Valley Brands, LLC, also known as Big Valley Air, announced Wednesday the company will invest $1.4 million to expand its manufacturing operations in Sequatchie County, which is categorized as an “economically distressed” county by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD).
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The Florida House Civil Justice Subcommittee approved three bills that are designed to reform the Sunshine State’s civil litigation system.
House Bill 1035, also known as the “Teachers Bill of Rights,” was presented by state Rep. Karen Gonzalez-Pittman, R-Tampa, who stated that education is a fundamental value of the people of Florida.
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The Democrat-dominated Michigan Senate voted to repeal right-to-work and to reinstate the prevailing wage.
The House passed bills to repeal right-to-work last week.
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With Equal Pay Day occurring this Tuesday, Pennsylvania Democrats renewed a push to strengthen state and federal pay equity laws, citing workplace discrimination statistics that scholars often find questionable.
State Senators Maria Collett (D-North Wales) and Steve Santarsiero (D-Doylestown) proposed a bill that would apply the commonwealth’s Equal Pay Law to a broader universe of workers and a greater scope of fringe benefits. The measure introduced unsuccessfully last session, would also bolster employees’ rights to inquire about the wages a company pays and permit workers to collect back wages from employers who courts find in breach of the law. The senators said these changes are necessary because women in Pennsylvania earn 79 cents for every dollar men receive, a disparity of over $10,000 per year.
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Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol are offering a plan that would allow for some abortions, but the state’s Democratic governor is already saying “No.”
A group of Republican lawmakers on Wednesday introduced legislation that would create exemptions for abortions in cases of rape or incest, which they assert would better define Wisconsin’s only exemption for the health of the mother.
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Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law a bill this week that would provide $1 billion in tax rebates for Georgia income tax filers.
House Bill 162 provides a special state income tax refund for Georgians who filed returns in both the 2021 and 2022 taxable years. It marks the second year in a row that Georgia taxpayers will receive a rebate.
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Vice President Kamala Harris, who hasn’t been to Iowa in years, is heading back to the Hawkeye State this Thursday for a roundtable discussion on abortion rights, according to the White House.
Harris will be in Des Moines to talk about “extreme” measures to limit abortion across the country in the wake of last June’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, according to multiple media outlets.
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Virginia GOP Congressman Ben Cline says that in order for the country to get back on track in terms of finances, the federal bureaucracy needs to shrink and power must go back to the people.
“We’re going to keep working to make sure that we shrink the bureaucracy and the administrative state by balancing the budget,” Cline said on the Tuesday edition of the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show. “The RSC is going to put forward a balanced budget here in the next few weeks that counters the Biden administration’s budget.”
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An Ohio pro-woman and pro-parent group has released a $5 million ad buy to underscore the dangerous and extreme nature of a constitutional amendment championed by abortion and transgender industry giants, including Planned Parenthood.
In its 30-second spot, Protect Women Ohio (PWO), a statewide coalition, emphasizes the provisions of the radical constitutional amendment pushed by anti-life activists, including one to abolish parental rights and eradicate the basic health and safety standards that currently protect Ohio women and girls.
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The Arizona Freedom Caucus (AFC) released a statement Tuesday, allowing several members to speak out against Ranked Choice Voting (RVC) in Arizona and promote two bills that would prohibit it in the state.
“RCV may not always result in the candidate with the most first-choice votes winning the election,” said AFC Member Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale). “I am aware that there are groups in Arizona advocating for RCV, but this will only lead to chaos, and we must ensure that our constituents have easy and fair access to the ballot box.”
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Minnesota is poised to become just the third state in the nation to provide free school meals for all students. But it will come at a taxpayer cost of about $200 million a year, regardless of whether a family has any trouble at all paying for their kids’ breakfast and lunch — which amounts to about $6 a day.
On Tuesday four Republicans joined 34 DFLers as the Minnesota Senate voted 38-26 to pass a universal school meals bill that Gov. Tim Walz has said he’ll sign when it reaches his desk. Last month the House passed the bill by a 70-54 vote. No Republicans in the House supported the measure.
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Republican Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Megan Shanahan has announced her bid for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court in 2024. Shanahan is the first to announce her candidacy.
According to Shanahan, she is running for an Ohio Supreme Court Seat because she understands the proper role of the judiciary “interpreting the law, not legislating from the bench.”
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Democrat Kevin Robinson will replace Republican Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio in District 6, and Democrat Kesha Hodge Washington unseated incumbent Councilman Carlos Garcia following a runoff election on Tuesday.
Republican Sam Stone, who was up against former police officer Robinson, quickly conceded after seeing the results at his election night party in north Phoenix. Stone worked for DiCiccio and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
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Unlike his fellow Democrat and predecessor Tom Wolf, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro hasn’t asked for tax increases as part of his first budget request. But the ranking Republican on the state House Appropriations Committee said on Wednesday that tax hikes likely await Pennsylvanians in a few years if lawmakers don’t pare back Shapiro’s spending proposal.
“We are facing massive structural deficits,” Representative Seth Grove (R-York) told reporters at the GOP Appropriations Committee Office in Harrisburg. “It’s something that is on our minds here in the General Assembly.”
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The Arizona District of the Department of Justice announced Tuesday that Tucson resident Jose Antonio Cota, 33, has been sentenced to jail time for attempting to smuggle fentanyl into the state.
“Cota pleaded guilty to one count of Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl in April 2022,” according to the release from the DOJ. “In August 2020, Cota was a passenger in a commercial shuttle van when it stopped for a routine immigration inspection at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Amado, Arizona.”
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Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost released a statement outlining the next steps in the House Bill (HB) 6 scandal following the guilty verdicts declared against Larry Householder and Matt Borges in federal court on March 9th.
According to Yost, with the completion of the federal prosecution the state’s racketeering lawsuit should be able to resume.
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I love a good conspiracy theory. Aliens, ancient builders, Bigfoot—I will absolutely click on that headline and read the latest conspiracy, no matter how fanciful or ludicrous. Everyone has a harmless personal foible, right? And in the times we live in now, shadowy government conspiracies and UFOs are no longer just for “The X Files.”
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Cleveland aimed to encourage increased rail safety in response to the February disaster of the East Palestine train derailment, particularly because the train that derailed also passed through the city.
Cleveland City Council Member Jenny Spencer sponsored a railroad safety resolution on Monday urging Congress to pass U.S. Senate Bill (SB) 576, the Federal Rail Safety Act of 2023, introduced in Congress by U.S. Senators JD Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).
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by Bronson Winslow Two-time failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is joining an environmental advocacy group that is looking to crack down on gas stoves, according to the group’s website. Abrams will be joining Rewiring America, a group that aims to electrify homes and appliances and suggests gas stoves can lead to asthma and air pollution, as a senior counsel to implement a “national awareness campaign” that pushes America towards a reliance on electric energy, according to a Rewiring America press release. The left-of-center advocacy group, which works to minimize the use of oil and natural gas, is sponsored by the Windward Fund, a nonprofit managed by liberal “dark money” consulting firm Arabella Advisors. “Rewiring America anchors our work in how the decisions we make around the kitchen table about the machines we use can save us money, make our homes and communities healthier, and reduce climate-harming emissions,” Rewiring America co-founder and CEO Ari Matusiak said in the release. “Stacey Abrams’ career of public service has hit all these themes and more. She’s a brilliant and visionary organizer who will accelerate our work and expand the audience for the benefits of electrification — the most equity-centered climate strategy we have.” Abrams will work to assist the…
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Nearly one of every six pages of a document detailing the Pentagon’s management strategy are devoted to combating climate change and fulfilling Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
The Strategic Management Plan for 2022 to 2026, released Tuesday, covers 124 pages and underscores the actions the Department of Defense (DOD) is taking to fulfill the Biden administration’s broader national defense strategy. It lays out high-level, long term goals and steps the department will take to accomplish those objectives and overcome anticipated challenges, as well as performance metrics for so-called Agency Priority Goals (APGs) that include climate and diversity targets.
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On its face, there wasn’t anything unusual about the email that landed last week in the press office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Background interview request from the Washington Post,” read the subject line that summarized the industry-standard process whereby information is shared with reporters under pre-negotiated terms, usually anonymity. When sanctioned by a politician or their team, it is called “going on background” to shape and broaden a story with additional facts and contexts but without direct attribution. When not sanctioned, well, then that is just called leaking.
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