Day: April 12, 2023

Sarah Sanders Signs Bill to Ban Parole for Rapists and Human Traffickers

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Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders signed a bill Tuesday to stop criminals in prison for rape, first-degree murder, human trafficking and some other felony offenses committed after 2024 from being released early.

The Protect Arkansas Act will make those who commit any of 24 felonies including rape, aggravated robbery and child pornography possession ineligible for parole and require people incarcerated for a variety of other felony crimes like manslaughter and fentanyl delivery committed in 2025 or later to serve at least 85 percent of their court-assigned sentences. Sanders signed the act surrounded by law enforcement personnel, and tweeted, “The failed public safety status quo ends today in Arkansas.”

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Walter Reed Military Hospital Reviewing Contract for Chaplain Services After Ordering Off Catholic Priests

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The Pentagon’s health agency said Tuesday it is reviewing a contract for chaplaincy services at Walter Reed Military Medical Center after facing backlash for sending a “cease and desist” letter to the Franciscan Friars at Holy Name College Friary in Silver Spring, Maryland, according to the Washington Times.

The Defense Health Agency (DHA) terminated a 20-year relationship with the Friars on March 31, just before Easter Sunday, instead awarding a contract to a private firm that Catholic authorities say cannot provide chaplain services according to their religious tradition, because chaplains must work for a bishop, not a private company.  Congressional Republicans sent a letter Tuesday to DHA calling the decision “unconscionable,” prompting a promise from Walter Reed to reevaluate the contract, the Washington Times reported.

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Justin Pearson Appealed to the ‘Radical Middle’ During Bid for Bowdoin College Student President

Peter D'Abrosca

A video circulating the web appears to show that newly-reappointed State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) ran on a platform of unity among Republicans and Democrats during a bid for Bowdoin Student Government President at his alma mater Bowdoin College just a handful of years ago. 

“How can we represent all voices in a conversation?” asked Pearson in a campaign video. “I want to do this by partnering with Democrats from the Bowdoin Democrats to the Bowdoin Republicans. I want to bring together different voices, dissenting voices. Voices that might be more liberal or more conservative, in order [so] that we can reach the point of sort of the ‘radical middle.'” 

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Shelby County Commission Votes Unanimously to Appoint Justin Pearson as His Own Interim Successor to the Tennessee House

Peter D'Abrosca

After being expelled from the Tennessee State legislature last week for inciting a riot at the Capitol in Nashville, Democrat lawmaker Justin Pearson has been appointed as his own interim replacement. 

“Keep representing us to the best of your ability, and know that you all have support from this body,” said Shelby County Commissioner Mickell Lowery before turning the floor over to Pearson for remarks. 

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Catholic Advocacy Group Prepared to Sue FBI for Failure to Comply With FOIA on Targeting of ‘Radical Traditional Catholics’

Susan Berry, PhD

A leading national Catholic advocacy organization says it is prepared to file a lawsuit against the FBI for failing to comply with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that seeks communications information related to a leaked document that revealed the bureau was targeting so-called “radical traditional Catholics.”

“On March 6th we filed a freedom of information act request with the FBI in Richmond, VA, asking for communications regarding the targeting of traditional Catholics,” stated CatholicVote in a tweet Tuesday. “Norms require the agency to respond within 20 business days, with an additional 10 for ‘unusual circumstances.’ To date we have not received any response.”

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Nashville Police, FBI: ‘No Timeline’ for Release of Trans Shooter’s Manifesto

Peter D'Abrosca

More than two weeks after 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as transgender, carried out a mass shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are refusing to provide information about a manifesto left behind by the shooter.

Hale shot and killed six people, including three children, at The Covenant School on March 27.

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Tennessee Senate Committee Approves Lowering Aviation Fuel Tax Cap for FedEx, Others

The Center Square

A Tennessee bill that passed Senate committee Tuesday would reduce the aviation fuel tax cap on commercial companies down to $1 million, which would have an additional $10.6 million impact on the state’s Transportation Equity Fund.

The decreased taxes led to Gov. Bill Lee putting $83.2 million in this year’s budget amendment for the state’s airports with $26.3 million in funding coming from the equity fund. That’s up from $50 million of state funding in the 2021-22 budget.

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California Mom Furious After School Kept 11-Year-Old’s Gender Transition Hidden Due to ‘Parental Secrecy Policy’

Susan Berry, PhD

A California mother whose 11-year-old daughter had allegedly been helped to transition from female to male by school personnel accused the school district of keeping information about her child’s gender transition from her.

Aurora Regino, whose daughter attends an elementary school in the Chico Unified School District, told the school board last Wednesday that, during a meeting with her daughter and a school guidance counselor last school year, the child told the counselor she wanted her mother to know about her new identity.

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National Pro-Life Group Praises Ruling Suspending FDA’s ‘Rubber Stamp’ of Abortion Drug as Democrat-Led States Stockpile Pills

Susan Berry, PhD

One of the nation’s leading pro-life organizations is praising the ruling out of a U.S. district court in Texas Friday that has stayed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion drug mifepristone nationwide.

However, within hours of the ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee, a Washington State federal judge then issued a decision in State of Washington v. United States Food and Drug Administration, which blocked “altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone.”

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Hunter Biden’s Business Associates Visited White House over 80 Times When Father Was Vice President

Just the News

Seven of Hunter Biden’s business associates from his now-defunct investment firm visited the White House over 80 times while Biden’s father, Joe Biden, served as vice president, according to visitor logs.

The visitors from Biden’s now-defunct firm Rosemont Seneca Advisors include four business partners, the company’s vice president and two assistants, according to logs reviewed Tuesday by Fox News Digital.

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Biden Admin Announces Strategy to Combat Fentanyl Supply Chain

Admin

The Biden administration announced Tuesday its strategy for combating the supply chain allowing illicit fentanyl to enter the U.S. to kill Americans.

The plan includes partnering with other countries, increasing law enforcement information sharing, leveraging the private sector, increasing financial sanctions and urging congressional action, the White House said in a statement. Roughly 70,000 people in the U.S. died of synthetic opioid overdoses in 2021, up from roughly 57,000 in 2020, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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DOE and EPA Awards TVA After Implementing Rolling Blackouts for Failing to Meet Energy Demand During Christmas Weekend

Kaitlin Housler

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as one of the ENERGY STAR Partners of the Year in energy efficiency for 2023.

The ENERGY STAR program honors a “group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements,” according to the program’s description on the EPA and DOE websites.

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Former Obama AG Eric Holder Threatened Legal Action in Letter to TN House Speaker Sexton Unless Expelled Democrat Legislators Let Back In; Sources Say Litigation Still Likely

M.D. Kittle

Leftist Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, is part of a group of attorneys threatening Tennessee House of Representatives Speaker Cameron Sexton and his fellow Republican members for expelling two Democrats on charges of inciting a riot at the Capitol. 

Multiple sources tell The Tennessee Star that Holder is looking at filing lawsuits in the matter. 

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Pennsylvania Cabinet Officer Says New Medicaid Fraud Prevention System Coming in June

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s acting human services secretary on Tuesday told lawmakers an improved state system to detect Medicaid fraud will be in place this summer. 

The comments from anesthesiologist and former Montgomery County commissioner Val Arkoosh came as policymakers expressed concern about erroneous payments made by the government health-insurance program for the poor. In 2020, Governor Josh Shapiro (D) said in his previous capacity as state attorney general that his investigations indicated improper payments could total as much as $3 billion annually in Pennsylvania. That amounts to about one-tenth of all state Medicaid funds. 

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Permanent Health Clinic Opens Two Months After Toxic East Palestine Train Derailment

Hannah Poling

Residents of East Palestine and the surrounding areas now have a permanent location to go in the village for medical attention as worries about short- and long-term health continue to grow in the wake of February’s Norfolk Southern train catastrophe.

On Monday, the East Palestine Health Clinic formally opened its doors in collaboration with East Liverpool City Hospital and the Ohio Department of Health (ODH).

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Pennsylvania Senate Proposal Would Spread Film Subsidy Beyond Cities

Bradley Vasoli

A lawmaker this week proposed reforming Pennsylvania’s $100 million film-production tax-credit program, a policy he said he believes doesn’t benefit enough independent, non-urban projects.

State Senator David Argall (R-Mahanoy City) sent a memorandum to colleagues in which he ascribed $5 billion in recent economic activity to the program. He said that the subsidy is falling overwhelmingly into the hands of filmmakers basing their projects in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 

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Detransitioners Back Florida Medicaid Rule amid LGBT Legal Challenge

Admin

Three “detransitioners”—men who underwent surgeries in pursuit of a female gender identity but later rejected that identity—filed a legal brief supporting a Florida health agency’s rule preventing Medicaid from reimbursing for transgender medical interventions.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration finalized the rule in August 2022, declaring that Medicaid would not cover “puberty blockers,” hormones, “sex reassignment” surgeries, or other procedures that alter primary or secondary sex characteristics.

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Biden Administration to Investigate Loudoun County Public Schools over Sexual Assault Cases

Admin

The Biden Administration’s Education Department (ED) announced its intention to investigate the controversial Loudoun County Public School (LCPS) district over its mishandling of two sexual assault cases by the same culprit at two different schools.

According to the Daily Caller, the investigation will be led by the ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The case revolves around a male student who used the school’s extremely loose “transgender” policy to identify as a girl by wearing a skirt, and thus was allowed to use the women’s restrooms without hindrance. He then went into a restroom at the Stone Bridge High School in May of 2021 and raped a female freshman.

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Truck Carrying 40K Pounds of Toxic Soil From East Palestine Overturns Spilling in Columbiana County

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s office said on Monday that a truck carrying toxic soil from the East Palestine train derailment overturned, spilling roughly half of its contents onto a roadway in Columbiana County.

The tractor-trailer had an open top and was hauling 40,000 pounds of contaminated soil away from the East Palestine derailment site.

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Georgia School District Spent Millions to Train Teachers and Implement Social Emotional Learning

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A Georgia school district spent nearly $5 million to train teachers and provide a social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, a new education model that has been criticized for laying the groundwork for Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the classroom, according to a public record request by No Left Turn In Education (NLTE), an organization focused on “radical indoctrination” in schools.

Gwinnett County Public Schools paid EL Education, the creator of a Language Arts curriculum grounded in SEL, to provide a K-5 curriculum and give teachers professional development training through the 2022-2023 school year, according to a NLTE public records request obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. SEL focuses on teaching students social skills for their emotional well-being and has been deemed by critics a tenant and euphemism for CRT.

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Commentary: Biden’s 10-Year Plan for Fiscal Disaster

Admin

Last month, President Joe Biden unveiled his proposed 10-year budget plan. The dollar figures are eye-popping: $17 trillion dollars in additional debt.

The previous 10-year period, 2013 through 2022, saw the national debt rise by an unprecedented $14 trillion, an amount that was turbo-boosted by the over-the-top COVID spending blowout. Yet, instead of a return to the bad-enough normalcy of an annual debt increase measured in the hundreds of billions rather than trillions, Biden wants to set a new record for debt accumulated in a decade, with an average annual deficit of $1.7 trillion being his “new normal.”

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Commentary: Gov. Bill Lee Calls for Red Flag Type Law Despite United States Supreme Court’s Mandate

Admin

On April 11, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee made public statements calling for expanded “new” orders of protection and also calling for the passage of Red Flag laws in Tennessee. His comments are clear evidence that he either has not read the United States Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen or that, if he did read it, he chooses to disregard it.

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Black Market Cigarette Shipments Seized in Connecticut

Admin

Connecticut and other states have seized shipments of illegal cigarettes from China and other countries under a settlement with the U.S. Postal Service to resolve claims it wasn’t doing enough to crack down on tobacco smuggling. 

A new report by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said between January and March the Postal Service seized 3,000 packages containing a total of 10,000 cartons of cigarettes shipped from overseas in violation of federal laws. Most of the illegal shipments were mailed from China, Israel and Russia, the AG’s office said. 

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Arizona State Senator Blasts Gov. Katie Hobbs for Vetoing Election Equipment Oversight Bill

Neil Jones

Arizona Senator Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu) released a statement Tuesday blasting Gov. Katie Hobbs for vetoing his bill, SB 1074, which he claims would have provided oversight to the electronic equipment used in the state’s elections.

“This bill would have taken the politics out of the voting process and created a neutral party that works for the Legislature. Fair and honest elections are a bi-partisan concern, albeit only when Democrats are the ones to benefit. Hobbs’ obstructive and cavalier attitude has been part of the destruction of transparency and oversight within our elections,” Borrelli said.

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Ohio House Republicans Come to Agreement on Who Controls the House GOP’s Campaign Funds

Hannah Poling

After months of contention, the factions supporting Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) and State Representative Derek Merrin (R-Monclova) have come to an agreement on who controls the House GOP’s campaign funds.

On Monday, the Ohio House Republican Alliance (OHRA) announced that one supporter of Merrin, State Representative Phil Plummer (R-Dayton), and one supporter of Stephens, State Representative Jeff LaRe (R-Violet Twp.), are to serve as co-chairs leading the campaign arm of the Republican House caucus.

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Taking Back America’s Children Ohio Summit Calls Patriots to Act on Educational Change

Hannah Poling

A national Christian non-profit organization is holding a summit in Hudson, Ohio to educate, motivate and activate parents, grandparents and concerned Americans across the nation to fight anti-Semitic falsehood infiltrating the textbooks and curriculum of U.S. classrooms.

The “Taking Back America’s Children Ohio Summit” (TBAC) held by Proclaiming Justice To The Nations (PJRN) aims to answer the call to the need for change in education and to give parents and patriots the opportunity to learn from experts on how to fight the “woke culture” indoctrination and false narratives taking over American classrooms.

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Extended Good Samaritan Law Immunizes Arizonans Seeking Overdose Care

Neil Jones

A bill extending the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose law from State Representative Quang Nguyen (R-Prescott) was signed into law by Governor Katie Hobbs (D) on Thursday, prompting a statement of celebration from the lawmaker.

“This is an example of good policy getting passed even with divided government,” said Nguyen. “Prosecuting people who seek or provide lifesaving assistance in drug overdose cases can have a chilling effect and delay or even prevent timely help during a medical emergency.”

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Kari Lake Team Still Confident in Potential Senate Run After Sheriff Mark Lamb Joins Race

Neil Jones

Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb (R) officially announced Tuesday that he is entering the campaign trail for U.S. Senate, aiming to take the seat of Arizona’s Independent Senator, Kyrsten Sinema. To get that seat, Lamb must overcome political rivals on both sides of the aisle, including a potential bid from Republican Kari Lake.

 “The idea of Kari Lake in the US Senate is the worst nightmare of the crooked political machine — the same machine she has vowed to destroy. If the People of Arizona call on Kari to run for Senate, despite the wishes of the ruling class, she will. And if Kari runs, she will win,” said Alex Nicoll, spokesperson for Lake, in an email to The Arizona Sun Times.

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Arizona Republicans Condemn the Prosecution of Donald Trump

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Executive Committee and the Maricopa County Republican Committee Executive Guidance Committee (MCRC) issued unanimous resolutions last week condemning the indictment of former President Donald Trump secured by Democratic New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Other prominent Republicans in the state including Kari Lake also spoke up denouncing the prosecution. 

Both GOP resolutions contained similar language, strongly condemning the “political persecution” and “political witch hunt.” The AZGOP resolution emphasized that the Republican Party stands for “upholding justice and the rule of law,” and criticized the Democrats’ “blatant disregard for justice.” The statement concluded by condemning “the weaponization of the American justice system against political opponents of the current justice system.”

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Commentary: Trump Should Fight Fire with Fire

Admin

John Adams may have summed up the American experiment best: “We are a government of laws, not men.” This was the origin of all talk of a “rule of law.”

Alas, we are currently a nation in manifest decline. Accordingly, “rule of law,” the cornerstone of our judicial system, must be radically reassessed. The concept, much like the justice system as a whole, has been contaminated, perhaps irrevocably, by bad-faith actors, for which the Constitution, understood in its proper, historical context, is totally foreign. Our historic Constitution ought to be understood as hopelessly forgotten by those now tasked to defend its sacred tenets. And so accounts for the present chaos.

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Commentary: ‘Splintered’ Court Ruling Throws January 6 Prosecution into Chaos

Admin

A Massachusetts man on Friday was charged with a felony related to his participation in the protest at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Mark Sahady already faced misdemeanors for his nonviolent and brief jaunt through the building that afternoon, but the Justice Department decided to add the common “obstruction of an official proceeding” charge to Sahady’s case on April 7.

That same day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia threw Sahady—and more than 300 January 6 defendants charged with the same obstruction felony—a potential lifeline. In what one judge described as a “splintered decision,” a three-judge panel narrowly reversed a lower court ruling that tossed the obstruction count against three Capitol protesters. D.C. District Court Judge Carl Nichols dismissed the charge last year largely based on the argument that the statute “requires that the defendant have taken some action with respect to a document, record, or other object in order to corruptly obstruct, impede or influence an official proceeding.”

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Commentary: Blue Cross Blue Shield Cuts Are Hurting Rural Tennesseans

Admin

I wouldn’t trade living in Tennessee for anything – the scenic landscapes and sense of community that I share with neighbors are things that I deeply cherish. But living in the Volunteer State can also come with challenges. Our rural communities sometimes have fewer choices and less access when it comes to critical resources and services, with the most impactful example perhaps being less access to healthcare providers.

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Commentary: China Builds the New World Order with Biden Asleep at the Wheel

Admin

China is rapidly growing economically, militarily, and influentially, and none of this is good for the United States. Since diplomatic ties with China were officially established in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, each president has done a fair job (some better than others) of keeping China in check on the international stage, despite China’s growth. All with the exception of President Joe Biden, who has allowed China to lead a global coalition and a new world order against the United States of America, which has fulfilled our worst fears.

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