Day: April 17, 2023

AG Skrmetti Declines to Appeal Injunction, Metro Nashville Council Reduction Expected to Go into Effect in 2027

The Center Square

Tennessee’s attorney general will not appeal a three-judge panel decision last week to block a bill intended to reduce Metro Nashville’s council from 40 to 20 members and will allow it to become law in 2027.

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced on Monday that he would not appeal the injunction and attempt to have the law go into effect sooner. While the law applies to all metropolitan forms of government in the state, only Metro Nashville has a metropolitan council with more than 20 members.

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AOC Concealed Thousands in Campaign Spending, Ethics Complaint Alleges

Admin

Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez concealed thousands of dollars in campaign spending, an ethics complaint exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation alleges.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint cites more than $9,600 in reported campaign credit card expenditures that lacked information on the purpose of the charges. Dan Backer filed the complaint on behalf of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, a nonprofit organization that’s levied similar complaints.

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Commentary: ‘Net Zero’ Is Not a Rational U.S. Energy Policy

RealClearWire

Despite Germany’s last-ditch attempt at realism, the European Union recently approved a 2035 ban on gas-powered cars, moving ahead with its “net zero” emissions agenda. In the U.S., the cost of achieving net-zero carbon emissions would be staggering – $50 trillion if the goal is reached by 2050 – as would the demand for raw materials, which in most cases would exceed current annual worldwide production. 

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Minneapolis First Big City to Broadcast Muslim Call to Prayer Five Times Daily Year-Round

Susan Berry, PhD

Minneapolis has become the first major city in the United States to allow the Muslim call to prayer to be broadcast over speakers five times per day, year-round, including in the early mornings and late evenings.

The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously Thursday – during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – to approve an amendment to the city’s noise ordinance that would allow the “adhan” – “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” call to prayer to be sounded every day, year-round, five times daily.

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Analysis: City Officials’ Spending Plan for $3.1 Billion in New Titans Stadium Tax Capture Funding

The Center Square

At least $3.1 billion is expected to be collected in a tax capture fund over a 30-year lease related to a new $2.2 billion Tennessee Titans stadium, according to updated estimates from the Nashville mayor’s office.

That number does not include $500 million the state of Tennessee will bond for the project, an additional tax on tickets expected to collect $470 million that was added to the deal through a Metro Nashville Council amendment last week or the $840 million funds the Tennessee Titans will spend on the construction project, including a $200 million National Football League loan and what the team makes on selling new personal seat licenses.

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Rio Grande Valley Border Agents Assaulted While Apprehending Tens of Thousands a Week

The Center Square

Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol agents continue to be assaulted by foreign nationals illegally entering the U.S.

Despite this and other challenges, agents are apprehending tens of thousands of illegal foreign nationals a week, and seizing hundreds of pounds of fentanyl, meth and cocaine, over $1 million in currency, weapons and stolen vehicles.

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Federal Reserve Predicts ‘Mild Recession’ This Year

Just the News
Federal Reserve

Federal Reserve economists project that the recent bank collapses will create a “mild recession” later this year, posing potential problems for President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

The Fed’s projection “included a mild recession starting later this year, with a recovery over the subsequent two years,” according to minutes released Wednesday from the central bank’s March 21-22 meeting.

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Gordon Chang Commentary: It’s Time to Bankrupt China

Admin

“We are probably not going to be able to do anything to stop, slow down, disrupt, interdict, or destroy the Chinese nuclear development program that they have projected out over the next 10 to 20 years,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley on March 29 at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. “They’re going to do that in accordance with their own plan.”

Milley is wrong about China’s nuclear weapons ambitions. He is, unfortunately, expressing the same pessimism that pervaded the Nixon, Ford and Carter years, when the American foreign policy establishment took the Soviet Union as a given and therefore promoted détente.

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Republicans Shine a Light on Swiss Billionaire’s Role in U.S. Elections During House Debate

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How did a Swiss billionaire who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to left-leaning American nonprofit political advocacy groups become a topic of debate over an elections bill on the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives?

Republican legislators allege that Hansjörg Wyss, a former medical device industry executive turned political activist, has his fingerprints on a provision included in a sweeping elections reform bill the DFL House majority passed on a party-line vote late Thursday night.

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Report: Florida Ranked First in Economic Performance over Past Decade

The Center Square

Florida is yet again one of the top 10 ranked states for economic performance and economic outlook.

The annual Rich States, Poor States report from the American Legislative Exchange Council shows the Sunshine State outperforming all other states economically over the past decade and for net in-migration, thanks to the state’s low tax burdens and worker-friendly policies.

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Amazon Requests $152 Million in Incentives from Virginia for New HQ2 Campus

The Center Square
Amazon warehouse

Amazon applied for economic development incentives from Virginia for its new HQ2 campus in Arlington, requesting the state pay $152 million to the company by 2026. 

Arlington was chosen as the site for Amazon’s second quarters four years ago – a move the company said would bring 25,000 jobs to the area by 2030. The tech giant has roughly 8,400 employees assigned to HQ2, and the average wage of these jobs must meet or exceed $156,800, according to Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lightly.

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Arizona House Expels Republican Legislator Liz Harris After She Presented Witness Who Alleged Crimes by Officials

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona House voted 46-13 to expel State Rep. Liz Harris (R-Chandler) on Wednesday after conducting an investigation into her bringing a witness to testify to the Senate Elections Committee, who accused legislators and other public officials of committing crimes. Jacqueline Breger told the committee that Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, State House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria) and others executed fraudulent deeds as part of a bribery scheme involving the Sinaloa drug cartel, along with other accusations.

Various legislators say that Harris was not truthful when she said she did not know what Breger was going to say. But Harris told The Arizona Sun Times it wasn’t that she didn’t know about the criminal accusations – she had instructed Breger only to address election integrity.

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Americans for Prosperity Warns Wisconsin Lawmakers Against Spending Too Much

The Center Square

There was one group at Wisconsin’s budget hearing pushing for less. Americans for Prosperity warned Wisconsin lawmakers about spending too much of the state’s record $7.1 billion surplus.

Americans For Prosperity Wisconsin this week waited through hours of requests for more money at the legislature’s public budget hearings to make the simple case to spend less.

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Biden Still Hasn’t Visited Derailment Area; Pennsylvania Legislators Wish He Would

Bradley Vasoli

Well over two months have passed since a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, less than a mile from Pennsylvania’s border, and President Joe Biden hasn’t visited affected communities in either state. Pennsylvania lawmakers are urging him to do so. 

Six weeks ago Biden said he would “be out there at some point.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether he has yet scheduled a visit. (Biden’s Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg first went to the site more than two weeks after the derailment.)

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Republican Candidates Vie to Challenge Kentucky Gov. Beshear

Admin

Republicans have the opportunity to take back the Kentucky governor’s mansion from Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear – who narrowly won in 2019 – in November, and numerous GOP contenders are itching for the nomination.

Beshear is running for his second term in 2023 in a state with a Republican supermajority in the legislature. Though 12 Republicans are running in the May 16 GOP primary, there are three clear frontrunners whose campaigns will largely hinge on issues such as education and crime while also targeting Beshear’s record on COVID-19, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Great Lakes States’ Social Security Disability Backlog Increased Between Five and 130 Percent Since 2019, Report Finds

The Center Square

Nearly every U.S. state recognized increased backlogs for new Social Security disability benefit applications since 2019, And the Great Lakes states were no different. 

In fact, Wisconsin’s backlog more than doubled, ranking in fifth nationwide for increased backlogs.  From 2019 to 2023, Wisconsin’s backlog grew 130 percent, with an increase of 11,500 backlogged applications. It has the fifth highest backlog increase in the nation.

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State and Local Lawmakers Begin the Process to Replace Expelled State House Member

The Center Square

Following the expulsion of Republican State Rep. Liz Harris (R-Chandler) from the state House, it’s now up to a mix of local and county officials to decide who will ultimately be her replacement.

Republican precinct committeemen in Legislature District 13 will choose three names to give to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who will have the final say in picking one of the three to fill Harris’s now vacant seat.

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International Research Suggests Masks Better at Causing ‘Long COVID’ than Stopping Virus

Just the News

Government-backed assumptions about the safety and effectiveness of high-quality mask-wearing against COVID-19 are facing scrutiny from new international research that shines a harsh light on the feds’ continued faith in face coverings.

Surgical and N95-grade masks might induce symptoms misidentified as biologically elusive “long COVID,” according to a “systematic review” in the peer-reviewed Swiss journal Frontiers in Public Health. It echoes a recent study of Norwegian adolescents and young adults on long COVID’s connection to “loneliness” and physical inactivity — conditions exacerbated by pandemic interventions.

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50-State Report: GOP-Led States Are in Best Economic Condition

The Center Square

A new report ranks all 50 states from best to worst for economic conditions, showing which states have improved, and worsened, in creating an economic climate where businesses want to invest.

The American Legislative Exchange Council released the state analysis, which ranks Utah as the number one state, North Carolina as second, and Arizona as third. Idaho and Oklahoma fill out the top five spots, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively.

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Commentary: Biden Has Unleashed Lawlessness Across the Land

Admin

It should come as no surprise that a lawless president, running a lawless administration, is doing nothing to stanch, let alone reverse, the rising tide of lawlessness across the land.

That’s why I’ve become increasingly convinced that the only solution is to focus on making sure our elections are secure, because we’re going to need to use them at our earliest opportunity to replace this lawless president and his lawless cronies and restore the rule of law to the land.

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Conservative Group Launches ‘Woke Alerts’ to Notify Consumers of Left-Wing Brands

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A conservative organization has launched a campaign to send out “Woke Alerts” notifying consumers of brands’ progressive political stances, according to Axios.

Consumers’ Research will send out these notifications via text message when customers are grocery shopping in attempts to empty the pockets of “woke” corporations, according to Axios. The campaign comes days after the Anheuser-Busch fallout where they branded transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney‘s likeness onto Bud Light cans, sparking backlash across the internet.

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