Day: April 26, 2023

Nashville Council Approves New $2.1 Billion Tennessee Titans Stadium, to Open in 2027

The Center Square
LP Field in Nashville, Tennessee

The Tennessee Titans will have a new $2.1 billion stadium in 2027 after the deal to fund the stadium was approved by Metro Nashville’s Council on its third and final vote at a special meeting that stretched into Wednesday morning.

The final vote was 26-12 for the stadium project with Council Member Delishia Porterfield voting for the bill in order to attempt a procedural reconsideration of the vote that would have created another vote on the bill at the council’s May 2 meeting.

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Metro Nashville Police Department Says It’s Getting Ready to Review What It Will Release of Covenant School Killer’s Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

A day after the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, an official says the department has entered a “stage” of considering how to release the controversial documents. 

“The investigation is now at the stage that we are beginning the close review/preparation process for the public release of written material,” Metro Nashville PD spokeswoman Brooke Reese wrote in an email Wednesday to The Tennessee Star. 

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Montana Lawmakers Censure Transgender Representative over ‘Blood on Your Hands’ Remark

Just the News

The Montana state House on Wednesday voted to censure Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state’s first transgender legislator, following the Democrat’s opposition to a statewide ban on so-called gender affirming care for minors. The House voted on Wednesday to censure Zephyr in a 68-32 vote, ABC News reported. The vote bars Zephyr from being recognized for the remainder of the legislative session.

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Documents: Teachers’ Union Played Significant Role in CDC’s Halting of Full School Reopening

Susan Berry, PhD

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and its president Randi Weingarten had significant input into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) pandemic school reopening guidelines than was known in 2021, according to documents obtained by Americans for Public Trust (APT).

The independent watchdog organization that, according to its website, “works to restore trust in government by exposing corruption and holding the powerful accountable,” reportedly discovered in emails and records shared with The New York Post that Weingarten “spoke twice by phone with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in the week leading up to the Feb. 12, 2021, announcement that halted full re-opening of in-person classes — including the day before the guidance was released,” The Post said.

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CPAC Ratings Reveal the Most Conservative Members of the Tennessee Congressional Delegation

Kaitlin Housler

The Conservative Political Action Coalition (CPAC) released on Monday the 52nd Edition of its annual Ratings of Congress, which shows all but one Tennessee Republican Congressional lawmaker receiving an award for conservative achievement.

CPAC’s report is based on a “compilation of over 20,000 votes cast by all 535 members of congress across the full spectrum of policy issues,” during last year’s legislative session analyzed by CPAC’s Center for Legislative Accountability.

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Appeals Court Guts Religious Accommodations for Teachers That SCOTUS May Soon Strengthen: Lawyers

Just the News

A week before the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could force employers to more freely grant religious accommodations, a federal appeals court determined that calling all students by their last names for the sake of religious conscience was a fireable offense.

A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this month that Indiana’s Brownsburg Community Schools Corp. had a “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” for firing music teacher John Kluge: He caused “emotional harm” and disrupted the learning environment by not addressing transgender students by preferred names and pronouns.

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Catholic Civil Rights Leader Requests Nashville Police Department Release Covenant Killer’s Manifesto

Susan Berry, PhD

Catholic League President Bill Donohue is asking Nashville police to produce the manifesto they said they found among transgender shooter Audrey Hale’s belongings.

“The local police said she was planning the attack ‘over a period of months,’ and that she had studied other mass murderers,” wrote Donohue Monday. “They emphasized that the attack was ‘calculated and planned.’ Importantly, they found a manifesto that laid bare her thinking.”

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Davidson County Sheriff Wants Covenant School Shooter Manifesto Released

Peter D'Abrosca

Davidson County’s sheriff said he wants the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to release the manifesto The Covenant School shooter left behind.

“I think the manifesto needs to be released ASAP,” Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall reportedly said. “I think it would help. I don’t see any reason for it to be private any longer in my opinion.”

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Maury County School Board Denies Charter School Application in Close Vote

Mac Roberts

COLUMBIA, Tennessee – The Maury County Board of Education narrowly rejected the application by American Classical Education to operate a charter school in the county in a vote of 6-5. 

An application review committee made a presentation about the different strengths and deficiencies of the school’s application in three different areas of qualification. The committee found that the school’s academic, operational, and financial plans only partially met the criteria of the rubric and thus recommended that the board deny the American Classical Academy Maury’s initial application. 

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Tennessee Lawmakers Call for the Release of Covenant Murderer Hale Manifesto Ahead of Special Session

Peter D'Abrosca

Tennessee Republicans are demanding a the release of a manifesto written by the person who killed six at The Covenant School on March 27, before entering into a special legislative session that will be focused on gun control. 

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has filed a public records request with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) in order to obtain information about the manifesto left behind by 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as transgender, after Hale’s rampage at The Covenant School in Nashville. 

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Pennsylvania Senate Panel Passes Ban on Supervised Injection Sites

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday passed legislation banning supervised injection sites anywhere in the Keystone State. 

Under the bill sponsored by Senator Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia), no locality in Pennsylvania could permit the operation of a center wherein people could take illegal substances without risking prosecution. Such locations which are also called “safe injection sites,” “safe consumption spaces” or “overdose prevention sites” aim to avert opioid overdoses and drug-related disease transmission. Opponents like Tartaglione say the sites more effectively worsen opioid addiction and the carnage it creates. 

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Connecticut Colleges Could Face Layoffs, Cuts Under Lamont’s Budget

The Center Square

Connecticut’s public university system is facing the prospect of layoffs and deep cuts under the state budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which could also prompt tuition and fee hikes for students.

According to Connecticut State Colleges and Universities President Terrence Cheng, who announced on Monday the public college system would be forced to eliminate more than 3,600 full and part-time jobs — including 654 layoffs — under the two-year, $51 billion spending plan being considered by state lawmakers. 

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Commentary: A Grand Alliance to Overcome the Elite Betrayal of America

Admin

For the first time in history, the ruling class of a powerful nation has abandoned its fellow citizens. What is happening in America today is more than a return to feudalism, although the new economic model into which we’re being herded is correctly compared to feudalism. The reality is actually much worse: America’s elites view ordinary citizens as no longer necessary. Because of globalism, they are replaceable. Because of automation, they are superfluous. Because of environmentalism, they are unsustainable.

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Governor DeWine Says He Would Sign Bill Allowing an August Election to Decide on the Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said on Monday that he would sign a bill allowing an August special election to decide whether to alter the process of how initiative petitions can propose constitutional amendments if both chambers of the state legislature pass it.

The proposed August election would decide whether the voter threshold for initiative petitions should be raised to a 60 percent approval percentage for any future constitutional amendments, call for signatures from all 88 counties, and do away with the opportunity to “cure” petitions by collecting additional signatures if necessary.

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Voting Groups Want Injunction Against Georgia’s ‘Line Relief’ Provision

The Center Square

Several voting groups filed an emergency preliminary injunction motion, hoping to lift Georgia’s voting law’s “line relief” provision.

Critics want a federal judge to halt a provision of Senate Bill 202, the Election Integrity Act, that bars volunteers from handing out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast their ballots. If granted, volunteers could give food and water to voters in lines stretching 150 feet from the polling place.

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Wisconsin’s Republican Congressional Delegation Demands Answers Following Revelations of ‘Gain-of-Function’ Biosafety Incidents at UW-Madison

M.D. Kittle

Wisconsin’s Republican congressional delegation wants answers from federal health agencies following recent revelations of a biosafety lab incident at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

The so-called gain-of-function experiments at Wisconsin’s flagship public university shine a brighter light on the same scientific practices used in a lab in Wuhan, China that are suspected of unleashing the COVID-19 pandemic on the world. 

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Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley Calls for ‘Consensus’ on Abortion

M.D. Kittle

In a major speech Tuesday before one of the nation’s most prominent pro-life groups, former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said Americans must find consensus on abortion law. 

Haley didn’t offer specifics on precisely what “consensus” means to her in terms of policy, although she did say the federal government has a role to play in the post-Roe v. Wade world of life, liberty and abortion. 

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Pennsylvania Committee Considers Socialist’s Forced Unionism Amendment

Bradley Vasoli

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s new state House Democratic majority began considering a measure to enshrine forced unionism in the state Constitution. 

The House of Representatives Labor and Industry Committee took testimony on legislation identical to an Illinois constitutional amendment that Prairie State voters narrowly approved last November. Proposed by Representative Elizabeth Fiedler (D-Philadelphia), the Pennsylvania amendment would forbid lawmakers to enact a right-to-work law banning contracts that demand union-dues payments even from nonmembers. 

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State Representative Calls off Investigation into Tempe’s Upcoming Special Election After Clearing Legal Concerns

Neil Jones

Arizona State Representative Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) announced Tuesday that he is rescinding a complaint he filed against the City of Tempe with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) after alleviating his concerns.

“Based on information and written assurances I have received within the last 24 hours, I hereby withdraw my request for an investigation of the City of Tempe’s Ordinance No. 02022.56, Ordinance No. 02022.57, Resolution No. R2022.l 70, and§ 12.9 and§ 17 of the Development and Disposition Agreement (“Agreement”) between the City and Bluebird Development LLC (“Bluebird”),” Montenegro wrote in a new letter emailed to the press.

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Former Ohio City Official Ordered to Serve Time and Pay Restitution for Stealing Thousands from the Community

Hannah Poling

A former Village of Swanton city official has been ordered to pay the village thousands in restitution and serve over a year in prison after she was convicted of stealing from the community.

Ohio Auditor Keith Faber said in a press release that Judge Scott Haselman sentenced Kari Rowe, who was the utility clerk for the Village of Swanton, to 18 months in prison on theft in office charge, a third-degree felony, after admitting she stole nearly $64,000 from the Fulton County community. Haselman ordered Rowe to pay over $128,000 in restitution, including the funds she stole and audit costs, to the Village of Swanton.

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Ohio to Award over $42 Million for Safety Upgrades for More than 600 K-12 Schools

Hannah Poling

Governor Mike DeWine announced Tuesday that Ohio is providing over $42 million in new grants to support physical safety and security upgrades at hundreds of local schools across the state.

According to DeWine, “Our educators care deeply about the safety of Ohio students, as evidenced by the thousands of schools that came forward with solid security improvement plans that they intend to carry out with this funding.”

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Arizona District Attorney’s Office Charges Almost 2,000 Illegal Immigrants with Illegal Entry During First Three Months of 2023

Neil Jones

The Arizona District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) released the first quarter of 2023 immigration enforcement statistics for individuals prosecuted in partnership with the Tucson and Yuma Sectors of Border Patrol.

“Reducing migrant smuggling and mitigating the risk to communities impacted by these offenses continues to be a priority for the Office and its law enforcement partners. Some of these prosecutions are directed against leaders and coordinators of alien smuggling organizations. Other prosecutions are aimed at deterring young adult drivers, often recruited over social media platforms, from engaging in this dangerous activity,” the District shared.

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Commentary: Academia’s Woke Groomers

Admin

Exposing woke academia is both infuriating and amusing. Stanley K. Ridgley, a professor of management at Drexel University, has a knack for unearthing the horror of leftist, racialist, feminist, transgenderist grooming of immature minds on university campuses, and for caricaturing the groomers. His sarcasm will leave you rocking with laughter just after you’ve gasped with horror. 

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College Board Will Change AP African American Studies Curriculum Again

Admin

An Advanced Placement (AP) pilot course dedicated to African American studies will be revised again after state governors across the country argued whether or not the content was appropriate, the College Board, which oversees AP courses, announced on Monday.

AP African American Studies was rejected by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration for originally including topics such as queer theory, and was revised on Feb. 1 to eliminate those sections and readings from prominent critical race theorists. The new changes, which were not detailed but are expected to become public in the coming months, will be driven by the development committee and “experts,” according to the College Board.

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