Month: May 2023

Covenant School Parents File Motion to Intervene in Lawsuits Seeking Release of Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

Parents of the three children killed in the Covenant Presbyterian School shootings are now seeking to intervene in lawsuits demanding the release of the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents.

And The Tennessee Star learned Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles rescheduled Thursday’s conference status meeting on the lawsuits for 1 p.m. Monday. It’s yet another delay in an increasingly complex web of lawsuits, consolidations, and interventions over the mass shooter’s writings.

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Exclusive: Far-Left Radicals Plan to Disable ICE Vehicles During August Special Session, ‘It’s Only Illegal If You Get Caught’

Peter D'Abrosca

After obtaining secret recordings from an activism planning session held by Planned Parenthood’s political advocacy arm in Tennessee, The Tennessee Star learned that far-left agitators are planning to disable U.S. Customs and Immigration (ICE) vehicles during August’s special session of the General Assembly. 

During the day-long training, which was held Saturday at 50 Vantage Way in Nashville, where Planned Parenthood has an office, the will-be protestors surveyed the danger levels of protesting at various places in the city. 

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Sun Prairie School District Charges Wisconsin Law Firm $11K to Search for Records Related to Transgender Shower Incident

M.D. Kittle

The Sun Prairie Area School District is charging a Milwaukee-based law firm more than $11,000 for records connected to what witnesses called a “disturbing” incident involving a transgender “woman” in a high school girls’ locker room.

Dan Lennington, deputy legal counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), told The Wisconsin Daily Star that the charge is excessive and the law firm is considering all of its legal options.

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The Tennessean Follows Lead of The Tennessee Star, Sues to Obtain the Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

The Tennessean on Wednesday followed The Tennessee Star and other organizations in filing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents. 

The Nashville-based newspaper’s lawsuit comes nearly two months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale shot her way into the Covenant Presbyterian Scho

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Judge Hears Oral Arguments in Abe Hamadeh Election Contest Requesting a New Trial over 76,339 Uncounted Votes

Rachel Alexander

Mohave Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen heard oral arguments on Tuesday over whether Abe Hamadeh should receive a new trial in his election contest of the attorney general’s race. Jantzen had dismissed Hamadeh’s case after the initial trial on December 22, but Hamadeh discovered new evidence after the trial that then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs had withheld, which revealed that “undervotes” were discovered in Pinal County, votes that were erroneously not counted. After they were included, Kris Mayes’ lead over Hamadeh shrunk to only 280 votes, so Hamadeh asked the court for a new trial to consider as many as 76,339 votes that Hamadeh believes were not counted throughout the state.

In a statement released after the hearing, Hamadeh said, “I feel confident that we will prevail once all of the evidence is presented to Judge Jantzen. We have been careful to only make those claims that we believe we can prove and that will make our democratic process stronger. On a number of occasions, I was willing to accept the purported outcome of the results. However, after further inspection our team has discovered information about the mismanagement of the election, including the gross disenfranchisement of voters. I am compelled to see that no voter is disenfranchised because of my commitment to our Republic and the democratic process so many of my fellow veterans sacrificed their lives to protect.”

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Connecticut Lawmakers Seek to Expand Public Fraud Protections

The Center Square

Connecticut lawmakers are moving to expand the authority of the Attorney General’s office to fight fraud and abuse in state government.

The proposal, which passed the state Assembly on a 138-7 vote, would expand the scope of the state’s False Claims Act to allow the AG’s office to investigate fraud and other government spending abuses beyond state-administered health or human services programs.

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DeSantis Signs Bill Outlawing ‘Mutilation’ of Minors Through Transgender Surgeries

Admin

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday banning the “mutilation” of minors via sex-reassignment surgeries, according to remarks made at a press conference.

Senate Bill 245 passed the Sunshine State legislature earlier this month with significant majorities in both the House and the Senate. DeSantis announced during a press conference Wednesday that he had signed into law a number of pieces of legislation, including a ban on transgender surgeries, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in education and limits on sex, gender identity and sexual orientation lessons for kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

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Commentary: Immigration Court Backlog Is Growing Worse

RealClearWire

New migrants pouring into the U.S. after the Biden administration let a COVID-19 restriction called Title 42 expire last week will not break the nation’s stretched court system. The system is already shattered, according to several former judges, immigration experts, and Department of Homeland Security data.  

The average wait time for a “Notice to Appear” before a judge at one of the nation’s 66 immigration courts is now four and a half years. In some cities it is much longer. In New York City, new migrants do not have to appear in court until 2032. This growing backlog creates an incentive for more people to cross the border and request asylum as each new case pushes assigned court dates further into the future. In the meantime, many migrants are permitted to live and work in the United States.  

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Parents Defending Education Files Lawsuit Challenging Ohio School District’s Anti-Harassment Policies

Hannah Poling

A national group has filed a lawsuit challenging Olentangy Local School Districts’ anti-harassment policies claiming that these policies violate students’ First and parents’ Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Parents Defending Education, a national nonprofit membership association that empowers concerned citizens to become more engaged in America’s education system, filed the lawsuit against the school district in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

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Primary Runoffs Proposed in Pennsylvania

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Senators Ryan Aument (R-Lititz) and Frank Farry (R-Langhorne) on Wednesday proposed creating runoff primary elections in the Keystone State.

The two lawmakers wrote in a memorandum describing their legislation that they want to ensure that all major-party nominees have the support of at least half of participants in a primary. Their bill would require a second primary contest between the top two vote-getters in the initial nomination election whenever no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote. Aument and Farry clarified that their bill would not apply to general elections. 

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Florida Fifth-Grade Teacher Scolds Parents: ‘Your Rights Are Gone When Your Child Is In the Public School System’

Susan Berry, PhD

A Florida fifth-grade teacher justified her decision on CNN to show her students an LGBT-themed Disney movie claiming that parents who complained about it are “ignorant.”

Journalist and Grabien founder Tom Elliott tweeted a clip of CNN’s interview Monday night with Jenna Barbee, a fifth-grade teacher at Winding Waters School, a K-8 school in the Hernando County district, who is under investigation over possible violation of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law, recently expanded to prohibit classroom instruction in sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades from K-12, rather than only K-3.

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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Has a Chance to Sign Bill Expanding Judge Retainment Elections

Neil Jones

Among the nearly 100 bills delivered to Governor Katie Hobbs (D) by the Arizona State House on Monday is one relating to judge retainment elections. 

House Bill (HB) 2757, sponsored by House Speaker Ben Toma (R-Peoria), addresses judges from the Arizona Court of Appeals (ACOA), which has two divisions, one in Phoenix and the other in Tucson. The ACOA comprises 28 judges, with 19 in Division 1 and nine in Division 2. Under current law, these judges are first appointed by the governor for an initial term of two years, but after that point, judges can only retain their position if approved by the public in an election. However, the only citizens who can vote to keep an ACOA judge are those within the court’s division. So, when a Division 2 judge is up for election, only Pima, Pinal, Cochise, Santa Cruz, Greenlee, Graham, and Gila County residents can make that decision.

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Ohio to Award over $23 Million in COVID-19 Funding to Support Arts Organizations Statewide

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, and Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik have announced that the state of Ohio is awarding more than $23 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to support arts organizations statewide.

One hundred thirty-nine organizations based in 35 counties will receive grant funding totaling $23,252,605.78 as part of the first round of the Ohio Arts Economic Relief Grant Program. The grant program was created in partnership with the Ohio General Assembly as part of a bill sponsored by State Senator George Lang (R-West Chester), which was later merged into House Bill (HB) 45. Over 400 groups applied for grants.

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New Joint Legislative Committee Holds First Meeting on Arizona’s Water Stability

Neil Jones

The Joint Legislative Ad Hoc Committee on Water Security met for the first time on Tuesday, hearing testimony from state water authorities and outlining its plans for the coming months.

“Arizona has 12 to 13 million acre-feet of water banked underground. Arizona has water, but we have challenges, and we need to come up with solutions for those challenges,” said Representative Gail Griffin (R-Hereford), Co-Chair of the Committee.

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Delaware County Judge Denies Columbus’ Request to Permit Enforcement of Gun Control Laws During Lawsuit

Hannah Poling

An Ohio judge denied the City of Columbus’ request to allow them to enforce its new gun control laws while the lawsuit filed by The Buckeye Institute to protect the rights of Ohioans to keep and bear arms is being heard.

The Buckeye Institute filed the lawsuit following the adoption of Ordinance 3176-2022 by the Columbus City Council, which forbade the use of certain firearm magazines in violation of Ohio law and the U.S. and Ohio constitutions.

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Wyoming Sorority Sisters ‘Live in Fear’ of Trans Member

Admin

The University of Wyoming is being sued by a group of sorority sisters over the university’s acceptance of a biological man who identifies as a woman into their sorority.

The New York Post reports that the lawsuit was filed by seven members of Kappa Kappa Gamma against both the university and the male student himself, 21-year-old Artemis Langford, after he repeatedly became physically aroused in the women’s presence. Langford, a 6-foot-2 and 260-pound man, first joined the sorority in September of 2022, and had been living outside the sorority house for the past year, but was expected to move into the house later this year. The suit refers to him by the male alias of “Terry Smith.”

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Jeffrey Epstein Transferred $270,000 for Popular Left-Wing Academic in 2018

Admin

Deceased financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein moved $270,000 between accounts for Noam Chomsky, the prominent left-wing activist and academic confirmed to The Wall Street Journal.

Chomsky met with Epstein several times after he registered as a sex offender in 2010, and Chomsky received the transfer in March 2018, according to the WSJ. It was “restricted to rearrangement of my own funds, and did not involve one penny from Epstein,” Chomsky told the WSJ.

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Commentary: The Hate Industry

Admin

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, when establishment politicians started to make common use of the term “homeland,” they told us the most dangerous threat to Americans was foreign terrorists. But today, we are instructed to fear the enemy within. A new iconic date, January 6, 2021, is inscribed on our collective consciousness. From coast to coast, Americans are being herded into two camps. There are the “white supremacists,” those bad people who purportedly hate good people. And then there is everyone else, good people who are encouraged to hate the bad people.

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Soros-Backed Prosecutor Resigns Ahead of Schedule

Admin

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner resigned from office Tuesday weeks earlier than her stated departure date, according to a press release from her office.

Gardner, whose campaign was backed by George Soros, resigned from office on May 4, stating her last day in office would be June 1, according to The Associated Press. On May 16, a letter from her office said her resignation would be “effective immediately.”

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The Tennessee Star’s Public Records Lawsuit in Covenant Killer Case Transferred to Chancery Court

M.D. Kittle

The Tennessee Star’s state lawsuit demanding the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents is being transferred to Chancery Court. 

Tennessee First Circuit Court Judge David Briley this week granted the transfer, requested by attorneys for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, defendants in the case. 

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Soros-Funded Dugan Chosen Over Incumbent Pittsburgh-Area Prosecutor Who Could Run As Republican

Bradley Vasoli

Leftist attorney Matt Dugan won the Democratic primary for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania district attorney Tuesday night, rejecting six-term incumbent Steve Zappala.

With 97.8 percent of precincts reporting, Dugan, the county’s head public defender, received over 93,000 votes to Zappala’s 74,000. This doesn’t mean the latter can be counted out just yet; if GOP write-in votes — which are still being tallied — number 500 or more for him, he can run against Dugan in the general election this fall. 

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Carluccio, McCaffery Get Pennsylvania Supreme Court Nominations

Bradley Vasoli

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania voters nominated Republican Montgomery County President Judge Carolyn Carluccio and Democratic Superior Court Judge Daniel McCaffery to run against each other for state Supreme Court. 

By a margin of 53.5 percent to 46.5 percent, Carluccio bested Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough in a contentious nomination campaign for the seat left open by the death of Democratic Chief Justice Max Baer last autumn. McCaffery defeated his Superior Court colleague Debbie Kunselman in his primary 59.4 percent to 40.6 percent. 

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Democrats Maintain Control of Pennsylvania House With Boyd’s Win

Bradley Vasoli

Democrat Heather Boyd defeated Republican Katie Ford in a Delaware County-based special election on Tuesday to occupy the seat recently vacated by Democratic Pennsylvania state Representative Mike Zabel. 

Democrats held a one-seat majority in the chamber since the new legislative session began last autumn, but Zabel jeopardized his party’s hold on the House when he resigned in response to allegations he made untoward sexual advances toward multiple women.

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World Health Organization Ripped over ‘Early Childhood’ Sex Ed Teaching ‘Masturbation’ and ‘Gender Identities’

Susan Berry, PhD

The World Health Organization (WHO) is drawing fire throughout Europe for continuing its Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE) guidance that recommends children under four years of age be taught “enjoyment and pleasure when touching one’s own body, early childhood masturbation,” and “the right to explore gender identities.”

The “Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe,” first published in 2010 by the WHO, the global health organization of the United Nations, is being challenged by various pro-family organizations concerned about the sexualization of young children, as the Daily Mail reported.

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Knox County Gets $2 Million in Water Contamination Settlement

Mac Roberts

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs released a statement Tuesday announcing a $2 million payout from Monsanto, a former agricultural chemical and seed company that Bayer acquired several years ago. The payout is part of a class action lawsuit in which several municipalities participating in the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) program experienced contamination in their creek and/or lake sediment. 

The lawsuit against Monsanto resulted in a settlement of $500 million in total. Knox County’s portion of the settlement represents compensation for the contamination of the Fort Loudon Reservoir and Lower Clinch Reservoir with PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls). 

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Hunter Biden Case Takes Stark Twist with Allegation of Retaliation Against IRS Whistleblower

Just the News

The Justice Department removed an IRS whistleblower and his entire team from the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden’s taxes in what his lawyers described to Congress on Monday as an act of retaliation and possible obstruction of congressional inquiries, according to correspondence to lawmakers obtained by Just the News.

The IRS whistleblower, whose name has not been released, is a decorated supervisory criminal investigative agent who led the team probing the presidential son’s tax affairs.

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Nikki Haley Had a Dozen Lucrative Speaking Engagements Since Last Year, Financial Disclosure Shows

Just the News

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley received between $100,001 and $1 million for each of her dozen speaking engagements in 2022 and 2023, which means she made at least $1.2 million from speaking honorariums, her financial disclosure report shows. 

Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina governor, received payments for her speeches in Singapore, Australia and Canada, as well as for talks she gave across the U.S. in cities such as Chicago, New York and Dallas, according to her disclosure filed Monday. The speeches were for a variety of organizations such as the National Automobile Dealers Association and the Canadian Friends of Jerusalem College of Technology.

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Gender Identity Athletics Rule ‘Literally Impossible’ to Follow, Encourages Sex Changes: Critics

Just the News

The Biden administration’s proposal to ban schools from “categorically” excluding males from female sports teams would not only dissuade girls from athletic competition but inevitably spur more children to start puberty blockers and socially transition to a new gender identity, according to radical feminists who oppose gender ideology.

The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) joined right-of-center organizations in urging supporters to file comments supporting the preservation of female-only competition in the Department of Education’s Title IX notice of proposed rulemaking on “sex-related eligibility criteria.” More than 130,000 comments had been filed as of Monday afternoon, the last day to submit.

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Americans’ Views of Housing Market Worse than After 2008 Market Crash

The Center Square

Americans’ views of the housing market have plunged as interest rates continue to rise because of government-fueled inflation.

Gallup released new polling data showing that only 21% of Americans say now is a good time to buy a house, down 9 percentage points from the previous year. This year and last year during the Biden administration are the only times that fewer than half of Americans said it was a good time to buy a house since Gallup began asking in 1978.

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Biden Admin Ropes in Agriculture, Interior Departments to Help Stem Tide of Migrants Crossing Border

Admin

The Biden administration asked several departments and federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Interior, to support border authorities ahead of the end of Title 42, the Trump-era migrant expulsion order, on May 11, according to an internal memo exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In addition to deploying Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense Department (DOD) personnel to the southern border, the Biden administration also requested the deployment of Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Agriculture (USDA), Department of Commerce and Department of Interior personnel, according to the Friday memo, which Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Acting Executive Associate Director Katrina Berger sent internally.

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Exclusive: Far-Left Agitators Planning to ‘Bird Dog’ Republican Officials During August Special Session

Peter D'Abrosca

In secretly recorded audio files from a Saturday planning session among far-leftists in Nashville obtained by The Tennessee Star, left-wing agitators say they plan to “bird dog” Republican lawmakers during August’s special session of the General Assembly. 

Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood held a training session for activists in Nashville, which was run by Julie Edwards, the organization’s advocacy & organizing manager, along with the organization’s Executive Director Francie Hunt. 

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MNPS Commits to Converting Three High School Fields from Natural Grass to Artificial Turf

TC Weber

Last week, the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) board approved a contract to convert three district schools’ football fields from natural grass to artificial turf.

In November, Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced, “Every Metro Nashville Public High School (MNPS) athletic program will receive a new sports field, an initiative made possible through an innovative partnership with the Tennessee Titans and The Foundation for Athletics in Nashville Schools (FANS), Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to endow athletic programming at MNPS schools.”

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GOP Presidential Hopefuls Blast FBI, Media as Durham Report Excoriates the Bureau for Breaking Faith

M.D. Kittle

Conservative presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says special counsel John Durham’s final report on the FBI’s bogus investigation into Trump campaign collusion with Russia underscores his call to shut down the politically “weaponized” federal law enforcement agency. 

The Ohio entrepreneur joined fellow GOP presidential candidates in condemning what the report found to be the FBI’s failure to vet false allegations that former President Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election that Trump ultimately won. 

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Rob Canterbury Plans Run for Maricopa County Supervisor, Focuses on Reining in Planned ‘Smart City’

Rachel Alexander

Rob Canterbury, sergeant-at-arms for the Arizona Republican Party, announced he will run for Maricopa County Supervisor (MCBOS) in 2024. Canterbury is challenging Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman in District 4, and at the same time, also taking on  Bill Gates  — the Microsoft founder, not the supervisor. Gates is constructing a “smart city” in Maricopa County, and Canterbury wants to ensure his project does not get subsidies from the county and make demands “with strings attached.”

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Ohio Governor DeWine Signs Executive Order Expanding State’s Skill-Based Hiring Practices

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order to expand upon Ohio’s ambitions to be a national leader in skills-based hiring practices.

According to DeWine, the push toward skill-based hiring places more emphasis on specific coursework, skills, experience, and training while de-emphasizing earlier qualification standards expressed in academic degrees.

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Minnesota Democrats Remove Sales Tax Exemption for Baby Products from Tax Bill

Admin

Republicans are speaking out against the DFL majority’s decision to remove a bipartisan proposal to expand the sales tax exemption for baby products from an omnibus tax bill.

“Who was against this?” asked Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, during a Monday press conference. “It passed with unanimous bipartisan support. It has a relatively small fiscal impact. So where was the controversy?”

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Commentary: Congress and President Must Oversee the FISA Court and All FISA Warrants After Durham Report Revelations

Admin

Special Counsel John Durham has finished his voluminous report outlining the Justice Department, State Department, intelligence agencies and FBI’s “confirmation bias” that led to a years-long investigation of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, transition and then administration falsely alleging that Trump and his campaign were Russian agents who had helped Moscow hack the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and put their emails onto Wikileaks despite the fact that the FBI could not “corroborate a single substantive allegation in the [Christopher] Steele dossier reporting,” which was sourced to the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC.

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