In a rare split decision, the Iowa Supreme Court on Friday balked at reinstating Iowa’s “fetal heartbeat bill,” a move that keeps abortion through 20 weeks of pregnancy unfettered — for now — in the Hawkeye State.
The advisory ruling, rendered despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal constitutional abortion protections a year ago, was blasted by Republicans and pro-life groups and hailed by Democrats and their abortion industry allies.
Read the full story
On March 27, in the run-up to “Trans Day of Vengeance,” Audrey Hale murdered six people at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. Nearly three months later, Hale’s manifesto is still under wraps but autopsies enable the youngest victims to testify.
The nine-year-old Hallie Scruggs, daughter of Covenant Presbyterian pastor Chad Scruggs, sustained an “indeterminate range gunshot wound of the head,” that caused injuries to the scalp, left temporal bone, and left temporal lobe of the brain. Hale also targeted Scruggs with an “indeterminate range gunshot wound of the pelvis,” entering at the left lower abdomen and causing injuries to the left femoral artery, vein and soft tissue.
Read the full story
On Thursday, Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, claimed that recently-subpoenaed bank records will reveal that the Biden family accepted bribes from foreign nationals to the tune of at least $30 million.
As the New York Post reports, Comer said in an interview on Fox News that “we have more bank records coming in, we’re going to exceed $10 million this week. And I think we’ll get up to between $20 and 30 million.” Comer has said that at least nine members of the Biden family have received foreign income from bribes and shady business deals, including son Hunter, brother James, sister-in-law Sara, son Beau’s widow and Hunter’s ex-girlfriend Hallie, Hunter’s wife Melissa, and Hunter’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle.
Read the full story
Tennessee’s House Majority Whip Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) told The Tennessee Star Thursday that he has spoken directly to Gov. Bill Lee (R) and that he will not be supporting Lee’s agenda to implement red flag laws during the upcoming special session of the General Assembly.
“There is no red flag proposal from Gov. Lee to consider as our caucus will not support the destruction of our citizens’ constitutional rights,” said Garrett. “I have been in contact with the governor and have expressed the desire to address mental illness through treatment and resources for those who may be a threat to themselves and others. These conversations will continue, and we’ll determine the best ways we can help these individuals in crisis while improving public safety in communities across our state.”
Read the full story
Members of the Lee administration met with the Tennessee Faith & Freedom Coalition (TNFFC) Board of Directors on Wednesday after the group sent a letter urging Governor Bill Lee to cancel his proposed August 21 special session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
“In response to our letter asking Governor Lee to cancel plans for an August Special Session of the Tennessee General Assembly due to public safety concerns as well as constitutional concerns, Chief of Staff Joseph Williams emailed us and requested a meeting with our Board of Directors. We took him up on that offer and on Wednesday, had a meeting with Chief of Staff Williams and Lee Administration Special Advisor Michael Hendrix,” the TNFFC disclosed in a Friday statement emailed to The Tennessee Star.
Read the full story
As the Los Angeles Dodgers prepare to honor Friday night a group of “queer and trans nuns” who promote anti-Catholic bigotry, Catholic League President Bill Donohue observed the club is actually violating its own code of conduct imposed on fans.
“The Los Angeles Dodgers has a code of conduct for fans that is being violated not only by some attendees, but by the team itself,” Donohue wrote Friday. “To be specific, giving an award tonight to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is an expressed violation of this policy.”
Read the full story
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) announced Thursday that its Agricultural Enterprise Fund (AEF) cost share program is accepting applications from agricultural, food, and forestry businesses across the state.
Read the full story
St. Dominic Academy in Auburn, Maine filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the administration of Gov. Janet Mills (D) and the Maine Human Rights Commission that alleges the state has continued to “outmaneuver” the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Carson v. Makin by excluding religious schools from its longstanding program whereby students residing in districts without a public school are given the opportunity to attend the public or private school of their family’s choosing.
Read the full story
After a heated meeting that loosened the qualification guidelines for hiring the school district’s next superintendent, the vice chair of the Board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) resigned from her post.
The meeting was described as “heated and plagued with parliamentary issues,” and ultimately led to the resignation of Vice Chair Sheleah Harris.
Read the full story
At least 1.2 million people have been apprehended or reported evading capture at the southern border in the first five months of this year, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Center Square.
The estimate is based on official apprehension data reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection as well as gotaway data. A Border Patrol agent provides this data exclusively to The Center Square on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Gotaways are those who illegally enter the U.S. and intentionally seek to evade capture. Border Patrol agents report those who have illegally entered and evaded capture based on several factors. CBP doesn’t publicly report gotaway data.
Read the full story
The organization Community Leaders of America, the home of the national forum of Republican Mayors, City Councilmembers, and County Leaders, recently endorsed Republican mayoral candidate Alice Rolli to be the next mayor of Nashville.
Read the full story
By June of 2022, Pfizer had identified over 10,000 categories of nearly 1.6 million adverse events, a recently-released safety update report shows. Pfizer’s pharmacovigilance documents were requested and released by the European Medicines Agency, the EU’s drug regulator, Conservative Review’s Daniel Horowitz reported on Wednesday.
The 396-page confidential Pfizer report, dated August 18, 2022, reveals that Pfizer was well aware its product was causing an unacceptable level of serious and debilitating injuries early on.
Read the full story
Metro Nashville has filed another lawsuit fighting a law passed by the Tennessee Legislature, this time challenging a new law that changes the way Nashville’s airport authority board members are appointed.
The new structure being challenged creates an eight-member board with two appointees each for the mayor, governor, House speaker and Senate speaker.
Read the full story
The Rutherford County Budget and Finance Committee held a public comment hearing on Tuesday night for residents to weigh in before the county commission votes on the mayor’s 16.17 percent property tax rate increase.
Read the full story
A recent report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) evaluates teacher prep programs across the country and finds several in Tennessee lacking.
The recently released report shows that nationally, most programs at colleges and universities that prepare future elementary teachers still do not fully cover the science of reading.
Read the full story
A man from Georgia who sued Facebook for denying him access to his personal account has won, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
Read the full story
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Wednesday honored out-of-state police officers who relocated to Florida, the majority of whom have relocated to Pinellas County.
As part of her Thin Line Tribute: Sunshine Salute Series, she met with them at a press conference at the St. Petersburg Police Department.
Read the full story
A Georgia Senate Study Committee began exploring what action lawmakers should take on reforming or repealing the state’s certificate of need program.
The committee, created with the passage of Senate Resolution 279, is holding meetings across the state and will make recommendations for lawmakers to consider when the legislative session resumes in January.
Read the full story
U.S. Senator and GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC) will join Fox News’ Sean Hannity next week for a Town Hall.
The Q&A, broadcast from Scott’s home state, airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Read the full story
Transgender activists, hospitals and medical associations are pressuring lawmakers in Michigan to pass a “conversion therapy” ban that critics say would effectively prohibit therapists from helping gender-confused children come to terms with their natural bodies and biological sex.
If enacted, the ban would be another win for activists and their medical industry allies who have helped push more than 20 states to ban clinical attempts to change a minor patient’s “gender identity.” Critics say these laws silence and intimidate therapists who don’t automatically affirm young patients’ transgender status and put them on the medicalization track.
Read the full story
Many years ago, when I was just out of college, my friend George Hall introduced me to a punk rock song from the soundtrack of the 1984 film Repo Man. “Institutionalized,” by the group Suicidal Tendencies, is the darkly comic saga of a teenager named Mike who finds himself committed to a psychiatric facility merely because he asked his mother for a Pepsi. The chorus of the song contains this frantic refrain:
Read the full story
In response to a recent lawsuit filed by Christian families and schools, the state of Minnesota has agreed to not enforce a new law that restricts some faith-based schools from offering Post Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) to high school students.
“It’s not every day that a state asks a federal court to tie its hands to prevent it from enforcing its own anti-religious law — but Minnesota has done just that,” said Diana Thompson, senior counsel at Becket, the legal firm representing the families and schools.
Read the full story
A bill that has been making its way through the Arizona Legislature would make it easier for the public to obtain the Cast Vote Record (CVR), which is the electronic representation of how voters voted, but some election integrity proponents are concerned that after an amendment by State Representative Alex Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) was removed in Conference Committee, a loophole allows counties to accept early ballots without verifying the signatures. SB 1518, sponsored by State Senator Ken Bennett (R-Prescott), passed the Senate 17-11 on Tuesday, with a handful of conservative stalwarts joining Democrats to oppose it, but failed in the House 24-32 due to opposition from the House’s Arizona Freedom Caucus.
Jennifer Wright, former Election Integrity Unit civil attorney under previous Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is currently representing Abe Hamadeh in his election challenge for Attorney General, tweeted her praise at the legislators who voted against the bill. “Thank you @RJ4arizona, @realAlexKolodin, and others for stopping SB1518 that contained language codifying procedures revealed in @KariLake’s trial that Maricopa used to permit ballots from early vote centers to forgo signature verification,” she said.
Read the full story
On Tuesday, the city council of Hamtramck, Michigan voted to pass a resolution that forbids the display of pro-LGBTQ flags from any city property.
As reported by Breitbart, the vote by the all-Muslim council of the Detroit-area city was unanimous. The resolution in question was proposed by Mayor Pro-Tem Muhammad Hassan, and also prohibits the display of any flags that feature religious, racial, sexual, or political connotation; only the American flag is allowed on city property under the new measure, along with state and city flags, other nationalities’ flags, and the Prisoner of War flag.
Read the full story
Connecticut is taking aim at telemarketers accused of bombarding the state’s consumers with hundreds of millions of ‘robocalls’ every year.
The state’s General Assembly approved a proposal last week that would expand the state’s anti-robocall statutes to cover text messages, ban “gateway” voice over internet protocol providers from facilitating overseas scammers’ access to the U.S. telecom networks and allow for enforcement action against calls received by Connecticut area codes, regardless of where they originate.
Read the full story
While Democrats insist Pennsylvania misses out on revenue from natural gas extraction, a Pittsburgh nonprofit’s analysis published on Thursday observes drilling impact fees yielded $2.25 billion through 2021.
Since the boom in hydraulic fracturing (or fracking), the horizontal drilling technique gas companies use to access the vast reserves of fossil fuel from the Marcellus Shale sedimentary rock formation, many politicians have eyed an extraction tax. Instead of such a tax, former Governor Tom Corbett (R) and a Republican-led legislature levied an impact fee in 2012, with revenues going to localities largely to mitigate fracking-related environmental disruption. In the new policy brief from the Allegheny Institute (AI), the think tank’s executive director Frank Gamrat detailed those revenue gains.
Read the full story
The Ohio House of Representatives advanced a Republican-backed piece of legislation that tries to require school systems to have policies that allow parents to be more active in their child’s education.
The Ohio House Primary and Secondary Education Committee passed the legislation 10-5 advancing it to the house floor for further consideration.
Read the full story
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the commonwealth beat out New York in a bid for a new location of a sixth-generation pyrotechnic company that contracts with the Department of Defense to expand in Pulaski County.
The New York-based Fireworks by Grucci, has an existing presence in the commonwealth through its manufacturing arm, Pyrotechnique by Grucci. The former is an American company that has supplied thousands of celebrations with its pyrotechnic arts since 1850, notably eight presidential inaugurations and four Olympic Games.
Read the full story
Two Pennsylvania state senators announced this week they are introducing a companion bill to a house-passed measure designed to improve rail safety.
Senate action on the bill sponsored by State Senators Katie Muth (D-Royersford) and Lindsey Williams (D-Pittsburgh) would advance the legislation toward Governor Josh Shapiro’s (D) desk. The house version passed that chamber 141-62 earlier this month with the support of all Democratic representatives and a sizable minority of Republicans.
Read the full story
The Ohio Senate passed its version of the state’s new two-year $85.7 billion budget bill on Thursday highlighting significant reforms for education policy, tax policy, and home ownership programs.
The latest version of House Bill (HB) 33 passed out of the Ohio Senate by a 24-7 party-line vote. Now approved, the legislation will go to a conference committee to work out differences with the House budget.
Read the full story
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the appointment of Republican attorney Diana Stevenson to the Barberton Municipal Court serving the Barberton, Green, New Franklin, Norton, Copley, Coventry, and Clinton communities.
Judge-designee Stevenson started her legal career in 1993 as a judicial attorney for several judges in various counties, including a year as a judicial attorney at the Ohio Supreme Court. Stevenson started working for the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office in July 1996 as an assistant prosecutor, a position she held for four years. She then worked as a magistrate for the Summit County Probate Court for 12 years. She was chosen to serve as the Barberton Municipal Court’s clerk of court in 2012. Stevenson won the 2013 election and was returned to office in 2015 and 2021.
Read the full story
The homicide rate among individuals ages 10 through 24 in 2021 reached its highest level in 20 years, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In 2021, there were 10.7 homicides for every 100,000 people ages 10 through 24, up from 8.3 in 2016 and 7.3 in 2011, according to the CDC. Suicide and homicide are the second and third leading causes of death, respectively, for people ages 10 through 24, behind accidental deaths that involve motor vehicle crashes and falls, according to the CDC report.
Read the full story
Chief Justice John Roberts made a major error in judgment last week in rejecting the State of Alabama’s 2022 congressional redistricting plan in Allen v. Milligan, an error that, as dissenting Justice Samuel Alito says, puts the Voting Rights Act “on a perilous and unfortunate path.”
Joined by the three liberal justices and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Roberts, writing for the majority, approved race being the driving factor in drawing up the boundary lines of political districts, while glibly denying he was doing that. That violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.
Read the full story
Among likely New Hampshire primary voters, Former President Donald Trump leads Florida Governor Ron DeSantis 44% to 12% in a multi-candidate ballot. Trump has increased his lead by 5% since last month where he lead DeSantis 39% to 18%.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott are tied for third with 7% of the vote each. Sununu’s presence on the ballot is not siphoning votes away from DeSantis as some assumed. When Sununu is taken out of the equation in this months survey, DeSantis did not benefit. A majority of Sununu’s vote share went to Scott and Christie.
Read the full story
On Monday, a federal jury awarded a White former Starbucks manager with $25 million after she successfully convinced them that she had been fired by the coffee chain due to her race.
As the New York Post reports, Shannon Phillips previously oversaw several locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as a regional manager who had been with the company for 13 years. Her lawsuit stems from a 2018 incident in which two black men attempted to use the restroom of a Philadelphia Starbucks, and were denied due to not being paying customers. When the men subsequently refused to leave, the police were called and the men were arrested and forced off the property.
Read the full story