Day: June 19, 2023

Tennessee Department of Education Releases Third-Grade Retention Appeals Data

TC Weber

On Thursday, The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) released data on the results of third-grade retention appeals filed with the state. Parents of third-grade students who did not meet the criteria for promotion to 4th grade based on Spring TCAP results are provided an opportunity to appeal that decision.  The released data comes with approximately two weeks left in the appeals window.

Since the appeals window opened on May 30th, the department has received 9,205 appeals forms, representing 8,206 individual students.

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Parents of Children Murdered in Covenant School Mass Shooting Weigh in on Records Lawsuit, Blast Tennessee Star and Others for Seeking Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

Parents of two of the children murdered in the Covenant School massacre are joining others in asking Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles to keep the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents locked from public view. 

The mother of William Kinney and the parents of Evelyn Dieckhaus, two of three 9-year-olds fatally shot in the March 27 mass shootings, issued declaration letters to the court detailing the pain they’ve suffered and lambasting the news outlets and other organizations suing to have the records released.

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Asa Hutchinson: GOP Should ‘Back Off’ Accusations of DOJ ‘Weaponization’

Just the News

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is running in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, said Republicans should “back off” of “accusations” of the “weaponization of the Justice Department.”

Hutchinson told ABC on Sunday that while he disagrees with some of the DOJ’s decisions, he believes Republicans are incorrect to label the department’s indictment of former president Donald Trump as “weaponization.”

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As Support for ‘Black Lives Matter’ Group Dives, Most Black Americans Pessimistic About Racism on Third Federal Juneteenth: Poll

Just the News

As the government observes Juneteenth as a holiday Monday for the third straight year, support for the Black Lives Matter movement has plummeted significantly as black Americans grapple with rising urban crime and stubborn inflation and grow pessimistic about racism in the future.

Juneteenth, the day that all enslaved Americans found out they were free when news of the Civil War’s end reached Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, was celebrated by black Americans for years.

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Study Finding Facebook Does Not Censor Conservatives Is ‘Deeply Flawed,’ ‘Laughable,’ Experts Say

Admin

Media Matters for America published a study recently concluding that Facebook does not censor conservatives, but experts told the DCNF the study is not credible because it did not properly measure the suppression of right-leaning pages.

Right-leaning Facebook pages typically got more total interactions than politically nonaligned and left-leaning pages on Facebook, according to the study. However, experts say this does not mean that there was no censorship of right-leaning Facebook pages, as the only example of suppression the Media Matters study cites is Donald Trump’s Facebook ban.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy Calls for ‘Emancipation of the American Mind from Psychological Slavery Based on Race’

M.D. Kittle

Ohio businessman and Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is marking this Juneteenth with a call for the “emancipation of the American mind from psychological slavery based on race.”

Ramaswamy’s message comes as his GOP opponents, South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, push back on former President Barack Obama’s criticisms of their stances on race relations.

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Catholic Civil Rights Group Urges Major League Baseball to ‘Stay Out of Politics’ After Dodgers’ Move to Honor Anti-Catholic ‘Nuns’ Backfires

Susan Berry, PhD

The president of the Catholic League is contacting all 30 owners of Major League Baseball (MLB), urging them to “just play baseball” and “stay out of politics” following a huge protest and significant drop in attendance at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ “pride night” event Friday during which the club honored a group of “queer and trans nuns” who promote anti-Catholic bigotry.

Bill Donohue wrote Monday to the club owners and to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, urging them not to repeat the Dodgers’ “stunt.”

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Lawmakers Demand Answers on Illegal Immigrant Child Labor as Universities Perpetuate Illegal Workforce System

Admin

The House Education and the Workforce Committee is demanding answers from the Biden administration on child labor among illegal immigrants.

In a letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) called on the Department to take action to stop migrants from being exploited for illegal child labor.

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Chinese Intelligence Arm Quietly Operates ‘Service Centers’ in Seven U.S. Cities

Admin

by Philip Lenczycki   A Chinese intelligence agency quietly operates “service centers” in seven American cities, all of which have had contact with Beijing’s national police authority, according to state media reports and government records reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD) — which at least one U.S. government commission has characterized as a “Chinese intelligence service” — operates so-called “Overseas Chinese Service Centers” (OCSCs) that are housed within various U.S.-based nonprofits. OCSCs were ostensibly set up to promote Chinese culture and assist Chinese citizens living abroad, according to Chinese government records. State media reports, Chinese government records and social media posts show that during a 2018 trip to China, U.S.-based OCSC representatives met with Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officials. During the meeting, state security officials demonstrated how they’re leveraging new technology to conduct “cross-border remote justice services” overseas. MPS is China’s national police authority and has been referred to as “China’s FBI” by China experts. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says MPS also conducts covert “intelligence and national security operations far beyond China’s borders,” including “illicit, transnational repression schemes” on U.S. soil. In April 2023, the DOJ charged two men for allegedly opening a secret police station…

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University of Connecticut Hosts Second Annual ‘Queer Science Conference’ for High Schoolers to ‘Celebrate Science – and Themselves’

Admin

The University of Connecticut (UConn) celebrated Pride Month by hosting its second annual “Queer Science Conference” June 4th, which is offered “to give queer and trans youth role models in various STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] fields.”

According to an online recap, the one-day event “connected high school students with LGBTQIA+ faculty, staff, and graduate and undergraduate students at UConn who work in STEM disciplines, offering community and mentorship as well as state-of-the-art laboratory experiences and opportunities for hands-on science demonstrations.”

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Commentary: There’s a Four-Letter Word That Perfectly Describes the Modern Left

Admin

My friend Lawrence W. Reed is one of Earth’s biggest optimists. The legendary free-market scholar recalls flipping his vehicle at age 26 on an icy Michigan road in February 1980. As he rolled over inside his Ford Fairmont, he smiled: “Hey, I’ll get a new car out of this!”

Thus, his recent essay for the Foundation for Economic Education, of which he is president emeritus, is a surprise. Reed has gone from cheerful to chilly.

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Poll: Ayotte Tops List in GOP Primary for New Hampshire Governor

Admin

With popular four-term incumbent Gov. Chris Sununu strongly hinting he won’t seek a record fifth term, an exclusive NHJournal/coefficient poll shows former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte is currently the top choice among Granite State Republicans to take his place.

As speculation spreads regarding Sununu’s future, three names have emerged as the most likely to seek the GOP nomination in the event of a vacancy in the governor’s office: Ayotte, Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut, and former state Senate President Chuck Morse.

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Arizona’s Half-Cent Sales Tax for Infrastructure Could Expire amid Gridlock

The Center Square

Proposition 400, a statewide sales tax set aside for local infrastructure projects, will expire in 2025 unless either lawmakers opposed to it and Gov. Katie Hobbs can agree on an extension or local leaders go around them and ask voters to approve it.

The Republican-led Legislature sent Hobbs a version of the sales tax originally approved in 1985 that restricts ways the tax dollars can be spent, including money going toward expanding the valley’s polarizing light rail line. 

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Dairy State Lawmaker Leads Fight Against Biden Administration’s War on Chocolate Milk

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI-07) has introduced a bill that would stop the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s war on chocolate milk in school lunchrooms.

The Milk is Indisputably Liked by Kids Act of 2023 – MILK Act — would amend the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require schools to offer flavored milk under school lunch program. 

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IRS Agent Claimed He Can ‘Go Into Anyone’s House At Any Time,’ Ohio U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan Says

Admin

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sent a letter to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Friday demanding to know why an agent had told a woman that he could “go into anyone’s house at any time I want.”

Jordan revealed in the letter that a he’d recently learned of allegations about an IRS agent who had allegedly used a fake name to enter a taxpayer’s home and then threatened her. The letter explained that an agent going by “Bill Haus” showed up at an Ohio woman’s home in April, telling her that he can “go into anyone’s house at any time.”

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Pennsylvania Ranks Low on Religious Freedom Index

Bradley Vasoli

A new report from a D.C.-based nonprofit suggests that Pennsylvania lags behind most states regarding religious freedom. 

Last week, Napa Legal Institute published its first annual Faith & Freedom Index on which the Keystone State ranked 40th among all 50 states. The report rated each state in terms of its legal protections for faith-based institutions as well as regulatory regimes governing those entities. The commonwealth scored 30 percent for religious freedom and 55 percent for regulatory freedom for an averaged score of 55 percent.

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College Professor in Wisconsin Says American Flag Causes Him ‘Anxiety’

Admin

A Marquette University professor said the American flag makes him “anxious” in a National Public Radio interview Wednesday.

Philosophy Professor Grant Silva told an interviewer with WUWM, an NPR affiliate station in Milwaukee, that he feels “anxious” when he sees an American flag. In the interview, Silva described how “excessive imagery” of American flags is borderline “nationalism.”

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Plastic Manufacturer Announces $6.9 Million Investment Project in Georgia’s Washington County

Kaitlin Housler

PVS Plastics Technology Corporation officials recently announced that the company will invest $6.9 million to establish its second U.S. facility in Johnson City.

PVS, which describes itself as an “environmentally friendly plastics company,” is based in Niedernhall, Germany. The company specializes in manufacturing electric motor and fan components for the automotive and commercial HVAC industries.

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Biden Picks Mandy Cohen to Serve as CDC Director

Just the News

President Joe Biden on Friday announced that he had selected former North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen to serve as the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Dr. Cohen is one of the nation’s top physicians and health leaders with experience leading large and complex organizations, and a proven track-record protecting Americans’ health and safety,” Biden said in a statement, pointing to her management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state and her role in expanding Medicaid.

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Commentary: Only One Party Has Gone Completely Off the Rails

Admin

Sorry to sound like a dinosaur, but I recall when my colleagues and I in the House of Representatives believed we were on the cutting edge of America’s great philosophical divide.

It was a heady time. The Class of 1994 was labeled the “majority makers” – the first Republican majority in forty years. It was accordingly easy to assume our policy battles would define the direction of American politics for generations to come.

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