Day: August 13, 2023

Georgia Court Website Briefly Publishes, Removes Document About Potential Trump Charges

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Reuters The Fulton County, Georgia, court’s website briefly posted a document on Monday listing several criminal charges against former U.S. President Donald Trump that appeared related to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state, before taking the document down without explanation. The Fulton County District Attorney’s office said in a statement that no charges had been filed against Trump. The document was dated Aug. 14 and named Trump, citing the case as “open,” but is no longer available on the court’s website. Reuters was not immediately able to determine why the item was posted or removed. “The Reuters report that those charges were filed is inaccurate. Beyond that we cannot comment,” a spokesperson for the District Attorney’s office said. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Topanga, California Mayor Decries Mob Ransacking of Nordstrom Department Store

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Breitbart News A mob of looters ransacked a Nordstrom location in the Westfield Topanga mall in the San Fernando Valley on Saturday afternoon, prompting Mayor Karen Bass to condemn the chaos. Local news station KTLA reported: Police said anywhere between 20-50 suspects are believed to be involved, although the exact number has not been confirmed. Mayor Bass issued a statement on Saturday evening: What happened today at the Nordstrom in the Topanga Mall is absolutely unacceptable. Those who committed these acts and acts like it in neighboring areas must be held accountable. The Los Angeles Police Department will continue to work to not only find those responsible for this incident but to prevent these attacks on retailers from happening in the future.  READ THE FULL STORY  

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Almost 30,000 People Lost TennCare Coverage in May But Near-Record Enrollment Has Remained

The Center Square

Tennessee saw 27,000 lose Medicaid coverage in May as the state continues its process of redetermining TennCare eligibility following the end of federal COVID-19 pandemic rules.

Those rules blocked states from the mandated process of determining eligibility between March 2020 to March 31. TennCare began the eligibility determination process in April.

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Massachusetts Couple Files Lawsuit Claiming Application to Become Foster Parents Denied Due to Religious Beliefs

Susan Berry, PhD

A Catholic Massachusetts couple filed a federal lawsuit this week that makes the claim they were rejected as potential foster parents because of their faith beliefs about marriage and sexuality.

The couple, Mike and Kitty Burke of Southampton, said in their complaint they were told by a state employee of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) their religious beliefs conflict with the state’s policy requiring them to affirm same-sex relationships and gender ideology.

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Federal Judge Halts Idaho Law Banning Boys from Girls’ Bathrooms

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A federal judge decided Thursday to temporarily block enforcement of an Idaho law meant to bar biological males from using female restrooms.

Senate Bill 1100, which was signed by Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little, went into effect July 1 and required schools to have two separate bathrooms, one for each biological sex, and allowed students to sue the school for up to $5,000 for each transgender person who is found to be using a bathroom that does not match their biological sex, according to the law. Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal activist group, sued to block the law on July 7, arguing the law violates the premise of the Equal Protection Clause and will cause harm to transgender persons, according to the lawsuit.

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KUB Fiber Internet Expands in Knoxville

Kaitlin Housler

Knoxville’s utility company, Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB),  announced this week that its fiber internet has expanded to more than 4,100 South Knoxville homes and businesses.

KUB Fiber, a municipally-run broadband network, is the largest municipal fiber network in the nation, approved unanimously by the Knoxville City Council in 2021. The project, worth over $700 million, is expected to expand over the next seven years and install approximately 5,000 miles of fiber.

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American Credit Card Debt Hits $1 Trillion for the First Time Ever

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The end of July saw American credit card debt collectively hit $1 trillion for the first time ever.

According to Axios, the Federal Reserve Bank confirmed on Tuesday that credit card balances in the United States increased in the second quarter of 2023 by $45 billion, or 4.6 percent, to a new total of $1.03 trillion. However, the collective credit card debt still has a lower share of American gross domestic product (GDP) than it did in 2010 or pre-COVID 2020.

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News Outlets Declare Teacher Shortage in Georgia Yet Data Shows Rising Numbers

The Center Square

Georgia’s news outlets from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to Atlanta News First have reported about a shortage of teachers plaguing the state’s education system. Data from the state’s Department of Education paints a different picture. 

Georgia had a total of 123,210 teachers in 2022-23, according to their data. This is an increase of 1,711 teachers from the previous school year when Georgia had 121,499 teachers.

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Miami Border Patrol Agents Apprehend Foreign Nationals with Criminal Records

The Center Square

Border Patrol agents in the Miami Sector continue to apprehend foreign nationals with criminal records who are already inland, living in Florida towns.

Miami Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent Walter Slosar said that agents working with law enforcement officers in Fort Pierce apprehended a Honduran national illegally in the U.S. The Honduran was in possession of firearms, miscellaneous drugs and U.S. currency. He was apprehended during a traffic stop.

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Rural Health Care Safety Net Faces Irreparable Tear in Pennsylvania

The Center Square

Health care access in rural Pennsylvania becomes less tenable day by day, and many fear what this means for the state’s efforts to revive its most remote communities.

“The people in rural PA are truly scared about access to health care,” said Rep. Marty Causer, R-Bradford, during a recent meeting of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania hosted in his district.

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Critics Question Wisconsin Redistricting Lawsuit’s Request for New Senate Elections

The Center Square

Critics of a recent lawsuit filed to force new representative maps believe forcing the 17 state senators elected by using those maps to run again is going too far.

The suit filed last week with the Wisconsin Supreme Court asks the court to not only draw new maps for the 2024 election, but also have those 17 state senators elected last year to run again next year.

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Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Require Schools to Get Parental Permission to Administer Over-the-Counter Medications

Hannah Poling

Two Republican Ohio lawmakers have introduced a bill into the Ohio House of Representatives to require local school districts to include over-the-counter medications in their school medication policies.

House Bill (HB) 70, sponsored by State Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula) and Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester), looks to patch an oversight in existing policies by requiring every school to request parental permission before administering over-the-counter medications to children.

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Major Drug Trafficker in Virginia Sentenced

The Center Square

A man convicted of trafficking large amounts of methamphetamine from Mexico into Virginia was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison yesterday, Attorney General Jason Miyares announced today.

“Cantu-Cantu was the major source of supply for a drug conspiracy that distributed more than 33 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and six kilograms of cocaine into Southwest and Central Virginia through a multi-jurisdictional drug trafficking organization,” according to a press release from Miyares’ office.

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Commentary: The Left’s Relentless, Unjustified Assaults on the Supreme Court’s Legitimacy

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In recent years, the Supreme Court has been the target of a relentless and strategic campaign aimed at undermining its credibility and impartiality.

Left-wing publications such as ProPublica, Slate, and The Guardian have led an orchestrated assault against the high court’s Republican-appointed justices, and their message has been amplified by Senate Democrats.

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Feds Continue Borrowing over $5 Billion Per Day Despite Credit Downgrade

The Center Square

The federal government is borrowing an average of $5.3 billion per day this fiscal year, the U.S. Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday. The new estimate come just days after a top international creditor downgraded the U.S. credit rating.

“The federal budget deficit was $1.6 trillion in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2023, the Congressional Budget Office estimates – more than twice the shortfall recorded during the same period last year,” CBO said. “Revenues were 10 percent lower and outlays were 10 percent higher from October through July than they were during the same period in fiscal year 2022.”

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Commentary: NATO Without Limits Would Lead to Endless Wars

RealClearWire

Jessica Berlin, a policy analyst writing in the Center for European Policy Analysis’ online journal, has proposed a NATO without limits–an expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to all democratic nations. “The 21st-century threat landscape,” she contends, “calls for a global alliance capable of mutual defense.” “NATO must open its doors,” she writes, “to new members beyond Europe and North America.” Her proposal is breathtaking in scope: an attack on any democracy is an attack on all democracies. It is a recipe for endless wars on all continents and a reckless extension of America’s nuclear guarantee to all the world’s democracies. It turns John Quincy Adams’ prudent counsel on its head: America goes abroad in search of monsters to destroy and is the champion and vindicator of the freedom and independence of all democracies.

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Commentary: The Political Divide Among High Schoolers

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It is popularly held that the younger generations are becoming increasingly liberal while conservatives dominate the older demographics. While this tends to be true, a recent survey conducted on seniors in high school demonstrates nuances.

The University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey found that young girls are driving the youthful push toward liberalism, while boys are increasingly becoming far more likely to identify as conservative.

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