The Senate voted to pass the House’s stopgap funding bill on Saturday night by a vote of 88 to 9, avoiding a government shutdown that would have occurred at midnight, the end of the fiscal year. The bill will now go to the White House for President Biden’s signature.
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Morning Consult’s U.S. consumer sentiment index in September declined to its lowest point in months as voters voice concerns over President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
Consumer confidence is decreasing once again after having risen over the course of 2023 following lows during 2022, according to Morning Consult. Moreover, as Americans remain pessimistic about their finances, they are increasingly souring on the president’s job performance, with 56% of Americans disapproving of Biden in recent Washington Post-ABC News and NBC News polls, up from previous figures.
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Hackers in China stole 60,000 emails from officials at the Department of State, according to a report by Politico.
News of the hacking was revealed by Department of State officials during a private staff briefing on Capitol Hill, recently, Politico reported. There, the department’s chief information officer, Kelly Fletcher, informed staff that over 60,000 emails had been stolen from ten staff members using Microsoft Outlook, the department’s emailing system, with the hack affecting high-ranking officials such as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
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The House passed a 45-day stopgap measure Saturday afternoon, according to multiple reports. The House has adjourned until Monday.
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Politico Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) pulled the fire alarm in a House office building as his party tried to delay a vote on a hurried House GOP stopgap spending bill, according to the Republican-controlled Administration Committee. Bowman “pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning,” a spokesperson for the panel said. “An investigation into why it was pulled is underway.” Neither the U.S. Capitol Police nor Bowman immediately returned a request for comment on the fire alarm activation, which multiple people familiar with the situation said was caught on camera as the House descended into fresh chaos on Saturday. READ THE FULL STORY
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A Virginia Republican congressman and member of the House Freedom Caucus told “Meet the Press” hostess Kristen Welker he supports passing a seven-day continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating past the Saturday expiration of Fiscal Year 2023.
“I would support a one-week continuing resolution to keep the government open while we were passing those bills,” said U.S. Representative Bob Good (R.-VA-05), who was one of 71 Republicans who voted against the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the debt ceiling deal the GOP leadership cut with President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
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Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) introduced The Ending Chemical Abortion Act on Thursday, seeking to end chemical abortions using the abortion pill.
“Chemical abortions not only end a human life but pose a serious risk to the lives of the mothers. The FDA has failed to protect women and unborn children for over 20 years. In 2021, it went even further and eliminated the in-person dispensing requirement. This decision has led to an overwhelming increase in chemical abortion-related ER visits, health complications, and even deaths,” Ogles reportedly said while flanked by pro-life students and legislators at a press conference near the U.S. Capitol. “It’s a tragedy that the Biden Administration and the FDA would put their radical pro-choice agenda ahead of the health and safety of women and girls across the country.”
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Tennessee’s elected Republicans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday and offered somber reactions to the death of Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), sending their condolences despite political differences with the late senator.
“Senator Dianne Feinstein was a trailblazer for women in politics. Despite our differences, I enjoyed our work together to protect songwriters and take on Big Tech. My prayers are with her family,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).
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On Wednesday, U.S. Senate Banking Committee Democrats voted against an amendment proposed by U.S. Senator and member of the Senate Banking Committee Bill Hagerty (R-TN) to the Secure And Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act to prevent drug cartels from laundering fentanyl and meth in the United States.
The SAFER Banking Act Introduced by U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-MT) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) aims to allow banks and credit unions to serve cannabis businesses and their workers in states where cannabis is legal.
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A shortlist of potential House Republicans to replace Speaker Kevin McCarthy has emerged on Capitol Hill amid what appears to be a strengthening effort within the chamber’s GOP conference to replace him.
The effort is being led by Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, considered the biggest McCarthy critic in the conference, who has essentially said if the speaker uses Democrat votes to pass a spending bill he’ll lose his GOP speakership – in what is called a “motion to vacate.”
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Republican presidential candidates’ websites are practically nonexistent in generic Google searches for the party’s 2024 bench, and not much better for the most viable primary challenger to Democratic President Biden, according to tests by a watchdog and Just the News.
For the conservative Media Research Center and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), it’s unmistakable evidence of Google’s bias for the incumbent just as primary voters are seeking more information about the candidates on the debate stage.
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The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from the plaintiffs in L.W. v. Skrmetti on Thursday to block a Tennessee law banning “gender-affirming care” on minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and sex-change surgeries.
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In the current atmosphere of acrimony surrounding the failure of Congress to produce a balanced budget, or even an unbalanced budget, it is important to review the facts. The facts are important because the Uniparty, the Swamp, the Establishment, and many media propagandists are engaged in a parade of fearmongering.
Because House Republicans did not timely produce a budget as required by law, “they,” the leaders of the Uniparty, began championing their preferred budget mechanism, the “Continuing Resolution (CR).” We know it is their preferred option because they use it every year.
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For more than a decade, policymakers in Harrisburg – and the circle of education influencers that they attract – have struggled to define equity for public school students.
Now, with a court mandate baring down, the state must reimagine the free and fair public education system promised in its Constitution – the guarantee envisioned by revolutionary elected officials like Thaddeus Stevens, whose influence still looms large in the halls of the Capitol.
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Connecticut will spend $25 million to replace its aging voting machines ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the State Bond Commission will vote at its Oct. 6 meeting to approve the borrowing to purchase new ballot-counting tabulators for use in elections and primaries statewide. He said the current voting machines are over 17 years old and approaching the end of their useful life.
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Minnesota State Auditor General Julie Blaha released the 2022 asset forfeiture report showing a 35% drop in completed forfeitures over the past five years.
“The decrease over the past five years is dramatic,” Blaha said in a statement.
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Pro-life groups are calling on liberal district attorneys in the Badger State’s two largest cities to enforce abortion statute as Planned Parenthood resumes performing abortions in Wisconsin.
Members of Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action, and Pro-Life Wisconsin held a press conference last week at the state Capitol demanding Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne and his liberal counterpart, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm follow statute 940.04, which prohibits most abortions in the state.
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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee cautioned prosecutors working for District Attorney Fani Willis against calling witnesses not specifically outlined in their witness list. McAfee made his warning during a procedural hearing on Friday for the trial of attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, who face charges for their alleged part in what Willis claims was a racketeering scheme meant to illegally influence the 2020 election in Georgia.
Responding to a discovery notice filed by prosecutors, which sought to notify the court of their intention to call additional witnesses who provided testimony to the special grand jury but are not identified as witnesses, McAfee told special prosecutor Nathan Wade he expects “the state to be adhering to witness list rules, and if there are witnesses that are buried in discovery somewhere that don’t make it on that list, we’re going to have an issue and we’re going to have to talk through it.”
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The Supreme Court announced Friday that it would hear two cases regarding social media laws in the states of Texas and Florida.
The laws attempt to forbid social media platforms from banning users based on political views, according to The Hill.
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The host of “War Room” blasted Senate Republicans for going along with a 47-day continuing resolution that will fund the federal government until November 17 because he said it was part of a behind-the-scenes plot to foist Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin upon voters as the establishment alternative to former President Donald J. Trump.
“I told you this 47 days in the Senate is McConnell and the big money donors exactly linked to Youngkin’s bid to flip the Senate in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Stephen K. Bannon to his audience.
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The Michigan Supreme Court approved a new rule Wednesday requiring justices to use preferred pronouns or “other respectful means” to address attorneys.
The first-of-its-kind state court rule, which faced pushback prior to its approval, is now scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. In his dissent, Michigan Supreme Court Justice David Viviano warned the decision to “dabble in politics” would cause the court to “forfeit legitimacy with large portions of the public,” noting that addressing such topics is “sadly consistent with this Court’s recent practice.”
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A piece of legislation introduced into the Ohio House of Representatives to authorize a tax credit for landlords who allow companion animals to reside in their rental units has been assigned to a committee for review.
Assistant Majority Whip Sharon Ray (R-Wadsworth) and State Representative Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland) introduced House Bill (HB) 277, known as the Pet Friendly Rental Act on September 18th.
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Physicist and auditor John Droz testified all day Thursday in the ongoing disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional scholar, John Eastman. California Disciplinary Court Judge Yvette Roland, who contributed to Democrats while on the bench, spent a large portion of the day successfully attempting to keep Droz’s investigative reports into the 2020 election and his testimony from being admitted into evidence. Some of his testimony that was struck from the record afterward discussed a report that attorney Jesse Binnall delivered to Congress, laying out what he found as 130,000 incidents of voter fraud in Nevada’s 2020 election.
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Polling released on Friday reveals the majority of Georgia voters support the new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, with only 12 percent of poll respondents expressing support for the controversial “Stop Cop City” petition to force a public referendum on the project.
60 percent of Georgia voters back the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, agreeing with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, according to polling by 20-20 Insight. An additional 28 percent of Georgia voters are not sure, and just 12 percent support the “Stop Cop City” petition.
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Republican Kari Lake is reportedly going to announce her run for United States Senate in Arizona on Oct. 10, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Shortly after the report, a media advisory was sent out from Lake’s team saying the former gubernatorial nominee is “expected to make an announcement about her future alongside thousands of Arizonans” with a rally in the Phoenix area.
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If you pull back to the proverbial 30,000 feet and look down on the American political scene, the conclusion is impossible to escape.
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The Biden administration on Friday unveiled the most restrictive offshore oil and gas five-year leasing program in history.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced the plan, which allows for three offshore oil and gas lease sales through 2029, with sales in 2025, 2027 and 2029. That schedule represents the lowest number of sales that the administration could have pursued while maintaining its ability to push offshore wind development under provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and it is the “smallest number of oil and gas lease sales in history,” according to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
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Bankruptcies are rising for the first time in years as more Americans feel the pressure of declining economic conditions without the reprieve of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic-era aid programs.
Americans filed more than 39,000 personal bankruptcy cases in August 2023, up 18% year-over-year, with bankruptcies beginning to spike after reaching record lows in 2021 and 2022, with the number of filings rising for all chapters for the first time year-over-year since 2010, according to data from the U.S. Courts. The number of bankruptcies is rising as Americans are increasingly burdened by high interest rates and falling real wages, while the COVID-19 pandemic stimulus and programs that were buoying Americans with debt begin to lose effect, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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The Democrat Leftists and oligarchical elites are very capable people; it brings pain to admit it, but it’s true. In the midst of seeking the demise the 45th President and his legal team from 2020, they have managed to continue the fear factor that ushered in mail-in ballots and multiple week voting ensuring a myriad of unexplained discrepancies, ballots without a chain-of-custody, and the White House.
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Another claim from House Republicans suggests that the Biden family and business associates made as much as $24 million from foreign business transactions, even higher than previous estimates.
According to the Daily Caller, the memo from the chairman of three congressional committees cites records from various shell companies which point to payments from several foreign countries, including China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan.
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Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee (R) acted as the acting governor of the state for an unclear period of time between Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon, as three of Arizona’s top Democrats happened to be in Washington, D.C. for meetings. Yee’s tenure was ended when Governor Katie Hobbs (D) returned to appear alongside President Joe Biden at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to honor the legacy of John McCain.
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The United Auto Workers (UAW) announced that they would be expanding their targeted strike to more manufacturing plants at noon on Friday following a failure to reach a new contract with automakers.
UAW announced that 7,000 more workers at two plants will join the strike at just Ford and General Motors, sparing Stellantis, as negotiations over new contracts continue to fail to reach a resolution, according to a UAW livestream Friday. The union last announced an expansion on Sept. 22 from just three plants to 41 across the U.S., with the new plants being split between Stellantis and GM, sparing Ford of more strikes after saying that the company had been more willing to cooperate in negotiations.
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Presidential candidate and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Friday to share his thoughts about Wednesday’s debate and to lay out his vision for the country, without the worry that his microphone was going to be cut off. TRANSCRIPT Michael Patrick Leahy: 7:33 a.m.; broadcasting live from our studios on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee, in-studio, the original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael. On the newsmaker line right now, my friend, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota, one of the seven candidates who was on the stage Wednesday night at the GOP debate. Governor Burgum, welcome to The Tennessee Star Report. Doug Burgum: Mike, great to be with you. Thanks for having me on. Michael Patrick Leahy: Doug, you and I have known each other for over 40 years. You were a year ahead of me at Stanford Business School. I remember you sort of in the halls talking with the guys that started with Sun Microsystem, and then you went on to be very successful. Went back to your hometown, Fargo, North Dakota, literally bet the farm, started Great Plains Software – very successful. You ended up selling it to…
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein, longest-serving woman in the Senate, dies at age 90, according to news reports Friday morning. The California Democrat has over the past several months and years struggled with health issues and was planning to retire at the end of her term this year.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) participated in Wednesday’s official groundbreaking for the Multi-Agency Law Enforcement Training Academy (MALETA) in Nashville’s Cockrill Bend.
The $415 million site campus will have housing and dining facilities for cadets and in-service employees, local and state law enforcement training facilities, and a new administrative headquarters building for the Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security and the Tennessee Department of Correction.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed another public comment opposing the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) latest rule to set new efficiency standards for consumer water heaters.
The DOE’s rule, proposed in July, would “prescribe energy conservation standards for various consumer products and certain commercial and industrial equipment, including consumer water heaters,” according to the department.
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The three House chairmen leading the impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden told fellow lawmakers Wednesday night that the president’s family collected at least $15 million in foreign funds and that there is evidence the Justice Department “obstructed” federal agents from pursuing evidence leading to the White House.
“Department of Justice personnel blocked avenues of inquiry that could have led to evidence incriminating President Biden and impeded efforts to prosecute Hunter Biden for tax crimes relating to foreign business arrangements that could have implicated President Biden,” Reps. James Comer, Jim Jordan and Jason Smith wrote in a 30-page memo to colleagues on the eve of the first impeachment inquiry hearing in Congress.
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Total encounters reported at both the northern and southwest land borders in August was 304,162, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. It is the greatest total number of illegal entries of any month in recorded U.S. history, according to CBP data.
Total encounter data excludes nearly 30,000 gotaways at the southwest border reported by Border Patrol agents last month. It excludes gotaways reported by Office of Field Operations agents at the southwest border and all gotaway data from the northern border.
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A district attorney from Shelby County has been suspended from practicing law after being arrested for allegedly driving under the influence.
“On September 27, 2023, the Supreme Court of Tennessee temporarily suspended Monica Aislynn Timmerman from the practice of law upon finding that Ms. Timmerman is substantially non-compliant with a Tennessee Lawyer Assistance Program and poses a threat of substantial harm to the public,” says a document issued by the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tennessee.
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Retailers lost more than $112 billion to crime in 2022, a roughly 19% increase in losses from 2021, a survey from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Loss Prevention Research Council found.
At least 28% of businesses who responded to the survey reported that they had closed locations because of organized retail theft, while 30% reduced or altered their in-store product selections. Out of the 177 retail brands surveyed, 88% said that shoplifters had become somewhat more or much more violent in 2022 compared to the previous year.
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The Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) Board this week considered changing eligibility rules for admission to its two highly successful academic magnet schools – Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School and Hume-Fogg Academic High School. If adopted, all prospective students would be subject to a lottery system for admission.
The proposed rule change would not go into effect until the 2024 – 2025 school year, but if adopted, would sever established pathways for entry into MLK and Home-Fogg. Currently, Meigs Middle School and John Early Middle School serve as pathway schools to Hume-Fogg, while Head Middle School and Rose Park Middle School serve as pathways to MLK.
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The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, is in its sixth week. Wednesday featured more testimony by Berkeley constitutional law professor John Yoo, who was grilled by State Bar of California attorney Duncan Carling about his opinion that there was no fraud in the 2020 election—the day concluded with some direct examination of Joseph Fried, an auditor who authored the book Debunked? investigating the allegations of election fraud.
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A privately funded passenger rail line that launched last week between Miami and Orlando holds great promise, Robert Poole of the Reason Foundation told The Center Square.
“It shows what can really be done if you approach it as a true business venture,” said Poole, the foundation’s director of transportation policy.
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A group called on the Democrat-dominated Michigan Legislature to boost electric vehicle incentives so the state can reach 2 million registered statewide by 2030.
Illinois leads the Midwest race to register EVs with nearly 80,000 EVs, while Minnesota has 41,417 and Michigan has 34,380. For Michigan to reach its EV goal, it must register 280,803 EVs each year until mid-2030, which would require registering 23,400 EVs every month for seven years.
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Pennsylvania higher education is crucial, costly and confusing.
So said state policymakers during a recent meeting with a trio of college leaders invited to share thoughts about the high cost of a degree and how the vision for higher education should look.
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Arizona Representative Eli Crane (R-AZ-02) confirmed his commitment to vote against any short-term spending bill, insisting he will only vote for the 12 appropriations bills Congress is legally obligated to create to fund the government, during a Thursday appearance on “The John Fredericks Show.”
Crane indicated he is proud to be called a “legislative terrorist” for his refusal to join moderate Republicans in their push for a quick spending bill to avoid a government shutdown, suggesting the $33 trillion debt and $2 trillion annual deficit mean “this thing doesn’t end well.” He also accused members of Republican Leadership and “many” House Republicans of having “no desire” to reign in spending.
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There’s a crisis in American democracy, all right, and the Left created it.
Last week, Democrats fired the latest salvo in a long war to radically transform American elections by eroding state and local control, replacing ballot-counters with a centralized, D.C.-run bureaucracy.
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The Georgia Senate Republican Caucus voted on Thursday to oust State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) after he circulated a legislative petition calling for a special session to impeach or defund Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and sent activists to door-knock in districts of senators who publicly opposed the petition.
Moore announced a petition for a special session to defund or impeach Willis following her indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 current or former allies who helped him contest the 2020 election, sparking support from the grassroots and caution from Republican leadership. Since then, activists working with Moore have door knocked in Republican districts to lobby voters against Republican senators who refused to back the petition.
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Jen Westmoreland, the partner of Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and newly announced candidate for county commissioner, pledged on Wednesday she would recuse herself from voting on any county board actions that would “personally benefit Mary.”
“My personal relationship does not diminish my dedication to the responsibilities of being your next commissioner,” Westmoreland said. “There are well-established protocols for mitigating conflicts of interest in Hennepin County, and we have already been taking these precautions.”
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The House on Wednesday approved U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany’s amendment blocking so-called sanctuary cities from receiving federal funds.
The Wisconsin Republican’s measure was included in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act.
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