Biden to Create White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention

The Hill The White House will announce this week that it is creating an office of gun violence prevention to focus on efforts to curb gun violence, two sources familiar confirmed to The Hill. Gun violence prevention advocates and Democratic lawmakers have been pushing the White House to establish a designated office solely focused on gun violence.   Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who is known for his focus on gun violence prevention, applauded the White House on Wednesday after reports of the first-of-its-kind office. READ THE FULL STORY               

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Lawmakers Blast Chinese Communist Party’s Influence on American Classrooms

House lawmakers held a hearing to investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged efforts to influence American classrooms.

The Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee held the hearing, led by Chair Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla. The lawmakers brought scrutiny against Confucius Classrooms, a program with ties to the CCP, which promote teaching things like the Chinese language and culture, among other things, in hundreds of classrooms around the country.

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Media Fumed over Trump’s Detention of Illegal Immigrants, Now Issue Has Boomeranged on Biden

Border surge

Former President Donald Trump attracted intense media scrutiny and criticism over the detention of illegal immigrants. But now the issue has boomeranged on the Biden administration and his party, which is being cited by government watchdogs for poor conditions at  Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities during the surge at the southern border.

More than six million immigrants have illegally entered the United States during Joe Biden’s presidency. The influx appears to have placed considerable strain on facilities intended to accommodate fresh arrivals. Federal agencies are seemingly unable to provide adequate service in the face of the sheer volume.

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Commentary: Thank God for the Principled Senator Tuberville

These days, Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is an endangered species in official Washington. That’s not because political hacks – in uniform and out – are taking every imaginable cheap shot at him, including that he is “endangering our national security” by holding up the promotions of some 300 officers.

The latest to do so is the American Legion, an organization that once faithfully championed our armed forces’ warriors, both serving and veteran. As its attack on Coach Tuberville demonstrates, however, the Legion has been reduced to just another special interest group pandering to those in power in exchange for favorable treatment.

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Neil W. McCabe: Trump’s Decision to Skip the Second Debate and Go to Michigan Has Democrats ‘Freaking Out’

National political reporter Neil W. McCabe shares his insights and political acumen as a new week in presidential politics unfolds on Wednesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report. Host Michael Patrick Leahy, along with all-star panelists Crom Carmichael and Carol Swain join in to discuss Donald Trump’s latest decision to skip the second debate and instead, go to the striking UAW auto workers – and sending Michigan Democrats into a tizzy.  TRANSCRIPT Michael Patrick Leahy: 7:20 a.m. – in-studio, original all-star panelist, Crom Carmichael; all-star panelist, Carol Swain. On the newsmaker line right now, the best national political correspondent in the country, our good friend, Neil W. McCabe. Neil, good morning. Neil W. McCabe: Hey, Michael, Crom, Carol, good to be with you. Michael Patrick Leahy: So we have some counterprogramming going on again from Donald J. Trump. We had the Tucker Carlson interview in the first debate of the Munchkins, and now there’s going to be a second debate at the Reagan Library Donald Trump is not going to go there. Tell us where he’s going to go and why. Neil W. McCabe: I’ll tell you, Donald Trump is brilliant. He is a showman and he is going…

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Feds Thwarted Probe into Possible ‘Criminal Violations’ Involving 2020 Biden Campaign, Agents Say

The FBI and IRS probed allegations that Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign may have benefitted from “campaign finance criminal violations” by allowing a politically connected lawyer to help pay off Hunter Biden’s large tax debts but agents were blocked by federal prosecutors from further action, according to new information uncovered by congressional investigators.

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Senate and House Campaign Security Spending Increases over 500 Percent in Two Years

House and Senate campaign security budgets were more than 500% higher in the 2022 midterms than they were during the 2020 election season, according to a new analysis.

The House and Senate spent $1.3 million on security for their 2020 campaigns but spent nearly $8 million in 2022, “The Washington Post” reported Monday, citing Federal Election Commission records. 

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Anti-Gun Celebrity Says Moving to Tennessee Saved Her Life

A famous country singer who has been a driving force behind the gun control movement in Tennessee says that fleeing New York and Los Angeles and moving to the Volunteer State saved her life. 

“I completely relate to Nashville because I have a lot of friends there who are also in the music business,” Sheryl Crow told Rolling Stone in 2003. “But not only that, I just relate to the people. I relate to the friendliness and down-homeness. I feel a relaxation that comes over my body that I usually don’t feel when I’m in New York or L.A.”

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Senator Bill Hagerty Joins Legislative Effort to Secure the Southern Border

Tennessee U.S. Senator and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bill Hagerty (R-TN) joined the effort to secure the southern border by introducing companion legislation in the Senate to the House-passed Secure the Border Act of 2023.

Hagerty, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), along with nine other Senate Republican colleagues, on Monday introduced the companion legislation into the U.S. Senate.

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Burgum Campaign Announces ‘Cutting-Edge’ Voter Contact Effort as the GOP Presidential Long-Shot Looks to Miss Second Debate

The campaign for North Dakota Governor and Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum said it’s rolling out a “cutting-edge voter contact surge” that will target more “persuadable” voters.

Will it be enough to move the needle for a long-shot candidate on the outside looking in to next week’s second GOP presidential debate?

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Atlanta to Scan Petitions to Stop Public Safety Training Center, Post Online

The City of Atlanta has approved legislation to scan more than 115,000 petition signatures calling for a referendum on the Atlanta Public Safety Safety Training Center on Monday. After scanning the petitions, Atlanta will make them available to the public, but will not determine the validity of the signatures at this time.

Activists claimed to deliver 116,000 petition signatures on September 11, nearly doubling the 58,232 required to force a public vote on the future of the training center for law enforcement and first responders. However, a legal ruling briefly extended the petition deadline from August 21 to late October, before it was stayed by a higher court. Atlanta ultimately accepted the petitions, but said it would not begin processing them until it received guidance from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Arizona Lawsuit to Disqualify Trump from 2024 Ballot Begins October 23

A lawsuit aimed at disqualifying former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot in Arizona is set to be heard by a federal judge on October 23.

The lawsuit was filed in Arizona federal court by John Anthony Castro, who Arizona’s Family describes as a “long-shot Republican presidential candidate from Texas.” Castro, who claims to be mounting a nationwide write-in campaign, argues that Trump’s alleged role in the civil unrest on January 6, 2021 should preclude him from running for office.

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Senator JD Vance Calls the Biden Administration’s EV Agenda a ‘Threat’ to the U.S. Auto Industry

U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) said on Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s forced transition to electric vehicles (EV) threatens the bargaining power of the U.S. auto industry.

This follows the United Auto Workers (UAW), an American labor union, calling for a strike at the Big 3 U.S. automakers, General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, in Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio last week. The UAW is demanding shorter work weeks, restoration of defined benefit pensions, and stronger job security as automakers transition to electric vehicles.

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Mark Meadows Argues Fani Willis ‘Committed Errors’ in ‘Unnecessary’ Effort to Keep Case in Fulton County

Mark Meadows, the former White House Chief of Staff for the Trump administration, argued in a Monday legal filing that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis “committed errors” that raise “serious constitutional concerns” in her “unnecessarily complicated” attempts to prevent his case from being removed to a federal court.

Meadows has repeatedly asserted the case brought against him by Fulton County should be tried in a federal court, citing his position as a government employee who answered directly to former President Donald Trump when his alleged offenses were committed. U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones denied various attempts from Meadows to remove the case, but late last week the 11th Circuit announced it would hear his appeal and grant it expedited status.

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Abortion-Related Bill Filed as Florida Supreme Court Ponders Six-Week Ban Law

A bill seeking to prevent Florida women from being prosecuted for seeking abortions out of state was filed last week as the state Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the state’s six-week abortion ban. 

In a news release, Florida Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book, D-Davie, said she had filed legislation to prevent pregnant women and girls from being criminally charged and imprisoned for obtaining an abortion, stating that the new bill — Senate Bill 34 — was in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ claim that only abortion providers would be prosecuted.

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Pennsylvania Launches ‘Automatic Voter Registration’ Plan Ahead of 2024

Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday that he will implement “automatic voter registration” ahead of the 2024 election.

The governor rolled out his plan on National Voter Registration Day to “streamline” the voter registration process, which he argues will “save taxpayers time and money,” according to an announcement video. Shapiro’s plan will automatically enroll Pennsylvanians in the voting system, unless the individual opts out, when receiving an identification card or driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

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Three More Minnesota Agencies Suspend School Resource Officer Programs

At least three more police agencies have announced within the last week that they are suspending their school resource officer (SRO) programs in response to a new state law.

The new law, passed during the 2023 legislative session, prohibits SROs in cases where there is no threat of bodily harm or death from using the prone restraint or any force that “places pressure or weight on a pupil’s head, throat, neck, chest, lungs, sternum, diaphragm, back, or abdomen.”

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Michigan Supreme Court to Hear COVID Tuition Refund Case

The Michigan Supreme Court has announced the cases they will hear in their new session beginning in October. One of those cases is a lawsuit that was filed by students against Lake Superior State University, Central Michigan University and Eastern Michigan. In their lawsuit, they seek reimbursement for tuition, room and board and fees paid for classes during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The students feel the colleges breached their agreements by failing to provide live and in-person instruction.

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Dumping Professor for Showing Class Muhammad Art May Be ‘Religious Discrimination,’ Court Rules

A federal judge refused to dismiss religious discrimination claims against a private university that dumped an art history professor after she showed her class “Islamophobic” depictions of the Prophet Muhammad commissioned by Muslims, saying the “novelty” of Erika Lopez Prater’s argument didn’t make it implausible.

The order Friday by U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez means ongoing scrutiny of Hamline University, whose President Fayneese Miller announced her scheduled retirement two months after an overwhelming vote of no-confidence from faculty in the wake of Prater’s non-renewal.

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Governor Mike DeWine Announces Hundreds of Air Taxis to be Manufactured in Ohio

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik, and JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef announced on Monday that Joby Aviation Inc. plans to build an electric air taxi manufacturing facility in the state.

According to the press release, the company will build the facility at the Dayton International Airport and anticipates the project to create 2,000 new jobs in the area.

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Report: Virginia Ranks ‘Best State for Teachers’

Virginia is 2023’s best state for teachers, according to a study conducted by personal finance website WalletHub.

WalletHub ranked states by 24 weighted metrics in two major categories: Opportunity and competition and academic and work environment. Virginia placed first for the former and eleventh for the latter, but opportunity and competition was weighted more than twice as heavily as academic and work environment because “competitive salaries and job security are integral to a well-balanced personal and professional life,” according to the study.

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Kari Lake Files Opening Brief with Arizona Court of Appeals in Election Lawsuit Containing New Evidence and Alleging Crimes

Kari Lake’s appeal of the second dismissal of her lawsuit by the trial court judge is winding its way back up through the courts. Last week, she filed her opening brief with the Arizona Court of Appeals. Much of the brief focused on Maricopa County’s failure to conduct Logic & Accuracy (L&A) testing and the failure to compare voters’ signatures on their mail-in ballot affidavits to the signatures on their voter registrations, both a violation of state law and the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM). Violations of the EPM are class 2 misdemeanors.

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Music Spotlight: Erin Kirby

Erin Kirby is a country music singer from the small town of Jasper, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. She got her start in music by being in pageants, the kinds that have talent as part of the criterion. She did community service-based, natural pageants that don’t allow makeup for ages nine and under. Erin completed in pageants singing pop tunes until she was about 12 years old. Pageants gave her a place to sing and showcase her talent.

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Biden Admin Shuts Down Future Oil and Gas Activity on Thousands of Acres

The Biden administration announced Monday that it has moved to shut down future oil, gas and mining activity on thousands of acres of New Mexico land for the next 50 years.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a sub-agency of the Department of the Interior (DOI), issued the Monday proposal to block new oil, gas and mineral extraction activity on 4,000 acres of land in Sandoval County, New Mexico, according to a DOI press release. The proposal is motivated by the agency’s desire to safeguard tribal cultures and recreational activity in the area, and the policy would last for 50 years if finalized.

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Government Jobs Increasing Under Biden

A significant portion of the jobs that have been added to the U.S. economy under Biden consists of government jobs and other public sector positions, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

As the Daily Caller reports, a total of 327,000 public sector jobs have been added to the economy from January to August of 2023, accounting for 17.4% of all jobs. During the same period of time in 2022, only about 175,000 public sector jobs were added, amounting to just 5% of all jobs. Overall job growth has also been slower in 2023, with a total of 1,884,000 jobs added this year compared to 3,590,000 jobs added during the same period in 2022.

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Paul Sperry Commentary: Did Hunter Biden Lie to His Own Memoir?

In a raft of glowing reviews, Hunter Biden’s 2019 memoir “Beautiful Things” was celebrated as an “unflinchingly honest” (Entertainment Weekly), “confession and an act of contrition” (Guardian), that was “candid” and “doesn’t hold back details” (New York Times) of his substance abuse and broken relationships.  

While describing the book as an “unvarnished confessional,” the Washington Post exalted it as a “harrowing, relentless and a determined exercise in trying to seize his own narrative from the clutches of the Republicans and the press. 

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