A new bill aims to protect public access to government communications under the Freedom of Information Act by preventing the government from speaking in code to thwart records requests.
State Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, introduced the legislation after a lawsuit claimed Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration used encrypted Greek letters to discuss the Benton Harbor water lead crisis to avoid public scrutiny.
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Connecticut taxpayers will be covering some health care costs for thousands of paraeducators as the state seeks to fill workforce shortages in public schools.
A new program rolled out Wednesday by state Comptroller Sean Scanlon includes a one-time $5 million subsidy that will help pay paraeducators’ health insurance bills not covered by local school districts.
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The news just keeps getting worse for President Joe Biden and his re-election bid.
Already facing an overwhelming majority of Americans who do not want to see him run again (including an alarming number of Democrats), the liberal incumbent is polling under former President Trump and other GOP presidential candidates, according to a new CNN poll.
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Democrats challenging Ohio’s Republican-drawn state legislative map asked the Ohio Supreme Court this week to dismiss their own lawsuits, claiming that a newly passed map this year may be worse than the map currently in use.
Democrats submitted the lawsuits in 2021 contending that the current legislative map “unduly favors the Republican Party.”
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On Wednesday the City of Phoenix approved casitas, or accessory dwelling units (ADUs), to be built in back yards of existing homes, in a move aimed at shoring up the amount of affordable housing in the city.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and city council members approved the change to the city’s zoning to help address the 270,000 housing unit shortage in Arizona, reported ABC 15.
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Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Wednesday blasted the lengthy sentences given to Proud Boys members and said that he is considering pardons to “ensure that everyone’s treated equally.”
Multiple members of the group were sentenced to prison terms of up to 22 years over their involvement in Jan. 6. DeSantis noted that similar sentences were not imposed over the riots that followed the death of George Floyd in May 2020, which resulted in at least 24 people being killed and caused nearly $1 billion in property damage.
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What shameless act or felonious activity was not evidenced on Hunter Biden’s laptop? Racist attitudes toward Asians? Soliciting prostitution? Felonious use of drugs? Photographed nudity and perverse sex? Admissions to illicit foreign shakedowns?
Hunter all but accused his own father President Joe Biden of also being on the foreign take: “I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family… Unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary.”
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A court in Arizona ruled that the Secretary of State office’s ballot signature verification guidance does “not have the force of law,” dealing a blow to the state’s Democrat leaders.
The ruling in the Superior Court of Yavapai County came after an election integrity group challenged Arizona’s new Elections Procedures Manual (EPM).
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Another inmate serving time at the Fulton County Jail has died after being found unresponsive in their cell last month, according to a press release by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO).
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The disbarment trial of constitutional legal scholar John Eastman, who advised former President Donald Trump on challenging election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, continued on Wednesday featuring cross-examination of Eastman by the State Bar of California’s attorney Duncan Carling and testimony from Jake Rollow, who was progressive election official from Michigan.
Rollow was the communications director for the Michigan Secretary of State during the 2020 election.
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Georgia State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) joined “The John Fredericks Show” on Wednesday to defend his push for a special session in the Georgia Legislature to defund or impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, and confronted accusations of grifting by announcing plans to spend money raised on the special session in the districts of legislators who are outspoken in their opposition to the special session.
Moore, who has used the press generated by Trump’s arrest and his special session petition for fundraising, said he intends to use the money to challenge Republican critics of the petition by sending text messages to voters in their districts.
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Tea Party Patriots co-founder Jenny Beth Martin joined members of the Georgia Freedom Caucus on Thursday, including State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) and State Representative Charlice Byrd (R-Woodstock), for a rally and press conference in support of Moore’s petition calling for Governor Brian Kemp (R) to call a special session to defund or impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
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A federal judge ruled Wednesday in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott installing marine barriers in the Rio Grande River is illegal. After the ruling, Abbott said Texas was appealing.
Two lawsuits were filed over the marine barriers: one by the federal government and one by a Texas-based kayaking company seeking to end Abbott’s border security mission, Operation Lone Star. The ruling issued on Wednesday relates to the federal case only.
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Music Spotlight artist Levi Hummon teamed up with actor and alternative pop-rocker Sam Tinnesz, to bring us his latest single, “Rock Bottom.”
The native Nashvillian is now 32. He was signed to Big Machine Records in his early 20s and has had a decade of putting out music and touring.
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Banking whistleblowers first began raising alarms about Hunter Biden’s business deals as long ago as Spring 2015 while his father was still serving as vice president, flagging what they feared were “suspicious” transactions and “fraudulent” schemes. One of the bankers became so concerned he eventually escalated his concerns to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) only a few days before Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, according to documents provided to Congress and obtained by Just the News.
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By now almost every American child starts a new school year. Many challenges confront families seeking solid formations for their children — from school violence, to radical secular humanist indoctrination, to the ongoing severe harm inflicted by the 2020-2021 lockdowns.
But Biden’s created border crisis now adds to that list of hurdles, as schools across the country – not just in border areas – grapple to deal with an illegal influx that prioritizes foreign migrants above our own American children.
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Special counsel David Weiss’s office has indicated that it will seek an indictment against first son Hunter Biden by the end of the month.
“The Speedy Trial Act requires that the Government obtain the return of an indictment by a grand jury by Friday, September 29, 2023, at the earliest. The Government intends to seek the return of an indictment in this case before that date,” prosecutors wrote in a filing NBC News obtained.
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A jury on Thursday convicted former Trump advisor Peter Navarro of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee to testify and provide documents.
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The Hill Special counsel David Weiss will seek to indict Hunter Biden before the end of this month, the prosecutor said in a court filing updating a judge on his investigation into the president’s son’s failure to pay taxes. “The Speedy Trial Act requires that the Government obtain the return of an indictment by a grand jury by Friday, September 29, 2023, at the earliest,” Weiss wrote. “The Government intends to seek the return of an indictment in this case before that date.” READ THE FULL STORY
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In episode 22 of his newest production, “Tucker on Twitter,” former Fox News primetime host Tucker Carlson sat down with Larry Sinclair, the man who claims he had sexual intercourse and did cocaine with former President Barack Obama in 1999.
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A Tennessee state senator said Dr. Bren Elliott, Tennessee’s new State Turnaround Superintendent, and new State Education Commissioner Lizette Gonzalez Reynolds, do not reflect “the educational philosophy desired by parents and Tennesseans.”
“The hiring of Bren Elliott is the continuation of the bad decision of hiring Commissioner Reynolds. They represent the destructive direction of schools becoming ‘mental and emotional institutions’ rather than traditional educational facilities,” State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma).
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Forbes estimates the Tennessee Titans’ value has reached $4.4 billion, up 26% from last year.
The Titans are one of just four National Football League teams to see a more than 20% value increase, along with the Las Vegas Raiders, Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns, Forbes wrote.
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Meta’s Oversight Board ruled Wednesday that Facebook and Instagram showed “patterns of censorship” by removing posts about abortion that the social media platforms claimed constituted death threats.
The board had been weighing a series of posts that were initially taken down by Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, for potential death threats against both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates before being reinstated after appeals from the users. The board took up the case in June and announced this week that Facebook had erred by removing the posts, according to the ruling.
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Around 25 Tennessee National Guardsmen deployed Tuesday for a year-long deployment to the Middle East.
“We have an incredibly professional and well-trained team,” said Capt. Jeffry Rennert, commander of the 1130th Finance Detachment, according to a press release from the Tennessee Department of Military. “We have been working hard to prepare for this mission over the past year, and I could not be any prouder of what my Raptors (unit’s mascot) have accomplished to get ready.”
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A House Democrat predicted Tuesday on an episode of Bloomberg’s podcast “Sound On” that President Joe Biden would intervene to avoid a major auto industry strike.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) is currently in negotiations with the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — over employment contracts for unionized workers that are set to expire on Sept. 14. Virginia Democratic Rep. Don Beyer told “Sound On” host Joe Mathieu that he believes that Biden will prevent a strike between the Big Three and UAW by intervening in negotiations, citing past interventions in union negotiations.
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A Tennessee veteran became the 33rd Tennessean to receive the Medal of Honor, the highest honor the United States can bestow on a member of the military.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden awarded the honor to 81-year-old former Army pilot Captain Larry Taylor who, while serving in the Vietnam War, risked his life by flying into intense enemy fire to save four members of a reconnaissance squad from an imminent enemy overtake.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) announced this week it has identified human remains from a cold case murder that took place nearly four decades ago in 1983.
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Four Tennessee counties affected by severe storms in July have been approved to receive assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA) program, the federal agency announced this week.
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Tennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) said that Tennessee will not comply with any effort by the federal government to reinstate COVID-19 mask mandates.
According to Zachary, Tennessee has safeguards in place to prevent the government from imposing another mask mandate in the state.
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GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy released a statement on Wednesday vowing to pardon all non-violent January 6 protesters if he’s elected in 2024.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from 54 states and territories urging federal lawmakers to study and eventually propose legislation to protect children from being exploited through artificial intelligence (AI).
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A state representative who announced her run for U.S. Senate Tuesday once told a news outlet that North Korea was more democratic than the state of Tennessee.
“I feel like North Korea has more democracy than we do in the state of Tennessee, and it’s terrifying to me that we’re in this march to fascism,” State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) told Mother Jones in April. “And it seems like the Tennessee supermajority is leading the charge.”
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State Senator Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson) emerged victorious after the recall petition against her failed, with activists returning zero petitions to the government. Wadsack, speaking to The Arizona Sun Times, thanked her supporters in Legislative District 17 for becoming her surrogates through the process.
Wadsack said in a press release that “the far left so-called ‘recall effort’ in LD17 has failed” to return “a single signature” by the September 5 deadline, and said their failure “amounts to a third electoral victory after being nominated in 2022 and then elected in November.” She added that the recall “was never a serious effort” but rather “a 4-month social media campaign with little to no ground game.”
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Floridians Protecting Freedom, sponsors of an initiative that would prohibit restrictions on abortions before fetal viability, have submitted 297,586 valid signatures as of Sept. 1, qualifying the proposal for a review by the state Supreme Court.
The initiative would provide that “no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” The amendment would not change the state legislature’s ability to require parental notification for abortions sought by minors.
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Former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan announced Wednesday he was running for outgoing Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat.
Rogers joins several other Republican hopefuls in their attempts to flip the seat red, and could face Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the general election, as she is the current frontrunner in her party’s crowded primary. The former congressman touted his time in the military, as well as his experience as a special agent for the FBI and as the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, in his announcement video, while slamming the Biden administration for enabling an open southern border, “a broken system of justice,” inflation and “social engineering” in schools.
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U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) introduced legislation on Tuesday to prevent the re-imposition of federal mask mandates in the United States.
The Freedom to Breathe Act, sponsored by Vance would prohibit any federal official, including the president, from issuing mask mandates applying to domestic air travel, public transit systems, or primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools.
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The second attempt from Wisconsin Republican lawmakers to cut taxes will end the same as the first Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday.
Evers took to social media to promise a veto for the $3 billion tax cut that began its journey through the legislature Wednesday.
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Most folks would agree that when it comes to your utility provider, the expectations are simple – a reliable service that provides clean water and functioning electricity. Focusing and delivering on these modest expectations should be the straightforward objective of any successful utility provider, which is why it’s so mind boggling to see that despite failing its customers on this front, Cleveland Utilities intends to move forward in its costly and risky pursuit to become a broadband internet provider.
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Saturday’s Cy-Hawk showdown will feature an added layer of competition, the kind the first-in-the-nation caucus state has grown accustomed to.
Former President Donald Trump and GOP presidential rivals Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson will be in attendance at annual intrastate battle between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames.
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Don’t look now, but former President Donald Trump has opened up a massive lead among independents against President Joe Biden, 43 percent to 32 percent, in the latest Economist-YouGov poll take Aug. 26 to Aug. 29, following the four indictments against him by New York City prosecutors, Special Counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County, Ga. prosecutors.
That’s an improvement from Aug. 12 to Aug. 15 when Trump led among independents 32 percent to 25 percent in the Economist-YouGov poll.
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Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is in a tie for second place with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Granite State, while former President Donald Trump remains the clear front runner in the primary contest.
Haley and DeSantis earned 10% support each from Republican primary voters in an NMB Research poll, which Politico reviewed. Trump, meanwhile, claimed 47% support. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and tech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy tied for fourth place with 8% each.
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While students across the state are now back in class, the list of secondary schools that will begin the year without a school resource officer continues to grow.
On Monday the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office announced it will pull its officers it has contracted as SROs from six schools in the east metro. Well more than a dozen law enforcement agencies across the state have now pulled their SROs from school campuses in the wake of a new law they say the legislature needs to fix so their officers can safely do their jobs.
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Philadelphia’s first black female police commissioner, Danielle Outlaw, will leave her post in late September.
Outlaw assumed the post in February 2020 and will depart on Sept. 22 to assume a position with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Fox News reported.
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Wednesday marked the first, live-streamed hearing in Fulton County’s racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants who aided his 2020 election contest, and prosecutors revealed that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis intends to call 150 witnesses over a four-month trial slated to begin on October 23.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee originally planned for the hearing to include arraignments, but all 19 defendants waived their right to arraignment and entered not guilty pleas before the court appearance. Instead, Judge McAfee heard attorneys for Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro invoke their clients’ rights to a speedy trial, specifically requesting to be severed from each other and the other defendants in the case.
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A federal judge has restored a Georgia law banning transgender hormone treatments for minors in the state on Tuesday after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a similar Alabama law.
Georgia’s Republican-backed SB 140 bans licensed medical professionals from providing minor patients with cross-sex hormone therapy, with potential criminal and civil penalties for healthcare providers found flaunting the law. Though the law went into effect in July, a legal challenge brought in June ultimately allowed U.S. District Judge Sarah Geraghty to block its enforcement beginning on October 20.
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Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced a tutoring program with hopes to combat the negative consequences of learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $40 million program intended to pay public school teachers an additional $30 an hour if they take part in the program starting Oct. 2. According to a news release, private tutoring companies will also be allowed to take part.
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The fourth week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s attorney John Eastman resumed on Tuesday, with State Bar of California attorney Duncan Carling continuing his cross-examination of the constitutional scholar. The bar is trying to take away his license to practice law due to advising Trump that Vice President Mike Pence may have had the authority to reject electoral slates from states suspected of election fraud.
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North Dakota Governor and GOP presidential hopeful Doug Burgum may be lagging far behind in the national polls, but this long-shot candidate is brimming with confidence.
Still hobbled by a severe Achille’s tendon injury suffered during a pick-up basketball game the day before last month’s pivotal first Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, Burgum says he’s here to stay for the long haul. At least until the first culling contests early next year in the 2024 nomination chase.
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The Atlanta Police Department announced Tuesday “multiple acts of violence” broke out in Atlanta over the Labor Day weekend which resulted in 17 individuals being shot.
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The Wisconsin Elections Commission has lost a lawsuit challenging its use of an unlawful voter registration form, the latest legal problem for a controversial state elections regulator with a history of bending the law.
The lawsuit, filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on behalf of Wisconsin taxpayer and voter Richard Braun, challenged the use of the National Mail Voter Registration Form in Wisconsin.
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