Month: September 2023

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Announces New Grant Program to Support Human Trafficking Survivors

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Wednesday details of a new program to help victim service agencies supply the needs of survivors of human trafficking.

DeWine and the Ohio General Assembly established the new Direct Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Grant Program as a component of the state’s new operating budget. As part of this program, nonprofit groups now have access to $4 million in financing to effectively support the rising number of sex and labor trafficking victims needing assistance.

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Fulton County Sheriff’s Office Confirms Ex-Guard Accused of Strangling Detainee Is ‘Biologically a Female,’ Mug Shot Shows Person with Beard and Receding Hairline

Tom Pappert

A former guard at the Fulton County Jail, who was charged on Thursday after allegedly strangling a detainee to the point of losing consciousness, appears to be a biologically female person who identifies as a transgender male.

An indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday, charging former Fulton County Jail detention officer Monique Clark with using excessive force when allegedly strangling a female detainee until she fell unconscious and was injured. Conflicting reporting about Clark’s gender appears to indicate Clark was born biologically female, but now identifies as male.

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Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon Appoints Dennis Futch to Chair New Initiative, Serve as Vice Chair of the Finance Committee

Kaitlin Housler

Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) Josh McKoon recently announced his appointment of Dennis Futch to serve as vice chairman of the GAGOP Finance Committee and chairman of a new initiative launched by the party.

“As we remain laser focused on firing Joe Biden next year, we know that improved margins and increased turnout in rural Georgia is a key component to victory,” McKoon said in a statement. “Dennis Futch is the right man to help us build out the strategy to win big in rural Georgia next year. The Rural Mobilization Initiative is all about development and execution of a strategy to both improve our margins and increase voter turnout. I’m very excited to work with Dennis on this effort!”

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Jenny Tolman Releases New Music

Bethany Bowman

In March of 2022, I featured Jenny Tolman in my column as she was releasing her sophomore album and was on the cusp of getting married to GRAMMY-nominated producer Dave Brainard in Jackson, Wyoming, in a beautiful snow-covered ceremony. We did not expect that nine months later, Tolman would give birth to a bouncing baby boy, “Bear” Brainard.

Her songs, “Married in a Honky Tonk” and “I Know Some Cowboys” will always be two of my favorites.

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Senate Unanimously Approves Suit-and-Tie Dress Code

Just the News

The Senate unanimously approved a suit-and-tie dress code in a resolution that came a week and a half after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the decades-old unofficial policy would be relaxed.

Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin proposed the resolution with the new enforceable standards, which the Senate agreed to Wednesday by unanimous consent.

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CCP-Linked TikTok’s Personnel Can Allegedly Access Politicians’ Private Networks: Report

Admin

TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance’s personnel can allegedly view the private connections of a vast array of politicians, Forbes reported on Wednesday.

TikTok has a social graph tool that reveals connections of individuals including members of President Joe Biden’s family, governors, senators and state attorneys general, Forbes reported. Other social media companies have access to similar data but TikTok has fewer barriers for employees to view it and more personal information available for them to draw from, according to individuals who have worked for multiple tech firms who spoke to Forbes.

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Commentary: The Answer to American Electric Grid Reliability Is Fuel Cells

RealClearWire

In 1932, Americans were doggedly trudging through year three of the Great Depression when a candidate for president spoke of “the human importance of electric power in our present social order … It lights our homes, our places of work and our streets. It turns the wheels of most of our transportation and our factories. In our homes it serves not only for light, but it can become the willing servant of the family in countless ways … Electricity is no longer a luxury,” he declared. “It is a definite necessity.”

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CIA Creates Its Own Version of ChatGPT to Rival Chinese AI

Admin

Amid the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has developed its own AI tool in the same vein as ChatGPT, in an effort to combat the Chinese military’s AI advances.

As Just The News reports, the CIA plans to launch its own artificial intelligence platform in order to provide its employees with easier methods of accessing intelligence and information. Specifically, the new technology hopes to allow users to acquire the original source more quickly than before for faster analysis.

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Biden Evokes McCain’s Memory as He Warns of Trump’s ‘Threat to Democracy’

Admin

Politico President Joe Biden on Thursday declared that America must overcome new tests to its democracy, delivering his clearest warnings yet about what he believes is at stake in his coming reelection campaign against the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump. Biden selected Arizona — a state where the former president attempted to challenge the 2020 election results and considered a major battleground again next year — as the setting for his fourth major speech on protecting democracy. It is also home to the late Sen. John McCain, who Biden has pointed to as an example of what the Republican Party used to stand for before Trump was elected. Biden centered his speech around McCain’s legacy to make the case that preserving American institutions should not be a partisan issue. The president is fond of saying that McCain, a vocal Trump critic who died in 2018, would put patriotism before party — and he expressed concern that too many members of the senator’s Republican Party would instead pledge their loyalty to Trump over the Constitution. READ THE FULL STORY    

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Comer at First Impeachment Hearing: Biden’s Home Listed as ‘Beneficiary Address’ for Hunter Payment

Just the News

The first impeachment inquiry hearing of President Joe Biden is underway on Thursday in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

During the hearing, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said Biden “abused” his public office for his “family’s financial gain.” Comer said for years Biden has “lied” to the American people about not speaking to his family about foreign business dealings.

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Second GOP Presidential Debate Turns Into a Rhetorical Brawl as Candidates Jockey for Position in Trump-Dominated Race

M.D. Kittle

In a second GOP presidential debate that often seemed more like a disorderly reality TV show, the Babylon Bee’s satirical news headline may have best captured the mood of viewers: ‘Mute Button’ Wins GOP Debate.

The seven Republican candidates on stage at Wednesday evening’s gladiator match in Simi Valley’s Ronald Reagan Presidential Library shouted and talked over each other and slung more mud than an Iowa hog farm.

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Rep. Mark Green’s Hunting Education Bill Passes House with Bipartisan Support

Hannah Poling

Tennessee U.S. Congressman Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced on Tuesday that his Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act passed the House with bipartisan support to keep hunting and archery programs in U.S. schools.

This follows the Biden administration recently announced its plan to withhold funding from schools that provide these programs, claiming that under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) passed last year, school hunting and archery classes are precluded from receiving federal funding.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn Pushes to Support U.S. Education Cooperation with Taiwan over China

Hannah Poling

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is leading a bipartisan effort to push U.S. colleges and universities to support the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative as an alternative to China’s Confucius Institutes.

Blackburn along with U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced a Senate Resolution on Tuesday, to signal that the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative is supported on a bipartisan basis as a censorship-free alternative to Confucius Institutes.

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Federal Emergency Relief Funds Made Available to Offset Repair Costs on Roads in Cherokee National Forest

Kaitlin Housler

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently announced the immediate availability of $4.65 million in emergency relief funds to offset the costs of repairing road damage in the Cherokee National Forest due to flooding last month.

“These emergency funds will help restore vital transportation links in the Cherokee National Forest that were damaged by last month’s floods,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Transportation is an essential part of disaster recovery, and these funds will help clear debris and reconstruct pavement so that emergency vehicles can access the area, and residents can access their homes.”

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TikTok Employees Raise Concern over CCP Influence as China Execs Move In

Admin

Some employees at the popular social media platform TikTok are concerned about the influence the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has on the company as executives from its parent, ByteDance, take on new positions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

A number of high-level executives from ByteDance in China have taken on new roles at TikTok’s U.S. operation, with employees complaining internally that there may be greater CCP influence than what is being publicly disclosed, according to the WSJ. The China-based ByteDance is subject to CCP regulation and can be pressured by the government to hand over information that the company has collected, which has in the past raised concerns over whether American users of the app are having their data collected by the foreign government.

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Number of Illegal Migrants in Border Patrol Custody Surges to New High

Admin

The number of illegal migrants in Border Patrol custody nationwide surpassed 22,000 on Tuesday evening, according to internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Border Patrol across all sectors had almost 17,000 illegal migrants in custody on the evening of August 10 compared to 7,696 on the evening of June 8, according to internal CBP data previously obtained by the DCNF. Additionally, there were 8,923 migrant encounters by CBP on Monday and 7,730 illegal migrants released into the country, according to the new data.

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Federal Government Bypasses Tennessee State Government, Will Give Millions in Title X Funding Directly to Planned Parenthood

Peter D'Abrosca

In a move that drew criticism from Tennessee’s governor, the federal government plans to bypass the state’s health department and directly fund Planned Parenthood.

After the Human Life Protection Act took effect in August of 2022, ending the practice of abortion in Tennessee, Tennessee was denied Title X funding from the federal government.  

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Michigan Gives Ford Site Another $65 Million a Day After Pausing Construction

The Center Square

A day after Ford Motor Co. said it would pause construction on its $3.5 billion Marshall electric vehicle battery plant subsidized by $1.7 billion, the state of Michigan allocated the site another $65 million.

The Michigan Strategic Fund approved a $65 million Strategic Site Readiness Program Grant to the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance for land acquisition, site studies and water and wastewater upgrades.

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Shuttered: Democratic Cam-Girl’s Poll Numbers Flatline

Neil W. McCabe

The Democratic House of Delegates candidate and former cam-girl running to represent the 57th District, which includes Henrico County outside of Richmond, facing Republican David Owen, saw her poll numbers collapse after voters learned she posted sex videos online.

“Susanna Gibson is now viewed very unfavorably by voters, 27 percent favorable and 45 percent unfavorable, and is upside down with most demographic groups,” according to the memorandum accompanying the poll of 325 likely general election voters conducted Sept. 19 through Sept. 21 by the polling and predictive analytics firm Cygnal. The poll carries a 5.41 percentage point margin of error.

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Report: Jacksonville Uses Green Infrastructure to Combat Flooding

The Center Square

A recent report from Florida TaxWatch proposes new measures to help combat storm water runoff and reduce flooding through the use of green infrastructure.

Over the past few years, the Sunshine State has had its fair share of severe storms, as recently as August, when Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the Big Bend region of the state, causing widespread flooding to coastal towns.

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Anti-Trump Lawyer Slams ‘Unnecessary’ and ‘Partisan’ Indictments from Fani Willis

Tom Pappert

A lawyer and author renowned for his critiques of former President Donald Trump publicly criticized Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her case against the former president, calling it “unnecessary” and “partisan” in a podcast appearance on Tuesday.

Elie Honig, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney for the Southern District of New York, questioned whether Willis’s charges serve “the greater good” or “promote public confidence in the fairness” of the cases against Trump on the “CAFE Insider” podcast.

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Ohio Senate GOP Launches Podcast to Push Back Against Media ‘Left-Wing Bias’

Hannah Poling

The Ohio Senate GOP on Tuesday pushed back against the media’s “left-wing bias” by launching its own weekly podcast with State Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima).

According to Ohio Senate GOP director of communications John Fortney, Ohio’s main newspapers have an extreme left-wing bias, and their editorials attack Republicans in the General Assembly and read like Democratic Party press releases.

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Arizona Secretary of State Blames ‘MAGA Fascist Types’ Who ‘Want Our Systems to Crumble’ for High Election Official Turnover

Tom Pappert

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) blamed “MAGA fascist types” for the high turnover rate of the state’s election officials since 2020, claiming those who support former President Donald Trump “want our systems to crumble” during an interview with KTAR News 92.3 on Wednesday.

Responding to a new report from nonpartisan nonprofit group Issue One, which revealed that 80 percent of Arizona counties have hired new chief election officials since 2020, Fontes blamed Republicans for the high turnover.

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Arizona State Representative Opposes Mesa Hotel Purchase for Homeless

The Center Square

Arizona state Rep. Barbara Parker, R-Mesa, is opposing the city of Mesa’s plan to buy a hotel and use it for the homeless, a growing trend in the state.

Mesa is eyeing the purchase of the Grand Hotel on 6733 E. Main Street, in order to use the 70-room building for it’s “temporary housing program” known as Off the Streets, according to the city website.

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America First Legal Asks Education Department to Investigate Alleged Georgia Tech Discrimination Against Men

Tom Pappert

Conservative litigation group America First Legal (AFL) asked for a federal investigation into the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech, over alleged discrimination against men in its new Rising Stars program that only accepts students who are biologically female, identify as female, or do not identify as any gender, in a letter sent Tuesday.

AFL alleges Georgia Tech is violating Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972, which prohibits gender-based exclusion in “any education program or activity receiving federal Federal financial assistance,” and sent a letter to the Department of Education asking it launch an investigation based on the legal group’s evidence.

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AGs Ask Supreme Court to Overrule Restrictions on Enforcing Homeless Camping Bans

The Center Square

A group of 20 attorneys general want the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule a lower court’s restrictions on local governments enforcing homeless camping bans.

In their petition regarding Johnson v. City of Grants Pass, the attorneys general wrote that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was wrong to prohibit state and local governments from enforcing laws that bar public spaces from being used as homeless encampments.

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DHS Stonewalls on Legal Basis for Policing ‘Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation’

Just the News

The Department of Homeland Security is not only hiding the purported legal basis for its authority to police misinformation, disinformation and malinformation – the latter sometimes jeered as “true but inconvenient” – but also any explanation for invoking an unexpected Freedom of Information Act exemption to hide them.

Hastily stitched together 22 years ago to prevent another Islamic terrorist attack but since turning its sights on domestic political disputes, the agency gave Just the News a lengthy defense of its work against disinformation but not an answer to how disclosure of its “MDM Space” legal authorities would imperil law enforcement work.

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Report: Dr. Fauci ‘Played a Role’ in the CIA’s Cover-Up of COVID-19 Lab-Leak Origins

Admin

During the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci was secretly “escorted” to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., where he worked to “influence” the agency’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19, according to new information gathered by the Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the chairman of the Coronavirus Committee, revealed this “concerning information” in a letter to Inspector General Christi Grimm of the ​​Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Tuesday. According to Wenstrup,  Fauci’s off-the-books visit suggests he “played a role” in the CIA’s sham review into the origins of COVID-19. Fauci at the time was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the the White House chief medical adviser under then-President Donald Trump.

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FBI Refuses to Release Documents in Probe into Possible Nationwide Voter Registration Fraud

Just the News

The FBI took over a 2020 probe into voter registration fraud that began in Michigan but has denied a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the investigation, citing an exemption in that law regarding ongoing investigations.

According to the dozens of pages of police reports from the Muskegon Police Department and Michigan State Police, a firm called GBI Strategies was under scrutiny as an organization central to alleged voter registration fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The matter was initially investigated by city and state authorities before the FBI took over. 

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Republicans Praise Bold Proposal Which Could Lead to State of Tennessee Rejecting All Federal Money from U.S. Department of Education, Democrats Whine Plan is ‘Misguided’

TC Weber

The creation of a new joint working group by Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) to study the impact federal funds have on education in the Volunteer State is eliciting a mixed response.

State Senator Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol) and State Representative Debra Moody (R-Covington) will lead the new group. The state senator welcomes the opportunity to discuss using federal money in education.

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Carol Swain’s Morning Memorandum: New Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Brown Is Sacrificing a Strong Military for ‘Diversity’

Tennessee Star Staff

All star panelist and author Carol Swain joined Michael Patrick Leahy in-studio on Wednesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report to introduce listeners to her first-ever Morning Memorandum. In her first installment, Swain discussed the importance of a strong U.S. military, and her concerns surrounding the weakness of the current leadership heading the world’s premier fighting force that instead is being directed to focus on “diversity.”

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In Disbarment Trial of Trump’s Attorney John Eastman, Berkeley Constitutional Law Professor John Yoo Contradicts California Bar’s Star Witness on the Key Issue

Rachel Alexander

The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman began its sixth week on Tuesday, featuring more testimony from Berkeley constitutional law professor John Woo. The trial moved into the second half a couple of weeks ago, where Eastman’s team presents his side of the case. His attorney Randy Miller brought Woo back to contradict the testimony of the State Bar of California’s star witness, Matthew Seligman.

California Disciplinary Court Judge Yvette Roland, who donated to Democrats while serving on the bench, appeared to be a bit lost shortly after beginning Tuesday’s proceedings, asking Miller, “We’re in the midst of your case in chief right?” Shortly after that, the California bar’s attorney Duncan Carling told Roland that Yoo never claimed that there were dueling sets of electors in the 2020 election, which she did not remember. 

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Senator Marsha Blackburn Demands Transparency from HHS over Missing Migrant Children Response

Hannah Poling
Group of immigrants at border

On Monday, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) demanded honesty and transparency from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra over the reports of his Department’s mistreatment of 85,000 missing migrant children.

This follows Becerra and his Department stonewalling Blackburn in her initial request in April for documentation about his knowledge of the potential child exploitation and the Department’s retaliation against whistleblowers.

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Coast Guard Saves Drowning Crane Operator After Accident Near Memphis

Peter D'Abrosca

According to a maritime news outlet, the United States Coast Guard in Memphis saved a drowning man’s life last week after the crane he was operating fell into McKellar Lake.

“The U.S. Coast Guard helped resuscitated an unresponsive crane operator Tuesday near Memphis, Tennessee, after the crane he was operating fell into the water,” according to a Coast Guard release. 

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U.S. Regulators Sue Amazon for Allegedly Inflating Prices Through Monopoly

Just the News

The Federal Trade Commission and 17 state attorneys general sued Amazon on Tuesday for allegedly using its power as a monopoly to illegally block competition and inflate prices.

“The complaint alleges that Amazon violates the law not because it is big, but because it engages in a course of exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging,” the FTC said in an announcement about the complaint against Amazon. 

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Nearly Half of Homeschool Parents Cite ‘Liberal’ Public Schools as Motivating Factor: Poll

Admin

Almost half of parents turning to homeschooling today say they are concerned about their children being “influenced by liberal viewpoints,” according to a Washington Post and George Mason University poll released Tuesday.

The number of American families that are homeschooling saw a significant spike following the COVID-19 pandemic, with one study finding that the number had risen by 30% during the 2021-2022 school year, according to the Urban Institute. A new poll found that, when asked why they decided to homeschool, 46% of families replied that they were worried that “local public schools” are “too influenced by liberal viewpoints,” according to the Post.

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