Day: December 15, 2023

Shelby County Judge Criminally Indicted for Harassment, Coercion amid Claims She Used Drugs While on Bench

Tom Pappert

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Melissa Boyd was criminally indicted and taken into Memphis Police Department (MPD) custody on Wednesday, after she allegedly harassed and attempted to coerce her former campaign manager. The former employee previously went to the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct (TBJC) with claims Boyd was under the influence of drugs while hearing cases.

Boyd was indicted in Shelby County with one count of coercion of a witness and one count of harassment, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Bond was set at $5,000, and Boyd was able to secure her release. She has since been suspended from the bench by the TBJC.

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Congress Votes to Extend FBI Warrantless Surveillance Tool Without Reforming It

Admin

Congress voted Thursday to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) with no reforms as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA.

Section 702 of FISA is a tool that intelligence officials have allegedly abused as it enables them to surveil Americans without obtaining a warrant. After the Senate passed FISA through the NDAA on Wednesday and failed to get sufficient support to eliminate the four-month extension, the House of Representatives finalized it in a vote on Thursday.

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Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Applicant Biography Series: Jeffrey C. Smith

Peter D'Abrosca

As Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger A. Page plans to retire at the end of August, six judges from around the state are vying to replace him. The Tennessee Star plans to profile each of the applicants before they are interviewed for the position in January.

Jeffrey C. Smith is a partner at Holland & Knight LLP, a law firm based in Tampa, Florida with a large presence in Nashville and Memphis. He specializes in defending corporations against civil lawsuits.

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Country Music Star HARDY to Headline Benefit Concert for Tennessee Tornado Victims

Kaitlin Housler

Country music connoisseur TheBenjiChord will host a benefit concert on Sunday in support of those impacted by the deadly tornadoes that ripped across Tennessee last weekend.

The country music stars that are scheduled to perform at the Unplugged For Tennessee: A Tornado Relief Benefit Concert on Sunday at Exit/In in Nashville include HARDY, Nate Smith, Alana Springsteen, Dylan Marlowe, Chayce Beckham, Abby Anderson, Trey Lewis, Graham Barham, Payton Smith, Kylie Morgan, and Jay Allen.

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Megyn Kelly Says Taylor Swift Clearly Knows Nothing About Gaza

Peter D'Abrosca

Political commentator Megyn Kelly slammed pop star Taylor Swift on The Megyn Kelly Show after Swift attended a show by comedian Ramy Youssef, the proceeds of which were given to a pro-Palestinian nonprofit.

The proceeds from Youssef’s show will be sent to the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), which Kelly said is “a group that NGO Monitor has described as ‘highly political, presenting a highly biased view of the Israel/Palestine war [and] ignoring any Palestinian responsibility for hardship and contributing to the demonization of Israel.'”

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Unveils Potential Changes for One of District’s Highest Performing High Schools

TC Weber

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is considering making changes to Martin Luther King Academic Magnet School (MLKAMS), one of Nashville’s highest-performing high schools.

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, district Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Battle unveiled plans to move seventh-grade and eighth-grade students to Head Middle School and rebrand that school as Head Middle School at MLK. If MNPS goes forward with its plans, MLKAMS will become a traditional high school serving ninth-grade to 12th-grade. MLKAMS currently teaches students from seventh-grade to 12th-grade.

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Trump Dominates in Swing States Against Biden for 2024: Poll

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Former President Donald Trump is dominating in seven crucial battleground states against President Joe Biden ahead of a potential 2024 head-to-head rematch, a Thursday poll found.

Trump is leading Biden 47% to 42% across Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina, according to a Morning Consult/Bloomberg survey. The former president held his largest leads against Biden in North Carolina and Georgia by 9 and 6 points, respectively, and Trump’s smallest margin of victory came in Pennsylvania by 2 points.

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Pro-Life Experts Warn Leftists Are Using Texas Woman’s Abortion Battle as ‘Highly Public Flashpoint’

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Kate Cox asked the Texas Supreme Court to give her permission to abort her unborn baby, a baby that has a condition known as trisomy 18. On Monday, her lawyers said that she will go to another state to end the baby’s life. That same day, the court said Texas law didn’t require her to ask its permission.

Trisomy 18 is a condition where a baby has an extra copy of chromosome 18, making it highly likely that the baby will die in the womb or shortly after birth—though some babies with trisomy 18 do survive, such as former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum’s daughter. Cox’s lawyers have argued that by not aborting her baby, Cox is jeopardizing her health and future fertility.

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Chinese Drug Dealers Use Risqué Ads to Sell Narcotics, Fentanyl Ingredients on U.S. Social Media

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Accounts claiming to represent Chinese drug manufacturers are using provocative images of women to advertise narcotics and fentanyl precursors on U.S. social media, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of hundreds of English and Chinese-language social media posts.

The DCNF identified several dozen LinkedIn accounts claiming to be saleswomen representing China-based manufacturers primarily located near Beijing or Wuhan. The accounts often featured images of women and teenage girls in advertisements for a wide variety of controlled substances including 4-piperidone, which is used to manufacture fentanyl.

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Biden Impeachment Inquiry Approval Sets Stage for Likely Court Challenge, Contempt Charges

Just the News

The GOP-led House’s passage of the impeachment inquiry resolution against President Biden ramps up their investigation into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and prepares them for a court challenge, according to top Republicans. 

Lawmakers voted 221-212 along party lines on Wednesday to approve the resolution authorizing the inquiry.

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Former U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs Endorses Kevin Coughlin’s Bid for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District

Kaitlin Housler

Former Ohio U.S. Representative Bob Gibbs endorsed Kevin Coughlin’s campaign for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District this week.

“I served with Kevin Coughlin in the Ohio Senate. He is a proven, dependable conservative who can be counted on in Congress to stand up for taxpayers. Kevin knows how to get things done and will quickly become an effective voice for the 13th District,” Gibbs said in a statement.

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Georgia U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson Will Not Seek Re-Election in 2024

Tom Pappert

Georgia U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) announced on Thursday that he will not seek another term in office, and will instead resign from Congress when his term ends in January 2025.

Ferguson announced his decision to retire from Congress in a Thursday post to X, formerly Twitter. He called his time in the U.S. House “the honor of a lifetime,” while complimenting his staff as “talented and dedicated” and constituents as “wonderful.”

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Will Return to Arizona with Phoenix Rally for Independent Campaign

Tom Pappert
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will return to Arizona for a political rally in Phoenix as his supporters gather signatures to gain ballot access in 2024.

Kennedy Jr. will hold his “Voter Rally” at the Legends Event Center in Phoenix on December 20 from 4:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m., and the registration page on his campaign website includes a link to a video about the Kennedy campaign’s efforts to secure ballot access in all 50 states as an independent candidate.

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State Bar of Arizona Finds Probable Cause Against Kari Lake’s Three Election Attorneys, Gives Them Opportunity to Admit Guilt

Rachel Alexander

The State Bar of Arizona announced that it found probable cause to pursue disciplinary charges against three attorneys representing Kari Lake in her election-related cases. The attorneys are Bryan Blehm, Kurt Olsen, and Andrew Parker. The charges relate to election lawsuits the three filed for Lake. The Arizona Bar has increasingly come under criticism for targeting conservative attorneys.

Blehm, who is accused by the Arizona Bar of criticizing the Arizona Supreme Court for setting up a disinformation task force, told The Arizona Sun Times, “If the ethical rules can be interpreted such that lawyers must remain silent in the face of unconstitutional conduct by the very courts they serve then I question the validity of those ethical rules and/or the veracity of those interpreting them. We are duty bound as attorneys to defend the Constitution of the United States of America and that is the proper function of the courts. When the courts themselves violate the Constitution somebody must say something because there is nowhere left for the people to turn. When our courts fail us, we are no longer a constitutional republic.”

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Music Spotlight: Amanda Stewart

Bethany Bowman

Growing up in the mountains of Montana, Amanda Stewart spent much of her time on her grandparents’ ranch, being exposed to the acoustic instrumentation and simple yet honest songwriting of Americana, folk, and country music styles.

She said, “My mom did a little bit of singing in school and was always singing in the car. And I sang with her. We actually did little karaoke contests and things like that. And my dad loved music, too. And my grandparents had a piano in their living room at their ranch. Whenever I would go, I would just be in there plugging away and singing. Nobody was professionally inclined, but it’s just always been a big part of the family life.”

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Ranchers Suing Colorado, Federal Agencies over Wolf Reintroduction

The Center Square

A pair of trade groups representing Colorado ranchers are suing state and federal wildlife agencies to delay reintroducing gray wolves to the Western Slope. 

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, comes before the state’s deadline to reintroduce gray wolves by the end of this year.  

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Commentary: As Inflation Cools, Fed Keeps Rates Steady, Slowdown Expected in 2024

Admin

The Federal Reserve on Dec. 13 held the Federal Funds Rate—the rate at which banks lend to each other—steady at 5.25 percent to 5.5 percent, as the consumer inflation once again cooled to 12-month average level of 3.1 percent, according to the latest data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Leading the cooldown were drops in energy prices as gasoline dropped 6 percent in November, following a 5 percent drop in October.

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