Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said on Wednesday that he will support former President Donald Trump if he secures the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
Youngkin confirmed to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that will support Trump, should he first become the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.
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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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The Ohio General Assembly has passed and sent a bill that would protect women in sports and ban gender-affirming procedures from being performed on minors to Governor Mike DeWine’s desk.
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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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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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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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State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Thursday to discuss the General Assembly’s legislative agenda for major educational reform, including triggers in kindergarten, first, and second grade designed to identify struggling students and provide them with tailored interventions to bridge the educational gap and accelerate academic success – particularly foundational reading and math skills.
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A New York appeals court rejected President Donald Trump’s bid Thursday to toss the gag order imposed on him in his New York civil fraud trial, along with the fines imposed for violations.
The court found that Trump had not used the right legal method to challenge the order imposed in October by Judge Arthur Engoron. Trump’s lawyers asked the court in November to vacate the gag order using a provision of the law to sue Engoron directly, which the court found was an “extraordinary remedy” not appropriate when the “potential harm is small,” according to ABC News.
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The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee has revealed federal pandemic funds meant for schools to “support students’ social-emotional well-being and academic achievement” were misused this year throughout the Volunteer State.
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Metro Nashville Council Member Jeff Eslick joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Thursday to detail his discoveries into the precipitous drop in law enforcement and its effect on the state of public safety downtown on the heels of the city announcing the Hermitage homeless encampment will be taken down in January.
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ABC News A 13-year-old boy from Ohio has been charged in connection with a plot to commit a mass shooting at a synagogue in September after he allegedly made detailed threats on Discord, a messaging platform popular among gamers, according to court documents. The individual, who is only identified by the initials J.R. in a criminal complaint due to his age, has been charged in Stark County juvenile court with inducing panic and disorderly conduct, according to charging documents. The teen was reported by Discord to law enforcement in early September after he created “a detailed plan to complete a mass shooting at the Temple Israel” in Canton, according to the documents. The report initiated the investigation that led to the suspect’s arrest, according to police and the company. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Daily Mail The dancing troupe commissioned by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden for a Christmas video are Black Lives Matters activists who promote far-left policies, including defunding the police. Dorrance Dance, a tap dancing troupe from New York City, performed a ‘playful’ interpretation of The Nutcracker Suite through the halls of the White House. The group openly support controversial activist group Black Lives Matter as well as advocating on their website for ‘prison abolition’. READ THE FULL STORY
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Slay News Legendary Jewish-American comedian Jerry Seinfeld has been targeted by pro-Hamas protesters who accuse the TV sitcom star of being “complicit in genocide.” The angry mob gathered outside the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, New York to protest Seinfeld’s stand-up show over his support for Israel. According to The Daily Orange, an independent student newspaper at Syracuse University, protesters called for Israel to stop defending itself against Hamas. READ THE FULL STORY
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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. In the coming days, The Tennessee Star plans to profile each of the applicants.
The first judge in the biography series is Judge J. Ross Dyer of the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals Western Section.
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The Supreme Court announced Wednesday that it is taking on a case regarding the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the chemical abortion pill mifepristone.
Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations filed a lawsuit against the FDA in November 2022, claiming that the FDA had ignored safety protocols to approve the abortion pill mifepristone. The Supreme Court said this week that it would hear the case, one of the first major abortion cases taken up by the court since overturning Roe v. Wade in June 2022, according to an order list.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) urged in a Wednesday letter to the United States Space Force for the military to prepare for “space warfare” after Israel reported intercepting a rocket from outside Earth’s orbit after it was launched by Iran-backed Houthi militants.
“The world has crossed into a new, concerning frontier: war in space,” Blackburn warned the military branch in her letter, which was first obtained by The Washington Free Beacon. After highlighting the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and rising Chinese tensions over the fate of Taiwan, Blackburn noted the October 31 interception of a ballistic missile launched by “Iranian-sponsored Houthi terrorists” in Yemen.
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All 11 members of the Tennessee congressional delegation sent a letter to President Joe Biden requesting the “swift approval” of Governor Bill Lee’s request for a major disaster declaration due to severe storms that devastated communities across Middle Tennessee over the weekend.
On December 9, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through Middle Tennessee. The storms caused six fatalities and dozens of injuries, produced significant damage to nearly 1,900 homes, and destroyed over 500 homes, according to initial reports.
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Democrat presidential candidate Dean Phillips will officially be absent from Tennessee’s March 5, 2024 ballot, according to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office.
Last week, Phillips filed a nominating petition to gain access to Tennessee’s presidential primary ballot.
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Videotape of a Capitol door being mistakenly unlocked. Photos of gallows being set up outside without any police interference. Officers exhorting protesters to storm the Capitol. Intelligence warnings of potential violence that went unheeded. Major changes to testimony.
A year after the Democrat-led House Select Committee on Jan. 6 ended it works, major new revelations have emerged from House Republicans led by Rep, Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga, about how the Capitol riot unfolded that fateful day and the security failures that occurred in the days and hours ahead of the violence.
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One in five voters who cast mail-in ballots during the November 2020 election admit to committing voter fraud, according to a new poll by The Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports.
The poll of 1,085 likely voters released on Tuesday, which was conducted from November 30 to December 6, asked, “During the 2020 election, did you fill out a ballot, in part or in full, on behalf of a friend or family member, such as a spouse or child?” A total of 21% of respondents who said they had cast mail-in ballots answered ‘yes.’
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Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03), who is running to represent Arizona in the U.S. Senate, continues to hold his silence regarding Harvard University president Claudine Gay. The congressman’s campaign has not responded to multiple Arizona Sun Times press inquiries after Gay refused to clearly state in Congress that calling for the death of Jews violates the university’s code of conduct, and now faces at least three plagiarism accusations.
The Sun Times reported on Monday that Gallego’s campaign did not respond to a press inquiry seeking a comment about Gay’s controversial testimony. On Tuesday, the Gallego campaign did not respond to a second press inquiry from The Sun Times that asked about about Gay’s antisemitism scandal and the subsequent plagiarism allegations levied against her.
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The state of Ohio wants local governments to buy, rehabilitate, or build residential properties to improve affordable access.
The state will give local landbanks $100 million over the next 16 months to create housing for income-eligible Ohioans. It is also establishing another $50 million in nonrefundable tax credits to landbanks and developers for rehabs and new construction when the property is sold.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asserted in a Tuesday interview that Georgia state senators investigating the conditions at the Fulton County Jail should instead investigate the state prison system, though she said she “is not responsible” for the jail.
Willis made the remarks to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in response to an investigation launched in the Georgia Senate earlier this year over the conditions at the Fulton County Jail, where 10 inmates have died in 2023. One of the defendants in Willis’ high-profile Young Slime Life (YSL) racketeering case was stabbed in the jail this week, delaying the ongoing trial until 2024.
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Representative Morgan Griffith (R-VA-09) formally endorsed former President Donald Trump and his 2024 campaign for the White House on Wednesday, becoming the first congressman from Virginia to endorse the former president’s bid.
Griffith made his endorsement during a radio interview with John Fredericks, the publisher of The Virginia Star, who called it “a huge endorsement” for Trump.
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Anyone who lived through 2020 observed that some messages received treatment online that stood in stark contrast to other messages. Conservative voices and messages were censored and banned, while progressive voices and messages flowed freely. If a person spoke against COVID-19 lockdowns—and later vaccines—there was a good chance that a social media platform would take down the post. If one were to suggest that suspicious activities occurred surrounding the 2020 election, the label “misinformation” might appear.
The primary vehicle to censor internet speech is to label disfavored messages as dis-, mis-, or mal-information. While the category of malinformation is seemingly the most offensive – true information that government censors believe lacks sufficient “context” – the other categories can be just as malignant. Mis- and disinformation require someone to determine what is true and what is not.
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Georgia’s top election official is pointing to the Biden administration’s failure to secure the southern border as a reason the state Legislature must act to prevent voting by foreign nationals in state elections.
“With open borders, citizenship verification for voter registration is more important than ever,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said Monday in a public statement.
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Representative Bob Good (R-VA-05) said the House Freedom Caucus will work to oppose the new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) supported by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) crafted with leadership in Congress, which will reauthorize a controversial government surveillance law that House Republicans previously pulled due to backlash.
Good told John Fredericks, publisher of The Virginia Star, that he plans to rally Republicans against the proposed NDAA due to its inclusion of an extension for controversial government spying under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The current version of the bill, he explained, was created by Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
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The Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in a case involving challenges to Arizona’s 1864 law that mostly banned abortion. The Arizona Legislature passed a law in 2022 banning abortions after 15 weeks, anticipating the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson. The reversal also revived the older law, which was initially passed when Arizona was still a territory. In October 2022, the Arizona Court of Appeals found that the two laws were in conflict, and placed an injunction on the older law from going into effect as to physicians, effectively allowing abortions to take place up to 15 weeks under the new law.
Since Attorney General Kris Mayes declined to pursue the case after the appeals court ruling, Dr. Eric Hazelrigg, an obstetrician and medical director of Choices Pregnancy Center in Arizona, filed a petition in March asking the state’s high court to review the ruling and the injunction, which it agreed to do. Former Attorney General Mark Brnovich had initially asked a court to reinstate the original pro-life law, which was blocked in 1973 due to Roe, but the trial court’s revival of the law was quickly reversed by the appeals court.
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An official rule permitting congregations to part ways with the United Methodist Church (UMC) while retaining church property is about to expire, but the effects of the split are far from over.
Churches in Alabama continue to face divisions even after failing to leave the denomination under the rule. Some congregants who were members of UMC churches left to form their own independent churches or joined other Methodist denominations like the Global Methodist Church (GMC).
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Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla filed a safety recall for over 2 million vehicles with federal regulators following a two-year investigation into the company’s autopilot feature, according to an announcement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Wednesday.
The Tesla recall covers 2.03 million vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, Model X and Model S, made between Oct. 5, 2012 and Dec. 7, 2023, over concerns with their autopilot feature enabling driver misuse through a lack of engagement while operating the vehicle, according to a document from the NHTSA. The recall covers nearly all Tesla vehicles in the U.S. and is one of many actions taken by the NHTSA around Tesla’s autopilot feature, with the agency contending that the feature’s name is misleading as drivers still have to be engaged during its use, according to The Associated Press.
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The Senate shot down a bipartisan bill Wednesday aimed at stripping legal liability protections for artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal first introduced their No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act in June and Hawley put it up for an unanimous consent vote on Wednesday. The bill would have eliminated Section 230 protections that currently grant tech platforms immunity from liability for the text and visual content their AI produces, enabling Americans to file lawsuits against them.
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It is too easy, and dangerously misleading, to examine the most controversial globalist policies combined with America’s most obvious weaknesses and conclude that American power, and the future of globalism is in jeopardy. In both there is nuance and hidden strength. Understanding this ambiguity offers both hope for the future and a clearer sense of what choices face Americans today.
It is important to recognize that while other Western Nations from New Zealand to Sweden are participants in globalist policies, and that globalist theories may have originated from Europe, the influencers and institutions turning them into policy and pushing them onto the rest of the world are almost all American.
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American Federation for Children Senior Fellow Shaka Mitchell joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Wednesday to dive into the details of Gov. Bill Lee’s newly unveiled Education Freedom Scholarship Act, set to revolutionize school choice in Tennessee.
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On Wednesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) tells listeners what he really thinks about Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and what appears to be his cooperation with restorative justice groups working in Memphis and across Tennessee to reimagine justice and reinterpret current law through their efforts, among other things, to eliminate cash bail.
Taylor explores different ways to hold district attorneys accountable, including potential methods for termination under consideration; as well as addresses the controversial release of a murder suspect without bail and his proposed legislation to remove Judge Bill Anderson from his role in managing judicial commissioners.
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The GOP-led House passed an impeachment inquiry resolution against President Biden Wednesday on the House floor.
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The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear a case with major implications for hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, as well as former President Donald Trump’s indictment on charges stemming from alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
In a brief order, the justices agreed to hear a case stemming from Jan. 6 defendant Joseph Fischer’s request to dismiss a charge against him for obstructing an official proceeding. His case provides the Supreme Court an opportunity to rule on the scope of a statute, Section 1512(c)(2), which he argues has been used to charge hundreds of other defendants in an “unprecedented extension of the statute’s reach.”
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The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee published its annual Pork Report on Wednesday, highlighting the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars this past year across the Volunteer State.
Examples of “offensive” and “wasteful” uses of Tennessee taxpayer money highlighted in the 2023 Pork Report include the nearly $5 million taxpayer subsidy given to benefit the California burger chain In-N-Out’s move to Tennessee, large property tax increases in multiple counties, and the City of Memphis giving out over $1 million to a TV show on the verge of cancellation.
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Hunter Biden appeared on Capitol Hill when he was scheduled to testify before Congress on Wednesday, saying that he is there to publicly show how his “father was not financially involved in my business,” but he ultimately skipped the closed-door deposition, opting for a public hearing.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) charged three members of a Muslim family with the alleged beating of their juvenile son and brother on Monday, and police records reportedly reveal the violence was sparked by the victim’s recent conversion to Christianity.
Police arrested Rawaaa Khawaji, Nick Kadum, and John Kadum, who are reportedly the mother, father, and older son of the juvenile victim discovered by law enforcement, according to police documents reviewed by Fox 17.
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State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) issued a formal request on Tuesday to obtain agreements between Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy’s Office and three “restorative justice organizations” with the Tennessee District Attorneys Conference (TDAC). Taylor highlighted Mulroy’s agreements with three groups seeking to eliminate bail or decrease the number of his office’s prosecutions.
Taylor charged that “Memphians have a right to know if the agreements between the DA’s office and these outside groups are inconsistent with state laws and policies” in a press release and stressed that Mulroy’s “job is to further his prosecutorial duties, not embark on a restorative justice campaign.”
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Abortion advocacy groups received close to $2 billion in federal taxpayer funding from 2019 to 2021, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released on Tuesday.
The GAO report was first requested in early 2022 by 142 congressional members led by Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, who underscored their concerns that taxpayer dollars are being used to fund abortion services. The report revealed that Planned Parenthood received approximately $1.78 billion in taxpayer funding from 2019 to 2021 and is receiving increased federal support under the current Biden administration.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) joined a 27-state coalition of state attorneys general on Monday to oppose the new rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) which will require gun owners to conduct background checks and register transactions with the agency any time they sell, gift, or trade a gun.
Skrmetti announced his office will join 26 other state attorneys general and the Arizona State Legislature in a letter “demanding” the ATF drop the rule, arguing it “violates the Second Amendment” and “risks making any individual who sells a firearm for profit liable to civil, administrative, and even criminal penalties for failing to register with a federal agency.”
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The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released a report Tuesday proposing the U.S. revoke China’s permanent normal trade status.
The new report supports three overarching policy objectives: resetting the terms of U.S.-China economic engagement, stemming the flow of U.S. capital and technology to China’s military and building U.S. economic might with allies. Toward that end, the report outlines approximately 150 policy recommendations including new tariffs, disclosure requirements for American companies with ties to China, and strengthening U.S. research security.
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Google lost an antitrust case against popular video game maker Epic Games on Monday, with a jury ruling that the tech giant has an illegal monopoly in its app store.
Epic, which makes Fortnite, alleged that Google stifles competition and imposes excessively costly charges on app makers using its Google Play Store. Epic also alleged that Google illegally connected its app store to its billing service, compelling developers to use both.
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Tennessee’s celebrities and professional sports teams are coming together to support the middle Tennessee communities that were devastated by several tornadoes over the weekend.
Popstar Taylor Swift reportedly donated one million dollars to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, which that group confirmed on its Facebook page.
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President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign faces headwinds ahead of 2024 among a crucial voting bloc that typically backs Democrats by huge margins, a new poll found.
Biden garnered only 63% support from black voters in a GenForward survey from the University of Chicago, while former President Donald Trump received 17% of the share and 20% said they wouldn’t back either candidate, Politico reported Tuesday. Several other recent surveys have also found Biden struggling among the black electorate, with support for the former president surging.
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Chimneyrock Elementary School in Memphis issued a statement after an “After School Satan Club” organized by the Satanic Temple and Reason Alliance is scheduled to take place on school grounds next month.
On its website, the Satanic Temple – the primary religious Satanic organization in the world – says its mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense, oppose injustice, and undertake noble pursuits.”
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A Michigan-based energy group says recent layoffs and leadership changes don’t change plans to build a $1.6B battery factory in Van Buren Township called ONE Circle.
Michigan taxpayers bet $200 million on Our Next Energy Inc., a technology company that laid off 25% of its staff amid leadership changes.
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Wisconsin’s secretary of state wants one of the state’s Republican elections commissioners to be fired after he settled a lawsuit over Wisconsin’s 2020 Trump electors.
Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski asked the Wisconsin Senate to remove Republican Commissioner Bob Spindell.
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Former Department of Homeland Security advisor Charles Marino said on Tuesday that Governor Katie Hobbs (D) should have done more to address the migrant crisis prior to the federal government’s closure of the Lukeville Point of Entry.
Marino, a security expert who advised the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2009 until 2011, made the remarks to John Fredericks on the “Outside the Beltway” program on Real America’s Voice. Fredericks, who is the publisher of The Virginia Star and The Georgia Star News, asked Marino about Arizona’s response to the 17,000 illegal immigrants officials apprehended in Tucson over just one week.
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