The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments has forwarded the names of three applicants to Governor Lee for consideration in order to fill the Tennessee Supreme Court vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of the Honorable Roger A. Page.
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A report published Tuesday by WKRN TV failed to acknowledge the Tennessee 11 (TN 11), an activist group that seeks to pass red flag legislation and other gun restrictions this year in Tennessee, is funded by a Mexican-American billionaire based in New York.
The television station, which is owned by the publicly traded Nexstar Media Group, reported on the Tennessee 11 event held Tuesday at the Tennessee State Capitol, where the outlet reported, “The TN 11 said they’re calling for legislative solutions addressing gun violence and safety while upholding gun rights.” WKRN TV explained that “TN 11 also polled about 30,000 Tennesseans from all 95 counties” to determine priorities they would ask Tennessee lawmakers to address.
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Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in all six battleground states surveyed for a 2024 hypothetical matchup, according to a Monday poll.
Trump beat Biden in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Florida anywhere from 1 to 11 points, according to a Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was also on the ballot for the six swing states polled, receiving his largest margins in North Carolina and Arizona.
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An activist group with alleged ties to Palestinian terrorists and an organization backed by major left-wing nonprofits blocked a Washington state highway for hours over the weekend to demand a ceasefire amid the ongoing conflict in Israel.
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Three individuals have been arrested for conspiring to distribute over 13 pounds of fentanyl-mixed pills in Nashville, according to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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The original number of jobs reported by the federal government in 2023 was revised down by a total of 749,000 jobs, meaning nearly one-fourth of jobs thought to be created in the year were not actually there, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) analyzed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The sum of the initial estimate from each of the government’s monthly job growth reports in 2023 totaled 3,140,000 new jobs, with later reports revising down the number of jobs added by a collective 443,000, according to the BLS. The BLS also announced in August a revision in total employment for March, subtracting another 306,000 jobs.
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Tennessee State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) filed HB 1653 on Monday to compel Tennessee law enforcement to release materials and evidence related to the Covenant School shooting, including the manifesto written by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who fatally shot three 9-year-old students and three faculty at the school in March 2023.
Bulso’s bill would require “all state and local law enforcement” to comply with a request from any member of the Tennessee General Assembly seeking “a copy of all records collected by the agency, including, but not limited to, all writings and medical, toxicology, and other reports, of a perpetrator involved in a school shooting incident that occurred at a public or private school in this state in March of 2023.”
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio has condemned Governor Mike DeWine’s recent signing of Executive Order-01D, which bans gender transition surgeries for minors at any hospital or ambulatory surgical facility in the Buckeye State.
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The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) created its new Office of Behavioral Health and Wellness on Friday, and the agency explained it will operate using resources made available by the Right Help, Right Now program created at the behest of Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) last year.
A press release from the Virginia agency explained the new office seeks to “address the unprecedented rise in mental health and behavioral challenges facing Virginia students post pandemic” with what one spokesman called “wraparound services” to keep students emotionally capable of learning in school.
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In the last six months, we have borne witness to many iconic moments evidencing the collapse of American culture.
The signs are everywhere and cover the gamut of politics, the economy, education, social life, popular culture, foreign policy, and the military. These symptoms of decay share common themes.
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Democrats are targeting State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), a champion of election integrity, by driving a truck around his district with a lit-up billboard apparently referencing him. It said, “Arizona’s fake electors tried to steal your voice in 2020. Don’t let them do it again in 2024.” Hoffman was one of 11 Republican electors chosen by Arizona Republican leadership as a possible alternate slate after the 2020 election due to concerns about election illegalities. The truck was seen driving on January 6, the anniversary of the J6 protest at the U.S. Capitol.
Hoffman responded and posted photos of the truck on X. “Extremist Democrats in Arizona think that driving a billboard around my district lying about me and defaming me will scare me into resigning,” he said. “IT WON’T. IT STRENGTHENS MY RESOLVE. It makes me fight harder for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to save this country.”
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Former President Donald Trump made three new legal filings in Georgia on Monday, each requesting on different grounds for Fulton County Superior Court Judge to dismiss the case brought against him by District Attorney Fani Willis (D). In the filings, Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow cites alleged due process and double jeopardy violations, as well as presidential immunity granted by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“From 1789 to 2023, no President ever faced criminal prosecution for acts committed while in office,” Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow notes in his 67-page filing requesting the case be dismissed by Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee due to presidential immunity. “The indictment in this case charges President Trump for acts that lie at the heart of his official responsibilities as President. The indictment is barred by presidential immunity and should be dismissed with prejudice.”
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House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan endorsed Republican businessman Bernie Moreno, who is backed by former President Donald Trump, on Monday in the 2024 GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
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An investigation conducted by the Central Ohio Human Trafficking Task Force has resulted in six alleged members of a violent crime ring in south Columbus being indicted on a combined 124 felony charges, according to Attorney General Dave Yost’s office.
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One of the biggest news stories coming out of Asia for the New Year was the alleged purge of senior People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers, most notably the former PRC Minister of Defense Li Shangfu who went missing in late August 2023 and was formally removed from his position in October. This so-called purge, which also included three senior defense industry officials, was in fact the result of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) annual announcement of the new slate of delegates for the upcoming Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body of the PRC’s annual National People’s Congress (NPC), that is held each year, usually in early March.
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The Arizona Freedom Caucus, parents, and activists rallied on Monday at the Arizona Capitol Lawn against the plan recently unveiled by Governor Katie Hobbs (D) they warned would “dismantle” Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs), the popular school choice program that boasts more than 70,000 students. Organizers planned the rally to coincide with the first day of the 2024 legislative session in Arizona.
Arizona Freedom Caucus founder Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who spoke at the rally, told The Arizona Sun Times, “I have a message for Katie Hobbs on behalf of the Arizona Freedom Caucus and every legislative Republican: your attempt to destroy educational opportunities for more than 74,000 Arizona children is dead on arrival at the legislature.”
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Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s executive order banning transgender surgeries for minors in Ohio may not be enough to stop a veto override ride in the General Assembly.
House Bill 68 sponsor State Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, called the order temporary and is no substitute for a law.
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In recent years, mid-sized companies between $100 million and $750 million in yearly revenue have been increasingly struggling compared to large businesses, taking the brunt of poor economic conditions and high interest rates, according to asset manager Marblegate.
From 2019 to the end of 2022, mid-sized companies had a 24 percent drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) compared to public companies, which had their earnings rise 18 percent, according to a study by Marblegate acquired by Axios. The discrepancy between large and midsized companies is in part due to the increased cost of credit for smaller businesses, which are more affected by the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes, with the federal funds rate currently being placed in a range of 5.25 percent and 5.50 percent, the highest point in 22 years.
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Beginning April 1, the minimum wage for employees working in California’s fast food chains and health care industries will rise to $20 per hour and, in some cases, up to $23 per hour. Many employers managing independent restaurants, retail, and other industries will have to match the higher hourly rate to retain employees. And for hourly employees whose wages are indexed to the minimum wage, mostly in California’s unionized public sector, wages will rise proportionately.
There is no national consensus on the impact of minimum-wage laws. It is part of a much larger debate over what constitutes an optimal economic environment to enable, quoting from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “economic security and independence.”
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