Day: January 13, 2024

Pro-Palestinian Protesters Swarm White House Fence, Secret Service Deployed: VIDEO

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Breitbart News Pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed the White House fence on Saturday, forcing the Secret Service and D.C. Police to get involved. The protesters were seen shaking the fence as they yelled, “F*ck Joe Biden.” Secret Service agents dressed in riot gear were seen behind the fence. Take a look: 🚨: DC police and Secret Service had to rush to one part of the security fence to prevent a breach from the Palestinian crowd. pic.twitter.com/CQFkE6q9nn — Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) January 13, 2024 READ THE FULL STORY      

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Senate Border Deal Would Allow 5,000 Illegal Immigrants a Day

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The Washington Times Conservative activists are recoiling as details leak from the immigration deal being negotiated in the Senate suggesting illegal border crossers will be immediately eligible for work permits and the government will allow up to 5,000 illegal immigrants a day before new expulsion powers kick in. Talks have been going on for weeks and the plans have been tightly guarded by the negotiators, but Rosemary Jenks, government relations director at the Immigration Accountability Project, said she’s been briefed by multiple people familiar with the negotiations and has been sharing details online. She said the current framework includes a right to government-funded lawyers for illegal immigrant children struggling through the immigration courts, and would also expand legal immigration, both priorities for President Biden. In exchange, Republicans have won new limits on attempts to claim asylum and expanded speedy deportation powers, but no significant new restrictions on Homeland Security’s power to “parole” illegal immigrants directly into the U.S. READ THE FULL STORY                   

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Fulton County DA Fani Willis Under Fire for Paying Alleged Married Lover to Prosecute Trump, Bar Complaint Filed

Rachel Alexander

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting former President Donald Trump and others connected to him, is facing accusations she violated attorneys ethics rules by appointing her married lover as chief prosecutor on the case. The accusation was raised in a pleading filed on Monday by a lawyer for Michael Roman, a former Trump campaign staff member who also faces charges in the case along with 13 others. A bar complaint was filed with the State Bar of Georgia.

On Tuesday, Trump reacted to the news, calling Willis “totally compromised” and stating that the case “must be dropped.” He added, “It’s illegal. What she did is illegal. So we’ll let the state handle that, but what a sad situation it is.” 

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Harvard’s Integrity Crisis Continues: Award-Winning Scholar Carol Swain Shares Updates on the Academic Misconduct

Tennessee Star Staff
Carol Swain

Carol Swain, all-star panelist and award-winning scholar at the center of one of the nation’s largest cases of academic misconduct, joined the newsmaker line on Friday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments in the ongoing plagiarism scandal at Harvard University.

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Riley Gaines, Other Prominent Female Athletes Protest NCAA Convention in Phoenix For Allowing Transgenders in Women’s Sports

Rachel Alexander

Some of the top female athletes in the country, including swimmer Riley Gaines, attended and spoke at a protest Thursday outside the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) convention in downtown Phoenix. Organized by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) and numerous other groups, the athletes demanded that the NCAA stop allowing transgender females to compete against women in collegiate sports, and each one spoke about their own experiences.

Gaines opened the event, which took place at the Marvin A. Andrews Plaza outside Phoenix City Hall. Gaines is a 12-time All-American swimmer and IWF ambassador. She said allowing men who identify as women to compete against women “is not progressive, it is regressive. It’s taking us back in time at least half a century. … Title 9 was enacted and enforced to protect women and girls, not men who want to be like us.” She repeated a line featured on the signs the women held, “We have come too far to be erased.”

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Country Music Star Jelly Roll Testifies on Capitol Hill, Addresses the Fentanyl Crisis Under Questioning by Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty

Kaitlin Housler

Country music star Jelly Roll testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs this week at a hearing entitled “Stopping the Flow of Fentanyl: Public Awareness and Legislative Solutions.”

Thursday’s hearing focused on the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, a bill that would create new economic sanctions authority and money laundering penalties for components of the fentanyl supply chain, including Chinese entities and Mexican cartels.

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Top Two Presidential Candidates, Relatives Facing Legal Woes as 2024 Voting Starts

Just the News

The top two 2024 presidential candidates are running with lawsuits looming over them, as former President Donald Trump has multiple trials he faces this year while President Joe Biden’s son is having his own legal troubles.

On Thursday, both Trump and Hunter Biden were in court at opposite ends of the country, with the former president in New York and the first son in Los Angeles. Trump’s trial is a civil case brought by the state attorney general regarding alleged business fraud while Hunter Biden was in court for alleged tax fraud.

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Greater Memphis Chamber Seeks $50 Million to Address Crime, Support for State Senator’s Bail Reform in Letter to Gov. Bill Lee

Tom Pappert

The Greater Memphis Chamber sent a letter to Governor Bill Lee (R) on Tuesday, requesting money, resources and new legislation to address the record high crime in Memphis. Among the requests include the passage of bills by State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) to reform Tennessee bail and sentencing practices.

The letter, written by Greater Memphis Chamber President Ted Townsend, appears to have the support of the chamber’s Chairman’s Circle, which includes prominent private sector leaders from more than 80 Memphis businesses.

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Mike Johnson Says He Won’t Back Out of Spending Deal Despite Freedom Caucus Opposition

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House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he will not withdraw from a controversial spending deal to avoid a government shutdown that is opposed by several members of his conference.

Johnson, on Sunday, announced a deal with other congressional party leaders on a spending package of $1.59 trillion for Fiscal Year 2024, which has been attacked by members of the House Freedom Caucus as insufficiently conservative. After negotiations with dissident members, Johnson announced Friday that he would stand by the deal, even as members have threatened to remove him from office over the matter.

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Biden Announces Fresh Wave of Student Debt Cancellations

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President Joe Biden on Friday announced the latest round of student debt cancellations in a statement issued by The White House.

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 30 in Biden v. Nebraska that the administration’s plan to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt for all borrowers was unlawful, the administration has sought to pursue other debt cancellation measures, most notably through the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which was finalized by the Department of Education (DOE) on the day of the court’s ruling. Biden said that borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan who borrowed less than $12,000 in debt, and who have been in repayment for at least ten years, will have their balances canceled by February.

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Tennessee House Bill Would Require All Driver’s License Tests to Be Administered in English

Peter D'Abrosca

A new bill introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly would require drivers wishing to obtain Tennessee driver’s licenses to pass a test administered only in English. 

HB 1730 “requires all written driver license examinations to be administered in English only; prohibits use of a translation dictionary, electronic device, or interpreter to assist with the examination,” according to the summary of the bill. 

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Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon Wants Trump Case ‘Halted’ over Alleged Relationship Between Fani Willis, Nathan Wade

Tom Pappert

Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) Chair Josh McKoon called on Tuesday for the Fulton County case against former President Donald Trump to be “halted” following the allegation that District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who filed racketeering charges against Trump and his co-defendants, is engaged in an inappropriate romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

McKoon said in a press release that he was “shocked” by the allegation “Willis and wade were allegedly engaged in a romantic relationship before and after” Willis contracted Wade to “prosecute Republicans, richly rewarding him with nearly a million dollars of Fulton County taxpayer money so far.”

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Florida Should Be Able to Lower Rent, Lease Sales Tax for Businesses Soon

The Center Square

Florida’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund balance, drained during the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to exceed its prepandemic level by March, two months earlier than expected, according to the nonprofit group Florida TaxWatch.

That will allow a decrease in state sales tax businesses must pay on payments made to rent or lease of commercial property. The 4.5% business rent tax will be lowered to 2% in June instead of August, according to the Florida Department of Revenue.

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Commentary: Trump’s Ballot Disqualification Case Reaches Supreme Court

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In what may turn out to be the most pivotal election case since Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a short order on Jan. 5 granting the request by former President Donald Trump asking the court to overturn the Colorado state Supreme Court’s Dec. 19 decision disqualifying him from appearing on the state’s presidential primary ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court moved with unprecedented speed; Trump filed his petition for certiorari on Jan. 3, and the court granted the appeal only two days later.

The case has been put on what, for the Supreme Court, is a “rocket docket.” Trump’s brief and any amicus briefs supporting the former president in Trump v. Anderson have to be filed by Jan. 18; the challengers’ brief and amicus briefs supporting Trump’s removal have to be filed by Jan. 31. Trump’s reply brief is due on Feb. 5, and oral arguments will be held on Feb. 8. 

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Study: Iowa Caucus Not Reliable in Predicting GOP Presidential Nominee

The Center Square

The Iowa caucus is not the most reliable predictor of who will be the Republican nominee, but it fares better for Democrats, according to a study by WalletHub.

Republican voters will be the first in the U.S. to choose their pick for president in the caucuses held at 99 precincts on Monday night. Democrats are caucusing by mail and will reveal the results on March 5, Super Tuesday.

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Walz Compares Keeping Minnesota State Flag with ‘Saving the Confederate Battle Flag’

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On a Twin Cities radio show earlier this week, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz dismissed Republican efforts to keep Minnesota’s current state flag.

“Minnesota is a diverse state, it continues to grow. This flag was crafted in the 1890s,” said Gov. Walz regarding Minnesota’s current flag. “It’s highly offensive to a large number of people, and there’s very little debate about that.”

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Connecticut Doles Out More Security Money to Houses of Worship

The Center Square

Churches, synagogues and mosques in Connecticut are getting more money to bolster their facilities against terror attacks or hate crimes, according to Gov. Ned Lamont. 

Lamont said state funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program will expand to $5 million this year. The grants can reimburse nonprofits for the cost of metal detectors and surveillance cameras, adding more lighting, fencing, or locks and other security upgrades.

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Commentary: The Hackery of Judge Florence Pan

Julie Kelly

If a court proceeding held in the nation’s capital on Tuesday is an indication of how 2024 will go—things will be a lot worse than even the biggest skeptic predicted.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia—Biden appointees Florence Pan and Michelle Childs and George H. W. Bush appointee Karen Henderson—heard oral arguments for Donald Trump’s appeal of a lower court decision that concluded presidents are not immune from criminal prosecution for their conduct in office. The appeal originated out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment against the former president related to the events of January 6.

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Federal Court Greenlights Alabama’s Ban on Sex Change Hormones, Surgeries for Minors

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The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary order to lift an injunction preventing an Alabama law banning sex-change surgeries for minors from going into effect, according to court documents.

The law was halted in 2022 for the duration of the lawsuit by a district court, which claimed that the legislation illegally intruded into a patient’s medical decisions, according to the Associated Press. The appeals court ruled against the lower court’s decision in August, and on Thursday it lifted the injunction to allow the law to take effect while the appellate court continues to weigh the law.

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American Idol’s Taylor Hicks to Perform ‘Night Moves’ at the Franklin Theatre

Bethany Bowman

As I learned last year in my original interview, Season 5 American Idol winner, Taylor Hicks is a diverse entertainer. Besides being a soulful singer and songwriter, the artist is an actor and restaurateur. A few weeks after our last interview, Taylor Hicks was asked to make his Grand Ole Opry debut, a milestone desired by many Southern singers.

He made his debut on June 18, 2023. Hicks said, “As long as I’ve been doing this, being able to grace the Opry Stage was something that I will never forget. It’s a big deal. I’ve had a lot of great invitations, and this was definitely up there for sure.”

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Border Patrol Agents Quietly Support Texas’ Move to Seize Area of Border

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Border Patrol agents are quietly applauding Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to seize property along the border, several of them told the Daily Caller News Foundation on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

The Texas Department of Public Safety seized the property of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, Texas, the city’s mayor, Rolando Salinas, said in a statement posted to Facebook Thursday. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a Supreme Court filing hours after the decision that Texas National Guardsmen are blocking the Border Patrol from accessing the area, where they have a staging area and boat ramp.

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