Mysterious Email Supporting Property Assessor Rob Mitchell Sent to Rutherford County Employees

Rob Mitchell

Several Rutherford County officials received a mysterious email message cautioning them to support incumbent property assessor candidate Rob Mitchell following a Tennessee Star report about his hiring practices, according to an email obtained by The Star.

Ahead of Mitchell’s bid for reelection, he hired the son of two Rutherford County officials, Michael Maxwell, for a position in the property assessor’s office created for Maxwell after determining he was unqualified for the original job posting, The Star previously reported.

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WikiLeaks Founder Assange Begins Major Legal Fight Against Extradition to U.S.

Julian Assange Trial

Julian Assange’s attorneys on Tuesday began a major legal challenge in the United Kingdom to stop the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition to the United States on espionage charges. 

Assange, who has been in a maximum security prison in London for the past five years, was unable to attend the first day of a two-day High Court hearing due to his health, his attorney, Edward Fitzgerald, said, according to The Associated Press. 

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U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty Travels to the U.S.-Mexico Border

Senator Bill Hagerty at Southern Border

Tennessee U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday with Tennessee sheriffs and mayors to meet with law enforcement and property owners.

“I’m back at the southern border here in Texas,” Hagerty said in a video message posted to X. “We’re just in the outskirts of Eagle Pass right now. I brought another delegation of sheriffs and mayors and law enforcement from Tennessee just like I did two years ago. What we’re seeing is even worse than it was two year ago.”

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Memphis Prison Warden Ignores Request from Rep. Ogles to Move Unjustly Imprisoned J6 Defendant to Minimum Security Camp

Warden F.J. Bowers of the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis ignored the request made by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) last week to move unjustly imprisoned J6 defendant Stewart Parks to the prison’s minimum security satellite camp, where Parks was originally told he would spend his eight month sentence.

Citing reporting by The Tennessee Star exposing the conditions inside FCI Memphis as relayed by Parks, Ogles demanded in a February 12 letter to Bowers for Parks to be moved from the primary prison facility to its minimum security satellite campus. Ogles gave Bowers until February 17 to respond, and Bowers did not return a press inquiry from The Star sent prior to Ogles’ deadline.

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‘I Would Love to See the Monument Go Away’: Rancher Suing Biden Over Arizona Land Grab Sounds Off

A rancher, who is suing President Joe Biden over the creation of a national monument in Arizona blocking the use of nearly 1 million acres for mining and other uses, told the Daily Caller News Foundation he wants to see it “go away.”

President Joe Biden created the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August 2023, hailing it as a step forward in the effort to “protect tribal lands.” The Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit to overturn the designation on behalf of rancher Chris Heaton, who the DCNF interviewed on Wednesday, on Feb. 12, according to a release.

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Congressional Watchdog Questions Reliability of U.S. Financial Statements, Cites ‘Serious Financial Management Problems at the Department of Defense’

The Pentagon

A Congressional watchdog said Friday that it was again unable to determine if the federal government’s consolidated financial statements were reliable.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which is Congress’s research arm, said it was hampered by “serious financial management problems at the Department of Defense,” problems in accounting for transactions between federal agencies, weaknesses in the process for preparing the statements and inadequate support for the cost of loan programs from the Small Business Administration and Department of Education.

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New Study Finds That CO2 is Increasing the Rate by Which the Globe is Greening, Even Under Drought

Coal Plant

A new study finds that human-caused carbon dioxide emissions are driving increased plant growth that’s greening the Earth, even in areas experiencing drought.

The peer-reviewed study, which was published in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Conservation, finds that the phenomenon known as “global greening” is an indisputable fact. The rate of global greening has increased slightly, and drought has only slowed, but not stopped, the process.

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Attorney General Skrmetti Declares Tennessee House Ticketing System Follows State Constitution

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti confirmed on Thursday that the new ticketing system for members of the public to attend meetings of the Tennessee House of Representatives follows the Tennessee Constitution.

The legal opinion was requested after House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) announced a new ticketing system that limits half of the public gallery to media members, with members of the public and congressional staff only allowed with a ticket. Lawmakers are each given one ticket to distribute as they see fit.

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Arizona Senate Advances Bill to Void Low Turnout Elections, Reschedule Votes to Coincide with Statewide or Federal Races

An Arizona bill that would void the results of low turnout elections and reschedule them to coincide with statewide or federal races advanced past the Senate Committee on Elections and will now go to a full vote in the Arizona Senate, so long as the legislation is deemed constitutional by the Rules Committee.

The bill, SB 1131, would nullify the results of a local election that does not coincide with a statewide or federal election if less than 25 percent of possible voters turn out to vote.

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Virginia AG Jason Miyares Joins Coalition Demanding Federal Funding to Support Commonwealth Crime Victims

Virginia A.G. Jason Miyares

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares confirmed on Friday that he joined a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general calling on the Department of Justice’s Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) Fund to provide additional resources to commonwealth citizens who are victims of crimes.

The VOCA Fund, originally established by a federal law signed in 1984, is financed by fines and penalties paid by individuals convicted in federal cases and funds to provide various services, including financial assistance, to victims of crimes.

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Fani Willis Took Over $8,500 from First Campaign as ‘Repayment’ for Loans Missing Paperwork, Submitted Without Date and Signature

Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis claimed during her Thursday testimony at the hearing to disqualify her from the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump that she took a significant amount of cash from her first election and used it to replenish her physical cash reserves. Willis claimed to use the physical cash to repay her former lover, special prosecutor Nathan Wade, for luxurious vacations.

Willis made the claim about keeping “some of the cash” from her first campaign when asked about the origin of her cash savings. The district attorney claimed she has been saving physical cash “all my life,” and gave as an example, “When I took out a large amount of money on my first campaign, I kept some of the cash of that.”

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Commentary: Non-Citizens Have Been Voting Since 2008

Why would a president running for reelection refuse to meet with the Speaker of the House to discuss a national crisis that most voters blame on the president himself? This would be regarded as bizarre behavior under any circumstances, but it’s particularly perverse considering that the crisis in question is illegal immigration — the signature issue of Biden’s probable challenger in November. Moreover, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average, 63 percent of the voters disapprove of the way he has handled immigration. Yet Biden refuses to discuss the problem. It’s almost as if he thinks it somehow works to his advantage.

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Lawmakers Consider Bill to Prevent Arizona Cities from Defunding Local Police Departments

Police Officer

The Arizona House Rules Committee is scheduled to discuss legislation on Monday that would prevent cities from decreasing funding to their local police departments.

Rep. David Marshall, R-Snowflake, is the sponsor of House Bill 2120, and it has already passed the House Military Affairs & Public Safety committee in an 8-7 party-line vote this past Monday.

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New Data Centers Set to Stress U.S. Electric Grid Further

Electric Substation

For the past couple of years, assessments of the national electric grid’s ability to deliver power during peak demand periods, such as heat waves and cold snaps, have shown increasing risk for blackouts.

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the nation’s grid watchdog, finds the main cause is retirements of coal plants without enough natural gas plants coming online.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: Navalny’s Death Demonstrates Selective Outrage over Political Prisoners

Joe Biden wasted no time before shuffling to a White House podium last Friday to denounce the sudden death of Alexey Navalny, the celebrated anti-Kremlin activist.

According to Russian officials, Navalny, 47, lost consciousness after taking a walk at the Arctic penal colony where he had been serving a 19-year prison sentence for allegedly inciting “extremist” activities and other offenses. An outspoken foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny won fans around the world including Hollywood celebrities and government leaders of all political persuasions.

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