The former treasurer of the Mt. Gilead Volunteer Fire Department in Sparta is accused of knowingly misappropriating nearly $74,000 from the department and White County Firefighters Association, according to an investigation from the Tennessee Comptroller’s office.
Brittney Webb was indicted Jan. 8 for theft over $60,000 and forgery in White County.
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French public and advertising giant Publicis Groupe — the lead funder of “disinformation watchdog” NewsGuard — has agreed to pay $350 million as part of a settlement with state attorneys general over the company’s role in America’s opioid crisis. “Today’s filings describe how Publicis’ work contributed to the crisis by helping Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers market and sell opioids,” said a press release from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. “Court documents detail how Publicis acted as Purdue’s agency of record for all its branded opioid drugs, including OxyContin, even developing sales tactics that relied on farming data from recordings of personal health-related in-office conversations between patients and providers.” “The company was also instrumental in Purdue’s decision to market OxyContin to providers on patient’s electronic health records,” said the press release. At the same time it is paying this $350 million settlement over its marketing tactics — Publicis Groupe, headed by CEO and Chairman Arthur Sadoun (pictured above) is also the “largest corporate investor” in NewsGuard, a company whose co-founder said it is a “vaccine against misinformation,” reported Lee Fang in RealClearInvestigations. NewsGuard said it “provides transparent tools to counter misinformation” and in 2021, it announced a partnership with Publicis to “combat…
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The decline of the mainstream media continued in the first month of 2024, with over 500 journalists being fired in January alone.
As Politico reports, there were 538 layoffs in the month of January in the media industry, including jobs in print, broadcast, and digital media. The report from Challenger, Gray, & Christmas suggests that the trend first seen in 2023 will not be slowing down in 2024. Last year, there were 3,087 layoffs in the news industry, which marked the highest annual total since the 16,060 firings in the year 2020, which was primarily due to the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic.
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As the Republican National Committee had its annual meeting this past week in Las Vegas, several GOP members expressed concerns about the party’s leadership going into the 2024 election cycle, with its “worst-ever financial situation” and limited focus on both grassroots efforts and supporting the 2020 alternate electors.
After the failure of a “red wave” to materialize in the 2022 midterm elections and as the GOP looks to take back the White House, Republican Party members have criticized the lack of aid that both the 2020 alternate electors and grassroots have received as the RNC is experiencing financial trouble. Some are pointing to a lack of leadership from RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
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The U.S. Senate campaign for Kari Lake told The Arizona Sun Times that Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) “has no path to victory” just before the former Democrat unveiled her Senate bill to address the border crisis with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Sinema, who has still not declared whether she will seek reelection this November, unveiled a $118 billion border bill alongside Senators Schumer, James Lankford (R-OK), and Chris Murphy (D-CT).
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The Virginia House of Democrats successfully passed HB 1 and HB 2, which would see the minimum wage in the commonwealth raised to $15 per hour by 2026 and make the sale or transfer of “assault firearms and certain ammunition feeding devices” a misdemeanor criminal offense.
Filed by Delegate Jeion Ward (D-Hampton), HB 1 would see Virginia’s current minimum wage of $12 per hour increased to $13.50 per hour in 2025 before increasing to $15 per hour in 2026. It passed through committee with partisan votes, and narrowly passed in the House of Delegates with 51 votes in favor and 49 votes against.
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“It is well that war is so terrible; otherwise, we should grow too fond of it.”
– Robert E. Lee
“Wars and rumors of wars,” to borrow a well-known Biblical phrase from Matthew 24, seem all too commonplace these days. Is that because more wars are going on now than in the past, or because mass media brings us word of them ‘round the clock? It’s a debatable point.
This much is eminently clear: War dates back as far as the day when Cain slew Abel. It’s doubtful that there ever was a time on Earth when nobody was at war with anybody. It’s a depressingly familiar curse.
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The State of Georgia and Georgia Department of Community Health (GDCH) launched a lawsuit on Friday against the Biden administration over its objections to Governor Brian Kemp’s limited Medicaid expansion, the Georgia Pathways to Coverage.
Georgia, the lawsuit explains, entered into a five-year agreement with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement Pathways, but in January 2021, CMS told Georgia it “preliminarily determined” the program was “unlawful and should be suspended.”
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A convicted sex offender from Georgia is dead after an encounter with Tennessee authorities during which he rammed several police cars, several sources have confirmed.
Edward Ahrens was suspected of kidnapping an 11-year-old girl who was the subject of a Tennessee Endangered Child Alert, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI). The missing child was identified as Aubriauna Mays.
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by Marshal Trigg President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their allies on the activist left insist that voter suppression is running rampant in the United States. In fact, the opposite is happening. DNC surrogates are fond of crying “voter suppression” wherever laws strengthen election security. Joe Biden infamously dubbed Georgia’s election integrity package — instituting such reforms as voter identification for absentee ballots and monitored drop boxes — as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” Here are some examples of what the left says is the “new Jim Crow”: Citizenship verification laws, in a country with tens of millions of non-citizens residing permanently within its borders; Voter photo identification laws, in states that make qualifying identification widely available to every citizen at no charge; Laws prohibiting third-parties from filling out and mailing ballot applications to citizens, non-citizens, non-residents, the deceased, and even cats and dogs; Laws requiring applicants to personally sign their voter registration forms, or sign and date their absentee ballots, just like people sign and date myriad of other government forms. We should never forget that Jim Crow 1.0 included such grave injustices as racially targeted violence and intimidation, as well as unlawful “literacy tests” which turned people away from…
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The State Bar of Arizona (SBA) is proceeding with two counts against Kari Lake’s attorney Bryan Blehm for referencing in a brief that 35,563 ballots were unaccounted for due to chain of custody problems at Maricopa County’s third-party early ballot processor, Runbeck Election Services, and for criticizing the Arizona judiciary. Representing himself, Blehm filed a 94-page Answer to the SBA’s charges on January 25.
In Count 1, the SBA accused Blehm of “misleading” the Arizona Supreme Court. The first half of the SBA’s case against Blehm consists of claiming that he lied when he stated in a pleading that both parties in Lake’s election challenge agreed that there was a discrepancy of 35,563 ballots unaccounted for due to chain of custody problems at Runbeck. Blehm asserted in the Lake brief, “The record indisputably reflects at least 35,563 Election Day early ballots, for which there is no record of delivery to Runbeck, were added at Runbeck….”
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A recent survey of 52 so-called “leading experts” by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) China Power Project did not think the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was capable of conducting an “effective invasion” of Taiwan today and not likely in the rest of this decade. Despite these prognostications, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has not received the word. Despite the assessment of “leading experts,” the CCP has once again demonstrated that they are continuing their preparations to conquer Taiwan.
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George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley predicted Sunday the Supreme Court would focus on whether a potential disqualification of former President Donald Trump would be “self-executing.”
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Federal prosecutors have charged a New Jersey political operative with a mail-in voter fraud scheme that involved paying “messengers” to cast ballots in the names of people whom they never met.
Former Atlantic City council president Craig Callaway was arrested Thursday and charged with “procuring, casting and tabulating fraudulent mail-in ballots” in the November 2022 general election, according to U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger’s office.
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Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) released a statement opposing a $118.3 billion emergency spending package that would fund U.S. national security efforts in Ukraine, Israel, and at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The Senate on Sunday night released the text of its long-awaited border security bill.
The $118 billion package includes provisions to reduce record-high crossings at the southern U.S. border and tighten the country’s asylum system, according to NBC News.
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Former President Donald Trump suggested in an interview Sunday that “some changes” could be coming to the Republican National Committee when asked about Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s performance.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee joined a coalition of 12 other governors in traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday to participate in a border security briefing held by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
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Roger Simon, co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss his coverage of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s birthday party in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC.
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Since June 2023, Americans have been increasingly employed in part-time positions, with a subsequent decline in full-time work, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The number of Americans working part-time in January grew by 96,000 compared to the previous month, while full-time employment sank by 63,000, according to the BLS. The change in the types of employment follows a trend toward part-time employment that has been increasingly exacerbated since June 2023.
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Polling from the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, the leading trade association of fuel, shows seven states oppose gas car bans.
Polling from the presidential and senate battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, shows most registered and likely general election voters oppose government efforts to ban new gas cars and impose electric vehicle mandates.
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Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) traveled to East Palestine on Friday to meet with residents and survey the status of the environmental cleanup of the area nearly one year after a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed.
In remarks to the media, Vance called on the Biden administration to fund a long-term health screening program for residents despite revealing the administration’s refusal to provide the funding that has “already been appropriated” for such screenings.
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U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) introduced a bill on Thursday that would designate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Ogles’ bill, H.R.7206, comes after nine employees from the United Nations Relief Works Agency were fired last week after being accused of involvement in the terrorist group Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel.
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A bill to limit and expand law enforcement’s use of license plate readers passed out of a Virginia House subcommittee, sparking questions during a debate about the age-old dance between government overreach and public safety.
House Bill 775 from Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, would institute statewide regulations governing the use of the technology and enable law enforcement to use them on highways managed by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
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Religious communities in the United States and the United Kingdom were less depressed during the COVID-19 pandemic, two recent studies found.
University of Cambridge researchers conducted two studies, one in the U.S. and the other in the U.K., on the mental health and overall happiness of religious and non-religious individuals in 2020 and 2021, according to a Tuesday announcement. The research found that religion acted as a boost for both Americans and the British alike, with the risk of mental health worsening by 60% during the pandemic for U.S. citizens who were or knew someone diagnosed with COVID-19 if they professed to be non-religious.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis did not respond to a request for information from a Fulton County commissioner relating to allegations she misused county funds as of late Friday night.
Fulton County Commissioner Bob Ellis said Willis had not responded to his Jan. 19 request for information about whether or not county funds were “misused” by Willis. Ellis set a Friday deadline for Willis to respond, according to a letter provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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Thanks to the Dobbs decision and pro-life leaders, 24 states have laws protecting unborn children at 12 weeks or sooner. Through ballot measures, abortion activists are trying to reverse that progress so anyone can get an abortion anytime, anywhere. These activists are targeting ten pro-life states which have laws that protect 30,000 babies in the womb annually.
The proposed constitutional amendments go far beyond Roe to establish unlimited abortion, eviscerate parental rights, and remove health and safety requirements for women. Though some of the measures include the word “viability,” the broad exceptions in the law ultimately allow elective abortion in all nine months. Ohio Democrats have introduced legislation that does this following the vote on Issue 1 laying bare the policy agenda they are pursuing but denied during the amendment campaign.
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Trump co-defendant Michael Roman’s attorney poked holes Friday in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ defense to corruption allegations leveled against her.
Willis admitted Friday that she was involved in a relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she appointed to work on the case against former President Donald Trump, though she denied she benefited financially and suggested the judge reject Roman’s motion to disqualify her without a hearing. Co-defendant Michael Roman responded by posing various questions that will be raised during cross examination, suggesting witness’ testimony would contradict Willis’ assertions during a hearing.
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Abe Hamadeh called on Blake Masters this week to drop out of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District (CD8) race due to “intentionally misleading voters” about raising $1.3 million.
“I’m officially calling on Blake Masters to drop out of this race,” Hamadeh posted on X. “Blake needs to stop paying his Nikki Haley consultants on a losing endeavor, and stay in his hometown of Tucson to rally behind President Trump this November.”
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More and more women are fearlessly declaring their desire to live more traditionally—to get married, have children, and create a family. Women all over the globe are waking up to the lie that we can “have it all.”
Of course, it takes work, planning, and cooperation to build a healthy marriage and a happy family. Many women might be deep into modern life before they realize it is not as fulfilling as advertised. But we can all change our path and learn to live out our values, no matter when we decide to change. Let’s discuss real, practical strategies for women who are looking to embrace traditional marriage and build a healthy family.
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Tesla is reportedly recalling over 2 million vehicles due to issues with warning lights on instrument panels, according to news reports.
The issue is expected to be resolved with “over-the-air” software, according to The Wall Street Journal. That means owners will not have to take their vehicles to a dealership to resolve the matter.
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On Jan. 28, two terrorists wearing black balaclavas attacked Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul, Turkey. The assailants entered the church as approximately 40 people were attending Mass. During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, the gunmen began firing. Tragically, Tuncer Cihan was killed. He was about to become a Christian, attended church regularly, and was described as “a good person.”
Thankfully, no one else was injured, as the terrorists fled due to one of the guns miraculously jamming.
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Former President Donald Trump’s political actions committees paid more than $50 million in legal bills last year, according to his latest campaign finance disclosures.
Trump faces two federal criminal trials, two state criminal trials and multiple civil trials ahead of the 2024 election, which may force his legal costs to be even higher this year. Trump has said he is not liable nor responsible for any wrongdoing. Although most of Trump’s trials lay ahead, he did go to court several times in 2023 to enter pleadings, among other things.
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All-star panelist Ben Cunningham joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy where he discussed what may be included in Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s anticipated transit plan.
O’Connell, who was elected mayor in last year’s runoff election, vowed during his campaign to address Nashville’s “infrastructure and transit concerns.”
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Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) joined Friday’s edition of The Matt Murphy Show on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN to discuss Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice plan, known as the Education Freedom Scholarship Act.
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Newly-elected chair of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Gina Swoboda joined Thursday’s edition of The Afternoon Addiction with Garret Lewis on KFYI to discuss why she was reluctant at first to run as the AZGOP chair, explaining how a call from former President Donald Trump ultimately changed her mind.
“It was impossible to say no,” Swoboda said. “It was surreal. I think any one of us when called upon to serve is going to serve.”
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A group of states filed a friend of the court brief supporting a transgender veterans group that filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs seeking gender-confirmation surgery for 163,000 transgender veterans.
The Transgender American Veterans Association lawsuit, filed last month, seeks an order that the Department of Veterans Affairs act on the group’s 2016 rule-making petition for gender-confirmation surgery.
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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved a research grant in November for over $200,000 to create an app that helps men who identify as transgender sound like women.
The grant, first reported by The College Fix, was approved in November 2023 by the NIH’s Deafness and Other Communication Disorders department and will be run by Vesna Dominika Novak, a transgender associate professor at the University of Cincinnati. The NIH approved $213,878 in funding from December 2023 to November 2024 so Novak’s team can create a smartphone app to train biological males who identify as transgender “women” to speak like women, according to the project details.
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The U.S. Capitol Police announced on Thursday that they have declined to press charges against the former Democrat Senate staffer who filmed a gay sex video in a Capitol Hill hearing room last month.
In a news release, the USCP said there was no evidence that Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a former aide for Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.), broke the law by filming himself copulating with another male inside the Hart Senate Office Building on the morning of Wednesday, December 13.
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The U.S. added 353,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in January as the unemployment rate remained at 3.7%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.
Economists anticipated that the country would add 180,000 jobs in January compared to the 216,000 that were added in December and that the unemployment rate would tick up to 3.8% from 3.7%, according to Reuters. Despite the job gains, American employers cut 82,307 positions in January, a 136% jump from the previous month, amid a wider trend of layoffs as factors like high inflation continue to hurt business conditions.
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All-star panelist Ben Cunningham joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s anticipated transit plan and how it may clash with the overall preference among Nashvillians when it comes to transportation.
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A group of Tennessee lawmakers have spoken out denouncing a notice sent by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last year to the City of Franklin advising the possible influx of nearly 600 migrants to Middle Tennessee.
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Michigan Senate Republicans on Thursday announced their plan to improve childhood learning and support teachers in the K-12 schools.
They proposed a MI Brighter Future plan they said would help students gain access to additional resources and learning opportunities, require proven training methods for educators, give parents more control over their child’s progress, reinstate accountability in teacher evaluations and provide for performance-based bonuses.
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CT lawmakers ditch plans for special session on EV mandate.
Consideration of a proposed ban on sales of new gas-powered vehicles in Connecticut could happen in regular legislative session, but will not happen in a special called one.
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A year after a toxic train derailment left East Palestine, Ohio, reeling, a lawsuit aimed at helping the city and state recover is still ongoing.
Attorney General Dave Yost continued to wait for answers.
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Despite the key positions states like Ohio and Pennsylvania hold to solve future energy problems, shifting the power grid from coal and natural gas to wind and solar isn’t as easy as flipping a switch.
A cadre of Pennsylvania legislators trekked to Columbus for a joint meeting of three House and Senate committees from the two states to be advised by energy officials on PJM, the regional power grid to which both belong.
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In two letters to government officials, Virginia Congressman and Chair of House Freedom Caucus Bob Good, R-Lynchburg, demanded “accountability and transparency” from the Naming Commission.
The commission was established in 2021 to recommend renaming military assets showing honor to the Confederacy for the Department of Defense.
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On Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) announced that the state of Florida will be sending up to 1,000 of its National Guard troops to Texas to assist state authorities in securing the border.
According to the New York Post, a press release from the governor’s office explained that the troops will be deployed “based on Texas’ needs,” and will include such duties as helping to repel illegal aliens trying to come across the southern border. It is the first time ever that the Florida National Guard has been deployed to somewhere outside of the state.
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Despite economic issues dominating voters’ minds this election year, the unprecedented chaos at the southern border is forcing immigration into the spotlight, and nearly two-thirds of voters blame Biden for the border crisis.
A blistering new Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey shows the share of voters who say immigration will be the most important issue to them on election day has risen in six of the seven swing states polled.
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Children’s Minnesota is displaying a “pronoun galaxy” at the entrance of its Minneapolis hospital, according to images provided to Alpha News.
“At Children’s Minnesota, you’re a star,” the display reads. Each star on the display includes different pronouns like “she/her,” “they/them,” and “he/his.”
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