Month: March 2024

Arizona Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments from Arizona Republican Party Appealing Sanctions over Election Lawsuit, Grills Opposing Attorney

Rachel Alexander
Arizona Supreme Court

The Arizona Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week from the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) and opposing litigant Secretary of State (AZSOS) over lower courts awarding sanctions against the AZGOP for filing a “groundless” lawsuit “in bad faith.” The AZGOP sued Arizona officials immediately after the 2020 election for conducting a post-election audit that the AZGOP contended did not comply with the law. The AZGOP said the law required the audit to be conducted at the precinct level, but the audit was conducted at the voting center level according to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPG), which the AZGOP claimed contradicted state law. 

The AZGOP said A.R.S. § 16-602 requires precinct-level audits. The relevant part of that statute, (B)(1), provides, “ At least two percent of the precincts in that county, or two precincts, whichever is greater, shall be selected at random from a pool consisting of every precinct in that county.” In contrast, the EPM states that in counties which utilize vote centers, vote centers will be used for the audits. 

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Bill Aims to Crack Down on Sham Sober Living Facilities in Arizona

The Center Square
Counseling

A bill aiming to crackdown on unlicensed sober living facilities passed out of the Arizona State Senate unanimously, but could face hurdles as it moves forward.

State officials say an increasingly common scam occuring in Arizona involves facilities that brand themselves as sober living facilities but do not offer people any actual help. Many Native Americans in Arizona have been targeted by the homes, and those who go into these homes sometimes end up losing contact with loved ones while there, according to lawmakers.

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Grand Canyon University Student Says She was ‘Silenced’ About ‘Biased’ Econ Textbook

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Grand Canyon University campus, Essentials of Economics textbook

A Grand Canyon University student says she has not been allowed to offer her opinions in class while her econ textbook is full of them.

Elizabeth Olson sent excerpts of the book, “Essentials of Economics” by Gregory Mankiw, to The College Fix and a syllabus showing it is being used for assignments and discussions throughout the course at the private Christian Arizona university.

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Watchdog Accuses Biden Judicial Nominee of Trying to Cover Up Financial Conflicts, Demands he Withdraw

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Adeel Mangi, Philadelphia federal courthouse

A Biden judicial nominee under fire for ties to an anti-Israel group is now facing a call by the conservative watchdog American Accountability Foundation (AAF) to withdraw for failing to disclose the sources of his income.

AAF sent Adeel Mangi a letter Thursday demanding he ask President Joe Biden to withdraw his nomination for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, calling Mangi’s failure to include income sources on his Financial Disclosure Report “disqualifying.” Though the White House has doubled down on its support for Mangi, at least one Senate Democrat, Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, said Tuesday she would not support him.

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Music Spotlight: Kelsey Hickman

Bethany Bowman
Kelsey Hickman

As a product of the 80s music scene, I discovered country music later in life. When country rocker Kelsey Hickman came across my desk, I knew she was right up my alley.

Hickman is from Central Illinois. No one in her family is particularly musical, but she can remember singing all her life. She started as a tot singing Disney songs, then joined school choirs and got her first exposure singing in musicals.

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CBO Reports Grim Long-Term Outlook for Federal Government

The Center Square
Couple paying bills

The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday released a bleak outlook for the federal government with new projections that show debt levels will reach their highest levels ever in five years.

“Debt held by the public, boosted by the large deficits, reaches its highest level ever in 2029 (measured as a percentage of GDP) and then continues to grow, reaching 166 percent of GDP in 2054 and remaining on track to increase thereafter,” according to the CBO report. “That mounting debt would slow economic growth, push up interest payments to foreign holders of U.S. debt, and pose significant risks to the fiscal and economic outlook; it could also cause lawmakers to feel more constrained in their policy choices.”

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New York AG Letitia James Takes First Step Toward Seizing Trump’s Assets

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Letitia James Donald Trump

Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James recently took the first step towards seizing former President Donald Trump’s assets, public records show.

James filed judgements against Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization on March 6 with the clerk’s office in Westchester County, where Trump owns a golf resort and private estate called Seven Springs, according to Bloomberg News. Judge Arthur Engoron issued a judgement in February finding that Trump must pay $454 million in James’ lawsuit, which alleged he perpetuated financial fraud by overestimating the value of his assets to obtain loans.

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Alan Dershowitz Commentary: Fani Willis Must Still Be Disqualified

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Fani Willis

Just as predicted, Judge Scott McAfee tried to cut the baby in half, but the baby died, because his split-the-difference opinion makes absolutely no sense legally or factually.

It is obvious that Judge McAfee started his decision-making process by deciding the result he wanted: disqualifying special prosecutor Nathan Wade, but retaining Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her entire office. In order to reach that bizarre result, he had to rely on the testimony of Willis, which he knew was totally untruthful.

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CIA Blocked Feds from Interviewing Hunter Biden’s ‘Sugar Brother’ Kevin Morris During Five-Year Tax Probe

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New York Post The CIA blocked federal investigators from interviewing Hunter Biden’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris during a five-year probe into the first son’s alleged tax crimes, a whistleblower has told House impeachment leaders. House Oversight and Judiciary Committee chairmen say the whistleblower informed them the intelligence agency stopped IRS and Justice Department investigators from interviewing Morris in August 2021, a Hollywood lawyer and patron of the first son, according to a Thursday letter addressed to CIA Director William Burns. The whistleblower informed Oversight chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that two DOJ officials were summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. — and told Morris “could not be a witness” for their investigation into Hunter Biden. READ THE FULL STORY      

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Activists Sheila Matthews and Amy Miller Detail Legislative Win on Tennessee Bill to Help Determine Link Between Mental Health Drugs and Mass Shooters

Kaitlin Housler
pills

Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the national non-profit parent organization AbleChild, and activist Amy Miller with the Reform Pharma initiative of Children’s Health Defense, detailed the progress a bill that would help determine the link between Big Pharma drugs and mass shooters has made in the Tennessee General Assembly since its introduction.

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Video Shows Illegal Migrants Overwhelming Texas National Guard, Storming Border Wall

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Illegal Immigrants

Video taken near El Paso, Texas, shows illegal immigrants tearing down a barrier and overwhelming members of the Texas National Guard as they stormed across the border.

The illegal immigrants are seen pulling the barrier open as four National Guardsmen try to keep them from crossing the border in the video posted on X by New York Post reporter Jennie Taer Thursday. The illegal immigrants rush through the gap opened, almost trampling the National Guard personnel, until coming up against a second, sturdier barrier.

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Tennessee House Bill Would Increase Penalties for Illegal Alien Crime

Peter D'Abrosca
Monty Fritts

A bill in the Tennessee House of Representatives would trigger harsher penalties for violent crimes if the person convicted of those crimes is an illegal alien.

HB 1872 “authorizes the enhancement of criminal penalties up to life in prison without parole upon conviction of violent crimes by illegal aliens; conviction of possession of a firearm or deadly weapon by an illegal alien; or conviction of a violent crime on the property of a school by any person.”

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Energy Secretary Insists Energy Stockpiles Will Be Refilled in 2024, but Experts are Skeptical

Just the News
Secretary Jennifer Granholm

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Monday that the nation’s energy stockpiles, which President Joe Biden depleted to its lowest level since the 1980s, will be refilled by the end of 2024.

“By the end of this year we will essentially be back to where we would have been absent the sales,” Granholm said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas, according to AFP.

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Politicians of All Stripes Focus on Post-Election Audits Before 2024 General Election Even Happens

Just the News
Poll workers counting ballots

Various state legislators are focusing on post-election audits ahead of the November 2024 general election, with Republicans looking to implement or improve audits in some states, while Democrats in one state are trying to prevent an audit of the presidential election.

Post-election audits have been on the books of some states for years, most famously, the “hanging chad recount” fought over in 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. The issue of post-election audits and the ensuing litigation has received renewed attention since the 2020 presidential election, after numerous irregularities were discovered. The Arizona Senate post-election audit was one of the more famous following the 2020 race. Dispositive evidence that irregularities “moved the needle” one way or another is still a point of contention.

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Biden Admin Finalizes Stringent Tailpipe Emissions Standards

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Mechanic underneath car

The Biden administration unveiled its final tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles Wednesday, effectively requiring about 67 percent of all light-duty vehicles sold after model year 2032 to be electric vehicles (EVs) or hybrids.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) finalized standards rolled back some of the de facto EV production benchmarks for manufacturers proposed initially, but still require automakers to reach the final standards set forth in the agency’s April 2023 proposal. The agency finalized the standards as the American EV market is struggling: demand has not grown as quickly as expected, manufacturers are losing billions on their EV product lines, executives have backed away from near-term production targets and Biden administration subsidy programs to facilitate the creation of a nationwide EV charging network have so far failed to make much of an impact.

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Tennessee Lawmakers Seek Tougher Penalties for Transporting Illegal Immigrants

Tom Pappert
Illegal Immigrants

Tennessee lawmakers are poised to pass legislation instituting harsher penalties for those caught providing transportation to illegal immigrants in the state, but first plan to introduce amendments protecting “good Samaritans” and professional drivers from unknowingly violating the law.

The Senate Judiciary Committee considered SB 2802, which would impose a $5,000 fine for individuals caught transporting illegal immigrants in the state on Wednesday, when Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) introduced an amendment to his bill he said closed existing loopholes within the law.

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State Rep. Johnny Garrett Halts $800 Million Tax Increase Sponsored by Democrat

Matthew Giffin
Johnny Garrett

State Representative Johnny Garrett’s (R-Goodlettsville) amendment to a Tennessee bill that would have enacted a massive tax increase passed Wednesday in the Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee.

According to a fiscal note on the bill before it was amended, it would have increased state revenue by nearly $800 million in taxes on business enterprises.

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Proposal would Halt Taxpayer Money to Medical Schools Promoting Racial Bias

The Center Square
Reps Greg Murphy, Brad Wenstrup, and Burgess Owens (composite image)

Educating from the podium and advocating for the inclusion of all, congressmen led by North Carolina’s Dr. Greg Murphy and Ohio’s Dr. Brad Wenstrup on Tuesday introduced legislation that would halt taxpayer money from going to medical schools promoting racial bias.

Multiple speakers, both Black and white and at least one saying she’s neither Republican nor Democrat, drove home the message directly and indirectly that health care is about the patients and their outcomes. Collectively, they explained how the best care comes from the best in education, that all can access it, and the promotion of “critical race theory-based woke philosophy based on DEI” will put Americans’ lives at risk.

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Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas Acknowledges Youngkin Could Veto Budget, but Calls Potomac Yards Arena ‘Non-Starter’

Tom Pappert
Lucas Youngkin

Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas acknowledged in a Tuesday interview that Governor Glenn Youngkin could veto the budget proposed by lawmakers, but nonetheless insisted any compromise that would fund the creation of the Potomac Yards arena for the Washington Wizards and Capitals is a “non-starter.”

In her Tuesday interview with WTOP News, she acknowledged Youngkin’s remarks indicating “he may have to veto the budget,” calling it “his prerogative.” Still, she pledged, “at no point will I ever be in a position to say I am going to commit state tax dollars for an arena that’s going to benefit billionaires,” calling it “a non-starter for me.”

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Georgia Judge Allows Trump Defendants to Appeal Fani Willis Disqualification

Tom Pappert
Fani Willis

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Wednesday determined former President Donald Trump and eight of his co-plaintiffs may appeal his decision against disqualifying District Attorney Fani Willis from her election case against the former president.

McAfee wrote in his decision that the question of impropriety between Willis and Nathan Wade, her former lover who she appointed as special prosecutor and paid more than $650,000 in taxpayer money, “is of such importance to the case that immediate review should be had.”

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Arizona Poll Finds Trump Leads Biden, Gallego Has Slight Lead over Lake

Tom Pappert
Donald Trump, Ruben Gallego, Joe Biden, Kari Lake

Former President Donald Trump currently has the support of just under half of Arizona voters and boasts a slight lead over President Joe Biden, according to a poll released Wednesday.

The Emerson College poll found 48 percent of registered voters in Arizona support Trump’s bid to return to the White House, while 44 percent want to see Biden elected to a second term.

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Commentary: A Huge Double-Digit Decline in the Share of Black Voters Saying Biden’s Policies Have Helped Them Could Shake Up 2024 Election

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President Joe Biden speaking to a crowd

After supporting Democrats for decades, Black Americans are poised to make a marked shift away from the left thanks to the Biden Administration’s dismal economic record and abandonment of the working-class.

A striking New York Times/Siena College poll from early March shows the share of Black Americans who say Biden’s policies have “helped them personally” has taken a forty-one-point nosedive since last November’s Times/Siena battleground state poll.

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Election Integrity Attorney Stefanie Lambert Arrested on Unrelated Bench Warrant After She Turned Over ‘Criminal’ Documents from Dominion to Law Enforcement

Rachel Alexander
Stefanie Lambert

Stefanie Lambert, an election integrity attorney in Michigan, was arrested on Monday in Washington D.C. for failing to appear at a court hearing in Michigan involving charges against her for allegedly breaching voting machines. After agreeing to surrender to authorities in Michigan, Lambert was released on $10,000 bond. Lambert said in court filings and a statement that she failed to show up for the hearing due to a miscommunication with her former counsel, who told her the meeting was canceled. 

Lambert was arrested after taking part in a hearing Monday representing her client, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, against a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems filed against him in 2021. Dominion sued Byrne for predicting months before the 2020 election that there would be illegal election activity to change the results of the election, and named Dominion as one of the actors involved.

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Dual Polls Find Trump Leading Biden in Two Key Southern Battleground States

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Donald Trump and Joe Biden in front of The White House (composite image)

Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden in the battleground states of Georgia and North Carolina for a head-to-head general election rematch, according to dual Wednesday polls.

Trump is favored 51 percent to 47 percent against Biden among registered voters in Georgia, as well as 51 percent to 48 percent in North Carolina, the Marist surveys found. Both polls also found Trump making inroads among independents, black voters and those aged 18-to-29 compared to 2020 exit polling.

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Tennessee Agrees to $8.8 Million More in FastTrack Incentive Grants

The Center Square
Schneider Electric building

Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development has handed out more than $8.8 million in incentives since it last posted FastTrack incentives for February.

Those include $3.4 million to Schneider Electric in Mount Juliet and Smyrna, $2.5 million to Shoals Technologies Group in Portland, $1.6 million to Nokian Tyres in Dayton and $1.3 million to an unnamed project.

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Commentary: The Gift of C-SPAN in an Era of Partisan Media

RealClearWire
Al Gore on C-SPAN

Forty-five years ago today, future vice president Albert Gore Jr. stood in the well of the House of Representatives to discuss an innovative development in television programming. There was nothing remarkable about that in itself: Al Gore had been a newspaperman before becoming a Tennessee congressman and had a genuine interest in both new technology and mass communication.

Except that there was something momentous about Gore’s speech that day. It was the first time that remarks delivered on the House floor by a member of Congress were televised. It was an event long envisioned by a 38-year-old Indiana-born, Purdue-educated, U.S. Navy veteran who had worked as a White House and Capitol Hill aide before returning to journalism. His name was Brian Lamb. As the Washington bureau chief of the trade publication Cablevision, Lamb had dreamed of creating a nonprofit cable network that would focus exclusively on public affairs, particularly Congress. It was called C-SPAN, and on March 19, 1979, that dream became reality.

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Texas Schools Pull $8.5 Billion from BlackRock over ESG

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Texas State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey

The Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) is pulling $8.5 billion from the investment firm BlackRock over its use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies.

The board informed the investment firm that it was being terminated as the manager of the Navarro 1 Fund in a Tuesday letter, which it provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The divestment represents the largest from the private firm, according to Fox Business Network.

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Reporter Tom Pappert Says Tennessee Congressional Delegation ‘Fear’ Defending J6 Prisoner Ronald Colton McAbee

Kaitlin Housler
Ronald McAbee

Tom Pappert, lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, said members of the Tennessee congressional delegation have not shown an interest in taking up J6 prisoner Ronald Colton McAbee’s case due to the level of “fear” surrounding the overall defense of J6 defendants.

Last month, McAbee was sentenced to almost six years in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $32,165 in restitution after being convicted and pleading guilty to six felony charges and one misdemeanor charge for being present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

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Mike Benz Warns: The Supreme Court Needs to Exercise ‘Bravery’ in Murthy v. Missouri Case to ‘Dismantle the Government Censorship Complex’

Kaitlin Housler

Mike Benz, former Trump State Department official and current executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, said the Supreme Court is going to have to exercise “bravery” as opposed to “wisdom” in its ruling of Murthy v. Missouri for the government censorship complex to be dismantled.

Murthy v. Missouri seeks to determine whether the government’s “challenged conduct transformed private social media companies’ content-moderation decisions into state action and violated respondents’ First Amendment rights” related to COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election.

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Immigration Expert Todd Bensman Says Current Chaos in Haiti Is a Direct Result of the White House’s Decision to Repatriate Del Rio Camp Migrants in Return for Scuttled Elections

Kaitlin Housler
Haitians

Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the Biden administration’s compliance in scuttling Haiti’s elections back in 2021 has resulted in the chaos currently unfolding in the Caribbean country as armed gangs have taken over.

In 2021, thousands of Haitians were deported back to Haiti from a Del Rio, Texas migrant camp allegedly in exchange for the country’s elections to be postponed at the request of unelected leader Ariel Henry, who has served as the acting Haiti Prime Minister and the acting president of Haiti since July 2021 after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s ‘Greendoggle’ Transit Plan Will Lead to Increased Property Taxes, Watchdog Predicts

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit plan, which will be on the November ballot, will inevitably lead to property tax increases.

Last month, O’Connell officially announced that his long-awaited transit plan will be on the November 5 ballot, however, he did not release any information regarding what the plan entails.

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The Future of AI Will Be ‘Utterly Miserable,’ Says AI Expert

Kaitlin Housler
AI

Joe Allen, author of Dark Aeon: Transhumanism and the War Against Humanity, said he believes the future of artificial intelligence (AI) will be “utterly miserable.”

Allen, on Tuesday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, explained how AI will most likely not evolve into a full-out “total doom human extinction” model nor into an “elaborate and spectacular” model that provides cures for diseases and invincible security, but instead evolve into something in between.

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Tennessee Bills to Fine Parents for Crimes Committed by Children, Treat Teenage Thieves as Adults Head to Gov. Lee’s Desk

Tom Pappert

The Tennessee General Assembly on Monday passed legislation that would see families of juvenile offenders fined for repeated criminal acts and teenage thieves charged as adults, with the bills now headed to Governor Bill Lee for final approval.

The Juvenile Organized Retail Theft Act, SB 2573, mandates that punishments for organized retail theft and car break-ins resulting in the theft of more than $1,000 worth of goods must be considered a Class E felony, which carries a sentence of at least one year in prison. The bill would additionally apply to juvenile defendants who are at least 15.

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U.S. Reps. Andy Ogles, Matt Gaetz, and Andy Biggs Send Letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons Requesting J6 Prisoner Stewart Parks Be Transferred to Minimum Security Satellite Camp

Kaitlin Housler
Andy Ogles, Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Stewart Parks

U.S. Representatives Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01), and Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) have sent a letter to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons requesting that unjustly imprisoned January 6 defendant Stewart Parks be moved to the minimum security satellite camp located at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis.

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Arizona Republican Leaders Submit Brief Defending Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby from AG Kris Mayes’ Prosecution over 2022 Election Integrity Efforts

Rachel Alexander
Warren Petersen Ben Toma

State Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa) and Speaker of the House Ben Toma (R-Peoria) filed a Motion for Leave to File Brief as Amicus Curiae in the prosecution of Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby on March 8.

Crosby, along with Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd, was indicted by a grand jury in November 2023 for briefly delaying canvassing of the 2022 election in order to investigate the laws that were broken. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes charged them with the class 5 felonies of Interference With an Election Officer—even though they were in part administering elections themselves as officials—and conspiracy since they both voted together to delay the canvassing.

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Sen. Brent Taylor Continues Fight Against Memphis Crime with Two New Bills

Peter D'Abrosca
State Senator Brent Taylor

The Tennessee State Senate on Monday passed two bills sponsored by State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) that focused on his continued efforts to fight crime in Memphis.

SB 2659, called the Juvenile Organized Retail Theft Act (JORTA), according to the General Assembly’s website, is a bill that “allows a juvenile court to transfer a child 15 years of age or older to be tried as an adult in criminal court for the offense of organized retail crime, theft of a firearm, or an attempt to commit such offense.”

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Conservatives Push to Stop Biden’s Open Border Policies with Funding Bill Before Friday Deadline

Just the News
Speaker Mike Johnson

House conservatives are pushing for House Speaker Mike Johnson to stop President Biden’s “open border” policies with the federal funding bill that Congress has to pass before a Friday deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Congress has passed six appropriations bills in the form of a “minibus” spending package to fund certain cabinet agencies but both the House and Senate still have to pass another package to fund the remaining agencies.

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Centrist Third Party Dreams of Sending a ‘Unity Ticket’ to the White House amid One Problem

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No Labels party advocates giving public address

Centrist organization No Labels is struggling to find candidates to head its third-party “Unity Ticket” in November after deciding in early March to move forward with such a bid, NBC News reported Tuesday.

The group’s 800 delegates voted to advance a presidential run on March 8 after months of consideration, and detailed its nominating process on Thursday. However, various prominent Republicans and Democrats continue to rule out running with No Labels ahead of its April convention in Dallas, Texas, according to NBC News.

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East Tennessee Schools Sue Major Social Media Companies

Peter D'Abrosca
Kids on tablets

More than 30 school districts in East Tennessee have joined a lawsuit first filed by Clarksville-Montgomery County School System (CMCSS) against social media companies, claiming that those companies are harming children.

According to WBIR, Knox, Anderson, Blount, Claiborne, Fentress, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Lenoir City, Loudon, Maryville, Oak Ridge, Oneida, and Sevier counties have joined the suit, which names eta, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google, YouTube and WhatsApp as defendants.

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