Judge Orders Government to ‘Expeditiously’ House Migrant Children

Group of immigrants at border

A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to “expeditiously” house children who illegally enter the country, instead of allowing the children to remain in open-air locations along the border. 

The order issued late Wednesday evening by California-based U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee was mostly in favor of the attorneys representing the minors in the class-action lawsuit. 

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During Jeffrey Clark’s Disbarment Trial, Cyber Security Expert Says Georgia’s 2020 Election Was Not ‘Conducted According to the Law’

Harry Haury

The second and final week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official began to wind down on Wednesday with more testimony from operations security expert Harry Haury. Clark, who is also a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.

The trial is expected to wrap up on Thursday with closing statements.

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Bureau of Prisons Denies Transfer of Unjustly Imprisoned J6 Defendant Stewart Parks to Minimum Security Camp

Stewart Parks Memphis

Unjustly convicted and imprisoned January 6 defendant Stewart Parks told The Tennessee Star on Monday that his request to transfer to the minimum security satellite camp at FCI Memphis was denied despite intervention by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) and his congressional colleagues.

Parks called Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Star, and were able to share a brief conversation Thursday morning before the phone system at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis automatically disconnected the call after just five minutes.

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Conservative Groups Forge Early Voting Coalition Built Around New Unity Pledge

In the hotel where Abraham Lincoln kicked off his Civil War presidency, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. refined his most famous speech, dozens of organizations gathered this week with a common goal: to forge a historic coalition that would catapult conservatives to the forefront of early voting and election lawfare and expand their movement to Hispanics, Asians, union workers, and African-Americans fleeing the Democratic Party.

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Teachers Could Carry Firearms Under Proposed Legislation Set for Tennessee Senate Vote

Teacher Gun

Tennessee teachers could soon be allowed to carry firearms while on school property. The State Senate is poised to vote on legislation allowing faculty and staff to carry concealed weapons if they are licensed, trained, and undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Tuesday to advance SB 1325, which would authorize school faculty or staff members “to carry a concealed handgun on school grounds subject to certain conditions, including obtaining an enhanced handgun carry permit and completing annual training.”

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Domestic Violence Offender Registry Bill Moving Through Tennessee House

Sabi Kumar Talking

A bill that would create a domestic violence offender registry is moving through the Tennessee House of Representatives. 

“This bill creates within the Tennessee bureau of Investigation (TBI) a registry of persons who have been convicted of the offense of domestic assault. The TBI must maintain this registry based upon information supplied to TBI by the court clerks pursuant to this bill, and information available to the TBI from the department of correction and local law enforcement agencies. The TBI must make the registry available for public inquiry on the internet,” according to the summary of HB 2898.

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Vanderbilt Confirms It is Considering Building New Campus in Florida

Stephen Ross Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt University confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Wednesday that it is considering building a new campus in Florida.

“We are assessing an opportunity to expand Vanderbilt graduate programs in business and computing in South Florida,” Vanderbilt’s Senior Media Relations Specialist Julia Jordan told The Star. “We will share details as they become available.”

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Jack Smith Criticizes Trump Documents Judge’s Instructions as ‘Fundamentally Flawed’

Special Counsel Jack Smith

Special counsel Jack Smith criticized the federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial as relying on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise” that “would distort the trial,” when she ordered both parties to submit jury instructions.

Smith’s sharp response Tuesday comes after Florida-based U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Canon last month asked attorneys to submit instructions based on two scenarios. In the first one, the jury would consider whether records Trump allegedly possesses are personal or presidential under the Presidential Records Act. The second scenario, Canon wrote, would assume that “the Presidential Records Act gives the president the sole authority to categorize records as personal or presidential during their time in office,” which would make the case significantly more difficult to prosecute.

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Electric Vehicle Market Share Plummets in First Quarter as Consumers Sour

Tesla Showroom

Growth in sales for electric vehicles (EV) slowed in the first quarter of the year as consumers remained wary of the product even though growth in sales of new vehicles remained strong, leading to a drop in EV market share, according to The Associated Press.

Sales for new vehicles grew 5 percent in the first three months of the year, but EV sales grew only 2.7 percent as more consumers chose traditional vehicles due to cost and product concerns, according to the AP. The average sales price declined 3.6 percent year-over-year to $44,186 in March as dealers looked to offload built-up inventory.

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Democrat Maryam Abolfazli Launches Bid for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District

Maryam Abolfazli

Maryam Abolfazli, founder of the nonprofit group Rise and Shine Tennessee, launched a bid for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District on Wednesday.

“I refuse to sit back while our fundamental values and freedoms are under threat. That’s why I’m stepping up to put an end to the extremism that’s harming our state and country,” Abolfazli, a Democrat, wrote in a social media post announcing her campaign.

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House Republicans Raise Alarm over China’s Potential Use of U.S. Funds in Military Research

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers

House Republicans are urging the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s nonpartisan watchdog, to investigate what safeguards the National Institutes of Health has in place to ensure China does not use research funds to bolster its military or unethically use humans in research studies.

“Recent reports have raised concerns about the NIH’s ability to screen for national security issues,” the Republicans, led by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wa., wrote in a letter Tuesday to Government Accountability Office Comptroller Gene Dodaro.

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Commentary: Aileen Cannon Is a Portrait of a Judge in the Fractured Double Reality of American Justice

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon

The residents of Fort Pierce, Florida, are not accustomed to seeing dark SUVs and flashing motorcycles speed down the town’s main thoroughfare bordering the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. Part beach getaway, part working class community, the city is located about 60 miles north of the luxurious Palm Beach estate of the most famous – and frequent –criminal defendant in recent history: Donald J. Trump.

The former president has become a regular visitor to the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, more specifically, the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon who is presiding over the so-called classified documents trial.

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Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon Asks Party Official to Resign Following Illegal Voting Ruling

Brian Pritchard Georgia

Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) Chair Josh McKoon on Wednesday confirmed rumors he requested the resignation of the party’s 1st vice chairman, Brian Pritchard, following the revelation he violated the state’s election laws by illegally voting despite being on probation for forgery.

McKoon wrote in a post to the social media platform X that he requested Pritchard’s resignation before making the request public.

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Youngkin Vetoes Bill Mandating Climate Change and ‘Environmental Literacy’ in Virginia Schools, Acts on 103 More Bills

Teacher Student Learning

Governor Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday announced a veto of legislation that would have mandated “environmental literacy” education across the commonwealth’s schools.

The governor vetoed HB 1088, which would have mandated the Virginia Board of Education to create or purchase “instructional materials on climate change and environmental literacy that are based on and include peer-reviewed scientific sources.”

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Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda Secures Favorable Court Ruling Allowing Election Integrity Group to Review Voter Rolls

Gina Swoboda Courtroom

Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Chairwoman Gina Swoboda secured a favorable court ruling for her election integrity group, the Voter Reference Foundation (VRF), and will gain access to New Mexico voter roll data.

U.S. District Court Judge James Browning in New Mexico made a ruling on Friday in the case brought against that state by the VRF that was largely favorable to Swoboda’s group, with reports indicating VRF was given permission to post voter rolls online and was given access to voter information previously withheld by the New Mexico Secretary of State.

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Georgia Election Integrity Expert Lists Significant Fraud in State’s 2020 Election at Jeffrey Clark’s Disbarment Trial

Garland Favorito

The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, continued into its second and final week on Tuesday, featuring testimony from three witnesses for him.

Clark, a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.

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Gas Prices Creeping Higher Again as Election Cycle Heats Up

Pumping Gas

The national average cost of a gallon of gas at the pump jumped by 20 cents over the past month, according to AAA.

Currently, Americans are paying about $3.55 per gallon on average, up from about $3.35 a month ago, according to AAA’s data. Goldman Sachs, one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., has recently cautioned that prices could surge above $4 per gallon by May, according to Yahoo Finance.

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Commentary: National Council of Teachers of English Hosts Seminar on How to Teach ‘Gender Queer’

Maia Kobabe

The National Council of Teachers of English, a professional development organization, hosted remote training to instruct K-12 teachers on how to teach the controversial book “Gender Queer” in their “classrooms, libraries, and communities.”

The NCTE, which boasts 25,000 members around the United States, hosted a panel including “Gender Queer” author Maia Kobabe and an “LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee” to discuss how to incorporate the pornographic book into school curriculum.

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Trump Leads Biden in Six of Seven Critical Swing States: WSJ Poll

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

Former President Donald Trump has staked out a significant lead against President Joe Biden in several of the most pivotal states that could decide the 2020 election, a recent survey has revealed.

The Wall Street Journal survey questioned voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and found Trump leading his likely opponent in all of them except Wisconsin, where the pair tied.

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Yost Agrees Six-Week Abortion Ban Unconstitutional, Other Provisions Not

Attorney General Dave Yost

A Hamilton County judge now must decide on parts of Ohio’s heartbeat law after Attorney General Dave Yost agreed the law banning nearly all abortions is unconstitutional.

In court filings, Yost said Ohio’s 2019 law that banned most abortions in the state was unconstitutional after voters guaranteed the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution in November.

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Trump Campaign, RNC Announce $65.6 Million Fundraising Haul

Donald Trump and Michael Whatley

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign and affiliated groups announced on Wednesday they brought in over $65.6 million during the month of March.

The haul includes funds raised by the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and their affiliated entities, according to a press release. Trump’s fundraising apparatus, which has been lagging behind President Joe Biden’s, also announced topping $93.1 million in cash on hand going into April.

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