Tennessee Public School Teacher, Principal Indicted as Investigators Claim They Stole Thousands with Falsified Time Sheets

Scotts Hill Elementary

A public school principal and teacher in Henderson County were criminally indicted by a grand jury after investigators claimed they falsified hours work to pay out nearly $8,000 in wages and benefits for hours that were never worked.

The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office announced on Thursday that their investigation into Scotts Hill Elementary School principal Brian Lane and teacher Tiffany Koelsch, who they claim conspired to pay Koelsch “$7,988.50 in wages and benefits that she did not earn,” led to criminal indictments.

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Feds Report $2.7 Trillion in Improper Payments in Two Decades

The federal government reported hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars in improper payments last fiscal year and trillions over the last two decades.

According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the federal government reported $236 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2023. The true number, though, is actually much higher, but federal reporting is often lacking.

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Part-Time Employment Surges for Another Month While Full-Time Falters

Driver Uber

The number of Americans working part-time jobs surged in March, while full-time jobs declined slightly, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released Friday.

There were 28,632,000 people with part-time jobs in March, 691,000 more than in February, when there were 27,941,000, according to the BLS. In that same period, the number of people employed in full-time positions dropped by 6,000, from 132,946,000 to 132,940,000.

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Tuberculosis, Measles Break Out in Chicago Migrant Shelters

Measles vaccination at migrant shelter

In the city of Chicago, officials announced that there has been an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) in several shelters currently housing illegal aliens.

As Fox News reports, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) released a statement confirming that TB had broken out in “a few different shelters” throughout the city. Although the statement did not disclose the total number of cases, officials nevertheless tried to downplay the threat by describing it as a “small number” of cases.

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Increased Crime Cutting into Small-Business Earnings, Survey of Owners Finds

Business Owner

One-third of small-business owners say increased crime is cutting into their earnings, and 7 in 10 grade President Joe Biden’s performance negatively in terms of helping small businesses, a new poll finds.

Pollsters John McLaughlin and Scott Rasmussen conducted the survey, along with the Job Creators Network Foundation in March, among 400 small-business owners. When asked about their sentiments regarding the state of the economy, 46% of small-business owners said the economy is getting worse, while just 27% said it’s getting better.

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Prominent Epidemiologist Says Data Proves COVID Lockdowns Failed, and Hurt Population

Dr. Harvey Risch

Dr. Harvey Risch, Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, says lockdowns failed to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and had “serious repercussions for substantial fractions of the population.”

“The measures that need to be monitored for a pandemic of this sort are the number of deaths, serious hospitalizations, and serious outcomes of the infection, not the infection itself,” Risch said on a “Just the News, No Noise” special on Friday.

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Earliest COVID-19 Vaccine Recipients Wrote in Tens of Thousands of Injuries Left Off CDC Surveys

Vaccine Shot

The earliest recipients of newly authorized COVID-19 vaccines, including healthcare workers, wrote in tens of thousands of adverse events related to the heart, ears, reproductive system and other conditions not listed as checkboxes in a federal active monitoring smartphone app.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the past two months turned over 780,000 “free text” entries from V-safe, the agency’s vaccine-safety monitoring system, under a January order by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Freedom Coalition of Doctors for Choice. 

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Tennessee Court Advisory Board Will Look at Alternate Juror Dismissal Timing

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure listened to a proposal to keep alternate jurors on even after deliberations begin in a criminal case during its Friday public meeting.

Circuit Court Judge Russ Parkes said the proposal came so cases did not have to be delayed or declared a mistrial if a juror becomes ill or is unable to continue after deliberations have begun in a case.

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Virginia A.G. Miyares Celebrates Victory as SEC Halts Biden Climate Change Mandate

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares celebrated a victory on Friday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) halted the enforcement of its new climate changes rules for publicly traded businesses that were imposed by the Biden administration.

The coalition of 25 attorneys general originally sued the Biden administration to block SEC rule changes that require publicly listed businesses report what the government considers climate change risks. A press release from the attorney general notes companies would be forced to “release a plan to adapt to climate agenda recommendations” under the proposed rules.

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Bill Would Ensure Patriotic Groups Can Appear in Ohio Schools

Ohio state Representative Roy Klopfenstein with a Boy Scout

Two Ohio lawmakers want to make sure state schools follow federal law and allow groups like the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts to be present during the school year.

Proposed legislation in the House of Representatives requires schools to allow U.S. Title 36, which permits patriotic organizations to provide information to students. Those organizations could be the Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, 4-H, Future Farmers of America, Civil Air Patrol, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and many other groups.

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Commentary: Job Program for Americans-No Jobs for Illegal Aliens, Period

Illegal migrants at border

I am weary of hearing the trope that we need more illegal aliens because “Americans won’t work those jobs.” My bet is that most Americans share this sentiment as well.

Amidst a myriad of concerns about illegal immigration, one prominent worry among Americans is the potential adverse effects on the U.S. workforce. There is apprehension that undocumented migrants could potentially displace native-born workers, leading to job loss and further exacerbating the nation’s tax burden. The media and the left love to dismiss such considerations as fearful, xenophobic, and bigoted, arguing instead that alien workers fill a vital gap in the American workforce. But these concerns, nevertheless, are valid.

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Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs Appoints Former Task Force Member to Citizens Clean Elections Commission

Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission member Christina Estes-Werther

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs announced her appointment of Christina Estes-Werther to the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission on Friday, confirming the former member of her Elections Task Force will be the first new member of the commission since 2017.

Hobbs confirmed the appointment in a press release, with her office noting Estes-Werther “served as deputy general counsel for Governor Jan Brewer, state elections director under Secretary of State Ken Bennett, and as a member of the Bipartisan Elections Task Force established by Governor Hobbs in 2023.”

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Kari Lake and Mark Finchem File New Brief with U.S. Supreme Court in Voting Machine Tabulator Case After Defendants Fail to Respond

Kari Lake Mark Finchem

Kari Lake and Mark Finchem filed a Supplemental Brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, adding support for their Petition for Writ of Certiorari and Motion to Expedite asking the court to hear an appeal of the dismissal of their lawsuit to stop the use of electronic voting machine tabulators in elections. The defendant Arizona officials failed to file a response to the pair’s petition, boosting the chances SCOTUS might accept the case and implying they did not object to the statements in the petition. 

The new brief added more allegations of false representations by Maricopa County officials. It said the courts relied on their false representations when they dismissed and affirmed their case, sanctioning the pair’s lawyers. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plaintiffs’ injuries were “too speculative” for Article III, which requires showing of an injury. The brief said the court based this determination “in part on false representations that Maricopa County performed required preelection logic and accuracy (‘L&A’) testing and used certified and approved voting system software.” The court “expressly relied on false representations that Maricopa’s elections were protected from manipulation.”

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Feds Refuse to Drop $37 Million Fine, Lawsuit Against GCU Despite Audit Finding No Fault with Christian School

Grand Canyon University campus

A state auditor’s office recently completed a review that found no proof there is any wrongdoing on the part of Grand Canyon University, but two federal agencies are continuing with their campaigns against the Christian university despite the findings.

The Arizona State Approving Agency, an arm of the state’s Department of Veteran Services, issued a determination Feb. 20 that risks identified by “court actions by the government” could not be substantiated, which means the private nonprofit’s students can still use GI bill funding to pay tuition.

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‘Operation Ghost Busted’ Drug Dealer Sentence Among Highest for Two Overdose Fatalities in Georgia

Jon Dillon Screen

A Glynn County resident, sentenced to 20 years in federal prison as part of Operation Ghost Busted, pled guilty to trafficking the drugs responsible for two overdose fatalities.

32-year-old Jon Dillon Screen of Brunswick, Georgia, pled guilty to trafficking drugs, including the fentanyl that killed Screen’s girlfriend and a man from Brunswick.

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Inspectors: Thousands of American Bridges in Poor Condition

Francis Scott Key Bridge

Following the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after a collision involving a cargo ship, safety inspectors are now raising the alarm about the structural dangers of a significant percentage of American bridges.

As Fox News reports, federal data from the year 2023 suggests that at least 7% of bridges in the United States – roughly 42,400 total – are in poor condition. The primary cause is deterioration over time, which requires regular repairs that can regularly cost millions of dollars, as well as cause closures that negatively impact many residents’ commutes.

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Commentary: The Inspiring Front Lines of the Modern Homeschool Revolution

Home School Family

When she was a young girl, Sandra Day O’Connor began her education at home. Her early years of schooling on an Arizona ranch were sitting at the kitchen table with her mother, learning to read, and taking long nature walks.

I read this, and this scene of serenity, this future Supreme Court Justice, beginning her education at home, formed an image in my mind of what might be possible.

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Commentary: Navigating the Vibe Shift of a Cultural Reckoning

Masked woman holding American flag

We have been hearing a lot about a “vibe shift” in American culture recently. The phrase has been around for a while. It gained new currency after the commentator Santiago Pliego wrote an essay about the phenomenon, and Tucker Carlson had him on his show to talk about it.

I recommend both.  For one thing, they offer notes of cheerfulness (I almost said “optimism,” but optimism is Dr. Pangloss’s failing) in the midst of our sea of gloominess and despondency. According to Pliego, Americans are awakening from their “dogmatic slumbers,” where the dogmas in question are the rancid pieties of the so-called “progressive” establishment. Have you checked your privilege today, Comrade? How are your pronouns holding up? What have you done to combat “whiteness,” “toxic masculinity,” and “climate change?”

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Study Grades Natural Gas as Best Source for Reliability, Affordability and Environmental Impact

Natural Gas Pawer Plant

A new study finds that natural gas is the most effective energy source meeting growing energy demands affordably and reliably, while balancing environmental and human impact.

The “Grading the Grid” study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a pro-free market nonprofit, and Northwood University rates natural gas, coal, petroleum, nuclear, hydroelectric, wind, solar and geothermal generation sources on their reliability, environmental and human impact, cost, innovation and market feasibility.

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