State Senator Brent Taylor Says Memphis Will Be ‘Hollowed Out’ If Crime is Not Addressed

Brent Taylor

State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) warned that Memphis will be ‘hollowed out’ if its crime problem is not addressed.

Taylor, who sponsored several crime-related bills in the recently-adjourned legislative session of the General Assembly, said the response he has received from the community in Memphis for his work to crackdown on crime has been positive.

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Transgender Arrested for Alleged Cyberstalking Was Previously Charged with Domestic Assault in 2022

McKenzie McClure

A transgender alleged cyberstalker who caused a Nashville Christian school to close for a day in March after sending a disconcerting message was previously charged with domestic assault, according to court records.

McKenzie McClure, also known as Kalvin McClure, was charged twice with domestic assault according to Williamson County public court records. The records list the “violation date” on each charge as August 21, 2022.

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TN-18 State Senate GOP Primary Challenger Chris Spencer Refuses to Answer If He’d Vote for Governor’s School Choice Bill If Elected

Chris Spencer

Chris Spencer, a Republican candidate challenging incumbent Tennessee State Senator Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) in the August 1 TN-18 GOP primary, refused to answer whether he’d vote for or against Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice bill during the next legislative session of the General Assembly if elected.

The governor’s school choice bill, called the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, failed to pass the General Assembly during the most recently convened session of the General Assembly.

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Black Lives Matter Group Sues Massive Liberal Foundation Claiming ‘Egregious Mismanagement’ of $33 Million in Funds

BLM

A liberal foundation controlling roughly $1 billion in assets faces accusations of “egregious mismanagement” of funds from the largest Black Lives Matter group in the country.

Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM GNF) filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing the Tides Foundation of mishandling funds donated to a “Black Lives Matter Support Fund” administered by Tides, arguing the funds belong to them. Tides, however, contests this by claiming that donations to the fund were actually intended for smaller BLM organizations.

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Justice Department Sues Iowa over Immigration Law After Warning

Kim Reynolds

The Justice Department sued the state of Iowa on Thursday, after the state failed to stop a new immigration law that makes it a crime for people to be in the state if they were previously denied admission to the United States.

The lawsuit is the second legal action taken against the state over the new law, which goes into effect in July. The first was a lawsuit from a civil rights group that was filed earlier Thursday. The department warned Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds that it would sue last week if she did not stop the law by May 7.

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Georgia Supreme Court Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Cobb County’s Authority to Draw Electoral Map

Georgia Supreme Court

The Georgia Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit on Thursday that challenged the constitutionality of the Cobb County Commission’s authority to draw its own electoral map, overturning the boundaries previously created by the State Legislature.

Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said she was “pleased” with the case outcome.

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Police Union Pushes Back over Claims About University of Connecticut Protesters

UConn Division of University Safety

The union representing University of Connecticut police is pushing back on claims officers injured pro-Palestinian protesters when they broke up an encampment last month and arrested more than two dozen people.

The Connecticut Police & Fire Union, which represents UConn police, said the claims about the April 30 encounter made by another union in a letter to school leaders was an “unconscionable attack” on the officers who were just “doing their jobs” by shutting down the “unauthorized” encampment on school grounds.

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Proposed Minnesota Legislation Would Require Study of Reparations, Formal Apology for Slavery

Minnesota Capitol

Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation this week to establish an advisory council that would examine a possible reparations program. Introduced in the last days of the legislative session, HF 5456 would also require the State of Minnesota to “issue an apology for the past occurrence of chattel slavery and notable slave owners in Minnesota.”

Known as the “Minnesota Migration Act,” HF 5456 first makes several historical declarations.

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Commentary: A Bill to Ensure Fair Representation for American Citizens

The House of Representatives finally acted Wednesday to remedy an injustice that has been getting worse as the number of illegal aliens coming into the United States has skyrocketed: the distortion caused by including noncitizens when determining how many House members each state gets.

The House passed HR 7109, the Equal Representation Act, to mandate a citizenship question on the census form and use of only the citizen population in the apportionment formula for representation applied after every census.

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Loudoun Firefighters, County Board Ratify Collective Bargaining Agreement

Fire Fighters

Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors ratified a collective bargaining agreement with its firefighters Tuesday, the first such agreement in the county’s history and one of many popping up across the commonwealth.

“I don’t know when I’ve been happier and prouder to make a motion,” said Board Chairwoman Phyllis Randall, D-At Large. “If I were a crier – and I just might – I would be crying right now.”

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Ohio Schools Likely to Have to Develop Cellphone Policies

Kids on phones in class

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will have to settle for school districts establishing respective cellphone policies rather than the state limiting use for students during the school day.

In his State of the State address last month, DeWine called on lawmakers to establish statewide cellphone restrictions. Instead, the legislature passed a bill that would require districts to come up with policies.

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Police Disperse Anti-Israel Encampment at University of Pennsylvania Despite Resistance from Faculty, Demonstrators

UPenn Protest Arrest

The University of Pennsylvania confirmed on Friday it called the Philadelphia Police Department to disperse the anti-Israel encampment constructed on its campus, declaring it a threat to public safety for students.

Signed by Interim President Larry Jameson, Provost John Jackson, and Senior Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli, the letter highlighted threats posed by the encampment to normal university operations, including commencement for graduating students.

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Florida Representative Draws Up Articles of Impeachment Against Joe Biden over Delayed Israel Aid

Cory Mills

Florida GOP Rep. Cory Mills is drawing up articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden on Thursday, over his delay of weapons and aid to Israel for invading Gaza.

An impeachment precedent was set, conservative lawmakers argue, when former President Donald Trump was impeached for the same offense in 2019, after he decided to withhold aid for Ukraine.

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The Arizona Corporation Commission May Have Violated APS Customers’ Due Process Rights with the Recent Solar Connect Fee: Rate Case is Reopened and Set for a November Hearing

Couple dealing with paperwork

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC), an independent body with powers derived from constitutional authority, ultimately opted to reopen the APS rate case to enhance the evidentiary record. During the February rate case, the ACC approved this controversial fee, intended to cover grid access costs for solar customers. Its last-minute introduction during the hearing sparked allegations of discrimination and due process violations.

In the APS case, the ACC voted to approve a rate hike for customers on February 22, 2024. It was approved 4-1 along party lines with the Democrat Commissioner Anna Tovar as the sole “no” vote. Chairman Jim O’Connor (R) seemed to allude on Arizona Horizon that this complex case, first filed on June 1, 2022, was handled in a meticulous manner.

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Commentary: China’s Land Grab

Farmland

At both the federal and state levels, elected leaders are paying more attention to national security threats stemming from Chinese-owned real estate in the United States.

The totality of Chinese-owned real estate in the United States remains unknown and, under current law, is unknowable. For agricultural land, Chinese-owned acreage reportedly only constitutes a small share of the United States’ total, but has increased rapidly in recent years, suggesting a growing threat that would best be managed now before it turns into a significant problem.

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Climate Activists Target Magna Carta with Hammer and Chisel

Protesters Magna Carta

Two elderly climate activists attempted to break the glass surrounding the Magna Carta on Friday.

The protesters, affiliated with the disruptive protest outfit Just Stop Oil, used a hammer and chisel to break the glass enclosure holding the Magna Carta at the British Library, footage posted to X by the protest group shows. The enclosure sustained minor damage, and the document was not damaged, according to the British Library.

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Big Business Takes Major Step Back from Politics as Trump and Biden Head for Rematch

Google Sign

Big businesses appear to be taking major steps back from politics compared to the 2020 election ahead of the contentious November rematch between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

While many corporate executives weighed in on divisive political issues during the previous cycle, some expressed fatigue to the WSJ over engaging in 2024. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a recent memo that he didn’t want the corporation to “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics” following employee protests over the Israel-Hamas war, adding that “we are a workplace,” according to the outlet.

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Commentary: Judge Cannon Puts Jack Smith on Trial

Jack Smith

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon may have just indefinitely postponed Donald Trump’s espionage and obstruction trial but that doesn’t mean her federal courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida will lie dormant over the next few months.

In officially vacating the existing May 20 trial date—an impossibility considering the defendant will be in a Manhattan courtroom for the foreseeable future—Cannon declined to set another date, calling it “imprudent” at this stage of the process. She noted a “myriad” of unresolved matters in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 42-count indictment against the former president and his two co-defendants, Mar-a-Lago employees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Olivera, for willfully retaining national defense information and attempting to impede the government’s investigation.

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