Day: July 19, 2024

Tennessee Returns $68 Million in Unclaimed Property to Residents

Peter D'Abrosca
Tennessee State Capitol building

The Tennessee Department of Treasury (TDOT) said Wednesday that it returned more than $68 million in unclaimed property to Tennesseans in Fiscal Year 2023, a record for the state department. 

“Unclaimed property is money that has been turned over to the State by businesses and organizations unable to locate the rightful owners, such as utility refunds, uncashed paychecks, credit balances for overpayments, rental deposit refunds, gift certificates, securities, and abandoned bank accounts,” the department explained. “The Unclaimed Property program is a consumer protection program of the Department of Treasury that works to reunite this missing money with its rightful owner.”

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Tennessee Lottery Raises More than $519 Million for Education in Fiscal Year 2024

Kaitlin Housler

The Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation announced Tuesday that it raised $519,322,000 for education in the Volunteer State during Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), setting a new Fiscal Year record for the amount generated for education.

FY23, which spanned from July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024, surpassed Fiscal Year 2023’s proceeds – the previous fiscal year record – by more than $4 million.

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American Auto Giant Pivots Plans to Build Electric Vehicles at Major Plant to Produce Heavy-Duty Pickups Instead

Admin
Ford EV plant

Ford is reversing course on plans to manufacture electric vehicles (EVs) at a major plant and instead will produce gas-powered, heavy-duty pickup trucks at the facility, Reuters reported Thursday.

The company initially planned to build three-row electric SUVs at its facility in Oakville, Canada, between 2025 and 2027, but the plant will now add capacity to produce 100,000 F-Series Super Duty trucks at the plant, according to Reuters. Ford said that it is still committed to producing those EVs on that timeline, though it is unclear which of its plants will handle that production.

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California School Sues Newsom over New Transgender Notification Law

Admin
Attorney Emily Rae

A school district in Southern California filed a lawsuit against Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) over a new law he signed that would forbid schools from notifying parents if their children start to “transition” their gender

As Fox News reports, the lawsuit was filed by Chino Valley Unified School District, which is being represented by the Liberty Justice Center (LJC). The lawsuit argues that the new law, which was signed on Monday, violates parents’ Constitutional rights.

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Vast Majority of Democrats Would Accept Harris If Biden Bowed Out: Poll

Admin
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

Democrats would overwhelmingly support Vice President Kamala Harris as nominee if President Joe Biden drops out of the race, according to an Economist/YouGov poll released Thursday.

Despite her dismal approval ratings among all voters, 79 percent of Democrats said they would support Harris as the party’s nominee if Biden withdrew from the race, according to the poll. However, less than a third of Democratic voters believe Harris would be more likely than Biden to defeat former President Donald Trump in the November election.

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Dave McCormick Blames ‘Dehumanizing,’ ‘Negative Rhetoric’ After Trump Assassination Attempt

Tom Pappert
Dave McCormick

Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Thursday appeared on “Mornings with Maria” and told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that dehumanizing language and political polarization led to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

McCormick was present at the rally when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate Trump, piercing his ear, killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore, and injuring two more.

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Minnesota Public School System in Hot Water over DEI, Social Justice Trainings Kept Secret from Parents

Peter D'Abrosca
Teacher in Class

One Minnesota school system has found itself at the center of controversy over staff trainings regarding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), along with social justice. 

“Rochester Public Schools provides training that has staff participate in a “Social Justice Stretch” [and] staff are taught to embrace LGBTQ ideology with the ‘Genderbread Person,’ [and] staff are told not to tell parents about their children’s gender identity,” according to a watchdog group called Parents Defending Education (PDE). 

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Nearly All Households Opt-In to East Palestine Settlement

The Center Square
East Palestine Train Derailment

According to court-appointed class attorneys, less than 1% of the nearly 200,000 households involved in the East Palestine train derailment settlement opted out of the $600 million deal.

A court filing after the July 1 opt-out and objection deadline showed 0.09% of the 190,887 households in the settlement class opted out of the agreement. The settlement class includes households in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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Michigan Republicans Sue Whitmer and Benson over Voter Registration Agencies

The Center Square
Jocelyn Benson and Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan’s governor, secretary of state and three other officials are facing a lawsuitfiled by the Trump campaign this week over granting some government offices the power to conduct voter registration. 

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order in December meant to designate certain state offices, including the Small Business Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, to act as voter registration agencies.

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Commentary: Let the Voters and Not the Deep State Decide Who Will Be the Next President

Admin
Voting Station

When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the “right thing” of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton.

What followed were eight long years of extralegal efforts to neuter candidate, then President, then ex-President, and then candidate again, Donald Trump.

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New Arizona Semiconductor Apprenticeship Hopes to Bolster Local Workforce

The Center Square
Intel Headquarters

Intel is starting up a workforce development program with some help of the state of Arizona in order to bolster the state’s growing semiconductor industry. 

The program is meant to train people to become manufacturing facility technicians in a formal apprenticeship, the first of its kind in the United States from the technology company. According to a news release, the apprenticeship will feature educational components from the Maricopa County Community College District. 

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Commentary: The Federal Housing Agency Hasn’t Gotten Its Economic House in Order, Under Both Parties

RealClearWire
Apartments for Rent

Paul Fishbein’s conviction on rent fraud charges in New York City last year was a feast for the tabloids.

The story was crazy enough to get readers to click. Prosecutors said that Fishbein, 51, somehow convinced local housing agencies that he owned dilapidated apartment buildings that he didn’t, enabling him to move in tenants and skim government rent subsidies meant for lower-income, disabled, and elderly residents. Fishbein kept the con going for more than years. His take: $1.8 million.

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Music Spotlight: Them Dirty Roses

Bethany Bowman

Them Dirty Roses is a southern rock band from Gadsden, Alabama. Brothers James Ford and Frank Ford, along with their hometown friends Andrew Davis and Ben Crain, taught themselves to play music by learning how to bend a string and break a heart like Skynyrd and Hank.

In 2014, the foursome piled into a van with their belongings, instruments, and plenty of whiskey on ice and made their way to Nashville, Tennessee.

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At Least Six Major Security Failures at Trump Rally Leave More Questions for Investigators

Just the News
Thomas Matthew Crooks

Less than five days after the failed assassination attempt on GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump, several questions still remain about how and why the shooter – Thomas Matthew Crooks – was able to gain access to the rooftop with an unobstructed view over the rally and the crowd. Six of the biggest security failures that reportedly occurred at the event raise even more questions for investigators.

The investigation into the assassination attempt that left one attendee dead, and three injured including Trump, is being led by the FBI. However, the bureau has remained relatively quiet on its probe, publishing only one update so far on Monday, July 15.

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DOJ Wants to Hide Why It Spied on Congressional Staff, Whistleblower Groups Fight Back

Just the News
Jason Foster

Several major whistleblower groups are fighting the Justice Department’s efforts in federal court to permanently hide why it spied on congressional investigators by obtaining their phone records during a leaks investigation years ago.

The whistleblower group, Empower Oversight, whose founder Jason Foster was one of the investigators whose phone records were taken when he was still in a top Senate staffer, had asked a federal judge to unseal the underlying documents that allowed DOJ to acquire the records in 2017.

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Censorship Noose Tightens Across West with Biden White House, Trudeau’s Canada, EU Bureaucrat Moves

Just the News
Joe Biden

When the Supreme Court reversed a preliminary injunction against several federal agencies and officials for “coerc[ing] or significantly encourag[ing] a platform’s content-moderation decisions,” the ideologically hybrid majority concluded that well-documented federal pressure to censor government-disfavored narratives was unlikely to recur.

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, scolded his colleagues for their perceived credulity. The high court just provided “an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think,” he wrote.

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