Day: August 17, 2024

Father Blames Nashville Judge Cheryl Blackburn for Reducing Alleged Killer’s Bond Prior to Daughter’s Murder

Tom Pappert
Judge Cheryl Blackburn

A Mississippi father traveled to Tennessee on Thursday for a Nashville court hearing, outside which he blamed Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn for creating the circumstances that preceded the murder of Lauren Johansen, his 22-year-old daughter.

Bricen Rivers stands accused of killing Lauren Johansen after he was released from a Nashville jail on a $250,000 bond, which Blackburn had just reduced from $350,000. Rivers was in jail after his December 2023 arrest for the alleged kidnapping and beating of Lauren Johansen that occurred while the two visited Nashville.

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Presidential Race Swings Six Points in Two Weeks, Catapulting Trump to Lead and Ending Harris Surge

Just the News
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

Support in the presidential race has swung six points since the beginning of the month, catapulting former President Donald Trump back into a narrow lead after Vice President Kamala Harris had surged with her surprise entrance atop the Democrat ticket, according to a new poll released Friday.

The survey of 3,000 likely voters by Napolitan News and veteran pollster Scott Rasmussen showed Trump leading Harris 46% to 45%.

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Critics Blast Harris’ New ‘Price Control’ Plan

The Center Square
Kamala Harris

Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is taking fire for her new “price-gouging” ban that critics say is little more than communism-style “price controls” where government heavily regulates industries.

Harris’ effort to address elevated consumer prices hits at a key pain point for Americans, but the details of how Harris plans to go about fixing that problem will be the subject of close scrutiny when she lays out the plan at a North Carolina rally Friday. Harris is expected to unveil a broader economic plan at the same rally, but so far there are few details on specifically how she will address inflation. Prices have risen more than 20% overall since she and President Joe Biden took office.

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Texas Files Lawsuit over Rule Pushing Businesses to Adopt ‘Transgender’ Policies

Daily Caller News Foundation
Ken Paxton

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Biden administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over an allegedly “unlawful” April policy rewrite that changed the definition of discrimination to include “gender identity.”

The EEOC updated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require both state and private employers to accommodate transgender employees by allowing men in women’s spaces, forcing the use of  “preferred pronouns” and ending sex-specific dress codes. Paxton and the Heritage Foundation are challenging the rewrite, arguing that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act and does not have sufficient standing as the original wording prohibits sex-based discrimination but does not mandate special accommodations for the sexes, according to the lawsuit.

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Accused Cyberstalker Who Visited Nashville School Requests Hearing to Determine Steps After Commitment

Tom Pappert
McKenzie McClure

Court documents obtained by The Tennessee Star reveal accused cyberstalker McKenzie McClure has requested a status hearing to set a court date which will determine her next steps following the end of her commitment at an East Tennessee psychiatric facility.

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against McClure in April, accusing her cyberstalking. Video recorded around this time revealed she visited the campus of the Christ Presbyterian Academy, where she attended elementary school decades ago, and was accused of leaving a disturbing voice mail.

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Tim Walz’s Administration Awarded Millions to Group That Fundraised for Organization Linked to Al-Qaeda

Daily Caller News Foundation
Tim Walz

Under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota awarded millions to an American Islamic association which later fundraised for a Muslim charity that collaborated with an al-Qaeda-linked organization.

The Minnesota Department of Health committed to giving the Islamic Association of North America well over $2 million in public health-related grants between 2020 and 2026, coinciding with Walz’s term as Minnesota governor, according to state spending records first reported by the Washington Examiner. The Islamic Association of North America, following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, held a fundraiser for Rahma Worldwide, a Muslim charity that has collaborated on a Gaza aid program with the Islamic Heritage Revival Society of Kuwait, an organization the U.S. government sanctioned for funding al-Qaeda and which U.S. intelligence officials believed to be part of a Hamas fundraising operation.

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Jordanian Immigrant Arrested for Multiple Attacks on Florida Businesses and Energy Facility

American Greatness
Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen

Jordanian national who currently lives in Orlando, Florida has been arrested and charged with destroying an energy facility and threatening the use of explosives to destroy multiple other businesses.

According to the Daily Caller, the charges were filed against 43-year-old Hashem Younis Hashem Hnaihen by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The charges were announced in a DOJ press release on Thursday, detailing his campaign of violence against multiple businesses in the Orlando area that resulted in over $700,000 in damage.

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Internal Arizona Poll Shows Kari Lake Tied with Rep. Ruben Gallego, Trump Beating Harris in Three-Way Race

Tom Pappert
Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego

Internal Arizona polling data commissioned by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and released to one media outlet this week, shows Republican U.S. Senate nominee Kari Lake is tied with Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) in the race to fill the seat being vacated by Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in January.

The polling was obtained exclusively by National Journal, which reported both Lake and Gallego are tied at 46 percent, with an additional 8 percent of Arizona voters undecided.

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Ohio Man Sentenced to Probation for Dumping 7,000 Gallons of Hazardous Substance into Scioto River, Killing More than 43,000 Fish

Kaitlin Housler
Scioto River

A 73-year-old Ohio man will not serve any jail time after pleading guilty to dumping thousands of gallons of a hazardous, ammonia-containing substance into the Scioto River that ended up killing over 43,000 fish and endangering other wildlife.

On April 17, 2021, according to the Northern District of Ohio U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mark Shepherd discharged approximately 7,000 gallons of the hazardous substance into the river.

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Michigan Teacher Shortages Alleviated but Student Performance Has Not Increased

The Center Square
Classroom

Michigan has made progress addressing teacher shortages in hard-to-fill subjects and specialties within the past five years, the State Board of Education announced.

Since the 2017-18 school year, the number of certified teachers teaching math jumped 60 percent, 31 percent for science, and 53 percent for English as a Second Language and bilingual education. The number of early childhood education teachers increased by 171 percent.

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Commentary: Tim Walz’s Radical Education Record

RealClearWire
Tim Walz

The National Educators Association, the largest teachers union in America, is “fired up” for Kamala Harris’s VP nominee, Tim Walz. “Gov. Walz is known as the ‘Education Governor,’” wrote NEA President Becky Pringle, “because he has been an unwavering champion for public school students and educators, and an ally for working families and unions. As a high school teacher and NEA member, Walz is committed to uplifting our public schools.”

The NEA’s endorsement should be worrisome for Americans who are actually concerned about the state of education in this country: for years, the NEA has put radical politics above children.

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McMaster Signs Legislation to Expand South Carolina’s Sex Trafficking Law

The Center Square
Henry McMaster

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed legislation that expands the state’s sex trafficking law to create a new felony “child luring” charge and gives trafficking victims recourse to clear their records.

S. 142, which McMaster, a Republican, “ceremonially” signed on Thursday, creates an address confidentiality program that authorizes using “designated addresses” to protect victims.

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Commentary: J.D. Vance’s Promise

RealClearWire
JD Vance

“I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”

Cast off by a drug-addled mother, raised by a discipline-demanding, f-bomb-wielding Mamaw, J.D. Vance’s inspirational story is one of lost potential reclaimed. If Vance is elected and remembers where he came from, this country has much to look forward to – because his redemptive story envelopes millions of Americans.

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Falling in Polls, RFK Jr. Allegedly Eyes a Deal with Trump or Harris, but Neither Seem Interested

Just the News
RFK Speaking

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy has suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks that seem to have him eyeing the exit ramp. He has since reportedly sought to cut a deal with either the Trump or Harris campaigns to trade an endorsement for a role in the administration, though neither camp has reportedly been receptive to such an offer.

While still the most influential of the third-party candidates, Kennedy has seen his support nearly cut in half since President Joe Biden left the Democratic ticket in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris. In the final RealClearPolitics polling average featuring Biden as a candidate, Kennedy earned 8.7% support. Former President Donald Trump led that lineup with 43.4% to Biden’s 39.2%. The Green Party’s Jill Stein earned 1.9% while independent Cornel West took 1.6%.

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ICE Finds Peruvian Gang Leader Wanted for 23 Murders After Border Officials Allowed Him into U.S.

Daily Caller News Foundation
ICE Officer

Federal immigration authorities on Wednesday arrested a Peruvian gang leader who is wanted in his home country for nearly two dozen murders.

Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, a 38-year-old Peruvian national who entered the United States unlawfully earlier this year, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Wednesday in Endicott, New York, the agency confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The notorious gang leader has since been transported to the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, New York.

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