Author: M.D. Kittle

The Star News Network Seeks Court Ruling That FBI Is Breaking the Law in Its Refusal to Release Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

The Star News Network asked a federal court on Thursday to issue summary judgment declaring the Federal Bureau of Investigation violated the law and must immediately turn over the Covenant Killer’s manifesto and related records.

Star News and its parent company, Star News Digital Media Inc., earlier this month filed a federal lawsuit against the FBI demanding it release the relevant writings of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the mass murderer who in late March shot dead three 9-year-olds and three staff members at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School.

Read the full story

DeSantis Enters Presidential Race with ‘Skewed’ Narrative He’s Better Positioned to Beat Biden than Trump

M.D. Kittle

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially launched his presidential campaign Wednesday, ending months of speculation and ratcheting up what promises to be an intense battle for the Republican Party nomination. 

DeSantis enters the race as a top tier candidate, but still lagging far behind frontrunner Donald Trump, according to just about every poll out there. 

Read the full story

Senators Want to Know Why Former FBI Officials Refused to Cooperate With Durham Investigation

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) want Special Counsel John Durham to explain why former high-level government officials refused to cooperate with his investigation exposing the FBI for its many failures in the bogus Trump-Russia collusion probe. 

Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Johnson, ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent Durham a letter Tuesday asking why former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and former FBI Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Peter Strzok declined to fully cooperate.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Lead Attorney Admits Trying to Slow Down Court Proceedings to Let School, Parents Intervene in Covenant Killer Records Lawsuit

M.D. Kittle

We learned this week that Metro Nashville’s lawyers deliberately attempted to slow down court proceedings on the lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant Killer’s manifesto and related documents.

Such delay tactics raise an important question: Is the city government colluding with the Covenant Presbyterian School and families of the private Christian elementary school to keep the records from the public?  

Read the full story

Exclusive: New Poll Finds Trump with Significant Lead Over DeSantis Among Republican Primary Voters

M.D. Kittle

A new poll from Trump pollster McLaughlin & Associates finds the former president leading Florida Governor Ron DeSantis by nearly 40 percentage points as the chase for the GOP presidential nomination heats up. 

The poll shows Trump at 54 percent, and DeSantis with 16 percent support, as the Florida governor kicks off his campaign for the White House. 

Read the full story

Judge to Decide Wednesday Whether School, Parents, Are Allowed to Intervene in Lawsuit Seeking Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles heard plenty of opinions Monday — many of them dripping with emotion — on a consolidated lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant School Killer’s manifesto and related writings. 

Myles is expected to issue an order on Wednesday deciding whether Covenant Presbyterian School parents, the private Christian school and the Covenant Presbyterian Church can intervene in the lawsuit. 

Read the full story

Green Bay Area Lawmakers Request $2 Million in State Funds to Support NFL Draft at Legendary Lambeau Field

M.D. Kittle

Two Green Bay lawmakers are asking for $2 million from state taxpayers to help cover the costs of Title Town hosting the 2025 NFL draft.

State Senator Rob Cowles (R-Green Bay) and State Representative David Steffen (R-Green Bay) argue the return on investment will be significant, with the widely watched NFL draft expected to generate some $94 million for the state — $20 million to Green Bay alone.

Read the full story

Pancakes with Vivek: GOP Presidential Candidate Back in Iowa This Memorial Day Weekend

M.D. Kittle

Ohio entrepreneur and political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy is heading back to Iowa, spending the first part of the Memorial Day weekend getting to know more voters in the critical kick-off caucus state.  

The Republican presidential candidate’s fifth trip to the Hawkeye State since declaring his candidacy in February will take him across eastern, central and southern Iowa. 

Read the full story

U.S. Senator Tim Scott Launches Presidential Campaign as Living Example of the Land of Opportunity

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Tim Scott made it official Monday, launching his campaign for president in the North Charleston, SC, hometown that informed his core belief: That the United States of America is “the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression.” 

Joined on stage by the single mother who raised him and the wife of the mentor who entered his adolescent life at a critical time, the Republican spoke of the opportunities that made him the man — and the presidential candidate — he is today.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Police Claim ‘Active’ Investigation into Covenant School Massacre is Ongoing, Could Take a Year to Complete

M.D. Kittle

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Assistant Chief Mike Hagar claims there is an “active” investigation into the Covenant Presbyterian School shootings and that releasing the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related writings would be harmful. A lieutenant with the police department says it could take up to a year to complete said invetigation. 

In a sworn declaration, Hagar said he is not opposed to the release of a redacted version of the documents.

Read the full story

Covenant School Parents File Motion to Intervene in Lawsuits Seeking Release of Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

Parents of the three children killed in the Covenant Presbyterian School shootings are now seeking to intervene in lawsuits demanding the release of the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents.

And The Tennessee Star learned Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles rescheduled Thursday’s conference status meeting on the lawsuits for 1 p.m. Monday. It’s yet another delay in an increasingly complex web of lawsuits, consolidations, and interventions over the mass shooter’s writings.

Read the full story

Sun Prairie School District Charges Wisconsin Law Firm $11K to Search for Records Related to Transgender Shower Incident

M.D. Kittle

The Sun Prairie Area School District is charging a Milwaukee-based law firm more than $11,000 for records connected to what witnesses called a “disturbing” incident involving a transgender “woman” in a high school girls’ locker room.

Dan Lennington, deputy legal counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), told The Wisconsin Daily Star that the charge is excessive and the law firm is considering all of its legal options.

Read the full story

The Tennessean Follows Lead of The Tennessee Star, Sues to Obtain the Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

The Tennessean on Wednesday followed The Tennessee Star and other organizations in filing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents. 

The Nashville-based newspaper’s lawsuit comes nearly two months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale shot her way into the Covenant Presbyterian Scho

Read the full story

The Tennessee Star’s Public Records Lawsuit in Covenant Killer Case Transferred to Chancery Court

M.D. Kittle

The Tennessee Star’s state lawsuit demanding the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents is being transferred to Chancery Court. 

Tennessee First Circuit Court Judge David Briley this week granted the transfer, requested by attorneys for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, defendants in the case. 

Read the full story

GOP Presidential Hopefuls Blast FBI, Media as Durham Report Excoriates the Bureau for Breaking Faith

M.D. Kittle

Conservative presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says special counsel John Durham’s final report on the FBI’s bogus investigation into Trump campaign collusion with Russia underscores his call to shut down the politically “weaponized” federal law enforcement agency. 

The Ohio entrepreneur joined fellow GOP presidential candidates in condemning what the report found to be the FBI’s failure to vet false allegations that former President Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election that Trump ultimately won. 

Read the full story

Report: Wisconsin Tax Collections Projections Come in Lower Than Expected

M.D. Kittle

Wisconsin state tax collections over the next three years are projected to come in more than three-quarters of a billion dollars lower than expected, according to a new report from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. 

Republican lawmakers say the revised projections further underscore their efforts to remake a more fiscally responsible biennial budget out of Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ big-spending proposal. 

Read the full story

Iowa Roundup: Tim Scott’s Tennessee Champion, Joe Manchin Courts Iowans Amid Speculation of Third-Party Run

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator and presumptive GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott has tapped a former popular Republican governor to head up his national campaign. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gets a little help from Mother Nature on Mother’s Day weekend. And is Joe Manchin opening doors in Iowa for a third-party presidential run? 

Here’s the roundup from the Hawkeye State presidential campaign trail. 

Read the full story

Attorneys for Covenant Church File Motions to Intervene in Lawsuits Seeking Covenant Killer’s Writings

M.D. Kittle

Attorneys for the Covenant Presbyterian Church have filed a motion to intervene in Star News Digital Media Inc.’s lawsuit seeking the immediate release of the manifesto and related documents of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the transgender killer behind the March 27 mass shootings at the private elementary school.

The 20th Circuit Court-Davidson County will hold a hearing on the motion to intervene, which seeks to protect the Covenant Presbyterian Church’s “interests relating to the release of records sought in this matter.” The court set a hearing for 9 a.m. May 26.

Read the full story

Davidson County Court Chancellor Reviewing Covenant Killer Manifesto as Public Records Lawsuits Pile Up

M.D. Kittle

Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles is reviewing the unredacted and proposed redacted journal and other writings of the Covenant School killer ahead of Thursday’s scheduled status conference meeting, sources with knowledge of the case tell The Tennessee Star. 

Myles has scheduled a Show Cause hearing for June 8 on the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s refusal to turnover what has commonly been referred to as the “manifesto” of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who stormed into Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School on March 27 and fatally killed three 9-year-olds and three staff members. 

Read the full story

DOJ’s Shadowy ‘Community Relations Service’ May Be Behind Covenant Killer Manifesto Coverup, Sources Say

M.D. Kittle

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Metropolitan Nashville Police Department have refused to release the manifesto and related documents of the Covenant School killer, citing spurious reasons for their denials. 

But is a shadowy Department of Justice unit billing itself as “America’s peacemaker” behind the information freeze? Some say the disclosure dance has all the markings of the Community Relations Service. 

Read the full story

Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher and His Committee Want Answers from TikTok on Popular App’s Latest Controversial Activities

M.D. Kittle

It seems TikTok just can’t quit its creeping ways. 

U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08), chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party,  is seeking answers from the controversial video hosting site on allegations of ongoing censorship and monitoring of individuals, including those who view LGBTQ-related content on the platform. 

Read the full story

Millennial GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Proposes Amendment to Raise Voting Age at Iowa Campaign Rally

M.D. Kittle

Making the case for America-first principles, Ohio entrepreneur and anti-woke crusader Vivek Ramaswamy told a campaign rally in suburban Des Moines Thursday evening that, as president, he would seek a constitutional amendment raising the voting age to 25. 

Ramaswamy, the first millennial Republican candidate to seek the White House, has been known to shake things up on the campaign trail.

Read the full story

GOP Presidential Candidates Weigh in on Comer Committee’s Records Uncovering Possible Biden Family Corruption

M.D. Kittle

Back in the Hawkeye State this week for multi-day campaign tours, Republican presidential hopefuls Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley commented on House Republican committee findings tying the Biden family’s fortunes to suspect foreign entities in China and Romania. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY-01) on Wednesday addressed bank records that show payments made to companies connected to President Joe Biden’s troubled son, Hunter.

Read the full story

GOP Senators Demand Biden Account for Taxpayer Money Used in Federalized GOTV Effort

M.D. Kittle

As the Biden administration goes about the legally suspect quest of federalizing get-out-the-vote efforts, more than a dozen U.S. senators are asking for an accounting of the “Promoting Access to Voting” campaign. 

U.S. Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Bill Haggerty (R-TN) are among the 14 Republican senators who sent a letter to Biden requesting full transparency on Executive Order 14019, which directs federal agencies to submit strategic plans to the White House describing how they will use taxpayer-funded resources to “provide access to voter registration services and vote-by-mail ballot applications.” 

Read the full story

The Tennessee Star’s Parent Company Files Lawsuit Demanding Metro Nashville Turn Over Covenant Killer Records

M.D. Kittle

Star News Digital Media Inc., parent company of The Tennessee Star, is suing the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County seeking the release of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto. 

The lawsuit, filed in Tennessee’s 20th Judicial District Court-Davidson County, follows on the heels of Star News Digital Media’s federal lawsuit demanding the FBI turn over the documents that law enforcement officials have kept locked away from the public for more than six weeks. 

Read the full story

The Star News Network Sues the FBI Over Agency’s Refusal to Release Covenant Killer Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

The Star News Network is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleging the law enforcement agency has broken a critical First Amendment guard in repeatedly denying Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the Covenant School killer’s manifesto.

Filed Wednesday, the federal lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee to order the FBI to release Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto and related documents and to issue a declaration that the agency violated FOIA in denying the request for the information.

Read the full story

Ramaswamy Says Carroll Case Verdict Against Trump Another Attempt to Attack Establishment’s ‘Chief Political Virus’

M.D. Kittle

Former President Donald Trump’s political rivals weighed in Tuesday on a Manhattan jury’s finding that Trump is liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in a civil lawsuit brought decades after the alleged abuse took place. 

Ohio businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who declared his campaign for president in February, agreed with critics of the lawsuit who believe it’s another politically charged attempt to diminish the GOP presidential frontrunner ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Read the full story

Ahead of Expected Illegal Immigrant Surge, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst Urges Bill Allowing States to Finish Border Wall

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) blasted the Biden administration for its ongoing failure in addressing the southwest border crisis, which is about to get a whole lot worse when Title 42 ends later this week.

The Iowa Republican said it’s time to move on her Build It Act, legislation allowing states to finish the border wall by using previously purchased materials.

Read the full story

Morning Consult Poll Shows Trump with 41-Point Lead over Declining DeSantis, Ramaswamy’s Fortunes Rising

M.D. Kittle

A new Morning Consult poll shows former President Donald Trump with his largest lead yet over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, just as political outsider Vivek Ramaswamy’s political prospects rising.

The poll of nearly 3,600 potential Republican primary voters, conducted May 5-7, finds Trump with 60 percent support, followed distantly by DeSantis, with 19 percent.

Read the full story

Wisconsin Legislative Budget Committee Axes Controversial Plan for Office of Election Transparency and Compliance

M.D. Kittle

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week rejected a plan by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to create a $2 million Office of Election Transparency and Compliance. 

While the proposed bureaucracy’s name suggests election integrity, it would be built by WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe, the same bureaucrat who has presided over an agency riddled with election integrity complaints and election law violations. 

Read the full story

Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Foils Democrats’ ‘Diverse’ Primary Plans

M.D. Kittle

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has set the Peach State’s 2024 party primary elections for March 12, foiling the Democratic National Committee’s plans to move Georgia’s vote toward the front of the presidential nominating line.

Raffensperger says the DNC acted “unilaterally” in its bid to make their nominating process more “diverse” by bumping predominantly white states like Iowa and New Hampshire back and pushing more “racially inclusive” states like Georgia and Michigan to the front of the primary line. 

Read the full story

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Threatens to Veto Republicans’ Shared Revenue Plan

M.D. Kittle

Republican leadership is blasting Governor Tony Evers for threatening to kill a bill that would boost state shared revenue and bail out financially troubled Milwaukee. 

The liberal governor, however, isn’t the only critic of the legislation that pours hundreds of millions of dollars of new taxpayer revenue into Badger State towns, villages, cities and counties. 

Read the full story

Iowa Democratic Party Plan Mails It in, Changing Traditional In-Person Caucus to Mail-In Vote

M.D. Kittle

The quaint caucus process where voters meet in school gymnasiums, churches, and restaurants to debate the merits of their candidates would be a thing of the past under a draft plan by the Iowa Democratic Party to reinvent the state’s storied presidential nominating system. 

Instead, the plan calls for a mail-in caucus in which registered Democrats would request presidential preference cards by mail or online and send them in.

Read the full story

Wisconsin’s Largest Business Advocate Applauds Republicans’ Removal of Hundreds of Governor Tony Evers’ Proposals from Budget

M.D. Kittle

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week jettisoned 545 of liberal Governor Tony Evers’ budget proposals, packed with higher taxes on businesses and individuals and growing government initiatives.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business advocate, is applauding the Republican-controlled budget-writing committee for trimming Evers’ bigger government budget plan. 

Read the full story

Covenant Killer Manifesto Coverup Deepens as Metro Nashville Police Department Moves to Delay Open Records Lawsuit Hearings

M.D. Kittle

The judge hearing lawsuits demanding the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto has pushed back a show cause hearing on the litigation as MNPD attempts to maneuver around Tennessee’s public record laws. 

It appears the police department and its attorneys are going to try to bury the plaintiffs — and the court — in paper. 

Read the full story

More Questions Surround POS Poll Showing DeSantis Faring Better than Trump in Georgia

M.D. Kittle

The latest Public Opinion Strategies (POS) poll shows Florida Governor Ron DeSantis outpacing former President Donald Trump in battleground Florida — at least in a head-to-head matchup with President Joe Biden. 

But the POS poll once again underrepresents traditional Trump voters in its latest quest to spin DeSantis as more electable than the Republican Party presidential nomination frontrunner, a top pollster tells The Georgia Star News. 

Read the full story

Covenant Killer Manifesto Coverup: Metro Nashville Police Department Refuses to Release Any Documents Due to Pending Public Records Litigation

M.D. Kittle

In a legal twist, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) now says it will not release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents because of pending litigation — lawsuits demanding the department turn over the records. 

“Covenant investigation update: Due to pending litigation filed this week, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court,” MNPD stated in a tweet Wednesday morning. 

Read the full story

Court Date Set in National Police Association’s Public Records Lawsuit Against Metro Nashville’s Refusal to Release Covenant School Killer’s Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

The National Police Association has filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto. 

And The Tennessee Star has just learned that Tennessee 20th Judicial District Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles has ordered a show cause hearing for May 11, examining whether the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has failed to comply with public records laws. 

Read the full story