Hundreds of black women in Atlanta will be the recipients of no-strings-attached monthly checks for the next two years thanks to a nonprofit’s experiment with Universal Basic Income (UBI).Â
The program will be centered in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., which reportedly has one of the worst poverty rates in the city.
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Contrary to some reports, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians (VACEP) confirmed Saturday that the state’s hospital emergency departments are not overflowing with COVID-19 positive patients, but rather people seeking COVID-19 tests and people who have other maladies.Â
“The issue is the high volume of people coming to the [Emergency Departments], many of whom have minor conditions or are showing up for Covid testing (which is limited),” Jeff Kelley of VACEP told The Virginia Star.
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Cleveland’s last homicide in a record-setting 2021 occurred when an off-duty police officer was shot and killed during a carjacking on New Year’s Eve.Â
“Preliminary investigation indicates that a suspect approached the victim in the parking lot of the apartment building with a gun, a struggle ensued and the victim was shot twice by the suspect,” Cleveland police said in a statement. “The suspect then fled in the victim’s vehicle. The victim was conveyed to Fairview Hospital by Cleveland EMS where he was pronounced deceased.”
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A new report shows the unreliability of solar energy while Tennessee continues to pursue it as an alternative to fossil fuels.Â
“Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that production from solar panels plummets in the winter,” Isaac Orr, a Public Policy Fellow at the Center of the American Experience said.Â
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Fairfax County Fire and Rescue is making major adjustments to its services as it deals with an outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
“Due to an increase in the number of COVID cases among staff, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department (FCFRD) has implemented temporary staffing adjustments to ensure we maintain the highest level of service possible to our community while balancing personnel challenges,” the department said in a press release. “Currently, 66 employees have tested positive for COVID. An additional 12 FCFRD staff are in quarantine.”
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Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s office told The Ohio Star Thursday that it will not address concerns about whether the current protocols in place to end the COVID-19 are actually working.Â
The Star asked DeWine’s office if, amid the surge of Omicron variant COVID-19 cases, the governor’s office had any plan to implement new measures other than mandating mandates and encouraging vaccines that might help control the pandemic.Â
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The University of Pittsburgh will require all of its students to “shelter-in-place” upon their return for the school’s spring semester as the United States continues to break records for COVID-19 cases.Â
“A University-wide shelter-in-place period will begin on Saturday, Jan. 8 on all campuses for students in University housing,” the school said in a memo to students. “During the shelter-in-place period, students should only leave their rooms or apartments to attend classes, labs or clinicals in person (if in-person classes were approved by the dean of your school); pick up food; exercise safely; study in the library; work when necessary; and shop for essentials and medical needs.”
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Two suspects in separate murders in Georgia were arrested in Tennessee Monday, according to reports.Â
“The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said 29-year-old Alyssa Danielle Wild of East Dublin, Georgia was pulled over in Franklin,” according to WTVC. “Wild is charged with murder in the death of 38-year-old Charles Stephen Holmberg of Cuthbert, Georgia. Holmberg was found shot dead Saturday in a vehicle parked at a motel in Dublin.”
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A prominent doctor who has often challenged government and media narratives about the COVID-19 vaccines has been permanently banned from Twitter.Â
Dr. Robert Malone played a key role in the invention of the mRNA vaccine, the type of vaccine that is being administered to many Americans in an effort to stave off COVID-19. Malone has often been critical of the use of the vaccines, as well those in media and government who support them.Â
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A CNN producer who was busted by Project Veritas for sending lewd text messages to a woman about his now ex-fiancée’s underage daughter is no longer with the media outlet. Â
“Rick Saleeby does not work for CNN. He resigned from his position two weeks ago,” CNN’s Head of Strategic Communications Matt Dornic confirmed Wednesdays to The Virginia Star.Â
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In a proposed shift towards what it calls more “equitable” grading practices, the Arlington School Board wants to make several massive changes to the way student achievement is measured.
The changes would include removing due dates and eliminating grading of homework, unlimited redoes and retakes on assignments, and eliminating extra credit, which the School Board alleges “leads to biased grades and penalizes students with fewer resources.”
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A weekly Nashville magazine apologized to readers Monday after promoting a Fox News sponsored New Years Eve event that will not require guests to wear masks, present a negative COVID-19 test or show proof of vaccination to partake.Â
“Due to a communication breakdown, a Nashville Scene marketing email went out this morning promoting a Fox News-sponsored event at Wildhorse Saloon requiring no proof of vaccination or negative COVID test. We regret this error and apologize to our readers. It won’t happen again,” Nashville Scene said on Twitter.Â
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An illegal alien living in Williamsburg was arrested on Dec. 14 for allegedly kidnapping a teenaged girl, as confirmed by Breitbart.Â
However, the public was not alerted that a violent illegal alien, Brando Alex Pastor Batz, 19, had been living among them.Â
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Two Minnesota colleges have joined a handful of schools across the country who will require students to receive a COVID-19 booster shot in order to attend spring semester classes.
“News about the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus is undoubtedly on all of our minds, particularly as we spend more time indoors and in close proximity with loved ones over the winter break. While we don’t yet know how this new variant might impact our community, we are paying close attention to its development and will be ready to adjust plans on campus if needed,” Carleton College said on its website.Â
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Memphis set a new record for homicides in a single year this week, topping last year’s record number of homicides as violent crime spikes nationwide.Â
“On Thursday, Memphis police reported 333 homicides, meaning the city has officially passed the grim record set in 2020 of 332 homicides. Of those 333 homicides occurring this year — 292 are classified as murders,” Commercial Appeal said. “The remainder of the deaths fall into categories such as justified homicides or instances of negligent manslaughter.”
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Just a day after taking the Moderna booster shot, a New York Times editor unexpectedly died of a heart attack.Â
“This is Carlos’s wife, Nora. It’s with deepest sorrow that I have to share with you that Carlos passed away last night of a heart attack. I’ve lost my best friend and our kids lost a truly great dad. I will be off social media for awhile,” Carlos Tejada’s wife announced on his Twitter account on Dec. 18.
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A Florida congressional candidate ran afoul of his Sarasota home owner’s association (HOA) when he strung up some Christmas lights spelling “Let’s Go Brandon.”
“Let’s go Brandon is not about being derogatory to our current president,” Martin Hyde told The Florida Capital Star. “It’s about fake news. What NBC did was an outrage. If were not gonna believe our eyes and our ears – for me that’s a statement of where we’re really at.”
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The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is encouraging holiday drivers to take it slow, and its using creative messaging to get its point across.Â
“Visiting In-Laws? Slow Down. Get There Late.” an electronic sign on a Virginia highway says.Â
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The Department of Defense (DOD) declined to comment on whether it had any of Pfizer’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved vaccine called Comirnaty, after one of its lawyers told a federal judge the department had Comirnaty on hand.Â
“We don’t have anything for you on this,” a DOD spokesman told The Star News Network by email on Wednesday.Â
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The Pennsylvania congresswoman who was the victim of a Wednesday carjacking has a long history of advocating for far-left “criminal justice reform” policies.Â
“I’m coming right now from a hearing on criminal justice reform and what we can do to address some of these issues of mass incarceration, which have, you know, plagued our society and overtaxed our prisons over the last couple decades,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA-05) said in March of 2020.Â
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A verdict was reached Thursday in the trial of ex-Brooklyn Center Police officer Kimberly Potter, who faced first and second degree manslaughter charges in the shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright in April.Â
Potter was found guilty of both charges. She faces up to 15 years in prison during the sentencing phase of the trial. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 18.
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Through Ohio attorneys representing Miami University in a lawsuit against the school over its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy, The Ohio Star confirmed that at least none batches of Pfizer’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) vaccine were deemed Biologics License Application (BLA) compliant.Â
BLA compliance is typically reserved for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs. That is the licensing procedure for drugs seeking to become FDA approved.Â
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New York-based Pfizer has sold and shipped hundreds of millions of doses of its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty to the European Union (EU) despite saying last week that it is not being shipped in the United States.Â
“Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and BioNTech SE (Nasdaq: BNTX) today announced they will supply an additional 100 million doses of COMIRNATY®, the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine, to the 27 European Union (EU) member states in 2021,” Pfizer said in an April press release. “This announcement is a result of the European Commission’s (EC) decision to exercise its option to purchase an additional 100 million doses under its expanded Advanced Purchase Agreement signed on February 17, 2021. This brings the total number of doses to be delivered to the EU to 600 million.”
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The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) said in a Wednesday statement that some information in a report about its vaccine production is inaccurate.Â
“Some recent reports about Walter Reed Army Institute of Research’s COVID-19 Vaccine Development have led to inaccurate representations which require clarification,” WRAIR said in a statement provided to The Star News Network. “Last week, the preclinical results of the Army COVID-19 vaccine, SpFN, were published in Science Translational Medicine. The Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle platform is designed to protect against an array of SARS-CoV-2 variants and SARS-origin variants but was not tested on the Omicron variant.”
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According to an affidavit obtained by The Ohio Star, a nurse in Ohio who was in charge of procuring COVID-19 vaccines for Miami University says she was never able to obtain Pfizer’s FDA-approved version of the vaccine, called Comirnaty.Â
The affiant is a nurse practitioner and employee of TriHealth, which runs two hospitals and 130 sites of medical care in the Cincinnati area. From June 4 to Nov. 3, she was put in charge of procuring vaccines for Miami University, located in Oxford. The Star has redacted the nurse’s name out of concern of reprisal.Â
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A student at Ohio University has filed a lawsuit against the school over its COVID-19 vaccination mandate.Â
“Everyone who wants to be vaccinated has been vaccinated at Ohio University,” Tyce Patt told The Ohio Star. “I believe it is not only wrong to force students to get an experimental Emergency Use Authorized vaccine to go to class, but also Illegal.”
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The majority opinion released on Friday by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which restored the Biden administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring employers with more than 100 employees to mandate that all employees take a COVID-19 vaccinefalsely asserts that Pfizer’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fully approved vaccine is currently available and in use among the general public.”
“At the same time, the options available to combat COVID-19 changed significantly: the FDA granted approval to one vaccine on August 23, 2021, and testing became more readily available,” the majority opinion asserts on page 24 of the ruling.
The majority opinion was written by Obama-appointed Judge Jane Branstretter Stranch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
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A Kentucky congressman Saturday said that Pfizer’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved COVID-19 vaccine is not available in the United States after The Ohio Star spent a week reporting on that subject.Â
“Your first sentence, ‘Comirnaty is available in the US,’ is false. Show us one location it’s available to prove otherwise. The FDA requires Pfizer to disclose to other countries BioNTech is ‘subject to an EUA and is not approved or licensed by the FDA,'” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) said on Twitter.Â
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Attorneys at Mendenhall Law Group in Akron have filed a lawsuit against the University of Cincinnati over the school’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.Â
“School officials are overriding students’ civil rights to bodily autonomy under the United States and Ohio constitutions. Young people do not experience this as a grave illness. It is unprecedented for a university to require students to participate in experimental medical procedures such as injections or masking,” Warner Mendenhall told The Ohio Star Friday.
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Ex-Brooklyn Heights Police officer Kimberly Potter broke down in tears on the witness stand twice Friday, as she testified about her fatal shooting of Daunte Wright more than eight months ago.
“Officer Lucky started to say something about ‘don’t do that, don’t tense up, stop doing that'” Potter said, describing the moments leading up to the shooting. “And then it just went chaotic.”
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Wednesday night a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officer killed a suspect after a brief shootout.Â
“Fatal police shooting under investigation on Old Hickory Blvd W in Madison. Citizens called to report this abandoned Impala in the traffic lane with doors open & the sounds of gunfire from nearby woods. Officers repeatedly ordered the gunman to emerge & surrender…” MNPD said on Twitter.Â
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A Mexican national this week was convicted of funneling drug profits through Ohio banks to a cartel in Mexico.
“Susana Ramirez Orozco pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit money laundering in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles,” according to Cleveland.com. “She served as a financial conduit between large-scale drug peddlers and the banks.”
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Following Wednesday’s story in which The Ohio Star reported that Pfizer is currently still shipping it’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) COVID-19 vaccine, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) won’t say which version of the vaccine it is distributing.Â
ODH is responsible for acquiring and distributing at least some of the state’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines, though Alicia Shoults of the ODH’s Office of Public Affairs told The Star by phone Thursday afternoon that some healthcare providers procure the vaccine directly from the federal government.Â
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After signing a bill earlier this year that banned Ohio’s public schools and universities from mandating vaccines that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Gov. Mike DeWine (R) will reportedly veto a similar bill if it passed by the state Senate.Â
“A school, private college, or state institution of higher education shall not require a student to receive any of the following utilizing messenger ribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid, or any other genetic vaccine technology and for which the United States food and drug administration has not issued a biologics license or otherwise granted full approval,” HB 218 says.Â
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Ohio’s state universities have implemented vaccine mandates, despite HB 244, which bans vaccine mandates for any vaccine that is not fully authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Â
Ohio State University, Ohio University, and Wright State University all require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19.Â
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A member of the Tennessee State House of Representatives filed a bill Wednesday to repeal the state’s gas tax.Â
“The working people of Tennessee are getting hammered by inflation and horrendous energy policy that has caused gas prices to sky rocket! All thanks to the I’m competence of Joe Biden and the Democrats in DC,” Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) told The Tennessee Star. “Tennessee is currently running monthly budget surpluses is in the hundreds of millions of dollars over projected budgeted revenues. This gas tax repeal is a way to try to help working Tennesseans and all those Tennesseans paying bother prices at the pump.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) requested from the city’s COVID-19 Financial Oversight Committee a budget for new tasers, saying the ones they currently use are outdated, obsolete, and do not work properly.Â
MNPD Deputy Chief Chris Taylor told the committee in a Dec. 8 meeting that the review of their taser equipment was prompted during COVID-19, while the department addressed how to arrest unruly suspects who were COVID-19 positive.
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Across Ohio, homicide rates are soaring this year, especially in the state’s large cities.Â
Cleveland set a 10 year record for homicides in August, totaling 101 killings by Aug. 7. From Jan. 1 to the beginning of August last year, the city had 84 homicides.Â
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The new head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), sworn into his new role Monday, is an open borders extremist and left-wing activists for causes like Black Lives Matter (BLM).
Former Tucson Police Chief Christopher Magnus is the new CBP, which former Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and immigration hardliner Tom Homan described as the “final nail in the coffin for immigration enforcement.”
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich joined “Fox News Live” Sunday to discuss the impact of the border crisis, which has drastically worsened since President Joe Biden took office.Â
“We start talking about these numbers and we forget that there is human cost,” Brnovich said. “We know now that in places like Pima County, the second-largest county in Arizona that fentanyl and opioid deaths are the number one cause of people under 19 dying. More so than car accidents, and other causes.”
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A State Representative in Tennessee Monday defended his bill that would allow school districts and charter schools in Tennessee to deny education services to illegal aliens.Â
Since 1982, when the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision on a case called Plyler vs. Doe, all schools have been required to treat illegal aliens like citizens and provide them with education services. Illegal alien students have been reaping the benefits of the American education system for nearly 30 years.
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While children in Pennsylvania will soon be allowed to return to school without masks, children in Tennessee will not.Â
Over a 24-hour period, Pennsylvania’s highest court and a federal judge in Tennessee came to opposite conclusions about whether mask mandates should be legal.Â
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An Ohio congressional candidate responded Friday evening after being subpoenaed by the congressional Jan. 6 Committee, which is investigating the mostly-peaceful protest at the Capitol early this year.Â
“Upon taking office, I will make sure one of my first votes is to disband this partisan committee that has weaponized its powers against innocent Americans. Ohioans are tired of watching D.C.’s witch hunts and political theater while the country burns,” Miller said in response to the subpoena.Â
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A far-left philanthropist who has been called “mini-Soros” is allegedly behind bail reform laws across America, including the one in Waukesha County, Wisconsin that freed career criminal Darell Brooks on $1000 bail before he allegedly plowed his SUV into participants of the Waukesha Christmas Parade.Â
Brooks was charged with six murders and a litany of other crimes after the attack, which also injured dozens more.
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In a nationwide first, members of Antifa have been arrested and charged with conspiracy crimes.Â
“San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan today announced multiple felony charges against six of the eight people arrested in connection with violent criminal acts committed earlier this year during a demonstration in Pacific Beach on January 9, 2021,” a press release from Stephan’s office says. “Charges against the defendants include conspiracy to commit a riot, illegal use of tear gas, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and vandalism. If convicted, the defendants face a sentencing range of probation up to 10 years and eight months in prison.”
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Claiming that transgender children are “unsafe” using school bathrooms of their sex assigned at birth, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia (ACLUVA) has filed a lawsuit against the Hanover County School Board.
“Today, the ACLU of Virginia filed a lawsuit in Hanover County Circuit Court against the Hanover County School Board on behalf of five families, due to the school board’s failure to adopt policies protecting transgender students in accordance with state law and the Virginia Department of Education’s model policies,” the group said in Thursday statement. “All plaintiffs have transgender children who attend public schools in Hanover County.”
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Former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) who is currently challenging Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) in the Peach State’s gubernatorial primary, said in a Thursday interview that he would not have voted to certify the 2020 election results in the state.Â
“Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now. They had plenty of time to investigate this. And I wouldn’t have signed it until those things had been investigated, and that’s all we were asking for,” told Axios.Â
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A recently-appointed U.S. Attorney who has been praised for her commitment to fixing the “injustices” in the criminal justice system launched into an expletive laden rant when approached by reporters.Â
Wednesday, Rachael Rollins was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. She was appointed by President Joe Biden.Â
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According to a new report, the National Education Association, which is America’s largest teacher’s union, has canceled its annual convention that was set to be held in Texas in July.Â
“The union took the unprecedented step of canceling its Texas plans due to its displeasure with a series of bills that came out of a special session of the state legislature having to do with voting, abortion and critical race theory, internal NEA sources say,” according to The 74 million. “Several state affiliates had threatened not to send their delegates to the convention if it were held in Texas.”
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Project Veritas’ latest exposé caught an Arizona Republican candidate for Congress in its crosshairs.Â
Undercover video released by Project Veritas Action, the group’s political wing, caught Alex Stovall, running in AZ-09 located east of Phoenix, showed Stovall saying some not-so-flattering things about the party on whose ticket he’s running.Â
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