Country music singer Reba McEntire announced in a recent livestream on TikTok that she has been diagnosed with COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated against the virus.

In the video, McEntire detailed that she and her boyfriend Rex Linn both received positive test results.

“It’s not fun to get this. I did get it. Rex and I got it and it’s not fun. You don’t feel good. We were both vaccinated and we still got it, so stay safe, stay home, and be protected the best you can,” McEntire said in the 30-minute video.

The 66-year-old singer also used her story and platform to urge individuals to continue to wear a mask and practice social distancing — a move that was recently recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and faced harsh criticism.

“I just want to say one thing: this has been a hard year and it’s getting rougher again. You guys, please stay safe. Wear your mask. Do what you have to do. Stay home,” she continued.

Furthermore, McEntire detailed that the spike in cases across the country, largely due to the “Delta” variant, has led her to reconsider her upcoming tour.

“You know, the COVID thing has really hit hard and spikes are going everywhere right now and it’s all over the country — this new variant. We have plans right now to go back on tour in January, February, and March,” McEntire continued. “We have plans being with Brooks & Dunn at Caesars in December — the first two weeks, almost three weeks of December — but we don’t know if that’s going to go.”

McEntire is one of thousands of “breakthrough” cases of the coronavirus that have hit fully vaccinated individuals.

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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to cooperreports@gmail.com.
Photo “Reba McEntire” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.

The article Reba McEntire Tests Positive for COVID-19 After Being Fully Vaccinated appeared first on Tennessee Star.

Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery has failed to join several other attorneys general in a lawsuit against Critical Race Theory (CRT).

JustTheNews.com reported this week that attorneys general in more than half of the 50 states disagree on how to address alleged racial disparities in school discipline. Both sides filed competing briefs through a U.S. Department of Education proceeding that reportedly attracted 2,700 comments. The website reported that Arizona “led a coalition of 15 states to oppose the reinstatement of the Obama administration’s ‘disparate impact’ guidance, which said statistical differences between the races in school discipline could serve as the basis for a federal civil rights investigation.”

Attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and Utah joined the Arizona attorney general, according to Just The News.

The Tennessee Star contacted Slatery’s office for comment Sunday, but staff members did not respond by press time.

“Michigan led an opposing coalition of 15 states to argue that the 2014 guidance should not only be reinstated, but expanded to include disparities in discipline by sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability,” the website reported.

“Critics of the guidance, including a longtime member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), told the department  that its evidentiary basis was ‘statistically illiterate’ and had led to increased disorder in schools that withheld discipline to avoid federal investigation.”

Tennessee Stands spokesman Gary Humble earlier this year defined CRT the following way:

CRT says that all of American life – social structures; justice, political, and economic systems; education; and religion – are founded upon race and race alone. As a result, everything in America is inherently and systemically racist.

A new state law that limits teaching CRT has prompted the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) to propose new rules as it pertains to teaching on the subject of race in public schools.

According to the state of Tennessee’s website, educators may not teach that one race is superior to another race. They also cannot teach that an individual is privileged due to race or sex, whether consciously or subconsciously. They also may not teach that the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to chrisbutlerjournalist@gmail.com.

The article Tennessee Attorney General Fails to Join Lawsuit Against ‘Critical Race Theory’ appeared first on Tennessee Star.

by Jon Styf

Tourism spending in Tennessee dropped in 2020 for the first time in 10 years, according to data from the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics.

Tennessee tourism spending fell 31.6%, less than the 42% decline nationally.

Within that decline was a 78.7% drop in spending from international visitors during a year that was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, according to a report compiled by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.

Less tourism spending resulted in a decrease in sales and use tax collections throughout the state; money the state depends on during the budgeting process. During the year, 44% of net jobs in the leisure and hospitality industry were lost.

Overall, there was a $4.1 billion decline in gross taxable sales to the Tennessee leisure and hospitality businesses during the year, according to the Tennessee Department of Revenue.

“Tourism is a vital part of our state’s strong economic recovery,” Gov. Bill Lee said in a news release. “By working together to support small businesses and drive job growth, we will ensure Tennessee continues to be one of the top travel destinations in the world.”

The hardest hit area of tax collection in the industry was related to accommodations, which down 41% on the year. Arts, entertainment and recreation was down 31.1%, while food services and drinking spots were down 13.4%.

Overall, the industry collected $288.6 million less in taxes in 2020 than in 2019, a reduction of 20.8%.

“The decline in state sales and use tax revenue represented a $303 million loss to the state budget between March and December 2020,” the report said.

While the final numbers showed the effect of the travel declines, Tennessee’s travel and tourism was on a record pace for the first two months of the year, and many outdoor tourist spots showed large growth, such as Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which had a record 12 million visitors in 2020.

“Tennessee’s scenic beauty, strong outdoor assets and compelling rural and road trip destinations gave it an edge against other states,” Mark Ezell, commissioner of the Department of Tourist Development, said in a news release. “We’ve seen parts of our state not only survive, but also thrive. Our mission as a department is to inspire travel to all 95 counties, and we are committed to restoring economic prosperity for our industry.”

Tourism is the state’s No. 2 industry and was the state’s No. 4 employer in 2020.

While tourism spending was down in most counties in 2020, it was not down in all of them. Campbell, Carter, Cheatham, Crockett, DeKalb, Grainger, Hardeman, Hickman, Johnson, Lake, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Union and Van Buren counties saw tourist spending increases.

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Jon Styf is a contributor to The Center Square.
Photo “Point Lookout” by Jfleon11 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The article Tennessee Tourism Spending Dropped by More than 30 Percent in 2020 appeared first on Tennessee Star.

by Newt Gingrich

Watching television coverage of people crossing the border illegally at our southern border I began to wonder: where are they going?

I was shocked to learn that the Biden administration refuses to tell the states and cities how many people they are sending – and who they are sending. Apparently, immigrants just get put on airplanes, buses, and trains, and go off into America.

We are learning that a substantial number of the people who have crossed the border illegally have COVID-19. McAllen, Texas had to declare a state of emergency when 7,000 infected immigrants arrived there. So, the Biden government could send people with COVID-19 to your neighborhood and then refuses to tell you that it has put you at risk. 

Some of the illegal immigrants have gang connections including members of the famous MS-13 El Salvadorian gang. Keep in mind, a 2020 Department of Justice report found that 74 percent of the MS-13 defendants in custody were here illegally. Under the wide-open Biden policy, they can be sent into your town without you knowing it.

What makes the Biden policy so infuriating is its sheer scale.

In the first seven months of the Biden presidency more than 1 million people have been stopped crossing our southern border, and a substantial number of additional people have entered illegally without being noticed officially by the federal government.

The flood of people crossing illegally is growing. The recorded number (not counting those who came in avoiding all contact with the government) entering the United States has grown from 78,442 in January as Biden was being sworn in to 210,000 in July alone. 

What makes this growth so sobering is that historically illegal immigration drops in the summer when crossing the desert is so hot it is deadly. President Biden’s smile is apparently overcoming the Mexican heat. 

If the number of migrants keep growing, there will be more than 2 million entering the United States this year (not counting the additional ones who will enter without the government knowing it).

At a time of pandemic, rising violent crime rates, and confusion in and around our schools, it is legitimate to ask what is happening to thousands and thousands of people flooding in illegally. Americans know this is dangerous. In one poll, 90 percent indicated they want every illegal immigrant tested for COVID-19.

The Biden administration has refused to tell governors, mayors, county commissioners, school systems, or local police how many people who crossed illegally they are sending to their communities or what the immigrants’ circumstances are. How many have COVID-19, how many are gang members, or how many have violent criminal records? 

The threat of COVID-19 infection is not merely rhetoric. In McAllen, Texas the federal government has buses running every 30 minutes bringing people who crossed illegally from the border and dumping them at the bus station, so they can move on to anywhere in America with no supervision. 

According to the Valley Central Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez:

“Now we’re seeing that they’re coming in with a high infection for COVID, and there’s no room for them anymore.” 

Cortez also told ValleyCentral the infection rate for migrants rose to a shocking 16 percent. 

It is clear the Biden administration COVID-19 strategy is tight control of Americans and no control for people coming to the country illegally.

Since everything is secret, we really don’t know who is paying for housing, food, medical care, or schooling. In fact, as the number of people in the Biden flood passes 2 million this year, the amount being spent is going to rise dramatically.

The numbers are so large that it helps to visualize the Biden policy as a matter of importing entire cities. 

Rachel Peterson of Gingrich 360 translated the growing influx of people in the county illegally into city sizes. Imagine if the Biden administration had a plan to import a city a month of people in the country illegally. 

Here are their first seven cities:

In January, 78,442 people came into the country illegally. This is the same size as New Rochelle, New York

For February, 101,095 people crossed, the same as the population of San Angelo, Texas.

In March, 173,265 people crossed illegally, the population of Salem, Oregon.

In April, 178,850 people illegally entered the country, or the population of Newport News, Virginia.

In May, 180,641 people came in, equaling the population of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In June, 188,829 people entered, or the same as the population of Knoxville, Tennessee.

In July, 210,000 people came in illegally, the same number of people living in Birmingham, Alabama.

With Biden’s policy of importing as many people into the country illegally as possible continuing, there will be five more city equivalents coming this year – and 12 more city equivalents in 2022.

Where are all these people going?

How many of them have COVID-19?

How many of them are criminals?

The Biden approach of controlling Americans with masks, vaccinations, COVID-19 passports, and lockdowns, while allowing more than 1 million people this year enter America illegally – and then wander the land anonymously – is an unsustainable policy.

Every senator; congressman; governor; state legislator; and city, county and school board official should be demanding detailed information about any person who entered the country illegally being sent into their communities.

Until we find out where the Biden flood is going, we are all at risk.

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To read, hear, and watch more of Newt’s commentary, visit Gingrich360.com.

The article Newt Gingrich Commentary: No One Knows Where These Illegal Immigrants Are Going in America appeared first on Tennessee Star.

Only one player on the U.S. Women’s National Team, Carli Lloyd, stood for the country’s national anthem before the team’s match against Australia.

After being the only player to stand for the patriotic song, Lloyd went on to score her 10th Olympic goal, breaking a record previously held by Abby Wambach.

The team, which had a disappointing showing during the Olympics, knelt throughout the course of the games and received a bronze medal after an unexpected loss to Canada.

Former President Trump slammed the move and argued that focusing on politics led to the lackluster results.

“Woke means you lose, everything that is woke goes bad, and our soccer team certainly has. There were, however, a few Patriots standing. Unfortunately, they need more than that respecting our Country and National Anthem. They should replace the wokesters with Patriots and start winning again,” Trump said in a statement after the match.

The team’s decision to kneel has been led by Megan Rapinoe, who has not taken part in the national anthem since 2016.

Previously, Rapinoe described that her reason for kneeling was to demonstrate against racial profiling and police brutality.

“I haven’t experienced over-policing, racial profiling, police brutality or the sight of a family member’s body lying dead in the street. But I cannot stand idly by while there are people in this country who have had to deal with that kind of heartache. There is no perfect way to protest. I know that nothing I do will take away the pain of those families. But I feel in my heart it is right to continue to kneel during the national anthem, and I will do whatever I can to be part of the solution,” she wrote in a 2016 essay.

However, Trump specifically slammed Rapinoe’s performance.

“The woman with the purple hair played terribly and spends too much time thinking about Radical Left politics and not doing her job!” he said.

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Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to cooperreports@gmail.com.
Photo “Carli Lloyd” by Carli Lloyd. 

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by Bradley A. Thayer and Lianchao Han

With the election of Joe Biden, there is increasing pressure for the United States to accommodate the global ambitions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Such a policy will weaken the strategic position of the United States and embolden the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which seeks to transform the rules of international politics, and has demonstrated its willingness to employ coercive measures, including threats and open conflict, to achieve its aims.

As it has done for decades, and does so now with the Biden Administration, the CCP makes appeals for accommodation while emphasizing the need to turn away from more confrontational policies, like those most recently advanced by the Trump Administration. And as always, China’s words must be seen as tactical measures it deploys in pursuit of its objectives. Thus, it is only a matter of time before attempts to cooperate with China fail. However tempting, accommodation will not succeed for the stark reason that China does not want it.

Party Chairman Xi Jinping has made clear that what China seeks is world hegemony. And it is upon the pursuit of this hegemony that his power in the regime depends.

The CCP’s proclivity for expansion is fully expressed in Xi, who has vowed to achieve China’s “national rejuvenation” and to lead “world governance.” The reasons are straightforward: The party’s ideology requires it to smash capitalism and establish a new economic order based on socialism. To advance these aims, the PRC’s founder, Mao Zedong, employed the People’s Liberation Army to invade Tibet and Korea, launch a Sino-India border war, and participate in the Vietnam War. He fought for the leadership of the Third World and struggled with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev for leadership of the global Communist movement, and provided training, military and financial aids to Communist guerrilla insurgents throughout the world.

Mao’s successor Deng Xiaoping continued this ambitious plan by accelerating China’s modernization, including military modernization in the 1970s. In the process, he waged a border war to punish Vietnam, and ordered the murder of hundreds, even thousands, of protesters. After the Soviet Union’s collapse, a major leader from the CCP’s top echelon urged Deng Xiaoping to replace the Soviets in leading the Communist community. Deng argued that the time was not propitious, and—famously—urged the PRC to “hide our capabilities and bide our time.”

Although there were no major armed conflicts under the rule of Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, respectively, China continued to race toward its goal of world dominance. This phase included dispatching tens of thousands of companies to every corner of the world. As China gained more markets from its global trade and from stealing Western technology, its power, particularly its military capability, increased rapidly. After the 2008 financial crisis, China’s leadership believed that the time was right for its global ideological, political, and military expansion.

To understand China’s quest for global hegemony, two themes deserve special attention. First, the “Xi Doctrine” is “the CCP’s domination of China, and the PRC’s domination of the world.” The Xi Doctrine explains why Xi is a unique leader and singular threat to both the Chinese people and America’s global interests. The Xi Doctrine seeks to replace the United States as the world’s dominant state.

The second theme is the need for the United States to return to the principles of great power competition. That means recognizing that the United States is in essential and irrevocable conflict with the PRC. To defeat Xi’s objectives, the United States must adopt a foreign policy of measured confrontation toward China.

The Xi Doctrine and World Domination

Since he took power, Xi has repeatedly vowed that: “no country should ever presume that we will trade with our core interests, nor that we will swallow the ‘bitter fruit’ of harming our sovereignty, security, or development interests.” This means that Xi will never compromise, make meaningful concessions, or bargain away what he perceives as core interests of the party-state in exchange for a modern form of peaceful coexistence. Xi’s “Wolf-Warrior” style leaves no room or possibility for negotiation, to say nothing of the prospects of rational dialogue or persuasion.

As China’s power, strength, and ambition have increased its core interests have grown. According to the regime’s 2011 white paper, China’s core interests include: 1) state sovereignty; 2) national security; 3) territorial integrity; 4) national reunification; 5) China’s political system established by the Constitution and overall social stability; and 6) basic safeguards for ensuring sustainable economic and social development. Among these core interests, Xi and his officials have stated clearly and consistently that the security of the regime is foremost. No entity is allowed to challenge the CCP’s one-party dictatorship and its “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The most important core interest, according to Qiao Liang, a major general with the People’s Liberation Army, is that “the road to rejuvenation of the Chinese nation cannot be interrupted.”

Xi has given “territorial integrity” a new and broader meaning, which encompasses the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea and the entire South China Sea, in addition to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Xinjiang and Tibet. Internet security and maintaining China’s position in the global supply chain are also added to China’s ever growing core interests. Xi uses these erstwhile core interests as pretexts to target his domestic opponents and reward allies, and has vowed to use force to defend any of these deliberately framed core interests.

Thus, China is confronting and will continue to confront the United States because it is the single major impediment to China’s strategic objectives. With the United States weakened—and ideally removed—there would be no single power, or constellation of powers (such as Australia, Japan, and India) that could prevent Beijing from achieving its aims. These objectives have been boldly and transparently advanced by Xi in his conception of a hegemonic China by 2049. The United States is the obstruction to the realization of China’s ambitions and its ideological opponent. Thus, it is the focus of China’s enmity.

The Two Domestic Components of the Xi Doctrine 

The objectives of the Xi Doctrine are both domestic and international. Domestically, these include the continuation of the  CCP’s rule underXi Jinping’s clique, along with the PRC’s sustained economic growth and development.

The rule of the CCP has always been intended to be permanent. Since the CCP seized control of China in 1949, it has ruled the country with terror and oppression in the spirit of a dynasty much like the Chinese emperors. Mao killed millions to terrorize the opposition. After the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and collapse of the Soviet Union, the CCP feared a regime change, or “color revolution” might occur in China, supported by the United States. Therefore, it considers any advocacy of constitutional democracy, political and civil rights, or Internet freedom in China to be interfering with its internal affairs and harming China’s core interests.

Xi’s ambitions are shadowed by deep insecurity and megalomania. After he took power in 2012, he issued a complete ban against any discussion of Western ideas and values, including constitutional democracy, civil society, freedom of the press, and “nihilistic” views of history—otherwise known as the historical truth about the CCP. He demands unwavering adherence to the CCP’s absolute control of every aspect of Chinese society, and requires absolute loyalty to himself. Xi has censored the Internet and imprisoned hundreds of human rights lawyers. He has also built massive, high-tech surveillance systems to watch everyone, which makes the Chinese people live in constant fear.

Xi essentially has wiped out any effective dissent. He has been targeting rivals, such as Ren Zhiqiang, an influential and longtime critic of the Chinese Communist Party. Ren was born to a CCP veteran family, and thus is a “Red princeling” like Xi. He has a close relationship with many of China’s top leaders, such as Wang Qishan, China’s current vice president, and Yu Zhengsheng, former Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He criticized Xi for ordering China’s media outlets to remain loyal to only the CCP.

In February 2020, Ren circulated an essay critical of Xi’s response to the pandemic. In the essay, Ren boldly stated that he perceives Xi: “not an emperor standing there exhibiting his ‘new clothes,’ but a clown stripped naked who insisted on continuing being emperor.” He not only mercilessly mocked Xi in the missive, but also detailed Xi’s missteps in “personally directing” the Chinese government’s efforts to contain the Wuhan coronavirus, refuting Xi’s lies point-by-point, and the CCP’s propaganda apparatus’ lavish praise of him. Specifically, he noted and criticized Xi’s concealment of the truth about the outbreak, failure to disclose in a timely manner critical information to the public, evasion of responsibility for the tardy and incomplete response, lying to cover up his mismanagement, and crackdown on whistleblowers to ensure the CCP lies would not be revealed. Ren’s essay is a damning indictment of Xi’s performance in this global crisis. Fundamentally, it is an indictment of the CCP’s rule. Ren argued that the pandemic is caused by the defects of the CCP system. Not unexpectedly, Ren has since been imprisoned.

Xi also ensures that potential rivals, such as billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma, do not come into a position to challenge him. Ma’s frank and accurate criticisms of China’s banking system and regulations—including describing China’s banks as “pawn shops”—marked him as an enemy. As China becomes more powerful, Xi’s actions reflect the fruits of its expanding power, and should be cause for great concern for the rest of the world.

In the past decades, the United States and China have had many meetings at all levels. Consistently, China has rejected the American appeals for political reforms and respect for human rights as interference in its internal affairs. China has now extended its “internal affairs,” into international politics. As such, it prohibits any criticism from other states, particularly with respect to its suppression of its ethnic minorities and territorial ambitions. 

The second domestic goal of sustainable economic growth and development is of central importance for the Xi Doctrine. China understands that the trade war initiated by the Trump Administration has upended its economic power and threatens its economic security. One one hand, China seeks to ensure its dominant position in the global supply chain. But this is contravened by Xi’s determination to weaken China’s free market economy and strengthen socialism through state monopolization of key sectors. He also ordered the CCP to make unwavering efforts to develop stronger, better, and larger State Owned Enterprises (SOEs). Increasingly, the Chinese regime’s economic structure contradicts and conflicts with its system of free trade established under Deng. Fundamentally, to resolve China’s unfair trade practices identified not only by the Trump Administration but worldwide will require the regime to change its socialist economic institution. This, of course, Xi is unwilling to accommodate.

From the perspective of U.S. national security, a worrying development is that the regime seeks to dominate  the global supply chain not only with respect to manufacturing, but also in advanced technology. To secure those commanding heights, the regime will continue its multifaceted approach to achieving technology superiority over the United States, including the theft of American intellectual property and sustained efforts to access or recruit global talent, including American academics, scientists, and businesspeople.

Internationally, the objectives of the Xi Doctrine are to harness economic, technological, ideological, diplomatic, and military means to expand China’s power and supplant the United States as the world’s dominant power. The economic means include grandiose enterprises such as the Belt and Road Initiative and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,. The “China 2025 project” and the Digital Silk Road (DSR) are intended to create the next digital 5G infrastructure, as well as quantum computing and artificial intelligence (eventually), with the objective to control the internet, gather intelligence, and coerce other states through cyber-dominance.

The ideological means are just as broad, and are centered on such purportedly noble messages as creating the “shared destiny of mankind” and other measures, such as the spread of Confucius Institutes around the world. In much of the developing world, China advances the “China model” for growth and modernization which combines repressive political rule with crony capitalism—all supported by China and requiring China’s good will to sustain.

The diplomatic and military mechanisms are largely traditional avenues for expanding power, e.g., creating bases in Djibouti and Pakistan as part of a global network of intelligence and military bases. The PRC’s conventional and nuclear weapon expansion will strengthen  China’s hand against Hong Kong and Taiwan, and far beyond China’s borders as well. We should expect that Beijing willt further expand its nuclear and conventional capabilities, and may even challenge the United States to an arms race, in a bid for nuclear superiority.

China’s Hegemonic Ambition

Under Xi, the PRC is working assiduously to alter—not embrace—the status quo in international politics. Among its many policies to bring about change, it has confronted Japan over contested territory (the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands), and declared a new Air Defense Identification Zone in the region, clashed with India repeatedly over their disputed border, threatened Taiwan, militarized the PRC’s facility in Djibouti, created new islands in the South China Sea (supported by the local military power to enforce its claims absent a U.S. response), and has had series of diplomatic clashes with the Philippines.

Additionally, it has rejected the 2016 Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling that the PRC was violating international law in the South China Sea, contravened the 1984 Hong Kong treaty with the U.K. to crush Hong Kong and, de facto, ended the “one country, two systems.” Moreover it has imprisoned Uighur, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz Muslims in concentration camps in Xinjiang, and abused many of the families of these inmates by requiring them to house and host Han men to humiliate not only the family but their people and religion.

The PRC has launched a variety of international institutions, which it uses to advance its own interests, and dominates the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade zone in the Indo-Pacific, which encompasses about a third of global economic output. It has expanded its influence in the Arctic and sub-Arctic, in Melanesia, and Polynesia, and is increasingly assertive in opposing U.S. air and sea operations in South China Sea, East China Sea, and North Pacific. These measures are intended to expand the PRC’s sovereignty beyond even the ambitions of the Ming dynasty, the Qing dynasty, or Mao.

Targeting America’s Military Supremacy

In November 2020, Xi Jinping presided over a Politburo meeting in which he ordered the CCP to prepare for war. Since he came to power he repeatedly demands absolute loyalty from the PLA. His goal is to upgrade military capabilities to such a degree that by the mid-21st century China will fully transform the PLA into a world-class military instrument.

Most significantly, China has launched an arms race in conventional, nuclear, and space weaponry, aggressively expanding its military capability. China’s expansion of nuclear weapons has not received the attention it deserves due to its threat to U.S. interests and international stability. China’s actions undermine the ability of the United States to deter attacks against itself, to extend deterrence to its allies, and to protect its interests. Strategic stability results when both or all sides in a deterrence relationship have little incentive to race for superiority. Strategic stability will not be obtained with respect to China, however, for several reasons.

First, while common estimates of China’s nuclear weapons suggest it has approximately 300 warheads, its lack of transparency means that its arsenal may be considerably larger. There have been calls within China for expanding its nuclear arsenal to 1,000 strategic warheads, to say nothing of intermediate-range nuclear weapons or other nuclear capabilities. While the United States has taken a “strategic holiday” in the wake of the Cold War, the PRC has used the opportunity to expand its nuclear,  cyber, and conventional capabilities. China’s rapid expansion of its nuclear arsenal—which has doubled over the last decade and is on a trajectory to double it yet again in the next decade—is deeply troubling for U.S. national security. Beijing already has a large and diversified strategic missile force. The world witnessed a glimpse of this on October 1, 2019, which was the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. The military parade debuted the DF-41 solid fueled, road mobile ICBM, the DF-100/CJ-100 supersonic cruise missile, and the DF-17, with its hypersonic glide vehicle.

This rapid expansion has been made possible by U.S. strategic passivity, despite the fact that

China’s arms race specifically aims to defeat the United States. For example, defying the international ban on arms in space, China has been secretly developing space weapons to destroy America’s communication satellites. As early as 2007, China successfully developed a space weapon capable of destroying satellites. Now China may have the capability to disable GPS systems. Its new anti-ship missiles, the DF-21D and DF-26B, were developed to cripple and destroy America’s aircraft carriers. In early December, China successfully tested an anti-ship ballistic missile against a moving target, which indicates the Chinese regime has developed a significant threat to U.S. carriers and other vessels. Always secretive, the Chinese have concealed much of this arms build-up to avoid provoking  a reaction from the United States and its allies. More damning is that the Chinese are secretly “preparing the battlefield” to ensure that they have the ability to damage the United States through other, non-nuclear, non-kinetic means. These non-kinetic avenues of attack include cyber, supply chain dominance, economic influence and trade insecurity, technological mastery of 5G and artificial intelligence, export of fentanyl and similar narcotics, and theft of American intellectual property and technology. These new attack vectors, aimed at hurting the U.S. economy and population, are intended to weaken and damage us, and induceU.S. political leaders to yield to the PRC’s ambitions.

Anticipating this failure of resolve by America’s politicians, China rejects arms control both in practice and in principle. Thus far, Beijing has refused unilaterally to reduce or limit its arsenal or enter into arms control talks. American and European assumptions about international stability are not shared by China. In November 2020, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called for Beijing’s participation in future arms control agreements: As “a major nuclear and military power, Beijing must engage more strongly in arms control, transparency and risk reduction.” China could acquiesce to such calls, and signal its peaceful intentions. This would have an important stabilizing effect on states concerned with China’s increasing power. Instead, China rejects arms control, and continues to demonstrate that it is an aggressively expansionist power, and wants to be unfettered as it develops its military arsenal.

Territorial Expansion: Xinjiang and Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South China Sea, Senkaku Islands

In a 2018 meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, Xi Jinping unequivocally warned that he would never give up “even one inch” of territory that the country’s ancestors left behind. The CCP holds that Xinjiang and Tibet, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the Senkaku islands have been, as Xi said, “China’s territory since ancient times.”

Xinjiang and Tibet

Before the PRC was created in 1949 there was an independent East Turkestan Republic (ETR) which was coerced into the PRC. The CCP also invaded and occupied Tibet, and forced the Dalai Lama to leave his country and seek exile in India. Since the early 1990s, the CCP leaders have seen the revival of both Islamic and Tibetan Buddhist faiths as an existential threat, and have waged a systematic crackdown on the two religions. Beijing frames the Xinjiang issue as a regime stability question and argues that that ethnic separatism, terrorism, and religious extremism in the region endanger China’s security. This is to justify the killing and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Uyghur, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz Muslims. The persecution climaxed when the regime put about two million Muslims in internment camps across the region. Thirty-nine countries condemned China’s atrocity in the UN, but China amassed 45 countries to support its policies. The United States sanctioned a few perpetrators of human rights abuses, including Xinjiang’s party chief Chen Quanguo, and Congress passed the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act which President Trump signed into law. But the CCP insists that “Xinjiang affairs are purely China’s internal affairs. The U.S. has no right and no cause to interfere in them.”

Xi has elevated Tibet as one of the critical regime security issues, saying, “To govern the country well we must first govern the frontiers well, and to govern the frontiers well we must first ensure stability in Tibet.” To carry out this strategy, the CCP has put 46,000 monks and nuns effectively under house arrest and deracinated millions of Tibetans from their ancestral land and their nomadic life. They have been coerced into vocational training to work in cities, and cut off from their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, whom China demonizes as a separatist, “a wolf in a sheep’s skin.” In despair, over 150 Tibetans have immolated themselves to protest China’s continued persecution. The United States has been supporting the Dalai Lama for decades. In 2018 Congress passed Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, and used the law to restrict Chinese party and government officials’ travels in the United States because Beijing systematically obstructs Americans’ travel to the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

Xi, however, sees Xinjiang and Tibet as part of China, and the stability of the regions as one of China’s core interests. In a familiar refrain, any state that criticizes the PRC for its cultural genocide is regarded as interfering with China’s internal affairs. Meanwhile, without the help of the United States, the identities of ethnic peoples in Xinjiang and Tibet will soon disappear by forced assimilation.

Hong Kong

China used the slogan “one country, two systems” when it regained Hong Kong from Britain and Macau from Portugal. It promised to keep the island’s political system unchanged for 50 years and allow people to select their own chief executive. Hong Kongers defied Beijing by protesting the CCP’s atrocities during the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and demanding acknowledgement of their political rights. The PRC has broken all its promises made to the British government and the people of Hong Kong. It de facto abolished “one country, two systems” long ago. The recent brutal crackdown on protests against China’s national security law indicates an intention to deploy dictatorial rule in Hong Kong. Despite its international legal obligations, Beijing has warned foreign countries to shut up.

China is not averse to issuing bold threats about Hong Kong. In 2020, the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group—consisting of Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States—criticized China for its retaliation against democratic members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, “part of a campaign to silence critics,” and called on Beijing to reinstate them. In response, Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China’s foreign affairs ministry, threatened “No matter how many ‘eyes’ you have, be careful not to be poked and get blinded by harming China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.” After the United States sanctioned four Hong Kong government officials responsible for gross human rights abuses, China also retaliated against four American NGO staff.

American political and economic interests are deeply embedded in Hong Kong as an independent customs territory and economic entity separate from the PRC, and as an international entity. As early as 1992, U.S. law stipulated separate relations with Hong Kong. In 2018 and 2020 Congress passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which President Trump signed into law. After China enacted a new security law in Hong Kong, President Trump signed an order to end its preferential economic treatment, claiming that the United States sees the security law as a threat to the freedoms Hong Kong has enjoyed under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Keeping Hong Kong’s prosperity, autonomy, and separate way of life is in everyone’s best interests. But the CCP perceives that this endangers its rule. It worries that democratic ideas will spread to the mainland. Now the world witnesses Beijing directing the Hong Kong government to convict and jail pro-democracy activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam for “unlawful assembly,” and fabricate fraud charges against journalist Jimmy Lai and two of his fellow colleagues at the Apple Daily. Despite all efforts, Hong Kong as we know it is disappearing. China can apparently do whatever it wants to in the territory, harming America’s interests there in an alarming manner.

Taiwan

The United States and Taiwan’s Republic of China were strong allies during the Cold War until the Carter Administration recognized the PRC in 1979. When the United States abandoned Taiwan, there was a Sino-American understanding that Beijing must resolve the Taiwan issue peacefully. The terms were that Taiwan’s sovereign status could not be determined unilaterally, the status quo across the strait must be maintained, and the United States would continue to support Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act. But since then China has built a formidable modern military, many times the size of Taiwan’s. America’s arms sales, including the Trump Administration’s ten packages, are inadequate to meet China’s threat.

Beijing frequently threatens using this power to seize Taiwan by force. In 2019, Xi announced again: “we make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option of taking all necessary means,” and that the “Taiwan question is China’s internal affair and allows no external interference.” Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo countered this aggressive claim by noting the historical fact that Taiwan has not been a part of China. China also bullies the international community to abstain from normal relations with Taiwan, with the result that today only 15 countries recognize its independence. As a full democracy, Taiwan’s sovereign status has been eroded. Xi has stressed that “China must be, will be reunified” with Taiwan. Under President Biden, there are grave doubts whether the United States will be able or willing to deter Xi from military action against Taiwan.

The South China Sea

China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea as its territory, and has a history of using force to expand its control. In 1974, Mao ordered the seizure of the Paracel Islands from South Vietnam. Fourteen years later, Deng ordered the PLA to fire at Vietnamese forces and seize the Johnson South Reef in the Union Banks region of the Spratly Islands, thus starting China’s militarization of the region. The rich oil and gas deposits and other abundant natural resources further encourage China’s aggressions, which include island building, base construction, and weapon deployment.

On the South China Sea issue, Xi is much more aggressive than his predecessors. He has insisted that all islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times, and that China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea are in no way affected by established international law and legal rulings. Even though Xi promised President Obama in 2016 that China would stop its militarization of the Sea, China in recent years has increased its pace of militarization. In 2018, Xi told Secretary of Defense Mattis that “We cannot give up even one inch of the territory left behind by our ancestors” in the South China Sea.

China is rewriting maritime law and bullying Southeast Asian coastal countries through intimidation, coercion, and threats of force to undermine their sovereign rights. For most of 2020, China sent a coast guard ship to patrol and monitor Luconia Shoals, a contested area that Malaysia claims as its maritime exclusive economic zone. Beijing insists it falls within its territory. China’s ship harassed Malaysian drilling rig and supply ships that were operating 44 nautical miles offshore, and Malaysia responded with a naval vessel. The stand-off continues. Numerous similar incidents occurred with the Philippines and Vietnam. China’s predatory practices are destabilizing the region and introduce the possibility that these disputes will escalate to a clash of arms.

In response to China’s actions, the United States has been exercising free navigation in the South China Sea according to international customary law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. U.S. interests in preserving peace and stability and upholding freedom of the seas directly clash with those of China’s. Previous American administrations’ actions have failed to dissuade China from its malign actions.

Senkaku Islands

China’s claim of sovereignty over Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands is another flashpoint for potential military conflict. American presidents, including Barack Obama, repeatedly confirmed that the United States would defend the Senkaku Islands if attacked under Article 5 of the security treaty between Japan and the United States. Through a joint written declaration, President Trump even affirmed the obligation to defend the Senkaku Islands. But the situation has been getting worse since Xi came to power. China declared an Air Defense Identification Zone near the islands in 2013. He has ordered multiple incursions by Chinese ships in waters of the Senkaku Islands, including fishing boats as well as armed vessels, in order to change the status quo. Recently, when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Japan to improve ties with the country, he asserted again that the islands belong to China, and vowed that China will “continue to absolutely defend our sovereignty.”

Given what Xi has successfully accomplished against Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, we should anticipate that he will seek similar territorial changes against India, the Senkaku Islands, in the South China Sea, and against Taiwan. Indeed, further actions in the Indo-Pacific are likely to be taken by Xi sooner than the American foreign policy elite, or elites in allied states, might anticipate.

The Necessary Response: Measured Confrontation, Not Collaboration

The fundamental question American policymakers now face is whether the United States should confront China, or continue to collaborate, in the hope of sustaining certain  areas of cooperation. Ultimately, this would probably require the United States to abandon its advocacy of liberal values and accept the Chinese Communist Party’s unlimited rule in exchange for a de facto nonaggression pact, and China’s pledge to abide by the principles, rules, and norms of the liberal international order.

Rather than accommodation, however, it is increasingly clear that U.S. global interests require measured confrontation. Xi’s personal motto is: “show the blade (亮剑).” So let the United States take him at his word and adopt this maxim in return as its animating spirit to defeat Xi’s ambitions. There are four components of an effective response.

First, the United States must be clear about the enemy and how it can achieve victory over the foe.

Thirty years after the end of the Cold War, Washington once again needs to adhere to the three principles of great power competition. The first principle is a strategic focus on the enemy and a plan for victory over the foe. Cato the Elder always ended his speeches in the Roman Senate—no matter the topic—with the recognition that Rome’s peer competitor, Carthage, had to be destroyed (Carthago delenda est). Carthage was finally vanquished after the end of the Third Punic War in 146 B.C., three years after Cato’s death. His focus on the threat perpetually reminded Roman leaders of Carthage’s determination to defeat them. Today, Cato’s clear and powerful insight concerning the necessity of focusing upon the enemy must fuel and guide U.S. strategic thought.

The second principle is that the most significant instrument in international politics is power. The maintenance of U.S. power, in all of its forms—military, economic, technological, educational—is essential. While the absolute power that a state has is significant, what is more important is the relative power of the state—how it ranks against the power of other states.

Dominant powers that do not carefully consider and evaluate the relative distribution of power are condemned to lose their dominance. Thus, how relative power is distributed in international politics is of central importance. Accordingly, trade must be considered with respect to its strategic impact. The free-market economists’ emphasis on absolute gains from trade must be supplanted by the strategists’ emphasis on the distribution of relative power: which state will gain more power from economic exchange must be the metric. Lamentably, the United States did not follow this strategic principle in its relations with China over the last generation.

The greatest mistake made by the United States in its long history was to ignore changes in the relative balance of power with China. Consequently, it did not advance its principal interest in international politics of preventing the rise of a hostile competitor. In the wake of the Cold War, the United States believed itself to be in the Hegelian “End of History,” popularized by Francis Fukuyama, in which great power competition would be absent as it remained the world’s sole superpower. The United States was free to advance economic growth, while strategic considerations were not at the center of policy concerns. Year after year, the relative balance of power with China gradually changed in Beijing’s favor.

Regrettably, in a historically unprecedented act, the United States contributed mightily to the creation of its most formidable competitor. It is both appalling and shameful that U.S. politicians labored to create this challenger. Warnings of this adverse change in the balance of power were not heeded. To the contrary, too many in Washington, New York, and Silicon Valley pursued policies which emphasized cooperation, “bringing China into” the international order and fostering its growth, so that it would become a “responsible stakeholder” in it. The expectation was that China would cooperate with the West to preserve the present liberal order of global politics.

This naïve approach was a profound mistake. It permitted China to hide behind a false promise to abide by Western rules and norms while it rapidly developed economically and militarily—creating a new Communist international order to replace the Western, liberal one. Despite claims to the contrary, China is not a status quo great power. It is a revolutionary great power seeking fundamental and permanent changes to the contemporary order in international politics.

The third principle is focused balancing. The United States possesses the correct conventional and strategic force structure in the region to deter China. Washington must stand with allies and other states of the Quad—Australia, India, Japan—which are cooperating ever more closely and might serve as a nascent counterbalance to the PRC. But the United States. must continue to lead them. The Indo-American 2+2 Ministerial in October 2020 was an important step in diplomatic and military cooperation. The joint Australian-Indian-Japanese-U.S. Malabar naval exercise is also a positive sign. But these must be sustained, further developed, and deepened. “Freedom of navigation operations” should continue and, indeed, become permanent. It is a welcome development that the U.K. and France have conducted such operations. The U.K. has been particularly active since 2018, and later in 2021, the Queen Elizabeth carrier strike group will sail to the South China Sea.

Moreover, the United States must work with Taiwan to provide support and cooperation in order to ensure that Taipei possesses the ability to deter attacks against it. Recent U.S. military sales to Taiwan are valuable and greater diplomatic and military cooperation, including out of area and non-traditional forms of interaction, should be forged.

Similarly, Mongolia and Vietnam should receive support including diplomatic and military assistance from the United States. The PRC’s de facto allies, Bangladesh and Pakistan, should be encouraged to question the value of their relationship with China, which is eroding the sovereignty of both states. A path away from dependency on the PRC for these states as well as others must be established.

Effective balancing also requires that the United States significantly increase its nuclear and conventional presence in the Indo-Pacific, strengthen its allies, augment its defenses, and continue to convey to the world the dangerous consequences of China’s reckless expansion.

The second step for the United States is to illuminate the nature of Xi’s regime and the misrule of the CCP. This includes not only pushing for the end of gross human rights abuses by the PRC in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong. It also requires eliminating restrictions on travel and residency for Chinese citizens which violates the human rights of rural populations.

Additionally, the United States must ban imports of forced labor products from Xinjiang and other regions. New mechanisms to advance human rights in China must be developed and employed, including measures to penetrate or bypass the “Great Firewall” through which the CCP isolates China from the global internet. To send a clear signal that human rights abuses are not acceptable, the world should boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The third measure is to continue to advance trade and economic security to protect key industries in the United States, including in information technology. This includes the maintenance of export restrictions on U.S. software, products, and equipment on Chinese firms, including on Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China’s largest chip maker, to retard its ability to equal the cutting-edge chip foundries at Intel, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.. The Trump Administration’s November 2020 executive order banned U.S. persons from investing in new transactions in shares of more than 30 companies with suspected ties to the Chinese military and thereby posing a national security threat to the United States. If sustained by the Biden Administration, U.S. asset managers, investment banks, and exchange traded funds will have to divest their holdings in those stocks by November 2021. The Biden Administration has the possibility of expanding this measure or applying similar ones in new areas.

Trade and economic security also involves calling attention to abusive Chinese practices, such as Beijing’s punitive trade ban against many Australian goods. German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbaur’s public support for Australia in the face of China’s economic coercion is welcomed. Such support must be as consistent and routine as it was during the Cold War when U.S. allies stood remarkably united against the Soviet threat. Australia has also taken important steps to combat Chinese intelligence collection against Australian targets and to deepen security cooperation with India and Japan, particularly with the Reciprocal Access Agreement reached late last year.

Additionally, the risk from fake and pirated goods bought online from e-sellers, including third-party sellers, and the shippers and operators of major warehouses like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba, as well as organized crime’s e-commerce activities are a national security and public health problem in the course of a pandemic. The public health concern is that pharmaceuticals and cosmetics may be counterfeit and pose a dangerous health risk particularly as the majority of pharmaceuticals are manufactured in China. There remains the possibility of contamination and counterfeiting of critical drugs, such as blood thinners, as well as food, including pet food, as well as PPE, as the world has discovered in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, and as a bedrock principle of U.S. economic security, it should be required that U.S. firms, individuals, academic institutions, and investors reveal the true nature of their relationships with Chinese firms, and be informed particularly of the PRC’s requirement for all Chinese firms to cooperate with PRC authorities. Unfortunately for the protection of intellectual property, the protection of personal and financial data, and proprietary information, there remains considerable ignorance in the West about these Chinese laws, including the new Data Security Law, Cryptography Law, and the Cyber Security Law of 2017, which compel all Chinese institutions and citizens to cooperate with PRC security and intelligence services. This results in the lack of adequate data protection for Chinese entities or foreign entities conducting business in China or with Chinese entities.

Finally, the fourth measure is for the United States not to fall back on bad habits. We must guard against our proclivity to make appeals to the personalities and personal relationships with Chinese leaders. This was done by Nixon, Carter, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama. But entreaties to professed friendships and warm individual relations have not and will not be successful. They are chimeras. Just as it was with Mao or Deng, a personal relationship with Xi to dissuade him from his objectives and ideology is not possible.

During the Cold War, similar arguments were voiced in the 1970s with respect to the USSR. The relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union meant abandoning Western determination to achieve victory. Détente required the United States to accept that the Soviet Union could not be defeated, and was a fact of life in international politics. Therefore, the “experts” insisted that relations with the Soviet Union be conducted professionally and remain devoid of ideology or a desire to defeat them. Like the Soviet Union, the PRC is a revolutionary state, and its objectives are not compatible with U.S. national security interests at present and won’t be in the future. The first principles of American foreign policy and U.S. relations with China must recognize this.

Accommodation will embolden Xi and generate additional and accelerated pressure for change to the liberal international order. Thanks to the Trump Administration, the United States has time to act to sustain its position over China, but that window is closing, and the greater the accommodation with China, the faster that window will close. As regrettable as it is, direct, focused, and measured confrontation is the necessary and only option available to the United States to defeat Xi’s ambitions and preserve America’s interests.

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Bradley A. Thayer is the co-author of How China Sees the World: Han-Centrism and the Balance of Power in International Politics. Lianchao Han is vice president of Citizen Power Initiatives for China. After the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989, Dr. Han was one of the founders of the Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars. He worked in the U.S. Senate for 12 years, as legislative counsel and policy director for three senators.
Photo “Xi Jinping” by Palácio do Planalto CC BY 2.0 and photo “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore CC BY-SA 2.0.

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by Thomas Catenacci

The top U.S. financial regulatory agency approved a rule that forces publicly-traded companies to reveal the diversity of their executive boardroom to investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted in favor of the rule, which will apply to all companies traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange, according to the text of the approval released Friday. The rule, first proposed by Nasdaq in December, will also require companies to hire at least one female director and one either minority or LGBTQ+ director to their boards.

Companies may be delisted from the exchange if they fail to comply with the new diversity requirements within four years. Several major corporations including Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla, JPMorgan Chase, Johnson & Johnson, Disney, Nike and Walmart are traded on the Nasdaq.

“These rules will allow investors to gain a better understanding of Nasdaq-listed companies’ approach to board diversity, while ensuring that those companies have the flexibility to make decisions that best serve their shareholders,” Biden-appointed SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a statement after the vote.

SEC Commissioners Allison Herren Lee and Caroline Crenshaw applauded the rule as a “step forward.” But they added that there was still work to be done to improve corporate diversity and floated the possibility of a requirement for corporations to hire disabled executives.

Commissioners Elad Roisman and Hester Peirce, voted against the proposal. While they both affirmed the importance of diversity, they argued that part of the rule was illegal and that the commission hadn’t properly evaluated the proposal.

“The objectives and disclosure requirements imposed by the Board Diversity Proposal encourage discrimination and effectively compel speech by both individuals[41] and issuers[42] in a way that offends protected Constitutional interests,” Peirce wrote in her stinging rebuke of the proposal.

However, Gensler said the rule was legal and in accordance with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

“By defining diversity by race, gender, and sexual orientation, NASDAQ’s mandate will inevitably pressure companies to subordinate crucial factors such as knowledge, experience, and expertise when selecting board members,” Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey said in a statement Friday afternoon.

“These prescriptive requirements may ultimately harm economic growth and investors by pressuring companies to select directors from a narrower pool of candidates and discouraging others from going public,” he continued.

Toomey added that Gensler was transforming the agency into a “laboratory for progressive social engineering.” Banking Committee Republicans wrote to the SEC in February, urging it to reject the Nasdaq proposal.

Similar diversity rules have been implemented in Europe over the last several years. In January, the German government passed a policy requiring companies with more than 2,000 employees to hire at least one woman to serve on their executive board.

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Thomas Catenacci is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Google Headquarters” by Shawn Collins (CC BY 2.0).

The article Biden Administration Approves Rule Forcing Companies to Hire Minority, LGBTQ+ Executives and Publicly Disclose Diversity appeared first on Tennessee Star.

by Eric Lendrum

The Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) declared its belief that schools should be shut down again if the India Variant of the coronavirus, also known as the “Delta variant,” continues to spread, as reported by the Daily Caller.

In a letter published on Thursday addressed to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D-Ill.), the union demanded that the mayor “acknowledge the changing dynamics of the COVID-19 virus” and make further bargains with the CTU regarding conditions for possibly returning to school.

“Parents are concerned,” the letter states in part, “and they deserve assurances that our union and the [Chicago Public Schools] team are working…to ensure safety in hundreds of school buildings across the city.” In fact, many parents have been critical of CTU and other teachers’ unions across the country, which have sought to extend school shutdowns for as long as possible for the teachers’ pleasure, often including absurd and unreasonable conditions in their requirements for returning to in-person instruction.

Among CTU’s latest demands are “ventilation upgrades,” mandatory testing “for unvaccinated and vaccinated members” of the school community, and another “pause [on] in-person instruction.” They also demanded another $4 billion in funding for the school system, saying that only this would “earn the trust and confidence of families across the city.”

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) district forced all students to wear masks to school, regardless of vaccination status, back in July. Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) recently reimplemented a similar statewide mask mandate for all students, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, in a move that was supported by CTU. However, the union has also forced their members to keep their own vaccination status secret, with no justification given for this move.

– – –

Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Chicago Teachers Union marching” by Chicago Teachers Union.

 

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by Eric Lendrum

It has been revealed that the Fairfax County Public School district (FCPS) is encouraging second-graders to be anti-police, with a “Summer Learning Guide” that includes the phrase “I feel safe when there are no police,” according to an exclusive report by Breitbart.

The stunningly radical content was revealed by a document leaked to the nonprofit group Parents Defending Education (PDE). Fairfax is the most populous school district in the state of Virginia, and has widely been viewed as the epicenter of the battle over “Critical Race Theory” – the notion that all White people are automatically racist, and that America is a fundamentally racist nation – and other far-left ideas with which children are being indoctrinated.

The summer curriculum requires students to watch a far-left YouTube channel called “Woke Kindergarten,” and one video in particular called “Safe by Ki.” The video says, in part: “I feel safe when there are no police. And it’s no one’s job to tell me how I feel. But it’s everyone’s job to make sure that people who are being treated unfairly…feel safe too.” The “lesson” ends with several loaded questions, including “Why do some people feel safe with police and others don’t,” as well as “What can you do to make sure other people feel safe?”

Another video from the same channel recommended by the summer learning is “Good Trouble by Ki,” where the narrator says “sometimes it’s good to get into trouble.” Asra Nomani, Vice President for Strategy and Investigations at PDE, denounced the video and other radical curriculum, saying that “by sharing this message…they are stoking anti-police distrust among children.”

“The [YouTube channel’s] creator preaches ‘sometimes it’s good to get into trouble’” and “teaches that she ‘feels safe when there are no police,’” Nomani continued. “Fairfax County Public Schools is sending children a confusing mixed message supporting disobedience and lawlessness. It’s dangerous and irresponsible.” Nomani concluded that “Fairfax County Public Schools administrators are being reckless in their activist agenda with children in one of the country’s largest school districts,” and that they “have lost the trust of parents.”

FCPS did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Breitbart.

– – –

Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
 

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The Republican nominee for Ohio’s 15th Congressional District told The Star News Network about his August 3 primary win with 37 percent of the vote, how he decided to run for Congress, and his relationship with President Donald J. Trump.

“The numbers in my race show you that you can have all kinds of endorsements, but when you are supported by President Trump, you win,” said Mike Carey, a native of Sabine, Ohio, and a former president and chairman of the Ohio Coal Association.

“President Trump has an 88 percent approval rating in my district amongst Republicans,” he said. “I’d be hard-pressed to say that if you go to a family reunion, any member of the family has an 88 percent approval rate.”

Carey, who was an executive with the St. Clairsville, Ohio based American Consolidated Natural Resources, the legacy company of Murray Energy, said his quest for the congressional seat began in the spring.

In May, the seat opened when Republican Rep. Steven E. Stivers resigned from Congress to lead the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

“Well, when I heard that the former congressman was going to step down for sure, I had to have a very long conversation with my wife and my employer, and when I got the green light from both, it was a long drive from St. Clairsville back to Columbus, where I lived — and I really had to think about it,” Carey said.

“I got back in that night and sat down, I called some of my very dear friends, and I said: ‘We need to get together.’ And we did. And within three hours, all of a sudden, we decided I was going to be a candidate for this race,” said the veteran, who served 10 years as a National Guard ordnance officer.

Carey said he was conscious of what it meant to replace Stiver, an acolyte of former Speaker John A. Boehner (R.-Ohio), so that his win in November will flip the seat from the GOP establishment to the House conservatives.

Stiver presented himself to voters as a conservative, but in practice, he worked as an enforcer for Boehner and the GOP House leadership to kneecap conservatives.

Stiver’s Capitol Hill peak was during the 2018 midterm cycle when he was the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman. In that post, he oversaw the loss of the Republican Party’s largest House majority in 80 years.

Even as he looked at a historic loss, in the days before the 2018 election, Stiver gave interviews to mainstream reporters, where he urged Iowa voters to defeat conservative Republican Rep. Stephen A. King.

Carey said he was determined to start his campaign in a bold move with his family, friends, and allies all lined up.

“It was a process of a few days, but the most important thing was that I didn’t want to come out of the gate and just do a press release,” the coal advocate said.

“I wanted to make sure that I had money in the bank and make sure that I had professional, digital advertising talking about who I was as a person,” he said. “When we announced, and we went to the Board of Elections, we were live within the first – I don’t know – probably within the hour after we filed.”

Trump endorses Carey

Another part of Carey’s electoral calculation was his relationship with Trump: he said, “I think that going into this race, I clearly wanted to define myself as the America First candidate — and this is even before I got the president’s endorsement, and that’s what we did.”

Carey said he first met the president in 2016 at the then-New York City real estate developer’s Manhattan office in Trump Tower through his close friend and Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

“Corey Lewandowski has been a dear friend of mine for 27 years, and I’ve been a strong supporter, raised the president a tremendous amount of money over the years,” he said.

“We went into Trump Tower, and the conversation was just, at that time, Mr. Trump and the three of us,” he said. “There were only four people in the room, and there couldn’t have been a more engaging conversation about coal mining and coal miners and domestic energy policy.”

Carey said he was struck by Trump’s understanding of the coal industry and his specific questions about its future.

“He was right on top of it. I mean, he knew it; he had read some very good articles and was asking questions about clean coal technology and asking questions about the grid,” he said.

“But it was a conversation about the coal miners that he wanted to put back to work, and he did in many cases, and about the radical left and what they’re trying to do to tear down just the remarkable legacy of President Trump,” he said.

“I mean, this is somebody that has built an empire if you will, in terms of his real estate holdings, and energy is a very important part of that, so he was very engaged, we worked with him throughout the administration, we had the opportunity to go in the Oval Office and in the White House multiple times.”

As he put together his 2021 campaign, Carey said he gamed out with Lewandowski the possibility of getting the president’s endorsement.

“When I decided to run, Corey and I talked, and of course, Corey and the president are very close,” he said. “Corey’s like: ‘We’ve got to get a meeting with him.’”

At his sit-down with the president, Carey said it went much better than he expected.

“I went in, and his first question was: ‘Mike, why do you want to do this?’ and I told him, I said: ‘Mr. President, you inspired me to do this because you had a very successful career.’ My career is not nearly as successful as his, but it’s been moderately successful. I’ve been very blessed.”

Carey said he told Trump he was running for Congress because of his hopes and concerns for America’s future, especially after how the 2020 election was handled.

“I said: ‘I’m looking at the country, I’m looking what has happened after this election, and I’m looking what the Democrats are doing to the America that you and I both love, and I can’t stand for it,’” he said.

The 1993 Ohio State University graduate said he told the president he would take on all comers. “Not just the Democrats, I mean, even the RINOs.”

It was at that point of the meeting that Trump said he had made his decision.

“When he said: ‘I’m going to endorse you,’ I literally looked over at Corey, and I was like: ‘Corey, we’ve got to get the hell out of the door now before anything happens.’”

Trump promised him more than just his endorsement, Carey said.

“I literally thought it was going to be a photo op with the president, maybe a 10-minute meeting,” he said.

“After about an hour and 20 minutes, he looked at me, and he goes: ‘Mike, I’m all in. I’m going to do everything I can do to get you over the finish line. I’ll do whatever it takes, tele-rallies, whatever you need, and even come in the district if we have time,’” he said.

Because of the short time window, there was no time to set up a live Trump rally, but Trump kept his word, he said.

In the days before the primary, it was as if Carey carried the future of the Trump project on his shoulders. Then, in the July 27 GOP primary for Texas’ 6th congressional district, Trump’s endorsed candidate Susan Wright, widow of Rep. Ronald J. Wright, lost to state Rep. John K. “Jake” Ellzey Sr., 53 percent to 47 percent.

Trump critics cited Wright’s loss as proof that the president no longer held sway, so with the Ohio-15 primary coming up, the second defeat of a Trump candidate would be the validation they needed.

Stiver, for his part, endorsed state Rep. Jeffrey LaRe to fill his vacant seat and the former congressman and contributed to LaRe’s campaign from his campaign committee.

In the end, Carey beat LaRe and the other nine candidates handily with 18,655 votes out of 50,456 cast. There were 16,130 votes cast in the Democratic primary.

Carey said that in the days after the primary, Trump is still working with him to talk policy and plan for the November election. Then, he faces healthcare industry consultant Allison Russo, the Democratic nominee. “He’s been nothing but supportive. I talked to him about three times in the last three days.”

Carey fears Biden’s economic, energy policies

Carey said that when he is elected to Capitol Hill, he will educate the other lawmakers on the benefits of America’s cheap, domestic energy sources.

“It’s domestic natural resources,” he said. “I mean, it’s domestic coal, it’s domestic oil and gas. And they want us to go and be reliant upon windmills and solar panels that are all produced in China.”

Trump was right to get tough on China, he said.

“He was also right making America energy independent,” he said.

“This administration simply would rather you pay more money at the pump, which we’re doing now, pay more money in your electricity, which we are doing and will continue to do as long as we close down baseload power,” Carey said.

“I just think that this administration has it all wrong,” he said. “What’s the first thing that President Biden does when he gets into office? He axes out the Keystone Pipeline – I mean, it’s unbelievable. Unbelievable.”

For America to ignore its cheap, domestic energy sources in favor of more expensive alternatives, he said, would be as if the country unilaterally disarming itself economically.

“Oh, it’s not only disarming us economically,” he said.

“It’s being dishonest with ratepayers, because what this administration, meaning the Biden administration and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer want to do, is they want to completely eliminate fossil energy from the fuel mix by 2035,” he said.

He said that no one has to look further than what happened when the Texas power grid collapsed, unable to power the state with its renewable and green energy sources.

“When you overly rely on renewable energy and you don’t keep your baseload power plants active, what happens? You lose power,” he said.

“That is a very dangerous place, as a country, to find ourselves. And if they do what they want to do for 2035, what will happen to all of us, particularly the Midwest? It’ll be way worse than what happened in Texas.”

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Neil W. McCabe is a national political correspondent for the Star Newspaper Group based in Washington and a Media Fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategies. Before joining the Star News Network, he was a White House and Capitol Hill reporter for One America News. His special “Biden Family Corruption” was the highest-rated special in the channel’s history. McCabe was the Capitol Hill correspondent for Breitbart News, where he also wrote up wrote up the 2016 Breitbart-Gravis polls. McCabe’s other positions include a senior reporter at Human Events and a staff reporter at The Pilot, Boston’s Catholic paper. McCabe also was the editor of The Somerville News, The (North Cambridge, Mass.) Alewife and served as an Army combat historian in Iraq. His 2013 e-book “The Unfriendly Skies” examined how the American airline industry went from deregulation in the late 1970s to come full circle to the highly-regulated, highly-taxed industry it is today.
Photo “Mike Carey” by Mike Carey. 

The article Exclusive: Trump’s ‘America First’ Ohio House Seat Pick Tells How It Happened appeared first on Tennessee Star.

by J.D. Davidson

An Ohio group applauded the federal government’s move to issue a new eviction moratorium just as courts across Ohio were beginning the process of hearing eviction cases again this week.

The Biden administration announced a new moratorium on evictions Tuesday evening despite doubts over whether the order will hold up in court.

The order lasts 60 days and applies only to areas hit hardest by COVID-19. It was issued after the previous order expired Saturday and is expected to cover roughly 80% of counties in the U.S.

“We’re pleased that the Biden Administration recognized the threat that eviction poses to efforts to control the spread of COVID-19. This extension will help prevent unnecessary evictions, at least in places where the virus is spreading, which includes most of Ohio,” Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition of Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, said in a statement.

Faith said tenants needing help can submit a declaration form stating they are eligible for protection under the moratorium and apply for emergency rental assistance. He also called on the state’s congressional delegation to support an expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

“The order buys two more months to get emergency rental assistance out to tenants, which is especially important because it takes time to build this new program from scratch,” Faith said. “We need structural change that expands access to affordable housing so the next public health crisis doesn’t immediately become a housing crisis as well.”

The COHHIO expected a drawn out impact from the moratorium lifting because courts can handle only so many cases, and it estimated only half of the tenants realized it existed. Because there was no statewide moratorium, evictions continued during the pandemic, albeit at a lower rate, according to Marcus Roth, COHHIO communications and development director.

Ohio typically deals with between 7,500-10,000 eviction case filings a month. Those dropped to 1,703 in April 2020, when many local courts stopped hearing eviction cases, according to COHHIO. Cases resumed later in the year, but at a lower level.

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An Ohio native, J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He has served as a reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher. He is regional editor for The Center Square.
Photo “Eviction notice” by Marco Verch Professional Photographer CC BY 2.0.

The article Ohio Group: New Eviction Moratorium Buys Time appeared first on Tennessee Star.

U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11) said this weekend that forces within the Biden administration and other Democrats in Washington, D.C. want to force a COVID-19 vaccine upon all Americans.

“There are few things that remain very consistent, and one of those — and it is of grave concern to most of the people in our district, and I believe most of the people in America — is the attacks on our individual liberties. The one that is most prominent right now is the government trying to force a medical procedure, a vaccine, on every citizen,” Loudermilk said during a podcast Saturday.

“This is a growing concern to a lot of people.”

Loudermilk said anyone who wants the COVID-19 vaccine should get vaccinated — especially after consulting with a physician — but people who don’t want a vaccination shouldn’t get one.

“With liberty comes responsibility and personal responsibility. Part of the agreement for the emergency use authorization for this COVID vaccine is it can only be given in consultation with your personal physician,” Loudermilk said.

“It seems the administration has lost sight of that in that they are trying to mandate everyone to get the vaccine without even encouraging you to go to your physician and seek their advice. But I also believe that whether you have been vaccinated or not is nobody’s business but [for] you and your physician. No one should require you to declare whether you have been vaccinated or not.”

Staff at the Washington, D.C.-based Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) recently named Loudermilk a “Taxpayer Super Hero.”

The CAGW has evaluated every congressional member’s voting record on how they voted on issues to eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in government, and protecting hardworking taxpayers.

“One of the biggest problems with Congress is the growing belief that government can fix most any problem if we just throw enough money at it. I believe Americans are capable of fixing their own problems, if we can just get government out of their way,” Loudermilk told his constituents in a newsletter in May.

“Those of us in Congress have to remember that it is the hard-earned money of the American taxpayers we are spending, and every dollar that goes into a big government program is a dollar that was taken out of the wallet of a hardworking American. This is exactly how I approach every vote I make in Congress; and, I will continue to stand up for hardworking Americans and support policies that lower taxes and promote investment in job creation. Thank you, Citizens Against Government Waste, for this distinguished recognition, and for holding members of Congress accountable.”

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to chrisbutlerjournalist@gmail.com.

The article U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk Warns Georgia that Federal Officials Want to Mandate COVID-19 Vaccine appeared first on Tennessee Star.

A motion to move a case concerning concealed weapons licensing to the Florida Supreme Court was denied by the 1st District Court of Appeals in a 12-3 vote on Friday.

The case was filed by a Floridian, identified as R.C. in court documents, who was denied a concealed-weapons license by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS). R.C. was convicted of a felony in 1969 and his civil right to possess a weapon was restored.

In June, the appeals court ruled in favor of R.C., stating that the DACS’ findings to deny him of a license were “not supported by competent, substantial evidence and its conclusions of law are erroneous.” The “evidence” relates to DACS use of the National Instant Criminal Background check system known as NCIS that the court suggests was negligent in recognizing R.C.’s documentation that restored his federal right to carry a firearm.

However, in a dissent from June’s ruling, Judge Susan Kelsey indicated that the DACS was unauthorized under state law to access other sources of information regarding R.C.’s criminal background. She asserts that additional background information must be obtained through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s (FDLE) Firearm Ineligibility Appeal process, rather than the DACS overriding that process for “independent determination.”

The request to move the case to the Supreme Court was in an attempt to overrule the June decision and to “certify a question of public importance” regarding the case.

The three dissenting judges for Friday’s decision include Kelsey, Judge Ross Bilbrey, and Judge Scott Makar. Makar wrote, “What’s changed—obviously—is a monumental and destabilizing shift in the long-standing interpretation of Florida’s firearms law as applied to those with felony records: the Department can no longer rely—as it has for decades in safely administering the concealed weapons statute—on the most critical source of criminal justice information available to law enforcement officials at FDLE in reviewing the concealed weapon applications of those with felony records.”

He then asks, “How could a district court decision—one that could lead to felons (and other persons who are not properly cleared) receiving concealed firearms licenses—not be a matter of great public importance for our supreme court’s consideration?”

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Casey Owens is a contributing writer for The Florida Capital Star. Follow him on Twitter at @cowensreports. Email tips to caseyowensreports@gmail.com.
Photo “Concealed Carry” by Clinger Holsters. CC BY-ND 2.0.

The article Florida Appeals Court Denies Motion Related to Concealed Weapons Licensing Case appeared first on Tennessee Star.

Amid the debate over mask mandates in schools, the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) and the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) took steps last week to make sure parents have the authority to make decisions related to their children.

In a Friday press release, the office of Governor Ron DeSantis stated that “the Florida Department of Health and State Board of Education issued Emergency Rules to protect parents’ freedom to choose what is best for their children. These rules are pursuant to Executive Order 21-175 and encourage a practical and effective in-person learning environment for Florida’s school children during the upcoming school year, while preventing the unnecessary removal of healthy students from school and safeguarding the rights of parents and their children.”

“When the wellbeing of our students and our constitutional freedoms are at stake, we will stand up for Florida families,” said DeSantis. “Giving parents options to make these decisions is not controversial. I’m proud that today we took action to make sure school administrators respect parents’ rights to make educational and healthcare decisions for their families. I will continue to fight to protect Florida’s families from government overreach and to preserve their God-given rights.”

The Florida Department of Health published an emergency rule to govern the control of COVID-19 in schools through protocols that do not violate Floridians’ constitutional freedoms. The rule directs that any COVID-19 mitigation actions taken by school districts ensures that parents’ right to make decisions regarding the masking of their children is protected. The rule was issued in recognition of the importance of in-person learning to educational, social, emotional and mental wellbeing.

The State Board of Education passed two emergency rules that clarify the eligibility of the Hope Scholarship and provide school districts with flexibilities to ensure the educational continuity of students. The clarification of the Hope Scholarship Program ensures parents know they can transfer their public school student to a private school or to another district in the state if the student has been subjected to harassment due to personal health care choices a family has a right to make for their minor child.

In addition, school districts are incentivized to ensure a student remains engaged in educational activities while under quarantine for attendance purposes. Quarantine procedures should be surgical and not sweeping “because they unquestionably result in student learning loss.”

“From the beginning of the pandemic, Governor DeSantis has been crystal clear that we need to put the welfare of our children – especially our most vulnerable children – at the forefront of our efforts, while empowering parents by putting them in the driver’s seat to make educational and health care decisions for their family,” said Commissioner Corcoran. “These rules help accomplish just that: Protect families’ privacy over health-related decisions and protect students from retribution for those decisions.”
– – –
Steve Stewart is the Managing Editor and a contributor at The Florida Capital Star. Email tips to sstewart@floridacapitalstar.com.

The article Florida Publishes Rules Related to Parents Rights, Mask Mandates in Schools appeared first on Tennessee Star.

Arizona State Senator Otoniel “Tony” Navarrete (D-Phoenix) was arrested on Thursday and was charged with seven felony counts connected to allegations of sexual conduct with two minors.

According to court documents, Navarrete repeatedly made sexual contact with a young boy, who was 12 or 13 at the time, and his brother.

In a recorded phone call with the victim, Navarrete admitted to the allegations. He acknowledged touching the victim’s genitals and performing oral sex on the youth multiple times over the span of several years. According to the victim, Navarrete touched him at least five times.

Furthermore, the state lawmaker made advances on the victim’s brother. Navarrete allegedly touched the brother’s upper leg, who immediately swatted the hand away.

When acknowledging the past acts of abuse in the phone call, Navarrete said, “Of course, I regret any bad actions that I did, absolutely wishing everything could be different.”

Additionally, the victim asked the 35-year-old legislator why he had committed the abuse. Navarrete responded that he “wasn’t well.”

Immediately, after the revelations surfaced, elected officials on both sides of the political aisle called on Navarrete to resign from his position — including all 48 state lawmakers from his own party.

“Sen. Navarrete should resign immediately. These allegations are abhorrent. My prayers are with the young victims and their loved ones during this traumatic time,” Governor Doug Ducey responded in a tweet.

Sen. Navarrete should resign immediately. These allegations are abhorrent. My prayers are with the young victims and their loved ones during this traumatic time. https://t.co/cX0k2OTdsu

— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) August 7, 2021

“My heart is broken. I am furious. If these charges are sustained and proven, it is a betrayal of trust that cannot be overlooked or ignored. Children deserve better. I implore the courts to make sure that every perpetrator of sexual crimes be removed from society and punished to the full extent of the law,” followed Democratic state Representative César Chávez (D-Phoenix), who serves as the chair of the LGBT Legislative caucus. Navarrete was also a member of the caucus.

“Given the nature of the charges against Sen. Navarrete, it would be in best interests of his constituents for him to resign from the state senate. He is presumed innocent of the charges but the best interests of the district the represents must come first,” added Democrat state Representative Diego Rodriguez (D-Laveen).

Given the nature of the charges against Sen. Navarrete, it would be in best interests of his constituents for him to resign from the state senate. He is presumed innocent of the charges but the best interests of the district the represents must come first.

— Rep. Diego Rodriguez (@Diego4Justice) August 6, 2021

— — —

Cooper Moran is a reporter for the Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to cooperreports@gmail.com.

The article Arizona Democratic State Lawmaker Tony Navarrete Arrested for Child Sex Crimes appeared first on Tennessee Star.

by Bruce Walker

Michigan could be on the receiving end of $7.8 billion in federal dollars if the U.S. Senate’s $1 trillion infrastructure spending bill becomes law.

The estimated total is derived from $7.3 billion for Michigan highways and an additional $563 million to fix an estimated 1,200 bridges currently deemed in disrepair.

The monies earmarked from the bill would be in addition to the $3.5 billion in bonds issued by the Michigan Department of Transportation to fix the state’s roads and bridges, which is in addition to the $1.8 billion increase in the state’s transportation spending since 2012.

President Joe Biden has already pledged his support for House Resolution 3684, which is a bipartisan effort conducted by a group of senators.

Text of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was released Sunday evening. The bill is currently being debated in the Senate prior to the legislative body adjourning for a month-long recess beginning Monday. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has indicated he may delay the break until the legislation is passed.

Michigan may receive up to $100 million out of a total $7.5 billion nationwide to expand its network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations over the next five years. The EV charging expansion aligns with the president’s order to convert at least 50% of the nation’s automotive fleet to electric vehicles by 2030.

The bill also aims to bridge the state’s digital divide by pumping $100 million into increasing broadband access. According to the Federal Communications Commission, 4% of Michigan residents, or roughly 400,000 of the state’s population of 10 million people, do not have internet access.

According to the White House, the bill:

• Makes the largest federal investment in public transit ever
• Makes the largest federal investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak
• Makes the single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system
• Makes the largest investment in clean drinking water and waste water infrastructure in American history, delivering clean water to millions of families
• Ensures every American has access to reliable high-speed internet
• Helps tackle the climate crisis by making the largest investment in clean energy transmission and EV infrastructure in history; electrifying thousands of school and transit buses across the country; and creating a new Grid Deployment Authority to build a resilient, clean, 21st century electric grid

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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.

The article Federal Infrastructure Bill Could Pump $7.8 Billion into Michigan Roads, Bridges, Internet appeared first on Tennessee Star.

Citing public safety, Loudon County Public School officials announced this week they will alter the public comment portion of their school board meetings in a dramatic way.

“Only people signed up to speak to the school board will be allowed to enter the building,” according to the Loudon County Public Schools website.

“For everyone’s safety, no public viewing area will be open during the public comment portion of the meeting.”

School system officials said they are modifying their policy “in direct response to the increase in threats and the unruly and unsafe behavior at the June 22 board meeting.”

They will implement the new policy in time for their August 10 meeting.

“Specifically, ongoing security threats require a response that keeps public commenters, staff and school board members safe on school property,” according to the website.

“Although the school board is committed to public input, there remains concern about the safety of all participants in the public-input process. The safety and security of all staff, students and visitors remains our highest priority.”

School system officials specified the following new rules as they pertain to the public comment portion of each board meeting:

• In lieu of attending the meeting, the public may register for in-person or virtual public comment and can also submit written comments, which school board members will receive.

• The school board public comment period opened at 9 a.m. Friday, August 6, and will close at noon on the day of the meeting.

• Members of the public must fill out the registration form in full and register only as an individual speaker. Speakers should participate in one method of comment only.

• For those who have not pre-registered, school system officials will accept walkup registrations for public comment at the front of the building until five minutes before the start of the meeting.

• One hour prior to the posted start time of the meeting, school system officials will post the list of pre-registered speakers at the Loudon County Public Schools Administrative Offices at 21000 Education Court, Ashburn, as well as posted on the school division’s website.

• School system officials will list virtual speakers first.

– – –

Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to chrisbutlerjournalist@gmail.com.
Photo “Loudon County School Board Members” by Loudon County Public Schools. 

The article Per New Policy, No Spectators Allowed for Public Comment at Loudon County School Board Meetings appeared first on Tennessee Star.

A firm conducted an analysis of how the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety handled the unrest of 2020. The report notes some pros, some cons, and some communication issues. As was reported by WOOD, “one core issue was the erosion of the public’s trust amid a breakdown in communication.” The report and study was conducted by the OIR Group, which has conducted similar reviews in Oregon, California, and others.

The report specifically touched on situations with “anti-racism” protests and a Proud Boys protest that took place in Kalamazoo. They analyzed the department’s response and the tactics used and offered 40 recommendations for the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety to consider and implement.

According to the report, when dealing with the May and June civil unrest, the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, “in its concerns about disorder and the potential for looting and property damage, it imposed a blanket enforcement strategy that failed to give appropriate space to the sincere (and primarily peaceful) protest movement as it unfolded on Monday and Tuesday.”

The report also details its disagreement with the decisions of law enforcement to use non-lethal means of crowd dispersion to enforce a curfew order, saying, “The ‘curfew violators’ in the intersection were indeed technically breaking the law, but their protest and activity, at least at the time of the tear gas deployment, was much more in line with classic First Amendment expression than the dangerous disorder that had marred the previous evening.”

The report also compared the police response from the May and June unrest to the police response for the Proud Boys march in August. The report says that the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety did learn that “the presence of police can act as a catalyst for confrontation and violence, particularly in a crowd protesting the impacts of policing in its community.” However, they took issue with the “hands-off” approach that influenced its policing decisions as it led some to believe that the department was favoring the Proud Boys march over the Black Lives Matter protests.

The conclusion of the report says there were truths to the way that many people saw what occurred. Some believed that the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety was too aggressive and militant when it came to policing Black Lives Matter protests and others believed that the department handled the protests and riots well and used force when necessary. The report states it “found elements of validity in both characterizations while coming to the conclusion that the ‘truth’ was somewhere in the middle.”

The report also concedes that it was a “genuinely challenging” time for the department and the public. It goes on to say that, “KDPS did many things creditably and without a discriminatory motivation, and that room for improvement certainly existed.”

– – –

Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun | Star News Network. She graduated with a degree in Communications from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Send news tips to hayley@volente.biz.

The article Firm Conducts Analysis of Michigan’s Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety’s Handling of 2020 Unrest appeared first on Tennessee Star.

Another group is targeting Northern Virginia Commonwealth’s attorneys Buta Biberaj, from Loudoun, and Steve Descano, from Fairfax. This week, Virginians for Safe Communities (VSC) announced recall efforts against Biberaj and Descano, already the targets of a separate organization Stand Up Virginia (SUV). VSC is also targeting Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, from Arlington and Falls Church.

“Northern Virginia deserves honest, hard-working, and effective Commonwealth’s Attorneys who seek accountability for criminals, protect our communities, and uphold the law without reservation or ideological blinders,” VSC President Sean Kennedy said in a press release.

Biberaj, Descano, and Dehghani-Tafti are part of a wave of progressive prosecutors who say traditional prosecutorial philosophies are inequitable and prevent real solutions to crime. The Virginia Progressive Prosecutors for Justice have argued for changes in policies to give prosecutors more flexibility.

“To better serve our victims, we needed to and have reallocated resources towards the more significant matters that cause greater harm to our community and away from the non-violent, lower offense cases. We have worked with our community stakeholders and successfully reduced the number of persons incarcerated from 450 on average to 250. We continue to seek and find ways to keep our community safe whilst dedicating our resourcing most efficiently,” Biberaj told The Virginia Star.

Conservatives say that progressive prosecutors are more worried about protecting criminals than victims, and say that by ignoring sections of law, prosecutors are taking the role of legislators.

“Our petitions and subsequent legal briefs will make the clear and convincing case that Steve Descano, Buta Biberaj, and Parisa Dehghani-Tafti have each exceeded their delegated powers under the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Their radical policies have proven not only unlawful but dangerous including eliminating cash bail by fiat, unilaterally nullifying narcotics laws, and failing to prosecute serious crimes,” a VSC spokesperson said.

In April, SUV announced that it was collecting signatures to begin a recall of Descano. In July, SUV announced that it is also targeting Biberaj. CSV didn’t say why it was announcing separate efforts to collect the thousands of signatures needed as the first step in the recall process.

Several of Virginia’s progressive prosecutors have been extensively funded by progressive PACs with links to donors like George Soros, Cari Tuna, and Dustin Moskovitz.

VSC is a 501(c)4 “social welfare organization,” according to its press release, and it announced its formation this week. Kennedy is a Republican operative who also works for the Law Enforcement Defense Fund, according to The New York Times, which reported that VSC isn’t disclosing its donors, but has already raised more than $250,000. Another VSC member is Ian Prior, a former Trump Department of Justice official, who is separately leading recall efforts against Loudoun County School Board members.

“[VSC] will deploy significant resources to inform Virginians of the dangerous and unconstitutional actions taken by these elected prosecutors, circulate a removal petition with voters demanding that the Commonwealth’s Attorney face a trial, and – upon an affirmative finding of guilt – be removed from office. Once their offices are vacated, a special election will be called to replace them,” the release states.

Recall efforts face a high bar in Virginia. Recall petitions must be signed by registered voters from the region that originally elected the official. Petitions need signatures amounting to at least ten percent of the amount of votes cast in the election. Then, a judge reviews the petition before deciding if the recall can go forward.

Biberaj has faced blistering criticism from the Loudoun Board of Supervisors; in March Chair Phyllis Randall said they were hearing complaints from victims. But when SUV announced its recall against Biberaj, Randall said Biberaj had made improvements.

“The people of our community would be shocked that these prosecutors aren’t pursuing crimes like animal cruelty, domestic assault, reckless driving, and indecent exposure. Homicides have doubled under Steve Descano, aggravated assaults have spiked more than 40 percent under Dehghani-Tafti, and rising domestic violence goes unprosecuted in Loudoun under Buta Biberaj,” a VSC spokesperson said.

“Today, our office is more diverse (in practices, experiences and demographics) than ever; we have built a victim centric policy and practice (we have doubled the resources dedicated to our sexual assault and domestic violence unit); we have reallocated the victim witness case manager services directed at victims of sexual assault and domestic violence; and, we have reduced the rate of incarceration for persons who do not present a safety risk to our community – providing millions of dollars in savings to our county,” Biberaj said.

“The residents of Northern Virginia are increasingly worried about crime and want their homes, schools, and communities to be kept safe. These three Commonwealth’s Attorneys prefer to spend their time writing op-eds in national publications, signing legal briefs and public letters on matters outside of their jurisdiction, doing interviews with partisan outlets, hosting podcasts, and tweeting,” the VSC spokesperson said.

Biberaj said the recalls were a surprise, not fact-based, and lacked transparency.

Biberaj said, “This should be a concern for our community because it appears to be another attempt to suppress the voting process by trying to negate the elections in 2019. As for these outside groups, the question is ‘what is your true agenda? Why do you have so many ‘entities’ opened up and located in areas NOT in Loudoun?'”

– – –
Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Network. Email tips to eburk@vastarnews.com.

The article Another Group Aims at Northern Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorneys for Recall appeared first on Tennessee Star.

MAPLEWOOD, Minnesota – Over 250 protesters showed up at the first of several Stop The Mandate protests at St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood, Minnesota. St. John’s is part of the M Health Fairview network, which mandated COVID vaccines for its employees last week. M Health Fairview is requiring employees, volunteers, students, vendors, and all contracted staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID by October 31.

Health Freedom Minnesota organized the protest to help healthcare workers. It said it assisted others in planning and facilitating the protest, and that more dates will be announced soon. One of Health Freedom Minnesota’s members told to The Minnesota Sun, “It’s not our protest, we were just advising people. It was more of an organic thing.”

A St. John’s Hospital nurse, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was there protesting because she doesn’t believe “anybody has the right to tell me what to put in my body.”

She shared her belief that “they’re going to come for the general public next.” She also encouraged people to stand up and go to the hospitals because she said that the nurses and doctors need the support of the public. Several other nurses could be seen in scrubs at the event.

Protesters began gathering before the 10 a.m. on Saturday, but it quickly grew to a large crowd that was standing on all sides of the street at the intersection of Hazelwood Street and Beam Avenue in Maplewood.

Protesters erupted into cheers as passers-by honked their horns in support. Every time ambulances drove to and from the hospital, protesters waved and shouted their thanks, applauding and making noise.

Various signs had statements such as, “What pharmaceutical will be mandated next?” and “My body does not belong to my employer.” Other signs stated “NO mandatory vaccines” and “The poke is a joke.”

The protest lasted for about two hours, with minimal to no pushback from those opposed to the message. At some points, the noise of the car horns honking in support was deafening. A megaphone was also passed through the crowd and one woman led the group in cheers of “FREEDOM.”

A larger protest against the mandating of COVID vaccines is taking place on August 28 at the Minnesota State Capitol, as reported by The Sun.

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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun | Star News Network. She graduated with a degree in Communications from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Send news tips to hayley@volente.biz

The article First #StopTheMandate Rally Held at St. Johns Hospital in Maplewood, Minnesota appeared first on Tennessee Star.