Category: News

Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark Files Post-Hearing Brief Poking Holes in the D.C. Bar’s Disciplinary Panel Findings

Rachel Alexander
Jeffrey Clark

Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, is fighting a recommendation from the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary panel to discipline him over his concerns about illegalities in the 2020 election. Last month, he filed a Post-Hearing Brief challenging a nonbinding preliminary finding of culpability for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials advising them of their options in dealing with the irregularities.

The hearing panel found that Clark engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation and conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice, Rules 8.4(c) and (d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Those ethics rules have been accused of being broad, vague, and unconstitutional. State bars frequently use them to target conservative attorneys.

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Democrat State Rep ‘Disappointed’ That Trump will Be on Tennessee Ballot

Peter D'Abrosca
Vincent Dixie

A Democrat State Representative told The Tennessee Lookout that he is disappointed that former President Donald Trump will remain on the ballot in the state after being convicted of 34 felonies in the state of New York.

Rep. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) reportedly wrote a letter to Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti claiming that Trump should be barred from appearing on the state’s ballot, and asking for a legal opinion on the matter. 

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Biden DHS Board Painted Trump Supporters, Military and Religious People as Potential Terror Risk, Docs Show

Admin
People Praying

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory board characterized supporters of President Donald Trump, as well as those who are in the military and religious people, as posing potential domestic terrorism risks, according to internal documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL).

The board, called the “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” was created in September 2023 to provide DHS with “expert” analysis on subjects such as terrorism and fentanyl trafficking. The panel included former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, all of whom signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy.

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Instagram Pushes Sexualized Content on 13-Year-Olds Within Minutes of Logging In, Studies Show

Admin
Teenager on Phone

Instagram recommends sexualized content to young teenagers within minutes of their first log in, according to studies from The Wall Street Journal and Northeastern computer-science professor Laura Edelson.

The studies, which consisted of scrolling through Instagram Reels using new test accounts with listed ages of 13, found that adult sex-content creators appeared in the test accounts’ feeds in as little as three minutes, according to The Wall Street Journal. Additionally, if a test account chose to skip other forms of content and watch sexually suggestive content to completion, its feed would be dominated by sexualized content in under 20 minutes.

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Over 500,000 Illegal Migrants Crossed Southern Border While Biden Claimed He Had No Power to Stop Them

Admin
Illegal Immigrants

Hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals descended on the U.S.-Mexico border between the time President Joe Biden declared there was nothing more he could do to stop illegal immigration and when he issued his executive order.

Border Patrol agents made nearly 525,000 illegal immigrant encounters across the southern border in February, March, April and May, according to the latest data by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Those were the four months between Biden claiming to the media on Jan. 30 that he’s done “all I can do” unilaterally to stop the immigration crisis and the executive order he issued on June 4 that seeks to cap southern border crossings.

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‘Incompetence’: Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Much Money It Sent to Chinese Entities for Risky Virus Research

Admin
Science Lab

The Department of Defense (DOD) does not know how much money it directly or indirectly sent to Chinese entities to conduct research on viruses with pandemic potential, according to a new report by the DOD’s Office of Inspector General (OIG).

The OIG’s report found that DOD has supplied Chinese entities — whether directly or indirectly via subgrants — with taxpayer cash to research pathogens and the enhancement thereof, but the exact figure is unknown because of “limitations” in the DOD’s internal tracking system. Government funding for such research in China has come under scrutiny since the coronavirus pandemic, which multiple government entities believe started when an engineered virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory that was hosting U.S. government-backed gain-of-function research.

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10 More Minneapolis Gang Members Charged with Illegal Gun Possession and Drugs

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Andrew Luger Press Conference

Ten more alleged Minneapolis gang members have been charged in federal court for various crimes including illegal possession of firearms, possession of a machine gun, and drug trafficking, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger in a Tuesday press conference.

Luger was joined by Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara and FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Leah Greeves in announcing charges against the “10z” and “20z” (pronounced “tens” and “twenties”) gang members who they say operate mainly in the area of East Franklin and Chicago avenues in south Minneapolis and are part of a two-year crackdown on gangs in the city.

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Virginia Congressional Primary Race Could Take ‘Weeks’ to ‘Complete’

The Center Square
John McGuire and Bob Good

Tuesday’s Republican primary race for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District between state Sen. John McGuire and incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Good is still too close to call.

McGuire holds a razor-thin lead of 313 votes, according to the latest numbers from the Virginia Department of Elections. Good, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, is holding on to hope that lingering votes will save his seat.

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Ohio Closer to Requiring Medical Pricing Transparency

The Center Square

A concurrence from the House of Representatives is all that stands in the way of reinforcing Ohio hospital requirements to provide transparency in pricing.

Both the Senate and House passed slightly different versions of House Bill 49, which requires hospitals to comply with the federal price transparency law. This includes maintaining and making a public list of standard charges for services a patient can schedule in advance.

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South Carolina Agency Changes Name and Doubles Down on Mission

The Center Square
Alan Wilson

A partially federally funded South Carolina Agency is changing its name as it doubles down on its enforcement of crimes targeting the state’s vulnerable adult population.

South Carolina’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is changing its name to the Vulnerable Adults and Medicaid Provider Fraud Unit. State officials said the agency experienced a 30% increase in reports from law enforcement thanks to an outreach effort targeting local agencies over the past two years.

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Retired Border Chief Says Michigan and Other States Face Impacts of Border Crisis

The Center Square
Chris Clem

The immigration wave at the southern border is a crisis of national security, and Michigan is not exempt from its effects, a recently retired Border Patrol chief says.

Former Chief Chris Clem, who is visiting Michigan as part of Americans for Prosperity’s “Secure Borders, Secure America” tour, served more than 27 years and under five presidents as a U.S. border patrol agent. He was promoted to Yuma Sector chief in December 2020, right before President Joe Biden took office. 

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PennDOT Releases Draft Plan to Guide Transportation Improvements

The Center Square

The next major transportation plan is out and PennDOT wants the public to comment on it.

The Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan was released to the public this week, laying out how the agency plans to spend almost $29 billion in the next few years to build “a safe and reliable transportation network that connects Pennsylvanians to opportunities and services,” according to an agency press release.

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Commentary: Geopolitics and Demand Growth Underpin Need for Commonsense Energy Policies

RealClearWire
Oil rig

The U.S. energy sector finds itself in a precarious position. Increasing geopolitical volatility and strong energy demand forecasts could spell trouble domestically in the future. The U.S. needs to stop hamstringing American energy companies and invest in the nation’s infrastructure, such as pipelines, processing, and production.

If we have learned anything in the last two and a half years, it’s that the U.S.’ energy industry is not free from geopolitical chaos globally. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Houthi’s attacks in Yemen backed by Iran and turmoil in the Middle East have very real repercussions for the average American. We may not be as intensely intertwined with those realities as our European allies, but energy is a global market with implications for domestic prices, supply, and demand. While different events can affect prices at home, there are steps the administration can take to protect our energy sector.

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Congress Presses to See If U.S. Intel Warned Biden of Son’s Business Deals

Just the News
Hunter Biden and Joe Biden

House Republicans have built a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Hunter Biden made millions while his father was vice president from business associates with unsavory backgrounds, including a Ukrainian energy firm deemed corrupt by the State Department, a Chinese executive convicted by DOJ of corruption, a Russian oligarch unable to get an American bank account because of red flags, a Romanian oligarch charged with bribery in his country, and two Americans convicted of securities fraud.

And now, an Associated Press/University of Chicago poll shows that two thirds of Americans believe Joe Biden did something illegal or unethical.

But the tangle of complex transactions and foreign names can often complicate the explanations of influence peddling.

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Reporter Peter D’Abrosca: TN-05 GOP Candidate Courtney Johnston’s Reluctance Talking to the Press Fuels Assumptions She Is a Left-of-Center Candidate

Kaitlin Housler
Pete and MPL

Peter D’Abrosca, reporter at The Tennessee Star, said Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston’s reluctance to speak with the press on various issues only leaves voters to assume that she is a left-of-center candidate running in the August 1 GOP primary race for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.

Johnston is running in the August 1 primary against incumbent U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), who boasts a 100 percent rating on the Heritage Action Scorecard, the nation’s leading conservative scorecard.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center Doctor Called Transgender Surgery ‘Big Money’ Year Before Covenant Killer Audrey Hale was Referred for Commitment

Tom Pappert
Shayne Sebold Taylor

Born a biological female, Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale began identifying as a transgender man and using the name Aiden prior to her devastating attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults on March 27, 2023.

Police documents published by The Tennessee Star determined Hale was a 22-year mental health patient of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), the home of a controversial transgender program that is reportedly considered “big money” for the hospital.

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Donor to Far-Left State Rep Aftyn Behn Says He Cancelled Planned Hosting of Fundraiser for TN-05 Republican Challenger Courtney Johnston Despite Invitation Obtained by The Star

Peter D'Abrosca

A donor to far-left State Representative Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) said that he canceled hosting a planned fundraiser for Courtney Johnston, a Republican challenger to Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), despite a flyer invitation for the event obtained by The Tennessee Star.

According to the flyer, Margaret and George Uribe were scheduled to host a fundraiser for Johnston on Wednesday.

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Father Says His Teenage Daughter ‘Began Mentioning a Trans Lifestyle and Adopted a Male Name’ While Being Treated at Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital

Tom Pappert
Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital

The distraught father of a teenage daughter contacted The Tennessee Star on Thursday and expressed his concern about the treatment his daughter has been receiving at Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, part of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).

The Star received the email after it published the notes taken by a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigator the department obtained at least 75 pages of documents from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant. 

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Powerful Union Suddenly Courting Republicans Spent Millions on Liberal Advocacy, New Report Reveals

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Sean O'Brien

A massive union that’s suddenly rubbing shoulders with Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — ahead of November’s election has spent millions on left-wing advocacy, a new report shows.

Of the more than $9 million the International Brotherhood of Teamsters spent on political advocacy between 2019 and 2022, 99 percent went to groups linked to the Democratic Party, liberal economic think tanks and anti-Trump media operations, according to a new report from the Center for Union Facts given exclusively to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Despite the union’s strong leftward lean, the Teamsters have donated to the Republican National Committee (RNC), petitioned to speak at the party’s convention in July and even met with Trump as part of a broader effort to ingratiate themselves with conservatives.

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Body Cam Footage Released from Shootout That Left Two Blount County Deputies Injured

Peter D'Abrosca
Blount County Shoot Out

Body camera footage released by the Blount County Sheriff’s Office shows a harrowing 20-minute gun battle during which two of its deputies were shot after responding to a welfare check call.

“I am releasing the following video synopsis of the assault on Deputy Corbin Smith and Deputy Edward Walker on June 11, 2024 on Jacob Springs Boulevard in Rockford,” said Blount County Sheriff Sheriff James Lee Berrong on Facebook, attaching the video. 

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Huge Percentage of EV Owners Want to Go Back to Normal Cars, Study Finds

Admin
Tesla Charging

Nearly half of American electric vehicle (EV) owners want to buy an internal combustion engine model the next time they buy a car, according to a new study from McKinsey and Company, a leading consulting firm.

Approximately 46 percent of Americans who own an EV want to go back to a standard vehicle for their next purchase, citing issues like inadequate charging infrastructure and affordability, according to McKinsey’s study, which was obtained and reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The study’s findings further suggest that the Biden administration’s EV push is struggling to land with American consumers, after 46 percent of respondents indicated that they are unlikely or very unlikely to purchase an EV in a June poll conducted by The Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.

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Wikipedia Is Biased in Favor of Liberals, Study Finds

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Wikipedia entries are more likely to paint public figures on the right in a negative light than the left, a Manhattan Institute study released Thursday found.

The study analyzed the sentiments of 1,628 words that were used in reference to political topics and found that Wikipedia generally uses more negative terms in reference to right-leaning public figures, and less when referencing left-leaning figures. The results would suggest that Wikipedia is contradicting its “neutral-point-of-view” policy, according to the study.

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Latino Voters in Key Swing-States Trust Trump More on Handling Immigration than Biden, Poll Shows

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Donald Trump in front of border wall (composite image)

More Latino voters trust former President Donald Trump on immigration issues over President Joe Biden, according to a new poll in key swing states.

Forty-one percent of Hispanic voters trust Trump to handle immigration while only 38 percent said the same for Biden, according to a newly-released Equis poll. The survey reached out to 1,592 registered Latino voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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Commentary: Biden Gun Regulations Don’t Affect Mass Shootings

RealClearWire
Shooting Range

President Biden is making gun control a central part of his reelection campaign. In a new ad, Biden says that Trump did “nothing” when children were “gunned down in classrooms,” innocent people “killed in church,” and others “massacred at a concert.”

The Biden campaign is referring to shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas; and an outdoor concert in Las Vegas. In four years, there were 18 mass shootings that occurred in public places and that did not transpire during another crime such as robbery or selling drugs. (A “mass killing” is defined by criminologists as involving four or more fatalities, not counting the shooter.)

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Arizona Abortion Law Repeal to Take Effect in Time to Avoid Territorial-Era Law

The Center Square
Stop Abortion Bans Rally

Arizona has avoided potential abortion law confusion with the conclusion of the legislative session.

Since the session concluded on Saturday night, all normal legislation without an emergency clause signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs will go into effect on Sept. 14. This also includes the May repeal of the abortion law that was created in 1864 and re-codified in 1977 that banned abortion in nearly all circumstances.

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Biden Posts Worst Showing in 20 Years with Absolutely Crucial Voting Bloc, Analysis Finds

Admin
Biden voters

President Joe Biden’s lead with women voters is the lowest showing Democrats have seen in 20 years, according to a recent average of polls compiled by The New York Times.

Biden’s lead among women had dipped down to single digits, which is the weakest lead Democrats have had in two decades, according to polling averages compiled by the NYT. Former President Donald Trump is leading among men in the double digits, eclipsing Biden’s lead with women and potentially jeopardizing his reelection, according to the aggregate polls.

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Music Spotlight: Tae Lewis

Bethany Bowman

Having lived in Nashville for more than 12 years, I have learned you never know who you will meet or see perform at a random writers’ round who may become the next big thing. And even though I only watch bits and pieces of the music competition shows, I was watching The Voice this year because Music Spotlight artist, Donny Van Slee, was on it.

But I got the shock of my life when I saw Tae Lewis in the Knockout Round. When he sang Cody Johnson’s “Nothing on You,” you could have picked me up off the floor. I remember sitting next to Lewis at the Listening Room a few years back. His friend introduced him as a new artist in town (of which there are literally hundreds).

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Feds Try to Delay Release of Non-Public COVID Vaccine Safety Data Until at Least 2026

Just the News
Man receiving vaccine

The Biden administration is seeking to delay until at least 2026 the release of COVID-19 vaccine safety data that has been kept outside the government’s normal adverse events reporting system.

The Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services asked U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton this week to issue an 18-month stay that keeps them from having to release the Food and Drug  Administration’s data to Just the News under the Freedom of Information Act.

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Joe Biden Adviser Had Contact with Burisma During Height of Corruption Probe, Emails Show

Just the News
Former Energy Adviser Amos Hochstein

Hunter Biden’s team arranged for a senior Burisma Holdings executive to meet with one of his father Joe Biden’s advisers at the State Department a decade ago, just months after the Ukrainian energy firm’s owner was targeted in a high-profile and U.S.-backed corruption investigation, according to documents secretly gathered years ago by the FBI. The elder Biden was vice president at the time.

The documents, obtained by Just the News, chronicle a plan in summer and fall 2014 to connect Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi with then-State Department energy adviser Amos Hochstein, now a Middle East envoy for President Joe Biden. It was facilitated by the law firm that employed Hunter Biden at the time, Boies Schiller Flexner.

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Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Trump-Era Tax

Admin

The Supreme Court rejected Thursday a challenge to a 2017 tax law passed by Congress.

The case, Moore v. United States, considers whether the 16th Amendment permits taxing unrealized gains. Kathleen and Charles Moore sued for a refund in 2019 after they were hit with a $14,729 tax bill for their investment in an overseas company, though they never received any payment in earnings from the company.

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Appeals Court Rejects Steve Bannon’s Request to Delay Prison Sentence

Just the News
Stephen K. Bannon

A United States court of appeals on Thursday rejected Steve Bannon’s request to delay the start of his prison sentence, ruling that he must report to serve the contempt of Congress sentence on July 1.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in a low-security prison in October of 2022, after he was convicted on two counts of contempt-of-Congress by a jury, for failing to comply with a Congressional subpoena in front of the House January 6 committee. But his report date was delayed after he filed multiple appeals.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Wrote ‘Everything Hurts’ in Journal While Prescribed Anxiety Drug Capable of Causing Musculoskeletal Pain

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote repeatedly about experiencing pain, using the phrase “everything hurts” in at least 10 entries in the journal recovered from her vehicle after her devastating attack claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three staff members.

The Tennessee Star confirmed on June 5 it obtained about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, which reveal she repeatedly wrote about pain, and police photographs obtained by The Star reveal Hale was prescribed an anti-anxiety medication that can cause musculoskeletal pain.

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ACLU Tennessee Silent on Judge’s Contempt of Court Threat Over Covenant Shooter Reporting

Peter D'Abrosca
MPL Courtroom

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) has remained silent during the past week as The Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy was ordered to appear before a judge for a show cause hearing called on the heels of a false allegation by WSMV reporter Stacey Cameron that Leahy violated a court order by publishing journals left behind Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

Leahy could face a contempt of court charge, which comes with a possible jail sentence of 10 days.

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Police Arrest Trans Person in Utah for Allegedly Killing Parents

Peter D'Abrosca
Collin Troy Bailey

In another instance of transgender violence, a biological male who was “transitioning” to become a female was arrested Wednesday for allegedly killing his parents.

According to the Washington City, Utah police, Collin Troy Bailey, 28, who goes by the name Mia, is the suspect in the slaying of his parents, Gail Bailey and Joseph Bailey, who were found dead in their home after police responded to a shots fired call.

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Reporter Tom Pappert: Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Connection to Covenant Killer Is the Most Significant Revelation of Entire Case

Kaitlin Housler
Tom Pappert MPL

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) connection to Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, is the “biggest part” of the unraveling story.

On June 7, The Star was the first to report that Hale was a 22-year patient of VUMC from 2001 until the time of the horrific school shooting on March 27, 2023.

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Arizona Appeals Court Ignores Evidence to Throw Out Kari Lake’s Second Election Appeal

Rachel Alexander
Kari Lake Speaking

An Arizona Court of Appeals panel of three judges issued a 23-page unpublished decision last week, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of Kari Lake’s Rule 60(b) second election lawsuit. The court claimed that Lake’s Rule 60(b)(3) motion, which means requesting a second trial based on newly found evidence, constituted merely relitigating her first election lawsuit.

The court said that instead, “The focus must rather be on the fraud or misconduct that prevents a litigant from trying otherwise meritorious claims.” However, the court ignored Lake’s evidence of misconduct and affirmed the high standard the trial court judge set for election contests, which is not found in Arizona case law.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center Responds Following Revelation Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Expressed Fantasies of Killing Father, Shooting School

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale VUMC

The Tennessee Star received a response from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) regarding its apparent treatment of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, which was revealed in a number of Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) documents obtained by The Star.

After The Star obtained a police summary describing 75 pages of notes retrieved from VUMC following a June 1, 2023 search warrant for information related to Hale’s treatment, and asked VUMC president and CEO Jeff Balser for comment, a spokesman said he was unable to confirm Hale’s treatment due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act of 1996.

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