Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is continuing his advocacy for school choice in a new television advertisement for the American Federation for Children.
The ad is airing across the state, the governor’s office said Monday.
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Ohio House Democrats want Gov. Mike DeWine to veto several parts of bills passed during a flurry of activity as the two-year General Session came to a close last week.
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As part of an investigation into possible collusion with climate activists, the House Judiciary Committee has sent letters to 60 U.S.-based asset management companies asking them for information about activities related to their membership with the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and Net Zero Asset Managers.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies have taken a beating this year, and with the incoming Trump administration expected to create an unfriendly atmosphere for ESG, next year will likely not go any better for “woke capitalism,” as the movement is sometimes called.
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Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes reportedly entered into a contract with a partisan group run by a man considered a media expert on the legal challenges faced by President-elect Donald Trump to organize its case against the alternative electors who helped Trump contest the 2020 election in Arizona.
The documents were shared to the social media platform X on Sunday by pro-Trump attorney Jeff Clark, who Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged for his role in Trump’s 2020 election contest in that state.
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Joe Biden, to the degree he was cognizant, has always reflected the Obama-era utopia dream of a borderless world, and thus millions of poor have illegally entered the United States. On numerous occasions, he offered clear warnings of what he would do if he ever had power over immigration policy.
Do we remember this 2020 Biden boast to let in millions and offer blanket amnesties?
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Democrats are stumbling all over each other to blame Biden for staying in the presidential race too long. Ha!
Axios reported that “Vice President Harris’ loss raised a feeling among Democrats that Biden’s refusal to leave the race until July cost the party dearly—even as they got caught up in a global anti-incumbency wave.”
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Tradition is the cumulative experience of thousands of human lives. It is the conclusions reached by countless ancestors who tested what it meant to live well. Unfortunately, we are losing many of our traditions and their accompanying wisdom, abandoning the practices by which we speak to the past, and the past speaks to us.
One way our ancestors lived well was by engaging in certain yearly celebrations surrounding Christmas and the holiday season. They bequeathed many of these delightful and meaningful celebrations to us—if we care to receive them.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s border czar said that while the Biden administration’s latest deportation numbers appear high, they aren’t actually indicative of increased enforcement actions across the country.
More than 271,000 illegal migrants were deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in fiscal year 2024, marking the largest number of foreign nationals removed from the United States in a decade, according to a report released Thursday by the Biden administration. However, Tom Homan — a former acting director for the agency and the incoming border czar for the Trump administration — said these removals were largely a result of Border Patrol apprehensions and not indicative of immigration enforcement in the interior of the country.
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Some recent proposed regulatory changes by two key federal agencies are raising alarms among experts and former regulators, who warn that the moves could destabilize the banking sector and drive up energy prices.
The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced proposed rules on Regulations Implementing the Change in Bank Control Act that would tighten control over index fund managers’ investments in banks. The proposed rule would require asset managers who own more than a 10% stake in a regulated bank to secure FDIC approval through a written notice, adding a new layer of scrutiny on top of Federal Reserve Board oversight, which already reviews such investments.
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Illegal border crossers from Venezuela with confirmed ties to the violent prison gang Tren de Aragua have been connected to an ATM theft ring in multiple states. The latest arrests occurred in North and South Dakota.
One recent arrest was made by West Fargo police of a 25-year-old man outside of a Gate City Bank branch. He was initially pulled over for a broken taillight but was arrested for felony theft after police discovered he was allegedly involved with bank ATM thefts in the Red River Valley.
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A little-known environmental provision in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has no impact on military operations, but will instead serve to “protect the native vegetation,” a Navy spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement Tuesday.
The nearly $884 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday includes an initiative to “manage, control and interdict the coconut rhinoceros beetle” — an invasive species of insect that bore holes into the canopies of palm trees — “on military installations in Hawaii.” By the Navy’s own admission, the initiative’s purpose is to preserve vegetation, and thus is effectively unrelated to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) stated mission “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”
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In 1906, a new carol appeared in “The English Hymnal,” an influential collection of British church music. With words by British poet Christina Rossetti, set to a tune by composer Gustav Holst, it became one of Britain’s most beloved Christmas songs. Now known as “In the Bleak Midwinter,” it was voted the “greatest carol of all time” in a 2008 BBC survey of choral experts.
“In the Bleak Midwinter” began life as a poem, which Rossetti simply titled “A Christmas Carol.” When the hymnal paired her words with music, the poem took on a new identity in song – a phenomenon documented by literature researcher Emily McConkey. But it also became embedded into popular culture in nonmusical forms. “A Christmas Carol,” or parts of it, has appeared on Christmas cards, ornaments, tea towels, mugs and other household items. It has inspired mystery novels and, more recently, became a recurring motif in the British television series “Peaky Blinders.”
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Former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder cautioned Democrats in the commonwealth against a tumultuous primary, arguing it was a lack of Democratic solidarity preceded the 2021 election of Governor Glenn Youngkin.
While U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger (R-VA-07) is leaving Congress to run for governor, last week Punchbowl News reported Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA-03) is considering entering the race.
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An illegal Guatemalan immigrant on Monday was charged with the murder of a woman whom he allegedly set on fire while aboard a New York City subway this weekend.
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A near-record number of Tennesseans are expected to travel for Christmas this year, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).
AAA forecasts that more than 2.7 million Tennesseans will travel 50 miles or more for the year-end holiday from Saturday, December 21 to Wednesday, January 1 , which is 62,000 more travelers than last year and 62,000 travelers shy of the record high set in 2019.
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With the national debt at its worst level in U.S. history, both Donald Trump and far-left Democrats like Ilhan Omar are pushing to eliminate the debt limit.
This would reduce transparency and responsibility for politicians who run up debt and make it easier for them to pass the buck to future officeholders and younger generations of Americans.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti slammed President Joe Biden for commuting the sentence of federal death row inmate Rejon Taylor, who was convicted in the eastern district of Tennessee’s first federal death penalty case.
Taylor was charged in the August 6, 2003 abduction and killing of Atlanta restaurant owner Guy Luck, who was found shot to death on a rural roadside in Collegedale after being abducted in his van from his home in Georgia.
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Tennessee’s State Funding Board approved a tax growth rate of 1.25 to 2.15 percent for the 2025-2026 fiscal year. However, this estimation did not consider that the Trump administration will assume control of the federal government in 2025, and Tennessee stands poised to reap significant economic benefits from the anticipated policy shifts. The state’s diverse economy — encompassing manufacturing, agriculture, and a burgeoning tech sector — is well-positioned to thrive under the incoming administration’s pro-freedom agenda.
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Tennessee State Representative Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) introduced a bill last week that would increase the criminal penalty for abusing a child aged 9-17.
McCalmon’s bill, filed as HB 0045, would “increase the penalty from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony for a person who commits child abuse by knowingly treating a child between the ages of nine and 17 in such a manner as to inflict injury.”
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Former Congressman Matt Gaetz challenged the conclusions of a House Ethics Committee investigation on Monday, specifically disputing allegations he paid women for sex.
The probe into his conduct by the committee found that he paid multiple women for sex, including a 17-year-old high school junior, used illegal drugs like cocaine and ecstasy and obstructed efforts by Congress to investigate his conduct, according to a draft of its findings obtained by Just the News.
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The House Ethics Committee gathered evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida paid multiple women for sex, including a 17-year-old high school junior, used illegal drugs like cocaine and ecstasy and obstructed efforts by Congress to investigate his conduct, according to a draft of its findings obtained by Just the News.
“The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” stated the draft of the report slated to be released this week.
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A new investigation by the organization Parents Defending Education reviewing grants awarded under the Biden-Harris administration shows that the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has funded more than $1 billion worth of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives in U.S. schools, universities, and nonprofits.
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On Christmas Day, U.S. Navy recruits from the Recruit Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois, will be able to connect with their families, thanks to a new partnership between Patriot Mobile and Cell Phones for Soldiers. The two organizations are working together to provide cell phone service for recruits participating in the Adopt-A-Sailor program, a nationwide initiative designed to support sailors who are away from home during the holiday season.
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Likely ending what could have been a contentious race for chair of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP), Donald Trump endorsed current chair Gina Swoboda during his speech at Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest in Phoenix. State Rep. Cory McGarr (R-Tucson), who lost his reelection race even though there is a 10+ Republican voter registration advantage in his district, announced on December 12 in an X post that he was challenging Swoboda.
Swoboda, who was asked by Trump personally to run after Jeff DeWit was forced to step down, was elected to the office less than a year ago. Swoboda leads the Voter Reference Foundation (VRF), so Republican leaders felt it was imperative to put someone in the leadership position who understood election fraud and had experience combating it. She issued a statement after the endorsement, going over her record the past 11 months.
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Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) on Sunday praised Elon Musk, the incoming co-leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, for buying Twitter, rebranding it as X, and spearheading Republican opposition to the 1,547-page Continuing Resolution (CR) that was replaced with slimmed-down legislation.
Hagerty made the remarks to CNN’s “State of the Union,” praising the influence of citizens on X over public policy.
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The second day of Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest kicked off Friday with more well-known conservatives in the movement speaking. Headlining the afternoon’s events were General Michael Flynn, Republican National Committee attorney Harmeet Dhillon, and commentators Benny Johnson and Jack Prosobiec.
Flynn generated a round of laughter as he began his speech. “Are there any FBI agents out here?” referencing his previous experience being forced to step down as Trump’s nominee for National Security Advisor due to what many believe was a witch hunt by corrupt intelligence bureaucrats. “I can’t wait for Kash Patel!” Patel is Trump’s nominee for FBI director, who has vowed to go after corrupt Democrats.
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Not soon after the general election, and within two weeks of each other, two major financial institutions have left a United Nations Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).
This is after they joined three years ago, pledging to require environmental social governance standards (ESG) across their platforms, products and systems.
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After an Iranian national was arrested on Monday in a Boston suburb for his alleged ties to a terrorist attack that killed three U.S. service members, the town’s leaders unanimously voted to pass a sanctuary city ordinance.
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Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said Thursday night that the Democratic Party could face a “tea party” movement after the Biden administration concealed the truth about President Joe Biden’s health.
A Wall Street Journal article published Thursday revealed White House aides “insulated” Biden, even from Cabinet members, from the first year of his presidency. Roginsky said that the “lying” about Biden’s health would have consequences for Democrats.
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by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann As was proven during the 2024 election cycle, we are well beyond the scope of mere bias in the legacy media. Given the shrinking audience influence coupled with massively declining income from severe loss of cable subscriptions and advertising revenue, American media outlets have chosen a different course: straight-up propaganda intended for consumption by a niche audience, half of which don’t know they’re being lied to and the other half not caring. Broadcasting has been replaced with “wish casting.” How else can we explain the completely lopsided coverage from the alphabet news outlets, which provided Kamala Harris with “78 percent positive coverage, while these same networks have pummeled former President Donald Trump with 85 percent negative coverage?” And it was even more biased on CNN and MSNBC. Major media outlets broadcast opinion-centric journalism that push narratives, ranging from “extinction-grade climate crisis” pronouncements to the “existential threat to democracy” dangers of a second Donald Trump presidency. There are no “two sides” reporting here; it is commentary passed off as “journalism” that wraps news stories around pre-packaged and carefully circulated talking points that favor the establishment bureaucracy and big-moneyed interests over American citizens. Simultaneously, Trump is a threat to democracy and will jail…
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A letter signed by more than 100 current and former intelligence or national security officials urged a northern Virginia county against allowing a the construction of a casino, was published Thursday, with the officials arguing the casino would pose threats to recruitment and national security.
Sent to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the letter was sent by a group called the National Security Leaders for Fairfax, and contains more than 100 signatures from, “a diverse group of retirees who worked for national security agencies, their contractors, or the U.S. military in and around Fairfax County.”
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Thousands showed up for the first night of Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) annual AmericaFest Thursday evening in downtown Phoenix, in a festive mood celebrating Donald Trump’s presidential election win. The annual weekend event every December at the Phoenix Convention Center features talks by the top names in the conservative movement, with the biggest ones participating the first evening: TPUSA CEO and founder Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, and Steve Bannon.
Kirk opened the event discussing how the MAGA movement has grown, especially on college campuses, which his youthful organization focuses on. He said people were afraid to wear MAGA hats in 2016, but now he visits campuses where everyone wants them. He said they handed out 5,000 hats at the University of Georgia recently.
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While President-elect Donald Trump endorsed a primary challenge to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr in 2022, the attorney general said Thursday his 2026 campaign for governor will not “be anti-anybody.” He also downplayed the significance of endorsements to Georgia voters.
Carr made the remarks to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reported the attorney general said he planned to run a positive campaign for governor after becoming the first candidate to declare his candidacy in November.
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National political reporter Neil W. McCabe said President-elect Donald Trump’s presidency will have the “energy of the first term” with the “wisdom of a second term,” which may end up helping Republicans pick up seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
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Lieutenant Josh Combs of the Nolensville Police Department (NPD) confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Friday that South American Theft Groups (SATGs) remain active in Williamson County and other parts Tennessee as local law enforcement continues to pursue open cases related to thefts in the area.
According to U.S. Department of Homeland Security, such groups are “sophisticated criminal organizations that profit from illegally obtaining goods,” either by targeting wealthy homes or businesses, with frequently targeted goods including pharmaceuticals, electronics, and high-end clothing. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement indicates some SATG members enter the country illegally, while prosecutors have stated that others entered on a legal tourism visa.
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A new report written by Crime Prevention Research Center President Dr. John R. Lott based on data provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) suggests that not only have the crimes committed by illegal migrants cost U.S. taxpayers at least $166.5 billion, but the severity of those crimes is much higher than American norms.
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The retail giant Big Lots on Thursday announced it was commencing a company-wide “going out of business” sale at all of its locations, marking another major business that went belly-up during President Joe Biden’s administration.
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U.S. government agencies have awarded sensitive scientific, military and energy grants to dozens of researchers participating in Chinese government programs linked to economic espionage, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.
The DCNF identified 50 federally-funded researchers currently working in U.S. universities and/or national laboratories who are listed as experts of Chinese government talent recruitment schemes, like the Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) and Chang Jiang Scholars program, following a months-long review of the talent plans’ websites, Chinese government documents, university profiles and state-run media reports.
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Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs wants the Department of Education to reconsider a new policy that fast-tracks low-dollar spending of Empowerment Scholarship Account funding, but the state’s top public school official asks why she signed it into law.
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by Jeffery Rendall We’ve all heard it: “You can’t make somethin’ out of nothin’.” Or so it would seem, though president elect Donald J. Trump appears destined to try if his plan to create new American cities out of currently mostly barren federal lands ever comes to fruition. You’ve probably heard Trump mention fashioning “Freedom Cities” before but might’ve figured he wasn’t serious about actually doing it especially considering such a massive undertaking as building whole new metropolises out of the wilderness or desert probably isn’t something most down-to-earth pragmatic folks envision doing on a regular basis. For those of us who’ve gone about overseeing the building of a new house realize it isn’t a task that can be done overnight. The old saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day” has real shades of truth to it. Yet, dreaming up “big” things and bringing the ideas to life is what Trump has done since a young age as a real estate developer. Trump seemingly took the attitude that nothing was impossible. I myself have seen a number of his buildings – and he’s designed golf courses (with huge Niagara Falls-like waterfalls), too. There just aren’t many limitations when it…
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is complying with ongoing investigations into a supervisor who told employees not to help hurricane victims who had Trump signs in front of their homes in Florida, according to reports.
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U.S. Representatives Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) and Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) were among the 38 Republicans who voted against the Continuing Resolution (CR) negotiated by President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vice President-elect JD Vance, with both noting the short notice given to representatives.
After the American Relief Act of 2025 spending bill failed on Thursday, both Burchett and Ogles highlighted the short period of time given for lawmakers to review the 116-page document, which was released only hours after a 1,547-page CR was tossed following opposition from Trump and Musk.
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The House of Representatives’ spending bill, the American Relief Act 2025, failed on Thursday to get a two-thirds majority vote.
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Audio recorded by retired U.S. Army Sergeant Donald Belzer, and provided to The Tennessee Star, confirmed through the White House VA Hotline that the Amarillo Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System was made aware of the complaint the veteran filed in 2022, when Belzer said he captured video depicting two VA staff members engaged in a sex act inside a clean supplies closet.
Belzer recorded the audio after The Star published the video, recorded by the veteran on August 17, 2022, as the veteran called the White House hotline to obtain copies of the complaints he filed with the Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center and the White House hotline in August 2022 and April 2023.
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President-elect Donald Trump endorsed an agreement by House Republican leaders to fund the government through March 2025 and lift the debt ceiling until 2027.
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Dr. Carol M. Swain, a retired university professor who was tenured at Vanderbilt and Princeton Universities, has published her latest book titled, The Gay Affair.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, and four judges on Tennessee’s 21st Judicial District either did not respond, or did not confirm, to inquiries by The Tennessee Star seeking more information about the claim by Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) that one-third of criminal cases in Williamson County now involve an illegal immigrant.
The silence comes after Warner appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, telling the hosts, “I recently met with the Williamson County delegation, and judges from Williamson County, here in southern Middle Tennessee, and a judge last week told a group of about five of us… either build more jails, build more prisons, or remove the immigrants from this state.”
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U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced a new measure on Thursday that would force the end of remote work in the federal government and demand accountability for agencies allegedly abusing telework provisions at taxpayer expense. The Senate DOGE Caucus Chair introduced the DRAIN THE SWAMP Act exactly a week after proposing the Returning SBA to Main Street Act – both of which aim to reduce inefficiency in Washington’s bureaucracies and improve government services for Americans. The move follows a months-long probe into the whereabouts of the federal workforce in Washington D.C., the results of which were published in a bombshell report titled “Out of Office.” “My investigations have exposed how bureaucrats have been doing just about everything besides their job during the workday,” Ernst said in a Thursday statement following the release of the bill. “Instead of keeping them bogged down in the swamp, I’m working to get bureaucrats beyond the D.C. beltway to remind public servants who they work for.” Ernst’s DRAIN THE SWAMP Act proposes relocating at least 30 percent of Washington’s federal workforce and requires the rest to return to the office full-time. The bill also seeks to sell off unused office spaces, which Ernst argues are…
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President-elect Donald Trump is weighing in on Congress’ latest omnibus spending bill, making continuing appropriations through Sept. 30, 2025, that came in at a whopping more than 1,500 pages all but declaring war on Congressional Republicans, who he threatened with party primaries in 2026 if they pass the current bill.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said he believes that if the U.S. Supreme Court rules to uphold Tennessee’s state that bans irreversible gender transitioning treatments for minors in the case United States v. Skrmetti, the demand for such treatments across the nation will also see a halt.
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