Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to discuss the ongoing devolution of the blue states in America and the contrast between California and Florida.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed geologist and author Gregory Wrightstone to discuss his book, Inconvenient Facts and the motivation behind the climate change narrative.
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European countries are looking to recycle the heat generated by data centers to warm homes, the latest in a series of measures to find heat amid an ongoing energy crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
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Tax forms have revealed that, over the course of 2021, numerous nonprofit groups backed by far-left billionaire George Soros donated tens of millions of dollars to groups and initiatives that actively campaigned against the police.
Fox News reports that nonprofit groups that are members of Soros’ Open Society Foundations network collectively gave at least $55 million to such anti-police movements. This included groups utilized by progressives to actively dismantle law enforcement, as well as databases that track donations to police departments and police unions.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin’s recent budget proposal includes a $50,000 item for adult correctional facilities to offset increased costs from establishing a “15-week gestation limitation for abortion.”
The item aligns with Youngkin’s request that legislators pass a pain threshold abortion ban in 2023. Such a bill will face stiff opposition in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it will likely be sent to the Senate Education and Health Committee, chaired by Senator Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth).
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In the third of his four part review of Terrence Keeley’s Sustainable, Rupert Darwall writes that ESG rests on a vision of the free-market economy that says capitalism needs to be led by people with the right values, which raises the question: Whose values? This makes ESG inherently divisive, explaining the pushback ESG is now generating in red states. Keeley proposes a solution in keeping with the pluralism and diversity of modern America.
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An economist says the average American family has effectively lost more than $7,000 due to inflation and higher interest rates since President Joe Biden took office.
The consumer price index, a key inflation measure, increased 0.1% in November, up 7.1% from November 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The figure marks a slowdown in rampant inflation, but not a reversal of the trend that has caused prices for everyday goods like food and gas to ratchet up in recent months.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin ordered a February 21, 2023 special election to fill late Congressman Don McEachin’s seat, setting off a tight timeline for nominations in the safe-D seat. Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond), Senator Jennifer McClellan (D-Richmond), and Delegate Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico) are the top candidates for the race.
McClellan and Bagby have already filed to run for the race, but only Bagby has officially announced his candidacy. On Monday afternoon, Morrissey seemed to confirmed speculation that he would enter the race, announcing a “major announcement” to be made at a Tuesday press conference. At the same time, fierce Morrissey ally John Fredericks, publisher of The Virginia Star, tweeted “Breaking…!VA-04 Shakeup! In upcoming Special,centrist VA Sen Joe Morrissey (D) expected to get in the race tomorrow-11:30 am presser at Petersburg City Hall. His entry completely changes dynamics in big name crowded field. If he gets in, he wins!”
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It is Christmas season. The decorations are hung or need to be. Gifts are being purchased. The Advent Week of peace is being celebrated. Parties are being thrown. And Americans wind down from a long, stressful year.
Unfortunately, while most Americans refocus, the rest of the world doesn’t stop, but in many cases looks at this time as an opportunity to exploit.
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Wholesale prices beat expectations in November, a sign that inflation might not fall as quickly or steeply as previously hoped, according to CNBC.
Producers and businesses saw prices rise 0.3% from October, with so-called “core prices” rising 0.4% when the more volatile food and energy sectors were discounted, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). With both measures expected to rise by just 0.2%, as well as a 3.3% increase in food costs offsetting a 3.3% decline in energy costs, producers prices are still set to remain well above pre-pandemic levels, even though they have fallen from the 11.7% year-over-year surge seen in March, CNBC reported.
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Throughout much of the 20th century, America’s status as an economic superpower and the world’s standard-bearer for freedom and opportunity was due in no small measure to the successes of New York and California. Today, those states have become symbols of America’s decline, as the consequences of their incompetent, partisan leadership are now undeniable. Nowhere is this clearer than how these two formerly great states have addressed immigration.
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Wedged in the southern flank of Virginia, Charlotte County is home to some 11,500 people who live amidst rolling hills and family farms, pastures and sawmills, a historic Civil War battlefield, and four townlets tinier than many suburban subdivisions.
But this pastoral tableau will be swept up in the green revolution when construction begins here on the nation’s largest solar power facility east of the Mississippi River. The planned 800-megawatt Randolph Solar Project in Charlotte County will replace a commercial lumber farm of loblolly pines with 1.6 million photovoltaic panels covering an area equivalent to seven square miles.
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With the price of everything from gasoline to food soaring in America, nobody is surprised by inflated price tags these days. But even by Washington standards, an action taken earlier this month by the Environmental Protection Agency is creating sticker shock: a nearly fourfold increase in the government calculation of damages from carbon emissions.
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Pennsylvanians’ electric bills rose by an average of nearly three-quarters over the last two years and policymakers have only made the problem worse, according to the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Foundation (CF).
State residents served by Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) have seen their rates go up by just over half since December 2020. Customers of the Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) have meanwhile experienced a doubling of their power costs during that time. All other providers have also risen their rates considerably.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin said Friday his upcoming budget amendment proposal would include $350 million in additional funds for site readiness to add to the $150 million already allocated in the biennial budget. Youngkin told attendees at the Virginia Economic Summit and Forum on International Trade that despite Virginia’s pro-business advantages like the port, the Commonwealth’s workforce, and right-to-work, Virginia needs to do more to attract businesses.
“Virginia often is not selected by businesses, particularly by manufacturing projects, because megasites aren’t ready. Simply put, it’s not that we don’t have enough inventory, we don’t really have any. Since 2016, a lack of project-ready sites has cost Virginia more than 55,000 jobs and $124 billion in capital investment,” he said.
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Connecticut lawmakers are calling for regional public hearings over a proposal by one of the state’s largest utilities to dramatically hike electricity rates.
In a letter to the state Public Utility Regulatory Authority, a group of 20 state senators wrote that they are “profoundly disturbed” by Eversource’s proposed rate increase, and called for hearings on the “exorbitant and punishing” rate increase.
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A former coal power plant in western Pennsylvania has one of the most contaminated coal ash sites in the nation.
That’s according to a new report, “Poisonous Coverup,” published by the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice. The environmental groups argue that, across America, “nearly all coal plant owners are ignoring key requirements and employing common tricks to avoid mandatory cleanup” of coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal that has various contaminants.
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Democrat officials in Connecticut, the state’s electric power giants, and their allies in the media are blaming a 50 percent increase in electric prices this winter in the state on Russia’s war with Ukraine, a reliance on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, and the fact that Connecticut has a deregulated electricity market.
In a press release, dated November 17, state Attorney General William Tong (D) announced that, effective January 1, Eversource will double its rates from 12.05 cents to 24.2 cents per kWh, and United Illuminating will also double its rates from 10.6 cents to 22.5 cents per kWh.
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Americans will pay higher prices for a range of goods and services for the Thanksgiving holiday and Black Friday shopping this year, and it looks like things may only get worse as we draw nearer to Christmas.
Those driving for the holidays and of course those preparing the Thanksgiving meal will pay the price this year. Federal inflation data from the Commerce Department shows energy costs have risen 17.6% in the past year, and overall food costs increased 10.9% in the same time.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The East Bank Stadium Committee (EBSC) held its first of five public comment sessions Monday night at the East Nashville Magnet High School.
The EBSC was formed in June by Vice Mayor Jim Shulman to lead the efforts related to any potential legislation and to serve as a central place to gather information for the Council and the public, but will not be taking any votes.
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The Department of Energy has rejected the Palisades nuclear plant’s application for federal funding.
Palisades was sold to Holtec Decommissioning International in June 2022, which applied for a federal Civil Nuclear Credit on July 5 to reopen Palisades.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed national political correspondent for One America News, Neil W. McCabe, to the newsmaker line to discuss Florida Governor DeSantis’s hardball with Disney and his rumored run for the presidency in 2024.
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The Texas Public Policy Foundation filed lawsuits against three federal agencies accusing them of failing to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests about their involvement with implementing the Biden administration’s climate policies in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden accepted the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement on behalf of the United States. He later announced his administration would set a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) number, pledging an “economywide target of reducing America’s net greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52 percent.”
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Joe Biden, the military-industrial-congressional complex, State Department neocons, the War Party comprised of all Democrats and many corporate Republicans, and Western globalist elites have the United States and NATO in a Ukrainian proxy war against Russia. The warmongers are obsessed with destroying Russia. To achieve it, they are determined to fight to the last Ukrainian.
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Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said the old Republican Party is dead and must be replaced with a GOP that’s focused on working-class voters and the issues they care most about: work, family and culture.
The expected midterm red wave didn’t pan out for Republicans because the party can’t seem to win over working-class independents, Hawley argued in The Washington Post Friday, dismissing claims that turnout or candidate quality were behind the GOP’s faltering performance. The GOP can only make serious gains by reversing its recent policies on trade, crime, immigration and culture, he wrote.
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House Republicans announced they were launching an investigation into President Joe Biden at a press conference Thursday, alleging that the elder Biden was “involved” in his son Hunter’s overseas business dealings.
Republican Reps. James Comer of Kentucky and Jim Jordan of Ohio, citing unnamed whistleblowers, alleged that Joe Biden was the “chairman of the board” of the Biden family empire and oversaw Hunter’s business activity, claiming to find evidence of conspiracy to defraud the United States and money laundering. Hunter Biden currently holds a minority stake in a Chinese private equity firm responsible for investing in a previously sanctioned technology company that committed human rights violations against Uyghurs, and the new accusations point to involvement in the energy industry.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin and Senate President Pro Tempore Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) have called a January 10 special election for Virginia’s seventh state senate district, filling a vacancy that will be left by Senator Jen Kiggans (R-Virginia Beach) after she takes office as representative of Virginia’s second congressional district.
Local nominations for the race will be made this weekend, with a Republican canvass and a Democratic caucus scheduled for Saturday. Two Democrats have filed for the nomination: former NFL player Aaron Rouse who is a Virginia Beach City Council member, and former Delegate Cheryl Turpin who was the first Virginia Democrat to flip a Trump district in 2017, according to her city council campaign website. So far, only one Republican has filed for the nomination, Navy veteran Kevin Adams, but candidates can file by 4 p.m. Thursday.
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In a bid to make electric vehicle (EV) prices more affordable, carmakers are switching to iron-based batteries that are weaker and more reliant on Chinese supply chains, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Transitioning to lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery cells ultimately reduces the effective range of electric vehicles compared to more advanced cobalt and nickel-based cells, according to the WSJ. LFP cells, which are roughly 30% cheaper than their more effective counterparts, are more reliant on Chinese supplies, limiting carmakers’ ability to access tax breaks and other subsidies offered under the Inflation Reduction Act.
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Nuclear power remains a significant energy source in Pennsylvania, and one lawmaker wants to explore the possibilities of an expansion.
Some skepticism remains, however, over cost-efficiency in such an expansion.
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An automotive parts manufacturer is planning to spend $317 million on a new manufacturing facility near Statesboro, but state officials won’t say how much of the bill taxpayers will have to cover.
Joon Georgia Inc. plans to create 630 new jobs at Bulloch County’s Bruce Yawn Commerce Park, previously named the Southern Gateway Commerce Park. State officials touted the news as “the first confirmed supplier” for Hyundai Motor Group’s new Bryan County facility.
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Candidates who ran on an America First agenda fought a close fight in Tuesday’s congressional elections, with at least the House poised to fall into the GOP’s hands and possibly the Senate flipping out of the left’s control.
With America First candidates from states like in Michigan, California, New Jersey and Florida picking up seats, conservatives must not squander their goodwill from voters and instead immediately enact an economic agenda to reverse course away from the crushing policies that pushed record inflation on American families.
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As voting moves toward conclusion Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s contributing role in determining control of the U.S. Senate and House has grabbed great national attention.
Results, however, for the Keystone State may not be known until days later.
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A Cincinnati-area Democratic public official is urging Ohioans to vote against his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.
Supporters of Republican Senate nominee J.D. Vance and critics of Democratic hopeful Tim Ryan are enthusiastically sharing an opinion piece Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes (D) penned for The Cincinnati Enquirer on Friday. In the guest column, Rhodes calls Ryan “a fraud who must be defeated” and who “does not deserve your vote” irrespective of one’s party affiliation.
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Some Republicans in Arizona have publicly endorsed Democrats in this election, sparking conservative Republicans in the state to respond dismissively. A long list of “RINOs” predictably endorsed Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and now more have come out endorsing some of the other candidates running against the Trump-endorsed slate for higher offices.
State Representative Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who frequently receives the top rating from organizations as Arizona’s most conservative legislator, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Politics has always been an arena full of self-aggrandizing grifters. The cold reality, though, is that no one, especially not the conservative Republican electorate, cares what a tiny handful of inconsequential has-beens and establishment profiteers thinks.”
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With only days left until the midterm elections, the advertising blitz from the political spin doctors has reached a fever pitch and the sound bites we’re hearing aren’t very sound, especially the ones from the White House on the economy. But heated rhetoric is hardly a replacement for facts and figures so, to borrow a phrase from the show Dragnet, let’s discuss “just the facts, ma’am.”
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Ford is urging the Treasury Department to ease restrictions placed on electric car parts sourced from China and other “entities of concern” to ensure more of its vehicles can qualify for the consumer tax credits included in the Democrats’ massive climate spending bill, Reuters reported Friday.
The Democrats’ $430 billion climate package, which President Joe Biden signed into law in August, prevents the $7,500 consumer tax credits from applying to new electric vehicles (EVs) if their battery materials were produced or assembled by a “foreign entity of concern” such as China. Ford is claiming that the restrictions, which were aimed at taking EV supply chains out of Chinese hands, are too strict and will not allow enough consumers to reap the benefits of the tax credit, according to Reuters.
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Memphis-area Rep. Steve Cohen (R-TN-09) announced on Wednesday that Tennessee will receive $82.2 million towards the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which is administered through the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In a statement made to The Tennessee Star, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) said, “It’s a shame the Democrats’ reckless spending and war on domestic energy production is causing our energy prices to skyrocket. More East Tennesseans will be dependent on these funds this year because the Biden administration’s policies caused a problem that was avoidable from the start.”
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Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sidestepped giving the economy a letter grade during his only debate with Connecticut Republican Senate candidate Leora Levy Tuesday night, but when pressed to do so by the panelist, he responded the grade is “ongoing,” and “I don’t think that we can give it a grade midstream.”
Levy, however, plainly answered, “I would grade the economy ‘F.’”
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The White House announced Wednesday that the Biden administration will spend $13.5 billion total to directly cover rapidly increasing household utility bills and help homes become more energy efficient ahead of the winter months.
The Department of Health and Human Services will give $4.5 billion to local governments to help low-income people pay their electricity bills which will increase further during the winter months due to natural gas shortages, according to a White House fact sheet. The Energy Department will also spend $9 billion on tax credits for households that buy heat pumps and insulate their homes to make them more “energy efficient.”
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Newly released small business survey data shows that an alarming number of businesses are unable to pay rent.
Alignable released its monthly small business report for October which showed 37% of American small business owners were unable to pay rent on time or in full last month. That is up from 30% who said the same the month before.
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Determined to use their oversight authority to ensure election integrity, House Republicans are deploying dozens of trained observers to key races around the country while dispatching letters putting federal and state officials on notice to look for any shenanigans in the midterms.
The effort led by Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, includes investigating how federal agencies are implementing President Joe Biden’s executive order instructing the U.S. government to expand voter registration, along with the training and deployment of House staff as observers under the authority of Congress.
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This election is not only an important one but a costly one. It has been crisis after crisis under the Biden administration and Pennsylvanians are paying the price. As the crises continue to grow, Biden has become a drag on Democrats. Democrats like Susan Wild and John Fetterman are detached from Pennsylvanians and the issues that matter to families and business have fallen to the wayside under their leadership.
Gas prices and energy costs are crippling Pennsylvania families. This year as a country, we surpassed the highest recorded average gas price ever and those that heat their homes with oil are facing serious cost increases that are a direct result of the Biden-Democrat agenda.
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As California, New York, and other states move to phase out the sale of gasoline-powered cars, public officials routinely echo the Biden administration’s claim that electric vehicles are a “zero emissions” solution that can significantly mitigate the effects of climate change.
Car and energy experts, however, say there is no such thing as a zero-emissions vehicle: For now and the foreseeable future, the energy required to manufacture and power electric cars will leave a sizable carbon footprint. In some cases hybrids can be cleaner alternatives in states that depend on coal to generate electricity, and some suggest that it may be too rash to write off all internal combustion vehicles just yet.
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Nashville’s East Bank Stadium Committee met Wednesday evening in the Council Chambers at City Hall to take its first critical look at the Tennessee Titans stadium proposal announced last week by Nashville Mayor John Cooper and the team.
The meeting was held a day after the team shared renderings of its new potential stadium, created by the same architectural firm that worked on Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium.
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Business leaders in Pennsylvania don’t see inflation subsiding in the near future, according to a survey released this week by the Harrisburg-based Lincoln Institute for Public Opinion & Research.
A total of 212 businesses from across the Keystone State responded to the institute’s poll, with just over half of the respondents being business owners; 20 percent serving as either chief executive officer, head of finance or head of operations; and about a fifth serving as either state or local manager.
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Earlier this week, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio stood his ground on a debate stage at the Lake Worth campus of Palm Beach College. His opponent is seasoned Democratic lawmaker Val Demings, a black congresswoman and former police chief, and the discussion had turned to abortion rights – terrain that Democrats believe favor them and give Demings and other Senate candidates a chance to alter the expected outcome of the 2022 midterms.
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Self-inflicted wounds create teachable moments, but the architects of America’s current energy crisis are learning all the wrong lessons.
Skyrocketing energy costs are one of America’s harsh post-Covid realities. And with one in four American households struggling to pay for their energy needs before Covid, policymakers should have set their sights on making energy more affordable for more Americans.
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The Republicans were always going to win big in November, regardless of what biased pundits professed.
There was likely never a sudden “blue resurgence” or “red collapse” of late summer.
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A Michigan politician talked about how to boost electric vehicle adoption in a brief chat sponsored by General Motors and hosted by Axios.
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, Michigan’s 12th Congressional District member who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, touted subsidies via the Inflation Reduction Act and said that EVs are the “vehicle of the future.”
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Democratic control of the U.S. Senate and Republican control of at least one Ohio U.S. Senate seat remains a tossup as the Nov. 8 general election creeps closer.
The most recent Suffolk University and USA Today poll shows Democrat Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance in a dead heat, keeping with poll numbers from a variety of organizations over the past month.
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