Several large American cities have contracted with a Chinese state-owned rail car manufacturer to design and manufacture subway cars for their subway systems, raising serious cybersecurity and human-rights concerns. Over the past eight years, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) has secured more than $2.6 billion in federal transit contracts to provide passenger railcars in Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
Read the full story
Members of the Metro Nashville City Council will be asked to approve a term sheet and legislation to enact a 1% hotel-motel tax starting Feb. 1 with its initial consideration of both to begin at the board’s Nov. 1 meeting.
The term sheet outlines plans for the projected $2.1 billion new stadium for the Titans, including the order of financing and how a fund that includes the hotel tax and sales tax at the stadium and outside the stadium can be used. The stadium is expected to be ready for the 2026 NFL preseason. The lease will be for the term of the bonds — about 30 years — with three five-year renewal options.
Read the full story
When U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) came to Shaker Heights, OH this week to fundraise for Democratic 13th-District congressional candidate Emilia Sykes, Republican hopeful Madison Gesiotto Gilbert was happy to let constituents know about it.
This wasn’t the speaker’s first major show of support for Sykes; Pelosi cut her a $30,000 check via her campaign organization in July. When Pelosi flew east to support Sykes, a state representative from Ohio’s 34th Legislative District who the National Republican Congressional Committee calls Pelosi’s “protégé,” Republican spokesperson Courtney Parella put out a statement saying, “Emilia Sykes is bought and paid for by Nancy Pelosi and would serve as a rubber stamp for Pelosi’s failed economic agenda.”
Read the full story
After I’d chastised him repeatedly for being the spoiler in the November 2020 battle between Republican David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff to represent Georgia in the U.S. Senate, Shane Hazel invited me to debate him on his podcast.
During our lengthy discussion, Hazel demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, and we found ourselves in agreement on many if not most of the critical issues, starting with the First and Second Amendments. One topic I wish we could have spent more time discussing was the issue of infrastructure. As it was, I got nowhere with Hazel on that question.
Read the full story
President Joe Biden will buy oil to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) at a price that is nearly three times higher than the price the Trump administration would have paid.
Biden’s Energy Department (DOE) aims to buy back crude oil at a price of $67 to $72 per barrel after selling 15 million barrels in December to complete the largest series of SPR releases in the nation’s history, according to a White House fact sheet. Former President Donald Trump proposed in March 2020 to refill the strategic reserves at a price of $24.49 per barrel; however, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer helped block the proposal, calling it a “bailout for big oil.”
Read the full story
In a recent ranking of America’s governors, Pennsylvania’s Tom Wolf ranked at the bottom of the pack – 44th for his fiscal policies.
An annual fiscal policy report card from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, graded the nation’s governors “from a limited-government perspective.” In their grading that emphasized lowering taxes and cutting spending, Wolf earned an “F.”
Read the full story
by Victor Davis Hanson A shared theme in all dystopian explorations of future and current totalitarian regimes – whether China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, or Cuba – is government control of all media information, fueled by electronic surveillance. A skeptical public learns to say one thing publicly but quite another privately. It nervously nods yes at the news while at work, but at home cynically assumes the opposite of whatever is publicly said to be true. RIP, First Amendment Such electronic propaganda has sadly become characteristic of the world’s oldest consensual government. In America we once believed our First Amendment prevented a government monopoly on information. But in the age of globalization, the Internet, and social media, the state has become the enemy – not the protector – of free speech. One obvious sign is that the Biden Administration keeps trying to create new sorts of ministries of truth or “Disinformation Governance Boards.” It alleges such Orwellian censors must combat “disinformation” and “misinformation.” In fact, these bureaucracies are designed to criminalize unwanted free expression while also advancing state propaganda. Among our Washington officials, the following myths were once declared the official version of the “truth”: Mounted border patrol agents “whipped”…
Read the full story
It is economically feasible to build casinos in both the City of Richmond and the City of Petersburg, according to a study from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). Legislators ordered the study amid lobbying to give Virginia’s last casino license to Petersburg after Richmond voters rejected a casino in 2021.
“Demand is sufficient in the Petersburg market to support a casino,” said bullets in a JLARC briefing presented Monday
Read the full story
“Every government intervention creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions,” observed the great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. He was being generous by describing interventionism’s nasty side-effects as “unintended.” Some younger interventionists are naïve, and know not what they do, but the older, street-smart captains of progressive politics understand the harms their policies entail. For them, the adverse consequences are features, not bugs. The only downside is the risk of political retribution at the polls.
That’s the predicament in which the Biden administration now finds itself. It is also the theme of “Energy Inflation Was by Design,” a new report by supply-chain consultant Joseph Toomey.
Read the full story
School districts across the country are spending federal COVID-19 relief money on bonuses to employees saying their employees earned it for their work during the pandemic.
The bonuses vary from district to district, ranging $250 to more than $20,000 per employee.
Read the full story
In the approaching 2022 midterm elections, American voters will have the opportunity to decide whether oil industry executives are really to blame for high energy prices—or if it’s instead the political class that needs a shakeup.
In a new report for Real Clear Energy, Joseph Toomey, a career-management consultant, makes a persuasive case that the energy inflation now victimizing American consumers and taxpayers is the result of deliberate public-policy choices made here at home. Even as President Biden vilifies energy companies, the evidence is overwhelming that the current regime in Washington is beholden to climate extremism at the expense of affordable energy, Toomey argues.
Read the full story
Newly released polling data shows inflation is a top concern for small businesses as prices continue to rise.
The National Federation of Independent Business released the survey, which shows that 30% of owners named inflation as the single-most important problem in running their business.
Read the full story
The Igor Danchenko trial, which started this week, has already yielded embarrassing revelations about the “Steele dossier” fiasco. The FBI, it turns out, offered Christopher Steele, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s opposition researcher, $1 million to prove his claims about Trump–Russia collusion. He couldn’t do it. But that didn’t stop the FBI from using his tissue of lies to obtain a search warrant against Carter Page, a hapless Trump campaign volunteer.
Read the full story
Virginia Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) and West Virginia Speaker Roger Hanshaw (R-Clay) are partnering to create a framework to bring advanced nuclear technology to their states. West Virginia has recently repealed a ban on developing nuclear energy sources, and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recently called for a “moonshot” — constructing a small modular reactor in southwest Virginia. In addition to addressing energy needs, leaders are hoping the push will bring economic and technological development to the economically-challenged areas.
“Virginia has been the beneficiary of nuclear power for many years,” Gilbert said in a Thursday press release. “Nothing works harder, longer, safer, or more reliably than a nuclear power plant. Small nuclear reactors are the next wave of energy technology, and Virginia should be an East Coast hub for its development and deployment. It’s important that rural and economically challenged areas, and the Commonwealth of Virginia as a whole, benefit from the innovation, jobs, and investment small modular nuclear technology will bring to the electric grid.”
Read the full story
For families living in Pennsylvania’s suburbs, things are not OK.
The prosperity enjoyed by suburbanites is in peril, and they know it. Soccer field small talk has moved beyond gas prices. Polite conversation has moved into something more urgent: survival.
Read the full story
President Biden and senior officials in his administration have repeatedly said this year that the U.S. is near “record levels” of domestic oil and gas production. According to a new study, however, that’s not exactly the case.
The analysis by economists Stephen Moore and Casey Mulligan found that the Biden administration’s policies have caused the U.S. to produce significantly less oil and gas during Biden’s presidency than it would have during a second term for former President Trump — to the detriment of the national economy.
Read the full story
The U.S. Senate election in Arizona this year is not simply a choice between a Democrat and a Republican: It’s a choice between a dangerous, far-left radical in Mark Kelly, who does not represent the voters of his state, and Blake Masters, a patriotic America First conservative who will represent the people of Arizona in Washington.
When Mark Kelly first ran for the Senate in 2020, he labeled himself as a moderate who would continue the Arizonan tradition of “political mavericks” representing the state in the upper chamber of Congress. He largely rode into Congress by building a larger-than-life persona for himself from his time as an astronaut, and he also leaned heavily on sympathy votes as a result of the assassination attempt on his wife, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Read the full story
After Michigan agreed to spend $951 million of taxpayer money on two electric vehicles companies – Our Next Energy and Gotion Inc – the question remains: what do taxpayers get?
Politicians get election fodder, companies get money but taxpayers are left paying $951 million to create up to 4,460 jobs, or a per-job cost of $213,133. The deal is meant to last decades, with one tax break lasting 30 years.
Read the full story
Eugene Yu, founder and president of East Lansing-based election software-technology company Konnech, Inc., was arrested Wednesday in Michigan and is facing California charges related to collecting election workers’ personal data and storing it on servers housed in the Peoples Republic of China.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón is seeking Yu’s extradition from Michigan on charges Konnech violated its contract with Los Angeles County, which prohibits access of election workers’ personal information from citizens and permanent residents outside the United States.
Read the full story
Five current or former IRS employees in the Memphis area have been charged with defrauding federal Covid-19 relief programs after spending relief money on Mercedes, Gucci, and trips to Las Vegas.
U.S. Attorney Kevin G. Ritz, for the Western District of Tennessee, said, “These individuals-acting out of pure greed- abused their positions by taking government funds meant for citizens and businesses who desperately needed it. I thank our law enforcement partners for rooting out this fraud. Our office will not hesitate to pursue and charge individuals who steal from our nation’s taxpayers.”
Read the full story
In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Representative Ben Cline (R-VA-06) said guidelines for funding from the bipartisan infrastructure bill will “hamstring funding for traditional infrastructure such as roads and highways” by favoring public transit, renewable energy, climate resilience, electric vehicle infrastructure, and other projects.
“During a time of 40-year high inflation, a crippling supply chain, and higher prices of goods and services, the Biden administration is prioritizing infrastructure funds for Green New Deal projects over highway expansion,” Cline said in a Tuesday press release. “Americans need transparency from this administration to ensure their tax dollars are being properly used.”
Read the full story
Governor Glenn Youngkin wants to add more nuclear power generation in Virginia, calling for the construction of a reactor in Southwest Virginia as part of the 2022 energy plan. Energy plans are issued by each governor as a statement of the administration’s priorities and recommendations.
“I want to plant a flag right now. I want to call our moonshot. Virginia will launch a commercial small modular reactor [SMR] that will be serving customers with baseload power demand in southwest Virginia within the next 10 years,” Youngkin said at the Monday presentation.
Read the full story
The private consortium that reported election “misinformation” to tech platforms during the 2020 election season, in “consultation” with federal agencies, targeted several news organizations in its dragnet.
Websites for Just the News, New York Post, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, Epoch Times and Breitbart were identified among the 20 “most prominent domains across election integrity incidents” that were cited in tweets flagged by the Election Integrity Partnership and its collaborators.
Read the full story
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed another lawsuit against the Biden administration on Thursday, this time challenging the president’s authority to cancel student loan debt. He argued that it goes contrary to several recent Supreme Court decisions striking down federal agencies’ assertion of power never granted to them by Congress. The Biden administration intends to cancel $10,000 to $20,000 of student loan debt for people who make less than $125,000 annually, or $250,000 annually for a married person filing jointly.
In his lawsuit, Brnovich said, “This loan cancellation … is a naked handout by one administration and one party to favored political classes (college graduates and those employed by the higher education industry) at the expense of taxpayers everywhere.”
Read the full story
From banning fracking to destroying small businesses, Pennsylvania U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman’s economic policies would be a disaster for the Keystone State.
Fetterman previously pledged to ban Pennsylvania fracking and nationally ban new fossil fuel leasing. Now that he won his primary, Fetterman is trying to backpedal and said he now opposes such a ban if there were enough taxes in place. But the truth is, Fetterman said he and socialist Senator Bernie Sanders “agree on virtually every issue,” and Sanders introduced a bill with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to ban fracking.
Read the full story
Consumer confidence is still far below the record highs set under the Trump administration, and a new report by the Conference Board warns ongoing consumer doldrums about the future could spell future recession.
The latest report released Tuesday by the Conference Board, a non-profit research organization funded by more than 1,000 corporations, found consumer confidence improved slightly in September for the second consecutive month due to jobs, wages and declining gas prices, but that “recession risks nonetheless persist” due to a sluggish uptick in the Expectations Index.
Read the full story
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
Read the full story
A group of Ohio economists disagree over moves by the state and the country as a whole toward electric vehicles and whether government investment in electric vehicle infrastructure is cost-effective.
Nearly half of the 19 economists at Ohio colleges and universities surveyed by Scioto Analysis said the state’s current $200 annual fee for registering electric vehicles is progressive, while a little more than half believed spending tax dollars on EV infrastructure is likely to be more cost-effective than providing the same amount in tax credits.
Read the full story
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) decision to rent billboard space to use scripture to promote the abortion industry in his state amounts to “demonic behavior,” wrote Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League Tuesday.
Newsom rented billboards in pro-life states – which he refers to as “anti-freedom” states – for ads attacking their abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Read the full story
This November, Americans are facing a simple decision. Voters will choose between common sense and crazy, between affirming America’s values of freedom and prosperity or continuing the far-left’s plunge into lawless chaos.
Last week, Leader Kevin McCarthy released House Republicans’ Commitment to America, a plan to address the issues that matter most to voters — to create a strong economy, a safe nation, a free America, and an accountable government. Republican policies work and can deliver a brighter, more prosperous alternative to Joe Biden and Democrats’ record of high prices, surging crime and failed big government.
Read the full story
State Senator Katie Muth (D-PA-Royersford) announced this week she will introduce legislation to toughen Pennsylvania’s anti-price-gouging law despite economists’ general skepticism about such efforts.
As currently written, the state’s 2006 Price Gouging Act prohibits any entity “within the chain of distribution of consumer goods or services” to sell those products at “an unconscionably excessive price” during an official “state of disaster emergency” or 30 days thereafter. The law defines such a price as “an amount equal to or in excess of 20% of the average price” in the affected region before the emergency declaration.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Job Creators Network’s CEO Alfred Ortiz to the newsmaker line to discuss the American Small Business Prosperity Plan and reversing course in 2024.
Read the full story
Italy is set to elect a right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, exit polls showed Sunday after voting for the country’s next prime minister ended.
The major left-leaning coalition, with between 25.5 percent and 29.5 percent of the vote, ceded defeat to the Brothers of Italy party and its nationalist allies who collectively obtained up to 45 percent of the vote, Reuters reported. As prime minister and leading Italy’s most rightward government since WWII, Meloni has said she will seek to cut taxes, expand natural gas infrastructure and regulate immigration, Politico reported.
Read the full story
A group of Ohio economists disagree over moves by the state and the country as a whole toward electric vehicles and whether government investment in electric vehicle infrastructure is cost-effective.
Nearly half of the 19 economists at Ohio colleges and universities surveyed by Scioto Analysis said the state’s current $200 annual fee for registering electric vehicles is progressive, while a little more than half believed spending tax dollars on EV infrastructure is likely to be more cost-effective than providing the same amount in tax credits.
Read the full story
America’s big auto companies, less than 15 years since they were bailed out of bankruptcy following the Clinton-Bush recession of 2008, are betraying the American people out of their greed for government cash and favor. Their “net zero” plans – in conjunction with the globalist dictators and the Biden Administration – include eliminating huge numbers of jobs and devastating major segments of the U.S. economy.
Read the full story
A small business advocacy group has partnered with former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich to announce a plan on Wednesday to boost small businesses, fix the economy and provide opportunities for all Americans. The group announced the plan at Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill Club with a variety of speakers, including Gingrich who appeared live from a virtual location.
The Job Creators Network says the purpose of their American Small Business Prosperity Plan is to give members of Congress and their midterm challengers specific policies that would move America toward a positive, pro-growth economic agenda.
Read the full story
Echoing conflicts from Sri Lanka to Canada to the Netherlands, tensions between farmers and green-minded government policymakers are building in the United States, where producers are squaring off against a costly proposed federal mandate for greenhouse-gas reporting from corporate supply chains.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March proposed requiring large corporations, including agribusinesses and food companies, to report greenhouse gas emissions down to the lowest rungs of their supply chains as a means of combatting climate change, which environmental campaigners contend imperils the planet and life on it.
Read the full story
With one sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon spoke for the majority of Americans who no longer have faith in the nation’s top law enforcement agency. “It is also true, of course, that even-handed procedure does not demand unquestioning trust in the determinations of the Department of Justice,” she wrote in her September 15 order denying the government’s request to prevent a third-party review of allegedly “classified” documents seized by the FBI during the raid of Mar-a-Lago last month.
Read the full story
Seven Midwest states entered a coalition to pursue clean hydrogen development as an alternative to gas and diesel fuel.
The governors of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin signed onto the Midwest Hydrogen Coalition. The coalition will accelerate clean hydrogen development, from production and supply chain to distribution in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and other industries.
Read the full story
Taxpayers are being asked to fund the reopening of the Palisades nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan through a federal grant.
When it was still in operation, Palisades provided more than 800 megawatts of of carbon-free power and employed 600 people. The plant’s former owner closed the plant on May 20 after the plant’s fuel supply ran out and the power purchase agreement with Consumers Energy expired.
Read the full story
Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
Read the full story
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a new proposal for the legislature to consider next year to give toll road commuters a 50% discount.
Under the new plan, drivers who use toll transponders like SunPass and E-PASS and have 40 or more transactions a month would receive a 50% credit on their monthly bills. The proposal would benefit about 750,000 Floridians and save the average commuter $550 a year, according to estimates.
Read the full story
Pennsylvania earned a dubious distinction recently that underscores the economic pain wreaking havoc statewide for millions of residents struggling to make ends meet.
We, along with four other states, account for 69% of all 3.6 million utility disconnections between January 2020 and December 2021, according to a report from the Center for Biological Diversity.
It gets worse.
Read the full story
Eight years ago, the Obama administration bristled at the word “recusal.” White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the reason that top presidential adviser John Podesta would not be involved in the decision-making process involving the Keystone XL pipeline was that the State Department, not the White House, was already evaluating it “in an impartial way.” It wasn’t a “recusal,” Earnest insisted – there just was no need for Podesta to be involved.
Read the full story
The critical midterm election is in less than 70 days, but it can’t come soon enough for Keystone State families being crushed under the weight of failed Democrat policies. Reckless spending by Democrats in Washington has driven us into a recession and burdensome policies by Tom Wolf, John Fetterman, and Josh Shapiro have left Pennsylvania with high unemployment and shuttered small businesses. As State Treasurer, I know the importance of fiscal responsibility. I oversee an office of more than 300 employees and am tasked with protecting more than $150 billion in state assets. As a Pennsylvanian living in Joe Biden’s economy, I know firsthand the consequences of reckless spending and see the painful impact on every town in the commonwealth.
Read the full story
While praising California’s decision to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Governor Gavin Newsom declared that this will require “100% of new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles” like “electric cars.” In reality, electric cars emit substantial amounts of pollutants and may be more harmful to the environment than conventional cars.
Toxic Pollution
The notion that electric vehicles are “zero-emission” is rooted in a deceptive narrative that ignores all pollutants which don’t come out of a tailpipe. Assessing the environmental impacts of energy technologies requires measuring all forms of pollution they emit over their entire lives, not a narrow slice of them. To do this, researchers perform “life cycle assessments” or LCAs. As explained by the Environmental Protection Agency, LCAs allow for:
Read the full story
It would cost a family of four $576.22 to attend a Tennessee Titans game last season, according to a new report from Bookies.com.
The website took the cheapest available ticket for each NFL team and multiplied it by four before adding in the price of parking, four hot dogs, two beers and two sodas at each stadium.
Read the full story
“And whatever interpretive force one attaches to legislative history, the Court normally gives little weight to statements, such as those of the individual legislators, made after the bill in question has become law.” Barber v. Thomas, 560 U.S. 474, 486 (2010).
“The Court has previously found the post-enactment elucidation of the meaning of a statute to be of little relevance in determining the intent of the legislature contemporaneous to the passage of the statute.” Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, 596 n.19 (1987).
Read the full story
President Joe Biden’s Thursday evening speech targeting supporters of former President Donald Trump was mocked on social media, with many users poking fun at the stage.
The speech, held in Philadelphia, marked continued attacks on supporters of Trump, reiterating earlier attacks in which he claimed Republicans embraced “semi-fascism” at an Aug. 25 fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in Maryland, and also attacked “MAGA Republicans” during a Tuesday speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Biden called “MAGA Republicans” a threat to democracy and doubled down on his rhetoric calling supporters of former President Donald trump “extremists.”
Read the full story
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in-studio to give his take on tonight’s soul of the nation speech by President Joe Biden.
Read the full story