A Michigan state senator tried to take another path to try to return money to school districts that were fined for COVID-19 regulation violations.
Sen. Kevin Daley, R-Lum, offered an amendment Wednesday to the 2025 state school budget to reimburse districts for previously unfair penalties.
Read the full story
South Carolina lawmakers passed several small business-focused bills before skipping town last week but didn’t pass a high-profile measure business groups hoped they would.
Palmetto State legislators passed H. 4832, the “Paid Family Leave Insurance Act,” to create private insurance covering paid family leave and H. 3992 to allow employers to establish a payment plan for paying delinquent unemployment insurance taxes and allow them to potentially pay at a reduced rate.
Read the full story
The GOP-led House passed a bill on Thursday to allow more law enforcement officers to carry concealed firearms across state lines.
The bill received support from 16 House Democrats while 185 opposed it.
Read the full story
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner on Wednesday said he will be compelled to file a lawsuit against the Shelby County Commission if the county proceeds with a plan to cut his budget. He warned that the county must provide the funding to comply with Tennessee law and promote public safety.
Bonner and Chief Administrative Officer Alicia Lindsey said the county budget proposed by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris would force his office to cut 441 positions. They asserted that such severe cuts would jeopardize public safety, precluding him from consenting to the budget.
Read the full story
Republican lawmakers have approached the U.S. Secret Service with concerns about security issues at July’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but Secret Service has so far been unwilling to compromise, sources told the Daily Caller.
“We have identified a critical flaw with the Security Perimeter that creates an elevated and untenable safety risk to the attending public,” counsel to the Republican National Committee Todd R. Steggerda wrote to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle in April.
Read the full story
Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) led a group of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives in introducing the Let Trump Speak Act on Thursday.
The bill, filed as H.R.8410, would prohibit judges from issuing gag orders to defendants in any criminal or civil proceeding.
Read the full story
President Joe Biden on Thursday claimed the recording of his interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur about his retention of classified documents should not be released due to executive privilege just hours before House Republicans were set to move toward holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for not releasing the recordings.
The Justice Department’s Legal Counsel Office said the recording should be considered protected by executive privilege, and Garland should not be punished for not releasing it, Associate Attorney General Carlos Uriatre said.
Read the full story
Republican voters in Georgia told MSNBC in a segment aired on Wednesday that former president Donald Trump’s legal battles have made them more passionate about voting for him.
A recent poll shows Trump beating Biden by 9 percent in Georgia even as he faces an election interference case in the state among other legal issues, such as an ongoing trial in New York. The voters told MSNBC the cases have increased their support for Trump as it seems like persecution to them, with the former president appearing to be a fighter.
Read the full story
President Joe Biden held a press conference Tuesday extolling the tariffs on Chinese products — including steel, aluminum, electric vehicles, solar panels and semiconductors — he is rolling out. The president argued that China aggressively subsidizes the products America imports, which makes it difficult for U.S. businesses to compete.
“Back in 2000, when cheap steel from China began to flood the market, U.S. steel towns across Pennsylvania and Ohio were hit hard,” Biden said.
Read the full story
The number of Chinese nationals illegally crossing into the United States is spiking, according to the latest data provided by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
A record-breaking 27,583 Chinese nationals have illegally crossed into the U.S. over the past seven months of fiscal year 2024, according to CBP. There were 24,125 Chinese nationals who illegally crossed in fiscal year 2023, up from the 1,987 who illegally entered in fiscal year 2022.
Read the full story
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is pushing the U.S. Justice Department to restore a nearly 80% cut in victim assistance funds since 2018.
Speaking to nearly 1,000 victims’ advocates at AG’s annual Two Days in May conference, Yost said the continued cuts have made him mad.
Read the full story
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels voiced his support for the Secure Our Border Act under consideration in the Arizona Legislature, telling NewsNation on Wednesday that such measures are necessary because the “federal government has abandoned” Arizona.
Dannels told acknowledged he shares concerns cited by other Arizona sheriff’s about funding for HCR 2060, but confirmed he supports the “spirit” and “intent” of the potential Arizona referendum that proposes making it a state crime to enter the United States illegally, make it a felony offense to submit false data to E-Verify and prevent illegal immigrants from accessing welfare programs.
Read the full story
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority officials are weighing a proposed $654.5 million operating budget for fiscal 2025.
The budget anticipates roughly $386.5 million in sales tax revenue, nearly $82 million in passenger revenue and $80 million in federal operating assistance. The $654.5 million operating expenses are roughly $23 million more than the agency’s fiscal 2024 budget.
Read the full story
Newly revealed documents obtained by a watchdog group show that Amazon founder, multibillionaire, and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos hosted an event bringing together international bureaucrats, a liberal foundation, and senior Treasury Department officials at his palatial Washington, D.C. home to advance “Climate Action” efforts.
The event shows how Bezos has used his convenient capital city location and private foundation to help the Biden Administration advance its climate goals by galvanizing private finance through grants.
Read the full story
In previous years, people might have missed the irony. But not now—not after the meteoric rise of women’s basketball.
When the WNBA champs visited the White House last week, reporters didn’t cover it out of obligation. They covered it because it was a real story. And President Joe Biden’s betrayal of girls sports only made it more of one.
Read the full story
Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, said he believes state lawmakers will craft a final bill for Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice proposal before the General Assembly convenes in January.
Lee’s school choice bill, the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, failed to pass the General Assembly during its recent convened session.
Read the full story
President Joe Biden suggested Tuesday it is false that his administration is restricting consumer choice in the automobile market, but his administration recently finalized a rule that will force electric vehicles (EVs) to make up a much larger share of overall auto sales over the next decade.
Biden made the remark during a Tuesday speech about his administration’s decision to significantly bolster tariffs against Chinese products including steel, semiconductor chips and EV batteries. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule in March that requires manufacturers to make EVs constitute between 35 percent and 56 percent of new cars sold in 2032, according to CNN.
Read the full story
An agency of the District of Columbia held a training session last month to teach illegal immigrants and other noncitizens how to vote, according to documents obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch.
News of the training session held by the local government in the nation’s capital comes as House Republicans push a bill—with the backing of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.—to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
Read the full story
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) ordered the removal of non-citizens from the state’s voter rolls after more than 100 were found registered despite confirming their lack of U.S. citizenship.
On Tuesday, LaRose directed all 88 counties to begin a removal process for non-citizens on Ohio’s voter rolls following a review by his office’s Public Integrity Division and Office of Data Analytics and Archives. The review analyzed data from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and found 137 voter registrations of non-citizens who had twice confirmed their lack of U.S. citizenship.
Read the full story
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick on Tuesday announced a plan to “shake up” Washington, D.C. that will include relocating the Department of Energy (DOE) to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
McCormick on Tuesday stressed his two decades of experience in the private sector in an editorial published by Real Clear Pennsylvania. He confirmed his plans to achieve permanent change in Washington include moving federal agencies away from the capital.
Read the full story
With less than half a year until the 2024 presidential election, former President Donald Trump holds a sizable lead over incumbent President Joe Biden in several swing states.
While the overall national polling varies and shows a tighter race, Trump holds significant leads in several swing states.
Read the full story
Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) are partnering with a left-wing nonprofit for voter registration efforts as part of “Bidenbucks,” which is President Biden’s executive order to turn as many federal agencies as possible into get-out-the-vote (GOTV) centers across all states.
Health centers that are funded by the federal government and serve low-income patients are working with a progressive nonprofit on voter registration efforts to implement Biden’s wide-ranging executive order to use the federal government to register voters.
Read the full story
Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial victory in Virginia in November 2021, widely credited to his promise to restore parental rights in public schools in the Democratic-leaning state, set off panic in the national education establishment.
Newly disclosed records reveal the American Federation of Teachers hired a prominent Democratic pollster the following month to survey parents and devise messaging to shore up AFT’s weaknesses – particularly by tarring dissenting parents as racists – and shared it with a senior Department of Education official.
Read the full story
An “America First” foreign policy includes focusing on deterrence and building up U.S. military strength while developing a new approach to the Russia-Ukraine war and learning from mistakes made by President Joe Biden, according to foreign policy experts and former Trump administration officials.
In the new book “An America First Approach to U.S. National Security,” more than a dozen experts and former officials describe their foreign policy recommendations that may be implemented if former President Donald Trump is re-elected this fall.
Read the full story
Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said the Nashville Mayor’s $3.1 billion transit referendum is a “ripoff” of the taxpayers who are not given a proper voice in the media to express opposition to the transportation plan.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell unveiled his $3.1 billion transit plan, “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last month.
Read the full story
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill to authorize the death penalty in child rape cases into law last week. The law now goes into effect on July 1.
The bill, SB 1834/HB 1663, authorizes the death penalty as a punishment for rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, or especially aggravated rape of a child.
Read the full story
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is the leading authority in the field of gender medicine. Its guidance is routinely used by top medical associations in the U.S. and abroad, while its standards of care inform insurance companies’ approach to coverage policies.
But behind closed doors, top WPATH doctors discussed, and at times seemed to challenge, the organization’s own published guidelines for sex change procedures and acknowledged pushing experimental medical interventions that can have devastating and irreversible complications, according to exclusive footage obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Read the full story
The Biden administration on Tuesday formally announced significant increases in tariffs targeting imports of electric vehicles (EVs) and other green energy technology from China.
The strengthened tariffs are designed to make it harder for cheaper Chinese green products, like electric vehicles, to flood the U.S. market and displace American companies, the White House said in its official announcement. Beyond EVs and critical minerals, the administration is also increasing tariffs on Chinese steel, computer chips, EV batteries and certain solar components.
Read the full story
Florida will beef up its efforts to stem human trafficking after legislation was signed into law on Monday.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 7063, a bill that will make important updates on how Florida combats human trafficking and extends the lifetime of the statewide Council on Human Trafficking within the Department of Legal Affairs.
Read the full story
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced over $54 million in awards last month for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Shelter and Services program to Arizona entities to offset “costs incurred” due to the influx of illegal immigrants into the country.
According to funding awards posted publicly by FEMA last month, two Arizona-based charitable entities, Pima County and Maricopa County will collectively receive $54,573,093 to support illegal immigrants in the 2024 fiscal year.
Read the full story
Governor Josh Shapiro introduced updates on May 8 to his administration’s code of conduct that prohibits “scandalous or disgraceful” acts from state employees, a Tuesday Spotlight PA report revealed.
The report noted that Shapiro quietly signed an executive order that changed his administration’s code of conduct for all state employees amid intense public debate over the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Read the full story
Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed Virginia’s budget for fiscal years 2025-2026 Monday after the state’s General Assembly voted to pass it in a special session convened for that purpose.
The $188 billion biennial budget was agreed upon at the tail end of last week after protracted and extensive negotiations between Youngkin and conferees.
Read the full story
A legislative conference committee will soon hash out differences in a measure to reform South Carolina’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission.
Last week, the South Carolina House passed S. 1046, a bill reforming the JMSC, following the state Senate’s passage.
Read the full story
Americans can be forgiven for suffering from whiplash regarding law and order.
In recent weeks the Biden administration and many news outlets, including USA Today and The Hill, have touted declines in violent crime statistics to argue that America is becoming a safer place.
Read the full story
A Michigan lawmaker wants to restore what he calls a hunter with a fur harvester license’s right to hunt coyotes all year.
State Rep. Greg Markkanen, R-Hancock recently introduced House Bill 5721 that he says would give that right back to hunters.
Read the full story
Silent panic alarms may become the next line of defense for schools in Pennsylvania.
A bipartisan plan introduced in the Senate on Monday would mandate installing devices in buildings to speed up law enforcement response during an emergency. Five other states have implemented similar legislation, dubbed “Alyssa’s Law.”
Read the full story
Former DEA Special Operations Director Derek Maltz highlighted how strategic China is when it comes to attacking other countries, and claimed that the opioid crisis facing the U.S. is largely because of China and its connections with Mexican drug cartels that sneak it across the U.S. border.
A former Drug Enforcement Administration official warned about the dangers of China on Monday, claiming the foreign country is bringing its own pesticides into the United States, and that it has expanded past the fentanyl, to a new opioid called “nitazenes.”
Read the full story
Congress has spent more money on interest so far this year than it has spent on both national defense and Medicare.
Spending on net interest hit $514 billion in the first seven months of fiscal year 2024. That’s more than spending on both national defense ($498 billion) and Medicare ($465 billion). Medicare is the federal health insurance program for those 65 and older and younger people with disabilities. During the same time period, the U.S. spent $873 billion on Social Security, the federal program that provides retirement, disability, survivor, and family benefits to more than 67 million Americans.
Read the full story
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten on Monday said former President Donald Trump’s lead in sun belt states is disastrous for President Joe Biden’s reelection chances.
Trump is leading Biden by 13 percent among likely voters in Nevada, 9 percent in Georgia and 6 percent in Arizona, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College survey. Enten on “CNN News Central” said Trump winning all these sun belt states would be rare for a Republican and asserted the former president’s lead is due to his coalition changing to consist of more nonwhite voters.
Read the full story
Recently, Democrats at both federal and state levels have passed or are considering regulations that will grant government health coverage to illegal residents.
Bad move for both illegals and legal residents.
Read the full story
A House committee is scheduled to examine the historic surge in Chinese illegal immigration next week, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
The House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability will hold a hearing on Thursday concerning the roughly 8,000 percent increase in Chinese illegal immigration the U.S. has experienced since March 2021, a committee spokesperson told the DCNF. The DCNF recently revealed an internal U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) email showing that the Biden administration dramatically simplified the vetting process for Chinese illegal immigrants in April 2023, which has increased the speed of Chinese illegal immigrants entering the country.
Read the full story
Tennessee saw $384.2 million in sports wagers in April with $7 million in taxes collected.
That was up from $318.4 million in wagers and $6.4 million of taxes collected in April 2023.
Read the full story
Georgia tax officials collected more than $3.9 billion in April, a decrease of 5.4 percent or $225.7 million from last year.
So far this fiscal year, net tax revenue of more than $27.4 billion is down about 1.2 percent or $341.3 million from last year. While fiscal 2024 collections have decreased from fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022 numbers, they remain higher than they were at the same time in fiscal 2019, fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021, according to unaudited numbers released at the time.
Read the full story
Legislation to make permanent the extension of telehealth services for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics has passed the Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The bill of U.S. Rep. Dr. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., and the Rural Physician Workforce Preservation Act he authored are also under consideration by the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Read the full story
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is joining the investigation of the State Teachers Retirement System.
Shortly after Attorney General Dave Yost launched a wide-sweeping investigation into the $90 billion fund for 500,000 current and former teachers, LaRose said his Public Integrity Unit is stepping up its look into potential campaign finance violations.
Read the full story
A group of lawmakers, including two Virginia congressmen, are calling on the U.S. Department of Defense to send more “American-made” drones to be deployed on the Ukrainian battlefield.
In a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Virginia Republican Reps. Rob Wittman and Jen Kiggans along with nine other lawmakers say “most drones being used in Ukraine’s fight” against Russia are being made by a “single Chinese company.”
Read the full story
Dozens of legislators wrote to President Joe Biden on Monday to criticize the Biden administration’s decision to withhold certain weapons from Israel.
More than 100 lawmakers, including Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, signed the letter slamming the administration’s decision to hold back certain weapons from Israel, which President Joe Biden addressed during an interview last week with CNN. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have engaged in highly-visible protests imploring Biden to back away from Israel for months before the administration ultimately opted to impose restrictions on military aid to Israeli forces.
Read the full story
President Biden’s 2025 budget proposal provides a salient reminder that he is no moderate, despite his attempts to position himself as one.
Biden’s tax proposals would effectively increase the top federal marginal tax rate on long-term capital gains to 44.6%, a record high since the tax was enacted in the 1920s. As a result, taxes paid on long-term capital gains would reach levels above 50% in some states after accounting for state capital gains taxes. Biden also proposed increasing the corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28% and presented a 25% tax on unrealized capital gains for individuals whose net worth exceeds $100 million.
Read the full story
A law set to take effect before the 2024-2025 school year will require juvenile courts to revoke driver’s licenses from juvenile offenders who are convicted of threatening schools or school property.
SB 1664 by State Senator Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro) will mandate juvenile offenders who are found guilty of threatening mass violence on school property or during school activities must have their driving privileges suspended for one year.
Read the full story
The federal government funded a multilateral research project investigating how “populist” politicians allegedly sowed disinformation and eroded public trust during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) paid out a grant to support research investigating “how populist politicians distorted COVID-19 pandemic health communication to encourage polarized attitudes and distrust among citizens,” which made the public “more vulnerable to misinformation generally,” according to federal spending records. The project, titled “Pandemic Communication in Times of Populism,” received just over $160,000 from the NSF and is focused on how leaders in the United States, Brazil, Serbia and Poland approached the pandemic, stressing the importance of elevating public health experts over “populist” politicians, according to a presentation produced by the researchers.
Read the full story