A proposed University of Minnesota policy would require scholars to obtain permission from Native American groups when doing research involving their cultures.
However, an anthropologist has concerns about the proposal.
Read the full storyA proposed University of Minnesota policy would require scholars to obtain permission from Native American groups when doing research involving their cultures.
However, an anthropologist has concerns about the proposal.
Read the full storyPartisan divides remain for Pennsylvania’s energy future, but the state’s electric grid keeps posting drops in emissions.
PJM, the 13-state grid that stretches from Illinois to North Carolina, noted a trend that’s continued for two decades: dramatic declines in pollutants.
Read the full storySouth Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a measure that aims to help landowners use voluntary conservation easements to preserve working agricultural lands.
H. 3951, the Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Act, creates the Working Farmland Protection Fund within the South Carolina Conservation Bank. The measure ostensibly complements the agricultural projects the bank funds by establishing a matching grant payment for qualified projects.
Read the full storyOhio plans to spend $156 million in taxpayer funds to encourage solar power in what the state calls disadvantaged areas.
The Ohio Air Quality Development Authority and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency are offering both grants and low-cost financing for residential and community solar projects to lower electricity bills in low- to moderate-income households.
Read the full storyGov. Ron DeSantis signed two new bills Wednesday intended to strengthen Florida homes against hurricanes and other severe weather events.
DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7028, which will add another $200 million in funding for the My Safe Florida Home Program which allows homes to be assessed after major storm events and assists in improving resilience in structures.
Read the full storyGeorgia Governor Brian Kemp signed multiple anti-human trafficking bills into law on Wednesday to hold both “traffickers and buyers” accountable.
“For years Georgia was considered a hot spot for human trafficking,” said Governor Kemp in a press release on Wednesday, “but thanks to the GRACE Commission, under the leadership of First Lady Marty Kemp, we have established Georgia as a national leader in this fight by passing legislation that cracks down on both traffickers and buyers while also, and even more importantly, empowering survivors.”
Read the full storyAn incident involving a physical attack by a female Secret Service agent tasked with protecting Vice President Kamala Harris is raising questions about whether the agency had thoroughly vetted her during her hiring and whether an ongoing push to increase the numbers of women in the service and boost overall workforce staff played a role in her selection.
The Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris was removed from her duties Wednesday after physically attacking the commanding agent in charge and other agents trying to subdue her, according to an agency spokesman and knowledgeable Secret Service sources.
Read the full storySupporters of the legislation claim that the app poses a national security risk because it is owned by a Chinese company, and thereby could expose sensitive U.S. data to the Chinese government.
President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said on Wednesday that it still plans to stay on the controversial app TikTok, despite the president’s signing a foreign aid package that could eventually ban it in the United States.
Read the full storyThe Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) on Tuesday that addresses the state’s towing, parking, and vehicle booting laws.
Read the full storyPresident Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid bill Wednesday, ending a months-long trudge through Congress.
“It’s a good day for America, it’s a good day for Europe, and it’s a good day for world peace,” Biden said to kick off his remarks after the signing.
Read the full storyJust weeks after learning Joe Biden had improperly retained government documents, his administration began working with federal bureaucrats in spring and fall 2021 to increase pressure on Donald Trump for similar issues and eventually prompt a criminal prosecution of the 45th president, according to government memos newly unsealed by a federal judge.
The correspondence, released this week by U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon in Florida, provide the the most extensive accounting so far of how the Biden White House worked with federal bureaucrats to escalate pressure on Trump to return documents to the National Archives even as it slow-walked similar issues involving its own boss.
Read the full storyThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule Tuesday banning noncompete agreements nationwide, affecting millions of Americans.
Regulators argue that banning noncompetes will promote competition by giving workers greater ability to switch jobs, increasing innovation and leading to more businesses being created, according to an announcement from the FTC. The FTC estimates that around 18 percent of U.S. workers, or 30 million people, are covered under a noncompete, with the new rule applying to anyone not in a senior executive role, which is defined as someone who is making more than $151,164 and in a policy-making position.
Read the full storyTennessee’s two U.S. senators were among only a handful who voted against a bill that will send nearly $100 billion to foreign nations.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) both voted against the Senate’s version of H.R. 815, a bill that was initially meant to help veterans receive more healthcare reimbursements but quickly ballooned into a funding package mainly for the country of Ukraine.
Read the full storyThe Biden administration spent taxpayer dollars meant to fund a border wall to pay for “environmental planning,” according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
At the request of Republican Reps. Jack Bergman of Michigan and Jodey Arrington of Texas, the GAO investigated whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broke the law when it effectively blocked the use of taxpayer dollars to build a wall along the southern border. While GAO’s final report clears the DHS of breaking the law, it confirmed that DHS used congressionally-appropriated funds meant for the wall to pay for “environmental planning” and efforts “to remediate or mitigate environmental damage from past border wall construction.”
Read the full storyLocker rooms and bathrooms at schools that accept public funding are about to become dangerous places for women — even in states that have the kind of commonsense legislation intended to keep women’s private spaces private.
Last week, the Biden administration released a host of changes to Title IX, the federal legislation that is best known for dictating equal treatment of men and women in sports and for governing the way schools handle sexual assault charges. While the administration hasn’t yet decided whether biological men who identify as female should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, it redefined “sex” as “gender identity” in almost every other context while simultaneously allowing schools to violate the due process rights of students accused of sexual assault.
Read the full storyThe justification for rapidly transitioning the global energy economy to renewables is to avert a catastrophic environmental crisis. It is based on the premise that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from the combustion of coal, natural gas, and oil, are altering our atmosphere, which in turn is leading to a host of negative consequences too numerous to mention.
It is possible nowadays to find almost anything, from crime and disease and mental health to species extinctions, deforestation and disappearing coral reefs, being attributed to climate change. And if you research almost anything involving the design of civilization, not just the production and consumption of energy but housing, mining, ranching, farming, shipping, transportation, waste management, water treatment, etc., the data most prominently reported are always carbon and CO2. The actual units of energy or water, or tonnage of product, or any other practical data necessary to inform management and logistics, has now become secondary. It’s all about carbon.
Read the full storyAn Arizona grand jury on Wednesday indicted former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, and five other former aides to former President Donald Trump on felony charges related to alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Read the full storyDemocratic governors are vetoing election integrity legislation passed by Republican-led state legislatures, despite allegations, investigations, and convictions of election fraud occurring across the U.S. Those convictions require proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the crime, in fact, occurred.
Over the last few months, Democratic governors in Arizona, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have vetoed legislation that Republican-led state legislatures passed to help secure elections, arguing that their concerns are unfounded or their solutions unnecessary. However, there has been recent election fraud investigations and convictions in those states that led to the passing of the legislation.
Read the full storyTennessee Governor Bill Lee joined a coalition of 24 other governors in issuing a joint statement demanding that the Biden administration lift its pause on new liquified natural gas (LNG) export approvals.
In January, the Biden administration temporarily paused pending decisions on LNG exports to “non-FTA countries until the Department of Energy can update the underlying analyses for authorizations” in the name of “climate change.”
Read the full storyThe Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Michigan $159 million in solar subsidies for low-income households.
The Inflation Reduction Act’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will be administered through the MI Solar for All program, which aims to increase access to affordable solar energy for eligible families.
Read the full storyOn Friday, the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the ATF issued new regulations that make it more difficult to comply with federal laws regulating gun dealing and background checks.
Since the 1930s, federal law has required gun dealers to be registered as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL). The requirements hinged on the meaning of “engaged in the business of” gun dealing. This language has always been ambiguous, and there has never been (even after the announcement of the new rules) a true “bright line” that distinguishes when one graduates from selling a few guns from one’s personal collection into full-fledged gun dealing.
Read the full storySouth Carolina state officials are determining how to proceed with a $1.8 billion balance discovered in a state account and Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has given leaders a July 1 deadline to chart a course forward.
On Oct. 31, 2023, South Carolina Comptroller General Brian Gaines sent a letter to South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, directing Loftis to research the account’s origins. It marked the start of a months-long Senate investigation that exposed what a Senate Finance Committee Constitutional Subcommittee report dubbed “financial irregularities” in the state treasurer’s office.
Read the full storyA Republican Congresswoman plans to introduce a bill that would forbid the waving of foreign flags inside Congress after a viral video circulated of dozens of members waving Ukrainian flags following a vote to pass another Ukrainian aid package.
As Breitbart reports, Congresswoman Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) announced the planned legislation following the unexpected display of a foreign nation’s flag on the floor of the House, which was widely mocked on social media.
Read the full storyAlthough the Badger State is 2000 miles away from Mexico, the fallout of Biden’s open border bleeds into the American heartland, literally so in many cases. In reality, the Biden-Harris open borders agenda transforms every jurisdiction in America into a border town, including small villages like Whitewater, Wisconsin. That previously tranquil small town of 15,000 in southern Wisconsin has been flooded with about 1,000 new migrants during Biden’s term, mostly from Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Such a mass influx places intense strain upon public resources, including schools ill-prepared to handle so many new students, many of whom do not speak English. Whitewater city council member Brienne Brown told Wisconsin PBS that “we are a poor town that has limited resources.”
Read the full storyEven as Americans grow increasingly pessimistic and agitated about their personal finances, Congress is about to ask struggling families to cover the cost of more funding for Ukraine.
The $95 billion foreign aid package adopted Saturday by the House and facing near-certain passage in the Senate includes an additional $61 billion for Ukraine. Once added to the money already appropriated for Ukraine since 2022, the United States will have spent approximately $173 billion.
Read the full storyA county judge dismissed 140 cases against migrants charged with rioting at the U.S. southern border, finding there was no reason to arrest them.
El Paso County Court at Law 7 Judge Ruben Morales on Monday found no probable cause from Texas Department of Public Safety state troopers to restrain the 140 migrants who were arrested earlier this month for rioting, according to the El Paso Times. The charges stemmed from an incident on April 12 when a group of migrants in El Paso’s Lower Valley cut through concertina wire at the border and then rushed into the U.S.
Read the full storyBen Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said not only does Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit referendum appear to be illegal under the IMPROVE Act, but the transit plan’s overall vision of commuters suddenly switching over to public transport is “absurd.”
O’Connell unveiled his $3.1 billion transit plan, called “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last week, which would be funded through a half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax.
Read the full storyThe Tennessee House of Representatives on Tuesday approved HB 1202, which would arm teachers who are licensed, receive annual training, and are approved by police and school officials.
Protests threatened to interrupt the legislative body’s proceedings multiple times, with Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and his staffers at times joining protesters in performative acts of opposition to the bill.
Read the full storyThe military could seek to formally punish service members for refusing to use another service member’s preferred pronouns under existing policy, according to military experts.
A 2020 Equal Opportunity law opened the door for commanders to subject someone who refuses to affirm a transgender servicemember’s so-called gender identity to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for charges related to harassment, Capt. Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Such a move would likely infringe on a servicemember’s constitutional rights to uphold their conscience, but it might not prevent leaders from employing more subtle ways of disciplining service members.
Read the full storyDrivers in Virginia have until June 1 to obtain insurance for their motor vehicles due to a law passed in 2022 that removes the option to avoid insurance premiums with an annual fee to the commonwealth.
Governor Glenn Youngkin signed in 2022 legislation to end Virginia’s Uninsured Motor Vehicle (UMV) fee, which previously allowed citizens to annually pay $500 to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to register a vehicle without insurance.
Read the full storyIn the movie The Perfect Storm, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg are among the crew of a boat off the Northeast coast that is caught in the convergence of multiple powerful storms. The combination of tempests ultimately takes down the craft and its crew. We should all hope one of our nation’s most vital industries doesn’t succumb in similar fashion as it is caught in a perfect storm of ideological rigidity, bureaucratic arrogance, and regulatory overreach.
Read the full storyPresident Joe Biden has taken every part of the federal government and transformed it into his personal reelection machine, creating a hyper-partisan election apparatus out of supposedly neutral federal agencies. And American taxpayers pay for all of it.
Just since the beginning of April, several explosive revelations have surfaced that show the extent to which Joe Biden has weaponized the federal government in election matters. This should come as no surprise, as the administration continues to unfairly weaponize the federal courts against January 6 defendants, and state and federal courts maliciously prosecute Donald Trump, his rival in the presidential election.
Read the full storyThe terrorist Iranian regime’s unprecedented recent attack on Israel, which included 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 surface-to-surface missiles, is an unambiguous casus belli—an act of war—under international law.
Of course, Iranian proxies spread across the Middle East, such as Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Yemen-based Houthis, have committed countless previous acts of war against Israel. But last weekend was something different entirely: For the very first time since fanatical Islamists overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and took power in 1979, Iran launched such attacks directly from its own soil.
Read the full storyPressure is mounting in Washington to finally pass a bill requiring TikTok’s China-based parent company to divest of the popular social media app amid new revelations that the company is much closer to the Chinese government than it has previously claimed.
Now, the House has passed a comprehensive foreign aid package which included a revised TikTok divestment bill. This makes it more likely to become law sooner rather than later as the Senate is set to consider the legislation.
Read the full storyBonnie Brezina, who serves as the state director of Marsy’s Law for Tennessee, said the state is in a positive position to vote on Marsy’s Law as a constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot in 2026.
Read the full storyTexas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez said the Biden Administration’s refusal to enforce existing immigration laws directly impacts small communities along the southern border as local resources are constantly diverted to assist with cases involving illegal aliens.
Read the full storyAmerica is a nation of law and order. Yet, more and more, we are seeing U.S. cities overrun with lawless behavior — especially by Hamas sympathizers.
Just last week, anti-Israel demonstrators blocked access to highways, bridges, and airports in cities across the country, stranding hundreds of Americans in rush-hour traffic.
Read the full storyTennessee U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) on Friday joined a number of congressional Democrats who seek to remove the Secret Service protection afforded to former President Donald Trump if he is convicted and sentenced to prison.
Cohen was named in a press release issued by Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS-02), who led the House January 6 committee, as a co-sponsor of the DISGRACED Former Protectees Act, which would amend Secret Service procedures “by automatically terminating Secret Service protection for those who have been sentenced to prison following conviction for a Federal or State felony.”
Read the full storyThe federal government loses up to $521 billion a year to fraud, according to a first-of-its-kind estimate from a Congressional watchdog.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, which serves as the research arm of Congress, estimated annual fraud losses cost taxpayers between $233 billion and $521 billion annually, according to a new report published Tuesday. The fraud estimate’s range represents 3% to 7% of average federal obligations.
Read the full storyThe U.S. military’s ongoing embrace of the far-left culture war has drawn increased attention and ire from lawmakers.
Despite Pentagon officials waving off concerns, a steady stream of evidence has shown that the most progressive ideas on race, gender and sexuality have become the norm, in particular within the administrative parts of the U.S. military.
Read the full storyThe Biden administration’s program to expand access to broadband internet may run afoul of the law that created it, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the Department of Commerce, is responsible for allocating $42.5 billion in funds intended to bolster the United States’ broadband internet infrastructure through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) program. The agency, in a move to expand high-speed internet access to low-income communities, has been attempting to force states to adopt price controls for broadband services provided through the new projects, a strategy experts say could be illegal.
Read the full storyNashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell released the details of his transit referendum that is expected to go before voters in November, revealing his plans will cost $3.1 billion and be partially financed through a half-cent sales tax increase.
In a statement, O’Connell called his transit referendum “the best opportunity we’ve ever had to build out our priority sidewalks, to synchronize signals so you’re spending less time at red lights, and to connect neighborhoods via a better transit system that doesn’t have to come downtown just to go somewhere else.”
Read the full storyA Cleveland area community college is overstaffed and struggling with debt related to underused buildings all while enrollment continues to fall.
Those issues became more serious following a recent review of the Lakeland Community College’s operations by State Auditor Keith Faber, who raised concerns about whether the school can remain open.
Read the full storyGovernor Glenn Youngkin confirmed he will “work with legislators” to achieve compromise legislation addressing controversial skill games machines.
The Virginia Senate tossed Youngkin’s version of the bill, with just six senators voting in favor and 34 voting against. Youngkin’s amended bill sought to place strict restrictions on legislation that originally would have allowed skill games in convenience stores throughout the commonwealth.
Read the full storySeveral pieces of Tennessee legislation could see action in the next week, with the bills either held from long calendars or intentionally delayed for further discussion.
The state’s amended $52.8 billion budget bill, however, passed both chambers of the State House and State Senate.
Read the full storyIn his “This Week with Gosar” newsletter Monday, U.S. Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09) said that during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing, every Democrat voted against H.R. 7109, the Equal Representation Act, which would add a citizenship question to the decennial census. An amended version of the legislation passed the committee vote (22-20) and awaits further action on the House floor.
Gosar, who serves on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, stated that the new question on the decennial census would ask, “Are you a citizen? YES or NO.”
Read the full storyThe State of California is suing the city of Huntington Beach over a new voter ID law passed by voters last month, claiming it violates state law, in another pushback against a conservative locality in the liberal state.
Huntington Beach and Shasta County have both passed election integrity measures for their jurisdictions, but the California executive branch and state legislature — both supported by far-left donors — have shown their displeasure by responding with lawsuits and legislation to counter them.
Read the full storyAnother inspector general report has found that the federal agency responsible for caring for unaccompanied minors (UACs) brought into the United States is continuing to fail to vet sponsors and protect the children’s safety and well-being.
A Texas advocacy group is again renewing its call for state lawmakers to investigate and implement oversight measures since the majority of UACs are being housed in Texas.
Read the full storyThe Biden administration Friday rolled out three decisions aimed at greatly restricting oil and gas drilling, as well as mining activities needed for renewable energy, on public land.
The decisions include shutting down the Ambler Access Road project, which would have opened up part of Alaska to mining needed for renewable energy, and blocking oil and gas drilling on up to 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Read the full storyThe Senate on Friday approved legislation to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to 2026.
The upper chamber approved the legislation in a 60-34 vote, which ran past the midnight deadline.
Read the full story