The governor of Wisconsin has announced that he has distributed over 5 million pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) to fight COVID so far in 2022. In a press release obtained by The Wisconsin Daily Star, Governor Tony Evers said, “Keeping Wisconsinites healthy and safe continues to be my top priority as the landscape of this pandemic continues to shift and evolve.”
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A Wisconsin Representative responded to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s approach to masking school aged children. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) said in a Twitter video, “By masking kids, you’re impairing their education, their development, and their childhood.”
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center are actively recruiting children from 5-17 years old in order to study possible allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer (Pfizer-BioNTech) and Moderna.
“It’s important to study children, too,” said Elizabeth Phillips, MD, the principal investigator of the study, who is a professor of Medicine and Pharmacology and the John A. Oates Chair in Clinical Research at VUMC.
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Several Minneapolis restaurants initiated a lawsuit on Thursday against the mayor of Minneapolis over the COVID vaccine mandate that took effect last week. According to the complaint, the restaurants are seeking a judgement from the court that the emergency declaration requiring restaurant and bar owners to verify COVID vaccine status from Mayor Jacob Frey be considered null and void.
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The Minnesota Democrat Farmer Labor (DFL) party has announced that they will be requiring proof of COVID vaccination during in-person precinct caucusing on February 1. They are offering a contactless caucus for the unvaccinated or others who are uncomfortable caucusing in person, while some entire districts will be utilizing the contactless caucus process.
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A bagel shop in Minneapolis made the decision to close indoor dining on Wednesday due to the COVID vaccine mandate taking effect. Rise Bagel Co., an organic artisan bagelry located in the North Loop of Minneapolis, announced in social media posts on Tuesday that they made the “tough decision” to close their indoor dining, saying that “All are welcome here.”
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Representative Bryan Steil (R-WI-01) is co-sponsoring the Open Schools Act with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL-13), “to support students and allow parents to make the best decision for their family.” According to a press release from Davis, the Open Schools Act would provide families with up to $10,000 per student “to seek alternative forms of in-person education” if the public school that the students attend has switched to distance or online learning due to COVID.
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The school district that oversees public education in Las Vegas said it will offer teachers and other employees up to $2,000 in bonuses if they stay on amid the current COVID-19 surge and concurrent employment crisis.
Clark County School District said in a statement this week that the CCSD Board of School Trustees had “approved an agreement with all five employee bargaining units to provide eligible regular and full-time employees employed as of January 1, 2022 with a $1,000 COVID retention bonus.”
“CCSD will also pay an additional $1,000 bonus to eligible regular and full-time employees who are employed on May 25, 2022, for a total of $2,000,” the statement added.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues into its third year, William Paterson University is now laying off 100 full-time faculty over the next three years.
The university, located in Wayne, New Jersey, originally planned to let 150 professors go before union negotiations revised the number to 100, or 29% of the institution’s 340 faculty, reports Inside Higher Ed.
Thirteen tenured professors lost their job at the end of 2021, according to the outlet.
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Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) responded to the recent spike in inflation, calling it a “tax on the middle class.” Johnson said in an interview with Fox News that “Biden and the Democrats have spent trillions to pay people to sit at home and not work.”
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The Department of Justice announced this week a Knoxville, Tennessee man was arrested for defrauding COVID-19 economic relief programs. James Waylon Howell pled guilty to “engaging in more than $150,000 in fraud related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and to committing money laundering.” He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
“This prosecution highlights the Department of Justice’s commitment to aggressively prosecute those who have defrauded these important programs enacted to provide economic relief to those who have suffered financially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said United States Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III. “Fortunately, the quick and capable work of our federal partners permitted the recovery of a substantial amount of stolen funds.”
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American corporation General Electric this week announced that it would no longer require its 56,000 employees to undergo either the COVID-19 vaccination or regular testing after the Supreme Court struck down the White House’s employer vaccine mandate.
The company suspended its enforcement of that policy on Friday, one day after the court said the Biden administration could not force large U.S. companies to require vaccinations for their employees.
President Joe Biden has urged companies to continue with their own personal mandates after his administration’s own efforts were stymied by the Supreme Court.
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State Representative Jeremy Munson (R-Lake Crystal) responded to Minnesota’s new COVID vaccine incentives for kids, calling it bribery and coercion. The State of Minnesota and Gov. Tim Walz (D) announced that they will be giving every family of 5 to 11 year old children $200 for getting fully vaccinated in the months of January and February.
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Wisconsin Representative Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI-05) introduced a motion to protect veteran G.I. Bill benefits from the Biden Administration’s COVID vaccine mandate. Fitzgerald shared his concerns on the floor, saying, “the Secretary of Defense issued a directive requiring mandatory COVID vaccination for all service members, including those in the Ready Reserve, and the National Guard. Despite the challenges this vaccine mandate currently faces in court, the Defense Department has proceeded to discharge those who refuse the vaccine.”
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Timothy Chmielewski, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Deputies Association Union President, announced a COVID vaccine mandate for his union’s employees on an internal email with a subject line that read, “You will be terminated.”
John Gilmore posted a screenshot of the email on Twitter, which was from Chmielewski. It is unclear if the mandate applies only to those within the sheriff’s office or if it is a county-wide requirement.
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper held a live-streamed press conference on Monday to outline Metro’s latest COVID response. Cooper, Dr. Alex Jahangir, chair of Metro’s COVID taskforce; Dr. Gill Wright, who directs Nashville’s public health department; and Director and Chief William Swann, of Emergency Management and Nashville Fire Department, all spoke during the conference.
“Cases here are rising quickly, and we know the Omnicron variant spreads easily. Even more easily than previous variants,” the mayor said.
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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is now studying COVID within the deer population. Tami Ryan, the chief of the DNR’s wildlife health section told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “Wisconsin officials recently received guidance, funding and supplies from USDA to look for the virus in deer in the Badger State.”
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The majority of Americans support Congressional efforts to block President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates for large businesses ahead of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on that very issue, according to a new poll.
Convention of States Action, along with the Trafalgar Group, released the poll, which found that 51.1% of surveyed voters support a bill in Congress to stop Biden’s vaccine mandates for large businesses. The poll reports that 40.6% of voters do not support the bill while 8.3% of voters are unsure.
The U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan measure in December to block Biden’s mandate, which requires employers with at least 100 workers to ensure they are vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. Businesses that do not comply face hefty fines. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would enforce the mandate.
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Wisconsin Representative Thomas Tiffany (R-WI-07) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) joined Representative Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) in demanding answers from the Biden administration regarding the use of COVID funds to house illegal immigrants.
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The Lebanon Special School District announced this week that they would be suspending in-person classes for the week due to the surge of Omnicron cases. The announcement includes Byars Dowdy Elementary, Castle Heights Elementary, Coles Ferry Elementary, Jones Brummett Elementary, Sam Houston Elementary, Walter J. Baird Middle, and Winfree Bryant Middle.
The announcement said due to an overwhelming number of positive COVID cases, the school “reached a level which makes us unable to staff our classrooms and buildings.” Based on information gathered, the school district decided that there would be too many teachers absent from school to be able to conduct class in a normal manner.
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Clarice Schillinger, who last year helped to elect school directors across the state to get kids back into the classroom, announced this week she is running as a Republican for Pennsylvania lieutenant governor.
For the Franklin County native who now lives in Montgomery County with her husband and children, Schillinger and her family felt firsthand the impact of schools closing in her own Hatboro-Horsham School District in reaction to COVID-19. She started the Keeping Kids in School PAC to endorse school-board candidates and formed Back to School PA PAC to provide financial support to school-director campaigns across Pennsylvania.
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Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) responded after backlash regarding his view on COVID vaccines. Johnson said, “I won’t apologize for being in awe of creation or for the assumption that immunity from COVID infection might outperform immunity created in a lab.”
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St. Paul and Minneapolis mayors announced on Wednesday morning that they are reinstating mask mandates for city buildings and licensed businesses when social distancing cannot be maintained.
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Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) criticized distance learning, saying that it’s “not a substitute” for in-person learning. Gallaher made the comments about distance learning following the announcement that Milwaukee and Madison schools reverted to online schooling for the first several days back after Christmas break.
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Pennsylvania already exempts many medical supplies from its sales tax, but not COVID tests, a discrepancy legislation by Sen. Mario Scavello (R-East Stroudsburg) would eliminate.
Scavello’s bill would except rapid at-home COVID-19 antigen tests from the state’s six-percent sales levy. Healthcare devices, services and substances all generally don’t get taxed in the Keystone State.
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Twitter late Thursday acknowledged that Just the News founder and Editor-in-Chief John Solomon’s account was “suspended in error” this week over a post about a COVID-19 vaccine.
The respond follows an appeal earlier in the day by Solomon after his account was suspended Tuesday for his tweet linking to the article “Pfizer to continue distributing version of COVID-19 vaccine not fully approved by FDA.”
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Three Wisconsin urgent care clinics within the Advocate Aurora Health network were closed down temporarily due to staffing shortages. A spokesperson for the clinics told The Minnesota Sun that the closures are due to “managing the COVID surge combined with staffing shortages.”
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A letter, dated December 21, from the St. Croix County Public Health Department threatens legal action against residents who do not quarantine properly after testing positive for COVID. The letter goes on to detail all the recommended “voluntary” actions the person should take following a positive COVID test.
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The Minnesota Democrat Farmer Laborer (DFL) released a statement following a letter signed by over 30 Minnesota Republican (GOP) House lawmakers condemning a COVID vaccine mandate implemented by Mayo Clinic, calling the letter “deeply disturbing.”
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced a new incentive for residents to get their COVID vaccine and flu shot. Cooper tweeted this week that anyone needing their annual flu shot or COVID vaccination could meet NFL alumni on December 14, from 3 – 6 pm at the Nissan Stadium.
He said he was grateful to the NFL health alumni, the Tennessee Titans, the Tennessee Department of Health, and Nashville Health for organizing the event.
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Last week in this space, I included a few words about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s remarkable new book, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. I also included a link to Kennedy’s appearance on “Tucker Carlson Today.”
It was a remarkable exchange and I commend both the book and the interview to your attention. I disagree with Kennedy about various things, including the efficacy of vaccines in general, but his assessment of the highest-paid employee of the federal government, Anthony Fauci, is worth the price of admission.
As I remarked a couple of weeks ago, I thought I had done writing about COVID. Surely, I thought, the hysteria is on the wane. Most people are rational. They know that the flimsy porous masks you see everywhere are useless tokens of conformity. They understand that the disease is serious for only a tiny part of the population. They also know staying home and practicing “social distancing” has its own liabilities, not least of which is a diminution in the potency of one’s immune response.
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The owner of the Interchange Wine and Coffee Bistro began her 90-day jail sentence Thursday after a jury found her guilty of violating COVID-19 emergency orders from Democrat Gov. Timothy J. “Tim” Walz at her Freeborn County District Court trial.
Melissa “Lisa” Hanson represented herself sui juris, while she was prosecuted by Albert Lea’s City Attorney Kelly Martinez on six of the nine misdemeanors charges against her.
All six of the counts were for willfully violating the governor’s November 2020 executive orders, which prohibited serving alcohol indoors.
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ALBERT LEA, Minnesota – The jury selection finished in the criminal trial of Melissa “Lisa” Hanson on Tuesday evening, after a full day of interviews. Hanson and the City Attorney Kelly Martinez chose six jurors to serve and two back up jurors.
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ALBERT LEA, Minnesota – The prosecutor, an Albert Lea city attorney, in the Melissa “Lisa” Hanson case appeared to compare Hanson’s alleged violation of COVID emergency orders with Black Lives Matter Riots and January 6 during the jury selection process.
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ALBERT LEA, Minnesota – Monday was the scheduled start to the trial against Minnesota restaurant owner, Lisa Hanson, who is charged with nine misdemeanors after she opened her restaurant in violation of Governor Tim Walz’s (D) COVID orders in 2020.
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Five fully vaccinated California residents contracted the Omicron COVID variant while attending a wedding in Wisconsin, various reports say. The Wisconsin State Journal reported that no cases have been contracted by residents at this time, however Wisconsin’s Department of Health (DHS) is investigating the ‘outbreak.’
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A Minnesota family has been advocating for their father and husband, David Dentz, in the Methodist Hospital ICU with COVID, where Justin Dentz says his father is failing because of the hospital’s refusal to allow ‘non-protocol’ treatments. Dentz told The Minnesota Sun that his grandfather passed away at the end of November due to similar issues and he doesn’t want to see the same thing happen to his father. Dentz says his father has been on a ventilator and despite multiple meetings, the hospital refuses to try treating him with Ivermectin or supplements.
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Minnesota’s Democrat lawmakers responded to the first Omicron COVID case detected in Minnesota. To date, the case is only the second diagnosed case of the Omicron variant in the nation. The man who tested positive for Omicron was fully vaccinated and had just gotten his booster shot in early November. He contracted the virus while attending a conference in New York City in mid-November, Alpha News reported.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Fox Business contributor and financial guru Liz Peek to the newsmakers line to discuss Friday’s Dow, inflationary reactions, and the nomination of Saule Omarova.
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Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) responded in a video posted to Twitter, to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s claim to “represent science,” saying “That’s crazy.” Fauci claimed to represent science during an interview on Face the Nation with CBS that was aired on Sunday.
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The union for St. Paul police officers filed a lawsuit over a COVID vaccine mandate that will be in place in the new year. The mandate does not allow for testing and masking as a substitute for getting vaccinated, however they will allow medical and religious exemptions, sources say.
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ST. PAUL, Minnesota – A medical freedom protest took place in St. Paul outside of the ABC affiliate, KSTP 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS. The event, organized by Mark Bishofsky, was attended by several hundred people who stood on the sidewalks waving and cheering.
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Shakopee, Minnesota public schools are closing for the entire week of Thanksgiving due to rising COVID case levels. Across all 10 Shakopee schools, 85 students have COVID as of Friday, with 30 of the cases at Jackson Elementary. The number of cases is growing, with over 20 more cases added to the list Friday afternoon.
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Tennessee Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have joined other Republicans to challenge President Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate. Both Hagerty and Blackburn are utilizing the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to block the order and protect Americans from losing their jobs because of it.
The CRA is a tool that congress is able to use to overturn rules issued by federal agencies.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to weigh in on a recent injunction by Judge Waverly Crenshaw banning mask mandates in schools.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed direct marketing expert Craig Huey in studio to discuss California pandemic paranoia and the Obama judge who recently ruled against Tennessee’s mask mandate ban.
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Evolving research on COVID-19 interventions calls into question whether bureaucrats, administrators and licensing boards are “following the science” by mandating vaccines and masks and threatening medical professionals for challenging pandemic orthodoxy.
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Wisconsin Representative Thomas Tiffany (R-WI-07) joined the effort to nullify the Biden Administration COVID vaccine mandate. Tiffany said, “Overreaching federal vaccine mandates will affect 80 million Americans.”
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In his most recent column, George Will, dean of serious American political commentators and high priest of Trump-hate, broke new ground in the reconciliation of buyer’s remorse over last year’s election and visceral aversion to Donald Trump. Will counseled Joe Biden’s entourage to tighten the cocoon that protects him from journalistic scrutiny or any form of spontaneity in public, lest Trump be reelected in 2024.
I have agreed with Will on almost everything between the 1964 and 2016 elections, and we have been cordial acquaintances for 40 years, although among its other regrettable side effects, the Trump phenomenon seems to have paused contact between us. George Will now purports to believe that the disappearance of Trump, which he had assured himself and his readers was inevitable if it were only possible to evict him from office last year, is necessary for the restoration of two-party rule.
With respect, I offer an alternative view. Trump is instrumental in the restoration of two-party rule.
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