Connecticut is tapping into federal funding to provide hundreds of thousands of public school students with free breakfast and lunch.
The state Department of Education announced that $16 million of funding the state received from the American Rescue Plan Act will be diverted to Connecticut’s free school meals program for the 2023-2024 school year, allowing students to get free meals regardless of their family’s income.
Read More
Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) filed legislation on Tuesday that would reverse the Biden Administration’s decision to defund school archery and hunting programs
Read More
More than two dozen cities and counties across Virginia are slated to receive a portion of nearly $100 million in federal funding for affordable housing and homelessness, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, D-VA, announced this week.
Localities across the Commonwealth are expected to receive a portion of more than $98.3 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Read More
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti recently joined a bipartisan group of 35 state attorneys general in sending a letter to Congressional leaders requesting assistance regarding the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Read More
Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Tennessee Speaker of the House, Cameron Sexton to the newsmaker line to discuss his recent proposal in the Tennessee General Assembly which would reject federal education funding in the state.
Read More
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) is reportedly in talks with state lawmakers, lobbyists, and other leaders to introduce a bill that would stop the state from accepting federal K-12 education dollars, according to a Wednesday report by The Associated Press.
Read More
Arizona State Rep. David Cook (R-Globe) announced Thursday that he is seeking federal aid in financing a project to widen Interstate 10 (I-10) between Chandler and Casa Grande.
“The state of Arizona has invested a total of $630 million into this project to date. The Mega grant is the missing piece that will finally complete this essential artery and bring relief to thousands of residents throughout Arizona and the country,” Cook wrote.
Read More
Minnesota will award $27 million in state funding and $42.6 million in federal funding to broadband expansion projects across the state.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development on Monday launched a request for proposals for the funding. The funding supports the state’s goal that all homes and businesses have access `to broadband with download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of at least 20 megabits per second by 2026, the news release said.
Read More
Pittsburgh Regional Transit agency’s annual increase in federal money in 2020 was nearly 75%, following similar trends in transit agencies across the country.
This financial support by the federal government was an important part of maintaining service throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, at a time when ridership dropped significantly, according to the transit agency.
Read More
The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute recently shared that a report from Matt Beienburg, Goldwater’s Director of Education Policy, reveals how spending surged in Arizona’s Public School system, but not for the actual needs of students.
“The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an era of unprecedented spending on public K-12 schools, yet available evidence suggests that the bonanza of federal spending was almost entirely avoidable and that much of it will likely serve a very different purpose than the one originally sold to policymakers and the public,” according to Goldwater Institute.
Read More
Federal funding to combat youth substance abuse is coming to Connecticut, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson says.
The veteran legislator announced the state has received $375,000 from the Drug-Free Community Support Program that will be used to assist three coalitions working to prevent substance abuse in Connecticut’s First District, serving Hartford, Litchfield and Middlesex counties.
Read More
Governor Tony Evers (D-WI) announced a new round of funding from the federal government that is aimed to address violent crime in Wisconsin.
Roughly $800,000 will be directed to the city of Racine and will focus on a “public health approach to violence prevention,” according to a release from the governor’s office.
Read More
Baltimore plans to spend $90.4 million of federal funds to buy hotels to replace existing homeless shelters and support other homelessness programs, The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday.
The city has not yet announced which hotels it will buy, but it plans to replace 275 existing beds in several shelters with private rooms in city-owned hotels, the Sun reported.
“Non-congregate shelter is a best practice we’re seeing throughout the nation,” Director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services Irene Agustin told the Sun. “We know this is an intervention that’s going to work within the city of Baltimore.”
Read More
Pennsylvania has launched a new $350 million program designed to help homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gov. Tom Wolf announced the statewide launch of the Pennsylvania Homeowner Assistance Fund (PAHAF) on Thursday after approval from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The fund utilizes $350 million from the American Rescue Plan Act distributed to Pennsylvania through the treasury’s Homeowner Assistance Fund to help homeowners avoid mortgage delinquencies, defaults and foreclosures, as well as for help paying utilities.
“As we continue to advance our COVID-19 recovery efforts, we must address the rising number of homeowners facing possible loss of their homes and foreclosure – this program will do just that,” Wolf said. “The Homeowner Assistance Fund will prioritize individuals and families with the greatest need, as well as those who are socially disadvantaged. I am grateful that the U.S. Treasury has approved Pennsylvania’s plan, and we can start the new year by distributing this critical funding to homeowners.”
Read More
The Department of Justice (DOJ) selected Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) as a recipient of a grant from the STOP School Violence Program.
The funds, totaling $990,927, are aimed to advance school safety by instituting safety measures in and around primary and secondary schools across the country.
Read More
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is leading a coalition of Republicans in Congress to sponsor legislation that would ban federal funding to states or localities that allow foreigners to vote in U.S. elections.
The new legislation, dubbed the Protecting Our Democracy by Preventing Foreign Citizens from Voting Act, was introduced after many liberal municipalities from San Francisco to New York have moved in 2021 to allow non-citizens to cast ballots in local elections
“It’s ridiculous that states are allowing foreign citizens to vote,” Rubio said. “However, if states and localities do let those who are not U.S. citizens to vote in elections, they shouldn’t get U.S. citizen taxpayer money.”
Read More
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation that would prohibit the federal government and any entity at the federal, state and local level that receives federal funding, including school districts, from requiring COVID-19 vaccines for minors.
“Parents should have the right to decide what is best for their children in consultation with their family doctor,” he said. “My view on the COVID-19 vaccine has remained clear: no mandates of any kind.
“President [Joe] Biden and his administration have repeatedly ignored medical privacy rights and personal liberty by pushing unlawful and burdensome vaccine mandates on American businesses, and now they are preparing to push a mandate on kids by pressuring parents – all without taking into account relative risk or the benefits of natural immunity.”
Read More
The U.S. federal government should have stopped funding research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2015 when China reduced its cooperation with the French in building and operating the lab, according to the leader of an investigation into COVID-19’s origins by the State Department under the Trump administration.
In 2015, French intelligence officials warned the U.S. State Department and their own foreign ministry that China was cutting back on agreed collaboration at the lab, former State official David Asher, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
By 2017, the French “were kicked out” of the lab and cooperation ceased, leading French officials to warn the State Department that they had grave concerns as to Chinese motivations, according to Asher.
Read More
Relative to the national trend, job searches temporarily increased in states that have announced they will no longer offer the pandemic-related federal unemployment boost, an economic report showed.
In states that are withdrawing from the federal unemployment program, interest in job postings increased 5%, according to the report released Thursday by job listings site Indeed. The increase was relative to a national average recorded during the final two weeks of April, before Republican governors began canceling the federal benefit.
“In May, job search activity on Indeed increased, relative to the national trend, in states that announced they would end federal [unemployment] benefits prematurely,” the Indeed report said.
Read More
Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed United States Senator (TN-R) Bill Hagerty to the newsmakers line to answer a tough question about his January sixth vote, Big Tech, S1, and Israel.
Read More
Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed State Rep. Jerry Sexton in studio to discuss critical race theory in Tennessee’s public schools and cutting the strings that are attached to federal education money coming from Washington into the state.
Read More
Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed VP of State Advocacy for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Todd Ziebarth to the newsmakers line to talk about federal funding and state ranking.
Read More
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would withhold money from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions after a U.S. court ruled that his administration could block federal law enforcement funds to states and cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Read More
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the White House can withhold funds from sanctuary cities, delivering a victory for President Donald Trump’s fight with jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Read More
by Fred Lucas Vice President Mike Pence on Friday told a gathering of state governors that the Trump administration is working with Congress on what he called a “historic” infrastructure program that would both reduce red tape and provide more federal funding. Addressing the governors at the vice presidential…
Read More
Phil Bredesen said he had no interest in halting federal funds for Planned Parenthood in a video captured by the Tennessee Republican Party, Politico says. The publication says the topic could become a campaign factor. Watch the video: The Democratic former governor, who is running for the U.S. Senate, told…
Read More