On the north bank of the Nolichucky River in Telford, Tennessee, sits Plum Grove. Between 1796 and 1801, the property served as the home of Tennessee’s first governor and founding father, John Sevier, who became a national hero after leading a band of volunteers from Washington County into battle during the Revolutionary War.
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As natural gas production expands in other states, Pennsylvania’s has flatlined and seen productivity declines. Industry leaders blame permitting issues and other roadblocks, while environmentalists say the economic outlook for gas has weakened and nature benefits.
“Productivity declines and limits on natural gas takeaway capacity resulted in a 0.4 (billion cubic feet per day) decrease in Pennsylvania’s total natural gas production in 2022,” the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported. “Until last year, output had increased every year since 2013 on the back of drilling efficiency gains.”
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Democratic officials who run the village of Yellow Springs, a progressive college town near Dayton, are persisting in their effort to legalize noncitizen voting.
Mayor Pam Conine (D) is pushing for the enactment of a state constitutional amendment that would actualize the policy. Yellow Springs voters approved a referendum in 2019 allowing dozens of noncitizen residents of the village to participate in local and state elections, but the measure never went into effect.
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Recent audits show that poor accounting practices can cause Pennsylvania townships to lose out on thousands of dollars, either in interest from a pension fund or from state aid.
A September audit of Dunkard Township in Greene County, for example, found that administrative mistakes caused an overpayment from state aid, among other issues, and required the township to repay nearly $5,000.
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Tennessee Comptrollers this week announced that government officials in Carter and Greene counties allegedly, in separate cases, stole thousands of dollars for their own personal benefit. According to a Comptrollers’ press release, authorities in Carter County have indicted Joyce Parsons, the former administrative assistant for Carter County’s Head Start program.
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Virginia’s newest crop of Republicans sprung up at a Greene County farm on Saturday. Candidates including Daniel Gade, Bob Good, and Senator Amanda Chase (R-Chesterfield) spoke to 397 people at the 41st Annual Greene County Pig Roast. The candidates expressed an urgent need for Republicans to work together to regain power in Virginia.
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Two more localities have passed resolutions establishing Second Amendment Sanctuaries.
On August 24, the Front Royal Town Council unanimously passed their version of the non-binding resolution, and the next day, Greene County also passed theirs.
The resolutions are the result of lobbying efforts by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, declaring that the localities will not pass laws restricting firearms. In July, new state laws took effect that allow cities and counties to pass their own gun laws, triggering a flurry of action. Some places are restricting guns, others are passing resolutions declaring they will not restrict guns. The resolutions are like a covenant — local leaders can still pass ordinances to the contrary — but are a way to signal allegiances to citizens and politicians.
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Alice DeWine, the daughter of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, was defeated Tuesday in the Republican primary for Greene County prosecutor.
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Greene County employees used taxpayer-funded county assets for personal reasons, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Tuesday. State auditors responded to allegations that county Sanitation Department employees used county vehicles for private purposes and used the department’s garage to work on their personal vehicles. That, auditors wrote, prompted the county attorney and the county’s human resources director to do an internal investigation. “From the summary of the internal investigation and the written reprimands given to the employees, it appears some employees did in fact utilize a county vehicle for private purposes or the benefit of another individual and did use the department’s garage to perform work on or have work performed on their personal vehicles,” auditors wrote. “Two employees were issued written reprimands, which included three-day unpaid suspensions. We reviewed Sanitation Department invoices and were unable to determine if any department purchased auto parts were used on personal vehicles. Sound business practices dictate that county-owned property be used only for county purposes. We did note that the county, upon completion of its investigation, revised several departmental polices.” County Mayor Kevin Morrison, in a written response to Comptrollers, said he has “worked closely with the Director of Solid Waste to…
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The United States Constitution does, of course, contain guidelines as to how a territory may enter the Union as a full-fledged state on an equal footing with all previously-existing states. The last time that any new states were added to the United States was in the year 1959 when Alaska became the nation’s 49th state and Hawaii became the country’s 50th state. Specifically, the U.S. Constitution’s Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 — which requires only a simple majority vote — reads: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.” There has been recent chatter about admitting Puerto Rico into the Union as the nation’s 51st state. As the Constitution was not written until 1787 — and, once written, did not take effect until the following year — the procedure outlined within the still-in-force Articles of Confederation would have remained applicable to admission of news states up to…
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