Thousands of Public Workers Seek Vaccine Exemptions in Washington

Doctor with mask on holding COVID-19 Vaccine

Some 4,800 state employees in Washington have already requested medical or religious exemptions from Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

According to information released this week by the state, those requests amount to nearly 8% of the 60,000 state workers who fall under Inslee’s 24 cabinet departments. As of Sept. 6, less than 50% of all employees in those agencies were verified as being fully vaccinated.

Inslee last month issued an executive order that all state employees, as well as K-12 and state university staff, must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or face dismissal.

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Commentary: The Puppet Master of the Republic

“Ya know, reality has a way of intruding. Reality eventually intrudes on everything.”

– Joe Biden

During last year’s Democratic primaries when everyone fumbled the ball, the leftist voters turned to socialist Bernie Sanders. Although the DNC figured Sanders would fizzle with baseline Democrats, they misread their comrades. When Sanders won California and Nevada, they hurriedly regrouped. Their strategy was to pair Joe Biden with a babysitter VP, and use them as their progressive shills.

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Woodson Center Celebrates 40 Years of Transforming Poor Neighborhoods as Founder Announces Retirement

The life-changing impact that Robert Woodson has had on the lives of countless individuals and communities was highlighted Thursday evening during a 40th-anniversary celebration of the center named for him in Washington, D.C.

One after another, the grassroots leaders and individuals who have been touched by Woodson’s work at the Woodson Center thanked the civil rights leader for the ways in which he has empowered blacks and others living in America’s inner cities and low-income neighborhoods.

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‘Global Health Threat’: Untreatable Fungus Spreading In DC, Dallas, CDC Says

An untreatable fungus is spreading in health facilities in Washington, D.C., and Dallas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC issued an update Thursday regarding Candida auris, an emerging strain of fungus resistant to medication causing infections, fever and death. The fungus was detected in two hospitals in Dallas and a nursing home in Washington, D.C., the Associated Press reported.

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Commentary: Senate Republicans Just Handed Matches to Arsonists

One of the most fateful decisions of Donald Trump’s presidency happened just weeks after Inauguration Day.

In March 2017, Republican lawmakers joined Democrats to demand Jeff Sessions, a former Senate colleague and Trump’s new attorney general, recuse himself from anything related to the investigation into alleged Russian election collusion. Sessions’ two brief meetings in 2016 with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak—a figure who appeared often in collusion-related drama—amounted to evidence of collusion, collusion perps insisted.

Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) were just a few top Republicans who asked Sessions to step aside—so he did.

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Former National Security Advisor KT McFarland Talks Kingmaker Trump and Her New Book, Revolution: Trump, Washington, and ‘We the People’

Listen online at iHeart Radio. Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed former Trump national security advisor and author KT McFarland to the newsmakers line to talk about the Trump Revolution and her new book Revolution: Trump, Washington, and ‘We the People’.

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Top House Democrat Calls on FBI to Investigate Parler’s Financing, Possible Ties to Russia

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the Democratic chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, on Thursday called on FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate financing for Parler, including whether the social media site has any ties to Russia.

Part of Maloney’s rationale for investigating Parler’s links to Russia is that the social media site’s CEO, John Matze, founded the company shortly after traveling to Russia with his wife, who is Russian.

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Judge Michael Warren Commentary: Thanksgiving’s Historical Relationship with Religion

Turkey and stuffing. Detroit Lions Football. Turkey Trots. Parades and the arrival of Santa. Followed by frenzied shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Maybe a bit of charity on Giving Tuesday. The ultimate American holiday. What more could you need?

Gratitude. Blessings. Humility. Although historical debate surrounds the origins of Thanksgiving in colonial America, it has a deeply rooted core that today is overshadowed by consumerism and entertainment culture.

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Crews Vacuum ‘Murder Hornets’ Out of Washington Nest

Heavily protected crews in Washington state worked Saturday to destroy the first nest of so-called murder hornets discovered in the United States.

The state Agriculture Department had spent weeks searching, trapping and using dental floss to tie tracking devices to Asian giant hornets, which can deliver painful stings to people and spit venom but are the biggest threat to honeybees that farmers depend on to pollinate crops.

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‘Nothing Left in the Bucket’: Wildfire Resources Run Thin

Justin Silvera came off the fire lines in Northern California after a grueling 36 straight days battling wildfires and evacuating residents ahead of the flames. Before that, he and his crew had worked for 20 days, followed by a three-day break.

Silvera, a 43-year-old battalion chief with Cal Fire, California’s state firefighting agency, said he’s lost track of the blazes he’s fought this year. He and his crew have sometimes been on duty for 64 hours at a stretch, their only rest coming in 20-minute catnaps.

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Exclusive: Creator of Capitol Hill Musical ‘K Street’ Hosts First Zoom Table Read Wednesday

The creator and producer of “K Street, NW: A Capitol Hill Musical” told the Star News Network what motivated him to capture search for love while balancing principle and compromise in Washington and set it to music.

“It is about a young woman from Iowa, who comes to Washington, D.C, to be a Hill intern and as she learns about Capitol Hill, she rises up the ranks to become a chief of staff for a senator with promising political prospects,” said Karl Amadeus Notturno, who is a Publicus Fellow at the Claremont Institute.

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Police Push Protesters Back From Andrew Jackson Statue in Front of White House as They Attempt to Pull it Down

The attack against American history continued Monday evening as police blocked protesters attempting to tear down a statue of Andrew Jackson in front of the White House.

Reporter Shomari Stone tweeted, “BREAKING: Metropolitan Police and US Park Police move demonstrators back from Lafayette Square Park. Two separate protesters tell me the groups want to tear down the Andrew Jackson statue near the White House. @NBCNews@MSNbc @nbcwashington”.

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The Tennessee Star’s Neil McCabe Interviewed by Politico for Story on Nation’s Division

Neil McCabe, the national correspondent for The Tennessee Star and Star News network, was interviewed by Politico last week for a front-page story on the nation’s division.

The article focused on Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, called CHAZ for short, which Politico described as a “microcosm of the culture wars.” The CHAZ was established by protesters earlier this month after law enforcement officers withdrew from the scene.

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The Tennessee Star Report Live from Washington DC Talks to Diamond and Silk About Their YouTube Fame and Getting off the Democrat Plantation

On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – live from Washington DC Leahy sat with Diamond and Silk of YouTube fame about how they came to be and what triggered them to start their YouTube channel.

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Ilhan Omar Scheduled to Headline Another CAIR Fundraiser

  Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is scheduled to headline another fundraiser for the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR’s Washington state chapter announced last week that Omar would be speaking at its May 25 fundraiser along with Motiva Johnson-Harrell, a state representative from Pennsylvania and the first Muslim woman in its State Legislature. TICKETS ARE HERE! 🎟️ https://t.co/rr2d40XKSm#IlhanOmar #Muslim2020 #Ramadan2019 pic.twitter.com/r59xRUcirx — CAIR_WA (@CAIR_WA) May 2, 2019 The fundraiser is titled “Unapologetically Us: Building Muslim Power for 2020 and Beyond.” “The coming year will be pivotal for our community and for the nation as a whole. There are many challenges from violent Islamophobia to xenophobic policies, but there’s also hope,” an event description states. “American Muslims have seen political representation like never before, including the election of Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American and one of two American Muslim women elected to Congress.” CAIR goes on to invite its supporters to “join us for an evening of conversation, inspiration, and strategizing on how we can best defend our community everyday while building power for 2020.” In March, Omar headlined CAIR’s Fourth Annual Valley Banquet in Los Angeles and faced widespread backlash for comments she made during her speech. At one…

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Trump Nominations Begin to Remake the Liberal 9th Circuit

by Fred Lucas   President Donald Trump is moving to make over the liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has delivered some of the most stinging judicial setbacks to his agenda. Trump announced three nominations this week to the San Francisco-based appeals court, which covers California, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and the eastern part of Washington state. Earlier this month, the president renominated two other judges for the 9th Circuit. “We’re very happy to have these extraordinary nominees,” Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, told The Daily Signal. “It doesn’t change the [9th Circuit] majority to Republican nominees. But when we are talking about future three-judge panels, the odds are a lot better.” Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will oversee the confirmation process for the nominees and said he hopes for bipartisanship. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] “I’m very supportive of the nominees submitted by President Trump to serve on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals,” Graham said in a prepared statement. “These are highly qualified nominees and I am hopeful they will receive wide bipartisan…

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US Pacific Northwest Sees Measles Outbreak

Officials in the Pacific Northwest state of Washington have declared a measles outbreak after at least 22 people, including 20 children, have become infected with the disease since Jan. 1. “It’s an outbreak because generally, the way we define an outbreak is when you have more observed cases than expected cases. And generally with measles, the expected number is zero,” Dr. Alan Melnick with Clark County Public Health told KOIN6 TV in Portland, Oregon, last week. “You know, we have a very effective vaccine for measles. Two shots are 97 percent effective. We really shouldn’t be seeing measles.” The outbreak comes on the heels of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) releasing data for 2018 earlier this month. The CDC said the 349 reported cases in 26 states and the District of Columbia made 2018 the second worse year for measles since 2000, when the disease was eliminated in the U.S. It said 2014 was the worst year, with a reported 667 cases. The report said some of the cases were related to unvaccinated people in Orthodox Jewish communities, as well as travelers who became infected after visiting Israel, Italy, France and Britain, where major outbreaks are occurring.…

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‘Tech Addicts’ Seek Solace in 12 Steps and Rehab

We like to say we’re addicted to our phones or an app or some new show on a streaming video service. But for some people, tech gets in the way of daily functioning and self-care. We’re talking flunk-your-classes, can’t-find-a-job, live-in-a-dark-hole kinds of problems, with depression, anxiety and sometimes suicidal thoughts part of the mix. Suburban Seattle, a major tech center, has become a hub for help for so-called “tech addicts,” with residential rehab, psychologists who specialize in such treatment and 12-step meetings. “The drugs of old are now repackaged. We have a new foe,” Cosette Rae says of the barrage of tech. A former developer in the tech world, she heads a Seattle area rehab center called reSTART Life, one of the few residential programs in the nation specializing in tech addiction. Use of that word — addiction — when it comes to devices, online content and the like is still debated in the mental health world. But many practitioners agree that tech use is increasingly intertwined with the problems of those seeking help. An American Academy of Pediatrics review of worldwide research found that excessive use of video games alone is a serious problem for as many as 9…

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Antifa Accused of Attacking Marines in Philadelphia Has Ties With DC’s Radical Antifa Leader

by Andrew Kerr   One of the suspects charged with assault for allegedly attacking two Marines in Philadelphia in November has ties with Washington D.C.’s radical Antifa leader Joseph “Jose” Alcoff, who’s advocated for violence and for the overthrow of the government. Thomas Keenan, 33, was charged in November with aggravated assault after allegedly partaking in a mob attack against two Marines who were mistaken for being participants in a right-wing rally. Keenan has been called “leader” of the Antifa contingent in Philadelphia area, according to Philadelphia Magazine. In 2011, Keenan and Alcoff were arrested and charged with rioting in New Jersey after a street fight broke out between neo-Nazis and members of the Anti-Racist Action organization. The Marines, Alejandro Godinez and Luis Torres, testified in December that a group of 10 to 12 Antifa members called them “Nazis” and “white supremacists” and attacked them on the street despite their denials that they had no association with the right-wing group demonstrating nearby. During the attack, Godinez said he shouted “I’m Mexican” at the mob, which allegedly led the attackers to call him a “spic” and “wetback.” Alcoff, 36, has made significant efforts to separate his true identity from his fanatical personas, “Chepe” and “Jose Martin,” which…

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Commentary: Pulling Young Americans Back From the Brink

by Daniel Davis   During the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton often delivered the line: “America is great, because she is good.” It was a feel-good line, deployed then as code for “America is too good to elect Donald Trump.” Notwithstanding the thick irony of Clinton claiming to be the virtuous alternative, her statement on its own terms made sense: If a nation would be great, it must be morally upright—and America, despite all its flaws, is fundamentally good. This view puts Clinton increasingly on the fringes within her own movement. In 2018, the prophets of wokeness are calling progressives to “wake up” to the reality that America, at its core, is racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and economically unjust. The system, they say, is “rigged.” [The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more. ] And today’s young adults are heeding those voices and increasingly embracing their viewpoint. A recent study showed that 1 out of 5 Americans under the age of 37 do not think Americans should be proud of their history. One out of 5 millennial Americans see the flag as a sign of intolerance…

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Commentary: Trump is Right About the Shutdown

by Deion Kathawa   President Trump once again did something very few thought he would or should do. He hosted a meeting in a camera-filled Oval Office with Vice President Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), during which he brazenly and passionately said: If we don’t get what we want . . . I will shut down the government, absolutely; and I am proud to shut down the government for border security . . . I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. … I will take the mantle of shutting down, and I’m going to shut it down for border security. If the government does partially shut down on Friday, President Trump just handed the Democratic Party a ready-made, 30-second attack ad. Tactically, it seems foolish to have played into their hands the way Trump did. That may be the case. But, as is so often the case with Trump’s tactical “failures,” this one also could end up being a strategic victory. Regardless, as a nation we need to start thinking more rigorously about government shutdowns, events we have been scaremongered into believing are the end of the republic, if…

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Commentary: Break Up Google for the Public Good

by Ned Ryun   It’s time for all of us to admit that Alphabet, Inc. is the 21st century equivalent of Ma Bell: it is an almost all-controlling monopoly that restricts consumer choice in order to maximize profit for the company. We all know what Ronald Reagan did to AT&T. He broke up that monopoly so Americans could have real choices and the free market could actually work. So it’s time for the Trump Administration to break up the Alphabet, Inc. monopoly. But unlike the Ma Bell monopoly, Alphabet, Inc.’s monopoly—which includes the search-engine behemoth Google—isn’t just about greater competition and more choices for the American people. It’s about so much more: free political discourse and our privacy rights as citizens. Last week in Washington D.C., the House called in Google CEO Sundar Pichai to question him about the bias against conservatives at his company, but also about data privacy and Google’s plans for working with China. Every last one of those issues should trouble every last American. The mainstream media, as the mindless propagandists of the deep state and Democratic Party, are still trying to maintain the miserable hoax of Russian collusion to cover up their own misdeeds and…

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