Tag Archives: GOP

The Tennessean reports: Gov. Bill Lee on Monday announced he is issuing an executive order requiring schools to allow parents to exempt their children from mask mandates, a decision that follows an outcry from some conservative legislators over districts’ masking policies for students. While the governor’s new Executive Order 84 addresses a key concern raised by many House and some …

The Birmingham News reports: An Alabama lawmaker says he will propose legislation to prohibit school systems from mandating that students in K-12 public schools wear masks to guard against the spread of COVID-19. Rep. Andrew Sorrell, R-Muscle Shoals, said it should be up to parents whether their children wear masks at school. He said he is sponsoring the bill at …

Roll Call reports: Former Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell, who left the GOP to become an independent in protest of his party’s behavior in the days after the 2020 election, has died of cancer. Mitchell announced in June he had been diagnosed with an advanced stage of renal cancer and would undergo aggressive treatment. His wife, Sherry, announced his death Monday …

The Wisconsin Examiner reports: The proposal would create an exemption to Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance law that would allow someone who is fired or voluntarily quits because an employer requires a COVID-19 vaccine, or proof of vaccination, to collect unemployment compensation. The lead sponsors of the legislation are Reps. Robert Brooks [photo], Dan Knodl, and Rick Gundrum  and Sen. Duey Stroebel. …

The right wing Washington Times reports: State legislators attending MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s three-day cyber symposium remained largely undeterred by his inability to prove, as promised, his theory that China hacked the 2020 election systems and switched votes in favor of President Biden. As Mr. Lindell’s claims unraveled last week in front of an audience of 40 million online viewers …

Politico reports: In interviews with Republican operatives, former Trump administration officials, and conservative leaders, there is a widespread acceptance that debate over marriage equality is settled. There is no serious discussion about trying to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark Supreme Court case that ruled states are required by law to recognize the marriage of same-sex couples. There were openly …

The Hill reports: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is calling for investigations into President Biden’s handling of the crisis in Afghanistan, where the democratic government was toppled over the weekend by Taliban forces following a pullout of U.S. troops from the war-torn nation. McCarthy told Punchbowl News late Sunday that Biden’s decision this year to remove thousands of U.S. …

Minnesota Public Radio reports: Republican Party of Minnesota Chair Jennifer Carnahan [photo] faced growing calls to resign this weekend, in the wake of a major GOP donor and activist being indicted on sex trafficking charges. More than a half-dozen GOP state legislators have publicly called on Carnahan to step down after news of Thursday’s indictment of Anton “Tony” Lazzaro. Multiple …

The Texas Tribune reports: The Texas Supreme Court will decide whether the mask mandates school districts have imposed, in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott, can move forward. Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a tweet that he has taken the mask mandate fight to the state Supreme Court, and Harris County Attorney Christian D. Menefee tweeted Saturday that the court …

Oklahoma City’s ABC News affiliate reports: Hundreds of people gathered at the state Capitol on Saturday for what they called the Oklahoma Freedom Rally, with many protesting against mandates on the COVID-19 vaccine and masks. While hundreds of people made it inside the Capitol rotunda for the rally, hundreds more were still outside as of 5 p.m., waiting to get …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: N.C. Rep. Keith Kidwell is hospitalized Friday after writing on Facebook that his wife, Viki, has COVID-19. The Beaufort County Republican Party asked people to gather at 6:30 p.m. outside the Beaufort County Hospital to pray for the Kidwells, the hospital workers and other patients. Kidwell has been a vocal opponent of the measures …

The Aiken Standard reports: The Aiken County Republican Party has overwhelmingly voted to censure U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, citing his support of the behemoth infrastructure bill that recently passed the Senate. The local party this week accused the powerful South Carolina Republican of playing both sides of the political aisle to his advantage, consciously violating Republican principles, backing bills “that …

Florida Politics reports: Florida recorded 1,071 additional deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the COVID-19 Weekly Situation Report released Friday afternoon by the Florida Department of Health. That total — similar to what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed for Florida in that agency’s most recent seven-day total — represents the worst week for COVID-19 deaths since January …

The Daily Beast reports: Law enforcement in Florida has arrested Gisela Castro Medina, a 19-year-old accused of helping a wealthy, young Republican strategist in Minnesota prey on girls and recruit them for paid sex. She faces the same criminal charges as her alleged pal, GOP operative Anton Lazzaro: sex trafficking of a minor, attempt to commit sex trafficking, and obstruction …

The Hill reports: Former reality star and California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner on Friday made a trip to the southern border wall in San Diego, touting her plans for border control should she be elected governor of the state in the upcoming recall election. “We don’t have a state, we do not have a country unless we have a secure …

The Mississippi Clarion-Ledger reports: Amid Mississippi’s largest surge in COVID-19 cases and with the state’s hospitals stretched beyond capacity, Governor Tate Reeves on Friday encouraged Mississippians to get vaccinated. The encouragement came in between attacks on the press, him questioning the efficacy of face masks at preventing the spread of the coronavirus and general vaccine misinformation. Reeves repeatedly said it …

From the Dallas Morning News editorial board: Babies hooked to ventilators. Overflow tents pitched outside of hospitals. Parents fretting that sending their kids to school might become an intolerable risk. A plateau in vaccination rates and the more contagious delta variant were just the recipe to send cases skyrocketing again. The Dallas-Fort Worth region has swung from a low of …

Politico reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration backed down from its threat to withhold school officials’ salaries if they resist his anti-mask rule, saying instead that the defiant officials should be responsible for the “consequences of their decisions.” The move by the governor’s office represents a tacit acknowledgement that it legally can’t take away the salaries of school board members and …

The Austin Statesman reports: Two days after announcing a new policy that required indoor diners to provide proof of at least one round of COVID-19 vaccination, sister restaurants Launderette and Fresa’s changed their policy after receiving a phone call and letter from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission alerting them that they were in violation of Section 14 of Senate Bill …

“Part of that green deal is the huge solar farm that they have out on the border of California and Nevada. Thousands of acres of concave mirrors that magnify the sun toward three towers – heat up the liquid in there and turn turbines. “But they weren’t anticipating that there would be hundreds and thousands of what they would call …