Former Police Officer Kimberly Potter Sentenced to 24 Months in Daunte Wright Case

Noting that the case departed significantly from that of other police killings in Hennepin County, a judge sentenced former Brooklyn Center Police officer Kimberly Potter to 24 months in prison, with the instruction for her to serve two-thirds of that sentence, or a total of 16 months. 

“This is a cop who made a tragic mistake,” Judge Regina Chu said just before sentencing Potter. “She drew her firearm thinking it was her Taser and tragically killed a young man.” 

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Scott Presler Brings #ThePersistence to His Ohio Tour Supporting Jim Renacci for Governor

Scott Presler

The conservative activist whose tagline is “Make Kindness Great Again” is bringing his #ThePersistence vibe to his tour of Ohio in support of Republican James B. “Jim” Renacci’s gubernatorial campaign.

“Well, I’m not on a bus tour, but I am in a rental vehicle traveling this state of Ohio, and I’m driving myself. I’m not living a fancy life with a chauffeur,” said Scott Presler, who worked as a dog walker and also for a Northern Virginia school system before he dedicated himself to electing Donald J. Trump president in 2016. “I take care of my own business, but I started in Medina, Ohio, doing a Super Bowl, anti-Woke party with Jim Renacci running for governor.”

Presler said he is traveling all over the state to get the word out before the May 3 primary, when Renacci faces Gov. R. Michael DeWine.

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Big-Name Democrats Skip Biden Visit to Ohio

As President Joe Biden visited and spoke in Ohio Thursday, notable Democratic elected officials from around the state were not in attendance. 

According to the Ohio Republican Party (ORP), Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, also a U.S. Senate candidate, was not in attendance for Biden’s speech. Neither was Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) or Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH-13). Ryan, too, is running for U.S. Senate. 

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Ohio Redistricting Commission Sets Meeting on Deadline Date

The Ohio Redistricting Commission announced it will meet Thursday, the same day as a court-ordered deadline to submit its third effort at state legislative maps.

The meeting comes as the two Democrats on the commission have spent the past two weeks calling for meetings and after Republican State Auditor Keith Faber criticized Democrats for not calling a meeting themselves, despite commission rules that require both co-chairs to make the call.

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Renowned Constitutional Scholar: Ongoing Border Crisis Fits Constitution’s Definition of an Invasion

A renowned constitutional scholar said what is happening now at the southern border does constitute an “invasion” under the U.S. Constitution.

“The kind of organized entry that we are seeing now where you got some of the gangs down in Mexico facilitating it and getting paid to put people across the border, that does qualify as an invasion even when no arms are involved,” Rob Natelson, the Independence Institute’s senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence, said.

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Green Beret, Washington U.S. House Hopeful Joe Kent: ‘We’re in the Forefront of the Republican Civil War’

The Special Forces warrant officer running to unseat renegade Washington Republican Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler in the 3rd Congressional District’s August 2 top-two jungle primary told The Star News Network he is fighting both Beutler and the Republican establishment in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

“I think we’re in the forefront of the Republican civil war because I’m going after an impeachment voter, so we’ve seen the I’d say GOP establishment try to quietly support Jamie Herrera Beutler along with four of the other impeachment voters,” said Joe Kent, who is a combat veteran of more than 20 years of Army service, including 11 deployments, mainly to Iraq.

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Jasmin Bade Premieres Lyric Video ‘Rent’ with The Star News Network

After previously being featured in a Music Spotlight column, Australian singer/songwriter Jasmin Bade released her new single, “Rent,” and its accompanying lyric video today with The Tennessee Star. “Rent” provides a bittersweet twist on the struggle to move on from a past relationship. Bade co-wrote the song with Emily Kroll, who penned the No. 1 hit “Just About Over You” by Priscilla Block, and Brian McKenna, son of Nashville songwriting legend Lori McKenna.

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Biden Administration Defies Court Ruling Again, Opts Against Holding Oil Drilling Sales

The Biden administration missed another deadline to hold quarterly onshore oil drilling lease sales after a federal court ruled it was legally required to do so.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) defied the June 2021 court ruling which ordered the administration to halt its ban on new oil and gas leases, the Western Energy Alliance — a fossil fuel industry group that challenged the ban — said Wednesday. In August 2021, the DOI vowed to publish notices of competitive sales in December and hold a lease sale 45 days later, two promises it failed to keep, in court filings.

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Major Media Outlets Are Going After ‘Freedom Convoy’ Donors

Several major media outlets have run stories over the past few days on the identities of individuals funding the “Freedom Convoy,” including names of donors that leaked during a hack of crowdfunding site GiveSendGo.

Hackers breached GiveSendGo late Sunday and leaked personal information of roughly 90,000 Freedom Convoy donors, including names, email handles, IP addresses and zip codes. The site hosting the leaked data provided it to “journalists and researchers” upon request.

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Texas Congresswoman, Texas Sue CDC over Air Travel Mask Mandate

U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, represented by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the state of Texas are suing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, challenging the constitutionality of its requirement that people wear masks on commercial airlines, conveyances, and at transportation hubs.

The lawsuit is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme Court, TPPF said, where they think it will prevail. The statute being used to justify the CDC airline mask mandate is the same one used to justify the eviction moratorium over which TPPF sued and the Supreme Court struck down last year.

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Biden Admin to Cancel $415 Million in Student Loan Debt for Roughly 16,000 People

A see of college graduates at the commencement ceremony.

The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will cancel $415 million in student debt for nearly 16,000 borrowers who claim they were misled by for-profit colleges.

The loans for almost 16,000 former students will be canceled under a legal provision called the borrower defense to repayment, which allows students to have their debts erased if they prove a for-profit school defrauded them, the Department of Education (DOE) said in a press release.

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Wall Street Giant Swallows Up 12,000 More Apartments for $5.8 Billion

Blackstone Inc. bought out Preferred Apartment Communities and the 12,000 apartments it owned in the Southeast for $5.8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Blackstone is one the world’s largest commercial property owners, and it purchased the Atlanta-based apartment owner with its largest fund, which raised more than $50 billion in the last five years, according to the WSJ.

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Problems Continue for Boeing With 787s and 737 MAXes

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday announced it would retain sole authority to issue airworthiness certificates and perform any final inspections on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

Meanwhile, two members of Congress, including Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, have asked for an investigation into why the FAA decided not to penalize Boeing for fatal crashes involving its 737 MAX.

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