News

October tax revenues were higher than last year but fell short of predictions, according to the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration. State collections for October were $22.6 million more than last year. The year-to-date numbers are 1.4% or $72.4 million above budget, according to the department.

Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday gave an update on the search for Sen. Marco Rubio's replacement in the Senate, now that the latter has been nominated for Secretary of State. President-elect Donald Trump tapped Rubio for the post last week as one of his first cabinet nominations for the former president's second term. Rubio, who is known for being a hawk on China and Iraq, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next year, after he resigns his post in January.

Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell on Monday demanding accountability within the federal agency after it was reported that FEMA workers were advised to discriminate against Trump supporters who needed assistance after Hurricane Helene. Earlier this month, The Daily Wire reported that a FEMA supervisor ordered workers to bypass the homes of Donald Trump’s supporters as they surveyed the damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida.

Almost three-fourths of voters say it should be illegal to subject children to transgender medical interventions, according to a new poll from Napolitan News Service. The percentage of voters surveyed who oppose child sex changes—which include so-called puberty blockers, hormone regimens, and irreversible surgeries—increased by 10 points since August.

While the Democratic Party has often controlled the narrative on the issue of climate change, the Republicans have been promoting alternative options that they argue are more cost-effective and could improve the environment while at the same time strengthening America's energy independence.  Democratic elected officials have put up some solutions to climate change such as the "Green New Deal" and staying in the Paris Climate Accord, the international treaty that has a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has promised to end the agency's promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies as part of his agency. "The FCC's most recent budget request said that promoting DEI was the agency's second-highest strategic goal. Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI," Carr said.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ruled for the Republican National Committee, holding that undated mail-in ballots may not be counted.

The U.S. Department of Defense's annual audit once again resulted in a disclaimer.  That means the federal government's largest agency – with a budget of more than $840 billion – can't fully explain its spending. The disclaimer this year was expected. And it's expected again next year. The Pentagon previously said it will be able to accurately account for its spending by 2027.

The forthcoming Trump-Vance administration has the opportunity to protect pro-life pregnancy resource centers that have been targeted, ignored, and undermined by the Biden-Harris Justice Department. “President Trump, more than almost anyone, understands what it’s like to have the entire weight of the federal law and investigatory power of the federal law against him,” said Chelsey Youman of Human Coalition, which supports pregnancy help centers. “The pro-life movement feels that weight, that burden, as well.”

Thousands of American kids are being sent to camps run by a Chinese influence and intelligence agency that promote Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda and even train some children to act like “Little Overseas Chinese Police,” a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation discovered. The Chinese government advertises the “Root-Seeking Summer Camp In China” as an opportunity for ethnically Chinese children living in the U.S. and other countries to immerse themselves in Chinese language and culture. However, a DCNF review of Chinese government announcements and the program’s website discovered the camps are overseen by a Chinese influence and intelligence service.

President-elect Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he will declare a national emergency and use military assets to help him carry out his mass deportation plans. “True!!!” the president-elect posted on Truth Social early Monday morning in response to a post by Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch. Fitton had posted about reports indicating the incoming Trump administration was “prepared to declare a national emergency and will use military assets to reverse the Biden invasion through a mass deportation program.”

The two Democratic members of the Bucks County Commission voted to count ballots the Pennsylvania Supreme Court determined are illegal in a previous ruling, with the county specifically giving election workers orders to count mail-in votes returned with an incomplete, incorrect, or missing date.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., faces considerable opposition for the post of attorney general, but some of President-elect Donald Trump’s other picks for top Department of Justice officials could serve to assuage concerned senators. A conservative firebrand, Gaetz’s appointment has ruffled feathers among the Senate GOP and sent Democrats into a frenzy.

In a harsh escalation against religious freedom in Nicaragua, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo prohibited Catholic priests from entering public hospitals to give patients the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. “They are prohibiting the entry of priests into hospitals to carry the Holy Oils for the Anointing of the Sick,” said lawyer and author Martha Patricia Molina, who wrote, “Nicaragua: a persecuted Church?”

Federal pricing data released this week for consumer and producer prices shows that inflation rose last month. Harvard professor and former economic advisor to President Barack Obama Jason Furman said the consumer data could show a “resurgence of inflation” not to the ultra high levels in recent years but to more recent elevated data.