WELL SATURDAY THE TALK WAS ALL ABOUT THIS BILL:
EDUCATION FREEDOM SCHOLARSHIP ACT:
SB2787 Johnson – HB2468 Lamberth
Education – As introduced, requires the department of education to study the school choice programs available in other states and to submit a report of the department’s findings at the conclusion of the study to the Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Speaker of the Senate no later than January 1, 2025. – Amends TCA Title 49
THEN ON MONDAY THIS CAPTION BILL (originally filed last year) SHOWED UP WITH A 39 page AMENDMENT that has not yet been posted on the Legislative Website.
HB1183, as amended, was heard last night in the House K-12 Subcommittee and after a debate that lasted over two hours, it was passed by the committee – vote not yet posted on the website.
SB503 is in Senate Education today – stay tuned.
HB2468 – the seven page bill, has been taken off notice in the house, normally meaning that the bill will not be heard.
SB 0503 by *Johnson , Lundberg – HB 1183
by *Lamberth , WHITE, CEPICKY, MOODY, SLATER, GARRETT
Education – As introduced, extends from October to November, the time within which a public institution of higher education that receives funds from the distribution of credit cards to students or any percentage from the use of cards bearing the college or university name or logo must report the amount of such funds or percentage received as well as how the funds were expended during the previous fiscal year to the education committee of the senate and the education administration committee of the house of representatives. – Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8 and Title 49
Tennessee Bill Would Prohibit Financial De-Banking for Political, Religious Beliefs
ennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) have proposed legislation that would prohibit America’s largest financial institutions from discriminating against customers based on their religious or political beliefs.
Their bills, HB 2100 and SB 2148, would specifically prohibit banks, insurers and other financial institutions from “denying or canceling services to a person, or otherwise discriminating against a person, based upon the use of a social credit score or other factors.”
Social credit scores were originally conceived in China, where they are used as a compliance tool by the Chinese Communist Party. In 2015, The Daily Caller explained that the scores result from mass monitoring and analysis of citizens, with financial transactions, posts to social media, work history, and travel among the data considered.
The result of the mass surveillance and data gathering, according to the report, allows the government to assign a score that it claims reveals whether an individual is “raising the honest mentality and credit levels of the entire society.”
After almost an hour of testimony by victims of de-banking and banking professionals opposed to the bill, a vote on HB 2100 was delayed until Tuesday’s next meeting of the House Banking and Consumer Affairs Subcommittee.
Before testimony by those supporting the legislation began, Zachary explained an amendment that limits the bill’s enforcement to banks with more than $100 billion in assets, which he further elaborated involves the 28 largest banks in the country.
No examples of de-banking based on political views or religious belief have been reported in Tennessee, the lawmaker revealed, adding, “this only applies to the largest banks” and insurance providers “in the country.”
Chase Bank allegedly shutters bank account of religious freedom nonprofit, demands donor list
A Chase employee allegedly told the National Committee for Religious Freedom to reveal a donor list if it wanted its account back
JPMorgan Chase Bank allegedly closed the bank account of a religious freedom nonprofit and demanded a list of its donors as a condition to have the account reinstated.
The bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), which is a nonpartisan, multi-faith nonprofit founded by former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, was recently closed without explanation, Brownback told FOX Business.
“We went into a Chase branch in the District of Columbia to open an account, no problem,” Brownback said. “Then, several weeks later, I went to put another deposit in the account, and they said, ‘Your account has been canceled, we’ll be sending your money back to you.'”
Brownback, who served Kansas as its governor and senator before becoming the international religious freedom ambassador in the Trump administration, said that when NCRF’s executive director asked about why the account had been closed, the executive director was stonewalled.
“The people said the decision was made at the corporate level, it’s secret, we’re not going to tell you why, and it’s irrevocable,” Brownback said. “We were just stunned.” He also penned an op-ed for The Washington Examiner last week detailing the situation.
In his op-ed, Brownback alleged that a Chase employee reached out to the nonprofit and said Chase would reconsider doing business with the nonprofit if it would provide a donor list, a list of political candidates it intended to support and a full explanation of the criteria by which it would endorse them.
Tennessee Bill Addressing Fire Alarms After Nashville School Shooting Heads to Governor
Covenant School parents Abbey McClean, left, Mary Joyce and Melissa Alexander, right, lean over the railing in the Senate chamber during a legislative session Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Lawmakers passed a bill requiring public and private schools to determine why a fire alarm went off before evacuating children from classrooms. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill requiring that public and private schools determine why a fire alarm went off before evacuating children from classrooms
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers have passed a bill requiring that public and private schools determine why a fire alarm went off before evacuating children from classrooms, sending the governor a proposal Monday inspired by a deadly Nashville elementary school shooting.
The state Senate passed the legislation after the House approved it earlier this month, with no one voting against the bill in either chamber. Lawmakers have directly tied the bill to The Covenant School shooting where a shooter killed six people, including three children, last March.
Smoke from the shooter’s weapon triggered the school’s fire alarm, but some students and teachers were unaware what was going on when they heard it. This confusion ultimately led to the death of third-grader William Kinney, who had been designated as line leader for his class that day and was the first to collide with the shooter in a hallway while helping students out of the classroom.
“In the Covenant shooting, the fire alarm went off, and the natural response is to go out in the hallway and get out of the building,” said Sen. Ferrell Haile, a Gallatin Republican who sponsored the bill. “Well, the shooter was in the hallway, waiting for those students to come out.”
80% of Americans test positive for chemical found in Cheerios, Quaker Oats that may cause infertility, delayed puberty: study
Four out of five Americans are being exposed to a little-known chemical found in popular oat-based foods — including Cheerios and Quaker Oats — that is linked to reduced fertility, altered fetal growth, and delayed puberty.
The Environmental Working Group published a study in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology on Thursday that found a staggering 80% of Americans tested positive for a harmful pesticide called chlormequat.
The “highly toxic agricultural chemical” is federally allowed to be used on oats and other grains imported to the US, according to the EWG. When applied to oat and grain crops, chlormequat alters a plant’s growth, preventing it from bending over and thus making it easier to harvest, per the EWG
Four out of five Americans, or roughly 80%, are being exposed to a little-known chemical called chlormequat that’s found in popular oat-based foods, including Cheerios, according to the Environmental Working Group. scandamerican – stock.adobe.com
“Just as troubling, we detected the chemical in 92% of oat-based foods purchased in May 2023, including Quaker Oats and Cheerios,” the nonprofit organization said in a report published alongside the group’s findings.
General Mills, which makes Cheerios, and PepsiCo, which makes Quaker Oats, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Another particularly concerning data point: After testing for the presence of chlormequat in urine collected from 96 people between 2017 and 2023, the EWG’s tests “found higher levels and more frequent detections of chlormequat in the 2023 samples…which suggests consumer exposure to chlormequat could be on the rise.”
The EWG warned that chlormequat exposure “could be on the rise,” though it’s been shown to damage animals’ reproductive health, as well as harm fetal development and delay puberty. Klarion – stock.adobe.com
For reference, chlormequat was detected in 69% of study participants in 2017. The number edged higher, to 74%, between 2018 and 2022, and spiked to 90% in 2023.
Since chlormequat typically leaves the body within 24 hours, such a high concentration of positive tests indicates that Americans are regularly being exposed to the pesticide, according to the EWG’s report earlier reported on by the Daily Mail.