Jim DeMint Resigns as President of The Heritage Foundation, Ed Feulner to Return as Interim

The Heritage Foundation’s board of trustees, by a unanimous vote, has asked for and received the resignation of president and CEO Jim DeMint, revealed in an open letter to the organization’s membership released late Tuesday afternoon by board chairman Thomas A. Saunders III. “The board elected Heritage Founder Ed Feulner as president and CEO while we…

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Laura Ingraham: Some Republicans Resist Trump Agenda as Fiercely as Democrats

LifeZette editor-in-chief Laura Ingraham blasted congressional Republicans for “resisting” President Donald Trump’s agenda “as fiercely in their own way as the Democrats,” during an interview Tuesday evening on Fox News’ “Hannity.” Ingraham noted the budget compromise unveiled by GOP leaders this week committed funding for Trump’s border wall but continued to fully fund Planned Parenthood and…

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Beacon Center Sues Metro Nashville Government Over Affordable Housing Law

  The Beacon Center of Tennessee is taking Metro Nashville government to court, claiming that a new affordable housing law is illegal and unconstitutional. The Nashville-based think tank, which promotes free markets, filed a lawsuit last week in Davidson County Chancery Court. The suit was filed on behalf of the Home Builders Association of Middle Tennessee. The suit challenges an inclusionary zoning ordinance passed by the Metro Council in September 2016. With limited exceptions, the law requires homebuilders to set aside part of their developments for affordable or workforce housing or pay a fee. Megan Barry, Nashville’s Democratic mayor, has made affordable housing one of her signature issues. “As anyone who has been paying attention knows, a government program that begins with the term affordable is typically anything but,” the Beacon Center said in a blog post. “Look no further than the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. That redistribution of wealth scheme has left working-class Americans with astronomically higher prices and fewer health insurance options, all in exchange for a worthless guarantee that it will be more ‘affordable.’ ‘Affordable’ housing is essentially the Obamacare of housing.” Developers will pass on the costs of creating affordable housing to buyers and renters, according…

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Historian: Give Trump Credit for Dispelling Myth of ‘Inevitable’ Civil War and Suggesting Andrew Jackson May Have Been Able to Stop It

President Trump sparked outrage on Monday after making comments regarding President Andrew Jackson and the Civil War during an interview broadcast on satellite radio. Trump’s remarks, while not exactly polished, suggested Jackson may have been able to stop the Civil War and that the seventh President foresaw the nation’s imminent sundering. He also implied the great…

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Incumbents Retain Seats On Brentwood City Commission

The three incumbents in Tuesday’s race will keep their seats on the Brentwood City Commission, according to unofficial election results released by the city Tuesday night. The three incumbents are Mayor Regina Smithson, Mark Gorman and Rhea Little. John Byers was not successful in his role as the sole challenger. Little was the top vote getter in the nonpartisan race, with 2,782 votes or 29 percent of the total. Mark Gorman received 2,673 votes (28 percent), Smithson 2,606 votes (27 percent) and Byers 1,516 votes (16 percent). Byers ran on a platform of reaching out to younger Brentwood residents and encouraging greater collaboration with mayors of surrounding cities on traffic and transit plans. The incumbents defended their records at a debate last month where they presented themselves as experienced leaders who can move the city forward. Growth and traffic are major issues for the wealthy Nashville suburb, which in addition to its own traffic sees a lot of drivers passing through to other areas. Other issues facing Brentwood are housing for seniors and ensuring that Brentwood students aren’t rezoned to schools in other parts of the county because of growth. The city commission has a total of seven members elected at-large…

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OFF THE RECORD

Has Senator Corker even read the Tennessee lawsuit? TN GOP’s Deputy Communications director confirmed today that Sen. Bob Corker will “be giving some remarks at the SEC meeting on Saturday.” No word yet whether Bob will share pictures from the Easter trip he took with Democrat Chris Coons, to the Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda to look specifically at issues related to food shortages and the impact of the President’s proposed budget. Upon his return, Bob was asked if he had any recommendations for President Trump regarding dealing with the refugee issue. Forgetting(?) perhaps that Tennessee has sued the federal government over its refugee resettlement program, Bob said that he hopes to “move back to the regular process that we’ve been in for some time” and “normalize what we have been doing in this regard for many years.” Bob will be treating all the State Executive Committee members to lunch. We’ve been told that he will also feed any county party Chairmen that show up so that no one goes hungry. Lunch will be served at the 5-star Hermitage Hotel. Beth hired who??? This message almost set The Tennessee Star tipline on fire – Speaker Beth Harwell, a Republican of some sort,…

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Williamson County Commission Budget Committee Approves Plan To Expand Schools To Prevent Rezoning

Tennessee Star

The Williamson County Commission Budget Committee has approved plans to expand Page and Brentwood middle and high schools to keep students from being rezoned to other parts of the county. The committee voted 5-0 on Monday to approve the plan, which will go before the full commission next Monday, May 8, according to the Williamson Herald. Funds from a builders education impact fee that went into effect March 1 would be used toward debt service for the projects. The committee approved $4.9 million for the first phase of the Page expansion and $17.2 million for the Brentwood project, the Williamson Herald said. The total cost of the three phases of the Page expansion would be about $43 million. Parents have pressed for more funding, even starting a movement called Fund Our Schools, which has created a Facebook page and launched a petition drive. In Brentwood, there has been talk of pulling out of Williamson County Schools and forming a city school system to ensure Brentwood students stay in Brentwood schools. Candidates running in Tuesday’s city commission race addressed the topic at a debate last month, saying such a move now would be premature but might be something to consider in the future.…

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United Methodist Church Top Court Rules Against Gay Bishop But Future Unclear

  The top court of the United Methodist Church has ruled that the consecration of an openly gay bishop violates church law but the bishop for now still has her job. In a somewhat convoluted decision, the judicial council, convening in Newark, New Jersey, said that Karen Oliveto “remains in good standing” pending the completion of another administrative or judicial process, according to a UMC news story. The decision, made public on Friday, said, “It is not lawful for the college of bishops of any jurisdictional or central conference to consecrate a self-avowed practicing homosexual bishop.” Oliveto was consecrated in July 2016 by officials in the Western Jurisdiction. She is the episcopal leader for an area covering Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and one church in Idaho. A church lay member from Kansas in the South Central Jurisdiction formally challenged Oliveto’s elevation to bishop. The denomination’s high court rejected an argument from the Western Jurisdiction counsel made during an oral hearing last week that Oliveto’s same-sex marriage in 2014 to another woman was not a public statement about her sexual practices. “A same-sex marriage license issued by competent civil authorities together with the clergy person’s status in a same-sex relationship is a public…

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Nashville Refugee Service Provider Siloam Health Uses Culturally Sensitive But Problematic Term ‘Female Circumcision’

  Dr. Jim Henderson, medical director for Siloam Health Care Services, Inc., uses the terms “female circumcision” and female genital mutilation (FGM) interchangeably, responding to questions from The Tennessee Star about the state’s female FGM reporting law. Except, “female circumcision” has been rejected as an accurate description of the barbaric FGM practice by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the National Organization for Women, human rights organizations and perhaps most importantly, by anti-FGM activists  who were mutilated in their home countries like Jaha Dukureh, founder of Safe Hands For Girls: As an infant growing up in Gambia, I experienced Female Genital Mutilation. It took away a part of my femininity, my ownership to my body. Some girls, including my half-sister who died from complications from being cut, even lose their lives. Siloam Health serves as the Statewide Refugee Screening Coordinator for Tennessee and a primary care provider for refugees: As you may know, every refugee that’s resettled in Nashville passes through the doors of Siloam Health for his or her initial medical screening exams. Many of these refugees eventually become our primary care patients, and it is our privilege to get to know them over time as they become a vital part of…

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Commentary: What Happens to Christians There Will Come Here

George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor The establishment Republicans like Speaker Paul Ryan and the Far-Left Soros-backed open borders crowd would like Americans to believe that unlimited unvetted immigration from Muslim countries has no negative consequences. Indeed, when confronted with the opportunity to support President Trump’s efforts to limit immigration from Syria and other Muslim terrorist hotspots Speaker Ryan said, “That’s not who were are.” But maintaining the constitutional liberties that are “who we are” is exactly what limiting immigration from anti-constitutional cultures is all about. As Giulio Meotti writing for the Gatestone Institute pointed out recently, in ancient times, Algeria and Tunisia, entirely Christian, gave us great thinkers such as Tertullian and Augustine. Two centuries later, Christianity disappeared, replaced by Arab-Islamic civilization. Is Europe now meeting the same fate? In the Middle East, “Christianity is over in Iraq” due to Islamic extremism says Meotti; in Europe, Christianity is committing suicide. Within 20 years, more babies will be born to Muslim women than to Christian women world-wide; it is just the latest sign of the rapid growth that seems to be making Islam the world’s largest religion by the end of the century, according to Meotti’s analysis of a new study released…

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