BREAKING: 8 Dead in New York City Terror Attack, Suspect Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’

UPDATE: CNN reported at 5:35 p.m. ET that the death toll in today’s terror attack in New York City has risen to eight:   The suspect in the Manhattan truck attack, a 29-year-old man, crashed his truck and then was shot by police in the abdomen, New York Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said. O’Neill said the suspect “did make a statement” after the crash, which led police to declare the incident an act of terrorism. Six people were declared dead at the scene and two were pronounced dead at the hospital, and 11 were transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro.   President Trump responded to the terror attack in a tweet late Tuesday afternoon:   In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2017 The “six and deranged person” responsible for the attack was identified by ABC News as “29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov from Tampa, Florida.”   JUST IN: Multiple officials tell ABC News suspect in custody is identified as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov from Tampa, FL —…

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MTSU Poll Shows Increasing Disapproval of U.S. Senator Bob Corker

Disapproval of U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has jumped since he and President Trump began feuding publicly, a new Middle Tennessee State University poll shows. Corker’s disapproval rate has risen to 41 percent among Tennessee voters, a 14-point hike since a similar poll this past spring. Disapproval of Trump has also gone up some, from 32 to 40 percent, but his 50 percent approval rate has held steady and remains well above the national approval rate of around 37 percent. Approval for Corker, meanwhile, dropped from 52 percent to 45 percent. The poll has a 4-percentage-point error margin. “Essentially, Corker’s negatives have increased markedly, but he has ended up only a bit behind Trump in terms of approval, and possibly on par with him,” Ken Blake, director of the MTSU Poll, said in a news release last week. “Meanwhile, some undecideds have switched to disapproval of President Trump, but Trump’s base is sticking with him and keeping his approval rate relatively high in the state overall.” The poll also found that approval of Congress is abysmally low. Approval is at 13 percent, down from 21 percent in the spring. In addition, the poll found: 56 percent approve of Republican Gov. Bill…

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University of Kentucky Social Justice Center Advocates for DACA Recipients, LGBT Rights

The Center for Equality and Social Justice (CESJ) at the University of Kentucky released two policy briefs last week promoting continued protections for DACA recipients and for amending nondiscrimination laws in Kentucky to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Started last year, the center exists “to better understand social inequality” and “to empower scholars, students and the community to advocate for greater social justice,” according to its website. The center reflects the growing entrenchment of progressive ideas in the academic world, even in red states. Economics professor Jenny Minier (pictured above, left) wrote a position paper titled “Immigrants Benefit the Community and Economy,” in which she offers moral and economic reasons for Congress to allow young people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to stay legally in the U.S. The DACA program was started by former President Obama with an executive order and granted young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children a chance to temporarily live and work in the U.S. if they met certain criteria. President Trump has ended the program but given Congress a chance to act. Nearly 800,000 people have been granted DACA status since it began in 2012, and there are currently around 690,000 with DACA status. Recipients…

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Al Mohler: Halloween Becoming a Darker and More Spiritual Holiday in Post-Christian Age

In his daily podcast Monday, Al Mohler said something likely to give many Christians a chill down the spine. “It can now be argued that Halloween is the biggest spiritual holiday on the American calendar,” said Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Our culture has been secularizing Christmas and Easter, which are now largely about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, Mohler noted on The Briefing. The opposite has been happening with Halloween, which has become more spiritual as Americans are drawing out and celebrating its pagan origins, he said, describing how this marks a change from a few decades ago, when Halloween was a peripheral holiday mostly for children. Today, with adults also celebrating Halloween, the holiday is second only to Christmas in economic activity. Halloween, Mohler said, “has grown ever more dark.” Historically, Halloween had its beginnings in the European Celtic festival of Samhain at the end of summer as winter beckoned. It was believed that Samhain, the lord of the dead, or the lord of darkness, sent out evil spirits to attack people at this time of year, and that people could escape only by donning disguises to look like evil spirits…

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Commentary: Establishment’s Last Shot at Survival Is to Join Trump, Not Fight Him

Donald Trump

By Jeffrey A. Rendall   If it could be said politics is insane but never boring, then last week was the perfect embodiment of the concept. Of course there was the revelation Hillary Clinton’s campaign united with the Democrat National Committee to retain a Washington law firm to hire a political sludge-mining operation (Fusion GPS) which subsequently contracted with former British spy Christopher Steele who then apparently paid his Russian sources to make up wild stories about Donald Trump. Meanwhile it’s becoming clearer by the day U.S. intelligence agencies were in on the scheme somewhere along the line – it’s awful messy, for sure. Of course the infamous Democrat paid-for “dossier” produced by Steele appears to be the foundation from which the entirety of United States intelligence agencies staked their investigations of alleged “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Ho hum. Then there was Senator Jeff Flake’s hit-job on Trump masquerading as a retirement speech from the Senate floor on Tuesday. Then there was the story of Mark Cuban, who is considering running for president in 2020. No big deal, just another culturally illustrious liberal body to toss into the already crowded circus ring full of Democrat…

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Lamar Alexander Asks Orrin Hatch to Hold Senate Hearings on Revoking Obama-Era Regulation Used by CMS Bureaucrats to Victimize West Tennessee Doctor

Over the weekend, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told Mayor Jill Holland of McKenzie, Tennessee that he will encourage Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to conduct hearings at the Senate Finance Committee he chairs on whether an Obama-era regulation that is hitting West Tennesssee’s Dr. Bryan Merrick should be revoked, along with other corrections. A spokesperson for the senator confirmed to The Tennessee Star that Alexander will ask Hatch to hold those hearings. Alexander chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which he says does not have jurisdiction over the CMS regulation. Senator Hatch chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which does have jurisdiction over the CMS regulation. Surprising as that may seem, official Senate rules confirm that the Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over all health programs based on federal taxes, which includes Medicare and Medicaid. Senator Paul Toomey (R-PA) chairs the Health Care Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, the most likely place for such hearings to be held. On Friday, Mayor Jill Holland of McKenzie sent a letter to Senator Alexander asking him to hold hearings of the Senate HELP committee he chairs for the purpose of revoking the CMS regulation, as The Star reported: Writing “on behalf of the citizens…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Tuesday, October 31

Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 31, Tuesday Luke 6:45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of 1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats ; do not be frightened.”

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The Full Text of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Indictment of Former Trump Aide Paul Manafort

The suspense is over, and we all now know who the first to be charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller – himself in peril of being sucked into the giant vortex known loosely as the ‘Clinton-Russia Scandal.’ The indictment itself runs thirty-one pages and specifically names Paul Manafort and his aide, Richard Gates. Allegations run the gamut from conspiracy to launder as much as $21 million and funneling millions more to foreign bank accounts, to working as foreign agents (Ukraine) and making false statements. The indictment contains twelve allegations (crimes or violations of law), however, that number can change over the course of adjudication.   INDICTMENT The Grand Jury for the District of Columbia Charges: Introduction: At all times relevant to this indictment: 1. Defendants Paul J. Manafort, Jr. (MANAFORT) and Richard W. Gates III (GATES) served for years as political consultants and lobbyists. Between at least 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to…

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Tennessee Reportedly Offers Dream Candidate Jon Gruden Over $10 Million to Replace Butch Jones

Tennessee has reportedly offered former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden “over $10 million a year” to be its next head coach, according to The Read Optional’s Oliver Connolly. Connolly reported that the Vols have also targeted TCU’s Gary Patterson, Louisville’s Bobby Petrino and Purdue’s Jeff Brohm as potential candidates as well. The rumored deal would…

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Paul Manafort and Former Aide Face Multiple Charges in Mueller Probe

WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has been indicted on 12 charges of money-laundering and conspiracy, the first charges filed in the investigation of possible connections between the Trump campaign and a Russian effort to influence last year’s presidential election. Manafort, 68, turned himself in at FBI headquarters early Monday for his…

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‘Music City for Marsha’ Fundraiser Held Sunday for Blackburn’s U.S. Senate Race

  FRANKLIN, Tennessee — U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-7) told supporters at a fundraiser Sunday she’s ready to go to work in the Senate and get things done. “They are totally dysfunctional,” she said, emphasizing that “it is time for Tennessee to have a conservative in the U.S. Senate.” To enthusiastic applause, Blackburn said that if elected to the Senate next year, she will help drain the swamp and work with those who want to support President Trump and uphold the Constitution. Soon after Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) announced in late September that he would not seek re-election, Blackburn announced her campaign for his seat. Also competing for the Republican nomination are former West Tennessee congressman Stephen Fincher and conservative activist Andy Ogles. On the Democratic side, Phil Bredesen, former Tennessee governor and Nashville mayor, is considering running. Sunday’s event was an annual fundraiser for Blackburn, with the novelty this year being her Senate run. “Music City for Marsha” was held in the spacious car-themed barn at the home of Willis and Joyce Johnson, which was formerly the home of country singer Alan Jackson. Willis Johnson founded Copart, an online auto salvage auction business, and last year started the home…

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It’s All About That Bash in Leiper’s Fork

Actually, it was all about that bourbon at the third annual Bourbon Bash held amid the stills in the Leiper’s Fork Distillery in Franklin on Saturday night. The event focused on an evening long opportunity to experience brands produced by local distilleries, like Leiper’s Fork and Greenbrier, to large distilleries like Jack Daniels and Dickel and a sampling of the unique tastes from others including Coopers Craft, H Clark, Four Roses, Tenn South and Old Forester. Pamela Furr, founder and co-host of the event, was thrilled by the turnout and the funds generated by the sponsors and guests. “In just three years we have gone from an idea to a unique evening of fun and fundraising that promises to be even bigger and better next year!” All proceeds from the event benefit the Green Beret Foundation. “The funds we raise for this organization helps them do great work for those who have served our nation so honorably, but the attention we draw to them and what they are doing is just as important as the money,” Furr pointed out. Mingling among the several hundred guests at the event were author nationally syndicated radio host Phil Valentine, who also served as…

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President Trump: Democrats Using Russia Collusion ‘Witch Hunt’ for ‘Evil Politics’

President Trump on Sunday accused Democrats of using questions about Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign for “evil politics” and said the issue is uniting Republicans like never before. “Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?) … the Uranium to Russia…

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Commentary: With Federal Gas Tax Hike Proposal The West Wing Democrats Try To Kill The Trump Presidency Again

by George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor   Every time we begin to think that President Trump’s economic advisor Gary Cohn and the other Democrats the President brought into in the West Wing have lost influence, one of them surfaces to remind us of what a huge mistake it was for Trump to let them inside the White House fence, let alone give them big offices in the White House. Cohn’s latest contribution to killing the Trump presidency is the idea of raising the gas tax – with this tone-deaf idea being floated in the middle of the President’s push to cut income taxes on America’s middle-income families and job-creating businesses. What Cohn, and those who inhabit his portal to portal limo riding world, don’t seem to get is how gasoline and transportation costs affect the quality of life for middle and lower income families. As a 2016 Pew study showed, the share of household income used for transportation has increased substantially over the past two decades, the amount going to various subcategories, like gasoline, also grew. For all income groups, expenditures for gasoline and motor oil doubled between 1996 and 2014. For households in the lower third, the average annual cost…

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The International Olympic Committee Says Video Games Are Indeed … Sports

They may apparently require no more than a comfortable chair, decent knowledge of a computer screen and nimble mastery of controllers, but the International Olympic Committee insisted Saturday that eSports are indeed…sports. An Olympic Summit, under the guidance of IOC president Thomas Bach, meeting in Lausanne hailed the phenomenal growth of video games. In a statement,…

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California Democrat Adam Schiff States the Obvious: Russia Probe Indictment Likely Tied to Paul Manafort or Michael Flynn

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that he suspects a reported grand jury indictment in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election is tied to either former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort or retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser. Rep. Adam Schiff said on…

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Award Winning Songwriter Lee Thomas Miller Preparing for Potential Congressional Race in Tennessee’s 7th District

Congressman Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN -07) decision to seek the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Bob Corker in 2018 has sparked a flurry of interest in filling her seat in Congress. State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) has already announced his intentions to run, and Williamson County Christian conservative activist Laurie Cardoza Moore is considering the race along with Franklin Mayor Ken Moore. However, another potential candidate is creating a lot of buzz as well. Lee Thomas Miller is an award winning songwriter and conservative advocate who lives in Williamson County with his wife Jana and their four kids. He has penned songs for some of the top country and Christian artists, including Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Jamey Johnson, Tim McGraw, Chris Stapleton and Brandon Heath, to name a few. Most people know his hit songs, like “In Color,” “The Impossible,” “You’re Gonna Miss This,” and “I’m Still a Guy.” With, 7 No. 1 songs, 12 top-10’s, CMA and ACM wins for song of the year, and three Grammy nominations, this son of a Kentucky tobacco farmer and small town librarian is well known in music industry circles though not yet in the political arena. But in an…

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Bill Kristol’s Son-in-Law: I Hired Fusion GPS in Primary to Dig Up Dirt on Donald Trump

Matthew Continetti, the editor of the neo-conservative website, the Washington Free Beacon, wrote in a letter posted online just after 7 p.m. on Friday that the Free Beacon hired Fusion GPS during the Republican primary to do research on Republican candidates. That research kicked off what became known as the “dossier” used to smear Donald Trump.…

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James Comey’s ‘Coordination’ Testimony Sheds New Context on Clinton Campaign’s Dossier Funding

When then-FBI Director James B. Comey explained to Congress last March the scope of his investigation into Donald Trump aides and Russia, his words would also fit the Hillary Clinton campaign today. Mr. Comey told the House Intelligence Committed that his agents were investigating “whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” That…

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Commentary: The Clintons Corrupt Everything They Touch

by George Rasley, CHQ Editor   In a break with the Clinton-loving American establishment media, the UK’s Daily Mail recently detailed how Marc Elias, a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer who launched what would become known as the anti-Trump “dirty dossier” denied involvement in the project for a year, even as reporters pressed him for information. But a pair of New York Times reporters said Tuesday night on Twitter that Elias and others involved had lied about their ties to the arrangement. “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year,” Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted after The Washington Postlinked the dossier to Elias and his law firm Perkins Coie. Kenneth Vogel, another Times journalist, tweeted: ‘When I tried to report this story, Clinton campaign lawyer @marceelias pushed back vigorously, saying “You (or your sources) are wrong”.’ This kind of lying has become par for the course in Washington, but it is especially prevalent about anything that involves the Clintons. The Uranium One scandal that has broken wide open this week isn’t new – it goes back to 2010 – and the relationship between foreign government contributions to the Clinton Foundation, Bill Clinton’s speaking fees and policy-making by Hillary Clinton…

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Refs Walk Off in Protest After Players Kneel During Anthem at New Jersey Football Game

Two high school football officials walked off the field in protest Friday night after players from Monroe High School in Somerset County knelt during the national anthem before the team’s game against visiting Colts Neck. The officials, Ernie Lunardelli, 54, and his son, Anthony Lunardelli, 27, stood for the anthem and then abruptly left the field…

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Eric Bolling: Son’s Death Ruled ‘Accidental Overdose that Included Opioids’

The tragic death of Eric Bolling’s 19-year-old son was ruled an “accidental overdose that included opioids,” the former Fox News host said Thursday just hours after President Trump declared the national opioid crisis a public health emergency. The Boulder County coroner’s office in Colorado said Mr. Bolling’s son, Eric Chase Bolling, died of a mix of…

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No Arrests at ‘White Lives Matter’ Rally in Murfreesboro as League of the South Leaders Fail to Show Up

A heavy law enforcement presence and a well planned security strategy kept a tiny group of League of the South members separated from an estimated 1,000 counter protesters in Murfreesboro on Saturday. The event ended peacefully with no arrests, the Murfreesboro Police Department confirmed at about 3:45 p.m. Leaders from the League of the South, who had obtained a permit to hold a rally from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the square cancelled their talk at 3 p.m. About an hour earlier, a small group from the organization, numbering no more than thirty, held forth for about 45 minutes from within the heavily protected permit area on the lawn outside the Rutherford County Courthouse. Though they delivered their message, few heard it, and the counter protesters that did shouted back and forth across two lines of barricades and dozens of armed officers from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office dressed in full riot gear. The Murfreesboro Police Department stated after the rally that about 800 to 1,000 counter protesters showed up. Several hundred law enforcement officers from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, Murfreesboro Police Department, and the Tennessee State Police presented an overwhelming display of force, which no one from…

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