Dual Citizenship Rule Ousts Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister

The Australian government was thrown into turmoil Friday after losing its one-seat majority with the nation’s deputy prime minister kicked out of parliament over his dual citizenship. Barnaby Joyce was among seven politicians embroiled in a crisis after falling afoul of a previously obscure constitutional rule that bars dual citizens from sitting in parliament. The High…

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Representative Diane Black to Appear on Tonight’s Huckabee Show on TBN

Representative Diane Black (R-TN-06) will join Mike Huckabee on his new show airing Saturday night at 7pm in Nashville on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The topic of conversation is slated to be the problems with Obamacare and the ways to fix health care to actually reduce costs for Tennesseans. The last two weeks have been marked with important victories for Ms. Black, who was singled out by President Trump for the work she did to help pass the Budget, which sets up the next large agenda item: tax reform. Representative Diane Black is currently working double-duty as the first woman to Chair the powerful House Budget Committee while at the same time running to replace Governor Bill Haslam, who is term-limited.  

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One Arrested at ‘White Lives Matter’ Rally in Shelbyville as Police Maintain Order

One arrest was made at the “White Lives Matter” rally in Shelbyville today, reports WTVC NewsChannel 9. “Reporters on the scene said the man was protesting on the white nationalist side of the rally. The man’s father has since reached out to Fox 17 News and said his son was a counter-protester,” according to NewsChannel 9. Around 200 to 300 white nationalists were demonstrating at the event, and the number of counter demonstrators was nearly double that, according to WTVC. There were no reports of counter demonstrators getting out of line. Some stood with signs reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Refugees Welcome” and “No Hate in Our State.” Others cursed at the white nationalists, who chanted “Blood and Soil” and other slogans. The Shelbyville event, which started mid-morning, is wrapping up, but a similar white nationalist rally is planned for Murfreesboro this afternoon. The rallies were organized by the League of the South and allied groups. Law enforcement in both Shelbyville and Murfreesboro had planned in advance to be out in force to prevent the rallies from spiraling out of control as happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August. Many in Middle Tennessee have denounced the white nationalist groups in recent days, including government…

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Murfreesboro Square a Secured Ghost Town as Rally Start Delayed

Tight security prevailed in Murfreesboro as an estimated 200 protesters waited to go through tightened security to attend a permitted White Lives Rally of the League of the South. The rally, scheduled for 1 pm, has not begun as of 1:20 pm. Rutherford county sheriffs dept officers and Murfreesboro police appeared to outnumber the protesters. They formed a protective barrier within a manmade moat of fences that separated protesters from the League of the South.   DEVELOPING…

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Joy Villa: Singer, Ex-Democrat, Trump Supporter, … Congresswoman?

President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Friday to welcome to politics a 26-year-old entertainer who made a political statement earlier this year with her “Make America Great Again” dress at the Grammys. “She has many fans,” the president tweeted. Villa responded by thanking the president and calling him her “ultimate warrior.” During a Friday appearance…

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Murfreesboro Chick-fil-A Stores Provide Hundreds of Free Meals to First Responders in Advance of Controversial Rally

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee–The owner of the two Chick-fil-A franchise locations in Murfreesboro provided hundreds of first responders and their immediate family free meals on Friday, one day in advance of controversial “White Lives Matter” permitted rally that will be held in the square on Saturday. “We wanted to take the opportunity to thank all the first responders in our community before they had to work a long weekend,” Taylor Warren, assistant to Chick-fil-A franchisee owner Beau Noblitt told The Tennessee Star on Friday. “We were allowing the first responders and their immediate family members to come in and have a free meal on us all day Friday, from 6 am to 10 pm at our two stores on Old Fort Parkway and Memorial Blvd,” Warren explained. “Between both of the stores, we provided at least a couple hundred of free meals. We decided on Monday to do something the day before the rally started. Later on Monday we posted a video on our Facebook page about our free meals for first responders on Friday. From there it spread like wildfire,” she noted. “It’s probably one of our most viewed Facebook posts since I’ve been here,” Warren added. “A native of Knoxville,…

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‘Abortion is Normal’ Event to Be Held at University of Tennessee-Knoxville

The University of Tennessee-Knoxville will hold a pro-abortion event Monday called “Abortion is Normal.” The event was organized by the Women’s Coordinating Council, a feminist student organization, and is supported by the Department of Sociology and the Women, Gender and Sexuality Program. Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee is promoting the event. Amelia Bonow, a founder of the #ShoutYourAbortion movement, and Poppy Liu, who documented her abortion story in a short film, are the guest speakers. At Middle Tennessee State University on Thursday, the Planned Parenthood-affiliated student group Generation Action hosted a screening of Liu’s film and a discussion with the filmmaker. Bonow’s movement was launched two years ago in response to efforts to defund Planned Parenthood after news broke of a baby body part trafficking scandal. Bonow wrote a column for Salon.com in which she spoke of her own abortion experience. “My abortion made me happy,” she wrote. “It’s perfectly reasonable to feel happy that you were not forced to become a mother. Your life belongs to nobody but you; don’t ever let someone make you feel any other way.” Pro-lifers responded with messages with a  #ShoutYourAdoption hashtag and calls to Shout Your Baby. At Monday’s event, Liu, whose film is called…

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Manhattan Institute Expert: Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s Mass Transit Plan ‘Makes No Sense’

A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute conservative think tank has criticized Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s $5.2 billion mass transit proposal for Davidson County. “Building a system like this makes no sense in a city like Nashville,” wrote Aaron Renn, who specializes in urban issues and economic development. Barry’s plan calls for a light rail system along five corridors, an underground tunnel downtown and upgraded buses. The project would be funded with federal grants, bonds, fare revenues and tax surcharges. Barry is asking Metro Council to place a referendum on the ballot in May to raise taxes. A half percent sales tax surcharge would start in July 2018, increasing to 1 percent in 2023. There also would be surcharges on the hotel/motel tax, local rental car tax, and business and excise tax. Renn says the “reasons are obvious” why the plan wouldn’t work. “Nashville is a very sprawling city with highly dispersed origins and destinations of traffic,” he said. “It lacks the gigantic downtown employment centers of New York or Chicago that are well-suited to transit.” Nashville is a city built around the car and is not among “a very limited quantity of districts designed in a transit oriented way,” Renn wrote,…

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US Economy Grows a Robust 3% in the 3rd Quarter Despite Hurricanes and Obamacare Uncertainty

The world’s largest economy continued to expand at a robust pace in third quarter despite being battered by multiple hurricanes, the US Commerce Department reported Friday. Hitting President Donald Trump’s growth target for the second quarter in a row, US GDP grew at three percent for the July-September period, official figures showed. Though only a preliminary…

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Volunteers Help Board Up Retail Stores in Murfreesboro’s Square in Advance of Today’s Rally

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee–Local volunteers helped board up retail stories in Murfreesboro’s square on Friday in advance of today’s “White Lives Matter” permitted rally by the League of the South. “We live here in the Murfreesboro area and just heard what was going on and just wanted to see if we could help these businesses out,” Manny Saiz, one of the volunteers, who works as a video producer, told The Tennessee Star. “We have these two stores for sure,” Chris Bohon, another volunteer, who works sales for a marketing department for a manufactured homes company, told The Star when asked how many stores he and Diaz planned on boarding up. “A lot of them are having L and L contracting doing some, some of the owners are doing theirs. We just basically went around and were seeing who was overwhelmed,” Bohon added. “We came here last night with our church, River Oaks Community Church, and we prayed over everything. We saw a couple of the places were boarded up. We know it’s overwhelming,” he noted. “They need to be working with their insurance companies, their landlord and their clients, and some of them are just not going to have the ability to…

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Tennessee Southern Baptist Leaders Denounce ‘White Lives Matter’ Rallies in Murfreesboro and Shelbyville

Tennessee Southern Baptist leaders this week denounced the “White Lives Matter” rallies planned for today in Murfreesboro and Shelbyville, reports Baptist Press. A group of ethnically diverse Baptist leaders gathered in Franklin Wednesday to make a public statement about the rallies organized by the League of the South and allied groups. “We don’t call press conferences very often but we believe it is impossible to stand silently by while the white supremacy movement plans to invade our state and perpetrate its evil Saturday (Oct. 28) in Shelbyville and Murfreesboro,” said Randy C. Davis, president and executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. The League of the South has said it is demonstrating “to call attention to the continuing influx of African immigrants/refugees into middle Tennessee, and to protest the recent black-on-white church shooting in Antioch.” Davis said that “we are not making making a political statement today. That is not our intent. We are, however, prayerful that our governmental leaders will write laws that both offer security to America and are fair to all who seek shelter within her borders.” Davis challenged the idea that evangelicals are racists, saying that evangelical churches “are full of compassionate, loving people who are quite…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Saturday, October 28

Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 28, Saturday Proverbs 14:16-18 A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil, But a fool is arrogant and careless. A quick-tempered man acts foolishly, And a man of evil devices is hated. The naive inherit foolishness, But the sensible are crowned with knowledge. Proverbs 10:23-25 Doing wrong is like play to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom. What the sinful man is afraid of will come upon him, and what is wanted by the man who is right with God will be given to him. When the storm passes, the sinful man is no more, but the man who is right with God has a place to stand forever.

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