A record spike in fuel prices following the summer’s back-to-back hurricanes drove up a closely watched US inflation measure in September, but the underlying trend remained weak, government figures showed Monday. The new figures come as the Federal Reserve prepares to begin a two-day meeting on Tuesday, with policymakers widely expected to leave benchmark interest rates…
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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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The Oak Ridge Boys have joined forces with American companies to place a new emphasis on buying products made in the United States.
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President Donald Trump is expected to announce his choice to lead the Federal Reserve on Thursday, a US official said Monday. Trump said last week he had “somebody very specific in mind. I think everybody will be very impressed.” He has not publicly ruled out re-nominating current Fed Chair Janet Yellen to a second four-year…
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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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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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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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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With most of the field wrecking behind him, Kyle Busch took the lead on the final lap and won the First Data 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. It was his fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season and clinched a position among the Championship Four at the 2017 season…
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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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Senate Republicans are heading into four votes this week to confirm appeals court judges. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell served notice late last week that the Senate will consider four of President Donald Trump’s nominees to federal circuit courts, the powerful appeals panels that give the final word on the overwhelming majority of cases in U.S. courts.…
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The Virginia church that George Washington attended for two decades plans to tear out a memorial to the nation’s first president because the plaque could make some worshipers feel “unsafe or unwelcome.” Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, where Washington became a founding member in 1773, will remove his memorial and a similar one to Robert E.…
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John Boehner, of former House Majority Speaker fame, dropped a bombshell – or dozens – during an interview with Politico that was just published. For instance, did you know that fellow Republican Rep. Don Young once pinned Boehner against a wall and held a knife to his throat during a debate about earmarks that went awry?…
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Premiums for Obamacare’s “benchmark” plans will rise by 37 percent and choices will dwindle in 2018, with eight full states having just one insurer to choose from, the Trump administration said Monday in a report detailing the federal marketplace known as HealthCare.gov. However, the average tax credit that many consumers use to afford coverage will rise…
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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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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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