The immigration grand bargain the Senate will vote on as early as Thursday afternoon would “invite a mad rush of illegality,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday. Mr. Sessions said the deal would grant a future amnesty for illegal immigrants who haven’t even arrived in the U.S. yet, so those who can get into the countryby June “can’t be deported.”
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Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer confirmed that the football program’s decision to part ways with former running backs coach Robert Gillespie wasn’t mutual, but both sides handled it professionally. Fulmer, who was speaking at the Big Orange TipOff Club in Knoxville via GoVols247 on Wednesday, revealed that Gillespie “didn’t like” being dismissed from the Vols’ coaching staff, but understood that it was a matter of “big boy business.”
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Former Pilot Flying J president Mark Hazelwood was found guilty by a jury on Thursday of three out of the four federal charges brought against him – including conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud and witness tampering – in connection with his role in a multi-million dollar rebate scam to bilk customers out of a total of $56 million. He was found not guilty on the remaining charge of wire fraud. Additionally, former Pilot vice president Scott Wombold and former direct sales person Heather Jones were found guilty of a single count of mail/wire fraud and wire fraud, respectively. The trio will learn their sentencing on June 27th in Chattanooga. Pilot Flying J is the 14th largest privately held company in the United States. A majority of the company’s stock is owned by the Haslam family, which includes company founder Big Jim Haslam and his sons, company CEO Jimmy Haslam and Gov. Bill Haslam. Earlier this year, Pilot Flying J announced it had completed a deal to sell a controlling interest in the company to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway company. WBIR was outside the courthouse and spoke to Hazelwood’s attorney, Rusty Hardin. Reacting to the verdict, he told reporters, “We continue to believe he’s…
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Scientists suggested on Thursday a link between cancer and “ultra-processed” foods such as cookies, fizzy drinks and sugary cereals, though outside experts cautioned against reading too much into the study results. Researchers from France and Brazil used data from nearly 105,000 French adults who completed online questionnaires detailing their intake of 3,300 different food items.
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Burkley Allen and Russ Pulley, appointed along with five other Metro Council members by Vice-Mayor David Briley, will form a Special Committee to investigate the use of public money by Nashville Mayor Megan Barry during her two year extramarital affair with Metro police officer and head of her security detail, Sgt. Robert Forrest. The Metro Nashville Council resolution establishing the Special Committee restricts the investigation to the expenditure of public funds: A Special Committee to investigate the circumstances involving travel and other expenses, including overtime expenses, potentially related to the Mayor’s admitted improprieties involving an employee of the Metropolitan Government to determine if there was any improper use of public money. While the Special Committee is not charged with looking into the Mayor’s potential ethics violations, Briley did suggest that the Committee coordinate their inquiry with the Board of Ethical Conduct and the Metro Audit Committee which is also investigating the Mayor’s affair. With regard to selecting members for the Special Committee, Vice-Mayor David Briley stated that he was looking at “people who have demonstrated neutrality in terms of the politics and people who are open-minded in terms of looking at the facts fairly.” Last week, Special Committee members Burkley…
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According to a Tennessee Star commenter earlier this week, while Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and her bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest, were still taking luxury trips abroad and quickie overnights stateside, not only did the thoughtful Mayor make a surprise visit to Sgt. Forrest’s father-in-law in the hospital, but she also attended his funeral nine days later, and get this, hugged Sgt. Forrest’s grieving wife. And being one of the family in a twisted sort of way, the Mayor attended Sgt. Forrest’s daughter’s wedding: Not only did she visit him in the hospital, but she also attended the man’s funeral and was seen hugging her lover’s grieving wife, and family. It’s also no secret that she was a guest at her lover’s daughter’s wedding as well. During her public confession, the Mayor let slip that the two-year long affair with Sgt. Forrest that she had worked so hard to conceal, became known somehow to their respective spouses – “Barry said the relationship was discovered during conversations between their spouses and private discussions.” Between getting caught by the jilted spouses and getting counseled by reporter Phil Williams who disclosed that he had an “incredible” source, the Mayor was left with no option…
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Main Street continues to flourish under the Trump administration. The National Federation of Independent Business reports that optimism is at a 45-year high among America’s small businesses. The “Small Business Optimism Index” – a monthly gauge of sentiment among the owners – has broken the record for the measurement, established 45 years ago.
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The Homeland Security Department said Wednesday that the immigration plan sponsored by Sen. John McCain and being backed as Democrats’ chief solution for illegal immigrant “Dreamers” would grant criminals a path to citizenship and protect high school gang members from deportation.
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State Senator and congressional hopeful Dr. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) announced Wednesday he is forming a rural task force for his congressional campaign to identify issues and suggest solutions for the unique challenges of living in rural Tennessee. Former DCS Commissioner Dr. Page Walley will lead the effort, and joining him will be elected officials, business leaders, and community leaders in the rural counties across the 7th congressional district. “As Tennessee continues to grow, our rural communities are facing serious challenges. Having grown up on a dirt road in a small rural town, I have seen those challenges firsthand and look forward to working with this task force to find solutions,” Dr. Green said in a statement. “It’s a privilege to have been asked to chair this task force addressing the special needs that our rural counties and communities are facing in the 7th District,” Dr. Walley added. “When Mark spoke with me about my original interest in considering a run for Congress, I shared that we cannot pass by the needs and hopes of our rural families and farmers. I am proud that he not only has this same, deep conviction but intends to make sure we lift up the voices and values…
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People shouldn’t be forced to surrender their First Amendment right to decide for themselves what organizations they support just because they decide to work for the state, their local government or a public school.
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President Donald Trump unveiled his plan Monday to fix what the White House describes as the “unacceptable state of disrepair” of the nation’s roads and bridges, but some experts warn it could turn into a costly and unneeded boondoggle to fix a problem that doesn’t really exist.
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The chairman of the largest conservative caucus in the House said Wednesday that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan could lose his speakership if he bungles the immigration debate. Rep. Mark Meadows, who leads the Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee, said there are ongoing conversations about new leadership in the House that aren’t necessarily focused Mr. Ryan, but his handling of the immigration debate will determine his future.
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Iranian police arrested around 100 money changers on Wednesday as it scrambled to contain the decline of the rial, which has lost a quarter of its value in six months. A video by state broadcaster IRINN showed dozens of currency hawkers, who normally ply their trade across the road from the British embassy in central Tehran, being rounded up by police.
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Five-time Grammy nominee, Hunter Hayes, releases the final installment of his mini-movie Pictures at a red carpet event at Regal Cinemas in Nashville, February 14.
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Like a hypersonic bullet hitting another hypersonic bullet. A Hit! On February 5, during the Chinese midcourse ABM test, the interceptor hit the target missile in space. Pictured here: the exhaust plumes from the DN-3 rocket motor, suspended in the stratosphere for a spectacular show in the morning light.
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This is not the verdict real estate developer Gerald Wolkoff was hoping for at all — and it’s almost certainly cringeworthy for many other owners of private property. But visual artists and their works of color, chaos and creativity have trumped the rights of a private building owner in New York.
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When three different publishers announced last year they would all produce books about President Donald Trump’s faith, some wags took to social media to say — wow, those are going to be short books. But just because Trump has not made a habit of spending much time in church doesn’t mean there isn’t much to say about him and faith.
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Republican leaders in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have “moved on” from Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), who recently indicated he is having “second thoughts” about not running for re-election, and are now all-in behind Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), who is the presumptive Republican nominee, The Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday: Top Republican leaders, including McConnell and Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as well as senior Blackburn advisors, some of whom were working for Corker’s re-election campaign before he pulled the plug, are baffled by suggestions that the congresswoman is putting this race in jeopardy. She has hit all of the metrics set for her campaign, launched only after Corker bowed out last fall. Her fundraising is strong, she is organizing on the ground, and she has the consensus support of the Republican establishment in Washington and the conservative grassroots in Tennessee long unhappy with Corker. Blackburn also happens to be a woman. That matters because the Republican Party is lacking female candidates — capable or otherwise — in an election cycle in which the GOP’s biggest vulnerability is a weakness among educated, suburban white women — just like Blackburn. “We simply haven’t been involved…
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