Day: February 13, 2017

BREAKING REPORT: Michael Flynn Has Resigned as National Security Adviser to President Trump

Tennessee Star Staff

NBC News is reporting that Michael Flynn has resigned as President Trump’s National Security Adviser: Michael Flynn abruptly resigned as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Monday night, hours after it was learned that the Justice Department informed the White House that it believed he could be subject to blackmail. Retired Army Gen. Keith Kellogg, a top policy adviser for Trump’s presidential campaign, was appointed acting national security adviser, the White House said in a statement announcing Flynn’s replacement. Kellogg, 72, a former commander of the fabled 82nd Airborne Division, was chief operating officer of the Western coalition in Baghdad, Iraq, after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. A senior administration official told NBC News that Kellogg was under consideration for the permanent job, along with retired Navy Vice Adm. Robert Harward, former deputy commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command, and former CIA Director David Petraeus.  

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State Senator Mark Green Would Take All State Funding from ‘Sanctuary Cities’

Tennessee Star Staff

State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarskville) appeared on 99.7 FM WWTN’s Nashville Morning News with Ralph Bristol on Monday. Ralph Bristol provided this report on his interview with Green to The Tennessee Star, which we reprint here with permission. By Ralph Bristol A state senator, running for governor, is demanding Tennessee cities toe the line on federal immigration laws, or risk all their state funding. Sen. Mark Green, a Republican who represents Clarksville, has introduced a bill he says would “put teeth” in Tennessee’s existing law that bans cities from adopting so-called “sanctuary city” policies – which means, generally, they refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities in ICE’s efforts to deportation illegal immigrants in their cities, including their jails. Appearing on Nashville’s Morning News, Green insisted his bill does not go beyond existing state and federal cooperation orders, but rather only enacts a punishment for disobeying existing law. Green said he was inspired by comments made after the election by Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, who joined other Democrat sanctuary or sanctuary-oriented Mayors who have vowed to defy Trump’s threat to remove federal funding from true sanctuary cities. Green stopped short of accusing Barry of violating the law,…

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Articles of Impeachment for Federal District Judge James Robart Proposed in Petition

Tennessee Star Staff

  Conservative HQ launched a petititon to impeach Federal District Judge James L. Robart of the Western District of Washington on Monday. Robart granted the temporary restraining order halting President Trump’s executive order that temporary blocked the issuance of visas to seven Middle Eastern countries and also temporarily banned the arrival of refugees from any country. Conservative HQ’s editor George Rasley lays out the case:   The articles of impeachment lay out four charges against Judge Robart: 1. Judge James Robart ignored the Constitution, statute and case law and substituted his personal whim to justify his arbitrary and capricious ruling restraining the President’s Executive Order 13,769. Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution and unanimous case law since our Founding gives Congress plenary power over immigration and the authority to delegate power to the executive specifically to reduce immigration. The president also has war powers to shut off immigration from states whose citizens present a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States. 2. By finding that President Trump’s Executive Order 13,769 imposed an unconstitutional religious test on potential refugees Judge James Robart ignored the plain language of Section 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(42)(A) and substituted…

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State Rep. Andy Holt Supports the Hawk Plan, Opposes Haslam Gas Tax Increase

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star - Rep. Andy Holt

State Rep. Andy Holt “told a group of local citizens Saturday that Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposed gasoline tax increase is unnecessary and ill-timed and that there are better ways to fund road improvements,” the Post-Intelligencer reports. “Holt argued against the Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy or IMPROVE Act, introduced last month by Haslam,” according to the Post-Intelligencer. “I’m going to get a higher fuel tax and higher increase in goods and services, and a very small decrease in my groceries,” Holt, a Dresden resident, told the crowd, adding: If you extrapolate all the projects that have been approved by the legislature, and you factor in a highly increased amount of construction costs, and you put that out over a thirty-year period, and you then extrapolate what all those cost increases will be over time, then you can get to eleven billion dollars,” he said. We’re rated consistently as having the second-, third- or fourth-best road system in the United States of America . . . I think that’s a far cry from a crippling catastrophe that is looming within the next couple of weeks.” We’re in a surplus environment this year. That doesn’t mean we…

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Trump-Hating Teacher Fired in Rutherford County

Wendy Wilson

A substitute teacher in Rutherford County is no longer allowed to work in the district because of inflammatory comments he made on social media about President Trump. He joins a growing list of educators across the country in trouble for engaging in or allowing inappropriate commentary about the recent election. The local teacher is accused of writing on Facebook that “the only good Trump supporter is a dead Trump supporter,” according to WZTV Fox 17. David Colin is said to have made the comments in a post at 9:29 a.m. on Nov. 9. Rutherford County Schools took action after receiving messages about Colin on Wednesday. The district contracts with Professional Educational Services Group (PESG) to provide substitute teachers. The district informed PESG that Colin is no longer permitted to be substitute in Rutherford County. PESG is conducting an internal investigation. An art teacher in Dallas, Texas was placed on administrative leave in January for posting a video on social media depicting her in a classroom shooting a water gun at an image of President Trump and yelling “Die!” There is laughter in the background but it is unknown whether students were in the classroom at the time, according to The Dallas Morning News.…

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Gov. Haslam Stumbles in Smith County: ‘The Only Reason Government Exists At All Is to Buy Things for the People That They Can’t Buy for Themselves’

Tennessee Star Staff

“The only reason government exists at all is to buy things for the people that they can’t buy for themselves,” Gov. Haslam told the Smith County Rotary Club on Friday as he continued to promote his proposal to increase the gas tax by 7 cents per gallon. You can hear the governor say this at the 16:50 mark of this video, made available courtesy of The Smith County Insider. Social media across Tennessee lit up Friday and Saturday criticizing Haslam’s articulation of the classic Democrat view of the role of government. It was a statement of the sort Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey would have been delighted to claim as their own. Former State Rep. Joe Carr captured the reaction of many opponents to this surprising Haslam statement on his Facebook page. “Wrong! The reason government exists is to ‘secure our unalienable Rights granted to us by God’”, the former State Rep. posted. “I am sure Governor Haslam actually believes this statement along with 90% of the Tennessee General Assembly,” Carr added. Gov. Haslam may not be aware of just how tone-deaf this statement sounds. It is a lightning rod to those who see his proposed gas…

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Stephen Miller, Trump Adviser: ‘No Such Thing as Judicial Supremacy’

Tennessee Star Staff

President Trump is “pursuing all options” in the wake of an appeals court decision against his extreme vetting order, White House policy adviser Stephen Miller said Sunday, arguing the three-judge panel got it all wrong. “The president’s powers here are beyond question,” Mr. Miller told Fox News Sunday. California’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last…

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Christie Defends Trump Immigration Raids Deporting Illegal Aliens

Tennessee Star Staff

TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday defended President Donald Trump’s order for weekend immigration raids in six states in which unauthorized immigrants without any violent criminal past were deported along with gang members being targeted. The president on Sunday tweeted that the immigration and customs enforcement raids cracking down on the estimated 11 million immigrants…

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Two Legislators Push for In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrant Students

Chris Alto

Florida and Texas are moving to repeal in-state college tuition for illegal immigrant students, including grantees of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In Tennessee, two legislators will try a third time to give illegal immigrant students the in-state tuition benefit. In 2014, Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and Rep. Richard Floyd (R-Chattanooga) introduced the first bill, SB1951/HB1992 that tried to give in-state college tuition to illegal immigrant students living in Tennessee. The bill was shelved and Rep. Floyd retired at the end of that legislative session. In 2015, Sen. Gardenhire and Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) introduced SB612/HB675. During the bill’s debate they identified DACA grantees as the intended beneficiaries. The “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” was a unilateral directive issued by President Obama that granted a renewable two-year deferred deportation, work permit and social security number to individuals meeting the program’s criteria.  DACA did not grant legal immigration status. In committee Rep. White described DACA applicants as children brought to our state “when they were 2,3,4,5,6,7 years of age and they have grown up here due to no fault of their own.” According to the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Customs & Immigration (USCIS), DACA applicants must have…

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