Day: February 23, 2017

More Unanswered Questions at Gov. Haslam’s Sumner County Gas Tax Town Hall

Laura Baigert

On Wednesday evening, Governor Haslam spoke about his proposed 7 cent gas tax and 12 cent diesel tax increase at Sumner County’s Station Camp High School to a group of about 300 people, around 100 of whom received a personal email invitation from County Executive Anthony Holt. The governor, joined by Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer on a stage with local elected officials, delivered an abbreviated and less energetic version of his state of the state address that he had delivered at his previous town hall style meetings. These events have afforded the opportunity to fact-check the claims the governor has been making since the launch of his IMPROVE Act at a press conference on January 18, and Wednesday’s Sumner County Town Hall showed that the number of unanswered questions has not diminished as his tour of the state has gone on. According to the governor, Tennessee does not use bond debt to fund roads, but his budgets for 2016-17 and 2017-18 included $88 million and $80 million in bond debt, respectively. The Tennessee Star’s Laura Baigert pressed the governor on claims that this year’s budget, like past budgets, keeps various funds separate. How, she asked, did the governor…

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: State Rep. Mark Pody: Protesters ‘Interested in Just Yelling for the Cameras’

Tennessee Star Staff

The Tennessee Star’s Laura Baigert sat down with State Rep. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) for this exclusive interview on Capitol Hill Wednesday about the recent protest that disrupted a press conference he had scheduled with State Sen. Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet). Here’s the transcript: Baigert: We’re here with Rep. Pody from district 46, which is Wilson, DeKalb, and Cannon Counties. Rep. Pody, last week you were the subject of a protest, the beginning of it, that’s been going on the last week. Can you give us your take on what you’ve been seeing? State Rep. Pody: Absolutely. And it won’t even be the beginning of the protest, because I think there’s been a lot of protest going on. However, this has been maybe a focal point, with a lot of things happening with protesters. Now, they started protesting actually as soon as we got into session. So the very first day we were here they were protesting. And a couple times when we would go in to session they were protesting. It was ironic because sometimes when we got to the session, we got to actually sitting down at the desk and [State Rep.] Judd Matheny was sitting right with me…

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Commentary: Is There Voter Fraud in Our Elections?

Albert Tieche

Is there voter fraud in our elections? If you ask anyone who has been deeply involved in putting on elections, they will tell you there’s always a few ‘bad’ votes in any election. That’s why election officials prefer landslide elections because you know the will of the people was done in spite of any background level of bad votes. However, a few bad votes are NOT what President Trump is talking about. Trump is talking about large numbers of fraudulent votes – enough to change the outcome of an election. Is that actually happening? The answer is “We don’t know,” because nobody wants to look. Democrat leadership keeps saying there is no evidence of voter fraud. Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority leader says he doesn’t want to spend any federal dollars to look into possible voter fraud. Here in Tennessee, Republican state election officials have been reluctant to look into the possibility of non-citizens being registered to vote. But refusing to look makes people more suspicious. This idea that the public can be assured that all is well even though no investigations have been done is ridiculous, but that is what we have been told for quite a while.…

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Tennessee Latino Group Endorses Trump’s Labor Pick

Wendy Wilson

Latinos For Tennessee is supporting Alexander Acosta, President Trump’s new pick for labor secretary. In a statement, Raul Lopez, executive director of the conservative group, said, “We are delighted to see President Trump nominate a highly distinguished and highly qualified Latino for his cabinet. The fact is that the last eight years have been underwhelming for the Latino community as far too many Latinos are struggling to find work and have not seen a pay increase in some time.” Latinos For Tennessee, which has a presence in Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga, promotes faith, family, freedom and fiscal responsibility. Acosta, 48, is currently dean of the law school at Florida International University. Before joining the school in 2009, he was head prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida. A Miami native, he is a first-generation university graduate, having earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard. He was a law clerk for Samuel Alito when Alito was a federal appeals court judge before being named to the Supreme Court. Acosta has served as a member of the National Labor Relations Board and was the first Hispanic assistant attorney general. He is chairman of the largest domestically-owned Hispanic community bank in Florida, U.S.…

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