Day: March 20, 2017

Senate Passes Joint Resolution to Elect Tennessee’s Attorney General

Christina Botteri
Tennessee Star

State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) successfully began the process to amend the Tennessee Constitution to allow the State Attorney General to be elected by a popular vote, with the passage of Senate Joint Resolution 57. “Currently, the attorney general is twice removed from those he or she is supposed to represent – the people of Tennessee,” said Senator Beavers aid in a statement disseminated to media by Republican Press Secretary Darlene Schlicher.  “It is time we let the citizens have more of a say in their government.” The Senate Join Resolution passed overwhelmingly 22 – 8. To amend the Tennessee Constitution, the proposal will require a simple majority by the 110th General Assembly currently in session, and then a two-thirds majority in the 111th General Assembly elected in 2018. After passage in 2018, the amendment would go to a statewide referendum in 2022. Finally, in order to be adopted, a proposed constitutional amendment needs 50 percent-plus-one votes more than the number of votes cast in the gubernatorial election. The statement reads: [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Beavers-elected-AG-2017-floor-vote.pdf” title=”Beavers elected AG 2017 floor vote”]  

Read the full story

Kentucky Set to Rally for President Trump in Louisville

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  The Kentucky Exposition Center  is brimming with well-wishers and rally-goers, who have lined up in the thousands to see President Trump in Freedom Hall. Leading up to the actual event, Right Side Broadcasting Network is offering live coverage outside the venue. People are happy, enthused and making new friends while waiting for the President to arrive. The event is scheduled to begin at 3:30pm eastern time. Catch the RSBN livestream, here:        

Read the full story

Nashville’s Downtown Library ‘A Scary Mess,’ Mirrors National Trends Aimed At Helping Homeless

Wendy Wilson

Public libraries have long wrestled with how to address homeless people who walk through the door. What’s changed in recent years is that some libraries have started to pro-actively welcome the homeless and set up programs to try to help them. Nashville, with a growing homeless population, is on the cutting edge of this approach and has drawn national attention for its efforts at the downtown library on Church Street. But critics say that while well-intentioned, reaching out to the homeless can distract from a library’s main mission and make it a less welcoming place for the general public. “The Downtown Library is a Scary Mess” was the title of an article  in the Nashville Scene in August 2016. Writer Betsy Phillips described encountering bad smells, out-of-order toilets, dirty laundry on restroom sinks, and men darting in and out of doorways by a reading room making her feel unsafe. “There’s not a good way to talk about this without sounding like you’re being mean to homeless people,” Phillips wrote. But talk about it we must, she said. “This is a library. A library. If there is any place in town where you should not be afraid to walk into a…

Read the full story

America First Federation Launches Effort to Impeach Three Federal Judges

Tennessee Star Staff

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The America First Federation (AFF) announced today that it is launching a campaign to impeach the three federal district judges who have unconstitutionally ruled to revoke President Trump’s executive orders to protect the United States from foreign terrorists. “The three judges are Judge James Robart of Washington State, who overruled President Trump’s Executive Order 13679 on February 6, Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii and Judge Theodore Chuang of Maryland who issued separate temporary restraining orders on March 15 blocking the nationwide implementation of President Trump’s Executive Order 13780,” AFF said in the statement released to The Tennessee Star. “We are organizing in several states, beginning with Tennessee, Florida, and Texas, to ask Republican members of the House of Representatives in those states to file articles of impeachment against all three of these judges (Robart,Watson, and Chuang), individually, in the House of Representatives, and to ask the Judiciary Committee to commence impeachment hearings,” Mark Skoda, founder of AFF, said in the statement. “Our efforts will initially focus on communicating this message to Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in Tennessee and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) in Texas,” Skoda said. “None…

Read the full story

Thirty Tennessee General Assembly Members Signed The ‘Taxpayer Protection Pledge,’ But Some Are Breaking It With The IMPROVE Act

Laura Baigert

“Politicians often run for office saying they won’t raise taxes, but then quickly turn their backs on the taxpayer. The idea of the Pledge is simple enough:  Make them put their no-new-taxes rhetoric in writing,” says Americans for Tax Reform. The “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” commits an elected official or candidate for public office “to oppose [and vote against/veto] any efforts to increase taxes.”  According to the Americans for Tax Reform searchable data base, the Pledge has been signed by 30 active Tennessee State Representatives and State Senators, who are listed below.  State Representatives State Senators District First Last District First Last 24 Kevin Brooks 17 Mae Beavers 19 Harry Brooks 16 Janice Bowling 71 David Byrd 22 Mark Green 63 Glen Casada 26 Dolores Gresham 16 Bill Dunn 27 Ed Jackson 11 Jeremy Faison 23 Jack Johnson 56 Beth Harwell 13 Bill Ketron 7 Matthew Hill 5 Randy McNally 22 Dan Howell 1 Steve Southerland 68 Curtis Johnson 24 John Stevens 89 Roger Kane 14 Jim Tracy 38 Kelly Keisling 57 Susan Lynn 72 Steve McDaniel 36 Dennis Powers 45 Courtney Rogers 61 Charles Sargent 49 Mike Sparks 40 Terri Lynn Weaver The IMPROVE Act includes five tax increases:  a…

Read the full story

Commentary: Constitutional Crisis or Judicial Tyranny?

Mark Skoda
Tennessee Star

  President Trump has now issued two executive orders temporarily halting refugees from all countries and immigration from several Middle Eastern counties deemed security risks to the United States of America. Trump’s actions are constitutional and lawful. These countries affected by the temporary travel ban have little to no infrastructure to properly vet incoming refugees or migrants to America, are known hotbeds of terrorist activity, and, in the case of Syria, are locked in a violent civil war. Three federal judges–Judge James Robart of Washington State, Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii and Judge Theodore Chuang of Maryland–have recently issued temporary restraining orders blocking the implementation of Executive Order 13769 and Executive Order 13780. None of these three judges addressed the statutes and Constitution pertaining to the legitimate authority of the Executive Branch to regulate immigration. In each of these cases, we find that the opinions of the court reflected the political perspectives of Left wing ideologues, Democrat campaign operatives if you will, as they entered campaign rhetoric as evidence prior to Trump gaining the presidency. In all cases, the opinions did not address the underlying statutes, but instead dealt with the “mindset” of the government as developed through Trump’s campaign…

Read the full story