Day: March 27, 2017

Metro Nashville Teachers Union Hosts Organizational Meeting For Progressive Activist Group

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  The Metro Nashville teachers union hosted a meeting earlier this month for a statewide progressive activist group forming a chapter in Nashville. In a March 18 post on its own Facebook page, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) thanked the Metro Nashville Education Association (MNEA) for hosting “the first public event organized by our chapter forming in Nashville/Davidson County.” The MNEA is an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). Pronounced “sock-em,” SOCM is an activist group that has been working for “social, economic, and environmental justice” for more than 40 years, according to the group’s website. The group was known for many years by its original name, Save Our Cumberland Mountains, which reflected its early mission of helping in poor coalfield communities in five northern counties in the Cumberland Mountains. The group continues to be heavily involved in environmental issues with its opposition to mountaintop removal mining and fracking and its promotion of “water quality justice.” However, it has also expanded its reach into other areas. It lists the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) as one of its partner organizations. In 2013, SOCM formed a Social Justice Committee that according to its page on the group’s website addresses racism, prison…

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State Senator Gardenhire Melts Down During Radio Interview When Questioned On Fairness of Granting Illegal Immigrant Students In-State Tuition

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) had a live on-air melt down Friday during a radio interview on WWTN 99.7 FM when Nashville’s Morning News host Ralph Bristol questioned him about the fairness of granting illegal immigrant students in-state tuition. Gardenhire is the sponsor of SB 1014/HB863 in the Senate. Rep. Mark White (R-Chattanooga) is the sponsor in the House. The bill “exempts undocumented students from paying out-of-state tuition at a state institution of higher education, at the discretion of the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR), the state university governing boards, or the University of Tennessee (UT) board of trustees,” according to the bill summary in the Fiscal Note prepared by the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee: Such individuals shall meet certain requirements to receive in-state tuition, including but not limited to, attending a school in this state for the two years immediately prior to graduation from high school; graduating from a Tennessee high school or obtaining a GED or HiSET credential awarded by a state-approved institution or organization, or completing high school in a Tennessee home school program; and is registered as an entering student or is enrolled at a state institution of higher education. The bill passed the…

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State Legislators Who Live Near Nashville Want To Get Reimbursed for Overnight Stays Again

Tennessee Star Staff

House Majority Leader Glen Casada (R-Franklin) tells The Tennessee Star he filed an amendment on Wednesday to SB 1251/HB 1139 that will reimburse state legislators who live less than 50 miles from the State Capitol in Nashville for overnight hotel stays while the Tennessee General Assembly is in session. “I think it’s a fair request,” Casada tells The Star. The amendment reads as follows: (A) A member whose principal residence is fifty (50) miles from the capitol or less shall be paid an expense allowance for meals and incidentals equal to the allowance granted federal employees for such expenses in the Nashville area for each legislative day in Nashville or any day the member participates in any other meeting or endeavor as described in subsection (a) held in Nashville. (B) A member whose principal residence is fifty (50) miles from the capitol or less shall be paid an expense allowance for lodging equal to the allowance granted federal employees for lodging expenses in the Nashville area if the member requests on the member’s per diem reimbursement form to be reimbursed for lodging for a legislative day or any day the member participates in any other meeting or endeavor as described in subsection (a)…

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Legislators Who Give In-State Tuition to Illegal Immigrant Students Are Voting to Violate State Law

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

Last week when the state’s Senate Education Committee voted to give in-state college tuition to illegal immigrant students, the seven committee members that passed SB1014 also voted to violate a 2012 Tennessee law. By voting to pass SB1014, Senators Gresham, Tate, and Tracy voted against the “Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act” (EVEA), the law they had each voted to pass in 2012. Bill sponsor Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and Senators Crowe, Dickerson, and Haile also voted yes. Senators Hensley and Kelsey voted no. Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) was a named co-sponsor of the EVEA. The 2012 EVEA, which the  TN Board of Regents’ General Counsel confirmed last week, classifies in-state tuition is a state benefit. The EVEA requires that: “…every state governmental entity and local health department shall verify that each applicant eighteen (18) years of age or older, who applies for a federal, state or local public benefit from the entity or local health department, is a United States citizen or lawfully present in the United States in the manner provided in this chapter.” Only U.S. citizens and “qualified aliens” are considered eligible to apply for benefits under this Tennessee law which defines “qualified alien” by referencing federal law.…

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The Last Renaissance Man

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

By: Richard Gunderman CC 2.0 Gaze at Alexander Von Humboldt’s 1814 self-portrait and you peer into the eyes of a man who sought to see and understand everything. By this point in his life, at age 45, Humboldt had tutored himself in every branch of science, spent more than five years on a 6,000 mile scientific trek through South America, pioneered new methods for the graphical display of information, set a world mountain climbing record that stood for 30 years and established himself as one of the world’s most famous scientists, having helped to define many of today’s natural sciences. Humboldt, born in Berlin, is sometimes called the last Renaissance man – he embodied all that was known about the world in his day. He spent the last three decades of his life writing Kosmos, an attempt to provide a scientific account of all aspects of nature. Though unfinished at the time of his death in 1859, the four completed volumes are one of the most ambitious works of science ever published, conveying an extraordinary breadth of understanding. Throughout his life, Humboldt sought out the world’s interconnections. Today knowledge can seem hopelessly fragmented. The sciences and humanities speak different languages, the…

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