Day: March 29, 2017

Gannett’s ‘Tennessean’ Shrinks As The Tennessee Star Grows

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  Gannett News, the far left mainstream media giant based in Tysons Corner, Virginia, announced drastic cuts in its staff in all its major Tennessee publications on Tuesday, including The Tennessean and The Daily News Journal here in Middle Tennessee. “Today we underwent and completed a reduction in personnel in our news division in several of our Tennessee markets, as part of a transformative strategy for the USA TODAY NETWORK–Tennessee,” Tennessean publisher Laura Hollingworth wrote in an email to employees of Gannett’s Tennessee operations, the Nashville Scene reported. “We recognize that this has been a tough day, and we respect and appreciate the work of all our colleagues, especially those who have been impacted by these actions — through no fault of their own,” Hollingsworth said in her email. “A year after acquiring the Commercial Appeal and Knoxville News-Sentinel, Gannett made sizable cuts today in both of those newsrooms, in addition to laying off three reporters locally,” the Scene reported: In Memphis, sources tell the Scene that 17 staff members were eliminated in the newsroom, including seven digital producers, two photographers, two reporters, one clerk and five editors. In Knoxville, 11 were eliminated from the newsroom, including four managers. The…

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Guest Commentary: ‘Gardenhire Republicans’ Want Subsidized Education for Illegal Immigrants and Sanctuary Campuses

Admin
Tennessee Star

By: Karen Lees The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports that the burden of illegal immigration on taxpayers in Tennessee for both state and local expenditures jumped from $285 million in 2007 to $547 million in 2013, according to a FAIR 2013 study. To add to that burden, proposed legislation that would grant eligibility for illegal aliens to receive in-state tuition is being considered this session by legislators at the Tennessee State Capitol. In most cases, the discount for in-state tuition is roughly 50%, leaving Tennessee taxpayers with half the cost of tuition for each illegal student. Senator Todd Gardenhire’s SB 0635 & SB 1014 and Representative Mark White’s HB 0660 & HB 0863 seek to abdicate the legislature’s delegated authority to a Board of Regents or other un-elected body governing Tennessee’s post secondary schools. With slumping attendance rates, the decision left to un-elected boards to fill empty seats in the classroom will take priority over compliance with federal immigration law and public safety. The summary for SB0635 states: This bill authorizes the governing body of each public institution of higher education to determine the qualifications that students must possess to be eligible for payment of in-state tuition and fees.…

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General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland Arrested, Faces Charges of Obstructing Criminal Investigations

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland was arrested by FBI agents at his home Tuesday morning and faces federal charges for obstructing criminal investigations, WSMV-TV Channel 4 reports. The charges include tampering with a witness, victim or an informant and retaliating against a witness, victim or an informant, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court. After his arrest, Moreland appeared before a magistrate and it was decided that he will remain in custody until Friday, when there will be a probable cause hearing and detention hearing. “The allegations set forth in the indictment set forth egregious abuses of power by a judge sitting here in Nashville,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jack Smith at a press conference. “Such an abuse of power undermines the credibility of and destroys the public’s trust in the court system and strikes at the very essence of our judicial branch of government.” If convicted, Moreland faces up to 20 years in prison. Mayor Megan Barry released a statement calling on Moreland to resign. “Nashville deserves to have absolute trust in our judiciary, and Casey Moreland, based upon the allegations in the federal complaint, seems to have clearly violated that trust,” Barry said. “Like all…

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FAKE NEWS: State Rep. Andy Holt Declares NewsChannel 5’s Traffic Camera Citation ‘Investigation’ of Him a Sham

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  Tennessee State Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) fired back at so-called “fake news” regarding a report by News Channel 5’s Ben Hall. In a statement, Representative Holt shot down the local reporter’s implication that Holt – a notorious and outspoken opponent of automatically operated “red light cameras” by third-party vendors as a revenue generator for the state – somehow hid his record of unpaid traffic citations. Hall’s report is literally the definition of fake news. There’s a very simple reason I refused to talk to Mr. Hall about my traffic camera tickets. He’s a known peddler of fake, biased news. It’s actually funny that he fell right into the trap by writing a misleading headline and creating a fake story because I wouldn’t talk to him. The truth is, I’m more than happy to talk about my unpaid traffic camera citations, and I have been very public about that. I welcome any real journalist to come in my office, sit down with me, and report on the real story. Instead, Representative Holt said Hall’s story was a massive missed opportunity for the journalist to expose a very serious and corrupt operation. Mr. Hall really dropped the ball here. He let his…

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Gardenhire and White Broaden Scope of In-State Tuition Bill to Cover More Illegal Immigrant Students, Including ‘Unaccompanied Alien Children’

Chris Alto

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Chattanooga) have broadened the scope of the 2017 version of the in-state tuition for illegal immigrant students bill they have introduced to the current session of the Tennessee General Assembly. The 2015  Gardenhire/White bill that would have given in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students was restricted to grantees of Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The 2017 version of the bill now applies to illegal immigrant students classified in the “Unaccompanied Alien Child” (UAC) category of immigration status. In his much publicized radio meltdown with WWTN’s Ralph Bristol on Friday, Sen. Gardenhire described an illegal immigrant his bill would provide in-state tuition benefits to as “somebody that’s got a 4.0 average, was the valedictorian of their class.” But some UACs who would potentially be eligible for these taxpayer funded tuition breaks are not exactly the model citizens Gardenhire described. In 2013, sixteen year old Edwin Mejia, a UAC from Honduras, was transported to Tennessee and released into the custody of his brother, an illegal immigrant living north of Nashville in Madison, Tennessee. The following year the two brothers moved to Nebraska where Edwin struck and killed 21-year old…

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Sean Spicer Comments Show Reince Priebus Is In Trouble as White House Chief of Staff

Tennessee Star Staff

By: George Rasley, CHQ Editor   The establishment media would like Americans to believe that after the implosion of the Ryancare bill there is an unbridgeable rift between conservatives and President Trump, but the facts are quite the opposite. In our article “The Deal Breaker In #Ryancare” we reminded President Trump that in his book The Art of the Deal he offered the following advice about negotiation, “What you should never do is pay too much, even if that means walking away…”. Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at his daily briefing, President Trump sensed that he was going to end up with a “bad deal” if he kept making changes to the bill to repeal Obamacare, so he walked away. “That’s one of the traits,” said Spicer. “It’s not just about making deals, it’s knowing when to walk away from deals, knowing when there’s a bad deal that’s the only solution.” The President “recognizes when there’s a deal to be made,” Spicer said, and “when to walk away.” “I think the president understood that while you can get a deal at the time, that sometimes a bad deal is worse than getting a deal,” Spicer told reporters.…

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