Day: April 14, 2017

Governor ‘Hot Boxing’ Legislators to Get Yes Votes on Gas Tax Increase

Tennessee Star Staff

Governor Haslam is concerned enough about the final outcome of next week’s proposed gas tax increase vote on his IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017” to set up a series of private 20 minute meetings with state legislators who are on the fence. In an email sent to staff assistants of fifteen members of the Tennessee House of Representatives on Wednesday obtained by The Tennessee Star, one of the governor’s administrative assistants “requested” these targeted legislators appear in “his conference room on the first floor of the Capitol,”beginning on Thursday. The purpose of these meetings appears to be for the governor to give these state legislators the “hot box” treatment. “Hot boxing” is a method of interrogation in which the person being interrogated “is locked in a ‘hot box’ – a small, hot room,” according to List Verse. In the political world, “hot boxing” usually refers to intense one-on-one pressure applied by a powerful political figure to a less powerful political figure. The treatment is delivered in an environment totally controlled by the more powerful political figure. Its purpose is to coerce the less powerful political figure to comply with the political will of the more powerful political figure.…

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Nashville-Murfreesboro-Franklin Metro Area One of Top 20 Places in U.S. Where Women and Girls at Risk for Female Genital Mutilation

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

Tennessee outlawed female genital mutilation (FGM) in 1996, but 2013 data collated in a Population Reference Bureau (PRB) report, shows that the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area is ranked 20th in the country for the potential risk of FGM being performed on women and girls. Tennessee is number 18 in overall state rankings for risk to women and girls from FGM. The Population Reference Bureau is a non-profit supported financially by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the United States Agency for International Development and several other foundations. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) includes the terms FGM, female circumcision and female genital excision, under the broader heading of “female genital cutting:” “Female genital cutting refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of female genitalia or other injury to female genital organs for any cultural, religious or otherwise nontherapeutic reasons. This practice is common in many refugee populations, particularly those from East Africa (i.e. Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan), although the practice is pervasive throughout the world. This controversial practice is considered a human rights violation by many, and it is illegal in the United States in people under 18 years of age.”  [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/us-fgmc-all-metros-table.pdf”]   Minneapolis, Minnesota,…

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Dr. Ming Wang Encourages Vanderbilt Students To Learn About And Invest In China

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Renowned Nashville eye doctor Ming Wang spoke to Vanderbilt students Friday about his life and work and recent appointment as CEO of U.S. operations for an eye hospital chain in China. The appointment is the latest in Wang’s 15-year relationship with Aier Eye Hospital, the largest private eye group in China with 154 hospitals countrywide. Wang Vision Institute in Nashville will be a flagship for Aier and a training site for doctors. Aier-USA plans to build centers across the U.S. In 2005, Wang performed the first bladeless all-laser LASIK surgery in China at the Aier Eye Hospital in Shanghai. Wang escaped from communist China in 1982 and arrived in the U.S. with only $50 in his pocket. He went on to graduate with high honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT. He also is known as a ballroom dancer and is skilled at playing the Chinese violin. Raised in an atheist family, Wang later became a Christian and has spoken often about how his faith influences his work and involvement in charity. Speaking before an audience at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management, Wang encouraged students to learn all they could about China because of its growing economy. “It is…

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If Education Committee Follows House Rules Mark White’s Bill Will Fail Again

Chris Alto

Section 5 of Rep. Mark White’s (R-Memphis) bill, HB660, would have allowed the governing boards of state colleges and universities to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students. Despite amending his bill to remove Section 5, the bill failed for lack of a majority in the House Education committee this week. If the Education committee follows the Permanent Rules of Order of the Tennessee House of Representatives the 110th General Assembly, White’s bill will not be revived for a new vote by the committee. White has put his bill back “on notice” for the committee’s meeting on Tuesday, April 18th.  However, before the committee can vote on the bill again, a motion for reconsideration would need to be offered and passed. It has been confirmed with the House Office of the Chief Clerk, that a motion to reconsider White’s bill would have to be offered by a committee member of the “prevailing party.” It was also confirmed that when a bill fails to achieve a majority vote as in this case of the 6-6 vote on White’s bill, the “prevailing party” would be someone who voted against the bill. Should any of the committee members who voted “no,” move to reconsider the…

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Gas Tax Increase Lobbyists Begin Advertising Campaign on Ralph Bristol’s WWTN Show

Laura Baigert

Regular listeners to Nashville’s Morning News With Ralph Bristol on 99.7 FM WWTN may have noticed a new advertiser on Thursday–the Transportation Coalition of Tennessee. The Coalition is a group of 39 lobbying groups that support Governor Haslam’s IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017,” the majority of which will directly benefit from the additional $10 billion in taxpayer-funded road projects. Several of the lobbying groups, such as the Tennessee County Highway Officials Association, Association of County Mayors and Tennessee County Commissioners Association, are funded by membership dues paid for by taxpayers through county budgets. Reports indicate that the ads are only being played on WWTN during Nashville’s Morning News with Ralph Bristol. Bristol has been a proponent of the IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017” since its introduction and continued his support in the second hour of Thursday’s show with an 8-minute “rant,” as Ralph often refers to them. The full transcript can be found here. In the third hour of the program, the one-minute advertising “spot” by the Coalition went like this: “Governor Bill Haslam’s IMPROVE Act responsibly funds important road and bridge work in all of Tennessee’s 95 counties. The IMPROVE Act funds transportation infrastructure and at…

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Debate Rescheduled For Brentwood City Commission Candidates

Wendy Wilson

A candidates debate for those vying for positions on the Brentwood City Commission has been rescheduled for April 19. The debate was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was canceled. “We have had some major issues scheduling this debate for Brentwood,” Matt Largen told The Tennessee Star. Largen is president of Williamson, Inc., the chamber of commerce and economic development office for Williamson County. Wednesday’s debate time ended up conflicting with a meeting on school rezoning and construction of a new school in Brentwood, which drew the candidates and several hundred community members, Largen said. The rescheduled debate will be held at 6 p.m. at Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, the same place as originally scheduled. LBMC is a CPA firm in the new Hill Center development at the corner of Franklin Road and Maryland Way. Williamson, Inc. board chair Jeff Drummonds is the CEO of LBMC and offered space for the event, Largen said, noting that it’s a central location. Four candidates are running for three seats on the city board in the nonpartisan race. The election is May 2. Three candidates are incumbents. They are Mayor Regina Smithson, Mark Gorman and Rhea Little. The only challenger is John Byers.…

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Islamic Group Aligns with LGBT Advocates to Oppose Tennessee’s Mark Green Appointment as Army Secretary

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), perhaps best known as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding scandal, issued a statement denouncing Tennessee state senator Mark Green’s nomination to serve as President Donald Trumps Secretary of the Army. CAIR – who forcefully label people and groups with whom they disagree with the Muslim Brotherhood term, “Islamophobic” – announced its opposition to Green’s confirmation due to past remarks and policy positions. Offered as proof of his “Islamophobia,” CAIR’s statement included a laundry-list of quotes by Sen. Green, apparently all from a single appearance at a Chattanooga Tea Party meeting last year. Perhaps most interesting about the pro-Islamic organization’s statement is at the end, with its acknowledgment and alignment with LGBT advocates against Green: Other groups are opposing Green’s confirmation because of his criticism of federal attempts to bar discrimination in workplaces and businesses. SEE: L.G.B.T. Advocates Criticize Nominee for Army Secretary State Sen. Mark Green is a medical doctor, West Point graduate, and a career military veteran with a distinguished record of service. He is a staunch advocate for limited government, secure borders, and fiscal responsibility. Before being tapped for the Army Secretary position, Green was strongly considering a run for…

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions Is More Trump Than Trump White House

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

ConservativeHQ Staff While President Trump’s White House staff is allegedly engaged in a debilitating internecine war between those who wish to pursue the agenda the President campaigned on and the so-called “West Wing Democrats” led by chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, one leading figure in the Trump administration is hewing relentlessly to the President’s campaign agenda. And that person is Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Yesterday, Sessions paid a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border during a trip to Nogales, Arizona, where he spoke to a group of Customs and Border Protection agents and prosecutors. (You can read General Sessions’ remarks in their entirety through this link.) In his remarks, the Attorney General announced that he has issued a memo to United States Attorneys that mandates the prioritization of criminal immigration enforcement. The memo directs federal prosecutors to focus on offenses that, Sessions believes, if aggressively charged and prosecuted, can help prevent and deter illegal immigration. Sessions declared: “For those that continue to seek improper and illegal entry into this country, be forewarned: This is a new era. This is the Trump era. The lawlessness, the abdication of the duty to enforce our immigration laws, and the catch and release practices of…

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Tennessee Republican Assembly Calls on Speaker Harwell to ‘Address Our Concerns’ About Boss Doss Conflict of Interest Over Gas Tax Increase

Tennessee Star Staff

The Tennessee Republican Assembly is calling on Speaker Beth Harwell “to fulfill her oath and address our concerns” about State Rep. Barry Doss (R-Leoma) “having a conflict of interest while serving as Committee Chair for the Transportation Committee.” “On March 28, 2017, a letter from the Tennessee Republican Assembly (TRA) was hand delivered to Speaker Beth Harwell’s office. The letter contained well-defined examples of Rep. Barry Doss as having a conflict of interest while serving as Committee Chair for the Transportation Committee,” the TRA said in a statement released on Thursday. “This was an official request for a meeting with Speaker Harwell to discuss our valid concerns and it is not acceptable for Speaker Harwell to refuse to acknowledge or meet with the Board to discuss the matter, after repeated attempts to get her to do so,” the statement continued. “We are now publicly calling on the Speaker to fulfill her oath and duties and address our concerns,” the statement concluded. You can see the TRA statement here: [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Harwell_Doss_pr_41317.pdf”]   “The Tennessee Republican Assembly has asked Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) to begin an ethics investigation of the business conduct of State Rep. Barry Doss (R-Leoma), a vocal supporter of…

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