Day: April 17, 2017

Carol Swain, Set To Retire, Will Give Final Lecture at Vanderbilt April 24

Wendy Wilson

Carol Swain will give a lecture at Vanderbilt University next week titled “Political Correctness and the Decline of American Universities.” It will be her final lecture as a Vanderbilt professor of political science and law. In January, the nationally-known academic and author announced that she will retire in August. “I will miss the students and the rhythm of campus, but I will not miss what American universities have allowed themselves to become,” she said in her announcement. Swain, who came to Vanderbilt in 1999, has been popular among conservatives for her bold conservative Christian views. However, they have made her the subject of much criticism. In 2015, Vanderbilt students started a change.org petition to have her suspended for “bigotry, intolerance and unprofessionalism.” The petition said that Swain’s “hate-filled prejudices negatively impact her work” and provided links to two pieces of Swain’s commentary, one criticizing fundamentalist Islam and the other criticizing gay marriage. The petition was unsuccessful but Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos offered only tepid support in her defense. In announcing her retirement, Swain said that she looks forward to spending time “writing, speaking, and making myself available for my next assignment.” Her lecture on Monday, April 24 is free and open to…

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SCCY Firearms Relocating to Tennessee

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  SCCY Firearms is relocating to Tennessee, according to a report in NRA magazine Shooting Illustrated. The handgun manufacturer announced last week that it would move from Daytona Beach, Florida to Maryville in Blount County in East Tennessee. SCCY will be housed in a 150,000-square-foot plant on a 68-acre campus. The staff size will increase to 350. The first phase of construction is set to be completed in the first half of 2018. “We needed more space to make those guns,” company founder and CEO Joe Roebuck told reporters. “So when we come to Tennessee, there’s actually two more additional product lines coming that we don’t currently manufacture and sell today.” Begun in 2003 as a small company, SCCY later grew to the point that last year it projected $30 million in sales. SCCY touts its product as the “king of concealed carry.” Plans for the Tennessee location include an outdoor shooting range, a lodge for visiting VIPs and gun writers and five main production and shipping buildings. “I’m gonna keep a small footprint back in Florida, but I’m moving my headquarters here,” Roebuck said. Last year, Italian gunmaker Beretta opened a plant north of Nashville in Gallatin with plans to employ…

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Mayor Rick Graham Re-Elected in Spring Hill; 3 New Aldermen Win as Incumbents Fall

Tennessee Star Staff

“Voters in the April 13, 2017, Spring Hill Municipal Election re-elected Mayor Rick Graham to a second four-year term,” the Spring Hill City website reports. “Incumbent Alderman Amy Wurth, who ran unopposed, was re-elected to Ward 1, and three new aldermen will join the board: Jeff Graves in Ward 2, Kevin Gavigan in Ward 3, and Vincent Fuqua in Ward 4, the only seat without an incumbent in the race,” the site adds. “There was a significant victory for conservatives in Thursday’s Spring Hill election,” a source familiar with Williamson County politics tells The Tennessee Star. “In Ward 2, Alderman Jonathan Duda was not re-elected even though State Rep. Sam Whitson, a big supporter of Gov. Haslam’s gas tax increase, had a mailer and ads supporting him. Jeff Graves, the actual Republican candidate won in Ward 2 over Duda by the largest margin of any of the contested races,” the source says. Duda’s mailer included these words of praise from Whitson: “As a member of the Transportation Committee and your State Representative of the 65th District, I know that Jonathan Duda is doing the hard work that is necessary to complete the major road projects that are desperately needed to…

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U.S. Rep. Diane Black’s Pro-Life Legislation Signed Into Law By President Trump

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  U.S. Rep. Diane Black was at President Trump’s side last week as he signed pro-life legislation that she introduced in the House. The measure signed into law Thursday overturned an Obama administration rule that forced states to provide Title X family planning grants to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. The Tennessee Republican said in a statement that while she is “unapologetically pro-life, this bill is simply about states’ rights.” “For over 45 years, states like Tennessee have had the authority to direct federal family planning funds to the health care providers that best suit the needs of their unique communities, but sadly, in a parting gift to the abortion industry, President Obama stole this freedom and flexibility and forced his own political agenda on states across the country,” Black said. A registered nurse, Black is a member of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. The measure was co-authored by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). On March 30, Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote to push the bill through in the Senate, where Republicans have a slim majority. Pence was needed because two Republican women, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, opposed the bill. The measure had…

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Commentary: Tennessee Is the Patron State of Fake Fiscal Notes

Tennessee Star Staff

  by John Harris In the movie Shooter, Mark Wahlberg, who is playing a retired sniper, refers to Tennessee as the “patron state of shootin’ stuff.” Some Tennesseans smiled and said, “Yep”! Our volunteer spirit, patriotism, sacrifices in war, and culture of owning and enjoying firearms is a generational right – particularly when it involves constitutionally protected rights. Apparently, many in our Legislature and our Governor have a differing view. The Republican-controlled supermajority, especially Leadership, and a Republican Governor refuse to act like constitutionally principled leaders on 2nd Amendment issues. Their procedural dirty tricks and shenanigans do not just pertain to firearms issues. Consider the stunts being used to pass a massive gas tax increase, their successful effort to take away our right to vote for judges, increasing the state’s budget by approximately $7 billion in just a few years while claiming that they “reduced taxes”, their support of Common Core, Medicaid expansion, and the creation of ObamaCare exchanges. How has this happened? From its procedural toolbox, Legislative leadership has allowed “ghost voting” and secret “pre-meetings” and abused the committee system with pre-ordained members and choreographed committee productions. But perhaps their most effective tool is their use of the Fiscal…

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Constitution Series: The Electoral College and the Selection of the President

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

    This is the third of twenty-five weekly articles in The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Series. Students in grades 8 through 12 can sign up here to participate in The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Bee, which will be held on September 23. The method of selection of a President to head the executive branch for a term of four years is the most notable illustration of the foundational concept of Federalism seen in the body of the text of the Constitution of the United States that emerged from the Constitutional Convention. Federalism, as we explained earlier in this series, “defines the relationship between the national government and each of the state governments that comprise our republic. Both entities–the national government and each state government–remain sovereign, while the powers of governance and responsibilities to the citizenry are balanced between the two.” And it was the Tenth Amendment, ratified in 1791 and part of the original constitutional “compact” or “covenant” between the states and the national government upon which our republic was organized: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. “The executive Power…

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Here is How Google Celebrated Easter Sunday

Tennessee Star Staff

New media and search engine giant Google celebrated Easter Sunday 2017 the same way it has celebrated Easter for years. Not at all. A.J. Delgado, writing at Mediaite, remarked on Google’s disinterest in Easter Sunday back in 2013. Google’s homepage is known for its ‘Doodles‘ — temporary changes to its homepage logo to commemorate certain days. As defined by Google, its homepage changes are meant “to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.” But on Easter Sunday, a day celebrated by over one billion around the world and by the vast majority of Americans, Google’s homepage is mum on the holiday. Instead, Google chose to commemorate Big Labor icon Cesar Chavez. (In 2011, President Obama designated March 31 as Cesar Chavez day.) Google’s official position over the Easter Sunday-Cesar Chavez controversy in 2013  was “it’s difficult for us to choose,” as the Washington Post reported at the time. Among the holidays the company regularly celebrates with Google Doodles, other than Easter Sunday, are Earth Day, Martin Luther King Day, Lunar New Year, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The first Google Doodle, celebrating the annual Burning Man event, appeared in 1998. Since…

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New Chattanooga City Councilwoman Has Criminal Past

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  A woman who won a seat on the Chattanooga City Council last week has an extensive past arrest record, including for armed robbery. Demetrus Coonrod, who spoke openly about her troubled past on the campaign trail, trounced longtime councilman Yusuf Hakeem with 700 votes to his 467 in Tuesday’s run-off election for the District 9 seat. She has served as vice chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party. The online news site Chattanoogan.com on Wednesday posted a lengthy article detailing Coonrod’s criminal history. Charged along with others in robberies in 2001 and 2002, she pleaded guilty to involvement in holdups at Popeye’s and a plasma center as well as conspiracy to commit armed robbery. She received an 84-month sentence and was sent to prison in Tallahassee, Florida. Her sentence was reduced by 21 months after she cooperated in an investigation of corrections officers accused of bringing contraband into the prison in exchange for money and sex. After her release, she went to stay at a Salvation Army halfway house in Chattanooga. She racked up numerous violations for misconduct at the house, including for failing to pay subsistence and for yelling obscenities. In one angry outburst directed at her case manager,…

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No Evidence Haslam Administration Requires Reporting of Female Genital Mutilation to Tennessee Department of Health, Despite High Potential Risk in Nashville

Chris Alto

  The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area is ranked 20th in the country for the potential risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) being performed on women and girls, as reported by the Population Reference Bureau. Among state rankings Tennessee is number 18  overall for risk to women and girls from FGM. Yet under the administration of Governor Bill Haslam, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) does not require any reporting of FGM by Tennessee healthcare providers to the TDH, so far as The Tennessee Star can determine based on publicly available records. The 2017 mandated reporting to the TDH by healthcare providers of “diseases, events, and conditions” which includes both communicable diseases and “events” such as lead levels and carbon monoxide poisoning, but does not include any form of female genital mutilation (FGM), despite a state law passed in 2012 specifically for the purpose of reporting FGM. The TDH’s Maternal and Child Health Services Title V Block Grant FY 2017 Application and Annual report which is administered in part for TDH initiatives related to Maternal and Child Health (MCH), specifically references the FGM prohibition as one of the state laws that provide “basic protections for the MCH population” and which applies to TDH’s use of…

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