Day: April 19, 2017

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Calls Passage of Gas Tax Hike ‘A Momentous Day in Tennessee,’ Looks Ahead to Mass Transit Plan

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has been cheering Gov. Haslam’s gas tax hike for road improvements, while keeping an eye ahead toward implementing a $6 billion transit plan. Barry pushed for Gov. Haslam’s IMPROVE Act, which includes the gas tax hike, in the hours leading up to Wednesday’s action on the bill. The bill passed in both the House and Senate. After the bill passed, Barry celebrated with this tweet: Statement on passage of the IMPROVE Act to improve infrastructure & allow local option: This is a momentous day. https://t.co/mtVkjCCePm pic.twitter.com/B30v14FQCe — Megan Barry for Congress (TN-7) (@MeganCBarry) April 19, 2017 “Our most immediate need is funding,” said Barry, a Democrat, earlier this month in an interview with WSMV Channel 4. The $6 billion transit plan, known as nMotion, was adopted last year by the board of directors of the Regional Transportation Authority. The RTA is made up of Middle Tennessee mayors and Haslam appointees. Their endorsement is nonbinding but gives the plan momentum. The proposal calls for the project to be phased in over 25 years. Funding sources are still on the drawing board but would likely include tax increases. If former mayor Karl Dean’s failed 2014 Amp rapid bus…

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Gas Tax Increase Bill Passes House in 60 to 37 Vote

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Governor Haslam’s IMPROVE Act, “Tax Cut Act of 2017,” which will increase the gas tax by 6 cents per gallon and the diesel tax by 10 cents per gallon passed the Tennessee House of Representatives late Wednesday in a 60 to 37 vote. Thirty-seven Republicans and 23 Democrats voted yes. Thirty-five Republicans and 2 Democrats voted no. (Note: The count in the image on the right, provided in real time to The Tennessee Star by a source on the floor of the House, miscounted one Democrat as a Republican.) House Majority Leader State Rep. Glen Casada (R-Franklin) did not vote. Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) was among the Republicans who voted yes. State Rep. John Mark Windle and State Rep. G.A. Hardway were the lone Democrat who voted no. The State Senate is almost certain to pass a similar version of the bill, which will then go to Conference Committee to iron out any minor differences. Gov. Haslam is then expected to sign the final bill into law.    

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Preliminary Vote on Amendment to Adopt Gas Tax Increase Bill Passes House 61-35, Final Vote Expected Tonight

Admin
Tennessee Star

  An amendment by State Rep. Charles Sargent (R-Franklin), a motion to adopt the IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017,” HB 534, passed the Tennessee House of Representatives Wednesday afternoon in a 61-35 vote. This was a preliminary vote prior to the anticipated final vote on  IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017,” which is expected to come late Wednesday. Thirty-four Republicans, joined by a solitary Democrat, State Rep. John Mark Windle, voted against the motion to adopt. A full list of the 34 Republicans and one Democrat who voted no was compiled by reporters for The Tennessee Star on the scene (click at the bottom to see the second page): [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMPROVE-Act-Amendment-House-Vote-4-19-17.pdf” title=”IMPROVE Act Amendment House Vote 4-19-17″] Notable among those Republicans who voted no were State Rep. Matthew Hill, State Rep. Timothy Hill, State Rep. David Hawk, State Rep. Sheila Butt, State Rep. William Lamberth, State Rep. Judd Matheny, State Rep. Jerry Sexton, and Speaker Beth Harwell. Twenty-three Democrats voted for the motion to adopt, along with 38 Republicans. Notable among those Republicans who voted yes were Majority Leader State Rep. Glen Casada, State Rep. Susan Lynn, State Rep. David Alexander, State Rep. John Ragan, and State Rep. Bill Dunn.…

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Metro Nashville School Board Member Mocks Gov. Haslam’s Letter To Students About Testing

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Metro Nashville school board member Will Pinkston said this week that Gov. Haslam’s letter to students to motivate them for standardized testing “might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.” Pinkston took to Twitter Monday to make his comments about the April 10 letter. This might be the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Headline: @BillHaslam Pressures Kids to Do Well on Standardized Tests. #number2pencil pic.twitter.com/2TmF8FQYcj — Will Pinkston (@WillPinkston) April 18, 2017   In attempting to strike a friendly and encouraging tone, Haslam wrote “you may feel excited or maybe a little nervous” about standardized testing and somewhat oddly compared it to a yearly visit to the doctor’s office for a check-up. Far from feeling excited about standardized testing, students and teachers alike in recent years have said testing takes up too much time and that tests are poorly written and too often address topics not covered in the curriculum, causing students to despair. Schools across the state are engaged in TNReady testing this month, trying to leave behind the problems of last year when procedural glitches forced the state Department of Education to cancel its contract with the testing vendor and find a new one for this year. Haslam’s…

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When All Else Fails, @TheDemocrats Go Blue

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  Racking up the election losses is taking a toll on the Democrats’ Twitter team, it appears. After failing to avoid a runoff in the anything-goes special election to replace Georgia’s Tom Price, and looking down the abyss of no likely wins in the foreseeable future, Democrats are once again resulting to profanity to try to make an impact. Taking away health care from 24 million people is going low. Giving a shit about people is going high. https://t.co/UISq0f7Ob3 — The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) April 19, 2017   The tweet, posted just as offices were opening for the day, was a reaction to a tweet by @GOP, who pointed out the low-road, gutter-talk messaging printed on tshirts at the Democrats’ online store. 2016: “When they go low, we go high” – Michelle Obama2017: ⬇ pic.twitter.com/HoweDU2qvg — GOP (@GOP) April 19, 2017 Seems Democrats are a little sensitive about completely and singlehandedly ruining healthcare and the health insurance marketplace with Obamacare. But then, we know that was the plan all along.      

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Fitness: The Only Failure Is Not Being In the Game

Patrick Rooney
Tennessee Star

  Anyone who has ever attempted to improve a condition has experienced failure – sometimes considerable failure. And there are many seekers of health and fitness whose bodies are strewn across the road of failure. They set out with high expectations of having a well-toned physique, losing those unwanted pounds, or becoming fit enough to at least finish a 5K race. But failures – multiple failures – beat them down, convincing them that they’ll never succeed, so why try? Failures can come in many forms, such as being on a nutrition and fitness plan that does not seem to work at first, or seeing your weight actually go up instead of down while dieting, or feeling that you can’t get stronger – or build the physique you desire – no matter what you do. These kinds of things have happened to anyone who has spent any time in the fitness game. These people who have been convinced they’ll never succeed are the casualties of the fitness game – the quitters. Everybody knows instinctively that there’s something wrong with quitting. That giving in to our doubts and fears is a sure way to failure, which is linked to a number of bad outcomes, from the numerous health…

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Boss Doss Praises Radio Host Ralph Bristol During House Floor Debate for Calling Gas Tax Increase Bill ‘A Tax Cut’

Tennessee Star Staff

State Rep. Barry “Boss” Doss (R-Leoma) praised 99.7 FM WWTN radio host Ralph Bristol on the floor of the House on Wednesday during the debate over The IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017” for calling the gas tax increase bill “a tax cut.” On Wednesday morning, during a live interview with Governor Haslam (who unveiled the bill in January), Bristol called the expected vote in the House on the gas tax increase proposal “a momentous day in Tennessee.” Doss also quoted President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1961 inaugural challenge to the country as a reason to vote for The IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017”: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. It was not immediately clear to the members of the gallery exactly how voting to increase the gas tax in Tennessee by 6 cents per gallon was the kind of patriotic sacrifice President Kennedy had in mind when he made that statement more than half a century ago. State Rep. Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station) took exception to the comparison. Sexton questioned the connection between the reduction in Frachise and Excise Taxes for corporations to road construction. Doss…

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Female Genital Mutilation a Felony in Tennessee, But TBI Does Not Document Number of Cases in Annual Crime Report

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

  Both the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) agree that over 500,000 women and girls in the U.S. are either at risk for female genital mutilation (FGM) or have already been mutilated. The CDC estimates that the risk has tripled since 1990, and the PRB estimates rank Tennessee 18th in the country for risk to women and girls from FGM. The dramatic increase in risk is attributed to immigrants, including refugees, who come to the U.S. from high FGM prevalence countries. Despite Tennessee’s twenty-one cases of FGM in 2011 cited during discussion of the FGM reporting bill that became law in 2012, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) does not consider this Class D felony as serious as a “lovers’ quarrel” to warrant a break-out category in its annual “Crime in Tennessee” report. Sen. Bill Ketron sponsored the 2012 bill that now requires immediate reporting of suspected incidents of FGM to law enforcement officials.  Motivated by a sense of moral outrage regarding the practice of FGM, Sen. Ketron told The Tennessee Star that “This is a basic human rights issue. No one should be mutilated in this manner. It’s a despicable act of abuse.” Importantly, Sen. Ketron said…

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On Morning of Gas Tax Increase Vote, Haslam Jokes About Using ‘Standard’ Wattage of Lamps to Hot Box Legislators: ‘It Involves the Chains’

Tennessee Star Staff

  Hours before the Tennessee House of Representatives was scheduled to begin floor debate on his controversial bill to increase gas taxes on Wednesday, Governor Haslam joked in an interview with Ralph Bristol, host of Nashville’s Morning News on 99.7 FM WWTN, that he used ‘standard’ wattage lamps in his recent private meetings to pressure or “hot box” 15 targeted on the fence legislators. “I read a report anyway that you recently set aside some time to meet with specific House members to discuss this issue and it was described in that report as ‘hot box, meetings,” Bristol told the governor. “Now what wattage of lamp do you use for these hot box meetings, because I might need to borrow that some day,” Bristol asked. “It’s the standard. It involves the chains,” Haslam responded, attempting to make light of his pressure tactics. “I think anybody who knows me knows I’m not the hard pressure type,” he added. But conservative legislators and activists have a different view of Haslam’s efforts to pass the gas tax increase. “Governor Haslam is holding private meetings with legislators he has barely spoken to over the last several years. So this is a new level of…

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Brent Bozell and Brigitte Gabriel Criticize Major Networks for Ignoring Female Genital Mutilation Case in Detroit

Wendy Wilson

  Media Research Center President Brent Bozell and ACT for America Chair Brigitte Gabriel are criticizing the major networks for overlooking the first federal legal case of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the U.S. Bozell and Gabriel publicized their criticisms in a report at NewsBusters, an online site run by the Media Research Center. The U.S. Department of Justice announced charges last Thursday against Detroit physician Jumana Nagarwala. She is accused of performing FGM on girls between the ages of 6 and 8. While the brutal practice is common in parts of Africa and the Middle East and is known to occur among some immigrant groups in the U.S., this is the first case brought in the U.S. under the legal code that criminalizes FGM. According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, an attorney for Nagarwala admitted in federal court Monday that Nagarwala performed a procedure but said it wasn’t cutting. The lawyer said the doctor removed the membrane from the girls’ genitals as part of a religious practice connected with an international Indian-Muslim group of which the doctor is a part. The membranes were given to the girls’ parents to bury in keeping with their custom. Bozell and Gabriel…

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Mark White’s In-State Tuition for Illegal Immigrant Students Will be Back in 2018

Chris Alto

  In the House Education committee today, State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) moved his second bill, HB660 that would legalize in-state tuition for illegal immigrant students in Tennessee, to the 2018 legislative session. Last week when this bill failed in committee on a 6-6 vote, White indicated he would seek a motion for the committee to reconsider their action on the bill, but likely discovered that he could not overcome the required procedural hurdle. Moving his bill to 2018, allows him to avoid having the motion to reconsider fail, earning yet another strike against his campaign to secure in-state tuition for illegal immigrant students. White’s first bill this year that would have granted in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students, HB863, was voted down in committee in a 7-6 vote.  This bill closely tracked the language of his 2015 bill, HB675, that failed on the House floor by one vote. During an earlier House Education subcommittee hearing on White’s HB660, concern was raised by Chairman Harry Brooks, as to whether Section 5 of the bill would allow the school governing boards to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students because that section removes the paying of in-state tuition from being a state…

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Commentary: The War on Cash is Against Tennesseans and Local Free Markets

Admin
Tennessee Star

  By David Tulis / Noogaradio 1240 AM 92.7 FM The war on cash is a war not against criminals, terrorists, and the underground economy alone. It is a war against local economy and the free market in Tennessee – against private and personal commerce. So take it personally. People in local economy should feel free to circulate cash, because cash lets us distribute once again portraits of some of our finest statesmen. These notables of American history include Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill and George Washington on the $1 bill. Such is my argument the first Friday of every month, Cash Friday, in which I tell people listening to a radio program to go to their bank or credit union and draw out a $100 bill for handy use in buying and selling. Why would you at the Wal-Mart offer to pay by credit card a $1.75 purchase for a plastic bottle containing a sugary drink? Would it not be better to pass along a very fine engraving of Mr. Washington, one of them, and three quarters (plus the tax in other coin)? It would give you an occasion to say something kind about the one who led the…

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Sewanee: University of the South To Offer Alternative Spanish/English Commencement Bulletin

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  The University of the South in Sewanee will offer an alternative Spanish/English bulletin at commencement this year, even though only 5 percent of the student body is Hispanic. The bulletin is part of an effort at the private liberal arts school to promote “diversity, inclusion and cohesion,” according to a message from the provost’s office on the school website. The elite university, founded in 1857 by the Episcopal Church, is located between Nashville and Chattanooga. The majority of the student body is white. The Sewanee Purple student newspaper reported that graduating senior Nora Viñas led the effort to create the alternative bulletin and make Hispanic students “feel included, safe, and important” on campus. “Following the presidential election, Viñas was left frustrated and scared,” the article said, quoting her as saying, “A blindfold came off, and I had to confront the Latino experience uniquely.” As part of is diversity push, the school also this year made African-American journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me the orientation book for freshmen. “The politically charged text provides an account of the realities of racism and inequality that African Americans face in the United States,” reported The Sewanee Purple. “This encouraged meaningful, relevant conversation amongst students…

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