Day: April 24, 2017

Bill Lee Announces Candidacy For Governor, Calls Gas Tax Increase ‘Water Under the Bridge Now’

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Kicking off his campaign for governor Monday, Bill Lee described himself as a Ronald Reagan-admiring fiscal and social conservative whose leadership experiences in business and agriculture compensate for his lack of political experience. Lee, who is chairman of Lee Company, a large family-owned construction, facilities and home services company, is casting himself as a conservative outsider in the race for the Republican nomination. However, Lee’s hesitant position on Gov. Haslam’s gas tax increase, which has passed both the House and Senate, is likely to disappoint conservatives who want candidates with a stronger anti-tax stance. “I’m opposed to raising taxes,” he told the media Monday morning at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, but he did not offer a definitive opinion on the gas tax increase. He said he might have handled it differently, but noted that the IMPROVE Act also included tax cuts and said the bill is “water under the bridge now.” When pressed, he said that because he wasn’t privy to all the legislative discussions surrounding the bill, he didn’t want to comment further.   (You can hear the audio below.) Lee was set Monday to launch his “95 Counties, 95 Days RV Tour” with his wife Maria, a…

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Christian Comedian Chonda Pierce’s Documentary To Screen Tuesday Only

Wendy Wilson

Through the ups and downs of her life, Chonda Pierce has found a way to connect with others and make them laugh. Known as the “Queen of Clean,” the Christian comedian and Middle Tennessee resident doesn’t shy away from opening up about her struggles and heartache. She’s doing that once again with “Enough,” a documentary showing Tuesday only in 850 theaters across the U.S. The 90-minute film continues her story chronicled in a 2015 documentary called “Laughing in the Dark.” The Kentucky native got her start years ago portraying Minnie Pearl at the Opryland Theme Park. She went on to perform as a comedian across the country and author books. In 2013, the Recording Industry Association of America named her the top-selling female comedian in history, a category that included Christian and secular comedians. She endured through one of the hardest times of her life in 2014, when her husband David, an alcoholic, died of a stroke related to his drinking. The two had been together since becoming high school sweethearts decades earlier in Ashland City. Pierce has also been transparent about her struggles with the loss of her mother and problems with her estranged daughter. Through her comedy and…

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There is Nothing ‘Moderate’ About Female Genital Mutilation in Indonesia

Chris Alto

According to Dr. Meiwita Budiharsana, a lecturer and Faculty of Public Health at the University of Indonesia: Around 60 million women, or half of the women in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim majority, is estimated to have undergone FGM. According to data collated by UNICEF, between 2010 – 2015, forty-nine percent of girls in Indonesia up to age fourteen have been mutilated with continuing strong support from religious leaders and parents. While visiting Indonesia last week Vice-President Pence, characterized the Muslim-majority country as following a “tradition of moderate Islam [which] is frankly an inspiration to the world and we commend you and your people.”   The Indonesian government tried to ban FGM in 2006 but the influential Indonesian Ulema Council, the country’s top Islamic religious organization, issued a fatwa (an authoritative ruling on Islamic law) that what they refer to as “female circumcision,” was part of a “strongly recommended” religious practice although not compulsory. According to Huzaemah Yanggo, the vice-president of the council’s fatwa commission: The MUI met with the health ministry, and explained that banning female circumcision was against human rights, and sharia law. The government says FGM in Indonesia is merely “tradition” the term typically used to refer to…

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6 Things Boss Doss Got Wrong In His Sales Pitch For Governor Haslam’s Gas Tax Increasing IMPROVE Act

Laura Baigert

  As the House sponsor of the IMPROVE Act Tax Cut Act of 2017 (HB 534), State Rep. Barry “Boss” Doss (R-Leoma) was well versed on all of the related subject matter and respectful throughout his long and challenging sales pitch for Governor Haslam’s IMPROVE Act to the various committees and on the House floor. There were, however, several things Rep. Doss got wrong.  And, as former Majority Leader Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga) said several times through the process, “You can have your own opinions, but you can’t have your own facts.” Here are the top six things Boss Doss got wrong: 1. “I’ve been proud that we cut taxes by $300 million so far.” The state portion of the annual budget has grown from $13.7 billion in 2011-12 to a recommended $16.5 billion for 2017-18.  Since state law requires that all of the revenues be allocated, that’s a $2.8 billion, or 20 percent, increase in state spending in just six years. 2. The average family of 4 will recognize a monthly increase of $5.54 from the gas tax hike versus a savings in their food tax of $7.72, for a net savings of $2.18 per month. In terms of the…

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Constitution Series: How and Why Thirteen States Ratified the Constitution: 1787 – 1790

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star - Constitution Series

    This is the fourth 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. When Benjamin Franklin emerged from the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787 and told Mrs. Powel the delegates had given Americans “a republic, if you can keep it,” he was anticipating that at least nine of the thirteen states who were joined together under the Articles of Federation would eventually ratify the Constitution. Franklin was right, of course, but it would take three long years before all thirteen states were in the fold of the new republic. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention believed in the concept of the sovereignty of the people, so they made sure that the new republic would not be formally organized until two-thirds of the states–nine out of thirteen–held conventions to ratify the Constitution and their participation in the new republic. Until then, the United States of America, as a country, existed, but under the weak terms of the Articles of Confederation. Once nine states ratified the Constitution, that old form of…

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Commentary: Will Democrats Ride a Wave in 2018 or More Likely Just Wipeout?

Tennessee Star Staff

Jeffrey A. Rendall April 21, 2017 For a collection of people who have been so wrong about virtually everything since 2012, Democrats sure are a confident lot in predicting what the future holds for Donald Trump and the Republican party. After the disastrous (at least for Republicans) 2012 election, Democrats arrogantly boasted they were unstoppable. Mr. “Hope and Change” Barack Obama was set for four more years in the White House where he would use the time to cement his radical leftist agenda into the federal statute books. The Senate was firmly in WipeoutHarry Reid’s hands with a 53-47 majority. The House remained under Republican control but was led by the feckless and ineffective establishmentarian Speaker John Boehner, a man so inept even own his party base couldn’t stand him. Everyone knew – including Republicans and conservatives – the spray-tanned, chain smoking, Merlot guzzling, often sobbing Boehner would prove to be but a speed bump on the Obama highway to hegemony. Democrats used their dominance to boldly project an end to the Republican Party unless its members adopted key elements of the Obama agenda, including unfettered immigration and same-sex marriage. Then came 2014 where Republicans gained seven Senate seats to…

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Williamson County Businessman Bill Lee to Run for GOP Gubernatorial Nomination

Tennessee Star Staff

  “Williamson County businessman Bill Lee, who is filing as a candidate for Governor tomorrow, will hold a media availability at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, talking about the kickoff of his ’95 Counties, 95 Days RV Tour’ and his plans as he begins his campaign running for Governor of Tennessee,” Lee’s campaign said in a media advisory released on Sunday: Bill Lee is the Chairman of Lee Company, a family-owned construction, facilities and home services company with offices and operations throughout Middle Tennessee, Northern Alabama and Southern Kentucky. Lee Company employs more than 1,100 people. Lee currently serves on the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Belmont University Board of Trustees, is president of Tennesseans for Economic Growth and is past chairman of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee. He serves on the board of Men of Valor Prison Ministry and has been involved with in faith-based ministries in Africa, Central America, Haiti and Iraq. The event will be held at the Nashville Farmers’ Market, located at 900 Rosa L. Parks Boulevard in Nashville. Lee joins former Haslam administration TECD commissioner Randy Boyd, a successful Knoxville businessman, as the only announced candidate for the GOP nomination for Governor. Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Monday, April 24

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing April 24, Monday 2 Timothy 3:1-17 1But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. 10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to…

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