Day: April 25, 2017

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry To Give State of Metro Address Wednesday

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry will deliver her second State of Metro address Wednesday morning at Bridgestone Arena. The event is open to the public and will be streamed live. The Democratic mayor will present details of her budget proposal and is expected to mention the tentative $6 billion regional mass transit plan to be phased in over 25 years. Barry is a champion of Gov. Bill Haslam’s IMPROVE Act, which raises the tax on gas for road improvements. The legislation also allows Metro Nashville and other municipalities to hold a referendum on raising local taxes to fund transit projects. The IMPROVE Act has been passed by the state legislature and Haslam will soon sign it into law. While Barry is popular among the city’s Democrats, her progressive views on a wide range of issues are excoriated by many conservatives. Barry said in a statement that Nashville’s growth presents challenges. “With new economic opportunity and growth comes a responsibility to ensure we continue to support the long-time residents and businesses that make up the heart of Nashville,” she said. “At this year’s State of Metro, I look forward to sharing my vision for how we can harness this growth and ensure…

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Liberty Counsel Criticizes Florida Teacher’s LGBT Activism

Wendy Wilson

Liberty Counsel has put a school district in Florida on notice that unless it stops the actions of a lesbian teacher promoting LGBT activism and discriminating against Christian students, the nonprofit group will pursue legal action. The high school math teacher in the Tampa area has placed LGBT rainbow stickers on students’ notebooks and has prohibited Christian jewelry, Liberty Counsel said in a news release April 20. Lora Jane Riedas teaches at Riverview High School, part of Hillsborough County Public Schools. Her lesbian partner teaches at the same school and for school spirit week dressed as a nun and tweeted that she has “a bad habit” and the point is be “creepy,” the news release said. Claiming Christian cross necklaces are gang symbols, Riedas has prohibited at least three students from wearing them. In addition to being told to stop wearing her cross necklace, a ninth-grade student and client of Liberty Counsel faced several accusations of misbehavior after she removed the LGBT rainbow sticker from her class notebook, according to Liberty Counsel. Riedas is part of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) Leadership Institute. “The bullying behavior of Lora Jane Riedas is outrageous and unconstitutional,” said Liberty Counsel chairman…

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Constitution Series: How and Why Thirteen States Ratified the Constitution: 1787 – 1790 (Part Two)

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star - Constitution Series

    This is Part Two in 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. (You can read Part One of How and Why Thirteen States Ratified the Constitution: 1787 – 1790 here.) On January 9, the same day Connecticut officially said yes, 370 delegates to the Massachusetts ratifying convention convened at the Massachusetts State House in Boston.     Everyone knew that the outcome in Massachusetts, the second most populous of the thirteen states, was critical, and that the issue was very much in doubt, as Federalists and Anti-Federalists jockeyed for position in the lead up to the convention. “When Paul Revere learned that Sam Adams and John Hancock were reluctant to offer their support for the Constitution during the ratification fight, he organized the Boston mechanics into a powerful force and worked behind the scenes for the successful approval by the Massachusetts convention,” Constitution Facts notes. Proceedings began on a sour note, an indication of the contentious discussions yet to come, when the delegates began to complain about their…

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No Screening for Female Genital Mutilation Among Arriving Refugees in Nashville During Initial Medical Exam

Chris Alto

Siloam Health, staffed with full-time medical providers, is located in Nashville and operates as a “faith-based, volunteer-supported clinic for people with no health insurance and limited resources.” In 2012, Siloam estimated that eighty-six percent of its patients were foreign born. The health center contracts with Catholic Charities’ TN Office for Refugees to provide immunizations and initial medical screenings for refugees brought to Tennessee by the federal refugee resettlement contractors, but its medical director has no idea “how prevalent FGM is among the refugees that we screen.” Dr. Jim Henderson, Siloam’s medical director confirmed the health center follows the Center for Disease Control (CDC) “Domestic Medical Screening Guidelines for Newly Arrived Refugees” for the initial medical screening they provide and that: Performing a pelvic exam is not a routine part of that first exam.  For that reason we can’t comment on how prevalent FGM is among the refugees that we screen.  Follow-up care (continuity of care or ongoing primary care) is with local TennCare practitioners in the county, so the actual prevalence of FGM among refugees may be known by others in our community. The CDC offers twelve separate guidelines for a refugee’s initial medical screening including one for the “History and…

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Susan Gingrich Commentary: Imagine a Candidate

Admin
Tennesse Star

  By Susan Gingrich Can a person not born with a silver spoon in their mouth or with acquired great wealth be elected governor in Tennessee in 2018? Someone whose primary concern really is the taxpayers and all the citizens of Tennessee. An honest, truthful, God fearing person who loves family first and fellow Tennesseans next. Someone who worries about the physical security of people living in our state more than the financial security of big business. Could such a person be the conservative version of Bernie Sanders, generating a visceral and massive following from people fed up with Nashville and all the politicking as usual. Could the rightfully so, distrustful and cynical electorate believe, just one more time, that a candidate could make a difference in the lives of their families and in their small businesses? That a governor could actually be interested in what is really best for them, one who would share power with the people instead of concentrating on his legacy, raising money for the next election, and schmoozing with rich and powerful allies. An  official who that once elected didn’t treat taxpayers as irrelevant and invisible. Such an individual would not be the favorite of…

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Carol Swain: College Students In Safe Spaces Aren’t Being Educated

Wendy Wilson

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–College administrators who provide students with safe spaces are robbing them of a good education, retiring Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain said Monday evening in her final lecture at the school. The topic of her speech was “Political Correctness and the Decline of American Universities.” Swain, a nationally-known speaker and author who has taught law and political science at Vanderbilt since 1999, is famous for her bold Christian conservative views that have upset many on her university campus. Swain said universities across the country are encouraging progressive groupthink at the expense of a free exchange of ideas, which has a moderating influence that tends to drive out extremes. It’s “a very dangerous thing to do,” she said. Even though she disagrees with the idea of safe spaces, Swain said the irony is that it’s conservatives who would need them, because they are the ones being shamed into being compliant or silent. Those championing safe spaces don’t need the protections. “They actually own the campus,” she said. “They run the campus.” Swain cited problems that conservative thinkers and writers – namely Ann Coulter, Charles Murray and Heather Mac Donald – have had recently with being invited to speak on college…

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House Majority Leader Glen Casada Defends His Vote to Increase The Gas Tax

Laura Baigert
Tennessee Star

House Majority Leader Glen Casada (R-Franklin), issued a press release Monday defending his vote to increase the gas tax through Governor Haslam’s IMPROVE Act, after initially announcing on February 8 his support for the alternative Hawk Plan. The press release was forwarded via email, addressed to “Friends,” stating “I wanted to forward a statement I released to the press regarding my vote on the IMPROVE Act.” If the comments on Rep. Casada’s Facebook page responding to posts on the gas tax, the overwhelming majority of which are against the gas tax, is representative of other feedback he’s been getting, it likely prompted Casada’s need to explain his vote. The cover email continued, Though I still believe there was a better way to fund road construction for Tennessee that did not raise taxes, I did vote for the amendment that was the IMPROVE Act.  My support for the alternative plan that would have shifted funds to the Department of Transportation without raising the gasoline tax died twice in committee and again on the House floor.  Thus, my only option was to do nothing on road funding, or vote for the IMPROVE Act – the next best vehicle available to attain our goal of…

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