Month: April 2017

Commentary: Gorsuch Swearing-In Finally Makes Supreme Court Whole Again

Tennessee Star Staff

  By Jeffrey A. Rendall Considering the huge amount of effort that was expended by both sides of the Supreme Court confirmation fight since he was officially nominated by President Donald Trump at the end of January, Judge Neil Gorsuch’s final senate vote went off without much exertion on Friday. Ryan Lovelace of the Washington Examiner reported, “The Senate confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday. “The Republican majority was joined in the 54-45 vote by a few Democrats in confirming the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals judge to the high court. Gorsuch’s success comes after the Senate killed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations on Thursday, effectively paving the way for Gorsuch to join the high court.” Democrats technically could have dragged out the process until early evening on Friday, but it wouldn’t have made any difference in the outcome. For once it looked like the minority party simply capitulated. Or maybe they just wanted to commiserate with their leftist interest groups or start their Easter recess early. Whatever the reason, Judge Neil Gorsuch will become Justice Neil Gorsuch today. I doubt Chuck Schumer will be there to iron the robe, however. Again, Lovelace reported,…

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Memphis Middle School Student Attacks Teacher In Latest of Series of Violent Incidents

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  A 12-year-old Memphis middle school student is accused of assaulting her teacher and school officers, WREG News Channel 3 in Memphis reported last week. The incident at Sherwood Middle School started after the student was asked to leave class because she was listening to music during a test, police said. The teacher was pushed to the ground and later taken to a hospital, but was expected to be okay. The student received a juvenile summons for simple assault. Parent Stanley Brown told WREG he wasn’t surprised by what happened. “No respect for the teacher,” he said. “Respect comes from home, then it goes to the school.” On March 28, WREG reported on a 17-year-old student attacking a teacher at Douglass High School in Memphis. Police say the incident happened after an assistant principal asked via loudspeaker for the student to come to the office. The student refused to go, telling her teacher she didn’t do anything. The teacher said when the student was told again to go the office, the student argued with her and knocked her to the ground. The teacher was taken to the hospital in noncritical condition. The student was issued a juvenile summons for assault. The violent episodes…

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Constitution Series: Federalism

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

    This is the second part of the second 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.   Federalism is a foundational concept framed in the Constitution of the United States which defines the relationship between the national government and each of the state governments that comprise our republic (thirteen such state governments in 1789, fifty now in 2017). 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. Federalism, along with The Separation of Powers within the national government (which we will discuss in tomorrow’s article) are the two foundational concepts of the Constitution that protect the freedoms and liberties guaranteed to individual citizens. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments,” James Madison, probably, or Alexander Hamilton, possibly, wrote of “the federal system of America” in Federalist Paper #51, one of the famous series of essays…

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Justice Neil Gorsuch Sworn In

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  A little more than a year after the sudden death of beloved Justice Anotin Scalia, President Donald Trump introduced Judge Neil Gorsuch to take the Oath of office to be the next Associate Justice on the Supreme Court Monday. Following a private swearing to the Oath of Office all federal officials must take by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy officiated a public swearing to the Oath of Office of Supreme Court Justices, making Gorsuch the 113th Justice to sit on the court. Right Side Broadcasting covered the event, held outdoors in the White House Rose Garden: The Oath of the Supreme Court Justice is: I, Neil M. Gorsuch, do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God. Justice Gorsuch’s elevation to the Supreme Court restores the full bench of nine jurists. Reuters reported: Donald Trump reveled in the biggest political victory of his presidency at a…

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Steve Gill Commentary: Crony Capitalism Drives the Haslam Gas Tax Plan

Steve Gill
Tennessee Star

  The Haslam Administration is doling out over $113 million in tax CUTS to some of Tennessee’s largest corporations to justify over $350 million in tax INCREASES on working Tennesseans. According to the Times Free Press, just 24 large manufacturing companies will each receive tax breaks of over a million dollars a year under the Haslam plan. Those two dozen companies will reduce their tax burden by over $57 million and receive OVER HALF of the proposed $113 million in Franchise and Excise tax reduction. Tennessee law doesn’t allow the state to release the specific identities of the 24 companies that will benefit most from the Franchise and Excise tax cut. However, according to the Times Free Press certain companies that fit the profile of those who are most likely among the 24 sharing in the $57 million tax break include Nissan, Volkswagen, and General Motors. “This whole tax scheme appears to be built upon a foundation of special treatment for the Governor’s friends while sticking it to ordinary working Tennesseans,” according to State Rep. Judd Matheny. “Before the plan moves one step forward there needs to be full and complete disclosure of who exactly stands to benefit, and how…

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Florida Middle School Teacher Fired For Inappropriate Student Survey

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  A Florida middle school teacher has been fired for giving students a survey school officials said was inappropriate, WFTS-TV in Tampa reports. Students at Fox Chapel Middle School in Spring Hill were asked to circle responses to questions asking about their comfort level in certain hypothetical situations. Those situations included being approached by a group of young black men on the street, being in a gay bar, and finding out your new suite mates are Mexican. Other scenarios involved sitting next to a young Arab man on an airplane, dealing with a panhandling homeless man and finding out the new pastor at your church is a woman. The survey was a supplemental assignment. The New York Post also picked up on the story and provided a statement from the Hernando County School District. “The teacher did leave a supplemental assignment for students to complete in her absence,” the statement said. “In no way, does this assignment meet the standards of appropriate instructional material. After being made aware of the survey, school administration began an investigation and took immediate disciplinary action.” The district did not identify the teacher. Jennifer Block, mother of a 12-year-old who was given the survey, was interviewed by…

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Blount County Veteran Honored With Quilt of Valor

Wendy Wilson

  A 93-year-old Blount County veteran was given a quilt last month to honor his military service, an award bestowed by a national nonprofit organization. The quilt was the handiwork of Quilts of Valor, which started in 2003. “Boy that means a lot, it means a lot,” said Ray Garner after receiving his quilt at the Blount County Courthouse, according to WBIR Channel 10 in Knoxville. A Purple Heart recipient, Garner served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. His name is on the World War II Battle of the Bulge monument outside the Blount County Courthouse. Quilts of Valor was founded by Catherine Roberts, whose son was deployed to Iraq, according to the group’s website. The group originally focused on honoring those wounded in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first quilt was awarded in November 2003 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to a young soldier from Minnesota who had lost his leg in Iraq. A Walter Reed chaplain welcomed the group because his wife happened to be a quilter. In 2009 in Bellingham, Washington, a group of Quilts of Valor volunteers who got together for a quilting retreat looked for veterans of Iraq and…

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80 Percent of Speaker Beth Harwell’s Constituents Contacted by AFP Door Knocking Oppose Gas Tax Increase

Laura Baigert

  Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Tennessee organized a Day of Action Saturday during which volunteers knocked on doors in Speaker Beth Harwell’s (R-Nashville) district asking constituents whether they were in favor of a gas tax increase, or wanted revenues from the $2 billion surplus to be used for funding of road projects. Shawn Hatmaker, AFP Tennessee’s Field Director told The Tennessee Star that the overwhelming majority, 80 percent in fact, of respondents said they were opposed to a gas tax increase and wanted existing revenues to be used. As her constituents, respondents were encouraged by AFP volunteers to contact Speaker Harwell to urge her to push forward with the plan she announced last week.  The plan, which Speaker Harwell addressed briefly Thursday, that does not raise any taxes, but simply transfers sales tax revenues already collected on new and used vehicles from the General Fund to the Highway Fund. Respondents as well as those not at home were left with a door hanger that provided an overview of Governor Haslam’s gas tax increase plan versus Speaker Harwell’s proposal that also included contact information for her office. Ed Smith is a Heritage Action Sentinel as well as an AFP volunteer who…

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Grassroots Activists Petition Republican Majority to Oppose Gas Tax Increase

Laura Baigert

The Tennessee Alliance of Liberty Groups, a group of grassroots activists from around the state, were motivated by two events this week that prompted the issuance of an urgent action alert to sign a petition that will go to all state legislators about the gas tax. The first event this week prompting action by the group was the renaming of the IMPROVE Act to the “Tax Cut Act of 2017” is what the Alliance calls out as “an obvious attempt to deceive Tennesseans.” As reported by The Tennessee Star, the renaming took place in the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee meeting through an amendment presented by Rep. Barry Doss (R-Leoma) and authored by Rep. and House Finance Subcommittee Chairman Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga). The Alliance very directly points out in their letter that “the purpose of the IMPROVE Act was never to reduce taxes but was to allocate funds for roads.” The letter continues, “So, this sleight of hand by Republican legislators in renaming a road repair & construction bill to a tax cut bill is not only offensive, it is the lowest form of deception by men and women to whom we have entrusted and lent the keys to…

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Teacher Shortage Worries Tennessee Department of Education

Wendy Wilson

Tennessee is scrambling to come up with ways to find and keep quality teachers in the classroom. The state Department of Education released a report last week that details the problem and outlines proposed solutions that focus especially on strengthening ties with teacher education programs in the state’s postsecondary schools. “More than 65,000 teachers show up each day to work in Tennessee’s public schools. At the current rate, half of these teachers will leave or retire in the next decade,” the report says. Bethany Bowman, director of professional learning for Professional Educators of Tennessee (ProEd), calls the situation “a complete mess.” “The Department of Education is too optimistic,” she told The Tennessee Star. “They’re always talking about highly effective teachers and I’m thinking, you’re lucky to get teachers period.” Bowman noted that just days before the start of the new school year last summer, Metro Nashville Public Schools was still short 400 teachers. The district employs around 6,000 teachers. As if simply finding good teachers weren’t enough, the state also wants to focus on making teaching staffs more diverse. The report said that only 14 percent of new teacher candidates graduating from Tennessee’s teacher education programs self-identified as not white in…

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Constitution Series: Three Things That Make the United States Constitution Unique in World History

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star - Constitution Series

    This is the second 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.   Today’s high school students may yawn when they hear teachers describe what a world-changing document the United States Constitution was when it was ratified in 1788 and a new government was formed a year later in 1789. But a deeper look behind the scenes reveals the three dramatic innovations the Founding Fathers introduced in just 4,400 words that changed the course of history for the better over the next 228 years, not just in the United States of America, but around the word: A Single Written Agreement Was Now the Highest Authority for “The Rule of Law” in America Federalism The Separation of Powers 1. A Single Written Agreement Was Now the Highest Authority for “The Rule of Law” in America. Two-thirds of the four million residents of the United States in 1789 (67 percent) were of British ancestry. Another 14 percent were from other parts of Europe. Nineteen percent (750,000) were from Africa, the vast majority of whom…

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Tennessee Republican Assembly Honors State Rep. Andy Holt with First Annual Gold Star Award

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee–The Tennessee Republican Assembly honored State Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) with the presentation of its first annual Gold Star “Principles Over Politics” Award at its meeting in Nashville on Saturday. TRA President Sharon Ford presented Holt with the award, in recognition of his long standing championship of conservative principles in the Tennessee General Assembly. “Andy Holt first went to the Tennessee House of Representatives as a legislator,” Ford said. “He has become a statesman.” Ford said that Holt had been singled out for calling for a stop to tax payers paying for the lavish lifestyles of state legislators. “Did you know your taxpayer dollars are being used to host fancy parties with open bars, live entertainment, and all you can eat shrimp, steak and other fine eats? Of course, you’re not invited- even though it’s your money… Ruling class only. The culture of elitism is about to come to an end!” the TRA website says of the practice. First elected in 2010, Holt has become known for his inerrant defense of conservative principles and his uncanny ability to generate publicity for his cause. This personal characteristic, Ford noted, that was not unlike President Donald Trump. State Senator Mae…

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Commentary: Chuck Schumer Lied and the Filibuster for Supreme Court Nominees Died

Tennessee Star Staff
SCOTUS

  by Jeffrey A. Rendall One could almost sense an audible rumbling sound as the roll was called in the Senate at about half past noon (EDT) on Thursday, with the fate of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees precariously hanging in the balance. When the votes were tallied the infamous “nuclear option” had been triggered; but those expecting a rhetorical mushroom cloud or a lot of fireworks were sorely disappointed. In fact, the moment passed without any kind of Chuck Schumerfanfare or special notation whatsoever. If one didn’t know better you’d think nothing consequential had just happened. Many pundits have suggested through the years that there isn’t much that would unify all Republicans – especially those in the Senate — but as America watched the senators vote on the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, it was evident there is at least one issue that brings the GOP together. First every single Republican voted to end debate on Gorsuch. Then when the Democrats filibustered every Republican voted for the “nuclear option” to bury the practice for future Supreme Court nominees. From here on out it’s a straight up or down vote for Court appointments. Yesterday was…

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Groundbreaking ‘Trans-Siberian Orchestra’ Founder Paul O’Neill Found Dead

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  The music world has suffered another loss as the unexpected passing of Trans Siberian Orchestra (TSO) founder Paul O’Neill was announced Wednesday.   The Los Angeles Times reported: Paul O’Neill, who founded the progressive metal band Trans-Siberian Orchestra that was known for its spectacular holiday concerts filled with theatrics, lasers and pyrotechnics, has died at the age of 61. O’Neill was found dead in his room by hotel staff at a Tampa Embassy Suites late Wednesday afternoon, University of South Florida police spokeswoman Renna Reddick said. There were no obvious signs of foul play, and a medical examiner is working to determine an official cause, she said. TSO burst onto the music scene shortly after their founding in 1996 with their unique re-imagining Christmas carols an original holiday-themed tunes – but many will remember their first time hearing the band with this classic viral video from 2005: https://youtu.be/rmgf60CI_ks   Selling more that 12,000,000 albums and selling out the largest arenas, TSO defied the struggles many music acts face in today’s marketplace. LATimes: O’Neill was a rock producer and manager who began putting together the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in 1996, blending heavy metal with classical music and creating a unique brand…

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Clarksville NAACP Opposes U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s Visit To Austin Peay

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  The Clarksville NAACP is opposing U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s visit Monday to Austin Peay State University, according to an article in The Leaf-Chronicle. The group said in a press release sent to The Leaf-Chronicle that Blackburn (R-TN) refuses to host a town hall meeting to address concerns of Montgomery County residents. However, Blackburn was quoted as saying she has offered to meet with the group’s leaders but they have declined. “This press release misrepresents the willingness we have displayed to sit down and have a conversation,” she said. Leaders with the NAACP said they didn’t want to meet with Blackburn on their own because it wouldn’t afford an opportunity to address the concerns of the entire community. Blackburn will be in Clarksville Monday to host the 4th annual Congressional Leadership Summit for high school juniors and seniors. In February, Blackburn hosted a town hall in Fairview in Williamson County where she faced protesters, few of whom were from the Fairview community. The Tennessee Star reported earlier on how those on the left are organizing online to disrupt town halls and other forums, in some cases traveling far from where they lived to attend. The left has attempted to turn the traditional town hall…

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Alexander Staffer Resigns Amid Identity Theft Charges

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

Johnathon Cox Griswold, a staffer in Senator Lamar Alexander’s Knoxville office, has resigned as a result of felony identity theft charges filed in February. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports: A staffer with U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander’s Knoxville office has resigned after being charged with felony identity theft for allegedly withdrawing approximately $6,000 using a stolen bank debit card, according to an arrest warrant. Jonathan Cox Griswold, 38, was charged Feb. 21 after being captured on a surveillance camera making multiple withdrawals from an ATM at Home Federal Bank, 5538 Kingston Pike, using the victim’s personal identification number and card, the warrant reads. David Cleary, Senator Alexander’s Chief of Staff said in a statement that while the Senator is disappointed to hear of Griswold’s arrest, as far as he knows, the alleged wrongdoing is unconnected to his official duties in Knoxville. Griswold’s arraignment is set for April 13 in Knox County General Sessions Court.

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Commentary: Pro-Trump Conservatives Being Massacred In The Battle For The Pentagon

Tennessee Star Staff

Conservative HQ Staff As CHQ Chairman Richard Viguerie has been telling CHQ readers for many years, “Personnel is policy.” And unfortunately, right now pro-Trump conservatives are getting massacred in one of the biggest personnel and hence policy battles Washington has seen in many years – the battle to staff the Trump Pentagon. The latest rout of conservatives at the hands of Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and the establishment James MattisRepublicans who occupy the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, came in the fight over who should be nominated as Secretary of the Navy to replace Philip Bilden, who decided to withdraw his name from consideration after saying that meeting the government’s ethics guidelines would require too great a financial sacrifice. The scuttlebutt in the Pentagon and in the defense-oriented media is that today the White House will announce that the next SecNav nominee will be former Marine aviator Richard V. Spencer. Spencer has had a distinguished business career after leaving the Marines. He worked on Wall Street for 15 years with Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Bear Sterns and Paine Webber and served as vice chairman and chief financial officer of intercontinental exchange. He is now an investment banker who…

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Despite Ethics Cloud, ‘Proud’ Barry Doss Presented ‘New and IMPROVED’ Gas Tax Bill for ‘Rebranding’ as ‘Tax Cut Act of 2017’

Laura Baigert
Tennessee Star

  Rep. Barry Doss (R-Leoma) told the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday he was “proud to bring the bill before you,” as he presented Governor Haslam’s IMPROVE Act, the gas tax increase proposal he co-sponsors, for consideration.   Rep. Doss continues to sponsor and present the bill, despite the call for an ethics investigation by the Tennessee Republican Assembly over potential Tennessee Department of Transportation contracts for his company. Doss statement of pride in the gas tax increase proposal came both in his opening statement and again later in response to Rep. David Hawk (R-Greeneville). Hawk said he would continue to work to “present a plan our colleagues can vote for, as opposed to presenting a plan that our colleagues may have to hold their nose and vote for.” Doss took exception to Hawk’s comments, and said again that he was proud to sponsor the gas tax increase bill and that he is “not holding my nose today.” He conceded, however, that it’s “going to take some education of our constituents,” something he said he has “been doing for a solid year.” Although he has served two previous terms in the House of Representatives, Rep. Doss has not been a member…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Saturday, April 8

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing April 8, Saturday Matthew 26:26-28 26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

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Special Fuel Tax CUT for FedEx Preceded Haslam Push for Fuel Tax INCREASE on Regular Tennesseans

Admin
Tennessee Star

  The Haslam administration and their pro-tax allies in the Tennessee General Assembly have increasingly relied upon a “user fee” argument to disguise the actual impact of their proposed gasoline and diesel fuel tax increase plan. The bill, now under consideration in the current session of the Tennesssee General Assembly under its “new and improved” name, the IMPROVE Act “Tax Act Cut of 2017,” proposes to fund an additional annual infusion of $350 million for road and bridge construction through what is now a 6 cents per gallon gas tax increase and a 10 cents per gallon diesel tax increase. Former Reagan official and respected economist Art Laffer specifically dismissed the “user fee” claim in testimony before the House Transportation Subcommittee last month. “The talk about the gas tax being a user fee is not correct,” Laffer testified. “It’s a tax pure and simple.” Nevertheless, in 2015 the Haslam administration promoted and passed a huge “user fee” jet fuel tax break to Memphis-based FedEx, whose Chairman Fred Smith sits on the Board of the Governor’s family business Pilot/Flying J, shortly before embarking on the effort to impose a huge fuel tax increase on Tennessee drivers.  The special tax break on aviation…

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BREAKING: President Trump Says He Will Nominate Mark Green to be Secretary of the Army

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  President Trump will nominate Tennessee State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) to be Secretary of the Army, the White House said on Friday. In a press release issued by the White House Office of the Press Secretary,  Green was named along with several other individuals who will be nominated for top adminstration positions. “President Donald J. Trump today announced his intent to nominate key additions to his Administration,” the statement read, adding this about Green: Mark E. Green of Tennessee to be Secretary of the Army. Dr. Mark Green currently serves as Tennessee State Senator for District 22. He is the Chaplain of the Senate GOP Caucus and was selected as the Tennessee Journal’s Rookie of the year in 2013. Dr. Green is the CEO of Align MD, an emergency department staffing company, which provides leadership and staffing to emergency departments and hospitalist services in forty-seven hospitals in nine states. In 1986, Second Lieutenant Green graduated from West Point with a degree in economics and began his military career as an infantry officer. Dr. Green served as a rifle platoon leader, scout platoon leader, battalion personnel officer, a supply officer, an airborne rifle company commander in the famed 82nd Airborne…

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State Senator Mark Norris Accuses House Speaker Beth Harwell Of Working Covertly On Gas Tax Alternative

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris has accused House Speaker Beth Harwell of working behind the scenes on a plan to avoid a gas tax increase, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. “There’s a fine line between indecision and deception,” Norris (R-Collierville) said Thursday, who did not elaborate on his comment. On Wednesday, Rep. David Hawk (R-Greeneville) told the Budget Subcommittee that he, Harwell and others were working on alternative funding plan for Gov. Haslam’s IMPROVE Act. The amended legislation includes a gas tax hike of six cents and a 10-cent increase on diesel over the next three years, while cutting three taxes in the general fund, including the sales tax on groceries. The Tennessee Star reported Thursday that Harwell (R-Nashville) and others want to use revenues from the sales tax on new and used vehicles toward funding road projects. Harwell said details of the plan are still being finalized. Hawk’s announcement caught Republican Senate Speaker Randy McNally, Budget Subcommittee Chairman Gerald McCormick (R-Chattanooga) Gov. Haslam and others by surprise, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. On Wednesday, State Rep. Barry Doss (R-Leoma), chairman of the House Transportation Committee and co-sponsor of the gas tax increase proposal, presented a lengthy argument…

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Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation Backs Syrian Airstrikes

Wendy Wilson

Tennessee’s Congressional delegation is supporting the airstrikes in Syria ordered by President Trump and carried out on Thursday. Both United States Senators from Tennessee and all nine members of the delegation from the Volunteer State in the U.S. House of Representatives–seven Republicans and two Democrats– in public statements late Thursday and early Friday gave Trump’s actions their support. The airstrikes are in response to a chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian government against its own people in a rebel-controlled area. Sen. Bob Corker, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a news release that he approves of Trump’s “decisive action.” “The U.S. and world community stood by as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad brutally tortured and murdered more than 500,000 of his own people, and I applaud President Trump for taking decisive action following the latest chemical weapons attack,” Corker said. “It is critical that Assad knows he will no longer enjoy impunity for his horrific crimes against his own citizens, and this proportional step was appropriate. As we move forward, it will be important for the administration to engage with Congress and clearly communicate its full strategy to the American people.” Sen. Lamar Alexander…

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BREAKING: Senate Confirms Judge Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court

Admin
Tennessee Star

  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fulfilled his promise to President Trump and the American people this morning, by successfully ending the partisan Democrats’ filibuster and leading the Senate confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. CNN reports: The vote was 54-45, mostly along party lines. Only three Democrats: Sens. Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Donnelly, sided with the GOP majority. Vice President Mike Pence presided over the vote, but was not needed to break a tie. The court has been operating with eight justices since the sudden death in February 2016 of Justice Antonin Scalia and a protracted fight over President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Merrick Garland. The confirmation does not alter the so-called “balance of the Court,” however, the precedent-setting move to require only a simple majority vote – first made by then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid – could return the highest court in the land sharply toward the Constitution, should Justice Ginsberg or Justice Breyer retire. Watch the video: Reaction to the restoration of a full Court has been overwhelmingly positive. Hannah Smith, Senior Counsel with Becket and a former law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said: Congratulations to Judge Gorsuch and his…

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Plyler v. Doe: The Supreme Court Ruling That Influences Today’s Debate Over In-State College Tuition For Illegal Immigrants

Wendy Wilson
SCOTUS

  Long before there was debate over in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants in Tennessee and around the country, there was debate over illegal immigrant students in grades K-12. The matter was settled in 1982, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Plyler v. Doe that public schools must grant illegal immigrant children a free K-12 education as they would for any other student. Doing otherwise would violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, the court said. The ruling helped set the stage for future wrangling over providing young illegal immigrants with benefits for continuing their education and finding work after graduating from high school. In Tennessee, a bill that would provide in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is moving through the state legislature. The proposed legislation is sponsored by two Republicans, Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis). A similar bill was passed by the Senate two years ago but failed in the House by one vote. Currently, at least 18 states offer in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Proponents say it’s not fair to create hurdles for college-bound illegal immigrants after they were welcomed and encouraged in their K-12…

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The Legendary Don Rickles Has Died

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  Renowned comedy icon Don Rickles had died. He would have been 91 in May. Rickles burst into the mainstream with his acerbic style after Frank Sinatra spotted him in a night club in the late 1950s. A pioneer in the genre of ‘insult comedy,’ Sinatra said in later interviews he was impressed with how fearlessly Rickles would take on hecklers. His take-no-prisoners style soon earned him such nicknames as, “The King of Zing,” “Mr. Warmth,” and “The Merchant of Venom.” Although not really know as a big screen star, he has appeared in many box office hits, including the 1960 dramatic comedy, “The Rat Race;” campy Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello romp, “Beach Blanket Bingo;” and Scorsese’s high-stakes drama, “Casino.” But perhaps his most famous role to the current generation is as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the groundbreaking “Toy Story” series. Amid the bustle of a busy news day, the internet took a moment to mourn his passing: https://twitter.com/50sAnd60s/status/850080053773963264   Over a Bloody Mary in Beverly Hills, insult comic Don Rickles tells the best Sinatra story ever https://t.co/uvtWgghXdS #VFArchives pic.twitter.com/PucWBGkQKd — VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) April 6, 2017   Comedian Don Rickles dies at 90 https://t.co/KsAzcjFcTf The only man to pick on…

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I Made it Back to Good Health … So Can You

Patrick Rooney

  Hello, and welcome to the debut of my column with the Tennessee Star! My name is Patrick Rooney. I’m the Founder and President of GREEK PHYSIQUE™, LLC, and a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Association of Fitness Certification (NAFC). Through the grace of God, dedication, and knowledge, I’ve recovered from poor health, surgery and injury. And now, well into my fifth decade, I’m in better physical condition today than I was twenty years ago – I can help you do the same. I grew up taking a particular liking to sports, especially basketball, and an anything-goes playground game of keep-away played on asphalt. Any kind of quick-turning activity on concrete is brutal on the ankles and I turned, sprained, and otherwise mangled them countless times. I mostly provided my own physical therapy and got back in the game. Looking back, this was my introduction to physical therapy and personal training. I learned to condition my body to excel at sports, and became fascinated in particular with increasing my vertical leap. At my peak, I could slam dunk a volleyball – not bad for a barely 5’ 10” Italian / Irish (i.e.: white) guy. I trained my legs running ten flights of…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Friday, April 7

Admin
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing April 7, Friday Proverbs 29:11-14 A fool gives full vent to anger, but the wise quietly holds it back. If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked. The poor and the oppressor have this in common: the Lord gives light to the eyes of both. If a king judges the poor with equity, his throne will be established forever.

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United States Launches 59 Tomahawk Missiles at Syrian Chemical Weapons Base

Tennessee Star Staff

  “The United States launched dozens of cruise missiles Thursday night at a Syrian airfield in response to what it believes was Syria’s use of banned chemical weapons that killed at least 100 people, U.S. military officials told NBC News,” the network reported late Thursday: Two U.S. warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired 59 Tomahawk missiles intended for a single target — Ash Sha’irat in Homs province in western Syria, the officials said. That’s the airfield from which the United States believes the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fired the banned weapons. There was no immediate word on casualties. U.S. officials told NBC News that people were not targeted and that aircraft and infrastructure at the site were hit, including the runway and gas fuel pumps. You can watch President Trump’s statement delivered moments ago about the attack here: Reaction from Congress was quick. “The U.S. and world community stood by as Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad brutally tortured and murdered more than 500,000 of his own people, and I applaud President Trump for taking decisive action following the latest chemical weapons attack,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) , the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, told CBS News. “It…

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Former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold To Be Sentenced May 4

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold will be sentenced in May, three months earlier than previously scheduled, WKRN News 2 reports. Arnold, who will now be sentenced May 4, wanted his sentence date moved up, according to a previous WKRN report. Arnold was convicted in federal court of scheming to profit from the sale of electronic cigarettes at the Rutherford County Jail. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud, honest services fraud and extortion. Each carries a five- to 20-year sentence, as well as a $250,000 fine. Arnold has been jailed since last fall. He was moved from a county jail in Kentucky to a federal holding facility in West Tennessee. John Vanderveer, who also pleaded guilty in the case, will be sentenced in early September.    

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Speaker Harwell Says She Will Have a Road Funding Plan That Does Not Raise The Gas Tax

Laura Baigert
Tennessee Star

  Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) says that she and many other members of the Tennessee House of Representatives will introduce an alternative plan that will not increase gas taxes when the IMPROVE Act “Tax Cut Act of 2017” comes before the House Finance Ways and Means Committee on Monday for consideration. “When you buy a car in the state of Tennessee, whether used or new, you pay a sales tax on that.  We want to take that sales tax and put it to our roads program.  That brings in a tremendous amount of money and we think that’s an appropriate, new, dedicated source of funding for our roads, which then we would not have to raise the gas tax,” Harwell said in an interview with Ralph Bristol, host of  99.7 FM WWTN’s Nashville’s Morning News on Monday. Full details of the plan are being finalized, with input from other House members, Speaker Harwell said. But the plan will use existing revenues from the sales tax of new and used vehicle sales already collected by the state and dedicate those revenues to funding road projects, she added. Allocating the state portion of the vehicle sales tax revenues toward roads would result in…

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BREAKING: Corker and Alexander Deliver as Republicans Break Filibuster, Clearing Way for Majority Vote on SCOTUS Nomination of Judge Gorsuch

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), the two Republicans whose final votes on breaking the threatened Democratic filibuster of the confirmation vote on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee were uncertain as late as this morning, delivered for the president and their party on Thursday afternoon. “Senate Republicans used the “constitutional option” to change longstanding cloture rules around 12:30 pm Thursday, clearing the way for Judge Neil Gorsuch to receive a vote of the full Senate on his confirmation to the Supreme Court,” Breitbart News reports: Republicans resorted to the party-line 52-48 vote after weeks of wrangling over Gorsuch’s nomination in which Senate Democrats threatened the first partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee in American history. After the Democrats assembled the forty-one votes needed to prevent the end of debate under current rules, the constitutional option allowing cloture on a simple majority became the only remaining path to placing Gorsuch on the Court. Vice-President Mike Pence, who would have been needed to break a tie should any two Republicans have voted to maintain the 60-vote cloture rule, was not present for the vote, indicating Republican confidence their entire caucus would agree to the change. As…

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Senator Lamar Alexander Responds to Threatened Democrat Filibuster of SCOTUS Nominee Gorsuch: ‘One Way Or the Other I’ll Vote for Him’

Tennessee Star Staff

  “The Democrats have once again gone into a room and convinced themselves to do something that’s never been done before in the 230 year history of the Senate and that is to require more than 51 votes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee,” Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) tells The Tennessee Star in an emailed statement received late Wednesday. “I have spoken on the Senate floor twice in recent weeks to try to convince Democrats not to filibuster Judge Gorsuch’s nomination because it will be damaging to the Senate and to the country,” Alexander adds. “When I was in the minority, I opposed President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, but I did not support a filibuster of her nomination – I believed she was entitled to a majority vote – and Judge Gorsuch is also entitled to a majority vote,” the Volunteer State’s senior senator notes. “I also wanted to point to a statement that the senator told a reporter this week,” a spokesperson for Alexander adds in that same email to The Star: “One way or the other I’ll vote for him.” “Finally, here is the senator’s floor speech, from where he talked about how filibustering to death the Gorsuch…

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In-State College Tuition for Illegal Immigrant Students No Guarantee for Future Employment

Chris Alto

  Rep. Mark White’s bill, HB863 that would allow illegal immigrant students to pay in-state college tuition in Tennessee, scheduled for a vote this week, was rolled to next week. The companion bill, SB1014 passed by the Senate Education committee will be put on the calendar in Senate Finance, Ways & Means. During discussion of the bill in the Senate Education committee, Sen. Gardenhire, the bill sponsor in the Senate, confirmed that any criteria that would have restricted the beneficiaries of the 2017 bill to grantees of the Obama Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, had been removed. Criminal histories aside, individuals who entered the U.S. illegally and were “born after June 15, 1981 is within—and shall remain within—DACA’s age requirements” are eligible to apply. If approved, DACA grantees receive a two-year temporary deportation deferment and work authorization which then enables applying for a social security number and a driver’s license. Grantees can apply to renew their DACA status at the two year expiration. Importantly, being granted DACA status does not change the individual’s illegal immigration status. Broadening the scope of the revised 2017 bill as compared to the 2015 version that failed to pass on the House floor, means that…

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Publisher Dismisses Traditional Ideas About Gender with Materials Warning School Kids About ‘Transphobia’

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  A Canadian publisher that markets in the U.S. has come out with a new book and teacher resource guide on “transphobia” that target children as young as nine. The materials reflect the intensity of the efforts on the part of radical progressives to overturn traditional and biblical ideas about gender and relationships. Published by Lorimer and titled Transphobia: Deal with it and be a gender transcender is one in a series of books carrying the phrase Deal with it. The books address resolving conflict related to a range of issues, including image, anxiety, bullying and cliques. The series is designed for children ages nine through 12, according to the Transphobia teacher resource guide. There also is a book in the series called Homophobia: Deal with it and turn prejudice into pride. Transphobia is authored by J. Wallace Skelton, who works for the Toronto District School Board’s Gender Based Violence Prevention Office. On his Twitter page, he identifies himself as a “queer trans.” In an email sent by Lorimer to potential customers, Skelton is described as “an educator, activist and writer.” “For more than a decade he has worked in schools to make them safer and more celebratory places for people of all sexual orientations and gender…

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Commentary: The Susan Rice — Clinton Connection: Democrat Claims On Trump Spying Don’t Add Up

Tennessee Star Staff

George Rasley, ConservativeHQ Editor Our friend, Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence staffer, who has actually handled “unmasking” requests for a policymaker, has a great piece on Fox explaining why the claims of Obama’s former National Security Adviser Susan Rice that the Obama administration did not spy on Mr. Trump or his staff for political purposes don’t add up. Fleitz points out that the names of U.S. citizens “incidentally” mentioned in NSA reports are masked to preserve their identities because America’s intelligence agencies are barred from spying on American citizens Susan Rice Andrea Mitchell except in extraordinary circumstances with court approval. Rice said in an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that policymakers sometimes request to know the identities of Americans from NSA reports to understand these reports in certain circumstances, which is correct says Fleitz. She also tried to dismiss this controversy by claiming NSA demasking requests are routine. This is false said Fleitz; they are not actually routine and are taken very seriously by NSA. Rice also told Andrea Mitchell there is an Intelligence Community process to review whether to approve demasking requests. This, claims Fleitz, seemed to be an attempt by…

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Alex Joyner, Living Proof of Existence of College Republicans, Helped With Trump’s Visit To Nashville

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Republicans on college campuses might be an endangered species, but there is evidence that they do in fact exist. Alex Joyner, a junior political science major at the University of Tennessee-Martin, jumped at the chance to help out with President Trump’s visit to Nashville on March 15, according to an article in the student newspaper The Pacer. Joyner, who is president of the UT Martin College Republicans and serves as state chairman for the Tennessee College Republicans, was contacted by someone with the Trump administration to see if he would like to volunteer as a driver in the presidential motorcade. After clearing a background check, he was assigned to escorting Tennessee’s U.S. Senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander to The Hermitage, where the president made a visit before his rally downtown. As they passed a pancake place, Joyner joked, “Y’all hungry, you want to stop?” to which Corker said in an aside to Alexander, “Well, senator, I see we have one with a personality!” Joyner said his respect for the president grew by seeing the thousands of people who turned out for a chance to hear Trump at his rally at the Municipal Auditorium. Not everyone was able to get…

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ACLJ Asking People to Sign Petition to Confirm Neil Gorsuch to Supreme Court

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  The conservative American Center for Law and Justice is asking people to sign a petition in support of confirming Judge Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Trump’s nominee is facing a Democratic filibuster and Republicans in the Senate are talking about using the so-called “nuclear option” to stop it. That would involve changing Senate rules so that a nominee can be confirmed with a majority vote instead of meeting a 60-vote threshold. This is the first time in history that a nominee to the Supreme Court has faced a partisan filibuster. “We must replace Justice Scalia with a staunch conservative,” the ACLJ says on its website. “The next Supreme Court justice will likely be the determinative vote on the most monumental issues of our time: abortion, religious liberty, national security, and free speech.” The left has launched “a scorched-earth campaign to defeat him,” according to the ACLJ. “They don’t want a proven conservative on the court.” Meanwhile, former President Obama’s group Organizing for Action is asking supporters to sign a petition to stop Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from changing the Senate rules to confirm Gorsuch. “This is a reckless tactic that could ruin the checks and balances…

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Americans For Prosperity To Hold ‘A Gas Tax Day Of Action’ In Speaker Harwell’s District

Laura Baigert
Tennessee Star

  Americans For Prosperity-Tennessee (AFP) announced ‘A Day of Action’ in the fight against the gas tax hike in the home district of Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville), in order to encourage her to oppose the unpopular measure. Volunteers will be door-knocking all day Saturday, April 8 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Oak Hill areas of Nashville. Full details are available on AFP’s Facebook page. The gas tax increase is the more common term applied to Governor Haslam’s IMPROVE Act – recently renamed the “Tax Cut Act of 2017” – which, in its current form, includes a 6 cent per gallon gas tax increase and a 10 ten cent per gallon diesel tax increase. The tax hikes are slated to be phased in over a three-year period to fund the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s (TDOT) list of 962 projects that currently carry a $10.5 billion price tag. Speaker Harwell has played a key role this session in the advancement of the gas tax through the Tennessee House of Representaives. At the outset of the current 110th Tennessee General Assembly, she assigned the members and picked the chairmen of the House Committees and Subcommittees including the critical…

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DESPERATE: Laughingstock Boss Doss Renames Failing ‘IMPROVE Act’ Gas Tax Increase to ‘Tax Cut Act of 2017’

Admin
Tennessee Star

  Peals of laughter echoed through the House Finance sub-committee chamber Wednesday as Transportation Committee Chairman Rep Barry “Boss” Doss (R-Leoma) moved an amendment renaming the troubled legislation increasing fuel taxes known as the ‘IMPROVE Act’ to the ‘Tax Cut Act of 2017.’ Proponents of the bill have been claiming it is revenue neutral, despite the fact that they are using tax cuts passed in previous years to balance against the huge fuel tax increases contained in the legislation aimed at increasing road funding by approximately $300 million per year. Now, proponents are rebranding the legislation again as a “tax cut” despite the fact that the primary “cuts” flow only to a few dozen large manufacturing companies. Last month, Boss Doss blatantly broke House rules to ram Gov. Haslam’s gas tax proposal – then known as the IMPROVE Act – through the House Transportation Committee he chairs. On Monday State Rep. Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station) and 16 other members of the House called on Speaker Beth Harwell to send the bill back to the House Transportation Subcommittee for a “fair and open debate.” On Tuesday Speaker Harwell’s office told The Tennessee Star she did not have the legal authority to…

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Commentary: Establishment Snakes on the Trump Train

Admin
Tennessee Star

by Richard A. Viguerie, CHQ Chairman The recent Twitter attacks emanating from the White House against the conservative heroes of the House Freedom Caucus have baffled and alarmed conservatives. However, the tweets shouldn’t be a big surprise. Personnel is policy. So, these tweets are an entirely predictable result of President Trump’s failure to staff his White House, Cabinet and sub-cabinet posts, and his political operation with reliable limited government constitutional conservatives who believe in the Trump campaign agenda. What’s so alarming and frustrating to conservatives is that it has begun to appear that, while the President has many good instincts on our issues, he somehow expects to run the Trump administration without any actual Trump supporters being brought in to run the government on his behalf. We told CHQ readers about John Boehner confidant JohnDeStefano, now Assistant to the President and Director of Presidential Personnel. Johnny DeStafano’s job as Director of White House Personnel isn’t to hire Trump’s loyal outsiders or check the SAT scores of potential hires to make sure the top applicants get the jobs, it isn’t to vet them for their security clearances or potential conflicts of interest – it is to funnel Capitol Hill staffers loyal to…

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Tennessee Motorists Going Past School Bus Stop Arms Would Face Fines Under Proposed Legislation

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  A bill that would allow schools districts to install cameras on buses to nab drivers who go past school bus stop sign arms earned a narrow approval by the state Senate Education Committee on Tuesday. Five senators voted in favor of the bill and four passed on voting. Concerns raised by those who declined to vote centered around a general dislike of traffic enforcement cameras. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville). It allows those cited to pay a fine out of court without a penalty to their driver’s license. School districts opting to use cameras would be responsible for the costs of purchasing and maintaining them but costs would be offset with money paid in fines. Twenty percent of the proceeds from fines would go to local law enforcement to help compensate for the time and expense of reviewing images. Ray Robinson, a lieutenant with the Tennessee Highway Patrol who overseas student transportation, told the committee Tuesday that “there are a lot of close calls” and that some students have been hit over the past few years though no one has been killed. The matter is a growing issue across the U.S., with some districts choosing to mount…

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Southern Baptist ERLC Research Fellow Criticizes Mike Pence’s Approach To Honoring His Marriage

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

A research fellow with the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has written a piece for a liberal website criticizing Vice President Mike Pence for the boundaries he sets for his marriage. Karen Swallow Prior wrote in Vox that “virtue ethics is better than the Billy Graham rule.” Prior, an English professor at Liberty University, referenced the vice president’s longstanding rule to never eat alone with a woman other than his wife or attend events where alcohol is served unless his wife is with him. A recent Washington Post profile of Pence’s wife, Karen, mentioned how the vice president had spoken publicly about this commitment back in 2002. Such an approach to honoring marital fidelity is dubbed “the Billy Graham rule” by some evangelicals because the famed evangelist is known for teaching and practicing similar safeguards. But Prior said the focus on rules is misplaced and that what should be discussed is prudence. “Prudence, in fact, is what seems to be missing from the conversation about the vice president’s ‘rules.’ And I don’t mean prudence in the way that some supporters of the Billy Graham rule are using the term. Prudence as properly understood is a virtue, not a rule,” Prior wrote.…

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Tennessee Farm Bureau Supports Haslam’s Gas Tax Because They Don’t Have to Pay It

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

  Since January 2008, Tennessee farmers have benefitted from expanded agricultural tax exemptions, including sales and use taxes on “gasoline or diesel fuel used for ‘agricultural purposes’ as defined in Tenn. Code Ann. Section 67-6-102.” Farmers in Tennessee who own or lease “agricultural land from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold during the year, including payments from government sources,” are exempt from paying tax on “off road” use of gasoline and diesel fuels. A full year before Governor Haslam released his “IMPROVE Act” that raises the tax on gas and diesel fuel, Tennessee Farm Bureau’s (TFB) president Jeff Aiken said: “We could support a fiscally responsible state fuel tax increase, if and only if the money that was taken out of the funds under the Bredesen administration were first returned to the fund, and as long as the monies collected would go toward building and maintenance of roads and bridges in the state and nothing else.” Despite Haslam explicitly admitting that that up to $70 million of the gas tax can be spent on mass transit by cities and counties, the TFB has not withdrawn their support for the proposed fuel tax increases. In fact, last…

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Modified Teacher Bill Of Rights Advances In State Legislature

Wendy Wilson

  The state Senate Education Committee on Tuesday passed a bill called the Teacher Bill of Rights that educators say would give teachers much-needed respect. However, the bill was amended to take out a provision prohibiting Tennessee public school teachers from being evaluated by professionals who do not have the same subject matter expertise or from being evaluated based on the performance of students the educator has not taught. The provision had earlier been removed from a companion bill in the House. Also stripped from the Senate bill Tuesday was a provision prohibiting schools from moving teachers to other schools based solely on test scores from state mandated assessments. The former had been deemed too unwieldy and costly, and bill sponsor Sen. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) told the committee Tuesday the latter provision wouldn’t give struggling schools the flexibility they need. “I’ve gotten to the point where I can accept that,” he said. The bill retained measures calling for teachers to be treated with civility and have their professional judgment respected. It also frees them from the burden of spending personal money to “appropriately equip a classroom.” It promises teachers a “safe classroom and school” and underscores their right to defend themselves if…

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Speaker Harwell Says She ‘Cannot Recall a Bill from the Finance Subcommittee’

Christina Botteri
Tennessee Star

  Tennessee State House Speaker Beth Harwell’s office contacted The Tennessee Star Tuesday morning in response to our story Monday about State Representative Jerry Sexton’s press conference. In that press conference, Rep. Sexton (R-Bean Station) called on Speaker Harwell to send back the Gax Tax bill to the House Transportation Subcommittee. “I saw the recent Tennessee Star article entitled “State Rep. Sexton Tells Speaker Harwell: ‘Hit The Restart Button’ On Gas Tax, Send It Back to Subcommittee ‘To Be Debated Fairly and Openly’” and wanted to clarify something,” Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Policy Kara Owen wrote. Ms. Owen continued: The Speaker of the House cannot recall a bill from the House Finance Subcommittee to the House Transportation Subcommittee, per our House rules. This takes a motion on the House floor by a member, and 66 votes (two thirds) for the motion to prevail.    

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