Month: April 2017

Men of Valor Helps Inmates Find Hope

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Cornelius Matthews (pictured left) grew up in an abusive home where he never heard the words, “I love you.” “It was a house, not a home,” he said. He didn’t go to church and he made fun of those who believed in God. He later began using drugs and alcohol and ended up in prison for attempted second-degree murder. It was there that he turned to the God he once dismissed as imaginary and grew in his newfound Christian faith with the mentoring of Men of Valor. Matthews told his story Tuesday at a Men of Valor breakfast at the Music City Center in downtown Nashville. More than 900 people attended, including state lawmakers, city officials and pastors. The Nashville-based prison ministry seeks to address recidivism with a faith-based approach that helps men recognize how God can transform lives. Men who go through the program have a less than 10 percent chance of returning to prison, group organizers say. Men of Valor has a ministry inside prisons and also a one-year “aftercare” program to help men upon their release. To help with the transition, the group provides housing, clothing and food and assistance with getting a job. The goal…

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Commentary: Too Much Urgency Creates Bad Education Policy

JC Bowman

  We often make mistakes when we hurry. It is inevitable. The same is true in public policy. And I have seen it first hand in public education. Cheryl Williams, the Executive Director of the Learning First Alliance, wrote: We all feel the urgency of educating our young people; it just takes time to do it right in the democratic, locally governed system we call public schools. And it takes the commitment, empathy, and collaborative support of all of us to put what is urgent into practice in a way that benefits our students and ourselves. The federal government can wave billions of dollars in front of a state and it is often incentive enough to chase the money. Meanwhile, as local school districts are having unproven ideas and theories thrust on them, we are witnessing a backlash. Educators are often angrier than taxpayers. That same federal government that can use its power to impose its authority also provides little of the monetary resources – less than 10% in most cases. In comparison to the state and local which provides the bulk of dollars used in public education. We must embrace local control, even when it means the wheels move slowly.…

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Tennessee Farm Bureau Wants In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrant Students

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star - Top Story

  The Tennessee Farm Bureau (TFB) is reputed to be the largest farm bureau in the country. Its mission statement is: To develop, foster, promote and protect programs for the general welfare, including economic, social, educational and political well-being of farm people of the great state of Tennessee. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), is a non-profit organization with affiliate farm bureaus in all 50 states, including Tennessee. In 2016 the AFBF reported employing eighteen registered lobbyists. Among the services the AFBF provides is training new state farm bureau presidents. In 2013, like the AFBF, the TFB issued a statement of support for the proposed comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Congressional Budget Office concluded a category of “legalization” for illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S. “The Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation is proud to stand today beside our friends with the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry and our fellow business families in support of S.744 the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act. We believe this bipartisan immigration bill is a balanced reform bill, it includes fair and workable farm labor provisions, and it will help ensure an adequate supply of farm labor. After Congress failed to pass…

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More Trade Workers Needed To Close ‘Skills Gap,’ Expert Tells Nashville Homeschool Convention

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

The U.S. is facing a “skills gap” that will only get worse unless more young people develop an interest in trade jobs, experts say. Homeschool guidance counselor Phylicia Masonheimer delivered that message to homeschoolers  and their parents over the weekend at the Teach Them Diligently homeschool convention in Nashville. It was a message very familiar to fans of television host and narrator Mike Rowe. Rowe told Tucker Carlson on Fox News last month that there are 5.6 million job openings in fields that typically do not require a bachelor’s degree. The former Dirty Jobs host said that taking vocation-technical training out of high schools contributed to the skills gap by teaching students that the best path to success is a college degree. “If you really want to make America great again, you gotta make work cool again,” he said. Rowe runs a foundation that provides scholarships and information to get more people interested in trade jobs. The mikeroweWORKS Foundation aims to address “the country’s dysfunctional relationship with work, highlighting the widening skills gap, and challenging the persistent belief that a four-year degree is automatically the best path for the most people,” according to the foundation’s website. Many others are also increasing efforts to highlight the…

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State Rep. Sexton Tells Speaker Harwell: ‘Hit The Restart Button’ On Gas Tax, Send It Back to Subcommittee ‘To Be Debated Fairly and Openly’

Laura Baigert
Tennessee Star

  State Representative Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station), joined by more than a dozen colleagues in the Tennessee House of Representatives, held a press conference Monday blasting the Republican leadership for their heavy-handed and ethically questionable tactics to ram through the Governor’s gas tax hike, the key element of the IMPROVE Act. “We are calling on Speaker Harwell, House Leadership, and those that support this bill to hit the restart button in regards to the IMPROVE Act and to send the bill back to Transportation Subcommittee to be debated fairly and openly,” Sexton announced. The Tennessee Star was there with cameras rolling: The Star has reported extensively on how State Rep. Barry Doss, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, broke the rules of the House of Representatives to push Haslam’s gas tax through the committee. On March 22, for instance, The Star published a story titled “Boss Doss Breaks Rules to Ram Amended Gas Tax Increase Through House Transportation Committee,” which provided a blow-by-blow account of the subterfuge behind the bill’s passage that day. “The people have elected Republicans to govern at all levels of state government. The Republicans control the Governors Mansion, the state house, and the state senate. We,…

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Police Padlock Motel in South Nashville as Public Nuisance

Wendy Wilson

Police raided and padlocked The Thrifty Inn in South Nashville on Friday after responding to hundreds of calls over the past three years. From January 2014 through this March, police responded to 586 calls about illegal drug sales, domestic disturbances and shots fired, according to a Metro Nashville Police Department news release. The motel is located on Harding Pike near I-24. “The Thrifty Inn has proven to be a drain on resources,” said Police Chief Steven Anderson. “The men and women of the South Precinct work to protect a 70 square mile are. It is not fair to other neighborhoods and businesses when we have to keep sending officers to the same place for the same issues, over and over, for years.” The motel was declared a public nuisance in a temporary injunction and padlocking order issued by Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier after the district attorney’s office filed suit. The order directed that the entire property be vacated and that motel owner Kiranbhai Patel appear before the judge Wednesday morning. On Friday as the motel was being closed, several agencies were available to provide guests with assistance, including transportation to another motel. Registration fees paid in advance by confirmed…

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Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland Resigns Amid Corruption Charges

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Davidson County General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland has resigned from the bench following his arrest on corruption charges. Moreland announced his resignation, effective April 4, in a letter to Nashville Mayor Megan Barry and the Board of Judicial Conduct, according WKRN News 2. Moreland was in federal court Friday for a hearing on charges that include tampering with a witness and obstruction of justice. The FBI says he tried to thwart their investigation into allegations of corruption. Moreland is accused of fraud and extortion. He had faced mounting pressure to resign from various officials, including Barry and House Speaker Beth Harwell and other lawmakers. Moreland was released from custody Friday but has house detention and an electronic monitoring device and his cell phone will be monitored by federal government officials. His case was bound over to a grand jury. The Associated Press reported that according to a criminal complaint, Moreland learned in February that the FBI was investigating him for possible corruption. Moreland is alleged to have extorted sexual favors as well as travel and lodging in return for official acts, such as having fines dismissed for defendants. A female witness told the FBI she believed Moreland wanted sex in return for offering his…

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Top 10 Classes Taught at This Year’s ‘Sex Week’ University of Tennessee

Tennessee Star Staff

Undergraduates at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville are not learning about the Constitution this week, the focus of The Tennessee Star’s new series of articles for secondary students in grades 8 through 12. Instead, they are participating in the school’s fifth annual “Sex Week.” “Sex Week is a whole week of student activities that our student organization called SEAT puts on during the spring semester,” the web site says: Sex Week 2017 will be April 3-7. Our goal is to create a safe space where students can openly engage in comprehensive and academically informed discussion about all things related to sex, sexuality, relationships, and gender. Basically, we want to educate, because this stuff is important! “We firmly believe that sex education is not comprehensive without including conversations about pleasure and empowerment. Learning about consent, how to communicate your needs with partners, and how to find pleasure and fulfillment in yourself is really critical to building a healthy and safe campus. Not convinced? Sexual pleasure is included in the World Health Organization‘s definition of sexual health,” the website adds. Some of the important classes University of Tennessee undergraduates can attend during Sex Week include this top ten list: (1) Sex…

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Zan Tyler Tells Nashville Homeschooling Parents: Appreciate Freedoms But Be Alert To Government Overreach

Wendy Wilson

Homeschooling wasn’t always as accepted as it is today. Zan Tyler has stories about parents who tried to keep it a secret. Some pulled down their blinds and didn’t let their kids outside during the day. One family bought Catholic school uniforms for their children to wear out and about, as if they had been pulled from school for a doctor’s appointment. Another family would pile their kids in the car in the morning and drive off as if they were going school, only to have the kids duck down for the trip back home where they were really being schooled. Tyler has her own remarkable story. In 1984, when she set out to homeschool her oldest child who was a struggling reader, she was threatened with jail by the South Carolina superintendent of education. The late Sen. Strom Thurmond personally intervened on her behalf and cleared the way. It was a pivotal moment in a journey that Tyler never could have imagined as a young woman, when she was determined not to have children or be a teacher. She had studied economics in college and was planning on law school. But then she married and started a family. When…

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Commentary: War on Freedom Caucus is Really War With Trump’s Base

Tennessee Star Staff

by Richard A Viguerie, CHQ Chairman Mr. President, Steve Bannon said at CPAC this February, “Hold us accountable for what we promised. Hold us accountable for delivering what we promised.” We knew Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan would not read the memo. Et tu, Mr. President? Your fit against the Freedom Caucus for not going along with supporting RyanCare certainly is not fooling the members of the Freedom Caucus. They have long been under attack by the GOP establishment for doing things like actually voting on bills consistent with their campaign promises. Going to war with the Freedom Caucus is going to war with your base. You have to decide, Mr. President, whether you will align yourself with the leaders of the swamp – or grassroots Americans. You are a branding mastermind, but siding with the Priebus-Ryan wing of the GOP is the defective, knock-off, cheap imitation of the product you claimed to be selling when you were campaigning. Declaring war on the Freedom Caucus for sticking to their ObamaCare promise in the face of GOP establishment attacks makes them heroes to us. People voted for you because they are fed up with politicians campaigning on promises that are broken…

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Constitution Series: A Republic, If You Can Keep It

Claudia Henneberry
Tennessee Star

  This is the first 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.   Minutes after the Constitutional Convention adjourned in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, Elizabeth Powel, a friend of George Washington who hosted many social events for the political class of the time, asked Benjamin Franklin if the convention had given us a republic or a monarchy. “A republic, madam, if you can keep it,” the venerable 81-year-old delegate, ambassador, and inventor responded. Fifty-five delegates, from all the states except Rhode Island, attended that convention, which began four months earlier in May of that year under the premise of forming a more perfect union by revising the Articles of Confederation. You see, the United States of America was not officially formed as the republic of which we are currently citizens in 1783 when the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain acknowledged the independence and sovereignty of its former colonies, was signed. The Continental Congress of the thirteen rebellious colonies, convening in York Town, Pennsylvania (now simply called York), adopted the…

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Winston Churchill Has Much To Teach Us Today, Tennessee Historian Tells Nashville Homeschool Convention

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  The life of Winston Churchill is rich with lessons about perseverance, a speaker at a Nashville homeschool convention said Friday. Bill Potter, a historian at Landmark Events in Columbia, Tennessee, spoke at the Teach Them Diligently convention being held this weekend at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. Landmark Events offers historical  tours, conferences and retreats from a Christian perspective. Potter said Churchill, the conservative prime minister of Britain during World War II, persevered despite many hardships and setbacks in his life. The amount of perseverance he cultivated was extraordinary, Potter said. “It’s not something most people automatically have.” While not an orthodox Christian, Churchill was taught to appreciate biblical principles by his governess, who he greatly respected. He was largely ignored by his parents who sent him off to boarding school, where he wrote them letters asking them to visit him to no avail, Potter said. Churchill later served in the armed forces as a soldier and also worked as a war correspondent. He went on to become a member of Parliament, where his concerns about the growing power of Hitler in Germany were dismissed by other government leaders. But his tough anti-Nazi stance caught the attention of Hitler,…

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The Tennessee Star Launches Constitution Series for Secondary School Students, Teachers and Parents

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  FRANKLIN, Tennessee – The Tennessee Star announced today it is publishing the first of twenty-five weekly articles in its Constitution Series for secondary school students, teachers and parents tomorrow, Monday, April 3. “The idea behind this series is to present the important story of our Constitution to Tennessee secondary students in grades 8 through 12 in a compelling way that will engage them on both an intellectual and emotional level,” says Christina Botteri, managing editor of The Star. “Each week we will advance the narrative of the Constitution in chronological order. Along the way, secondary students can use these articles as a guide to prepare for The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Bee, which we will hold in Middle Tennessee on September 23,” she adds. “Students will compete at that event to win first, second, and third place honors at each grade level. So each grade – 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th – will have a champion. In addition, the grade level champions will compete to become The Overall Champion of The Tennessee Star’s Constitution Bee. The winner and overall champion, along with a parent, will win a grand prize of a trip to Washington, D.C.,” Botteri says. “About a dozen Tennesseans with experience in…

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Encouraging Homeschoolers To Become Entrepreneurs

Wendy Wilson

  Rhea Perry beamed as she related the success stories of an organic farmer, a videographer, a horse trainer and a coach to Amazon sellers. Their stories are all the more bright because they achieved their success as pre-teens and teens, said Perry, who spoke Friday at a homeschool convention in Nashville. Perry led a session on entrepreneurship at the Teach Them Diligently convention being held this weekend at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. Perry has her own business, Educating for Success, Inc. in Lexington, Alabama, that helps homeschooling parents and students start their own businesses. Perry encouraged parents at her session Friday to help their children develop an entrepreneurial spirit. She advised allowing children to be involved in setting their schedules and choosing their books. She also emphasized the importance of ensuring that children become independent at completing chores. When parents manage everything for their children and do everything for them, they won’t develop the self-reliance and motivation they need to become good entrepreneurs, Perry said. Children who are creative and curious and show a knack for leadership by the questions they ask should be treated carefully “so you don’t break their spirit,” Perry said. That’s too often what happens…

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Lamplighter Offers Entertainment and Moral Instruction All In One at Nashville Homeschool Convention

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

It’s hard to imagine Mark Hamby sitting still long enough to read a book. On Friday, he zipped around energetically at a Nashville homeschool convention to drum up enthusiasm for his business, dashing from one person to the next to strike up a conversation. Sure enough, he confessed to not liking books when he was a kid. “I used to hate to read,” he said. “Reading and I didn’t go together.” That makes it all the more interesting that his business is books. More than 20 years ago, he started Lamplighter, which publishes out-of-print novels from the 1600s, 1700s, and 1800s. His booth at the Teach Them Diligently convention being held this weekend at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center is piled high with them. “Every book we publish has to personally captivate me,” he said. “They must be something that will have kids on the edge of their seats.” They also must teach moral lessons and draw readers to Christ, said Gamby, who developed a hunger for great Christian literature when he became a Christian at age 22. He looks for books that have strong themes of endurance, faith, hope and love. The books he publishes were popular at the…

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Commentary: Priebus And Ryan Hijack President Trump’s Twitter Account

Tennessee Star Staff

ConservativeHQ.com Staff April 1, 2017 Make no mistake about what went on Thursday with the shocking tweet in which President Trump appeared to attack members of the Freedom Caucus, some of his earliest and staunchest supporters in Congress. It is not about a policy difference over getting rid of Obamacare – it is about White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and his home state buddy House Speaker Paul Ryan saving their jobs. Priebus is clearly out of his depth as White House Chief of Staff. His only real qualification for the job is his relationship with Speaker Ryan and after the Ryancare debacle in which the President was drawn into supporting a bill something like 100 members of the House Republican Conference were prepared to vote against Priebus’ job was on the line. And it still is. Same with Ryan. When the Ryancare – or RINOcare bill as we prefer to call it – blew up Washington was abuzz with the rumor that Ryan was on his way out as Speaker. Republican officials in Congress and the White House were openly discussing finding a GOP replacement to Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House, after Ryan failed to pass…

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Vanderbilt Poll: Nashville a Blue City in a Red State; Majority of City’s Residents Disapprove of President Trump

Tennessee Star Staff

  A new Vanderbilt Poll confirms what most Tennesseans have known for years: Nashville is a far left island of Democratic blue surrounded by a sea of conservative Republican red. The majority of those surveyed in Davidson County (Nashville) disapprove of President Trump, including 51 percent of white voters. Disapproval among black and Hispanic respondents tops more than 70 percent. President Trump crushed Hillary Clinton in Tennessee in the November 2016 general election, winning the state’s eleven electoral college votes in a 61 percent to 35 percent blowout over the former Secretary of State. In Davidson County (Nashville), it was an entirely different matter. Hillary Clinton defeated President Trump in the urban center of Middle Tennessee by a 60 percent to 34 percent margin. “When you’re polling registered voters rather than likely voters, your results are going to skew left because you are polling a lot of people who are not informed and engaged enough to actually vote,” former Nashville radio talk show host and media consultant Steve Gill tells The Tennessee Star. “Taking that into account, the Vanderbilt Poll essentially reflects the election day results,” he adds. “The Vanderbilt Poll has spent a lot of money to confirm what most everybody…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Saturday, April 1

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing April 1, Saturday 2 Timothy 4:3-4 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. Proverbs 1:22 How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?

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