Day: May 1, 2017

LGBT Group At Belmont University Upset By Campus Event Promoting Biblical Sexual Ethics

Wendy Wilson

  Members of an LGBT group at Belmont University were upset recently with a documentary shown on campus that promoted biblical sexual ethics, an event also criticized by the university provost. The documentary and a discussion that followed on April 6 were sponsored by University Catholic, another group at the Christian liberal arts college in Nashville. Called “Desire of the Everlasting Hills,”  the film relates the story of three people with same-sex attraction who used to be part of the LGBT world but now practice chastity because of their Christian faith. One member of Bridge Builders, the campus LGBT group, told the student newspaper Belmont Vision, that Belmont “has been very accepting as of late” but that this event made Belmont “look really bad.”Another said, “We were just appalled by the documentary.” Both told the student newspaper that they are Catholics themselves. Several students were also upset with comments made following the film by psychologist Stephen Hopkins who described circumstances in a child’s upbringing that could contribute to same-sex attraction and said homosexual relationships are inherently more unstable than heterosexual ones. Members of the LGBT group were angered that university leaders allowed the film to be shown without first consulting with LGBT…

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Inside the Beltway: Only 11% of Democratic Voters Say Opposition to White House a Success

Tennessee Star Staff

“Disliking Trump is getting very boring,” writes Kathleen Parker, a Washington Post columnist. “Disliking Trump, even for all the right reasons, is exhausting and unsustainable. It’s also boring.” Funny she should mention that. Weary Democratic voters may agree as they witness a strident new culture within their party which calls upon them to “resist” President Trump…

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Memphis Charter School Knew Of Interim Principal’s Felony Conviction When Hiring Him

Wendy Wilson

  A charter school in Memphis hired an interim principal knowing he had a felony conviction, reports WMC Action News 5 in Memphis. Koai Matthews of Lester Prep was convicted and sentenced to probation for conspiracy and counterfeiting in 2006, according to court documents from Missouri obtained by WMC. The school knew of the conviction, but didn’t report it to Tennessee’s Achievement School District, which they are not obligated to do under state law, according to WMC. The ASD, which learned of the felony conviction through an anonymous tip, is now reviewing its hiring policies for charter school operators. “We’re not disagreeing with the hiring of certain individuals, we just want to be informed on who those individuals are,” said Robert “Bobby” White, chief of external affairs for the ASD. Matthews is keeping his job and told WMC that he uses his past to teach students to make better choices than he did. The ASD was created by the state legislature in 2010 to turn around struggling schools as part of former President Obama’s Race to the Top program. After news broke of the interim principal with a felony conviction, state Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, wrote to state education commissioner Candice McQueen…

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Congress Funds Health Research For Balance of FY 2017 Far in Excess of President Trump’s Budget Request

Tennessee Star Staff

Congress expanded funding given to federal agencies President Donald Trump promised to gut by billions of dollars in the newly drafted bi-partisan legislation intended to keep the government from shutting down. The House Appropriations Committee released the 2017 fiscal Omnibus Appropriations bill Monday, a piece of legislation that keeps the government solvent through Sept. 30, 2017.…

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Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett: ‘I Would Expect Somebody To Have Some Guts and Enforce the Law’ on Reporting Female Genital Mutilation

Chris Alto

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett tells The Tennessee Star that female genital mutilation (FGM), which is illegal in Tennessee, is “something out of the dark ages” that must be reported when the barbaric practice is discovered in the Volunteer State. “I would expect somebody to have some guts and enforce the law. I can’t even imagine that. I’ve got a little girl, I mean I just can’t even imagine that. It sickens me to my core,” he says. “I can’t believe that in 2017 we’re having this discussion in this country,” Burchett tells The Star. The Star asked Burchett on Monday to comment on the lack of reporting requirements about FGM to either the Tennessee Department of Health or to the state’s Department of Children’s Services. Burchett is the first elected official in Tennessee to make the connection between reporting FGM to the Department of Health and medical licensure, noting that, “If anybody in the medical community is performing that, they need to lose their license.” The Health Professional Boards that oversee licensing for a long list of health care professionals, is a division within the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH).  These boards are also responsible for “investigation of alleged violations of the…

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GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Randy Boyd and Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Both Want Refugees But Remain Silent on Female Genital Mutilation Threat

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

  GOP Gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd and Nashville Mayor Megan Barry have something in common. They both want refugees resettled in Tennessee, and they both remain silent on the threat of female genital mutilation (FGM) to women and girls in the Volunteer State. Reiterating her campaign theme, “it doesn’t matter where you started life or how you got here” progressive Mayor Megan Barry lauded Nashville for being a “warm and welcoming place” during her second state of Metro address, yet did not respond to the Tennessee Star’s questions about the threat of FGM to women and girls in Davidson County. Barry’s office was asked last week if based on the Mayor’s support for increased refugee resettlement and the high immigration from FGM prevalent countries to Nashville, whether the discovery of and prosecution for FGM in Michigan raises any concern for her administration about what might be happening in her city? No response was received from Mayor Barry’s office. Despite the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin Metropolitan Statistical Area being ranked 20th in the country for the potential risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) as reported by the Population Reference Bureau, and despite Nashville being the city that receives the highest number of refugees annually including refugees from…

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Latinos For Tennessee A Conservative ‘Voice of Reason’

Wendy Wilson

  Raul Lopez quickly discovered when he began helping Republicans with Hispanic outreach that he wasn’t working on a level playing field. He was far outnumbered and outspent by Democrats trying to reach the same audience. Lopez tried to make inroads in the Hispanic community for former President George W. Bush and for Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell when she chaired the Tennessee Republican Party. The frustrations he experienced prompted him to start Latinos For Tennessee, a conservative political advocacy group. The group champions limited government and free markets, fiscal responsibility, immigration enforcement and traditional values. “We’re a counter voice,” Lopez told The Tennessee Star. Started four years ago, the group was organized as a political action committee with an outreach and educational wing. The group is based in Nashville and plans to expand its presence in other parts of the state. Lopez, a native of Cuba who came to the U.S. when he was five years old, is the executive director. In addition, there is an eight-member board of directors. The board chairman is Tommy Vallejos, a Clarksville pastor and Montgomery County commissioner who has announced his intention to run for state Sen. Mark Green’s vacated seat pending Green’s confirmation…

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Homeschool Girl, 13, Enters UT To Study Computer Coding

David Tulis

By David Tulis / Noogaradio 1240 AM 92.7 FM A 13 year old homeschool girl, Sofia Tomov, is entering studies at the University of Tennessee starting with a course in coding. She looks forward to furthering her passion with computers and problem-solving. “Computer science is a very interesting way to solve global scale problems,” Sophia tells the UT Daily Beacon newspaper. She has published a children’s book, has a patent pending for a drug disposal device to keep water supplies clean, excelled in the ACT, passed two AP courses by age 12 and in 2016 had enrolled in three more AP courses. The Knoxville resident enjoys fencing, playing David Bowie tunes on a guitar and spending time in nature. The girl who hopes to pursue a career in the energy field will be dual enrolled as both high school and university student. She is a recipient of the scholarship that is given to seventh graders who are the 97th percentile. Last fall she was a finalist in contest for young scientists in which she presented the project on an algorithm that examines genetic code for mutations to reduce the negative effects of prescription drugs. “So far they have not found…

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Constitution Series: How and Why the First Ten Amendments – the Bill of Rights – Were Proposed and Ratified in Less Than Three Years

Tennessee Star Staff

    This is the fifth 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. The first ten amendments to the Constitution – the Bill of Rights – were proposed in Congress and ratified by the necessary three-fourths of the states in less than three years, a speed of action that seems improbable, given the undeveloped state of travel and communications at the time and the lengthy process more recent amendments to the Constitution have undergone. But the urgency with which the new nation acted upon the Bill of Rights simply confirms this key point: the secular covenant by which the citizens of the United States agreed to be governed consists of both the Constitution document delivered to the country by the Constitutional Convention, and the Ten Amendments that comprise the Bill of Rights proposed by the Congress and ratified by the States. There were four distinct phases in the formation of this secular covenant, or “solemn agreement,” and had not all four phases been completed, the agreement might not have held. (1) The Constitutional…

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Agriculture Secretary Says Trump Won’t Focus On Deporting Illegal Farm Workers

Tennessee Star Staff

President Donald Trump will not focus on deporting farm workers, even if they are illegal, according to the new Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Agriculture groups have expressed concern that Trump’s immigration policies could cause food prices to rise and threaten the stability of farms. Perdue, who took office Tuesday, suggested that the president is open to…

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Commentary: Speaker Paul Ryan’s Implosion

Tennessee Star Staff

ConservativeHQ.com Staff For the better part of the past decade establishment Republicans have promoted the myth that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is the smartest guy in the room, and certainly the smartest guy in Washington, maybe even the smartest guy in the world – and if you question that, then his taxpayer-paid spin machine and his legion of DC establishment sycophants will soon straighten you out. However, since the election of President Donald Trump the myth of Paul Ryan’s genius has come crashing down to earth because for the first time in his life Ryan has actually had to produce measurable results. And when the results have been compared to the myth Ryan has failed. Spectacularly. Consider that a large part of the Ryan myth was built on the various plans to balance the budget and bring the deficit under control that the Speaker propounded when he was the top Republican on the House Budget Committee. Ryan’s various budget proposals, such as his 2011 “Path to Prosperity” showed that it is possible to balance the budget, preserve the Social Security and Medicare safety nets and in short do everything liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans claim is impossible without…

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