President Trump on Tuesday condemned the terrorist attack in Manchester, England, saying society must get rid of the “evil losers” who kill innocent children. “The terrorists and extremists, and those who give them aid and comfort, must be driven out of our society forever,” said Mr. Trump, speaking during a trip to the Middle East that…
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Parents in Bardstown, Kentucky are complaining that the Nelson County School Board is not doing enough to address violent student behavior. More than 100 parents and faculty members turned out for a school board meeting May 16 to voice concerns, according to WDRB Louisville 41 News. On May 15, police were called to Old Kentucky Home Middle School after a student slammed a female teacher up against lockers. It was the latest in a string of incidents across the district. Past incidents include fights on campus and trays thrown during lunch Teachers don’t have the support they need to handle disruptions, said parent Angela Williams. Former teachers who spoke at the school board meeting echoed Williams’ complaint. “I have been threatened,” former substitute teacher John Peterson told the board. “One kid told me ‘If I had a car, I would run over your a**.’ ” “We need new leadership, people,” Peterson said. “You need to wake up!” Superintendent Anthony Orr acknowledged the problems and said administrators are working on solutions but said “none of those things work like a magic wand.” Parent Matt Reynolds has started a petition to ask the school board not to renew Orr’s contract, according to the Nelson County…
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Tammy Crews’ dog went missing two and a half years ago from her home in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but Crews never gave up hope of finding her. Her hopes were realized last week when she got a call from an animal shelter in California saying her dog, a Maltese named Trixie, had been found. Trixie, now about 13 years old, had a microchip that could be used to trace her back to her owner if anyone brought her to a vet or animal shelter, according to the Bowling Green Daily News. Little Trixie had been found wandering in a Wal-Mart parking lock in Turlock, California, more than 2,200 miles from Bowling Green. Malnourished and with matted hair, she was taken to Turlock Animal Services. Using the microchip, employee Glena Jackson was able to contact Crews’ vet. Jackson later drove more than two hours to Sacramento to put Trixie on a plane bound for Nashville, where the Crews family picked her up Saturday night. After Trixie slipped through her doggie door in January 2015 and disappeared, Crews posted flyers offering a reward and knocked on neighbors’ neighbors. She thinks a group of workers nearby that day may have stolen Trixie, a friendly…
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The University of the South in Sewanee held a panel discussion on Islamophobia last month at which objections to Islam were dismissed as prejudice. The event was hosted by the Muslim Student Association and was called “Understanding Islamophobia in America.” College campuses around the country have heightened their criticism of Islamophobia – depicted as an irrational fear of Islam and its followers – even as Islamists have increased their attacks on innocents around the world, including in the West. The latest attack came Monday, when at least 22 people were killed in a bombing at a concert in Manchester, England. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. The attention on Islamophobia has made critical examination of Islam a difficult and risky prospect for college students and faculty. One of two Muslim guest speakers at the Sewanee event on April 14 was Sabina Mohyuddin, a Tennessee native and Vanderbilt graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering. Mohyuddin serves as board secretary for the American Muslim Advisory Council, a Tennessee advocacy group. Mohyuddin said at the event that Islamophobia “developed as a consequence of uninformed prejudice and reactions to acts of terrorism,” according to an article in The Sewanee Purple, the student…
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FRANKLIN, Tennessee–Television host and former news anchor Nick Clooney and his wife Nina will be part of the “Old Hollywood” themed film premiere at the Franklin Theatre at 6:30 pm tonight of a documentary on the Constitution he narrates. Attendees are invited to “walk the red carpet with Nick and Nina Clooney” at the event organized by the 917 Society to promote its new film aimed at high school students. In an exclusive interview on Monday with The Tennessee Star, Clooney, father of movie star George Clooney, explained why at 83 years of age he agreed to narrate the film. “If this doesn’t ring a bell with the kids, then we have to find another way to do it, because the young people, right now, have no idea what the Constitution is, what it means, what it stands for,” Clooney said of the documentary he narrates. “We used to, of course, have to learn the preamble in school. We had to learn to do that, and we had to recite it every year in our Civics class. We had to know what that meant to us, and how we were just floundering as a nation after the Revolutionary War with the…
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“Fighting for immigrant rights” is what Nashville attorney Elliott Ozment does. He is one of the lawyers suing Metro Nashville, Davidson County and Sheriff Daron Hall, on behalf of the Saudi visa overstayer and the “hundred and likely thousands of immigrants” subject to ICE detainer requests. Ozment helps illegal aliens who have committed crimes remain in Tennessee communities. Ozment Law’s website says: At Ozment Law, we have helped hundreds of legal and undocumented immigrants in Nashville and the surrounding areas obtain the necessary documentation to be able to work and live in the U.S. without fear of deportation. “Undocumented immigrant” is a term that purposely obscures the fact that U.S. immigration laws have been violated and suggests that legal immigration status is merely a matter of completing some paperwork. Activist liberal groups like the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) also use “undocumented immigrant” even though U.S. law and the U.S. Supreme Court refer to foreign nationals who enter the country without authorization as “illegal aliens.” A May 3, 2017, blog post on the Ozment Law website asks the question, “Do I have to leave the country after being convicted of a crime?” followed by…
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by Chris Butler To hear some people in Sumner County tell it, County Executive Anthony Holt is “hell-bent” on building an industrial park north of Gallatin along Dobbins Pike. The park’s would-be neighbors don’t want it. But Holt, in his third term as county commissioner, says he’s dismissed the idea of using county money to pay for the park, mostly because he couldn’t persuade other commissioners to play along. “I’m confident the commissioners in general are doing what they need to do. But it’s Holt I’m concerned about,” said Brad Wear, one of the many people who live adjacent to the proposed park and whose property values could suffer if it’s built. He and several of his neighbors told Tennessee Watchdog the proposed industrial park may push them to leave their homes. As reported, local developers seem to have taken an interest in the park, enticed by state taxpayer money to help get it built. As reported, those developers hold positions of influence in county government, thanks to Holt. “This is a story about local officials, starting with the county executive, who have tremendous power. Holt gets to appoint all the committees, and they are either approved, or not, by…
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A pro-transit coalition of business and community leaders backed by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce has begun the second phase of a project studying possible sources of tax revenue. In addition to raising the gax tax to fund road improvements, the IMPROVE Act recently passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bill Haslam allows municipalities to hold referendums on raising local taxes for transit. Nashville Mayor Megan Barry plans to have a referendum on the ballot in 2018 to raise taxes to support a tentative $6 billion regional transit plan to be phased in over 25 years. The plan would include light rail and rapid buses. Barry announced last month that a light rail project along the Gallatin Pike corridor would begin immediately. The Moving Forward coalition will examine four potential local revenue sources: property tax, sales tax, hotel/motel tax and wheel tax, according to a news release issued May 11. The study will encompass the 10-county Middle Tennessee region. Property tax was not mentioned in the IMPROVE Act but local governments in Tennessee already have the authority to increase the property tax rate. The new release said that “the study will provide multiple scenarios…
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President Trump has some unwavering support from a very unique demographic: Republican military veterans. An extensive new Pew Research Center reveals that 98 percent of these GOP vets approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing. He has some fans across the greater population of vets as well. The poll also found that 54 percent of…
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ConservativeHQ.com Staff The Justice Department has now appointed a Special Counsel to handle the investigation of alleged “links” and “collusion” between the Russian government and President Donald Trump’s successful campaign for president. What is completely baffling about this decision, and the allocation of vast resources from the FBI, Justice Department and congressional oversight committees, is that no prima facia evidence that these alleged “links” and “collusion” constitute a violation of any specific statute has been presented, or as far as we can tell, even alleged. However, there are, as our friend Diana West has exhaustively documented, two other known crimes that are being studiously ignored by the FBI: the vast security breach of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) email system and the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. In her must read May 20 article, “A Seth Rich Chronology, Part 1” West points out that “it is important to bear in mind that the FBI has never examined the DNC computer network because the DNC prohibited the FBI from doing so. Also, that the FBI, under former Director Comey, not to mention President Obama and the ‘Intelligence Community,’ thought this was perfectly ok.” So, the FBI has never actually…
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A Florida man who was formerly a neo-Nazi but recently converted to Islam killed his two roommates Friday for “disrespecting” the Muslim faith. Police in Tampa, Florida arrested Devon Arthurs after he held three people hostage inside a smoke shop before leading authorities to the bodies of his two roommates. Arthurs, 18, yelled “Allah Mohammed” while…
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The foundation of the case by Governor Haslam and other proponents of the IMPROVE Act gas tax increase was that it is a “user fee,” paid by those who use the roads. In contrast, for the purpose of funding public transit system projects, the IMPROVE Act authorizes 16 local governments, through public referendum, to levy a surcharge on six existing taxes that aren’t remotely linked to a mass transportation user fee, otherwise known as passenger fares. The IMPROVE Act, passed by the legislature as HB 534, specifies a local government, for purposes of the surcharge, as any county in this state including a county with a metropolitan or consolidated form of government with a population in excess of 112,000, which is currently Blount, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Montgomery, Rutherford, Shelby, Sullivan, Sumner, Washington, Williamson and Wilson, and any city in this state with a population in excess of 165,000, which is currently Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville. The six taxes eligible for surcharge are the local option sales tax, business tax, motor vehicle tax, local rental car tax, tourist accommodation/hotel occupancy tax, and residential development tax. Looking at other transit systems around the country, it’s obvious that these additional revenues will…
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FRANKLIN, TENNESSEE (Tuesday, May 23) — Today The Tennessee Star announced its online news site has had ONE MILLION visits since its launch February 6. “The Tennessee Star is the only consistently conservative media outlet in the state of Tennessee. This is a conservative state, and Tennesseans have wanted a fact-based news site with a conservative perspective for many years. That’s what we offer, and that’s why we’ve seen such tremendous traffic,” said Managing Editor Christina Botteri. “People are smart and they want to be informed and not preached at or dictated to, and I believe that is a big part of why we are growing at such a substantial rate – especially compared to other area news outlets,” she said. Judson Phillips, a long-time conservative activist and Tea Party Nation founder agreed. “I am not shocked at the excellent performance of The Tennessee Star. While the Gannett-owned papers read like newsletters for the Tennessee Democrat Party, The Star goes after important stories that the liberal media will not touch,” Phillips said. While the raw viewership of The Tennessee Star is remarkable, media experts also recognize the impact and influence the upstart news outlet is already having at Legislative Plaza. “Attracting one…
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