Day: June 27, 2017

Latinos For Tennessee Finds New Venue For Event Tonight After Being Turned Away Elsewhere

Wendy Wilson

  Latinos For Tennessee has found a new venue for their quarterly networking event tonight after another restaurant suddenly canceled on them Monday. Those involved or friendly with the conservative political advocacy group sometimes face harassment for their views. Executive director Raul Lopez told The Tennessee Star he thinks the group’s recent opposition to the Metro Council’s proposed “sanctuary city” ordinance has made critics even more upset. But Lopez said his group will keep forging ahead despite the pressure. “They can’t stop us,” he said. The group was set to meet tonight at Salsa Puerto Rican and Latin Cuisine, a restaurant on the edge of downtown Nashville. The event was scheduled weeks in advance, but the restaurant notified Lopez on Monday that they’d have to cancel because they were overbooked. Lopez called it “a major coincidence.” The Tennessee Star was unable to reach anyone at the restaurant for comment. Lopez said the group has met there in the past without any problems. In recent days, Latinos For Tennessee had decided to address the proposed ordinance at tonight’s meeting and invited speakers to talk about it. Some backed out because of hostility they faced for affiliating with the group, Lopez said. Councilman Robert…

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BREAKING: Sponsors of Nashville’s ‘Sanctuary City’ Ordinance To Pull July 6 Vote On Bill

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Sponsors of Metro Council’s proposed “sanctuary city” ordinance are saying they will not ask their fellow council members to vote on the bill July 6 as originally scheduled. In an email to their colleagues obtained by The Tennessee Star, council members Bob Mendes and Colby Sledge said they are working on plans to hold a press conference Wednesday with other advocates of the bill to discuss the matter. The Tuesday afternoon email followed a public statement in the morning by Mayor Megan Barry asking the council to reconsider the ordinance. Barry raised concerns resulting from the release Monday of a written opinion from Metro’s law director, who said the council can’t legally keep the sheriff from cooperating with federal immigration officials. She also said the Metro Nashville Police Department has concerns about the proposed ordinance. Metro Council passed the bill on a second reading last week, but opposition to the ordinance has grown fast in recent days, with nine state senators now joining 63 House members in opposition, with more expected. A grassroots movement is also mobilizing to stop the bill. In their email, Mendes and Sledge said they need more time to review the law director’s legal opinion. It was unclear…

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Nine State Senators Join 63 House Members in Opposing Nashville Sanctuary City Ordinance, More Expected

Admin
Tennessee Star

  Nine State Senators released a letter Tuesday joining the 63 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives who on Monday expressed their unequivocal opposition to a proposed sanctuary city ordinance that awaits a third and final vote in Metro Nashville Council on July 6. The Council passed the controversial ordinance on second reading June 20 in a 25 to 8 vote. The letter was released by the office of State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), an announced candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, and is signed (physically or virtually) by eight additional State Senators, including State Senator Paul Bailey (R-Sparta), Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville), Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville), Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield), Senator Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin), Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald), Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), and Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma). The two-page statement begins: With the Second Reading of the Ordinances filed by Metro Councilmen Bob Mendes and Colby Sledge having passed and a vote pending from the Metro Council, we are compelled to make public the intent and purposes of this Ordinance and to make it known that as Representatives of the State of Tennessee, we soundly object to their passage. Tennessee is currently being represented by the Thomas More Law Center…

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Professional Educators of Tennessee To Hold Event Friday in Mufreesboro

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Professional Educators of Tennessee (ProEd) will host an event Friday at Middle Tennessee State University offering classes and the latest news on where the state is headed in K-12 public education. Leader U is for educators, public school parents, business and community leaders, and the media. ProEd is a nonpartisan teacher association headquartered in Nashville. The keynote speaker will be Tedx Talk Speaker Ryan Jackson, the executive lead principal of the Mt. Pleasant Arts Innovation Zone in Maury County, the nation’s first K-12 STEAM campus. He will discuss the importance of creating a sense of student belonging in the classroom based on research conducted during his years teaching for Metro Nashville Public Schools. Teacher leaders and presenters from across the state will lead professional development classes on topics related to poverty, trauma, special needs and more. Classes are tailored to meet the needs of teachers and administrators at all levels, and multiple classes are available for up to six TASL credits. College students and new teachers can also benefit from the networking opportunity and classes on financial literacy, advice for new teachers, technology and project-based learning. In addition, the following ProEd award recipients will be recognized: Michael Ridenour Advocate of…

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Challenger Jeremy Hayes Calls Out State Rep. Susan Lynn’s Failure to Oppose Nashville’s ‘Sanctuary City’ Ordinance

Admin
Tennessee Star

  The Tennessee Star reported Monday that fully 63 of the 99 State Representatives signed a letter opposing the Metro Nashville Council’s ordinance proposal, BL2017-739, to make Music City a criminal-friendly ‘sanctuary city.’ One of the names missing from the letter was Representative Susan Lynn, and challenger Jeremy Hayes noticed. “I am extremely disheartened, but not surprised that my opponent did not feel the need to sign the letter, with the sixty-three other representatives, informing the Metro Council this bill will not be accepted. Bills like this are illegal, thanks to laws that Joe Carr sponsored, and even metro council’s attorney, John Cooper, has said that the bill cannot be enforced” said Hayes in a statement. He added: This is the reason I am running for office, because my opponent has sold out to special interest groups, and no longer cares about representing our district, even when our families are at risk. I am sure that once she see’s not speaking out against the “Sanctuary City” bill is politically damaging she will be motivated to act, but we need leadership in our district, not someone who has to judge the political tides before they say something. When elected I will fight…

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BREAKING: Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Asks Metro Council To Reconsider ‘Sanctuary City’ Ordinance

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry released a statement Tuesday morning asking the Metro Council to reconsider an ordinance that would restrict local cooperation with federal immigration officials. The ordinance passed on a second reading last week and is up for a final vote July 6. Barry was acting in response to a formal legal opinion issued Monday by Metro Law Director Jon Cooper stating that the ordinance could not be applied to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. Barry said: It is clear from this legal opinion that BL2017-739 does not apply to Sheriff Daron Hall, who has said he will continue to honor detainer requests from the federal government. Additionally, the Metro Nashville Police Department has concerns that the ordinance would prohibit them from recommending U visa applications for immigrants who are victims of crime and willing to help put dangerous criminals in jail. Losing that law enforcement tool could jeopardize public safety and would run counter to the intentions of the sponsors to make Nashville a more welcoming city for New Americans. The Metro Council should give serious consideration to these factors and reconsider whether this legislation is appropriate or necessary at this time. In his legal opinion, Cooper said that…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Mae Beavers Proud of 63 GOP House Members Who Expressed Opposition to Nashville Sanctuary City Ordinance

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

“I am proud of Representatives Judd Matheny, Bryan Terry, Sheila Butt, and the other 60 Republican State House members who expressed their opposition to the proposed Sanctuary City plan for Nashville that is headed towards a final vote on July 6,” State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), an announced candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, told The Tennessee Star Monday evening. “I hope the remaining House Republican caucus members will immediately add their names to the letter and that House Democrats will also speak up against Mayor Barry’s embrace and endorsement of illegal activity that threatens the safety and security of our state,” Beavers added. The Republican gubernatorial candidate then made her own significant announcement. “I plan to circulate the same letter among ALL my Senate colleagues and hope we can show the same sort of leadership the House Republicans have demonstrated in denouncing the illegal scheme that Nashville’s Metro Council is pursuing,” Beavers said. “It is time for the Democrats to join us in opposing a plan that puts Tennesseans at continued risk of both losing their jobs AND the security we all want for our families. It is impossible to condone illegal activity and also expect our community…

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Metro Nashville’s Own Lawyer Says Proposed Sanctuary City Ordinance ‘Not Enforceable’

Tennessee Star Staff

Metro Nashville’s “Director of Law Jon Cooper has found that Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall would not be bound by the council’s ordinance prohibiting him from cooperating with federal authorities on immigration,” Nick Beres reported early Tuesday morning at NewsChannel 5: An opinion from Metro’s legal director has found that the proposed immigration ordinance in Nashville is not enforceable. . . Metro’s Director of Law Jon Cooper has found that Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall would not be bound by the council’s ordinance prohibiting him from cooperating with federal authorities on immigration. Not only that, Cooper found that the ordinance would not be enforceable because it violates the Metro Charter. “Sheriff Hall has said all along he would not honor the ordinance because it’s a public safety issue,” NewsChannel 5 reported:   “To ask me to ignore everything with immigration is to let that person go who is a serious criminal local violator or federal immigration violator,” Hall said. Hall also said he didn’t believe the council had the authority to tell him how to do his job, and the city attorney agreed. This legal opinion from the city’s own attorney could kill or possibly delay the final vote on…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Lee: ‘Creating a Sanctuary City in Nashville Puts Our Entire State At Risk’

Tennessee Star Staff

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee released a statement Monday evening offering “Comments on Tennessee House Member’s Statement on Nashville City Council Sanctuary City Proposal.” On Monday afternoon, the office of State Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) released a statement prepared by Matheny, State Rep. Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesoboro) and State Rep. Sheila Butt (R-Columbia) and signed by 63 Republican members of the Tennessee House of Representatives imploring members of the Metro Nashville City Council to reject a proposed sanctuary city ordinance. “I am 100% opposed to ‘sanctuary cities.’ Creating a ‘sanctuary city’ in Nashville puts our entire state at risk and as Governor, I would use every tool at my disposal to halt the adoption of these types of policies,” Lee said in the statement. “We are a welcoming and compassionate state. Tennesseans want to ensure those who come here do so legally and safely. A ‘sanctuary city’ policy ensures the opposite,” Lee concluded in his statement.

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OFF THE RECORD: Commenter Nails Gubernatorial Candidate ‘La Raza Randy’

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

  Tennessee Star readers are the bomb when it comes to creative, but fact-anchored monikers for Tennessee’s public figures. Yesterday’s story about gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd and his quarter of a million dollar donation to a Nashville La Raza affiliate while still not dissing Metro Nashville for wanting to formally become the MOST LIBERAL SANCTUARY CITY IN THE U.S., seems to have inspired a Tennessee Star reader to comment on our story Monday, “Gubernatorial Candidate Randy Boyd Donated $250,000 to La Raza Affiliate And Has Not Renounced Nashville Sanctuary City Ordinance,” that “La Raza Randy . . . shows his real colors.” So now, “La Raza Randy” joins “Boss Doss” in our list of favorite fact-anchored monikers, because public figures aren’t entitled to be insulated from ridicule for the decisions they may ultimately wish they hadn’t made. The Tennessee Star is in the business of reporting FACTS. Unfortunately, we can’t help it if the FACTS show that when Boyd made his $250,000 donation, “the single largest individual gift” to the coffers of a named La Raza affiliate the founder and director of the Nashville organization was also already…. the Chairman of the Board of….La Raza! “La Raza Randy”? Sort of rolls off your tongue.  

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FACT’S David Fowler: Supreme Court Trampled States’ Rights In Ruling Creating Birth Certificate Rights For Same-Sex Couples

Wendy Wilson
U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Arkansas must put the names of same-sex couples on children’s birth certificates, a decision David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, said reflects the high court “again eroding the rights of the states.” Justice Neil Gorsuch dissented in an opinion joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The decision reversed an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that upheld a state law defining the other spouse as the woman’s husband and presumed father. Alabama’s highest court had said “it does not violate equal protection to acknowledge basic biological truths.” The plaintiffs in the case before the U.S. Supreme Court were two married lesbian couples who had children through anonymous sperm donation. One woman in each couple gave birth and wanted her partner to be listed as her spouse, but the state would only issue certificates with the birth mother’s name. The presumption of motherhood for lesbian partners is “irrational, illogical and impossible,” Fowler told The Tennessee Star. Fowler said that when the high court moved to “deconstruct marriage” in a 2015 ruling that struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, it “started the process of deconstructing the family as a whole.” Birth…

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Commentary: DHS Grant of Half-Million Dollars To Masjid Muhammad A Mistake

Tennessee Star Staff

  by ConservativeHQ.com Staff During the Obama years the Department of Homeland Security and other domestic security agencies, such as the FBI, were scrubbed of any mention of Islam as the driving force behind terrorism. This led to the bizarre situation where jihadi organizations and Muslims with clear ties to terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood being embraced by Obama as part of his “Countering Violent Extremism” or CVE project. This would be the same project that sought to whitewash Muslim terrorism and Islam’s violent precepts, while painting right-to-life advocates, patriotic veterans and limited government constitutional conservatives as potential terrorists. The Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly have made some progress in dismantling that nonsense, but remnants of it persist, especially in the federal grants to community organizations to fight against recruitment of Americans to terrorist groups. Recently, the Department handed out 26 different grants and as our friend Tim Brown at Freedomoutpost.com pointed out, among those was none other than Masjid Muhammad, Inc., which received $531,195. Masjid Muhammad of Atlantic City Located in Atlantic City, the organization offers prayer services, Islamic studies classes, online classes and other services to the Muslim community.…

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Speaker Beth Harwell Keynote Speaker at Grainger County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner

Laura Baigert
Tennessee Star

RUTLEDGE, Tennessee – The Grainger County Republican Party had an impressive turnout of about 150 people at their Lincoln Day Dinner on Saturday, June 24 held in the nicely decorated Grainger County High School cafeteria, that featured Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) as the keynote speaker. Harwell was introduced by Sen. Frank Nicely (R-Strawberry Plains) during the Legislative Welcome by him and Rep. Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station).  Nicely’s comments were limited to “making everyone mad” as he put it, by saying that if she decides to run, he would be supporting Beth Harwell for governor. Speaker Harwell spoke on the three pillars of the Republican Party:  That Government is best which lives within its means; that government is best which governs least; and, that government is best which is closest to the people.  While she provided examples of where she thinks Tennessee has succeeded in those areas, the politically engaged would have plenty of material to critique in terms of Harwell omitting the recent fuel tax and fee increases of the IMPROVE Act, the backstory as to who supported or tried to subvert the legislative advances she cited, and how much work remains to fully live up to the three pillars. The agenda also…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Randy Boyd Is High Bidder For Custom Chair He Says He Will Put In The Governor’s Office

Laura Baigert

RUTLEDGE, Tennessee – Rep. Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station), owner of upholstered furniture company Sexton Furniture Manufacturing, donated a striking, custom-made chair embroidered with the Republican party elephant mascot and the words “Grainger County Republicans … Always Right” as a fund raiser for the Grainger County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner held Saturday evening. The chair was one of about two dozen items donated for the auction, intended as fund raisers for the local Republican party. The chair was the final auction item and garnered the greatest haul, with a high bid of $625 by gubernatorial candidate, Randy Boyd. When the bidding was done and as attendees slowly made their way out the doors, Boyd graciously posed for pictures. Predicting the outcomes of both the August 2018 Republican primary and the November 2018 general election, Boyd told Sexton he wanted to have the chair for the governor’s office.  

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Another Loony Liberal: Cy Vance, Manhattan DA, Says Concealed Carry Reciprocity Bill Is Supported by ISIS

Tennessee Star Staff

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance says the congressional bill requiring states to recognize out-of-state concealed carry permits plays into the hands of deadly terrorists. “This bill is supported, I am sure, by ISIS,” Mr. Vance said of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act during a radio interview with John Catsimatidis, the New York Post reported. Mr. Vance…

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Rally to Stop Metro Nashville Sanctuary City Ordinance Planned for July 6, Day of Scheduled Final Vote

Tennessee Star Staff

Organizers of a rally planned to stop the proposed sanctuary city ordinance tell The Tennessee Star the event will be held outside Metro Nashville Council’s chambers in front of the Metro Nashville Courthouse at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Union Street in downtown Nashville at 4:30 pm on Thursday, July 6. The rally will start an hour and a half before the Metro Nashville Council meeting begins where the vote on the third and final reading of the controversial sanctuary city ordinance is scheduled to be held. After the rally, attendees will go inside the Courthouse for the Council meeting in anticipation of the vote on the third reading. T-shirts saying “Keep Nashville Safe. Just Vote No,” will be available at the rally. As The Star reported, the Metro Nashville Council voted 25 to 8 in favor of the proposed ordinance at a second reading held at its June 20th meeting. On Monday, organizers formed a 501 (c) 4 non-profit organization, Tying Nashville Together, Inc., whose sole purpose will be to stop the sanctuary city bill. A website and Facebook page will be up soon, organizers tell The Star. Founding board members will be announced later this week. On…

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