Day: July 28, 2017

Reince Priebus Out as President Trump’s Chief of Staff

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  President Trump announced via Twitter Friday afternoon that Reince Priebus is no longer his Chief of Staff, effective immediately. I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 …and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 Speculation is that a pattern of leaks combined with the second failure to pass Obamacare repeal was enough for the President to lose confidence in Priebus. Developing…

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Alexander And Corker Both Vote For Failed Obamacare “Skinny Repeal” Amendment

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

Tennessee’s Republican senators both voted early Friday for a health care bill amendment that would have repealed parts of Obamacare, though less dramatically than an amendment defeated earlier this week. The latest amendment, defeated by a 51-49 Senate vote, was dubbed “skinny repeal” and was sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The stronger amendment defeated Wednesday was sponsored by his fellow Kentucky Republican senator, Rand Paul. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who voted against Sen. Paul’s amendment because it didn’t have an immediate replacement plan, but who voted to advance Sen. McConnell’s “skinny repeal” said: I voted to take the next step toward what I believed was our best opportunity to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Senate’s failure to do this leaves an urgent problem that I am committed to addressing: Tennessee’s state insurance commissioner says our individual insurance market is very near collapse. Unless Congress acts, many of the 350,000 Tennesseans who buy health insurance in that market—songwriters, farmers, the self-employed—face the real prospect of having zero options to buy insurance in 2018 and 2019. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) said in a statement: My strong preference was for Congress to advance legislation I supported earlier this week to repeal Obamacare…

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Newt to Mooch: Slow Your Roll, Learn the Job

Christina Botteri
Tennessee Star

  Newt Gingrich leveled a heavy rebuke of the erratic and unproductively bombastic outbursts by President Trump’s new White House Communications Director Anthony “Mooch” Scaramucci Thursday, in two separate appearances with conservative talker Laura Ingraham. The first was on The Laura Ingraham Show, where he admonished the freshly-minted Communications Director to ‘learn to do the job.’ Here is a transcript of the exchange: INGRAHAM: …What do you take away from this most recent 24 hour period with Scaramucci? GINGRICH: I think that Scaramucci had better be a lot more careful than he has been. He obviously likes the lime light he obviously likes being in the media. I would say right now he is being more pugnacious than effective. He ought to slow down a little bit and learn what he is doing. I think that he things he said about Reince, if he said them, where is his proof? I mean it’s totally unhelpful having someone going around starting family fights in public and if he is going to be that divisive I’m not sure if he is going to be that useful to the president. INGRAHAM: Apparently he called into CNN and it could be the sole purpose of questioning Preibus. He…

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Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson Proposes Sales Tax Hike To Help Fund Schools

Wendy Wilson

  Williamson County is scrambling to fund its fast-growing school district, and County Mayor Rogers Anderson said this week that raising the sales tax is a way to help get the job done. Anderson made his pitch Wednesday in delivering his annual State of the County address during a Williamson, Inc. luncheon at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs hotel. Raising the sales tax is “an alternative to relying solely on the residential property tax,” Anderson said. The county’s recently approved 2017-2018 operating budget did not include a property tax increase. The student population in Williamson County has skyrocketed by 32 percent since the 2007-2008 school year. The 44 current school sites, several of which have portables, do not have the space to meet the projected growth in the next 10 years, Anderson said. Anderson said county officials have been considering various sources of revenue. Last year, the county commission approved an educational impact fee to also help pay for schools. One-half of the fee went into effect in March, with full implementation set for September. The fee is assessed only to new home construction and is projected to generate about $25 million annually for new school construction. However, it has met…

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Lindsey Graham Warns Donald Trump on Firing Jeff Sessions: ‘There Will be Holy Hell to Pay’

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Republican senators are warning that any effort to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions will be met with stiff resistance – with Sen. Lindsey Graham saying Thursday that “there will be holy hell to pay” if the attorney general is pushed out. President Trump has lashed out at Mr. Sessions repeatedly in recent days, saying he’s disappointed…

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With Some Gains, Tennessee Schools Still Struggle To Meet Goals Of Tennessee Succeeds

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Education commissioner Candice McQueen on Thursday outlined progress K-12 public schools have made toward meeting the goals of Tennessee Succeeds. McQueen spoke at the annual joint meeting of the State Board of Education and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission held in downtown Nashville. The Tennessee Succeeds plan was released by the Tennessee Department of Education in 2015 and includes goals, priorities and strategies on improving student performance. While the state has made some progress in reaching its four main goals, Tennessee still lags behind in critical areas, especially in literacy. Only 43 percent of Tennessee third graders are proficient in reading. Here is a summary of the goals and current status: Goal 1 – Tennessee will rank in the top half of all states on NAEP by 2019. Tennessee currently ranks in the top half of states for only three of six NAEP tests. NAEP stands for National Assessment of Educational Progress and is known as the Nation’s Report Card. It measures what students know and can do in various subject areas, including math, reading and science, among other subjects. Begun in 1969, NAEP assessments are given periodically. Tennessee has participated since 1992. Tennessee has been the fastest-improving…

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FBI Seized Smashed Hard Drives From Wasserman Schultz IT Aide’s Home

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Computer dump

FBI agents seized smashed computer hard drives from the home of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s information technology administrator, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. Pakistani-born Imran Awan, longtime right-hand IT aide to the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, has since desperately tried to get the hard drives back, an individual whom…

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Nashville Chamber of Commerce and NAE Support for Low-Skill Immigrant Labor Undermines Mayor Barry’s Office of Resilience And Its Goal of ‘Economic Inclusion’

Chris Alto
Tennessee Star

  Mayor Megan Barry’s Office of Resilience has singled out “economic inclusion and equity” as the key to building “urban resilience,” but support from the Nashville Chamber of Commerce and the New American Economy for legal and illegal immigration complicates achieving the mayor’s goals. According to Metro Nashville Social Services’ 2016 Community Needs Evaluation report, “the poverty rate in Davidson County remains higher than Tennessee and the U.S.” Low wages, educational attainment, unaffordable housing and wage gaps are among the reasons cited for the pervasive and continuing high rate of poverty. Low wage work is equated with earning the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25 used by Tennessee. According to the 2016 Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1.8% of  Tennessee’s 67,000 low wage workers are paid the minimum wage, while 2.1% earn below the minimum wage.   Nashville Workers Dignity organized in 2010 to represent “wage theft” from low wage immigrant hotel cleaners and have expanded their campaign to include construction workers. Low wage hotel workers are bootstrapping their demands for “economic justice” defined as “a minimum wage of $15 an hour, paid sick days and maternity time, and more than anything else, respect for hotel and cleaning workers,” to the explosive growth…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Friday, July 28

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing July 28, Thursday Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. Romans 10:10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

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