Day: August 2, 2017

Gannett Announces More Layoffs With Closure of Nashville Design Studio At The Tennessean

Wendy Wilson

Gannett on Tuesday announced plans to shut down its Nashville Design Studio housed at The Tennessean, a closure that will affect up to 88 jobs. The design work will now be done in Des Moines, Iowa; Louisville, Kentucky; and Phoenix, Arizona. The transition is set to be complete Oct. 1. There will be some opportunities for Nashville employees to work remotely, but Gannett did not say how many employees would have that chance. The Tennessean has been planning to relocate its offices and recently selected a buyer for its property in downtown Nashville. Laura Hollingsworth, the publication’s president, told Nashville Business Journal  it is too early to say how the closure of the design studio will affect moving plans, which are still in the early stages. Last year, Hollingsworth said The Tennesseean would need room for 291 employees wherever it finds a new home. The Nashville Design Studio has handled design and page editing for various Gannett publications in Tennessee and around the country. Gannett owns a number of newspapers in Tennessee in addition to The Tennesseean. They include the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Jackson Sun, the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro and the Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville,…

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Federal Judge Blocks Pro-Life Laws In Arkansas

Wendy Wilson
Fetus on Health

A federal judge last week blocked four new pro-life laws from taking effect in Arkansas. U.S. District Court Judge Kristine Baker of the Eastern District of Arkansas is considered an activist judge by the group National Right to Life. Leslie Rutledge, the state’s attorney general, has said she plans to appeal Baker’s ruling, reports the Associated Press. Three of the new restrictions were set to go into effect Tuesday before being blocked late Friday night by Baker’s preliminary injunction. The laws were challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of a Little Rock abortion provider. Among the new laws is the state’s Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act. Seven states– Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas–currently forbid dismemberment abortion. The procedure involves using “sharp metal clamps and scissors to crush, tear and pulverize living unborn human beings, to rip heads and legs off of tiny torsos until the defenseless child bleeds to death,” according to news editor Dave Andrusko of National Right to Life in a report for National Right to Life News Today. Another law imposes new restrictions on the disposal of the remains of aborted babies, and another…

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BREAKING: Diane Black Enters Race for Governor

Tennessee Star Staff

Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) has entered the race for the Republican nomination for governor of Tennessee. Black posted the announcement that she is a candidate for the office on her Facebook page at about 3 a. m. on Wednesday morning. You can see the video of her announcement here.   Black becomes the fifth major announced candidate for governor seeking the Republican nomination in 2018. The other candidates include Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd, Williamson County businessman Bill Lee, State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) and Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell (R-Nashville). Former Nashville mayor Karl Dean is the only announced candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor so far. With her significant financial resources, Black immediately joins the front of the pack. “Diane Black’s entry into the Governor’s race is certainly not a surprise, although the timing and method of announcement is intriguing. The already crowded geography in Middle Tennessee now has four players while Randy Boyd has the Eastern third of the state to himself and West Tennessee is wide open. Although geographic considerations may not be as strong as in decades past, the relationships that each candidate brings from their home area is a factor,” media…

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Commentary: Will Diane Black Go Along With McConnell Again to Raise the Debt Ceiling?

Chris Alto

In 2011, Rep. Diane Black voted for the “Budget Control Act of 2011” which automatically increased the debt ceiling by $400 billion to $14.694 trillion and subsequently increased it by another $1.2 trillion via the “McConnell Mechanism.” This provision introduced by Sen. Mitch McConnell allowed Obama to request debt increases which could only be blocked by a joint resolution of disapproval passed by Congress. Any resolution, if passed, was still subject to the President’s veto which could only be over-riden by a two-thirds vote by Congress. Twice the Senate failed to block the debt increases allowed by the “McConnell Mechanism” which reportedly was intended to make Obama responsible for the debt limit increase. Intentionally or not though, it also effectively and unconstitutionally allowed the President to exercise the exclusive power of Congress under Article I, section 8, “to borrow money on the credit of the United States.” Now as Senate Majority Leader, McConnell is looking to raise the debt ceiling again. With regard to “Spending Cuts and Debt” Black’s website, which doesn’t seem to have been updated since President Trump was elected, states: In Congress, I have voted against every blank check to raise the federal debt ceiling. A decision to…

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Alabama GOP Senate Candidate Roy Moore Slammed by CAIR For Calling Islam a ‘False Religion’

Wendy Wilson

  A Muslim group has criticized former Alabama Supreme Court Justice and current U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore for calling Islam a “false religion.” Moore expressed his views on Islam in response to a question at a July 24 meeting of the North Jefferson County Republican Club. The question was about sharia law and whether it could become enacted in the U.S. “False religions like Islam, who teach that ‘you must worship this way,’ are completely opposite with what our First Amendment stands for,” Moore told the Republican group at Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ in Gardendale, according to AL.com. The Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Moore’s comments were “un-American.” The group also invited Moore to visit a mosque. Khaula Hadeed, executive director of CAIR-Alabama, released a statement in which she cited a verse from the Koran that she said called on Muslims to respond to harmful acts with kindness. “Statements that espouse Islamophobia and cast out fellow Alabamians, implying that they do not have the same rights under the law, are unAmerican,” she said. “We invite Judge Roy Moore to visit a mosque, meet with Alabamian Muslims, and learn about their Islamic faith and about the Muslim…

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CAIR Demands Firing of Alabama McDonald’s Staff for Allegedly Putting Bacon in Chicken Sandwiches to Offend Muslims

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  The Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on a McDonald’s restaurant in Decatur to identify and fire the employee or employees who the group says put small pieces of bacon in chicken sandwiches ordered by a Muslim family. The restaurant denies any intentional wrongdoing. Islam prohibits Muslims from consuming pork products. CAIR-Alabama insists that what it says happened Monday was a case of intentional bigotry against Muslims and is demanding that the fast food chain provide surveillance video of the alleged incident. “Based on the evidence in this incident, as well as the unprecedented spike in anti-Muslim bigotry nationwide, we believe this was an intentional act of religious and ethnic bigotry,” Khaula Hadeed, executive director of CAIR-Alabama, said in a press release Tuesday. “McDonald’s should investigate this incident, identify and terminate the employees responsible, and take proactive steps to satisfy this American family’s concerns, starting with an apology.” Rick Walter, a McDonald’s owner operator in Decatur, issued a statement refuting CAIR’s claim. “We want to assure our customers that this was not an intentional act by our employees,” he said, according to The Decatur Daily. “We value every customer and strive to ensure all orders…

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Retired Generals, Admirals Thank President Trump for Banning Transgender Troops

Tennessee Star Staff

More than a dozen retired generals and admirals have signed a letter to President Trump thanking him for his announced policy to ban transgender people from the armed forces. “We write today to express our gratitude to you for making the extremely courageous decision to reverse President [Barack] Obama’s transgender social experiment,” the conservative retired flag…

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Tennessee Businesses Step Up Efforts To Be LGBT-Friendly

Wendy Wilson

  Tennessee businesses and corporations are yielding to pressure from LGBT activists to promote LGBT ideology in the workplace in the name of diversity. Nissan is now offering benefits to help transgender employees transition, and even Cracker Barrel is pro-actively seeking approval and recognition from the LGBT community. Cracker Barrel had a booth at Nashville’s gay pride festival in June next to which it set up its trademark rocking chairs for festival-goers to kick back and relax. The push is well under way despite Tennessee being a red state where conservatism is influenced by Christian faith, and where voters overwhelmingly helped put President Trump in office. Trump recently announced that he would restore a ban on transgender troops in the military that had been undone by former President Obama, who not only wanted to welcome openly transgender troops but help them with the medical costs of transitioning. In the private sector, special medical benefits for transgender individuals have also become an issue. Nissan North America, based in Franklin, has added benefits to cover sex reassignments, according to the Nashville Business Journal. Covered costs include those associated with treatments, surgeries and other medical procedures. Last year, Nissan worked with the Human Rights Campaign, the…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Wednesday, August 2

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing August 2, Wednesday Proverbs 29:20 Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. James 1:22-25 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

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