Day: August 14, 2017

Beth Harwell, Now Having A Family Member Using It, Is Open To And Looking At Medical Marijuana

Laura Baigert

  Gubernatorial candidate and Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) said at a gathering earlier in the month that after her sister sustained an injury, she has personal interest in the issue of medical marijuana. Regarding the task force she formed earlier in the year on the issue, she said, “We’re open to that, we’re looking at that.” According to an Associated Press report picked up by Connecticut-based The New Haven Register, Harwell relayed her personal story of how her sister broke her back and was prescribed opioids for the pain. The injury to her sister is the reason Harwell cited in a letter to the Rutherford County Republican Party explaining why she was unable to attend the Reagan Day dinner in May. Harwell recalled to the group that her sister, who had been prescribed opioids for her pain, “had no doubt” in her mind that if she were to “continue this opioid regimen, I will become addicted to opioids.” With Harwell’s sister living in Colorado where marijuana has been legalized, she used some for four or five days until she felt better after the initial doses of opioids, which she wanted to stop taking. The opioid crisis in Tennessee…

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Nashville Metro Council Candidate Antoinette Lee Supported By Tennessee Education Association

Wendy Wilson

  Nashville Metro Council candidate Antoinette Lee publicly thanked the Tennessee Education Association teachers union Sunday for creating a mailer for her campaign. “I want to thank the political arm of TEA (the teachers’ Union) for doing my mailer,” she wrote on her Facebook campaign page. “I think they did a good job. Unions are the backbone that made our county great and supported our workers.” Lee works as a field organizer for the TEA, making it no surprise that she has the union’s strong support. The TEA is the state affiliate of the National Education Association. Lee is one of five candidates in Tuesday’s special election to fill the District 33 seat, left vacant when Councilman Sam Coleman was sworn in as a Nashville judge to replace former Judge Casey Moreland, who resigned amid a corruption scandal. District 33 covers part of Antioch. Early voting was held July 26 through Aug. 10. Lee also has the endorsement of the AFL-CIO’s Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. The National Education Association teachers union has long been controversial among conservatives because of its advocacy for liberal politics. The union endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in the last election cycle as the primary season got under way…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Lee: ‘I Would Be a Strong Advocate for School Choice’

Tennessee Star Staff

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee announced his support for school choice and charter schools during a Facebook Live interview with the Beacon Center in Nashville on Thursday. The Williamson County businessman has made education one of the key themes of his campaign. Justin Owen, President of the Beacon Center, interviewed Bill Lee one-on-one at the Beacon Center’s studios in Nashville on Thursday for about 13 minutes. It was the first of a series of Facebook Live interviews the Beacon Center plans to conduct with every major candidate for governor in Tennessee. Lee responded to a question posed by Jacob from Nolensville, relayed to him by Owen. “What will you do, if anything, to expand K-12 school choice to get at those education reforms?” Owen asked of Lee. “I had children that were home schooled, and were educated in private school, and were educated in public school. The reason that we had different kids educated different ways in my family is that I really do believe fundamentally that how my children are educated and where they are educated those decisions are best made at home, so parents need choices and they need options,” Lee said. “So I would be a strong…

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Justice Dept. Opens Civil Rights Investigation of Charlottesville Death

Tennessee Star Staff

The Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances under which a vehicle plowed into a crowd of people protesting a white nationalist rally held Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia. A 32-year-old woman was killed and at least nine others injured when a car barreled down a street crowded with pedestrians. Charlottesville police identified…

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Mike Pompeo, CIA Director, Says Nuclear War with North Korea Is Not ‘Imminent’

Tennessee Star Staff

Despite escalating tensions with North Korea, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Sunday that nuclear war is not “imminent.” Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Pompeo said it’s clear North Korea’s nuclear capabilities are progressing rapidly, but he downplayed any immediate risk to the United States. “Each time they test another missile, or if they should conduct…

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Mark West Commentary: Chattanooga: A Polluted City

Tennessee Star Staff

  by Mark West   I remember first moving to Chattanooga when I was 18. Excited to move south, I was eager to complete my college education and then launch out into the real world. Having grown up in Madrid, Spain, I was accustomed to pollution, given Madrid’s awful track record in the 1960’s and ’70’s. But despite this, one of the first things I noticed as I settled into my new home city in Tennessee was its own pollution. It was just a decade earlier when Chattanooga had been declared to have the worst air pollution in America, and there was no avoiding the dirt, filth and smog. But nearly forty years later, one of Chattanooga’s claim to fame is the way in which it acknowledged its worst standing in America. As the #1 polluted city, Chattanooga put a plan in place to tackle the scourge for which it had become known. Government officials, agencies, businesses, and civic leaders all came together to lead in confronting the literal cloud that hung over them. Today Chattanooga is known for its vibrant and rejuvenated downtown and is now regularly acknowledged for the beautiful city it has become. But in spite of…

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After Charlottesville Clashes Trump Says Violence ‘Must Stop Right Now’

Tennessee Star Staff

President Trump called for unity Saturday in the wake of clashes between white supremacists and counter-protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, demanding “the division must stop, and must stop right now.” “Ideally we have to love each other,” Mr. Trump said from his golf club in New Jersey, where he’s taking a working vacation, and was signing into…

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White House: U.S. ‘Stands with the People of Venezuela’

Tennessee Star Staff

President Donald Trump refused to grant Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s request for a phone call Friday and urged citizens to continue to resist the “continued oppression by the Maduro regime.” Venezuela has been the scene of many anti-government protests since February 2014 — less than a year after Maduro became president and began to undermine the…

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Constitution Series: The Ninth Amendment

Claudia Henneberry
Tennessee Star - Constitution Series

    This is the sixteenth 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 Constitution was written for one particular purpose–to limit the powers of the general, or, national, government, therein securing the blessings of liberty by protecting the individual’s natural rights.  It is simply outlined in the Preamble, drafted brilliantly by Gouverneur Morris, a native New Yorker who represented Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention, and made clear the primary purpose for the Constitution and that the people are the ones for whom and by whom it was created beginning with the revolutionary words, We the People. During the consideration of the Bill of Rights, the concern by the founders was that if they specified certain rights of the people to be guarded by the national government, what if they neglected others?  How could they be sure that all the people’s God-given rights would be protected? Among others, this was a major concern for James Wilson, a Pennsylvania Congressman who would later serve on the first Supreme Court. Supporters of the Constitution, or Federalists, such as James Wilson and…

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Congressional Candidate John Rose: ‘I Fully Support’ Governor Haslam’s Gas Tax Increase

Tennessee Star Staff

  At a February event in Smith County that featured Governor Haslam promoting his proposed gas tax increase, recently announced Sixth Congressional District candidate John Rose told the governor, “I just want to say I applaud you for making this proposal. I fully support it.” You can hear Rose make these comments to the governor beginning at the 54:16 mark (42:05 from the end) of this video tape of the event, provided courtesy of the Smith County Insider:   Here is a partial transcript of Rose’s comments from that day: Governor, I’m John Rose and I’m a businessman and farmer here in the community and have lived here for the last 42 years on the edge of Smith County line , De Kalb County, my farm is actually in De Kalb County. . . As I mentioned, I’m a businessman, and my business is in Nashville so I commute back and forth from Smith County to Nashville . . I want to just say that I applaud you for this proposal. I fully support it. I think that having users of our roads pay for our roads makes tremendous sense. You’ve laid out a very strong case for for why…

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Faith: Verse of the Day for Monday, August 14

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing August 14, Monday John 7:24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge the righteous judgment. Romans 10:12-13 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” James 2:1 My brothers and sisters, do not show prejudice if you possess faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.    

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