The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is calling President Trump’s decision to phase out DACA “cruel and reckless,” but supporters are praising the move. The Trump Administration announced Tuesday morning that DACA recipients will lose their protected status starting in March unless Congress acts. “Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security explaining that DACA was not statutorily authorized and was therefore an unconstitutional exercise of discretion by the executive branch,” said a White House news release. The decision is being cheered by Americans who want tougher immigration enforcement, but activist groups like TIRRC are outraged. DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, is a program that was started by former President Obama through an executive order. It offers young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children a chance to obtain temporary permission to live and work in the U.S. “Over the past five years, the DACA program has been a lifeline for more than 8,300 Tennesseans, providing a sense of security and a chance to dream and invest in their future here,” said TIRRC in an online letter to supporters. “Caving to the demands of extremist attorneys general and white supremacists in…
Read the full storyDay: September 5, 2017
Vols Beat Georgia Tech in Double Overtime, 42 to 41
ATLANTA — No. 25 Tennessee converted two turnovers into touchdowns and overcame a 14-point second-half deficit to defeat Georgia Tech 42-41 in double overtime Monday night in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Tennessee (1-0) was led by running back John Kelly, who ran 19 times for 128 yards and four touchdowns. Quarterback Quinten Dormady…
Read the full storySumner County Commission Approves Zoning Change to Accommodate Developer, Despite Citizen Opposition
GALLATIN, Tennessee – With dozens of citizens in attendance opposing the Westbrook development, the Sumner County Commission, by a margin of 19 to 4, voted to approve a zoning change for property on Long Hollow Pike from R1A to Planned Unit Development (PUD)-medium density to accommodate developer TN Homesites. The four Commissioners who voted against the zoning change were Moe Taylor and Mike Akins (District 1), Kevin Pomeroy (District 6) and Merroll Hyde (District 8). Commissioner Jim Vaughn (District 6) was absent, but voted against it previously at the Legislative Committee meeting of July 10. The rezoning to PUD-medium density will permit the Westbrook development site-specific plan to include 99 homes on the 45.34 acres that would have otherwise been limited to 49 homes under the R1A zoning, which requires 0.92 acres as a minimum lot size. Meetings on the topic have been ongoing for months, and there has been consistent, ongoing and significant opposition from concerned citizens in the area who have organized as Protect Historic Shackle Island with a Facebook page that is currently up to 1,025 members. At last Monday’s County Commission meeting, dozens were in attendance and 13 citizens spoke on the issue, 12 of…
Read the full storyMiranda Lambert, Keith Urban Score Big in CMA Awards Nominations
The 50th Annual CMA Awards – Show Labor Day got off to a great start for Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Keith Urban and other stars with news that they had been nominated for multiple Country Music Assn. Awards nominations. Miranda, who is already the most awarded female in CMA history with 12 wins, leads this…
Read the full storyTrump Administration Wants to Tie Harvey Relief Money to Debt Ceiling
The Trump administration signaled Sunday it wants to attach funding for the Hurricane Harvey recovery to a bill to lift the debt ceiling, putting it at odds with House conservatives who specifically warned GOP leaders not to do that. The White House is requesting nearly $8 billion as a down payment on federal assistance for flood-ravaged…
Read the full storyDonald Trump to Pressure Senate Democrats on Tax Reform
President Trump will be putting intense pressure on Senate Democrats in states that he won in November, demanding that they get on board for tax reform, according to sources involved in the White House plan to tap into widespread support for tax relief in Trump country. It’s part of a more aggressive White House offensive to…
Read the full storyCommentary: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is Buying Access to the Trump Administration by Hiring Former RNC Chief of Staf
by ConservativeHQ.com Staff Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Sara Armstrong is leaving the party’s top staff position to become a senior official with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. In a news release Thursday, the powerful business organization announced that Armstrong had been hired as vice president for political affairs and federal relations. Before serving as RNC chief of staff, Armstrong headed President Donald Trump’s inauguration and was vice president of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. She worked for the RNC since 2009, including as deputy chief of staff. Just in case you mistake the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for your local Chamber of Commerce that promotes the Mom and Pop businesses on Main Street in your home town, let us disabuse you of that notion. The establishment media tends to class the US Chamber of Commerce as a “conservative” organization and assume – wrongly – that its lobbying efforts advance conservative and Republican interests, but nothing could be further from the truth. The US Chamber of Commerce, and particularly its president, Thomas J. Donohue, represents the toxic alliance of Big Government and Big Business that we commonly refer to as the Wall Street – Washington…
Read the full storyTreasury Secretary Mnuchin: ‘Sanctions Package’ Coming Against North Korea’s Enablers
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he has begun drafting a “sanctions package” to send to President Donald Trump for “his strong consideration” that would punish any country that conducts business with North Korea amid escalating global tensions during an interview Sunday on Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday.” Mnuchin spoke the same day that North Korea…
Read the full storyMilitary Strike on North Korea One U.S. Option After Hydrogen Bomb Test
The Trump administration was weighing all options Sunday night, including a retaliatory military strike, in response to North Korea’s test of a powerful hydrogen bomb that Pyongyang claimed could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. The massive underground explosion early Sunday in a bunker south of North Korea’s border…
Read the full storyConstitution Series: The Preamble and Its Author, Gouverneur Morris
This is the eighteenth 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 from 9 a.m. to noon at Sycamore High School, 1021 Old Clarksville Pike, Pleasant View, Tennessee. The first fifty-three words of the Constitution – the Preamble – lay out The Who, the Why, the What, and the How of the 4,000 plus words that followed in the document it introduced: WHO: We the People of the United States, WHY: In order to form a more perfect union, WHAT: – establish Justice, – insure domestic Tranquility, – provide for the common defence, – promote the general welfare, – and secure the Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity, HOW: do hereby ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Black’s Law Dictionary defines a Preamble as “An introductory statement in a constitution, statute, or other document explaining the document’s basis and objective; esp., a statutory recital of the inconveniences for which the statute is designed to provide a remedy.” As noted earlier in this Constitution Series, the United States Constitution written by the fifty-five delegates to the…
Read the full storyTeach For America Says Their ‘DACAmented’ Trainees Can Tell Tennessee Students About Living Illegally in U.S.
Teach For America (TFA) is “actively recruit[ing]” illegal aliens who have been granted temporary deportation through the unconstitutional DACA program. After one month of TFA summer training the “DACAmented teacher” can be placed in a Tennessee public school. Over one hundred “DACAmented” trainees are currently teaching in schools around the U.S. to date, and TFA is actively working to find more schools that are willing to employ illegal aliens who were given temporary work permits. In 2006, Memphis began partnering with TFA and three years later, Metro Nashville Public Schools followed. In 2014, the Islamic Center of Nashville whose president Rashed Fakhruddin helps train Metro middle and high school teachers, hosted TFA recruits at the mosque. Passionate about supporting the “DREAM Act” and educating “undocumented students,” TFA tells its DACAmented recruits that a personal story of living in the U.S. illegally can influence students : Picture standing in front of a classroom, having grown up undocumented. Imagine having the opportunity to share your story from fearing deportation to the day you graduated from college, and what it was like to get admitted to Teach For America. Think about the impact your story could have on your students, both those born in…
Read the full storyFaith: Verse of the Day for Tuesday, September 5
VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing September 5, Tuesday Matthew 6:26-27 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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