Day: September 6, 2017

Former Democratic Tennessee State Legislator Sentenced For Leading Ponzi Scheme

Wendy Wilson

A former Democratic Tennessee state lawmaker from Martin was sentenced this week to more than 21 years in federal prison for leading an elaborate Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 400 people, reports the Associated Press. Larry Bates was sentenced Tuesday in Memphis, where he was also ordered to repay more than $21 million to victims. Bates ran the multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme from 2002 through 2013, during which time he pitched gold and silver coins to listeners of Christian radio and TV programs. He said the coins would offer financial protection during a religious and economic collapse he said was coming. Bates, 73, served in the state House from 1971 to 1976, representing northwest Tennessee counties. His two sons and his daughter-in-law were also convicted in May for their part in the scheme. One of his sons, Chuck Bates, was sentenced Tuesday in a separate hearing. Chuck Bates was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison and ordered to pay $19.6 million in restitution, reports the Memphis Daily News.  Working through the First American Monetary Consultants, with offices in Memphis and Boulder, Colorado, the Bates family recruited customers from across the country. Many were elderly Americans. By 2009, the company…

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Chicago Mayor Declares Public Schools ‘Trump Free Zones’

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Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel declared Chicago public schools as “Trump free zones” in an effort to reassure illegal immigrant students Tuesday morning. Emanuel told high school freshmen that they shouldn’t worry about anything in light of the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. “Chicago, our…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Mae Beavers Raises Questions About Legalizing Medical Marijuana in Tennessee

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

  Last month, Republican House Speaker and candidate for Governor Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) announced her support for consideration of legalizing marijuana for some medicinal uses in Tennessee. Now, she and Lt. Governor Randy McNally have established a legislative committee to study and report on the subject. The Joint Ad Hoc Committee on Medical Cannabis is “authorized and directed to study, evaluate, analyze and undertake a comprehensive review regarding whether the legalization of cannabis for medicinal purposes is in the best interest of the state.” The committee will be chaired by Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, and Rep. Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby. It also will include Reps. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia; Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville; Sam Whitson, R-Franklin; Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis; and Sens. Richard Briggs, R-Knoxville; Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City; Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald; and Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville. Rep. Faison has said that he expects the medical marijuana issue to be among the top 5 issues on voters minds in the 2018 race for Governor. “Obviously we see jobs and infrastructure as probably going to be number one, and abortion and gun rights are way up there when it comes to Republican values,” Faison said. “I do see a lot of sick people making this issue…

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Memphis Fast Food Workers Rally For $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage

Wendy Wilson

  Some fast food restaurant workers in Memphis walked out Monday to call for raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, reports WREG News Channel 3. Similar Labor Day protests were held across the country. The current federal minimum wage is $7.25. In Tennessee, the state minimum wage is the same as the current federal minimum wage. In Memphis, a group in front of the McDonald’s on Poplar Avenue waved signs at 6 a.m. reading, “Show me $15 & a union” and “#Fightfor15.” There group included workers from McDonald’s, KFC, Wendy’s and Church’s Chicken. The Memphis workers were joined by local Black Lives Matter activists, representatives with Workers Interfaith Network, IBEW and the Copper Coalition, and state Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis). The group later moved to the Taco Bell at Poplar and Belvedere, and then up Evergreen to Trinity United Methodist Church, which was hosting a picnic. #WeShutItDown #FightFor15 #UnionStrong pic.twitter.com/Ewp9YXabv6 — Show Me $15 (@Show_Me15) September 5, 2017 “Memphis workers in the Fight for $15 stressed their demand not just for $15 an hour, but for union rights in order to fix the economic and political systems in the U.S. that are rigged to benefit big corporations over working…

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Susan Gingrich Commentary: The Country Never Imagined

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Tennessee Star

by Susan Gingrich   My husband Jim and I were among the more than one million conservatives who marched to the US Capitol on September 12, 2009. We peacefully gathered in protest of President Obama’s attempts to move our country towards socialism, especially by changing the health care system. It was a wonderful event with great speakers, patriotic music, and many new friendships made that day with people across the country. We left united and determined to act as patriots to preserve the America we loved. I remember a few counter-protesters, but they were peaceful protesters who behaved respectfully. We could never have imagined the harm to our country by one president and complicit leaders, including many republicans in congress. There was not a day that many others and I weren’t sorry Obama was our president, but he was elected twice to be our leader. Obama made political correctness and his authority all powerful, discarding our Constitution, laws, states’ rights, and American values. I believe political correctness has become evil, destructive, and the opposite of commonsense. President Obama was a divisive president who never attempted to unify the country. By championing the rights of minorities and fringe groups, he deprived…

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Linkedin Founder Takes Aim At Trump With ‘Hundreds of Millions’ In Expected Political Donations

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman is wielding his considerable wealth to combat the Trump administration by donating what could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars to different liberal candidates and causes. Hoffman described the motivations behind his rampant political activism in an interview with Recode published Tuesday. “I got past my dismay in November, and in…

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Commentary: Donald Trump Schools Barack Obama on U.S. Constitution

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Everyone knows that former President Barack Obama, our Great American Constitutional Law Professor, got mercilessly schooled by the Supreme Court during his eight years in office. Now he is getting schooled by a brash-talking, orange-haired reality-TV star and real-estate developer from Queens. I mean, this is humiliating. And so delicious to watch! President Trump never took…

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Wake Forest University Pledges To Keep Giving Financial Aid To Illegal Immigrant Students

Tennessee Star Staff

Wake Forest University promised in a Monday statement to continue giving financial aid to illegal immigrant students. The university offered counseling services and safe spaces in the letter sent in preparation for President Donald Trump’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which enables some illegal immigrants that entered the U.S. as minors…

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Sen. Tom Cotton: Six-Month Delay on DACA Prevents Pro-Amnesty ‘Stampede in Congress’

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) urged GOP lawmakers tempted to support amnesty for illegal immigrants to “think about why [President] Donald Trump won the nomination and then won the election,” during an interview Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show.” Cotton, an immigration hawk who co-sponsored the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act earlier this year,…

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The NFL Season Kicks Off on Thursday: Here’s a Preview

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  Football season has finally arrived, and this year promises to be a great one! That means the next five months will be packed with the sizzle and suspense that comes only with the National Football League and will culminate with Super Bowl LII, which will be played on Sunday, February 4, 2018 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minnesota. Another cold weather Super Bowl this year, but at least it will be indoors this time. Here’s a quick round-up of what’s coming up on the gridiron… MARK YOUR CALENDARS for Thursday night (NBC, 8:30 PM ET) is the first game of NFL Kickoff 2017 Weekend. The opener features the Super Bowl champion NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS hosting the KANSAS CITY CHIEFS. Last year, 146 games (57.0 percent) were decided by one score (eight points or fewer), the most of any season in NFL history. And there were six new playoff teams in 2016: Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Miami, the New York Giants and Oakland. Since the 12-team playoff format was adopted in 1990, at least four teams have qualified for the playoffs in every season that were not in the postseason the year before. The 2017 season promises more of the same. 2017 comes packed with changes, quests and…

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Hundreds in Nashville Protest President Trump’s Constitutional Decision to End DACA

Wendy Wilson

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Several hundred protesters marched along West End Avenue in Nashville late Tuesday afternoon to denounce President’s Trump decision to end DACA. “Up, up with liberation. Down, down with deportation,” chanted the marchers, as similar protests took place across the country. Meanwhile, Trump supporters who want tougher immigration enforcement and adherence to the Constitution praised the president for following through on a campaign promise. The Trump administration announced early Tuesday that it would phase out DACA, which offers young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and meet certain criteria the opportunity to obtain temporary permission to live and work in the U.S. Many recipients are now young adults. Former President Obama started the program in 2012 through an executive order, which critics called an unconstitutional exercise of power by the executive branch. Now it will be left up to Congress to decide what to do with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA recipients, known as Dreamers, will begin losing their permits in March unless Congress acts. Immigration activists are already lobbying Congress to save the program. Should Congress pass legislation to restore the DACA program before it ends six months from now,…

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