A new Democratic group created Tuesday plans to take back statehouses in 12 Republican-controlled states ahead of the 2020 census. Obama campaign alums created the group Forward Majority to combat Republicans in state legislatures and seek to turn both chambers of state legislatures Democratic in at least 12 targeted states by 2020, according to the group’s…
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Sixteen Republicans in the State Senate and twenty-seven in the House caved to the demands of the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) when they voted to give in-state tuition to illegal aliens with deferred deportation under DACA, or who might become eligible for DACA. DACA does not alter a grantee’s illegal immigration status. Ignoring the illegal immigration issue and offering a “soft amnesty” to DACA illegal aliens, the forty-three Republicans voting “aye” for the Gardenhire/White 2015 in-state tuition bill, also voted to violate federal and Tennessee law. These lawmakers also ignored the fact that Obama’s DACA policy was neither a statutory nor Constitutional exercise of executive authority. Republican Senators voting for the 2015 in-state tuition bill: Janice Bowling, Richard Briggs, Rusty Crowe, Steve Dickerson, Todd Gardenhire, Mark Green, Dolores Gresham, Ferrell Haile, Ed Jackson, Brian Kelsey, Becky Duncan-Massey, Randy McNally, Frank Niceley, Doug Overbey, Steve Southerland, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey. Republican House members voting for in-state tuition: Harry Brooks, Kevin Brooks, Kent Calfee, Dale Carr, Mike Carter, Bill Dunn, Jimmy Eldridge, Andrew Farmer, Marc Gravitt, Mike Harrison, Ryan Haynes, Patsy Hazlewood, Bud Hulsey, Curtis Johnson, Sabi Kumar, Pat Marsh, Gerald McCormick, Steve McDaniel, Steve McManus, Bob Ramsey,…
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VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing September 7, Thursday Luke 21:10-19 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. 12 “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me.14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me 18 “Yet not a hair of your head will perish. 19 “By your endurance you will gain your lives”
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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 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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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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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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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 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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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 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 (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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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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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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VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing September 6, Wednesday Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; ‘he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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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President Donald Trump plans to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program with a six month delay, two sources close to the situation told Politico. Trump, who promised during his campaign to end the program, plans to enact the six month delay before ending it in order to give Congress time to act on DACA…
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Like so many Americans, my heart truly goes out to the victims of Harvey, and my admiration goes out to the amazing rescuers. The scope of this disaster is unprecedented, and thankfully the outpouring of support has been overwhelming. The ordeal is hardly over for Houston and adjoining areas, with new storms like Irma barreling toward us. Watching a TV image of a displaced person resting in a shelter got me thinking. Once they have gotten the rest they need, they will then need to maintain or build their physical conditioning. I then considered how strikingly out of condition the average American is, and how it can potentially affect their survivability during a crisis, or their ability to rescue another human being. It has been good to witness the resurgence in “functional” training, led by CrossFit, Spartan Races, progressive calisthenics, heavy barbell work, and kettlebell training, among so many others. Yet there still exists a great mass of deconditioned Americans. They are unlikely to fare well in a crisis – any crisis. I say “any” for a reason: it is far more common for someone to succumb to a self-created crisis, formed by poor sleep, nutrition, exercise, and stress habits than it is…
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President Trump said Sunday on Twitter that North Korea has “become a great threat and embarrassment to China,” after the secretive totalitarian nation announced it had detonated a hydrogen bomb and declared the test “a perfect success.” It was the sixth underground bomb tested since 2006, said North Korea’s state-run TV, and it was the rogue…
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Sen. Jeff Flake says Congress should take action to protect so-called “Dreamers,” who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and whose protective status could be at risk this week, as President Trump decides whether to end the amnesty program known as DACA. Mr. Flake, Arizona Republican who has frequently criticized Mr. Trump, said ending…
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North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb for its new intercontinental ballistic missile, state media revealed in a special announcement Sunday. North Korea, having received authorization from Kim Jong-un, conducted its sixth nuclear test at noon Sunday. The reclusive regime reportedly tested a staged thermonuclear device that can be mounted on the Hwasong-14 ICBM tested twice in…
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A petition asking the White House to declare liberal bankroller George Soros a domestic terrorist has garnered over 100,000 signatures, or more than enough to necessitate a response from the Trump administration. The petition was posted on the “We the People” section of the White House website Aug. 20 and needed to crack the 100,000-signature threshold…
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The Democratic Party, unsure how best to promote itself or attack President Donald Trump, failed to put forward a unified message on new employment numbers released by the federal government Friday. “Today’s jobs report shows that President Obama’s bold policies and long-term economic investments are still paying off,” declared DNC chairman Tom Perez in an official…
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President Trump intends to nominate Richard Grenell, a former official in the George W. Bush administration, to be the U.S. ambassador to Germany, the White House said in announcing several diplomatic and federal agency appointments. If confirmed, Mr. Grenell, 50, a former spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations under Mr. Bush, would be…
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Poland’s rightwing premier said Sunday that her country would not be “blackmailed” by its “largest” EU partners into accepting thousands of asylum seekers under a quota system for spreading them throughout the bloc. “We cannot be blackmailed by the threat that part of our EU funds will be cut off as punishment, because we don’t agree…
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by ConservativeHQ.com Staff The FBI recently turned down a lawyer’s request for the release of FBI files on Hillary Clinton, faulting the lawyer’s documents for not providing enough proof “that the public interest sought is a significant one,” according to our friend Mandy Mayfield’s reporting for the Washington Examiner. Mayfield reports the FBI killed the request made by attorney Ty Clevenger, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this year to obtain information relating to the investigation into Clinton’s emails. Hillary Clinton”You have not sufficiently demonstrated that the public’s interest in disclosure outweighs personal privacy interests of the subject,” an FBI bureaucrat said to Clevenger in a letter on Monday. “It is incumbent upon the requester to provide documentation regarding the public’s interest in the operations and activities of the government before records can be processed pursuant to the FOIA.” “I’m just stunned. This is exactly what I would have expected had Clinton won the election, but she didn’t. It looks like the Obama Administration is still running the FBI,” said Clevenger. Though former FBI Director James Comey did not recommend formal charges against Clinton, Clevenger is seeking the documents, hoping to prove that she committed…
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Tennessee’s Attorney General Herbert Slatery, III, by letter dated September 1, 2017, informed Sens. Alexander and Corker that he is willing to forgo upholding the Constitution and the rule of law in favor of supporting Obama’s unilateral action that established the 2012 DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program. Slatery has elected to leave the coalition of ten state Attorneys General and the Governor of Idaho, which in a June 29, 2017 letter to U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions, requested a phase out of the 2012 DACA program because there was no statutory authority for the executive branch to unilaterally confer lawful presence and work authorization on illegal aliens. It was estimated that the 2012 DACA extended to over one million illegal aliens. The Attorneys General also requested that the memorandum and order establishing DACA be rescinded and that no new DACA permits or renewals be issued. The administration was also put on notice that the AG coalition would sue if the requested actions regarding DACA were not undertaken by September 5, 2017: This request does not require the Executive Branch to immediately rescind DACA or Expanded DACA permits that have already been issued. This request does not require the Secretary to alter the…
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Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shumur threw for 296 yards and three touchdowns as the visiting Commodores whipped Middle Tennessee State 28-6 at Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Saturday. Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb and wide receiver Kalija Lipscomb each had two touchdowns. The Commodores’ defense held a Blue Raiders’ offense that averaged 517.7 yards…
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President Trump arrived in Texas Saturday to meet with survivors of Hurricane Harvey in Houston on his second trip this week to the storm-ravaged region. Mr. Trump and first lady Melania Trump were greeted at a military reserve base by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Four Cabinet members traveled with the president, including Education Secretary Betsy DeVos…
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Outsider Roy Moore, who is favored to knock off Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) in this month’s Republican primary runoff, suggested Friday that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) should be replaced as majority leader. In an interview with LifeZette, Moore objected both to McConnell’s lack of results in passing President Donald Trump’s agenda and his attempts to prop…
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Labor Day has many meanings, but one meaning is that we must recognize the incredible effort it took to build this great country. We must remember those men and women who came before us and sacrificed for all of us on this day.
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The U.S. economy added 156,000 new jobs in August, falling just short of expectations, according to the jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday. The unemployment rate had little change, ticking up from 4.3 percent to 4.4 percent. The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 62.9 percent during President Donald Trump’s seventh…
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A federal judge in New Jersey rejected Sen. Bob Menendez’s request to allow breaks in his criminal trial in order to fulfill his Senate duties, excoriating the senator for seeking “special treatment.” Menendez’s lawyers filed a motion requesting that his upcoming criminal trial take recesses any time the senator is needed in Washington on official business.…
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Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally responded to several users that objected to his public statement supporting protections for illegal immigrants known as “Dreamers.” “I stand with the Dreamers – the young people brought to our country by their parents. Many have lived here as long as they can remember,” Zuckerberg wrote Thursday on his…
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Thousands of Dreamers have used a loophole in federal law to get on a full pathway to citizenship, top congressional Republicans revealed Friday, citing government data withheld by the Obama administration but provided by the Trump administration. The Dreamers were all part of DACA, the legally questionable amnesty program that’s under scrutiny right now as President…
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Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, tried to pressure the White House under President Barack Obama in an overbilling case that is now the centerpiece of the charges against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.). The latest in the case against Menendez, whose trial starts Wednesday, was made public in filings in federal courts. Menendez stands accused…
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Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), is among a group of evangelical leaders calling on President Trump not to deport immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children and offered a reprieve by former President Obama. President Trump will announce Tuesday what he intends to do with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. With a 2012 executive order, Obama offered young illegal immigrants who met certain criteria permission to temporarily live and work in the U.S. Those eligible for the benefits became known as “Dreamers.” Moore, who serves on the Evangelical Immigration Table, said in a statement Wednesday: It is long past time for Congress to work together to find a workable solution for our broken immigration system — especially for the hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants who were brought to our country by their parents. Many of these Dreamers have stepped forward in good faith. Congress should respond with a legislative solution that delivers on the promises made to these men and women and protects them from perpetual uncertainty. Let’s pray for a fair solution that highlights both justice and compassion. Other evangelical leaders involved with the Evangelical Immigration…
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VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing September 3, Sunday Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
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A Greek life retreat for students at the University of Mississippi was cut short last weekend after three black students found a banana peel in a tree by a cabin, reports The Daily Mississippian, the student newspaper. The placement of the banana peel was considered an offense against African Americans even though a student said he threw the peel in the tree because he couldn’t find a garbage can. Breakfast options Saturday morning included a fruit cart with bananas. “Many members of our community were hurt, frightened, and upset by what occurred,” Alexa Lee Arndt, interim director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, wrote in a letter to campus chapter leaders that was obtained by the student newspaper. The discovery of the banana peel led to an emotional discussion at Camp Hopewell about race relations. “The massive discussion session wrapped up as more and more students stood and left the room – some in tears, some in frustration,” according to The Daily Mississippian. Students texted friends to come pick them up from the camp and the remainder of the retreat was canceled. “At that point, we didn’t feel welcome, we didn’t feel safe,” Makala McNeil, one of the students who found the peel, told…
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