A record spike in fuel prices following the summer’s back-to-back hurricanes drove up a closely watched US inflation measure in September, but the underlying trend remained weak, government figures showed Monday. The new figures come as the Federal Reserve prepares to begin a two-day meeting on Tuesday, with policymakers widely expected to leave benchmark interest rates…
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UPDATE: CNN reported at 5:35 p.m. ET that the death toll in today’s terror attack in New York City has risen to eight: The suspect in the Manhattan truck attack, a 29-year-old man, crashed his truck and then was shot by police in the abdomen, New York Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said. O’Neill said the suspect “did make a statement” after the crash, which led police to declare the incident an act of terrorism. Six people were declared dead at the scene and two were pronounced dead at the hospital, and 11 were transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro. President Trump responded to the terror attack in a tweet late Tuesday afternoon: In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. NOT IN THE U.S.A.! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2017 The “six and deranged person” responsible for the attack was identified by ABC News as “29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov from Tampa, Florida.” JUST IN: Multiple officials tell ABC News suspect in custody is identified as 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov from Tampa, FL —…
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The Oak Ridge Boys have joined forces with American companies to place a new emphasis on buying products made in the United States.
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President Donald Trump is expected to announce his choice to lead the Federal Reserve on Thursday, a US official said Monday. Trump said last week he had “somebody very specific in mind. I think everybody will be very impressed.” He has not publicly ruled out re-nominating current Fed Chair Janet Yellen to a second four-year…
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Disapproval of U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has jumped since he and President Trump began feuding publicly, a new Middle Tennessee State University poll shows. Corker’s disapproval rate has risen to 41 percent among Tennessee voters, a 14-point hike since a similar poll this past spring. Disapproval of Trump has also gone up some, from 32 to 40 percent, but his 50 percent approval rate has held steady and remains well above the national approval rate of around 37 percent. Approval for Corker, meanwhile, dropped from 52 percent to 45 percent. The poll has a 4-percentage-point error margin. “Essentially, Corker’s negatives have increased markedly, but he has ended up only a bit behind Trump in terms of approval, and possibly on par with him,” Ken Blake, director of the MTSU Poll, said in a news release last week. “Meanwhile, some undecideds have switched to disapproval of President Trump, but Trump’s base is sticking with him and keeping his approval rate relatively high in the state overall.” The poll also found that approval of Congress is abysmally low. Approval is at 13 percent, down from 21 percent in the spring. In addition, the poll found: 56 percent approve of Republican Gov. Bill…
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The Center for Equality and Social Justice (CESJ) at the University of Kentucky released two policy briefs last week promoting continued protections for DACA recipients and for amending nondiscrimination laws in Kentucky to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Started last year, the center exists “to better understand social inequality” and “to empower scholars, students and the community to advocate for greater social justice,” according to its website. The center reflects the growing entrenchment of progressive ideas in the academic world, even in red states. Economics professor Jenny Minier (pictured above, left) wrote a position paper titled “Immigrants Benefit the Community and Economy,” in which she offers moral and economic reasons for Congress to allow young people in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to stay legally in the U.S. The DACA program was started by former President Obama with an executive order and granted young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children a chance to temporarily live and work in the U.S. if they met certain criteria. President Trump has ended the program but given Congress a chance to act. Nearly 800,000 people have been granted DACA status since it began in 2012, and there are currently around 690,000 with DACA status. Recipients…
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In his daily podcast Monday, Al Mohler said something likely to give many Christians a chill down the spine. “It can now be argued that Halloween is the biggest spiritual holiday on the American calendar,” said Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Our culture has been secularizing Christmas and Easter, which are now largely about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, Mohler noted on The Briefing. The opposite has been happening with Halloween, which has become more spiritual as Americans are drawing out and celebrating its pagan origins, he said, describing how this marks a change from a few decades ago, when Halloween was a peripheral holiday mostly for children. Today, with adults also celebrating Halloween, the holiday is second only to Christmas in economic activity. Halloween, Mohler said, “has grown ever more dark.” Historically, Halloween had its beginnings in the European Celtic festival of Samhain at the end of summer as winter beckoned. It was believed that Samhain, the lord of the dead, or the lord of darkness, sent out evil spirits to attack people at this time of year, and that people could escape only by donning disguises to look like evil spirits…
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MARTINSVILLE, Va. — With most of the field wrecking behind him, Kyle Busch took the lead on the final lap and won the First Data 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. It was his fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season and clinched a position among the Championship Four at the 2017 season…
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By Jeffrey A. Rendall If it could be said politics is insane but never boring, then last week was the perfect embodiment of the concept. Of course there was the revelation Hillary Clinton’s campaign united with the Democrat National Committee to retain a Washington law firm to hire a political sludge-mining operation (Fusion GPS) which subsequently contracted with former British spy Christopher Steele who then apparently paid his Russian sources to make up wild stories about Donald Trump. Meanwhile it’s becoming clearer by the day U.S. intelligence agencies were in on the scheme somewhere along the line – it’s awful messy, for sure. Of course the infamous Democrat paid-for “dossier” produced by Steele appears to be the foundation from which the entirety of United States intelligence agencies staked their investigations of alleged “collusion” between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Ho hum. Then there was Senator Jeff Flake’s hit-job on Trump masquerading as a retirement speech from the Senate floor on Tuesday. Then there was the story of Mark Cuban, who is considering running for president in 2020. No big deal, just another culturally illustrious liberal body to toss into the already crowded circus ring full of Democrat…
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Senate Republicans are heading into four votes this week to confirm appeals court judges. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell served notice late last week that the Senate will consider four of President Donald Trump’s nominees to federal circuit courts, the powerful appeals panels that give the final word on the overwhelming majority of cases in U.S. courts.…
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The Virginia church that George Washington attended for two decades plans to tear out a memorial to the nation’s first president because the plaque could make some worshipers feel “unsafe or unwelcome.” Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, where Washington became a founding member in 1773, will remove his memorial and a similar one to Robert E.…
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John Boehner, of former House Majority Speaker fame, dropped a bombshell – or dozens – during an interview with Politico that was just published. For instance, did you know that fellow Republican Rep. Don Young once pinned Boehner against a wall and held a knife to his throat during a debate about earmarks that went awry?…
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Premiums for Obamacare’s “benchmark” plans will rise by 37 percent and choices will dwindle in 2018, with eight full states having just one insurer to choose from, the Trump administration said Monday in a report detailing the federal marketplace known as HealthCare.gov. However, the average tax credit that many consumers use to afford coverage will rise…
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Over the weekend, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told Mayor Jill Holland of McKenzie, Tennessee that he will encourage Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to conduct hearings at the Senate Finance Committee he chairs on whether an Obama-era regulation that is hitting West Tennesssee’s Dr. Bryan Merrick should be revoked, along with other corrections. A spokesperson for the senator confirmed to The Tennessee Star that Alexander will ask Hatch to hold those hearings. Alexander chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which he says does not have jurisdiction over the CMS regulation. Senator Hatch chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which does have jurisdiction over the CMS regulation. Surprising as that may seem, official Senate rules confirm that the Senate Finance Committee has jurisdiction over all health programs based on federal taxes, which includes Medicare and Medicaid. Senator Paul Toomey (R-PA) chairs the Health Care Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, the most likely place for such hearings to be held. On Friday, Mayor Jill Holland of McKenzie sent a letter to Senator Alexander asking him to hold hearings of the Senate HELP committee he chairs for the purpose of revoking the CMS regulation, as The Star reported: Writing “on behalf of the citizens…
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VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 31, Tuesday Luke 6:45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of 1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats ; do not be frightened.”
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Laura Ingraham will debut her new show, “The Ingraham Angle,” at 10 p.m. tonight on the Fox News Channel. The show will address the issues “cutting through the heart of America,” Ingraham told a gathering of Fox News and conservative personalities gathered for her kickoff party in Washington, D.C., on on Wednesday night. Ingraham, introduced by…
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The Eagles performed a special invitation-only concert for SiriusXM listeners at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Sunday, October 29.
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Paul Manafort surrendered to Robert Mueller on Monday. And all the left-leaning media go: President Donald Trump is going down! But let’s hold the phone a little bit on this. The indictments are a far away from collusion. As Rep. Trey Gowdy said early on Fox News, before the specific charges were publicly released: We don’t…
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The suspense is over, and we all now know who the first to be charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller – himself in peril of being sucked into the giant vortex known loosely as the ‘Clinton-Russia Scandal.’ The indictment itself runs thirty-one pages and specifically names Paul Manafort and his aide, Richard Gates. Allegations run the gamut from conspiracy to launder as much as $21 million and funneling millions more to foreign bank accounts, to working as foreign agents (Ukraine) and making false statements. The indictment contains twelve allegations (crimes or violations of law), however, that number can change over the course of adjudication. INDICTMENT The Grand Jury for the District of Columbia Charges: Introduction: At all times relevant to this indictment: 1. Defendants Paul J. Manafort, Jr. (MANAFORT) and Richard W. Gates III (GATES) served for years as political consultants and lobbyists. Between at least 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to…
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Tennessee has reportedly offered former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden “over $10 million a year” to be its next head coach, according to The Read Optional’s Oliver Connolly. Connolly reported that the Vols have also targeted TCU’s Gary Patterson, Louisville’s Bobby Petrino and Purdue’s Jeff Brohm as potential candidates as well. The rumored deal would…
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WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has been indicted on 12 charges of money-laundering and conspiracy, the first charges filed in the investigation of possible connections between the Trump campaign and a Russian effort to influence last year’s presidential election. Manafort, 68, turned himself in at FBI headquarters early Monday for his…
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The United States on Friday imposed fresh import duties on Chinese aluminum, accusing exporters of dumping their product on the US market at prices below cost. The move follows a Commerce Department decision in August that also imposed import duties to counteract alleged unfair Chinese subsidies in the aluminum foil industry. President Donald Trump is due…
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The moribund inflation seen in the world’s largest economy over the last year is a “mystery,” a “surprise” and a “concern” all at once, in the words of US central bank chief Janet Yellen. And the dilemma — why price pressures have not picked up despite nearly a decade’s worth of falling unemployment and growth –…
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Hundreds of Russians gathered in central Moscow on Sunday to honour the victims of Stalin-era purges, with many calling for the release of a jailed activist who researched mass graves. In an annual ceremony organised by the country’s oldest rights group Memorial, hundreds of people under grey skies and intermittent rain took turns to read from…
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Alex Bregman singled home Derek Fisher with the winning run in the 10th inning and the Houston Astros reached the brink of their first World Series title on Sunday, outlasting the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-12 in a tension-packed thriller. The Astros seized a 3-2 lead in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven final and can claim the crown…
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FRANKLIN, Tennessee — U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-7) told supporters at a fundraiser Sunday she’s ready to go to work in the Senate and get things done. “They are totally dysfunctional,” she said, emphasizing that “it is time for Tennessee to have a conservative in the U.S. Senate.” To enthusiastic applause, Blackburn said that if elected to the Senate next year, she will help drain the swamp and work with those who want to support President Trump and uphold the Constitution. Soon after Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) announced in late September that he would not seek re-election, Blackburn announced her campaign for his seat. Also competing for the Republican nomination are former West Tennessee congressman Stephen Fincher and conservative activist Andy Ogles. On the Democratic side, Phil Bredesen, former Tennessee governor and Nashville mayor, is considering running. Sunday’s event was an annual fundraiser for Blackburn, with the novelty this year being her Senate run. “Music City for Marsha” was held in the spacious car-themed barn at the home of Willis and Joyce Johnson, which was formerly the home of country singer Alan Jackson. Willis Johnson founded Copart, an online auto salvage auction business, and last year started the home…
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Actually, it was all about that bourbon at the third annual Bourbon Bash held amid the stills in the Leiper’s Fork Distillery in Franklin on Saturday night. The event focused on an evening long opportunity to experience brands produced by local distilleries, like Leiper’s Fork and Greenbrier, to large distilleries like Jack Daniels and Dickel and a sampling of the unique tastes from others including Coopers Craft, H Clark, Four Roses, Tenn South and Old Forester. Pamela Furr, founder and co-host of the event, was thrilled by the turnout and the funds generated by the sponsors and guests. “In just three years we have gone from an idea to a unique evening of fun and fundraising that promises to be even bigger and better next year!” All proceeds from the event benefit the Green Beret Foundation. “The funds we raise for this organization helps them do great work for those who have served our nation so honorably, but the attention we draw to them and what they are doing is just as important as the money,” Furr pointed out. Mingling among the several hundred guests at the event were author nationally syndicated radio host Phil Valentine, who also served as…
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President Trump on Sunday accused Democrats of using questions about Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign for “evil politics” and said the issue is uniting Republicans like never before. “Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?) … the Uranium to Russia…
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by George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor Every time we begin to think that President Trump’s economic advisor Gary Cohn and the other Democrats the President brought into in the West Wing have lost influence, one of them surfaces to remind us of what a huge mistake it was for Trump to let them inside the White House fence, let alone give them big offices in the White House. Cohn’s latest contribution to killing the Trump presidency is the idea of raising the gas tax – with this tone-deaf idea being floated in the middle of the President’s push to cut income taxes on America’s middle-income families and job-creating businesses. What Cohn, and those who inhabit his portal to portal limo riding world, don’t seem to get is how gasoline and transportation costs affect the quality of life for middle and lower income families. As a 2016 Pew study showed, the share of household income used for transportation has increased substantially over the past two decades, the amount going to various subcategories, like gasoline, also grew. For all income groups, expenditures for gasoline and motor oil doubled between 1996 and 2014. For households in the lower third, the average annual cost…
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Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, said Sunday that her job isn’t to “fight” President Trump and that there’s a chance for bipartisanship on a tax overhaul if it’s packaged in the right way. “We may not always agree on style, and sometimes we don’t agree on substance, but my job’s not to fight him. My job’s…
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Official Washington was abuzz this weekend over reports that a grand jury has charged at least one person stemming from the US probe of Russia’s attempts to tilt the 2016 presidential elections in Donald Trump’s favor. There was no indication, in reporting by CNN that other media later confirmed, of who might be charged or what…
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County legislator Jennifer Schwartz Berky, a Democrat up for re-election on Nov. 7, says that her behavior was unacceptable in a recently released video showing her being pulled over for speeding by a local police officer. In the clip, which was posted online, Berky is pulled over and begs the officer not…
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They may apparently require no more than a comfortable chair, decent knowledge of a computer screen and nimble mastery of controllers, but the International Olympic Committee insisted Saturday that eSports are indeed…sports. An Olympic Summit, under the guidance of IOC president Thomas Bach, meeting in Lausanne hailed the phenomenal growth of video games. In a statement,…
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The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that he suspects a reported grand jury indictment in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election is tied to either former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort or retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser. Rep. Adam Schiff said on…
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Congressman Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN -07) decision to seek the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Bob Corker in 2018 has sparked a flurry of interest in filling her seat in Congress. State Senator Mark Green (R-Clarksville) has already announced his intentions to run, and Williamson County Christian conservative activist Laurie Cardoza Moore is considering the race along with Franklin Mayor Ken Moore. However, another potential candidate is creating a lot of buzz as well. Lee Thomas Miller is an award winning songwriter and conservative advocate who lives in Williamson County with his wife Jana and their four kids. He has penned songs for some of the top country and Christian artists, including Trace Adkins, Brad Paisley, George Strait, Jamey Johnson, Tim McGraw, Chris Stapleton and Brandon Heath, to name a few. Most people know his hit songs, like “In Color,” “The Impossible,” “You’re Gonna Miss This,” and “I’m Still a Guy.” With, 7 No. 1 songs, 12 top-10’s, CMA and ACM wins for song of the year, and three Grammy nominations, this son of a Kentucky tobacco farmer and small town librarian is well known in music industry circles though not yet in the political arena. But in an…
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VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 30, Monday Exodus 23:1 Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness. James 1:26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless.
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Hollywood may be suffering through a spiritless patch but Halloween films can still lend a needed jolt, as Lionsgate’s new “Jigsaw” horror film and a clutch of other scary films showed by boosting an otherwise flimsy weekend box office. “Jigsaw,” the eighth chapter in Lionsgate’s “Saw” horror franchise, took in an estimated $16.3 million over the…
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Two unlikely heroes, a pitcher who lost his only prior playoff start and a batter in an 0-for-13 slump, rescued the World Series title hopes of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday. Alex Wood baffled Houston batters for 5 2/3 no-hit innings and Cody Bellinger snapped his drought with two crucial doubles as the Dodgers downed…
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Kentucky escaped an SEC rivalry matchup with Tennessee 29-26 on Saturday in Lexington, Ky., in a chippy contest that almost opened with a melee. Trash talk and shoving invited unsportsmanlike penalties against the entirety of both teams early in the contest. That set the tone in a physical, back-and-forth contest won when Wildcats quarterback Stephen Johnson…
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Matthew Continetti, the editor of the neo-conservative website, the Washington Free Beacon, wrote in a letter posted online just after 7 p.m. on Friday that the Free Beacon hired Fusion GPS during the Republican primary to do research on Republican candidates. That research kicked off what became known as the “dossier” used to smear Donald Trump.…
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Tennessee fans, this is not a drill!!! Jon Gruden, who was originally considered one of the biggest long shots listed, is now listed as the favorite for Bet Online odds rankings for the Vols’ next head coach. Gruden was originally considered at 20/1 on the website’s opening line, but moved up to 12/1 and 10/1 last…
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When then-FBI Director James B. Comey explained to Congress last March the scope of his investigation into Donald Trump aides and Russia, his words would also fit the Hillary Clinton campaign today. Mr. Comey told the House Intelligence Committed that his agents were investigating “whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts.” That…
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by George Rasley, CHQ Editor In a break with the Clinton-loving American establishment media, the UK’s Daily Mail recently detailed how Marc Elias, a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer who launched what would become known as the anti-Trump “dirty dossier” denied involvement in the project for a year, even as reporters pressed him for information. But a pair of New York Times reporters said Tuesday night on Twitter that Elias and others involved had lied about their ties to the arrangement. “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year,” Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted after The Washington Postlinked the dossier to Elias and his law firm Perkins Coie. Kenneth Vogel, another Times journalist, tweeted: ‘When I tried to report this story, Clinton campaign lawyer @marceelias pushed back vigorously, saying “You (or your sources) are wrong”.’ This kind of lying has become par for the course in Washington, but it is especially prevalent about anything that involves the Clintons. The Uranium One scandal that has broken wide open this week isn’t new – it goes back to 2010 – and the relationship between foreign government contributions to the Clinton Foundation, Bill Clinton’s speaking fees and policy-making by Hillary Clinton…
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Britain’s economy gently picked up speed in the third quarter, official data showed on Wednesday, strengthening expectations of an interest rate hike next month, despite uncertainty over Brexit. Gross domestic product grew by 0.4 percent in the period from July to September, after expanding by 0.3 percent in the preceding three months, the Office for National…
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Sales of new single-family homes spiked in September, hitting their highest level in a decade after months of declines and sluggish growth, Commerce Department figures showed Wednesday. The sudden jump in sales came despite tightening supply and rising prices, with home-buyers closing on houses in record numbers in the storm-damaged South and in…
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Two high school football officials walked off the field in protest Friday night after players from Monroe High School in Somerset County knelt during the national anthem before the team’s game against visiting Colts Neck. The officials, Ernie Lunardelli, 54, and his son, Anthony Lunardelli, 27, stood for the anthem and then abruptly left the field…
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The tragic death of Eric Bolling’s 19-year-old son was ruled an “accidental overdose that included opioids,” the former Fox News host said Thursday just hours after President Trump declared the national opioid crisis a public health emergency. The Boulder County coroner’s office in Colorado said Mr. Bolling’s son, Eric Chase Bolling, died of a mix of…
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Standing in the tense demilitarized zone dividing North Korea and South Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said America isn’t looking for a fight, but is ready for one. “Our goal is not war,” Mattis said Friday of the nuclear missile threat from North Korea under dictator Kim Jong Un, “but rather the complete, verifiable, and…
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A heavy law enforcement presence and a well planned security strategy kept a tiny group of League of the South members separated from an estimated 1,000 counter protesters in Murfreesboro on Saturday. The event ended peacefully with no arrests, the Murfreesboro Police Department confirmed at about 3:45 p.m. Leaders from the League of the South, who had obtained a permit to hold a rally from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the square cancelled their talk at 3 p.m. About an hour earlier, a small group from the organization, numbering no more than thirty, held forth for about 45 minutes from within the heavily protected permit area on the lawn outside the Rutherford County Courthouse. Though they delivered their message, few heard it, and the counter protesters that did shouted back and forth across two lines of barricades and dozens of armed officers from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office dressed in full riot gear. The Murfreesboro Police Department stated after the rally that about 800 to 1,000 counter protesters showed up. Several hundred law enforcement officers from the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, Murfreesboro Police Department, and the Tennessee State Police presented an overwhelming display of force, which no one from…
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VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 29, Sunday Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 26:21 The wise in heart are called discerning, and gracious words promote instruction Proverbs 23:12 Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.
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