Artist’s conception of the complex magnetic field environment at Mars. Yellow lines represent magnetic field lines from the Sun carried by the solar wind, blue lines represent Martian surface magnetic fields, white sparks are reconnection activity, and red lines are reconnected magnetic fields that link the surface to space via the Martian magnetotail. Credit: Anil Rao/Univ.…
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Everything surrounding the Tennessee football program is sketchy at the moment. The Vols sit at 3-3 on the season and, after two straight losses to Georgia (by quite a lopsided margin) and South Carolina, Butch Jones’ seat has never been hotter in Knoxville. In fact, many believe that there is very little Jones can do to…
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A final work of fiction by Sam Shepard, the award-winning actor and playwright who died this summer, is to be published in December, his publishers announced Wednesday. “Spy of the First Person” is a work of fiction about a man looking back on his life as he undergoes treatment for a medical condition that renders him dependent…
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The college basketball season is right around the corner and now we have confirmation with the Coaches Poll being released for Week 1. Unsurprisingly, the top five is filled out with the teams most people believe are the most talented to start the season. The poll couldn’t come soon enough as the summer has been filled…
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Little Big Town Andra Day We would like to personally hug the person who had the idea to get Little Big Town and Andra Day together to sing. The Grammy-winning country superstars and the R&B powerhouse took to the stage at last night’s CMT Artists of the Year event for a powerful performance of Andra’s breakout…
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The Nashville Symphony will holds its annual free day of music Saturday to give people a chance to enjoy free concerts and participate in other fun activities for the whole family. The event will run from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in downtown Nashville. There will be more than 20 performers, including the Nashville Symphony. Doors open at 10:30 am, music from 11 am – 9 pm Kids’ Zone in the East Lobby, featuring our Instrument Petting Zoo, crafts and more, from 11:45 am – 3 pm Food vendors including Burritos La Mina, Two Thompsons Airstream & Churro Diva, presented in partnership with Mesa Komal Beer garden, presented by Craft Brewed Quiet spaces for people with sensory sensitivities For a complete schedule of events, click here.
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Franklin Mayor Ken Moore is considering running for the congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-7) to run for Senate. Moore said Wednesday it is a difficult decision because he loves his job as mayor, Franklin Home Page reports. He said he would continue to serve as mayor while campaigning. Moore said he was encouraged by someone, whose name he did not reveal, to seriously consider campaigning for the seat. State Sen. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) has already declared his intention to run, and Williamson County conservative Christian activist Laurie Cardoza Moore has said she’s considering joining the race. The mayor, who describes himself as a moderate Republican, would be an establishment choice against Green and Cardoza Moore, who both have support among grassroots conservatives. Mayor Moore, meanwhile, has already drawn support from one prominent Tennessee Democrat. Charles Robert Bone, a well-connected Nashville attorney, businessman and Democratic Party fundraiser, praised Moore on Twitter, saying, “Partisan politics aside, [Moore] would be a fine congressman and great for Middle TN.” Moore was elected as a Franklin alderman in 2007 and served as vice mayor before becoming mayor in 2011. He worked as an orthopedic surgeon for more than 28 years. In 2005, he spent time teaching…
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The Metro Nashville Airport Authority on Wednesday fired its CEO for leading a “culture of secrecy and concealment.” Rob Wigington, who went on medical leave in July, will not receive a severance package because he was fired with cause, reports the Nashville Business Journal. The vote to remove Wigington was unanimous. Doug Kreulen has been tapped as interim CEO. In a written report provided by Nashville Business Journal, the first reason board commissioners gave for Wigington’s dismissal was his failure to disclose $2.6 million in incentives for the British Airways direct flight to London announced in August. The board also said he put the Airport Authority in the position of announcing and beginning a $1.2 billion vision plan for Nashville International Airport without having in place a chief financial officer, chief legal officer and chief people officer and no immediate plan for filling those positions. In addition, the board said Wigington gave excessive severance packages to departing executives, and failed to address significant management issues and communicate with the board about fraud uncovered within the Airport Authority. Board commissioners said that “a perception exists the Commissioners do not know all the things they should know, in accordance with employment contract provisions concerning oversight…
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Former president George W. Bush issued a sharp if veiled denunciation of Trumpism on Thursday, warning that bigotry, white supremacy and falsehoods are coarsening the national tone and threatening American democracy. “Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication,” Bush said in a speech in New York. He did not…
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John Rose on Thursday touted his campaign’s first quarter of fundraising, noting that he has more than four times the resources of State Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma), who is also vying for the Republican nomination for the 6th Congressional District seat. A small business owner and farmer, Rose briefly served as Tennessee agriculture commissioner under former Republican Gov. Don Sundquist. Rose has $468,029 cash on hand after expenditures totaling $74,421, according to his filing with the Federal Election Commission. More than $250,000 came from self-funding. Rose’s campaign got a boost from Democratic contributors and a somewhat bigger one from members of the Haslam family. Charles Robert Bone, a Nashville attorney, businessman and Democratic Party fundraiser, contributed $2,700. His wife, Sacha, contributed an additional $2,700. Nashville Democratic political strategist Dave Cooley contributed $500. “You will not find two bigger Democrats in this state than Obama bundler Charles Bone and Bredesen ‘political enforcer’, Dave Cooley,” said one longtime GOP insider. “What is perplexing is that Rose thought accepting these contributions from two notorious liberal Democrats would somehow help him with conservative Republicans. I predict his eagerness to ask Democrats for money will cause him major trouble among GOP primary voters,” the insider…
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by David Williams This week, the U.S. Senate is holding a budget vote that is a vital component in passing tax reform – if they can’t get the budget passed, it will make the path to overhauling our outdated, growth-killing tax code extremely difficult. It is essential that all U.S. Senators – including Senator Bob Corker – support passage of the budget so Congress can quickly move onto and pass the kind of pro-growth tax reform package Tennessee small businesses need to drive meaningful, long-term growth and job creation. The federal tax code is a bloated, cumbersome disaster. The business rate of 35 percent (39 percent with local and state taxes) is far higher than that of most of our competitors, which makes U.S. companies less competitive in the global marketplace and stifles growth and job creation. The tax code itself is an additional burden. At tens of thousands of pages and millions of words, regular small-business owners have little hope of navigating it. So, their choice is between hiring expensive tax compliance help or dealing with sleepless nights worrying about the IRS knocking on their door. Worse, the tax code strongly favors big businesses, making it even harder for smaller firms…
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Immigration agents arrested an Indian national suspected of assault and sexual abuse after New York City jail officials released him in spite of an outstanding detention request, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said Wednesday. ICE deportation officers detained 21-year-old Gurnam Singh on Oct. 16, following at least three previous arrests and encounters by New York…
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Former Pennsylvania Senator and two-time presidential hopeful Rick Santorum announced his endorsement of Dr. Mark Green for Congress Thursday. “Mark Green has been a true champion for conservative values in the State Senate, and I’m confident he’ll bring that same much-needed leadership to Washington, Senator Santorum said in a statement. “Our country desperately needs bold conservative leadership, and Mark is the right man for the job.” Rick Santorum is a longtime leader in the conservative movement since he burst into national political scene in 1991 with a surprise upset victory over Congressman Doug Walgren in a heavily-Democrat district in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. After serving two terms in the House, Santorum ran for and won a seat in the U.S. Senate as a part of the historic Republican takeover of both houses of Congress in 1994. His tenure was marked by several important votes, including voting against NAFTA; empowering schools to include theories of ‘intelligent design’ within ‘origin of life’ lessons; and defending enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding. Santorum rose quickly through the Republican leadership, eventually attaining the 3rd highest-rank as the Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference. However, his plans in the Senate were cut short after a choppy 2006…
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Former State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet), who resigned from the State Senate in August to focus on her campaign for the Republican nomination for governor, says a tragic case involving a transgender man convicted yesterday of sexually assaulting a ten year old girl in a bathroom in her apartment underscores the need for legislation that would require Tennessee students to use restrooms and locker room facilities that are consistent with their physical gender. Earlier this year, Beavers and State Rep. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) introduced that legislation in the 2017 session of the Tennessee General Assembly, but the bill did not make it out of committee. A jury Wednesday afternoon found Casper, Wyoming resident Miguel Alberto Martinez, who identifies as female and is also known as Michelle, guilty of one count of first-degree sexual abuse of a child and one count of second-degree sexual abuse of a child. After a three-day trial the six-woman, six-man jury deliberated for about two hours before reaching its decision to convict him. He now faces between 25 to 70 years in prison. “What happened to that little girl in Wyoming was horrific,” pointed out Beavers, “and we need to take steps to reduce the…
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A dominantly black public school in Mississippi named after Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States in the 1860s, will be renamed after former President Barrack Obama, according to a report released Wednesday. Stakeholders in the school voted earlier this month at the Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees meeting to change the elementary school’s name…
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On Thursday, the Randy Boyd for Governor campaign demonstrated that it has not yet grasped the first rule of holes: “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.” Boyd’s announcement on Wednesday that failed presidential candidate and prominent Never Trumper Jeb Bush will headline a November 30 fundraiser for the Knoxville businessman in Nashville was met with a fury of online scorn and pointed derision from his Republican gubernatorial rivals. “Please clap,” read the subject line of an email sent out by gubernatorial candidate Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) within minutes of the announcement. The email pointed out Bush’s consistent attacks on President Trump, and his long-term Never Trumper status. “As for Randy Boyd, his decision to bring the very unpopular Jeb Bush to Tennessee on his behalf shows how out-of-touch he is with issues affecting Tennessee’s schools,” gubernatorial candidate Mae Beavers told The Tennessee Star. The Chattanooga Times Free Press carried the Boyd campaign’s response to Black’s devastating critique of the Randy Boyd/Jeb Bush fundraising event: Republican Randy Boyd’s campaign is hitting back at GOP gubernatorial primary rival Diane Black after her campaign labeled his plans to have former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush headline a Nashville fundraiser as a “match made…
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VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 20, Friday 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”
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A 9-month-old baby boy was denied health insurance October 11 because the treatment for his aggressive brain tumor was deemed “not medically necessary,” according to a Wednesday report by the Daily Beast. Connor Richardson was diagnosed with Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor (ATRT), and in his short life has already undergone four major surgeries in efforts to remove…
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