Month: October 2017

Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) Endorses State Senator Mark Green for Congress’ 7th District to Replace Marsha Blackburn

Admin

  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…

Read the full story

GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Mae Beavers: ‘Wyoming Case Underlines Why Tennessee Transgender Bathroom Bill is Critically Needed’

Tennessee Star Staff

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…

Read the full story

A School Named After Jefferson Davis Will Be Renamed After President Obama

Admin

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…

Read the full story

‘La Raza Randy’ Boyd Defends Never Trumper Jeb Bush

Tennessee Star Staff

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…

Read the full story

9-Month-Old Baby Richardson Denied Health Insurance Because Treatments Weren’t ‘Medically Necessary’

Admin

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…

Read the full story

Commentary: The D.C. Establishment Growing More Hysterical By the Day with President Trump

Admin

by CHQ Staff   Just when we thought that Washington’s establishment elite couldn’t get any crazier along comes former George W. Bush aide and Washington Post token Republican Michael Gerson to snap us back to reality. Gerson’s column, “Republicans, it’s time to panic” asks “Is Trump psychologically and morally equipped to be president? And could his unfitness cause permanent damage to the country?” And then Gerson answers the question in the affirmative on the basis of anonymous leaks from a White House infested with Obama holdovers and President Trump’s recent very public and personal disagreements with retiring Republican Senator Bob Corker. The gist of Gerson’s attack is that President Trump is crazy, because he hurt poor little Bob Corker’s feelings. At the very end of Gerson’s column, our friends at Breitbart pointed out that the Post has embedded a video made by one of their staffers titled “How does the 25th amendment work?” The video’s caption reads: “The 25th Amendment sets forth a procedure for removing a president from office. Here’s how it’s enacted.” As the video explains, “Section IV of the amendment states that the Vice President and at least 13 of 24 cabinet members must agree to transfer…

Read the full story

Never Trumper Jeb Bush to Headline ‘La Raza Randy’ Boyd Gubernatorial Fundraiser in Nashville

Tennessee Star Staff

The Randy Boyd for Governor campaign confirmed on Wednesday that failed presidential candidate Jeb Bush will be the headliner at a November 30 fundraiser for Boyd in Nashville, The Tennesseean reported: Exact location and cost of attending the event were not immediately available. Bush is scheduled to be at this year’s National Summit on Education Reform, which is being held in Nashville beginning Nov. 29. Although Tennesseans favored former President George W. Bush in his two presidential elections, his brother Jeb Bush performed poorly in the 2016 presidential election. Jeb Bush received about 1 percent of all votes in last year’s Republican primary election, behind then-candidate Donald Trump, U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Ohio governor John Kasich. In March, The Tennessee Star broke the news that “gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd and his wife Jenny donated a quarter of a million dollars to Conexion Americas, a non-profit Latino advocacy organization headquartered in Nashville founded by Renata Soto.” In 2015, Soto was elected as chairman of the board of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), an organization generously funded by George Soros. She had previously served as vice-president for three years. NCLR lobbies for Hispanic…

Read the full story

‘Please Clap’ – Diane Black Campaign Reacts to Jeb Bush/Randy Boyd Fundraiser

Admin

Randy Boyd’s campaign for governor announced Wednesday it will host a fundraiser November 30 featuring former Florida governor and 2016 presidential hopeful, Jeb Bush. Representative Diane Black’s gubernatorial campaign was quick to respond, with a sharp email blast to media with the cheeky subject line: ‘Please Clap.’ “Today, it was announced that Jeb! would be coming to Tennessee to fundraise for ‘moderate Republican’ Randy!” the statement begins. It continues: It’s no surprise that Randy Boyd would bring in Jeb Bush to shake down Nashville donors…besides, they agree on pretty much everything. Jeb Bush said Donald Trump was the “chaos President” and refused to vote for him. Randy Boyd said supporting Trump would be “anathema to me.” Jeb Bush said illegal immigrants come out of an “act of love.” Randy Boyd gave $250,000 to a group that helps illegal immigrants integrate into Tennessee society. Jeb Bush helped create Common Core education standards. Randy Boyd is a “staunch supporter” of Common Core. Campaign spokesman Chris Hartline said, “Jeb Bush and Randy Boyd are a match made in establishment heaven. Their pro-illegal immigration, pro-big government, anti-Trump positions are more suited to the Democratic primary than the Republican primary.” Representative Diane Black (TN-06) is running to…

Read the full story

Protestant Pastors Don’t Want IRS to Punish Churches for Sermon Content, LifeWay Research Survey Finds

Wendy Wilson

Most Protestant pastors say the IRS shouldn’t punish churches for the content of sermons, a new LifeWay Research survey shows. The Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom sponsored the phone survey of 1,000 senior pastors. President Trump and Congress are currently debating the future of a 1954 law known as the Johnson Amendment, which bans 501(c)(3) nonprofits from involvement in political campaigns. Then-U.S. Sen. Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, promoted the law because he was upset with Texas nonprofits that were against his bid for re-election. The law means churches risk losing their tax-exempt status if a pastor endorses a candidate in a sermon. According to the LifeWay Research poll, more than 7 in 10 pastors say Congress should prevent the IRS from punishing a church for sermon content, and 9 in 10 say sermons should be free from government oversight, according to a LifeWay Research news release. But that doesn’t mean churches want their pastors to start endorsing candidates, says Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research. Other surveys over the past couple of years have shown that pastors rarely endorse candidates from the pulpit and most church-goers want it that way. “Pastors—and Americans in general—don’t want church services to turn…

Read the full story

Bill Lee Announces Veterans Advisory Panel for Gubernatorial Campaign

Wendy Wilson

Williamson County businessman Bill Lee announced this week that he has formed a coalition of Tennessee military veterans who will advise his campaign as he seeks the Republican nomination for governor. The veterans come from every branch of service and will advise Lee on issues related to veterans and the Tennessee Military Department, which oversees the National Guard, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) and the State Guard. “There is no group that we owe more to than our veterans, and I will make our state the number one state for veterans to live and work,” Lee said in a news release. Lee, who also has a background in agriculture, has never held elected office. He has been traveling the state to boost his name recognition and hear from people about the issues most important to them. He first toured the state in a campaign RV and this week is wrapping up a statewide tractor tour. The honorary chairman of his veterans group will be Major General (Ret.) Gary Harrell of Washington County. “Bill Lee is a man who has a strong commitment to our state and to our veterans,” Harrell said. Lee is chairman of Lee Company, a family-owned…

Read the full story

Commentary: George Soros Puts $18 Billion Into Radically Transforming America

Tennessee Star Staff

by George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor   On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal’s Juliet Chung and Anupreeta Das detailed how Nazi collaborator and Far-Left billionaire George Soros has transferred some $18 billion – the bulk of his fortune – to his Open Society Foundations. Chung and Das report that with this move Open Society has vaulted to the top ranks of philanthropic organizations, appearing to become the second largest in the U.S. by assets after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, based on 2014 figures from the National Philanthropic Trust. Conservatives should take particular note of the new structure reported by Chung and Das: Soros now shares influence over the firm’s strategy with an investment committee of Open Society. Mr. Soros set up the committee and is its chairman, but it is meant to survive him, people familiar with it said. A new chief investment officer at the Soros firm is less a trader than an allocator of capital to various internal and external asset managers reported Chung and Das. Unlike past investment chiefs, the official, Dawn Fitzpatrick, doesn’t report to Mr. Soros or others at his firm but to the philanthropy’s investment committee. “It’s an ongoing process of migration from…

Read the full story

Hankook Tire in Clarksville Holds Grand Opening

Wendy Wilson

Hankook Tire in Clarksville held a grand opening celebration Tuesday attended by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-7). The first Hankook plant to open in the U.S. and the eighth worldwide, it is expected to bring 1,800 jobs to the area. The South Korean tire maker broke ground on the facility in 2014, investing $800 million, reports WKRN News 2. The company’s North American headquarters recently moved to downtown Nashville. Haslam has been working to attract more business from Asia. Hankook tire executives and dealers were at the grand opening, as well as Korean Consul General Seong-jin Kim and local government officials. The event included a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The 1.5 million-square-foot facility sits on 469 acres. “This plant is a major boon for the Clarksville area,” Blackburn said on Facebook. Blackburn, whose 7th Congressional District includes the Clarksville area, recently announced that she is running for the U.S. Senate. “I was honored to take part in the ceremony and thank the company’s leadership for bringing their first U.S. plant to Montgomery County,” Blackburn said.    

Read the full story

Beth Harwell Calls for State Legislative Hearings on TNReady Testing Problems

Wendy Wilson

House Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) is calling for state legislative hearings on problems with TNReady scoring. “We have made great strides over the last several years in education, and we must be diligent in ensuring we continue these gains,” Harwell said on Facebook Tuesday. “We know that accountability has been a large part of this improvement. However, the news that nearly 10,000 TNReady tests were scored incorrectly has resulted in educators, parents, and legislators seeking answers. In addition, the amount of testing has also raised questions.” Hawell, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, has asked the House Government Operations Committee to hold the hearings. The scoring issue is the latest in a string of glitches over the past several years with standardized testing in Tennessee public schools. Testing has also come under scrutiny for the amount of time it takes away from instruction, the way student scores are linked to teacher evaluations and for what is viewed as acquiescence to a national large-scale testing apparatus involving for-profit companies selling testing products and services. At the end of this past school year, testing vendor Questar was slow in returning test scores for report cards. Problems with its scanning program are now…

Read the full story

Boss Doss Runs Away From The Tennessee Star At Megan Barry Transit Launch Event

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – After sitting in the front row throughout Metro Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s Transit Launch Event Tuesday for the “Let’s Move Nashville Metro’s Transportation Solution,” State Rep. Barry “Boss” Doss (R-Leoma) ran away from The Tennessee Star, avoiding follow-up questions on his sponsorship of the IMPROVE Act, a major portion of which was dedicated to enabling public transit systems like the $5.2 billion “Solution” Barry unveiled. Going off his prepared script to ensure Doss was given special recognition for his role in the passage of the IMPROVE Act, Democratic State Senator from Nashville, Jeff Yarbro, one of the event’s speakers explained, “This legislature’s biggest priority this year was addressing the growing traffic problems in middle Tennessee and across this whole state.” Then, gesturing to acknowledge Doss sitting in the front row, “In order to do that, we really relied on a bipartisan coalition that included people like Barry Doss,” said Yarbro as seen at 11:16 in this video. The IMPROVE Act enabled “local governments” designated as counties, including those with a metropolitan or consolidated form of government, with a population of more than 112,000 or cities with a population of more than 165,000 to implement tax surcharges to fund…

Read the full story

Faith: Verse of the Day for Thursday, October 19

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 19, Thursday Psalm 86:9-10 All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. 10 For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”      

Read the full story

Sumner County Property Assessor John Isbell Will Run Against County Executive Anthony Holt

Admin

John Isbell, the four times elected and internationally recognized Property Assessor of Sumner County, announced Monday that he is running for County Executive against incumbent Anthony Holt in the 2018 election cycle to “bring transparency to the office and stop the crony capitalism that plagues the administration.” First elected as Sumner County Property Assessor in 2004, Isbell has served in numerous positions in both the state and the 7,000-member global association of assessing officers and is pursuing his Ph.D. in public policy. In his campaign platform, Isbell is focused on integrity, transparency and accountability in leadership. “The citizens of Sumner County deserve an honest government and they know I defeated Anthony Holt’s plan to unconstitutionally railroad a tax increase on the property owners in Sumner County,” states Isbell’s press release, which continues, I believe in transparency and plan to bring to light Holt’s policy initiatives while in office. My reputation for honesty is the reason why I have received more votes than Anthony Holt in the past three elections. The unconstitutional tax increase Isbell refers to relates to a 2014 contention by Holt and Sumner County Schools Director Del Phillips that Isbell needed to raise property values following the housing…

Read the full story

Congressman Kustoff Refuses to Provide Meaningful Help to Beloved West Tennessee Family Doctor Cut Off Medicare By Washington Bureaucrats

Tennessee Star Staff

Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN-08) met on Tuesday with Dr. Bryan Merrick, co-owner of McKenzie Medical Center, whose Medicare privileges were abruptly revoked by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services over clerical billing errors totaling $670, McKenzie Mayor Jill Holland, Huntingdon Mayor Dale Kelley, McLemoresville Mayor Phil Williams, Carroll County Mayor Kenny McBride, and Bethel University President Walter Butler, all of whom were attempting to secure his help in stopping this egregious abuse of individual rights by an overreaching federal government health care bureaucracy. Kustoff basically punted in response, offering to undertake nothing more than  a purely symbolic effort to “expedite” the lengthy administrative law judge offering. Meanwhile, Dr. Merrick’s patients and employees, as well as Dr. Merrick and McKenzie Medical Center, will suffer devastating consequences, since Medicare payments, which comprise almost half of his practice, are now completely cut off. McKenzie, Tennessee is located in Tennessee’s Eighth Congressional District, which Kustoff represents. In a press released provided to The Tennessee Star by friends of Dr. Merrick, McKenzie, Mayor Jill Holland, speaking for  all those attending the meeting with Kustoff on Dr. Merrick’s behalf “said that she and the others would not be there if they thought Dr. Merrick had done anything…

Read the full story

Senate Candidate Andy Ogles Calls on President Trump to Issue Executive Order Addressing Opioid Crisis

Tennessee Star Staff

Republican conservative U.S. Senate candidate Andy Ogles issued a statement Tuesday calling on President Donald Trump to issue an Executive Order addressing the opioid crises. Ogles is asking Trump to direct the Drug Enformcement Agency (DEA) and other federal agencies to use all available means to intensify the investigation and prosecution of those engaged in the reckless, illegal and dangerous over prescription and distribution of opioids. “Congress has tied the hands of our law enforcement officials as they seek to crack down on the illegal distribution of opioids, but with the law enforcement powers they retain they should aggressively pursue those who are fueling the opioid epidemic,” Ogles said in the statement. “I urge President Trump to issue an Executive Order directing the DEA and other federal law enforcement agencies to immediately intensify their investigations and prosecutions of those who are engaged in the illegal distribution of opioids to the fullest extent allowed by law,” the former head of the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity noted, adding: While Congress tries to figure out how to clean up the legislative mess they have created, the Trump Administration needs to have an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to reducing the addictive…

Read the full story

Author Liza Mundy Speaks About Women Code Breakers During World War II

Wendy Wilson

During World War II, women played an important role by cracking codes that led to the sinking of Japanese ships. The women were sworn to secrecy and many kept the secret for decades. But recently they’ve started to get credit. Liza Mundy details their experiences in her new book, Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II. Mundy spoke Sunday at the Nashville Public Library as part of the annual Southern Festival of Books. Mundy estimates there were at least 11,000 women involved and perhaps as many as 15,000 or 16,000, including many women from the South. “It was an enormously important wartime effort,” Mundy said. While many Americans are aware of the way Rosie the Riveter-type women contributed in factories, they don’t know about how educated women made their mark,  Mundy said. The code breakers were recruited from women’s colleges and teachers colleges and schools where they were already employed as teachers. The Navy tended to recruit from elite women’s colleges in the North, such as Vassar and Wellesley, while the Army fanned out handsome soldiers across the South to set up recruiting stations at hotels and post offices. It was believed…

Read the full story

Why EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt Is President Trump’s Best Cabinet Secretary

Admin
EPA Chief Scott Priutt

by CHQ Staff   We’ve told CHQ readers about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s role in President Trump’s successful efforts to roll back the regulatory state, but his efforts so far pale in comparison to Pruitt’s announcement yesterday that he was ending the EPA’s practice of “sue and settle.” Sue and settle was the practice, carried out under Republican as well as Democratic administrations, of allowing special interest groups to sue the EPA to enforce their view of the law or regulation, and then settling without fighting the case or defending the plain words of the statute or regulation. The result would be a “consent decree” issued by an unelected judge that would make law based on the whims and financial self-interest of radical environmental groups. To implement this new policy, Pruitt issued an Agency-wide directive to end “sue and settle” practices within the Agency, providing an unprecedented level of public participation and transparency in EPA consent decrees and settlement agreements. “The days of regulation through litigation are over,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “We will no longer go behind closed doors and use consent decrees and settlement agreements to resolve lawsuits filed against the Agency by special interest groups where…

Read the full story

NYTimes Editor Blasts ‘Oblivious Idiot’ Trump, ‘Horrible’ Pence in Latest Project Veritas Sting

Admin

A New York Times senior staff editor called President Trump an “oblivious idiot” and Vice President Mike Pence “horrible” and “worse than Trump” in an undercover video released Tuesday by the watchdog group Project Veritas. The video, part of an investigation into liberal media bias, shows London-based homepage editor Desiree Shoe blasting the president and vice…

Read the full story

Judson Phillips Commentary: Steve Bannon, the Tea Party, and the War with the Establishment GOP

Admin

ANALYSIS/OPINION: At the Value Voters Summit last week, former Trump adviser and Breitbart Chairman Steve Bannon announced the obvious. “Right now, it’s a season of war on the GOP establishment,” he told the conservative base. For conservatives, this war is not Mr. Bannon’s war. It is everyone’s war. Contrary to what the media and the Republican…

Read the full story

Faith: Verse of the Day for Wednesday, October 18

Dana Hunsinger Gill
Tennessee Star - Verse of the Day

  VERSE OF THE DAY Be blessed and be a blessing October 18, Wednesday Proverbs 1:1-7 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: 2 for gaining wisdom and instruction; for understanding words of insight; 3 for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair; 4 for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young— 5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance— 6 for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction

Read the full story

Department of Education ‘Tasked with Damage Control’ over 3rd Consecutive Year of Testing Problems

Tennessee Star Staff

The Professional Educators of Tennessee issued a statement on Tuesday about the third consecutive year of testing problems for Tennessee’s public school systems: The Department of Education is tasked with damage control over a problem in assessment for the third consecutive year. Whether the fault lies with the Department, the test vendor, or some other piece of the puzzle, is of little concern to teachers across the state who may have been impacted. At the end of the day, these assessments factor heavily into the state’s accountability model that affects their overall employment. Regardless of whose fault it is, our teachers suffer the consequences. However, finger pointing does not solve the issue. It is time for the Department of Education, Tennessee legislators, and education stakeholders to work together to resolve this recurrent obstacle that only serves to create tension and stall progress. Leadership on difficult issues is hard and always challenging. We applaud the Department of Education’s transparency of discovering the issues through their own internal oversight and review of the assessment results. Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen has proactively acknowledged the problems and communicated with districts and stakeholders. To their credit in the past, the Department has also endeavored…

Read the full story

John McCain, of All People, Blasts at Nationalism

Admin

You’d think Sen. John McCain, who in part platformed his North Vietnam prisoner-of-war status into a long-running and lucrative political career, would understand better than the average bear the importance of an America First, Other Countries Second mentality – you know, the kind ushered in nationwide by President Donald Trump. But he doesn’t. He apparently thinks…

Read the full story

The 100 Greatest Innovations of 2017

Admin

The year’s most transformative products and discoveries. WE COULD BRAG. We could say our 30th annual list of the most transformative products and discoveries required trucks full of experts, hours of toil, and countless friendship-ending debates. That’s true, but you just want the good stuff. So read on. A robot just made me french fries. Delicious,…

Read the full story

Why Can’t I Touch My Toes?

Admin

Don’t worry, it’s not a fair measure of fitness. For some people, touching toes feels like pulling a muscle. As a middle schooler, one of my life goals was the Presidential Fitness Award—an accolade given to those who passed a series of gym-class tests that included doing a number of pull ups, running a…

Read the full story

West Tennessee Doctor Dropped by Medicare a Caring Man Who Would Never Cheat the System, Supporters Say

Wendy Wilson

Five years ago, Janice Lowery of West Tennessee moved to another town, which left her a greater distance away from the doctor she had been going to for more than a decade. But she wasn’t about to look for another doctor, even though it would not have been hard to find one near her new home. Instead, she has continued to see Dr. Bryan Merrick at the McKenzie Medical Center, driving an hour and a half one way to get there. Merrick is a caring doctor who doesn’t dash in and out of the room and make you feel like a number, Lowery said. “He listens to you,” she said. “You don’t feel rushed.” Lowery even drives her husband, who is legally blind, to see Merrick for separate appointments. Like many of Merrick’s patients, Lowery was alarmed this past spring when he was accused of Medicare fraud and lost his Medicare reimbursement privileges for three years. It’s a turn of events that many of his supporters consider an injustice, and they fault distant bureaucrats with not caring about their small rural community. Merrick, who is 62 and has been practicing medicine for more than 30 years, was found to have…

Read the full story

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry Unveils Plans for Huge $5.2 Billion Mass Transit Project

Wendy Wilson

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry released a detailed proposal Tuesday for a huge $5.2 billion mass transit project for the Nashville area that calls for four different types of tax increases. Barry will ask Metro Council to schedule a referendum for May 2018 to ask voters to approve the plan, called “Let’s Move Nashville: Metro’s Transportation Solution.” The mayor and her allies have been involved in efforts for some time to promote a tentative regional mass transit plan for Middle Tennessee they say would cost $6 billion. That plans for Metro Nashville alone now carry a $5.2 billion price tag reflects the ambitious nature of Barry’s vision, and will subject the progressive Democrat to even more criticism from those already skeptical of the project. The project would include light rail and electric buses, as well as improvements to existing transportation. In recent weeks, Barry has come up with a controversial idea for an underground tunnel in downtown Nashville for trains and buses. The tunnel would cost more than $900 million, which has significantly added to the overall cost. Barry presented her proposal at the Music City Center. The Nashville Tea Party later slammed her for saying during her speech that “there’s…

Read the full story

Comedian George Lopez Booed Off Stage for Anti-Trump Rant

Admin

While appearing at the Carousel Ball in Denver recently, comedian George Lopez was booed off stage after a series of racially charged jokes at President Trump’s (and his supporters’) expense, Page Six reported. The atmosphere in the room was so uncomfortable, Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei stood up from his front-row table to interrupt Lopez during his act to ask the comedian tone down his anti-conservative, anti-white rhetoric at the white-tie benefit for juvenile diabetes. The comedian, however, refused. Page Six reports: We’re told that Lopez responded to Maffei, “Thank you for changing my opinion on old white men, but it doesn’t change the way I feel about orange men.” Trying to recover and sensing the audience turn, Lopez said, “Listen, it’s about the kids … I apologize for bringing politics to an event. This is America — it still is. So I apologize to your white privilege.” We’re told Lopez also told a joke about Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, saying, “I guess you can get some Mexicans to do it cheaper and they wouldn’t crush the tunnels underneath.” Mercifully, after introducing a video package, Lopez was replaced by a local news anchor, who took over the emcee…

Read the full story

Nashville Tea Party Asks Mayor Megan Barry to Provide More Details of Mass Transit Proposal

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

The Nashville Tea Party is calling on Nashville Mayor Megan Barry to release detailed plans for a tentative $6 billion regional mass transit project. Barry has said she will put a referendum on the ballot next year to raise taxes for the project, designed to be phased in over 25 years. The proposal she’s backing makes heavy use of light rail, as well as rapid buses. The Nashville Business Journal has reported that Barry is also considering underground transit downtown. “If approved, these new taxes will burden Middle Tennessee taxpayers for decades,” the Nashville Tea Party said in a press release Monday. “The mayor’s current petition campaign simply asks taxpayers to pledge they will ‘pay for it’”. “This amounts to the mayor asking taxpayers to sign a blank check,” Ben Cunningham, president of the Nashville Tea Party, said in the press release. The press release says that the Nashville Tea Party wants the public to have the complete details now and not “in bits and pieces over the coming months.” It notes that the IMPROVE Act passed by the state legislature earlier this year requires that the public be well informed before a referendum vote. The IMPROVE Act raised the gas tax…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Scandalous Truth About Obamacare Is Laid Bare

Admin

by Jeffery A. Tucker   It’s not just that Obamacare is financially unsustainable. More seriously, it is intellectually unsustainable, even though this truth has been slow to emerge. This has come to an end with President Trump’s executive order. What does it do? It cuts subsidies to failing providers, yes. It also redefines the meaning of “short term” policies from one year to 90 days. But more importantly–and this is what has the pundit class in total meltdown–it liberalizes the rules for providers to serve health-coverage consumers. In the words of USA Today: the executive order permits a greater range of choice “by allowing more consumers to buy health insurance through association health plans across state lines.” The key word here is “allowing” – not forcing, not compelling, not coercing. Allowing. Why would this be a problem? Because allowing choice defeats the core feature of Obamacare, which is about forcing risk pools to exist that the market would otherwise never have chosen. If you were to summarize the change in a phrase it is this: it allows more freedom. The tenor of the critics’ comments on this move is that it is some sort of despotic act. But let’s be…

Read the full story

California Becomes First State To Legally Recognize A ‘Third Gender’

Admin

California became the first state in America to legally recognize a third gender after Democrat Gov. Jerry Brown signed the legislation Sunday. State drivers’ licenses, birth certificates, and other identity documents will now allow residents to check “non-binary” rather than just male or female, the Sacramento Bee reported Monday. The Gender Recognition Act is one of…

Read the full story