The GRUMOR is officially back on!!! During an appearance on Mike & Mike Wednesday, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach and Monday Night Football broadcaster Jon Gruden was asked about a potential return to coaching, as well as specifically being linked once again to the job at the University of Tennessee. “I haven’t really talked to anybody,”…
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Things haven’t gone well for the Arkansas Razorbacks on the gridiron this season and, frankly, it feels worse around the program than the team’s 4-6 record would indicate. With that as the backdrop, athletic director Jeff Long was relieved of his duties on Wednesday and that shined a (very) bright light on the status of head…
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The Nashville Predators recalled Anders Lindback from Milwaukee and assigned fellow goaltender Juuse Saros to the American Hockey League affiliate, the team announced Thursday. Lindback has an AHL-leading eight wins to go along with a 2.46 goals-against average and .918 save percentage in 11 games this season for the Admirals. Signed to a one-year contract in…
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With spines stiffened by a presidential pep talk, House Republicans easily approved a $1.4 trillion tax cut Thursday, taking the first big step toward a decades-overdue overhaul that the GOP hopes will send the economy soaring. Desperate for a legislative win, Republicans linked arms and plowed ahead, brushing aside Democratic warnings that the bill will be…
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An old video from 1994 that surfaced online this week shows just how dramatically the Democratic Party has changed its position on immigration in just 23 years. The video shows a segment on immigration from the CBS News show “Face the Nation” from that year, with a younger Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sounding like President Donald…
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Many people in Middle Tennessee love doing things outdoors, and this winter it will be easier to stay active, thanks to a new outdoor ice skating rink set to open in Murfreesboro on Saturday. The rink is at Fountains at Gateway near Saint Thomas Rutherford. There will be holiday decorations, photos with Santa, and special events such as “Movies on Ice” film screenings, live concerts and themed skate nights. The rink will be open through Jan. 3. Fountains at Gateway is a new development that includes office buildings, stores and restaurants, with plans also for apartments and a hotel. “Winterfest” featuring the ice rink is designed to be an annual event. “We are truly delighted to introduce Winterfest at Fountains and bring outdoor ice skating to Murfreesboro,” developer Scott Graby, president of Hearthstone Properties, said in a news release. “Winterfest is the first of many community events we look forward to hosting at Fountains.” The ice rink is also available to host corporate events, holiday parties, school spirit nights, and church and youth events. For hours and other information, visit fountainswinterfest.com.
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A senior fellow with the Cato Institute is the latest expert to criticize Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s $5.2 billion mass transit plan. The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C. Barry wants to raise taxes to pay for a light-rail network, improved and expanded bus service, and an underground tunnel downtown. Currently, the Music City Star connecting Lebanon and downtown Nashville is the only commuter rail service in the area. Randal O’Toole wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last week in which he criticized Barry’s plan for Davidson County, as well as mass transit proposals in San Antonio and Tampa. O’Toole wrote: These proposals are questionable at best and reckless at worst, given that transit ridership—including bus and what little rail these regions have—is down in all three jurisdictions. This is a nationwide trend: Data released this week by the Federal Transit Administration shows that ridership is falling in nearly every major urban area (with Seattle as a notable exception)… The main reason for this drop-off is that low gas prices and ride-sharing services have given people better options. Census data show that 96% of American workers live in households with at least one car,…
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One Tennessee congressman called U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s attempt to impeach President Donald J. Trump a “political stunt.” Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) and other House Democrats on Wednesday filed five Articles of Impeachment against the president. U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-03) told the Tennessee Star, “Americans voted for Donald Trump and Republicans to improve the economy and national security. That’s what we’re working on and would be glad to have Democrats’ help. I think that’s what the country would like. “Political stunts, which might make some feel better about an election loss, only slow progress on important matters like cutting middle-class taxes and rebuilding our military. I’m focused on a positive agenda for Tennesseans.” In the Articles of Impeachment, Cohen and his co-sponsors cited allegations of Russian interference in the presidential elections, alleged links between Trump’s campaign and Russia and the firing of FBI Director James Comey. The Democrats also accused Trump of profiting off his business brand during his presidency (a process called emoluments), the pardoning of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Trump’s disagreements with the news media. Cohen is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. He called for the committee to…
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Roy Moore kicked off Wednesday by taking another shot at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is calling on Mr. Moore to end his Republican bid for the U.S. Senate in Alabama over allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors. The former state chief justice has since made Mr. McConnell a top target of Twitter. “Mitch McConnell…
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Tennessee teachers are worn down by their workload and don’t think their school districts are doing enough to address the problem, results of an October survey by Professional Educators of Tennessee (ProEd) show. The Nashville-based organization which represents teachers surveyed 536 educators from more than 81 districts. This was the second year for the annual comprehensive survey. “I wasn’t surprised at all that teacher workload was the number one issue,” said Bethany Bowman, director of professional development for ProEd and a former teacher. Bowman said bureaucratic state and district mandates make a teacher’s job exhausting. “There’s so much more to it than just instructing a class,” she said. The survey asked teachers to rate around 20 issues as being very critical, critical, somewhat critical or not critical. After workload, the top 10 most critical issues included salary, literacy, parental engagement, instructional time, planning time, lack of respect, benefits, school safety and administrator quality. The survey also asked educators to rate how they felt their district or school addressed the issues. Only 29 percent of educators rated their districts above average with respect to workload, only 31 percent rated their districts above average for addressing salary issues, and only 37 percent…
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is “very proud” of his five-nation, 12-day trip to Asia, asserting lots of progress was made on issues such as security and trade. In remarks delivered behind closed doors Tuesday at the East Asia Summit in Manila, Trump reiterated that North Korea remains a major global military threat. “North…
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The United States is on the verge of reversing an immigration court backlog that has been building for years, Attorney General Jeff Sessions testified Tuesday. Immigration hawks long have pointed to the backlog, now about 600,000 cases, as a factor in undermining enforcement. Sessions told the House Judiciary Committee that the backlog has barely grown during…
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President Trump on Tuesday nominated Tom Homan to become the permanent head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in a move that heads off what could have been a crisis of leadership at the critical agency. Mr. Trump acted with just two days left before the Vacancies Act would have kicked in, and forced Mr. Homan…
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by CHQ Staff Conservatives wondering where the Alabama Senate election is going should reflect on the despicable conduct of Mitch McConnell when a Republican primary election goes against his wishes. In the 2014 Mississippi Republican Senate primary McConnell backed 36-year incumbent establishment Senator Thad Cochran, whom Citizens Against Government Waste once named the leading pork-seeker in the Senate, against principled limited government constitutional conservative state Senator Chris McDaniel. According to Brietbart’s Matthew Boyle, Sen. Cochran and executive assistant Kay Webber “traveled eight times to France, five times to Italy, four times to Israel, and twice to Japan. The full list of countries they traveled to includes: Italy, France, Brussels, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Hungary, Russia, Norway, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Austria, and Czech Republic in Europe; Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile in South America; Guatemala, and Mexico in North and Central America; Japan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Republic of the Philippines, and South Korea in Asia; Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Azerbaijan, Oman, and United Arab Emirates in the Middle East, to Morocco; and Egypt, Cape Verde, and South Africa in Africa. Other documents show that in 2005 and 2007, the Wine Institute, a trade…
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Former Republican Congressional candidate Dr. George Flinn, who wrote President Trump asking him to instruct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) to amend the Obama-era regulation that were used against a beloved West Tennessee family physician, released a statement on Tuesday that he was “glad to play a small role in the restoration of Medicare billing privileges to Dr. Bryan Merrick, the family physician based in McKenzie, Tennessee: Congratulations to Dr. Merrick, his staff and the city of McKenzie. Ensuring that Dr. Merrick is able to continue serving his patients is an absolute victory, especially in a time when the patient-doctor relationship is dissolving due to government overreach and over regulation. Any help that was provided in writing a letter to President Trump, I was more than happy to do. I’m glad I was able to play a small role in doing the right thing and making sure patients continue to have access to Dr. Merrick. “Federal officials have restored Medicare billing privileges to Dr. Bryan Merrick, whose McKenzie Medical Center is located in the small West Tennessee city of McKenzie,” The Tennessee Star reported on Tuesday: The Tennessee Star led the way in reporting on the story of…
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Jimmy Haslam, CEO of Pilot Flying J, knew about a fuel rebate scheme at his company and “loved it,” according to what an executive said in a secret recording that jurors heard in court Tuesday. Haslam, brother of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and owner of the Cleveland Browns football team, has denied knowledge of the widespread fraud scheme and has not been charged. Four former employees of the truck stop chain are currently on trial in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga. In all, 18 former employees were charged in the scheme and 14 pleaded guilty. The fraud involved shorting trucking companies on promised diesel fuel rebates. “He knew – absolutely,” John “Stick” Freeman, former Pilot Flying J vice president of sales, said of Jimmy Haslam in the recording played in court Tuesday, according to the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Federal prosecutors released a transcript of the recording after Pilot Flying J was raided by federal agents in 2013, but Tuesday was the first time the recording was heard publicly. The recording was made by Vincent Greco, then a sales director for the company, who wore a wire for investigators. Freeman said in the recording that former president Mark Hazelwood also knew about the scheme.…
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