Bill Lee Opens Shelby County Campaign Office in Race for Tennessee Governor

Williamson County businessman Bill Lee on Wednesday opened a campaign office in Shelby County for his run for Tennessee governor. The office is on Poplar Avenue in Memphis, Lee announced in a press release. He also named Shelby County leaders who will help with his gubernatorial campaign. Lang Wiseman, a local attorney and former Shelby County Republican Party chairman, will chair Lee’s campaign in Shelby County. Horace Tipton will serve as the Shelby County field director. A Memphis native, Tipton worked in the Texas House of Representatives as a legislative aide and most recently worked for the campaign for Tennessee state Rep. Kevin Vaughan, a Republican who won a seat representing part of Shelby County in a special election in June. County captains for Lee’s campaign in Shelby County will include Karen Dunavant, Elaine Ervins and Rieta Selberg. “Bill has been meeting with leaders and voters in our community for months now, and his presence here shows he is continuing to follow through on his commitment to this area as governor,” Wiseman said. Lee released a detailed plan for Memphis and Shelby County last month that included an education plan, active engagement with law enforcement, a focus on infrastructure and economic development, and engagement…

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Former AG Alberto Gonzales: In America, Dreams Can Still Come True

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — As he travels the country speaking to young people, Alberto Gonzales asks them, how big can you dream? Many are afraid of getting laughed at if they talk about their ambitions, or they are afraid of failure, Gonzales said Thursday at a Latinos For Tennessee fundraising reception. But he wants them to know that in America, dreams can still come true. Gonzales is a former U.S. attorney general who served under former President George W. Bush and today is the dean of Belmont University’s Law School. A product of humble beginnings in Houston, Texas, Gonzales spoke of his own life as an example, telling of how his mom lived to see her son become a high-ranking official in the nation’s capital. As another example, he joked that as a young boy he dreamed of the Houston baseball team that became the Astros one day winning the World Series. That dream came true Nov. 1 when the Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the title for the first time in their existence as a Major League Baseball franchise. Thursday’s fundraiser at The Standard at the Smith House in downtown Nashville was held to raise financial…

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Mt. Juliet Takes Steps to Resolve Conflict with RTA Over Music City Star Commuter Rail

Mt. Juliet city commissioners voted this week to pay $30,000 to the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) if the RTA will improve the Music City Star light rail station. Mt. Juliet and the RTA have been feuding over finances for the Nashville area’s only light rail line. The problems come as Davidson County debates implementing a large-scale mass transit plan. The Music City Star offers service between downtown Nashville and Lebanon and has stops in Lebanon, Mt. Juliet, Martha, Hermitage, Donelson and Riverfront Station. NewsChannel 5 Nashville reports: The RTA said Mt. Juliet has not paid its $30,000 annual operations payment for the last four years. Mt. Juliet city leaders said they stopped making payments when the RTA wasn’t willing to make improvements to the station. City leaders maintained the $30,000 is an optional fee and not required by law. The city has maintained its roughly $2,500 yearly dues without any problem. City leaders said they felt the $30,000 was better spent on improvement projects within the city. Because it wasn’t getting the money it said it needed from Mt. Juliet, the RTA had been discussing reducing rail service, implementing parking fees and ticket surcharges, or discontinuing service to Mt. Juliet. Commissioners…

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Commentary: All Aboard! Rep. Steve Cohen Leads Democrats to Jump on the Crazy Train to Impeachment

Cue Ozzy Osbourne. The Democrats have finally boarded the Crazy Train. A handful in the House just introduced five articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Sigh. Psychiatrists take note; here are the names: Reps. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Adriana Espaillat of New York and Al Green of…

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Jim Jordan: It’s ‘Unbelievable’ if U.S. Government Funded Opposition Research on Trump

Jim Jordan

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Wednesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that it would be “unbelievable” if the U.S. government and the Department of Justice funded the dossier on President Donald Trump and Russia and called for a special counsel to investigate further. Jordan grilled Attorney General Jeff Sessions Tuesday during his testimony before the House…

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Hospital Workers Want to Throw Off a Union They Never Wanted to Join

Employees at a hospital in Pennsylvania are petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to overturn a board regional director’s decision to unionize the workers without their consent. Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill East’s 160 workers were forced into a union membership with the Service Employees International Union through the “accretion doctrine,” a policy that allows the NLRB to…

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Bob Corker Called Roy Moore ‘A Bridge Too Far’ But Gives Al Franken a Pass: ‘I Just Don’t Want to Be Weighing In’

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) called on Republican Roy Moore to withdraw from the U.S. Senate race in Alabama after unsubstantiated allegations of sexual harassment more than 30 years ago were made against him. But on Thursday, Corker refused to call for any punitive actions against Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) after photographic evidence substantiated a more recent claim of sexual harassment brought against him by a woman who was on a 2006 USO tour of Afghanistan with the former Saturday Night Live comic. “I receive these kinds of questions every day about all kinds of things and I just — I don’t really have a lot — I don’t know enough . . . I just, again, I just don’t want to be weighing in on these things every day when I know nothing about them,” Corker told The Intercept when asked about the conduct of his friend and Senate colleague from Minnesota. The Intercept added: But when a reporter pointed out that he had weighed in on the Roy Moore scandal, Corker asked, “How did I weigh in on Roy Moore?” Look, I’m sorry, but even before these reports surfaced, Roy Moore’s nomination was a bridge too far. — Senator…

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