Day: November 22, 2017

Television, Music, and Broadway Star David Cassidy Dies at 67

Admin
David Cassidy

After struggling with dementia and cascading organ failure, David Cassidy has died, as confirmed by his publicist. He was just 67 years old. The Los Angeles Time reports: The singer and actor died in Fort Lauderdale after being hospitalized in Florida for multiple organ failure, including his liver and kidneys. His death was confirmed by Jo-Ann Geffen. The singer had also suffered from dementia in recent months, and had announced he would stop performing as the disease worsened. “I will always be eternally grateful for the love and support you’ve shown me,” he said in a statement earlier this year. “I still love very much to play and perform live. But it’s much more difficult for me now. I’m not going to vanish or disappear forever.” Cassidy had booked small acting gigs before he first shot to fame playing singer Keith Partridge on ABC’s “The Partridge Family,” a gentle sitcom take on the family-band genre. The series, which also starred Cassidy’s real-life stepmother, Shirley Jones, debuted in 1970 and ran for four seasons. Frustrated by his “Partridge Family” persona, Cassidy sought to shed his character’s clean-cut reputation and embrace the culture and politics of the far-left hippie movement, which led to his notorious…

Read the full story

Tracy Lawrence Announces 12th Annual ‘Mission: Possible’ Turkey Fry and 3rd Annual Concert

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Tracy Lawrence and Friends Announce the 12th Annual “Mission:Possible” Turkey Fry at the Nashville Rescue Mission followed by a concert at the Wildhorse Saloon featuring Halfway to Hazard, Ben Gallaher, William Michael Morgan, Luke Combs, Jamie O’Neal and Clay Cormier. Enlisting help from fellow Nashville music, sports and entertainment celebrities, as well as a host of volunteers, Lawrence and friends will fry up to 600 donated turkeys ensuring a warm meal for those less fortunate this Thanksgiving.  States Lawrence, “When their kids are out of school, so many families don’t have food to eat.” Mission:Possible and other outlets deliver to government housing along with the Men’s and Women’s shelters to help ensure they have something to eat. The Mission:Possible Turkey Fry started twelve years ago on a Thanksgiving morning when Tracy Lawrence met with friends and family and decided this would be a good way to give back to our community.  “It started small and the next thing you know, you get sponsors and it turns into this big amazing thing and it’s starting to spread around the country.” This year LouAna Oil is helping by donating oil for the fryers and Blue Rhino is donating all of the propane. Sam’s Club is also…

Read the full story

Vice President Pence Cuts Checks to Candidates, Including Rep. Marsha Blackburn for Her U.S. Senate Bid

Admin

Great America Committee, a newly-formed PAC controlled by Vice President Mike Pence, has begun cutting checks to a number of Republican candidates for office in the 2018 midterms, Politico reports. Representative Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN-07) Senate campaign is among those first recipients of the funds, along with some 36 other elected office hopefuls, many of whom have a long history of loyalty to the White House. Via Politico: The vice president is giving financial support to a slate of high-profile candidates that includes Missouri Senate hopeful Josh Hawley, Nevada gubernatorial contender Adam Laxalt, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who is eyeing a potential Senate bid. Not on the list: besieged Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who is facing accusations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with teenagers when he was in his 30s. Looking to reward those who have been loyal to the administration, Pence is wading into several prospective primaries. Among those getting checks are Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Senate hopeful who is facing a fight for the Republican nomination, and Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso. Several potential Barrasso primary opponents have emerged, including investor Foster Friess and Blackwater founder Erik Prince. “I am honored to have the support of such…

Read the full story

Neal McCoy’s Hot New Single ‘Take a Knee My A**’ Excoriates NFL’s Kneelers As It Climbs Country-Music Charts

Admin

Country music singer Neal McCoy’s newly released single about the NFL is climbing the charts, but you’ll probably never see the song performed at halftime. Released Nov. 10, “Take a Knee My Ass” was ranked first on Amazon’s digital country songs and fourth on the iTunes Top 100 Country Songs Chart as of late Sunday. Mr.…

Read the full story

Fourteen Students Charged in Brawl Fueled by Ethnic Tensions at Nashville’s Overton High School

Wendy Wilson

Fourteen students at Overton High School in Nashville faced charges Tuesday after a massive fight broke out on campus. Police said the brawl was between male students of Latino and Kurdish descent ranging in age from 14 to 19. There were no serious injuries. Twelve juveniles were charged with disorderly conduct, with one also charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. The student put his hand on the officer’s holstered gun during the struggle, according to a spokesman with the Metro Nashville Police Department. All twelve were taken to juvenile detention. Two adult students, 18-year-old Bayar Abdullah and 19-year-old Azad Abdullah, were charged with disorderly conducted and issued misdemeanor citations. Located on Franklin Road north of Brentwood, Overton High School is one of the most diverse high schools in the South with hundreds of immigrant and refugee students. The school was placed on lockdown around 11 a.m. because of the fight. WSMV News 4 reported that the fight broke out upstairs in one of the freshman hallways and bathrooms. According to WSMV: A student told News 4 there is one hallway inside the school that is referred to as the “Kurdish hallway,” and another is referred to as the “Mexican…

Read the full story

Lamar Alexander Calls Restoration of West Tennessee Doctor’s Medicare Billing Privileges ‘Good News for the People of McKenzie and Dr. Merrick’

Tennessee Star Staff

Senator Lamar Alexander called the decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to restore the medicare billing privileges for Dr. Bryan Merrick “good news for the people of McKenzie and Dr. Merrick” in a statement given to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Alexander called on Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to hold hearings in the Senate Finance Commmittee he chairs on the Obama-era regulation that was used to revoke Dr. Merrick’s Medicare privileges in March. “This is good news for the people of McKenzie and Dr. Merrick, and I am glad that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has resolved this situation. I especially appreciate the hard work of Representative David Kustoff to solve this problem — his efforts to fix this problem were very important to all of us,” Alexander said in the statement. “I’m happy to hear that CMS has decided to do the right thing and allow Dr. Merrick to return his attention to his patients and the people of McKenzie,” former Congressional candidate Dr. George Flinn told The Star. Flinn was one of many West Tennessee community leaders he advocated on behalf of Dr. Merrick after his Medicare privileges were…

Read the full story

Tennessee Education Commissioner to Reconvene Task Force on Student Testing

Wendy Wilson

Tennessee education commissioner Candice McQueen has announced the reconvening of a special task force on student testing and assessment. The state for the past few years has struggled with problems with testing vendors and growing concern among parents and others that students are overtested. McQueen started the task force after taking office in 2015 to get feedback from educators, parents and stakeholders and has made it an annual practice. Past recommendations from the task force have included shortening some state tests and eliminating the SAT-10, Explore and Plan exams, among other suggestions. “This task force has been critical in our work to improve the testing experience for students while providing better information to teachers and parents,” McQueen said in a news release Monday. “As in the past, I am confident that this group will continue to provide meaningful, actionable recommendations for improving both district and state assessment programs.” Many new participants will join the third annual assessment task force. Here is a list of task force members, with an asterisk beside the names of new participants: Candice McQueen, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Sara Morrison, Executive Director, State Board of Education Dolores Gresham, Chairman, Senate Education Committee John Forgety, Chairman, House Education…

Read the full story

Remembering President John F. Kennedy 54 Years After His Assassination

Admin

On this day 54 years ago, November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald,  a wild-eyed Communist with delusions of grandeur. Instead of typical recitations of the events of President Kennedy’s last day and its gruesome end, here is a list of some of the more noteworthy accomplishments during our 35th president’s short time in office… Broke the ‘Catholic Ceiling’ Although many questions surround the 1960 presidential contest between Republican nominee, Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John Kennedy, the Democrat won the day, becoming the second-youngest chief executive in our nation’s history (the youngest is President Theodore Roosevelt, who was 42). But what made Kennedy’s election groundbreaking was that he was the first Catholic to hold the presidency in our overwhelmingly Protestant nation. Pro-growth economic policy and tax reforms Upon assuming office, the United States’ economy was weighted down by a nagging recession. Kennedy’s pro-growth economic policy positions led to the most significant tax reforms since President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.  The cornerstone of JFK’s bold plan was an across-the-boards tax cut and a new investment tax credit. Throughout the Eisenhower era, the average GDP had grown an average of only 2.2% each year – a paltry rate…

Read the full story

Female Genital Mutilation Rampant In the U.S.

Tennessee Star Staff
Tennessee Star

Sudan, Somalia, Sierra Leone. Those African nations are notoriously associated with the gruesome ritual of female genital mutilation—but it also occurs in the U.S. where an alarming number of women and girls are subjected to such torture that Immigration and Customs Enforcement pledges to stop, according to an announcement Monday. It’s estimated more than 500,000 women…

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Public Schools Administrator Accused of Sexual Harassment

Wendy Wilson

An administrator with Metro Nashville Public Schools has been put on paid administrative pending an investigation into charges of sexual harassment. Moreno Carrasco, executive officer for priority schools, received a letter from employee relations last week citing “accusations of harassment committed by you towards female staff members at MNPS.” The letter noted that “this period of administrative leave is not a form of disciplinary action, it is just for the purpose of investigation.” Carrasco was tapped by Superintendent Shawn Joseph in summer 2016 to lead efforts to turn around the district’s lowest-performing schools. Joseph had recently been named superintendent and knew Carrasco from when they both worked in Maryland. Carrasco held positions in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland as a central office administrator and school principal. In 2007, he won the Met Life High School Principal of the Year award for Maryland, given by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. In a Metro Nashville Public Schools newsletter at the time Carrasco was hired, Joseph called Carrasco “one of the strongest school leaders I have worked with.” “He can be a coach, a strategist and a mentor, which is exactly what our highest priority schools need,” Joseph said. “He learned…

Read the full story