Day: February 5, 2018

Nashville Mayor’s Office Inadvertently Admits to Another Likely Ethics Problem Linked to Greece Trip for Embattled Megan Barry

Chris Alto

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s admission to adultery with Sgt. Robert Forrest, head of her security detail, has already raised questions about whether public funds provided opportunities facilitating the affair when the two traveled alone together in furtherance of city business. According to Police Chief Anderson, Sgt. Forrest’s schedule and hours were dictated by the Mayor’s office. If it is determined that public funds were used for personal benefit or other unauthorized purposes, it may constitute a misappropriation of funds. Confirmation by the Mayor’s office that she accepted payment by 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), a project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, for travel and lodging expenses for her trip to Greece may cause an ethical violation for the Mayor separate and apart from the fact that Sgt. Forrest’s costs for the Greece trip were paid for with public funds while their affair was ongoing. “Mayor Barry’s travel and lodging expenses were paid for by 100RC, any other costs she paid for out of pocket,” the Mayor’s Director of Communications Sean Braisted told The Tennessee Star in a story published on Monday morning. In 2016, Mayor Barry issued Executive Order 005, Financial and other disclosures by certain Metropolitan Government employees and officials; ethics, conflict of…

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Truth, Trust Are ‘Kryptonite’ To Barry, Metro Council In Promoting $9 Billion Transit Plan

Jason M. Reynolds

In popular media, Superman fights for “truth, justice and the American way.” The superhero who is “faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive” is vulnerable to a substance known as Kryptonite. Those who back Nashville’s $9 billion transit system are facing their own version of Kryptonite: Trust. Even one prominent supporter now says he has some doubts. The uncertainty comes nearly a week following news that Metro Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, the face of the Let’s Move Nashville Transit Improvement Plan, had an adulterous, years-long affair with veteran police Sgt. Rob Forrest who was in charge of her security. Barry dodged her responsibilities as an elected official having an affair with an employee who resigned, while she kept her job, and it was revealed her affair violated her office’s mission statement of transparency and her own executive order that employees should be ethical and avoid conflicts of interest. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been asked to investigate any potential breaking of the law, including “misappropriation of public funds and official misconduct,” District Attorney Glenn Funk spokesman Steve Hayslip told The Tennessean. The Metro Council voted Jan. 23 on a second reading of the plan to hide the…

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Commentary: The Obama Coverup for Hillary Clinton Was Worse Than Collusion

Tennessee Star Staff

Records available through the FBI Vault prove beyond any doubt that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her inner circle of trusted aides, including Human Abedin and Cheryl Mills, were subjects of a formal investigation into mishandling of classified information, beginning July 10, 2015. Yes, you read the above correctly, a formal FBI investigation commenced…

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Trey Gowdy Says FBI Concealed Clinton Role in Steele Dossier

Tennessee Star Staff

The House’s top investigator on Sunday said the FBI failed to notify a surveillance court it was relying on material funded by Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign when it asked to snoop on an adviser tied to the Trump campaign. Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, also said judges wouldn’t have authorized and repeatedly renewed a warrant to spy on the former Trump aide, Carter Page, if it hadn’t been for that very material, compiled by investigator Christopher Steele in a controversial dossier.

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Parents Furious School Canceled Father Daughter Dance Over ‘Gender Crap’

Tennessee Star Staff

A New York elementary school was forced to cancel its father daughter dance to adhere to new policies calling for “gender neutral” events. The public teacher associations for Staten Island’s Public School 65 put the father daughter dance on pause to double check whether it adheres to Department of Education new guidelines on gender practices, reports The New York Post.

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Steve Womack Selected to Replace Diane Black as House Budget Committee Chairman

Tennessee Star Staff

Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas was chosen last month to replace a fellow Republican, Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee, as chairman of the House Budget Committee. With fiscal 2018 appropriations yet to be finalized, Womack finds himself in an uncertain position. If a deal is reached to raise the Budget Control Act caps for 2019, some of his fellow Republicans might not want to do a budget. That would be a failure. While nonbinding, the budget resolution sets out important policy initiatives and paves the way for reconciliation, a powerful tool to making meaningful reform a reality.

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Maryland to Sue Trump over New Cap on State and Local Tax Deductions

Tennessee Star Staff

Maryland will sue the Trump administration for capping state and local tax (SALT) deductions in its new federal tax law, the state’s attorney general said Thursday. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed by President Trump last year contains a provision capping SALT deductions at $10,000, and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said residents across the heavily-taxed state stand to take a hit as a result.

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Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s Trip to Greece with Sgt. Forrest May Constitute a Misappropriation of Public Funds

Chris Alto

Despite claiming that her adulterous affair with a subordinate Metro employee and head of her security detail, Sgt. Robert Forrest, Jr, was a personal matter, Mayor Megan Barry’ very public admission of the affair has generated intense scrutiny of trips Barry says were for city-related business but were also trips on which she and Sgt. Forrest traveled alone together and which provided opportunities to pursue their affair. In her first admission to the adultery, the Mayor claimed that throughout her two year affair with Forrest, nothing illegal occurred and no policies were violated. Since making those claims, however, at the request of Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation to determine whether during the course of the Mayor’s affair any criminal laws were broken, including “misappropriation of public funds and official misconduct.” If it is determined that public funds were used for personal benefit or other unauthorized purposes, it may constitute a misappropriation of funds. Metro Code of Ordinances dictates specific “Standards of Conduct” for all Metro employees that could apply as well. Mayor Barry insists that her “personal time” with Sgt. Forrest during these trips did not occur while they were “on…

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