Georgia stole the headlines on National Signing Day, and one of its biggest division rivals limped to the finish line. CBS Sports analyst Barton Simmons ranked the biggest winners and losers of signing day, and while Georgia was the No. 1 biggest winner, Tennessee was the No. 1 biggest loser.
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Travel documents released to WSMV News4 by the Mayor’s Office show that out-of-town travel by Megan Barry with only the head of her security detail, former MNPD Sargent Rob Forrest, spiked after their affair began in 2016. During the first nine months in office spanning September 2015 through June 2016, the Mayor and her bodyguard traveled together only two times, and included additional city staff. However, from June 2016 through October 2017, Barry and Forrest took 26 trips, 10 of which were without any other staff. In her first statements about it, Mayor Barry – a Democrat – said her illicit affair with Forrest began “in the Spring of 2016” and that currently “it’s over,” refusing to state exactly when their relationship ended. Mayor Barry’s Communications Director Sean Braisted told WSMV News4 the addition of a security detail and frequency of trips with Sgt. Forrest came at the recommendation of the Metro Nashville Police Department and Chief Steve Anderson. Braisted said in a statement: You will see a security detail traveled sporadically with Mayor Barry until mid-to-late 2016. This was based on the recommendations of the Police Department that Mayor Barry have police detail on all official business trips, increases in terrorist attacks and…
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President Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum Tuesday, establishing a National Vetting Center (NVC) to, according to a White House statement, “coordinate the efforts of departments and agencies to better identify individuals seeking to enter the country who present a threat to national security, border security, homeland security, or public safety.” Led by the Department of Homeland Security, the NVC, will fulfill President Trump’s campaign promise for “extreme vetting,” and help meet the requirement that all departments and agencies improve their coordination and use of intelligence and other information in the vetting process. “The Federal Government’s current vetting efforts are ad hoc, which impedes our ability to keep up with today’s threats,” Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, adding: The NVC will better coordinate these activities in a central location, enabling officials to further leverage critical intelligence and law enforcement information to identify terrorists, criminals, and other nefarious actors trying to enter and remain within our country. The NVC’s operations will adhere to America’s strong protections for individuals’ privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. The Administration’s top priority is the safety and security of the public, and the NVC will empower our frontline defenders to better fulfill that obligation.” Read…
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The top Senate leaders have announced an agreement on a two year budget deal that would provide defense and domestic programs with large spending increases. Majority leader Mitch McConnell and the top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer spoke to fellow senators about the deal on Tuesday as members of Congress sought to avert another government shutdown.
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By Robert Romano Besides the DNC and Clinton campaign-funded Christopher Steele dossier that alleged Trump campaign-Russia collusion that was used as evidence by the Obama era Justice Department to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court warrant against Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, another piece of evidence was a Sept. 2016 Yahoo! News piece by Michael Isikoff that alleged the same. A news story, which turns out, was sourced to Steele himself, anonymous at the time, and was presented as evidence to the FISA court to “corroborate” the Steele dossier. It was circular confirmation, Steele confirming himself in essence, according to the now-released House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence memorandum by Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.): “This article does not corroborate the Steele dossier because it is derived from information leaked by Steele himself to Yahoo News.” But what stands out about the Isikoff piece, besides the fact it became one of the bases on which to spy on a presidential campaign smackdab in the middle of the election, is the fact that Isikoff quotes Justice Department officials confirming that Page was already under investigation. Isikoff referred to a Congressional source who alleged that, in Isikoff’s words, “U.S. officials in the briefings indicated…
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Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said the Trump administration was wrong to have apologized to tea party groups snared in the IRS’s targeting scandal, saying it was another example of the new team undercutting career people at the Justice Department who’d initially cleared the IRS of wrongdoing. “That apology was unnecessary, unfounded and inconsistent, it seems to me, with the responsibilities that somebody who would seek to lead the Justice Department should have done,” Mr. Holder said.
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The assertion of an FBI agent in 2016 that President Barack Obama “wants to know everything” about the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails was contrary, not surprisingly, to the Obama White House’s insistence that Mr. Obama scrupulously avoided political interference in the probe.
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Former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday he’s considering making a run for president. “I think I’ll make a decision by the end of the year about whether or not there’s another chapter,” Mr. Holder said at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.
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A new batch of text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page revealed President Barack Obama wanted updates on the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email serve, according to a Fox News report. On Sept. 2, 2016 – just weeks away from election day – Ms. Page texted Mr. Strzok, her lover, about preparing a report for then-FBI Director James B. Comey because “potus wants to know everything we’re doing,” Fox News said.
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A recent ruling by an immigration court will make it harder for some immigrants to beat deportation orders. The issue decided last week by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) revolved around whether the phrase “admitted in any status” includes people who entered the country illegally. The court ruled that it does not.
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During an extended interview, Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson indicated that he’s “not seeing anything that we would change” as far as rules, regulations or policies under which the police department operates despite Mayor Megan Barry’s public admission of committing two years of adultery with the head of her security detail, Sgt. Robert Forrest, while he was an employee of Metro’s police department. Police Chief Anderson appointed by then Mayor Karl Dean in 2010, accepts Mayor Barry’s characterization that her affair with Sgt. Forrest was strictly a personal matter. But Anderson makes it clear that he does not endorse people who work together having sexual relationships. He points out, however, that even if Sgt. Forrest had not “retired” and was still providing security for the Mayor, no specific rule or policy of the police department would have been violated. Current police department policy only prohibits personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates and would not extend to the sexual relationship between the Mayor and the security detail assigned to her office by the police department. According to Police Chief Anderson, Sgt. Forrest’s chain of command and direct supervisor is the Specialized Investigations Division (SID) but that Forrest’s day to day…
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