Early Voting in Full Swing as Reeves and Jordan Battle to Replace Jim Tracy in Tennessee’s 14th State Senate District

Early voting has begun in the March 13 special election to replace former State Senator Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville), who resigned when he was was tapped by the Trump Administration to serve in the USDA. Republican Shane Reeves is facing off against Democrat Gale Jordan. Reeves, a first-time candidate, won the Republican primary in January against former State Rep. Joe Carr (R-Lascassas).  Democrat Jordan, a very far left candidate in a traditionally conservative district, ran unopposed in her party’s primary. Earlier this year, political watchers were shocked at the outcome of the special election to replace longtime popular State Senator Mae Beavers, who stepped down to focus on her gubernatorial bid. Her friend and ally, State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) ran unopposed in the primary, but low voter turnout resulted in a very narrow victory by Pody over liberal Democrat Mary Alice Carfi by a margin of only 300 votes. Democrats are hoping that Pody’s close call, combined with the 37 local elections they’ve taken from Republicans in the past year, may be an indicator that the hoped for “Blue Wave” many pundits are predicting for the 2018 Congressional midterms in November will be followed by another surprisingly close election between Reeves and Jordan. Past…

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Youth In Government Press Corps Produces Daily Video Newscast from Temporary HQ in New Cordell Hull Building

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Youth In Government Press Corps video editor Chasity Chambers and video producer Amanda Nolan, along with their student team of on-air talent, are documenting the daily events at the 65th Annual Youth In Government General Assembly, a program of the Tennessee YMCA Center for Civic Engagement, at the State Capitol with daily video newscasts. Nolan, a senior at Mt. Juliet High School, comes by her interest in media production naturally. Her father, Davis Nolan, is the long time weather forecaster at WKRN TV in Nashville. Nolan will be attending Vanderbilt University in the fall. Chambers, a veteran of the Youth In Government Press Corps, attends Smyrna High School. The General Assembly, which runs for three full days and one half day, began here in Nashville early Thursday morning, and wraps up at noon on Sunday. The Press Corps team delivered daily video newscasts and Thursday and Friday, and will finish up with a third newscast late Saturday. The Tennessee Star sat down with Chambers and Nolan at the temporary headquarters of the Press Corps in Hearing Room 4 of the Cordell Hull Building late Friday to hear how the leadership duo puts together their newscast. “It’s been a super…

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Hot Off the Presses! Student Journalists Publish Daily Editions of Hard Copy Newspaper

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–In an era where hard copy newspapers are shrinking in size and, in many cases, disappearing from the scene entirely, the student journalists who form the Press Corps at the 65th Annual Youth In Government General Assembly held this week in Nashville are bucking the trend. Led by Press Corps print editor Emeline Sharpe, the crew of nine student journalists are writing, producing, publishing and distributing at least one edition–and sometimes more–a day of The Ledger, a 6 to 8 page hard copy newspaper that documents the events making news at the conference. The Tennessee Star spoke with Sharpe Friday afternoon at the temporary headquarters of the Press Corps in Hearing Room 4 of the Cordell Hull Building at the State Capitol to hear the behind-the-scenes details of this student-run media operation. “I definitely couldn’t do it without everyone in the Press Corps. We have a bunch of members this year,” Sharpe told The Star. “I work with InDesign” to produce the paper, she added. “Thankfully, we have a format from years past, so the startup isn’t too bad. I go through Google Drive, and make sure there’s lots of organization and no one’s confused and all my articles…

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Facebook FAIL: Fact-Checkers Trigger Suspension Threat Against Satire Site for ‘Fake News’ Story About CNN’s ‘Industrial Washing Mashines’

Facebook on Friday said it mistakenly threatened to demonetize a satirical website’s social networking account after one of its articles, “CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication,” was debunked by Snopes, the fact-checking site used to help counter the platform’s fake news problem.

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US ‘Not Surprised’ by Russia’s Nuclear Claims, ‘Fully Prepared’ to Defend Itself

The United States is brushing aside a series of claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he has an array of new strategic nuclear weapons that can hit a target anywhere in the world. Both the White House and the Pentagon dismissed the talk as rhetoric Thursday, saying Russia’s attempts to modernize its nuclear force came as no surprise and would do little to rattle the U.S.

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The Dangers of Obama-Era ‘Guidance’ on Handling School Discipline

Manipulating the statistics on school discipline issues can mean big bucks for districts once the stats tell the feds the story they want to hear, as a piece in recently noted. Unless Secretary of Education Betsy Devos can roll back the Obama-era guidelines that encouraged this, the politically correct recipe for disaster could pave the way for yet another tragedy like the one that occurred in Parkland, Florida, on Valentine’s Day.

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Report: Andrew McCabe Authorized Media Leaks, Misled Investigators

•DOJ’s internal watchdog to criticize former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe McCabe authorized leaks to the media, according to new reports The former deputy director also reportedly misled watchdog investigators about the media disclosures McCabe stepped down from his position in January The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog will criticize former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe…

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Trump: Sometimes ‘Trade Wars Are Good’

President Donald Trump responded Friday to strong criticisms that his pursuit of punitive trade measures will trigger a trade war with a tweet arguing that sometimes “trade wars are good.” Following recent decisions to place tariffs on imported washing machines, solar panels, and aluminum foil, the president announced Thursday that the U.S. will put tariffs of 25 percent on foreign-made steel and 10 percent on aluminum. This move was set in motion by a Department of Commerce report released last month that recommended restricting imports of foreign steel and aluminum to protect national security.

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Illegal Immigration Estimated to Cost Tennessee Taxpayers $793 Million in 2017

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), estimates that illegal immigration cost Tennessee taxpayers $793 million dollars in 2017. A recently updated infographic published by FAIR, estimates that 135,000 illegal aliens live in Tennessee that along with approximately 46,000 of their children born in the U.S., brings the total to over 180,000 people. FAIR estimates that in Tennessee, illegal alien households add 39,000 students to local schools. More specifically, FAIR’s infographic totaling the fiscal burden of illegal immigration on Tennessee estimates that between the cost of education, law enforcement, healthcare, public assistance and expenses associated with government services, $793 million Tennessee tax dollars were diverted to support illegal immigration in 2017. Including U.S. citizens and authorized alien workers, the cost breaks down to a fiscal burden of $315 per household. The infographic can be viewed below:  

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