Day: March 18, 2018

Lent Is a Microcosm of Life in its Entirety, with All Its Trials

Admin
Calvary

There are those of us who remember how as schoolboys, the clever use of rhythmic dactyls in Virgil’s metrical Latin verses made unforgettable the sound of horses galloping. And one of my schoolmates gained fleeting fame when our French teacher announced that, as our classmate was recovering from an appendectomy, the first words he whispered as he came out of the anesthesia were from a line in LaFontaine’s fable about the Crow and the Fox: “Matitre Corbeau sur un arbre perche…”

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Further Testing Issues Show Implementation Problems at Tennessee’s Department of Education

Bob Goodwin
McQueen

After three years and little success, the Tennessee Department of Education remains riddled with problems implementing statewide online testing platforms, TNReady. According to an email blast from Chief Information Officer for the Tennessee Department of Education Cliff Lloyd on March 6, the state’s online testing platform experienced more technical difficulties this week. “The problem was related to a rogue process that was running in the data center where NextEra is hosted,” Lloyd said. “The problem was identified relatively quickly and the process was shut down, but unfortunately it did negatively impact about fifteen districts.” The email blast was sent to educators across the state as they tried to log into their state-mandated testing platform, but it wasn’t these teachers’ first report of problems from the department; in fact, it wasn’t even their first update this week. “Yesterday I wrote to you and explained the diagnosis and remediation of a problem in the NextEra testing platform that made logging on to the system difficult,” Lloyd wrote earlier in the email. “While that problem is now solved, unfortunately we encountered another problem today.” From the original vendor failing to create a functioning testing platform to thousands of tests being incorrectly scored to…

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Diane Black Marches in Houston County Irish Day Parade on St. Patrick’s Day

Tennessee Star Staff

On Saturday Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) marched in the Irish Day Parade in the Houston County community of Erin, an annual celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. The parade was the final event of a week long festival of all things Irish in the community that takes it name from the Emerald Isle. Participants and parade watchers wore green, the color long associated with Ireland, which is known for its lush green countrysides. Houston County is a small rural county just west of Dickson County, the western edge of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area, with a population of a little more than 8,000. Erin, the county seat, has a population of 1,300. St. Patrick’s Day Parades in which politicians march have long been associated with large northeastern cities with large Irish populations dominated by the Democratic Party, such as New York City and Boston. The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the United States was held in Boston in 1737, organized by the Charitable Irish Society. New York City soon followed suit, organizing its first St. Patrick Day celebration in 1762. Chicago, which began celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in 1843, adds a little flavor to the celebration by…

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Senate Panel Calls for Special Counsel to Investigate DOJ Handling of Dossier

Tennessee Star Staff

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are formally calling for a second special counsel to investigate the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of the Steele dossier. The Republicans, led by Chairman Chuck Grassley, last month called on the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General to explore the FBI and DOJ’s handling of the salacious document.

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Trump’s Personal Lawyer John Dowd Calls for End to Mueller Probe After McCabe Firing

Tennessee Star Staff

President Trump’s personal attorney called on the Justice Department Saturday to immediately shut down special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Attorney John Dowd said Mr. Mueller’s investigation has been “corrupted” by political bias since the beginning.

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Facebook Suspends Trump Campaign Data Firm Cambridge Analytica

Tennessee Star Staff

Facebook says it has suspended the account of Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm that helped Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, for failing to delete user data. Also suspended were the accounts of its parent organization, Strategic Communication Laboratories, as well as those of University of Cambridge psychologist Aleksandr Kogan and Christopher Wylie, who runs Eunoia Technologies.

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Commentary: Democrats and RINOs Driving 2018 Omnibus Spending

Tennessee Star Staff

by CHQ Staff   If you thought electing a Republican majority in Congress would usher in an era of fiscal responsibility, think again. While the tax cuts championed by President Trump have so far kept revenue at record levels – even with lower Money burningtax rates – Congressional spending is skyrocketing, in large measure because Democrats’ big government policies and programs are still driving spending. For fiscal 2019 year the Pentagon’s budget will be $647 billion and the nation’s domestic budget will be $597 billion. Here are just a few of the areas where conservatives think federal spending could be eliminated entirely that, according to our friend Rachel Bovard writing for the Federalist, look like they will be included in this year’s omnibus spending bill: Full funding for Planned Parenthood Republicans have made it a central campaign promise for years now to end taxpayer funding for America’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. This issue has gained urgency in light of the Department of Justice investigation into the organization’s dealings in fetal tissue. Yet, drafts of this latest funding bill preserve the $10 million a year that Planned Parenthood receives from taxpayers. Conservative House Republicans are making an admirable play to…

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British Court Orders Christopher Steele To Appear For Deposition In Trump Dossier Lawsuit

Tennessee Star Staff

The former British spy who wrote the infamous dossier has been ordered to appear for a deposition in a lawsuit over the salacious document filed in the U.S. A British court ordered Christopher Steele to testify about his role in compiling the dossier, which alleges that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government during the…

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Mae Beavers Confirms She Is Running for Wilson County Mayor

Tennessee Star Staff
Mae Beavers

In an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star on Saturday, former gubernatorial candidate and former State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) has confirmed she is running for Mayor of Wilson County. “I met with a group of citizens last week and they were asking me to run for County Mayor. We took the week and thought about it, and decided to go for it,” Beavers told The Star. “I just picked up a petition at 3 p.m. Friday, and it kind of snowballed from there,” Beavers added. The Lebanon Democrat first reported Saturday morning that Beavers had pulled a petition Friday afternoon to run for Mayor of Wilson County: After less than two months away from politics, former state Sen. Mae Beavers has pulled a petition and set her sights on the Wilson County mayor’s office. Beavers pulled the petition Friday afternoon, and will challenge incumbent Randall Hutto, who has filed his petition ahead of the April 5 deadline, and Bob Richie, who has not filed his petition. If elected, Beavers will be returning to the same Wilson County Government where she began her political career in 1990 when she was elected to the Wilson County Commission. In 1994 she was…

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