Day: March 27, 2018

Illegal Immigrants in Tennessee Can Already Get Cheaper College Tuition Than What is Proposed in Gardenhire/White Bill

Chris Alto
Graduation

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) have failed three times to pass a bill that would award the in-state tuition benefit to illegal aliens but they are trying again this legislative session using the same argument about financial accessibility of in-state v. out-of-state tuition. A less expensive college tuition, however, is already available to illegal aliens and, it doesn’t require passing the Gardenhire/White bill. University of the People (UoPeople) offers completely free “quality, online, degree-granting educational programs to any qualified student” including refugees, asylum seekers and illegal aliens: Founded in 2009, University of the People is the first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited American online university. To date, the university has enrolled nearly 10,000 students from more than 200 countries and territories around the world – almost half of whom reside in the US. Recently, the university has seen a significant spike in enrollment from immigrants in the US, among those, refugees, DACA and undocumented students. According to a recent student survey, 69% of US-residing students reported being immigrants, of whom, approximately 30% are DACA or undocumented. ‘It is our duty to support anyone who wants to improve their lives through education,’ says [UoPeople founder] Reshef. ‘We…

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Charles Hurt Commentary: Next Up (The Swamp Hopes) – The Really Truly Final End of Trump

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First they tried to beat him at the polls. They lost miserably. Then they unleashed America’s most powerful and penetrating espionage apparatus against him at the height of the presidential campaign. And got caught red-handed. Once he assumed the White House, they tried beating him with a sprawling federal investigation into “Russia collusion” – only to…

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President Trump Expels 60 Russian Officials Over UK Nerve-Agent Attack

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President Trump expelled 60 Russian intelligence officers Monday and closed Russia’s consulate in Seattle in response to Moscow’s nerve-agent attack on a British former double agent in England. In one of his most dramatic confrontations with Moscow on its covert actions, Mr. Trump ordered the expulsion of 48 officials working at the Russian Embassy in Washington, and 12 intelligence officers assigned to Russia’s mission at the United Nations in New York City.

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Steve Gill Analysis: That 2018 ‘Blue Wave’ May Be a Little Tougher To Accomplish Than the Left Thinks

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Conservative political commentator and Tennessee Star contributor Steve Gill said on The Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville on Monday, that the oft-mentioned and fervently hoped-for “Blue Wave” of Democrat victories this fall may be a little tougher to come by than the left may think. “Are the 2018 midterm elections shaping up to be the ‘Blue Wave’ that the mainstream media would believe is coming where Democrats trounce Republicans across the country, and retake the House and the Senate and then impeach Donald Trump…? Well, maybe in their hope and dreams,” Gill posited. He continued: That’s certainly the way the mainstream media was painting the Republican primary and Democrat primary in Texas a few weeks ago. They were proclaiming that energized Democrats were poised to “make history” and “turn Texas blue.” But then Election Day happened and Republicans were the ones who actually set a Texas primary turnout record. In the Pennsyvania special election where Demecrat Lamb defeated Republicn Saccone by a mere .2 of a percent? Well that’s in a district where Democrats actually have a 50 thousand vote registration margin. And for the Democrat to win, he had to run against Nancy Pelosi, sidle up to Donald Trump,…

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Much to the Consternation of Some ‘Environmentalists,’ Scott Pruitt is Bringing Transparency to the EPA

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Scott Pruitt

by Printus LeBlanc   Recently, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced a policy change that is driving several “scientists” mad. Pruitt announced the EPA would no longer use “science” from outside groups that refuse to share data. This has become a problem for the agency because previous administrations would receive reports from outside groups and make decisions based on the report without reviewing the data. Any scientist will be able to tell you junk data going in means junk results coming out. In an interview given to The Daily Caller, Pruitt stated, “If we use a third party to engage in scientific review or inquiry, and that’s the basis of rule-making, you and every American citizen across the country deserve to know what’s the data, what’s the methodology that was used to reach that conclusion that was the underpinning of what—rules that were adopted by this agency.” Pruitt continued, “When we do contract that science out, sometimes the findings are published; we make that part of our rule-making processes, but then we don’t publish the methodology and data that went into those findings because the third party who did the study won’t give it to us.” Many climate change alarmists…

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Commentary: Cambridge Analytica’s Marketers Weren’t Mind-Readers or Brain-Washers

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President-elect Donald Trump

by Andrew McKie   When examining the alleged role played by Cambridge Analytica, Facebook and “big data” in the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump, it’s worth looking at a book which opens by declaring that “is an attempt to explore a strange and rather exotic area of modern life.” It continues: It is about the way many of us are being influenced and manipulated – far more than we realise – in the patterns of our everyday lives. Large-scale efforts are being made, often with impressive success, to channel our unthinking habits, our purchasing decisions, and our thought processes by the use of insights gleaned from psychiatry and the social sciences. Typically these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness, so that the appeals which move us are often, in a sense, ‘hidden’.” The only thing is that the book was written before the elections, before the founding of Cambridge Analytica or Facebook, indeed before the birth of Mark Zuckerberg. It was published in 1957 – before even the period in which Mad Men, the television series set amongst pioneering advertising men, is set. Donald Trump was 11 when it came out. It’s Vance Packard’s The Hidden Persuaders,…

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Letter to the Editor: Tennessee’s Best Option for Conservative Leadership Is Bill Lee

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Dear Tennessee Star, In 2010, Obamacare was pushed through on a party-line vote in the dead of night. While it has absolutely eviscerated our health care system, there was a silver-lining: It galvanized the forces of conservative voters across the country to stand up and speak up. The silent majority would be silent no more. But since that day, we have seen our Republican leadership compromise on key values of spending, debt, life, immigration, and we have watched them oversee the ever-growing expansion of government into our lives. At the federal level, we continue to see a budget that funds Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, while increasing the burden of debt on our children and grandchildren. In Tennessee, we’ve seen state government expenditures grow by over 30% in the last 8 years alone. We’ve seen bills to strengthen the Copeland spending cap amendment die. And we’ve seen Common Core simply rebranded and repackaged and redeployed into our classrooms. We now have a new silent majority: Voters and activists who are ready to see results, not more campaign rhetoric and kicking the can down the road. Two years ago, we had a Republican presidential primary field that had many good candidates with…

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Mnuchin: ‘We Are Going to Proceed with Our Tariffs’ on China

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On “Fox News Sunday,” Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin said that “we are going to proceed with” the $60 billion in tariffs that President Donald Trump threatened against China for its unfair trade practices. Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum earlier in March to protect the U.S. economy and national security interests, although he announced Thursday he would exempt several countries.

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Mike Braun Casts His Indiana GOP Senate Rivals as Cardboard Cutouts

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Businessman Mike Braun released a new television ad Monday in which he strolls around town mocking his rivals – Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita – in the Indiana GOP Senate primary as a couple of cardboard cutouts. Mr. Braun, a former state lawmaker, has emerged as the wildcard in the May 8 primary election and has campaigned as the outsider, saying it is hard to tell the difference among career politicians like Mr. Messer and Mr. Rokita.

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Vast Majority of Tennessee House Republicans – 58 Out of 74 – Are Co-Sponsors of Anti-Sanctuary City Bill

Chris Alto
Jay Reedy

Fifty-eight Tennessee House Republicans are named co-sponsors on the anti-sanctuary city bill HB2315. Adding the bill’s chief sponsor, State Rep. Jay Reedy (R-Erin), means that 80 percent of the House Republicans support strengthening and closing the loopholes in Tennessee’s existing anti-sanctuary city statute. (Seventy-four of the 99 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives this session are Republicans, while 25 are Democrats.) Tennessee’s anti-sanctuary city law passed in 2009, only addresses written policies that prohibit local governments, officials and employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. This narrower definition of “sanctuary city” would likely not have applied to at least one of the sanctuary city ordinances proposed by the Metro Nashville Council last June. The two ordinances proposed by the Metro Nashville Council would have made Nashville the most liberal sanctuary city in the country. One of the bills included a “don’t ask so you don’t have to know or tell” practice prohibiting Davidson County and Nashville employees, including law enforcement, from providing pertinent information to ICE regarding criminal aliens. Reedy’s bill expands the definition of sanctuary city to include practices that obstruct cooperation with federal immigration authorities and help shield illegal aliens who have also committed crimes. North Carolina and Georgia…

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