Rep. Doug Lamborn: Pentagon Rejects Atheist ‘Chaplain’

by CHQ Staff   In a cultural conservative victory for common sense the Navy has rejected a secular-humanist’s application to serve in the Navy Chaplain Corps. Our friend Dr. William Scott Magill of Veterans in Defense of Liberty and principled limited government constitutional conservative Republican Representatives Doug Lamborn (CO-5) and Vicki Hartzler (MO-4) led the fight to deny outspoken atheist and secular humanist Jason Heap’s appointment to the Chaplain Corps. Lamborn and Hartzler rallied forty-three Members of Congress to support the position that fundamentally, the chaplain corps is a religious institution that should ascribe to the religious needs of men and women in uniform. An individual with an avowed opposition to religion itself cannot fulfill the mission and duties of a chaplain, no matter how accomplished the candidate may be said Reps. Lamborn and Hartzler. “The very definition of the chaplaincy was at stake here, so I am relieved to see the Navy’s response,” Rep. Lamborn said. “Appointing a secular-humanist or atheist chaplain would have gone against everything the chaplaincy was created to do. I applaud the Navy for upholding a traditional definition of the chaplaincy, which has been repeatedly confirmed by Congress and the DOD. The installment of an atheist…

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Commentary: DC Swamp Creatures Loved Status Quo Until Trump Came to Town

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   If you’re a Republican consultant and charter member of the DC swamp, what do you tell your clients to say about President Donald Trump these days? Just when it appeared as though the GOP was emerging from its self-imposed political exile after the push to pass tax relief last December all heck’s breaking lose now as we move towards the end of March. The Republican Congress can’t do anything right – it won’t move on immigration, the budget’s bloated way out of control (thanks in part to continuing to fund Obamacare insurance bailouts), snowflake teenagers are all over TV spouting off about gun control and the media’s in a tizzy over the rumored firing of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. Are foreign actors controlling the news narrative? There’s so much chaos…it’s possible. And then there’s Trump, the Twitter-happy chief executive who (literally) loves pushing buttons – on his phone and on those around him who are easily annoyed. David M. Drucker of the Washington Examiner wrote, “House Republicans were relying heavily on the $1.4 trillion tax overhaul to counteract concerns about the president and revive their 2018 fortunes, burdened with traditional midterm headwinds made exponentially worse by dissatisfaction with…

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Machete-Wielding, Would-Be Kidnapper Thwarted By Hero Walmart Employees

Thirty-three year old Billy Yoe Budier-Herrera was arrested Friday after police say he walked into a Louisiana Walmart with a machete and tried to kidnap a two-year-old and then an infant. According to a statement by the Kenner Police Department, Budier-Herrera entered the store and in broad daylight, approached a woman with a 2-year-old son. The attacker threatened the boy  to his mother with a machete tucked in his belt to force her to cooperate with his demands, and when the woman cried for help, Budier-Herrera grabbed the two year old out of the cart. The boy’s mother fought back, saved her son, and hid behind a nearby deli counter. Walmart employees ran to the woman’s aid and surrounded Budier-Herrera, who pulled out his machete and swung it at employees into order to prevent them from capturing him. Police say that as Budier-Herrera tried to make his escape, he tried to grab another child – an infant: “While armed with the machete, Budier-Herrera attempted to remove the infant from the grocery cart but was prevented from doing so because of the seat strap.” Before he could get away, the attacker was tackled by store employees, along with an off-duty Kenner police officer, who was working at the store. While being…

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Obama-Era Racial and Income Rezoning Scheme, ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing’ Defunded in Omnibus

By Robert Romano   One good thing that came out of the omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump is that it defunds a key aspect of the Obama era Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulation, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing. This was the rule enacted in 2015 that allowed HUD to order more than 1,200 cities and counties that accepted any part of $3 billion of annual community development block grants to rezone neighborhoods along income and racial criteria. This was always a vast overreach, where the federal government could come in and tell communities what must be built and where. Now, it’s over. Under Division L, Title II of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, Section 234, it states, “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to direct a grantee to undertake specific changes to existing zoning laws as part of carrying out the final rule entitled ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing’ … or the notice entitled ‘Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Assessment Tool’ …” This provision utterly guts the HUD regulation, which had already been delayed by HUD Secretary Ben Carson earlier this year until 2020. Now, with the backing…

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Harwell Calls on State Rep. David Byrd, Sponsor of Bill to Arm Teachers in Classrooms, to Resign after Hearing Audio That Alleges Misconduct 30 Years Ago

Speaker Beth Harwell and State Rep David Byrd

On Tuesday Speaker Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) called on State Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro), the sponsor of a bill that would allow teachers to be armed while in school, to resign after hearing an inconclusive audio recording of a phone conversation he had last month with a woman who now claims that he engaged in sexual misconduct against her more than 30 years ago when he served as her basketball coach. As The Tennessee Star reported last week, Byrd’s bill to allow trained teachers to be armed, HB 2208, passed the House Civil Justice Committee last week and was scheduled to be heard in the House Education Administration and Planning Committee on Tuesday afternoon. Sources tell The Star that Harwell asked Byrd to drop his bill to arm teachers a week ago, and he refused to do so. The surfacing of the charges, combined with Harwell’s sudden rush to call for Byrd’s resignation, is nothing but a political hit job on her part, sources tell The Star. Harwell’s rush to judgement came without hearing Byrd’s side of the story or availing Byrd of the investigative process which is the right of any member of the state legislature against whom an ethical misconduct charge has been filed. As…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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Novel Graphite Filter Removes 99% of Organic Waste in Water

Graphene has been making many appearances in science lately, owing to its unique physical properties. Today, it’s making headlines in a rather unexpected field of research: water treatment. Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney, working together with Sydney Water, have created a world-first graphene filter that can remove 99% of the natural, organic matter left behind by conventional treatment of drinking water. The team is now working on scaling up their technology.

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Off the Record: Busted! ‘Fast Eddie’ Smith Files an Amendment That Could Make Boyd’s Property Redevelopment Very Profitable

State Rep. “Fast Eddie” Smith (R-Knoxville) just “filled in” his caption bill, HB2361 last week in the House Transportation Subcommittee and the “amendment that makes the bill” as they say in the legislature, looks like it’s gonna help La Raza Randy make more millions. Think of the caption bill like a shell game. It identifies the shells, but doesn’t necessarily tell you what’s really going to be underneath them. And somehow, the intended filling isn’t disclosed until very late in the legislative session, hidden from controversy until it’s simply rushed through the system. So the bill that Smith filed at the start of the legislative session was supposed to be about reporting the number of automobiles owned or leased by the state government that could use alternative fuel. By the end of the Subcommittee hearing last week, the bill was about a public-private partnership to bring light rail to the greater Knoxville area and voting power to create a Central Business Improvement District that could be based on high land value ownership. Coincidentally (or not), two years ago, while serving as Commissioner of Economic & Community Development, multimillionaire Randy Boyd bought about 7 acres of property in what Knoxvillians call the “Old…

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State Rep. Mike Sparks Commentary: Dr. George Smith Led by Example

by State Rep. Mike Sparks (R-Smyrna)   Edmund Burke once stated, “Those that do not know their History are Doomed to Repeat it.” Dr. George Smith knew his history and he certainly didn’t want others to repeat it. Dr. Smith had a love for Tennessee history and telling those old stories, but most importantly he had a love for his fellow man. He was one of the kindest gentlemen I have ever met with a ‘Christlike Coolness’ about him. Ironically, right after my efforts last year in the Tennessee General Assembly to recognize our ‘Tennessee’s Rich History’ I was invited by Frank Caperton, President of the Historical Society to attend the African-American Heritage Society of Rutherford County event. The resolution created a stir of controversy, the media tried to paint me as a prejudiced Republican lawmaker (The media never mentioned the fact that I was the only Republican in our state’s history to stand alongside the black caucus due to the young 6-11-year old Hobgood school children who were handcuffed and arrested). The resolution mentioned the life of Sampson Keeble, our state’s first black state lawmaker who was from the Old Jefferson community, which once was a small town just…

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Commentary: The Deadly Incompetence of the FDA

by Dan Mitchell   I routinely grouse about the heavy economic cost of red tape. I’ve also highlighted agencies (such as the EEOC) that seem especially prone to senseless regulations. And I’ve explained why private regulation actually is a very effective way of promoting health and safety. Today, let’s get specific and look at the Food and Drug Administration. This bureaucracy ostensibly is supposed to protect us by making sure drugs and medical devices are safe and effective before getting approval, which seems like it might be a reasonable role for government. But the FDA routinely does really foolish things that undermine public health. The likely reason is that the bureaucracy has a bad incentive structure. As Professor Alex Tabarrok has explained. …the FDA has an incentive to delay the introduction of new drugs because approving a bad drug (Type I error) has more severe consequences for the FDA than does failing to approve a good drug (Type II error). In the former case at least some victims are identifiable and the New York Times writes stories about them and how they died because the FDA failed. In the latter case, when the FDA fails to approve a good drug, people die but the bodies are buried in an invisible…

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Report: Obamacare Made Insurance Companies Stock Prices Soar ‘272 Percent’

Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion program and subsidies have made major health insurance companies extremely profitable, according to a White House economic report released Wednesday morning. The White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) report that insurers’ financial health, a measure the group says is reflected in their stock prices, improved markedly after Obamacare took full effect Jan.…

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Not Every Celebrity Supports These ‘March for Our Lives’ Protests

As predictably as ever, many elite celebrities threw their support behind Saturday’s March for Our Lives protests across the country. Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Cher, and plenty of others flew into D.C., raring to join in on the rallies for gun control. “So ready to March today! Landed in DC w North & Kanye. We stand in solidarity with the survivors of gun violence & students who are calling for action on common sense gun safety laws at #MarchForOurLives around the country,” tweeted reality star Kardashian after arriving in D.C.

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Kansas Wants The Supreme Court To Kick Planned Parenthood Out Of Medicaid

Planned Parenthood

Kansas wants the Supreme Court to take Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid coverage. The state filed a Thursday petition asking the court to do so. Kansas issued a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse an earlier decision positing Medicaid patients have the right to decide who their Medicaid provider will be, despite any state attempt to determine a certain provider.

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Hannity Digs Up Dirt On Mueller’s Past And Finds He’s Not So Clean After All

Fox News host Sean Hannity devoted time on his Tuesday show to examining the past of special counsel Robert Mueller and his findings were intriguing. Hannity referred to a report from Fox News’ Sarah Carter, citing Mueller’s career as a prosecutor in the 1980’s. When Mueller was serving as assistant U.S. Attorney, four men were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for a crime they did not commit and the special counsel was in charge of the case when it happened.

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Transit Improvement District Bill Could Impact Major Knoxville Property Owners Like Randy Boyd

Transit Improvement District Bill Could Impact Major Knoxville Property Owners Like Randy Boyd

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – State Rep. Eddie Smith (R-Knoxville) and State Sen. Becky Duncan Massey (R-Knoxville) are the sponsors of a bill that would permit the creation of Transit Improvement Districts and is currently targeted to the Knoxville area. HB2361/SB2354, filed as a caption bill on February 1, by March 14 had a 14-page amendment that “makes the bill” and will add a new part to the Central Business Improvement District Act of 1971, the new part to be known and called as the “Transit Improvement District Act.” During the presentation of the Act as an amendment to SB2354 to the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee on March 14, Sen. Massey stated that the Transit Improvement District Act mirrors the Central Business Improvement District Act of 1990 before deferring to a witness. Massey’s witness, former Democrat Knoxville council member and failed Knoxville mayoral candidate, Joe Hultquist, began testifying without any introduction as to his credentials, qualifications or interest in the bill, other than stating his name. The presentation of the HB2361 amendment to the House Transportation Subcommittee a week later was handled by the House sponsor himself, State Rep. Smith. The amendment is still not available on the Tennessee General Assembly…

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Faith: ‘His Human Will Dreaded That Hour, but His Divine Will Embraced It’

Faith Cross

Ralph Waldo Emerson had moments more perceptive than his vague religiosity: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” He spoke not of consistency itself, but of a “foolish” consistency. As True God and True Man, Christ was perfectly consistent — but from the platform of a fallen world, that consistency could seem inconsistent.

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Steve Gill Analysis: If Legalized in Tennessee, Medical Marijuana Users May Sacrifice Right to Own Guns

On Friday, conservative political commentator and Tennessee Star contributor Steve Gill said on The Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville, that if the bill to legalize medical marijuana currently under consideration in the Tennessee General Assembly becomes law, potential medical marijuana users in the Volunteer State may be faced with a decision: Legally purchase and use medical marijuana and lose your right to own a gun, or keep your right to own a gun and pass on using the newly legalized drug. “One of the bills that is moving through the legislature that keeps coming close. It looks like it may be advancing a little quicker this time – but with a few more weeks in the legislative session it may still fail. [The bill] is medical marijuana in Tennessee” Gill began. “Now, there are some problems with this bill, because it’s not just legalizing medical marijuana,” he noted, adding. “You’ve got some of the folks that are pushing recreational marijuana that we’ve seen embraced in states like Colorado recently. But the bill is supposedly limited to medical marijuana.” Gill continued: There are critics that say the same doctors that haven’t controlled opioids are unlikely to control…

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Due Process Rights Could Make a Comeback in Tennessee Thanks to Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill

Americans pride themselves on a commitment to due process rights. We hold criminal defendants “innocent until proven guilty,” and believe that everyone should have his day in court. Yet, thanks to civil forfeiture laws, many innocent people have had their cash and property seized without ever being charged with a crime, and with few legal protections to rely on.

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Three Ways Regulation Makes Health Care Expensive

by David Youngberg   Saying that America’s health care system is terrible isn’t anything you haven’t heard before. We spend more than any other developed country on health care and get less for it. In fact, many insured Americans don’t get anything at all. But because U.S. health care is not provided by a government monopoly, observers erroneously conclude that health insurance must be a purely capitalistic system and blame capitalism for the high costs and low benefits. But American health care is more cartel than competition. It would serve the public’s interest to turn our attention to the corporatism and protectionism that constrain patient choice and inflate health care costs. I’ve provided you with three areas we can easily change the status quo. End CONs—Certificates of Need Take a moment to imagine that opening a restaurant required you to demonstrate that your community “needs” another place to eat. Now, imagine in such a situation that, if regulators grant you permission, current restaurants—your future competitors—could challenge and ultimately block you from opening your restaurant. As crazy as this sounds, this is how the health care industry works in the USA. It’s called a Certificate of Need, and one is required whenever someone wants to build or…

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Filmmaker Vincent Gallo: ‘I Like Donald Trump a Lot and Am Extremely Proud He Is the American President’

“I like Donald Trump a lot and am extremely proud he is the American president. And I’m sorry if that offends you.” That quote — surprise! — comes from one of the entertainment industry’s most unique and successful artists. Vincent Gallo, the filmmaker behind such flicks as “Buffalo ’66” and “The Brown Bunny,” has never shied away from his right-of-center beliefs and his feelings about the aggressive liberalism of most of Hollywood.

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