Performances for Nashville Symphony’s ‘Tchaikovsky and Copland’ concerts on May 18-19 include two distinct showcases for cello – one electric, one acoustic.
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All of the candidates for Mayor of Nashville/Davidson County on the ballot in the special election May 24, with the notable exception of Acting Mayor David Briley and Ludye Wallace, squared off in a Mayoral Forum sponsored by the Pumps and Politics television program and held at Meharry Medical College on Thursday. Briley chose to attend a taxpayer funded Mayor’s Town Hall at the Coleman Community Center instead, which the Mayor’s Office said was an “official event,” and not a political event, even though it was held only two weeks before the special election, and the types of questions asked by members of the audience at both events were similar. Briley did provide a statement, which the host of the event read to the audience of about 200 people. The mayoral candidates were divided into two groups, each of which fielded questions for about half an hour. The first group included State Rep. Harold Love (D-Nashville), Albert Hacker, David Hiland, Julia Clark-Johnson, Jeff Napier, and Jon Sewell. The second group included jeff obafemi carr, former Vanderbilt professor Carol Swain, At-Large Council Member Erica Gilmore, and former radio talk show host Ralph Bristol. “Gentrification is a problem that effects both homeowners…
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The anti-sanctuary city legislation sponsored by State Sen. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) and State Rep. Jay Reedy (R-Erin) and passed overwhelmingly by the Tennessee General Assembly has been signed by Speaker of the House Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) and on Thursday was formally transmitted to the office of Gov. Haslam. The governor arrived back in Nashville this morning from an overseas trip, so the ten day clock in which he must either veto the bill–testing Speaker Harwell’s resolve to call a special session of the General Assembly to override the veto–sign it, or allow it to become law by returning it to the General Assembly unsigned, has begun ticking. He also has the option of returning it unsigned before the ten days expire and allow it to become law. Gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, a member of Haslam’s administration until he resigned to run for governor, is the only one of four candidates for the GOP nomination who has not yet taken a position on whether Gov. Haslam should sign the bill. This silence is in stark contrast to his recent television advertisements, in which he has portrayed himself as a strong opponent of illegal immigration…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Acting Nashville Mayor David Briley held a town hall at the Coleman Park Community Center which featured a number of questions on politically related policy issues from attendees on Thursday, paid for by the taxpayers of Nashville/Davidson County, just two weeks before the May 24 special Nashville mayoral election in which he is a candidate. Briley intends to conduct several more such town halls between now and the special election. The Tennessee Star asked the Mayor’s Office if the Nashville/Davidson Metro Government is paying for these town hall events, which appear to be political events rather than official events? Or is the Briley campaign paying for them? “These are official events, not political ones,” Michael Cass, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office responded. “Mayor Briley wants to hear what taxpaying citizens are thinking and have direct dialogue with them. He said at his press conference the night he was sworn in that he would be holding town halls around the county, and that will continue after the election. Each of these events is held on Metro property,” Cass added. “So since these town halls are official events according to the Mayor, the taxpayers of Nashville/Davidson County are paying for them?”…
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by Fred Lucas President Donald Trump is completing a strong week, and is set to kick off a strong next week, in his push to reshape the federal courts, with Senate Republicans forcing votes on six more of his judicial nominees. Despite the Democratic minority in the Senate using procedures to delay many confirmation votes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, have prioritized pushing through appeals court judges, and 2017 was a record year for confirmations. “This week, the Senate will consider another slate of extremely well-qualified nominees for seats on the federal bench,” McConnell said in a statement Monday. “A thoughtful, independent, and expert judiciary is a cornerstone of our constitutional order. It’s been the case since the very beginning.” Moreover, six of the 16 of the Trump-nominated circuit court judges confirmed have replaced Democratic appointees, Axios reported. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] That’s important because circuit courts are the final stop for a case before it reaches the Supreme Court. In cases the high court declines to hear, the circuit courts are the last…
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The exterior of Metro Nashville/Davidson County’s Howard Avenue Office Building looked more like a ghost town on Thursday than the city’s only open early voting location. Turnout on the fifth day of early voting in the May 24 special mayoral election tumbled to anemic levels, as only 166 residents of Nashville/Davidson County cast their votes. The grand total for five full days of early voting–all conducted at only one polling location, the Howard Avenue Office Building–is just 1,205, or barely 240 early votes cast per day. That early voting turnout is in stark contrast to the more than 3,000 early votes per day that were cast during the early voting period of the May 1 transit plan referendum in which more than 59,000 residents of Nashville/Davidson County early voted, about 64,000 voted on election day, giving a total turnout of a little more than 123,000 voters. Early voting results are expected to take a significant uptick today, when the number of early voting locations increases from one to eleven. Early voting begins today at 7:00 am and ends at 7:00 pm at these ten additional locations: Belle Meade City Hall Bellevue Library Bordeaux Library Casa Azafran Community Center Edmonson Pike…
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If the first real salvos in the Randy Boyd versus Diane Black race for Governor are any indication, then the upcoming Republican primary battle will definitely be heated. The Black campaign leaked a May 9 internal campaign memo Thursday that showed her “surging ahead” of her Republican rivals. The survey, conducted by Grassroots Targeting, was conducted between May 4-6, 2018 and polled “800 registered Tennessee Republican primary voters matched directly to the voter file.” The polling firm then “modeled an enhanced voter file” to get their results. The “enhanced model” polling shows Black with 40.6%, compared with 26.3% for rival Randy Boyd of Knoxville. Bill Lee had support from 11.4% while Beth Harwell was at 6.4%. Only 15.3% were recorded as “undecided.” That “undecided” figure is markedly lower than virtually every other poll of the race thus far. The polling memo, from Grassroots Targeting principle Tim Saler, says Black has a substantial lead (43.2% to 21.9%) in the Nashville media market that she leads in Boyd’s home Knoxville market (40.3% to 29.5%). The polling memo made no mention of any West Tennessee results. The Boyd campaign was quick to issue a response to the Black poll data from campaign spokesman…
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by Nick Givas Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said special counsel Bob Mueller’s tactics of squeezing witnesses for information amounts to “bribery,” Thursday on “Fox & Friends.” “I have argued that prosecuting somebody like they did to [former national security adviser] Mike Flynn, squeezing him, reducing his jail exposure so he’ll say what you want him to say is a form of bribery. I’ve been arguing that for years,” Napolitano said. Napolitano said he is in the minority in the legal field and said the courts have deemed Mueller’s tactics to be perfectly legal, despite the ethical implications. “I am in the distinct minority in the legal and judicial community,” Napolitano concluded. “The courts have said this is fine. If defense counsel gave a witness so much as a lollipop, the lawyer and the witness would be indicted for bribery.” – – – Nick Givas is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. You can Follow Nick on Twitter and Facebook. The Daily Caller News Foundation is working hard to balance out a biased American media. For as little as $3, you can help the DCNF. Make a one-time donation to support the quality,…
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by Robert Donachie Gina Haspel, President Donald Trump’s pick to become the director of the CIA, faced a grilling from the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday, answering questions regarding her involvement in advanced interrogation techniques, her views of torture and her vision for the agency. The Daily Caller News Foundation collated five key takeaways from Haspel’s hearing with the committee Wednesday. Did Russia Attempt To Influence The 2016 Presidential Election? “In January of 2017, the [Senate Intelligence Committee] issued a joint report on the Russia involvement in the 2016 elections. Do you agree with the findings of that report?” Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine asked Haspel. “Senator, I do,” Haspel responded. The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report in January 2017 that detailed Russian attempts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. “We assess with high confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election, the consistent goals of which were to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency,” the senators on the intelligence committee wrote in January 2017. The senators found Russia attempted to sway the election in favor of Trump, especially after it became apparent to…
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A new report issued by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), documents that Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville have been able to effectively operate as sanctuary cities by putting in place practices that skirt Tennessee’s 2009 law because it only prohibits written policies or ordinances. Comments made by Shelby County Commissioner Mark Billingsley during the May 7th Commission meeting suggested that Shelby County was operating as a sanctuary city. FAIR’s report identifies 564 jurisdictions that qualify for sanctuary status because in one way or another they have taken steps to “protect illegal aliens or obstruct efforts by the federal government to enforce immigration laws.” Dan Stein, President of FAIR credits “radical groups, posing as ‘immigrants’ rights’ organizations” for pushing policies that put protecting illegal aliens over the safety of American citizens and legal immigrants: ‘There is no rational justification for protecting deportable criminals. Yet, under pressure from radical groups, posing as ‘immigrants’ rights’ organizations, 564 jurisdictions have decided that protecting foreign criminals is more important than the safety of their local communities,’ charged Dan Stein, president of FAIR. ‘Countless Americans have been needlessly victimized, and some have lost their lives, because local sanctuary policies prevented the perpetrators from being identified as deportable aliens, or prevented…
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Opponents of sanctuary city policies understand that these measures which shield criminal illegal aliens increase the risks to public safety. All GOP gubernatorial candidates eventually issued statements opposing sanctuary city policies. What is not addressed, however, in the debate over sanctuary city policies, is the negative impact from illegal immigration on the wages of American workers. Ironically, the two GOP gubernatorial candidates that have highlighted their business successes in their campaigns, are each tied to an organization that promotes the alleged economic benefits from illegal immigration for Tennessee. Randy Boyd is a named member of the Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE), a coalition led by business leaders and chambers of commerce which formed to convince the public and policymakers that comprehensive immigration reform like the 2013 “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill would help grow the economy and create jobs for Americans. Included in PNAE’s “15 key economic issues of immigration reform in America” are: Supporting legal status for the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants which PNAE says pay taxes and do the jobs American citizens won’t do, and despite being in the country illegally, “even start their own businesses.” In a 2014 Wall Street Journal oped, PNAE co-founder Rupert Murdoch said that illegal immigrants…
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By Robert Romano On May 8, the National Fair Housing Alliance filed suit in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia against the Department of Housing and Urban Development for delaying the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing regulation until 2020 or later. This regulation allowed HUD to force more than 1,200 cities and counties that took $3 billion of annual community development block grants to rezone neighborhoods along income and racial criteria. The lawsuit argues that HUD Secretary Ben Carson lacked authority to delay implementation of the rule when it was announced in Jan. 2018. There’s only one problem. Even if that were true, since the announced delay, Congress has acted via the recent omnibus spending bill, which preempts everything HUD was doing on this regulation, especially in implementing it. 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’ …” Yet the regulation…
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With the opening of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem only days away, the embassy changed its Twitter handle to reflect the move from Tel Aviv. In a Twitter post on Thursday, however, the embassy said its new Twitter handle was USEmbassyJerusalem, when, in fact, the correct one is @usembassyjlm. Despite the inevitable problems that occur during large relocations, the embassy is slated to open on Monday — fulfilling U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to move the embassy to Jerusalem. The relocation amounts to U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a decision that delighted Israelis and angered Palestinians. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of their future state. Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat has urged diplomats, civil society groups and religious leaders to boycott the inaugural event. “Those who attend the ceremony will be sending an ominous message, a message that they encourage flagrant violations of international law and [of] the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,” he said. Of the dozens of countries that have embassies in Israel, nearly all are in Tel Aviv. Trump will not attend the event marking the opening of the new…
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by Chuck Ross Michael Avenatti, porn star Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, released a seven-page dossier on Tuesday containing a list of payments purportedly made to Michael Cohen, the lawyer for President Donald Trump. But there is one problem with the document: two of the allegedly “fraudulent” payments were made to men named Michael Cohen who have no affiliation with Trump. Avenatti’s report includes a section listing “possible fraudulent and illegal financial transactions” involving Trump’s lawyer. One of the payments is a $4,250 wire transfer from a Malaysian company, Actuarial Partners, to a bank in Toronto. The other is a $980 transfer from a Kenyan bank to Bank Hapoalim — the largest bank in Israel. Zainal Kassim, a representative for Actuarial Partners, told The Daily Caller News Foundation Avenatti’s report is a case of mistaken identity. He forwarded an email the falsely accused Michael Cohen sent to Avenatti requesting the lawyer “correct this error forthwith and make it known publicly” there is no connection to Trump’s Michael Cohen. “You are surely aware of the fact that this is an extremely common name and would request that you take care before involving innocent parries in this sordid affair,” wrote Cohen, who told Avenatti he…
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State Rep. Harold Love (D-Nashville) sat down with Tennessee Star political editor Steve Gill on Thursday for the first in our series of exclusive interviews with the top tier of candidates in the May 24 special election for Mayor of Nashville. Love identified education and safety as his two top priorities in a potential Love administration. (See the 20:10min mark of the video below) “Our high school graduates who choose to go to college, only 24 percent graduate from college,” Love told Gill, adding: Anybody who hears that number and let’s it flow through their mind knows that we can’t succeed as a city if only 24 percent of our high school graduates who choose to go to college are graduating. That means they come back to the city and they are not going back to college. I know that college is not for everybody, but those who choose to go to college . . . we have to improve our educational excellence of our high school graduates.” Love added that education and safety go hand in hand. “A recent Washington Post report said . . . where are America’s prisoners born? They said of all the zipcodes in the…
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There will be no storybook ending to the Nashville Predators’ 2017-2018 National Hockey League season. The Predators fell to the Winnipeg Jets 5 to 1 in the decisive Game 7 of their Western Conference semi-final series in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Thursday. This year, it’s the Jets who now going on the the Western Conference finals, where they will face the Vegas Golden Nights. The Washington Capitals, coached by former Predators head coach Barry Trotz, face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals. The official Predators post game tweet summed up the evening: It ended sooner than anyone would have wished. #StandWithUs | #WPGvsNSHhttps://t.co/L5Ju352xIa — p-Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) May 11, 2018 The night started poorly for the Predators and got progressively worse. The Jets’ Tyler Myers scored at the 8:41 mark of the first period to put the visitors up 1 to 0. Then his teammate Paul Stastny scored at the 10:47 mark to put the Jets up 2 to 0. P.K. Subban scored the Predators first and only goal at the 15:54 mark to narrow the deficit to 2 to 1. Predators coach Peter Laviolette pulled Goalie Pekka Rinne after the first period, replacing him with…
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