Month: May 2018

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Judy Cummings was out in the 90 degree heat Saturday afternoon to ask early voters outside the Bordeaux Library to elect her as the new Metro Council Member from District 1, the only Council Member election on the May 24 special mayoral election ballot. The Tennessee Star visited with Cummings as she sat under the protection of a tent and asked her to explain why she was running and why voters of District 1 should elect her. Cummings told The Star she wants to represent the district in which she and her husband have lived for 40 years to be an advocate for her neighbors in District 1, which she said “is the most overlooked, under developed, under resourced district of all of the districts in Davidson County.” You can watch the full interview here : Cummings is running against Gwen Brown-Felder, Jonathan Hall, Ruby Baker, and Sylvestor Armor. The Star interviewed two volunteers who advocated for Brown-Felder’s candidacy here. The Star also saw a volunteer working for Jonathan Hall, whose signs were plentiful. A volunteer tent was also set up for Sylvestor Armor, but it was unoccupied when The Star was there around 3:20 pm on Saturday.…

  If you are a Tennessee educator or a supporter of Tennessee education, you need to attend a day of exceptional professional learning, Leader U at Trevecca University’s Boone Center in Nashville on Friday, June 1. The conference’s theme is Champions for Children where speakers will provide insight on providing a more engaging classroom and school to its students. The conference will begin Friday morning with a keynote address from Champion for Children advocate, Dr. Ronald Woodard as he elucidates on “Developing a Champion Mindset for Children.”  Respected teacher-leaders and presenters from across the state will lead professional development classes on important topics that include Student Engagement, Organized Chaos, Project-Based Learning, Team Evaluation, Bullying and much more.  The 2018 Tennessee Teacher of The Year, Cicely Woodard, will do a 90-minute session on The Engaging Classroom while TSIN 2018 Excellence in STEM Teaching Award winner and Edmodo Educator, Sharon Clark, will complete a session on Bridging Gaps/Cultivating Curiosity. In addition to the keynote, there will be other breakout sessions with a choice of 12 presenters from which teachers and administrators can choose the classes which best fit their needs.  The event is TASL accredited for administrators and all educators will receive a certificate for 6 hours professional development…

General Motors Co, which plans a ride-sharing fleet of robotaxis for next year, is looking at further business opportunities for self-driving cars, such as custom designs that could be almost unrecognizable from those of today, a top executive said on Thursday. Custom-designed vehicles could be owned or leased by individual customers, including those outside of large cities, and used in peer-to-peer car sharing applications, said Mike Abelson, GM’s vice president of global strategy. GM is “thinking about several models” to drive revenue from self-driving cars, according to Abelson, speaking at Citi’s Car of the Future conference in New York. Abelson, one of the key architects of GM’s future transportation business, said self-driving cars used for ride sharing “are going to evolve quickly into purpose-built vehicles” that do not look like conventional cars. While GM initially is using specially modified versions of the Chevrolet Bolt EV for its robotaxi fleet in 2019, the U.S. automaker’s next wave of driverless vehicles will do away with the steering wheel and pedals, and could feature different seating arrangements. The design of the vehicles would be continually adjusted to provide customers with “a more appealing experience,” he said. Others have speculated that hoods could shorten,…

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…