Day: June 1, 2018

Democrat Gubernatorial Candidates Craig Fitzhugh and Karl Dean Square Off Over Tyson Foods

Chris Alto
Karl Dean, Craig Fitzhugh

While Democrat gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean was cheering “big meat’s” newest location at the Tyson Foods ground-breaking ceremony in Humboldt on Wednesday, his opponent State Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley), was busy trying to address concerns of his constituents in adjacent rural counties that may be negatively effected by Tyson’s new operation. Dean proudly noted on his campaign’s Facebook page that he was hobnobbing with Tyson Foods CEO Tom Hayes at Wednesday’s event in Humboldt: But on Wednesday, Fitzhugh, the Tennessee House Minority Leader, was busy pointing out the project’s flaws to Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery. In a letter obtained by The Tennessee Star (embedded below) dated May 30, 2018, signed by Fitzhugh, to Attorney General Herbert Slatery, Fitzhugh has asked for a “legal opinion with regard to the interpretation of state statutes concerning the authority of counties to regulate concentrated animal feeding operations [CAFOs].” The Tennessee Department of Agriculture defines a CAFO as “large-scale animal production facilities where many animals are raised or maintained, where feed is brought to the animals, and where wastes accumulate in a small area.” Tyson Foods utilizes a vertically-integrated operation meaning they control every aspect of poultry production  from growing the chicks to distributing the end product.…

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Trump-Kim Singapore Summit is Back On

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Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump announced Friday afternoon that the on-again-off-again summit between the United States and North Korea is back on for June 12 in Singapore. The surprise announcement came after an hour-long meeting with top North Korean official, Kim Yong Chol, who arrived in the United States Thursday with a letter in hand from Kim Jong Un. The Associated Press reported: “Now we’re going to deal,” Trump told reporters moments after the meeting ended. He also said it was likely that more than one meeting would be necessary. He concluded, “I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end. We will see what we will see.” Trump told reporters he hadn’t read the letter yet and added with a smile, “I may be in for a big surprise, folks.” Although President Trump sent a letter calling off the talks last Thursday, he kept the option to go ahead with the Singapore talks on the table. “We can be successful in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, that would be a great thing for North Korea, it would be a great thing for South Korea, it would be great for Japan, it would be great for the world,…

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Paying ‘Educational Consultant’ Who Lacks 4-Year College Degree $80,000 in 2017-2018 Academic Year for Vague ‘Pilot Project’

Tennessee Star Staff
Bruce Taylor

Metro Nashville Public Schools is paying an “educational consultant” who does not have a four year college degree $80,000 in a 12 month contract to provide the school system with a “pilot project” that has vague deliverables. Bruce D. Taylor, who apparently had a similar consulting contract with the Prince George’s, Maryland school system when current MNPS Director Dr. Shawn Joseph was an administrator there, does not have a four year college degree in any subject from an accredited American university, according to both his Linked In profile and his own website. Taylor is the “educational consultant” who received a $25,000 contract with MNPS in 2016, shortly after Dr. Joseph was named MNPS Director, and an additional $80,000 contract for an additional 12 months that began on July 1, 2017 and continues until June 30, 2018. “When Dr. Shawn Joseph began as Metro’s director of schools almost two years ago, he skillfully convinced school board members to treat him more as a partner than an employee,” NewsChannel 5 reported in April: So when critics questioned his spending on a luxury vehicle and a driver, School Board Chair Anna Shepherd had his back. “I think that Dr. Joseph needs to do…

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Flinn Targets Kustoff for Funding Planned Parenthood in West Tennessee Congressional Battle

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Flinn and Kustoff

Dr. George Flinn, conservative candidate in the Republican Congressional primary in West Tennessee’s 8th District, has released a new commercial this week targeting first term Congressman David Kustoff’s recent vote to fund Planned Parenthood. The ad features three pregnant young women talking about Kustoff’s support for Planned Parenthood versus Flinn’s commitment to protecting unborn life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1enqXquGuo “Kustoff voted in favor of H.R. 1625, also known as the Omnibus Bill, that guarantees nearly half a billion dollars to Planned Parenthood through Title X,” Flinn pointed out. “David Kustoff has yet to explain why he teamed up with Nancy Pelosi and other pro-choice liberals to fund a private organization, best known for aborting an estimated 330,000 babies per year,” Flinn said. “How can you claim to be a real conservative after choosing to fund Planned Parenthood? It’s incomprehensible and shameful,” Flinn added. President Donald Trump recently proposed a rule that would prevent Title X funding from going to any clinics that provide abortions– such as Planned Parenthood. Flinn says he is ready to work with President Trump to make this a reality. “As the 8th District Congressman, I will work with and help President Trump to stop our tax dollars from going…

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Commentary: The Only Thing Worse For Republicans Than John McCain In The Senate

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Cindy McCain

by CHQ Staff   After showing up to torpedo the repeal of Obamacare, cancer-stricken Senator John McCain has been absent from the Senate for the better part of five months, leaving the Republican agenda frozen with a mere one vote majority over the obstructionist Democrats. Senator McCain is rumored to be now so ill that only family can see him and plans for his funeral and lying in state at the Capitol are being openly discussed. What hasn’t been publicly discussed until now is who will succeed Senator McCain, whose term runs until 2022, but rumors are now swirling in Arizona that the Senator’s wife – Cindy Hensley McCain – has privately made it clear she wants to be appointed to succeed him. Mrs. McCain, known for her white blonde hair and hard-edged fashion choices, is the daughter of the late Jim Hensley, who built one of the largest Anheuser-Busch beer distributors in the United States. And, in the minds of many, it was the Hensley wealth and ambition that built John McCain’s political career. In a 2008 article for The New Republic, Noam Scheiber wrote, “the reality behind this political creation myth is far more complex. McCain was a relative…

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Tyson Foods Tied to Same Big-Business-Cheap-Labor Lobby Favored by Boyd, Dean, and Bredesen

Chris Alto
Boyd Dean and Bredesen

The Partnership for a New American Economy (renamed to New American Economy (NAE)), views giant commercial operations like Tyson Foods as connective tissue between NAE’s drive to increase cheap labor pools through immigration and the revival of economically depressed rural communities: Sturms found that when towns embraced immigrants, dying communities were brought back to life, the wheels of commerce began to turn again, and everybody felt the rewards. This is true for small towns across the state, including Columbus Junction, Storm Lake, Denison and West Liberty, the first Iowa town with a majority-Latino population. NAE also justifies its push for increased legal and illegal immigration in part by featuring stories about immigrants like the Karen Burmese working in chicken processing plants and insisting that they are doing the jobs that Americans won’t do. Burmese immigrants generally arrive in the U.S. through the refugee resettlement program which the NAE supports along with amnesty for illegal aliens as part of its 15 key economic issues. Democrat gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean, like his Republican counterpart Randy Boyd, is also a named member of the big-business-cheap-labor Partnership for a New American Economy (PNAE) lobby. Shortly after the announcement was made by Gibson County Mayor Tom Witherspoon that Tyson Foods…

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Commentary: Want to ‘Change the World’? Embrace the Glories of Economic Scale

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Graduation

by Joseph Sunde   As the latest crop of college graduates enters the workforce, many are coming fully loaded with grandiose plans for “social transformation,” “giving back to their communities,” and “making a difference.” Unfortunately, such phrases have become slippery slogans based largely on a cultural imagination that is far too narrow in its basic assumptions. Whether spurred along by the idealism of college professors, the hurrahs of syrupy commencement speeches, or the hedonistic call of cultural tropes (“follow your passion!”), today’s youth are often clouded with a dim vision of what it really means to “change the world.” It’s a realm that’s become far too tiny in its aims and opportunities, confining young people to serving at soup kitchens, protesting in the streets, and traveling with the Peace Corps. These can all be noteworthy endeavors, of course, but they are hardly the only paths to battling injustice, fighting global poverty, or serving our communities. In a letter to college graduates, Andy Kessler reminds us of this, offering a hearty challenge to the social-activism status quo. “You want to reduce inequality, end poverty, comfort the homeless, expand human dignity. Guess what? Me too!” he writes. “But you’re going about it the…

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Natalie Beach Named ‘Teacher of the Year’ for 2018 by Education Group

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Educators of the Year

Professional Educators of Tennessee held their annual conference Thursday – called Leader U – where they announced their statewide award winners. “We are pleased to honor these well-respected educators that are making a difference in the lives of real students, while upholding the highest ethical standards and tireless promotion of our profession. Tennessee is a better place to learn, a better place to teach and a better place to raise a family because of the professional contributions of these educators,” the group’s Executive Director JC Bowman said in a statement. This year’s top awards go to: Natalie Beach – 2018 Teacher of the Year  Natalie Beach (pictured, center) teaches kindergarten at Prescott South Elementary School, a STEM platform school in Putnam County. She has a B.S. in Early Childhood and Special Education and an M.A. in Instructional Leadership from Tennessee Tech University. Natalie Beach was Prescott South Elementary teacher of the year in 2017 and Rotary Teacher of the Year in 2015. Natalie lives in Cookeville with her husband, Jason, and their two children. John Fanning – 2018 Administrator of the Year  John Fanning (pictured, left) is beginning his twenty-third year in education and his eighteenth in administration. Fanning is a native…

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Dr. Mark Green Receives Endorsements for His Congressional Bid from Entire Republican Contingent of Tennessee’s Delegation in the US House of Representatives

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Mark Green FRC endorsement

Dr. Mark Green’s campaign for Congress received a boost Thursday as all seven Republican members of Tennessee’s delegation serving in the US House of Representatives – including Phil Roe, Jimmy Duncan, Chuck Fleischmann, Scott DesJarlais, Diane Black, Marsha Blackburn, and David Kustoff – endorsed his bid to replace Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07). “A real American hero and proven conservative fighter, Mark Green will be a champion for our Tennessee values in Congress,” Congressman Marsha Blackburn said in a statement. “I’ve worked closely with Mark the last several years and have seen firsthand how hard he works for his constituents. I’m excited to endorse him to be our next Congressman.” “Tennessee has a long history of sending national leaders to Washington. I’m honored to receive the endorsement from our Tennessee Republican delegation, and I look forward to working together with them to rein in spending, rebuild our military, and repeal Obamacare,” Green said. The seven members of Congress are the latest Republican leaders in Tennessee to endorse Green’s candidacy. He has previously been endorsed by 100 grassroots conservative leaders in the state, 20 mayors in the district, Lt. Governor Randy McNally, and more than 60 members of the General Assembly who…

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Professors Claim Evergreen State College’s ‘Independent’ 38-Page Report On Riots Was Anything But Unbiased

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Protest

by Rob Shimshock   Professors and a former administrator at The Evergreen State College bashed an “independent” report on the school’s spring 2017 riots. Evergreen President George Bridges allegedly nominated the report‘s three authors, who were then confirmed by the Washington school’s board of trustees, reported Campus Reform. “Somehow I must have missed the customary ‘April Fools!’ proclamation that normally follows these types of hoaxes, fake stories, and practical jokes,” Evergreen veterinary medicine professor Mike Paros said, describing the report in an op-ed obtained by Campus Reform. “Faculty and staff are also embarrassed but remain silent out of fear of losing their jobs.” Most of his students “don’t want to be shielded from ideas and content they find discomforting and challenging,” Paros noted and that “many feel humiliated by the vulgar behavior of fellow students and the administration’s cowardly reaction.” Evergreen’s former Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Zimmerman disputed the “independent” nature of the report by claiming that Bridges selected the panel’s members and that the president viewed a draft of the report before the release of the final version. “The only thing that seems reasonable is that [Bridges] wanted to make sure it didn’t say anything he wasn’t happy with.…

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Supreme Court to Police: Get Off the People’s Lawn

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by Elizabeth Slattery and John-Michael Seibler   This week, the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment does not permit a police officer to enter uninvited onto someone’s driveway to search a parked vehicle, without first obtaining a warrant. That’s an important ruling, since no one wants police officers roaming across their private property searching for evidence of a crime. But Justice Clarence Thomas raised another important issue in a concurring opinion: In that scenario, what remedy should there be against the officer’s unlawful behavior? Thomas proposed an answer that bucks Supreme Court precedent, but holds true to the original meaning of the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and generally requires police to obtain a warrant before searching or seizing someone’s property. The Supreme Court has recognized several exceptions to the warrant requirement, however, including for automobiles—since they can be driven off at a moment’s notice, and are subject to manifold regulations, courts will allow police to search vehicles based on probable cause that a crime has occurred without first obtaining a warrant. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] The…

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US Slaps Tariffs on Steel, Aluminum from EU, Canada, Mexico

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Donald Trump

by Steve Herman   The United States is escalating trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions, imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico that will go into effect on Friday. The move is prompting immediate retaliatory tariffs from the Europeans – expected to target such iconic American products as Harley Davidson motorcycles and Levi’s jeans, as well as Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. “We look forward to continued negotiations, both with Canada and Mexico on the one hand, and with the European Commission on the other hand, because there are other issues that we also need to get resolved,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told reporters in a telephone briefing on Thursday. “This is a bad day for world trade,” responded European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who announced there is “no choice” but to proceed with a World Trade Organization dispute settlement case and additional duties on numerous U.S. imports. “We will defend the EU’s interests, in full compliance with international trade law,” Juncker added. U.S. President Donald Trump has said the tariffs are needed for national security, claiming current trade deals harm U.S. companies and…

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Oregon’s Story a Cautionary Tale for States’ Efforts to Legalize Marijuana

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When Oregon lawmakers created the state’s legal marijuana program, they had one goal in mind above all else: to persuade illicit pot growers to leave the black market. That meant low barriers to entry that also targeted long-standing medical marijuana growers, whose product is not taxed. As a result, weed production boomed — with a bitter consequence. Now, marijuana prices here are in free fall, and the craft cannabis farmers who put Oregon on the map decades before broad legalization say they are in peril of losing their now-legal businesses as the market adjusts. Oregon regulators on Wednesday announced they will stop processing new applications for marijuana licenses in two weeks to address a severe backlog and ask state lawmakers to take up the issue next year. California takes heed Experts say the dizzying evolution of Oregon’s marijuana industry may well be a cautionary tale for California, where a similar regulatory structure could mean an oversupply on a much larger scale. “For the way the program is set up, the state just wants to get as many people in as possible, and they make no bones about it,” Hilary Bricken, a Los Angeles-based attorney specializing in marijuana business law, said…

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Trump’s Tariffs At Work: Solar Company Plans New Factory In Georgia

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by Jason Hopkins   A foreign solar panel company is building a manufacturing facility in the U.S., marking the latest boost in the industry since President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on imported solar equipment. The White House’s recently enacted tariffs on solar panels appears to be working. Hanwha Q Cells Korea Corporation — a Korea-based manufacturer of photovoltaic materials — will be opening a facility in Georgia, slated to be up and running by 2019, the company announced Thursday. The move will allow the company to produce and sell panels to U.S. customers without having to deal with import penalties. “The new manufacturing fab is testament to Hanwha Q Cells Korea’s commitment to the U.S. market, in spite of the recently imposed trade barriers,” read a press release from the company. [ RELATED: Tariffs And Tax Cuts Actually Helping Solar Industry — Trump Critics Stumped ] Hanwha’s announcement came about four months after the White House imposed tariffs on imported solar cells and modules. While Trump has been characterized as a foe of renewable energy, many companies in the industry appear to be benefiting from his tariff and tax cut policies. In April, First Solar announced it was building a 1.2 gigawatt module facility in Ohio. A week beforehand, SunPower, another U.S…

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