Day: June 16, 2018

Metro Nashville Faces Reality of Heavy Borrowing in $34 Million Revenue Shortfall

Jason M. Reynolds
John Cooper

Surprise! Nashville is growing skyscrapers and other developments at an ever-increasing rate yet faces a $34 million revenue shortfall. Councilman-at-large John Cooper, who is on Metro’s Budget and Finance Committee says Nashville’s revenue continues to grow faster than most cities, to the tune of a couple billion dollars, NewsChannel 5 reports. At the same time, Metro can’t fully fund schools or provide promised pay raises to employees, and some are calling for a property tax hike. Nashville has been glutted with massive capital projects despite some narrow misses. Most of the new money has gone to debt service to pay for pretty and shiny projects like the Sounds baseball stadium and the convention center, plus more conventional needs like school improvements. Borrowing costs have increased about $100 million in the last five years. Former Mayor Megan Barry’s resignation earlier this year following a sex and ethics scandal was followed by the failure of the $9 billion transit plan, the Nashville Scene reports. Then there was Barry’s quickly abandoned plan to end inpatient care at Metro General Hospital, the same week that the Metro Council approved a $275 million soccer stadium plan; the proposed Cloud Hill development, a sweetheart deal for…

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Steve Gill Commentary: Are Summer Legislative Study Sessions and Meetings Worth the Cost to Taxpayers?

Steve Gill
Steve Gill

Conservatives disagree on many policies among ourselves, but in general we do agree in strengthening the free enterprise system, championing families and pro-moting limited and efficient government. Conservatives detest waste, fraud, and abuse—especially in government. In January Tennessee will have a new Governor, due to Governor Haslam being term-limited, and a new Speaker of the House, because Speaker Beth Harwell is running for Governor rather than for re-election to her House seat. A large number of new legislators will be sworn in as well, due to an extremely high turnover this cycle resulting from retirements, those seeking higher office and others who have taken government jobs. Those new leaders will have a unique opportunity to make a compelling case for more efficient and effective government operations while exercising spending restraint to keep the state’s budget under control. One area that candidates who are looking to fill those slots should focus on is the unnecessary cost of travel for meetings and attendance at legislative conferences and summer study meetings. Do we really care what the California or New York legislative delegations think about most issues facing Tennessee? Our House members are elected every two years, so why during election years would…

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Tennessee Democrats Hold Their Annual Fundraiser Tonight with Alabama Senator Doug Jones as Featured Speaker

Tennessee Star Staff
Doug Jones

The Tennessee Democratic Party is holding their annual Three Star Dinner Saturday evening in Lebanon at the Wilson County Expo Center. The event was formerly the Jackson Day Dinner until political correctness forced them to drop the reference to Andrew Jackson, the founder of the national party and one of three former Presidents from Tennessee. Alabama Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) is the keynote speaker for the event, which is intended in part to boost the prospects for former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen in his own campaign for the U.S. Senate. In his race against conservative Republican Roy Moore in Alabama, Jones portrayed himself as a centrist/moderate in order to distance himself from the baggage of being a liberal Democrat in a dark red state. Bredesen is following the same strategy, as he faces conservative Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) in a state that President Donald Trump carried handily in 2016. Once elected, Jones quickly revealed himself to be to the left of voters in Alabama. He immediately backed Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Washington liberals to oppose President Trump’s legislative initiatives. Jones has voted against funding the border wall, opposed CIA Director Gina Haspel’s nomination and voted against banning…

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Commentary: The Inspector General’s Whitewash Of FBI Crimes

Tennessee Star Staff
Hillary Clinton

CHQ Staff    For the past several months those wishing to stall action on the obvious misdeeds of the Obama-era Department of Justice and FBI have been saying “wait for the Inspector General’s report,” however, the much-anticipated Department of Justice Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s conduct during the 2016 election appears to be a dud. You can read the report here courtesy of FOX News. Trump Tweet IG ReportNot that it isn’t full of bombshells – it just doesn’t get to the real core issues of what went on. Indeed, as our friend Alex Pappas of FOX News reported, one of the most stunning findings concerns texts between agent Peter Strzok and his mistress and fellow FBI employee Lisa Page. According to the report, Page texted Strzok in August 2016 and said: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded. “In particular, we were concerned about text messages exchanged by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, Special Counsel to the Deputy Director, that potentially indicated or created the appearance that investigative decisions were impacted by bias or improper considerations,” the IG report said according to Pappas.…

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Rep. DesJarlais Focuses in on Support for Law Enforcement and Addiction Treatment

John Bryant
Scott DesJarlais

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) released a statement this week geared to focusing attention on his work in support of both law enforcement and addiction treatment. “During a week in which the House of Representatives focused solely on solutions to the country’s opioid crisis, Congressman Scott DesJarlais, M.D., voted to improve veterans’ addiction treatment, prevent childhood trauma and illness as a result of parental drug abuse, and to stop shipments of narcotic chemicals across U.S. borders, among other votes to help his home state of Tennessee conquer its drug epidemic,” it reads in part. Said DesJarlais, “Drug overdoses as well as suicides have increased, and the rising figures are tied to declining economic fortunes in depressed rural areas. In addition to strengthening addiction treatment and law enforcement, growing job opportunities is very important. Reversing the decline of American manufacturing and encouraging small businesses will provide hope to people who in despair have turned to drugs.” “Tennessee’s opioid-related mortality rate is higher than average. The rate in Grundy County in the Fourth Congressional District is particularly high”, he continued. DesJarlais represents parts of Appalachia, a region experiencing the worst of the crisis, according to the Appalachian Regional Commission. “Nearly every demographic is…

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Politically Motivated Complaint Against Mae Beavers Unanimously Dismissed by Tennessee Registry of Election Finance

Tennessee Star Staff
Mae Beavers

A complaint filed with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance by a supporter of former Republican State Senator Mae Beavers’ opponent in the upcoming Wilson County Mayor election has been dismissed by the Registry. The dismissal, by unanimous vote of the members of the Registry, came after a “light audit,” which consisted of a simple review of financial records relative to donations and ex-penditures related to Beavers’ disposition of campaign funds from her gubernatorial campaign. The complaint against Beavers was filed by Ann Calabria, a member of the Wilson County Election Commission who is publicly support-ing incumbent County Mayor Randall Hutto — whom Beavers is seeking to replace in the August 2 general election. Calabria was accompanied at the hearing on June 13, 2018 by Delores Mackey, who is a long-time political adversary of Beavers. Calabria and Mackey arrived together for the hearing in a vehicle sporting large “Hutto for Mayor” signs. “This complaint was politically motivated to generate headlines, which some media like, the Lebanon Democrat, were only happy to provide, despite the complete lack of any evidence of any wrongdo-ing on my part,” Beavers noted after the dismissal of the complaint. The political nature of the Complaint itself…

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Off the Record: Randy Boyd’s Globalist Jobs Philosophy: Export Manufacturing – Import Refugees and Cheap Labor

Chris Alto
Randy Boyd

One of Randy Boyd’s latest radio ads has him recounting all the lessons he learned about hard work when he started working at a very young age in his father’s factory for $1.00 per hour and then how he later paid his way through college working tirelessly at an injection molding machine. The details of him operating the heavy factory machinery while studying his college textbooks and completing homework was recounted in the same article in which Boyd declared himself to be a political MODERATE. Child labor laws? OSHA? No matter, it made Randy Boyd the worker he is today and if it was good enough for him, it should be good enough for anyone working in a factory setting. You know, like the assembly-line workers in those Chinese factories where some of Boyd’s products are being manufactured. Wonder if he ever peeks under the covers there? One would hope so especially after the not-so-good exposure by the New York-based China Labor Watch just a few years ago about the “deplorable working conditions” in ten Chinese factories where Apple high tech products were being made. But Boyd the mega-millionaire knows that the bottom line comes first. Unlike his father’s Tennessee factory whose products were…

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Obama Executive Order Forced the Government to Hire Unqualified Applicants in Favor of Arbitrary Quotas

Admin
President Barack Obama

by Natalia Castro   Employees should be hired based on their ability to complete the tasks they have been assigned and nothing else. Yet under the Obama administration, hiring practices for the federal government were moved away from merit to fulfill goals irrelevant to the positions. Policies intended to simplify the federal government application process had the consequence of increasing politicization in the federal workforce and overburdening human resource offices. In May 2010, former President Barack Obama issued a memorandum on Improving the Federal Recruitment and Hiring Process. This memorandum directed agencies to simplify their application process to “eliminate any requirement that applicants respond to essay-style questions” and allowed individuals to submit resumes and cover letters or complete “simple, plain language” instead. The result was a flood of new applications. According to Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning, the goal was not just to increase hiring in the federal government but to increase political hiring. Manning notes, “The 2010 memorandum was always intended to give Obama supporters an easier path to enter the civil service. By overwhelming human resource departments with applications, it accomplished just that.” This was the first of several presidential orders to reshape the federal workforce. In August…

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Justice Department Initiative Aims to Protect Houses of Worship

Admin
Jeff Sessions

by Arya Hodjat   The U.S. Justice Department will intensify its efforts to bring up lawsuits against municipalities that discriminate against religious establishments, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Wednesday. The initiative, called the “Place to Worship Initiative,” is centered on bringing cases against towns and cities that use zoning laws to prevent houses of worship — churches and mosques, for example — from building. “In recent years, the cultural climate has become less hospitable to people of faith and to religious belief,” Sessions said. “Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack.” The announcement came during an event for the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center — an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group — in Washington, D.C. Sessions also announced the Justice Department would be filing a lawsuit against a New Jersey town for denying the building of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. “Religious Americans have heard themselves called deplorables,” Sessions said. “They’ve heard themselves called bitter clingers.” Sessions referred to comments made by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama during their presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2008, respectively. Clinton made no reference to religion in her 2016 speech. Heather Weaver, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU, told…

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Census Bureau Has Been Co-Opted by Leftist Ideologues

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U.S. Census Bldg

by Mike Gonzales   “Are you an American or not?” It’s a simple question, one that every U.S. census should include, especially when the survey already contains nonsensical and intrusive inquiries into one’s ethnic DNA composition and whether one co-habits with someone of the opposite sex or one’s own. Whether you are a citizen or not is a valid question in a civic-minded constitutional democracy. Whether your parents are ethnic Chinese born in Peru or you are a nonpracticing heterosexual, not so much. And yet, the inclusion of a citizenship question and other changes rightly being made by the Trump administration to the 2020 census caused a lamentably predictable furor on Thursday, at the first day of the spring 2018 meeting of the Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations. The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >> If anything, it was a case study in how the relationship between the bureau and its outside advisers has become dysfunctional. From the start, nearly all the advisory committee’s members bitterly protested the changes, while bureaucrats implored them not to let their frustration prevent them…

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Lamar Alexander Sides With Corker Over Trump on Tariffs

John Bryant
Lamar Alexander

SuperTalk 99.7 WTN veteran broadcaster Brian Wilson, host of Nashville’s Morning News, interviewed Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander today, who made it very clear he sides with outgoing Senator Bob Corker over President Trump on the tariff issue. The two men also discussed the recent Inspector General’s report, which was highly critical for the FBI and former Director James Comey. Alexander praised Trump and stressed the need for the GOP to retain their majorities in Congress, As for the tariff issue, host Wilson asked him about his “fellow Senator Bob Corker who has been drawing a lot of fire lately in the state of Tennessee for his criticism of this president.” Responded Alexander, “What’s bother Senator Corker is he thinks we should have a vote on whether tariffs are a good idea. But I don’t think they’re a good idea either. I think we ought to have a vote on it. That’s the basis of his criticism. Tariffs on Aluminum and Steel are more likely to hurt Tennessee than any other state because we’ve got nearly a thousand auto parts suppliers and they nearly all use aluminum and Steel when they make their parts. If you add 25% to the cost of…

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