Day: June 21, 2018

GOP Gubernatorial Debate Produces Few Sparks But Several Distinctions on Policy

Tennessee Star Staff
Bill Lee, Diane Black, Randy Boyd, Beth Harwell

The second in a series of three debates between the four candidates for the Republican nomination for governor broadcast across the state produced few fireworks on Wednesday night. However, it may have helped Bill Lee introduce himself and gain traction as voters begin to increase their focus on a race that thus far has appeared to be between the more heavily funded candidates, Diane Black and Randy Boyd. The one hour debate was broadcast live on stations in Memphis, Jackson, Nashville, Knoxville, Huntsville (Alabama), Chattanooga and Tri-Cities, with questions posed by Nashville’s WKRN News 2 anchor Bob Mueller, and Memphis anchors Katina Rankin and Richard Ransom of WATN Local 24. The debate opened with a question regarding illegal immigration and President Donald Trump’s Executive Order, signed just hours before the debate. Do your support President Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy? Bill Lee: “It is sad and heartbreaking to see children taken away from their parents, and I’m glad that has been changed. But we have an immigration policy that is broken because of the failure of Congress for decades to deal with this challenge.” Lee pointed out that Tennessee can make the bad situation worse by offering incentives for illegal immigrants…

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Conservative Icon Charles Krauthammer is Dead

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Charles Krauthammer

Fox News confirmed Thursday afternoon beloved conservative pundit and bestselling author Charles Krauthammer has died. He was 68. Fox News’ Elizabeth Llorente broke the news for the center-right news giant: His death had been expected after he wrote a heartbreaking letter to colleagues, friends and viewers on June 8 that said in part “I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decided on a different course for me… “Recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned. There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict. My fight is over.” In recent years, Krauthammer was best known for his nightly appearance as a panelist on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” and as a commentator on various Fox news shows. Following the news of the death of his “good friend,” Baier posted on Twitter, “I am sure you will be owning…

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Rep. Scott DesJarlais Supports Trump’s Healthcare Announcement

John Bryant
Scott DesJarlais and Donald Trump

Congressman Scott DesJarlais, M.D., an advocate of patient-centered health care, who has voted to repeal Obamacare and replace it with free-market reforms that would lower insurance costs and increase consumers’ choice of plans, released the following statement in support of the Trump Administration’s announcement yesterday of a new rule allowing small businesses to create Association Health Plans: “Republicans have made major headway repealing the worst Obamacare rules, providing more affordable alternatives to Tennessee families and small businesses. The latest change allows Association Health Plans across state lines, one employers and employees have been advocating for years, ever since Obamacare began raising taxes, fees, and insurance costs. Patients lost their doctors. Hospitals closed. The statement continued, “The law raised premiums to pay for expensive mandates and subsidies, while limiting individuals’ choice of coverage and providers. It exempted big businesses, while punishing Mom and Pop. We’re giving small businesses and entrepreneurs freedom to create better options for an estimated four million people. And we’ll keep working to improve results for Tennesseans.” Under the finalized Department of Labor rule, self-employed entrepreneurs, small businesses, trade associations, and other organizations may now join together across state lines to increase their bargaining power and negotiate lower…

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Democrats See Another Opportunity for Outrage with VA Chief Nomination

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Robert Wilke

by Printus LeBlanc   Every week the progressives and their media propaganda distributors gin up another fabricated scandal. This week it is the children on the southern border to distract from the DOJ IG report. It looks like the next attack will come aimed at President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the often-troubled Department of Veteran’s Affairs. Make no mistake about it, Robert Wilkie is eminently qualified to be the next head of the VA, and any obstacle is nothing more than obstruction of President Trump and the protection of government union dues. Robert Wilkie has been the acting VA Secretary for the last eight weeks. He has done such a good job the President decided to nominate Wilkie to permanently fill the seat on May 18. The next hurdle to clear will be the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs vote followed by the full Senate vote. Once the hearings start, it is expected the typical obstruction will take place. The left will call Mr. Wilkie every name in the book with no proof to back anything up, and the mainstream media will carry the water for the progressives because that is what they do. However, they don’t know Robert…

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Commentary: Fund The Wall Before Any Other Immigration Legislation

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Donald Trump, The Wall

by CHQ Staff   Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate have suddenly found the time and energy to pass a quick legislative fix to end the practice of separating parents from children when they cross illegally into the country – but they apparently do not plan to act on any real illegal immigration fixes, such as funding the border wall. According to reporting by The Washington Examiner’s Susan Ferrechio, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, is working with other GOP senators on a bill that would allow families who enter the country illegally to remain together at immigration facilities at the border as they await adjudication. The Trump administration has said a court decision requires family separation as adults are prosecuted. Cornyn’s bill would eliminate that requirement, and speed up court hearings for people seeking admission into the country, which can take months. “The answer to this current situation is a solution that allows us to both enforce the law and keep families together,” Cornyn said Tuesday. “They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has said he talked to Trump about the idea, and said it could move as quickly as this week. “It could be…

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How Restrictive Labor Laws Keep Puerto Rico’s Economy Down

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Puerto Rico

by Rachel Greszler   An economic crisis has engulfed Puerto Rico. The Financial Oversight Management Board, a federally-mandated advisory group, has worked to help Puerto Rico deal with its financial crisis and establish policies that will lead to long-run growth. The board says Puerto Rico must reform its labor market to have a bright future. While the oversight board has direct authority to enact certain fiscal reforms, it needs the Puerto Rican legislature’s approval to enact most of its proposed labor market reforms. Puerto Rico’s governor has agreed to most of the board’s proposed reforms, but the island’s legislature is trying to block the labor reforms that Puerto Rico’s people need. The board recommends several essential reforms: implementing “at-will employment” (allowing employers to fire employees without excessive legal hurdles or significant severance pay); making Puerto Rico the equivalent of a right-to-work state; and reducing unwarranted employee compensation requirements such as mandatory Christmas bonuses and excessive amounts of paid leave. The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >> Even with all of these changes, Puerto Rico would still have more onerous labor market regulations than the rest…

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President Trump’s Executive Order, Explained

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Trump illegal immigration

Following days of fierce global criticism, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end his policy of family separations along the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump signed the order Wednesday, saying he “didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.” Lawmakers had called for Trump to take unilateral action to end the policy instituted in April that resulted in more than 2,300 children being separated from their parents. The move reflects the enormous political pressure put on Trump. Images of children in metal cages and audio of them crying for their parents had prompted global outrage. What does the executive order do? Under the new U.S. policy, parents and children caught crossing the border illegally will be kept together at federal detention centers for the length of their criminal proceedings. Doesn’t that solve the issue of family separations? Not exactly. Because of a 1997 federal court decision known as the Flores settlement, the government cannot hold children in custody for more than 20 days. That’s a problem, since most illegal entry criminal proceedings take much longer than that. As part of the executive order, Trump is appealing to the U.S. District Court to overturn the Flores settlement, allowing…

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How Immigration Officials Cooked the Books and Fooled Congress for Years

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border wall

by Mark Metcalf   A recent Justice Department report on U.S. immigration courts provides a rare glimpse into the difficulties faced by the Trump administration as it repairs the damages inflicted on these tribunals over the last 20 years. But give credit to the courts’ new executive, James McHenry. Early on, he identified the need for transparency and has made accurate disclosure of court business one of his agency’s highest priorities. Candor, if not reform, demands no less. It’s a good start for an executive whose predecessors often avoided—and sometimes denied—the truth about the courts’ troubling dynamics. Yet the courts limped along, their annual reports masking a systemic dysfunction never shared with Congress. While transparency won’t cure the dysfunction, it should identify obvious areas for reform—among them failures to appear in court. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] From 1996 through 2016, just under half of all aliens who were set free pending a trial date—1.25 million in total—were ordered removed, i.e. deported. Of that number, 952,291 were removed for evading court. Less than a quarter of this same group actually appeared in…

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Far-Left ‘Artist’ Doxxing ICE Agents is Sam Lavigne, an Adjunct Professor at NYU

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Sam Lavigne

by Kyle Perisic   The personal responsible for creating a database of over 1,500 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees’ personal information and spreading it to the terrorist organization Antifa is a professor at New York University. Sam Lavigne, a far-left artist and game designer, is an adjunct professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He created a database of 1,595 self-identified ICE employees using their LinkedIn profiles and shared it to his 3,600 followers on Twitter on Tuesday morning. Antifa, the formally recognized far-left terrorist organization, picked up the database and spread it to their followers on Twitter hours later. The database also spread to a subgroup on Reddit that encourages spreading personal information — such as where they live and their contact information, known as “doxxing” — of people who they consider “Nazis” or “alt-right,” which, according to them, includes ICE and the NSA. “Doxxing ICE agents is good and moral,” one Reddit user posted on a thread that shared the database. “Dox more Nazis,” another read. “I’ve downloaded and made available the profiles of (almost) everyone on LinkedIn who works for ICE, 1,595 people in total. While I don’t have a precise idea of what should be done with this…

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State of Tennessee Left to Protect Itself From Illegal Immigration As Corker & Alexander Say Laws Should Not Be Enforced

Chris Alto
Bill Haslam, Bob Corker, Lamar Alexander

Tennessee’s two U.S. Senators, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker each released a statement opposing the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy including separating children traveling with adult illegal border crossers. The law requiring the separation of children from the adults illegally crossing the border and who are being detained, was signed by President George W. Bush in 2008. Yesterday, President Trump signed an Executive Order allowing illegal alien adults and any children they bring across the border, to stay together in detention pending a determination of their illegal border crossing. While Corker limited his remarks to how adults traveling with children should be dealt with when apprehended at the border, Alexander’s statement goes much further, suggesting that legislation to fix the current crisis should include some type of amnesty for illegal aliens already present in the U.S.: Illegal immigration is against the law but new enforcement policies have resulted in hundreds of children being separated from their parents. The administration should end that new policy immediately while Congress works with the president on a bipartisan immigration solution that secures the border, provides a status for those already here and prevents a humanitarian crisis at the border. Both Alexander and Corker voted to…

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Oregon Forced Us to Close Our Cake Shop – Here’s What the ‘Masterpiece Decision’ Means for Us

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Aaron and Melissa Klein

by Aaron and Melissa Klein   We are thrilled for our friend, Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop who recently won his case at the Supreme Court. Like Jack, we know what it is like to be treated unfairly by a state agency and mocked, threatened, and abused by critics. We can only imagine the relief Jack is experiencing. At the same time, we wonder what the future holds for our case, our lost business, and our family. Ours may be, as Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, the case that allows “further elaboration in the courts.” And we are encouraged to know that seven justices of the Supreme Court agree that a state’s hostility to the religious beliefs of its citizens will not be tolerated under the First Amendment. In one sense, Jack’s case is very similar to ours. We too declined to create a custom cake that would have required us to express a message our faith teaches against. And, like Jack, we faced a commissioner—Brad Avakian, commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry at the time—who was hostile to our religion and biased in his consideration of our case. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values.…

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