Williamson County House 61 Voters Almost Unanimously Support School Resource Officers in Every Tennessee School

security at schools

A new poll conducted among likely GOP voters in the Nashville suburbs of Brentwood and Franklin by Triton Polling shows that voter concerns about traffic congestion, illegal immigration and rising crime are at the top of the list. Recent school shootings have also resulted in over 90% of the Republican voters in the District supporting placement of School Resource Officers (SROs) in each school across the state in order to increase security in our schools. The survey of 361 likely Republican Primary voters was conducted June 18-22, 2018 and has a margin or error of 5.1%. “School shootings across the country are clearly top of mind among parents in Tennessee,” Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill pointed out. “Currently only about half of Tennessee schools have an armed SRO, and 90.5% of the voters in this district support making sure that every school has that protection.” 65.3% of those polled supported state funding to ensure that level of protection of schools. Governor Bill Haslam included some funding for SROs in his final state budget, and several candidates for Governor, including Beth Harwell and Randy Boyd have expressed support for the Governor’s plan and that they intend to expand upon it.…

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California Can’t Make Pregnancy Centers Advertise Abortion, Supreme Court Rules

by Rachel del Guidice   The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling Tuesday, struck down a California law mandating that pro-life pregnancy centers advertise where clients may get an abortion. The decision, supporters said, confirmed that government can’t compel citizens to promote messages they don’t agree with. “No one should be forced by the government to express a message that violates their convictions, especially on deeply divisive subjects such as abortion,” Michael Farris, who argued the case at the Supreme Court, said in a formal statement following the decision. “In this case, the government used its power to force pro-life pregnancy centers to provide free advertising for abortion,” said Farris, who is president, CEO, and general counsel of the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. “The Supreme Court said that the government can’t do that, and that it must respect pro-life beliefs.” [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] In the majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the state law “unduly burdens protected speech,” and in a concurring opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the government can’t compel citizens to promote a message they don’t agree with.…

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The Flawed Red Hen Analogy Shows Liberals Still Don’t Understand Christian Baker Case

Sarah Sanders, Jack Phillips

by Monica Burke   After a Lexington, Virginia, restaurant, the Red Hen, refused service to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday, commentators on the left immediately seized upon a false analogy. They likened that incident to the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, the case of the Christian baker in Colorado who refused to craft a custom cake for a same-sex wedding. That attempt at an analogy reveals that the left still does not understand the Supreme Court’s ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Jack Phillips, the baker, serves all customers, but cannot serve all events. He declined to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple not because of their identity, because he could not communicate a message that violated his religious beliefs. He even offered the couple any other item in his store. Meanwhile, the Red Hen denied service to Sanders precisely because of who she is. They did not refuse to create a custom order that would have endorsed views they disagreed with. They denied her service, period. The false analogy also reveals the hypocrisy of the left’s position. They accuse people like Phillips, who serves everyone regardless of who they are, of discrimination,…

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Philadelphia Becoming Model City in Accommodating Islamists & Illegal Aliens

Philadelphia

Earlier this month thousands viewed Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s “happy dance” over solidifying the city’s status as a sanctuary protecting criminal illegal aliens. Two years ago, Kenney took the lead to help the Philly Eid Coalition achieve its goal of adding two Muslim holidays to the school district calendar relying on “cultural inclusion” to justify his support even though his rationale collided with the First Amendment’s establishment of religion clause:  Our city was built on the idea that … the city welcomes all to worship and practice the faiths of our culture or our choosing[.] … We have to take into account how society sometimes ostracizes and eliminates people from the mainstream[.] At the same time Kenney announced the creation of the Mayor’s Task Force on Cultural Inclusion: The task force will study and produce recommendations regarding the expansion of religious observance days, the education of city management and employees to the religious sensitivities of their coworkers, how the courts and judicial system can better acknowledge religious days, and ways best disseminate information on religious holidays to the public including local businesses and employers. Joining the Mayor and Philly School Superintendent when the Muslim holidays school calendar change was made were representatives…

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NSA Contractor ‘Reality Winner’ Pleads Guilty In Leak Case

Reality Winner, NSA

by Will Racke   Former National Security Agency contractor Reality L. Winner pleaded guilty Tuesday to sending a media outlet a classified document pertaining to Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. A former Air Force linguist, Winner is the first person to be prosecuted by the Trump administration for leaking sensitive government information. Her plea agreement in federal court in Augusta, Georgia, calls for a 63-month prison term, though she will be sentenced at a later date, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Winner was arrested in June 2017 after she stole classified materials from her former employer, Pluribus International, a defense contractor that works for the NSA at its offices in Augusta. After being arrested by the FBI, she admitted to printing and mailing the classified documents to investigative news website The Intercept, which went on to publish a story based on the document. The FBI announced that it had arrested Winner just hours after The Intercept published its story. In an affidavit, federal investigators said they were tipped to a leak of secret documents when an Intercept reporter seeking to authenticate the documents contacted the NSA, which then reached out to the FBI about the possible security breach. A scan of the document given…

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Richard Viguerie Commentary: How William F. Buckley Jr. Gave Birth to the Conservative Movement

William F. Buckley, Jr.

by Richard A Viguerie, CHQ Chairman   One man – William F. Buckley Jr. – and his new magazine National Review were successful in creating a mass conservative movement in the years after 1955.  We learn the reasons for their success in this excerpt from Chapter 5 (“The Birth of a Movement”) of America’s Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New and Alternative Media to Take Power, by Richard A. Viguerie and David Franke. We look at what made National Review different from previous conservative and libertarian publications.  In ideology, it brought together anti-communists, advocates of free-market economics, and traditionalist conservatives.  And it was willing to get involved in activist politics rather than just preach from an ivy tower.  The result was the creation of a movement that would take the liberal world by surprise with a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in 1962.  The conservative movement had arrived! Chapter 5: The Birth of a Movement   “If you ask 10 conservatives today to name their favorite journalist, their favorite author, their favorite intellectual, and their favorite TV talk show combatant, you’d probably get close to 10 different answers in each category – there are so many to choose from.  If you had asked the same questions of conservatives in…

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On the 10th Anniversary of the Heller Decision, Many States Refuse to Recognize the Second Amendment

By Natalia Castro   Ten years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that every American has a basic right to defend themselves. D.C. v. Heller affirmed the constitutional right granted in the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms not just for the purpose of creating a militia but also for basic protection for every individual. The case was viewed as monumental for the defense of the Second Amendment, but states have chosen to continually ignore the ruling and make gun ownership a nearly impossible task. As we celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Court’s ruling, we must accept how far we have come and how far we still must go. Before Heller, Washington, D.C. essentially banned handguns by making it a crime to carry an unregistered firearm and prohibiting the registration of handguns. D.C. also required residents to keep lawfully owned firearms unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock at all times. Heller, a D.C. special policeman who applied to register a handgun and was denied, filed a suit and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor. The late Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court in which he explained, “The handgun ban amounts to a prohibition of an…

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Another Wave of Spin-Offs Leaves General Electric Vastly Changed

General Electric Company

General Electric Company is shrinking again, becoming a mere shadow of the globe-spanning conglomerate that it was before the Great Recession. GE said Tuesday that it will spin off its health-care business and sell its interest in Baker Hughes, which provides drilling services to oil and gas companies. The moves were announced as GE disappeared from the Dow Jones industrial average for the first time since 1907. They underscored how radically the company has changed in less than a decade. GE traces its roots to Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb. The company grew with the American economy. At the start of the global financial crisis in 2008, it was one of the nation’s biggest lenders, its appliances were sold by the millions to homeowners around the world, and it oversaw a multinational media powerhouse including NBC television. Since then, the company has been selling assets, with the latest divestitures coming after a yearlong review by CEO John Flannery. “Today marks an important milestone in GE’s history,” Flannery said. He vowed to give the company more of a high-tech and industrial focus, and to make GE simpler and stronger by focusing on aviation, power and renewable energy…

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Open Borders Socialist Ousts High-Ranking Democrat Congressman in Shocking New York Primary

Ocasio

by Julia Cohen   Incumbent New York Democratic Rep. Joseph Crowley, the fourth most powerful Democrat in the House, lost to his democratic socialist challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the New York primary on Tuesday, according to the New York Times. Rep. Crowley lost with 42.4 percent of the vote to Ocasio-Cortez’s 57.6 percent of the vote, according to a Tuesday New York Times report. Ocasio-Cortez, who is 28 years old, ran on a progressive platform of Medicare for all, a federal jobs guarantee, and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to her campaign site. Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and she praised the DSA on her Twitter page, tweeting that she is “so honored to have their endorsement” in a June 4 tweet.   – – – Follow Julia Cohen on Facebook and Twitter.                   Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].

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Supreme Court Upholds Trump’s Travel Ban

Donald Trump

by Masood Farivar   The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday narrowly upheld the Trump administration’s travel restrictions on citizens of five Muslim-majority countries, handing President Donald Trump a victory in enforcing one of his most controversial policies. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the president has the authority under U.S. immigration laws to limit travel from foreign countries on national security grounds, as the Trump administration has argued. The president “has lawfully exercised the broad discretion granted to him under (Immigration and Nationality Act) to suspend the entry of aliens into the United States,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, delivering the majority opinion. The president has “undoubtedly fulfilled” the requirement under the law that the entry of the targeted aliens “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States,” Roberts wrote. Roberts wrote that the plaintiffs in the case — the state of Hawaii, the Muslim Association of Hawaii and three residents of the state — failed to demonstrate that the travel order “violates” the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars favoring one religion over another. The court’s four liberal justices dissented. Under the so-called “travel ban,” issued in September after two earlier orders were…

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Marsha Blackburn Hails SCOTUS Decision Declaring Trump Travel Ban Constitutional, While Leftist Supported Phil Bredesen Appears to Duck Issue

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), was quick to weigh in on today’s Supreme Court ruling in favor of President Trump’s travel ban on residents of foreign countries that fail to meet security screening standards challenged in court by Hawaii. #SCOTUS decision is a victory against the Left’s open borders agenda and liberal activist judges. We must be able to vet individuals coming into our country so we can keep Tennesseans and America safe! https://t.co/QlzGmc8LEr — Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) June 26, 2018 As usual, via his social media feed, Democrat Phil Bredesen is doing his best to duck the issue, one critical to many Trump-supporting Tennesseans by saying nothing at all. Were he to do that, he would risk the ire of Progressive Democrats now openly supporting his campaign against Blackburn. One far left activist, former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, called out to his fellow travelers in Tennessee to “stop Trump from packing SCOTUS with more Trumpists is to win the Senate,” with candidates like the Democratic candidate, former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen, in a tweet this morning: The only way to stop Trump from packing…

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Poll in Williamson County State House District 61 Shows Brandon Ogles and Bill Lee Leading in Their Primary Races

Bill Lee, Brandon Ogles

A new poll conducted among likely GOP voters in the Nashville suburbs of Brentwood and Franklin by Triton Polling shows good news for State House candidate Brandon Ogles and Gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee, along with some warning signs for Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn in her bid for the U.S. Senate. The survey of 361 likely Republican Primary voters was conducted June 18-22, 2018 and has a margin or error of 5.1%. In the GOP primary race for Governor, the poll showed Williamson County native Bill Lee leading the field with 32.4% of the vote, followed by Diane Black with 21.3%, Randy Boyd with 16.1%, Beth Harwell with 14.9% and 15.4% undecided. Other polling has indicated that Lee is seeing a recent surge in support in Middle Tennessee, where he, Black and Harwell all have a significant base of support. Many political observers believe that Lee’s gains come at the expense of Black, and may help Boyd in a statewide race due to his primary base of votes coming from East Tennessee, where he appears to have a significant lead over the other three candidates who all come from Middle Tennessee. In the House primary race to fill the vacancy created by…

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Rep. Dana Rohrbacher Endorses Judd Matheny in 6th Congressional District GOP Primary

Dana Rohrbacher

NASHVILLE, TN–In an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star on Monday, Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA), a leading member of the House Freedom Caucus and former aide to Ronald Reagan, explained why he is endorsing State Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) in the Republican primary in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District. “Our country is in trouble. There is a fight going on in Washington right now that will determine whether or not America remains the great country that our Founding Fathers invested their fortunes and their lives and their blood in order to create,” Rohrbacher said. “Judd is a patroit. Judd is courageous. Judd knows how to get things done. He’s not just a philopsher, he’s not just some guy looking for prestige,” the former Reagan speechwriter added. “He’s looking to help save our country, and he’s got the courage to do it,” he continued. “This is not an easy job. I have been there and seen people come and go in Washington. Having met Judd, having discussed his principles–deep felt principles–that I know will carry him through the Swamp Land in the District of Columbia,” Rohrbacher noted. “I am very pleased to be here to support him, to join me, because I…

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Has a New Civil War Already Begun and What Side Is Phil Bredesen On?

Phil Bredesen

In a Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit) op-ed published at The Tennessean, the law professor and argues that said civil war is already underway: Is America headed toward a civil war? Sanders, Nielsen incidents show it has already begun Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kirstjen Nielsen experiences at restaurants suggest a ‘soft’ civil war is well underway. It will get worse unless we learn to stop hating each other. The other day, author Tom Ricks asked whether we’re heading toward a civil war. “I don’t believe we’re to Kansas of the 1850s yet. But we seem to be lurching … in that direction,” he wrote. Ricks was commenting on “What Democratic rage would look like,” a Bloomberg opinion column that quotes political scientist Thomas Schaller as saying, “I think we’re at the beginning of a soft civil war. … I don’t know if the country gets out of it whole.” That sounds pretty serious. The column by Francis Wilkinson presents a catalog of things Democrats are mad about — from the existence of the electoral college to Trump’s “propaganda apparatus” — and predicts that if Democrats lose the midterm elections, there will be hell to pay. (And Republicans, you know, could make a…

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Democrats Split on Decorum of Confronting Off-Duty Trump Staffers

Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Donald Trump

Opposition Democrats are divided on whether it is acceptable to confront officials with President Donald Trump’s administration while they are in restaurants and other venues. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who is the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, is disagreeing with another California delegation member who has called for supporters to take any opportunity to personally harass administration officials. “Trump’s daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable,” Pelosi said on Twitter on Monday. “As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea.” In the crucial months ahead, we must strive to make America beautiful again. Trump’s daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but unacceptable. As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way that achieves unity from sea to shining sea. https://t.co/vlpqOBLK4R — Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) June 25, 2018 Her tweet included a link to a CNN story about Representative Maxine Waters encouraging harassment of Trump administration officials. Trump, on Monday afternoon, responded to Water’s remarks, saying on Twitter that the congresswoman — whom he referred to as an “extraordinarily low IQ person” — had called for…

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TDOT Commissioner Says Nashville Transit Plan Would Have Helped No One

John Schroer

TDOT’s leader said Nashville’s transit plan failed at the ballot box because it “had no bearing on regional traffic” and would not help anyone, the Nashville Business Journal reports. John Schroer made the comments at a town hall meeting last week at Williamson Inc., the Williamson County Chamber of Commerce. He is commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. “It wasn’t going to help anybody, it was going down through the main corridors in Nashville,” the Journal said, quoting the Brentwood Home Page website. “Those were all state roads, and they had to get our approval … in order to do what they were going to do, but no one ever asked us about it.” Schroer referred to the $9 billion Nashville transit plan that failed in a May 1 referendum by a massive ratio of 64 percent against vs. 34 percent in favor. The Brentwood Home Page story quoted Schroer as saying Tennessee’s interstates are being used at only 20 percent of their capacity. “If you look at downtown Nashville, that’s not our issue. We do have traffic, we know we have traffic, but it can be better managed,” Schroer said. Technology and use of flexible work schedules can…

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Nashville Metro Council Asks Citizens to Critique Future Budgets

Nashville Budget

Nashville residents soon will have a voice in Metro Council’s spending habits. Metro Council voted 34-4 to create a “Blue Ribbon Commission” like a popular one in Atlanta in which private citizens may critique the budget, Nashville Public Radio WPLN reports. The commission will form by October. Councilman Fabian Bedne said he doesn’t want to see the effort turn partisan as people do not always agree on spending. Councilman John Cooper suggested the commission. The commission’s recommendations will be just that — recommendations. “This is a statement from us as a council that we recognize … our budget process is somewhat broken. That we do need fresh eyes,” said Councilwoman Angie Henderson. WPLN also reports that Metro Council members, who were dissatisfied with the surprise budget shortfall, also voted to cut funding by $103,000 for the city’s Finance Department. Those funds will provide a finance expert to work directly for the council to help them handle the budget. Betsy Phillips of The Nashville Scene reports that move will help the council hold the Finance Department accountable — since the department answers to the mayor. Phillips compares the mayor’s office’s control of the complicated budget to The Labyrinth of Greek myth:…

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Democrat PAC Uses Fear Mongering and Deception to Malign Conservative Legislators, Praises Governor Haslam On Gas Tax Increase

billboard

LEBANON, Tennessee – A newly launched Political Action Committee (PAC) commissioned a billboard with a scandalous message attacking two conservative middle Tennessee lawmakers, former State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) and current State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon), for their votes against Governor Haslam’s gas tax increasing IMPROVE Act. The IMPROVE Act – Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy – also dubbed “2017 Tax Cut Act,” passed the Tennessee General Assembly in April 2017. On the eve of the next installment of the IMPROVE Act’s additional $0.01 per gallon gas tax and $0.03 per gallon diesel tax increases set to go in effect on July 1, 2018, and nearing the highpoint of election season, the billboard appeared on the northbound side of Highway 109 in Wilson County. Beavers is running in a hotly contested race for Wilson County Mayor against eight-year incumbent Randall Hutto. Meanwhile Pody is seeking re-election to the District 17 State Senate seat encompassing Wilson County which was vacated by Beavers when she decided to run for Governor. Pody, a sitting State Representative at the time, narrowly won the seat against Democrat opponent Mary Alice Carfi in a special election held in late 2017…

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Commentary: Rep Jim Jordan Exposes Speaker Paul Ryan’s Dirty Little Secret on Amnesty Vote

Jim Jordan, Paul Ryan

by CHQ Staff   Principled limited government constitutional conservative Representative Jim Jordan was on CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday morning and he exposed a dirty little secret that the establishment would like to hide from the 70+ percent of Americans who want the strict immigration enforcement that President Trump promised during the 2016 campaign. What Rep. Jordan said was this: “…if our leadership had put the same whip effort behind that immigration legislation, Chairman Goodlette’s legislation, it would have passed.” The legislation to which Jordan referred is H.R. 4760, the Securing America’s Future Act often referred to as “the Goodlatte bill.” The bill was introduced in January by Chairman Goodlatte, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), House Judiciary Committee Immigration and Border Security Subcommittee Chairman Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) to bolster enforcement of existing immigration law, makes important reforms to our legal immigration programs, secure the border, and provide a legislative solution for the current beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Goodlatte bill was far from perfect, but it earned the support of many conservatives because it came the closest to covering all four pillars of President Trump’s immigration reform plan: building the Wall, ending chain…

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Supreme Court Lifts Ruling on Christian Florist Barronelle Stutzman, Who Refused to Decorate Same-Sex Wedding for Long-time Customers

Barronelle Stutzman

Reuters   After siding with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sent back to lower courts a similar dispute over a florist who declined to create flower arrangements for a same-sex wedding based on her Christian beliefs. The justices threw out a 2017 ruling by Washington state’s Supreme Court that Barronelle Stutzman, owner of Arlene’s Flowers in the city of Richland, about 200 miles (320 km) southeast of Seattle, had violated the state’s anti-discrimination law and a consumer protection measure. The court ordered the top Washington state court to revisit the case in light of its ruling on June 4 in favor of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who similarly cited his Christian beliefs in refusing to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. Stutzman in 2013 refused to provide the arrangements to Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, who were getting married after the state legalized same-sex marriage the prior year. She was hit with a $1,000 fine and directed to make floral arrangements for same-sex weddings if she does so for opposite-sex weddings. In the baker case, the court ruled that a Colorado state commission had…

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Illegal Aliens Get In-State Tuition in Five States That Also Allow Them to Practice Law

Sergio Garcia

California, New York, Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut all provide the in-state tuition benefit for illegal aliens in their states and all permit illegal aliens who graduate from law school, to apply for and obtain a license to practice law. Last week Connecticut became the fifth state to change its rules and license eligible illegal aliens to practice law. Prior to the rule change, Connecticut required lawyers to either be a U.S. citizen or “an alien lawfully residing in the United States.” The rule now includes anyone “authorized to work lawfully in the United States.” The rule change was proposed by Denia Perez, a grantee of Obama’s unconstitutional DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) administrative amnesty program. Illegal aliens trying to get a license to practice could potentially have an easy path in Tennessee, especially as explained below, if proponents of the in-state tuition bill are successful during the next legislative session. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) who last session sponsored the bill for its fourth run, are likely to try again in 2019. Unlike Connecticut and California before they changed their rules, Tennessee’s rules about who is eligible to be granted a law…

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China Scrambles To Blunt The Force Of Trump’s Tariffs With Over $100 Billion Injection

Xi Jinping

by Hannah Bogorowski   China’s central bank announced late Sunday that it is planning to unleash nearly 700 billion yuan ($107.5 billion) into the financial system by cutting the amount of cash some banks must hold as reserves by 50 basis points. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on Sunday that the latest reduction in some banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRRs), currently 16 percent for large banks and 14 percent for smaller banks, will take effect on July 5, according to CNBC. “This move will help support the real economy and stabilize financial markets. We’ve seen rising debt defaults and funding strains on small firms, as well as a sharp adjustment in the capital market,” Beijing’s chief economist at Zhongyuan Bank, Wang Jun said. Sunday’s announcement followed the worst weekly loss in the country’s stock market since February, as President Donald Trump’s threatening trade war looms over the country. China’s net exports were already lagging in growth for the first quarter, according to analysts at CNBC, emphasizing the need for strong and stabilized economy before the tariffs hit. This latest RRR cut will take effect a day before the awaited tariffs will be applied, as China and the United States are…

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Commentary: It Is Time to Fire the Swamp!

The Swamp

By Natalia Castro   Americans were ignited to head to the polls when President Donald Trump traveled the country in 2016 promising to “drain the swamp,” but the only group that can truly do this is the swamp itself in Congress.  Civil service reform rarely gets the media attention that health care, immigration, or other issues receive; Washington D.C. politicians know that and use it to prevent real change from coming. To fix our broken bureaucracy, the American people must demand a more efficient and effective federal workforce. During the Obama administration, news broke of poor performing Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) employees placing veterans on extensive waiting lists, causing hundreds to die without receiving care. The story continued to turn heads when after two years several senior VA officials identified as causing the veteran deaths were still on the job. Americans rallied behind the news in support of our veterans and, as a result, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) led the passage of the VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act through Congress to increase management’s ability to remove poor performing employees. According to data retrieved from the Office of Personnel Management’s FedScope, the VA has maintained a firing rate of less than 1 percent…

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National Poll: Over Half Of Americans Happy With Economy Under Trump

Donald Trump

by Michael Sandoval   A majority of Americans approve of the economy under President Trump despite controversial immigration policies, according to a CNBC poll released Monday. CNBC’s All-American Economic Survey found 51 percent approve of the economy, an increase of six points since March. Fifty-four percent of Americans rated the economy as either good or excellent, the highest CNBC has recorded in 10 years. While many of those surveyed disagreed with Trump’s strict immigration enforcement, it had little to no effect on holding positive views on the strong economy. Only 36 percent of the public were unsatisfied with the economy. The poll comes as Trump pushes for policies to keep jobs in America, contributing to the lowest unemployment rates in 20 years. In the past year, 223,000 jobs were created and the gap between black and white unemployment reached an all time low since the release of the numbers in the 1970s. Eight hundred people were surveyed between June 16-19, during Trump’s push for “zero-tolerance” policies toward illegal immigration. The margin of error for this survey was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. – – – Michael Sandoval is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.               …

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Following Portland, San Diego, and New York, ICE Protesters Set Up Camp In Front Of LA Detention Center

Anti-ICE camp

by Julia Cohen   A group who calls itself “L.A. Against I.C.E.” has set up a camp in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Los Angeles detention center, according to the group’s twitter account. Good morning from the occupation! People should turn out today for events at the camp. We especially need more people to stay tonight through tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/csy2b43xMG — LA Against ICE (@LAagainstICE) June 24, 2018 The group have been outside of the center since Friday, according to a tweet retweeted by L.A. Against I.C.E’s account on Sunday. The group’s twitter feed is urging supporters to bring supplies to the camp that may foreshadow potential violence, including 16C batteries, bandages and mechanical pencils. The group also tweeted it has some “really great stuff planned” Monday. The group suggested making large banners to drop across a Los Angeles freeway on Sunday. The LA camp comes in the wake of several other protests at ICE facilities last week, including a protest at ICE’s headquarters in Portland, Oregon, that shut down the office for almost a full week. ICE employees went back to work Monday in Oregon for the first time since June 19 , according to a report from The Oregonian Monday. ICE protesters are also in Pittsburgh Monday…

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Phil Bredesen Silent on Harassment of Republican Women by Left Wing Activists Who Are Giving Him Money

Phil Bredesen

While Democrat Phil Bredesen was quick to accuse President Donald Trump of “child abuse” for simply enforcing current immigration law, he doesn’t seem to have a problem with his prominent Democrat friends like Rep Maxine Waters calling for Republicans and conservatives to be harassed in public simply because of who they are. Staffers and allies of President Donald Trump face a new normal in today’s heated political environment: the potential for harassment and protests anywhere they show their faces — both in their public and private lives. Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters shocked political observers over the weekend by encouraging liberal mobs to harass Trump officials at restaurants, gas stations and even at home. “Already you have members of your cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants,” We have protesters taking up at their house who are saying, ‘No peace, no sleep. No peace, no sleep,’” Waters told a liberal crowd on Saturday, pledging to “win this battle.” “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” the congresswoman added. “And you push back on them. Tell them they’re not welcome any more,…

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Commentary: It’s Time For President Trump To Go Full Andrew Jackson On Overreaching Judges

John D Gates

by CHQ Staff   The news that a Bush-appointed federal district judge, John D. Bates (pictured), has ruled that Obama’s executive amnesty, not actual immigration law, is the law and that Trump must fully restore and renew the program is such a radical exhibition of judicial overreach that it should have been a banner headline or lead segment in every major media outlet. Instead it generated hardly a mention, let alone any outrage, from the establishment media who long ago fell into the trap of accepting the anti-constitutional concept of judicial supremacy over the Executive and Legislative branches of government. For a complete rundown on this outrageous usurpation of the powers of the legislative and executive branches of government see Daniel Horowitz “Bush judge demands that Trump rule as king. Really!” “The tyranny of the legislature is really the danger most to be feared, and will continue to be so for many years to come,” Jefferson wrote Madison six weeks before Washington’s first inauguration. “The tyranny of the executive power will come in its turn, but at a more distant period.” Jefferson, Adams, Madison and other members of the founding generation of the American republic rightly feared the tyranny of the…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Lee Wants Term Limits For State Legislators

Bill Lee

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee a relative newcomer and self-described “outsider” to Tennessee state politics, is trying to use this status to distinguish himself from the other candidates: There are four people running for the Republican primary in this race. The others are politicians. They all either worked for the government or been long involved in politics. Threading this theme through his campaign, Lee wants to reform state government by imposing terms limits on state legislators although it’s not clear whether he wants to impose consecutive or lifetime term limits. Opponents of term limits consider the governor term-limited in Article III, Section 4 of the Tennessee Constitution which limits the Governor to serving two consecutive four year terms. Article II, Section 3 of the state’s Constitution limits House members to two year terms and Senators to four year terms. While state legislators are not limited to either consecutive or lifetime terms, they are forced, at regular intervals to re-run for their office if they want to continue to serve. Opponents of term limits consider the voting booth to be the most definitive statement on the matter. Six states have repealed their term limit restrictions – Idaho, Massachusetts, Oregon, Utah, Washington and…

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The Tennessee Star Announces A Week Long Letters to the Editor ‘Endorse-A-Rama’ for the Last Week of July

Letter to the Editor

The 2018 election season is in full swing, and with primary election day just a few short weeks away, we thought we would ask who your candidate of choice is for the record number of candidates running for open seats this year! Starting Monday, June 25th, we will begin accepting Letter to the Editor Endorsements for publication consideration. We will continue receiving them until Friday, July 20. The letters will appear throughout the week of July 22. Are you a ‘Matheny Man,’ or is Judge Bob Corlew your candidate of choice? John Rose? Tell us why! Who should replace State Rep. Charles Sargent? And State Rep. Shelia Butt? Should Bill Lee be the next governor, or do you think Diane Black can bring more to the table? We want to hear about it! Now, let’s remember this is a family website, so no profanity or un-sourced, ad-hoc attacks, please. Here is a comprehensive list we put together from The Tennessean and The Green Papers of the all the candidates – Gubernatorial, US House and Senate, and State House and Senate – in challenged races qualified to run as of the last candidate deadline April 5: Tennessee Governor Republican: Diane Lynn Black, Randy Boyd,…

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Commentary: Yes, Brexit Will Happen – And It Will Work

BREXIT EU

by Ted R. Bromund   This week has seen big, and potentially confusing, events in Great Britain’s struggle to Brexit—to regain its national independence from the European Union. As we reach the second anniversary of the Brexit referendum, which took place on June 23, 2016, here’s what has happened. In 1973, when Britain entered the European Communities—the predecessor to today’s EU—it did so by passing the European Communities Act through Parliament. The European Communities Act made EU law and judgments of the European Court of Justice binding in Britain and incorporated all existing EU law—including all EU regulations and directives—into British law. In effect, at a stroke, the European Communities Act subordinated British law and democracy to the European Union. [The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more  ] For Britain to withdraw from the EU, it has to repeal the European Communities Act. Parliament has been struggling to do this for the past week. The overwhelming majority of the governing Conservative Party supports repealing the law. But there were just enough Conservative rebels—six, in the end—to make life hard for the government. In addition, the nonelected House…

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REPORT: Border Patrol Agent Injured Shielding an Older Woman as ‘Melee’ of Protestors Enjulfed Bus Departing Texas Illegal Alien Processing Center

Griff Jenkins

Fox News’ field reporter Griff Jenkins – while reporting on the leftist protesters attempting to disrupt the processing of illegal aliens at a Texas border control facility – told his collegues on Fox and Friends Weekend Sunday that a border patrol agent was injured trying to control a crowd of during a surge of activity to stop a bus loaded with detainees on their way to another holding area. “Something we’re learning just this morning, guys, and that is that one of the agents inside here when this bus was moving, when the melee was going on, was trying to control the crowd, was trying to ensure that he also did not step on a smaller little old lady, he broke his ankle,” Jenkins said in a live report from the border town of McAllen, Texas. “His ankle is broken this morning.”  The Daily Caller captured the full segment of Jenkin’s report containing the news of the border patrol officer’s injury, which he shared after airing this video of earlier events: LIVE from McAllen, TX – @GriffJenkins confronts protesters, Democrats at the border pic.twitter.com/nipEM3ntbA — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) June 24, 2018    

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Dem Chief of Staff Tried to Expose Suspected Theft Ring on Capitol Hill, Was Met with Resistance

Wendy Anderson

by Luke Rosiak   Democrat Rep. Yvette Clarke’s chief of staff tried reported that Abid Awan and the New York congresswoman’s other top aides were part of what the staffer thought was a theft ring, sources say. Clarke waited to fire Abid until he was under scrutiny from House officials for other allegations. Even then, Clarke regretted firing him, sources say. Rep. Yvette Clarke’s deputy chief of staff came into the office on a Saturday in December 2015 and caught the New York Democrat’s part-time IT aide, Abid Awan, rummaging through the congresswoman’s work area with new iPods and other equipment strewn around the room, according to a House document and interviews with Hill staff. Wendy Anderson told Abid to get out of the office, the document said. She told Capitol Hill investigators that she soon suspected Clarke’s chief of staff, Shelley Davis, was working with Abid on a theft scheme, multiple House staffers with knowledge of the situation told The Daily Caller News Foundation. They also said that Anderson pushed for Abid’s firing. But Clarke did not fire Abid until six months after the congresswoman formally acknowledged that $120,000 in equipment was missing, records show — not until after House investigators independently…

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Trump Supporters and Republicans from Tennessee, Virginia, Florida and Rest of U.S. Subjected to Bigoted Attacks by Leftists

Republicans

by Ethan Barton   Staffers and allies of President Donald Trump face a new normal in today’s heated political environment: the potential for harassment and protests anywhere they show their faces — both in their public and private lives. Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters shocked political observers over the weekend by encouraging liberal mobs to harass Trump officials at restaurants, gas stations and even at home. “Already you have members of your cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants,” We have protesters taking up at their house who are saying, ‘No peace, no sleep. No peace, no sleep,’” Waters told a liberal crowd on Saturday, pledging to “win this battle.” “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” the congresswoman added. “And you push back on them. Tell them they’re not welcome any more, anywhere!” What Waters is advocating is already happening. Left-wing activists on June 19 chased Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out of a Mexican restaurant. “Kirstjen Nielsen, you’re a villain, locking up immigrant children,” chanted activists from the Democratic Socialists of America. CREDO Action, a progressive grassroots organization, organized a…

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No Tariffs, No Barriers, No Subsidies: The Rep. Yoho Path to Subsidy-Free Sugar

sugar cubes

by Rick Manning   “No tariffs, no barriers, that’s the way it should be — and no subsidies,” President Donald Trump during a speech to G-7 leaders on June 8, 2018. Congress has a chance to move the ball forward on achieving this ideal as they consider the farm bill.  Representative Ted Yoho (R-Fl) has legislation to end sugar subsidies immediately upon presidential certification that other nations have taken the same steps.  The Zero for Zero bill would allow President Trump to confront other major sugar producing nations with a simple stark offer.  We agreed to end our sugar subsidies, but it is contingent on you ending yours. This basic reciprocal tool would empower the president to seek fairer, freer trade and hopefully set a precedent for lowering or ending all agricultural subsidies.  In my mind this is a great move forward. Rather than playing the stale stalemate game between those who abhor agriculture subsidies, particularly for sugar, the Yoho Zero for Zero language changes the debate because it puts the onus on foreign governments like Brazil and India to do the same allowing true free markets to set prices and even production volumes. It is time for the entire…

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Federal Law, Not President Trump, Dictates How Unaccompanied Children and Family Units Are Treated at the Border

unaccompanied children

by Robert Romano   Between 2009 and 2016, more than 242,000 unaccompanied children arrived at the southwest border, according to data compiled by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, averaging about 30,000 a year. In 2016, that number was about 20,000. In addition, in 2016, about 23,000 family units were apprehended at the border. According to CBP, “Family Unit represents the number of individuals (either a child under 18 years old, parent or legal guardian) apprehended with a family member by the U.S. Border Patrol.” Normally, what happens, per a 2008 federal law against human trafficking and federal court rulings, is unaccompanied children are given to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, and eventually released, ideally to a relative residing in the U.S., within 20 days. As for the adults, there is no provision of law allowing them to stay, even if they arrived with children. If upon capture and pleading guilty and being released to ICE custody, they elect to be deported, however, they can return home with the children before the child is required to be released within the 20-day court-imposed deadline — provided there is time to hear the case. If the adults apply for asylum, that…

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Commentary: California Dreaming

Tim Draper

by George Rasley   A controversial plan to split California into three new jurisdictions has now qualified for the Nov. 6 ballot giving voters in the Golden State the first opportunity to split a state since the creation of West Virginia in 1863. The proposal aims to invoke Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, the provision guiding how an existing state can be divided into new states. The plan calls for three new entities — Northern California, California and Southern California — which would roughly divide the population of the existing state into thirds. Conservatives are concerned that tech billionaire Tim Draper’s proposal to split California into three states would, at least in the short term, likely put more Democrats in the U.S. Senate, according to a Sacramento Bee review of voter registration and election data. According to the Sacramento Bee, the new state of Northern California roughly covers the areas north of Merced and San Jose. Democrats outnumber Republicans two to one in the counties that would make up the state. Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by nearly two million votes in those counties. The new state of California covers Los Angeles and five nearby coastal counties. The…

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Bob Corker Subverts President Trump Yet Again: Says Order to Reunite Immigrant Families Not ‘Realistic’

Bob Corker

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) told “Face the Nation” that the immigration policy that separated families was done in a “ready, fire, aim way,” and insinuated that Republicans who are concerned about illegal immigration hate others. The Tennessee Republican appeared on the CBS show Sunday. The host asked him if the U.S. committed a “human rights violation.” The senator deflected the question and said, “It obviously is not something that’s realistic. It’s not something that appreciates these young children. It certainly was done in a ready, aim, fire way, obviously.” Corker said President Trump signing an executive order to reunite families “led to another crisis” due to the 20-day limit on how long children may be detained with their parents while they are prosecuted. He accused “some” in the administration of using the issue “as a force to activate the base for elections, but obviously the president realized that was a mistake, and now it’s up to us in Congress to work with them to come up with a longer-term solution.” Corker raps his party Corker was asked about “American values” and a CBS News poll result: Those who enter the nation illegally should be punished as an example of toughness,…

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Eve Thomas Sworn In As Knoxville Police Department’s First Female Chief

Eve Thomas

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero has promoted Deputy Chief Eve Thomas to become Knoxville’s first-ever female police chief, WBIR reported. Thomas was sworn in Thursday and succeeds Chief David Rausch as he becomes director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Monday, June 25. Rausch is taking over the TBI after his predecessor, Acting Director Jason Locke, announced his retirement, WATE reported. Locke came under investigation and had lawmakers calling for his resignation after his wife accused him of having an affair with a high-ranking state worker at taxpayers’ expense. Rausch left the KPD in a good position for her, Thomas told WBIR. “The reason I know I am prepared is because of the great team we have. And Chief Rausch has left me in a great spot.” Thomas began her career at KPD in 1993, where her duties included Field Training Officer, Recruitment Coordinator, and working in the accreditation unit, among others. In February, she was named one of KPD’s four deputy chiefs and division commander of the Criminal Investigations Division, making her the second woman to obtain the rank. She told WBIR she wants to grow community relationships Rausch built and continue his focus on fighting drugs.    …

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Cynthia Nixon Calls ICE a ‘Terrorist Organization’

Cynthia Nixon

by Julia Cohen   New York Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon referred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a “terrorist organization” in a Thursday night tweet. “ICE is a terrorist organization, and its egomaniacal leader is Donald Trump,” the tweet says. ICE is a terrorist organization, and its egomaniacal leader is Donald Trump. Sign our petition to #AbolishICE: https://t.co/sZ3VF6lRhE https://t.co/qsB6XiJUJc — Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) June 22, 2018 The tweet also includes a link to a petition by Nixon’s campaign to abolish ICE. “There are so many steps between where we are now and a fair immigration system. But this is the first step,” the petition says. This isn’t the first time Nixon has advocated for the abolition of ICE. “Drivers licenses must be made available to all qualified New Yorkers, including undocumented immigrants … We must … #AbolishICE,” Nixon tweeted earlier on Thursday. Nixon advocated for making New York a sanctuary state, meaning that the state would not cooperate with ICE to deport illegal immigrants. – – – Julia Cohen is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Julia on Facebook and Twitter.                     Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that…

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Commentary: Janus Decision Likely to Be Good for Government Workers

Mark Janus

By Richard McCarty   For over a decade, Mark Janus has had to pay fees to a union to keep his job as a child support specialist at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. Believing that he should not be forced to pay these fees to a union whose views he opposes, Janus filed a lawsuit against the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Council 31. In February, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case, and the Court could issue its ruling any day now. The Janus decision is likely to upend the status quo in much of the country where public unions have been able to coast along forcing workers to pay agency fees without having to sell workers on the benefits of union membership. What are agency fees? Agency fees are fees that non-union members are required to pay to unions to keep their jobs in some states. Agency fees are set by the union, and the cost of agency fees is typically between 80 percent and 90 percent of the cost of union dues. The purported reason for these agency fees is to prevent workers from benefitting from unions without contributing to them. Of…

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Mexican Airline Offers Free Flights to Reunite Families

Volaris airline

Reuters   Mexican airline Volaris said Friday it was offering free flights to reunite families separated by the “zero tolerance” immigration policy of U.S. President Donald Trump. “It hurts us to see these children without their parents and it is our vocation to reunite them,” Volaris said in a statement. The airline said it would work with authorities in the United States, Mexico and Central America to offer free flights on its pre-existing routes to reunite children with their parents. According to its website, Volaris flies to more than 65 locations across Mexico, the United States, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. After facing an uproar at home and abroad, Trump bowed to intense pressure Wednesday and signed an order ending the separation of children from their families while parents were prosecuted for crossing the border illegally. This week, four major U.S. airlines asked the federal government not to use their flights to transport migrant children away from their parents. Some of the more than 2,300 children separated from their parents since mid-April have been flown to states far from the border area between Mexico and the United States, where their parents are being charged in immigration courts, according…

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As a Tax Accountant, I Can Tell You Tax Reform Is Helping Small Businesses

small business taxes

by Kalena Bruce   As we enter the summer, Republicans and Democrats continue to debate the merits of the tax cuts. Lost in this partisan bickering is the genuine and long-overdue relief the tax cuts offer small businesses. Sadly, the media reporting on small business tax cuts has been heavily politicized, complicating rather than clarifying the issue. Even The New York Times couldn’t get it straight in an article earlier this year, leading to an embarrassing correction. As a certified professional accountant, I’ve already started dealing with the new tax code for small business clients who file returns on a quarterly basis. Here’s what they need to know. The new tax structure lowers tax rates and expands the income thresholds for anyone who pays individual income tax, including small businesses that are structured as pass-throughs. These include sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, and S-Corps. The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >> Under the new tax structure, rates fall to 10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35, and 37 percent from 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, 35, and 40 percent. Income thresholds under these new rates are also expanded. For instance,…

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South Carolina Congressional Hopeful Katie Arrington Badly Injured in Fatal Car Crash, Democrat Opponent Suspends Campaign, Calls for Prayer

Katie Arrington

by Thomas Phippen   South Carolina Republican congressional candidate Katie Arrington was injured in a car accident late Friday night, days after defeating incumbent Rep. Mark Sanford for the party’s nomination. Arrington was in the passenger seat of a car heading toward Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, when her vehicle was struck by a car driving in the wrong lane, the Post and Courier reports. Joe Cunningham, the Democratic nominee running against Arrington, said in a tweet that he is “suspending all campaign activities until further notice.” We are suspending all campaign activities until further notice. https://t.co/yigZupPoLz — Joe Cunningham (@JoeCunninghamSC) June 23, 2018 Arrington suffered a fractured spine and several broken ribs, and other injuries will need major surgery. She will likely undergo a major procedure to remove part of her small intestine and place a stint in her leg, according to campaign spokesman Michael Mule She is expected to recover in the hospital for two weeks, and doctors say her good health is responsible for the positive outlook. “There’s not many people as tough as Katie Arrington,” Mule said. The driver of the other vehicle was killed in the crash. Arrington defeated Sanford, a third-term congressman and former South Carolina governor, with…

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New Book ‘#DUPED’ Shoots Down All Of Hogg’s Rhetoric

Mark W. Smith, David Hogg

by Molly Prince   Constitutional lawyer and New York Times best-selling author Mark Smith combats David Hogg’s rhetoric in his latest book, “#Duped,” which serves as a response to the newly-minted gun-control activist and Parkland graduate’s recently released book, “#NeverAgain.” Smith exposes the left’s celebration and exploitation of students in order to advance so-called common sense gun control. “#Duped: How The Anti-Gun Lobby Exploits The Parkland School Shooting — And How Gun Owners Can Fight Back” deconstructs the progressive narrative and illustrates how advocates use children to promulgate an agenda that is so unpalatable they have failed to otherwise enact. Smith writes: From a political standpoint, children are ideal carriers of messages because they are unassailable, particularly if they have a direct connection to a tragedy. For the gun control movement, children represent a win-win-win. They are sympathetic, they are beyond reproach, and they cannot be challenged by anyone. These factors make children ripe for exploitation and explain why we see so many of them in the media today promoting gun control.” “#Duped” exposes not just why the anti-gun movement uses children, but also how. Using correspondence within the Obama administration, Smith highlights the parallels between the left’s response to both the…

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Border Patrol Seizes Heroin at New Mexico Checkpoint

southern border

The U.S. Border Patrol says its agents have seized more than $1 million in heroin at an immigration checkpoint in New Mexico. The agency says authorities conducting an inspection at the checkpoint on New Mexico Highway 70 found the drugs Thursday in a black Honda that was being transported across the border on a tractor-trailer with other cars. They say the Honda stood out because it was not in good condition, unlike the other vehicles. A canine also alerted agents to the vehicle. In a statement, the Border Patrol said the heroin was wrapped in a bundle, along with a couple kilograms of cocaine. U.S. Border Patrol Agent Fidel Baca said the driver would not be facing criminal prosecution in the case. Additional details were not immediately available.             VOA News

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Culture of Corruption: Metro Nashville Paid $175,000 for ‘Cost-Efficient’ Paint Job to Spruce Up Fairgrounds and It’s ‘Already Peeling’

Rich Riebeling

The Nashville Metro government paid over $175,000 to paint the fairgrounds but Larry Atema, the fairgrounds project manager, asked the painting contractor who did the job to use “cost-efficient paint” that turned out to be under warranty for only three months. “But some of that paint is already peeling, after less than a year,” the News 4 I-Team reported in the investigation that broke the story. Metro Council had voted two years ago to invest $12 million to spruce The Fairgrounds Nashville up, the station said. The News4 I-Team said it found emails in July 2017 between Larry Atema, CEO of Commonwealth Development and the fairground project manager, and Metro Nashville Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling discussing the details of the $175,000 paint job. The two are friends, the news station said. Riebeling, the long time city finance director under former Mayor Karl Dean, has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Metro Nashville since the election of former Mayor Megan Barry in 2015. “The culture of corruption that has permeated Metro Nashville Government for years revolves around Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling, the man who appears to be in control of all the reins of power,” The Tennessee Star reported in May,…

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Incredibles 2: Making Superheroes Great Again

Incredibles-2

by Jordan J. Ballor   I saw Incredibles 2 over the Father’s Day weekend, and just like its predecessor, there’s a lot to ponder beneath the surface of this animated film. In the real world we’ve had to wait 14 years, but the sequel picks up basically where the original left off. As the Rev. Jerry Zandstra wrote of the original, “litigiousness and mediocrity are some of the biggest obstacles in our culture. The propensity to settle every dispute by legal action undermines values, such as trust and forgiveness, that are essential to the maintenance of genuine community. Fear of rewarding or achieving excellence discourages human persons from fulfilling God-given potential.” In the sequel, superheroes are still illegal, for reasons of both litigiousness and social anxiety over “supers,” that is, those who have super abilities. Incredibles 2 has a lot to do with the virtues of a system that allows individuals to find out what they can do well and how those abilities can serve others for their good. In this, it is true to the stewardship mandate at the heart of all superhero tales: with great power comes great responsibility. Or as Jesus puts it, to those whom much is given, much is expected. But the issues…

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Judd Matheny Gets Endorsement of Michael Reagan for Congressional Bid in Tennessee’s 6th

Judd Matheny, Michael Reagan

Conservative Republican Judd Matheny picked up a big endorsement this week when Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan and a former nationally syndicated talk radio host, visited Tennessee to promote his campaign for Congress in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District. The August 2 Republican Primary will select a nominee to fill the seat being vacated by Congresswoman Diane Black, who is running for Governor. “Judd Matheny has the conservative principles and statesmanship that my father so loved in a candidate,” Reagan said in making his endorsement. “Judd will uphold Ronald Reagan’s legacy in Congress and I urge you to vote for him and I support him fully.” Matheny said that Reagan will be assisting his campaign in a variety of ways leading up to the Republican Primary. “Ronald Reagan was unwavering in his commitment to national security, economic freedom and prosperity, and the conservative principles essential to promoting and protecting liberty,” Matheny noted. “I am proud that Michael Reagan sees the same characteristics in me that were embodied by his father and am excited to have his support and friendship.” Michael Reagan is the son of former President Ronald Reagan and Academy Award winning actress, Jane Wyman. He authored many successful…

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Mike Huckabee Endorses Randy Boyd For Tennessee Governor

Mike Hukabee

Conservative former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has endorsed Republican candidate Randy Boyd for governor of Tennessee. Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, made the announcement in a television ad Friday, the Boyd campaign announced. “Huckabee, a notable voice for the conservative movement, is throwing his support behind Randy as a conservative businessman who is strong on key issues like illegal immigration and pro-life values,” the announcement says. “Huckabee also supports Randy’s background as a businessman looking to disrupt career politicians. The politician, minister, author and commentator says ‘Tennessee needs a conservative businessman as governor who can get things done.’” Huckabee, a one-time Fox News host, ran unsuccessfully for president twice but carried Tennessee in 2008 by wide margins, the Times Free Press said. Boyd’s campaign CEO is Chip Saltsman, a former Tennessee Republican Party chairman who served as Huckabee’s national campaign manager in the former Arkansas governor’s 2008 presidential effort. Watch the commercial:    

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Steve Gill Remembers John Ward, the ‘Voice of the Vols’

Steve Gill, John Ward

In the final segment of Friday’s Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville, Steve Gill reflected on the life and times of legendary Vols sports broadcaster, John Ward. Ward passed away this week at age 88 after a lengthy illness. The segment opened up with a 1995 recording of Ward calling a classic moment in Vols football history: a first-down, first play touchdown by then-quarterback Peyton Manning and his wide receiver, Joey Kent. “What did he do?” Ward said in his trademark galloping cadence – the live Vols fans roaring in the background – “All he did was score!” “The Voice of the Vols has passed,” Steve Gill said, “But his legacy lives on as long as someone shouts ‘BOTTOM’ whenever a Tennessee basketball player scores a basket; or ‘Give him six!’ when they cross the checkerboard; or ‘It’s football time in Tennessee!’ when those crisp, Fall Saturdays begin.” He continued: You know, when I was a kid – eighth or ninth grade – we lived in Colonial Heights Virginia, near Richmond, and late at night I could tune in and just barely catch the Vol basketball games. I would have to actually turn the dial sightly…

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