Day: July 3, 2018

Gov. Haslam Signs Legislation to Restrict Opioid Access, Punish Trafficking, Provide Treatment Help

Jason M. Reynolds
Bill Haslam

The state of Tennessee is adding restrictions to opioid prescriptions and measures to track and punish unlawful distribution of the powerful pain medications. Gov. Bill Haslam signed two bills and issued an executive order last Friday to support TN Together, the latest effort to fight the opioid crisis, WBIR reported, citing a press release from Haslam’s office. TN Together focuses on prevention, treatment and law enforcement. The legislation seeks to prevent opioid addiction, and misuse and abuse by limiting the supply and dosage of opioid prescriptions with an emphasis on new patients, according a statement on the governor’s office’s website. Initial prescriptions will be limited to a 5-day supply with daily dosage limits (40 MME or “morphine milligram equivalent”). Higher dosages of opioids have been associated with higher risk of overdose and death while proving ineffective at reducing pain over the long term. The legislation also addresses appropriate exceptions, including exceptions for individuals undergoing active or palliative cancer treatment or who are receiving hospice care for chronic pain. The second bill will better track, monitor and penalize the use and unlawful distribution of opioids by adding synthetic versions of fentanyl to the controlled substance schedules, among other updates, WBIR said.…

Read the full story

American Conservative Union Endorses Diane Black For Governor

Jason M. Reynolds
Diane Black, Matt Schlapp

The American Conservative Union (ACU) announced their endorsement of Diane Black for governor at a meet and greet Monday before CPAC 365 in Memphis. U.S. Rep. Black, R-Tennessee, is running for governor in the Republican primary. “We are proud to endorse Diane Black for Governor of Tennessee,” Black’s campaign said in a press release, quoting the organization’s chairman, Matt Schlapp. ACU’s press release continued, saying, “As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Diane worked with the president to pass a budget and cut taxes. She knows that a healthy economy is the foundation to the greater success of Tennessee and the country as a whole, and she has a record of spearheading conservative legislation to back it up. If you want a leader who fights for low taxes, is staunchly pro-life, defends the 2nd Amendment and will uphold the rule of law, then vote for Diane in the Republican primary on August 2.” The ACU’s website says, “We believe that the Constitution of the United States is the best political charter yet created by men for governing themselves. It is our belief that the Constitution is designed to guarantee the free exercise of the inherent rights of the individual through strictly limiting the power…

Read the full story

Phil Bredesen Likely to Support His Would-Be Liberal Senate Colleagues in Abolishing ICE?

John Bryant
Phil Bredesen

U.S. Senate Candidate Phil Bredesen is on record calling the policy that required children to be separated from their families “child abuse” and also voiced his support for the ongoing national  protests on behalf of illegal immigrants. Frankly, there seems to be little if any room between Bredesen and the most liberal of current Senate Democrats when it comes to illegal immigration. Video at link. Phil Bredesen on immigration separation policy U.S. Senate Candidate Phil Bredesen on the policy that required children to be separated from their families June 20, 2018 before President Trump repealed it. Now, Bredesen’s would be fellow Democrat Senators, should he win in November, are increasingly calling for the elimination of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) altogether. There’s more on that topic here. Clearly it’s a growing trend among Democrats, especially in the same Senate Democrat Bredesen longs to become a part of. As usual, he’s dodging the touch questions, as in, would he, or would he not support doing away with ICE. And a mostly Democrat friendly media is all too happy to let him get away with it. Given the manner in which Democrats tend to walk in lockstep once they get to Washington,…

Read the full story

Conservatives Team Up with Immigrants to Tackle Costly New Jersey ‘Hair Braiding’ Regulation

Admin
hair braiding

by Elias Atienza   The New Jersey state chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is helping West African immigrants lobby the New Jersey legislature to change cosmetology requirements. West African immigrants, usually women, operate hair-braiding businesses that are essentially illegal, since state regulations require these workers to get a license, WNYC reported Monday. That license is acquired from cosmetology school, which is often expensive, and degrees can cost up to $20,000. These hair braiders have been lobbying Trenton for two years to pass a bill that would exempt the cosmetology school credentials from the licensing requirement. They received guidance from AFP in order to do so. “Those guys came and said, ‘We are going to work you through this,’” said Anita Yeboah, a braider who works at J&C African Braids in Trenton, to WNYC. “All we can say to them is, God bless them for their time, for all they are doing.” Since hair braiders often work under the table, customers sometimes skip out on their bills and threaten to tell the state the braiders lack a license if they try to complain or call the police. This then causes some braiders in Newark to hire gang members for protection, who go out and collect…

Read the full story

Fact Checking the Fact Checkers: Obama Administration Records Show Illegal Immigrants Are FAR More Likely to Commit Serious Crimes Than the U.S. Public

Admin
Border Patrol arrest illegal aliens

by James D. Agresti   President Trump recently held a conference with family members of U.S. citizens killed by illegal immigrants. The parents of nine people slain by such immigrants spoke about their family’s experiences, and Trump presented an array of government data on criminal immigrants and stated: I always hear that, “Oh, no, the population is safer than the people that live in the country.” You’ve heard that, fellas. Right? You’ve heard that. I hear it so much. And I say, “Is that possible?” The answer is it’s not true. In response, the Associated Press published a “fact check” claiming that illegal immigrants are more law-abiding than the general public. Various media outlets, such as the New York Times, Yahoo!, and a number of NBC affiliates published this article. The Washington Post ran a similar story, and other media outlets and so-called fact checkers have made similar claims in the past. The truth, however, is that comprehensive, straightforward facts from primary sources – namely the Obama administration Census Bureau and Department of Justice – prove that illegal immigrants are far more likely to commit serious crimes than the U.S. population. Studies that claim otherwise typically suffer from fallacies condemned by academic publications about how to accurately analyze…

Read the full story

OFF THE RECORD: Bill Lee Donated to Lowest Conservative-Rated Republican in State Legislature

Chris Alto
Bill Lee

  Can you guess who it is? Admittedly it’s tough because pretty much any Republican in Tennessee running for the state legislature claims they’re a conservative and there are plenty who forgot what they told voters once they’re elected. Even Bill Haslam claimed he was a conservative when he was campaigning. And then there are all those non-stop radio and print ads which Randy Boyd the self-described political moderate, is now buying to try and fool voters that he didn’t really mean it when he said it given that it was a terribly inconvenient truth for trying to become governor in Tennessee. But at least he’s making good on his promise to “spend whatever it takes” to buy win votes, and now with all that Irish green tax savings…. If you still can’t guess which State Senator got $1,000 in 2016 from Bill Lee, here are the clues: in 2015, a year before Bill Lee decided to send his check, this Tennessee State Senator voted in the Senate Education Committee to give in-state tuition to illegal alien students and then voted again on the Senate floor to help pass that bill two months after this State Senator was the ONLY Republican…

Read the full story

Move Over, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – Conservative Morgan Murtaugh Will Be The Youngest Woman Elected To Congress If She Wins

Admin
Morgan Murtaugh

by Jessica Kramer   Morgan Murtaugh is a 25-year-old running for Congress in San Diego, and if she wins the race, she would be the youngest female ever elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “poised to become the youngest woman in Congress,”according to news outlets like CNBC, Teen Vogue and Pacific Standard. Murtaugh, however, is younger and headed to the November general election as well after coming in second to the Democratic nominee in California’s jungle primary, where candidates from all parties run against each other. “There are no reliable counts of candidate ages by year … so amid this record-breaking year of women candidates, it’s hard to know exactly how big the wave of young women candidates is,” said Deborah Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, NPR reported Monday. “But like Ocasio-Cortez, there are multiple congressional candidates under 30, meaning multiple women could break that record for the youngest woman Congress member.” All of these women are first-time candidates. In addition to Murtaugh and Cortez, there are other women who are all 29 years old, vying for the record of being the youngest in Congress. In California, Sara Jacobs won her primary and is headed to the general, as did Mallory Hagan in…

Read the full story

Protests, Polls, and Hysteria: Steve Gill Talks About the Failing Narrative of the Democrats on ICE and How Swing Voters Really Feel About It

Julie Carr
Steve Gill

On Monday’s Gill Report, broadcast live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville, conservative pundit and Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill reflected on the Democrat’s failing political strategy in regards to ICE and what polls really prove about majority of the parties base. “We talked a little bit today some of the other polls – including The Tennessee Star Poll. Well, the new national poll is also revealing when it comes to what’s happening out in the rest of the world,” Gill said. He continued: Over the weekend we saw a lot of these protest rallies across Tennessee and across the country as the left wing ‘hystericals’ were absolutely pitching a hissy-fit over the Donald Trump plan to deport and detain illegal immigrants. Now, they’re trying to play this game of saying we should abolish ICE – the immigration and customs enforcement agency – and have completely open borders, so everybody can come into our country and presumably get on welfare, and suck away our jobs, and well, destroy our country. The bottom line as we talked earlier today is that Mexico is about to see a flood of Mexicans coming across our border with their new President who is…

Read the full story

Commentary: Who Better Understands the Concerns and Frustrations of Conservatives, George Will or Donald Trump?

Admin
George Will, Donald Trump

by Jeffery Rendall   It should come as no surprise to observers of American politics that nearly two years after Donald Trump was formally nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate – and a year and a half after he assumed the office – his “conservative” #NeverTrump adversaries are still after him. These spoiled, pampered and snobby pseudo-Republicans won’t let bygones be bygones and acknowledge the plethora of positive things Trump brought the GOP and the conservative cause since taking center stage in the White House on January 20, 2017. Simply put, Trump (thus far) has been the most refreshing political surprise of a half-century. Perhaps starting with his choice of full-spectrum principled conservative Mike Pence as his running mate (and future vice president), Trump’s made one good decision after another, usually tilting the political balance towards the right side of the scale. Still there are those refusing to give Trump his due; these malcontents snipe at his flanks, mostly by decrying his past personal history, his current behavior and his fondness for punching back at critics via Twitter or his always entertaining but never conventional press appearances. Despite this, few in the nebulous #NeverTrump contingent have come flat out…

Read the full story

Richmond’s Jefferson Davis Statue Might Be Next On The Chopping Block

Admin
Jefferson Davis statue, Richmond, Virginia

by Rob Shimshock   A commission recommended Monday that Richmond, Va., remove its statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The Davis statue is one of five Confederate monuments lining Monument Avenue in the city, reported The Guardian. The commission, appointed by Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, said that the Davis monument “is the most unabashedly Lost Cause in its design and sentiment.” The Lost Cause emphasizes the values and traditions of the South over slavery when conceptualizing the Civil War. The commission notes that the statue terms Davis the “Defender of the Rights of States.” “In the course of [our] work, it became abundantly clear the majority of the public acknowledges Monument Avenue cannot and should not remain exactly as it is,” the commission, comprised partly of historians and local officials, said. “Change is needed and desired.” Richmond erected its Gen. Robert E. Lee Monument Avenue statue in 1890. May and June 1907 saw the installation of statues dedicated to cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart and Davis, respectively. Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s statue debuted in October 1919 and naval commander Matthew Fontaine Maury’s monument was the last Confederate memorial to populate the street on November 1929. “Richmond has a long, complex and conflicted history and the…

Read the full story

The Special Interests Behind the Unsustainable ‘Renewable Fuel Standard’

Admin
corn

By Printus LeBlanc   The ethanol lobby and corn farmers are teaming up to keep the government mandated gravy train flowing into their bank accounts. After a deal was reached between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), several Senators, and oil refiners regarding the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the deal suddenly collapsed when it got to the White House. The deal made sense for everyone involved, so the question must be asked, what happened and why? The RFS is a government rule, established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The rule mandates renewable fuels, mostly corn ethanol, be blended with gasoline. Of course, this became an instant cash cow for corn farmers and ethanol refiners. The government had just mandated anyone that drives a vehicle must use their product. But just like Obamacare didn’t do what it was supposed to do, the RFS didn’t do what it was supposed to do. The first problem is ethanol efficiency. According to the Department of Energy, E10 and E15 get 3 to 5 percent fewer miles per gallon than regular gasoline. E85, the flex fuel, gets a horrible 15 to 27 percent fewer miles per gallon. If the purpose of the RFS was to increase…

Read the full story

Report, Based on Unverified Documents, Claims Irish Subsidiary of Randy Boyd’s Company Is a Tax Haven

Tennessee Star Staff
Randy Boyd

The Tennessean reported on Monday that the Irish subsidiary of Radio Systems Corporation, the company founded and majority controlled by Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd, is a tax haven that enables Boyd’s Knoxville-based company to significantly diminish its U.S. tax obligations. The report is based on documents The Tennessean says are Irish tax records of Radio Systems Corporation. The Tennessean has failed to publish, produce, or explain the legal provenance of those alleged documents. “From 2014 to 2016, the company sheltered millions of dollars in European profits from any taxes because of this corporate structure, according to two experts who analyzed Radio System’s Irish tax records obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee,” The Tennessean reported on Monday. One of those experts was University of California-Irvine School of Law professor Omri Marian. “Analyzing the company’s tax records, University of California-Irvine School of Law professor Omri Marian estimated the company paid an effective tax rate of a little more than 1 percent,” The Tennessean reported. The Tennessee Star contacted Professor Marian, and asked him four questions about his comments. You can read The Star’s questions and Professor Marian’s responses below: 1.Can you confirm that the Irish tax records for Radio Systems Corp you…

Read the full story

President Trump Meets with Supreme Court Candidates

Admin
Donald Trump

President Donald Trump says he met Monday with four candidates for the Supreme Court and plans to meet with two to three more as he seeks to nominate a replacement to succeed retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Trump told reporters in Washington Monday that the candidates he met with are “incredible people in so many different ways, academically and in every other way.” White House Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump met with each candidate for roughly 45 minutes on Monday. She did not reveal the names of the candidates but said Trump is looking for someone who will uphold the U.S. Constitution and who has the “right intellect” and “right temperament.” When asked if Trump is looking for a candidate that will overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling on abortion, Sanders reiterated Trump’s stance that he is not asking the candidates their views on abortion rights. “The president is pro-life, but in terms of the process of selecting a Supreme Court nominee, as the president said last week, he is not going to discuss specific cases with the nominees,” Sanders said. Trump said Friday that he thinks the topic of Roe v. Wade is “inappropriate…

Read the full story

Bill Lee Reports Campaign War Chest at $3.5 Million

Admin
Bill Lee

Franklin-area business man and gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee reported Monday that as of the close of this fiscal reporting period, his campaign has over $3.5 million cash-on-hand. The campaign noted that amount includes receipts of over $400,000 in the second quarter of the year. “Momentum is building for Bill Lee at the perfect time. He has the resources and the support to win, and he is outworking every candidate in the field,” Lee’s Campaign Finance Chairman Stuart McWhorter said in a statement. “I’m honored to work with Bill as he gets ready to win the August Primary, and I’ll be proud to call him ‘Governor’ after he wins in November.” Senior Advisor and Campaign Manager Chris Devaney added, “Our strong second quarter fundraising numbers, along with our solid cash on hand, show that Bill Lee has the resources to continue his surge in the polls and ultimately to win the primary race for governor on August 2nd. “Our fundraising momentum continues as Bill is rising in the polls and continues to outperform other candidates in debates and forums. Donors and voters alike recognize that Bill Lee is the only conservative outsider in the race,” Devaney concluded. With primary election day less…

Read the full story