Eric Church speaks to the Church Choir directly via video address to announce his new album, Desperate Man, is set for an October 5 release.
Read the full storyEric Church to Release New Album on October 5th
Day: July 12, 2018
Tennessee Star Constitution Bee Winner Cooper Moran Witnesses History on First Day of SCOTUS Nominee on Capitol Hill
Tennessee Star Constitution Bee winner Cooper Moran was a witness to history on Tuesday. The rising senior at Lincoln County High School was at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. just as Vice President Mike Pence escorted Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh through the hallways as he began his visits with the United States senators who will be voting up or down on whether to confirm him this fall. Moran won an all expenses paid round trip visit to Washington, D.C. for himself and his mother when he finished in first place in the April 2018 Tennessee Star Constitution Bee, sponsored by the Polk Foundation. “I cannot begin to express the excitement I have had just in the first day in D.C.,” Moran told The Tennessee Star in an email Tuesday night. “When going on a tour of the Capitol building, I got to see Vice President Pence walk through with the new SCOTUS appointee Brett Kavanaugh!” he added. Moran also met with Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) in her Capitol Hill office on Tuesday, and is scheduled to meet with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) later in his visit to Washington, D.C. this week. As the winner of the April 2018…
Read the full storyTDOT Considers Total Closure of Interstate 440 For Reconstruction
TDOT is planning to overhaul Interstate 440 in Nashville, with options ranging from closing segments at a time all the way to completely closing the roadway for 10 months. The Tennessee Department of Transportation laid the options out at a public information meeting on Tuesday. WKRN reports the department is considering three closures, each focusing on two areas of the road: east, from Interstate 24 to Interstate 65, and west, from I-65 to Interstate 40. One option is temporary lane closures in both directions lasting 36 months. The second option, WKRN says, would be to completely close I-440 east then west for 10 months to get the project done in a faster time. Or, a third approach would combine the first two options and take up to 22 months. TDOT says it is using the Design-Build method to deliver the I-440 Reconstruction Project. Four Design-Build teams are preparing proposals that will include final design of the project, plans for how it will be constructed and a bid amount. TDOT has provided the teams with the three construction options. The Design-Build teams will submit their final proposals later this month, the department says. TDOT hopes to award the I-440 Reconstruction Project contract…
Read the full storyLuke Bryan to Open Entertainment Hot Spot in the Heart of Nashville
Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink will feature Nashville’s only the six-floor entertainment hot-spot with a multi-level rooftop bar and sushi menu.
Read the full storyBob Corker Attacks Trump with Likely Pointless Gesture in DC While POTUS is Traveling Overseas
If you ever wondered how low Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) might go in trying to disrupt President Trump’s agenda on negotiating better trade deals, yesterday may have provided the answer. Fox News‘ Chad Pergram took to Twitter to cover the outgoing Senator Corker’s effort to create additional problems for President Trump on the tariff issue with legislation and even pointed out the complete lack of decorum on Corker’s part by pushing it while the president is traveling abroad. Corker on if it was inappropriate to have the tariff vote with the President overseas: Votes kind of happen when they happen. — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 11, 2018 It is often said that foreign policy stops at the water’s edge. It's taboo for lawmakers to criticize the President when he is overseas. But the Senate fired a salvo at Trump, voting 88-11, to assert Congressional authority on imposing tariffs on national security grounds — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 11, 2018 To be clear, this was very much Corker’s effort despite previously being blocked from doing anything with real “teeth” by the Senate. It was his motion after all. Text of Corker motion today on tariffs: Mr. Corker moves that the mgrs…
Read the full storyVictor Ashe Commentary: Jimmy Matlock Has Some Explaining To Do on His Voting Record
by Victor Ashe The recent revelation that 2nd District Congressional candidate Jimmy Matlock skipped the three-day special session called by Gov. Bill Haslam in 2016 to rescue federal highway dollars, as well as the vote to oust a sexual predator from the state House, has triggered further questions about his attendance record over the past 12 years. It has been hit and miss for Matlock when it comes to being on the House floor for votes. Only this year, on the last day of the 2018 session, Matlock left three hours early before the House adjourned, missing several votes, including one on the sale of liquor in Tellico Village. He represents Tellico Village but did not want to take a position on the legislation He has yet to explain to voters why he did not attend the special legislative session. On April 10, 2014, when the state budget passed 68 to 27, Matlock was one of four House members not to vote. The budget is the single most important vote a lawmaker casts. Meanwhile, Matlock has challenged Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett to a one-on-one debate, as if the other three candidates are irrelevant. Clever – but why would…
Read the full storyWoman Claiming to be Union Member from Nashville Leaves Foul-Mouthed Voice Mail at Think Tank That Filed Amicus Brief Cited by SCOTUS in Janus Decision
A woman claiming to be a union member from Nashville left a foul-mouthed voice mail last week at the offices of the Mackinac Center, the Michigan-based think tank that filed an amicus brief in the Janus v. AFSCME lawsuit in which the Supreme Court ruled employees could not be required to make donations to a union if they chose not to. In an email and phone exchange with The Tennessee Star, Mackinac Center’s Vice President for Strategic Outreach & Communications Lindsay Killen shared details about the foul-mouthed message. Killen wrote: We received this voicemail from Ann Barnett, a union member from Nashville who called Mackinac Center’s My Pay My Say campaign call center. My Pay My Say is a national education and awareness campaign to inform public employees that their First Amendment rights to free speech and association have been restored by the Supreme Court in the Janus v. AFSCME case – no longer must they pay fees to a government union just to keep their jobs. Ann Barnett’s voicemail was a vulgar and outraged response to the fact that we would dare to inform public employees about their right to choose whether to continue pay for union activities that…
Read the full storyTrump’s Broadside Against Germany at NATO Finds Some Republican Support
Reuters They might not have agreed with the U.S. president calling Germany a “captive” of Russia, but some Republican lawmakers on Wednesday said they believe Donald Trump is right to shame one of America’s most important allies into spending more on defense. The Republican president, in Brussels for the NATO summit, took a swipe at Germany for supporting a new pipeline for Russian gas, saying at a pre-summit meeting: “We’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.” Trump kept up his assault on NATO members, particularly Germany, for failing to spend a target two percent of national income on defense, a goal they must meet by 2024. He told fellow leaders he would prefer a 4 percent target, closer to the 3.6 percent of GDP the United States spends on defense. While Democratic congressional leaders condemned Trump’s attacks on Germany as “brazen insults and denigration of one of America’s most steadfast allies,” Republicans took a more benign view, and some backed him outright. “I think the president is right to raise the issue of whether they’re meeting their responsibilities to NATO and whether they are…
Read the full storyCommunist China Will Not Get Control of Port of Long Beach
By Printus LeBlanc China has been at war with the U.S. for decades now, just not the kinetic war Americans are accustomed to. China has used trade, information technology, and currency manipulation as potent weapons to gain military and economic parity with the U.S. quickly. It looks like we finally have a White House that understands that and is taking a hard stand against China. Not only is the Trump administration taking it to the Communist Chinese government in trade, but it is also using the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to blunt China’s strategic goals on the U.S. mainland. China is extremely adept at warfare. What we in the U.S. might call foreign relations, diplomacy, or trade, China sees as another form of warfare and a means to an end. The last several administrations have not recognized the path the Communist government is on and have failed to confront them. CFIUS, in particular, has failed to protect U.S. national security interests adequately. CFIUS is an inter-agency body that reviews national security implications of foreign investment in U.S. companies or operations. The Secretary of the Treasury is Chair of the committee with a nine-member panel. The Committee…
Read the full storyPublic School Teachers Are Paid More Than Commonly Reported
by James Agresti During recent teacher walkouts in Oklahoma that captured national attention, many major media outlets reported misleadingly small figures for teacher pay. By failing to reveal all aspects of teacher compensation, these outlets hid the true costs to taxpayers—which now amount to an annualized average of about $120,000 for every public school teacher in the United States. CNN, for example, published an article by Bill Weir claiming that in “most districts” of Oklahoma, “a teacher with a doctorate degree and 30 years’ experience will never make more than $50,000 a year.” That claim, which CNN neglected to document, is at odds with comprehensive data from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor. This information for Oklahoma and the entire nation follows. For the 2016–17 school year, the Department of Education reports that the average salary of full-time public school teachers was $58,950 in the U.S. and $45,245 in Oklahoma. Those figures generally exclude benefits, such as health insurance, paid leave, and pensions. These are typically much higher for government employees than private sector workers. According to the Department of Labor, benefits comprise an average of 33% of compensation for public school teachers. Including benefits, teachers’ average annual compensation jumps to $87,854 in the…
Read the full storyTennessee GOP Increases Heat on Bredesen Over His Party’s Stand Against ICE
Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen has finally broken his silence on where he stands as regards the loud and growing calls from his Democrat colleagues to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); however, his response was thin at best and did little to stop the attacks on him over the issue from Tennessee Republicans, as the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports: U.S. Senate Democratic hopeful Phil Bredesen says he wants no part of efforts by some national progressives to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency that’s become a flash point for liberals as they rally against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. “No,” the former Tennessee governor said in a one-word statement to the Times Free Press on the question of whether he favored abolishing the agency. Some U.S. Senate Democrats, including potential 2020 presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand, want Congress to to abolish ICE. Warren said it should be replaced “with something that reflects our morality.” That Democrats in Red and even Purple states are either ducking the issue as Bredesen had been, or are now giving short answers to what is actually a more complex question comes as no surprise. Just…
Read the full story