Month: July 2018

JC Bowman: A Few Thoughts on Educational Assessment and Evaluation

JC Bowman
JC Bowman

The risk of misidentifying and mislabeling teacher performance based on test scores is too high for it to be the major indicator of teacher performance, especially when you look at issues such as student demographic characteristics. A number of states, including Michigan, have since taken steps to lessen the impact test scores have on teacher evaluations, repeatedly mentioning factors outside an educator’s control which can influence a student’s academic performance. 

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Is Bredesen Running Away From President Trump?

John Bryant
Donald Trump, Phil Bredesen

Left-leaning Vanity Fair has a feature item up on the Tennessee U.S. Senate race featuring Marsha Blackbrun vs. Phil Bredesen. The item appears to confirm everything  people have been saying about Bredesen, from his playing “duck and cover” on issues, to his simply not being willing to take a real stand on anything. Bredesen is making personal and political blandness the theme of his Senate campaign. He has come out against the president’s tariffs, but he has otherwise cannily refused to make the race a referendum on Trump. “Look, I’m not running against Donald Trump. I’m running for a Senate seat to represent the people of Tennessee,” he says in a campaign TV ad. In the wake of Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 Russians for hacking into Clinton’s e-mails, Bredesen was asked if the president should cancel his meeting with Vladimir Putin. “I don’t think that the actions of those indictments rise to the level that somebody ought to interfere with the president’s right to meet with whom they choose and when they choose, and so on,” he said. When Democratic Party leaders quickly denounced Trump’s choice for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, Bredesen went defiantly anodyne: “I’ll be watching the…

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After 150 Years, Secretary Zinke Unveils Plan to Reorganize the Department of Interior

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Ryan Zinke

By Printus LeBlanc   When Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke was sworn in, he came into a department that has not reorganized in 150 years. However, in the same timeframe new agencies were created, miles of red tape were introduced, and volumes of rules were added. The mammoth bureaucracy and inefficiencies have made the department one of the more despised government arms. Secretary Zinke sees that as a challenge and has embarked on an ambitious reorganization mission to make Interior more user friendly and less hostile to the people it is supposed to serve. The Department of Interior is responsible for conservation and management of most federal land and natural resources. The agency is operating in 2,400 locations with over 70,000 employees around the U.S. Interior sites get over 500 million visitors to them each year. Everything from the food in the grocery store to the raw materials used to make used to make Navy ships has at some point fallen under the purview of Interior. It would not be a stretch to say the department touches more lives everyday than any other federal agency, with the exception of the IRS. For this reason, it is important the agency run smooth…

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Secret Service Agent Suffers a Fatal Stroke Overseas

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in remembrance and gratitude

A Secret Service agent who accompanied President Donald Trump during his overseas trip has died, the White House announced. Noel Remagen, 42, was found unresponsive Saturday while on duty, protecting National Security Advisor John Bolton during the President’s visit of Scotland. Remagen was rushed to the hospital, where he died Sunday surrounded by family and colleagues, a statement from the White House said. “Our hearts are filled with sadness over the loss of a beloved and devoted Special Agent,” the statement read. “We grieve with them and with his Secret Service colleagues, who have lost a friend and a brother.” Remagen’s body was flown back to the United States on Wednesday, and will be accompanied by Secret Service personnel until the burial. Remagen had worked in the Secret Service, a law enforcement agency tasked with protecting the nation’s leaders, for 19 years. Earlier, Remagen served with the U.S. Marine Corps for five years. “Prayers for the Remagen family. We are all forever grateful for the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Secret Service, some of the greatest and bravest people in the country,” White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Wednesday. Prayers for the…

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Commentary: Why Should Trump Pick A Fight With Putin Over The Failures Of Obama, Clapper, Strzok and Brennan?

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Russia meddling

by George Rasley   President Trump’s statement about the poor state of US – Russian relations, “I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we’ve all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago — a long time, frankly, before I got to office. And I think we’re all to blame,” seems to have sent the establishment media and #NeverTrump crowd into chicken little-level fits of hysteria never before seen in American politics or media. Pearl Harbor, Kristallnacht and treason were just a few of the insane comparisons Democrats and Republicans have made to denigrate the President’s performance in Helsinki. Keep in mind, what all the hysteria is obfuscating is that President Trump did discuss Russian interference in our election with President Putin, “During today’s meeting, I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person. We spent a great deal of time talking about it…” With all the brouhaha about what Trump said or meant to say during his post-Summit news conference with Putin one important thing seems to be lost on Trump’s critics.…

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The Battle To Repeal An Obama-Era Regulation On Trucks Heats Up

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Tennessee Star

by Michael Bastasch   The battle over the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to repeal an Obama-era regulation has been reignited. The Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and Center for Biological Diversity sued EPA on Tuesday to prevent the agency from repealing regulations on refurbished truck engines, called glider kits. Their suit comes days after the House Committee on Science Space and Technology launched an investigation into potential collusion between lobbyists and EPA officials to keep regulations in place. The committee obtained emails suggesting Volvo and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association worked with top EPA officials at the National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to put together a report on emissions from glider kits. Emails and the involvement of auto lobbyists in procuring vehicles to test “raise serious questions as to the objectivity and legitimacy of the [EPA] study” that has been held up by glider opponents, including Volvo, as evidence of why refurbished engine sales should be limited. Glider kits are trucks with refurbished engines fitted into new chassis. The glider industry sprang up as truckers looked for an alternative to new trucks that had to comply with ever-stricter federal regulations. The Obama administration took action in 2016 to close…

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Facebook Removes Death Threats Toward Republicans After Florida Representative Matt Gaetz Called It Out

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Matt Gaetz

by Kyle Perisic   Facebook removed a page Tuesday that posted incitements to violence and implied death threats after a Republican lawmaker called the company out. During a hearing Tuesday with representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Google, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida asked Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert why the social media giant hasn’t removed the page, “Milkshakes against the Republican Party,” for its calls to violence against Republicans. “Do you remember the shooting at the Republican baseball game? One of those should happen every week,” one post read, referring to the attempted assassination of GOP members, which almost killed Rep. Steve Scalise of Alabama. Bickert read the post back to Gaetz at the hearing. Another post called for “crazed shooters” to target Republicans at baseball practices, saying “if you really want to be remembered, that’s how you do it,” before referring to the National Rifle Association as a “terrorist organization.” “Any call to violence violates our terms of service,” Bickert clarified. However, Gaetz claimed Facebook responded to his staff after reporting the page earlier that “it doesn’t go against one of our specific community standards.” Later that day, Facebook removed the page. “I am glad Facebook swiftly removed this offensive…

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Trump to Germany: Don’t Give Russia More Weapons

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Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin

By Sheryl Kaufman   The press and former CIA Director John Brennan are expressing hysterics over a press conference where President Trump disappointed them by not showering outright insults on the Russian President. The reporters moved past what may be the most significant development of Mr. Trump’s very busy trip to Europe, what they read at the time as an insult to Germany. Last Wednesday at the NATO summit, President Trump spoke against the proposed expansion of the natural gas pipeline from Russia directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The Nord Stream 2 project has nearly completed permitting and is set to begin laying pipe later this year. It will run parallel an existing nearly 800-mile undersea pipeline and double the capacity of Russia to move gas directly to Germany. About a third of Europe’s natural gas is currently supplied by Russia. The new pipeline would allow Russia to expand its dominant position as an energy supplier to Europe and give it flexibility to bypass an onshore pipeline that passes through Ukraine, Slovakia, and Czech Republic to Germany. That would deprive these countries of transit fees, but more significantly it would allow Russia greater control of their energy supplies.…

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SEIU Endorses La Raza Affiliate Conexion Americas’ Education Policy Director For Nashville School Board

Chris Alto
Gini Pupo-Walker

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 205 has endorsed Gini Pupo-Walker for the Metro Nashville School Board: ‘Gini has extensive experience in the school system and outside of it and will bring great leadership and professionalism to the board,’ said SEIU member Lilldeus Russell, a paraprofessional in MNPS. ‘She has consistently been an advocate for equity in our schools and we need more voices like that on the board.’ Pupo-Walker serves as the Education Policy Director for Nashville-based Conexion Americas, an affiliate of UnidosUS (formerly known as the National Council of La Raza). Conexion’s founder and co-director, Renata Soto, has had a long-standing leadership role with UnidosUS serving first as vice-chair of the board in 2012, until she was elected as chairman in 2015 when the organization was still named La Raza. She remains listed as Chairman for the 2017-2018 slate. In 2016, Conexion Americas launched the Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition (TEEC) which Pupo-Walker leads, tying GOP gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd even closer to Soto and her Nashville organization. Boyd’s own education non-profit Complete Tennessee is listed as a State Partner on the TEEC website and Conexion’s Renata Soto serves on the Complete Tennessee Board. Mauricio Calvo, executive director of Latino Memphis serves on Boyd’s Complete Tennessee…

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Congressional Candidate Dr. Mark Green Announces 2nd Quarter Fundraising Totals Over $400,000

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Mark Green

Republican State Senator and congressional hopeful Dr. Mark Green announced Monday that his campaign raised $420,000 in the second quarter, and his cash-on-hand totals $909,908. “We’re honored that more than 1,000 donors have invested in our mission to bring battle-tested leadership to Washington. These funds will allow us to continue to run a strong grassroots campaign to talk to voters in every corner of the district,” Dr. Green said in a statement. The Green campaign notes that, “With broad grassroots infrastructure built in each county throughout the sprawling 7th congressional district, Green’s campaign continues to receive support from Tennessee voters.” Over the course of the primary election season, Dr. Green has garnered several top-tier endorsements from local and national groups including, the campaign lists: 100 conservative leaders 20 mayors over 60 legislators Senator Ted Cruz Senator Rick Santorum Dr. Art Laffer Club for Growth FRC Action Combat Veterans for Congress GOPAC House Freedom Fund FreedomWorks Tennessee Right to Life Tennessee Firefighters Association Dr. Mark Green is seeking to replace Representative Marsha Blackburn, who is running for the hotly contested open seat in the US Senate left by retiring junior Senator Bob Corker. On the other side of the aisle, Justin…

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Steve Gill: GOP Gubernatorial Primary Debate Cancellation May Be Due To Perceived Lack of Effectiveness

Jason M. Reynolds
Steve Gill

A top political analyst says he is not surprised that three of the candidates running in the Tennessee Republican gubernatorial primary dropped out of the last statewide televised debate scheduled for this weekend in Knoxville. The cancellation comes after Randy Boyd, Beth Harwell and Diane Black dropped out, WKRN said. “My assessment is that I would guess is the debate was not going to move as many votes as [the campaigns] targeting where they need to move them,” Steve Gill, political editor of The Tennessee Star, told WKRN. An advisor to the Bill Lee campaign said he would be there regardless and if his opponents did not show, he would hold a rally at the debate site, WVLT said. Campaigns may not have believed a debate so close to Election Day on Aug. 2 and well into early voting would be effective, Gill said. The possibility of candidates attacking one another in a debate, like some have in recent advertising, may have been another factor, Gill said. “Who gets the benefit of that?” Gill told WKRN. “Because the attacker is going to lose a few points and the person you are attacking is going to lose a few points — where…

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The Janus Decision Scored a Major Win for Workers’ Rights – Here’s What Should Come Next

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United States Supreme Court

by David Kreutzer and Rachel Greszler   Last month’s Supreme Court decision in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees hit public-sector unions like a bombshell. Now that public-sector unions can no longer extract union fees from workers who want nothing to do with them, public unions will have to work harder to provide services that will prompt workers to join their ranks. The question explored in the Janus case was whether or not forcing non-members to pay union dues violates their First Amendment rights. That issue was addressed narrowly as a matter of free speech, but more broadly it had much to do with wrongful coercion. Both members and non-members of public-sector unions can opt out of paying the portion of dues that explicitly goes to the union’s political activities. But, until recently, non-members could still be forced by law to pay what was called a “fair share” fee, because even non-members could receive the benefits of union representation (since unions have a monopoly on worker-employer negotiations). [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] Those forced fees would not explicitly go toward…

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Trump Asks the Right Question: Where’s the DNC Server?

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Donald Trump

By Robert Romano In federal court, the DNC said it decommissioned 140 servers, erased 180 computers and rebuilt 11 servers after the Russia hack.   “Where is the server? I want to know where is the server and what is the server saying?” That was President Donald Trump at the Helsinki, Finland summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16, responding to a question of whether he believed U.S. intelligence agencies, which have stated Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and John Podesta emails in the 2016 election campaign, or Putin, who has denied any role by his government. For his part, the President is not convinced. He wants to see the evidence. Which seems to be a rational thing to do, when claims or allegations are made. You ask to see the evidence. In this case, the President is asking why the FBI never took possession of the DNC servers when it conducted its investigation of the hack. Because according to the DNC lawsuit against the Trump campaign, Wikileaks and Russia that was filed in April, the committee may have destroyed all the evidence of the alleged hack by Russia of the DNC emails. The lawsuit stated, “As a result of…

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Bill Gates Backs $30 Million Push for Early Alzheimer’s Diagnostics

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Bill Gates

Reuters   Billionaire Bill Gates and Estée Lauder Cos chairman emeritus Leonard Lauder on Tuesday said they will award $30 million over three years to encourage development of new tests for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. For Microsoft co-founder Gates, launch of the Diagnostics Accelerator program follows an announcement in November of a personal investment of $50 million in the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund aimed at bringing together industry and government to seek treatments for the brain-wasting disease. The effort, Gates said, was fueled in part by his personal experience with family members struggling with Alzheimer’s. The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s affects nearly 50 million people worldwide and is expected to rise to more than 131 million by 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International. Gates and Lauder provided seed money for the diagnostics collaboration through the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), which was founded by Lauder. They will be joined by other philanthropists, including the Dolby family and the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation. Funding provided through the initiative will be open to scientists and clinicians globally working in academic settings, charities and biotechnology companies. As a philanthropy vehicle, the ADDF Diagnostics Accelerator venture will invest in riskier…

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Commentary: Trump – Putin Summit Craziness

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Trump and Putin

by George Rasley   Monday’s Trump – Putin Summit news conference brought out a new level of craziness in the anti-Trump Democrats, self-appointed foreign policy experts in the media and their fellow travelers among #NeverTrump Republicans. What seems to have enraged President Trump’s opponents the most is that their attempt to hijack the summit to focus on the phony charges that President Trump colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election failed, and that Trump and Putin focused on important bilateral issues, such as nuclear weapons, the denuclearization of North Korea, the war in Syria, and energy trade between Russia and Western Europe. What’s more, the establishment media’s self-appointed foreign policy experts completely ignored one of the most important points in the joint news conference; Putin’s announcement that the Russian government submitted to the United States a note with a number of specific suggestions on fine-tuning “the dialogue on strategic stability and global security and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.” Even more interesting was Putin’s comment that, “It’s a dangerous situation with a global American anti-missile defense system, it’s the implementation issues with the INF treaty. And, of course, the agenda of non-placement of weapons in space.” Translation: Putin…

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Music Spotlight: Kalie Shorr

Bethany Bowman
Kalie Shorr

When I first heard Kalie Shorr, it was on Sirius XM’s The Highway in 2016.  Fight Like a Girl was a gutsy song by a cute girl who was trying to navigate the murky waters of country music in Nashville.  But when I sat down to speak to her, as is so often the case, I found out there was so much more to Kalie Shorr, a lot more. Kalie Shorr literally wrote her first song when she was just seven years old.  By thirteen, she was highly influenced by pop, rock and country and begin posting cover songs on the popular app, YouTube.  Since Kalie lived in Maine at the time, it was the only way she could get her music out there.  “I always wanted to be in Nashville and it gave me an opportunity to reach Nashville without actually being there.”  She received validation from viewers that this was something she should be doing.  The door opened in 2010 when Kalie was 16. Blogger Perez Hilton, noticed her on YouTube.  He paid for her first official recordings and her initial trip to Nashville.  “[Perez Hilton] introduced me to a lot of people that I needed to know and…

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US Lawmakers Warn Trump Tariffs Threaten Local Newspapers

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newspapers

About a dozen members of Congress warned Tuesday that newspapers in their home states are in danger of reducing news coverage, laying off workers or going out of business if the United States maintains recently imposed tariffs on Canadian newsprint. The Trump administration ordered the tariffs in response to a complaint from a paper producer in Washington state. It argues that Canadian competitors take advantage of government subsidies to sell their product at unfairly low prices. About a dozen lawmakers testified against making the tariffs permanent during a United States International Trade Commission hearing. The commission is reviewing whether U.S. producers of certain groundwood paper products, including newsprint, have been materially injured because of the imports from Canada. The commission’s findings help determine whether the Department of Commerce makes the tariffs permanent. Newsprint is generally the second-largest expense for local papers. The tariffs have generally increased newsprint prices by 25 to 30 percent. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine both argued that the tariffs will hurt the industry they’re designed to help because it will diminish the market for newsprint in America as newspapers shrink or close. “If you end up with a smaller market, you haven’t helped…

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California Congresswoman Says There’s No Bias Against Conservatives In Tech – Here’s Why She’s Wrong

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Zoe Lofgren

by Kyle Perisic   A Democratic congresswoman said on Tuesday that conservatives and Republicans’ concerns over bias on the Facebook, Google, and Twitter platforms are unjustified. Here’s proof she’s wrong. Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California said at a hearing addressing political discrimination against conservatives and Republicans on Facebook, Google, and Twitter, which dominant Internet traffic, is “motivated by a sense of persecution, on the part of Republicans and conservatives that somehow they’re being unfairly treated when they have a majority in House, the Senate, the White House.” Despite the hearing specifically addressing discrimination against conservatives on the Facebook, Google, and Twitter platforms — not on their conservative news sites — Lofgren brought up “conservative news sites have three times more user engagement that liberals do.” “There’s been no evidence whatsoever that I have seen and that the majority has been able to provide that there’s any bias whatsoever,” she added. YouTube, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, admitted in March it “may misapply some of our policies resulting in mistaken removals,” which in this case involved a number of conservative channels being removed from the platform, The Daily Caller News Foundation reported. Additionally, Google, utilizing Wikipedia, mislabeled a Republican candidate…

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Tickets for Multiple Nashville Symphony Concerts Go on Sale Friday, July 20

Bethany Bowman
Nashville Symphony

Single tickets for the Nashville Symphony’s 2018/19 season — including 100+ classical, pops, jazz and family concerts, as well as a host of special events — will go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 20. Featuring four classic works by one of America’s greatest composers, the Bernstein Centennial Opening Night will kick off the season on September 8, 2018. A special, multimedia presentation of Carmina Burana in collaboration with Nashville Ballet and British filmmaker Duncan Copp will close the season on May 31-June 3, 2019. In between, the Symphony’s concert calendar features diverse programming across a variety of genres, all in the intimate setting and superior acoustics of one of the world’s finest concert halls, Schermerhorn Symphony Center.  Highlights of the 2018/19 concert schedule include:       ·         Symphony Under the Stars at Ascend Amphitheater (Sept. 9, 2018) ·         Ax Plays Brahms (Sept. 13-15, 2018) ·         Kristin Chenoweth with the Nashville Symphony (Sept. 27-29, 2018) ·         Beethoven’s Violin Concerto featuring James Ehnes (Oct. 4-7, 2018) ·         Jon Batiste: Solo (Oct. 19, 2018) ·         Russian Masters, featuring Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky & more (Nov. 2-3, 2018) ·         The Mavericks with the Nashville Symphony (Nov. 8-10, 2018) ·         The…

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Hardly ‘Crumbs’: Cookie Maker Hires Five Workers, Raises Pay, Expands Production Under Tax Cuts

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Joseph Semprevivo

by Rachel del Guidice   The overhaul of the tax code by congressional Republicans didn’t produce just crumbs for the business of a popular cookie maker based in Florida. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has meant hiring, raises, investment in new equipment, and expanded operations, he says. “It has had a direct impact on us,” Joseph Semprevivo, founder, CEO, and president of Joseph’s Lite Cookies, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview. (pictured, above) “We have added five more positions, we’ve expanded our factory, exclusively for … the sugar-free pancake syrup [and] we are launching into another business, a honey business,” Semprevivo said. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] He said the new syrup, branded Joseph’s Sugarfree Pancake Syrup, also is gluten free and approved by weight-loss businesses and groups such as Weight Watchers. “Since the tax cut, though, we were able to invest more money into promoting the [syrup] brand, expanding the brand, and so we decided to increase productivity and move it closer to our corporate offices in … Sebastian, Florida,” Semprevivo said. Republicans’ tax reform package, which passed the…

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Rick Santorum Endorses Diane Black for Governor

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Rick Santorum, Diane Black

Former Senator and 2012 presidential contender Rick Santorum announced his strong endorsement of Diane Black for Governor Tuesday. “I’ve always known Diane to be a strong conservative leader, a passionate advocate for the unborn and a champion for religious liberty and traditional values,” Santorum said in a statement. “With Diane Black in the Governor’s office, I am confident that the conservative values that make Tennessee great will be protected and preserved.” Diane Black responded, “Rick Santorum is a champion for conservative principles,” Black said. “He’s a leader who is not afraid to fight for conservative values. Tennessee stood behind Rick in his 2012 race for President, and I’m proud to have him behind me in my race for Governor.” Throughout Rick Santorum’s career he has enjoyed a high level of popularity in the Volunteer State. During the nine-way Tennessee presidential primary election of 2012, Santorum received an extraordinary 40 percent of the vote. The Black campaign points out that in addition to Santorum’s endorsement, Representative Black has received endorsements from: – NRA – Susan B. Anthony List – National Right to Life – Tennessee Right to Life – Family Research Council – American Conservative Union – Nearly 3,000 elected officials and community leaders across…

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Trump Says He Misspoke at Helsinki Press Conference: ‘I Accept Our Intelligence Community’s Conclusion’ That Russia Meddled in 2016 Election

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Donald Trump

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he accepts the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia sought to influence the 2016 U.S. election. “I accept our intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election took place. Could be other people also. A lot of people out there,” Trump told reporters in remarks from the White House. His comments come a day after the president publicly accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial that Moscow was involved in election interference, drawing sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers for taking the foreign leader’s word over his own intelligence agencies. The president said that after he reviewed a transcript of his Helsinki remarks, he said he realized he misspoke. “In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word would instead of wouldn’t. The sentence should have been…’I don’t see any reason why it WOULDN’T be Russia,” he said. The president continued to assert Tuesday that the media misrepresented his remarks while traveling abroad. On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, responded to Trump’s rosy assessment. “Let’s be very clear: Russia meddled in our election,” Ryan said. “We know they interfered with our elections, and we have passed sanctions…

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State Governments Move to ‘Off-Load’ Public Responsibilities to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

Chris Alto

State governments partnering with faith-based and community organizations to maximize the use of resources is not a new concept. In some states, public-private partnerships have been expanded across most government departments, a model GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee proposes to follow for Tennessee. With President Trump’s intention to trim federal spending, a new question has been raised with regard to the role of faith-based and community organizations helping to augment the work of state government agencies and one that may be especially relevant for Tennessee. According to a 2017 article in Governing Magazine, data related to major spending areas put 38% of Tennessee’s general revenue reliant on federal aid in the domains of public welfare spending (59.7% federal dollars), education (14.6% federal dollars), and 53% reliant on federal dollars for roads. WalletHub ranked Tennessee overall as the 13th state most reliant on federal aid but whose state government funding was 8th overall most dependent on federal dollars. If Tennessee were to receive fewer federal dollars, would the state be forced to cut certain services? Would faith-based and community organizations be financially prepared to step into the service gap? There has been long-standing opposition to faith-based groups relying on government funding. Responding to President Bush’s push…

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Soros-Linked Group Will Spend Millions To Stop Kavanaugh

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Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh, George Soros

by Kevin Daley and Andrew Kerr    – Progressives have formed a new political outfit to mobilize left-wing energy on judicial confirmations, including Judge Kavanaugh  – The group, Demand Justice, is financed and administratively supported by the Sixteen Thirty Fund  – George Soros’ advocacy network has given millions to the Sixteen Thirty Fund in recent years A new political advocacy group that vowed to put $5 million behind an effort to stop Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court has significant ties to the liberal financier George Soros. A Daily Caller News Foundation review has found that the group’s primary financial supporter is a nonprofit to whom Soros has given millions. The group, Demand Justice (DJ), is organized and financed by a 501(c)(4) called the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which collected some $2.2 million in contributions from the Open Society Policy Center (OSPC), one of Soros’ primary donation vehicles, between 2012 and 2016. The Soros Connection The Fund is largely financed by a handful of donors. Financial statements filed with state oversight officials in 2014 show just three contributors accounted for 70 percent — or some $11.5 million — of the Fund’s total donations and grant revenue. Disclosure forms filed with the same agency…

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Commentary: What Happened to Williamson County?

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Williamson County

by Ira Weiss and Don Barnett   As you travel about Williamson County you can’t help but notice the construction sites everywhere. Maybe it is time to take a closer look before you wake up one morning to find you no longer live in the suburbs or exurbs, but live in an environment that looks more like a city replete with tall buildings, massive traffic – including commuter rail and heavy bus and truck traffic, and other urban necessities. What is driving the higher growth in Williamson County? In 2012, the Williamson County Commission contracted with the Williamson Chamber of Commerce – which also calls itself Williamson Inc. – to promote growth. The result has been growth on steroids. In fact, the Chamber is contractually obligated to secure a minimum of 25 corporate relocation and expansion projects for the current fiscal year alone.  As part of its mandate it must achieve a level of job growth in Williamson County that is at least 25% higher than that of the national county average.  And all of this deal-making is happening in private with almost no input from county residents. For its efforts to promote hyper growth the Chamber has received nearly…

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Nashville International Airport Sets Another Record, Making It Fourth Fastest Growing Among Largest In Nation

Jason M. Reynolds
Nashville Airport

Nashville International Airport served more than 14.9 million passengers in the fiscal year just ended, The Associated Press reported, making it one of the nation’s fastest growing airports. The record makes Nashville International, or BNA, the fourth fastest growing airport among the top 50 airports in North America, the airport’s website said. BNA serves 450 daily flights to more than 65 nonstop markets. It is the 33rd busiest airport in the United States. The 14.9 million passenger figure breaks last year’s record by more than 1.3 million passengers and marks the fifth consecutive year the airport has set a passenger record. June also set a record as the busiest month in BNA history with 1,460,525 passengers, a 2.9 percent increase over the previous record set the previous month, and a 11.1 percent increase over June 2017, the airport said. “The astounding passenger growth continues at Nashville International Airport, maintaining BNA’s position as one of the fastest growing airports in North America,” said Doug Kreulen, Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority president and CEO. “Per our forecast, solid growth is expected to continue, so it is imperative we continue to plan for our future needs. Our board of commissioners and staff are focused…

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EXCLUSIVE: Sleeping Giants’ Anonymous Founder Unmasked – Top Ad Writer Behind Boycott Campaign Targeting Breitbart, Ingraham

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Matt Rivitz

by Peter Hasson    – Sleeping Giants launched boycott campaigns against Breitbart and other right-wing voices.  – The group’s founder took steps to protect his anonymity.  – The Daily Caller News Foundation has revealed his identity. The founder of Sleeping Giants, a left-wing activist group that has targeted right-wing voices with boycott campaigns, has managed to keep his identity a secret, even as his own group has become a major political player among liberals. Until now. Sleeping Giants was founded by Matt Rivitz (pictured above, from his now-deleted Twitter profile), an award-winning ad copywriter based in San Francisco, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found. The group’s original stated goal was to cripple Breitbart, the pro-Trump website whose former chairman, Steve Bannon, worked in the White House as President Donald Trump’s chief strategist. To accomplish that goal, Sleeping Giants has waged an intense and incessant campaign to pressure Breitbart’s advertisers into pulling their ads from the website. It’s worked pretty much as designed. Over the span of two months in 2017, Breitbart lost 90 percent of its advertisers. Sleeping Giants has both maintained its pressure on Breitbart’s remaining advertisers and expanded its focus. In October 2017, Sleeping Giants began pressuring investors in Renaissance Technologies…

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Trump and Senators Offer Plans to Reorganize Bureaucracy, Drain the Swamp

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Drain the Swamp, Donald Trump

by John York   President Donald Trump’s administration released a plan June 21 that, if enacted, would impose some order on the sprawling administrative state—something that is long overdue. Decades of ceaseless expansion of the size and scope of the federal government have created a bloated and inefficient federal bureaucracy, replete with agencies and offices with overlapping functions. The Rube Goldberg-esque structure of the federal bureaucracy is not only expensive, it thickens the web of government red tape, makes government services less efficient, and makes mission failure more likely by splintering simple jobs among diffuse agencies. Trump’s plan would begin the long process of rearranging the overgrown federal bureaucracy by grafting together agencies that do similar work and pruning away offices that have outlived their usefulness. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] More on the specifics of the reorganization plan can be found here. However, while the president directs the executive branch, its structure is largely the product of Congress. Through the legislative process, it creates departments and agencies, establishes their responsibilities, and determines their funding. While Congress sometimes delegates authority to the president to determine how…

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Nashville Metro Council Rule Change Will Let People Have Their Say (For 2 Minutes)

John Bryant
Metro Council microphone

Nashville’s Metro Council meetings will see a major change beginning Tuesday July 16  thanks to a significant rule shift impacting public comments at the meeting. According to reports, “An open comment portion will be added near the beginning of the meeting to allow people to talk about issues even if they’re not on the council’s agenda.” Previously, it wasn’t as easy to address the council. The main restriction was that comments were only taken for items that were on the agenda and that were required, by law, to include a public hearing, such as land re-zonings and the annual budget discussion. The open comment period will now begin the council meetings held on the third Tuesdays of each month. There will be a two minute  time limit for individuals who sign up to speak. The change is linked in large part to protests in council chambers after the fatal shooting of Jocques Clemmons by Nashville police Officer Joshua Lippert back in February of 2017. If what happened Tuesday night at the Metro Council has ever happened before, it was beyond the recent memory of anyone in the chamber. Calling for justice for Jocques Clemmons, the black man shot and killed…

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For Those Who Want A New Facebook: Privacy Advocates Fed Up With The Tech Giant Are Launching Their Own Social Media Platform

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Openbook social media

by Eric Lieberman   Cybersecurity and privacy experts are currently in the process of trying to rival Facebook by starting their own social media platform. With a fundraising page set to launch Tuesday, the “open source” social network called Openbook is aimed at “helping make the world a better place,” a similar overarching objective to that of Facebook. The professed difference is that Openbook will be “privacy-friendly” in which it won’t monitor or track users. “Surf the network with absolute peace of mind!” the start-up’s site says. Many avid users of social media, including the ones who find fault with Facebook and accuse it of not caring how user data is utilized, even manipulated, are often reluctant to try to find an alternative to Facebook because of its apparent ubiquitousness. They worry, in other words, that jumping ship to another platform is mostly pointless because not enough people will follow — seemingly not considering the fundamental principles behind a movement or protest. But Openbook, which was founded in The Hague, Netherlands in April 2018, appears to have a solution by allowing users to import all photos, videos, chat logs, and other content and communications, into its platform via a “drag-and-drop” feature. While there appears to be no direct mention of…

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Commentary: Obama Cybersecurity Failures Are The Real 2016 Election Story

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Barack Obama

by George Rasley   Remember when the Democrats lost the 2016 election and the charge was that the Russians “hacked” the election? Then the charge morphed into, the Trump campaign, or maybe even Trump himself, “colluded” with the Russians to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House? As Rowan Scarborough of the Washington Times summarized the charges: Christopher Steele’s Democratic Party-financed dossier said Mr. Manafort worked with Russia to coordinate the hacking of Democratic Party computers. In addition, a number of media reports last year claimed that Mr. Manafort, Mr. Trump’s erstwhile campaign manager, sought Russia’s help to bolster his candidate. U.S. surveillance captured the collusion in copious amounts of phone records, the stories said. CNN declared in September: “Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications.” But, reported Scarborough, that and similar reports seemed to be dashed by Kevin Downing, Mr. Manafort’s attorney. He filed a brief in U.S. District Court subject to an accuracy review by a federal judge. In a cut-and-dried manner, he said Mr. Mueller has no evidence that Mr. Manafort communicated with Russian officials. Mr. Downing is defending Mr. Manafort against federal charges…

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Former Congressman Zach Wamp Endorses Bill Lee For Governor

Jason M. Reynolds
Zach Wamp, Bill Lee

Former U.S. Congressman Zach Wamp endorsed Bill Lee for governor on Monday, the Lee campaign announced. The endorsement from Congressman Wamp, a Chattanooga Republican, comes after last week’s endorsement from the conservative Free Press editorial page at The Chattanooga Times Free Press. “It is an honor to have the support of Congressman Zach Wamp, a conservative leader for Tennessee,” said Lee. “Zach has always stood on conservative principles and I am humbled and grateful to have his support.” Wamp will campaign with Lee on Monday, the Times Free Press said. Early voting began last Friday. GOP race frontrunners U.S. Rep. Diane Black of Gallatin and Knoxville businessman Randy Boyd are fighting with television, radio, direct mail and digital ads. Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, is the fourth major GOP candidate. In his endorsement, Wamp said the following: “As a conservative who loves Tennessee, believes in the nobility of public service and desires our leaders to carry themselves with dignity and honor, I have decided to step forward and wholeheartedly endorse Bill Lee for Governor of Tennessee. While I originally intended to not take a public stand in this primary race, I have watched closely the tactics, tone and campaign activity…

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Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen Denies Tweet ‘Where is Our Military Folks? The Commander in Chief is in the Hands of Our Enemy!’ Was Call for Military Coup Against President Trump

Tennessee Star Staff

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) denied this afternoon that his tweet earlier in the day in which he stated “Where is our military folks? Commander in chief is in the hands of the enemy” was a call for a military coup against President Trump. Where are our military folks ? The Commander in Chief is in the hands of our enemy! https://t.co/3eF7OLKEdN — Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) July 16, 2018   Cohen attempted to “clarify” what seemed to many to be a call for a military coup against President Trump on Twitter about an hour later in response to a tweet from Christopher D. White of the Daily Caller News Foundation, but did not appear to do so successfully. “I assume you mean: why aren’t members of the military sounding off on this? Not. Why isn’t the military taking up positions to take out the POTUS? Because it’s not totally clear,” White asked. “Of course,” Cohen responded. — Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) July 16, 2018 White pushed back. “Of course *what*? Which is it?” he tweeted. Cohen did not respond.   Of course *what*? Which is it? https://t.co/x31k59eWSG — Christopher D. White (@ZanderKelly30) July 16, 2018 Just last week, Cohen attempted to walk…

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Corker Goes Off The Rails On President Trump Over Putin Meeting

John Bryant
Bob Corker, Donald Trump

Outgoing Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) went off the rails over President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland today, saying, “I just felt like the President’s comments made us look as a nation more like a pushover. I was disappointed in that. When he had the opportunity to defend our intelligence agencies, who work for him, I was very disappointed and saddened with the equivalency he gave between them and what Putin was saying.” And his criticism, which the Left loves, didn’t stop there: “Sometimes the President cares more about how a leader treats him personally than forcefully getting out there and pushing against things that we know have harmed our nation,” Corker said. “I thought that’s what we all experienced today.” He continued to say that Putin gained a “tremendous amount” from Trump’s clear approval, and that it would help Russia rebound from being “ostracized.” He added that Putin is probably “having caviar right now.” Video of Corker’s remarks are making the rounds on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/xRsz5bGdfR — TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 16, 2018 A frequent critic of President Trump, Sen. Corker is currently one of the most unpopular Republicans in the the history of Tennessee Politics. In…

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Dershowitz: Democrat Cohen’s Insult to Purple Heart Recipients ‘Low Point’ of Anti-Trump FBI Lovebird’s Congressional Testimony

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Maria Bartiromo, Alan Dershowitz, Steve Cohen

Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s ‘Mornings with Maria‘ on Fox Business Friday to discuss the public hearing of anti-Trump FBI lovebird Peter Strzok. However, the two wound up spending much of the segment on Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D-TN-09) deeply insulting suggestion that the embattled Strzok should receive a Purple Heart – an award established by George Washington himself nearly 236 years ago for soldiers wounded in battlefield injuries that dates back to the country’s founding. “Well it was a disaster. Everyone looked terrible,” Dershowitz said, when Bartiromo asked what his main takeaway from the day’s events was. Dershowitz added, “The low point, of course, was when a congressman said he deserved a Purple Heart. A Purple Heart you get when you put your life at risk, not for answering some questions in from of some congress people.” He continued, “It proves the point I make in my book [The Case Against Impeaching Trump] that there should have been a neutral, non-partisan, 9-11-type of commission investigating all of this.” As Dershowitz spoke, viewers could see the Harvard Law Professor become more outraged as he completed each sentence. “The 2016 election was filled with problems – Russia…

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73 Percent Increase in First Day of Primary Early Voting in Williamson County Compared to 2014

Tennessee Star Staff
early voting 2018 primary

FRANKLIN, Tennessee–A total of 911 ballots were cast on the first day of primary early voting in Williamson County on Friday, a 73 percent increase from the 526 ballots that were cast in the county on the first day of early voting in the August 2014 primary. The Brentwood HomePage provided these details: There are only two locations open for early voting in the county—the Election Commission’s office in Franklin and the Brentwood Library. At the library 340 people voted, while 505 people voted at the office in Franklin. After adding in votes from absentee ballots and nursing homes, there were 911 people voted Friday. . . Republicans made up the vast majority of voters. The Williamson County Commission reports that 606 people voted in the Republican primary while 297 voted in the Democratic primary. Eight people voted only in the general election. Supporters of several candidates, including State Senator Dr. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) , Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) , and Jeff Ford,  stood under a tent just beyond the 100 foot boundary with signs for their candidate of choice at the Williamson County Administrative Building in Franklin. Green is running unchallenged in the Republican primary to replace Blackburn as…

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Joe Carter Explainer: What You Should Know About Democratic Socialism

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by Joe Carter   While many left-leaning American politicians tend to avoid the labels “liberal” or “progressive,” two popular Democrats—Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—proudly self-identify as a “democratic socialists.” Here’s what you should know about democratic socialism. What is democratic socialism? In Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey, Donald F. Busky explains the term this way: Democratic socialism is the wing of the socialist movement that combines a belief in a socially owned economy with that of political democracy. Sometimes simply called socialism, more often than not, the adjective democratic is added by democratic socialists to distinguish themselves from Communists who also call themselves socialists . . . democratic socialists wish to emphasize by their name that they disagree strongly with the Marxist-Leninist brand of socialism. What type of socialist is Bernie Sanders? Sanders refers to himself as a democratic socialist, but a more fitting term would be “New Deal socialist.” Although Sanders frequently points to Nordic countries when explaining how socialism can work, his desire is to expand and continue the American style of socialism advocated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (whether FDR should be considered a socialist is debatable, but Sanders seems to think he was—at least…

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