Day: August 5, 2018

Bill Lee Wants to Reduce Student Testing, While Karl Dean Thinks Current Levels Are Just Fine

Jason M. Reynolds
Bill Lee

The battle lines over common sense in public education have been drawn in the gubernatorial battle between Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean, and Round One goes to Bill Lee. Lee, the outsider business executive, wants to reduce the current level of student testing while Dean, the former Mayor of Nashville, thinks the current levels of student testing are just fine. Dean and Lee may both talk about education being a priority if they are elected governor, but they have some big differences in their visions, especially testing. The Democratic and Republican candidates, respectively, won their parties’ primaries Thursday. Dean says his administration would generally continue Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s education policies, which are a holdover from Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen’s, Chalkbeat says. Chalkbeat points out that Haslam has stuck with a controversial policy to include student growth scores from state tests in teacher evaluations. The Haslam plan is “1) raising academic standards; 2) adopting an aligned test to measure student progress; and 3) using the results to hold students, teachers, schools and districts accountable.” This past spring, the Tennessee Department of Education once again experienced widespread technical issues with TNReady testing, The Tennessee Star previously reported. From the…

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Mark West Commentary: The Election Is Over. Did We Learn Anything?

Tennessee Star Staff

by Mark West Another campaign season has gladly come to an end. The nastiness from opponents is behind us. The dissension between “friends” will hopefully end. But if the election affirms anything, it’s that politics is short-term. Politics is temporal. And feuding over a candidate, particularly amongst friends, is one of the most foolish behaviors in which real friends could or would ever engage. I supported several particular candidates for various positions. But for me to think that my candidate was the “perfect” candidate that every single voter should support would be the height of arrogance. My values are not the values of others. My priorities are not that of others. And truthfully, neither are yours mine. So if we supported different candidates, who is the wrong one? I believe that Truth is absolute and God’s values are not only unbending, but they are knowable. God gave us His Word to inform us of His Truths. But who am I to suggest that I have full and complete understanding of all that God instructs us? I do not. While I do believe that there are clear and unambiguous Truths that are as clear as the sky is above, for me…

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Chinese Spy Worked Almost 20 Years for Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein

Tennessee Star Staff
Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer

A Chinese spy worked for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) for almost 20 years, KPIX in San Francisco reported on Wednesday. The shocking revelation is of significant relevance to the U.S. Senate race in Tennessee between Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07), the Republican nominee, and former Gov. Phil Bredesen, the Democrat nominee, Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill says. “If Phil Bredesen is elected to the United States Senate and Democrats win the Senate Majority, then Chuck Schumer becomes the Majority Leader and Dianne Feinstein likely becomes the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,” he notes. “Conservative judge and Justice nominees won’t only be denied a fair confirmation fair they will be delayed or blocked from getting a vote. Tennessee voters need to remember that Feinstein attacked Federal Court of Appeals nominee, and possible future Trump Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, for her Catholic faith. A vote for Bredesen empowers this sort of disposable religious bigotry,” Gill points out. KPIX provided these details of the Chinese spy’s infiltration of Feinstein’s inner circle: New details emerged Wednesday about how a mole for the government of communist China managed to stay by Senator Dianne Feinstein’s side for nearly 20 years. It happened five…

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Trump’s Top Aides Make Push to Drastically Cut Refugee Numbers

Tennessee Star Staff

by Hanna Bogorowski Several top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration are making a push to drastically reduce the number of immigrants coming legally and illegally into the United States, as well as significantly lowering the cap of refugees admitted. The administration ultimately settled on a 45,000 cap for refugees for the 2017 fiscal year, which marked the lowest number since the program started in 1980, according to Politico. While the numbers fluctuated over those months, White House officials are telling Politico that at one point, Trump suggested lowering the cap to just 5,000 for the fiscal year, which was lower than the already historical suggestion by senior policy advisor Stephen Miller, who offered 15,000. One former White House official cited in the report said the number would in fact probably be as low as 15,000 by 2019, and that a group of administration aides would be meeting to discuss the refugee cap for 2019. “Miller is not deterred,” the source told Politico. “He is an adamant believer in stopping any immigration, and the president thinks it plays well with his base.” Miller, known for his hawkish push for the zero-tolerance policy, and a few other advisors are moving forward with…

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Sean Hannity Hammers CNN’s Jim Acosta As ‘The King of Lies’

Tennessee Star Staff

by Nick Givas Fox News host Sean Hannity attacked CNN’s Jim Acosta Thursday and called the White House correspondent “the king of lies.” Hannity said the American people have grown tired of the “bias” and “lying” within the press and view their anti-Trump bias as destructive to the nation. “But that didn’t stop CNN’s so-called chief White House correspondent, the king of lies, the king of fake news, Jimmy Acosta — from trying to self righteously seize the moral high ground at today’s press briefing,” Hannity said on Fox News. “And by the way, he didn’t win this round.” Hannity then played a clip of White House press secretary Sarah Sanders slamming Acosta for being insolent during the briefing while she was trying to answer his question. “Boom, checkmate. Sarah Sanders,” Hannity continued. He also praised Sanders for defending herself and for citing the times she was personally demeaned and treated unfairly by the press. Hannity said the White House is being wrongfully accused of stirring up violence by left-wing pundits. “As you can see, there are real acts of violence, harassment, aggression, it happens every day,” Hannity concluded. “I’ll be the first to stand up and say everybody has a right to…

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Clueless in Seattle: Smug City Throws Money After Streetcar and Bike Fiasco That’s Totally Off the Rails

Tennessee Star Staff

By Printus LeBlanc Once again, the oh-so progressive, oh-so enlightened Seattle City Council is showing the rest of the country what not to do. The idealistic leftists who control the Council are wasting millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars in failed attempts to solve problems Council members created – and spending yet more money when things go wrong. All this is turning Seattle into the poster city for the failure of Big Government. The city best known for fish markets, coffee stores, rain, and flannel-wearing musicians is now becoming legendary for its incompetent leadership and its financial boondoggles. The latest example of Seattle senselessness is the Council’s costly and deeply flawed efforts to get more people riding public transportation and bicycles. Other than spending lots of money, this effort isn’t accomplishing anything. Seattle was one of the first cities to get electric streetcars in the U.S., with the first electric car entering service in 1889. With over a century of experience, you would think the city would know how to handle public transit. Not so. Taxpayers are paying a big price for the incompetence of city officials. The public transportation system in Seattle is a mess. Construction costs for new and…

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Commentary: Democrat Hypocrisy and Fear Mongering on 3D Printed Guns

Tennessee Star Staff
Phil Bredesen, Chuck Schumer

by George Rasley After a multiyear legal battle, the federal government last month entered into a settlement with Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson, permitting him to publish his arsenal of firearm blueprints online. Deanna Paul, writing for The Washington Post, reports Wilson intended to do so on Aug. 1, when on Friday a federal judge denied a motion for an emergency injunction brought forward by a trio of gun-control groups. 3D GunsHowever, Wilson was blocked by the questionable decision of another federal judge who, without jurisdiction, issued an 11th hour injunction. Ms. Paul reports Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) led the gun fear mongering call to action on Saturday, warning of the dangers posed by the weapons, sometimes dubbed “ghost guns,” which are made from plastic and cannot be sensed by metal detectors. “Ghost guns are as scary as they sound — a terrorist, someone who is mentally ill, a spousal abuser or a felon can essentially open a gun factory in their garage. No background check, no training,” he told The Post according to Ms. Paul’s reporting. On Tuesday, other Democrat Senators, including Edward J. Markey (Mass.), Sen. Bill Nelson (Fla.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Chris Murphy (Conn.)…

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The Renewable Fuel Standard is the Obamacare of the Energy Industry

Tennessee Star Staff
Gas up the car

By Printus LeBlan After Scott Pruitt resigned as EPA Administrator, the cheers from K street could be heard around the country. The lobbyist camp led the fight against Pruitt because since coming into the position, Pruitt set his sights on one of the biggest sacred cows in D.C., the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Just because he is gone, that doesn’t mean the fight over the RFS should end. The RFS was created in 2005 as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The RFS mandates a certain amount of renewable fuel is blended with gasoline. The renewable fuel is mostly corn ethanol. The regulation was further updated in 2007 with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). This bill was another gift to the renewable fuel industry as it increased the amount of renewable fuel to be blended. EISA had the goal of increasing the amount of renewable fuel by well over 300 percent from 11.1 billion gallons in 2009 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. A windfall for King Corn. However, when Scott Pruitt came to the swamp, he sought to change the RFS. Pruitt knew the RFS did not do what it promised and…

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Here’s Why An Eco-Terrorist Group Says It Can’t Be Sued For Sabotaging Pipeline

Tennessee Star Staff

by Chris White An eco-terrorist group that frequently instructs activists how to sabotage energy projects is arguing one of the companies behind the Dakota Access Pipeline cannot sue it because the loose-nit group is not an entity. Attorneys for Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) argued in court Wednesday that Earth First! should be held accountable for eco-terrorism because it’s a legal entity that can be sued — ETP believes it should be able to sue a publication the group uses to distribute source material. Earth First! often publishes pamphlets instructing activists how to avoid legal issues associated with sabotage. ETP sued Earth First, Greenpeace and BankTrack in 2017 for $1 billion, alleging all three groups worked to undermine the $3.8 billion pipeline now channeling oil from North Dakota to Illinois. Various legal groups maintain Earth First is a social movement or philosophy, like Black Lives Matter, or the Occupy movement, and therefore are not subject to a lawsuit. “It’s an absurd argument that they’ve made. Earth First never appeared. Earth First Journal asked to draft an amicus brief. Then they file a motion for sanction because we sued an organization that doesn’t exist because it is a philosophy,” Michael Bowe, an…

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