Day: August 16, 2018

‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin Dies

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Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin, the American singer known to millions of fans around the world as the “Queen of Soul,” has died at the age of 76. Franklin passed away Thursday in her hometown of Detroit, where she had been under hospice care after a long battle with cancer. Born March 25, 1942, in Memphis, Tennessee, Franklin was raised in Detroit, where her father, C.L. Franklin, was a popular preacher. Her talent was recognized at a young age as she played piano and sang hymns at his church services. Franklin moved into pop and jazz music at age 18 on the Columbia Records label. But her real breakthrough came in 1967 on Atlantic Records, which allowed her to sing with her natural gospel intensity for the first time. She rocketed to national fame that year with a series of hit singles, including “Chain of Fools,” “A Natural Woman,” and her most famous song, “Respect,” her first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was written by singer-songwriter Otis Redding, who died the year it was released in 1967. But Franklin transformed the song into an anthem for blacks and women by rewriting some of the lyrics and adding lines…

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Blackburn, Bredesen Reveal Stark Differences on Judges, Obamacare at NFIB Forum

Chris Butler
Phil Bredesen, Marsha Blackburn

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Tennessee U.S. Senate Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) said, if elected, she’ll vote to appoint federal judges based on whether they abide by what’s in the U.S. Constitution. Her opponent, Democrat Phil Bredesen, said voting to appoint a judge really boils down to his or her qualifications and temperament. When it comes to the debate over health insurance and Obamacare, Blackburn said she wants laws changed to allow Tennesseans to buy health insurance across state lines. That would create more competition and lower costs. Bredesen, when pressed for his opinion on the matter, said he favors Medicaid expansion in Tennessee. These were among some of the insights members of the Tennessee business community could glean from both candidates at a forum Wednesday at Lipscomb University in Nashville. The Tennessee chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business sponsored the event, along with the Tennessee Business Roundtable, and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Per the rules, both candidates spoke separately, and neither of them could discuss their opponent. In her opening remarks, Blackburn told the audience the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorses her candidacy. “They feel I will bring the best ideas. I will help remove the obstacles…

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Commentary: Democrat Judge Releases Muslims Arrested At School Shooting Training Compound

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Sarah Backus

by George Rasley   Siraj Ibn Wahhaj was arrested along with several other adults at a squalid compound in New Mexico. Wahhaj is the son of a Brooklyn imam, also named Siraj Wahhaj, who was named by prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the New York Post reported. During the raid eleven abused children were taken into care by authorities and the remains of one dead child (since identified as Wahhaj’s son) were found at the compound. Lucas Morton, Jany Leveille, 35, Hujrah Wahhaj, 38, and Subhannah Wahhaj, 35, were arrested along with Wahhaj on the property on Friday and all face child abuse charges according to Fox News. Wahhaj, who has now been charged with felony child abuse, had reportedly been training the children to commit school shootings. The makeshift compound – located near the Colorado border – was found shielded by old tires, wooden pallets and other debris. Upon authorities’ arrival, Wahhaj was “heavily armed with an AR15 rifle, five loaded 30 round magazines, and four loaded pistols, including one in his pocket when he was taken down,” Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said according to reporting by Fox. The sheriff said the…

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Marsha Blackburn Blasts Phil Bredesen, Who Was in the Audience, for Not Calling Out Steve Cohen for Bridge Jumping Comments

Jason M. Reynolds
Phil Bredesen

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) spoke to Fox & Friends Wednesday about her Democratic counterpart Steve Cohen’s violent remarks about wishing she would jump off a bridge. The interview is available here. Ainsley Earhardt played the Huffington Post’s audio of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) saying he wished President Donald Trump would tell Blackburn, a U.S. Senate candidate, to jump off the Harahan Bridge in Memphis. The Tennessee Star reported that Cohen made the remarks last month at a prayer breakfast at Broadway Baptist Church in Memphis that was hosted by Democrat Phil Bredesen’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. Cohen said, “The big orange president. He’s going to come down here and he is going to endorse Marsha Blackburn. Because Marsha Blackburn, if he says, ‘jump off the Harahan Bridge,’ she’ll jump off the Harahan Bridge. I wish he’d say that.” Blackburn told Earhardt, “I thought surely he really didn’t say this and surely there was not laughter. You’d expect that with Phil Bredesen, my opponent, in the audience, he would have said, ‘We don’t say things like that. We don’t wish someone’s demise or death.’ “But Ainsley, I’ll tell you, I believe in what Matthew 5 commands us — that…

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Sun Country Airlines Announces New Service from Nashville

Jason M. Reynolds
suncountry

Sun Country Airlines announced it is growing its network with new routes and destinations, including new service to Nashville from Minneapolis/St. Paul. From Nashville, new service begins in November to Fort Myers, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, and Tampa. If you book by August 22 you may take advantage of low introductory fares. Vacation packages and car rentals are also available in most of these destinations. You must purchase tickets 21 days in advance. Stated fares are for one-way, coach class travel. Other terms may apply. Sun Country Airlines is part of the Davis Family Holdings business empire in Minnesota, the Star Tribune reports. From Cambria quartz countertops to Davis Family Dairies to Sun Country Airlines, the Davis family owns and manages some of the state’s landmark homegrown businesses, the newspaper said. As of 2014, they employed 2,600 workers and raked in about $710 million a year in revenue, a figure that would rank the privately held business 38th among Minnesota’s 100 largest publicly traded companies. For years, the Davis operation was little known beyond southern Minnesota. That began to change in 2011 when the family engineered the purchase of Sun Country for $34 million. In 2014, the Davis family landed on…

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Bill Lee Announces ‘Believe in Tennessee Tour’

Jason M. Reynolds
Tennessee Star

Tennessee Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Lee on Wednesday announced his 95 county General Election tour. The “Believe in Tennessee Tour” will bring Lee to talk to voters and highlight his policies and belief that he is the right leader to keep Tennessee going in the right direction, his campaign said in a press release. “I’ve said throughout this campaign that Tennessee is a really good place to live, but in business, we know that good is the enemy of great,” said Lee. “For Tennessee to reach her full potential and lead the nation, we need to challenge the status quo and prioritize leadership over politics.” People have told Lee they want a good job, a good school for their kids, and they want to live in a safe neighborhood. Lee said he plans to address those challenges. He cites these statistics about Tennessee: 15 counties are below the poverty line. One in seven men between the ages of 25 and 54 has dropped out of the workforce. Opioid deaths have risen since 2012. Over 3,000 Tennesseans have died from opioid overdoses in just the last three years. Schools, which have improved over the last eight years, are still in the…

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One Reported Case of Measles in Tennessee ‘Acquired from Outside U.S.’ in Midst of Nationwide Outbreak

Chris Butler
"Measles" by Dave Haygarth

There’s a reported nationwide outbreak of measles. Even though Tennessee is one of the affected areas, in fact, only one person in the Volunteer State got it, according to the Tennessee Department of Health. “These cases are not part of one outbreak,” said Bill Christian, department spokesman, in an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star. “Tennessee has reported only one case of measles so far this year, which occurred in a traveler this spring and did not lead to any additional cases.” Department officials legally cannot release specific information on this individual, he added. “This case was reported in Shelby County, and the traveler acquired measles from outside the United States,” Christian said. According to published reports, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that 107 people from 21 states have reported contracting the measles. Other states, according to published reports, are Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. “This number will likely outpace the number of measles cases reported in 2017,” according to ABC11.com out of North Carolina. “There were 118 cases in 2017, and only 86 the year before…

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Secretary of Defense Mattis Criticizes Chinese Aggression During South American Tour

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Mattis

by Carla Babb   Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has cautioned South American allies against Chinese aggression, slamming what he called China’s “predatory economics” and its militarization of increasingly important areas in both sea and space. Speaking to a group of military students in Rio de Janeiro, Mattis called for partnering with Brazilians to defend American assets in space, adding that steps toward building a U.S. Space Force were reactionary based on Chinese and Russian attack capabilities. He provided the example of when China used a missile to destroy one of its satellites in space in 2007. “We understand the message China was sending, that they could take out a satellite in space,” Mattis told the group. “We don’t intend to militarize space. However, we will defend ourselves in space, if necessary.” U.S. satellites are used for communications, weather forecasting and GPS. They also bring in trillions of dollars of economic output, according to Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. China has shown growing interest in boosting Latin American space efforts, even financing and operating a space center in Argentina. American space firms are enthusiastic about the possibility of launching satellites out of Brazil’s new space…

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DNC Breaks Silence On Keith Ellison Domestic Abuse Allegations

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Keith Ellison

by Peter Hasson    – The DNC is “reviewing” domestic abuse allegations against Minnesota Rep. and Deputy DNC Chairman Keith Ellison.  – Ellison is accused of abusing his ex-girlfriend, Sierra Club activist Karen Monahan.  – The DNC should have suspended Ellison “at a minimum,” according to the former DNC communications director. After more than 72 hours of silence, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) weighed in Tuesday evening on domestic allegations against deputy chairman and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison. “These allegations recently came to light and we are reviewing them. All allegations of domestic abuse are disturbing and should be taken seriously,” the DNC said in a statement to NPR. The DNC’s statement didn’t go far enough, according to former DNC communications director Luis Miranda. “The party has no choice but to suspend him at a minimum until they figure out what’s going on,” Miranda told NPR. “Frankly, it would be malpractice not to. We’ve made it clear we’re going to take these accusations seriously, at a minimum. We set too high a standard not to take this seriously.” The NPR storywent live just hours before polls closed in the Minnesota primaries, where Ellisonis favored to win the Democratic nomination for attorney general. Ellison’s…

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Turnout in Minnesota, Wisconsin Primary Elections at a Twenty-Year High

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voters polling place

Reuters   Voter engagement in the 2018 U.S. midterm races remains feverish, primaries in notable swing states Wisconsin and Minnesota showed on Tuesday. Both states showed sharp increases in participation as voters picked candidates for Congress, Senate and governor, with Minnesota’s turnout surpassing a two-decade high and Wisconsin’s hitting levels not reached for a state primary since at least 2002. Democrats are hoping to replicate successes seen around the nation throughout the past 18 months in local and state special elections, where high levels of enthusiasm have propelled them to victories in races from Alabama’s Senate seat in December to a southwest Pennsylvania congressional district in March. The party is desperately seeking to flip control of Congress and capture more statehouses across the nation, as Republicans have control of both houses of Congress and the majority of state legislatures. In Minnesota, more than 900,000 voters turned out in a state known for high levels of voter engagement, according to unofficial state figures on Wednesday. That equals a turnout rate of roughly 22 percent, according to Minnesota’s secretary of state. It was also the highest for state primary nominating contests since 1994, not including presidential primaries, according to state data. More…

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Student Debt in the United States Tops $1.4 Trillion

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by Andrew Kerr   Students continue to struggle mightily to repay their student debt amid a booming economy, according to a report released Tuesday by the New York Fed. Outstanding student loan debt stood at $1.41 trillion at the end of June, making it the second largest category of household debt behind mortgages. Americans collectively hold more student debt than they hold in credit card and auto loan debts, according to the report. More concerning is the troubling rate at which student loan borrowers are entering default. Nearly 11 percent of all student debt was either 90 days delinquent or in default at the end of June, making it the 24th consecutive quarter the New York Fed has recorded a student loan delinquency rate above 10 percent. Mortgage default rates, in comparison, have dropped dramatically since the subprime mortgage crisis that contributed heavily to the 2008 recession. At its peak, 8.9 percent of all outstanding mortgages were in delinquency in the first quarter of 2010 and steadily dropped down to the 1.1 percent delinquency rate as of the end of June. Students’ struggles to pay off their student loans can be attributed in part to the fact that the federal government does…

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Kansas Governor Concedes, Says He Will Back Kris Kobach, Trump-Endorsed GOP Nominee

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Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer says he will endorse Republican nominee for governor Kris Kobach after conceding in the state’s GOP primary in a surprise announcement a week after their neck-and-neck finish threatened to send the race to a recount. Colyer accepted defeat Tuesday evening after a review of some provisional ballots from most Kansas counties failed to find enough votes for him to overcome a deficit of 110 votes at the time the polls closed in the August 7 primary, out of more than 311,000 votes initially counted. Kobach, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, has seen his lead widen as the counting of provisional ballots continues into next week across the state. “I’ve just had a conversation with the secretary of state and congratulated him on his success and repeated my determination to keep this seat in Republican hands,” Colyer said. “This election may be the closest in America. But the numbers are not there.” Trump tweeted his congratulations Wednesday morning, saying Kobach won “a tough race against a very fine opponent.” He added: “Kris will win in November and be a great Governor.” Kobach , 52, has a national conservative following thanks to his strong stance against…

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With the Successful Bans of Plastic Bags and Straws, Environmental Activists Eye Balloons

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toy balloons

Now that plastic straws may be headed for extinction, could Americans’ love of balloons be deflated? The joyous celebration of releasing balloons into the air has long bothered environmentalists, who say the pieces that fall back to earth can be deadly to seabirds and turtles that eat them. So as companies vow to banish plastic straws, there are signs balloons will be among the products to get more scrutiny, even though they’re a very small part of environmental pollution. This year, college football powerhouse Clemson University is ending its tradition of releasing 10,000 balloons into the air before games, a move that’s part of its sustainability efforts. In Virginia, a campaign that urges alternatives to balloon releases at weddings is expanding. And a town in Rhode Island outright banned the sale of all balloons earlier this year, citing the harm to marine life. “There are all kinds of alternatives to balloons, a lot of ways to express yourself,” says Kenneth Lacoste, first warden of New Shoreham, Rhode Island, who cites posters, pinatas and decorated paper. Following efforts to limit plastic bags, the push by environmentalists against straws has gained traction in recent months, partly because they’re seen as unnecessary for…

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Commentary: The ‘Willy Horton Moment’ in the Pennsylvania Senate Race

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Michael Baylson

by George Rasley   When Muslim terrorist Edward Archer shot Philadelphia Police Officer Jesse Hartnett, and Democratic Mayor James Kenny said the attack had “nothing to do with being a Muslim or following the Islamic faith” we wrote in our article Jim Kenny: Having A Mayor Like This Could Get You Killed that we had originally intended to title the article “Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny is an Idiot,” but that that was all too obvious from Kinney’s news conference. But Kinney’s policy of making Philadelphia an illegal and extra-constitutional “sanctuary city” and his subsequent behavior has now given us an opportunity to resurrect the title. When the Trump administration tried to crack down on sanctuary cities Philadelphia and other cities sued. Federal Judge Michael Baylson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania subsequently ruled that President Donald Trump cannot cut off grants to Philadelphia over the way they handle illegal immigrants. Baylson, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote that Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “public statements… asserting that immigrants commit more crimes than native-born citizens, are inaccurate as applied to Philadelphia, and do not justify the imposition of these… conditions.” A member of Mayor Kenney’s staff taped the Democrat dancing with his…

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Let Me Take a Selfie: Gill Discusses the Public’s Phone Fascination with Chaos and Disaster

Julie Carr
Steve Gill

Throughout Tuesday’s broadcast of The Gill Report – live on WETR 92.3 FM in Knoxville – conservative political commentator and Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill was beside himself as he described the unconscionable phenomenon of selfies and the public’s fascination with taking out their phone in the midst of horrific public tragedies. He continued: I gotta tell you, I’m not a big fan of selfies. Maybe it’s the kind of duck-lipped-pouty pose that so many posts are kind of the hand held high I guess trying to hide the double, triple, or quadruple chin. I tend to like the more posed photos that are then posted on Facebook or Instagram. Rather than the sort of selfies that have seemed to become in the grip of a nation. And then you add the fact that people seem willing to video or photograph anything that happens as it happens. I’ve been amazed at some of these incidences on airplanes including plane crashes where people immediately grab their phone turn on the video because they want to record for posterity, maybe the end of their “sterity” the death that comes with a plane crash. Maybe it’s the thought that “oh it will…

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Gov. Phil Bredesen Cut Elderly, Sick and Disabled From TennCare While Enrolling Refugees

Chris Alto
Phil Bredesen

Phil Bredesen, the health insurance executive turned governor, had an antidote to contain the spiraling costs of the state’s Medicaid program – disenroll elderly, sick and disabled Tennesseans from TennCare. According to Gordon Bonnyman, co-founder of the Tennessee Justice Center, two years into Bredesen’s first term as governor, “[a]pproximately 200,000 of [TennCare’s] costliest patients lost their coverage over a four-month period in late 2005.”  Bonnyman characterized this group as the “sickest subgroup of the TennCare population.” The TNReport calculated that by the time Bredesen left office in 2011, approximately 350,000 Tennesseans were cut from TennCare which included an estimated 100,000 people with disabilities. At the same time that Tennesseans were losing their TennCare coverage, refugees being resettled in the state were being assisted by refugee resettlement contractors to enroll into TennCare. A spokesman for State Senator Bill Ketron’s office confirmed to The Tennessee Star that Holly Johnson, director of Catholic Charities’ Tennessee (CCTN) Office for Refugees (TOR) provided data requested by the Senator which included the number of arriving refugees being enrolled into TennCare. Senator Ketron’s office shared that data with The Star. Bredesen’s action several years earlier of withdrawing Tennessee from administering the federal refugee program created the opportunity for…

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