Day: September 4, 2018

Lawyers for Pilot Flying J Ex-President Say Evidence Was Inaccurate, Incomplete

Jason M. Reynolds

The legal defense team for Mark Hazelwood announced it filed a brief presenting the court with newly found exculpatory evidence in support of his request for a new trial in the case surrounding truck stop chain Pilot Flying J. The brief was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee by Walden Macht & Haran LLP on behalf of the former president of the truck stop chain. The attorneys claim the government used a “doctored and materially incomplete transcript of a critical recording.” Hazelwood was found guilty by a jury in February of three out of the four federal charges brought against him – including conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud and witness tampering – in connection with his alleged role in a multi-million dollar rebate scam to bilk customers out of $56 million. He was found not guilty on the remaining charge of wire fraud. The Walden Macht & Haran press release said, “The new evidence reveals that the government, either intentionally or unintentionally, used a doctored and materially incomplete transcript of a secret and critical recording at trial, thus fundamentally misleading the jury. The doctored transcript was the single most important piece of evidence used by…

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Tennessee Star Parent Company Launches Ohio Star and Minnesota Sun

Tennessee Star Staff
The Minnesota Sun

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Star News Digital Media, Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star, announced today that it has launched two new conservative news websites that focus on state and local news, The Ohio Star and The Minnesota Sun. The Ohio Star launched on Monday, August 27, and The Minnesota Sun launched today, September 4. The company also announced that Anthony Gockowski has been named the managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. The Tennessee Star, the first conservative news site owned by the company and its predecessor, was launched over a year and a half ago on February 6, 2017. Since its launch it has been very successful, both in terms of its political influence in the state and its financial performance. Since its launch, more than eight million visitors have come to The Tennessee Star website. The website has been profitable each month of its operation, due to a business model that focuses on attracting advertisement from mid-sized locally owned businesses, and its focus on news that is of importance to residents of the state who voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. Michael Patrick Leahy, Steve Gill, and Christina Botteri are the co-founders of…

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Conservative Radio Host Steve Gill Returns to Nashville Airwaves on TalkRadio 1510 WLAC

Tennessee Star Staff
Steve Gill

Award winning talk radio host Steve Gill has returned to the Nashville and Middle Tennessee airwaves as morning host of the “Tennessee Star Gill Report.” “Tennessee Star Gill Report” broadcasts weekday mornings on TalkRadio 1510 am WLAC from 7:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. Gill is the Political Editor for The Tennessee Star and CEO of Gill Media, a Nashville-based public affairs, media and marketing company that counsels U.S. and global companies, individuals and organizations on development and implementation of marketing, media and grassroots-oriented communications strategies. “There isn’t a more credible or recognizable conservative voice in Tennessee than Steve Gill,” said Dan Endom, Region President for iHeartMedia Nashville. “With the top names in national conservative talk already on TalkRadio 1510 WLAC, including Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the addition of a Tennessee conservative voice like Gill rounds out the lineup with a strong local connection.” Gill previously served as a morning talk show host for 99.7 FM WWTN where he was a key leader in the “horn honking” effort that blocked the Governor and Legislature from implementing a Tennessee state income tax. During his 15 plus years on-air, Gill has won numerous state and national broadcast awards, as well as various…

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Complaint: Too Many White Republicans Accompanied Steve Cohen to South America

Chris Butler

Now we know why U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-TN-9) traveled to South America at taxpayer expense. As reported, Cohen and eight other congressmen undertook a super-secret mission to meet with Guyanese leaders last week. But many locals reportedly resented the visit. There were just too many white Republican men, according to published reports. Cohen, of course, is a Democrat. The only other Democrat was Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.-52). The remainder of the group were all GOP. According to the Caribbean News Now, the trip was a “fact-finding mission to continue stronger engagement between the two countries.” “During the meeting, discussion centered on Guyana’s political stability, security, border issues with Suriname and Venezuela; Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector and environmental issues,” the website reported. Geologists estimate 13.6 billion barrels of oil and 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas exist in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, the website reported. Exxon officials have already signed an oil deal with Guyanese-leaders. The Guyanese media portrays the Exxon agreement as “another form of economic-colonization.” Guyana borders Venezuela. According to the BBC, Venezuela’s economy is in freefall due to hyperinflation, power cuts, and food and medicine shortages. A recent New York Post article blames socialism. As…

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As Kavanaugh Hearings Loom, One Minnesota Senate Democrat Regrets Abolishing Filibuster

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by Kevin Daley   Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said Sunday that her party should not have invoked the so-called nuclear option and abolished the legislative filibuster for judicial nominees. The remarks come just before Judge Brett Kavanaugh will appear for confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republican lawmakers expect Kavanaugh will be confirmed if he acquits himself well at the hearings. “I would’ve liked to see 60 votes, no matter what the judge is,” Klobuchar told NBC. “I don’t think we should’ve made that change, when we look back at it. But it happened because we were so frustrated, because President Obama wasn’t able to get his nominees.” But Klobuchar added that neither party is likely to reimpose the filibuster over judicial nominations, since doing so would cede a huge tactical advantage. “I don’t think anyone’s going to want to hamstring themselves,” she said. Democrats changed Senate rules in 2013 after a protracted Republican filibuster blocked three Obama nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the court on which Kavanaugh sits. All three nominees, Judges Nina Pillard, Patricia Millett, and Robert Wilkins, were later confirmed. The GOP followed suit in 2017 when Democrats successfully filibustered Justice Neil Gorsuch’s…

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This Ohio County Swung From Obama to Trump in 2016, Here’s What Eight Fair Attendees Think Two Years Later

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Donald Trump

by Rachel del Guidice   Attendees of this 169-year-old Ohio county fair don’t come out to see politicians and politics aren’t on the forefront of their minds, but a large portion of the folks at the Stark County Fair had strong opinions on both when asked. The political climate of this county, known for its rural, farming areas and also home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, housed in Canton, has flipped in recent years. In 2008, than-candidate Barack Obama won 51.59 percent of the vote in Stark County and and former Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who died last month, won 46.14 percent of the vote. Obama won the county again in 2012 with 49.21percent of the vote, inching past presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who received 48.74 percent. But in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received 38.68 percent of the vote, while Donald Trump received 55.85 percent of the vote. Some cities in Stark County such as Alliance, Massillon, Canton Township, East Canton, Navarre and Perry Township all went for former President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. These cities flipped to Trump in the 2016 and support for the president was strong among the attendees roaming around the fairgrounds. While harness racing, baking contests, and pavilion concerts were vastly more…

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Analysis: Why NYT’s Latest Attempt To Scare Readers About Global Warming Is A ‘Waste Of Time’

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by Michael Bastasch  – The New York Times teamed up with climate scientists to produce a graphic purporting to show an increase in hot days.  – However, it’s not actually showing that, but instead TheNYT’s graphic shows an average based on climate models.  – When compared to the observed temperature record, TheNYT’s graphic doesn’t match up. Another week, another New York Times feature trying to get its readers worried about how much the world could warm in the future. This time TheNYT partnered with the Climate Impact Lab, which is “a group of climate scientists, economists and data analysts from the Rhodium Group, the University of Chicago, Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley,” the paper noted. TheNYT and Climate Impact Lab created a graphic that’s supposed to show readers how many more days at or above 90 degrees they could expect today in their home town from when they were born — their data only goes back to 1960, though. The question is: how accurate is TheNYT’s representation of the change in days at of above 90 degrees? Well, at least for U.S. cities, it seems to be misleading. “This is [a] waste of time,” quipped Dr. Ryan Maue, a Cato…

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Memphis Needs $200,000 to Study Why Kids Gain Weight

Chris Butler
Steve Cohen

The Feds are forcing taxpayers to fork over nearly $200,000 so researchers in Memphis can analyze whether stress makes kids fat. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-TN-9), announced the money, exactly $189,929, in a press release late last week. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases — part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services — gave the money to the University of Memphis. The formal name of the project is The Impact of Stress and Resilience on Obesity-Related Metabolic Complications in Adolescents. “Childhood obesity is a national epidemic and Tennessee’s childhood obesity rate is a staggering 38 percent,” Cohen said in the release. The national childhood obesity rate is 31 percent. “This award will help researchers at the University of Memphis study youth obesity, its causes, and find solutions on how to reduce it,” Cohen said. More specifically, according to the press release, the grant will fund research to study “the relationship between stress and resilience in youth and how it can lead to childhood obesity.” Cohen defined resilience as how “one adapts to trauma, tragedy, and threats.” Idia Binitie Thurston, the Director of CHANGE Lab at the University of Memphis, will lead the research…

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Tennessee Officials Gave Volkswagen Huge Subsidies, Report Says

Chris Butler
Tennessee Capital building

The state of Tennessee has thus far given Volkswagen $818.8 million in corporate subsidies, going back several years. Nissan, meanwhile, got $536.7 million. DowDuPont received $486.7 million in subsidies. These are among the latest updates from Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C.-based policy resource center that monitors corporate subsidies nationwide. The group runs a national database of state, local and federal economic development incentive awards. For Tennessee, the organization also called out Electrolux, Wacker Chemie, HCA Holdings, Hankook Tire, Dell Technologies, TRT Holdings, and Eastman Chemical for taking state subsidies ranging from $120 million to $232 million. Tennessee was one of several states getting the fine-tooth comb treatment. “In this round, we added records from 61 state and local programs from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Utah,” Good Jobs First said in a press release. The Good Jobs First update included seven new megadeals. “Some are for well-known deals such as the $900 million award for Toyota- Mazda in Alabama, but others cover less well-known deals such as the $618 million from Michigan to Bedrock Detroit for an urban redevelopment project in the city ($256.3 million of that will…

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Commentary: Christian Cake Baker Turns the Tables, Sues Colorado for Anti-Religious Bias

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Jack Phillips

by Thomas Jipping   Jack Phillips owns Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, and is himself a master baker. He’s in trouble with the state of Colorado for declining to create a custom cake for an event because doing so would violate his religious beliefs. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Phillips has already taken a similar case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor on June 4. Here’s the background. In 2012, Phillips declined the request by a same-sex couple marrying in Massachusetts that he create a custom cake for their reception in Colorado. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in a ruling affirmed by the state courts, concluded that Phillips violated a state law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in businesses and other places of public accommodation. The case, as the Supreme Court would describe it, presented a conflict between the government’s authority to protect individuals against discrimination and “the right of all persons to exercise fundamental freedoms under the First Amendment.” This conflict is recurring, in different settings, more and more often. To understand this conflict properly requires focusing on the reason that Phillips declined to make this particular cake. He…

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REPORT: Federal Website Was Displaying People’s Social Security Numbers For WEEKS

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by Anders Hagstrom   A federal government transparency website had been unwittingly displaying at least 80 full or partial social security numbers (SSN) for weeks before taking them down, CNN reported Sunday. The error came in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request portal, causing many people who submitted FOIA requests to have their SSNs revealed on the website, CNN reported. In many cases, the website, foiaonline.gov, revealed more information than just an SSN, also publishing dates of birth, immigrant identification numbers, addresses and contact details. The government was unaware of the problem and cited a glitch when CNN reached out for comment. “Recently it was discovered that [SSN] information in some records was exposed to the public,” an internal email obtained by CNN read. “The PMO [Primary Management Office] has identified the cause of this issue and this afternoon implemented program fixes that resolved the problems. This issue will shortly be publicized by the press. It will also be reported that after our fix, that some names and addresses still do appear in publicly available FOIAonline records. A review by the PMO has found that this information has been marked as publicly viewable by the reporting agencies. It is requested that partner…

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Immigrant Voting Base Was Top Priority For Karl Dean When He Was Mayor of Nashville

Chris Alto
Karl Dean

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean placed a high priority on meeting the needs of “new Americans” during his two terms as mayor of Nashville. Speaking forcefully against an English-first proposal to launching programs like “MyCity Academy” and “Pathway for New Americans,” Dean looked for ways to politically capture the support of the immigrant constituency and solidify Nashville’s blue vote. In 2009, Nashville Councilman Eric Crafton proposed an amendment to Nashville’s charter which would have declared English to be the official language of Nashville and Davidson County and which would have limited the use of languages other than English in conducting the city’s business: English is the official language of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. Official actions which bind or commit the government shall be taken only in the English language, and all official government communications and publications shall be in English. No person shall have a right to government services in any other language. All meetings of the Metro Council, Boards, and Commissions of the Metropolitan Government shall be conducted in English. The Metro Council may make specific exceptions to protect public health and safety. Nothing in this measure shall be interpreted to conflict with federal or…

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Mueller Will Accept Written Answers From Trump About Russian Collusion

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FBI Mueller and President Trump

by Chris White   Special counsel Robert Mueller will accept written answers from President Donald Trump on questions about whether his campaign colluded with Russia to beat his Democratic opponent, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The report is based on a letter Mueller and his investigators gave to Trump’s legal team Friday. But the special counsel did not ask for written responses about whether Trump obstructed the inquiry, according to the report, which cites anonymous sources. Sources said the tone prompted Trump allies to believe that any interview will be more limited in scope than the president’s legal team initially believed. Investigators noted that they were limiting the answers to collusion because they recognize executive privilege complicates the investigation. “We continue to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the office of the special counsel,” Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow told reporters. The president’s lawyers have tried to fight against accepting a formal interview, saying Mueller can use the more than 1 million documents the legal team provided investigators to determine if Trump conspired with Russia. A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. Trump’s first team of criminal lawyers decided to cooperated fully with Mueller, saying their client had nothing to hide. Mueller’s probe would end quickly,…

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