Day: September 6, 2018

Tennessee Might Bow Out of Nationwide Plan to Arm Teachers

Chris Butler
armed teachers

Public schools nationwide might use federal money to arm teachers in class, but don’t look for  Tennessee to participate. “With very few exceptions, it is unlawful for anyone in Tennessee – educator or otherwise – to possess a firearm on school grounds,” said Sarah Gast, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education, in an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star. “Two sections of Tennessee law provide a very limited exception.” Officials in what Gast described as distressed rural counties may authorize some school employees to carry concealed weapons, if that district meets certain eligibility requirements. Only two of Tennessee’s 147 school districts meet that criteria — Wayne County Schools and Pickett County Schools, Gast said. “As of last year, neither had chosen to allow employees to carry concealed weapons,” Gast said. “However, they would not be required to notify us if they changed their policy.” Gast did not say how or why those two districts meet the criteria. As part of the second statute, educators would have to meet substantial requirements to carry a firearm and only if district officials allow it, Gast said. “It essentially states that if an educator is also in law enforcement or has prior service…

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Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen Possibly Breaking Law for Blocking People on Twitter

Chris Butler

One could argue U.S. Rep Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) breaks the law every time he blocks someone on Twitter who speaks up against him. A federal judge, for instance, said it’s unconstitutional for U.S. President Donald Trump to do the same thing. There is legal precedent to say the same rules apply to Cohen. Cohen, like Trump, is an elected federal official. No one in Cohen’s office returned repeated requests for comment Tuesday. “Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, addressing a novel issue about how the Constitution applies to social media platforms and public officials, found that the president’s Twitter feed is a public forum,” according to The New York Times. “As a result, she ruled that when Mr. Trump or an aide blocked seven plaintiffs from viewing and replying to his posts, he violated the First Amendment.” The newspaper said the ruling would have implications far beyond Trump and his Twitter feed. “Public officials throughout the country, from local politicians to governors and members of Congress, regularly use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to interact with the public about government business,” the newspaper said. “This ruling should put them on notice, and if they censor critics from social media accounts used for…

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Eat Allah’s Food and Follow Islamic Sharia Law at Nashville’s New ‘Halal Guys’ Restaurant

Chris Alto
Halal Guys

Following Islamic sharia law is now as easy as ordering a beef gyro at the new Halal Guys restaurant located in suburban Nashville. Started as a New York City hot dog pushcart Halal Guys has grown into a franchise business with locations nationally and internationally. The chain was founded by Mohammed Abouelenein, Abdelbaset Elsayed and Ahmed Elsaka who all immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt. The eatery claims it’s “American Halal” menu using meat that is slaughtered following strict Islamic law, is somehow unique. The Halal Guys also claim that the meat they serve comes from humanely treated livestock and suggest that eating meat slaughtered according to Islamic law amounts to an “ethical” choice. Islamic sharia law prescribes specific steps that must be followed for meat to be considered “halal,” or lawful for Muslims to consume. The rules are detailed in the English language version of Islamic sharia law, The Reliance of the Traveller, A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law. This compilation has been authenticated by The Fiqh Council of North America which issues religious rulings to guide Muslims in North America, and  Al-Ahzar University in Cairo, the preeminent teaching center of sharia law. Halal certifiers whose foods are used by the Halal…

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‘Dear Tennessee’: Get Ready for Historic Mass Migration – From Illinois

Anthony Accardi
Moving to TN

More people left Illinois last year than did residents of any other state. And most of them landed in Tennessee. Why are they leaving and why do they choose Tennessee? While the violence in Chicago has received much publicity, most of those fleeing Illinois are not the ones who live in the hellish inner-city neighborhoods. No, what’s driving Illinoisans away is not bullets but tax burdens. In a Sept. 4 editorial for the Chicago Tribune, Kristen McQueary lays out, with sardonic wit, the reasons why Illinois is losing population while Tennessee is gaining. By McQueary’s estimation, the steady outward migration, which has been going on for several years, is about to get a lot worse if the political winds in the state’s Nov. 6 gubernatorial election blow more Democrat lawmakers into the Capitol and Democrat J.B. Pritzker into the governor’s mansion. Pritzker and company have let it be known they intend to overhaul the state’s tax structure – again – with a sweeping constitutional amendment. The change would replace Illinois’ flat tax and give politicians the flexibility to institute a graduated income tax — “and then adjust the tax rates in perpetuity,” McQueary writes. Those “adjustments” will occur in one…

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Commentary: With His Return to the Senate, Does Arizona’s Jon Kyl Bring with Him Another Chance to Repeal Obamacare?

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Jon Kyl

by Robert Romano   Former Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has been appointed by Arizona Republican Governor Doug Ducey to replace the late John McCain. With the new appointment comes a new opportunity for Republicans to complete one of their key 2016 campaign promises: To repeal and replace Obamacare before the 2018 midterms. In 2017, despite promising to do so if elected and working for months on end, Congressional Republicans failed to pass legislation that would do away with the 2010 health care law signed into law by former President Barack Obama. One piece of legislation to repeal key elements of the law failed by one vote in the Senate, the so-called “skinny” repeal. One of the missing votes was McCain’s whose rejection came as a shock to many observers. Other legislation by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) failed later in Sept. 2017 with Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and again, McCain, opposed. Since that time, Republicans lost the Alabama Senate seat, trimming their majority to a slim 51 to 49. If there were any vote to repeal and replace Obamacare on budget reconciliation, Republicans could only afford to lose one senator. Senator Kyl could be a different story…

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Blackburn Supports President Trump, Whom Schumer Said Should Be Impeached

Jason M. Reynolds
Chuck Schumer, Marsha Blackburn, Donald Trump

U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) announced her renewed support for President Donald Trump after Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for his impeachment. In an off-the-cuff moment caught on video during a Labor Day parade in Brooklyn, Senate Minority Leader Schumer told a bystander who asked when President Trump would be impeached, “The sooner the better,” Fox News reported. “We gotta get a few Republicans,” Schumer responds. “Democrats are on your side.” Impeaching the president requires a majority of votes in the House of Representatives, which Democrats do not currently have; removing the president would then require a two-thirds vote of the Senate. The video is available here. The president has repeatedly warned about the “witch hunt” investigation into Russia’s alleged role in the 2016 election, Politico reported. Trump also has repeatedly criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has won convictions against former Trump campaign aides but has yet to publicly link any of the crimes directly to the president. Schumer’s office, reached by Fox News, claimed that Schumer had simply misheard the question at the parade. Blackburn is having none of it, however. She also connected Schumer to her opponent Phil Bredesen in the election to fill the seat of…

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Jim Jordan Tells Republicans How They Can Keep House Majority: ‘Build The Wall’

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by Nick Givas   GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said Republicans must fund and build a southern border wall if they hope to maintain their congressional majority this November. “We should do what we said. What was probably the single biggest promise Republicans made to the voters in 2016? It was the border security wall,” Jordan said on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday. “So let’s get that done here before the end of the fiscal year. Let’s do what we said and let’s head into the election and let’s keep the majority,” he said. Jordan said the midterms are expected to have many close races, but claimed Republicans could increase their chances if they kept their promise to reform the immigration system. “Everyone’s talking about how tight this election is going to be. I think that’s accurate. I think we can keep the majority but I think we increase our chances of keeping the majority if we do a simple thing,” he said. “Do what we promised the voters we were going to do.” “Again, this was probably the central thing that the people elected Republicans to do is secure our border. Build the border security wall,” Jordan concluded. “So let’s get it done on the…

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Controversial Nashville Agency Might Get A Leash Put Around its Neck

Chris Butler
housing

A Nashville Metro Council member wants to rein in the city’s Metro Development Housing Authority. As reported, the MDHA has vast powers and gives real estate developers millions of dollars in incentives to build in ritzy areas of town. Many of those details aren’t public record. This process, Tax Increment Financing, is supposed to help blighted areas — but not, in theory, a project such as the one at Fifth and Broadway in tourist-heavy downtown Nashville. Metro Council member Bob Mendes has three bills up for consideration currently making their way through the council. According to the Nashville Business Journal, one bill tries to make the incentives process more transparent. That bill, if passed, would accomplish that through a seven-member committee. “The other two would divert a portion of money otherwise earmarked for MDHA to Metro Nashville Public Schools,” the website reported. The latter two bills passed their first reading Tuesday on a voice vote. Council members are scheduled to hear them again on Sept.18, said Metro spokeswoman Raven Misch. “They will have to go through three readings before it is actually law,” Misch told The Tennessee Star, adding this is how bills are passed through Metro charter policy. MDHA,…

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Court Backtracks On Order Forcing Trump’s EPA To Enforce Obama-Era Rule

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by Chris White   A federal court back-peddled Tuesday night after business groups criticized a previous order forcing the EPA to enforce an Obama-era rule designed to regulate chemical plants. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an original ruling Aug. 31 after activists asked the judges to skip the traditional 52-day waiting period to enforce their Aug. 31 ruling, which held that the Trump administration improperly delayed the regulation. The judges reversed the order, saying it had been made “inadvertently.” The decision will now take place Oct. 8. Judges Judith Rogers and Robert Wilkins did not further explain their reasoning. They asked the legal teams to submit briefs on whether to immediately enforce the decision. Environmentalists and attorneys general involved in the litigation wanted the court to skip the wait period based on what they call the immediate danger associated with holding up the rule. “Petitioners and the public have a strong interest in the court’s mandate issuing promptly, due to the serious and irreparable harm and imminent threats to public health and safety that EPA’s Delay Rule is causing,” they wrote. The Trump administration delayed implementing it while it reconsidered major aspects of the rule, which was initially due…

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Report: Abuse and Inefficiency Rampant within U.S. Civil Service

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FEMA trailers

by Natalia Castro   Introduction Corey Coleman spent years creating a toxic work environment on the taxpayer’s dime. Despite receiving complaints regarding Coleman’s hostility toward female employees and inappropriate behavior since 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) maintained Coleman’s employment until he chose to resign in April 2018. Coleman, who led the agency’s personnel department, made the decision to resign to avoid testifying as part of an internal investigation. [1] While this is one instance of abuse, stories like Coleman’s permeate the U.S. civil service industry. Our civil service is comprised of over 2.79 million employees working to run the “fourth arm” of the U.S. government: the bureaucracy. [2] Career bureaucrats implement federal policy via central offices in Washington, D.C. and regional offices across the country. As an unelected body, these workers are not accountable to the American people and due to the structure of our civil service are seemingly unaccountable to anyone. This system encourages poor performance, breeding corruption, waste, and abuse. Historical context The bureaucracy was created to implement the laws as written by Congress, but since its establishment government leaders have feared that a partisan civil service would serve its own interests rather than the interests…

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IG Is Investigating Allegations of Collusion Between Volvo and EPA Officials to Sabotage President Trump’s Auto Regs Roll-Back

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big rig truck

by Tim Pearce   Federal investigators are probing into a 2017 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report that claimed refurbished trucks emitted significantly more pollution than new models. The EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced Tuesday that it would look into allegations that EPA officials improperly colluded with truck manufacturer Volvo to conduct a study that found that “glider trucks” – refurbished truck engines fixed in new bodies – emit as much as 40 times the pollution of new vehicles. The Trump administration is attempting to repeal Obama-era regulations that classified glider trucks as “new motor vehicles” and placed them under a much stricter class of emissions standards. Glider trucks are generally cheaper, though less efficient, than new models, earning the ire of environmentalists and large truck companies, including Volvo. After placing a stay on the rule that would put off enforcement until Dec. 2019, the EPA reversed course in June and lifted the stay. EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler lifted the stay following a D.C. Circuit Court ordered the EPA to enforce the Obama-era regulation. Anti-glider groups and companies have lobbied against the repeal of the regulations, often touting the 2017 EPA study on glider truck emissions. Congressional Republicans asked the OIG to look into…

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Judicial Watch Busts FISA Court Corruption

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Tom Fitton

by CHQ Staff   In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by our friends at Judicial Watch the Department of Justice release this bombshell admission: [National Security Division] FOIA consulted [Office of Intelligence] … to identify and locate records responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA request…. [Office of Intelligence] determined … that there were no records, electronic or paper, responsive to [Judicial Watch’s] FOIA request with regard to Carter Page. [Office of Intelligence] further confirmed that the [Foreign Surveillance Court] considered the Page warrant applications based upon written submissions and did not hold any hearings. (Emphasis ours.) Just make this clear; the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page, a former Trump campaign part-time advisor who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants. The initial warrant was first issued in 2016 and subsequently renewed three times. In February, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo criticizing the FISA targeting of Carter Page. The memo details how the “minimally corroborated” Clinton-DNC dossier was an essential part of the FBI and DOJ’s applications for surveillance warrants to spy on Page. Judicial Watch recently filed a request with the Foreign…

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Does Phil Bredesen Endorse Senate Democrats’ Shameless Antics?

Jason M. Reynolds
Phil Bredesen

Democrat Phil Bredesen, who is running for the seat of retiring U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), claims he wants to end hyper-partisanship in Washington. The Tennessee Republican Party said in a press release it is clear, however, that the worst partisans are members of Bredesen’s party. “Senate Democrats engaged in a shameful display yesterday, rudely interrupting Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing a 76 times,” the Tennessee Republican Party said. “The Democrats further admitted their behavior was pre-planned and had nothing to do with any substantive opposition to Judge Kavanaugh.” Bredesen says he isn’t afraid to call out members of his own party when they take a wrong turn. But Bredesen and members of his campaign refused to comment on the antics members of his own party unleashed at Tuesday’s U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh in the Judiciary Committee. No one in the Bredesen campaign returned The Tennessee Star’s repeated requests for comment Tuesday. Bredesen has remained noticeably silent on the episode, perhaps because he’s accepted tens of thousands of dollars from Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. “Confirming judicial nominees is one of the most important duties of a United States Senator, yet Phil Bredesen refuses to…

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