Day: September 23, 2018

TVA Believes Nashville Will Have More Electric Cars, Despite Evidence to the Contrary

Chris Butler

Taxpayers have paid millions of dollars to help electric vehicle manufacturers not only get their products out on the road but also furnish electric car charging stations all over Nashville. Prior reporting shows few people around Nashville appear to use these charging stations. Yet officials with the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Nashville Electric Service expect more and more Nashville drivers will soon take up the habit of driving electric cars. They’re preparing a study to gauge how Nashvillians can best prepare. But must Music City drivers make way for more Chevy Sparks and Nissan Leafs? According to a press release, FleetCarma, TVA, the NES, and the Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation are launching something called SmartCharge Nashville. The statement says people interested in buying EVs wonder how far they can drive before they need a charge. Utilities also need to prepare for more EVs on the road, the release said. SmartCharge is supposed to help with both of those things. No one at the NES returned The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment Friday. But TVA spokesman Joshua Clendenen said the following in an emailed statement to The Star: “While the adoption of electric vehicles inside the Tennessee Valley has…

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Women’s March, Other Left-Wing Groups Violated IRS Rules and Their Nonprofit Status Could Be In Jeopardy

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by Andrew Kerr, Peter Hasson and Joe Simonson   Left-wing nonprofit groups that orchestrated disruptions during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings likely violated IRS rules, which can result in their loss of tax-exempt status, according to an investigation by The Daily Caller News Foundation. TheDCNF listened in on a conference call Monday where organizers for three groups behind the protests called on activists to continue their “civil disobedience” as part of their efforts to “shut down” Monday’s upcoming confirmation proceedings. These activist organizations — which include Women’s March, the Center for Popular Democracy and Housing Works — provided cash for the post-and-forfeits to protesters who didn’t show up with their own money before they faced arrest for their conduct, CPD Action national field organizer Darius Gordon and Housing Works national advocacy coordinator Paul Davis both said on Monday’s call. Post-and-forfeit payments are small cash sums paid to resolve low-level misdemeanor crimes and avoid jail time. More than 200 activists connected with #CancelKavanaugh, a movement organized by the three groups, were arrested for disrupting Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings in early September, and the organizers said they plan to continue its near-constant disruptions of future Senate confirmation proceedings. Women’s March, Center for Popular Democracy Action…

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Commentary: Media Continues Its Slow Suicide

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by Julie Kelly   After reviewing last week’s news coverage, I would encourage President Trump to come up with a more accurate taunt than “fake news.” Maybe “garbage news.” Or perhaps “bottom-feeding news.” Even try “we-are-a-collection-of-dishonest-miscreants-who-are-unworthy-of-an-ounce-of-the-American-people’s-trust news.” But “fake news” is tame in light of the media’s misleading, destructive, and willfully ignorant reporting last week that was intended further to inflame a divided body politic. Some of the lowlights featured MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough, claiming Trump has done more damage to the country than the 9/11 terrorists; the editorial board of a major newspaper blaming Trump for Hurricane Florence; the wholesale acceptance of a highly flawed paper about hurricane deaths used to bash the president; and a despicable crusade not just to quash Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, but to destroy his reputation and damage his young family. And it wasn’t just the dependable lunatics on the Left pushing trash commentary. Bret Stephens, the NeverTrump “conservative” columnist for the New York Times, compared Trump to a drug addict. Washington Post “conservative” blogger Jennifer Rubin warned that if Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted to confirm Kavanaugh, their names would be, “as was the case with [Nazi-era traitor] Vidkun Quisling—synonymous with ‘sellouts,’ ‘collaborators,’ or, to use a Trumpism, ‘phonies.’” As…

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Fugitives Allowed To Live In Federally Funded Homes, Watchdog Wouldn’t Partner With FBI To Catch Them

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by Molly Prince   Federally funded housing agencies aren’t required to evict wanted rapists and murderers living on their property, and, for years, some government investigative offices weren’t part of a program that shared information about such individuals with the FBI, according to a congressional watchdog. And the watchdog overseeing the investigators made a new requirement to participate in the program, but refused to ensure that the offices are complying with the rule, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Inspector General (IG) and the FBI partner through the Fugitive Felon Initiative, where the two agencies share information to apprehend fugitives living in taxpayer-funded homes. Through this initiative, more than 1,200 fugitive felons discovered to be potentially living in federally funded housing between 2013 and 2017 were arrested, according to the Sept. 10 GAO report. But four of the IG’s seven regions weren’t part of the Fugitive Felon Initiative between 2012 and 2016. Additionally, the local agencies responsible for administering federally funded housing programs, known as public housing agencies (PHA), aren’t required to evict fugitives living in their units. The agencies are given a large amount of discretion in determining who can stay in the taxpayer-funded homes,…

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Is the Mueller Special Counsel Probe All About Protecting Rod Rosenstein’s Reputation?

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by Robert Romano   The key facts to remember in the whole investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, not into Russian interference in the election, but into the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, are these: 1) Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recommended to Attorney General Jeff Sessions that Comey be fired; and 2) Rosenstein appointed Mueller to investigate President Donald Trump for following through on his recommendation. And reports the New York Times on Sept. 21, Rosenstein was angry at the President: “The president’s reliance on his memo caught Mr. Rosenstein by surprise, and he became angry at Mr. Trump, according to people who spoke to Mr. Rosenstein at the time. He grew concerned that his reputation had suffered harm and wondered whether Mr. Trump had motives beyond Mr. Comey’s treatment of Mrs. Clinton for ousting him, the people said.” Read that again and the likely true motive for the Mueller probe is revealed: “He grew concerned that his reputation had suffered harm…” Comey was fired on May 9, 2017. Mueller was appointed on May 17, 2017. There’s a lot of fluff in the Mueller appointment about investigating Russian interference. Comey was investigating Trump for assisting Russia, somehow, with…

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Hospitals’ Secret Contracts With Insurers Are Keeping Health Care Expensive: Report

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by Evie Fordham   Hospital systems are making secret contracts with insurers that are keeping health care costs high, a Wall Street Journal report revealed, prompting alternative health care advocates to point out the flawed nature of the U.S. health care system. “Health care is the only industry I can think of where technology is used as an excuse for price to go up and productivity to go down because of these perverse incentives,” The Health Rosetta founder Dave Chase told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The perverse incentives at a high level are generally, either directly or indirectly, the worse job [the hospitals] do, the more they get paid.” TheWSJ’s Tuesday report detailed “dozens of contracts with terms that limit how insurers design plans” so they cannot exclude powerful hospital systems, which when included in health plans can drive up costs for employers and employees. These secret contracts often include clauses that mandate insurers steer consumers away from less costly health care providers or give hospitals the ability to “mask” their prices, according to TheWSJ. If plans did not include these more costly health care systems, they could be up to 10 percent cheaper, the report stated. Some major health…

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Gowdy: Russia Docs Are ‘Embarrassing’ For John Brennan, DOJ And FBI

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by Chuck Ross   South Carolina Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy said the information in a batch of Russia investigation documents that President Donald Trump was considering for declassification will prove “embarrassing” for the Department of Justice, FBI and former CIA Director John Brennan. Gowdy made the remarks in an interview with Fox News on Thursday. The next day, President Donald Trump retracted his order to the Justice Department to declassify and release the documents. But the Republican left open the possibility that the records could be released down the road. But Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, provided a preview of what to expect from the documents if they are eventually released. “I’ve read it. Some of it’s embarrassing for the Department of Justice — some of it’s embarrassing for the FBI. Embarrassment is not a reason to classify something,” said Gowdy. “A lot of it should be embarrassing to John Brennan, and maybe therein lies why he is so adamant that this information not be released.” Brennan suggested Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that government officials resign rather than comply with Trump’s directive to release the records. Brennan, who now serves as an…

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Memphis Ponders Whether It Hands Out Corporate Welfare the Right Way

Chris Butler
Memphis

There’s a lot of tussling going on in Memphis as the city’s movers and shakers debate the best ways to disburse corporate welfare. According to the Memphis Daily News, a seven-member city group is studying the effectiveness of EDGE – the city-county Economic Development Growth Engine. EDGE hands out tax abatement incentives. Members of this group want to know if they should take the city out of EDGE and create a city Industrial Development Board to make things more efficient, the website reported. Members of the group met for the first time this week. Council member Reid Hedgepeth said economic development interests need a “czar” to help run things. “Now is the time to streamline the process so that we have this czar that can come and say, ‘Memphis can do this deal. I say we can compete at this level. We’re ready. Here’s the application, Turn it in. Let’s go,’” the website quoted Boyd as saying. “Right now, at the rate we are going, everybody says ‘that’s not my responsibility’ or ‘I can’t do that’ or ‘I didn’t know we wanted to turn that in and compete on this deal.’ Time out on excuses.” Eric Miller, with the Greater…

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