Day: November 22, 2018

Sullivan County Official Stole Nearly $16,000, Audit Says

Chris Butler

The former director of the Sullivan County Emergency Communications District stole district funds totaling nearly $17,000, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. This month a Sullivan County Grand Jury indicted that man, Isaac Lowry, on one count of theft over $10,000, according to a press release from Comptrollers. The communications district provides enhanced 911 emergency telephone service for the Sullivan County area. The district’s board of directors asked members of the Comptroller’s Office to investigate, according to the press release. “Investigators determined that Lowry stole district funds totaling at least $16,856 when he redeemed a whole life insurance policy which had been paid using district funds,” Comptrollers wrote. “In August 2017, the board passed a motion to have Lowry either surrender the policy or compensate the district for the value of (the) policy. Instead, Lowry told investigators he redeemed the insurance policy for its cash value and placed the proceeds in an investment for himself.” Those weren’t the only irregularities Comptrollers reported. Vacation and sick leave balances for three current employees and the former director were improperly inflated, Comptrollers wrote. “As of October 2017, these balances were inflated by a total of 2,272 hours, or 284 days,…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Fruits of College Indoctrination

Admin

by Walter E. Williams   Much of today’s incivility and contempt for personal liberty has its roots on college campuses, and most of the uncivil and contemptuous are people with college backgrounds. Let’s look at a few highly publicized recent examples of incivility and attacks on free speech. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and his wife, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, were accosted and harassed by a deranged left-wing mob as they were leaving a dinner at Georgetown University. McConnell was harassed by protesters at Reagan National Airport, as well as at several venues in Kentucky. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his wife were harassed at a Washington, D.C., restaurant. Afterward, a group called Smash Racism DC wrote: “No—you can’t eat in peace—your politics are an attack on all of us. You’re sick votes are a death wish. Your votes are hate crimes.” Other members of Congress—such as Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rand Paul, R-Ky.—have been physically attacked or harassed by leftists. Most recent is the case of Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson. A leftist group showed up at his house at night, damaging his front door and chanting, “Tucker Carlson, we…

Read the full story

White House Approves Use of Force by Troops at Border

Admin

The Trump administration is allowing troops stationed at the U.S.-Mexico border to engage in some law enforcement activities and, if necessary, use lethal force. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that he had received a Cabinet order signed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, not President Donald Trump, making engagement guidelines less restrictive. “The president did see a need to back up the Border Patrol officers, and we received late last night an additional instruction authorizing us to implement additional measures. We’re sizing up what those are. We already talked with folks over at DHS Department of Homeland Security,” Mattis said. He added that he wouldn’t take any action unless he heard from DHS. “The secretary of homeland security has to ask me to do stuff. I now have the authority to do more.  Now we’ll see what she asks me for,” Mattis said. Minimal risk The New York Times reported Wednesday that an internal DHS document said U.S. border guards faced a “minimal” risk of violence in encounters with migrants. The Cabinet order that Mattis received, first reported by the Military Times, allows military personnel to perform activities that the secretary of defense “determines…

Read the full story

US Says China Has Failed to Alter ‘Unfair, Unreasonable’ Trade Practices

Admin
Donald Trump, Xi Jinping

  The Trump administration on Tuesday said that China has failed to alter its “unfair” practices at the heart of the U.S.-China trade conflict, adding to tensions ahead of a high-stakes meeting later this month between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The findings were issued in an update of the U.S. Trade Representative’s “Section 301” investigation into China’s intellectual property and technology transfer policies, which sparked U.S. tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods that later ballooned to $250 billion. “We completed this update as part of this Administration’s strengthened monitoring and enforcement effort,” USTR Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. “This update shows that China has not fundamentally altered its unfair, unreasonable, and market-distorting practices that were the subject of the March 2018 report on our Section 301 investigation.” In the update, USTR said it had found that China had not responded “constructively” to the initial section 301 reports and failed to take any substantive actions to address U.S. concerns. It added that China had made clear it would not change its policies in response to the initial investigation. USTR said that China was continuing its policy and practice of conducting and supporting cyber-enabled…

Read the full story

Cease-and-Desist Against Rancho La Herradura Was Two Years Ago

Chris Butler

A Shelbyville Times-Gazette article that ran this week was technically correct when it said a Bedford County-based Mexican rodeo suspected of illegal activity has received a county cease-and-desist order. But one might infer from reading the article that county officials delivered the cease-and-desist order this week. They did not. County officials, in fact, wrote that order two years ago, in November of 2016, said the county’s Planning and Zoning Director Chris White. “It was obviously a surprise to me when I saw that in the article,” White told The Tennessee Star, referring to the Bell Buckle-based Rancho La Herradura and the local newspaper’s story about it. As reported, Bedford County commissioners suspect the venue of permitting drug deals, prostitution, gambling, and human trafficking, among other things. One commissioner has complained to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “Of course, the article never actually reports the date of the cease and desist. It is accurate that I did issue a cease and desist, but the way that they framed the story told it differently that one might want it told. I’m not going to say the story is inaccurate. I did issue a cease-and-desist, but I wrote it in 2016.” White…

Read the full story

NASA Opens Investigation Into SpaceX Over Musk Smoking Weed

Admin

by Chris White   NASA is ordering an investigation into SpaceX’s culture and commitment to safety after company CEO Elon Musk took a hit off a marijuana cigarette in September on a livestreamed podcast. The agency’s review will look at both Boeing and SpaceX, both of which are responsible for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station. Officials will examine anything that would impact safety, The Washington Post reported, citing unnamed officials. NASA’s move comes after top officials complained after Musk smoked weed on a Sept. 7 episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” while attempting to explain why he sometimes gets caught in Twitter battles with his critics. His behavior during the podcast prompted the probe, officials told WaPo. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine reiterated those concerns. He told reporters that the agency wants to reassure the public that transporting astronauts into space is safe. “If I see something that’s inappropriate, the key concern to me is what is the culture that led to that inappropriateness and is NASA involved in that,” he said. “As an agency we’re not just leading ourselves, but our contractors, as well. We need to show the American public that when we put an astronaut on…

Read the full story

Commentary: There’s No Such Thing as Her Truth or His Truth, Only the Truth

Admin

by Lawrence W. Reed   The first casualty on the slippery slope to tyranny is the truth. Mankind are not held together by lies. Trust is the foundation of society. Where there is no truth, there can be no trust, and where there is no trust, there can be no society. Where there is society, there is trust, and where there is trust, there is something upon which it is supported. – the abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass. During the recent hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, I was struck by how many times I heard people admiringly proclaim, “She spoke her truth.” Referring to the accusers, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker repeatedly insisted that “her truth needs to be heard.” Not the truth but her truth. And if never the twain shall meet, we should give priority to whichever truth is amplified by the adjective “her.” Truth Is Relative This is the rather cynical notion that there really isn’t such a thing as truth for everybody. It’s often expressed by the lie, “Truth is relative.” That’s a statement that refutes itself. If truth is relative, then saying so is also relative, meaning that we can’t…

Read the full story

US Coast Guard Will Fine Company $40,000 A Day if it Doesn’t Clean Up its Oil Spill

Admin

by Tim Pearce   The U.S. Coast Guard has ordered a U.S. energy company to plug a 14-year-old offshore oil leak or face a rolling fine of $40,000 a day, The Washington Post reported. Taylor Energy must “institute a … system to capture, contain, or remove oil” from its former drill site 12 miles off the coast of Louisiana, the Oct. 23 order said. The site has leaked between 300 and 700 barrels of crude a day since 2004, adding up to 1.5 million to 3.5 million barrels of total oil leaked, according to WaPo. The company submitted a plan to the Coast Guard on Nov. 8, but federal officials rejected the plan in favor of another by an independent contractor that “provided both the best capability and timeline for responding” to the oil spill, a Coast Guard spokesman told WaPo. The company, which sold off all assets and ceased drilling operations in 2008, has pushed back against the Coast Guard’s analysis of the leak. The Coast Guard has based its action partly on an analysis commissioned by the Justice Department that Taylor Energy says is flawed. “The inflated volumes are completely inconsistent with the scientific record built over a decade…

Read the full story

Trey Gowdy Sends Letter to White House for Details on Ivanka Trump’s Email Use

Admin

by Henry Rodgers   House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy sent a letter to the White House Wednesday asking for details regarding Ivanka Trump’s use of a private email account. The letter comes after a report broke Monday night that the first daughter used it to conduct government business and schedule meetings in the beginning months of the administration. The letter is addressed to White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. “In light of the importance and necessity of preserving the public record and doing so in a manner that is reflective of relevant statutory and regulatory requirements, the Committee must assess whether the White House took adequate steps to archive Ms. Trump’s emails and prevent a recurrence,” wrote Gowdy, a Republican from South Carolina. “We launched a bipartisan investigation last year into White House officials’ use of private email accounts for official business, but the White House never gave us the information we requested,” Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the likely incoming Democratic chairman of the committee, said in a Tuesday statement. “We need those documents to ensure that Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, and other officials are complying with federal records laws and there is a complete record of the activities of…

Read the full story

Trump Wanted the Justice Dept to Prosecute Clinton and Comey

Admin

by Chris White   President Donald Trump told his White House council earlier this year that he wanted the Department of Justice to prosecute former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources. Then-White House Counsel Donald McGahn told the president that he had no authority to order a prosecution, according to the report, which did not directly quote the sources. He also warned the president that directing the DOJ to investigate Clinton could risk unraveling Trump’s administration, the sources noted. McGahn allegedly provided Trump with a memo from White House lawyers that effectively confirmed his warnings. The president has considered possibly appointing a second special counsel to investigate both Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey, the sources note. He has also expressed annoyance at FBI Director Christopher Wray for not closing in on the failed presidential candidate – Trump has even called him weak, according to one of the sources who claims to have discussed the matter with the president. “Mr. McGahn will not comment on his legal advice to the president,” McGahn’s lawyer, William Burck, told TheNYT. “Like any client, the president is entitled to confidentiality. Mr. McGahn would point out,…

Read the full story

Edgar Torres-Rangel Now on TBI Top 10 List

Chris Butler

Edgar Torres-Rangel is now on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top 10 Most Wanted list. As The Tennessee Star reported, Torres-Rangel is an alleged illegal alien who drove drunk and killed a Bedford County woman, Keri King, last month. According to the TBI’s Facebook page, members of both that agency and the Tennessee Highway Patrol want Torres-Rangel on charges of vehicular homicide. Both agencies have kicked in reward money, which totals up to $5,000 for information leading to his arrest, according to the TBI’s Facebook page. TBI spokesman Josh DeVine told The Star that agency officials decided to put Torres-Rangel on their list Tuesday. “We place people on our top 10 when they are wanted to face serious offenses and when there is some reason to believe that putting a little bit of reward money behind it might help to raise the profile of the case and might lead to tips that might lead to the individual’s capture,” DeVine said. “We were contacted by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. They indicated they had put up reward money and requested that we do the same, and we agreed that this is an individual that we would like to see in law enforcement…

Read the full story