Month: November 2018

Commentary: Far Left Judges Starting a New Civil War

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by George Rasley   The ongoing insurrection against the duly elected government of the United States isn’t being led by the violent Far Left thugs of Antifa, nor is it being led by the political thuggery of power-hungry Democrats on Capitol Hill and in their corrupt urban strongholds – it is being led by black-robed revolutionaries working from federal courthouses, especially in the California-centered Ninth Circuit. The latest raid on the constitutionalist forces was led by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar who preemptively prohibited the president from declining to process the asylum claims of aliens who enter the United States illegally. The Mexican government says it is aiding more than 5,600 migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala on the U.S. border — 2,610 in Tijuana and 2,995 in Mexicali. Judge Tigar, appointed by President Barack Obama, issued a 37-page ruling that appears to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld President Trump’s Executive Order barring travelers from a list of majority-Muslim nations.  (You can read the ruling issuing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) through this link courtesy of The Washington Post.) According to The Washington Post, four Far-Left advocacy groups — the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Al Otro…

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Jerome Corsi Says He Will Reject Plea Offer From Mueller’s Team

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by Chuck Ross   Jerome Corsi, a right-wing author and associate of Trump confidant Roger Stone’s, said Monday that he will reject a plea offer from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office in the Russia probe. Corsi told One America News Network (OANN) and NBC News that he will reject the offer to plead guilty to perjury regarding his testimony about WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange. “The Mueller team offered me a plea bargain … it does not mean I’ve agreed. From what they’ve offered, I can tell you it’s unacceptable,” Corsi told OANN. “I will not sign a statement in front of a federal judge that says that I intentionally and willfully lied to the special counselor, because I did not.” “They wanted me to testify that … I was the conduit to WikiLeaks and Assange for Roger Stone, who in turn had a conduit to the campaign,” he continued. “And it just isn’t so.” Corsi, who testified before a federal grand jury on Sept. 21 and on Nov. 9, revealed to reporters on Friday that he was in plea discussions with the special counsel’s office. On Nov. 12, Corsi announced that he expected to be indicted, though he denied…

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Steve Gill Commentary: Is a Tennessee Foundation a Key to Resolving Debt and Trade Issues with China?

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by Steve Gill   The ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China has occupied much of the business media’s focus in recent months. But an “old” debt battle between the two countries that has escaped notice by most political and business leaders in both countries has recently drawn the attention of President Donald Trump — and his top economic advisors. At the centerpiece of this issue is a little known Foundation based in Lewisburg, Tennessee that represents the holders of the debts owed by China. One of the cards held by China in the trade war is their nearly $1.2 trillion in U.S Treasury bonds that, if sold suddenly and at a discount, could be used as a weapon to cripple the American economy.  But what if the U.S. simply washed away the nearly $1.2 trillion in debt owed TO China by applying it against the bond debt owed BY China? Jonna Bianco, a Tennessee cattle-rancher and President of the American Bondholders Foundation (ABF), represents more than 20,000 owners of bonds issued by Chinese governments before the Communist revolution in 1949.  The ABF claims that American citizens are owed more than $2 Trillion by China. Today’s China is the…

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US Abortions Hit Lowest Number Ever Since Roe V. Wade

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by Grace Carr   The United States saw the lowest number of abortions ever reported between 2014 and 2015 since 1973’s Roe V. Wade legalized abortion, according to a Wednesday report. Between 2014 and 2015, the total number of reported abortions decreased two percent, falling to a rate of 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years, according to a Wednesday Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance report. A total of 638,169 abortions were reported in that year, according to the CDC. The report contains the most recent nationally representative data on abortion in the U.S. Between 2006 and 2015, the total number of reported abortions also decreased 24 percent, according to the report. Between 2006 and 2010, the number of reported abortions decreased by 19,280 per year. The number of reported abortions also fell between 2011 and 2015, decreasing by 23,087 per year, according to Wednesday’s report. White and black women accounted for the largest percentages of all abortions between 2014 and 2015, according to the report. Just over 14 percent of all women who obtained abortions in that year were married, while 85.7 percent were unmarried, according to the report. California, Maryland, and New Hampshire do not publicly report…

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Commentary: The Costs of Presidential Candor

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by Victor Davis Hanson   Predictably, Donald Trump was attacked both by the establishment and the media as “crude,” “in-presidential,” and “gratuitous” for a recent series of blunt and graphic statements on a variety of current policies. Oddly, the implied charge this time around was not that Trump makes up stuff, but that he said things that were factual but should not be spoken. Trump’s tweets and ex tempore editorials may have been indiscreet and politically unwise, but they were also mostly accurate assessments. That paradox revisits the perennial question that is the hallmark of the Trump presidency of what exactly is presidential crudity and what are the liabilities of presidential candor? Concerning the catastrophic California Camp Fire (150,000 acres) and the Woolsey conflagration (100,000 acres), which in turn followed prior devastating California fires in spring and summer of 2018 (perhaps charring 1 million acres in all), Trump tweeted: “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” Certainly, while flames…

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Supreme Court Open to Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple

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  U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared open to letting a lawsuit proceed against Apple Inc that accused it of breaking federal antitrust laws by monopolizing the market for iPhone software applications and causing consumers to overpay. The nine justices heard an hour of arguments in an appeal by the Cupertino, California-based technology company of a lower court’s decision to revive the proposed class-action lawsuit filed in federal court in California in 2011 by a group of iPhone users seeking monetary damages. The lawsuit said Apple violated federal antitrust laws by requiring apps to be sold through the company’s App Store and then taking a 30 percent commission from the purchases. The case may hinge on how the justices will apply one of its past decisions to the claims against Apple. That 1977 ruling limited damages for anti-competitive conduct to those directly overcharged rather than indirect victims who paid an overcharge passed on by others. Apple was backed by Republican President Donald Trump’s administration. Some liberal and conservative justices sharply questioned an attorney for Apple and U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, who argued on behalf of the administration on the company’s side, over their argument that the consumers were…

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Tennessee House Democrats Elect State Rep. Camper of Memphis as Minority Leader

Jason M. Reynolds

State Rep. Karen Camper (D-TN-87) has been elected by the Tennessee House  Democratic Caucus to be the House minority leader for the 111th General Assembly. The Tennessee Journal On the Hill reported the election Monday. The Memphis politician is the first black to be elected the House’s Democratic leader. Democrats made the pick Sunday in leadership elections before the upcoming legislation session that begins in January, WREG reported, citing the Associated Press. Camper replaces former Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley, who left the state Legislature in an unsuccessful gubernatorial run. Camper will be the Democrats’ nominee for speaker. She has served in the House since 2008. Camper defeated State Reps. Bo Mitchell (D-TN-50) of Nashville and Johnny Shaw (D-TN-80) of Bolivar for the job. “I am honored by the faith the caucus has shown in me and I pledge to bring the type of aggressive leadership needed to advance legislation that promotes the Democratic agenda, such as quality health care and economic opportunities for all Tennesseans,” she said in a statement. State Rep. Mike Stewart (D-TN-52) of Nashville was unopposed in his re-election campaign as Democratic caucus chair. Democrats hold 26 of 99 seats in the Tennessee House of…

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Expanding Medicaid in Tennessee Brings Danger, Despite Mainstream Media Cheerleading

Chris Butler
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Mainstream media outlets across Tennessee continue to beat the drum for expanding Medicaid, hoping to sway most Volunteer State residents to see things their way. But, as The Tennessee Star reported, expanding Medicaid brings peril. A recent Tennessean article tried to make the case for expanded Medicaid. Opinion pieces in The Memphis Commercial Appeal and The Murfreesboro Post tried to do the same. The Tennessean, for instance, wrote about how voters in deep-red Utah, Nebraska, and Idaho approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid. “The results appear to show increasing non-partisan voter support for expansion, which was once a political lightning rod because of its legal framework under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare,” according to The Tennessean. “But, as nearly three-fourths of the nation have now expanded Medicaid, a critical question remains: Will Tennessee?” If the program were to expand, the paper went on to say, more than 300,000 Tennesseans would qualify for coverage. Tennessee, the paper added, loses out on about $1.4 billion in federal taxpayer funding per year. Writing for The Commercial Appeal, McKenzie Mayor Jill Holland told readers that state taxpayers would pay nothing if Tennessee expanded Medicaid. Hospitals, she said, would pay the state’s share of the…

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New State Rep. Griffey Calls for Resolution Supporting Trump in Ending ‘Birth Right’ Citizenship

Jason M. Reynolds

Newly elected State Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-TN-75) has called on the Tennessee House of Representatives as its first action of the 2019 legislative session to pass a resolution supporting President’s Donald Trump’s efforts to end “birth right” citizenship. Griffey urges Tennessee to lead the way in amending the U.S. Constitution, he said in a press release. His district covers Benton, Henry and Stewart counties. On Oct. 30, President Trump announced his intention to issue an executive order to clarify that simply because a child happens to be born on U.S. soil does not necessarily mean that the child is a U.S. citizen solely by virtue of that location of birth. An entire cottage industry has sprung up to cater to foreigners who seek American citizenship for their soon-to-be-born offspring. Griffey proposed that the resolution provide, in part, that: “Tennessee fully supports President Trump’s effort to end ‘birth right’ citizenship and stands ready to be the first state to ratify Constitutional amendment ending the practice if his executive order is not fully implemented and enforced.” Griffey has been a staunch supporter of Trump, having campaigned for him during the 2016 primary, his press release said. His wife Rebecca served as part of…

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Commentary: Tech Giants Didn’t Deserve Public Trust in the First Place

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by Zachary Loeb   Amazon may have been expecting lots of public attention when it announced where it would establish its new headquarters – but like many technology companies recently, it probably didn’t anticipate how negative the response would be. In Amazon’s chosen territories of New York and Virginia, local politicians balked at taxpayer-funded enticements promised to the company. Journalists across the political spectrum panned the deals – and social media filled up with the voices of New Yorkers and Virginians pledging resistance. Similarly, revelations that Facebook exploited anti-Semitic conspiracy theories to undermine its critics’ legitimacy indicate that instead of changing, Facebook would rather go on the offensive. Even as Amazon and Apple saw their stock-market values briefly top US$1 trillion, technology executives were dragged before Congress, struggled to coherently take a stance on hate speech, got caught covering up sexual misconduct and saw their own employees protesting business deals. In some circles this is being seen as a loss of public trust in the technology firms that promised to remake the world – socially, environmentally and politically – or at least as frustration with the way these companies have changed the world. But the technology companies need to do…

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Commentary: How the Greens Turned the Golden State Brown

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by Edward Ring   In October 2016, in a coordinated act of terrorism that received fleeting attention from the press, environmentalist activists broke into remote flow stations and turned off the valves on pipelines carrying crude oil from Canada into the United States. Working simultaneously in Washington, Montana, Minnesota, and North Dakota, the eco-terrorists disrupted pipelines that together transport 2.8 million barrels of oil per day, approximately 15 percent of U.S. consumption. The pretext for this action was to protest the alleged catastrophe of global warming. These are the foot soldiers of environmental extremism. These are the minions whose militancy receives nods and winks from opportunistic politicians and green investors who make climate alarmism the currency of their political and commercial success. More recently, and far more tragic, are the latest round of California wildfires that have consumed nearly a quarter million acres, killed at least 87 people, and caused damages estimated in excess of $10 billion. Opinions vary regarding how much of this disaster could have been avoided, but nobody disputes that more could have been done. Everyone agrees, for example, that overall, aggressive fire suppression has been a mistake. Most everyone agrees that good prevention measures include forest…

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British Lawmakers Warn They Will Vote Against Brexit Deal

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  It took Britain’s Theresa May and 27 other European Union leaders just 40 minutes to sign the Brexit deal after two years of tortuous negotiations, but the trials and tribulations of Britain’s withdrawal agreement approved Sunday in Brussels are far from over. As they endorsed the 585-page agreement, and a 26-page accompanying political declaration that sets out the parameters of negotiating a possible free trade deal between Britain and the European Union, powerful political foes in London plotted strategies to undo it. There is little evidence Britain’s embattled prime minister will have sufficient support to win legislative endorsement of the deal in a House of Commons vote next month. That was clearly on the minds of European Commission officials Sunday as EU leaders gave their backing to the terms of Britain’s split from Brussels after 44 years of membership. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned that Britain cannot expect to get a better deal, if its parliament rejects the agreement. “Now it is time for everybody to take their responsibilities, everybody,” he said. “This is the deal, it’s the best deal possible and the EU will not change its fundamental position when it comes to this issue, so I…

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Brett Kavanaugh Keeping a Low Profile in His First Months as a Justice

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by Kevin Daley   Justice Brett Kavanaugh seems to be keeping a low profile in his first months on the U.S. Supreme Court after his bitter confirmation inflamed much of the public and recast the 2018 elections. The new justice’s approach to his first months on the high court is in marked contrast to President Donald Trump’s other appointee, Justice Neil Gorsuch. The justices have done their best to project normalcy since Kavanaugh’s confirmation. The panel was especially lighthearted during his first day on the bench, as when Justice Sonia Sotomayor turned and pinched Gorsuch while posing a hypothetical about the term “violent felony” within the meaning of a federal sentencing law. Gorsuch reacted with good-natured surprise, eliciting laughter from the courtroom audience. Kavanaugh himself has been an understated presence at oral arguments, clearly engaged but deferential to his colleagues. As a general matter, he has waited for the other justices to ask their questions before posing his own, and his inquiries have been largely confined to technical matters. He did, however, appear to break type in a Nov. 6 death penalty case, signaling concern that Missouri’s death penalty protocol could inflict “gruesome and brutal pain” on an elderly convict. Kavanaugh was…

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Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse Says Climate Alarmists Don’t Offer Constructive Solutions

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by Jason Hopkins   Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse slammed climate alarmists during a Sunday interview on Fox News, suggesting they don’t offer constructive solutions for the future. “I think reasonable people can differ about how much and how rapidly, but I think it’s clear that the climate is changing and it’s clear that humans are a contributing factor. I think the real question though becomes: What do you do about it?” Sasse explained on Fox News Sunday. “Right now you don’t hear a lot of people who put climate as their No. 1 issue, you don’t hear a lot of them offering constructive, innovative solutions for the future, it’s usually just a lot of alarmism, but I think the report is important and it shows that the climate is changing,” he continued. Sasse’s comments follow a White House report, the National Climate Assessment (NCA), that was published on Friday. The NCA found that temperatures in the U.S. are 1.8 degrees higher than they were a century ago; sea levels about nine inches higher; natural disasters such as hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires are worsening; and climate change could slash U.S. GDP by 10 percent at the end of the…

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Pressure Builds on Government Agencies to be More Transparent in Research

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by Robert Romano   In 1963, Karl Popper proposed that the central criterion of the scientific method should be its testability, or the ability to falsify a theory. Absent that, he wrote that such a theory could not be considered scientific. Popper wrote, “A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific,” adding, “Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.” Although controversial, in science, the whole premise of peer review is encapsulated by Popper’s central theme, which is that science as a practice should be transparent. The evidence backing up a scientific theory should be reproducible. Popper wrote, “Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or to refute it. Testability is falsifiability; but there are degrees of testability: some theories are more testable, more exposed to refutation, than others; they take, as it were, greater risks.” But many scientific theories, although subjected to peer review, are often not subjected to public review, particularly when it comes to government agencies that rely on published science to enact regulations. While some agencies do require publication of underlying data to support regulations — the National Institutes for…

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Commentary: Alexis de Tocqueville’s Rebuke of ‘Guaranteed Income’ Programs

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by John Wilsey   Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) is perhaps best known among Americans as the author of the influential work, Democracy in America. He produced the book in two volumes — the first, which came out in 1835 and the second, which came out in 1840 — after taking a tour of the United States with his colleague and friend Gustave de Beaumont in 1831-32. His thesis in Democracy was simple. After careful observation of American customs, laws, institutions, and religion, he determined that the one defining factor in the United States was equality of conditions. By this, Tocqueville meant that since there was no feudal tradition with all its social hierarchies, Americans were a highly mobile people. They were mobile socially and economically — they could become entrepreneurs and build their own wealth without much to constrain them. They were politically mobile — an American could rise from obscurity to power in America without having to worry about his parentage. And they were geographically mobile, moving westward from place to place in search of their fortunes. Tocqueville noticed that Americans apparently had the singular ability to prevent equality of conditions from yielding democratic despotism. Through voluntary associations, vigorous…

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Scientists Work to Save Wild Puerto Rican Parrot After Maria

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  Biologists are trying to save the last of the endangered Puerto Rican parrots after more than half the population of the bright green birds with turquoise-tipped wings disappeared when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and destroyed their habitat and food sources. In the tropical forest of El Yunque, only two of the 56 wild birds that once lived there survived the Category 4 storm that pummeled the U.S. territory in September 2017. Meanwhile, only 4 of 31 wild birds in a forest in the western town of Maricao survived, along with 75 out of 134 wild parrots living in the Rio Abajo forest in the central mountains of Puerto Rico, scientists said. And while several dozen new parrots have been born in captivity and in the wild since Maria, the species is still in danger, according to scientists. “We have a lot of work to do,” said Gustavo Olivieri, parrot recovery program coordinator for Puerto Rico’s Department of Natural Resources. Federal and local scientists will meet next month to debate how best to revive a species that numbered more than 1 million in the 1800s but dwindled to 13 birds during the 1970s after decades of forest clearing. The…

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Elvis Presley Estate All Shook Up Over Not Getting Corporate Welfare

Chris Butler

In a 1956 song “Money Honey,” Elvis Presley didn’t have enough cash to pay the rent, so he called his girlfriend for some “Money Honey.” Presley, during his singing career, was never known to call upon the government for money — although the people who run the late singer’s Graceland estate are calling upon the government, asking for some corporate welfare. Graceland officials want that corporate welfare so bad they’ve sued the city of Memphis, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. Graceland officials did not return The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment. According to The Appeal, Elvis Presley Enterprises filed a lawsuit against the city of Memphis over a delay in approval in expansion plans at Graceland. Specifically, Graceland officials want some sort of city assistance with a 6,200-seat arena. Memphis officials, however, believe that violates a non-compete agreement with FedEx Forum. Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland told the paper this is not the first time Graceland has sued the city. “Bottom line: The private owners of Graceland want public taxpayer dollars to put into their privately-owned facilities,” Strickland told the paper. “And we have a problem with that.” The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, “alleges a delay in the Land Use…

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Incoming Mexico Government Says No Deal to Hosting Asylum-Seekers

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  Mexico’s incoming government denied a report Saturday that it planned to allow asylum seekers to wait in the country while their claims move through U.S. immigration courts, one of several options the Trump administration has been pursuing in negotiations for months. “There is no agreement of any sort between the incoming Mexican government and the U.S. government,” future Interior Minister Olga Sanchez said in a statement. Hours earlier, The Washington Post quoted her as saying that the incoming administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had agreed to allow migrants to stay in Mexico as a “short-term solution” while the U.S. considered their applications for asylum. Lopez Obrador will take office Dec. 1. The statement shared with The Associated Press said the future government’s principal concern related to the migrants was their well-being while in Mexico. Sanchez said the government did not plan for Mexico to become a “third safe country.” The Post reported Saturday that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had won support from the Mexican president-elect’s team for a plan dubbed “Remain in Mexico.” The newspaper also quoted Sanchez as saying: “For now, we have agreed to this policy of Remain in Mexico.” Sanchez did not…

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MyPillow’s Mike Lindell Helping Fund Conservative Movies in Hollywood

Anthony Gockowski

Minnesota businessman and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is trying his hand at Hollywood after investing $1 million in a new movie that offers a critical look at Planned Parenthood. The movie, titled Unplanned, had to be filmed in secret due to the sensitive nature of its subject, The Hollywood Reporter reveals, but that hasn’t stopped Lindell from speaking about his role in the film. “I don’t get into things for the money; I get into them if the message is right,” Lindell told The Hollywood Reporter, which notes that Lindell previously backed a Christian movie called Church People. Lindell’s investment in Unplanned amounts to one-sixth of the film’s whole production budget, and was made by the creators of such films as God’s Not Dead and I Can Only Imagine, which both grossed more than $60 million at the box office. The film is based on a book of the same title, and tells the true story of Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director and spokesperson who went on to become one of the nation’s most outspoken critics of abortion. “I’m pro-life and I’m happy to do it,” said Lindell, who makes a cameo in the movie set to…

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Commentary: If Democrats Never Move to the Center, Why Should Republicans?

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   No retreat, no quarter granted, no mercy. Such is the political – and life — philosophy of President Donald Trump, a citizen politician who’s lived as though everything he’s ever touched is gold plated and blemishless, a magical journey through earthly existence without fault. Realistic people – Trump’s enemies and friends alike – realize otherwise. There’s only been one perfect human being to walk the planet and the real estate developer/celebrity from New York City ain’t him. Jesus and Trump have little in common (turn the other cheek?) though Trump swears he’s a religious and observant person. As Trump’s skeptics repeatedly pointed out during the 2016 GOP primaries, the man has plenty of imperfections, both currently and in the past. But when it comes to self-examination and reflection, Trump always awards himself the highest marks. Avery Anapol reported at The Hill, President Trump on Sunday gave himself an ‘A plus’ on his presidency, but questioned whether he could get an even higher rating. “Look, I hate to do it, but I will do it, I would give myself an A plus, he told Fox News’s Chris Wallace. Is that enough? Can I go higher than…

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Senators Rally Support for Small Business Saturday

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by Molly Prince   Senators from both sides of the aisle urged constituents on Saturday to shop at small businesses in support of their local communities in what has become the annual shopping holiday known as Small Business Saturday. “Happy Small Business Saturday! Take some time today to shop small in your community,” tweeted Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi. “Whether it be the mom and pop store in town or the local grocery store, we should support our small businesses that depend on us for their livelihood.” Republican Sens. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and David Perdue of Georgia noted that small businesses are making communities stronger. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Kansas Republican Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts referred to small businesses as the “backbone” of their states’ economies, and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin called them the “heart of our economy.” Some Senators even provided fun facts to express the importance of buying local. Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Cory Booker of New Jersey noted that small businesses create two out of every three net new jobs, and Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota added that 10 percent of all U.S. businesses are owned by veterans. Republican Sen.…

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Idea of Building Dorms for Members of Congress Returns

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by Evie Fordham   The difficulties some members of Congress have affording housing are again front and center because of Nov. 8 comments from Democratic New York Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about making rent. Her comments about “squirreling away” money until she starts receiving her congressional salary of $174,000 in January re-ignited debate on the issue that has included proposals to allocate living expenses for members of Congress or even build a dormitory for them. “I have three months without a salary before I’m a member of Congress, so how do I get an apartment?” Ocasio-Cortez said to The New York Times earlier in November. “Those little things are very real. … I’ve really been just kind of squirreling away and then hoping that gets me to January.” Ocasio-Cortez’s comments received mixed reactions amid reports that she had more in savings than her average fellow millennial, reported MarketWatch. But the young incoming congresswoman brought up the quandaries that members of Congress, especially those who have families to support, can find themselves in. A Tuesday Politico Magazine column titled “Want to drain the swamp? Build Congress a dorm” argued that when politicians must find ways to afford housing in Washington, D.C., and their home district, it…

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While Media Focuses on Khashoggi, Hundreds of Journalists Believed to Have Been Killed in Syria

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by Joe Simonson   The disturbing slaying of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabian agents has rightfully garnered the attention of the national press. Yet the hours of coverage surrounding The Washington Post contributing columnist’s grim fate raises the question of why the hundreds of other journalists who have perished at the hands of dictators, such as Bashar al-Assad’s Syria — have not received similar concerns from America’s chattering class. Depending on the organization, the number of journalists or members of the media killed in Syria range from 123 to nearly 700. According to the American-based Committee To Protect Journalists, 18 of its estimated 123 reporters killed were murdered at the hands of the Syrian government or various rebel groups. Other groups, such as the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), believe the number killed from March 2011 to May 2018 is as high as 682. In addition, the SNHR believes as many as 1,116 journalists have been detained. A boy stands near a wall of his school riddled with holes, due to what activists said was an air strike carried out yesterday by the Russian air force in Injara town, Aleppo countryside, Syria. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi. The SNHR also claims 556 of those murdered…

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Commentary: The Fight Being Waged on the Academic Battlefield

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By Garland Tucker   The violent events in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 have fueled a deep-seated leftist desire to re-write American history. Demands to topple statues, remove portraits, rename buildings, and repudiate founders—all in an effort to cleanse any objectionable reality from our history—have reached a fever pitch. The parallel to George Orwell’s 1984 is unmistakable. Orwell wrote: “Who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past.” College campuses, including Yale, Brown, Harvard, Williams, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke, etc., have become battlefields. Consider recent events at my college alma mater, Washington & Lee University. Founded in 1749, W&L has a history that is longer than most American colleges and as rich as any. Established as Augusta Academy on what was then the western frontier of colonial America, the school was elevated from obscurity in 1796 by a gift from General George Washington. The name was promptly changed to Washington College and it survived as a provincial, liberal arts college until the outbreak of the Civil War. With the war-torn devastation of the Shenandoah Valley, Washington College was threatened with imminent extinction in 1865. Shortly after Appomattox, in an inspired…

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Senate Dems Cite Problems at HUD, but Block Trump’s Nominees for Key Posts

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by Fred Lucas   Senate Democrats have stalled nominees to fill key posts in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, even while complaining about the agency’s performance. An NBC News report last week alleged that HUD’s staffing problems were the fault of President Donald Trump and HUD Secretary Ben Carson. HUD’s enforcement office is at its lowest level since 1999 of moving against bad landlords who get federal subsidies, according to NBC. But the network’s story didn’t address the the high-level nominees that Senate Democrats have stalled from taking office through procedural tactics. Four top-level HUD nominees await Senate action more than 22 months into Trump’s four-year term. Chief among these is Robert Hunter Kurtz, who Trump initially nominated to be HUD’s assistant secretary for public and Indian housing on Sept. 15, 2017. As has been the case with many other stalled nominations throughout the federal government, Kurtz isn’t particularly political, but rather has a career with HUD and public housing. Kurtz served at HUD under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was deputy director of Detroit’s Department of Housing and Revitalization under Mayor Mike Duggan, a Democrat. The Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee sent…

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Metro Nashville to Force Sexual Harassment Training on Contractors

Chris Butler

The Metro Nashville Government will now reportedly require private companies who contract with the city to have sexual harassment training for its employees. This, according to a new story on Nashville Public Radio. “While city employees and elected officials already go through harassment training, some on the Metro Council were bothered to learn that contractors — some whom represent the city or work closely alongside Metro employees — weren’t being held to the same standard,” according to the station. “The final straw for Councilwoman Angie Henderson was a case in which the city investigated behavior by a man employed by a prominent contractor.” Henderson was unavailable to talk Monday to The Tennessee Star. She told Nashville Public Radio, however, she was frustrated that the incident in question happened in the first place. “What was recommended for this person, who was alleged to have harassed a Metro employee, was that he go through sexual harassment training,” Henderson told the news agency. “That frustrated me. … It seemed like at a minimum, that was something we could require so hopefully something like this would not happen again in the future.” Henderson, the station went on to say, helped pass the new requirement…

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Franklin Graham Group Helps with Disaster Relief in Florida

Chris Butler

Volunteers for a Franklin Graham affiliated group came to Florida’s panhandle to help with disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, but it’s about so much more than that, they said. Volunteers with the group Samaritan’s Purse told The Tennessee Star the devastation in that region is still widespread, and a lot of the locals have lost almost everything. Some volunteers came to help homeowners with the next stage of rebuilding. Some came to help remove trees off people’s homes. And then, as volunteer Kristy Kulberg told The Star this week, they also came to offer emotional and spiritual support. “One of our homeowners had bad roof and tree damage. Their son has battled with some addictions and his walk with Christ. The storm pushed him a lot farther away,” Kulberg said. Volunteers, Kulberg went on to say, helped him and his elderly father, and they helped make the home more livable and tolerable. They also brought the wayward man closer to God. That man soon rededicated his life to Christ, Kulberg said. “That was a big victory for us that we were able to help that family in so many different ways. When we got there, it was…

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Commentary: Enlightenment Thinkers Understood the Need for Religion

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by Jeff Minick   In January I resolved to read Will and Ariel Durant’s magnum opus The Story Of Civilization before the end of the year. It is now early November, and I have finished Volume X of this series, Rousseau and Revolution, meaning I should fulfill my self-imposed obligation under deadline. The Durants devoted the last three of these eleven volumes to the period 1715-1815. A casual observer of The Story Of Civilization might wonder why these chroniclers of world civilization spent so much ink and energy on so limited a spectrum of time and place. Were they simply enamored with the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the age of Napoleon? Not at all. At the end of Rousseau and Revolution, the Durants remark, “So we end our survey, in these last two volumes, of the century whose conflicts and achievements are still active in the life of mankind today.” (Despite this farewell, the Durants added a final volume, The Age of Napoleon.) The Durants examined the political, philosophical, and scientific whirl of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution and understood the grip of that age on our present-day politics and culture. Its philosophers, statesmen, and scientists—Catherine the Great,…

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Edgar Torres-Rangel Has Prior Arrest in Kentucky

Chris Butler

Edgar Torres-Rangel, an alleged illegal immigrant on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top 10 Most Wanted list and charged with killing a Bedford County woman, has had at least one other documented run-in with the law. That arrest happened five years ago in Barren County, KY, according to online records from that county’s detention center. Officers with the Glasgow Police Department arrested Torres-Rangel in August 2013 and charged him with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs – first offense. They also charged him with not having a moped operator’s license. According to drive.ky.gov, the local circuit court clerk’s office issues moped licenses. Torres was released from custody later that day. No other information was available about the arrest or what happened afterward. An unidentified officer with the Barren County Sheriff’s Office told The Tennessee Star Friday that any other officials who could shed light on that arrest, including employees of the county courthouse, were unavailable. This was one day after the Thanksgiving holiday. TBI officials used Torres-Rangel’s mugshot from this arrest and released it to the media after they put him on their Top 10 Most Wanted list. According to the TBI’s Facebook page, members…

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Tijuana Declares Humanitarian Crisis as Caravan Migrants Overwhelm City Shelter Capacity

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by Will Racke   Officials in Tijuana have declared a humanitarian crisis in response to thousands of mostly Central American migrants who have arrived in recent weeks and overwhelmed temporary shelters in the Mexican border city. As of Thursday night, at least 5,000 recent arrivals were camped in Tijuana, which is serving as a staging ground for the migrants to apply for asylum in the U.S. City officials estimate as many as 1,200 migrants arrived from the nearby city of Mexicali in less than 24 hours between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon, straining temporary shelters that were already operating at capacity. At least 2,000 more migrants are traveling in a second caravan currently moving north through the central Mexican states of Jalisco and Queretaro — most are expected to end up in Tijuana in the coming weeks. In response to the influx, Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum declared an international humanitarian crisis and blasted the federal government for allowing the migrants to concentrate in the city. “They have categorically omitted and not complied with their legal obligations,” Gastelum said Thursday at a news conference, according to the Arizona Republic. “So we’re now asking them and international humanitarian aid groups to bring in and carry…

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Ranchers and Native Americans Battle at Supreme Court Over Hunting Rights

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by Tim Pearce   A coalition of agricultural interests is backing the state of Wyoming in a Supreme Court Case over the hunting rights of Crow tribal members from a 150-year-old treaty. Eight agricultural groups filed a motion in support of Wyoming on Tuesday for arresting a tribal member, Clayvin Herrera, after he and several other Native Americans killed elk in Wyoming’s Bighorn National Forest in 2014. Herrera sued the state, claiming a right to hunt on “unoccupied” federal land secured in a 19th century treaty between the U.S. and the tribe. “We are not seeking to overturn the hunting rights the Crow Tribe reserved in their treaty with the United States,” Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF) attorney Cody Wisniewski said in a statement. “Quite the contrary, we are just asking the Court to treat the right as the both the tribe and United States understood it in 1868.” MSLF is representing the agricultural groups Wyoming Stock Growers Association, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Wyoming Wool Growers Association, Montana Farm Bureau Federation, Idaho Farm Bureau Federation, Utah Farm Bureau Federation, Colorado Farm Bureau Federation and South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association. Herrera’s case against Wyoming rests on the meaning of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty that set up the…

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Amazon’s New Move Will Gentrify Neighborhoods

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by Alexandra Staub     When large companies move into an area, politicians often proclaim how the new business will create jobs, increase tax revenues, and thus lead to economic growth. This is one reason local governments offer tax incentives to businesses willing to move in. Amazon’s decision to locate offices in Long Island City across the East River from Manhattan, and in Crystal City on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., follows this pattern. The New York location borders the largest low-income housing area in the United States, with mostly African-American and Hispanic residents whose median household income is well below the federal poverty level. These people, local politicians claim, will benefit from Amazon’s move to the neighborhood. However, when large companies with an upscale and specialized workforce move into an area, the result is more often gentrification. As economic development takes place and prices of real estate go up, the poorer residents of the neighborhood are forced out and replaced by wealthier ones. Is such a market-driven approach that accepts displacement ethically justifiable? And how do we even measure its costs? Can gentrification ever be ethical? Although politicians don’t typically frame gentrification as a question of ethics, in accepting…

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House Dem Who Signed Pelosi Opposition Letter Reverses His Course

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by Hanna Bogorowski   A House Democrat who was among 16 legislators to sign a letter opposing Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House changed his mind Wednesday and will support Pelosi for the position. New York Rep. Brian Higgins told The Buffalo News he made an agreement with Pelosi on two of his key legislative issues: infrastructure and health care. In return, Pelosi can count on his vote. “I have an agreement in principle with the Democratic leader that those are going to be two priorities, and that I will be the lead person on the Medicare buy-in,” Higgins said in the interview. Higgins’s reversal comes just a few months after he referred to her as “aloof, frenetic and misguided” and called for her replacement. “Some will ask why I have changed my position,” the representative said in a statement. “The answer is simple: I took a principled stand on issues of vital importance not only to my constituents in Western New York but also to more than 300 million Americans whose lives can be improved by progress in these areas.” “A principled stand, however, often requires a pragmatic outlook in order to meet with success,” Higgins added. Pelosi welcomed Higgins’s offer…

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Trump Divides Nation, Hurts Foreign Relations, Corker Says

Jason M. Reynolds

Surprise, surprise. Retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) used some of his final moments in office to criticize President Donald Trump. The former Chattanooga mayor, who is leaving the U.S. Senate in January, delivered his latest missive against the president in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The story is available here. Corker, who served as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, told the newspaper that the president’s governing model “is based upon division, anger and resentment, and in some cases, even hate.” “He is able to keep his base together by his approach and instead of appealing to our better angels and trying to unite us like most people would try to do, the president tries to divide us,” Corker said. “There’s just no reason for it, and it doesn’t take us to a better place to squander the well-earned good will that we have around the world at a time when our leadership is more important than ever.” The Tennessee Star has reported on Corker’s past attacks against Trump, including criticism in August over the president’s removal of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance as “kind of a banana republic kind of thing.” In July, Corker criticized Trump’s…

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Audit: Cumberland Elementary PTO President Stole Nearly $18,000

Chris Butler

The former president of Cumberland Elementary School’s Parent Teacher Organization in Nashville stole nearly $18,000 from the school, according to a new audit from the Tennessee Comptrollers’ Office. This year the Davidson County Grand Jury indicted that man, LaRon Bridgeforth, on one count of theft over $10,000, auditors wrote. “The investigation began after the Metro Nashville Public Schools audit department reported questionable transactions in the PTO bank records. After the discovery of these transactions, Cumberland Elementary PTO operations were suspended,” according to a press release from the Comptrollers’ Office. Bridgeforth, auditors went on to say, stole at least $17,724.80 over a two-year period beginning in October 2014. “The majority of the cash ($17,025) was withdrawn from the PTO bank account and kept by Bridgeforth for his personal use. In one instance, he withdrew $1,000 while vacationing with his family in Florida,” the audit said. “Bridgeforth also used nearly $700 of the PTO’s money to purchase at least two gift cards. These gift cards were also used for his personal benefit.” In a statement Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson said state law requires school support organizations, such as PTOs, safeguard its finances. “In this situation, more oversight was needed,” Wilson said. “This…

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Despite Rebuke From Chief Justice, Trump Says Judges are Harming National Security

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by Kevin Daley   President Donald Trump defended his criticism of a federal judge who barred enforcement of his new asylum rules Wednesday, after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement rebuking the president’s broadsides. In a pair of afternoon tweets from his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, Trump said that a series of rulings that stalled his immigration agenda have jeopardized the security of the nation. Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have “Obama judges,” and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an “independent judiciary,” but if it is why…… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018 …..are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned. Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security – these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018 Trump’s latest censure arose Tuesday when U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar stayed the administration’s new asylum rules, which in effect…

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The Anti-Vaccine Movement is Thriving In Some Counties

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by Peter J. Hotez   As a pediatrician-scientist who develops new vaccines for neglected diseases, I spent most of my career in the Boston-Washington, D.C. corridor. While working in the Northeast, I had heard a few things about the anti-vaccine movement. As both a vaccine scientist and a father of four, including a daughter diagnosed with autism and intellectual disabilities, I followed the emergence of doubt over vaccine safety in the general public. Ultimately, in scientific circles, any debate ended when an overwhelming body of scientific evidence demonstrated there was no association between vaccines and autism. But then, in 2011, I relocated to Houston’s Texas Medical Center. I soon learned that, unlike in the Northeast, where the anti-vaccine movement so far seems restricted to small groups, the Texas anti-vaccine movement is aggressive, well-organized and politically engaged. There are now at least 57,000 Texas schoolchildren being exempted from their vaccines for nonmedical reasons, about a 20-fold rise since 2003. I say “at least” because there is no data on the more than 300,000 homeschooled kids. I’m worried these children, who are mostly concentrated either in the Austin area and towns and cities in north Texas, including Plano and Forth Worth, are…

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Radical Experimental Plane With No Moving Parts Wows Scientists

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Some 115 years after the first powered flight, scientists have developed a radical new approach toward flying in the form of a small, lightweight and virtually noiseless airplane that gets airborne with no moving parts like propellers or turbine blades. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers on Wednesday described successful flight tests at an indoor campus gymnasium of the unmanned airplane powered not by engines that burn fossils fuels but by ion wind propulsion, also called electro-aerodynamic thrust. The aircraft, called Version 2 EAD Airframe, or V2, weighs only 5.4 pounds (2.45 kg) with a wingspan of 16-1/2 feet (5 meters). “This is the first time that an airplane without moving parts has flown,” said MIT aerospace engineer Steven Barrett, who drew inspiration from fictional shuttlecraft from “Star Trek.” Electrical field strength near an array of thin filaments called emitters at the front of the wing ionizes air, meaning electrons are removed and charged molecules called ions are created. These positively charged ions are attracted to negatively charged structures on the plane called collectors. As they move towards the collectors, the ions collide with air molecules, transferring energy to them. This creates a flow of air that gives the plane…

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Two Koreas Connect Road Across DMZ

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North and South Korea have connected a road across their shared border for the first time in 14 years, Seoul’s defense ministry said Thursday in the latest reconciliation gesture between the neighbors. The dirt road, which is wholly within the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula, will be used for joint operations next year to recover remains from the 1950-53 Korean War. The 12-meter-wide construction of the route in Cheorwon, near the midpoint of the DMZ, is one of several steps agreed to at the Pyongyang summit between the South’s President Moon Jae-in and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un in September. The neighbors also pledged to remove bunkers and weapons from the border truce village of Panmunjom. Different approaches to North Seoul and Washington are pursuing increasingly different approaches to the nuclear-armed North. The dovish Moon has pursued a policy of engagement with his isolated neighbor, while the U.S. insists pressure should be maintained on Pyongyang until it denuclearizes. Pictures handed out by Seoul’s defense ministry Thursday showed a South Korean soldier and a North Korean counterpart taking part in the “recent” roadwork holding their hands out toward each other, with their colleagues watching. “It is historically significant for…

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What is Augmented Reality, Anyway?

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by Maximilian Speicher   Augmented reality systems show virtual objects in the real world – like cat ears and whiskers on a Snapchat selfie, or how well a particular chair might fit in a room. The first big break for AR was the “Pokémon GO” game, released in 2016 with a feature that let players see virtual Pokémon standing in front of them, ready to be captured and played with. Now, technology companies like Microsoft and Mozilla – the company behind the Firefox browser – and even retail businesses like IKEA and Lego are exploring the potential of AR. Where I do research, an AR lab at the University of Michigan School of Information, it seems everyone knows about AR and is excited about the technology becoming popular among the general public. My colleagues and I watch videos of impressive AR demonstrations, try out new applications and play with new devices. The research community’s enthusiasm may be why several experts – including some I talk with – say they expect AR to be commonplace in five years, or envision AR glasses replacing smartphones within a decade. But as an AR researcher with expertise in both industry and academia, I disagree…

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Donald Trump Attire Disrupts Murfreesboro School

Chris Butler

A group of students wearing Donald Trump-inspired clothing at a Murfreesboro high school may have inspired their classmates to make violent threats, but school system officials say the story is untrue. In a Facebook post last week, Siegel High School student Sam Duffield said he and his friends decided to wear Trump flags as a cape as part of something called Matching Day for Senior Week. They did so, Duffield said, to “let everyone know that we love our country.” “We were then threatened by whole groups, called racist, and we never said anything to them. I was threatened to get jumped and spit on and I replied with ‘have a good day’ and another kid walked into our group and screamed ‘F*** Trump!’” Duffield wrote. “Teachers then proceeded to tell us that it’s our fault and that we’re inciting violence. Oh well… god bless the USA and Make America Great Again.” Duffield did not return The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment Monday. Rutherford County School System spokesman James Evans, however, told The Star Duffield’s account was “not an accurate description of what happened,” per Evan’s conversation with the school principal. “That is a gross exaggeration. There were some kids…

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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,…

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Commentary: The Fruits of College Indoctrination

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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…

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White House Approves Use of Force by Troops at Border

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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…

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

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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…

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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…

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NASA Opens Investigation Into SpaceX Over Musk Smoking Weed

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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…

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

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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…

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