Month: December 2018

OFF THE RECORD: Has Governor-Elect Bill Lee Already Breached His ‘Contract with Tennessee’?

Admin

During his campaign for governor, candidate Bill Lee released his “Ten for Tenn” plan that he called his “contract with Tennesseans.” He was very specific about his view that this somewhat detailed plan of action was a “contract.” “As a CEO, it is important to set the vision for my company, and I believe it is just as important to set the vision for the state as governor,” Lee said in a statement announcing his agenda, sent out as a press release by his campaign on July 3, 2018. “‘Ten for Tenn’ is my contract with Tennesseans, and I look forward to working to enact my conservative vision for Tennessee.” Lee tweeted about his “Ten for Tenn” contract with Tennesseans two days after he announced it, July 5, 2018, just one month before the Republican gubernatorial primary.   Read more about Ten for Tenn – my 10 top conservative priorities for Tennesseans https://t.co/Krq8kcBi1i pic.twitter.com/Qg9ao5uYQl — Bill Lee (@BillLeeTN) July 5, 2018   The Lee plan listed ten general agenda items that ranged from rethinking public education and “getting tough” on the state budget, to pursuing term limits and creating a new Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The link on…

Read the full story

Florida Sentinel Publishes Exhaustive Parkland Report: Sheriffs ‘Cost Children Their Lives’

Admin

by Neetu Chandak   A report released Friday showed authorities and school officials either failed to act or were unclear about procedures when confronting the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter on Feb. 14. The South Florida Sun Sentinel released a minute-by-minute rundown of the Parkland shooting in, “Unprepared and Overwhelmed.” The Sentinel acknowledged many teachers and police officers were “heroic,” but Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BSO) were unprepared. The shooting left 17 people dead. “A gunman with an AR-15 fired the bullets, but a series of blunder, bad policies, sketchy training and poor leadership helped him succeed,” the Sentinel wrote. There were three separate instances of school monitors failing to lockdown the school and calling for a “Code Red,” an indicator for people to hide in classrooms. Suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz was spotted on campus at 2:19 p.m., but a Code Red was not called until 2:24 p.m. Andrew Medina first saw Cruz walk through unguarded gates. Medina had previously predicted Cruz would shoot up the school, the Sentinel reported. David Taylor was another school monitor who followed Cruz on the first floor before turning around at 2:21 p.m. Taylor told investigators he wanted to confront…

Read the full story

Bill Gates Reminds People Solar And Wind Alone Won’t Solve Climate Change

Admin
Bill Gates

by Jason Hopkins   Bill Gates, writing in a year-end blog post, shot down the idea that renewable energy alone can sufficiently reduce carbon emissions and address the world’s fight against climate change. “Some people think we have all the tools we need, and that driving down the cost of renewables like solar and wind solves the problem,” the business magnate wrote Saturday in Gates Notes, his personal blog site. “But solar and wind are intermittent sources of energy, and we are unlikely to have super-cheap batteries anytime soon that would allow us to store sufficient energy for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.” Instead, the founder of Microsoft touted the potential of nuclear technology. “Next year I will speak out more about how the U.S. needs to regain its leading role in nuclear power research,” he wrote. “Nuclear is ideal for dealing with climate change, because it is the only carbon-free, scalable energy source that’s available 24 hours a day.” The famous business magnate recognized the promise of nuclear energy for a long time. Gates is the founder of TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company. TerraPower is working on an advanced nuclear reactor that would help innovate industry.…

Read the full story

Elizabeth Warren Ignites More 2020 Speculation With Twitter Name Change

Admin

by Molly Prince   The name of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign’s Twitter account changed Saturday night, reigniting speculation she has plans to launch a bid for the presidency in 2020. Renamed: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) campaign account"elizabethforma"=>"ewarren" — Elon Musk is dumb (@CongressChanges) December 30, 2018 @CongressChanges, a Twitter bot that monitors changes to lawmakers’ Twitter accounts, tweeted Warren re-named her account @ewarren. Prior to the change, the account was @elizabethforma, a nod to her home state of Massachusetts. Warren, who said in June she would not be running for president, seemingly flipped on her word and announced less than three months later she would take a “hard look” at launching a presidential campaign following the midterms. During an interview leading up to her November election, Warren refused to commit to serving her full term in the Senate if re-elected. The Massachusetts senator has also been quietly shopping for office space in the Boston area to headquarter her possible presidential campaign, according to a report earlier in December. The list of Democratic senators who are mulling over their own challenge to Trump in 2020 is continuing to grow. Following midterm elections, Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announced they are considering a presidential…

Read the full story

The Human History of Counting and Numbers

Admin

by Peter Schumer   The history of math is murky, predating any written records. When did humans first grasp the basic concept of a number? What about size and magnitude, or form and shape? In my math history courses and my research travels in Guatemala, Egypt and Japan, I’ve been especially interested in the commonality and differences of mathematics from various cultures. Although no one knows math’s exact origins, modern mathematicians like myself know that spoken language precedes written language by scores of millennia. Linguistic clues show how people around the world must have first developed mathematical thought. Early clues Differences are easier to comprehend than similarities. The ability to distinguish more versus less, male versus female or short versus tall must be very ancient concepts. But the concept of different objects sharing a common attribute – such as being green or round or the idea that a single rabbit, a solitary bird and one moon all share the attribute of uniqueness – is far subtler. In English, there are many different words for two, like “duo,” “pair” and “couple,” as well as very particular phrases such as “team of horses” or “brace of partridge.” This suggests that the mathematical concept…

Read the full story

Cyberattack Deals a Crippling Blow to Legacy News Giant Tribune Publishing Company

Admin

Reuters   A cyberattack caused major printing and delivery disruptions Saturday at the Los Angeles Times and other major U.S. newspapers, including those owned by Tribune Publishing Co., such as the Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun. The cyberattack appeared to originate outside the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a source with knowledge of the situation. The attack led to distribution delays in the Saturday edition of The Times, Tribune, Sun and other newspapers that share a production platform in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported. Tribune Publishing, whose newspapers also include the New York Daily News and Orlando Sentinel, said it first detected the malware Friday. Malware The West Coast editions of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times were affected as well because they are also printed on the shared production platform, the Los Angeles Times said. Tribune Publishing spokeswoman Marisa Kollias said the virus hurt back-office systems used to publish and produce “newspapers across our properties.” “There is no evidence that customer credit card information or personally identifiable information has been compromised,” Kollias said in a statement. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Most San Diego Union-Tribune subscribers were without a newspaper Saturday as the virus infected the company’s business systems and hobbled its ability to publish,…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Not-So-Fabulous ‘Fabulists’

Admin

by J. D. Hayworth   A familiar cacophony arises again from the city John F. Kennedy once described by as a place of “Southern Efficiency and Northern Charm.” Washington, D.C. reprises its role as the epicenter of leftist “wailing and gnashing of teeth” over another “government shutdown” that really isn’t. A Northerner seldom described as charming – Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) – offered a predictable assessment on the Senate floor. “President Trump is plunging the country into chaos,” said the Senate minority leader. Really? From within the bowels of the bureaucracy comes this dispatch from a candid worker, who, for his own personal and professional security, shall remain nameless: Here is the truth: 75 percent [of government] is funded. Any actual “shutdown” will not start until Wednesday. The overwhelming majority of my staff . . . was planning to take next week and Monday [December 31] off. In addition, every one of those “furloughed” federal employees will get full pay. Furthermore, because they have played this game for a long time, many of them did not put in for leave until they knew. Since there is a shutdown, they will effectively get a paid vacation and keep the leave they would…

Read the full story

New Census Data Show Migration to Low-Tax States

Admin

by Chris Edwards   The Census Bureau has released new data on state population growth between July 2017 and July 2018. Domestic migration between the states is one portion of annual population change. The Census data show that Americans are continuing to move from high-tax to low-tax states. This Cato study examined interstate migration using IRS data for 2016. The new Census data confirms that people are moving from tax-punishing places such as California, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey to tax-friendly places such as Florida, Idaho, Nevada, Tennessee, and South Carolina. In the chart, each blue dot is a state. The vertical axis shows the one-year Census net interstate migration figure as a percentage of 2017 state population. The horizontal axis shows state and local household taxes as a percentage of personal income in 2015. Household taxes include individual income, sales, and property taxes. On the right, most of the high-tax states have net out-migration. The blue dot on the far right is New York with a tax burden of 13 percent and a net migration loss of nearly 1 percent (0.92) over the past year. On the left, nearly all the net in-migration states have tax loads…

Read the full story

Outgoing Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly Echos Defeated Missouri Sen McCaskill’s Warning: Dems Need To Lay Off Left Wing Politics

Admin

by Chris White   Democratic Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly said Saturday morning that Democrats need to avoid lurching to the left or risk alienating middle America. He’s the second outgoing Democratic lawmaker to issue such warning. Medicare-for-all and other traditionally left-wing ideas are too politically poisonous to sell in red states, the Indiana senator told CNN in a sit-down interview. Democrats need to do a better job of connecting with voters in middle America, Donnelly added. “We have not made enough of a connection … that the people of my state understand culturally, we (Democrats) want to make sure you succeed,” he said. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has pushed hard to make climate change and Medicare-for-all a high dollar issue for Democrats. But Donnelly is warning Democrats to tread lightly. “[W]hen you talk ‘Medicare-for-all’ … you start losing the people in my state,” he noted. “When we start talking about, ‘Hey, we’re going to work together with the insurance companies to lower premiums,’ that’s what connects.” The ideal candidate to oppose President Donald Trump in 2020 is someone who can focus on issues like manufacturing and health care, said Donnelly, who lost his re-election bid in November to Republican Mike…

Read the full story

2018 Marks the Fall of Social Media

Admin

by Michelle Quinn   Silicon Valley has enjoyed years of popularity and growing markets. But 2018 has been rocky for the industry. Data breaches, controversies over offensive speech and misinformation — as well as reports of foreign operatives’ use of their services — have left many people skeptical about the benefits of social media, experts say. Worries about social media in Congress meant tech executives had to testify before committees several times this year. “2018 has been a challenging year for tech companies and consumers alike,” said Pantas Sutardja, chief executive of LatticeWork Inc., a data storage firm. “Company CEOs being called to Congress for hearings and promising profusely to fix the problems of data breach but still cannot do it.” An apology tour Facebook drew the most scrutiny. The social networking giant endured criticism after revelations that its lax oversight allowed a political consulting firm to exploit millions of its users’ data. In the spring, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, went on what was dubbed “an apology tour” to tell users that the company would do a better job of protecting their data. The California firm faced other problems when data breaches at the site compromised user information. Other…

Read the full story

Ohio Legislation Sets Age Requirement for Marriage

Andrew Shirley

On Thursday, the Ohio Senate unanimously passed a bill that would effectively end child marriage in the state of Ohio. House Bill 511 (HB 511), introduced on February 14th, 2018, would establish eighteen as the minimum age to get married, regardless of gender, with few exceptions. As the law currently stand, under Ohio Revised Code 3101.01, the minimum age of marriage is eighteen for men and sixteen for women. However, if certain conditions are met, marriage can be legal at almost any age, should the parent and judge consent. In addition, Ohio is one of only seven states that permits the minimum age to be lowered when a woman is pregnant. The other six are Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. In early September 2017, the Dayton Daily News published their findings of an investigation into the practice of child marriage in the state of Ohio. The report revealed a shocking litany of statistics, most notably that: 4,443 girls age 17 or younger were married in Ohio between 2000 and 2015, including 59 who were 15 or younger. Ohio saw statewide, bipartisan, outrage over the practice and two bills were introduced addressing the issue, one in the Senate and…

Read the full story

Departing Minnesota AG Lori Swanson Thanks Disgraced Sen. Al Franken on Her Way Out

Anthony Gockowski

Attorney General Lori Swanson (D-MN), who will leave office in January after 12 years in the position, published one last op-ed in The Star Tribune recently to thank her colleagues for helping her along the way. Among those she thanked are Gov. Mark Dayton (D-MN), former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), and disgraced former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), who resigned from his seat in early January after facing multiple sexual harassment allegations. “Against this backdrop, I’d like to relate some of what I learned over the last 12 years,” Swanson writes, taking a subtle jab at “political correctness.” “I learned from Sen. Al Franken. In 2012, I was being attacked by several former White House chiefs of staff for my lawsuit against the politically connected Accretive Health. Yet, Al Franken held a U.S. Senate hearing so that patients could testify about the atrocities committed by the company, which had embedded bill collectors in the emergency rooms of Minnesota hospitals,” Swanson recalls. The hearing “blunted the political mischief,” Swanson continues, thanking Franken “for showing others that you can succeed when standing up to powerful special interests.” In November, Swanson convened a task force to discuss potential changes to Minnesota law surrounding alcohol…

Read the full story

Rep. Steve Cohen: Republicans in Congress ‘Complicit with Trump and Everything He’s Done to Violate the Constitution’

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, went on CNN this week and attacked President Donald Trump as “out of control,” without providing evidence to support this assertion. As reported, Cohen is about to assume a senior position on the House Judiciary Committee once Democrats officially retake that branch of Congress. Cohen’s statements were so transparently anti-Trump that even CNN host Dana Bash had to ask if he was concerned — as a Democrat in a red state — about overreach. “I don’t think there will be overreach because I think this man has done more things that need oversight that have been neglected for the last two years,” Cohen said. Cohen went on to say Trump is “out of control” and there “are numerous areas” where Trump needs oversight. Cohen, however, failed to offer any specifics to back up what he said. Bash then asked Cohen how he plans to proceed once Robert Mueller releases his report on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cohen immediately drew a comparison between the Mueller investigation and Watergate, which brought down President Richard Nixon. “Like in Watergate it will be a roadmap in areas where we need to proceed,” Cohen said,…

Read the full story

Don’t Rely on Cell Phones When the Next Big Earthquake Pummels Tennessee

Chris Butler

Currently, there are no machines to tell us when the next big earthquake will rattle Tennessee. Also, in the immediate aftermath of such a quake we likely won’t have the capacity to make cell phone calls. All this, according to a Memphis geologist who studies earthquakes for a living. Emergency responders would have to rely on radio frequencies, including Ham radio, said Gary Patterson with the Memphis-based Center for Earthquake Research and Information. And it’s likely not because an earthquake will knock down a cell phone tower, he added. “Following any disaster, cell phones go down because they are overused, but we can still send texts,” Patterson told The Tennessee Star. Members of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and other law enforcement officials already coordinate with one another concerning how they’ll handle the immediate aftermath of a large earthquake, Patterson said. “In the worst-case scenario, there is the use of ham radio, which works no matter what the conditions on the ground are,” Patterson said. Members of CERI are working on new technology that will alert Tennesseans about a pending earthquake so they can shut down critical facilities in time, Patterson said. “This is already in process on the West…

Read the full story

Commentary: Question the Ruling Class and Embrace Common Sense Again

Admin

by Ned Ryun   At what point do the American people wake up and realize that many of their elected officials, both Democratic and Republican, aren’t actually serving their interests? It’s staggering to watch the debate over our immigration system and the building of a southern U.S. border wall play out. But it also highlights how deeply immoral many of our leaders are and the alternate reality of Washington, D.C. In the real world of common sense, any sovereign nation would, and should, assert its right to secure its borders. It would assert that it had the right to understand who wants into the country and to ask why those people are coming. It would then make a judgment as to whether it was in the nation’s best interests, economically or otherwise, to accept any of those seeking entrance, or whether it was, in fact, detrimental. Would the new immigrants make the country better? Would they strengthen the social fabric of the country or help to tear it apart? Ultimately, every decision regarding immigration would be made to further the interests of the actual and current citizens of that nation—the ones who fund every last penny of the government and…

Read the full story

Nancy Pelosi Announces Plans for a House ‘Climate Crisis’ Committee After Flying Thousands of Miles to a Hawaiian Resort

Admin

by Michael Bastasch   House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that Democrats would create a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis in 2019, which will be headed by Florida Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor. However, Pelosi’s announcement isn’t placating the progressive wing of her party, including New York Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, supporting “Green New Deal” legislation. “This committee, if it turns out that the rumors about it are true, sound about as useful as a screen door on a submarine,” Ocasio-Cortez spokesman Corbin Trent, told The Hill. “As it’s portrayed it’s going to be completely incapable of solving the greatest threat to human kind,” Trent said. Pelosi, who’s expected to be elected House speaker in 2019, said there’s “tremendous pressure” for Democrats to make fighting global warming a central part of their agenda in the new year. Pelosi made her announcement amid a government shutdown after she flew thousands of miles to a luxurious Hawaiian hotel where she was spotted Thursday, according to reports. The creation of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis is one way Pelosi plans on satisfying progressives without angering incoming committee chairs, like New Jersey Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone, who want to advance their…

Read the full story

The Booming Job Market Is Leading Teachers to Quit at Record Levels

Admin

by Tim Pearce   Public education employees such as teachers and janitors are quitting jobs in record numbers, an uncommon trend in a profession that often rewards longevity, The Wall Street Journal reported. Many industries in the past year have seen a historically high rate of workers quitting. A tight labor market and sluggish wage growth are making job transfers less risky and long-term unemployment less likely for most Americans. People working in the public education sector are still less likely to quit their jobs than the average worker across all industries. Roughly 0.8 percent of public educators quit in the first 10 months of 2018 versus a rate of 2.4 percent across the American workforce in 2018, WSJ reported Friday. The rate of people quitting public education positions has nearly doubled since 2009, however, when jobs in the steady field were prized in the unsteady labor market rocked by a recession. The current rate of quitting is also at its highest since the Department of Labor began tracking the stat in 2001. A December EdChoice survey indicated public educators may be growing more unsatisfied with their jobs and careers. “During the recession, education was a safe place to be,”…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Legal Gymnastics Behind Obamacare

Admin
Obamacare

by Gary Galles   On December 14, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled Obamacare unconstitutional because its individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance “can no longer be sustained as an exercise of Congress’s tax power,” since the tax that enforced it is now gone. Progressive leaning critics quickly called it bad jurisprudence and assured people that Obamacare remained constitutional. However, Judge O’Connor’s ruling just saw through the hocus pocus by which Obamacare was first found constitutional. Remember how the penalties for not having insurance under the ACA plan arose? It was repeatedly and emphatically asserted to not be a tax, but a regulation (so that its costs would not be counted in ACA’s fiscal scoring). But Chief Justice Roberts’ 5-4 majority decision found the ACA constitutional only because it really was a tax, which Congress has the power to impose, when a regulation mandating that Americans purchase health insurance would have been unconstitutional. Beyond that convenient but mutually inconsistent weasel-wording, two months ago, Democrats showed no concern about violating the Constitution when it suited their policy agenda. President Trump issued an executive order stopping ACA subsidy payments to 6 million people. 18 states quickly sued to reverse the…

Read the full story

New Mexico IT Professional Files a Class Action Lawsuit Against Public Sector Union After Allegedly Forcing Him to Pay Dues

Admin

by Tim Pearce   A New Mexico state employee filed a class action lawsuit against a branch of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) over “forced” nonmember union dues, according to the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW). IT technician David McCutcheon filed a lawsuit against CWA Local 7076 on Dec. 20. McCutcheon and the NRTW, which is representing McCutcheon, allege that the union violated federal law by restricting non-union members’ chance to opt out of paying “agency fees,” dues paid by non-members, according to NRTW. In its June 27 decision in the case Janus v. AFSCME, the Supreme Court banned government employers from requiring workers to pay union agency fees as a condition of employment. The decision impacted roughly 5 million government workers across 22 states. The case could potentially cost unions millions of dollars’ worth of revenue from nonunion members opting out of paying mandatory dues and union members taking advantage of their recently-secured right and quitting the union altogether. Following the Supreme Court decision, CWA gave nonunion members that paid agency fees and benefit from union representation a “window period” to opt out of paying the union. McCutcheon’s suit alleges that by limiting nonunion members’…

Read the full story

Transgender Inmate Transferred to Female Prison After Year-Long Court Battle

Admin

by Grace Carr   A biologically male transgender inmate was moved to an all-female prison in Illinois after a judge determined the inmate could be housed according to his gender identity. Authorities transferred Deon “Strawberry” Hampton, 27, from a male prison in Dixon to Logan Correctional Center women’s prison, ABC News reported Thursday. It costs nearly $26,500 annually to house an inmate at the Center, according to estimates from fiscal year 2016. The transfer marks the first instance that a transgender prisoner is housed in an Illinois prison according to gender identity rather than biological sex, according to Hampton’s lawyer, Vanessa del Valle, ABC reported. There were 28 biologically male transgender prisoners in Illinois’ 24 all-male prisons as of 2016, according to federal data, ABC reported. Following a near year-long court battle between Hampton and the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC), a federal judge determined that refusing to grant Hampton’s request to be transferred violated his equal protection rights, according to ABC. Hampton sued the IDOC in July after it refused to transfer him to an all-female prison. Hampton claims he felt like a “sex slave” during his time at the Dixon prison, The Chicago Tribune reported. Hampton is serving…

Read the full story

Once a Stable and High-Paying Career, Workers at Nuclear Plants Now Fear for Their Jobs

Admin

by Jason Hopkins   Nuclear plant engineers are highly trained professionals with high-paying salaries, but the beleaguered nuclear industry is putting their jobs at risk all across the country. The country’s nuclear fleet is suffering under a grim market. Competing against cheap natural gas and subsidy-backed renewables, many nuclear facilities — weighed down by archaic regulations — have been rendered unprofitable. Six nuclear plants have closed since 2013. The future does not look much brighter, with nine other plants expected to shut down by 2025. “The thought of it really stresses me out,” Christine DeSantis said to The Wall Street Journal in a report published Friday. “Who knows what’s going to happen to nuclear power in the next couple of years.” DeSantis is a mechanical engineer working at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station located in southern Pennsylvania. A nuclear mechanical engineer’s average salary is over $85,000, according to PayScale, with the top 90 percent of earners raking in over $130,000. The plant — which has been in operation since the 1970s — is slated to close in 2019, taking with it hundreds of well-paying jobs and $1 million in annual taxes. “The value of these jobs is that…

Read the full story

Haslam Family Buys Columbus Soccer Club to Keep Them in Ohio

Andrew Shirley

Friday, Ohio soccer fans were relieved to hear that the Columbus Crew Soccer Club would remain in Ohio following the decision to transfer ownership to the Haslam and Edwards families. This decision comes after a year of uncertainty, fan outrage, and statewide protests. On October 17, 2017,  Precourt Sports Ventures, a group that has owned the Columbus Soccer Club since 2013, announced they were considering “remaining in Columbus at a new stadium or potentially relocating the Club to the city of Austin, Texas.” Major League Soccer (MLS) Commissioner Don Garber supported the decision, noting that “the Club’s stadium is no longer competitive with other venues across MLS.” This announcement left many Columbus Crew fans stunned and infuriated. Many felt Precourt was attempting to extort a free, or heavily subsidized, stadium from the city with the threat of relocation. The hashtag “#SaveTheCrew” quickly went viral on social media platforms. Multiple public protests were held throughout Ohio. The backlash from fans was so extensive that Precourt Sports Ventures CEO Anthony Precourt made a public apology via Twitter: I really do feel for you Crew fans. Its an uncertain time I recognize, and I take full responsibility for the situation I have put us in.…

Read the full story

Ellison Names Outspoken Anti-Trump Immigration Lawyer As Second in Command

Anthony Gockowski

Attorney General-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN) announced Friday that he has named John Keller to serve as his chief deputy attorney general. Keller currently oversees the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, a vehemently anti-Trump non-profit that provides legal services to illegal aliens and refugees. According to a press release from Ellison’s transition team, Keller began working at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) in 1998 as a staff attorney, and has served as its executive director since 2005. “In that time, he has transformed ILCM from a small, regional legal-services organization with five staff to Minnesota’s leading provider of free, high-quality, and comprehensive legal, policy, and education services with five offices statewide, 32 employees—a majority of whom are from immigrant, refugee, or mixed-family backgrounds—more than 350 trained pro bono attorneys, and a statewide and national reputation,” the press release explains. Keller and the ILCM have become outspoken critics of the Trump administration and its immigration polices, and have repeatedly taken actions to thwart Trump’s agenda in Minnesota. Last December, for instance, Keller helped secure $250,000 in taxpayer funds from Hennepin County to launch a legal defense fund for county residents facing deportation. The fund was criticized by Republican gubernatorial candidate…

Read the full story

Court Panel Eliminates Tennessee Limit on Punitive Damages

Jason M. Reynolds

A Tennessee statute capping punitive damages is unconstitutional, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit has ruled. The Sixth Circuit panel ruled 2-1 on Dec. 21 that state case law shows an award of punitive damages is a “finding of fact” that is allowed by jurors, Courthouse News Service reported. The case involved a dispute between Tamarin Lindenberg, individually and as guardian for her minor children, and Jackson National Life Insurance Co., which had a $350,000 life insurance policy on Lindenberg’s ex-husband. The panel’s ruling is available here. The panel cited the Tennessee Constitution of 1796 and its relation to the constitution and common laws of North Carolina when Tennessee adopted the document. The panel found that a right to jury trials and punitive damages existed at the time. The panel’s ruling states: Defendant Jackson National Life Insurance Company (“Defendant”) appeals from the district court’s judgment enforcing a jury trial verdict of $350,000 in actual damages, $87,500 in bad faith damages, and $3,000,000 in punitive damages in favor of Plaintiff Tamarin Lindenberg (“Plaintiff”), individually and in her capacity as natural guardian of her minor children, ZTL and SML. Plaintiff cross-appeals, challenging a statutory cap that the district…

Read the full story

Knox County Reportedly Sues Itself, Loses $1 Million in Taxpayer Money

Chris Butler

Knox County has sued itself and spent nearly $1 million on legal fees, according to KnoxNews.com. The attorneys who did legal work on the case, as the website went on to say, are coming out of this quite well. This, of course, is all taxpayer money. According to Knox News, the suit pitted the Knox County Law Department against the county’s pension board and a few Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputies approved to receive benefits under the county retirement plan. “The Law Department sought to reverse a longstanding pension board process and require the board to calculate pensions on base salary and not total compensation (such as vacation pay) in accordance with changes to the county charter,” the website reported. “That ultimately translated to reduced pension benefits.” Authorities ruled the Knox County Law director couldn’t press on with the lawsuit. But, as the website went on to say, “the bills are still racking up.” County officials have announced they’ll pay $97,500 to settle attorney fees for the deputies the county sued, according to KnoxNews.com. “Attorneys Herb Moncier and Al Holifield originally asked for $190,000, but the county litigated down the amount,” the website reported. “In all, the county has legal fees…

Read the full story

Dr. Carol M. Swain Commentary: Congress’s Role in Creating America’s Healthcare Crisis

Admin

by Dr. Carol M. Swain   In 2017, President-elect Donald Trump sent pharmaceutical stocks into a nosedive by speaking an important truth. Drug companies, he said, are “getting away with murder” with their pricing of lifesaving drugs. True to his word, the president, since his election, has pushed for needed reforms  aimed at lowering the costs of prescription drugs. On this matter, the president and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) agree: Americans are paying too much for drugs, medical supplies, and equipment. The president and Sanders would like to see U.S. prices aligned with other nations’ lower prices. I recently attended a meeting in Washington of health care professionals, where the attendees were mostly physicians and other citizens, including pastors and health care workers, concerned about the high cost of drugs and the effect that drug shortages have on their patients and congregants. The meeting was racially and politically diverse. Of great concern was the life-threatening situations people are placed in when making decisions about whether to purchase their medicine or pay the rent or house note. As informed as I am on many issues, this was an area of ignorance for me. I had never heard of legalized drug kickbacks and relationships between hospitals, facilities,…

Read the full story

The Most People in Nearly 20 Years Quit Their Jobs for Better Ones in 2018

Admin

by Tim Pearce   Roughly 2.4 percent of the Americans in the workforce quit their jobs in the past year, the fastest rate since 2001, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS’s most recent version of the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) found that an average of 3.5 million Americans quit their jobs every month in 2018. The data suggest that more people are leaving jobs to search for or take opportunities elsewhere for better pay or more prestigious positions. “For any type of employment search, you won’t find a better time than right now,” Thomas Moran, CEO of the staffing agency Addison Group, told CNBC Make It. Unemployment has remained at historically low levels since September, the sign of a tight labor market that should drive wages and benefits up as employers compete to attract and retain workers. “For many, [quitting] is a smart move, as there’s a clear advantage to increasing your earning potential by switching jobs,” Glassdoor chief economist Andrew Chamberlain told CNBC. So far, wage growth has remained below economists’ expectations, though wages have picked up in the past year. Wages hit 3.1 percent annual growth in November, the first time…

Read the full story

Democrats Already Sending Out Job Postings Seeking Lawyers to Investigate Trump

Admin

by Nick Givas   House Democrats have already released job postings seeking lawyers and legal staff to help aid their upcoming investigations of President Donald Trump. Democrats want legislative counsel with experience in: “criminal law, immigration law, constitutional law, intellectual property law, commercial and administrative law (including antitrust and bankruptcy), or oversight work,” according to CNN. “They’re finding us,” Democratic Rep. Adam Smith told CNN Friday. “There are a lot of Democratic refugees out there after the Republicans took over the House, the Senate and the White House.” Democrats are set to take control of the House on Jan. 3. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is also seeking lawyers for “executive branch investigative counsel.” Congressional Democrats have said they will target Trump’s tax returns, his businesses, financial dealings, as well as former and current cabinet members who served under him. One Democratic House committee posted an ad on a job board on Capitol Hill immediately following November’s midterm election. The job posting did not name a specific committee, but said it will look to “conduct congressional investigations and advise on policy matters related to oversight of the executive branch,” CNN reported. Responsibilities for the new hires would include working on subpoenas, interviews,…

Read the full story

Commentary: Cure for GOP Shutdown Fears is Forceful Messaging on the Wall, Not Surrendering

Admin

by Peter Parisi   Supporters of border security can only hope that, over the Christmas recess, Santa gifted congressional Republicans with a crash course in effective messaging on the need for funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall. They will need it when Congress reconvenes Thursday amid the partial government shutdown caused by Democratic intransigence over funding the border barrier. The crash course should be taught by psychologists who would start by counseling weak-kneed GOP lawmakers that the best way to overcome a phobia—in this case, “shutdown-ophobia”—is to confront the fear head-on, rather than running away from it. The tutorial in messaging is needed because, until Trump forced their hand, GOP leaders in Congress were poised to throw away the only leverage they have to secure funding for the wall, by agreeing to another continuing budget resolution with almost no money for the wall. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] That capitulation would have only ensured the wall would never get funded, much less built, with Democrats—who are indefensibly opposed to border security, their protestations to the contrary notwithstanding—set to retake…

Read the full story

Dr. Carol M. Swan Commentary: Congress’s Role in Creating America’s Healthcare Crisis

Admin

by Dr. Carol M. Swain   In 2017, President-elect Donald Trump sent pharmaceutical stocks into a nosedive by speaking an important truth. Drug companies, he said, are “getting away with murder” with their pricing of lifesaving drugs. True to his word, the president, since his election, has pushed for needed reforms  aimed at lowering the costs of prescription drugs. On this matter, the president and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) agree: Americans are paying too much for drugs, medical supplies, and equipment. The president and Sanders would like to see U.S. prices aligned with other nations’ lower prices. I recently attended a meeting in Washington of health care professionals, where the attendees were mostly physicians and other citizens, including pastors and health care workers, concerned about the high cost of drugs and the effect that drug shortages have on their patients and congregants. The meeting was racially and politically diverse. Of great concern was the life-threatening situations people are placed in when making decisions about whether to purchase their medicine or pay the rent or house note. As informed as I am on many issues, this was an area of ignorance for me. I had never heard of legalized drug kickbacks and relationships between hospitals, facilities,…

Read the full story

Police Officer Deaths on Duty Increased in 2018, Report Finds

Admin

by Neetu Chandak   A preliminary report released Thursday found U.S. police officer deaths on duty increased by 12 percent in 2018 from 2017. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a non-profit dedicated to making police officers’ work safer, found 144 police officers died between Jan. 1 and Dec. 27. Nearly 129 police officers died in the same time frame in 2017. The leading cause of death was gun-related followed by traffic-related incidents. Other forms of death included being struck by a train, having a heart attack and drowning. “The rising number of law enforcement officer deaths in 2018 is disappointing news after a decline in 2017,” the fund’s CEO Craig W. Floyd said in a press statement. “Sadly this reminds us that public safety is a dangerous job and can come at a very steep price.” Texas, Florida, California, and New York had the highest number of officer deaths with 11 each, according to the data. The District of Columbia along with 14 states did not have any police officer fatalities. The number of deaths could change as the numbers are not final, according to the fund. The report comes as an illegal immigrant allegedly shot and killed…

Read the full story

Report Details Nature of Facebook’s Secret Rulebook Governing Global Speech

Admin

by Chris White   Facebook’s secretive rulebook regulating how employees censor certain forms of expression contains numerous biases and outright errors, according to internal documents The New York Times obtained Friday. The nearly 1,400-page document shows the Silicon Valley company’s guidebook is riddled with mistakes and is not nimble enough to handle cultural nuance, the report notes. The guidelines censor mainstream speech in one country while allowing extremist language to fester in others. Several dozen Facebook employees gather every other Tuesday to brainstorm rules that flesh out what people can and cannot say while navigating the platform, according to TheNYT. The guidelines that are agreed upon are then sent out to 7,500-plus moderators around the world. The Facebook employees, many of whom are young, attempt to distill complex issues into concrete yes-or-no categories. Much of the post-by-post moderation is outsourced to companies that enlist unskilled workers, the report states, citing documents from an employee who worried the rule book is too intrusive. Moderators often use Google Translator for the mind-numbing work. They must recall countless rules and apply them to the hundreds of posts a day, with the cultural context largely stripped. They suss through emojis, smiley faces and sometimes innocuous…

Read the full story

Missouri Federal Grand Jury Indicts 14 in Home Health Care Scam

Anna Marie Bolton

A fraud scheme perpetrated on taxpayer-funded Medicare and Medicaid began to unravel with an anonymous tip alerting officials “that some Iraqis were fraudulently receiving home care services,” says a St. Louis Post-Dispatch report from earlier this month. Investigators examined billing records from several home health care companies that provide services to the elderly or infirmed. They then compared those to travel records for both the caregiver and the recipient of the care, finding that one or the other was out of the country at the time the care was allegedly provided. Two weeks ago, a federal grand jury indicted 14 involved in the $1.3 million fraud, reports the Post-Dispatch. The story was later picked up by a newsletter for the home health care industry. The 14 charged included employees of the agencies as well as clients, and they are: Kian Abdollah, 52 Mohammed Abdollah, 78 Dalia Ahmed, 27 Dena Ahmed, 30 Fatemeh Akbari, 73 Hala Alalewi, 38 Haider Albab, 75 Nouria Habeb, 67 Pegdah Heidari, 27 Tony Iyar, 57 Ghufran Abdallah Jaber, 51 Huda Mohammedjamil, 53 Hend Msallati, 33 Asal Yousif, 53 An investigation launched into one of the clients earlier this year began to shed light on the fraudulent activity. According…

Read the full story

Second Amendment Groups Vow to Fight Minnesota DFL’s Gun Control Efforts

Anthony Gockowski

The only thing barring Democrats from total control of Minnesota’s government is a one-seat Republican majority in the Senate, but that might not be enough to block gun-control efforts during the upcoming session. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R-Nisswa) recently indicated that he has “some openness” on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party’s gun-control proposals, but insisted that he’s a “strong supporter of Second Amendment rights.” https://twitter.com/paulgazelka/status/1075130258813280258 But his December 18 tweet sparked some optimism among DFL legislators, who now believe they “have a pretty good chance this year of convincing suburban legislators who might have been reluctant in the past to vote for these bills,” Sen. Ron Latz (D-St. Louis Park) told KSTP. Latz said the DFL is looking at two specific gun-control policies, namely universal background checks in the state as well as a “red flag” law, which allows the state to temporarily seize guns from people who are deemed a danger to themselves or others. As Battleground State News reported Thursday, House Speaker-designate Melissa Hortman (D-Brooklyn Park) said a “gun violence prevention measure” can be expected in a package of bills introduced in January. Rob Doar, vice president and political director of Minnesota’s Gun Owners Caucus, noted that there…

Read the full story

Trump Threatens to ‘Entirely’ Close US-Mexico Border Unless Wall Funding is Secured

Admin

President Donald Trump on Friday once again threatened to close the entire U.S.-Mexico border and cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador if Congress fails to give him money to fund the border wall. In a series of tweets, Trump also asked to change the “ridiculous immigration laws that our country is saddled with.” The comments come as the U.S. government enters the seventh day of a partial shutdown as a budget standoff remains between Trump, who wants $5 billion in wall funding, and Democratic lawmakers, who back a modest increase in overall border security funding but resolutely oppose a wall. Closing the U.S.-Mexican border would mean disrupting a $1.68 billion-a-day trade relationship between the two countries, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Immigrant advocates have called the move to seal the border “disgraceful.” Trump has declined to comment on whether he might accept less than $5 billion for wall funding. When asked Wednesday how long he thinks the shutdown will last, Trump told reporters, “Whatever it takes.” Democrats have blamed Trump for “plunging the country into chaos” adding that, weeks ago, Trump said he would be “proud” to “own” a shutdown over border wall funding.…

Read the full story

Commentary: Can Ohio’s Sherrod Brown Return the Dems to Blue-Collar Roots?

Admin

by Henry Olsen   Senator Sherrod Brown is one of many Democrats considering a run for the White House. His name likely does not ring a bell, as he has not garnered the national attention that other potential rivals have. Many observers think he could be a formidable opponent for President Trump should he gain the Democratic nomination. The evidence, however, suggests that might be easier said than done. The case for Brown starts—and often stops—with his long courting of Ohio’s working-class voters, usually with favorable results. He has doggedly opposed free trade deals throughout his Senate career, even leading the effort to defeat the Central American Free Trade Association (CAFTA) during the Bush Administration. A consistent ally of Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Senate, Brown’s economic populism nevertheless stems from a labor union rather than a doctrinaire social democratic outlook. That viewpoint, the argument goes, makes him a solid choice to battle Trump for the loyalties of the white working-class voter whose defection from the Democrats made Trump president. That argument overlooks, however, Brown’s distinctly non-working-class views on nearly every other issue. Brown has one of the most progressive records in the Senate on a raft of issues, not…

Read the full story

Potential Massive Earthquake Likely to Affect Nashville Differently Than Rest of State

Chris Butler

If a large earthquake were to rattle Tennessee then Nashville and the rest of Middle Tennessee likely would not feel the same damage as other parts of the state, according to a Memphis geologist. The effects of such an earthquake on Tennessee’s bridges, including one on I-40 that goes over the Tennessee River west of Nashville, is unclear, said Gary Patterson of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information. “We don’t have a record of a large damaging earthquake in east or Middle Tennessee, but we do in Northwest Tennessee,” Patterson told The Tennessee Star. A large earthquake that originated in Caruthersville, Mo. in 1895 disrupted Nashville, to an extent, by damaging chimneys and cracking walls, Patterson said. “That is the only record I’ve seen of quake damage in Nashville, although the larger earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 certainly affected the city,” Patterson said. Tennessee lies along two fault lines — — the New Madrid Fault Line in West Tennessee and the East Tennessee fault line. As The Star reported, a series of high-magnitude quakes that originated in the central part of the United States wrecked Memphis in 1811 and 1812. Those quakes started along the New Madrid Fault line in Missouri. Their reverberations…

Read the full story

State Sen. Ken Yager Pledges Opposition to School Vouchers

Jason M. Reynolds

State Senator Ken Yager (R-TN-12) said he will not support school vouchers if they come up for a vote in the Tennessee Legislature in 2019, the Independent Herald of Oneida said. “I am opposed to vouchers,” Yager said. “I will not support any proposal that will cause a hemorrhage of needed funds to our schools.” “One of the arguments on behalf of vouchers is freedom of choice,” Yager said. “I happen to believe we already have that choice. It’s called parental choice. You can send your kids to charter school if you want to, or to a private school, or you can home-school them or send them to a public school. The choice is already there. Gov.-elect Bill Lee campaigned on school choice. Yager’s statement would appear to go against what Lee has said is a priority, but will Lee follow through on his campaign promise? On the Dec. 11 Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. – the men analyzed Lee’s cabinet picks and the absence of any conservatives. They also discussed whether Lee would honor his “school choice” campaign pledge.…

Read the full story

OFF THE RECORD: Governor-Elect Lee Finally Finds a Dependable Conservative in Courtney Rogers

Admin

Despite campaigning as a staunch conservative, Governor-elect Bill Lee has assembled a senior leadership team and Cabinet composed almost entirely of Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and Haslam Administration holdovers over the nearly two months since election day. Nevertheless, his announcement of former State Rep. Courtney Rogers (R-Hendersonville) as his Commissioner of Veterans Affairs is a clear signal that he CAN find a conservative leader to serve on his team when he chooses to do so. Supported by Tea Party and Second Amendment activists, Rogers won an underdog primary race against Rep. Debra Maggart in 2012. At the time, Maggart was a part of the House Republican Leadership team as Caucus Chair. Rogers crafted a solidly conservative record in the House and remains a favorite of conservative activists across the state. While Rogers’ appointment will be cheered by conservative grassroots activists, it is a position with limited policy significance despite the strong credentials that she will bring to the job. The State Department of Veterans Affairs largely serves as a pass through for federal dollars to federally authorized programs and services. Many Cabinet appointments remain that carry much more weight — including Transportation, Education, Economic Development, and General Services. Should Lee continue…

Read the full story

Trump’s Cash Advantage for 2020 Has Democrats Worried

Admin

by Jason Hopkins   President Donald Trump’s huge cash reserves for the 2020 election has the Democratic Party concerned, with its leader asking supporters for donations to catch up. The Federal Election Commission revealed in October that Trump has over $100 million in cash on hand for the 2020 presidential race. Trump — who prepared for 2020 almost immediately after the last presidential election — raised more than $18 million in the last quarter via his campaigning committee and through fundraising ventures with the Republican National Committee. The Republican president’s huge war chest is prompting Democrats to solicit for more donations. “Now, we face our greatest challenge yet: Taking back the White,” Democratic Party Chairman Tom Perez wrote in a fundraising email to supporters. “Donald Trump already has years of campaigning under his belt and $100 million in the bank. It’s our job to build a strong, strategic party infrastructure that will give our Democratic nominee the best shot at taking him on and winning back the White House.” The advantage of incumbency goes a long way in U.S. politics. The last president to lose re-election was George H. W. Bush in 1992. As the Democratic Party waits for whomever…

Read the full story

Senators Give Up On Effort to Rename Senate Office Building in Honor of John McCain

Admin

by Molly Prince   The effort to rename a Senate office building after the late Republican Sen. John McCain has seemingly gone to the wayside as months pass without any further action. Following McCain’s death in August, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged to introduce a resolution that would change the name of the Russell Senate Office Building as a tribute to the Arizona senator. “As you go through life, you meet few truly great people. John McCain was one of them,” Schumer tweeted the day of McCain’s passing. ‘His dedication to his country and the military were unsurpassed, and maybe most of all, he was a truth teller — never afraid to speak truth to power in an era where that has become all too rare.’ ‘The Senate, the United States, and the world are lesser places without John McCain,” he continued. “Nothing will overcome the loss of Senator McCain, but so that generations remember him I will be introducing a resolution to rename the Russell building after him.” Schumer, however, never introduced the aforementioned resolution and his office did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation when asked if he was still planning on doing so. The…

Read the full story

Commentary: Sweet Shutdown, Roll On

Admin

by Michael Walsh   It never seems to occur to the Democrats, currently bellyaching about the largely phantom “government shutdown,” that the last people Donald Trump cares about offending are the army of Democrat-voting bureaucrats who will be the only folks inconvenienced by Senator Charles Schumer’s latest temper tantrum. As far as the rest of America is concerned, the shutdown of “nonessential” government services can bloody well continue indefinitely, as the president has promised, in order to get funding for his wall along the Mexican border. It’s the best Christmas present ever. The furloughed federal employees in question are the Beltway parasites who feed off the taxpayers in real America, and provide next to nothing in exchange for their three square meals a day and fancy digs in what has become, for all practical purposes, a one-party deep state that now consists of eastern Maryland, the District of Columbia, and northern Virginia—and thus the rest of America. Bureaucrats are happy to munch on the hands that feed them, with slovenly, indifferent “service” in useless, invented sinecures, but would never think of barking at the guys who actually throw them the bones, and thus keep them ensconced in petty power over…

Read the full story

The 2018 Partial Government Shutdown, Detailed

Admin

by Joe Carter   On Friday the federal government entered a partial shutdown after the Senate failed to pass a spending bill that includes border wall funding. President Trump refuses to sign any additional funding that does not include $5.1 billion in additional money to pay for an extension of the border wall, allowing him to fulfill his primary campaign promise. What is a partial government shutdown? A government shutdown occurs either when Congress fails to pass funding bills or when the president refuses to sign a funding bill before the current appropriations expire. A partial government shutdown occurs when many or most government agencies have already been funded by other legislation but there remains some areas that still need funding. What parts of the federal government are affected by the shutdown? Several government agencies were already funded for fiscal year 2019. But another funding bill was needed to cover several agencies for about seven weeks. Nine out of 15 federal departments, dozens of agencies, and several programs will be closed or reduce operations: – Department of Commerce – Department of Homeland Security – Department of Housing and Urban Development – Department of Interior – Department of Justice – Department…

Read the full story

Trump Administration Urges Supreme Court To Protect Cross-Shaped War Memorial

Admin

by Kevin Daley   The Trump administration filed an amicus (or “friend of the court”) brief Wednesday urging the Supreme Court to protect a 93-year-old war memorial in Bladensburg, Maryland, that is shaped like a Latin cross. The court will soon decide whether the cross-shaped World War I memorial violates the First Amendment’s ban on religious favoritism. The justices agreed to take the case on Nov. 3. [ Read the Trump administration’s brief to the Supreme Court ] The Trump administration’s brief emphasizes the need for the high court to clarify its jurisprudence concerning religious displays in the public square. Since 2005 the justices applied two different tests for assessing the constitutionality of sectarian symbols in public settings. Confusion has followed in lower federal courts as to which test should govern the so-called public display cases. That uncertainty, the government says, “encourages challenges to longstanding displays like the Memorial Cross, which in turn fosters the very religion-based divisiveness that the establishment clause seeks to avoid.” “Cases like these cannot help but divide those with sincerely held beliefs on both sides,” the brief reads. “This case presents an opportunity for the Court to adopt a standard for establishment clause challenges to…

Read the full story

Commentary: Democrats Plan to Bully Out Administration

Admin

by Natalia Castro   Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is the just the most recent on a long list of Trump Administration officials who have been pushed out of his confirmed position because of constant bullying from the left. It is clear their goal is to obstruct any progress the Trump Administration makes by launching investigation after investigation into every Trump appointee. The relentless left has made it impossible to be a Trump Administration official unless one has millions of dollars to combat legal investigations. Zinke explained in his resignation statement, “I love working for the President and am incredibly proud of all the good work we’ve accomplished together. However, after 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations. It is better for the President and Interior to focus on accomplishments rather than fictitious allegations.” Zinke was recently subject to a Department of Justice probe examining a land deal made with an oil services giant in his hometown which some viewed as a conflict of interest. Zinke has also been accused of misusing taxpayer funds for travel expenditures. Zinke has called these attacks “vicious and politically motivated”…

Read the full story

Rep. Mark Meadows Says Trump Will Not Budge on Requested Amount for Wall Funding

Admin

by Henry Rodgers   Republican North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows said President Donald Trump will not budge on the $5 billion requested for a border wall Wednesday, as the government enters its sixth day of a partial shutdown. Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said he does not believe Trump will agree to the Democrats’ counteroffer of $1.3 billion that could be used for the border wall, saying he does not think the amount is “reasonable.” The government will remain shut down until a compromise can be worked out among the two parties. “I can tell you, if they believe this President is going to yield on this particular issue, they’re misreading him, misreading the American people,” Meadows told CNN on “Inside Politics.” “I see no evidence that would suggest he would come even close to 1.3” billion dollars in border wall funding. This comes as Meadows pushed strongly against a short-term funding bill that would have funded the government until Feb. 8, saying the wall is necessary and that “the time to act is now.” “The time to stand up for the American people and fight for wall funding is now. If the president vetoes a [continuing resolution (CR)] without wall funding,…

Read the full story

White House Mulls New Year Executive Order to Bar Huawei, ZTE Purchases

Admin

President Donald Trump is considering an executive order in the new year to declare a national emergency that would bar U.S. companies from using telecommunications equipment made by China’s Huawei and ZTE, three sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. It would be the latest step by the Trump administration to cut Huawei Technologies Cos Ltd and ZTE Corp, two of China’s biggest network equipment companies, out of the U.S. market. The United States says the companies work at the behest of the Chinese government and that their equipment could be used to spy on Americans. Huawei and ZTE did not return requests for comment. Both in the past have denied that their products are used to spy. Rural operators in the United States are among the biggest customers of Huawei and ZTE, and worry that they may also have to rip out existing Chinese-made equipment without compensation. Industry officials are divided on whether the administration could legally compel operators to do that. The executive order, which has been under consideration for more than eight months, could be issued as early as January and would direct the Commerce Department to block U.S. companies from buying equipment from foreign telecommunications makers…

Read the full story

Liberal Billionaire Apologizes For Funding Russian Bot ‘False Flag,’ But Questions Remain Unanswered

Admin
Tennessee Star

by Chris White   Billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized Wednesday for funding an effort to dupe Alabama voters into believing Russian bots were fueling Republican Roy Moore’s failed senatorial bid. But he left crucial questions unanswered. His statement left several important facts about the so-called experiment unaddressed, including a detailed accounting of everyone involved in the caper, as well who crafted and executed the campaign. The effort was the subject of a closed-door presentation in Washington, D.C., to a group of liberal technology experts, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources. “I find the tactics that have been recently reported highly disturbing,” Hoffman said in his statement. “For that reason, I am embarrassed by my failure to track AET — the organization I did support — more diligently as it made its own decisions to perhaps fund projects that I would reject.” The Hoffman-financed group allegedly used Facebook and Twitter to undermine support for Moore and boost Democrat Doug Jones, who narrowly won the race. Hoffman referred to a group he funded, American Engagement Technologies (AET), as being involved in the effort. He poured $750,000 into the organization, much of it going to the project, the report notes. Democratic operatives associated with the…

Read the full story

Commentary: Compromise Doesn’t Work in the World of Cutthroat Politics

Admin

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   It doesn’t take a genius to declare American politics is broken. On one side you’ve got Republicans who are supposed to believe in limited government and individual liberty; on the other are Democrats, a party increasingly defined not only as the home of big government welfare spending but now harboring a growing inclination towards absolute socialism. As recent history proves voters tend to sway back and forth between the two extremes, putting one party in control until they get sick of them and then replacing that party with the other and the pattern is repeated over and over and over. Is there such a thing as a middle ground? Mark Penn wrote at Fox News, “More than 70 percent of registered voters say they want members of Congress to compromise and get things done, rather than stick to their principles and create even more gridlock. ‘Compromise’ may be a dirty word to partisans, but it is a golden word with the voters today. Watching President Donald Trump demand a wall, and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say Trump will never, ever get it, is exactly what the voters don’t want. We elected them to…

Read the full story