Day: December 6, 2018

The Tennessee Star Report Talks to Brentwood Police Officer, Scott Willey About How to Stay Smart and Safe This Holiday Season

Julie Carr

On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the duo spoke with Brentwood Police Officer Scott Willey about how to be aware and protect yourself this holiday season and strategies on how to prevent an attack . Gill: I was talking with one of my friends in the Brentwood Police Department, Scott Willey the other day and he was talking about some of things that they’re seeing in law enforcement not just in Brentwood, Williamson County but across Middle Tennessee that kind of raised my eyebrows on wow, we need to let people know what to be aware of, particularly during this holiday season.  Your running around, it’s rushed, it’s chaos, it gets dark early.  So how do you protect your property when your heading to the mall or your heading to a shopping center somewhere.  We’re seeing an increase in violence and crime in Nashville and it’s bleeding into, no pun intended, suburban areas.  So I thought we’d get Scott on to give us just some tips, some advice on how to keep your “head on a…

Read the full story

Commentary: California’s Rigged Election Process Is Coming To America

Admin

by Edward Ring   The conventional wisdom among experts who monitor elections in America is unvarying: Voter fraud is statistically insignificant. These sanguine claims are made despite the fact that internal controls are often so poor, or even nonexistent on election integrity, that it is nearly impossible to know if voter fraud has even occurred. In every critical area—voter identification, voter registration, duplicate voting, absentee ballots, ineligible voting, ballot custody, ballot destruction, counterfeit ballots, voting machine tampering—gaping holes exist that invite systemic fraud. But so what? How relevant is voter fraud, if the entire system is already rigged to favor one party over the other? Come to California to see what’s going to roll out across America in time to guarantee a progressive landslide in 2020. It may be perfectly legal. But it’s so rigged it would make Boss Tweed blush. When planning for the November 2018 election, California’s Democrats didn’t just aim to pad their supermajority in the State Legislature. They weren’t going to be satisfied with a sweep of every elected state position, including governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, controller, treasurer, insurance commissioner, and superintendent of public instruction. They knew they could do that, but…

Read the full story

Tennessee Auditors Call Out Humphreys County Law Enforcement for Abusing Drug Money

Chris Butler

Humphreys County Sheriff’s officers took more than $16,000 in money from their Drug Control Fund and used it to pay for things they weren’t legally allowed to, according to an audit released Tuesday. This, of course, is money law enforcement officers confiscate from alleged drug crimes. Members of the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office released the audit. The audit covered July 2016 through June of this year. Sheriff’s officers spent $1,911 of that money on travel, $1,620 on sponsorships, $5,486 on repairs, $4,148 on transportation costs, and $3,031 on other materials and supplies, Comptrollers wrote. According to state law, Drug Control Fund money can only go to local drug enforcement or education programs or nonrecurring general law enforcement expenditures. County Sheriff Chris Davis did not return repeated requests for comment Tuesday. County Executive Jessie R. Wallace told The Tennessee Star that county officials will work to make sure this never happens again. “This happened through a lack of understanding and some inadequacy and interpretation of the drug fund rules,” Wallace said. “It was nothing overt. It was just a case where expenditures seemed to fit the criteria.” Wallace said he would not respond to complaints certain people around Tennessee make about law…

Read the full story

Dr. Carol M. Swain Commentary: How Euphemisms and Language Restrictions Shroud America’s Immigration Debate

Admin

by Dr. Carol M. Swain   Immigration reform requires a political and social environment where well-meaning individuals can speak honestly about the nature of the problem and its implications for American society. Unfortunately, that is not our world right now. Consequently, we are no closer to solving what has become a perennial problem. America has not had a major immigration reform bill since 1986, when Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act. It granted amnesty to an estimated 3 million people residing illegally in America. Estimates today range from 11-22 million illegals, with the latter number provided by a 2018 Yale University mathematical modeling study. Euphemisms are being used to deceive, obscure, and control America’s immigration debate. The Oxford Dictionary defines a euphemism as “a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.” Tremendous advantages are afforded the side most skilled using language and the one with the larger platform for messaging. The framing of the issue to affect public perception and response is central to the successful use of euphemisms in affecting public opinion. The Metaphor Project shows that the Left is very…

Read the full story

Biden Says He’s The Most Qualified To Be President

Admin

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday night whether he makes a White House run in 2020 will depend on whether he and his family are “ready,” though he stressed his credentials. “I think I’m the most qualified person in the country to be president,” Biden told an audience in Missoula, Montana, on a stop to promote his book “Promise Me, Dad.” “The issues that we face as a country today are the issues that I’ve worked on my whole life — the plight of the middle class and foreign policy. But my family and I need to decide as a unit whether we’re ready — we do everything as a family.” Biden, the vice president to two-term Democratic president Barack Obama, said he would make a decision about the 2020 campaign the next six weeks to two months. “I have two young grandchildren my son left who love me and adore me and want me around,” the former vice president said. “I want to be there to take care of them, so we’ve got to figure out whether or not this is something we can all do as a family.” Biden has said the passing of of his eldest…

Read the full story

UN Seeks $738 Million To Help Venezuela’s Neighbors Handle Migrant Flood

Admin

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was seeking $738 million in 2019 to help neighboring countries cope with the inflow of millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, who have “no prospect for return in the short to medium term”. It was the first time that the crisis was included in the U.N. annual global humanitarian appeal which is $21.9 billion for 2019 without Syria. Three million Venezuelans have fled the political and economic crisis in the Andean country, most since 2015, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. “There is one crisis for which we for the first time have a response plan, which is to help the countries neighboring Venezuela deal with the consequences of large numbers of Venezuelans leaving the country,” U.N. emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock told a Geneva news briefing. In Caracas, Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The majority of Venezuelans who have left have gone to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, led by Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. “In 2019, an estimated 3.6 million people will be in need of assistance and protection, with no prospects for return in the short to medium term,” the…

Read the full story

Audit: Johnson County School Officials Used Resources for Personal Gain

Chris Butler

Johnson County School System employees used taxpayer-funded resources no one else had to benefit themselves, according to an audit the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office released Wednesday. “Management allowed employees at the school department’s transportation garage to use the facility to work on their personal vehicles and other vehicles for personal gain,” Comptrollers wrote in the audit. “Based on interviews with department employees, we determined that the employees performed maintenance on their vehicles after normal working hours with parts and supplies purportedly purchased with their personal funds. In addition, school department employees informed us that management allowed them to use school department vehicles, machinery, and tools for personal use.” Former and current department employees, the audit went on to say, admitted to using department-owned lawnmowers and tools for personal use. “In one instance during normal working hours, a school transportation supervisor had a school department employee deliver a load of old shingles from the supervisor’s home to the county transfer station using a department-owned dump truck,” Comptrollers wrote. “The supervisor borrowed the department’s dump truck over the weekend for personal use while having his home roof repaired. The supervisor stated the employee needed the dump truck the following Monday morning to retrieve…

Read the full story

French President Macron Waves The White Flag On Carbon Taxes

Admin

by Michael Bastasch   French President Emmanuel Macron decided to scrap the planned carbon tax on fuels after weeks of protests rocked Paris and other major cities across the country. An Élysée Palace official told The Associated Press Wednesday that “the president decided to get rid of the tax.” Macron’s decision comes one day after the government announced plans to delay implementing the carbon taxes for six months. The fuel taxes were meant to go into effect in January as part of France’s plan to fight global warming. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told French lawmakers the carbon tax “is now abandoned.”  Phillippe said the government is “ready for dialogue” on what the next steps will be. [ RELATED: France May Be Ahead Of The Curve When It Comes To Global Warming Policy Backlash ] Thousands of protesters called “yellow vests” took to the streets to protest the carbon taxes, which would have added 33 cents to a gallon of diesel and 17 cents for a gallon of gasoline. Taxes already make up about 60 percent of the price of fuel in France. The average cost to fill a tank in France runs about $7 per gallon. The protests, the worst to hit Paris in 50 years, were also…

Read the full story

Ocasio-Cortez Sees Global Warming as Way to Push Social and Racial Agenda

Admin

by Michael Bastasch   Democratic Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said the “Green New Deal” plan she supports would be used to achieve liberal “economic, social and racial justice” goals along with fighting global warming. “We can use the transition to 100 percent energy as the vehicle to truly deliver and establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States of America,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a Tuesday panel discussion alongside Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and environmental activist Bill McKibben. The soon-to-be New York representative has spent her time in Washington, D.C. promoting a “Green New Deal” to transition the U.S. to 100 percent green energy. Ocasio-Cortez even joined protesters occupying House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office in support of the plan. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest person elected to Congress, is calling for a climate change revolution alongside potential 2020 presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders pic.twitter.com/0oxh0g0etl — The Guardian (@guardian) December 5, 2018 Pelosi wants to bring global warming to the forefront when Democrats take control of the House in 2018, but Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders and a handful of other Democrats want to go even further. While light on details, proponents said the “Green New Deal” could create millions of jobs in…

Read the full story

Immigrant Arrested for Murder Was Previously Deported at Least Eight Times

Admin

by Jason Hopkins   An illegal immigrant arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a co-worker in Oregon is discovered to have been deported at least eight times. Deciderio Vargas-Ortiz, 52, was arrested for the alleged murder of Renee Luis-Antonio. The two worked together at a creamery in Milton-Freewater, Oregon — a town in the northeastern part of the state — and reportedly had a long-running dispute. Investigators believe Luis-Antonio was shot on Nov. 26 while riding a tractor. Officer were able to locate and arrest Vargas-Ortiz a day after the alleged shooting. The suspect had fled to Washington state, where a SWAT team apprehended him in a local hotel. As it turns out, not only was Vargas-Ortiz residing it the U.S. illegally, but he had already been deported back to his home country of Mexico at least eight times, according to a statement from an immigration spokeswoman. The suspect had also been operating under an alias — his real name being Antonio Vasquez Vargas. “ICE lodged a detainer with the Benton County Jail on Antonio Vasquez Vargas, aka Deciderio Vargas Ortiz, a citizen of Mexico illegally present in the U.S., after he was arrested on local charges,” Tanya Roman, a public…

Read the full story

Bernie Sanders – Climate Hawk Spends Nearly $300K on Private Jet Travel in Month

Admin

by Peter Hasson   Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s re-election campaign spent just under $300,000 on private jet use in October, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show. The Sanders campaign, which is funded primarily by small-dollar donors, paid Apollo Jets $297,685.50 on Oct. 10, FEC records reveal. The payment was marked for “transportation.” “This expense was for transportation for the senator’s 9-day, 9-state tour to support Democratic candidates up and down the ballot ahead of Election Day,” campaign spokeswoman Arianna Jones told local website VtDigger.com, which first reported on the jet expenses. “This cost covered the entirety of the tour from Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, California, and back to Vermont,” Jones said. Sanders’s private jet use comes despite the senator’s hard-line stance on climate change, which he has consistently called “the single greatest threat facing our planet.” Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet. On Nov 6th, we must show up at the polls from coast to coast and stand with candidates who are willing and ready to accelerate our transition to clean energy, and finally put people before the profits of polluters. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) October 18, 2018 Because flying generates significantly more greenhouse gases than driving, climate hawks generally…

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Promises to Pay For Non-Tuition Expenses For Select Technical, Community College Students

Jason M. Reynolds

Nashville is launching a new scholarship to make higher education completely free for some students, Nashville Public Radio says. Nashville GRAD — or Getting Results by Advancing Degrees is one of the first local government efforts in the nation to target non-tuition expenses, and it will help students at two colleges in Nashville beginning fall 2019. Those colleges are Nashville State Community College (NSCC) and TCAT-Nashville, NewsChannel 5 said. The program will work with Tennessee Promise for graduating high school seniors and Tennessee Reconnect for adults, both of which waive tuition for community and technical schools, NPR said. A recent study by the Tennessee nonprofit Complete Tennessee found even though tuition is covered through these programs, many low-income students still struggle to complete their degrees because they can’t afford textbooks, transportation and certifications, says Indira Dammu, education policy advisor for Nashville Mayor David Briley. Reports conflict on when the program will begin. NewsChannel 5 said Fall 2019. The mayor’s office says Spring 2019. The program will be handled through a fund that will include an annual commitment from Metro Government and, at full implementation, will serve more than 3,000 students annually, NewsChannel 5 said. Briley committed to including up to $1…

Read the full story