Day: December 10, 2018

Number of People Applying for Nashville Police Reportedly Falls Dramatically

Chris Butler

In 2010 about 4,700 people applied to work as a police officer in Nashville. Seven years later the number of people who wanted to work as a cop in Music City dwindled to just 1,900 people. This, according to the website Oregon Live, which did a story about more and more people around the nation avoiding careers in law enforcement altogether. The findings don’t surprise Nashville Fraternal Order of Police President James Smallwood. Smallwood told The Tennessee Star Friday this is part of a nationwide trend — not just in Nashville. “Some people look at the law enforcement profession, and they ask themselves is it really worth the amount of money that these employers are really willing to pay and to put everything I have at risk and put my family at risk? Even if I have done my job correctly, they said, I am still at risk of being scrutinized or arrested or something to that extent,” Smallwood said. “They may decide the pay and benefits are no longer commensurate with that risk, and they find something else to do. Some of them are finding smaller departments or other departments that have benefits or pay that are better or…

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ID of Companies that Reportedly Want Memphis Corporate Welfare May Soon be Kept Secret

Chris Butler

Memphis taxpayers may soon know less about the companies that want corporate welfare in exchange for expanding or relocating their business to Memphis, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. This, the paper went on to say, depends on a pending opinion from the state attorney general and how he interprets Tennessee’s open records law, the paper went on to say. That pending opinion will weigh in on whether Memphis officials can keep hidden three pieces of information from the public — the name of the company applying for an incentive, its parent company, and its address. EDGE board members, of course, will know who the company is, the paper reported. “Instead, a ‘code name’ would be used to identify the company,” The Commercial Appeal said. “Other information such as the industry, the number of jobs the company plans to create and the average pay of each job would still be released when it is provided to the board.” Mark Beutelschies, legal counsel for EDGE, told the paper EDGE board members will still need all the information to make sure there are no conflicts of interest. “We want to get an explicit understanding from the state that if we held these…

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Commentary: America’s Success Was Not Achieved by Government, But by Limiting Government

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by  Gary Galles   Then-President Obama’s famous 2012 “you didn’t build that” rationalization for not only increasing taxes but also for increasingly progressive taxes has returned to public consciousness. Cato policy analyst Derek Bonett has focused attention back on the logic of his argument, as well as reminded us that Obama was channeling a 2011 campaign speech by 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren. And David Henderson has spread the word about that thought process, which was shared among self-designated progressives. The thrust of the counter-argument they offer is that differing earnings across people cannot be explained by differential public goods consumption (e.g., road use) and so cannot justify taxation that is proportional to income, much less progressive. And the case is airtight. However, there are many more, perhaps even more important, reasons for that justification failure. Voluntary Arrangements The first error is mistakenly equating society with government. That our society contributes to people’s successes does not imply the successful owe more taxes to government. As Albert Jay Nock noted, it is commonly true that “the interests of the state and the interests of society…are directly opposed.” Very few of government’s actions improve our ability to voluntarily cooperate, advancing our general welfare, from what would…

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Comey Admits Dossier Was Unverified Before And After FBI Used It To Obtain Spy Warrants

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by Chuck Ross   Former FBI Director James Comey told Congress Friday that the FBI had not verified the Steele dossier prior to relying on the salacious document to obtain spy warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. According to a transcript of Comey’s testimony released on Saturday, the former FBI chief also asserted that it was “not necessary” for the FBI to assess the sources that dossier author Christopher Steele used to compile his report, which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign. “I think I’ve dealt with warrants where you just identify that your primary [confidential informant], or primary source, has subsources, and so long as the court is aware of that phenomenon and that you’re speaking to the reliability of the primary source, to my mind, that’s a totally legit warrant application,” he said. Comey told lawmakers that “work was ongoing” by the time he was fired on May 9, 2017, to “to replicate, either rule in or rule out” as much of the dossier as possible. He said that by the time he was fired on May 9, 2017, he “still didn’t know whether there was anything to it,” referring to the investigation into possible…

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Key House Lawmaker: Trump Impeachment Hearings Possible

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A key U.S. lawmaker said Sunday that Democrats in the House of Representatives could pursue impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump, saying that the U.S. leader had “surrounded himself with crooks” and was part of a broad “conspiracy against the American people” to win the 2016 election. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat set to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee when Democrats take control of the chamber next month, told CNN that lawmakers have to decide “how important” allegations are against Trump, but should pursue impeachment charges “only for serious offenses.” Nadler offered his thoughts two days after federal prosecutors accused former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, “in coordination with and at the direction” of Trump, of orchestrating $280,000 in hush money payments shortly before the 2016 election to two women who alleged they had affairs with Trump so they would stay silent before Election Day. Nadler said that if proven, the allegations against Trump were “certainly impeachable offenses.” That could lead to his removal from office, if the Senate were to convict him by at least a two-thirds vote, a doubtful proposition with Republican control of the Senate continuing in the Congress that takes office in January.…

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Female Veterans Quietly Struggle With Sexual Harassment, Suicide

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by Max Jungreis   Pfc. Nichole Bowen-Crawford said she was walking to lunch on her Army base near Nasiriyah, Iraq, in 2003 when she received her daily proposition from a passing fellow soldier. “Hey, Bowen,” the officer tossed out, “let’s go f— in the bunker.” Bowen-Crawford told VOA that while this was the most shocking example of the day-to-day regimen of verbal sexual harassment she experienced while in the Army between 2001-2004, it was not her worst experience — she had been assaulted by a higher-ranking sergeant earlier that year. When she reported the incident to a male supervisor, she was advised to stay quiet for the sake of her career. Bowen-Crawford’s experience is not universal, but far from rare. Suicide rate A work environment tolerant of sexual assault and harassment is believed to be one of the causes of high suicide rates among female veterans, which soared more than 45 percent between 2001 and 2015, according to data from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). The rate among female veterans is lower than that of male veterans, but not compared to their civilian counterparts. Female veterans are almost twice as likely to kill themselves as civilian women. “Certainly…

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Chicago’s New PlayStation Tax Shows How Greedy Politicians Can Be

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by Brittany Hunter   “If it moves, tax it.” That’s government’s eternal motto, as Ronald Reagan quipped. To this, the city government of Chicago has added, “If it amuses, tax it.” A few weeks ago, PlayStation 4 users in Chicago were shocked when they turned on their consoles and saw a message from Sony. The message informed users that as of November 14, 2018, they would be required to pay a 9 percent “amusement tax” for PlayStation subscriptions such as PlayStation Now, PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Music, and others. The tax is specifically related to streaming services, so the PlayStation games themselves will not be subject to the 9 percent tax. But in today’s subscription-heavy economy, many users purchase these consoles as a medium to stream videos and music rather than using them solely to play games. Not to mention, the tax will still include subscription services that allow Playstation users to connect and play with other users around the globe. So if you own a PlayStation in Chicago, it is unlikely that you will be able to fully avoid this tax. PlayStation users, however, are not the only victims of this absurd tax. Chicago’s Amusement Tax Chicago is one of the…

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San Francisco’s Wealthy Leftists Are Making Homelessness Worse

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by Gregory Morin   I recently had the opportunity to visit San Francisco for the first time. Coastal towns tend to be a bit more interesting in terms of cuisine (seafood being one of the more varied palate options) as well as architecture (steep hill structures are ever a testament to human ingenuity) and San Francisco scores high in both categories. However one area where it currently scores quite low is in the aroma zone. At first I thought perhaps they had a very inefficient sewer system near the shoreline retail sector, but as we explored deeper toward the city center it became clear something was amiss. I learned shortly thereafter that San Francisco has a poop crisis. To be blunt — people are literally crapping on the sidewalks. Not the tourists, mind you, but the local homeless population. The situation has come to a head (or to the head to employ a nautical metaphor) primarily as a result of progressive conservatism primed with the power of centralized (governmental) authority. The outside leftist narrative of course is that this poop crisis is inevitable results of unmitigated capitalism, which drives the eternal boogeyman of income inequality. This inequality fuels gentrification of…

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New York City Teachers Reportedly Abused Taxpayer Money at Nashville Gaylord Opryland Resort

Chris Butler

Teachers from New York City came to Nashville last year and spent nearly $3,000 of their own local taxpayer money without documenting how it got spent, according to a new report on Patch.com The teachers spent this money at Nashville’s Gaylord Opryland Resort, according to the story. The story did not specify why the teachers came to Nashville or for what event. This was among only part of $15,000 the New York City teachers spent without supporting documentation, according to the website. According to the Patch.com story, quoting an audit, New York City school officials often disregarded rules and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lavish hotels, out-of-town trips and other travel costs last year, an audit released Wednesday shows. “City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office reviewed about $1 million of the Department of Education’s more than $20 million in travel expenses from the 2017 fiscal year. About nine in every 10 payments — 93 percent — violated an internal policy, a directive from the comptroller’s office, or both, the audit shows,” the website reported. The DOE blew more than $233,000 to host meetings and other events at outside venues without bothering to see if any schools or other facilities could be…

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Tennessee Auditors Call Out Tipton County Schools For Irregularities

Chris Butler

Tipton County School System officials spent several thousand more taxpayer dollars than county officials allotted them, according to an audit from the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, released Monday. School system officials, for instance, spent more than $27,000 on the General Purpose School Fund and on the school’s Federal Projects Fund, according to auditors. The General Purpose School Fund covered technology support services. The Federal Projects Fund, meanwhile, covered a career and technical education program and support services for health. “Salaries exceeded appropriations in four of 20 salary line-items of the School Federal Projects Fund by amounts ranging from $307 to $14,863,” auditors wrote. Auditors said the county commissioners’ budget resolution dictates salaries cannot exceed line-item appropriations commissioners approved. In a written response to auditors, Tipton County Director of Schools John Combs promised to address and then correct the findings. No one at the Tipton County School System returned The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment Monday. County Executive Jeff Huffman, however, told The Star everything is OK with the school system’s finances. “They had a pretty healthy fund balance at the end of the fiscal year so if they go over they are certainly not supposed to do that,” Huffman said. “If…

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Commentary: Empathy is at the Core of Capitalism

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by Barry Brownstein   You don’t have to search far to read claims that capitalism is centered on greed and selfishness. For some, the assertion seems self-evident as they read, for example, stories of pharmaceutical companies dramatically increasing the price of important drugs. Those who hold a “capitalists are greedy” belief fail to distinguish between crony capitalists — who make their money through subsidies, mandates and government restrictions on competition — and entrepreneurs who make their money through fulfilling the most urgent needs of consumers. The Instant Pot is a little story of how entrepreneurs unselfishly better our world. If you don’t have an Instant Pot or don’t cook, you are probably wondering what the fuss is about. If you have one, you know. Without traditional advertising, Instant Pot has become a best-selling item on Amazon, selling 215,000 units on Amazon Prime Day. Bloomberg Magazine calls it a “magical pot.” The Wonders and Success of the Instant Pot Reimagined for the 21st Century, the Instant Pot combines slow cooker and pressure cooker features and adds others. We have two Instant Pots on our kitchen counter; most days, we use both. Meals with whole grains and beans are staples in our home. When our pressure cooker didn’t seal, the meal…

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Family of Keri King Needs Financial Help After Alleged Illegal Immigrant Killed Her

Chris Butler

If you’re out on the roads in Tennessee and a reckless driver without insurance kills you then your surviving family members might have to pay a massive sum of money for hospital bills or funeral costs. Especially if the driver is an alleged illegal immigrant who escaped the custody of the Tennessee Highway Patrol and is currently a fugitive. That’s exactly what the family of Keri King is dealing with right now in Bedford County — they have more than $35,000 in hospital and funeral costs brought on through someone else’s negligence. But, fortunately for them, staff members of a Shelbyville bank are collecting funds to help. As The Tennessee Star reported, Edgar Torres-Rangel was intoxicated in late October when he hit and killed King, 29, as she was on her way home. Torres-Rangel sustained his own injuries in the crash. Authorities transported him to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He later escaped the facility without anyone noticing. Officers with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation recently placed Torres-Rangel on their 10 Most Wanted List. Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance spokesman Kevin Walters told The Star Monday Tennessee law requires drivers to carry insurance. “Because Tennessee is an ‘at fault’ state, the…

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