Day: December 13, 2018

917 Society Members Celebrate Holidays with Big Plans for 2019

Chris Butler

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–Members of the 917 Society Founders Club held a holiday party at the Nashville offices of physician Ming Wang Tuesday. As reported, the 917 Society exists to improve constitutional literacy among Tennessee eighth graders. And because of the 917 Society, every eighth-grader in Tennessee gets a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Joni Bryan launched the 917 Society just a few years ago. The 917 Society has already given out 35,000 pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution to eighth-graders in Tennessee. At Tuesday’s party, Bryan discussed plans to give out 50,000 more copies of the Constitution in January. Bryan also announced a membership drive. “Right now, everyone is volunteer. We are working toward having staff members,” Bryan said. “We are hoping to raise $250,000 so we can have five staff members. That is our big goal for the next year.” Also at the gathering, Bryan and Wang presented a Founders Cup Award to State Senator Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, for his work on behalf of the 917 Society. As reported, members of the group pass out copies of the U.S. Constitution to eighth-grade students right before they go to high school and about four years before they start voting. Eighth-grade is…

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Commentary: Trump Picks the Right Fight With Pelosi and Schumer

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by George Rasley   Yesterday, President Trump surprised White House reporters by calling them into the Oval Office conversation with Democrats that was originally designated as closed to the press. During the debate, both House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer protested that it was taking place on camera. “Let’s debate in private,” said the Senate’s Democratic Minority Leader Senator Charles Schumer of New York after President Trump opened his meeting on border security to the media. “We came in here in good faith and we’re entering into this kind of a discussion in the public view,” said a very unhappy soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of California. “I don’t think you should have a debate in front of the press,” she said. “But it’s not bad, Nancy. It’s called transparency,” said a very happy President Donald J. Trump. Yesterday’s meeting between President Trump, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was an awesome display of how Trump can win the battle for the Wall, simply by sticking to his guns. Naturally, the establishment media would like to convince you and the rest of America that Trump is being unreasonable, but…

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Slate Magazine Green Lights a Strike by its Own Employees

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by Tim Pearce   The editorial workers and writers at the online publication Slate Magazine voted overwhelmingly to allow Slate employees to strike Tuesday. The final vote was 52 to one. Representatives from the Writers Guild of America – East, Slate employees’ union, and company officials are in talks discussing employees’ demands and the timeline of a potential walkout, Bloomberg reported. Union negotiators are pushing for stronger diversity policies and pay and benefits raises equivalent to cost of living increases. Slate employees are also pushing magazine management to ditch a “right to work” policy of allowing employees to opt out of paying union dues if they do not belong to the union. Most crucially, our unit continues to be outraged by management’s inclusion of a right-to-work clause, a technique designed to degrade the legitimacy of our union. Read more: https://t.co/hWCfbfvl9f — Slate Union (@SlateUnion) December 11, 2018 “We just feel that it’s a total and absolute betrayal of Slate’s most fundamental values,” Slate writer Mark Joseph Stern, who is a part of the union’s bargaining committee, told Bloomberg. The Supreme Court ruled on June 27, 2018, that forcing non-union members in public sector jobs to pay for union representation is a violation of the right to free…

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U.S. Rep. DesJarlais Votes For Farm Bill That Improves Food Stamp Program, Rural Broadband, Education

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U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04), a member of the House Agriculture Committee, said in a press release Wednesday he voted for the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. The House-Senate agreement sets national agriculture policy for the next five years, and President Donald Trump will likely sign it, DesJarlais said. DesJarlais, a House Freedom Caucus member, was an outspoken proponent of changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, which would help more Americans gain job training and employment in an economy where an estimated 6 million job openings outnumber the unemployed. AARP Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy & Engagement Officer Nancy LeaMond signaled her appreciation of the act’s passage. She said, “AARP applauds Congress for passing the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. This legislation protects access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). We are particularly pleased that the bill rejected harmful changes to the law’s work requirements that would have made it harder for older Americans to access SNAP benefits.” DesJarlais said, “Especially in Tennessee’s Fourth District, where Rutherford County is one of the fastest-growing in the U.S., the economy requires skilled workers to fill good-paying jobs. But able-bodied, working-age adults receiving food…

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Michael Cohen Sentenced to Three Years in Federal Prison

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by Chuck Ross   Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney for Donald Trump, was sentenced to three years in prison by a judge in New York on Wednesday. The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge William Pauley, is lower than prosecutors’ recommendation that the longtime Trump fixer receive slightly less than between 51 and 63 months in prison. Pauley cited a “smorgasbord” of Cohen crimes before announcing the jail term. Cohen, 52, pleaded guilty on Aug. 21 to tax evasion, bank fraud and making illegal campaign contributions over his payments to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000, he claims at the direction and in coordination with Trump. Legal analysts have debated for days whether Trump is in legal jeopardy, with some observers saying that he could be impeached or even indicted after leaving office. Cohen created shell companies both to avoid paying taxes on his taxi business as well as to make the payment to Daniels. Trump defended the payment on Tuesday, telling Reuters that he did not view it as a campaign contribution. “Michael Cohen is a lawyer. I assume he would know what he’s doing,” he said…

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Suspect In 1987 Bombing That Targeted American Soldiers Leads Migrant Group Demanding Entry Into US

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by Peter Hasson   A suspect in a 1987 bombing that wounded six American soldiers in Honduras is leading a group of migrants demanding entry into the United States. Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa organized a march of approximately 100 migrants to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Ulloa delivered a letter to the consulate on behalf of the migrants, asking for either entry into the U.S. or a payment of $50,000 per person. “It may seem like a lot of money to you,” Ulloa told the Union-Tribune. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras.” Ulloa has lived in Mexico since 1987 after fleeing Honduras in the wake of a bombing that wounded six soldiers. Ulloa was suspected of planting a bomb in a Chinese restaurant, but received asylum from Mexico, whose government described the suspected terrorist as a “freedom fighter.” An appropriations bill passed by Congress in December 1987 included Congress’s findings that “the bomb was directed at American soldiers and did in fact wound American soldiers and an American contractor.” The report noted that Ulloa was a suspect in the bombing. Ulloa has posted on Facebook* about his role in organizing…

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Former Judges Call on ICE to End Immigration Arrests at Courthouses

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Dozens of retired state and federal judges called on U.S. immigration officials Wednesday to stop making arrests at courthouses of people suspected of being in the country illegally, saying immigrants should be free to visit halls of justice without fearing they will be detained. Nearly 70 former judges from 23 states— including federal judges and state supreme court justices— said in a letter sent to Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Ronald Vitiello that courthouse arrests are disrupting the criminal justice system. “I just can’t imagine that we are closing our courtrooms to people who have a right to be there. And you really are closing them if you instill fear in people so they cannot come near a courtroom,” said Fernande R.V. Duffly, who was born in Indonesia to Dutch and Chinese parents and served as an associate justice on Massachusetts’ highest court until 2016. The judges are urging Vitiello to add courthouses to the list of so-called “sensitive locations” that are generally free from immigration enforcement, like schools and places of worship. They say that only “unequivocal guarantees and protections will restore the public’s confidence that it can safely pursue justice in our nation’s courts.” The Brennan Center…

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Audit: TDEC Officials Not Following Tennessee General Assembly’s Wishes on Permitting Process

Chris Butler

Officials with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation did not prepare and submit permit efficiency reports for landowners the way they were supposed to, per a legislative directive. This, according to a Tennessee Comptroller’s Audit released this week. According to TDEC’s website, in 2012, members of the Tennessee General Assembly asked department officials to prepare two reports each year, in February and August, detailing the progress and efficiency of the environmental permit application process. Each report, the website went on to say, is composed of three topics, including land, air, and water permitting information, along with a summary. But members of TDEC’s management did not submit certain reports on time to the governor, members of the Tennessee General Assembly or to the public, as required, according to the audit. Since 2012, TDEC officials said they have had to produce more general reports that do not include detailed reasons for permit delays or individual processing times. Members of the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office say they studied those reports thoroughly. “Based on our review of the reports prepared during our audit period, the approximately 30-page reports consisted of mostly narrative information, along with a summary of numerical data,” auditors wrote. “The summary…

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Paris Climate Accord Backers Won’t Say if They Support Ban on Private Jets

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by Michael Bastasch and Chris White   Big businesses largely came out in support of the Paris Agreement on global warming, but most contacted by The Daily Caller News Foundation were silent on whether they would give up flying private jets. TheDCNF wanted to test the commitment of big companies, foundations and outspoken activists who back the Paris accord. The question: Would you support a ban on private jet travel to help stem global warming? Most companies and individuals TheDCNF reached out to did not respond, including Facebook, Apple, Google and other companies that often tout their “green image.” Not even former Vice President Al Gore, the father of climate activism, responded to TheDCNF’s question. In fact, all but two of the 26 corporations were silent when asked by TheDCNF if they would support a ban on private jets to help cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with what the United Nations says is needed to meet the Paris accord. TheDCNF asked a total of 31 companies, foundations and individuals if they would support a private jet ban. To keep projected global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, the main goal of the Paris accord, the U.N. says emissions need to…

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Google CEO Splashes Cold Water On a Major Russian Meddling Narrative

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by Chris White   Google CEO Sundar Pichai appeared to catch Democratic lawmakers off guard Tuesday after disclosing in a congressional hearing the paltry amount of money Russia spent on ads on the 2016 election. Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler asked Pichai about the extent to which Russia used Google to interject itself in that year’s presidential election. Pichai’s answer seemed to genuinely surprise the New York Democrat. “We undertook a very thorough investigation, and in 2016, we now know of two main Russian accounts linked to Russia which advertised on Google for about $4,700 in advertising,” Pichai said. Nadler then asked him to repeat the number one more time. Facebook came under similar scrutiny in 2017, when the Silicon Valley company admitted to congressional investigators to selling political ads to a suspicious Russian outlet in 2016. Most of the ads did not focus on then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump or then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and the ad sales cost roughly $100,000. Instead, the ads touched on hot-button issues, like race, gun rights, gay rights and immigration. Meanwhile, Twitter told lawmakers it found about 200 Russian-linked accounts based on what Facebook had identified. Twitter sold more than $274,000 worth of ads to the news outlet RT, a…

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Commentary: Mueller’s Collusion Hoax Collapses

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by Conrad Black   The sudden death of the unutterable nonsense of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government, announced as it was in the hand-off to the Southern New York U.S. Attorney of the shabby fruit of Michael Cohen’s plea bargaining, has divided onlookers into three communities of opinion. The true believers in the collusion canard are left slack-jawed, like the international Left after the announcement of the Nazi-Soviet Pact: an immense fervor of faith is instantly destroyed; it is the stillness of a sudden and immense evaporation. The professional Trump-haters, the Democratic Party assassination squads in Congress and the media, like disciplined soldiers, have swiveled with parade ground precision and resumed firing after a mere second to reload, at the equally fatuous nonsense about illegal campaign contributions. Disreputable, contemptible myth-makers and smear-jobbers though they are, they deserve credit for fanaticism, improvisation, and managing in unison to sound half plausible in the face of the crushing defeat they have suffered and the piffle and pottage they are left to moralize about. Third, and slowest to respond, so sudden has been the change of the whole Trump-hate narrative, are those who never wavered from the requirement of…

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Bob Corker Says Something Stupid Again, This Time Claiming President Trump Is Hurting America

Jason M. Reynolds

Like a dog that can’t leave a chewed-up bone alone, or a monkey with bananas, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) can’t leave President Donald Trump be as he prepares to step down from Congress. Corker has referred to the Trump administration as a “banana republic” more than once. Now, he has taken his grievances with the Commander-in-Chief onto “CBS This Morning.” Host John Dickerson sat down with Corker in Chattanooga for an interview that aired Wednesday. Dickerson said, “Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee has had a series of clashes with President Trump, most recently on the administration’s muted response to Saudi Arabia’s killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is now preparing to step down.” Dickerson added he wanted to talk with Corker “about how Washington works – or doesn’t – and what worries him about the issues no one seems interested in addressing.” Corker said that things are happening in communities like Chattanooga. With a smirk on his face, Corker said, “I don’t think he (Trump) … I don’t think he knows that there are people all across this country, um, that live in communities like this one just wanting…

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Tennessee Republican Dr. Manny Sethi Weighs Run for Alexander’s U.S. Senate Seat

Jason M. Reynolds

Dr. Manish “Manny” Sethi, a Republican, is considering running for Lamar Alexander’s U.S. Senate seat, the Nashville Post reported Wednesday. An orthopedic surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Sethi also serves as director of the Vanderbilt Orthopaedic Institute Center for Health Policy. The Post reported: Sethi founded and is the president of Healthy Tennessee, an organization that puts on health fairs around the state and encourages preventative care. He also co-edited a book on health policy with Frist. The Republican doctor was mentioned as a possible candidate to succeed retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. Two Republican sources with knowledge of Sethi’s deliberations confirmed he was considering a run. Earlier this week, an anonymous user registered multiple URLs related to a possible Sethi run for Senate, including drmannyforsenate.com. Chip Saltsman, a former Tennessee Republican Party chair who said he is friends with Sethi, said the two have discussed a possible Senate run, but Saltsman added that he encouraged Sethi to run only if Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander decides not to seek re-election in 2020, when the incumbent would be 80 years old. Last month, Sen. Alexander appeared as a guest on The Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy,…

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