Day: December 16, 2018

More Cybersecurity Reportedly Needed in Tennessee Schools

Chris Butler

The superintendent of the Bristol, Tenn. City School System reportedly wants school leaders across Tennessee and around the nation to have a comprehensive cybersecurity plan — immediately. Whether phishing attempts or outright hacks, cyberattacks on schools are reportedly increasing in grades K-12, according to a new article in EdScoop.com. The article discussed how Lilly joined two other superintendents to discuss school cybersecurity during a recent national webinar. The three superintendents, the website went on to say, offered five reasons to make cybersecurity a priority. The first reason must do with liability, according to EdScoop.com “Districts and school leaders can be held liable for network breaches. Individual superintendents and principals can even be sued. School management needs to take reasonable steps to ensure protection beyond data sharing policies,” the website reported. “Lilly explained that his schools, for instance, have frequent administrative access audits to ensure they can’t see information they shouldn’t, like Social Security numbers.” The other two superintendents on the webinar were Steve Bradshaw, who is a school superintendent in Montana, and Juan Cabrera, a school superintendent in El Paso, according to the website. “Bradshaw recommended all districts hold cybersecurity insurance so that the school can take care of problems…

Read the full story

Commentary: Blackmail Added to Mob Rule on Campus Activists’ Resumes

Admin

by Jay Schalin   The proper term for the actions of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate student assistants and instructors threatening to withhold grades unless Silent Sam—a statue of a Confederate soldier who was pulled off his pedestal by a mob of activists in August—is removed from campus is not “strike,” as the activists claim. It is “blackmail.” Blackmail is when one individual or group holds information over another’s head to force them to do their bidding. Granted, this one has a slight twist; usually, blackmail consists of somebody having damaging information that will humiliate or damage their victim unless they submit. This time, the blackmailers—and only the blackmailers—have information that is the administration’s and students’ right to know. They have declared that the students and administration will not receive the grades unless they do what the graduate students want. According to a Chronicle of Higher Education article, 79 teaching assistants and instructors have pledged to withhold more than 2,000 final grades. The activists’ demands, along with the removal of the statue, include: “Changes to a plan for increased campus security” “Increased wages for graduate and campus workers, the majority of whom make less than a…

Read the full story

Environmentalists Celebrate After Zinke Calls it Quits

Admin

by Tim Pearce   Environmentalists began celebrating Saturday after President Donald Trump announced Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke would leave the administration by the end of 2018. “Zinke’s days of plundering our lands and enriching himself and his friends are over,” Friends of the Earth fossil fuels program manager Nicole Ghio said in a statement. “With an average of nearly one federal investigation opened into his conduct in office per month, Zinke’s highly questionable ethics have finally caught up with him.” “Zinke will go down as the worst Interior secretary in history,” Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. Zinke has faced at least 15 federal investigations through either the inspector general for the Department of the Interior and U.S. Special Counsel’s office. The four prior Interior Department secretaries were investigated a total of 11 times. The investigations and the prospect of heightened scrutiny when Democrats take control of the House in 2019 were reportedly factors in Zinke’s decision, according to Bloomberg. “I am 10 for 10,” Zinke said during a Fox News appearance Nov. 30, referring to the investigations that have been initiated and concluded. “I’ve been investigated on my socks. I’ve been…

Read the full story

Campus Diversity Movement Takes Off in Surprising New Directions

Admin

by John Rosenberg   Ever since Justice Powell’s lone opinion in Bakke allowed the camel’s nose of “diversity” under the anti-discrimination tent, controversy has raged over preferential treatment awarded to college applicants of certain races. Just as hurricanes often change direction after landfall, the diversity movement has recently taken off in some surprising new directions that deserve public attention. Diversity Statements First came the “diversity statements,” introduced by a smattering of institutions for promotion or tenure and sometimes for all new hires. Both the prevalence and the required content of these diversity statements has expanded dramatically. UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, for example, recently released Version 2.1 of a comprehensive “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement FAQs” attempting to justify why equity, diversity, and inclusion should “figure into faculty hiring and promotion” and laying out chapter and verse of what should be included in EDI statements. Helpful examples were provided, quoted from the faculty hiring guide: Efforts to advance equitable access to education; Public service that addresses the needs of California’s diverse population; Research in a scholar’s area of expertise that highlights inequalities; Mentoring and advising students and faculty members, particularly from under-represented and underserved populations. An applicant’s…

Read the full story

Russian Nationals Indicted in North Carolina on Immigration Fraud, Murder for Hire Charges

Anna Marie Bolton

Five Russian nationals were indicted on Wednesday in the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to a Department of Justice press release. The five are charged with “federal crimes stemming from a bribery and kickback scheme, including money laundering, immigration fraud, and a subsequent murder for hire plot.” Leonid Teyf, 57, his now divorced wife Tatyana, 41, and their circle of co-conspirators had their $5 million gated mansion, adjacent to the golf course at Raleigh’s North Ridge Country Club, raided earlier this month by the FBI. If convicted of crimes against the U.S., and after serving 10-20 years behind bars, they likely would be removed from the country, indicating that they have no claim to U.S. citizenship. Their removal will likely be of interest to the Russian government because the source of their wealth is stolen Russian money that was supposed to be used to supply the Russian military, says the DOJ:  “…between 2010 and 2012, Leonid Teyf was the Deputy Director of Voentorg, a company which contracted with Russia’s Ministry of Defense to provide the Russian military with goods and services.  Leonid Teyf arranged for subcontractors in Russia to fill the various services required by Voentorg’s contract.  Leonid Teyf and…

Read the full story

Beto O’Rourke Thinks People Have Died Because of The Border Wall

Admin

by Molly Prince   Democratic Rep. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke of Texas claimed Friday that the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is the reason why an increasing number of migrants have died as they illegally attempt to cross into the country. “The number of people dying at the U.S.-Mexico border in some years has grown,” O’Rourke said during an El Paso, Texas, town hall. “In some years has grown because it’s connected to that wall that we have already built that pushes people who are at their most desperate and vulnerable to ever-more inhospitable stretches of the Chihuahua Desert.” The Texas congressman explained that the number of people trying to cross the border increased almost 40 percent between 1998 and 2010 after some of the barrier was constructed in the El Paso sector. “The wall in this area was built in 2006, 2007, and 2008,” he continued. “So even though total crossing attempts had decreased, the number of deaths went up.” WATCH: Town Hall https://t.co/ShnZkxDeMU — Rep. Beto O'Rourke (@RepBetoORourke) December 14, 2018 O’Rourke has long argued against a border wall. Following President Donald Trump’s executive order in September to erect an 18-foot steel bollard wall to replace the existing pedestrian…

Read the full story

Commentary: The ‘Trump Doctrine’ is the Future of Conservative Foreign Policy

Admin

by John Fonte   For the past two years we have seen the emergence of a coherent Trump doctrine in both words and deeds. There is a remarkable consistency throughout all of President Trump’s speeches, formal documents (such as the National Security Strategy) and actions of the administration. To understand the Trump doctrine, we must begin with candidate Trump’s first major speech on foreign policy on April 27, 2016 (thus even before the Indiana primary) to the Center for the National Interest at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. All the elements of the Trump doctrine are revealed in this maiden speech. This includes reversing military decline (“We will spend what we need to rebuild our military”); an emphasis on economic strength and “technological superiority” in geo-political competition; confronting the threats from China, North Korea, Iran and radical Islam; opposing nation-building; reversing Obama’s ambivalence with strong support for Israel; ending illegal immigration; and “strengthening and promoting Western Civilization.” Finally, the candidate rejected the “false flag of globalism” and declared, “The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony.” These core elements were expanded upon in different speeches to the United Nations, the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), in Warsaw,…

Read the full story

Federal Report Says Millennials Are Poorer Than Other Generations

Admin

by Ryan McMaken   One of the challenges in looking at income and wealth data is getting a sense of how different demographic groups are affected. It’s relatively easy to find median income and wealth data over time for the entire population, for example. But then problems of interpretation immediately present themselves. For example, if the data is household data, what are we to make of things if the household compositions has changed over time? And what if the demographics of the individuals within the households themselves have changed? For example, if a larger proportion of all households are now younger households, perhaps that could have an effect on the income and wealth data overall. After all, younger heads of household tend to have lower incomes and less wealth than older heads of households. This problem of measuring workers and incomes over time has been the challenge that presents itself to anyone trying to figure out if so-called millennials are richer or poorer — as a group — than other age cohorts. To do this, researches must find some way to estimate wealth and incomes for different age cohorts at similar ages or at similar points in their careers. Otherwise,…

Read the full story

States Have a New Opportunity to Lower Health Insurance Premiums and Expand Options

Admin

by Mary Fishpaw   The Trump administration is offering welcome relief to Americans struggling with high premiums under Obamacare premiums and a lack of insurance choices. The administration has taken a series of regulatory actions to do the following: Make short-term, limited duration policies widely available and give consumers the right to renew those policies. Make it easier for small businesses and independent contractors to band together for greater insurance purchasing power. Propose to allow employers to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, which their workers could then use to purchase portable insurance coverage. The Department of Health and Human Services also has made it easier for states to promote more affordable, flexible insurance coverage options by obtaining waivers from restrictive Obamacare regulations. These “State Empowerment and Relief Waivers” enable states to tap money that the federal government would have paid directly to insurance companies in the form of premium subsidies. States could repurpose this money to design and implement their own premium assistance programs. Such programs could distribute subsidies through defined contributions to consumer-directed accounts established for low-income individuals. States also could provide premium subsidies for insurance policies that don’t conform to Obamacare’s rigid requirements. States that obtain these waivers would…

Read the full story

Sister of Keri King Pleads for Justice, Describes Her Kindness in Life

Chris Butler

Writer’s Note: The sister of Keri King wants law enforcement to find the man authorities charged with killing her sister while driving drunk in Bedford County in October.   King’s sister, Cheri Blackwell, wrote and submitted a letter to The Tennessee Star Thursday pleading for justice. Blackwell’s letter also described what her sister Keri was like in life. As Tennessee Star reported, Edgar Torres-Rangel, an alleged illegal immigrant, 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. Blackwell’s letter is below. My sister, Keri Lanaye King was born December 1, 1988. I was a junior in high school when my parents announced they were expecting a sweet baby girl. My world would be changed forever. Keri helped mold me into the person I am today. My lifelong connection with this beautiful girl began the day she was born. I had such a love for her that it was indescribable. Our lives took a…

Read the full story