Month: December 2018

Insurance Claims at $9 Billion From California Wildfires

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Insurance claims from last month’s California wildfires already are at $9 billion and expected to increase, the state’s insurance commissioner announced Wednesday. About $7 billion in claims are from the Camp Fire that destroyed the Northern California city of Paradise and killed at least 86 people, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in at least a century. The rest is from the Woolsey and Hill fires in Southern California. Collectively, the fires destroyed or damaged more than 20,000 structures, with the vast majority in and around Paradise. On Tuesday, state and federal authorities estimated it will cost at least $3 billion just to clear debris. “As the claims get perfected, as individuals get access to their former homes and neighborhoods, as they dialogue with their insurance companies and share more information about the scope of their loss, we expect these numbers to rise,” Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said of the $9 billion estimate. Over 28,000 claims There are more than 28,000 claims for residential personal property, nearly 2,000 from commercial property and 9,400 in auto and other claims for the fires. That’s well above the number of claims filed following a series of fires that tore through Northern California’s wine…

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Tennessee Brick Maker General Shale Buys Watsontown Brick, Expanding Into Northeast, Canada

Jason M. Reynolds

Tennessee-based General Shale said it has reached an agreement to buy Watsontown Brick Co. and will expand into the Northeastern United States and Canada. General Shale made the announcement in a press release Thursday. The deal will close at the end of the year. The deal adds a unique, high-quality brick line to Johnson City-based General Shale’s masonry list of products, the company said. Watsontown Brick Co., 110 years old, is located in Watsontown, Pennsylvania. The brick company is a third-generation firm that produces a variety of bricks, along with high-quality pavers, General Shale said. Founded in 1908 to produce street pavers, Watsontown Brick Co. grew its line to include residential, commercial and architectural products, the company’s website said. The company is now made up of three dedicated plants which produce 95 million bricks a year. Two operations produce extruded red shale and buff brick, while the third and newest plant built in 2008, manufactures molded brick. Watsontown produces some of the “most traditionally crafted brick products in the U.S.,” General Shale’s press release said. Charles Smith, president and CEO of General Shale, said, “We are excited to bring this outstanding company into the General Shale group as this acquisition will…

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Commentary: Michael Cohen’s Guilty Plea on Fake Campaign Finance Violations Does Not Make Law

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by Robert Romano   President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen never sought reimbursement from the 2016 Trump campaign for non-disclosure agreement payments of alleged mistresses of Trump’s. Instead, the reimbursements were sought and delivered from Trump’s business, the Trump Organization. Cohen didn’t think these were campaign expenditures back in 2016 to settle a private matter. Yet now on a post hoc basis, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Cohen have determined that it was. These were non-disclosure agreements that Trump would have entered into even if he had not been a candidate for public office just to protect his businesses, his reputation and his family. Trump has individual rights under the Constitution to contract with an attorney to enter into just these sorts of legal settlements with potential litigants, something Congress cannot preempt. But the U.S. Attorney coercing Cohen’s guilty plea to campaign finance violations that were not campaign violations does not — and cannot — make law. That is Congress’ job, and the statute is very specific. It requires that to be an expenditure under the law, 52 U.S. Code § 30101(9)(A)(i), it must be “for the purpose of influencing any election…

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Congressman-Elect Mark Green Gives Updates From D.C. At Town Hall in Clarksville

Laura Baigert

CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee – At a town hall in his home town of Clarksville, Congressman-Elect Mark Green delivered a brief update about his transition as the U.S. Representative for Tennessee’s 7th District before spending most of the scheduled time taking questions from attendees who were both supporters and opposition. Green ran unopposed in the August Republican primary and took 67 percent of the vote against newcomer Democrat Justin Kanew in the November general election to fill the seat vacated by eight-term Representative Marsha Blackburn. Blackburn left the seat for a successful run for U.S. Senate to replace the retiring Bob Corker. Before officially being sworn into office on January 3, 2019, Green scheduled six town halls around the district between December 11 and 13, in Franklin, Waverly, Clarksville, Lawrenceburg, Lexington and Selmer. The 80 chairs at the Clarksville location were all but filled at Wednesday’s event. Green reported that, although there will be new phone numbers, his team will be taking over Marsha Blackburn’s existing office locations in Clarksville and Franklin. He and his Chief of Staff, Stephen Saio, recently completed two weeks of orientation, which included ethics training. Green’s wife, Camie as well as staff members will be trained and…

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Apple Is Dropping $1 Billion to Put 5,000 Jobs in Texas With Expansions Planned in Major Cities

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by Tim Pearce   Apple is investing $1 billion to nearly double its workforce in Texas and is hiring thousands more employees in offices across the U.S., the company announced Thursday. Apple is adding 5,000 positions to its Austin, Texas, campus on top of the 6,200-strong workforce already there. The tech company is also establishing campuses in San Diego, Seattle and Culver City, California, employing about 1,000 people each. Hundreds more jobs will be added to other offices in places such as New York, Pittsburgh and Boulder, Colorado, by 2022. Apple’s announcement is relatively quiet compared to Amazon’s decision to build headquarters in Long Island City, New York, and Arlington, Virginia. The local and state governments at each location offered Amazon incentives worth millions of dollars. Dozens of other locations across the U.S. competed for Amazon’s attention with tax credits, infrastructure investment and other favors. President Donald Trump gave credit to Amazon for and owner Jeff Bezos for the antics. “I think they’re paying a very big price,” Trump said of Arlington and New York City in a November interview with The Daily Caller. “It was a competition. I know all about those competitions. I’ve been in those competitions —…

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New Vanderbilt University Poll Proves They Are Clueless About Politics And Polling

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by Steve Gill, Political Editor of The Tennessee Star   Vanderbilt University has just released a new political poll that has anybody with even a remedial understanding of politics scratching their heads about the methodology and results.  With Christmas approaching it looks like Santa will need to add a new category on his Naughty or Nice checklist to accommodate the Vanderbilt political science experts: Nitwits! First, the poll targeted “registered” rather than “likely” voters, which always guarantees a less informed and involved pool of responses. Those who are “registered,” simply because they are automatically registered when they get a driver’s license but don’t actually vote, are not the folks who spend much time getting informed about the candidates or political issues; nor do they consume much news. Second, the Republican-Democrat composition of the poll gives Republicans a small 7 point margin over Democrats (34-27). Really? In a state that has super majorities of Republicans in the State House and Senate; a 7-2 Republican majority in the Congressional delegation; a 26 point Donald Trump margin of victory over Hillary Clinton; a Bill Lee margin over Karl Dean in 2018 by 22 points; and a Marsha Blackburn victory over Phil Bredesen by…

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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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Lamar Alexander Touts New Whit Ayers Poll Showing Strong Favorability Ratings Heading Towards 2020

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A pollster who boldly declared that candidate Donald Trump had “no chance” of becoming President now says Senator Lamar Alexander is polling as a virtual lock for reelection in 2020. Alexander’s longtime pollster, North Star Opinion Research President Whit Ayers, wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece in April, 2016: “A Trump nomination has as much chance of success in the general election as Trump University, or Trump Mortgage, or Trump Shuttle, or Trump Vodka, or Trump Casinos. Trump is an electoral disaster waiting to happen.” That was, of course, before Trump won the White House over Hillary Clinton by a somewhat comfortable electoral margin. That same pollster is now claiming that an internal poll conducted in advance of an expected announcement by Senator Lamar Alexander that he will seek reelection in 2020 shows Alexander with strong approval ratings among Tennessee voters. The Monday internal polling memo from Ayers to the Senator’s campaign team claimed that Alexander’s favorability rating among likely Republican primary voters is 65 percent, just shy of two-thirds support. The 600-person survey was conducted Nov. 26-29. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. The 78-year-old Alexander told The Tennessee Star last month…

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Tennessee Star Report: How Will Gov-Elect Lee Follow Up on School Choice Campaign Pledge?

Julie Carr

In a specific discussion on Tuesday morning’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 contemplated Bill Lee’s current cabinets picks and the absence of any conservatives.  The conversation continued about whether or not Lee would hold true to his “school choice” (or more specifically “parent choice”) campaign pledge and why it needs to become a bill and why it hasn’t in the past. At the end of the segment, Leahy urged Lee to provide leadership on this matter. Gill: We’ve been talking a little bit about the Bill Lee transition process and who’s been put into place in his senior positions and cabinet positions who are being added as we speak.  Who are “whispering in his ear” to direct his assembling of his senior leadership team and cabinet.  And you’re welcome to join us, 615-737-9522.  Bill Lee and his team have not been able to find any conservatives any consistent dependable conservatives to serve in the senior positions of his administration at this point.  They’ve appointed roughly twelve cabinet level positions including commissioner of financing and administration, agriculture, commerce and insurance, tourism,…

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Enviros File Lawsuits to Stop Trump’s Approval of Surveys for Oil Deposits

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by Chris White   Environmental groups are suing to prevent the Trump administration from approving seismic survey testing for oil and gas reserves off the South Carolina coast. Oceana and the Sierra Club argued in legal filings Tuesday that the Commerce Department’s approval of seismic testing violates the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, among other regulations. “Allowing seismic blasting at this scale in these waters is not consistent with the laws that protect our oceans,” Natural Resources Defense Council Director Michael Jasny noted in a press statement shortly after the lawsuits were announced. Such leases could lead to exploratory drilling for the first time in several years. Acoustic tests involve boats tugging rods pressurized for sound and emitting jet engine-like booms seconds apart for days. The exercise effectively uses reflected seismic waves to measure the Earth’s subsurface, but the technique also poses risks to marine life sensitive to sound waves. Oil producers are supportive of the approval process. The American Petroleum Institute released a Nov. 15 report that shows tapping oil and natural gas reserves in federal waters could be worth $1.5 billion in tax revenue to South Carolina over two decades. Tax revenue from the…

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Rose Taps Former Congressman Hilleary for Chief of Staff

Jason M. Reynolds

Former U.S. Rep. Van Hilleary (R-TN-04) will head back to Capitol Hill next year – as chief of staff to Rep.-elect John W. Rose (R-TN-06) of Cookeville. A member of the GOP class that swept to power in the mid-1990s, Hilleary represented the Volunteer State until 2003, Roll Call said. (That district is now represented by Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais.) Hilleary left office to run for Tennessee governor, but lost to Democrat Gov. Phil Bredesen. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2006. “He will bring the Washington know-how to our team, but is not a Washington insider,” Rose said. “He is my friend and I could not be more proud to have him on board. Together, we will work to bring the highest level of service to this office so the people I serve are represented in the fullest manner possible.” Hilleary is originally from Spring City in Rhea County, the Chattanooga Times Free Press said. Rose, a farmer and small businessman, operates his family’s DeKalb County farm. Rose ran this year to replace Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black of Gallatin who ran a campaign for governor. She lost in the GOP primary election. Rose said he intends…

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Illegal Alien in Lebanon to Serve 50 Years for Raping Child

Chris Butler

This week an illegal immigrant in Lebanon pleaded guilty in state court to two counts of rape of a child, according to the Lebanon Police Department. That man, Edwin Alfredo Velasquez- Curuchiche, 42, will serve 50 years for that crime. He will serve that concurrently with a 50-year federal sentence he received earlier this year for producing child pornography, Lebanon Police said on their Facebook page Tuesday. The child porn charge, police went on to say, is related to the rape charge he pled guilty to in state court. Lebanon Police said this case resulted from a joint investigation with the federal Department of Homeland Security. The case goes back to October 2015 when Lebanon Police said they responded to a call of a possible attempted kidnapping in the Weatherly Estates area. “Curuchiche had befriended a local family and used fraud to obtain a key to the victim’s home. The victims did not know he had made this key at that time,” Lebanon Police said. “The investigation further revealed the offender had snuck in to the home after everyone was asleep on two occasions, and his actions led to the charge of rape of a child (six-year-old female), who lived…

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Commentary: Fighting Democrats’ Dirty Politics

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by Karin McQuillan   The midterms are in the rearview mirror and the chattering classes are back to debating fake collusion with Russia and a looming indictment of the president. Before the midterms, Republican voters were told this election was consequential. After the midterms, we’re told it is just one more split-government election, move along. I’m not moving along so easily, and neither is my circle of patriotic MAGA friends. Losing the House of Representatives was a crippling blow on immigration, the cornerstone of the Democrats’ drive to permanent domination. Any hopes of Democrats accepting Trump’s 2016 victory as normal politics is dead, and now they have Congress from which to harry and hobble the president. Democrats have dehumanized Trump and all his supporters as white supremacists, in order to justify violence against our republican foundations. Since inauguration day they have undermined respect for the presidential election, the Supreme Court, the electoral college, freedom of speech and religion and the right to bear arms. Democrats claim these hallowed institutions are bringing on fascism. Danger lights should be going off in every decent person’s mind. We are not in a terrain of politics as usual, but in a new and terrifying…

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Commentary: The Democrats Delusions Drive the Trump Impeachment Narrative

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by George Rasley   If the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation battle taught MAGA team members anything it should have been that radical Leftist Democrats and their fellow travelers in the liberal establishment will do anything and stop at nothing to get Donald Trump, or anyone associated with him. That is why the Nation and the President have been put through the Russian collusion hoax, and why Democrats stick with that narrative, even as the evidence for it has proven to be a complete fabrication. However, as the evidence for Russian collusion has evaporated, or proven to be a fabrication bought and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrats, the narrative has begun to shift. The last few days have seen a big pivot in the campaign against Donald Trump observed Byron York, chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner. For two-plus years, it was Russia, Russia, Russia. But despite various revelations in the Russia probe, the case for collusion remains as sketchy as ever. Now, however, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have given Democrats a new weapon against the president: Attorney Michael Cohen pleading guilty to two campaign finance felonies related to paying hush money…

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Broward County School Pulls Assignment Asking if Parkland Shooter Deserves to Die

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by Neetu Chandak   A Broward County high school pulled an assignment that asked students whether the suspected Parkland shooter deserves to die. The assignment, “Does Nikolas Cruz Deserve to Die?,” was given to freshmen at Coral Glades High School, ABC News reported Sunday. The school is about five miles away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where Cruz allegedly killed 17 students on Feb. 14. The worksheets included questions involving the shooting and the death penalty. It was offered as part of a subscription service from Scholastic Corporation, according to ABC. One multiple choice question referenced March for Our Lives co-founder Cameron Kasky, who The New York Times’ quoted in an October Upfront magazine article about death penalty, ABC reported. “In the article, Cameron Kasky says, ‘Let him rot forever.’ His tone can best be described as ___,” the question reads. Answers include “angry,” “fearful,” “gloomy” and “truthful.” https://twitter.com/cameron_kasky/status/1071151056309100546 Upfront is a current events magazine that provides high school students ‘balanced, age-appropriate information that can be used as teaching resources in the classroom,” Scholastic Inc. Vice President of corporate communications Anne Sparkman told The Daily Caller News Foundation over email. “The article and the quiz were intended only to…

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China Faces U.S. Pressure to Contain Deadly Fentanyl Exports

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by Joyce Huang   After meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 meeting earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump praised China for considering imposing the death penalty on illicit producers of fentanyl – an opioid up to 100 times more potent than morphine with a lethal dose of just two milligrams in most people. When fentanyl, which is used as a pain medication but has a high potential for abuse, was highlighted during a meeting between the leaders of the United States and China in Buenos Aires earlier this month, some analysts in China saw it as another one of Washington’s tactics to embarrass China. Others, however, note that reaching out to China to contain its deadliest export to the United States may not be enough if the country doesn’t ease its dependence on painkillers. Game changer Xi has promised to criminalize the sale of deadly fentanyl to the United States, according to Trump, who said it has the possibility of being “a game changer” in easing the fentanyl overdose epidemic in the United States. “Last year over 77,000 people died from Fentanyl in the US. If China cracks down on this ‘horror drug,’ using the Death…

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Google Employees Sought to Block Breitbart From Ads, Emails Show

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by Peter Hasson   Google employees sought to block Breitbart from Google AdSense less than one month after President Donald Trump took office, leaked emails from the company reveal. Google employees sought to use alleged “hate speech” as a pretense for banning Breitbart from taking part in the advertising program, the emails show. Barring Breitbart from the advertising program would have a devastating effect on the site’s ad revenue, as Google accounts for roughly 37 percent of all digital advertising revenue. Breitbart obtained the emails and published them on Monday night, one day before Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. A Google spokeswoman confirmed the emails’s authenticity to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “My team has been reviewing the site on a frequent (at least weekly) from the original fake news kick-off discussion,” Google’s director of monetization at the time, Jim Gray, assured employees concerned about Breitbart. Gray now is now Google’s director of trust and safety. Richard Zippel, a Google publisher quality manager at the time, similarly noted that Breitbart was being watched closely. “When sufficient violations have been found we’ll take action at the site level,” Zippel wrote. It’s unclear whether…

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Bill Lee Discusses School Choice But Will Not Commit to Placing it on His Agenda During First Year as Governor

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Governor-elect Bill Lee sat down for a twenty minute interview with Tennessean reporters Joel Ebert and Natalie Allison in that publication’s Grand Divisions podcast, which was also included in a story published at the Tennessean on Tuesday. Ebert pressed Lee on his commitment to supporting school choice in Tennessee, a central theme of the campaign. Lee said he was committed to school choice, but refused to promise that vouchers or school choice would be part of his first year agenda as governor. Sources tell The Tennessee Star that, at the moment, the Lee administration remains committed to school choice, but does not plan to make school choice an agenda item in his first year. This interview appears to confirm those sources. Here is the transcript of that portion of the interview: Ebert: Let’s go to the next subject.  While you’ve been campaigning you’ve talked about giving parents choices you know and you’ve mentioned that includes charters schools, school vouchers, um, and saying how those things will improve the state’s education system.  Of the handful of people you’ve added to your administration or announced that will join your administration, two are pro-voucher advocates, do you see in your first year vouchers…

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Senate to Take Up Trump-Backed Criminal Justice Reform Bill

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by Henry Rodgers   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the U.S. Senate will take up a criminal justice reform bill backed by President Donald Trump, on the House floor Tuesday morning. McConnell said in his speech it is likely the Senate will work between Christmas and New Year’s, “if necessary,” in order to pass criminal justice reform legislation before 2019. The Senate will now take on the bipartisan bill called the “First Step Act,” after pressure from the White House and other members of the Senate who have been pushing for the legislation to be passed. “At the request of the president and following improvements to the legislation that has been secured by several members, the Senate will take up the recently revised criminal justice bill this month. I intend to turn to the new text as early as the end of this week. So as a result of this additional legislative business, members should now be prepared to work between Christmas and New Year’s, if necessary, in order to complete our work,” McConnell said in his floor speech Tuesday. ‘Let me say that again. Unless we approach all this work in a highly collaborative, productive way and take…

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Steve Cohen asks Google CEO to Probe ‘Overuse of Conservative News Organizations in Search Results’

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) apparently does not like it when Google shows conservative websites’ coverage of his television appearances. He remarked upon that trend during a House Judiciary Committee grilling of Google CEO Sundar Pichai Tuesday. Cohen accused Google of “overly using conservative news organizations on your news,” PJ Media reported. “This weekend I was on MSNBC four times, and yet the first thing that comes up is The Daily Caller, not exactly a liberal, but I guess well-known group, then Roll Call, then Breitbart News, then the Memphis Business Journal, then Breitbart News, then Breitbart,” Cohen said. “…I’d like you to look into overuse of conservative news organizations to put on liberal people’s news on Google.” Pichai said, “I can assure you we do this in a neutral way. And we do this based on that specific keyword, what we are able to access the most relevant information.” “I’m sure you try to, but it’s hard for me to fathom being on MSNBC for like eight minutes each show, four times, and there’s more content on Breitbart News than MSNBC,” Cohen replied. “That might say something about – well I’m not going to say that. Scary.” Perhaps even…

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Left-Wing Activist Justin Jones Court Date Set for January

Chris Butler

Justin Jones, the Nashville activist who disrupted a rally for then-U.S. Senate Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn, is scheduled to have his day in court next month. Jones, a Vanderbilt Divinity School student, will have a hearing January 11 at 8:30 a.m. That hearing is scheduled to take place at the Davidson County Criminal Court, said Stephen Hayslip, spokesman for Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk. Jones’ hearing was originally scheduled for last Friday before it was reset, Hayslip said. As reported, Jones said he only attended the Blackburn rally, in late October, to hear what Blackburn, now the U.S. Sen.-elect, had to say. Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was the event’s keynote speaker. Blackburn held the event at the Ray Stevens’ CabaRay Showroom in Nashville. As The Star reported, however, organizers recognized Jones as someone with a history of causing trouble at other political events and gave him a direct order to leave. Jones refused and later claimed the police officers who showed up to force him out wanted to beat him. He also denied Tennessee Republican Party officials’ claim he intentionally went to the rally to cause a scene. Jones, who identifies as African-American, said GOP officials…

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Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: Defeat and the Dossier Explain Everything

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by Victor Davis Hanson   Donald Trump’s former consiglieri Michael Cohen, along with being charged with tax avoidance and improper business deals, allegedly is guilty also of trying to leverage money and attention by exaggerating his influence with candidate and later President Trump. In other words, Cohen to spec followed the standard creepy daily fare for Washington and New York wannabe fixers. But did we need Robert Mueller’s 18 months and $40 million to uncover and redirect to federal attorneys what was largely self-evident? Could not the U.S. government long ago, without the prompt of a special counsel, have uncovered that Michael Cohen did not fully pay his taxes—in the manner of an Al Sharpton, Timothy Geithner, and Tom Daschle? The diabolical Cohen also tried to enforce, extend, or create non-disclosure agreements (Swampese for hush money) with two women from Trump’s past. The two reappeared out of nowhere in 2016, apparently to translate their alleged Trump hookups of a few hours in years past to notoriety and additional profit in the new age of “President Trump.” Swamp Crimes In other words, Michael Cohen was a sort of rough-hewn version of former Bill Clinton crony Vernon Jordan. The latter, remember, was…

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School Choice Provides Flexible Options That Fit Students’ Unique Needs, Beacon Center Says at Jackson Event

Jason M. Reynolds

The Beacon Center on Monday hosted a meeting on school choice issues in the upcoming legislative session for 2019. Taylor Dawson, outreach coordinator for the Beacon Center, spoke about the organization’s legislative goals regarding school choice and the ways in which volunteers can help. The meeting was held at Brooks Shaw’s Old Country Store in Jackson. Beacon’s Justin Owen, president and CEO, also wrote in the Jackson Sun, “Parents should decide the best educational environment for their child. This National School Choice Week, we should remember how educational choice works to empower parents to customize their child’s education that fits his or her unique needs.” In the op-ed, Owens touts the benefits of Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs), which the General Assembly authorized in 2015 for parents of children with special needs. According to a Beacon special report, summarized here, ESAs “provide families a more flexible option than traditional voucher programs. ESA funds can be used to create a truly customized education experience including tutoring, speech and other education therapy, private school tuition, homeschool curriculum and supplies, education technology, and even help save for college.” Beacon’s two-part series is titled, “Counting Dollars and Cents: The Economic Impact of a Statewide Education Savings…

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OFF THE RECORD: Lee’s RINO Stampede Continues

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“Conservative” Governor-Elect Bill Lee continues to to fill his Administration with Democrats and Republicans in Name Only (RINO’s). For those keeping count, the number of Democrat Governor Phil Bredesen’s political appointees who have since been elevated and now retained at the Cabinet level (2) outnumbers the dependable conservatives who have found a spot on Team Lee — approximately ZERO. The latest Cabinet and senior staff announcements haven’t changed that. Nor has he provided his conservative base any assurance that there is ANY room in his Administration for those with whom he claimed to be in ideological alignment during his campaign. Last week, Lee announced his legislative affairs team. Chris Devaney, a former senior staffer and closely aligned with outgoing Never Trumper Senator Bob Corker (who worked against Marsha Blackburn in her race to fill Corker’s seat), will serve as Special Assistant to Lee. Legislative affairs will be part of his portfolio. Brent Easley will head Lee’s Legislative Affairs office. Easley previously served as Tennessee Director for Michelle Rhee’s (ex-wife of former Haslam Education Commissioner and Obama voter Kevin Huffman) StudentsFirst Common Core and voucher advocacy group. He also served as a senior policy advisor for former State Representative Debra Maggart,…

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Attorney General Nominee is an Advocate of Investigating Hillary

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by Fred Lucas   William Barr is a former U.S. attorney general, an advocate of investigating Hillary Clinton, and a bagpipe player for 60 years. President Donald Trump announced Friday that he would nominate Barr, 68, to serve again as attorney general. He previously served in the position from November 1991 to January 1993 under President George H.W. Bush, who died Nov. 30 and was laid to rest Thursday. In confirming to reporters outside the White House that he would nominate Barr, Trump called the lawyer and former business leader “one of the most respected jurists in the country,” a “highly respected lawyer,” and “a terrific man, a terrific person, a brilliant man.” Already, some Democrats are criticizing Barr for comments he has made in media interviews and op-eds. If confirmed by the Senate, Barr would succeed acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, who took over after Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “I did not know him until recently when I went through the process of looking at people, and he was my first choice from Day One,” Trump said of Barr. “Respected by Republicans and respected by Democrats, he will be nominated for the United States attorney general.” Here…

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Kavanaugh Joins Liberals to Protect Pro-Planned Parenthood Ruling

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by Kevin Daley   The Supreme Court declined to review three cases relating to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood at the state level Monday, over a vigorous dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas. The dissent was significant because it indicates that Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the high court’s liberal wing to deny review of a lower court decision that favored the nation’s largest abortion provider. “So what explains the Court’s refusal to do its job here?,” Thomas wrote. “I suspect it has something to do with the fact that some respondents in these cases are named ‘Planned Parenthood.’” “Some tenuous connection to a politically fraught issue does not justify abdicating our judicial duty,” Thomas added. “If anything, neutrally applying the law is all the more important when political issues are in the background.” [Read Justice Thomas’ dissent] Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch joined the Thomas dissent, meaning there were three votes in favor of taking the case. Since four votes are needed for the Supreme Court to take up a case, the opinion indicates that Chief Justice John Roberts and Kavanaugh joined with the four liberals to deny review. This move could indicate that Roberts and Kavanaugh are…

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Audit: TennCare Gave Out Money to Dead People and People in Prison

Chris Butler

TennCare gave out more than $700,000 to duplicate members and also to people who were already dead or incarcerated, according to a new state audit. All of those recipients were ineligible to receive TennCare money. The findings, released late last week, cover July 2016 through December 2017. Generally, TennCare must refund the federal share of Medicaid overpayments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, auditors wrote. “TennCare should investigate providers who billed for services that took place after a member’s date of death or during a member’s incarceration to determine if fraud occurred,” auditors wrote. As for people in prison, auditors said “TennCare should work with the Tennessee Department of Correction and its incarceration data contractor to establish a more effective process for identifying and verifying TennCare members who are incarcerated and suspending those members immediately.” TennCare, auditors went on to say, should also retroactively recoup any payments made on behalf of incarcerated TennCare members. TennCare officials should weed out payments made to members with multiple TennCare identification numbers, auditors wrote. In a written response to auditors, TennCare officials said they concur with some of the findings. TennCare officials, though, said they disagreed with Comptrollers’ findings on payments to…

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The Paris Climate Agreement is ‘Dead,’ Declares Former Top UN Delegate

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by Michael Bastasch   Saudi Arabia’s former lead delegate to United Nations climate talks said the Paris agreement to fight global warming is “dead,” ending what he called a “big conspiracy the world created.” Mohammed Salim Al Sabban, also a former adviser to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, celebrated what he called the unofficial “death” of the Paris accord. “Are you still following the dead Paris Agreement?” Al Sabban tweeted in response to former New York Times write Andrew Revkin. “They will go from one meeting to another forever till it’s officially announced its death. Don’t be selective when you attack the Saudi UNFCCC position. It is unfair,” Al Sabban wrote. Revkin was commenting on news that the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait refused to “welcome” the findings of a U.N. climate report released in October. The report said carbon dioxide emissions would need to decline 45 percent by 2030 to avoid warming greater than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Nice hearing from you Mr.Revkin. It has been long time.Are you still following the dead Paris Agreement?They will go from one meeting to another forever till it’s officially announced its death. Don’t be selective when you attack the…

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Commentary: Why the Left Hates the Holidays

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by Robert Miller   As immediate memories of the midterm elections fade in the face of the holiday season, the country’s cultural cold war will inevitably encompass battles over “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays,” the appropriate “inclusiveness” of workplace parties, and absurd debates over Starbucks coffee cups and the potential racism of “Jingle Bells.” As December unfolds and guides us towards a 2019 guaranteed to be plagued with political polarization, it is worth examining the deeper civilizational zeitgeist beneath the annual seasonal festivities. Underpinning our annual holiday dilemmas is an elemental divide in Western civilization, and one that juxtaposes Judeo-Christian meaning against materialism and nihilism. Christmas and Hanukkah, the two premier holidays of December in America, both celebrate concepts that are an anathema to the Left. Hanukkah, with its celebration of religious liberty and military victory carries with it a commemoration of national sovereignty in the face of a godless and power-hungry government. The religious meaning of Christmas and its focus upon the advent of a historical incarnation of the Divine within a human being places inherent worth within the individual. In the case of the Christian tradition, a human incarnation of the Divine is predicated upon the notion that…

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Britain’s May Postpones Crucial Brexit Vote

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Britain’s already disorderly departure from the European Union turned even more chaotic Monday when Prime Minister Theresa May postponed a House of Commons vote on her Brexit withdrawal deal, an agreement that took months of tortuous negotiations with Brussels to conclude. After four days of debate in the House of Commons and a panicky effort by the prime minister to sell the deal to an increasingly disapproving British public, lawmakers were set to rebuff May’s withdrawal agreement. Defeat would force May out of Downing Street and possibly trigger the fall of the Conservative government. While May Monday insisted publicly the vote on the withdrawal agreement, which she has staked her credibility on, would go ahead, aides said that behind-the-scenes, Cabinet ministers implored her not to move ahead. They urged her to return to Brussels instead to try to secure more concessions before the House of Commons has the final say. They argued May was facing a parliamentary defeat of historic proportions and needed to roll the dice. But Plan B— returning to Brussels to reopen negotiations on the 585-page deal— looks doomed. On news of the postponement, the already anemic pound crashed to its lowest level against the dollar in…

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Independent Women’s Forum Celebrates Reversal of Michelle Obama’s School Lunch Rules

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by Nick Givas   Julie Gunlock of The Independent Women’s Forum celebrated the reversal of former first lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules on “Fox & Friends” Monday, saying children will get more nourishment from the new menus. “These reforms that went through in 2010 pushed by Michelle Obama, were well-intentioned, but in reality kids were not eating the food,” Gunlock said. “And we saw that there was a major food waste problem developing in some of these schools.” Gunlock claimed students were so unhappy with the quality of the food they began throwing the meals into the trash. “Kids were taking entire trays and throwing them in the garbage,” she said. “One study said 60 percent of vegetables, 40 percent of fruit was just being tossed. In one L.A. County, the school made an arrangement with a homeless shelter to give the food because they had so much left because, again, kids were not eating the food. So these reforms are just to give school cafeteria workers essentially more flexibility to make the food tasty as well as nutritious.” Co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked if it was wise to return to the old lunch menus simply because children didn’t enjoy the healthier options. Gunlock said detractors were…

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Gov.-Elect Bill Lee Appoints Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Long as Commissioner of Department of Safety and Homeland Security

Jason M. Reynolds

Gov.-elect Bill Lee has named Williamson County Sheriff Jeff Long as commissioner of the state Department of Safety and Homeland Security. The Tennessee Journal’s On the Hill reported the appointment Monday. The department oversees the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Office of Homeland Security and drivers’ license centers, among other functions. Long, the Tennessee Sheriff Association’s sheriff of the year of 2013, will take over the post from David Purkey, who was named safety commissioner in 2016. Purkey, a former state trooper and mayor of Hamblen County, had served as assistant commissioner since 2011. Long succeeded former Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley, who resigned in 2008 as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors in Davidson and Williamson counties over fraudulently obtaining prescription pain pills, the Journal reported. Long previously said he first met and was impressed by Lt. Gov./Senate Speaker Rand McNally (R-TN-05) during Operation Rocky Top, a law enforcement sting of political corruption in the late 1980s when McNally helped prosecutors. Long is a graduate of the University of Memphis with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science, according to his biography on the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office website. He received a Doctorate of Jurisprudence Degree from Nashville School of…

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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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