Day: January 5, 2019

Tennessee Star Report Exclusive: Williamson County Democratic Chair Holly McCall on Her Bid for State Party Chair

Julie Carr

On Friday’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 – Gill and Leahy spoke to Holly McCall, Williamson County’s Democratic Party chair and discussed her thoughts on the Democratic Party’s current national narrative about her grass roots movement to replace current Tennessee Democratic Party State chair Mary Mancini. They continued the discussion about the Democratic image challenges McCall faces and her position on how to turn things around.  At the end of the segment, McCall touches upon the difference between Southern Democrats and the rest of the country and how the message needs to be talked about sanely and found it unfortunate that some Democrats were unwilling to speak to The Tennessee Star. Gill: We talked yesterday with incoming house speaker Republican Glen Casada and today we thought we’d give you the flip side with Holly McCall who actually ran against Glen Casada for that state house seat in Williamson County a couple years ago. She is the chairman of the Williamson County Democratic Party and wants to be chairman of the Democratic Party for the state of Tennessee. Mary…

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U.S. Rep. Mark Green Refuses Salary During Partial Government Shutdown

Jason M. Reynolds

Freshman U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) has asked that he not be paid during the partial federal government shutdown. Green sent a letter Friday to the U.S. House of Representative’s Chief Administrative Officer, Philip Kiko, requesting his salary be suspended until a deal is reached and the partial government shutdown ends: Dear Mr. Kiko, I am writing today to ask you to withhold my salary as long as the government is partially shut down. I do not believe it is appropriate for Members of Congress to be paid during a lapse in appropriations while hardworking border security agents and other civil servants are furloughed. Please accept this letter as notice that I will refuse any salary until the government is funded. In November, Green was unanimously elected president of the Republican Freshman Class by 33 members-elect of the 116th Congress, The Tennessee Star reported at the time. Before he won the House seat in November, Green served as Tennessee state senator for the 22nd District for Stewart/Houston/Montgomery counties. Green’s thinking is in line with that of former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Haley, also a former governor of South Carolina, tweeted Thursday, “Today the new Congress takes office. No member should get paid while the…

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Iowa Attorney Jim Larew Talks to The Tennessee Star Report About Possible 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates

Julie Carr

On Friday’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 Star Team chatted with Iowa attorney, Jim Larew about his thoughts of who will run as a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Larew served as general counsel for former Iowa Governor Chet Culver, a Democrat, from 2007 to 2011, and simultaneously as chief of staff from 2010 to 2011. At the conclusion of the show, Larew offered a very interesting psychological interpretation as it pertains to who will break out from the pack, breaking the process down to that of “celebrity status” within the party. Leahy: You know, Elizabeth Warren is in Iowa and we have a good friend from many years ago, a leading attorney in Iowa, a Democrat, Jim Larew on the line with us. Jim, welcome to the Tennessee Star Report! Larew: Well, thank you it’s been a long time, nice to hear from you. Leahy: It’s been a long time. We went to college together.  We were roommates in Washington, D.C. one summer when you were working for Senator John Culver (D-IA). Larew: That’s right.  You may know, that…

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Venezuelan Migrant Crisis Reaching Syria Levels

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by Joe Simonson   The massive exodus of Venezuelans to neighboring countries could soon eclipse the number of refugees flowing from Syria at the height of the country’s civil war. More than three million Venezuelans have fled the country and now live in countries like Argentina or even the U.S., according to a review of figures provided by the International Migration Organization and the United Nations Agency for Refugees. More than 330,000 Venezuelans have declared asylum in countries throughout the Americas. Colombia has absorbed the largest amount of migrants, with 1,200,000 Venezuelans currently living there. At the beginning of January 2018, there was an increase of 20,500 percent in asylum seeking applications from Venezuelans compared to one year prior. The United Nations says that from 2012 to November 2018, asylum applications from Venezuelans increased 74,191 percent. For comparison, U.N. figures put the total amount of Syrian asylum seekers during 2015 refugee crisis in Europe at over 450,000. By December 2017, one million Syrians applied for asylum throughout the continent. Globally, roughly five million Syrians are displaced outside of their home country. Nearly three million Syrians currently reside in Turkey. The Caracas Chronicles, a news organization dedicated to covering Venezuela’s economic…

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Surge in US Job Creation, Fed Reassurance Boosts Stocks

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A surge in U.S. job creation and some reassuring words from the head of the U.S. central bank sent U.S. stocks soaring Friday. The Labor Department reported a net gain of 312,000 jobs in December, far more than economists predicted. The unemployment rate, however, rose slightly, to 3.9 percent. Many analysts said the rising unemployment rate was probably good news because rising wages prompted many jobless people to start looking for work. People are not counted as officially unemployed unless they have searched for work in the past four weeks. In December, the labor force expanded by a healthy 419,000 people as wages rose 3.2 percent over the past year. PNC Bank Chief Economist Gus Faucher said the data meant worries about a possible recession were probably “overblown.” Worried investors have sent stocks mostly downward in recent months in a series of drastic gains and losses driven in part by concern that the U.S. central bank might raise interest rates too quickly and choke off growth. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that Fed officials were “listening carefully” to markets that were weighing the impact of “concerns on global growth and trade negotiations.” Dec Mullarkey of Sun Life Investment…

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Trump Poses Question to Those Seeking to Impeach Him

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by Hanna Bogorowski   President Donald Trump issued a rhetorical question on Twitter Friday morning addressing the calls for impeachment against him, which have been increasingly apparent as Democrats officially took over the House on Thursday. “How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%?” the president wrote. How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no Collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that Colluded), had the most successful first two years of any president, and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2019 Trump’s Friday morning inquiry comes a day after the 116th Congress was sworn in on Capitol Hill, ushering in a barrier-breaking cohort of lawmakers. Hours after being sworn in, Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib made a promise to her supporters at a rally Thursday that she’d go after Trump and “impeach the motherf****r.” https://twitter.com/BarstoolNewsN/status/1081038050023616512 Democratic…

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Insurers Sue California Utility Over Wildfire Damages

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Several insurance companies have filed lawsuits blaming Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for a deadly California wildfire that destroyed 14,000 homes and triggered billions of dollars in insurance claims. The lawsuits filed by Allstate, State Farm, USAA and their subsidiaries come on top of several other cases filed by victims of the Camp Fire, which devastated the towns of Paradise, Magalia and Concow north of Sacramento after it started Nov. 8. Investigators have not pinpointed a cause for the fire. But the insurance companies note in their lawsuits that flames ignited near the site of a transmission-line irregularity reported by the utility. They also note a potential second ignition point involving PG&E distribution lines. California law Under California law, PG&E is held entirely liable if lawyers can prove the fire is linked to the utility’s power lines or other equipment, a fact that sent shares of the company tumbling following the start of the fire. Following a series of deadly fires in 2017 in Northern California’s wine country, PG&E executives and lobbyists tried to persuade state lawmakers to change the legal standard and reduce the company’s liability. Lawmakers declined, but they allowed the company to pass along some of the…

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Shelby County Criminal Clerk Reportedly Plagued with Problems

Chris Butler

The new Shelby County Criminal Clerk is finding countless uncashed checks all over her office – in folders, bookshelves, and in-between drawers in desks, according to LocalMemphis.com No one bothered to deposit the checks either, according to the website. These are checks made out to the clerk’s office. The clerk’s office is taxpayer-funded. County Clerk Heidi Kuhn, on the job for 90 days, wants an audit of her department, the station reported. That department oversees 10 criminal court judges and collects fines and fees from the public, LocalMemphis.com said. The checks were filed during the tenure of former clerk Richard De Seussure, according to the station. “We didn’t know who they went to, or what they were for,” the station reported Kuhn as saying. This reportedly happened because of problems with the county’s computer system, known as Odyssey, which Memphis officials started using in November 2016. “Kuhn says she has heard that the computer troubles were the reasons why the checks weren’t filed or cashed,” LocalMemphis.com reported. “And she says former clerk De Saussure said his office had finally caught up with the computer problems.” The station reported many previous problems with Odyssey. “Judges were sent to wrong courtrooms, inmates…

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Walz Nominee for DNR Commissioner Worked for Activists Suing to Stop Mining Project

Anthony Gockowski

Gov.-elect Tim Walz (D-MN) named Sarah Strommen his commissioner for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Thursday in a move some Republicans say raises “red flags.” Strommen has worked in various roles in her more than 20-year career of interacting with the DNR, and most recently served as the assistant commissioner for the divisions of Fish and Wildlife, and Parks and Trails at the Minnesota DNR. But she also worked as policy director for Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, a group that sued the federal government to block a mining project in northeastern Minnesota. In May 2018, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management reinstated federal leases for a Twin Metals copper-nickel underground mine close to Ely and resting on Birch Lake, a body of water that flows into the Boundary Waters. That has made the project the ire of local and national environmental groups who are suing the federal government to prevent it from moving forward, according to The Star Tribune. In total, three complaints were filed against the Interior Department, one from a cohort of national environmental groups, another from a group of nine local Minnesota businesses, and the last from Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness.…

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Pelosi and Schumer Side with Illegal Aliens Over 38.6 Million Food Stamp Recipients to Block the Wall

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At the end of the month, food stamp benefits will run out for 38.6 million recipients on account of the partial government shutdown. Right now, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program is being funded with previously appropriated dollars, but in February that will change as the Department of Agriculture remains unfunded for Fiscal Year 2019. It could be resolved in five minutes. But it won’t be because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) are siding with illegal aliens to block funding for the southern border wall. Would they keep the border wide open so that drugs can be smuggled and gangs and human trafficking can run rampant rather than help needy families keep their children’s bellies full? Really? Much of the crime brought on by illegal immigration disproportionately winds up in the very poorer communities that depend on food stamps. We’re talking about 19.4 million households including 38.6 million individual recipients who receive $4.7 billion of SNAP benefits monthly. There are also hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are going without pay for the duration of the shutdown. They have bills to pay, too. Are Pelosi and Schumer willing to sacrifice them all on…

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Commentary: Enough with the Joke Killing, Already!

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by Karl Notturno   An online publication that few people read recently published an article headlined “These 13 Jokes From ‘Seinfeld’ Are Super Offensive Now.” It predictably follows the latest fashion of taking something from the past and finding reasons to be outraged at it—evidently, these voracious outrage whores have run out of targets for their rage in the present. One of the striking qualities of the article is how lazy it is. Discussing a joke in which Jerry asks how he can be racist to Chinese women if he “likes their race,” the aggrieved author says, “hopefully the issues with that exchange don’t require further explanation for anyone in 2018.” Responding to another joke in which Kramer mistakes a “fat little mental patient” as a “pig man,” the author simply writes “yikes.” These types of responses are all too typical in such “think pieces.” Authors of such pieces often entirely gloss over what exactly they find offensive. They simply assume that all good people will agree with them. They do not even attempt to engage with readers who may differ or who may be bewildered at their moral outrage. Instead, they assume that these people are beneath reason and…

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Nearly 1-in-3 Los Angeles County Voters Will Be Purged from California Voter Rolls in Landmark Settlement Agreement

Anthony Gockowski

The State of California settled a lawsuit with the Election Integrity Project California (EIPCa) Friday and has agreed to remove as many as 1.5 million inactive registrants from the Los Angeles County voter rolls. EIPCa filed suit against the state in August 2017 and alleged that California was not “following the requirements of Section 8 of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act (NVRA),” which requires states to reasonably maintain state and county voter registration rolls. According to EIPCa, the settlement means that Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan (pictured above) must immediately begin following federal mandates for “identifying and removing deceased, moved, and other ineligible registrants,” which is estimated to be as many as 1.5 million. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that Los Angeles County has a population of 10.1 million, and 5.2 million are registered voters, according to Logan’s office. That means up to 28.8 percent – nearly a third – of registered voters in Los Angeles County were ineligible registrants. “Because of the powerful and overwhelming evidence provided by EIPCa, this was an exceptionally strong case,” Linda Paine, president of EIPCa, said in a press release late Friday. “California’s voter rolls are unforgivably bloated, a situation that…

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Despite Steve Cohen Efforts, Leftists Have Previously Defended Electoral College

Chris Butler
Steve Cohen

Memphis-area U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) may want to do away with the country’s Electoral College, but scholars and journalists alike – even liberal ones – have said in years past that it’s a bad idea. As The Tennessee Star reported, Cohen, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a bill to eliminate the Electoral College used to select U.S. presidents. Cohen, of course, is unhappy that current Republican President Donald Trump took the presidency by winning the electoral college but not the popular vote. But many people say Cohen’s perspective is a flawed one. The Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, for example, cited the 2000 presidential election where George W. Bush prevailed over Al Gore in the electoral college but not the popular vote. “Whoever won, Bush or Gore, it was going to be by a hairsbreadth. Because of the Electoral College, we did not have to recount the whole nation. Instead we could focus on a more manageable task—recounting the state of Florida,” according to the Brookings Institution. “Imagine the problems that would arise, tensions that would exist, and the claims of illegitimacy likely to follow if the entire nation had to be counted, and then…

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Court Decides in Favor of the Trump Administration in Curbing Transgenders’ Service in the Military

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US Army

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a Trump administration policy of restricting transgender people from serving in the military. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Friday that a lower court judge was wrong to block the Pentagon from implementing its plan to limit transgender people in the military. The lower-court judge had ruled the Trump policy most likely violated the constitutional rights of transgender recruits and service members. Pentagon pleased with decision However, in ruling for the Trump administration’s position, the appeals court said Friday that the military policy “appears to permit some transgender individuals to serve in the military.” It also said the plan relied on the “considered professional judgment” of “appropriate military officials.” Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell told VOA that the Department of Defense was “pleased with the D.C. Circuit’s decision.” “As always, we treat all transgender persons with respect and dignity. It is critical that the department be permitted to formulate personnel policies that it determines are necessary to ensure the most lethal and combat-effective fighting force in the world,” Maxwell said. Friday’s ruling will not allow the Pentagon to implement its policy immediately, because other judges have…

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Ohio Proves Resilient as the Partial Government Shutdown Marks Its Second Week

Andrew Shirley

With no end in sight to the partial-government shutdown, federal workers nationwide are adjusting to the possibility of an extended shutdown. While many areas of the country are heavily impacted, Ohio is poised to weather this storm. In a new report published Thursday, Ohio was revealed to be one of the states least affected by the government shutdown. Of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, The District was the most negatively affected with Minnesota as the least. Ohio came in at 42nd. The report was executed by WalletHub, a financial services company based in Washington DC. The rankings were the result of combining measurements for; Share of Federal Jobs Share of Federal Contract Dollars Per Capita Percentage of Families Recieving SNAP Real Estate as Percentage of Gross State Product Access to National Parks The report also found states which voted Democrat in 2016 were slightly more affected than states that voted Republican. According to the Labor Department numbers, as of June 2017, Ohio has 78,575 federal employees. While many of these Ohio residents have been affected by the government shutdown, almost half of these employees are military personnel, Department of Defense employees, of Veterans Affairs employees. This partial shutdown…

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Keith Ellison Accuser Alleges Widespread Pattern of ‘Abuse and Bullying’

Anthony Gockowski

Keith Ellison accuser Karen Monahan claimed Friday that she has received several “confidential messages” regarding other acts of “abuse and bullying” committed by Ellison since coming forward with her allegations. “Every single one has told me to protect my family from Keith [and] his people. There is so much fear that keep[s] others from speaking out,” Monahan wrote on Twitter Friday afternoon. I’ve received so many confidential messages, regarding abuse and bullying award others at the hands of Keith Ellison. Every single one has told me to protect my family from Keith & his people. There is so much fear that keep others from speaking out — Karen Monahan (@KarenMonahan01) January 4, 2019 Monahan also revisited a story from 2005 when Amy Alexander, the first woman to accuse Ellison of domestic abuse, spoke out. Unlike Monahan, Alexander has no presence online, and has been difficult to track down. In a 2006 article for The Wright County Republican, Alexander claimed that she moved to New York for five years because she felt “exiled” from “black community activism.” That publication is now defunct, and the article can only be accessed via an archived copy uploaded to Scribd. Some, like Monahan, claim that…

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As Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown Plans 2020 Run, High Dollar Backers Complicate His Future

Andrew Shirley

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has made it very clear that the Oval Office is in his sights. Coming off a six-point reelection victory, the only nonjudicial Democrat to win in Ohio in 2018, Brown has been working behind the scenes to build the infrastructure, support, and endorsements necessary to mount a challenge to President Donald Trump in 2020. However, the third-term Democrat’s presidential campaign may already be over before its even been announced. With as many as 30 Democrats reportedly considering 2020 presidential runs, some of the most visible progressive legislators have inadvertently sent stringent political litmus tests that will leave many contenders in a difficult position. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and other assertively progressive candidates have made public overtures about the evil and corrupting nature of high dollar fundraising, special interest group funds, PAC’s, Super PAC’s, and other forms of corporate backing. Most of these candidates tout their reelection successes through only small individual donations as evidence of how unnecessary these election tools are. These candidates are now condemning any candidate, Democrat or Republican, who accepts funding from these entities. In 2016, a major talking point for Sanders’ presidential campaign was that his average campaign donation was $27,…

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Tennessee Pastors Network Raises Alarm Over ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ at Putnam County Library

Jason M. Reynolds

Drag queens may be coming to your local library this year to indoctrinate your children, a pastors association says. The “Drag Queen Story Hour” is returning to Tennessee, this time to the Putnam County Library in Cookeville, the Tennessee Pastors Network said in a press release. The event was scheduled for today. A promotion for the event proclaims: Book reading, crafts and a dance party for children. Join us as local drag queens promote anti bullying. About Organizer: You asked for it, you got it…Middle Tennessee has our very own Drag Queen Story Hour chapter! This is a children’s reading program that focuses on LGBTQ+ love, acceptance and tolerance. Bring your school-aged children to the Putnam County Library the 1s Last August, the drag queens, who travel around the nation, brought their show to the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library, The Tennessee Star reported. The Tennessee Pastors Network cautions against the trend. We are seeing further Drag Queen Story Hour readings at public libraries in the Bible Belt,” the network’s President Dale Walker said in a statement. “This should be a matter of grave concern to pastors in Tennessee with a biblical worldview. The LGBTQ isn’t just interested in tolerance, but…

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Commentary: House Republicans’ First Mistake – Playing On The Democrats’ Field

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by George Rasley   The House Republicans first day in the minority got off to an inauspicious start via Rep. Liz Cheney’s introduction and nomination of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Cheney began the speech by pandering to liberal feminists by citing what an honor it was to speak in the House Chamber where the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote was passed. Setting aside the fact that the 19th Amendment passed 99 years ago, what that had to do with Kevin McCarthy, a fairly obvious male, the House Republicans’ agenda or anything else was obscure to most listeners. It’s not that Rep. Cheney didn’t proceed to list a bunch of things House Republicans are (more or less) for or against – it is that she failed to articulate those things into a coherent worldview that could be weighed against the Democrats’ worldview. This was a great disappointment because when Rep. Cheney ran for House Conference Chairman, we had high expectations for her based on the agenda she set forth before and after the vote. Just this past Sunday Cheney vowed on Sunday to “fight hard” against socialist policies Democrats may pursue as the majority party…

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