Day: January 19, 2019

Inclement Weather Forces Gov.-elect Lee to Move Inauguration Service Inside to War Memorial Auditorium

Jason M. Reynolds

Today’s forecast of inclement weather with rain, strong winds and possible lightning caused Gov.-elect Bill Lee to move his inauguration inside War Memorial Auditorium from the traditional site of Legislative Plaza. Lee said on Facebook,”Due to inclement weather, the Inaugural Ceremony has been moved to War Memorial Auditorium. View the full details for the event at BelieveinTN.com.” “While the weather doesn’t seem to be cooperating, we are looking forward to a fantastic inaugural weekend,” he said. “Be safe, but still also feel welcome to attend this historic event. We are making every effort to accommodate overflow space for those wishing to attend.” The inaugural ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. CST. A list of events is here. War Memorial Auditorium has a seating capacity of 1,661, WKRN said. This will be the first time since the inauguration of Gov. Ray Blanton in 1975 that the ceremony has been moved off of the Plaza. There was no room for the governor-elect at Bridgestone Arena, where the Predators are playing. No tickets are required to attend the inauguration ceremony, The Tennessee Star previously reported. Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Jeffrey S. Bivins will administer Lee’s oath of office. The event will be a joint…

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Commentary: The Democrats’ Behavior During the Shutdown Reveals Their Cold Indifference to Real Victims of Illegal Immigration

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By Madison Gesiotto   The ongoing government shutdown over the border crisis has made one thing exceedingly clear: the Democrats are cold and indifferent to the victims of violent illegal aliens. On Tuesday afternoon a group of Angel Moms — the mothers of Americans slain by illegal aliens — went to Capitol Hill to raise awareness about the dangers of illegal immigration. Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to even meet with them. “The doors stayed closed, we got this bored look from her receptionist,” said Angel Mom Sabine Durden during an interview. “We just knew that she was somewhere in there and they just didn’t want to give us the time of day. We didn’t want to have a long meeting and at least have her acknowledge us, but nothing. Nothing, none of that.” “It’s so disrespectful, it’s unbelievably hurtful, and you feel re-victimized by her because of her flippant statements and acting like this is not a serious problem,” Durden continued. If the Democrats’ refusal to negotiate a solution to the border crisis and partial government shutdown is a sign of their petulance and arrogance, their steadfast refusal to recognize the human victims of their own open borders…

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Metro Nashville Basketball: Eagles, Panthers Split Doubleheader

McKinley Young, Jr.

Girls Lady Panthers Upset Lady Eagles in a Classic (January 15, 2019) The battle of the top two teams in Metro Nashville girls’ basketball did not disappoint anyone, as it came down to the closing seconds. The number two ranked Maplewood Lady Panthers gained a huge road win against the number one ranked East Nashville Magnet Lady Eagles 60-58. The game had many ups and downs as both teams fought until the very last second. The pace of the game was up and down with each possession the defense got tighter as both teams made runs throughout the game. The Lady Panthers was led by senior forward Ye Taviea Carter who had a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds. She was a major factor the last three minutes of the game making big shots and grabbing rebounds in clutch moments. Sophomore guard Tameia Shaw for East Nashville tried to keep her team in it throughout the game with the Eagles leading scorer London Fairs having an off night. With 22 seconds left in the game and up one point, Carter missed a free throw and teammate Zariah Cameron grabbed the rebound and scored to give Maplewood a three-point lead 59-56.…

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US Oil Boom Is Defying Expectations, Experts Say

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by Jason Hopkins   The United States is expected to churn out far more oil in 2019 than what international analysts originally forecasted. The International Energy Agency, a Paris-based organization that helps coordinate energy policies for industrial countries, released its latest oil market report Friday, noting exceptional numbers for the U.S. fossil fuel industry. The agency reported U.S. oil production is expected to rise by 1.3 million barrels a day in 2019. While this number is lower than the record-smashing 2.1 million increase producers enjoyed in 2018, it’s more than double what the IEA initially expected to see in 2019. The forecast illustrates the latest in the country’s shale oil boom, which has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years thanks to the emergence of hydraulic fracturing and an administration that has fostered a more conducive environment for fossil fuel development. Already, the U.S. is the largest international crude oil producer, with output expected to top 12 million barrels per day in 2019 and reach 12.9 million by 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration’s latest report. Analysts predict the U.S. will keep blowing past its global competitors. “By the middle of the year, US crude output will probably be more…

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Poll Shows School Choice Has 67 Percent Support Among Likely 2020 General Election Voters

Jason M. Reynolds

Latinos and Millennials are among the demographics who most strongly support school choice, the fifth annual National School Choice Poll says. The American Federation for Children, which advocates for educational choice, and Beck Research, a Democratic polling firm, announced the poll results Thursday. More information on the poll is available here in an article by Tommy Schultz, the federation’s national communications director. Support among Latinos was 73 percent, while for Millennials it was 75 percent, the federation said. Full polling information is available here. School choice is favored by a 67 percent to 27 percent margin, Beck Research said. The poll was taken from among 1,200 likely 2020 General Election voters. John Schilling, president of the American Federation for Children, said in a statement, “Despite relentless attacks from opponents of educational freedom throughout the past year, school choice support has grown over the past year. Most parents want a different option for their child and are willing to make sacrifices to go to a better school if they had the option.” According to the federation, one poll highlight was: When asked, “Generally speaking, would you say you favor or oppose the concept of school choice?” and given the following definition,…

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Commentary: Liberals’ Real Problem Is That Christian Schools Exist at All

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by Tony Perkins   It was supposed to be a day celebrating religious freedom in America. Instead, liberals decided to show everyone just how much our First Freedom is at risk. For Christians, who have tried to warn people that these past several years were about a lot more than marriage, the attacks on second lady Karen Pence certainly seem to prove their point. Three years after Obergefell v. Hodges, all of the lies about “love” and “tolerance” have been eclipsed by the court cases, articles, and editorials demonizing people of faith. What Americans see now is the truth: The left is coming for our freedom, and they have no intention of letting up. Like former Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Karen Pence spent years in the classroom. When Vice President Mike Pence was in Congress, she taught art at Immanuel Christian School in Virginia, and no one batted an eye. Of course, that was back in the early 2000s, when the left’s charm offensive on same-sex marriage was still in full swing. We’ll be accommodating, they said. We just want to coexist, they said. Our relationships won’t affect you, they said. A handful of years later, “affected” doesn’t begin…

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Tesla Plans 7 Percent Staff Cut, Says Bumpy Road Ahead

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Electric car and solar panel maker Tesla said Friday it plans to cut its staff by about seven percent. “The road ahead is very difficult,” the company’s founder and CEO Elon Musk said in an email to employees posted on the company’s website. He said Tesla Inc. hopes to post a “tiny profit” in the current quarter but that after expanding its workforce by 30 percent last year, it cannot support that size of staff. Musk said in a tweet in October that Tesla had 45,000 employees. A seven percent cut would involve laying off about 3,150 people. Tesla’s shares tumbled earlier this month after it cut vehicle prices by $2,000 and announced fourth-quarter sales figures that fell short of Wall Street estimates. “Our products are too expensive for most people,” Musk said in the memo to Tesla staff saying the company has to “work harder.” “Tesla has only been producing cars for about a decade and we’re up against massive, entrenched competitors,” he said. The company says it delivered over 245,000 electric cars and SUVs last year, nearly as many as all previous years combined. But its 2018 production fell far short of a goal set nearly three years…

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Green New Deal Was Drafted in a Single Weekend by a Group of Millennial Staffers and Activists

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by Michael Bastasch   New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s signature “Green New Deal” plan was drafted in a single weekend by a group of millennial staffers and environmental activists, according to the Democrat’s chief of staff. Draft legislative text for “Green New Deal” legislation “was written over a single December weekend by the staff of the freshman representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three like-minded progressive groups,” reads an article published in The New Yorker Thursday. “We spent the weekend learning how to put laws together,” Saikat Chakrabarti, Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, told The New Yorker. “We looked up how to write resolutions.” Young activists with the Sunrise Movement, Justice Democrats and the New Consensus joined Chakrabarti in drafting the text, according to The New Yorker. Chakrabarti formerly led the group Brand New Congress, which pushed for far-left candidates to run for office. Chakrabarti’s collaboration with environmentalists resulted in a Google doc, which lays out legislation to create a House committee to enact a “Green New Deal” — a grab bag of progressive policies aimed at global warming and all manner of social ills. The document not only calls for the U.S. to completely get off fossil fuels within 10 years, but…

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Stacey Abrams Launches ‘Thank You’ Tour Across State That Just Rejected Her

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by Jason Hopkins   Less than three months after losing her Georgia gubernatorial bid, Democrat Stacey Abrams is set to launch a “thank you” tour across the state, potentially testing the waters for another campaign. Abrams, a former state representative and romance novelist, will begin her campaign-like circuit Monday with a restaurant stop in the south Georgia town of Albany. The tour is meant to energize the state’s Democratic base as she mulls a possible 2020 run for the U.S. Senate. Republican Sen. David Perdue, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies in the upper chamber of Congress, will be up for re-election. “Abrams will also outline ways to stay involved during legislative session and beyond,” reads a description of the upcoming event. Abrams has kept a busy schedule since losing in November to then-Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. She recently traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Senate Democratic leadership to discuss her possible 2020 plans. The former state representative has remained active in the media, where she made an appearance on PBS and said she “wouldn’t oppose” non-citizens participating in municipal elections — and also said 16-year-olds should be able to cast ballots. The Georgia Democrat…

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The Census Citizenship Case Will Probably Be Fast-Tracked to the Supreme Court

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by Kevin Daley   The Trump administration will likely leapfrog normal judicial procedure and appeal a federal judge’s decision removing a citizenship question from the 2020 census directly to the Supreme Court. In a sweeping decision running almost 300 pages, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman concluded that the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, violated a federal law called the Administrative Procedure Act by inserting a citizenship question onto the census questionnaire. The issue the government now faces is one of timing: the Census Bureau must finalize the questionnaire in June to ensure printing and distribution proceeds on schedule. Given that time constraint, ordinary appellate process isn’t an option for the government. Though the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allows parties to seek relief on an emergency basis, the Justice Department is unlikely to prevail in that court. What’s more, the Supreme Court has nearly finalized its docket for the current term. The high court hears cases from October to April and disposes of its cases by June. The schedule for a given term is generally set by the end of January. If the Trump administration wants the justices to resolve the census dispute this term, they will…

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A Federal Appeals Court Just Took a Big Swing at Planned Parenthood

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by Kevin Daley   The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction forbidding Texas from stripping Planned Parenthood of Medicaid funds Thursday, while stridently criticizing the abortion provider for its rhetoric and medical practices. “Planned Parenthood’s reprehensible conduct, captured in undercover videos, proves that it is not a ‘qualified’ provider under the Medicaid Act, so we are confident we will ultimately prevail,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement after Thursday’s ruling. The case arose after a pro-life group called the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released videos purporting to show Planned Parenthood violating medical and ethical standards codified in federal law and state regulations. Texas terminated its Medicaid provider agreement with Planned Parenthood shortly thereafter, citing infractions documented in the videos. In turn, Planned Parenthood asked a federal court to restore its Medicaid funding. Thursday’s ruling — which related to a jurisdictional issue in that case — is especially striking for its numerous rebukes of Planned Parenthood. Judge Edith Jones, a Ronald Reagan appointee, delivered the opinion. Perhaps the most noteworthy of the decision’s reprimands is a graphic depiction of post-abortion fetal remains taken from a CMP video on the fourth page of the opinion.…

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Ohio Jobs Report: A Strong Year Ends on a Dismal Note

Andrew Shirley

While 2018 was, overall, steady for job growth, the year ended on a sour note for the Buckeye State. The Ohio jobs report for December 2018 has been released and it appears to have been a disappointing month. While unemployment remained at an unchanged 4.6 percent from November to December, the number of unemployed increased by over 2,000. This is in contrast to an overall gain of more than 16,000 jobs in 2018. Some business sectors were hit harder than others. The private sector lost 500 jobs and, surprisingly, 4,300 jobs were lust in the retail market during the Christmas season. While the aggregate numbers still represent an improvement, they’re frustrating for many as the U.S. unemployment rate was 3.9 percent during that same time period. The disappointing numbers also pointed to a greater issue. Andrew J. Kidd, Ph.D., an economist with The Buckeye Institute’s Economic Research Center noted: Of continuing concern is Ohio’s labor force. The unemployment rate only fell slightly this year from 4.9 percent to 4.6 percent, while the labor force actually shrunk. This comes after United Van Lines released their annual report, which found more Ohioans had moved out of the state than moved into the state. If…

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Michigan’s GOP House Speaker Chatfield Joins North Carolina House Speaker Moore in Inviting President Trump to Deliver State of the Union Address in State Capitol

Jason M. Reynolds

Michigan’s GOP House Speaker Rep. Lee Chatfield (R-MI-107) has joined North Carolina in inviting President Donald Trump to deliver his State of the Union address in the state legislature. Chatfield said Michigan also has a divided government but the Republican legislative majority is invested in the success of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, he said, in inviting Trump to come to the House chamber of the state Capitol, according to a story in The Detroit News. Chatfield tweeted, “President @realDonaldTrump, due to the unavailability of the US House for your #SOTU Address, I would like to extend to you an official invitation to deliver your important address in the Michigan House chamber. The success of our state & country is bigger than political parties!” https://twitter.com/LeeChatfield/status/1086298775382097920 The News said: Chatfield’s invitation seemed to get a boost when it was retweeted by Michigan native and Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel. “The American people deserve to hear from @realDonaldTrump about the state of our union,” McDaniel added in the tweet. “Nancy Pelosi’s opposition begs the question: Are Democrats afraid of the public hearing about all of the progress we’ve made?” The Trump administration had not responded as of press time. Chatfield’s invitation comes…

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North Carolina Posts $188 Million Surplus; Sixth One in a Row

A.P. Dillon

North Carolina has posted a revenue surplus of $188 million, according to a new state economic report, making it the sixth such surplus in a row. The report, produced by the North Carolina Fiscal Research Division, says that “the economy is stronger now than it was a year ago,” and that the data suggests the state’s economy “is growing at a steady, solid pace.” “Our state’s excellent economic reports reflect a rising quality of life for families and businesses in North Carolina as a result of our commitments to their priorities,” North Carolina Speaker of the House Tim Moore said in a press statement. “The General Assembly must maintain our proven economic approach to creating opportunity and prosperity for millions of North Carolinians,” Moore said. According to the economic report, the “collections from corporate taxpayers are a big reason why overall collections are 1.9 percent ahead of target.” Corporate income and franchise taxes together are “$82.9 million above the 6-month target.” The report also stated that corporate income tax collections are up 16.5 percent from last year. The report takes the wind out of the tax rhetoric that has come from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who within days of first…

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House DFL Tells Trump He’s ‘Threatening the Well-Being of Minnesotans’ in Letter

Anthony Gockowski

Nearly every DFL member of the Minnesota House signed their name to a letter sent to President Donald Trump Thursday urging him to “end this shutdown immediately.” “The ongoing federal government shutdown—now the longest in the history of our nation—is threatening the well-being of Minnesotans, putting our state tax dollars at risk and forcing Minnesotans to deal with declining federal services like the Transportation Security Administration,” the letter begins. Thursday’s letter was signed by 72 DFL state representatives, including House Speaker Melissa Hortman (D-Brooklyn Park), and House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (D-Golden Valley). The Minnesota House DFL claimed on Twitter that “in the spirit of bipartisanship” it “invited House Republicans to sign on but none did.” Today, members of the DFL House Majority sent this letter to President Trump respectfully requesting he re-open the government and end the shutdown. In the spirit of bipartisanship, we invited House Republicans to sign on but none did. https://t.co/VHACCmHNIl #mnleg — Minnesota House DFL Majority (@mnhouseDFL) January 17, 2019 “As the president, and leader of our nation, we count on you to set the tone and consider the national interest over any one political goal,” the letter continues. “You can end this shutdown immediately,…

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Michigan’s Tlaib Blames Trump for Death Threats She’s Receiving

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) recently sat down with Mehdi Hasan from The Intercept for his “Deconstructed” podcast where the Michigan representative blamed President Donald Trump for the alleged death threats she’s receiving. “Absolutely, he is the leader of our country. He sets the tone and you, even in rallies and other instances, he’s even said if impeachment continued, we’re going to see violence. We’re going to see—I mean, it’s almost like he’s sent out some sort of signal,” Tlaib responded when asked if she holds “this president’s rhetoric responsible” for the threats. During the show, Tlaib continued to build her case for impeaching Trump by invoking the emoluments clause, claiming Trump is “making decisions not in the best interest of the American people,” but “based on the profit lines.” “The Constitution demands it and I want to reiterate to people to understand that this is beyond collusion with Russia. This is beyond the Mueller investigation. Every single day that he’s president of the United States that has not divested in all of his domestic and foreign corporations, he’s making decisions not in the best interest of the American people,” she said. Tlaib went on to claim that this “causes a…

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Local Entrepreneur Robert C. Sherrill Receives Pardon from Gov. Bill Haslam

Scott Wallace

Robert C. Sherrill has been running for a long time. In 2002, he ran away from a youth halfway house that made him serve time in an adult prison when he was finally captured. His running, in his words, comes from being in a broken family. When his father passed away when Sherrill was young, he ran. When he got out of prison, he ran a lucrative drug ring. This week he received news that made him run around and shout. Government Bill Haslam called him to let him know that he would sign papers that would pardon him. “It was like a breath of fresh air, I really don’t know how to describe it,” said Sherrill. “I am truly blessed, I’m truly humbled and I am truly thankful. I have been running my whole life it seems. It was a process on this journey to get pardoned. It was a three-month process. Very frustrating. But nevertheless, I am thankful.” Sherrill credits his faith in God and his rough upbringing to keep him focused. Before the pardon, he was able to own several businesses including; Imperial Cleaning Systems Inc., The Lab Nashville, Vanguard Transportations and RCS Holdings Real Estate. Sherrill…

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