Day: January 27, 2019

Lawsuit Alleges Nashville Officials Trample on Property Rights

Chris Butler

You break one of Metro Nashville’s codes and you either get punished or you get preferential treatment. If you’re not chummy with any Metro officials, then you get punished. But if you’re on the best of terms with these officials then you walk away clean. This, according to a new lawsuit against the Metro Nashville Government, which says double standards exist. Nashville resident John Haffner filed the suit at Nashville’s Sixth Circuit Court this month against the Metro Codes Department. Haffner makes these accusations based off public records and emails he obtained between county officials, including Metro Council member Russ Pulley. The emails come from Pulley’s private account, which the lawsuit says he uses to conduct public business. “Residents who have relationships with Metro Council Members and operate illegal in-home, for-profit businesses with on-site clients are able to receive fraudulent home occupation permits and a receptive Codes Department that is willing to clear [things] up for them,” Haffner said in the suit. By contrast, Metro officials, including Pulley, target Haffner for prosecution, according to a copy of the lawsuit. Specifically, Haffner said Metro Codes officials are after him for “operating a supposedly illegal in-home business” for profit, which goes against…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Media’s Selective Curiosity

Admin

by Carson Holloway   Members of the mainstream media understandably resent President Trump’s description of them as purveyors of “fake news.” After all, they do the public a service by reporting a great deal of true and relevant information. And when they get the facts wrong, they usually correct the record. Nevertheless, the president’s criticisms of the media resonate with many Americans. For them, the “news” industry is “fake” not in the sense that it tells nothing but falsehoods, but rather in the sense that its self-presentation is fake or phony. The media claim to be disinterested reporters of the facts, but their behavior shows they are far more interested in some facts than in others. This suggests that their main concern is not in uncovering the truth but in telling a certain kind of story. The “fake news” charge sticks not because of the media’s mendacity but because of their selective curiosity. Nowhere has that selective curiosity been more evident than in the coverage of the biggest news story of the last two years: the supposed complicity of Trump and his campaign in Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election. From top to bottom, this story has been shaped…

Read the full story

Pompeo Urges International Support for Venezuelan Opposition Leader

Admin

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the international community to support the Venezuelan people and recognize the interim government of opposition leader Juan Guaido as he stands up to disputed President Nicolas Maduro. “Now it is time for every other nation to pick a side,” Pompeo told the U.N. Security Council during a rare Saturday morning session. “No more delays, no more games. Either you stand with the forces of freedom or you’re in league with Maduro and his mayhem.” Several European governments, including Britain, Spain, Germany and France, said Saturday they would recognize the 35-year-old Guaido as president if no election is called within eight days. The United States requested the Security Council meeting. Pompeo was accompanied by his newly appointed special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams. Pompeo called the Maduro regime an “illegitimate mafia state” and criticized countries including Russia, China, Iran and Cuba for supporting him. Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia shot back that regime change is “a favorite geopolitical game of the United States,” and he asked Secretary Pompeo directly whether the Trump administration plans to militarily intervene in Venezuela. “Does that mean that the United States is ready to use military force against a sovereign…

Read the full story

Commentary: Reject the ‘Wrong on Both Sides’ Dodge

Admin

by Dennis Saffran   Now that the media, the Left, and their usual conservative allies have failed to destroy young Nick Sandmann and the other Covington Catholic High School boys who attended the March for Life last weekend, they seem to be falling back on the old “wrong on both sides” standby. Activist Nathan Phillips, the 64-year-old Native-American “elder,” may have lied when he claimed the students surrounded him, blocked his way, and yelled “Build the Wall”—and lied for good measure about being a Vietnam veteran. (In fact, he marched, cameras in tow, into their group while they were waiting for their bus, beating a drum within inches of Sandmann’s face.) But, as the story now goes, the boys—or “many” of them, or maybe just a “few” of them—were “mocking” or “disrespectful.” There were even some “tomahawk chops,” like at sports events, and maybe a few of what may have been “war whoops” or at least mimicry of his chants in a less than adulatory tone. Even commentators who have supported the students, such as Robby Soave in his otherwise excellent reportage at Reason, have criticized them for this behavior. Two points need to be made about all this. The…

Read the full story

Trump Wants to Know Where Hillary’s Indictment Is After Roger Stone’s Arrest

Admin

by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump responded Saturday to news of his confidant Roger Stone’s Friday indictment with a list of Democrats and justice officials he wants to see in trouble for alleged lying. “If Roger Stone was indicted for lying to Congress, what about the lying done by [James] Comey, [John] Brennan, [James] Clapper, Lisa Page [and] lover, [James] Baker and soooo many others? What about Hillary [Clinton] to FBI and her 33,000 deleted Emails? What about Lisa [and Peter Strzok’s] deleted texts [and Anthony Weiner’s] laptop? Much more!” Trump wrote Saturday. If Roger Stone was indicted for lying to Congress, what about the lying done by Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Lisa Page & lover, Baker and soooo many others? What about Hillary to FBI and her 33,000 deleted Emails? What about Lisa & Peter’s deleted texts & Wiener’s laptop? Much more! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2019 Stone was indicted Friday morning on five counts of lying to Congress, one count of witness tampering and one count of obstruction of a government proceeding. Stone appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Friday evening and said Trump never told him to get in touch with WikiLeaks and claimed the…

Read the full story

Elizabeth Warren Rolls Out Tax Plan on the Super Wealthy

Admin

by Alec Schimmel   After recently declaring her intent to run for president in 2020 earlier in January, Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a progressive tax plan that pushes tax policy deliberations inside the Democratic Party further to the left. The proposal plans to thrust a two percent progressive annual wealth tax on households with a net worth exceeding $50 million, and an additional 1 percent tax on households with a net worth that eclipses $1 billion, according to Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, economists from the University of California, Berkeley. Saez and Zucman’s analysis estimates Warren’s tax plan will affect approximately 75,000 households (0.1 percent) across the U.S. and raise $2.75 trillion over the next decade. This is roughly 10 times the projected earnings of the current estate and gift tax, according to The Wall Street Journal. “This doesn’t work unless all the other countries in the world join in and tax wealth because money is mobile, multi-millionaires will go somewhere else and ultimately it prevents investment in the United States and that’s what makes our economy vibrant,” said Dagen McDowell on “Mornings with Maria” Thursday. “Let’s confiscate all the wealth people earn, let’s destroy private sector incentives…

Read the full story

New York to Spend Millions Putting Dreamers Through College

Admin

by Jason Hopkins   New York state lawmakers approved a measure that aims to dole out millions in taxpayer-funded aid to Dreamers — who entered the country illegally — attending college. The now-Democratic controlled New York state legislature on Wednesday passed the Dream Act, legislation that would make thousands of Dreamers eligible for financial aid to attend public colleges in the state. The bill, which has attracted praise from Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would cost $27 million. The measure is “a slap in the face for all the hardworking taxpayers who play the rules and struggle for the costs of a college education,” Republican state Sen. Daphne Jordan said of the bill. Jordan was joined by other Republican state legislators in criticism of the Dream Act, who argued it would unfairly take money away from legal residents who struggle to pay their college tuition. The bill had been introduced in the New York legislature before, but Republican control of the state Senate had prevented it from moving forward — until Democrats gained control of both chamber after the 2018 midterms. “We do this as a symbol that you will be guaranteed an education and that the door to…

Read the full story

‘Probable Cause’ Found That Andrew Gillum Violated State Ethics Laws

Admin

by Molly Prince   The Florida Ethics Commission found probable cause Friday that defeated Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum violated state ethics laws. Tallahassee businessman Erwin Jackson filed complaints against Gillum, who was the mayor of Tallahassee from 2014 until November 2018. The commission found probable cause on five of the six counts, reported The Tampa Bay Times. In the complaints, Jackson alleged that Gillum, in his capacity as mayor, accepted gifts from lobbyists on multiple occasions. The first occasion was a trip to Costa Rica and the second was a trip to New York, according to WCTV. Both involved Gillum’s longtime friend and former campaign manager, Adam Corey, who is the focus of an extensive FBI investigation. Records were released in October showing that an undercover FBI agent gave him tickets to a Broadway show, undermining his claims that he received the gift from his brother. Barry Richard, Gillum’s attorney, revealed that the state’s ethics commission found probable cause that Gillum accepted gifts above the $100 threshold. He added that probable cause has not been determined for the solicitation of gifts. But he doesn’t make it clear if it determined that there was no probable cause or if…

Read the full story

Trump Makes Case for Wall as Third Central American Migrant Caravan Heads North

Admin

by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump continued to hammer on the need for a southern border wall Saturday after announcing Friday that he will support a deal to temporarily reopen the government without any funding for the wall. “We have turned away, at great expense, two major Caravans, but a big one has now formed and is coming,” Trump wrote on Twitter Saturday. “At least 8000 people! If we had a powerful Wall, they wouldn’t even try to make the long and dangerous journey. Build the Wall and Crime will Fall!” The New York Times reported Friday on the third migrant caravan that Trump referenced: The current migrant caravan left San Pedro Sula in Honduras on Jan. 14 and, in the following days, began arriving at the Guatemala-Mexico border. Mexican officials encouraged the migrants to apply for the humanitarian visa, and since then over 12,000 people, mostly Hondurans, have done so in this border town in southern Mexico. Trump used his new slogan “Build the wall and crime will fall” in the tweet. Trump’s message about the proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall comes a day after he and Congress ended the record-breaking 35-day partial government shutdown. Republicans and Democrats now…

Read the full story

FDA: More Blood Pressure Drugs May Have Shortages After Recalls

Admin

by Reuters   Additional shortages of blood pressure drugs in the United States are possible following recent recalls related to traces of a probable carcinogen found in some versions a particular class of hypertension medicines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The drugs, including valsartan, belong to a class of widely-used medicines for treating high blood pressure called angiotensin II receptor blockers, or ARBs. Valsartan is the generic of Novartis’ Diovan. The FDA also said it may have identified the root cause of the potentially cancer-causing impurities but that it is still investigating. The recalls began last summer after the FDA was informed that ingredients used by Chinese manufacturer Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceuticals Co (Huahai) to produce valsartan contained the impurities. The FDA later halted all imports from one of Huahai’s factories. Other manufacturers have also had to recall valsartan after the impurities were found in their versions of the drug. It is currently listed as in shortage by the FDA. Generic drugs Some generic versions of other ARBS, such as losartan and irbesartan, have also been recalled. The most recent recall was announced earlier this week. The agency said that it determined that the impurities “may be generated…

Read the full story

Colorado Man Booted From School Board Meeting for Calling Out Teacher Who Called Covington Boys ‘Hitler Youth’

Admin

by Neetu Chandak   A man was escorted out of a Colorado school board meeting Thursday for naming a teacher who called the wrong Covington Catholic boy part of the “Hitler Youth” on a now-deleted Twitter account. Mountain Ridge Middle School seventh-grade history teacher Michelle Grissom allegedly named and posted a picture of Covington Catholic student Jay Jackson as one of the boys wearing Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats in Washington, D.C. Jackson was not in Washington with his peers, who were confronted by American Indian activist Nathan Phillips. A man at the DougCo school board meeting tonight was escorted out by an officer after he brought up tweets attributed to a district history teacher – tweets that referenced the Covington Catholic incident in DC and called a student "Hitler Youth." pic.twitter.com/uZPtaLEKSg — Next with Kyle Clark (@nexton9news) January 25, 2019 “I can’t imagine what drove a teacher to make comments online that were hateful and bigoted, slanderous and vilifying,” parent Aaron Johnson said Thursday. “Now we’re all left picking up the pieces she broke.” Johnson elaborated to The Daily Caller News Foundation over the phone that Grissom’s actions make the entire school community look bad. John Jackson, the…

Read the full story

FLASHBACK: Ilhan Omar Asked Judge for Lighter Sentences for Nine Minnesota Men Plotting to Join ISIS

Anthony Gockowski

Shortly after her historic election as the nation’s first Somali-American lawmaker, then State Rep. Ilhan Omar, now a member of Congress, asked a judge for lighter sentences in the trial of nine Minnesota men charged with planning to join ISIS. In a November 2016 letter unearthed by conservative media this week, Omar wrote to Judge Michael Davis requesting “compassion” and a “restorative approach to justice” in his sentencing. “Incarcerating 20-year-old men for 30 or 40 years is essentially a life sentence. Society will have no expectations of the to be 50 or 60-year-old released prisoners; it will view them with distrust and revulsion. Such punitive measures not only lack efficacy, they inevitably create an environment in which extremism can flourish, aligning with the presupposition of terrorist recruitment,” Omar said in her letter. She was one of 13 individuals to write letters to Davis, who also received a letter from Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame. “The best deterrent to fanaticism is a system of compassion,” Omar continued. “We must alter our attitude and approach; if we truly want to affect change, we should refocus our efforts on inclusion and rehabilitation.” Throughout her letter, Omar argued that the young men were…

Read the full story

Ohio Medical Board Tightens Rules for Opioid Prescriptions

Andrew Shirley

Long overdue limits on opioid prescriptions are finally being introduced to the Buckeye State. As of Wednesday, the State Medical Board of Ohio has enacted new requirements that must be met for the prescribing and continuing use of opioids. The rules will affect both short term and long term prescriptions. How stringent the rules are depend on the current dosage. MED or “Morphine Equivalent Daily Dose” is the unit of measurement by which all opioids are measured for effectiveness. For prescriptions of up to 50 MED: prescribers are required to re-evaluate the status of the patient’s underlying condition causing pain, assess functioning, look for signs of prescription misuse, consider consultation with a specialist and obtain written informed consent from the patient. For up to 80 MED, prescribers will do all of the above and consider prescribing naloxone, a drug that functions as an incredibly effective treatment for opioid overdoses. Though it can be administered in a myriad of ways, naloxone is most commonly prescribed as a nasal spray. Lastly, for prescriptions of 120 MED and above, “there must be a recommendation from a board-certified pain medicine physician or board certified hospice and palliative care physician that is based upon a face-to-face visit…

Read the full story

Angie Craig Confronted by Woman Who Escaped Communism at First Town Hall: ‘This is How Communists Oppress People’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-02) hosted her “first of what will be many, many open town halls” Saturday morning at Burnsville High School, and tackled issues such as campaign finance reform, climate change, and gun control. At one point during the event, however, she was confronted by an immigrant woman “who escaped communism,” and expressed concern about the continued harassment of Trump supporters. “I am an immigrant who escaped communism. I am terrified at the prospect of America becoming an oppressive regime. It seems that the two most toxic words these days are Donald Trump. He has been called autocratic, dictatorial, and many other demeaning names. Yet nothing he has done compares to the permitted destruction and oppression of our justice systems of individuals who dare to support him,” the woman said. In particular, she pointed to the recent arrest of Roger Stone, whom she believes was arrested “for a crime of refusing to compromise his integrity.” “[It] is not representative of a free America,” the woman continued. “Neither is a system causing financial ruin and imposing jail sentences without proof and guilt for some, yet overlooking ample evidence and giving a pass to others. Nor is a dishonest media and…

Read the full story

Illegal Alien Arrested for Killing Pierce Corcoran in Head-On Crash Granted Bail

Chris Butler

Francisco Eduardo Franco-Cambrany, charged with killing a Knoxville firefighter’s son in a head-on crash last month could walk out of jail this weekend, according to KnoxNews.com. That is, of course, unless federal immigration agents don’t get him first, the website went on to say. As The Tennessee Star reported, Franco-Cambrany allegedly killed Pierce Corcoran, who was only 22. According to the website, a judge reinstated bond for Franco-Cambrany. Prosecutors say Franco-Cambrany is an illegal immigrant, and that officers with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement could take him into custody at any time, the website said. “I can’t just deny him bond because ICE might come get him,” KnoxNews.com quoted General Sessions Judge Patricia Long as saying. Franco-Cambrany will wear an ankle monitor if he walks out, per Long’s orders. His attorney, Mark Stephens, a Knox County public defender, made a bid to throw out the case. Long rejected that bid. As The Star reported, Knoxville Police said Franco-Cambrany’s Chevy pickup, heading north, crossed into the opposite lanes and hit Corcoran’s Honda Civic, causing a chain reaction. According to Knoxnews.com, “two cars in front of Franco-Cambrany in the left-hand lane suddenly braked as one turned into a self-storage…

Read the full story