Day: February 10, 2019

Tennessee Comptrollers Blast Decatur County for Mismanaging Taxpayer Money

Chris Butler

The Decatur County government has just received less than admirable state audit findings. With 11 findings as opposed to the previous year’s eight, that’s putting it mildly. In a press release, for instance, Comptrollers say this year’s results “leave much room for improvement.” “The audit findings reveal many problems including expenditures exceeding appropriations authorized by the County Commission, failure to reconcile accounts, and poor record keeping. Findings were written for the offices of County Mayor (pictured above), Road Supervisor, Director of Schools, and Assessor of Property,” Comptrollers said in the emailed press release. “Auditors also had to make material adjustments to the county’s financial statements to ensure accuracy. This is a strong indicator that the county has ineffective controls over the maintenance of its accounting records.” The audit also includes an adverse opinion on the county’s component units. That is because the financial statements do not include the Decatur County General Hospital. These financial statements were not available from other auditors at the date of Comptroller’s report. Decatur County is in west Tennessee. Among only a few of the audit’s findings: • Expenditures exceeded total appropriations approved by the County Commission in the General and Special Purpose funds by $516,433 and…

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Commentary: We Should Not Emulate Liberalism’s Unforgivable Morality

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by Paul Ingrassia   There is no question that Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam’s abortion comments warrant—demand, actually—political excommunication. They were completely unpardonable. Devilish in their blithe disregard for human life, Northam’s comments encapsulate the clinical utilitarianism by which liberalism invariably reduces inconvenient people to a disposable commodity, like an old car or television. That the mainstream media did not burn Northam in effigy for his endorsement of infanticide (no, that term is not hyperbole) should be a clear sign of where they stand. Judgments should be made accordingly. At the same time, no one should mistake the many and recent calls for Northam’s political head for a rare display of sanity on the part of Democrats. The cold, hard, reality remains that were it not for the emergence of the racially charged medical school yearbook photo of Northam, Democrats either would have kept mum or would have defended Northam’s insidious comments on abortion. The political calculus they performed in the hours after the yearbook photo was revealed resulted in them deeming Northam a liability to their brand. The final straw was Northam’s fatal performance in last Saturday’s press conference, where the disgraced Virginia governor made a fool of himself,…

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Likely Deal Would Give Trump Fraction of Desired Wall Money

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Congressional bargainers are working toward a border security deal amid indications that the White House is preparing to accept a bipartisan agreement that would give President Donald Trump a fraction of the money he’s demanded for his proposed southern border wall. Participants said they expect money for physical barriers to end up well below the $5.7 billion that Trump has sought to begin construction of the wall, which has attained iconic significance for him and his conservative supporters. Underscoring the clout he’s lost during a battle that’s dominated the opening weeks of divided government, the amount seems sure to fall much closer to $1.6 billion, the participants said, a figure that was in a bipartisan Senate bill last year. “That’s what we’re working toward,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., one bargainer. An agreement would also avert a new partial federal shutdown next weekend. Trump has warned he might trigger a new closure of agencies if he doesn’t get his way, but that threat has become toothless because of solid opposition from GOP lawmakers burned by the record 35-day closure that he initiated in December. One White House aide said Trump was expected to back whatever compromise emerges and acknowledged there…

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Amazon May Bail on New York Headquarters After Locals Rail Against It

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by Tim Pearce   Amazon is reportedly rethinking its promise to build a headquarters in New York City after receiving pushback from local officials and residents, sources told The Washington Post. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats, are pushing for the Amazon deal after being instrumental in securing it. Many locals, however, have protested at stores and hearings, and the city’s council has badgered Amazon executives about the company’s position on unions. “The question is whether it’s worth it if the politicians in New York don’t want the project, especially with how people in Virginia and Nashville have been so welcoming,” one person familiar with the company’s plans told WaPo. Amazon is moving forward with plans to construct another headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, near the nation’s capital. Each project in New York and Virginia is expected to create 25,000 jobs. A smaller project in Nashville, Tennessee, is expected to create 5,000 new jobs. The company is considering other options for the New York location, including relocating thousands of jobs to other areas and withdrawing altogether. Amazon has not yet leased or bought any space in the area, so changing plans now would…

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Joy Behar Silent on Resurfaced ‘Beautiful African Woman’ Costume as Politicians Face Heat

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by Neetu Chandak   “The View” host Joy Behar has been quiet about her “beautiful African woman” costume since a 2016 clip resurfaced Wednesday as politicians and organizations are in hot water over blackface controversies. Behar went as a “beautiful African woman” for a Halloween party when she was 29-years-old. Behar also admitted to wearing makeup that was darker than her skin. The clip originally aired on May 13, 2016, according to Jezebel, which made comments about Behar’s costume choice that year. Critics pointed out that Megyn Kelly was ousted for questioning blackface as offensive behavior while Behar remains on the show. Megyn Kelly was fired from her show for asking a hypothetical question about blackface. Joy Behar actually wore blackface, and admitted it, and showed a picture of it on TV, yet she still has her job. https://t.co/dIJdoMmhmz — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) February 7, 2019 “What is racist?” Kelly asked on her then NBC show Megyn Kelly Today. “You get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person that puts on white face for Halloween. That was okay when I was a kid as long as you were dressing…

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Trump Campaign Blasts Warren as ‘Fraud’ and ‘Dishonest’ After Presidential Announcement

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by Chris White   President Donald Trump’s campaign dinged Sen. Elizabeth Warren Saturday afternoon for being a “fraud” after the Massachusetts Democrat announced her intention to run for president. “Elizabeth Warren has already been exposed as a fraud by the Native Americans she impersonated and disrespected to advance her professional career, and the people of Massachusetts she deceived to get elected,” campaign manager Brad Parscale wrote in a statement. Warren announced her candidacy in a tweet on Saturday. He added: “The American people will reject her dishonest campaign and socialist ideas like the Green New Deal, that will raise taxes, kill jobs and crush America’s middle-class.” The statement appears designed to tie Warren in with lawmakers who pushed the so-called Green New Deal, a lofty proposal intended to reset a moribund climate change fight. INBOX: Trump campaign issues statement on Elizabeth Warren's announcement pic.twitter.com/lfIiMywemp — Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) February 9, 2019 The resolution, which is being pushed by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calls for “10-year national mobilizations” toward a series of goals aimed at fighting global warming, NPR reported. A separate fact sheet claims the plan would “mobilize every aspect of American society on a scale not seen…

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Commentary: The Fauxcahontas Apology Tour

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by CHQ Staff   Sen. Elizabeth Warren, (D-MA), who announced her campaign for President this weekend on Wednesday found herself apologizing – again – for identifying herself as an “American Indian,” and more broadly for not being “mindful of the distinction with tribal citizenship and tribal sovereignty.” The latest document to surface showing that Warren tried to advantage herself through phony claims of Native American ancestry came on a 1986 registration card for the State Bar of Texas, and after the revelation of that document she would not or could not clarify whether there were additional documents where she declared Native American status, NBC News reported. The Washington Post on February 5, 2019 reported on Warren’s registration card disclosure for the State Bar of Texas. The Texas bar registration card is significant, says Solange Reyner of NewsMax, because it removes any doubt Warren directly claimed Native American identity. And let’s be clear about Senator Warren’s long-claimed Native American ancestry and how she clearly benefited professionally and politically from that claim: She listed herself in professional directories as a Native American and was touted as Harvard Law School’s first “woman of color” professor. However, when Warren entered politics her story gained deeper…

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Republican Who Survived Shooting Says Democrats Wouldn’t Let Him Testify at Gun Control Hearing

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by Joshua Nelson   House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee blocked him from appearing at a hearing Wednesday on gun control to testify as the victim of the shooting during a congressional baseball practice two years ago. Historically, Scalise said, members of Congress normally are given the opportunity to testify before a committee and he was shocked that his request was denied. Since Democrats set the hearing on how to reduce gun violence, he said, he saw an opportunity to share his near-death experience of being targeted by a shooter and saved by police officers’ guns in what could have turned out to be a massacre on June 14, 2017. “I saw how guns were used to save people’s lives, and it should’ve been able to be part of the testimony,” Scalise, a Second Amendment defender, told Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night. “They wanted to focus on taking away the rights of law-abiding citizens, which their bill ultimately does.” Scalise said he found out the previous weekend about the Democrats’ decision to exclude him from the hearing. The hearing, called “Preventing Gun Violence: A Call to Action,” focused on…

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Audit: Lawrenceburg Police Officer Gambled While on Duty

Chris Butler

A former Lawrenceburg police officer used a taxpayer-funded cell phone to gamble, and he did so while on duty, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. That man, Patrick Daniels, worked for the Lawrenceburg Police Department for more than 22 years, the audit said. Comptrollers said they reviewed Daniels’ cell phone logs from October 2016 through November 2017. “Our investigation revealed Daniels regularly used his city provided cellular telephone to place bets on sporting events with a booking agent while both on and off duty,” auditors wrote. The City of Lawrenceburg’s Personnel Rules and Regulations Manual expressly prohibits gambling among officers while they are on duty or wearing a city uniform. By doing this, Comptrollers said, Daniels abused his work time responsibilities. “Our investigation revealed Daniels used his city owned telephone while on duty to text gambling bets to a booking agent,” according to the audit. “We were unable to determine the exact amount of time Daniels spent gambling while on the clock since we could not determine the length of time it took Daniels to research information for his bet and complete a text message and/or reply.” City officials learned about Daniels’ activities, but they also considered…

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Cory Booker Compares Green New Deal to Fighting Nazi Germany

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by Chris White   Democratic Sen. Cory Booker appeared to compare adopting the so-called Green New Deal with fighting the Nazi regime. “Our planet is in peril, and we need to be bold,” Booker said at a Friday campaign event in Iowa. There are a lot of people who are critical of the deal. Critics claim “it’s too impractical, and it’s too expensive.” “And when the planet has been in peril in the past, who came forward to save Earth … from the scourge of Nazis and totalitarian regimes?” Booker asked rhetorically. “We came forward.” “We came forward with the Marshal Plan,” he added, referring to a U.S. program concocted during the 1940s to rebuild parts of German and other European countries bombed out during World War II. The GND, which was introduced Thursday by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calls for a “10-year national mobilizations” toward a series of goals aimed at fighting global warming. A separate fact sheet published online claims the plan would “mobilize every aspect of American society on a scale not seen since World War 2.” Ocasio-Cortez’s original concept received support from Booker and other potential presidential candidates. The updated version, however, which was rolled out Thursday…

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Sherrod Brown Takes Shots at President Trump in New Hampshire Visit

Zachery Schmidt

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) took shots at President Donald Trump this weekend in New Hampshire by calling his populism “phony” and saying he’s a “bully.” Brown’s “Dignity of Work” tour made two stops in New Hampshire over the weekend in a visit to the state with the second earliest primary. At a Friday round-table event about jobs and the economy, the Ohio senator commented on Trump’s populism when talking to reporters. “His phony populism is you divide people and you push people down to lift some others up. Real populism is not racist. It’s not anti-Semitic. It doesn’t divide people. It doesn’t do hate speech and real populism is fighting for workers,” Brown told Fox News  Friday in Hampton, New Hampshire. 2020 Watch-NOW: Asked if there are already too many progressive populists in the Democratic nomination race, @SherrodBrown -in NH- tells @seacoastonline @foxnewspolitics "I put my record up against anybody for fighting for workers" #NHPolitics #FITN #2020Election pic.twitter.com/rbx5nvnbkB — Paul Steinhauser (@steinhauserNH1) February 8, 2019 The next day at a bookstore event in Concord, New Hampshire, he called Trump a “bully,” according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.  “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I don’t know if we…

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Klobuchar 2020 Preview: All Signs Point to Running as State Media Give Pass

Anthony Gockowski

Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) advance crew was busy prepping Saturday afternoon for her “big announcement” scheduled for Sunday. An early visit to Boom Island Park showed staffers moving in and out of heated tents while they erected a stage with the Minneapolis skyline as a backdrop. Temperatures were slightly above zero early Saturday and those on the scene were decked out in snow gear, making it unlikely that Klobuchar would subject her staff to freezing wintry weather to announce that she isn’t in fact entering the 2020 race. Plus, Klobuchar’s daughter flew in from New York City for Sunday’s event, and posted a video from Boom Island Park Saturday afternoon. “My mom invited me to this big announcement happening Sunday, but she forgot to tell me it was happening outside,” she said. Abigail here! I'm taking over mom's Twitter for a second with a message about tomorrow. Go to https://t.co/Hz91NGmwT1 for more details! pic.twitter.com/dmk4l54EDD — Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) February 9, 2019 Klobuchar boasted that the event will have hot “cocoa,” “camp fires,” “music”—”the whole bit.” The Sunday announcement will come amid multiple reports that Klobuchar runs an abusive and demeaning office, as The Minnesota Sun reported. It’s widely known that the…

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Klobuchar and McCollum Back Green New Deal, But Omar’s Missing from List of Sponsors

Anthony Gockowski

Two of Minnesota’s most prominent politicians, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-04), are backing the controversial Green New Deal, but Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) is conspicuously missing from the list of House sponsors. The House version of the resolution currently has 67 co-sponsors, including McCollum, who has received $52,733 in campaign contributions from environmental groups over the course of her career, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Klobuchar, who is expected to declare candidacy for president Sunday, is one of 10 co-sponsors of the Senate resolution, which has the backing of other presidential hopefuls, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Cory Booker (D-NJ). The Center for Responsive Politics estimates that Klobuchar has received $220,463 from environmental groups throughout her career. Omar is a public ally of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), the resolution’s chief author, and was an early advocate of the Green New Deal. Omar, however, currently isn’t listed as a co-sponsor of the resolution. She addressed her support of the Green New Deal in a statement Thursday, but seemed to take issue with the fact that it is just a resolution rather than actual legislation. “We need to…

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An Ohio Medical Examiner Issued a Public Health Warning After Multiple Opioid Deaths Were Traced to Powerful Animal Sedatives

Andrew Shirley

Dr. Thomas Gilson, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner, issued a Public Health Warning Thursday for the entire county. It stated that, after testing opioids seized at multiple crime scenes, the Cuyahoga County Regional Forensic Science Laboratory had discovered a “significant increase” in the presence of carfentanil, a synthetic opioid that is both extremely potent and deeply unsafe for use by humans. According to the Preliminary 2018 Drug Overdose Death Statistics, Cuyahoga County suffered “24 carfentanil-related deaths in 2018.” Though alarming, this is a “significant reduction from the 191 carfentanil-related deaths in 2017.” Carfentanil is the most potent opioid currently available for commercial use, and of the most potent ever developed. It is officially sold under the commercial title of Wildnil. The main use for the drug is sedating large animals, including “ungulates, elephants, and rhinoceros.” It is 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more powerful then fentanyl. “The re-appearance of carfentanil in the local illicit drug supply is alarming,” Gilson said. “This is a very lethal drug and anyone using illicit or diverted drugs needs to be aware of the possibility of being exposed to it…Having another person in the vicinity to call 911 and/or administer naloxone can be…

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Steve Cohen a Cosponsor of Green New Deal

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, not only endorses the controversial Green New Deal resolution — he’s co-sponsoring it. In a press release, Cohen said the New Deal of the 1930s that supposedly ended the Great Depression inspired Democratic lawmakers to propose the Green New Deal. “It contains a full employment initiative; investments in a transition to sustainable, non-carbon sources of energy; elimination of greenhouse gas emissions; and a commitment to addressing climate change as the existential threat it is,” Cohen said. As The Tennessee Star reported last week, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released the resolution that’s become a central part of the Democratic agenda, including backing from 2020 candidates. The “Green New Deal” resolution calls for “10-year national mobilizations” towards a series of goals aimed at fighting global warming, according to a copy of the bill obtained by NPR. A separate fact-sheet claims the plan would “mobilize every aspect of American society on a scale not seen since World War 2.” That includes getting all our energy needs from “clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources” by “dramatically expanding and upgrading existing renewable power sources.” Ocasio-Cortez’s non-binding resolution calls for a variety of social justice and welfare state goals, including “a family-sustaining…

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