Day: February 23, 2019

Tennessee State Tax Revenues Exceed Estimates

Chris Butler

Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Stuart McWhorter announced this month that overall January state tax revenues exceeded budgeted estimates. Revenues for January totaled $1.4 billion, which is $28.8 million more than budgeted and 2.81 percent greater than revenues received in January 2018, according to a press release on the state government’s website. “January sales tax revenues, reflecting consumer spending that occurred during December, remain strong and represent 22 consecutive months of positive growth. The second quarter growth rate from sales activity was 6.05 percent compared to last year, representing the highest growth rate in three years,” McWhorter said.  “Corporate tax revenues also posted positive growth gains against the month’s estimate, while all other revenues finished near estimate. “It should be noted that there was a large drop in Hall income tax revenues when compared to this same time last year due to the implementation of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. And, while year-to-date revenues look promising, we must continue to monitor revenues and closely manage our expenditures so that Tennessee continues to be prepared for any future economic slowdown.” On an accrual basis, January is the sixth month in the 2018-2019 fiscal year,…

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Commentary: The Greatest Constitutional Crisis Since the Civil War

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by Conrad Black   The most immense and dangerous public scandal in American history is finally cracking open like a ripe pomegranate. The broad swath of the Trump-hating media that has participated in what has amounted to an unconstitutional attempt to overthrow the government are reduced to reporting the events and revelations of the scandal in which they have been complicit, in a po-faced ho-hum manner to impart to the misinformed public that this is as routine as stock market fluctuations or the burning of an American flag in Tehran. For more than two years, the United States and the world have had two competing narratives: that an elected president of the United States was a Russian agent whom the Kremlin helped elect; and its rival narrative that senior officials of the Justice Department, FBI, CIA, and other national intelligence organizations had repeatedly lied under oath, misinformed federal officials, and meddled in partisan political matters illegally and unconstitutionally and had effectively tried to influence the outcome of a presidential election, and then undo its result by falsely propagating the first narrative. It is now obvious and indisputable that the second narrative is the correct one. The authors, accomplices, and dupes…

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Fired Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Employee Reportedly Sent ‘Disgusting’ Texts

Chris Butler

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation deputy who was booted from his job sent a female state employee a series of reportedly disgusting texts, according to the Nashville-based WSMV. TDEC investigated former deputy commissioner Brock Hill, but members of that agency reportedly would not disclose details to the station other than to say “the woman’s claims led them to find additional concerns about workplace misconduct.” State officials denied almost all WSMV’s open records requests, other than a series of text messages, reportedly between two unnamed state employees discussing how Hill’s texts had troubled a female employee. “In the texts, the first employee writes, ‘Would you want to know if Brock made an inappropriate comment to a (redacted name)?’” WSMV reported. “That employee later sent a text reading, ‘He has already been texting (name redacted) today and invited her to go camping with him out west.’ When the second employee asked if the woman can screen shot Hill’s texts, the first employee responded, ‘She has tons of them. She says they are awkward, but she plays along as if he was a friend.’” The first employee said the woman described the communication with Hill as ‘disgusting.’ The second employee responded…

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Trump Admin Ecstatic with Late-Night Deal That Broke Deadlock Over Natural Gas Exports

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by Michael Bastasch   The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) broke a two-year partisan deadlock Thursday night to approve a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana. Top Department of Energy (DOE) officials said this was a major breakthrough that will alleviate a growing problem for U.S. energy producers — a lack of export infrastructure. “We have been promoting US energy around the world and today’s decision by the FERC is a very important one,” DOE Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. The Calcasieu Pass LNG export terminal is the first such project to get FERC approval in two years. Republican FERC commissioners Neil Chatterjee, the chairman and Bernard McNamee worked with Democrat Cheryl LaFleur to hash out an agreement to get her support. Chatterjee and McNamee needed LaFleur’s vote to approve Calcasieu Pass, which they secured after working out a new approach to account for greenhouse gas emissions from the export facility. “This is a tremendous breakthrough,” DOE Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes told TheDCNF. “We hope it will serve as an analytical template going forward.” Once complete, Calcasieu Pass terminal will export up 12 million metric tons of LNG…

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Commentary: The Food Nannies Are Coming to Protect You From Burgers and Soda

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by Bill Wirtz   The Lancet Recommendation In a report published in The Lancet at the end of January, lead author Boyd Swinburn makes the case for greater government intervention in order to reduce the public health effects of malnutrition. The 56-page report is a long list of known policy prescriptions to increase public health, including increased taxation and reduced means of marketing. Most of all, the researchers seem very worried that Big Food is meddling in the debate around nutrition and believe that the industry is, indeed, unilaterally organizing the global “syndemic,” as they call it. Take this extract: Some government measures, including regulations for the marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products to children, front-of-pack warning labels, fiscal policies such as soda taxes, and consumer protection laws can help to constrain this supply-driven consumption of unhealthy foods. Did you notice the term “supply-driven?” This implies that the consumption of unhealthy food isn’t the result of actual market demand, but rather that of clever marketing wherein consumers are seen as mindless drones under the influence of Big Food, not as individuals. The reason is clear: Were you to accept that people make responsible individual choices, then you couldn’t make…

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Claims in El Chapo Case Highlight Perils of ‘Googling Juror’

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Claims of jury misconduct in the trial of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman have drawn new attention to the digital-age challenge courts face in preventing jurors from scouring media accounts or conducting their own research before rendering a verdict. It’s a phenomenon that has been called the “Googling juror.” “Everyone has the world at his fingertips,” said Guzman attorney Jeffrey Lichtman. “Twenty years ago, you didn’t have to worry about that.” Lichtman told The Associated Press on Thursday that there are now serious questions surrounding Guzman’s conviction this month on drug-smuggling and conspiracy charges, and that he plans to ask U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan to bring in all 12 jurors and six alternates to question them about reports that several flouted admonitions to avoid media accounts of the case. One juror anonymously told VICE News this week that at least five members of the panel had followed media reports and Twitter feeds during the three-month-long trial and were aware of explosive — and potentially prejudicial — material that had been excluded from the proceedings. “It’s clear we have to get them back into court and get some answers about some massive misconduct,” Lichtman said. The U.S. attorney’s office…

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EXCLUSIVE Joe diGenova Commentary: As McCabe Seeks the Spotlight, We Can Never Forget What He Actually Did

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by Joseph diGenova   Disgraced former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and his co-conspirators have seriously tarnished the credibility of their once-venerable institution. During a 60 Minutes interview Sunday, McCabe once again admitted that he a met with a group of high ranking, unelected, unaccountable Department of Justice personnel in May 2017 to plot President Trump’s removal from office. He wasn’t trying to admit guilt — although that’s exactly what he did — he was bragging about his role in a treasonous plot to overthrow a president duly elected by the American people. Make no mistake — this plot was an attempted political assassination, a decapitation effort, and it was undertaken by the very people responsible for upholding the rule of law in this country. McCabe’s resistance ally, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, was the one who repeatedly pitched the idea of wearing a wire into the Oval Office to secretly record sensitive conversations with the President. Highlighting the agency’s problems, Rosenstein responded to McCabe’s book saying his claims are “factually incorrect,” during a statement that was pure spin, in which he never directly denied McCabe’s wiretap claims. This is the current state of affairs within the United States Justice Department…

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Journalist Groups Alarmed by Justice Thomas’ Call to Reconsider Free Press Ruling

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by Kevin Daley   Professional journalism groups reacted with alarm after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged the high court Tuesday to reconsider a landmark freedom of the press decision called New York Times v. Sullivan. The Sullivan ruling generally shields reporters and news platforms from libel or defamation lawsuits, provided they were acting in good faith. Though journalists believe that protection is essential, Thomas said the high court was wrong to usurp the role of states in regulating libel. “[Sullivan] and the Court’s decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law,” Thomas’s opinion reads. “We should not continue to reflexively apply this policy-driven approach to the Constitution,” Thomas added. “Instead, we should carefully examine the original meaning of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.” BakerHostetler’s Mark Bailen, who serves as outside counsel to the Society of Professional Journalists, found the timing of Thomas’s opinion unwelcome, given President Donald Trump’s adversarial relationship with the press. “It certainly strikes a nerve for journalists and news organizations at a time when some in government have called the press ‘the enemy of the people,’” Bailen told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s against this backdrop that you now have a Supreme Court…

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Tennessee Star Report EXCLUSIVE: Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada Says Fetal Heartbeat Bill ‘Will Progress Quickly Through the House’

Julie Carr

In an an exclusive interview on The Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast Friday on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada made news on several fronts. Casada said that the fetal heartbeat bill “bill progress quickly through the House,” and noted he spoke with Governor Bill Lee on Thursday and expects the governor will outline the details of a proposed education savings account proposal in his State of the State address, to be delivered on March 4. Casada also described the recent efforts of social justice warrior, Justin Jones, currently out on bond for resisting arrest in an October protest of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, to instigate a confrontation at the Capitol. Gill: This week House Speaker Glen Casada has been dealing with really serious issues like, do we put more SRO’s (School Resource Officers) in schools to protect our kids from what we saw happen at Parkland about a year ago. Do we expand vocational education to create job opportunities for Tennesseans for generations to come? Do we deal with the opioid epidemic? Do we protect unborn life with a…

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Mothers in Nashville Demand Government Do Something About Their Wayward Kids

Chris Butler

This month a group of mothers reportedly assembled in Nashville to demand public officials to straighten out kids who have taken a wrong turn in life. The Nashville-based WKRN reported the story about youth violence and how pervasive it is across Middle Tennessee. “On Saturday, Mothers Over Murder as well as other anti-violence organizations called on community leaders and public officials for help to stop this concerning topic,” WKRN reported. “The groups are calling on public officials and the community to respond to violence by supporting safety net programs that rehabilitate traumatized communities and create funding opportunities for anti-violence and youth organizations that are out working in the communities. The groups say they aren’t getting enough money to make the changes that should be happening.” A man named Jay Mazon, whom WKRN identified as a “community activist,” said these organizations need more resources. “You can’t just give pennies and expect to get a million dollars’ worth of results. That just doesn’t make sense,” Mazon reportedly told the station. “So, I would challenge elected officials, but I challenge the community as well to start supporting the organizations.” The number of children committing violent crime is down. Children’s ages, however, are decreasing. Younger…

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Trump Could Appoint Billionaire Coal Exec’s Wife as UN Ambassador

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by Chris White   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recommended President Donald Trump choose U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft as his next point person at the United Nations. Craft is the wife of billionaire Joe Craft, a billionaire coal executive who has campaigned against the Obama administration’s crackdown on the coal industry. The Crafts donated more than $2 million to support Trump’s presidency, media reports show. McConnell, whose office confirmed the recommendation to The Daily Caller News Foundation, called Craft a “proven advocate for our national interests,” according to a Thursday McClatchy report. He introduced Craft at her Senate confirmation hearing in July 2017 for her current position. The Senate unanimously voted to confirm her. Craft is facing competition for the spot, namely from high-profile people like U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell and John James, a former Republican senatorial candidate from Michigan. Various media reports suggested the UN ambassadorship is James’s to lose. The process was thrown into disarray Feb. 16 after former State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert dropped out of the running. Trump campaigned in 2016 on reviving a beleaguered coal industry. His administration crafted various proposals to further that mission, including a new policy directing the…

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Ohio Department Of Transportation Introduces Comprehensive Gas Tax that Could Increase Every Year

Andrew Shirley
Gas up

Friday, Ohio Department of Transportation Director Jack Marchbanks formally introduced the proposed 2020-21 Biennial Budget. House Bill 62 (HB 62), the budget’s formal designation, includes an 18-cent gas tax increase. While lower than some reports have suggested, the proposed tax will give Ohio one of the highest gas tax rates in the country. In addition, it contains a provision that could raise gas taxes even higher in the coming years. The 18 cent tax would go into effect immediately upon passage. When measured against other states, this is an exceptionally aggressive approach. When Nebraska voted to raise its takes, it did so in increments of 1.6 cents per year. A more incremental approach could ensure Ohioans don’t face “sticker shock” at the pump. The bill would also tie the gas tax rate to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). At the start of every fiscal year, the tax will be reexamined and if the CPI has increased, the tax will increase with it. While it would ensure that road repair is adequately funded, there is a significant drawback. As written, the law does not stipulate that the gas tax would decrease, should the CPI decrease. if the Ohio economy faces a sudden hardship or enters a recession, Ohioans would…

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Chattanooga May Give Taxpayer Money to Small Businesses

Chris Butler

Something known as the Neighborhood Reinvestment Fund in Chattanooga might use $500,000 in taxpayer money on the city’s small businesses, according to The Chattanooga Times Free Press. Specifically, this money will help small businesses with facility renovations, equipment and inventory acquisition, and website development and marketing. According to the paper, this is Mayor Andy Berke’s initiative to bolster existing small businesses and neighborhoods. “In the first year, Berke said he expects more than 10 companies to take advantage of the effort that could provide individual businesses with loans of up to $25,000,” The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. Businesses would have to match a percent of the loan amount, depending on how much is borrowed, Berke told the paper. Burke also said participants will work with small business coaches such as those at SCORE, the Company Lab and the Tennessee Small Business Development Center. Patricia Wente, the SCORE chapter chairwoman, reportedly told the paper that coaches “will go through the company’s business plan.” “She said the mentoring group will sign off on that part of a company’s efforts,” according to The Chattanooga Times Free Press. Burke told the paper that “when he first ran for the mayor’s office, he heard…

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New Jersey Lawmakers Are Trying to Tax the Rain

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by Brittany Hunter   Sometimes life mimics fiction. And sometimes life is so much stranger than fiction you have to double check the headlines to ensure they aren’t satire. The latest doubletake comes from New Jersey, where, under the guise of environmentalism, local legislators have passed a new tax on—wait for it— the rain. Governments are known for a lack of creativity and an uncanny ability to think only inside the box. However, when it comes to getting creative with inventing new forms of taxation, they never disappoint. Chicago, for example, recently implemented a “PlayStation” tax on its residents as part of the city’s previously existing “amusement tax,” which, just as it sounds, taxes individuals on almost all forms of entertainment. California, on the other hand, recently tried to get away with unprecedented levels of extortion when it tried to tax residents for their drinking water and text messages. The water tax is still on the table, but luckily, the Golden State did not succumb to the new ridiculous texting tax. New Jersey, though, might not be so lucky. Blame It on the Rain To be perfectly clear, while the new tax is being referred to as the “rain tax,”…

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Minnesota Republicans Continue Pro-Life Push With Several Pieces of Legislation

Anthony Gockowski

Several pieces of pro-life legislation have been introduced by Republicans in both the Minnesota House and Senate. While they all face uphill battles against a Democratic-controlled House and a progressive in the Governor’s Mansion, pro-life leaders think that at least some of the measures should attract bipartisan support. Senate File (SF) 1168 and House File (HF) 1108, for instance, would require physicians to allow women seeking abortions to first see ultrasounds of their children. “Ultrasound imaging provides women with factual medical information,” Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) Legislative Director Andrea Rau said of the companion bills. “When people are better informed, they make better decisions that result in fewer regrets. Women deserve the chance to decide for themselves whether or not to see their child,” Rau added. According to MCCL, the bills are “completely mainstream legislation,” since 28 other states already have similar provisions written into their informed-consent laws for abortions. The Minnesota Legislature did pass an ultrasound bill in 2018, but it was vetoed by former Gov. Mark Dayton (D-MN). A second set of companion bills would prohibit abortions from being performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy, which is when “scientific evidence shows that unborn children can feel…

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Ohio Workers Injured on the Job Will No Longer Be Prescribed Oxycontin

Anthony Gockowski

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation voted Friday to no longer prescribe the powerful opioid Oxycontin to workers injured on the job. According to a Friday press release from the BWC, Chief Medical Officer Terry Welsh recommended that the drug be phased out of the organization’s formulary (a list of drugs the BWC will cover when prescribed), and the Board of Directors voted in favor of following his directive. Oxycontin will be replaced with Xtampza ER, which Welsh called “an equally effective but harder-to-abuse drug.” “Xtampza is a sustained-release form of oxycodone, like Oxycontin, but it utilizes a unique abuse-deterrent technology that makes it difficult to manipulate—crush, snort or inject—for aberrant use,” Welsh elaborated. “Thanks to technology, this just seems like the next responsible step to protect our injured workers from potential addiction and overdose death to dangerous drugs.” Oxycontin will be phased out of BWC’s system staring July 1, a move that also follows the recommendation of BWC’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. The establishment of that committee was one of several precautionary steps the BWC took to “mitigate the opioid epidemic’s impact on Ohio’s workforce,” the press release states. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) applauded the BWC’s decision, calling it…

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Walz’s Budget Calls for $700,000 in Additional Funding for His Own Office

Anthony Gockowski

Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) proposed budget for the 2020-2021 biennium calls for a $700,000 increase in funding for his own office to help with “outreach and engagement efforts.” “The Office of Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan recommends a $700,000 FY 2020-2021 biennial General Fund increase to fund a new office of Public Engagement in the Governor’s Office,” the budget proposal states, noting that the funding would amount to a 9.7 percent increase. According to the proposal, the increased funding would help respond to the “large volume of mail, email, telephone calls, and constituent visits.” On average, the budget estimates that the Governor’s Office receives “over 125,000 constituent contacts per year.” “The Office does not have the current capacity to provide additional reactive and proactive outreach and engagement efforts, which are critical to Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan’s vision for One Minnesota,” the budget claims. As such, Walz’s first budget proposes creating a new “Office of Public Engagement,” whose “primary responsibility is to connect with Minnesotans across the state to make government inclusive, transparent, accountable, and responsible.” “The Office of Public Engagement helps open the two-way dialogue, ensuring that the issues impacting our state’s proud and diverse…

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Gillespie Addresses Northam Blackface Scandal

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by Fred Lucas   Ed Gillespie, the Republican candidate who lost the 2017 Virginia governor’s race to Ralph Northam, said Virginia has much healing to do. “For Virginians, this is a very painful time to see these images splashed up on television screens and newspapers, and it doesn’t reflect the Virginia that I know and fellow Virginians know,” Gillespie said Thursday while attending the second annual Jay A. Parker Lecture and Reception at The Heritage Foundation. After Northam’s medical school yearbook surfaced from 1984, showing someone in blackface standing next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan outfit on Northam’s page in the yearbook, the governor denied he was either person, after initially apologizing. However, Northam, a Democrat, admitted to once dressing up in blackface to imitate Michael Jackson in 1984. This came days after he seemed to advocate infanticide of newborn babies in certain circumstances. During the gubernatorial campaign, a liberal group ran a racially charged political ad against Gillespie, tying him to neo-Nazis. The revelation of Northam’s past blackface resulted in bipartisan calls for the Democrat to resign, including from Kay Coles James, president of The Heritage Foundation. Gillespie—in the audience for the Heritage event—didn’t address whether Northam…

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Tennessee Star Report: Laurie Cardoza-Moore Petitions for the Resignation of Anti-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar

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 with Laurie Cardoza-Moore from Proclaiming Justice to the Nations about her current petition which can be found online at PJTN.org, regarding the removal of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the Somali Muslim who came to the United States under the Refugee Resettlement Program, for her anti-Semitic tweets and conduct. During the segment, Moore called for the removal of Omar citing her continuous anti-American views and values that she continues to promote and her recent speaking engagement on Thursday in Tampa, Florida alongside other anti-American, Islamic radicals. Gill: Also go to PJTN.org, this morning, that’s PJTN.org, Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, PJTN.org where there is a petition you can sign demanding the immediate resignation of Minnesota Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar. She’s the one who allegedly married her brother to cheat us immigration laws. Traveled apparently to Venezuela a year or so ago with an anti-American group. And Nancy Pelosi puts her on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Chairman of PJTN, Proclaiming Justice to the Nations is Laurie Cardoza-Moore…

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Tennessee Reportedly Seeks Free Market Approach to Health Care

Chris Butler

This week Forbes profiled a bill in the Tennessee House of Representatives that takes a “patient-centered, free-market approach to transform healthcare in Tennessee.” The bill, known as the CARE Plan creates price transparency through the Right to Shop Bill and more data on healthcare prices. The legislation also promotes competition among institutions, facilities, and providers through Certificate of Need Reform — one that loosens requirements — to benefit both urban and rural access needs, said Americans for Tax Reform Vice President of State Affairs Patrick Gleason. Gleason is also a senior fellow at the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free market think tank. The CARE Plan also is designed to increases rural healthcare access through Telehealth and Telemedicine alternatives. The legislation also explores options to increase access to behavioral health services, including medication-assisted therapy for substance use disorder. The bill if enacted into law, would request federal block grants to empower Tennessee to create a healthcare system that addresses our unique needs, Gleason wrote in Forbes. “This plan is an important first step in addressing the health concerns of all Tennesseans through increased competition and transparency, and once again, this plan demonstrates Tennessee’s ability to lead on an important issue…

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