February 26, 2019 - Tennessee Star

Carol Swain Considers Whether to Run a Second Time for Nashville Mayor

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Chris Butler

Former Nashville mayoral candidate Carol Swain might run for mayor of Nashville again. But put heavy emphasis on the word “might.” Swain said it all depends on how much money she raises. Swain announced on her Facebook page Monday she’s only considering a run and nothing is definite. But she has already filed the Appointment of Treasurer, which permits her to start raising money. The race is scheduled for Aug. 1. The filing deadline for the race is May 16. “We must raise substantial money before I feel comfortable officially announcing. If we fail to reach our preliminary fundraising goal, all early donations will be returned,” Swain said on Facebook. “Please note you don’t have to live in metropolitan Nashville to contribute to my campaign. What happens in Nashville doesn’t stay in Nashville. It affects every city and town in the state and ultimately the entire nation.” Swain, of course, ran for mayor last May in a special election to fill out the remaining term of disgraced former mayor Megan Barry. According to Ballotpedia, she lost that election to then-interim Mayor David Briley. Briley got 54 percent of the vote, while Swain got 23 percent. Last time around, Swain told…

Read the full story

Democrat Presidential Hopefuls Vote Against ‘Born Alive Bill’ in the Senate

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

by Grace Carr The Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, which would have ensured that babies who survive abortions are given medical attention, failed to pass the U.S. Senate Monday evening. The bill failed by a vote of 53 to 44. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would have mandated that babies born alive after an abortion would receive the “same protection of law as any newborn.” The bill required 60 votes to pass. Democratic presidential hopefuls Harris, Klobuchar, Booker, Brown, Gillibrand and Warren voted against the bill. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also voted against the measure. Democratic Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth described the bill as an obvious effort “to bully doctors out of giving reproductive care,” and voted against it. Democratic senators Joe Manchin, Bob Casey, and Doug Jones voted in favor of the bill. Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski didn’t vote. “Those senators who voted against this bill that obviously protects human beings will have a lot to answer for when they face the voters,” Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said, according to a press release. “Senators who could not bring themselves to vote to pass the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act should reconsider whether or not they have what it takes to…

Read the full story

REPORT: White House Convenes Panel To ‘Reassess’ Climate Change Risks

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

by Tim Pearce The Trump administration is enlisting government scientists to serve on a climate advisory panel that will reassess the risks of climate change, senior administration officials told The Washington Post. Top administration officials, including President Donald Trump and acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, discussed assembling a team of hand-picked federal scientists to review risks of climate change. The committee would provide evidence downplaying or contradicting alarmist views on climate change, such as is outlined in the Green New Deal championed by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The committee may also challenge findings in recent government reports such as the National Climate Assessment (NCA) released in November and used by Democrats to push for climate action. “The president wants people to be able to decide for themselves,” one official told WaPo. Discussions focused on creating a panel under the National Security Council that would not be subject to the regulations outlined in the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The act says official advisory committees must meet in public and are subject to open records laws. “I never thought I would live to see the day in the United States where our own White House is attacking the very science agencies that can help the president…

Read the full story

Vice-President Pence: US with Guiado ‘100 Percent’

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

Trump administration stands with the U.S.-recognized interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido “100 percent,” Vice President Mike Pence said Monday as he announced new financial assistance for the Venezuelan people. “We stand with you, and along with all the nations gathered here today, we will keep standing with you until democracy and liberty are restored,” Pence said in a speech delivered to the Lima Group, following a trilateral meeting in Bogota, Colombia with Guiado and Colombian President Ivan Duque. Pence said disputed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro “must go.” While in Bogota, Pence and regional leaders discussed strategy to hasten the departure of Maduro and how to get humanitarian aid currently piling up on the border in Brazil and Colombia into Venezuela, where supplies of food and medicine have run low. “We’ve imposed sanctions on more than 50 top officials as well as on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, to stop Maduro’s cronies from enriching themselves at the expense of the Venezuelan people,” Pence said, noting that the U.S. plans to continue to put financial and diplomatic pressure on Maduro’s regime. He added that “it is my privilege to announce that the United States will provide an additional $56 million to…

Read the full story

Nine Years After Obamacare Passed, Agency Finds Numbers Were Wildly Off

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

by Jarrett Stepman Democrats defeated Republicans in the Obamacare repeal fight by warning that 22 million Americans would be thrown off their health insurance. They pointed to data leaked from the Congressional Budget Office. Well, it turns out that data was completely wrong. According to a report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office wildly overestimated the number of people who would lose their health insurance with the repeal of the individual mandate penalty. Initial estimates from the Congressional Budget Office said 14 million would drop off their health insurance coverage due to the elimination of the individual mandate. Then, during the height of the 2017 debate over repeal, progressives touted a leaked number from the Congressional Budget Office claiming that 22 million people would “lose” their insurance if Congress repealed the law. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] However, as health care analyst Avik Roy pointed out, what made this number so high was the inflated number of people expected to lose their insurance due to repeal of the mandate – about 73 percent to…

Read the full story

Conservatives Outwit Hollywood by Supporting Art and Entertainment Directly

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

by Robert Romano Hollywood and other aspects of the entertainment industry including music and publishing tend to be very liberal institutions, it’s no mystery, and a lot of the content it produces often reflects that. Sometimes the messages are subtle and sometimes they are in your face full-blown social justice advocacy, and yet if one considers the broader market, liberals only make up a plurality of the total audience. Politically, the U.S. is narrowly divided. Each of the major parties’ candidates received more than 60 million votes in 2016. Presently, in addition to the White House, Republicans hold a majority in the Senate, while Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives. If that is any indication, there clearly are more potential audiences beyond those of a liberal persuasion yet so much of the entertainment and news content for bigger brands — not all of it, but a lot of it — will include messaging appealing to liberal audiences. And so, many content creators are instead marketing directly to their audiences — and it’s working. “The Chosen,” telling the story of the life of Jesus, has now become the largest crowdfunded television series in history, taking in $11 million…

Read the full story

Commentary: Democrat Presidential Candidates to Provide Comic Relief This Week as McConnell Presses ‘Green New Deal’ Vote

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

by CHQ Staff Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has scheduled some comic entertainment for the Senate in the form of a debate and vote on the Democrats’ “Green New Deal” plan. The debate and vote are expected to come some time later this week. The “Green New Deal” was authored by freshman Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (NY-14), and longtime global warming whacko Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, it calls for ridding the nation of fossil fuels in the next few decades, among other dramatic environmental and economic changes. To give Americans some idea of the “dramatic environmental and economic changes” Democrats contemplate, the “Green New Deal” rollout included a fact sheet produced by Ocasio-Cortez’s staff that called for eliminating the need for air travel, retrofitting every house and building to green energy standards, and reforming the nation’s agricultural practices to eliminate cows. Practicing up for the coming debate, Socialist Rep. Ocasio-Cortez appeared on a Showtime comedy show last week and said, “We need to take a look at factory farming, and maybe we shouldn’t be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” Socialist Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s calls to curb methane-producing cows and her proposal to end the alleged environmental…

Read the full story

Liz Cheney Calls Out Kamala Harris for the ‘Fundamental Fraud’ She Espouses: ‘You Can’t Be For the People’

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

by Molly Prince Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney criticized Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris and the members of her party for claiming to work in the interest of the American people despite promulgating policies that strip Americans of their freedoms. “Let’s never forget the fundamental fraud that’s at the heart of socialism,” Cheney said while speaking at the California GOP convention Saturday. “Every time you see Kamala Harris’s campaign slogan ‘For the people,’ I want you to remember what her real agenda is — taking power from the people to give it to the government.” Cheney reminded the crowd of Harris’s call to eliminate the private health insurance market and instead create a government-run system, which would overhaul the entire American health care market. “[Harris] fully embraced the socialist wing of their party” the Wyoming congresswoman continued. “She wants Medicare for all to create an all-government health care plan. That would cost $32 trillion in just the first decade.” Harris revealed on MLK Jr. Day that she’s running for president because “the future of our country depends on you and millions of others lifting our voices to fight for our American values.” Accordingly, she chose the slogan “For the People” to represent her campaign. Cheney, who is the…

Read the full story

Commentary: An American Epidemic of Toxic Imbecility

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Admin

by Thaddeus G. McCotter I’m a doctor. Fine, I’m a doctor of laws not of medicine. But I can scroll Web, M.D. as well as anyone, so believe you me – forget all the other scourges ravaging our free republic, even if (nay, especially if) they are afflicting you. Those scourges are mere distractions from the root cause of our impending doom. No, I’m not talking about climate change/global warming/new Ice Age or whatever current false alarm the Left is sounding, for that false alarm is itself is a symptom of the new scourge; and, at the risk of sounding alarmist, our demise may well occur within the next twelve years. For, as President Abraham Lincoln ominously noted, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” And Mr. Lincoln wasn’t just talking about Jussie Smollett paying for his hoax hate crime with a check. What is this postmodern plague consuming our nation? Toxic imbecility. And where is the hot zone where this imbecilic chicken first came home to roost and now appears ready to cook our goose? An educated guess is that it’s wherever educators…

Read the full story

North Carolina Superintendent of Schools Rolls Out ‘NC 2030’ Plan

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 A.P. Dillon

Last week, North Carolina Superintendent of Schools Mark Johnson rolled out “NC 2030,” which is a plan to make the state the “best place to learn and teach by 2030.” “By 2030, North Carolina can be the best place to begin school, the best place to learn and the best place to teach,” Johnson said in a press release. “Today we present an ambitious but achievable plan to get there. Our educators are doing their part. It will take innovation and leadership to make it happen.” The NC 2030 plan will be measured by increasing activity in four areas: Expanding Pre-K opportunities for 4-year olds Fourth graders reading on grade level Students who, after graduation, are on track to their chosen, fulfilling career Recruits to education professions and educators remaining in N.C. public schools Increasing pre-k slots, reducing testing, increasing so-called ‘personalized’ learning, and an emphasis on “Career pathways” were included in the detailed list of Johnson’s legislative priorities. Missing from NC 2030 is the full discontinuation of the Common Core State Standards, which Johnson campaigned on in 2016. What Johnson does suggest is dismantling just the use of Common Core Math: Allow a working group of districts to opt out…

Read the full story

ACLU of Minnesota Sues School District for Preventing Trans Student from Using Boys’ Locker Room

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Anthony Gockowski

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Minnesota announced Monday that it has filed suit against Anoka-Hennipen School District 11 for preventing a transgender student from using the boys’ locker room. At a press conference Monday hosted by Gender Justice, who’s partnering with the ACLU on the case, ACLU Staff Attorney David McKinney (pictured above) argued that the district’s actions violated “the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the rights of equal protection and due process under the Minnesota State Constitution.” According to McKinney, his client, who was referred to as N.H., joined the boys’ swim team at Coon Rapids High School and used the boys’ locker room with his teammates “without any complaints and without any problems.” “But then the school board got involved, and prohibited him from using the same boys’ locker room that he had used for months,” McKinney said, noting that N.H. was told he would “be disciplined” if he used the boys’ locker room again. “They segregated him from his classmates, and forced him to use a changing facility that no other student had to use. This degrading treatment made him feel unwelcome and alone. The teenage boy who had been doing well academically and socially…

Read the full story

Sherrod Brown: If I Run I Will be ‘The Most Pro-Union, Pro-Worker Candidate’

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Andrew Shirley

Saturday, before an assembly of the Culinary Union – the most powerful workers union in Las Vegas – Democratic Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown declared that should he run, he would be “The Most Pro-Union, Pro-Worker Candidate” out of the entire field. He stated, “I will always fight for workers, I will always be on the side of workers.” Brown also announced that should he become president, he would immediately convene a meeting of key industry leaders and encourage them to pay their workers, at least, a minimum wage of $15. He did not say that he would introduce a $15 minimum wage bill, however, only that he would encourage corporations to pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour. The Ohio Senator is in the middle of his “Dignity of Work” tour and has been traveling to key presidential battleground states to advocate for “workers-first policies.” He stated that he would make his formal decision whether or not to run sometime next month. His declaration to be the most “pro-union” candidate is at odds with his oft-repeated campaign positioning strategy of being a center-progressive who can win moderate votes. By vowing to take pro-union positions that would put him to the left…

Read the full story

Google Wants 20 Years of Tax Breaks for Central Minnesota Data Center

February 26, 2019February 26, 2019 Anthony Gockowski

Google wants 20 years’ worth of future tax breaks with a value of up to $15 million for a data center the tech giant plans to build in central Minnesota. Google plans to build the $600 million data center in Sherburne County on 300 acres owned by Xcel Energy. According to MPR News, filings submitted to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission by Google estimate that the project will create 2,300 temporary construction jobs, and at least 50 permanent jobs. Becker Mayor Tracy Bertram noted that the tech jobs at the data center would have an annual payroll of $4 million, and said the data center will produce $7 million in economic activity per year. As such, Google asked Sherburne County and Becker city officials for property tax breaks for 20 years, which would save the company roughly $15 million. “This will generate a lot of economic activity that will benefit not only the city and the county, but also the state and the region,” Sherburne County Administrator Steve Taylor said. Taylor expects that county commissioners will be open to the request, but will be holding hearings in March to convince the public. The tax abatement would save Google between $7…

Read the full story

With Surgical Precision, Judge’s Ruling Disenfranchises Millions of North Carolina Voters

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 A.P. Dillon

Friday, a Wake County Superior Court judge’s ruling involving state constitutional amendments has left half of North Carolina’s voters disenfranchised. Superior Court Judge George Bryan Collins, Jr. ruled that two out of four state constitutional amendments passed by North Carolina voters in 2018 were illegal because the state legislature was itself ‘illegal’. “An illegally constituted General Assembly does not represent the people of North Carolina and is therefore not empowered to pass legislation that would amend the state’s constitution,” Collins wrote in his ruling. The suit Collins ruled on specifically only sought to invalidate only two of four passed amendments. The case was brought by the Southern Environment Law Center on behalf of the NC NAACP and an affiliated legal group called “Forward Justice.” According to state and federal records, Forward Justice only recently obtained 501(c)3 status had previously been named Southern Strategy Project and Southern Justice. “We are delighted that the acts of the previous majority, which came to power through the use of racially discriminatory maps, have been checked,” said Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman of the NC NAACP. Responses from state leaders were swift, calling the ruling outrageous and a clear act of ‘judicial activism’. “We will…

Read the full story

New Bill in Tennessee General Assembly Could Raise Age Needed to Buy Tobacco Products

February 26, 2019February 25, 2019 Chris Butler

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — No one in Tennessee between the ages of 18 to 20 could buy tobacco or vaping products if a bill currently in the Tennessee General Assembly is enacted into law. Members of the state Senate Commerce Committee are scheduled to hear the bill Tuesday at 1 p.m. State Sen. Shane Reeves (R-Murfreesboro) and State Rep. Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville, are sponsoring the bill. Flanked by members of the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, Reeves and Ramsey held a press conference at the Cordell Hull State Office Building in Nashville Monday to announce their initiative. “We are very healthy financially. But as healthy as we are financially we are equally unhealthy physically as a state,” Reeves said, quoting statistics that say, for instance, Tennessee ranks 42nd in heart disease and 46th in lung cancer. “All of these things are made worse by smoking, which we are currently 47 out of 50 states in smoking.” The bill, if passed into law, would not penalize people under 21 for buying tobacco. But the bill would strengthen penalties for anyone caught selling tobacco or vaping products to minors, according to a press release members of the AHA distributed to the press…

Read the full story