Day: February 28, 2019

U.S. Rep. John Rose Says He Supports the Donald Trump National Emergency

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. John Rose, the Republican representing Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District, announced Wednesday he supports declaring a national emergency to build a border wall. U.S. Republican President Donald Trump declared the emergency. In a press release, Rose said he voted to support Trump in fully funding a wall along the United States’ unsecured Southern border. “I stand with the President’s decision to declare a national emergency to end the threats coming into our country through the open border,” the press release quoted Rose as saying. “This decision is within the President’s lawful purview and past presidents freely exercised this authority.” Rose went on to say the president alone has authority to declare a national emergency at his discretion. There were 31 national emergencies in effect prior to Trump declaring a national emergency to address the crisis at our southern border. Of those still in effect, former Democratic President Barack Obama declared 10 of them, according to Rose’s press release. “Sadly, Democrats have continued political stunts and recklessly neglected the crisis at our southern border. Democrats only now call foul on a president’s use of emergency declaration power, apparently putting their hostility toward President Trump above the needs of the American…

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Out on Bond Left-Wing Activist Justin Jones Arrested for Allegedly Assaulting Tennessee Speaker of the House Glen Casada

Chris Butler

Two well-known left-wing activists with a history of causing trouble at Republican events are now under arrest on charges of simple assault for throwing a liquid at Tennessee Republican Speaker of the House Glen Casada Thursday. Officers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested Vanderbilt Divinity School student Justin Jones and his friend Jeneisha Harris. Thursday afternoon Lieutenant Bill Miller, Public Information Officer for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, provided The Tennessee Star with this statement about the arrest of Jones and Harris: On 2/28/2019 THP was stationed at the State Capitol (600 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Nashville, TN 37243) on the 2nd floor in response to a planned protest. At approximately 0930hrs we began seeing several individuals associated with the protest arriving. Several times, Justin Bautista-Jones attempted to go around rope barriers and enter the House of Representatives chambers. It became clear that the group was attempting to contact Speaker Glen Casada. The House Sergeant-At-Arms advised the group that the chambers were closed for a press event. At approximately 10:06 a.m. Speaker Casada attempted to leave the chambers and enter an elevator that was being held specifically for members of the General Assembly and leadership. The group, specifically Justin Jones,…

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Commentary: GOP Senator Thom Tillis Flakes on Border Emergency

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by CHQ Staff   In an opinion piece posted Monday in The Washington Post, North Carolina’s Republican Senator Thom Tillis argued that President Trump’s declaration of an emergency on the southern border would set a precedent that could be used by future presidents to fund policy projects Congress rejects. Conservatives “should be thinking about whether they would accept the prospect of a President Bernie Sanders declaring a national emergency to implement parts of the radical Green New Deal; a President Elizabeth Warren declaring a national emergency to shut down banks and take over the nation’s financial institutions; or a President Cory Booker declaring a national emergency to restrict Second Amendment rights,” Tillis wrote according to reporting by Cathy Burke of NewsMax. “As a U.S. senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress. As a conservative, I cannot endorse a precedent that I know future left-wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms,” Tillis wrote in his op-ed. Tillis’s point would be worth debating if Democrats exhibited any signs of being constrained by the kind of constitutional limits upon which the Senator bases his argument. However, as we saw…

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Maury County Schools Formally Oppose School Vouchers

Chris Butler

By a vote of nine to one, members of the Maury County School Board voted to formally oppose school vouchers this week. According to the school system’s website, David Moore was the only board member to vote no to the resolution. Natasha Hopkins was absent. The rest of the board members all voted yes to the resolution. To date, Maury is the seventh known school system to formally oppose vouchers. Before she voted, board member Kristin Parker told The Tennessee Star it’s her job to support public schools. “I would probably support having vouchers, but I am open to hearing what other people in the community think before I cast my final vote,” Parker said. Parker later voted against school vouchers, according to the minutes of this week’s school board meeting. Meanwhile, board member Bettye Kinser, who voted the same way Parker did, said she vehemently opposes vouchers. “I feel like they will be a real detriment to public schools. If we need to spend some more money then let’s spend them on the schools and make them better,” Kinser told The Star. “Are there situations that maybe charter schools would work? Maybe in a large metropolitan area? I can’t…

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State House Committee Shoots Down Closing Party Primaries With the Help of Ten Republicans

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – By a vote of 2 to 14, a bill requiring that a voter in a party primary first declare their party affiliation prior to casting a primary vote, failed in the House Local Government Committee. Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) was the House sponsor of HB 1273, known as the “Political Party Registration Act,” as an outcome of the December 2018 organizational meeting of the Republican State Executive Committee (SEC). At the meeting, the Republican SEC overwhelming voted to pass a resolution to the Tennessee General Assembly addressing voter registration by a vote of 45 to 14 and one abstention, as reported by The Tennessee Star. The passage of the resolution by the Republican SEC resolved a long-standing issue as to whether the Tennessee Republican Party or the Tennessee General Assembly should make the first move relative to closing the primaries. As bill sponsor Holt explained to the Committee in the presentation of his bill, Tennessee law currently requires that a participant in a party primary be a bona fide member of that party. Violators of the law commit an offense that is a Class E felony, although there is no real enforcement of the law, due to…

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Congressman Mark Green Destroys Convicted Felon Michael Cohen

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Mark Green, a Republican representing Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District, delivered a blistering speech against Michael Cohen in Washington, D.C. Wednesday. Green scolded Cohen as, among other things, a liar, narcissist, and a tax cheat. Green also reprimanded House Democrats for even thinking to give Cohen a platform on a national stage. Cohen, of course, testified against U.S. Republican President Donald Trump Wednesday in front of the U.S. House Oversight Committee. Cohen spoke of Trump’s alleged payoffs and other alleged illegal acts. Green belongs to that committee. And when it was his turn to speak, Green unloaded: “The chairman of this committee promised the American people a fair and open process, yet the Democrats have vastly limited the scope of this hearing. They’ve issued a gag order to try to tell members of this committee what we can and cannot talk about. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that they want the truth, that they want transparency and fair oversight, yet the Democrats’ witness to testify before Congress today is none other than a scorned man going to prison for lying to Congress. Let it sink in. He’s going to prison for lying to Congress,…

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Michael Cohen Pours Cold Water on Collusion in Congressional Testimony, But Makes Bombshell Wikileaks Claim

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by Chuck Ross   Michael Cohen will make several bombshell allegations about President Trump during his testimony on Capitol Hill Wednesday, including that he overheard political operative Roger Stone tell Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign that he had spoken to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about the release of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee. While Cohen will offer scathing testimony against his former boss, he also claims he has no “direct evidence” that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Cohen will also testify that, contrary to recent BuzzFeed News report, Trump did not directly instruct him to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen, who will begin a three-year prison sentence on May 6, will also provide numerous anecdotes from his decade of working for Trump which he says shows the former real estate mogul to be “a racist…a conman…a cheat.” Cohen’s 20-page opening statement was released Tuesday night ahead of his testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Cohen testified earlier on Tuesday in a closed hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Cohen’s claims about Roger Stone are perhaps the biggest bombshell contained in the opening…

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Seven Pharma Execs Who Testified Before Congress Tuesday Make a Combined $116 Million Per Year

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by Evie Fordham   Five of the seven pharmaceutical companies who sent executives to testify on drug pricing before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday have the top-25 highest-paid pharma CEOs for companies in the S&P 500. CEOs from AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, Pfizer and Sanofi plus Johnson & Johnson’s executive vice president of pharmaceuticals, Jennifer Taubert, were grilled by Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley and other lawmakers at the hearing. Altogether, the top-25 CEOs whose companies were represented Tuesday received a combined $116,671,792 in compensation, including stock and stock options, in 2017, according to analysis by The Wall Street Journal. That number includes annual compensation for former Pfizer CEO Ian Read, who ceded the position to new CEO Albert Bourla in January. Bourla testified before the committee Tuesday. Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky rakes in the most out of the CEOs, with yearly compensation valued at $29,802,564, according to The WSJ. Taubert, who repped Johnson & Johnson and its pharmaceutical arm Janssen at Tuesday’s hearing, has no annual compensation data available according to Bloomberg. The runner-up is former Pfizer CEO Ian Read, who had yearly compensation of more than $27 million. He had agreed to delay implementing proposed…

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Wind Power ‘Dropped Off’ the Grid During Polar Vortex

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by Michael Bastasch   As Congress debates the Green New Deal, which calls for a massive increase in renewable energy use, new reports show wind energy “dropped off” as frigid Arctic air descended on the eastern U.S. earlier this year. “An earlier than expected drop in wind, primarily caused by cold weather cutoffs, increased risk of insufficiency for morning peak,” according to a report from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), which oversees electricity delivery across 15 states. The wind power shortfall triggered a “maximum generation event” on the morning of Jan. 30 when temperatures plummeted, MISO reported Wednesday of its handling of the historic cold that settled over the eastern U.S. in late January. Unplanned power outages were higher than past polar vortex events, MISO reported, much of it because wind turbines automatically shut off in the cold. Coal and natural gas plants ramped up production to meet the shortfall and keep the lights on. “This what happens when the government starts mandating and subsidizing inferior energy sources,” Dan Kish, a distinguished senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Kish, a Green New Deal opponent, said the proposal would “double down with…

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Celtic Woman Brings Irish Music to Nashville and the World

Bethany Bowman

Celtic Woman consists of four of the most beautiful and talented musical performers in the world. I recently sat down with all four, Máiréad Carlin, Éabha McMahon, Tara McNeill, and Megan Walsh, as they took a break from rehearsal here in Nashville. We discussed the rich history of Irish Music and their incredible heritage, as well as their latest album Celtic Woman: Ancient Land. The album’s release date was 26 October 2018. This is the group’s thirteenth studio album and eleventh DVD. On Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019, they kick off their 70-city, United States portion of a world tour in Nashville at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall. Celtic Woman has been together since 2005 with a different lineup over the years. They may be a household name in Ireland, but that shortchanges their appeal around the world. The global superstars are highly recognized and are probably the best known Irish musical group since U2. This version is probably the most talented. Their passion for music and their fans is contagious. Like most of their albums, Ancient Land brings a mixture of traditional Irish songs with contemporary arrangements. This particular album was dedicated to Dave Kavanagh, one of…

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Trump Threatens to Veto Gun Bills Pushed by Democrats

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President Donald Trump is threatening to veto two Democratic bills expanding federal background checks on gun purchases, saying they do not sufficiently protect gun owners’ Second Amendment rights. The House is expected to vote this week on separate bills requiring background checks for all sales and transfers of firearms and extending the background-check review from three to 10 days. The bills are the first in a series of steps planned by majority House Democrats to tighten gun laws after eight years of Republican control. The White House says in a veto message that the bill expanding background checks would impose unreasonable requirements on gun owners. It says the bill could block someone from borrowing a firearm for self-defense or allowing a neighbor to take care of a gun while traveling. The other bill, extending the review period for a background check, “would unduly impose burdensome delays on individuals seeking to purchase a firearm,” the White House said. The bill would close the so-called Charleston loophole used by the shooter in a 2015 massacre at a historic black church to buy a gun. But the White House said allowing the federal government to “restrict firearms purchases through bureaucratic delay would undermine…

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United Methodist Delegates Reject Recognizing Gay Marriage

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The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, faces a likely surge in defections and acts of defiance after delegates at a crucial conference voted Tuesday to strengthen the faith’s bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy. Emotions were high throughout the third and final day of the UMC’s meeting. Some supporters of greater LGBT inclusion were in tears, while others vented their anger when, midway through the session, delegates defeated a proposal that would have let regional and local church bodies decide for themselves on gay-friendly policies. “Devastation,” was how former Methodist pastor Rebecca Wilson of Detroit described her feelings. “As someone who left because I’m gay, I’m waiting for the church I love to stop bringing more hate.” After several more hours of debate, the conservatives’ proposal, called the Traditional Plan, was approved by a vote of 438-384. The Traditional Plan’s success was due to an alliance of conservatives from the U.S. and overseas. About 43 percent of the delegates are from abroad, mostly from Africa, and overwhelmingly support the LGBT bans. If the bans were eased, “the church in Africa would cease to exist,” said the Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia. “We can’t do anything…

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District Attorney Funk Outs Himself in 1982 Yearbook Photo Posing With Confederate Flag

Jason M. Reynolds

The attack against Southerners appearing in old photos has now ensnared District Attorney General Glenn Funk, who revealed his photo appearance in an attempt to get ahead of the story, multiple media outlets report. WKRN reports that Funk, of the 20th Judicial District in Nashville, appeared in a 1982 Wake Forest University yearbook photo with the Kappa Alpha Order, who were posing with the Confederate flag. Funk issued this statement: Last week, I read media reports that Governor Bill Lee was a KA at Auburn in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Given the attention given to this fact, I feel compelled to disclose that when I was in college at Wake Forest 37 years ago, I was also a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity. I went back and looked through my college annuals. In 1982, my picture appeared in a group photo in the yearbook with the Confederate flag prominently displayed. I was wrong to participate in divisive and hurtful behavior. I apologize for the hurt caused then and now. Last week Gannett dug up a 39-year-old university fraternity yearbook photo showing Gov. Bill Lee dressed in a Confederate uniform with other members of Kappa Alpha Order who were…

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Commentary: When Bureaucracy Replaces Humanity

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by Karl Notturno   I got a letter last week informing me that my catastrophic health care insurance was terminated. The plan was terminated because of a technical glitch. Instead of billing the credit card I had designated as my primary payment option, my healthcare provider billed an old and deactivated card. A declined payment of $10.42 (to supplement an early payment due to rising premiums) and another for $127.49 later, I lost my coverage, long before I realized there was anything wrong. If this happened in a different industry, I likely would not have had any problems. I would have called the company and, after a short conversation and the successful payment of my outstanding premiums, I would have had my insurance back. But the American healthcare industry is not just any industry. It is an industry that is controlled, to varying degrees, by federal, state, and local governments. When I called my provider, the representative was unable to fix my problem because local government regulations do not allow individuals to sign up for health insurance outside of an enrollment window. My provider patched me through to DC Health Link, a District of Columbia government agency—set up in accordance…

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Border Patrol Chief Agrees With Trump That There Is a Border Crisis

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by Jason Hopkins   U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost broke down in testimony to Congress why the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border qualifies as a national security crisis. “There is an ongoing debate as to whether this constitutes a border security crisis or a humanitarian crisis. Let me be clear, it is both,” Provost, President Donald Trump’s top border official, said Tuesday during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. Provost’s comments run counter to claims made by Democrats and other Trump critics who argue that, because border apprehensions are down considerably from 20 years ago, there is no actual crisis. While the 361,000 people the Border Patrol caught in fiscal year 2018 is less than half of the 1 million who were caught in the 1990s and 2000s, Provost says there is more to the numbers than meets the eye. “I’ve been asked many times how the current situation can be a crisis compared to years when we surpassed 1 million apprehensions,” the Border Patrol chief said to lawmakers. “To understand the numbers, you have to look at what’s happening on the ground.” In years past, the majority of those apprehended at the border were Mexican nationals who,…

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Officials Say Oakland Teachers’ Strike Costs District Nearly $1 Million A Day

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by Neetu Chandak   The Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) says the teachers’ strike costs the district nearly $1 million a day. This estimate is based on the number of absent students, with the savings of not paying teachers factored in, according to the San Francisco Chronicle Tuesday. The strike has had an impact on more than 36,000 students. Only 6 percent of students have reportedly showed up to classes, according to CBS SF BayArea. The total loss would be $5 million if estimates remain the same as teachers continue to strike for the fifth day Wednesday. “Our numbers show the impact that the student absences are having on the district in support of our teachers,” OUSD superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell said, the Chronicle reported. Teachers went to the picket lines Thursday to protest what they believe are unlivable salaries in a city where the median monthly rent price is a little more than $3,000 and the median housing value price is $735,000. OUSD entry-level teachers can earn around $47,000 a year, according to OUSD data. https://twitter.com/calliepatton/status/1099061429359898625 The Oakland Educators Association (OEA), the district’s teachers union, asked for a 12 percent raise over a period of three years. The district has…

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Taxpayer Funded Minnesota State Arts Board Paid Artist $10,000 to Paint Picture of Trump Groping Lady Justice

Anthony Gockowski

The taxpayer-funded Minnesota State Arts Board shelled out $10,000 to a local artist who used the money to paint a seven-foot-tall picture of President Donald Trump groping Lady Justice. As part of the Minnesota State Arts Board FY 2018 grants program, Shafer artist Jim Denomie created a series “of large paintings in response to Standing Rock and other contemporary events from a Native American perspective.” Minnesota Public Radio recently sat down with Denomie for an interview to discuss his completed series of paintings, which includes a more than seven-foot-tall painting called “Standing Rock 2016.” In that picture, Trump is seen groping a topless Lady Justice while four men in suits stand watching. “I’ve learned over my experience making paintings especially about important events that I receive information from the spirit world,” Denomie told MPR. “It comes to me from somewhere, I don’t know exactly where—but I often come away from these paintings with a better understanding of the story of the events.” His paintings are currently on display at the Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis, which says of Denomie’s paintings: “With this body of work, Denomie has cast his discriminating eye onto real-world events, specifically the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy and…

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North Carolina Lawmakers File Motion to Block Ruling That Would Overturn New Constitutional Amendments

A.P. Dillon

North Carolina state lawmakers have filed a motion to stay a ruling made this past week that invalidates two constitutional amendments passed by voters in 2018. The motion, filed by House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) and Senate Pro Tempore Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), calls into question the logic of the ruling, its impact on elections, election law, voting districts, and past laws such as budgets. “The precedent created by this decision casts doubt on even more laws and causes public confusion,” the motion says. Last Friday, 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. A press release by the office of Senator Phil Berger blasted Collin’s ruling. The press release states that Collins’s decision “tosses aside the will of more than two million voters” who cast a ballot for the voter ID amendment. The statement says the same disenfranchisement applies to those who cast a ballot…

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North Carolina Deputy State Superintendent Headed for Florida Department of Education

A.P. Dillon

Deputy State Superintendent Dr. Eric Hall is leaving the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) for a new job in Florida schools. Hall will be taking the role of Chancellor for Innovation at the Florida Department of Education in March. According to a press release by NCDPI, Hall’s new job includes overseeing the implementation of things such as “workforce and computer science education, expanding school choice and K-12 standards.” “Throughout his career, Dr. Hall has shown his dedication to student success and to using innovative strategies to spread that success in support of public schools,” said Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran in the statement. “I thank Superintendent Johnson for his gracious support of Eric’s career and family and am happy to welcome Eric home to the Sunshine State.” “This is an unbelievable opportunity to continue to work at the state level,” said Dr. Hall. Hall said he was looking forward to working in Florida and that both Gov. DeSantis and Commissioner Corcoran have great ideas and a great vision for education in the state. “I think the thing I am most proud of is to be able to really work and build good, strong teams,” said Hall about…

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Metro Nashville Public School Board Member Will Pinkston Reportedly Calls People ‘Nitwits’

Chris Butler

Metro Nashville Public School board member Will Pinkston reportedly thinks that people who complain to him about the latest goings-on at the school system are “nitwits.” This, according to the Nashville-based NewsChannel 5, which publicized a series of tweets Pinkston recently released. “An email sent to Metro School Board members on Tuesday criticizing MNPS leadership set off a flurry of tweets and responses from School Board member Will Pinkston, referring to apparent critics as ‘broke nitwits,’” the station reported. “The email sent to school board members by David Jones was later posted on Twitter, which prompted the response from Pinkston.” “’I like making nitwits meltdown on Twitter,” Pinkston wrote in a tweet. “It’s kind of a thing.” Pinkston, when tweeting again, said Jones has no right to criticize as he does not live in Davidson County. “I’ve got enough to do without fielding bone-headed missives from Rutherford County,” the station reported Pinkston as tweeting. Jones wife Katie, though, said she is a tenured teacher who works for the Metro Nashville Public Schools. “Your response to the email is both shocking and unprofessional,” the station reported Katie Jones as saying when she wrote back. “As a teacher, if I responded to…

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Man at Center of North Carolina Ballot Harvesting Investigation Indicted and Arrested

A.P. Dillon

A Grand Jury in Raleigh, North Carolina indicted the man at the center of an absentee ballot harvesting scheme in the state’s 9th Congressional District. Leslie McCrae Dowless has been indicted on three counts felonious obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots. A secure bond of $30,000 was set for Dowless and the next court date is set for today, February 28. Dowless was arrested by State Bureau of Investigation Agents in Bladensboro on Wednesday, not long after the indictment was made public. The Grand Jury indictment says Dowless illegally took the ballots of, but not limited to, Mary Alice Davis, Sondra Kaye Deaver, and Jabril Baker. The indictment document states that Dowless “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously, did with deceit and intent to defraud, obstruct public and legal justice” by turning in ballots in such a way as to make it seem like the process had been legal. The indictment document states Dowless did “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously, conspire with others” whom the indictment names as Kelly Hendrix and Rebecca Thompson. Both women testified during the evidentiary hearings held by the North Carolina State Board of Elections…

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Ohio State Democratic Legislator Introduces Bill to Move Presidential Primary From March to May

Andrew Shirley

Ohio Democratic State Rep. Jack Cera (D-96) has introduced a bill that would permanently delay the Ohio presidential primary by two months, a move that could have major implications for Ohio. House Bill 101 (HB 101) would officially move the Ohio primary from March to “the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May.” Currently, Ohio’s early March primary has made it one of a handful of seminal states in several recent presidential primaries. The state has already lost a significant amount of presidential election “clout” with its number of electoral votes dropping to a historical low of 16. The move would also have a significant effect on state revenues just as the amount of money spent on electoral races continues to climb at shocking rates. By delaying the primary, the value of airtime in the state is also delayed. In addition, it could be the death knell of one prominent Ohioan’s presidential aspirations. Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown had long maintained that his resonance in Ohio is one of his key political advantages, should he decide to run in 2020. The Ohio senator was one of the only Democrats to win re-election in the 2018 midterm. Most surprising, he did so by close to…

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Ohio Farmer Sues After Lake Erie Bill of Rights Easily Passes

Anthony Gockowski

Toledo voters overwhelmingly approved of the controversial Lake Erie Bill of Rights during a special election Tuesday night, but a local former has already filed a lawsuit against it. According to the Toledo Blade, voters approved of the referendum by a 61-39 margin. As The Ohio Star reported Tuesday, the measure extends legal rights guaranteed under the Ohio State Constitution to the body of water. “Since all power of governance is inherent in the people, we, the people of the City of Toledo, declare and enact this Lake Erie Bill of Rights, which establishes irrevocable rights for the Lake Erie Ecosystem to exist, flourish and naturally evolve,” the referendum states. University of Toledo law professor Ken Kilbert called the referendum “unprecedented,” but predicted that it “may well suffer the fate of defeat in the court.” On Wednesday morning, not even 24 hours after the referendum passed, Wood County farmer Mark Drewes filed suit against the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. The lawsuit argues that the Lake Erie Bill of Rights “violates federal constitutional rights, including equal protection, freedom of speech, and is unenforceable for its vagueness,” according to a press release from the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation. “Mark’s farm is…

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Commentary: US Schools Are Leaving Students Ill-Equipped to Compete with Artificial Intelligence

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by Kerry McDonald   We have long known that the robots were coming, but now that they are here, the mismatch between our modern education system and the technology-fueled workplace is glaringly apparent. As robots expertly perform routine tasks and increasingly assume broader workforce responsibilities, we must ask ourselves an important question: What is our key human differentiator? The Power of Creativity According to Boston University professor Iain Cockburn, who just published a new paper on the impact of artificial intelligence, the human competitive advantage lies in optimizing “what we can do better than machines, which is imagination, creativity, judgment.” In the paper, Cockburn and his colleagues suggest that it’s possible the robots will catch up to us soon in these realms, but they are not there yet. They write: Instead, recent advances in both robotics and in deep learning are by and large innovations that require a significant level of human planning and that apply to a relatively narrow domain of problem-solving (e.g., face recognition, playing Go, picking up a particular object, etc.). While it is of course possible that further breakthroughs will lead to a technology that can meaningfully mimic the nature of human subjective intelligence and emotion,…

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Bill Setting Limits on Nashville Police Oversight Board Advances in Tennessee House

Jason M. Reynolds

The Tennessee House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill setting limits on Nashville’s police oversight board. The bill is HB0568, sponsored by State Rep. Michael G. Curcio (R-TN-69). The bill’s tracking information is here. HB0568 will go next to the House Calendar & Rules Committee, a necessary step prior to consideration by the full House. The Senate version, SB1407, is scheduled for the Senate Judiciary Committee for March 5. The bill’s caption says the measure would limit “the authority of a community oversight board to the review and consideration of matters reported to it and the issuance of advisory reports and recommendations to agencies involved in public safety and the administration of justice.” During the House Judiciary Committee meeting, the bill appeared at the end of the agenda, the Nashville Scene reported. Several Democrats objected to the closing of debate, citing parliamentary procedure, but the committee ultimately voted 13-6 to send the bill on. … Curcio’s bill would strip Nashville’s board of its subpoena power. It would also eliminate the demographic descriptors written into Nashville’s COB membership requirements. Basically, the bill would require board members to be registered voters and that membership cannot be limited to certain demographics, economic…

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