Day: March 9, 2019

Memphis Regional Megasite Reportedly Three Years Away

Chris Butler

The Memphis Regional Megasite, which has already cost Tennessee taxpayers more than $140 million is reportedly three years away from completion, according to The Jackson Sun. Justin Owen, president of The Beacon Center of Tennessee, a Nashville-based free market think tank, previously called the megasite “an empty field of broken promises.” This, Owen said, despite “big talk by state officials” to bring thousands of jobs to a downtrodden area. The Jackson Sun quoted Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe as saying the eminent domain process will take several more months. The wastewater pipeline process, meanwhile, will take 18 to 24 months, the paper quoted Rolfe as saying. “The largest hurdles facing the Megasite right now are the approval of permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and using the eminent domain process in order to lay the wastewater pipeline,” according to The Jackson Sun. According to the paper, the ECD has hired the consulting firm Gresham Smith “to determine what company would be best for managing the utilities on site.” Gresham Smith has received roughly $500,000, the paper said. Quoting TNECD Deputy Commissioner of Business Community and Rural Development Allen Borden, The Jackson Sun said the site will…

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Commentary: The Left Is Doubling Down on Schemes to Pack the Supreme Court

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by Jarret Stepman   Anything the left can’t control, it aims to destroy. From campaigns to abolish the Senate to the growing movement to upend the Electoral College after Hillary Clinton’s defeat in the 2016 presidential election, progressives have few qualms about getting rid of long-standing constitutional institutions. Now they’re doubling down on their efforts to wage war on the Supreme Court. Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday that Democrats should consider court-packing during an appearance at Yale, noting that he would try to add two seats if he were president. https://twitter.com/AaronBlake/status/1103759358142410755 The left has relied on the Supreme Court to solidify its policy gains over the past half-century in particular. Now it faces the prospect of an originalist-leaning institution overturning some progressive precedents. Left-wing groups are openly advocating that the next Democrat president pack the Supreme Court to expand the number of justices behind the now traditional nine. Politico reported that one initiative, appropriately named “Pack the Courts,” is trying to get 2020 presidential candidates to sign onto a pledge to do just that. “At Demand Justice, we strongly believe that reforming the court—especially by expanding it—is the cornerstone for rebuilding American democracy,” said Brian Fallon, director of…

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Chickamauga Schools Superintendent Melody Day in Legal Trouble After Allegedly Trying to Scam Department Store

Chris Butler

Melody Day, the superintendent of the Chickamauga City School System, has reportedly pleaded no contest Friday to a charge she tried to bilk a department store in a price-tag swap scheme, according to The Chattanooga Times Free Press. According to the paper, the alleged incident occurred at a Belk department store in Hamilton County. “Day was ordered to pay the store $525.50 in restitution as part of her misdemeanor conviction for theft of property,” according to the paper. “She also was ordered to stay out of any Belk store and to go to counseling. If she follows all of those orders, Judge Gary Starnes told her, Day’s record could be expunged in a year.” Day would only reportedly tell The Times Free Press that she did as her attorney advised, and she said nothing else. “According to an affidavit, a Belk employee at the Hamilton Place mall store told Chattanooga police she saw Day walk into a fitting room with several clothing items. Some were on sale. Some were not,” the paper reported. “The employee said Day swapped price tags, paying a discounted rate for items that had been full price. In all, the employee said, Day engineered a $300…

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Commentary: Switzerland’s Foreign Policy Should Be a Model for America

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by Brandon J. Weichert   As I have written previously, many elites think of the United States as being in a position similar to that of the vulnerable Hapsburg Empire: a large empire possessing indefensible frontiers. But, this comparison flawed. In fact, a more precise analog to the United States is Switzerland. A federal republic like the United States, Switzerland enjoys a natural barrier separating it from the rest of its neighbors in Europe. The United States has two massive oceans, whereas Switzerland has the beautiful Swiss Alps. From behind these natural barriers, the liberty-loving Swiss republic formed, and by European standards, so did a potent market economy. Switzerland hasn’t always been a peaceful state, but it has been able to maintain peaceful relations with all of its neighbors better than most other states. Its beneficial geography has afforded Swiss leaders the time to develop reasonable, low-cost methods for maintaining their country’s sovereignty without becoming too enmeshed in the chaotic world beyond its protective peaks. Switzerland is not an isolationist country, however. Like the United States throughout most of its history, the Swiss simply prefer to rely on diplomacy and trade to handle the bulk of their interactions with most of…

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Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery to Fight Robocalls

Chris Butler

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III urged the U.S. Senate this week to enact the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, legislation to curb illegal robocalls and spoofing, according to a press release. A coalition of 54 attorneys general sent a letter to the U. S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation supporting the TRACED Act. Republican U.S. Senator John Thune of South Dakota and Democratic U.S. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, are sponsoring the legislation. “In their letter, the attorneys general state that the TRACED Act enables states, federal regulators, and telecom providers to take steps to combat these illegal calls,” according to the press release Slatery’s office sent out this week. “The legislation will require voice service providers to participate in a call authentication framework to help block unwanted calls and creates an interagency working group to take additional actions to reduce robocalls and hold telemarketers and robocallers accountable.” More than 48 billion robocalls were made in 2018, making them the number one source of consumer complaints to the FTC and the FCC and resulting in millions in consumer losses, according to the press release. The state attorneys general work to enforce do-not-call laws and protect consumers in their states from being harassed and…

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Two Senators Introduce Bill to Keep Members of Congress From Cashing in as Lobbyists

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by Evie Fordham   Two Republican senators introduced legislation to ban members of Congress from lobbying Congress once they exit office, and although the lawmakers are “barking up the right tree,” their solution might not be realistic, a government transparency expert told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Braun of Indiana are the cosponsors of the Banning Lobbying and Safeguarding Trust (BLAST) Act. “You generally do see more of a reform agenda from some of the newer members that come into the Senate or into the House. We’re hoping some of their policies actually gain traction and can be supported in a bipartisan way,” Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, told TheDCNF in a phone interview. “The public is tired of politics as usual.” Scott and Braun want to put an end to lawmakers stepping into the so-called “revolving door of K Street” — using their connections to become well-heeled lobbyists once they are out of office. Current law mandates ex-House members must wait a year to lobby their former colleagues, while ex-senators must wait two. “I’m proud to introduce this bill that imposes a permanent ban on members of…

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Former Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning Ordered to Jail

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Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been sent to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail for contempt of court on Friday after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying. She told the judge she “will accept whatever you bring upon me.” Manning has said she objects to the secrecy of the grand jury process, and that she already revealed everything she knows at her court-martial. The judge said she will remain jailed until she testifies or until the grand jury concludes its work. Manning’s lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of the jail, because of medical complications she faces. The judge said U.S. marshals can handle her medical care. Prosecutor Tracy McCormick said the jail and the marshals have assured the government that her medical needs can be met. Manning anticipated being jailed. In a statement before Friday’s hearing, she said she invoked her First, Fourth and Sixth amendment protections when she appeared before the grand jury in Alexandria on Wednesday. She said she already answered every substantive question during her 2013 court-martial and…

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Elizabeth Warren Announces Plans to Break Up Facebook and Other Big Tech Firms

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by Chris White   Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a plan Friday to wallop big tech companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon as the Massachusetts Democrat works to differentiate herself among fellow presidential candidates. Her proposal would impose new rules on tech companies with $25 billion or more in annual ad revenue, forcing Amazon and Google to dramatically reduce their hold on online commerce. The plan would also aim to curtail mergers between companies like Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. “Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy. They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation,” Warren wrote in a blog post Friday. She announced her bid to run against President Donald Trump in February. She added: “That’s why my Administration will make big, structural changes to the tech sector to promote more competition—including breaking up Amazon, Facebook, and Google.” Warren is expected to promote the idea Friday evening in Long Island City, New York, where Amazon was planning to build a monster campus before the online…

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Commentary: The Democratic Socialist Platform Echoes the Madness of the Khmer Rouge

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by Barry Brownstein   In 1975, when the Khmer Rouge took over, they quickly emptied the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. This was to be year Zero; a rebirth of Cambodia as an engineered egalitarian, classless rural society with “the corruption and parasitism of city life” eliminated. Several million had to leave at once, including hospital patients. Those who refused were summarily executed. Those who left were forced to work in fields, where many died while being fed starvation rations. Genocide against their own citizens resulted in up to 2.5 million dead out of a population of 8 million. Over 1.3 million of the dead were executed. Driven mad by class politics, Khmer Rouge soldiers dehumanized their victims. Khmer Rouge soldiers “fired aimlessly at innocent civilians as long as someone offended them in any way.” They reserved special brutality for those in Cambodia’s middle class, “the doctors, bankers, teachers and merchants, the people who read books and even the ones who just wore glasses.” Dehumanizing those you murder is characteristic of totalitarian regimes. Hitler killed Jews. Stalin killed kulaks. Mao killed landlords. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge took the “most violent and ignorant people, and…taught them to lead, manage, control,…

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Charges Dropped Against Christian Pastor Arrested at Mall of America

Anthony Gockowski

Ramin Parsa, a Christian pastor who was arrested at the Mall of America in August and charged with trespassing, was cleared of all charges during a court hearing Thursday. “Praise the Lord! The prosecution is suspended, no more criminal charges, pleaded not guilty. Thank you so much for your prayers. We have resolved the criminal case and the city is not going to prosecute me further, so the city is out of it,” Parsa wrote on Facebook. As The Minnesota Sun reported, Parsa runs Redemptive Love Ministries in Los Angeles, but visited Minnesota in August. While in the state, he took a trip to the Mall of America and ended up in what he has called a “random” conversation with two Somali women. As an ex-Muslim, he spoke with the two about his conversion to the Christian faith, and was reported to mall security by a passersby. He was subsequently arrested, taken to the basement of the Mall of America, and charged with trespassing. Parsa returned to Minnesota Wednesday evening ahead of his court hearing, and spoke at the Minnesota Capitol during a prayer rally hosted in support of him. “I’ve been through this before in other countries,” he said…

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Majority of House Democrats Vote to Let 16-Year-Olds Vote for President

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by Peter Hasson   A majority of House Democrats on Wednesday voted to lower the federal voting age from 18 to 16. A number of high-profile Democrats voted in favor of the legislation, including California Reps. Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Maxine Waters and Ted Lieu, Hawaii Rep. and Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced the legislation Tuesday evening as an amendment to House Democrats’ “For The People Act,” which would overhaul federal election laws. Pressley’s amendment fell short at 126-305. House Democrats voted 125-108 in favor of Pressley’s amendment, with two members voting present and three members not voting. House Republicans voted against the amendment 197-1. Texas Rep. Michael Burgess was the only Republican to vote aye. Pressley cited teen activists pushing for gun control as a reason to give 16-year-olds the right to vote, which she compared to having a driver’s license. “Young people are at the forefront of some of our most existential crises,” she said in her remarks Tuesday. “The time has come. Our young people deserve to have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote.” –…

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California Governor Declares There’s No ‘National Emergency’ in Border Town With a Wall

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by Jason Hopkins   Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a major critic of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, visited a border town with a wall and declared there was no “national emergency.” https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1103709125609906176 “[We are trying] to highlight a different story as it relates to what’s going on here between Mexico and the United States, and the economic vibrancy that is demonstrable here at the border,” Newsom said Thursday as he visited San Ysidro, a district in San Diego, California. Newsom on Thursday hosted a roundtable discussion with local residents to talk about Trump’s national emergency declaration and what life is like on the U.S. southern border. The press conference was largely meant to push back against the president’s narrative that unfettered illegal immigration leads to crime and lawlessness. Participants of the conference spoke on camera about how the town is actually quite safe. “They’ve had the mentality that it’s dangerous,” said local resident Edgar Alaniz, referring to Americans who believe the border town to be unsafe. “I live here. I come down here every day and I can tell you that it isn’t.” However, critics of Newsom’s press conference were quick to point out one glaring detail about San…

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US Adds Just 20K Jobs; Unemployment Dips

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Hiring tumbled in February, with U.S. employers adding just 20,000 jobs, the smallest monthly gain in nearly a year and a half. The slowdown in hiring, though, might have been depressed by harsh winter weather and the partial shutdown of the government. Last month’s weak gain came after employers had added a blockbuster 311,000 jobs in January, the most in nearly a year. Over the past three months, job growth has averaged a solid 186,000, enough to lower the unemployment rate over time. And despite the tepid pace of hiring in February, the government’s monthly jobs report Friday included some positive signs: Average hourly pay last month rose 3.4 percent from a year earlier _ the sharpest year-over-year increase in a decade. The unemployment rate also fell to 3.8 percent, near the lowest level in five decades, from 4 percent in January. Unseasonably cold weather, which affects such industries as construction and restaurants, afflicted some areas of the country in February. And the 35-day government shutdown that ended in late January likely affected the calculation of job growth. Still, the hiring pullback comes amid signs that growth is slowing because of a weaker global economy, a trade war between the…

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Ilhan Omar Trashes Obama on Immigration

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by Henry Rodgers   Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar heavily criticized former President Barrack Obama for his stance on immigration, saying he was responsible for the “caging of kids” at the U.S.-Mexico border. In an interview with Politico magazine released Friday, Omar also said Obama’s “hope and change” slogan turned out to be a delusion. Omar said Obama was also responsible for the “droning of countries around the world,” comparing some of his views to President Donald Trump, who she is a strong opponent against, even defending her colleague Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib for saying she would help Democrats “impeach the motherf****r.” Omar has faced criticism on numerous occasions for her comments in regard to Israel and Jewish people, causing Democratic members of the House to bring a resolution to the floor, after criticism from Jewish lawmakers, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and others. “Israel has hypnotized the world,” she wrote. Omar said in January she was unaware of the anti-Semitic connotations associated with the word “hypnotized” in relation to Jewish people. She was also accused of anti-Semitic behavior by New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin after he received numerous voicemails on his office phone calling him offensive names. The…

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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis Says Public Opinion Will Decide if Donald Trump Gets Impeached

Chris Butler

According to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, U.S. Republican President Donald Trump is obviously a criminal, and it’s his duty as a member of Congress to impeach him. But, as Cohen reportedly said this week, whether impeachment happens depends not on the evidence alone — but whether public opinion says impeachment is OK, according to CNSNews.com Cohen belongs to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and, as The Tennessee Star reported, he has long advocated for Trump’s impeachment. Cohen said on CNN he’s sure Trump has obstructed justice and violated the emoluments clause, all while abusing the press and various judges. “It’s amazing what has gone on,” Cohen told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “And it is our job to protect the Constitution and the rule of law. So we’ll have hearings; if the evidence comes in such degree that the public’s mood and the Republicans’ mood change, where we can be successful with impeachment, then impeachment could come. But it’s not going to come until the Republicans stop acting like acolytes and start acting like bishops and knights and stand up for the country and not for their leader, who may have committed — and I believe has committed innumerable improper and…

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Gallup: Trump Economic Approval Highest Yet at 56 Percent

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by CHQ Staff   Our friends at NewsMax turned us on to the Gallup Organization’s recent, and very extensive, polling on President Trump’s handling of 14 domestic and foreign issues. The Gallup Organization’s Megan Brenan reports Trump’s rating for handling the economy, 56 percent, is the highest of his presidency and the highest of his approval ratings on any of 14 domestic and foreign issues tested in the latest Gallup poll. Americans’ approval of his handling of unemployment is nearly as high, at 54 percent. Ms. Brenan reports Americans’ assessments of the national economy have been mostly positive since Trump took office and his handling of it has been a relative strength for his public image. With the unemployment rate at 4% in January and the stock market performing better than it had been in December and January, Americans’ approval of Trump’s handling of the economy rose four points since early February. At the same time, his overall 43 percent job approval rating is essentially unchanged since earlier in February but appears to be stabilizing at a higher level than it had been in late 2018 and early 2019. Ms. Brenan suggests the President’s overall approval rating is likely dragged…

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Trump’s Labor Department Rewrites Obama Rule on Guaranteed Overtime Pay

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by Tim Pearce   The Department of Labor proposed a rule Thursday that would expand guaranteed overtime pay laws to roughly 1.1 million workers. The rule would raise the threshold of overtime pay protection from workers making under $23,660 a year to workers making $35,308 a year, regardless of whether they are paid a salary or by the hour, Politico reported. Former President Barack Obama’s administration proposed an earlier version of the rule in 2016 that would have covered most employees making under $47,476 a year. A federal judge in Texas suspended the rule before it took effect and later killed it. The judge ruled the president did not have the authority for such a drastic change, according to The New York Times. The Trump administration’s proposal is more moderate and largely in line with suggestions from business leaders and interest groups. Worker advocates pushed for a new rule more similar to the Obama-era proposal, which included a provision that the threshold would automatically rise with inflation. Trump’s Labor Department dropped the inflation attachment of the new proposal, replacing it with a provision that would allow the department to reassess the threshold every four years and adjust the level as…

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Americans for Tax Reform Urges Ohio to Reject ‘Straight-Up’ Gas Tax Increase

Andrew Shirley

Grover Norquist, President and Founder of the nationally recognized Conservative taxpayer advocacy group Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), implored Ohioans Friday to reject the “straight up” gas tax currently being considered by the Ohio Legislature. In an open letter, Norquist warned; A gas tax hike does the greatest harm to households who can least afford it. Coupled with gas tax prices that have been creeping up in Ohio, a gas tax hike would have especially adverse effects on the state’s lower income earners. Additionally, the 2003 gas tax increase failed to meet revenue projections. Also consider that a state gas tax increase would counteract the benefits of federal tax reform and eat into Ohio taxpayers’ federal tax cut savings. This is one of the reasons why Congress has declined to raise the federal gas tax, despite pressure for them to do so. The bill has been a source of significant controversy, forcing a schism between many Ohio Republican legislators and the Ohio Republican Governor, Mike DeWine. While there is an overwhelming consensus that something must be done to address the rapidly decaying roads and bridges in Ohio, how best to fund these repairs is still up for debate. When DeWine first introduced House Bill 62 (HB…

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Daylight Saving Time This Sunday

Zachery Schmidt

Americans – except for those in Arizona and Hawaii – will wake up this Sunday, March 10, and realize an hour has been deleted from their day. Welcome to daylight saving time! Beginning on March 10 2:00 a.m. through Nov. 3 2:00 a.m., clocks will ‘Spring forward’ an hour. The short answer to why we go through this yearly ritual is so that we can enjoy more of the natural daylight in the Summertime. So the hour people will lose on Sunday is totally worth it to enjoy more daylight in the Summer! This is not a worldwide phenomenon. Less than 40 percent of the world participates in daylight saving time, according to timeanddate.com. Daylight saving time has been traced back to Benjamin Franklin who floated the idea around in 1784. This practice started in 1916 in Germany and Austria when they turned their clocks an hour ahead, according to timeanddate.com. America formally started daylight saving time in 1918 and continued the tradition ever since. Enjoy this video, when you wake to enjoy your 23 hour day! Remember to set your clocks an hour ahead.   – – – Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Photo “Sunset”…

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Bipartisan Bill Would End Ohio’s ‘Disastrous’ Academic Distress Commissions

Anthony Gockowski

A bipartisan bill that would overturn state takeovers of low performing local schools is set to be introduced in the Ohio General Assembly next week. Under House Bill (HB) 70, a 2015 legislation, the state superintendent of public schools is required to intervene via “Academic Distress Commissions” for “each school district that has been declared to be in academic emergency.” That bill was authorized two years after the 2013 establishment of the Lorain Academic Distress Commission for the Lorain City School District. The “ultimate goal” of the commission was to “improve academic achievement of the [Lorain City School District] to such an extent that all graduates successfully enter a career or college pathway.” The commission, as it stands, would cease to exist after Lorain City School District receives a “C” grade or better on the Ohio Department of Education’s performance index score and the value-added progress dimension for two of three school years, which it has evidently thus far failed to do. As a result, Rep. Joe Miller (D-Miller) and Rep. Don Jones (R-Freeport) are planning to introduce a bill that would overturn HB 70. “Placing these districts under state control has been a disaster. In each case, the Academic Distress…

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Democrat North Carolina Attorney General Joins Suit Against Protect Life Rule

A.P. Dillon

North Carolina’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein has pulled the Tarheel state into a multi-state suit challenging the Trump Administrations ‘Protect Life Rule‘ as part of Title X. “Title X clinics screen for cancer, prevent unintended pregnancies, and reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections,” said Attorney General Josh Stein in a press release. “These are critical healthcare services that change and save lives. This proposed gag rule would prevent women in North Carolina from making the healthcare decisions that allow them to lead happy, healthy lives.” The national suit was filed March 4 by 20 other states and District of Columbia with California filing its own version. North Carolina will be the only state in the south to join the suit. The other states involved are Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. All of the states involved have Democratic attorney generals. “North Carolina Values Coalition supports the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule, which redirects Title X family planning program funds away from the abortion industry and bars taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers,” said Tami Fitzgerald, NC…

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Minnesota College That Offers Students ‘Christ-Centered’ Education Bans Pro-Life Speaker from Campus

Anthony Gockowski

The University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minnesota prohibited a conservative club from hosting prominent pro-life speaker Star Parker for an on-campus event. The campus Young America’s Foundation (YAF) chapter invited Parker to speak on campus, but administrators alerted the group in a February 20 email that “there were quite a few concerns about Star.” “Our staff has been very adamant about bringing speakers to campus who educate and expand worldviews, but we really don’t bring speakers who radically hold beliefs that UNW as a whole would not agree with,” an administrator wrote to YAF Chair Haley Tschetter. The school describes itself as a “Christ-centered liberal arts university” that is “grounded first and foremost in the truth of the Bible.” In its email to Tschetter, the university goes on to explain that “in the past” it has generally “stayed away from sensationalized speakers.” “Again, it may be different if we were able to bring a panel and provide a variety of thought, but in the past UNW has stayed away from sensationalized speakers. I foresee us continuing to do this,” the email states. “After reviewing some of Star’s material online we didn’t feel she was a good fit for our…

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Ohio Lawmakers Considering A Gas Tax Increase Hear Testimony About Tennessee’s Gas Tax Increase Signed into Law in 2017

Laura Baigert

COLUMBUS, Ohio – As Ohio lawmakers consider the call by newly-inaugurated Governor Mike DeWine for an increase in motor fuel taxes of 18 cents per gallon on both gas and diesel, both the state House and Senate have heard testimony on the matter. One of the witnesses providing testimony used Tennessee’s 2017 passage of Governor Bill Haslam’s gas and diesel tax increasing IMPROVE Act – Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy – as an example of a gas tax increase successfully implemented over the past several years. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a non-profit, non-partisan association representing highway and transportation departments in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, according to its website. “Its primary goal is to foster the development, operation, and maintenance of an integrated national transportation system,” representing all transportation modes including air, highways, public transportation, active transportation, rail and water. Jim Tymon, Executive Director of AASHTO since January 2019, submitted a written copy and presented verbal testimony at the Ohio State House Finance Committee earlier this week, and to the Ohio State Senate Transportation, Commerce and Workforce Committee the following day. Tymon’s nine-page…

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The Tennessean Claims ‘Racist Incidents Are Occurring in Williamson Schools’

Chris Butler

The Tennessean published a story Friday which claimed “racist incidents are occurring in Williamson Schools.” The story made specific reference to only one such incident, however, and apparently relied on the word of just two parents to verify that it occurred. Those parents — Revida Rahman and Inetta Gaines— are both members of the district’s cultural competency council, which “was formed last year by WCS superintendent Mike Looney after parents expressed concerns about field trips to plantations,” according to The Tennessean, which also reported that the incident occured in January at Sunset Middle School in Brentwood when some students at the school allegedly “linked arms in between classes, forming a human chain, and then barred non-white students from passing.” “The students likened it to President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall,” the paper reported, adding: Rahman and Gaines, both African-American, verified that the wall incident happened at Sunset Middle, along with a number of regularly occurring inappropriate incidents: use of the N-word on school buses, history lessons that glorify slavery and insensitive field trips on the state’s history with slavery. Gaines, however, according to the Brentwood Homepage, has no children attending Sunset Middle. “I don’t have a student at Sunset Middle, but I have friends that have…

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