Day: March 14, 2019

Williamson County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney Attempts to Defend Leftist ‘White Privilege’ Videos Teachers Forced to Watch

Chris Butler

Williamson County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney attempted to do damage control on Tuesday over the growing rebellion among parents and teachers about his pet project, The Williamson County Cultural Competency Series, which features the controversial left wing “privilege theory” of Dr. Peggy McIntosh and advances the concept of “white privilege.” As The Tennessee Star reported Thursday, a number of Williamson County School teachers are outraged at being forced to attend , including one who said Looney’s program called white teachers racists and was “super offensive.” One resident of Williamson County, Frank Wegerson, also took Looney to task on Thursday, telling The Star that he emailed Looney to express his concerns over the “Cultural Competency” videos and the school district’s involvement with the Southern Poverty Law Center. Wegerson told The Star that superintendent Looney called him right away, “and said he wanted to hit it down the middle, wanted to be straight, not going too far left or right and I thought ‘Well, that’s interesting because he chose the most left organization.’ I didn’t say it to him, but that’s what I was thinking.” Looney posted a two minute video–in which the comments section has been disabled–on the Williamson County Schools website Tuesday.…

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Commentary: Snopes Veers Far Left to Smear Tennessee Star and Promote Bizarre Conspiracy Theory

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by George Rasley   One of the more interesting phenomena of the internet age is the rise of self-appointed Leftwing “fact checkers” who have created a cottage industry of undermining straight news reporting critical of Democrats and Leftist causes. One of the more prominent examples of this phenomena is Snopes.com, which began as a website debunking urban myths on the internet and has gradually moved further and further Left to become a favored tool of the Left for shielding Democrats and helping Leftwing advocacy groups smear conservatives as purveyors of “fake news.” One of the most egregious recent examples of Snopes.com’s Leftist tilt is its defense of Native American Nathan Phillips from claims of stolen valor leveled at him after he instigated the post-March for Life confrontation with the Covington Catholic High School students. While Snopes.com rated the charges that Phillips falsely claimed he was a Vietnam veteran as “unproven” and posted a lengthy defense of him here, the military culture website “Task and Purpose” had already exposed Phillips stolen valor claims. Paul Szoldra explained in a post on taskandpurpose.com, that Phillips has a long history of making “stolen valor” claims: I was going to bring up his troublesome claims of…

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Williamson County Resident Skeptical of Looney Claim the SPLC Can ‘Hit it Straight Down the Middle’ with ‘White Privilege’ Training

Chris Butler

Brentwood resident Frank Wegerson was unhappy reading about the reported white privilege “Cultural Competency” series Williamson County teachers are having to watch. Wegerson said he was also worried about the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center holding a workshop in Franklin that county teachers will attend. So Wegerson emailed Superintendent Mike Looney Wednesday morning – and, much to his surprise, he got an almost immediate response. Only minutes after pressing the ‘send’ button, the Brentwood resident said Looney read the email and called to tell him that he wanted the conference to go “straight down the middle,” without “bias toward the left or right.” Looney told Wegerson he doesn’t watch CNN or FOX News because he believes both networks push an agenda. “He didn’t commit to anything,” Wegerson said of Looney. “He simply said that he was going to look at it some more.” Wegerson also sent Looney an article FOX News personality Tucker Carlson wrote warning people about the SPLC’s leftist politics. “He [Looney] just thanked me for sending him the article and said he wanted to hit it down the middle, wanted to be straight, not going too far left or right and I thought, well, that’s interesting because…

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State Rep. London Lamar Wants to Talk to Gov. Lee About American Exceptionalism and ‘What This Particular Curriculum Looks Like’

Chris Butler

State Rep. London Lamar (R-Memphis) told WREG on Wednesday she wants to talk to Gov. Bill Lee about his promise that “In this state our children will be taught civics education, character formation and unapologetic American exceptionalism,” which he delivered in Nashville on March 4 at his State of the State address and later that week in Memphis in his State of West Tennessee speech. “I want to have a conversation with the governor about what this particular curriculum looks like,” Lamar told WREG. WREG coverage of the story seemed to come from a particular point of view: But parents like Sharonda Walker have questions.. “Exceptionalism is a very strong term. It almost sounds elitist,” she said. “So we have to be careful as a country.” The mom of six says there are issues both in the past and present that she hopes any new curriculum would still acknowledge. “I had such a distorted view of history,” Walker said. “It wasn’t until I went to college that I started embracing history, that included people like myself. I thought, ‘Wow how did i miss all this?’” Lamar generated international attention after she declared in November, shortly after her election to the…

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Commentary: Trump Tackles the Deficit That McCarthy, Ryan and Boehner Ignored

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by CHQ Staff   Fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill became a Class 6 species once Republicans regained the majority back in 2010 – they weren’t confirmed to be extinct – but somewhat like the Ivory Billed Woodpecker their continued existence could not be confirmed by means other than faint recordings of their presumed calls. And when one did blunder into the open, as Rep. David Schweikert (AZ-6) did back in 2012 he was quickly hunted down, stuff and mounted – or more correctly taken off the House Financial Services Committee in retaliation for voting against leadership, especially on spending. President Trump’s first budget proposals were informed by the long-out-of-style received wisdom of fiscal conservatives, but like President Reagan before him, he went along with the Capitol Hill GOP’s appetite for massive deficits to get what he wanted – money to rebuild the military and a promise of funds to build the border wall. And like Reagan, Trump got some of the money he wanted for some of what he wanted. This fiscal year President Trump has proposed a budget that Democrats have already pronounced as dead on arrival, but he is no longer saddled with the need to go along…

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New Pentagon Transgender Rule Sets Limits for Troops

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The Defense Department has approved a new policy that will largely bar transgender troops and military recruits from transitioning to another sex, and require most individuals to serve in their birth gender. The memo outlining the new policy was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, and it comes after a lengthy and complicated legal battle. It falls short of the all-out transgender ban that was initially ordered by President Donald Trump. But it will likely force the military to eventually discharge transgender individuals who need hormone treatments or surgery and can’t or won’t serve in their birth gender. The order says the military services must implement the new policy in 30 days, giving some individuals a short window of time to qualify for gender transition if needed. And it allows service secretaries to waive the policy on a case-by-case basis. Under the new rules, currently serving transgender troops and anyone who has signed an enlistment contract by April 12 may continue with plans for hormone treatments and gender transition if they have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. But after April 12, no one with gender dysphoria who is taking hormones or has transitioned to another gender will be allowed to…

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Trump Signs Major Public Lands, Conservation Bill into Law

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President Donald Trump signed a wide-ranging public lands bill Tuesday that creates five new national monuments and expands several national parks. The new law also adds 1.3 million acres of new wilderness and permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which supports conservation and outdoor recreation projects nationwide. It’s the largest public lands bill Congress has considered in a decade, and it won large bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate. More than 100 land and water conservation bills were combined to designate more than 350 miles of river as wild and scenic, and to create nearly 700,000 acres of new recreation and conservation areas. The new law also withdraws 370,000 acres in Montana and Washington state from mineral development. Trump signed the bill in the Oval Office during a private ceremony with acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, the White House said. Bernhardt, who is awaiting Senate confirmation to become the department’s permanent leader, issued a written statement calling the law “extremely beneficial” to the American public. The Land and Water Conservation Fund expired last fall after Congress failed to agree on language to extend it. Lawmakers ultimately voted to make the fund…

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State House Committee Denies Tennessee Voters The Ability To Register With a Political Party

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A bill that would allow Tennessee voters the ability to register with either of the two major political parties or as unaffiliated failed in the House Local Committee. The effort, sponsored by Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) as HB 1398, was amended to eliminate requiring a party affiliation and eliminate closing the party primaries, as it was felt “having closed primaries would disenfranchise Independents and Democrats and Republicans who wanted to vote in each others’ primary,” according to Rudd as he presented the bill. A measure to actually close the primaries sponsored by Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden) under HB 1273, in accordance with a December 2018 overwhelming vote by the State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Republican Party, failed in the same Committee late last month as The Tennessee Star reported. Representative Rudd made the point that, “The one group of people that are disenfranchised right now, both Democrat and Republican, are party members and activists that actually want to be registered.” Representative London Lamar (D-Memphis) questioned Representative Rudd, as she did with Representative Holt on his closed primary bill, as to whether he had consulted with both political parties in writing the bill. Rudd responded that he…

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Commentary: The Federal Reserve Falls Short of the Rule of Law

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by Alexander Salter   “Money is power.” We’ve all heard this aphorism many times before. Too often it’s a lazy shorthand dismissal of the finding of mainstream economics, which show that the pursuit and possession of money often entails innocuous or even beneficial consequences for society. Dr. Johnson was right after all: “There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.” But there are some contexts in which the saying is apt. An obvious case is the Federal Reserve. The Fed has a monopoly on the creation of base money, the fundamental asset underlying the banking and financial system. And over decades, with each instance of financial turbulence, the Fed has become less constrained in how, when, and why it creates base money. Since the Great Recession, the Fed has been able to bestow purchasing power, liquidity, and solvency on just about any financial organization it pleases. If that isn’t power, there’s no such thing. The Federal Reserve System was created in 1913. It was intended to be a formalization of the interbank clearing system that then existed in the National Banking System. It was not intended to be a central bank.…

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Ranking GOP House Members Reveal Plan to Bypass Pelosi on Anti-Infanticide Bill

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by Molly Prince   Republican leaders in the House of Representatives gathered outside the Capitol Building on Wednesday to announce the party’s strategy to bring anti-infanticide legislation to the floor after House Democrats rejected a vote 17 times. “There are some issues you really can’t believe that you have to have a debate about and this is certainly one of those,” GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney told the crowd. “The idea that we would not protect babies after they are born — the idea that we have one party now in this Congress that refuses to put a bill on the floor to stop infanticide — it’s really unbelievable.” Cheney and six of her Republican colleagues joined pro-life activists in condemning the Democrats’ 17 attempts over the past 40 days to avoid voting on the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would require medical care for babies who survive abortions. A similar bill failed in the Senate in February by a vote of 53 to 44. As a way to bypass Democrats’ refusal to bring the legislation from committee to the House floor, Minority Whip Steve Scalise announced a discharge petition would be available in the coming weeks, which…

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California Governor to Order Death Penalty Moratorium

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The governor of the U.S. state of California plans to announce Wednesday a moratorium on carrying out death sentences. In prepared remarks seen by news organizations ahead of the official announcement, Governor Gavin Newsom says, “The intentional killing of another person is wrong.” He cites cases of innocent people being convicted for crimes they did not commit, and sometimes even executed. Newsom also says cases involving capital punishment disproportionately affect minorities, the mentally ill and those who do not have enough money for costly legal representation. The moratorium will involve an executive order to withdraw the state’s lethal injection protocol. None of the 737 inmates currently on death row in California will be released or have their sentences changed. California last executed an inmate in 2006. Rights groups praised Newsom’s decision. Alison Parker, U.S. managing director at Human Rights Watch, said the governor “has taken a strong moral stand” and that the group hopes other states will follow his actions. Criticism came from some law enforcement organizations. Michelle Hanisee, president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, called Newsom’s moratorium “hasty and ill-considered,” and said he was going against the will of the people of California. In 2016, a ballot…

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Paul Manafort Will Serve a Total of 7.5 Years in Prison

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by Chuck Ross   A federal judge in Washington, D.C., sentenced Paul Manafort to 73 months in prison Wednesday, days after the former Trump campaign chairman received a 47-month sentence in a separate case in Virginia. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Manafort will serve some of his sentence concurrently with his sentence in Virginia. In all, Manafort will spend around seven-and-a-half years in jail for a variety of crimes related to consulting work he did in Ukraine prior to joining the Trump campaign. During Wednesday’s hearing, Jackson noted that prosecutors with the special counsel’s office did not present evidence of collusion between Manafort, the Trump campaign and Russians to influence the 2016 election. “The question of whether there was any collusion with Russia…was not presented in this case, period, therefore it was not resolved by this case,” said Jackson. Manafort, 69, apologized during brief remarks before Jackson handed down the sentence. “I am sorry for what I have done and for all the activities that have gotten us here today,” said Manafort, who has already spent nine months in jail as his cases have unfolded. With time off for good behavior, Manafort could end up spending…

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US Grounds Boeing Model Involved in Deadly Crashes

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The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has ordered the immediate grounding of the entire Max series of Boeing jetliners. The action to halt all flights of the new planes in American airspace is a quick and sudden reversal of the stance taken by the manufacturer, the U.S. airlines flying them and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump that there was no reason to order a grounding despite fatal nose-dive crashes of the Max planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. “I didn’t want to take any chances,” Trump replied when asked by reporters in the White House Roosevelt Room after he announced Wednesday afternoon that all the newer 737 variants would stop flying temporarily. “We just felt it was the right thing to do.” https://twitter.com/i/status/1105904905888415744 The action was “a very tough decision from the standpoint of a company of Boeing,” added Trump, contending that while he could have further delayed the decision, “I felt it was important both psychologically and in a lot of ways.” The president cited “new information and physical evidence that we’ve received from the site and from other locations and through a couple of other complaints.” Trump predicted Boeing will solve the problem: “Hopefully, they will very quickly…

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Commentary: The Left Lies About the Covington Catholic Kids

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by CHQ Staff   Few things illustrate the way the Left promotes lies through the allied establishment media than the recent saga of the Covington Catholic High School kids and their encounter with Leftist activist Nathan Phillips. As Bradley Eli reported for thechurchmilitant.com, pro-life students wearing Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats were attending the March for Life in Washington, D.C. when they were approached by a Native American activist, Nathan Phillips. Phillips walked directly up to one student, Nick Sandmann, while continuing to beat his drum just inches from the young man’s face. Left-leaning media were quick to paint the pro-life and Trump-supporting students as racist and cruel to a Native American. Mr. Phillips was described as a Vietnam veteran, however, Paul Szoldra explained in a post on taskandpurpose.com, Phillips has a long history of making “stolen valor” claims: I was going to bring up his troublesome claims of being a “recon ranger” — which he was not. I was going to reflect on his claim that he was a “Vietnam-times veteran” who came home and was “spit on” and “called a baby killer,” despite his service record keeping him in the United States, and it being unclear where…

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Left Wing SPLC, Same Group That Has Teamed up with Williamson County Schools, Establishes Political Action Fund to Attack Conservatives

Jason M. Reynolds

Even as ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is building up a huge cash reserve, it has formed a political-action fund to step up its attacks against conservatives. The Washington Free Beacon reported on the SPLC’s $518 million in assets, including $121 parked in offshore accounts, based on financial filings in the State of California. Now, PJ Media is reporting that the SPLC last summer created the SPLC Action Fund to fight legislative battles at all levels of government and to push for ballot initiatives. The SPLC is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3), meaning it cannot participate in political activities. The Action Fund applied for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(4) so it can lobby and participate in advocacy, PJ Media and The Washington Free Beacon reported. The SPLC website solicits funds for both the SPLC and the SPLC Action Fund on the same webpage. The SPLC is also busy educating Tennessee teachers its ideology, The Tennessee Star reported. Williamson County Schools will send teachers to a series of workshops in Franklin this coming May that is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, according to a source. Those workshops, called Teaching Tolerance, are scheduled for May 3 and May 4…

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Kids Around the World Are Using Climate Change as an Excuse to Skip School

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by Jason Hopkins   Young students across the world plan to skip class on Friday, claiming that they will devote the day to protesting man-made climate change. Students from more than 70 countries will skip class on Friday, March 15 to demand that their governments take more action on addressing climate change, according to #FridaysForFuture, a youth-led movement that is behind the strike. Tens of thousands of students will reportedly take part in the event. “We will no longer accept this injustice. We demand justice for all past, current and future victims of the climate crisis, and so we are rising up,” read an open letter that the activists published on the Guardian, claiming they would be protesting on “every continent” on Friday. “Thousands of us have taken to the streets in the past weeks all around the world. Now we will make our voices heard.” 350.org, an international environmental group, is helping bolster the strike with its own promotional video. Activists are hoping to closely mirror the youth-led March For Our Lives protests in Washington, D.C., which took place nearly a year ago following the fatal Parkland, Florida school shooting, and spark more debate among lawmakers about the dangers…

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Trump Campaign Preparing Early Focus on Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan

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President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is preparing an early focus on Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, states that were instrumental to his improbable 2016 victory but where his support has softened, two campaign advisers said. The decision to accelerate campaign organizing and eventually get the Republican president to make trips to the three states is a recognition that Trump’s path to re-election in 2020 will need to repeat some of the successes he had in 2016. Advisers also see a need to bolster Trump’s support in Florida, a battleground state he considers his second home but where opinion polls show him struggling. They also see an opportunity for gains in Minnesota and Colorado, two states Trump narrowly lost. The Trump team views those states as competitive places where the president can go on offense, according to the advisers, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely about the campaign strategy. With 20 months to go until the November 2020 presidential election, Trump and his campaign team are still getting organized for what is expected to be a tough battle for a second four-year term. Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives in last November’s congressional elections widely…

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Ocasio-Cortez Blames Pipeline That Hasn’t Been Built Yet for an Oil Spill

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by Michael Bastasch   Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blamed the Keystone XL pipeline for leaking about 5,000 barrels of oil in rural South Dakota about two years ago. There’s just one problem: The Keystone XL pipeline has not been built yet. During a House hearing Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that “Keystone XL, in particular, had one leak that leaked 210,000 gallons across South Dakota” while she questioned Wells Fargo president and CEO Timothy Sloan. https://twitter.com/alexisgoldstein/status/1105525499797872641 Ocasio-Cortez probably confused the Keystone XL pipeline with the Keystone pipeline, which has been operating since 2010. Keystone XL is still under construction, but would also bring oil sands from Canada to Nebraska where it would connect to existing pipeline. Environmentalists spent years opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, filing court challenges and successfully lobbying former President Barack Obama to personally reject the project in late 2015. President Donald Trump reversed that decision in early 2017,but Keystone XL’s progress has since been delayed by activist lawsuits. The existing Keystone pipeline, however, was responsible for leaking up to 9,700 barrels in South Dakota in 2017. The initial estimate for the spill was about 5,000 barrels, or 210,000 gallons of oil. Both Keystone and the planned XL…

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Amazon and Protesters Tell Two Different Stories of Latest Shakopee Protest

Anthony Gockowski

A group of mostly-Somalian workers at Amazon’s fulfillment center in Shakopee organized another walkout during an overnight shift Friday. In a Facebook post, the Awood Center, a local non-profit seeking to build “East African worker power,” said that a “majority of workers in the STOW department at Amazon’s MSP1 facility in Shakopee, Minnesota walked off the job to demand better working conditions.” “These 30 workers came together to demand that Amazon employees have safe jobs, respect from managers and a voice in the workplace,” the post said. Amazon spokeswoman Brenda Alfred, however, said the “characterization of the size of the group is inaccurate.” “The group of employees involved did not represent the majority of the night shift in the STOW department and actually was far fewer than half,” she told Shakopee Valley News. “A small group of associates left during their shift, some of whom went to a nearby restaurant so we disagree on how this activity has been portrayed.” As The Minnesota Sun reported, protesters affiliated with the Awood Center organized a walkout in early December, which Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN05) attended. “Their dignity is not being uplifted. For the honest work they are putting in, that is not…

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Ohio Governor Mike DeWine Announces Plan for 30 New Drug Courts to Combat Opioid Epidemic

Andrew Shirley

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine unveiled the latest aspect of his plan Tuesday to fight opioid addiction by creating more specialty courts statewide. The plan is the latest announced component of his upcoming budget proposal for the 2020-2021 fiscal year.  If approved, it would allocate $2.5 million in 2020 for the creation of “15 specialty dockets” as well as an additional $5 million in 2020 to “support the newly created specialty dockets and fund an additional 15.” Governor DeWine said of the courts: Specialty dockets give judges the flexibility necessary when they encounter someone in the court system who is may benefit more from treatment for substance use disorder rather than serving jail time,…These specialty courts are a proven way to hold those with substance use disorder accountable and ensure participation in mental health and addiction treatment. According to the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, Specialty Courts, often referred to as “Drug Courts,” “specialize in the adjudication and treatment of offenders who use drugs.”  Judges across the state found that they were seeing the same individuals again and again for drug-related offenses. These courts were designed to more effectively address the issues relating to these individuals. The only offenders eligible for these courts are those who have been…

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OFF THE RECORD: Executive Director of TOSS Uses Bad Grammar on Twitter to Encourage Superintendents to Lobby Education Commissioner on Budget

Chris Butler

The executive director of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents apparently does not use proper grammar on social media. This, even as he publicizes an event he considers important. Dale Lynch is the current TOSS executive director. TOSS, according to their list of legislative priorities, oppose school vouchers that would help children in failing public schools. On Wednesday morning, Lynch tweeted the following: “TN Supts…hope your engaging as Commissioner Schwinn presents the State Education budget that will effect your district. @tosstn1975 #engagenow” If this tweet was on paper, and if an English composition teacher were grading it, he or she would doubtless grab his or her red pen and draw a circle around “your” and “effect.” Using proper English, the tweet should have said ““TN Supts…hope YOU’RE engaging as Commissioner Schwinn presents the State Education budget that will AFFECT your district. “You’re,” of course, is short for “you are.” As for the difference between “affect” and “effect,” Vocabulary.com puts it this way: “Choosing between affect and effect can be scary. Think of Edgar Allan Poe and his RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. You can’t affect the creepy poem by reading it, but you can enjoy the effect of a talking bird.” Again, members of TOSS oppose school vouchers because they say public…

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Ohio House Holds First Hearing on Bill to Award State’s Electoral College Delegates to Winner of Popular Vote

Anthony Gockowski

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio House Federalism Committee held its first hearing Wednesday for a bill that would make Ohio a member of the “Agreement Among the States to Elect the President by National Popular Vote.” Since 2007, 12 states and the District of Columbia have joined the compact, while both the Colorado General Assembly and the New Mexico Legislature voted in favor of joining this year. Under the agreement, Ohio’s entire Electoral College delegation would be awarded to the winner of the national popular vote. The bill, HB 70, is sponsored by Rep. David Leland (D-Columbus), who testified before the House Federalism Committee Wednesday. “This is a change that is long overdue. Two-thirds of the presidents elected in this century have been chosen by the Electoral College without a corresponding majority of the electorate for their first terms. Put simply, the person the people chose to be their president in their first term was ignored 66 percent of the time in this century,” Leland said during his testimony. He went on to argue that the Electoral College “rewards small states while punishing larger ones,” such as Ohio. “The population of Wyoming is 584,000 and they receive 3 Electors. This…

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We Build the Wall, Inc. Heads to Detroit for Third Town Hall

Anthony Gockowski

We Build the Wall, Inc. is hitting the road for Detroit Thursday night. The Ohio Star was there for We Build the Wall, Inc.’s stop Tuesday night in Cincinnati, which featured panelists such as former White House strategist Steve Bannon, Sheriff David Clarke, and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. We Build the Wall, Inc., which now counts Bannon as its chairman, was formed out of veteran Brian Kolfage’s famous GoFundMe page that he started to help raise funds for the border wall. Now, the group’s plan is to start building sections of the wall on private land, with private money, and with the help of private citizens. “We are thrilled to sponsor the ‘We Build the Wall’ rallies this week in Ohio and Detroit,” said Jim Hoft of The Gateway Pundit, one of the organizations sponsoring the town halls. “The border issue is not just something that affects those Americans in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico. The unbelievable flood of refugees and illegal immigrants streaming across the southern border is truly a national emergency. No country can handle this constant flow of tens of thousands of civilians and the strain it puts on an already stressed welfare system.”…

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Ohio Senate Passes Bill to Restrict Abortions After the Detection of a Heartbeat

Andrew Shirley

The Ohio Senate passed one of the most comprehensive and impactful abortion limitations in the country Wednesday. Senate Bill 23 (SB 23), commonly referred to as the “Heartbeat Bill” would ban all abortions once a heartbeat can be detected by a doctor. In many cases, this can be as early as six weeks. This is the third time in the last decade that the bill, or a version of it, has been considered by the state. The first two bills  were advanced by, both, the Ohio House and Senate. They were subsequently vetoed by then-Governor John Kasich. Following his 2018 veto, Kasich defended his decision, stating: I have a deep respect for my fellow members of the pro-life community and their ongoing efforts in defense of unborn life. However, the central provision of Sub. H.B. 258, that an abortion cannot be performed if a heartbeat has been detected in the unborn child, is contrary to the Supreme Court of the United States’ current rulings on abortion. Because the lower federal courts are bound to follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedents on abortion, Sub. H.B. 258 will likely be struck down as unconstitutional. The State of Ohio will be the losing…

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Recreational Marijuana Bill Dies in Minnesota Senate Committee

Andrew Shirley

The Minnesota State Senate Judiciary Committee overwhelmingly voted to kill a bill that would have legalized recreational marijuana throughout the state Monday. Senate Bill, SF 619, would have made it legal for individuals “21 years of age or older to cultivate, consume, use, and possess cannabis, cannabis products, and cannabis accessories,” as well as modify several other laws to accommodate the legislation. The bill was authored and sponsored by State Senators Melisa Franzen (49, DFL), Scott M. Jensen (47, R), Foung Hawj (67, DFL), and Minority Whip Ann H. Rest (45, DFL). After being introduced on January 28th, the bill was immediately referred to Judiciary and Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee. After due consideration, the Committee voted not only to reject the bill but refused to send it to another committee or authorize any form of study on effects of it. Both of these maneuvers are common legislative procedures used to keep bills alive by buying them more time without bringing them to a vote.  This effectively killed the bill and ensured it would not be revisited for some time. The nine-member committee voted 6-3, along party lines, against it. Governor Tim Walz, in an interview with MPRNews, expressed his disappointment with the…

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Federal Subpoenas Issued In North Carolina 9th Congressional District Case

A.P. Dillon

The Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice has issued subpoenas for documents related to North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. The subpoena sent to the state’s board of election requests “all documents related to the investigation of election irregularities affecting counties within the 9th Congressional District.” The Public Integrity Section (PIN) has “exclusive jurisdiction over allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of federal judges and also supervises the nationwide investigation and prosecution of election crimes.” Kim Strach, the Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, issued a statement on the subpoena: “We support the efforts of state and federal authorities to investigate and prosecute crimes against the elections process. State Board staff are compiling records responsive to the federal grand jury subpoena and are prepared to assist federal and state prosecutors in their investigations. We hope that prosecutions in these cases will help restore voters’ confidence in our elections and serve as a strong deterrent to future elections fraud.” A grand jury subpoena as also sent to Leslie McCrae Dowless, the man at the center of the absentee ballot controversy. Dowless was arrested and charged last month with three counts felonious obstruction of justice, two…

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Williamson County Schools Teacher on ‘White Privilege’ Training: ‘They Basically Are Telling White Teachers That We Are Racist. It is Super Offensive.’

Chris Butler

A Williamson County Schools teacher who was forced to sit through the Williamson County Schools Competency Training Series video on “white privilege” contacted The Tennessee Star on Wednesday and delivered a searing critique of the in-service training created and mandated by Williamson County Schools superintendent Mike Looney. “Please investigate this as I am a Williamson County school teacher and had to sit through the ‘White Privilege’ training. It was a joke. They basically are telling white teachers that we are racist. It is super offensive,” the teacher, who requested anonymity, told The Star. “We can’t speak up for fear of losing our jobs,” the teacher added. “You have the power to investigate and hold the leaders of Williamson County accountable,” the teacher told The Star. “Teachers can’t, we need our jobs but are being forced to endure such offensive assumptions. I judge/see all students’ character. This is what speaks to any teacher. The idea that because a person is white, they are privileged, is ludicrous and offensive,” the teacher continued. “I am attaching a copy of papers we were given during the training,” the teacher continued. You can see those papers below: [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/scan-1.pdf” title=”scan (1)”] As The Tennessee Star reported this month,…

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