Day: March 27, 2019

‘No Collusion, No Obstruction,’ Sen. Blackburn Tells Fox News Regarding Results of Mueller Probe

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) stated her defense of Attorney General William Barr and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report results in an op-ed with Fox News on Tuesday. Blackburn tweeted,”AG Barr’s conclusions to Congress this weekend about the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe rang loud and clear. President Trump didn’t collude or conspire with Russian agents to win the 2016 election. Read op-ed for @FoxNews here:”. AG Barr’s conclusions to Congress this weekend about the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe rang loud and clear. President Trump didn’t collude or conspire with Russian agents to win the 2016 election. Read op-ed for @FoxNews here: https://t.co/47oHupFbQR — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) March 26, 2019 Blackburn’s op-ed is available in its entirety here. Her op-ed began: No collusion. No obstruction. Attorney General Bill Barr’s conclusions to Congress this weekend about the findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe rang loud and clear. President Trump didn’t collude or conspire with Russian agents to win the 2016 election. After an exhaustive review of the record, both Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined the evidence was “not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.” Barr’s decision to include…

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Shaka Mitchell, TN Director of The American Federation for Children, Talks with The Tennessee Star Report Shortly Before Testifying in Favor of ESA Bill

Julie Carr

In a detailed discussion on Wednesday morning’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Michael Patrick Leahy talked exclusively with Tennessee’s director for The American Federation for Children’s, Shaka Mitchell about today’s House Education Committee’s vote on Governor Bill Lee’s ESA proposal. Leahy: And we are joined now by Shaka Mitchell. Shaka was going to tell us a little bit about the details of what’s going on at Capitol Hill. Shaka welcome. Mitchell: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for having me on. Leahy: We’re delighted to have you on. So tell us a little bit about what’s going on with the education savings account bill. It’s really a number one priority for Governor Lee. How did you get involved in this and what’s your view on it? Mitchell: It sure is. You know you’re absolutely right. This is I think, probably the top priority for the governor right now and we’re seeing a whole lot of activity here at the legislator surrounding this bill. And really surrounding education. I think the reason why is pretty clear. You know out…

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Left-Wing Activist Justin Jones Still Has a Court Date for Alleged Assault of Glen Casada

Chris Butler

Left-wing activist and Vanderbilt Divinity School student Justin Jones still has another court date pending, this time for allegedly throwing coffee at Tennessee Speaker of the House Glen Casada last month. The beverage Jones allegedly threw also hit State Rep. Debra Moody, R-Covington, while all three were at the state capitol in Nashville. As The Tennessee Star reported, authorities banned Jones from the state capitol and from having further contact with Casada because of that alleged incident. Steve Hayslip, spokesman for Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk said Jones’ next court date for that alleged incident is scheduled for June 11. “That’s his next court date,” Hayslip said in an emailed statement. “All other conditions of the bond remain in place (avoid Casada, the Capitol, etc).” Meanwhile, Nicholas Kiefer, courts director for Nashville’s Office of the Criminal Court Clerk, said the case is scheduled for 9 a.m. As The Star reported last week, Jones won’t face any consequences for allegedly disrupting a Marsha Blackburn rally in Nashville last fall. Judge Dianne Turner, a Democrat, dismissed Jones’ case in that matter in what Kiefer said was “a flat dismissal.” Turner dismissed Jones’ case based on a discrepancy in the documents between the…

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Commentary: The Cynical Liars Who Started the Mueller Investigation Must Be Punished

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by George Rasley   After 300 political campaigns I can say one thing about the Steele dossier with some authority: It was no opposition research memo, at least as the term is understood by any political operative with even the thinnest ethical sense would understand the term, it was a good old-fashioned smear that no one even bothered to pretend was true, merely “credible” to its recipients. Back in January of 2017, soon after the Steele dossier story broke and before President Trump was even inaugurated, many of us were asking how such trash could justify the claim that President-elect Donald Trump was essentially acting as an agent of Moscow. Robert Romano, writing for our friends at Americans for Limited Government, summed-up the questions nicely in his article, “Did Obama politicize false intel to portray Trump as a Manchurian Candidate?” Wrote Mr. Romano: As CNN infamously reported on Jan. 10, “Classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump, multiple U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell CNN. The allegations were presented in a two-page synopsis that was appended to…

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McConnell Blocks Unanimous House Resolution to Release Mueller Report

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by Whitney Tipton   U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a resolution Monday calling for the public release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. The Kentucky Republican claimed the Department of Justice needs more time to determine which parts can be released publicly, The Hill reported. The measure, which passed unanimously in the House 420-0 on March 14, asks the DOJ to make the full contents of the report public “except to the extent the public disclosure of any portion thereof is expressly prohibited by law.” In Monday’s Senate session, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked for unanimous consent, to which McConnell objected. “The special counsel and the Justice Department ought to be allowed to finish their work in a professional manner,” the Kentucky senator said. “To date, the attorney general has followed through on his commitments to Congress. One of those commitments is that he intends to release as much information as possible,” McConnell continued in his floor remarks. Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio supported McConnell’s objection. Good. Because this measure is an unnecessary solution looking for a problem. Just like the previous one they had to prevent @potus from firing Mueller. https://t.co/x5wSwRZQbc — Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) March 25,…

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US Expands Ban on Foreign Aid to Overseas Abortion Providers

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday expanded the Trump administration’s ban on U.S. aid to groups that promote or provide abortions to include organizations that comply with the rules but give money to others that don’t. Pompeo also said the U.S. would cut some assistance to the Organization of America States because at least two of its agencies are allegedly lobbying for abortion availability in the Western Hemisphere. Pompeo said the administration was committed to protecting “the sanctity of life” in the United States and abroad and would enforce the policy “to the broadest extent possible” by not allowing foreign non-governmental organizations to skirt the ban. “We will refuse to provide assistance to foreign NGOs that give financial support to other foreign groups in the global abortion industry,” Pompeo told reporters at the State Department. “We will enforce a strict prohibition on backdoor funding schemes and end runs around our policy. American taxpayer dollars will not be used to underwrite abortions.” The move is an expansion of the so-called “Mexico City policy” first established under President Ronald Reagan but rescinded by subsequent Democratic administrations. Just days after taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump reinstated the policy and then…

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Unlikely Candidate Gaining Traction in US 2020 Race

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Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg is riding in the back of a rented minivan to his last event of the day in South Carolina, munching on cold french fries and critiquing his stage performance so far. The enthusiastic crowds of hundreds who’ve packed his first two stops have been much larger than the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and his team expected. It’s “wonderful,” he says, but the cheering and prolonged applause are messing with his delivery. Sometimes he neglects to pause, and his next words are drowned out. Other times people start clapping when he doesn’t expect it. “I need to relearn the timing of my stump speech,” Buttigieg says. “I’ve been used to a format where I go in, there’s 50 people, I do my little spiel and then we have some Q&A and hopefully they walk away impressed. Now every one of these things we put on the calendar as a meet and greet is turning out to be a rally.” Buttigieg, a veteran and Rhodes scholar, was the longest of long shots when he announced a presidential exploratory committee in January. No mayor has ever been elected president, much less one from a community of…

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Trump Blasts Media Over Russian Collusion Conspiracy Theory

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by Tim Pearce   President Donald Trump slammed the media Tuesday morning for propagating the Russian collusion conspiracy theory for two years during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. “The Mainstream Media is under fire and being scorned all over the World as being corrupt and FAKE. For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion when they always knew there was No Collusion. They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party!” Trump tweeted. The Mainstream Media is under fire and being scorned all over the World as being corrupt and FAKE. For two years they pushed the Russian Collusion Delusion when they always knew there was No Collusion. They truly are the Enemy of the People and the Real Opposition Party! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2019 Mueller presented his report to Attorney General William Barr Friday, and Barr reviewed the report and summarized it in a letter to Congress Sunday. Mueller’s team of investigators issued nearly 2,800 subpoenas and interviewed 500 witnesses over roughly two years and found no evidence “that any U.S. person or Trump campaign official or associate” conspired or “knowingly coordinated” with…

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Who’s Bankrolling the National Popular Vote Movement

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by Fred Lucas   The nonprofit organization building a coalition of states that favor choosing the president by popular vote promotes itself as nonpartisan, but is financed by millions of dollars from left-leaning groups. Some of the leaders of the movement are prominent Republicans, and most of the funding for the nonprofit, National Popular Vote Inc., has come from a wealthy Democrat and a billionaire independent. However, many large, liberal organizations back the movement, according to the Capital Research Center, a conservative investigative think tank that monitors nonprofits. It gathered donor information on National Popular Vote Inc. using a commercial database. The Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation, for example, gave $1 million to the nonprofit in 2011. Jonathan Soros, 49, heads an investment firm and is the son of George Soros, a hedge fund manager known for financing left-leaning causes around the world. Although the Soros Foundation does not publicly list contact information, The Daily Signal sought comment through the George Soros-backed Open Society Foundations. The Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation made donations totaling $1 million to National Popular Vote Inc. from 2008 to 2012, according to the most recent data. The Silberstein Foundation gave $350,000 in 2008, $250,000 in…

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Nashville Symphony Releases Dates of Free Community Concerts

Bethany Bowman

The Nashville Symphony has announced the schedule for its 2019 Community Concerts series, which will showcase the Grammy® Award-winning orchestra in free performances at seven public parks and green spaces throughout Middle Tennessee. An integral part of the organization’s mission to make great music accessible to everyone in the region, the Symphony’s Community Concerts have been a local summer tradition since 1974 and annually draw thousands of concertgoers. Admission to all seven concerts is free of charge. The 2019 series opens with a return to Centennial Park on June 6 as part of a special partnership with Musicians Corner. This year also features two first-time Community Concerts locations: Smith Springs Community Center in Antioch and The Estate at Cherokee Dock in Lebanon. The complete schedule is listed below: 7:30 p.m., Thursday, June 6: Centennial Park at Musicians Corner 7 p.m. Friday, June 7: Cumberland University, Lebanon 7 p.m. Saturday, June 8: Smith Springs Community Center, Antioch 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 9: Two Rivers Mansion, Donelson 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 11: Historic Rock Castle, Hendersonville 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 25: Key Park, Lafayette 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 26: The Estate at Cherokee Dock, Lebanon The Nashville Symphony once again invites the…

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Attorneys for Jussie Smollett: All Criminal Charges Dropped Against ‘Empire’ Actor

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Attorneys for “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett said Tuesday that charges alleging he lied to police about a racist and homophobic attack have been dropped. Smollett attorneys Tina Glandian and Patricia Brown Holmes said in a statement that Smollett’s record “has been wiped clean.” Smollett was indicted on 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was attacked by two men. Among the questions that weren’t immediately answered was whether prosecutors still believe Smollett concocted the attack and whether there’s new evidence that altered their view of events. Typically, a minimum condition of dropping cases is some acceptance of responsibility. In a statement, the Cook County prosecutors’ office offered no detailed explanation. “After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett’s volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case,” the statement from spokeswoman Tandra Simonton said. Smollett had made a $10,000 bond payment to get out of jail after his arrest on the charges. Police and prosecutors have said Smollett falsely reported to authorities that he was attacked around 2 a.m.…

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Rashida Tlaib Encouraging Democrats to Investigate Trump for ‘Impeachable Offenses’

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by Jason Hopkins   Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib is circulating a letter among her Democratic colleagues in the House that asks them to join a resolution seeking to investigate President Donald Trump for “impeachable offenses.” “The fact that President Trump has yet to comply with various clauses of our U.S. Constitution sets a dangerous precedent. Much of the allegations have yet to be fully investigated by this body who also took an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution,” read a portion of the letter, first sent out on Monday night and obtained by Politico. “It is critical that we protect the American people and our country from any conflicts of interests that directly erodes our democracy.” Tlaib is calling for the House Judiciary Committee to initiate an inquiry into Trump regarding several key areas. The freshman Democratic congresswoman wants to determine if Trump and his businesses violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which prohibits him from taking payments from foreign entities. The letter also seeks to investigate whether payments to porn star actress Stormy Daniels were made to sway the 2016 election, and she wants an inquiry on whether special counsel Robert Mueller’s evidence on obstruction of justice relating to Trump…

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Commentary: Eight Historic Cases That Show the FBI and CIA Were Out of Control Long Before Russiagate

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by Jon Miltimore and Carey Wedler   Conservatives tend to have two bad habits. First, they’re prone to viewing the past through a nostalgic lens. Second, they tend to instinctively give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt. These tendencies help explain why conservatives for decades have been able to overlook the many abuses—constitutional, legal, and moral—of US intelligence agencies. Unlike some more seasoned media, conservatives have appeared genuinely shocked by revelations of the Trump-Russia saga: abuse of FISA warrants, classified leaks from top FBI brass, corruption, campaign moles, and an apparent plot to remove an elected president through undemocratic (and likely extra-constitutional) means. These revelations are unique in that they have become highly public and involve a sitting president. However, an examination of the history of US intelligence agencies reveals government bureaucrats were out of control long before the 2016 presidential election. 1. That Time the CIA Considered Bombing Miami and Blaming It on Castro It’s no secret that the US government sought to assassinate Fidel Castro for years. Less well known, however, was that part of their regime-change plot included a plan to blow up Miami and sinking a boat-full of innocent Cubans. The plan, which was revealed…

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Six Democratic House Chairs Demand Barr Release the Mueller Report, And They’ve Given a Deadline

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by Tim Pearce   Six Democratic committee chairmen are demanding Attorney General William Barr turn over the full grand jury report on Russian interference in the 2016 election to Congress by April 2. The Democratic chairmen of the House Judiciary, Oversight, Intelligence, Financial Services, Ways and Means, and Foreign Affairs Committees cosigned a letter to Barr Monday, a day after Barr detailed the major findings of the report to Congress, Axios reported. The grand jury report, put together by special counsel Robert Mueller, found no evidence that President Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with Russian agents to influence the 2016 presidential election, putting to rest a rampant conspiracy theory that has captivated network news outlets, journalists, pundits and politicians for two years. “Your March 24 letter concerning Special Counsel Mueller’s report leaves open many questions concerning the conduct of the President and his closest advisors, as well as that of the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election,” the letter begins. “Accordingly, we formally request that you release the Special Counsel’s full report to Congress no later than Tuesday, April 2.” The group of Democratic chairmen, made up of Reps. Jerry Nadler and Eliot Engel of New York, Elijah…

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McConnell and Senate Republicans Vote to Kill Green New Deal, 0-57

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by Chris White   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues torpedoed the activist-backed Green New Deal Tuesday as Democrats called the vote a dog-and-pony show. Republicans defeated the proposal 57 to 0 as Democratic lawmakers derided the vote as a political gesture meant to rile up conservatives ahead of an election year. McConnell called the GND Tuesday morning a socialistic ploy designed to kill the American economy and the “only sources of energy that working-class and middle-class families can actually afford.” Only three Democrats voted against the resolution. Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Doug Jones of Alabama all voted no. All of their fellow Democratic colleagues voted present. The resolution, which was introduced in February by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calls for “10-year national mobilizations” toward a series of goals aimed at fighting global warming. A separate fact sheet claims the plan would “mobilize every aspect of American society on a scale not seen since World War 2.” Recent reports suggest the GND, which seeks to phase out fossil fuel usage within 12 years, could costs tens of trillions of dollars. Americans could be forced to pay up…

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Supreme Court Hears Gerrymandering Case That Could Extensively Redraw the Ohio Electoral Map

Andrew Shirley

The United States Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments Tuesday on a pair of cases that could lead to the Ohio electoral map being completely redrawn. The two cases, Rucho v. Common Cause and Lamone v. Benisekm, could both set precedents that could supersede a similar Ohio case making its way to the Supreme Court. On August 5, 2016, Common Cause, the North Carolina Democratic Party, and a group of voters filed a complaint against Robert A. Rucho “in his official capacity as Chairman of the North Carolina Senate Redistricting Committee,” and several other key members who presided over the drawing of the 2016 North Carolina congressional map. The complaint alleged that the map is an: unconstitutional partisan gerrymander that violates the First Amendment (Count I), the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Count II), and Article I, section 2 of the Constitution of the United States (Count III), and also to declare that in adopting the 2016 Plan the legislature exceeded the authority granted by Article I, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that state legislatures “determine the times, places and manner of election” of members of the U.S. House of Representatives (Count IV). They also alleged that Democratic votes…

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REVIEW: Hulu’s New Comedy ‘Shrill’ Normalizes the Unthinkable

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by Helen Lamm   A few weeks ago, a new television series called “Shrill” premiered on Hulu. Based on a memoir of the same title by avowed feminist and “fat activist” Lindy West, the show stars Aidy Bryant of “Saturday Night Live” and is produced by Elizabeth Banks. I wasn’t going to watch the show. Since coming to understand the way pop culture is designed mainly to destroy actual culture, my tolerance for all of it—music, TV, movies—has seriously declined. I find it difficult to be entertained by things that I know are designed to hurt me. Some things cannot be unseen. But when Justin Caruso at Breitbart wrote last week about how the show’s pilot episode (which is supposed to be a comedy) features the main character getting an abortion, I decided to grit my teeth and witness what appeared to be a watershed moment in television history. If we are to understand how degeneracy is memed into reality by Hollywood, we must understand the narrative devices that writers and directors employ to get the audience on the side of he or she who will eventually do evil. Building a Bond of Pathos To the tune of some very…

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Omar Erupts After Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Calls Her Out

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter Tuesday after he indirectly singled her out during his televised address to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington. Omar faced significant backlash for her February criticisms of AIPAC when she said it’s “all about the Benjamins, baby,” and suggested that AIPAC’s money was to blame for American support of Israel. Then, during a town hall at a Washington, D.C. coffee shop, Omar said she wants to “talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.” The comments were widely rebuked for invoking the anti-Semitic dual-loyalty trope, which Netanyahu addressed during his Tuesday speech. “In recent weeks, we’ve heard a lot of about the rise of forces who want to pull America and Israel apart. So I can tell you one thing, I can guarantee this: they will fail. They will fail. Our shared values are too deep, our shared interests too strong, our shared destiny too intertwined,” Netanyahu said. “Those who seek to defame this great organization, AIPAC, those who seek to undermine American support for Israel,…

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Ohio Republicans Look to Crack Down on Sanctuary Ordinances After Dayton Public Schools Declares Itself a ‘Sanctuary District’

Anthony Gockowski

Two Republican state representatives in Ohio introduced a bill Tuesday to ban sanctuary ordinances after the Dayton Public Schools Board of Education voted to become a “sanctuary school district” last week. House Bill 169 was introduced by Reps. Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg) and Candice Keller (R-Middletown), who said in a joint press release that the school district’s “new policy requires the school district to not cooperate with federal immigration officials, not allow federal immigration officials inside school buildings, and bans the collection of the immigration statuses.” The Dayton Daily News reports that the school board’s resolution was titled a “Safe and Welcoming School District,” and affirmed that the district “shall do everything in its lawful power to ensure that our students’ learning environments are not disrupted by immigration enforcement actions.” Under House Bill 169, “state or local government” agencies or a “political subdivision” would be prohibited from adopting “an ordinance, policy, directive, rule, or resolution that prohibits or otherwise restricts a public official or employee” from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. Additionally, the bill would prevent sanctuary cities, counties, townships, or municipal corporations from receiving “homeland security funding and any local government fund distributions from the state.” “In the past few…

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Nashville Mayor Briley Plans to Spend $750M to Create Affordable Housing, Including $250M From Private Sector

Jason M. Reynolds

Metro Nashville Mayor David Briley announced a $750 million affordable housing program on Tuesday. The “Under One Roof 2029” program will create 10,000 new units of affordable housing in 10 years, Briley said, according to a story by WKRN. The city plans to contribute $500 million of the total $750 million. Briley asked for the private sector to chip in $250 million with such tools as a real estate investment trust, WKRN said. NewsChannel 5 quoted the mayor as saying, “Nashville is thriving in many ways, and that is a good thing as growth creates better-paying jobs and generates revenue for schools, roads, parks and libraries,” Mayor Briley said. “Yet the true measure of a great city is how it treats all of its citizens – making sure growth is balanced by continuing to invest in people. The Under One Roof 2029 initiative will help ensure we all move forward together.” Under the plan, Nashville will give Metro Development and Housing Agency $350 million for overhauling and adding units, the Nashville Post said. Nashville will give $150 million to the Barnes Fund to create a minimum of 5,000 units. Fox News 17 provided a Facebook video of the announcement, which is…

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