Month: March 2019

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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Tennessee Republican Party Issues Statewide Call For Support of Governor Lee’s Education Savings Account

Laura Baigert

As Governor Bill Lee’s legislation on Education Savings Accounts is set to be voted on by the full House Education Committee on Wednesday, March 27, the Tennessee Republican Party calls for support of his education plan. The Tennessee Republican Party (TRP) sent a personalized email Friday saying, “We need your help!” “Governor Lee and Tennessee’s students are counting on us!” The TRP said that Governor Lee “has put forward a bold, conservative plan to ensure that every child in Tennessee has access to a high-quality education.” To help the Governor’s agenda and show support for school choice, the email includes a link to send an automatic email to the respondent’s legislator. The link connects to page with a heading “Show your support for Education Savings Accounts,” and a quote from Governor Bill Lee, “We’re not going to get big results in our struggling schools by nibbling around the edges. That is why we need Education Savings Accounts in Tennessee, this year.” The page goes on to explain ESAs: Education savings account programs (ESAs) give parents greater opportunity to use their state education dollars to find the best learning environment for their children ESAs can be used for school tuition and…

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WCS Superintendent Mike Looney: I Take Full Responsibility For The Development of The Cultural Competency Series Videos

Laura Baigert

FRANKLIN, Tennessee – At a regularly-scheduled meeting of the Williamson County School Board Monday night, Superintendent Dr. Mike Looney told the board and attendees that he takes full responsibility for the development of the controversial Williamson County Schools Cultural Competency series of videos which feature the concept of “white privilege” used for in-service training. Approximately 100 people attended the meeting, many of whom were members of the Cultural Competency Committee Looney formed in January 2018. The meeting agenda allows a 30-minute period for public comments for those who sign up within a 25-minute period prior to the meeting. When the meeting started, it was announced that 16 people had signed up to speak, so each speaker would be allotted and timed for two minutes. About a quarter of the speakers expressed their concerns regarding a re-zoning issue. Five speakers, most of whom appeared to be members of the Cultural Competency Committee, stated their support for the cultural diversity efforts and said they were needed. Four speakers, including the two women who started the WCS TN Parents Want Facts Facebook page, expressed their concerns of the messaging. One of those women, Stefanie Rose Miles, became emotional when she said he had…

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Rep. Cohen Tells MSNBC That Mueller Report ‘Does Not Exonerate the President’

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) has been a critic of President Donald Trump all throughout his presidency, and through his position on the House Judiciary Committee, has been one of the leading Democrats obsessing over the Robert Mueller investigation, which has now concluded. Cohen does not seem to be giving up. Cohen is calling for grilling Mueller in front of the House Judiciary Committee and is dismissing Attorney General William Barr’s statement showing that Mueller’s probe cleared the president. Cohen tweeted, “Barr didn’t make his decision on obstruction after reading the #MuellerReport; he made it in 2018 when he wrote a memo to the DOJ stating that the president couldn’t be charged with obstruction of justice. He’s not a neutral observer! #CultureOfCorruption #ReleaseTheReport” Barr didn’t make his decision on obstruction after reading the #MuellerReport; he made it in 2018 when he wrote a memo to the DOJ stating that the president couldn’t be charged with obstruction of justice. He’s not a neutral observer! #CultureOfCorruption #ReleaseTheReport pic.twitter.com/eCdxAFcVxX — Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) March 25, 2019 Cohen’s tweet links to his appearance on MSNBC Sunday. He said, “First Mueller was not making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. Those are very interesting words. And then as…

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Commentary: The Only Thing ‘Unprecedented’ About Donald Trump is His Refusal to Stand Silent in the Face of Attack

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by Victor Davis Hanson   Peggy Noonan, apparently like many, believes that Trump’s occasional callousness and crassness are unprecedented. And they have so befouled the political landscape that he has spawned rude and crude leftwing imitators. The result allegedly is the vile language of the “mean girls” such as the anti-Semitism and foul speech of Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib: I think we all know where this started, the political brutishness, the ignoring of traditions and norms. Donald Trump is both origin and rationale . . . The mean girls of Congress have learned at his knee. They have taken their tactics from him. They claim to be his reluctant imitators but I think they admire his ferocity. They have a taste for it, and a talent. Collective Amnesia  With all due respect, I don’t think we “all” know that this started with Trump, however crass he can be. Rather, we know all too well the political landscape a decade before Trump. Do we recall the recent deranged talk of 2004-8 from the Democratic Party, the popular culture, and the media – or the relative passivity of the wounded Bush administration in response to such venom? Why, after all, did Alfred…

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OFF THE RECORD: Poll Shows Strong Support for Trump, Lee, and ESA Plan in Key Legislative Districts

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An unsourced poll of 300 registered voters in four State House districts indicates strong support for Governor Bill Lee’s ESA school choice plan — and even stronger support for President Donald Trump and Governor Lee. The four legislative districts where the poll was conducted over March 23-24, 2019 are represented by Republican legislators seen as swing votes in the House Education Committee where the ESA plan is expected to come up for a vote this Wednesday evening. The poll, leaked to The Tennessee Star, is clearly intended to let the legislators know that a vote for the ESA plan will be popular with their constituents. A more sinister motive may also be to let them know that the Republican Governor who is strongly advocating for his school choice plan is VERY popular in their districts. All four of the legislators included in the poll, Rep. Iris Rudder (Winchester), Rep. Scott Cepicky (Culleoka), Rep. Tom Leatherwood (Arlington) and Rep. Kirk Haston (Lobelville), are first term legislators. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill noted that the specific poll numbers are not that important, and the lack of details and sourcing raises questions about the accuracy of the polling data. “The fact that…

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Another Migrant Caravan Is Heading Toward The US

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by Jason Hopkins   A caravan of mostly Central Americans began its trek toward the United States over the weekend, setting the stage for what will likely be another showdown between border enforcement officials and migrants. Around 1,200 migrants formed a caravan in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and, following the same route as numerous groups before them, started their journey northward Saturday, according to Reuters. The U.S.-bound group is made of mostly Central Americans from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, but also includes Cuban migrants. The National Migration Institute — a department within the government of Mexico that tracks immigration — said the migrants were already within the country before they decided to assemble into a caravan near the country’s southern border with Guatemala. The latest caravan will likely further inflame tensions between these Central American countries and the White House. President Donald Trump, who has made increased immigration enforcement a hallmark of his executive agenda, has threatened Central American governments with repercussions for allowing migrants to freely make their way to the U.S. “… Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are doing nothing for the United States but taking our money. Word is that a new Caravan is forming…

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Long-Awaited ‘Apple TV+’ Video Service Announced

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Apple announced Monday that it’s launching a video service that could compete with Netflix, Amazon and cable TV itself. It’s a long-awaited attempt from the iPhone maker, several years after Netflix turned “binge watching” into a worldwide phenomenon. Introducing Apple TV+. A new streaming service with original stories from the most creative minds in TV and film. #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/xLhtdNNaa2 — Apple TV (@AppleTV) March 25, 2019 The new video service is expected to have original TV shows and movies that reportedly cost Apple more than $1 billion — far less than Netflix and HBO spend every year. Also expected is a subscription service consisting of news, entertainment and sports bundled from newspapers and magazines. Apple is making the announcements at its Cupertino, California, headquarters during an event likely to be studded with Hollywood celebrities. The iPhone has long been Apple’s marquee product and main money maker, but sales are starting to decline. The company is pushing digital subscriptions as it searches for new growth. Making must-have TV shows and movies that are watchable on any device has propelled Netflix into a force in both Silicon Valley and Hollywood. But Apple remained focused on making on gadgets: iPhones, iPads, computers and…

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Rep. Green Says in Wall Street Journal Op-Ed That ‘Democrats Talk Tough’ Over Russian Election Meddling, But They Are Only After Trump

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) said “Democrats talk tough” when it comes to Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential elections, but they are only after President Donald Trump, who has acted to counter that nation’s aggression. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no evidence President Donald Trump, his campaign or associates conspired or coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, according to a summary released Sunday by Attorney General William Barr, as The Tennessee Star reported. Green tweeted, “Democrats talk tough, but their actions reveal they’re interested only in “getting” Donald Trump. GOP has long seen Russia as a threat, and we – including the president – have acted to counter its aggression. Read my thoughts via @WSJopinion” Democrats talk tough, but their actions reveal they’re interested only in “getting” Donald Trump. GOP has long seen Russia as a threat, and we—including the president—have acted to counter its aggression. Read my thoughts via @WSJopinion https://t.co/sdfaOZJLIa — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) March 25, 2019 Green’s tweet links to an op-ed he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, which is also available here. Green said that threats by House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff to investigate Mueller’s investigation…

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Commentary: The Phrase that Launched a Thousand Grievous, Leftist Failures

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by Jeffery Tucker   In 1969, the salad days of New Left activism, a writer named Carol Hanisch penned an essay that the editor called “The Personal Is Political.” She was seeking to explain the ethos of the women’s therapy sessions she was running. The point was not to improve psychological well being. The point was “political therapy;” that is to motivate people to political action. The idea is that one’s own grievances ought to be turned into political action. “There are no personal solutions at this time,” she wrote. “There is only collective action for a collective solution.” Let’s leave aside the case for or against her brand of politics. The slogan itself was fire. It spread to every cause, every group, every nook and cranny of life. If you experience dissatisfaction in your life, don’t look within for a personal solution; get active, join a collective, and demand a political solution. Think of this as the left-wing application of the Schmittian principle that only through politics do we find meaning (the very opposite point that has become the main theme of Jordan Peterson’s work). Fifty years later, I’ve been following the meltdown of a number of “social justice” organizations and causes over the…

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As The Fed Dumps Billions in Government and Mortgage Bonds, Questions of ‘Engineering’ a Recession Swirl as 2020 Nears

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by Robert Romano   Recession warning lights are flashing predictably after the Federal Reserve has finally ended quantitative easing – it’s now dumping $50 billion of government and mortgage bonds a month – and short-term interest rates have risen. The 10-year-3-month treasuries spread inverted on March 22, and the 10-year-2-year and the 10-year-federal-funds-rate do not appear to be far behind from inverting. When interest rates invert, it means the interest rate on short-term bonds is higher than the rate of return for long-term bonds, meaning there is slightly more demand for the long-term bonds, which are viewed as a relatively safer investment. So, how did we get here? The short answer is that since the Fed began dumping bonds back on the market – it has shed $458 billion since Sept. 2017 – short-term interest rates have been steadily rising. This usually happens anyway as the business cycle comes to a close. But what it tells you is that this particular business cycle was prolonged – by a lot – with the Fed artificially keeping short-term interest rates low, not by manipulating the benchmark federal funds rate, but through quantitative easing and then refinancing a vast horde of U.S. treasuries. The U.S. is long overdue for a recession – it…

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Sen. Blackburn Commends Attorney General Barr For Quickly Releasing Summary of Mueller Findings That Clear President Trump of Collusion With Russia

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) praised Attorney General William Barr for quickly releasing the summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings to Congress that show President Donald Trump did not collude with Russia. Mueller’s investigation found no evidence President Donald Trump, his campaign or associates conspired or coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, according to a summary released Sunday by Attorney General William Barr, The Tennessee Star reported. Blackburn tweeted her statement. My statement on today’s letter from Attorney General Barr: pic.twitter.com/1xpZQDtWdZ — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) March 25, 2019 Blackburn’s statement reads: “After two years of thorough investigation, led by a team of 19 lawyers and 40 FBI employees, costing over $25 million in taxpayer dollars, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusions confirm that President Trump’s campaign did not collude with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. “Attorney General Bill Barr, in a jointly reached conclusion with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, determined the evidence from the Special Counsel report was ‘not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.’ “Attorney General Barr is to be commended for his quick release of the findings to Congress as well as his commitment to continue reviewing…

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Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s Plan to Save Nuclear Is the ‘Real’ Green New Deal

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by Jason Hopkins   Energy Secretary Rick Perry took a shot at the Democratic Party’s latest environmental proposal as he visited a nuclear plant’s construction site. “Ladies and gentlemen, look around you,” the president’s top energy official said Friday to a crowd of nuclear power plant employees in Waynesboro, Georgia. “This is the real new green deal.” Perry was speaking in front of a construction site for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, where crews are working on completing two new reactors — the only nuclear reactors under construction in the entire country. The energy secretary revealed the plant’s majority owners would receive loan guarantees to keep construction on the two reactors — Units 3 and 4 — moving forward. The federal government is guaranteeing up to $1.67 billion in loans for Georgia Power, up to $1.6 billion for Oglethorpe Power and up to $414.7 million for the MEAG Power. All three electric utilities are co-owners of the Vogtle plant. The loan guarantees — which Perry said would help make “nuclear America cool again” — are to help the Vogtle finish construction of the two reactors. Units 3 and 4 were originally planned to be completed by 2017, but now Unit 3 will not be ready to be loaded with…

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Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Madeleine Dean Retreats from ‘Russia Collusion,’ Promotes ‘No Exoneration’ Straw Man

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by Nick Givas   Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania listed special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings from the Russia probe on CNN Monday, and it’s not good news for Democrats. “My reaction is a couple of things. We ought to recognize something good. Number one, special counsel Mueller completed his investigation with a team of able investigators and prosecutors, and I’m thankful that that investigation has come to a close,” she said on “CNN Today.” “Number two, we should be glad that the preliminary finding that we know of the Mueller report is that there was no coordination, no conspiracy,” Dean said. “Notice the words that they used:  no coordination, no conspiracy of the Trump campaign with Russia’s known interference with the 2016 election. Number three, there was known interference by Russia in a very serious and great way with the election of 2016. I hope this administration, and I’m certain Congress will take that very seriously, as we head into the next election.” Dean’s statement is a vast departure from the Democratic narrative of collusion and obstruction of justice. Congressional Democrats had expressed concern that President Donald Trump would fire Mueller, but he was allowed to finish his investigation. Trump was also…

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Despite Growing Support for Hemp Legalization, Ohio Government Cracks down

Andrew Shirley

As the Ohio Senate considers legalizing hemp and hemp byproducts in the Buckeye State, the Ohio Department of Health, along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is simultaneously cracking down on any form of sale of the substance. Currently, hemp is trapped in a complicated legal limbo and while state legalization will alleviate many of the issues, the future is still opaque for the controversial drug. On February 20th, Senate Bill 57 (SB 57) was officially introduced. The bill would not simply legalize the sale of hemp and hemp related products, but also legalize: Possess, buy, or sell hemp or a hemp product; Process hemp into a hemp product, including by the addition of one or more cannabinoids derived from hemp,including cannabidiol, to a product to produce a hemp product; Conduct agricultural, academic, or any other research involving hemp or hemp products. Notwithstanding any other provision of the Revised Code to the contrary, the addition of hemp or cannabinoids derived from hemp, including cannabidiol, to any product does not adulterate that product. The specific types of products include: …any product made with hemp, including cosmetics, personal care products, dietary supplements or food intended for animal or human consumption, cloth, cordage, fiber, fuel, paint, paper, particleboard, and any product…

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Proposed Bill Takes Aim At Sanctuary City Sheriffs in North Carolina

A.P. Dillon

Another North Carolina Sheriff says he will not uphold ICE detainers and will release criminal illegal aliens back onto the streets. In response, state lawmakers are taking action to protect the public with a bill the would require law enforcement to cooperate with immigration enforcement officials. “The sheriff’s office will continue to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, however, we do not make or enforce immigration laws; that is not part of our law enforcement duties,” Buncombe County Sheriff Quentin Miller said at a March 19th press conference. Miller is the latest in a line of sheriffs from Durham, Wake and Mecklenburg counties who are refusing to contact ICE or honor ICE detainers on illegal aliens they have in custody. ICE spokesman Bryan Cox responded to Miller’s remarks, telling the Asheville Citizen-Times that “as a direct result of this policy, persons in Asheville will see an increased presence of ICE.” North Carolina’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Josh Stein, has made similar moves. In February, Stein contemplated joining a 16 state coalition which is suing President Trump over his emergency border declaration. The official North Carolina Department of Justice account tweeted a statement from Stein that said…

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Jewish Org Calls for Investigation of Reps. Omar and Tlaib’s Ties to CAIR

Anthony Gockowski

A trending online petition calls on U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Special Envoy for Antisemitism Elan Carr to investigate Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) and their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The petition, which had more than 12,000 signatures at the time of publication, was started by Stop Antisemitism and describes CAIR’s connections to the terrorist organization Hamas. “In 2007, CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case that found Holy Land Foundation responsible for siphoning over $12 million to Hamas,” the petition states. It goes on to describe Omar and Tlaib’s connections to CAIR, noting that it has “provided thousands of dollars directly and indirectly to support the campaigns of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib – both of whom have received awards and recognition by the organization.” “There’s no doubt that Tlaib and Omar have close-knit ties with Hamas-affiliated CAIR and we, as concerned citizens, call on Attorney General and U.S. Special Envoy for Antisemitism to investigate these ties,” the petition concludes. Liora Rez, co-founder of Stop Antisemitism, told The Jerusalem Post that her organization is “very excited” by the traction the petition has received in just over a week.…

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Ohio Legislators Applauded for Addressing ‘Seriously Flawed’ School Funding Formula, But Questions Still Remain

Anthony Gockowski

After 15 months, a bipartisan workgroup unveiled its Fair School Funding Plan to overhaul Ohio’s school-funding formula, but some still had questions about how it will accomplish what Ohioans need. Reps. Bob Cupp (R-Lima) and John Patterson (D-Jefferson) spearheaded the workgroup along with superintendents and educators from across the state, and announced their findings during a Monday press conference. “We are excited because we’re here to announce the release of the School Funding Workgroup’s recommendations for comprehensive redesign of Ohio’s primary and secondary school funding framework,” Cupp said, calling the new funding plan “fair, more predictable, and more workable.” “It’s widely recognized that our current funding formula, forged in the last recession, is seriously flawed. Experience has shown that it’s not any longer even functioning as a formula,” he continued, saying the current funding formula is “more a patch than a formula.” At the start of the 15-month process, the School Funding Workgroup was charged with considering “what our students truly need to succeed in this rapidly changing world, and to develop recommendations to meet those needs that are fair to Ohio’s kids, school districts, and taxpayers.” “Over four-fifths of districts are either on a cap, which limits the funding…

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Another Smoking Gun: WCS Cultural Competency Committee Backers Want Social Justice, But No Publicity About Their Meetings, Emails Reveal

Chris Butler

People involved in the Williamson County School System’s Cultural Competency Committee and people who support those efforts sent emails about the need for social justice and how to handle teachers who resist change. Emails also reveal Cultural Competency Committee members did not want publicity or for members of the media to attend their meetings. Committee members and other people who support their efforts sent these emails to one other earlier this month, and Superintendent Mike Looney received some of them. The Tennessee Star obtained these emails through an open records request to the county school system. In a March 6 email, a woman named Sara Melamed gave a rundown to Looney about the prior Cultural Competency meeting based on notes she took. A woman by the same name ran for the Williamson County Commission last year, according to The Tennessean, and she also served on the Williamson County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee. “They discussed ‘what to do about teachers who are resistant to change,’” Melamed wrote Looney. “For some teachers it has been considered life-changing and given them new perspective.” Melamed’s notes also included the following as it pertains to publicizing the committee’s work: “Why is the committee not being…

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Metro Nashville Public School Board Member Will Pinkston Resigns as Vote on Terminating Director Shawn Joseph Appears Imminent

Laura Baigert

Sharing his letter of resignation with the public via Twitter, Metro Nashville Public School Board member Will Pinkston called out the body on which he serves “impossibly inept,” just as another school board member has announced plans to make a motion to terminate School Director Dr. Shawn Joseph. Elected to Metro Nashville Board of Public Education in 2012 representing the 7th District of South and Southeast Nashville, Pinkston graduated from Metro Nashville Public Schools and, as a senior advisor, “helped Gov. Phil Bredesen shape the education agenda that made Tennessee the fastest-improving state in the history of the Nation’s Report Card,” according to his campaign website. Pinkston’s letter addressed to Dr. Sharon Gentry, Chair of the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Public Education dated March 25, whom Pinkston praised, was not voted into the position as Chair without dissension, The Tennessee Star reported. Pinkston told Gentry in his letter that while his resignation from the Board is effective April 12, his resignation as Chair of the Budget & Finance Committee chair is effective immediately. Pinkston’s Twitter release of his letter of resignation included the comment, “Talk amongst yourselves. I decided this about a month ago, but Friday’s insane board retreat expedited…

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WCS ‘White Privilege’ Training Also Violated State Board of Education Guidelines That Professional Learning Should ‘Align with Student Curriculum Standards’

Chris Butler

The Williamson County Schools Cultural Competency video series that focused on “white privilege” and that teachers had to watch this school year through a required “In-service training” violated more than just Section 49-6-3004 paragraph (c) of the Tennessee Code Annotated. As The Tennessee Star reported earlier this month, that section of Tennessee law, “makes it clear that every superintendent of a public school district in Tennessee must submit an in-service training plan that has been approved by the local school board to the TDOE by June 1 of the preceding academic year, and that the Commissioner of Education must approve that plan: (emphasis added): “In-service days shall be used according to a plan recommended by the local superintendent of schools in accordance with the provisions of this section and other applicable statutes, and adopted by the local board of education. A copy of this plan shall be filed with the State Commissioner of Education on or before June 1 the preceding school year and approved by him.” (emphasis added) But WCS Superintendent Mike Looney, who was responsible for the development and delivery of The Williamson County Schools Cultural Competency video series, has produced no evidence that he (1) prepared an in-service plan for academic year 2018-2019, (2) received approval…

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Anti-Immigration Group Claims Lee ‘Voucher’ Plan Will Fund Education for Illegals

Steve Gill

A writer for a Washington, D.C.-based anti-immigration group has weighed in on Governor Bill Lee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) plan that is slated for a House Education Committee vote next Wednesday. The Federation for American Immigration Reform has posted a piece by Jennifer G. Hickey, one of their web content writers, claiming that the Tennessee school “voucher” plan will provide taxpayer funded K-12 education access to illegal immigrants. It will. It’s the law; and has been since a 1981 U.S. Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe,  determined that illegal alien children are entitled to a free public education as a matter of equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Thus, illegal alien children in Tennessee WILL have the same access to public school funding regardless of whether they are provided that access through traditional public schools, charter schools, education savings accounts or vouchers. Nevertheless, neither Ohio nor Florida, which have instituted more generous voucher programs than the Lee ESA choice program, have had ever had a problem with a high proportion of illegals participating. Hickey expressed specific concern that illegal aliens will get an added financial benefit from “vouchers” that are not available to legal citizens: Most school systems fund their operations…

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VP of TSBA’s Premier Business Affiliate: We Paid a Flat Fee of $15k Annually to Get Special Access

Tennessee Star Staff

The vice president of Public Risk Insurors told The Tennessee Star the company paid the Tennessee School Board Association (TSBA) a flat $15,000 annual fee to be a premier business affiliate and receive the benefits of that program. That confirmation came in a phone interview earlier this month, which was prompted by a letter from Public Risk Insurors Chief Financial Officer Dave Williams to The Star in response to our story, published March 4, titled “Taxpayer-Funded TSBA Has $5.3 Million in Assets, Paid Top Two Execs $499k Annually, Offers Special Access to Business Affiliates.” During that phone interview, Williams told The Star everything in our original story was factually correct. Williams was quick to point out that Public Risk Insurors paid a flat $15,000 annual fee to TSBA, and did not pay a percentage of receipts from contracts stemming from introductions to schools made by TSBA to Public Risk Insurors as part of the premier business affiliate relationship. “We consider it an honor to be a Business Affiliate of the TSBA and as an independent insurance agency, we do not pay the TSBA or any other educational organization with whom we participate as a vendor or convention sponsor a percentage…

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Steve Gill Commentary: ‘Pay-to-Play’ Schemes Not Limited to College Admissions When Vendors Can Pay School Board Association for ‘Leads’

Steve Gill

The past several weeks have seen collective outrage at the revelation that some wealthy celebrity parents had paid bribes to gain unmerited admission for their children to elite colleges and universities. Criminal charges, lawsuits, and resignations have already resulted from the scandal.  Few expect that the list of those involved in these sorts of efforts to get unqualified students accepted into the nation’s top schools with bribery and fraud to be limited to those identified so far. Investigations will certainly continue. It is also abundantly clear that “pay to play” schemes are not limited to those photoshopping their unaccomplished child onto the faces of actual athletes in order to gain access to opportunities that might otherwise not be available. Here in Tennessee we see something remarkably similar. But instead of photoshopping the Tennessee School Boards Association actually publishes a price list to sell access to vendors seeking contracts with local school districts. The TSBA “Business Affiliates” program encourages those seeking contracts for the sale of products or services to Tennessee school systems to pay the TSBA in order to gain “credibility with boards or school system personnel who make decisions regarding products.” To make it even more clear, TSBA points…

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Watchdog: US Agency Error Exposes 2.3 Million Disaster Survivors to Fraud

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Reuters   The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) exposed 2.3 million disaster survivors to possible identity theft and fraud by sharing sensitive personal information with an outside company, according to an internal government watchdog. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said FEMA had shared financial records and other sensitive information of people who had participated in an emergency shelter program after being displaced by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the California wildfires in 2017. The Inspector General’s office said FEMA had shared participants’ home addresses and bank account information with the contractor, along with necessary information like their names and birthdates. That “has placed approximately 2.3 million disaster survivors at increased risk of identity theft and fraud,” the Inspector General’s office said in a report. The name of the contactor was redacted. In a statement released on Friday, FEMA spokeswoman Lizzie Litzow said the agency had found no indication to suggest survivor data had been “compromised.” She said the agency has removed unnecessary information from the contractor’s computer systems. But FEMA’s review only found that the contractor’s computer systems had not been breached within the past 30 days because it did not keep…

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Tennessee Resolution Calls on TVA to Have Open Meetings

Chris Butler

Members of the Tennessee General Assembly will consider a resolution to express support for a bill in Congress that would require the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Board of Directors to hold open meetings. This, according to the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. According to the TCOG website, State Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, explained Senate Joint Resolution 192 in a Senate committee meeting this month. The resolution won unanimous approval. “We all know, Mr. Chairman, that the TVA is the steward of billions of dollars of ratepayers money,” Yager reportedly told members of the Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee this week. “But they also make rules that govern the lives and affect the lives of everybody else in Tennessee. Not the least of which is the property owners of this state. I just think in the spirit of transparency and open government, that all of their meetings should be open. The Tennessee Valley Authority Transparency Act is sponsored by U.S. Rep Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, according to the TCOG. “Burchett’s bill would require the board and subcommittees of the board to hold their meetings in public, provide public notice of its meetings no fewer than six days before the…

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Marc Gomez Charged in Vicious New York City Subway Attack on 78-Year-Old Woman Caught on Camera

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by Neetu Chandak   A man was charged with assault Saturday after allegedly kicking a 78-year-old woman in the face on a New York City subway as others watched on in early March. Marc Gomez, 36, was arrested Saturday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said to The Daily Caller News Foundation over email. He was charged with multiple counts of assault and harassment. NYPD: detectives walk out Marc Gomez, 36, after he’s charged with assaulted for attacking an elderly woman on a #2 train in the Bronx two weeks ago, A community tip led to his arrest this morning @ABC7NY The story at 6 PM pic.twitter.com/547G29lCdO — Naveen Dhaliwal (@NaveenDhaliwal) March 23, 2019 A community tip reportedly led to the arrest, according to a tweet from ABC 7 reporter Naveen Dhaliwal Saturday. The elderly woman, who has not been identified, was treated for swelling, cuts to the face and bleeding after getting assaulted on the subway March 10 around 3 a.m. Video footage shows onlookers watching and yelling as she got hit. Wth? pic.twitter.com/Mpt3Vb0XuX — Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 22, 2019 “It’s terrible,” an MTA worker said, the New York Post reported. “I can’t believe something like that could happen.” It is unclear…

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New York Man Gets State Stun Gun Ban Overturned Based on His Second Amendment Rights

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by Evie Fordham   Banning the personal ownership of stun guns in New York state is unconstitutional because it violates individuals’ Second Amendment right to bear arms, a federal judge ruled Friday. “New York’s sweeping prohibition on the possession and use of tasers and stun guns by all citizens for all purposes, even for self-defense in one’s own home, must be declared unconstitutional,” U.S. District Judge David Hurd wrote in his decision according to The Associated Press. Hurd also wrote that people trading firearms for stun guns could result in less weapons deaths. Matthew Avitabile of Schoharie County, New York, had brought the suit against the state police superintendent, since that agency enforces the state’s weapons laws. Avitabile wanted to buy a stun gun to defend himself in his home in rural upstate New York, reported The AP. Avitabile is also the mayor of Middleburgh, New York, and said that although his town is as safe “as Mayberry,” he wants New Yorkers to be able to protect themselves, reported The New York Post. Forty-seven states allow tasers and stun guns with varying levels of regulation, according to The New York Post. Now the stricter states are starting to reverse course. For instance,…

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Donald Trump Wants to Cut Taxpayer-Funded Program That Gave Money to Tennessee Nissan Electric Car Plant

Chris Butler

U.S. Republican President Donald Trump has reportedly proposed a budget that would eliminate a loan program deemed wasteful. Some of the money from that program has gone to the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tenn. according to The Detroit News. Specifically, Trump’s budget would eliminate what is known as the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing loan program. This, the paper went on to say, is a Department of Energy program Trump deems “costly, wasteful or duplicative.” “Nissan used a $1.45 billion loan in September 2010 to build plants for advanced battery manufacturing and environmentally friendly paint and to retool its Smyrna, Tennessee, plant for assembly of the all-electric Leaf,” according to The Detroit News. “Tesla used a $465 million loan in January 2010 to develop its manufacturing facility in Fremont, California, to produce battery packs, electric motors and other powertrain components for powering all-electric vehicles.” The paper quoted Trump as saying “the private sector is better positioned to provide financing for the deployment of commercially viable projects.” Ford has also used the program to upgrade facilities in six states, including Kentucky and Missouri, the paper said. Trump also wants to do away with a federal tax credit that provides up to $7,500…

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Commentary: Democrats Must Apologize to America for the Russia Collusion Hoax

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by CHQ Staff   It’s probably too much to expect that Democrats will apologize to America for the destruction, discord and division they have sown through the hoax that President Trump, his campaign, his family and friends treasonously colluded with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton. But in the interest of laying down a marker as to who among the Democrats and their Far-Left allies in the media and culture who owe the country an apology, we offer this list as a starting point. Not in order of egregiousness or evil intent, but perhaps in order of stupidity: Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke for saying, at a town hall event at Burke High School in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday morning after the release of the Special Counsel’s Report and the announcement there would be no further indictments. ‘You have a president who in my opinion, beyond a shadow of a doubt, sought to, however ham-handedly, collude with the Russian government, a foreign power, to undermine and influence our elections,’ O’Rourke said. ‘It is beyond the shadow of a doubt that the president once in office sought to obstruct justice,’ he continued according to reporting by the UK’s Daily Mail. Democrat Rep. John…

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Commentary: Senator John McCain’s Key Role in Fueling the Post-Election Trump-Russia Hysteria

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by Julie Kelly   In his 2018 book, The Restless Wave, the late Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) wondered aloud why he was sought out and given the infamous Steele dossier shortly after the 2016 presidential election. After suggesting that anyone who questioned his role in handling the political document was indulging in “conspiracy theories,” McCain offered his explanation: “The answer is too obvious for the paranoid to credit. I am known internationally to be a persistent critic of Vladimir Putin’s regime and I have been a long while.” It is true that McCain was an outspoken critic of Putin. But the big problem with McCain’s defense is that by the time he wrote those words—presumably the end of 2017, since the book was published in late May 2018—it already was public knowledge that the dossier had been authored and distributed by political pimps funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. When McCain was writing his book, many of the culprits were in serious legal jeopardy. Christopher Steele, the dossier’s author, was being sued for defamation and was under congressional scrutiny in 2017. (McCain had sent his close associate, David Kramer, to meet Steele in London shortly after the 2016 election to…

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Commentary: Making Constitutional Law Great Again

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by Mark Pulliam   Claremont-trained political philosophers represent some of the strongest voices in conservative intellectual circles, but many of them share a flawed view of the Constitution, expressed vigorously – and sometimes splenetically – by the late Harry V. Jaffa. Edward Erler’s recent essay, “Don’t Read the Constitution the Way Robert Bork Did,” channels both Jaffa’s truculent spirit and the doctrinaire position of West Coast Straussians, complete with familiar – albeit irrelevant – references to Abraham Lincoln and the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately, Erler’s essay illustrates why the Left’s conception of constitutional law is ascendant while conservatives continue to dither: Unlike progressives, discordant conservatives have been largely ineffective in articulating – let alone advancing – a coherent vision of constitutional law. As I explained at greater length elsewhere, conservatives are all over the map when it comes to constitutional interpretation, and spend as much time in internecine feuds as they do in battle with liberal activists. Jaffa notoriously picked fights with respected conservative legal figures such as Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia, and espoused fanciful theories that have never been embraced by mainstream originalists (and almost certainly will never be adopted by a majority of Supreme Court justices). Not surprisingly, therefore, the Left has…

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Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant Signs ‘Heartbeat Bill’

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by Henry Rogers   Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a “heartbeat bill” Thursday that will make abortion illegal in the state after a fetal heartbeat is detected. “I am very pro-life, always have been,” Bryant, a Republican, said after signing the legislation. “I think obviously we’ll have some legal challenges on it. We have legal challenges with every pro-life bill that we have ever passed. We anticipate that. We hope that it will get to the Supreme Court and they will uphold it.” Women in Mississippi will no longer be able to have an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy once the law takes effect July 1. Pro-choice group Center for Reproductive Rights called it “blatantly unconstitutional” and threatened to sue the state, Fox News reported. “We will all answer to the good Lord one day. I will say in this instance, ‘I fought for the lives of innocent babies, even under threat of legal action,’” Bryant tweeted Wednesday in response to the group. We will all answer to the good Lord one day. I will say in this instance, “I fought for the lives of innocent babies, even under threat of legal action.” https://t.co/4bHEmCqN74 — Phil Bryant (@PhilBryantMS) March 20, 2019 Several other state legislatures, such as in…

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Audit: Haywood County Courthouse Needs Better Security

Chris Butler

It’s too easy to get inside certain parts of the Haywood County Courthouse, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. While the audit itself doesn’t explicitly say so, this could pose security concerns. “Our examination disclosed that county officials did not adequately control access to the courthouse offices. One key will open multiple doors in the courthouse: at least one exterior door to the courthouse, a conference room, and the Offices of the Trustee, County Mayor, and Budget Director,” Comptrollers wrote. “Individuals who are not office employees could potentially enter one of the offices unsupervised. Sound business practices dictate that unsupervised access to offices weakens internal controls over assets. This deficiency is the result of management’s decision, management’s failure to correct the finding noted in the prior-year audit report, and management’s failure to implement their corrective action plan.” Comptrollers recommended county officials control access to the courthouse offices. Former County Mayor Franklin Smith told Comptrollers he concurred with the finding. According to The National Center for State Courts’ website, “because courthouses must be accessible and in centralized locations, they are vulnerable to acts of random violence.” “Courts must have proper security procedures, technology, personnel, and architectural features, to…

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Jim Jordan Reminds Nation That Democrats Used to Talk About Mueller Like He’s ‘Next to Jesus’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) sat down for an interview with George Stephanopoulos Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” where he said his Democratic colleagues viewed Robert Mueller as “next to Jesus” heading into the Russia investigation. Prior to his interview, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA-28) was on the show and suggested that a lack of indictments in the Mueller report doesn’t necessarily vindicate President Donald Trump. “Well we’ve got to read the report, but what I do know is to date not one bit of evidence to show any type of coordination, collusion, conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the election. And that was the charge, George, when this thing started almost two years ago,” Jordan said in response. “The Democrats were all saying that the president of the United States worked with a hostile foreign country to steal the election, and again, there has not been one bit of evidence to suggest that any of that happened.” Jordan repeatedly emphasized that the focus of the special counsel investigation was to determine whether or not there was “collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to impact the election.” “And again, remember, this is Bob Mueller, this was the guy…

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Minnesota’s Rep. Ilhan Omar Blames Trump for New Zealand Massacre During CAIR Fundraiser While Hundreds Protest Outside

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) spoke Saturday at a fundraiser for the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) while hundreds of protesters gathered outside the event. Omar was the keynote speaker for CAIR’s Fourth Annual Valley Banquet in Los Angeles focused on “advancing justice” and “empowering Valley Muslims,” according to an event invitation. As The Daily Caller explains, the U.S. Department of Justice found CAIR to be a co-conspirator in funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. Its leaders have a history of making sympathetic comments about terrorist organizations, such as one comment from Hassan Shibly, chief executive director of CAIR-Florida, who suggested that Hezbollah and Hamas aren’t terrorist organizations. Shibly spoke alongside Omar during Saturday’s fundraiser. During her remarks, Omar blamed President Donald Trump for the recent massacre at Christchurch mosque in New Zealand, according to audio obtained by Gateway Pundit. “We all kind of knew this was happening, but the reason I think that many of us knew that this was going to get worse is that we finally have a leader, a world leader in the White House, who publicly says Islam hates us—who fuels hate against Muslims, who thinks it is OK to speak about a faith and…

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Social Justice Warrior Reporters at The Tennessean Use Twitter to Lecture Williamson County Residents About ‘Racist Incidents’

Chris Butler

People in Williamson County this week accused two reporters at The Tennessean of having a bias that favors the “white privilege” training county school system administrators impose on teachers. Using their personal Twitter pages as their platforms, and not The Tennessean itself, these two reporters, Elaina Sauber and Emily West, seemed to favor the “Cultural Competency” videos school system officials force teachers to watch. These videos also preach about America’s supposed dysfunctional history. WCS teachers must watch them through an In-service training program. What Sauber and West say about these “Cultural Competency” videos on social media matters — that’s because they both write about Williamson County for The Tennessean. Sauber, for instance, co-wrote a story this week titled “Williamson GOP claims schools are ‘indoctrinating’ students with video series on inclusion.” Sauber seemed to use her Twitter page to try to make the case racial tensions may still exist in Williamson County and local GOP members are wrong to criticize the “white privilege” training. But Sauber cited racially-charged cases out of the county that are six to 20-years old. West, using her Twitter, seemed to lecture a Williamson County parent about social justice. West also seemed to say she knows more about…

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Attorney General Barr Sends Mueller’s Conclusions to Congress: No Collusion Found

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Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation found no evidence President Donald Trump, his campaign or associates conspired or coordinated with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, according to a summary released Sunday by Attorney General William Barr. “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him,” Mueller wrote, according to Barr. Barr handed over to Congress his main conclusions and summary of the long-awaited Muller report. Mueller spent 22 months looking into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russians and if the president obstructed justice by trying to stop the investigation. Barr and his aides spent hours Saturday poring over the report Mueller handed them late Friday. Key lawmakers, opposition Democrats and some of Trump’s Republican allies, have all called for release of the full report, but it is not clear whether Barr will do so. Trump said last week he did not object to the full release to the public but also has said it is up to Barr, whom he appointed as the country’s top law enforcement official, to decide how much of it is disclosed. White House aides say Trump has not been briefed on the outcome…

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Washington County School Board Member Arrested on Charge of Simple Assault Involving Girlfriend

Jason M. Reynolds

A member of the Washington County Board of Education was arrested on a charge of simple assault related to his girlfriend, the Johnson City Press reported. David L. Hammond, 50, of Johnson City, was served with an arrest warrant Friday, the newspaper said. The alleged assault happened about 11:15 p.m. Thursday. WCYB reported: According to the arrest report, the victim told police that she and her boyfriend were having relationship trouble and had been fighting. She showed police bruises on her arms and torso where she said Hammond had grabbed her two days ago. She added that a similar incident occurred Thursday evening because of his “drug and alcohol consumption.” While police were talking to the girlfriend, Hammond called her, WJHL reported. Officers said his speech was allegedly slurred and he “sounded extremely intoxicated.” Police went to his home to arrest him. No one came to the door, but police saw someone look through a blind on an upstairs window. Hammond was arrested Friday at Restore Community Church, WJHL said. Hammond is in the Washington County Jail, WJHL said. The report said officers advised the girlfriend to get a protection order. Hammond’s arrest has not yet shown up on the…

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New Report Examines Impact of Ineffective Teachers on Students in Tennessee

Chris Butler

The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office has released a new report that explores how students in Tennessee’s public schools are impacted when they are taught by an ineffective teacher for two consecutive years. This, according to a press release Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. The report was prepared at the request of State Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville. “More than 8,000 Tennessee students (1.6 percent of students included in the study) had a teacher with low evaluation scores in both the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years in math, English, or both subjects,” according to the Tennessee Comptrollers’ press release. “Students were less likely than their peers to be proficient or advanced on the state’s assessments when they were taught by ineffective teachers in consecutive years. Student achievement also suffered with the largest effects found for the highest and lowest performing students. These results are consistent with other research indicating that ineffective teachers have negative academic impacts on students.” Students in certain districts, grades, subjects, and subgroups were more likely to be taught in consecutive years by ineffective teachers, the press release said. “English language learners, students in special education, and students in high-poverty schools were over 50 percent more likely than other students…

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Commentary: A History Lesson for Jeb Bush

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by George Rasley   Jeb Bush is to Republican politics what the little mechanical moles are to the arcade game Whack-A-Mole; an annoyance that bursts forth according to some malevolent algorithm and the faster you beat it down the quicker it pops back up. Jeb! surfaced most recently to encourage some as yet unidentified sacrificial lamb to run against President Trump in the upcoming 2020 Republican primaries. Bush’s reason for encouraging the challenge was that it would be good for the GOP to “have a conversation about what it is to be a conservative…” “I think someone should run. Just because Republicans ought to be given a choice,” Bush said in an interview with Obama advisor David Axelrod on CNN’s “The Axe Files.” “But to have a conversation about what it is to be a conservative I think is important,” Bush added. “And our country needs to have competing ideologies … that are dynamic, that focus on the world we’re in and the world we’re moving towards rather than revert back to a nostalgic time.” Former Governor Bush has apparently forgotten, or maybe he never figured out, what such a conversation about what it is to be a conservative did…

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Trump Orders Policy U-Turn on North Korea-Related Sanctions

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by Evie Fordham   President Donald Trump announced on Twitter Friday he was reversing course on new sanctions on Chinese companies doing business with North Korea. “It was announced today by the U.S. Treasury that additional large scale Sanctions would be added to those already existing Sanctions on North Korea,” Trump wrote. “I have today ordered the withdrawal of those additional Sanctions!” The U.S. Treasury had announced the new sanctions Thursday, not Friday as Trump wrote, and they immediately received “swift pushback” from the governments of both China and North Korea, reported Fox News. “President Trump likes Chairman Kim [Jong Un] and he doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said when asked about Trump’s tweet. Trump’s decision came a day after Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin detailed the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on two China-based companies. “The United States and our like-minded partners remain committed to achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea and believe that the full implementation of North Korea-related UN Security Council resolutions is crucial to a successful outcome,” Mnuchin said in a statement Thursday according to Fox News. “Treasury will continue to enforce our sanctions, and we…

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Spinoff Trump Cases Will Continue Long After Mueller Report

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The nearly 2-year-old probe into potential ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian election interference has come to an end. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Friday submitted his confidential report to U.S. Attorney General William Barr. But will Mueller’s report be the end of the story? Hardly. Prosecutors from outside the special counsel’s office, including the U.S. attorney’s offices in New York, Virginia and Washington, D.C., are all pursuing cases that have spun off from the Mueller investigation. State investigators in New York and Maryland have ongoing Trump-related investigations. And in Congress, the House and Senate intelligence and other committees are actively looking into Trump’s finances, potential Russia-Trump ties and other matters. Besides Mueller, here’s a rundown of who’s investigating what: Violations of federal campaign finance law. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is investigating Trump’s role in silencing former Playboy model Karen McDougal and adult-film actress Stormy Daniels with hush payments in August and October 2016, respectively. The two women have previously claimed to have had affairs with President Trump. Inauguration funding. Trump’s inaugural committee received a subpoena in February 2019 from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.…

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Trump Unilaterally Declares Islamic State in Syria ‘100 Percent Eliminated’

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U.S. President Donald Trump declared the end of the Islamic State terror group’s self-declared caliphate Friday, saying the terror group had been “100 percent defeated” —a claim that was quickly refuted by U.S.-backed forces on the ground. Trump made the announcement following a briefing from Acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan aboard Air Force One en route to Florida. Trump then showed reporters onboard a map with no IS presence in Syria. “The territorial caliphate has been eliminated in Syria,” added White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. At its height in 2014, IS ruled over large swaths of Syria and Iraq, boasting dual capitals in Raqqa, Syria, and Mosul, Iraq. Since then, the U.S.-led international coalition, along with partners on the ground, have rolled back the terror group’s hold. The very last territory under IS control — a couple of scraps of land in the northeastern Syrian town of Baghuz — began to slip through the terror group’s grip for good late Thursday into early Friday, after the U.S.-led coalition launched a new wave of airstrikes targeting the remaining IS-held positions. But shortly after Trump’s announcement, SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali told VOA’s Kurdish Service he could not confirm IS’s defeat, as his…

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Trump to Nominate Stephen Moore for Fed Board

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President Donald Trump said Friday that he will nominate Stephen Moore, a conservative economic analyst, to fill a vacancy on the Federal Reserve’s seven-member board. Moore, a well-known and often polarizing figure in Washington political circles, served as an economic adviser to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign. In that role, he helped draft Trump’s tax cut plan. Trump has been harshly critical of the Fed’s rate increases last year even after the central bank this week announced that it foresees no hikes this year. Moore, who has served as chief economist for the conservative Heritage Foundation, has also been critical of policy moves made by Chairman Jerome Powell, who was hand-picked by Trump to be Fed chairman. An ardent defender of tax cuts, Moore is close to Larry Kudlow, head of the White House National Economic Council. The two collaborated in shaping the tax overhaul that Trump signed into law at the end of 2017, leading to changes that largely favored tax cuts for corporations and wealthier Americans with the idea of spurring investment and faster growth. Reshaping Central Bank Trump in his first two years in office has been able to reshape the central bank. He nominated four…

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Adam Schiff Says House Intelligence Committee Is Willing to Subpoena Mueller

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by Chris White   House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff said Friday that his committee might subpoena special counsel Robert Mueller to get a fuller understanding about the details of his report. “If necessary, we will call Bob Mueller or others before our committee,” Schiff told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, noting also that the Judiciary Committee might summon Attorney General Bill Barr to answer questions as well. The California Democrat’s comments came shortly after Mueller delivered Barr his report on Russia’s intervention into the U.S. election. Schiff added: “This began as a counterintelligence investigation by the FBI. It began as the same in our committee, and we have a right to be informed and we will demand to be informed about it.” The Department of Justice is required by regulations governing the special counsel to disclose whether the agency rebuffed any major investigative requests from the special counsel. Mueller was never ordered to stand down on any major areas of inquiry throughout the more than two-year-long probe, according to Barr. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he believes the public should have the opportunity to see the document, though the president added he would ultimately like to see it beforehand. –…

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Commentary: Capitalism Saved Sweden

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by Michael Munger   Josh Billings famously diagnosed a problem with beliefs: “I honestly believe it is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.” I am astonished at how many students, and for that matter adults, in the U.S. honestly believe that the U.S. should model itself after Sweden because Sweden has shown that socialism works. I will leave aside the question of whether the U.S. should try to “be like” Sweden; they are very different countries, with different histories and different institutions. But it is important to refute, using simple and widely available empirical evidence, the claim that Sweden is “socialist.” It is not. In fact, Sweden is one of the most robustly capitalist nations on earth. By socialism, I mean a system that relies on state ownership and control of the means of production, state direction of production decisions, and direct state control of education and employment decisions of individuals. If one does not mean those things, then that would require a little more thinking about what “socialism” means. If by “socialism” you mean prosperity and rule of law, then you are confused. There are several important issues to discuss, to understand the differences between…

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Alabama Has a Plan to Allow Tax Refunds to Help Pay for the Border Wall

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by Jason Hopkins   A bill that would allow taxpayers to donate a part of their refunds to a nonprofit collecting money to build more border wall has successfully passed the Alabama Senate. Alabama state senators voted 23-6 along party lines Thursday in favor of SB 22, the Montgomery Advertiser reported. The legislation would add We Build The Wall Inc. to a list of about 20 groups and programs on state income tax forms that residents can check off and donate with their tax refunds. “I think it’s a way for Alabamians to say to the president and to the nation that we think strong border security is important. We want to promote that. We want Washington to build that wall,” GOP Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, the bill’s sponsor, stated according to The Associated Press. “This bill is about sending a message to Washington that we support President Trump and his mission to secure our southern border,” Marsh said, who is mulling a 2020 U.S. Senate bid. We Build The Wall — which began in December as a viral GoFundMe campaign by Air Force veteran and triple amputee Brian Kolfage — is a nonprofit group that is raising…

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