Education Savings Accounts Bill Appears Headed to Conference Committee

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Gov. Bill Lee’s  Education Savings Account legislation appears headed to a conference committee, as the Tennessee House and State Senate both refused on Monday to move from their respective versions of the bill. The House passed HB 0939 last Tuesday by one vote after a dramatic 40-minute delay to break a 49 to 49 tie to end in a 50 to 48 vote, as reported by The Tennessee Star. The tie was broken by Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), after Knox County was removed as one of the participating counties covered in the program. Two days later, the Senate took up the measure with different language that that passed by the House. After much less drama and by a wider margin, as reported, SB 0795 passed in the Senate with a vote of 20 to 13. Education Savings Accounts (ESAs), part of a suite of education initiatives by Governor Bill Lee, will provide economically eligible parents with educational choice for their children in school districts with the highest concentrations of poverty and underperforming schools. A portion of state education funds will follow the child to a Tennessee Department of Education approved private school to cover costs of certain…

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Commentary: ‘ObamaGate’ Is All High Crimes and No Misdemeanors

President Barack Obama

by Dr. Sebastian Gorka   Do you sometimes feel like you are living in a Tim Burton movie? Or an episode of “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”? All the more so after a private Twitter user, who posted a video of the teary-eyed Rachel Maddow, was suspended by the social media platform. Why? Because she posted the close-up that clearly demonstrated that Maddow was overwrought. Suspended for posting the truth. Or look instead at Anderson Cooper, CNN’s putative doyen, who can’t even garner 0.3 percent of the population as viewers for his “flagship” program, and who recently accused Jared Kushner of “gaslighting” the nation over Russia; in other words of making statements aimed at convincing the listeners that they are insane. This from the network that has so stoked the flames of Russia conspiracy-mongering every day for two years, that they publish outlandish pieces on Robert Mueller’s sealing indictments against the president, and as Cooper’s fellow show host Chris Cuomo qualifies the president’s public statements as those made by a convict already wearing an “orange jumpsuit,” statements that are less gaslighting than full on tinfoil-hattery. And why was Kushner so calumniated? What craziness was he trying to sell to America as fact? His “gaslighting” sin was to state early last week that…

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ICE Announces Plan to Stop ‘Fake Families’ and Child Smuggling at the Border

by Jason Hopkins   Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Monday that it is shifting its resources to deal with the influx of “fake families” arriving on the U.S-Mexico border. “Fake families are being formed to cross our border and avoid detention. ICE [Homeland Security Investigations] is working with [Customs and Border Protection] to stop individuals, networks and organizations facilitating child smuggling and document fraud to illegally enter the U.S.,” ICE tweeted on Monday. Fake families are being formed to cross our border and avoid detention. ICE #HSI is working with @CBP to stop individuals, networks and organizations facilitating child smuggling and document fraud to illegally enter the U.S. — ICE (@ICEgov) April 29, 2019 The agency went on to write that it is moving experts to the border to investigate child smuggling, and it will be using science data to “dismantle” the child trafficking rings employed by human smugglers working in Central American and Mexico. The announcement came on the same day as a media appearance by the agency’s acting director. “What we’re currently doing is surging resources from ICE’s Homeland Security investigations to the border. We’re sending human trafficking experts, document fraud experts, forensic interviewers, victim assistance specialists, because our first…

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Long-Awaited Resignation of Deputy AG Rosenstein Finalized, May 11 Last Day

Reuters   U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 to investigate links between the Russian government and President Donald Trump’s campaign, said on Monday he was resigning from his post. Rosenstein’s departure, effective May 11, was not a surprise. He had been expected to step down in March. The White House had no immediate comment, but noted that Trump had already nominated Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Rosen to replace him. Rosenstein ended up staying on the job longer to help Attorney General William Barr manage the public release of Mueller’s findings from his 22-month investigation, which was completed on March 22. In a letter to Trump, Rosenstein echoed two of Trump’s signature phrases, writing that he helped staff the department with officials “devoted to the values that make America great “and adding that we always put America first.” Mueller’s investigation did not establish evidence that Trump’s campaign illegally conspired with Moscow. Mueller, in his final report, did not make a determination on whether Trump obstructed justice, but instead presented evidence on both sides. After receiving the final report, Rosenstein and Barr made their own determination, finding there was insufficient evidence to charge…

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Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis Set to Sign Cost-Reducing Drug Importation Bill

by Evie Fordham   Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appears set to sign a bill creating a program to import prescription drugs from Canada after the Republican-backed legislation passed the state Senate. The bill passed the GOP-controlled Florida House 93-22 on April 11, reported The Associated Press. The Washington Examiner characterized the legislation as a move to lock down “the gray vote.” It passed in the state Senate 27-13 on Monday morning. “The United States pays more for prescription drugs than anywhere else in the world,” DeSantis said after the bill’s passage in the state House. “In Florida, we can change that by employing safe, common sense solutions such as importing FDA approved prescription drugs from Canada.” Opponents of the bill have called the policy socialist and point out that only one other state, Vermont, has taken steps toward a similar program, although it faces federal hurdles. “For starters it is one of [Independent Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders’ ideas,” Grover Norquist of conservative group Americans for Tax Reform said April 22. “The rest of the world has damaged their ability to invent new drugs. We invent the drugs. Then they put price controls on them. And some politicians in Florida want to bring those price controls into Florida, a…

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FAKE NEWS: Viral ‘What Actually Happened’ Meme Misconstrues Facts Surrounding Mexican Soldiers’ Detainment of U.S. Troops

by Brad Sylvester   A meme posted by the Facebook page Sick of the Slant claimed to portray what “actually happened” when two Americans were detained by Mexican soldiers at the southern border.   Verdict: False The version of events alleged in the meme are contradicted by news reporting and statements from U.S. Northern Command. The meme erroneously states that there were only two Mexican personnel involved in the incident, that the Americans were members of the National Guard and that no weapons were pointed at anyone. Fact Check: On April 13, two American soldiers were sitting in an unmarked vehicle on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border when a group of Mexican soldiers approached and detained them at gunpoint, according to U.S. officials. The Mexicans may have erroneously believed that the Americans had inadvertently strayed into Mexican territory. The story was first reported by Newsweek on April 19 after it obtained a copy of the incident report. President Donald Trump tweeted about the incident April 24, stating, “Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border.” Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for…

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Far-Left Environmentalists Aren’t Impressed with Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke’s $5 Trillion Climate Change Agenda

by Michael Bastach   Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke’s $5 trillion climate change plan has not enthused far-left environmentalists, who say it doesn’t go as far as the Green New Deal. “Beto claims to support the Green New Deal, but his plan is out of line with [the] timeline it lays out and the scale of action that scientists say is necessary here in the United States to give our generation a livable future,” Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement. Sunrise Movement Statement in Response to @BetoORourke's Climate Plan: Thread: pic.twitter.com/VzN9Uz6pz5 — Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) April 29, 2019 The Green New Deal, introduced by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in February, calls for a World War II-style takeover of the U.S. economy to replace fossil fuels with renewables and vastly expand the welfare state, all of which is estimated to cost up to $93 trillion over a decade. O’Rourke, on the other hand, aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, getting halfway there by 2030. The plan also calls for a slew of new regulations and re-entering the Paris climate accord. O’Rourke unveiled his $5 trillion climate change agenda Monday at Yosemite National Park. O’Rourke framed his plan…

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Progressive Activists Join Forces to Launch ‘Supermajority’ Group

by Mary Margaret Olohan   Progressive group leaders announced Monday they had launched the group Supermajority in order to train two million women as political activists. Supermajority is headed by activists from progressive groups, specifically former head of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Alicia Garza, and Ai-jen Poo, executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. [ RELATED: Cecile Richards Leaves Behind Brutal Legacy As She Steps Down From Planned Parenthood ] The trio created Supermajority with the intention of providing “women with the tools, resources, and knowledge they need to channel the energy and activism of this moment and change the direction of this country,” their website says. “For good.” Supermajority’s website adds that the group is “a new home for women’s activism, training and mobilizing a multiracial, inter-generational community that will fight for gender equity together.” The group reportedly will not endorse specific candidates but will seek to influence policy and to educate women on candidate’s platforms, according to TIME Magazine. “Women are mad as hell and we’ve been in resistance mode for two years,” Garza told TIME. “Now it’s time to equip people.” The new group released a video on twitter Monday morning accompanied by the caption,…

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Angie Craig Facing Criticism for Impeachment Comments

  Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN-02) hosted her fourth town hall last week and received several questions from constituents on moving forward with impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump. Up until Tuesday’s town hall, Craig had taken a relatively moderate position on the issue of impeachment and believed it shouldn’t be discussed until Mueller completed his investigation. “I believe the next step is for the Congress to request the unredacted version of the report. I believe the next step is for the committee chairmen to call a number of folks forward to testify, to fill in the facts for the American people,” Craig told her constituents Tuesday. “I am very troubled by the number of the potential areas of obstruction of justice that are mentioned in the report.” Some took the comments to mean that Craig supports moving forward with the impeachment process, including the National Republican Congressional Committee. “Yesterday Craig laid out for her constituents how exactly Congress should waste more of Minnesotans’ taxpayer money on baseless impeachment claims,” NRCC spokeswoman Carly Atchison said. “It is bizarre that Angie Craig now decides to pursue baseless impeachment, but regardless, she should stop peddling conspiracy theories and focus on Minnesotans.” Former Congressman…

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Ohio Conservatives Suggest Ways to Fix the State’s GOP

  Two conservatives with clout in Ohio say they can fix the Ohio Republican Party, which they say has members that are too elite, lean left politically, and are too vindictive toward others. Those ideas include making Ohio a right-to-work state and changing its primary election system, they told The Ohio Star. “The Republicans here are afraid of their own shadow. We are still a union state, and that is probably one of our issues. They are afraid to go right-to-work,” said Ray Warrick (pictured, right), who chaired the Warren County Republican Party for two years. “They are afraid of upsetting the unions and that is because all but about four or five state representatives and all but about one state senator, Republicans, take money from the unions. They are all in the bag. In many states a Republican would never get a dime from the unions.” The odds of Ohio going right-to-work? “Slim and none,” Warrick said. “Mike DeWine as governor has said it is just not on the table. But it is the only thing that should be on the table.” According to BNA.com, Ohio is one of five states that has a “labor-Republican alliance.” Meanwhile, various news…

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Georgia’s Failed Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams: I Feel Comfortable Now Saying, ‘I Won’

by Molly Prince   Failed Democratic Georgia candidate Stacey Abrams revealed on Sunday that she still believes she was victorious during her 2018 gubernatorial race despite losing by nearly 55,000 votes. “If you look at my immediate reaction after the election, I refused to concede,” Abrams told The New York Times Magazine. “It was largely because I could not prove what had happened, but I knew from the calls that we got that something happened.” “Now, I cannot say that everybody who tried to cast a ballot would’ve voted for me,” she continued. “But if you look at the totality of the information, it is sufficient to demonstrate that so many people were disenfranchised and disengaged by the very act of the person who won the election that I feel comfortable now saying, ‘I won.’” Abrams and her campaign have consistently accused her former challenger, Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, of racist voter suppression. A spokeswoman for Abrams’ campaign released a statement in October claiming that the Kemp is “maliciously wielding the power of his office to suppress the vote for political gain and silence the voices of thousands of eligible voters — the majority of them people of color.” Following Abrams’ loss, she has…

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DeWine Claims He’s Asked His Team to Work on ‘Red Flag’ Law

  Gov. Mike DeWine told the media Monday morning that he has asked his team to draft a red-flag bill to send to the Republican-controlled General Assembly. Former Gov. John Kasich repeatedly lobbied for red-flag legislation in the state, and refused to sign a controversial “Stand Your Ground” bill at the end of last session because it didn’t include such a provision. After another fatal shooting over the weekend, DeWine seems to be following in Kasich’s footsteps. “I am deeply concerned about what we are seeing in this country in regards to attacks on houses of worship,” DeWine said. “This is something that has to be deplored, I deplore – it’s sickening. People who go to worship certainly have the right to believe they are going to be safe.” According to The Columbus Dispatch, the comments were unprompted by reporters’ questions, but opened the floor up to discussion of a potential red-flag bill. “I have asked my team to work on that—trying to get a red flag law that can pass. That’s my goal,” DeWine said. The last time he spoke about the topic was in January before being officially sworn into office. “Well, I’ve talked about this during the…

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Biden: ‘I Am a Union Man,’ at First 2020 Campaign Event in Pennsylvania

Reuters   Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden officially kicked off his White House campaign on Monday by hosting a union event in Pittsburgh just hours after securing his first labor endorsement. Biden told about 600 Teamsters members who attended his first event as a 2020 contender that restoring a vibrant middle class would be the theme of his campaign. “I make no apologies. I am a union man. Period,” Biden told the full union hall. “The country wasn’t built by Wall Street bankers, CEOs and hedge fund managers, it was built by you.” Among those who introduced Biden was Harold Schaitberger, the president of the International Association of Firefighters, a 300,000-member union that endorsed him ahead of the Pittsburgh event. In a Twitter fusillade, Trump said that while leaders of the firefighters and other unions would endorse Democrats in the 2020 race, “the members love Trump.” Biden soon fired back on Twitter. “I’m sick of this president badmouthing unions,” he said. Biden, who joined the 2020 Democratic race last week, has long styled himself as a champion of blue-collar workers. He is counting on organized labor to comprise a significant part of his support. In endorsing Biden, IAFF’s Schaitberger…

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Commentary: The Eternal Conflict of the Progressive Mind

by Victor Davis Hanson   One of the strangest things about the series of psychodramas that surround the ongoing effort to remove President Trump before the 2020 election is progressive schizophrenia. In teenage fashion, one moment a player in the Trump removal intrigue is deemed by the media-progressive nexus a demigod. The next moment, he’s a devil. It depends solely on his perceived sense of utility. Robert Mueller, Saint to Sinner  When Robert Mueller was appointed in May 2017 as special counsel to investigate alleged Trump campaign “collusion” with Russia following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, he was practically canonized as a secular saint. The media was giddy over his “all stars” and “dream team” of almost all liberal lawyers who shortly would prove the supposedly obvious: sure winner Hillary Clinton lost only because the vile Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to sabotage her campaign by leaking John Podesta’s emails. As the Mueller investigation lumbered along over the last 22 months, the media periodically announced that their newfound hero had inside information, privileged but unnamed sources, and high-ranking anonymous officials who confirmed “the noose was tightening,” the “walls were closing in,” and “a bombshell” was about to go…

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Broadband Accessibility Act Allegedly Hurts Private Business in West Tennessee

Lately, the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act is putting a small dent in business at the Humboldt-based InfoStructure, Inc, said owner John Warmath. Using taxpayer money, state officials enacted the law in 2017 to provide broadband Internet to Tennessee’s unserved areas. The Trenton-based Gibson EMC electric co-op has used this law to take more than 50 of Warmath’s customers, and he expects it will take at least 200 more. On top of that, Warmath said Gibson EMC’s CEO Dan Rodamaker makes an excessive amount of money. Gibson EMC is based out of Trenton, according to its website. Warmath said the territories he services, Medina and Three Way, have had broadband since 2002. He also said his family has owned the business for exactly 50 years. “They (Gibson EMC) are overbuilding us. They’re not hurting us too bad, but they spend a ton of members’ money to create something they already had access to,” Warmath said. “Our entire footprint is rural. We have done business at the lowest prices. They, however, are spending their resources here in Humboldt and Medina and Three Way, where people already had access (to broadband) and not any resources at the places where we don’t have access.…

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Fight to Stop UAW at Volkswagen Chattanooga Plant Gets Underway

  A plan is underway to fight efforts to unionize the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. Paydayreport.com this week profiled Rick Berman, reportedly an anti-union lawyer from New York, tasked with defeating the United Auto Workers’ efforts to unionize at Volkswagen-Chattanooga. The stakes, according to the website, are high. “A win at the German-owned automaker would be the UAW’s first successful union organizing drive at the foreign-owned auto plant in the South,” Paydayreport.com said. “A win there would give a massive boost to workers in the South who have sought unsuccessfully to organize the growing auto industry in the region.” Berman told the website “we are looking at all of the misbehavior and the fraud practiced on the UAW members that have only recently come to light, and we are giving it some exposure,” Berman said. Berman specifically referenced ads that Paydayreport.com said highlight  “the conviction of 4 top UAW officials for accepting $4.5 million in bribes from Chrysler in exchange for taking concessions from the company at the bargaining table behind the backs of their members.” “The ads, which first appeared in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press as well as in the Detroit Free Press this weekend, focus heavily on how the UAW has had to spend…

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Commentary: It’s Not ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ It’s a Fever-Fueled Effort to ‘Fundamentally Transform’ the United States of America

by Karin McQuillan   The Democrats’ behavior after 2016 is not mass delusion or mass hysteria or Trump Derangement Syndrome, or any of the other psychobabble explanations that dominate our political commentary. My first career was as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and I am not impressed with spraying around clinical terms as a substitute for looking at what is in front of us. Trump Derangement Syndrome is a colorful description for political behavior. It is not an analysis of what causes it. Under Barack Obama, ordinary Democrats became enamored of the narrative that they were the Good People, hence entitled to crush anyone in their way, because everything they do is in the service of social justice. The derangement we are facing is not Orange Man Bad; it is America Bad. The Democrats don’t believe in our two-party system anymore. They utterly reject American civic norms of treating the president with a modicum of respect and cooperation. They don’t want to alternate presidential power every four or eight years. They think theirs is the only party that deserves to be elected. Before Trump was a gleam in their eye, Democrats saw themselves as the only morally valid people in the country.…

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Foxconn Jobs, Tax Credits Could Be Renegotiated in Wisconsin

  Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Foxconn Technology Group officials are talking about making changes to the contract signed in 2017 that was based on constructing a larger display screen manufacturing facility than is now proposed. But neither side is giving details. So how might the deal be changed? And what’s at stake for each side? Here are five areas to watch as talks continue, based on interviews with people familiar with the Foxconn deal and others like it: Jobs: It makes sense that Foxconn would want to open up the deal because it appears unlikely to meet the original jobs targets, said Bob O’Brien, president of U.S.-based Display Supply Chain Consultants, which tracks the global flat-panel industry. Foxconn already came up well short of its first-year target of 260 jobs, costing it $9.5 million in tax credits. This year’s jobs goal has doubled to 520, and the 2020 goal — when Foxconn says production will begin — is nearly 2,000 jobs. Starting in 2027, it must have at least 10,400 workers to qualify. It makes sense that Foxconn would want to renegotiate to lower the threshold to qualify, O’Brien said. The current contract awards Foxconn up to $1.5 billion in…

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Commentary: Manipulating Science in the Data Age

by Robin Burk   Who are you going to believe – my academic paper/editorial/meme or your lying eyes? It’s a pressing question in today’s world of artificial intelligence, machine learning, faked videos, and tendentious scientific claims – and particularly pressing in light of ambitious, far-reaching policy proposals based on data analytics and models. Perhaps you remember Climategate 1.0, when emails from the UK’s East Anglia Climatic Research Unit were hacked (or leaked). Many who read through them saw clear evidence that climate researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States worked to suppress legitimate research results and data that mitigated against their claim of catastrophic human-caused global warming. Among those researchers was Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael E. Mann, who was accused of having deliberately cherry-picked tree ring data in order to assert a “hockey stick” shaped graph in which global temperature spiked over the last century or so. That cherry-picked data, it was said, served to “hide the decline” in overall global temperatures that others saw using different data sets, leading to this satirical video. What followed were two investigations which sort of, kind of, exonerated the participants of offenses that would otherwise cut off their research funding from government agencies.…

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Trump Fed Pick Stephen Moore Cites Smear Campaign, Won’t Withdraw

  U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to fill a vacant seat at the Federal Reserve said on Sunday a smear campaign was being waged against him, after past writings and comments about women sparked renewed criticism by Democratic lawmakers. Stephen Moore, during an interview on ABC’s This Week, said there were a handful of reporters dedicated to digging up negative information on his personal life and past statements. Said Moore: And by the way, George, let me back up for a minute because probably this is the first time you’ve ever had a Federal Reserve board nominee on your show over all the years. And, you know, the president asked it me to do this. It’s been a little over a month. And just so people understand the history here. For the first week a lot of economists on the left and people in the media started attacking some of my economic ideas and that got them nowhere. I stand by, you know, what I’ve said and my credentials on the economy. And The Washington Post ran a piece, you know, several weeks ago saying you know, we can’t beat Steve Moore on his economic ideas, he has the votes…

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Attorney General Barr Threatens to Skip House Judiciary Hearing Over Disagreement with Democrats

by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr may cancel his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday over disagreements with Democrats over the proposed format for the highly anticipated hearing. According to CNN, Democrats, led by New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, proposed allowing committee staffers to ask Barr questions during a second round of questioning at Thursday’s hearing. Nadler also wants to be able to question Barr in a closed session about the redacted parts of the Mueller report. But Barr reportedly opposes that format, saying that he should only face questioning from members of Congress in a public congressional hearing. Staffers typically do not ask questions of witnesses during public hearings. Barr is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Both hearings are expected to focus on the special counsel’s Russia report. The standoff will escalate tensions between Nadler and Barr. The Democrat has been heavily critical of Barr’s handling of the rollout of the special counsel’s report, which said that investigators found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. Nadler threatened to subpoena Barr if he skips the hearing. “The witness is not going to tell the committee how to conduct its…

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STUDY: Minimum Wage Hikes Are Killing Jobs in California’s Poorest Communities

by Tim Pearce   California’s minimum wage increase has cost the state thousands of jobs worth of growth in the state’s booming restaurant industry, according to a recent study by the University of California Riverside. Delayed Effects California passed a bill in 2016 to bring the state’s minimum wage up to $15 an hour. For businesses with more than 25 employees, the state’s minimum wage rose to $12 in January and will hit $15 in January of 2022. Other businesses have until 2023 before the full $15-an-hour minimum takes effect. “The research does not suggest that the minimum wage should not rise or that rising wages do not have any benefits,” the study’s author Christopher Thornberg said in a statement, according to Restaurant Business Online. “However, increases to the state’s minimum wage in recent years have been the fastest since California first set a minimum wage in 1916 — and that pace is creating certain negative consequences for smaller businesses and people who need the most help rising out of poverty,” Thornberg said. Minimum Wage Hurts Restaurants Most “Data analysis suggests that while the restaurant industry in California has grown significantly as the minimum wage has increased, employment in the industry has grown more slowly than it would…

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Radio Ads in Central America Are Encouraging Illegal Immigration, Border Patrol Says

by Jason Hopkins   A Border Patrol agent said there are radio advertisements playing in Central America, encouraging locals to flee to the U.S. illegally to obtain the “American dream.” “The word is definitely out. They have advertisements by radio. You listen to your radio on your way to work — on your way to the grocery store. And that country is advertising, ‘If you want the American dream, we’ll help you out — we’ll teach you how to get it in the United States,’” an unidentified border agent said to Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. Bartiromo toured the southern border in the El Paso Sector, a region the agent described as “probably the busiest area in the country” in terms of illegal immigration. The Fox News host spotted a family crossing the border as she was filming, meeting one Ecuadorian woman with an infant who said she had been traveling for two months. The agent said they are encountering an “unprecedented” number of family units.   Advertisements, paid for by human smugglers, encouraging Central Americans to migrate to the U.S. have become more prevalent in recent time, with many illegal aliens claiming they were prompted to make the trip specifically because…

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Michigan’s Rep. Rashida Tlaib: ‘I Was Really Afraid of My Fellow Americans’ After the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

by Molly Prince   Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib revealed in an interview that she was “terrified” for herself and her family after the Sept. 11 terror attacks that left nearly 3,000 Americans dead. “I was probably my second year of law school when 9/11 happened and I was really terrified of what was going to happen to my husband, who was only a green card holder at the time,” Tlaib said during an interview with ‘Makers’, a media company founded to “accelerate the women’s movement.”   “I immediately called my brothers and told them to be very careful who you hang out with,” she continued. “Telling my sisters ‘just be real careful out there’ and being really afraid of my fellow Americans.” Tlaib, along with fellow Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, became America’s first Muslim congresswomen when sworn into office in January. Their time in office has been embroiled in allegations of anti-Semitism and anti-American sentiments. Tlaib came to the defense of Omar after the Minnesota congresswoman was accused of downplaying the 9/11 terror attacks which were perpetrated by radical islamic terrorists. The controversy was kicked off after Omar delivered the keynote speech at a fundraiser for the Council on American-Islamic…

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Kamala Harris Headlines Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s Annual Dinner

  Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) headlined the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s annual fundraising dinner Sunday night. Harris’ appearance at the event was called into question earlier this month after a dispute between union leaders and the Cuyahoga County Council. As The Cleveland Plain Dealer explains, the council voted to transfer control of three county jails to MetroHealth, and as a result placed the jobs of nurses at the jails in jeopardy. Shontel Brown, a county councilwoman and the chair of the county’s Democratic Party, voted in favor of the move. The local chapter of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) planned to protest Sunday night’s event. “Kamala Harris is a longstanding friend of labor and if there is a dispute that leads to a picket line, she will not cross it,” a spokesperson for Harris’ campaign said in response. The dispute, however, was resolved last week, allowing Harris’ appearance to move forward as planned. “These hardworking and dedicated nurses are guaranteed employment through the transition to MetroHealth. Individuals not retained, or those who decline employment, will be offered jobs elsewhere in the county or placement services to assist in seeking employment,” Brown said in a statement.…

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Minnesota Presidential Hopeful Klobuchar Predicts Anita Hill Criticism Will Hound Joe Biden’s Campaign

by Kevin Daley   Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a 2020 presidential candidate, predicted criticism of former Vice President Joe Biden’s handling of Anita Hill’s 1991 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee will beleaguer his 2020 campaign. Speaking Sunday on “Meet the Press,” NBC’s Andrea Mitchell asked Klobuchar what Biden ought to say to Hill at this juncture. The senator said she anticipates Biden will have to continually address the Hill hearings, which prompted her own interest in politics. “I’m sure he’s going to have to continue to address this issue, as we go through the campaign,” Klobuchar said. “Let me just tell you my perspective. I was a young lawyer when this happened and I remember being captivated by her, watching every moment of that hearing, never thinking I’d end up on the Senate Judiciary Committee.” “It motivated me to get involved in politics, as it did so many other women,” Klobuchar added. “And now, we go from zero women on that Judiciary Committee to six.” Klobuchar, a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, sits on the Judiciary Committee and is the ranking Democrat on the panel’s subcommittee for antitrust issues. Prior to her election to the Senate…

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Republicans Support Three Minnesota Bills That Would Send $8 Million in Taxpayer Money to Somali Programs

  Three bills in the Minnesota Legislature would divert a total of $8 million in taxpayer money to Somali programs over the next two fiscal years. House File 985, for instance, would develop an “east African community economic development pilot program,” which would receive $2 million in both fiscal year 2020 and 2021. “$2,000,000 in fiscal year 2020 and $2,000,000 in fiscal year 2021 are appropriated from the general fund to the commissioner of employment and economic development for a grant to Youthprise to give grants through a competitive process to community organizations to provide economic development services designed to enhance long-term economic self-sufficiency in communities with concentrated east African populations,” the text of the bill states. Youthprise is a local nonprofit focused on supporting “youth-serving organizations and systems throughout Minnesota.” The bill has 22 cosponsors in the House and four in the Senate, including Republican State Sen. Jerry Relph (R-St. Cloud) (pictured above, left). A similar bill, House File 463, would provide a grant of $2 million for the African Economic Development Solutions program. The money would act as a “revolving loan fund” and provide “technical assistance services to support new and existing African immigrant entrepreneurs in order to…

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Commentary: The ADHD Over-Diagnosis Epidemic Is a Schooling Problem, Not a Child One

by Kerry MacDonald   Childhood exuberance is now a liability. Behaviors that were once accepted as normal, even if mildly irritating to adults, are increasingly viewed as unacceptable and cause for medical intervention. High energy, lack of impulse control, inability to sit still and listen, lack of organizational skills, fidgeting, talking incessantly—these typical childhood qualities were widely tolerated until relatively recently. Today, children with these characteristics are being diagnosed with, and often medicated for, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at an astonishing rate. Early Schooling Contributes To Increased Diagnoses While ADHD may be a real and debilitating ailment for some, the startling upsurge in school-age children being labeled with and medicated for this disorder suggests that something else could be to blame. More research points to schooling, particularly early schooling, as a primary culprit in the ADHD diagnosis epidemic. Over the last several decades, young people are spending more time in school and school-like activities than ever before. They are playing less and expected to do more at very young ages. When many of us were kids, kindergarten was mellow, playful, and short with few academic expectations. Now, 80 percent of teachers expect children to learn to read in kindergarten. It’s not the teachers’ fault. They are responding to…

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Tennessee State Park Will Likely Cost Taxpayers an Additional $11 Million

  The Tennessee House reportedly just passed a budget that includes $11 million in taxpayer money for cost overruns for a new Inn at Fall Creek Falls State Park, which have caused costs to soar. Taxpayers, of course, must pick up the slack. The park is in Bledsoe and Van Buren counties in east Tennessee. “A Lee administration budget provision includes $11 million to cover ‘cost overruns’ for construction of the new inn, restaurant and conference center at the park near Spencer, Tennessee,” according to this week’s Chattanooga Times Free Press. “It’s causing the total costs for building the $29.4 million, 95,000-square-foot replacement facilities to soar by more than one third to $40.4 million. And it’s also pushing the anticipated completion date beyond the summer of 2020 to 2021.” The website went on to say the cost overrun is because pf problems finding workings in “the sparsely populated, remote area during a time of high employment.” “General Services Department spokesman David Roberson cited via email two main factors at work: The first is that ‘construction cost escalation has been more than anticipated since 2017,’” according to The Times Free Press. “Secondly, Roberson said, there’s been ‘difficulty in finding subcontractors to bid on the project…

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Stewart County Wins 2019 Tennessee Star Constitution Bee High School Team Championship

  Goodlettsville, Tennessee – Stewart County High School won the 2019 Tennessee Star Constitution Bee State High School Championship on Saturday. Kyle Mallory was the faculty advisor who accompanied the team to the event. Lincoln County High School finished in second place, thanks to the strong showing of its one man team, Aryan Burns, who won the Individual Grand Championship . Metro Christian Academy, which hosted the event, finished in third place. Beverly Martin was the faculty advisor who helped prepare the team for the event. Tennessee Volunteer Challenge Academy, finished in fourth place. Dean Nelson was the faculty advisor who championed the team’s participation in the event and accompanied the team to Goodlettsville. Participants from Tennessee Volunteer Challenge Academy – who are considered at-risk youth receiving values, life skills, education and self-discipline necessary to succeed as productive citizens of Tennessee at the Academy – had an impressive showing, considering they had only received the book to begin their studying 24 hours prior to the event. Three additional teams were represented: Franklin Road Academy, Brentwood Middle School, and local home schoolers. Each team was awarded one point for each contestant, one point for winning a Preamble Challenge award, one point for…

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Commentary: Rumor and Bias, Inaccuracy and Ignorance Contribute to the Low State of Journalism

by Jeff Minick   William Tecumseh Sherman, a Civil War general not known for his delicacy of speech, once said, “If I had my choice, I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast.” Like many people today, Sherman detested reporters and journalists. On another occasion, he stated: “I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.” Regardless of political persuasion, Americans have lost faith in today’s mainstream news media. Reporting on a 2018 poll inquiring about trust in major institutions, the Columbia Journalism Review found print and television news at rock-bottom, exceeded in the matter of distrust only by Congress. When asked why they distrusted the media, about 45 percent of responders cited factors such as bias, inaccuracy, and “fake news.” The results of the Mueller investigation have brought certain television and print outlets to new lows. Some have lost viewers or readers, while others, accused of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), have faced a barrage of criticism for their bias and for the amount of time they gave…

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Robots Track, Fire Thousands of Amazon Employees Every Year, Report Suggests

by Tim Pearce   Amazon warehouse workers are monitored by tracking systems that measure each employee’s productivity, issue warnings for workers that lag and fire those consistently behind, according to documents obtained by The Verge. Amazon offers a base $15 an hour wage and its warehouses, called fulfillment centers, are often competitive to work at. The company is continuously replacing slow performing employees with new hires. An automated system tracks employees and gives pink slips to consistent underperformers, The Verge reported. An Amazon spokesperson told The Daily Caller News Foundation that no employee is fired without meeting with a supervisor. Employee oversight is largely automated, though supervisors can always override the system as the need arises, Amazon told The Verge. “Amazon’s system tracks the rates of each individual associate’s productivity, and automatically generates any warnings or terminations regarding quality or productivity without input from supervisors,” documents obtained by The Verge said. From August 2017 to September 2018, roughly 300 workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore lost their jobs because of low productivity. The facility employs about 2,500 full-time employees, putting the turnover rate at about 10 percent annually. If those numbers are similar across Amazon’s 75 North American…

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Pentagon Set to Send Hundreds of Troops to the Southern Border

by Jason Hopkins   The Pentagon announced that it expects to send around 300 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, breaking with the longstanding policy of avoiding troop-migrant contact. A spokesperson for Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Charles Summers, said Friday that his boss is expected to green light the proposal shortly. However, the troops will not be allowed to perform any law enforcement role at the border. Instead, around 100 military cooks, 160 drivers and 20 lawyers will be deployed to assist immigration agencies as they deal with the ballooning migrant crisis. “We will have some of our troops handing out meals, therefore would come in contact with migrants,” Summers stated Friday. The spokesman added that it was an “amendment to the current policy.” The soon-to-be-deployed troops will help provide meals to detained migrants, drive them in buses, and attorneys with the Department of Defense will help process them. The moves will allow more Department of Homeland Security officials to focus on enforcing the rule of law, rather than processing the huge numbers of illegal migrants reaching the border. The Posse Comitatus Act forbids members of the military from performing civilian law enforcement duties on U.S. soil unless Congress gives…

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Tennessee Tax Revenues Exceed Estimates for March

  Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Stuart McWhorter announced this week that Tennessee tax revenues exceeded budgeted estimates in March. Overall March revenues totaled $1.1 billion, which is $52.8 million more than the state received in March of 2018 and $28.6 million more than the budgeted estimate for the month. “Sales tax revenues continue to demonstrate the strength of the Tennessee consumer by outpacing last year’s receipts and the state’s budgeted estimate for the month,” McWhorter said in a press release. “Franchise and excise taxes also showed growth compared to March 2018 but were less than the state’s estimate. All other tax revenues combined exceeded the month’s budgeted estimates. The state’s year-to-date tax revenue growth indicates a promising finish to the 2018-2019 fiscal year.  However, a fourth of the state’s volatile corporate tax revenue collections typically occur within the next month. Therefore, we will continue to monitor our monthly tax receipts closely.” On an accrual basis, March is the eighth month in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, the press release went on to say. General fund revenues were $29 million more than the budgeted estimate while the four other funds that share in state tax revenues were $0.4 million less…

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Trump Scraps Obama-Era UN Arms Treaty Opposed by Second Amendment Backers

by Fred Lucas   President Donald Trump announced Friday the United States is pulling out of the international Arms Trade Treaty, a treaty signed by the Obama administration—but never ratified by the Senate—that concerned many Second Amendment advocates. Trump called it a “badly misguided” treaty when speaking Friday at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Indianapolis. “We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedoms,” the president said. “We will never ratify the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty. I hope you’re happy.” The announcement brought a standing ovation, surprising the president a little. “I’m impressed. I didn’t know too many of you would know what that is,” Trump said. “America is rejecting this treaty.” Trump signed, in front of the crowd, a message asking the Senate to discontinue any further ratification efforts “and return the now-rejected treaty back to me in the Oval Office, where I will dispose of it.” That prompted another standing ovation and chants of “USA! USA!” Second Amendment advocates were concerned the treaty could provide an international law rationalization for a national gun registry in the United States, and say it was overly vague. That still leaves 101 countries that have ratified…

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NRA’s North Won’t Seek Second Term After LaPierre Alleges Extortion

by Whitney Tipton   National Rifle Association president Oliver North announced he will not serve a second term Saturday amid controversy stirring the group, including allegations of extortion from NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre. North cited a “clear crisis” that “needs to be dealt with” for the gun rights behemoth to continue operating in a statement read on his behalf, according to The Associated Press. LaPierre sent a letter to NRA board members Thursday claiming North was extorting him to leave the organization under the threat of having accusations of financial misconduct made against him, according to The Wall Street Journal. ” … the exhortation was simple: resign or there will be destructive allegations made against me and the NRA,” the letter, which TheWSJ obtained, states. “Alarmed and disgusted, I refused the offer.” North reportedly said his efforts were beneficial to the NRA in a separate letter to the board, according to TheWSJ, and said he was putting a committee together to investigate the organization’s finances. LaPierre said North contacted his office Wednesday, telling a staffer LaPierre needed to resign, or its ad agency Ackerman McQueen would send a letter with “a devastating account of our financial status, sexual…

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Ocasio-Cortez Uses Synagogue Shooting to Push Gun Control Bill

by Peter Hasson   Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday used the shooting at a California synagogue that left one person dead to demand the Senate act on a gun control bill. One person is dead and three others are injured following the shooting at Chabad of Poway synagogue, authorities said. Police have one suspect in custody, who is described as a 19-year-old male. #UPDATE: What we know about the Chabad Poway synagogue shooting today:-Suspect: 19 year-old, white male is in custody, he used AR-style rifle, surrendered w/o incident-Fatality: 1 older female -Injuries: 3 patients – a female juvenile & 2 adult males, all in stable condition — Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) April 27, 2019 “Heartbroken to hear of the San Diego synagogue shooting, particularly so on this final day of Passover,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a tweet, before pivoting to gun control. “We have a responsibility to love + protect our neighbors,” she wrote. “The longer the Senate delays holding a vote on #HR8, the more we put Americans at risk.” Heartbroken to hear of the San Diego synagogue shooting, particularly so on this final day of Passover. We have a responsibility to love + protect our neighbors. The…

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Davidson County Residents Charged with TennCare Fraud

  Authorities have charged two Davidson County residents in separate TennCare fraud cases involving prescription drugs. The Office of Inspector General, with the assistance of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, this week announced the arrest of Omar Adbirizak Hassan, 21 and Shannon Lynne Cannon, also known as Shannon L. Hammock, 36.  Both are Nashville residents and were part of a fraudulent prescription ring that was allegedly passing fraudulent prescriptions without the knowledge of the local healthcare providers. This, according to a press release the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration release this week. Hussan is charged with two counts of TennCare fraud, two counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and two counts of identity theft. Authorities say that on two separate occasions, he used TennCare benefits to present fraudulent prescriptions for the painkiller Oxycodone. The prescriptions contained the fraudulent signature of a healthcare provider along with the provider’s DEA number. Ms. Cannon-Hammock is charged with two counts of TennCare fraud, two counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and two counts of identity theft for similar circumstances. Authorities say that on two separate occasions, she used TennCare benefits when presenting fraudulent prescriptions for Oxycodone using the name and DEA number…

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Nepal Deports US Citizen, Arrests Four on Allegations of Converting People to Christianity

by Joshua Gill   Nepalese authorities arrested four people Tuesday and deported a U.S. citizen on allegations of illegally converting people to Christianity by “allurement,” sparking outcry from Christian advocates. Police officers arrested two men and two women, one of whom is a resident of Colorado, around 8 a.m. Tuesday, a day after the group of four attended a one day conference for pastors with 70 others at a local church, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Police have not officially levied criminal charges against the four but have accused them of trying to convert locals to Christianity. Nepal instituted anti-conversion laws in August 2018, which raised concerns with the U.S. State Department as U.S. officials see potential for the law to be used to restrict religious freedoms. Those convicted of proselytizing or converting others to another religion face a penalty of up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of 50,000 rupees. The American citizen, identified as Oleana Cinquanta, argued the allegations of attempted conversion are false. “The allegations are completely false. We were not distributing any Bibles or dollars,” Cinquanta said, according to The Christian Post. “I was visiting a church program in Dang [district] with my…

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New Gerrymandering Ruling Will Have Big Effects for GOP in 2020

by Kevin Daley   A federal three-judge panel ruled Thursday that 34 state and federal district lines in Michigan are unconstitutionally gerrymandered to the benefit of Republicans. The decision comes as the Supreme Court contemplates a pair of cases from Maryland and North Carolina, which ask whether and how the federal courts should police partisan line-drawing. “Federal courts must not abdicate their responsibility to protect American voters from this unconstitutional and pernicious practice that undermines our democracy,” the decision reads. “Federal courts’ failure to protect marginalized voters’ constitutional rights will only increase the citizenry’s growing disenchantment with, and disillusionment in, our democracy, further weaken our democratic institutions, and threaten the credibility of the judicial branch.” Judge Eric Clay of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting on the panel by designation, authored the ruling. The Supreme Court has never definitively said that partisan gerrymandering is unconstitutional, nor has it given lower courts guidance for which district lines are excessively partisan, and therefore unlawful. The Maryland and North Carolina cases present the latest — and some the last — opportunity for the courts to bring gerrymanders to heel. Fully aware that their ruling will turn on the Supreme Court’s forthcoming…

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US Border Patrol to Fingerprint More Migrant Children

unaccompanied children

  U.S. border authorities say they’ve started to increase the biometric data they take from children 13 years old and younger, including fingerprints, despite privacy concerns and government policy intended to restrict what can be collected from migrant youths. A Border Patrol official said this week that the agency had begun a pilot program to collect the biometrics of children with the permission of the adults accompanying them, though he did not specify where along the border it has been implemented. The Border Patrol also has a “rapid DNA pilot program” in the works, said Anthony Porvaznik, the chief patrol agent in Yuma, Arizona, in a video interview published by the Epoch Times newspaper. Spokesmen for the Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security did not return several messages from The Associated Press seeking comment on both programs. ‘Kids that are being rented’ The Border Patrol says that in the last year, it’s stopped roughly 3,100 adults and children fraudulently posing as families so they can be released into the U.S. quickly rather than face detention or rapid deportation. The Department of Homeland Security has also warned of “child recycling,” cases where they say children allowed into the U.S.…

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Brennan Says He’s ‘Absolutely’ Willing to Testify to Congress to Rebut Trump’s ‘Coup’ Claims

by Chuck Ross   John Brennan said Friday he is “absolutely” willing to testify to Congress to rebut President Donald Trump’s claims that the former CIA director took part in a “coup” to undermine his presidency. Brennan said in an interview on MSNBC, where he is a contributor, that he would “welcome any type of continued investigation of what we did that period of time that we were in government.” Republicans have called for investigations into the CIA and FBI’s activities in the run-up to the investigation of the Trump campaign. The FBI formally opened its investigation of the Trump team on July 31, 2016, but some GOP lawmakers have suggested that Brennan was working behind the scenes to gather intelligence on Trump advisers before that. Trump listed Brennan along with other Obama administration officials he claims tried to “overthrow” his administration, in an interview Thursday with Fox’s Sean Hannity. “This was a coup, this was an attempted overthrow of the United States government,” said Trump. “These are sick people. These are sick, sick people,” he continued, adding: “Let’s see what happens with [former FBI Deputy Director Andrew] McCabe and [former FBI Director James] Comey and Brennan and [former National…

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Tim Ryan on Biden Announcement: ‘I Don’t Think People Are Looking for a Superstar’

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) was on the road Friday morning after former Vice President Joe Biden officially declared candidacy, but he sat down with local media in New Hampshire to discuss the announcement. “Obviously he’s from Scranton, I’m from just outside of Youngstown—very similar communities. I think similar approaches to how we talk about these issues and recognize kind of the anxiety people are going through,” Ryan said of Biden’s announcement on the New Hampshire Now radio program. “I think the ultimate question is going to be: what’s the plan? How do you win the future? We’re divided. Who can bring the country together to win the future?” Ryan added. “People want solutions. They want answers. They want a plan. It’s not hope and change, and it’s not Make America Great Again. It’s like: tell me what you’re going to do.” The hosts then asked Ryan about Biden’s announcement video, which explicitly targeted President Donald Trump. “I don’t think people are looking for a superstar, I don’ think they’re looking for a savior. I don’t think they’re looking for a miracle. I think they’re looking for somebody who can roll their sleeves up and just grind this thing out,” Ryan…

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DeWine Says Driving ‘While Eating’ Should Be as ‘Culturally Unacceptable’ as Drunk Driving

  Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the formation of a permanent Distracted Driving Advisory Council Thursday. The council is aimed at changing the atmosphere surrounding safe driving in acknowledgment of safe driving month. “Driving while texting, or eating, or dialing a phone should be as culturally unacceptable as drunk driving is today,” said Governor DeWine; adding: When drivers choose to do anything that distracts them from paying full attention to the road, they choose to risk their own lives, the lives of their passengers, and the lives of everyone else around them. Prior to the announcement, the task force released a 22-page pamphlet to inform drivers about the risks they are taking while driving distracted. The pamphlet contained detailed statistics surrounding the causes of incidents. The study was conducted by the Ohio Department of transportation. “Now is the time to create a long-term, comprehensive plan that educates drivers, promotes changes in behavior, and strengthens Ohio’s distracted driving laws,” said DeWine. According to the study, the state recorded around 14,000 distracted driving crashes in 2017. Of those incidents 58 people were killed, 493 seriously injured and over 7,000 people were injured statewide. The study concluded the majority of crashes happen during evening…

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Minnesota Rep Delivers Passionate Speech on Planned Parenthood’s Efforts to Infiltrate Public Schools

  State Rep. Eric Lucero (R-Dayton) delivered a passionate speech on the floor of the Minnesota House last week on Planned Parenthood’s efforts to brainwash young children. Lucero’s remarks were made in the context of a House debate on House File 2400, an omnibus education finance bill that would make changes to the way sexual health education is taught in the state’s public schools. As Lucero sees it, the bill could support Planned Parenthood’s “goal of curriculum for elementary schools,” which includes a book called “It’s Perfectly Normal.” Planned Parenthood endorses the book as part of what it would like to see for comprehensive sexual education in elementary and middle schools. “I previously referenced the language in the bill that talks about this content is going to be targeted at elementary students,” Lucero began. “When I look at the cover of this book, it’s for age ten and up.” He proceeded to read portions of the book to his fellow members, noting that if the “decorum exists to expose fourth graders to this content, then this content can be exposed here on the House floor.” “I see a picture here for a fourth grader of a woman being taught to…

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Group Forms in Ohio to Prevent ‘Consumer-Funded Bailout’ of Nuclear Plants

  A new group calling itself the “Ohio Consumers Power Alliance” has formed in response to House Bill 6, a controversial piece of legislation that many consider being a bailout of FirstEnergy’s two Ohio-based nuclear plants. Under House Bill 6, the state would effectively subsidize the plants with taxpayer dollars through a new “Ohio Clean Air Program.” “The mission of the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance is to educate and mobilize our state’s energy consumers around opportunities to diversify Ohio’s energy portfolio and keep rates low,” Rachael Belz, director of the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance, said in a statement. She called House Bill 6 a “creative approach used to blatantly disguise a consumer-funded bailout of two old, uneconomical nuclear plants as a comprehensive energy policy.” “Our members remains staunchly opposed to rewarding FirstEnergy’s bad business decisions by allowing them to dig deep into the pockets of Ohio ratepayers to cover the bill with no end in sight,” Belz said. “We also remain deeply disappointed in our leaders for continuing to reject energy innovation and job growth while keeping Ohio firmly planted in the dark ages of the status quo.” Belz was one of many opponents to testify against the bill, which…

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President Trump Calls Mueller Report ‘The Greatest Political Hoax in American History’ at Rally

  In his first rally since the Mueller Report release, President Donald Trump calls the Russia probe “the greatest political hoax in American history.” “This witch hunt was never really just about me. It was always about stopping you –  the millions and millions of freedom-loving citizens who rose up on that incredible November day, remember that day?” Trump said. The Mueller Report found there was no obstruction or collusion with Russia on the part of Donald Trump or his campaign staff. From a heartfelt statement of sympathy and support for the victims of Saturday’s vicious synagogue shooting in California, to his long record of campaign promises kept,  Trump touched on many topics at a packed Saturday night event Green Bay, Wisconsin. An event, the president noted, that was specifically scheduled for same time as the 2019 White House Correspondents Dinner. .@realDonaldTrump #MAGA Rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin is underway… pic.twitter.com/YEZXpW1pqr — Dan Scavino🇺🇸 (@DanScavino) April 28, 2019 To start the event, Trump addressed the Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting in San Diego where he said anti-Semitism “must be defeated.” “Tonight, America’s heart is with the victims of the horrific synagogue shooting,” he said, adding that the entire nation “stands in…

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Aryan Burns of Lincoln County Wins 2019 Tennessee Star Constitution Bee Individual Championship

  GOODLETTSVILLE, Tennessee –Aryan Burns, a senior at Lincoln County High School, won the 2019 Tennessee Star Constitution Bee Individual Grand Championship on Saturday. It was the second consecutive year that a student from Lincoln County High School won the Tennessee Star Constitution Bee individual championship. The third annual Tennessee Star Constitution Bee was hosted by Metro Christian Academy. Burns, who finished in second place in last year’s Bee, was awarded the $3,000 Andrew Woodfin Miller Foundation Scholarship by the Polk Foundation, which has been a sponsor of the event since its inception in 2017. With his first place finish, Burns also won an all expenses paid trip for two to Washington, D.C. to attend a series of events of his choosing. Burns told The Tennessee Star he will be attending the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the fall and plans on majoring in biology. Second place winner Joseph Selmer, a freshman from Stewart County High School – and just 15 years old – received a $1,000 scholarship from the Andrew Woodfin Miller Foundation. Third place winner, Alexia Appleton, a Stewart County High School junior, received a scholarship of $500 from the Andrew Woodfin Miller Foundation. Cooper Moran, last year’s…

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Tennessee May Reportedly Give FedEx More than $21 Million in Corporate Welfare

Members of the Tennessee House reportedly voted this week to give FedEx $21.3 million in corporate welfare over the next seven years for a new hub expansion in Memphis, according to various news outlets. Specifically, this type of corporate welfare is in the form of tax breaks. House members voted to make this happen on a 96-2 vote. State senators still must approve a bill of their own, according to the Memphis-based TV station WREG. “The bill initially dealt with lease or rental price reporting to the commissioner of revenue. But the legislation by Republican House Speaker Glen Casada was overhauled to include $16.1 million in state and $5.2 million in local sales and use tax exemption directed at building materials for the FedEx project,” WREG reported. “Republican Rep. Mark White of Memphis says the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.” According to The Memphis Commercial Appeal, if the legislation is enacted into law then Tennessee would lose $16 million in tax revenue. The local government would lose $5.1 million. “FedEx paid more than $110 million in state taxes in 2018 and will still pay $30 in sales tax for its hub modernization improvements,” The…

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Letter to the Editor: An Open Letter to Senator Gardenhire

  Dear Senator Gardenhire, My name is Alexander Ioannidis and I am a rising senior studying Economics at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. I am a lifelong resident of Chattanooga and currently reside in East Brainerd. I have been following the debate over the proposed school-choice legislation very closely, and my emotions have been continuously fluctuating. There are times when it looks like this bill is bound to pass, and there are times when it looks certain to fail. I know that people from both sides of the aisle are trying to lobby for your vote, I know that you had several concerns about the bill, and I would be a fool to think that you were not conflicted about it. With this being said, I cannot tell you how grateful I was when I saw that you voted along with your fellow Hamilton County colleague Senator Watson to send it out of the finance committee and advance it to the Senate floor. I was even more grateful today when I saw that after the urging of President Trump, the Senate coalesced around it and passed the bill. While I could not be more thrilled that it passed, I hope and…

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