Day: April 11, 2019

First Stop in Tennessee Star Free Book Tour in Advance of Constitution Bee Held Wednesday at Metro Christian Academy

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GOODLETTSVILLE, Tennessee–The Tennessee Star’s Editor-in-Chief and CEO Michael Patrick Leahy kicked off a free book tour on Wednesday afternoon ahead of the Constitution Bee later this month at Metro Christian Academy – the site of this year’s Spring Bee. Leahy spoke to Metro Christian Academy junior and senior high school students about the book he co-authored with Claudia Henneberry and John Harris, The Tennessee Star Guide to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for Secondary School Students, which forms the basis for all the questions in the Constitution Bee. Every student in attendance received a free copy of the book, which retails for $30.00. This will be the third annual Tennessee Star Constitution Bee. The first was held in 2017 at Sycamore High School of Cheatham County Schools in Pleasant View, Tennessee, and the second was held in 2018 at the Williamson County Administration Building in Franklin, Tennessee. The student who wins the Grand Prize Championship as the top Constitution secondary school student in the state of Tennessee at the April 27 Tennessee Star Constitution Bee will receive an all expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C, along with a parent, plus a $3,000.00 (three thousand) scholarship provided by the Andrew Woodfin Miller Foundation and the Polk Foundation to apply to the…

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Senator Dolores Gresham Champions Governor Lee’s Education Savings Accounts Bill Through Education Committee

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Governor Bill Lee’s most significant education initiative, Education Savings Accounts, made it through another major hurdle as it passed the Senate Education Committee Wednesday by a vote of 6 to 3. Senator Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville), who is also the Chair of the Education Committee, carried the bill as SB 0795. As such, Sen. Gresham turned the gavel over to 1st Vice-Chair, Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) as she presented the bill. The large Senate Hearing Room I was nearly standing room only with a mix of proponents and opponents to the measure. Discussion of the ESA bill dominated the meeting, which went over its scheduled two hour time period. Sen. Gresham introduced the bill by saying that the Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) will provide opportunities for students where there is a concentration of lower performing schools. “The best local control that can be established in our state’s education landscape is when parents make that decision about how their children are to be educated. This is particularly true for students in areas with multiple lower performing schools and limited high-quality educational options.” Reflecting on the fact that the legislation is an initiative of Governor Bill Lee, Sen. Gresham continued,…

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Commentary: What Did Joe Biden Know About the Russia Collusion Hoax and When Did He Know It?

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by Robert Romano   We’re already a few months into the Democratic nominating contest for president in 2020, early polls are coming in, and it appears that former Vice President Joe Biden is the presumptive frontrunner for the nomination to take on President Donald Trump in the general election. The latest Morning Consult poll conducted April 1 to April 7 has Biden with 32 percent of Democrats saying he’s their choice, 23 percent picking Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), 9 percent choosing Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and 8 percent opting for Robert “Beto” O’Rourke (D-Texas). The results are confirmed by the latest The Hill/Harris X poll conducted April 5 to April 6 showing Biden at 36 percent and Sanders at 19 percent, the March 25 to March 26 Harvard-Harris poll showing Biden at 26 percent and Sanders at 18 percent and the March 17 to March 20 Fox News poll with Biden at 31 percent and Sanders at 23 percent. The March 25 Emerson poll shows Biden and Sanders neck-in-neck in Iowa, 25 percent to 24 percent, respectively, while the Feb. 28 UNH poll shows Sanders with an early advantage over Biden in New Hampshire, 26 percent to 22 percent. And…

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Tuesday’s Gloria Johnson Press Conference Railing Against School Vouchers Brought to You by the Letters F and U

Chris Butler

On Tuesday Tennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) held a press conference to rail against school vouchers and Education Savings Accounts, but one of the women who flanked her seemed to steal Johnson’s spotlight. Going by a picture of the press conference on Twitter, an unidentified woman standing to Johnson’ right wore a T-shirt that said “Arming Teachers? How about Fund Us Instead?” The people who manage the TN House Democrats’ Twitter page posted the photo Tuesday. Whoever designed the shirt wrote the letters F and U (the first letters from the words “Fund” and “Us”) at a much larger font than the rest of the text. In fact, in the photo The Tennessee Star saw, taken from a good distance away, only the letters F U were visible to the naked eye. The photo included at least seven children, some standing alongside Johnson, some sitting down. The T-shirt generated buzz on Twitter. The Twitter page InsideTNpol, for instance, posted the following: “Tennessee public school educators wearing shirt that basically says “f### you” to @GovBillLee, @tnsenategop & @tnhousegop. Prob not too smart. Good move @TNDemocrats @TNSenateDems! Y’all are just making the school choice argument so much easier. #tnpol #TNLEG” On…

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Barr: ‘I Think Spying Did Occur’ Against Trump Campaign

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by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr dropped a bombshell Wednesday, telling a group of senators that he believes spying against the Trump campaign did take place in 2016. “I think spying on a political campaign is a big deal,” Barr said during an exchange with Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Shaheen asked in a follow-up whether Barr believed the FBI spied on the Trump team. “You’re not suggesting, though, that spying occurred?” Shaheen asked. “I think spying did occur. Yes, I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated,” Barr said. “I’m not suggesting it wasn’t adequately predicted, but I need to explore that.” Barr was discussing his plans to investigate the FBI’s decision to open a counterintelligence investigation against Trump campaign associates. The bureau used confidential informants and relied heavily on the Democrat-funded Steele dossier as part of the investigation, which was code-named Crossfire Hurricane. President Donald Trump and other Republicans have dubbed the counterintelligence probe “Spygate,” especially regarding the FBI’s use of an informant named Stefan Halper. Halper, a former Cambridge professor, made contact with at least three Trump campaign advisers, Carter…

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Latest News of Self-Defense With Firearms Contradicts Gun Control Rhetoric

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by Amy Swearer   Gun control advocates long have controlled the narrative about defensive uses of firearms, calling the “good guy with a gun” scenario a “myth meant to scare people into buying guns for self-defense.” This is a false narrative that does not reflect reality. Despite a backdrop of rhetoric asserting that “the average person … has basically no chance in their lifetime ever to use a gun in self-defense,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a 2013 report concluded that studies routinely find that Americans use firearms in defense of themselves or others between 500,000 and 3 million times every year. Data collected by the CDC itself, but long hidden from the public, indicates that the number is likely around 1 million defensive gun uses per year. But even the lowest end of this statistical range far outpaces the number of times Americans use firearms for unlawful purposes. It’s one thing to hear that incredible number and know that the “good guy with a gun” is not a myth. It’s another thing entirely to dig deeper into the firsthand accounts of individual law-abiding Americans whose lives and livelihoods were saved because they were able to exercise…

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Mike Pence Urges UN to Recognize Venezuela’s Guaido

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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence called on the United Nations on Wednesday to “stand up for democracy” and recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as that country’s legitimate leader. “While other international bodies have acted, the United Nations and this Security Council have refused to act,” Pence told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by the United States. “But now that nations across this hemisphere have spoken, the time has come for the United Nations to recognize interim president Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela and seat his representative in this body,” Pence added. “This body should revoke the credentials of Venezuela’s representative to the United Nations, recognize interim president Juan Guaido, and seat the representative of the free Venezuelan government in this body without delay.” Pence said the United States is working on a U.N. resolution to recognize the legitimacy of the government of Guaido and urged the international community to support it. The United Nations should revoke the credentials of Venezuela’s ambassador to the @UN, recognize Interim President @jguaido, and seat a representative of the free Venezuelan government in this body without delay! pic.twitter.com/1CRhBBr5J6 — Vice President Mike Pence Archived (@VP45) April 10, 2019…

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Commentary: Generic Democrats and Pelosi’s Minions Can’t Stop Trump Train

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   With most of the recent media buzz focusing on the swelling clown car (Rep. Eric Swalwell? and Alec Baldwin? Seriously?) full of 2020 Democrat presidential candidates it’s easy to lose sight of the other side of the contest. President Donald Trump’s already launched his reelection effort complete with a campaign manager, staff and fundraising operation. There are few certainties in politics, but it’s clear Trump’s operation will be primed and ready when the need arrives. Still, there’s much to be worried about on Trump’s side. Polls are what they are, but when surveys show trouble ahead, stay alert. Paul Bedard reported at The Washington Examiner, “It’s never good for a sitting president heading into reelection to be compared to Jimmy Carter… “[A]s 2020 nears, President Trump is finding himself constantly behind Democrats in reelection polls and the latest has compared the Republican to Carter. ‘Perhaps the closest analogy to Trump in terms of approval ratings is Jimmy Carter, whose average approval rating for his term was 45 percent,’ said a survey from the Wason Center for Public Policy at Virginia’s Christopher Newport University. “Carter, of course, lost his reelection bid. Trump’s average approval rating for…

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How Measles Is Making a Return in New York and Elsewhere

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"Measles" by Dave Haygarth

New York City declared a public health emergency Tuesday and ordered mandatory vaccinations for measles in a part of Brooklyn that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish community. The city took the unusual step amid a surge of 285 measles cases in the city since September, most in one densely packed neighborhood where people now have to get vaccines or risk a $1,000 fine. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there have been 465 cases so far this year, two-thirds of them in New York state. That compares to 372 cases in the U.S. for all of last year. Besides New York, there have been outbreaks this year in Washington state, California. Michigan and New Jersey. The disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000, which means it was not being spread domestically. But cases have been rising in recent years, in part the result of misinformation that makes some parents balk at a crucial vaccine. Most of the reported illnesses are in children. The CDC says roughly 80 percent of the U.S. cases are age 19 or younger. Here are some questions and answers about measles: Question: How dangerous is measles? Answer:…

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CRISIS: More Than 103,000 Migrants Reached Southern Border in March

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by Jason Hopkins   Law enforcement agents apprehended or turned back 103,492 migrants attempting to reach the U.S. southern border in March, marking the highest month in 12 years. The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 92,607 individuals between ports of entry at the southern border. Another 10,885 migrants appeared at a port of entry, but were deemed inadmissible and were turned away, according to data released by Customs and Border Protection. “The Border Patrol is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border security crisis,” Brian Hastings, Border Patrol’s chief of law enforcement operations, told reporters Tuesday. “We’ve arrived at the breaking point.” Of all the foreign nationals turned away and apprehended in March, more than 53,000 belonged to family units and nearly 9,000 were unaccompanied alien children (UAC). Only 30,555 were single adults. The demographics indicate the crisis immigration enforcement agents are facing. U.S. trafficking laws, which were designed to handle illegal migrants made up of mostly single men from Mexico, have made it difficult for law enforcement officials to process the unprecedented volume of Central American families and children breaching the U.S.-Mexico border. The situation has stretched government resources beyond the breaking point, and leaving officials with no choice but to…

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Pompeo Won’t Publicly Back Two-State Solution for Israel, Palestinians

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined on Wednesday to publicly say the Trump administration still backs a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. “We are now working with many parties to share what our vision (is) as to how to solve this problem,” Pompeo told the U.S. Senate hearing where he was pressed for a response on the issue. He said the administration “has been working on a set of ideas” for Middle East peace “that we hope to present before too long,” adding that he hoped they would provide a basis for discussions on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine asked Pompeo, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives, if he thought a peace agreement including one state for Israel and one state for the Palestinians was an outdated idea. “It’s certainly an idea that’s been around a long time, senator,” Pompeo responded. “Ultimately the individuals in the region will sort this out,” the secretary of state said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured a clear path to re-election on Wednesday, and a record fifth term in office, with religious-rightist parties set to hand him a parliamentary majority, despite a…

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Blackburn Calls on Tech Giants to Embrace First Amendment and Use Their Powers Responsibly

Jason M. Reynolds

“Its time for tech companies like Google and Facebook to start embracing the spirit of the First Amendment,” U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. The senator made the remarks during a hearing titled, “Stifling Free Speech: Technological Censorship and the Public Discourse.” Video of Blackburn’s remarks may be watched here. Blackburn called out media giants to use their power responsibly and to respect diverse viewpoints, particularly conservative voices. She tweeted, “Big Tech shouldn’t censor stories and posts in our newsfeeds. Let free speech flourish. My full questions at the @senjudiciary hearing on censorship:”. Big Tech shouldn't censor stories and posts in our newsfeeds. Let free speech flourish. My full questions at the @senjudiciary hearing on censorship: https://t.co/asy2FRD16S — Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) April 10, 2019 Blackburn also on Wednesday introduced SB1116, the Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (BROWSER) Act, she said in a press release. The BROWSER Act requires communications and technology companies to provide users with clear and conspicuous notice of their privacy policies and the ability to opt-in to the collection of sensitive information and to opt-out of the collection of non-sensitive information. It also prohibits these companies…

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Commentary: Mueller’s Report Is a Rerun from the Nixon Era

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by Ken Masugi   The best book on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report—and one that few people have actually seen—came out in January. In fact, the most relevant chapter was published originally in 1992, in an academic journal, and that article was based on a conference paper delivered in 1984. The book is John Marini’s Unmasking the Administrative State, which I helped to compile. The chapter to which I refer is “Politics, Rhetoric, and Legitimacy: The Role of Bureaucracy in the Watergate Affair.” Marini updated the original article with a short afterword reflecting on President Trump’s struggle with the bureaucracy—which, as it happens, does not mention Mueller’s efforts or anything about Russian collusion or the other subjects of the report. Yet Marini’s work will remain for some time the best source for understanding the report’s significance. He makes clear the mere appointment of the special counsel meant that the bureaucracy had won and that Trump’s presidency would be crippled not merely for the tenure of the counsel but even for its duration. With that appointment, the greatest promise of Trump’s presidency was over immediately after it got started, with more allegations to come. Marini observes that all political scandals are…

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Pentagon to Seek Housing for Up to 5,000 Migrant Children

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Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has approved a request to identify places to potentially house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children, the Pentagon said Wednesday. In March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requested Pentagon support to identify locations to house unaccompanied migrant children through Sept. 30. Migrant arrivals on the U.S. border with Mexico have been building steadily for months, driven by growing numbers of children and families, especially from Central America. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis told Reuters that Shanahan approved that request Tuesday. Davis said HHS had made no request to actually house the children. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was not reviving a policy of separating children from parents who had illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, one day after media reports that his administration was considering putting it back in place. In February, Trump declared a national emergency to help build a border wall, which would allow him to spend money on it that Congress had appropriated for other purposes. Congress declined to fulfill his request for $5.7 billion to help build the wall this year. The Republican president’s latest pronouncements, including a threat to impose auto tariffs on Mexico,…

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Herman Cain’s Fed Nomination May Be Over Before It Starts

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by Whitney Tipton   Several GOP senators expressed concern Tuesday over Trump’s selection of Herman Cain for the Federal Reserve Board, casting doubt that the former GOP presidential candidate will be formally nominated. Two Republicans raising issues, Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer and Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, are members of the Banking Committee, whose nomination hearing would be a critical step prior to full Senate chamber consideration, should Cain be formally named. “It’s hard for me to imagine he’d be confirmed,” said Cramer in comments made to reporters after a closed-door Senate GOP meeting, according to The Wall Street Journal. Cramer has questioned Cain’s fitness because of sexual harassment allegations made against him. “That’s a very big problem for me—I think for a lot of people, and rightfully so.” Scott, another Banking Committee member, downplayed the harassment issue, “That’s a part of what I need to look at.” Scott added that Cain was “obviously qualified” for the position because of his experience on the Kansas City Fed and that the “question is what is the entire portfolio of his activities and interests and challenges,” The WSJ reported. Cain, also a former pizza chain CEO and unsuccessful U.S.…

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Bernie Sanders Admits He’s a Millionaire

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by Peter Hasson   Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, admitted Tuesday that he is a part of the millionaire class. Sanders often rails against millionaires on the campaign stump and opened his 2016 presidential campaign by bragging that he didn’t “have millionaire or billionaire friends.” But Sanders himself is now a millionaire, he acknowledged to The New York Times. “I wrote a best-selling book,” he told the paper. “If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.” Sanders also pledged to release 10 years of his tax returns within the coming week. “April 15 is coming,” Sanders told the Times. “We wanted to release 10 years of tax returns. April 15, 2019, will be the 10th year, so I think you will see them.” Sanders, who owns three houses, has often cited the “proliferation of millionaires and billionaires” in America as evidence that the economy is rigged against working people. “Are we comfortable to see a huge increase in millionaires and billionaires but have more people living in poverty than ever? I know I’m not,” he wrote in a December 2016 tweet. A great nation is judged not by how many millionaires and billionaires…

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Pentagon Awards Nearly $1 Billion in Border Wall Spending Contracts

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by Jason Hopkins   The Department of Defense awarded two military contracts worth almost $1 billion for wall construction on the U.S-Mexico border, the first funds granted since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency. The Pentagon announced Tuesday it awarded a $789 million contract to Texas-based company, SLSCO Ltd. for “border replacement wall construction” in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, according to a news release from the Department of Defense. Additionally, Barnard Construction Co. Inc, a company based in Montana, was given a $187 million contract for a wall replacement project in Yuma, Arizona. The New Mexico wall will be 30 feet high and include a five-foot anti-climb plate at the top, and is expected to be completed by October 2020. The Arizona project, expected to be done by September 2020, will include 18-foot bollard fencing with the same five-foot anti-climb plate. The announcement marks the first contracts doled out to construction companies after Trump declared a national emergency in February, a move that allowed him to allocate billions more in funds for border wall spending. The Pentagon informed Congress in March that it had diverted funds to the Army Corps of Engineers for new border walls, upsetting lawmakers from…

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Ohio Rep Proposes Heartbeat Bill Exemption for Black Women, Cites Slavery

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by Grace Carr   A state representative proposed an amendment to Ohio’s heartbeat bill that seeks an exemption for African-American women, citing historical “rape and forced birth imposed on enslaved women.” Democratic state Rep. Janine R. Boyd proposed the amendment to a state House committee Tuesday after the Ohio Senate passed Heartbeat Bill SB23 banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, according to The Hill. A heartbeat usually becomes detectable between six and nine weeks in pregnancy. Many women do not know they’re pregnant at six weeks. The bill advanced through the Ohio House committee Tuesday and will likely be signed into law by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine if it passes the full House. The measure will not only bar women from having an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, but will also fine physicians who violate the law up to $20,000, according to The Hill. During a hearing on the bill Tuesday, Democratic state Boyd proposed an amendment allowing the exemption of African-American women. Boyd says their “history includes rape and forced birth imposed on enslaved women and black women after slavery,” according to her website. “I consider the slave trade and how black slaves were once…

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GOP Renews Calls for Omar’s Removal from Foreign Affairs Committee After She Described 9/11 as ‘Some People Did Something’

Anthony Gockowski

Republicans are once again calling for Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN-05) removal from the House Foreign Affairs Committee after video leaked of her describing the 9/11 terror attacks as “some people did something.” Omar’s remarks came during her appearance at the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) March fundraiser in Los Angeles. “I say raise hell. Make people uncomfortable, because here’s the truth: for far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen,” Omar said during her keynote address, according to video obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it,” she continued. “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan said she was “horrified” that the comments “came from a member of Congress.” “This is a day that we will never forget. When thousands of innocent men, women, and children lost their lives due to a terrorist attack. A day when the lives of all Americans were changed forever. Yet, Omar minimized this day and the action…

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Heartbeat Bill Set to Become Law in Ohio After Emotional Day at the Statehouse

Anthony Gockowski

One of the most divisive and talked-about bills in Ohio’s history is officially on its way to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk and is expected to be signed into law at any moment. After months of debate and numerous committee hearings, the heartbeat bill passed the Ohio House Wednesday afternoon in a 56-40 vote along party lines. It then went back to the Senate where changes made to the bill in the House were approved in an 18-13 vote. According to Cleveland-based reporter Laura Hancock, four Republicans voted against the bill in the Senate, since it doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest. Here is the roll call in the #senate Which quickly voted to go with changes made in the Ohio house to #heartbeat #abortion bill. pic.twitter.com/PscVpnLE9P — Laura Hancock (@laurahancock) April 10, 2019 The House Health Committee was still hearing witness testimony on the bill as early as Tuesday, when several pro-choice religious organizations testified against it, as The Ohio Star reported. Protesters and activists from both sides of the debate gathered in the House chambers during Wednesday’s vote. While representatives were casting their votes, pro-abortion activists held a banner over the upper railings of the chambers, which read:…

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Buckeye Institute Annual Report Identifies $2.5 Billion in Savings for Ohio Taxpayers

Anthony Gockowski

The Buckeye Institute released its annual Piglet Booklet Wednesday, which identifies wasteful government spending across state agencies that could save Ohio taxpayers $2.5 billion. “In this year’s Piglet Booklet, The Buckeye Institute identified at least $2.5 billion that policymakers can save Ohioans. And with the increase in the gas tax, it is critical to cut spending and taxes to relieve the growing burden on Ohio families,” said Greg Lawson, research fellow at The Buckeye Institute and author of the report. “Making these cuts will save Ohio taxpayers money, make government more efficient and effective, and keep the state on solid financial ground to better weather the next economic storm,” Lawson continued. The Piglet Booklet identifies four key areas where government spending and oversight can be reduced, including corporate welfare programs, government philanthropy and advocacy, burdensome occupational licensing regimes, and earmarks in spending bills. “Governments should not engage in crony capitalism by supporting one private company over another—it is ethically inappropriate and economically harmful,” the report says of the corporate welfare category. It identifies eight different “corporate welfare programs that should be eliminated,” such as the $3.1 million that is used to conduct “marketing on behalf of the state’s wine grape…

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President Trump Planning Tax Day Event in Minnesota

Anthony Gockowski

President Donald Trump plans to visit Minnesota Monday for an event celebrating the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on the April 15 tax filing deadline. Details of the event are still unclear, but White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that the trip will happen while speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday. The Star Tribune reports that the event will be held in the Twin Cities area, and points out that the Federal Aviation Administration has posted a “VIP Movement Notification” for Minneapolis on April 15. Trump visited Duluth and Rochester in 2018 for rallies to bolster Republican candidates, and claimed during both events that he would flip Minnesota red in 2020. Both districts Trump visited (Minnesota’s First Congressional District and Eighth Congressional District) ended up going to Republicans in the 2018 midterms. Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton in Minnesota in 2016 by just 1.5 percent, or 44,593 votes. DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement that “if Donald Trump expects a warm welcome in Minnesota, he’ll be sorely disappointed.” “He’s here to sell a record of broken promises, lies, and attacks of families across our great state. It won’t work,” Martin…

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Ohio Petition to Bypass Electoral College Abandoned Days After Launching

Andrew Shirley

A push to amend the Ohio State Constitution to negate the electoral college came to an end after just nine days on Tuesday. On March 21, the law firm McTigue & Colombo LLC filed two petitions with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to create a new constitutional amendment. The two petitions were for the same amendment, but contained different summaries, officially titled the “Presidential Election Popular Vote.” The proposed constitutional Amendment “would add Article XX, Section 1 to the Ohio Constitution to: Express the will of the people that every vote for President be valued equally and that the candidate who wins the most votes nationally becomes President. Require the General Assembly, within sixty days of the Amendment’s adoption, take all necessary legislative action so that the winner of the national popular vote is elected president. This Amendment may result in Ohio President Electors voting for the Presidential candidate who won the national popular vote but not Ohio’s popular vote. The amendment would ensure that in every future presidential election, the winner of the national popular vote would be guaranteed all of Ohio’s electoral votes, regardless of how the state voted. In the 2016 presidential election, President Donald Trump won 306…

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House Oversight Republicans, Including Rep. Green, Demand Committee Chairman Submit Transcript of Cohen’s Testimony to DOJ For Investigation

Jason M. Reynolds

House Oversight Committee Republicans on Wednesday introduced a resolution, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07), that directs Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD-07) to submit an official copy of the transcript of Michael Cohen’s testimony to the Department of Justice for investigation and potential prosecution. Full text of the resolution can be found here. “If Chairman Cummings fails to refer Mr. Cohen to the Department of Justice for perjury, it will forever mar the reputation of the Oversight Committee and call into question the integrity of the entire House. Mr. Chairman, do what you said you’d do and hold Mr. Cohen accountable for lying before our committee,” Green said in a press release. Green has been a critic of Cohen’s in the past. On March 2, on the Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy talked to Green about his opening statements and questions posed to Michael Cohen during the hearing in Washington the day before. The congressman admitted that this was a strategic move that would allow a light to be shown on the true intentions…

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