Day: April 15, 2019

Governors Bill Lee and Matt Bevin Scheduled to Talk Criminal Justice Reform at Belmont Wednesday

Chris Butler

Republican governors Bill Lee and Matt Bevin are scheduled to headline an event to discuss and promote criminal justice reform at 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Belmont College of Law. Former U.S. Attorney General Albert Gonzales and former inmate Matthew Charles are scheduled to moderate the event, according to a press release. Specifically, Bevin, governor of Kentucky, and Lee, governor of Tennessee are scheduled to discuss state-level criminal justice reform, the press release said. Charles, meanwhile, will share his perspective as the first man released after the passage of the First Step Act. According to Vox.com, the First Step Act takes modest steps to reform the criminal justice system and ease very punitive prison sentences at the federal level. It affects only the federal system — which, with about 181,000 imprisoned people, “holds a small but significant fraction of the US jail and prison population of 2.1 million.” The groups Men of Valor and Right on Crime will host the event, according to a press release. Right on Crime is a national campaign that supports conservative solutions for reducing crime, restoring victims, reforming offenders, and lowering taxpayer costs. Men of Valor is a prison ministry in Middle Tennessee committed to reconciling men to God, their…

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Mike Lindell Commentary: Tax Day Visit by President Trump Is a Victory Lap for Minnesotans and for America

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by Mike Lindell   I regret that I won’t be able to be in the Twin Cities area Monday for President Trump’s Tax Day visit. Even though I’ll be in Israel, I’ll be watching from afar as thousands of my fellow Minnesotans show their excitement for the tremendous economic progress and success our country has enjoyed under Donald Trump. As someone who employs over 1,500 Minnesotans, I’ve seen the great American comeback firsthand. Thanks to President Trump’s America First agenda, hope has turned into confidence for business owners and their employees in Minnesota and across the country. Wages are going up, and small business owners like myself are still eager to expand. In fact, small business optimism is now at all-time record levels. Recruiters at job fairs are eager to hire. That’s fantastic news for everyone, because when companies compete for employees, wages go up. It’s the main reason why unemployment in the Twin Cities area has been about 25 percent lower, on average,  than it was when President Trump took office. The Clean Jobs Midwest survey found that Indiana and Minnesota led the Midwest in creating new clean energy jobs last year, with Minnesota’s clean energy jobs increasing by…

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Commentary: Obama’s ‘Circular Firing Squad’ Comparison Taints 2020 Democrats

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President Barack Obama

by Jeffery Rendall   How bad (or good) will it get? Speaking of the 2020 Democrat presidential campaign which is already shaping up to be a barnburner of a good time for political observers who enjoy a first-rate game of backbiting, shouting, gesticulating, creeping and finger-pointing. These days Democrats are undergoing an identity crisis of epic proportions, torn between their old “let’s just rain goodies down on the people and see what happens” approach and a newer, much more militant brand of politicking emphasizing ripping up the tracks after the pontificating and demagoguery train leaves the station. One particular old guard Democrat noticed the dark storm clouds on the horizon and hit the road to tell folks how worried he is about it. Daniel Chaitin reported at The Washington Examiner, “Former President Barack Obama said … he is concerned about the left wing of the Democratic Party creating a ‘circular firing squad’ hurting more moderate members. “’The way we structure democracy requires you to take into account people who don’t agree with you,’ Obama said at an Obama Foundation event in Berlin, Germany. ‘And that by definition means you’re not going to get 100 percent of what you want.’ “’One of…

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Jackson-Madison County School System Superintendent Jones to Resign, Citing ‘Fundamental Divide’ with Board of Education

Jason M. Reynolds

Dr. Eric T. Jones, superintendent of Jackson-Madison County School System, is parting ways with the Board of Education, citing a “fundamental divide” with most of his bosses. Jones informed the board Friday of his decision by writing a letter of resignation. Jones, a Mississippi native, joined JMCSS as superintendent in 2017, according to a web archive of his school district biography. Community news blog Our Jackson Home said in August 2017, when Jones was hired, that he was the fourth superintendent in a decade. [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Eric-Jones-resignation-letter.pdf”]   In his letter to the School Board, Jones said: “We have made great progress, but I know there is still much work to be done. However, I no longer believe I am the best person to lead JMCSS. There is a fundamental divide between what I see as my role as superintendent and what a majority of the board believes it to be. Without the freedom to lead, a leader’s purpose is lost. For this reason and others, I am stepping aside. My last day as superintendent will be June 30, 2019.” Jones’ supporters took to Twitter to show their appreciation for his work and to blast his detractors. One of those supporters,…

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Ohio’s Right To Life Organization Supported a ‘Heartbeat Bill,’ While Tennessee’s Opposed It

Laura Baigert

Ohio’s Right to Life organization supported and celebrated the state becoming the seventh to pass a “Heartbeat Bill” banning abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected. In contrast, Tennessee’s Right to Life organization opposed the “Heartbeat Bill” introduced in this session’s Tennessee General Assembly, and cheered when a State Senate Committee last week sent it off to “summer study” instead of passing it. In fact, Ohio’s Right to Life issued a press release the day the Human Rights and Heartbeat Protection Act (SB23) was signed into law by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine that featured a picture of the organization’s team standing beside the Governor during the signing ceremony. Ohio’s law bans an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually after about six weeks from conception. According to a January 2019 report of The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio’s Right to Life support of the legislation is relatively new, but it went all-in by putting the bill at the top of their legislative agenda. “It spent years opposing or remaining neutral on the measure,” reported The Dispatch. “But more recently, with President Donald Trump naming two justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and Gov. Mike DeWine indicating he will sign the bill,…

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Franklin Facility Accused of Massive TennCare Fraud

Chris Butler

Tennessee officials said in a press release this week that members of a Franklin-based facility committed fraud to get $6 million in TennCare benefits to which it was not entitled. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee this week made public a suit filed by Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III against ProHealth Rural Health Services, Inc., and its President and Chief Executive Officer Ray White (pictured above).  By filing the suit, the state intervened in a case initially filed by a whistle blower, according to a press release from Slatery’s office. “As a designated Federally Qualified Community Health Center (FQHC) Look-Alike, ProHealth provides healthcare to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. That status entitled ProHealth to receive Prospective Payment Service (PPS) payments, a guaranteed minimum amount of money per Medicaid patient visit,” the press release said. “As detailed in the complaint, the State alleges White knowingly submitted invoices to the State of Tennessee which falsely inflated the number of Medicaid patient visits to ProHealth from 2012-2017. That caused TennCare to pay ProHealth more than $6,000,000 to which it was not entitled.” The press release quoted Slatery as saying members of his office will not permit leniency…

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More Than Two Dozen Possible Graves Found at Florida’s Infamous Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys

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by Neetu Chandak   More than two dozen possible graves were discovered during a cleanup at a defunct Florida school, infamous for abusing children. A subcontractor found the 27 “‘anomalies’ consistent with possible graves” at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in March, a letter from Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday. Jerry Cooper, who attended the school in the 1960s, was not surprised by the findings, The New York Times reported. The 74-year-old once received more than 100 lashes. “It’s a lot worse than the people know,” Cooper said, according to The NYT. The recent findings add to the more than 50 graves previously discovered by anthropologists, who also uncovered more than 50 remains of the dead, The NYT reported. The school was opened in 1900, according to Time. But it was shut down in 2011 following an investigation by the Department of Justice, which found “harmful practices” at the facility. More than 500 former students alleged beatings and sexual abuse, ABC 27 reported. “The allegations revealed systemic, egregious, and dangerous practices exacerbated by a lack of accountability and controls,” according to the DOJ. Boys also died at the school, according to The NYT. Some died from the flu. Eight boys locked in a room were also killed in…

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Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett’s Book Is Ranked 1,030 on Amazon Yet it Made the New York Time’s Best Seller List

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by Luke Rosiak   Valerie Jarrett, a top adviser to former President Barack Obama, published a book that ranks dismally on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble, but was placed on The New York Times Best Seller list. Anomalies around the book’s sales figures in industry databases have some in the book business questioning whether Jarrett, who’s rumored to have received a million-dollar-plus advance, paid a company to game the numbers. Her book, which was published April 2, is number 1,030 on Amazon’s list of top sellers and has only three reviews on the site. It similarly ranks 1,244 on Barnes and Noble where signed copies are being sold for less than the suggested retail for unsigned copies. Yet the book was also 14th on the NYT bestseller list. “Given the organic sales of that book and the fact that during the entire week of rollout it barely cracked the top 100 on Amazon, there’s no way the book should have a place on the NYT Best Seller list. Inconceivable,” one prominent book industry insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There’s likely an effort to game the system, it’s the only explanation.” Jarrett’s book outsold all but the top four books on…

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White House on Sending Illegal Aliens to Sanctuary Cities: ‘We Are Certainly Looking at All Options’

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The White House on Sunday, echoing President Donald Trump, said sending illegal aliens to sanctuary U.S. cities that have protected them from deportation remains a possibility even though government agencies have said it would be impractical and there is no money allocated to do it. “We certainly are looking at all options as long as [opposition] Democrats refuse to acknowledge the crisis at the border,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told the “Fox News Sunday” show. Trump said late Saturday on Twitter, “Democrats must change the Immigration Laws FAST. If not, Sanctuary Cities must immediately ACT to take care of the Illegal Immigrants – and this includes Gang Members, Drug Dealers, Human Traffickers, and Criminals of all shapes, sizes and kinds. CHANGE THE LAWS NOW!” Democrats must change the Immigration Laws FAST. If not, Sanctuary Cities must immediately ACT to take care of the Illegal Immigrants – and this includes Gang Members, Drug Dealers, Human Traffickers, and Criminals of all shapes, sizes and kinds. CHANGE THE LAWS NOW! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2019 Hundreds of U.S. cities, along with California, the country’s most populous state, have declared themselves as havens for illegal aliens who have crossed…

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Commentary: Pursue Those Indictments!

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by Roger Kimball   Last month, Chris Buskirk wrote a column for the Spectator USA describing Representative Devin Nunes as “a hero of the Republic.” It was well-deserved praise. Nunes, a Republican Congressman from a rural district in California was, until January, chairman of the House Permanent Special Committee on Intelligence (he is now the ranking member). Nunes has worked tirelessly for more than two years to expose what our masters in deep-state Washington would bury from the glare of public scrutiny: the evidence that the entire Trump-Russian collusion narrative was a partisan effort, first, to undermine the Trump presidential campaign and, when that failed, to cover up the effort while still working assiduously to destroy the Trump presidency. As Buskirk points out, without Nunes’s terrier-like efforts—conducted, it has to be pointed out, against the background of scurrilous and unremitting calumnies from the Democrats and their bought-and-paid-for megaphones in the media—the public would likely be totally in the dark about what really happened over the course of 2016 as the Obama Administration and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign endeavored to “dirty up” Trump and his colleagues, calmly at first, and then with growing hysteria as Trump, against all the odds, emerged as a serious…

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Facebook Shakes Up Board, Ousts Exec Who Once Threatened Peter Thiel for Supporting Trump

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by Chris White   Netflix CEO Reed Hastings will not be renominated to Facebook’s board of directors when the members meet in May for the company’s annual stockholder’s meeting, Facebook announced Friday night. The move comes less than three years after Hastings told fellow board member Peter Thiel that he intended to slam the PayPal co-founder’s performance review over his endorsement of President Donald Trump, who was in the heat of the 2016 campaign at the time. Hastings offered to resign in 2016 following his flare up with Thiel but CEO Mark Zuckerberg refused the offer. Facebook announced Friday the nomination of PayPal executive Peggy Alford to join the board. She will be the company’s first black woman to sit on Facebook’s board if elected. Erskine Bowles, president emeritus of University of North Carolina, will also not be renominated to Facebook’s board in May. “Peggy is one of those rare people who’s an expert across many different areas — from business management to finance operations to product development. I know she will have great ideas that help us address both the opportunities and challenges facing our company,” Zuckerberg said in a press statement announcing the decision. Reports in 2017 showed the degree of bad blood between the…

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Rutherford County Mayor Bill Ketron Talks Trash at Community Forum

Chris Butler

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee — Although it’s hypothetical at this point, Rutherford County residents could have to pay a new monthly fee to handle the county’s growing trash problem, County Mayor Bill Ketron said last week. This could start a trend that reverberates across all of Middle Tennessee, said county residents who showed up for a meeting to discuss the matter. “One of our cities charges $5 on a local water bill per month. We may have to rethink the way we think about trash and the way we handle it. It may be that handling our trash becomes another utility bill with homeowners to look at,” Ketron told a gathering of about 100 people at Murfreesboro’s Patterson Park Community Center. “Now, I’m just saying maybe to this. Don’t quote me saying it will happen. These are all things that have to be considered. At some point in time, dealing with our trash is not going to be free. It’s getting to that point where we are all going to have to pay the price, but a lot of that will come from recycling and reeducating and now it’s time to be bold.” That boldness apparently will include stiffer penalties for people…

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Two Key Cases the Supreme Court Will Hear in April

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Supreme Court of the United States

by Elizabeth Slattery   Conversations about the Supreme Court this spring have been dominated by discussion of conspiracy theories about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health, Democratic presidential hopefuls’ plans to “pack the Supreme Court,” and a manufactured “controversy” over Justice Brett Kavanaugh teaching at George Mason University’s Scalia Law School. But on Monday, the justices begin their final argument sitting of the term, with 13 oral arguments scheduled over the next two weeks. Here are two cases to watch this month. 1. Whether the Term ‘FUCT’ Can Be Trademarked In Iancu v. Brunetti, the justices will look at whether a federal law called the Lanham Act that prohibits registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office violates the First Amendment. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] If this sounds familiar, that’s because the Supreme Court heard a similar case, Matal v. Tam, challenging the same law’s prohibition on “offensive” trademarks in 2017. The justices unanimously ruled for the challengers, an Asian-American band called the Slants, with Justice Samuel Alito declaring that the ban on “offensive” trademarks “offend[ed] a bedrock First Amendment principle: Speech may not…

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Two Tennessee Women Charged with TennCare Fraud in Separate Cases

Chris Butler

Tennessee officials this week charged women with TennCare fraud in two separate cases. Officials charged a Hickman County woman with lying to the state to obtain TennCare healthcare insurance benefits, according to a press release from the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration. The Office of Inspector General and the Hickman County Sheriff’s Office, announced the arrest of Heather Knill, 40, of Pleasantville. She is accused of claiming that only she and her child lived in their home on a single income, when in fact the child’s father lived in the home and contributed his income to the household – all of which would have made her ineligible for TennCare. As a result, she received TennCare benefits totaling more than $44,000 and she’s charged with theft of services over $10,000, the press release said. “Omitting relevant facts to purposefully receive public benefits amounts to criminal activity and not taken lightly,” Inspector General Kim Harmon said in the press release. “The Legislature determined that any theft of services greater than $500 is a felony … and in this case, a class C felony, carrying up to 15 years in prison.” “ District Attorney General Kim R. Helper is prosecuting. In the second case,…

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Mark Meadows Expects Criminal Referrals In DOJ Inspector General’s Report

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by Chuck Ross   North Carolina Republican Rep. Mark Meadows said Sunday that he expects the Justice Department’s inspector general to issue criminal referrals as part of an investigation into the FBI’s possible abuse of the surveillance courts during the Trump-Russia probe. “We’re fully anticipating that the [inspector general’s] report will come out as Attorney General Barr said in the next four to six weeks, and I think it’s highly likely that we’ll see criminal referrals coming from them that will correspond with what Chairman [Devin] Nunes has already put forth,” Meadows said in an interview on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” Attorney General William Barr told Congress on Tuesday that he expects Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, to issue a report in late May or June. On March 28, 2018, Horowitz opened an investigation into whether the FBI and Justice Department complied with legal requirements to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Meadows, a close ally of President Trump’s, said that he and Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan met earlier this week with Horowitz. Both have expressed confidence in Horowitz’s work, and have heightened expectations that the investigation will be favorable to Republicans. Meadows…

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Bernie Sanders Calls on Trump to End Federal Contracts for GM During Lordstown Campaign Stop

Anthony Gockowski

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) stopped in Lordstown, Ohio Sunday afternoon during his campaign swing through key battleground states, including Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. “Together, we are going to make sure that does not happen again. We’re going to win here in Wisconsin. We’re going to win in Indiana, We’re going to win in Ohio. We’re going to win in Michigan. We’re going to win in Pennsylvania and together we’re going to win this election,” Sanders said during a Saturday rally in Madison, Wisconsin. On Sunday, the Vermont senator and 2020 hopeful participated in a town hall with the American Federation of Teachers in Lordstown, Ohio, a community that has received significant national attention after the recent closure of its General Motors plant. “This is a really important meeting, and it’s an important meeting not just to discuss the horrific impact on this small town, this community, about GM preferring to give billions of dollars in stock buybacks to make the very rich even richer while they chose to close down this plant and other plants around the country, but the discussion that we are having here today, right here, is a discussion that impacts virtually every state in this…

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Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda Charged with Attempted Murder After Throwing 5-Year-Old Boy Over Third-Story Balcony at Mall of America

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by Neetu Chandak   A man who allegedly threw a 5-year-old boy over the third-floor balcony at the Mall of America near Minneapolis Friday was charged with suspicion of attempted homicide. Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, was quickly caught and arrested at the mall’s transit station following the attack Friday, The Associated Press reported. “Officers and witnesses located an injured five-year-old child on the first floor,” a release from the Bloomington Police said Friday. “The child was treated at the scene and then transported by ambulance to the hospital with life threatening injuries.” Neither the boy nor the family appeared to know Aranda, according to the police statement. A witness said he heard a woman screaming that her child was thrown off the balcony, WCCO reported. “‘She was screaming ‘Everyone pray, everyone pray. Oh my God, my baby, someone threw him over the edge,’” witness Brian Johnson said to WCCO when describing the scene. Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said Aranda was banned from the mall at one point. However, the trespassing notice was not in effect at the time of the incident, The AP reported. Aranda also held previous obstruction of the legal process/interfering with a peace officer, fifth-degree assault, trespassing and damage to property convictions. Potts added that Aranda had “other contacts in his…

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Nation’s Only All-Male Historically Black College To Start Accepting Transgender Men

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by Evie Fordham   The nation’s only all-male historically black college announced a new transgender policy after its board of trustees approved it on Saturday. Morehouse College in Atlanta will begin accepting transgender men next year, college leaders told The Associated Press. “I think Morehouse having the courage to speak to issues of masculinity in today’s environment is important,” Morehouse College President David Thomas told The AP. “For 152 years, the world has, in some way, seen Morehouse as the West Point of black male development.” Transgender men, meaning they have transitioned from female to male, can enroll at the college starting in 2020, but students who were born male and now identify as female will not be allowed to. Morehouse “will continue to use masculine pronouns” and “the language of brotherhood” according to the new policy as cited by The AP. The college will not guarantee a degree to students who transition from male to female while enrolled, however. Morehouse alumni include Martin Luther King Jr., film director Spike Lee and former Atlanta Democratic Mayor Maynard Jackson, reported The AP. The college now joins more than 1,000 other U.S. colleges and universities that have approved a transgender policy. Morehouse is…

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Minnesota Democrats Criticized for Not Taking Child Care Fraud ‘Seriously’ After Release of Second Report

Anthony Gockowski

A second report released last week by the non-partisan Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) found that the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ “program integrity controls are insufficient to effectively prevent, detect, and investigate fraud” in the state’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). In March, the OLA released its first report on the issue, which found “pervasive” fraud in the program and confirmed that millions of dollars in government payments went to fraudulent child care centers. After the release of the report, DHS Inspector General Carolyn Ham (pictured, left) was placed on “investigate leave.” The OLA’s second report, released Wednesday, focused more specifically on the “internal controls” in place within DHS to prevent fraud. The 44-page report produced five key findings, including: DHS and county agencies did not sufficiently leverage independent, external data sources to verifying recipient eligibility for CCAP. DHS had weak processes to validate that CCAP provider billings aligned with actual child care provided. Among other functions, MEC² (the payment system for CCAP) was developed to accurately process provider billings and payments; however, MEC² lacked some key controls to identify errors to inhibit, track, and recover improper payments. DHS did not implement sufficient program integrity controls for licensing…

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Rutherford County School Board Considers Giving School Director $60K Pay Raise

Laura Baigert

At an April 8 budget meeting of the seven-member Rutherford County School Board, the topic of a $60,000 pay increase for the Director of Schools was discussed. The director’s salary discussion consumed nearly 20 minutes of the meeting that lasted just over an hour. The current Director of Schools, Bill Spurlock, having been officially in the position since July 1, 2018, has less than a year on the job and has not yet had his first performance evaluation. Spurlock came into the position after having been a high school principal in the Rutherford County Schools since 2008. Spurlock replaced retiring Director of Schools Don Odom, who spent 50 years in the Rutherford County School system. Prior to spending his last six years as Director of Schools, Odom spent nine years before that as the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, five years as Attendance Coordinator and an elementary school principal for 22 years, according to a report in the Daily News Journal. During Odom’s tenure as Director, Rutherford County Schools district was twice named “exemplary” by the Tennessee Department of Education – the highest designation a school district can receive. Meanwhile, graduation rates and standardized test scores were improved while…

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