Day: April 23, 2019

Tennessee House Expected to Provide Oversight to State’s Thriving Sports Betting Industry

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A bill that would legalize online sports betting, subject to regulations limiting access and directing the expected $50 million in new annual tax revenue to education and mental health initiatives, is headed for a House floor vote on Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for states like Tennessee to legalize sports betting last year.  Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery kicked it wider when he issued an opinion that sports betting could be legalized by legislative action rather than requiring a Constitutional amendment. Supporters of the legislation point out that HB0001 would stem the flow of dollars already being bet in online sights of dubious origin and traveling to casinos just south of Memphis where on-site sports betting has already been legalized by the State of Mississippi.  They also point to the easy access to sports betting sites online right now, but which don’t put any revenue into Tennessee-based companies or the state’s tax coffers. In fact, advertising of online sports betting sites is a booming business despite there being relatively few legal avenues to place bets in the U.S.  The sports networks clearly see more states coming online with legal betting, and they are right — with Montana…

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Commentary: The Russia Collusion Hoax Lays Bare the Urgent Need for FISA Reform

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by Robert Romano   By far the biggest takeaway from the failure of Special Counsel Robert Mueller to establish that there was any coordination or conspiracy with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election by President Donald Trump, his campaign or any American is that we need immediate and swift reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court system that was weaponized against a political campaign to investigate a crime that was never committed. The FISA warrants taken out against the Trump campaign that began in Oct. 2016 relied upon the dossier full of phony allegations by former British spy Christopher Steele that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign. It gave the government access to campaign emails, phone calls, text messages and other communications. This was the same dossier that was briefed to then-President-elect Donald Trump in Jan. 2017 by former FBI Director James Comey, who later told Congress that it was “salacious and unverified” and then was used again when the warrants were renewed. The dossier alleged that President Trump was a bought and paid for Russian agent, that former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page while on a trip to Moscow where he delivered a commencement address at the…

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Commentary: Mitt Romney Is a Virtue Signaling Twit

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by George Rasley   Leave it to Mitt Romney to be the first Republican (notice we didn’t say conservative) to use the Mueller Report to criticize President Trump. After the redacted report was released Romney issued a statement saying he was “sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President.” I have now read the redacted Mueller report and offer my personal reaction: pic.twitter.com/ACnExskqXJ — Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) April 19, 2019 This hypocritical virtue signaling would be comical if it weren’t so destructive – after all the Mitt Romney who is complaining about “dishonesty and misdirection” from the White House is the same Mitt Romney whose staff said he planned to “shake the Etch A Sketch” after the 2012 primaries and abandon the conservative positions he had taken to get the GOP nomination for president. The comments for which Romney criticized President Trump were entirely justified expressions of outrage emanating from a man who knew he was wrongly accused and being set-up for the kind of process crimes that ensnared others, such as Roger Stone and George Papadopoulos. But this is hardly the first time Romney…

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Experts Say Progressive Caucus’ Arrangement with Outside Charity Violates House Rules, though Punishment Is Unlikely

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by Andrew Kerr   The United States recorded 71 new measles cases last week, a 13 percent increase as the country faces its second-worst outbreak of the disease in almost two decades, federal health officials said on Monday. But although the progressive caucus’s relationship with the outside charity group “seems like a clear violation of the rule,” there likely won’t be any consequences anytime soon, Acton Institute editor Joe Carter, who has researched congressional caucuses, told TheDCNF. “Article 1, section 5, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution says that, ‘Each House may … punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member,’” Carter said. “Based on previous history, the most severe punishment would likely be censure or reprimand of the leaders” of the progressive caucus. “But that isn’t likely to happen under Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi,” he continued. “The most that will happen – if any action is even taken – is that they will have to promise to do a better job of complying with the rules in the future.” The House Ethics Committee, House Administration Committee and House General Counsel all declined to comment for this story. CPCC Is Staffing Progressive Caucus, Co-Chair…

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Knox County May Reportedly Prevent Taxpayers from Seeing Police Videos

Chris Butler

According to various news outlets out of Knoxville, Knox County prosecutors are working to make sure members of the public can’t see police videos outside a courtroom. According to KnoxNews.com, these include all police cruiser and body-camera videos in criminal cases. Anyone who allows taxpayers to see these videos may face fines or jail time, the website reported. “Anyone on the list who shared a video before it’s filed in court could be held in criminal contempt, including members of a defendant’s family,” KnoxNews.com reported. “The ban would last until prosecutors drop or decide not to file charges, a grand jury chooses not to indict, a judge throws out a case, a jury votes not guilty — or longer in case of a guilty plea or verdict. Videos not introduced at trial could take years or decades to become public. The prosecution file would become open at the end of the last appeal, plus one year.” The Knoxville-based WATE said Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen drafted the order. The station quoted Deputy District Attorney General Kyle Hixson as saying the prosecution file would become open at the end of the last appeal, plus one year. As KnoxNews.com reported, “appeals in Tennessee…

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Commentary: The Road to Serfdom at 75 Years Young

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by  Peter Boettke   When F.A. Hayek moved to Britain in the early 1930s from his native Austria, he was struck by what he saw as the same attitude among British intellectuals as he experienced among German thinkers during the 1920s. There was an extreme skepticism toward the market economy and capitalism, coupled with great optimism for planning and the promise of socialism. Advance the calendar almost a century, and Hayek might hear the chorus of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders humming the same reprise. His ears may even perk up a bit when harmonies emanate from right-leaning folks like President Trump, who dabble in central planning. British intellectuals in the ’30s such as Harold Laski and William Beveridge were dedicated social reformers. They despaired over the social costs they identified with unbridled capitalism resulting from monopoly power, externalities, macroeconomic volatility, mass unemployment, and income inequality. E.F.M. Durbin’s 1934 Labor Party Policy Committee “Memorandum on the Principles of Socialist Planning” promised that a planning system could eradicate the social ills emerging from the market’s inherent weaknesses. But a critically important point to understand is that from the perspective of these intellectuals, they were socialists in their economics precisely because…

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Tennessee Bill to Regulate 911 Calls Reportedly Held Up for Summer Study

Chris Butler

The sponsor of legislation that would make 911 calls and transmissions confidential reportedly wants more time to work on the bill, specifically this summer. This, according to the Tennessee General Assembly’s website and the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. That bill is HB 335. According to the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, the sponsor of that bill is State Rep. Rick Tillis, R-Lewisburg. “The bill, HB 335, would have created an exemption to the Tennessee Public Records Act for all 911 calls, making them only available for use by law enforcement, the courts and other governmental agencies,” according to the TCOG. “The Tennessee Press Association and Tennessee Association of Broadcasters lobbied against the bill, pointing out that access to 911 calls have led to numerous news stories uncovering problems within the 911 system. They have also been used to document natural disasters, such as when the Knoxville News Sentinel used 911 calls to shed light on what happened during the devastating Gatlinburg wildfires a few years ago.” The TCOG went on to say “the transmissions of 911 calls also have helped ferret out government coverups.” According to the bill summary, the bill prohibits “using such calls, transmission, or recordings for any purpose…

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Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton Wanted to Oust Pelosi and Now Wants to Take on Trump in 2020

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by Evie Fordham   Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton became to the third politician from the state to announce a 2020 presidential run Monday. Moulton, 40, will compete with Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary. He will also stand in contrast to former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who is challenging President Donald Trump in the GOP primary. “I’m running because we have to beat Donald Trump,” Moulton said in a brand-new campaign video. “And I want us to beat Donald Trump because I love this country.” The congressman has served Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District since 2015 and is known for opposing Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House after the 2018 midterm elections. Moulton eventually voted for Pelosi after top Democrats agreed to term limits for their leadership positions, reported WBUR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwlD6tGj-oQ   Moulton detailed his decision to join the Marine Corps in 2001 and his tough first congressional race against a Democratic incumbent in his campaign video. Moulton earned a degree in physics from Harvard University in 2001. He returned to the institution after four tours in Iraq to earn a master’s degrees in business and public policy at the Harvard Business School and Harvard’s…

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After 10 Years, Amazon Is Pulling the Plug on Its Business Operations in China

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Amazon Fulfillment

by Saibal Dasgupta   Amazon says it is curtailing business operations in China, the world’s biggest retail market, after struggling against better entrenched local players for more than a decade. The company announced recently that as of July 18, it will no longer provide services through its Chinese website, Amazon.cn. The decision means Amazon will stop selling goods from China-based vendors to domestic consumers on the portal. Although it is moving out of the e-retail business in China, Amazon will continue with its cross-border business, bringing foreign brands and goods to China, the company said. “Their demand for high-quality, authentic goods from around the world continues to grow rapidly, and given our global presence, Amazon is well-positioned to serve them,” the company said. The announcement has raised questions about the extremely thin presence of foreign companies in internet-related businesses in China, while Chinese companies like Alibaba create market space for themselves across the world. Amazon’s market share in China has fallen from about 15 percent a decade ago to about 6 percent. Alibaba and another local company, jd.com, account for nearly 75 percent of the Chinese market. Online shopping site eBay earlier moved out of China as it could not make a…

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House Judiciary Committee Chair Nadler Falsely Claims Don Jr. Was Offered Stolen Information in Trump Tower Meeting

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by Chuck Ross   New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, falsely claimed in an interview on Sunday that Donald Trump Jr. was offered stolen information in the infamous meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016. “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd failed to correct Nadler when he made the inaccurate statement. “I do not understand why he didn’t charge Don Jr., and others in that famous meetings with criminal conspiracy,” Nadler said of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the interview. “They entered into a meeting of the minds to attend a meeting, to get stolen material on Hillary. They went to the meeting. That’s conspiracy, right there,” he added. Despite that claim, Trump Jr. was not offered stolen material before accepting the June 9, 2016 meeting. WATCH: Should Mueller have charged anyone for meeting with Russians in Trump Tower? #MeetThePress #IfItsSunday@repjerrynadler: "I do not understand why he didn't charge Don Jr. and others in that famous meeting." pic.twitter.com/2h0c3Mfimp — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) April 21, 2019 Trump Jr. accepted the meeting after a music publicist named Rob Goldstone emailed him on June 3, 2016 saying that a Russian attorney wanted to meet with the campaign to…

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DeWine Proposed Budget Includes New Taxes for Ohio’s Tattoo Artists and Body Piercers

Andrew Shirley

Governor Mike DeWine’s proposed budget for Ohio includes a provision that will raise taxes and regulations on all tattoo artists and body piercers throughout the state. The new provision would require that all current and future tattoo artists and body piercers register with the state for as long as they are operating in that capacity. In addition, they would also have to pay a “registration fee” of $250. Furthermore, the provision would also call for a comprehensive overhaul of the current tattoo and body piercing training standards. This would cover anyone whose profession is defined as a “body artists” There is currently a medley of rules, regulations, and fees associated with being a tattoo artist in the Buckeye State. Some of the most extensive concern the cleanliness of needles and the heating devices that sterilize them, including that they: Ensure that weekly tests of the business’s heat sterilization devices are performed to determine whether the devices are functioning properly. In having the devices tested, the operator of the business shall use a biological monitoring system that indicates whether the devices are killing microorganisms….The operator shall maintain documentation that the weekly tests are being performed. To comply with the documentation requirement, the…

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NRSC Begins Targeting Minnesota’s Sen. Tina Smith, Other Vulnerable Battleground Dems

Anthony Gockowski

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) began targeting Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) and other swing-state Democrats Monday with a new billboard campaign. “Ask Tina Smith about the 430,478 Minnesota jobs at risk under the Green New Deal,” the NRSC’s new Minnesota billboard states. Smith has expressed support for the Green New Deal, but voted “present” along with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) when the measure was put up for a vote in the Senate. Great new billboard here in MN by ⁦@NRSC⁩. It’s time ⁦@TinaSmithMN⁩ answer for why she wants to crush jobs in Minnesota. #mnsen pic.twitter.com/ETvO9Da6p3 — Kevin Poindexter (@Kdpoindexter) April 22, 2019 State Sen. Karin Housley (R-St. Mary’s Point), Smith’s 2018 opponent, tweeted a picture of the billboard Monday along with the contact information for Smith’s office. “Yep, you should ask Sen. Tina Smith. I saved you the search,” Housley said. Smith defeated Housley in the 2018 special election to finish the remainder of former Sen. Al Franken’s term, but she will be up for reelection again in 2020. Yep, you should ask @SenTinaSmith. I saved you the search: (202) 224-5641 or https://t.co/TE6oaflnIq #mnsen pic.twitter.com/mbEeMywZ3U — Karin Housley (@KarinHousley) April 22, 2019 It’s been rumored that Housley may run…

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US Records 71 New Measles Cases Last Week as Outbreak Spreads

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Reuters   The United States recorded 71 new measles cases last week, a 13 percent increase as the country faces its second-worst outbreak of the disease in almost two decades, federal health officials said on Monday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it had recorded 626 cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly disease in 22 states as of April 19, the highest rate of infection in five years. The CDC had previously reported 555 cases in 20 states between Jan. 1 and April 11. The current outbreak will likely surpass the 2014 outbreak in number of cases, the CDC said on Monday. Iowa and Tennessee were the two states that joined the CDC list with new measles cases. More than half the cases recorded this year occurred in New York City, primarily in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. The U.S. outbreak is part of a worldwide rise in the once nearly eradicated disease. The World Health Organization reported last week that global cases had risen nearly four-fold in the first quarter of 2019 to 112,163 compared with the same period last year. A vocal fringe of parents in the United States oppose vaccines believing, contrary…

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Ohio State Rep Introduces Bill in Response to 9-Year-Old’s Drag Performance

Anthony Gockowski

State Rep. Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster) has introduced a bill that he says would close a “loophole in child exploitation laws” after a 9-year-old boy performed in drag at a bar just outside of Columbus. Jacob Measley, who performs under the name “Miss Mae Hem,” sparked outrage online in December after photos of him surfaced performing at JD Hendersons bar in Schaffer’s district. Under House Bill 180, the definition of “endangering children” would be expanded to include a “performance that suggests a minor is participating or engaging in sexual activity” that, “taken as a whole by the average person applying contemporary community standards, appeals to prurient interest.” The bill also states that no Ohioan shall “entice, coerce, permit, encourage, compel, hire, employ, use, or allow the child to act, model, or in any other way participate in, or be photographed for, the production, presentation, dissemination, or advertisement of any material or performance that the offender knows or reasonably should know is obscene, is sexually oriented matter, or is nudity-oriented matter.” “Given our heightened focus on human trafficking and the role money plays in trafficking children, I knew I had to take action to make sure this activity does not occur again,”…

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State Senate Fails to Recall Heartbeat Bill

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A majority of Tennessee State Senate voted to table the motion to reconsider the Heartbeat Bill through a recall, putting an end to any further action on the measure during this legislative session. The Senate version of the Heartbeat Bill, SB1236 sponsored by Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) was sent to “summer study” by the Judiciary Committee on April 9. Pro-life supporters fear that the Committee’s action will mean the end of the legislation, as summer study often does. The House version of the bill, HB0077 sponsored by Representative Micah Van Huss (R-Jonesborough), passed the full House on March 7 by a vote of 65 Ayes, 21 Noes and 7 Present Not Voting. As the sponsor of the bill, Senator Pody invoked Senate Rule 63 to recall the bill, and requested that action to be taken last week, as reported by The Tennessee Star. The recall would require a simple majority vote by the members of the Senate. An affirmative vote would put the bill on a future calendar of the Senate so that the whole body could vote on it. When the recall vote did not happen by last Thursday, Senator Pody vowed to request the vote…

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