Day: April 29, 2019

Fight to Stop UAW at Volkswagen Chattanooga Plant Gets Underway

Chris Butler

  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

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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

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  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

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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

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  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

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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

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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

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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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIv51igbOiA   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…

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

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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

Anthony Gockowski

  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

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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

Anthony Gockowski

  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

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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

Chris Butler

  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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