Day: May 2, 2019

Speaker Casada Says Jones Email Was Not Altered by Me or My Office

Chris Butler

  Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada says the NewsChannel 5 report by Phil Williams claiming that the email from Justin Jones was altered is simply untrue and the implication that anybody in his office tried to frame Justin Jones is completely false. “On March 1 the email from Jones dated February 25 was received by my office and it was immediately forwarded, along with a photo of the email that showed the March 1 date that it was received, to the Nashville District Attorney because it appeared that Mr. Jones had violated the terms of the Court’s Order to refrain from contacting me. After it was realized that the date the email was received was a few days after it had been sent, my office notified the District Attorney about the apparent disparity in dates,” Casada said. “The email was not altered or manipulated to falsely accuse Jones of violating the Court’s order,” he added. Casada also explained that he had Legislative Information Services (LIS) investigate and they determined that the email had somehow lagged in delivery for several days within the system. The Tennessee House Republican Caucus released this statement from Speaker Casada late Thursday afternoon: “The allegations made…

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Attorney General Barr Tells Sen. Blackburn Mueller Team Investigated Trump ‘Exhaustively’ and Did Not Find Any Evidence of Collusion or Obstruction

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) questioned Attorney General William Barr on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday. Barr said the investigation was thorough and the allegations against President Donald Trump were proven false. Barr appeared before the committee to discuss Mueller’s report that showed Trump did not collude with the Russians in the 2016 elections or obstruct justice. Transcripts from Blackburn’s and Barr’s exchanges follow. Regarding the politicization of law enforcement agencies:  Blackburn: What seems to have happened at the FBI is that there is a seedy, cynical, political culture within a group that developed, and these individuals, collectively, seemed to think that they could work within the power of their jobs and their roles with the federal government. There was an elitism and an arrogance there and it speaks to a very unhealthy work culture. The video clip is available here.   The Special Counsel team’s investigation and findings: Blackburn: Are they meticulous investigators who will hunt down every witness and every piece of evidence? Barr: I think they are tenacious investigators. Blackburn: Are they devoted to finding the truth? Barr: Yes. Blackburn: Are they masters at taking down hardened criminals foreign…

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North Carolina Teachers Strike in Consecutive Years Hoping for Higher Wages

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  North Carolina teachers took to the streets Wednesday for the second year in a row with hopes that a more politically balanced legislature will be more willing to meet their demands. Teachers, auxiliary staff and supporters marched in Raleigh with scheduled speakers including Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. When an estimated 20,000 people marched for teachers last year, Republicans held a veto-proof majority in the state House and Senate. The results of November’s election changed that, and now Cooper’s vetoes can stand if Democrats remain united. The House budget released Tuesday includes some of the teachers’ demands: higher pay for veteran teachers and restoration of a salary bump for teachers with masters’ degrees. Teachers in neighboring South Carolina also rallied Wednesday and Oregon teachers plan to gather next week as walkouts that began in West Virginia last spring continue across the country, with many proving successful. In Raleigh, teachers were going to meeting spots Wednesday morning ahead of the march and rally. One group of teachers donning red shirts with the North Carolina state outline walked to the state legislative building Wednesday morning. Among them was a seventh-grade student,…

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Emails Reveal McMinn County, Tennessee Principal Lobbied Teachers Against School Vouchers

Chris Butler

  A McMinn County public school principal warned legislators and her teachers that school vouchers are bad and irresponsible parents are the reason public schools are in such bad shape. This, according to a series of emails Principal Angela Miller of Mountain View School in Etowah sent out last month. In so doing, Miller may have violated state law. The Tennessee Star obtained these emails through an open records request. In her emails, Miller traced public schools’ woes back to one source. “It is the downfall of parents not being involved in children’s lives. We have a societal issue with rampant drugs, misuse of government subsidies, and incarceration of parents. Parent engagement needs to be addressed rather than taking funds from public schools,” Miller wrote. “K-12 education plays a powerful role in overcoming terrorism, immigration, economy, and the opioid crisis. Public education is necessary in ensuring an educated people to vote for key political positions.” Miller did not return The Star’s request for comment Wednesday. Specifically, we wanted her to expand upon what she said about parents and to clarify whether she meant to say it’s a public school’s job to indoctrinate kids into taking certain political positions when they…

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Commentary: Why Don’t Climate Activists Support Nuclear Power?

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by Edward Ring   For several days in mid-April, downtown London was paralyzed by thousands of “climate activists” protesting the failure of the British government to act swiftly enough to combat climate change. In mid-March, thousands of students across the United States staged school “walkouts” to demand action on climate change as well. These protests are ongoing, but the underlying logic is hard to see. The primary sources of anthropogenic CO2 are no longer Western nations, which are only responsible for about 30 percent of all global emissions. The biggest single culprit, if you want to call it that, is China, responsible for 28 percent of global emissions, nearly twice as much as the United States, and 28 times as much as the United Kingdom. Rapidly industrializing India, responsible for 6 percent of global CO2 emissions, is on track to become the most populous nation on earth. The chances that China and India will sacrifice their national future in order to reduce CO2 emissions are zero. The same holds for every emerging nation, including the demographic heavyweights Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, along with all the rest. The logic of these protestors also fails when it comes to the science…

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National Security Agency ‘Unmaskings’ Skyrocketed Last Year

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by Chuck Ross   The National Security Agency (NSA) disclosed the identities of nearly 17,000 U.S. residents and businesses to American intelligence officials last year through a legal — but controversial — practice known as “unmasking,” according to a report released Tuesday. The number of unmaskings — 16,721 to be exact — marks a 75 percent increase from 2017, which saw the NSA make 9,529 disclosures to intelligence agencies. Between September 2015 and August 2016, the first 12-month period in which NSA statistics were gathered, only 9,215 unmaskings occurred. The unmasking process has become controversial over the past two years. Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials abused foreign surveillance laws by making unnecessary unmasking requests of Trump associates during the 2016 presidential campaign, as well as during the presidential transition period. Susan Rice, who served as President Obama’s national security adviser, told Congress in 2017 that she unmasked the identities of Trump associates who took part in a meeting with officials from the United Arab Emirates in December 2016. Samantha Power, who served as ambassador to the United Nations, said that an associate submitted 260 unmasking requests under her name in 2016. Some Republicans have accused Obama officials of…

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Border Patrol Arrests 424 Illegal Immigrants at Once in the ‘Largest’ Arrest It’s Ever Made

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by Jason Hopkins   Border Patrol agents nabbed 424 illegal aliens attempting to cross the border in a single group, marking the largest apprehension in the agency’s history. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, agents encountered a large group of “what seemed to be over 400 illegal aliens” near the border town of Sunland Park, New Mexico, according to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release. The group of mostly Central American families and unaccompanied minors reached the border shortly after midnight. Hours after their apprehension, Border Patrol was able to count every individual and determine the group was a record-setting size. “This is an ongoing situation that U.S Border Patrol agents are facing in southern New Mexico: hundreds of parents and children being encountered by agents after having faced a dangerous journey in the hands of unscrupulous smugglers,” CBP wrote in its press release, revealing the massive group traveled with the help of human smugglers. https://twitter.com/CBP/status/1123361746566176769 Border Patrol agents in New Mexico apprehended another large group of illegal migrants shortly afterward. Officials working in the Antelope Wells Port of Entry, about 160 miles west of Sunland Park, encountered 230 illegal aliens around 2 a.m., bringing New Mexico’s…

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Ilhan Omar Blames America for Venezuela Chaos and ‘Devastation’

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by Molly Prince   Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar stated Wednesday American policies were the catalyst for the armed conflict that tore through the Venezuelan capital of Caracas a day earlier, rather than blaming socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro. “You know, I mean, a lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela,” Omar said while on the progressive show “Democracy Now!” “We’ve sort of set the stage for where we’re arriving today.” Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaidó, who is fighting to gain control of the country, called for a military uprising against Maduro in an operation titled Operacion Libertad. Venezuelans have been protesting against Maduro for months, and the U.S. has declared support for what Omar referred to as a “regime change.” Most other Western nations also declared Guaidó to be the legitimate leader of Venezuela after red flags arose during the 2018 election. “This particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela,” she continued. “It certainly does not help and is not in the interest of the United States.” Interestingly, despite condemning America’s…

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Report: Mueller Expressed Frustration to AG Barr About Letter to Congress

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by Chuck Ross   Special counsel Robert Mueller expressed frustration to William Barr about how the attorney general described the findings of his investigation regarding obstruction of justice to Congress, according to a new report. The Washington Post reported that Mueller sent the letter on March 27, three days after Barr sent a letter of his own to Congress laying out what he said were the principal conclusions of the special counsel’s 22-month investigation. The revelation of Mueller’s letter comes on the eve of Barr’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding the special counsel’s probe. Barr said in the March 24 letter that Mueller did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign. More controversially, Barr said that Mueller made no decision on whether charges were warranted against President Trump for obstruction of justice. Mueller neither recommended charges nor exonerated Trump, Barr told lawmakers. But he said that after consulting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Justice Department lawyers, the Justice Department would not pursue a case against Trump, partially because there was no underlying conspiracy claim. President Trump’s supporters touted Barr’s remarks, saying that the Republican was…

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Trump Asking Congress for Billions More in Emergency Border Funding

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by Jason Hopkins   The Trump administration Wednesday requested an additional $4.5 billion in emergency border spending from Congress, a request that will likely face pushback from Democratic lawmakers. “The situation becomes more dire each day. The migration flow and the resulting humanitarian crisis is rapidly overwhelming the ability of the Federal Government to respond,” Russ Vought, the acting White House budget director, said in the request, according to The Washington Post. The White House request includes $3.3 billion for humanitarian assistance, $1.1 billion for border operations, and another $377 million for the National Guard and Pentagon to operate on the border. The appeal comes after acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan told Congress on Tuesday his department needed more money to deal with the influx of illegal migrants pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border. “Given the scale of what we are facing, we will exhaust our resources before the end of this fiscal year,” McAleenan said Tuesday before a congressional committee. An unprecedented number of Central American families and unaccompanied minors have been reaching the U.S.-Mexico border, stretching law enforcement’s resources past the breaking point. Many of the rules and regulations, DHS has argued, are geared for single males from…

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Former UNC Charlotte Student Charged with Murder for Allegedly Shooting Up School

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by Neetu Chandak   A former University of North Carolina at Charlotte student was charged with murder following a shooting at the school Tuesday that killed two. Trystan Terrell, 22, was charged with two counts of murder among several other charges, ABC News reported Wednesday. #BREAKING: Man in handcuffs calls out to @WBTV_News cameras as he's led into police headquarters uptown. Working to confirm he is suspected #UNCC shooter. Police confirm one person is in custody. 2 people are dead, 4 others are injured @unccharlotte » https://t.co/JOmcEoRNkY pic.twitter.com/0OxZ0EV8dI — Mark Davenport (@TheDavenReport) May 1, 2019 “I just went into a classroom and shot the guys,” Terrell said as he was led away in handcuffs by officials, according to The Associated Press. Terrell withdrew from the school earlier in the semester, ABC reported. “You’re describing someone foreign to me,” Terrel’s grandfather Paul Rold said, according to the AP. “This is not in his DNA.” Ellis Parlier, 19, and Riley Howell, 21, were killed in the shooting. Drew Pescaro, 19, Sean Dehart, 20, Emily Houpt, 23, and Rami Alramadhan, 20, were all injured. Three of the students were in critical condition and one had a non-life threatening injury, according to ABC. Gunshots…

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Four Takeaways from House Democrats’ ‘Medicare for All’ Hearing

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by Rachel del Guidice   Democrats pushed their “Medicare for All” legislation in a hearing Tuesday before the House Rules Committee, saying it would provide health care efficiently to all Americans. “Full room at the FIRST EVER hearing on #MedicareForAll today,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., tweeted Tuesday. “A tremendous step in ensuring every single person in this country has quality and affordable health care.” Jayapal is the House sponsor of Medicare for All legislation, while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is the sponsor of a similar bill in the Senate. Sanders’ Medicare for All Act of 2019 could cost $32 trillion over 10 years and rob 181 million Americans of their private health coverage, asserted Robert Moffit, a senior fellow in domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, in a recent op-ed. Here are four takeaways from the hearing. 1. Veterans Called Satisfied With Government Care Dr. Farzon Nahvi, an emergency room physician at NYU Langone Health, testified that military veterans are satisfied with their health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs and argued that bodes well for switching to universal, government-run health care. “I work at a private hospital, a public hospital, and I also work at the VA…

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Pompeo: US Prepared for Military Intervention in Venezuela

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  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the United States is prepared to intervene militarily to stem the ongoing unrest in Venezuela. “Military action is possible,” the top U.S. diplomat told the Fox Business Network. “If that’s what’s required, that’s what the United States will do.” However, he reiterated that the U.S. would prefer a peaceful transition of power in Caracas from socialist President Nicolas Maduro to the self-declared interim president, Juan Guaido, the president of the National Assembly who is recognized by the United States and about 50 other countries as the legitimate leader of the South American country. U.S. national security adviser John Bolton told CNN and Fox News that Pompeo would talk Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about Moscow’s continued support for the embattled Maduro. Pompeo told interviewers that Maduro, in the face of street protests against his regime, was prepared to leave Venezuela for Cuba on Tuesday, but that Russia convinced him to stay to fight Guaido’s call for the Venezuelan military to join him in a push to overthrow Maduro. Maduro and the Russian foreign ministry denied the Maduro departure allegation, with Moscow saying the U.S. claim was part of its…

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William Barr: ‘Surprised’ That Mueller Didn’t Make a Decision on Obstruction

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by Chuck Ross   Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that he was “surprised” that Special Counsel Robert Mueller declined to make a decision on whether President Trump obstructed the Russia probe. During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Barr said that he was “absolutely” confident in his decision not to pursue an obstruction case against Trump. Mueller ended his 22-month investigation on March 22 without making a decision on the question of obstruction. Barr said in a letter to Congress on March 24 that Mueller was unable to make a decision on obstruction, and would neither recommend charges against Trump nor exonerate him. That left the decision to Barr, who decided after consulting with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein not to pursue the obstruction case. “Were you surprised he was going to let you decide?” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham asked Barr of Mueller during the hearing. “Yes, I was surprised,” said Barr. “The other thing that was confusing to me was that the investigation carried on for a while as additional episodes were looked into, episodes involving the president, and so my question was ‘why were those investigated if at the end of the day you…

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Tennessee Congressman John Rose Wants to Protect Senior Citizens from Exploitation

Chris Butler

  U.S. Rep. John Rose, a Republican representing Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District, and U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, a Democrat representing Illinois’ Sixth Congressional District, are carrying a bill to protect seniors from financial exploitation. This, according to a press release Rose released this week. Rose said this is a problem that happens often in Tennessee. Rose and Casten won House passage this week of H. Res. 328, their bill to support combating the financial exploitation of seniors. Older Americans, the press release went on to say, are increasingly targeted for financial scams and it is estimated they lose more than $36 billion every year to scams. The resolution passed with 411 votes of support, the press release said. Rose speaking on the House Floor, said the following, according to a video on c-span.org: “For too long the financial exploitation of seniors has been swept under the rug. It is truly heartbreaking to hear stories of Tennesseans, parents, siblings and friends being taken advantage of, often by those they trust the most. It is time to equip our friends, families and neighbors with the knowledge and tools they need to guard against the heartbreak of their hard-earned security and stability being stolen…

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New Mexico Opens State Migrant Shelter, Criticizes Federal Inaction

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  New Mexico’s state fairgrounds will begin to house migrant families to take the pressure off border cities facing a surge in asylum seekers with no help from the federal government, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Tuesday. Dormitories at state-run Expo New Mexico in Albuquerque will provide temporary accommodation to several dozen migrants, becoming one of the largest migrant shelters in the state, said a joint statement from the governor and Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, both Democrats. Lujan Grisham has called for a humanitarian response to the rise in asylum seekers. “The federal government has not provided shelter or timely adjudication at the border leaving migrants without any means to make arrangements to get to their sponsors or family members in the United States,” the statement said. Migrant shelters in border cities like El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico, are at or near capacity as record numbers of mainly Central American families cross the border to seek asylum. The mayors of New Mexico’s three largest cities – Las Cruces, Albuquerque and Santa Fe – have offered resources to help charities and faith-based organizations care for migrants after they are dropped off by U.S. immigration authorities.…

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Commentary: Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes Claims Obama Knew Nothing About the FBI Investigation and Spying on Trump in 2016

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by Robert Romano   “We learned about it when it was in the report that was appended to the report to Congress at the end of the administration.” That was former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes speaking to PJ Media’s Nicholas Ballasy on April 25 at Georgetown University promoting his new memoir of his time in the Obama administration, denying that the White House had any knowledge prior to Jan. 5, 2017 of the dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele that was commissioned by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign that was utilized by the Justice Department to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant in Oct. 2016 to spy on the Trump campaign. It had that alleged President Donald Trump was a Russian agent and that the Trump campaign had coordinated the DNC hacking and putting its emails onto Wikileaks with Russia. Those were crimes, we now know from the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report to Attorney General William Barr, which were never committed. Per Mueller, “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”…

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Ohio Custodians Sue Kent State and Union for Illegally Deducting Fees

Anthony Gockowski

  A group of custodians at Kent State University are suing their employer and its union representatives, who have continued to illegally deduct dues from their paychecks after they resigned their membership. The custodians, Annamarie Hannay, Adda Gape, and John Kohl, are being assisted in their legal challenge by The Buckeye Institute and the Liberty Justice Center, which represented Mark Janus in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Janus v. AFSCME. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional for government employers to withhold union dues from employees without their “affirmative consent.” As a result of that ruling, Hannay, Gape, and Kohl resigned their union membership and asked the university to stop deducting dues from their paychecks. The union, which happens to be the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said in response that members can only opt-out of union membership “once per year during a 15-day window preceding the anniversary of their signature on a union card,” according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs allege that AFSCME refused to honor their resignations outside of “arbitrary opt-out periods.” “AFSCME is putting money before workers. The union is violating workers’ constitutional rights by denying their resignations…

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Minnesota Leftists Claim Noor Verdict Was Based on His Race

Anthony Gockowski

  Former Minneapolis Police Officer Mohamed Noor’s Tuesday guilty verdict marked an unprecedented moment in Minnesota’s legal history. He was the first officer in the state’s history to be convicted of murder for a shooting committed in the line of duty. The Noor case flipped the racial narratives surrounding police brutality on their heads. Noor is a black, Muslim, Somali immigrant who killed a white female. Many are looking at this as proof that his conviction was racially motivated, including the Somali American Police Association (SAPA). “SAPA believes the institutional prejudices against people of color, including officers of color, have heavily influenced the verdict of this case. The aggressive manner in which the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office went after Officer Noor reveals that there were other motives at play other than serving justice,” the group said in a statement. The organization praised Noor for joining the police force “to make a difference and reflect the community he serves.” “And while historically it has not been uncommon for minority officers to receive differential treatment, it is discouraging to see this treatment persist in 2019. SAPA fears the outcome of this case will have a devastating effect on police morale and make…

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Victory for Governor Bill Lee’s Education Savings Accounts

Laura Baigert

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Victory has finally been achieved for Governor Bill Lee’s Education Savings Accounts program, as both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly finally adopted the same version of proposed legislation by narrow margins. The final adoption of the Governor’s most significant education initiative, the Tennessee Education Savings Account Pilot Program Act, came with its share of wrangling. After weeks of hearings on the legislation, carried by Speaker Pro Tem Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) in the House and Senate Education Committee Chair Senator Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville), navigating the numerous committees and negotiating with the Administration, the two chambers eventually passed two different versions of the legislation last week. Passage on the House floor, though, was drama filled as a 40-minute pause was taken in order to break a 49 to 49 tie by flipping the vote of Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) by taking Knox County out as one of the participating counties. Following the refusal by both bodies of the Tennessee General Assembly to back away from their respective versions of the Education Savings Account bills HB 0939 and SB 0795, on Tuesday the Speakers each appointed five members to a Joint Conference Committee. Senate members of the Joint…

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