by Tyler Arnold The Ohio state legislature will be required to create new maps in time for the 2020 elections after a three-judge federal panel ruled that some district lines were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans. Although House Republicans have yet to issue a formal response, they can appeal this ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Per the judge’s order, Ohio must create new district maps that fix the violations by June 14 and submit the plan to the judges by June 21. These lines will have to be passed through both chambers of the legislature, which have Republican majorities, and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, who is a Republican. New district lines have to take effect in time for the 2020 elections. If the state cannot agree on a plan by the deadline, then the court will designate a special master to draw the lines on its behalf. “Today’s victory ensures that voters’ voices will be restored,” Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio said in a news release. “Ohio voters have been without fair congressional district maps since 2011, and the panel’s decision today means that they will be fairly represented in…
Read the full storyDay: May 4, 2019
Conference Committees Meet to Hash Out Tax, Spending Increases in Minnesota Budgets
by Bethany Blankley With 17 days to go before the end of session, legislative conference committees began meeting Friday to hash out differing proposals for three of the most contentious omnibus bills yet to be voted on by the full Legislature. The Omnibus tax bill, Omnibus Health and Human Services (HHS), and Omnibus jobs and economic development, energy and climate, and telecommunications policy and finance bills are all expected to be revised through the weekend. Omnibus bills include numerous items that might not be passed on their own and only require a single legislative vote. The House Omnibus HHS bill alone is 1,043 pages long. Both Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal and the Democratic House spending plan raise taxes at a time when the state’s tax revenue is at a record high with an expected billion-dollar surplus. The House plan includes new payroll taxes, new licensing fees and government mandates, in addition to other measures, which the Department of Revenue states would hurt low-income Minnesotans the most. The department’s report estimates that individuals earning less than $14,528 annually would pay an extra $2.37 for every $100 of income, more than double what the highest income earners would pay. On…
Read the full storyLeftist Mainstream Media and Immigrants’ Rights Groups Take Their Claws Out Against Memphis Judge Jim Lammey
Memphis Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey said he dispenses justice regularly to gang members who, in his words, “would cut your throat for what you have in your pockets.” Lammey also said he angers people when he sends their sons off to prison for 25 to 30 years. But one of Lammey’s recent Facebook posts angered two possibly more ferocious and determined groups of people — immigrant rights groups and the left-leaning mainstream media. As several Memphis media outlets and even Newsweek reported, people unloaded a torrent of anger after Lammey shared an article from someone later revealed as a Holocaust denier. According to The Memphis Commercial Appeal, Lammey treats Hispanic defendants different in court and makes them register with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “The media is not concentrating on the fact that these people are illegal aliens. They just want to focus on how bad of a guy I am. They are switching the narrative from ‘Are these people following the law?’ to ‘He is not being fair and impartial, and he’s treating illegal aliens different because they are illegal aliens,’” Lammey told The Tennessee Star. “But all I’m doing is enforcing the law as it…
Read the full storyCommentary: Jeb! Goes ‘Full Bush’ on Sanctuary Cities
by George Rasley Jeb Bush is to Republican politics what the little mechanical moles are to the arcade game Whack-A-Mole; an annoyance that bursts forth according to some malevolent algorithm and the faster you beat it down the quicker it pops back up. With the Florida legislature about to pass a bill prohibiting Florida local governments from implementing so-called sanctuary policies, Jeb! has surfaced to opine that sanctuary cities in Florida were “not a problem.” (Despite Jeb Bush’s opposition the bill passed yesterday and Florida now has a tough anti-sanctuary city law.) Said the former governor and failed Republican presidential candidate: This is one of those new political issues where it’s designed to make a point rather than to solve a problem. I’m not sure we have this problem. But it could be in the last few years something has changed. As our friend John Binder of Breitbart documented, this is what the Democrats have been saying before and during the current debate in the legislature, and it’s not true. As Binder pointed out, the left-leaning fact-checking site PolitiFact debunked Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum’s claim that there were no sanctuary cities in the state, writing, “Whether Florida has sanctuary…
Read the full storyDemocrats Violated the State Constitution and House Rules When They Walked out of the House Chambers
Despite media reports suggesting otherwise, when Democrats left the House floor and walked out of the chambers during session, it was they who were in violation of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee and House Rules of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly, not House Speaker Glen Casada. News Channel 5 reported, “Democratic lawmakers locked inside House chambers.” News Channel 3’s report titled “Democrat lawmakers locked in House Chamber in Nashville,” said “Democrats are calling what happened a lawless act. Republicans say it was well within the law and necessary.” Footage in the News Channel 3 report showed people crowding the House Chamber doors and the two visible Sergeants-At-Arms, who were just following the Speakers orders, backed up to the doors. The video captured Joel Ebert of The Tennessean joining in, recording with his phone and asking the Sergeant-At-Arms, “Why aren’t we allowed out? Why aren’t we allowed out of the chamber?” Also included was Democrat Caucus Chair Representative Mike Stewart of Nashville telling reporters, “The lawlessness and the culture of arrogance that we’ve seen demonstrated throughout this session in ways that have no precedence just was lifted to an entirely new level where you actually had a member, Representative…
Read the full storyConference Committees Meet to Hash Out Tax, Spending Increases in Minnesota Budgets
by Bethany Blankley With 17 days to go before the end of session, legislative conference committees began meeting Friday to hash out differing proposals for three of the most contentious omnibus bills yet to be voted on by the full Legislature. The Omnibus tax bill, Omnibus Health and Human Services (HHS), and Omnibus jobs and economic development, energy and climate, and telecommunications policy and finance bills are all expected to be revised through the weekend. Omnibus bills include numerous items that might not be passed on their own and only require a single legislative vote. The House Omnibus HHS bill alone is 1,043 pages long. Both Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s budget proposal and the Democratic House spending plan raise taxes at a time when the state’s tax revenue is at a record high with an expected billion-dollar surplus. The House plan includes new payroll taxes, new licensing fees and government mandates, in addition to other measures, which the Department of Revenue states would hurt low-income Minnesotans the most. The department’s report estimates that individuals earning less than $14,528 annually would pay an extra $2.37 for every $100 of income, more than double what the highest income earners would pay. On…
Read the full storyWilliam Barr Made a Major Disclosure in His Senate Hearing That Hardly Anyone Noticed
by Chuck Ross In a little-noticed exchange during his Senate hearing Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr made a surprising disclosure that could allow the public and press to obtain sensitive details about the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. During a back-and-forth with Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, Barr identified Alexander Downer, a former Australian diplomat, as the FBI’s source for the information that sparked the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation into George Papadopoulos and other Trump campaign associates. The federal government had not officially identified Downer as the source until Wednesday. His role in the investigation was publicly known, but only through press reports and his own statements to the media. Federal agencies could deny requests for information about Downer and his role in the opening of “Crossfire Hurricane,” the FBI’s name for the counterintelligence investigation, without official confirmation from U.S. government officials. That all changed on Wednesday, according to Bradley Moss, the deputy executive director of the James Madison Project, a transparency group that handles national security-related lawsuits. “That disclosure by the Attorney General would certainly assist any FOIA litigant seeking additional details about the origins of the Russia investigation, as it appears to be the first time the U.S.…
Read the full storyCommentary: Deplatforming and Social Media Bias Toward the Left Could Lead to One-Party Rule
by Robert Romano Thanks to social media and big tech companies, finding content on the Internet that you want has never been easier. Want to find your friends and family online? Log onto Facebook. Want to see what opinion leaders or celebrities are up to? Check out Twitter. Want to find your favorite podcast? There’s Youtube or Apple. Want to go shopping or sell something? Amazon. Want to research something? Google it. It’s all there at your fingertips, and new and old media platforms have largely been net beneficiaries in the information age. Ideally, this has created a true marketplace of ideas and is most certainly the main attraction of the Internet — that is, so long as it remains a venue open to alternative perspectives. That is the upside. The downside comes once these companies have achieved dominant market positions and can decide to offer competitive advantages to one side of the debate over others, even on the margins. Silo viewpoints deemed undesirable to keep them inside of echo chambers. Shadowban users without them knowing it. Or, deplatform users with millions of followers with no avenue of appeal. It’s called censorship. And more and more, conservatives are complaining…
Read the full storyPJTN’s Founder, Laurie Cordoza Moore Continues Her Crusade to Oust Omar in D.C. at ‘Jexit’
On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – the duo spoke intently with Laurie Cordoza Moore from PJTN.org about her continued petition to demand the removal of Ilhan Omar from the United States Congress. Further into the segment, Gill and Cordoza discussed the recent anti-Semitic cartoons in the NY Times and how this was a red flag for Jews who are already starting to flee the Democratic party. Gill: She’s back in the news, not Laurie Cordoza Moore she is sometimes as well, but Ilhan “some people` did something” Omar is back in the news basically showing her racist approach that this should not be a country of white people and that basically we all be bowing and scraping to Sharia or be out of here. She’s wanting to impose her Sharia law on America and this is just yet another reason why this woman has no business being in Congress much less on the House Foreign Relations Committee. And Laurie Cordoza Moore, Chairman of PJTN.org has a petition up to try and urge her removal from the…
Read the full storyFacebook Bans Several Personalities for Hate Speech
The hugely popular social media site Facebook has banned Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and several others for hate speech. Facebook said Thursday that the individuals violated its policy against instigating violence. “Individuals and organizations who spread hate or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are have no place on Facebook … regardless of ideology,” a spokeswoman said. They are also barred from Facebook’s photo-sharing site, Instagram. Facebook did not say whether any specific posts from those named led to the ban. Jones is best known for theories claiming the government was behind the 9/11 terror attacks and that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut in 2012 was a hoax. He angrily responded to the ban, saying Facebook had “defamed” him. Another far-right commentator banned, Paul Joseph Watson, has been accused of racism and intense hatred of Muslims. He said he did not break any of Facebook’s rules and called on like-minded commentators to pressure the Trump administration to take action on their behalf. Farrakhan, the veteran leader of the black nationalist group Nation of Islam, has long been accused of anti-Semitism and black…
Read the full storyBaltimore Mayor Resigns Amid Corruption Charges
The Baltimore mayor resigned Thursday amid corruption allegations tied to her self-published series of children’s books. An attorney for Catherine Pugh read a written statement from the mayor to reporters Thursday, in which she said, “I am sorry for the harm that I have caused to the image of the city of Baltimore and the credibility of the office of the mayor.” Pugh has not been seen in public since April 1, taking a leave of absence after suffering from pneumonia. Her resignation comes a week after the FBI and tax agents raided her home, City Hall office and a third location. Pugh is accused of ethics violations after the University of Maryland Medical System paid her $500,000 for thousands of copies of her books for children about the adventures of a character called Healthy Holly. The books were supposed to be sent to schools and day care centers, but hardly anyone has seen copies of it. Before becoming mayor in 2016, Pugh served on the medical system’s board and had a seat on a Maryland State Senate panel that funded the system. She called the book deal a “regrettable mistake.” While she was mayor, the health insurance company…
Read the full storyScientists Develop Drug That Prevents Spread of HIV, Study Reveals
by Grace Carr Scientists reported that an antiretroviral drug prevented the spread of HIV in 1,000 sexually active homosexual couples, according to an eight-year study conducted in Europe. The authors published their findings in the Lancet medical journal Thursday, Reuters reported. Researchers followed 1,000 couples, each composed of one HIV-positive partner and one HIV-negative partner. The couples were sexually active and did not use condoms during intercourse, according to the researchers. Despite a lack of protection, none of the HIV-negative men reportedly contracted HIV. The HIV-positive men underwent antiretroviral therapy to suppress the AIDS virus, allowing them to engage in intercourse without transmitting the virus. HIV is a virus spread through bodily fluids that attacks the immune system, specifically CD4 cells, according to HIV.gov. Over time, the virus renders the body unable to fend off infections and disease. HIV is largely spread through sexual intercourse and shared syringe use. Mothers can, however, spread the virus to their babies by breast-feeding. The researchers followed the couples for eight years and found that no HIV-negative men contracted HIV from their partners taking antiretroviral drugs. The scientists estimate that the treatment prevented approximately 472 HIV transmissions over eight years, according to Reuters.…
Read the full storyFLASHBACK: Bernie Asks Group Of Young Children, ‘Anyone Ever Seen Cocaine?’
by Henry Rodgers Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a 2020 presidential candidate, once asked a group of children if they had ever seen cocaine and if they smoked cigarettes when he was the mayor of Burlington, while talking to kids as a part of his old television show. In an episode of Sanders’s show “Bernie Speaks with the Community,” which was created in the 1980s, he is sitting on top of a wooden picnic table with a microphone speaking with a group of children about a variety of issues, with a focus on drugs. Politico obtained footage of the show and released it Friday. “Do any of the older kids you know have some problems with drugs?” Sanders asked the children. “Who wants to talk to me about that? What about drugs? Is that a problem?” “I like coke!” one little boy said. “Tell me about that,” Sanders asked. “I like Coca-Cola!” the boy corrects himself. “Oh, Coca-Cola. Alright, but who knows about cocaine?” Sanders continued. “Anyone ever seen cocaine? Do any of the kids know people who use drugs like that?” Sanders asked. “You don’t have to tell me who, but I bet you do.” A couple children at…
Read the full storyDonald Trump Has Put More Than 100 Judges on the Federal Bench
by Kevin Daley The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s 100th judicial nominee Thursday, passing a symbolic threshold meant to signal the GOP’s determined push to staff the federal judiciary with conservative jurists. As of this writing, the president has appointed 102 judges to the federal bench. That total includes 63 trial judges, 37 appeals judges and two Supreme Court justices. “Today marks an incredible milestone as the Senate confirmed President Trump’s 100th judicial nominee,” said Carrie Severino, chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network. “This is a big win for the country to have judges who fairly apply the law and adhere to the Constitution sitting on our nation’s most prized courts.” Though Trump and the Senate Republican caucus have processed nominees with stunning proficiency, the administration has not yet overcome left-leaning majorities on many federal appeals courts, while a burgeoning number of trial court vacancies present a daunting challenge. The Senate reached the 100-judge mark with the confirmation of Rodolfo “Rudy” Armando Ruiz to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on a 90-8 vote. Ruiz is a state court judge and a member of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that advises the…
Read the full storyUS Adds Robust 263K Jobs, Unemployment at 49-Year Low
U.S. employers added a robust 263,000 jobs in April, suggesting that businesses have shrugged off earlier concerns that the economy might slow this year and anticipate strong customer demand. The unemployment rate fell to a five-decade low of 3.6% from 3.8%, though that drop partly reflected an increase in the number of Americans who stopped looking for work. Average hourly pay rose 3.2% from 12 months earlier, a healthy increase though unchanged from the previous month. Friday’s jobs report from the Labor Department showed that solid economic growth is still encouraging strong hiring nearly a decade into the economy’s recovery from the Great Recession. The economic expansion is set to become the longest in history in July. Many businesses say they are struggling to find workers. Some have taken a range of steps to fill jobs, including training more entry-level workers, loosening educational requirements and raising pay. The brightening picture represents a sharp improvement from the start of the year. At the time, the government was enduring a partial shutdown, the stock market had plunged, trade tensions between the United States and China were flaring and the Federal Reserve had just raised short-term interest rates in December for a…
Read the full storyCommentary: The New Social Contract We Must Reject
By Bruce P. Frohnen and Ted V. McAllister America’s public life is disordered; our discourse toxic. Competing lists of scandals and abuses (calls for impeachment, “nuclear options,” attacks on free speech, and so on) are long and shop-worn—and often miss the real issue that something profound, systemic, and dangerous has happened to our nation. A hostile ideology now permeates the institutions that inculcate our children’s values, that shape or manufacture public opinion, and that supply the public with our only menu of political options from which to choose. In effect, our ruling class has declared a new social contract, and they expect us to accept in silent acquiescence. A social contract reveals itself in action, not ideas, and the true nature of the new, progressive contract emerges in countless examples of applied tyranny rather than its rhetoric of liberation. If we allow this new social contract to become our national norm, we will no longer be Americans in any meaningful sense. We will descend from a self-governing people into the subjects of social democratic elites who will dictate what kinds of political, economic, and social relationships we have with one another and with our new rulers. American public life…
Read the full storyAFC’s Shaka Mitchell Talks to The Tennessee Star Report About the Education Savings Account Bill Passing and Potential Future Litigation
On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – hosts Gill and Leahy welcomed Shaka Mitchell, Tennessee Director the American Federation for Children to the show to talk about the Gov. Lee’s education savings account legislation finally passing. Towards the end of the segment, the men questioned whether or not the bill might face future litigation since the House and Senate had opposing views on the illegal alien aspect of the bill. The education savings account is expected to be signed immediately by Governor Bill Lee. Gill: Teachers are apparently on a sick out in Davidson County today. Protesting that they’re not getting as big a pay raise as they would like. They want a ten percent pay raise instead of the three percent that Davidson County has apparently budgeted. Well, see if that will help spur more people to leave the public schools where the results are bad and the teachers are demanding more pay with the Education Savings Account coming to Davidson County in a couple of years. One of the guys that was behind that successful…
Read the full storyOhio District Lines Unconstitutional, Must Create New Maps for 2020 Elections
by Tyler Arnold The Ohio state legislature will be required to create new maps in time for the 2020 elections after a three-judge federal panel ruled that some district lines were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to favor Republicans. Although House Republicans have yet to issue a formal response, they can appeal this ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Per the judge’s order, Ohio must create new district maps that fix the violations by June 14 and submit the plan to the judges by June 21. These lines will have to be passed through both chambers of the legislature, which have Republican majorities, and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, who is a Republican. New district lines have to take effect in time for the 2020 elections. If the state cannot agree on a plan by the deadline, then the court will designate a special master to draw the lines on its behalf. “Today’s victory ensures that voters’ voices will be restored,” Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio said in a news release. “Ohio voters have been without fair congressional district maps since 2011, and the panel’s decision today means that they will be fairly represented in…
Read the full storyOhio’s Revised Budget Proposal Makes Tax Code ‘Fairer’ But Punishes Small Businesses Retroactively, Conservatives Say
A revised state budget proposal unveiled Thursday by House Republican leadership would introduce substantial income tax cuts for Ohioans but would do so by eliminating tax breaks for small businesses. The budget plan, House Bill 166, builds off of the budget proposal put forward by Gov. Mike DeWine, who said Friday that the bill sticks to the “essential principles” of his proposal. Under the proposal, Ohio’s lowest tax brackets would be completely eliminated, such that earners who make $22,250 or less annually wouldn’t pay any state income taxes. The state’s middle two brackets would also see significant reductions in income taxes. But these income tax reductions would be partially paid for by cutting down on the state’s small business tax deduction. Currently, small businesses don’t pay taxes on the first $250,000 of income, but that would be lowered to $100,000 under the new budget proposal. “We shouldn’t try to pick winners and losers. What we should try to do is set a balanced field out there and let people compete in business,” House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) said when unveiling the proposal. The Buckeye Institute, an Ohio-based conservative think tank, believes that Republicans are making a mistake in not…
Read the full storyPolling Continues to Show Strong Opposition to 20-Cent Gas Tax Increase
Veteran political reporter Tom Hauser was chastised in December by at least one state representative when he correctly pointed out that all but one recent poll showed opposition to a gas tax increase. Hauser said at the time that “nearly ever poll,” with the exception of one Star Tribune poll, showed that a majority or plurality of Minnesotans opposed an increase in the state’s gas tax, as The Minnesota Sun reported. He noted that “every KSTP/SurveyUSA poll in the last 15 years” found opposition to an increase. Polling has continued to confirm Hauser’s analysis. A late April poll from the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and the Minnesota Business Partnership found that 65 percent of Minnesotans oppose Gov. Tim Walz’s proposed 20-cent gas tax hike. Now, a new poll conducted for the Center of the American Experiment by Meeting Street Research has found similar results. The poll, published in the latest issue of Thinking Minnesota, found that 60 percent of Minnesotans oppose the 20-cent increase, and 45 percent are strongly opposed. Just 35 percent of respondents said they support the increase, and an even smaller 17 percent “strongly” support it. The 20-cent increase, which was approved Monday by the Minnesota…
Read the full storyOver 1,400 Metro Nashville Teachers, Staff Scoff at Proposed Three Percent Raise, Call Out Sick Friday
More than 1,400 Metro Nashville Public Schools teachers and school staff scoffed at receiving a 3 percent pay raise and called out sick Friday, WKRN said. A total of 1,093 teachers and over 400 staff members from at least 18 schools called out. McGavock High School was one of the hardest hit, with 125 of 141 teachers staying home, WKRN said. Metro Nashville Public Schools denied all the absences were due to the strike. Mayor David Briley proposed a 3 percent raise during his State of Metro speech Tuesday, WKRN said. Teachers had demanded a 10 percent increase. The proposed city budget is $2.33 billion, a 4.55 percent increase over the current year, Nashville Public Radio said. Briley is calling for $101.5 million in new spending, with most going to Metro Schools ($28.2 million), salaries ($23.3 million) and debt service ($44.1 million). Mayoral candidate Carol Swain said in a press release she stands with the 1,400-plus teachers. “MNPS’s sickout is another glaring symptom of a broken system,” Swain said. “As Nashville’s next mayor, I would work with teachers, parents, school board members and other stakeholders to identify and creatively address the broken system where teachers and low-wage employees have become afterthoughts.…
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