Day: May 16, 2019

Nashville’s Public Bus Service WeGo Needs $8.7M Cash Infusion or It May Have to Raise Rates or Make Cuts to Routes

Jason M. Reynolds

  Nashville’s bus service WeGo Public Transit is looking at a need to raise rates while cutting hours or frequency of routes thanks to a budget shortfall of $8.7 million, Nashville Public Radio says. WeGo presented its budget to Metro Council on Wednesday. The financial gap is due largely to a reduction in state funding, a dip in fare revenue and higher employee insurance costs, Nashville Public Radio said. WeGo asked Mayor David Briley for $57.3 million to maintain its service, but Briley proposed a budget of $48.6 million. The last fare increase was in 2012. According to WeGo’s fare card, rates start at $1.70. WeGo Public Transit officials told WKRN that this would be the third straight year for a flat funding level from the city. While the budget is not a cut, they are not receiving the amount they requested to cover their expenses. Activist group Music City Riders Unlimited held a rally Wednesday afternoon at 1 Public Square, according to its Facebook page. One post on Tuesday previewing the rally read: Don’t let Mayor Briley pit public services — and the public — against each other. Join us tomorrow, May 15 @ 4:30 at 1 Public Square to put…

Read the full story

Commentary: Which One of the Spygate Rats Will Flip First?

Admin

by CHQ Staff   The news that Attorney General William Barr has tasked Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham to “examine the origins of the Russia investigation and determine if intelligence collection involving the Trump campaign was ‘lawful and appropriate.’” According to reporting by Dan Bongino’s team, Durham has previously investigated corruption in law enforcement and the destruction of CIA videos. Perhaps Durham’s most notable case was his unraveling of the FBI corruption and cover-up involving mobster Whitey Bulger and the Boston FBI field office while Robert Mueller was FBI Director. As Stephen Z. Nemo reported for Communities Digital News, Bulger, notorious head of Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, was allegedly a confidential informant for the FBI. But it turned out Boston-based Special Agent John Connolly Jr. was the one working for Bulger, not the other way around. He and fellow FBI Special Agent John Morris, we now know, were hit men for Bulger’s gang, and Morris even once served as director of the FBI’s training facility at Quantico, VA. Today, the guy Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Stanford Blake said had “crossed over to the dark side,” Connolly sits in a 10’ x 11’ prison cell in a Florida maximum-security facility, convicted…

Read the full story

Murfreesboro Educational Advocate Warns of Left-Wing Bias in Tennessee Public School Textbooks

Chris Butler

  A Murfreesboro resident says she’s found many examples of a left-wing ideological bias in the textbooks that school officials hand out to Tennessee’s public school students. This woman, Jackie Archer (pictured above), also said the textbooks she’s examined seem to glorify Islam at the expense of other religions. Archer is affiliated with Tennessee Rising, as well as Tennessee Textbook Advocates. Archer said both groups look for bias in public school textbooks. “Textbook companies are not local. They are huge multi-national corporations. It’s a multi-billion-dollar business, and the interests are more global than they are local. The standards are characterized in a way that promotes progressivism,” Archer told The Tennessee Star Wednesday. “It’s not all really blatant. It’s more subtle, in the images they choose and the people they choose to highlight. The people they choose to make examples of and the way they identify people. For instance, they avoid identifying any group that does anything negative if they happen to be Democrats.” Archer did not provide photos or screenshots to substantiate what she said, but she cited many examples by memory: • Textbooks allegedly do not mention that slave owners in pre-Civil War times were mostly Democrats and that…

Read the full story

Border Wall Going Up in National Monument, Wildlife Refuge

Admin

  The U.S. government plans to replace barriers through 100 miles of the southern border in California and Arizona, including through a national monument and a wildlife refuge, according to documents and environmental advocates. The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday again waived environmental and dozens of other laws to build more barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. Funding will come from the Defense Department following the emergency declaration that President Donald Trump signed this year after Congress refused to approve the amount of border wall funding he requested. Barriers will go up at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a vast park named after the unique cactus breed that decorates it, and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, which is largely a designed wilderness home to 275 wildlife species. The government will also build new roads and lighting in those areas in Arizona. Environmental advocates who have sued to stop the construction of The Wall say this latest plan will be detrimental to the wildlife and habitat in those areas. “The Trump administration just ignored bedrock environmental and public health laws to plow a disastrous border wall through protected, spectacular wildlands,” said Laiken Jordahl, who works on border issues at the Center…

Read the full story

Presidential Hopeful Sen Liz Warren Pushes Bill Imposing Green New Deal Climate Goals on the U.S. Military

Admin

by Michael Bastach   Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation to conscript the military into the fight against global warming, mandating non-combat bases meet the goals of the Green New Deal. “[C]onsistent with the objectives of the Green New Deal, the Pentagon should achieve net zero carbon emissions for all its non-combat bases and infrastructure by 2030,” the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate wrote in a Medium post published Wednesday. Warren introduced the bicameral bill Wednesday with Democratic Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar. Warren said the military can help “win” the fight against global warming by phasing out fossil fuels at non-combat bases. “We don’t have to choose between a green military and an effective one,” Warren wrote. “My energy and climate resiliency plan will improve our service members’ readiness and safety, all while achieving cost savings for American taxpayers.” “Our military understands that, and it’s time our elected leaders did as well. Together, we can work with our military to fight climate change  —  and win,” she wrote. Democrats have argued global warming comes with national security risks since the Obama administration, in particular during the push to pass cap-and-trade legislation that failed in 2010. The Pentagon listed global warming as a “threat multiplier”…

Read the full story

REPORT: The United States Had Fewer Babies This Year Than in the Past 30 Years

Admin

by Mary Margaret Olohan   The United States birth rate hit a record low in 2018 with numbers reflecting the lowest birthrates in the past 30 years, reports say. A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that almost every age group of women under 35 showed birth rate declines in 2018. The provisional number of births in the U.S. in 2018 was 3,788,235, down 2% since 2017. For every 1,000 women, the fertility rate declined 2% from 2017 to 1,728.0 births. Birth rates had reached a record low in 2017 as well, marking a continuing trend of declining birth rates over the past four years, according to CNN. The report is based on birth certificate information in 2018 which the National Center for Health Statistics processed, but the National Center for Health Statistics is not able to explain why birth rates are declining. “Even though the number of births we’ve seen in 2018 is the lowest that we’ve seen in 32 years, the total fertility rate is at a record low,” said report author Brady Hamilton, according to CNN. These 2018 birth rate numbers are below the necessary threshold needed for population replacement, which is 2,100…

Read the full story

GOP Strategist Bruce Mehlman Predicts We’re About To Enter ‘The Roaring 2020s’

Admin

by Evie Fordham   If the last few years in politics have felt disruptive, that’s because they were — and more disruption is on the way, predicted Republican strategist Bruce Mehlman of lobbying firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas. Mehlman spoke to The Daily Caller News Foundation this week about the trends he foresees in the decade to follow 2020, an era he is already dubbing “The Roaring 2020s.” “People roar at the world when they don’t feel that they’re being noticed or heard or accommodated,” Mehlman said. “In my mind, the voices of concern will continue to grow louder until everyone is roaring in the 2020s about the changes they think are necessary to make them and their families better dealt into the modern world.” Mehlman pointed out that while the real U.S. GDP has increased 112 percent since the late 1980s, real median family income has climbed less than 19 percent. That leaves many voters feeling left behind, with candidates on both the right and left attempting to capitalize on their attitudes. “That was part of [President] Donald Trump’s populist message, as well as many progressive candidates’ message. … You’re seeing the beginnings of a bumper sticker battle in…

Read the full story

Gallatin Official Denies Digital Water Meters Causing Rate Hike

Chris Butler

  The superintendent of Gallatin’s Public Utilities Department said there is no truth to information allegedly circulating around town about digital water meters making water bills skyrocket. “That’s not true. That must be something people are saying on Facebook,” Superintendent David Gregory told The Tennessee Star Wednesday. City officials are currently installing new digital water meters that eliminate the need for meter readers. Overall, the project costs taxpayers $6 million, Gregory said. “But people can get online when we get through with this and see what’s going through their meter. We’re about 85 percent completed with the project,” Gregory said. “Once we’re completed with the project people can get online and see what their usages are and to see the history of it.” On Tuesday, The Star received a complaint from an unnamed source about higher water bills. “The water department is changing meters to new, wireless reading meters,” the source said in an email. “Many people are complaining that since the changeover, their water bills are double, triple, and higher than their usual water bill.” One family, the source said, got a $900 water bill for a month. The source did not have any information to substantiate what they…

Read the full story

Commentary: Keynesian Politics, a Bad Idea That Won’t Go Away

Admin

by William Haupt III   Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.” – Milton Friedman Since man is reactionary, we are a society of laws based on attempts to right the sinking ship rather than to craft a seaworthy vessel. During the Great Depression, a dangerous economic theologian emerged. He postulated what elements failed and how to negate future financial crises. In 1936, John Maynard Keynes, an idealistic liberal economist, set out to prove his theory that government could correct everything wrong in society. To Keynes, if government controlled it, it could not be broken. His work is a dark legacy of progressive thinking that created so many struggling economies today. When the natural synthesis of free markets is disrupted by government, it stifles growth of capital and stimulates socialist thinking. This integer within Keynes illogical socioeconomic equation is the force that defined custodial government. It is the concept employed by politicians today for empire building. These civil dependency platforms are popular since they transfer responsibility from the people to the government. This has been the most pernicious weapon used to exterminate global democracies since the…

Read the full story

Democrats Back Bill to Ban the Sale of Gasoline-Powered Cars by 2040

Admin

by Michael Bastach   Democrats will introduce legislation to completely phase out the use of gasoline-powered cars by mandating that only zero-emissions vehicles can be sold by 2040. “When I take a lungful of air in this moment, it has 30 percent more carbon in it than when I was born,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, the bill’s main sponsor told The Huffington Post on Wednesday. “That is a change that has never happened in a single generation of humankind on this planet.” The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Kamala Harris of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. California Rep. Mike Levin will introduce a House version of the bill, HuffPo reported. Harris, Gillibrand and Sanders are running for president in 2020, and all of them co-sponsored the Green New Deal resolution. However, no Democrat voted for the Green New Deal in March when it came up for a vote in the Senate. Merkley, who also supports the Green New Deal, sees this bill as part of that broad vision of completely greening the U.S. economy. The Green New Deal calls for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions…

Read the full story

Environmentalists Target Oregon Ranchers Pardoned by Trump with Lawsuit

Admin

by Tim Pearce   Three environmental groups sued the federal government on Monday to block the renewal of a 10-year grazing permit for Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond, The Oregonian reports. Western Watersheds Project, the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), arguing that renewing the Hammonds’ grazing permits violated federal regulations. The BLM and Interior secretary did not consider the Hammonds’ poor record, the environmental groups said according to The Oregonian. Dwight and his son Steven lost the grazing permit for their ranch in 2014. The Bureau of Land Management denied their application after the pair was convicted of arson in 2012, for which both served stints in prison and paid a fine of $400,000. President Donald Trump issued a full pardon of the Hammonds in July 2018, springing them from a prison sentence many saw as unfair for the crime. The ranchers were convicted under an anti-terrorism law that carried a minimum sentence of five years in prison. The fires the Hammonds set burned 140 acres of federal land. Federal Judge Michael Hogan cut their sentences shorter, ruling that forcing the Hammonds to serve out the five-year minimum qualified as “cruel and unusual.” After the Hammonds…

Read the full story

Wisconsin Supreme Court to Hear Extraordinary Session Challenge

Admin

by Benjamin Yount   Who controls when the Wisconsin State Assembly meets? The Assembly itself, or the state’s constitution written in 1848? The Wisconsin Supreme Court hear arguments on that question Wednesday. The Wisconsin League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit earlier this year that challenges a number of laws passed during last December’s extraordinary session. “Absent an actual emergency, the Legislature should legislate during their regular sessions,” League Executive Director Erin Grunze wrote in an open letter earlier this month. “The Constitution never intended for the Legislature to be in session nonstop. It contradicts the Constitution, and it does not fit with the Legislature’s own history or the other laws it has passed.” Grunze said the Wisconsin Constitution is clear: There are limits to the Assembly’s power. “The Wisconsin Constitution lays out restrictions on the Legislature, including limiting its convening power. This is to ensure legislators act responsibly and honorably when creating laws,” Grunze added.  But the leaders in the Assembly and the State Senate, Speaker Robin Vos and Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, say they are well within their Constitutional powers to set their own schedule.  “A judge should not violate the Legislature’s basic ability to convene when its duly elected members call…

Read the full story

Senator Lindsey Graham’s Immigration Bill Aims to Fix the Issues Fueling the Border Crisis

Admin

by Jason Hopkins   South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced an immigration bill that addresses numerous issues law enforcement officials say is driving the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. Speaking at a Wednesday press conference, Graham outlined the four main points of his proposal, addressing the “broken and outdated” immigration laws that attracts illegal immigration from Central America. Overall, the bill calls for doubling the number of immigration judges, allowing those in ICE custody to be held for as long as 100 days, more readily deport unaccompanied children, and require those seeking asylum to do so in their home countries. “What I’m trying to do is explain how to stop the flow from Central America, to regain control of our border, and stop a humanitarian crisis that I think is just going to get worse over time,” Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during the press conference. Migrant children, wether they arrive at the border alone or with a family, cannot be detained for longer than 20 days. Leaders within the Department of Homeland Security have long urged Congress to extend this timeline, claiming it forces them to release illegal migrants into the U.S. while their cases are process. An extension to…

Read the full story

Arizona’s Rep. Andy Biggs Drops Bill to End Tax Deduction for Abortions

Admin

by Rachel del Guidice   An Arizona congressman plans to introduce a bill Wednesday that would end a tax deduction for abortions. “For years, the pro-abortion movement has marketed abortion as a form of reproductive health care,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal. “But it’s time for us to be honest with ourselves – health care is primarily a restorative function, one that helps our bodies heal from a disease or ailment. Under no circumstances should health care include the intentional taking of a life. The ‘Abortion Is Not Health Care Act’ is a small step towards ending the federal government’s treatment of abortion as a ‘healing medical practice,’” he added. The legislation, according to Biggs’ office, would not allow taxpayers to count abortion costs toward tax-deductible medical expenses under the federal tax code. According to IRS.gov, taxpayers may deduct medical expenses if they exceed 7.5% of their adjusted gross income. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] “One of the fundamental duties of the federal government is to protect the life of all citizens, beginning at conception. Despite…

Read the full story

Conservative-Backed Ohio House Bill Would Clear Hurdles for Military Spouses Seeking Employment

Anthony Gockowski

  A bill making its way through the Ohio House would make it easier for military spouses living in the state to obtain professional licenses, a policy championed by the conservative Buckeye Institute. House Bill 133, sponsored by Rep. Rick Perales (R-Beavercreek), would grant full professional licenses to military spouses who hold a license from a different state, so long as the requirements of the other state are similar to or stricter than the requirements in Ohio. If the out-of-state license doesn’t meet Ohio’s standards, then spouses would qualify for a temporary license in Ohio. While testifying Wednesday in support of the bill, The Buckeye Institute research fellow Greg Lawson told the story of Brianna McKinnon, who was a certified teacher living in Washington state before her husband was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. “When Brianna and her husband got settled in Ohio, she learned that the state makes it very difficult for military spouses to get an Ohio job license so they can quickly begin working in their chosen professions,” Lawson said. “To get an Ohio teaching certificate Brianna would have to take numerous college courses, take a number of exams and she would have had to pay…

Read the full story

Mother of Minneapolis Man Who Threw Boy from Mall of America Balcony Says Her Son Doesn’t Belong in Jail

Anthony Gockowski

  Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, the 24-year-old man who was “looking for someone to kill” when he threw a five-year-old boy from a balcony at the Mall of America, entered a guilty plea Tuesday that will send him to prison for 19 years. Aranda’s mother, Becky Aranda, however, told reporters outside the courtroom that her son doesn’t belong in jail and that he “needs mental help.” “He don’t belong in jail. He needs mental help. That’s what he needs. He don’t need to be in jail. He’s really sick,” she said. Aranda’s mom Becky Aranda said her son has mental health issues and should not be in jail, but he refused to see family to challenge case pic.twitter.com/klKpgHZ57i — Chao Xiong (@_ChaoXiong) May 14, 2019 Mrs. Aranda also revealed that her son showed up at his sister’s house three nights before the incident and shoved her. “When she called me after midnight, she told me that he had shoved her, which is something he had never done before. She immediately called the police and explained to the police about his mental situation and that they needed to locate him immediately before he did something else drastic to somebody else,” she said…

Read the full story

Ohio Middle School Forced to Close After Refined Uranium Found Inside

Mitch Shirley

  Zahn’s Corner Middle School was forced to close early for the summer due to high concentrations of uranium found inside. Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a nuclear plant in Pike County, Ohio, is the only known source of the high levels of uranium and neptunium-237 found in the school and air. The high levels were discovered by a U.S. Department of Energy air monitor detection building directly adjacent to the middle school. The closure has left parents and teachers in the Scioto Valley Local School District extremely concerned. Earlier this week, Ashley Day, a parent in the school district, was met at home by her son Kendon with some interesting news. Kendon informed his mother that the school will be closed for the rest of the academic year. “I felt anxiety, anger, and paranoia all at once,” she told NBC News. “It’s so scary that my child has been exposed to this because I have no idea how it’s going to affect him.” The now out-of-operation Portsmouth plant was built as part of the United States’ nuclear build up against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. It had been active for almost 50 years, from 1954 to 2001. Following the end…

Read the full story

Ohio House Dems and Republicans Continue Unusual Bipartisan Push

Anthony Gockowski

  Ohio House Democrats and Republicans unveiled a set of bills Monday at a joint press conference, continuing an unusual bipartisan push in the Ohio Legislature after successfully passing a state budget bill. “By working together, we can strengthen Ohio families, give our children a brighter future and create a strong foundation for economic growth,” said House Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes (D-Akron) during Monday’s press conference. Two of the bills unveiled Monday focus on strengthening the state’s foster care system. House Bill 8, sponsored by a Democrat and a Republican, seeks to improve foster caregiver training so foster parents can be trained more effectively. House Bill 14 would establish the Kinship Navigator Program, a new program that would help caregivers locate support services that are available to them. “The state’s done a lot to help those struggling with addiction. What we’re trying to do is make sure we’re also helping others who have been impacted by the addiction crisis,” House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford) said. Ohio’s foster care system is “being stretched to the limit” as a result of the opioid epidemic. In Ohio alone, the number of kids in foster care has surpassed 15,000 and increased by 25…

Read the full story

Tennessee House Republican Caucus Schedules Meeting on Monday to Discuss Speaker Glen Casada, Possible Secret Ballot on Whether He Maintains Support

Laura Baigert

Tennessee House Republican Caucus Chairman Cameron Sexton (R-Cookeville) has scheduled a meeting of the 73 member House Republican Caucus for Monday, May 20 at 2:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at a location yet to be announced and will reportedly be closed to the media. Caucus Chairman Sexton scheduled the meeting after he communicated with almost every caucus member on Tuesday in response to his receipt of a letter dated May 10 and signed by State Rep. Jerry Sexton (R-Bean Station) regarding “A Called Meeting of the House Republican Caucus.” The Tennessee Star has received a copy of this letter. An additional 11 members agreed to sign the letter, according to Caucus Chairman Sexton. “I have received the same signed letter or verified with each individual their name as part of this letter,” Caucus Chairman Sexton said. Those 11 are: Representative Chris Todd, District 73, Madison County Representative Jason Zachary, District 14, Knox County Representative Chris Hurt, District 82, Lauderdale, Crockett and Haywood Counties Representative Justin Lafferty, District 89, Knox County Representative Patsy Hazlewood, District 27, Hamilton County Representative Dan Howell, District 32, Meigs, Polk and Bradley Counties Representative Mike Carter, District 29, Hamilton County Representative Terri Lynn Weaver,…

Read the full story