Day: June 10, 2019

Stewart County Superintendent Leta Jo Joiner Will Resign After DUI Arrest, Sources Say

Chris Butler

  According to sources, Stewart County Director of Schools Leta Jo Joiner will resign after a drunk driving arrest, but the public does not know when, specifically. School board members last week formally accepted Joiner’s resignation and discussed the process of searching for a new director, sources said. Joiner did not attend last week’s meeting. She submitted her resignation by letter, sources said, adding they do not know if the resignation is effective immediately or if she will remain as director until a set date. Board members will now look locally for a new superintendent, sources said. As The Tennessee Star reported, members of the Stewart County School Board appointed an interim director last month. Members of the Tennessee School Boards Association recommended Stewart County School Board members appoint an interim director of schools now, regardless. Tracy Watson, a retired school administrator, accepted the position as interim director of schools. Watson said she only wants to serve as interim director and will not accept a job as Joiner’s permanent replacement. As The Star reported, authorities arrested Joiner and charged her with driving under the influence. The Clarksville-based LeafChronicle.com said Joiner took the position in Stewart County in 2014. Certain members of the…

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Commentary: Justice Thomas on the Dynamite That Is Natural Right

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by Ken Masugi   If it’s true that “natural right is dynamite,” as political philosopher Leo Strauss wrote, then Justice Clarence Thomas just went nuclear on the abortion debate. While Thomas’s concurring opinion in Box v. Planned Parenthood has received considerable commentary, his deepening of the judicial and, hence, the political debate over abortion demands further elaboration. His reply to the leading threat to the principles of the Declaration of Independence is his latest attempt in a career of restoring its authority. Thomas had argued, “this [Indiana] law and other laws like it promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics.” The Indiana law had barred abortion for the purposes of sex and race selection, and for fetal disabilities. Thomas critics contend he wrongly introduced elements of the now-(justly) maligned eugenics movement into the abortion debate. But recall that Justice Blackmun in Roe v. Wade observed (as Professor David Bernstein reminded me), “population growth, pollution, poverty, and racial overtones tend to complicate and not to simplify the problem.” I would argue instead that Blackmun was trying to obfuscate the issue, whose terrible clarity Thomas was trying to highlight: “From the beginning, birth control and abortion were promoted as means of effectuating…

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Nashville Mayoral Race Reportedly Prompts New PAC

Chris Butler

  A new Political Action Committee has reportedly formed in Nashville, and the people behind it want to use it to influence this year’s Metro election. This, according to a new article in The Tennessean. According to the website, the group consists of “several of Nashville’s business heavyweights” who want “good governance, a collaborative spirit, a pro-business mindset and visionary planning.” “The group, A Better Nashville, was registered on March 29, according to records. Filing documents list Gus Puryear  — general counsel for Asurion — as chairman and Paula Harris — chief marketing officer for Barge Design Solutions Inc.  — as treasurer,” according to The Tennessean. “The Nashville Business Journal first reported on the committee on Friday, reporting that the group has ties to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.” The Tennessean reported that John Ingram of Ingram Industries is involved with A Better Nashville. The Tennessee Star, in 2017, identified Ingram as the lead investor on a 27,500-seat soccer stadium in Nashville that would cost $250 million. This was a project former Mayor Megan Barry championed and supported. Mayor David Briley is scheduled to face off against State Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, Metro Council member John Cooper and former Vanderbilt professor Carol…

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US Treasury Chief: Trump ‘Perfectly Happy’ to Tax More Chinese Imports

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  Treasury chief Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that President Donald Trump would be “perfectly happy” to tax more imports from China if the U.S. leader cannot reach a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping when they meet later this month. “We made enormous progress, I think we had a deal that was almost 90% done,” Mnuchin told CNBC. “China wanted to go backwards on certain things,” which Beijing has denied. “We’ve stopped negotiating,” Mnuchin said, with the next steps depending on Trump’s meeting with Xi in Osaka, Japan at the G-20 meeting of world leaders at the end of June. “The president will make a decision [on tariffs] after the meeting,” Mnuchin said. “I believe if China is willing to move forward on the terms that we were discussing, we’ll have an agreement. If they’re not, we will proceed with tariffs.” Trump has already imposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, but now is weighing whether to tax an additional $325 billion worth of Chinese products, a move that would encompass virtually all Chinese goods exported to the U.S. The world’s two biggest economies have sparred for months over a trade deal, but not been able to…

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Bernie Sanders Stands by ‘Fake Border Crisis’ Comments, Criticizes Trump’s Deal with Mexico

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by Jason Hopkins   Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders dodged questions Sunday when explicitly asked if he would call the situation at the U.S.-Mexico a “crisis.” CNN host Dana Bash asked Sanders on CNN’s “State of the Union” about a tweet he sent Wednesday in which he called the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border a “fake border ‘crisis.’” Bash, however, noted that U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered over 144,000 illegal migrants in May, the highest number in 13 years. “Border facilities are dangerously overcrowded. Migrants are actually standing on toilets to get space to breathe. How is that not a crisis?” Bash asked the Vermont senator. In response, Sanders accused President Donald Trump of wielding a political strategy that involves demonizing illegal immigrants and Muslims in order to divide the country. He then called for changes to asylum laws that bring in “a whole lot more legal staff and judges.” Bash interjected, asking again if he would call the situation a crisis. “It is a serious problem, but it is not the kind of crisis that requires demonization of desperate people who in some cases have walked a thousand miles with chair children,” Sanders said. “It is an issue we have to deal with.…

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Trump Says Twitter Should Reinstate All of the Conservatives it Banned

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by Chris White   President Donald Trump wants Twitter to grant amnesty to the handful of conservative pundits who have been banned from the platform in recent months. “Twitter should let the banned Conservative Voices back onto their platform, without restriction. It’s called Freedom of Speech, remember. You are making a Giant Mistake!” Trump wrote in a tweet Sunday. His post comes amid speculation that his reelection campaign is considering opening an account on a conservative version of Twitter. Twitter should let the banned Conservative Voices back onto their platform, without restriction. It’s called Freedom of Speech, remember. You are making a Giant Mistake! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2019 A senior member of Trump’s campaign told reporters in May that the president was looking into joining Parler, a fledgling social media network created in 2018 that caters to conservatives. The structure of the Parler app is similar to that of Twitter. User posts are limited to 1,000 characters, which other users can then support by “voting” and “echoing,” as opposed to “liking” and “retweeting.” The company is still small. The site has roughly 100,000 users in total. Twitter, by comparison, claims 326 million. Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, is syncing itself deeper into social media platforms like…

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Commentary: The Right Needs to Take Language Seriously

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by Deion A. Kathawa   The Left’s ideas receive a major boost in ubiquity and apparent credibility because progressives control nearly all of the America’s major taste-making institutions: Hollywood, the universities, K-12 education, and the media. Such control allows progressives to set the terms of national debates, demarcating the range of acceptable opinions on any given subject. It gives rise to another ability: the power to (re)define terms by fiat. After all, when the vast majority of the most credentialed people in virtually all of the most influential organs of civil society are saying X, the average person is hard pressed to meaningfully push back and say Y. The sheer saturation of the information space is a formidable hurdle for even the most savvy to overcome. Take immigration, for example. The Left insists, night and day, that true Americans should be perfectly happy to accept virtually unlimited migrant flows through our southern border. Not only that, but compassion demands we accept virtually all comers. Only bigots could want controlled immigration. As for the national interest, surely it’s in our interest to open our country to strivers and Dreamers. See what just happened? Our historical practice of accepting large numbers of immigrants, contingent on the need to build up a young America, has…

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Trump Confident New Migrant Pact with Mexico Will Succeed

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  President Donald Trump claimed Sunday that Mexico “for many years” has not been cooperative to curb the surge of migrants traveling through it to reach the United States, but believes a new agreement will alleviate the problem. The president warned, however, that “if for some unknown reason” Mexico does not stanch the flow of Central American migrants heading north to the U.S., “we can always go back to our previous, very profitable” imposition of tariffs on Mexican exports sent to the United States. “But I don’t believe that will be necessary,” he added. A deal announced Friday calls for Mexico to dispatch 6,000 troops to its border with Guatemala to halt the flow of migrants, while the U.S. gained new authority to force asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their legal cases in the U.S. are pending. Trump said there is one particular provision of the pact that has yet to be disclosed but will be announced “at the appropriate time.” “There is now going to be great cooperation between Mexico & the USA, something that didn’t exist for decades,” he said on Twitter. “Now I have full confidence, especially after speaking to their President (Andrés Manuel López…

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Law Enforcement Announces More TennCare Arrests in Knox, Williamson, and Blount Counties

Chris Butler

  Tennessee officials have arrested more people on charges of TennCare fraud. According to a press release, authorities with the Office of Inspector General and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office charged a Loudon County woman in Knox County with doctor shopping for prescription drugs and using TennCare as payment for the pills. Authorities arrested April L. Finger, 45, of Loudon (pictured, right). “An investigation led to the identification of five different instances in which Ms. Finger failed to disclose to her medical providers that she had been receiving prescriptions for the painkillers hydrocodone and Tramadol from other providers, using TennCare as payment,” according to a press release. “A review by the Knox County District Attorney’s Office led to criminal charges for three counts of TennCare fraud.” District Attorney General Charme P. Allen is prosecuting, according to the press release. OIG officials along with members of the Blount County Sheriff’s Office this week announced the arrest of Jamie M. Frisell, 51, of Greenback (not pictured). Authorities charged the Blount County woman with TennCare fraud and theft of services more than $60,000. “Authorities say she falsely reported her income and marital status for the purpose of enrolling in the taxpayer-funded insurance program,” according to…

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Legal Expert Says Oberlin College’s Response to Verdict Could Hurt Them in Punitive Damages Hearing

Anthony Gockowski

  Oberlin College was ordered by a jury last week to pay $11 million in damages to a family bakery on campus that was falsely accused of racial profiling, but the monetary reward could triple during a punitive damages hearing scheduled for Tuesday. As The Ohio Star reported Sunday: The bakery, called Gibson’s Bakery, has operated on campus since 1885 and had a business relationship with the school until November 2017, when the bakery sued the school for numerous offenses, including libel, slander, and interference with business relationships. The conflict started in November 2016, the day after President Donald Trump’s election, after a black male student was stopped for shoplifting. He and two of his female peers eventually pleaded guilty to shoplifting and aggravated trespassing, but the damage to Gibson’s Bakery was already done. Students accused the business of racial profiling, organized protests outside of its storefront, and distributed flyers on campus that accused the bakery of having “a long account of racial profiling and discrimination.” On Friday, an Ohio jury ordered the college to pay $11 million in damages to the bakery for siding with the student protesters. In response to verdict, Oberlin College Vice President and General Counsel…

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Michigan State Rep Larry Inman Charged with Bribery Is Seeking Treatment for Opioid Use

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by Tyler Arnold   Michigan state Rep. Larry Inman, R-Traverse City, is seeking treatment for opioid use after being indicted on bribery charges. His attorney, Christopher Cooke, said that Inman sought treatment last week and had been using the drugs for several years after he was prescribed the medicine following major surgeries, the Associated Press reported. Cooke said that Inman and his physicians “will continue to evaluate his ability to effectively serve his constituency as his treatment progresses,” according to the report. Inman has faced calls for resignation from both sides of the aisle after he was charged with bribery, extortion and lying to a federal officer. The charges allege that Inman requested money from a labor union in exchange for a vote against repealing the state’s prevailing wage law. The union said it did not provide Inman the money and Inman voted in favor of repealing the law. In the text messages Inman sent to the union’s representatives, he referenced 11 other representatives who were allegedly seeking money. Some of the representatives were named in the text, but those names were redacted from the court documents. Inman was quickly removed from the House Republican Caucus after the indictment and House Speaker…

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Ohio River Commission Opts to Introduce New Standards, Drawing Ire of National Wildlife Federation

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by Steve Bittenbender   A multistate organization in charge of improving the quality of one of the country’s most important rivers voted on Thursday to adopt a new plan on how to ensure states meet water pollution standards. By a 19-2 vote, with one abstention, the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) passed a measure at its meeting in Covington, Ky., that now gives states more flexibility in regulating water standards. It capped a more than more than four-year review process for the panel on how those standards are established. The states represented on the commission are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Richard Harrison, ORSANCO’s executive director and chief engineer, told The Center Square the review came about as the commission looked at the best way to utilize its resources. While the commission, which was established in 1948, had established mandatory requirements for the states, commissioners began to wonder if those regulations were duplicative of federal standards established in the Clean Water Act. Last October, the commission proposed a measure that would have essentially done away with the standards. However, after significant pushback from the public, the commissioners tabled that “and went back to…

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Official Tells Florida Democrats to Expect Recount in 2020

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  The new voter protection director for Florida Democrats told party activists on Saturday that they should assume there will be a recount during next year’s presidential election. “We are going to be prepared,” Brandon Peters (pictured, foreground) told a packed room of Democratic activists at the state party’s Leadership Blue 2019 meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando. Peters, who was hired by the state party last month, said there will be teams of volunteers trained in how to monitor county canvassing boards for recount problems around the state, should one take place in the 2020 presidential election. Florida became famous for recounts after the 2000 presidential election, and last year there were recounts in three statewide races. The Florida Democratic Party is the second state Democratic party in the nation to hire a voter protection director, behind the Georgia Democratic Party. Peters said by July 2020 he hopes to have 15,000 lawyers and volunteers in place around the state to address any voter problems. Those problems include making it difficult for ex-convicts to register after Florida voters last year passed a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to as many as 1.4 million felons and creating earlier deadlines for…

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Sen. Blackburn Calls for More Boots of the Southern Border, Closer Look at Big Tech Business Practices

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is gaining attention for her strong stands on border security and “big tech.” On Saturday, she joined Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on “Cavuto Live” to discuss her trip to the border in El Paso, Texas, Friday to meet with Customs and Border Patrol officials. Blackburn also discussed how Congress should assess the size of big tech companies.   ‘Big tech’ Cavuto called it “an odd confluence of events” to have many Republicans and Democrats agreeing on a subject — the need to watch “big tech.” Regarding “big tech,” Blackburn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said “They are big ad companies. They have pretty much built monopolies in their space and it is time to review their practices and see how much we know about what they are doing with, as I call it, your Virtual You – you and your presence online.” Congress needs to “do a deep dive” and examine the companies’ business practices before making any sort of recommendations to the Department of Justice, Blackburn said. In April, Blackburn said tech companies should embrace “the spirit of the First Amendment,” The Tennessee Star reported. She called out media giants to…

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