Day: June 16, 2019

Volkswagen Chattanooga Workers Vote No on United Auto Workers

Chris Butler

  Southern Momentum, a grassroots group of Volkswagen Chattanooga workers who oppose the United Auto Workers, has released a statement concerning the results of the election at the facility. Workers rejected the UAW this week by a vote of 833 to 776. “We could not be more excited about the outcome of the election,” the workers said. “We are happy for our families, for Volkswagen Chattanooga, and for our community. What started as just a handful of us grew into a force of hardworking employees determined to better educate voters about the decision before them. And now all of us have spoken. We are grateful for those in the community who rallied behind our efforts and thankful to our fellow workers who joined us along the way. We will continue to advocate for the best interests of our families and for the future of Volkswagen Chattanooga and look forward to getting back to what we do best: working as one team to build quality cars.” As The Tennessee Star reported, one of the primary people fighting for the United Auto Workers to set up shop at Volkswagen Chattanooga reportedly had to settle a slander suit for his part in a nasty mudslinging campaign…

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Commentary: Here’s How the 2020 Election Could Be Stolen

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by Adam Mill   Errant flashlight beams occasionally escape the basement window of the courthouse as off-book campaign workers carefully replace another seal on a box of completed ballots. At two minutes a ballot, the team will barely finish in time to slip away before the early shift opens the building so the sheriff’s deputy can load the boxes to transport for final counting. Suddenly the snap of a light switch drowns the flashlight beams in merciless fluorescent light. The conspirators freeze as a pair of legs descends the stairs. “What are you doing?” A voice asks, half puzzled and half accusing. “Making corrections.” One of the workers responds as he brushes No. 2 pencil eraser crumbs from a ballot. “This is a waste of time.” The consultant tells the workers. “I have a better way.” Such is the scene that might play out in the hours after a future presidential election. Why would workers toil for hours to change individual ballots? The same result was achieved in 2016 when only two people were persuaded to change their votes. These two people, who were totally anonymous and unelected, nullified hundreds of thousands of lawfully cast ballots as they succumbed to…

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USDA Workers Turn Backs to Sonny Perdue After Announcing Relocation from D.C. to Kansas City

Zachery Schmidt

  American Federation of Government Employees turned their backs on Agricultural Secretary Sonny Perdue Thursday while he spoke after the USDA announced its plan to relocate workers from Washington D.C. to the Kansas City region. Perdue announced the same day the reason for moving the Department of Agriculture’s research agencies – the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture – was to be closer to prominent farming areas, according to Politico. “Following a rigorous site selection process, the Kansas City Region provides a win-win: maximizing our mission function by putting taxpayer savings into programmatic outputs and providing affordability, easy commutes, and extraordinary living for our employees,” Perdue said. American Federation of Government Employees members from NIFA snd ERS turn backs on Agriculture Secretary Perdue at session on their unwanted relocation from DC to Kansas City area. #USDA pic.twitter.com/40JlVtuXFl — Jerry Hagstrom (@hagstromreport) June 13, 2019 The USDA believes Kansas City is the “hub” of the agricultural industry, and the move will save taxpayers money. The government agency believes it can save “nearly $300 million nominally over a 15-year lease term on employment costs.” These predicted savings will allow for funding of critical agricultural areas, according to…

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DOJ Says House Democrat’s Request for Trump Taxes Raises ‘Serious Risk of Abuse’

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by Chuck Ross   The Justice Department on Friday backed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a battle with Congress over the release of President Donald Trump’s tax returns. In a 33-page opinion, the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Steven A. Engel, said a request made by the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal on April 3 for Trump’s tax returns “raised a serious risk of abuse.” “The Chairman’s request that Treasury turn over the President’s tax returns, for the apparent purpose of making them public, amounted to an unprecedented use of the Committee’s authority and raised a serious risk of abuse,” wrote Engel. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Mnuchin for the past six years of Trump’s tax returns as well as records from eight of his companies. One of his arguments was that the returns would serve a legislative purpose of some sort. “This request is about policy, not politics; my preparations were made on my own track and timeline, entirely independent of other activities in Congress and the Administration,” Neal said. He said in the request that he wanted to investigate the IRS’s policy regarding to auditing of presidents’ and vice-presidents’ tax returns.…

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US Reliance on OPEC Oil Hits 30-Year Low

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by Michael Bastasch   U.S. crude oil imports from the Saudi Arabian-led OPEC fell to a 30-year low, according to the latest federal figures. OPEC imports fell to 1.5 million barrels per day in March, which is the lowest level since March 1986, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Thursday. EIA said OPEC imports fell “as domestic crude oil production has increased.” “Americans are no longer dependent on foreigners for their energy, and Americans are getting good jobs producing that oil and gas right here at home,” Dan Kish, a distinguished senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The threat against American energy security has shifted from OPEC to the halls of Congress, where members talk of the Green Raw Deal and carbon taxes that could torpedo our energy miracle,” Kish said. The last time Americans were this independent from OPEC oil former President Ronald Reagan was in office and Halley’s Comet was visible in the night’s sky. EIA also noted that U.S. sanctions on Venezuela drove imports to a record low, including periods when the U.S. took no oil from it. The U.S. also imported less from Iraq. Other OPEC members shipped…

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US-Guatemala Talks on Central American Asylum Seekers Hit Impasse

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  Major differences have surfaced between the United States and Guatemala over a proposed agreement to block Central Americans from seeking asylum in the U.S., dashing the Trump administration’s hopes for a quick resolution of talks, according to an internal U.S. State Department report on the first full day of talks Thursday in Guatemala. A three-member State Department delegation traveled to Guatemala in search of approval of a seven-page draft White House agreement that would establish a “safe third country” protocol between the U.S. and Guatemala, as VOA first reported Thursday. Under the terms of the proposed deal, migrants fleeing persecution in El Salvador and Honduras would be forced to request asylum in Guatemala, a gateway to Mexico and the United States. In all but rare exceptions, those migrants who chose to continue north to the United States without first exploring their chances in Guatemala would be returned to their home country by U.S. immigration forces. The pending agreement with Guatemala, if signed, would be the first such agreement between the U.S. and a Latin American country in U.S. history. But the State Department readout on the first day of talks suggested that there had been a “complete misinterpretation” by…

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Commentary: As Great as a Mom May Be, Kids Still Need Their Dads

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by Christopher Becker   “Smokin’ Joe,” a biography of late heavyweight boxing champion and 3-time Muhammad Ali foil Joe Frazier, was recently reviewed by Gordon Marion in The Wall Street Journal. Among the notable details is the fact that five different women gave birth to Frazier’s eleven kids. This occurrence is not uncommon among celebrities. Muhammad Ali, actor and director Clint Eastwood, and comedian Eddie Murphy are just a few who have fathered children with multiple women. Politicians fall prey to this problem as well, with San Antonio mayoral candidate Greg Brockhouse – who has four children with four mothers – being one of the most recent examples. The ideal arrangement for children is that they live with both biological parents 24/7. When two people accept the duty that comes with parenthood, no one else has the same vested interest in the health, well-being, and success of their children. Life happens, though. Some spouses commit acts of inexcusable betrayal. Domestic violence could enter the picture. Non-violent clashes of principle can also make continued cohabitation untenable. Relationships can break down over time and marriages are not immune. Nevertheless, parental breakups don’t absolve us of the responsibility we owe our children. Spending…

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Democrat-Appointed Judges Reverse Deportation Order for Illegal Immigrant

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by Jason Hopkins   A federal court has reversed an illegal alien’s deportation order, a ruling that could have significant implications on how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducts apprehensions. A three-judge panel on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Gregoria Perez Cruz, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, should not be deported. Perez was among many illegal employees who were arrested at a work site and ordered to leave the U.S. The court, however, found that his apprehension was outside the parameter’s of ICE’s search warrant, according to The Associated Press. The subject of Perez’s arrest and deportation order dates back over a decade. ICE received an anonymous tip in 2006 that Micro Solutions Enterprises, a company that makes printer cartridges, was employing 200 to 300 illegal aliens. The agency conducted a raid of their Los Angeles plant after it was able to obtain an arrest warrant for eight employees and a search warrant for employment-related documents. At the time of the raid, around 100 armed agents stormed the plant, blocked all exits, and ordered everyone not to use their cellphones. While women were taken to a cafeteria, men were told to form two lines: One line…

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Sumner County Proposed Budgets Will Require a Property Tax Increase

Laura Baigert

  As budgets for the operation of Sumner County government and schools are set to be approved by the Board of County Commissioners at the regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday, June 17, the proposed spending plan will require an increase in the property tax rate. While the amount of the property tax increase has not yet been established, it is clear through discussions by several of the County Commissioners as well as the County Finance Director that an increase is imminent. A property tax increase would be the second for Sumner County in less than five years, with the last set into place in November of 2014. Both times, the property tax increases coincided with a property reappraisal which happens every five years in Sumner County. All of Tennessee’s 95 counties are on a four-, five-, or six-year reappraisal cycle. Upon the completion of the appraisal of all properties in a county, no matter the length of the reappraisal cycle, the county’s Assessor of Property determines and certifies a property tax rate that provides the same revenue for the County as was levied during the previous year. This is otherwise known as a certified tax rate (CTR) or revenue-neutral…

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WHO Says Ebola Outbreak Not Yet Global Emergency

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  The World Health Organization decided on Friday not to declare an international public health emergency over the Ebola outbreak, despite its recent spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Uganda. The WHO’s emergency committee described the outbreak as “an extraordinary event” of deep concern, but said it does not yet meet the criteria to be designated an international emergency. The panel has only used the label “public health emergency of international concern” four times since the committee was formed in 2005. Those included the swine flu pandemic of 2009, the spread of poliovirus in 2014, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa that begin in 2014, and the Zika virus in 2016. The designation usually triggers more funding and political awareness about the situation. The current Ebola outbreak in DRC has killed more than 1,400 people since it emerged last year in August. This week the virus spread to Uganda and there are worries the outbreak, which is also close to the borders of Rwanda and South Sudan, could spread to further countries. The acting chair of the WHO emergency committee, Preben Aavitsland, said Friday that as long as the outbreaks continues in Congo, “there will be a risk…

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Tim Ryan Says Trump ‘Hasn’t Done a Damn Thing’ for the Economy

Anthony Gockowski

  Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) said during a Thursday night appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah that President Donald Trump “hasn’t done a damn thing” for the economy. Noah began the interview by congratulating Ryan for making the first Democratic debate, scheduled for June 26 and 27 in Miami. “Most people would’ve never given me a chance to get on the debate stage, and here we are. And that’s kind of the beginning of the game. We’re in the game and we’re excited to get our message out,” Ryan said. “Do you really believe you have a shot in this game?” Noah responded. “I know you don’t believe you’re out of it, but why?” “Where I come from—I represent the forgotten communities of the country, and I think if you look at the history of these races—Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump—the winner usually comes out of nowhere,” Ryan said, emphasizing throughout the interview that he represents “the forgotten people.” “I think the shine’s coming off the apple,” Ryan said in regards to Trump’s economic policies. “I think people are saying you made all these promises and you haven’t delivered. And so my argument to the…

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Warren Leading in Minnesota, Klobuchar Polling in Fourth in Home State

Anthony Gockowski

  A new poll shows Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leading the field in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary in Minnesota. According to the recent Change Research poll, Warren attracted the support of 21 percent of respondents, while former Vice President Joe Biden came in second with 20 percent of the vote, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) placed third with 19 percent. Sixteen percent of respondents said they would vote for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) in Minnesota’s Democratic primary, putting her in fourth place in her home state. That puts her in front of South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who polled at 11 percent and four percent, respectively. Younger voters between 18 and 49 preferred Sanders over Warren, while voters between the ages of 50 and 64 preferred Biden as the nominee. Klobuchar polled stronger among older voters as well, receiving 19 percent of the vote among respondents aged 50 to 64. Female voters selected Warren, Biden, and Klobuchar as their top candidates, while male voters preferred Sanders, Biden, and Buttigieg. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) polled at zero percent in Change Research’s poll, along with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI-02) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). “Polling…

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Bill Lee Will Call Special Session to Replace Casada

Anthony Gockowski

  Gov. Bill Lee told reporters Saturday night that he plans to call a special session so the Tennessee House can elect a new speaker. Current Speaker of the House Glen Casada (R-Franklin) announced his resignation from the speakership on June 4, saying he would be stepping down effective August 2. He intends to keep his seat in the House of Representatives, however. In his resignation letter, Casada requested that Lee “call the General Assembly into a special session for legislative business” on the his resignation date, as The Tennessee Star reported. “During the special session, the House may take up the procedural matter of electing a new speaker to lead the chamber,” Casada added. While speaking with reporters at the Tennessee Republican Party’s annual Statesmen’s Dinner, Lee revealed that he plans to call a special session in mid-to-late August. “I’ve spoken with many of the folks in the legislature, and we agree that it’s time to move forward, and the best way to do that is to go ahead and call a session and have a date so we can start making plans to get a new leader,” Lee told reporters, according to The Tennessean. He went on to say…

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