Day: June 30, 2019

Trump Meets Kim at DMZ, Crosses Into North Korea

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by William Gallo   Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to visit North Korea, stepping across the border during a meeting at the demilitarized zone with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. After shaking hands with Kim at the Panmunjom border village, Trump walked across the military demarcation line separating the two Koreas. Kim and Trump then crossed the border back into South Korea. “Good to see you again,” Kim told Trump. “I never expected to see you in this place.” “Stepping across that line was a great honor,” said Trump, who invited Kim to the United States for another meeting. pic.twitter.com/bpbcInzUqn — Dan Scavino Jr. Archived (@Scavino45) June 30, 2019 Trump on Saturday had said the meeting would only last two minutes. However, Trump’s private talks with Kim lasted about 50 minutes, turning into an impromptu summit. When Trump emerged from the meeting, he announced he and Kim had agreed to form teams to restart working level talks. “They will meet over the next few weeks and they’re going to start a process and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “Speed is not the object…we want a really comprehensive, good deal.” It is the third meeting between Kim…

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Ridgetop Mayor Accused of Giving Little Public Notice He Would Scrap Police Department

Chris Butler

  The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government has criticized how Ridgetop’s mayor and aldermen had little to no transparency when alerting the public that they might vote to do away with the city’s police department. As The Tennessee Star reported this month, Ridgetop City Council members voted to do away with the city’s police force because of what some people say is the mayor’s hurt ego and his vendetta against the now-former police chief. As The Star reported in March, then-Police Chief Bryan Morris said Mayor Tony Reasoner and Vice Mayor McCaw Johnson were out to cripple his department. TCOG Executive Director Deborah Fisher said on the organization’s website that the public notice given for this particular board of aldermen meeting was vague. “Saying only in the public notice for the June 10 meeting that the meeting was “on the budget and police department” seems to leave out the fairly significant nugget that the board would be voting that night on dissolving it. And there is some question why the notice was not on the website,” Fisher wrote. “Put yourself in the seat of the Ridgetop mayor and aldermen. If you were having a meeting in which you might vote on eliminating the…

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Commentary: For Liberal CEOs, Abortion Is Good for Business

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by Doreen Denny   As more states pass restrictions on abortion, companies are coming out of the woodwork to oppose them. Recently, some 180 companies “employing more than 108,000 workers” purchased a full-page ad in The New York Times under the banner “Don’t Ban Equality: It’s time for companies to stand up for reproductive health care.” Translation: It’s time for businesses to defend abortion. Many of these companies aren’t typically considered far-left organizations. Exactly what message are they sending to women by spending ad dollars to promote abortion? Are they saying babies are bad for business? A closer look at these companies may help to unmask what’s driving this ad. It turns out that only two of them are listed among the top 180 companies offering the most paid maternity leave to women, according to Fairygodboss, a women’s career advancement network. And those two companies are nowhere near the top of the list. In other words, these companies are stingy. They aren’t supporting women; they’re protecting their bottom line. The fact is that parental leave imposes a cost on these companies. The disruptions of time off (even earned) for doctor’s appointments, managing morning sickness, and staying healthy during pregnancy are…

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US, China Leaders Agree to Resume Trade Talks

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by Steve Herman   OSAKA, JAPAN – U.S. President Donald Trump says he will hold off on imposing additional tariffs on China after a meeting with President Xi Jinping that resulted in the stalled trade negotiations getting “right back on track.” Speaking Saturday at a wide-ranging news conference at the conclusion of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Trump said he will also allow American companies to sell to Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant whose software U.S. intelligence has warned could threaten U.S. national security. As far as resolving the overall issue of Huawei, which the U.S. government wants to ban the country’s planned 5G cellular telephone networks, “we agreed to leave that to the end” of trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing. No sanctions relief The Chinese, however, are not getting relief from sanctions already imposed by the Trump administration. “At least, for the time being, we won’t be lifting tariffs on China,” the U.S. president told the news conference. “They would like to make a deal,” Trump said in assessing the Chinese following what he described as “a great meeting” with Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders’ summit. In remarks at the start of…

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Analysis: Is the US Women’s Soccer Team Really Underpaid?

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by John Phelan   The US women’s soccer team is currently playing in the World Cup in France, defending the title they won in 2015. They’ve had an incredible start, scoring 18 goals in the group stage—a record for the tournament—and beating Spain to reach the quarterfinals. Some see this success as fresh evidence in support of the case for equal pay for male and female players. According to a lawsuit filed on March 8 by the US women’s soccer team, their players are being paid less than the men, in some cases earning just 38 percent of their pay per game. The United States Soccer Federation (USSF) denies the pay differences are related to sex. This week, the two groups agreed to enter into mediation to resolve the dispute. Sexist Soccer Pay Gap? The pay gap feud entered the national discussion in 2018 following an impassioned speech from FIFA world champion Abby Wambach. The New York Times reports: In spring 2018, Abby Wambach, the most decorated soccer player in American history, gave a commencement address at Barnard College that went viral. The player who had scored more goals than any other, male or female, in international competition, described standing…

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Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg Donates $1 Million to Planned Parenthood

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by Chris White   Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is donating $1 million to the political arm of Planned Parenthood as the company wrestles with claims of a conservative bias. “I think this is a very urgent moment where the rights and the choices and the basic health of the most vulnerable women—the women who have been marginalized, often women of color—are at stake,” Sandberg told HuffPost on Friday. “And so all of us have to do our part to fight these draconian laws.” She said her decision was motivated in part by recent laws restricting abortion in Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri. Celebrities are also protesting Georgia’s “heartbeat bill,” which outlaws abortion after a child’s heartbeat is detected. “Planned Parenthood is going to fight back in the courts, in Congress, in the state houses, in the streets for women’s health and rights,” Sandberg said. “We all have to do everything we can to protect women.” She previously donated $1 million to the organization in 2017 amid reports that Republicans were planning on defunding the group. The Facebook executive was also a major supporter of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. Her decision comes after conservative…

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Biden Says Race ‘Shouldn’t Be About the Past,’ Defends His Civil Rights Record

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by Shelby Talcott   Former Vice President Joe Biden said the 2020 presidential race “shouldn’t be about the past” Friday before defending his civil rights record. “I want to be absolutely clear about my … position on racial justice, including busing. I never, never, never ever opposed voluntary busing,” Biden said at the Rainbow Push Coalition event in Chicago. “I did support federal action to address root causes of segregation in our schools and communities, including taking on the banks and red-lining and trying to change the way in which neighborhoods were segregated,” Biden said. Biden was confronted on all sides during Thursday night’s Democratic primary debate. California Sen. Kamala Harris hit Biden for past positions on school busing and desegregation. Harris said she was one of the girls who had to deal with segregation on school buses. Biden said he “heard and listened to” Harris, but a debate could not “do justice on a lifetime of commitment on civil rights.” Biden also said the race’s discussion should not be focused on the past. “Folks, the discussion in this race shouldn’t be about the past,” Biden said. “We should be talking about how we can do better, how we can…

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Federal Judge Blocks Billions of Dollars for Border Wall Funding

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by Kevin Daley   A federal judge in California barred the Trump administration Friday night from reallocating $2.5 billion to construct border barriers. U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, an Obama appointee, expanded an earlier order and forbade the government from moving forward with specific border wall projects in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. He also turned the previous order into a permanent injunction. “Congress considered all of defendants’ proffered needs for border barrier construction, weighed the public interest in such construction against defendants’ request for taxpayer money, and struck what it considered to be the proper balance — in the public’s interest — by making available only $1.375 billion in funding, which was for certain border barrier construction not at issue here,” Gilliam’s order reads. Elsewhere in his decision, Gilliam said government lawyers were advancing “an argument that the court should not enjoin conduct found to be unlawful because the ends justify the means. No case supports this principle.” After declaring a national emergency at the southern border, the administration announced it would reprogram the administration will reprogram $600 million from the Treasury Department’s forfeiture fund, $2.5 billion from Defense Department counter-narcotics activities, and $3.6 billion from military construction…

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Just Three Percent of 2019 Dartmouth Grads Support Trump

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 by Ethan Cai   A Dartmouth newspaper found that only three percent of seniors at the school have a favorable view of President Donald Trump. Student-run publication The Dartmouth posted its Senior Survey in early June, detailing various opinions and trends for the graduating class. This annual survey includes the seniors’ political leanings and preferences. “I remember right after Trump was elected, it seriously felt on campus as if someone had died” Tweet This The survey found that only three percent of Dartmouth’s class of 2019 had a favorable view of President Donald Trump. This is down from 2018, where still only six percent of graduating seniors had a favorable view of Trump. Favorability toward the Republican Party as a whole has decreased, as well. While only 13 percent favored the GOP in 2018, even less favored it this year, polling at around four percent. Dartmouth’s conservative student organizations suffered a similar decrease in favorability during the last year, from their already low campus ratings. Favorability toward The Dartmouth Review, the school’s conservative newspaper, fell from 14 to six percent, and favorability toward the College Republicans fell from 14 to just nine percent. Liberal student groups received the opposite response…

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Former Chattanooga Central High School Football Coach Indicted for Theft 

Chris Butler

  Authorities have indicted the former head football coach at Chattanooga’s Central High School on a charge of theft more than $1,000, after they say he pocketed money he wasn’t supposed to have. This, according to a press release Tennessee Comptrollers put out this week. That former coach, Cortney Braswell, is currently a quality control assistant for the University of Louisville football team, according to Comptrollers. “Comptroller investigators determined that Braswell pocketed at least $2,480 in payments he received from two semi-pro football teams that had paid to use the high school’s football field for their home games. The money should have been turned over to the school,” the press release said. “The investigation revealed that Braswell was paid a total of at least $1,480 by a women’s semi-pro team in 2016 and 2017. He was paid $1,000 by a men’s semi-pro team in 2017.” Hamilton County Department of Education policy requires groups seeking to use school facilities to complete a use form and have it approved by the principal and the Office of Risk Management. The form also requires applicants to submit proof of general liability insurance, according to Comptrollers. “Neither team submitted this information to the high school in 2017; instead, they stated there was a verbal agreement with Braswell regarding the use of the football field and rental payments. This created a…

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NYT Op-Ed Calls for Public Shaming of Border Protection Agents

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by Chuck Ross   The New York Times published an op-ed Saturday that calls for border protection agents to face “serious social costs” and public shaming over their work at facilities housing migrant children. “The identities of the individual Customs and Border Protection agents who are physically separating children from their families and staffing the detention centers are not undiscoverable,” writes Kate Cronin-Furman, an assistant professor at University College London. “Immigration lawyers have agent names; journalists reporting at the border have names, photos and even videos. These agents’ actions should be publicized, particularly in their home communities.” In the article, Cronin-Furman proposes a public shaming campaign — which she insists is not the same as “doxxing” — in hopes of forcing border protection agents to quit their jobs. She also said her proposal would deter others from taking jobs as border agents. Tens of thousands of migrants from Central America flock to the border each month in hopes of obtaining asylum to enter the U.S. The influx has tested the limits of border facilities housing migrant children and families. In the piece, Cronin-Furman envisions a scenario where a U.S. government employee who has been filmed at a migrant facility faces…

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Columbia Officials Want Public Art, Including a Mural in Multiple Languages

Chris Butler

  Columbia officials reportedly want a permanent public art display, and one suggestion includes a mural saying “Welcome” in multiple world languages. This, according to OakRidger.com, which did not specify whether taxpayers would have to pay for this public art. The proposed mural “would showcase the county’s diverse citizenship, as well as tourists who visit from around the globe” and cater to people who people who do not speak English, according to the website. Arts Council Chair Ross Jaynes did not return The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Thursday. According to OakRidger.com, no one yet knows what the display will look like or where city officials will place it. “An arts council Columbia Public Arts Project (CPAP) committee consisting of arts council members was formed earlier this year to figure out how, and if a public art display can be done, and what that process would entail,” according to the website. City officials have tasked committee members with finding ideas to generate public interest in the arts, whether it’s murals, installations or other types of art, OakRidger.com reported. The Maury County Visitors Bureau is one potential location for the permanent art display, according to the website. Arts council member Meredith…

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Chick-fil-A Worker Hailed as Hero for Saving Young Boy’s Life

Zachery Schmidt

  A Chick-fil-A employee is being celebrated as a hero for his actions to save a customer’s life. Logan Simmons, a worker at a Chick-fil-A in Flowery Branch, Georgia, jumped out of a drive-thru window to save the life of a six-year-old who was chocking. A young @ChickfilA worker jumped into action when a boy was choking in a car. https://t.co/iFN0IUDyvH TONIGHT AT 11: What the teen told @JustinWilfonWSB about the terrifying moments. pic.twitter.com/KKTlljgW72 — WSB-TV (@wsbtv) June 28, 2019 Simmons promptly acted after he heard the boy’s mother calling for help. The boy had wrapped his seat belt around his neck. “I just jumped out the window and ran straight down to the car,” Simmons told Atlanta’s WSB-TV 2. “It was the quickest option.” Simmons said he could see the boy’s face turning red and losing pigmentation. To save the boy, he took out his pocket knife and cut the seat belt loose to free the young child. The boy’s mom called Simmons an hour later to thank him for his heroic actions. Once Simmons got home from work, he “nonchalantly” told his parents about his day. “He’d been home for a couple of hours and he said nonchalantly,…

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Dr. Alan Keyes and Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin Meet to Discuss Their Shared Pro-Life Agenda

Laura Baigert

  FRANKFORT, Kentucky – Dr. Alan Keyes, a man of numerous political distinctions, met with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin at the governor’s mansion in Frankfort, Kentucky, where their shared pro-life agenda dominated the discussion. Dr. Keyes, who holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard and wrote his dissertation on constitutional theory, ran for president in 1996, 2000 and 2008 and challenged Barack Obama for the open U.S. Senate seat from Illinois in 2004, according to RenewAmerica. Serving as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations and as Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Dr. Keyes was the highest-ranking black appointee in the Reagan Administration. In fact, following their initial, very warm greeting, Dr. Keyes stayed to speak with Bevin and his brother, and the Governor called Dr. Keyes “Ambassador” as they sat at a table in a cozy den-type room in the lower level of the Kentucky Governor’s mansion. Governor Bevin and his staff wear a quarter-sized red lapel pin with an open pair of scissors, representing the updating or elimination of 27 percent of Kentucky government’s regulations and reducing the boards and commissions that numbered 572 down to 375 over a period of two years. Bevin,…

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