Month: June 2019

Climate Change, Open Borders Top Priorities in Klobuchar’s Plan for First 100 Days

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by Kyle Hooten   Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar’s campaign posted an agenda to Medium Tuesday for her first 100 days in office, should she win the 2020 presidential election. Several measures to relax immigration law rank among her top priorities. The Minnesota Senator stated she would also rejoin the Paris Agreement, ban “assault weapons,” raise the minimum wage and promote socialized medicine. Last February, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over the immigration crisis. In doing so, he “used authority provided by Congress to access up to $3.6 billion in military construction funds provided by Congress” to secure the southern border, according to a White House release. “Senator Klobuchar will rescind [Trump’s] national emergency declaration,” and bar the use of military construction funds on the southern border, her Medium post states. In addition to diverting money away from border security, Klobuchar hopes to actively increase refugee intake. “Under President Trump, the State Department has dramatically lowered the annual cap on the number of refugees that can be resettled in the United States. Senator Klobuchar will direct the State Department to restore the cap to at least its pre-Trump Administration level,” her agenda reads. She further vows to “put…

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Commentary: Why Wasn’t Everyone Looking for Hillary’s Missing Emails?

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by Julie Kelly   Just like in 2016, President Trump appears ready to make Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails an election issue in 2020. “Just compare how they came after us for three years, with everything they have, versus the free pass they gave to Hillary and her aides after they set up an illegal server, destroyed evidence, deleted and acid-washed 33,000 emails, exposed classified information,” Trump told a raucous crowd in Orlando on Tuesday night. “Thirty-three thousand emails! But let’s see what happens.” Even if the media and Democrats are poised to dismiss the missing cache as old news, Trump sure isn’t. Perhaps his renewed attention to the scandal will jigger long-dormant curiosity for why Clinton continues to escape any responsibility for erasing thousands of emails that the public, federal officials, and investigators have never seen. The Media’s Dumb Play One of the weirdest attacks against President Trump, going back to 2016, asserts that he asked the Russians to help find the thousands of emails Hillary Clinton deleted from her personal server the month before she announced her candidacy for president. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said during…

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Ilhan Omar Says Trump Uses Term ‘Alien’ to Dehumanize Immigrants

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by Jason Hopkins   Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar said no individual is an “alien,” and that President Donald Trump uses the word to justify human rights abuses. “No one is an ‘alien.’ This is family separation on a massive scale,” Omar tweeted Tuesday. “Dehumanizing immigrants and tearing apart families will not make us any stronger. It will only destroy lives, traumatize children, and make our country less safe.” In response to massive online criticism, the first-term Democratic lawmaker doubled down on her remarks. “To the trolls: Trump uses dehumanizing language like ‘aliens’ ‘illegals’ or even ‘animals’ to justify horrific human rights abuses against migrants. The DOJ now mandates that public officials only use the term ‘illegal aliens.’ This is straight out of the demagogue’s playbook,” she wrote. No one is an "alien." This is family separation on a massive scale. Dehumanizing immigrants and tearing apart families will not make us any stronger. It will only destroy lives, traumatize children, and make our country less safe. https://t.co/a8q9YV3AGX — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) June 18, 2019 To the trolls: Trump uses dehumanizing language like "aliens" "illegals" or even "animals" to justify horrific human rights abuses against migrants. The DOJ now mandates that…

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Study: The US Is No Longer the Top Destination for Refugees

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by Jason Hopkins   The United States is no longer the top destination for the world’s refugees, falling from its number one position for the first time in nearly 40 years. In what appears to be a historical turnaround, Canada surpassed the U.S. in the number of refugees it accepted into its country in 2018, according to a newly released study from the Pew Research Center. Canada resettled a total of 28,000 refugees in 2018. In comparison, the U.S. resettled only 23,000 — a substantial decrease from the 33,000 that were accepted in 2017. “Until 2017, the U.S. resettled more refugees each year than the rest of the world’s countries combined,” the study noted, using data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The once-unwavering trend began when the U.S. first established the Refugee Act of 1980. However, this trend was broken when President Donald Trump chose to drastically lower the amount of refugees allowed into the U.S. The Trump administration set the 2018 refugee cap at 45,000 — nearly half of the 85,000 cap former President Barack Obama set for the 2016 fiscal year. The new threshold, according to the Pew Study, was not even close to being…

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Ocasio-Cortez’s Wealthy Chief of Staff Avoids Disclosing His Finances

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by Andrew Kerr   Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s wealthy chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, did not file a disclosure revealing his net worth and outside income earned in 2018, despite the congresswoman having the legal means to compel him to do so. Chakrabarti cofounded two PACs — Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats — that were instrumental to the New York Democrat’s electoral rise. The political action committees funneled over $1 million to an LLC Chakrabarti controlled during the 2018 midterms. A complaint filed in March with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) called the operation “an elaborate scheme to avoid proper disclosure of campaign expenditures.” Ocasio-Cortez announced in February that she was capping her staff salaries at $80,000, meaning that nobody on her payroll, including Chakrabarti, would earn the senior pay rate of $126,000 that requires congressional staffers to publicly disclose their finances, the Washington Examiner previously reported. But the House Ethics Committee requires every representative to have at least one staffer file a financial disclosure. Members such as Ocasio-Cortez that don’t pay any of their employees at the senior pay rate must designate at least one so-called principal assistant who is required to disclose their finances. Representatives have broad latitude…

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Sen. Marsha Blackburn Encourages Conservative College Students to Stay Strong Against Leftist Attacks

Chris Butler

  U.S. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee says conservative college students should feel encouraged as they contend with hostile leftist professors and leftist classmates on campus. “Be encouraged. Be grateful you are someone who does not fall in line with the liberal dictate of the day,” Blackburn told CampusReform.org this week. “That you know who you are and what you stand for and don’t ever ever ever let anybody sit down and tell you to shut up.” As The Tennessee Star reported, Blackburn has sponsored a resolution to encourage free speech and inclusive debate on college campuses. Blackburn said universities are stifling conservative speech. “Imagine how you would feel if you were on a college campus and you were not encouraged to be inquisitive and to learn. You were discouraged from exploring other opinions or reading a variety of work. I always feel as though my conservative viewpoints and principles have been strengthened by reading works from our founders,” Blackburn told Campus Reform. “Reading works about our nation’s history. Looking at the people and their lives that were so involved at different, crucial times of our nation’s history. Challenging myself. I will periodically read something with which I know…

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Trump Issues Disaster Declaration for 10 Ohio Counties

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by Todd DeFeo   President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a disaster declaration for 10 counties in Ohio affected by severe weather last month. The declaration “will help those working to rebuild their homes and their lives,” Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. It also opens the door for state officials to determine how much federal aid Ohioans may need. The action applies to 10 counties hit by severe storms, including tornadoes, on May 27 and May 28. The weather killed one and injured at least 385. “When I spoke with President Trump after these tornadoes, he vowed to provide any assistance he could, and I am grateful that he followed through today on that promise to help those impacted by these storms,” said DeWine. The governor sent a letter to Trump last week asking the president to issue the declaration. The action opens up several federal programs for residents, including low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). With the declaration, the state can apply to the federal government for crisis counseling assistance, disaster unemployment assistance and disaster case management help. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not released a total amount of how much federal…

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Mexico Ratifies Trump’s Trade Agreement

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by Shelby Talcott   The Mexican Senate overwhelmingly voted to ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Wednesday, making it the first country to do so. U.S. President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed the deal Nov. 30, 2018, but it was not ratified by any country until Wednesday. Trump helped make and sign the agreement in 2018. USMCA includes rules that call for about 40% of automobile parts be produced by workers who earn a minimum of $16 an hour and more requirements that the parts be made in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, The Washington Post reported. Trump replaced NAFTA with USMCA in an effort to get better deals for U.S. workers. Mexican senators voted 114-4 to ratify USMCA. The treaty only needed a simple majority to pass, according to WaPo. Trudeau also wants to move forward with decisions on the trade deal, but will probably wait until the Trump administration agrees on a deal with Democrats, WaPo reported. The United States is having the most difficult time out of the three countries, as Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hasn’t given a date for the vote. House Democrats are also pushing…

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Rep. Jay Reedy Joins Crowded Field in Running for State House Speaker

Jason M. Reynolds

  State Rep. Jay Reedy (R-TN-74) told his House colleagues in a letter that he would run for Speaker. The other announced candidates for Speaker are Reps. Mike Carter (R-TN-29) of Ooltewah, Matthew Hill (R-TN-07) of Jonesborough, and Curtis Johnson of Clarksville (R-TN-68) as announced candidates for speaker, according to a story by The Tennessee Journal: On the Hill. Possible candidates include Reps. Cameron Sexton (R-TN-25) of Crossville, Ryan Williams (R-TN-42) of Cookeville, and Jerry Sexton (R-TN-35) of Bean Station. The Erin, Tennessee, representative’s letter to his House colleagues read: The Eyes of Tennessee are upon us! Things are forgotten from one generation to the next, which should not be. It seems that we have forgotten God, Country, and Family. We hold to self-indulgence and moral corruption that goes against Gods (sic) Laws. We turn our backs on our country and family when we come to Capitol Hill and forget why we are elected. The reason that I fought to be elected to HD 74 was to continue my service to God and Country, as I had as an enlisted U.S. Army Soldier and later as a U.S. Army Reserve Officer. Respect and responsibility require much trust! The trust that…

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Trump’s EPA Finalizes Plan to Repeal And Replace Obama-Era Coal Plant Regulations

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by  Michael Bastasch   The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its plan to repeal and replace an Obama-era regulation that critics said would cost thousands of coal industry jobs. EPA will repeal the Clean Power Plan, which the U.S. Supreme Court stayed and it never went into effect. EPA’s replacement plan, called the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, asks states to improve coal plant efficiency. “ACE is an important step towards realigning EPA actions so they are consistent with the rule of law and the original mission of the agency,” Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump EPA official who worked on ACE, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “While it’s well known that the political team believes this to be the case, it’s not as well known that there are many career officials who are equally relieved with returning to EPA’s traditional approach of regulating under this part of the Clean Air Act,” Gunasekara said. It’s a massive shift from the Obama administration’s effort to cut power plant greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change. The Obama EPA required states to make deep cuts to power sector emissions, including by using more natural gas and renewables. “We think that goes beyond…

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Tim Ryan Thinks ‘Every Aspect of Society’ Should Be Focused on Curbing Climate Change

Anthony Gockowski

  Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) said that if he’s elected president he would make sure “every aspect of society” is focused on curbing climate change. Ryan recently sat down with The New York Times for its “Meet the Candidates” series where he answered a number of questions about his presidential platform. “I do. Yes. We have to marshal every aspect of our society, our government, our free enterprise system, our educational institutions, our venture capital—all has to be pointing in the direction of reversing climate change,” Ryan said in response to whether he thinks it’s possible for the next president to stop climate change. “I think if we do it right, if we engage the free enterprise system, if we align the environmental incentives with the financial incentives, that we can actually do it a lot quick than most people think,” he added. On the issue of health care, Ryan reiterated his belief that the country needs to “move towards a single-payer system.” “We need to move towards a single-payer system,” he told The Times. “I think the natural next step is to have some public option for people to be able to buy affordable, accessible, quality health care. We…

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Rep. Green Votes No on $1 Trillion Spending Bill Full of ‘Partisan Garbage’

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) voted “no” Wednesday on a bill he said was full of “partisan garbage” that included funding for Planned Parenthood. The House passed the H.R. 2740, the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2020. Green tweeted, “Congressional Democrats jammed as much partisan garbage into this nearly $1 trillion spending package as possible. I voted NO.” Congressional Democrats jammed as much partisan garbage into this nearly $1 trillion spending package as possible. I voted NO. pic.twitter.com/h7odAZljWw — Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) June 19, 2019 Green explained his no vote in a press release. “Congressional Democrats jammed as much partisan garbage into this nearly $1 trillion spending package as possible. If passed into law, this minibus would force taxpayers to pay for abortions in the U.S. and even overseas, continue funding Planned Parenthood, pay for an earmark program, and send half a billion dollars in aid to foreign countries most responsible for illegal crossings and trafficking on our border. Democrats opted to include these programs at the expense of Department of Defense funding and border wall funding, falling short of President Trump’s budget request. “Moreover, I…

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Political Action Committee That Helped Marsha Blackburn Win Tennessee Wants to Help Donald Trump

Chris Butler

  A Political Action Committee that spent more than $1 million to help elect U.S. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee now wants to help re-elect U.S. Republican President Donald Trump by working in key battleground states. Members of The Committee to Defend the President told The Tennessee Star Tuesday they plan to spend money in Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania next year. They said they hope to replicate what they did for Blackburn last year in Tennessee — only on a larger scale. Committee Chairman Ted Harvey said he and his colleagues can use social media to help achieve their goals. They narrow people down by interests and likes. Then he and his colleagues collect voter registration lists to determine which of the likely Trump supporters is or is not registered. “We are going after people that should be Trump supporters, who identify themselves as Trump supporters, that have benefitted from the Trump economy, the Trump agenda, and his policies, but they are not registered to vote for one reason or another. Maybe they’ve been disheartened by the political process over the course of their lives or they’re veterans coming back from the military and haven’t registered to…

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Commentary: USDA Workers, Kansas City Is Better Than You Think

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by Joshua Sharf   On Thursday, a gaggle of civil servants protested the proposed relocation of a couple of Agriculture Department bureaus from Washington, D.C. to Kansas City, Missouri by boldly turning their backs on a speech delivered by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Perdue announced that the Economic Research Service, which provides research and statistical analysis for lawmakers, and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which allocates federal research funding, would be moving most of their personnel and operations by the end of September. These employees have had a year either to make peace or make plans, but instead, they decided to wait until the final announcement to purse their lips, cross their arms, and stare off into space. Clearly, the USDA has been violating child labor laws by hiring toddlers. Watch CNN’s reporting of the incident: The long-haired guy in the middle is holding his breath until he matches his shirt color, and the man in the plaid shirt to his right looks like he’s auditioning for the Actor’s Studio. The bald fellow to the left doesn’t look entirely committed to the cause. You would think Perdue is exiling these people to a remote outpost in Greenland. It…

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Coalition Calls on Congress to Reject Corporate Welfare, End Ex-Im Bank

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by Bethany Blankey   A coalition of groups and organizations representing millions of Americans is urging Congress to oppose the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) that’s slated to expire on Sept. 30. During the past three years, the bank has lacked a president and a board quorum and has been unable to issue taxpayer-funded export loans and credit guarantees to corporations in excess of $10 million. President Donald Trump supports filling the board and returning the bank to full operation. Critics say if reconstituted, it would return the bank to the days of using taxpayer money to fund its largest beneficiaries: multinational billion dollar corporations and foreign governments. The coalition calling on Congress to end the Ex-Im Bank includes Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the Competitive Enterprise Institute, National Taxpayers Union, Heritage Action for America, Club for Growth, Freedom Works, and others. The bank is a conduit for corporate welfare in the billions of dollars at taxpayers’ expense, they argue. In their letter to Congress, they write that the Ex-Im Bank “grants unfair advantages to a few domestic companies at the expense of many others, all the while putting billions of taxpayer dollars at risk and fostering a danger…

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US Army Secretary Now Likely Defense Secretary Nominee

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  U.S. Army Secretary Mark Esper will likely be his nominee as defense secretary, President Donald Trump has told reporters. Trump spoke positively about Esper just hours after he announced Patrick Shanahan had withdrawn from consideration, saying the acting defense secretary wants to spend more time with his family. Trump on Tuesday, speaking to reporters before boarding Marine One, praised Shanahan as “a wonderful person.” “I did not ask him to withdraw,” said Trump of Shanahan, who removed his name from consideration after two newspapers (USA Today and the Washington Post)reported Tuesday the Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into a nine-year-old domestic dispute between Shanahan and his then-wife, Kimberly, as part of a background check before the confirmation hearing. His wife was arrested after punching him in the face, and his son was arrested after a separate incident in which he hit his mother with a baseball bat. Shanahan, in a statement, said “it is unfortunate that a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up and painted in an incomplete and therefore misleading way in the course of this process. I believe my continuing in the confirmation process would force my three children…

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ICE Releases List of Murderers And Rapists Protected Under Sanctuary City Policies

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by Jason Hopkins   Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a list of criminal illegal aliens who were released from jail due to sanctuary city policies, many of whom went on to commit other crimes. Washington and Oregon, two states under Democratic Party control, have enacted some of the strongest sanctuary laws in the country that protect illegal immigrants from federal apprehension. Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation in May that prohibits local jails and state prisons from honoring ICE detainers, and bars them notifying ICE when a suspected illegal immigrant is about to be released from their custody. The newly minted law puts Washington on par with Oregon and California in terms of the level of restriction placed against federal immigration authorities. Federal law enforcement officials argue that their job becomes much more difficult with these laws, and communities are put in more danger. “There is an inherent increase in risk to personnel and bystanders when ICE officers and agents must go out into the community to proactively locate these previously detained criminal aliens,” read a press release from the agency. “ICE commends our local law enforcement colleagues who work to minimize that risk by cooperating with ICE…

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Commentary: The Flag Protection Amendment and American Greatness

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by Stephen B. Presser   One of the great characteristics of Americans is their candor. Among the reasons we declared independence from what we believed to be the excesses of a corrupt British monarchy and aristocracy was our contempt for pretense, deference, and pomposity. We believed, instead, in simple virtue and simple values such as truth, decency, honesty, temperance, and humility. Democrats and their increasingly dominant progressive wing fail to understand that Donald Trump has been an extraordinary champion of these traditional virtues, and he proved it again with his warm embrace of the Flag Protection Amendment, which has recently been reintroduced into Congress by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.). The text of the amendment is simple and succinct: “Congress shall have the power to prevent the physical desecration of the flag of the United States,” but it strikes at the heart of contemporary progressivism, with its belief in what psychologists are wont to call “self-actualization,” but more astute observers have always known to be “unbridled license.” Somehow our culture became so twisted that by 1989, a majority of the Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson declared that burning the flag (or shredding it, or defecating or…

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Rep. Green Says Secretary of the Army Mark Esper Is a ‘Great’ Nominee for Secretary of Defense

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) told Fox News that Mark Esper is a “great” nominee for Secretary of Defense and mentioned that he was a fellow classmate at West Point even as details emerge of what happened to the nomination of Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan. Shockwaves were felt when President Donald Trump announced that Shanahan would not seek the job on a permanent basis, leading to Esper being nominated. Shanahan withdrew his name after reports surfaced of an alleged domestic abuse incident with his ex-wife almost a decade ago, Bloomberg reported. “It is unfortunate that a painful and deeply personal family situation from long ago is being dredged up and painted in an incomplete and therefore misleading way in the course of this process.,” Shanahan said in a statement. “I believe my continuing in the confirmation process would force my three children to relive a traumatic chapter in our family’s life and reopen wounds we have worked years to heal.” The Trump Administration never submitted formal paperwork needed to start Shanahan’s confirmation to the Senate, Government Executive reported. There were rumors that the president was backing off or that something was delaying the background check. Now that Esper…

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Facebook Plans Its Own Currency for 2 Billion-Plus Users

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  Facebook already rules daily communication for more than two billion people around the world. Now it wants its own currency, too. The social network unveiled an ambitious plan Tuesday to create a new digital currency similar to Bitcoin for global use, one that could drive more e-commerce on its services and boost ads on its platforms. But the effort, which Facebook is launching with partners including PayPal, Uber, Spotify, Visa and Mastercard, could also complicate matters for the beleaguered social network. Facebook is currently under federal investigation over its privacy practices, and along with other technology giants also faces a new antitrust probe in Congress. Creating its own globe-spanning currency — one that could conceivably threaten banks, national currencies and the privacy of users — isn’t likely to dampen regulators’ interest in Facebook. The digital currency, called Libra, is scheduled to launch sometime in the next six to 12 months. Facebook is taking the lead on building Libra and its underlying technology; its more than two dozen partners will help fund, build and govern the system. Facebook hopes to raise as much as $1 billion from existing and future partners to support the effort. Company officials emphasized Libra as…

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Manafort to Avoid Time at Rikers Following Letter from Top DOJ Official

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by Evie Fordham   Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was reportedly headed for Rikers Island to await trial on the state level in New York, but he will be held in a federal facility following a letter from a Department of Justice higher-up. Federal prison officials said Monday that Manafort, 70, will not be held at notorious Rikers Island after Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen took an interest in where Manafort was held, reported The New York Times. New York prosecutors did not object to Manafort’s attorneys’ proposal that he remain in federal custody and be made available to the state when necessary for health and safety reasons, a senior DOJ official told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Manafort is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan ahead of his arraignment later in June, federal prison officials told Manhattan prosecutors Monday, according to a source cited by The NYT. A senior DOJ official confirmed to TheDCNF that Manafort had been transported to New York since serving his sentence in Pennsylvania. Manafort could stay at the Manhattan facility or go back to the Loretto, Pennsylvania, prison where he is doing a seven-and-a-half-year sentence, people with knowledge of…

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Sen. Hawley Moves to Prevent China from Infiltrating American Universities

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by Chris White   Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced legislation Tuesday morning preventing American research projects from using technologies developed by Chinese big tech companies. Universities are “key targets of espionage and intellectual property theft by not only China, but Russia and Iran,” the Missouri Republican said in a statement announcing the bill. “For too long, these countries have sent students to our universities to collect sensitive research that they can later use to develop capabilities that threaten our national security.” He added: “Our scientific exchange must not be exploited to advance the destructive agendas of Beijing, Moscow, or Tehran.” The bill, called Protect Our Universities Act, is intended to protect national security-related academic research from Chinese, Russian, and Iranian intelligence services. The legislation requires research students from China and elsewhere to undergo screening before they wish to participate in sensitive national security-focused projects. It also prevents project researchers from using technologies from ZTE and Huawei, both of which are suspected of spying on behalf of China. Republican Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana proposed a similar piece of legislation in March. His bill, called Protect Our Universities Act of 2019, would establish an Education Department-led task force keeping a…

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Sumner County Citizens React to ‘Eminent Domain’ Sewer Line and Tax-Increasing Budgets at County Commission Meeting

Laura Baigert

  GALLATIN, Tennessee – More than 200 citizens turned out for the regularly scheduled meeting of the Sumner County Board of Commissioners Monday night to have their say on a planned greenway and sewer line as well as a property tax increase included in the budgets proposed for fiscal year 2019-2020. Two major and contentious issues on the Sumner County Commission’s meeting agenda – a greenway that would sit atop a to-be sewer line that will cut right through the properties of several owners and a tax-increase for the upcoming fiscal year – have driven citizens to action. As reported by The Tennessee Star, in the picturesque and rural Upper Station Camp Creek area north of Long Hollow Pike, County Executive Anthony Holt planned to use eminent domain to install a sewer line to a new 265-acre elementary-middle-high school campus right through the properties of residents in the area. The sewer line would have a sidewalk of sorts on top of it, creating a new section of greenway to connect to the existing Lower Station Camp Greenway. Residents in the area only recently found about the condemnation of their property for the sewer line and attached greenway, even though the…

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Metro Nashville Council’s Planned 16 Percent Property Tax Hike Would Increase Cost of Living for All Residents and Is ‘Unacceptable,’ Carol Swain Says

Jason M. Reynolds

  Nashville Mayoral candidate Dr. Carol Swain is taking aim at Metro Council’s proposed 15.8 percent property tax increase. Two council members — Budget Committee Chairwoman Tanaka Vercher and At-Large Councilman Bob Mendes — combined efforts after having had differing plans, Nashville Public Radio said. Mendes is dropping his plan to support Vercher’s plan of raising property taxes by 15.8 percent, increasing the rate to $3.653 per $100 of assessed value. Mayor David Briley told Nashville Public Radio he opposes a tax increase and that he’s alarmed by the council’s plan. Swain said in a press release she also takes issue with that and that if she were elected, she would balance the budget. With the council’s planned tax hike, a home valued at $250,000 would see an increase of about $300, Swain said. Briley could veto the proposal and it would take a two-thirds majority vote to override. “City Council is proposing a property tax increase that raises the cost of living for all Nashvillians without any intention of giving Metro employees the 6 percent raise they need and deserve. Mayor Briley has stated that Nashville’s forecasted revenues are up by about $100 million without property taxes. If the Mayor…

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Nashville Libertarian Says She Is Likely to Vote for Donald Trump in 2020 as He Announces Re-Election Campaign

Chris Butler

  NASHVILLE — President Donald Trump is winning over at least one local Libertarian as he prepares to seek re-election next year, and he may likely win over several more. This, according to Libertarian Amie Gibbons. Gibbons told The Tennessee Star Tuesday that Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson got her vote in 2016. But Gibbons said she’s open to four more years of Trump. Gibbons joined members of the Davidson County Republican Party Tuesday at Nashville’s Crow’s Nest restaurant in the city’s Green Hill’s area to watch Trump announce his re-election campaign during a rally in Orlando, Fla. “There are a few things I disagree with Trump on, but if he can keep all of this up then he gets my vote in 2020. I think there is a very big difference in how independents and Libertarians are treating this,” Gibbons said. “This is the guy who came into office saying I want to scale back big government — and he’s actually been doing it. That’s earning a lot of my people’s votes.” So, what does that mean for the 2020 Libertarian Party presidential candidate, whether it’s Johnson or someone else? “The same thing it meant in 2016,” Gibbons told…

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Mexico Braces for Sudden Influx of Illegal Immigrants Under Trump Deal

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by Jason Hopkins   Mexican government officials are bracing to accept more illegal migrants than they likely can handle in order to meet their end of a deal with the Trump administration. As many as 70,000 illegal immigrants in the U.S. are expected to be sent to Juarez in 2019, according to the chief of the Chihuahua State Population Council who spoke to The Washington Post. More than 200 undocumented migrants were booted to the Mexican border town Thursday, doubling the amount from the day before. The number of illegal immigrants sent to Juarez is only expected to keep climbing, with as many as 500 migrants from El Paso, Texas, to begin arriving daily in the next few weeks. The surge of illegal migrants heading out of the U.S. and back to Mexico is a break from past protocol. Mexico has only accepted about 10,000 migrants border-wide in 2019, according to WaPo. However, per an agreement reached with the White House, its government has agreed to accept a dramatically higher number of U.S. asylum seekers, keeping them within Mexican borders while they wait for their claims to be processed in U.S. immigration courts. Mexico has also significantly stepped up immigration…

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Tennessee Man Arrested After Human Torso Was Discovered in Car

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by Neetu Chandak   A Tennessee man was arrested after a police officer allegedly discovered a human torso in his car Sunday. Police stopped Dorrae Debrice Johnson, 29, around 3:30 a.m. Sunday for not staying in his lane on Interstate 40, WATE reported. Johnson reportedly drove away as the officer approached the car, prompting a chase. “The vehicle continued traveling in eastbound lanes onto a concrete sidewalk and struck and killed a pedestrian near the white fog line near the eastbound lane of travel,” a Tennessee Highway Patrol report given to The Daily Caller News Foundation stated. “The driver continued on until he lost control of the vehicle and hit a utility pole. The driver then fled on foot from the vehicle, the trooper was able to catch up to the subject and took him into custody.” The officer allegedly discovered the torso when he went to turn off Johnson’s car ignition. Police identified the victim as Darryl Eugene Butler, whose other half was found at the scene of impact, WATE reported. Johnson allegedly admitted to police that he was “blitzed,” according to WATE. He was booked with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday and was charged for vehicular…

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Judge Seals File for Former Robertson County Teacher Accused of Recording Girls in Locker Room

Chris Butler

  A Robertson County judge has sealed the entire court file in a case involving a former public high school teacher-volleyball coach accused of video recording girls undressing in a locker room. This, according to The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, which mentioned the case in their most recent newsletter. The TCOG also said the judge, Bill Goodman, will not allow members of the public to know about new charges in a new indictment against Clifton Horn. “The original indictment involved allegations that the former coach video-recorded girls undressing in the locker room,” according to the TCOG. According to the RobertsonCountyConnection.com, former East Robertson High School volleyball coach Clifton Horn is facing sexual exploitation charges and recently had even more charges added to his long list of accusations. “Jason White, assistant district attorney for the 19th Judicial District and (Horn’s attorney Peter) Strianse requested a gag order in the case, which Judge Goodman approved,” according to the website. The details of the new indictment were not made available to the public. The court records have been sealed, by order of Judge Goodman, allowing access of the court file only to the District Attorney General’s office and members of the defense team. The decision to seal…

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The Tennessee Star Report Talks to OANN’s Neil McCabe About Dirty Border Secrets

Julie Carr

  On Tuesday’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 – Gill and Leahy talked to One America News Network’s Neil McCabe about the International Boundary and Water Commission’s demeanor towards the We Build the Wall team. McCabe also disclosed how American coyotes help migrants who get immediate legal status go wherever they want to go and receive government subsidies. Near the end of the segment, Gill suggested that it might behoove the team at We Build the Wall to implement a PR strategy preventing opponents from receiving any more ammunition to rail against them. Gill: Neil McCabe from One America News Network is on the line with us as he continues to keep his focus among other things on the build the wall group building that private sector wall on the southern border. And Neil, as the President announces he’s going to start deporting people if the wall’s not up, they’re going to come right back. McCabe:  This revolving door that we set up is absolutely absurd and you know and I think a lot of people don’t appreciate that all of these migrants who are…

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Tim Ryan Wants Social-Emotional Learning in Every Public School Nationwide

Anthony Gockowski

  2020 hopeful Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) wants to introduce social-emotional learning standards to every public school in the country. The Ohio Star’s Beth Lear recently did a deep dive on the Ohio State Board of Education’s efforts to bring social-emotional learning to the state. “This is part of a national movement to psychologize education falsely advertised as improving academic achievement and preventing violence and suicide,” said Dr. Karen Effrem of Eagle Forum. Effrem said she was concerned that social-emotional learning standards would lead to an erosion of parental rights, over-medication of vulnerable students, and inaccurate mental health assessments from personnel not trained as mental health experts. “Many of us on the state board of education are concerned about the state getting involved in social and emotional learning for a variety of reasons,” State School Board Member Kirsten Hill told The Ohio Star. “Measuring children’s feelings, values, attitudes, dispositions and behaviors is difficult to do and then sharing this highly sensitive and personal information with parties beyond the teacher and the school breaches privacy. There are student surveys being conducted that parents aren’t aware of. Is the school role going to expand into mental health treatment?” If it’s up to…

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Putnam County Library Remakes LGBTQ Children’s Display to Highlight ‘Families and Togetherness,’ Tennessee Pastors Network Says

Jason M. Reynolds

  The Tennessee Pastors Network says it won a victory in convincing the Putnam County Library to remake a display promoting LGBTQ children’s books. TNPN President Dale Walker has been petitioning the Putnam County Library to give equal attention to Christian views and traditional marriage that at least match the promotion of the LGBTQ agenda during Pride Month, which is in June, according to a press release from the network. “We feel this is important because Christians feel their biblical worldview is being marginalized in the Putnam County Library, and their children are not seeing a balanced display when they bring them in,” Walker said in a letter to the library. “This is offensive to many Christian families—that their view isn’t also presented equally.” In response to its community, the library removed two displays earlier this month promoting LGBTQ materials to children and families, TNPN said. The library, Walker said, had showcased Pride Month in the children’s reading section. Multiple books, he added, were highlighted as recommended reading to promote the LGBTQ agenda. Few, if any, books, Walker said, promoted Christianity. The library director responded to Walker that a new display “now contains only books celebrating families and togetherness,” along with a…

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From Watch Parties to Street Fairs, Tuesday’s Official Launch of President Trump’s 2020 Re-Election Campaign Promises to Have Something for Everyone

Zachery Schmidt

  The long-awaited kickoff to President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign for 2020 has finally arrived and much like the president himself, it is turning out to be the first of its kind, anywhere. The event – an all day affair Tuesday dubbed “45 Fest” – is already setting records as organizers prepare for President Trump’s arrival at Orlando’s Amway Center tonight at 8pm, and will be carried live online and on air. Like most campaign-style rallies, the Trump campaign is making accommodations for supporters unable to get into the 20,000-seat arena. “We are building large movie screens outside to take care of everybody. Over 100,000 requests. Our Country is doing great, far beyond what the haters & losers thought possible – and it will only get better!” the president tweeted Monday. Big Rally tomorrow night in Orlando, Florida, looks to be setting records. We are building large movie screens outside to take care of everybody. Over 100,000 requests. Our Country is doing great, far beyond what the haters & losers thought possible – and it will only get better! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2019 In anticipation of what President Trump promises to be “a very exciting evening,” supporters began…

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President Donald Trump’s Mexico Deal Has ‘Teeth’ to Fix Border Crisis, Rep. Green Tells Fox News

Jason M. Reynolds

  U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) spoke about the U.S.-Mexico border deal and the border crisis Sunday with Eric Shawn of Fox News. Video from the interview is available here. Green said that while immigrants are suffering, the border crisis is affecting Americans in terms of money and that 300 Americans die every week from overdose of drugs like heroin. Almost all fentanyl comes from across the southern border, and he cited data from Doctors Without Borders that many of these women immigrants are being sexually assaulted. Democrats are more interested in creating talking points for the 2020 presidential race than they are in helping people, Green said. Green also talked about the $4.5 billion appropriations request made by HHS and DHS as well as the U.S.-Mexico border deal President Donald Trump’s been touting backed up by threats of tariffs. Trump “added teeth” to the deal, which makes it more likely to work, Green said. The policy also would end the “Flores Agreement.” Under that agreement, if an asylum-seeker “grabs a child, they’ve got a visa to get into the United States,” Green said. More of his interview can be found at the link above. President Trump last week…

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We Build the Wall Approaches Record of Top GoFundMe Page, Founder Brian Kolfage Says

Jason M. Reynolds

  We Build the Wall is on the verge of becoming GoFundMe’s largest ever fundraising campaign, founder Brian Kolfage says. Kolfage made the announcement Monday in a press release. He said the record belongs to TIME’S UP Legal Defense Fund which is a major force in the “MeToo” movement. TIME’S UP’s GoFundMe page, which is closed to donations, says it raised $24,206,200 of its $24.5 million goal. That page was created on Dec. 20, 2017. The last update was in December 2018. As of Monday evening, We Build the Wall’s GoFundMe page had raised $24,066,879. Kolfage posted on We Build the Wall’s GoFundMe page update section, “JOB WELL DONE! Watch our new video you will LOVE IT! We are about to surpass the liberal #MeToo movement for the largest Gofundme ever. Theirs was funded by hollywood celebs, ours American patriots. Lets get it done!” The post links to this YouTube video here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWdOmVzBWLI Regarding TIME’S UP, Kolfage said in his press release, “I’m not going to say anything about them because I’m busy building BIG BEAUTIFUL BORDER WALLS like the one we just finished in Sunland Park, NM! “I may be a tad biased, but I believe that all of…

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‘Penny Plan’ Falls as National Debt Exceeds $21.5 Trillion

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Rand Paul

by Bethany Blankley   The U.S. national debt exceeds $21.5 trillion. That’s almost quadruple the national debt when President George W. Bush first took office in 2001. Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate held a vote on Sen. Rand Paul’s Penny Plan, which would reduce federal government spending and implement fiscal restraint reforms. Only 22 U.S. Senators voted for the Penny Plan, with 25 Republican senators and all Democrats voting against it. The Senate vote came months after about 130 U.S. leaders called on President Donald Trump to lead a “transparency revolution,” and reign in out-of-control federal government spending. “With the economy booming, wages rising, competitive tax rates, domestic energy production flourishing, and unemployment at a near 50-year low across every demographic – the federal debt continues to skyrocket. This is unsustainable,” they wrote in an open letter to the president. Trump responded by directing his federal agency heads to cut five percent of their budgets. Former Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, and honorary chair of OpenTheBooks.com, and Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of the watchdog advocacy group, said Trump’s “war on federal government waste” was “a great first step and an achievable goal.” However, his “willingness to lead by example” was…

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Trump’s Immigration Czar Pick Tom Homan Rips Into Sanctuary Cities, Calls Them ‘Un-American’

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by Jason Hopkins   President Donald Trump’s pick for “immigration czar” wrote an op-ed that rips apart the arguments immigrant-rights groups use to defend sanctuary city policies. Tom Homan – a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Trump administration, and the president’s pick to for immigration czar – published an op-ed Monday that shoots down many of the justifications for sanctuary laws. Homan criticized the idea that sanctuary cities protect the immigrant community, and illegal aliens who are witnesses to heinous crimes. “[T]hese jurisdictions are un-American, undermine public safety, put the public in harm’s way and make life harder and more dangerous for law enforcement,” the former ICE chief wrote. Pro-sanctuary advocates argue that it is detrimental to the legal process to allow ICE agents to apprehend suspected illegal migrants in court buildings, claiming that such a tactic makes victims or witnesses to a crime scared to come forward. Homan counters that ICE is “not interested” in identifying such people. He pointed out that if an illegal migrant does become a witness or victim of a crime, U.S. law allows them to apply for a special visa to stay in the country, known as a U-Visa. Homan also shot down the claim…

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Commentary: Why Is the University of North Carolina Funding a ‘Hub for Social Justice?’

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by Magdalene Horzempa   Campus protests started in the 1960s, but protests on today’s college campuses have a different vibe. While protests in the past pitted students against university leadership, protests in the present are supported and accommodated by presidents and administrators. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, college officials waste resources on political activism and social justice projects housed within the Campus Y, Chapel Hill’s “hub for social justice.” Although a substantial portion of its revenues come from gifts and the University Foundation, the Campus Y benefits from its status as an official part of the university as well as generous university funding. Its primary purpose is to push progressive politics to all students on campus, from freshman orientation through graduation. If UNC-Chapel Hill bankrolled a right-wing campus organization that encouraged students to hold pro-life protests, take gap years to work for conservative politicians, and otherwise shaped students to teach them about “conservative philosophy and activism,” the outrage would be constant. Yet, when all the above is done for “social justice” and left-wing causes, nothing seems amiss. Founded in 1860, the Campus Y “is the longest standing Y in the nation” and has housed intramural sports, the…

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Commentary: The One-Two Punch to Knock Out Electoral Democracy

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by Michael S. Kochin   If you thought, or hoped, that the brave (or nobly self-interested) Democratic Governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak had thwarted the push for a National Popular Vote by vetoing the bill, think again. On June 12, 2019, Oregon Democratic Governor Kate Brown signed it into law for her state. As of this writing 15 states and the District of Columbia, each with 196 electoral votes, purport to have ratified it. According to its terms as few as three more states (say Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania) with 74 electoral votes need to enact the bill for it to go into effect. Should it go into effect, the compacting states, together accumulating a majority of the Electoral College, will cast their electoral votes for whomever is the plurality winner of what the scheme’s backers call “the national popular vote:” whichever presidential and vice-presidential slate gets a plurality of votes when the total votes of all the states (compacting and non-compacting) are aggregated. The scheme, of course, is an effort to change the Constitution without the bother of securing the consent of three-fourths of the states that the Article V Amendment procedure requires. It is also of questionable validity without the consent of Congress.…

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Nineteen Arrests Later, a Texas Town Is Torn Apart Over Voter Fraud

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by Fred Lucas   The story that thrust a Rio Grande Valley city into the national spotlight is hardly a new anomaly, say residents such as Richard Monte. “Down here, voter fraud is not all that unusual,” says Monte, a city planning consultant in a brown suit jacket, sitting with other activists at a table in Coffee Zone on McColl Road. “It’s unusual when they get prosecuted.” Now, for this south Texas town, that unusual moment has arrived. A November 2017 mayoral election has been under scrutiny from local and state officials, and 19 arrests have been made over alleged voter fraud. The mayor – and winner of the 2017 election – was indicted earlier this month, along with his wife. Only 8,400 votes were cast in the mayoral election, and Mayor Richard Molina’s final vote count (pictured, left) was more than 1,200 votes ahead of the No. 2 candidate, 14-year incumbent Richard Garcia. From what’s known now, the election result couldn’t have been changed by the number of suspicious votes identified. But Molina reportedly is the first elected official in Texas to face a felony charge under a 2017 statute against vote harvesting, casting the midsize city into the national debate…

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Five Alabama Residents Arrested for Allegedly Getting TennCare Benefits

Chris Butler

  Tennessee officials announced Monday they indicted five Alabama residents on charges of passing themselves off as Tennessee residents so they could qualify for TennCare. No one who lives out-of-state may legally qualify for these benefits. All five people fraudulently reported to Tennessee officials that they and their minor children were state residents so they could qualify for TennCare, according to a press release from the Tennessee Office of Inspector General. Authorities charged the five people, all from Bridgeport, Ala., with TennCare fraud and theft of services: • Bradley Parker, 45 • Amber Parrish,  23 • Robin Miller, 31 • Cassandra Henry, 29 • Jacqueline Shrum, 32 District Attorney General J. Michael Taylor is prosecuting, according to an OIG press release. These five arrests bring the total number of people arrested for TennCare fraud to 3,100 since the OIG began investigating and pursuing this type criminal activity, according to a press release. Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration spokeswoman Lola Potter told The Tennessee Star Monday the number of TennCare fraud arrests is on the decline. According to Potter’s information, Tennessee had the following number of TennCare fraud arrests the previous four years: • 249 arrests in 2015. • 286 arrests in…

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Netanyahu Unveils ‘Trump Heights’ In Israel’s Golan Heights

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by Molly Prince   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his administration gathered in the Golan Heights on Sunday to unveil a sign for the community, newly named “Ramat Trump,” which translates into “Trump Heights.” “We are proud to have the opportunity to establish a new community,” Netanyahu said during the unveiling. “And also to honor a big friend.” The prime minster pushed to rename the existing community of Bruchim in commemoration of President Donald Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The area is home to only a few hundred residents, however, Israeli leadership is anticipating the rebranding will encourage migration, reported The Associated Press. Thank you Mr. Prime Minister, a great honor! https://t.co/ozLz84g3i0 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2019 “It’s a great recognition of the president’s courageous decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” said David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, during the ceremony. “It’s absolutely beautiful.” Friedman also nodded at Trump’s 73rd birthday on Friday, referring to the renaming “a beautiful birthday present.” Netanyahu revealed in April he would be introducing a resolution to name a town in the Golan Heights after Trump. The Trump administration officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights in March,…

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Supreme Court Dodges Same-Sex Wedding Dispute Over Christian Baker, ‘Sweet Cakes by Melissa’

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Aaron and Melissa Klein

by Kevin Daley   The Supreme Court lifted an order Monday punishing a Christian baker in Oregon who refused to produce a wedding cake for a same sex couple, telling a lower court to reconsider the dispute in light of the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop decision. The decision keeps a contentious social dispute over the rights of religious dissenters and LGBT patrons off the high court’s docket in the near term. The Oregon case is in many respects a redux of the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, which pertained to an Evangelical baker in Colorado. Though the justices found for the baker because a state panel displayed animus towards his beliefs, the Court did not say whether conservative religious believers can cite the First Amendment in refusing to accommodate a same-sex wedding. Monday’s dispute arose in Oregon in 2013 when Aaron and Melissa Klein, who created custom baked goods through their business “Sweet Cakes by Melissa,” declined to produce a wedding cake for a lesbian couple, Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman. The Kleins are Christians who believe marriage was instituted as a union of men and women. Cryer and Bowman filed a complaint with a state anti-discrimination panel. In turn, the Kleins argued…

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Huawei Founder Says Revenue Will Be Billions Below Forecast

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  Huawei’s founder said Monday that the Chinese telecom giant’s revenue will be $30 billion less than forecast over the next two years, as he compared the company to a “badly damaged plane” in the face of U.S. government actions against it. “We never thought that the U.S.’s determination to attack Huawei would be so strong, so firm,” Ren Zhengfei (pictured above), who is also the CEO, said during a panel discussion at company headquarters in Shenzhen. Ren said Huawei will reduce capacity and expects revenues of about $100 billion annually for the next two years, compared to $105 billion in 2018. In February, he said the company was targeting $125 billion in 2019. Huawei’s overseas cellphone sales will drop by 40%, Ren said, confirming a Bloomberg report published Sunday. But the Chinese market is growing rapidly, and Huawei will not allow restrictive measures to curb its research and development, he added. Huawei is embroiled in an ongoing trade dispute between China and the U.S., which has accused Chinese companies such as Huawei of committing forced technology transfers and stealing trade secrets. Last month, the U.S. placed Huawei on its “Entity List,” which effectively bars American companies from selling components…

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Early Ohio Endorsements for Donald J. Trump for President in 2020

Beth Lear

  Just ahead of President Trump’s official campaign kickoff Tuesday, the conservative group Ohio Value Voters (OVV) announced their full-throated endorsement of the unconventional incumbent.   “President Trump’s social conservative agenda has galvanized the support of faith-based and conservative Ohioans,” OVV President John Stover said in a statement; adding that the reasons for the early endorsement was based on a list accomplishments that support the conservatives’ agenda including: 2 Constitutional Supreme Court Justices: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh 188 nominees to the federal court who support the rights of the unborn and the first amendment moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem defending the unborn reinstating and expanding the “Mexico City Policy” which prohibits US foreign aid to be used for abortion overturning the Obama regulation that prohibited States from defunding abortion service providers signing the bill to allow States to restrict funds to Planned Parenthood eliminating the US Department of Education’s transgender policy, which allowed students to play on sports teams and use the locker rooms and bathrooms of the sex they chose rather than the sex they were born President Trump is set to announce the official start of his 2020 campaign at an evening rally in Orlando, Florida Tuesday –…

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TIRRC Manifesto Calls on Nashville to Spend Taxpayer Money on Illegal Aliens

Chris Butler

  The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) put out a new manifesto last month describing how they want Metro Nashville officials to treat illegal immigrants, and it demands taxpayers subsidize new programs to protect them from deportation. This document, titled, Beyond Welcoming: A Platform for Immigrant Inclusion for the Next Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, also disparages ICE agents as persecutors who set out to destroy immigrant families. You can download the full document here. The TIRRC document focused on community organizing activities to put political pressure on state and local officials. “Each week in Nashville, ICE is terrorizing immigrant neighborhoods and ripping residents away from their families and communities,” according to the document. (Page 3) “As the federal government ramps up immigration enforcement, the state legislature has continued their efforts to make life harder for immigrant and refugee communities.” (Page 3) The document calls on Nashville officials to embrace pro-immigrant policies and “help turn the tide in this country.” (Page 3) Among only some of the document’s policy suggestions for Nashville leaders: • Nashville should not help ICE deport illegal immigrants. (Page 4) • The Davidson County jail must stop renting bed space to ICE. (Page 7)  •…

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Nashville’s Public Art Program Reportedly Not Getting Enough Taxpayer Money, Despite Significant Past Spending

Chris Butler

  Nashville’s public art program reportedly isn’t getting enough taxpayer money, despite the hundreds of thousands of dollars it’s already spent on public art projects, with some of that money going to artists out-of-state. Nashville Public Radio reported that Metro Nashville officials are underfunding their art program. “To make up for it, Metro Arts will soon receive a back payment that can be put toward new sculptures and other large-scale installations,” according to Nashville Public Radio. The discovery came out of a routine review of finances, the station reported. “The way public art funding works in Nashville is that whenever Metro does capital spending projects — such as a new building, park, library, or significant renovation — it sets aside 1 percent of the budget for use on public art,” according to Nashville Public Radio. “But the audit found that some capital projects weren’t counted toward the art calculation in fiscal year 2017. So, the public art fund is owed $363,000 by the city.” According to the now extinct Tennessee Watchdog: • Nashville officials paid $300,000 for an exhibit commemorating the Civil Rights movement. The artist lived some 2,000 miles away in Oakland, Calif. The Nashville Metro Arts Commission hired Walter Hood to create “Witness…

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Commentary: Biden’s Climate Plan Requires a Savvy Response

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by Edward Ring   Front running 2020 presidential contender Joe Biden has just released his climate “plan,”claiming that with a $1.7 trillion federal investment, U.S. carbon emissions will reach zero within 30 years. You can say this for Biden – the canny old campaigner isn’t highlighting his climate plan as a cure-all for social injustice. Unlike the “Green New Deal,” Biden leaves out of his blueprint a federal job guarantee, universal healthcare, and housing. And while he includes the obligatory obeisance to inclusion, diversity, equity, indigenous peoples, vulnerable communities, people of color, and every other paint-by-number platitude, those aren’t his main focus. Nope, Joe is marketing the lunch box issues. Union jobs. Infrastructure. Energy leadership. Exports. Industries of the future. Moreover, Biden’s plan, unlike the Green New Deal, does not read like a college term paper. But if you’re a climate skeptic, or if you’re skeptical that bigger government is the answer, this plan should have you worried. Because it comes very close to offering a consensus plan that even some of Trump’s swing voters might support: which is to fund technology initiatives and infrastructure projects that should be funded anyway, regardless of whether or not rising levels of atmospheric CO2 are…

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Auditors Fault Unicoi for Mismanaging $30,000 of Taxpayer Money

Chris Butler

  Officials in the town of Unicoi spent more than $25,000 of taxpayer money on non-essential items, according to an audit by Tennessee Comptrollers. Comptrollers, for instance, called out the former town recorder and one current employee for receiving discounted rates for their spouses’ medical and dental insurance totaling $13,318 and $8,344, respectively. The town’s personnel policy did not authorize that, Comptrollers wrote. “The personnel policy provides for the town to pay the cost of the employee’s medical and dental insurance; however, if an employee elects to provide coverage for family members, that cost will be at the employee’s expense. After reviewing this deficiency, the Town of Unicoi entered into a $5,000 settlement with the former town recorder for repayment of his discounted insurance premiums on January 31, 2019,” according to the audit. “Therefore, from July 1, 2016, through December 31, 2018, these two employees received unauthorized discounted rates for their spouses’ medical and dental insurance, which resulted in the Town of Unicoi deciding to correct the deficiency, seek partial recovery of the overpayment/underpayment, and absorb the remaining loss of at least $16,662 ($13,318 plus $8,344 less $5,000).” Town officials also allowed a contract attorney to participate in the Tennessee Consolidated…

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Trump Predicts Demise of Two Prominent U.S. Newspapers

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Donald Trump

  President Trump contended Sunday two of the country’s top newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, would go out of business when he leaves office. Trump attacked both newspapers, both of which often publish articles that he labels as “fake news” – stories about his chaotic White House and administration policies that he does not like. “A poll should be done on which is the more dishonest and deceitful newspaper, the Failing New York Times or the Amazon (lobbyist) Washington Post!” Trump said on Twitter, referring to the Post’s ownership by Jeff Bezos, the founder of the giant online retailer Amazon. A poll should be done on which is the more dishonest and deceitful newspaper, the Failing New York Times or the Amazon (lobbyist) Washington Post! They are both a disgrace to our Country, the Enemy of the People, but I just can’t seem to figure out which is worse? The good….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 16, 2019 “The good news is that at the end of 6 years, after America has been made GREAT again and I leave the beautiful White House (do you think the people would demand that I stay longer? KEEP…

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