Day: July 15, 2019

Authorities Say Nashville Man Stole from Taxpayers to Treat His ADHD

Chris Butler

  The Tennessee Office of Inspector General announced several new TennCare fraud arrests this week, including the arrest of one man who allegedly used TennCare to treat his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That man, Thomas William Biggs Jr., 44, of Nashville, was on the run for more than a year and a half, according to a Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration press release. “Seventeen months ago, in January 2018, a Davidson County Grand Jury indicted Biggs for TennCare fraud, accusing him of using TennCare to doctor shop for drugs,” the press release said. “Charges say he used TennCare benefits to visit multiple healthcare providers within a short time period to obtain prescriptions for Adderall, an often-abused amphetamine used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” Elsewhere, according to another press release, authorities charged three Shelby County residents in separate TennCare fraud cases: • Alaa Ahmad, 40, of Memphis, charged with two counts of TennCare fraud and one count of theft of property over $10,000. Ahmad is accused of obtaining TennCare benefits by claiming his minor child was living with him when, in fact, the child lives out of the country. Without the dependent, Ahmad was not eligible for TennCare. •…

Read the full story

Rep. Jim Jordan Slams Democrats for Handling of Border Crisis: ‘Fabricating Stories of Cruelty’

Anthony Gockowski

  Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) slammed Democrats for their handling of the crisis at the southern border during a recent hearing before the House Oversight Committee. “What we’re going to hear from Democrats this morning is astonishing. It will be truly astonishing. For months they’ve declared there wasn’t even a crisis on the southern border” Jordan began his remarks. He quoted previous comments from the Democrats, who’ve called it a “fake crisis” and “fear-mongering of the worst kind.” “But weeks later, Democrats sure have changed their tune. The Chairman just recently said ‘Congress cannot ignore the humanitarian crisis at the border.’ For years now, Republicans have been warning about the crisis and working to find solutions, and all the while Democrats have denied there was even a problem. This is not about politics. It’s always been about preserving the integrity of our border and preventing the humanitarian crisis that we are all now witnessing,” Jordan continued. He criticized Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD-07) for failing to hold a hearing on the border earlier in the year. “Instead he prioritized political hearings like, well, like the hearing we first had—Michael Cohen. Think about this. The president made his emergency supplemental request only…

Read the full story

Commentary: ‘High-Skilled Immigrants Act’ Is a Sop to Big Tech

Admin

by Rachael Brovard   In a rare moment of bipartisanship last week, Democrats and Republicans joined hands to make a small, but fundamental change to our immigration system. Not to provide critically needed updates or wholesale reforms, but, rather, to toss a sop to the billionaires of Big Tech. Thanks to furious lobbying from Microsoft, Amazon, Hewlett Packard, Equifax, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, IBM, Cisco, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Eric Schmidt of Google’s group FWD.us, among others, the House this week passed H.R. 1044, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019. The bill, which was supported by 140 Republicans and 224 Democrats, removes the per-country cap for employment-based immigration visas. In other words, it makes it easier for the tech giants and billionaires of Silicon Valley to hire cheap foreign labor over highly skilled Americans. Current law requires that no country receive more than 7 percent of the employment-based green cards issued each year. This ensures that employment-based visas are limited to a global pool of talent in a wide variety of occupational sectors – and prevents one or two countries from dominating the distribution. The practical effect is that individuals from countries with high demand for…

Read the full story

Facebook’s Recent Algorithm Changes Are Laying Waste to Conservative and Liberal Outlets

Admin

by Chris White   Facebook recently changed its algorithms to steer focus away from explicitly political content, but now that alteration is laying waste to conservative and liberal outlets. Conservative pundit Deneen Borelli laid into Facebook last week, telling her followers on July 9 that the company’s bias against conservatives cost her a job. In fact, she is holding CEO Mark Zuckerberg chiefly responsible after BlazeTV cancelled her Facebook show, “Here’s the Deal.” “And Mark, I hold you responsible for the high-tech lynching of my job,” Borelli, a black conservative who gained a large following during her run, said in her final video on July 9, which received more than 374,000 views as of the posting of this article. Reports appear to show that Facebook’s algorithm shift is suppressing content across all platforms.   A BlazeTV representative confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that her show was cancelled due to a lack of viewership. “My videos were not clickbait. I didn’t engage in over-the-top antics to get attention. I wasn’t shrill, and my videos were not challenged by a fact-check organization,” Borelli added. She told the DCNF she started seeing her content crater after she spoke at the Conservative Political Action…

Read the full story

Highlights from Democrats’ Insult-Fest Between Team Pelosi and Team Ocasio-Cortez

Admin

by Peter Hasson   A feud between Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has escalated into an ugly insult-fest between the two women and their respective Democratic allies. Here are 11 highlights from the intra-party clash. Pelosi Trashes Ocasio-Cortez And Her Squad Pelosi ignited this clash by taking a shot at Ocasio-Cortez and three other freshman Democrats in an interview with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd published on July 6. “All these people have their public whatever and their Twitter world, but they didn’t have any following,” Pelosi said. “They’re four people and that’s how many votes they got.” Ocasio-Cortez Plays The Race Card Ocasio-Cortez didn’t hesitate to frame her feud with Pelosi in racial terms. She accused the senior Democrat of being “disrespectful” toward “newly elected women of color” in Congress. “When these comments first started, I kind of thought that she was keeping the progressive flank at more of an arm’s distance in order to protect more moderate members, which I understood. But the persistent singling out … it got to a point where it was just outright disrespectful … the explicit singling out of newly elected women of color,” Ocasio-Cortez said Wednesday to The…

Read the full story

Commentary: President Donald J. Trump, Statesman

Admin

by Brandon Weichert   When Donald Trump took office, his predecessor warned him that North Korea was going to be his biggest international headache. Within months of receiving that warning from Barack Obama, the Trump team was faced with escalating nuclear threats from Pyongyang. The world braced as a nuclear standoff appeared to unfold and as President Trump moved U.S. forces into the region, issuing threatening tweets in response to escalating North Korean provocations. Meanwhile, the hateful Left and its allies embedded within the so-called deep state, decried the president’s supposed “warmongering” against North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. Once Trump stunned the world and met with Kim in Singapore last summer—without preconditions—those same Leftists and deep staters insisted Trump was appeasing an intractable dictator intent on acquiring nuclear weapons to use against the United States and its allies. In reality, Trump was pursuing an America First strategy that used all the tools of statecraft available to his—tools most of these “experts” had forgotten how to use. Those Who Want Respect Give Respect  For too long, American policymakers had an all-or-nothing view of foreign policy. Either the United States got everything it wanted through force or it got nothing. Threats, such as those from…

Read the full story

The Long, Ignoble History of the ‘Homeless Industrial Complex’ in America

Admin

by Edward Ring   In his final speech from the White House in January 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the nation that the military had joined with the arms industry and had acquired unwarranted influence over American politics. His term for this alliance was the “military industrial complex.” Since that time, Eisenhower’s term has been co-opted by other critics of special interests pooling their resources to exercise a dangerous influence on America’s democracy; one example would be the so-called “homeless industrial complex.” This label has been around awhile, and has bipartisan origins. In 2012 a guest editorial appeared in the liberal Washington Posten titled “Dismantling the social services industrial complex.” In it, the author explains “an odd mirror image of this huge complex has emerged in the very ‘industry’ that seeks to feed, clothe and otherwise meet the needs of the poor and vulnerable in our society. It’s a social services-industrial complex, if you will, one that could prove even more difficult to subdue than its military counterpart.” In 2013, writing for Poverty Insights, author John Roberts asked “Is There a Homeless Industrial Complex That Perpetuates Homelessness?” And in January 2017, a former homeless activist published in the ultra-liberal Huffington Post an article entitled “The Homeless Industrial Complex Problem.” The…

Read the full story

President Trump Trolls ‘Progressive Democrat Congresswomen’ on Failed Socialist-Inspired Policies, Democrats Cry ‘Racist!’ Again

Admin

by Kyle Hooten   President Donald Trump launched an attack at some Democratic congresswomen Sunday, suggesting they should fix their “corrupt and inept” homelands before legislating in the U.S. Trump’s tweets were likely directed at Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts. He also alluded to the tension between the freshman freshman representatives and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggesting that Pelosi would be happy to cover travel costs if they decide to leave. Pelosi and all four congresswomen involved responded to the president via twitter. “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world … loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” wrote Trump. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it’s done.” So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete…

Read the full story

Ohio Bill Allowing Students to Transfer Credits Unanimously Passes in the State House

Admin

by Todd DeFeo   A bill aimed at allowing students to transfer general education course credits from one public university in Ohio to another could bring with it potentially higher costs for schools, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill. The state House unanimously passed House Bill 9, which lawmakers hope allows more students to graduate in four years and reduces student debt. The bipartisan legislation would require institutions to notify students if they are eligible for an associates’ degree. It would also allow students to pay in advance for required classes, but that are either at capacity or unavailable – allowing the student to take the course at a later date. “HB 9 is going to be a great asset in our continual drive to restore Ohio’s promise as an opportunity state for students and employers alike,” state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, said in a statement. “We owe it to Ohio’s future – our students – to keep our promise to make college more affordable so that every student who works hard has the opportunity to get ahead by graduating on time and without a mountain of student debt,” Sweeney added. “HB 9 makes it easier for every…

Read the full story

‘Mayor Pete’ Buttigieg is Coming to Nashville Wednesday to Raise Campaign Cash

Jason M. Reynolds

  Pete Buttigieg is the latest 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to plan a Nashville visit. Buttigieg will make a campaign stop in Music City on Wednesday, his campaign website says. The location so far has been hush-hush but will be announced this week. The doors, at whatever the location is, will open at 6 p.m. During a campaign visit in Nashville last week, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said that Nashville and Texas and other “places that formed the Confederacy” are bigoted and America was formed on white supremacy, The Tennessee Star reported. Former Vice President Joe Biden, a latecomer to the 2020 Democratic presidential race, visited Nashville on May 20 for his “American Promise” tour, The Star said. Democratic presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) visited Nashville’s Fisk University in April and inserted herself into the failed $9 billion Nashville transit referendum of 2018 when she said voters rejected the referendum because they wanted to use federal funds. If one wants to hear Buttigieg’s pitch directly, he or she will have to cough up some cash for the privilege. Tickets are available in various denominations from $25 to $1,000, and are available from the event page referenced above. In addition…

Read the full story