Day: July 16, 2019

Rep. Steve Cohen Wants Taxpayers to Pay to Reduce Memphis’ High Crime Rate

Chris Butler

  U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat representing Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, says Memphis’ crime rate is too high and you, the federal taxpayer, must chip in to make it right. Last week, Cohen and U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a Democrat representing Florida’s 10th Congressional District, introduced the Safer Streets Act. They describe it as a new grant program that will help cities with high rates of violent crime. “The Safer Streets Act is intended to provide additional funding to address violent crime in places where the rate is significantly above the national average – places like Memphis,” Cohen said in a press release. “With these grants, local governments with crime rates four times the national average would be eligible for half of the funds; those with three times the national rate would be eligible for 20 percent of the funds and those with twice that national rate would be eligible for the remaining 10 percent of funds. The bill also creates an emergency fund for units of local government that have spikes of violent crime.” If the Safer Streets Act is enacted into law then the U.S. Department of Justice will administer grants to local jurisdictions to hire more law…

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Commentary: NEA Embraces the Woke Agenda, But Votes Down ‘Student Learning’

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by Nat Malkus and RJ Martin   Last week, thousands of teachers gathered in Houston for the National Education Association’s (NEA) annual convention. During the convention, any group of 50 delegates could bring to the floor a new business item, which is a one-year, non-binding resolution directing the union to take a certain action. Over 160 new business items were proposed, including New Business Item 2, a motion pledging the NEA would “re-dedicate itself to the pursuit of increased student learning in every public school in America.” The resolution also proposed that the “NEA will make student learning the priority of the Association” and that every NEA program should be evaluated by asking, “How does the proposed action promote the development of students as lifelong reflective learners?” When put to a vote of 6,000 NEA delegates, the motion failed. It’s unclear why the NEA would vote against re-dedicating itself to “increased student learning,” since the vote happened in a closed-door session. But with no obvious poison pills in the item, “supporting student learning” should be the easiest vote that these teachers take. One would think that this motion’s defeat would be a public relations nightmare, because it could fuel the…

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Peter Thiel Blasts ‘Treasonous’ Google For Choosing China Over US Military

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by Whitney Tipton   Tech billionaire Peter Thiel said Sunday that the FBI and CIA should investigate Google for allegedly cooperating with the Chinese military over U.S. interests. Thiel, one of the most high-profile Trump supporters in the tech industry, criticized Google’s work with the Chinese during a speech to the inaugural National Conservatism Conference Sunday evening in Washington, D.C., Axios reported. “How many foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated your Manhattan Project for AI? Does Google’s senior management consider itself to have been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence?” Thiel asked. “Is it because they consider themselves to be so thoroughly infiltrated that they have engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the U.S. military,” he continued. “Because they are making the sort of bad, short-term rationalistic [decision] that if the technology doesn’t go out the front door, it gets stolen out the backdoor anyway?” Thiel suggested his questions warrant the attention of federal investigators. “These questions need to be asked by the FBI, by the CIA, and I’m not quite sure how to put this, I would like them to be asked in a not so excessively gentle manner,” he added. Thiel sits on the board of Facebook,…

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Senators Cruz and Hawley Urge FTC to Open Investigation Into Big Tech’s Censorship Practices

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by Chris White   Two of the country’s staunchest big tech critics are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate social media companies’ perceived censorship practices. Facebook, Google and Twitter exercise lots of influence on Americans and they also use their tools to censor some content while amplifying others, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri wrote in a letter Monday to the FTC. They are asking the agency to open a public probe into the impact such policies have on people. “Companies that are this big and that have the potential to threaten democracy this much should not be allowed to curate content entirely without any transparency,” they wrote. “These companies can greatly influence democratic outcomes, yet they have not accountability to voters.” They added: “They are not even accountable to their own customers because nobody knows how theses companies curate content.” Cruz and Hawley are two of the biggest Republican critics of Google and Facebook, both of which are consistently accused of discriminating against conservative content. Hawley, for his part, introduced the Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act in June that aims to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which gives online companies immunity only if they…

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President Trump Puts Limit on Asylum Claims at Border

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by Fred Lucas   While waiting for Congress to act on closing immigration loopholes, the Trump administration is imposing a new rule to limit asylum claims by requiring professed refugees to first seek asylum in another country closer to home. The Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security announced the new rule for asylum-seekers, which is set to take effect Tuesday. Asylum-seekers will be required to apply for protection from prosecution or torture in at least one other country outside their country of citizenship or nationality before entering the United States. The rule comes as President Donald Trump tries to gain control over the southern border amid a surge of migrants from Central America. Kevin K. McAleenan, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the change is designed to decrease that surge. “Until Congress can act, this interim rule will help reduce a major ‘pull’ factor driving irregular migration to the United States and enable DHS and DOJ to more quickly and efficiently process cases originating from the southern border, leading to fewer individuals transiting through Mexico on a dangerous journey,” McAleenan said in a formal statement. The Trump administration contends it has the flexibility to place the restriction on asylum-seekers…

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Scholars’ New Book ‘Inventing Transgender Children and Young People’ Questions Transgender Ideology

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by The College Fix Staff   A new book from a group of academics offers a “dramatic intervention” into the prevailing narrative surrounding transgenderism. In “Inventing Transgender Children and Young People,” a collection of essays challenging the “dangerous” ideology taught in schools and universities, the authors warn of youngsters not being able to have children due to “powerful sex-change drugs,” the consequences of not speaking out against transgender orthodoxy, and teens quickly being labeled “transgender” due to “normal feelings” of bodily discomfort. Contributors to the book include Oxford University’s Michael Biggs, King’s College London’s Heather Brunskell-Evans, and the University of Sydney’s Dianna Kenny, according to the Daily Mail. Dr. David Bell, a consultant psychiatrist at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, said the large increase in the number of females seeking sex changes “cannot be explained by individual factors alone,” nor is the new atmosphere of feeling free to “come out” responsible. “Many services have championed the use of medical and surgical intervention with nowhere near sufficient attention to the serious, irreversible damage this can cause and with very disturbingly superficial attitudes to the issue of consent in young children,” he said. The book also features accounts by whistleblowers who…

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Commentary: When It Comes to Democrat Extremists, No One Tops Billionaire Tom Steyer

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by Jeffery Rendall   Just when you thought the Democrat presidential primary race couldn’t get any nuttier came last week’s news that uber-liberal billionaire Tom Steyer’s joined the two dozen or so already declared candidates. The Democrat contest was showing signs of settling into a dull lull after the initial excitement wore off – but now Steyer is on scene to spice things up. Democrats lost a competitor too, as little-known California Congressman Eric Swalwell withdrew from the scrum having miserably failed to attract attention and adoration for his pathetic anti-Second Amendment platform and… well, not much else. Swalwell did participate in the first round of Democrat debates last month yet didn’t distinguish himself in the minds of party voters (at least according to the polls). Republicans made light of Swalwell’s quitting so early – and why not? Heck, we haven’t even reached mid-summer yet! We’re a long way off from Iowa’s snow and ice and the 2020 Democrat caucuses, scheduled for February 3rd. Swalwell didn’t admit as much during his withdrawal speech, but he likely couldn’t sustain a campaign with no money, no name recognition and no distinct niche apart from the rest of the Dems. Money, niche and to some extent,…

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Business PAC Endorses David Briley for Nashville Mayor

Chris Butler

  The Nashville Business Alliance Political Action Committee has reportedly endorsed several candidates in advance of the Aug. 1 election. This, according to The Nashville Business Journal, which reported the PAC has endorsed incumbent Mayor David Briley. “It’s not surprising to see the group endorse Briley. Since taking over the office last year, the mayor has courted the support of the city’s business community, with several leading business voices among his largest campaign contributors,” The Nashville Business Journal reported. “Briley also shepherded legislation earlier this year that overhauled Metro’s procurement process to make doing business with the city easier for minority- and women-owned businesses — a key issue for the political action committee.” The website also reported that Tennessee State Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, At-Large Councilman John Cooper, and former Vanderbilt University professor Carol Swain are “credible opponents” to Briley. The PAC reportedly advocates for women-and-minority-owned businesses. The PAC also reportedly made other endorsements for the following seats: • Incumbent Jim Shulman for vice mayor. • Berkley Allen, Fabian Bedne, Sharon Hurt, Bob Mendes, and Zulfat Suara for Metro Council At-Large. • Johnathan Hall for Council District 1 • Kyonzte Toombs for Council District 2 • Elise Hudson for Council District 3…

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Former Obama Adviser Warns: Voters Are Not Aligned with 2020 Dems on Abortion

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by Mary Margaret Olohan   A faith adviser to former President Barack Obama warned that 2020 Democratic candidates campaigning for “abortion on demand” are underestimating American voters’ “more nuanced” views on abortion. Michael Wear, who served on both Obama’s presidential campaigns and in the White House as part of the former president’s “faith based initiative,” according to the New York Times, wrote in a Saturday op-ed that Democratic candidates’ hard line on abortion may alineate American voters who hold “more nuanced” understandings of abortion. Wear warns that Americans do not view abortion as a matter of moral clarity, as Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand recently said, but as “an issue of great moral complexity that our politics has not settled satisfactorily.” Citing both former Vice President Joe Biden’s and Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s comments on abortion at the Democratic debates in June, Wear said that “the 2020 Democratic candidates are out of step with American voters, even Democratic voters, on the issue of abortion.” “According to some progressives, Democrats need to learn from Mr. Trump’s style of politics and name enemies, draw harder lines and callously stoke the animosities that roil Americans’ lives for partisan advantage,” Wear wrote, adding that this “emulation”…

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Lee Beaman Commentary: Nashville Is Still Nashville, Despite the Changes

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by Lee Beaman   There has been much criticism recently of Nashville’s meteoric growth and the changes we’ve seen as a result.  Such concerns are valid and are good reasons to take note and preserve what we most enjoy about our city and what we feel defines us.  Despite the many changes we’ve seen, Nashville is still Nashville underneath it all. The “It” City was wonderful before we got that nickname.  Nashville has been a welcoming city for many generations of residents and visitors. The French novelist Jean-Baptiste Karr is the author of the phrase, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” That is as true of Nashville today as it was when Karr first coined it in 1848.  Nashville’s identity and character that make it unique are as strong today as they have been since we can all remember. There has always been a strong business and industry backbone to our city that predates our country music footprint, as important as that has grown to be a part of Nashville today.  Our pillars of industry, which have long been considered to be insurance, banking and publishing, are still strong here today and are joined by additional…

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Taxpayers Give Memphis International Airport $15 Million, Despite Dramatic Drop in Traffic

Chris Butler

  The federal government is giving the Memphis International Airport $15 million in taxpayer money for improvements and for economic development. This, despite The Tennessee Star’s past reporting showing fewer and fewer people use the Memphis Airport now versus how many people used it slightly more than a decade ago. According to localmemphis.com, the Feds are handing out $49.3 million to Tennessee’s airports. “Memphis received the second most out of all the airports in Tennessee. Overall, airports in the state received $49.3 million,” localmemphis.com reported. “More than $15 million will be used to construct an airport de-icing pad for planes in Memphis. It will also go to the airport master plan and a miscellaneous study.” According to the website, quoting Federal Aviation Administration members, the money “will help the local economy.” As The Star reported last year, the Memphis International Airport has had a dramatic decrease in the amount of traffic that goes through there. In a report that came out last year, the New York Times described the Memphis airport as “a glaring casualty of an airline merger that transformed the American aviation industry but cost the Mid-South’s most important city its status as a hub.” As the Times went on to say,…

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