Day: August 24, 2019

Attempts by House Democrats to Expel Representative David Byrd During the Special Session Unsuccessful

Laura Baigert

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee – House Democrats launched an unsuccessful attempt to expel Representative David Byrd (R-Waynesboro) from the House of Representatives during the Extraordinary Session on August 23 to elect a new Speaker. HR 7006, introduced by Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) on August 5 reads, “Expels David Byrd from his seat as a member of the House of Representatives of the One Hundred Eleventh General Assembly.” Byrd has been accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with underage female student athletes 30 years ago when he was a high school basketball coach. The allegations were made against Byrd prior to the 2018 elections, which Byrd won capturing 78 percent of the vote against his Democrat opponent. Since the allegations were made public, protesters have been regular attendees at the legislative offices and committee rooms in the Cordell Hull Building, and even more present outside the chambers during floor sessions. Protesters were present during and after the House Republican Caucus meeting held on August 22, the day prior to the Extraordinary Session. A group, Enough is Enough, has repeatedly called for Byrd to be removed from the House, even to Governor Bill Lee who has no such constitutional authority. Earlier this week, before…

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Tennesseans Might Get Fewer Robocalls Next Year

Chris Butler

  If what Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery says is true, then this time next year Tennesseans should get far fewer robocalls on their cell phones. In a press release, Slatery announced this week that 12 phone companies have agreed to adopt eight principles to fight illegal robocalls. They are doing this alongside 51 attorneys general. “This agreement should better protect Tennesseans from illegal robocalls and enable this Office and other attorneys general to investigate and prosecute offenders,” Slatery said in the press release. Phone companies will work to prevent illegal robocalls by: Implementing call-blocking technology at the network level at no cost to customers. Making available to customers additional, free, easy-to-use call blocking and labeling tools. • Implementing technology to authenticate that callers are coming from a valid source. • Monitoring their networks for robocall traffic. “The agreed upon principles should will implement much-needed prevention and enforcement mechanisms that should have a meaningful impact,” said Samantha Fisher, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office on Friday. The coalition of companies includes AT&T, Bandwidth, CenturyLink, Charter, Comcast, Consolidated, Frontier, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon, and Windstream, according to the press release. Phone companies will assist attorneys general anti-robocall enforcement by: Knowing…

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Commentary: Slavery Did Not Make America Richer

Admin

In the past few decades, a new subfield of history has emerged: the history of capitalism. The subfield is widely popular in the media as a result of hugely influential books such as those of Sven Beckert and Edward Baptist. These two particular authors tie the “peculiar institution” of slavery in American history to capitalism. Many media pundits, as witnessed by recent articles in the New York Times and Vox, jumped on the works of these authors to claim that slavery was “the building block of the American economy” and it made America richer.

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