A coalition of Nashville’s community organizations and labor unions want Nashville Mayor John Cooper to spend possibly as much as $100 million in remaining COVID-19 relief money on projects that cater to “a moral and racial equity lens.”
Members of the organization, Stand Up Nashville, announced this in an email to followers this weekend.
Read the full story
The most charitable thing anyone can say about Nashville right now is that the city is a dumpster fire. It isn’t just a small dumpster fire. It is a stinking, raging fire that is going to get out of hand if nothing is done about it.
Part of Nashville’s problems are not its own doing. No one could control the tornado that struck Nashville in March and no one could see, at least initially, what would happen with the COVID-19 outbreak.
Read the full story
A resolution to enshrine right-to-work protections in the Tennessee Constitution has advanced through the House committee process and is scheduled to be heard Monday on the House floor.
Tennessee already has right-to-work protections in law, which prevent a worker from being hired or fired based on choosing to join or not to join a union. Senate Joint Resolution 0648 would enshrine the protection in the constitution to make it more difficult to repeal in the future.
Read the full story
As confederate statues nationwide are being vandalized and toppled, while other are being peaceably removed, a new poll shows young, college-educated Americans are the most likely age demographic to agree that these monuments no longer have a place in society.
The National Tracking Poll by Morning Consult and Politico, conducted June 6-7, found that 43 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-34 believe that statues of confederate leaders should be taken down, while 26 percent think they should remain standing. The other 31 percent did not know or had no opinion on the statues.
Read the full story
In response to new restrictions on Chinese students and researchers in the U.S., recently announced by President Donald Trump, the University of Michigan issued a statement vocalizing the school’s opposition to the Republican administration’s latest move.
Signed by the college’s President, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Vice President for Research and Dean at Rackham Graduate School, the letter says that these restrictions have “led to understandable worry.” They express resistance to the restrictions on the grounds that “our Chinese students, post-doctoral scholars and faculty have enriched our institution through teaching, learning, research and impact on society.”
Read the full story
Ever since the heinous killing of an unarmed black man by four rogue police officers on May 25, protests and riots have consumed America’s cities. These mass protests have mobilized millions of so-called progressives, incited to destructive fury by well-organized provocateurs. The groups behind this extremism are well known, as are the leftist and anarchist ideologies that propel them.
But another important movement is growing in the United States.
Read the full story
In his observations about 19th-century America, Alexis de Tocqueville pointed to religion as the first of the country’s political institutions—sweeping in its influence on our customs and powerful in its propensity to preempt and prevent tyranny.
Yet today, American religiosity is in decline. Weekly church attendance is trending downward, as is self-identification with a formal religion, denomination or belief system. The rise of the “nones” is increasing in speed and expanding in influence, replacing religious-cultural paradigms of old with a modern menu of personalized, à la carte “spiritualities.” Even where religiosity remains, it is often resistant or opposed to public expression, never mind institutional or cultural prominence.
Read the full story
by Lacey Kestecher A conservative Ivy League professor says he is facing a targeted campaign by his colleagues to have him fired for not supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, which advocates to “defund the police,” among other leftist causes. William Jacobson, a professor at Cornell Law School and founder of Legal Insurrection, says he is being targeted by the university’s faculty for being a conservative. Jacobson claims that other university employees are trying to either get him fired or “at least denounced publicly by the school.” This backlash came in response to two opinion editorials he wrote that “detail the history of how the Black Lives Matters Movement started, and the agenda of the founders which is playing out in the cultural purge and rioting taking place now.” Following the release of these articles, the Dean of Cornell Law School received more than 15 emails in a matter of days. They were all written by alumni who had graduated within the past decade, and demanded “that action be taken against me ranging from an institutional statement denouncing me to firing.” Jacobson says that “the effort appears coordinated, as some of the emails were in a template form.” Jacobson’s colleagues…
Read the full story
FRANKFORT, Kentucky (AP) — Having led the push to take down a statue of Jefferson Davis from the Kentucky Capitol, the state’s governor had a ceremonial role Saturday in its removal from the place it stood for generations. Gov. Andy Beshear pushed the button to a rig that lifted the 15-foot (4.5-meter) marble statue off its pedestal in the ornate Capitol Rotunda. The governor tweeted a photo showing the memorial to the Confederate president being hoisted for removal. “Today I pressed the button to bring it down,” the Democratic governor said in his tweet. “Now, every child who walks into their Capitol feels welcome. Today we took a step forward for the betterment of every single Kentuckian.” Joining Beshear for the historic event were two leading members of his administration — J. Michael Brown and La Tasha Buckner, who are black. In a quintessentially Kentucky twist, workers discovered an empty bourbon bottle in the base after the statue was hoisted. Also found was a newspaper front page. Later in the day, Beshear posted a photo showing the statue — secured in a crate — being loaded by crane onto a truck outside the statehouse. The governor tweeted that the…
Read the full story
Federal health officials announced a final rule Friday scrapping an Obama-era regulation that forced medical workers to perform abortions despite their religious beliefs.
The Obama administration’s 2016 regulation, already vacated by a court ruling, also redefined sex-based discrimination in health care to include questions of gender identity.
Read the full story
The closely watched arrival of Christopher Nolan’s big-budget sci-fi espionage film “Tenet” will finally happen on July 31, Warner Bros. announced Friday.
The studio said it would delay the release by two weeks and instead re-issue Nolan’s 2010 sci-fi blockbuster “Inception” in mid-July.
The release date for “Tenet” has been closely watched in all corners of the film industry, which has faced shuttered theaters due to the coronavirus since mid-March. Movie theaters plan to reopen in July for a vastly different summer season than the one the industry had planned.
Read the full story
At least seven Minneapolis police officers have quit and another seven are in the process of resigning, citing a lack of support from department and city leaders as protests over George Floyd’s death escalated.
Read the full story
by Peter Hasson Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush warned protesters not to “mess with the Alamo” on Saturday as vandals have targeted other historical sites around the country. Bush said his office is monitoring “social media posts and rumors from protesters who are threatening to come to The Alamo” and said law enforcement stands ready to protect the historical site, which is located in San Antonio, Texas. “The Alamo is the Shrine of Texas Liberty. And it will be defended. My office is closely watching the social media posts and rumors from protesters who are threatening to come to The Alamo,” Bush wrote in a statement he posted to Twitter and Facebook. “Rest assured we have already deployed, for several weeks and will continue to do so, the Alamo Rangers in partnership with SAPD, The Department of Public Safety and The National Guard to protect this sacred site,” he added. “My message to the protesters is simple: Don’t mess with The Alamo.” Vandals around the country have recently defaced or destroyed historical monuments. Protesters in Richmond and Boston have toppled statues of Christopher Columbus, and protesters in Richmond tore down a statue of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis. Vandals have attacked statues abroad…
Read the full story
As Minneapolis prepares to “abolish” its police force, a recent survey found that most truck drivers won’t deliver to cities with defunded or disbanded police departments.
According to a survey from CDLLife, a resource site for the trucking industry, 79 percent of truck drivers said they will refuse to deliver freight to cities with defunded police departments.
Read the full story
As of Sunday night Tennessee had 30,432 COVID-19 cases and 475 deaths.
The COVID Tracking Project reported the latest numbers on their website Sunday night. The website also reported that COVID-19 had hospitalized 2,087 Tennesseans and taken the lives of 475 state residents.
Read the full story
Deploying thousands of Minnesota National Guard members in response to civil unrest in the Twin Cities to quell riots in late May cost nearly $13 million.
Major General Jon Jenson broke down the $12.75 million costs in a letter to Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans.
Read the full story
A Republican lawmaker questioned during a meeting of the Ohio Senate Health Committee if “the colored population” is contracting coronavirus at disproportionate rates because they do not wash their hands “as well as other groups.”
The American Civil Liberties Union called for state Sen. Steve Huffman to step down from office Thursday following his comments that were made during a hearing for a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis.
Read the full story
Ohio House Democrats unsuccessfully attempted last week to ban the sale, display, possession, or distribution of Confederate flags at county and independent fairs.
During a Thursday night debate on House Bill 665, a bill related to agricultural societies and public safety, Democrats introduced two amendments in an effort to crack down on Confederate memorabilia.
Read the full story
Law enforcement officers were able to prevent demonstrators from camping out in Legislative Plaza for a second night Saturday.
Gov. Bill Lee failed to enforce state law Friday night and allowed left-wing protesters to occupy the plaza throughout the night and into Saturday morning, The Tennessee Star reported. More than 100 protesters claimed Friday that they had taken control of Nashville’s Legislative Plaza and refused to leave until speaking with Lee.
Read the full story