Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and members of his staff would not say Thursday whether they will dispatch resources to Texas and Arizona to help guard the U.S.-Mexican border. The Tennessee Star made repeated attempts Thursday to contact Lee’s Communications Director Laine Arnold — by email, phone, and text. Arnold did not return our messages before Thursday’s stated deadline.
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Tensions were high Thursday as school system employees assembled at this month’s Gwinnett County School Board meeting and handed out flyers instructing parents to act with civility as they discussed and debated Critical Race Theory (CRT). The contentious issue of CRT divided the parents who showed up in droves.
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Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana on Wednesday issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against U.S. President Joe Biden’s ban on oil and gas leases on federal lands. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr joined 12 other state attorneys general in filing suit to block the Biden Administration’s violation of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) and the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA). Coalition members are citing Wednesday’s action as a major victory.
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Rhodes College officials in Memphis have notified students that they must vaccinate themselves against COVID-19 — or else pay a per semester mandatory testing fee of $1,500. This, according to a letter that Vice President for Student Life Meghan Harte Weyant recently distributed to students about the upcoming school year.
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An African American man who allegedly shot and wounded five white men in Phenix City, Alabama last weekend and then crossed the Chattahoochee River into nearby Columbus, Georgia could face federal hate crimes charges. This, according to Phenix City Assistant Police Chief George Staudinger.
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Authorities have indicted a former Fentress County Sheriff’s Department deputy for allegedly using nearly $9,000 of taxpayer money to fuel his personal vehicle using his county-authorized fuel credit card. Tennessee Comptrollers identified the deputy as Johnny Dishman.
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Members of a group called No Left Turn in Education this month asked Peach State residents to stand up to Critical Race Theory (CRT) and sign a petition asking government officials to ban it. In a press release, No Left Turn in Education Georgia chapter members also said they want K-12 schools statewide to ban the 1619 Project and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion & Action Civics.
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Buckhead made national headlines Monday after FOX News host Tucker Carlson described, in sometimes graphic terms, how crime rates in this Atlanta residential district have soared and how certain of Atlanta’s opportunistic politicians incited the violence. Buckhead residents have organized and wish to secede from Atlanta.
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Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) officials have announced they will reinstate the unemployment insurance requirements they had in place before COVID-19. This, according to a press release that GDOL officials published late last week.
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Members of the Fulton County Republican Party (FCRP) have yet to elect a chairperson, despite talk that they had scheduled an election to settle the matter this past Saturday. GOP officials at the state level may have to help resolve the conflict.
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U.S. Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA-12) and U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO-04) reintroduced The Saving American History Act to ban K-12 school officials from using federal funds to teach the 1619 Project. Allen announced the legislation Sunday in an emailed newsletter to his constituents.
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No known cuts are coming to Fort Campbell in this year’s defense budget, but the installation has other longstanding problems that need resolving. Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Joseph Martin addressed these matters during a U.S. House Armed Services Committee hearing last week.
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The State of Georgia’s May net tax collections approached $2.66 billion for an increase of roughly $1.08 billion, or 68.1 percent, compared to May 2020. Net tax collections in May of last year totaled $1.58 billion, according to a press release that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp released this week.
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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Saturday endorsed Robby Starbuck for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District. U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) currently represents the district.
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Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and others said at a Thursday night town hall that Republicans nationwide are passing voter integrity bills to prevent black people from voting. During this virtual town hall, Abrams told audience members to pressure the U.S. Senate to pass the For the People Act. Some people also refer to the bill as H.R. 1. The For the People Act, if enacted into law, would nationalize federal elections. The proposed law would require that states automatically register residents to vote and also require absentee ballot drop boxes. The For the People Act would also eliminate state restrictions on mail-in voting, require same-day voter registration, and gut state voter identification laws.
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Members of the Georgia General Assembly are preparing to discuss reapportionment, which involves redrawing district lines for the U.S. House of Representatives following the 2020 Census. Members of the Georgia House Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Committee as well as members of the Georgia Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee will hold a joint virtual town hall hearing next week. The hearing will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15 on the Georgia General Assembly’s website.
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Former Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, according to an article The Atlantic published this week, “is trying to figure out how religious Republicans got so extreme.” Haslam granted an interview to Atlantic writer Emma Green. Green said “Haslam is disturbed by some aspects of the national Republican Party’s recent direction—particularly the way politicians and activists have frequently used religion as a cudgel.”
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Georgia gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones just returned from Arizona where he observed an audit of ballots from the November 2020 presidential election and also witnessed up-close what he said was a calamity at the U.S.-Mexico border. Jones talked to The Georgia Star News Thursday. He said a firm overseeing the audit has done a thorough and professional job that leaves little room to allow mistakes. Jones did not name the firm.
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Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin is two points below former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe in a new WPA Intelligence poll. This, according to an article that The Republican Standard published Thursday. The poll said Youngkin had 46 percent while McAuliffe had 48 percent.
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper released a report Wednesday that not only calls for more affordable housing within the city but also calls for new sources of revenue to fund it. The report specifically calls on Metro Nashville officials to pursue additional revenue streams. Metro planners also suggest generating more affordable housing by using land already publicly-owned and underutilized. The report said city officials could expand Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to support Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC). This method, the report went on to say, would fund long-term housing by partnering with nonprofit and private developers. Metro planners also suggested creating “mixed use, mixed income communities.”
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Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has scheduled a virtual town hall where she said she will call on her supporters to pressure the U.S. Senate to pass the For the People Act. Some people also refer to the bill as H.R. 1.
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The people who oppose the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act this week began a paid media campaign to tarnish the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act as the brainchild of “radical extremists.” But Nashville attorney Jim Roberts, one of the architects of the referendum, told The Tennessee Star this week that he and his supporters are currently crafting their own media counteroffensive.
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Former U.S. President Barack Obama this week publicly praised Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Obama, during a CNN interview with Anderson Cooper, pondered the ramifications of the 2020 election and the election integrity concerns.
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A supporter of Susan Opraseuth’s said Tuesday the candidate does not have a database of 330 delegates she needs as she campaigns to replace Fulton County Republican Party incumbent chair Trey Kelly — but she’s supposed to. Party members said this election pits Kelly, an establishment Republican, against Opraseuth, who strongly supports former U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Greater Georgia members have launched a digital ad campaign to boost voter turnout for the special election for State House District 34, which includes Marietta. Group members said the ad highlights “the Radical Left’s misinformation campaign that cost Cobb County countless jobs and a $100-million opportunity.”
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper this month delivered a speech that invoked race and even Donald Trump as a means to frighten voters out of supporting the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act. The referendum, if voters approve it, would roll back Cooper’s 34 to 37 percent property tax increase.
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The Sons of Confederate Veterans are in Memphis and digging up the coffins that hold Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife so they can transport them to the National Confederate Museum in Columbia, Tennessee. Staff at the National Confederate Museum did not return The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Sunday.
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Buckhead, already trying to formally break away from the City of Atlanta so they can address an out-of-control crime wave using their own resources, had another violent weekend, including a murder. According to the Atlanta Police Department’s (APD’s) website, someone shot a man Saturday as he jogged through the 1200 block of West Wesley Road in Buckhead.
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Federal officials in Memphis have sentenced an illegal alien to 30 months in prison for unlawful reentry into the United States and for illegally possessing a firearm. This, according to a press release that Joseph C. Murphy Jr. the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, published this week.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp spoke to members of the state GOP at their convention in Jekyll Island Saturday, but few people in the crowd of about 2,000 heard what the governor had to say. That’s because so many people in the room drowned Kemp’s words out with almost-deafening boos.
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Members of the Georgia Board of Education voted Thursday to formally oppose teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the state’s K-12 classrooms. Board members, according to their resolution, described beliefs such as CRT as “concepts that impute fault, blame, a tendency to oppress others, or the need to feel guilt or anguish to persons solely because of their race or sex.”
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Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will soon sign an administrative order directing the city’s Department of Enterprise Assets Management (DEAM) to designate all single-occupancy restrooms within city facilities as gender neutral. This, according to the order that Bottoms will sign later this month. The Georgia Star News obtained a copy on Friday from Atlanta Director of LGBTQ Affairs Malik Brown.
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Republicans throughout Georgia have asked Gov. Brian Kemp to convene a special session of the state legislature so that independent parties can conduct a forensic audit of the state’s November 2020 presidential election. These Republicans sent an open letter to the people of Georgia, which they forwarded to The Georgia Star News Thursday.
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A self-described conservative businessman and political outsider has announced he wants to succeed U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA-10) in Congress. Candidate Matt Richards, in an emailed press release, said he is “a pro-Trump businessman who went from sleeping on a dirt floor to owning his own multi-million dollar demolition company in Atlanta.”
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Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) might run for the U.S. Senate next year, although he said he hasn’t decided for certain. Ralston appeared on Georgia Public Broadcasting late last week and praised U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Ralston also said the country’s current direction troubles him. If he does serve in the U.S. Senate then he said his tenure as Georgia Speaker of the House will help guide him.
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A Metro Nashville School Board member said she wonders if school system officials are doing thorough background checks on school system employees, and she said knows of one instance where they did not. Board member Fran Bush told The Tennessee Star this week that Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Executive Director of Security Reginald Young lied on his resume. Young said he previously served in Florida as the Gadsden County School District’s chief of police and its Emergency Management Coordinator.
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U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has announced he will travel to Memphis on Thursday, June 3, to assess the disruption to traffic that the closure of the Hernando DeSoto-Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River has caused. Inspectors said they found a large crack in one of the bridge’s structural beams on May 12.
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The apparent break-in at the Fulton County warehouse where officials were storing ballots for a pending audit has prompted Georgia gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones to demand an official investigation. “This report, if true, is deeply concerning and needs to be independently investigated at once. I am calling on Governor Kemp to immediately order an investigation into this matter by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation,” Jones told supporters Monday in an emailed statement.
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Delta Airlines officials did not confirm Tuesday whether they received a letter from an anonymous company employee with two decades of experience who is reportedly angry about CEO Ed Bastian and the company’s Woke culture. Delta officials did not return The Georgia Star News’ request for comment before Tuesday’s stated deadline.
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Thieves throughout Nashville are stealing firearms from other people’s vehicles and even stealing the vehicles themselves because the owners aren’t locking their vehicle doors. “This, according to a press release that members of the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) published this week.
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The U.S. Air Force has announced plans to bring four new missions, including new aircraft, to Robins Air Force Base (AFB), in Houston County, Georgia, beginning fiscal year 2022. This according to a press release that Robins’ AFB officials published this week.
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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced this month that the office’s Prosecution Division has concluded its case against Judge William “Allen” Wigington, a former Chief Magistrate Judge in Pickens County. Wigington was found guilty of one count of racketeering, three counts of fourth-degree forgery, five counts of theft by taking, 39 counts of unauthorized use of a financial transaction card, and one count of violation of oath of office. In total, his crimes amounted to 44 felonies and five misdemeanors. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He will serve five years in custody, followed by the remainder on probation.
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On Sunday U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) announced that he co-signed a letter to U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and demanded investigations into the Wuhan lab. Carter, in a newsletter he emailed to constituents Sunday, said “China allowed this virus to spread and they need to be held accountable” and that “we need to fully understand what happened and make sure it never happens again”.
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The CAGW has evaluated every Congressional member’s voting record on how they voted on issues to eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in government, and protecting hardworking taxpayers. This, according to an emailed newsletter that Loudermilk emailed late last week.
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Gov. Brian P. Kemp this week announced Georgia has again secured the highest ratings of AAA with a stable outlook from each of the three main credit rating agencies: FitchRatings, Moody’s Investors Service, and S&P Global Ratings. This, according to a press release that members of Kemp’s staff published on his website.
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U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA-10) told constituents in an email Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated several longstanding problems and created more than a few new ones within the federal government. “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), for example, has a tremendous backlog of millions of income tax returns waiting to be processed, leading to lengthy delays in refunds and stimulus checks to many Americans. Another case is the State Department, which is taking 10 to 12 weeks to process even a simple passport application. Perhaps the worst example is the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), a little known but critical agency responsible for the military service records needed for veterans to receive care from the VA. As of April, the backlog for veterans’ records is roughly 500,000 and may take up to two years to clear. Unreal!” Hice wrote.
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COLUMBIA — Many thousands of people descended upon the city of Columbia, Tennessee Friday evening for the 2021 MuleFest, and, to signal the end of COVID-19, not a single person appeared to wear a face covering. Maury County officials held the event in the city’s downtown area.
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Former State Rep. Joe Carr this week said State of Tennessee agencies and departments are driven and “absolutely consumed by political correctness,” spurred on by staff at the Tennessee Department of Human Resources (DOHR). “Political correctness drives their bus,” Carr said.
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An Atlanta City Council member who tried to defund the police of millions of dollars last year called 911 Wednesday to report that four people stole his 2016 Mercedes. That man, Antonio Brown, told a 911 dispatcher the car thieves consisted of four children.
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U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) and U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL-16) this month wrote U.S. President Joe Biden expressing concerns about the president’s support for waiving Intellectual Property (IP) protections related to the COVID-19 vaccines. This, according to a newsletter that Carter emailed his constituents.
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