Author: Chris Butler

Members of Georgia’s Congressional Delegation Label Biden’s Actions ‘Dangerous,’ Demand He Resign or Face Impeachment

Chris Butler

U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) on Tuesday reprimanded U.S. President Joe Biden and said the president ignored members of Congress, military leaders, and intelligence agencies before he abandoned Americans in the Middle East. Just the News reported Tuesday that Biden, in June, waived an important congressional mandate. That mandate would have forced members of the Pentagon to inform Congress, in depth, about the risks of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

Read the full story

Expert Tells Georgia Legislators How COVID-19 and Too Few Experienced Prosecutors Contribute to High Crime Rate

Chris Butler

If Georgia officials want to reverse soaring crime rates then they must keep more experienced prosecutors on the job, and they must also contain the spread of COVID-19 so jails can hold more prisoners. This, according to Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia (PACGA) Executive Director Pete Skandalakis. He spoke Tuesday at a hearing before Georgia State House Public Safety and Homeland Security committee members. Committee members met at the state capitol to discuss crime in Atlanta.

Read the full story

Tennessee Congressman Says Democrats Will Not Hold Joe Biden Accountable on Afghanistan

Chris Butler

Members of Tennessee’s GOP delegation said Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden has behaved in an  untrustworthy manner on the matter of Afghanistan.

Just the News reported Tuesday that Biden, in June, waived an important congressional mandate. That mandate would have forced members of the Pentagon to inform Congress, in depth, about the risks of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

Read the full story

Rutherford County Parents Fume, Say Local School System is Mishandling COVID-19

Chris Butler

A group of parents said Monday they are seething after Rutherford County Director of Schools Bill C. Spurlock decided his month to unilaterally remove and then quarantine non-symptomatic and non-COVID-19 positive students from schools. The parents said Spurlock did this without consulting with members of the Rutherford County School (RCS) Board. RCS Board members had previously approved a procedure that would have prevented COVID-19-free or symptom-free students and staff from quarantine, parents said.

Read the full story

Gun Control Activist to Speak at Georgia House Hearing on Atlanta’s Soaring Crime Rates

Chris Butler

Members of the Georgia State House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee are scheduled to meet Tuesday to address Atlanta’s rising crime rates, and a representative from a gun control group plans to speak. Committee members are scheduled to meet at 1 p.m., Tuesday, August 31, in room 406 of the Coverdale Legislative Office Building at 18 Capitol Square Southwest in Atlanta.

Read the full story

Tennessee State Legislators Push Back Against Biden Administration Claim Parents Opting Out of Mask Mandates Is a Civil Rights Violation

Chris Butler

U.S. Department of Education (USDE) officials announced Monday they will investigate Tennessee and five other states that allow parents the right to opt out of a public school’s COVID-19 mask mandates. In a press release, USDE officials said such policies could discriminate against students who are disabled and at heightened risk for severe illness.

Read the full story

Governor Bill Lee ‘Heartbroken’ on Death of East Tennessee Soldier Killed in Afghanistan Terrorist Attack

Chris Butler

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee commented Saturday evening on the death of Ryan Knauss, an East Tennessean who was one of the 13 American service members killed in a deadly terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan last week “Maria and I are heartbroken and mourning the loss of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss, a Tennessean who was killed in the tragic terrorist attack on Kabul. On behalf of all Tennesseans, we offer our full support in the difficult days ahead,” Lee tweeted Saturday.

Read the full story

Delta Airlines, Which Opposed Georgia’s Voter ID Law, Now Forces Unvaccinated Employees to Test for COVID-19

Chris Butler

Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian this week announced the Atlanta-based company will force employees who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 to wear masks, to test for the virus, and to possibly sacrifice part of their compensation packages. But how will Delta officials distinguish between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated?

Read the full story

Georgia Congressional Delegation Responds to Afghanistan Horror, Some Call Out Joe Biden

Chris Butler

Several members of Georgia’s congressional delegation have  commented on this week’s terror in Afghanistan, and many of them criticized U.S. President Joe Biden for what they described as a weak response. Twelve U.S. Marines died in explosions in Afghanistan, while the lives of thousands of Americans and allies within the country remained imperiled.

Read the full story

Man Fighting on Behalf of Crime-Ravaged Buckhead Responds to Atlanta Hiring a Director of Violence Reduction

Chris Butler

Due to rising crime rates, the City of Atlanta is advertising for a director of violence reduction. Crime has increased so much that residents of nearby Buckhead formally want to secede from Atlanta. The man leading that secession movement told The Georgia Star News Wednesday that the new director of violence reduction, regardless of who takes the job, won’t influence Buckhead residents to have second thoughts about leaving.

Read the full story

Nashville Community Oversight Board Director Makes Six-Figure Salary, Public Records Show

Chris Butler

Metro Nashville Community Oversight Board (COB) Executive Director Jill Fitcheard makes more than $116,000 per year, according to public records, and that’s a generous pay increase over what she made as assistant executive director.

The Tennessee Star filed a public records request in July asking for information about what Fitcheard makes this fiscal year and what she made in Fiscal Year 2020. Those records show she made more than $42,000 as the COB’s assistant executive director.

Read the full story

Georgia House Democratic Caucus Members Urge COVID-19 Mask Mandates in Schools

Chris Butler

Georgia State House Minority Leader James Beverly (D-Macon) and other members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus on Monday demanded that Governor Brian Kemp and other state officials mandate COVID-19 masks at public schools. Beverly did not return The Georgia Star News’ request for comment Monday. We contacted the eight other caucus members who said in an emailed press release that public school students must wear masks. Seven of those eight state representatives did not respond before Monday’s stated deadline.

Read the full story

Tea Party Patriots Plan Rally Against Mask and Vaccine Mandates in Georgia

Chris Butler
Vaccine Mandates

Tea Party Patriots have scheduled a series of “Just Say No” rallies against mask and vaccine mandates nationwide, and they have scheduled one rally for next weekend in Georgia. Members of Tea Party Patriots, according to their website, already held one such rally last week in Marietta. They are scheduled to hold a “No to Vaccine Mandate” event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, August 28, at 180 Market Square in Cartersville.

Read the full story

Nashville Talk Radio Host Phil Valentine Has Died

Chris Butler

  WWTN radio announced on Saturday that Nashville talk radio host Phil Valentine has died. He was 61 years old. The news came in a tweet from the official Twitter account of WWTN radio shortly after 4 p.m. Central Time on Saturday. “We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away. Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers,” the station tweeted. We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away. Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers. pic.twitter.com/vhXpE7x0oX — SuperTalk 99.7 WTN (@997wtn) August 21, 2021 Valentine announced on his Facebook page on July 11, 2021 that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He was hospitalized several days later, and was subsequently placed on a ventilator. Former State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mount Juliet) said Valentine was instrumental in the state income tax fight from 1999 to 2001. “If it had not been for his voice and others on the radio, people would not have had the information they needed to come and protest the income tax,” Beavers told The Tennessee Star. “The people showed up, made noise, and we defeated the state income tax.…

Read the full story

Jon Ossoff Wants to Challenge Georgia’s Voter Integrity Law with Federal Legislation

Chris Butler

U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has filed legislation that would, if enacted into law, create what he said is the first-ever affirmative right to vote and challenge Georgia’s new voter integrity law, Senate Bill 202. “This builds upon the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and would establish for the first time in federal statute an affirmative right to vote for every U.S. citizen,” Ossoff said on MSNBC.

Read the full story

Fulton County Voters Urge County Commission Not to Approve Contract with Group Allegedly Tied to Mark Zuckerberg

Chris Butler

Several people on Wednesday urged members of the Fulton County Commission not to approve a nearly $600,000 contract with an Illinois-based group to review and assess the county’s voter registration and elections operations. County commissioners had not approved or rejected the proposed contract with this organization, The Elections Group, as of Wednesday evening.

Read the full story

Governor Bill Lee Claims ‘Our Executive Order Gives the School District Authority to Impose a Mandate, but Gives the Parent the Ability to Opt Out’

Chris Butler

On Tuesday Governor Bill Lee told Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on their nationally syndicated radio program, “our executive order actually gives the school district the authority to impose a mandate, but it gives the parent the ability to opt out of that if they choose it.” “I have always been a really strong believer that parents know best what their children need. So I’m a parent. I raised four kids, got eight grandkids. No one knows their kid like the parent. No one cares about their children more than their parents, and so in the middle of all of this covid world that we’re living in, which is people,” Lee told Travis when asked about Executive Order No. 84, signed by the governor on Monday.

Read the full story

Tennessee Law Puts Up Several Barriers to Keep Tennesseans from Recalling Their Local School Board Member

Chris Butler
Board Meeting

If you live in Tennessee and you’re so upset with your local school board member that you want to recall him or her then you’re not going to like what state law has to say about the subject. One of Tennessee’s largest cities will apparently permit you to recall your local school board members, but the state’s vast other regions will not.

Read the full story

Tennessee Lt. Gov. McNally Warns Davidson and Shelby Counties on Mask Opt-Outs: General Assembly ‘Will Not Allow Lawful Orders to be Defied’

Chris Butler

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s executive order granting public school students the right to opt out of COVID-19 mask mandates has prompted Nashville and Memphis school administrators to announce they will not comply with Lee’s latest directive. That, in turn, prompted a response on Tuesday from Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge). On Facebook, McNally said Metro Nashville Public Schools’ (MNPS) and Shelby County Schools’ (SCS) officials’ apparent defiance against Lee left him “appalled and alarmed.”

Read the full story

Tennessee’s and Georgia’s COVID-19 Policies Protected Lives and Also Minimized Damages to Both States’ Economies, Report Says

Chris Butler

During COVID-19, Georgia and Tennessee have both fared substantially better economically than Kentucky and Michigan with no significant increase in cases from reopening their economy. This, according to a report that members of the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee published this month. Beacon is a free market think tank.

Read the full story

Former Tennessee Health Official Michelle Fiscus Allegedly Bought Dog Muzzle She Says Someone Else Sent to Intimidate Her

Chris Butler

Former Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) official Michelle Fiscus said someone mailed her a dog muzzle to intimidate her to stop talking about COVID-19 vaccinations, but Axios reported Monday that she allegedly purchased that muzzle herself. “The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security found through a subpoena that the Amazon package containing the muzzle traced back to a credit card in Fiscus’ name,” Axios reported.

Read the full story

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s New Executive Order Grants Students the Right to Opt Out of COVID-19 Mask Mandate

Chris Butler

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday issued an executive order that grants parents the right to opt their children out of a school’s COVID-19 mask mandate if a school board or a health board enacts one over a district. Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) had requestedthat Lee convene a special session of the state’s General Assembly to address school districts who impose mask mandates upon students. Lee said Monday he would not call for such a session.

Read the full story

Anderson County Commissioners Could Request Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation Help on Sports Field with Potentially Hazardous Material

Chris Butler

Anderson County Commissioners are scheduled to meet Monday to decide whether to contact the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) about potentially radioactive coal ash waste, reportedly in a children’s playing area. Commissioners will also debate whether to contact the Tennessee Department of Health on the same matter.

Read the full story

Voters in Georgia’s Ninth U.S. Congressional District Worry Most About the US-Mexico Border, Telephone Poll Reveals

Chris Butler

A plurality of people who participated in a recent Telephone Town Hall with U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09) said they worry most about what’s taking place at the U.S.-Mexico border. Clyde told his constituents in an emailed newsletter this week that more than 4,700 residents in his district participated in his Telephone Town Hall.

Read the full story

Carol Swain Suspects Her New Book on Critical Race Theory Prompted Backlash from American Express

Chris Butler

Former Nashville mayoral candidate Carol Swain said Thursday she suspects her new book that tackles Critical Race Theory (CRT) has attracted the notice of the credit card company American Express, which reportedly leans left. Swain said it’s possible that company officials penalized her because of Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House, which she co-authored. Amazon made the book available this month.

Read the full story