Author: Chris Butler

Moms for Liberty – Williamson County Responds to Progressive Mothers Who Want to Defeat Them

Chris Butler

Liberal mothers plan to attend more public-school board meetings to attempt to defeat conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, and now members of that group’s Williamson County chapter in Tennessee have responded. The Washington Post profiled these left-of-center mothers in an article this week. The report also said those mothers are about to go on offense against anyone who attends public school board meetings to speak out against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and COVID-19 masks.

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Left-Wing Activists May Try to Take On Moms for Liberty Group in Tennessee

Chris Butler

The Washington Post published an article this week that focused on Tennessee and said liberal mothers will attend more public-school board meetings to speak out against and attempt to defeat conservative groups like Moms for Liberty. The newspaper said these ‘Blue suburban moms’ are mobilizing. The report also said those mothers are about to go on offense against anyone who attends public school board meetings to speak out against Critical Race Theory (CRT) and COVID-19 masks.

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VoterGA Refutes Recent Brad Raffensperger Letter to Congress

Chris Butler

Members of VoterGA this week released a 42-point report refuting Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s recent 10-page letter that said former President Donald Trump made false statements about the integrity of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. Raffensperger sent the letter to members of Georgia’s congressional delegation and to members of the Georgia General Assembly.

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New Bill Would Require Three-Year State Residency Before Running to Represent Tennesseans in Congress

Chris Butler

State Senator Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) has introduced a bill that would, if enacted into law, restrict people who haven’t lived in Tennessee for a certain period from running for Congress.

Specifically, the bill prohibits someone from accepting a nomination as a candidate for U.S. senator or as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives unless he or she voted in the state’s three previous elections.

Niceley told The Tennessee Star on Thursday that he has an amendment that will rewrite the measure, SB 2616.

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Australia-Based Company to Build Electric Vehicle Charger Production Plant in Tennessee

Chris Butler

The Australian-based Tritium DCFC, which manufactures fast chargers for electric vehicles, has announced plans to open a new manufacturing facility in Lebanon, Tennessee. “The location is expected to house up to six production lines for Tritium’s DC fast chargers, including the company’s award-winning RTM and all-new PKM150 models,” according to a statement on the company’s website.

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Tennessee’s Redistricting Changes Illustrated in New Online Dashboard

Chris Butler

Tennessee residents can now go online to see how the 2021-2022 redistricting process impacts them.

Members of the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office have created a new online dashboard called Tennessee District Lookup that shows which addresses in the state are now assigned to which legislative district.

The new dashboard updates the public on legislative district information for county commissions, the U.S. Congress, and both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly.

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Georgia Parents’ Most Pressing Worries Are Ignored, Oconee County School Board Candidate Says

Chris Butler

Watkinsville resident Julie Mauck is running for the Oconee County Schools Board of Education, and, if she wins, she said she has concrete goals that could transform how the board and the school system do business. Specifically, Mauck wants to help the public gain more access to what, precisely, the school system is passing down to your children.

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Tennessee Agency Calls for $62 Billion in Infrastructure Spending, But Higher Taxes Unlikely

Chris Butler

Members of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) on Monday published a report that called for nearly $62 billion in public infrastructure improvements throughout the state. This includes infrastructure for K-12 public school buildings, transportation and utilities, health, safety, and welfare, recreation and culture, general government, and economic development.

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Stacey Abrams’ Maskless School Appearance Showcased in New Republican Governors Association Ad

Chris Butler

Members of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) on Monday launched a new digital ad in Georgia that highlights a photo of elementary-aged school children wearing COVID-19 masks behind Stacey Abrams, who was maskless. The five-figure ad will run on multiple social media platforms starting this week, members of the RGA said in a statement.

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New Bill Would Require Georgia Law Enforcement to Check People’s Citizenship Status

Chris Butler

Senator Butch Miller (R-Gainesville) this month filed a bill that would, if enacted into law, mandate that Georgia’s law enforcement officers check people’s citizenship status as they make arrests. According to the language of the bill, SB 448, available on the Georgia General Assembly’s website, law enforcement officers could perform this task with or without a warrant.

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The Tennessee Star Celebrates Fifth Year Anniversary

Chris Butler

On Monday The Tennessee Star celebrates its fifth anniversary.

Shortly after midnight, after The Star’s first full day in 2017, Managing Editor Christina Botteri, noted the news outlet had more than 3,000 unique visitors.

“The remarkable thing about our traffic on launch day,” she said at the time, “is that each visitor came back and visited different stories on the site several times during the day.” The total number of pageviews was well over 9,000 that inaugural day, she said.

Across Middle Tennessee, conservatives who had not had a reliable media outlet cheered the arrival of The Star. The outlet provided a marked contrast to the editorial voice of the dominant left-leaning newspapers in the Middle Tennessee area.

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Georgia Representative Barry Loudermilk Says America COMPETES Act Full of Weird Provisions

Chris Butler

Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11) this week said his chamber’s recently passed America COMPETES Act does not hold China accountable for trade abuses and human rights violations, per the bill’s original intent. Loudermilk, in a podcast, said Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) and other members of the far Left hijacked the bill. Loudermilk said the Left then added what the congressman called a wish list of socialist items.

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Five Atlanta Residents Charged with Fraud in Alleged COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program Scheme

Chris Butler

Federal officials in Atlanta have charged 22 people nationwide, including Georgia, with wire fraud conspiracy and other charges in an alleged scheme to obtain nearly $4 million in COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. This, according to a press release that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia published this week.

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Despite Heavy Rumors, Vernon Jones Not Resolving Mystery of Future Campaign Plans

Chris Butler

  Media chatter suggests that Vernon Jones could soon drop out of the Georgia gubernatorial race, but the candidate gave no indication of that on either his Facebook page or his Twitter feed Thursday. Jones did not return The Georgia Star News’ request for comment. FOX News reported this week that Jones might drop out of the race on Friday, quoting what it called two Republican sources familiar with the situation. “And they add that an announcement by the former Democratic state lawmaker turned Republican, who was a top black surrogate for Trump in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, could come between Friday and Monday,” the network reported. FOX News also reported that Jones met with Trump at his resort in Palm Beach, Florida last week and that the two will likely meet again next week. Jones commented Wednesday about his status as a Republican gubernatorial candidate for Georgia, but the messages he sent seemed unclear and came across as mixed. Trump, in December, endorsed Republican David Perdue’s campaign to unseat incumbent GOP Governor Brian Kemp. Jones on Wednesday posted on Facebook and said that he — and either Kemp or Perdue — will square off against the presumed Democratic Party nominee…

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Brian Kelsey and John Gillespie File Bill to Allow Police in Tennessee to Chase Criminals

Chris Butler

Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey and State Representative John Gillespie on Wednesday filed legislation that they said would, if enacted into law, protect police officers’ bests interests. Specifically, Kelsey and Gillespie said the bill would protect police officers from liability for injuries to a third party caused during a police pursuit. This is provided that the police officers’ conduct is not grossly negligent.

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Vernon Jones’ Most Recent Social Media Remarks Suggest He’s Uncertain If He’ll Remain in Georgia Governor’s Race

Chris Butler

Republican Vernon Jones commented Wednesday about his status as a Republican gubernatorial candidate for Georgia, but the messages he sent seemed unclear and came across as mixed. This, after media outlets speculated that Jones might suspend his campaign and seek another office, per the supposed wishes of former President Donald Trump. Trump, in December, endorsed Republican David Perdue’s campaign to unseat incumbent GOP Governor Brian Kemp.

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Tennessee Attorney General’s Office Tells Judge That COVID-19 Reports Must Remain Withheld from Public Access

Chris Butler

Tennessee Deputy Attorney General Janet Kleinfelter argued in court last week that reports that a government-hired consultant filed regarding COVID-19 should remain exempt from the public. This, according to a new column that The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government (TCOG) recently published. The TCOG, according to its website, promotes open government and citizen access to public information.

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Georgia Gubernatorial Candidate David Perdue Launches Statewide Tour, Promises Big Reforms

Chris Butler

ALPHARETTA — Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue on Tuesday launched a statewide tour to communicate his priorities to voters, and they include reforming the state’s election system and overhauling the way the state government collects taxes. Perdue launched his tour in Alpharetta. He said the Republican Party is currently divided. Perdue mentioned that former President Donald Trump endorsed him and added that Trump does not dispense such endorsements lightly.

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Georgia Republican Legislator Denies His Bill Gives In-State Tuition to Illegal Immigrants

Chris Butler

State Representative Wes Cantrell (R-Woodstock) on Monday denied that a new bill he’s sponsoring would grant in-state tuition benefits to illegal immigrants.

This, even though the website Immigration Politics Georgia has warned about the bill, HB 932.

Cantrell filed the bill this month, according to the Georgia General Assembly’s website.

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Tennessee Public School Students Required to Praise School Board Members for School Board Appreciation Week

Chris Butler

Public school students throughout Tennessee last week celebrated School Board Appreciation Week, where students were encouraged to praise their local school board members. Staff, students, and parents at public schools were asked to adopt a board member. They sent cards and artwork to board members. They were also asked to create school board appreciation posters or ask students to draw posters of them.

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Tennessee Senate Approves Balanced Billing Legislation

Chris Butler

Members of the Tennessee State Senate this week unanimously passed legislation that ends the practice of surprise or unexpected medical billing in Tennessee, also called balanced billing. Surprise Medical Billing happens when a patient receives out-of-network care without his or her knowledge – either in an emergency or during a visit to an in-network facility. Weeks later, insurance companies send bills demanding patients pay money for services they assumed insurance would cover.

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Georgia’s December Net Tax Revenues Up 24.3 Percent

Chris Butler

Georgia’s net tax collections in December totaled $2.98 billion, for an increase of $582.9 million, or 24.3 percent, compared to December 2020 when net tax collections totaled $2.40 billion, state officials announced this month. “Year-to-date, net tax revenue collections totaled $14.85 billion, for an increase of $2.28 billion, or 18.1 percent, over FY 2021 after six months,” according to Governor Brian Kemp’s office.

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Members of Tennessee Committee Overseeing Refugee Issues Say Feds Trample All over Tennessee and Other Red States

Chris Butler
Chris Todd and Richard Briggs

Two members of Tennessee’s Joint Study Committee on Refugee Issues said this week that, try as they might, state officials can’t do much to regulate or control how the federal government handles refugees within the state. “The conservatives on the committee are frustrated over how little it appears we have control of this. We have no information,” said Representative Chris Todd (R-Madison County).

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Moms for Liberty – Williamson County President Says Penny Schwinn Has Moral Responsibility to Act Against Critical Race Theory

Chris Butler

Moms for Liberty Williamson County (ML-WC) President Robin Steenman said this week that she will refile a complaint that Tennessee Department Education (TDOE) Commissioner Penny Schwinn rejected last November. Steenman complained about the Williamson County School System’s Wit & Wisdom curriculum, which she said perpetuates the tenants of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

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Knox County Health Department Officials Announce New COVID-19 Deaths, Some of Which Actually Occurred Last Fall

Chris Butler

Knox County Health Department officials announced 39 additional COVID-19 deaths among county residents on Wednesday for the current reporting period of January 16 through January 22. But Knox County Health Department officials also said 10 of those deaths occurred not this month but in previous months. They said they will add those deaths to their charts according to their dates of death.

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Tennessee Officials Release New Project School Performance Data Predating COVID-19

Chris Butler

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and staff at the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) this week released projected data that predates COVID-19 and compared it to student’s actual TCAP scores. They said in a press release that they did this to measure the pandemic’s impact on student achievement via the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) public site. State officials use the site annually to measure students’ overall growth.

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Buckhead Announces New Political Action Committee in Effort to Separate from Atlanta

Chris Butler

BUCKHEAD, Georgia — Buckhead City Committee CEO Bill White announced Monday that his group has a new Political Action Committee (PAC), effective February 1. White announced the news at a fundraiser at Buckhead’s Bistro Niko restaurant. Monday night’s fundraiser had a sell-out crowd. Almost 300 people attended, White said. The event had a minimum ticket donation requirement of $250 per person.

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Tennessee’s Unemployment Reaches Lowest Level Since January 2020

Chris Butler

Unemployment in Tennessee reached a two-year low in December, according to new data that the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) released late last week. The state ended 2021 with an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent, which was 0.2 of a percentage point lower than the rate it recorded in November. Over the past year, Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased by 1.8 percentage points from 5.6 percent to 3.8 percent.

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Donald Trump Calls Georgia Investigation Against Him ‘a Witch Hunt’ and ‘Not the American Way’

Chris Butler

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday and Friday issued a pair of statements commenting on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s attempts to investigate him for alleged election misconduct. On Thursday, Trump emailed supporters and said his phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the November 2020 election “was perfect.”

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