Search Results for: david hawk

Democrat-Sponsored Legislation Would Make It More Difficult for Metro Nashville Citizens to Amend Charter

Aaron Gulbransen

Democrat-sponsored legislation that would make it markedly more difficult for Metro Nashville citizens to amend the Metro charter is set to be considered by a key state Senate committee.

The measure increases petitions signature requirements to trigger Metropolitan charter amendment ballot referendums in Davidson County. The Metro Charter currently allows citizens to propose charter amendments by ballot initiative for public referendum. The required number of petitions signatures has historically been 10 percent of the voters for the previous general election.

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Sumner County School Board Passes Resolution to Ask State for Flexibility Concerning COVID-19

Kaitlin Housler

On Tuesday, the Sumner County School Board passed resolutions regarding COVID-19 in their district. The resolution will now go to state lawmakers asking them not to require a waiver to have 180 school days if they have to shut down over coronavirus cases and dip into snow days. The school board is also asking the state for more flexibility when it comes to remote and hybrid learning.

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Commentary: Biden Surrendered to the Taliban, the GOP Must Not Surrender to Biden

Admin

Impeach Biden, court martial the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Only one man lost his job over Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller challenged Biden’s incompetent and spineless Joint Chiefs of Staff to take responsibility for their dereliction of duty that led directly to the catastrophe in Afghanistan. Taking responsibility meant resigning. Biden’s military men immediately smeared him as mentally ill and forced him out of the Marines.

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Resolution Calls on Ohio High Schools to Change Native American Nicknames

The Center Square

The Cleveland Indians changed their nickname to the Guardians last month, and now two Democratic lawmakers want Ohio high schools to follow that lead.

Reps. Adam Miller, D-Columbus, and Jessica Miranda, D-Forest Park, have introduced a resolution that encourages all state schools to retire the use of Native American mascots and to engage Native American groups as part of the process.

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Hospitals Saw 10 Percent Decrease in Inpatient Volumes in 2020, Driving Lower Revenue

Eric Burk

Virginia hospitals saw a 10 percent decrease in inpatient volumes in 2020 and a 30 percent decrease in emergency department visits, according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA). On Wednesday, VHHA staff held a virtual press conference presenting an update on hospitalization and emergency department visit trends. Hospitalization data does not show a COVID-19-lockdown baby boom, but rather a decrease in usage of hospital pregnancy services when compares to previous years. On the other hand, inpatient discharge data shows an increase in treatment of alcohol, drug use, and related mental disorders, a trend that began before COVID-19.

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Commentary: Who Killed the Anti-War Democrats?

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After three generations the anti-war tendency within America’s oldest political party has been thoroughly alienated from its leadership and rendered impotent. The absence of this political failsafe means that America’s destructive overseas interventionism is less accountable than ever.

As the 1968 presidential election cycle kicked off there was little reason to suspect that Lyndon Johnson would not continue to serve as president. He had succeeded to the office following the much loved and mourned John F. Kennedy after his assassination in 1963 and won in such a landslide in 1964 that he was immediately able to undertake a raft of ambitious new programs known as the Great Society. 

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Poll: Perdue, Loeffler Could Score in Opposing Atlanta Braves Name Change

RealClearWire

A runoff election may very well be the closest thing in politics to extra innings in baseball, and with control of the Senate at stake, the GOP in Georgia hopes an appeal to America’s pastime will help keep the majority Republican.

This would explain why Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are talking baseball in December.

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Tennessee Republican Party Leaders Plan Road to Victory Bus Tour to Get Out the Vote

Jason M. Reynolds

Tennessee legislative leaders, as well as Gov. Bill Lee, plan to stage a number of bus stops around the state for much of the rest of October to get out the vote.

The statewide Road to Victory bus tour is meant to encourage citizens to vote and to elect Republican candidates, according to a press release from the Tennessee Republican Party.

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Clint Brewer Weighs in on Jim Cooper’s ‘Intellectually Dishonest’ Jab in USPS Hearing and Close Call Primary Race with Haynes

Julie Carr

Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Clint Brewer in the studio to weigh in on Jim Cooper’s recent comments during the USPS hearings and his narrow win against Keeda Haynes.

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Cuban Restaurant Owner in Louisville Says BLM Is Using ‘Mafia Tactics’ to Extort Local Businesses

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A Cuban business owner in Louisville has accused local Black Lives Matter activists of threatening him and using “mafia tactics” after they presented him and other business owners with a list of “demands.”

Fernando Martinez, a partner of the Olé Restaurant Group, was one of dozens of business owners in the downtown “NuLu” district who  received a letter from “local organizers and activists” in recent days that made a number of demands, including a requirement that they make “a recurring monthly donation of 1.5% of net sales” to local black organizations, and that they display a sign that shows support for “the reparations movement” or face “repercussions of noncompliance.”

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Whitmer Announces Appointments to Coronavirus Nursing Home Task Force

Jordyn Pair

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday announced that she had appointed 13 health industry and medical professionals to the Michigan Nursing Home COVID-19 Preparedness Task Force.

In addition to the 13 members appointed by Whitmer, the task force also includes Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon or his designee, Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Orlene Hawks or her designee, Michigan State Long Term Care Ombudsman Salli Pung, State Sens. Rosemary Bayer (D-12-Oakland) and Curt VanderWall (R-35-Benzie) and State Reps. Leslie Love (D-10- Redford) and Hank Vaupel (R-47-Livingston).

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Tennessee’s COVID-19 Case Count Rising, Although More Than 30,000 State Residents Have Recovered

Chris Butler

  As of Sunday night Tennessee has had a total of 51,431 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 646 deaths. Officials at The Covid Tracking Project reported the latest numbers on their website Sunday night. The website also reported that the virus has hospitalized 2,871 Tennesseans. Exactly 949 of those Tennesseans remain hospitalized.. But the Covid Tracking Project also reported that 30,254 Tennesseans have recovered from the virus. As of press time, 844,735 Tennesseans had tested negative for the disease. The Tennessee Department of Health, meanwhile, reported on its website Sunday night that Shelby and Davidson counties continue to lead the state in confirmed and probable COVID-19 case counts. The TDH website listed the following numbers for Tennessee’s counties Sunday: • Shelby County: 11,793 cases • Davidson County: 11,089 cases • Rutherford County: 2,987 • Hamilton County: 2,781 cases • Sumner County: 1,610 cases • Trousdale County: 1,498 cases • Williamson County: 1,313 cases • Knox County: 1,171 cases • Wilson County: 941 cases • Putnam County: 883 cases • Robertson County: 834 cases • Sevier County: 804 cases • Bradley County: 707 • Lake County: 692 cases • Tipton County: 645 cases • Bledsoe County: 620 cases • Bedford County: 570…

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REVIEW: A Bestseller in 1971, ‘None Dare Call It Conspiracy’ Lends Insight to the Events of Today

Admin

Does anyone still believe what they read in the New York Times or watch on any major television network news broadcast? Because for millions of Americans, the credibility of those news sources is at an all-time low. The internet hive mind, even in the face of blatant censorship by search engines and social media monopolies, simply offers too many verifiable, alternative facts for establishment media to get away with the kind of lying they do, and yet they persist. Exposed and discredited, they keep on lying, betting that an exhausted populace simply will not verify every single thing they report.

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Commentary: Stop Using the Boston Tea Party to Justify Violence in Modern America

Admin

Lawful protest in the American political process isn’t the same as the lawless rioting, looting, and destruction of lives and property that became a threat to the public in the past week.

The death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer May 25 in Minneapolis sparked widespread protests there and across America. Many of the demonstrations, despite the general lockdown and stay-at-home orders still in place during the coronavirus pandemic, have been peaceful.

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Tennessee Authorities Investigating String of Five Officer-Involved Shootings, Including Off-Duty Officer

Anthony Gockowski

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened investigations into five different officer-involved shootings in the last nine days, including the shooting of an off-duty Metro Nashville officer.

According to a statement from the Metro Nashville Police Department, Officer Darrell Osment was “inexplicably” shot in the back “without warning or provocation” while walking his dog Thursday night. Osment said he was in plain clothes when he encountered a man he did not know on the street.

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Tennessee has Nearly 10,000 COVID-19 Cases as of Sunday

Chris Butler
COVID-19

Nearly 10,000 Tennesseans have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday night, according to The COVID Tracking Project’s website.

Updated numbers showed 9,667 Tennesseans tested positive for COVID-19 since it broke out, while the virus had hospitalized 828 state residents. COVID-19 had claimed the lives of 181 Tennesseans as of Sunday, according to The COVID Tracking Project’s website.

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Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in Tennessee Tops 7,000

Chris Butler

  Tennessee had 7,070 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Sunday night, according to The COVID Tracking Project website. As of press time, the novel coronavirus pandemic took the lives of 148 Tennesseans. Meanwhile, hospital across the state have admitted 724 people who tested positive for the virus. Shelby County continued to tally the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tennessee, with a total of 1,778 people. Davidson County still ranked second, at 1,638 cases, according to the Tennessee Department of Health’s website. TDH officials listed the updated numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases in other Tennessee counties as follows: • Sumner County: 509 • Williamson County: 348 • Rutherford County: 309 • Knox County: 194 • Wilson County: 181 • Montgomery County: 119 • Hamilton County: 116 • Robertson County: 113 • Putnam County: 95 • Madison County: 86 • Bedford County: 71 • Cumberland County: 57 • Tipton County: 56 • Blount County: 46 • Washington County: 46 • Dickson County: 45 • Fayette County: 45 • Sullivan County: 45 • Bradley County: 37 • Maury County: 34 • Macon County: 33 • Gibson County: 31 • Greene County: 30 • Dyer County: 28 • Marion County: 28 •…

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Commentary: What Is Conservatism, Inc. Actually Conserving?

Admin

In the wake of the Donald Trump moment, conservatism is up for grabs: white identitarians, “Catholic integralists,” paleocons, and American nationalists all sense an opportunity for greater representation. But the bigger story is that the globalist, anti-nationalist, progressive “conservatism” that came before Trump isn’t yet quite dead, and it’s fighting for survival.

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Carol Swain Talks About Her Vision for a Watchdog Organization That Would Oversee Financial Accountability of Nashville’s Metro and City Council.

Julie Carr

On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy talked to in-studio guest Carol Swain in the second hour about her vision for a watchdog organization That Would Oversee Financial Accountability of Nashville’s Metro and City Council.

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Commentary: How Romney and the Anti-Trump GOP Fueled the Border Crisis

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by Julie Kelly   The crisis at the southern U.S. border proves at least one thing to be true: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is more honest than Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and his fellow anti-Trump Republicans. Ocasio-Cortez, to her credit, has never tried to fool the American people or her constituency by suggesting she wants anything less than open borders. Lawmakers on the Left, including the roster of Democratic presidential candidates, have made it clear we must accept an unlimited influx of refugees from Central America. The treatment of migrant children, they tell us, is a national disgrace and an international scourge. Border patrol agents are criminals but the tens of thousands of Central American citizens illegally entering our country each month are not, they insist. Overflowing intake facilities are compared to Nazi concentration camps, and Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take that sort of unabashed honesty—no matter how insane, dangerous, and historically illiterate it is—over the deceptive and duplicitous machinations of alleged “conservatives” like Romney. To her credit, AOC doesn’t pretend to be someone she’s not—staged and dated photo-op notwithstanding. Give me a truthful authoritarian over a phony conservative any day. At…

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Commentary: Justin Amash Is Condoning the FISA Spying by Calling for Trump’s Impeachment

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by Robert Romano   U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) on May 18 called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump in a Twitter thread, accusing him of committing obstruction of justice and “conduct that violates the public trust,” citing the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as justification. Nowhere in the Twitter thread did Amash make a specific allegation of which conduct by President Trump he was referring to that obstructed justice or violated the public trust — although he said there were “multiple examples”. In May 2017, Amash did indicate that President Trump firing former FBI Director James Comey could be a basis for impeachment, a topic the Mueller report does consider, so let’s assume for the purposes of this discussion that in part that is what he’s talking about. Critically, nowhere in the Twitter thread did Amash mention Russia or the fact that the Mueller report had found no coordination or conspiracy with Russia by President Trump, his campaign or any American for that matter to interfere in the 2016 elections. Mueller stated in the report, “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference…

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Commentary: Yes, Christians Can Support Trump Without Risk to Their Witness

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by Chris Buskirk   Can an adulterer be a great surgeon? If your child needed care and the best surgeon had cheated on his wife, maybe more than once, would you let him operate? What if you are a Christian and he is not? Does that matter? Should it? In the secular realm of everyday life—the life that takes place outside the church in which believers and unbelievers interact, mostly happily, mostly without even noticing (or often having any way of knowing) the difference—those questions should answer themselves. Of course, an adulterer can be a great surgeon. And a superbly ethical, thoroughly decent person may be a professional mediocrity—or worse. That’s life. There are innumerable examples of people who are wonderful but unaccomplished just as there are many notable examples of people with serious personal failings who nonetheless have excelled in other parts of their lives: artists, scientists, parents, and even politicians. And yes, I’m not so subtly making a point about President Trump. His private failings have been made very public prompting some Christian pundits to say that not only do those failings disqualify Trump from office, but they are so egregious as to make supporting him sinful for…

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Commentary: Telling the Truth About Islam Always Gets You in Trouble with Democrats

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by George Rasley   Recently, 12 pro-Israel organizations signed a letter addressed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, calling on them to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-5) from the Foreign Affairs Committee after she espoused a series of anti-Semitic tropes. The Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), a longtime pro-Israel advocacy group, spearheaded the effort. While some of the groups are avowedly conservative, most of the organizations that signed on are either Jewish groups or groups that have close ties to the Jewish community. The reaction from the Left and from Left-aligned Islamists was swift and vicious. Emily Kopp, a former press intern for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, used an op-ed in Capitol Hill’s Roll Call newspaper to describe ACT for America and our friends at the Center for Security Policy as “anti-Muslim hate groups” that “peddle anti-Muslim conspiracy theories.” Kopp also accuses ACT for America of having ties to a neo-Nazi, based on disinformation published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Wrote Kopp: But the coalition behind the letter — described by conservative media to be “leading Jewish organizations” — includes groups that maintain no relationship to the American Jewish community…

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Parents Group Calls for Resignation or Termination of Sumner County School Director Del Phillips Over School Rezoning

Laura Baigert

GALLATIN, Tennessee – Dozens of parents attended Tuesday evening’s Sumner County Board of Education meeting in opposition to the rezoning plan of Sumner County Schools (SCS) Director of Schools Del Phillips and called for his resignation or termination by the board. The major point of contention for the parents, several of whom wore shirts displaying a Stop Stage 1 logo, is that some elementary and middle school students will be temporarily re-zoned from their current schools for the 2019-2020 school year before being permanently rezoned to newly constructed schools for the 2021-2022 school year. The temporary and permanent series of zone changes have been named by Director Phillips as Stage 1 and Stage 2, respectively. The group of parents organized on October 23, 2018, the same day the rezoning plan was introduced by Director Phillips in a non-voting “retreat” of the school board. The goal of the group, named “Stop Stage 1 – Better Solutions for SCSC Temporary Rezoning,” is to stop the temporary or transitional rezoning of students. Stop Stage 1 is not against the permanent rezoning to the new three-school campus, and in fact, has specifically stated their support for the building of it. Per the school system’s…

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Commentary: The Not-So-Fabulous ‘Fabulists’

Admin

by J. D. Hayworth   A familiar cacophony arises again from the city John F. Kennedy once described by as a place of “Southern Efficiency and Northern Charm.” Washington, D.C. reprises its role as the epicenter of leftist “wailing and gnashing of teeth” over another “government shutdown” that really isn’t. A Northerner seldom described as charming – Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) – offered a predictable assessment on the Senate floor. “President Trump is plunging the country into chaos,” said the Senate minority leader. Really? From within the bowels of the bureaucracy comes this dispatch from a candid worker, who, for his own personal and professional security, shall remain nameless: Here is the truth: 75 percent [of government] is funded. Any actual “shutdown” will not start until Wednesday. The overwhelming majority of my staff . . . was planning to take next week and Monday [December 31] off. In addition, every one of those “furloughed” federal employees will get full pay. Furthermore, because they have played this game for a long time, many of them did not put in for leave until they knew. Since there is a shutdown, they will effectively get a paid vacation and keep the leave they would…

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Commentary: The Rise of the Republican #WalkAways – And Why No One Cares

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by Troy Worden   You might have heard about the #WalkAway Movement, in which disaffected Democrats say farewell to their party due to its hard-left turn. But you might not have heard much about an identical movement of disaffected Republicans leaving their party, though it’s not because it isn’t happening. It’s just that nobody cares. Nobody cares about recent pieces in The Atlantic, Washington Post, and other liberal papers detailing former Republicans’ disaffection with their party, even if they were published in the wake of Brett Kavanaugh’s highly contentious nomination to the Supreme Court. Indeed, very few people cared about the exodus of other, more prominent conservatives from the party, among them campaign strategist Steve Schmidt and columnist George Will. This isn’t to say Schmidt or Will or others—Bill Kristol, David French, and Jonah Goldberg among them—are not intelligent figures who sincerely believe that they are defending the principles of “true conservatism.” They can be mistaken without being insincere. All due respect for their work on behalf of a cause we once thought we shared in common. Now, however, we have to be honest. Many of them are cashing in on their Trump Derangement Syndrome, bigly. Kristol says he’s still…

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Could Downtown Nashville Scrap Metal Recycling Site Move After Nearly 70 Years?

Jason M. Reynolds
PSC Scrap Metal Yard pscmetals.com

PSC Metals is looking to move its scrap-metal recycling operations from its valuable downtown Nashville site on the riverfront and relocate its corporate headquarters to Music City as well, the Nashville Post reports. The company would move its recycling center near Nissan Stadium to somewhere else in Davidson County, the Post reports, citing emails it acquired in a public records request from Metro Nashville. PSC Metals, which used to lease some of the site, bought the rest of the property it did not own last October after a legal battle. Former mayors Karl Dean and Bill Purcell sought to relocate PSC Metals but failed. Former Mayor Megan Barry called the scrapyard an “eyesore.” Her administration released a plan envisioning the site as a park in the 2021-2013 period. The riverside property has been used for recycling since the 1950s after having served as a dump. PSC also may relocate its headquarters from Mayfield Heights, Ohio and has spoken to state and Metro real estate and economic development officials. Potential locations are a Ford Motors-owned site on Centennial Boulevard, a state-owned former prison and a Goodwill site owned by real estate official Bill Hawkins. Benchmark Realty broker Brian Taylor wrote in an…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Lee Set to Hit the Road with a ‘Tennessee Town Hall Tour’

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Bill Lee

Gubernatorial hopeful Bill Lee announced Tuesday he will embark on a statewide sojourn to host a series of ‘Tennessee Town Halls’ Tour Wednesday and continuing throughout the duration of the primary campaign. Lee, the first candidate in the race to visit all 95 counties in the first 95 days of campaigning, says he will revisit some 50 locations in each of the three grand divisions in the state. “We’re running the most aggressive grassroots campaign in Tennessee, and Maria and I can’t wait to hop on the RV and hit every corner of the state in this Town Hall Tour,” Lee said in a statement. “Tennessee is a remarkable place, and I’m going to continue to meet one on one with as many people as I can to hear from them and make my case. ” The campaign will announce the dates and locations for the Tennessee Town Halls on a “rolling basis,” beginning with event details though May 31: May 16 – Morrison in Warren County May 22 – Rogersville in Hawkins County May 24 – Jackson in Madison County May 30 – Goodlettsville in Davidson, Sumner County May 30 – Somerville in Fayette County May 31 – Germantown in Shelby County “Bill…

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Andy Martin Analysis: Why They Lost the May 1st Nashville Transit Plan Referendum

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by Andy Martin   The May 1st County Primary vote on the $8.9 billion transit tax referendum is one for the record books. 123,963 votes: 44,636 FOR and 79,327 AGAINST. For reference, the last County Primary May 6, 2014 had 38,804 total votes. What happened? In a rush to scoop the story every major Nashville news organization has opined on the results with little reflection. Here are the real reasons why the referendum failed in a landslide. We already have transit This will come as a shock to out of state meddlers like StreetsBlog USA, CityLab, and the National League of Cities, but Nashville has transit. Likewise, based on the convulsions from the mayor (Nashville “will fail” if the referendum does not pass), metro council, and local media, you would think even locals don’t know this. The Nashville Metro Transit Authority budget is $80 million. We have buses, shuttles (AccessRide and airport shuttles), private/public partnerships, ride sharing, car and van pooling, BRT lite (non-dedicated lanes), the Music City Star, and bike paths. According to MTA there are roughly 10 million riders (or rides) per year. One wonders what MTA CEO Steve Bland thinks when Nashville leaders say we “do nothing.”…

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Vast Majority of Tennessee House Republicans – 58 Out of 74 – Are Co-Sponsors of Anti-Sanctuary City Bill

Chris Alto
Jay Reedy

Fifty-eight Tennessee House Republicans are named co-sponsors on the anti-sanctuary city bill HB2315. Adding the bill’s chief sponsor, State Rep. Jay Reedy (R-Erin), means that 80 percent of the House Republicans support strengthening and closing the loopholes in Tennessee’s existing anti-sanctuary city statute. (Seventy-four of the 99 members of the Tennessee House of Representatives this session are Republicans, while 25 are Democrats.) Tennessee’s anti-sanctuary city law passed in 2009, only addresses written policies that prohibit local governments, officials and employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. This narrower definition of “sanctuary city” would likely not have applied to at least one of the sanctuary city ordinances proposed by the Metro Nashville Council last June. The two ordinances proposed by the Metro Nashville Council would have made Nashville the most liberal sanctuary city in the country. One of the bills included a “don’t ask so you don’t have to know or tell” practice prohibiting Davidson County and Nashville employees, including law enforcement, from providing pertinent information to ICE regarding criminal aliens. Reedy’s bill expands the definition of sanctuary city to include practices that obstruct cooperation with federal immigration authorities and help shield illegal aliens who have also committed crimes. North Carolina and Georgia…

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Gubernatorial Candidate Bill Lee Announces a Business Advisory Council with Over 100 Members

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Tennessee Star

Williamson County businessman Bill Lee made news Thursday with his announcement of the 100-plus member “Business Leaders for Bill Lee Coalition.” “I’ve spent my entire professional life in business, and I appreciate the support of these impressive leaders,” Lee said in a statement. “Business leaders know how to make a payroll, create jobs and grow our economy, and we need more of their know how and expertise to help improve government even more.” The coalition spans the entire state and will be Co-Chaired by three members representing East, Middle, and West Tennessee, the statement said: Kelly Wolfe, Mayor of Jonesborough and President of Wolfe Development – East Tennessee Cordia Harrington, Founder and CEO of The Bakery Cos. – Middle Tennessee Ruste Via, CEO of Christian Family Medicine – West Tennessee “As a businessman, I know we need business principles in government – putting people first, getting the job done, and being a man of your word — are important traits for the leader of our state. Bill Lee is that kind of leader,” said Wolfe. “As business leaders, we know Bill Lee is the most qualified candidate to lead Tennessee into the future. Bill brings real world business experience and…

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Commentary: Republicans Hold the Key to Their Own Success in the 2018 Midterm Elections

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by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Now that 2017’s few elections and reflections on the one-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s triumphant win in the 2016 election are in the rearview mirror it’s time to look ahead to the all-important midterm elections of 2018. Midterms are always a big deal because they portend to reveal how well – or how poorly – a president is received by a wide cross-section of the American public. Ahead of next year’s vote media pundits are doing what media pundits always do, namely find any way feasible to describe the Republican Party as being in trouble. Their routines are predictable: wake up in the morning, put on a pot of coffee, take their anti-depressant medication, check Trump’s twitter feed, organize their angry thoughts and then scribble a story bashing Trump and predicting doom. In Trump’s case it’s been happening for well over two years now so liberal journalists have the shtick down cold. The only problem is their predictions rarely come true. Other commentators actually look at the facts and try to draw some reasoned conclusions. David M. Drucker and W. James Antle III of the Washington Examiner wrote earlier this week, “One year out from the midterm congressional…

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Commentary: To Solve the U.S. Opioid Crisis, Start by Treating Cultural Disease First

Tennessee Star Staff

by Jeffrey A. Rendall   Sometimes the solution to a crisis is so obvious that we feel foolish when failing to immediately recognize it. And sometimes it’s not so plain. Such is the case for the opioid epidemic in America. For those in need of explanation, “opioid” means “naturally occurring opium-containing substance” – any opium-containing substance that is produced naturally in the brain. It can also mean “similar to opium” – similar in effect or properties to opium but not derived from opium. A good many of us first learned about opioid dependency during the 2016 campaign when the issue was raised time and again with questions posed to candidates of both parties at virtually every stop – especially in New Hampshire. Drug addiction is hardly obscure but it’s not necessarily something you expect to concentrate on alongside tax proposals and foreign policy visions from stumping politicians. Both Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz relayed stories about losing someone close to them because of addiction so they spoke from the heart as well as experience when discussing the necessity to help those who need it the most — but how to do it? The federal role in the so-called “War on…

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Commentary: Establishment Still Suffers from Steve Bannon Derangement Syndrome

Tennessee Star Staff

by Jeffrey A. Rendall If one were tasked with devising a test to determine whether a person was a card-carrying member of the Washington Republican establishment all he or she would need to do is mention the words “Steve Bannon” to the subject and jot down the individual’s reactions accordingly. For although Bannon has been officially gone from the White House for a month the elites can’t stop taking shots at President Donald Trump’s former senior advisor and now head man at the unapologetically conservative Breitbart News. Bannon remains a central figure in President Trump’s orbit even though he no longer has office space in the West Wing. Judging by the degree of animosity Bannon engenders from the ruling class, he might as well be permanently planted on top of the president’s desk. It’s starting to get ugly. David French wrote at National Review the other day, “On 60 Minutes [Sunday] night, the man [Steve Bannon] credited with shaping Trump’s ‘America First’ brand of politics clearly and unequivocally declared his disdain for George W. Bush and Bush’s entire national-security team, calling them ‘idiots’ and saying that he holds them ‘in contempt, total and complete contempt.’… “There’s no substitute for forward-deployed…

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Middle Tennessee Regional Planning Group Holds Ninth Annual Summit

Laura Baigert

  NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Cumberland Region Tomorrow (CRT), a charitable entity whose mission is “to support our ten-county region’s values, economic vitality, and quality of life by influencing patterns of growth and development through education and advocacy,” held its ninth annual Power of 10 Regional Summit titled “Sustaining The Boom: World Class Strategies,” at the Music City Center. The Summit was attended by more than 200 planners, leaders and elected officials from the 10-county middle Tennessee region that includes Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Maury, Montgomery, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties to discuss regional issues and opportunities in the key areas of improving transportation infrastructure, assuring sustainable development in a period of unprecedented growth and establishing collaborative goals and plans that benefit the region’s rural and urban communities. The “Early Bird Special” registration fee for the event was $90, with most government entities having a “travel” line item to cover such expenses for employees and elected officials. CRT is one of a number of organizations involved with various aspects of planning in the region, including, but not limited to, the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, Greater Nashville Regional Council, Metropolitan Transit Authority, Regional Transit Authority, Middle Tennessee Mayors Caucus and…

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