Search Results for: gas tax

Tennessee Star’s National Correspondent Neil McCabe Discusses House Democrats’ New Coronavirus Bill Proposal

Julie Carr

On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Michael Patrick Leahy and all-star panelist Crom Carmichael spoke with The Tennessee Star’s National Correspondent Neil McCabe.

During the third hour, McCabe weighed in on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill HR-6666 and whether the Republicans will vote to pass it. He was skeptical because of past patterns by Republicans who continuously vote to pass such bills regardless of the conservative opposition.

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Nashville Has Reportedly Suffered the Steepest COVID-19 Consumer Spending Drop in the Nation

Laura Baigert

Nashville has suffered the steepest drop in consumer spending of any major metropolitan area in the U.S due to COVID-19, according to a report Wednesday in the Nashville Business Journal.

The Journal used information obtained from Harvard’s new Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, working with Brown University and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to pull data from a variety of sources.

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Tennessee Officials: April Revenues Decline Sharply, Likely Because of COVID-19

Chris Butler

Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Butch Eley announced Tuesday that revenues for April were less than the monthly revenues from the previous year. according to the department’s press release.

Overall state revenues for April were $1.3 billion, which is a negative growth rate of 39.75 percent compared to last year and $693.8 million less than the state budgeted, the press release said.

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Former Warren Aide on Commission Overseeing COVID Stimulus Is Married to Lawyer Who Defends Big Corporate Clients

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One of the regulators pegged to oversee the coronavirus stimulus is married to a corporate attorney who touts her history of defending companies in civil and criminal enforcement cases before the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC), public records show.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer tapped attorney Bharat Ramamurti to sit on the Congressional Oversight Commission, a five-member panel Congress created in March to oversee the $2.2 trillion stimulus package. The commission’s statute does not explicitly require members to disclose their finances, though three of the members are obligated to provide disclosures as they are lawmakers.

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Commentary: The Tyrannical Soul of Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer

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When Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation he was criticized by abolitionists for not issuing a more sweeping order. He refused to do so, asking “If I take the step, must I not do so . . . without any argument, except the one that I think the measure politically expedient, and morally right? Would I not thus give up all footing upon constitution or law? Would I not thus be in the boundless field of absolutism? Could this pass unnoticed, or unresisted?”

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Commentary: It’s Time to Boycott China

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President Trump says he expects China will pay a “substantial” amount of money for damages caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

You can’t help but suspect the Chinese Communist Party deliberately withheld crucial information and hoarded protective supplies needed to prepare for the virus in order to wreak maximum damage both mortal and material on the West.

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Commentary: The Big Red Fake News Machine

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In the late 1990s, Latin America underwent a seismic shift away from its northern neighbor as a result of the domineering and interventionist policies of successive U.S. administrations dating back to the 19th century. This led to the 1998 election of Hugo Chávez Frias as president of Venezuela, and a chain reaction of similar governments of varying leftist ideological stringency coming to power in nations such as Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, and Ecuador. 

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Tennessee Revenues for March Exceeded Budget by $62.1 Million

Laura Baigert

Commissioner of Finance and Administration Butch Eley announced Monday that the Tennessee’s tax revenues exceeded budgeted estimates for the month of March by $62.1 million, despite the anticipated impact of the coronavirus.

Eley was named to the new post by Governor Bill Lee on April 15, while also serving as the Chief Operating Officer for the state. Prior to joining Governor Lee’s administration, he was a founder and CEO of Infrastructure Corporation of America, an infrastructure asset maintenance management company and a partner at the Ingram Group.

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Commentary: What Single-Party Rule by the Democratic Party Will Do to America

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Recent and ongoing events, historic by any standard, have emphatically refuted anyone who thought a black swan event could not possibly disrupt America’s 2020 election. Recent events might also suffice to remind us that yet another Black Swan event could transpire before the November election, creating additional political disruption.

Regardless of how America’s public health and economic fortunes withstand this current ordeal, most establishment media along with the social media monopolies are firmly in the camp of the Democrats. They will present everything that happens between now and November in a manner to favor Democratic candidates and harm Republicans.

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Commentary: Plastic Bags and the Recycling and Reuse Scam

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Back in 2014, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 207, which banned grocery stores from offering customers “single-use” carryout bags. Permanent implementation was delayed by a November 2016 voter referendum, Proposition 67, which unsuccessfully attempted to repeal the measure. Today it is well-established law.

The only way SB 207 was sold to the grocery industry was through an incentive that permitted them to keep the 10 cents per “reusable” bag that they would be required to charge customers.

California’s pioneering ban is touted by environmentalists as an example for the nation, and progressive cities and states have enacted similar laws. But in reality, it is a misguided policy that does more harm than good.

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Kid Rock’s Steakhouse in Nashville Originally Defied Order, But Will Now Close

Chris Butler

Staff at Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse announced Monday night that they will temporarily close, per a city order that all bars on Lower Broadway must shut down.

This, even though Kid Rock’s Steakhouse owner originally said he would defy that order.

As The Tennessee Star reported, on Sunday members of the Metropolitan Board of Health of Nashville and Davidson County declared a public health emergency that forced business owners to either close their doors or limit capacity. Bars on Lower Broadway and throughout Davidson County must close until further notice.

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Metro Councilman At-Large Steve Glover Urges City Officials to Think Through Decisions and Their Consequences as Music City Shuts Down

Julie Carr

During the top of the third hour on Monday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, Metro Councilman Steve Glover gave his take on how he thought the city of Nashville may have made drastic decisions without thoroughly thinking through the consequences. He suggested that the city needs to look at the economic impact of all the things that have occurred to us over the last two to three weeks as our number one priority.

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Commentary: California Is a Cruel Medieval State

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One way of understanding California is simply to invert traditional morality. What for centuries would be considered selfish, callous, and greedy is now recalibrated as caring, empathetic, and generous. The current ethos of evaluating someone by his or her superficial appearance – gender or race – has returned to the premodern values of 19th-century California when race and gender calibrated careers. We don’t pay medieval priests for indulgences of our past and ongoing sin, but we do tweet out displays of our goodness as the penance price of acting amoral.

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Commentary: The Democrats Invented Bernie Sanders by Toying With Socialism for a Generation

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After another big win, this time in Nevada with 46 percent of the vote, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-described democratic socialist, is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020 — and the Democratic establishment has no idea what to do about it.

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Commentary: Rescuing the GOP’s Climate Policy From Absurdity

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For the fanatics on the far Left, and perhaps even for those deranged millions in the middle of the Democratic pack, there is nothing a Republican can say about “climate” that would impress them. As far as they’re concerned, Republicans are racist, sexist, and xenophobic, with a long history of “denying” that climate change is an existential crisis. So anything the GOP has to say on the topic has no credibility.

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Hunter Biden Was on Board of Trade Coalition Lobbying Obama Admin on Ukraine Aid

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Hunter Biden was on the board of a trade coalition that lobbied the Obama administration in 2014 on foreign assistance to Ukraine, and appears to have set up a State Department meeting for the group’s president.

Biden’s links to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) and its affiliate, the Center for U.S. Global Leadership, have gone largely unreported in the coverage of his various business dealings, which have caused a headache for his father as he runs for president.

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Commentary: The GOP’s Silly ‘Carbon Capture’ Dodge

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House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23) is releasing a climate bill this week. The purpose is “to put the GOP on the map on climate” in response to polls reporting that enough young voters have finally succumbed to a lifetime of being propagandized on climate.

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Commentary: It Remains to Be Seen If Democrats Will Ever Accept the 2016 Election and Move This Country Forward

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President Donald Trump is riding high after a triumphant State of the Union Address and full acquittal by the U.S. Senate in his impeachment trial, and with a great, booming economy, it is looking increasingly unlikely whoever the Democratic nominee is will be able to defeat President Trump in November.

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President Trump’s Lawyers Resume Defense in Impeachment Trial

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President Donald Trump’s lawyers resumed their impeachment defense Monday, as majority Republicans in the Senate weighed how to respond to a former Trump national security adviser’s allegation that the U.S. leader told him he wanted to withhold military aid to Ukraine until it launched an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden.

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Analysis: Scientific Survey Shows Voters Widely Accept Misinformation Spread by Left-Leaning Media

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NBC News reporter and political director Chuck Todd recently railed against “misinformation” and singled out President Trump and “the right” for having an “incentive structure” to spread it. Todd, who according to NBC, “is responsible for all aspects of the network’s political coverage,” also stated that Republicans criticize the media for “sport” and “the loudest chanters of fake news” are “the ones who, under a lie detector, would probably take our word over any word they’ve heard from the other side on whether something was poisonous or not.”

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Commentary: Liberal Billionaires Fund Left-Wing Scam Group Southern Poverty Law Center

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Liberal billionaires John and Laura Arnold would like for you to believe that they are not ideological, are guided by the facts, and are motivated by a desire to improve society. But the facts are otherwise: they have given millions of dollars to the abortion lobby, support a carbon tax, have donated millions to study ways of eroding gun rights, and have given generously to liberal Democrats. As if all of that is not bad enough, they have also awarded four grants worth more than $4.8 million to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which loves to falsely claim that conservative organizations are “hate groups.”

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Commentary: The Poison Legacy of ‘Low-Bar’ Impeachment

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Since the embarrassing impeachment and failed conviction of President Andrew Johnson in 1868, Americans more or less had avoided that ultimate constitutional method of removing a chief executive from power. The Johnson impeachment had been so steeped in personal hatred, political rivalry, and post-war agendas that the failure by one vote in the Senate to remove the impeached Johnson more or less discredited the process for a century.

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Commentary: Rotary Takes a Hard Left Turn on Climate Change

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When I joined Rotary in 2014, one of the most important guides I was given by the members is that Rotary is not political. Although I’ve been involved in local politics for many years, I really have enjoyed putting politics aside and working with other Rotarians of all stripes to help those less fortunate locally and internationally.

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Commentary: The Politics, Science, and Politicized Science of Climate Change

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One has to wonder if the shock and despair described in David Bowie’s 1971 hit, “Five Years,” would be the preferred collective mentality for humanity, at least if the relentless propaganda campaigns of climate change activists are successful. And one must admit they have powerful allies at their disposal. A climate alarm consensus informs America’s entire educational, entertainment, and media establishments, along with most corporate marketing, and most political platforms from the local city council to the United Nations.

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Commentary: Hunter Biden May Have to Pay Back the Millions He Made

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The one, overriding impression that Democrats, media and the left have left on many Americans after two weeks of the “impeachment” circus” is not what they intended. They have left the unmistakable impression of fear; near-panic levels of terror. And from what is now seeping out, they have every reason to feel this way.

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Commentary: The Bribery Bait-and-Switch, Explained

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Rep. Adam Schiff

The president’s enemies remain unable to find any “smoking gun” – any clear, irrefutable and publicly compelling proof of “Treason, Bribery [or] other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Ordinary, decent folk in search of actual crimes, having not found any, would have backed off long ago. But our Javert-Democrats are having none of that. Well aware that the public wasn’t buying the product they’re selling, they’ve kept the product – there’s nothing wrong with New Coke! – and changed the marketing.

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Tennessee State Revenues for October Exceed Budgeted Estimates for a $50 Million Surplus

Laura Baigert

In a news release Friday, the Commissioner of Finance and Administration Stuart McWhorter announced that the state’s revenues for October exceeded budgeted estimates, resulting in a $49.8 million surplus for the month.

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Commentary: As Progressives Push Ever Leftward, an Orwellian ‘1984’ Election in 2020 Looms

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For a variety of reasons, the 2020 election is going to be a referendum beyond Donald Trump’s record and his Democratic opposition.

The furor that Trump has incurred, and the radical antithesis to his agenda and first term, have redefined the looming election. It is becoming a stark choice between a revolutionary future versus American traditionalism.

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Commentary: Stapling Green Cards to Diplomas Is Stupid and Suicidal

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I was flabbergasted to hear Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk telling students at a university campus lecture last week that “We should staple a green card behind your diploma.” He repeated this nonsense at Ohio State University during a “Culture War” tour stop this week, asserting that any foreign national who graduates from any “four-year college” should get a green card if any “American employer” needs to fill a job.

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Tennessee State Revenue Report Shows Surplus of $138.8 Million in September

Laura Baigert

  The report of Tennessee state revenues for September at $1.6 billion resulted in a budget surplus of $138.8 million. Revenue for the month of September 2019, as indicated in the report, is $138.7 million more than September 2018, reflecting a 9.75 percent year-over-year growth rate. On an accrual basis, September is the second month in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Combined with August, the two months of revenues have resulted in a total $167.6 million budget surplus year-to-date. Revenues are 6.6 percent ahead of the plan for the 2019-2020 fiscal year and 9.00 percent ahead of this time in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Finance and Administration Commissioner Stuart McWhorter said of the most recent month’s revenue results, “September sales tax receipts continue to reflect strong consumer activity within the state and corporate tax revenues greatly outperformed expectations.” The sales and use tax, the state’s largest revenue generator accounting for more than 60 percent of the 2019-2020 budgeted revenues, exceeded the estimates for September by $31 million or nearly 4 percent. Year-to-date, sales tax revenues have exceeded the budgeted estimates by $40 million, or 2.5 percent for the two month period. Franchise and excise taxes combined, the state’s second-largest revenue source…

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Commentary: Beto O’Rourke Is a Clockwork Leftist

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In an 1819 landmark Supreme Court ruling, McCulloch v. Maryland, Chief Justice John Marshall famously opined: “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.” What the esteemed Chief Justice couldn’t have foreseen was how the regressives would seek to use the power to tax to destroy revealed religions and subordinate them to the Left’s “civil religion.”

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Commentary: Imagining Chelsea Clinton’s America

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It’s nice to know we have Chelsea Clinton to advise us on the state of America today. And since Chelsea Clinton reliably channels the conventional wisdom of the establishment Left in America, it is useful to wonder what sort of country her children would grow up in, if she could wave a wand and let the Left win every battle for the next 20 years.

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Report: Hundreds of Docs Suggest Biden’s Been Lying About Firing Ukrainian Prosecutor

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Media reports based on a deep state “whistleblower” promised us that an obvious “quid pro quo” would be evident in the transcript of a telephone call between President Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, but that was not to be. The transcript shows a cordial conversation in which the president mentioned Biden and his son once late in the call, and at no point promised financial assistance to prompt an investigation into corruption related to Hunter Biden’s lucrative position on the board of a Ukrainian energy business.

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