Legislation that would allow police to use surveillance cameras on Tennessee interstate highways was sent to the House Judiciary Committee after lawmakers raised privacy concerns during Thursday’s House session.
House Bill 2110 would end the prohibition on most cameras on interstate highways. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, would let the police use the camera for only surveillance purposes, and not for enforcing speed limits or other traffic laws.
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State Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) has introduced a bill intended to address, among other things, events like the Drag Queen Story Hours at the state’s public libraries.
Holt’s bill, the Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, would create a parental library review board for any library that takes state or federal money. This law would pertain to public libraries that provide access to age-inappropriate sexual material, including “nudity, sexuality, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse.”
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State Rep. Rick Tillis (R-Lewisburg) has agreed to step down from his majority whip position, according to an email Majority Caucus Chairman and State Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) sent to his fellow legislators last week. That’s all top officials at the state capitol seem to say publicly. But there is more to the story, at least according to various sources. Those sources told The Tennessee Star two weeks ago that Tillis only stepped down after a vote of no confidence among his colleagues. Sources, who requested anonymity, said Tillis stepped down after members of one internal Republican caucus held a closed-door meeting and said they doubted Tillis’ abilities as majority whip. As reported, Tillis denied posting anonymous and derogatory tweets disparaging Tennessee state house members and their staff under the name @CHBmole. But Tillis’ colleague, State Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) said at the time that Tillis indeed took up that persona and said Tillis already confessed to him. Holt already used his personal Twitter to out Tillis. CHP is short for the Cordell Hull Building, where legislators have offices. Sources said Tillis admitted to his colleagues he was indeed involved with the CHBmole account — but he said he shared that account with…
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LEWISBURG — State Rep. Rick Tillis, R-Lewisburg, denies he posted anonymous and derogatory tweets disparaging Tennessee state house members and their staff under the name @CHBmole. But Tillis’ colleague, State Rep. Andy Holt, R-Dresden, said Tillis indeed took up that persona earlier this year and said Tillis already confessed to him. CHP is short for the Cordell Hull Building, where legislators’ have offices. The person, or possibly people, who operated the account deleted it this week. The Tennessee Star caught up with Tillis Friday at a Marshall County Chamber Breakfast and asked him point blank — Are you the @CHBmole? Tillis responded with this: “I am not.” Later in the day, Holt challenged that statement. “The confirmation that I have that Rick Tillis is a participant in the @CHPmole account is the fact that he admitted it to me in a telephone conversation. He disclosed this to me,” Holt said. “His quotes were that he was sent the log-in credentials to this Twitter site, @CHPmole. He said he went into the account in February 2019 and made one specific post about Representative Bruce Griffey. He admitted he had the credentials. That he logged on and that he made one…
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On Tuesday Tennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) held a press conference to rail against school vouchers and Education Savings Accounts, but one of the women who flanked her seemed to steal Johnson’s spotlight. Going by a picture of the press conference on Twitter, an unidentified woman standing to Johnson’ right wore a T-shirt that said “Arming Teachers? How about Fund Us Instead?” The people who manage the TN House Democrats’ Twitter page posted the photo Tuesday. Whoever designed the shirt wrote the letters F and U (the first letters from the words “Fund” and “Us”) at a much larger font than the rest of the text. In fact, in the photo The Tennessee Star saw, taken from a good distance away, only the letters F U were visible to the naked eye. The photo included at least seven children, some standing alongside Johnson, some sitting down. The T-shirt generated buzz on Twitter. The Twitter page InsideTNpol, for instance, posted the following: “Tennessee public school educators wearing shirt that basically says “f### you” to @GovBillLee, @tnsenategop & @tnhousegop. Prob not too smart. Good move @TNDemocrats @TNSenateDems! Y’all are just making the school choice argument so much easier. #tnpol #TNLEG” On…
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Wednesday afternoon, members of a Tennessee House Education Committee may revive a bill designed to rein in the Tennessee School Boards Association and its alleged financial abuses, according to a source. More than 90 percent of the TSBA’s $2.2 million revenue in 2016 came from Tennessee taxpayers through dues and no-bid contracts from local school districts. Members of the TSBA, however, won’t abide by the state’s open records laws. They have also shown the public little to no transparency in how they spend money. The most recent information available is three years old. State Rep. Andy Holt, R-Dresden, sponsors the bill, HB 1276. According to the Tennessee General Assembly’s website, the bill would require that local school system personnel post their adopted school budget on the school board’s website before the start of each new school year. That bill failed in an Education Administration Subcommittee last week, according to the General Assembly’s website. But a source told The Tennessee Star Wednesday morning that efforts are afoot to recall that bill today. Exactly 50 percent of the full committee members must agree to recall it. If that happens then committee members will hear the bill again for an up or down…
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A bill in this year’s Tennessee General Assembly would, if enacted into law, require people register with a political party before they vote in any Tennessee primaries. State Rep. Andy Holt, R-Dresden, sponsors the bill. According to TNJ: On the Hill, Holt’s bill advanced on a voice vote in the Elections & Campaign Finance Subcommittee Wednesday. Not all Republicans, however, are reportedly keen on the idea. “Former Republican Gov. Bill Haslam called closing primaries ‘a silly proposal,’ arguing that if the change had been made earlier, it would have been much harder for Republicans to get to the position of power they’re in today,” TNJ: On the Hill reported. “Gov. Bill Lee, who won the Republican nomination amid record turnout in last year’s gubernatorial primary, was similarly dubious about the proposal, telling reporters that ‘the current system we have is working.’” According to the website, anyone in Tennessee can vote in a party primary if they are affiliated with it. In other cases, the voter must declare allegiance to that political party in a primary in which they intend to vote. “The law has been interpreted to mean that seeking a party ballot is a declaration of allegiance. In practice, many Tennesseans…
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One legislator is campaigning against efforts by local governments to collect traffic citations he says they have no right to obtain. State Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) championed a 2016 law that said vendors’ contracts for speeding and traffic light cameras could not renew once their terms expired. That law did not apply to the contracts of cameras used in school zones and along S-curve streets. “Photo enforcement has not been banned in Tennessee, but that’s why I have been going on a full-bent effort to inform folks they do not have to pay photo enforcement citations,” Holt said. “I fully believe the best way to get rid of photo enforcement is to starve the beast.” A police industry spokeswoman disputes claims that the Legislature changed the laws governing traffic cameras. “They did not change the statute any,” said Maggi M. Duncan, executive director of the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police. “All it (the new law) did was say what’s in the statute. The back-and-forth has some drivers confused, like Wayne Forkum of Knoxville, which has cameras. “When the cameras were first installed, the duration of the yellow caution light was shortened in order to catch motorists expecting the…
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With the new Tennessee Star polling data revealing significant vulnerabilities for Senator Bob Corker among likely Republican Primary voters, the speculation about potential opponents who may seek to exploit those vulnerabilities has increased dramatically. (Regardless of how many think about it, if more than one conservative challenger actually gets in the race they give it to Corker. And a successful race will almost certainly require a minimum of $7 million.) Who are these potential challengers? In alphabetical order: Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn. Topping the wish list of many Tennessee conservatives is the Representative from Middle Tennessee’s 7th District. Having represented a wide swath of West Tennessee before redistricting she has a significant base of support in both Middle and West Tennessee, which was reflected in the cross tabs in The Tennessee Star Poll head-to-head poll with Corker. Blackburn won the Middle portion of the state outside the margin of error (43-38) and beat Corker handily in West Tennessee (49-36). Statewide the two were within the margin of error with Corker edging Blackburn 41-39. A Tennessean story that was widely repeated across the state and country reported that Blackburn has indicated that she will NOT run for the Senate in 2018.…
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Gov. Bill Haslam has a history of supporting tax increases. His current proposal to increase the gas tax by 7 cents per gallon and diesel fuel by 12 cents per gallon in 2017 is no aberration, it is part of a consistent pattern. In 2004, newly elected Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam raised the city’s property taxes approximately 13%, but claimed the property tax rate was the lowest in several years. Former Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey challenged the claim saying that a reappraisal which lowered the overall rate, did not lower the overall percentage increase. Years earlier, Haslam was being schooled by his father on the need to raise taxes in Tennessee. Jim Haslam II, was a board member of Citizens for Fair Taxes, a group planning a public education blitz about Tennessee’s “state budget crisis” as a prelude to supporting Don Sundquists’ proposal for a state income tax. Fast forward to 2010 when Haslam, during his first gubernatorial campaign materials stated affirmatively that, “…taxes are job killers. The last thing we should do is raise taxes on a population that is already struggling and a small business community that has been forced to cut back,” and, that: “Tennessee already has the highest…
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