Commentary: Tennesseans Deserve Investment Transparency

For the first time in the United States, an investment firm is being sued for its misleading Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment strategies, and our state is leading the charge.

Tennessee State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti accused BlackRock, Inc. of deceiving Tennesseans by downplaying their ESG-related investment goals and pressuring corporate boards to do the same.

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Six Companies Get $7 Million from Minnesota for Business Expansion

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development will give $7.45 million in business expansion funding expected to create 430 jobs.

The funding comes from DEED’s Job Creation Fund and Minnesota Investment Fund. The Job Creation Fund provides financial incentives to new and expanding businesses that meet certain job creation and capital investment targets. Eligible companies may receive up to $2 million for creating or retaining high-paying jobs and for constructing or renovating facilities or making other property improvements.

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New Pennsylvania State Senator Wants Accountability for Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone

Pennsylvania state Senator Jarrett Coleman (R-Allentown) last week sent a memo to colleagues asking them to support an upcoming resolution to audit Allentown’s Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ). 

Under the program state lawmakers established in 2009, developers can use state and local tax money to offset the debts they incur on construction and rehabilitation projects in designated parts of Pennsylvania’s third-largest city. Areas within the NIZ include the Lehigh River’s westside waterfront north of Union Street and south of American Parkway as well as the PPL Center hockey arena and many of its surrounding blocks. Allentown is the only city with a neighborhood subject to this program, but the state has created similar zones in Bethlehem and Lancaster.

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VCU Falls Prey to Alleged Nigerian Email Scam

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) had $469,819.49 stolen in an alleged Nigerian email scam, according to a Department of Justice court document and an FBI Richmond press release that announced the extradition to the U.S. of three Nigerian nationals alleged to have participated in a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that also targeted a North Carolina university, a Texas college, local Texas governments, and Texas construction companies.

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Virginia Husband and Wife Realtor Team Plead Guilty to Federal Wire Fraud Charge, Now Await Sentencing

A husband and wife realtor team from Abingdon, Virginia, pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal wire fraud charges related to their scheme to create fake residential sales contracts in order to obtain advance sales commissions to which they were not entitled, according to a press release by the Western District of Virginia U.S. Attorney’s Office.

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KORE Power to Grow in Maricopa County, Bringing Thousands of Jobs

KORE Power, Inc. announced on July 29 that they are building the first lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility owned entirely by a U.S. company in Maricopa County, bringing 3,000 jobs to the Grand Canyon state. 

The one million square foot KOREPlex manufacturing facility 40 miles west of Phoenix in Buckeye will support up to 12 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of battery cell production. Once operational, the facility will produce enough power capacity for 3.2 million homes each year, the company said.

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Michigan Gov. Whitmer Sued over Ban on Contact Sports

The Democrat governor of Michigan is being sued by several parties over her ban of contact sports at the high school level, which was recently extended until February 21. 

Let Them Play, Inc., a non-profit, along with the Michigan Amateur Youth Hockey League and players and parents of high school athletes, brought suit Wednesday against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), according to a legal complaint. 

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Tennessee Comptrollers: Memphis-Area Nonprofits Wrongfully Obtained More Than $37,000 in Taxpayer Money

Tennessee Comptrollers have released two investigations revealing what they describe as fraudulent actions by two Memphis-area nonprofits.

Red Robins Academy of Learning, Inc. (RRAL), and Giving Youth a Chance (GYAC) both participated in the Summer Food Service Program in 2018. The Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS) administers this federal program and provides free meals to children during summer months when school is not in session.

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Company Accused of Screwing Up TNReady Wants Another Chance

Tennessee auditors may have recently put out a rotten review of how Questar Assessment, Inc. handled TNReady, but that is reportedly not discouraging company officials. According to the Chattanooga-based WRCBtv.com, Questar officials want the job again. Specifically, they want a new state contract to continue overseeing the same service in the fall. They will bid for it, the website reported. As The Tennessee Star reported last month, the TNReady online student assessment tests had login delays, slow servers, and software bugs, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released. As reported, last year Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said TNReady “has had several hiccups” and that criticism of it “was earned.” Auditors, however, went into more detail in their report. “The first signs of trouble began on April 16, 2018 and continued through the end of the month,” auditors said in a press release. “Auditors determined that many of these issues occurred primarily because of Questar Assessment, Inc’s performance and updates to the student assessment system. Auditors also found the Department of Education’s oversight of test administration fell short of expectations.” Over the course of the audit, the department and Questar worked constantly to address the issues that caused or contributed to the spring…

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Commentary: Break Up Google for the Public Good

by Ned Ryun   It’s time for all of us to admit that Alphabet, Inc. is the 21st century equivalent of Ma Bell: it is an almost all-controlling monopoly that restricts consumer choice in order to maximize profit for the company. We all know what Ronald Reagan did to AT&T. He broke up that monopoly so Americans could have real choices and the free market could actually work. So it’s time for the Trump Administration to break up the Alphabet, Inc. monopoly. But unlike the Ma Bell monopoly, Alphabet, Inc.’s monopoly—which includes the search-engine behemoth Google—isn’t just about greater competition and more choices for the American people. It’s about so much more: free political discourse and our privacy rights as citizens. Last week in Washington D.C., the House called in Google CEO Sundar Pichai to question him about the bias against conservatives at his company, but also about data privacy and Google’s plans for working with China. Every last one of those issues should trouble every last American. The mainstream media, as the mindless propagandists of the deep state and Democratic Party, are still trying to maintain the miserable hoax of Russian collusion to cover up their own misdeeds and…

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Lt. Governor Randy McNally Blasts Testing Firm ACT, Calls on Comptroller to Investigate

Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) went public on Monday with a letter he sent to Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson on December 7, calling on him to open an investigation in college aptitude testing firm ACT, Inc. “Last week, I sent a letter to Tennessee Comptroller Justin P Wilson requesting an investigation of ACT Student,” McNally wrote on Facebook Monday morning, adding: An organization that is willing to sacrifice young people’s future over a bureaucratic error is not an organization Tennessee can trust. It is important that Tennessee parents and students have as much information as possible on the operations of ACT, Inc. At issue is the ongoing debacle surrounding a batch of test scores due to hundreds of students who are relying on the firm’s results to complete their college entry requirements. As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Bearden High School administered the test Oct. 17 with test booklets it received intended for Oct. 3. ACT has not responded to questions about how the incorrect materials were sent to the school, but says it can’t validate the scores because of the “mis-administration” and the theoretical possibility that students could have received test answers from others. Students have been directed to retake the test Dec. 9. “It’s…

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Rally to Stop Metro Nashville Sanctuary City Ordinance Planned for July 6, Day of Scheduled Final Vote

Organizers of a rally planned to stop the proposed sanctuary city ordinance tell The Tennessee Star the event will be held outside Metro Nashville Council’s chambers in front of the Metro Nashville Courthouse at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Union Street in downtown Nashville at 4:30 pm on Thursday, July 6. The rally will start an hour and a half before the Metro Nashville Council meeting begins where the vote on the third and final reading of the controversial sanctuary city ordinance is scheduled to be held. After the rally, attendees will go inside the Courthouse for the Council meeting in anticipation of the vote on the third reading. T-shirts saying “Keep Nashville Safe. Just Vote No,” will be available at the rally. As The Star reported, the Metro Nashville Council voted 25 to 8 in favor of the proposed ordinance at a second reading held at its June 20th meeting. On Monday, organizers formed a 501 (c) 4 non-profit organization, Tying Nashville Together, Inc., whose sole purpose will be to stop the sanctuary city bill. A website and Facebook page will be up soon, organizers tell The Star. Founding board members will be announced later this week. On…

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