A grave injustice may be about to take place in the Senate–and only public pressure can prevent it.
I write of the upcoming impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who was impeached by the House on February 13 on two counts: that he failed to comply with the law and that he lied to Congress about the results of his failure to comply with the law.
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Why do we celebrate a holiday honoring a man who was arrested and jailed twenty-nine times, and was ultimately assassinated? What lessons can we learn from this man, Martin Luther King, Jr. and from American institutions that seem to have forgotten the contributions that made him worthy of a national holiday?
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Three individuals have been arrested for conspiring to distribute over 13 pounds of fentanyl-mixed pills in Nashville, according to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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Storms in New England over the weekend have left thousands of people without power. Government data and studies show that these weather-related outages are becoming more frequent and lasting longer, which is often attributed to climate change, but analyses of grid resilience and research into disaster costs question that conclusion.
In New York, about 55,000 people were without power on Monday morning after a storm brought high winds and two to four inches of rain, according to The New York Post. The same storm left as many as 45,000 households without power Monday morning, NJ.com reported. As of 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Monday, 226,626 residents of Maine were without power, and local Maine television stations say the worst may be yet to come.
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The memorial fund for Tyre Nichols has grown to nearly $1.5 million, according to the GoFundMe page his family set up after the 29-year-black man died from injuries sustained in “confrontations” with five Memphis Police officers.
As of Wednesday, the fund had received $1.477,930 in donations, well on its way to its $1.6 million goal.
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American Classical Education (ACE) board member Dolores Gresham, a former Tennessee state senator, said Tuesday the story at Tennessee Lookout that claimed Hillsdale College’s affiliated ACE charter schools are teaching a curriculum with links to the Common Core Standards, is “false.”
“The Core Knowledge Foundation program is not the same thing as Common Core,” Gresham said in a statement. “It is decades older than Common Core and is already in use by many schools in Tennessee – including all three of Nashville’s top-performing charter schools.”
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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced his bid for the 2024 Democrat presidential nomination Wednesday by promising to end the “toxic” polarization in America that has grown so “dangerous,” he said, “than at any time since the Civil War.”
The lifelong Democrat, whose family was portrayed for decades, by an infatuated media, as American royalty, now appears to be an outlier in his party’s current far-left worldview, and is even attracting some conservatives.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to discuss the potential presidential candidacy of Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the consequences that will pose for Independents, Republicans, and Biden.
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Documents from Tennessee’s law enforcement regulatory and training agency are shining more light on the concerning conduct of the former Memphis Police officers involved in the Jan. 7 traffic stop that body cam video shows ended in the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols.
A report filed with the Tennessee Peace Officers Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) Commission that sought the officers’ decertification includes a statement from Officer Justin Smith, who insists he used departmental training during Nichols’ arrest.
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A long-time Memphis law enforcement source tells The Tennessee Star rumors about guards at the Shelby County Division of Corrections being involved in street gangs have been circulating for years, although he knows of no correction officer implicated such a crime.
“There have always been rumors about that, but they’ve never been substantiated that I know of,” the official with knowledge of the Shelby County criminal justice system told The Star. “The joke in Memphis criminal justice has long been the jailers are one step ahead of being in jail themselves.”
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Investigators are looking into a rumored connection between Tyre Nichols and the wife of one of the former officer charged in his murder, the Shelby County District Attorney’s office now tells Newsweek.
The revelation comes after a Memphis Police Department spokeswoman told The Tennessee Star there was no evidence to support rumors of Nichols’ involvement with the wife of ex-cop Demetrius Haley.
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Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The 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. – host Leahy welcomed the niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., Alveda King to the newsmaker line to reflect upon her uncles influence growing up and continuing the dream.
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Certain basic functions of everyday life distinguish us from animals. Our use of fire is among them. We cook with it, heat with it, and light the darkness with it. In many ways, fire on the stove is the center of our family life. In days of our ancestors, we even kept wild animals at bay with torches burning hot with the rendered fat of animals.
Now the United States federal government is coming for our fire. It’s to protect the children, the federal government says, through an unelected bureaucrat who wants to regulate gas cookstoves out of existence.
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The anticipated documentary based on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s New York Times bestseller exposing the influence White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has had on government policy, the pharmaceutical industry, and Americans’ health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be available for free viewing for 10 days, beginning October 18, on the film’s website.
In The Real Anthony Fauci, filmmaker Jeff Hays seeks to reveal Fauci’s motivations behind his authoritarian decrees that kept Americans separated, businesses upended, and children out of schools – all without pushback from the establishment media.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis is encouraging military veterans interested in teaching at Florida public schools to consider applying through a new program.
“Florida is leading the way by bringing some of the best, the brightest and the bravest among us into our classrooms through a new program that helps military veterans become teachers,” he said in a video announcement Thursday. “If you served in the military for at least four years, were honorably discharged, have taken 60 college credits, and pass a subject area exam, we want you to be able to teach Florida students.
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When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. published his book The Real Anthony Fauci in November, the fact that it was met with near-total silence from the media was hardly surprising. After all, since the declaration of the COVID pandemic in March 2020, with social media in the lead, Americans have witnessed an unprecedented suppression of any view departing from the official narrative on everything from the origin of the virus to lockdowns, mitigation strategies, and early treatment.
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A federal district court in Louisiana halted one of President Joe Biden’s key climate initiatives implemented shortly after he was inaugurated in January 2021.
Judge James Cain, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, concluded that the policy — which declared there were “social costs” of continued greenhouse gas emissions — caused significant harm to Americans, according to his ruling published Friday. The federal judge granted a motion for a preliminary injunction, pausing implementation of the policy.
“Plaintiff States have sufficiently identified the kinds of harms to support injunctive relief,” Cain wrote in his ruling. “Moreover, the Court finds that the Plaintiff States have made a clear showing of an injury-in-fact, and that such injury ‘cannot be undone through monetary remedies.’”
“The Court agrees that the public interest and balance of equities weigh heavily in favor of granting a preliminary injunction,” the judge added.
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Dozens of concerned parents protested their school system’s adoption of the “21-Day Equity Challenge,” a Critical Race Theory curriculum, at Tuesday’s school board meeting, joined by members of the Oakland County Republican Party and Moms for America.
The protesters lined the street in front of North Farmington High School, holding signs and waving at drivers, who often honked their horns in support as the sun dropped and the temperature with it.
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The Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments for two lawsuits blocking the removal of the Lee statue in Richmond on Tuesday.
A year ago, protests sparked by Minneapolis’ police treatment of George Floyd spread across the country. In Virginia, those protests spurred politicians to start removing controversial Confederate monuments. Although Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney was able to quickly remove most of the monuments on Monument Avenue, the most famous monument — a huge statue of Robert E. Lee — sits on state property ceded to the state under conditions that have complicated efforts to remove the bronze general.
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A Border Patrol agent was arrested in Laredo, Texas, Friday after allegedly smuggling illegal migrants into the U.S., Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday.
Border Patrol Agent Rodney Tolson, Jr. was routinely assigned to lane inspections at an interior checkpoint where he allegedly conspired to transport and smuggle illegal migrants into the U.S. for payment from around Feb. 9, 2020, through March 26, 2019, according to an indictment.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jane Timken announced Friday her immediate resignation as Chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP). The message came during a spur of the moment meeting of the Ohio Republican Central Committee during which Timken did not say whether she was leaving to pursue a seat in the U.S. Senate. The Ohio Star reported that Timken was a likely candidate for the seat U.S. Senator Rob Portman said he would not seek for a third time in 2022. Although she did not officially say she is running, Timken was re-elected chairwoman of the ORP January 15 – Portman announced his decision on January 25. Today, I am announcing my resignation as Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. I am confident that the work we have done over the last four years will leave our party in the best possible position to support Republican candidates up and down the ticket. https://t.co/04GSI5STlo — Jane Timken (@JaneTimkenOH) February 5, 2021 Timken has been officially involved in the ORP since 2010, taking over the chair in 2017. However, for decades her husband’s family (Timken), as well as she and her husband, often topped the list of GOP donors. Timken has never…
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During a COVID briefing on Wednesday Ohio Governor Mike DeWine rescinded the State of Ohio guidance suggesting students quarantine after being in close contact with other COVID-positive students in school and the classroom.
“Today we are changing our guidance,” said DeWine, who continued “I know that there’s been a great deal of pain – students not being able to do things because they are in quarantine. I fully understand that and I’m sorry that happened, but we had to follow the CDC guidance.”
The Governor said the decision was based on an evaluation of Ohio students, a CDC report involving students in Mississippi, and priority the Governor has given to teachers and staff to receive the COVID vaccine.
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Standing 21 feet tall on top of a 40 foot base and weighing 12 tons, the statue of Robert E. Lee and his horse is literally larger than life as the General presides over Richmond.
French Beaux-Arts sculptor Marius Jean Antonin Mercié cast the bronze statue in nine pieces – seven for the horse, and two for the rider, according to the monument’s National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) registration form.
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In testimony to the Joint Ad Hoc Committee to Study Emergency Powers Thursday, retired Tennessee Supreme Court Justice and president and dean of Nashville School of Law William C. Koch, Jr. said Governor Bill Lee’s executive orders are entirely consistent with the inherent power in his office and granted to him in state statute.
The 17-member ad hoc committee, consisting of five senators and 12 representatives, was established by the respective speakers of each house at the request of members in light of the emergency status caused by COVID-19.
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The State Executive Committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party, which is majority white, voted Wednesday to oust respected State Representative John DeBerry, Jr. (formerly D-Memphis, now I-Memphis), who is a strong Christian and black, from the Party. DeBerry has served in the Tennessee General Assembly as the Representative for House District 90 for 26 years, since he was first elected in 1994. Of the 66-member State Executive Committee (SEC), 41 voted for the removal of DeBerry, while 18 voted against and 2 abstained, WREG reported. There are currently five vacancies on the committee. More than two-thirds of the current Tennessee Democratic Party SEC membership is white. While the SEC is designed to have one committeewoman and one committeeman for each of the state’s senatorial districts, the current makeup of the SEC is skewed toward women because four of the five vacancies are committeeman seats. The vote on DeBerry’s status within the TNDP was apparently triggered by a 29-page complaint dated April 1 submitted by a Janeita “Jan” Lentz, an attorney according to her Avvo profile. Ms. Lentz, who appears to be white, also identifies herself as the Co-Chair of Memphis-Midsouth DSA, which is the Democratic Socialists of America. In…
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Four Nashville men were sentenced to federal prison last week by Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr., for their roles in violent crime incidents connected to Nashville public housing developments, announced U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee.
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion on September 11, 2019, affirming that Tennessee’s Billboard Regulation and Control Act of 1972 is unconstitutional based on its content-based regulation of free speech.
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Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have obtained an indictment for a former police chief accused of misconduct and sexual impropriety. This week the Monroe County Grand Jury returned an indictment against former Tellico Plains police chief James Russell Parks, Jr., according to a TBI press release. Officials charged Parks with one count of official misconduct and book him into the Monroe County Jail on a $6,000 bond, the press release went on to say. “On February 14th, at the request of 10th District Attorney General Steve Crump, TBI Agents began investigating missing funds from the Tellico Plains Police Department’s drug enforcement fund, which totaled approximately $840. During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that James Russell Parks, Jr., the department’s police chief, was responsible for the missing funds,” the press release said. “The investigation further determined Parks, 44, was involved in a sexual relationship with an informant paid out of the department’s drug enforcement fund. Parks resigned from the department when the allegation surfaced.” TBI spokesman Josh DeVine told The Tennessee Star Friday he could divulge no further information about the case. As The Star has reported, this is not the first time authorities have accused Tennessee law enforcement…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – In an inaugural event, Layman Lessons provided Christians across Tennessee with an inspirational day on Capitol Hill Wednesday that featured Governor Bill Lee as the keynote speaker and U.S. Congressman Mark Green. The theme of the event was “standing, serving, leading, together,” with an emphasis on serving. Serving is what the charity, Layman Lessons, has been doing since 2001, by procuring and distributing millions of dollars in food, as well as providing other services, to the homeless. Layman Lessons founder, Pastor Louie Johnston, Jr., told The Tennessee Star that 375 free tickets were reserved through EventBrite, which was scheduled for 9:15 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the historic War Memorial Auditorium in downtown Nashville. Grand Ole Opry Show Host and ABC News producer, Juliette Vara, as she does at the Grand Ole Opry, got the audience fired up for the morning event. The program included Gary Chapman, an American contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter who is a seven-time Dove award winner and five-time Grammy nominee. Chapman played a prominent role in the event, leading the attendees in song with his guitar between each segment of the program. Chapman said of Johnston’s request to join in the…
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The House Black Caucus honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the 51st anniversary of his death in Memphis, Tennessee with a reading of what is known as King’s final “I’ve Been To The Mountaintop” speech, even as there is division amongst the group. Dr. King came to Memphis for a third time in less than three weeks on April 3, 1968, to support the striking sanitation workers in a non-violent way after the second march erupted into violence and was called off, as explained by Stanford University’s King Institute. King delivered his inspirational and optimistic speech at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple, which he eerily closed by saying he wasn’t afraid to die. The next day, as he waited to go to dinner at Reverend Billy Kyles’ home, King was fatally shot at The Lorraine Hotel located at 450 Mulberry Street, Memphis. Division In The Black Caucus Ironically, over the past week, Rep. John DeBerry has been the subject of reports by Daily Memphian that the Black Caucus is at odds with him over his recent votes which seems to have brought to a head with a vote in favor of Governor Bill Lee’s Education Savings Accounts (ESA) legislation.…
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By a vote of 32-0, Tennessee’s State Senate unanimously approved legislation that bolsters the Volunteer Public Education Trust Fund designed to assist the state’s K-12 public schools. A notice released after the Senate floor vote said the bill, SB 0625, sponsored by Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson), Chairman of the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee, “makes improvements to the fund’s structure to expand the pool of donors and create an endowment where the interest could be used to assist with improvements or projects outside a school’s normal funding stream.” The release offered an explanation about the Fund by the bill’s sponsor, Senator Watson, “This fund was created in 1985 to be similar to the Tennessee Chairs of Excellence endowment which has been very successful for our colleges and universities.” Senator Watson went further to describe the difference in performance between the higher education endowment and that of the K-12 fund, “While the Chairs of Excellence Fund has raised $395.5 million since its creation, the Volunteer Public Education Trust Fund for K-12 schools has only received $171,147.” To address the many reasons the K-12 fund has not performed as well, including lack of information, marketing and management of the K-12 fund,…
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The Nashville Metropolitan Council approved a resolution opposing civil asset forfeiture without a criminal conviction on Tuesday, just as a bill aimed at reforming state civil asset forfeiture laws is scheduled to be heard in a House committee meeting this coming week. Nashville Metropolitan Council Resolution RS2019-1628 directs that the Metropolitan Clerk send a copy of the Resolution to the Davidson County delegation of the Tennessee General Assembly. As The Tennessee Star previously reported, Representative Martin Daniel (R-Knoxville) and Senator Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) are the sponsors of a civil asset forfeiture reform bill, filed under HB 0340 and SB 0362, respectively. It is the only reform bill filed this year under the subject of forfeiture of assets. Civil asset forfeiture laws are intended to assist law enforcement officials in seizing assets illegally obtained by criminals to defund their criminal enterprise and to help fund law enforcement’s future efforts. The civil asset forfeiture process, though, has been turned against innocent citizens and has received national attention, because assets have been seized that weren’t directly involved in the commission of a crime, assets are not necessarily returned even though the owner was never convicted of a crime, and the rightful owner has…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – On the second day of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly in a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, the state’s Comptroller and Treasurer were re-elected to additional two-year terms. Justin P. Wilson, Comptroller of the Treasury, and David H. Lillard, Jr., Treasurer, were both unanimously re-elected by voice vote to their respective posts, after having served in them since 2009. The offices of Secretary of State, Comptroller and Treasurer are called for in the Constitution of the State of Tennessee and are elected by the General Assembly. The Comptroller and Treasurer are elected every two years and the Secretary of State, a position held by Tre Hargett also since 2009, is elected every four years. Hargett is currently in the middle of his third term. According to the December 2018 Guide to the Office of the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, the General Assembly approved legislation in January 1836 to create the office for the purpose of ensuring state and local financial integrity, as well as bringing a sense of order to the state’s finances. In 1870, the position was added to the state’s Constitution as a constitutional officer voted on by both houses…
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by Carter Dewitt Roy H. Park Jr.’s compelling book into his life, his relationship with his entrepreneur father and the process by which the family business was built, is an insightful study into individual and family values. His book, “Sons in the Shadow: Surviving the Family Business as an Sob — Son of the Boss,” describes hard work, compassion, dedication, frustration, conflict and loyalty, interspersed with that spark of creative genius that separates the most successful of entrepreneurs from the flock. Roy Jr.’s father, Roy H. Park, was a North Carolina icon and a Forbes 400 entrepreneur. He was the driving force behind the Duncan Hines brand and the founder of Park Communications, a newspaper, media, and outdoor billboards company. Roy Jr. is truly the best of his father and mother — what every parent hopes their children will be. The book comes highly recommended by author P.J. O’Rourke, former Pennsylvania congressman Charlie Dent, and the dean of the School of Media and Journalism at UNC, Susan King. In the author’s own words, he “wrote the book because I believe in an America where anyone from any background willing to work hard can make it, even during the toughest of times. I…
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Labor Day has many meanings, but one meaning is that we must recognize the incredible effort and work it took to build this great country.
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It is our belief that the state and most school districts in the state are violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by denying non-union teachers a benefit extended to the “similarly situated” union teacher.
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People of great accomplishment do not sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and make things happen. They pursue new or improve existing skills, insights, and ideas. If they are not learning, they understand they are not growing.
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