‘It’s Our Time in History to Come Together. We’re Americans First’ Says Bristol County Mass. Sheriff Thomas Hodgson

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 am to 8:00 am – In the second hour of the show, Leahy sat down with Thomas M. Hodgson who is an American law enforcement agent and politician who has served as Sheriff of Bristol County, Massachusetts since 1997.

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Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton Wanted to Oust Pelosi and Now Wants to Take on Trump in 2020

by Evie Fordham   Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton became to the third politician from the state to announce a 2020 presidential run Monday. Moulton, 40, will compete with Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary. He will also stand in contrast to former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who is challenging President Donald Trump in the GOP primary. “I’m running because we have to beat Donald Trump,” Moulton said in a brand-new campaign video. “And I want us to beat Donald Trump because I love this country.” The congressman has served Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District since 2015 and is known for opposing Democratic California Rep. Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House after the 2018 midterm elections. Moulton eventually voted for Pelosi after top Democrats agreed to term limits for their leadership positions, reported WBUR.   Moulton detailed his decision to join the Marine Corps in 2001 and his tough first congressional race against a Democratic incumbent in his campaign video. Moulton earned a degree in physics from Harvard University in 2001. He returned to the institution after four tours in Iraq to earn a master’s degrees in business and public policy at the Harvard Business School and Harvard’s John…

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Massachusetts Allocates Funds Supplementing Planned Parenthood Losses

by Connor Maldo   The state of Massachusetts has approved funding to compensate abortion providers for the possible loss of federal contributions due to changes in federal policy. This legislation responds to a new rule under the Trump administration that prohibits federally funded family planning offices from sharing space with an abortion provider. The law approves $8 million in funding to prepare for the potential loss of federal support under Title X, the Associated Press reported. Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said the bill “ensures women’s health providers across Massachusetts will continue to have access to these critical funds.” Prior to reaching the governor’s desk, the measure received wide support from the Democratic-led state legislature. In 2017, Maryland passed a similar law, predicting the Trump administration rule, that allocated funding to protect Planned Parenthood, which became law when Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan refused to veto the bill. Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, believes that a loss of federal funding could affect more than 75,000 women. “The Trump/Pence administration is obsessed with Planned Parenthood, and not in a good way,” Childs-Roshak said. “They are obsessed with abortion.” Pro-life advocates supported the new rule…

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Commenteary: Why Does Child Care in Massachusetts Cost Four Times What it Does in Mississippi?

by Max Gulker   In the discussion of the nation’s problem with child care costs, a crucial factor has gone mostly unmentioned. This is one of the most regulated industries. These regulations are driving up costs. Adding more government control of the industry risks making a bad situation even worse. To be sure, costs vary by state. So too do the relevant regulatory regimes. According to data from Child Care Aware, child care for a toddler in a Massachusetts center costs on average a whopping $18,845, or 65 percent on the average single-parent family’s income in the state. Low-cost Mississippi, on the other hand, is $4,670, less than 25 percent of the average single-parent family’s income. Why does child care in Massachusetts cost four times what it does in Mississippi? Indices estimate that the ratio of overall cost of living between the two states is about 1.5, suggesting factors specific to child care account for part of the wide gap. Massachusetts mandates that child-care centers must have one staff member on hand for every three infants. In Mississippi, that staff member can care for five. Massachusetts requires a staff member for every ten preschool-age children. In Mississippi, that number is fourteen.…

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Elizabeth Warren Ignites More 2020 Speculation With Twitter Name Change

by Molly Prince   The name of Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign’s Twitter account changed Saturday night, reigniting speculation she has plans to launch a bid for the presidency in 2020. Renamed: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) campaign account"elizabethforma"=>"ewarren" — Changes of Congress (@CongressChanges) December 30, 2018 @CongressChanges, a Twitter bot that monitors changes to lawmakers’ Twitter accounts, tweeted Warren re-named her account @ewarren. Prior to the change, the account was @elizabethforma, a nod to her home state of Massachusetts. Warren, who said in June she would not be running for president, seemingly flipped on her word and announced less than three months later she would take a “hard look” at launching a presidential campaign following the midterms. During an interview leading up to her November election, Warren refused to commit to serving her full term in the Senate if re-elected. The Massachusetts senator has also been quietly shopping for office space in the Boston area to headquarter her possible presidential campaign, according to a report earlier in December. The list of Democratic senators who are mulling over their own challenge to Trump in 2020 is continuing to grow. Following midterm elections, Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announced they are considering a presidential run.…

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Nine States Back Environmentalists Trying to Shutdown Search for Oil in Atlantic

by Tim Pearce   Nine states are intervening in a lawsuit against the Trump administration for approving oil and gas companies to search for oil and gas deposits in the Atlantic Ocean. Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh announced Thursday the states would join environmental groups in a lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from allowing seismic testing off the coast of South Carolina. “The National Marine Fisheries Service has issued what are called incidental harassment authorizations. They would, by their own terms, result in harm to hundreds of thousands of whales and dolphins and porpoises,” Frosh said. “The permits eliminate a major obstacle to testing and we content that the authorizations are illegal.” Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Virginia accompanied Maryland in intervening in the lawsuit. The NMFS, an agency under the Commerce Department, issued “incidental take” permits Nov. 30 allowing oil and gas companies to conduct the tests. Environmental groups sued the federal government Nov. 11 to prevent the seismic testing, which involves air guns booming in the ocean seconds apart for days at a time. Environmentalists contend the permits violate the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammals Protection Act and other regulations. The federal…

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Former Judges Call on ICE to End Immigration Arrests at Courthouses

ICE arrest

Dozens of retired state and federal judges called on U.S. immigration officials Wednesday to stop making arrests at courthouses of people suspected of being in the country illegally, saying immigrants should be free to visit halls of justice without fearing they will be detained. Nearly 70 former judges from 23 states— including federal judges and state supreme court justices— said in a letter sent to Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Ronald Vitiello that courthouse arrests are disrupting the criminal justice system. “I just can’t imagine that we are closing our courtrooms to people who have a right to be there. And you really are closing them if you instill fear in people so they cannot come near a courtroom,” said Fernande R.V. Duffly, who was born in Indonesia to Dutch and Chinese parents and served as an associate justice on Massachusetts’ highest court until 2016. The judges are urging Vitiello to add courthouses to the list of so-called “sensitive locations” that are generally free from immigration enforcement, like schools and places of worship. They say that only “unequivocal guarantees and protections will restore the public’s confidence that it can safely pursue justice in our nation’s courts.” The Brennan Center…

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Harvard Faces Another Race Discrimination Lawsuit

by Kevin Daley   An anti-affirmative action coalition has filed a pair of lawsuits against Harvard and New York University, accusing both institutions of unlawful race and sex discrimination in the operation of their respective law review journals. The complaints allege Harvard and NYU use unlawful identity criteria when selecting editors for their law reviews. In turn, plaintiffs say, those editors use similar factors when reviewing prospective articles for publication. “Law-review membership at Harvard and New York University is part of a politicized spoils system and no longer acts as a reliable signaling device for academic ability or achievement,” the lawsuits read. Faculty, Alumni, and Students Opposed To Racial Preferences (FASORP), which self-describes as “a voluntary membership organization that litigates against race and sex preferences in academia,” organized both lawsuits. FASORP, which is based in Texas, is also the plaintiff in both cases. In court filings, the plaintiffs accuse NYU of using quotas to fill positions on its prestigious law review. By FASORP’s telling, the law review selects 50 new members each year: 15 on the basis of first year grades, another 15 on the strength of their writing, and eight through a combination of grades and writing scores. The…

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Study Suggests Doctors Generally Willing to Provide Transgender Care But Don’t Know How

by Grace Carr   U.S. doctors are willing to provide health care services to transgender individuals, but most of them aren’t adequately trained to provide care specific to such persons, a study suggests. Over 85 percent of doctors who responded to a survey said they are willing to provide care to individuals identifying as transgender, according to Annals of Family Medicine, Reuters Health reported Tuesday. Nearly 80 percent of those respondents also said they would be comfortable providing Pap tests to women who identify as men. Pap tests screen for cervical cancer, an illness that can only afflict biological females. Transgender persons frequently report negative health care experiences, study leader Deirdre Shires told Reuters, noting a lack also of understanding about doctors’ perspectives on transgender health services. Shires is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at Michigan State University. “We realized that no one had really gotten the perspective of providers to find out why this was happening,” Shires told Reuters. Doctors overwhelmingly reported a lack of understanding regarding transgender-specific care training and gender transition care guidelines, as well as a lack of exposure to transgender patients, according to Reuters. Older doctors were not as willing to provide care to…

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Senator Elizabeth Warren Says Migrants in U.S.-Bound Caravan Need to Enter Legally and ‘Follow Those Laws’

by Henry Rogers   Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said she believes the thousands of migrants in the caravan headed toward the U.S. need to enter the country legally. Warren, who is up for re-election, has previously called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and replacing it, and is now saying the migrant caravan filled with thousands of people from Central America traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. should be handled according to the law, in a statement from her campaign to The Daily Caller News Foundation, despite her lax views on immigration. “In regards to the caravan, we have laws for people who come to the border seeking asylum, and Senator Warren believes that we should follow those laws. However, she also knows that we should never have been in this situation. The real problem is Donald Trump’s chaotic foreign policy and lack of a long-term strategy in the region,” Warren’s campaign said in the statement. Despite Warren saying the migrants need to follow the law and enter the country legally, she blamed Trump for the caravan, saying the reason the immigrants are fleeing Central America is due to Trump and his funding to the region. “Trump has hollowed out…

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Senator Elizabeth Warren Says Migrants in U.S.-Bound Caravan Need to Enter Legally and ‘Follow Those Laws’

by Henry Rogers   Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said she believes the thousands of migrants in the caravan headed toward the U.S. need to enter the country legally. Warren, who is up for re-election, has previously called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and replacing it, and is now saying the migrant caravan filled with thousands of people from Central America traveling through Mexico toward the U.S. should be handled according to the law, in a statement from her campaign to The Daily Caller News Foundation, despite her lax views on immigration. “In regards to the caravan, we have laws for people who come to the border seeking asylum, and Senator Warren believes that we should follow those laws. However, she also knows that we should never have been in this situation. The real problem is Donald Trump’s chaotic foreign policy and lack of a long-term strategy in the region,” Warren’s campaign said in the statement. Despite Warren saying the migrants need to follow the law and enter the country legally, she blamed Trump for the caravan, saying the reason the immigrants are fleeing Central America is due to Trump and his funding to the region. “Trump has hollowed out…

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Bredesen Turns to Democrats in California, Elsewhere to Call, Write to Voters After Volunteers Flee His Campaign

It’s no secret that Phil Bredesen is the top choice of Democrats around the nation to turn the U.S. Senate into a blue zone. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) personally recruited Bredesen to run. Schumer’s PAC has spent millions more on Tennessee than any other race. Billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who has pledged $20 million to Democrats this cycle, hosted a fundraiser for Bredesen in New York. Now Bredesen is getting some added help from progressive allies in California, Massachusetts and other blue bastions, Chattanooga’s News Channel 9 says. Democrats in those states are mailing postcards to people in Tennessee urging them to vote for Bredesen. “Join Organize Win Legislate Sacramento in getting out the vote for Phil Bredesen and be part of the Blue Wave,” a Facebook event page for a California virtual phone bank says. Phil Valentine tweeted, “A listener sent me this. It’s a Phil Bredesen mailer that looks like a 6-year-old wrote it. But note the BOSTON postmark!!! Oh, no. There’s no big liberal outside money in THIS campaign. (Where’s my sarcasm emoji when I need it?) #MarshaBlackburn Retweet!!!” A listener sent me this. It's a Phil Bredesen mailer that looks like a 6-year-old wrote it.…

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