A student from St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis is one of 82 top-achieving U.S. high school and international scholars in a prestigious STEM research program.
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat representing Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District, says Memphis’ crime rate is too high and you, the federal taxpayer, must chip in to make it right. Last week, Cohen and U.S. Rep. Val Demings, a Democrat representing Florida’s 10th Congressional District, introduced the Safer Streets Act. They describe it as a new grant program that will help cities with high rates of violent crime. “The Safer Streets Act is intended to provide additional funding to address violent crime in places where the rate is significantly above the national average – places like Memphis,” Cohen said in a press release. “With these grants, local governments with crime rates four times the national average would be eligible for half of the funds; those with three times the national rate would be eligible for 20 percent of the funds and those with twice that national rate would be eligible for the remaining 10 percent of funds. The bill also creates an emergency fund for units of local government that have spikes of violent crime.” If the Safer Streets Act is enacted into law then the U.S. Department of Justice will administer grants to local jurisdictions to hire more law…
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The Tennessee Office of Inspector General announced several new TennCare fraud arrests this week, including the arrest of one man who allegedly used TennCare to treat his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. That man, Thomas William Biggs Jr., 44, of Nashville, was on the run for more than a year and a half, according to a Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration press release. “Seventeen months ago, in January 2018, a Davidson County Grand Jury indicted Biggs for TennCare fraud, accusing him of using TennCare to doctor shop for drugs,” the press release said. “Charges say he used TennCare benefits to visit multiple healthcare providers within a short time period to obtain prescriptions for Adderall, an often-abused amphetamine used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” Elsewhere, according to another press release, authorities charged three Shelby County residents in separate TennCare fraud cases: • Alaa Ahmad, 40, of Memphis, charged with two counts of TennCare fraud and one count of theft of property over $10,000. Ahmad is accused of obtaining TennCare benefits by claiming his minor child was living with him when, in fact, the child lives out of the country. Without the dependent, Ahmad was not eligible for TennCare. •…
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Memphis City Council members appear inclined to go forward with a corporate welfare deal for Elvis Presley’s Graceland. According to The Associated Press this week, they have approved part of a plan for a $75 million expansion project at the Memphis tourist hotspot. “The deal doesn’t include soundstages that could act as concert venues. City officials were concerned that the stages would put Graceland in competition with Memphis’ main concert venue, the FedExForum,” according to The AP. As The Tennessee Star reported, Graceland seeks government incentives to help build retail space and a recreational vehicle park, and to expand Graceland’s hotel. Graceland also had been seeking to add soundstages that could act as concert venues. As The Star reported in April, the people who oversee Graceland threatened to disassemble the mansion and relocate it to Nashville or even Asia if they didn’t get their way on corporate welfare. “So why, you might ask, is a city that regularly ranks among the nation’s poorest giving several hundred million dollars in tax breaks to a long-dead rock star’s house museum where the cheapest ticket costs $41?” asked Henry Grabar, writing for Slate.com. “The company and the city came to a preliminary agreement in February that approves…
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Memphis’ Economic Development Growth Engine has reportedly bestowed a generous amount of corporate welfare upon Auto Zone’s headquarters. This, according to The Daily Memphian, which reported the auto parts retailer will receive a 15-year payment-in-lieu of-taxes (PILOT) incentive, via EDGE. The paper also reported the company will expand its downtown Memphis presence. “The PILOT will save AutoZone $11.2 million and generate $14 million in local taxes over the 15-year term,” according to The Daily Memphian. “The property tax abatement is to incentivize the company to choose Memphis for an investment of $145 million in new technology and customer support operations that will create 130 new jobs with an average base salary of $80,439.” The paper reported the company will house new operations about a block north of AutoZone’s main headquarters building at the 100th block of South Front Street. AutoZone bought the property for $2.2 million in May 2018, according to The Daily Memphian. EDGE board members Tom Dyer and Johnny Moore recused themselves from the vote because their companies do business with AutoZone. As The Tennessee Star reported, EDGE is an unelected board of 11 people who have enough power to grant millions of dollars in tax abatements to corporations. As The…
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Officials at Elvis Presley’s Graceland attraction must wait a little while longer before they know whether they will receive corporate welfare to expand. This, according to several media outlets, who said Memphis City Council members have postponed a vote on the expansion project. Graceland’s Public Relations Office did not return The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Friday. According to The Associated Press, council members this week agreed for the fifth time to delay a vote related to a plan to provide tax incentives for a $100 million expansion of the Presley-themed tourist attraction. Graceland seeks government incentives to help build retail space and a recreational vehicle park, and to expand Graceland’s hotel. Graceland also had been seeking to add soundstages that could act as concert venues. “Council members have been concerned that the sound stages would put Graceland in competition with Memphis’ main concert venue, the FedExForum,” The AP reported. “Graceland this week offered a new plan without the soundstages but adding a new ‘auxiliary building.’ Most council members wanted more time to review the new plan.” As The Star reported in April, the people who oversee Graceland threatened to disassemble the mansion and relocate it to Nashville or…
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Riots erupted in Memphis’ Frayser community Wednesday after U.S. Marshals shot and killed a man wanted on multiple warrants, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. According to a TBI press release, multiple officers with the United States Marshals Service – Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force encountered the man as he got inside a vehicle. “While attempting to stop the individual, he reportedly rammed his vehicle into the officers’ vehicles multiple times before exited with a weapon,” according to the TBI press release. “The officers fired striking and killing the individual. No officers were injured.” According to the Nashville-based WKRN, a crowd formed and people threw rocks and bricks. Twenty-five officers suffered mostly minor injuries. Officers had to use tear gas and cordon off several blocks nearby. Officers reportedly arrested three people. “Officers on horseback patrolled the area, and lines of police cars with flashing blue lights were parked along the street. An ambulance could be seen at the outer edge of the scene,” WKRN reported. “A helicopter flew overhead as police cars trickled away. Residential streets were blocked, and a heavy police presence remained in the area Thursday.” Memphis Police and members of the Shelby County Sheriff’s…
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The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) do not have standing to stop the removal of Confederate statutes at parks the City of Memphis had sold to Memphis Greenspace. Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ordered Memphis Greenspace Inc. to maintain and preserve the statues of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, President Jefferson Davis, and Captain J. Harvey Mathes until a contested case hearing is held with the Tennessee Historical Commission, The Tennessee Star reported in January 2018. Memphis Greenspace is the nonprofit owned by Shelby County Commissioner Val Turner who ‘bought‘ and removed the statues in a questionable transaction with the City of Memphis in December 2017, The Star said. The city sold the parks for only $1,000 each. The Sons of Confederate Veterans had filed for injunctive relief, according to the appeals court ruling. Prior to filing its complaint, the society filed a petition for declaratory relief with the Tennessee Historical Commission that sought a declaration on the applicability of the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act of 2016 (“THPA”) to two parks and related monuments In the present action, the historical-preservation society requested a temporary injunction under the THPA to preserve the parks and monuments…
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The NBC drama Bluff City Law will reportedly film on location in Memphis, and it’s also presumed Tennessee officials will hand out corporate welfare in exchange. This, according to Monday’s Memphis Commercial Appeal. The show stars Jimmy Smits. But Tennessee taxpayers may lose out, said Ron Shultis, policy coordinator for the Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee, in an analysis on the group’s website. Beacon is a free-market think tank. “The reason Tennessee should continue to give little—or, even better, outright eliminate these programs—is because film incentives have been shown to be a terrible value. State film incentives became popular in the mid and late 2000s. By 2009, 44 states offered some kind of film incentive. What those in the industry won’t tell you is that since then, thirteen states have completely eliminated their programs and several more have reduced theirs because these programs have been shown to be a bad value for taxpayers,” Shultis wrote. “In fact, a recent study by Tennessee’s Dept. of Economic and Community Development (ECD) found that the $69.1 million given over the life of Tennessee’s program has resulted in $14.7 million in state tax collections, or a 21-cent return on the dollar. This estimate…
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Michael Harris, who won election as the new Shelby County Democratic Party chairman in April, is already facing discontent in the ranks, with the politician calling a special meeting to save his position. The Daily Memphian on Monday said Harris is the second chairman of the party, which recently re-formed. Many long-standing executive committee members left, and new people, including Harris, entered the party. During a meeting last week, the Shelby County Democratic Party’s executive committee could have chosen to either take no action on Harris or could have scheduled a meeting to specifically consider the issue, the Daily Memphian said. However, Harris agreed to call the meeting himself within 20 days to resolve the matter. The meeting’s date has not been reported. State Rep. Lamar London (D-TN-91) and State Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-TN-29) once thought of running for Harris’ position but backed out, letting him run unopposed, the Daily Memphian said. Now, London is calling for unity ahead of the 2020 elections. Harris’ opponents are not backing down. They say that he filed for bankruptcy eight times, leading to the judge to rule he could not file again for five years, Local Memphis said. The Tennessee Star in…
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An attorney representing Memphis Judge James Lammey has asked The Memphis Commercial Appeal to retract and apologize for an article suggesting he is an anti-semite. As The Tennessee Star reported, an article Lammey shared on Facebook— with David Cole as author — appeared on a website called takimag.com and was, at least according to the newspaper, anti-Semitic in nature. Lammey told The Tennessee Star he never agreed with the content and said as much on Facebook. Lammey only said he thought it was interesting. In his letter, Bolivar-based attorney Stephen L. Hale told the newspaper their article was “reckless, defamatory, and constitutes libel, per se.” “The publisher has used this opportunity to launch not only a political attack against a sitting judge but to assail his core values as a civilized human being. Because of the publisher’s purposeful and reckless avoidance of the truth the reputation of Judge Lammey has been irreparably harmed; he has received hundreds of phone calls from all parts of the country accusing him of being a Holocaust denier, anti-Semite and racist,” Hale wrote. “Valuable time has been taken away from his duties the citizens of Shelby County, Tennessee elected him to do as well as the time his…
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U.S. Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen orchestrated a recent Kentucky Fried Chicken stunt that apparently backfired — big — with conservatives and liberals. As The Tennessee Star reported, Cohen, who represents Memphis, mocked U.S. Attorney General William Barr at a House Judiciary Committee hearing reviewing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report showing no collusion with Russia or obstruction of justice. Mueller did not attend. Cohen indulged in KFC chicken as a prop to prove Barr was…chicken. Among the public criticisms: • According to Newsweek, the TV show Saturday Night Live mocked Cohen “by joking that he sent an intern out in the middle of the night to source some KFC.” Cohen, though, said one of his staffers bought the chicken the night before and by the time of the hearing it was already cold and “wasn’t wonderful.” • According to Deadline.com, John Oliver of Last Week Tonight called Cohen’s stunt “pathetic” and “tragic.” Oliver went on to say Cohen was “biting into leftover KFC. “Or as its more commonly known, trash.” • Theweek.com quoted FOX News contributors Diamond & Silk saying Cohen’s stunt was racially insensitive. • People in and around Memphis wrote angry letters to The Memphis Commercial Appeal over…
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A coalition of left-leaning activists is reportedly pushing for authorities to formally censure Memphis Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey after he published a Facebook post they considered inflammatory. As The Tennessee Star reported, people unloaded a torrent of anger after Lammey shared an article from someone the mainstream media later identified as a Holocaust denier. Lammey said, however, he did not know that about the author at the time. In his role as a judge, Lammey also makes illegal immigrants register with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In Tennessee, there is a process to censure a judge. “The Administrative Office of the Courts cannot censure judges. Judges are censored by the Board of Judicial Conduct, which was created by the legislature to investigate, and, when warranted, act on complaints about a judge,” said Barbara Peck, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. “The Board of Judicial Conduct normally does not confirm or deny whether a complaint has been filed against a judge. However, according to Judge Dee Gay, who serves as chair of the BJC, because Judge Lammey’s conduct is a matter of public record at this point, he can confirm that an investigation is under…
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Memphis officials have announced yet another plan to use taxpayer money to end homelessness in the city. This, despite countless past promises to already do so. Memphis leaders recently announced they would pair up with the Shelby County government to combat street-level homelessness, using nearly $8 million of public and private money. That money will go to what was once a city-owned vehicle inspection station to cater to the homeless and, according to a press release, “effectively end” homelessness within 30 months. In an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star, Cara Greenstein, serving as a spokeswoman for city officials, said private sources must provide $5 million before the Memphis and Shelby County governments chip in. “The City of Memphis already provides $375,000 ($200,000 from City Council grants and $150,000 through Work Local), and would provide an additional $275,000 in FY 2019 budget, $275,000 in the FY 2020 Budget — $250,000 of which would be through the City Council’s First Annual Community Impact Fund, $50,000 from the DMC, an additional $200,000 in FY 2021 for a total of $550,000. The DMC would also contribute $50,000 in FY 2019 and FY 2020,” Greenstein said. “Shelby County would allocate and appropriate $250,000 in FY 2019 budget, $375,000 in FY 2020 budget and $650,000 in…
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Various officials from the city of Memphis and Shelby County toured the European countryside at taxpayer expense in May of last year, according to FOX 13 Memphis. “Most of the days were spent touring historical sites in the European country chosen as the heritage salute for the 2018 Memphis in May International Festival, per the documented schedule. In March of 2018, four Shelby County officials and one Memphis city councilmember stepped inside the Memphis International Airport like thousands of other daily commuters,” according to Fox13Memphis.com “Then-Shelby County commissioner Steve Basar, current-commissioner Willie Brooks, county employee Kim Denbow, former Shelby County mayor Mark Luttrell and Memphis city councilmember Berlin Boyd traveled overseas to Prague. The five were part of a 38-person Memphis in May delegation.” The station reported the trip centered around two cities and a spa town — Český Krumlov, Prague and Karlovy Vary. “The first day, Sunday, March 25, was a travel day for most, so the schedule wasn’t packed with much; just travel from Prague Airport to Český Krumlov. On Monday, March 26th, instead of business meetings, the delegation went on a walking city tour and visited the famous Český Krumlov castle,” the station reported. “Day two was…
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Memphis Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey said he dispenses justice regularly to gang members who, in his words, “would cut your throat for what you have in your pockets.” Lammey also said he angers people when he sends their sons off to prison for 25 to 30 years. But one of Lammey’s recent Facebook posts angered two possibly more ferocious and determined groups of people — immigrant rights groups and the left-leaning mainstream media. As several Memphis media outlets and even Newsweek reported, people unloaded a torrent of anger after Lammey shared an article from someone later revealed as a Holocaust denier. According to The Memphis Commercial Appeal, Lammey treats Hispanic defendants different in court and makes them register with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “The media is not concentrating on the fact that these people are illegal aliens. They just want to focus on how bad of a guy I am. They are switching the narrative from ‘Are these people following the law?’ to ‘He is not being fair and impartial, and he’s treating illegal aliens different because they are illegal aliens,’” Lammey told The Tennessee Star. “But all I’m doing is enforcing the law as it…
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Members of the Tennessee House reportedly voted this week to give FedEx $21.3 million in corporate welfare over the next seven years for a new hub expansion in Memphis, according to various news outlets. Specifically, this type of corporate welfare is in the form of tax breaks. House members voted to make this happen on a 96-2 vote. State senators still must approve a bill of their own, according to the Memphis-based TV station WREG. “The bill initially dealt with lease or rental price reporting to the commissioner of revenue. But the legislation by Republican House Speaker Glen Casada was overhauled to include $16.1 million in state and $5.2 million in local sales and use tax exemption directed at building materials for the FedEx project,” WREG reported. “Republican Rep. Mark White of Memphis says the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.” According to The Memphis Commercial Appeal, if the legislation is enacted into law then Tennessee would lose $16 million in tax revenue. The local government would lose $5.1 million. “FedEx paid more than $110 million in state taxes in 2018 and will still pay $30 in sales tax for its hub modernization improvements,” The…
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, wants to formally censure U.S. Republican President Donald Trump, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. This, after federal officials this week released Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report about alleged Russian interference and alleged collusion with Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the paper reported. “This illegal, unethical and immoral conduct by Donald Trump and misleading information by Attorney General (William) Barr needs to be sanctioned by our legislative bodies, and the way we can do that is through a censure resolution,” The Commercial Appeal quoted Cohen as saying. “There’s too much there not to see there’s a connection between Trump and Russia that is not healthy for the United States of America.” In his report, Mueller said he could not establish the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government — but he also said the Russian government would rather have Trump as president instead of his Democratic opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mueller also said he could not conclude whether Trump obstructed justice. “I think it’s pretty clear that what the Mueller report has presented is damning evidence that the president did in fact obstruct justice,” Cohen reportedly said. “The problem with impeachment is the Senate would…
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Memphis officials gave IKEA nearly $10 million in incentives to set up shop there, but company officials reportedly can’t do what they promised. So, IKEA officials are giving up some of their previously approved 11-year tax abatement, according to The Daily Memphian. IKEA did not hire the number of jobs or pay the level of wages it promised city and county officials in exchange for lesser property tax payments, the website went on to say. “As was indicated in IKEA’s most recent Annual Report to EDGE for the year-ending Dec. 31, 2018, while IKEA met the Capital Investment commitment, it was unable to meet the Job and Wage commitment,” The Daily Memphian quoted attorney Chad Wilgenbusch as saying. “IKEA ended 2018 with 147 employees on site, 28 jobs short of its commitment to bring 175 new jobs to Memphis. Employees were making a median average wage of $36,944 at the end of 2018, $4,067 short of the IKEA’s commitment to pay employees $41,011 without benefits.” According to localmemphis.com, the Economic Development Growth Engine, which awarded the incentives, says “process standards would reduce their 11-year PILOT by a year.” “IKEA was originally awarded a PILOT for 11 years, 10 months for real…
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, has reportedly made what some people might call yet another insensitive remark to score political points, and this time it involves this week’s tragedy in France. This, according to various news outlets. Specifically, Cohen said Republican U.S. President Donald Trump is doing to the Constitution what Monday’s devastating fire did to the Notre Dame Cathedral in France. Cohen said Trump is “torching the entire structure of government.” Cohen said this on MSNBC’s Hardball and continued to accuse Trump of obstructing justice. “I filed articles last year. I haven’t brought them up this year, but we are getting so far along in seeing what this president has done and what he’s done to the Constitution, what he’s done to the people’s respect for our government,” Cohen reportedly said. “What he has done to the Constitution and the rule of law is as bad as [what] that fire did to Notre Dame. He’s torching the entire structure of government and the people’s respect for it and the Congress needs to act. The facts were supposed to be in the Mueller Report. We’ll get them. We’ll find the court and we’ll go to the court, and I…
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Graceland in Memphis is a part of “one of the most ridiculous corporate welfare deals in quite some time,” according to Slate.com. As many news outlets reported this past week, the people who oversee Graceland threatened to disassemble the mansion and relocate it to Nashville or even Asia if they didn’t get their way on corporate welfare. Graceland, of course, was the home of entertainer Elvis Presley for nearly 20 years. According to Slate.com, city officials and Graceland personnel have a preliminary agreement whereupon Graceland gets a bigger cut out of city and county property and sales tax revenues for a new expansion project. “So why, you might ask, is a city that regularly ranks among the nation’s poorest giving several hundred million dollars in tax breaks to a long-dead rock star’s house museum where the cheapest ticket costs $41?” asked Henry Grabar, writing for the website. “The company and the city came to a preliminary agreement in February that approves those plans and dedicates even more tax revenue to the Graceland master plan, which the company claims will involve $100 million in investment, and includes an agreement to grant $150,000 a year in local community groups for five years.”…
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Michael Harris, the new Shelby County Democratic Party chairman, says he supports unity a week after his controversial election what with revelations of his law license having been suspended, The Daily Memphian reports. A majority of the local Grass Roots Council voted for Harris on April 6; he was unopposed. His law license has been suspended since 2017 for ethical violations that include dishonesty, lack of diligence and communication, excessive fees, improper termination, failure to perform paid services and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. He is also repaying $22,975 to nine former clients, The Daily Memphian said. He spoke to The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast about why he deserves to be chair. “Absolutely I should be chair,” Harris said on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast. “The requirements for being chair do not lie in the mistakes a person has made,” he said. “The skills and abilities and understanding of the organization are more important. The life experiences that shape us and give us perspective are more important. When we look at the world we live in, people make mistakes all the time.” The podcast is available here. Harris’ statement would seem to conflict with the Shelby County Democratic…
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Memphis officials want corporate welfare for a new fictionalized drama that could film regularly on location in the city and air on NBC, according to The Memphis Business Journal. The show’s working title — Bluff City Law. The website compares these potential incentives to what state officials gave the ABC and CMT drama Nashville. According to the Memphis-based WMC Action News 5, the show is about a father-daughter Memphis legal team who practice civil rights law. Jimmy Smits stars. Bluff City Law recently filmed its pilot in Memphis, but NBC has not yet committed to picking the show up, according to various news outlets. “City lobbyists and others hope to get up to $18 million in incentives included in the State of Tennessee’s proposed supplemental budget, which is scheduled to be released in the coming weeks. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed budget that was released in March did not include any new money included for film and TV incentives,” The Memphis Business Journal reported. Linn Sitler, head of the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission, reportedly told the website the show could have “a powerful economic impact locally.” “However, there was no new state funding included in the…
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Tennessee will likely ban local municipalities from regulating certain plastic bags and utensils, after a bill calling for that passed both the Tennessee House and Senate, according to the Memphis-based WMC Action News 5. All that’s left now is for Republican Gov. Bill Lee to sign the bill into law, which spokesperson Laine Arnold told reporters Friday he would do within the next 10 days. According to the Associated Press, the measure – nicknamed the “plastic bag bill” – makes it illegal for local governments to impose bag bans, restrictions on Styrofoam containers and other disposable products. On Monday, before passage, the AP reported: The bill is being debated in the GOP-dominant Statehouse as Memphis and Nashville — the state’s most populous cities that also lean more liberal — have recently considered levying taxes against single-use plastic bags. The plastic bags industry has opposed such taxes, but state lawmakers have been more willing to pre-empt the local governments. A Memphis City Council Chairman’s Recap email discussed the matter in January, when council members discussed a plastic bag fee. At that time council members heard arguments from the American Progressive Bag Alliance, which is against the proposed fee, and the Sierra Club and…
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, says our nation’s Electoral College was “conceived in sin” and invented to keep black people down, according to various media outlets. “This is all conceived in sin and perpetuating slavery on the American people and on the African-American people, directly,” Cohen said on “CNN Right Now” Tuesday, according to The Daily Caller. The Trump Administration waived its executive privilege when it cooperated with the investigation. Muller is required to give his report to the AG, but the White House has no right to revise or edit the report before providing it to the @HouseJudiciary. #MuellerReport pic.twitter.com/qPP1dZXyX2 — Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) March 19, 2019 “We need to give the people who understand from town halls, like Elizabeth Warren had in Memphis on Sunday and in Jackson, and I think today in Birmingham, the opportunity to vote. And as Sen. Warren said, this doesn’t give the people in New York and Chicago and Los Angeles the right to decide who wins. It gives everybody that’s not in one of the — the targeted states in the Electoral College the opportunity to have their vote count.” In a separate article, Breitbart quoted Cohen as saying “the country is different than…
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The Daily Memphian columnist Michael Nelson has some discouraging words for U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, on his quest to impeach U.S. Republican President Donald Trump. Cohen might not attain his goal, Nelson said in a column published this week. “Cohen’s efforts to force the president from office began in August 2017, barely six months after Trump began his term. He first argued that because ‘high crimes and misdemeanor’ – the Constitution’s definition of an impeachable offense – are anything Congress says they are, Trump theoretically could be impeached ‘for jaywalking,’” Nelson wrote. “The congressman from Memphis got a bit more serious – but only a bit – in November 2017, when he and five other Democrats introduced an impeachment resolution charging Trump with, among other things, firing FBI director James Comey, calling a federal judge ‘a so-called judge’ and the media ‘fake news,’ and violating the Constitution’s emoluments clauses through continued ownership of rental properties in New York and Washington.” Since the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives last November, Cohen has renewed his call, Nelson wrote. But there’s a problem. Members of the U.S. House impeached former presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton — but members of…
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According to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, U.S. Republican President Donald Trump is obviously a criminal, and it’s his duty as a member of Congress to impeach him. But, as Cohen reportedly said this week, whether impeachment happens depends not on the evidence alone — but whether public opinion says impeachment is OK, according to CNSNews.com Cohen belongs to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and, as The Tennessee Star reported, he has long advocated for Trump’s impeachment. Cohen said on CNN he’s sure Trump has obstructed justice and violated the emoluments clause, all while abusing the press and various judges. “It’s amazing what has gone on,” Cohen told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “And it is our job to protect the Constitution and the rule of law. So we’ll have hearings; if the evidence comes in such degree that the public’s mood and the Republicans’ mood change, where we can be successful with impeachment, then impeachment could come. But it’s not going to come until the Republicans stop acting like acolytes and start acting like bishops and knights and stand up for the country and not for their leader, who may have committed — and I believe has committed innumerable improper and…
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Tennessee officials may decide this week to give $10 million in corporate welfare to FedEx, the state’s largest employer, according to various news outlets. When asked, the people at FedEx told The Tennessee Star that, yes, they are seeking corporate welfare. “FedEx considers all available state and local financial incentives when evaluating potential facility projects,” said spokesman Jonathan Lyons, in an emailed statement. “As a matter of policy, we do not publicly discuss specifics of a project until all the details have been finalized. We are thrilled about being a part of this important development for downtown Memphis.” According to U.S. News & World Report, members of the State Funding Board may decide the matter Friday. There, they will reportedly discuss a new Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development report on that and other matters. “A $10 million FastTrack Economic Development Grant has been proposed for the establishment of a headquarters by FedEx Logistics in the former Gibson Guitar factory in downtown Memphis,” U.S. News & World Report said. “The board also is set to vote on a $1.2 million grant for JNJ Express trucking company to turn an abandoned shopping center into its new headquarters. Both Shelby County…
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The decision to give away more than $100 million in corporate welfare to lure Electrolux to set up shop in Memphis was so bad it was “the worst such deal in Tennessee history,” according to Bloomberg.com. In an article released this week, the national financial news website held nothing back criticizing the deal. As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Electrolux officials announced they will shut down their Memphis plant sometime next year, despite taking all that money from Memphis, Shelby County, and the Tennessee governments eight years ago. The Memphis Electrolux plant employs about 530 people, all of whom will likely lose their jobs when the plant closes. Despite that, Bloomberg said this disaster still won’t stop other government entities from handing out even more subsidies in the future. Bloomberg opinion columnist Joe Nocera interviewed Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe for his piece. “When I mentioned to Rolfe the idea — much favored by academics and journalists — that perhaps communities should stop offering subsidies to lure (or keep) companies, he laughed,” Nocera wrote. “That would be unilateral disarmament,” Nocera quoted Rolfe as saying. Nocera then opined that “it’s foolish to think that subsidies…
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One could argue corporations play the Tennessee and Mississippi state governments against one another to get the best corporate welfare deals possible — at the expense of taxpayers in both states. Here’s how it works. Companies wait for Tennessee and Mississippi to pony up their incentives. Company leaders can only accept one of those two deals, of course. Then they set up shop in the state that made the better offer. And sometimes these companies move from Tennessee to Mississippi and vice versa — even if they’re only moving as little as 20 miles away. This has already happened at least twice in the past two years. Two years ago, for instance, Memphis officials handed out $1.2 million in corporate welfare to lure a company, International Distributors USA, away from Olive Branch, Miss., right across the Tennessee-Mississippi state line. At the time, Memphis officials boasted about using public incentives to snag the company away from the Magnolia State, according to The Tennessee Watchdog. This month, something similar happened, but this time it was Mississippi that offered incentives to lure another company, Krone North America, away from Memphis. And Olive Branch, the same city that lost International Distributors USA two years…
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Hundreds of Shelby County sheriff’s deputies must be retested after it was discovered an unlicensed psychologist administered mental evaluations to them, according to localmemphis.com “The Local I-Team uncovered state law changed several years ago, and it appears no one in Shelby County or at the state noticed until now,” the station reported. “Shelby County taxpayers have already paid once for these employees to get mental evaluations, and now you are paying again. Dr. Charles Kenny’s psychologist license lapsed in 2001.Since 2013, he worked under the supervision of licensed psychologist Dr. John Johnson. The Tennessee state board that oversees law enforcement told Shelby County that was improper,” localmemphis.com reported. “The Local I -Team uncovered when Kenny first began doing the psych evaluations for Shelby County, the Tennessee state law only required the person signing off on the officer’s mental evaluation was ‘a qualified professional in the psychiatric or psychological field,’” the station reported. The law changed in 2015. It now says the officer has to be certified by “a Tennessee licensed health care provider qualified in the psychiatric or psychological field.” The station said “either no one at Shelby County knew the law had changed or the folks in Nashville had a change of…
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Electrolux officials announced Thursday they are shutting down their Memphis plant sometime next year, even though they took more than $100 million in corporate welfare from the city, county, and state governments eight years ago. The Memphis Electrolux plant employs about 530 people, all of whom will likely lose their jobs when the plant closes, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. In a press release, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, said the “Swedish appliance maker failed to live up to its job-creation promise.” “I’m very disappointed that the employees of Electrolux learned today that Memphis’ economic development investment in one company’s future apparently won’t pay off,” Cohen said. “The company’s abandonment of Memphis will mean potential financial hardship for its employees and suppliers, and should result in more careful review of promises made by corporations about local job creation in the future.” Electrolux officials plan to consolidate all U.S. cooking manufacturing into an expanded facility in Springfield, Tennessee, according to The Commercial Appeal. The article not did specify why Electrolux officials are pulling out of Memphis, but it did cite unnamed company officials complaining about “challenges they face in today’s global economy.” Tennessee officials announced in 2011 that Electrolux would…
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If you’re a Tennessee resident driving to Mississippi or Arkansas on Interstate 40 and you desperately want to avoid Memphis and its high crime and sanctuary policies then you have an option to do just that. If you’re heading westbound on I-40 toward Memphis you can connect with the new Interstate 269 at Arlington and head south to connect to Hernando, Miss. From there you can continue west toward Arkansas or go further south into Mississippi. I-269 only goes for about three miles in Tennessee before it crosses the state line into Mississippi, said Tennessee Department of Transportation spokeswoman B.J. Doughty, in an email. Doughty told The Tennessee Star that the route opened in the fall of 2015. But The Star noticed GPS systems such as Waze and the iPhone Maps app only recently began suggesting the route as a way around Memphis. “The cost of the 2.9 mile section from Mississippi to SR 385 cost $42,654,646.01,” Doughty said. “This project cost was split – 20% state and 80% federal.” According to the Hernando, Miss.-based DeSoto Times-Tribune this month, construction crews completed the portion of the I-269 project, apparently in Mississippi, last fall. “The new interstate connects Tennessee’s State Route…
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Legislation is being suggested by Tennessee Representative Antonio Parkinson on a parental dress code. Passing legislation is not necessary, if we simply enforce the indecent exposure and other laws already on the books.
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As educators we must build a system that gives students the educational foundation to succeed, despite whatever dire circumstances our students may come out of personally.
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A 29-year-old Memphis man pled guilty Wednesday to a drunk-driving crash that killed a motorist in Memphis. Members of the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office refused to say if that man, Ramiro Junior, is an illegal immigrant. The crash happened in 2015, south of Poplar Avenue, said Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich, in a press release. According to Memphis TV station WREG, at the time of the crash police found several bottles of Corona beer — open and unopened — inside Junior’s car. The car also had 18 bottles in the back seat. No one at the district attorney’s office returned The Tennessee Star’s repeated requests for comment Wednesday on Junior’s immigration status. Criminal Court Judge John Campbell sentenced Junior to eight years in prison for vehicular homicide involving alcohol. Junior’s blood-alcohol content was .111, according to a press release. Jose R. Jaimes, 24, died in that crash. “Investigators said Junior was driving an SUV at (a) high rate of speed westbound on I-240 when he lost control, spun into another lane and struck a sedan, injuring two occupants and killing Jaimes,” the press release said. Sam Winnig of the district attorney’s DUI Prosecution Unit handled the case,…
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by Don Barnett There is little argument that the Memphis City Council pulled a fast one in its decision to circumvent state law by selling two of its city parks to a nonprofit, which then immediately removed statues of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, President Jefferson Davis and the uncontroversial Capt. J. Harvey Mathes on December 20, 2017. The removal had been a point of contention for years and much of the political class applauded the novel approach to the problem. It is worth remembering, however, that removal booster Memphis Rep. Steve Cohen voted against the removal of the Forrest statue in 1984 when he was on the Memphis city council. Direct descendants of Nathan Bedford Forrest filed a lawsuit on Dec 17, 2018 against the city of Memphis over the removal of the statue from the gravesite of the Confederate general, his wife and, likely, others who were interred on the grounds earlier. It may be the first time that living descendants of a national historical figure have filed such a suit to protect their ancestor’s grave site. The chances of open discussion of the matter are looking pretty dim based on media handling of the issue so…
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Tennessee’s top political leaders are reportedly rebuking Memphis for not going along with a new law to detain illegal immigrants for federal officials. As The Tennessee Star reported, Shelby County officials say they won’t cooperate with a new Tennessee law that helps federal officials detain and deport illegal aliens. The state law took effect Jan. 1. Senate Speaker Randy McNally and House Speaker Glen Casada are unhappy, according to The Associated Press. “Shelby County needs to reevaluate their position,” McNally said in a statement. “As outlined in the law, continued refusal will result in the forfeit of state economic and community development grants which would negatively affect the local economy in Shelby County.” The law threatens local governments with the loss of future state economic and community development money if they have sanctuary policies. Federal immigration officials have the power to deport illegal aliens arrested on other charges. But some local laws have kept those local law enforcement officers from cooperating with the feds. The new law bans those local policies. That includes barring local policies that require federal officials to obtain a warrant or show probable cause beforehand. As The Tennessee Star reported last fall, county officials, specifically the folks at…
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Employees who work for the City of Memphis are using taxpayer money to fill up their personal vehicles with gasoline, according to that city’s CBS affiliate WREG. No word yet on whether Tennessee’s fuel tax increase drove those city employees to do this. City officials, the station went on to say, have launched an internal investigation. “According to that investigation, the city doesn’t do a good enough job of tracking who’s getting gas and where it’s going. That’s largely because some fuel stations don’t have an effective way of doing it,” WREG reported. “Two city employees have been fired for filling up their personal cars with city gas, purchased with taxpayer dollars. Security at city-owned pumps varies. Some are padlocked, requiring a special key. Others are automated, unlocked using electronic key fobs.” The audit, the station went on to say, says those pumps track gas usage easily. The others, however, typically require manual logs that don’t always exist. “The issue increases the potential for fraud. The city’s General Services Division says it’ll fix the problem by putting devices to unlock pumps directly into city vehicles,” WREG reported. “They’re designed to track who’s driving, how much gas they’re getting and when…
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On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy talked with State Rep. Glen Casada (R-Franklin), the incoming Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives about the challenges the Tennessee General Assembly will face in its new session, which began formerly later in the day. Gill and Leahy discussed a number of topics with Casads, including Shelby County’s defiance of state statutes regarding illegal immigration and sanctuary cities, the new incoming freshman legislators and the challenges they face, school choice, and criminal justice reform. At the end of the segment, Gill and Casada touched upon what Bill Lee’s lack of conservative cabinet picks mean for the Tennessee legislation. Gill: The incoming house speaker who will soon move to that position, current state representative and soon to be house speaker Glen Casada is on the line with us this morning. Casada: Good morning Steve, how are you? Gill: Now when do you actually take over as house speaker? Casada: I am sworn in at approximately noon, Tuesday, January the 8th. Gill: So you’ve got about one more…
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Early voting begins today for the primary in the State Senate District 32 race to replace Mark Norris. Formerly the Senate Majority Leader, Norris (R-TN-32) was appointed by the U.S. Senate in October as a federal judge in the Western District of Tennessee, The Tennessee Star reported in October. His appointment had languished since July 2017. Four Republicans filed paperwork to replace Norris, The Star reported last month. The general election is scheduled for March 12. Tipton and part of Shelby County make up that district. Michael Nelson of the Daily Memphian said in a column that he likes the chances of one candidate in particular: Because Norris held the seat so long, a number of credible candidates for the Republican nomination have lined up now that it’s vacant. The favorite is former Shelby County Commissioner Heidi Shafer, but in what’s sure to be a low-turnout contest, any or all of her three rivals could make a run for the money: former state representative Steve McManus, Tipton County construction executive Paul Rose, and defeated Shelby County Trustee candidate (also a former commissioner) George Chism. Why do I rate Shafer the favorite? Precisely because it will be a low-turnout affair in which…
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Currently, there are no machines to tell us when the next big earthquake will rattle Tennessee. Also, in the immediate aftermath of such a quake we likely won’t have the capacity to make cell phone calls. All this, according to a Memphis geologist who studies earthquakes for a living. Emergency responders would have to rely on radio frequencies, including Ham radio, said Gary Patterson with the Memphis-based Center for Earthquake Research and Information. And it’s likely not because an earthquake will knock down a cell phone tower, he added. “Following any disaster, cell phones go down because they are overused, but we can still send texts,” Patterson told The Tennessee Star. Members of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and other law enforcement officials already coordinate with one another concerning how they’ll handle the immediate aftermath of a large earthquake, Patterson said. “In the worst-case scenario, there is the use of ham radio, which works no matter what the conditions on the ground are,” Patterson said. Members of CERI are working on new technology that will alert Tennesseans about a pending earthquake so they can shut down critical facilities in time, Patterson said. “This is already in process on the West…
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A large-magnitude earthquake in the central part of the United States would jolt Tennessee and do far more damage here than another similar-sized quake out west could do to California, a Memphis geologist said. That’s because Tennessee and California have different type terrains and that makes all the difference, said Gary Patterson with the Memphis-based Center for Earthquake Research and Information. “If you take the same magnitude earthquake in the central United States in Tennessee versus California then the one in Tennessee will be felt over a five to 20 times larger area. You get more bang for your buck,” Patterson said. “The deep geology here is much different. We are talking 10 to 20 miles deep here. Compared to California, the deep geology here we have is hard, cold dense rocks that transmit seismic energy and vibrations very efficiently. The vibrations go out over huge areas. In California the deep rocks are relatively hot and shattered. The seismic energy dissipates quicker.” People as far away as Dallas, Texas and Tampa, Florida, for instance, felt a recent 4.4 magnitude quake that originated in Decatur, Tennessee Patterson told The Tennessee Star. “The Virginia earthquake that damaged the Washington Monument several years…
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After a lot of debate, certain food stamp recipients won’t have to work for their benefits, as certain Republicans in Washington, D.C. wanted. And for U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, that’s a cause for celebration. “On Wednesday, I voted for and the House passed a five-year Farm Bill that protects food assistance, conservation and animal welfare policies that are priorities for residents of the 9th Congressional District,” Cohen said in a newsletter last week to his constituents back home. “We successfully blocked efforts by the Majority to impose punishing work requirements for food stamp recipients.” But were those work requirements really punishing, especially in exchange for taxpayer money? According to The Huffington Post, more than 38 million Americans receive monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits they can use only to buy food in grocery stores. “The program already has work requirements for the subset of recipients who are able-bodied adults without minor children,” according to the website. “The House bill would have applied the requirements to parents of children older than 6 and unemployed adults in their 50s, who had previously been exempt.” According to The Washington Post, the House and Senate deadlocked over multiple issues in the bill, including the work requirements. Those…
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State Senate Minority Chairwoman Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat, plans to sponsor legislation that could automatically help restore the right to vote for people with low-level felony convictions. But some research indicates felons, when given the chance, overwhelmingly pull the levers for Democrats. Is Akbari, who represents Memphis’ 91st District, doing this to help the Democratic Party? Akbari said no. Akbari said in an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star that she wants Democrats and Republicans to support her forthcoming bill. “I’m not drafting it to benefit a Republican or Democrat – but Tennesseans as a whole,” Akbari said, adding she has had meetings on this issue with the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. Those meetings, she said, also included members of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. “Our sole focus was coming up with bipartisan criminal justice reform initiatives we could all agree on. Some form of automatic restoration of voting rights was among one of the many ideas we discussed and agreed on,” Akbari said. “States that have some version of automatic restoration of rights varies- and many are traditionally Republican-led states like Utah, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Arizona, and Alaska. On a national level, I know at…
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Memphis taxpayers may soon know less about the companies that want corporate welfare in exchange for expanding or relocating their business to Memphis, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. This, the paper went on to say, depends on a pending opinion from the state attorney general and how he interprets Tennessee’s open records law, the paper went on to say. That pending opinion will weigh in on whether Memphis officials can keep hidden three pieces of information from the public — the name of the company applying for an incentive, its parent company, and its address. EDGE board members, of course, will know who the company is, the paper reported. “Instead, a ‘code name’ would be used to identify the company,” The Commercial Appeal said. “Other information such as the industry, the number of jobs the company plans to create and the average pay of each job would still be released when it is provided to the board.” Mark Beutelschies, legal counsel for EDGE, told the paper EDGE board members will still need all the information to make sure there are no conflicts of interest. “We want to get an explicit understanding from the state that if we held these…
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Memphis City officials apparently have at least three contracts with a private vendor that reportedly had serious problems of late in Florida. Memphis taxpayers have invested millions of dollars in those contracts. That vendor, the New Jersey-based Conduent, is reportedly responsible for serious problems with Florida’s SunPass tolling system — specifically, millions of unprocessed toll charges. The company might even owe the state at least $1.7 million, according to The Tampa Bay Times. The Tennessee Star tried repeatedly and often for more than a week to get comments on the matter from Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s office as well the city’s 10 current city council members. None of those people, not even Strickland’s two public information officers, returned our messages seeking comment. Conduent spokesman Neil Franz, meanwhile, operating from a Maryland-based office, said he had no information about any contracts Memphis has with his company. But the city of Memphis’ website lists three contracts with the company that say otherwise — for “Professional, Scientific and Technical Services.” A source sent The Star a copy of another supposed contract the city has with Conduent for traffic cameras, enacted in April. Memphis officials would not respond to The Star’s frequent requests to…
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New State Rep. London Lamar (D-TN-91) was hit with an $8,175 fine for filing two campaign reports late. Both Lamar and State Rep. Jesse Chism were fined by officials for issues related to their campaign finance disclosures, The Tennessean reported. Voters elected Chism and Lamar in this year’s Nov. 6 midterm election. Chism was fined $5,000 for filing a campaign finance report late. The Registry of Election Finance also levied two more fines, totaling $20,000 against Rep. Joe Towns Jr., D-Memphis, for not filing two reports. The list of delinquent report filers is online here. The Tennessee Registry of Election Finance was created by the General Assembly in 1989 as an independent entity of state government. Lamar earned international attention after The Tennessee Star reported the story of her Facebook video rant calling white Tennessee Republicans racist and uneducated. “Looking here at Tennessee, let’s just call a spade a spade,” Lamar said in the video. “Tennessee is racist, period. Period. And if you for one moment thought that white people in Tennessee were going to leave their own to jump over here and give us more access, they just told you last night it’s not happening,” Lamar said. As The Star reported, Lamar livestreamed her…
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by Joshua Gill Pope Francis forced the resignation of the Bishop of Memphis Wednesday after an investigation into his alleged church law violations and mishandling of diocesan finances. The Vatican announced Wednesday that Francis had “relieved (Holley) from the pastoral governance” and temporarily replaced Monsignor Martin Holley with Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. The Vatican did not list the reason for Holley’s firing, but the language used in its announcement usually indicates that the pontiff forcibly removed a bishop who refused to resign. Tuesday reports from WMC5 and Church Militant also broke the news of Holley’s then impending firing before the Vatican announced it and claimed that a source within the church confirmed that Francis planned to fire Holley for reasons of “pastoral governance” and that Holley had in fact refused to resign. The Vatican sent two archbishops to the diocese to investigate Holley’s tenure as bishop. Holley served as an auxiliary bishop in Washington, D.C. for 12 years and was appointed as bishop of Memphis, Tennessee in 2016. Upon assuming his role as Bishop of Memphis, he reportedly transferred 40 priests loyal to himself from D.C. to Memphis, sparking the initial complaints from parishioners. The Vatican has not publicized the results…
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The Tennessee Black Voter Project wants to inspect voter registration forms that members of the Shelby County Election Commission rejected. As reported, the election commission rejected many applications because some were duplicates of already-registered voters. Other applications were incomplete. Felons who cannot vote filed other applications. But Administrator of Elections Linda Phillips told The Tennessee Star it’s unlikely members of the Tennessee Black Voter Project can access the forms right now. “One of the problems with that is, of course, in some senses everything we have is a public record, except there are these Social Security numbers on the forms, and they have to be redacted,” Phillips said. “They are more than welcome to inspect the forms, but they have to wait until we have time to redact the Social Security numbers, which is not something we can do during an early voting period of this election.” According to The Associated Press, members of the Tennessee Black Voter Project filed a lawsuit Monday asking to see the rejected voter registration forms. They and other groups submitted more than 36,000 registrations. The commission, however, said about 55 percent of them were invalid. Phillips, however, defended the detailed process her staff uses…
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