Memphis Archives - Page 8 of 8 - Tennessee Star

Memphis Official Brags of Spending ‘A Lot’ of Taxpayer Money

August 23, 2018August 22, 2018 Chris Butler

Memphis Airport

State and federal taxpayers are about to shell out $123 million to spruce up the Memphis International Airport. The people who decided that are reportedly proud of the hefty price tag. As The Tennessee Star previously reported, traffic at the airport has fallen dramatically in recent years. According to The Memphis Business Journal, “smiles were shared all around” among members of the Airport Authority who made this decision. An additional $32 million will go to replace the airport’s 25 passenger boarding bridges. The paper then quoted MSCAA CEO Scott Brockman of saying the following: “We spent a lot of money today.” According to the paper, Brockman said this “with a wide smile.” Airport spokesman Glen Thomas didn’t dispute the accuracy of the quote in an emailed statement to The Tennessee Star. “I think the point about spending money is that we are making a significant investment to improve the travel experience for Memphis travelers,” Thomas said. The airport authority, he added, receives no local tax revenue for any of its projects and is “a self-financing entity.” “Project funding for both of these projects will come from general airport revenue bonds, state and federal grants, passenger facility charges and other capital…

Read the full story

Memphis Might Change How it Gives Out Tax Incentives

August 19, 2018August 18, 2018 Chris Butler

Memphis

Memphis and Shelby County have an unelected board of 11 people who have enough power to grant millions of dollars in tax abatements to corporations. Shelby County Commissioner Heidi Shafer told The Tennessee Star that city and county officials aren’t getting results under the current way of doing things. “There have been a chorus of people jumping up and down saying we have to do better because business is getting sucked out of our county down to Mississippi,” said Shafer, whose term as commissioner ends later this month. Shafer said she wants to restructure this board, known as the Memphis Economic Development Growth Engine. Under the current system, the EDGE CEO is accountable only to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell Jr. Both mayors appoint the EDGE board of directors, although county commissioners and city council members vote to confirm them. Otherwise, county commissioners and city council members have no sway over their respective mayors, Shafer said. Shafer recently made a motion to have the EDGE CEO report to his or her board of directors — instead of the two mayors. “The CEO has a board of directors, but they are sort of symbolic. They can’t…

Read the full story

Commentary: Mainstream Media Is a Watchdog on Republicans, But a Lapdog for Democrats

August 18, 2018August 17, 2018 Chris Butler

Kathleen Sebelius

This week mainstream media reporters nationwide took a posture against President Donald Trump and asserted they act with integrity and objectivity and that his attacks on them are attacks on democracy itself. Hook people in the mainstream media up to polygraph machines and ask them if they really believe that. They’ll pass with flying colors. But as someone who spent nearly 10 years in the mainstream press, I witnessed things that tell me people in the media aren’t necessarily looking out for you and your best interests. The year was 2006, and I had a newspaper job in Central Florida. The Congressional mid-term elections were coming. That election was a topic at one morning staff meeting. One reporter said far more Democrats than Republicans in the county were voting early, obviously a bad sign for the GOP. He wanted to do a story. Our editor shot him down flat. “If you publish that story then it might prompt more Republicans to get out and vote early, and I don’t want to see that happen,” our editor, who is now deceased, said at the time. This was a corporate-owned daily newspaper that served thousands of people every day. A few weeks…

Read the full story

Marsha Blackburn Blasts Phil Bredesen, Who Was in the Audience, for Not Calling Out Steve Cohen for Bridge Jumping Comments

August 16, 2018August 15, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Phil Bredesen

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) spoke to Fox & Friends Wednesday about her Democratic counterpart Steve Cohen’s violent remarks about wishing she would jump off a bridge. The interview is available here. Ainsley Earhardt played the Huffington Post’s audio of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) saying he wished President Donald Trump would tell Blackburn, a U.S. Senate candidate, to jump off the Harahan Bridge in Memphis. The Tennessee Star reported that Cohen made the remarks last month at a prayer breakfast at Broadway Baptist Church in Memphis that was hosted by Democrat Phil Bredesen’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. Cohen said, “The big orange president. He’s going to come down here and he is going to endorse Marsha Blackburn. Because Marsha Blackburn, if he says, ‘jump off the Harahan Bridge,’ she’ll jump off the Harahan Bridge. I wish he’d say that.” Blackburn told Earhardt, “I thought surely he really didn’t say this and surely there was not laughter. You’d expect that with Phil Bredesen, my opponent, in the audience, he would have said, ‘We don’t say things like that. We don’t wish someone’s demise or death.’ “But Ainsley, I’ll tell you, I believe in what Matthew 5 commands us — that…

Read the full story

Think Tank: Tax Incentives Hurt Small Business Owners in Tennessee

August 15, 2018August 14, 2018 Chris Butler

small business

Tennessee’s economy would thrive even without local and state governments dishing out tax incentives to already wealthy corporations. What’s more, these tax incentives penalize Tennessee’s small business owners. This from the spokesman for the Nashville-based free market think tank The Beacon Center of Tennessee. “Simply put, corporate handouts benefit rich millionaires at the expense of small business owners and taxpayers,” said Beacon spokesman Mark Cunningham. Cunningham cited an original documentary Beacon released last year. That documentary, titled “Rigged,” was about what the think tank described as the malignant effects of crony capitalism in Tennessee. Under crony capitalism, there are mutually advantageous relationships between government officials and certain people in business. This happens often at the expense of other business owners. This also often gives certain business owners an upper hand over his or her competitors. The “Rigged” documentary featured two Memphis furniture store owners who had to compete against the city’s new IKEA store, which got tens of millions of dollars from the city government. “What ended up happening was that one of those business owners has since gone out of business,” Cunningham said. “Everyone can look at this practice and say ‘This is not fair. This is not what…

Read the full story

Marsha Blackburn Responds to ‘Hurtful’ Violent Remarks Steve Cohen Made About Jumping Off Bridge

August 12, 2018August 11, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Marsha Blackburn

Ed Henry of Fox News interviewed Tennessee U.S. Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn Friday about U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s violent remarks about her. Henry remarked, “It seems like incivility in politics is growing worse by the day.” He then played audio of Cohen (D-TN-09) saying he wished President Donald Trump would tell U.S. Rep. Blackburn (R-TN-07) to jump off a bridge in Memphis. The increasingly erratic Memphis Democrat made the statements at a prayer breakfast last month that was hosted by former Gov. Phil Bredesen, Blackburn’s opponent in the Senate race. The audio recording revealed that Cohen said, “The big orange president…he’s going to come down here and he’s going to endorse Marsha Blackburn, because Marsha Blackburn – if he says, ‘Jump off the Harahan Bridge,’ she’ll jump off the Harahan Bridge. I wish he’d say that.” Henry asked Blackburn for her reaction to the recording and Cohen’s claim he was joking. Blackburn said, “It’s hurtful to hear that. Steve is someone who was a colleague of mine in the state Senate and then we’ve served in Congress together. I have worked with him on issues like infant mortality issues in Shelby County, and we serve in the same delegation so…

Read the full story

Tennessee Kids Awarded Federal Money for Hunger and Obesity

August 10, 2018August 9, 2018 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

Up until at least 2014, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, complained too many of Tennessee’s kids were malnourished and starving and only government could step in to fix the problem. And, yes, Cohen got grant money for that. Now we have the reverse. This year, according to Cohen’s office, too many Volunteer State children are pudgy and, as you may have surmised, taxpayers have to get involved to amend that too. And, yes, Cohen wants grant money. Did the government programs meant to purge kids’ hunger work a little too well, making all the kids flabby? Do standardized test scores have something to do with this? Why the sudden U-turn? The Tennessee Star got no answers Thursday, as no one from Cohen’s office returned a request for comment. But Cohen explained some of his reasoning in a new press release. “We have a real problem with childhood obesity in this country and I am disheartened to note that Tennessee has the highest rate of any state at 38 percent,” Cohen announced. The national childhood obesity rate, however, is 31 percent, Cohen said. Cohen’s new Reducing Obesity in Youth Act will create grant programs to encourage kids to exercise and eat…

Read the full story

Taxpayer-Funded Program Didn’t End Homelessness in Tennessee

August 9, 2018August 8, 2018 Chris Butler

homelessness

Five years ago, Nashville officials launched an initiative to end homelessness as we know it. The program, part of the “How’s Nashville” campaign, promised homelessness would end before 2017. Seeing as how we’re more than halfway done with 2018 it’s time to assess — did the program do what Nashville officials said it would do? After all, they promised. Unfortunately, city officials did not return requests for comment Wednesday. Back in 2013, the city’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency paired up with the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission and announced 200 housing opportunities for the chronically homeless. They offered an unspecified amount of federal taxpayer money, via Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant money. Apparently, though, city officials didn’t get enough cash the first go-round. Last month, according to Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV, city officials announced yet another initiative to end homelessness, this time among young people, using $3.54 million of federal taxpayer money, again from HUD. “HUD is awarding $43 million to 11 local communities across the country,” the station reported. “The money will fund rapid re-housing, permanent supportive housing, transitional housing and other programs.” There were other times officials in Tennessee used taxpayer money to end homelessness as…

Read the full story

OFF THE RECORD: Randy Boyd Skips Knoxville Debate . . . For ‘Pricey Steakhouse Dinner’?

July 24, 2018July 24, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Randy Boyd

Randy Boyd set off a chain reaction when he cancelled Sunday night’s GOP gubernatorial candidate primary debate in Knoxville. Now, one reporter says the cancellation was due to a “pricey steakhouse dinner,” as first reported at TNJ: On the Hill. Boyd had cited an unspecified scheduling conflict as his reason to miss the final debate of the primary election. Beth Harwell and Diane Black soon bowed out. Shelby County Republican and fellow diner Naser Fazullah posted pictures of Boyd, and company out at Folk’s Folly Prime Steak House in Memphis. Yelp gives Folk’s Folly a four-dollar-sign rating, a sign of an expensive restaurant. The price range is cited as $31-$60. A 14-ounce, fully trimmed filet mignon costs $52, according to the restaurant’s menu. The meal may have been more expensive than Boyd intended. Bill Lee took advantage of the cancelled debate to hold a townhall meeting in Knoxville. A poll released Monday shows Lee in the lead. The poll of 500 registered Republican voters conducted between July 18 and July 21 puts Lee in first place with 26 percent, followed by Randy Boyd in second with 20 percent. But wait! It turns out there may be a few problems…

Read the full story

Dershowitz: Democrat Cohen’s Insult to Purple Heart Recipients ‘Low Point’ of Anti-Trump FBI Lovebird’s Congressional Testimony

July 16, 2018July 15, 2018 Admin

Maria Bartiromo, Alan Dershowitz, Steve Cohen

Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s ‘Mornings with Maria‘ on Fox Business Friday to discuss the public hearing of anti-Trump FBI lovebird Peter Strzok. However, the two wound up spending much of the segment on Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D-TN-09) deeply insulting suggestion that the embattled Strzok should receive a Purple Heart – an award established by George Washington himself nearly 236 years ago for soldiers wounded in battlefield injuries that dates back to the country’s founding. “Well it was a disaster. Everyone looked terrible,” Dershowitz said, when Bartiromo asked what his main takeaway from the day’s events was. Dershowitz added, “The low point, of course, was when a congressman said he deserved a Purple Heart. A Purple Heart you get when you put your life at risk, not for answering some questions in from of some congress people.” He continued, “It proves the point I make in my book [The Case Against Impeaching Trump] that there should have been a neutral, non-partisan, 9-11-type of commission investigating all of this.” As Dershowitz spoke, viewers could see the Harvard Law Professor become more outraged as he completed each sentence. “The 2016 election was filled with problems – Russia…

Read the full story

Tennessee Republicans Call For Democrats To Denounce Memphis Leader’s Remarks Calling Candidates Racist

July 4, 2018July 3, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Corey Strong, Scott Golden, Karl Dean, Phil Bredesen

The Tennessee Republican Party is calling for Democrats to denounce comments of Shelby County’s party leader, who on Facebook labeled Republican candidates “demonstrably racist, homophobic and unethical.” Newsweek reported on the now-deleted comments made Saturday by Corey Strong, chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party. Strong was elected last year to lead the state’s largest county party, which includes Memphis, after the Tennessee Democratic Party “de-certified” the group in 2016 following years of internal strife. “No matter what the Election Commission has done, the Democratic ticket needs 15k+ non-August Democrats to show up and moderate/suburban Dems to not cross over and vote for the demonstrably racist, homophobic, unethical, and unqualified Republican nominees,” Strong said on Facebook. Strong’s comments come in the wake of comments made by Maxine Waters where people should oust Trump Administration officials from public spaces. Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden released the following statement: Democrats have reached into their failed 2016 playbook and again taken to name calling and outright lying in an attempt to score political points, all the while nothing but continued silence from Tennessee Democratic leaders Phil Bredesen, Karl Dean, Craig Fitzhugh, and Mary Mancini. When it comes to divisive and harmful rhetoric, Tennesseans deserve better…

Read the full story

Memphis, Knoxville Among Worst Cities, USA TODAY Says of Towns It Calls Home

June 14, 2018June 13, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Memphis

Media giant Gannett has compiled a list of what it says are the 50 worst cities to live in, and some of the top locations are towns where it operates newspapers, including two in Tennessee. USA TODAY compiled the list using data from 24/7 Wall Street, a website that publishes financial news and opinion. 24/7 Wall Street created an index of eight categories: crime, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure and leisure, to identify the 50 cities. Memphis comes in as the 4th worst city in which to live, just ahead of Cleveland, Ohio, at 5th worst. The 36th worst is Knoxville. Gannett owns The Knoxville News-Sentinel and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Nashville, home of The Tennessean, did not make the list. USA TODAY admits that quality of life is a subjective measure. “Quality of life is subjective, and difficult to measure,” Gannett’s story says. “Still, there is a wide range of quantifiable factors that can impact quality of life in a given area. Affordability, safety, job market strength, quality of education, infrastructure, average commute times, air quality, and the presence of cultural attractions are just a few examples of factors that can influence overall quality of life. “Cities…

Read the full story

Diane Black Challenges Memphis Regional Megasite

April 26, 2018April 26, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Diane Black is taking on a sprawling West Tennessee industrial site that includes a 35-mile-long wastewater pipeline. The Republican gubernatorial candidate blasted the Memphis Regional Megasite in an op-ed that appeared in the April 25 Commercial Appeal. The state government has left West Tennessee “behind” through neglect, she wrote. “Infrastructure is a big part of that,” Black wrote. “It is hugely important both to Memphis and to rural West Tennessee. I’ve spoken with representatives from the Trump Administration and my congressional colleagues about finishing I-69 and I-22. These projects are almost complete, they simply require a governor committed to getting it done. “I will continue to work with the President and Vice President to make sure West Tennessee gets the federal infrastructure dollars it needs to complete road projects and bring broadband to rural counties.” The megasite consists of 4,100 acres of industrial real estate, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development website. Black calls the megasite a “boondoggle” 13 years in the making that has cost $140 million and needs an additional $100 million and still is a few years from having completed infrastructure. The wastewater pipeline will cost at least $75 million, she said, and some estimate the…

Read the full story

Gubernatorial Candidate Mae Beavers Criticizes Memphis City Council Decision to Remove Confederate Monuments

December 21, 2017December 21, 2017 Tennessee Star Staff

Republican gubernatorial candidate and former State Senator Mae Beavers (R-Mt. Juliet) released a statement on Thursday criticizing the Memphis City Council for a series of actions that resulted in the removal of statues in Memphis parks under the cover of darkness Wednesday night honoring Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis. “Our history is not perfect, nor are the historical figures who helped shape our state and nation, but it is wrong to destroy these public monuments suddenly and in the dark of night in order to cater to the politically motivated demands of those who want to cleanse our history,” Beavers said, adding: There are some individuals and groups who want to promote a divisive agenda using claims of racism and bigotry against anyone who respects history and wants to preserve it. Sadly that rhetoric, and weak-kneed politicians unwilling to stand up to them and their threats of violence if they don’t get their way, is creating a climate where hysteria seems to matter more than history. Removing these historical monuments won’t help a single child in Memphis do better in school. Perhaps the Memphis City Council should worry more about the abysmal test scores being produced in…

Read the full story

Memphis Theater: ‘Gone With the Wind’ Isn’t Appropriate Anymore

August 28, 2017August 28, 2017 Tennessee Star Staff

The Orpheum Theatre Group in Memphis, Tennessee, announced that it will not include 1939 classic “Gone With the Wind” in its summer movie series next year. “As an organization whose stated mission is to ‘entertain, educate and enlighten the communities it serves’, the Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of…

Read the full story

Gov. Haslam Attends Ceremonial Signings, Ignores Severe Weather Damage in Memphis

June 2, 2017July 17, 2018 Laura Baigert

As Governor Bill Haslam sets out next Monday on cross-state IMPROVE Act Bill Signing Ceremonies, he has not yet seen the damage himself from the severe weather that hit Memphis and surrounding Shelby County last Saturday night. And, he has no plans to travel there this week, according to a report from Fox 13 Memphis. Meanwhile, Governor Haslam has announced IMPROVE Act Bill Signing Ceremonies to be held Monday, June 5 in each of Tennessee’s three grand divisions. As of Thursday morning, the fifth day after the storm, Memphis Light Gas and Water Division (MLGW) power outage map indicates that over 32,000 customers are still impacted by power outages, down from a peak of 188,000. While power has been restored to the majority of customers, full restoration could take more than a week for the remaining customers as progress slows dealing with smaller outages. The storm has been described by MLGW as the “third worst storm in the area’s history.” An email dated May 31 from the Tennessee County Services Association (TCSA) Executive Director, David Connor, attached an invitation on Governor Haslam’s letterhead that included the details of the ceremonies: 10:15 a.m. in Hamilton County, 1 p.m. in Nashville/Davidson…

Read the full story

Commentary: A Rally Cry for School Improvement

May 31, 2017May 30, 2017 JC Bowman

Tennessee Star

All children in Tennessee deserve an exceptional education. School improvement is only possible when accompanied within a framework of collaboration and support.

Read the full story

Memphis Man Dies After Setting Himself On Fire On Facebook Live

May 17, 2017May 16, 2017 Tennessee Star Staff

Tennessee Star

A Tennessee musician died after dousing himself in kerosene and lighting himself on fire, according to local authorities. The event was streamed on Facebook Live. The Memphis Police Department told FOX13 Saturday that local musician Jared McLemore, 33, set himself on fire in an effort to commit suicide on Facebook Live. Shortly after he set himself…

Read the full story