Tag: Tennessee

Tennessee has had a big influx of people coming in from Florida, according to numbers a Florida newspaper editor gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau. According to Bill Thompson, editorial page editor of the Lakeland, Fla.-based The Ledger, Tennessee is one of five states that “welcomed more newcomers than wished farewell to pilgrims.” As for the five other states, Texas took in people mostly from California. Alabama took in people from Georgia. Kentucky took in people from Ohio. And Oklahoma took in people from Texas, Thompson wrote. Thompson said he decided to gather this information after seeing so many out-of-state license plates and moving vans coming into Florida. He said he wondered why, for instance, someone he saw from California, which has great weather and is supposedly “a quasi-socialist paradise,” would want to relocate to his state. “In recent weeks President Trump has focused attention on the risk of the immigrant caravans coming from the south,” Thompson wrote. “But perhaps we in the South need to be mindful of caravans fleeing Bluetopia’s high taxes, excessive government intrusion, rising cost of living and social-justice warrioring. Let’s hope they, like immigrants of yore, seek assimilation rather than proselytization.” In 2017, Thompson said,…

A former accountant with the Decatur-based Volunteer Energy Cooperative stole nearly $1 million from the entity, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released Wednesday. This month a Meigs County Grand Jury indicted that former accountant, Jason Kittle, on one count of theft over $250,000. This, after Comptrollers and officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation looked into Kittle’s activities, according to the audit. “This is one of the largest cases of theft that we have investigated,” said Comptroller Justin P. Wilson, in a press release. Investigators determined that Kittle stole at least $994,981 between June 2011 and December 2017. Kittle used three schemes to steal VEC money for his personal use, auditors wrote. • Kittle stole $735,318 by making 242 transfers from a VEC account to his personal bank account. • Kittle stole $229,293 by making 204 payments to his personal credit card account. • Kittle stole $30,368 by making 48 payments to a credit card account in the name of a family member. “Kittle was able to his conceal his misappropriation by recording the fraudulent transactions in VEC’s accounting system as online payment fees, returns, or similar transactions,” auditors wrote. “Kittle also managed and reconciled the statements of the…

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The organizers for a Nashville-based group stressed at a meeting Thursday there’s strength in diversity, not just in business but also when it comes to conservative politics. The organization, the Tennessee Immigrant and Minority Business Group, held their Winter 2018 Quarterly Forum at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. TIMBG Co-Founder Dr. Ming Wang told The Tennessee Star that Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans, and African-Americans are still majority Democrats — but they could change their minds on that, if persuaded. “Groups like this cannot be ignored, though,” Wang said. “Family values, freedom, and less government matter to these groups of people too.” The point of the organization, Wang said, is to bring together immigrants and minority business groups. And as it pertains to the business world, America is changing and turning more diverse, Wang said. Added together, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans make up 44 percent of the U.S. population. In 10 to 15 years this group will become the majority in the United States, Wang said. “One in every three business owners in Middle Tennessee today are either immigrants or minorities,” Wang said. “They represent the fastest-growing sector of our business community.” John Mickner, the TIMBG’s chief operations officer, said…