Tag: Texas

Texas School Cuts Ties with SAT Over Controversial ‘Adversity Scoring’

Chris Butler

  Members of the Houston, Texas-based Saint Constantine School announced Thursday they will do away with all SAT prep and AP/PSAT programming. School officials said in an emailed statement the SAT’s new adversity score prompted them to act. As The Tennessee Star reported, the people responsible for the SAT exams now assign an adversity score to every student to consider his or her social and economic background. Saint Constantine spokeswoman Megan Mueller (pictured above) said the school will purge itself of the SAT prep and AP/PSAT programming in 2020. “We hope to see schools across the country do the same, and that more people will start to move toward the CLT as a sane option in the world of college admission and standardized testing,” Mueller said in the statement. Mueller did not return The Star’s request for comment Thursday. According to the school’s website, Saint Constantine educates through classical, Christian, practical education and is a mission of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in the Diocese of Mid-America. Jackie Archer, affiliated with Tennessee Rising and Tennessee Textbook Advocates, which looks for bias in public school textbooks, told The Star earlier this week that politics motivates the change in the SAT scoring process.…

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Wendy Davis Is ‘Very Seriously’ Considering a Congressional Run Against Chip Roy

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by Molly Prince   Failed Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis revealed Friday that she will likely make a decision “in the next month or so” whether she will launch a bid to unseat Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy in 2020. “I’m looking very seriously at [running for] Congressional District 21,” Davis announced while on “The Rabble” podcast. “I live in that district now and we came very close to winning it in 2018.” Roy defeated his Democratic challenger Joseph Kopser by nearly 3 points, replacing Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, who stepped down after 16 terms — the race was seen as a second-tier battleground. “Joseph Kopser gave a valiant effort and [Democrats] came very, very close. The question is, can we do it for 2020?” Davis continued, noting Texas is not a red state but rather a “non-voting blue state” Davis gained national attention in 2013 after she held a 13-hour-long filibuster to block Texas Senate Bill 5, which would ban abortions after 20 weeks. She subsequently ran for governor in 2014, but was handily defeated by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. During the podcast, Davis contended she believes there needs to be more women in politics, but not Republican women. “We don’t just…

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The Tennessee Star Report: Justin Owen from the Beacon Center Talks About Governor Lee’s Plan to Reform the Tennessee Criminal Justice System

Julie Carr

In a specific discussion on Monday morning’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 – host Steve Gill talked in depth with the Beacon Centers CEO, Justin Owen about the Beacon’s support of Bill Lee’s criminal justice reform proposal and the implications of offering non-violent criminals a chance to receive education and enter the workforce instead of returning back through the prison’s revolving doors. The men ended the segment covering the aspect of vocational training reform and it’s implementations effect on Texas. Gill: Justin Owen is the President and CEO of the Beacon Center and here to explain what is the rationale for the support that the Beacon Center is giving to, among other things the college for criminals plan that Governor Bill Lee is putting out. And Justin good to have you with us. Owen: Good to be on Steve, thanks for inviting me on. Gill: A lot of stuff on this issue. The Governor hadn’t put out a lot of details, they’ve not answered questions that we’ve submitted to them about how much it’s going to cost and…

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Commentary: It’s Time for Texas to Declare an Emergency, Too

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by Rick Manning   Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) got it 100 percent correct when in response to President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the southern border he suggested that the state of Texas “should also consider a similar declaration” of national emergency due to the illegal immigration invasion in a statement released on Friday, Feb. 15, 2019. In fact, a declaration by the Texas legislature of an emergency based upon what Gohmert terms “a blatant invasion happening at our border” would trigger Constitutional remedies for the situation through a little-known portion of the U.S. Constitution. Article 4, Section 4 reads, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.” Now that the President has declared a state of emergency at the border, it would be the ideal time for the state of Texas to join in that declaration. In doing so, they would compel the President to provide critical assistance to the state under the Constitution and end obstructionist objections to taking necessary…

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Tennessee Star Report EXCLUSIVE: Vet Brian Kolfage Says WeBuildtheWall.US Will Build 10 Miles of Border Wall on Private Land in Arizona

Julie Carr

On Tuesday’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 to Veteran and the Trump Wall point man, Brian Kolfage about he and his teams new position on how to get the wall built. The men when into detail and touched upon how the funds would be transferred via a 501 (c) (4) non-profit initiative, who’s involved, and the price it would cost to get it done and the new position to build it instead of fund it. Kolfage also described how he was impressed by those conservatives billionaires who have donated their money and want to support and help push through this goal of a border wall. “None of us are being paid. We’re knocking this out and doing it for the American people,” confessed Kolfage. Gill: A guy who’s not willing to be patient and wait for the government to move things ahead on securing America’s borders, Brian Kolfage. He started a GoFundMe account to do the private sector construction of some wall and he’s joined us on the phone lines this morning. Brian…

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Trump to Hold First Rally of 2019 in Border City of El Paso

Anthony Gockowski

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign announced Wednesday that it will be holding its first rally of 2019 in El Paso, Texas on February 11. According to the Trump campaign, the rally will mark the president’s first in El Paso and seventh in the state of Texas. “We are please to announced the Make America Great Again rally on Monday, February 11 in El Paso, Texas, featuring President Donald Trump,” said Michael Glassner, chief operating officer of Donald J. Trump for President Inc. “As the president continues his fight to secure our border, there’s no better place to demonstrate that walls work than in El Paso. President Trump looks forward to visiting with the patriots of Texas who are on the front lines of the struggle against open-border Democrats who allow drugs, crime, and sex trafficking all along our border every day,” Glassner added. During his Tuesday night State of the Union address, Trump pointed to El Paso as shining proof that his border wall would work. “The border city of El Paso, Texas, used to have extremely high rates of violent crime—one of the highest in the country, and was considered one of our nation’s most dangerous cities. Now, with…

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GM Pulls Trigger on Mass Layoffs Throughout the Country

Andrew Shirley

General Motors announced Monday that the long-dreaded nationwide mass layoffs finally began. In November of last year, GM announced that they intended to significantly scale back their workforce. Most jarring for many was their plan to close five manufacturing plants across the country, including the Lordstown Assembly complex in Warren, Ohio. Since then, there have been tireless negotiations aimed at getting GM to reverse this decision. President Donald Trump personally decried the decision, demanding that GM find a way to keep these plants open. When it became clear that there was no reversal in sight, legislators began seeking alternative companies to fill the void GM would leave. At one point, then-Ohio Governor John Kasich began tweeting directly to billionaire and Tesla Motors owner, Elon Musk, asking him to take over the plant. Despite Musk expressing an initial openness to the idea, nothing public has yet has come of the discussion. While GM claims the workforce cuts are across-the-board, it appears that’s not entirely accurate. The company’s operations in China, Mexico, and other overseas locations will not be reduced. In some cases, the numbers of workers will expand. Legislators, labor leaders, and everyday citizens have blasted the decision as yet another company outsourcing its…

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Alarming Registration Surprise in Texas Raises Questions About Mass Voter Fraud, Voter Roll Maintenance

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by Jason Snead and Caleb Morrison   The man in charge of elections in Texas made a surprise announcement last week: As many as 95,000 noncitizens had registered to vote, and 58,000 of them may have voted in at least one election between 1996 and 2018. The finding announced by Texas Secretary of State David Whitley is serious, and almost immediately the news became the subject of sensational statements. Some, such as President Donald Trump, assert that this constitutes proof that 58,000 individuals unlawfully voted in Texas. Activists on the left, meanwhile, dismiss the findings altogether as merely setting the stage for voter purges and disenfranchisement. In this case, neither side is getting it right. Here’s what is actually happening. In Texas, individuals – including noncitizens – are required to present documents establishing their residency and identity when obtaining a driver’s license or state-issued personal identification card. When a person presents a valid document such as a green card, indicating he or she is lawfully present but not a U.S. citizen, that record is preserved by the Texas Department of Public Safety. This sort of information can be quite useful for elections officials responsible for maintaining voter rolls. Simply put,…

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Tennessee Star Report Speaks With One America News Network’s Neil McCabe as He Explains the ‘Dynamic’ at the McAllen, Texas Border

Julie Carr

On Tuesday’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 – Steve Gill talked to Neil McCabe of One America News Network while he is visiting the McAllen, Texas border about the absence of a border wall and the interesting dynamic surrounding the area. Further into the conversation McCabe disclosed how the current laws as created under the Obama Administration were designed for failure and provided a deliberate loophole for illegals of all backgrounds to enter the United States. Gill: And our on the spot correspondent from One America News, Neil McCabe is down in McAllen, Texas, right on the border. I guess is there a border wall there or is that one of those areas where there is nothing keeping somebody from coming across the border, Neil? McCabe: Well there’s some wall and then there are places where you can sort of walk around the wall. And so there are sections of wall. But it’s a very interesting dynamic down here. This is my first time actually on the border, so very exciting Steve. Gill: More members of Congress should…

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Bill Lee Names UC Berkeley Grad Penny Schwinn, Who Began Career at Teach for America, as Education Commissioner

Chris Butler

On Thursday Governor-Elect Bill Lee named 36-year-old Penny Schwinn, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, who began her career in education working as a teacher for Teach for America, as Tennessee’s new Commissioner of Education. Kevin Huffman, who served as Commissioner of Education during the Haslam administration from 2011 to 2014, also began his career at Teach for America, a controversial non-profit organization that pays new college graduates to teach in urban schools as part of its mission to address “educational inequity” and “help children overcome obstacles like systemic racism and poverty.” Huffman’s tenure as Education Commissioner was widely considered to be unsuccessful. “Penny leads with students at the forefront and I believe her experience is exactly what we need to continue improving on the gains we have made in the past few years,” Lee said in the announcement of her appointment. “As a former teacher and seasoned administrator, she will help make Tennessee a leader in the nation on education,” Lee added. The announcement continued: Schwinn currently serves as the chief deputy commissioner of education at the Texas Education Agency. In this role, she pursued a series of reforms including the transformation of a failing state assessment program. She…

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Rep. Dan Crenshaw Slams Democrat Rep. Hank Johnson For Degrading Trump Supporters, Says Johnson’s Form of Politics Is ‘Cowardly’

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by Molly Prince   Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw excoriated Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia on Sunday for degrading the Americans who voted for and support President Donald Trump. While giving a keynote address to the Atlanta NAACP on Jan. 1, Johnson repeatedly compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and painted Trump supporters as “older, less educated, less prosperous” and “dying early.” He further claimed that many are dying from “alcoholism, drug overdoses, liver disease or simply a broken heart caused by economic despair.” Crenshaw dismissed Johnson’s Hitler comparisons as intellectually dishonest and insulting to the millions of Jews who perished during the Holocaust. “Ok Mr. Johnson, President Trump is a lot of things but he’s not Hitler,” Crenshaw said in a video posted on social media. “He didn’t kill millions of people. He didn’t start a world war. He doesn’t have any concentration camps.” “But if you want to insult President Trump, at least you’re picking on somebody your own size. At least you’re picking on somebody who can fight back,” Crenshaw continued. “But you went on to insult, degrade and demean tens of millions of Americans who voted for him. To call them drug addicted, uneducated and unhappy alcoholics — this…

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Tennessee Truck Drivers Reportedly Rebel Against Tesla and Its Tax Credit

Chris Butler

Pickup truck drivers across the South, including Tennessee, are reportedly blocking access to Tesla electric car Superchargers. Environmentalists’ feelings are apparently hurt because of it. According to the left-leaning Green Car Reports, “these incidents have occurred in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, and even overseas.” Green Car Reports speculated angry truck drivers are targeting Teslas specifically because “they are expensive luxury cars and qualify for a large federal tax credit.” “Photos shared across Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit over the weekend showed all kinds of trucks blocking Superchargers, from small pickups to big semis,” the website reported. “Some have termed it ICEing—a reference to the internal combustion engines under the hoods of the offending trucks.” Green Car Reports said “whole rows of trucks either pulled across whole rows of Superchargers or backed in to block several at a time. In two more cases, semi-trucks pulled across rows of Superchargers, blocking them, when other parking was available.” The writers at the website guessed it was an organized campaign, but they also confessed they don’t know who is behind it. Many cities, according to Green Car Reports, have passed laws restricting parking at electric-car chargers. The website did not list which cities. CarrBuzz.com,…

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Police Officer Deaths on Duty Increased in 2018, Report Finds

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by Neetu Chandak   A preliminary report released Thursday found U.S. police officer deaths on duty increased by 12 percent in 2018 from 2017. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a non-profit dedicated to making police officers’ work safer, found 144 police officers died between Jan. 1 and Dec. 27. Nearly 129 police officers died in the same time frame in 2017. The leading cause of death was gun-related followed by traffic-related incidents. Other forms of death included being struck by a train, having a heart attack and drowning. “The rising number of law enforcement officer deaths in 2018 is disappointing news after a decline in 2017,” the fund’s CEO Craig W. Floyd said in a press statement. “Sadly this reminds us that public safety is a dangerous job and can come at a very steep price.” Texas, Florida, California, and New York had the highest number of officer deaths with 11 each, according to the data. The District of Columbia along with 14 states did not have any police officer fatalities. The number of deaths could change as the numbers are not final, according to the fund. The report comes as an illegal immigrant allegedly shot and killed…

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Paul Ryan Encouraged GOP Congressmen to Campaign Against Trump

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by Molly Prince   Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas revealed Wednesday that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan advised GOP House members to run on a platform against President Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. “Just a few weeks before the election, we were told by Paul, by our elected leaders that, gee, the only way we can keep the House majority is just all of us start running against the president,” Gohmert told guest host Derek Hunter during an interview on WMAL. “Fortunately, we had enough people one after another on the call that pushed back so hard they backed off of that.” Gohmert explained that Trump is still getting used to the dichotomy between the public and private sector, especially when it comes to handling members who claim to support him politically, yet refuse to further his agenda. “He wants to work with people over here on the Hill, and he’s just not used to, in the private sector, having people that are reputedly on his side conspiring to keep him from getting what he promised,” said Gohmert. “And that’s what we’ve seen.” “In the private sector, Trump knew if somebody that was on his side undermined him, there’d…

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Texas City Featured in Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Sequel’ Lost Millions in its Green Energy Gamble

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by Michael Bastasch   Former Vice President Al Gore hailed the city of Georgetown, Texas, for powering itself with only solar and wind energy, but now the city is losing millions on its green energy gamble. Georgetown’s bet against fossil fuel prices cost the city-owned utility nearly $7 million this year, and prompted officials to look for a way out of their long-term contracts for solar and wind energy. “It’s costing them big time,” vice president of research at the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), Bill Peacock, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “This doesn’t appear to be the first time they’ve lost money, just the first time it was big enough to have to go public with it.” Georgetown made national news after being featured in Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Sequel,” which was released in 2017. The film followed-up on Gore’s inaccurate 2006 film”An Inconvenient Truth.” “I think Georgetown is already a trailblazer,” Gore said during his 2016 visit to learn about Georgetown’s plan to get 100 percent of their energy from wind and solar power. “And one thing that Georgetown demonstrates to other places that are just beginning to think about it is that the power supply is…

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Beto O’Rourke Thinks People Have Died Because of The Border Wall

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by Molly Prince   Democratic Rep. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke of Texas claimed Friday that the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border is the reason why an increasing number of migrants have died as they illegally attempt to cross into the country. “The number of people dying at the U.S.-Mexico border in some years has grown,” O’Rourke said during an El Paso, Texas, town hall. “In some years has grown because it’s connected to that wall that we have already built that pushes people who are at their most desperate and vulnerable to ever-more inhospitable stretches of the Chihuahua Desert.” The Texas congressman explained that the number of people trying to cross the border increased almost 40 percent between 1998 and 2010 after some of the barrier was constructed in the El Paso sector. “The wall in this area was built in 2006, 2007, and 2008,” he continued. “So even though total crossing attempts had decreased, the number of deaths went up.” WATCH: Town Hall https://t.co/ShnZkxDeMU — Rep. Beto O'Rourke (@RepBetoORourke) December 14, 2018 O’Rourke has long argued against a border wall. Following President Donald Trump’s executive order in September to erect an 18-foot steel bollard wall to replace the existing pedestrian…

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Apple Is Dropping $1 Billion to Put 5,000 Jobs in Texas With Expansions Planned in Major Cities

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by Tim Pearce   Apple is investing $1 billion to nearly double its workforce in Texas and is hiring thousands more employees in offices across the U.S., the company announced Thursday. Apple is adding 5,000 positions to its Austin, Texas, campus on top of the 6,200-strong workforce already there. The tech company is also establishing campuses in San Diego, Seattle and Culver City, California, employing about 1,000 people each. Hundreds more jobs will be added to other offices in places such as New York, Pittsburgh and Boulder, Colorado, by 2022. Apple’s announcement is relatively quiet compared to Amazon’s decision to build headquarters in Long Island City, New York, and Arlington, Virginia. The local and state governments at each location offered Amazon incentives worth millions of dollars. Dozens of other locations across the U.S. competed for Amazon’s attention with tax credits, infrastructure investment and other favors. President Donald Trump gave credit to Amazon for and owner Jeff Bezos for the antics. “I think they’re paying a very big price,” Trump said of Arlington and New York City in a November interview with The Daily Caller. “It was a competition. I know all about those competitions. I’ve been in those competitions —…

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Ticket Prices Plummet for Bill and Hillary Clinton Tour

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by Joe Simonson   Ticket prices for the Clintons’ world tour have bottomed out, with prices as low as $11 at some locations. Both Bill and Hillary Clinton have been trekking across the United States and Canada over the past few months and have dates set through May 2019. Audience members can pay to hear the power couple opine on current events and reflect on their legacy in American politics. The New York Times’ Maureen Dowd paid $177 for her ticket, yet prices for future events have plummeted. [ RELATED: Should Hillary Run In 2020? ] Seeing the duo at the Financial Centre in Sugar Land, Texas, on Dec. 4 runs anywhere from $11 to $80 depending on the seat quality. On resale sites, some sellers are asking for as much as $531 a ticket — although it’s unclear if they’ll be able to find a buyer at that price. In contrast, former first lady Michelle Obama is on her own speaking and book tour. Tickets for that event range anywhere from $300 to $2,500. – – – Joe Simonson is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Joe on Twitter.                …

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The Anti-Vaccine Movement is Thriving In Some Counties

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by Peter J. Hotez   As a pediatrician-scientist who develops new vaccines for neglected diseases, I spent most of my career in the Boston-Washington, D.C. corridor. While working in the Northeast, I had heard a few things about the anti-vaccine movement. As both a vaccine scientist and a father of four, including a daughter diagnosed with autism and intellectual disabilities, I followed the emergence of doubt over vaccine safety in the general public. Ultimately, in scientific circles, any debate ended when an overwhelming body of scientific evidence demonstrated there was no association between vaccines and autism. But then, in 2011, I relocated to Houston’s Texas Medical Center. I soon learned that, unlike in the Northeast, where the anti-vaccine movement so far seems restricted to small groups, the Texas anti-vaccine movement is aggressive, well-organized and politically engaged. There are now at least 57,000 Texas schoolchildren being exempted from their vaccines for nonmedical reasons, about a 20-fold rise since 2003. I say “at least” because there is no data on the more than 300,000 homeschooled kids. I’m worried these children, who are mostly concentrated either in the Austin area and towns and cities in north Texas, including Plano and Forth Worth, are…

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Commentary: The Migrant ‘Caravan’ Marching Northbound To Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, and What The U.S. Constitution Has To Say About It

Gregory Watson

The United States Constitution does contain a few references relative to immigration and naturalization as well as to persons seeking to enter the United States in contravention of its laws — whether violently or non-violently and whether singly or in the form of a human tsunami. In its Article I, Section 8, Clause 4, the Constitution specifically grants Congress the power “To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization….” By expressly allocating this capacity to Congress, the Constitution seeks to prevent the confusion which would inevitably result if an individual state could itself bestow U.S. citizenship upon a person not born within the boundaries of that — or any other — state. Construing Clause 4, the United States Supreme Court, in the 1892 case of Boyd v. Nebraska ex rel. Thayer, defined “naturalization” as “…the act of adopting a foreigner, and clothing him with the privileges of a native [U.S.] citizen.” In Clause 11 of that same Article I, Section 8, the Constitution authorizes Congress “To declare War…and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water….” Interpreting Clause 11, the High Court ruled in the 1795 case of Penhallow v. Doane that the war power of the United States government is…

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Alligators Reportedly Make Their Way to Tennessee

Chris Butler

Alligators have made their way to Tennessee, and, per the law, there really isn’t much you can do about it. According to News Channel 5 of Nashville, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials confirm alligators are naturally expanding their range into Tennessee from southern border states. “A recent sighting on video of a seven-foot alligator in West Tennessee at the Wolf River WMA in Fayette County was just one of several confirmed sightings in Southwest Tennessee,” the station reported. According to The Tennessean, a four-foot alligator was captured Tuesday in East Tennessee’s Monroe County. In March, a seven-foot alligator was spotted in West Tennessee’s Fayette County, the paper went on to say. “Alligators are protected species and catching or shooting them is against the law,” the paper went on to say. According to News Channel 5, nervous Tennesseans may have to accept the situation, as is. “Authorities with the TWRA said they have not stocked any alligators in the state, and they added the alligators are simply expanding. They said we must learn to coexist with them like many others in the southern states,” the station reported. Alligators, News Channel 5 went on to say, will prey on fish, turtles, snakes, frogs, and waterfowl. They are also…

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Analysis: 100,000 Texans Can’t Be Wrong, Red Wave Rising

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by Rick Manning   More than 100,000 Texans RSVP’d for tickets for the Donald Trump-Ted Cruz rally in Houston, with thousands waiting in line for a day to get inside the venue. While the arena held about 18,000, a similar number tailgated outside, viewing the rally on big screens much like big sporting event viewing parties held outside of stadiums to accommodate fans without tickets. Senator Cruz’ opponent, Representative Robert O’Rourke, was praying for a typical low mid-term turnout to help him upset conservative icon Cruz.  His hopes rested on the hope that the dual factors of Cruz’ outside the establishment fights on Obamacare and other issues along with the bitter Trump-Cruz presidential primary fight would create enough divisions that GOP turnout would be low, allowing him to sneak into the Senate seat. The President and Senator Cruz on stage together puts an end to this dream, as it signals the uniting of the limited government Republican Party that Cruz champions and the populist agenda espoused by Trump. What’s more, for the first time since Ronald Reagan, a GOP President is able to campaign for and help Republican members of Congress in off-year elections.  While George W. Bush and his…

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Texas Sheriff Says Democratic Senate Candidate Beto O’Rourke Needs A ‘History Lesson’ About His Party’s Jim Crow Laws

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Beto O'Rourke

by Nick Givas   A Texas sheriff said Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke needs a history lesson, after his comments about law enforcement being the new Jim Crow. “First of all, it doesn’t surprise me, you know. Anybody who’s been arrested as many times as Robert O’Rourke’s been arrested may have some ill will towards the police,” Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree said on “Fox & Friends” Friday. “His rhetoric is divisive. It’s insulting and most of all it’s dangerous,” he added. O’Rourke is running for Senate against GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the upcoming November midterms and made racial accusations about law enforcement, in a Wednesday speech at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. “That system of suspending somebody solely based on the color of their skin, searching that person solely based on the color of their skin, stopping that person solely based on the color of their skin, shooting that person solely based on the color of their skin, throwing the book at that person and letting them rot behind bars solely based on the color of their skin is why some have called this — I think it is an apt description — the new Jim Crow,” O’Rourke said. Murphree said: “There’s been a…

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Education Facination: Texas State Board of Education Attempts Another ‘Edit” of Social Studies Curriculum

Julie Carr

On Tuesday’s Gill Report – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 1510 WLAC weekdays at 7:30 am – Star News Digital Media National Political Editor Steve Gill discussed the peculiar fascination with the Texas’s Board of Education and their obsession with editing their state’s social studies curriculum. He went on to reflect on The Tennessee Star’s last story regarding the Alamo and the most recent attempt of taking out Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller from the state’s history books. Gill continued: What the heck is going on in Texas? Now we had a story a week or so ago about the state of Texas Board of Education deciding whether or not to remove the word ‘heroic’ in describing the defenders at the Alamo. They ultimately decided after they got some national push back that the description of the defenders of the Alamo as heroic was appropriate, so they’re leaving that in the social studies curriculum. And now the Texas Board of Education has voted to remove former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the state’s social studies curriculum. They’ve also dropped Helen Keller. Now it came after the fifteen-member board nominated volunteer work group created a scale to grade historical figures.…

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Instances of Voter Fraud Continue to Mount, Further Compromising Our Elections

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by Jason Snead and Taylor Chaffetz   Recent voter fraud cases show the growing importance of upholding election integrity. Last year, Cassandra Amber Marie Ritter was convicted of heroin distribution in Winchester, Virginia. Two weeks later, Ritter voted at a local fire department even though she knew she had lost her right to vote as a consequence of her conviction. She received a two-year suspended sentence. In Texas, Crystal Mason recently received a five-year sentence for illegally voting in the 2016 presidential election. Mason showed up at the polls to vote, only to discover her name had been removed from the rolls. This was no accident; Mason was on probation following a 60-month sentence for felony tax fraud and lost her right to vote as a result. [ The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more ] Texas law requires felons to serve their entire sentence—including probation—before their voting rights are restored. Though Mason claimed she was unaware of this, she did sign an affidavit at the polls that affirmed her eligibility, including a statement that she was not a felon who had yet to serve both her…

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Supreme Court Lets Contested District Maps In Texas, NC Remain In Effect

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SCOTUS, North Carolina, Texas

by Kevin Daley   The U.S. Supreme Court Monday cleared the way for Texas and North Carolina to use a set of contested legislative district lines, declining to side with plaintiffs who alleged the maps were gerrymandered for partisan or racial advantage. The decisions come one week after the high court sidestepped sweeping rulings in landmark challenges to political gerrymanders. The North Carolina case, Rucho v. Common Cause, involved a challenge to the state’s congressional district map. The current lines afford Republicans a 10-3 advantage in North Carolina’s congressional delegation, although the state has adopted a moderate political character in recent election cycles. As in other gerrymandering cases, mapmakers brazenly acknowledged the partisan interests driving the process. “I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats,” said North Carolina Republican Rep. David Lewis, who chairs the state legislature’s redistricting committee. “So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country.” A three-judge district court said the map was unconstitutional and ordered the state to produce new maps in time for the 2018 elections, but the justices placed that order on hold in January. Monday’s order lifted the three-judge panel’s ruling, and required the lower court to…

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Texas Committee Votes to Keep Confederate Statue, but Add Anti-Slavery Plaque and Kiosks

Tennessee Star Staff

A Texas committee voted to keep a Confederate statue, but will add an anti-slavery plaque and kiosks to it, according to a Thursday report. The monument advisory committee in Denton, Texas, voted 12-3 to preserve a Confederate soldier statue but add a plaque and audiovisual interviews bashing slavery and segregation, reported the Denton Record-Chronicle.

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Commentary: All Aboard! Rep. Steve Cohen Leads Democrats to Jump on the Crazy Train to Impeachment

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Cue Ozzy Osbourne. The Democrats have finally boarded the Crazy Train. A handful in the House just introduced five articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. Sigh. Psychiatrists take note; here are the names: Reps. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, John Yarmuth of Kentucky, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Adriana Espaillat of New York and Al Green of…

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Horrific Church Shooter in All-Black Tactical Gear Killed 26 and Injured Dozens More Before Armed Citizen Engaged and Pursued Attacker

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UPDATE: Texas Department of Safety Regional Director Freeman Martin recounted the harrowing crime to a standing-room only press conference, aired live across several media outlets. “We have certain facts we can release to protect the integrity of the investigation. We have to release it in a timely fashion, and collect our information to insure our information is correct,” he began. “At approximately 11:20am this morning, a suspected was seen at a Valero gas station in Sutherland Springs, Texas dressed in all black. That suspect crossed the street to the church, exited his vehicle, and began firing at the church. That suspect then moved to the right side of the church and continued to fire. That suspected entered the church and continued to fire.” He continued: As he exited the church, a local resident grabbed his rifle and engaged that suspect. The suspect dropped his rifle, which was a Rutger A-R assault-type rifle and fled from the church. Our local citizen pursued the suspect at that time. A short time later, as law enforcement responded, that suspect, right at the Wilson-Guadalupe County line – he ran off the roadway and crashed out, and was found deceased in his vehicle. At this…

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Texas Files Lawsuit Against Potential Opponents of New Anti-Sanctuary Law

Tennessee Star Staff

Texas lodged a preemptive lawsuit Monday against local officials considered hostile to the state’s new anti-sanctuary cities law, the first salvo in an expected legal fight over the controversial measure. State Attorney General Ken Paxton said the federal lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, is necessary to protect the…

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