The Tennessee comptroller’s office says large numbers of the state’s high school graduates are not ready for college, despite a number of recent gains. Based on an analysis of ACT test sores, the report found 75 percent of freshmen at…
Read MoreMonth: January 2016
Local Liberals Say Boys Have Right to Use Girls’ Bathroom
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee today sent a letter to every school district in the state explaining that allowing transgender students access to restrooms and other sex-segregated facilities is required by federal anti-discrimination law. “Transgender students are a…
Read MoreGOP Leaders Make Jeremy Durham Top Legislative Priority
House Speaker Beth Harwell wants to expel embattled Rep. Jeremy Durham from the Tennessee House of Representatives if he chooses not to resign. Although the Tennessee Constitution states it would take a two-thirds vote of the House to expel a…
Read MoreEconomy Slows as Recession Nears
The U.S. economy slowed to a crawl in the last three months of 2015, new government data showed Friday, an indication of how tepid global growth is exposing new weaknesses in the nation’s long and sluggish recovery. Gross domestic product,…
Read MoreNashville Launches Revolutionary Effort to Combat Human Trafficking
Nashville has launched a new groundbreaking specialty court specifically for victims of human trafficking. Mayor Megan Barry, Judge Casey Moreland, District Attorney Glenn Funk, Assistant District Attorneys Tammy Meade and Deb Smith, along with representatives from End Slavery Tennessee announced…
Read MoreTN One Step Closer to Education Choices for Parents
An effort to create a school voucher program scraped through the House Finance Committee on Tuesday after a bitter debate, giving the years-long quest to use taxpayer dollars to send students to private schools its best chance ever of becoming…
Read MoreThe Truth About the War in Syria
Turkey made a bad mistake when it shot down the Russian aircraft which had strayed into its airspace for 17 seconds. The operation, conceived to teach Russia not to interfere with the Third Syrian War – designed to create a…
Read MoreGossip Prompts State GOP Leaders to Turn on Fellow Legislator
As two of the highest-ranking Republicans in Tennessee called on embattled Rep. Jeremy Durham to resign from the legislature, the Franklin Republican vowed Monday to remain in his seat and campaign for re-election. The joint announcement from House Speaker Beth…
Read MoreA Complex History of Fur, Women and Commerce in Nashville
The other day on Facebook, one of my friends linked to this entry on Demonbreun’s Cave at Atlas Obscura. The entry is notable for being almost completely wrong. But the parts I wanted to focus on, because I think they’re…
Read MoreAs the GOP Caves, Will Local Conservatives Vote for Donald Trump?
Late Thursday night, National Review, the storied conservative magazine founded by William F. Buckley, published an issue denouncing Donald Trump. “Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor…
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