Free Republic

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's signature proposal to create a program that would cover tuition at two-year colleges for any high school graduate is headed to his desk after passing the House on Tuesday. The 87-8 approval comes a day after the Senate approved the legislation 30-1. Called "Tennessee Promise," the legislation is a cornerstone of the Republican governor's "Drive to 55" campaign to improve the state's graduation rates from the current 32 percent to 55 percent by 2025 to help improve overall job qualifications and attract employers to the state. "The governor is grateful for the General...

Today, the Tennessee Senate passed SB2424, a Vermont* style, permit-less open-carry bill. This bill would further restore the basic human right to self-defense in Tennessee. The question is, will the House follow suit? The companion bill, HB2409, if passed, would give Governor Haslam the opportunity to make good on the promise he made in a Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) meeting on October 18, 2010, on Vermont Style Carry.Here is a transcription of part of that meeting:TFA member, If the legislature were to pass a Vermont style carry, and bring it to you, would you sign it? Candidate (Knoxville Mayor) Haslam,...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — Sen. Ted Cruz believes Senate Democrats are the ones who forced Kathleen Sebelius to step down as health and human services secretary.Cruz told NBC News that Democrats are worried that Republicans will take back the Senate because of Obamacare.“Kathleen Sebelius’ resignation is the latest indication of just what a disaster Obamacare is. Obamacare is the most disastrous, the most damaging piece of legislation in modern times,” Cruz told NBC News. “And I believe she resigned because Senate Democrats are scared.”Cruz told Fox News that Senate Democrats “demanded Kathleen Sebelius’ head.”“They are running scared because every one of...

Madoc In AmericaNative American Histories in the USA Is truth stranger than fiction? Of course it is; it always has been One subject that has been debated for the last four hundred years was whether or not a Khumric-Welsh Prince called Madoc discovered America. Queen Elizabeth I was persuaded by her advisors that this was so and the Khumric-Welsh discovery was put forward as somehow giving England a prior claim in the political wrangles over first rights in the New World of the Americas. No one ever thought to investigate the British records. Caradoc of Llancarfan wrote about it circa...

Did the Welsh discover America? 26/8/2002 A team of historians and researchers announced today that Radio Carbon dating evidence, and the discovery of ancient British style artefacts and inscriptions in the American Midwest, provide the strongest indications yet" that British explorers, under the Prince Madoc ap Meurig, arrived in the country during the 6th Century and set up colonies there. Research team members have known the location of burial sites of Madoc's close relatives in Wales for some time, it emerged today; but they have decided to break their self-imposed silence in order that their research be fully known and...

Controversial housing finance reform legislation making its way through the Senate Banking Committee was co-written by a former mortgage trader for Countrywide Financial and Wachovia, two of the subprime mortgage behemoths at the center of the housing market crash in 2007.Michael Bright, the senior financial adviser to Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), worked as a trader and member of the loan-pricing desk at Countrywide Financial from 2002 to 2006, and as a senior trader for Wachovia from 2006 to 2008.Bright joined Corker’s office in 2010, and has been a key figure in crafting the Corker-Warner housing reform bill and the...

A top building trades union is launching a midterm-election assault on House Democrats who oppose construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. A letter distributed Friday by the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) to the districts of 27 House Democrats calls for union members to make sure their representative "feels the power and the fury of LIUNA this November." Their crime: signing a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last month urging him to reject Keystone, which would carry oil sands from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Tennessee Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn will consider running for president in 2016 -- if she sees an opportunity to do so, an aide to the 7th District Republican told RealClearPolitics. Blackburn is scheduled to be one of the speakers at a New Hampshire Republican rally this weekend but was not previously known to be mulling a White House bid. "If there's a door to kick down, she's willing to kick it down," the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. "These are the kinds of events you go to -- test the waters, and see what...

Last month a baby in Tennessee made history: Emilia Maria Jesty was the first child born in the state to have a woman listed on the birth certificate as her "father." The marital status of the baby's parents was the subject of a flurry of court filings up to a few days before her birth. Valeria Tanco and Sophy Jesty were wed in New York, a state that recognizes gay marriage, and moved to Tennessee, which does not. They are among scores of same-sex couples who, working with advocacy groups, have filed lawsuits to expand gay-marriage rights following a major...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The state Senate has passed a bill to allow Tennesseans to openly carry guns without a state-issued permit.

The Chattanooga plant’s February secret-ballot vote to remain non-union was seen as a major triumph for the right-to-work community. But Volkswagen has since been under intense pressure from the company’s highly influential German union IG-METAL to figure out how to void the election result.

After NBC's "Meet The Press" host David Gregory ran an anti-ObamaCare ad targeting Sen. Mark Pryor from Arkansas featuring a couple with a southern accents questioning the confusing nature of the Affordable Care Act, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker objected to Americans for Prosperity using people with southern accents in political ads running in Arkansas: "I think you could find someone who doesn't have a southern accent who is confused by this act," Parker said. "We always seem to find the character who seems a little countrified, who can't just fathom this. You know there there are plenty of smart...

Local physician and owner of Flinn Broadcasting, George Flinn, has pulled a petition to challenge U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander in the coming Republican primary. Flinn joins 11 other candidates who have pulled petitions for the Republican primary, the most known among them is state Rep. Joe Carr. In February, a poll conducted on behalf of Alexander showed the Tennessee senator with a commanding lead over Carr. Flinn, who has served on the Shelby County Commission, lost a previous bid for the 8th District U.S. House seat in 2010. Flinn tried again in 2012, running against incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen, who...

Today in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Joe Carr, candidate for U.S. Senate against incumbent moderate Republican Lamar Alexander, opened his campaign headquarters. I am from east Tennessee, not central Tennessee, and having some other things going on, I missed the first hour; but I arrived just in time to hear the introduction for Congressman Carr and to hear him speak. He did an excellent job, and the crowd was excited and energized. One thing that I found interesting was Mr. Carr’s report about polling that a firm had done. (I think that it is an internal polling firm.) I am not vouching...

The Obama administration now says more than 6 million people have signed up for Obamacare, but critical information is missing, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) told Fox News on Friday. "I think that they are lying to us about who has paid, who has not paid, who is getting subsidies...They don't want to give us the numbers," she said. "The way they are surveying this (web)site -- you know they are trying to cover things up."

Caesars Entertainment announced in a press release Wednesday that it will close Harrah's Tunica on June 2. This is one of three casinos Harrah's operates in Tunica in northern Mississippi. The 1,300 jobs that will be lost makes this one of the biggest layoffs ever in Mississippi, said Richard Bennett, chairman of the House Gaming Committee. The layoffs come at a time when Tunica County had the highest unemployment in state in February at 17.3 percent. Bennett said 75 percent of the jobs are held by Mississippi residents, with the remaining 25 percent of the employees from Tennessee and Arkansas....

It should come as no surprise The New York Times would bury news of a conservative victory over President Obama on page eight. The lead paragraph said it all: Senate Democrats, bowing to united House Republican opposition, dropped reforms of International Monetary Fund governance from a Ukraine aid package on Tuesday. The real question is whether this was merely a moment in time or a seminal shift in how congressional Republicans will approach future showdowns. And to be clear, future showdowns are inevitable if we are to achieve any conservative policy victories. Before going further, it is important to explain...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- People convicted of minor domestic violence offenses can be barred from possessing guns even in states where no proof of physical violence is required to support the domestic violence charge, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The ruling was a victory for the Obama administration, gun control groups and advocates for victims of domestic abusers who say the gun ban is critical in preventing the escalation of domestic violence. The justices unanimously rejected the argument put forth by gun rights groups and a Tennessee man who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic assault against the mother of his child...

Navy football player Will McKamey, who has been hospitalized since collapsing at practice three days ago, has died while in a coma. He was 19. The academy says the freshman running back from Knoxville, Tenn., died at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore on Tuesday with his family by his side.

Judge Joe Brown is now on the other side of the law. The former TV judge was arrested for contempt of court in Memphis, Tenn., according to TMZ. Brown was there to represent someone in a child custody case, but allegedly became enraged after being told they had no record of the case. Brown reportedly became verbally abusive with the judge and ignored his order to quiet down.The TV judge was cited five times for contempt of court and ordered to spend five days in jail.