Recent editorials from Tennessee newspapers:
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May 2
The Commercial Appeal on an anti-sanctuary bill:
When will the Tennessee General Assembly stop punishing Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville or any other city in Tennessee that isn’t more like the Tennessee General Assembly?
Before its 2018 session mercifully ended last week, and in yet another act of anti-local defiance, the state’s rural-dominated legislature passed a bill that forbids so-called “sanctuary cities.”
The legislation requires local law enforcement officials to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests to hold immigrants who entered the country illegally. State funding would be withheld from any governments that don’t comply.
Gov. Bill Haslam should veto the bill - as the Shelby County Commission recommended Monday in a resolution sponsored by Germantown Republican Mark Billingsley.
This legislation - the resolution rightly claims - creates an “underclass” without “open access to police protection.” It adds to the physical and financial burdens of local law enforcement agencies. It “invites racial profiling by law enforcement.”
It also attempts to give the Republican-dominated legislature more control over Democrat-dominated cities like Memphis and Nashville.
The passage of the anti-sanctuary bill is part of a familiar pattern in Tennessee.
Any municipality that isn’t sufficiently pro-gun, not eager to honor Confederate heroes and not pointedly anti-immigrant is asking for retribution from the General Assembly.
Thinking about banning guns in your city parks? Not while the National Rifle Association is calling the shots in Nashville. In 2015, the legislature nixed any local bans on people with handgun permits taking their guns into parks.
Planning to get rid of monuments that honor secessionists and slave traders? Not while the old Confederacy still has a foothold in small-town court squares.
When Memphis legally sold two public parks in December to a nonprofit, which removed statues of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the legislature struck back.
First, legislators voted to withhold a $250,000 grant that had been earmarked to help Memphis celebrate its bicentennial in 2019. Then they voted to make it illegal to sell or transfer a memorial or public property containing a statue without first obtaining a waiver from the state Historical Commission.
Any “entity, group or individual” with a “real interest in a memorial” - those who are trying to preserve the rightness of the Confederate cause, apparently - could seek an injunction in Davidson County court if they believe a public entity has violated the law.
State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, a Democrat whose district includes portions of Memphis and Bartlett, has clarified his position on this issue: He is not seriously suggesting that Memphis and Nashville should secede from Tennessee.
Of course, that would be one way to get out from under the legislative lash. But he does believe there should be a serious conversation to address the “dysfunctional, if not abusive, relationship (cities have) with the state of Tennessee.”
That conservation should begin with Haslam’s veto of the legislature’s latest anti-local overreach. It should continue in this year’s state election campaigns.
Here’s a question for anyone running for governor of Tennessee or a seat in the legislature: Where do you stand on the notion that local governments that don’t always march in lockstep with the legislature should be punished?
Online: https://www.commercialappeal.com/
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April 26
Crossville Chronicle on actions undertaken by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission:
A series of email exchanges between the Crossville Chronicle and the spokesperson for the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission has left us scratching our heads as we try to understand from where the state agency is coming.
It started with a simple press release from ABC Deputy Chief Law Enforcement Agent John Pallas, announcing the arrest of 17 suspects by ABC law enforcement agents who were conducting a state sting operation targeting online liquor sales.
The press release noted that online ads on Craigslist and other social media outlets were the target of the sting operation, and that agents seized 69 bottles of alcohol that were sold to them on street corners, parking lots and places of business.
We did not know this was becoming an issue and were not aware of online sale of alcohol. It was good to see that the ABC agents were vigilant in protecting the state from being cheated of sales tax and the public’s potential exposure to “unknown health risks.”
“Without proper permits and licenses, unscrupulous sellers may produce fake or otherwise counterfeit products and sell these products to unsuspecting consumers. It is impossible for an alcohol manufacturer to guarantee the integrity of their product if it is sold outside the regulatory framework provided in federal and state law.” The press release also sounded the alarm about underage sales of alcohol via online transactions.
Sounds reasonable, and we wanted to know more about this sting operation. Was anyone from Cumberland County involved in the sting? Any folks with ties to Crossville arrested?
So we asked, and this is the response we received: “We are not releasing the identity of the suspects or any of their personal information. I can provide you with a breakdown of what part of the state the enforcement action took place if that helps.”
Our response was that we were unaware that Tennessee had secret courts and arrests. We recognize state law protects investigative files and we respect that, but if someone is actually arrested and charged, our readers have a right to know who and how and why.
Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, was contacted and her response was what we believed, “If someone has been charged with a crime, the name of that person is a public record.”
We sent a response back stating as much and the response was, “As cases are filed, I am certain that the courts will make information public. Since many of our cases are on-going investigations, we will not be releasing the identity of those charged at this time.”
We cry foul. If the issue is important enough to issue a statewide press release, and person are arrested, then the investigation is complete as far as with these individuals.
Fact is, we don’t even know if the investigation reached into Cumberland County. It appears we won’t know under ABC’s present policy. We do not know if the charges are misdemeanor or felony. With the information we received, we don’t know for sure arrests as a result of online alcoholic beverage sales took place.
Should we ever learn more and should we find out the identity of anyone local involved in the sting operation, we will pass this news on to our readers.
Online: http://www.crossville-chronicle.com/
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April 27
Johnson City Press on the approval of a bill to exhume the bodies of President James K. Polk and his wife:
Shame on the Tennessee Legislature for approving a bill to exhume the bodies of President and Mrs. James K. Polk for the sole purpose of generating tourism revenue.
As per the bill, the bodies would be relocated from the state capital grounds to the yard of a home in Columbia, Tennessee, called the James K. Polk House, though Polk never owned it and lived there but several months.
The 11th U.S. president and former Tennessee governor loved Nashville so much that he specified in his will that he was to be buried there.
And so he was. But 169 years later, under the guise that Polk’s burial place is hidden away in a corner of the state Capitol grounds and a disservice to the president, lawmakers caved to a multiyear effort to move the grave to gin up revenue for the Polk house and museum.
Thing is, Polk’s burial place is not hidden away but would be if it’s moved. Visitors to the state Capitol can hardly miss the monuments to Tennessee’s former governor as well as to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Andrew Jackson. All are within sight of the Capitol building.
President Polk, who spent some number of nights in Kingsport at the Netherland Inn, was born in 1795 in North Carolina and came to Tennessee to study law. He set up a successful practice in Nashville, was elected to the state legislature and then to the U.S. House. A close ally of Andrew Jackson, he left Congress to become Tennessee’s governor from 1839 to 1841, and though a dark horse candidate for president in 1844, won on a compromise.
Polk said he would serve only one term and was true to his word in that respect and others. He is one of the few presidents who during his four years in office met every single major domestic and foreign policy goal set during his campaign. He won the Mexican-American War, giving the nation nearly all of what is now the American Southwest; wrested the Oregon territory from Great Britain; reorganized the U.S. Treasury; oversaw the opening of the U.S. Naval Academy and Smithsonian Institution; and was there for the groundbreaking of the Washington Monument.
Polk died of cholera only several months after leaving office, and due to fear of spreading the disease, was buried in a public cemetery with other victims. But a year later, his widow had him moved to his home in Nashville, about 400 yards from the Capitol building. He and his wife were relocated to the Capitol grounds after a legal fight among heirs after her death in 1893 resulted in the home being torn down.
Nashville is where President Polk wanted to be buried and is where he should remain. It is unconscionable to even consider moving his tomb. The desecration requires the approval of the Tennessee Historical Commission and its executive director, Patrick McIntyre, strongly opposes it. In a scathing letter, McIntyre condemned the effort, saying it would “create a false sense of history.” Also opposing it is the state historian and Polk descendants.
The museum now needs to appeal to the State Capitol Commission which, let us hope, will side with the family, the historical experts, and President Polk himself and leave him in peace.
Online: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/
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