Tennessee bride rushes into action to save family involved in car crash
After Decades Of Work, Bridgestone Has Finally Made Rubber Tires From Arizona Shrub
Tennessee Bill Seeks to Curtail Teaching of 'Religious Doctrine'
MS congressman promotes Blackburn for speaker
A Mississippi congressman is urging Rep. Marsha Blackburn to run for House speaker, reports The Tennessean, and the Brentwood Republican has not ruled it out.Rep. Steve Palazzo penned an op-ed Friday promoting Blackburn’s conservative credentials.
“From her strong pro-life stance to her fight to protect our Second Amendment right to bear arms, Congressman Blackburn is a proven conservative fighter,” Palazzo wrote.
Blackburn has not dismissed the idea of trying to replace House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, who plans to resign at the end of the month. LINK from Humphrey On The Hill
Tennessee Bill Seeks to Curtail Teaching of 'Religious Doctrine'
A state Republican lawmaker is proposing legislation that would ban teaching Tennessee public school students "religious doctrine" until they're in high school.The Tennessean reports (http://tnne.ws/1LAWIaW) the proposal from Rep. Sheila Butt of Columbia would prohibit the teaching of anything deemed religious doctrine unless the course is taught in 10th, 11th or 12th grade.
The measure comes on the heels of complaints from some parents in several communities as to what their children are learning in middle school about Islam.
"I think that probably the teaching that is going on right now in seventh, eighth grade is not age appropriate," Butt said. "They are not able to discern a lot of times whether its indoctrination or whether they're learning about what a religion teaches."
Parents in Williamson County, Maury County and several other areas have complained about information contained in courses related to world history. Some, like U.S. Rep Diane Black, R-Tenn., argue the teachings border on indoctrination.
Tennessee education officials and teachers recently argued courses were appropriate and based on secular fact during a discussion of the curriculum with The Tennessean. They acknowledged students might learn the Five Pillars of Islam or read from religious texts, but that information is used to provide historical context about the influence the religion had on regions of the world.
"The reality is the Muslim world brought us algebra, 'One Thousand and One Nights,' and some can argue it helped bring about the Renaissance," Metro Nashville Public Schools social studies teacher Kyle Alexanderrecently told The Tennessean. "There is a lot of influence that that part of the world had on world history." LINK from AP
Tennessee bride rushes into action to save family involved in car crash
After saying “I Do,” a bride rushed to help her grandparents and father, who got into a car accident while they were on the way to her wedding reception.Sarah Ray and her husband, Paul, received a call that her grandparents and father’s car was hit by a driver who ran a red light, according to FOX8. They were two miles away from the church. Ray and her husband are both paramedics.
After hearing the news, Ray’s instincts kicked in and she ran to the scene, still wearing her wedding dress, to help her family. Nobody was hurt, but Ray’s grandmother was taken to the hospital for an evaluation. LINK
Muslim advocacy group says lawmaker 'Islamophobe', blasts bill
The nation's largest Muslim advocacy organization is calling on Tennesseans to oppose a bill on "religious doctrine" from Rep. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia.The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) believes Butt introduced the bill, one that would prevent teaching of "religious doctrine" in Tennessee schools until at least 10th grade, out of fear and bigotry.
"Islamophobes like Rep. Butt fail to recognize that there is a big difference between teaching students about religion as an important part of world history and promoting particular religious beliefs," CAIR Government Affairs Manager Robert McCaw said in a prepared statement.
"The education of children in Tennessee should not be delayed because of anti-Muslim bigotry." LINK from Tennessean
After Decades Of Work, Bridgestone Has Finally Made Rubber Tires From Arizona Shrub
Nashville-based Bridgestone Americas is a step closer to having vehicles rolling on domestically-produced natural rubber. The company is cultivating its own alternative to the rubber tree: a desert shrub found in the American Southwest.The humble guayule plant — pronounced why-YOO-lee — looks a bit like sagebrush or tumbleweed, and the foliage has to be processed to extract the rubber ingredients. By comparison, rubber trees are simply tapped, similar to the process of harvesting maple syrup.
Research on the guayule plant’s rubber properties has been going on for decades. But tire companies have an incentive to put in the extra work: They don't want to depend solely on a plant that grows in Southeast Asia, says Bill Niaura, director of new business development for Bridgestone.
“Conceptually, it makes sense to diversify our supply base for natural rubber,” Niaura says.
In 2013, the Japanese company — which has its U.S. headquarters and several tire plants in Tennessee — started planting its own supply of guayule on 281 acres in Eloy, Ariz., where the plant grows wild. Now the company has built the first functional tires from that rubber. One of its competitor, Cooper Tire, is also working on guayule rubber.
It will still take a decade or more before mass production begins, Niaura says.
“Realistically, we’ve always talked about sometime in the 2020s because the challenge is really that large," he says. "It’s akin to building a new industry in the U.S. There is no domestic natural rubber industry.” LINK from WPLN
Tennessee’s meth problem: The war wages on
Methamphetamine abuse continues to persist as one of the biggest obstacles facing Tennessee. Through September 2014, Tennessee law enforcement agencies seized 813 meth labs in the Volunteer State — the second-highest incidence in the nation.Nearly all of us — directly or indirectly — have been witness to the cost, risk and damage associated with illegal meth production and use.
A continued effort to combat the plague of meth production and abuse is essential. While we applaud the hardworking members of our law enforcement and community who have worked tirelessly to bring these numbers down, there is still more that can and must be done for our communities.
Curbing the drug problem could mean regulating or restricting patient access to cold and sinus medications that contain pseudoephedrine (PSE), the choice ingredient for at-home meth cooks.
Without it meth would be virtually impossible to make in clandestine labs such as the ones often found in homes and discarded vehicles and sheds throughout much of rural America.
However, there is a solution that ensures that those who need cold and flu medicines can retain access to the products they need while stopping bad actors in their tracks: meth-resistant pseudoephedrine technologies. LINK from Tennessean
Crockett Policy Institute
http://www.crockettpolicy.org/
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