‘Chairgate’ standoff about to be settled
The Hamilton County Commission may finally settle “Chairgate” this week.
Commissioners on Wednesday will vote on a resolution to buy chairs for the county’s Criminal and Sessions courtrooms to the tune of $81,000.
The purchase will settle an eight-month-long furniture affray between the county general government and Commissioner Joe Graham.
In October, Graham and others balked at a resolution to purchase chairs in one court for $86,000.
Since then, some bid restrictions were removed, and the project was rebid. This time the bids included chairs for both courts.
Graham said Wednesday he was “very proud” that taxpayers will save $5,000.
Hamilton County Democrats elect officers
Hamilton County Democrats unanimously re-elected Chairman Terry Lee and Treasurer Joe Boshears to new, two-year terms Saturday at the party’s biennial reorganization convention.
More than 100 Democrats participated in the convention at the IBEW Local 175 office, according to a news release. They selected Demetrus Coonrod to serve as vice chairman and Ashley Collins as secretary to replace, respectively, Jaqueline McDowell and Annie Hall, who did not seek re-election.
“With an influx of board and executive committee members under the age of 40, we are gaining the energy and expertise of a new generation as we build for the future,” Lee said.
AFP airs new ads against Insure Tennessee
Conservative group Americans for Prosperity Tennessee is re-launching a radio ad campaign opposing Insure Tennessee, Gov. Bill Haslam’s proposal to expand the state’s Medicaid program to insure some 280,000 low-income residents.
In a news release the Koch brothers-affiliated AFP claimed its earlier ad campaign helped kill the proposal during a February special session of the General Assembly. However, the bill has been revived and is up for a vote in Senate Commerce on Tuesday.
“Advocates are back again, so Americans for Prosperity Tennessee will once again inform taxpayers in Tennessee of the real costs of this legislation,” AFP state director Andrew Ogles said in the release.
Haslam insists his market-based plan, which would use federal money to buy health insurance, is not “Obamacare,” the GOP-loathed Affordable Care Act.
The AFP says otherwise.
“It is authorized by the Obamacare legislation, funded through Obamacare, must be approved by the Obama Administration and terminating it must be approved by the Obama Administration, yet the advocates persist in denying that it is what it is.”
Deadly hot air
@TNReport tweet last week: shot of TN Whiskey whenever #TNLeg member says support/opposition to bill a matter of “common sense”
And the reply: You’d die.
Corker: Iran reviewbill will pass
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said on CNN Friday that he expects the Senate to pass his legislation requiring congressional review of any comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran before the president can waive or suspend sanctions imposed by Congress.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on the bill April 14. Corker is committee chairman.
“[W]e want a good deal negotiated,” Corker told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “But before [the Obama administration] starts unraveling the [sanctions on Iran] that Congress put in place, we want to make sure that they show us the deal.”
Corker also said the Obama administration’s approach to the Middle East is causing turmoil in the region as U.S. allies, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, are forced to respond to growing Iranian influence.
“… They are obviously moving away from Israel toward a relationship with Iran. And it is very apparent to me what [the Obama administration is] trying to achieve is a balance of power between the Shia sides and the more Sunni-oriented sides … to extract themselves out of the Middle East. The missing component here is that Iran has not changed its behavior.”