NoView News

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor In the 1970’s, state universities across the country utilized various affirmative action policies when dealing with admissions on the undergraduate, and post-grad level.  A mandated effort to increase participation of non-whites in higher education.  A worthy goal.  Often students with lower SAT/MCAT/LSAT scores, and grades, were admitted to schools over those with better criteria.  This increased minority participation, but fell short of traditional merit-based criteria.  In 1974, Allan Bakke, a white student, applied to the University of California/Davis Medical School.  He was denied.  He brought suit charging that due to minority quotas his application had been passed over.  He sued the California Board of Regents in a case that worked its way through the court system, and ending up in the United States Supreme Court where he was ordered enrolled.  It was a landmark case that spotlighted admiss...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor The American West is a beautiful land of stark contrast.  Of mesas, plateaus, valleys, and flatlands.  It is also a region of divisions when it comes to land.  Federal vs. private mainly.  It is a bitter feud that gets hot from time to time.  Ranchers squaring off against a bevy of D.C.- based administrations and agencies over environmental, conservation, or endangered species concerns.  Want to get on a rancher’s bad side?  Ask his/her opinion on whether wolves require federal protections. The politics of water is not immune to contention.  Water in the ground can be either publicly, or privately owned.  Water owned by the state is publicly made available in set quantities, and metered accordingly.  Communal water for irrigation, crop production, home use, is captured by methods such as damming and charged to consumers by taxation, or other usage fees. A law that looms large in the West is ...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor Congress is in recess, but the work of a House, Senate office continues.  Much of it not having to do with the pure politics of the workday.  Constituent services are an important part of an elected official’s duties.  Well, at least his/her staff.  Interns, and legislative correspondents, handle the front office duties.  Upbeat, positive usually, the fresh faced young staffers are the first you encounter whether calling, or walking in.  It is not unusual for them to bear the brunt of constituents, and others, calling in to vent about one topic, or another.  They endure profanity laced tirades until they choose to not.  Some of the callers have ideas.  This columnist recalls being in then Senator Al Gore’s (D-TN) office in 1991, and hearing a well-intentioned person’s idea of covering the United States with a dome for environmental reasons.  They will take notes on calls, and make them availab...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor “The Independent Women’s Forum’s mission is to improve the lives of Americans by increasing the number of women who value free markets and personal liberty.”  This is the mission statement of the IWF.  They also say they are a non-partisan research, and educational institution.  However true that may be there is a rightward tilt.  The East Wing of Washington’s showplace Union Station is decked out for a formal affair.  The kiosks of the day are removed in favor of round tables of ten most of which have been paid for by respective interest groups.  Tonight, Kellyanne Conway will be receiving an award.  The Speaker of the House will address the room, and he will receive more than a few audible boos possibly from a more liberal sector, or the more numerous libertarian participants.  Most of the attendees will admit to supporting a limited constitutional government. The rightward tilt is noticeable on the ...

By: Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor In 1975 the Cold War was on, and many thought the West was not doing so well.  A series of agreements between the Soviet Union, and the United States, had led skeptics particularly on the Right to cry appeasement.  This with the White House in Republican control since 1969.  Primarily, among these agreements the “Helsinki Accords” was most prominent.  It was an eye-roller for many.  In Helsinki, to sign the accords was President Gerald Ford.  Of the agreement he said, “History will judge this Conference not by what we say here today, but by what we do tomorrow – not only by the promises we make, but the promises we keep.”  From this the “Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe,” was formed. It was an independent agency of the U.S. Government that monitored compliance by the thirty-five nations who signed on the dotted line.  Name changes, and responsibilities changed as the end of the Cold War, and est...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor The Mayor of the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, said of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia; “Pope Francis needs to come in here, and kick a little ass.”  He went on, “all they care about is prestige and money.”  He was referring to the firing by the Philadelphia archdiocese of a popular teacher at Waldron Academy, one of their schools, after coming out as gay.  James F. Kenney is no wallflower.  He is the opinionated, burly, red-faced, Irish Catholic mayor of this nation’s sixth largest city.  That after Phoenix, Arizona leap-frogged over a bunch.  He suffers no fool gladly.  This guy is intense.  He recently took down a minor local radio talk show host by intimating he would solve their differences “the old-fashioned way, but, I can’t do that since I’m a public figure.”  This is a guy who also called Governor Chris Christie a “bully,” and a “loser,” after the New Jersey governor, a noted Dall...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor Derrick Dawdy said “this is the big one.”  Dawdy, a combat veteran from early in the Iraqi War suffers from unresolved grief, and loss of his fellow combatants.  Others are affected from post-traumatic stress syndrome, (PTSD).  He is part of “Operation Freedom Bird,” an Arizona group that has selected fifty veterans currently in treatment to participate in a four day journey to the capital area.  This trip gives them the opportunity to share experiences, pay tribute to fallen comrades-in-arms in a supportive environment of fellow veterans, and concerned counselors.  Dawdy is headed on a tram with the other forty-nine to the areas where his buddies now rest.  It is going to be an important moment for him.  Such a moment he, and his counselor hope, will be an opportunity to finally close the door of grief, and the guilt of surviving, and go on to live in peace. Every one of these combat veterans has a story....

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor Abigail Robertson is a correspondent for CBN News.  The Virginia Beach based Christian Broadcasting Network.  She never saw herself being on-camera, and feels she, as she puts it, “was called by God to be here.” That is probably a unique take amongst the journalistic class.  She is a 2012 graduate of the University of Virginia, and is the granddaughter of CBN founder Pat Robertson.  She was a producer on the long running “700 Club” telecast seen daily, and today in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building, is doing a stand-up in support of her story.  It is her 100th on CBN News.  This morning her assignment editor in the Virginia Beach newsroom asked her to do a piece on the Republican tax bill.  Of course, it being CBN, the viewers want a specific focus.  As veteran journalist/anchor Rita Cosby told NoViewNews.com earlier, “it’s not a bad thing for viewers to want to get their news from sources...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor They have a budget of $236.000,000.  They feel underfunded.  They want $250,000,000 to fund their program.  That extra $14,000,000 will make the difference they believe.  A quarter billion of our money.  Who are they?  The advocates of the Fulbright Scholarship Program.  Founded by Senator William Fulbright (D-AR), in 1946, it is a competitive merit-based grants program for the international educational exchange of students, scholars, teachers, professionals, scientists, and artists.  Essentially American citizens can compete for grants to go abroad, and international students compete to conduct their studies here.  Senator Fulbright started the program that bears his name to promote better mutual understanding on the heels of World War II.  It has grown extensively since then.  When you hear of someone being a “Fulbright Scholar,” congratulate them, and take pride in having paid for thei...

B y:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor Ed Markey is mad.  Actually, a little more than that.  He is furious that the Republicans have all but banned Democrats in the consideration of the new tax bill championed by the administration, and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.  There was a noticeable lack of realism from the junior senator from Massachusetts when confronted with the fact that the Health Care bill from the Obama Administration eight years ago was the exact political reverse.  NoViewNews.com literally caught up with Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) as he was walking from his office to an appointment in the bowels of the Russell Senate Office Building.  We shared an elevator. In a talk and walk interview Markey bemoaned the tone on Capitol Hill.  “It’s regrettable, it doesn’t serve our democracy well.”  This jibes with previous interviews on NoViewNews.com with former House leaders.  It is the way it is now.  The party in power in ...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Man aging Editor “Fourteen opioid meds were prescribed when an Advil would do.”  A friend of Senator Rob Portman, (R-OH), had gone to the dentist.  A wisdom tooth extraction.  The area was properly numbed, a clean removal, no complications.  Yet, the prescription.  The pharmaceutical industry has been on a tear promoting pain meds over the last twenty years.  For Senator Portman, he says, “we didn’t see this coming.”  By the late 1990’s education, control, and awareness had brought the cocaine epidemic somewhat under control in this country.  Yet a silent epidemic was incubating; OxyContin at first.   Portman says there are many towns in Ohio where fire department runs in response to synthetic heroin overdoses outnumber actual fires.  Regularly.  For the Ohio Republican the top three objectives are more funding, passing legislation that is just waiting for action, like the Prescription Drug Monitori...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor There is always that moment.  There may have been several moments before, but for one who is addicted to, or an abuser of, a substance one stands out.  For 38 year old, six-term Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), it was May 4, 2006, at 2:45am.  Disoriented from prescription medications Ambien and Phenergan Kennedy crashed through a capitol grounds barricade, and was apprehended by U.S. Capitol Police.  He stated to the officers he was late for a vote.  A vote that happened six hours prior.  The next day he admitted he had an addiction to prescription medications and announced he would be admitting himself to a drug rehabilitation facility at the Mayo Clinic. Flash forward to today.  The retired Rhode Island Democrat strode into the Kennedy Caucus Room, took the podium, and announced a panel of three senators, and a moderator talking of the opioid epidemic ravaging the nation.  The room itself has a con...

By:  Kevin Trainor/Managing Editor Teruko Wada was leading an impressive looking delegation of Japanese business leaders through the halls of a senate office building.  Impressive in their singularity of appearance.  Twelve to fourteen representatives of various manufacturing firms, and industry consultants, going door-to-door from one senator’s office to another.  Like an economic trick-or-treat on the day before Halloween.  This was not a political pilgrimage.  It was about business.  Money.  Participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, (TPP), by the United States had been cancelled in the very early days of the Trump Administration. It was cited as being a threat to American jobs as it would serve as a lure for U.S. firms to jump overseas for cheaper operation costs.  This, the opinion of those against it.  This argument would carry the day.  It was an agreement the U.S. had signed on to during the Obama Administration’...