Scripps Howard News Service Political Coordinator
Bartholomew Sullivan, a native of St. Louis, Mo., has been with The Commercial Appeal for 19 years, including the past eight as its Washington correspondent with the Scripps Howard News Service. A political science graduate of Santa Clara University, in California, he began his professional newspaper career in 1982 with dailies in Pennsylvania and, in 1984, at The Palm Beach Post in Florida. In October 1992, he joined The Commercial Appeal as a regional reporter, ranging for ten years over the mainly rural, tri-state Mid-South, covering murder and mayhem on deadline. He covered both Republican and Democratic national conventions in 2004 and 2008 and is the coordinator of political coverage for SHNS this year. A member of the White House Correspondents Association, Sullivan is responsible for Scripps Howard’s monthly White House pool duty. Married to a high school English teacher, he has two daughters in college. He lives in Virginia.
The latest Truth-O-Meter items from Bartholomew Sullivan
Says George Flinn has been a "no show" at scheduled "forums."
A proposed U.S. Labor Department rule for children working on farms "would even ban youth from operating a battery-powered screwdriver or a pressurized garden hose."
"This rule could prevent children under 18 from using such tools as a power screwdriver, a milking machine or something as simple as a wheelbarrow on the family farm . . . "
Says President Obama and his allies in Congress gave "power" to control Medicare patients’ health care decisions to "a commission of 15 unelected bureaucrats in Washington."
Says that Rick Santorum "voted for the unions over FedEx."
"Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican."
U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher is "the only working farmer currently serving in the House."
New energy standards will take away "our freedom of choice and selection in the light bulbs we have in our homes."
Recent stories from Bartholomew Sullivan
Does the EPA really want to regulate farm dust?U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher, a farmer in rural Crockett County, continues to sound warnings about the possibility of the Environmental Protection Agency focusing on regulation of "farm dust." He did so most recently at a forum in Dyersburg, so we decided to look into Fincher's specific claims and determine if the EPA really was concerned about dust kicked up at rural farms.
Rhetoric rises over payment advisory boardWhen Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted March 22 to eliminate a a Medicare payment advisory board – a vote the Associated Press noted was really just "symbolic" – the rhetoric was flying. Some representatives went a good deal farther than Tennessee’s own Marsha Blackburn, who nonetheless floated a statement about the Independent Payments Advisory Board taking "control" of health care decisions away from patients – and that we’ve ruled False. Most news organizations wrote something similar to the AP about the vote – the Republiucans actually want the IPAB around as an issue through the November elections. It’s worth taking a closer look at the various statements that have been made and consider the actual statutory power IPAB does or does not have.
Super Tuesday preview: GOP claims you may have heard, may hear againWith the GOP presidential primary just more than a week away, we know some Tennesseans may be just tuning in. Others may have already heard it all before. But which claims are true? Which are the most misleading? With help from our partners, PolitiFact Tennessee presents a preview of GOP talking points that may proliferate in the run up to the March 6 primary.
Bergmann attacks EPA, says it arrests for infractions that make "no sense"Count Memphis's perennial 9th Congressional District Republican candidate, Charlotte Bergmann, among those Republicans targeting the Environmental Protection Agency for overreach in how it enforces of the nation's laws aimed at protecting the environment. A statement on her website claims the EPA has been making arrests and cosing small businesses over what she characterizes as nonsense enforcement "to anyone but the EPA." We thought we would take a closer look.
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