Tennessee Star Newspaper, Latest State, Local, Investigative and Political News and Headlines

November 29, 2025

CIA Cut Deal Bringing ‘Afghan Zero Unit’ Fighters, Including Accused Guardsman Killer to the U.S.

The Afghan national who has been charged with shooting two members of the West Virginia National Guard this week was reportedly a member of the elite Afghan “Zero Unit” forces backed by the CIA — with the U.S. spy agency apparently having...

November 29, 2025

Fiscal Fallout: States Continue to Increase Budgets Despite End of COVID Emergency

States around the country, hooked on billions of federal dollars that flooded in during COVID, don't want the party to end. But the pandemic subsided three years ago and the federal government, which is $38 trillion in debt, is pulling...

November 29, 2025

Tennessee Council Releases Report on How State Should Use AI in Future

Tennessee’s AI Advisory Council Membership Information released a report this week on how the state should use artificial intelligence (AI) in the future. The report, titled “Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council Action Plan,” said it wants Tennessee to be a “national...

November 29, 2025

Commentary: America’s Industrial Backbone

The global landscape is increasingly unpredictable, with economic shocks and security threats emerging suddenly and escalating rapidly. To meet these challenges, the United States must become more resilient and adaptable to ensure we are fully prepared to respond swiftly and...

November 28, 2025

President Trump to Hold Third Tele-Rally with Matt Van Epps One Day Before TN-7 Voters Head to Polls

President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA-04) are expected to join Matt Van Epps for a third tele-rally on Monday, Axios reported on Friday, adding that the president will urge Republicans to vote just one day before Election Day, on December...

November 28, 2025

Elon Musk’s xAI to Build 88 Acre Solar Plant to Help Power Memphis Supercomputer

Elon Musk's xAI is reportedly seeking permission to build an 88-acre solar power plant in Memphis to power the company's supercomputer, Colossus, which runs its artificial intelligence (AI) products, including Grok. The industry website Data Center Dynamics reported on Tuesday that Musk's...

November 28, 2025

Zelensky Says His Top Staffer, Chief Peace-Deal Negotiator, Has Resigned amid Corruption Probe

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, who has also been their country's top negotiator in peace talks with the U.S. and Russia, has resigned, amid a corruption investigation. Yermak resigned after anti-corruption investigators...

November 28, 2025

Trump Vows to ‘Permanently Pause’ Migration from ‘Third World Countries,’ After Guard Shooting

President Donald Trump is vowing to "permanently pause" immigration from "Third World Countries" and is calling for a program of "reverse migration" in the U.S., following the shooting Wednesday of two National Guard members by an alleged Afghan national. He...

November 28, 2025

Commentary: AI’s Effect on News Articles

The line between human and machine authorship is blurring, particularly as it’s become increasingly difficult to tell whether something was written by a person or AI. Now, in what may seem like a tipping point, the digital marketing firm Graphite recently published a...

November 28, 2025

Ohio Church Secures a Win Against ‘Petty Tools of Government’

A church in Bryan, Ohio, recently notched a win that religious liberty advocates believe will set a new precedent after the city attempted to shut down the church using fire codes. Last Friday, Ohio’s Sixth District Court of Appeals reversed an...

November 28, 2025

Pentagon to Cut Ties with ‘Genderless’ Boy Scouts, Leaked Docs Obtained by NPR Show

The Pentagon is severing its ties with Scouting America, formerly the Boy Scouts, over its policy that allowed girls to join the traditionally boy-centered activity, according to documents reviewed by NPR Tuesday. According to an NPR review of leaked documents, a draft...

November 28, 2025

Study Shows Majority of Florida Doctors Oppose Trans Treatment for Minors

While many health care associations support the experimental transgender medical interventions euphemistically described as “gender-affirming care” for minors, most doctors in Florida agree with the public to support laws protecting kids from these “treatments,” a new study finds. “We see that a...

November 28, 2025

DOJ Charges Suspect in National Guard Ambush with First-Degree Murder, After Guard Member Sarah Beckstrom Dies

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro on Friday said the Justice Department has upgraded the charges against the suspect in the ambush of two National Guard members, after one of them could not survive the attack.

November 28, 2025

Commentary: Thanksgiving Is a Time to Thank Struggling American Farmers

As we head to the local grocery store to prepare that Thanksgiving meal, take a moment to reflect on how all the items we will enjoy made it to the shelves. Every Thanksgiving feast starts with the hard work of...

November 28, 2025

Americans Prepare to Spend $1 Trillion This Holiday Shopping Season

More than half of all Americans plan to buy things over the five-day holiday weekend, the beginning of a retail shopping season with consumers projected to spend more than $1 trillion. Some 186.9 million people plan to shop from Thanksgiving...

November 28, 2025

Federal Court Sets Dec 15 as Date to Hear Arguments Regarding California’s New Congressional Maps

A federal court in California has set Dec. 15 as the date to hear arguments about the state's new congressional maps. Voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of the maps, which increases Democrats' advantage in upcoming elections, earlier this month, in...

November 28, 2025

Top Paid Campaign Employees for State Rep. Justin Pearson are the Candidate’s Wife, Aunt

Though he has yet to reach any deadlines for federal filings following his recent entry to the 2026 Democratic primary contest in Tennessee's 9th Congressional District, a review of the Tennessee campaign filings submitted by State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis)...

November 28, 2025

School District’s Secret LGBTQ-Themed Lessons Test SCOTUS Opt-Out Precedent

What's the difference between promoting LGBTQ themes and "mere tolerance" of people who are not heterosexual or do not identify with their sex? A legal battle in Massachusetts could flesh out the Supreme Court's months-old Mahmoud precedent, which required a religiously diverse suburban...

November 27, 2025

Ambush of National Guard Near White House Tied to Bungled Biden Vetting of Afghans

by John Solomon The ambush shooting that critically wounded two National Guard troops patrolling near the White House confirmed the worst fears about President Joe Biden‘s decision to lightly vet Afghan refugees he let into the country after his...

November 27, 2025

CDL Proposals Focus on Safety as American Truckers Lose Jobs, Wages

Rising scrutiny of 194,000 state-issued nondomiciled CDLs to foreign workers with poor English language proficiency reveal two routes to safety. Rule change is one, done by the U.S. Department of Transportation in September and idled by litigation. Congressional action –...