Stewart Parks, former Republican candidate for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District and January 6 defendant who was recently sentenced to eight months in prison, sat down with the Editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star Michael Patrick Leahy in the latest episode of the Tennessee Star Extra.
Read the full storyDay: November 22, 2023
FBI Asks Judge to Block Discovery in Tennessee Star’s Lawsuit Seeking Covenant Killer Records
Earlier this month, attorneys for Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Star and The Star News Network, filed a motion after the leak of three pages of Covenant Presbyterian School mass murderer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s writings. The motion asserts the leak proves, “assuming the three pages’ authenticity,” that the FBI “could have selectively released” redacted portions of the manifesto without jeopardizing ongoing investigations.
The FBI has yet to confirm the authenticity of the manifesto pages shared online, but the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has confirmed they are Hale’s writings. Prior to that admission, The Star was among the first outlets to independently verify the pages were part of Hale’s manifesto.
Read the full storyGov. Lee Will Not Ask Tennessee Lawmakers to Pass Red Flag Law in 2024
Governor Bill Lee (R) confirmed to reporters on Monday that he does not intend to ask the Tennessee General Assembly to pass red flag legislation during the upcoming legislative session, effectively abandoning the push he began in April.
Lee told reporters he would not ask legislators to pass a bill he previously proposed that would allow for judges to sign orders for authorities to confiscate the firearms of a person deemed to be at risk, otherwise known as a red flag law.
Read the full storyNew York Vehicle Explosion at Rainbow Bridge Border Crossing, Two Dead: Sources
Fox News The FBI is investigating a vehicle explosion that occurred Wednesday at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing between the U.S. and Canada. The vehicle was heading from the U.S. to Canada and was going in the direction of the border officer building, sources told Fox News’ Alexis McAdams. All bridges were closed in the area, and all government buildings were evacuated, according to sources. Sources tell Fox News’ Alexis McAdams that the incident was being treated as a possible attack. READ THE FULL STORY
Read the full storyVehicle Explodes at Niagara Falls Bridge Connecting U.S. and Canada, FBI Says
A vehicle exploded Wednesday, causing the Rainbow Bridge connecting the United States and Canada near Niagara Falls to close, the FBI said.
The FBI said it is investigating the explosion and that the “situation is very fluid.”
Read the full storyNashville Mayor O’Connell Releases Policy Proposals from Transition Committees, Including East Bank Funding
Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell released three policy proposals from his transition committees on Tuesday, more than two months after he assumed office.
O’Connell released documents provided by three transition committees he created to examine how his government can serve residents of Nashville, better its infrastructure system, and encourage economic and population growth in the city.
Read the full storyMost Voters Think Joe Biden Participated in Hunter Biden’s Business Dealings: Poll
Most registered voters say they think that President Joe Biden participated in the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, according to a survey that comes as House Republicans continue their impeachment inquiry into allegations that the current president abused his office to benefit his family.
While 40% of voters say that Joe Biden did not participate in his son’s business dealings, 60% say that he did, according to a survey released Monday by Harvard CAPS / Harris poll.
Read the full storyMemphis ‘Voices for Palestine’ Demands Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen Call for a Ceasefire Between Israeli and Hamas Forces
Memphis Voices for Palestine will hold a rally on Wednesday as part of an effort demanding Tennessee U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) call for a ceasefire between Israeli and Hamas forces as well as vote against any legislation funding or arming Israel.
Read the full storyLiberal ‘Dark Money’ Groups Gave Millions to SCOTUS Watchdogs Targeting Alito, Thomas, Docs Show
Nonprofit organizations managed by the liberal “dark money” consulting firm Arabella Advisors gave millions of dollars to “nonpartisan” Supreme Court watchdogs, new documents show, after a campaign was launched earlier this year targeting conservative Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito for not fully disclosing their finances.
Former Clinton appointee Eric Kessler founded Arabella Advisors in 2005, and its subsidiaries include the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the Hopewell Fund, the New Venture Fund, the Windward Fund and the North Fund.
Read the full story‘Known Street Racer’ Arrested After Meetup Causes $100,000 in Damages
A street racer has been arrested after a meetup that he allegedly organized caused more than $100,000 in damage to a Nashville street.
“A known street racer has been charged with felony vandalism after allegedly facilitating an unsanctioned meetup earlier this year on Airpark Center Drive East that caused more than $100,000 in damages,” the city of Nashville said in a press release. “Austin Scott, 25, of Murfreesboro was arrested by [Tennessee Highway Patrol] in Rutherford County on the outstanding warrant after being identified as a suspected lead organizer for Night Riderz.”
Read the full storyTennessee Law Enforcement to Increase Patrols on Interstates this Holiday Weekend
This week, the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDSOHS), Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), and Tennessee Highway Safety Office joined multiple law enforcement partners in announcing the Tennessee Interstate Challenge traffic safety initiative for this year’s Thanksgiving holiday travel period.
Read the full storyU.S. Backing New Plan to Cripple Coal Industry at UN Climate Conference
The Biden administration is set to back a plan that would crush the coal industry at the upcoming United Nations (UN) climate summit, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The U.S. will reportedly support a French plan to get the countries of the world to ban private financing of coal-fired power plants during the upcoming UN conference, known as COP28, according to Reuters. The plan is likely to drive a rift between countries like the U.S. and France and those like China and India, which are reliant on coal to feed their economies cheap and reliable electricity.
Read the full storyTrump Widens Lead over Biden in New 2024 Poll
Former President Donald Trump has widened his lead over President Joe Biden by 5 points for a 2024 head-to-head matchup, according to a Tuesday poll.
Trump is beating Biden 47% to 40% among registered voters, with 13% remaining undecided, according to a Messenger/HarrisX poll. The former president’s margin of victory grew from his 2-point lead reflected in a previous Messenger/HarrisX survey released on Nov. 1, when 12% of registered voters were not sure of their choice.
Read the full storyFederal Appeals Court Ruling Could Gut Voting Rights Act
A crucial decision by a federal appeals court on Monday could lead to the Voting Rights Act (VRA) losing much of its strength as a law, should the decision be upheld by the Supreme Court.
Politico reports that the ruling by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that only the federal government is allowed to sue under a key section of the civil rights law, not private citizens or civil rights groups, which had used the law to do so in the past.
Read the full storyChattanooga Trucking Companies Forced to Pay Fine for Asking Immigrant Applicants to Prove Legal Status
A Chattanooga trucking company will be forced to pay the federal government $700,000 for what the government says were discriminatory hiring practices.
“The Justice Department announced today that it has secured a $700,000 agreement with Covenant Transport Inc. (Covenant), as well as the affiliated entity Transport Management Services LLC (Transport), two transportation logistics and long-haul trucking companies headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee,” said a press release from the Department of Justice. “The agreement resolves the department’s determination that the company violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) by routinely discriminating against non-U.S. citizen workers when checking their permission to work in the United States.”
Read the full storyCommentary: Supporting Censorship Will Backfire on the Right
Free speech has long been one of the most sacred American values. Until recently, commitment to free speech in general was bipartisan and widespread. Almost every American from every political persuasion valued free speech.
There used to be some debate on the margins. Conservatives were wary of extending free speech protection to corrosive things like pornography, and liberals were wary of official speech endorsing religion. But, as recently as the 1990s, neither side believed its opponent should be censored, and the idea of exempting “hate speech” from the normal rule against censorship did not have much traction.
Read the full storyYoungkinWatch: Governor Declares Virginia Must ‘Get Revenue Sorted’ Before Possible Tax Cut
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) reportedly told reporters that Virginia needs to “get revenue sorted” before he can determine whether to move forward on his 2022 proposal to cut state taxes by $1 billion.
Youngkin spent nearly three hours speaking with the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates on Monday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, and came away from the meeting with uncertain remarks about tax cuts amid claims the state will suffer a $1.3 billion shortfall in its next budget.
Read the full storyPennsylvania Property Owners May Soon Pay Blight Fines
Owners of vacant and blighted properties in Pennsylvania may soon have to pay annual fees that get more expensive with each passing year.
Where those fines will get levied, though, would depend on what local governments decide to do.
Read the full storySen. Steve Daines Calls Kari Lake ‘One of the Most Talented Politicians’ Running in 2024, Predicts ‘She Will Be the Nominee’
Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) described former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake as one of the “most talented politicians” running in the Republican Party in an interview on Tuesday. He added that he considers her the inevitable Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Arizona, and predicted she will win the general election if she continues to successfully court independent voters.
“She’s one of the most talented politicians we have running in the 2024 cycle,” Daines told The Daily Mail while speaking in his capacity as the chairman of the influential National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). The outlet reported that Daines stressed Lake “will be the nominee,” and said the Republicans have become “friends.”
Read the full storyCornel West Targets Minority Voters in Michigan
Independent presidential candidate Cornel West is targeting minority voters in Michigan for 2024, a crucial voting bloc for Democrats that President Joe Biden has lost support with, Politico reported Tuesday.
West’s campaign is setting up a ground game operation to be deployed in the diverse battleground state early next year where the candidate will seek support from “environmental justice advocates,” the indigenous population, black voters, college students and Arab Americans, according to Politico. The move comes as Biden is losing support from minority voters, as well as Muslims in the swing state following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack, providing a potential opening for West to shore up support among the key groups.
Read the full storyGeorgia Judge Refuses to Revoke Bail for Trump Co-Defendant, but Bans Him from Talking About Trump, Witnesses
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee refused to revoke the bail of former Black Voices for Trump director Harrison Floyd in a Tuesday hearing, and instead adopted a modified bond order submitted by District Attorney Fani Willis in court. Floyd is a co-defendant in Willis’ racketeering case against former President Donald Trump.
Willis asked McAfee to revoke Floyd’s bond in a filing last week, citing Floyd’s posts to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Floyd made posts referencing former Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and tagging other defendants, including former attorney Jenna Ellis, who accepted a plea deal from Willis in October and publicly apologized to Georgia for participating in Trump’s contest of the 2020 election.
Read the full storySponsors in These 29 Florida Counties Received over 10,000 Unaccompanied Minors
In the past fiscal year, Florida received 10,542 unaccompanied children (UACs) from the border, many of whom were brought into the country illegally, according to data published by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, tasked with oversight of and caring for the children.
Florida received the third greatest number behind Texas and California as it has almost every year. UAC data has been reported since fiscal 2015.
Read the full storyOhio Unemployment Rate Rises in October
Despite remaining below the national average, Ohio’s job market dipped in October.
According to figures released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the state’s unemployment average increased from 3.4% to 3.6%, while the labor force participation rate fell from 62.1% to 62%.
Read the full storyArizona Chapter of Volunteers for Israel Seeks Volunteers in Israel’s War Against Hamas
Volunteers for Israel’s (VFI) Arizona chapter is seeking volunteers to work in a non-military capacity on Israeli Defense Forces bases, assisting in various support services.
“When you are actually here, it’s the most unique experience. It’s the only organization that has civilians coming to help on a base to assist doing things like packing food kits and medical supplies or cleaning helmets,” said Mindy Franklin, VFI southwest regional manager.
Read the full storyCommentary: John F. Kennedy – A Remembrance
Sixty autumns have passed since the assassination of John F. Kennedy that Friday, Nov. 22, a day that traumatized a generation of children and revealed the impermanence of their innocence. For many, it was their first rendezvous with death. It endured as a vivid remembrance even as other memories lapsed with the passage of age. Many of those children are now grandparents, having lived past the average American life expectancy in 1963. Others, like my father, are not here for the somber milestone. But until his own twilight, my father – like any Irish-Catholic child of that period – remained haunted by that afternoon, transfixed by what Kennedy meant at that time, and committed to imparting those reminiscences unto his three sons.
Read the full storyCommentary: Elon Musk Is Going ‘Thermonuclear’
Elon Musk is going “thermonuclear.”
No, this has nothing to do with SpaceX or any of his other wild technology projects – but it’s how Musk described the lawsuit he was filing against Media Matters for America this week. The lawsuit is in response to a Media Matters report last week that X, the Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, was placing ads for major brands such as Apple and IBM next to “pro-Nazi content.” After some prodding from Media Matters, within a day of their report, a slew of major corporations, such as IBM, Disney, Comcast, Sony, NBC, and Warner Brothers, announced they were pulling ads from X.
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