Day: August 1, 2025

Commentary: Our Children Deserve Better than the Tennessee Fauci, Matt Van Epps, in Congress

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Matt Van Epps

I’m a Republican, wife, and mother who raises her children in Williamson County and I’ve watched with growing concern as our nation and state navigate the aftermath of the COVID-19 era.

Tennesseans endured unprecedented government overreach—lockdowns that crippled small businesses, mask mandates that stifled our children’s smiles, and school closures that robbed our kids of their education and social growth and led to increased rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide.

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Southaven Mayor Confirms Elon Musk’s xAI Expansion to Memphis Suburb

Tom Pappert
Mayor Musselwhite

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) company, xAI, is expanding to a third location in the Memphis Area, as Mayor Darren Musselwhite of Southaven, Mississippi confirmed on Friday that the company has purchased a defunct natural gas power plant to provide energy to the Colossus supercomputer which powers Grok, the company’s AI chat bot. 

The company broke ground on its Memphis operations last year, when it said it would build the world’s largest super computer, and later acquired a second facility to expand its operations.

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Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After Trump Funding Cuts

Daily Caller News Foundation
NPR Headquarters

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced on Friday that it is winding down operations as a result of President Donald Trump’s major funding cuts.

The CPB attributed its closure to the $9 billion rescissions package that passed on July 24, which significantly slashes funding for public broadcasting, including PBS and NPR, which are expected to be largely impacted by CBP’s closure. The majority of staff positions will be eliminated by Sept. 30, and a small transition team will remain through January 2026, CPB announced in a press release.

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Trump Sacks Labor Statistics Employee Responsible for Jobs Numbers

Just the News
Erika McEntarfer

President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he had sacked a Biden-appointed official responsible for compiling monthly jobs statistics, asserting that she had overstated jobs growth under the last president to aid the Harris campaign and that she had wrongly revised his own jobs numbers downwards.

“I was just informed that our Country’s “Jobs Numbers” are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory,” he posted on Truth Social. “This is the same Bureau of Labor Statistics that overstated the Jobs Growth in March 2024 by approximately 818,000 and, then again, right before the 2024 Presidential Election, in August and September, by 112,000. These were Records — No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers.”

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President Trump Releases Updated Tariff Rates on over 70 Countries, Delays Deadline by One Week

Just the News
Donald Trump

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that solidifies the new reciprocal tariff rates for over 70 U.S. trading partners, which were largely expected to go into effect on Friday.

The new tariff rates include the lowered numbers that the United States agreed to in recent trade deals, including the 15% tariffs on imported goods from South Korea and the European Union and the 10% tariffs on the United Kingdom.

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Childhood Vaccination Rates Continue to Drop: CDC Data

Just the News
vaccine child

Childhood vaccination rates are continuing to drop, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the 2024-2025 school year, kindergartners’ vaccination rates in the U.S. decreased for all vaccines from the prior year, ranging from 92.1% for diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine (DTaP) to 92.5% for measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) and polio vaccine, the CDC said Thursday.

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Daily Beast Apologizes, Retracts Article Alleging Jeffrey Epstein Introduced Melania, Donald Trump

Just the News
Melania and Donald

The Daily Beast apologized and retracted an article alleging that deceased financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein introduced then-Melania Knauss to her future husband, Donald Trump.

The article included claims made by author Michael Wolff on “The Daily Beast Podcast” on Saturday that Melania was “very involved” in Trump’s “relationship” with Epstein, The New York Post reported.

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Whistleblower Says Obama-Era Intelligence Ops Demanded Acceptance of Russia Hoax

The Center Square
Obama and Clapper

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has declassified another report implying the Obama administration and intelligence community embarked on a bad-faith mission to link President Donald Trump with 2016 election interference by Russia.

The 19-page document includes incriminating testimony from a whistleblower who served at the National Intelligence Council from 2015 to 2020 as a Deputy National Intelligence Officer.

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All Net Job Growth Going to Native-Born Americans as Foreign-Born Employment Plummets

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Breitbart   President Donald Trump’s economic vision of prioritizing the nation’s native-born workforce over foreign-born workers is continuing to take form, reversing former President Joe Biden’s economy built primarily on migrant labor. Continuing the trend in July, Trump oversaw all net job growth going to native-born Americans while hundreds of thousands of foreign-born workers drop out of the labor market each month — opening many entry-level jobs for America’s working and lower-middle class. “Despite [a] disappointing headline, this jobs report was best [July] ever for employment among native-born Americans, up two million [year to year] and annual growth 2.2 million faster than among foreign-born workers; native-born American employment is now 1.8 million above pre-pandemic level,” Economist E.J. Antoni wrote on X. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Senate Strikes Deal to Approve Funding Bills Ahead of August Recess

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The Hill   Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Friday afternoon that the chamber will be moving forward to pass its first tranche of government funding bills for fiscal 2026. The chamber will vote on three full-year funding plans that cover the departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, legislative branch operations, military construction and rural development.   Senators will first vote on a series of amendments from both sides of the aisle as part of the process, and a final vote is expected Friday night. READ THE FULL STORY                 

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Fed Governor Kugler Resigns, Giving Trump Vacancy

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Axios   Federal Reserve governor Adriana Kugler will resign her job next week, the Fed said in an announcement, giving President Trump an early opportunity to appoint a favored candidate for potential leadership of the central bank. Kugler’s spot was not scheduled to come open until January and there are no other vacancies on the seven-member board. Now Trump will have an opportunity to appoint a governor to pressure Chair Jerome Powell — and potentially succeed him — immediately. READ THE FULL STORY               

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TN-7 Democrat Candidates Taking Aim at GOP Opponent Gino Bulso

Kaitlin Housler
Gino Bulso

State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood), who officially announced his candidacy in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District on Monday, has become a top target for attacks by Democratic candidates in the race.

Bulso, who announced his candidacy for the first time during Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, said State Representatives Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) and Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville), who are both running for the Democratic nomination in the race for the 7th District, have taken steps to target him specifically out of the eight Republican candidates running for the seat.

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Senator Blackburn Files Bill to Ban the National Education Association from Lobbying

Kaitlin Housler
Marsha Blackburn NEA

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced a bill this week seeking to prohibit the National Education Association (NEA) from engaging in any lobbying activities.

The bill, called the Terminating Education Association Congressional Handouts (TEACH) Act, would amend the U.S. Code to add a new section explicitly banning the NEA from participating in lobbying activities.

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Federal Judge Says ‘Not Clear’ Whether Court Has Authority to Silence DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Kilmar Abrego Garcia Case

Tom Pappert
Kristi Noem

U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw on Thursday declared it unclear whether his court has the authority to prohibit Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem from commenting on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who remains jailed in Tennessee while awaiting trial for human smuggling charges, but cautioned attorneys involved with the case to refrain from making statements that could jeopardize the illegal immigrant’s ability to receive a fair trial. 

The Thursday ruling from Crenshaw came after Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys, part of a New York-based law firm that has represented clients ranging from former President Joe Biden to the former advice columnist who twice sued President Donald Trump, asked the judge to restrict Noem and other federal officials from commenting on the case.

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Fired DOJ Attorney Wins Whistleblower Award from Group Tied to His Legal Team

Tom Pappert
DOJ Logo

The Whistleblower Summit and Film Festival on Tuesday awarded a Pillar Award to the attorney, Erez Reuveni, who was fired from his position as a civil litigator for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after he told a federal court judge that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in error.

After being fired, Reuveni filed a whistleblower complaint, claiming he witnessed U.S. Appellate Court Judge Emil Bove discuss plans to disobey multiple court orders. Though the complaint did not stop Bove from being confirmed by the U.S. Senate earlier this week, his attorneys shared that the effort on Tuesday resulted in a Pillar

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State Building Commission Approves Lease to Bore Tunnel for Music City Loop Near Tennessee Capitol

Tom Pappert
TN Capitol

The Tennessee State Building Association on Thursday approved a lease of a government-owned parking lot near the State Capitol to Elon Musk’s Boring Company, which will use the property to develop the tunnel for its Music City Loop, which was unveiled on Monday, and is planned to connect the Nashville International Airport with downtown Nashville.

According to the draft of the lease, the Boring Company will receive a two-year lease on the property for free. During that time, it will be used to launch the drill used to bore the Music City Loop’s tunnel and will then return the parking lot to Tennessee in its original state.

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Penny Schwinn Withdraws from Consideration for Senate Confirmed Education Position After Pressure from Blackburn, Hagerty, Swain, and The Tennessee Star

Tom Pappert
Penny Schwinn

Penny Schwinn on Thursday withdrew from consideration by the U.S. Senate, where she hoped to be confirmed as Deputy Secretary of Education, following pressure from U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), pundits including conservative academic Carol Swain, and The Tennessee Star, which highlighted Schwinn’s performance as Tennessee Education Commissioner.

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