Newly elected Tennessee U.S. Representative Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07) has been assigned to serve on the U.S. House Committees on Homeland Security and Science, Space, and Technology for the 119th Congress.
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The Department of Homeland Security has tripled its offer for illegal migrants to voluntarily leave the U.S. by the end of the year.
The payout for the so-called “exit bonus” is now $3,000, up from the initial $1,000, according to CBS News. Applicants must register with the federal government to be eligible to receive the money.
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Metro Nashville Council Member Joy Styles (District 32) on Monday stated that she noted an observable decrease in criminal activity following the opening of a new police precinct in Antioch last month, including fewer drag racers and street takeovers in the area.
“You can see a marked change in activity here,” Styles told Fox 17 on Monday. She stated to the outlet, “There are no more shutting down the corner of Murfreesboro Road and Bell Road because we have officers that are out here making their presence known.”
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Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, says the lawsuits she is bringing against both red and blue states over voter list maintenance will help clean voter rolls for the 2026 midterm elections.
With the congressional elections coming up next year, the DOJ said it is trying to ensure that only eligible voters are on states’ voter rolls. While some states have voluntarily complied with the DOJ’s requests for voter registration data or are cleaning the voter rolls themselves, others are refusing to hand over the information, citing privacy concerns.
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House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer said Monday his panel is expanding its probe into “massive fraud and money laundering” in Minnesota’s social services program under Democratic Gov Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison’s watch.
The Kentucky Republican also said the expanded probe will look into whether the state attempted to cover up the fraud scheme and/or retaliate against whistle-blowers who exposed problems in the taxpayer-funded program.
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Larry Ellison, the world’s fourth-richest man, has agreed to personally guarantee $40.4 billion in financing for Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), escalating the media conglomerate’s bidding war with Netflix.
Paramount announced that Ellison — whose son, David Ellison, serves as the company’s chairman and CEO — “had agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee” for the bid in a Monday press release. The elder Ellison’s cash-backing comes days after WBD asked its shareholders to reject a $108 billion Paramount offer to assume control of all of WBD’s assets, Reuters reported.
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President Donald Trump’s Department of the Interior is pausing offshore wind project construction due to “national security risks.”
“Due to national security concerns identified by the Department of War, Interior is PAUSING leases for 5 expensive, unreliable, heavily subsidized offshore wind farms!” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote on X.
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Washington Examiner Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) gave more insight into his and Rep. Thomas Massie‘s (R-KY) threats of inherent contempt against Attorney General Pam Bondi for the full release of the Epstein files. “The idea would be that she’d get a 30-day grace period — by the way, she’s already in violation of the law — 30-day grace period to get the documents out,” Khanna said on Monday. “It would be a fine of up to $5,000 each day she doesn’t get these documents out.” Khanna and Massie, who cosponsored the recently signed Epstein Files Transparency Act, criticized the Department of Justice’s implementation of the act, saying they are not satisfied with the way the DOJ has begun rolling out the files. With many redactions and several documents removed from the DOJ’s newly published “Epstein Library” by Saturday evening, about 24 hours after the rollout began, Massie said the DOJ was “flouting” the spirit and intent of the act. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Hill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday there are signs negotiators are “very close” to a finished peace proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, including U.S. security guarantees that will require congressional approval. Zelensky posted on the social platform X that his negotiating team was returning to Ukraine from talks with American officials in Miami. “In my view, everything possible that we needed to do for the initial drafts had already been done. There are 20 points of the plan. Not everything is perfect so far, but this plan is in place,” Zelensky posted. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO) last week announced prostitution charges against two female patrons of an allegedly unlicensed massage parlor following a law enforcement search that, in addition to the sheriff’s office, included the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI, and state regulatory agencies.
According to the sheriff’s office, the warrant was executed at a Mount Juliet business on Wednesday after a “weeks-long investigation,” with law enforcement initially alleging only, “no valid massage licenses had been issued for the establishment.”
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) revealed a bill last week that seeks to codify President Donald Trump’s executive order on artificial intelligence (AI).
Trump unveiled an executive order earlier in December that promotes America’s “national and economic security and dominance across many domains.”
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U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, on Monday said she would delay her decision on whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia can be returned to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody until she receives more information about the case for detaining the alleged human smuggler.
According to Law 360 reporter Jared Foretek, who was the first to announce the outcome of the hearing, Xinis said she would maintain her restraining order blocking Abrego Garcia’s detention by ICE until she learns more about the government’s argument that it has authority to detain Abrego Garcia. Foretek also reported that the judge will announce her decision after December 25.
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Country singers Lainey Wilson, Jason Aldean, and Bailey Zimmerman are set to headline Nashville’s live New Year’s Eve five-hour event airing on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) obtained a guilty plea from one of the leaders of the Nihilist Violent Extremist (NVE) group, 764, which has reportedly groomed a child in Tennessee, as part of a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) case.
A Friday press release from the DOJ announced that Alex Aldair Chavez, of San Antonio, California, pleaded guilty to charges related to racketeering and the sexual exploitation of children.
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Tennessee conservatives value responsible lending and limited government along with fiscal responsibility. These principles have also long kept our housing market stable after the 2008 financial crisis.
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The U.S. Marshals Service on Friday announced the arrest of the suspect who allegedly crashed his vehicle into a federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on December 13. The crash allegedly occurred as the suspect was fleeing from other law enforcement agencies participating in the Memphis Safe Task Force deployed to the city in September.
According to the Marshals, 24-year-old Lamark Boykin was arrested on Friday to face charges of unlawfully possessing a firearm and driving under the influence. The federal law enforcement agency alleged that on December 13, “Boykin’s vehicle was involved in a fleeing incident that resulted in a crash causing injuries to an ATF agent and an uninvolved citizen.”
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