Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Tennessee Star, warned that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) could dramatically reshape the American workforce and argued that the country must overhaul its K-12 education system to prepare students for the coming economic shift.
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A straw poll conducted during Friday night’s 2026 Reagan Day Gala put on by the Williamson County Republican Party (WCRP) shows U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to be the overwhelmingly favorite Republican candidate running in the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial election among Republicans in the county.
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The news that the Galleri blood test – which can detect DNA of more than 50 different types of cancer in the blood stream before symptoms otherwise appear – failed to show a 20% reduction in stage 3 and 4 cancer diagnoses among 140,000 Britons over 3 years, crushed the stock price of its parent company, Grail, Inc. It’s down about 50% since last week.
This caught my eye because I have first-hand experience that the Galleri test works. I was one of the first people being served by a major research hospital system in Chicago to take the test – I took the test in connection with my annual physical in September 2023 – and the test results indicated there was a “high likelihood” I already had cancer. I had no symptoms whatsoever, and this was the first “positive” test result anyone in the hospital system had encountered.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over new federal requirements that colleges report detailed data linking race to admissions, financial aid and student outcomes.
The administration says the data will help enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. But the states argue the demands are unprecedented, overly burdensome and likely to produce unreliable data that could be used to launch politically motivated investigations of universities.
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In recent years Tennessee has experienced an explosion of growth fueled by migration of new residents coming here to escape high-tax, over-regulated, woke blue states. This has produced a consistent warning from conservatives to new arrivals: “Don’t California my Tennessee.”
This admonition is not only sound conservative thinking, it is also common sense. All you need to do is look at California to understand why Tennessee should never copy its policies. California residents are crushed by punishing taxes, burdened with one-third of the nation’s homeless population, plagued by failing schools controlled by the teacher unions, governed by laws that punish law-abiding gun owners while going easy on violent criminals, and have a state constitution that protects late-term abortions.
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America’s “War on Poverty,” launched by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, has expanded into a vast array of federal social welfare programs that today exceed $1 trillion per year.
Upon signing the Economic Opportunity Act, Johnson stated: “This is not in any sense a cynical proposal to exploit the poor with a promise of a handout” but rather a means to “help our people find their footing for a long climb toward a better way of life.”
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An unapologetically country-to-the-core artist I have wanted to feature for some time is Ashland Craft. The South Carolina native cut her teeth in dive bars and honky-tonks, creating a work ethic and swagger that defines her sound. By age 18, she was even the lead singer for the house band at Wendell’s Dippin’ Branch.
While working on her craft (no pun intended), Craft did all kinds of odd jobs, from working at McDonald’s to being a receptionist at a beauty salon. But it was her Top 10 finish on season 13 of NBC’s The Voice, where she proudly competed on Miley Cyrus’ team, that she saw the tide start to turn.
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