Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the legal battle surrounding Colombian journalist Estefany Rodriguez Flores could come to a swift end if she is released on bond, explaining that her pending federal court challenge may become moot once she leaves custody.
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Labor union icon Cesar Chavez abused girls and raped fellow labor leader Dolores Huerta, according to a bombshell investigative report released Tuesday by The New York Times.
Two women told the newspaper that Chavez abused them when they were girls, and Huerta said Chavez raping her resulted in two children, who were raised by others.
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Few things make voters’ blood boil on a bipartisan basis than legislators’ self-dealing and passing regulations that hit consumers in the pocketbook. Yet it seems there is a staggering level of disregard for that political reality in Nashville when it comes to the debate over the so-called FAIR Rx legislation.
SB 2040/HB 1959, currently under consideration, would force pharmacies who also own and operate a pharmacy benefit manager or PBM to either restructure or be barred from doing business in the Volunteer state. PBMs are essentially a middleman that negotiates pricing for drugs with health plans, manages the availability of drugs and oversees a network of pharmacies. The largest of these in Tennessee is connected to CVS Pharmacies but the bill would also ban operations by mail-in pharmacy companies and specialty drug providers that handle rare prescriptions like those used for cancer and other serious conditions.
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Analysts inside the U.S. intelligence community sought to conceal evidence of Chinese influence efforts from President Donald Trump during the 2020 election, with analysts saying they didn’t want their intel used by “that vulgarian in the Oval Office” to pursue policies toward China they personally disagreed with.
The revelation is found within a January 2021 report written by — and never before reported upon comments by — analytic ombudsman Barry Zulauf, who conducted a review of the spy community’s handling of Russian versus Chinese meddling efforts during the 2020 election. Among his conclusions was that intelligence analysts downplayed China’s actions because they had disdain for the “vulgarian” Trump and did not want to support the policies and priorities of the Trump administration toward China with which they “personally disagree.”
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CBS News President Trump hasn’t made up his mind yet on whether he wants to send American forces into Iran and seize the country’s nuclear material, which would be a very dangerous operation, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. In private conversations, he has told people close to him: “I have a lot of decisions to make.” The Pentagon has prepared multiple options for the president as potential next steps in the Iran war. READ THE FULL STORY
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CNBC The Federal Reserve on Wednesday voted to hold its key interest rate steady as policymakers navigate their way through higher-than-expected inflation readings, mixed signs on the labor market – and a war. In a widely expected decision, the Federal Open Market Committee voted 11-1 to keep the benchmark federal funds rate anchored in a range between 3.5%-3.75%. The rate sets overnight funding costs for banks but influences a broad range of consumer and business borrowing. The committee in its post-meeting statement made few changes to its view on the economy, with a slightly faster pace of growth and higher inflation projections for 2026. READ THE FULL STORY
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The Hill Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who has been known to buck his party in recent years, said in a Wednesday podcast episode that the Democrats are governed by Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). “Who do you think leads the Democratic Party today?” The “All-in” podcast’s David Friedberg asked Fetterman in an interview posted Wednesday. “Oh, we don’t, we don’t have one. I think, I think the TDS that — I think that’s the leader right now. You know, right now our party, is, is governed by the TDS, and now it’s made it virtually impossible, without being punished, as a Democrat, to agree something’s good, or ‘I agree with the other side,’ and I would define that by [Operation] Epic Fury,” Fetterman responded. READ THE FULL STORY
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Tennessee State House lawmakers advanced legislation that would upgrade the severity of charges levied against all hit-and-run offenders, with the harshest penalties against drivers accused of leaving the scene of an accident where they knew, or should have reasonably known, that a person was killed.
The James Bardsley Life Protection Act, submitted as HB 1521 by State Representative Robert Stevens (R-Smyrna), and SB 1736 by State Senator Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro), would increase the penalty for leaving an accident that resulted in injury from a Class A Misdemeanor to a Class E Felony. Those found guilty would face between one and six years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $3,000.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday announced the imposition of a visa bond requirement up to $15,000 for applicants from a wide range of countries.
“The law gives us the RIGHT, and in fact I would argue the obligation, to remove people like that from our country. And we’re going to continue to do it. I mean, it’s as simple as that!” he told reporters.
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Newly released emails reveal how the Biden administration’s Department of Education (ED) in 2022 attempted to form a secret parent advisory council to give teachers unions and left-aligned activist and parent groups power over federal education policy.
Under former President Joe Biden, the department created the National Parents and Families Engagement Council ostensibly as a “partnership between parents and families, educators, district leaders, and entire school communities to support student success.” But behind the scenes, the short-lived council was composed of hand-picked activist organizations that focused on radical racial, gender and immigrant-focused ideologies. As Defending Education notes, “not a single right-of-center or conservative parent group was invited” to participate.
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Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst announced Wednesday that the Department of War inspector general will open a probe into why the Pentagon wasn’t reporting the cost of research studies.
Department of War Inspector General Platte Moring told Ernst, who sponsored the Cost Openness and Spending Transparency Act in 2021 and demanded answers about the Pentagon’s failure to abide by that law’s provisions in February, that his office would review the matter in a Feb. 25 letter. Moring noted that Ernst had asked him about compliance with the law during his October confirmation hearing. The law requires all studies funded by the federal government to disclose how much they cost taxpayers.
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by Ben Whedon Though Trump voters largely support his handling of the war in Iran, most of them want the president to declare victory and end the war quickly instead of escalating the conflict. In a recent Ipsos survey for the Quincy Institute, 79% of Trump voters said they would support Trump declaring victory and ending the conflict swiftly, compared to 19% who opposed such a move. They remain opposed to boots on the ground, however, with 58% indicating they would oppose U.S. troops entering Iranian territory, while 41% supported it. Overall, 77% of Trump voters at least “somewhat supported” the decision to go to war, while 24% at least “somewhat opposed” the move. A majority of 55% expressed concern about rising gas prices from the conflict, while 45% were unbothered by the prospect. On Israel, 57% said their contributions had been positive for the war effort, while 29% were neutral and 13% said they had negatively impacted the war. Conducted March 12-14, the survey questioned 804 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of +/- 3.55%. On Wednesday, Trump said on Truth Social that he wondered “what would happen” if America “finished off what’s left of the…
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The Treasury Department eased oil sanctions Wednesday on Venezuela to boost the world’s oil supply amid the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran.
The department issued a broad authorization allowing Petróleos de Venezuela S.A, or PDVSA, to directly sell Venezuelan oil to U.S. companies and on global markets, after years of largely blocked dealings with Venezuela’s government and its oil sector, The Associated Press reported.
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A spokesman for CVS Health told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday that the potential closure of more than 130 CVS pharmacies in the Volunteer State, which the company says would follow passage of the Freedom, Access, and Integrity in Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act, would disrupt the annual fulfillment of 26 million retail prescriptions for about 1.5 million patients.
The legislation, SB 2040 and HB 1959, would prohibit vertical integration between pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the third-party businesses that negotiate benefits and drug prices between pharmacies and insurance companies.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Wednesday announced the arrest of Luis Meza-Olivera, who was convicted on multiple felony offenses in Tennessee, but was released from the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center in Hartsville after his sentence despite being an illegal alien from Peru.
Records show Meza-Olivera was sentenced to 12 years after being convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping in 2019. According to ICE, he was additionally previously convicted of battery and arson on a home.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07) filed legislation to increase financial support for the families of fallen service members, fulfilling a priority he emphasized during his congressional campaign.
Last week, Van Epps introduced the Honoring Our Nation’s Obligation to Remember (HONOR) Gold Star Families Act, a bill that would double the military death gratuity from $100,000 to $200,000 and add annual cost-of-living adjustments.
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Tennessee joined 20 other states in petitioning the Supreme Court to take up a lower court case about a Pennsylvania mail-in ballot law.
The state attorneys general requested this week that the Court review and overturn a federal appellate court’s decision striking down Pennsylvania’s law requiring voters to handwrite the date on their mail-in ballots.
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President Donald Trump will visit Memphis on Monday to highlight the city’s turnaround with regard to crime under the Memphis Safe Task Force, his regional press secretary announced this week.
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The Department of Health and Human Services plans to appeal a judge’s temporary injunction to change the national childhood vaccine policy.
On Monday, Judge Brian Murphy of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts temporarily blocked Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s efforts to change federal vaccination policies regarding childhood vaccine recommendations and paused the replacement of Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices members.
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Many commentators claim that Islam does not pose a threat of violence in the United States. Influencers such as Tucker Carlson often repeat this argument. Others, including then-President Joe Biden and FBI Director Christopher Wray, have argued that white supremacists represent the primary domestic threat.
Yet March alone saw multiple terrorist attacks carried out by Muslims. In Austin, a terrorist wore a sweatshirt reading “Property of Allah” during an attack. In New York City, bomb throwers shouted “Allahu Akbar” while throwing a homemade shrapnel bomb. At Old Dominion University, a shooter also yelled “Allahu Akbar” and had previously been convicted of supporting ISIS. Another attacker, whose brother was a Hezbollah terrorist commander, targeted Temple Israel in Michigan, and yet another attack, involving three men of Iraqi origin, targeted the U.S. embassy in Norway. The Austin, Old Dominion, and New York City bombers and the Michigan synagogue attackers were also all foreign-born individuals who were naturalized U.S. citizens.
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