U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 20 submitted a Request for Information (RFI), expressing the agency’s interest in leasing office space in Nashville and Knoxville, as well as more than 40 other U.S. states and territories.
A spokesman for ICE confirmed on Friday that the new space is necessary due to the massive increase in funding assigned to the agency in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, which led to a 120 percent increase in ICE’s workforce.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced the indictment of a tax preparer in Memphis for her alleged role in filing fraudulent tax returns. She is also accused of tampering with witnesses and attempting to evade efforts by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to block her access to its systems.
According to a DOJ press release, a federal grand jury returned an indictment accusing Selma Brinson, 64, of using her Memphis tax preparation business, “to report false items on clients’ tax returns to generate inflated tax refunds.”
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On the third anniversary of the deadly shooting at the Covenant School, The Tennessee Star’s lead reporter, Tom Pappert, reflected on the tragedy, the ongoing legal battles to obtain the shooter’s writings, and the overall lack of transparency from Metro Nashville regarding the case.
The March 27, 2023, attack left six people dead after 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as transgender, entered the private Christian school and carried out the shooting before being killed by police.
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The Justice Department opened an investigation into male inmates being placed in women’s prisons in California and Maine.
The DOJ notified California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Maine Gov. Janet Mills respectively on Thursday about the pending probes, noting the danger to female inmates of potential sexual assault.
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Immigration hard-liners are taking aim at rules that protect foreign-born U.S. citizens from deportation even if they become terrorists.
Naturalized citizens committed three suspected terrorist attacks in Texas, Michigan and Virginia in a two-week timeframe after the U.S. went to war with Iran’s Islamic regime in February. Other naturalized citizens caught plotting terrorist attacks have been released or are due for release back onto America’s streets, according to Department of Justice (DOJ), court and prison records.
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A group of hackers linked to Iran claims it hacked FBI Director Kash Patel’s email, multiple outlets reported Friday.
The Handala Hack Team, which is a hacktivist group U.S. officials believe to be tied to Iranian intelligence, postedphotos of Patel next to cars and smoking cigars in Cuba as well as a screenshot of an old resume on its website Friday. The group claimed on its website that the cyberattack was in retaliation for the FBI’s seizure of several domains.
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Tennessee gender clinics may soon be required to offer detransition procedures for transgender people.
The State House passed House Bill (HB) 0754 this week, which mandates gender clinics that accept state funds to offer detransition procedures to patients.
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The House Ethics Committee on Friday found Florida Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick guilty of campaign finance violations, following the panel’s first public “trial” in nearly 16 years.
Cherfilus-McCormick illicitly funneled millions of dollars to her campaign and committed various campaign finance infractions, according to a House Ethics subcommittee, POLITICO reported. The panel could recommend that she be expelled from Congress.
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Vermont’s youngest gubernatorial candidate, Dean Roy, is on the general election ballot at age 14.
Roy, a freshman at Stowe High School, worked as a legislative page at the Vermont Statehouse before deciding to run for governor, The Associated Press reported Friday. In November, Roy will be the first gubernatorial candidate under age 18 to appear on Vermont’s general election ballot.
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The Tennessee State Senate on Thursday passed Senate Bill (SB) 1741, the “Charlie Kirk Act,” which would require universities and colleges in the Volunteer State to adopt policies similar to the Chicago Statement on Free Expression, which has been called the “gold standard” for enshrining freedom of speech and association in higher education.
In addition to requiring colleges and universities adopt free speech policies, the bill would also designate most outdoor areas as “traditional public forums,” prohibit schools from restricting such areas to “free speech zones,” allow spontaneous speech outdoors, and prohibit the university from discriminating based on viewpoints.
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Senate Democrats, after saying they would support such a measure, balked at supporting an appropriations bill, H.R. 7147, for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that had Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) excised.
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Recently, I was asked by an acquaintance if I had noticed any changes on the social media platform X (née Twitter) since its purchase by Elon Musk. I had not much mused on the matter; however, I figured the exercise could not hurt and might even prove beneficial.
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President Donald Trump said Thursday night that he will sign an executive order directing new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay Transportation Security Administration workers, following a partial government shutdown that began Feb. 14 and has since left them without paychecks.
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