Day: April 13, 2026

TN-06 GOP Candidate Johnny Garrett Boasts $1.4 Million Cash on Hand

Kaitlin Housler
Johnny Garrett

State Representative Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville), who is running for Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District, announced Monday that his campaign has approximately $1,400,000 in cash on hand with less than four months to go until the August 6 Republican primary.

In a press release, Garrett’s campaign said it raised nearly $520,000 during the first quarter of 2026, adding to the over $1 million cash on hand the campaign reported at the beginning of the year after it had raised $450,000 during the fourth quarter of 2025 and over $725,000 during the previous quarter.

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Memphis Safe Task Force Records 51 Arrests in One Day as Tennessee General Assembly Passes D.A. Accountability Bill

Tom Pappert
CBP arrest

The Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) announced it made 51 arrests in a 24-hour period last Thursday, the same day the Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation that will require Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy to file reports explaining his prosecutorial decisions with cases generated by task force members.

In a press release, the U.S. Marshals Service announced that the MSTF arrested 51 suspects and recovered seven firearms. Those arrested include an individual who was wanted for second-degree murder, two men accused of drug offenses, including one who allegedly held a distribution-level quantity of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and marijuana at the time of arrest.

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Texas Republican Tony Gonzales Says He Will ‘File My Retirement,’ from House on Tuesday

Just the News
Tony Gonzales

Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales said Monday he will file his retirement from the House of Representatives when it returns Tuesday, which comes just hours after California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said he would resign from the chamber.

Swalwell and Gonzales both face sexual misconduct allegations and Gonzales has acknowledged he had an affair with a former staffer who later committed suicide. The acknowledgment and backlash prompted him to end his reelection campaign last month.

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Amicus Brief Declaring Plan to Deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia ‘Punitive’ Includes Researcher Who Favors Abolishing ICE Detention

Tom Pappert
KAG

Five immigration law professors filed an amicus brief in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, arguing that deporting him to Liberia, or any third country where he has no ties, constitutes punishment under the Constitution and requires additional review by the court for potential Eighth Amendment violations.

With Abrego Garcia unable to be returned to El Salvador due to a withholding of removal granted as part of his 2019 immigration case, Xinis issued an injunction earlier this year to formally block Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) from detaining him, ruling the agency lacked a realistic plan to deport him from the country.
With Abrego Garcia unable to be returned to El Salvador due to a withholding of removal granted as part of his 2019 immigration case, Xinis issued an injunction earlier this year to formally block ICE from detaining Abrego Garcia, ruling it did not have a realistic plan to deport him from the country. Last month, federal lawyers notified the Obama-appointed jurist that ICE disregarded Abrego Garcia’s preference to be removed to Costa Rica, arguing it was made years too late to be considered, and that final plans were in place to deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia.

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Eric Swalwell Announces He Will Resign from Congress

Just the News
Eric Swalwell

California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell announced Monday that he will be resigning from the House, a day after he suspended his gubernatorial campaign in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.

“I am deeply sorry to my family, staff, and constituents for mistakes in judgment I’ve made in my past,” Swalwell said in a statement. “I will fight the serious, false allegation made against me. However, I must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes I did make.”

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Cook Political Report Shifts Four Senate Races Toward Democrats

Admin
BREAKING NEWS

The Hill   The Cook Political Report shifted four Senate races to the left on Monday but noted that the GOP is still favored to maintain its majority in the upper chamber this November. “With an increasingly sour national environment for Republicans, the Senate battlefield is shifting in Democrats’ favor,” wrote Jessica Taylor, the Senate and governors editor for the report. “But due to the difficulty of the map, winning back a majority still remains a tall order,” she continued. “The GOP remain the narrowing favorites to retain the upper chamber. However, that outlook could change in the coming months.” READ THE FULL STORY   

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Judge Dismisses Trump’s Lawsuit Against Murdoch, WSJ About Epstein Letter

Admin
BREAKING NEWS

CNBC   A federal judge in Florida on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against media baron Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, which claimed the newspaper defamed Trump with a story saying the president had sent a “bawdy” 50th birthday letter to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But Trump will be given the chance to file a new amended lawsuit by April 27 in the case about the letter that the Journal published in July 2024, Judge Darrin Gayles said in his ruling in U.S. District Court in Miami. Gayles said he had to dismiss the civil complaint because Trump, who has adamantly denied sending the letter to his then-friend Epstein in 2003, had “not plausibly alleged that the Defendants published the Article with actual malice.” READ THE FULL STORY   

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DHS Orders Thousands of Furloughed Employees Back to Work Despite Ongoing Shutdown

Admin
BREAKING NEWS

CBS News   The Department of Homeland Security has ordered thousands of furloughed employees back to work, according to internal emails obtained by CBS News, even as most of the agency technically remains shut down and unfunded by Congress. The directive, which was issued to employees at DHS agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, marks a significant shift in how the administration is managing the funding lapse, effectively blurring long-standing distinctions between furloughed employees and those who remain on the job during a government shutdown. “All DHS employees … are being returned to a work and paid status,” DHS Chief Human Capital Officer La’ Toya Prieur wrote in an April 10 notice to staff, adding that employees are to report “on your next regularly scheduled duty day.” READ THE FULL STORY   

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Trump Says Gas Prices Could Remain High Through November

Just the News
gas pump

President Trump says gas prices, rising as a result of the U.S. war with Iran, might not decline before November, fueling headwinds for fellow Republicans trying to keep control of Congress during the midterm elections that month.

Trump said Sunday on Fox News that he hoped gas and oil costs would drop before the midterms, prices “should be around the same” time and might, in fact, be “a little bit higher.”

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Vance Dominates GOP Primary Against Possible Challengers: Poll

Just the News
JD Vance

Vice President JD Vance is the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2028, a recent survey has revealed.

Vance attracted 43% support in the latest Yale Youth Poll, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who earned 17% among registered voters. Donald Trump Jr. placed third with 9% while Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., earned 6%. All other candidates earned less than 5% support.

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Missouri Voters Oust City Council Members Who Backed Multi-Billion Dollar AI Data Center

Daily Caller News Foundation
McCandless and Fears

Voters in Independence, Missouri, voted on Tuesday to oust two city councilmembers after they backed an AI data center in the community.

Independence councilmembers Bridget McCandless, who was running for mayor, and Jared Fears both voted in favor of giving $6 billion in tax breaks to Nebius to build a large data center in the city and were defeated by anti-data center and pro-accountability opponents, Missouri-based KCUR reported. Voters in another Missouri town also voted to oust members who backed data centers in their town on the same day that voters in Independence took to the polls.

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Ukraine Whistleblower Biases Concealed from House Investigators by Intel Watchdog, Transcript Shows

Just the News
Trump Ukraine

The admitted, potential biases that a Ukraine impeachment whistleblower relayed to investigators for the intelligence community watchdog during the first Trump Administration were redacted and concealed from House investigators in 2019, newly declassified and released transcripts show.

The long-secret transcripts were from a September 2019 unclassified session and an October 2019 classified session that were held to examine then-Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson’s role in the handling of an alleged whistleblower complaint. 

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Tennessee Legislature Passes Bill Restricting Cities from Relocating Homeless People

Zachery Schmidt

The Tennessee General Assembly is imposing limits on local governments’ ability to relocate homeless people.

The State House and State Senate passed Senate Bill (SB) 1788 last week, which prevents local governments from relocating homeless people unless they have written consent from the receiving jurisdiction and the relocation is carried out through a formal reunification program.

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Waymo ‘Committed to Improving Road Safety’ After Videos Show Company’s Driverless Vehicles Impede Nashville Traffic

Tom Pappert
Wrong Way Waymo

A spokesman for the autonomous taxi company Waymo on Saturday reportedly confirmed on Saturday that at least one of the company’s vehicles “got stuck” in Nashville traffic following their full deployment last month.

After at least two such incidents were purportedly recorded and posted social media, a Waymo spokesman told Fox 17 that safety was the company’s primary concern. 

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