Day: May 20, 2026

Metro Nashville Council Urges NES for ‘Moratorium’ on New Tree Trimming, Cite Canopy Concerns

Tom Pappert

The Metro Nashville Council on Tuesday passed a resolution urging the Nashville Electric Service (NES) to place a “moratorium” on its new tree trimming strategy, citing a series of concerns about cutting the city’s “tree canopy,” just months after Winter Storm Fern caused the largest outage in the history of the publicly owned utility, with about half of its 470,000 customers without power during the peak.

After the storm, NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin said the utility was “planning on moving forward with a more aggressive tree trimming approach,” and in the interim version of the third-party report recently commissioned by NES, analysts noted the company engaged in extensive tree trimming immediately after the storm.

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McMinnville VA Clinic That Serves Nearly 2,000 Veterans Will Remain Open, U.S. Rep. DesJarlais Announces

Kaitlin Housler
Scott DesJarlais

U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) announced that the McMinnville Veterans Affairs Clinic will remain open following months of uncertainty surrounding the facility’s future.

The clinic, which serves approximately 1,840 veterans in Warren County and surrounding communities, had been scheduled to close May 31 after the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cited long-term staffing shortages and concerns about continuity of care.

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Purported Manifesto Left by San Diego Mosque Shooters Names Antioch High School Killer Among Inspirations

Tom Pappert
Islamic Center San Diego

The Tennessee Star on Wednesday obtained a copy of the manifesto purportedly written by one of the teens who attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three before taking their own lives shortly after, revealing the Antioch High School killer was listed among the author’s inspirations to commit violence.

Law enforcement has identified the attackers in San Diego as Caleb Vazquez, 18, and Cain Lee Clark, 17. The FBI has additionally confirmed that law enforcement recovered a manifesto and extremist writings connected to the suspects, and multiple news outlets have claimed to receive a copy of the manifesto from law enforcement sources that matches the document obtained by The Star.

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Trump’s Endorsement Juggernaut Marches on, Crushing Once-Popular Republicans Who Crossed Him

Just the News
Donald Trump

Normally U.S. presidents approaching the midway point of their second term are beginning to experience the effects of declining political capital as lame ducks. But not Donald Trump, who continues to wield the power of election endorsements with unparalleled success.

America’s 47th president kept his impressive 2026 primary winning streak rolling Tuesday night, with more than three dozen Republicans winning outright or advancing to a runoff in states like Georgia, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

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UAE Says New Pipeline That Will Bypass Strait of Hormuz Is Nearly 50 Percent Complete

Admin
BREAKING NEWS

CNBC   The United Arab Emirates has built nearly 50% of a second pipeline that will bypass the Strait of Hormuz, said the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., or ADNOC, on Wednesday. “Right now, too much of the world’s energy still moves through too few chokepoints,” Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said in an interview at the Atlantic Council. The new pipeline will double ADNOC’s export capacity through Fujairah, a port that sits on the Gulf of Oman just beyond Hormuz. The UAE has accelerated the construction of the project due to the Iran war. The pipeline is expected to become operational in 2027. READ THE FULL STORY   

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Brendan Carr: FCC Considers Parental Warnings for ‘Transgender Content’ on Children’s Shows

Admin
BREAKING NEWS

Breitbart   Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr told Breitbart News at a press conference on Wednesday that parents are increasingly concerned about transgender content in children’s television as the agency considers updating television ratings. Breitbart News reported about how the FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on if the agency should update television ratings to warn parents about children’s programs that discuss “gender identity” and other controversial topics. The agency has said that it has “significant concerns” with how the ratings system operates, with a lot of content that is meant for adults now being rated as appropriate for children. READ THE FULL STORY   

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Gas Now Tops $4 in All 50 States, DC: AAA

Admin
BREAKING NEWS

The Hill   The average price of a gallon of regular gas is over $4 in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to AAA, as the U.S. war against Iran nears the three-month mark. Oil and gas prices have spiked as the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the oil industry, has been effectively closed during the war, which started on Feb. 28 and is currently under an indefinite ceasefire. The current average price for a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. is about $4.56, per AAA, with Western states being some of the hardest hit when it comes to prices at the pump. California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Hawaii and Alaska all had the average cost of a regular gallon of gas above $5 as of Wednesday afternoon, per AAA, with California topping $6. READ THE FULL STORY   

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Disney Sued over Facial Recognition Technology at California Parks

Admin
BREAKING NEWS

NBC News   A class action lawsuit has been filed against The Walt Disney Co. over Disneyland’s use of facial recognition technology at park entrances. The suit, filed Friday on behalf of lead plaintiff Summer Christine Duffield, alleges that the company does not adequately disclose its use of the technology and is not transparent about how the collected data will be used. Duffield, who is from Riverside County, California, visited Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park on May 10 and May 14, attorney Blake Hunter Yagman said. He said the lawsuit was prompted by Duffield’s concerns about her privacy rights. READ THE FULL STORY   

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Senators Call for Nationwide Campaign to Identify Chinese Components in Critical U.S. Infrastructure

Just the News
Rick Scott

A pair of senators are making a bipartisan argument for launching a nationwide campaign to identify Chinese components in vulnerable critical infrastructure across the United States, especially in the U.S. maritime industry after unusual components were found in port cranes imported from China. 

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Just the News on Tuesday that if the United States remains dependent on components from China for running any critical sector in American infrastructure, it could give China the capability to shut them down at will. 

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Police Officers on Duty for J6 Riot Sue Trump, Blanche, Bessent over $1.8B ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund

Just the News
Harry Dunn

Two police officers who were at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, protests filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to stop payments from the $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” 

President Donald Trump set up the fund to compensate those whom the administration believes received unfair treatment under the Biden Justice Department. Roughly 1,200 people were charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, as lawmakers attempted to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win over Trump. Charges ranged from unlawful entry to sedition and assaulting a police officer.  

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Pappert: Suspected San Diego Attackers Appeared Motivated by Nihilist Violent Extremist Culture of Death and Fame

Kaitlin Housler
MPL

As law enforcement continues to investigate Monday’s deadly attack at an Islamic center in San Diego that left three people dead and ended with the apparent suicides of the two suspected shooters, investigators say the suspects left behind a lengthy manifesto outlining extremist ideological views and apparent motivations for the attack.

The Tennessee Star’s lead reporter Tom Pappert discussed the alleged 75-page manifesto of the suspected shooters, who have since been identified as 17-year-old Cain Clark and 18-year-old Caleb Vazquez, during an appearance Wednesday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

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Ramaswamy, Ohio Republicans Address Fraud in Press Conference

The Daily Signal
Vivek Ohio

In the wake of a recent investigative report from The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak on suspected Medicaid fraud in Columbus, Ohio, Republicans held a press conference on Tuesday to lay out their plans for tackling the issue. Rosiak also spoke, discussing his findings.

As Rosiak recapped, Ohio has home health centers, a program allowing people to get paid for offering “companionship,” with the Medicaid beneficiaries often being their own relatives.

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DOJ Indicts Raul Castro in Connection to 1996 Attack on Aircraft in Which Three U.S. Citizens Were Killed

Just the News
Todd Blanche

The Justice Department revealed in an unsealed indictment on Wednesday that Raul Modesto Castro Ruz, the brother of former Cuban Dictator Fidel Castro, has been charged in connection with a 1996 attack on two airplanes in which four U.S. nationals, including three U.S. citizens, were killed.

The unsealed indictment against Raul — the second revolutionary leader of Communist Cuba following the stepping down and then death of his brother Fidel — was obtained in April but made public Wednesday after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida charged him and other co-conspirators in connection with the attack.

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Left-Wing Immigration Group Files Lawsuit Against Tennessee Highway Patrol

Zachery Schmidt

A left-wing immigration group in Tennessee filed a lawsuit this week against the state highway patrol, accusing the law enforcement agency of conducting traffic stops to look for civil immigration violations.

Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) said in its lawsuit that the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) has been working “in tandem” with federal law enforcement “with the shared goal of detaining motorists to investigate their immigration status.”

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UTC Requires Students Seeking Bachelor’s Degrees to Complete Diversity, Inclusion Curriculum Despite Federal DEI Crackdown

Tom Pappert
UTC students

More than one year after President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at ending all federal funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), including in academia, the University of Tennessee – Chattanooga (UTC) continues to require students seeking a bachelor’s degree to complete a curriculum that appears to be influenced by the controversial ideology.

The university’s website explains that, since 2023, the UTC general education program has included four desired outcomes for students. In its third desired outcome, the university says its students should be educated to, “Cultivate inclusion by recognizing, examining, and reflecting on the diversity of cultural and individual experiences.”

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Vance Defends DOJ’s Nearly $1.8B ‘Weaponization’ Fund

The Center Square
JD Vance

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday defended a nearly $1.8 billion taxpayer fund through the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at supporting victims of “lawfare and weaponization.”

The $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” would support individuals who have been targeted by “lawfare and weaponization,” according to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. The fund came out of the settlement of a $10 billion lawsuit between President Donald Trump and the IRS over the leaking of his tax returns.

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Commentary: America Is the Real Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

American Greatness
Trump and XI

One American view of China—now increasingly popular on the Left and the Right alike, especially among the hate-Trump crowd—is that the communist colossus will be forever ascendant, with continued astonishing levels of food production, ship construction, and industrial output. In this pessimistic view, China will soon replace America as the world’s predominant power. We are, supposedly, like an exhausted British Empire circa 1945, and China is the new version of the postwar American powerhouse.

Yet even Beijing’s miraculous 30-year leap out of poverty into first-world affluence and Westernized power is hardly the same as parity with the US. In truth, Trump held almost all the cards at the current summit and will do so again when Xi Jinping visits the US this autumn. According to nearly every historical measure of power, the US leads China by sizable margins—in wealth, economic output, fuel, food, and military strength.

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All Three Federal Lawsuits Attempting to Block Tennessee Redistricting Now Consolidated Under Trump-Appointed Judge

Tom Pappert
TN Lawsuit

Three federal lawsuits filed to stop Tennessee’s successful mid-term redistricting, which saw the state’s final Democratic congressional district reshaped to be friendly to Republican candidates for the first time in more than 50 years, have now been consolidated under a case assigned to a U.S. District Court judge appointed by President Donald Trump. 

U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and the Tennessee Democratic Party filed the first lawsuit challenging the redistricting process on May 7.

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