Exclusive: Texas DPS Spokesperson Joins Senator Marsha Blackburn’s Podcast, Reveals How President Biden’s Refusal to Enforce Existing Immigration Laws Deprives Americans of Much-Needed Resources

Senator Marsha Blackburn

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez said the Biden Administration’s refusal to enforce existing immigration laws directly impacts small communities along the southern border as local resources are constantly diverted to assist with cases involving illegal aliens.

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Ohio Secretary of State’s Office Launches Initiative to Prepare Election Officials for the November Election

Frank LaRose

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announced a new statewide initiative his office will facilitate to ensure election officials are “trained and prepared” for the November general election.

The Ready for November initiative will “offer a series of collaborative training opportunities between Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections and the Secretary of State’s elections, public integrity and communications staff,” according to LaRose’s office.

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Reporter Tom Pappert on Maryland Transgender Teen Arrested for Planning Mass Shooting: Police Were ‘Proactive,’ Took Threat Seriously

Andrea Ye

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, discussed the latest developments surrounding a story out of Maryland where police arrested a transgender high school student for a 129-page manifesto that included plans for at least two school shootings.

On Friday, Pappert reported that the student, Andrea Ye, was arrested this week as police say she wrote the 129-page manifesto and shared it with a friend, who then notified police of the document.

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Aaron Gulbransen: Tennessee House Should Have Introduced a ‘Clean School Choice Bill’

Classroom

Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the Tennessee House of Representatives should have introduced a “clean” universal school choice bill instead of attaching additional incentives not particularly related to school choice to the bill.

While the governor’s school choice bill in the House includes additional incentives, the Senate’s version solely focuses on the governor’s proposal.

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Fallen Memphis Police Officer Joseph McKinney Killed in Line of Duty by Friendly Fire, District Attorney’s Office Says

Joseph McKinney

Memphis Police Officer Joseph McKinney, who was fatally shot last week while responding to a suspicious vehicle call, is reported to have died by friendly fire, according to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.

On April 12, at approximately 2:00 a.m., the Memphis Police Department (MPD) responded to a suspicious vehicle call at Horn Lake Road and Charter Avenue.

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Michael Patrick Leahy: As a Plaintiff in Covenant Manifesto Case, I Want All Documents Released, Not Just the Killer’s Writings Recovered from Vehicle

Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, said as a plaintiff in the case seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to release the manifesto left behind by the Covenant School shooter, he believes the the full manifesto should be released – not just the “documents in the car” found on the day of the shooting which Metro Legal suggests would satisfy the plaintiffs in the case.

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Tennessee Lottery Raises over $113 Million for Education in Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2024

Lottery Balls

The Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation announced Tuesday it raised $113,820,000 for education in the Volunteer State during the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), which spanned from January 1 through March 31.

“The Lottery is proud to announce this quarter’s results, which reinforce our commitment to funding vital education programs for Tennesseans,” Tennessee Education Lottery President and CEO Rebecca Paul said in a statement.

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Founder of Tea Party Nation Judson Phillips: 15 Years Later, the Tea Party Movement Was an ‘Abject Failure’

Judson Phillips

Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, said 15 years after the Tax Day Tea Party, the movement’s effect on fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets in federal politics has been “an abject failure.”

“The Tea Party movement was an abject failure. There’s just no other way to put it. Look at where we are today. When the Tea Party movement started, it was triggered by Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. Today, that’s a rounding error. The deficit was $10 billion when Obama took over in January 2009. Today, it’s $34 trillion. It’s going up by a trillion dollars every hundred days, and that rate is accelerating,” Phillips explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

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‘Lives of Others Are at Stake Here’: Ben Cunningham, Roger Simon Discuss Legal Battle over Covenant Shooter Manifesto

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, and Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, discussed the ongoing legal battle over the release of the Covenant School shooter’s manifesto, agreeing that the “lives of others” are at stake as long as the manifesto’s contents are kept under wraps.

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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee Joins Group of Governors in Opposing UAW’s Unionization Campaign

Bill Lee Volkswagen

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee joined the governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas in issuing a joint statement in opposition of the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) unionization campaign.

The coalition of governors said it is “highly concerned” about the unionization campaign, adding such efforts are “driven by misinformation and scare tactics.”

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Columnist Roger Simon: The U.S. Government Paying for Iran’s Attack on Israel Is the ‘Single Greatest Disgusting Thing in American History’

Roger Simon Israel

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, said the U.S. government paid for Iran’s Saturday attack on Israel, which saw 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles launched at the country.

Simon said the money trail could be traced back to the Obama administration when billions of dollars were sent to the Mullahs.

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Author Geoff Shepard Explains His Role in the Nixon Administration During Watergate and How the Scandal Was ‘Misinterpreted’ for 40 Years

Author Geoff Shepard

Geoff Shepard, former staffer in the Nixon Administration and author of The Nixon Conspiracy: Watergate and the Plot to Remove the President, explained in an exclusive interview with The Michael Patrick Leahy Show how he came to the conclusion that the Watergate scandal had been misinterpreted for nearly 40 years.

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Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition Announces 2024 Senate and House Conservative Champions

Representative Jake McCalmon Dawn White

The Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition (TNFFC) announced Friday that two members of the Tennessee General Assembly have been honored as the Senate and House Conservative Champions this legislative session.

According to the organization, TNFFC’s Conservative Champion awards are given to legislators in the General Assembly who “most ardently defend the Constitution, rights and freedoms” of the Volunteer State citizens.

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Reporter Tom Pappert: U.S. Rep. David Kustoff Is ‘Ripe for a Challenge’ in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District Following FISA Vote

David Kustoff

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes Tennessee U.S. Representative David Kustoff’s (R-TN-08) vote on Friday against an amendment that would have ended the warrantless spying on United States citizens allowed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) makes the congressman “ripe for a challenge” this election cycle.

Kustoff and Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) were the sole members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation to vote against the amendment on Friday, Pappert previously reported.

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One Memphis Police Officer Killed, Two Others Shot While Responding to Suspicious Vehicle Occupied by Known Criminal

Memphis Police Department

Reactions have poured in after Memphis police officer Joseph McKinney was shot and killed early Friday morning while he and other officers were responding to a suspicious vehicle call.

On Friday approximately 2:00 a.m., officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call at Horn Lake Road and Charter Avenue, according to the Memphis Police Department (MPD).

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Dr. Carol Swain: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ‘Artificially Contrived,’ ‘Divides Groups’

Dr. Carol M. Swain, author of The Adversity of Diversity, said the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards being pushed today are not the same type of diversity Americans rallied around during the Civil Rights Movement.

Swain said her book points out “everything wrong” with today’s DEI standards and how they violate the U.S. Constitution and Equal Protections Protection Clause.

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Carol Swain and Neil W. McCabe Explain Why Pro-Life Organizations, Fake Christians ‘Talk the Talk’ but Have ‘No Interest in Ending Abortion’

Abortion protest

Dr. Carol M. Swain and national political reporter Neil W. McCabe, while discussing the politics surrounding the topic of abortion, identified how some seemingly pro-life groups and individuals who claim to be Christians “talk the talk and not walk the walk” when it comes to protecting the unborn.

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Jason Snead on Why Democrats Promote Ranked-Choice Voting: ‘It’s About Pushing Politics to the Left’

Jason Snead, the director of the Honest Elections Project Action Fund, said the practice of Ranked-Choice Voting is a tool used by the Left to “push politics to the left” and “give more power to the left-wing mega-donors.”

Ranked-Choice Voting, an election process where voters can rank multiple candidates for a single office, is currently used statewide in the states of Alaska and Maine, cities including New York City, and other jurisdictions across the nation.

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Tennessee GOP Congressional Candidate George Flinn Says U.S. Rep. David Kustoff ‘Should Not Go Unchallenged’

David Kustoff George Flinn

Shelby County resident Dr. George Flinn, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in West Tennessee’s 8th District, said he is running because incumbent U.S. Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) needs to be “challenged.”

Flinn, who has run as a Republican and Independent candidate in U.S. Senate and primary races for Tennessee’s 8th and 9th Congressional districts, said he believes Kustoff “should not go unchallenged” considering the incumbent’s recent voting record on bills, particularly spending packages.

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Texas Republican Mike Olcott Corrects the Record After NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams Falsely Claims His Vanquished Opponent, Glenn Rogers, Is a Conservative

Olcott Phil Williams

Mike Olcott, a Republican who won last month’s primary election for Texas House District 60, invalidated News Channel 5’s Phil Williams’ claims that his opponent he defeated in the race, State Representative Glenn Rogers, was defeated by “billionaire” pro-school voucher “forces.”

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Tennessee Becomes 10th State to Sanction Girls Flag Football

Flag Football

The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) voted on Tuesday to make girls flag football an officially-sanctioned Tennessee high school varsity sport beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.

The TSSAA voted unanimously in favor of Franklin High School’s proposal to make the sport a sanctioned sport. The TSSAA previously tabled the proposal during its December 2023 legislative council meeting.

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Lawmakers React After Norfolk Southern Agrees to $600 Million Settlement to Resolve Lawsuits from East Palestine Train Derailment

East Palestine

Norfolk Southern Corporation announced Tuesday that it reached a $600 million settlement in a class action lawsuit in response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, last year.

The railroad company said in a press release that if the court approves the settlement, all class action lawsuits within a 20-mile radius of the derailment and all personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius of the derailment will be resolved.

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Ben Cunningham: Nashville Mayor’s Transit Plan Appears to be Illegal

Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit plan, which is expected to be on the November ballot, is likely illegal under the IMPROVE Act, which passed the Tennessee General Assembly in 2017.

The 2017 IMPROVE Act, signed by former Governor Bill Haslam, permits local governments to seek a dedicated funding source via surcharge to support mass transportation projects through local referendum.

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