Polling released Thursday morning shows U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) holds a 21-point lead over the Democrats’ nominee, Jerri Brown, in the race to become Tennessee’s next governor.
Beacon Center of Tennessee’s analysis of its poll, conducted by Targoz Market Research from August 15 through August 26, found that 55 percent of likely voters prefer Blackburn, while just 34 percent would vote for Green.
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The Memphis nightclub where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made more than 120 arrests on Sunday previously received two Payment Protection Program (PPP) loans during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an online database containing more than 11 million PPP loan records.
Though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and pro-illegal alien activists in Memphis have described the establishment as a nightclub named El Corralón, the building where Operation Corral Light was conducted indicates it has been named Marisqueria El Corral since at least 2019.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Tuesday announced that U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker last week upheld the Tennessee law prohibiting courts from considering a defendant’s ability to pay when setting their bond.
Among other complaints, the litigation alleged that the law was unconstitutionally vague. Tennessee still allows its judges and magistrates to consider a defendant’s employment history, overall financial circumstances, and other statutory factors, but specifically prohibits considering a defendant’s “ability to pay” when setting a bond amount.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that more than 120 illegal aliens were arrested on August 30 at the Memphis nightclub, El Corralón, during a multi-agency operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE).
DHS told The Star that Operation Corral Light resulted in arrests of illegal aliens with prior criminal history, including arrests or convictions for “larceny, drug possession, domestic violence, driving while intoxicated, assault, child endangerment, and prostitution.”
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The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) on Monday announced it would take applications from news outlets seeking to serve as witnesses for the execution of Christa Pike, who is scheduled to be executed on September 30.
Pike was convicted in March 1996 of premeditated murder and conspiracy to kill Colleen Slemmer. Both students at the Knoxville Job Corps Center in January 1995, the killer lured her victim to a steam plant, where court documents state Pike beat Slemmer, repeatedly pelted her with loose asphalt, and cut her with a box cutter, in an attack that lasted between 30 minutes and one hour.
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Activists with Vecindarios 901 claim that more than 100 people were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during an enforcement operation in Memphis on Saturday, while a spokesperson for the federal agency only told The Tennessee Star that a “multi-agency targeted enforcement operation” was ongoing in the area.
According to a social media post by Vecindarios 901, the enforcement operation took place at the Memphis bar El Corralón. Authorities at the scene reportedly included ICE, the Memphis Police Department, and members of the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF), according to the activists.
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Governor Bill Lee and the Metro Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) have confirmed that plans to rename the BNA Nashville International Airport to honor Dolly Parton are underway after the iconic singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist died last week at age 80.
The governor confirmed in a Friday press release that his office and the MNAA were working together on the proposal to rename the airport, and that Parton’s team was “touched by the idea and open to continuing the conversation.”
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A public charter school in Nashville has removed LGBT children’s books from its library months after clearing the record of a Christian teacher who was disciplined for refusing to read from literature that “promotes same-sex marriage.”
According to the First Liberty Institute, a national group which defends religious freedom, administrators at Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Nashville, “have eliminated books that could violate Tennessee law regarding parental consent.”
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday revealed details of the investigation which led to the conviction of Camilo Campos-Hurtado, an illegal alien from Mexico who recorded his sexual assaults on Nashville children who he drugged, after gaining access to youth through a soccer program. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison last month.
In its press release, ICE appeared to reveal for the first time that investigators learned that Campos-Hurtado was in the country illegally after Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigators “recovered electronic devices containing child sexual abuse material and numerous counterfeit immigration and identification documents.”
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Leaders in the Tennessee State House confirmed on Thursday that they have begun discussions of how to honor the legacy of Dolly Parton, the country music legend who died on Tuesday at age 80.
Tennessee Deputy House Speaker Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) told WKRN that his colleagues “began to have those discussions” about how to honor Parton the previous night, questioning, “How do you honor someone that is so worthy and beyond anything of a statue, a bust?”
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Devonte Sherley, a convicted felon now charged with attempted murder after a gunshot left a Nashville man paralyzed, was previously out on bond for felony gun and drug charges when he was implicated in a 2019 fatal robbery. That case did not conclude until last year, and Tennessee records show his resulting eight-year sentence ended just six weeks before the latest shooting.
Sherley, 29, is currently in Davidson County Jail, with Fox 17 reporting that Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) detectives said he was suspected of entering his sister’s apartment and shooting a man in the neck and knee on August 19.
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Following the recent decision by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Tuesday, a hearing was scheduled in the second lawsuit brought by Kilmar Abrego Garcia against the Trump administration after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied part of the Trump administration’s appeal of two of Xinis’ orders.
While the appellate court said it would consider whether to reverse the Obama-appointed judge’s decision blocking ICE from arresting Abrego Garcia, it rejected the Trump administration’s argument that Xinis had already constructively denied its appeal of the judge’s order barring Abrego Garcia’s deportation to Liberia.
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A list of the “Worst of the Worst” criminal illegal aliens detained on Tuesday across the United States, provided to The Tennessee Star by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), includes a citizen of Mexico who was arrested in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Among the five criminal illegal aliens included in the “Worst of the Worst” list for Tuesday is Margarito Rosales-Altamira, who DHS described as “a criminal illegal alien from Mexico” with prior convictions “for opium or derivatives and cocaine sale” in Lebanon.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday announced it sent public records request letters to Tennessee school districts that “foolishly” display the Ten Commandments under a new law that allows them to be displayed, informing the districts that a team of nonprofits is “launching an investigation.”
According to an ACLU press release, letters were sent to records custodians at Blount County School District, Rutherford County Schools, Washington County Schools, White County Schools, and Wilson County Schools, and specifically seek “emails and other communications, as well as all board documents, regarding the display of the Ten Commandments.”
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Anheuser-Busch InBev Worldwide Inc., the global alcohol giant that owns Budweiser and Bud Light, filed a new lawsuit against Tennessee, seeking a refund of nearly $2 million in taxes paid in 2022 and 2023.
Filed in Davidson County Chancery Court on Friday, the company’s lawsuit seeks more than $1.8 million, plus interest, after Anheuser-Busch sent a refund request to the Tennessee Department of Revenue in August 2025. It names Tennessee Commissioner of Revenue David Gerregano as the defendant.
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Conservative media commentator, radio host, and media founder Clay Travis on Monday announced a $20,000 reward for information about the death of Cameron Frierson, the 16-year-old Hunters Lane High School student who was fatally shot at a North Nashville football game that Travis attended.
Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) confirmed the shooting on Saturday, announcing that Frierson was transported to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, but succumbed to his injuries while receiving treatment. Police said witnesses reported seeing the fatal shots fired from a white sedan with tinted windows.
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California Attorney General Rob Banta on Monday canceled a publicly announced meeting planned between his office and the Paramount Skydance Corporation, reportedly accusing the entertainment giant of “playing games.”
Banta leads California in a 12-state lawsuit seeking to block Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery., but on Monday was planning to hold settlement talks with the company. The lawsuit was notably filed despite an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice determining the merger could move forward.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) verified that it plans to open a Public Safety Coordination Center in Nashville after a federal database appeared to confirm the plan was underway.
In a Friday statement, ICE confirmed that the call center will field calls to support local and state law enforcement agencies that have entered into 287(g) agreements with the federal government.
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At least one Democrat on the Metro Nashville Council claimed local politicians were caught off guard by the decision to build a call center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Nashville, while a spokesperson for Mayor Freddie O’Connell said his office has yet to learn what will happen inside the building. State Representative Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) said the call center will house “ICE and its mercenaries of terror.”
“The Mayor’s Office is still in the process of getting a consistent depiction of what is planned,” said a spokesperson for O’Connell, according to WSMV 4. Metro Councilmember Jeff Gregg told the outlet that he and his colleagues “were blindsided by the announcement.”
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The Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association (TSA) and Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police (TACP) announced on Thursday that they are working on a framework for “responsible use of Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR/LPR) technology” amid opposition to the ALPR cameras sold by Flock Safety.
According to a press release from TSA and TACP, the associations are considering model safeguards that would require law enforcement to have a legitimate, documented need to access ALPR cameras, and to treat the images retrieved as “an investigative lead, not evidence of guilt, with human verification required before enforcement action.”
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A federal database confirmed this week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will open a new call center in Nashville, Tennessee, after launching a process to accept proposals from the public last year.
The confirmation came despite the confusion that came after The Tennessee Lookout reported last Friday that a federal database indicated the call center would actually be established in Adams, Tennessee, despite ICE recruiting personnel in Nashville. According to the outlet, the database was updated by Friday to show the call center would be established in Nashville.
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An affidavit of complaint filed by a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) trooper on Wednesday claims the driver of the vehicle that struck 11 members of the Milligan University cycling team, killing two, did not attempt to engage his brakes prior to the crash. It also alleged that law enforcement detected the odor of marijuana at the scene.
Milligan University acknowledged the accident on Wednesday, confirming sophomore students Haylan Engdahl and Brayden Rogers were fatally struck by the vehicle, while other members of the university’s cycling program were receiving treatment at Johnson City Medical Center for serious injuries they sustained.
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A nuclear reactor developer with a significant footprint in Tennessee on Tuesday announced the Nuclear Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Precast (NuCAMP), which will partner with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), educational institutions in West Tennessee, and major companies, in order to train the workforce necessary to build cutting edge reactors.
According to the company’s announcement, NuCAMP will involve a 12-month exploration phase for the companies and schools to “develop programs to qualify advanced manufacturing construction messages for nuclear applications and create career pathways for engineers and skilled tradespeople to put those methods into practice.”
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced that Clayton Bratcher, who was convicted of committing armed robberies in Memphis, was sentenced to 14-years in federal prison. Bratcher’s conviction by federal prosecutors followed the decision by Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy to enter into a plea agreement that dropped charges against the defendant.
The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee’s office said that Bratcher committed armed robberies at two McDonald’s locations, as well as a Taco Bell store, during late night hours between July 8-9 2023.
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A Tennessee man who pleaded guilty to exploiting a 12-year-old girl as part of his participation in the Nihilist Violent Extremist (NVE) network, 764, was allegedly leading a “devil worship” group while in Blount County Jail, federal prosecutors said in a court filing earlier this month.
In his 2024 plea agreement, Kyle William Spitze admitted to affiliation with 764, an NVE offshoot group called HarmNation, as well as two counts of production of child pornography, one count of possession of and accessing with intent to view child pornography, and one count of knowingly abetting the distribution of animal crushing videos.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday filed an appeal to the decision by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, to drop the federal government’s human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia over a purported failure of the DOJ to rebut claims of vindictive prosecution.
Submitted by U.S. Attorney Braden Boucek, the appeal argues, “The district court’s order dismissing the charges against Abrego is erroneous at every step.” The appeal claims Crenshaw applied an incorrect legal standard when weighing the possibility of vindictive prosecution, as no other judicial circuit allows the presumption of vindictiveness to be applied to an initial indictment.
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In a major victory for The Tennessee Star, the Tennessee Supreme Court declined to accept an appeal from Metro Nashville, the Covenant School, and a group of Covenant parents challenging a February ruling from the Tennessee Court of Appeals in the Covenant School killing-records lawsuit.
The denial issued last week leaves intact the appellate court’s decision reversing Tennessee Chancery Court Chancellor I’Ashea Myles’ broad order withholding the records, and sends the case back to Davidson County Chancery Court for further review.
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Tennessee State Senator Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) said she is “seeking legal redress” over the punishments meted out by Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) after her outburst during the Tennessee General Assembly’s special session that saw Republican majorities redraw the state’s congressional districts.
“During the redistricting special session in May, I made the courageous decision to stand on my Senate desk and sing with pride after the Speaker cut my mic while giving a floor speech. I held up a banner that read ‘No Jim Crow 2.0,'” wrote Oliver in a post to the online newsletter platform Substack. “For that, GOP leadership refused to count my ‘NO’ vote. Then they came for my paycheck.”
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Tennessee led the United States in property tax hikes from 2019 to 2025, according to an analysis by the Beacon Center of Tennessee.
The pro-free-market nonprofit think tank examined Wall Street Journal-produced data that shows Tennessee “with a double-digit lead over” Colorado, its nearest competitor. “The Volunteer State stands alone as the only state with over a 75 percent increase,” the Beacon Center revealed.
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A citizen of the United Kingdom, who was in Tennessee working as a Director for an Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) program, on Wednesday was sentenced to 19 years in prison for his sexual exploitation of two 17-year-old girls on social media, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
Andrew Worrall, 56, will serve 19 years in federal prison under the sentence imposed last week by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Varlan, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District this week allowed the Trump administration’s appeal of a decision blocking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia to proceed, but simultaneously granted the request by the foreign national to return his deportation fight to District Court Judge Paula Xinis.
In a decision released publicly on Wednesday, the three-judge Fourth Circuit panel rejected the portion of the appeal included by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that sought to reverse Xinis’ block on deporting Abrego Garcia to Liberia, the West Africa country that was first identified as the federal government’s preferred destination to deport him last October.
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The campaign manager for Dr. Telisa Franklin, the Democratic nominee for Tennessee’s 96th State House district, did not respond to a Thursday request from The Tennessee Star to provide details about the date she received her doctorate in divinity, or the doctoral thesis she submitted in order to obtain the credential, which is the highest formal academic or professional degree one can obtain in any field.
On her website, Franklin states that she obtained “a doctorate in Divinity and a Ph.D. in Christian Counseling,” but does not name the institution that granted the credential. Notably, a doctorate in divinity is abbreviated as D.Div., while a doctor of philosophy in Christian counseling is a Ph.D.
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An award winning teacher resigned from Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) on Tuesday, claiming she was asked to fabricate grades for a student in order to appease a parent, days after a New York educator received national media attention after raising similar concerns in a viral video.
“District leaders asked me to fabricate grades for a parent who sat in the office for hours until her daughter’s failing grades were changed. It creates false entitlement,” said former MNPS Samira Hardcastle during the public comment portion of the MNPS Board of Education meeting.
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The man arrested by the Carter County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) earlier this month following a cyber tip alleging he sexually abused a minor while live streaming himself to social media is an illegal alien from Mexico who entered the United States under former President Joe Biden, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The sheriff’s office announced the arrest of Pablo Altamirano Rodriguez, 30, on August 4, when he was charged with especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.
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This week the Democratic nominee for a Tennessee State House district in Memphis attended a speech by Ishmael Muhammad, the assistant to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Ishmael Muhammad defended the controversial musician Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, after his antisemitic posts to social media in 2022, and described “those who claim to be Jews” as part of “the synagogue of Satan” in 2024.
Just days after Dr. Telisa Franklin won the Democratic Primary for District 96 in the Tennessee State House against incumbent State Representative Gabby Salinas (D-Memphis) in a surprise upset, the Democratic nominee shared in a post to social media that she attended Ishmael Muhammad’s speech in Memphis on Sunday.
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State Representative Gabby Salinas (D-Memphis) lost her primary campaign for reelection last week in a surprise defeat to Dr. Telisa Franklin, a Memphis entrepreneur, in a 10-point landslide.
According to unofficial election results tracked by the Tennessee Secretary of State, Franklin won the Democratic primary with about 55.2 percent of the vote, while Salinas trailed at 44.8 percent. A total of 8,318 voters cast a ballot in the Democratic primary contest.
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The Metro Nashville Council told The Tennessee Star on Friday that it has identified as many as 1,548 emails that could include documents justifying the nearly $1.5 million granted to two pro-illegal alien nonprofits, but estimated the documents will not be ready for public release until November 13.
The Star filed the public records request after Mayor Freddie O’Connell requested $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and $718,000 for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), which both provide legal services, advice, or attorneys to illegal aliens facing deportation.
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The execution of Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines is scheduled for Thursday, and Governor Bill Lee confirmed it will proceed under Tennessee’s revised lethal injection protocol that was approved in 2024.
Hines was convicted and sentenced in 1986 by a Cheatham County jury of the robbery, rape, and murder of Katherine Jean Jenkins, who was working as a motel maid at a Kingston Springs hotel at the time of the attack. A second jury imposed the same sentence in 1989.
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After securing the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 9th Congressional District on Thursday, State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) named SpaceXAI owner Elon Musk in his Thursday victory speech. In a post to social media, Pearson said the victory came despite “attacks” from Musk and his company.
“Exactly 61 years from the signing of the Voting Rights Act, we won our primary despite a redistricting blow that cracked Memphis’s representation in Congress,” wrote Pearson in a post to X, including a portion of his victory speech.
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President Donald Trump on Friday endorsed former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher in the general election for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, and described Hatcher as “a Great ‘Trump’ candidate.”
Trump previously endorsed U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) last year, but in his endorsement of Hatcher, the president said that he “remained loyal” to Ogles despite the incumbent having “virtually no chance of winning” against Hatcher.
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Candace Owens asked a federal court in Tennessee to dismiss portions of the defamation lawsuit filed against her by Brian Harpole, the former head of security for Charlie Kirk.
Owens’ Thursday filing said the lawsuit should be dismissed, in part, because her statements about Harpole are “inactionable opinions, rhetorical hyperbole, and questions incapable of defamatory meaning.”
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The final report submitted by the Davidson County Grand Jury for the April term expressed concerns about bond practices in Tennessee, noting a “significant portion” of crimes involved “repeat offenders with documented criminal histories” who were free on bond for a criminal case when they were arrested for the a second time.
According to the report, the crimes which landed defendants back before a grand jury were sometimes “directly related to their prior conduct.”
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The Metro Nashville Council on Tuesday approved the plan announced in June by Mayor Freddie O’Connell to seize a property with eminent domain in order to keep it from being converted into a data center, citing its proximity to the Nashville Zoo.
Noting the property was appraised at $37.4 million, and must be reappraised before the process is complete, the ordinance approved by the Metro Council authorizes Metro to acquire the building and about 23 acres of land through either negotiation or condemnation.
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The American Exceptionalism Institute (AEI), the dark money group currently spending more than $1 million to defeat U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in the Republican gubernatorial primary, is connected through tax, business, and campaign paperwork to at least three other political action committees (PACs) that have operated in Tennessee since 2024, which seem to all share connection to Missouri-based political strategist Jeff Roe, or his company, Axiom Strategies.
For example, tax records from 2023 show AEI contributed $3.25 million to the American Policy Coalition (APC). That year, APC sent $95,000 to the East Tennessee Conservatives, which Tennessee campaign records show heavily supported the campaign of State Senator Bobby Harshbarger (R-Sullivan County).
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A lawsuit challenging Tennessee’s new law making it a state-level offense to be in the country illegally was refiled last week, after it was dismissed in June for lack of standing. In the new version of the lawsuit, both plaintiffs admit they are in the United States illegally, and have been violating final deportation orders for more than two decades.
The lawsuit argues that Tennessee’s law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, claiming that Tennessee created a state immigration-enforcement system for those ordered deported by the federal government, effectively allowing state officials to make arrests and impose punishment without federal approval or oversight.
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Governor Bill Lee on Wednesday endorsed former Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture Charlie Hatcher over the incumbent Republican, U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), according to The Tennessean.
According to the outlet, Lee endorsed Hatcher on Wednesday, just two days before the August 6 primary, in “a slight” to Ogles.
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State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) said those who create and build artificial intelligence (AI) products and data centers are a “threat to humanity” during an interview with German-owned Politico Magazine published on Sunday.
Currently seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination to represent the Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District, and a longtime opponent of Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI, told the outlet, “AI is controlled by people.”
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A spokesman for Flock Safety told The Tennessee Star on Saturday that it is ready to work with public officials in Knox County, where Mayor Glenn Jacobs recently called for the Flock cameras to be removed, as well as lawmakers in the Tennessee General Assembly, where State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) said legislation would be introduced in January 2027.
Flock Safety public relations manager Paris Lewbel provided the statement to The Star in response to an inquiry about the bill recently submitted to Congress by U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02), which would prohibit federal agencies from purchasing or using the company’s license plate reader (LPR) technology. It would also block state and local governments from using federal funding to purchase Flock products.
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Federal financial disclosure filings submitted by U.S. Representative John Rose (R-TN-06) appear inconsistent, with his 2024 annual report listing between $250,001 and $500,000 in Alphabet Class A stock on December 31, and a transaction report filed last year stating he sold between $1 million and $5 million of the same stock from the same brokerage account on June 3, 2025. Alphabet is the parent company of Google.
Two more items on the June 2025 report appear to indicate Rose sold between $1 million and $2 million worth of shares of the American Funds SMALLCAP World Fund Class A mutual fund, while his 2024 annual disclosure showed he held between $500,001 and $1 million worth of shares in the fund.
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When campaigning for his first term in Congress, U.S. Representative John Rose (R-TN-06) publicly supported former Governor Bill Haslam’s Improving Manufacturing, Public Roads, and Opportunities for a Vibrant Economy Act (IMPROVE) of 2017, which saw Tennessee gas taxes increase six cents over three years.
Rose stated his public position on the gas tax hike during a Smith County event in August 2017, when he told Haslam, “I just want to say I applaud you for making this proposal. I fully support it.”
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