The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced Wednesday they are joining forces in an effort to help bolster U.S. manufacturing.
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Energy Secretary Chris Wright didn’t mince words about the Trump administration’s new energy strategy.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill,” he said, “removes the nonsense and distortions from energy markets and unleashes American business to produce energy that works—without subsidies.”
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The Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced Wednesday they are joining forces in an effort to help bolster U.S. manufacturing.
SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer announced the move during an event at the DOL on Wednesday morning. Chavez-DeRemer and Loeffler also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aiming to revitalize American manufacturing.
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Country music artist and conservative pundit John Rich credited President Donald Trump on Tuesday after the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) confirmed a residential part of Cheatham County, Tennessee, is no longer the “preferred” location for a new power plant.
Rich, who led opposition to the TVA plan that would have placed a new power plant inside a residential neighborhood, first confirmed speaking to the president on Tuesday afternoon, predicting a major announcement from TVA would follow.
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Consumer prices increased more than expected in June as Americans face higher prices on a wide range of imported goods as President Donald Trump’s tariffs show up in federal economic reports for the first time.
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U, showed a 0.3% increase last month – triple May’s 0.1% pace and the most significant monthly gain since January, when Trump returned to the White House for his second term.
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The Teamsters union’s trash-workers strike has spread from Boston to California as Republic Services employees on the West Coast stand in solidarity with their colleagues on the East Coast amid trash pileups.
A total of about 450 Republic Services workers represented by the union in the Boston area have been on strike since July 1. But the work stoppage has spread to Southern California and now includes several thousand workers, the Los Angeles Times reported. Sanitation workers have stopped working in cities in the Bay Area and the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego.
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General Motors (GM) and LG Energy Solution’s joint venture Ultium Cells LLC announced its plans to shift operations at its Spring Hill battery cell manufacturing facility to produce low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.
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China and Canada led the ranks of foreign buyers snapping up U.S. homes, according to a new report.
Foreigners bought $56 billion worth of existing U.S. homes from April 2024 through March 2025, according to the National Association of Realtors 2025 International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate report.
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Tennessee’s annual sales tax holiday is set to take effect next week for three days.
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The Department of the Treasury on Friday announced that the government had posted a surplus for June due to an influx in tariff revenue.
The Treasury’s monthly statement revealed that the government had posted $499 billion in outlets during June while bringing in $526 billion in revenue. The $27 billion surplus was also the exact value of receipts from “customs duties.” Since the beginning of the year, moreover, the U.S. has brought in $108 billion in customs duties.
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Nearly 46 million acres of forest and farmland are held by foreign investors, including by countries hostile to America, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Foreign Farm Land Purchases map, unveiled to the public Thursday, highlights the increase of “foreign persons” buying up land across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, which many lawmakers have deemed a national security risk.
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A homebuilding company announced on Thursday it will invest $6.8 million as part of its expansion in Tennessee.
Clayton Supply said this expansion will create 90 new jobs in Morristown. Its current operation in the town of around 35,000 residents, the company makes doors for its homebuilding facilities in America.
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Federal spending outlays will increase a whopping $3.38 trillion from their 2024 level of $6.87 trillion to $10.2 trillion by 2034, according to former President Joe Biden’s last budget submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The estimates are a year old, and we still await President Donald Trump’s first full budget that will adjust the baseline, hopefully taking into account the impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but it is still instructive about the dire fiscal trajectory the American people find themselves on.
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A little-known rule implemented in late 2024, Revenue Ruling 2024-14 (RR 2024-14), has drawn criticism from Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and business groups for its impact on partnerships, including small businesses and family farms in Tennessee and nationwide. The rule expands IRS authority to audit and penalize partnerships, often retroactively.
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The recent cuts announced by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to its LGBTQ Health Program reportedly include the controversial “Trans Buddy” program previously employed by the hospital, which connected a network of volunteers with patients who identified as transgender and sought treatment at VUMC.
Though eliminated through cuts that were announced last month in response to the anticipated loss of funding under the Trump administration, Tennessee Lookout reported on Tuesday that those involved with the program were only notified it would be impacted through social media posts, which the outlet said prompted a stern letter from the LGBTQ Caucus of the Metropolitan Council last week.
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President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he is levying tariffs against South Korea and Japan beginning in August.
Trump announced in two separate posts to Truth Social that the two countries will each face a 25% tariff beginning on August 1. The president wrote in separate letters addressed to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, respectively, that the new tariffs will be “modified, upward or downward,” depending on the U.S.’ “relationship” with their countries.
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Stronger-than-expected job numbers in June put the Federal Reserve chairman in a bind as President Donald Trump escalates pressure on the central bank to slash interest rates.
The Federal Reserve, governed by its mandate to keep price levels stable and facilitate full employment, will find it hard to cut interest rates. The Fed normally lowers rates when unemployment is rising or inflation has consistently met its 2% target. Despite a decline in the inflation rate from its recent highs, the measure still remains above the Fed’s target.
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One of the largest private mail and parcel carriers in the United States is slashing 20,000 jobs and offering voluntary buyouts to its full-time drivers.
The move by UPS is part of the company’s plans to cut overall costs following a decision earlier this year to reduce the number of Amazon deliveries it handles, the Daily Mail reported in April.
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The Shelby County Health Department on Wednesday approved a construction permit for the installation of 15 turbines to power Elon Musk’s xAI Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, which the billionaire said would become the world’s largest. Colossus is used to power the artificial intelligence (AI) chat bot Grok.
According to the permit, xAI has authorization to install 15 combustion turbine units that will be powered using natural gas, with many of the turbines turbines subject to regular testing, and the facility required to keep regular emissions records. Should xAI be deemed out of compliance with the permit, it explains the company can be fined up to $10,000 per day, per violation.
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In an April 2025 executive order, President Trump affirmed that offshore critical minerals are key to creating supply chains that do not depend on adversaries like the People’s Republic of China. While US leadership on deep-sea mining directly serves the nation’s resource needs, it also brings mutually-beneficial partnerships with other nations.
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Antitrust concerns don’t arise without good reason. More often than not, modern-day mergers between larger players in an industry can mean layoffs for workers and bad deals for consumers. It’s rare that a good deal comes along that spurs economic investment, brings back jobs to the U.S., while benefiting consumers. But that’s the case with the proposed combination of Charter and Cox Communications.
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained Wednesday how tax certainty, cheap energy, and deregulation will transform the U.S. into a top destination for capital.
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Amazon now fields more than one million robots in its warehouses and says parity with its human headcount is coming soon, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Roughly 75% of the e-commerce giant’s global deliveries already involve a robot somewhere along the line, the Journal reported, from wheeled Kiva droids that shuttle shelves to the new Vulcan bot that can “feel” its way through cluttered bins. Average staffing has fallen to about 670 employees per facility, its lowest in 16 years, even as packages handled per worker have soared more than twenty-fold since 2015.
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A Tennessee-based company announced plans on Monday to invest $12 million in expanding its manufacturing operations in Robertson County. Tate Ornamental said this investment will create an additional 50 new jobs, bringing its workforce in Tennessee to 250. The investment and additional staff will enhance the company’s production capacity by enabling the construction of a state-of-the-art facility near its existing metal and stone plants. Construction for this operation is estimated to begin in January 2027. Tate Ornamental started in 1988 and is a family-owned design, fabrication, installation and freight company. Reacting to the news, Gov. Bill Lee said brands like Tate Ornamental shape Tennessee. Lee thanked the company for its continued investment in the state’s “highly skilled workforce.” Ronald Tate, the president of Tate Ornamental, said the company is “excited” to continue its growth in Tennessee. “While we do work all over the country and had the option to expand elsewhere, choosing to invest again in our hometown was an easy decision,” Tate explained. “White House has been a foundation for our company for many years, and we’re proud to keep building here, creating jobs here and continuing to be part of this community’s future.” White House Mayor John Corbitt…
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President Donald Trump revealed on Sunday that his administration found a buyer for TikTok and he will reveal their identity within the next two weeks.
He said there is a group of “very wealthy people” behind the potential deal.
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Canada announced Sunday that it is rescinding its digital services tax (DST) in an attempt to restart trade negotiations with the U.S. government.
Canada’s finance minister François-Philippe Champagne announced in a statement that the tax would be revoked “in anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement” with the United States. The announcement comes after President Donald Trump announced Friday that he was scrapping trade talks with Canada over the country’s decision to impose a DST on U.S. technology companies, which he referred to as a “direct and blatant attack on our Country” in a Truth Social post, adding that the tax was “egregious.”
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A Massachusetts-based company announced on Monday that it will invest nearly $75 million to open its first location in Tennessee.
Little Leaf Farms (LLF), a company that packages lettuce, said this expansion will create 318 new jobs in Manchester over the next five years.
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The federal government’s grip on America’s housing finance system is contributing to the very affordability crisis it claims to solve.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-controlled mortgage giants, now back more than half the $16 trillion residential mortgage market. While they don’t issue loans directly, they purchase mortgages from lenders and securitize them, funneling credit through a government-directed system that distorts prices, encourages risk-taking, and leaves taxpayers exposed.
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Tennessee’s tourism industry broke records in 2024 for the amount of funds generated in direct visitor spending and the number of visitors throughout the year.
Last year, the state welcomed 147 million visitors and generated $31.7 billion in direct visitor spending, according to data compiled by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development (TDTD) and a report conducted by the Tourism Economics group.
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All Tennessee counties in May had an unemployment rate at or below 5 percent.
The state’s current jobless rate stands at 3.5 percent, which ties it for America’s 17th lowest unemployment rate. This marks the second consecutive month that the Volunteer State has had this jobless rate.
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President Donald Trump on Thursday touted that the United States has brought in $88 billion in just two months under the tariffs he announced in April, and that now “everybody” wants a trade deal with the U.S.
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Navigating online casinos in Tennessee can be a bit confusing. The rules for Tennessee are shaped by its history and reflect the legalization of online sports betting. Know what’s legal, what types of platforms are available, and how to play safely and responsibly. Let’s break it down so you know your options and risks before you jump in.
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Sales of existing-homes in the U.S. rose 0.8% in May from the prior month, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.
Sales grew in the Northeast, Midwest and South, but retreated in the West. Year-over-year, sales progressed in the Northeast and Midwest but contracted in the South and West.
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Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) will cut positions from its workforce amid budget concerns after President Donald Trump signed executive orders in January that prohibited using federal money to fund programs, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and as Congress seeks to impose Medicaid eligibility requirements through the Big, Beautiful Bill Act.
VUMC notified the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development last week that it would terminate 615 non-union workers, from multiple Nashville locations, effective on June 27. VUMC later told reporters the total number of cuts would amount to 650 jobs.
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Tennessee’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in May.
The state’s jobless rate remained at 3.5 percent, the same as in April.
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President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown is exposing just how dependent some U.S. industries have become on employing illegal immigrants.
After years of looking the other way, the federal government under Trump is cracking down on illegal immigration. Now, many employers in the agriculture, construction and hospitality sectors who built their business models on cheap, unauthorized labor are feeling the pain, Bloomberg reported Friday.
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Trump administration senior advisor Kari Lake on Friday announced mass layoffs at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, affecting hundreds of employees.
“USAGM now operates near the statutory minimum; lean and focused. This is a clear example of responsible government—cutting waste, restoring accountability, and delivering on the promise to put American taxpayers first,” Lake said.
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Howmet Aerospace officials announced on Tuesday that they will expand their Morristown operations.
With this new expansion, Howmet Aerospace will create 217 additional jobs. This follows last year’s announcement from the company that it would invest $28 million in Morristown, creating 50 new jobs.
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The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday in its fourth meeting of 2025 that it would continue to hold interest rates steady.
The Fed’s decision to maintain its target range at 4.25% to 4.5% met economists’ expectations. The central bank similarly decided to hold interest rates steady in its previous three meetings of 2025.
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Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has made nearly $3 million from her memoir, “Lovely One,” according to a financial disclosure.
The disclosure released Tuesday showed that Jackson received $2 million of the advance last year for the book, in addition to about $900,000 that publisher Penguin Random House paid her in 2023, Politico reported. Her memoir reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list following its release.
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday received its first request to consider whether President Donald Trump’s tariffs are constitutional.
Two educational toy companies, Learning Resources and hand2mind, urged the justices to immediately take up their case rather than letting it play out in the lower court.
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U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said in a Monday interview that Tennessee is poised to become a top “energy hub” for the United States, making it an ideal destination for Bitcoin mining, after the U.S. Senate passes his landmark cryptocurrency bill.
Hagerty made the remarks during an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, telling correspondent Frank Corva that Tennessee stands to tangibly benefit from the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, which would establish congressional regulations for the issuance of digital currencies tied to the American dollar.
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College graduates who immigrated to the U.S. on student visas earn substantially more than their native-born counterparts, according to an analysis by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG).
The median salary for natural-born U.S. college graduates, as of 2023, is $87,000, while graduates who initially came to the U.S. on student visas earned a median of $115,000, the EIG’s analysis of the National Survey of College Graduates showed. The findings follow the Trump administration’s heightened scrutiny of foreign students amid concerns over national security and antisemitism on campuses.
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The Center for Transyouth Health and Development (CTYHD) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), one of the largest youth transgender clinics in the nation, is shutting its doors due to increasing pressure from the Trump administration, The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.
CTYHD — which has provided transgender-related procedures such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries to thousands of minors — will close on July 22, according to internal emails reviewed by The Los Angeles Times. Hospital leadership cited “increasingly severe impacts of federal administrative actions and proposed policies” against transgender procedures performed on minors.
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General Motors (GM) quietly backed away from its high-profile pledge to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles over the next decade, effectively abandoning the electric vehicle (EV) transition it once championed, E&E News reported Thursday.
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Three Congressmen from Arizona, along with a Texas Congressman, sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) on Wednesday urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick not to terminate the Tomato Suspension Agreement (TSA). The DOC announced its intent to withdraw from the 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement with Mexico on April 14, 2025, with termination effective July 14, 2025. This will result in 20.91 percent tariffs on tomatoes from Mexico.
Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), Elijah Crane (R-AZ-02), Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06), and Tony Gonzales (R-TX-23) warned that up to 50,000 jobs will be lost in Arizona and Texas if the TSA is terminated. Critics contended that Mexico was dumping its tomatoes at rates lower than fair market price on the U.S. market, so should be required to pay the 20.91 percent tariff penalty for dumping.
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President Donald Trump announced Wednesday morning that a new U.S.-China trade agreement, negotiated in London earlier this week, is “done.”
Talks resumed after the May 12 trade truce between the two countries collapsed, with each side accusing the other of failing to uphold the terms of the agreement. The new deal restores the earlier framework while addressing ongoing disputes around rare earth elements, according to Trump and other U.S. officials.
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Google on Tuesday offered voluntary buyouts to U.S.-based employees across multiple divisions — including its search, advertising, research and engineering teams — as the tech giant continues trimming costs while simultaneously funding massive AI investments.
The “voluntary exit program” affects workers in Google’s Knowledge and Information division, which houses search and ad operations, as well as engineering, marketing and communications teams. Some divisions are also requiring remote workers living within 50 miles of an office to return to hybrid schedules or face potential terminations.
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Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order (EO) on Tuesday that seeks to strengthen the state’s workforce program.
This EO requires the State Workforce Development Board (SWDR) to adopt a results-driven approach that aligns education and training with the changing needs of employers and industries.
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As a former Ohio Treasurer, I know the sheer impact farmers have on Ohio’s economy — and I am concerned that out-of-state lobbyists are trying to undermine President Trump’s agricultural trade deals to rig the free market against our state’s hardworking growers.
The Ohio agricultural sector is responsible for generating $15 billion in cash receipts, or 3% of our total GDP. And now, Ohio is championing greenhouse production, the next revolution in American agriculture, which will turbocharge this already impressive GDP number in the coming years — if we don’t let special interests shut it down.
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