FBI Asking for Help Identifying More Victims of Alleged Tennessee Child Exploiter

James C. Thompson

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it needs help locating other potential victims of a serial child exploiter from east Tennessee. 

Last week, a federal grand jury in Knoxville returned a three-count indictment against James Thompson, 71, of Lookout Mountain. The indictment alleges that Thompson transported minors across state lines with the intent of engaging in sexual activity back in 2000. 

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Unsubstantiated Allegation by WSMV Reporter Prompts Judge to Order Show Cause Hearing over The Tennessee Star’s Reporting on Covenant Killer Investigation

WSMV Stacey Cameron

Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, could face contempt charges or other punitive action on June 17 over his publication’s reporting of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Hale after her devastating attack on the Covenant School on March 27, 2023 that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults.

The court date was set following an unsubstantiated allegation from WSMV 4 reporter Stacey Cameron to Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles.

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University of California Workers Must End Strike Over Handling of Anti-Israel Protests, Judge Rules

United Auto Workers Local 4811 strike

UAW Local 4811 President Rafael Jaime had said that UC has “used and condoned violence against workers and students peacefully protesting on campus for peace and freedom in Palestine” for the last month.

University of California academic workers must end their strike over the university system’s response to anti-Israel protests on campuses in the university system, according to a California judge order.

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Arizona A.G. Mayes Warns Against ‘Parallel Investigations’ in Hobbs Group Home Debacle

Arizona A.G. Kris Mayes, Gov. Katie Hobbs

Attorney General Kris Mayes is asking Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell to take a step back from possibly investigating an alleged “pay for play” scheme involving Gov. Katie Hobbs and Sunshine Residential Homes.

Mayes’ criminal division has an investigation open, but the Auditor General’s Office and Mitchell are also coordinating a possible investigation after the auditor general reached out to Mitchell’s office. 

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Former Atlanta Assistant City Attorney Sentenced to Prison for PPP Fraud

Shelitha Robertson

A federal judge has sentenced a former assistant Atlanta city attorney to prison following her conviction on charges she fraudulently applied for and received Paycheck Protection Program loans.

In December, a jury convicted Shelitha Robertson, 62, of Atlanta, of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of money laundering and three counts of wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg sentenced Robertson to seven years and three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.

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Pelosi Declared in Video Shot by Daughter ‘I Take Responsibility’ for Jan. 6 Security Failures

Nancy Pelosi in front of January 6 protesters (composite image)

Moments after being whisked away from the U.S. Capitol after it was breached on Jan. 6, 2021, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was captured on videotape declaring “I take responsibility” for failing to have a better security plan for the complex that fateful day, according to footage released Monday by House GOP investigators.

“We have responsibility, Terri,” Pelosi is heard saying on the videotape to her chief of staff, Terri McCullough. “We did not have any accountability for what was going on there, and we should have. This is ridiculous.”

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Democrat Lawfare Failed to Derail Trump Campaign So Far, While Triggering Financial Avalanche

Donald Trump

Four indictments and one set of convictions later, a Democrat-led lawfare strategy has failed so far to derail Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House, but it has triggered an avalanche of financial support as the former president hold leads in most battleground states that will decide the 2024 election.

No where was Trump’s resilience more obvious than his travels across the West Coast this weekend, where he collected $12 million at a Silicon Valley fund-raiser at the home of a Big Tech executive who used to support Hillary Clinton, scored millions more at events in blue southern California and then jetted off to Las Vegas for a boisterous rally in Nevada where a post-conviction poll showed him leading that once-Biden-friendly state by five points.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Claimed She Had ‘Too Much Estrogen, or I’m Just a Sad, Lonely Boy’ in Recovered Journal

Audrey Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote about having “too much estrogen” and described herself as “a sad, lonely boy,” in the journal police recovered from her vehicle after her attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults on March 27, 2023.

The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation, including several several entries where Hale wrote about her struggles with gender identity.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Claimed ‘Independence is Impossible’ Due to ‘My Autism’ in Recovered Journal

Audrey Elizabeth Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale claimed in her journal, recovered by police after her March 27, 2023 attack, that she would be unable to lead an independent life due to her purported autism diagnosis.

The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages written by Hale from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Wrote Dozen Journal Entries About Love for Middle School Friend She Contacted on Day of Attack

Audrey Hale, Averianna the Personality

The journal recovered by police from the vehicle driven by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale contains more than a dozen entries about Paige Averianna Patton, a Nashville-based radio personality who Hale previously befriended as a middle school student.

The Tennessee Star reported last Wednesday it obtained about 80 pages from Hale’s journal via a source close to the Covenant investigation, including a total of 18 that appear to mention Patton either by name or indirectly.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Left Parents Suicide Note with Instructions for ‘If I Don’t Survive My Massacre’

Audrey Elizabeth Hale

The Tennessee Star has obtained the suicide note left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale to her parents before her devastating March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.

Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigators found the note posted to Hale’s bedroom wall, which The Star has learned was adorned with childhood memorabilia and photos.

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Arizona Border Agents Seize Enough Lethal Drugs to Kill 28.5 Million

Fentanyl pills seized by Customs and Border Patrol

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents continue to seize record amounts of fentanyl, methamphetamine, weapons and ammunition at the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Arizona.

Seizures in the month of May continued the trend of agents catching alleged smugglers attempting to bring drugs into the U.S. and weapons to Mexico. Cartel and gang operatives have a pattern of smuggling people and drugs into the U.S. and weapons, ammunition, cash and other contraband using stolen cars, to Mexico, law enforcement officials told The Center Square.

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DEI Programs Could Soon Face Supreme Court

The controversial business practice known as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) could soon see its legal challenges take it all the way to the Supreme Court.

According to Axios, the case that could spark Supreme Court action was filed by the same group that successfully saw the practice of affirmative action overturned by the court last year. The current case saw an appeals court ultimately rule that a venture capital firm had to shut down its grant program that was exclusively for black women.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Called Herself ‘White Nothingness,’ Wrote About Romantic Desire for ‘Brown Girls’ in Recovered Journal

Audrey-Elizabeth Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale appeared to refer to herself as “white nothingness” twice and express her physical attraction to “brown girls” in the journal police recovered from her vehicle.

The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation. The writings were recovered by the Metro Nashville Police Department on the day of the March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.

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Second Texas Court Rules That Texas Bar Has No Evidence Sidney Powell Violated Ethics Rules with 2020 Election Lawsuits

Former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell, who brought four lawsuits challenging the results of the 2020 election, was cleared of charges from the State Bar of Texas by the Texas Court of Appeals this month. The court ruled in a 24-page opinion upholding the trial court that the Texas Bar’s Commission for Lawyer Discipline failed to show how she engaged in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation” in lawsuits she filed challenging Donald Trump’s presidential loss.

The lower trial court found that the evidence against Powell was so lacking that it granted no-evidence summary judgment for her against the Texas bar, which the Texas bar appealed. The higher court criticized the Texas bar, “The Bar employed a ‘scattershot’ approach to the case, which left this court and the trial court ‘with the task of sorting through the argument to determine what issue ha[d] actually been raised.’”

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Commentary: Facebook Post Sparks Debate Over Possible Mistrial in Trump Case

Donald Trump

I think that it was the great Miranda Devine, she of the “laptop from hell” fame, who first called the world’s attention to the latest wrinkle in the long-running “Get Trump” extravaganza in New York.  Anyway, I first heard about it from her post on X Friday. “If this is legit,” she wrote, commenting on a letter purportedly from Acting Justice Juan Merchan to Donald Trump’s Counsel and the Manhattan DA’s office,  “it should wipe out Trump’s conviction.”

Eh, what?

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Vanderbilt Silent on Possible Transgender Treatment for Covenant Killer Audrey Hale

Vanderbilt Madical Center, North

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is silent about whether Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale sought transgender drugs, surgeries or other gender affirming treatment following the revelation she was a 22-year mental health patient of staff at VUMC.

VUMC has not replied to multiple requests for comment from The Tennessee Star following the revelations, which include confirmation that Hale was prescribed at least four medications from VUMC and was treated by mental health professionals associated with VUMC since April 2001.

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Air Force Slapped with Lawsuit After Stonewalling Release of Transgender Health Unit Records

Air Force

A recently filed lawsuit from a national security think tank is alleging that the U.S. Air Force is wrongfully withholding records related to its transgender care services.

The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in August 2023 seeking materials related to the Air Force’s Transgender Health Medical Evaluation Unit (THEMU), according to a copy of the suit obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Air Force initially acknowledged the FOIA request but then failed to provide further updates to CASA, prompting the think tank to file a lawsuit in late May against the branch in a Washington, D.C., district court for the records.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Wrote About Desire to Kill Her Father in Recovered Journal

Audrey Elizabeth Hale

The journal recovered from the vehicle driven by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale includes at least five entries expressing animosity toward her father, including one page where Hale wrote of her desire to kill him.

The Tennessee Star confirmed last Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages written by Audrey Hale from a source close to the Covenant investigation.

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Arizona AG Opens Criminal Probe into Corruption Allegations Tied to Gov. Katie Hobbs

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs

Arizona’s top law enforcement official has opened a criminal probe into corruption allegations involving Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs and donations from a group home business.

Attorney General Kris Mayes notified the Legislature that she had received a criminal referral from a GOP lawmaker involving allegations with Sunshine Residential Homes and had agreed to open a probe.

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Six States, Three Tribes to Receive $130 Million to Rehab for Abandoned Mine Land

Abandoned Land mine

Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will each receive $28.7 million in funding through the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization plan in fiscal year 2024.

The funding comes through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which put $11.3 billion in funding for the program over 15 years. In total, six states and three tribes will receive a combined $130 million.

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Journal Entry Reveals How Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Spent Last Week Before Attack

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale made a list of activities to complete prior to March 27, 2023, when she committed the devastating attack which claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.

The Tennessee Star confirmed on Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings that were recovered from the vehicle she drove to the school from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Wrote About Reuniting with Deceased Middle School Friend After Death: ‘We Will Become Whole’

Sydney Sims

Covenant School killer Audrey Hale wrote extensively about a former classmate and friend who died suddenly following a 2022 vehicle accident, seemingly detailing fantasies in which they would reunite after Hale’s death.

The Tennessee Star confirmed on Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings that were recovered from her vehicle after her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults working at the school.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Wrote ‘Freelance Failure’ List Charting Professional Shortcomings in Recovered Journal

Audrey Hale Office

Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who orchestrated the devastating Covenant School attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults on March 27, 2023, wrote a list of her professional failures in the journal police recovered from her vehicle.

The Tennessee Star reported on Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings from a source close to the Covenant investigation.

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Audrey Hale Claimed She Planned Covenant Attack for Five Years in Recovered Journal, Plan ‘Near Perfection’

Audrey Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale wrote in a journal recovered from her vehicle that she planned her attack for five years and prepared meticulously until her devastating plot was “near perfection.”

The Tennessee Star reported on Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages of Hale’s writings which police recovered from her vehicle from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation. 

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Libertarian Party of Tennessee Breaks Silence, Condemns ‘Clearly Politically Motivated’ Conviction of President Trump

The Libertarian Party of Tennessee released a statement Thursday, one week after former President Donald Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury on all 34 counts in the falsification of business records linked to the Stormy Daniels hush money scandal, condemning the “clearly politically motivated” conviction of the former president.

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Hunter Biden’s Seemingly Paradoxical Legal Defense Strategy

Hunter Biden courtroom

Defense lawyers are approaching Hunter Biden’s felony gun trial with a strategy to paint the first son as the victim of his drug addiction but at the same time convey that he did not believe he was an addict when he allegedly lied on a federal firearm purchase form.

The defense argument, described by one legal analyst as “remarkably clever,” is designed to sow reasonable doubt in the jurors’ minds that Biden had full knowledge he was lying when he marked that he was not using drugs on the purchase form when he bought a firearm in Delaware in 2016. At the same time, the defense attempted to paint Biden as a victim of his own addictions, possibly to elicit sympathy from the jury.

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Florida Supreme Court Sides with DeSantis over Removal of Soros-Backed Prosecutor

Monique Worrell

On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in favor of Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) over his decision to remove a far-left prosecutor from her post.

As Fox News reports, DeSantis first suspended State Attorney Monique Worrel in August of 2023, accusing her of “dereliction of duty” due to her soft-on-crime policies. Worrel subsequently sued the DeSantis Administration and demanded that she be reinstated, claiming that her firing was an “arbitrary, unsubstantiated exercise of the suspension power.”

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Minnesota Supreme Court Won’t Let Group of Moms Defend Parental Notification Law for Abortions

MOMS

The Minnesota Supreme Court has declined to hear a case brought by a group called Mothers Offering Maternal Support (MOMS), which sought to intervene in the ruling of the Ramsey County District Court in the 2022 case Dr. Jane Doe, et al. v. State of Minnesota.  In that case, the court struck down Minnesota’s remaining abortion restrictions, including a requirement that practitioners give parents notice before performing an abortion on a minor.

In the aftermath of the ruling, most of Minnesota’s former abortion restrictions were officially removed from the statutes during the state’s 2023 legislative session. However, one precondition that remained on the books was the parental notification requirement. This requirement became MOMS’ primary object of focus in its attempts to secure an intervention in the case.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Declared Herself ‘Most Unhappy Boy Alive’ in Recovered Journal

Audrey Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Hale, who was born a biological female but identified as a transgender male during her March 27, 2023 attack, described herself as the “most unhappy boy alive” in a journal police recovered from her vehicle.

The Tennessee Star reported on Wednesday it obtained dozens of pages from the journal Hale brought with her to the Covenant School from a source close to the investigation. In this entry, Hale described struggling with gender identity.

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Alleged Cyberstalker McKenzie McClure Ordered to ‘Open-Door’ Psychiatric Center in East Tennessee

McKenzie McClure, Pasaenda Villa

The mental health facility alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure was ordered to be released to on Monday to an “open-door” psychiatric treatment center in East Tennessee.

Pasadena Villa in Sevierville, Tennessee, houses patients who voluntarily stay there, according to testimony by Admissions Coordinator Sabina Shakoor. Personnel cannot force patients to stay, and patients have left the facility voluntarily in the past, she continued.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Claimed to Call Suicide Prevention Helpline Five Times, Denied Being ‘Bi-Polar’ in Journal Entry

Person on Phone

Covenant School killer Audrey Hale wrote in a journal, recovered from her vehicle after the attack, that she was accused of being “bi-polar” and called a number listed online as the National Suicide Prevention Helpline five times just over two months before the shooting.

The Tennessee Star confirmed on Wednesday it has about 80 pages of Hale’s writings from her journal, which were obtained from a source close to the Covenant investigation. In this journal entry, dated January 16, 2023, Hale also expressed concerns about losing her possessions after her death.

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MNPD Learned on Day of Covenant Shooting Audrey Hale Had Been Treated by Vanderbilt Psychiatric for 22 Years from 2001 Until Her 2023 Death

Covenant School Shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale

Metro Nashville Police Department learned Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale was a 22-year patient of mental health professionals at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) on March 27, 2023, the same day she orchestrated her devastating attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults working at the school.

The Tennessee Star obtained the June 1, 2023 affidavit filed by an MNPD detective to obtain a search warrant for VUMC from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Used Federal Pell Grant Funds to Buy Guns She Used in March 2023 Mass Shooting at Christian School

Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale reportedly used funds from a federal Pell grant to buy the guns she used to perpetrate a mass shooting in March, 2023.

99.7 WTN afternoon radio host Brian Wilson reported Wednesday that Hale “took money from an education grant she received to purchase her weapons and to pay for training at a local gun range.”

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Maryland County Walks Back Sanctuary Policy After Illegal Immigrant Child Sex Offender Released into Community

Raul Calderon-Interiano

Leaders in a deep blue jurisdiction are agreeing to better coordinate with federal immigration authorities after their county detention center released an illegal immigrant child sex offender from its custody, according to local reports.

In a joint statement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Baltimore County officials on Wednesday announced modifications to their policies on holding illegal immigrants charged with a crime when they are subject to immigration detainer requests, the Baltimore Sun reported. The statement follows uproar over the local release of Raul Calderon-Interiano, a Guatemalan national convicted of child sex abuse and living illegally in the U.S.

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Court: ‘Executive Deputy Director’ Role in Hobbs Administration Violates Arizona Law

Katie Hobbs

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, who has “Executive Deputy Directors” running state agencies, lost in court on Wednesday. Hobbs has used the tactic to avoid more nominees being rejected by the Republican-led Senate Committee on Director Nominations.

The Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County said the current leaders of these agencies are “de facto” and “in violation of Arizona law.” Thirteen agency leaders are considered EDDs; however, Hobbs is not obligated to give nominations for directors to the committee just yet as arguments on that will be in late July or early August, according to Capitol Media Services.

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Hallie Biden Testifies About Hunter Biden Drug Use at the Time of Gun Purchase

Hunter Biden in courtroom (composite image)

Hunter Biden ex-girlfriend Hallie Biden began testimony in the first son’s gun trial Thursday, describing how she discovered Hunter was using drugs and how she disposed of the weapon at the center of the case.

Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter Biden’s brother, Beau, dated the younger Biden shortly after his older brother passed away in 2015 and during the key period in the case.

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Vanderbilt Search Warrant Revealed Prescription List for Covenant Killer Audrey Hale, Confirms Fantasies About School Shooting

Audrey Hale

The search warrant served by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to obtain information from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) about Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, obtained by The Tennessee Star, reveals Hale was prescribed at least four medications from VUMC staff.

According to notes taken by a person who reviewed documents obtained when the search warrant was executed, Hale was given access to Buspirone, Lexapro or Escitalopram, Hydroxyzine, and a sodium chloride nasal spray by doctors at VUMC.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Expressed Frustration over Being Misgendered, Desire for ‘Boy Body’ in Recovered Journal

Audrey Hale

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale expressed frustration over being misgendered, satisfaction with the use of male pronouns and a desire to have a “boy body” in a journal.

The Star on Wednesday confirmed it obtained dozens of pages from Hale’s journal from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation. The journal was retrieved from Hale’s vehicle.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Claimed She ‘Could Have Been Caught’ Preparing for Shooting in ‘Summer of 2021’

Audrey Hale

Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, wrote in a journal recovered from her vehicle that she “could have been caught” planning her attack in 2021.

The Tennessee Star on Wednesday confirmed it obtained dozens of pages from the notebook recovered from Hale’s vehicle at the Covenant School from a source familiar with the case.

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Commentary: An Open Letter to State Attorneys General to Sue New York

Donald Trump

State Attorneys General have a duty to sue the city and state of New York, which rewrote federal election and state business records law to interfere with the 2024 election, throw former President Donald Trump in jail and disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans’ right to vote for their choice for President, all in violation of the Supremacy Clause under Article VI.

Under the doctrine of preemption, states have no power, zero, to rewrite federal election laws, let alone to enforce them. States have original jurisdiction under Article III, Sec. 2 to all “controversies between two or more states,” and Attorneys General have an obligation under the federal and state constitutions to ensure that one state cannot determine the outcome of any presidential election in this manner.

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Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Wrote 3 Pages in Journal About ‘My Imaginary Penis’

Audrey Hale Journal

Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender male at the time of her attack, wrote a three-page journal entry titled “My Imaginary Penis” that was included in the writings recovered from her vehicle.

The Tennessee Star confirmed on Wednesday it obtained nearly four dozen pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the Covenant investigation, including the March 11, 2023 entry discussing her desire to have a male anatomy.

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Man Accused of Choking Granddaughter at Nashville Public Bus Station in Latest WeGo Incident

WeGo Transit

A man pushed, grabbed, and choked his granddaughter at a downtown public bus station in Nashville in the latest incident related to criminal activity associated with WeGo, WSMV reported.

Metro Nashville Police Department arrested Kevin Figgins, 58, on Monday. He is charged with domestic assault with bodily injury, and his bond has been set at $1,000, according to Davidson County court records.

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Georgia Attorney General Asks FCC to Let Jails and Prisons Use Cell Phone Jammers

Chris Carr

Georgia’s attorney general wants a federal agency to lift its ban on cell phone jammers that bars state officials from using the devices to block contraband cell phones in jails and prisons.

The Federal Communications Commission currently bars cell phone “jammers” within prisons and jails, a prohibition Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said extends to state and local governments. Carr made his request to reconsider the prohibition in a Tuesday letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

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