A small town in Tennessee supported an ordinance this week to ban data centers, citing concerns about how they would affect its resources.
St. Joseph Board of Commissioners voted in favor of the ordinance on first reading. The action taken by board members comes as other data center projects are being discussed in Lawrence County, which has a population of nearly 50,000, according to the town’s press release.
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In December 2025, India seized over 100,000 forged diplomas from 28 universities that had been accepted by American companies for employment.
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A new report from the State Financial Officers Foundation and Open the Books uncovered nearly 90 alleged fraud schemes involving roughly $225 million across American schools since 2019.
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Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett on Wednesday revealed that the Volunteer State set new records for new business filings and annual reports during the first three months of 2026, calling the data “good leading indicators of growth and jobs,” even as inflation is impacted nationally by the conflict with Iran.
Hargett made the remarks during a press call ahead of the release of his office’s quarterly report on first quarter business and economic indicators, which included data showing a 20.6 percent increase in the number of new business filings, and a 30.4 percent increase in annual reports, when compared to last year.
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Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General and Liberty University law professor, said President Donald Trump’s plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear its recent birthright citizenship decision is unlikely to succeed, arguing that the legal standard for reconsideration has not been met despite new reports of hospitals and organizations openly marketing birth tourism following the ruling.
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Larry Sanger, who co-founded Wikipedia in 2001, coined its name, and helped draft its early core policies, said on Thursday that he is permanently banned from editing the English-language version of the site.
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The Justice Department’s top election enforcement official has sent a pointed warning to all 50 states that election administrators can be criminally prosecuted if they knowingly allow noncitizens to vote in the upcoming 2026 election.
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Tennessee gubernatorial candidate U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn laid out an ambitious conservative agenda for the Volunteer State during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, saying she is prepared to lead Tennessee as authority continues shifting from Washington back to the states.
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Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner dropped his Senate bid Wednesday after a previous girlfriend accused him of sexual assault.
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New documents released by Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, show that employees at the Department of Justice, including those working for then-special counsel Jack Smith, may have mishandled classified information while probing Donald Trump for allegedly doing the same.
“Messages involving personnel in Jack Smith’s Special Counsel Office (SCO) raise serious concerns about the Biden administration’s failure to properly secure classified materials,” Grassley wrote in a short letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday.
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On the nation’s 250th anniversary, the mayor of the country’s largest city sat at a desk once used by George Washington and told Americans what was wrong with American exceptionalism.
The story of this country, he said, has too often been written by people told they did not belong. Its achievements were really won by the excluded, in spite of America. Dissent, not gratitude, he intoned, is the truest form of patriotism.
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Despite dwindling U.S. stockpiles, President Donald Trump said that he wants to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptor missiles during his visit to Turkey on Wednesday.
Trump made the comments about Patriot missile licensing while talking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during their televised meeting at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey. Patriot missile interceptors are in short supply as they have been continuously used in the Russo-Ukrainian War and the Iran War, according to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
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A Guatemalan man who allegedly fled the United States after he was charged with child rape in Tennessee has been returned to the Volunteer State, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
The DOJ press release confirmed Domingo Sunun is now in state custody to answer for allegations he sexually assaulted four minors, including three who were his nieces.
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A legal filing submitted last week revealed Candace Owens has added Daniel A. Horwitz to the team of attorneys representing her in the defamation lawsuit filed in April by Brian Harpole, the former head of security for Charlie Kirk, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The court received a notice of appearance for Horwitz last Thursday, revealing he will represent Owens personally, as well as her businesses, Candace Owens LLC and GeorgeTom, Inc.
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Maryland lawmakers are set to meet in August for a special session to mull redistricting, they announced on Wednesday.
The proposed ballot initiative, if approved, would set up a November election on the matter and would not affect the 2026 midterms, according to The Hill.
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he planned to attack Iran on Wednesday evening, after he declared the ceasefire to be over and renewed attacks on the country earlier this week.
“I’ll give them a little warning: we’re going to hit them hard tonight,” he said, during a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.
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Legal commentator and retired attorney Mark Pulliam said Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship misreads the 14th Amendment and risks defining Roberts’ historical legacy alongside one of the Supreme Court’s most controversial chief justices.
During an appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pulliam said the public should understand that the case Trump v. Barbara centers on a single constitutional phrase in the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
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A former Wisconsin judge received only a $5,000 fine after a jury found her guilty of helping illegal immigrants evade federal agents.
The jury found former Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan guilty of obstruction with the judge fining her $5,000 determined Wednesday during sentence hearing, according to Spectrum News 1.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said Metro Nashville’s response to a public records request seeking documents related to nearly $1.5 million in grants to two pro-illegal immigration nonprofits failed to produce any records justifying the appropriations and instead generated new questions about the city’s handling of the request.
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State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) raised over $400,000 in the last 30 days in his bid for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, his campaign announced Wednesday.
“What an amazing milestone achieved through the support and confidence placed in me by the great folks of Tennessee’s Ninth District,” Taylor said in a statement distributed by his campaign.
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The Department of Justice is warning that state election leaders in Oregon could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly allow noncitizens to vote in elections.
The warning came in a letter sent to Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read on Tuesday from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, the Oregonian reported.
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An East Tennessee bridge is being named after President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Tennessee politicians will gather to unveil the “Donald J. Trump Bridge” in Jefferson County, which has an estimated population of 60,000 people.
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While Metro Nashville stopped short of answering the public records request filed by The Tennessee Star by providing justification for appropriating nearly $1.5 million in grants for two pro-illegal immigrant nonprofits, the 51 documents provided by Metro include an email chain where Metro Clerk Austin Kyle told the Metro Department of Finance, “We do not have any of the records related to these grants on file.”
The email was sent by Metro Clerk Austin Kyle on June 8, just days after The Star sent press inquiries to the clerk’s office and Mayor Freddie O’Connell seeking documents, which Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 7-3-314(b) states must be filed by nonprofits seeking grants from metropolitan governments, to explain the mayor’s request to appropriate $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON).
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From Nashville’s budget priorities to a sweeping federal bribery investigation in Jackson and a legal battle involving Louisiana’s attorney general in New Orleans, The Tennessee Star’s lead reporter, Tom Pappert, argued Monday that three Democratic-led cities in Republican-led states have become focal points for disputes over government accountability and adherence to state law.
During an appearance Tuesday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert discussed his recent reporting on each of the three cities, beginning with Metro Nashville’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget, which appropriates nearly $1.5 million in grants to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors.
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In 2021, Governor Bill Lee and state officials celebrated Microvast’s announcement of a $220 million battery manufacturing facility in Clarksville, promising nearly 300 jobs and positioning the state as a leader in the electric vehicle and energy storage supply chain. The project, which received significant economic development incentives and was sold as a win for American manufacturing and clean energy jobs, has become a troubling example of how Chinese-linked companies continue to benefit from U.S. taxpayer incentives despite serious national security and human rights concerns.
Microvast Holdings, Inc. has long derived most of its revenue and assets from operations in China, previously raising $400 million in funding from state-run CITIC Securities and Chinese private equity firm CDH Investments, which holds roughly 11% through affiliated entities, with board representation. While Microvast maintains a U.S. headquarters and public listing, its supply chains and core production remain heavily dependent on China, with almost all its manufacturing capacity, a 75,000 square foot R&D center and four subsidiaries in China. These connections raise legitimate questions under evolving U.S. policy aimed at strengthening national security by reducing reliance on adversarial supply chains.
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The Supreme Court last week struck down President Trump’s 2025 executive order that attempted to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants. However, the man who authored the first draft said Tuesday he doubts the fight is over for the president and his supporters.
The author, Theo Wold, a former assistant attorney general and White House deputy assistant for Domestic Policy under Trump who wrote the original draft, said on the John Solomon Reports podcast that neither Trump nor “other folks who have used enormous brain power on these issues will either.”
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The Social Security trust fund is projected to run out of money by 2032. Without legislative reforms, retirement benefits for tens of millions of Americans could face significant cuts.
As lawmakers debate how to preserve the program, most proposals focus on raising payroll tax revenue or making other budgetary adjustments. But these discussions miss a larger point: The program itself is increasingly ill-suited for younger generations. Rather than forcing Americans into a system that may not deliver on its promises, policymakers should allow young workers to opt out and prepare for retirement in their own way.
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Tennessee Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is revisiting one of the defining political battles of her career, describing in an exclusive sit-down interview how she led a four-year effort in the Tennessee General Assembly to defeat a proposed state income tax and arguing that the fight reshaped the state’s future.
During an interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and editor-in-chief, Michael Patrick Leahy, Blackburn recounted her opposition to then-Governor Don Sundquist’s proposal, which she said came as an unexpected reversal after his campaign pledge not to support a state income tax.
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Following more than a quarter century in the Tennessee General Assembly, State Representative Johnny Shaw (D-Bolivar) in April announced his decision to retire from the Tennessee General Assembly.
Shaw added context to his decision to leave public service in a Monday interview with WREG, telling the Memphis television station that shifting politics, seemingly in concert with increased partisanship, prompted the 84-year-old to retire.
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Metro Nashville provided The Tennessee Star with 51 documents in response to its June 11 request filed using the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA), but none offer justification for the decision by Mayor Freddie O’Connell to include nearly $1.5 million for two pro-illegal alien nonprofits in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget passed by the Metro Council last month.
The response from Metro included 51 emails, along with some of their attachments, exchanged among Metro officials, employees, and Metro City Council members between 2022 and 2026. However, none of the emails included the information Tennessee state law requires metropolitan governments to obtain from nonprofits before authorizing appropriations.
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The United States Central Command said Tuesday it has launched new airstrikes on Iran after it targeted three vessels in the Strait of Hormuz earlier in the day.
The U.S. said the strikes were on commercial vessels that were transiting the strait, which were “crewed by innocent civilians in an international waterway.”
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The owner of the company which provided personal security for Charlie Kirk last week asked a federal judge in Tennessee to order Candace Owens preserve records of her conversations with Mitch Snow, who claimed on her podcast that he witnessed Harpole, Erika Kirk, and others meet at a military base in New Mexico one day before Tyler Robinson allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk in Utah last year.
Harpole’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge William Campbell on Thursday to issue an order requiring Owens and Snow to preserve “documents, cellular telephones, and other electronic devices” related to the case.
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An Israeli-guided media company that documents show paid a former Trump campaign aide’s firm millions to influence public opinion is supporting an effort to propagandize American Christians at their places of worship, federal records reveal.
Havas Media, a Germany-based media company with ties to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pays Show Faith By Works LLC to conduct a pro-Israel outreach campaign in the U.S., a Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing from Sept. 27, 2025, shows. Show Faith By Works’ initial proposal includes farming cellphone data from churches, influencing celebrities and clergy members and hosting mobile events at churches and colleges throughout the West Coast, according to the filing.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) has received the endorsement of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry in his reelection bid for State Senate District 17.
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“Trump Accounts” officially launched on Monday following a July 4 opening, drawing positive feedback from economists who project the program will provide significant financial benefits for American children nationwide.
The accounts come as part of Trump’s new tax law, the One Big Beautiful Bill, and are essentially tax-deferred investments for newborn American citizens born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028. As of today, more than six million people have signed up for the accounts.
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Using artificial intelligence for some tasks may actually be contributing to heavier workloads for some physicians, according to new research from Dartmouth.
AI tools can sometimes worsen doctors’ workloads by introducing errors and adding unnecessary details into their written messages to patients, according to Dartmouth’s study, which was presented on Tuesday at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics in San Diego, California. The report also suggests that physicians may actually spend more time editing AI-generated responses than it would take to write them without using AI tools.
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A federal court upheld a Tennessee law that bans cryptocurrency ATMs.
In April, Tennessee became the second state in America to ban cryptocurrency ATMs, with Gov. Bill Lee signing House Bill (HB) 2505 into law.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, on Tuesday confirmed that he had spoken to Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner and asked him to step aside as the party nominee in the wake of a sexual assault allegation.
“I have spoken with Graham Platner about the best path forward for Maine. In light of these very serious allegations, I have recommended that he step aside,” Sanders said.
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While President Donald Trump marked the 250th anniversary of American independence with great fanfare in the nation’s capital city, his White House quietly released a report from the Domestic Policy Council detailing the “ideological capture” and “activism” infecting the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
The museum was first approved by Congress in 1955 to tell the national story of the United States, to “place before” visitors “a stimulating permanent exposition that commemorates our heritage of freedom and highlights the basic elements of our way of life.”
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The Williamson Health Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday to move forward with a plan to sell the county-owned health system to Ascension Saint Thomas.
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As the U.S. celebrated its 250th birthday, Planned Parenthood cheered the return of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funding as lawmakers failed to extend the law banning its federal funding.
The Republican-controlled Congress missed the deadline to extend the prohibition of Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding which expired on July 4.
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In the roughly two weeks since the New York primary elections, conservatives—and other normies—have been understandably upset about the prospects of a socialist surge in American politics. Three candidates endorsed by New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their congressional primaries easily, while Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-aligned candidates around the state did quite well. In short, June 23 was a good day for socialists throughout the country, leaving many observers wondering if this will be a new date that lives in infamy, the date that marks the official start of the socialist-led collapse of the world’s quintessential capitalist, democratic republic.
As I say, this concern is understandable. Avowed socialists are winning big in cities across the country, not just in New York City but also in Seattle, possibly in Los Angeles, and almost certainly in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. It has been well over a hundred years since the United States saw such a swell in socialist-affiliated political success. And this time, it’s highly unlikely that the leader of the Democratic establishment (whoever that is now) will be able to crush the nascent movement like his predecessor did last time, when Progressive patriarch Woodrow Wilson had the head of the Socialist Party of America, Eugene V. Debs, imprisoned for the crime of giving a speech. “Socialism” and its number of adherents will continue to expand for some time, at least until both major parties figure out how to refute their claims and prove the emptiness of their promises.
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Court documents show U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan II last week received a plea deal reached between federal prosecutors and Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens III, an elected Democrat who was indicted in 2024 for his role in a bribery scandal that allegedly also included the former Mayor of Jackson and two members of the Jackson City Council.
Owens and his alleged co-conspirators are accused of engaging in a bribery conspiracy after two undercover FBI agents posed as developers pursuing development opportunities related to a hotel in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. According to prosecutors, Owens played a central role in the conspiracy, soliciting or accepting at least $115,000 in bribes and facilitating over $80,000 to other elected officials.
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A new Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas working paper estimates the record surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration boosted employment while causing 30% of home price increases and 20% of rent increases.
The paper combined immigration court records with government administrative data to create the first ever calculation of how a wave of 7 million illegal immigrants from 2021 through 2024 affected local labor and housing markets.
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A lawsuit filed by a Madison County, Tennessee homeowner last Wednesday claims the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) illegally used race to market the Tennessee Homeowner’s Assistance Fund (TNHAF), a Biden-era program meant to provide financial relief to Americans struggling to pay their mortgage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit was filed by Tennessee homeowner Norlin Jones, who states that he never learned about the relief program despite owning a mortgaged home in Madison County and having his work schedule reduced during the pandemic.
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Microsoft announced Monday that it is cutting 4,800 Xbox jobs amid an era in which the rise of artificial intelligence is transforming the tech industry.
The technology giant, which Bill Gates co-founded a half century ago, is cutting 2.1% of its workers mainly within the Xbox Gaming Division. Microsoft will immediately axe 1,600 workers as the company focuses on how to deliver during a “fast changing industry,” according to a Monday memo sent out by executive vice president Amy Coleman.
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Proponents of renewable energy often claim that wind and solar are the cheapest forms of energy and will drive down electricity rates. However, electricity costs continue to rise faster than inflation, with no sign the trend is reversing, even as the amount of wind and solar grows in the grid.
Last December, the Always On Energy Research and the Institute for Energy Research completed an analysis of electricity rates and found that residents of blue states see higher electricity bills than those of red states.
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The Louisiana Supreme Court halted the prosecution of Attorney General Liz Murrill, quashing an arrest warrant filed last Friday following the return of a grand jury indictment accusing Attorney General Liz Murrill of committing eight counts of public intimidation and eight counts of malfeasance in office tied to May letters she sent about the appointment of an interim clerk by Orleans Parish.
The circumstances under which Murrill sent the letter began in April, when Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed Act 15 into law, bringing Orleans in line with the rest of the state’s parishes, the French-inspired system of local government Louisiana uses in place of counties.
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Manufacturers around the world are leveraging AI to create drone swarms that could change the reality of war forever.
Both defensive and offensive drone swarm systems are going to be hitting battlefields across the globe soon. As companies such as Swarm Defense create new systems that will launch tidal waves of drones at targets, other companies like XCaliber Technologies are rapidly working to build a wall of drones and other defensive systems that can defeat the new offensive threat.
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President Donald Trump on Monday celebrated the launch of Trump accounts, saying that more than 6 million Americans had signed up for the project.
Earlier in the day, he formally rang the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ from the White House as part of a ceremony marking the launch.
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