Category: News

CEOs Skip Senate Hearing About Automated Surveillance

Daily Caller News Foundation
camera

Technology CEOs did not show up to testify before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday about mass surveillance concerns related to Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs).

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who chairs the Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, invited CEOs Garrett Langley of Flock Safety, Rick Smith of Axon Enterprise, Greg Brown of Motorola Solutions and Filip Kaliszan of Verkada to testify about their products’ access to Americans’ data. Five witnesses, including alleged victims of automated surveillance and a cybersecurity engineer, testified before the committee.

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Federal Judge Denies Nonprofit’s Bid to Block Tennessee Highway Patrol from Cooperating with ICE

Tom Pappert

U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger on Wednesday denied the request by the pro-illegal alien nonprofit, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), to issue an injunction blocking the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) from cooperating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In a request filed the same day as its May lawsuit, which alleges a series of ongoing constitutional violations during traffic stops involving THP and ICE, and the risk that TIRRC would be subjected to similar stops in the future,  the nonprofit asked Trauger to file an injunction forbidding troopers from working with federal immigration agents to detain motorists for immigration investigations, using traffic stops to enforce immigration law, or using race or ethnicity when determining which motorists to stop.

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Whistleblowers Say HHS Under Becerra Released Migrant Children After Staff Flagged Unsafe Sponsors

The Daily Signal
Xavier Becerra

A former contractor who says he helped move more than 1,500 unaccompanied children out of a San Diego emergency site is speaking on the record by name for the first time, and he says the government kept releasing kids to adults they did not know.

Between 2021 and 2024, nearly half a million unaccompanied alien children entered the U.S. under former President Joe Biden’s administration, with thousands vanishing from federal view. Two people who were inside that system sat down with The California Courier to speak about what they saw from different parts of the process.

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Former Tennessee Titan Kevin Dyson Files Appeal After Metro Nashville Rejects Plans for Tuition-Free Charter School

Tom Pappert
Students in classroom

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will hear Dr. Kevin Dyson’s appeal on Thursday; the former Tennessee Titans wide receiver and Tennessee educator’s application to launch a tuition-free charter school was denied by the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education in April.

In its spring decision, the Metro Nashville board determined that Dyson’s proposed school, the Music City Academy, only partially met its academic and program design standards.

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House Panel Alleges Biden-Harris DOJ ‘Ran Roughshod’ over Constitution in Jack Smith’s Trump Probe

Just the News
Jack Smith

The House Judiciary Committee concluded in a report released Wednesday that the Biden-Harris administration wielded the Justice Department as a weapon and “ran roughshod” over constitutional protections and the separation of powers in order to spy on Republican members of Congress. 

The report, which the committee released on Wednesday, summarizes several years worth of investigation conducted by the committee into the tenure of Special Counsel Jack Smith, his investigations into President Donald Trump, and how he used those investigations to obtain privileged phone records from lawmakers.

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Dems Obstruct Rand Paul’s Plea Deal Offer to Fauci’s Assistant

The Daily Signal

Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., blocked a plea deal offer from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s assistant for her testimony about destroying records at her boss’s request in exchange for immunity from possible criminal charges from the Department of Justice.

Before the vote, Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., told the Daily Signal that the plea offer provides an opportunity for “transparency” and to give the American people “the truth,” given that the unnamed former assistant would provide testimony to the committee regarding her involvement in destroying public records in order to protect former top officials of the National Institutes of Health.

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Dolly Parton’s Manager Accuses Her Nephew of Threatening Her Estate, Files Restraining Order

Just the News
Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton’s longtime manager Danny Nozell filed a restraining order against Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver on Tuesday, accusing the singer’s former head of security of threats, extortion and intimidation against the estate.

Seaver was the person who publicly announced his aunt’s death on social media last month, stating that she died after a brief battle with cancer. She died surrounded by her loved ones at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Tennessee.

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Agent in Jack Smith Case Says He Was Kept in Dark That Subpoenaed Phone Data Belonged to Congress

Just the News
US Atty Jack Smith

A federal agent assigned to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Donald Trump said prosecutors kept him in the dark that phone data he was gathering under grand jury subpoenas belonged to members of Congress and that he would have had reservations about doing so if he had been told, according to explosive testimony released Tuesday night by the House Judiciary Committee.

Retired Justice Department Inspector General Special Agent Brian Burnett was quoted in the transcript as saying that during his decades working at the DOJ’s watchdog, he never once was asked to collect congressional phone data and did not learn until after he retired in late 2024 that he had unwittingly done so as part of his work for Smith’s team prosecuting Trump in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation code-named Arctic Frost.

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Commentary: The Disingenuous Left-Wing Attacks on Trump’s Housing Policies

American Greatness
home buyers

This past week, Democrats and the mainstream media had their daggers drawn at the Trump administration over high prices for new homes.

Unfortunately, their smear campaign is proving effective. Fewer than two months before the midterm elections, voters are telling pollsters that housing costs are among their top concerns. Voters also say that the administration is tone-deaf to their concerns because, as they put it, mortgages and rents continue to rise.

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Exclusive: Transgender Covenant School Shooter’s Writings Reveal Years-Long Attack Plan Unseen by Family, Doctors Despite Warning Signs

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

More than three years have passed since The Tennessee Star began lawsuits against the FBI and Metro Nashville to obtain the manifestos left by the transgender school shooter Audrey Hale, who killed three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

Last year, the FBI under Director Kash Patel agreed to release the killer’s handwritten journals in order to settle this federal litigation, which has since resulted in the release of about 1,830 pages of the killer’s writings.

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Supreme Court Gives Custody of Baby to Biological Parents over Surrogate in Abortion Related Case

Just the News

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan declined Tuesday to get involved in a custody battle over a baby in a case related to surrogacy and abortion. 

Kagan, who oversees emergency cases that stem from California, declined to refer the case to the full Supreme Court and declined to block a lower court’s order that gave custody of the baby to his biological parents, despite their request that the surrogate have an abortion when the then-unborn baby was diagnosed with a serious heart problem, which she refused.

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GOP Lawmakers Say ActBlue Is Not Taking Fraud Concerns Seriously Ahead of Midterms

Just the News

As the midterm elections approach, Republican lawmakers are concerned that the Democratic fundraising giant ActBlue is failing to take fraud prevention seriously, even after their probe of the company uncovered lax security practices. Lawmakers allege that lack of oversight allowed foreign donations to flow to progressive causes. 

“My concern from the beginning was that ActBlue did not have the fraud prevention standards that are needed to make sure that foreign money is not coming into U.S. elections, and what we reveal in the report … is clear indications that Act Blue is continuing to not make fraud, preventing fraud, a priority,” House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis, told the Just the News, No Noise TV show. 

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Knoxville Man Indicted for Allegedly Posting Threats to Kill ICE Agents on Left-Wing Bluesky Platform

Tom Pappert
ICE agents

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday announced that a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment against David Kerr, a 68-year-old Knoxville man accused of threatening to injure and kill agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in posts made to the left-wing social media platform Bluesky.

Kerr pleaded not guilty during his appearance before a federal court on Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee, which said that Kerr was detained pending a November 2026 trial.

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Keep the Lights On, Sideline Big Brother: Trump EPA Rollback Could Save Ratepayers $310 Billion

Just the News
Lee Zeldin

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized a repeal of nearly all the Biden administration’s 2024 Carbon Pollution Standards for greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants, an action the agency said would save taxpayers $310 billion through 2047. 

“Costs will go down for consumers on their electric bills, and it will also mean that electric generators can invest money into the electric grid, into ensuring grid stability, so that when folks need the lights to stay on, that they will stay on, and that electricity will be there when it’s needed most for businesses, for hospitals, for families across the country,” EPA deputy administrator David Fotouhi told Just The News.

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Feds Arrest, Indict Hundreds in Trump Voter Fraud Crackdown: ‘Catching It All over the Country’

Just the News
voting stickers

Since the Trump Justice Department warned state and local election officials that they could be charged with allowing fraudulent voting activities, more than 200 arrests and indictments have been secured in a crackdown on election fraud and noncitizen voting, and that number could double soon, a top official revealed to Just the News.

“I think there are a lot of nervous election officials because I think some of them know that they’ve been looking the other way when this is happening, and we’re catching it all over the country,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Monday night in an interview on the Just the News, No Noise television show.

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Vance Announces Obamacare Fraud Crackdown: 750K Enrollees Get the Boot

Just the News
JD Vance

Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday announced a major crackdown on fraud linked to the Obamacare exchanges, saying that the government would remove roughly 750,000 people from the system.

“We are stopping Obamacare enrollment for about 750,000 people who we believe are fraudulently enrolled in the program,” Vance said. He also announced additional verification efforts for another 419,000 people to confirm their residential status and income eligibility.

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Trump Reportedly Called Off Houthi Strikes As Bombs Were Being Loaded onto U.S. Planes

Daily Caller News Foundation
Donald Trump

President Donald Trump reportedly called off planned U.S. airstrikes against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis at the last minute Sunday, even as American personnel were loading bombs onto aircraft, The New York Times reported.

The Trump administration had prepared to launch the strikes after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman renewed his request for American military assistance against the Houthis, the NYT reported. Trump ultimately decided against joining Saudi Arabia in the strikes, at least for the time being, according to the outlet.

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Trump Signs Deal with Greenland, Announces Plan to Build Two Military Bases There

Just the News
Denmark and greenland

President Donald Trump signed an historic deal Tuesday for a strategic alliance with Greenland and announced plans to build two U.S. military bases there as part of an effort to enhance security in the Arctic region.

While Trump floated the purchase of Greenland during both of his terms, he ultimately concluded a security agreement with Kingdom of Denmark to keep out non-NATO military bases and expand U.S. access to the island.

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U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps Kicks Off ‘Matt on Main’ Tour in Cheatham County Ahead of November Election

Kaitlin Housler
Matt Van Epps

U.S. Representative Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07) is kicking off his “Matt on Main” tour Tuesday in Cheatham County as he campaigns for reelection ahead of the November 3 general election.

The tour is scheduled to take Van Epps through communities across Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District, with stops planned in Davidson County on October 5, Dickson and Robertson counties on October 7, Montgomery County on October 14, Sumner County on October 15, and Trousdale and Macon counties on October 22.

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Leahy, Pappert Weigh Potential Probate Action as Covenant Shooter’s Purported Will Remains Withheld

Kaitlin Housler
Audrey Hale

Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, and The Star’s lead reporter Tom Pappert discussed a potential probate court action to obtain the purported will of Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, which the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has identified as a will but has continued to withhold.

During Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Leahy explained how The Star has sought records related to Hale under the Tennessee Public Records Act for approximately three and a half years.

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Federal Appeals Court Revives Missouri’s GOP-Friendly Redistricting Map, Despite SCOTUS Ruling

Just the News
voter

A federal appeals court ruled Monday that Missouri must use its Republican-favored 2025 redistricting map in November, despite the Supreme Court declining twice this month to intervene in the dispute.

The Supreme Court allowed a decision from the Missouri Supreme Court to take effect earlier this month, which ordered Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to use the 2022 map that favored Republicans in a 6-2 split.

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Commentary: America’s Chronic Disease Crisis Is Largely Man-Made and Reversible

The Daily Signal
obese person

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done many things in a year and a half in office. But perhaps none is more important than highlighting our man-made chronic disease crisis.

Modern life has brought countless blessings. Clean water, sewage systems, antibiotics, refrigeration, and more have tamed many deadly diseases. In the last two centuries, lifespans doubled. Doctors can now manage diseases that once killed our ancestors, so they become “chronic.” Better testing also finds problems earlier, while broader diagnostic rules can inflate the numbers, making things look worse than they are.

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Tennessee Ranks Seventh in USA for Education Freedom After Expanding School Choice to 35,000 Students

Tom Pappert
students learning

Tennessee is the seventh-ranked state in the United States for education freedom, according to the Education Freedom Report Card released on Monday by the conservative Heritage Foundation, with the high ranking driven by Tennessee’s transparency and return on investment (ROI) for state education spending.

Tennessee ranked second in the nation for ROI on education spending, with the Heritage report card noting that Tennessee spends the 44th-most, or eighth least, at just $13,027 per student. Despite the comparatively low spending commitment, Heritage noted, “Tennessee ranks 16th in its combined fourth-grade and eighth-grade math and reading average NAEP score.”

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U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett Files Two Bills Aimed at Lowering Diesel Fuel Prices

Kaitlin Housler
Tim Burchett

U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) introduced two bills aimed at restricting diesel fuel exports as diesel prices continue to climb.

Burchett filed H.R. 10423, which would suspend diesel exports through January 2027, and H.R. 10422, which would trigger an export restriction if the national average diesel price reaches $5 per gallon. The restriction under H.R. 10422 would remain in place until the national average falls to $4.50 per gallon or less for 30 consecutive days.

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‘You Will Pay a Political Price’: MAHA Leaders Threaten Trump, RFK Jr. for Perceived mRNA Betrayal

Just the News
vaccine

When the second Trump administration refused to settle a lawsuit to reinstate in-person prescribing requirements for an abortion pill — instead launching a safety review with no end date — pro-life activists warned it would depress GOP voter turnout this fall.

The old guard of the Make America Healthy Again movement, focused on reducing the power of the pharmaceutical industry and subjecting vaccines to far higher scrutiny, delivered an even more blunt message to President Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: You’re on the brink of civil war.

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Prosecutors Zero In on John Brennan’s Role in Trump-Russia Collusion Narrative in Conspiracy Case

Just the News
John Brennan

With the confirmation that former CIA Director John Brennan received a subpoena to testify in the ongoing “grand conspiracy” weaponization probe based in Florida, prosecutors appear to be zeroing in on how the ex-spy was at the beginning, middle, and aftermath of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. 

Brennan is currently a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC and MSNBC, and according to one speakers’ bureau, Brennan’s speaking fee typically ranges from $50,000 to $75,000. His security clearance was officially revoked by President Trump in January of last year.

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H-1B Visas Are The One Topic Vivek Ramaswamy Refuses To Talk About

Daily Caller News Foundation
office meeting

You may remember him from the 2024 presidential debate stage or from cable news promoting his book on “woke,” but who really is Vivek Ramaswamy, and why does he want to run Ohio so badly?

To help answer this question, the Daily Caller News Foundation traveled to Marietta — a city of about 13,000 in the state’s Appalachian southeast — where the billionaire-turned-Republican Ohio gubernatorial nominee was holding a town hall with veterans and Gold Star families on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. After the event, the Cincinnati-born Ramaswamy sat for a 15-minute interview with his surgeon wife, Apoorva, at his side, during which he discussed a variety of topics, including the campaign, artificial intelligence, data centers and the impact of the war with Iran.

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Senators Reportedly Could Ditch Washington Early If They Fail To Make Permitting Reform Deal

Daily Caller News Foundation
John Thune

Senators may leave early for the October recess if they cannot reach a deal on permitting reform, Punchbowl News reported Monday.

Top negotiators said they were close to advancing The Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which would keep senators in Washington longer if it reaches the floor. If an agreement collapses, lawmakers were likely to leave for the campaign trail after voting on a separate college sports bill, according to Punchbowl News.

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Fox News Joins Rival Networks in Suspending Pooled Coverage After White House Turns Away CNN

Just the News
Trump press room

Fox News has joined its rival networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and even CNN — in suspending pool coverage of President Donald Trump after the White House on Monday turned away CNN. 

“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting,” the pool members, including Fox, said in a statement. 

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Paramount Settles Lawsuit with Dem AGs

Daily Caller News Foundation
Paramount studios

Paramount Skydance reached a settlement Monday with Democratic state attorneys general seeking to block its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing a major obstacle to the Hollywood megamerger.

The agreement ends the antitrust challenge brought by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state attorneys general, while the Writers Guild of America (WGA) also agreed to settle its separate lawsuit. The merger still requires final judicial approval.

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Nissan Considers Third Shift at Tennessee Plant it Planned to Scale Back Before Trump Auto Tariffs

Tom Pappert
Nissan worker

Nissan Motor is reportedly considering a third shift for Nissan Rogue production at its Smyrna, Tennessee manufacturing plant. Prior to the tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump, the company was planning to reduce its Tennessee production while shifting its workforce to Mexico.

Nissan Americas chairman Christian Meunier told CNBC on Monday that the company was “maxing out the production capacity” of its American plants, including in Smyrna, where the outlet reported Nissan is expected to manufacture its 2027 Nissan Rogue using internal combustion engines that act as generators for electric motors that move the vehicle. 

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College GameDay Coming to Knoxville Saturday for Tennessee-Texas Football Game

Kaitlin Housler
UT football

ESPN College GameDay will return to Knoxville this Saturday as the Tennessee Volunteers host the top-ranked Texas Longhorns in the teams’ Southeastern Conference opener at Neyland Stadium.

The pregame show will originate from the lawn of Ayres Hall from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET, followed by the final hour inside Neyland Stadium from 11 a.m. to noon. The game is scheduled to kick off at noon ET on ABC.

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Panel: Congress Has Power to Buck SCOTUS Birthright Citizenship Ruling

The Center Square
Supreme Court

As the Trump administration continues to pursue ways to quell “birth tourism,” legal scholars are probing potential actions Congress could take to rewrite the common interpretation of the 14th amendment’s citizenship clause.

The clause states that “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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Commentary: Wall Street Is Ready to Invest In America’s Energy Future If Washington Permits It

Daily Caller News Foundation
geothermal energy

U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune just put permitting reform on the Senate agenda before Election Day. This news comes as next week, America’s leading investors, policymakers and energy developers will fill Manhattan for Climate Week NYC to advance the technologies that can meet America’s surging power demand. American innovators are transforming nuclear energy, drilling geothermal wells faster and more efficiently, and bringing once-novel energy technologies closer to commercial reality. While American technology has rapidly improved, our permitting system has not. Fixing that should be at the top of everyone’s agenda.

There is a path there to do something that is long overdue for the country.

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Federal Judge Denies Injunction Sought by Two Illegal Aliens Suing Tennessee over State Law Criminalizing Illegal Immigration

Tom Pappert
CBP arrest

U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson on Wednesday denied the request by two illegal aliens to issue an injunction blocking HB 1704, the new Tennessee law that makes it a Class A misdemeanor for illegal aliens to remain in the Volunteer State more than 60 days after a final deportation order is issued. 

The plaintiffs, two pseudonymous individuals who purport to be illegal aliens and are identified within the filings as Lucy and Benjamin, asked Richardson to authorize a class-certification for all illegal aliens, as well as an injunction blocking Tennessee state and local law enforcement from enforcing the law while the case was decided.

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As Gov. Bill Lee Courts Paramount and Company Scouts Nashville-Area Offices, Mayor Freddie O’Connell Says Metro Has No Direct Contact

Tom Pappert
Freddie O'Connell

Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Friday said his office has had no direct contact with Paramount Skydance Corporation, which is reportedly leaving California amid a breakdown in negotiations between Paramount and California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

TMZ reported Tuesday that Paramount officially told California officials it planned to leave, with earlier reporting that it would exit the state if a deal to complete its merger was not in place by October 1. The outlet later reported that negotiations between Paramount and Bonta had resumed.

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Josh Hawley Asks Surveillance CEOs to Testify as Industry Faces Heat over Privacy

Daily Caller News Foundation
Josh Hawley

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley announced Friday that he invited technology CEOs to testify before Congress about mass surveillance concerns relating to Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs).

Hawley opened an investigation into Flock Safety cameras and their access to Americans’ data, highlighting several incidents where Americans were falsely accused of crimes after Flock cameras processed their information. Hawley asked Flock CEO Garrett Langley and the CEOs of Axon Enterprise, Motorola Solutions and Verkada to testify about their products’ access to Americans’ data during a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, but weren’t subpoenaed to attend.

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Senate Votes to Allow the Protect College Sports Act for Consideration

Zachery Schmidt
Nebraska

The U.S. Senate voted 77 to 22 in a motion to proceed with the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) to go to the chamber floor for consideration.

With the bill headed to the Senate floor for deliberation, a final vote may happen as soon as next week. Senators can still offer amendments to the bill, while Senate leaders have filed cloture on a Cruz-Cantwell substitute amendment, an updated version of PCSA that would replace the original text, and the bill itself.

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DOJ Opinion Finds 18-Year-Olds Can Buy Handguns

Just the News
hand gun

The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) on Friday released an opinion declaring that a portion of the U.S. code preventing persons aged 18-20 from buying handguns is unconstitutional.

“The provision prevents young adults, who are members of ‘the people’ to whom the Second Amendment applies, from owning ‘arms’ in common use for self-defense,” the OLC opinion read. “This places the burden on the government to show that the restrictions are consistent with the Nation’s tradition of firearm regulation, which it cannot do.”

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