The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is complying with ongoing investigations into a supervisor who told employees not to help hurricane victims who had Trump signs in front of their homes in Florida, according to reports.
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U.S. Representatives Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) and Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) were among the 38 Republicans who voted against the Continuing Resolution (CR) negotiated by President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vice President-elect JD Vance, with both noting the short notice given to representatives.
After the American Relief Act of 2025 spending bill failed on Thursday, both Burchett and Ogles highlighted the short period of time given for lawmakers to review the 116-page document, which was released only hours after a 1,547-page CR was tossed following opposition from Trump and Musk.
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The House of Representatives’ spending bill, the American Relief Act 2025, failed on Thursday to get a two-thirds majority vote.
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Audio recorded by retired U.S. Army Sergeant Donald Belzer, and provided to The Tennessee Star, confirmed through the White House VA Hotline that the Amarillo Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System was made aware of the complaint the veteran filed in 2022, when Belzer said he captured video depicting two VA staff members engaged in a sex act inside a clean supplies closet.
Belzer recorded the audio after The Star published the video, recorded by the veteran on August 17, 2022, as the veteran called the White House hotline to obtain copies of the complaints he filed with the Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center and the White House hotline in August 2022 and April 2023.
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President-elect Donald Trump endorsed an agreement by House Republican leaders to fund the government through March 2025 and lift the debt ceiling until 2027.
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Dr. Carol M. Swain, a retired university professor who was tenured at Vanderbilt and Princeton Universities, has published her latest book titled, The Gay Affair.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, and four judges on Tennessee’s 21st Judicial District either did not respond, or did not confirm, to inquiries by The Tennessee Star seeking more information about the claim by Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) that one-third of criminal cases in Williamson County now involve an illegal immigrant.
The silence comes after Warner appeared on “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday, telling the hosts, “I recently met with the Williamson County delegation, and judges from Williamson County, here in southern Middle Tennessee, and a judge last week told a group of about five of us… either build more jails, build more prisons, or remove the immigrants from this state.”
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U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) introduced a new measure on Thursday that would force the end of remote work in the federal government and demand accountability for agencies allegedly abusing telework provisions at taxpayer expense. The Senate DOGE Caucus Chair introduced the DRAIN THE SWAMP Act exactly a week after proposing the Returning SBA to Main Street Act – both of which aim to reduce inefficiency in Washington’s bureaucracies and improve government services for Americans. The move follows a months-long probe into the whereabouts of the federal workforce in Washington D.C., the results of which were published in a bombshell report titled “Out of Office.” “My investigations have exposed how bureaucrats have been doing just about everything besides their job during the workday,” Ernst said in a Thursday statement following the release of the bill. “Instead of keeping them bogged down in the swamp, I’m working to get bureaucrats beyond the D.C. beltway to remind public servants who they work for.” Ernst’s DRAIN THE SWAMP Act proposes relocating at least 30 percent of Washington’s federal workforce and requires the rest to return to the office full-time. The bill also seeks to sell off unused office spaces, which Ernst argues are…
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President-elect Donald Trump is weighing in on Congress’ latest omnibus spending bill, making continuing appropriations through Sept. 30, 2025, that came in at a whopping more than 1,500 pages all but declaring war on Congressional Republicans, who he threatened with party primaries in 2026 if they pass the current bill.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said he believes that if the U.S. Supreme Court rules to uphold Tennessee’s state that bans irreversible gender transitioning treatments for minors in the case United States v. Skrmetti, the demand for such treatments across the nation will also see a halt.
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Matt Kittle, a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist, said he believes President-elect Donald Trump’s lawsuit against Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register will have more of an effect than experts believe.
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The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision on Thursday to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the election interference case involving former President Donald Trump.
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Tennessee political commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck announced Wednesday that automobile manufacturer Nissan would be dropping its “woke” policies and other practices in response to Starbuck and his team’s investigation into the company.
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The federal government is protecting the manufacturers of COVID-19 and flu vaccines from product liability for another five years, on the cusp of a new administration likely to aggressively look for vaccine injuries and release its hidden books that Just the News went to court to obtain.
Didn’t hear about it? That’s because the Department of Health and Human Services does not appear to have told the public outside a Dec. 11 Federal Register notice, primarily read by regulated entities, and a generic page buried deep within HHS’s website.
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Retailer T.J. Maxx and automaker Kia are listed as co-sponsors of a program that distributes LGBTQ-themed books to K-12 schools across the U.S., according to a Wednesday report from conservative nonprofit Consumers’ Research obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The initiative, titled the Rainbow Library, is run by national LGBTQ+ activist organization the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and sends participating teachers books that push transgenderism and homosexuality onto kids as young as five, Consumers’ Research found. Over 8,100 schools in 33 states nationwide participate in the program.
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We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), represented by Kari Lake’s former attorney Bryan Blehm, filed a lawsuit last week against outgoing Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer demanding records related to Richer allegedly attempting to get a conservative Arizona State University professor fired and disciplined by the State Bar of Arizona. WPAA requested an email between Richer and States United Democracy Center (SUDC), concerned that the far left activist group was aiding Richer in his attempt to get Aaron Ludwig fired.
The complaint asserted, “On July 31, 2022, Defendant Richer, acting as Maricopa County Recorder, sent an email to the Directors of ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice seeking to have a faculty associate terminated from ASU for sharing a Tweet. … Defendant’s email also shows that the Recorder, in his capacity as Maricopa County Recorder, intended to seek sanctions against the faculty member through the State Bar of Arizona as the faculty member was also an attorney licensed to practice law in Arizona.”
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As transgender issues have risen in prominence, a patchwork of federalism has emerged, with red states taking a firm stand against the mutilation and chemical castration of young people and blue states declaring themselves “sanctuary states” for transgender youth.
States like Idaho, Florida, Alabama and North Dakota have taken a strong stand against the chemical castration or mutilation of minors, making it a felony to drug or operate on children under the age of eighteen for the purposes of changing their gender.
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News emerged Wednesday that Alexander Paffendorf, of Carlsbad, California, was served with a restraining order under California’s red flags law on Tuesday after being questioned by the FBI after investigators learned he allegedly he communicated with Natalie Rupnow, the 15-year-old who police say killed one student and one teacher at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin before ending her life, to plan an attack on a government building.
According to CBS8, Paffendorf admitted to the FBI that he and Rupnow discussed plans to “arm himself with explosives and a gun” in order to “target a government building,” with the outlet reporting the restraining order granted by a California judge stated that federal agents were able to view the messages the southern California man allegedly exchanged with the killer.
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The chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia told an independent journalist to “delete himself” in a post to the social media platform X, which has now been deleted in turn.
“Delete yourself,” Chairwoman Susan Swecker told Substack writer Ken Klippenstein after he questioned the decision by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote for Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11) to represent the party on the House Oversight Committee.
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A Tennessee state lawmaker told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that one-third of the criminal court cases in Williamson County are now related to illegal immigrants, claiming a county judge warned state lawmakers must consider increasing the number of jails and prisons due to an uptick in crime.
State Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) divulged the purported number of criminal cases related to illegal immigrants after he was asked about his legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to detain anyone found to be in the country illegally for the maximum amount of time legally allowed, and then transport the illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities for release if they are not retrieved for deportation by federal agencies.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) found that the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) discriminated against parents and other caregivers with disabilities. DOJ officials accused DCS of violating Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Monday report found DCS “failed to communicate effectively with parents and children with hearing disabilities, including by not providing interpreters. DCS also failed to reasonably accommodate the needs of parents with disabilities by, for example, not providing information in a simplified form,” according to DOJ press release.
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The Madison Police Department (MPD) on Tuesday night declined to confirm to The Tennessee Star the public reporting that 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who police say fatally shot a student and a teacher before ending her own life at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, was enrolled in therapy prior to the attack.
Following reporting by The Washington Post which revealed Rupnow was “enrolled in therapy” during her parents’ divorce, The Star asked MPD to confirm the mental health treatment. The Star also asked whether she was seeing a psychologist, if these therapy sessions resulted in a diagnosis of a mental health condition, and whether Rupnow was understood to be prescribed any medications for mental health conditions.
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Liberty University’s School of Business Dean Dave Brat recently returned from a trip to Kiev, Ukraine, with religious leaders and academics to survey the country amid its ongoing war with Russia.
Brat said Ukrainian officials were attempting to woo his group of conservative Christians on board with funding the country’s fight against Russia during the week-long trip; however, he noted that his stance on funding the war “hasn’t changed.”
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The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it will hear arguments about whether federal law can ban Tiktok, according to The Associated Press.
The justices will hear arguments on January 10, right before Tiktok’s January 19 sale deadline.
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President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance on Thursday slammed the continuing resolution before Congress and told Republicans to call Democrats’ bluff on a government shutdown.
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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Wednesday secured an arrest warrant for attempted felony murder against Ryan Routh, according to a press release.
Routh, who allegedly attempted to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump while he played golf at Mar-a-Lago, is accused of causing a traffic accident that “gravely injured a six-year-old girl” after fleeing Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.
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The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it will hear arguments about whether federal law can ban Tiktok, according to The Associated Press.
The justices will hear arguments on January 10, right before Tiktok’s January 19 sale deadline.
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Tennessee’s two largest cities are among the most unsafe U.S. cities during the holiday season, a recent study conducted by the smart-home security company Vivint shows.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough requesting information regarding the department’s investigation into sexual misconduct allegations at the Mountain Home Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Johnson City, Tennessee.
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A prescription drug company says a federal appeals judge should have recused herself from a case because her husband and two of her children are attorneys at a law firm representing some of the plaintiffs.
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Luigi Mangione, the suspected shooter of the late UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was indicted by a grand jury in New York on Tuesday on one count of first-degree murder, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
The 26-year-old was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Dec. 9, following a major manhunt. He has been formally charged in Pennsylvania with one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm.
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Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) reportedly said in a Monday press conference that Democrats are only likely to support Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to stop taxing tips if it is “responsible,” suggesting the governor’s proposal to mirror the federal campaign promise by President-elect Donald Trump within the commonwealth could face opposition over financial concerns.
Scott said during his Monday press conference, “Any idea that’s going to put money back into the pockets of hard work of Virginians, we’re going to strongly consider and take a look at it,” reported VPM.
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Democratic activists in the Town of Fountain Hills objected to a Christmas tree decorated with Trump 2024 flags put up by the Republican Party in the town’s community center. The town refused to take the tree down, citing the First Amendment, so in protest, the Fountain Hills Democratic Club (FHDC) put up their own “inappropriate” replacement, a severed mask of Donald Trump’s head inside a wreath.
Fountain Hills Councilman Allen Skillicorn provided a statement to The Arizona Sun Times. “While I defend the Fountain Hills Democratic Club’s free speech, I am shocked by the inappropriate and out of touch behavior by FH Dem Club members,” he said. “The Grinch appears to reside in their hearts. The people of Arizona and Fountain Hills have rejected their sex toy ideology and devotion to confusing children. I defend their right to not believe in Christianity and the Holiday of Christ’s birth, but does that mean they should mock the faith of others? I invite the FH Dems to enjoy some eggnog and twinkly lights, but leave the Bah Humbug at home, behind closed doors.”
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Just weeks before President-elect Trump announced that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya would be his nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Bhattacharya and I were together at Stanford University for a bold, first-of-its-kind symposium on public health decision making during the COVID-19 crisis. The idea behind the symposium was to shatter the public health echo chamber and bring diverse perspectives together in respectful dialogue. Dr. Bhattacharya and I are close friends, but our backgrounds are quite different. He is firmly at home at Stanford, having gone there as an undergraduate, and then going on to get a medical degree and a Ph.D. there before joining the faculty as a Professor of Health Policy. I, on the other hand, am a blue-collar Midwesterner who enlisted the in U.S. Navy after high school. I carry no titles of academic distinction and was likely the only participant at the symposium without a medical degree or PhD.
Yet, I was invited by Stanford to moderate the symposium’s opening panel with seven leading public health authorities from top institutions across the world. What brought me into this unusual position was my expanding work to rebuild truth and trust in public health—a collaboration that began with former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and the Braver Angels organization, which is nation’s largest movement working to bridge the partisan divide.
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The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk on Tuesday released an interim report on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, concluding the attack was preventable and also asking for an investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney for criminally tampering with a witness during the Democrat-led congressional inquiry of the tragedy.
“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report released by the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk stated.
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Madison Police Department (MPD) Chief Shon Barnes on Tuesday said his department is not yet able to authenticate the documents shared online by Reduxx founder Anna Slatz, who claims to have obtained the manifesto left by but nonetheless urged members of the media from disseminating the purported manifesto left by Natalie Rupnow, who police say killed two and injured seven in an attack on the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday.
“We know a document has been widely shared on social media. At this time, we cannot verify its authenticity,” said Barnes in a Tuesday press briefing.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, stressed the importance that the Madison Police Department (MPD) in Wisconsin confirms or denies the existence of a six-page manifesto reportedly written by the 15-year-old Abundant Life Christian School shooter that is being shared by online personalities.
On Monday, MPD identified the shooter who killed two and injured seven at the Abundant Life Christian School as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow.
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Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee was among the 26 governors who signed a letter confirming their support for the immigration proposals advanced by President-elect Donald Trump, including the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
Lee confirmed his support in a post to the social media platform X, where he shared a joint letter issued by the Republican Governors Association (RGA), which Lee continues to lead through the end of this year.
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A spokesman for the Amarillo Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Care System confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that it is now investigating following the publication by The Star of video that purportedly shows two staff members engaged in a sex act at the Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center in Amarillo, Texas on August 17, 2022.
Emily Bell, the Public Affairs Officer for the Amarillo VA, told The Star on Tuesday that the agency “has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, and we take any allegation extremely seriously. We are investigating this matter thoroughly, and we will take any appropriate action at the conclusion of our investigation.”
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President-elect Donald Trump sued The Des Moines Register and its former pollster J. Ann Selzer on Monday for election interference, according to Fox News.
Selzer released a poll on November 1 showing Kamala Harris beating Trump in Iowa by 3 points. This poll was considered an outlier as another poll released the same day by Emerson showed Trump winning the state by 10 points.
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The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee narrowed down three finalists to be considered for its 2024 Pork of the Year title.
Each year, the Beacon Center publishes its annual Pork Report highlighting the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars across the Volunteer State, with the biggest waste of taxpayer money being crowned as Pork of the Year.
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Alex Bruesewitz, an advisor to President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign, thanked Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) for staying by his side after fainting on stage during a New York Young Republican Club gala on Sunday night.
Video shared on social media of the event shows Bruesewitz fainting and toppling over the lectern while he was on stage introducing incoming White House senior aide Dan Scavino.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced changes on Tuesday to the H-1B program that will enhance the abilities of American companies to fill job vacancies.
The government says the new rule will “modernize” the H-1B program by simplifying the approvals process, giving employers more flexibility in retaining workers, and enhancing program oversight, according to the DHS press release.
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Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) said the new universal school choice bill filed last month in the Tennessee General Assembly is a “win-win” for “everybody” on the issue, specifically for those in favor of a school choice program and those in favor of allocating more funding for public schools.
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Tennessee could be one of the next states to address fluoride levels in drinking water as some question its benefits versus possible risks.
The debate over fluoridation reignited after statements from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for secretary of Health and Human Services.
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Amazon plans to invest $10 billion over the next five years to expand data centers across the state.
Monday’s announcement is on top of a $7.8 billion plan announced last year and more than $6 billion already spent in Ohio through the end of 2022.
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A Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officer is without a job after the University of Michigan fired her for antisemitic remarks and “extremely poor” judgement stemming from an incident nine months ago.
The New York Times reports that Rachel Dawson, the former director of the university’s Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, reportedly made antisemitic comments in a conversation at a conference in March. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show Dawson allegedly said U of M was “controlled by wealthy Jews.”
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A group of parents suing Gov. Tim Walz over a new law that would prohibit certain private colleges from participating in the Post Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program appeared in federal court last week.
Melinda and Mark Loe and Dawn Erickson are co-plaintiffs in the petition they filed last year against Walz and his Minnesota Department of Education commissioner, Willie Jett, which alleges that a new law the Democratic governor signed to prohibit colleges that have a statement of faith requirement for students from participating in PSEO programs is unconstitutional.
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Never in U.S. history has a president-elect been welcomed as the real president before his January 20 inauguration. And never has the incumbent president so willingly surrendered his last two months in office and all but abdicated—to the relief of his nation and the rest of the world.
One reason so many are welcoming Trump’s return is the universally desperate hope that his election spelled an end to a collective madness at home and its ripples abroad during the last four years. And why not?
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U.S. Representative-elect John McGuire (R-VA-05) urged Republicans in Virginia’s 10th State Senate district to unite behind Luther Cifers, the outsider businessman who secured the Republican Party’s nomination to run for McGuire’s former seat.
Cifers won the nomination during the Friday mass meeting in Goochland that The Daily Progress reported drew 1,000 Republicans, ultimately securing more votes than Louisa County Board of Supervisers Chairman Duane Adams in the third round of voting, which was concluded at about 1 a.m. on Saturday.
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