Lawmakers in the Tennessee House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to advance legislation to expand school choice, moving forward the proposal announced by Governor Bill Lee in November.
Designed to create 20,000 new Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) for Tennessee students next school year, HB 1183 passed the House Education Administration Committee with 12 votes in favor and seven votes against.
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The Davidson County Republican Party (DCRP) congratulated former President Donald Trump’s victory in the Tennessee presidential primary election on Tuesday.
“We congratulate President Trump on his strong victory yesterday as we look forward to seeing the completion of the primary process and move toward a decisive November election victory – all toward a stronger, more prosperous America,” DCRP Chairman Lonnie Spivak said in a statement. “During President Trump’s first term, America’s economy grew, our border was secure, we projected strength abroad in support of our global allies, and good leaders were appointed to key positions while the swamp was draining. In the years since, the Biden regime has reversed what they can of that good work and made our country weaker. It is time for America to continue doing what is right for all under a steady hand and sound leadership.”
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Tennessee’s Senate Majority Leader this week introduced legislation to protect automobile owners from excessive vehicle booting.
“The legislation ensures owners’ vehicles are not unfairly immobilized by overzealous parking attendants,” says a press release from Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Williamson County). “To further protect vehicle owners, the bill also proposes new regulations for towing and parking.”
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A federal district court judge dismissed a challenge to a Tennessee election integrity law meant to encourage people to only vote in the primary election associated with their party. District Judge Eli Richardson dismissed the lawsuit on Monday, The Associated Press reported.
The League of Women Voters of Tennessee, Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Victor Ashe, and real estate developer Phil Lawson filed the lawsuit against the Tennessee Secretary of State, the state election coordinator, and the Tennessee Attorney General in November 2023, The Tennessee Star previously reported.
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A court filing submitted in the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump offers the testimony of a second witness who will testify that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis started dating Nathan Wade in 2019 or 2020, placing the start of their relationship years before she decided to appoint him as a special prosecutor.
The two-page filing by attorneys representing Trump’s co-defendant, Cathy Latham, offers the testimony of attorney Manny Arora, a former adjunct professor at the Georgia State School of Law, who expressed her willingness to testify during a phone conversation last Thursday.
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U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) has endorsed U.S. Representative Andy Ogles’ (R-TN-05) reelection bid for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
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The Tennessee Legislature’s debate on education savings accounts will continue Wednesday when competing versions of the bill are heard by the Senate Education Committee and House Education Administration.
Both versions involve a significant number of the ESAs, which will start at $7,075 and can be spent by students and families on school-related expenses such as private school tuition.
Both proposals involve 20,000 ESAs statewide starting in the fall with eligibility determined on some level by income.
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A new court filing submitted Monday by former Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer in the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump reveals Cobb County Co-Chief Deputy District Attorney Cindi Yeager (pictured above) is now willing to testify that she overheard a phone call made by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to Terrence Bradley, the former law partner of special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
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Tennessee’s governor Saturday announced that more Tennessee National Guard members will be deployed to the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
“America continues to face an unprecedented border crisis, and people across the nation are experiencing the devastating consequences of rising crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking,” said Gov. Bill Lee (R) in a press release. “Governors are working together, taking immediate action to do what the federal government won’t do, and that is secure our border. I commend Tennessee’s National Guard troops for answering this important call to service and providing critical support.”
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Tennessee State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) said he expects his bill prohibiting the displaying of certain flags on or in a public school, including LGBTQ pride flags, to soon pass the Senate and be signed into law by Governor Bill Lee.
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Members of the Tennessee Congressional Delegation applauded the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Trump v. Anderson, which restores former President Donald Trump’s name on the Colorado ballot.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined in filing an amicus brief with 21 other state attorneys general in a case being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court that could decide the fate of a popular abortion pill.
“This case is about protecting the authority of the people of Tennessee to govern themselves,” Skrmetti stated, according to the attorney general’s website. “In our system, major policy decisions are made by the people through their elected representatives and decisions about abortion law are made by state governments. The U.S. Constitution prevents federal bureaucrats from undermining Tennessee’s Human Life Protection Act no matter how much they disagree with it.”
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The Tennessee House voted Thursday to allow the Tennessee Department of Tourism to keep contracts hidden for up to 10 years for events such as a Super Bowl.
House Bill 1692 expands the number of records that can be kept concealed and the length of time.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) said the feedback he got from constituents and lawmakers after he initially announced his plans to retire from Congress were “overwhelming” and ultimately led him to reconsider his decision and instead run for reelection.
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A veterans memorial at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) was recently vandalized with anti-Israel messages. University officials reportedly told a local news outlet that they were working to remove the vandalism from the site Friday night.
The top of the memorial statue was vandalized with messages saying “Free Palestine,” “We have failed ourselves,” and “How many must die?”
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Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett stated that state Democrat lawmakers are trying to “weaponize” the United States Department of Justice against the state.
“Tennesseans should not be surprised that some want to weaponize the Department of Justice against the state ranked number one in election integrity,” Hargett said in the statement obtained by The Tennessee Star on Friday.
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The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) came to U.S. Representative Andy Ogles’ (R-TN-05) defense over comments he issued last month in response to an activist who pressed him on the situation unfolding in the Middle East, specifically between Israeli and Hamas forces in Gaza.
“Given that Rep. Ogles stated unequivocally that he was speaking about Hamas, a terror organization that has both declared and evidenced its intent to massacre all Jews, his is the only morally correct position,” CJV Midwestern Regional President Rabbi Ze’ev Smason said in a statement. “It is deplorable that organizations and even left-wing media outlets have deliberately falsified his words in order to malign and slander him.”
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January 6 defendant Ronald McAbee was sentenced on Thursday to 70 months in federal prison for the actions prosecutors said he took on January 6.
Ronald McAbee previously argued in court that video showed him attempting to help a member of Capitol police, with the Tennessee man telling a fallen officer that he was helping and wanted to separate him from the crowd. He was convicted in October 2023.
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Six Tennessee U.S. representatives voted against a continuing resolution on Thursday that would fund the government through March 8 and March 22.
The continuing resolution passed the House of Representatives by a 320-99 vote.
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Tennessee House Majority Whip Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) said the Democrats in the Tennessee General Assembly are “frustrated” and “divided” by the actions and conduct of a select few of its own members.
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The office of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday pushed back on claims by Democrats in the Tennessee House of Representatives who claim that Lizzette Reynolds, the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE), lacks the constitutional qualifications required for the position.
Reynolds has faced calls for her resignation by Democrats since late January, when Democrats claimed in a press conference that Reynolds is not eligible to lead TDOE citing the Tennessee Constitution.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) has picked up notable endorsements in his re-election bid for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
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The Tennessee House of Representatives voted 70-24 on Monday to pass HB 1605, a bill prohibiting the displaying of certain flags on or in a public school, including LGBTQ pride flags.
The bill, introduced by State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) in November, now heads to the Senate.
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The Tennessee General Assembly is considering a bill that would restrict the state’s Department of Child Services from requiring prospective adoptive or foster parents to get vaccinated.
The State House Children and Family Affairs Subcommittee voted to pass the State House version of the legislation today after discussion and testimony. It is now on the calendar for the State Senate for February 29.
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Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower announced an audit of Shelby County due to the alleged “incompetence and willful neglect” of the county by Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert.
Mumpower announced his intention in a letter to Mayor Lee Harris and the Shelby County Commission, expressing “deep concern and lack of confidence” in Halbert’s office.
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A coalition of Republican state attorneys general led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is fighting a federal agency’s proposal to massively reduce the amount of single-use plastics consumed by the government.
The General Services Administration (GSA) — which provides centralized procurement for the federal government and offers office products and other services to federal agencies — proposed a rule in late December 2023 that would put the federal government on track to significantly reduce its use of single-use plastic packaging in an effort to be environmentally friendly. Skrmetti and 13 other state attorneys general argued in comments filed Monday that the policy exceeds the agency’s authority, and that it would decrease the efficiency of federal procurement and increase costs while failing to do much for the environment.
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Tennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) have proposed legislation that would prohibit America’s largest financial institutions from discriminating against customers based on their religious or political beliefs.
Their bills, HB 2100 and SB 2148, would specifically prohibit banks, insurers and other financial institutions from “denying or canceling services to a person, or otherwise discriminating against a person, based upon the use of a social credit score or other factors.”
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The militaristic, quasi-authoritarian society portrayed in the 1997 science fiction film Starship Troopers is obviously superior to our contemporary gay liberal “democracy.” For this reason, the film fails as satire. The film’s supposed attempt to lampoon the audience’s instinctual gravitation towards strength, beauty, and nobility backfires.
Two and a half decades later, Starship Troopers continues to reveal how moralistic, stupid, and tasteless the modern left really is. Liberals cannot make good liberal art. In fact, such a thing does not exist. All liberal art, at its core, is ham-handed propaganda. When leftists do make good art, it is in spite of their ideological commitments, not because of them.
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Tennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) is pushing back against California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose super PAC released an advertisement attacking Tennessee for proposing a parental rights bill.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said his consumer protection lawsuit against BlackRock’s Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing will force the company to disclose if it is mixing ESG factors when making investment decisions instead of focusing on financial factors relative to the rate of return.
Skrmetti filed his lawsuit against BlackRock in December 2023, alleging that the hedge fund has misled consumers in Tennessee about the scale and impacts of its ESG initiatives for several years.
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Tennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) said California Governor Gavin Newsom should pay more attention to his state’s problems after Newsom’s super PAC released an advertisement attacking Tennessee for proposing a parental rights bill.
Zachary made his comments in a phone interview on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Monday.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called Friday’s preliminary injunction ruling a “big win” for his and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) illegal name, image, and likeness (NIL)-recruitment ban.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonthan Skrmetti was among the 22 attorneys general who joined the amicus brief filed by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach on Friday in support of Texas and Governor Greg Abbott in their in its legal fight with the federal government over the governor’s decision to protect the southern border.
The amicus brief argues that individual states “have a constitutional right to defend themselves that federal law cannot override absent” a declaration from U.S. Congress, and Skrmetti told The Tennessee Star the question ultimately relates to the sovereignty of states.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is calling on Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) to run for re-election instead of retiring from Congress.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) is reconsidering retiring from Congress less than two weeks after announcing he was “ready to return home” from Washington D.C.
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State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) challenged California Governor Gavin Newsom to a debate after the Democrat targeted Tennessee for its pro-life legislation to protect unborn children using funds from a Super PAC that some speculate could lay the foundations of a campaign to oust President Joe Biden.
In a Sunday post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, the California governor falsely claimed Tennessee’s pro-life legislation offers no exceptions, including for rape or incest, and asserted that “Republicans in Tennessee are trying to punish young women” who travel to abort their children.
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Bills advancing through the Tennessee General Assembly would make it a misdemeanor crime for a defendant to violate the conditions of their bail.
The legislation seeks to create a new Class A misdemeanor offense to charge defendants who violate the terms of release secured by paying a bond. Lawmakers specifically want to amend the existing Tennessee Code that mandates arrest warrants be filed for those who violate their release terms to also include the criminal offense.
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A bill advancing in the Tennessee House of Representatives would prohibit local governments from returning lawmakers to the General Assembly after they have been successfully expelled from office.
HB 2716 by State Representative Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) seeks to amend Tennessee law to mandate that any local government body must “elect a successor to fill a vacant seat” in the General Assembly due to a vacancy caused “due to the expulsion of a member for disorderly behavior, then the local legislative body shall not elect the expelled legislator to be the successor to fill the vacant seat.”
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The Tennessee State Senate on Thursday passed a bill that would ban politicians in the state from seeking more than one elected office simultaneously.
SB 1968 passed the Tennessee Senate on Thursday with 17 votes in favor and 15 votes against. The bill, introduced by Senator Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville), would prohibit an individual from holding multiple elected offices in Tennessee, and would also ban any politician in the state from actively campaigning for more than one elected position.
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Tennessee State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka), who chairs the Education Instruction Subcommittee, said Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice bill, known as the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, will likely be revealed next week.
Cepicky said there was a meeting on Wednesday for the committee chairs and caucus members to go over the bill’s language, making tweaks to ensure the bill will “function properly” and is “constitutional.”
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Tennessee State Senator Bill Powers (R-Clarksville) has announced he has “no plans” to run for Congress in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District amid the announcement of incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Green’s (R-TN-07) retirement.
“For me, family is more important than any congressional title in Washington DC. I’m honored to be your state senator and have no plans to run for congress,” Powers wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
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Legislation that would allow Tennessee counties and cities to reduce or eliminate the state sales tax on groceries is advancing through the Tennessee General Assembly as more states look for opportunities to defray the effects of inflation on citizens.
The bill would allow all “counties and municipalities, by resolution or ordinance” set the “tax on the retail sale of food and food ingredients” at any “rate less than” the state’s sales tax rate.
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The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee filed a lawsuit on behalf of two freelance journalists against the U.S. Department of Labor’s Independent Contractor Rule on Wednesday.
The think tank is representing Tennessee freelance journalists Margaret Littman and Jennifer Chesak in the suit, arguing that the department’s updated rule “threatens to destroy the livelihoods of freelancers” by “forcing freelancers into employment relationships that they neither want nor need.”
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) applauded Utah U.S. Senator Mike Lee’s (R-UT) effort in urging Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to demand a Senate trial for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
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Tennessee State Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland) filed a resolution on Tuesday condemning neo-Nazism and the National Socialist Movement in the Volunteer State.
“God is the creator of all humans and races,” the resolution reads. “Racism and hatred in any form are repugnant and sinful…There is an intentional effort by neo-Nazis to ignite racial animosity and divide neighbors, friends, and communities by promoting a message of hatred and ethnic cleansing…Neo-Nazis wish to further spread a dangerous ideology rooted in Holocaust Era fascist movements and socialism through their affiliation with the National Socialist Movement.”
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The Tennessee Comptroller’s Office published a report on Tuesday asserting a Nashville nonprofit misspent over $40,000 from a state grant, with the majority of the diverted money allegedly going to the group’s executive director or the church where he is a pastor. The office referred the matter to Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk.
According to the investigators in a press release, the Successful Survivors nonprofit that claims to assist individuals with mental illness and substance abuse issues received $299,670 in grant funds from the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (MHSAS) to purchase and renovate a Nashville home for use as a “rehabilitation house.”
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti confirmed on Thursday that the new ticketing system for members of the public to attend meetings of the Tennessee House of Representatives follows the Tennessee Constitution.
The legal opinion was requested after House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) announced a new ticketing system that limits half of the public gallery to media members, with members of the public and congressional staff only allowed with a ticket. Lawmakers are each given one ticket to distribute as they see fit.
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A bill seeking to ban retail sales of cold beer in Tennessee has reportedly received a lukewarm reception by lawmakers, with even Republicans unsure about the legislation.
State Representative Ron Gant (R-Piperton) filed HB 2845 late last month which would prohibit retail companies who are currently permitted to sell beer under Tennessee law from selling “refrigerated or cold beer to consumers.”
Representative Ron Gant (R-Piperton) filed HB 2845 late last month which would prohibit retail companies who are currently permitted to sell beer under Tennessee law from selling “refrigerated or cold beer to consumers.”
Country music star Morgan Wallen is set to open a six-story bar in downtown Nashville this summer.
Wallen’s venue, called This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen, will be approximately 30,000 square feet and feature three live music stages, six bars, a gift shop, and an open-air rooftop.
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With early voting underway for the March 5 Presidential Preference Primary and County Primary Elections, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden explained how voters elect delegates in the Volunteer State.
In addition to the presidential and county candidates, two types of delegates are elected by Republican voters on the primary ballot – at-large delegates, which represent the entire state and appear on the ballot in every county, and delegates that represent each congressional district.
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