Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee (AFP-TN) published its 2024 Legislative Agenda on Tuesday, suggesting four major policy changes in the state as the General Assembly convened for this year’s legislative session.
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The Governor’s Council for Judicial Appointments has forwarded the names of three applicants to Governor Lee for consideration in order to fill the Tennessee Supreme Court vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of the Honorable Roger A. Page.
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A report published Tuesday by WKRN TV failed to acknowledge the Tennessee 11 (TN 11), an activist group that seeks to pass red flag legislation and other gun restrictions this year in Tennessee, is funded by a Mexican-American billionaire based in New York.
The television station, which is owned by the publicly traded Nexstar Media Group, reported on the Tennessee 11 event held Tuesday at the Tennessee State Capitol, where the outlet reported, “The TN 11 said they’re calling for legislative solutions addressing gun violence and safety while upholding gun rights.” WKRN TV explained that “TN 11 also polled about 30,000 Tennesseans from all 95 counties” to determine priorities they would ask Tennessee lawmakers to address.
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Tennessee State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) filed HB 1653 on Monday to compel Tennessee law enforcement to release materials and evidence related to the Covenant School shooting, including the manifesto written by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who fatally shot three 9-year-old students and three faculty at the school in March 2023.
Bulso’s bill would require “all state and local law enforcement” to comply with a request from any member of the Tennessee General Assembly seeking “a copy of all records collected by the agency, including, but not limited to, all writings and medical, toxicology, and other reports, of a perpetrator involved in a school shooting incident that occurred at a public or private school in this state in March of 2023.”
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a group of 18 other state attorneys general in filing a public comment letter in opposition to the Department of Commerce’s “Business Diversity Principles” proposal.
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Tennessee was once again one of the top states to move to, ranking fifth in U-Haul’s annual rankings of growth states based on its data for one-way equipment rentals.
Texas, Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina topped the list as Tennessee moved up from sixth to fifth this year.
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The foundation created by Mexican-American “social entrepreneur” and billionaire Daniel Lubetzky is funding a group called the “Tennessee 11,” which seeks to pass a red flag law and other gun control legislation this year in Tennessee.
Lubetzky is the founder of the snack company Kind LLC, and it was reportedly worth $5 billion when the company was sold to Mars Inc. in 2020. When the company was under his management, Lubetzky was named a Presidential Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship by former President Barack Obama and his administration’s Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker.
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Middle Tennessee State University named Jennifer Woodard as the new program coordinator for the school’s Social Justice Journalism concentration, according to the university’s online academic catalog.
Woodard, a Ph.D. in mass communication from Indiana University-Bloomington and an MTSU alumna, is an expert in “diversity, equity and inclusion,” “race, class, gender and media issues,” and “mediated representations of women” according to her university faculty bio. She is also a faculty member of the Women’s and Gender Studies department and “concentrated on scholarship that would enhance her ability to teach students the value of a diversified newsroom” while pursuing her Ph.D., according to her faculty bio.
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A Majority of Tennessee voters who support former President Donald Trump say they will not vote for another candidate if the former president is convicted at any of the charges levied against him in four states and by the federal government.
The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee published data on Thursday indicating 58 percent of voters who support Trump “would still vote for him” even if he “were to be convicted of one or more of the crimes that he has been charged with before the next election.”
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Roger Simon joined host Michael Patrick Leahy and original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in-studio on Friday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss Simon’s new, highly-anticipated book, American Refugees.
The Oscar-nominated screenwriter and Epoch Times columnist shared personal details about his own journey to Nashville, including the city he almost moved to before settling on Music City.
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A Tennessee nurse who was wanted for negligent homicide in the death of a patient has been arrested in Tennessee after nearly nine months on the run, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).
“After a referral from Adult Protective Services, TBI agents began investigating an allegation that in March 2022, a certified nurse aide who worked in a care facility in Clarksville failed to properly use a lift while attempting to move a patient,” TBI said in a news release. “As a result, that resident, Patricia Oliver, sustained a fall that caused her serious bodily injury, ultimately resulting in her death. The investigation identified Takesha Tucker as the nurse aide responsible for the incident.”
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Tennessee State Senator Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville) plans to introduce a bill that would expand abortion access in Tennessee. He claims his bill would allow mothers to have an abortion if it is believed carrying their child to term would later result in the mother becoming “sterile and unable to bear children” in the future.
In a Tuesday interview with WKRN News 2, Briggs revealed he seeks to create a new legislation enabling pregnancies “where either the child cannot survive outside of the womb, or it’s a condition where, if the woman is not treated properly, that she could end up unable to have children” to be aborted. Briggs argued the bill is necessary because of Tennessee’s 2019 abortion law, which became active in 2022 when the Supreme Court effectively overturned Roe v. Wade.
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A law increasing the number of points charged to a person’s driving record for violations of driving while using a cell phone went into effect on Monday.
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Tennessee Black Lives Matter activist and former Memphis mayoral candidate Pamela Moses is running for U.S. Senate as an independent candidate. She will seek to challenge Senator Marsha Blackburn (R) and the Democratic Party nominee.
A Facebook page for Moses’ campaign has been active since November 20, and on December 30 she appeared in a live stream to confirm her candidacy. Federal filings reveal she filed paperwork for her Senate run in 2023.
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Sporting associations have tightened rules regarding transgender athletes competing in women’s sports in 2023, drawing complaints from LGBT activists.
The issue of men competing in women’s sports has received considerable scrutiny amid instances such as Laurel Hubbard, a biological male, competing against women in the weightlifting events during the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA championships, where the biological male won the 500-yard women’s final and placed highly in other events. The international governing bodies for cricket, fishing and track and field barred biological males from competing in women’s events in 2023, following a similar decision by the international governing body for competitive swimming in 2022.
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A bill authorizing the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security to create a voucher program for the purpose of offsetting the cost of individuals taking a handgun safety course for the first time will take effect on January 1, 2024.
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A Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) official explained on Wednesday that the agency seeks to hire and retain 600 new correctional officers following an audit which revealed Tennessee prisons continue to face “critical staffing shortages” and a high turnover rate for employees.
As TDOC seeks to fill these positions across Tennessee, NewsChannel 5 recently reported the agency is offering incentives, including a $5,000 signing bonus. One prison warden told the outlet the work is challenging but rewarding. Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation warden Taurean James explained, “it is a job for individuals seeking a structured environment” and “looking to help individuals.”
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The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) announced the availability of Disaster Unemployment Assistance for seven Tennessee counties affected by the severe storms and tornadoes.
On December 9, severe thunderstorms and a recorded eight tornadoes ripped through Middle Tennessee, causing six fatalities, dozens of injuries, significant damage to nearly 1,900 homes, and the destruction of over 500 homes.
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Tennessee State Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) claimed the new letter grades assigned to every Tennessee school are “flawed.” Akbari represents Memphis, where more than 40 percent of schools did not receive passing grades.
Akbari released a statement on Thursday declaring the “flawed letter grades will never define a school, their students and families, or their teachers and staff.” She asserted the grades instead reflect what she claimed is inadequate state funding for education.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) confirmed he will not endorse in the race to secure the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in a Thursday interview, insisting his new role as the chair of the Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) precludes him from weighing in on the race.
Asked if he intended to make an endorsement in the Republican presidential primary, Lee told German-owned Politico he has “an obligation not to endorse” due to his position as “chairman of the RGA.”
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is urging Tennessee businesses that suffered damages during the deadly tornadoes that ripped through the state earlier this month to apply for financial relief as soon as possible.
“FEMA may refer survivors of the Dec. 9 tornadoes to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) with information on how to apply for a disaster loan. It’s important to submit the loan application as soon as possible,” the organization said in a Wednesday release. “SBA disaster loans are the largest source of federal disaster recovery funds for survivors. SBA offers long-term, low-interest disaster loans to businesses of all sizes, private nonprofit organizations, homeowners and renters.”
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In an emotional interview on Thursday’s episode of The John Fredericks Show, Tennessean Sarah McAbee joined guest-host Michael Patrick Leahy to share the disturbing journey of her husband, J6er and former Williamson County Deputy Sheriff Ronald McAbee.
In this in-studio interview, Sarah McAbee reveals new details about her husband Ronald McAbee’s arrest and subsequent imprisonment and discusses the daunting legal battle, the possibility of a 17-year prison term, and the devastating toll the prosecution has had on the couple.
Her experience inspired Sarah McAbee to found a nonprofit foundation aiding January 6 defendants and their families called Stand in the Gap.
Despite facing political reluctance, she remains steadfast in her pursuit of justice for her husband and others and urges all Americans to consider the ongoing human cost and broader implications for civil liberties in the United States caught in the aftermath of January 6.
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According to census data released in October, more than 22,500 Californians migrated to Tennessee between 2021 and 2022.
Overall, 220,000 people moved to Tennessee in that time period, as the state’s population continues to grow at a much higher rate than the national average.
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An official with the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS) said in a recent interview that mental illnesses among children are on the rise in the Volunteer State, as the state’s Attorney General works to tackle some of the potential root causes of those illnesses.
“The data from all sources point to that we see increased sadness and hopelessness among high school students,” TDMHSAS Deputy Commissioner Matthew Yancey told WKRN. “We’ve seen increases in emergency room presentations related to psychiatric emergencies, increases in suicidal ideation.”
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Legislation to tackle drug overdoses, sex offenses, and victims rights have already been put forth for the 2024 session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) wants to update an old statute that he said he thinks does not do enough to protect victims of potential violent crimes.
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Video captured pro-Palestine protesters waving flags in Collierville, Tennessee on December 24, where they reportedly interfered with Christmas shoppers.
Newsmax host and author Todd Starnes wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the crowd was “mostly Muslim” in a post seen more than 300,000 times. Video of the incident shows protesters drive through a parking lot, then stop. Though words appear to be exchanged between the protesters and Christmas Eve shoppers, their words are unintelligible in the video due to the number of horns honking. Individuals with Palestinian flags are seen running on the sidewalk as the vehicles bearing Palestine’s flag are stopped in the parking lot.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) Commissioner Stuart McWhorter recently approved $36.6 million in grants that will be distributed across 78 communities in the Volunteer State.
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Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell encouraged her supporters to make political donations to her campaign in the name of “abortion rights” to celebrate Christmas, even declaring that a certificate explaining the donation would make a “great stocking stuffer.”
Campbell declared it “the season for saving abortion rights” in a post on X, formerly Twitter. She urged her supporters to donate a “gift” to her campaign “in honor of a loved one” for the “Holiday season.”
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The wife of a former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy who was convicted for on charges related to January 6 told The Tennessee Star that families and friends of those defendants often experience survivor’s guilt, especially as many of those accused of crimes spend their third Christmas in jails or prisons.
Sarah McAbee, the executive director of Stand in the Gap and wife of January 6 prisoner Ronald McAbee, explained, “Wives are waking up without their husbands, children are waking up without their fathers. Even in the federal prison system, they only get a 15 minute phone call per day.” She told The Star that January 6 have “have to decide, am I going to call my spouse? Am I going to call my parents? Am I going to call my child?”
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A former Tennessee official and her husbanded pleaded guilty on Thursday to illegally producing “hundreds” Tennessee driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.
Cheryl Huff and husband Mario Paz-Mejia, both of Knoxville, pleaded guilty to one “count of conspiracy to produce, without lawful authority, identification documents or false identification documents,” according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), which revealed in a press release that Huff abused her position at the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDSHS) to create the illicit documents.
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As Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger A. Page plans to retire at the end of August in 2024, six judges from around the state are vying to replace him. The Tennessee Star plans to profile each of the applicants before they are interviewed for the position in January.
Judge Mary L. Wagner, a Circuit Court Judge for the Thirtieth Judicial District in Memphis, has applied to fill Page’s seat on the state’s highest court.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) and State Representative Susan Lynn (R-Mount Juliet) filed legislation this week that would make new school-specific security technology eligible for the school safety grants approved by the General Assembly earlier this year.
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The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) released letter grades for every school in the state for the first time on Thursday, fulfilling the department’s obligations under a bill passed in 2016.
Letter grades are available for every school covering the last school year, the TDOE confirmed on Thursday. Commissioner of Education Lizzette Reynolds said the letter grades “will provide Tennessee families with a clear rating system” to understand how a given school performs over years. She urged parents and other community members to “play a role in supporting the success of our students” regardless of a school’s letter grade.
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As Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger A. Page plans to retire at the end of August, six judges from around the state are vying to replace him. The Tennessee Star plans to profile each of the applicants before they are interviewed for the position in January.
Judge Camille R. McMullen is the Presiding Judge of the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals, a position to which she was elected in June, and is perhaps most high-profile candidate to fill the State Supreme Court role.
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As Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger A. Page plans to retire at the end of August, six judges from around the state are vying to replace him. The Tennessee Star plans to profile each of the applicants before they are interviewed for the position in January.
Van Douglas McMahan is a McNairy County General Sessions Judge and McNairy County Juvenile Court Judge.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti revealed on Wednesday that a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general announced a $700 million agreement with Google to settle their lawsuit alleging the technology company engaged in anticompetitive practices to stifle competitors to its Google Play Store.
Skrmetti stated that “Google will no longer profit from the inflated app costs it forced through its abuse of market power,” and said the settlement “will reduce app prices and increase consumer choices on the Android platform. Our office is proud to protect consumers, secure $700 million in financial relief, and be a part of this bipartisan effort to ensure one of the most powerful companies in the world follows the law.”
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A bill introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly in November would prevent teachers from allow teachers only to hang the Tennessee and United States flags in their classrooms.
HB 1605 “prohibits [Local Education Associations] and public charter schools from displaying in public schools flags other than the official United States flag and the official Tennessee state flag,” according to the summary of the bill’s text.
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A 206-page audit of public and private prisons in Tennessee was released last week, revealing both state and private facilities in the state remain understaffed and face high employee attrition rates while struggling to offer sufficient beds and services for inmates.
The audit, conducted by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, found that the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) “has taken action to address critical staffing shortages,” but warned both TDOC and CoreCivic, which manages private prisons in Tennessee, “are facing an ongoing and deeply rooted challenge of attrition within their ranks.”
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a construction permit to Kairos Power for its Hermes low-power demonstration reactor to be built at the Heritage Center Industrial Park site in Oak Ridge.
Kairos Power, according to its website, is a “nuclear technology, engineering and manufacturing company whose mission is to enable the world’s transition to clean energy with the ultimate goal of dramatically improving people’s quality of life while protecting the environment.”
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The trendy electric vehicle (EV) market could be in trouble as at least 18 EV and battery start-ups that went public in the last few years are running out of funds to operate, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.
The trouble in the industry follows rising costs and manufacturing issues as the companies fail to compete with top EV maker Tesla and traditional automakers, with the median stock of the 43 companies reviewed dropping 80% from its peak, losing tens of billions in collective value since the companies relatively recent inception, according to the WSJ. Of those 43 EV start-ups reviewed, five have already gone bankrupt or been acquired, including Lordstown Motors, Proterra and Electric Last Mile Solutions.
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Aaron Spradlin, who is the Chairman of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition and CEO of the Mission America Foundation, told The Star in a phone call that he’s known of suspected human trafficking activities happening at hotels where De Caldera operated since at least 2015.
Executive director Aaron Gulbransen, a former reporter for The Star, explained the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition previously informed state officials of suspected criminal activity at the hotels, and said the organization has been able to “amplify” Spradlin’s work by regularly sharing tips and insight with Tennessee lawmakers and law enforcement.
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Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti appeared in-studio on Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, to discuss the first-of-its-kind lawsuit his office filed Monday against financial services giant BlackRock over alleged violations of consumer protection laws.
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Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti appeared in-studio on Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, where he laid out the reasons why BlackRock’s alleged double standards that they are pushing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives that effectively force companies to shift their priorities are not just afoul consumer protection laws.
If left unchecked, Skrmetti argues, the opaque and unaccountable nature of corporate policymaking threatens the foundational principles of self-governance.
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Small businesses impacted by the deadly tornadoes that killed six people in Middle Tennessee are eligible for federal government and private grant assistance, as relief continues to pour in.
“Low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) are available to businesses and residents in Tennessee following the announcement of a Presidential disaster declaration due to severe storms and tornadoes on Dec. 9, 2023,” said the SBA on its website.
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Education expert Corey DeAngelis joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Monday to discuss a little-known detail about the Tennessee Education Freedom Act that makes the proposal a win-win for teachers, parents, students, and even teacher unions.
DeAngelis goes on to highlight the success of school choice programs in Arizona and Florida, where thousands of families have opted for alternatives to traditional public schools.
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Republican Tennessee Attorney General (AG) Jonathan Skrmetti filed a consumer protection lawsuit Monday against BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and a leading proponent of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing.
The consumer protection suit alleges that BlackRock has misled Tennessean consumers about the scale and impacts of its ESG initiatives for several years. The suit further alleges that BlackRock’s own policies and corporate voting records demonstrate that its ESG push bleeds into financial products that are marketed as non-ESG funds, despite the company’s statements that it allocates capital where its clients request as a fiduciary.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee granted executive clemency to 22 Tennesseans on Friday, and also expedited probation for a woman who is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Theology while incarcerated for murder.
In his third round of clemency since taking office, Lee said in a Friday appearance before local media he “decided to grant 23 individuals executive clemency,” and thanked the Tennessee Board of Parole “for their thoughtful recommendations throughout this process.”
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Another pro-Palestine rally is scheduled to be held this weekend in downtown Nashville, the organization Nashville Youth for Palestine announced on social media.
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As Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger A. Page plans to retire at the end of August, six judges from around the state are vying to replace him. The Tennessee Star plans to profile each of the applicants before they are interviewed for the position in January.
Jeffrey C. Smith is a partner at Holland & Knight LLP, a law firm based in Tampa, Florida with a large presence in Nashville and Memphis. He specializes in defending corporations against civil lawsuits.
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The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee has revealed federal pandemic funds meant for schools to “support students’ social-emotional well-being and academic achievement” were misused this year throughout the Volunteer State.
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