Category: Policy

Dr. Omar Hamada Criticizes Failed Tennessee Anti-mRNA Bills, Warns Against Taking Healthcare ‘Back to the Dark Ages’

Kaitlin Housler
vaccine shot

Dr. Omar Hamada warned that failed Tennessee legislation to ban mRNA products and research would have harmed medical innovation and threatened the state’s position as a national healthcare leader.

During an interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, Hamada criticized legislative efforts such as the proposed Tennessee mRNA Pharmaceutical Sovereignty and Safety Act, sponsored during the latest legislative session by State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma), who also filed the mRNA Bioweapons Prohibition Act.

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Nearly $1.5 Million in Proposed Nashville Grants Would Continue Existing Program Funding Lawyers for Illegal Aliens, Metro Clerk Says

Tom Pappert
Illegal immigrant lawyer

The Nashville Metropolitan Clerk on Monday confirmed to The Tennessee Star that the over $1.4 million in grants proposed for two nonprofits that support illegal aliens in Tennessee are continuations of previous grants awarded by the city. However, the proposed grants for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 will shift the funding source from Biden-era stimulus money to Nashville taxpayers.

It was reported last month that the budget proposed by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell requests $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and $718,000 for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), who previously received a combined $3.7 million as the result of a contract with the city. 

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Trump Admin Reportedly Alarmed by Israel’s Spying, Getting Too Close to Iran Negotiations

Daily Caller News Foundation
Trump and Israel

The Trump administration’s Department of War is expressing concern that Israel is spying on the U.S. — including on its negotiations to end the Iran war, according to multiple reports.

The Pentagon is ramping up in its responses to alleged Israeli espionage, including recently raising the country’s counterintelligence threat level to “critical,” NBC News reported Friday, citing three anonymous current and former U.S. officials. U.S. intelligence reports also indicate Israel had made efforts to listen in on conversations involving senior U.S. officials such as Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, one of the lead negotiators in the peace talks with Iran, The New York Times reported Saturday afternoon.

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Nashville Metro Clerk Confirms Office Has No State-Required Records ‘At This Time’ for $718k Grant to a Second Pro-Immigrant Nonprofit

Tom Pappert
Metro Council Meeting

The Metropolitan Clerk of Nashville told The Tennessee Star on Friday that his office currently has no records related to the proposed $718,000 grant for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), the second nonprofit that provides services to illegal aliens that would receive funding in the budget submitted to the Metro Council by Mayor Freddie O’Connell, despite Tennessee law requiring a report containing their statement of proposed use, program serving residents, and annual audit  be made available for public inspection.

Asked whether his office has records related to the proposed $718,000 grant for TNJFON, Metro Clerk Austin Kyle told The Star, “No, we don’t have any records for that proposal at this time.”

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Metro Nashville Budget Documents Contradict Mayor’s Claim that Proposed $735,000 ‘Grant’ for Pro-Illegal Alien Nonprofit is ‘Not New’

Tom Pappert
Mayor Freddie O'Connell, Davidson County Courthouse/Nashville City Hall

The claim by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office that the proposed $735,000 grant for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a nonprofit that supports illegal aliens, is “not new” spending appears to contradict Metro Nashville’s own Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Expenditures Overview, which lists no spending in the TIRRC funding account for FY 2024, FY 2025, or FY 2026, before the proposed $735,000 appears in FY 2027.

In light of criticism from Tennessee State House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), as well as U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), WKRN on Thursday reported, “the mayor’s office said the funding proposal is ‘not new,’ adding that Metro has supported immigration legal services for years.”

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Pappert: Nashville Either Lacks TIRRC Grant Records or Is Violating State Law by Failing to Make Nonprofit Funding Request Publicly Accessible

Kaitlin Housler
City Hall

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, reports that Nashville officials have either not created or have not produced documentation required under Tennessee law for a proposed $735,000 grant to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), raising questions about whether the city is complying with statutory transparency requirements governing metropolitan government funding to nonprofit organizations.

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Commentary: Gray Market GLP-1 Medications Put Lives at Risk, Especially in the Latino Community

Star News Contributor
person working out

The obesity crisis sweeping across the United States is profound. However, with the advent of GLP-1 medications, Americans have a real chance to combat chronic illnesses like heart disease and other obesity-related complications. While GLP-1 medications are incredibly effective, patients need to make sure they are getting the real FDA-approved version and not a counterfeit, copycat or illicit compounded material, which could jeopardize patient health and safety.  

Unfortunately, between non-FDA approved compounded versions, aggressive digital marketing campaigns of GLP-1s that might appear to be FDA approved, but really aren’t and an illicit and counterfeit market of drugs coming across the border that oftentimes contain active pharmaceutical ingredients from China that are mislabeled, aren’t intended for humans (e.g. made for animals), have major safety violations and countless other issues endangering patient safety. 

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Commentary: FCC Decision Holds Monopoly Utilities Accountable

Star News Contributor
Broadband Installation

Tennessee has received $813 million in federal taxpayer money to expand broadband access across our state under the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD). Nationwide, the federal government is dispensing nearly $43 billion across all 50 states and six territories. 

When Governor Bill Lee took office in 2019, 20 percent of Tennesseans lacked high-speed broadband internet – including the Governor at his farm. A few months ago at the AI Summit in Nashville, Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner and Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter estimated that less than two percent of Tennesseans currently lack access to broadband. The gap has seriously been closed. 

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Nashville Metro Clerk Says No State-Required TIRRC Funding Filing Exists in His Office for Proposed $735,000 Grant

Tom Pappert
Freddie O'Connell

After a spokesman for Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Wednesday told The Tennessee Star the $735,000 item in his proposed budget for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) is actually a “grant” and subject to oversight from the city, the Metropolitan Clerk of Nashville told The Star his office does not have state-mandated appropriations records from the nonprofit.

Asked whether the proposed spending would be used to advocate or provide legal assistance to illegal aliens on Wednesday, a spokesman for the mayor’s office told The Star, “The Office of Financial Accountability conducts fiscal and programmatic monitoring of grants administered by the various Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County government agencies to ensure compliance with federal, state and local laws, regulations, stated outcomes and results, and specific requirements of the grant program.”

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Alpha-Gal Syndrome: Tick-Borne Meat Allergy Fuels Debate

Daily Caller News Foundation
tick

Weary from a long hike, you eat a hearty steak and climb into bed. Three hours later, you bolt up, gasping for breath. Stomach in knots, chest tight, you look down and discover you’re covered in rashes.

At least 15,000 people are diagnosed with a tick-borne allergy to red meat called alpha-gal syndrome each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rise in diagnoses in just a decade has fueled online theories about Bill Gates, boxes of suspiciously placed ticks, and a quest for meat-free, bug-eating subjugation.

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Six Republicans Defy GOP Leadership by Voting with Democrats to Push for More Ukraine Funding

Daily Caller News Foundation
ukraine gop

Six Republicans defied House leadership Wednesday by joining Democrats to vote in favor of advancing a bill that includes additional funding for Ukraine.

The House voted for a discharge petition in a 218-204 vote to advance the Ukraine Support Act, which would authorize $8 billion in direct loans to Ukraine and allow the U.S. to send Ukraine weapons from Pentagon stockpiles. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Michael McCaul of Texas, Joe Wilson of South Carolina and Max Miller of Ohio, voted in favor of the legislation.

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Commentary: California’s ‘Wealth’ Tax is Coming for Everyone

American Greatness
Gavin Newsom

If you own property in California, you’re not safe. A new ballot measure will empower the state to confiscate a percentage of the assets of any resident, even though its initial provisions don’t communicate that intent. California’s “One-Time Wealth Tax for State-Funded Healthcare, Education, and Food Assistance Programs Initiative,” which has already qualified for the November ballot, is even worse than it appears.

It’s not as if appearances aren’t bad enough. The explicit intent of the initiative already chased at least six billionaires out of the state in 2025. Moved to Florida are Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Nevada is now home to billionaire Don Hankey, and Texas has welcomed former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Famed director Steven Spielberg has moved to New York, apparently concluding even that deep blue state is a safer bet than California. Just the departure of these six men has lowered the potential take from the wealth tax by an estimated $27 billion.

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Nashville Mayor Claims $735,000 ‘Grant’ for Pro-Illegal Alien Nonprofit to Provide ‘High-Quality Legal Services’ and Community Support

Tom Pappert
Freddie O'Connell

A spokesperson for Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Wednesday told The Tennessee Star that his request for Metro Nashville Council to pass a budget including $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) reflects a potential city grant, which the spokesperson said would allow oversight of how the nonprofit organization that advocates for illegal aliens is able to use the money.

The mayor’s request was first reported by The Pamphleteer last week, and after U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) amplified the reporting, O’Connell’s office defended his request in a statement to Fox 17, stating the money would support those “working to adjust or maintain their lawful immigration status or U.S. citizenship.”

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Obamacare Enrollment Fraud May Cost Taxpayers Billions in 2026, New Study Shows

Daily Caller News Foundation
doctor and patient

Widespread fraud across Affordable Care Act exchanges is projected to cost American taxpayers billions in 2026, according to a Paragon Health Institute report released Tuesday.

The newly released study alleges that approximately 6.2 million or nearly 27% of all ACA exchange sign-ups were improper in 2026. The analysis also estimates U.S. taxpayers will pay up to $25 billion in improper subsidies in 2026, almost a quarter of total projected ACA subsidy spending for the year.

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Red States Spark Trend in Abolishing Property Taxes amid State Budget Surpluses

Just the News
Ron DeSantis

As home values skyrocket, taxpayers grow increasingly frustrated with “dinner table issues” such as confidence in a secure financial future and anxiety over “affordability.” Republican-led states enjoy budget surpluses, as a new trend of eliminating property taxes is emerging in red states.

On Tuesday, the Florida State Legislature approved a November ballot measure that would abolish property taxes for most primary homeowners across the sunshine state.

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CDC Shrugs When Asked for COVID Vaccine Safety Data at Advisory Committee Meeting on Updated Jabs

Just the News
CDC

Two days after CBS News broke the informal media blackout of COVID-19 vaccine “safety signals” suppressed by the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration, the outside advisers to the Trump administration’s FDA voted to recommend updated COVID vaccines despite receiving no safety data, as one adviser had requested.

It’s déjà vu all over again for the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which similarly complained about the prior administration hiding data sought by advisers to make informed decisions about COVID vaccine recommendations.

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Mullin Reviewing DHS Contracts Noem Signed

Just the News
Mark Wayne Mullin

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin this week confirmed that he was reviewing several contracts that Kristi Noem pursued amid scrutiny over their links to her political allies.

Mullin replaced Noem after Trump fired her over a disastrous appearance before a congressional committee that saw her claim Trump signed off on a controversial ad campaign featuring herself. That assertion reportedly motivated Trump to remove her after months of controversy. She also faced scrutiny over allegations that she awarded contracts to people linked to her subordinates and political allies.

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Commentary: It’s Time to Act Against China’s Maritime Tsunami and Rebuild America’s Shipyards

Daily Caller News Foundation
Trump and shipyard

The numbers do not lie and they are a national security emergency.

The latest data available from BRS Shipbrokers (BRS), China’s share of global commercial shipbuilding has exploded from 51 percent in 2022 (2,107 ships) to a staggering 70.9 percent in 2025 (4,055 ships). South Korea, Japan, Europe, and the rest of the world are watching their market shares shrink while Beijing’s shipyards churn out vessels at a pace we can barely comprehend.

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Cortes: Michigan Voters Reject Mass Muslim Migration in New Statewide Poll

Kaitlin Housler
muslims

Steve Cortes, former senior spokesman and strategist for the 2016 and 2020 Trump campaigns and current head of the League of American Workers, said new polling shows Michigan voters are increasingly opposed to additional Muslim immigration in the state.

TechnoMetrica (TIPP) conducted an online survey of 1,456 registered voters in Michigan for Cortes’ League of American Workers from May 20 to May 23, 2026.

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EPA Boss Made Criminal Referrals Alleging Democrats ‘Self-Dealing’ in Lucrative Green Energy Grants

Just the News
Lee Zeldin

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin says he has made several criminal referrals after uncovering a major political enrichment scandal that routed billions in Biden-era green energy grants to Democrat cronies. “It’s about self-dealing,” Zeldin tells Just the News.

Zeldin said he has canceled or stopped about $29 billion in EPA grants – including one for $2 billion to a nonprofit tied to longtime Georgia Democrat election activist and failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams – after unmasking a series of pass-through groups used to route taxpayer monies to the politically connected.

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Nashville Mayor Funds Pro-Illegal Alien Nonprofit TIRRC with $735,000 in City Budget After ‘Years’ of ‘Successful Collaboration’

Tom Pappert
Mayor Freddie O'Connell

Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell included more than $700,000 in his annual budget for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a nonprofit supporting illegal aliens living in Tennessee.

TIRRC partnered with the city last year to provide relief for those impacted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was asked by the Biden administration to support the release of aliens into Tennessee’s interior, and whose affiliated political action committee endorsed O’Connell during his successful 2023 race for mayor.

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Blue States Begin Scaling Back ‘Free’ Healthcare Benefits for Illegal Aliens

American Greatness
Doctor

Budget constraints are forcing a growing number of blue states to cut back on their “free” healthcare programs for illegal aliens, due to a reduction in federal subsidies and Medicaid cuts.

Breitbart reports that a number of liberal-leaning states including California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Oregon, Washington, and the District of Columbia are unable to replace the federal health benefits for illegals with their own state tax dollars.

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Swamp’s New Draft Defense Bill Would Open Up Billion-Dollar Taxpayer Purse for Foreign Countries

Daily Caller News Foundation
Pentagon money

A newly proposed draft defense bill signals Congress has no plans to slow down the flow of American tax dollars to foreign countries.

The 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), unveiled by Republican House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers and Democratic Ranking Member Adam Smith, would allow for the flow of nearly $2 billion in taxpayer dollars to Iraq, Syria’s formerly al-Qaeda-linked regime, NATO and the Israeli government. It’s unclear whether the authorization will pass in its current form, as it still needs to clear the committee’s scheduled June markup and overcome other legislative hurdles.

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Supreme Court Issues Unanimous Ruling: Courts Cannot Rewrite Federal Law Based on Politics

Christina Botteri
The US Supreme Court

In a procedural victory for the Trump administration, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a unanimous, unsigned decision, reversing a lower court ruling that revived a First Amendment lawsuit by the National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) challenging an Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) policy requiring prior approval for public speeches and writings related to their official duties.

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Governor Signs Memphis Schools Takeover Bill, Announces First Appointees to Oversight Board

Kaitlin Housler
Bill Lee

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee officially signed a bill into law on Friday that creates a new state-appointed oversight board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools and announces five of the nine members who will serve on the panel.

The legislation, sponsored in the Tennessee General Assembly by State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) and State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), establishes an oversight structure for school districts that meet specific academic and operational benchmarks, including persistently low performance, chronic absenteeism, and repeated placement on the state’s priority school list.

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Commentary: It’s Time for America to Turn the Page on Its Nuclear Fears

Daily Caller News Foundation
Nuclear facility

A disappointing study came out in the U.K., polling Britons on what they think about nuclear energy. In general, U.K. voters believe nuclear power is good for the national energy mix but are undecided on whether there should be more of it. The interesting part of the polling comes when results are broken down by gender.

Only 30% of women support the use of nuclear power, compared to 74% of men. Most shocking, 69% of women said they do not believe nuclear has low carbon dioxide emissions, compared to 32% of men.

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Commentary: Building American Cities That Would Make the Founding Fathers Proud

American Greatness
construction

American cities need bold renewal. What we need is a “MadeCity” vision — a vision for intentionally crafting or “making” cities that emphasize the enduring higher order potential within people.

Beginning to plan and build such cities as part of America’s upcoming 250th anniversary is a fitting way to extend John Winthrop’s vision for America as a “City on a Hill.” A MadeCity is a living monument to faith, freedom, and entrepreneurship — the very ideals that turned a collection of colonies into the greatest nation on earth.

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Gov. Bill Lee Signs PBM Bill Backed by Tennessee’s Pharmacist Lawmakers amid ‘Pending’ Legal Challenge from CVS

Tom Pappert
Bill Lee

Governor Bill Lee on Friday signed Senate Bill (SB) 2040, the Freedom, Access, and Integrity in Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act into law. Once fully active in January 2028, it will prohibit vertical integration between pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and pharmacies in Tennessee. It will force divestment from any already vertically integrated companies by January 1, 2027.

The legislation was passed with the support of the Tennessee Pharmacists Association (TPA), and chief executive officer Dr. Anthony Pudlo recently commended the pharmacists elected to the General Assembly for successfully pushing the legislation through.

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Metro Nashville Council Urges NES for ‘Moratorium’ on New Tree Trimming, Cite Canopy Concerns

Tom Pappert

The Metro Nashville Council on Tuesday passed a resolution urging the Nashville Electric Service (NES) to place a “moratorium” on its new tree trimming strategy, citing a series of concerns about cutting the city’s “tree canopy,” just months after Winter Storm Fern caused the largest outage in the history of the publicly owned utility, with about half of its 470,000 customers without power during the peak.

After the storm, NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin said the utility was “planning on moving forward with a more aggressive tree trimming approach,” and in the interim version of the third-party report recently commissioned by NES, analysts noted the company engaged in extensive tree trimming immediately after the storm.

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Ramaswamy, Ohio Republicans Address Fraud in Press Conference

The Daily Signal
Vivek Ohio

In the wake of a recent investigative report from The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak on suspected Medicaid fraud in Columbus, Ohio, Republicans held a press conference on Tuesday to lay out their plans for tackling the issue. Rosiak also spoke, discussing his findings.

As Rosiak recapped, Ohio has home health centers, a program allowing people to get paid for offering “companionship,” with the Medicaid beneficiaries often being their own relatives.

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Pappert Sounds Alarm over ‘Social Worker’ Style Security Patrols in Downtown Nashville

Kaitlin Housler
MPL and Pappert

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, is raising concerns about Nashville’s decision to allow the newly formed “people first” security company Civicity to patrol downtown streets, questioning whether the organization’s emphasis on de-escalation and social worker-style intervention signals a move away from traditional policing in the city’s growing entertainment district.

Pappert, during an appearance Monday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, discussed the recent launch of Civicity, a security division founded in March by Block by Block and SMS Holdings, which has reportedly taken over downtown patrol responsibilities following the expiration of a previous contract with Soleran.

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EJ Haust Blasts Fairfax County Sanctuary Policies After Explosive House Hearing

Kaitlin Housler
Steve Descano

EJ Haust, official guest host of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, criticized Fairfax County, Virginia, immigration and prosecution policies following a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing titled “Fairfax County, Virginia: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies.”

The hearing, held before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, examined the impact of sanctuary policies and featured testimony from Fairfax County officials, immigration experts, crime victims’ families, and legal advocates.

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Commentary: America’s Medicine Supply Chain Is a National Security Vulnerability

RealClearWire
pharmacist

The Chinese government is tightening the screws on American investment in its artificial intelligence sector. The core purpose is to keep U.S. capital out of technologies it deems “strategically sensitive” to national security. The protective action is a reminder that Washington also needs to prioritize insulating our own critical sectors from foreign adversaries.

Few industries are more important to our national security than healthcare. More than 131 million people—nearly two-thirds of all U.S. adults—use prescription medications. Yet the United States has allowed its pharmaceutical supply chains to become dangerously dependent on foreign rivals—particularly China. 

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Commentary: When City Officials Play Politics, State Officials Have Every Right to Step In

Star News Contributor
nashville airport

Tennessee has sent a message that local officials across the country would be wise to hear. When city leaders put partisan politics ahead of the people they serve, state officials have every legal right – and increasingly, the political will – to step in and set things right.

Last month, the General Assembly passed legislation giving state leaders greater, and frankly fairer, control over Tennessee’s airports. Going forward, the governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the state House will appoint six of the nine members on each major airport authority board. Local officials will still appoint three.

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EPA Moves to End ‘Burdensome,’ Biden-Era Wastewater Rules on Coal Plants to Meet Energy, AI Demands

Just the News
coal plant

The EPA has released a proposed rule that would revise guidelines on wastewater limits on coal-fired power plants that the agency projects will save billions of dollars without compromising environmental resources.

The EPA and agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said in announcing the proposed rule Thursday that it would reduce electricity costs by as much as $1.1 billion annually and that increased electricity demand from data centers cannot be met with the “overly restrictive” policies of past administrations.

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