Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is set to join Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear for a discussion of Beshear’s new book, Go And Do Likewise: How We Heal A Broken Country, at Vanderbilt University next weekend.
Parnassus Books, Vanderbilt University Libraries, and Dialogue Vanderbilt will host the event Saturday, October 3, at 1:00 p.m. at Benton Chapel on Vanderbilt’s campus. Doors are scheduled to open at noon. The event is sold out, according to Eventbrite.
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Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Friday said his office has had no direct contact with Paramount Skydance Corporation, which is reportedly leaving California amid a breakdown in negotiations between Paramount and California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
TMZ reported Tuesday that Paramount officially told California officials it planned to leave, with earlier reporting that it would exit the state if a deal to complete its merger was not in place by October 1. The outlet later reported that negotiations between Paramount and Bonta had resumed.
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Paramount Skydance employees are reportedly looking at properties in the Leiper’s Fork and Franklin areas as the Hollywood company considers moving some operations from California to Tennessee.
Spencer Pratt, an actor and television personality who ran for Los Angeles mayor earlier this year, said Thursday that his director, who lives in Nashville, has personally referred two real estate agents to Paramount employees shopping for properties in the area.
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Paramount Skydance was reportedly shopping for office space in Nashville, Tennessee, as the Hollywood giant weighed shifting operations out of California while the state’s Democratic attorney general led a lawsuit seeking to block its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
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Peter Robinson, the former Reagan White House speechwriter who drafted President Ronald Reagan’s famous 1987 “Tear down this wall” address, will moderate discussions following a four-part lecture series featuring venture capitalist Peter Thiel in downtown Nashville later this month.
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Jeannie Seely’s ‘Pennsyltucky’ home offers artists an opportunity to create and write songs in her home, much the same she did when she was alive.
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The Nashville-based dining chain O’Charley’s Restaurant & Bar is closing its remaining corporate-owned locations nationwide, including all eight of its Middle Tennessee restaurants, according to multiple reports.
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Eagle Forum President Kris Ullman announced the organization’s 54th annual Eagle Council will be held in Nashville next month.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) verified that it plans to open a Public Safety Coordination Center in Nashville after a federal database appeared to confirm the plan was underway.
In a Friday statement, ICE confirmed that the call center will field calls to support local and state law enforcement agencies that have entered into 287(g) agreements with the federal government.
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At least one Democrat on the Metro Nashville Council claimed local politicians were caught off guard by the decision to build a call center for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Nashville, while a spokesperson for Mayor Freddie O’Connell said his office has yet to learn what will happen inside the building. State Representative Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) said the call center will house “ICE and its mercenaries of terror.”
“The Mayor’s Office is still in the process of getting a consistent depiction of what is planned,” said a spokesperson for O’Connell, according to WSMV 4. Metro Councilmember Jeff Gregg told the outlet that he and his colleagues “were blindsided by the announcement.”
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The Boring Company announced it will hold a hiring event next week to expand its Nashville workforce as construction continues on the Music City Loop
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A federal database confirmed this week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will open a new call center in Nashville, Tennessee, after launching a process to accept proposals from the public last year.
The confirmation came despite the confusion that came after The Tennessee Lookout reported last Friday that a federal database indicated the call center would actually be established in Adams, Tennessee, despite ICE recruiting personnel in Nashville. According to the outlet, the database was updated by Friday to show the call center would be established in Nashville.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced it has lodged a detainer for a 48-year-old Mexican national accused of driving onto a Nashville sidewalk and striking four pedestrians in a June hit-and-run, including two people in wheelchairs.
ICE New Orleans lodged the detainer for Felipe Alvarado Hernandez earlier this month following his July 29 arrest in connection with the June 13 crash near Demonbreun Street and Music Circle East.
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The City of Nashville lacked formal plans and procedures to handle a January winter snowstorm that left nearly half of its residents without power, according to an interim report.
Nashville’s Winter Storm Response Commission released a report on Friday detailing the city’s failures in a storm that left an estimated 85,000 people without power for nearly a week. Approximately 29 people experienced weather-related fatalities from Winter Storm Fern, according to the state Department of Health.
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Tennessee led the United States in property tax hikes from 2019 to 2025, according to an analysis by the Beacon Center of Tennessee.
The pro-free-market nonprofit think tank examined Wall Street Journal-produced data that shows Tennessee “with a double-digit lead over” Colorado, its nearest competitor. “The Volunteer State stands alone as the only state with over a 75 percent increase,” the Beacon Center revealed.
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More than 40 years after Kingston Springs, Tennessee motel maid Catherine Jean Jenkins was stabbed to death, Anthony Darrell Hines was executed for her murder.
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Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Tennessee Star, and public affairs specialist Clint Brewer discussed Thursday’s appearance by U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alongside U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), describing the visit as a significant political development that occurred on Tennessee’s Republican primary election day.
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More than 40 stations are now in various stages of planning and design for the Music City Loop as The Boring Company continues expanding the scope of its privately funded underground transportation network beneath Nashville, according to the company’s latest construction update.
In its sixth official Music City Loop blog post, The Boring Company said last week it is continuing to work with property owners to advance station development along the tunnel alignment while pursuing additional partnerships for future stations.
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Two Tennessee cities ranked among the 10 least safe large cities in the United States in a new study released Monday by financial technology company SmartAsset, with Memphis finishing last overall and Nashville also appearing near the bottom of the rankings.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security told The Tennessee Star on Friday that it filed an immigration detainer against Ulises Raigoza-Martinez after the illegal alien from Mexico pleaded guilty on Wednesday to his role in the killing of a Nashville restaurant owner in 2024.
Davidson County court records reveal Raigoza-Martinez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, two theft charges, and one evidence tampering count, after he and an associate were accused of killing Smokin Thighs owner Matthew Carney.
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Multiple cities appear to have used federal funding made available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, signed into law by former President Joe Biden, in order to provide legal services or attorneys to illegal aliens facing removal.
A review of U.S. Treasury Department documents reveals multiple other cities told the U.S. Department of Treasury they intended to use ARPA money to support illegal aliens, joining Nashville, which awarded over $3 million in ARPA funding for two pro-illegal alien nonprofits in 2022, and recently appropriated an additional $1.5 million for the same groups in its Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget.
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An email obtained by The Tennessee Star following its public records request to Metro Nashville, seeking answers about the nearly $1.5 million appropriated to two pro-illegal immigrant nonprofits, reveals that the $718,000 grant for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON) was included in Metro’s budget following a meeting between a city official and Emily Cupples, a Democratic political consultant who now manages the reelection campaign of Mayor Freddie O’Connell.
Though O’Connell’s office resisted providing an unknown number of documents, citing attorney-client privilege, one of the five sent to The Star is an email exchange between Cupples and a Metro Nashville employee from earlier this year.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell released a new campaign advertisement parodying U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) recent anti-China gubernatorial campaign commercial, prompting a swift response from the senator, who accused the mayor of trying to distract voters from his record on illegal immigration.
O’Connell’s mayoral re-election ad recreates the setting of Blackburn’s original commercial at Nashville’s Elliston Place Soda Shop, where the senator filmed her anti-China campaign ad in a staged Chinese restaurant.
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While Metro Nashville stopped short of answering the public records request filed by The Tennessee Star by providing justification for appropriating nearly $1.5 million in grants for two pro-illegal immigrant nonprofits, the 51 documents provided by Metro include an email chain where Metro Clerk Austin Kyle told the Metro Department of Finance, “We do not have any of the records related to these grants on file.”
The email was sent by Metro Clerk Austin Kyle on June 8, just days after The Star sent press inquiries to the clerk’s office and Mayor Freddie O’Connell seeking documents, which Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 7-3-314(b) states must be filed by nonprofits seeking grants from metropolitan governments, to explain the mayor’s request to appropriate $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON).
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From Nashville’s budget priorities to a sweeping federal bribery investigation in Jackson and a legal battle involving Louisiana’s attorney general in New Orleans, The Tennessee Star’s lead reporter, Tom Pappert, argued Monday that three Democratic-led cities in Republican-led states have become focal points for disputes over government accountability and adherence to state law.
During an appearance Tuesday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert discussed his recent reporting on each of the three cities, beginning with Metro Nashville’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget, which appropriates nearly $1.5 million in grants to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors.
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Metro Nashville provided The Tennessee Star with 51 documents in response to its June 11 request filed using the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA), but none offer justification for the decision by Mayor Freddie O’Connell to include nearly $1.5 million for two pro-illegal alien nonprofits in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget passed by the Metro Council last month.
The response from Metro included 51 emails, along with some of their attachments, exchanged among Metro officials, employees, and Metro City Council members between 2022 and 2026. However, none of the emails included the information Tennessee state law requires metropolitan governments to obtain from nonprofits before authorizing appropriations.
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A review of the Metro Nashville budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 reveals that more money was appropriated as grants for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), two nonprofits that provide support to illegal aliens, than the city spends on more recognizable expenses including unemployment, the Historical Commission, and an audit for Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Appropriations totaling $735,000 for TIRRC and $718,000 for TNJFON were included in the FY 2027 budget proposed by Mayor Freddie O’Connell in May and were included in the $3.85 billion budget passed by the Metro Council last month. Together, the nonprofits are slated to receive about $1.453 million.
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One thing that Nashville is known for is its hundreds of magnificent murals inside and outside of buildings all over town. For those of us who appreciate art but can’t really create it, I thought it would be fun to get to know one of these artists.
Devin Wright originally hails from the Los Angeles area. His great-grandfather was a jazz musician from New Orleans, and his family has been involved in the entertainment business for generations. But Wright (who can also play jazz) has always focused on visual art.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Monday confirmed his plan to use eminent domain to condemn and acquire property near the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere for public uses, including offices for Metro, the Nashville Fire Department, and the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure (NDOT).
News first emerged early on Monday that the mayor was planning to use eminent domain in response the controversial data center planned near the zoo, and by the end of the day, O’Connell released a statement listing his concerns about the data center, and announcing his administration’s plans for the property.
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U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy toured the Music City Loop construction site last week, hailing the privately-funded project as “critical infrastructure” seeking to “meaningfully improve” the lives of those traveling around Nashville.
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The Metro Council Office on Wednesday said it was still working to determine whether it has records showing its justification for the nearly $1.5 million in grants Nashville awarded two pro-illegal immigrant nonprofits in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget passed earlier this month. The office said it will need until July 1 to make this determination and provide a response.
In a response to the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA)-pursuant request sent by The Tennessee Star on June 12, the Metro Council Office on Thursday announced, “It has not yet been determined whether the records responsive to your request exist.”
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Following the record-breaking success of the GlockStore’s 6th Annual Open House, the company’s founder and CEO, Lenny Magill, said plans are already underway to make next year’s event even larger after an estimated 2,000 Second Amendment supporters traveled from across the country to attend the Nashville gathering.
Appearing on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Monday, Magill revealed that attendance far exceeded initial estimates.
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Eva Romero, a Republican running for the Tennessee House of Representatives, outlined her background, policy priorities, and reasons for seeking office during an exclusive interview Thursday with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy.
Romero, who is running for Tennessee House District 60, said during Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show that the district she is running for includes Old Hickory, Hermitage, and Donelson, describing it as “lake to lake.” The district is currently represented by Democratic State Representative Shaundelle Brooks (D-Hermitage).
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The Boring Company said construction of its Music City Loop transit system continues to accelerate, with the project’s first tunnel boring machine actively excavating beneath Nashville and a second machine scheduled to begin tunneling later this month.
In the latest project update, released Monday on its website, The Boring Company reported that Prufrock-MB1 has been tunneling since April while undergoing continuous upgrades to improve speed and reliability.
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A huge crowd of more than eight hundred people from across the United States attended The Glock Store’s 6th Annual Open House in Nashville on Saturday. While the majority of the Second Amendment practitioners in attendance were Tennessee residents, a survey of the jam-packed parking lot and streets surrounding The Glock Store showed cars driven in from Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
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The GlockStore is set to host its annual Open House event on Saturday, May 30, at its headquarters near Nashville International Airport.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have arrested a Honduran national convicted in a 2022 deadly wrong-way crash that killed a Nashville musician following his recent release from state prison in West Tennessee, the agency announced Wednesday.
ICE said 37-year-old Kelvin Mejia-Romero was taken into custody April 20 after completing his prison sentence at the Northwest Correctional Complex near Memphis. He is expected to remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
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Former Democratic Metro Council Member Jerry Maynard Jr. and other family members are being accused by Eli Lilly, a drug company, of attempting to steal more than $200 million.
Eli Lilly, which generated over $65 billion in profit last year, alleges that Jerry Maynard Jr., his father Jerry Maynard Sr., his sister Misha Maynard, and others allegedly tried to defraud the company by buying large quantities of a diabetes medication called Trulicity and fraudulently selling it.
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Tea Party Nation Founder Judson Phillips and The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy argued that Nashville could become fertile ground for an “insurgent” political campaign modeled after the AI-driven strategy used by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt.
Speaking during Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Phillips praised Pratt’s unconventional campaign style, saying, “Pratt’s campaign, anybody who’s thinking about running as a Republican, particularly if you’re running for a significant office, you need to emulate Spencer Pratt’s campaign.”
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The Tennessee State Funding Board approved a measure this week to grant Starbucks a $30 million economic development grant to support the company’s move to Nashville.
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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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National Football League (NFL) owners voted Tuesday at the Spring League Meeting to award Nashville as the 2030 host city for host Super Bowl LXIV, which will mark the first time Tennessee will host the NFL’s championship game
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Owners of the National Football League (NFL) are expected to vote on whether Nashville will host Super Bowl LXIV in February 2030, according to NFL Network.
League owners reportedly will decide on Nashville as the host city for the 2030 Super Bowl during Tuesday’s Spring League Meeting.
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Civicity, a new security company founded in March by the Kentucky-based Block by Block, reportedly joined law enforcement patrolling downtown Nashville over the weekend, amid the suspension of the city’s last private security partner over allegations its security guards posed as uniformed police, whose five-year contract just expired.
Originally reported in April to be the new choice of the Central Business Improvement District (CBID), which collects a portion of revenue from downtown businesses and directs them to the nonprofit District Management Corporation (DMC), which in turn is operated by the Nashville Downtown Partnership (NDP), Civicity has reportedly already been contracted to provide services for the remainder of the year.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell appointed the wife of a Democratic state legislator to be the city’s new director of the Department of Law.
Tyler Yarbro, the wife of State Senator Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville), is set to replace Wally Dietz, who is retiring in July.
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State and federal investigations have been confirmed after at least nine schools in Metro Nashville and the surrounding area were reportedly targeted with alleged swatting attempts, resulting in lockdowns or lockouts as local police verified there were no threats.
Threats were called in on Monday to at least nine schools in Nashville, Jackson, Franklin, Smyrna, La Vergne, Murfreesboro, and Clarksville, according to WSMV 4, while WKRN reported that the same school targeted in La Vergne was swatted a second time on Tuesday.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Thursday described the triple digit percentage property tax increases experienced by business owners as “a cost of doing business” associated with the rise in the value of properties in the city.
With popular businesses hit with tax hikes as high as 356 percent, and some already announcing closures, O’Connell on Thursday cited the recent increases to Nashville property prices, and suggested most Nashvillians would trade the higher taxes for higher property values.
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Tennessee lawmakers spent this session advancing the priorities and values voters sent them to Nashville to fight for. From empowering parents with school choice to cracking down on illegal immigration, expanding Second Amendment rights to protecting free speech on college campuses, the 114th General Assembly moved aggressively on nearly every front.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell confirmed this week to multiple outlets that he will seek reelection in 2027 to “strengthen the foundation” of his administration’s policies.
O’Connell, elected in 2023, said his decision to run again is driven largely by the long-term nature of several major initiatives already underway, including his signature “Choose How You Move” transportation plan, redevelopment of the East Bank, and investments in “affordable housing.”
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Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell reportedly confirmed there is no property tax relief included in his budget, which will instead include a “Legacy Business program” that will offer grants to some Nashville businesses.
O’Connell reportedly confirmed his stance on Friday to Fox 17, who reported the mayor, “is not proposing property tax cuts in his budget proposal because it would not line up with the property assessment timeline.”
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