U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) are demanding answers from Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy after he acknowledged that an unknown number of violent criminal defendants were released back into the community without serving jail time in December 2025.
Read the full story
The Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) arrested 48 people last Thursday, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, who reported the arrests in a Friday press release.
The Marshals highlighted three of those arrested, including Allishon Torres, 18, who was charged with first-degree murder, and allegedly found in possession of a handgun with defaced serial numbers.
Read the full story
Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) detailed how his focused push to reduce crime and overhaul public education is producing measurable progress in Memphis and advancing his pledge to “make Memphis matter.”
Read the full story
John DeBerry, a longtime Democratic state representative in Tennessee who served Memphis’ House District 90 for about 26 years, plans to enter the race for Shelby County mayor as a Republican, according to reports.
Read the full story
Clint Brewer, Founder and Managing Partner of PR Firm Imperium Public Strategies, said renewed calls for a state takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools are rooted in long-standing mismanagement, arguing that audit findings show a system that has failed both teachers and students.
Read the full story
Nearly every Tennessee county has an unemployment rate under 5 percent.
Ninety-one counties in Tennessee had a jobless rate under 5 percent in December 2025.
Read the full story
The snow in Tennessee this week isn’t the only thing accumulating in Nashville. With our general assembly back in session and the bill deadline looming – legislative priorities for our representatives and senators are coming into view. And, for Governor Bill Lee, who enters his last year in office – it’s his last chance to advance his policy agenda.
As in years past, The Tennessee Conservatives Coalition will be monitoring legislation and having an impact on issues that conservatives in Tennessee care about – from bedrock conservative principles of expanding school choice, to social issues including protecting the unborn and addressing human trafficking, to economic issues of ensuring low taxes, a conservative budget and maintaining and promoting a business friendly environment.
Read the full story
Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) clarified on Wednesday that he sold his eponymous funeral business for “millions of dollars” after multiple media outlets reported the company cut ties with the Republican lawmaker due to concerns over how he expresses his political views.
Brent Taylor Funeral Directors first drew awareness to its forthcoming rebrand in a post to social media on Monday, confirming the company “is no longer owned, operated, or affiliated in any way with Brent Taylor.” After stating that “recent public statements” by Taylor “do not reflect the values, mission, or beliefs of our current leadership,” the company announced it would undertake “a full rebrand of the funeral home.”
Read the full story
U.S. Marshals arrested a Tennessee man wanted on first-degree murder charges.
Wilquonta Haslyn Bailey, 29, was taken into custody in connection with a killing in Smyrna, Tennessee, according to a U.S. Marshals Middle Tennessee Task Force press release.
Read the full story
Memphis Shelby County Schools (MSCS) on Tuesday will discuss whether to accept a $6 million donation from the Musk Foundation, the philanthropic effort by billionaire Elon Musk, that would fund repairs at three Memphis elementary schools while supporting the district’s students.
The materials prepared ahead of the meeting appear to reveal the bulk of the $6 million will be spent on upgrades to Hawkins Mill Elementary, Westside Elementary, and Whitney Elementary, which were previously proposed as schools to receive students from deteriorating buildings.
Read the full story
Data provided by the City of Memphis shows local, state, and federal law enforcement have made more than 6,000 arrests since the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) was deployed on September 30, prompting responses from federal and state prosecutors over the increase in cases.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who previously faced calls for his removal and accusations of being soft on crime by Republicans in the General Assembly, told The Daily Memphian last month that his office had filed over 1,700 cases related to MSTF since it deployed, including 129 cases that were referred to grand juries.
Read the full story
A federal jury has returned a guilty verdict against Marshun Lewis of Memphis, for a series of armed robberies of United States Postal Service carriers and related bank fraud offenses, U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant for the Western District of Tennessee announced this week.
Read the full story
The U.S. Marshals Service announced on Monday that the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) had recovered 142 missing children since it was deployed on October 1, including two siblings recovered on Sunday.
According to a Marshals press release, a family member reported two children were missing at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, apparently advising law enforcement that the pair were siblings, and one was a toddler.
Read the full story
A new bill looks to strengthen immigration enforcement in Tennessee.
State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) introduced Senate Bill (SB) 1486, which would require local law enforcement agencies to “accept and honor” federal immigration detainers.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) released dashcam footage to dispute allegations that an officer struck an anti-ICE protester with a vehicle during a demonstration in Memphis that blocked traffic to protest federal immigration enforcement over the weekend.
Read the full story
The U.S. Marshals Service on Wednesday announced that the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) earlier this week arrested a “documented” of the Vice Lords, one of the country’s oldest and largest gangs, who allegedly killed a man in a Christmas Day shooting that left an apartment building marked with bullet holes.
Montavius Wells was arrested Tuesday on a warrant for the first-degree murder of Cadarius Williams that was issued on December 26, 2025, according to the Marshals, who reported that Wells is accused of fatally shooting Williams on Christmas Day.
Read the full story
The U.S. Marshals Service announced on Thursday that an alleged kidnapper, rapist, and drug dealer was among those arrested by the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) on New Year’s Eve.
According to a press release from the Marshals, federal law enforcement charged Jesse Clark with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated rape, aggravated assault, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, methamphetamine, and fentanyl, after interviewing his alleged victim.
Read the full story
The U.S. Marshals Service announced on Tuesday Stephanie Creasy, a native of Memphis, Tennessee, was selected by Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as its new deputy director.
According to the Marshals, Creasy has served with the Marshals since 1998 and was at one point assigned to complement U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) operations in West Tennessee, during which she helped locate one of the agency’s most wanted criminals in 2013. She is a graduate of both the University of Memphis and Troy University.
Read the full story
The U.S. Marshals Service on Friday announced the arrest of the suspect who allegedly crashed his vehicle into a federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on December 13. The crash allegedly occurred as the suspect was fleeing from other law enforcement agencies participating in the Memphis Safe Task Force deployed to the city in September.
According to the Marshals, 24-year-old Lamark Boykin was arrested on Friday to face charges of unlawfully possessing a firearm and driving under the influence. The federal law enforcement agency alleged that on December 13, “Boykin’s vehicle was involved in a fleeing incident that resulted in a crash causing injuries to an ATF agent and an uninvolved citizen.”
Read the full story
Authorities operating under the Memphis Safe Task Force have recorded over 4,000 arrests since the initiative’s launch less than three months ago.
Read the full story
The Memphis City Council on Tuesday approved a 2 percent raise for the city’s fire department. Passed amid litigation over the city’s alleged betrayal of its prior commitment to give firefighters a raise, the last attempt to provide the raise failed earlier this month, after Council Member Yolanda Cooper-Sutton accused the department of “rape” over its request for a raise.
After the December 2 meeting concluded without a vote, Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s resolution to amend the city’s 2026 budget to include a 2 percent raise for firefighters passed with eight of the 13 members of the Memphis City Council voting in favor.
Read the full story
Former Vice President Kamala Harris in January will make her second visit to Tennessee since losing to President Donald Trump last year, according to a Memphis event venue, whose website was updated on Wednesday to include an event listing for the Democrat’s book tour.
The Orpheum Theater in Memphis is now selling tickets, ranging in price between about $75 and $150, for a January 25, 2026 event titled, “A Conversation with Kamala Harris,” with the public invited, “for a night of surprising and revealing insights,” inspired from Harris’ new book, 107 Days.
Read the full story
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy shared in an email last week to his constituents the remarks he made in November to The Commercial Appeal, defending his office’s use of plea deals as standard for the criminal justice system in the United States.
The newspaper specifically reported that the attorney’s office, “found the public’s response to plea deals has missed the wider context,” and that Mulroy told the outlet most cases generally end with a plea deal.
Read the full story
Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, reports that Memphis has experienced a dramatic and rapid improvement in public safety following the deployment of the Memphis Safe Task Force, the joint state, federal, and local initiative authorized under President Donald Trump.
Since launching in late September, the task force has made over 3,600 arrests, contributing to a 45 percent reduction in crime and a significant decrease in police calls. The operation has also recovered hundreds of stolen vehicles, seized over 500 firearms, and located more than 120 missing children.
Read the full story
The Memphis Fire Fighters Association on Wednesday condemned the “shameful” comments by Memphis City Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, a Democrat whose political campaign was once interrupted by a drive-by shooting, who on Tuesday said Memphis firefighters are “raping the city” over their request for the city to grant the raise promised in 2024.
Cooper-Sutton made the remarks on Tuesday, but the portion of the live stream posted to YouTube appears to be missing this section, despite the Memphis City Council telling The Daily Memphian that it is able to be viewed. A video of the councilwoman’s remarks was instead posted to social media by the Memphis radio program “Nation of Jake.”
Read the full story
After Memphis reported its lowest reported crime total since at least 2001, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Director David Rausch announced in a Tuesday letter to two Republican lawmakers representing Memphis that an audit of the crime reporting since the deployment of federal assets is accurate.
The letter came after State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) and State Representative John Gillespie (R-Memphis) asked the TBI to audit the data supplied by law enforcement since FBI Director Kash Patel announced a surge of federal law enforcement to the city, as well as the crime statistics reported since the September 30 deployment of the Memphis Safe Task Force.
Read the full story
Mayor Paul Young credited the deployment of the Memphis Safe Task Force last week for the city’s recent decline in crime, noting in a newsletter released by his office that October’s crime total fell to a level not seen since at least 2001.
Calling it “remarkable progress,” the mayor announced, “In September of 2025, before the Memphis Safe Task Force, we saw the fifth lowest crime numbers in a single month in the past ten years. And in October, we saw the single lowest monthly total since 2001 — and likely before that, but our system can reliably confirm the numbers back to 2001.”
Read the full story
A Guatemalan national and Honduran national in the U.S. illegally were arrested on warrants and immigration charges in Memphis this week by authorities operating under the Memphis Safe Task Force.
Read the full story
A Memphis activist on Sunday claimed that her life was “in danger” after State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) shared her now-deleted post claiming he, “looks like he’s ready to catch one in he throat.”
The claim by L.J. Abraham, a Memphis activist who attended anti-police protests after the death of Tyre Nichols, came hours after Taylor shared her earlier post on social media, and reported that some contacted concerned her post was, “a possible reference to the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk who was assassinated with a bullet to the neck.”
Read the full story
A Tennessee National Guard Security Forces officer deployed to Memphis under the Memphis Safe Task Force was recognized for saving the life of a woman suffering from a drug overdose over the weekend.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS) is requesting more than $16 million in new funding for Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) troopers, supervisors, and support staff positions, which will reportedly allow the agency to station more than 100 additional troopers in Memphis.
In the material prepared for its 2026-2027 budget meeting with Governor Bill Lee, TDOSHS requested an additional $16.7 million in funding for the state troopers, representing nearly a 40 percent increase over the $26.9 million in recurring funding for these positions. The state agency seeks about $43.5 million in total spending for troopers and related roles.
Read the full story
The U.S. Marshals Service reportedly said on Monday that the federal Memphis Safe Task Force last week helped find a Tennessee teenager who had been missing since September after receiving a tip that the teen was living in a van with their father in Honolulu, Hawaii.
According to a Marshals press release reported by The Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday, authorities in Tennessee first heard the missing 15-year-old might be in Tennessee on November 2, when the Memphis Safe Task Force received a tip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), reporting the teenager was living in a van with their father, Alex Woods.
Read the full story
The Nashville-based Beacon Center of Tennessee’s November poll highlights deepening political polarization between Republican and Democratic voters in the Volunteer State.
Read the full story
More than 2,000 arrests have been made since the deployment of the Memphis Safe Task Force on September 30, according to a City of Memphis data portal that provides daily updates about the city’s crime statistics since the federal law enforcement arrived.
In just over one month since the task force deployed, the portal shows that law enforcement has made 883 felony arrests and 1,164 misdemeanor arrests, with 303 arrests involving violent warrants, for a total of 2,048 alleged criminals taken off the streets since the end of September.
Read the full story
U.S. Marshals Service Director Gadyaces Serralta said public safety in Memphis has visibly improved as a result of the ongoing joint federal and local law enforcement efforts working to reduce violent crime in the city, with residents once again feeling safe to return to places like Beale Street.
Serralta joined U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) for an episode of her podcast Unmuted with Marsha, shared exclusively with The Tennessee Star, where he offered his firsthand insights into the joint law enforcement operations underway in Memphis.
Read the full story
Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday spoke at the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event held at the University of Mississippi, and answered a question from a citizen of Memphis, who questioned Vance about the arrests by the Memphis Safe Task Force involving firearms.
Telling Vance that he drove from Memphis to ask the vice president a question, the audience member asked if the nearly 400 firearms recovered by the Memphis Safe Task Force contradict the pledge by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that is friendlier to the Second Amendment.
Read the full story
Memphis is a city in transformation. Thanks many of our state’s policymakers and federal partners, our state has pushed back on crime, bolstered our police and law enforcement presence, and embraced community initiatives to reclaim our neighborhoods. However, while our streets and communities are patrolled by public safety authorities, our children roam a much less supervised digital world that leaves them exposed and vulnerable.
Over the past month, Memphis has seen a dramatic surge of law enforcement. This “Memphis Safe Task Force,” backed by President Trump’s administration, Governor Bill Lee, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Bill Hagerty, the Tennessee National Guard, state legislators, and federal agencies, has made over 1,000 arrests in just weeks for offenses ranging from homicides and sex crimes to narcotic trafficking and gang activity. Law enforcement has also served 418 warrants and located 40 missing children in this same period.
Read the full story
Hundreds of Memphis city employees representing 13 labor unions gathered outside City Hall this week to protest what they say is the mayor’s refusal to honor existing memorandums of understanding (MOUs).
Read the full story
Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, detailed the recent incidents of criminal activity committed by illegal aliens in Tennessee, particularly in Nashville and Memphis.
On Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert reported on two major developments: the arrest of an illegal alien teenager involved in a high-speed police chase in Nashville, and the Department of Homeland Security’s release of information on illegal aliens arrested in Memphis as part of the federal Memphis Safe Task Force.
Read the full story
Three far-left legal groups assisted Tennessee Democrats in filing a lawsuit aimed at halting the National Guard deployment in Memphis.
On Monday, Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal denied the Democrats’ request for a temporary restraining order; however, she scheduled a court date for November 3 to determine the temporary injunction order in the lawsuit.
Read the full story
Mike Dunavant was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee during a brief ceremony in Memphis.
Read the full story
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday released a list of 11 illegal immigrants the agency said were detained as result of the Memphis Safe Task Force deployment, which a new data dashboard created under Mayor Paul Young shows has seen more than 1,200 arrests, and coincided with a 45 percent decline in reports of serious crimes.
According to DHS, illegal immigrants arrested in Memphis include gang members, pedophiles, rapists, domestic abusers, and drug traffickers, and those names released on Monday are only “the worst of the worst” offenders detained by the task force.
Read the full story
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has published the names and photos of illegal alien criminals recently arrested in Memphis by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force initiative.
Read the full story
A Tennessee court denied a request on Monday to issue a temporary restraining order against the deployment of National Guard troops in Memphis.
“Plaintiffs have not clearly shown by verified complaint or affidavits that immediate and irreparably injury, loss, or damage will result to them before notice can be served on Defendants and a hearing had on Plaintiffs’ motion. Plaintiffs’ attorneys also have not certified efforts to give notice to Defendants or reasons why notice should not be required,” wrote Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal.
Read the full story
U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) expressed his frustration with The Nation in a letter to the editor published on Thursday by the progressive magazine in response to its recent coverage of the primary challenge launched by State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis).
Cohen’s letter was written in response to the October 8 coverage of Pearson by The Nation, which began by positively comparing the Tennessee Democrat to Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York, and closed by describing Cohen’s campaign slogan as “unfathomable.”
Read the full story
Attorney General Pam Bondi stated during a Thursday cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump that the federal agents deployed on September 29 as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force has already made more than 500 arrests and seized 144 illegal firearms.
Praising federal law enforcement involved with the task force and the Memphis Police Department (MPD), Bondi announced, “We’ve been making arrests left and right. So far we made 562 arrests and seized 144 illegal guns. Just in the short time we’ve been in Memphis.”
Read the full story
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) launched a bid for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District on Wednesday, setting up a primary challenge between him and incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09).
Read the full story
Memphis Police Chief CJ Davis told the Memphis City Council on Tuesday that it appears the National Guard will be coming to Memphis on Friday.
Davis said her police department is having direct communication with National Guard leaders about what the daily deployment of guard members will look like when they arrive in Memphis.
Read the full story
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said she and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth will be on the ground in Memphis on Wednesday as the Memphis Safe Task Force is underway to address the city’s crime surge.
Read the full story
Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday where he advocated for his initiative to “Make Memphis Matter,” specifically when it comes to addressing the city’s crime surge.
Read the full story