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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The world’s largest Bitcoin conference is coming back to Nashville in 2027, organizers of the event announced.
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Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett announced plans for the state’s 2026 Statehood Day celebrations, marking Tennessee’s 230th anniversary alongside the nation’s 250th anniversary.
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A new report shows Oracle has not lived up to its promise to bring thousands of jobs to Tennessee.
According to LayoffHedge, Oracle has created a net gain of seven jobs from 2022 to January 2026.
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Starbucks will be investing $100 million in Tennessee as it opens a new corporate office in Nashville.
The coffee company said on Tuesday its expansion into the Volunteer State will create up to 2,000 jobs to support coffeehouse growth and customer demand, while working with its global headquarters in Seattle.
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Nashville is preparing to host its largest Independence Day celebration ever as part of the nationwide America 250 commemoration marking the United States’ 250th anniversary.
Organizers announced that the annual “Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th” event will expand into a two-day festival on July 3 and 4, featuring more stages, more performances, and the biggest fireworks and drone show in Music City’s history.
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As autonomous vehicle company Waymo faces scrutiny following reports of driverless cars stalling in traffic after its recent Nashville launch, The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and Chris Burger, founder and CEO of Rotunda Public Affairs, highlighted a broader divide over the technology’s future.
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The Vanderbilt University Institute of National Security announced that General Dan “Raizin” Caine, the 22nd chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will headline the upcoming 2026 Asness Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats.
The event will be held in downtown Nashville on Thursday, April 23 and Friday, April 24.
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A spokesman for the autonomous taxi company Waymo on Saturday reportedly confirmed on Saturday that at least one of the company’s vehicles “got stuck” in Nashville traffic following their full deployment last month.
After at least two such incidents were purportedly recorded and posted social media, a Waymo spokesman told Fox 17 that safety was the company’s primary concern.
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A Tuesday report released by the Nashville Banner described a series of actions taken at John Overton High School to accommodate students during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which the observant do not eat or drink during daylight hours.
According to The Banner, the school marked the Muslim holy month by allowing more than 80 students to leave class to attend prayers for 15 minutes daily, creating a program where 10 teachers agreed to keep food out of their classrooms as students fasted during the day, changing the lighting in at least one classroom, and holding its “second annual iftar,” which is traditionally when Muslims break their fast at sunset.
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The Nashville-based tech firm XOi Technologies has officially opened a new 6,000-square-foot headquarters in the 333 office building in the Gulch neighborhood, marking a significant milestone for the company that began just over a decade ago as a small startup operating out of a rented house in Germantown.
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Months after announcing plans to bring fully autonomous ride-hailing to Nashville, Waymo has officially launched its first public robotaxi service in the city.
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The Knoxville Police Department (KPD) on Thursday shared that zero murders were reported during the first three months of 2026, a record previously set in 1988, as crime rates fall across Tennessee and the United States under the Trump administration.
Explaining the city typically sees five murders between January and March, the police department announced on Thursday, “From January 1 through March 31, 2026, there were no murders in Knoxville, down from four at the same time in 2025.”
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to become “two or three times larger than it was last year,” according to The Tennessee Star’s Lead Reporter Tom Pappert, who says a surge of 12,000 new hires is now translating into plans for expanded office space in Tennessee and across the country.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 20 submitted a Request for Information (RFI), expressing the agency’s interest in leasing office space in Nashville and Knoxville, as well as more than 40 other U.S. states and territories.
A spokesman for ICE confirmed on Friday that the new space is necessary due to the massive increase in funding assigned to the agency in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025, which led to a 120 percent increase in ICE’s workforce.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, explained how a proposed federal law enforcement task force in Nashville could ultimately provide political relief for city leadership, especially Mayor Freddie O’Connell, when it comes to addressing crime rates.
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stepped into an ongoing dispute between Nashville prep school Lipscomb Academy and concerned parents, raising questions about whether the private Christian school’s code of conduct unlawfully restricts free expression.
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Lara Trump, former co-chair of the RNC and host of “My View” on Fox News, sat down for an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy in Nashville this week.
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Pelican & Pig, a Nashville restaurant featured on the hit Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil, announced Tuesday it will be closing its doors after seven years in Music City after the business saw a sharp increase in its property taxes.
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Starbucks announced plans this week to open a new corporate operations office in Davidson County later this year and is reportedly offering dozens of its Seattle-based employees an opportunity to relocate to Tennessee as part of its expansion to the state.
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President Donald Trump posted a video message on social media Sunday with a detailed update on Operation Epic Fury, the aptly-named joint offensive with Israel against Iran that eliminated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in its early strikes.
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Nashville Electric Service (NES) CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin acknowledged during the first meeting of the 2026 Winter Storm Response Commission created by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell that “aggressive” vegetation management and tree trimming typically helps mitigate damage from wind, and said that the municipally owned power company plans to step up its efforts after Winter Storm Fern.
Broyles-Aplin began her remarks to the commission by acknowledging the company, “did not meet the expectations of our customers,” particularly in terms of “service and communications,” before repeating the company’s four pillar plan to examine its response to the storm, which left thousands of customers without power for over a week.
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Nashville Electric Service (NES) compensates CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin more than $650,000 annually for her services at the municipally-owned utility, a spokesman for NES confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Monday.
The company confirmed the compensation in an unsigned response to a Friday inquiry from The Star, which sought to confirm Friday reporting by WSMV-4 that Broyles-Aplin is paid $654,870.15 for her work at the company.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, blasted Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s recent response to outrage over skyrocketing property taxes on Lower Broadway, saying the mayor’s remarks “show zero empathy” and amounted to telling a struggling business owner to “just sell his business and walk away.”
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A Tennessee man with a previous murder conviction faces prison time after a federal grand jury indicted him on another criminal charge.
The grand jury indicted James Lafayette Moore, 51, for allegedly possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Tuesday announced the members of his 2026 Winter Storm Response Commission, which will deliver its final report by February 2027, and tapped former Governor Phil Bredesen to chair its efforts.
Despite Bredesen founding a green energy company that does business with NES after leaving office, O’Connell told The Tennessee Star on Thursday that the former governor did not have a conflict of interest, because his commission had no authority.
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It was reported last Thursday that Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) will become the new medical partners for the Tennessee Titans, making VUMC an official medical sponsor, partner, or affiliate for all three of Nashville’s major sports teams.
Ascension Saint Thomas is reportedly planning to end its 25-year partnership with the Titans this year, and VUMC will instead meet the medical needs of the professional football team. It is unclear when the team plans to announce the deal with VUMC, but Ascension’s partnership with the Titans reported to expire on March 1.
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A vintage clothing store in Nashville is facing blowback after displaying explicit anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) signs in its front windows.
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A petition launched on Sunday calls on Cheatham County and the Tennessee Public Service Commission to transition the small number of residents who purchase electricity from Nashville Electric Service (NES) to Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation (CEMC) in the wake of Winter Storm Fern.
The petition requests Cheatham County conduct a feasibility study for the potential switch, citing “persistent power outages occurring on a monthly and at times weekly basis, including during normal, non-severe weather conditions.”
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Nashville Electric Service (NES) Board Chair Anne Davis told The Tennessee Star on Monday that the continued employment of NES CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin will depend on the findings of an independent audit of the company’s performance during Winter Storm Fern.
“Based on NES’ performance during the ice storm, it is clear that many improvements need to be made to prepare for future disasters,” Davis told The Star.
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Amid calls for the embattled Nashville Electric Service (NES) CEO to resign or be fired by the municipally owned company’s board, the top NES executive on Friday defended her leadership during Winter Storm Fern, but declared it was “not a fair question” when asked to grade her performance.
CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin appeared to signal to the Nashville Business Journal, in remarks published Friday, that she would fight to remain at her job despite U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) calling for her to resign, House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) pledging action from the General Assembly, and a bipartisan resolution in the Metro Council calling for the NES board to fire her.
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Two members of the Metro Nashville Council on Wednesday submitted a resolution calling for the Nashville Electric Service (NES) board to fire the company’s top executive, Teresa Broyles-Aplin, as she faces criticism for the municipally owned utility’s response to Winter Storm Fern.
Councilmembers Emily Benedict (District 7) and Courtney Johnston (District 26) in their resolution called for the NES board “to terminate” Broyles-Aplin’s employment immediately, stating that she failed to adequately prepare for the storm or communicate during the outage.
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A YMCA facility in Nashville was seen displaying a banner for Black History Month featuring the raised, clenched fist commonly associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Nashville Electric Service (NES) doubled down on its position that the municipally owned power company increased its budget for tree trimming and vegetation management over the last four years in a late Thursday statement to The Tennessee Star, despite NES 2024 annual report, signed by CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin, which reflects a $7 million cut to tree trimming that helped drive a 6 percent reduction to operating expenses.
In response to a Tuesday press inquiry, a spokesman stated, “NES targets roughly 1,200 miles of tree and vegetation trimming each year to ensure our 4,800 miles of aboveground power lines stay on a proper 3-4 year maintenance cycle.”
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As Elon Musk’s Boring Company nears final approval to begin digging its Music City Loop under the city, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell expressed skepticism that the boring process would begin in remarks published by Bloomberg on Tuesday, expressing his optimism that “no one dies” from the project.
The company announced in a blog post published on Sunday that it had received approval for 32 of the 37 permits it needs to begin work under the city, with five more under review. Among the most critical, the Boring Company explained, is the request before the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), to confirm the lease of land to the company and permit the construction of the tunnel.
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With the municipally owned utility under scrutiny following its response to Winter Storm Fern, public disclosures and biographical information reveal three members of the Nashville Electric Service (NES) Board of Directors are tied to other organizations who also work with NES.
NES Board Chair Delta Anne Davis, who was appointed to the board in 2021 and was named its chair last year, is also a law professor at Vanderbilt University. During the year before Davis joined the board, Vanderbilt entered into a renewable energy partnership with NES and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) through the TVA’s Green Invest program, which led to the selection of Silicon Ranch to build a new solar facility for the university’s power requirements by TVA.
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday called for the elements of the Nashville Electric Service (NES) leadership responsible for the company’s power outage following Winter Storm Fern to be “fired and replaced” in a Senate floor speech that referenced reporting from The Tennessee Star.
“By failing to properly prepare for Winter Storm Fern, the Nashville Electric Service, the 11th largest electric utility in the nation, put Tennesseans in harm’s way,” said Blackburn. “Across Nashville, hundreds of tree branches have broken off into power lines due to ice buildup. It’s the main reason for power loss, and it’s he responsibility of NES to trim trees around power lines to ensure this does not happen.”
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Nashville Electric Service (NES) CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin on Tuesday appeared to contradict the details of the municipally owned utility’s annual report she signed for 2024, which reflects a $7 million cut to its budget for contracted vegetation management, which helped drive a 6 percent decrease to its operating expenses. Instead, the top executive claimed the amount of spending actually increased.
Broyles-Aplin was asked repeatedly about the cut reflected in the 2024 report by reporters during a press conference held days after The Tennessee Star first reported the $7 million cut, prompting the apparent denial the company made the cuts it reflected in the report.
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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.
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Now under scrutiny with more than 20,000 customers without power for nine days following Winter Storm Fern, the Nashville Electric Service (NES) was previously named a “Tree Line Utility” by the Arbor Day Foundation for 16 years in a row, including in March 2025, when Mayor Freddie O’Connell joined representatives from the municipally owned electric company to accept the honor.
In a press release published last year, NES noted it was named a “Tree Line Utility” every year since 2009, and explained that the recognition is reserved for, “utilities that demonstrate their commitment to providing safe, efficient service while protecting and preserving community trees.”
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Nashville Electric Service (NES), under the leadership of CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin since 2022, cut the amount it spent on contracted tree trimming services by more than $7 million in 2024, leaving one of the nation’s top 11 utility companies spending about half of what the average competitor in the United States spends vegetation management.
In its 2024 annual report, NES showed that a significant reduction in the amount of money spent on contracted tree trimming services helped lead to a 6 percent decrease in the municipally owned utility company’s expenses.
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), under the Biden administration, was reported in late 2024 to have awarded Nashville Electric Service (NES) and its partners up to $4 million in funding.
Currently facing calls for accountability as more than 65,000 customers remain without power days after a winter storm, The Tennessee Tribune reported in October 2024 that NES partnered with Metro Nashville, the Urban League of Middle Tennessee, and Tennessee Clean Fuels to receive $500,000 from DOE “to upgrade technology that will provide more secure, reslient, equitable, affordable, and clean power to customers.”
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An agenda published ahead of the Nashville Electric Service (NES) board meeting held on Wednesday includes a contract extension for a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consultant who also appears to work full-time for the municipally owned power company now facing scrutiny as 90,000 homes remain without power days after a winter storm.
Listed in the agenda under recommended purchases and contracts for the Wednesday meeting, the board was recommended to grant a six-month extension to the contract for Tony Williams, who currently provides “Consulting for DEI Projects and Initiatives” for NES.
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A letter from Nashville Electric Service (NES) CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin, included as part of the municipally owned power company’s resurfaced Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report for 2024, reveals NES held over 100 training sessions as part of its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) agenda.
Broyles-Aplin wrote in her letter, included at the beginning of the 2024 ESG report, “NES’ Human Relations Department implemented Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, & Belonging (DEIAB) trainings,” and ultimately held, “a total of 102 sessions in 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 for both organization-wide education and nuanced resources for leadership positions.”
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As the Nashville Electric Service (NES) is currently under scrutiny, with over 100,000 customers without power days after an ice storm swept through the city last weekend, past interviews and public statements by CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin suggest the executive has focused on sustainability, renewable energy, and supporting public transportation since she became the top executive at NES in April 2022.
Broyles-Aplin was spotlighted by Capital Analytics Associates (CAA) last year, when the business insights website highlighted the role of NES in the Choose How You Move transportation referendum successfully championed by Mayor Freddie O’Connell in 2024.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, criticized the handling of Nashville’s recent ice storm, highlighting what he described as systemic mismanagement by city officials and the Nashville Electric Service (NES) board.
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Metro Nashville Council Member Joy Styles (District 32) announced her candidacy for mayor on Tuesday, drawing a sharp contrast with incumbent Mayor Freddie O’Connell, whom she criticized for what she described as an “ineffective” leader who maintains an “inability to be decisive.”
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In an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, former Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson described his journey from the NFL to education and outlined his plans to open Music City Academy, a tuition-free public charter high school in Nashville focused on student-athlete development and academic success.
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