Members of the Washington, D.C.-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance have released a letter ripping politicians’ proposals to set price controls for health care coverage.
Several academics from around the country attached their names to the letter, including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga economics professor Bruce Hutchinson. These economists compose a group called the Coalition Against Rate Setting.
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Tennessee officials have charged two out-of-state women with TennCare fraud in separate cases.
The women live in Kentucky and Virginia. Per state law, only Tennessee residents may participate in the TennCare program. The taxpayer-funded TennCare is Tennessee’s version of Medicaid.
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A Vanderbilt coronavirus model has revised its estimated count of current Tennessee hospitalizations from the thousands to nearly 300.
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Fewer Tennesseans are filing brand new unemployment claims versus the number who filed last week, but the number of state residents with continued claims has gone up slightly.
This, according to new numbers the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) released Thursday.
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Former Ambassador to Japan and Tennessee Republican Senate Candidate Bill Hagerty joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Thursday morning on the newsmakers line.
During the third hour, Hagerty discussed former Vice President Joe Biden’s involvement in the unmasking of General Michael Flynn and how he has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Hagerty said his campaign is actively laying out a blueprint for bringing much-needed supply chains back to America.
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Five government-owned internet networks in Tennessee are among several others nationwide that don’t spend public money wisely and also steer business away from private competitors, according to a report a taxpayer watchdog group released Wednesday.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday that fear of catching COVID-19 is not reason enough to vote by mail in the coming elections.
“I think that what we want to do in this state is remove the reason to have fear about going to the polling booths. We have worked really really hard to set up businesses in a way that people can feel safe to go into them, and we’re going to do the same thing with our elections,” Lee said at a press conference Tuesday.
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The Shelby County Health Department in Tennessee has issued a drug overdose spike alert lasting from April 6 to May 7 after seeing an unexplained increase in drug overdoses between that time.
Recent data showed that seven separate spike alerts were triggered between those dates, with the most recent reporting 20 suspected overdose events, four of them fatal.
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Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Butch Eley announced Tuesday that revenues for April were less than the monthly revenues from the previous year. according to the department’s press release.
Overall state revenues for April were $1.3 billion, which is a negative growth rate of 39.75 percent compared to last year and $693.8 million less than the state budgeted, the press release said.
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The woman behind Tennessee providing COVID-19 patient data to first responders has been promoted.
Brandon O. Gibson, a senior advisor to Gov. Bill Lee, was promoted to the state’s chief operating officer (COO), the governor’s office announced Tuesday.
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U.S. Senate candidate Manny Sethi announced Tuesday that he will begin a 95 county tour in the coming days.
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The former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and his wife Crissy have started a tutoring program in Tennessee to fight against the “summer slide” and to help students whose education has been interrupted by the pandemic.
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The City of Knoxville said Tuesday it will opt-out of sharing the names and addresses of COVID-19 patients with law enforcement following a statewide controversy over the practice.
Mayor Indya Kincannon and Police Chief Eve Thomas said that the Knoxville Police Department will leave a state program that allows law-enforcement officers across Tennessee to access a database of persons who have tested positive for COVID-19.
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Facebook last week announced that more than 200 news organizations will receive nearly $16 million in grants through the Facebook Journalism Project’s relief fund for local news. These grants come from $25 million in relief funding announced in March from Facebook’s $100 million global investment in news. It includes:
$10.3 million being awarded to 144 US local newsrooms as part of the COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund Grant Program. The fund is supporting many publishers who are hardest hit by this crisis: nearly 80 percent of recipients are family- or independently owned and more than half are published by or for communities of color.
$5.4 million being awarded to 59 North American newsrooms that participated in Facebook Local News Accelerator programs focused on subscriptions and memberships.
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As of Sunday Tennessee had 14,985 confirmed COVID-19 cases, while the virus had claimed the lives of 243 state residents.
This, according to The Covid Tracking Project, which also reported the virus had hospitalized 1,325 Tennesseans.
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The former president of Nashville-based Omnis Health pleaded guilty last week to embezzling $763,887 from the company and evading taxes.
U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee said 50-year-old Robert Burton was charged in February with wire fraud and tax evasion related to his embezzlement scheme. Burton was the president of Omnis Health, which sells diabetic testing kits, from July 2013 to May 2017.
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U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-08) joined President Donald Trump at the White House Friday for a discussion on the administration’s plan for a “great American comeback.”
Green thanked the president for his leadership in responding to the coronavirus pandemic and criticized the mainstream media for laughing at decisions that have “saved American lives.”
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The Tennessee government is providing the names and addresses of COVID-19 patients to law enforcement agencies and other first responders, documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal.
According to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) obtained by the outlet, the Tennessee Department of Health is “disclosing” the information to the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board, which in turn passes the information along to first responders.
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Fewer Tennesseans filed new unemployment claims this past week, while the number of continued claims in the state also slightly fell.
This, according to a press release The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development put out Thursday.
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Gov. Bill Lee said more than 23,000 Tennesseans have received a free COVID-19 test at one of 67 drive-through testing sites over the past three weekends.
“Testing remains one of the most important tools for gaining more information in our fight against COVID-19, and the 23,000 tests we’ve completed over the last three weekends have provided incredibly valuable data,” Lee said in a statement. “We’re grateful to the thousands who came out to receive a test this weekend and we continue to remind Tennesseans: when in doubt, get a test.”
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A judge ruled that the Tennessee Education Savings Account (ESA) Pilot Program is unconstitutional, and a nonpartisan think tank says that could harm children.
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Nashville officials told local residents last Friday that surrounding counties had suddenly surpassed the city in its COVID-19 count, but they could only claim that because prisoners two counties away contracted the virus.
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The Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus called for no-excuse absentee voting in a recent letter to Gov. Bill Lee and Secretary of State Tre Hargett.
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Two legal organizations have filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Tre Hargett in an effort to overturn Tennessee’s “unconstitutional” restrictions on absentee voting.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Campaign Legal Center. The two groups filed the complaint on behalf of several Tennessee organizations “whose many members are not eligible for vote by mail under current law.”
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by Chris White Americans are venturing out more to fast food restaurants, gas stations and public places even as health experts and government officials demand extending economic lockdowns, location data show. People are back to visiting gas stations and fast food restaurants at pre-COVID-19 levels, according to location data collected by Foursquare, a local search-and-discovery app that helps users discover places near them to visit and eat. Foursquare noted the changes in how people are moving in a blog post Thursday showing that people are apparently feeling free to travel about. Americans are changing their behavior even as governors and mayors across the country continue extending stay-at-home orders to prevent an uptick in coronavirus deaths. Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, for one, extended her state’s lockdown until May 28 and increased her executive powers as protesters stormed Michigan’s state capitol amid a flurry of demonstrations. Michigan has seen more than 4,000 people die from coronavirus, or COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China before going global, killing more than 160,000 people worldwide. Meanwhile, people are getting used to the new situation and even bucking some guidelines, location data show. Gas stations are down only 6% nationally as of April 24, compared to 8-11% weeks prior, Foursquare noted.…
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Exactly 12,661 Tennesseans tested positive for COVID-19 as of Saturday, while the state’s death count for the virus reached 209, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
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The Knox County government backed off a ban of communion, baptism and Bibles at church services after Gov. Bill Lee said his guidance on houses of worship overruled local decisions.
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President Donald Trump commended Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and said he has done a “fantastic job” during a Thursday press conference.
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Mayor John Cooper extended Davidson County’s safer at home order until at least May 8.
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Employees at Cool Springs’ Refine Men’s Salon are preparing to open their doors again after COVID-19 temporarily forced them out of business nearly a month and a half ago, but they must follow new rules.
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Dentists in Tennessee may perform non-emergency services starting May 6, and one Nashville dentist says state officials have imposed clear guidelines for him and his staff to follow.
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Tennesseans filed nearly 44,000 unemployment claims between April 18 of this year through April 25 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to numbers the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development released Thursday.
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Tyson Foods has four locations in Tennessee, and if the one in Union City ever closed then it would dent Obion County’s tax revenue in a big way, said County Mayor Benny McGuire.
Tyson officials took out dire newspaper ads this past weekend. Those ads warned that America’s food supply chain might nearly collapse because of the way the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted some of their facilities.
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A new model developed by a professor at the University of Tennessee and other academics suggests that most models on the coronavirus pandemic have failed to consider one important variable: jail populations.
Most standard COVID-19 models predict that America will experience about 101,000 deaths during the course of the pandemic, but that number increases by 98 percent to 200,000 deaths when jails are accounted for, the new model claims.
The model was developed by Dr. Nina Fefferman at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Eric Lofgren at Washington State University, and Dr. Kristian Lum from the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with Aaron Horowitz and Brooke Madubuonwu of the ACLU’s data analytics team.
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Nearly 10,000 Tennesseans have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday night, according to The COVID Tracking Project’s website.
Updated numbers showed 9,667 Tennesseans tested positive for COVID-19 since it broke out, while the virus had hospitalized 828 state residents. COVID-19 had claimed the lives of 181 Tennesseans as of Sunday, according to The COVID Tracking Project’s website.
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A panel of federal judges ruled 2-1 that Tennessee must allow the “Constitutional right” to abortion during the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic. The decision came Friday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, available online here. Ruling in favor of abortion were Judges Karen Nelson Moore (pictured left) and Helene N. White. The dissenting opinion came from Judge Amul R. Thapar (pictured right), appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017. Moore was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1995 and White was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2008. Moore and White ruled that the so-called right to an abortion applies even during the state’s ban on elective medical procedures during the COVID-19 crisis. And, here, although we have great respect for the challenges Tennessee faces as it responds to this novel public health crisis, we agree with the district court that the State’s response, in this one respect, unduly curtailed constitutional liberty, and that judicial intervention was thus warranted. By the same token, however, we also conclude that, when it comes to the precise scope of the district court’s injunction, the district court went too far in asserting its authority. The case was an…
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Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr Friday asking him to clarify President Donald Trump’s comments about the use of emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic.
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The owners of a Tennessee restaurant were charged with harboring illegal aliens and profiting off their employment by paying them under the table in a federal indictment unsealed this week.
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A prominent conservative organization has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a case involving Tennessee’s participation in the federal refugee resettlement program.
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In a “what the heck” moment, the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development on Thursday said unemployment filings for two-thirds of counties went down for the second week of March.
The filings were for March 8-14, just before the Chinese coronavirus took a toll.
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The Tennessee Department of Education official who was overseeing the rollout of the state’s new voucher program will soon work for a man who adamantly opposes it.
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On Monday, U.S. Rep. Green (R-TN-07) told the feds that coronavirus relief programs should follow past federal precedents and not exclude Tennessee’s small colleges, which are currently disqualified because of student workers.
Those federal programs, Green said, include the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
Green said in a press release that he sent his request to the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration as it pertains to EIDLs and PPP.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that the state’s order for Tennesseans to remain at home due to COVID-19 will expire April 30.
Lee also said the vast majority of businesses in 89 counties are allowed to re-open May 1.
“Our Economic Recovery Group is working with industry leaders around the clock so that some businesses can open as soon as Monday, April 27,” Lee said Monday.
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Tennessee had 7,070 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Sunday night, according to The COVID Tracking Project website. As of press time, the novel coronavirus pandemic took the lives of 148 Tennesseans. Meanwhile, hospital across the state have admitted 724 people who tested positive for the virus. Shelby County continued to tally the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Tennessee, with a total of 1,778 people. Davidson County still ranked second, at 1,638 cases, according to the Tennessee Department of Health’s website. TDH officials listed the updated numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases in other Tennessee counties as follows: • Sumner County: 509 • Williamson County: 348 • Rutherford County: 309 • Knox County: 194 • Wilson County: 181 • Montgomery County: 119 • Hamilton County: 116 • Robertson County: 113 • Putnam County: 95 • Madison County: 86 • Bedford County: 71 • Cumberland County: 57 • Tipton County: 56 • Blount County: 46 • Washington County: 46 • Dickson County: 45 • Fayette County: 45 • Sullivan County: 45 • Bradley County: 37 • Maury County: 34 • Macon County: 33 • Gibson County: 31 • Greene County: 30 • Dyer County: 28 • Marion County: 28 •…
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Republican Senate candidate Manny Sethi this week released his Conservative Strategic Agenda entitled “Vertical Containment is the Way Forward to Get Tennessee and America Back to Work.”
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On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy welcomed guest host and Nashville Tea Party founder Ben Cunningham to the show.
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To illustrate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volume and nature of crime in the state, this week the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation released select preliminary crime data trends for the first three months of 2020.
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Nearly 75,000 Tennesseans were on record as filing unemployment claims as of April 11, according to new numbers the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development put out on their website Thursday.
Residents in Northern Middle Tennessee filed 34,643 claims, the highest regional number, while residents in East Tennessee filed 16,669 claims, according to the TDLWD data.
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More than 19,000 small businesses across Tennessee have received forgivable loans from the federal government under the Paycheck Protection Program.
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U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) said the feds will deliver billions of dollars to prop up local governments that have lost substantial amounts of tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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