Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Mayor Andy Ogles in studio to convey the symbiotic relationship between the county government and its school system.
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The political future of Senator Katrina Robinson (D-Memphis) is up in the air. This, after federal jurors in October convicted Robinson of four of five counts of wire fraud. Court officials are scheduled to sentence her next month, according to the Memphis-based Action News 5.
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Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee have sentenced a Knoxville man to life plus 10 years in prison. Judge Thomas A. Varlan sentenced that man, Alim J. Turner, 23 last week.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed JC Bowman, CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee in studio to dicuss who they are and the the failed concept of Achievement School Districts.
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Between July 2020 and June of last year, more than 650 people tipped of Tennessee Comptrollers to various and alleged instances of waste, fraud, and abuse in local, state, and federal government agencies. And Comptrollers said they acted on those tips and learned several contained substantive allegations.
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Weston Wamp, son of former Tennessee Republican Congressman Zach Wamp, is running for mayor of Hamilton County, and his past tweets reveal an intense dislike and even a resistance to former President Donald Trump. In more than one tweet, Weston Wamp denied that Trump is a conservative. In another post, Wamp warned that Trump, as president, would likely derail the national economy and spark a recession. In another post, Wamp predicted that the former president would demolish the Republican Party.
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Tennessee state officials took charge of four Memphis schools a decade ago that struggled academically, and those same state officials hoped to perform better than the local school systems had. But that did not happen.
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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the Mayor of Maury County, Tennessee, Andy Ogles in studio to talk about his recent email to the Biden administration regarding his stance on non-compliance of OSHA vaccine mandates.
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Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly will reportedly create multiple congressional districts to represent Nashville, and this move will likely benefit the GOP. This, as state legislators redraw new Congressional maps to comply with required redistricting.
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A member of Americans for Prosperity – Tennessee (AFP-TN) said this week that his organization assists frustrated right-of-center Tennesseans who want to influence state legislators and how they vote. AFP-TN spokesman Grant Henry spoke with The Tennessee Star this week.
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Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson on Wednesday announced that he will seek re-election this year. This, after Anderson said in an emailed press release that he had picked up a petition to run for re-election. He said he collected the necessary signatures to qualify for another term as mayor.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Carol Swain in studio to react to critical theory incentives for University of Memphis professors and failed leadership in K12 Tennessee education.
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U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) said late last month that he wonders whether certain aspects of inflation haven’t happened by design, as a means of pushing the United States closer to socialism. Burchett said this on the talk show, Over-Caffeinated.
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Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) officials this week announced they have received shipments of the Merck and Pfizer oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19. “The Tennessee Department of Health coordinated a distribution plan of molnupiravir and Paxlovid with Walmart pharmacies across the state,” according to a TDH press release.
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Staff for Tennessee Governor Bill Lee won’t comment on the matter, but State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) said Thursday that members of the Tennessee National Guard should decide on their own whether to vaccinate against COVID-19. Tennessee National Guard officials said in November that their troops must take the COVID-19 shot or face discharge. This, per a mandate from the U.S. Department of Defense and President Joe Biden.
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In a Tuesday press release, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that victims of the deadly tornadoes that swept across parts of Tennessee and Illinois will have an extended deadline for filing their taxes this year. The announcement came days after the IRS first announced a tax-filing deadline for victims in Kentucky affected by the tornadoes.
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The U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday published new population estimates and ranked Tennessee as being one of the Top 10 states for numeric growth between 2020 and 2021. The Census Bureau also reported that the Volunteer State grew in population, however slightly, between April 2020 and July 2021.
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An Indiana physician who addressed hundreds of people about COVID-19 as he visited Gallatin this weekend said people concerned about the federal government’s overly-broad powers must call for a Convention of the States.
That man, Daniel Stock, and several other speakers discussed and analyzed their findings regarding proper COVID-19 treatment and care. They said these are findings that federal agencies either don’t report or don’t acknowledge.
The Tennessee Star asked Stock what frustrated Tennesseans can do to ensure that federal officials provide greater medical transparency.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Mom’s for Liberty of Williamson County, Robin Steeman to the newsmakers line to explain a Christmas miracle in favor of 5 Stones Church after Scrooge tries to downzone commercial space for homeschoolers.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed mRNA and DNA vaccine inventor Dr. Robert Malone to the newsmakers line to talk about the Global Covid Summit event this Saturday in Gallatin and clarify the confusion over Cominarty and Pfizer vaccines.
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Members of the Shelby County GOP and the Shelby County Democratic Party have opted not to put up candidates to run for their local school board. Shelby County Administrator of Elections Linda Phillips relayed the news to The Tennessee Star on Tuesday.
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The local officials who lead public schools throughout Tennessee said in a new poll that they want state officials to overhaul the state’s current school funding framework. This, according to a poll that the Nashville-based TennesseeCAN released this week. Members of TennesseeCAN, according to the group’s website, prioritize “K-12 education policies that put children first.”
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Proponents of Tennessee having its own gold depository say that investing in gold could protect the state and its residents during severe economic downturns. But in a new report, published Tuesday, members of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR), said now is not the time.
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Two Republicans who represent Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives voted for a bill that some people say would give the federal government access to information about any one person’s COVID-19 vaccination status. Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) and Representative Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03) voted yes last week on H.R. 550. That bill is otherwise known as the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021.
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U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) this week said states that want to enact pro-life policies, including Mississippi, are on the same level morally as states that legalized slavery more than 160 years ago. Cohen made his remarks on the floor of the U.S. House. He referred to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case that recently went before the U.S. Supreme Court. The pending case pertains to the constitutionality of a Mississippi law that banned abortions after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.
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Tennessee ranked fourth in the country in the CATO Institute’s recent 2021 Freedom in the States rankings.
The rankings use 230 policy variables to rank states on how their policies promote freedom in fiscal, regulatory and personal realms. The CATO Institute is a public policy think tank based on libertarian ideals to promote limited government, free markets and peace.
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Metro Nashville School Board members won’t update their policy on transgender athletes to comply with a new Tennessee law, but a state legislator says state government officials could penalize the school district for disobeying. State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Howenwald) helped get the original bill through the Tennessee General Assembly.
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People who attended regional town halls this fall to discuss Tennessee’s public education funding strategy want legislators to pump even more money into public schools, but one state legislator said that’s not a remedy for improvement. Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) said Wednesday that the state’s funding formula should change but it needs to recognize how many teachers and principals are needed.
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Officials at the California-based Gutterglove, Inc. announced Monday that they will relocate their company’s headquarters from Roseville, California to Franklin, Tennessee.
Gutterglove manufactures professional grade stainless steel gutter guards. Company officials will invest $720,800 and create 20 new jobs in Williamson County, according to an emailed Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development press release.
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Three Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) employees have come forward to say they will not take the COVID-19 shot, and, subsequently, their employer has forced them into unpaid leave. The ORNL employees have taken the matter to federal court.
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A former employee of a Rhea County-based nonprofit allegedly used nearly $12,000 of taxpayer money on himself. This, according to a report that Tennessee Comptrollers published this week.
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President Joe Biden asked U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Don Cochran — a Trump appointee — to resign in February, but nine months later Biden still hasn’t nominated Cochran’s replacement.
David Boling, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, told The Tennessee Star on Monday that he is not aware if Biden has nominated someone to take the position.
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A new Tennessee law prohibits COVID-19 mask mandates in schools, but Governor Bill Lee’s legislative counsel warned in a recent and now heavily publicized email that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Legislative Counsel Liz Alvey sent the email October 30. The AP obtained Alvey’s email through a public records request.
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U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) said Saturday that he is in Oxford, England to meet with members of the United Kingdom Parliament to address lingering “raw emotions” over President Joe Biden’s exit from Afghanistan. Green livestreamed himself from Britain on Facebook. He said Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was shameful and hurt America’s longstanding political alliance with Britain. Green also scolded Biden for his “refusal to take [British Prime Minister] Boris Johnson’s phone call for 48 hours.”
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A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general launched a probe into Instagram on Thursday to examine whether the company violated state-level consumer protection laws.
The states are investigating whether Meta (formerly known as Facebook), which owns Instagram, promoted the image-sharing platform “to children and young adults” despite being aware of its negative effects, according to statements from the attorneys general. The probe cites internal Facebook communications and research leaked by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen and published by The Wall Street Journal showing Meta was aware that use of Instagram could contribute to body image and mental health issues among teens.
“When social media platforms treat our children as mere commodities to manipulate for longer screen time engagement and data extraction, it becomes imperative for state attorneys general to engage our investigative authority under our consumer protection laws,” Republican Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson said in a statement.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed direct marketing expert Craig Huey in studio to discuss California pandemic paranoia and the Obama judge who recently ruled against Tennessee’s mask mandate ban.
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A federal judge halted a new Tennessee law that prohibits COVID-19 mask mandates in schools on the basis that it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but the language of the law shows otherwise.
That judge, Waverly Crenshaw, presides over the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
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A private Christian school in West Tennessee has triggered LGBTQ activists as well as Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer into an angry frenzy.
Officials at Briarcrest Christian School, in Eads, held a training session for parents and students about how to respond Biblically to gender theory. A flyer for the event, which school officials held November 9, asked participants to “look into the craziness our culture is throwing at our kids.”
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Mayor Andy Ogles of Maury County to discuss federal government overreach and resisting COVID mandates safely.
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The head of the Oklahoma National Guard won’t require his troops to comply with the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but Tennessee National Guard (TNG) troops should not expect their superiors to follow the Oklahoma’s commander’s lead.
TNG spokesman Darrin Haas said Monday that his commanders will enforce Biden’s vaccine mandate.
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Staff for U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) told his constituents he voted for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal, and they bragged about all the good things they said it will accomplish for Tennessee.
Cooper’s staff said this in an emailed newsletter Friday.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Friday signed the COVID omnibus bill into law. This, according to a press release that Lee’s office published Friday evening.
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Along with the seven bills that passed Tennessee’s Legislature during its recent COVID-19 related special session, a joint resolution also passed both chambers of the legislature and sits on Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.
While the bills become law if Lee signs them, “resolutions differ from bills in that they do not become law but simply serve to express the views of the majority of one or both houses of the Legislature.”
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According to a new study by SmartAsset, the city of Murfreesboro, Tennessee ranked number one on its top ten list of “Top Boomtowns” in America. A “boomtown” is another term for a fast-growing city.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced he will be extending the COVID-19 State of Emergency for two weeks, according to a tweet he sent out Friday afternoon.
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Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery and six other state attorneys general have filed a petition before a federal court challenging the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private sector employees. This, according to a press release that members of Slatery’s staff emailed Friday.
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BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BSBCT) had 41 fewer employees as of Friday because those now-former employees said no to the COVID-19 vaccine. BSBCT spokeswoman Dalya Qualls told The Tennessee Star in an email Friday that 19 staff members left the company last month. She also said another 22 staff members left Thursday. Qualls did not specify how many BSBCT employees left voluntarily versus how many got fired.
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Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery has announced that he and the attorneys general in Ohio and Kentucky have filed suit against the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors. This, according to a press release that members of Slatery’s staff emailed Thursday.
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A member of Tennessee’s Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission, Laurie Cardoza-Moore, has sounded an alarm on a new Tennessee Department of Education official and her reported advocacy of math equity. Math Equity is the concept that working to answer a question correctly constitutes racism and white supremacy.
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A west Tennessee primary care clinic overcharged TennCare — and, by extension, taxpayers — more than $4.7 million, according to an audit that Tennessee Comptrollers published late last week.
Officials who oversaw that company, the Grove Primary Care Clinic, closed all three of their facilities in 2019. They did this one day after state auditors announced they would examine the company’s finances.
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