Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) Commissioner Lisa Piercey took a vacation to Greece this month, but department officials on Friday refused to answer questions about the precautions she took to protect herself against COVID-19. The Tennessee Star specifically asked the department the following questions Friday:
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Republican members of the Tennessee State Senate have released a letter touting what they called the importance of COVID-19 vaccines, and they urged all Tennesseans to get one. This, according to a press release that Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus members emailed this week.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed town manager Victor Lay of Nolensville to the newsmaker line to discuss his career and why he left Spring Hill as administrator.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Nolensville, Tennessee Town Manager Victor Lay to the newsmakers line to discuss their growth and the influx of new blue state residents.
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Chewy Inc. plans to build a new e-commerce fulfillment center in Wilson County that will lead to 1,200 new jobs, Tennessee officials and the company announced Tuesday.
Details on the size, cost or economic incentives related to the project, projected to open in fall 2022, were not immediately released. Once finalized, those details will be included in the state’s economic development database in the next 15-30 days, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
“At 1,200 jobs, Chewy will become one of the top three largest employers in Wilson County,” TDECD Commissioner Bob Rolfe said in a statement.
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Tennessee Comptrollers this week announced that government officials in Carter and Greene counties allegedly, in separate cases, stole thousands of dollars for their own personal benefit. According to a Comptrollers’ press release, authorities in Carter County have indicted Joyce Parsons, the former administrative assistant for Carter County’s Head Start program.
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State Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) on Friday accused the media of trying to drive a wedge between him and Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) Commissioner Lisa Piercey when it comes to giving the COVID-19 vaccine to children. Roberts co-chairs the legislature’s Joint Government Operations Committee. He voiced concerns this week about state officials administering the vaccine to children without parental consent. Roberts said Thursday that he and Piercey agreed that administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children — without parental consent — violates TDOH policy.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Thales Academy-Franklin Principal Rachael Bradley to the newsmakers line to discuss their continued success and upcoming open house Thursday, August fifth at 6 pm.
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Tennessee State Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield), who co-chairs the legislature’s Joint Government Operations Committee, this week said he had to clear up misinformation about administering the COVID-19 vaccine to children throughout the state. Roberts said in an emailed statement that he and certain other committee members worried Tennessee had marketed the vaccine to minors and administered it without parental consent.
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Members of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) this week released the agency’s 2020 Crime in Tennessee publication, which reported that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the state’s crime numbers. The publication details the volume and nature of crime, as reported by Tennessee’s law enforcement agencies, according to a TBI press release.
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The Tennessee Department of Education has announced 29 new virtual schools have been created and approved to begin for the 2021-22 school year.
The new schools bring the state’s total to 57 virtual schools in operation across the state. Tennessee public schools have continued to add more virtual learning options, beginning with 2011 legislation and an added emphasis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The virtual schools are created, operated and overseen by a local school district and hold students to the same academic standards as in-person schools, but the virtual schools provide all or most of their education remotely.
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) this week introduced a bill that he said will increase diversity in Advanced Placement (AP) and Gifted and Talented Elementary (GT) classes. In a press release, Cohen also said his bill would use Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) funding to create equity offices in state departments of education to increase diversity in AP and GT programs.
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A former Memphis day care director was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison for submitting false documents to the Tennessee Department of Human Services.
Fifty-five-year-old Ollie Stephenson of Germantown pleaded guilty to a criminal information charge after being accused of submitting a false Regions Bank statement and food invoice to the department in an audit during April and May 2020. Stephenson also was ordered to pay $375,158.80 in restitution.
Stephenson was the director of Louise’s Learning Tree Daycare Center in Memphis. It was part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Child and Adult Care Feeding Program.
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Tennessee has spent nearly $60 million over 15 years educating children who entered the state as unaccompanied minors, according to the state’s Fiscal Review Committee estimates.
Krista Lee Carsner, executive director of the Tennessee General Assembly’s Fiscal Review Committee, presented her cost estimate research to the state’s Study Committee on Refugee Issues, saying 8,800 unaccompanied minors have come to live in the state since fiscal year 2015.
Carsner estimated Tennessee spent an average of $3.9 million annually on education for those minors and the highest estimated year was a cost of $13.9 million. The state also spent nearly $85,000 annually on TennCare health care costs for those minors, Carsner said.
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Nearly 9,400 new unemployment claims were filed in Tennessee last week; the highest weekly total since mid-April.
Only nine states had more new unemployment claims than Tennessee last week. The 9,376 new claims last week represented a 42% increase from the previous week’s 6,596 new claims.
The jump in new claims came after the state stopped its participation in the federal supplemental pandemic relief unemployment program, which gives those on unemployment an additional $300 weekly through the first week of September. The final two weeks of June were the lowest claims totals since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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The average public school classroom teacher in Tennessee made $52,596 during the 2019-20 school year, according to a new report from the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability.
The average salary rises to $55,210 if it includes classroom teachers and positions such as librarians, school counselors and principals, and it jumps to $55,554 if it includes all personnel in a school district with an educator’s license.
The Tennessee Department of Education’s budget was increased by $219 million in this year’s budget, which included $120 million for teacher raises, allowing teachers with no experience a staring salary of $38,000 a year or more. With an advanced degree, the minimum starting salary is $41,605.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Former Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell in studio to discuss her career and the importance of teaching our future generations to love their country.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Mayor Ogles and AFP’s Henry in studio to weigh in on the Cuban protests, false narratives by mainstream media and questioned American’s value of freedom.
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Virginia won first place in CNBC’s ranking of top states for business in 2021, a repeat performance from 2019, the last time the ranking was issued. On Tuesday, Governor Ralph Northam stopped in the Port of Virginia for a CNBC broadcast and a press conference.
“Virginia continues to be the best place to do business because of our world-class education institutions, talented workforce, and shared commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion,” Northam said in a press release.
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CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp failed to ask Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) a single question on Saturday about the “woke” policies of his administration as implemented by two cabinet members appointed by the governor: Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn, and Commissioner of Human Resources Juan Williams.
Schlapp moderated a panel at Saturday’s CPAC in Dallas on ‘A Conversation on Leadership, Justice, and Jobs in the Age of Wokeism’ with a two-member panel of Republican governors, Gov. Stitt of Oklahoma and Gov. Lee of Tennessee.
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A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled in favor of a Tennessee farmer, granting an injunction against the U.S. Department of Agriculture in its effort to grant federal loan forgiveness to only “non-whites.”
The Southeastern Legal Foundation and the Mountain States Legal Foundation joined to represent Union City farmer Robert Holman as he challenges a provision in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that allows for automatic loan forgiveness up to 120% of the federal loan for farmers or ranchers who are “socially disadvantaged,” which is defined as “Black, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Hispanic, or Asian, or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.”
The legal ruling estimated while there was not a cap on the amount of loans that could be granted, $3.8 billion had been allocated to the program and, without an injunction, those funds might be gone before the case is resolved.
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Officials have indicted the former mayor of Decherd, in Franklin County, on one count of theft more than $10,000 and three counts of official misconduct. That man, Robin Smith, received $27,176 in unauthorized health insurance benefits from the city from January 2016 through July 2019.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist and Editor-At-Large for The Epoch Times Roger Simon in studio to discuss the imbalance of Conservative Tennesseans and Georgians versus their elected leaders.
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Tennessee matched the national trend as public school enrollment this past school year was down 2.9% in the state compared with the 2019-2020 school year, according to preliminary data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
The decline in enrollment will not affect state funding for Tennessee’s public schools in the short term. Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill that holds harmless Tennessee’s public schools in the state’s funding formula for the 2021-22 school year despite changes in enrollment. Funding is determined by school enrollment from the previous year.
Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, said he expects that adjustment to be a one-year, one-time exception to the Basic Education Program state funding formula, expected to cost the state an additional $8.9 million, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
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A Tennessee Republican billionaire offered South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem funding to send National Guard troops to Texas to help manage the border crisis, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Willis Johnson, 74, who earned his fortune by creating an international junkyard empire, offered Noem $1 million to deploy the South Dakota National Guard to the southern border, according to the AP. Noem accepted the donation despite Johnson living in Tennessee, earning skepticism from experts who said the donation could set a precedent for wealthy individuals to essentially activate the U.S. military for political reasons.
“I didn’t know it would build into a bonfire,” Johnson told the AP. “It’s getting out there a lot more than I thought.”
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Officials with the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) awarded a $3 million grant to a company that two men started by lying and committing fraud. This, according to an investigative report that Tennessee Comptrollers released this week.
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Tennessee Republican lawmakers approved many new laws this year that the state will enact starting Thursday, July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year. Tennessee State Senate GOP officials described the changes in an emailed press release on Tuesday.
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A Georgia man traveled to Tennessee and posed as a veteran to receive more than $20,000 in medical benefits, according to federal officials. Federal officials this month sentenced that man Kristopher M. Voyles, 31, to 27 months in prison followed by three years’ supervised release.
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The majority of Tennessee counties recorded unemployment rates below 5 percent in May, according to data the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) released late last week. This, according to a TDLWD press release.
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) wants the nationwide permit for the proposed Byhalia Connection Pipeline rescinded, and this week he took the matter up with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Cohen told the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure that the pipeline endangers his constituents in Memphis.
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Tennessee ranks as one of the top states in the nation in terms of how it funds its pension systems, according to a report that the Arlington, Virginia-based American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released this week. ALEC officials titled their report Unaccountable and Unaffordable, 2020. This annual report collects and analyzes each state’s unfunded public pension liabilities. The report finds state governments’ unfunded liabilities total $5.82 trillion nationwide – an average of $17,748 per person.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed U.S. Congressman from Tennessee (R) Mark Green to the newsmakers line to discuss his new bill addressing illegal immigrant children’s status in the state and that of refugees in Central America.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Roger Simon in studio to weigh in on Williamson County’s director of schools and the brainwashing of K12 students through the divisive teachings of critical race theory.
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Tennessee had its lowest number of new unemployment claims last week since the impact of COVID-19 began in March 2020.
The state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development reported 4,736 new claims the week ending June 19. It’s the first time that total was less than 5,500 in a week since the week of March 14, 2020.
The previous low during that stretch was 5,789 for the week of Nov. 28, 2020.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in studio to weigh in on the rise of illegal migrants and refugees in the state and how they are the prioritized recipients of social benefits.
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Federal officials in Tennessee reported that two more convicted felons in the state have run afoul of the law for owning firearms even though the law forbids it. After a two-day trial, a federal jury in Memphis convicted Carl Clarke, 31, already a convicted felon, for possessing a firearm. This, according to a press release that Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph C. Murphy Jr., published this week.
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Americans for Prosperity (AFP) – Tennessee members announced this week they want volunteers to help them fight for the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act. The referendum, if voters approve it, would roll back Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s 34 to 37 percent tax increase.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and members of his staff would not say Thursday whether they will dispatch resources to Texas and Arizona to help guard the U.S.-Mexican border. The Tennessee Star made repeated attempts Thursday to contact Lee’s Communications Director Laine Arnold — by email, phone, and text. Arnold did not return our messages before Thursday’s stated deadline.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed GOP Republican Candidate for the Fifth Congressional seat Robby Starbuck in studio to discuss education and growing up Cuban.
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Of the many alcohol-related bills that passed the Tennessee Legislature this year and were signed by Gov. Bill Lee, one maintains a popular pandemic rule but taxes consumers for it.
Lee signed an executive order last year while COVID-19 restrictions were in place that allowed restaurants to sell to-go alcohol with restrictions.
The enacted House Bill 241 allows those sales to continue until July 1, 2023, but it also adds a 15% tax on those alcohol purchases.
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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Saturday endorsed Robby Starbuck for Tennessee’s Fifth Congressional District. U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN-05) currently represents the district.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor and lover of freedom, Andy Ogles in studio to discuss the surprise Conservative community that came out for a Town Hall style meeting in Leipers Fork Monday night.
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A new report from The Sycamore Institute shows Tennessee collects nearly $38 million annually in fines and fees through the criminal justice system, while county governments are collecting a shrinking amount in fines and fees.
While the Tennessee Department of Revenue reports its collections of fines and fees annually, other agencies, such as the Department of Correction, the Department of Safety & Homeland Security and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, do not report detailed information on their collections.
The Sycamore Institute study found 360 fees and fines authorized in Tennessee law, from being charged with a crime to civil asset forfeiture to incarceration costs.
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Tennessee’s highest court heard arguments on a disputed school choice program.
Tennessee’s Education Savings Accounts (ESA) pilot program, approved by the state Legislature in 2019, would provide state-funded scholarships of about $7,100 to low-income students in Nashville and Memphis – home to the state’s two lowest-performing school districts. Students would be able to use the funds to attend nonpublic schools of their choice.
A district court ruled the program unconstitutional when the two counties sued the state to stop the program. The state Court of Appeals upheld that ruling, and the state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
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A federal appeals court ruled in favor of a Tennessee bar and restaurant owner, granting an injunction against the U.S. Small Business Administration from prioritizing COVID-19 relief funds based upon the restaurant owner’s race and sex.
Two of the three judges on the panel agreed with the injunction, which is subject to appeal. Tennessee U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough ruled last week against the lawsuit, filed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a nonprofit conservative law firm, on behalf of Antonio Vitolo, owner of Jake’s Bar and Grill in Harriman.
WILL appealed the decision. The lawsuit was filed May 12 in the Eastern District of Tennessee.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill Wednesday that makes the state a Second Amendment sanctuary.
Senate Bill 1335 prevents any “law, treaty, executive order, rule, or regulation of the United States government” that violates the Tennessee Constitution or the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution from being enforced in the state.
That violation would have to be determined by either the Tennessee or U.S. Supreme Court. The stipulation was added during debate of the bill in the Tennessee House, and the Senate concurred.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty to the newsmakers line to weigh in on the illegal minor immigrants flying into Chattanooga by way of commercial air and being resettled in the community unbeknownst to locals.
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Former State Rep. Joe Carr this week said State of Tennessee agencies and departments are driven and “absolutely consumed by political correctness,” spurred on by staff at the Tennessee Department of Human Resources (DOHR). “Political correctness drives their bus,” Carr said.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Mayor of Maury County, Andy Ogles to the studio to give more details on MuleFest coming to downtown Columbia this Friday.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Andy Ogles in studio who talked about growing frustration from conservatives around Tennessee and the transgender bathroom bill.
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