The self-described “world’s leading liberal voice” news outlet The Guardian published an attack-style article denouncing the Republican supermajority in Tennessee politics on Friday, claiming such a political makeup has “imprisoned our democracy.”
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A “non-partisan” political activism group that calls for gun control held a rally in Nashville Wednesday night on the year anniversary of the mass shooting at The Covenant School.
“Together, we will wear red and link arms as we mark the anniversary of one of our community’s darkest days and honor the memory of the hundreds of Tennessee lives lost to preventable firearm tragedies over the last year,” Voices for a Safer Tennessee said on its website. “Our goal is to form a chain of 13,000 people from Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt through Centennial Park and up Charlotte Avenue to our state capitol.”
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Tennessee’s lawmakers at the state and federal level Wednesday marked the year anniversary of the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, which claimed six lives.
Tennessee’s House Republicans shared the following message on X.
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The Tennessee House of Representatives Tuesday passed a bill that would significantly increase the penalty for making violent threats against schools.
HB 2198 “increases the penalty for the offense of threatening to commit an act of mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E felony.”
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs has quietly canceled a webinar event for sworn law enforcement personnel focusing on the “lessons learned” from the Covenant School in Nashville shooting last year.
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A motion to intervene filed on Monday in the court case seeking to compel the release of the manifesto written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale claims the shooter’s motivation for committing the attack may stem from an alleged child abuse coverup at the school.
The motion was filed by Austin Davis, who claimed in a signed affidavit to be “a former Covenant Presbyterian deacon and church member, and a former Covenant School father” who also purports to be a “child sex abuse whistleblower.” The Tennessee man claimed to face retaliation for the claims he made against the school.
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A hearing in the public records lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County related to release of records from The Covenant School shooting took place before Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles on Monday.
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Ten officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) have been reassigned duties following an investigation into the November 6 leak of the manifesto written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, according to reports.
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The Covenant School delayed the return of students and faculty to its Burton Hills campus until April 15 in a letter sent to parents that was published by Nashville media on Monday. Though not referenced in the letter, the delay follows the November publication of three leaked pages from the manifesto written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, which were cited in an ongoing lawsuit seeking to compel the release of Hale’s full manifesto.
In the letter Covenant School officials sent to parents, reported by NewsChannel 5, officials cited concerns over safety and security, learning disruption, and teacher and student readiness. They also cited a desire to reopen the campus after the March 27 anniversary of the Covenant School shooting, during which Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender male, fatally shot three 9-year-old students and three faculty.
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Three Metro Nashville Police (MNPD) officers remain on administrative assignment as the agency investigates the leak of three photographs showing manifesto pages written by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer, which were published by conservative comedian and commentator Steven Crowder in November, according to a Tuesday report.
The police department confirmed three officers remain on administrative assignment to Fox 17, which reported that an additional four officers returned to their normal duties in mid-November. MNPD confirmed seven officers were placed on administrative assignment on November 7.
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The member of Nashville law enforcement who reportedly captured photographs of the manifesto written by Covenant killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale was not among the seven Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers placed on “administrative assignment” by the department, conservative commentator Steven Crowder confirmed on Thursday. Crowder released three photographs showing pages from the manifesto on Monday.
In a clip from his podcast posted to social media, Crowder said MNPD “messed up” by apparently identifying the wrong officers. He clarified the source “is not one of the seven” put on administrative assignment, and said any reporting to the contrary was designed “to intimidate whistleblowers into silence.”
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Alphabet-owned YouTube is censoring The Babylon Bee after the publication shared the leaked partial manifesto of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who shot and killed six people at The Covenant School in Nashville in March.
“Normally we’re flagged for misinformation, incitement, or hateful conduct. This is our first ‘violent criminal organizations’ policy violation,” said Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter.
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Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) confirmed on Wednesday that seven of its officers have been placed on administrative assignment following the leak of at least three pages of Covenant killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto to conservative commentator and comedian Steven Crowder, who published them Monday.
Crowder initially reported the seven officers were placed on leave in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “The powers that be are more concerned about finding the leaker than they are about the contents of Audrey Hale’s anti-white manifesto,” wrote Crowder.
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Silicon Valley’s largest companies censored conservative podcaster Steven Crowder’s online show and The Covenant School Killer’s partial manifesto, which Crowder published on Monday.
The popular pundit received a message from Alphabet-owned YouTube saying that Monday’s episode was removed because it violated a policy related to criminal organizations.
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Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network, filed a new motion on Tuesday to advance its ongoing lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which seeks to compel the full release of the manifesto written by Covenant school killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, after three manifesto pages were leaked on Monday.
In a motion prepared after a portion of Hale’s manifesto was obtained by conservative comedian and pundit Steven Crowder, Star News asserted the leak proves, “assuming the three pages’ authenticity,” that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) “could have selectively released” redacted portions of the manifesto without jeopardizing ongoing investigations.
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Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) spokesman Don Aaron told The Tennessee Star on Tuesday the department is investigating how images of three pages from the manifesto written by Covenant school killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale “made their way outside of law enforcement” on Monday.
“The investigation is advancing,” Aaron told The Star when asked if MNPD could eliminate the possibility of the leaked documents coming from within the department. “We are continuing with the objective to ascertain exactly how these photographs made their way outside of law enforcement,” he explained.
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Chief John Drake of the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) released a statement on Monday that confirmed “three pages of writings from the Covenant shooter,” Audrey Hale, were leaked to the public, and pledged to “identify the person responsible.”
In a statement posted to the Nashville government website, Drake said he was disturbed by the “unauthorized release” of pages written by Hale, and said his department is “extremely serious about the investigation” to determine the culprit. Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell ordered an investigation into the release of the pages on Monday afternoon.
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Brent Leatherwood, the Southern Baptist Convention’s president of the church’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and a Covenant School parent, denounced the individual responsible for leaking three pages of the Covenant School shooter’s manifesto, which were released by Steven Crowder on Monday morning.
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Three of the most prominent Tennessee Democrat lawmakers who used Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s mass shooting at The Covenant School to push a left-wing gun control agenda offered no response to Monday’s revelation that Hale’s crime was motivated at least in part by anti-white racial animus.
State Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville), Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) and Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) did not return The Tennessee Star’s Monday comment requests seeking a reaction to the manifesto’s partial release.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) acknowledged the leaked documents purported to be part of the manifesto written by Audrey Elizabeth Hale on Monday. Hale, who reportedly identified as a transgender male, fatally shot six at The Covenant School in 2022.
MNPD did not confirm nor deny the authenticity of the images in the statement, but acknowledged the department “is in communication” with the Metro Legal about the ongoing investigation “into the dissemination of three photographs of writings” shown by conservative comedian and pundit Steven Crowder on Monday morning. The department confirmed the “photographs are not MNPD crime scene images.”
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell ordered an investigation from Metro Legal on Monday to determine how the photos of the manifesto written by The Covenant Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale, which were authenticated by The Tennessee Star, were leaked to conservative comedian and pundit Steven Crowder.
O’Connell announced the investigation in a statement to News Channel 5, telling the outlet he directed Metro Law Director Wally Dietz “to initiate an investigation into how these images could have been released.” At press time the Metro Nashville Police Department has acknowledged the documents, but has refused to comment on their authenticity or how Crowder may have obtained them.
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Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) reacted to the leaked documents part of the Covenant School shooter’s manifesto released by Steven Crowder on Monday morning.
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The alleged first page of The Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s now-infamous manifesto, which has been hidden from the public since the mass killing in March, was leaked to the public Monday.
Conservative podcaster Steven Crowder said early Monday morning that he would release the document on his daily show, “Louder With Crowder” at 10 a.m. The contents of the partial manifesto surfaced online shortly before the show aired.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative John Rose (R-TN-06) released a statement this week after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responded to his April 26 letter in regards to the Covenant School shooting in Nashville.
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As the legal battle over the release of Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto rages on, The Covenant School, where Hale took six lives in March, is preparing to reopen.
According to WKRN, students will return in January, less than one year after the deadly shooting.
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A Democrat member of the Tennessee House of Representatives has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in the District of Tennessee Nashville Division claiming that House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) violated his constitutional rights when he was expelled from the General Assembly earlier this year.
“Today my attorneys filed a federal lawsuit to hold Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton responsible for his unconstitutional and discriminatory actions. The people of District 52 deserve to have their voices heard without the threat of undemocratic silencing and retaliation,” said State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) on X, formerly known as Twitter, attaching a photo of the lawsuit.
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A state representative who announced her run for U.S. Senate Tuesday once told a news outlet that North Korea was more democratic than the state of Tennessee.
“I feel like North Korea has more democracy than we do in the state of Tennessee, and it’s terrifying to me that we’re in this march to fascism,” State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) told Mother Jones in April. “And it seems like the Tennessee supermajority is leading the charge.”
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GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy held a press conference at the Davidson County Courthouse on Wednesday to call for releasing the Covenant School shooter’s manifesto.
“I’m here as a father and as an American. We can’t fix the past, but we can prevent tragedies in the future, and the only way to do it is to learn from those mistakes of the past,” Ramaswamy said. “When an airplane crashes, we recover the black box for a reason – we never want to make that same mistake twice. We have a tradition in this country as law enforcement to do the same thing when there’s a mass shooting…We have to learn from tragedy to prevent it in the future.”
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The Uvalde Foundation For Kids is looking for volunteers in Tennessee who would be interested in patrolling Covenant School students returning to class this upcoming school year.
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The political action arm of a left-wing nonprofit that advocates for gun control is moving into Tennessee, according to new lobbyist registration documents.
Three members of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund, Calandrian Kemp, Samuel Tolliver, and Aurora Vasquez, have registered to become lobbyists on behalf of the organization in the Volunteer State.
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Tennessee’s House Majority Whip Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville) told The Tennessee Star Thursday that he has spoken directly to Gov. Bill Lee (R) and that he will not be supporting Lee’s agenda to implement red flag laws during the upcoming special session of the General Assembly.
“There is no red flag proposal from Gov. Lee to consider as our caucus will not support the destruction of our citizens’ constitutional rights,” said Garrett. “I have been in contact with the governor and have expressed the desire to address mental illness through treatment and resources for those who may be a threat to themselves and others. These conversations will continue, and we’ll determine the best ways we can help these individuals in crisis while improving public safety in communities across our state.”
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The director of the Christian Defense Coalition told The Star News Network in an interview Friday it is crucial that the FBI release The Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto to the public, especially in the wake of the “scathing report” by Special Counsel John Durham that has led to a firestorm over the federal law enforcement agency’s integrity and analysis.
“There have been many stories that the local Nashville Police Department is turning much of the manifesto in detail writings of Audrey Hale over to the FBI, for analysis, to try to get a sense of a profile, any issues that might help ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Rev. Patrick Mahoney said.
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Sixty six Republican lawmakers in the Tennessee House of Representatives have sent a letter to Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake asking for the release of writings and medical records of the Covenant School killer.
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Gov. Bill Lee’s office did not respond to The Tennessee Star’s Monday inquiries seeking clarification on whether Lee met with Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and a group of students to discuss gun control last week.
Friday, the far-left Tennessee Holler posted a video to Twitter claiming that he was marching to Lee’s office with students to stress the urgency of implementing gun control measures during the upcoming August special legislative session.
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Ahead of August’s special session wherein Gov. Bill Lee (R) is expect to push for “Order of Protection” (red flag) laws, the governor has signed into law a bill that provides financial resources for school security measures.
Namely, HB 0322 allocates $30 million for the state to hire homeland security agents in each county to serve both public and private schools. The new law also provides $140 million for one full-time, armed School Resource Officer (SRO) for every public school in the state.
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Tennessee U.S. Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) introduced the Teachers Empowered Against Classroom Harm (TEACH) Act on Friday.
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After the CEO of Star News Media, Inc., the owner and operator of The Tennessee Star, submitted an open records request to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Thursday asking that Covenant School mass killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s toxicology report be made public, The Star learned Friday that that request has been denied.
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In a press conference the day after The Covenant School mass shooting, Nashville police said they were looking into the motive of the shooter, Audrey Hale, and had found a “manifesto” that outlined her attack with maps and action plans for the killings.
Since then, the Nashville police have walked back the characterization of Hale’s writings seized at her home as a manifesto but have given little additional information about them. They say they have shared Hale’s journals and writings with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, which is studying them.
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On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto because the case “remains open.”
Hale died on the day of the shooting, March 27.
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According to a flyer being circulated, Monday will be a “Day of Action” for Tennessee Democrats after two former legislators were expelled from office last Thursday.
“Join the Tennessee three for a day of action,” the flyer says.
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After two Tennessee State Representatives were expelled for leading an unruly mob during a riot at the state Capitol, Vice President Kamala Harris Friday visited Nashville to meet with the expelled lawmakers.
Video shows Harris hugging former State Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), along with State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knox County), who narrowly escaped expulsion by one vote.
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After a contentious session in the Tennessee House on Thursday two Democrat state representatives were expelled from office by their congressional colleagues.
Thursday afternoon, State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) (pictured above) was officially removed from the Tennessee state legislature by a vote of 72-25.
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The Tennessee Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Affairs issued a press release reminding Tennesseans to be on the lookout for scams from illegitimate entities promoting fake fundraising and charity efforts in wake of the tragedies that have recently taken place across the state.
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One week after the school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville that left six dead, Governor Bill Lee proposed additional actions to strengthen safety at public and private schools across Tennessee, including amending the budget for fiscal year 2023-2034 as well as an existing bill making its way through the state legislature.
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According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDSHS), there will be no repercussions for a Thursday riot foiled by Tennessee State Troopers at the State Capitol.
“There were no arrests made on Thursday,” TDSHS communications director Wesley Moster told The Tennessee Star Monday. “There are no investigations or criminal charges pending.”
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U.S. Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) recently introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives to honor Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo with a Congressional Gold Medal.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Thursday confirmed to The Tennessee Star that it is aware of a viral video circulating the web in which a transgender activist encourages transgender people in Tennessee to commit acts of violence.
“We are aware of the post, but don’t have any further information or insight to offer,” said TBI spokesman Josh DeVine.
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On the heels of The Tennessee Star’s report in which a security expert recommended that schools implement ballistic glass film to deter and prevent school shooters, another security expert has recommended the same.
“So even if you shoot it 100 times, you’ve still not gained access,” said Wayne Gregory of Ever Safe, as reported by FOX17. “You’ve only put holes in the glass. And then beat it out of the frame of the hammer is the only way to get in.”
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A riot at the Tennessee State Capitol was stopped by state troopers Thursday as State Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and at least two other far-left Democrat state representatives encouraged a crowd of more than a thousand protesters to breach the Tennessee House of Representatives chamber floor during a gun control demonstration.
Tennessee State Troopers foiled the breach, as protesters attempted to enter the chamber from the gallery above and the ground floor.
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First Lady Jill Biden traveled to Nashville on Wednesday to attend the citywide candlelight vigil at One Public Square Park to mourn the six victims gunned down on Monday at The Covenant School.
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