Members of the Tennessee General Assembly took to X Friday to defend Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, who was ordered to appear before Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l’Ashea Myles for a show cause hearing on Monday.
Myles issued the order after The Star published dozens of articles reporting on writings from a journal recovered from Covenant School mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
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Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, could face contempt charges or other punitive action on June 17 over his publication’s reporting of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Hale after her devastating attack on the Covenant School on March 27, 2023 that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old children and three adults.
The court date was set following an unsubstantiated allegation from WSMV 4 reporter Stacey Cameron to Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles.
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Attorneys for Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Tennessee Star, asked a federal judge to order the Federal Bureau of Investigation to respond to a motion for limited discovery as part of a nationally watched public records lawsuit.
Star News Digital Media Inc. filed the lawsuit in May, demanding the FBI release the manifesto and related writings of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the Covenant School killer.
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Earlier this month, attorneys for Star News Digital Media Inc., the parent company of The Star and The Star News Network, filed a motion after the leak of three pages of Covenant Presbyterian School mass murderer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s writings. The motion asserts the leak proves, “assuming the three pages’ authenticity,” that the FBI “could have selectively released” redacted portions of the manifesto without jeopardizing ongoing investigations.
The FBI has yet to confirm the authenticity of the manifesto pages shared online, but the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has confirmed they are Hale’s writings. Prior to that admission, The Star was among the first outlets to independently verify the pages were part of Hale’s manifesto.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is standing by his man, Metro Law Director Wally Dietz, and his suspect claim that a court order prohibits the release of the Covenant Killer’s manifesto.
“To be clear: I’m not intent on withholding anything, but I’m not going to violate the best understanding I have of what the law is,” the mayor told The Tennessee Star in responding to questions about Dietz’s controversial assertions.
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A three-judge appeals court panel on Monday heard oral arguments in a First Amendment lawsuit seeking the release of the manifesto and related writings of the Covenant School killer.
The judges will determine whether a lower court erred in allowing Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian Church, its elementary school and parents of students there to intervene in the lawsuit, brought by the parent company of The Tennessee Star, the Tennessee Firearms Association, The Tennessean, and others.
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The Tennessee Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments Monday afternoon in The Tennessee Star’s lawsuit demanding the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related records.
The court is weighing whether to overturn Davidson County Judge I’Ashea Myles’ ruling to allow Covenant Presbyterian School parents, staff and others to intervene in the lawsuit and argue why the manifesto should remain locked away from the public.
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While the Federal Bureau of Investigation is fighting any release of the Covenant killer’s manifesto in federal court, an official with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department says the local law enforcement agency would not object to a redacted release of some of the documents.
The problem could be just how law enforcement officials define “redactions.”
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is doubling down on its insistence that an “ongoing” criminal investigation prevents the agency from releasing Covenant Presbyterian School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, according to a response filed this week in federal court.
Star News Digital Media Inc., parent company of The Star News Network and The Tennessee Star, filed a federal lawsuit in May demanding the FBI turn over Hale’s manifesto and related writings.
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Travis Lamb was a couple hours into his first day as Youth Activities director at Stephens Valley Church, getting the “dime tour,” when he started getting text messages about a shooter in the Covenant Presbyterian School neighborhood.
It was March 27.
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The Tennessee Court of Appeals in Nashville has agreed to expedite an appeal that will determine who is allowed to intervene in a lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto — a move that will push a July 12 show cause hearing into August.
“Until the appeal regarding the intervention is resolved, there is no way to know who the parties in the underlying action will be to participate in the show cause hearing,” the court wrote. “Without a stay of the trial court proceedings, this appeal would be rendered moot or the parties may be forced to conduct a new show cause hearing depending on the results of the appeal.”
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Pastor Jim Bachmann remembers the early, intimate days of the new Covenant Presbyterian Church in the early 1990s. A few dozen souls with a love of Christ and a thirst to grow in faith gathering at a small venue.
That little congregation has grown into a thriving, evangelical church of some 1,400 parishioners in the southern hills of Nashville since Bachmann took the lead preacher post in 1991. He served as pastor until 2016.
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Parents of two of the children murdered in the Covenant School massacre are joining others in asking Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles to keep the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents locked from public view.
The mother of William Kinney and the parents of Evelyn Dieckhaus, two of three 9-year-olds fatally shot in the March 27 mass shootings, issued declaration letters to the court detailing the pain they’ve suffered and lambasting the news outlets and other organizations suing to have the records released.
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Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk filed an amicus — friend of the court — brief on Monday in the nationally watched public records lawsuit over the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents. Funk, as attorneys for the parents of students at the Covenant Presbyterian School do, argues that the parents are victims and entitled to certain rights.
Attorneys for family members of the students and staff argue those rights allow them to keep the documents locked from the public, a controversial legal theory that plaintiffs in the lawsuit say could have a chilling effect on Tennessee’s public records laws.
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In a new twist in the legal battle over the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto, the parents of Audrey Elizabeth Hale are asking the court to give them assigning rights so that they may turn the deadly records over to the children of the school.
Attorneys for Star News Digital Media, parent company of The Tennessee Star, and the other plaintiffs suing the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to release the records related to the March 27 mass shootings at Covenant Presbyterian School, were in court Thursday arguing against multiple parties intervening in the lawsuit.
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In a new court filing, attorneys for Star News Digital Media, parent company of The Tennessee Star, argue that the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davison County and intervenors in a public records lawsuit have no right to keep the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related records from the public.
The memorandum of law, filed with Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles, asserts the Metro Nashville Police Department cannot “play ‘hide the ball’ with the reason for denial and come in later, raising wholly new and unrelated denial reasons.”
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Asking the court to “shield” Covenant Presbyterian School students from a “lifetime of abuse and harassment by the shooter from beyond the grave,” a new court filing lays out why parents of the children don’t want the Covenant killer’s manifesto and other writings made public.
Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles last week ruled that the Covenant Presbyterian Church, its private elementary school and the parents of the schoolchildren may intervene in a lawsuit seeking the manifesto and related writings of mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
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The Tennessee Star and other plaintiffs in a closely watched public records lawsuit are appealing Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles’ decision last week to allow the Covenant Presbyterian Church, the school and parents of students to intervene in the case.
Filed in the Tennessee Court of Appeals-Middle Section, the appeal could soon be consolidated with those of the other plaintiffs in the case — The Tennessean with State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), the Tennessee Firearms Association, and the National Police Association with private investigator Clata Renee Brewer — should the court grant it.
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In the days following the horrifying shootings at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School, police said the killer, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, acted “totally alone.”
Hale, a 28-year-old woman who identified as a transgender man named “Aiden,” was killed by police 14 minutes after her deadly rampage began. Before she was neutralized, Hale had taken the lives of three 9-year-olds and three staff members at the private Christian school she once attended as a child.
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We learned this week that Metro Nashville’s lawyers deliberately attempted to slow down court proceedings on the lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant Killer’s manifesto and related documents.
Such delay tactics raise an important question: Is the city government colluding with the Covenant Presbyterian School and families of the private Christian elementary school to keep the records from the public?
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Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles heard plenty of opinions Monday — many of them dripping with emotion — on a consolidated lawsuit seeking the release of the Covenant School Killer’s manifesto and related writings.
Myles is expected to issue an order on Wednesday deciding whether Covenant Presbyterian School parents, the private Christian school and the Covenant Presbyterian Church can intervene in the lawsuit.
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Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Assistant Chief Mike Hagar claims there is an “active” investigation into the Covenant Presbyterian School shootings and that releasing the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related writings would be harmful. A lieutenant with the police department says it could take up to a year to complete said invetigation.
In a sworn declaration, Hagar said he is not opposed to the release of a redacted version of the documents.
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Parents of the three children killed in the Covenant Presbyterian School shootings are now seeking to intervene in lawsuits demanding the release of the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents.
And The Tennessee Star learned Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles rescheduled Thursday’s conference status meeting on the lawsuits for 1 p.m. Monday. It’s yet another delay in an increasingly complex web of lawsuits, consolidations, and interventions over the mass shooter’s writings.
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The Tennessean on Wednesday followed The Tennessee Star and other organizations in filing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents.
The Nashville-based newspaper’s lawsuit comes nearly two months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale shot her way into the Covenant Presbyterian Scho
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The Tennessee Star’s state lawsuit demanding the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents is being transferred to Chancery Court.
Tennessee First Circuit Court Judge David Briley this week granted the transfer, requested by attorneys for the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, defendants in the case.
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Attorneys for the Covenant Presbyterian Church have filed a motion to intervene in Star News Digital Media Inc.’s lawsuit seeking the immediate release of the manifesto and related documents of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the transgender killer behind the March 27 mass shootings at the private elementary school.
The 20th Circuit Court-Davidson County will hold a hearing on the motion to intervene, which seeks to protect the Covenant Presbyterian Church’s “interests relating to the release of records sought in this matter.” The court set a hearing for 9 a.m. May 26.
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Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles is reviewing the unredacted and proposed redacted journal and other writings of the Covenant School killer ahead of Thursday’s scheduled status conference meeting, sources with knowledge of the case tell The Tennessee Star.
Myles has scheduled a Show Cause hearing for June 8 on the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s refusal to turnover what has commonly been referred to as the “manifesto” of Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who stormed into Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School on March 27 and fatally killed three 9-year-olds and three staff members.
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In a legal twist, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) now says it will not release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related documents because of pending litigation — lawsuits demanding the department turn over the records.
“Covenant investigation update: Due to pending litigation filed this week, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has been advised by counsel to hold in abeyance the release of records related to the shooting at The Covenant School pending orders or direction of the court,” MNPD stated in a tweet Wednesday morning.
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The National Police Association has filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School killer’s manifesto.
And The Tennessee Star has just learned that Tennessee 20th Judicial District Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles has ordered a show cause hearing for May 11, examining whether the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) has failed to comply with public records laws.
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The Tennessee Firearms Association is asking a state court to order the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to turn over the Covenant School killer’s manifesto — documents law enforcement have kept from the public more than a month after Audrey Elizabeth Hale stormed into the private Covenant Presbyterian School and killed three 9-year-olds and three adults.
In a lawsuit filed Monday, the TFA and former Hamilton County Sheriff James Hammond request the 20th Judicial District, Chancery Court, in Davidson County to grant the organization access to the manifesto. The complaint also seeks an order from the court finding the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County’s denial of TFA’s records requests is unlawful.
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A day after the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, an official says the department has entered a “stage” of considering how to release the controversial documents.
“The investigation is now at the stage that we are beginning the close review/preparation process for the public release of written material,” Metro Nashville PD spokeswoman Brooke Reese wrote in an email Wednesday to The Tennessee Star.
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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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Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed official guest host and lead political reporter for The Tennessee Star Aaron Gulbransen in-studio to announce his new career move as executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition.
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Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10) joined forces with Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-MO-04) in a new effort to get Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis Richard McDonough to grant vaccination exemption requests to Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employees in a statement on Monday.
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The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network launched a new addition to their services for consumers across Tennessee—a weather forecast.
The new feature will allow Star News Network Chief Meteorologist Daphne DeLoren to provide a daily outlook of the conditions across Middle Tennessee.
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After reporting a factual story about Gov. Bill Lee (R) signing a bill into law making anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin available over-the-counter, Twitter has locked The Tennessee Star out of its account.
The company said that The Star’s reporting might pose a risk to public health, and in response, The Star will not be able to make posts for several hours.
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Tuesday morning on War Room Battleground, host Bannon welcomed Tennessee Star journalist Aaron Gulbransen to the show to discuss the aggressive nature of Democrats reducing Republican House seats through lawfare.
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On Monday The Tennessee Star celebrates its fifth anniversary.
Shortly after midnight, after The Star’s first full day in 2017, Managing Editor Christina Botteri, noted the news outlet had more than 3,000 unique visitors.
“The remarkable thing about our traffic on launch day,” she said at the time, “is that each visitor came back and visited different stories on the site several times during the day.” The total number of pageviews was well over 9,000 that inaugural day, she said.
Across Middle Tennessee, conservatives who had not had a reliable media outlet cheered the arrival of The Star. The outlet provided a marked contrast to the editorial voice of the dominant left-leaning newspapers in the Middle Tennessee area.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed National Political Editor for The Tennessee Star Neil McCabe to the newsmakers line to weigh in on the status of the Build Back Better bill and the fate of Nancy Pelosi.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to discuss truth, defamation, and Capitol Hill police jurisdiction.
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Tens of thousands of posts containing news stories from The Star News Network’s Facebook pages were temporarily deleted Wednesday.
“Hi, we are currently experiencing an issue with Facebook and because of that the sharing is stopped and your Facebook accounts are paused,” a third party software used by The Star News Network to schedule and post stories to social media said by email.
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Star News Digital Media is a Nashville-based company that owns and operates five online news sites–The Tennessee Star, The Ohio Star, The Minnesota Sun, The Michigan Star, and Battleground State News–and publishes textbooks for secondary school students.
Our reporting on K-12 education is based on our philosophical perspective, which is reflected in our statement of principles.
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On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy and special guest Ben Cunnigham – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy and Cunningham talked about Cunningham’s recent Tweets stating that he would hold John Cooper accountable to his implied commitments to the reallocation of Davidson County funds and not raising property taxes.
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FRANKLIN, Tennessee — Steve Gill has resigned as the Political Editor of The Tennessee Star, according to a statement released on Monday by Star News Digital Media, the company that owns The Tennessee Star and other news sites. Gill has also resigned from the Board of the Directors of Star News Digital Media. “Steve Gill is a good friend, a good man, and a great talent. We wish him well in his future endeavors,” Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO of Star News Digital Media, said.
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On Thursday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy took a call from a Davidson County school teacher named Mike and discussed his disappointing experience as a teacher within the Davidson County school system. He also explained how many parents are unresponsive while the kids just “don’t care.” Towards the end of the segment, Mike asked Leahy to help get those kids who are causing disruption out of the classroom. The caller was bewildered and stated that many of these “thugs” are causing disruption for those who want to learn. Leahy: Direct instruction is the way to go. But it’s been resisted. It was a methodology that was introduced by a professor then at the University of Illinois who then went on to the University of Oregon. It’s been very effective when implemented. Now, Thales Academy is the biggest implementer of that. Great test results. So direct instruction is the way to go and it needs to happen. Mike in Nashville I’m not sure if this is the same, Mike. High school teacher calling in. Mike, welcome to the Tennessee…
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On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill chatted with Governor Phil Bryant of Mississippi who was in town for the National Conference of State Legislators in Nashville today to talk about his commitment to criminal justice reform.
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On Monday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Steve Gill talked about the rat epidemic plaguing Baltimore, Maryland and how Donald Trump’s assessment of the city was seen as racist.
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During a discussion Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill and Leahy explained the recent Tennessee Star/ Triton poll of the upcoming August 1 Mayoral election in Nashville, Tennessee. Here are the raw numbers from the poll: David Briley 27.8 percent Carol Swain 22 percent John Cooper 19.8 percent John Ray Clemmons 10.8 percent Undecided 19.5 percent If no candidate receives above 50 percent of the vote on August 1, a runoff of the top two vote getters will be held. In a potential runoff between Briley and Swain, Briley wins easily, 50 percent to 31 percent. In a potential runoff between Briley and Cooper, Cooper wins 42 percent to 31 percent. Here’s the transcript of the discussion. Gill: And as Michael’s been mentioning we have a new Tennessee Star Triton poll of likely Davidson county voters. Five hundred and forty-five likely Davidson county voters surveyed in the poll. And the poll shows continued reelection problems for Mayor David Briley. We did a poll a couple of months ago that showed David Briley was under water when it…
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On Tuesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with special guest and his former Breitbart colleague, Iraq war veteran and current Army Reserve Sergeant Neil McCabe. Now a Washington-based reporter for One America News Network, McCabe spoke to Leahy and Gill about current efforts at the We Build the Wall site to keep the gates open by an obscure group called the International Boundary and Water Commission led by Jayne Harkins. Gill: We’ve been keeping an eye on the whole order dispute particularly down in the El Paso/New Mexico area where Kolfage and the We Build the Wall crew built about a mile of wall and one of the guys that’s been keeping his eye on that has been Neil McCabe from One America News Network. And Neil good to have you back with us. McCabe: Hey good morning good to be with you. Leahy: Neil can you explain to us apparently what appears to be an entirely crazy decision by the commissioner of the obscure agency I had never heard of, the…
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On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Steve Gill reviewed the convoluted story created by The Tennessean claiming that the Twitter feed, #ResignCasada was representative of all Tennesseans when in fact all tweets were from liberal Democrats and former failed former Democratic party candidates in the state. You can read the full transcript of Steve Gill’s comments here: Just another example of how The Tennessean is literally a mouthpiece, literally a propaganda screed for the Tennessee Democratic party. There’s a new story up by a character named Dustin Barnes in The Tennessean that highlights #ResignCasada is trending on Twitter. Now it’s interesting if you kind of go through this story. It’s on the Tennesseean.com calls for House Speaker Glen Casada resign started trending on social media shortly after his chief of staff had solicited and text messages and used illegal drugs in the legislative office building. He resigned Monday after the Tennessean published a story that he asked one intern for oral sex and nude photos. Other 2014 and 2016 texts showed he was hitting on…
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