Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s “Director of New and Indigenous Americans” finally became a U.S. citizen on Thursday after living in the country for apparently many years.
O’Connell posted the news to X that the Nashville government staffer, Jacky Gomez, was naturalized.
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A judge in Georgia ruled Friday that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on the case in which former President Trump and 18 co-defendants are accused of meddling in the 2020 election results.
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A bill that would prohibit local governments from limiting the ability of a law enforcement agency to conduct routine traffic stops passed the Tennessee Senate on Thursday.
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U.S. officials were acutely aware that Beijing was trying to obtain America’s premiere nuclear reactor technology, including through illicit hacking, months before Hunter Biden and his business partners sought to arrange a quiet sale of an iconic U.S. reactor company to a Chinese firm, according to court records and national security experts.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, said he is “very skeptical of the federal officials at the Bureau of Prisons” after an official with the bureau formally refused a written request by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) to move unjustly imprisoned January 6 defendant Stewart Parks to the minimum security satellite camp located at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis.
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State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) admitted on the floor of the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday that he walked “across the border” with an illegal alien named Javier after visiting a migrant caravan camp in Mexico last week.
Jones made the admission while speaking in opposition to a bill, HB 2124, on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday.
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Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the way the Biden administration handles the first boat of Haitian migrants en route to the Florida Keys amid the Caribbean country’s current state of emergency will determine whether or not another mass migration crisis will rock the U.S. in addition to the one unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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While his father was still vice president, Hunter Biden and his business partners tried unsuccessfully to help a Chinese energy firm acquire one of the United States’ premier nuclear technology companies in a secret attempt to “control” the global market, according to new evidence turned over to Congress in President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry.
The evidence, which includes a detailed strategy memo, shows Hunter Biden was directly involved in emails and correspondence on the project in 2016 and that the goal was to exploit the future first son’s access to power and his family reputation to make Washington and Beijing comfortable with a potentially controversial deal and then to shield the acquisition of Westinghouse by China CEFC Energy behind intermediaries.
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Matt Boyle, the national political editor at Breitbart News, said former President Donald Trump needs to turn out the “disaffected, working class voters” in November in order to pull off a victory against President Joe Biden.
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Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said it’s “pathetic” that advocates of Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice voucher program are not being given a voice through local news outlets across the Volunteer State.
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A Tennessee Senate committee on Wednesday voted down a bill that would have required the state to provide a form of driver’s license to illegal immigrants which would have conferred the same rights and privileges as official licenses issued to United States citizens.
State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) called the identification documents “driver privilege cards” during Wednesday’s Senate Transportation and Safety Committee meeting, arguing her bill would have made roads safer in Tennessee.
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The Right on Transparency coalition is asking five states to stop restricting public records requests based on residency.
Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Tennessee and Virginia all are known to restrict records requests based upon residency. The coalition has published model policy to change those laws.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a coalition of 25 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to leaders in the U.S. Senate urging the immediate passage of the Laken Riley Act.
Laken Riley, the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student, was allegedly killed at the hands of an illegal Venezuelan immigrant while on a jog near campus.
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Tennessee’s nonfarm monthly employment went down 56,800 in January, according to the Tennessee Labor Market Report.
The report notes employment is up 3,300 year-over-year.
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Tennessee U.S. Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) were among a group of Republican U.S. senators that introduced the Laken Riley Act on Wednesday.
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President Joe Biden’s budget proposal seeks to set aside billions of dollars to push progressive gender, sexuality and race ideology at home and around the globe.
Released this week, the $7.3 trillion budget also proposes spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to train school teachers in diversity, equity, and inclusion dogma.
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A Federal Bureau of Prison (BOP) official on Wednesday formally refused the written request by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) to move unjustly imprisoned January 6 defendant Stewart Parks to the minimum security satellite camp located at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis.
Despite Parks being a nonviolent, first-time offender convicted after he merely entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, the letter by BOP Legislative Affairs Chief David Mapp claims the medium security prison is an “appropriate facility” for the Tennessee entrepreneur and former congressional candidate.
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Bloomberg Philanthropies announced on Tuesday that three Tennessee cities will take part in an initiative that would use federal funds provided by the Biden administration.
Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga were selected for the organization’s American Sustainable Cities Initiative, which stated its focus would be on creating economic equity and green energy jobs, according to a Tuesday news release from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Mike Bloomberg, the former Democratic New York Mayor, founded Bloomberg Philanthropies.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) confirmed that Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice voucher program would be forced by a Supreme Court ruling to distribute scholarships to illegal alien students. However, he said he believes that not many will take advantage of the program because its application requires parents to provide their children’s social security numbers.
“Everybody has to fill out the form, including a social security number and so forth. If you don’t have a social security number, then anybody that doesn’t have one, we want to make sure that those authorities are aware that these students don’t have a social security number,” Pody said on Monday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
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The Fulton County judge overseeing the Georgia 2020 election case dismissed some charges against former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, although other charges remain.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said six charges listed in the indictment must be quashed, including three counts against Trump, per court documents.
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The U.S. House of Representatives on recently legislation filed by Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) and Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) that would require the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to publish the salaries of its top executives, Cohen announced in a Monday press release.
Titled the TVA Salary Transparency Act, text of the two-page bill reveals new requirements would be posed for the TVA to provide annually “a report of the total number of employees at the management level or above, to include all executives and board members, that shall include the names, salaries, and duties” of employees “that are receiving compensation” higher than that allotted to the highest paid government employees.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) Tuesday announced the arrest of man with a lengthy criminal history after he left his wallet at the scene of an alleged kidnapping.
According to an MNPD press release, convicted felon Jaymes Greer, 24, was arrested by local authorities for the kidnapping and assault of a female acquaintance after an attentive gas station employee witnessed the alleged crimes, and found that Greer had dropped his wallet in the parking lot.
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The City of Knoxville will consider on March 19 a resolution that would call for Tennessee’s U.S. Congressional delegation to join the city in demanding the Biden administration cease providing military support to Israel until the country agrees to a ceasefire with Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Filed by Knoxville City Council At-Large Seat C Representative Amelia Parker, the resolution urges the United States act to force Israel to comply with an International Court of Justice (IJC) ruling that raised concerns about Israel’s practices in its defensive war against Hamas.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) addressed two concerns he has heard from families that choose to homeschool their children regarding Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice program, which would give $7,000 education savings account scholarships to 20,000 qualifying students in the first year of its inception.
“[Homeschoolers] have real concerns and they’re genuine,” Pody said on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show. “These objections are real because there’s something that is an underlying statement: If government funds it, government runs it. So if you take government money, no matter where you are or what you are, if you don’t think there’s a string attached somewhere, you’re not looking close enough.”
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Brent Hamachek, author of Dissidently Speaking: Change the Words. Change the War. and vice president and associate publisher for Human Events Media Group, said he hopes his new book will challenge the way Americans think and motivate individuals to stop saying “it is” and instead start asking, “is it?”
Hamachek said his book challenges the “things that people have generally accepted about structures in the world around them.”
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Mark Pulliam, a retired attorney and Misrule of Law blogger, said a series of nullification bills introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly are not constitutional despite seemingly being an “easy fix” to federal overreach.
“A lot of people these days come up with these theories and solutions of problems that sound good, that seem like it’s an easy fix, but they’re just not, at the end of the day, serious, and in some cases not workable, and in some cases not constitutional, and this whole nullification movement…is an example of one of those, I think, shamiracle solutions,” Pulliam explained on Monday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) said the East Bank development in Nashville should be a “private act” that does not fall on the backs of Tennessee taxpayers.
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The Tennessee General Assembly voted to confirm Governor Bill Lee’s appointment of Shelby County circuit court judge Mary Wagner to the Supreme Court on Monday.
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The Tennessee General Assembly is considering legislation that would enshrine the legal right of members of the public to carry a variety of non lethal weapons on college campuses.
Already passed in the Tennessee House of Representatives on last Monday, HB 1909 by Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) would specify “that it is not a criminal offense for an adult person to carry or possess pepper spray, a taser, or another similar device for purposes of self-defense” when on any college or university.
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The Tennessee Senate is expected to take on legislation allowing public schools to serve whole milk again in Tennessee.
The U.S. House passed a similar measure – called the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act – in December before it was blocked in the Senate waiting for updated U.S. Department of Agriculture school meal standards.
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Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) blasted the Biden administration in an X post chronicling recent high profile crimes committed by illegal aliens, which went viral on the social media site.
Blackburn said in the post:
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Tennessee collected nearly $7 million in taxes on more than $380 million worth of sports wagers placed in the state in February.
That compares to nearly $6.4 million in taxes on $327 million in wagers in February 2023, which included one less day than February 2024, and $3 million in February 2022.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) said he is “much happier” with the Senate’s version of Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice bill compared to the House’s version, which includes additional incentives not particularly related to school choice.
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According to a summary of refugee arrivals for the first portion of fiscal year 2024, the Democratic Republic of Congo tops the list of refugees resettled in Tennessee in terms of national origin.
The report says that the total number of Congolese refugees resettled in the Volunteer State from October 1 through February 29 is 264.
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When President Joe Biden signed a package of bills over the weekend to avoid a government shutdown, he also made law Sen. J.D. Vance’s legislation to stop federal mask mandates from the Department of Transportation.
The law stops the Transportation Department from using federal funds to enforce mask mandates on passenger airlines, commuter rail, rapid transit buses and any other transportation program funded through fiscal year 2024.
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Former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro was ordered to report to prison on March 19 to start his four-month sentence after he was convicted on two counts of congressional contempt.
Navarro’s conviction came after he defied a subpoena from the now-dissolved House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
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A bill intending to cap increases on the cost of personal seat licenses at the new Nissan Stadium in Nashville would now put a 20% cap on those price increases for 10-year seat license holders at the Tennessee Titans’ current stadium.
The bill initially was written to block any increase in those prices but Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, said he was planning to amend the bill to be more reasonable to the Titans.
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A towing company that sued the City of Memphis last year over racism allegations is now a defendant in a lawsuit which asserts it is engaged in a racketeering scheme to squeeze owners 18-wheelers with excessive, duplicative and illegal fees for parking. The plaintiffs also claim the company engages in illegal towing, booting or impounding of vehicles.
The lawsuit claims the owner of A1’s Towing and Hauling of Memphis, Colton Ahmad Cathey, is the co-creator of an illegal network of towing and booting companies that lure unsuspecting drivers to their lots then charge excessive fees to remediate illegal booting and towing of their vehicles.
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A Memphis judge on Friday postponed the state court trial of four former Memphis police officers charged in the killing of Tyre Nichols until a federal trial against them concludes, the Associated Press reported.
The delay comes after the former officers’ attorneys requested the judge postpone the state trial so as not to “hinder the officers’ rights to defend themselves in both cases,” the outlet continued. The federal trial is set for September 9, 2024.
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Ninety-three of the 95 counties in Tennessee had unemployment rates rise in January.
The state Department of Labor and Workforce Development said the increase comes due to the end of some holiday employment.
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John Solomon, editor-in-chief of Just the News, explained how Republicans in Congress are “playing the long game” when it comes to bringing accountability for the acts of the “Biden crime family.”
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Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) traveled to a migrant camp in Mexico on Friday where he claimed that there is “no invasion” of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Rachel Alexander, lead reporter at The Arizona Sun Times, said there is a “zero percent chance” anything could happen legally between now and November to change federal law allowing no proof of citizenship to be submitted in order for an individual to be eligible to vote in a federal election.
“These 10 million invaders that have come here into the United States under the Biden administration, they’re going to try to get them to vote,” host Michael Leahy said to Alexander on Tuesday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show. “Are there other things that we can do to prevent illegal aliens from voting in the federal election in November 2024?”
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Selling alcohol at bars starting at 8 a.m. on Sundays, the same as other days of the week, is under consideration in the Tennessee Legislature and being pushed by the NFL Titans.
The bill would require a city that has approved liquor-by-the-drink sales by referendum to pass an ordinance to allow alcohol sales earlier than the current 10 a.m. on Sundays.
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Mike Benz, former Trump State Department official and current executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, said all of the “major censorship industry heavyweights” are currently carrying out “very nasty tricks” to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
“The main two tools that they’re using for 2024 censorship are the states because the federal censorship mechanism has been weakened after the Missouri v. Biden trial court ruling, which is now before oral arguments in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is likely to deal them a very heavy blow. So they’re moving into the states to help coordinate that rather than the federal government,” Benz explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
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The U.S. Senate failed to pass an amendment introduced by U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) that would bar illegal immigrants from being factored into the count for congressional districts and the Electoral College map that determines presidential elections on Friday.
A total of 47 Democrats, three Independents, and one Republican senator voted against the amendment, which failed to pass by a 45-51 vote.
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A former Tipton County teacher who was first charged with sex crimes in September has been hit with more criminal charges, according to Friday reports.
“A Tipton County grand jury returned a twenty-three (23) count indictment on March 5, 2024, charging former teacher, Alissa McCommon, 38 of Covington, with multiple sexual misconduct offenses against minors,” the Covington Police Department (CPD) said on Facebook Friday. “The Covington Police Department Criminal Investigations Division detectives and intelligence analysts worked in tandem with the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office detectives and the District Attorney’s Office to present evidence collected during the seven-month joint investigation.”
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A Memphis Police officer is in stable condition after he was shot in the line of duty early Friday morning, according to the Memphis Police Department (MPD).
“At 4:19 am, officers conducted a traffic stop at 240 southbound near South Parkway. During the stop, an officer notified dispatch he had been shot,” said MPD on X. “The unknown motorist fled the scene. The officer was transported to Regional One critical. This is an ongoing investigation.”
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The Tennessee State Senate advanced a new version of a bill aimed at addressing drunk driving laws, but the version advanced by lawmakers on Thursday was amended to omit any plans to ban the sale of cold beer.
After lawmakers greeted “The Tennessee Prevention of Drunk Driving Act” with a lukewarm reception over language that banned stores from selling cold beer to the public in a bid to lower the number of drunk drivers throughout the state, its sponsor announced plans to change the contents of the legislation through an amendment.
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U.S. Representative Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03) stood up to pro-Hamas activists who followed Fleischmann through a Capitol Hill hallway and repeatedly accused him of supporting genocide on Wednesday.
Fleischmann told activists, who captured their encounter with him on a video posted to X, that he would “always” support Israel.
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