Tennessee U.S. Rep. Mark Green Announces Retirement from Congress

Mark Green Retiring

U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced his retirement from Congress on Wednesday, just one day after leading the House in a historic vote to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Green, who served as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he is “ready to return home” after delivering on his promise to “pass legislation to secure our borders and to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable” by leading the passage of H.R. 2 and two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

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House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green Calls on the Senate to Hold a Trial and Convict DHS Secretary Mayorkas

In one of his last actions before announcing his retirement from Congress, Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) urged lawmakers in the U.S. Senate to hold a trial and convict Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“Last night, the House of Representatives voted to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for high crimes and misdemeanors, specifically for his willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law and his breach of public trust. This action—the culmination of nearly a year’s worth of investigations and hearings—was necessary to deal with a rogue DHS secretary whose lawless actions have caused and perpetuated the worst border crisis in American history,” Green said during a press conference with House Republican leadership.

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Co-Founder of AbleChild Sheila Matthews Details Work on Tennessee Bill to Help Determine Link Between Psychotropic Drugs and Mass Shooters

Sheila Matthews

Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the national non-profit parent organization AbleChild, detailed her work on crafting an “outstanding” bill recently filed in the Tennessee General Assembly that is focused on reforming the process medical examiner’s offices must follow in terms of testing for psychotropic drugs when performing autopsies on the bodies of mass shooters.

HB 2933, if enacted, would require a medical examiner’s office or regional forensic center to determine and document current both psychotropic and prescription drug use from the past 10 years by a deceased individual who died under “suspicious, unusual, or unnatural circumstances.”

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Flags at Half Staff for Fallen Blount County Deputy, Suspect Taken into Custody After Manhunt

Greg McCowan

Gov. Bill Lee (R) Wednesday announced that the flag at the State Capitol will fly at half staff in honor of a fallen Blount County Sheriff’s Deputy who was killed in the line of duty. 

“Today, flags over the State Capitol will be lowered in remembrance of Deputy Greg McGowan, who laid down his life to protect & serve Tennesseans. Maria & I continue to lift his family & loved ones up in prayer,” Lee said on X, formerly Twitter. 

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Family-Owned Business Owner Reveals How Lobbyists Derailed Passage of Bill That Would Prohibit Online Payment Systems from Freezing Users’ Funds

Your American Flag Store

James Staake, founder and CEO of Your American Flag Store, recently testified in front of the Tennessee House Commerce Committee in support of HB 0846, a bill that would prohibit online payment systems from freezing a user’s funds without prior warning.

The bill, according to its text, would “prohibit an online payment system from freezing the funds of a user without first providing the user with a 90-day written notice of the online payment system’s intent to freeze the user’s funds,” designating a violation as an unfair or deceptive act or practice pursuant to the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977.

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Founder of ‘Your American Flag Store’ Details Censorship Battle with Big Tech

Your American Flag Store

Founder and CEO of Your American Flag Store James Staake recounted his censorship battle with Facebook, Shopify, and PayPal, revealing how the tech giants targeted his patriotic business the day after January 6, 2021.

Staake’s business, which started as a side job involving him building wooden American flag pieces featuring patriotic artwork created by his wife, grew from a small local operation in 2018 to a full-time gig once the products were available to purchase online.

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Aaron Gulbransen Analyzes the Tennessee General Assembly’s Current Session

Aaron Gulbransen

Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the current session of the Tennessee General Assembly is “pretty normal” despite state lawmakers still reeling from last year’s events by the “Tennessee Three” Democrats and the special session.

“It’s kind of normal, to be honest with you. Now, I will say, I think everybody has a little bit of PTSD after last year with all the shenanigans that Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson pulled and then the contentiousness of the special session and the lead up to that and right after that. But it’s relatively normal,” Gulbransen explained on Tuesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy.

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New Court Filing Claims Covenant School Shooter Audrey Hale Possibly Motivated by Alleged Child Abuse Coverup

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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Carol Swain Reflects on ‘Be the People’ Conference, Reveals Jill Biden’s ‘Discreet’ Meeting Next Door

Jill Biden

Dr. Carol M. Swain said First Lady Jill Biden held a “discreet” meeting at the Richland Country Club at the same time Swain’s nonprofit organization Be the People’s American Dream Conference was taking place on Friday evening in Nashville.

Biden initially traveled to Franklin for a “political event” reportedly occurring at the home of country music star Brad Paisley, however, also held an unannounced event at the Richland Country Club on Friday, according to Swain.

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Rep. Andy Ogles Urges Move of Unjustly Convicted J6 Defendant Stewart Parks to Minimum Security Camp of FCI Memphis, Cites Tennessee Star Report

Rep. Andy Ogles / Stewart Parks

U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) sent a letter to the Warden F.J. Bowers of the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis on Tuesday which urged him to immediately transfer unjustly convicted J6 defendant Stewart Parks to the facility’s minimum security camp.

Ogles sent his letter following the Sunday report from The Tennessee Star that revealed Parks is not in the minimum security camp where he was originally expected to serve his sentence, and is instead in a part of the federal prison that houses gang members, murderers and child molesters.

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State Senator Brent Taylor: ‘If We Don’t Get It Turned Around,’ Memphis will Become the ‘Example of a Failed City’

Brent Taylor

Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) said Memphis will become the “butt of every joke” and the “example of a failed city” if its bail system and crime crisis are not addressed.

Noting how Detroit was once an example of a “failed city” and a “shell of its former self,” Taylor explained what steps the city has taken to reduce crime and how Memphis should follow its lead.

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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell Reportedly Planning Mass Transit Referendum After ‘Car-Free Streets’ Executive Order

Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is reportedly planning to introduce a major mass transit project this year that will need to be approved by voters in November, and would likely require an increase to the city’s sales tax.

A report published Monday by Axios claims O’Connell is days away from announcing a “mass transit funding proposal” that will be “less downtown and tourist-focused than” the proposal previously defeated by voters in Metro Nashville in 2018.

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Commentary: Free Market Approach Will Protect Our Healthcare System

doc nurse senior patient

As a campus ambassador at the University of Tennessee for two prominent non-profit conservative political organizations, the Leadership Institute and Turning Point USA, I’ve come to understand the complexities of health care, both as a public policy issue and as an industry. One critical aspect of health care policy that demands our attention nationwide is the protection of pharmacy benefits, a lifeline for many Americans when it comes to accessing essential prescription medications. As a student, I want to ensure we are preserving free market principles in our health care system for years to come.

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Corey DeAngelis: Vermont Has Had a Successful School Choice Program Since 1869

School choice activist Corey A. DeAngelis joined Wednesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the future of school choice in the U.S., specifically in Democrat-run states.

Leahy kicked off the segment by noting how Vermont has the oldest operating school voucher program in the country’s history with its Town Tuitioning Program.

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Joe Biden Mocked Mercilessly for Mumbling, Bumbling ‘Shrinkflation’ Video Released on Super Bowl Sunday

President Joe Biden was mocked by conservatives on Sunday for a video he released ahead of the Super Bowl which derided “shrinkflation,” when manufacturers lower the size or quantity of items included for a given price without informing the consumer as a result of inflation, with pundits uniformly reminding the embattled president that his inflationary policies preceded the shrinkflation.

In the video, posted to the official government account for Biden on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, the president appears to be sitting in the White House movie theater while various shots reveal he is surrounded by packages of junk food. Looking into the camera, Biden remarked, “if you’re like me you like to be surrounded by a snack or two while watching the big game.”

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Jill Biden Commits Inadvertent ‘Umbrella Assault’ Against Nashville Mayor During Trip to Tennessee

Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell Greets First Lady Jill Biden

First Lady Jill Biden committed an inadvertent “umbrella assault” against Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell during her visit to Tennessee, which was reportedly aimed at securing endorsements from the country music “influencer” community at an event held by country music artist Brad Paisley.

Video appears to show O’Connell being poked by the umbrella before deftly maneuvering around and underneath the umbrella as Biden raised it higher to avoid a second attack.

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Bill Ackman on Washington Post Hit Piece: ‘The Public Has Been Again Misled’

Bill Ackman, the highly successful hedge fund manager and Harvard graduate whose criticism of Claudine Gay’s history of plagiarism led to her resignation as President of Harvard University, published a lengthy tweet on his X account Sunday evening responding to an article about him published by The Washington Post earlier in the day. Here is that post in its entirety:

I am sure all of us have had the experience of reading a story about a subject you know well and finding it replete with inaccuracies and falsehoods. One then turns the page and reads an article about a subject one knows less well and makes the mistake of believing that this other story is accurate. I am guilty of this sin. I am sadly repeatedly reminded to mistrust what I read in the media, and I am not alone. Destruction of confidence in our media is contributing to societal breakdown, and that is a very unfortunate state of affairs.

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Roger Simon Analyzes RFK Jr.’s Campaign amid DNC’s FEC Complaint

RFK JR

Roger Simon, co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy where he discussed the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) latest attack on Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. ‘s presidential campaign and the super PAC supporting him.

On Friday, the DNC filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against RFK Jr.’s campaign and the American Values Super PAC on allegations the two are colluding to get the candidate ballot access.

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EXCLUSIVE: Imprisoned J6 Defendant Stewart Parks Tells The Tennessee Star, ‘There Are Murderers and Child Molesters Here. No J6 Defendant Should Be in Such a Situation’

Unjustly convicted J6 defendant Stewart Parks spoke with Tennessee Star CEO Michael Patrick Leahy in a 15-minute phone call placed on Friday afternoon from the Federal Correctional Institution in Memphis, Tennessee. Parks self-reported to begin serving an eight-month sentence on Tuesday.

The Star and Leahy have filed a Freedom of Information Act request with FCI Memphis to obtain the 15-minute audio recording of that call. Inmates incarcerated at FCI are allowed to make 500 minutes of out bound phone calls per month, but each call is recorded and is limited to 15 minutes in length.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: Joe Biden’s Handling of Classified Records is Worse than Trump’s Case

Joe Biden

According to the report released last week by Special Counsel Robert Hur, Joe Biden has a long history of mishandling classified material.

Witnesses told Hur during the course of his year-long investigation that as vice president, Biden routinely took classified files and did not return them as required. “Mr. Biden was known to remove and keep classified material from his briefing books for future use, and his staff struggled – and sometimes failed – to retrieve these materials,” Hur disclosed in the special counsel’s damning 388-page report.

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Report: Amazon Censored Books on COVID Vaccine After Pressure from Biden White House

Vaccine Shot

New internal emails from Amazon reveal that the tech giant ultimately censored books discussing the topic of Chinese Coronavirus vaccines after being pressured to do so by the Biden Administration.

As reported by the New York Post, the emails and other documents were released by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Monday in a series of posts on X, which Jordan referred to as “The Amazon Files.” The communications were obtained by a subpoena from the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which was established with the purpose of exposing abuse of federal powers to target political opponents, including collusion between the government and private sector entities such as Big Tech.

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Roger Simon Calls Tucker Carlson’s Interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin a ‘Monument of Journalism’

Carlson Putin

Roger Simon, co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss Tucker Carlson’s two-hour interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Simon said he was “absolutely riveted” by the interview, adding the amount of information discussed was “impossible to digest immediately.”

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Shelby County Judge Bill Anderson Publicly Reprimanded by State Board After He Railed Against Bail, Belittled Police Sergeant

The Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct (BJC) Shelby County General Sessions publicly reprimanded Judge Bill Anderson on Tuesday after he belittled a police sergeant and revealed his disdain for the “bail bond system” in Tennessee.

The BJC served Anderson the public reprimand after he declared his opposition to the concept of bail and bail bonding companies in September 2023, when the judge claimed bail bonding companies “don’t do anything but collect money from poor people” during a meeting of the Shelby County Commission, and declared, “I detest the bail bond system in Shelby County, I detest it across this state.”

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Nashville Metro Councilman Jeff Eslick: Leftists are Using Public Comment Period to Advance Pro-Hamas Agenda During Meetings

Metro Council

Metro Nashville Council Member Jeff Eslick joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments and work from the Metro Nashville Council.

Eslick said the council’s meeting on Tuesday consisted of some good discussions on issues; however, it was dragged out by council members trying to convince other members on how to vote on certain ordinances as well as activists taking advantage of the public comment period to speak on the current situation in the Middle East.

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Tom Pappert Analyzes ‘Massive’ Smuggling Problem at Federal Correctional Institute in Memphis Where J6 Defendant Stewart Parks is Serving Eight-Month Term

FCI Memphis

Tom Pappert, lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, joined Wednesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the decades-long smuggling issue at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Memphis where January 6 defendant Stewart Parks self-reported on Tuesday to serve his eight-month prison sentence for being present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Parks was sentenced in November 2023 to three years imprisonment on misdemeanor trespassing, disorderly conduct, and theft charges by D.C. Circuit Court Judge Amit P. Mehta, who has presided over several trials related to the January 6 Capitol riots. Parks, however, is serving his sentence concurrently, reducing his term to eight months behind bars.

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Metro Councilman Jeff Eslick Says He Expects Nashville Mayor O’Connell’s Multimodal Plan to Be ‘Bus Intensive’

Jeff Eslick

Metro Nashville Council Member Jeff Eslick joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss what may be included in Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s anticipated multimodal transportation plan.

O’Connell, who was elected mayor in last year’s runoff election, vowed during his campaign to address Nashville’s “infrastructure and transit concerns” and is expected to release a multimodal plan in the near future.

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Rutherford County Property Assessor Hires Son of County GOP Chairman and a School Board Member for Newly Created Position After He Was Determined Unqualified for Original Position

Rutherford County Property Assessor Rob Mitchell hired the son of the Rutherford County GOP chairman for a position he was unqualified for ahead of Mitchell’s bid for reelection in 2024.

Mitchell hired Michael Maxwell, son of Rutherford County GOP Chairman Austin Maxwell, in January 2024 despite not meeting the minimum requirements of the position he applied for, according to documents obtained by The Tennessee Star with an open records request.

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Judge Amit Mehta Rejects Peter Navarro’s Bid to Avoid Prison in J6 Case Just Days After Refusing Same Request by Unjustly Convicted Stewart Parks

Peter Navarro Sentencing

D.C. District Judge Amit P. Mehta on Thursday declined the request by former Trump administration adviser Peter Navarro to avoid prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction that came as a result of his refusal to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 Committee in the U.S. House.

Mehta ruled on Thursday that Navarro’s claim his conviction could be reversed on appeal was insufficient to stay his sentence, according to Breitbart News, which reported the Obama-appointee also flatly rejected the legal underpinnings of Navarro’s case.

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Jill Biden to Visit Nashville Friday for ‘Political Event’ Reportedly Aimed at Securing Country Music Endorsements

First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Tennessee for a purported “political event” reportedly occurring at the home of country music star Brad Paisley.

According to press reports citing a White House media advisory, the First Lady is expected to land in Nashville on Friday afternoon for an unspecified “political event” that will take place in Franklin.

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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti Joins Letter Warning the Biden Administration About Its Liquified Natural Gas Export Pause

DOE Biden

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a 23-state coalition in sending a letter to President Joe Biden and United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm regarding the administration’s pause on the export of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the name of climate change.

Last month, the Biden administration announced a temporary pause on pending decisions on exports of LNG to “non-FTA countries until the Department of Energy can update the underlying analyses for authorizations.”

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Murfreesboro Settles ACLU Lawsuit over Drag Performances

The City of Murfreesboro settled a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over public drag performances, according to the legal nonprofit.

“American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Tennessee, Ballard Spahr, and Burr & Forman have settled a lawsuit filed against the City of Murfreesboro over its anti-LGBTQ+ ordinance and local policy denying all special event permit requests from the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), founder and host of the annual BoroPride Festival,” according to a release from the ACLU.

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Commentary: There Is Something Rotten in the State of Tennessee

Staffers of former Governor Bill Haslam have sold their souls to BlackRock, a giant global corporation hell-bent on controlling every penny on earth and using their power to force us all to obey their woke ESG decrees. This is an outrage that must be addressed. 

As Attorney General Skrmetti’s lawsuit against BlackRock progresses, BlackRock is fighting back. But other than making cringy ads starring a man in a cowboy hat in an absurd attempt to convince the people of Tennessee to trust them, BlackRock is also playing the swamp game. 

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Biden Used Private Email and Fake Names for Official Business, Shared White House Comms with Family

As early as 2010, Joe Biden routinely used a private email account with a fake name to conduct official government business as vice president, and at times copied his sons and brother on exchanges that included some of the highest ranking officials inside the White House, according to documents released under a historic lawsuit against the National Archives.

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Tucker Carlson Releases Interview with Vladimir Putin

Tucker Carlson Vladimir Putin

Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Thursday released his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he addressed his rationale behind the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and his view of diplomacy with the west.

Carlson attracted considerable scrutiny from western media for conducting the interview, which he defended as a part of his duty as a journalism. 

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TN DAs General Conference Files Illegal Brief Supporting Shelby County DA Mulroy’s Effort to Free Convicted Murderer, AG Skrmetti Tells Court Brief Not Legal

Skrmetti Mulroy

The Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference (TNDAGC) filed an amicus brief last week, which was labeled illegal in a Tuesday response by the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, supporting the efforts of Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy to free a death row inmate who was convicted of two murders over 40 years ago.

The conference filed the amicus brief in a lawsuit brought by death row inmate Larry McKay against Tennessee over a law passed by the General Assembly in 2023, which expands the number of capital cases that the state’s attorney general must directly oversee.

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Special Counsel Robert Hur Says Biden ‘Willfully’ Kept, Shared Classified Memos but Won’t Be Charged Because of His Poor Memory

Biden Hur

Special counsel Robert Hur concluded in a stinging report released Thursday that President Joe Biden willfully kept classified documents from his time as vice president, shared them with an author and knew he had them as far back as 2017, but he recommended against prosecution.

Hur said that part of the reason he declined to prosecute the president’s age and poor memory would create reasonable doubt for jurors.

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