The Senate on Sunday night released the text of its long-awaited border security bill.
The $118 billion package includes provisions to reduce record-high crossings at the southern U.S. border and tighten the country’s asylum system, according to NBC News.
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Former President Donald Trump suggested in an interview Sunday that “some changes” could be coming to the Republican National Committee when asked about Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s performance.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee joined a coalition of 12 other governors in traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday to participate in a border security briefing held by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
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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 his coverage of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s birthday party in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC.
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U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) introduced a bill on Thursday that would designate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Ogles’ bill, H.R.7206, comes after nine employees from the United Nations Relief Works Agency were fired last week after being accused of involvement in the terrorist group Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel.
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All-star panelist Ben Cunningham joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy where he discussed what may be included in Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s anticipated transit 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.”
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Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) joined Friday’s edition of The Matt Murphy Show on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN to discuss Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice plan, known as the Education Freedom Scholarship Act.
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All-star panelist Ben Cunningham joined Friday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s anticipated transit plan and how it may clash with the overall preference among Nashvillians when it comes to transportation.
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A group of Tennessee lawmakers have spoken out denouncing a notice sent by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last year to the City of Franklin advising the possible influx of nearly 600 migrants to Middle Tennessee.
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A U.S. Senator from Tennessee took to Fox News to slam Big Tech companies over the dangers their platforms pose to America’s youth.
“You know, I wish that each one of those [tech executives] would have taken their turn at apologizing to those parents,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told Harris Faulkner on “The Faulkner Focus.” “You look at the amount of pornographic material on X, you look at what Snap has done, connecting kids to pedophiles and drug dealers, TikTok, with the kids that have done these TikTok challenges and lost their lives, Discord which is used for chats and gaming, and kids are meeting really bad actors. Every one of them owed those parents that were in that room an apology and those kids – friends of kids – who had lost their lives that showed up wearing those t-shirts. Some were worth more than $230 which is what [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg said a teen was worth to them on social media.”
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National political reporter Neil W. McCabe joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss James O’Keefe’s recent undercover investigation involving a top White House Cyber Official’s depiction of the Biden administration.
O’Keefe, founder of O’Keefe Media Group, wore a disguise while on a “date” with Charlie Kraiger, cybersecurity policy analyst and foreign affairs executive office of the President, where Kraiger revealed the extent of the alleged coverup of President Joe Biden’s health and the tension between Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff.
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National political reporter Neil W. McCabe and Dr. Carol M. Swain joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments surrounding Swain’s battle with Harvard University regarding its former president’s alleged plagiarism of her and other scholars’ work.
In December 2023, writer and activist Christopher Rufo accused then-Harvard University President Claudine Gay of plagiarizing “multiple sections” of Swain’s Ph.D. thesis from 1997.
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Dr. Carol M. Swain joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments surrounding her battle with Harvard University regarding its former president’s alleged plagiarism of her and other scholars’ work as well as the overall decline of the university as it attempts to implement a new “standard.”
In December 2023, writer and activist Christopher Rufo accused then-Harvard University President Claudine Gay of plagiarizing “multiple sections” of Swain’s Ph.D. thesis from 1997.
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A U.S. senator from Tennessee on Friday endorsed Kari Lake, who is running for U.S. Senate in Arizona.
“I’m honored to endorse my friend Kari Lake to be Arizona’s next U.S. Senator. Kari is a strong, principled conservative, who knows and loves the people of Arizona and will make them proud as their elected representative,” Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said in statement. “Kari is fearless, she doesn’t back down, and she will fight tirelessly to secure our border and make our country safe and prosperous. The stakes could not be higher and it is now more important than ever that we retake the Republican majority and get our country back on the right track for all working American families and citizens.”
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Thursday his office was apart of a $350 million multistate settlement with Publicis Health to resolve investigations into the marketing firm’s role in the prescription opioid crisis.
The Volunteer State will receive more than $9 million from the settlement, with a majority of the funds placed into the state’s Opioid Abatement Trust Fund to support local efforts addressing the opioid epidemic.
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Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters released in January the manifesto written by Ryan Palmeter, who fatally shot three people in a racially motivated attack that happened last August at a Dollar General in Florida last year before turning the gun on himself.
The manifesto was released following the completion of an investigation into the circumstances that led to the shooting by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Department.
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A notice from last September by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that a total of 573 “noncitizens” from Guatemala, Venezuela, Honduras, and Mexico intended on traveling to Franklin, Nashville, Davidson County, and Murfreesboro following their release from DHS custody.
The notice, dated as the week ending September 16, 2023, is titled “Intended Destination of Noncitizens Processed at the Southwest Border.”
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Tennessee U.S. Representative and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Mark Green (R-TN-07) joined Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss his efforts in the impeachment process of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Green, who led his Republican colleagues in voting to advance two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas out of committee on Wednesday, told Leahy that Mayorkas not only refused to enforce the law himself, but directed his staff to do the same.
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Governor Bill Lee announced the appointment of Judge Mary L. Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday.
Wagner is currently a circuit court judge for the 30th Judicial District, which covers Shelby County.
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Chairman of the Tennessee Young Republicans and former Belmont University study body President Stevie Giorno recently joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss his experience at Belmont University during and after the time he served as the school’s student body president.
Giorno, who was bullied and called a “racist” for posting a pro-American social media message on Instagram on July 4, 2020, said the university used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to bar him, the student body president at the time, from holding regular meetings.
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Chairman of the Tennessee Young Republicans and former Belmont University study body President Stevie Giorno recently joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss how students at Belmont University bullied him during the time he served as the school’s student body president.
While serving as Belmont University’s student body president in 2020, Giorno acknowledged the Fourth of July holiday with a post on Instagram that read, “Proud to be an American, celebrating the sacrifice of those that gave their all so that we may have freedoms and liberties intended for us on this day in 1776.”
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Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) refused to lead the House of Representatives in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during Thursday’s session of the General Assembly.
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Matthew Giffin, reporter at The Tennessee Star and student at Middle Tennessee State University, joined Wednesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss a socialist group’s response to an event scheduled at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) next week featuring Kyle Rittenhouse.
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Many Tennessee universities maintain speech codes that suppress campus free speech, according to a recent report by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Of the six Tennessee schools included in the report, five reportedly have rules restricting free speech.
The Spotlight on Campus Speech Codes 2024 report rates U.S. colleges based on whether their written speech codes do not infringe on protected speech. According to the report, 85.4 percent of schools maintain policies that can or do infringe on free expression.
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Tennessee State Representative and House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) introduced a bill on Wednesday that would preserve “critical rights for victims of radical cosmetic gender reassignment surgeries.”
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Two Metro Nashville students were arrested on Wednesday as a result of separate incidents at two Metro Nashville schools involving firearms. Both schools, a middle school and high school, received D grades by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE).
A 14-year-old student was arrested on Wednesday at Hunters Lane High School after another student reportedly told school administrators he suspected a firearm in the other student’s backpack. School administrators searched the backpack and found a semi-automatic pistol, prompting the student’s arrest and transport to a juvenile detention facility.
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According to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD), four of the city’s residents have been arrested following a methamphetamine and fentanyl bust conducted by local, state, and federal authorities.
“A joint investigation by MNPD narcotics detectives, DEA agents and the TBI’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force led to Monday’s seizure of 12 pounds of pressed fentanyl pills (approximately 120,000) and 27 pounds of meth arriving in Nashville from California,” MNPD said in press release.
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A Republican member of Tennessee’s General Assembly is critical of a Democrat colleague’s new bill.
HB 2193, introduced by State Representative Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville), “imposes an additional 15-percent tax on the retail sale of firearms [and] requires revenue from the firearms tax to be deposited into the K-12 mental health counselor fund to be administered by the department of education and used exclusively to provide school counselors in elementary and secondary public schools and public charter schools in this state and for mental health assessments and services for students pursuant to a school counselor’s referral.”
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn addressed the CEOs of five social media companies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled, “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis” on Wednesday.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in filing an antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) on Wednesday.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a coalition of 26 other attorneys general in sending a letter to the Biden administration proclaiming support for the steps Texas has taken at its border with Mexico to prevent illegal immigrant crossings.
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the Biden administration to allow Border Patrol agents to cut through or move razor wire Texas installed on its border with Mexico to prevent illegal entries into the U.S.
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After fifteen hours of debating two articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Mark Green (R-TN-07) led his Republican colleagues in voting to advance the articles out of committee.
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The Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) recently released a report highlighting the amount of new investment in the healthcare industry which was denied due to the state’s Certificate of Needs (CON) law.
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East Tennessee State University (ETSU)’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) demanded the university strengthen its “hate speech policy” in response to an upcoming visit from conservative speaker Kyle Rittenhouse for the school’s chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA).
However, an ETSU spokesperson said no such policy exists.
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reportedly plans to bring a slew of new Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) complaints against the University of Tennessee (UT), prompting a fiery response from Chancellor Donde Plowman in a Tuesday letter to the NCAA. Plowman received the support of Tennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), who argued the NCAA failed to create “clear guidance and rules” for institutions to follow.
Zachary wrote in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the Tennessee General Assembly “worked with institutions across our state to craft strong NIL institution that established the framework” in the state, but the NCAA’s “moving target” made work “very challenging” for lawmakers.
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A new bill introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly would increase the penalty for trafficking illegal aliens in the Volunteer State.
HB 2078 “prohibits any person from transporting an illegal alien into this state [and] increases from $1,000 to $5,000 the fine for transporting illegal aliens.”
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Every January, law enforcement agencies and advocacy groups mark National Human Trafficking Prevention Month to focus public attention on this horrific crime and its devastating impact on the victims involved. Once again, the Biden Administration is calling attention to the Department of Homeland Security’s broader “Blue Campaign” to combat human trafficking.
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Founder and president of Professional Educators of Tennessee JC Bowman joined Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss funding issues surrounding Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice plan, known as the Education Freedom Scholarship Act.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, joined Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss his recent article on the Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner’s omission on a letter concerning Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies being pushed on American farmers.
On Tuesday, Pappert reported that Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Dr. Charlie Hatcher did not sign a letter sent by 12 states to the heads of six elite banks warning that their “Net-Zero Banking Alliance” (NZBA) will force ESG policies that would have a “catastrophic impact” on farmers.
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Founder and president of Professional Educators of Tennessee JC Bowman joined Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the leaked draft of Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act.
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House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-TN-07) delivered opening remarks on Tuesday during a full committee markup for articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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The Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner, Dr. Charlie Hatcher, was not among the top agriculture officials from 12 different states who signed a letter on Monday that warned the heads of six elite banks that their “Net-Zero Banking Alliance” (NZBA) will force economically destructive Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) policies on American farmers.
The Tennessee Star contacted Hatcher’s office by phone and email to ask why he was not among the agriculture officials behind the letter, and to ascertain whether he is concerned by the claim that banks are foisting ESG policies on farmers, but did not receive an immediate response.
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A U.S. Congressman from Tennessee was the victim of a “swatting” over the weekend, a tactic that is more frequently being used to attack political foes in the United States.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) was the victim of the nefarious incident.
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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday issued a fiery defense against the impeachment articles he faces, calling the allegations “false” and urging Congress to fix the U.S. immigration system through legislation.
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A new study released by the Center for Individual Freedom (CFIF) shows a majority of Republican voters in Tennessee oppose Certificate of Need (CON) laws.
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A spokesman for Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) on Monday provided The Tennessee Star with new details about the constitutional amendment proposed last week in Memphis to allow Tennessee judges to refuse to grant bail to more violent criminals.
Sexton was joined by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) and Memphis Mayor Paul Young in a Friday press event with other lawmakers and community leaders to call for the constitutional amendment, which would need to be approved by Tennessee voters in a public referendum.
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Tennessee Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, filed a bill that would require all adult-oriented businesses to display human trafficking hotline information that would be overseen by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The democrat what the only vote against the anti-trafficking bill passed during the special session last fall.
“This isn’t a bad bill but we are very confused as to why Rep. Parkinson has decided to file a bill that addresses human trafficking, albeit in a miniscule manner, given that he was literally the only member of the State House to vote against our special session anti-trafficking bill that became law,” a statement from the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition board said.
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The Tennessee Star obtained on Monday a draft of the forthcoming Education Freedom Scholarship Act previously announced by Governor Bill Lee in November.
Lee announced in November that he would champion new school choice legislation in 2024 that will ultimately allow all Tennessee families to choose where their children are educated.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) joined Monday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the latest developments surrounding his efforts to make new school-specific security technology eligible for the school safety grants approved by the General Assembly last year.
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Former IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday after leaking former President Donald Trump’s tax records, according to NBC News.
Littlejohn, 38, was charged in September 2023 with one count of disclosing information from a tax return for a government official, and he pleaded guilty in October to leaking 10 years of Trump’s tax records to The New York Times. U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes sentenced Littlejohn to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to NBC News.
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