Category: Tennessee Star Report

Listen to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy weekdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on WENO AM760 The Flame.

 

Reporter Tom Pappert Discusses Latest Developments in Case Involving Transgender Arrested on Stalking Charges

Kaitlin Housler
McKenzie McClure

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, pointed out that McKenzie McClure, the biological female and former Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) student arrested by federal authorities on cyberstalking charges, may have been subject to a 30-day mental hold as she awaits a detention hearing scheduled for June 3.

McClure, who identifies as a transgender man and prefers the name “Kalvin,” was arrested on cyberstalking charges on April 29 after making a public threat against Governor Bill Lee and leaving a concerning voicemail to CPA in March, which caused two schools to shut down the following day.

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State Senator Brent Taylor Says Memphis Will Be ‘Hollowed Out’ If Crime is Not Addressed

Kaitlin Housler
Brent Taylor

State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) warned that Memphis will be ‘hollowed out’ if its crime problem is not addressed.

Taylor, who sponsored several crime-related bills in the recently-adjourned legislative session of the General Assembly, said the response he has received from the community in Memphis for his work to crackdown on crime has been positive.

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TN-18 State Senate GOP Primary Challenger Chris Spencer Refuses to Answer If He’d Vote for Governor’s School Choice Bill If Elected

Kaitlin Housler
Chris Spencer

Chris Spencer, a Republican candidate challenging incumbent Tennessee State Senator Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) in the August 1 TN-18 GOP primary, refused to answer whether he’d vote for or against Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice bill during the next legislative session of the General Assembly if elected.

The governor’s school choice bill, called the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, failed to pass the General Assembly during the most recently convened session of the General Assembly.

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Tennessee GOP Chairman Confident in Security Measures Taken for Republican National Convention in Milwaukee

Kaitlin Housler

Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden said he is confident in the security measures being taken for attendees of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee will host the Republican National Convention from July 15-18, during which tens of thousands of delegates, guests, and press members will gather to officially nominate Donald Trump for president and his yet-to-be-announced running mate for vice president.

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Federal Court Case in Ohio Could Reverse SCOTUS Precedent That Expanded Commerce Clause

Kaitlin Housler
Brewing

Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, said he believes an Ohio court case, Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury, may succeed in rolling back federal overreach regarding Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce under the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause.

The Buckeye Institute, an Ohio think tank, filed Ream v. U.S. Department of Treasury in January on behalf of John Ream of Licking County, Ohio.

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Nashville’s Legally Dubious $3.1 Billion Transportation Plan Sparks Debate over Future Tax Burden

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said not only does Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s $3.1 billion transit referendum, which is expected to be presented to Davidson County voters on the November ballot, appear illegal under the 2017 IMPROVE Act, but its implementation would inevitably raise property taxes for residents.

O’Connell unveiled his transit plan, “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last month.

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Legal Battle Brews over Nashville Mayor’s $3.1 Billion Transportation Plan

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, continues to scrutinize the legality of the Nashville mayor’s $3.1 billion transit referendum expected to be presented in front of Davidson County voters on the November ballot.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell unveiled his $3.1 billion transit plan, “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last month. The plan would be funded through a half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax to construct miles of new sidewalks, bus stops, transit centers, parking facilities, and upgraded traffic signals.

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Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs Most Proud of Not Raising Taxes During His Tenure, Says ‘We Have to Make Sure Our People Are Being Taken Care Of’

Kaitlin Housler
Glenn Jacobs

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said the accomplishment he’s most proud of since assuming office in 2018 is his and his team’s work to avoid raising taxes for county residents.

Jacobs said that while it is becoming “more difficult” to construct a budget amid economic challenges resulting from decisions made at the federal level, his administration is “doing everything that we can to be creative and think outside the box” to avoid raising taxes.

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America First Legal’s Gene Hamilton: We’ve Launched a New Program That Helps Train the Next Generation of Conservative Lawyers

Kaitlin Housler
Gene Hamilton

Gene Hamilton, vice president and general counsel of America First Legal (AFL), explained why the Next Generation (NextGen) Fellowship Program through AFL is a critical tool for young conservative lawyers who seek to “advance the conservative movement in a way we haven’t seen before.”

The mission of AFL’s NextGen Fellowship Program, according to the organization’s website, is to “train and build a bench of lawyers equipped with the legal skills needed to save our nation and to effectively push forward an America First agenda in government, including in future conservative presidential administrations.”

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Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano Says GOP Needs to ‘Stop Sabotaging’ Each Other, ‘Come Together’ to Elect Donald Trump in November

Kaitlin Housler
Doug Mastriano

Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin County) said that establishment Republicans need to come together during this election cycle to support and elect grassroots candidates and former President Donald Trump to office.

Mastriano, who recently detailed his personal experience of betrayal by establishment Republican organizations during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign, said “it’s going to take a lot of effort, energy, and unity” to elect strong Republicans into office this November—especially in the toss up state of Pennsylvania.

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Sports Journalist Jason Whitlock to Host Annual Men’s Summit Next Month at Rocketown in Nashville

Kaitlin Housler
Jason Whitlock

Jason Whitlock, sports journalist and host of the Fearless with Jason Whitlock show, is set to hold a men’s summit at Rocketown in Nashville next month.

The summit, Fearless Army Roll Call 2.0, is a “gathering, celebration, and encouragement of men to put on the full armor of God to take a stand against the evil forces destroying American culture,” according to the event’s website.

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Exclusive: Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti Calls the Biden Administration’s Overhaul of Title IX ‘Extreme’

Kaitlin Housler
Skrmetti MPL Show

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said the Biden administration’s finalized rule to rewrite Title IX is “extreme,” noting how the administration’s determination to rewrite anti-discrimination rules to encompass gender identity issues appears to be one of its “highest priorities.”

On Tuesday, Skrmetti led six states in suing the Biden administration’s Department of Education on Tuesday over its finalized rule to rewrite Title IX to encompass gender identity and sexual orientation.

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NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams Responds with Deceptive Distractions When Confronted Over His Journalistic Failures to Get Justin Jones on the Record Over 2020 Claim

Kaitlin Housler
Phil Williams Justin Jones

NewsChannel 5’s chief investigative reporter Phil Williams continues to be criticized for his “journalistic failures” as he dodged an opportunity to confront State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) on his alleged coverup of a 2020 assault of two protesters by a homeless man.

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Roger Simon on Pro-Hamas, Anti-Israel Protests on College Campuses: ‘What Happened in Germany in 1937’ Is ‘What We’re Undergoing Now’

Kaitlin Housler

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, said the pro-Hamas protests unfolding on Ivy League college campuses across the nation are comparable to the scene in Germany in 1937.

Simon made the comments on Tuesday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show after listening to audio of a clip taken from Columbia University where pro-Palestine protesters formed a human chain to keep Jewish students out of an encampment on the university’s campus.

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NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams Refuses to Explain His Failure to Get Justin Jones on the Record about Allegations He Covered Up Report of 2020 Sexual Assault, Tries to Distract with False Claims About Tennessee Star Reporter

Kaitlin Housler
Phil Williams

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, addressed personal attacks from NewsChannel 5’s chief investigative reporter Phil Williams over the weekend, saying such attacks are “absolute silliness” and a common tactic used by Williams when pressed on his “journalistic failings.”

On Sunday, Pappert reported on an interview between Williams and Dan Mandis, host of Nashville’s Morning News with Dan Mandis on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, where Williams said that he once asked Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones (D-Nashville) to respond to claims made by his former close colleague Jeneisha Harris on June 18, 2020 that the state lawmaker had covered up the sexual assault of two protesters by a homeless man.

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Ben Cunningham Calls Nashville Mayor’s $3.1 Billion Transit Referendum ‘Absurd’

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said not only does Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit referendum appear to be illegal under the IMPROVE Act, but the transit plan’s overall vision of commuters suddenly switching over to public transport is “absurd.”

O’Connell unveiled his $3.1 billion transit plan, called “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last week, which would be funded through a half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax.

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Aaron Gulbransen: Tennessee House Should Have Introduced a ‘Clean School Choice Bill’

Kaitlin Housler
Classroom

Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the Tennessee House of Representatives should have introduced a “clean” universal school choice bill instead of attaching additional incentives not particularly related to school choice to the bill.

While the governor’s school choice bill in the House includes additional incentives, the Senate’s version solely focuses on the governor’s proposal.

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Michael Patrick Leahy: As a Plaintiff in Covenant Manifesto Case, I Want All Documents Released, Not Just the Killer’s Writings Recovered from Vehicle

Kaitlin Housler

Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, said as a plaintiff in the case seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to release the manifesto left behind by the Covenant School shooter, he believes the the full manifesto should be released – not just the “documents in the car” found on the day of the shooting which Metro Legal suggests would satisfy the plaintiffs in the case.

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Founder of Tea Party Nation Judson Phillips: 15 Years Later, the Tea Party Movement Was an ‘Abject Failure’

Kaitlin Housler
Judson Phillips

Judson Phillips, founder of Tea Party Nation, said 15 years after the Tax Day Tea Party, the movement’s effect on fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets in federal politics has been “an abject failure.”

“The Tea Party movement was an abject failure. There’s just no other way to put it. Look at where we are today. When the Tea Party movement started, it was triggered by Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. Today, that’s a rounding error. The deficit was $10 billion when Obama took over in January 2009. Today, it’s $34 trillion. It’s going up by a trillion dollars every hundred days, and that rate is accelerating,” Phillips explained on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

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‘Lives of Others Are at Stake Here’: Ben Cunningham, Roger Simon Discuss Legal Battle over Covenant Shooter Manifesto

Kaitlin Housler

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, and Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, discussed the ongoing legal battle over the release of the Covenant School shooter’s manifesto, agreeing that the “lives of others” are at stake as long as the manifesto’s contents are kept under wraps.

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Columnist Roger Simon: The U.S. Government Paying for Iran’s Attack on Israel Is the ‘Single Greatest Disgusting Thing in American History’

Kaitlin Housler
Roger Simon Israel

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJMedia and current columnist for The Epoch Times, said the U.S. government paid for Iran’s Saturday attack on Israel, which saw 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles launched at the country.

Simon said the money trail could be traced back to the Obama administration when billions of dollars were sent to the Mullahs.

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Author Geoff Shepard Explains His Role in the Nixon Administration During Watergate and How the Scandal Was ‘Misinterpreted’ for 40 Years

Kaitlin Housler
Author Geoff Shepard

Geoff Shepard, former staffer in the Nixon Administration and author of The Nixon Conspiracy: Watergate and the Plot to Remove the President, explained in an exclusive interview with The Michael Patrick Leahy Show how he came to the conclusion that the Watergate scandal had been misinterpreted for nearly 40 years.

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Reporter Tom Pappert: U.S. Rep. David Kustoff Is ‘Ripe for a Challenge’ in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District Following FISA Vote

Kaitlin Housler
David Kustoff

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said he believes Tennessee U.S. Representative David Kustoff’s (R-TN-08) vote on Friday against an amendment that would have ended the warrantless spying on United States citizens allowed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) makes the congressman “ripe for a challenge” this election cycle.

Kustoff and Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) were the sole members of Tennessee’s congressional delegation to vote against the amendment on Friday, Pappert previously reported.

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Dr. Carol Swain: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ‘Artificially Contrived,’ ‘Divides Groups’

Kaitlin Housler

Dr. Carol M. Swain, author of The Adversity of Diversity, said the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards being pushed today are not the same type of diversity Americans rallied around during the Civil Rights Movement.

Swain said her book points out “everything wrong” with today’s DEI standards and how they violate the U.S. Constitution and Equal Protections Protection Clause.

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Carol Swain and Neil W. McCabe Explain Why Pro-Life Organizations, Fake Christians ‘Talk the Talk’ but Have ‘No Interest in Ending Abortion’

Kaitlin Housler
Abortion protest

Dr. Carol M. Swain and national political reporter Neil W. McCabe, while discussing the politics surrounding the topic of abortion, identified how some seemingly pro-life groups and individuals who claim to be Christians “talk the talk and not walk the walk” when it comes to protecting the unborn.

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Jason Snead on Why Democrats Promote Ranked-Choice Voting: ‘It’s About Pushing Politics to the Left’

Kaitlin Housler

Jason Snead, the director of the Honest Elections Project Action Fund, said the practice of Ranked-Choice Voting is a tool used by the Left to “push politics to the left” and “give more power to the left-wing mega-donors.”

Ranked-Choice Voting, an election process where voters can rank multiple candidates for a single office, is currently used statewide in the states of Alaska and Maine, cities including New York City, and other jurisdictions across the nation.

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Tennessee GOP Congressional Candidate George Flinn Says U.S. Rep. David Kustoff ‘Should Not Go Unchallenged’

Kaitlin Housler
David Kustoff George Flinn

Shelby County resident Dr. George Flinn, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in West Tennessee’s 8th District, said he is running because incumbent U.S. Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) needs to be “challenged.”

Flinn, who has run as a Republican and Independent candidate in U.S. Senate and primary races for Tennessee’s 8th and 9th Congressional districts, said he believes Kustoff “should not go unchallenged” considering the incumbent’s recent voting record on bills, particularly spending packages.

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Texas Republican Mike Olcott Corrects the Record After NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams Falsely Claims His Vanquished Opponent, Glenn Rogers, Is a Conservative

Kaitlin Housler
Olcott Phil Williams

Mike Olcott, a Republican who won last month’s primary election for Texas House District 60, invalidated News Channel 5’s Phil Williams’ claims that his opponent he defeated in the race, State Representative Glenn Rogers, was defeated by “billionaire” pro-school voucher “forces.”

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Ben Cunningham: Nashville Mayor’s Transit Plan Appears to be Illegal

Kaitlin Housler
Freddie O'Connell

Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit plan, which is expected to be on the November ballot, is likely illegal under the IMPROVE Act, which passed the Tennessee General Assembly in 2017.

The 2017 IMPROVE Act, signed by former Governor Bill Haslam, permits local governments to seek a dedicated funding source via surcharge to support mass transportation projects through local referendum.

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Metro Councilman Jeff Eslick: Some Council Members Try to Shame Opponents of Far Left Resolutions

Kaitlin Housler
Jeff Eslick

Metro Nashville Council Member Jeff Eslick detailed how the council has recently taken up resolutions surrounding statewide issues and how some members request that a hand vote be recorded as a “shaming move” against members who oppose the resolutions.

In addition to activists taking advantage of the public comment period during Metro Council meetings to speak on the current situation in the Middle East between Israeli and Hamas forces, Eslick said the council has taken up three different types of resolutions that “condemn or express disappointment with the state” in recent weeks.

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Steve Bannon Calls Out Leftist Author Jim Wallis for Infusing the New Testament with Social Justice Politics by Pointedly Ignoring the Gospel of Mark

Kaitlin Housler
Jesus Two Dads Poster

Matt Giffin, a reporter at The Tennessee Star, and Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Star, discussed a recent segment from Steve Bannon’s War Room where host Bannon explained how leftist Christians deceptively cherry-pick elements from the Gospel to push a socialist agenda.

Bannon specifically used Jim Wallis, founder of the non-profit, faith-based organization Sojourners and author of The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Re-founding Democracy, as an example of those using selective elements from the Gospel to paint Jesus as a social justice warrior.

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Mike Benz Reveals How NewsGuard Plans to ‘Warp’ the Minds of ‘Tens of Millions of School Children’

Kaitlin Housler
Mike Benz

Mike Benz, a former Trump State Department official and current executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, revealed how NewsGuard is making its way into K-12 public schools and “warping” the minds of tens of millions of schoolchildren.

NewsGuard is a for-profit entity dedicated to countering what it calls “misinformation” founded by journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz.

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Reporter Tom Pappert: NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams ‘Ought to be Embarrassed’ for Illegitimate Responses to Questions Surrounding Legality of Recorded Phone Call in Anti-School Choice Hit Piece

Kaitlin Housler
NewsChannel 5's Phil Williams

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said News Channel 5’s Phil Williams “ought to be embarrassed” as the investigative journalist continues to provide illegitimate responses to inquiries surrounding the legality of a recorded phone call the network aired during last Monday’s 8-minute anti-school choice hit piece.

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Michael Patrick Leahy: New Covenant Killer Investigation Revelation That ‘There Was a Failure to Report’ and ‘Massive Failure of the Mental Health System’ of ‘Epic Proportions’ Highlights Public Interest in Release of Documents

Kaitlin Housler

Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, dissected a critical revelation in the case of The Covenant School shooter, 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who took six lives last year at the Nashville school.

Hale, who identified as transgender, shot and killed three adults and three students at The Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

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