A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the government cannot tell if it is handing taxpayer dollars to individuals on the “do not pay list,” Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation Monday.
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When a predator or an abuser takes a child, the clock starts ticking. License Plate Reader cameras scan public roadways and cross-reference law enforcement databases in real time. If a vehicle matches an AMBER Alert, a stolen car report, or an active warrant, officers are notified instantly.
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Four different departments within Metro Nashville confirmed they received the public records request filed Thursday by The Tennessee Star, seeking any records explaining the purpose and justification for the grants proposed for the pro-illegal immigrant nonprofits, Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON) and Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC). The nonprofits would receive nearly $1.5 million combined in the budget submitted last month by Mayor Freddie O’Connell.
The Metro Nashville Department of Finance was first to confirm receipt of the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) request submitted on Thursday by The Star, confirming it was entered into Metro’s system in a Friday morning email.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee told The Tennessee Star on Monday afternoon that Shelby County General Sessions Clerk Tami Sawyer was named in a six-count indictment it described as a “significant public corruption case,” following the release of video showing Sawyer at the federal courthouse in Memphis with her attorney on Monday morning.
According to the indictment, Sawyer is accused of using county procurement and travel systems to steal or misdirect nearly $45,000 between August 2024 and June 2025.
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Legal commentator and retired attorney Mark Pulliam said the misconduct allegations surrounding U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross represent “one of the worst” scandals he’s seen involving a federal judge and predicted that the Georgia jurist will ultimately resign rather than face a congressional impeachment battle.
Ross, a federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, was the subject of a lengthy investigation by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after complaints from former law clerks.
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President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that the United States has reached a comprehensive deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, ending months of conflict and authorizing the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping.
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More than a decade after Diesel-Gate first rocked Volkswagen’s U.S. business and reputation in 2015, ultimately leading to criminal penalties and billions in settlements for the company, a court in the United Kingdom (UK) is weighing claims that five other automotive manufacturers, including two with Tennessee footprints, have allegedly installed systems in diesel vehicles designed to circumvent emissions regulations.
News first emerged that Volkswagen was accused of selling vehicles with software designed to skirt American emissions standards, and in 2017, Volkswagen pleaded guilty in federal court, admitting to a conspiracy to defraud the United States, engage in wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act. It also pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and importing merchandise by means of false statements.
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Don Palmer, a senior legal fellow for election integrity with the Heritage Foundation Institute for Constitutional Government, sat down for an exclusive interview Friday with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, where he detailed how a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision could compel several states to overhaul their election laws by requiring mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day.
During an appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Palmer discussed election administration, voter confidence, citizenship verification, civic education, and concerns about the federal judiciary.
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn on Friday sent a letter to the head of the company which owns Kik, the controversial messaging platform used by Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, which was recently called a “predator’s paradise” in an article by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).
The senator began her letter to MediaLab CEO Michael Heyward by directly referencing the NCOSE research released on June 4, which detailed an experiment that saw a Kik account belonging to a fictional 12-year-old girl overwhelmed with graphic sexual messages and requests from strangers. The report also detailed four arrests, convictions, or sentences of the platform’s users since April.
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Metro Nashville on Friday confirmed receipt of the request filed by The Tennessee Star pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA), seeking records explaining the purpose of the nearly $1.5 million in proposed grants in the 2027 budget released by Mayor Freddie O’Connell for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), which both support illegal aliens living in the Volunteer State.
The budget proposed last month includes a $735,000 grant for TIRRC and $718,000 for TNJFON. While a spokesman for O’Connell told The Star the grant for TIRRC would not support lawyers for illegal aliens, the Metro Clerk Austin Kyle told The Star on Monday that the new grant only represented a change in funding source but otherwise extensions of its previous grant, which was signed in 2022 and is set to expire on June 30.
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The Metropolitan Planning Commission decided to put off a decision on regulating data centers in Davidson County.
The planning commission will consider a proposed ordinance on June 25th that will provide a “comprehensive regulatory framework for data centers.”
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Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced Friday it has selected Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School student Hannah Said to serve as the next student member of the Metro Nashville Board of Education, placing a student who has pledged a “deep commitment to social justice” in a prominent advisory role on the district’s governing body.
She succeeds Hannah Nguyen, who graduated from John Overton High School in May.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, praised the Memphis Safe Task Force after federal officials announced the coalition of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies had surpassed 10,000 arrests since its deployment in September 2025.
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Three Mississippi residents living near the Tennessee border have filed a class action lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) company behind the conversational chatbot Grok, alleging the company has committed negligence and negligence per se while establishing dozens of natural gas turbines that have created a public and private nuisance.
Filed on Monday by three residents in the Northern District of Mississippi, and assigned Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Debra Brown following the recusal of Bush-appointed Chief District Judge Michael Mills, the lawsuit seeks class certification, appointment of the plaintiffs as class representatives, judgment on their claims, and a jury trial.
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A lawsuit filed on Wednesday by the Financial Technology Association (FTA) claims Tennessee’s new law to tax money sent from the state to foreign destinations will violate the dormant Commerce Clause and Import-Export Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit claims that FTA-member companies, with the filing specifically naming PayPal and Remitly, are already being harmed as they prepare to comply with the law by January 2027, with investments in engineering, software, and other infrastructure needing updates over the next six months.
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Tennessee families are being squeezed from every direction. Grocery bills are up. Fuel costs more. And when something breaks, whether it’s a car, an appliance, or a piece of farm equipment, getting it fixed has become its own financial ordeal. Some of that is inflation. But some of it is federal policy, and that part is fixable.
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Constitutional law expert Hans von Spakovsky discussed pending Supreme Court cases, Second Amendment litigation, Department of Justice culture, and the role of amicus briefs during an exclusive interview Thursday with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, argued that a proposed $60,000 grant to the Tennessee Justice Center undermines claims by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell that city funding for nonprofit organizations would not support immigration-related advocacy.
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Judson Phillips, Tea Party Nation founder and former Tennessee assistant district attorney, offered a detailed legal analysis Wednesday of the murder conviction and sentencing of Karmelo Anthony, the Texas teenager found guilty of fatally stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in 2025.
Speaking on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Phillips explained why he believed the jury reached its verdict quickly and why the defense strategy was focused less on acquittal than on reducing potential punishment.
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On the same day U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), and the Tennessee Democratic Party dropped their lawsuit seeking to block the use of Tennessee’s new congressional maps during the August 6 primary elections, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction in their own federal litigation.
The NAACP motion argued that the Tennessee General Assembly pursued the redistricting process with “one goal”: the “dismantling” of the Volunteer State’s “only majority Black congressional district that had been in place for decades,” thereby causing the state to violate the 14th and 15th amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
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The U.S. Marshals Service announced that more than 10,000 arrests have been made by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies participating in the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) since its deployment in September 2025.
According to the Wednesday press release, authorities have made 10,017 arrests since the MSTF was deployed last year. These include 92 homicide arrests, 105 for sex offenses, 962 involving firearms violations, and 1,012 for controlled substances.
According to the Monday press release, authorities have completed total of 10,017 arrests since the MSTF deployed last year. These include 92 homicide arrests, 105 for sex offenses, 962 involving firearms violations, and 1,012 for controlled substances.
The Coffee County Commission unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday imposing a one-year moratorium on data centers.
According to the resolution, the one-year ban will allow the county’s planning commission to propose zoning regulations regarding data centers.
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Following the record-breaking success of the GlockStore’s 6th Annual Open House, the company’s founder and CEO, Lenny Magill, said plans are already underway to make next year’s event even larger after an estimated 2,000 Second Amendment supporters traveled from across the country to attend the Nashville gathering.
Appearing on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Monday, Magill revealed that attendance far exceeded initial estimates.
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Veteran journalist and public affairs specialist Clint Brewer and The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are raising concerns about the future of NCAA oversight and the growing influence of legalized sports betting following a Texas judge’s decision to restore Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s eligibility despite the NCAA’s permanent ban over sports wagering violations.
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U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), the Tennessee Democratic Party, and several other voters and candidates moved to voluntarily dismiss their federal lawsuit seeking to halt the implementation of the state’s newly enacted congressional map and election law changes ahead of the 2026 election cycle.
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Tennessee State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) sat down for an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, where he discussed a sweeping education reform agenda throughout the Volunteer State’s education system.
During an interview on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Cepicky said the state’s education policies must prioritize student outcomes and better prepare young Tennesseans for future success.
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Under Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s budget proposal, the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) would receive a $60,000 grant through the Metro Nashville Health Department.
On Tuesday, TJC was revealed by The Tennessee Lookout to have urged the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) to drop a new directive regarding the implementation of House Bill 1710, which passed earlier this year, and will require local government agencies to confirm the lawful presence or citizenship status of those applying for public benefits and report potential violations of benefits-verification requirements. The law takes effect on July 1.
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The Nashville budget proposal by Mayor Freddie O’Connell, which is set for a vote on June 17, includes $100,000 for the nonprofit Alignment Nashville. This is the same 501 (c) (3) nonprofit that contracts with Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to provide “conference services,” including the district’s annual “SPLASH retreat” for principals that reportedly took place in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this month.
O’Connell’s budget proposes a $100,000 grant for Alignment Nashville for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027, which the city’s FY 27 Expenditure Overview shows is the same dollar contribution the city granted the nonprofit in 2024 and 2026. In 2025, the contribution by Metro was reduced to $50,000.
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The Nashville Zoo is pushing back against a proposed data center planned for a site next to the zoo.
Nashville Zoo launched an online petition this week urging people to sign and resist the proposed data center.
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Steve Robinson, the editor-in-chief of The Maine Wire, said Democratic insiders are increasingly concerned about U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner’s growing list of controversies and would like him to withdraw from the race, but warned that under Maine law, party leaders have no mechanism to remove him from the ballot if he wins the nomination.
Speaking during Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show as Maine Democrats headed into their primary election, Robinson argued that Platner’s nomination is effectively secured despite a series of controversies involving his personal history, online activity, and allegations from former partners.
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Dr. Omar Hamada warned that failed Tennessee legislation to ban mRNA products and research would have harmed medical innovation and threatened the state’s position as a national healthcare leader.
During an interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, Hamada criticized legislative efforts such as the proposed Tennessee mRNA Pharmaceutical Sovereignty and Safety Act, sponsored during the latest legislative session by State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma), who also filed the mRNA Bioweapons Prohibition Act.
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Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon sent a letter to the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Committee on Monday, saying she will introduce an ordinance seeking a one-year moratorium on large data centers in Knoxville.
Kincannon is pursuing “recommendations” about “guardrails for the site selection and operational requirements of data centers within the city.”
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Travelers Excess & Surplus Lines Co., the insurance provider for Metro Nashville’s public library parking garage, filed a lawsuit accusing the nonprofit Nashville Downtown Partnership (NDP) and the public security and sanitation company Block by Block of creating a storage yard containing “combustible materials” inside the garage before the June 2025 fire that reportedly caused more than $10 million in damages.
The lawsuit accuses NDP of creating the storage yard and allowing Block by Block to use the facility sometime prior to June 10, 2025, when the lawsuit alleges a fire caused more than $10 million in damages to the property, causing Travelers to make payments on behalf of Metro Nashville under the policy.
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The Nashville Metropolitan Clerk on Monday confirmed to The Tennessee Star that the over $1.4 million in grants proposed for two nonprofits that support illegal aliens in Tennessee are continuations of previous grants awarded by the city. However, the proposed grants for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 will shift the funding source from Biden-era stimulus money to Nashville taxpayers.
It was reported last month that the budget proposed by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell requests $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and $718,000 for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), who previously received a combined $3.7 million as the result of a contract with the city.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, raised questions about Metro Nashville’s past and proposed funding for two immigration-related nonprofits, arguing that state officials should closely examine the grants and consider whether they comply with Tennessee law.
Pappert, during an appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show on Monday, discussed a contract that provided millions of dollars in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON) beginning in 2022.
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Key portions of a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07) to increase financial support for the families of fallen service members has advanced as part of the House Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
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Full-time Tennessee K-12 teachers are now eligible for reduced interest rates on home loans through an expansion of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency’s (THDA) Homeownership for Heroes program.
The program, which previously served veterans, active-duty military personnel, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, and law enforcement officers, now includes full-time classroom teachers employed in Tennessee public and private schools.
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The University of Notre Dame says it cannot find any American to teach English and so it must fill the job with a foreign worker visa.
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Thursday that it will contribute more than $46 million toward a “comprehensive coal revitalization” plan at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Cumberland Fossil Fuel Plant, with the total project valued at about $116 million.
According to the Thursday release by the DOE, “This project aims to restore reliability, enhance efficiency, and extend the operational life of the coal-fired assets to meet regional demand for dispatchable power.”
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Dr. Omar Hamada discussed the promise of Bioscope.AI during an exclusive interview Friday with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, explaining how the platform aims to shift medicine from a reactive model to a predictive one by identifying an individual’s health risks before serious disease develops.
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Eighty-two years ago on June 6, 1944, the United States, Great Britain, the Free French forces, Canada, and other Allies launched one of the most audacious military operations in history: the seaborne invasion of Normandy, France. Code-named Operation Overlord, the assault thrust 160,000 troops onto five beaches in a last-ditch bid to open a Western Front and crush Hitler’s Nazi empire.
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The Metropolitan Clerk of Nashville told The Tennessee Star on Friday that his office currently has no records related to the proposed $718,000 grant for Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), the second nonprofit that provides services to illegal aliens that would receive funding in the budget submitted to the Metro Council by Mayor Freddie O’Connell, despite Tennessee law requiring a report containing their statement of proposed use, program serving residents, and annual audit be made available for public inspection.
Asked whether his office has records related to the proposed $718,000 grant for TNJFON, Metro Clerk Austin Kyle told The Star, “No, we don’t have any records for that proposal at this time.”
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Most teachers are concerned about their students’ education amid the looming artificial intelligence revolution, a recent survey shows.
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The claim by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office that the proposed $735,000 grant for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a nonprofit that supports illegal aliens, is “not new” spending appears to contradict Metro Nashville’s own Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Expenditures Overview, which lists no spending in the TIRRC funding account for FY 2024, FY 2025, or FY 2026, before the proposed $735,000 appears in FY 2027.
In light of criticism from Tennessee State House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), as well as U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), WKRN on Thursday reported, “the mayor’s office said the funding proposal is ‘not new,’ adding that Metro has supported immigration legal services for years.”
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, reports that Nashville officials have either not created or have not produced documentation required under Tennessee law for a proposed $735,000 grant to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), raising questions about whether the city is complying with statutory transparency requirements governing metropolitan government funding to nonprofit organizations.
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A coalition of immigrant rights advocates has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new Tennessee law set to go into effect July 1 that would make it a crime for certain noncitizens with final deportation orders to remain in the state.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said remarks made by U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week could significantly alter the legal landscape surrounding Kilmar Abrego Garcia
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have arrested a Sudanese national with a lengthy, “violent” criminal history in Nashville, the agency announced Thursday.
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The obesity crisis sweeping across the United States is profound. However, with the advent of GLP-1 medications, Americans have a real chance to combat chronic illnesses like heart disease and other obesity-related complications. While GLP-1 medications are incredibly effective, patients need to make sure they are getting the real FDA-approved version and not a counterfeit, copycat or illicit compounded material, which could jeopardize patient health and safety.
Unfortunately, between non-FDA approved compounded versions, aggressive digital marketing campaigns of GLP-1s that might appear to be FDA approved, but really aren’t and an illicit and counterfeit market of drugs coming across the border that oftentimes contain active pharmaceutical ingredients from China that are mislabeled, aren’t intended for humans (e.g. made for animals), have major safety violations and countless other issues endangering patient safety.
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Tennessee has received $813 million in federal taxpayer money to expand broadband access across our state under the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment Program (BEAD). Nationwide, the federal government is dispensing nearly $43 billion across all 50 states and six territories.
When Governor Bill Lee took office in 2019, 20 percent of Tennesseans lacked high-speed broadband internet – including the Governor at his farm. A few months ago at the AI Summit in Nashville, Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner and Deputy Governor Stuart McWhorter estimated that less than two percent of Tennesseans currently lack access to broadband. The gap has seriously been closed.
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