U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly said Tuesday that he wants Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) to become “more involved” with the House Republicans on the heels of a “productive meeting” the two shared last week.
According to journalist Jordain Carney, who reports for German-owned Politico, Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that he and Greene discussed her role in the next Congress during a meeting held last week.
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Virginia ranked second in the Fall 2024 Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Grade state rankings for patient safety in hospitals, marking the fifth consecutive time the commonwealth ranked second overall.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) this week acknowledged a “division-wide system outage” impacted the DOJ’s Civil Division last weekend through a Monday court filing.
Both Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Tennessee Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy are currently waiting for a response from the DOJ after inviting the FBI to drop its opposition to the release of the complete written works left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale before the transition of government to President-elect Donald Trump.
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The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA) on Monday announced their lawsuit against the City of Memphis after voters approved Ordinance 5908, a gun ordinance that requires permits to carry handguns, bans a series of guns determined “assault rifles,” and establishes extreme risk protection orders, or red flag laws, within the city limits.
In their November 13 lawsuit against Memphis, which requests immediate intervention to block the city’s ability to enforce the ordinance, the Second Amendment groups note the Memphis ordinance appears to violate Tennessee Code 39-17-1314(a), which specifically prohibits any Tennessee legislative body other than the General Assembly to regulate firearms or ammunition.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a bipartisan coalition of 31 state attorneys general in sending a letter to Congressional leadership on Monday urging the passage of U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) before the end of the year.
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October tax revenues were higher than last year but fell short of predictions, according to the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration.
State collections for October were $22.6 million more than last year. The year-to-date numbers are 1.4% or $72.4 million above budget, according to the department.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell on Monday demanding accountability within the federal agency after it was reported that FEMA workers were advised to discriminate against Trump supporters who needed assistance after Hurricane Helene.
Earlier this month, The Daily Wire reported that a FEMA supervisor ordered workers to bypass the homes of Donald Trump’s supporters as they surveyed the damage caused by Hurricane Milton in Florida.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Monday announced he will seek reelection, officially ending speculation he would launch a gubernatorial bid in an effort to maintain Republican control over the Executive Mansion, as Governor Glenn Youngkin is prevented from seeking a second consecutive term by the Virginia Constitution.
Miyares announced his reelection bid in a post to the social media platform X, where he wrote, “We are not going back to the failed policies of the past; our families’ safety and Virginia’s future depends on it.”
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Jose Ibarra, the alleged murderer of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, traveled from New York City to Georgia after requesting a humanitarian flight, his roommate testified Monday.
Ibarra is currently standing trial after being charged for the murder of Riley, who died in February from blunt force trauma to the head outside of the University of Georgia’s campus. Ibarra’s roommate, Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello, testified that she and the suspected murderer arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City and requested a humanitarian flight to Athens, Georgia, in September 2023.
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Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday gave an update on the search for Sen. Marco Rubio’s replacement in the Senate, now that the latter has been nominated for Secretary of State.
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Rubio for the post last week as one of his first cabinet nominations for the former president’s second term. Rubio, who is known for being a hawk on China and Iraq, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next year, after he resigns his post in January.
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Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) sent a letter criticizing the U.S. Department of Education after a watchdog report revealed the federal government is using taxpayer money to fund the salaries of multiple professors who hold anti-Israel or antisemitic views, including one educator who described the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians as a “stunning victory” for Palestine.
The letter came in response to an October report by Open the Books, a nonprofit whose mission is to “capture and post all disclosed spending at all levels of government,” which revealed the Department of Education funded professors with antisemitic, anti-Israel, or pro-Hamas views at Columbia University, Indiana University, and Georgetown University, as part of two federal grant programs.
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The Nashville Metro Police Department (MNPD) will hold a “Safe Surrender” event in December, a one-time opportunity for non-violent offenders with outstanding warrants to turn themselves in.
Men and women in Davidson County wanted on warrants for non-violent crimes, including failure to appear in court, are invited to turn themselves in at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church on December 6 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and December 7 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
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The report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) condemning the abysmal conditions at the Fulton County Jail comes as Fulton County faces a backlog of more than 40,000 cases, which may have contributed to the concerns raised in the report about the lengthy jail stays experienced by those incarcerated at the troubled facility.
The 97-page report containing the findings from the DOJ investigation that began last year accused the jail of violating the U.S. Constitution through the physical conditions at the jail, the county’s inability to guarantee the safety of inmates, and alleged violations of laws designed to protect Americans with disabilities, but also noted inmates “spend long periods detained in the Jail.”
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U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said the presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Tennessee is a “consequence” of the Biden-Harris administration’s “destructive open-borders policies.”
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The University of Tennessee’s (UT) Knoxville campus will begin offering a new agriculture-based Ph.D. program in Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications beginning in the Fall 2025 semester, the university announced this week.
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The Tennessee Star learned on Sunday night that Nashville real estate developer Bill Freeman is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
State Representative Bob Freeman (D-Nashville), the son of Bill Freeman, confirmed his father’s passing to Fox 17.
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Both U.S. Senators representing Tennessee have confirmed they will support the nomination by President-elect Donald Trump of Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) to serve as the U.S. Attorney General.
Senators Marsh Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) released statements expressing support for Gaetz last week ahead of reports the Florida Republican was calling senators to arrange meetings and seek their support during the nomination process.
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The deaths of at least four Georgia men with mental disabilities at the Fulton County Jail are “symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The 97-page investigation also said inmates were not protected from harm by other inmates and the living conditions were “unsanitary and dangerous.” The conditions violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Justice Department said in a release.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner who activist groups claim could be selected to chair the FCC by President-elect Donald Trump sent a letter to Big Tech industry leaders demanding details about their censorship practices, and seeking specific information about their relationship with the controversial, for-profit fact checker NewsGuard.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on Friday posted to the social media platform X a letter he sent to Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram; Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, which owns Google and YouTube, as well as Tim Cook of Apple and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, warning their businesses “played significant roles” in “an unprecedented surge in censorship,” which he called “improper conduct.”
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The Tennessee Star on Friday extended a settlement offer to the Biden-Harris FBI through attorneys at the Department of Justice (DOJ) representing the FBI that would see the federal government drop its opposition to the release of the writings obtained by the FBI that were left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old woman who self-identified as a man, and killed six at the Covenant School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.
Through their attorneys at the Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, offered the FBI, through its DOJ attorney, the opportunity to withdraw their objection to the release of Hale’s writings before President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential transition is complete.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) is investigating after a woman was stabbed to death at the WeGo bus station near the intersection of Harding Place & Antioch Pike.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced “Georgia Plan” for Congress to establish national election rules on Thursday, arguing the Peach State should serve as a model for to establish nationwide regulations that enhance election integrity.
“Voters nationwide deserve to participate in elections that have both security and integrity, along with easy access for eligible voters and quick and accurate reporting of results,” said Raffensperger in a statement, after citing Georgia’s successful early voting period for “a record turnout election that was safe, secure and accurate.”
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The parents of Jillian Ludwig filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Belmont University, the State of Tennessee, and Metro Nashville after the 18-year-old student was fatally shot near the university’s Nashville campus last year.
Ludwig was allegedly shot by Shaquille Taylor, who police say fired a weapon at public housing near Belmont after he was previously released from jail on unrelated firearm charges. Authorities deemed Taylor mentally incompetent, with doctors claiming he has the mental capacity of a small child. Taylor’s former coworker disputed this claim.
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A Tennessee woman is challenging a law that requires her to be a veterinarian to serve as an animal chiropractor.
Dr. Laura Colman, of Clarksville, has a doctorate in chiropractic and a certificate in animal chiropractic from the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association, according to the lawsuit filed on Colman’s behalf by the Beacon Center.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti joined a coalition of 23 state attorneys general in sending a letter to Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis demanding that their offices’ prosecutions of President Donald Trump end “immediately.”
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Frank Stiner was excited when he received the invitation to Titans House in late October along with his cousin as they prepared to buy seats at the new Nissan Stadium.
They are original seat holders from the first hour tickets in Nashville went on sale, in the fifth row of the end zone, and were excited to continue that family tradition by expanding their ticket base from two to four.
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The Pacific Legal Foundation and physician organization Do No Harm are suing Tennessee over racial quotas required to serve on the state’s boards and commissions.
The 13-page lawsuit filed in U.S District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee says laws that require the governor to appoint members based on race violate the 14th Amendment.
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Florida officials say 34.6 million visitors spent time in the Sunshine State in the third quarter of this year, eclipsing the previous third quarter record by 1.7% and giving the state three consecutive quarters of record growth.
That comes despite Hurricanes Debby and Helene making landfall in the quarter. Milton, in the just started fourth quarter, made it three hurricanes in 66 days.
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As President-elect Donald Trump is making cabinet picks and Congress orients its new members, Virginia is gearing up for its next elections.
One week after election day, campaign announcements for 2025 are popping up across the commonwealth. Virginia is one of just a handful of states that holds major elections in off years, so while special elections to replace state Sens. John McGuire, R-Goochland, and Suhas Subramanyam, D-Loudoun – both elected to Congress last week – are the most immediate, they’re just the beginning of the political contests Virginians will see in 2025.
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Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) on Wednesday sent a letter to Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy requesting his office file an appeal of the recent decision by General Session Court Judge Bill Anderson to release a man accused of shooting a FedEx worker from jail without bail.
Despite 18-year-old Tyreese Earnest reportedly waiving his Miranda rights and admitting to his role in the shooting of a FedEx worker, Anderson released him on his own recognizance without any bail with the opposition of District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who NewsChannel 3 reported said he disagreed with the judge’s decision but would respect it.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) told Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday the expanding Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is now present in all of Tennessee’s “major cities,” and warned the group is engaged in human trafficking, organized retail theft, and drug trafficking nationwide.
On Wednesday, TBI communications director Josh DeVine confirmed to The Tennessee Star the bureau “has increased concerns about the potential for crime connected to Tren de Aragua (TdA), a prominent, violent Venezuelan transnational gang.”
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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday renewed her call for President-elect Donald Trump to pardon those prosecuted under the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) for participating in their civil unrest on January 6, 2021, in remarks delivered as attorneys representing January 6 defendants are reportedly filing to have trials moved or frozen due to Trump’s prior promises of pardons.
Greene confirmed in Tuesday remarks to CNN, which her team recorded and posted to the social media platform X, Greene confirmed she’s previously spoken with Trump about the release of January 6 defendants, and noted his campaign trail promises to pardon them.
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President-elect Donald Trump selected Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) on Wednesday as his nominee for attorney general. The 42-year-old attorney has been one of Trump’s loudest and fiercest defenders, especially in stopping the lawfare against Trump.
Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official who briefly served as acting attorney general in the Trump administration and assisted Trump with investigating 2020 election irregularities, told The Arizona Sun Times he agreed with the selection. “Matt Gaetz is an outstanding lawyer and constitutionalist!” Clark said. ”I think he is an amazing pick by President Trump.”
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Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy announced on Wednesday he and Star News Digital Media Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, will ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its opposition to the release of the written documents left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale prior to her March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of six.
Leahy announced the decision during the Wednesday broadcast of the Michael Patrick Leahy Show, when he explained The Star has “decided to turn our attention back to freedom of information act, transparency requests that we’ve had going some time related to the Covenant killer manifesto,” in the wake of the 2024 elections.
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U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) are introducing a bill this week that would prevent migrants tied to the terrorist group Hamas from entering the U.S. and receiving immigration benefits.
Blackburn and Rosen’s ‘No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act’ would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny immigration benefits to aliens who “carried out, participated in, planned, financed, supported, or otherwise facilitated” the recent attacks against Israel beginning on October 7, 2023.
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A Georgia Democrat who was recruited to run for state office in a rural district revealed on Tuesday that the state party had specific criteria for the selection of its delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He explained that as a “white male heterosexual,” he did not fit these criteria.
Jack Zibluck explained in a column published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that made the observations about the party’s delegate selection process when he was nominated to serve as an alternative delegate at the RNC during his campaign against State Representative Mike Cameron (R-Rossville) to represent Georgia’s First district. Zibluck ultimately received less than 20 percent of the vote.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) announced Tuesday evening she will be supporting Florida U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) for Senate Majority Leader.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) told The Tennessee Star earlier this month that its investigation of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale remains ongoing, with “some work” still needed to document the March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three school staff members.
MNPD Public Affairs director Don Aaron told The Star the investigation is still underway and remains in a documentation phase in a November 1 email. The MNPD official wrote, “Considerable progress has been made, though there is still some work to complete,” and said there is not a specific date for completion.
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Reporter and January 6 defendant Steve Baker entered an Alford plea on Tuesday, acknowledging the state has enough evidence to convict him without admitting guilt, in what he later called a move to avoid the “shaming exercise of a trial.”
Then working as an independent journalist, Baker was inside restricted parts of the U.S. Capitol complex on January 6, 2021. Three years after the protest, he was charged by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice for attempting to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory with his presence.
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A nationally recognized research center released a report detailing policy suggestions that Tennessee could implement to help protect property acquisitions and increase housing development.
As a state, Tennessee’s population is estimated to increase to around 8 million people by 2040.
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An economist for the University of Tennessee said the state is growing but the labor force participation rate has declined.
Dr. Don Bruce, director of the university’s Boyd Center for Economic Business and Research, told the State Funding Board at its November meeting that Tennessee employment is up by 195,000 since March 2020.
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The Biden U.S. State Department announced on Thursday the agency’s transition to the Trump administration will be coordinated by Stephen Mull, a former longtime State Department official who most recently served as the lead coordinator for the Iran nuclear deal reached under former President Barack Obama, and who is now the provost for the University of Virginia (UVA).
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed Mull was appointed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to lead the agency’s transition in a press conference. He told reporters the agency views a “peaceful transition of power” as an “essential part of our democracy that is vital to our nation’s security.”
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Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan on Monday urged other “disgruntled” Republicans who opposed President-elect Donald Trump to give the incoming administration “a chance” in the wake Trump’s electoral landslide and popular vote mandate.
Duncan, who is facing expulsion from the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) over his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential election, made his remarks during a Monday interview with WABE.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Sunday revealed he is working with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) discriminated against Tennesseans affected by Hurricane Helene based on their political views.
Lee made the announcement after a FEMA official directed relief workers to avoid homes advertising support for President-elect Donald Trump after Hurricane Milton in Florida, specifically through guidance that told workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump” and “practice de-escalation and preventative measures” as best practices when providing relief.
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Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) declined to address rumors he is being considered by President-elect Donald Trump for a cabinet position during a Friday appearance on CNN, but vowed to “work arm in arm” with Trump “in whatever role,” likely signaling a willingness to serve the incoming administration if asked.
“I’ll leave the speculation to the speculators,” Hagerty told the network. “I’m just so excited that President Trump has delivered the mandate that he did on election day. I’m so pleased that Republicans are now in control of the Senate, and I do believe that we’ll hold control of the House.”
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It is often credited to Dostoyevsky that a nation can be judged by the condition of its prisons. If that is true, then Americans should be deeply concerned. Too many of our country’s prisons are places of despair and abuse, plagued by understaffing, crumbling infrastructure, and chronic violence – and Tennessee is no exception. This has become clear with the recent incidents at Trousdale Turner, state auditing reports, and a report from the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC).
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Metro Nashville Councilman Jordan Huffman sent a letter to Davidson County requesting the “removal” of an election worker who allegedly threatened to have him arrested, engaged in intimidation, and refused to accept some forms of photo identification at various points during the 2024 election cycle.
Councilman Jordan Huffman made his letter to Davidson County Election Administrator Jeff Roberts in public in a post to the social media platform X on Thursday.
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The Georgia man who pleaded guilty to making multiple death threats to Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) was reportedly sentenced on Friday to supervised released and five months of confinement, which will be credited against his time spent in custody while his case was determined, meaning no additional prison sentence was imposed.
Sean Patrick Cirillo was sentenced to three years of supervised release and five months, credited against the time he already spent in federal custody, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in its Friday reporting of the sentencing. Law360 confirmed no additional prison sentence was imposed beyond the five months Cirillo already spent in custody.
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Virginia’s legislative watchdog agency presented a stark review of ongoing financial management and staffing issues at the Virginia Department of Health to legislators Thursday.
Republican and Democratic state legislators alike were surprised at the severity and extent of the department’s issues, calling the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission staff’s findings “very sobering,” “shocking” and “disturbing.”
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Florida Republicans maintained their supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature after Tuesday’s elections.
House Republicans gained one seat for an 85-36 advantage, while the composition of the Senate remains the same with 28 Republicans and 12 Democrats.
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