Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) is pushing back against a CNBC ranking that placed Tennessee last among states for quality of life, arguing that the assessment does not reflect the reality experienced by residents or the continued influx of people and businesses into the state.
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President Donald Trump formally endorsed State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) in the upcoming August 6 Republican primary for Tennessee’s newly redrawn 9th Congressional District.
“It is my Great Honor to endorse Highly Respected State Senator, Brent Taylor, who is running to represent the Incredible People of Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. Brent is strongly supported by the most Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Tennessee, including both of your tremendous U.S. Senators, my friends, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Monday.
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Last week a study conducted by CNBC claimed to identify Tennessee as the “worst place to live” in the United States, but a review of the researchers’ earlier data seems to reveal the claim about Tennessee depends overwhelmingly category previously titled “Life, Health, and Inclusion.”
Originally named “Quality of Life” in the version of the CNBC “Top States for Business” study conducted from 2007-2019, the category in 2021 was rebranded “Life, Health, and Inclusion,” when it was modified to incorporate “new metrics on the battle against Covid-19, health care in general, and the corporate push for inclusiveness.”
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Knoxville City Council approved a resolution banning the development of data centers for one-year.
In June, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon sent a letter to the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Committee saying she planned to introduce an ordinance to temporarily ban these data centers.
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Gov. Henry McMaster, R-S.C., on Monday announced his selection of Darline Graham Nordone to succeed the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Nordone is the sister of the late Graham. Prior to the announcement, President Donald Trump had recommended that McMaster appoint her. During a press conference, McMaster stated that he had spoken to Nordone about serving the remainder of Graham’s term beore discussing it with Trump.
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Following the death of U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at age 71 from what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness,” with a preliminary medical examiner finding of an aortic dissection related to hardened arteries, Dr. Omar Hamada said the senator’s death underscores the importance of preventive medicine, arguing that earlier detection may have saved his life.
Graham died Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., after returning from a congressional trip to Ukraine, where he had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and toured a munitions factory just one day before his death.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell released a new campaign advertisement parodying U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn’s (R-TN) recent anti-China gubernatorial campaign commercial, prompting a swift response from the senator, who accused the mayor of trying to distract voters from his record on illegal immigration.
O’Connell’s mayoral re-election ad recreates the setting of Blackburn’s original commercial at Nashville’s Elliston Place Soda Shop, where the senator filmed her anti-China campaign ad in a staged Chinese restaurant.
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Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office on Friday produced just five documents in response public records request from The Tennessee Star, which sought his justification for appropriating nearly $1.5 million in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON).
The office claimed the remaining responsive records were exempt from disclosure under the Tennessee Public Records Act because they contain privileged communications between Metro and its attorneys.
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U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) passed away from a “brief and sudden illness” Saturday evening, his office announced overnight.
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A federal district judge on Wednesday handed down a 20-year sentence to Sanjeev Kumar, who operated a women’s health clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman sentenced Kumar (pictured above) to 20 years in prison, plus two years of supervised release, about six months after the Memphis jury found him guilty of 18 counts of adulteration of medical devices, 16 counts of misbranding medical devices, and six counts of healthcare fraud.
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Sleep is one of the most overlooked pillars of good health, according to Dr. Omar Hamada, who joined Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show to share a simple routine designed to improve sleep quality and support long-term health.
Hamada said sleep should be viewed as one of the “three foundational tenets of good health,” alongside exercise and nutrition.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the Trump administration’s economic agenda in an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, highlighting the administration’s new Trump Accounts, tax policies, manufacturing strategy, and efforts to reduce the federal deficit.
During the wide-ranging interview, which aired Friday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Bessent discussed the administration’s efforts to expand investment opportunities for American families, reduce taxes on workers, reshore critical industries, and restore what he described as America’s economic sovereignty.
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All four federal district judges in the Middle District of Tennessee have recused themselves from the defamation lawsuit filed against Candace Owens by Brian Harpole, the former head of security for Charlie Kirk. Though an explanation for the recusals was not offered in the order, it was posted days after Owens retained an attorney who previously sued the federal court and its judges.
U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell filed his notice of recusal on Wednesday, and when the document was posted publicly on Thursday, it revealed that “all District Judges and Magistrate Judges of the Middle District of Tennessee have recused in this matter.”
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Public affairs specialist and journalist Clint Brewer said the U.S. scored a significant public relations victory by hosting the FIFA Club World Cup, arguing that visitors from around the globe left with a dramatically different impression of the country than the one they expected.
Speaking Thursday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Brewer said international visitors – particularly from Europe – arrived with negative perceptions of the U.S. shaped by media coverage but discovered a welcoming and comfortable nation instead.
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A small town in Tennessee supported an ordinance this week to ban data centers, citing concerns about how they would affect its resources.
St. Joseph Board of Commissioners voted in favor of the ordinance on first reading. The action taken by board members comes as other data center projects are being discussed in Lawrence County, which has a population of nearly 50,000, according to the town’s press release.
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday called the 667-page audit published this week by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury “deeply disturbing,” highlighting the more than $100 million in suspicious spending outlined by investigators.
“This audit is deeply disturbing. Instead of prioritizing our children, the Memphis-Shelby County School system spent nearly $100 million on waste, fraud, and abuse,” wrote Blackburn in a post to X.
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Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett on Wednesday revealed that the Volunteer State set new records for new business filings and annual reports during the first three months of 2026, calling the data “good leading indicators of growth and jobs,” even as inflation is impacted nationally by the conflict with Iran.
Hargett made the remarks during a press call ahead of the release of his office’s quarterly report on first quarter business and economic indicators, which included data showing a 20.6 percent increase in the number of new business filings, and a 30.4 percent increase in annual reports, when compared to last year.
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday called the 667-page audit published this week by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury “deeply disturbing,” highlighting the more than $100 million in suspicious spending outlined by investigators.
“This audit is deeply disturbing. Instead of prioritizing our children, the Memphis-Shelby County School system spent nearly $100 million on waste, fraud, and abuse,” wrote Blackburn in a post to X.
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Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General and Liberty University law professor, said President Donald Trump’s plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rehear its recent birthright citizenship decision is unlikely to succeed, arguing that the legal standard for reconsideration has not been met despite new reports of hospitals and organizations openly marketing birth tourism following the ruling.
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Tennessee gubernatorial candidate U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn laid out an ambitious conservative agenda for the Volunteer State during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, saying she is prepared to lead Tennessee as authority continues shifting from Washington back to the states.
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A Guatemalan man who allegedly fled the United States after he was charged with child rape in Tennessee has been returned to the Volunteer State, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
The DOJ press release confirmed Domingo Sunun is now in state custody to answer for allegations he sexually assaulted four minors, including three who were his nieces.
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A legal filing submitted last week revealed Candace Owens has added Daniel A. Horwitz to the team of attorneys representing her in the defamation lawsuit filed in April by Brian Harpole, the former head of security for Charlie Kirk, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The court received a notice of appearance for Horwitz last Thursday, revealing he will represent Owens personally, as well as her businesses, Candace Owens LLC and GeorgeTom, Inc.
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Legal commentator and retired attorney Mark Pulliam said Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship misreads the 14th Amendment and risks defining Roberts’ historical legacy alongside one of the Supreme Court’s most controversial chief justices.
During an appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pulliam said the public should understand that the case Trump v. Barbara centers on a single constitutional phrase in the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said Metro Nashville’s response to a public records request seeking documents related to nearly $1.5 million in grants to two pro-illegal immigration nonprofits failed to produce any records justifying the appropriations and instead generated new questions about the city’s handling of the request.
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State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) raised over $400,000 in the last 30 days in his bid for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, his campaign announced Wednesday.
“What an amazing milestone achieved through the support and confidence placed in me by the great folks of Tennessee’s Ninth District,” Taylor said in a statement distributed by his campaign.
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An East Tennessee bridge is being named after President Donald Trump.
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Tennessee politicians will gather to unveil the “Donald J. Trump Bridge” in Jefferson County, which has an estimated population of 60,000 people.
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While Metro Nashville stopped short of answering the public records request filed by The Tennessee Star by providing justification for appropriating nearly $1.5 million in grants for two pro-illegal immigrant nonprofits, the 51 documents provided by Metro include an email chain where Metro Clerk Austin Kyle told the Metro Department of Finance, “We do not have any of the records related to these grants on file.”
The email was sent by Metro Clerk Austin Kyle on June 8, just days after The Star sent press inquiries to the clerk’s office and Mayor Freddie O’Connell seeking documents, which Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 7-3-314(b) states must be filed by nonprofits seeking grants from metropolitan governments, to explain the mayor’s request to appropriate $735,000 for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON).
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From Nashville’s budget priorities to a sweeping federal bribery investigation in Jackson and a legal battle involving Louisiana’s attorney general in New Orleans, The Tennessee Star’s lead reporter, Tom Pappert, argued Monday that three Democratic-led cities in Republican-led states have become focal points for disputes over government accountability and adherence to state law.
During an appearance Tuesday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert discussed his recent reporting on each of the three cities, beginning with Metro Nashville’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget, which appropriates nearly $1.5 million in grants to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors.
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Tennessee Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is revisiting one of the defining political battles of her career, describing in an exclusive sit-down interview how she led a four-year effort in the Tennessee General Assembly to defeat a proposed state income tax and arguing that the fight reshaped the state’s future.
During an interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and editor-in-chief, Michael Patrick Leahy, Blackburn recounted her opposition to then-Governor Don Sundquist’s proposal, which she said came as an unexpected reversal after his campaign pledge not to support a state income tax.
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Following more than a quarter century in the Tennessee General Assembly, State Representative Johnny Shaw (D-Bolivar) in April announced his decision to retire from the Tennessee General Assembly.
Shaw added context to his decision to leave public service in a Monday interview with WREG, telling the Memphis television station that shifting politics, seemingly in concert with increased partisanship, prompted the 84-year-old to retire.
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Metro Nashville provided The Tennessee Star with 51 documents in response to its June 11 request filed using the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA), but none offer justification for the decision by Mayor Freddie O’Connell to include nearly $1.5 million for two pro-illegal alien nonprofits in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget passed by the Metro Council last month.
The response from Metro included 51 emails, along with some of their attachments, exchanged among Metro officials, employees, and Metro City Council members between 2022 and 2026. However, none of the emails included the information Tennessee state law requires metropolitan governments to obtain from nonprofits before authorizing appropriations.
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The owner of the company which provided personal security for Charlie Kirk last week asked a federal judge in Tennessee to order Candace Owens preserve records of her conversations with Mitch Snow, who claimed on her podcast that he witnessed Harpole, Erika Kirk, and others meet at a military base in New Mexico one day before Tyler Robinson allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk in Utah last year.
Harpole’s attorneys asked U.S. District Judge William Campbell on Thursday to issue an order requiring Owens and Snow to preserve “documents, cellular telephones, and other electronic devices” related to the case.
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Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) has received the endorsement of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry in his reelection bid for State Senate District 17.
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A federal court upheld a Tennessee law that bans cryptocurrency ATMs.
In April, Tennessee became the second state in America to ban cryptocurrency ATMs, with Gov. Bill Lee signing House Bill (HB) 2505 into law.
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The Williamson Health Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday to move forward with a plan to sell the county-owned health system to Ascension Saint Thomas.
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Court documents show U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan II last week received a plea deal reached between federal prosecutors and Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens III, an elected Democrat who was indicted in 2024 for his role in a bribery scandal that allegedly also included the former Mayor of Jackson and two members of the Jackson City Council.
Owens and his alleged co-conspirators are accused of engaging in a bribery conspiracy after two undercover FBI agents posed as developers pursuing development opportunities related to a hotel in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. According to prosecutors, Owens played a central role in the conspiracy, soliciting or accepting at least $115,000 in bribes and facilitating over $80,000 to other elected officials.
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A lawsuit filed by a Madison County, Tennessee homeowner last Wednesday claims the Tennessee Housing Development Agency (THDA) illegally used race to market the Tennessee Homeowner’s Assistance Fund (TNHAF), a Biden-era program meant to provide financial relief to Americans struggling to pay their mortgage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit was filed by Tennessee homeowner Norlin Jones, who states that he never learned about the relief program despite owning a mortgaged home in Madison County and having his work schedule reduced during the pandemic.
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The Louisiana Supreme Court halted the prosecution of Attorney General Liz Murrill, quashing an arrest warrant filed last Friday following the return of a grand jury indictment accusing Attorney General Liz Murrill of committing eight counts of public intimidation and eight counts of malfeasance in office tied to May letters she sent about the appointment of an interim clerk by Orleans Parish.
The circumstances under which Murrill sent the letter began in April, when Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed Act 15 into law, bringing Orleans in line with the rest of the state’s parishes, the French-inspired system of local government Louisiana uses in place of counties.
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A South Texas hospital has been openly advertising maternity services directly to pregnant women living outside the U.S., encouraging them to travel across the border to give birth at its facility.
Mission Regional Medical Center, located in Mission, Texas, has been promoting maternity packages to international patients, including through reported Spanish-language billboards targeting families in Latin America.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred early Sunday morning in downtown Memphis involving Tennessee National Guard soldiers assigned to the Memphis Safe Task Force.
According to TBI, the shooting occurred at approximately 4 a.m. near the intersection of Ida B. Wells Avenue and Union Avenue. The Memphis Police Department (MPD) said its officers had responded at approximately 3:56 a.m. to reports of shots fired in the area of Ida B. Wells Avenue and Gayoso Avenue.
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Legal commentator and retired attorney Mark Pulliam said sustained outrage and political pressure against the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. Barbara will be necessary if opponents hope to eventually overturn the decision.
During an appearance Monday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pulliam discussed the Court’s decision last week striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
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Former State Senator Jim Tracy passed away last Friday at the age of 69 years old after battling cancer.
His funeral service will be held on Tuesday at North Boulevard Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, according to his obituary. Tracy, who was married for nearly 50 years, is survived by his wife, Trena, his three sons, and three grandchildren.
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The U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee on Thursday announced the sentencing of Camilo Campos-Hurtado, 66, an illegal alien and former soccer coach who last year pleaded guilty to four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, receiving child sexual abuse material (CSAM), using fraudulent immigration documents, and possessing stolen immigration documents.
Unlawfully in the United States for more than two decades, investigators determined that Campos-Hurtado recruited boys age 9-17 from school playgrounds in Franklin to play on his soccer team. Once recruited, Campos-Hurtado lured victims to his home, provided them drugs or alcohol, and committed sexual assaults that he recorded.
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A review of the Metro Nashville budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 reveals that more money was appropriated as grants for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), two nonprofits that provide support to illegal aliens, than the city spends on more recognizable expenses including unemployment, the Historical Commission, and an audit for Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Appropriations totaling $735,000 for TIRRC and $718,000 for TNJFON were included in the FY 2027 budget proposed by Mayor Freddie O’Connell in May and were included in the $3.85 billion budget passed by the Metro Council last month. Together, the nonprofits are slated to receive about $1.453 million.
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A few days ago, my dad and I were talking about gratitude, and I shared something with him that happened recently.
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Hamilton County is contemplating a one-year pause on new data centers.
Mayor Weston Wamp introduced a resolution this week proposing a one-year ban on new data centers in the county, which has nearly 400,000 residents.
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The Tennessee Department of Military (TDM) announced on Thursday that 12 soldiers in the Tennessee Army National Guard were the first to graduate from the Volunteer State’s new Small Unmanned Aircraft System (SAUS) Master Trainer course in Tullahoma.
According to the TDM press release, the training prepared the 12 attendees to become “SAUS instructors, pilots, and subject matter experts.” They each received specialized knowledge about reconnaissance drones, namely the Skydio RQ-28A and RQ-28-C, as well as the new Neros Archer, which was developed last year for battlefield use in Ukraine.
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A methamphetamine bust near Knoxville, Tennessee helped prosecutors build a case that led a federal grand jury to return an indictment accusing two Mexican nationals of trafficking “immense” quantities of the drug throughout the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday.
In a press release, the DOJ Office of Public Affairs confirmed the indictments of Jose “Juanjo” Farias Mendoza and Israel “Papo” Vega Farias, who it described as residents of Michoacan, Mexico, and as “high-ranking members of the United Cartels.”
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Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Tennessee Star, criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship, calling the ruling “the worst Supreme Court decision” since the late 19th century and arguing that Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent could become one of the court’s most significant dissenting opinions.
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State Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) on Wednesday falsely claimed that State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) has turned to “negative attacks” in the Republican primary campaign for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, as he appeared to conflate a recent political advertisement from a pro-school choice political action committee (PAC) with Taylor’s campaign.
While Warner claimed that “Taylor and his campaign” are behind “a series of negative attacks,” including “distortions, personal attacks, and outright lies,” The Tennessee Star understands his post on social media followed a political mailer sent by the American Federation for Children (AFC) Victory Fund, a political action committee (PAC) that supports candidates who vote in favor of school choice.
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