The Boring Company said construction of its Music City Loop transit system continues to accelerate, with the project’s first tunnel boring machine actively excavating beneath Nashville and a second machine scheduled to begin tunneling later this month.
In the latest project update, released Monday on its website, The Boring Company reported that Prufrock-MB1 has been tunneling since April while undergoing continuous upgrades to improve speed and reliability.
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The coalition seeking to end state property taxes announced its leadership team for all 95 counties in Tennessee.
Ninety-five percent of these county leadership positions for the “Yes on 2” campaign, the ballot initiative seeking to amend the state Constitution to ban state property taxes, are held by elected officials.
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U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA-01) announced his endorsements of two Republican candidates seeking election in Tennessee’s 6th and 9th Congressional Districts on Monday.
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JC Bowman, founder and president of Professional Educators of Tennessee, joined The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy for a sit-down discussion regarding the future of K-12 education in the Volunteer State, examining everything from direct instruction and charter schools to education freedom scholarships, civic education, and workforce development.
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Embattled Shelby Criminal County Clerk Wanda Halbert last week filed a lawsuit against the Shelby County Election Commission over her narrow primary election loss to State Representative Joe Towns (D-Memphis), with just 126 votes deciding the election.
In her lawsuit, Halbert claims that about 1,700 absentee ballots cast during the May 5 election are “unprocessed, unresolved, uncounted, or otherwise not reflected in the certified election totals.”
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The publisher of The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick were granted until July 27 to respond to the lawsuit filed by FBI Director Kash Patel, after a filing revealed that the defendants’ lawyers had reached an agreement with Patel and his attorneys to accept service of the lawsuit on their clients’ behalf.
By the new July deadline, The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick will have had more than three months to respond to the defamation lawsuit, which was filed on April 20, shortly after the outlet published an article claiming Patel has a serious drinking problem that impacts his job performance and leaves him unavailable to staff for extended periods of time.
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The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry endorsed U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial race.
Josh Brown, president and CEO of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said in a statement that Blackburn “understands what it takes to keep Tennessee competitive.”
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Florida on Monday became the first U.S. state to sue OpenAI over the alleged harms caused by the artificial intelligence firm, arguing it knowingly released an unsafe product and ignored warnings about its possible harms.
The lawsuit, filed by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, alleges that OpenAI permitted its flagship AI assistant ChatGPT to aid and abet mass shooters, encourage user suicides, damage users’ critical thinking skills, and addict minors, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Tennessee will become the first state in America to establish regulations for nuclear fusion machines.
The Volunteer State will unveil the regulations on June 9th.
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Authorities operating under the Memphis Safe Task Force have recorded over 1,000 arrests of known gang members since the operation began last September, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) announced.
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The panel of federal judges who will decide the fate of four lawsuits filed to prevent Tennessee’s new Congressional map from taking effect before the midterm elections was announced last Wednesday. Two of the judges are appointees of President Donald Trump, while the third was nominated by former President Barack Obama.
According to the order released last Wednesday by the Sixth Circuit Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has assigned assigned Circuit Judge John Nalbandian of the Sixth Circuit, who was appointed to the circuit court by Trump in 2018, and Chief District Judge Greg Stivers of the Western District of Kentucky, who was nominated to the bench by Obama in 2014.
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A huge crowd of more than eight hundred people from across the United States attended The Glock Store’s 6th Annual Open House in Nashville on Saturday. While the majority of the Second Amendment practitioners in attendance were Tennessee residents, a survey of the jam-packed parking lot and streets surrounding The Glock Store showed cars driven in from Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
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A statement issued Thursday by the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros of the Northern District of Illinois denied the earlier reporting, originally broken as an exclusive by CNN, claiming that the office had opened an investigation to former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who sued President Donald Trump over sexual abuse claims from the 1990s.
Boutros issued the statement, breaking from typical U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) policy against commenting on the existence or status of investigations, citing “wide-spread reporting and intense media and public interest,” in a post to social media.
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Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell included more than $700,000 in his annual budget for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), a nonprofit supporting illegal aliens living in Tennessee.
TIRRC partnered with the city last year to provide relief for those impacted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was asked by the Biden administration to support the release of aliens into Tennessee’s interior, and whose affiliated political action committee endorsed O’Connell during his successful 2023 race for mayor.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, detailed a new court filing in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case that seeks to make Costa Rica the sole lawful destination for his deportation, even as the Trump administration continues to challenge the proposal and pursue its appeal in federal court.
Appearing on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert discussed a filing submitted by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys on Wednesday asking U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to declare Costa Rica the only lawful destination for his deportation.
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TC Weber, author of the Substack “Dad Gone Wild Newsletter,” and The Tennessee Star’s CEO and editor-in-chief, Michael Patrick Leahy, debated the merits of Direct Instruction and the role of state government in public education during Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
The discussion focused on Leahy’s proposal that Tennessee mandate Direct Instruction as the primary method for teaching reading, writing, and mathematics in K-5 classrooms statewide.
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Tennessee submitted an amicus brief opposing Colorado local governments that are attempting to use Colorado state law to control nationwide energy policy.
The Volunteer State filed the brief this week in the Supreme Court case Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County.
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A Republican candidate for Georgia’s 11th congressional district who has recently painted himself as a “pro-Trump” conservative has advanced to a runoff election to become the party’s nominee.
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Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) took disciplinary action against State Senator Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) this week for her conduct during the Tennessee General Assembly’s special legislative session earlier this month, when lawmakers approved a new congressional redistricting map.
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The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, who sued President Donald Trump over her claim he sexually abused her in a department store dressing room sometime during the 1990s, over possible perjury committed during a deposition in 2022, when Carroll claimed she received no outside compensation for her litigation.
First revealed by CNN as an exclusive on Wednesday night, Reuters corroborated the reporting on Thursday, and additionally unearthed that the investigation is being conducted in the office of U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the Northern District of Illinois, who was appointed in April 2025.
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The immigration attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garica on Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, to issue a ruling declaring that Costa Rica is the only legal destination for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deport their client, citing his decision to designate the nation his preferred destination after it made diplomatic assurances to the State Department during failed negotiations for a plea deal last year.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys submitted the request in response to Xinis instructing the plaintiffs to update the court following the decision by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to appeal her order blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining Abrego Garcia.
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The GlockStore is set to host its annual Open House event on Saturday, May 30, at its headquarters near Nashville International Airport.
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The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and Lead Reporter Tom Pappert criticized attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, accusing the legal team of making false statements in a federal court filing concerning The Star’s investigative reporting.
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A former Senior Executive Service-level official at the Central Intelligence Agency with Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) clearance was charged with theft of public money after federal agents discovered approximately 303 one-kilogram gold bars valued at more than $40 million, roughly $2 million in U.S. currency, and about 35 luxury watches during a search of his Virginia home.
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Realtracs, Tennessee’s largest Multiple Listing Service for real estate, revealed plans to expand nationally by partnering with the real estate giant Compass, using a model the company developed in the Chicago area. The program allows homes to be listed as “private exclusives,” first made available to a network of Compass-affiliated real estate agents before hitting the open market.
Proponents say the partnership between Compass and the largest MLS in Chicago, Midwest Real Estate Data LLC (MRED), gives sellers more control over the process, offers them more privacy, and can result in better sale prices, but critics include the real estate and rental listing platform, Zillow, who on May 12 filed a federal antitrust lawsuit, claiming MRED threatened to cut off its access to home listings in response to concerns about the private listings.
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The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), National Rifle Association (NRA), and Firearms Policy Coalition have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Maryland’s newly-signed handgun restriction law after Governor Wes Moore approved Senate Bill 334 this week.
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Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy on Tuesday filed a lawsuit seeking to block new accountability laws, passed this year by the Tennessee General Assembly and recently signed by Governor Bill Lee, arguing his office is being unfairly targeted.
The lawsuit lays partial blame on top members of the Trump administration, who it claims instructed state lawmakers to “deal with” Mulroy.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have arrested a Honduran national convicted in a 2022 deadly wrong-way crash that killed a Nashville musician following his recent release from state prison in West Tennessee, the agency announced Wednesday.
ICE said 37-year-old Kelvin Mejia-Romero was taken into custody April 20 after completing his prison sentence at the Northwest Correctional Complex near Memphis. He is expected to remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
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Former Democratic Metro Council Member Jerry Maynard Jr. and other family members are being accused by Eli Lilly, a drug company, of attempting to steal more than $200 million.
Eli Lilly, which generated over $65 billion in profit last year, alleges that Jerry Maynard Jr., his father Jerry Maynard Sr., his sister Misha Maynard, and others allegedly tried to defraud the company by buying large quantities of a diabetes medication called Trulicity and fraudulently selling it.
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A three-judge panel of the Davidson County Chancery Court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Tennessee State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other plaintiffs challenging Tennessee’s newly-redrawn congressional map.
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The Shelby County Deputy Sheriffs’ Association (SCDSA) has endorsed U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial race
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A federal lawsuit claims Tennessee’s new law prohibiting vertical integration between pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, federal law governing employer-sponsored health plans, rules specific to Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans, and the Constitution’s Takings Clause, which prohibits private property from being taken for public use without compensation.
The lawsuit was filed by CVS and affiliated PBM and insurance companies in the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Tennessee last Thursday, shortly after Governor Bill Lee signed Senate Bill (SB) 2040, the Freedom, Access, and Integrity in Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act, beginning the countdown for vertically integrated companies to divest by January 1, 2027, ahead of a complete prohibition that will start in January 2028.
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U.S. Attorney Braden Boucek on Monday told The Tennessee Star that prosecutors in the Middle District of Tennessee are evaluating plans to appeal the Friday ruling by Obama-appointed District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who dropped the federal human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, determining the Department of Justice (DOJ) “failed to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness.”
“The undisputed evidence shows that the decision to charge Abrego was made by a career prosecutor based solely on the facts and the substantial evidence that a serious crime had been committed and deserved prosecution,” said Boucek.
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The GOP-led South Carolina Senate voted down a measure that would have advanced a new congressional map. The vote brings to an end a last-minute redistricting effort in the state.
President Donald Trump urged lawmakers to pass a redrawn map, which would have eliminated the state’s single majority-Black district, NBC News reported.
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Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and other attorneys general have joined forces to oppose a U.S. House bill proposal seeking to protect kids from online harm.
Skrmetti and 43 other attorneys general, including 41 states, Washington, D.C., and the Northern Mariana Islands, sent a letter on Tuesday to congressional leadership expressing concern about the House’s Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act.
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The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy and lead reporter Tom Pappert criticized U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw for dismissing the federal human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, arguing the judge ignored critical reporting about the role of the Biden-era FBI in the 2022 Tennessee traffic stop that sparked the investigation.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Leahy highlighted The Star’s Monday publication of a lengthy report authored by Pappert and himself examining Crenshaw’s ruling.
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U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) has introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, accusing the nation’s top judicial official of turning the Court into what Cohen described as a “political instrument” and violating his constitutional oath through a series of rulings and administrative decisions.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee officially signed a bill into law on Friday that creates a new state-appointed oversight board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools and announces five of the nine members who will serve on the panel.
The legislation, sponsored in the Tennessee General Assembly by State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) and State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), establishes an oversight structure for school districts that meet specific academic and operational benchmarks, including persistently low performance, chronic absenteeism, and repeated placement on the state’s priority school list.
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U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw omitted key evidence from his Friday ruling dismissing the federal human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, including reporting by The Tennessee Star that was seemingly referenced during testimony, revealing the “Biden-era FBI” directed Tennessee authorities to release Abrego Garcia during a 2022 traffic stop despite suspecting human trafficking. Instead, the Obama-appointed judge sided with the foreign national, ruling the Trump administration failed to overcome a presumption of vindictive prosecution.
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Williamson County School District is facing backlash after holding high school graduation ceremonies in heavy rain.
Online videos surfaced last week showing Centennial High School and Franklin High School graduates sitting through heavy rainstorms and receiving their diplomas in the rain.
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Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Tennessee Star, is calling for a major overhaul of Tennessee’s education system, arguing that decades of rising spending and bureaucratic growth have failed students and that the state should adopt Direct Instruction as the standard method for teaching reading, writing, and math in elementary schools.
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is being backed in her bid for governor by the Tennessee Professional Fire Fighters Association (TPFFA).
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Governor Bill Lee on Friday signed Senate Bill (SB) 2040, the Freedom, Access, and Integrity in Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act into law. Once fully active in January 2028, it will prohibit vertical integration between pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and pharmacies in Tennessee. It will force divestment from any already vertically integrated companies by January 1, 2027.
The legislation was passed with the support of the Tennessee Pharmacists Association (TPA), and chief executive officer Dr. Anthony Pudlo recently commended the pharmacists elected to the General Assembly for successfully pushing the legislation through.
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A three-judge Tennessee panel is expected to issue a rapid decision in the lawsuit challenging the state’s newly approved congressional districts, The Tennessee Star’s lead reporter Tom Pappert detailed during Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
The lawsuit, filed by the Tennessee Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and its president Gloria Sweet-Love, argues lawmakers exceeded the authority granted by Governor Bill Lee during the recent special legislative session by modifying state law governing redistricting timelines.
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Following the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) newly unsealed indictment against former Cuban leader Raul Castro and several co-defendants over the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue shoot-down, EJ Haust, official guest host of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, said the case highlights growing pressure on Cuba’s communist regime and renewed American attention on the island nation.
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The federal human smuggling indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador accused of participating in a human smuggling ring for years, was dismissed for vindictive prosecution on Friday by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice told The Tennessee Star on Friday that the federal government intends to appeal Crenshaw’s decision.
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The state’s jobless rate was 3.6 percent, unchanged since February. America’s average unemployment rate is 4.3 percent.
Tennessee is tied with Idaho for the 15th-lowest unemployment rate in America. The states with the lowest jobless rates in America are South Dakota, North Dakota, and Hawaii.
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A newly unsealed U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment charging former Cuban leader Raúl Castro and five co-defendants in the 1996 shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft represents an escalation in U.S. efforts to hold Cuba accountable for the deaths of four men, according to former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.
The DOJ announced Wednesday that Castro and five alleged Cuban regime co-conspirators were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and murder for the February 24, 1996, destruction of two unarmed civilian planes operated by Brothers to the Rescue over international waters.
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Tea Party Nation Founder Judson Phillips and The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy argued that Nashville could become fertile ground for an “insurgent” political campaign modeled after the AI-driven strategy used by Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt.
Speaking during Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Phillips praised Pratt’s unconventional campaign style, saying, “Pratt’s campaign, anybody who’s thinking about running as a Republican, particularly if you’re running for a significant office, you need to emulate Spencer Pratt’s campaign.”
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President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican candidate Kenny Cody in the race for Tennessee House District 11, giving the former Cocke County GOP chairman a major boost in the open-seat contest following State Representative Jeremy Faison’s (R-Cosby) retirement.
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