The Tennessee Supreme Court on Monday upheld a state law capping the size of metropolitan councils at 20 members, rejecting a constitutional challenge brought by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County over legislation that would reduce the size of its 40-member Metro Council by half.
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Amid a nationwide crackdown on illegal voting, federal prosecutors in Tennessee on Friday reported six foreign nationals living in the Volunteer State who are accused of illegally voting in United States elections.
In the Middle District of Tennessee, U.S. Attorney Braden Boucek revealed charges against three foreign nationals who allegedly voted in 2024.
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An escaped Tennessee convicted murderer was reportedly spotted playing slot machines inside an Indiana casino, prompting the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to request assistance from local law enforcement in checking surveillance footage and searching the property.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee appointed Christopher Hansen as interim commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) as the state’s correctional system faces scrutiny following a series of recent security and operational failures.
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The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), the pro-illegal alien nonprofit that on Friday filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS) in Davidson County Chancery Court over the new driver’s license law passed in Tennessee last year, earlier this year was allocated $735,000 in the budget approved by the Metro nashville Council in June.
In their Friday complaint, TIRRC challenged a portion of one of Tennessee’s new immigration laws that requires lawful immigrants to provide a qualifying visa, immigration documentation, or resident card, in order to receive a special license authorizing them to drive in the Volunteer State.
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Every day, federal judges make decisions that impact the businesses we build, the constitutional freedoms we exercise, and the safety of our communities. As U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty stands for his first reelection to the U.S. Senate, it’s worth reflecting on his contributions to the federal courts across Tennessee.
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EJ Haust, official guest host of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, said she found independent Tennessee gubernatorial candidate David Hatley “clearly untrustworthy,” “completely inadequate,” and “woefully naive” on state issues after personally meeting with him at a campaign event earlier this week.
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The U.S. Marshals Service on Wednesday announced the arrest of Fernando Gonzalez Ramirez, a 32-year-old Panamanian citizen who is wanted in Franklin, Tennessee, where the Marshals said “he is alleged to have sexually assaulted multiple boys while helping run a youth baseball program” from 2023 to 2024.
According to the press release, federal law enforcement tracked Gonzalez Ramirez to Mexico, Japan, and Panama before the Marshals arrested him in the Dominican Republic “within hours” after their foreign field office received a tip about his location.
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Despite his campaign spending $438 on software from Anthropic, which has contracted to use the SpaceXSI Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, independent Tennessee gubernatorial candidate David Hatley previously said data centers for artificial intelligence (AI), also referred to as super intelligence (SI) by the Trump administration, “terrify” him when asked specifically about the Elon Musk-owned facility.
Anthropic, which develops the Claude chatbot, announced an agreement with Musk’s SpaceXSI on May 6, with the deal providing Anthropic access to more than 300 megawatts of computing capacity at Colossus. The company said the additional computing power would benefit subscribers to its Claude Pro and Claude Max products.
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Former Knox County Mayor and WWE Hall of Famer Glenn Jacobs has joined the Advisory Council of Americans for Prosperity (AFP), where he will help guide the organization’s grassroots efforts to advance limited-government policies and expand individual freedom and opportunity.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, warned that serious leadership and accountability problems are plaguing the state’s correctional system, raising questions about the management and security of Tennessee’s prisons amid a series of recent incidents involving a failed execution, an inmate escape, and an alleged cartel-linked drug operation.
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A Memphis Police Department (MPD) report obtained by The Tennessee Star reveals that the mother of State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis), the Democratic nominee for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District, was accused of slapping an election worker during a dispute at a Memphis polling location on Wednesday.
The Daily Memphian first reported that Owens Pearson was accused of causing a “disturbance,” while The Mighty 990 shared the news in a post to social media, including redacted information from the MPD report obtained by The Star.
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The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday announced 24 indictments as the result of a Homeland Security Task Force investigation, which prosecutors say determined a Sinaloa Cartel-affiliated drug trafficking operation was being directed by two men serving time inside Tennessee prisons. Their conspiracy allegedly included about 500 kilograms of methamphetamine, 60 kilograms of cocaine, and $375,000 in cash.
According to the DOJ press release, all 24 defendants are charged with the same 33-count indictment, which also accuses them of distributing or possessing fentanyl, heroin, and marijuana, while nine of the defendants face additional firearm and drug trafficking defendants.
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The Tennessee Star has obtained audio of a 911 call placed on February 16, 2020, in which a woman identifying herself as the wife of Tennessee independent gubernatorial candidate David Hatley reported that he told her he had taken pills in an attempt to end his life. Hatley did not deny being the subject of the 911 call when reached by The Star.
The woman, whose name matches public records about Hatley’s second wife, claimed that she left their child at Hatley’s home that morning, but after leaving church, was contacted by Hatley, who she said informed her that he decided to commit suicide.
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The FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) will return to the United States for the first time since 1988, with Tennessee set to host the international motorsports event in August 2027.
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The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has increased the reward for information leading to the arrest of escaped convicted murderer Jacob Allen Morley to $15,000.
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The Muslim Sisterhood Society, a Muslim women’s organization whose stated mission is to strengthen connections to Islam, is among the groups partnering with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and other community organizations to promote voter outreach ahead of Tennessee’s November 3 general election.
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Republican gubernatorial nominee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said she is the only conservative choice in Tennessee’s November 3 gubernatorial election, warning that voters who support her opponents would back higher taxes, fewer freedoms, and the end of key Republican-backed policies.
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An investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) – Memphis led to a guilty plea by a Guatemalan national who admitted to conspiring to smuggle 450 kilograms of cocaine, or about 992 pounds, the DEA and Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday.
According to court documents cited by the DOJ, Donelfert Monterroso Vasquez coordinated “multi-hundred-kilogram” shipments of cocaine through Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico, in order to “generate the highest profit” by selling the illicit substance in the United States.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced Wednesday that the state will pursue hosting the proposed United States Space Academy, identifying a site in Coffee County as its preferred location for the federal institution intended to train the next generation of American space professionals.
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U.S. Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07) defended his congressional work ethic and highlighted his perfect voting record during an exclusive sit-down interview Tuesday with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, as the freshman congressman campaigns for reelection ahead of the November 3 general election.
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The NCAA chose Nashville as a finalist to host a future Division I men’s basketball Final Four.
Nashville, along with six other cities, is being considered to host the Final Four between 2032 and 2036. The finalists include Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Kansas City, Kansas.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday confirmed the arrest of Salin Dahel Ramos Alvarez to The Tennessee Star, describing Ramos Alvarez as a known or suspected member of Tren de Aragua.
A spokesman for ICE told The Star that Ramos Alvarez was arrested last Thursday as part of a “targeted enforcement operation” in Nashville, when the spokesman said Ramoz Alvarez told officers “he was not a Lyft driver but had been paid by an acquaintance to drive them to the airport.”
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A three-judge panel of the Davidson County Chancery Court dismissed a constitutional challenge to Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act, ruling the state’s school voucher program does not violate the Tennessee Constitution’s education clause.
In an October 19 final order in Apryle Young, et al. v. Bill Lee, et al., the court granted motions to dismiss filed by state officials and parents who intervened to defend the law, entering judgment in favor of the defendants. The ruling ends the plaintiffs’ challenge at the trial-court level.
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After previous reporting indicated she would block his confirmation, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) has reportedly confirmed her support for Sam Adkisson, whom President Donald Trump announced he would nominate to serve as a district court judge in the Eastern District of Tennessee in August.
Bloomberg Law first reported last week that Blackburn would support Adkisson, a Vanderbilt University graduate and White House attorney, citing a White House official who confirmed the senator returned a favorable blue slip.
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The Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) are turning to the public for help locating escaped inmate Jacob Allen Morley after newly obtained video showed him allegedly stealing a pickup truck in Lake County early Tuesday morning.
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Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell has proposed directing surplus tourism-related tax revenues controlled by the Joint Capital Tourism Board (JCTB) toward public safety projects, even as downtown businesses facing skyrocketing property tax bills seek financial assistance from the same funds.
The mayor’s comments were first reported by WPLN, which said the mayor “hopes to steer funding in other directions.”
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Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, slammed independent Tennessee gubernatorial candidate David Hatley as a “blithering idiot,” questioning the candidate’s policy proposals on education, transportation, government spending, and public safety.
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A Pentagon spokesperson on Monday denied reporting that claims U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) may appoint Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to the Senate if she is elected Tennessee’s next governor, dismissing the report as “Beltway gossip by anonymous sources.”
Responding to a Sunday news roundup by Puck, which reported “chatter on the Hill that Hegseth has been angling for” Blackburn’s seat, The Independent reported on Monday that Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Cortes denied Hegseth was participating in such an effort.
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State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) called on Tennessee officials to address complaints from Davidson County voters who claim electronic voting machines are incorrectly selecting U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and only reflecting their choice for the Democratic Party candidate after multiple attempts.
“Obviously, this keeps coming up and it needs to be addressed after this election, because it’s not acceptable that people are having these problems,” said Campbell on Friday, according to The Tennessee Lookout.
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For years, Tennessee has fought Big Tech tooth and nail – in our state legislature, in our courtrooms, and in coalition with attorneys general across the country. This summer and fall, that fight delivered two major victories for Tennessee families.
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The Memphis Safe Task Force announced that it has surpassed 1,500 arrests for illegal narcotics offenses since launching in September 2025, as federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies continue targeting violent crime in Memphis.
The U.S. Marshals Service announced the milestone in a press release Monday, reporting the multi-agency operation has made 13,876 arrests since its inception, including 1,561 arrests involving known gang members and 448 juveniles. Authorities operating under the initiative have also seized 2,329 illegal firearms.
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Tennessee State Rep. Johnny Garrett (R-Goodlettsville), the Republican nominee for Tennessee’s 6th Congressional District, urged voters to support Republicans up and down the ballot in the November 3 general election, outlining his concerns about the potential consequences of Democrats regaining control of Congress.
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The U.S. Marshals Service announced on Thursday that the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF) apprehended Anthony Green, who was convicted of first-degree murder in September 2025, but nonetheless released by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO).
Green was first indicted in March 2021 for the murder of Octavious Atkins, who was struck multiple times after Green shot into his vehicle in June 2020. According to the Marshals, he was convicted on September 24, 2025, but “erroneously released” the same day. Action News 5 reported last year that that the SCSO acknowledged Green was released as a the result of a “miscommunication,” and pledged to “reinforce training, improve oversight, and ensure strict compliance with all courtroom and bail-related procedures.”
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A Nashville graduate is among the Hillsdale College students recognized nationally for their work at the Michigan college’s student-run radio station.
Lilly Faye Kraemer, a member of Hillsdale’s Class of 2028 and a St. Cecilia Academy graduate from Nashville, earned third place in the Best Regularly Scheduled Entertainment Program category of the 2026 College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) National Student Production Awards.
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Metro Nashville selectively cited portions of a February ruling by the Tennessee Court of Appeals in a response filed Monday in the Covenant School killer public records lawsuit brought by The Tennessee Star, through its parent company Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, to justify its continued refusal to provide copies of the killer’s writings.
The lawsuit by Leahy and SNDM was originally filed against Metro Nashville in May 2023 in order to compel the release of the writings left by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023. Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea L. Myles ruled against Leahy, SNDM, and other plaintiffs suing Metro on July 4, 2024.
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President Donald Trump urged Tennesseans to vote for Republicans across the ballot in the November 3 general election, calling on voters to participate in early voting.
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Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, warned Thursday that the United States could face a constitutional crisis following the November midterm elections, citing claims from researcher DataRepublican that former government officials and activist organizations are preparing to challenge the legitimacy of the Trump administration.
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A lawsuit was filed against Tennessee on Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court by Nashville CARES, a nonprofit AIDS clinic challenging new guidance issued by the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) in response to a new law expanding citizenship and immigration-status verification requirements for public benefits.
Nashville CARES argues in its lawsuit that TDH guidance is preempted by the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, a welfare reform law that generally prohibits illegal aliens from receiving certain taxpayer-funded benefits, but makes exceptions for the testing and treatment of communicable diseases, including HIV/AIDS.
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee announced that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had reached a settlement over alleged Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) fraud, marking the third settlement related to the pandemic-era loan program to be announced by prosecutors in East Tennessee since September 30.
With Tennessee offices located in Maryville, Spralding International, Inc. is the latest company named by the DOJ, which reported on Wednesday that the company agreed to pay more than $1.8 million in order to resolve claims it violated the False Claims Act, specifically by “applying for, receiving, and obtaining forgiveness,” for a PPP loan despite not being eligible.
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A former Tennessee resident who used the online video game Call of Duty to befriend an 11-year-old boy before soliciting sexually explicit images and video chats has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
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Virginia State Senator Lillie Louise Lucas, 82, was charged in an eight-count federal indictment with leading a criminal marijuana distribution enterprise that prosecutors say involved family members, associates, money laundering, and the use of her public office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced Thursday.
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Veteran journalist and public affairs specialist Clint Brewer said U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN-05) claim that the Trump administration is “running scared” may reveal more about the Minnesota Democrat’s own position as she faces a federal criminal investigation than about her political opponents.
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When it comes to putting the Ten Commandments in Tennessee schools, a records request from the American Civil Liberties Union has made one thing clear: local school officials, not Tennessee lawmakers, will decide whether those displays stay or go.
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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday said that Jerri Green, her opponent in the Tennessee gubernatorial race, “would put illegal aliens over your family” after the Democrat and member of the Memphis City Council voted in favor of a resolution calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the National Guard to be removed from the Memphis Safe Task Force (MSTF).
“This is a contrast election: I fought for the Memphis Safe Task Force, and just last night my radical liberal socialist opponent voted for a resolution to remove ICE and the National Guard from taking part in the Memphis Safe Task Force,” said Blackburn in a statement obtained by The Tennessee Star.
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President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan bill led by U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) into law Tuesday to protect Americans, particularly senior citizens, from online romance scams.
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The Memphis City Council on Tuesday approved an ordinance establishing new regulations for data centers used for artificial intelligence (AI), now renamed super intelligence (SI) by the Trump administration, in a development characterized as a loss by State Representative Justin Pearson (D-Memphis).
Passed in a 7-5 vote, the ordinance establishes a 135-day pause on accepting, processing, hearing, or approving applications and permits for new data center construction, though the pause can end early if permanent regulations are adopted.
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U.S. Representative Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07) condemned his Democratic challenger Darden Copeland’s position on abortion after Copeland said he would not support politicians imposing restrictions on abortion during an interview Tuesday on The Matt Murphy Show.
The exchange came during the final minutes of Copeland’s roughly half-hour interview with Murphy, when the host pressed the Democratic nominee on whether he believed there should be a point during pregnancy when abortion should no longer be permitted.
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U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, joined Tennessee Republican congressional nominee Charlie Hatcher for an exclusive sit-down interview Tuesday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, where Jordan warned that a Democratic takeover of the House could lead to renewed efforts to impeach President Donald Trump and weaponize congressional oversight against his administration.
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Shelby County Chancellor Joe Day L. Jenkins reportedly blocked the Tennessee takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) on Monday with a bench order issued just days after U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw dissolved his order that had blocked the state-appointed Education Oversight Board from meeting until earlier this month.
Jenkins reportedly made the decision minutes before the board’s second October meeting was scheduled, Chalkbeat reported, noting that the Shelby County plaintiffs argued the MSCS school district did not meet the law’s qualifications for a takeover and that the district would be irreparably harmed by allowing it to proceed.
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