Georgia Supreme Court Rules County May Not Count Absentee Ballots Received After Election Day

Ballot Counting

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that Cobb County may not accept absentee ballots after Election Day.

Last Thursday, the Cobb County Board of Elections said that it had not sent out more than 3,000 absentee ballots in a timely manner and would mail them via express shipping or overnight delivery the next day, according to Democracy Docket. Three voters sued, arguing that there was not enough time to ensure the ballots would be received in time to be counted. 

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FBI Used Confidential Human Sources, Undercover Agents to Monitor Alleged Nashville Energy Bomber for Months Prior to Arrest

Skyler Philippi, Nashville Electric Company

The Biden-Harris Department of Justice announced on Monday the arrest of 24-year-old Skyler Philippi, who prosecutors claim plotted to use a weapon of mass destruction to bomb a Nashville energy facility, as part of what Attorney General Merrick Garland called a “violent white supremacist ideology.”

In his Monday statement, the attorney general revealed, “the FBI had already compromised his plot,” and charging documents reveal the federal agency first gained knowledge of Philippi in June.

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Trump Says He Can Expand Swing State Victories to Virginia, New Mexico, and New Jersey

Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that he can win more than the seven expected swing states, offering Virginia, New Mexico, and New Jersey as states that may offer possible victories on Election Day despite his campaign’s relative lack of resources spent there.

Trump on Sunday predicted the possible victories after to NBC News reporter Dasha Burns raised an outlier poll of Iowa voters that found Vice President Kamala Harris winning the state.

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Kroger to Pay $42.9 Million Settlement to Tennessee for Role in Opioid Crisis

Kroger Store

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Monday that the state will receive approximately $42.9 million from a settlement with Kroger over the grocery chain’s opioid-related misconduct.

The Volunteer State’s settlement with Kroger is part of a combined $1.37 billion settlement agreement between the grocery chain and a bipartisan coalition of 30 state attorneys general.

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Woke Media Caves to the Power of X: NewsChannel 5 Broadcasts Trump-Themed Ads for DT McCall’s

Shawn Farash, DT MCcalls ad

The Tennessee Star learned Friday that Scripps Media, Inc., the corporate owner of NewsChannel 5 in Nashville, agreed to broadcast an advertisement for Tennessee retailer D.T. McCall & Sons that includes an impersonator of former President Donald Trump.

The decision comes after the Tennessee retailer told The Star earlier this week that both NewsChannel 5 and Cumulus Media, which owns SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, refused different ads featuring a Trump impression just days prior to Election Day.

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Tennessee U.S. Rep Steve Cohen Predicts ‘Chaos,’ ‘Blood’ If Trump Loses, Reveals Democrats Plan to Install Fences in D.C.

Steve Cohen

U.S. House Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) predicted “blood” and “chaos” will follow should former President Donald Trump be declared to have lost the presidential election but dispute the election results, and revealed House Democrats already have plans to install security fences in Washington, D.C. before the next president is inaugurated.

Cohen made the remarks during an appearance on NewsNation in remarks to host Dan Abrams on Monday, after predicting Vice President Kamala Harris will win both the popular and Electoral College votes on November 5.

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Helene: Recovery Loans Available to Virginia Farming, Forestry Small Businesses

Virginia agricultural and forestry small businesses impacted by Hurricane Helene now have another place to turn for help.

Individuals and state and local governments in federally designated disaster zones can already apply to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance, as the president approved a Major Disaster Declaration for the commonwealth within a week of the storm.

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Poll Shows Trump, Scott Leading in Florida

Rick Scott and Donald Trump

A poll released by Florida Atlantic University shows former President Donald Trump with a big lead in the presidential race and also has good news for incumbent U.S. Sen. Rick Scott.

The poll of 913 registered voters by the Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab and Mainstreet Research USA shows Trump with 53%, with 44% going for Vice President Kamala Harris and only 2% undecided.

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Biden-Harris DOJ, FBI Silent on Alleged Shooting of Jewish Man by Illegal Immigrant Who Reportedly Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’

Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi

The Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI did not respond to Friday press inquiries from The Tennessee Star that sought to establish whether the federal government is investigating the Mauritanian illegal immigrant who allegedly shot an orthodox Jewish man in Chicago on October 26.

Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi, a 22-year-old illegal immigrant from Mauritania, was arrested by local police and charged by county prosecutors after the shooting, but authorities have yet to reveal a motive for the attack despite reports the shooter allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” in a shootout with police after that happened immediately after he shot the orthodox Jewish man, and after additional hate crime and terrorism charges were announced against Abdallahi by Cook County State Attorney Kim Foxx on Thursday.

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Final Totals: Tennessee’s 2024 Early Voter Turnout Less than 2020

Data published by the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office shows that total voter turnout during the 14-day period of early voting in Tennessee for the November 5 general election was lower than the turnout for early voting in the 2020 general election.

According to the data, 2,280,767 ballots—2,070,339 of which were early-in-person ballots and 210,428 absentee ballots—were recorded during the fourteen days of early voting in 2020.

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Tennessee Immigrant Group, Davidson Democrats Among Those Aiding Nashville Transit Referendum

Green Lights for Nashville commercial

Both the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Resettlement Coalition (TIRRC) Votes PAC and the Davidson County Democratic Party are among the groups that have provided in-kind contributions to the political action committee formed to support the Nashville transit referendum that will be decided by voters next week, the group revealed in a report filed Tuesday, when the Green Lights for Nashville PAC filed an amended financial disclosure statement with the State of Tennessee.

The report revealed the pro-referendum group received nearly $1.3 million in contributions, mostly from the Nashville Moves Action Fund, which is reportedly a 501 (c) (4) nonprofit that does not need to reveal its donors, but has nonetheless been ordered to register with Tennessee and disclose them by Election Day. 

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MTSU Student Logan Birdsong, Who Identified as Transgender Woman, Named in Campus Suicide

Logan Serenity Birdsong

Police identified the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) student who claimed his own life on Monday as 21-year-old Logan Birdsong, who identified as a transgender woman and preferred the name Serenity.

On Wednesday, the Murfreesboro Police Department (MPD) wrote in a post to the social media platform X that Birdsong is the student who allegedly committed suicide at the James E. Walker library on the MTSU campus, and LGBTQ Nation confirmed both that Birdsong identified as a transgender woman and was vice president of MT Lambda, an LGBT organization at MTSU.

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Virginia A.G. Jason Miyares Still ‘Deeply Concerned’ by Biden-Harris Push for Noncitizen Voters After Supreme Court Victory

Jason Miyares

While the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday affirmed the right of Virginia to remove noncitizens from its voter rolls, Attorney General Jason Miyares said on Wednesday he remains “deeply concerned and alarmed” by the legal action taken against Virginia by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) prior to the high court’s intervention.

The Biden-Harris administration sued Virginia earlier in October, claiming they violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) by removing about 1,600 noncitzens from the commonwealth’s voter rolls within 90 days of an election.

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Woke Cumulus Media, NewsChannel 5 Refuse to Air Trump-Inspired Ads for Tennessee Retailer DT McCall’s

Donald Trump ad

Tennessee retailer D.T. McCall and Sons told The Tennessee Star on Monday that Cumulus Media refused to broadcast advertisements inspired by former President Donald Trump on the company’s Nashville radio station, SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, even after a disclaimer was added to the ads.

The offending ads feature a narrator performing an impression of the former president while extolling the virtues of D.T. McCall & Sons and excoriating nameless competitors at “the lumber yards.”

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Tennessee Joins SCOTUS Amicus Brief Supporting Right of Virginia to Remove Illegal Voters Before Election

Mail-In Ballot Processing

Tennessee and 24 other states joined the amicus brief filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court appeal launched by Virginia in its bid to overturn a ruling requiring the commonwealth to add about 1,600 noncitizens back to its voter rolls after they were originally included in error.

The amicus brief was filed in support of Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who on Sunday appealed to the Supreme Court after the Biden-Harris Department of Justice obtained favorable rulings in lower courts to require Virginia to include the 1,600 noncitizen voters on its voter rolls prior to Election Day.

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Skrmetti: Federal Government’s Responsibility to Enforce Immigration Laws

Jonathan Skrmetti

The Tennessee General Assembly has been “unequivocally clear ” that illegal immigration is a high priority for them, but there’s only so much a state can do, the state’s attorney general said.

Jonathan Skrmetti told The Center Square in a telephone interview when he goes out and talks to people across Tennessee, he can’t think of a time when he hasn’t gotten questions about the subject.

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Dozens of Illegal Aliens Arrested in Florida for Looting in Aftermath of Hurricanes

Hurricane Clean Up

Local law enforcement in a Florida county announced the arrest of over 100 people who committed looting and similar crimes in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton, with at least 41 of these suspects being illegal aliens.

As reported by Fox News, police officers on patrol for looters in Pinellas County have made the arrests over the course of the last three weeks. A total of 45 suspects were arrested on 68 different charges, ranging from robbery and burglary to grand theft, vandalism, and trespassing.

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Supreme Court Takes Rapid Action in Appeal to Remove Noncitizens from Virginia Voter Rolls

Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday docketed the appeal filed Sunday by Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares after a federal appeals court declined to overrule a lower court’s decision to force Virginia to add approximately 1,600 noncitizens back to its voter rolls.

According to the Supreme Court’s online portal, the case was docketed on Monday after Virginia submitted its appeal for the high court to reverse a lower court’s decision on Sunday.

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Virginia Asks Supreme Court to Let It Remove Noncitizens from Voter Rolls

Gov. Glenn Youngkin

Virginia asked the Supreme Court Monday to block a lower court order to return over a thousand alleged noncitizens to the voter rolls.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares vowed to file the emergency appeal Sunday after an appeals court upheld a ruling preventing officials from removing roughly 1,600 individuals who the state says “self-identified” as noncitizens.

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Tennessee Nonprofit Tapped by ICE to Release Thousands of Illegal Immigrants Received over $800,000 in Government Grants

Tax documents reveal the nonprofit contacted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to facilitate the transportation and release of thousands of illegal immigrants from detention facilities in Louisiana to Tennessee in 2022 received more than $800,000 of its funding from government sources that year.

Documents released last week by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti reveal the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Resettlement Coalition (TIRRC) was central to ICE’s plan to release thousands of illegal immigrants in the Volunteer State.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn Speaks to Reporters After Voting Early in Brentwood

Marsha Blackburn

Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told reporters on Friday she is “confident” in the security of the Volunteer State’s elections after she cast her vote early for the November 5 general election at an early voting polling location in Brentwood.

“We know that in Tennessee, we have the most secure elections in the country and our Secretary of State, Tre Hargett, gets a lot of credit for that. I know Tennesseans are confident they can show up, cast their vote, and that vote’s going to be counted,” Blackburn said.

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Youngkin, Miyares Vow to Appeal for Virginia’s Right to Remove Illegal Voters ‘All the Way to the Supreme Court’

Jason Miyares and Glenn Youngkin

Governor Glenn Youngkin and Attorney General Jason Miyares on Friday vowed to appeal after a federal judge ordered Virginia to restore about 1,500 noncitizens to the commonwealth’s voter rolls.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Trolliver Giles, an appointee of President Joe Biden, announced her decision after the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to force Virginia to restore the noncitizen voters, alleging the commonwealth violated the National Voter Registration Act by removing them so close to an election.

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Biden-Harris Released at Least 10 Iranian Illegal Immigrants into U.S. Before Iran’s Reported Threats to Assassinate Trump

Illegal Immigrant

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Biden-Harris administration released 10 illegal immigrants from Iran over a six-month period in just its New Orleans Area of Responsibility, according to data reported by the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations – Law Enforcement Systems and Analysis unit, and released this week by the Tennessee Attorney General.

The documents reveal ten citizens of Iran were paroled into the United States after being transferred to ICE’s New Orleans Area of Responsibility between August 2022 and January 2023, with the last release of an Iranian national from ICE facilities included within the report recorded on February 24, 2023.

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John Fredericks: Virginia AG Miyares Will Appeal Decision by Federal Judge Forcing Commonwealth to Place Illegal Aliens on Voter Rolls at Request of Weaponized Biden-Harris DOJ

John Fredericks, Michael Patrick Leahy

Pennsylvania-based radio show host John Fredericks said Friday’s federal court decision ordering Virginia to place non-citizens back on its voter rolls proves the Biden-Harris administration’s intentions to have illegal aliens vote in U.S. elections.

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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Presses VP Kamala Harris on Her Failed Broadband Initiative to Connect Americans to the Internet

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was among nine Republican senators who sent a letter to Vice President Kamala Harris pressing her on the administration’s “failed” initiative to connect millions of Americans to broadband internet.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed by President Joe Biden in 2021, provided the National Telecommunications and Information Administration with $42.45 billion for the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which was intended to “provide broadband access to unserved communities, particularly those in rural areas.”

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Youngkin Issues Executive Order to Combat Gang Violence

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued his 41st executive order Thursday establishing a statewide gang and community violence prevention partnership and enforcement strategy to confront gang violence.

In addition to combating gang violence, the order will target drug and human trafficking and violence committed with firearms. The action also aims to provide support to communities and victims.

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ICE Released Nearly 500 Illegal Immigrants from China Before Lawsuit over Chinese National with ‘Rare, Aggressive,’ Tuberculosis

Chinese People

Documents published by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Wednesday reveal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released almost 500 illegal immigrants from China, in just its New Orleans Area of Responsibility, between November 2022 and February 2023.

The documents were published on the same day Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, filed an “emergency lawsuit” against top immigration officials in the Biden-Harris administration, seeking to prevent additional releases from Louisiana ICE facilities after the federal agency allegedly transported an illegal immigrant from China who is suffering a “rare, aggressive, and drug resistant form of tuberculosis which carries high mortality rates,” through its facilities in the state.

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Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) Demands Bureau of Prisons Immediately Release Steve Bannon from Danbury FCI and Comply with First Step Act

Rep. Andy Ogles

Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) demanded the release of former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in a Thursday letter to Biden-Harris administration Bureau of Prisons (BOP) director Colette Peters that was obtained by The Tennessee Star.

Ogles accused the federal agency of “willfully facilitating the political persecution of the Democrat Party’s political opponents,” through its refusal to apply the First Step Act (FSA) good time credits accrued by Bannon, and demanded Peters take immediate actions to secure the former Trump adviser’s early release from prison.

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Georgia Supreme Court Blocks Republican Push to Hand Count Ballots

The Georgia Supreme Court blocked a Republican effort Tuesday to require poll workers to hand-count the number of ballots cast, upholding a lower court’s decision.

A Georgia judge previously blocked a state election board rule that would have required counties to hand-count ballots on Election Day. The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Georgia GOP appealed to the state’s highest court, requesting a quick reinstatement of the rules during their ongoing legal challenge, Politico reported.

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Georgia GOP Demands Election Nonprofit Dissolve After Secretary of State Sends Fundraising Pitch Condemning ‘Election Deniers’

Josh McKoon

Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon on Tuesday called for an election nonprofit to dissolve or distance itself from the fundraising email sent by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on its behalf.

McKoon issued his statement after Women for America First Executive Director Kylie Kremer surfaced the email written by Raffensperger. The email revealed that the secretary used a personal email to solicit funds for the Election Defense Fund, Inc., a purported nonprofit 501 (c) (4), a distinction that allows it to raise money without revealing its funding sources.

McKoon issued his statement after the email written by Raffensperger was surfaced by Women for America First executive director Kylie Kremer, revealing the secretary used a personal email to solicit funds for the Election Defense Fund, Inc., a purported nonprofit 501 (c) (4), a distinction that allows it to raise money without revealing its funding sources.

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Rep. Mark Green Says U.S. ‘Cannot Go on Like This’ After CBP Reveals 1.3 Million ‘Inadmissible’ Illegal Aliens Released into Country

Illegal Immigrants

Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) on Tuesday warned the United States “simple cannot go on like this as a country” after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released new data revealing federal immigration officials encountered more than 1.3 million encounters with illegal immigrants who would not ordinarily be allowed to enter the country.

Green, who chairs the House’s Homeland Security committee, made the remarks after CBP also announced it recorded more than 1.5 million illegal immigrant apprehensions at the southern border during the 2024 fiscal year.

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Biden-Harris Admin Colluded with Nonprofits to Send Thousands of Illegal Immigrants to Tennessee Before Lawsuit by A.G. Skrmetti Lawsuit Halted Process

Illegal Immigrants

The Biden-Harris administration worked with former Nashville Mayor John Cooper and non-profit organizations to move thousands of illegal immigrants from federal facilities in Louisiana to Nashville, according to internal emails and documents published Wednesday by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, whose office successfully sued to stop the practice.

A press release from the attorney general’s office reveals that the plan was enacted by officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with cooperation from Cooper’s office. However, Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN), as well as Governor Bill Lee, opposed it.

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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Defends Bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act

Kids on phones

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) released a memo this week clarifying elements of her and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) Kids Online Safety Act, which passed the Senate in July, amid what the senator is calling “lies” being circulated about the legislation.

The Kids Online Safety Act seeks to “protect minors from online harms” by requiring social media companies to “take reasonable measures” to “prevent and mitigate” children from being harmed while using their platforms, including through sexual exploitation or online bullying.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Accuses Kamala Harris of Fanning ‘Flames of Political Violence,’ Demands Apology for ‘Insane’ Anti-Trump Speech

Vivek Speaking

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris must apologize after she fanned the “flames of political violence” in her remarks, delivered earlier that day from the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., comparing former President Donald Trump to genocidal dictator Adolf Hitler.

Ramaswamy described Harris’ speech as “insane” and “irresponsible” in a statement provided exclusively to The Star.

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