Vice President Kamala Harris called lawmakers in the Tennessee General Assembly “extremists” for voting to pass a bill that would arm teachers who are licensed, receive annual training, and are approved by police and school officials. “Arming teachers is not the solution,” Harris said in an X post on Wednesday. “We know what actually works: universal background checks, red flag laws, safe storage, and an assault weapons ban ..read more

Federal regulators recently launched a lawsuit against popular convenience chain Sheetz that could have implications for whether businesses will be able to screen applicants for criminal convictions. The Equal Employment Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) suit, announced April 18, alleged that Sheetz discriminated against minority applicants by screening all job seekers for criminal convictions, arguing that doing so disproportionally targets black, Native American and multiracial applicants. Many businesses have already stopped screening employees based on earlier guidance and ..read more

The U.S. Marshals Service in Memphis is now offering a reward for information leading to the arrests of suspects involved in a deadly mass shooting at a Memphis park last weekend.  "The U.S. Marshals Service is currently offering a reward of up to $10,000 for any information that leads to the arrest of the individuals responsible for the deadly shooting in Orange Mound," the law enforcement entity said in a press release.  ..read more

To convince the Supreme Court that the Biden administration could use federal Medicare funding to force hospitals to perform abortions in violation of Idaho law, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar conceived and gave birth to some unusual arguments Wednesday. She reached for a 129-year-old precedent that crippled the labor movement for decades, neutered legal obligations to the "unborn child" in the federal law that allegedly requires abortions in certain situations, and didn't deny a Republican administration could use her rationale to functionally ban abortion and even transgender care nati ..read more

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) in conjunction with the Knox County Forensic Center, have identified a man who was killed in a hit-and-run crash more than three decades ago.  "On May 24, 1993, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle along Cedar Bluff Road in Knoxville," TBI said in a press release. "The adult male, who had no identification on him, was pronounced deceased at the scene, and his body was sent for an autopsy ..read more

Republican secretaries of state and state legislators are pushing back against "Bidenbucks," what call the federalization of voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, claiming that the executive order is unlawful. West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner and Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, along with Republicans in the Pennsylvania legislature, are fighting President Biden's Executive Order 14019 from March 2021, which turns federal agencies into "Get Out The Vote" (GOTV) centers across all states ..read more

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti pursued legal action against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Thursday over its new rule regarding workplace abortion accommodations. In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) into law, which protects pregnant workers and their babies by directing that women receive workplace accommodations for “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions ..read more

Top American automaker Ford hemorrhaged over a billion dollars on electric vehicles (EV) in the first quarter, leading to massive losses per vehicle. Ford sold 10,000 vehicles in its EV Model e unit in the first three months of the year, losing $1.3 billion on the line altogether, equating to a loss of $130,000 per vehicle sold, according to data from the company's first quarter earnings report. Despite the loss on EVs, Ford's net income was $1.3 billion, selling over a million vehicles with $42.8 billion in revenue in the quarter ..read more

Governor Glenn Youngkin announced on Wednesday he will embark on a week-long "international trade mission" to Europe as lawmakers continue work on the biennial Virginia budget ahead of the May special legislative session. The governor's office confirmed Youngkin's "third international trade mission" will include stops in Germany, Denmark, Finland and Swizterland between April 28 to May 3. He plans to meet with business leaders, public officials and Finnish President Alexander Stubb ..read more

A proposed University of Minnesota policy would require scholars to obtain permission from Native American groups when doing research involving their cultures. However, an anthropologist has concerns about the proposal ..read more