Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas participates in a fireside chat with Mike L. Sena during the National Fusion Center Association 11th Annual Training Event on March 28, 2024, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. (DHS photo by Tia Dufour) WASHINGTON — The Biden administration announced Thursday it’s proposing changes to the asylum system that would allow immigration officials to reject asylum seekers who have a criminal record that poses a threat to national security or public safety and quickly remove them. Those changes will occur during the initial screening stages ..read more

A bill passed in the U.S. House Wednesday would add a citizenship question to the census and end the practice of including noncitizens in the official population count. (Getty Images) WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans passed a bill Wednesday to add a citizenship question to the census and exclude noncitizens from the official headcount when determining population for representation in Congress and electoral votes. The legislation, which passed on a 206-202 party-line vote, is part of a trend of House GOP bills relating to immigration as the November elections approach. Republicans and their ..read more

The Center for Biological Diversity is seeking to endangered species protections for the rare Berry Cave Salamander (Photo: Dr. Dr. Matthew Niemiller) The Center for Biological Diversity has filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its refusal to grant a rare southern salamander Endangered Species Act protections. Stretching a little over 9 inches long, the Berry Cave Salamander has been found in only a handful of isolated caves — most in east Tennessee — where rapid growth combined with farm runoff, climate change and a legacy of contamination from old quarry mines continue ..read more

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., right, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., stand for the national anthem during the statue dedication ceremony for civil rights leader Daisy Bates in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol on May 08, 2024, in Washington, DC. Bates was a civil rights activist from Arkansas who was a mentor to the Little Rock Nine, a group of Black students who desegregated schools in Arkansas. The statue of Bates is replacing one of Uriah M. Rose, an attorney and former president of the Arkansas Bar Association. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) WASHINGTO ..read more

John Cole's Tennessee: Up in smoke. Tennessee's Republican leaders express reluctance to loosen the state's marijuana laws while they torch other rights. The post John Cole’s Tennessee: Up in smoke. appeared first on Tennessee Lookout ..read more

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Cumberland Fossil Plant. (Photo: Courtesy of TVA) More than a decade after one of the biggest industrial disasters in Tennessee history, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued new rules to force power plants to clean up lingering deposits of coal ash, a toxic byproduct of power generation that can leach arsenic, mercury and other dangerous pollutants into streams, lakes and groundwater. The new rules require power companies across the nation to dig up millions of tons of coal ash from defunct power plants and old, unlined landfills that have conta ..read more

(Photo: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg) The 2024 legislative session turned out to be a banner year for Tennessee’s largest corporations and biggest farmers — at the expense of state and local government bottom lines. Not only did Gov. Bill Lee and the 113th General Assembly give big businesses a $1.9 billion franchise tax break, they’re allowing large farms to benefit from a projected $2 million measure that doubles the amount of land eligible for the state’s greenbelt program. Under the bill headed to the governor’s desk for his signature, a maximum of 3,000 acres for one landowner can be classifi ..read more

Demonstrators at the “Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice” at Union Square near the U.S. Capitol on May 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images) Lawmakers who oppose abortion often invoke their faith — many identify as Christian — while debating policy. The anti-abortion movement’s use of Christianity in arguments might create the impression that broad swaths of religious Americans don’t support abortion rights. But a recent report shows that Americans of various faiths and denominations believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. According to a Public Religion ..read more

(Photo: John Partipilo) Preventing people who are not United States citizens from casting a ballot has reemerged as a focal point in the ongoing Republican drive to safeguard “election integrity,” even though noncitizens are rarely involved in voter fraud. Ahead of November’s presidential election, congressional and state Republican lawmakers are aiming to keep noncitizens away from the polls. They’re using state constitutional amendments and new laws that require citizenship verification to vote. Noncitizens can vote in a handful of local elections in several states, but already are not allo ..read more

Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower, left, with Sen. Frank Niceley, proposed a measure to expedite the property reappraisal process. (Photo: John Partipilo) A bill designed to expedite property reappraisals and keep counties from hemorrhaging revenue appears to have been caught in a battle over a measure to tamp down large property tax increases. The Comptroller-requested reappraisal measure sponsored by Republican Sen. Page Walley of Savannah passed the Senate unanimously but got stuck in the House at the end of the 113th General Assembly. The House sponsor, outgoing Republican Rep. Dale Ca ..read more