News

Pope Francis has appointed a priest who is a native of Tennessee to become the next Bishop of Knoxville. "Pope Francis has appointed Reverend James Mark Beckman, as Bishop of Knoxville," according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). "Bishop-elect Beckman is a priest of the Diocese of Nashville, and currently serves as pastor of Saint Henry parish in Nashville, Tennessee. The appointment was publicized in Washington, D.C. on May 7, 2024, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States."

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill this week that bans judges in the state from using “ability to pay” bail systems. “Ability to pay” bail systems are bail calculators that determine a defendant’s bail based on the amount of money immediately available to them. The system was recently implemented in Memphis.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology became the first elite university to get rid of its "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" criteria in its hiring requirements, after the university's president claimed that it does not work. MIT previously required candidates hoping to join its faculty to provide a statement that shows they understand the "challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion," and describe their "track record of working with diverse groups of people." They were also required to demonstrate how they plan to advance DEI in their position at the school. But a 2023 poll found that a large majority of the school's faculty and students were afraid to express their views, according to Fox News.

The Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security (ELVIS) Act, which passed the Tennessee General Assembly and signed by Governor Bill Lee in March, is set to take effect on July 1. As artificial intelligence (AI) has become more accessible to the general public, personalized generative AI cloning models and services have been used to enable human impersonation.

Prosecutors finally displayed the documents at the heart of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against former President Donald Trump on Monday, but have yet to establish a direct link to demonstrate Trump's culpability. Until Monday, prosecutors had been focused on setting up other pieces of their case: the context for the $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about claims of a sexual encounter and the broader "conspiracy" to influence the 2016 election they allege Trump was involved in. Monday's witnesses — former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney and Trump Organization accounts payable supervisor Deborah Tarasoff — offered starkly different testimony than earlier witnesses like David Pecker and Keith Davidson, providing no salacious celebrity stories and an almost exclusive focus on accounting.

A law ensuring that Tennessee's worst juvenile offenders do not walk free upon becoming adults is awaiting the signature of Gov. Bill Lee (R). HB 043o, passed at the end of the most recent legislative session, "allows a juvenile court to impose a blended sentence on a child 16 years of age or older for a juvenile offense that would be a Class A, B, or C felony if committed by an adult."

A new report claims that the Biden Administration is attempting to implement federal regulations that will be difficult to reverse by a future president, as polls increasingly suggest that Joe Biden will lose the November election to former President Donald Trump. According to the Daily Caller, the report says that President Trump plans to sign multiple resolutions under the 1996 Congressional Review Act if he wins a second term, aimed at reversing many of Biden’s regulations. In response, officials in the Biden White House are examining methods to make regulations more permanent or harder to undo.

A Republican-led Senate Special Committee on Investigations focused on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' use of county tax dollars to investigate former President Donald Trump. The work of the Senate Special Committee on Investigations, created with the passage of Senate Resolution 465, could rank among the most-watched state committees of the year, especially considering its potential impact on this November's presidential election. The committee's focus includes allegations that Willis had an affair with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor formerly on the case.

An influential left-of-center donor’s charity launched an initiative compelling other philanthropies to pour money into voter mobilization efforts ahead of the 2024 elections. Democracy Fund, which was founded and is funded by liberal philanthropist Pierre Omidyar, has rallied a group of 174 organizations and individuals pledging to expedite their disbursement of grants related to efforts including get-out-the-vote operations. The pledge calls on its signatories to either make the bulk of their election-related donations by the end of April, to "move up" disbursements scheduled for later in the year or to streamline their grant approval processes.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on Monday the arrest of an illegal immigrant from Brazil. The agency explained the man has been wanted in Brazil for attempted murder since October. ICE additionally confirmed the man, whose identity the agency withheld, entered the United States through Arizona's southern border and was eventually apprehended for deportation in Massachusetts. He will remain in the agency's custody until he is removed from the country.

GF Casting Solutions, a producer of lightweight components for the mobility and energy sectors, will invest over $184 million in a new manufacturing facility in Augusta Corporate Park. The facility, which is anticipated to start operations in 2027, will bring 350 additional jobs to Richmond County. "Georgia is proud to carry the title of the No. 1 state for business to companies across the globe, bringing opportunities to communities in every corner of the state," said Governor Brian Kemp in a press release last week.

"We understand that the FBI has struggled with attracting enough qualified applicants from all desired target groups to sustain its mission This is likely due to the FBI re-focusing its recruitment efforts on DEI statistics," Jordan wrote in the letter to Wray. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is pressing Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray for more information surrounding the bureau's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) hiring practices and other initiatives.

Four law enforcement officers were shot dead in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week. On hearing the news, I was reminded of my mother's frequent warnings about police work. Her message? Steer clear. With her husband and her brother patrolling the mean streets of Newark, she didn’t need the added anxiety of having her sons do the same. Today, for the children and spouses of police officers, that anxiety must be unbearable — and not just because of the obvious danger. You may not have heard of the Charlotte shooting. It vanished from the national news in a flash. Despite the magnitude of the offense, within two or three days the national media had dropped the story cold.

The lead prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case against former President Donald Trump received thousands of dollars from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2018, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show. Matthew Colangelo, who was President Joe Biden's acting associate attorney general and spent two years in the current president's Department of Justice (DOJ), joined the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as senior counsel in December 2022. The lawyer received $12,000 from the DNC in 2018 for "political consulting" in two payments of $6,000 on Jan. 31 of that year, FEC records show.

The media is growing weary of President Biden’s avoidance of interviews with journalists, as he has given the fewest of any president in over 40 years. Mainstream media is noticing that Biden is sitting down for fewer interviews than they are accustomed to presidents giving, which some have speculated is the result of old age and failing memory.