Kilgore Flares, a Chemring-owned maker of missile-decoy flares in Toone, filed a state WARN notice for a permanent layoff effective October 31. Eight years ago Tennessee celebrated a $40 million expansion at the same plant that was supposed to add roughly 100 jobs.
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The Memphis Democrat resigned to take office as Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk. With no Republican on the November ballot, the replacement process is the whole contest.
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Governor Bill Lee's August 27 clemency round centers on Thomas Clardy, who served roughly 17 years for a 2005 Davidson County killing, was freed after a federal court overturned his conviction, and faced a return to prison after an appeals court reinstated it.
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The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission unanimously approved a new license structure on August 21 with most increases in the 27 to 29 percent range. A combination hunt and fish license goes from $33 to $42. The increase still needs legislative sign-off.
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In two days Tennessee answered the vetting question and reopened the funding one. TDOT says pre-qualification cleared DriveTN. On August 27 the warnings continued that the revenue problem the concession was supposed to solve still covers the rest of the network.
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The Tennessee Local Development Authority unanimously approved Columbia's $315 million federal financing request on August 24, 2026. The county ratepayers helping pay for the project elect nobody who sets their rates.
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State lawmakers entered the fight over the Fairgrounds Speedway on August 25, 2026, per the Tennessee Lookout, putting the state's hand into a Metro-owned property fight two weeks after a contested petition drive and a private redevelopment pitch.
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Tennessee's TISA funding review committee said on August 25, 2026 that the state should fund the special education pre-K programs districts are already required to run, per Chalkbeat Tennessee.
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The state's share of a $17.1 billion national settlement over teen social media harm will flow into a newly created Tennessee's Children's Digital Protection Fund. How nearly three quarters of a billion dollars gets spent, and how much reaches Memphis and Shelby County kids, is a decision that has not been made.
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The director of Memphis's Institute for Public Service Reporting has sued the Tennessee Department of Safety for the Highway Patrol's vehicle pursuit policy, after the department handed over pursuit data but called the rules governing those pursuits confidential.
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Tennessee law hands a vacant U.S. Senate seat to the governor to fill, and the timing of a resignation decides which governor. No appointee would face voters before November 2028.
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Parton, who died Tuesday at 80, gave Tennessee the only statewide Imagination Library in the country, a public-private partnership the state renews in its budget every year. Her passing turns a quiet annual line item into a question about what the state chooses to sustain without her.
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Metro Nashville and three other local governments filed a federal lawsuit August 17 challenging FEMA's move to condition first-responder grants on election administration changes, with roughly $3 million of Metro funding at stake. The plaintiffs say the conditions have already cost them 20 percent of their allotment.
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U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn would open Education Freedom Scholarships to every Tennessee family. Councilwoman Jerri Green of the Memphis City Council pledges to defund the program and move the money to teacher pay. Chalkbeat Tennessee put both platforms on the record August 21, and the record is what voters can hold either of them to after November 3.
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Tennessee is one of five states in the running for a $50 billion Department of Energy nuclear campus that would include waste storage. A Republican lawmaker whose district sits in its shadow says the state is "not a dump site," while the governor calls it an incredible opportunity.
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The state on August 20 selected DriveTN, a six-company group led by toll giants Transurban, Ferrovial, and Cintra, for a $9.2 billion toll lane network from downtown Nashville to Murfreesboro. Construction starts in 2027. Toll prices are variable and undisclosed, and the concession agreement has not been published.
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The Metro Nashville Council advanced an ordinance on second reading that would bar police drone deployments without council approval outside four emergency scenarios, after the police department ran a drone pilot without the public process the city's surveillance ordinance requires.
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The state projected $130 million in hemp taxes for the 2026-27 budget, then banned the products that generated most of it. July collections came in at roughly $425,000 against a projected $9.4 million, a 90 percent miss that annualizes to about $110 million.
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Tennessee ended fiscal year 2025-26 with a $1.2 billion revenue surplus, driven by corporate tax collections the state's own finance commissioner cautions may not hold. Five named pressures are already lined up against it.
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Federal contract records show ICE moved its planned 24/7 national enforcement call center from Adams, Tennessee to Nashville's Donelson neighborhood. The $63 million contractor will support local police holding 287(g) agreements and track locations of unaccompanied minors. The mayor's office says it still lacks a consistent picture of what is planned.
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Republican legislative leaders are floating a special session to rewrite property tax appraisals after Lower Broadway bar owners complained about surging valuations. The state already built a mechanism to divert up to $30 million in convention surplus toward those tax payments.
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Officials in Robertson and Montgomery counties say the federal government never told them a contractor was awarded up to $63 million to run a 24-hour ICE call center in Adams, Tennessee, population roughly 600. ICE and the contractor are not answering questions.
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A federal jury unanimously found CSX not responsible for the August 2021 Waverly flood after a five-day trial. Families had sought $450 million.
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Anthony Darrell Hines was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m. on August 13 at Riverbend, after final appeals built on the claim that the assigned physician could not safely place an IV line. Media witnesses described groaning and facial discoloration during the procedure.
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The Brentwood company reported $684.9 million in second-quarter revenue, sold four facilities to the Department of Homeland Security for $2.2 billion, and activated the 600-bed West Tennessee Detention Facility, the detention pipeline that sits an hour from Memphis.
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Washington County joined Wilson and Rutherford counties under a law Governor Bill Lee signed in May that permits but does not require displays, in a state-approved text at a minimum 26-point font. No board in Shelby County has been reported to have voted. No legal challenge has been filed.
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Jerri Green won the Democratic primary Thursday. Marsha Blackburn won the Republican primary, defeating John Rose in a race President Trump declined to endorse. Whoever wins in November commands the Highway Patrol and the National Guard supplying the Memphis task force, and inherits the state's posture on the schools takeover.
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No candidate qualified in either party for Tennessee House District 93, which covers Orange Mound, Binghampton, Highland Heights and part of Cordova. Voters there must write in a name. The threshold Representative G.A. Hardaway Sr. missed is one of the lowest ballot access requirements in the country.
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The state restructured both cities' airport boards. Nashville litigated and its dispute may reignite. Memphis lost majority control of its own board and, so far as the public record shows, no comparable challenge is pending here.
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Final disclosures before the Thursday, August 6, 2026 Republican primary show U.S. Rep. John Rose largely self-funding while U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn's PAC network absorbed millions routed from her federal Senate account, a transfer a national money-in-politics tracker calls a workaround.
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A May special session split Shelby County across the 5th, 8th and 9th districts. The state has a free address lookup that tells you which one you are in. If you are voting Thursday, check before you go.
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The state health department told families of roughly 400 medically fragile immigrant children to disenroll or be reported to a state immigration enforcement division. A Nashville chancellor blocked it, and the state has agreed to hold off while three doctors litigate. The directive itself is still on the books, and Memphis families are among those living under it.
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Governor Bill Lee joined 22 other Republican governors on a voluntary White House pledge holding data center companies responsible for their own power costs. The Tennessee law passed this year, sponsored in the Senate by a Shelby County Republican, allows utilities to help cover those costs in defined circumstances. Neither instrument is enforceable by a Memphis ratepayer.
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A three-judge panel denied the ACLU's request to block Tennessee's new congressional map, ruling that politics, not race, best explains why Shelby County was cut into thirds. The lawsuit itself is not over.
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Tennessee dismantled its only majority-Black district on May 7, dividing Shelby County three ways. Early voting starts Friday. Check your district before you vote.
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State lawmakers say the changes are aimed at reducing cryptocurrency-related scams and increasing consumer protections.
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Tennessee drivers may face new vehicle registration requirements under recently approved legislation. Here's what motorists need to know.
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A state court panel upheld Tennessee’s new congressional map, preserving the split of Memphis into three districts. The ruling keeps the fight over who speaks for 901 voters at the center of redistricting oversight.
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UT Knoxville just advanced a $227M business building and a national security center, while Memphis still fights over what gets funded and who pays. The question for Shelby County: why is Knoxville building ahead while 901 keeps arguing over basics?
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A federal judge has temporarily blocked Tennessee Highway Patrol from assisting immigration enforcement during traffic stops in Memphis and Nashville. The question now is who authorized the practice - and how many 901 drivers were caught in it.
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Tennessee’s unemployment rate held at 3.6% for a third straight month, but that headline hides the pressure on Memphis households already facing high rent, weak wages, and tight credit. The question is whether state leaders will pair the good numbers with real relief for 901 families.
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Tennessee’s weekly loan-rate cap reset to 10.75% on May 19, and Memphis borrowers are now the ones living with the fine print. For families already balancing rent, car notes, and late fees, this is a budget story with teeth.
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The fight over Tennessee’s new congressional map just got bigger: the ACLU of Tennessee has brought in outside attorneys as another case is reassigned and the NAACP calls for a boycott. For Memphis, this is about who gets to speak for 901 voters - and who answers when the map splits the city apart.
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State Republicans’ new congressional map splits Memphis into three districts, triggering lawsuits and pushing Rep. Steve Cohen to end his reelection bid. The fight now centers on fair representation and who can be held accountable for Memphis voters.
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