FBI Director Kash Patel has defended the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files as he returned to Capitol Hill for a second day to face intense questioning from Democrats over his promises of transparency surrounding the convicted wealthy financier’s case.

President Trump has announced the deployment of the National Guard to Memphis to combat crime, testing the limits of presidential power by using military force in cities.

The Memphis mayor says President Donald Trump’s TV announcement was the first hard confirmation he received that Trump would send in the National Guard to address crime.

President Donald Trump says he'll send the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, to address crime concerns there.

Vice President JD Vance has been promoting President Donald Trump's new tax cuts and spending bill in swing-state Georgia.

Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn has announced that she is entering the open Tennessee governor’s race in 2026.

An inmate executed by Tennessee without deactivating his implanted defibrillator said he was in serious pain after the lethal injection started.

Twenty-eight men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and nine other people are scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the rest of 2025.

A judge is ordering state officials to turn off a death-row inmate's heart-regulating implanted device to avert the risk that it might try to shock him during his execution by lethal injection scheduled for Aug. 5.

Republican Ralph Alvarado has reentered Kentucky politics by announcing his bid for a congressional seat targeted by Democrats in 2026.

Attorneys for a Tennessee death row inmate have launched a last-ditch effort to prevent his Aug. 5 execution.

A new poll finds few Americans support allowing religious schools to become tax-funded public charter schools.

State legislatures are passing bills to ban weather modification and geoengineering based on decades-old “chemtrails” conspiracy theories, moving the fringe theory from online into actual public policy.

Tennessee has executed Oscar Smith for the 1989 murder of his estranged wife, Judith Smith, and her sons, Jason and Chad Burnett.

Oscar Smith came within minutes of being executed before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee issued a surprise reprieve just over three years ago.

More than 100 people have been taken into custody by federal immigration officials in a joint operation with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, leaving many in Nashville’s immigrant community uncertain and worried.

After three former Memphis police officers were acquitted in the beating death of Tyre Nichols, community and civil rights leaders are expressing outrage over another disappointment in the long push for police reform.

U.S. states are adopting and expanding programs that use taxpayer money to pay for private schools even as their costs rise and budget pictures become more uncertain.

The Tennessee Board of Parole has recommended a pardon for country music star Jelly Roll, a Nashville native who has spoken openly about his criminal history and what it has taken to overcome it.

A growing number of conservative leaders are pushing states to upend the long-standing U.S. constitutional right to free public education for children, regardless of immigration status.

Another round of torrential rain and flash flooding has come for parts of the South and Midwest already heavily waterlogged by days of severe storms that also spawned some deadly tornadoes.

Parts of the Midwest and South have been battered by torrential rains and life-threatening flash floods.

Nine Tennessee death row inmates are suing the state over its efforts to schedule a new round of executions.

U.S. states are positioning themselves to compete for newer, cheaper nuclear reactors being developed as communities and tech giants compete in a race for electricity.

The number of states imposing sales taxes on groceries is likely to shrink as lawmakers hear complaints about high prices for eggs and other household staples.

Republican lawmakers in some states are threatening local officials with lawsuits, fines and jail time if they resist President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.

Officials in eastern Tennessee say two people were killed when severe storms with two tornadoes moved through the region.

Tennessee lawmakers have approved legislation drastically expanding the number of families who can use taxpayer money on private schools regardless of income.

As President Donald Trump cracks down on immigration, lawmakers in some Democratic-led states are proposing new ways to resist his efforts.

President-elect Donald Trump has yet to take office, but his influence already is rippling through state capitols.

Recent research and an analysis by The Associated Press found states with restrictive abortion laws have more porous safety nets for mothers and young children.

Tennessee has a nearly total abortion ban and a porous safety net for mothers and young children.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has been elected to lead the Republican Governors Association, a one-year position.

Conservative politicians in states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee have been questioning whether immigrants without legal residency should have the right to a public education.

Hurricane Helene has left millions without electricity, water and phone service across the Southeast in the six days since making landfall.

Rescuers are scouring the mountains of western North Carolina for anyone still unaccounted for since Hurricane Helene’s remnants caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast.

For weeks, neo-Nazis have made repeat appearances in Nashville, livestreaming antisemitic antics for shock value.

HIV-positive people who were convicted in Tennessee of sex work under a decades-old aggravated prostitution law will no longer be required to face a lifetime registration as a “violent sex offender” under a lawsuit settlement finalized this week.

Tennessee's governor has approved legislation designed to block adults from helping minors get an abortion or receive gender-affirming care without parental consent.

Tennessee will soon become the first state in the country to offer free diapers to families enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program after receiving federal approval, state officials have confirmed.

A 10-year-old boy is in grave condition in Tennessee after being swept into a storm drain in a community southeast of Nashville.

Tennessee’s GOP-controlled Statehouse has given their final approval on legislation penalizing adults who help minors receive gender-affirming care without parental consent.

Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su says workers at southern auto plants should be free to unionize without employer or political interference, even as some southern states pass new laws meant to inhibit organized labor.

Tennessee’s Republican-dominant House has spiked legislation that would have banned local governments from paying to study or dispense money for reparations for slavery.

Some public school teachers could gain new powers to bring concealed guns into Tennessee schools.

Tennessee Republican lawmakers have passed a bill that would let some teachers and staff carry concealed handguns on public school grounds.

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee says he thinks workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga made a mistake by voting to unionize under the United Auto Workers in a landslide election.

On the eve of a vote on union representation at Volkswagen’s Tennessee factory, Gov. Bill Lee and five other southern governors are telling workers that voting for a union will put jobs in jeopardy.

The Republican-led Tennessee Legislature has overwhelmingly voted to send Gov. Bill Lee a proposal that would ban marriage between first cousins.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed off on the repeal of Memphis police traffic stop reforms set in place after the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by officers just over a year ago.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed off on legislation designed to protect songwriters, performers and other music industry professionals against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

A proposal advancing in the Tennessee legislature would stop requiring lifetime registration as a violent sex offender for anyone convicted of engaging in sex work while living with HIV.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has unveiled new legislation designed to protect songwriters, performers and other music industry professionals against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake says he’s “disturbed” over the unauthorized release of writings from the shooter who killed six people, including three children, at The Covenant School in March.

Newly released investigative files in the police shooting death of a Grammy-winning sound engineer revealed there was an armed Tennessee Bureau of Investigation officer in the home when Mark Capps began threatening his family with guns on Jan. 5.

Former Tennessee governor Don Sundquist has died after a short illness.

Gun violence prevention research has experienced a small boom in the wake of mounting shooting deaths, expanded funding and burgeoning advocacy.

Signs have returned to the Tennessee Capitol complex after a judge agreed to temporarily block a new rule advanced by House Republicans that had largely banned them.

Tennessee lawmakers are convening a special session this week that highlights the divergent response states are taking to a spate of mass shootings.

Tennessee’s GOP-dominant Legislature will soon return to the state Capitol months after a deadly school shooting.

Families connected to a Nashville school that experienced a fatal shooting earlier this year have created nonprofits to not only promote school safety and mental health resources, but also to form an action fund to push legislative policy changes.

Unrelenting bloodshed across the U.S. this year has led to the grimmest of milestones: The deadliest six months of mass killings recorded since at least 2006.

Tennessee’s top legal chief says that Vanderbilt University Medical Center turning over medical records for transgender patients is part of a “run-of-the-mill fraud investigation.”.

Questions remain over how a law designed to limit drag shows in Tennessee will be enforced after a federal judge declared it unconstitutional while saying the decision only applied to the state’s most populated county.

A federal judge says Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show Tennessee Gov_ Bill Lee’s administration accused the National Rifle Association of wanting to use involuntary commitment laws “to round up mentally ill people and deprive them of other liberties."

Bill Lee, a well-regarded jazz musician who accompanied such artists as Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel and Harry Belafonte and scored four of his son Spike’s early films, has died.

Families in Uvalde, Texas, are digging in for a new test of legal protections for the gun industry as they mark one year since the Robb Elementary School shooting.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed off on additional protections for gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits within a bill that lawmakers passed after a deadly school shooting.

Democratic Minnesota senators held firm despite only a one-vote majority to pass gun control legislation strongly supported by the governor.

There have been a few cracks in the predictable pattern of Republican-controlled states loosening gun laws while Democratic states tighten them in recent weeks.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says a special lawmaking session dedicated to possible changes to the state’s gun laws in the wake of a deadly school shooting last month would likely have to take place after July 4.

Lizzo filled her stage with drag queens in a concert Friday night in Knoxville, Tennessee, in a glittery protest against the state’s legislation against public drag performances.

Chances are shrinking fast for a key gun-control proposal to make it out of the Tennessee Legislature.

In the wake of a deadly school shooting last month, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are sending to Republican Gov. Bill Lee a proposal that further protects gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits.

Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson never guessed he’d be expelled for leading a gun control protest on the House floor after a school shooting left three children and three adults dead.

In the days after a bank employee used an assault-style rifle to kill five coworkers, Republicans running for governor this year in Kentucky have been deflecting questions about gun legislation.

Two weeks after one of his wife’s closest friends was killed in a Nashville school shooting, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday called for legislation that would keep firearms away from people who could harm themselves or others.

As students across Nashville were walking out of class to protest gun violence following a school shooting last week, police released new information into the investigation.

Residents across a wide swath of the U.S. are racing to assess the destruction from fierce storms that spawned possibly dozens of tornadoes from the South and the Midwest into the Northeast.

Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 26 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed a law allowing private schools to contract with law enforcement so they can hire school resource officers.

Hundreds of people have gathered at a candlelight vigil to mourn the three children and three adults slain in a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

A federal judge quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age to 18 for Tennesseans to carry handguns in public without a permit the same day Nashville residents were reeling from a fatal grade school shooting that left six dead, including three children.

Two years after Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee led the charge to allow residents 21 and older to carry handguns in public without a permit, younger adults could soon have the same privilege.

Southern states are more frequently turning to pay-to-use express lanes as a way to address highway congestion without raising taxes.

Tennessee’s Republican governor has signed legislation that bans drag shows from taking place in public or in front of children.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee says it would be “ridiculous” to conflate a recently surfaced yearbook photo of him wearing women’s clothing in high school to drag show performances currently under attack in Tennessee and other GOP-led states.

Transgender youth in Tennessee would be banned from receiving gender-affirming care under legislation currently headed to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk.

The Tennessee National Guard says one of their Black Hawk helicopters crashed in Alabama, killing two crew members.

A top Tennessee Republican lawmaker says the state should stop accepting the nearly $1.8 billion of federal K-12 education dollars that help provide support for low-income students, English learners and students with disabilities.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has kicked off his second term, promising to focus over the next four years on improving aging transportation systems, advocating for better conservation efforts and protecting the state’s most vulnerable children.

Documents show that top Tennessee health officials attempted to oust Planned Parenthood from a program designed to prevent and treat HIV before deciding to forgo federal funding for it.

The Tennessee Department of Correction has fired its top attorney and another employee following a scathing independent report on failures within the state’s lethal injection system.

In-N-Out Burger plans to open a corporate office in Tennessee and restaurants in the Nashville area by 2026.

A blistering independent report on Tennessee’s lethal injection system has turned up years of communications showing a state determined to push forward with executing death row inmates despite major issues.

A newly released report has found that Tennessee has not complied with its own lethal injection protocol ever since it was revised in 2018.

An annual report on capital punishment says public support and use of the death penalty continued a more than two-decade decline in the U.S. in 2022.

New Vanderbilt University polling has found that most registered voters in Tennessee want exceptions for rape or incest in the state’s sweeping abortion ban.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is considering introducing express toll lanes on highways and tripling a fee for electric car owners as he looks for ways to pay for tens of billions of dollars in roadway projects.