Free Republic

President Donald Trump declared that he will escalate his military deployments in major cities to curb crime, a move that has met with controversy. The president addressed American service members in Japan on Monday, touting the strength of the U.S. military and his administration’s approach to foreign and domestic security. “We’ve just approved the biggest budget in the history—one over a trillion dollars,” he said. Trump further highlighted the excellence of the U.S. Navy and celebrated the longstanding alliance with Japan’s government. A core theme of the president’s speech was restoring law and order and protecting public safety it American...

Among political conservatives, there is no hotter potato at the moment than the civil liability protections afforded by Section 230 to online operators. Unless Republicans learn to love it again and reject the censorship lawfare complex favored by Democrats, they risk dooming our tech leaders and everyone who uses their products to the sharks circling our legal system.The twenty-six words tucked into the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shielded publishers from liability so they could host and moderate content and still allow a wide range of speech without fear of lawsuits. Since then, Section 230 has evolved to be one...

Former President Barack Obama stated that President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to quell crime in Democrat-run cities is “inherently corrupting,” arguing that he would have received a different reaction from conservative media if he had sent the military into Texas during his tenure. Obama spoke with left-wing comedian Mark Maron for the final episode of his long-running podcast, published Monday, in which he shared several of his grievances about how Trump has been leading the country. “When you have military that can direct force against their own people, that is inherently corrupting. And so when you now...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — We’re into day two of National Guardsmen in the city of Memphis, and already, they have boots on the ground in communities across the city. They join the hundreds of federal agents and Tennessee State Troopers who have already made their presence known in the city. “I feel like all the criminals are hiding right now, and when all of this goes away, all of those rats are coming out,” said Rosa Avina, Memphis resident. “I feel like the Hispanic community really doesn’t have a voice right now. Why? Because everybody is really scared,” said Avina. “A...

Humphreys County, Tennessee, Sheriff Chris Davis said that they found "no survivors" during a search of the blast site.Authorities said on Saturday that they found “no survivors” during a search of the site of a massive blast at a Tennessee explosives plant. At least 18 people were unaccounted for after the explosion on Friday. The explosion at Accurate Energetic Systems in Hickman County — around 60 miles southwest of Nashville — was reported just before 8:00 a.m. on Friday, with officials initially saying that “several” people were dead. “I can tell you that more than 300 people have been through...

A powerful explosion ripped through a military explosives facility in Tennessee on Friday morning, leaving multiple people dead and missing, officials said. Video from the scene showed damaged vehicles and charred debris scattered around the area.

An explosion at a Tennessee military munitions plant Friday left 19 people missing and feared dead, authorities said. Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said it was one of the most devastating scenes he’s ever seen. He did not specify how many people were killed but referred to the 19 missing as “souls” and said officials were still speaking to family. The blast, which people reported hearing and feeling miles away, occurred at Accurate Energetic Systems in rural Tennessee. The company’s website says it makes and tests explosives at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area,...

Nearly two dozen people are feared dead after a massive explosion erupted at a Tennessee bomb factory this morning. The blast went off at the Accurate Energetic Systems plant Friday around 7.50am local time, the Hickman County Sheriff's Office confirmed. At least 19 employees currently remain unaccounted for, according to Odell Poyner, the emergency management director in nearby Humphreys County. The initial blast was so enormous that locals reported hearing and feeling it from miles away. The extent of the damage remains unclear at this time, but authorities say their main concern right now is the potential for secondary explosions....

This mailman thought he'd be eating good for quite some time, but then he got pulled over. The stolen checks were in the mailman's lunchbox. A Knox County patrol deputy conducted a traffic stop along Clinton Highway on the afternoon of October 5 and detected an odor of marijuana, according to a sheriff's office spokesperson. The front seat passenger, identified as Dontray Ligon, stated that the car belonged to him and allowed deputies to search it. Two large lunchboxes containing check-related mail that investigators believe to be stolen were found during the search. The sheriff's office spokesperson said Wednesday that...

As the special House election for a deep-red congressional district in Tennessee approaches, one issue has shaped the race above all else: Donald Trump. A crowded field in Tuesday’s GOP primary to fill former Rep. Mark Green’s seat spent months fighting over who’s the most pro-Trump before Trump stepped in with an endorsement for Matt Van Epps at the end of last week. Other issues have fallen to the background, blurring the lines between candidates, while the increasing drumbeat of campaign ads largely revolved around support for Trump and his policies. Trump and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn each carried the...

MARYVILLE, Tenn.—Tucked in the foothills of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains is a factory that has figured out a way to manufacture in America that’s cheaper, quicker and better. It’s the home of a famous American writing implement: the Sharpie marker.Pen barrels whirl along automated assembly lines that rapidly fill them with ink. At least half a billion Sharpie markers are churned out here every year, each one made of six parts. Only the felt tip is imported, from Japan. [snip] Newell began moving some Sharpie production to China in the 2000s, part of the wave of outsourcing by U.S. companies looking...

If Christa Gail Pike's execution proceeds as planned next year, she will become the first woman put to death in Tennessee since the state began to formally document capital punishment more than a century ago. After attempted appeals by Pike's attorneys repeatedly failed, the Tennessee Supreme Court on Tuesday set a date for her to be executed. The order granted a scheduling request from the state for the death warrant to be carried out Sept. 30, 2026, at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, which houses a majority of Tennessee's death row inmates. Under the terms of this week's...

dates for four people, including the only woman in the state on death row. Christa Pike received the death sentence at age 18 for the 1995 torture slaying of Colleen Slemmer, who was a fellow Knoxville Job Corps student. Slemmer, 18, was stabbed and beaten by Pike and Tadaryl Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend at the time, on the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural campus. The court on Tuesday also set execution dates for Tony Carruthers, Gary Sutton and Anthony Hines. Carruthers was convicted in 1996 of robbing and killing Marcellos Anderson, 21, Frederick Tucker, 17, and Anderson’s mother, Delois Anderson, 43, in...

A conservative activist group’s unannounced visit to Tennessee State University ignited a debate over free speech and safety on campus. Members of Fearless Debates said they had come to TSU to “create conversation and discourse.” The NAACP Nashville chapter countered that the group’s goal was to provoke and demean students at the historically Black university.... Fearless Debates described itself as part of the “Fearless Tour,” a grassroots effort inspired by the late conservative commentator Charlie Kirk. On its website, the group said it was “bringing honest conversation and open debate back to America’s college campuses.”... The NAACP Nashville chapter called...

This morning the House passed a clean CR designed to fund the government through November, thereby avoiding the possibility of a shutdown at the end of this month. Democrats how vowed not to support it in the Senate.The vote was 217-212, with one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, joining Republicans in voting yes. Two Republicans — conservative Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — and all other Democrats voted against the bill.The short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, now heads to the Senate, where Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other...

President Donald Trump signed a memo Monday establishing a task force in Memphis, Tennessee, that would mobilize the National Guard and other federal law enforcement agencies to crack down on crime, similar to steps taken in Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump appeared to announce that his crime crackdown will spread to the very blue city of Memphis, in the red state of Tennessee. During his appearance on Friday on "Fox and Friends," President Trump talked about the success his administration has had after enacting a 30-day federalization of local law enforcement in Washington, D.C., before he revealed the next Democrat-run city that could see a surge of officers. "Look at what we did in D.C.," Trump said. "We took D.C., probably the single-worst place in the country in terms of crime. There's no crime. It's a crime-free area."...

President Trump announced Friday that Memphis would be the next city to get a federal policing surge — and the second following Washington, DC. “We’re going to Memphis. Memphis is that’s the next — deeply troubled and the mayor is happy. The Democrat mayor, the mayor is happy. And the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy,” Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “Deeply troubled — we’re going to fix that, just like we did Washington. I would have preferred going to Chicago,” Trump said. Trump said the move was pitched to him by a railroad executive, serving on the board...

Authorities in Tennessee announced Friday that they believe a sheriff who inspired the movie "Walking Tall" is responsible for his wife's death in 1967. During a news conference Friday, officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said there were "inconsistencies" in statements from Sheriff Buford Pusser following the 1967 murder of his wife, Pauline. “It’s been said that the dead can’t cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so. In this case, that duty has been carried out 58 years later,” said District Attorney General Mark Davidson for the 25th Judicial District. Blood splatter...

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga went into lockdown on Thursday afternoon after an alert was sent out reporting a possible active shooter. The alert stated, per WSMV, "Run. Hide. Fight." The university reported the possible active shooter as being at the University Center or the school’s library. The Chattanooga Police Department said they are working with campus police to investigate reports of shots fired, and authorities said they have not found any victims at this time. All City of Chattanooga buildings are in lockdown along with campus buildings. This is a breaking story. Please refresh the page for updates.