Free Republic

The Department of Justice on Monday unveiled a record-shattering crackdown on the corrupt underbelly of America’s health care system. A jaw-dropping 324 defendants — including 96 medical professionals — have been charged in 50 federal districts and 12 states for orchestrating over $14.6 billion in intended fraud, largely targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and federal health programs meant to serve the elderly, disabled, and the poor. The takedown, spearheaded by the DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Unit in coordination with HHS-OIG, the FBI, the DEA, and over a dozen state attorney general offices, marks the largest health care fraud bust in U.S. history....

A Republican lawmaker is demanding that Attorney General Pam Bondi direct the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani— a socialist Muslim who wants government-run grocery stores and to shift the tax burden to homes in “whiter neighborhoods.” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) urged Bondi to probe Mamdani and initiate denaturalization proceedings, claiming he made false statements during his citizenship application. The lawmaker accused Mamdani of joining a communist group at the same time he was filling out his U.S. citizenship forms in 2018. “At the same time, he's filling out these...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal judge in Tennessee plans to order the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation to El Salvador has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, while he awaits a federal trial on human smuggling charges. But Abrego Garcia is not expected to go free because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will likely take him into custody and possibly try to deport him. In a ruling on Sunday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes denied the U.S. government’s motion to keep Abrego Garcia in detention before his trial. She scheduled a hearing for...

A Democratic mayor is defending the public release of names of federal immigration officers involved in mass migrant round ups, claiming that the real concern isn't their safety, but that masked agents are 'whisking people' away. Names of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were posted to online by the City of Nashville, as part of a public records request that mandates information about immigration be posted online to a city website. Mayor Freddie O'Connell is currently under investigation by two Congressional committees for allegedly helping illegal immigrants in Music City evade deportations. 'I understand the concerns but it's...

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Tennessee on Wednesday seeks to end a program designed to funnel tens of millions of dollars to colleges and universities with a large percentage of Hispanic students, charging it is racist and unconstitutional. The suit was filed by the state of Tennessee and advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions against the U.S. Department of Education. In 2023, the advocates’ suit against Harvard University led to the Supreme Court ruling it unconstitutional to consider race in university admissions. A federal funding program designates schools as “Hispanic-Serving Institutions” if they have at least 25% Hispanic-student...

House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., announced Monday he will resign from the lower chamber once it votes on the reconciliation package again to take a job in the private sector. Green, who was first elected to the chamber in 2018, has been serving in the lead post on the Homeland Security committee since 2023. He helped orchestrate the impeachment of former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024. The chairman, who previously expected to resign from Congress last year, did not state who he supported to replace him. He also did not state what the private sector job...

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., is departing Capitol Hill early, he announced on Monday. Green said he is leaving Congress for the private sector after the House votes again on President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" in the coming weeks, in a statement first obtained by Fox News Digital. "It is with a heavy heart that I announce my retirement from Congress. Recently, I was offered an opportunity in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up. As a result, today I notified the Speaker and the House of Representatives that I will resign from...

MEMPHIS — For decades, this storied American city has watched companies come but mostly go, its vacant storefronts and blighted buildings a reminder of its days as a thriving manufacturing hub and the painful decline that followed as those jobs vanished.As Paul Young, the city’s mayor, puts it, Memphis has been “the city people forgot about.”Then last summer, Memphis landed what Young and local business leaders called the city’s largest corporate investment in a generation — a “transformative” development for a place that has struggled to convince outsiders of its continued potential.The project was something every city dreams of, Young...

Gunfire erupted in a Jackson, Tennessee, park Saturday night leaving seven people, including juveniles, injured and police seeking the perpetrators of the shooting, authorities said. The shooting occurred at the Kate Campbell Park northeast of downtown Jackson, according to the Jackson Police Department. One of the gunshot victim was hospitalized in critical condition, two were in stable condition and four others were treated and released, police said in an updated statement Sunday morning. Police officers responded to the park after receiving reports at around 8:41 p.m. of a shooting incident involving juveniles, authorities said in an earlier statement.

U.S. Fire that destroyed historic Clayborn Temple in Memphis was intentionally set, investigators say By Updated on: May 21, 2025 / 6:11 PM EDT / CBS/AP The fire that destroyed the Clayborn Temple, a historic Black church in downtown Memphis that was the organizing point for Martin Luther King Jr.'s final campaign in 1968, was intentionally set, investigators said Wednesday. The Memphis Fire Department said the fire on April 28 was started on the interior of the church, and authorities are searching for a person of interest. Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat last month described the inside of the church...

A newly enacted Tennessee law prohibits schools from punishing employees and teachers for referring to trans-identified students by their given name and pronouns, as public school staff in other states have faced professional repercussions for declining to use trans-identified students' preferred names and pronouns. Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed House Bill 1270 into law Friday. Lee's approval of the legislation follows its passage by the Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives in a 77-18 vote and the Republican-controlled Tennessee Senate in a 27-6 vote. The vote in the Senate fell along party lines, with all support for the measure coming...

Sheriff's Office in Press Release 5/11/2025, Two teenagers from Tehama County were arrested after allegedly plotting an attack on Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, authorities said. The investigation began on May 9, 2025, when a Tennessee resident contacted the Tehama County Sheriff's Office. The individual reported concerns after engaging in online gaming with one of the teens, who discussed school violence and shared a manifesto and plans targeting the school.... The suspect also sent photographs of himself and an accomplice posing in attire similar to the Columbine school shooters, according to the sheriff's office. Allegedly, the attack was initially planned...

Does the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms apply to fully automatic machine guns? The US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee is poised to rule on the matter. Jaquan Bridges pleaded guilty to possessing a machine gun after engaging in a 2023 shootout with police officers on a Tennessee highway. Courthouse News reported that Bridges “was arrested with a Glock .40 caliber pistol with an attachment that converted the handgun into a machine gun, but fought to dismiss the charge on constitutional grounds.” He claimed the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State...

A Mag 4.1 earthquake just a few miles south of Knoxville TN at 9:00 EDT 10 May 2025 shook the geological region around between Knoxville and Atlanta GA this morning. No nationally reported reports of damage or injuries, but a low magnitude earthquake less than 5.0 seldom causes much damage. Hillside rock falls and tree falls in the already wet soil after several days of rain are likely the closer to the epicenter one goes. Unlike California's very broken earth and rocks, where small magnitude earthquakes are not felt very distance from the epicenter, the very large, very rigid Eastern...

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted operations in Nashville this week, resulting in the arrests of a convicted child sex predator and an alleged gang member, but the mayor of the city said the arrests were not focused on making the city safer. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared Democratic Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s letter to the city about the ICE arrests. “Our top priority is keeping people safe, and we’re deeply concerned that what appear to be federal actions are making that harder,” O’Connell wrote. “Overnight, we understand that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents detained people...

President Donald Trump announced late on Thursday his first judicial nomination since returning to the White House as he moved to appoint a lawyer serving under Tennessee's Republican attorney general to a seat on a federal appeals court. Trump .. is nominating Whitney Hermandorfer, who has clerked for three members of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority, to fill a vacancy on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. ... Whitney is a Fighter who will inspire confidence in our Legal System," Trump wrote .. The nomination was the first of what is expected to be more than 100...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump offered some encouraging words and advice for graduating students at the University of Alabama on Thursday in a speech interspersed with impressions of transgender weightlifters, accusations that judges were interfering with his agenda and attacks on his predecessor, Joe Biden. The Republican’s jolting speech was standard fare for Trump and well received by the crowd in deep-red Alabama, which backed him in all three of his presidential runs. “You’re the first graduating class of the golden age of America,” the president told the graduates.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A court affidavit identifies the two Booker T. Washington High School students who were killed in a broad-daylight shooting in South Memphis — Christian Brown, 17, and Darrius Wadley, 18. One of four suspected gunmen was arrested after he was shot and dropped off at a hospital, according to new information from the court system. Valdemar Patterson, aka Valdemar Richards, 18, is so far the only suspect in custody. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Police say last Thursday, an Infiniti pulled into the South City apartment complex at Mississippi Boulevard and Lauderdale. Surveillance...

Thursday, April 17, the Crockett County Sheriff’s Department responded to a shooting on Chestnut Bluff and Maury City Road. According to the sheriff’s department, John King III was shot and killed in the 6000 block of Chestnut Bluff-Maury City Road. We learned on April 18 that it appeared to be domestic violence-related, and no charges were filed at the time. Wednesday, we spoke with District Attorney General Frederick Agee. He told us this was self defense and that his office would not be pursuing any charges. “She is six months pregnant and there were two other children in the household,”...

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed a pro-life bill protecting the conscience rights of medical professionals like doctors and nurse who don’t want to be forced to participate in abortions. The bill creates conscience protections for doctors who are morally opposed to certain medical practices, including abortion. While Tennessee is one of a couple dozen states with abortion bans that protect the lives of unborn children, abortions can still be done in very limited situations. Also, if the law is ever overturned, pro-life doctors and nurses want to be sure their conscience rights are protected to excuse themselves from abortions...