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Tennessee State Reps. Gloria Johnson and Justin Jones stand strong in the state capitol.
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The president "said Iran’s leaders should “show humanity” in dealing with the mass demonstrations sweeping the country as he warned Tehran the US would take “very strong action” if it started hanging protesters."
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Asked what his message to Iran’s leadership was, the president said: “They’ve got to show humanity. They’ve got a big problem and I hope they’re not going to be killing people.”
I don't understand. We are killing and harming people for protesting. Why doesn't he order his people to stop?
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Bill and Hillary Clinton wrote a lengthy letter to Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, refusing to testify in Congress.
"Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, it's principles and it's people, no matter the consequences.
For us, now is that time."
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Statement from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell.
Bluesky video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell
YouTube video Statement by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell
On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned in part a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings.
I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one—certainly not the chair of the Federal Reserve—is above the law. But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the administration's threats and ongoing pressure.
This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings. It is not about Congress's oversight role; the Fed through testimony and other public disclosures made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President.
This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.
I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment. Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats. I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do, with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people.
Thank you.
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A team of doctors has been rushed to Capitol Hill to analyze House Speaker Mike Johnson's curious absence of a spine. They were called after Johnson refused to install a plaque honoring the police officers injured during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"It was just the latest in a series of spineless acts," explained one doctor. "It appears he has no spine, but some cartilage like a shark. Curiously, that cartilage only hardens when it hears Donald Trump's voice."
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The General Services Administration has put the word out, looking to rent an office space in West Knoxville for federal law enforcement. The office space may end up being used to process, detain or question prisoners, according to the listing.
It did "say detainees could end up in the building." "...federal officers inside may question those detainees"
“This requirement will house a federal law enforcement office where employees can or have the potential to carry weapons, weapons will be stored on-site and individuals may be temporarily detained and/or questioned.”
Well, isn't that special. Are the representatives of Knoxville and Knox County as well as residents going to go along to get along? I can only hope they don't want to come to Blount County.
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ExxonMobil statement, "Thank you, Mr. President, I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity for the entire industry to show up and provide perspective."
With respect to Venezuela in particular, we have a very long history in Venezuela. In fact, we first got into Venezuela back in the 1940s. We've had our assets seized there twice. And so, you can imagine to re‑enter a third time would require some pretty significant changes from what we've historically seen here and what is currently the state."
If we look at the legal and commercial constructs—frameworks—in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable. And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system, there has to be durable investment protections, and there has to be a change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.
If push comes to shove? Do they have enough excess funds to do it just to make the president happy even if they know it will fail?
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President Donald Trump reportedly told The New York Times that his "own morality" serves as the thing that could potentially limit his global powers -- adding that he doesn't "need international law."
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Officers said that an elderly woman who was being treated at UTMC grabbed a gun from her purse and fired a round into the ground.
KPD said that due to the patient’s "compromised medical and mental state," no charges are being filed.
UTMC statement: "...there was an accidental discharge of a firearm in a patient room...
Accidental discharge? Hope she /her family don't get to keep the gun.
We’re scared to go out’: Man speaks out about violent assault in downtown Knoxville.
A Knoxville man, who chose to remain anonymous, was out with his wife on Christmas Day enjoying a movie, Christmas lights, and dinner. While walking home that evening near the intersection of Gay Street and Depot Avenue the man was attacked. ...Struck in the head multiple times with a metal pole and left stunned, he dodged swing after swing while protecting his wife, before finally taking the attacker to the ground.
Yikes!
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The White House unveiled a new webpage "that described the pro-Trump marchers as "peaceful" and "orderly" and accused police of escalating tensions and violence.
The timeline presented by the administration grossly mischaracterized some of the day's events, downplaying President Donald Trump's rhetoric before the violence began and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
It's sick. I'm not linking to the White House web page, but the above linked ABC News article has a link. It's sickening. How can anyone believe this or let it go as a truth by our Federal Government?
Then, "Federal ICE Agents" killed a women in Minneapolis yesterday, January 7, 2026. From videos, it appears the woman was trying to drive away and she was shot to death. The president defends the ICE killing of a poet. According to the Washington Post, he said, "the 37-year-old woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over” the agent, who Trump said appeared to shoot her in self-defense. The president made the claim within hours of the shooting Wednesday, before investigators had completed their work.
“The situation is being studied, in its entirety, but the reason these incidents are happening is because the Radical Left is threatening, assaulting, and targeting our Law Enforcement Officers and ICE Agents on a daily basis,” he said in a social media post. “They are just trying to do the job of MAKING AMERICA SAFE.”
How is this happening in the United States of America? We are returning to the 1930s.
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Flu reaches highest level in the US in 25 years.
Tennessee in the top 19 states with highest levels of reported flu cases.
As of Dec. 27, there have been 11 million reported cases and 120,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths nationwide. The overwhelming majority of cases are H3N2 variant infections. The CDC expects severity to continue for several weeks.
CDC Weekly US Map: Influenza Summary Update. If we can believe anything coming out of this administration.
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Trump Is Unleashing Forces Beyond His Control (New York Times, David French)
When a strong state operates under the principle that war is just another extension of policy, it is tempted to operate a bit like a mob boss. Every interaction with a weaker nation is tinged in some way with the threat of force: Nice little country you have there — shame if something happened to it.
The Danger of Trump’s Flamboyant Violence (New York Times)
He is willing to use force — and risk the lives of American soldiers — for increasingly flamboyant expressions of strength abroad.
These high-risk actions seem designed more for ephemeral gain than long-term strategic advantage. There is a real risk of more to come. Mr. Trump’s appetite for military action seems to grow with the eating. For a commander in chief with three years left in office, his newfound fondness for military force is ominous.
Maduro vs. the Donroe Doctrine (Tina Brown)
Yep, it’s the “Donroe” Doctrine: chin-jutting hubris, flailing testosterone, and greed, greed, greed. America has the right to intervene, assault, abduct any government it doesn’t like in the Western Hemisphere and plunder the spoils. At least now we can forget about the last few months of fentanyl feint, when the U.S. military kept blowing up fishing boats allegedly loaded with Venezuelan narcotics.
The Fuck-Around-and-Find-Out Presidency (The Atlantic)
As John Bolton, currently a Trump nemesis but once one of his first-term national security advisers, told us, “There is no Trump Doctrine: No matter what he does, there is no grand conceptual framework; it’s whatever suits him at the moment.”
Trump’s Attack on Venezuela Is Illegal and Unwise (New York Times Editorial Board)
The nominal rationale for the administration’s military adventurism is to destroy “narco-terrorists.” Governments throughout history have labeled the leaders of rival nations as terrorists, seeking to justify military incursions as policing operations. The claim is particularly ludicrous in this case, given that Venezuela is not a meaningful producer of fentanyl or the other drugs that have dominated the recent epidemic of overdoses in the United States, and the cocaine that it does produce flows mostly to Europe. While Mr. Trump has been attacking Venezuelan boats, he also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernández, who ran a sprawling drug operation when he was president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022.
The Constitution requires Congress to approve any act of war. Yes, presidents often push the boundaries of this law. But even Mr. Bush sought and received congressional endorsement for his Iraq invasion, and presidents since Mr. Bush have justified their use of drone attacks against terrorist groups and their supporters with a 2001 law that authorized action after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Trump has not even a fig leaf of legal authority for his attacks on Venezuela.
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On Saturday, the president "reposted a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, of someone falsely insinuating that Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was involved in the assassination because the man now charged with the killings, Vance Boelter, was on a state panel under Mr. Walz’s administration. That man killed Ms. Hortman, according to the false theory, because she had voted against providing health care to undocumented immigrants, opposing Mr. Walz."
"The video that Mr. Trump reposted also claimed, without offering any evidence, that Ms. Hortman was aware of a Minnesota fraud scheme that did not fully come to light until months after she died."
"In truth, the authorities have said, Mr. Boelter trafficked in conspiracy theories, and before his arrest, he wrote to the F.B.I. claiming that the shootings were part of a conspiracy involving Mr. Walz and the state’s Senate seats. Mr. Boelter has pleaded not guilty."
How is it a child is in the White House pretending to run our country and getting away with such atrocities? I'm so sad that so few in Congress are willing or able to stand up to this man. However, I do understand they tried so hard during the Biden administration and look where that got them.
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The other lawmakers who appeared in the video message also served in the military or the intelligence community. They included Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan; and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. No action has been taken against them.
In a post to X, the defense secretary said that in response to Kelly's "seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct," the department started "retirement grade determination proceedings" against the senator, "with reduction in his retired grade resulting in a corresponding reduction in retired pay," Hegseth said.
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Trump and his pals see a piggy bank in Venezuela.
Minerals, tourism, etc The place is beautiful. Location. I am guessing trillions of dollars.
I have been there.
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Since May, the city has issued more than 17,000 parking citations.
Knoxville parking overhaul drives higher use, more citations, increased revenue
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The Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol “does not happen” without Donald Trump, former special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers earlier this month in characterizing the Republican president as the “most culpable and most responsible person” in the criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Jack Smith says he had “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election and hid classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Can you imagine being Jack Smith? He has the proof but Congress, and maybe the Supreme Court, won't let it be introduced in a court of law.
It was a day that should live in infamy. Instead, it was the day President Trump’s second term began to take shape.
Five years ago, on Jan. 6, 2021, a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, hoping to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. After the sun set that day, Congress reconvened to certify Joe Biden’s victory. The rioters lost, and so did Mr. Trump, who had summoned them to Washington and urged them to march to the Capitol. The Trump era seemed to have ended in one of the most disgracefully anti-American acts in the nation’s history.
That day was indeed a turning point, but not the one it first seemed to be. It was a turning point toward a version of Mr. Trump who is even more lawless than the one who governed the country in his first term.
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A federal judge in California Wednesday found the Trump administration unlawfully terminated temporary protections for more than 60,000 nationals from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.
“‘The President is not above the law,” the Judge "wrote in her order." “Neither are his cabinet officials. The Administrative Procedures Act ensures government accountability by making agencies transparent, require public participation, setting fair rulemaking standards, and allowing courts to review actions for legality and rationality.”
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“Our laws should not favor the loud and powerful simply because of their positions. Yet, for too long, our laws have overlooked the quiet truths—truths carried in the margins, truths lived but never spoken aloud,” the Judge said.
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Discussing:
- Feds looking for West Knox detention location? (6 replies)
- Search for Mike Johnson's Spine (2 replies)
- Trump says his 'own morality' is limit to his global power (3 replies)
- Pentagon seeks to reduce Sen. Mark Kelly's retirement rank over video urging troops to refuse illegal orders (2 replies)
- U.S. will look to tap Venezuelan oil reserves, Trump says (2 replies)
- Knoxville parking overhaul drives higher use, more citations, increased revenue (7 replies)
- U.S. Rep. (TN) Burchett like a child on a playground? (1 reply)
- Fear over the future of AI is valid (2 replies)
- New Tennessee laws going into effect in 2026 (1 reply)
- Winter solstice: Dec. 21, 2025 (1 reply)
- Swastika, noose downgraded to "potentially divisive"?!?!? (4 replies)
- Knox County Juvenile Detention Center troubles grow (2 replies)
TN Progressive
- Alcoa Safe Streets Plan Survey (BlountViews)
- WATCH THIS SPACE. (Left Wing Cracker)
- Report on Blount County, TN, No Kings event (BlountViews)
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- A friend sent this: From Captain McElwee's Tall Tales of Roane County (RoaneViews)
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- (Whitescreek Journal)
- Lee's Fried Chicken in Alcoa closed (BlountViews)
- Alcoa, Hall Rd. Corridor Study meeting, July 30, 2024 (BlountViews)
- My choices in the August election (Left Wing Cracker)
- July 4, 2024 - aka The Twilight Zone (Joe Powell)
TN Politics
- Visa processing for immigrants from 75 nations frozen by Trump administration (TN Lookout)
- Private-school voucher expansion faces Tennessee GOP opposition (TN Lookout)
- Democrats in Congress seek to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (TN Lookout)
- John Cole’s Tennessee: Truth and lies (TN Lookout)
- Immigration policy fights expected to take center stage as Tennessee Legislature reconvenes (TN Lookout)
- Water wars continue with 2026 legislation concerning Duck River (TN Lookout)
Knox TN Today
- Storm-charged skies: Badger’s take on Asheville’s vivid winter sunsets (Knox TN Today)
- Summer’s Pause (Knox TN Today)
- Soap Opera drama over the years (Knox TN Today)
- Weekend Scene has events from book fairs to farmers market (Knox TN Today)
- Courtyard by Marriott sells for $6.97M (Knox TN Today)
- Ray Fisher III continues family legacy (Knox TN Today)
- HEADLINES: News and events from the World, the USA, Tennessee & Knox (Knox TN Today)
- Knox St. Patrick’s Parade returns Downtown March 14 (Knox TN Today)
- International Flipper Pinball Association’s Tennessee State Championship coming to Knoxville (Knox TN Today)
- Ftn. City Town Hall seeking nominations to honor on Fountain City Day (Knox TN Today)
- Vols knock down Aggies in 2 overtimes (Knox TN Today)
- Mad Jack and Cas Walker are a mere click away (Knox TN Today)
Local TV News
- Alcoa 8th grader works towards sports broadcasting dream after start as stat keeper (WATE)
- Suspect arrested in connection to pair of robberies in Cumberland County (WATE)
- Charges pending after driver crashes into Knoxville bus (WATE)
- State-of-the-art health care training facility opens in Knoxville (WATE)
- 'Perpetually affordable' 76 apartments open in Western Heights as first phase of development project finishes (WATE)
- 'Surreal every time you drive by:' One year since dayslong fire in downtown Middlesboro (WATE)
News Sentinel
State News
- UTC men win at Wofford for back-to-back SoCon victories - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- Chattanooga’s Rise Partners expands homegrown team of commercial brokers - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- What to know about Rock City gondola, new Chattanooga Valley entrance - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- Hamilton County Commission meetings to temporarily stay at 4 p.m. — again - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
Wire Reports
- Verizon Outage Cuts Off Tens of Thousands of Users - The New York Times (Business)
- Trump administration rolls back $2 billion mental health, addiction grant cuts - NPR (US News)
- Reports: Shooting involving federal law enforcement in north Minneapolis - kare11.com (US News)
- "Performative bullsh*t": Some Democrats fume as Kristi Noem impeachment gains steam - Axios (US News)
- Trump would want military action in Iran to be swift and decisive, sources say - NBC News (US News)
- Lawyers for Renee Good’s Family Plan to Investigate Minnesota ICE Shooting - The New York Times (US News)
- Trump imposes 25% tariff on imports of some AI chips - Reuters (Business)
- Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures slide after Wall Street's first back-to-back losses in 2026 - Yahoo Finance (Business)
- With a tiny majority, House GOP leaders tell members to show up unless it's 'life or death' - NBC News (US News)
- Oil prices fall after Trump signals he could hold off on attacking Iran - CNBC (Business)
- White House defends Trump over middle-finger gesture at heckler - BBC (US News)
- The Real Reason the Supreme Court Reversed Its Position on Trans Rights - Slate (US News)
- Luxury department store chain Saks files for bankruptcy - Financial Times (Business)
- China's trade surplus surges 20% to a record $1.2 trillion, even with Trump's tariffs - NPR (Business)
- Stop attacking the Fed and credit card industry, Wall Street executives warn Trump - PBS (Business)
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