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Federal judge OKs class action status for immigrant slaughterhouse workers suing federal agents
A judge this week shot down a bid by the federal government to force each of the 104 Grainger County slaughterhouse workers rounded up in a legally suspect raid to file suit against agents accused of targeting them solely based on their race or ethnicity. U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough on Tuesday agreed to grant […]
Falsely accused University of Tennessee professor: Biden should rescind U.S. Attorney nomination
A University of Tennessee professor falsely accused of being a spy is urging President Joe Biden to rescind the administration’s nomination for U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee of the man who sought to imprison him for a crime he did not commit. “This is ridiculous,” Dr. Anming Hu said of Biden’s nomination […]
Tennessee Supreme Court taps Skrmetti for Attorney General
The Tennessee Supreme Court on Wednesday appointed Gov. Bill Lee’s chief counsel to serve as the state’s Attorney General. The high court chose Jonathan Skrmetti to take the helm of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. Skrmetti will replace current state Attorney General Herbert Slatery III, who has completed an eight-year term in office. Skrmetti served […]
Records show U.S. Department of Justice nixed civil rights investigation in Grainger County case
The Department of Justice nixed a civil rights investigation of a federal agent purportedly captured on video placing his boot on the neck of a Latino worker at a Grainger County slaughterhouse — within days of receiving a referral on the incident and one week before the agent was interviewed about it, newly revealed records […]
Tennessee Attorney General sues Walgreens over opioid exploitation
Walgreens’ pharmacies in Tennessee are accused in a lawsuit filed Wednesday of exploiting the opioid epidemic for profit, filling prescriptions written by healthcare providers the firm knew had been “raided, disciplined, arrested or indicted,” dispensed massive doses of the dangerous drugs to children as young as two-years-old and doled out more than 103,000 pills prescribed […]
Federal suits allege age discrimination by Knox County Criminal Court Clerk
A Knox County elected official used the COVID pandemic as an excuse to purge his office of older women he replaced with young women he met at “local bars and entertainment establishments,” two federal lawsuits allege. Kathy Diane Lewis, 63, and Christine Dumais, 64, are suing Knox County in U.S. District Court over alleged age […]
Putnam County judge suspended for remainder of term after inappropriate conduct
A Middle Tennessee judge who solicited sex from a married woman whose husband was seeking his judicial approval of an adoption has been suspended from the bench for the remainder of his term. The Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct, which polices judges, announced late Friday the suspension from the bench of 13th Judicial District Circuit […]
Sumner County man pleads guilty to charges in 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection
A Tennessee man who stormed inside the U.S. Capitol Building during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and fought with police pleaded guilty Thursday. Ronnie Presley, 43, of Bethpage, Tenn., in Sumner County pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia Thursday to a charge of interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder. Presley […]
Grand jury indicts Jefferson City man for assault on Knoxville federal building
A Tennessee man accused of firing on a federal building in Knoxville as part of his “war” on government agencies was indicted this week. A federal grand jury on Tuesday served up an indictment for destruction of government property against Mark Thomas Reno, 63, of Jefferson City. Reno is already behind bars, arrested by the […]
Grainger County slaughterhouse workers push back on claims from feds
Federal agents’ claim they will be endangered by the public release of video showing an agent with his boot on the neck of a Latino worker during a raid of a Grainger County slaughterhouse is “baseless” and self-serving, workers’ attorneys contend in a new court filing. “These (agents) have offered the court zero evidence to […]
Former Sullivan County teacher tests U.S. Supreme Court ruling on First Amendment in suit
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled the prayers of Washington state high school football coach at the 50-yard line after games are protected free speech and now a Tennessee teacher claims his expletive-laced social media posts on topics ranging from masking during the COVID pandemic to former President Donald Trump are also protected. A lawsuit […]
FBI charges Tennessee man who attended insurrection with shooting at Knoxville federal building
The FBI has charged a Tennessee man who traveled to the Capitol Building during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection with shooting at a federal building in downtown Knoxville earlier this month. Mark Thomas Reno is charged in an FBI warrant unsealed this week in U.S. District Court with damaging federal property for allegedly firing upon […]