ICYMI: Former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his ex-chief of staff reportedly received presidential pardons Thursday, just weeks after being sentenced to prison for government corruption convictions, according to news reports.

Federal/local task forces aren't unusual. But officials were vague about the number of federal officers involved, how visible they would be in communities and whether they will do immigration enforcement. The focus, they said, will be on cartels, drugs, gangs tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/06/f...

Feds form ‘Homeland Security Task Force’ in Nashville, among several other major U.S. cities tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/06/f... @tennesseelookout.com

Numerous federal, state, local officials gathered in Nashville ahead of presser announcing formation of “Homeland Security Task Force” set for 2 pm CT @tennesseelookout.com

"Homeland Security Task Force" coming to Nashville. More info to come this afternoon in a press conference by the U.S. Attorney's office.

An employee filed a lawsuit against Fayette County Schools alleging racial discrimination and retaliation against Black teachers & administrators. The next day, the employee -- who is Black -- was fired. tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/06/a... @tennesseelookout.com @cstephenson.bsky.social

Tennessee-based CoreCivic has financially benefited from Trump’s reelection, inking multiple contracts to house detained immigrants in a half dozen states. Total value of these contracts: $680M+. tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/06/p... @friedmanadam5.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

Benefits for Tennessee’s 700k SNAP recipients run $145 million a month. If the Trump Admin 1) follows court orders and 2) sticks with its plan to cut benefits in half instead of allowing them to be totally delayed $5 million would amount to about 7% of the leftover funding gap.

They were sleeping, driving, walking in Memphis. Then Trump’s police task force came. Read the latest from 👇 @wendicthomas.bsky.social @kathsburgess.bsky.social @propublica.org mlk50.com/2025/11/03/t...

Tennessee Correction Department requests $13M pay increase for private prison contractor, CoreCivic. CoreCivic has rocky record in Tennessee: its been fined it $45M+ since 2022 for failing to meet contractual requirements tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/05/t... @tennesseelookout.com

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announces $5M for food banks during SNAP benefits freeze that impacts nearly 700,000 low-income state residents tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/05/t... @tennesseelookout.com

“I Don’t Feel Safe”: Black Memphis Residents Report Harassment by Trump’s Police Task Force Story from @mlk50.com tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/04/i... @tennesseelookout.com

Don’t count on the marketplace or your insurer to notify you about what you should expect to pay for Affordable Care Act plans this year. Here's what you should know ⤵️ kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Special education enforcement would be up to states under Trump plan stateline.org/2025/11/04/s... @acvollers.bsky.social @stateline.org

A Nashville judge heard arguments Monday over the legality of Gov. Bill Lee's deployment of the Tennessee National Guard to Memphis tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/04/j... @tennesseelookout.com

Tennessee lawmakers have steadily shifted more of the tax burden from corporations to people, resulting in low-income families having a “higher tax burden than wealthier families and businesses.” tennesseelookout.com/2025/11/04/p... @friedmanadam5.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

Kilmar Abrego Garcia to be transferred to Tennessee ahead of hearing scheduled next week in Nashville on claims he is being vindictively prosecuted by the federal government after they erroneously deported him. tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/31/r... @tennesseelookout.com @arianalfigueroa.bsky.social

Media coalition sues Tennessee prison officials to get more access to executions wpln.org/post/media-c... @wpln.bsky.social

"Hegseth notified Gov. Bill Lee in a Sept. 23 letter that the U.S. Department of Defense is prepared to authorize and fund up to 1,000 Tennessee National Guard personnel to work with the Memphis Safe Task Force through September 2026." tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/31/s... @tennesseelookout.com

While other states, including Republican-led ones, are finding ways to temporarily replace SNAP, sending $ to food banks & beefing up other anti-poverty programs, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has declined to use state funds during SNAP freeze tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/31/d... @tennesseelookout.com

Earlier this year, we documented nearly 50 incidents of immigration officers shattering car windows to make arrests — a tactic experts say was rarely used before Trump took office. ICE claims its officers use a “minimum amount of force.” You can judge for yourself.

New Yorker's Ronan Farrow producing HBO documentary on Sean Williams. Johnson City settled a lawsuit for $28M brought by sexual assault victims who alleged local police covered for Williams, implicated in scores of rapes against women/kids www.wjhl.com/news/local/s...

New at @nashvillebanner.bsky.social: an update the less visible side of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation effort that has remained active at Nashville jails. nashvillebanner.com/2025/10/30/n...

This is the intake room at the Memphis jail, thanks to Memphis Safe Task force. It's 200 men.

Memphis school board expands student busing to reduce absences caused by immigration enforcement -- in yet another instance of a city taking steps to protect its residents from actions taken by the federal government tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/30/m... @tennesseelookout.com

Rural Tennessee residents are going to be hit hard by SNAP freeze. In some rural counties, one out of every five residents relies on SNAP for food. tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/30/a... @friedmanadam5.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

Memphis educators say Hispanic students are showing up to class distressed and distracted, or not showing up at all, in the wake of a controversial federal law and immigration enforcement surge in the city. From @brihatch74.bsky.social with @chalkbeat.

“You are proposing to penalize Knoxvillians for being good. You would turn food pantries, clinics and shelters into checkpoints and faithful servants into informants,” Matthew Nance, a Knox County resident, told the Knox County Commission Monday. From @anitawadhwani.bsky.social.

"This is not just about expanding a bus route, this is about protecting lives and families." Memphis-Shelby Schools adopt emergency plan making more kids eligible to ride buses as traffic stops, arrests by Trump's Memphis Safe Task Force keep families in fear www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/e...

4 years ago we posted video showing foster kids forced to sleep on bare office floors, spawning outrage DCS said Tues. the practice continues: "The services they are getting inside a DCS office are not dissimilar from what they are getting in a transitional home” tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/29/d...

Democratic AGs, governors sue Trump over SNAP benefits as shutdown hits day 28 Nearly 700k in Tennessee won't get the monthly food benefit starting Nov. 1 without immediate action from court, Congress. tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/29/r... @fischler.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

After facing vocal community pushback, the Knox County Commission postponed a vote on two ordinances that would have required local nonprofits receiving county grants to pledge not to serve undocumented immigrants. tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/28/k... @tennesseelookout.com

TN Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger told a Johnson City TV station she had gotten no complaints about the government shutdown. Dozens of people emailed the TV station saying they had, in fact, complained but gotten no response from Harshbarger's office. www.wjhl.com/news/local/c...

Maury County installs first tornado sirens near schools, parks 21 tornadoes have hit the county since 1950 but Maury & other rural counties have struggled to figure out how best to use/pay for the warning sirens tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/28/m... @cstephenson.bsky.social @tennesseelookout.com

Tennessee Sen. Blackburn signals support for bill to keep SNAP food aid funding during government shutdown The program will pause Nov. 1 if no action is taken, impacting 1 in 10 Tennesseans (nearly 700k) who rely on SNAP to eat @tennesseelookout.com tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/28/t...

“We’ve been deeply affected in a very negative way by everything that’s happening,” said Alejandro Romero, general manager of the Memphis Edge District’s Sabor Caribe. “The sales have dropped like 60% or 70% in the last 15 days.” dailymemphian.com/subscriber/s...

Trump is considering another round of bailouts for farmers, this time for $10 billion. Some of that money may come from revenue from the tariffs – paid by American consumers – which caused the trade war in the first place. minnesotareformer.com/2025/10/27/t...

Federal judge vacates Biden-era rule protecting transgender patients from discrimination tennesseelookout.com/briefs/feder... @tennesseelookout.com

Tennessee governor warns of SNAP lapse, blames Democrats for shutdown tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/27/t... @tennesseelookout.com

The Trump administration floated a new plan to deport Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia for a second time, after he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March. Lawyers for the Justice Department said on Friday that the African nation of Liberia had agreed to take him in.

As a pediatrician, she helped elevate breastfeeding from a medical afterthought to a specialty of its own. As a mother of nine, she practiced what she preached www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/h...

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will not use state reserves for SNAP food aid if shutdown holds, despite maintaining more than $2 billion in emergency reserve funds. About 1 in 10 Tennesseans rely on SNAP to eat. www.tennessean.com/story/news/p...

Memphis Mayor Paul Young tells Hispanic leaders that Memphis Police are working with ICE tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/23/m... @tennesseelookout.com

Food aid interruption would mean hard decisions for nearly 700K Tennesseans https://wpln.org/post/food-aid-interruption-would-mean-hard-decisions-for-nearly-700k-tennesseans/

A day and night in Memphis: Trump’s task force expands surveillance Story: @mlk50.com mlk50.com/2025/10/22/a...

From @tennesseelookout.com Traffic citations outnumber federal task force’s arrests in Memphis; sparse data leaves impact murky tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/20/t...

Nearly 1 in 10 Tennesseans could lose SNAP benefits come November if government shutdown continues tennesseelookout.com/briefs/nearl... @tennesseelookout.com

In a defeat for Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, a three-judge panel ruled against Tennessee's effort to end a longstanding lawsuit challenging the vagueness and inadequacy of medical exceptions to Tennessee’s near-total abortion ban. tennesseelookout.com/2025/10/22/s... @tennesseelookout.com

Military-Style Immigration Sweep Hits NYC as Masked Federal Agents Arrest Canal Street Vendors www.thecity.nyc/2025/10/21/i... @thecity.nyc

Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said Monday he backs the buildup of some federal law enforcement agencies in a Memphis crime-fighting effort but opposes deployment of the National Guard and stepped-up immigration enforcement.