Veteran journalist and Tennessean alum Trent Seibert will join TNReport this week to cover politics and the Legislature. At The Tennessean, Seibert covered the Operation Tennessee Waltz bribery scandal and its aftermath, corruption at the Highway Patrol and the flow of money and power through Capitol Hill. He was also a reporter for WKRN-TV and, […]
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The state’s elections coordinator says he doesn’t have the authority to scrap the results of the Aug. 2 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, in which a little-known candidate whose “hatred and bigotry” has prompted the party to disavow his candidacy won the nomination. Elections Coordinator Mark Goins said there’s no time to hold a new […]
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Seven House Republicans went down to challengers Thursday — including the lower-chamber majority-party’s third-in-command, Debra Maggart. The developments set the stage for political uncertainty among going into the November election and the next legislative session.
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HOUSE EAST TENNESSEE District 2 (R): part of Sullivan County INCUMBENT: Tony Shipley of Kingsport 3,405 CHALLENGER: Ben Mallicote of Kingsport 3,394 District 5 (R): part of Greene County INCUMBENT: David Hawk of Greeneville 3,093 CHALLENGER: Bradley Mercer of Afton 1,311 CHALLENGER: Ted Hensley of Chuckey 2,705 CHALLENGER: Duncan Cave of Greeneville, 665 District 6 […]
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The governor has chosen the members of a special court to determine a lawsuit in which he himself is named as a defendant. The case on appeal is John Jay Hooker’s challenge to the “Tennessee Plan” for selecting judges.
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Tennessee has the highest combined sales tax rate in the nation, a new study by the Tax Foundation shows, even as the state’s overall tax burden remains low. Tennessee’s rate of 9.47 percent, a weighted average that takes into account the 7-cent state levy and local rates as high as 2.75 percent, garnered the state […]
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Gov. Bill Haslam insists a federal plan requiring online merchants to collect sales taxes is the way to go, despite it meaning online shoppers would be forced to cough up more money for government to spend. Fresh from testifying before Congress in favor of such a plan, Haslam told reporters Wednesday the current system is […]
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Tennessee’s effort to revamp the way public school teachers are graded on classroom performance earned a high-profile national testimonial Monday. In a column for The Huffington Post, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote that the “Tennessee Story” and the Volunteer State’s improvements in student test-scores represents “Exhibit A” in the Obama administration’s defense of the Race […]
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Gov. Bill Haslam was mentioned prominently in a Forbes piece Thursday, after he and four other GOP governors said they would consider an expansion of Medicaid under the federal health care reform law if the money were awarded as a block grant. “Obviously, as a Republican, I’m with those folks who say, if you can […]
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The House Speaker and other top officials say they’re not sure what their next move is to resist the health care overhaul if President Obama dashes their hopes of a repeal by winning re-election. Statehouse Democrats avoided media altogether following release of the opinion Thursday.
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Pork Report finds $468 million in waste and misspending. Policy center calls for reforms including a state commission to identify waste.
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