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NASHVILLE — Nashville trauma surgeon Manny Sethi announced Monday he is running for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination to replace retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Sethi, 41, made the announcement as former Gov. Bill Haslam continues weighing a bid for the 2020 GOP nomination. The physician is playing up his status as a "conservative outsider." "I am not a politician," Sethi said in an announcement video. "I'm a surgeon, an outsider. I'm a conservative and I support President Trump. Above all, I am grateful to God for a story that could have only have happened right here in Tennessee....

Any health care facility providing abortions in Tennessee will no longer receive any government funding, thanks to a new state law. The amount of state-funded health care will not be cut, just transferred to health care organizations that do not kill the unborn, Live Action reports: “Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed a bill this week that will soon strip Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities of state funding. The state will now request a federal waiver which allows them to bar TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, from giving money to any abortion facility.” “Instead of directing funding towards abortionists, TennCare money...

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam announced on Thursday that he will not run for the Republican nomination to replace retiring Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) in the 2018 election. “Gov Bill Haslam will not run for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Bob Corker, leaving U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn as the likely frontrunner, if she chooses to run,” The Tennessean reported on Thursday morning: The governor, who is term-limited, made the announcement Thursday in a news release. “While Crissy and I will always be grateful for all of the encouragement and support to run for the United States Senate, I...

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has named former Williamson County GOP chairman Kevin Kookogey, a critic of Sharia law, as his Tennessee chairman. Now, the U.S. senator is drawing fire from the Council on American-Islamic Relations which on Tuesday urged Cruz to drop Kookogey because of what the group called "his longstanding support for anti-Muslim and Islamophobic causes." In announcing Kookogey's appointment, Cruz on Monday called him "a consistently strong voice for conservative principles and an active member of our party for a number of years. "His experience and knowledge of both the landscape in Tennessee and the issues that...

As opposition to Common Core began to swell in Tennessee, Jeb Bush showed up to an education forum in March of last year, advocating for state officials to keep the higher standards in place. Now, a little more than a year later, Bush returned to Nashville Saturday night to address the state's GOP dinner, but his push for the state to hold onto Common Core didn't succeed. Earlier this month, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill to review the controversial standards and rebrand them with a Tennessee-specific focus. The bill was widely viewed as a compromise between Common Core...

In Rebuke of Tennessee Governor, Koch Group Shows Its Power "In December, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, got the deal he wanted from the Obama administration: Tennessee would accept more than $1 billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid, as allowed for in the Affordable Care Act, but Obama aides would allow Haslam to essentially write staunchly conservative ideas into the program's rules for the state. He dubbed the reformed Medicaid program "Insure Tennessee." But the state's chapter of Americans for Prosperity, the national conservative group whose foundation is chaired by controversial billionaire David Koch, argued Haslam was just...

While states debate expanding their Medicaid programs under Obamacare, they're wrestling with a looming 2017 deadline — when their taxpayers begin paying for the cost of the expansion. Beginning in 2014, states that agree to expand Medicaid to persons with incomes of up to 138 percent of the poverty line will have the federal government pay 100 percent of the cost. But beginning in 2017, the federal share will fall to 95 percent, and it drops to 90 percent in 2020. This has officials — many of them in Republican-dominated states across the country — worried that they will not...

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam became the latest red-state governor to approve a twist on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion Monday.Haslam is supporting a private-option version of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which was pioneered by Arkansas in 2014. The proposal will have to be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Republican-controlled legislature; if it goes through, Tennessee will be just the 28th state to move forward with the expansion of the welfare program through Obamacare.“We made the decision in Tennessee nearly two years ago not to expand traditional Medicaid,” Haslam said Monday. “This is an alternative approach that...

On Monday, Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Haslam outlined his plan to expand Obamacare. According to The Tennessean, he has branded the plan Insure Tennessee and dressed it in states’ rights rhetoric, claiming that the plan, which he says qualifies for federal funding under the Affordable Care Act, is an alternative to expanding Medicaid. WATE-TV 6 quoted a press release by Haslam in which he said, “This plan leverages federal dollars to provide health care coverage to more Tennesseans, to give people a choice in their coverage, and to address the cost of health care, better health outcomes and personal responsibility.”...

Democrats may be making their last stand in Arkansas. At the beginning of the cycle, Democrats touted a dream ticket that could help rally the party back to relevance after a series of stinging losses in the state. They cheered Sen. Mark Pryor’s (D) centrist profile and strong family name. In the governor’s race, they hoped former Rep. Mike Ross’s long string of successes in conservative southwest Arkansas would boost him. But months later, Pryor has trailed freshman Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for much of the summer in the Razorback State and former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) has had a...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

(Reuters) - The United Auto Workers, surprising even its supporters, on Monday abruptly withdrew its legal challenge to a union organizing vote that it lost at a Volkswagen AG plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee in February. Just an hour before the start of a National Labor Relations Board hearing on the challenge, the union dropped its case, casting a cloud over its long and still unsuccessful push to organize foreign-owned auto plants in the U.S. South.VW workers due to testify in the NLRB hearing were already at the courthouse in downtown Chattanooga when they heard the news, which left lawyers in...

Thus marks the end of the United Auto Workers’ foray into unionizing Southern auto manufacturing. Despite cooperative management at Volkswagen, the UAW failed to convince workers in its Chattanooga facility to unionize. The union alleged interference and demanded a hearing at the National Labor Relations Board to force a revote, but unexpectedly withdrew just before the hearing was scheduled to start:

The United Auto Workers announced Monday it is withdrawing an appeal of the outcome of a union vote at Volkswagen’s assembly plant in Tennessee. In a statement released one hour before the scheduled start of a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Chattanooga, Tenn., UAW President Bob King said the union decided to put the “tainted election in the rearview mirror” because the challenge could have taken months or even years to come to a conclusion. …

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The UAW announced today it is withdrawing objections filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regarding February's vote at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, effectively terminating the NLRB review process. UAW President Bob King said the decision was made in the best interests of Volkswagen employees, the automaker, and economic development in Chattanooga. King said the UAW based its decision on the belief that the NLRB’s historically dysfunctional and complex process potentially could drag on for months or even years. Additionally, the UAW cited refusals by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker to...

Democrats in the U.S. House on Wednesday opened an "inquiry" into whether Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's administration might have violated federal labor law by attempting to tie state incentives for expansion of the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant to the outcome of an election over representation by the United Auto Workers union. The probe is yet another chapter in the ongoing debate over whether Republican officials, including Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, may have interfered in the February election in which workers voted 712-626 to reject the UAW, which was attem

Just one day after U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) appeared with Common Core champions former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) at an education roundtable event, Alexander sent out an email to voters with a headline that read, “No National School Board,” and a message that left out the words “Common Core.” Alexander, who is fighting to hold onto his Senate seat, appears to be urging voters to notice that he is against the formation of a “National School Board” and will vote against it when the measure is raised. The problem is, there is...

On January 29th, Beretta USA officials joined with Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (R) to announce the firearm manufacturer will be opening its new plant in Gallatin, TN. Beretta had been looking for a location for its new facility after deciding to leave Maryland over the draconian gun laws that state implemented in spring 2013.

The United Auto Workers union confirmed Friday that it’s in talks with Volkswagen about representing workers a factory in Chattanooga, Tenn. The union said its representatives met with VW officials last week in Wolfsburg, Germany, to discuss a German-style “works council” at the plant as well as full UAW representation. A works council would give workers a say in plant operations. … The prospect of UAW representation in Chattanooga concerns Southern Republicans, who fear a UAW foothold in the region will allow it to recruit workers at other auto plants. … Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Sen. Bob Corker,...

The “red-green alliance” in Tennessee between the liberal-left and Islamists is alive and well but made even more novel with the participation of Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. Never one to shy away from Obama’s agenda for the U.S., Governor Haslam’s push to elevate the political status of Muslims in his state must leave Tennesseans wondering if their Republican governor is actually a Democrat. Governor Haslam’s promotion of the Islamist agenda in his state progressed from having his Commissioner of Safety and Homeland Security work behind the scenes to support and partner with the American Muslim Advisory Council to having...