Andy Sher

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has signed into law a "bathroom bill" that allows public schools to be sued if officials allow transgender students, teachers and staff to use multi-person bathrooms, locker rooms or changing facilities that don't match the gender listed on their birth certificates.

Armed with a new legal opinion, Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton plan to mount a final charge against Gov. Bill Lee's plan to remove the bronze bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol building.

Former NFL player Tim Tebow joined Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee at the state Capitol on Thursday to announce a multimillion-dollar partnership to fight human trafficking.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who has already signed into law two measures limiting transgender and LGBTQ rights approved by fellow Republicans in the legislature, says he anticipates signing several more as they reach his desk.

Federal officials have been publicly silent in the four months following FBI raids on three sitting Tennessee Republican House members, two of them political consultants performing work for several GOP colleagues.

Before ending their annual legislative session this week, Tennessee lawmakers' final act was to push through a bill that attempts to find friendlier legal venues to handle constitutional challenges filed against state laws as well as lawsuits involving legislative redistricting and state agency actions.

Tennessee lawmakers on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill to strip funding from public schools if they teach certain concepts involving systemic racism in America.

A Tennessee House effort to bar public schools from teaching concepts related to systemic racism to their students triggered a fierce floor debate Tuesday over America's past, with Democrats charging GOP colleagues are ignoring a history that lives to this day.

An amended version of a Tennessee bill seeking to crack down on protesters by outlawing "harassment" and providing qualified immunity to some drivers whose vehicles strike protesters was deferred Tuesday until 2022 by the sponsor.

Tennessee's Republican lawmakers are mounting a last-minute effort to ban public schools' teaching of certain concepts involving systemic racism, with the bill's sponsor saying citizens "must take a stand against hucksters, charlatans and useful idiots peddling identity politics."

Tennessee lawmakers return to the state Capitol Monday for what they hope is the final week of their 2021 session with dozens of remaining issues before them, ranging from new restrictions on police chokeholds and no-knock warrants to a Republican-led effort to create a new statewide "super" Chancery Court to hear legal challenges to state laws.

A federal lawsuit has been filed challenging Tennessee's new permitless handgun-carry law, which starting July 1 would allow most adults to carry the weapons in public without having firearms training, undergoing state criminal background checks or having state-issued carry permits.

Tennessee lawmakers approved a $42.6 billion state budget Thursday for the fiscal year that will start July 1, providing pay raises for public K-12 teachers as well as increases for state employees, local prosecutors and others amid massive revenue surpluses.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee disclosed Tuesday that he received his second COVID-19 vaccination earlier this month, although he did not use the occasion to encourage vaccine-hesitant fellow Tennesseans to get inoculated against the pandemic.

Declaring the COVID-19 pandemic no longer a health crisis but a "managed public health issue," Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday announced the end of any statewide public health restrictions and the revocation of authority for local leaders to impose mask mandates in 89 counties whose health departments he controls.

While federal Republican lawmakers in some states have said they won't attend President Joe Biden's first joint address to Congress on Wednesday, others, including some Tennessee members, do wish to attend and have concerns about not being allowed in due to Democratic U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's tight COVID-19 protocols.

NASHVILLE — Beginning July 1, most Tennesseans ages 21 and older will no longer be legally required to undergo state criminal background checks, firearms training or demonstrate firearm competency in order to carry a handgun either openly or concealed while in public.

A bill banning Tennessee legislators from holding services contracts with the General Assembly while also placing new restrictions and public disclosure requirements if they now contract with general state government is headed to Gov. Bill Lee.

Tennessee House Republicans on Monday approved legislation requiring women or medical providers to cremate or bury fetal remains from surgical abortions despite objections from Democrats, including one who charged her GOP colleagues were "using your legislative powers to bring trauma upon women."

Lookout Mountain resident Chris Devaney is expected to participate in his first meetings this week as a newly minted member of the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission.