Andy Sher

As the Republican-controlled Tennessee General Assembly prepares to return Wednesday to the state Capitol — where GOP lawmakers have called themselves into a special session to target vaccination requirements and mask mandates — one GOP lawmaker is denouncing what he called an "evil" federal government.

When Tennessee lawmakers head back to Nashville this week for another special session, the Republican supermajority hopes to fight back against a federal mandate that larger employers must require employee vaccination against COVID-19.

After being blocked in her legislative effort to prohibit Ford Motor Co. from allowing the United Auto Workers to unionize workers at a planned plant in West Tennessee through a "card check" certification process viewed by critics as too union friendly, state Rep. Robin Smith says she intends to offer a retooled version of the bill to halt the method next year.

Tennessee lawmakers on Wednesday approved and sent to Gov. Bill Lee his nearly $900 million incentive and infrastructure legislation for Ford Motor Co.'s planned $5.6 billion electric truck and battery complex in rural West Tennessee.

Tennessee Republicans' expected call for a special legislative session on local and business-related COVID-19 restrictions next week opens a wide door to address some GOP members' concerns.

Tennessee Republicans' expected call for a special legislative session on local and business-related COVID-19 restrictions next week opens a wide door to address some GOP members' concerns.

A Tennessee Republican lawmaker says he will push for the state to follow Montana's lead and pass a law banning COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition of employment here during a special legislative that GOP House and Senate leaders intend to hold later this month.

Tennessee is committing to spend nearly $900 million on incentives, infrastructure work and a new technical college as its part of an agreement with Ford Motor Co. and South Korea battery maker SK Innovation for a multibillion battery plant and assembly facility in rural West Tennessee.

An often-provocative Tennessee House Republican lawmaker is lashing out at those he called "medical Nazis" in the General Assembly whom he said appear supportive of a "financial elite" comprised of businesses and other entities that favor mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for their employees.

Leaders of Tennessee's House Republican super majority say they have informally met the required legal threshold to call themselves into special session on coronavirus-related matters.

Tennessee government has agreed to repay the federal government $6.85 million to settle what one U.S. Justice Department official described as "shocking" allegations the state Department of Human Services violated the False Claims Act in its food stamp program.

Gov. Bill Lee says his administration will conduct a review of Tennessee's nearly 30-year-old funding formula for public school districts and explore changing the current system to one where state money "follows" a student to the school he or she attends.

Tennessee Republican legislative leaders have penciled in Oct. 27 for the start of a special session at which GOP members are expected to push back on COVID-19 restrictions and mandates by government and, possibly, businesses.

A new audit by the Tennessee comptroller of the treasury finds that while Chattanooga State Community College has made strides over the past two years in addressing deficiencies identified in its 2019 examination, four of 13 unspecified problems remain.

Tennessee child care providers are seeing a 10% jump in payment rates for children whose families are enrolled and meet requirements in the state's assistance programs for low-income families.

Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday unveiled Tennessee's new standard license plate, scheduled to hit the roads in January.

The same day Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Ford Motor Co. executives announced last week's agreement to put a $5.6 billion electric vehicle plant in rural West Tennessee, conservative opponents of school mask mandates and federal vaccination requirements rallied in Lt. Gov. Randy McNally's Oak Ridge hometown to pressure Lee and other Republicans into backing their efforts.

One special session of the legislature deserves another, some GOP lawmakers are saying, as they look for an opening to ban mask requirements and vaccine mandates amid a pandemic that has killed 700,000 Americans.

Fifty-eight federally qualified health centers in Tennessee and Georgia are getting some $39 million in federal grants under the American Rescue Plan Act, U.S. Health and Human Services officials say.

A federal judge has ruled that Tennessee and Kentucky officials are free to disregard provisions in a congressional coronavirus-related spending measure that bar states from using the money to allow for tax cuts.