TENNESSEE BULLET POINTS 7-24-26
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Transcript
21 segmentssense to your midday commute. Yaffi is live and local now on Talk Radio 102.3. Welcome back to Yaffe Live. We are here on Talk Radio 102.3. Yes. We're pushing to believe in America again. If you want to weigh in, got a bunch of people in and already on the tax monster, you can as well. 423-267-1023. That's sponsored by Warner Griffin, Chattanooga's largest injury law firm, reminding you to never text and drive. Now, Matt Murphy's going to join us in a few minutes, a lot to discuss with him. But right now, though, let's get to those headlines. We have those Tennessee bullet points. The Tennessee bullet points, the top headlines from around the volunteer state. Sponsored by the Tennessee Conservative. They're the volunteer state's largest conservative news source. Go to Tennesseeconservative news.com. Subscribe today for free. Number four today, a federal panel is allowing Tennessee's congressional map, which is poised to give Republicans all nine U.S. House seats to remain in effect, not too surprising. But a three-judge federal panel declined to block Tennessee's newly redrawn congressional map from taking effect for the 26 midterms. Now, that's despite a lawsuit by the ACLU and Memphis residents, alleging that lawmakers unconstitutionally used race to split the city. and dilute black voting power. Now, the judge has ruled that the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed, finding insufficient evidence that race, rather than just pure partisan goals, drove the map and nothing that the plaintiffs failed to offer any alternative plan that achieved the legislature's political objectives without dividing Memphis. While the litigation will continue, of course, the map remains in place as early voting for the August primaries is already underway. It's a decision welcomed, of course, by Tennessee Secretary of State's office to avoid voter confusion and, of course, celebrated by the Republicans in Tennessee. And not too surprising, as I said, they can do it for partisan reasons. There's nothing illegal about that. Number three today, ICE arrests Southwest Airlines flight attendant in Nashville for overstaying visa since 2021. So Southwest Airlines flight attendant Lorenzo Enzo Thompson was detained by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement after a work trip and is currently in federal immigration custody. Now Thompson, who entered the U.S. from Jamaica on a visa in April of 2021, is being held in Mississippi. While federal officials claim he overstayed his visa, supporters argue that Thompson has been pursuing legal status through an asylum application and holds work authorization. Colleagues and union members are advocating for Thompson's fair legal process and expressing shock over his arrest. Thompson's detention has sparked concerns and calls for dignity and respect from the union representing Southwest flight attendants.
The fact is, if you overstay your visa, ICE is within their authority to detain you and deport you. That's actually, that's the reality. Number two today, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the TVA, has signed Trump's ratepayer protection pledge for data center costs. So the TVA, the nation's largest public power provider serving over 10 million customers across seven states, including Tennessee, of course. announced yesterday that it had signed the Trump administration's ratepayer protection pledge. Now, it's aimed at ensuring data center operators rather than everyday ratepayers bear the cost of electricity and infrastructure needed for their high demand facilities. Now, interim CEO Mike Skaggs emphasized TVA's alignment with the pledge goals of keeping power affordable and reliable while preventing data center expenses from being passed on to residential and other customers. noting the utility's earlier proposals for higher rates and upfront charges for major power users. Now, data centers, including those run by Google and XAI, already account for a significant share of industrial power use and are expected to double demand by 2030. which could contribute to record TVA revenues actually, which could actually help upgrade the grid, which needs to be done. Now, the pledge originally announced in March and now backed by 160 utilities covering 80% of U.S. home power delivery plus major tech firms requires companies to negotiate separate rate structures and invest locally. President Trump highlighted the fairness of this approach during remarks at the EPA and criticized communities blocking data centers, arguing they are essential for USAI competitiveness against China. So we've been talking about the debate over data centers and everything else, but the TVA says, at least as of right now, that it's not going to be consumers, everyday consumers like you and me, bearing most of the cost here. So I'll have to see if they keep their end of the bargain. And number one, this is a great story, but Marsha Blackburn, who's most likely going to be Tennessee's next governor, calls for an end to student cell phone use throughout the entire school day. It's a campaign that she is calling bell to bell no cell. Okay, it's clever. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn released a television ad ahead of the August 6th gubernatorial primary promoting a bell-to-bell no-cell policy that would ban student cell phone use throughout the entire school day in Tennessee. That's if she becomes governor. Going beyond the current state law, which we talked about before and was a good change, effective July 1st of last year, that only requires districts to prohibit devices during instructional time. while allowing exceptions and leaving full day bans optional. She argues that big tech distractions hinder learning and has indicated she would further pursue measures to reduce other classroom technology distractions. Now, I said for a while, I think I'm going to ban my kids Evie and Izzy.
They're not going to get a cell phone until they're 30. You think I could do that, Max? Maybe 35. They can't have a cell phone until they're 30. No, no, okay. Oh, man, but I, I, you know, to me, there is no reason why anyone on 18 really need the smartphone, maybe a, like a dumb phone. At the time that baby's five, they'll be using your phone. Honestly, she are, Evie already does sometimes. See there. See there. Well, I, I have one of those phones as a stylist and you can like draw and color. So I let her like color on it. That's it. That's all I let her do. But she does like to do that already. So that's, am I hypocrite? You will not stop them. I'll guarantee you that. Well, I just don't want them to have social media. Can I just ban them from social media at least? Well, you can probably lock that out. Don't load it on the phone, you know. I mean, what a lot of parents are doing, which is really interesting, is they're getting their kids smart watches so they can make calls, but they can't do all the other stuff, which is probably pretty smart. All right. This is brought you by the Tennessee Conservative. Go to Tennessee Conservative News. Subscribe today. See this story and any more stories. Find out about the event they had in Franklin this week. Tennesseeconservativenews.com.
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